What kind of magic? This is called cultivating immortality!

"This is the K1 Titan, the latest combat robot developed by the Destiny R&D Department. Uh... the body is made of a special synthetic material, meteorite stone, which can withstand energy impacts of up to one hundred million joules even when not activated. In addition, it is also equipped with..."

"Equipped with the latest intelligent system, it can accurately calculate and predict all enemy attack trajectories."

"Yes, it's equipped with cutting-edge AI technology! Not only can it predict attacks, but it also features a brand-new energy conversion system. It can use the Seed of Lamentation as energy, and before it runs out, it can not only repair its own wounds, but also withstand energy impacts many times over, uh..."

Lu Yusheng was utterly speechless and muttered under his breath, "Captain, can't you just memorize the script?"

“You know how busy I’ve been these past few days,” Xiao Henu explained in a low voice. “I have so many different types of manuscripts on hand, how could I possibly remember them all?”

She abandoned her stiff reading of the prepared script and went straight to the point: "In short, the K1 Titan's performance is extremely top-notch, far surpassing previous generations. Headquarters wants to collect a large amount of combat data for the iterative development of subsequent models, so as to contribute more to protecting the world. Therefore, we need you all to fight against it."

As soon as he finished speaking, a murmur of discussion arose from the audience.

"They're using us to feed the robots."

"It looks fancy, but can it really work? Don't let it be another piece of junk that looks good but is useless from a few years ago."

"I thought the headquarters had given up on robot research and development a long time ago. I didn't expect they were still messing around with it. It's a complete waste of the hard-earned money of the working people."

"Should we hold back later? If we cripple this Titan in one go, it won't look good for headquarters, will it?"

"What's the point of saving face? Does headquarters even care about saving face?"

Amidst the cacophony of voices, not a single person was optimistic about this so-called new combat robot; some even expressed disgust.

The reason is also very simple.

The Destiny Headquarters had tried to develop combat robots a long time ago, and the results were not bad; they were barely able to deal with one- or two-star monsters.

Actually, this isn't bad, but it has an undeniable flaw: the research and development cost of a single unit is often over 100 million, and post-war maintenance is another huge expense, making the investment and the return on combat power completely disproportionate.

Moreover, with magical girls being much cheaper to produce, robots seem even more useless.

The first-generation robot project ended abruptly.

In the following years, the headquarters iterated and developed several more generations of models, but it was never able to get rid of the same problem: it could only deal with monsters below Samsung, it was expensive to manufacture, too expensive to repair, and its power and battery life were not up to par.

Later, the headquarters never developed any new robots, and over time, everyone assumed that the headquarters had completely abandoned the research and development of combat robots.

To everyone's surprise, this experiment, which had been kept in secrecy, turned out to be a long-lost robot. What's even more outrageous is that headquarters is going to use magical girls for a real-world combat test to provide the robot with combat data.

What happens after the data is fed in?

It is known that the K1 Titans are powered by Grief Seeds. If such robots are mass-produced in the future, the situation of these magical girls, who also need Grief Seeds, will likely become very precarious.

Thinking of this, a surge of anger quietly rose in the hearts of many magical girls.

They do their best to protect the world, but headquarters keeps thinking of replacing them with robots.

Years of hard work go unrecognized; instead, they are treated as mere tools to be discarded once their purpose is served. This is utterly outrageous!

Chapter 97 No Survival Without Fighting

The atmosphere at the scene became increasingly tense due to the appearance of the K1 Titan.

The magical girls stared at the silver-white battle robot on the arena with disgust, their eyes filled with resentment.

However, more than their hostility towards the machines, they harbored resentment towards the headquarters behind the scenes.

Despite years of hard work and dedication, I have not received any respect.

From the very beginning, headquarters had been planning to replace them.

In the past, they would at least try to cover it up, but now it's a blatant showdown.

Xiao Henu noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere, but instead of speaking to appease the crowd, he silently listened to the complaints and dissatisfaction rising and falling from the audience.

Faced with this move by headquarters, none of the magical girls, including herself, would agree with it.

The headquarters' repeated development of combat robots stems from a deep-seated distrust of these magical girls who fight and bleed to protect the world.

In the past, people could tolerate it and pretend they didn't care, but this time, the headquarters went too far.

The headquarters actually wanted to collect combat data from numerous magical girls to feed and iterate the robots.

Their purpose is quite obvious.

They give grand pronouncements to the outside world, claiming it's for developing more advanced combat machinery to contribute more to protecting the world. But anyone with a modicum of sense can see that headquarters actually wants to create a fleet of combat machines whose power rivals, or even surpasses, that of magical girls.

Once absolutely obedient and emotionless fighting machines are born, the fate of those low-level magical girls is predictable.

All that awaits them is the fate of being replaced.

After all, the cost of building robots is extremely high, and they also need to use the Seed of Lamentation as an energy source. With such a huge expense, where would the headquarters find the extra money and resources to support a large number of magical girls?

The only solution is to cut costs and lay off a group of people who can be replaced by robots.

And magical girls who reach the three stars will definitely be the first to be affected.

"I protest!"

Suddenly, a loud shout rang out from the crowd.

The next second, there was an overwhelming response. Hundreds of magical girls raised their arms and shouted in unison.

The number of people wasn't large, but the combined sound was incredibly loud, overwhelming the entire sports center.

