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"This was originally a pharmacy catapult, Sanyue. I don't often load offensive grenades."
That is to say... there have been grenades filled with explosives, right?
"I've had so many overturned impressions lately that my head feels dizzy..."
Pink Hair had to distinguish between the thoughtful and gentle elder sister she met in the hospital and the fiery idiot in front of her...
"That means you are thinking very hard, March." Following Dan Heng's gratifying words, everyone broke into the main vein of the large mining area.
Most of the mines here have been dug dry, but the thin cubes remaining on the walls still emit a warm glow.
"The road to the inner circle is blocked... They actually use a mine cart..."
A large amount of scrap copper and iron was piled up on the slope of the mine, and the center track was blocked by mine carts that looked like the cart that was lost yesterday.
Seeing the mining team's property being destroyed, Xi'er and Natasha looked unhappy. On the left side of the inner circle entrance, a group of people were making a fuss and did not notice the approach of the team at all:
"Don't you have a good relationship with the high-ranking officials of the Earth Fire? It shouldn't be difficult to ask them to let us go and not hold us responsible, right?"
"Bah, you bastards—are you worthy enough to ask me to intercede for you?"
"Don't refuse a toast! Don't forget who has the loaded weapon! We can easily kill you, put on your clothes and sneak away--"
"you dare!"
"Hey, these equipments are worth a lot of money! If I sell them on the black market, it will be enough for me to have food and drink for a few years at least--"
Along the way, except for the hooligans who were isolated in the mining area, Natasha and Xier had never seen or heard even one voice that made them feel a little relieved, until that powerful female voice broke out.
"That's great, no one was killed..." Natasha and Xier both breathed a sigh of relief.
“This bunch of hooligans…”
Seeing Antonina being grabbed by the collar by the gangster, Bronya kept grinding her teeth to resist the urge to pull the trigger while taking aim.
"Don't go over there yet, wait for us to set it up."
Before Seele took her place, Sora gestured to the students from a distance.
Karin and Asuna immediately climbed up the cliff, flying along the angular platform that was easily scratched and almost impossible to land on, until they each found a commanding height to serve as a sniper position.
Eula turned the built-in temperature regulator of her tactical suit to the lowest setting and squatted at the entrance of the tunnel. She turned around and gave Sora an OK sign. Sanyue hesitated for a moment, then drew her ice arrow and aimed at the backs of the thugs who were about to tear off the miners' equipment and clothes.
"Natasha, are you willing to temporarily put aside your mercy to ensure the safety of your friends?"
Kong knew that for a man who took saving lives as his mission, watching people die in front of him was a torture, but he had to make it clear up front that he was not 100% sure that the passengers could get the hostages out safely without hurting the lives of the thugs. Those thugs had real weapons in their hands, and even if they were knocked down, they might still accidentally discharge them, or retaliate against innocent people in their madness.
"Mr. Kong..."
But Natasha's answer was unexpectedly calm. She believed that Sora was a kind person: "Do what you think is right. If blood must be shed, please let me take responsibility."
...is the decision that the leader of Earth Fire should make.
Seeing that Antonina's collar was about to be torn apart, Kong put away his particle weapon, switched to AK, and framed the gangster's arm with the machine gun.
Strangely enough, even though the situation was very urgent, he felt a sense of security from the inside out because of the three "old friends" from another world around him:
"Based on my shooting, Karin, Asuna, we destroy the hot weapons of the six guards on the east and north sides, two each, Mitsuki is responsible for the one in the middle with his back to the enemy, Eula and Danheng are responsible for the four at the entrance, Bronya and Belfa take down the one next to the crane... Natasha Haiya is in charge. Seele, keep an eye on those guys holding hostages, don't give them a chance to hurt people, if they try to hurt the hostages... chop them up."
When Kong said the word "chopped it off", Xier, who had just joined the public channel, got goose bumps and a tingling sensation on her back.
She couldn't tell whether she felt uncomfortable because of Sora's cold and heartless tone, or if she was secretly excited that Sora had made an arrangement that suited her preferences.
"I understand - but are you sure you only need me to take out a few minions?"
"Just follow orders. If we don't miss any chances in the first round of attack, no one will die."
"……it is good."
That unquestionable tone made Xier slow down her breathing and choose to trust Kong's arrangement.
