Above the Blood Moon

Three bullets flew out in a triangular pattern. The first bullet hit the cover in front of the leader, while the second and third bullets flew to the sides, forcing the two scavengers who wanted to flank from the side to turn back.

Gunshots echoed through the ruins, sharp and piercing. Lu Yao remained crouched in place, clutching the rifle, his mind blank.

He looked at Big Yellow, that yellowish robot now seemed like a completely different machine.

Its movements are clean and efficient: fire, move to the side, find the next cover, fire again, and each movement is precisely timed to coincide with the opponent's reload or repositioning.

But the scavengers were not to be trifled with; they quickly organized a counterattack.

Bullets flew like raindrops, most hitting the cover where Big Yellow was hiding, and a few grazing his body, leaving white scratches on his armor.

"Master!" Big Yellow shouted, "Don't stand there! Fire! Fire away, just fire anywhere, just to distract them!"

Lu Yao gritted his teeth, and like Da Huang, he rested the butt of his gun on his shoulder, squinted one eye, and looked ahead through the iron sights. He didn't know where to aim.

Well then... whatever!

He pulled the trigger.

boom--

The recoil was much greater than he had imagined; the butt of the rifle slammed hard against his collarbone, the pain almost bringing tears to his eyes.

The bullets flew off somewhere unknown, but the gunshots certainly drew attention; at least two scavengers turned to look in his direction.

"Okay! Let's do it this way. Stay hidden and don't show your face!"

Lu Yao retreated behind cover, feeling his heart pounding in his chest and his hand gripping the gun trembling, but he still raised the gun again.

Although he hadn't figured out the situation yet, he wouldn't let his comrades fight alone.

This time he didn't aim accurately; he simply extended the barrel and pulled the trigger in the general direction.

boom! boom! boom!

Three shots fired in quick succession.

The recoil made his arm go numb, but he didn't let go. The bullet hit something, and the gunshot did have an effect. A scavenger tried to come around from the right, but was forced back by Lu Yao's random shooting.

Dahuang seized the opportunity.

It emerged from behind cover, its right arm's mechanical claw holding a rifle in one hand, while its left hand's five fingers contracted, its palm opening to reveal a dark muzzle.

A beam of blue energy shot out and struck a scavenger in the chest.

The man was wearing a simple bulletproof vest, but it was as fragile as paper in the face of laser weapons. His vest was burned through, and the flesh and machinery underneath instantly vaporized.

He fell backward without even letting out a scream, leaving a fist-sized hole in his chest, the edges of which were still smoking.

"One," Big Yellow said, his voice icy.

The scavengers were furious.

They stopped being conservative and started firing wildly. Big Yellow weaved through the hail of bullets, its movements so fast that it didn't seem like a service robot. Each landing was accompanied by a precise burst of fire.

Another person fell, this time with a broken leg. The joint exploded, exposing the wires. The man screamed and fell, and was finished off by Big Yellow.

"Two," said Big Yellow.

The metal-faced man in the lead finally couldn't hold back any longer.

He took a few steps back to hide behind a relatively safe cover, then pulled a syringe from his pocket and, without hesitation, plunged the needle into his neck to inject the medication.

Instantly, his eyes became bloodshot and turned red, his pupils dilated, and the whites of his eyes were covered with blood vessels. At the same time, the mechanical prosthetics on his body began to emit an overloaded hum, and white steam was emitted from his joints.

"Damn it..." he roared, his voice hoarse and inhuman, "You're all asking for death!"

He burst out from behind the cover and charged straight toward Lu Yao. His leg prosthetics unleashed astonishing power, each step covering three meters and sending pebbles flying.

As he charged, he raised his weapon, a modified rotary machine gun with six barrels that began to spin.

"Saturation fire! Turn that area into a sieve!"

Flames shot out from the muzzle of the gun.

Bullets rained down on the area where Lu Yao was hiding, riddling the bunker with holes and scattering metal fragments everywhere.

Lu Yao curled up, trying to minimize his exposed area, but he would be hit sooner or later if he continued like this.

"You're finished, you penniless bastards!" the leader laughed maniacally. "I just bought a regional hacking service from Yadea Technology. Twenty seconds is more than enough to kill you all!"

He then pressed a button on his wrist, and instantly Big Yellow froze, its visual sensor flashed violently, and its body began to tremble uncontrollably.

The other surviving scavengers were the same; they clutched their heads, howling in pain, some even banging their heads against the ground.

"Virus, invading..." Big Yellow's voice trailed off, "...the nervous...system..."

The leader stopped firing. He picked up the rotary machine gun and strode toward the already riddled data storage cabinet, the barrel still spinning and emitting a low hum.

"Come out, you little mouse," he grinned maliciously. "Let me see what color your brains are—"

Before he could finish speaking, Lu Yao stood up from behind the cabinet, still holding the EMP electronic pulse gun in his hand, the muzzle pointed directly at the leader. The two were less than five meters apart, and the leader was somewhat dazed.

