Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 656 The Big Guy

"The candlelight will reject you, so why insist on believing in it? The surface dwellers are hostile to you, so why insist on being friendly to them?"

Frey's tone carried a hint of anger.

"Why not break out of this lowly place and fight your way up to the Rhine? They oppress you, so make them bleed; they ostracize you, so destroy their homes. I'd like to see whether the blood flowing from their noble chambers is gold or silver!"

After speaking, Frey looked up at Little Bu and was surprised to find that he was surrounded by a whole circle of people.

The untouchables had stopped arguing at some point; they gathered around and were listening quietly to what was going on.

Frey felt he might have said too much, but he was still a young man, so he gritted his teeth, straightened his neck, and stared at the people around him.

Pairs of eyes met, some with fear, some with surprise, some with disbelief, and some with doubt. As Frey's gaze swept over them, many lowered their heads, unable to meet his eyes, while others looked over with bright eyes, and quite a few fell into deep thought.

After a while, Xiao Bu's voice suddenly rang out.

"Brother Frey, you just said that 'Big Guy' will protect me from being bullied?"

Little Bu's voice trembled slightly, but this time it wasn't hesitation or fear; Frey detected a hint of excitement in it.
But this problem...
Frey thought about it carefully and nodded, saying, "I think there's no problem. In the entire Lower Rhine, which is what you call the surface, I haven't seen any armed forces that can rival it."

To be precise, Frey didn't even see any armed forces in Lower Rhine.

No matter how formidable Castel's expeditionary force was, it still existed in the form of an army. In the Lower Rhine, Frey found absolutely no armed forces, neither army, sheriffs, nor the legendary Church Inquisitors or Crusaders.

We didn't even see any gangsters.

The entire Lower Rhine was almost undefended; not even weapons could be seen. The people of Lower Rhine didn't even need knives to cook, relying entirely on church relief. It was more like a sheepfold than a city.

As for Upper Rhine, Frey didn't know much about it. He figured it was the territory of the Candlelight Society, so there should be some fighting power there, at least that's what the information Castel gave him said.

But whether he can beat the "big guy" is really hard to say.

"How many 'big guys' can you make?" Frey asked.

"Well, as long as there are materials, you can keep making them. It's pieced together from junk, so it's very easy to build. A while ago, it caught fire and exploded, destroying most of its body. But with a few tech buddies helping out, I can fix it in half a day!"

Little Bu proudly straightened the paper bag.

But the next moment, she deflated like a punctured balloon and whispered:
"These technologies shouldn't be anything special to those big shots on the ground, right? I heard you're a follower of the Mechanical Temple, so you must know a lot about mechanics, right? They have more resources and can even make their own parts, so they should be far more capable than my 'big guy'."

"Hmm, the Mechanical Sanctuary, huh?"

Frey was a little embarrassed; he didn't really know much about the Mechanical Sanctuary.

His identity as a follower of the Mechanical Sanctuary was obtained for him by the Ash Alliance, and Castel didn't have much information about the Sanctuary, so he really couldn't say anything.

However, since Castel attaches such importance to the Mechanical Sanctuary, it should be no less powerful than Castel, right? After all, both sides are involved in industry and machinery.

Castelfrey knew a bit about it; he had seen the barrage of bullets and bombardments on the day of the siege.

If the big guy were to fight against Castells' expeditionary force...
Frey licked his lips. "Does it have any methods of attack?"

"Attack? Uh, I haven't researched that much, but there are some, like this—"

Little Bu shouted a few words at the big guy, and the huge metal creature suddenly stopped. The incinerator on its abdomen, which had been devouring garbage, suddenly opened its huge mouth, and its entire body paused for a moment.

Then, with a loud bang, a dark shadow flashed past in the incinerator. Before Frey could even make out what it was, a burst of fire erupted from the cave wall in the distance.

The dazzling orange-red light instantly illuminated the ground as if it were daytime, like a blazing sun.

"W-what is this?"

"The incinerator exploded last time, and that inspired me to improve it so that it could produce a controlled explosion."

Xiao Bu gestured excitedly with his hands.

"Through one explosion, we can blast away anything that can explode, and then detonate it again after it lands!"

Frey swallowed hard, then asked hesitantly, "This... doesn't sound very safe. What if it explodes before it's even blown out?"

"Oh, that would be a really big explosion," Little Bu said with longing.

The explosion startled many people, who rushed to the "big guy's" side, checked him over, and then gradually dispersed.

These underground untouchables, who have lived among garbage for years, have long since developed the ability to find useful things in the trash. They casually made some repairs to "Big Guy," and some even installed some discarded parts on "Big Guy."

It's clear that modifying this mechanical creation isn't a skill unique to Little Bu.

"How does it compare to the Mechanical Sanctuary?"

Little Bu asked somewhat nervously, and Frey keenly sensed a hint of expectation in her tone.

She hopes her work will be recognized, a feeling she both fears and yearns for.

Frey thought about it seriously and mentally simulated the battle between the expeditionary force and "the big guy".

Those guns that can fire in bursts are unlikely to hurt "big guys". Dropping bombs from an airship might work, but the explosions from a big guy are no less effective.

"Hmm, if you could gather a few more 'big guys', it should be possible, right?"

Xiao Bu's eyes lit up, and he became excited: "This is not difficult. There is a shortage of everything underground, except garbage. Making too many of these big things would be useless, so only this one was kept. It won't take long to make more!"

After she finished speaking, she shouted to the people around her, and the untouchables around her responded with enthusiastic shouts.

Then the people scattered and enthusiastically began picking through the garbage.

Frey scratched his head. These untouchables seemed to be receiving recognition for the first time, and they began their work with great enthusiasm, completely disregarding the meaning of it all.

(End of this chapter)