On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

Chapter 215 Combat Mech No. 86, Combined!

The eerie voices echoed in everyone's ears, and the terrifying laughter sent chills down their spines.

In the distance, the little girl's figure twisted, and gusts of scarlet, turbid winds began to rage in the area, howling in everyone's ears. Intense pollution erupted from the little girl's body, enveloping her like a blood silkworm.

In just a few blinks, a blinding blood-red light burst forth from the silkworm.

The blood silkworm ruptured, and the little girl inside had vanished. In its place stood a woman with a sickly smile, wielding a huge black scythe, and dressed in a scarlet dress.

witch.

As for the witch floating in the sky, Liao Ji cannot say that she looks exactly like the evil and yandere Styutia from back then; it can only be said that she is a complete copy.

However, apart from their appearance, there are still many obvious differences.

For example, Liao Ji remembers that even when the real-life Styutia turned evil and her sea-blue hair turned completely red and black, it still cascaded down like a waterfall, with only the ends of her hair curving upwards in a slight arc.

However, in Zero Dream, the witch in front of Liao Ji was completely disheveled, as if she had given up her image entirely, giving off a bit of the feeling of Sadako from a horror movie.

The facial expressions on his face became even more exaggerated, with the corners of his mouth stretched up in an extremely wide arc, and his eyes appearing as two empty red dots.

In addition, Liao Ji, who knew the little nun's figure very well, could tell at a glance that the witch's figure was also not right.

It seems to be due to malnutrition, so it looks more youthful overall than the original.

To put it simply, she has a flat chest and short legs.

Therefore, when paired with that scarlet dress and the giant black scythe, it creates a striking contrast.

You probably won't find another person like Liao Ji at the scene who is so focused on appreciating the witch.

After the witch appeared, the people on the Salvation Society's side seemed to have their "dream escape" process forced to stop. Their logout devices became unusable, just like how they couldn't return to the city after entering a battle state.

The team members immediately panicked, many of them turning ashen-faced, but the captain, who was in charge, did not give up. He shouted for preparations for battle and took out several branding weapons made by Kyle Technology from the car.

It's not hard to see that Kyle Technology has mastered some methods to bring real-world objects into Zero Dream.

However, this technology is obviously not mature yet. Liao Ji looked at the weapons of the Kyle Technology team members and found that they did not have a single rifle, let alone heavy weapons. Most of them were small pistols or grenades.

Even with the branding that increases damage, such an attack is no different from a tickle to a witch.

It has no effect other than further enraging the witch.

"Human beings."

"Your very existence is a mistake."

"Deception, jealousy, greed, and endless infighting."

"If a world is beyond saving, then the best outcome for it is destruction!"

Despite the witch's cold and cruel words, she had no intention of taking action herself. Instead, a vast amount of shadow power was released from the witch's body, transforming into countless illusory scythes that hung high in the sky.

The sickle was not only aimed at the Salvation Society, but at everyone present.

The next moment, the scythe slashed down, like the pronouncement of death. However, Liao Ji did not move. Before the scythe made contact, a bright blue light burst from his body. At the same time, the mechanical voice of 86 also sounded.

"Mid-tier Dangerous Construction - Combat Mech β, Master-specific program activated and loaded, combined!"

A fluorescent power source appeared from Liao Ji's chest, and then, centered on this power source, pieces of armor gleaming with a silvery-gray light began to rapidly form around Liao Ji.

Maid 86 in the dream world can freely change weapon forms, which naturally includes mechs.

In the blink of an eye, the fusion process was completed.

A new combat mech, "No. 86," over two meters tall and shaped like a human, was unveiled. The so-called "combination" meant that Liao Ji became the pilot of this "No. 86."

With their minds in sync, Liao Ji didn't need any control sticks. The entire combat mech seemed to merge with him. Facing the witch's shadow scythe, Liao Ji immediately activated the defense system, and a crystal-clear three-dimensional energy shield with a net-like structure quickly unfolded.

The energy shield collided with the scythe, and spiderweb-like cracks immediately appeared on the shield, demonstrating its immense power. Inside the mech, Liao Ji kept seeing the red warning from 86.

