Chapter 532: Electronic Guardians

Electronic Guardians.

A ridiculous sounding name. However, the fear it brought was nothing to laugh about.

The people of Zero City were the top existence among the Awakened circle. Their opponents had always been the Player faction and Thorned Flower Guild, which was mostly made up of Players.

However, if they were to trace history, the one existence that posed the greatest threat toward Zero City was unquestionably the Electronic Guardians.

Assuming this world was a system and Zero City was a BUG within the system, the Electronic Guardians were the equivalent of a super anti-virus software.

Although the BUG known as Zero City was an extraordinary existence with the ability to block off various types of scanning attempts, the lethality of the Electronic Guardians was such that the people from Zero City was unable to lower their guard for even a moment.

It was a powerful and nigh unbeatable existence.

Let’s put it this way. Without Zero City’s shielding function, it would have been impossible for the Awakened faction to create a base like Zero City.

The system would create a large number of Electronic Guardians to devour the Awakened ones.

Thus, the instant the words “Electronic Guardians” escaped the mouth of one of the shocked combat personnel, the entire defensive perimeter fell into a state of shock.

Everyone understood… … this moment would decide everything.

Players could retreat, they could be deceived, they could be scared into temporarily retreating with a suicidal counter offensive that paid no heed to cost like the one they had just executed…

However, not the Electronic Guardians.

They were a host of mechanical killing machines that knew not the meaning of fatigue, fear or emotions.

They were existences controlled by the system, never tiring, never retreating and never fearing the need to sacrifice themselves.

And now, with the main gate of Zero City opened, these things had finally arrived.

They had entered Zero City.

…

The defensive perimeter had begun firing. All of the War Bastions’ turrets, that remained functional, fired at full power. At this moment, all attempts to observe the enemy had been cast aside. Every combat personnel chose to engage in the most practical approach: Fire indiscriminately everywhere!

On the south street, a group of figures hastily made their way out from behind a pile of debris.

The defenders on the defensive perimeter identified the first of those figures. They were the members from Prestige Guild that had charged out earlier.

Those fellows appeared to be in a miserable state. The few of them who were running at the front ran with all their might as they waved their hands toward the defensive perimeter and shouted something.

Behind them were several figures that chose to defend the rear.

A thickset man in full-body armoured exoskeleton suit was using both his hands to hold an energy-tier rifle that was even thicker than his waist. His figure became like a humanoid turret as he lagged behind while firing backward.

Beams of light shot out from the muzzle of his big rifle only to slam into something in the distance, creating strange bursts of light.

The strange bursts of light were not due to explosions. Rather, it was due to… … absorption.

Indeed. Circular ripples were created somewhere hundreds of metres behind the fellow. It was as though a certain force had blocked off the incoming beams. The Prestige Guild member who was defending the rear was firing energy beams at the back, but those energy beams seemingly broke down in the middle of the air. Electrical discharges flickered about in the air and the energy beams utterly disappeared.

The humanoid turret like fellow roared with everything he had as his rifle finally reached its limit. Even so, he was unable to stop the ripples from advancing forward.

In just a few seconds, the distance between the two sides lessened to one third of the original distance.

The humanoid turret like fellow finally released a loud howl and the armoured exoskeleton suit he wore over his body suddenly emitted a ripple of electromagnetic wave. The electrical currents flowed through his body and many parts of his body were charred as a result. However, a strange wave of light was flowing through the surface of his body.

Next, something even stranger happened. The man’s body began to collapse and shrink.

The protective suit he was wearing, the remnants of the armoured exoskeleton suit and other metal accessories began shrinking. Next, was his body, his skin, his bones…

The thickset man shrank into a small clump in the blink of an eye. It was as though he had broken down in a structural way. In the end, he became a small, black coloured dot of light, which fused into the wave of light that was spreading out.

The wave of light that was covering hundreds of metres rapidly moved forward. It did not take long before it caught up with the other members from Prestige Guild.

Some of them finally gave up on running away. They turned around in a desperate attempt to engage the Electronic Guardians.

One of the experts there halted and turned around. Pulling out a blade, he roared and hacked down on the formless wave of light.

The power he unleashed was unquestionably that of the [A] class. The power of his blade surged through the sky as silver coloured blade beams intersected each other. It was as though a tempest of blade beams had erupted there. Next, the tempest of sword beams charged toward the formless waves of light.

A large number of flames suddenly burst out from the formless waves of light. It seemed as though something was exploding continuously. The waves of light instantly grew slightly dimmer. It would appear that the density of the waves of light had also diminished somewhat.

Even so, the waves of light continued moving forward.

