This Surprise is a Bit Much

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
With unlimited ammunition, unparalleled fire control, and the reactor's ceaseless energy supply, Xiao Bai hung in the night sky like the god of death, wielding his scythe with deadly precision to reap swathes of "resources" below.
The only limitations were the time needed to reload rockets and the howitzer's cooling period after overheating.
Fortunately, the unending drizzle in the air served as an excellent cooling agent.
Hiss...
As raindrops evaporated into wisps of steam on the howitzer's surface, Xiao Bai temporarily landed on the rooftop of another building. While waiting for the barrel to cool, he surveyed the current state of the battle.
"Hmm, not bad. We've cleared three districts in just two hours. Once the barrel cools down, we'll mop up the rest."
After a brief rest, Xiao Bai glanced back at the cleared areas.
The ground was pockmarked with crater-like shell impacts, making the already dilapidated streets look even more desolate. The Demonic Beasts' blood, washed by the rain, gradually pooled into dark green puddles within the craters.
"I'm putting out firepower like a whole company," Xiao Bai mused. "You never know how strong you are until you push yourself to the limit."
"Why aren't the remaining Demonic Beasts coming to get themselves killed? They're gathering in the last two districts. Have they gotten smarter? Or... are they guarding something?"
Xiao Bai watched the red arrows on the map gradually coalesce into two large clusters, a flicker of anticipation in his heart.
He should be able to harvest plenty of basic materials, but he still hadn't found any leads on advanced components or genes. He hoped the remaining two districts would bring him some surprises.
"But come to think of it, what exactly happened here? How did so many humans gather here, only to fall and become Mutants? Wasn't anyone in charge?"
"Judging by the surrounding architecture, the technology level here is about the same as outside. I don't see any signs of a lost civilization. Could this actually be our own civilization?"
"But at our current stage, we haven't built any cities in Paradise . At most, we've constructed some bases, schools, and villa communities. Nothing on the scale of this place."
Xiao Bai pulled up the scan records again and scrutinized them carefully, but found no trace of an Abyss Gate.
This meant the area was in a "gateless" state of sinking, and unless someone found a legacy item like a Space Anchor, no one from the outside could get in, and nothing from the inside could get out.
"Let's take another look," he mused. "This place doesn't feel like an ordinary low-risk Paradise..."
Just then, his howitzer finished cooling down. Xiao Bai took off again and headed toward District 4.
In just a few seconds, he was hovering above the district and discovered the "surprise" he'd been hoping for.
A massive mecha, over thirty meters tall, stood half-kneeling. Unlike the usual quadruped or tracked designs, this one was humanoid—a highly unscientific structure.
Normally, humanoid mecha, plagued by various flaws and limitations, maxed out at three to five meters tall. Anything larger, like the mid-sized mecha Xiao Bai currently piloted, adopted an inverted duck-footed design. Yet here was an even larger model.
Xiao Bai also noticed over a hundred light mecha—essentially power armor—scattered haphazardly around the giant metal figure. These, too, featured designs and structures he'd never seen before.
This was proof that the civilization that built this city was not the same as the modern world outside, but rather a mysterious lost civilization.
"Have I uncovered the legacy of a lost civilization?" Xiao Bai thought, his heart swelling with excitement. Among the myriad resources produced in Paradise , ancient ruins and relics were the most valuable.
But the machines had no intention of remaining silent. Not only were large numbers of Out-of-Control converging on the site, but the light mecha on the ground were also twitching restlessly, like zombies awakening, rising one by one.
Even the massive mecha let out a deep rumble from within, its entire body lighting up with red lights, like a giant beast slowly stirring to life.
Xiao Bai hesitated no longer and unleashed a barrage of rockets and grenades, raining down on the bizarre horde.
Yet his usually pinpoint-accurate attack suddenly went haywire. Some detonated mid-air, while others missed their targets entirely, not even grazing the edge of the calculated impact zones. Not a single round landed where it was meant to.
"Electromagnetic Defense?" Xiao Bai muttered.
As he spoke, the light mecha below raised their weapons in unison, all aiming directly at him.
The armor plates on the large mecha's shoulders flipped open, revealing a honeycomb-like array of missiles beneath. Xiao Bai's ears filled with the shrill sound of lock-on alarms.
"Heh~ This surprise is a little too big..."
No sooner had the words left his lips than the enemy unleashed a volley of missiles. At the same moment, Xiao Bai's thrusters erupted with azure flames as he initiated evasive maneuvers.
But instead of climbing to evade the attack, he abruptly dove downward, charging straight toward the enemy.
Electromagnetic shields?
I've got those too!
And I've got a chainsaw sword and boltgun that can pierce through anything!
Electric sparks danced around Xiao Bai as his mecha transformed into a dark meteor, hurtling toward a light mecha. His chainsaw sword sliced downward, cleaving the enemy in two.
Simultaneously, his boltgun roared, firing a massi ve, rapidly spinning bullet that carved rings of compressed air as it streaked through the atmosphere. The spent casing ejected automatically, releasing eight smaller bullets that punched through the air to leave gaping holes in another nearby light mecha.
While waiting for his Boltgun to reload, Xiao Bai lightly tapped his feet against the ground, propelling his Mech high into the air. With a falcon-like flip, he evaded several incoming anti-aircraft missiles.
The missiles whistled overhead as Xiao Bai hung inverted in mid-air. The plasma cannon he had just mounted on his shoulder erupted with a scorching white beam, striking the large mecha squarely in the chest.
Under the searing impact of the superheated plasma, the enemy's defense offered only a token resistance before being pierced through, leaving behind a gaping hole with a rim of molten orange metal.
The colossal machine froze instantly. The missiles still locked onto Xiao Bai lost their target, either detonating mid-air or crashing into the dense swarm of Demonic Beasts below, scattering debris in all directions.
Regaining his posture in mid-air, Xiao Bai relied on his electromagnetic shield to ignore the enemy's small-caliber weapons. He swooped down again like a wolf among sheep, ruthlessly reaping lives with his Chainsaw Sword and Boltgun.
Three minutes passed before the roar of the Terror Turtle's engine gradually subsided.
"Almost got my armor dirty..." Xiao Bai muttered.
Xiao Bai grumbled, using his autocannon to pin a still-twitching Demonic Beast back to the ground, then stomped on the struggling remains of a light mecha.
"Such a strong will to survive? You're like a mechanical zombie."

Chapter end