Why wasn't this poor guy affected? Regional hacking attacks target all electronic nervous systems, whether it's a chip implanted in the human brain or the core processor of AI, so they should all be affected.

unless.

"You…" The leader's eyes widened. "You're a pure human? Without any implanted chips?"

Lu Yao didn't know what he was talking about; all he knew was that the opportunity had come, and he pulled the trigger of the EMP gun.

The gun fired this time, as if it had found its target. A buzzing sound, like the air being torn apart, rang out, and a pale blue arc of electricity exploded from the muzzle, instantly striking the leader.

Instantly, all the mechanical prosthetics on his body malfunctioned. The rotary machine gun stopped spinning, the power legs lost power, the glowing energy core on his chest went out, and even the red mechanical eye dimmed.

He stood frozen in place, only his bloodshot native eye could move. He stared intently at Lu Yao, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Without hesitation, Lu Yao threw down his EMP gun, bent down, picked up a broken steel pipe from the ground, rushed towards the leader, and used all his strength to stab the steel pipe into the man's abdomen.

The steel pipe went in, and the resistance was less than expected, like piercing through a layer of leather. Warm liquid flowed out along the steel pipe, covering his hands.

The leader opened his mouth wide, but made no sound. He just looked down at the steel pipe stuck in his stomach, then looked up at Lu Yao, his eyes changing from disbelief to pure anger.

"You..." he said hoarsely.

Then he raised his still-movable right hand and punched Lu Yao in the chest.

boom!

Lu Yao flew backward three meters, his back slamming heavily to the ground. He slid for a while before finally coming to rest next to a pile of rubble. He coughed up blood, and his vision began to blur.

But he could still see the leader pull the steel pipe out of his stomach and casually throw it aside; the wound was bleeding, but he didn't care.

He walked step by step toward Lu Yao. The mechanical hand that could still move began to deform, its fingers contracted, and its palm opened, revealing a launch port.

"Rocket mode," he said hoarsely. "Even though it'll shred your body and we can't recover your organs, I'm happy to do it."

The launch port began charging, emitting a sharp buzzing sound.

Lu Yao tried to get up, but his body wouldn't obey him. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and he could only watch helplessly as the launch port was aimed at him and the energy light grew brighter and brighter.

Then he felt something touch his back.

It's hard and cool.

Lu Yao barely managed to turn his head and saw that he was lying on a mechanical combat arm prosthetic body. The silver-gray paint was still reflecting light, and there was a clear logo on the joint.

Right next to his arm was the bottle of blue tissue fluid that he had just tucked into his waistband. The small bottle had slipped out of his clothes when he fell and was now stuck on a sharp piece of metal.

Blue liquid was slowly seeping out, flowing along the fragments towards Lu Yao.

When the blue liquid flowed into the wound, Lu Yao couldn't feel anything. He couldn't feel anything at all. The leader had also finished charging, and the light from the launch port was as dazzling as a small sun.

Goodbye, poverty—

boom!

A gunshot rang out from the side, the bullet striking the joint of the leader's mechanical arm precisely. The rocket was still fired, but it missed its target, grazing Lu Yao's head before exploding into a fireball on a distant pile of scrap.

"Oops, I missed."

A flippant voice rang out, and Lu Yao barely managed to turn his eyes to look at the source of the voice.

Three people were seen walking towards them from a distance.

The person at the front was wearing a white coat, a middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses and a professional smile on his face; he looked like a doctor.

The person next to him was wearing an exaggerated studded jacket and had fluorescent blue hair, looking like a hip-hop kid.

There was also a man completely shrouded in a black robe, his face hidden in the shadow of his hood, silent, just like a medieval priest.

The doctor stepped forward, looking at the leader with a friendly smile.

"I have no problem with you hitting or killing him, but wait a moment while our people check that part of his arm to see if there's anything wrong with it."

As he spoke, he pointed to Lu Yao on the ground.

The leader was stunned. He looked at the doctor, then at the hip-hop kid, who was excitedly moving his newly fitted robotic arm, his five fingers spreading and clenching.

"Hey, I told you, I wouldn't leave this thing at a brothel."

The leader instantly flew into a rage.

"Who the hell are you?!"

"Just passing by," the doctor said with a smile. "We were picking up trash and saw something interesting, so we came over to take a look. Don't mind us, you guys continue."

But before the leader could continue, Da Huang regained consciousness, and the twenty-second hacking session was over.

The yellow sensor band on Big Yellow lit up with a golden light again, but the light immediately turned from gold to blood red.

It saw Lu Yao lying on the ground, with a very obvious wound on his chest.

Suddenly, a huge red triangle warning sign popped up on the display screen on Big Yellow's chest.

[Following the First Law, protecting the master... *sizzle*... Following the First Law, protecting the master]

Then Big Yellow moved. It tore open its chest armor with its mechanical claws, revealing rows of energy batteries and the cooling fan of the core processor.

It plunged its claws inside, and a cold, electronic voice emanated from its body.

"Warning: Self-destruct sequence initiated, three, two—"

The leader finally realized what was happening and turned to run, but it was too late; Da Huang's body exploded in an instant.