There was no need for a public reminder to open fire. As if a competition was triggered by a starting gun, large-caliber ammunition shattered the back of the hand of the gunman and his weapon. At the same time, the spine of Eula's sword had already dragged to the waist of the gangster at the entrance, and with a sweeping blow, the four people who were standing together were hit away like playing tennis.
The guy who was pulling Antonina and trying to beat her suddenly felt a chill on his back. March's ice arrow pierced through his left rib and froze half of his body. The ice layer that covered him so quickly made it impossible for him to even scream. He subconsciously let go of Antonina's hand.
As Antonina screamed, the purple shadow stretched out its long legs. The originally sensational scene turned into a tense scene where it ruthlessly kicked the thugs' shin bones and broke them, pulling them back one hostage at a time, helping them leave this dangerous place.
Just as the thugs with hot weapons were about to turn their guns around, Sora and the students launched a second round of shooting - Karin specifically targeted non-lethal parts of the body, but the terrifying power of Boyce tore off a thug's shoulder on the spot, while FAMAS was slightly better, with only the gangster's palm being crushed.
Too many people fell in an instant, causing the thugs among the hostages to scream and try to use innocent people as shields.
During this time, Kong also snatched the heads of two of his students. As for those guys who only had cold weapons in their hands, Kong originally put them in a low-threat position, but he mistakenly saw that one of the guys holding the steel pipe had a detonator in his hand.
Before Xier could follow up with the pain in her nerves, she shook her hand and shot him in the arm and leg again, then quickly rushed into the crowd, kicked the steel pipe away with the tip of her shoe, and kicked it into the depths of the mine.
It was not until he heard the crisp sound of hollow metal that he realized he had made a fool of himself. He pulled Antonina, who had been dragged aside by Xier, up with some annoyance, and then looked at the group of miners with some embarrassment.
But whether it was the wailing gangster, the rescued miner, or Xier who witnessed Kong firing three shots in one second... none of them had the lee to tease him.
211. I will never touch this kind of man!
"Teacher...did I go too far?"
"No, Hua Lin, this world has entered the interstellar age. It doesn't matter if you break these guys' arms. After they regain contact with the outside world, if they want to start a new life, there are plenty of channels to repair their limbs."
In order to prevent Hana Rin from blaming herself for causing such exaggerated limb-breaking damage for the first time, Sora had no choice but to comfort her in this way.
But in fact, even in the company, not all employees can enjoy those luxurious medical services, let alone easily provide them to a former gangster.
After all, students still have an innocent side, which will not change immediately because they go to college, nor will it change because they have a sense of responsibility... Killing a person and blaming oneself for a person's disability is too heavy a burden, and Sora does not intend to let Karin and Asuna bear it.
...Just injuring but not killing a few criminals was already considered exceeding the mission goal.
He squatted down to check the breath of the guys who were hit and fainted, took out the blood coagulation spray and simply treated their wounds, then stood up and looked at Antonina who was already hugging Natasha.
"Oh, thank God, no, thank you! Boys - Nata, Xier, you came just in time!"
"I'm glad you're okay - how's the situation in the big mining area? Is there anyone else trapped inside?"
Natasha patted her old friend's back gently. She could feel that the guy whose shoulder was torn by Boyce just now had caused her a great psychological trauma, but the mine head was still the mine head after all. She had seen many poor people die in accidents. She could barely stand and answered Natasha's questions fluently.
"There should be no one left. The workers and wanderers driven out by the robots came out from two openings. Nata, listen to me, I didn't hide the information about the mineral vein I found this time... It's the largest mineral vein I haven't seen in thirty years. It's estimated to be enough for the upper and lower levels to share for a hundred years—"
"Let's not talk about that for now... Hurry up and take your people up there and wait for my news. If we stop working for even one day, there will be a lot more patients in my clinic... We have to get Swarovski to lift the blockade."
After Kong and the others helped treat the injuries of the homeless people and handed them over to the mining team to tow them away, Natasha breathed a sigh of relief... but also couldn't help feeling a little scared.
The Nameless Guest is such an elite group... Fortunately, I confessed everything to them in the end. They also care about the people underground... What if they come into contact with other underground forces first and are led by malicious intent, will the few people lying on the ground turn into underground fire?
For the first time, Natasha felt a little grateful to that rascal Sambo, and she agreed with what he said... They were indeed the people who could bring change to Beloberg.
"Thank you, young men. The mining team has no right to ask you for help... If Swarovski's machine refuses to leave, let's go back to town first. Although he is rude, he will still give us a way to survive. At most, we will starve for a few days."
