Planet of Sand and Oasis of Iron

Chapter 408 407. So completing the task should be given top priority
The carriage was flying in the sky, and then the rocket engine spewed out, causing the carriage to fall down... The people in the carriage were fine, but they were a little dazed from the fall.

The dizziness didn't seem so serious under the protection of this strange costume. What was really serious was the howling wind and snow that rushed into the cabin as the door suddenly opened, and the sudden drop in temperature, which made everyone shiver.

Seeing that everyone else was sitting in the carriage alertly, not moving, Cypher could only speak out: "Don't stay in the carriage. The broadcast was right. We are now at the rear of the battlefield."

"For the sake of you all being students of the Academy City, listen carefully... This is not a school, and the weapons used aren't stun guns. If you get hit, you'll lose your ability to move, bleed, or even die."

Seifer stood at the hatch and looked out. Beneath the leaden-gray clouds, there was only a vast expanse of white that would sink anyone who entered.

"The enemy will not show mercy to who you are, and the giant vision gate has been destroyed. This means that if you die before the vision dissipates..."

He paused, glancing at the group of people behind him, all wearing full-body armor. "There truly is no future. There's no chance of ever opening your eyes again. Everything in this world has nothing to do with you."

These words were spoken with extreme seriousness, and everyone didn't know how to react for a moment. They could only nod, listen to Seifer's orders, and follow him to climb out of the carriage that was tilted in the snow.

With one step, Seifer felt himself sinking completely into the snow below his waist. If this happened to him, what about the others...

Especially Ichika's descendant, only half of her head was exposed on the snow, like a potato mine.

"...Forget fighting or searching for something. I feel like in this situation, it's hard to even find a way out."

Raise your hand, at least this piece of clothing has a personal CNC panel on the arm that looks quite advanced.

Including Sefer himself, there were only eight people in the car. Each of them only had an assault rifle as their main weapon, and they were even only given two explosives - how fucking stingy!

Seifer didn't seem to care. He checked the map again. "The mission says we need to restart the automated processing plant. The fuel production there is still functional. Once it's activated, a transport plane will arrive to pick it up, and we can evacuate at the same time."

Besides completing the mission, what else can I do? I can't freeze myself to death in this icy and snowy place, right?

However, it is easier said than done. The thick snow looks good, but it is almost life-threatening to walk on it.

In the end, Seifer had to walk in front, using his body as a snowplow to allow the people behind him to move forward in a line.

It's slow, but it's better than sitting there and waiting to die.

During this period, they also encountered those black mechanical monsters. If there were some people who were inconsistent and had some objections at the beginning, they no longer had such ideas the moment they met the enemy and fought.

The enemy is made of metal, steel, and is fully armored, which is absolutely indestructible to small-caliber weapons. It has a ferocious face and looks like a four-legged or multi-legged beast.

His body was covered in rust, and when he jumped out of the snow, his soaring appearance made the students raise their guns and start shooting at him.

Countless bullets hitting the armor plates are useless. Only when they hit structures like eyes or gaps in limbs that are not covered by armor can the enemy's movement be hindered.

At the critical moment, it was still Sefer who acted quickly. He grabbed the mechanical monster that was about half the size of a person and was lying in front of him. He stepped on the front end of it and pulled it hard as if he was pulling out the claws of a crayfish!
With the flash of electric sparks, the sickle arm of this thing directly broke away from the body. Then, regardless of any guns, Seifer waved the sickle arm with both hands and smashed the team of mechanical monsters until they were completely motionless.

Everyone huddled together, trembling. It was hard to imagine what the eyes under the helmets looked like... but at least they became very obedient later on.

Seifer told them to be careful when using weapons. Unless they found new anti-armor weapons, these things could only provide psychological comfort in theory... So, did the other convoys also encounter the enemy and were wiped out in this snowy field?
There was also no signal in external communications, indicating that several companies outside were still struggling and had not yet entered the college city, so now we can only rely on ourselves.

But why can't the backup unit be switched? Is it because the mobile base hasn't been pulled in? Or is the main unit actually outside?

Wait, if I think about it this way, if I use up my spare body here and force myself to leave, won’t I be back in the mobile base when I open my eyes?

Thinking of this, Sefer came up with a plan.

But first, we need to get the younger members of the team out of danger. Since that guy said that we, the "frozen meat," want to contribute, then let's give it to him and see how it goes. Then, we can stay in the city until the anomaly ends, right?
"Hold on, we just need to start the pump station, and then we can evacuate safely. There's also an arsenal at the pump station, and I'll find some suitable weapons for you then."

Everyone nodded repeatedly, and had a new understanding of this terrifying killer like Cypher.

The entire factory looked more like an open-air mine, with heavy snow covering its surface, but the combination of a giant and a straw was still exposed on the snow - interestingly, the mechanical monster had no interest in this thing.

There wasn't even any patrol unit approaching here on the snow. Cypher led the group into the room, shook off the snow on their bodies, and immediately ordered them to search the control room for anything they could use.

While going to find the armory, he himself climbed to the highest observation tower in the entire open-pit mine.

Looking around, the whole earth was covered in white, and under the leaden sky, it seemed as if the sun would never shine again.

But Cypher knew that for clouds to have this color, it meant that there must be sunlight above them, in the outer layers. It was just that these clouds were always covered, which was why they were so gloomy.

The direction they came from... Some mechanical monsters have gathered near the carriage. After the initial confusion, they have begun to patrol slowly towards this side.

At this moment, the younger student suddenly sent a message: "Teacher! We found something valuable in the warehouse... Where are the enemies?"

"In the direction we're coming from, find a firing point and get ready. We're about to have a tough battle."

Seifer answered calmly, and when he jumped off the watchtower, he saw several people excitedly running towards the reinforced window with their cameras in their arms.

There were mounted light machine guns, grenade launchers, some armor-piercing rocket launchers, and even a sniper rifle that was placed here for some reason... To be honest, it was quite complete.

I don't quite understand why people in this world place so many weapons near oil fields, but I'll use them if I can find them.

"Deploy your defenses. Currently, there are only patrols in our direction, but we can't rule out the possibility that they possess some unknown communication capabilities. I'll go help you activate the data collection device first. The rest..."

Sefer thought about it, but decided not to tell others that he was planning to donate the spare body sometime.

"The rest depends on your efforts. Just hold on until support arrives and supplies arrive."

Everyone nodded hurriedly and watched as Sefer went to the control room to tinker with various devices that had been dormant for a long time and now had to be started up quickly.

Deploying defenses separately is a good idea in theory, but... the moment the operating machines started to sound, everyone saw ominous red dots on their personal radars, gathering from all directions.

(End of this chapter)