Chapter 457: Objective, Sea!

The equipment belonging to One-eye’s four-man team were all seized by Chen Xiaolian.

The one with the highest value was naturally the exoskeleton armour that they were wearing… from all outward appearances, this armour was very close to the black technology shown in Iron Man. It was also not too inferior in terms of available functions.

In terms of its power source, there was a need for Roddy to take it back to base and slowly conduct research on it. Roddy was most interested in the special abilities that this armour possessed.

Among them were the abilities to transform its shape and adapt to its owner’s size when equipping.

According to Roddy, this combat armour utilized a special ‘module’ that allowed it to transform some other machines for use. Roddy, who had dismantled them, found that the armours also contained external equipment. This external equipment could be brought out to be used separately.

For example, the one-man flying equipment and the metal saw that One-eye used. When not needed for combat, the metal saw can transform into a metal wheel to serve as a form of ground transport – it was almost similar to Segway.

This combat armour’s defensive aspect was also quite good. Furthermore, it possessed an excellent manoeuvring system. Even without any weapons equipped, someone wearing this armour would more or less be able to confront Lun Tai with his Muscle Fruit skill activated.

Chen Xiaolian then had Xia Xiaolei carefully search through the Exchange System to find out what this equipment was.

Its name was ‘Combat Fortress’. Its description in the Exchange System was: A solo-type multi-functional combat armour.

It would not be far-fetched to say that the only difference between this armour and the one in Iron Man was that this ‘Combat Fortress’ was not equipped with an AI system. During battle, many functions had to be personally controlled.

Additionally, the grade given to his Combat Fortress in the Exchange System was very high: [A-].

In the Exchange System, such a line was further used to describe it: Among all the mechanical equipment available for exchange, this might be the one closest to the Floating Angel armour.

One thing was certain, One-eye’s team was one that followed the technological and mechanical route. Additionally, they had already developed themselves to a very high level in this route.

For all four members of their team to afford this Combat Fortress, this team was qualified to be called a plutocrat team.

Why? In the Exchange System, a single Combat Fortress required 18,000 points! And that was only for the vanilla version. Adding other weapons systems and external equipment required even more points.

“It has another function that I like a lot. The Nightingale scouting system. A Combat Fortress can release six Nightingale scouting drones. These drones are equipped with optical, thermal and infrared detection. These six drones can scan an area with a radius of 3.5 kilometres to near perfection. It is a multi-angle monitoring system that has no dead angles.”

Inside the Thunderstorm Tank, Roddy smiled at Chen Xiaolian and said, “This is definitely a good thing! Especially now that it has fallen into my hands, I can proceed to modify it.”

To Roddy’s sorrow, all the Combat Fortresses seized were damaged. Additionally, there were only three of those damaged armours.

Chen Xiaolian had cut the electronics specialist youngster’s set into eight pieces and they could no longer be repaired – they could only function as scrap material, to be brought back to the base and stuffed into the smelting furnace and transformed into energy.

Among the three damaged set of Combat Fortresses, the one belonging to Bugs was in the best shape. The most damaged was Tongueless’ – Qiao Qiao’s Anti-materialization skill was too destructive.

Surprisingly, although One-eye’s armour received considerable damage when fighting against Lun Tai earlier, the core components of his armour were not too damaged.

“These things rely too much on technology.” Chen Xiaolian sighed. “Generally, mechanical equipment is only useful when dealing with physical attacks and defence. We will be at a loss once we encounter magic or spiritual types. We cannot be too reliant on mechanical equipment, but…” After considering it, he continued, “The auxiliary members of our guild, like Xia Xiaolei can use these equipment to strengthen their combat capabilities.”

Hearing that, everyone gave their assent.

Xia Xiaolei was a humanoid discount card. His skill was without question very important to their guild. However, this skill could contribute to nothing in the heat of battle. He was pretty much just fetching the soya sauce in every battle. However, with the Combat Fortress equipped, his battle strength could be greatly increased. During moments of danger, he would be capable of protecting himself.

In addition to the three Combat Fortresses, there was something else that made everyone happy. Storage Watches!

They seized a total of four Storage Watches. For Meteor Rock Guild, this helped solve a big problem of theirs: Supplies.

In addition to the current Storage Watches owned by Chen Xiaolian and Lun Tai, they now have enough for nearly every main powerhouse in their guild.

After some considerations, Chen Xiaolian assigned the watches.

As one skilled in the mechanical field, it was only natural for Roddy to get one.

As the guild’s king of logistics and humanoid discount card, it was also necessary to give Xia Xiaolei one.

Qiao Qiao, who was one of the guild’s main powerhouses, was also given one.

After some more consideration, Chen Xiaolian decided to leave the remaining one for Bei Tai, who was back at home.

