Planet of Sand and Oasis of Iron

Chapter 183 182. Even if the relationship seems bad on the surface, you have to act well

It would be a lie to say that you didn't feel weak in the knees when you saw this thing rushing towards you.

With the pile of light weapons in the hands of these people, they can fight against the autonomous machines in the small passages. But if they encounter tough mercenaries, they will not even have anyone to collect their bodies if they don’t surrender!
Cypher locked onto the four people, thought for a moment, and opened the external communication: "Mercenaries? Did the Reformation Agency send you?"

Seeing that he could communicate, the four of them nodded hurriedly, then quickly shook their heads and looked at one of them. The guy who was elected as the person in charge raised his hands tremblingly.

"No, it's not a reformatory... If I were to tell you, could you let us go? We don't have any... direct conflict."

"It's not impossible. The prerequisite is that you honestly tell us everything you need to say. Tell me, what is your mission? Are you sent by the Reformation Agency?"

Several people looked at each other for a moment, and the one who spoke first answered swiftly, "No, we were sent by I/O Enterprise. They asked us to adjust the control core here and install a device so we can evacuate."

"Besides that, these organizations wouldn't say anything extra to a mere mercenary. Even if you continue to ask, we can only say we don't know..."

Hmm... that's indeed the truth. After thinking about it, Sefer retracted the lock and signaled the four people to get out of here quickly.

They immediately ran away in a panic, not daring to stop for a second, and soon disappeared in the passage. Cypher drove the body close to the control core and turned on the scan without getting off the plane (to avoid being stolen).

Then the communication came to Dr. Mei: "Are you asleep?"

"No, I was lying flat on my back in the tub."

Thinking of a mass of slime lying there like a jar of water, Cypher felt like laughing, but business was more important. "Hey, I ran into some mercenaries hired by I/O Enterprises. Help me analyze what this thing is."

After scanning and sending out the object that looked like an ugly plug-in and was completely different from the electrical products of the modification agency, Dr. Mei waited for a while before replying with a lack of interest.

"A remote control device with a circuit breaker relay. Hmm... the specifications are different, probably something with strong anti-interference capabilities. Is it activated?"

The answer is no...

Just as he was about to answer, the lighting and the sound of machines in front of him stopped at the same time, and even the factory outside stopped operating. Those who were originally just patrolling began to search quickly - but they didn't come to the control area.

"It started just now as you were speaking."

There was a crackling flash in the control core, and the large number of electric sparks ejected due to overload for various reasons finally turned into stability. After the layers of lighting lit up again, the factory seemed to have started to operate normally.

"Well, someone's starting to speed up their territorial grab. It looks like they're going to resort to the same old methods to put pressure on people. How boring."

How was this pressure applied? Seifer was a bit confused about the connection. He thought for a moment, "Never mind that. The mission the Transformation Agency gave me is to destroy this thing. Should I blow it up?"

"It's up to you. These things don't have the same technical content as the factory. Just do it as you like."

After saying this, Dr. Mei hung up the phone, and presumably turned back into a pool of water in a bathtub, waiting for the next unlucky child to enter.

Seifer picked it up and put away the grenade launcher - just kidding, if this thing is fired, not only the control core, but even the entire control room will explode and scatter.

Insert the short-barreled shotgun shell into the opening and pull the trigger.

The scattered gunpowder that exploded was so powerful that the machines in the control core, along with the newly installed circuit breakers, were all blown into pieces.

What followed was a rapid alarm, and a swarm of hornets (autonomous machines, heavy) gathered in the area like a hornet's nest. Cypher immediately turned his machine around and slipped away into the long corridors that led in all directions.

Are you kidding? If you can avoid wasting ammunition, don’t waste it. One less round fired means one more round earned!
With this idea in mind, Seifer moved quickly to avoid being caught up by anything behind him. He ran all the way through the passage that had been planned long ago and rushed towards the heavy transport ladder.

The thing was indeed waiting there as expected. As the body boarded it, it started to ascend. During the scan, a large number of small autonomous machines swarmed in.

The medium and large ones were stuck at the back and could not get up for the time being.

But this has nothing to do with Cipher. His mission is just to come down, destroy things, and then leave, making sure the factory is safe during the process.

As for which mercenary will be the one to clean up the mess, close the support channel, and take back the foundry...it has nothing to do with him.

Returning to a safe distance, the machine also displayed the reward for this mission. A portion of this reward, proportionally, was collected by the mercenary system as outstanding debts...

How should I put it? Fortunately, this thing didn’t charge interest to me, otherwise now Sefer would have to worry about whether the interest would be compounded, right?

I walked up to the hall and quickly glanced ahead... Great, Shengnai was not there!

It might be because she was powerless to deal with the damage to the aircraft, but it was also likely because Cypher was uninjured. Anyway, as long as she didn't suddenly appear behind her cockpit, it would be fine.

Moving to the fixed parking hangar, the bill in front of Seifer added another parking fee, followed by ammunition replenishment/body damage inspection.

The profits are cut again and again, and the bills increase every day when you open your eyes. This is why mercenaries work all day long but can't save any money.

Occasionally, if there is extra income, it will be used to upgrade weapons or smash them, or simply to eat and drink, and then find a node city with a good reputation to indulge, and then spend it all.

After stopping the machine and locking it after leaving, Cypher returned to the hall and saw... In such a short period of time, several companies had built rooms in their own styles, covering a considerable area.

Moreover, some mercenaries have already started to enter and exit those rooms - what is going on?
After checking the time, Seifer found a chair to rest and sat down casually. Just as he was about to contact someone, a mercenary suddenly sat down next to him.

"you--"

Before he could speak, Cypher motioned him to take a look at the individual particle generator (commonly known as a lightsaber) stuck on his arm.

The man immediately stood up and left as if he had never been there.

Select Laika's name in the communication and send a message: "Laika, the Transformation Agency's Node City is now like a birthday cake. Their lobby is in the middle, and there are offices of three companies in the three corners."

After waiting for a long time, Leica's confused and even a little dazed voice came: "Um... Haah... Red Crossbow... Wait a moment, I need to push that person away first..."

At this point? Pushing people away?

It's afternoon, approaching dusk, and it's still a bit early for people with normal jobs to get up, but... who is Leica with?

"...Huh, wait a minute, I pushed my roommate away. Red Crossbow, what do you think of the Node City?"

Seifer was silent for two seconds, then continued: "Tell me more about your roommate."

(End of this chapter)