As they hurriedly passed by the train crew, one of the old men repeatedly warned them not to confront the mecha soldiers head-on.
"Natasha, do you have a way to get Swarovski out for a talk?"
"...I've tried many times, but whether it was Oleg or me, Swarovski always treated us as a threat."
Natasha twisted a lock of hair with her gloves and talked about the failure of several negotiations with a heartbreaking sadness.
"There is only one way to 'ask him out', and that is to bring the Earthfire members to the entrance of his settlement and show some hostility."
"…Isn't this the kind of person who says, 'If you say something nice, I'll ignore you, but if you say something, I'll definitely mess with you'?"
Paimon gestured for a while.
"There are no people in sight down there. This should be the last group of miners."
Bronya squatted on the crane holding a telescope, overlooking the deployment of machines in the inner circle from a relatively high position.
She pondered and said, "...I think we need to borrow some more troops from Jeppard. The number of robots in the large mining area may not be enough for us to handle..."
She jumped off the crane, her eyes solemn. "The Tooth Wolfs are very aggressive. The old model of chain saws can tear through the armor of the Iron Guards and the shields of officers... I just counted that there are thirteen Tooth Wolfs and twelve Grizzlies at the transfer node. There may be invisible ambushes in the mine... We must transport heavy weapons, and we need artillery and other auxiliary robots."
"It's okay. You can get your people down now. Whether you force your way in or put pressure on Swarovski, it should be helpful."
Sora's confident speech stunned the locals who were worried about the specific number:
"Although it was a sudden decision to give the ground fire station a place, it is almost midnight. If we can successfully meet Swarovski, it will be great. If a conflict occurs, I also have a way to make everyone retreat safely."
Sora flipped his wrist to check his watch. Facing Sora's confident expression, Bronya chose to listen to his advice again and raised the updated intercom:
"We can leave now - Ms. Natasha, do you want your officers to bring more people?"
"Well, please tell Oleg that I will gather 80% of the sheriffs in Panyan Town to the inner circle of the large mining area to put pressure on Swarovski."
Natasha had never issued such an order for a near-total mobilization.
"The passage to the core has been controlled for many years, and negotiations have been fruitless... Mr. Kong is right. If we don't show an attitude of fighting him to the death, he may still ignore us."
"That Swarovski clearly said that he wanted to protect humanity, but why did he do things that made people wait for death?"
Eula couldn't understand the way of thinking of these monsters from another world.
The wind god said that he hopes humans can fly freely, and in his kingdom, humans can truly be free, but the conservation concept that Svaro derived from data is not necessarily much better than Decarabian's.
"He always says that humans cannot reverse their doom, and that they can only live for a few hundred years if they shrink to the lower level and stop fighting with the Rift." Xier sneered.
“Don’t try to understand the machine’s thoughts, or you may end up becoming a machine head yourself.”
"No, Xier, if what you said is true, he is the only one in Beloberg who can control the hostless machine. Swarro may be the intelligent robot that survived the war. He may still have the original control code pre-recorded by the City Builder Arsenal."
While fighting with the gears, Sylva listened to her companions' underground adventure out of boredom, and spoke up as if she had finally found an opportunity to interrupt.
This really involves her professional field:
"I studied the history of this type of intelligent machine in college. It suddenly appeared after the Iron Guards withdrew from the lower area, which means that it is very likely that some mechanism was triggered... Could it be that at that time, Cocolia came up with the idea of using the star core?"
You don't have to be so considerate of your classmate's face and can just say that she has been bewitched.
Hollow complained in his heart.
"But the deterioration of the upper and lower levels, in addition to the evacuation of the Iron Guards, there is only one communication channel left, which is also related to the severance of intelligence exchanges. If Svarro knew that the upper level was deteriorating and the underground was in urgent need of protection, and also noticed the changes in the Great Guardian, why didn't he fight against Cocolia but chose to seal the core?"
Although Natasha knows more about the real situation than most people, she does not understand AI as well as the train crew and Shiluwa.
"... Could it be that he knew some of the situations on the upper floors and was prepared for some Rift Creatures to come down from the passage for supplies at any time, so he blocked the furnace core for defense?"
March 7th suddenly came up with a guess.
Everyone immediately looked at her, which frightened her.
"What, what's the matter? I was just analyzing it casually! Don't react so strongly!"
She folded her hands in front of her chest - logically speaking, even if Kong really raised his claws to her chest, she would not make such an awkward move.