He did not choose to give it to Soo Soo because both Soo Soo and Qiao Qiao were pretty much inseparable. Thus, there was no need to give her one.

As for Qimu Xi… this girl had yet to display a performance worthy of their trust.

The items stored inside the Storage Watches seized from One-eye’s team were also quite impressive.

In addition to some spare components and weaponry for the Combat Fortresses, there were some other firearms.

They also had an Electromag Tank, an equipment that was one level lower than Thunderstorm Tank. However, it was faster compared to the Thunderstorm Tank. There were also several combat drones and…

A transport that can carry up to nine people… … a submarine!

When he saw the submarine stored inside the Storage Watch, Chen Xiaolian’s eyes lit up.

He exchanged glances with the other members. Roddy’s eyes were especially strange.

“We are thinking about the same thing, aren’t we?” Roddy laughed.

…

After changing their objective, Meteor Rock Guild’s team decided not to complete the quest for the second phase. Instead, they would go hide. They would do their best to ensure their safety.

After becoming the one target of every game participant in this instance dungeon, this was a very sensible choice. However, there were a few difficulties in executing this decision.

The biggest one was due to the system. After every 60 minutes, the system will reveal the coordinates of Meteor Rock Guild’s team members to every member of the Light Faction. Additionally, each time this happened, it would last for 5 minutes.

If so, where should they go hide? What was the best place for them to lay low? Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, hiding was no longer possible. Since the system will be revealing their coordinate, the best method for them to escape was: Make it so the others cannot catch up to them.

Having the submarine solved this problem.

The sea!

…

“Among game participants, only a few would have water-based transport. This is the first factor. Second, no matter where we choose to hide on land, the enemy would definitely come hunt us. But the sea is vast and we have a submarine. That way, we can utilize the terrain, moving about in the sea. Should the need arise; we can just submerge down to hide. I doubt the other Awakened guilds would just happen to have a submarine.

“From experience, I can say that the number of Awakened guilds that possesses water-based transport is very small. But a submarine? That is even smaller!”

Lun Tai had told them.

“I agree with Lun Tai’s opinion,” said Roddy loudly. “Moreover, when compared to hiding somewhere on land, we will have a greater advantage by going to the sea. The sea is vast and free of obstruction while the terrains of the land are complex. We will have to manoeuvre through buildings and others and face possible ambushes if we do. By going to the sea, we can greatly reduce that possibility.

“If we go hide on land, we may come across a situation where our enemies have already locked on to our location even though we have yet to notice them. However, in the sea… … using the submarine to move about, it will be difficult for our enemies to lock down our position. Additionally, the chances of us falling into an ambush become very small.”

“But why not go to the sky?” Qiao Qiao, who had been silent, suddenly opened her mouth.

Qiao Qiao had been awake for a while. However, she was still in the process of familiarizing herself with the strange changes within her body and the new skills she devoured. After waking up, she had remained taciturn until now. “We have a Tidal Fighter. Why not head to the skies?”

Roddy sighed. “There are many game participants with anti-air weapons. Weapons to hit aircrafts are not some rare equipment. Additionally, many Awakened ones also possesses flying-type skills. The skies are not as safe as the sea.

“Additionally, look at it from a different perspective. Among us all, I am the only one who can summon out the Mech and do battle in the sky. The rest of us have no such ability at all.

“The Tidal Fighter is very strong. However, once our enemies lock down our Tidal Fighter’s position, I doubt it can take on the attacks from every game participant. If the Tidal Fighter is heavily damaged, falling down from a height of tens of thousands of metres… considering how none of us can fly, we are as good as dead.

“Things are different in the sea. If the submarine is destroyed, we can swim to the surface and survive. In times of danger, we will still have the chance of making it out alive. On the contrary, if we were to go to the sky, we will have no way to escape.

“Let me phrase it in another way: Swimming is easier than flying.”

“That is right. Should the submarine fail us in the sea, we can summon out the Tidal Fighter to flee again. However, if we were to head to the sky… and the Tidal Fighter gets heavily damaged, we have no way of using the submarine in the middle of the air.” Chen Xiaolian voiced his agreement.

He looked around and saw that there were no objections. Chen Xiaolian then announced the decision, “Then it is settled! We will be heading into the sea! Roddy, make the necessary changes to our route. We will be heading west to the coastline. Next, we will head into the sea!”

“Yosh!”

Roddy laughed and turned the Thunderstorm Tank.

Chen Xiaolian then exchanged glances with Qiao Qiao. He could clearly sense the sadness in her eyes. Qiao Qiao gave a faint sigh and turned her eyes away, avoiding Chen Xiaolian’s gaze.

Chen Xiaolian sighed inwardly. However, this was not the time to be discussing things in secret with Qiao Qiao.

He then turned his attention to… … Will.

Little Will!