Chosen Evolution: I can load the protagonist template

Chapter 324 The joy of machine soul
It must be said that Xiaolan reacted very quickly. When she realized that she was trapped in a barrier and that Cheng Tian was preparing some kind of high-threat skill that she could not understand, her first reaction was to transform back into her shapeshifting ball form and immediately release a sticky bomb in an attempt to blow up the floor directly beneath her body to escape.

Unfortunately, Cheng Tian's barrier was not a semi-circular dome, but a complete semi-circle, covering the ground as well, and its size was synchronized with the mecha's data.

In other words, if you want to get out, you'd better use your mech to deal a total of 500 or more points of damage to the shield.

The simplest yet most difficult method to remove a barrier.

Thanks to her own and her pilot's immunity to the sticky bomb, Xiaolan remained rooted to the spot, letting the force of the explosion affect her. The sticky bomb was indeed effective, successfully gaining a damage bonus when facing Cheng Tian's barrier trap, which was purely designed to trap people. One bomb directly destroyed 150 points of the barrier's health, nearly a third of it.

Unfortunately, because Cheng Tian had just been blown off the ceiling, and because the sticky bomb could only be held in two consecutive times in a short period of time and had its own manufacturing cycle, she lost her last chance to escape.

The thick, hardcover book on Orange's right hand looks impressive, but what's really working is the mutated prefrontal cortex inside Cheng Tian's brow!

Xiao Lan, who was also curled up in a ball in the cockpit, only felt a blinding flash of light before losing consciousness completely.

At the same time, the "energy armor" Xiaolan wore, sourced from the bird-man ruins, and the "Metrod" she was piloting, both underwent a sudden change in paint, turning a terrifying cyan, exactly like the zombie units in the Metal Slug universe—

The Ten Commandments of Mechacraft!
Ys Enhanced Mode!

[Ys Book Heart: Golden Legendary/Lv4, Heart Priest class equipment, off-hand artifact. Equipment requirement: Heart Priest. Durability: 60/60.]

The Book of Hearts, the head of the six priests in the Ys Origins worldview, is the exclusive magical artifact of the Priest of Hearts. It is a symbol of position and status. The Facte clan comprehends and inherits the unique magical abilities of the Priest of Hearts through this "Book of Hearts".

When possessing the Book of the Heart—

All your class-specific spellcasting costs will be halved, and the uptime of "Holy Purification" and "Nightmare Erosion" will be doubled.

You will be immune to all mind-based spells of control below S-rank Lv4 or below S-rank Lv14, and have a 50% base probability of backfiring on the source.

Your Spirit attribute will not be affected by any "attribute reduction" effects, which will take priority.

All your non-class-specific skills related to the "Heart" attribute will receive additional enhancements. Currently affected skills are: The Ten Commandments, Night Parade of Demons, and Soul Salvation. (Lv4 Additional Enhancement)

The Ten Commandments - Enhanced, now applicable to the highest boss template and player units. Units that have been turned into zombies will gain the "High Pressure Blood Column" skill.

Hundred Demons' Night Parade - Additional Enhancement: The effective targets can be expanded to the highest boss template and player units. When the skill is applied to an enemy, you can choose one of four random demon or monster phantoms as the target's transformation form. When the skill is applied to yourself, you can narrow down your transformation form to the range of one game.

Soul Salvation - Enhanced: Within any instance, you will automatically search for and save the souls of innocents within a 500-meter radius. The salvage range can be expanded based on the current instance's attributes. The salvageable innocent souls in the current instance are now expanded to include "Mechanical Souls," which are characterized by their steel-like color.

[Additional Commentary: Taking the Book of Heart leaves five of the six Books of Ys missing, but due to your special relationship with the Twin Goddesses, the remaining five priests dare not speak out.] [Additional Hint: Under the influence of the dungeon's "Mech Combat" modifier, the effects and targets of some of your skills have changed accordingly when they are converted into "Mech Arts" derivatives.]

For example, the target of the Ten Commandments changed from "human-only" to "humanoid machine-only," undead units were transformed into puppet machine units, and the additional skill changed from "High-Pressure Blood Column" to "Electromagnetic Energy Burst." The puppet machine state can be deactivated using a "3.5-inch floppy disk."

Although theoretically Cheng Tian could use soul fragments to enhance this class-specific Book of Ys, when he had money, he didn't hold back at all. With the help of Cleria ore powder, after leaving behind the cost of feeding and vehicle maintenance, Cheng Tian threw all the income from his journey to the origin of Ys into this book, barely managing to enhance the equipment to Lv4.

It's safe to say that this is a legendary gold-tier professional equipment; even without enhancement, its original effects are exceptionally strong.

The enhanced Lv4 effect is equivalent to simultaneously granting the Ten Commandments, the Night Parade of Demons, and the Soul of the Innocents a key qualitative leap in power, equivalent to Lv7 or even Lv10.

Although the Metroid looks like a sphere, its abbreviation is still "Armored Executioner," which means "humanoid walking vehicle," falling under the category of humanoid mechs. Therefore, it still could not escape the control of the Ten Commandments.

The target shifted from humans to the Ten Commandments that affect humanoid machines, and suddenly the radiation that influences genes became a virus that affects machines.

Logically, Cheng Tian's Ten Commandments should have been aimed at the Metroid in front of him, not the human pilot inside. However, interestingly, because the skill itself could have a chain effect that could affect up to two targets at the same time, Xiao Lan herself was unharmed, but the energy armor she was wearing, which had the attribute of "exoskeleton armor", was chain-controlled.

This is clearly not good news for Xiaolan, who relies heavily on her energy armor.

Not only was her body completely hijacked by her own energy armor, but even the cockpit hatch of the Metrodora opened on its own, and the blue iron-clad steel fist directly ripped Xiaolan out of the cockpit along with her armor!

Xiao Lan, who had been pulled out, was still unable to move and could only obediently stand under the restraints of the energy armor.

At this moment, Cheng Tian released the purple binding barrier, and the Metrodode, having shed its burden, moved directly toward Cheng Tian.

As a type of combat vehicle, the humanoid mechs in the Armored Warriors world naturally have the attribute that they can only be deployed or retrieved normally before or after a battle. As long as the battle on the current battlefield has not ended, Cheng Tian cannot go against the rules to put the mech into his inventory. Not to mention that the mechs held by players have also undergone exclusive certification, which is like a temporary lock.

But this lock doesn't work well with Cheng Tian.

In Xiaolan's view, Cheng Tian's Orange simply placed its armored fist on the Metrorod. Soon, the Metrorod's blue paint was removed, along with the exclusive seal between it and Xiaolan. And then—

They were directly added to Cheng Tian's chariot matrix!

Cheng Tian could even clearly feel that the core of the machine's system was emitting a kind of biological-like pleasant fluctuation.

Machine Soul! Great Joy!
(End of this chapter)