As soon as it appeared, the shadow power attached to the scythe began to corrode the shield through the gaps. Sure enough, the "deterioration" ability of Styutia that Liao Ji had seen before reappeared. Under the "deterioration", the energy shield immediately became as fragile as a piece of paper.

Just before the shield collapsed, Liao Ji changed his strategy, concentrating No. 86's energy on the exoskeleton armor. These mechanical exoskeletons not only provide powerful power, but their flexibility is also comparable to that of a real person.

Combined with the accelerators under its feet, the seemingly massive mech instantly unleashed unimaginable speed, transforming into a blur and escaping the scythe's attack range before the energy barrier shattered.

Of course, dodging was not Liao Ji's goal.

Liao Ji, who had soared into the air, changed the energy distribution again. The mecha, which had lost its power source, slid down. The exoskeleton under its feet retracted its feet and transformed into tires. Then, it began to glide at high speed on the ground due to inertia.

Immediately afterwards, the redistributed energy began to concentrate on the mech's shoulders, which rotated rapidly like a Rubik's Cube. Then, one on the left and one on the right, the dark launch ports of a total of forty-eight miniature homing missiles were aimed at the witch in the sky.

Bang bang bang!

A dense barrage of tracking missiles billowed white smoke as they flew in unison toward the witch. The witch seemed to have noticed Liao Ji, this "outlier," and frowned slightly. Facing Liao Ji's missile barrage, she raised her scythe and slashed it in front of her. The space in front of the witch seemed to be torn apart, slicing open a black slit.

All the approaching missiles were instantly absorbed by the black slit. After passing through the slit, they became weak and powerless, and without even exploding, they lost their propulsion and fell to the ground. They were obviously "degraded".

But in reality, the missile was just a decoy for Liao Ji. The real force that emerged from the white smoke, using the missile as a pretext, was the "86" mech, which had reactivated its propulsion system and soared into the sky, now wielding a cone-shaped beam blade composed of high-energy particles.

The light blade showed no mercy, slashing directly at the witch's face, but the result was just as Liao Ji had expected.

The witch swung her scythe to block the lightsaber. The moment her lightsaber touched the scythe, the "degraded" shadow power reappeared. The lightsaber of the No. 86 mech began to lose light and heat rapidly, and from the outside, it looked like it was cracking inch by inch.

Seeing that the shadow power that brought "deterioration" was about to corrode his mecha along with the lightsaber, Liao Ji had no choice but to abandon his sword and quickly distance himself from the witch.

Seeing the disheveled state of mech number 86, the witch did not pursue it, but instead let out a mocking and sarcastic sound.

"To be human yet to merge with machines, believing oneself to have gained power, is in reality merely to gild the lily and add legs to the serpent."

"The darkest shadows will eventually shroud the earth, and the moon of righteousness will fill your empty eyes. All living things will receive redemption in my hands, a redemption called 'destruction'."

"Do not struggle, do not resist, for I am the calamity!"

As for the final witch, she covered one eye with one hand and used the howling, turbid wind to blow up her dress and hair.

Liao Ji, sitting opposite him, nodded in agreement.

"Now I know why your hair is so messy."

"86, remember to record all of this, we'll have to send it to Styutia later."

"Command received. Recording equipment is on full-time and the video is encrypted to the highest level," Number 86 replied quickly, taking a break from his work. He also secretly made a backup and put it into the "Upper Level" folder as a nuclear weapon to fight against Lady Styutia in the future.

"Wait a minute, what is this folder of yours?"

"Oh dear," Number 86 replied, feigning ignorance.

Liao Ji, who possesses 86, doesn't need to use a "logout device" to escape the dream in a stable state like the people at Kyle Technology. He can leave Zero Dream anytime, anywhere, even in battle, so Liao Ji isn't worried at all.

Rather, his original purpose in his plan was to gather intelligence. The real battle was to find a way to complete the "large-scale landing," which meant allowing the nuns and dragon girls from the Dragon Kingdom to enter Zero Dream.

Liao Ji would never force himself if he could rely on his wife's help. Wouldn't it be better to save the energy for rewarding his wife's kindness?

I don't know if Liao Ji and 86's attitude angered the witch, or if the witch read Liao Ji's dirty thoughts.

