"Can this big dragon really be handled by the three of us?" Jiang Ye muttered.
The three of them were crouched on the mountain. Deep in the valley below, a colossal steel fortress stood majestically, almost the size of a small town. Its apex was crowned with a giant cannon whose caliber rivaled that of a radio telescope. The base was ringed with cannons as thick as water buckets, their muzzles pointed downwards towards the ground. There were at least hundreds of them. Robots were moving about, patrolling the perimeter. This was merely what they could see of the defenses; they had no idea how much more there was inside.
"Bases like this look intimidating, but their defenses aren't that tight. It's a bit like a mooncake – hard on the outside, soft on the inside. Let's give it a shot! If we die, we die. In eighteen minutes, we'll be good men again!" Isabel declared with great spirit. "Right, Ichiro?" Da Feng Xiao Shuo Wang
Their teammate, who had brought them here, was named Habamugi Junichiro. For convenience, Fang Cheng and Isabel both called him Ichiro.
"Opportunities don't knock twice!" Ichiro's voice was filled with excitement. "Birong Star has just started its war, like a newly opened server. In fiercely competitive old servers, we might not be able to make a name for ourselves, but coming to a new server and taking a gamble might just let us command the winds and call the rain, becoming kings and overlords!"
"How exactly do we attack? We can't just charge in, can we?" Jiang Ye's voice trembled. "With the firepower of these Mill devils, all these cannons, if we charge in, we'll all be annihilated!"
"What's 'charge in'?" Ichiro didn't understand.
Jiang Ye felt like spitting blood. "Your traditional culture is truly forgotten. 'Charge in' means to yell and rush forward recklessly."
"Of course, charge in!" Ichiro became inexplicably excited. He suddenly stood up and leaped down, entering the enemy's line of sight.
"Charge, charge, charge!" Isabel also jumped up and charged.
Jiang Ye was dumbfounded. Is this how wars are fought nowadays, so reckless? Wouldn't a feint be better?
But since his teammates were charging, he couldn't back down. He leaped up and followed them, rushing into the valley.
The robots on the periphery of the Mill base were thrown into disarray. They rushed into nearby cannon positions and opened fire one after another. The valley echoed with the sound of cannons, and flashes of various colors erupted in a chaotic mess.
Fang Cheng thought they were done for again, but he soon realized that those cannons couldn't hit the mountain. The cannons on the base's periphery were firing ground-bursting shrapnel. As they fired, waterfalls of white smoke erupted, tearing up the ground with devastating force. The commotion and effect were terrifying, but they couldn't fire upwards, and thus couldn't hit the three intruders descending from the mountain.
"What's going on?" Fang Cheng asked. "Their weapons are so weak."
"Those shrapnel cannons aren't meant for us; they're for wild animals and insect swarms. They only strike the ground around the base. They form a fire net; anyone who crosses it dies," Ichiro explained. "Let's wait a bit. You guys try to clear out the small fry."
Fang Cheng remembered the monkeys from before. If a troop of monkeys entered the vicinity of the base, they would surely be blown to bits within seconds. When this Mill base was constructed, the entire planet had already been occupied. The only thing that needed to be guarded against was wild animals. They hadn't anticipated that evil humans would counter-attack in the future.
Isabel lay down and opened fire, shooting at the enemy robots. Her aim was precise, almost every shot a headshot, one robot at a time, her posture exceptionally elegant. Fang Cheng tried a few bursts, but missed every time, so he resorted to sustained fire. Rows upon rows of robots fell, spewing electrolytic fluid, and many shrapnel cannons went silent.
Ichiro remained still. He was in a swordsman mech, holding a greatsword aloft, waiting. His two-meter-long sword glinted in the light when held upright, exuding an imposing aura.
Fang Cheng finally understood why he had called for reinforcements. There had to be ranged attackers to help him clear out the small fry around the base before he could charge in with his sword and hack away. Otherwise, under the covering fire of the shrapnel cannons, he would be reduced to dust before he could even reach the base's wall.
Finally, a section of the base's defenses was cleared, with no robots left. A pile of shrapnel cannons lay silent, emitting thick smoke.
Ichiro leaped up and charged, bursting into the outer layer of the base like the wind. The swordsman mech's characteristic was its speed; at full sprint, it could chase down a small car!
Some reinforcement robots emerged from the base's exit, about to rush to the weapon positions. Ichiro leaped up abruptly, tracing a beautiful arc five meters high, and crashed into the pile of robots from above, spinning and slicing madly. A flurry of swordplay ensued, and metal parts exploded outwards! These robots had little armor; they were cut through easily, more brittle than cucumbers.
Jiang Ye thought, "Holy crap, holy crap!" When he had chosen his mech, he had looked down on the swordsman mechs the most, thinking, "What era is this, still using cold weapons?" Now, he felt they were incredibly awesome! Invincible in close combat!
Isabel and Jiang Ye also followed into the base's outer perimeter. The fixed shrapnel cannons around them had stopped firing. The remaining robots scattered and fled. Jiang Ye lay down and fired, his bullets pouring out like water, his merit points skyrocketing.
"Stop shooting these small fry, save your ammo. The main course is coming!" Isabel kicked him.
Ichiro swung his greatsword, hacking at the thick base door. The base door appeared to be made entirely of metal, as thick as a bank vault door. Each swing sent countless sparks flying. More and more sword marks appeared, and finally, a large hole was cleaved through, just big enough for someone to squeeze through.
As Ichiro was about to squeeze in, with his head already poking through, he abruptly pulled back and leaped to the side, lying prone near the door.
Jiang Ye and Isabel instinctively leaped away and lay prone as well.
With a roar of cannon fire, a shell whistled out from the doorway, trailing long smoke, and slammed into the ground dozens of meters away, erupting in a large cloud of dust and sparks.
"Damn it, they've mounted a flat-trajectory cannon in the corridor inside!" Ichiro cursed.
"What's controlling it?" Isabel asked. "Mill people or robots?"
"An automatic cannon, controlled by a program!"
"Let me try to make it explode!" Isabel crawled forward, approaching the base door.
"Dangerous, let me!" Jiang Ye grabbed her by the leg, stopping her from moving further. "You want to shoot at the muzzle? Shoot bullets into the cannon?"
"Yes." Isabel retreated. "You'll have about a second to aim and half a second to fire. After you show your head, immediately lie down, otherwise, you're definitely dead."
Jiang Ye crawled over, took a deep breath, and suddenly stood up!
He took a quick glance, then immediately lay down. Immediately after, a cannon roared, and a shell flew over his head, creating a blast wave, before landing and exploding a hundred meters away.
Jiang Ye immediately popped up again and raised his gun to fire!
The glance he had taken confirmed the cannon's position, and by making it fire once, its reloading time should be somewhat longer, increasing his chances of success.
A dense stream of bullets surged into the cannon's muzzle. The dark cannon suddenly burst into flames, filling the dim corridor with fire of various colors. The piercing explosion sounded like a dragon's roar. The next second, the base door was blown open by the blast wave, sending Jiang Ye flying backward and crashing into the dirt, kicking up a cloud of yellow dust.
"Old Jiang, are you alive?" Isabel called out anxiously.
"No problem!" Jiang Ye spat a mouthful of blood onto his transparent faceplate. "There seems to be a slight problem."