The expert continued slashing with his blade as he continued to unleash even more blade beams out. He was clearly giving it his all, not daring to hold back even a little.

This one man used his all to delay the advance of the formless wave of light for a few seconds. At the same time, he shouted, “Run! Hurry, run!”

Boom!

As he was unleashing his final blade beam, his blade stabbed into the formless waves of light, which had made its way before him. It then devoured him whole.

Despite the continuous explosions and the damage his blade beams inflicted on the waves of light, the waves of light was just too big. It finally drew the expert into its fold. Soon, the expert disappeared. It was not just his body, but also the unique looking war blade in his hand. Despite its extraordinary nature, it too broke apart and shrank into a dot…

In less than 10 seconds, the formless waves of light had reached a position less than 300 metres away from the defensive perimeter.

Most of the men from Prestige Guild who had charged out to exact vengeance failed to make it back alive. Only two or three succeeded. After making it into the defensive perimeter, they fell headfirst onto the ground, completely exhausted.

Within the defensive perimeter, all the turrets were firing desperately. Flames erupted out on the ground as the formless waves of light furiously broke down the energy beams fired out by the turrets. Under the barrage by the defensive perimeter, the formless waves of light gradually weakened, becoming more transparent and finally disappearing.

At that moment however, neither Angel Wu nor Bluesea revealed looks of complacency. Angel Wu leapt up a platform and shouted, “Angel Corps! Get ready for a melee battle! All Angels follow me! Blade formation!”

After giving that command, Angel Wu quickly summoned out a small-scale mech. It was only three metres high, similar to most Sentinel mechs. This was clearly the transformation result of his Military Angel. However, as his Military Angel was heavily damaged, it was presently only able to transform into a battle mech of this scale.

After jumping into the mech, Angel Wu quickly made his way out of the defensive perimeter. Behind him, a row of figures flew out.

Those were the strongest combat personnel from the Angel Corps.

Inclusive of Angel Wu, 20 combat personnel from the Angel Corps had charged forward. The other combat personnel moved to place themselves around Angel Wu and they formed a blade like battle formation.

This blade like battle formation was narrow on one end and broad on the other. The one leading the narrow end forward was none other than Angel Wu himself.

At this very moment, the Angel Corps was putting everything on the line.

The ones closest to Angel Wu were in special humanoid mechs. Each of them had varying shapes.

“Phase Angel! Domain Check!” Angel Wu quickly shouted through their communication channel. A green coloured mech beside him swiftly responded. The two high-powered discharge-type equipment on both its shoulders immediately released a special disruption wave. The disruption wave took the form of a fan as it sprayed forward.

Phase Angel was the only magical blessing type of mech among the Angels. What it was displaying right now was a type of area of effect skill. Enemies approaching the area affected would be magically disrupted and have their actions slowed.

After utilizing its Domain Check skill, the Phase Angel mech quickly retreated into the rear position within their formation.

“Task Angel, protect the core of the Domain Check!” A black coloured, small-sized mech quickly moved backward as well. It then stayed beside the green Phase Angel.

“Force Angel, go up and assume tip position!” The largest mech among them, which was shaped like a wild ox charged to the front most position. The mech’s steel plates were the thickest among them all. It quickly pulled out two weapons with both its hands. On its left hand was a huge alloy shield that was over three metres in diameter. On its right was a huge flail.

“Light Angel, support!”

“Long-ranged attacks…” After saying that, Angel Wu’s heart suddenly sank.

Unfortunately… … among the True Angels of their Angel battle squad, the one most suited for long-ranged attacks was unquestionably – Floating Angel, Nicole.

However, Nicole had died. Thus, the Angel Corps ended up losing one of their powerhouses.

That was not all. In Angel Wu’s opinion, Force Angel, who was taking the tip position, was not the best for the job. In terms of melee strength, there was one more suited compared to Force Angel. If only Tiger Angel was here, they would be able to double the power of their tip position. Unfortunately, their Tiger Angel… … that fellow betrayed them. [1]

“The rest maintain your positions! Fight in teams! Hut! Hut! Hut!” Angel Wu’s strict voice rang out through the communication channel and into every Angel Corps’ combat personnel.

At that moment, other battle squads had also charged forward. These fellows could not compare to the titled Floating Angels. Even their mechs and equipment were unlike those used by those Floating Angels. Instead, theirs were of a lower level. Even so, they were still far, far superior compared to Sentinel mechs.

The True Angels and the tens of high-ranking pilots totalled up to over 20 – that was all the elite combat forces that the Angel Corps possessed.

The flames from the explosions and the smoke gradually dispersed. When the waves of light finally dissipated away, a sight that sent chills down their spines was revealed.

1 Denzel from Chapter 304.↩