"Unrepentant ants!"

"Ridiculous, foolish, utterly worthless."

The witch roared angrily at Liao Ji, but before she could even utter the word "ignorant," something unexpected happened next—even Liao Ji hadn't anticipated.

"Disaster Relief Matrix - Heavenly Principle Cannon"

A louder, more mechanical, and utterly emotionless electronic synthesized voice suddenly resounded across the battlefield.

And this clearly doesn't come from 86.

On the distant horizon, rows of mechanical maids, identical to the 86, appeared, forming a matrix of artillery in a precise arrangement.

A dazzling crimson light, like a miniature sun, erupted from the combined cannon array of multiple mechanical maids, seemingly eclipsing the blood-red sky in an instant.

Then, within an unknown number of seconds, it transformed into a meteor, striking the witch directly and blasting her, who was speaking halfway through her sentence in the sky, crashing down and creating a huge crater on the ground.

Chapter 216 May the Emperor's Glory Last Forever

The aftershocks of the powerful artillery barrage forced even Liao Ji, inside his mech, to retreat.

This also signaled the entry of a third force into the battle, and their identities were obvious—the very ones Liao Ji had been searching for.

Machine servant.

Having successfully blasted down the witch, the machine gunners pressed their advantage, their blazing lights flashing like miniature suns, indicating that another "Heavenly Principle Cannon" was about to fire, this time not at the sky, but at the ground.

Seeing the screen filled with blazing light, Liao Ji's eyelids twitched, and he immediately maneuvered his mech to quickly move away from the range of the artillery fire.

However, the anticipated second artillery barrage did not materialize. Instead, when Liao Ji looked over again, he saw that the machine gun array, which had been poised to fire, seemed to have suddenly broken down at some point in the end.

The light from the entire artillery array dimmed rapidly, like light bulbs that had lost power.

"Tianli Cannon failed to activate. Error code: 10836. Operation plan is being revised."

The electronic synthesized voice still echoed clearly in Liao Ji's ears. Only now did Liao Ji realize that it wasn't that the other party's voice was so loud that it filled the entire battlefield, but rather that he seemed to have joined the other party's "voice channel".

"Upward increase in turbidity concentration detected, pollution level reaches peak, confirming the witch has entered Phase Two. Battle plan revised, all personnel disengage from the human matrix and enter defense mode."

Just as the machine servant finished speaking, and before the dust had even settled from the deep crater created by the Heavenly Cannon, a crimson beam of light shot into the sky.

"Heh heh heh, I knew it. You annoying bunch of guys would definitely show up again."

"Just a bunch of mediocre and ineffective ants."

"No one can stop my will!!!"

Amidst the witch's shriek, the crimson pillar of light that had previously shot into the sky extended to both sides, transforming into a Gate of Turbid Calamity. Immediately afterwards, one after another, deformed and mutated monsters of Turbid Calamity surged out of this gate, roaring and charging towards the direction of the machine servant formation.

After the witch summoned the Tide of Calamity, Liao Ji finally understood what the "defense mode" mentioned in the voice channel was.

Clearly, the servants had anticipated the witch's next move by using various numerical data, so they were well prepared for the approaching hordes of turbid monsters.

The team consisted of about fifty people. The outermost layer of servants had constructed thick energy shields in front of their arms. The second layer consisted of guard servants wielding beam swords. The third layer consisted of gunner servants who had already begun to spew flames and unleash a hail of bullets at the monsters.

In addition, in the innermost layer of the rear, there was a single mech servant scanning the battlefield. Liao Ji was very familiar with this position. It was equivalent to the brain of the team, responsible for commanding the battlefield. It seemed that the instructions and battle plans he had heard before were all issued by this mech servant.

Before the raging tide of turbidity even reached the servants' defensive line, various lasers and artillery had already reduced its numbers by half.

Next, the guard servants, whose hands and feet transformed into sharp blades and protected by energy shields, danced a death waltz among the monsters, resembling ruthless and skilled assassins.

The fact that hundreds of monstrous creatures could not break through the defensive line composed of only fifty-odd mech servants is enough to demonstrate the powerful combat capabilities of the mech servants.