Seeing the protests growing louder, Lu Yusheng anxiously grabbed the unmoved Xiao Henu and advised, "Captain, are you just going to stand by and watch? At least say something to calm everyone down, or something bad will happen."

"What headquarters did was really unfair," Xiao Henu said calmly. "In recent years, the supply of Lament Seeds has been continuously decreasing. Under these circumstances, they even developed the K1 combat robot, which uses Lament Seeds as its energy core. How can you expect me to persuade them? I can't exactly take action to suppress everyone, can I?"

"A single spark can start a prairie fire."

Lu Yusheng had a headache. "I really don't understand what those people in charge at headquarters are thinking! Are their heads made of toilets? This is clearly escalating the conflict. Aren't they afraid that someone will be pushed to the limit and start a rebellion..."

Throughout history, all uprisings and rebellions in the world have stemmed from cutting off people's livelihoods.

It is known that Grief Seeds are equivalent to the life of magical girls, but the headquarters has developed robots that use Grief Seeds as energy, which is tantamount to depriving magical girls of their lives.

What if the higher-ups won't give you a way out? The only option is rebellion!

If it really came to that... Lu Yusheng didn't dare to think about it; it was a complete sign of self-destruction.

Xiao Henu remained calm throughout, speaking in a flat tone: "You're overthinking it. Don't forget, the government has the means to control us. Everyone's protests are just to protect their own right to survival; there won't actually be a situation that endangers national security."

"To be honest, the results of the experiments announced by the other eight regions a couple of days ago were almost the same as ours. The magical girls from Lingdong, South China, Guihai... all of the eight regions that participated in the experiments were dissatisfied and protested. Some of them have even started to prepare a joint petition."

"Since you knew all this, why didn't you take precautions?!"

"Why bother with prevention? It's good if things get out of hand."

Looking down at the protesting crowd, Xiao Henu slowly said, "When we were needed to sacrifice our lives to protect the world, we were nameless heroes; now that things have only just stabilized, people are already rushing to build machines to try and replace us. We are also living, breathing human beings, not tools that can be discarded at will."

"Can……"

Xiao Henu interrupted Lu Yusheng, who was about to speak, and asked softly, "Have you risen too high now? Can't you see the crisis facing low-level magical girls anymore?"

"This experiment was conducted on them. Next time, it might be you or me."

Lu Yusheng had nothing to say.

Just as the emotions of everyone present reached their peak, Xiao Henu finally stepped forward and spoke to quell the uproar: "I know everyone is holding back their anger..."

"Lord Xiao Henu, we need an explanation!"

"If headquarters insists on replacing us with robots, we will never accept it!"

Public sentiment was outraged, and opinions varied widely.

"Everyone, please calm down and composed yourselves." Xiao Henu reached out to soothe the restless crowd.

After the commotion subsided slightly, she continued in a deep voice, "Like you all, I feel deeply disheartened and indignant. Tell me, who among you hasn't fought valiantly to defend the city and protect the people? Take the last time those witches invaded China, for example. We all shed our blood, and countless comrades perished in that battle. You are all people who have contributed to the country. But the decision made by headquarters this time is truly chilling."

"We do not oppose headquarters developing new combat capabilities to protect world peace. However, the development of these capabilities must be centered on the Seed of Sorrow, on which we depend for survival."

"What is the seed of lamentation? It is our lives. What headquarters is doing is using our lives as a price to build a new world that has nothing to do with us."

"So what should we do?"

Someone in the crowd asked a question loudly.

Lu Yusheng's heart jumped into his throat.

At this moment, the emotions of the entire audience had been completely ignited by Xiao Henu's speech. If someone were to take the lead and shout the word "rebellion," the entire Jiangbei region would likely descend into chaos.

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario did not occur.

Xiao Henu's gaze was firm, and his words resonated clearly throughout the entire arena: "My answer is that without fighting, there is no survival!"

"Show your strength and shatter the K1 Titan before you! With our victory, let's join forces with all the magical girls from the other eight regions to petition headquarters to rescind this foolish decision!"

"Now, who is willing to take the first step and secure this crucial first victory for everyone?"

As soon as he finished speaking, countless hands were raised high in the audience, and shouts resounded throughout the venue once again.

Lord Xiao Henu spoke so well!

You cannot survive without fighting!

They wanted to fight and make those foolish high-ranking officials at headquarters understand that the so-called combat robots were nothing but a pile of money-burning, useless scrap metal!

Chapter 98 Duobao's First Victory

To everyone's surprise, the person ultimately chosen to step into the ring was a girl wearing square sunglasses.

Everyone was familiar with her; she was very active during the last Jiangbei defense battle, setting up two gambling dens.

It's worth mentioning that the bookmaker won both bets, and a rough estimate puts the total payouts at over 100 million yuan.

Zhong Hui looked at the girl on stage wearing overalls and a plaid shirt, and asked in confusion, "Why her? Is there something special about her?"

Sousei and Chika remained silent, as they too were unaware of the girl's background.

"You don't know her?"

Fei Ye chimed in, "Her name is Duo Bao. She's a member of the Chimelong City Night Watch Team, a three-star level. I remember her magic abilities seem to be quite versatile, so she's quite suitable to fight the robots."

In a short time, basic information about the girl on stage quickly spread throughout the venue.

On the stage, Duobao swallowed hard, feeling a little flustered.

All eyes were now on her, and her identity was exposed on the spot. If she lost, she would be devoured alive.

She took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and stared intently at the K1 Titan opposite her.