Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

Facing the three-meter-tall law enforcement mech covered entirely in cold light armor, the scholar, who was trapped in a deep hallucination, showed no fear whatsoever; instead, his eyes blazed with a frenzied fighting spirit.

That's not the rational reaction a mortal would have when facing a steel behemoth.

Deep within his retina, the tactical coating of the black titanium shell had long been distorted by the code of the masterless core.

In his eyes, the two massive steel beasts ridden by the Great Snow Dragons became abyssal monsters with flashing dark red health bars.

He himself is the supreme war god who wields divine weapons within the grid and can shatter mountains and rivers with a single blow.

"Roar—! You fiend, prepare to die!"

The scholar pushed off with his feet, and his whole body rushed forward in a very awkward posture.

His mouth was wide open, bloodshot and gaping, his emaciated chest heaved violently, and a rough, bellowing roar came from his throat.

This unbridled and frenzied behavior instantly caused the normally cold and composed control cabin of the mech to light up with a high-frequency flashing yellow defense warning.

The absurd battle scene unfolded abruptly and without warning in the sunlight of Suzaku Avenue within a mere millisecond.

The scholar, who reeked of sweat and grime, didn't look for any sharp weapon. Instead, he casually picked out half a dark gray brick covered in mud from under a trampled flatbread stall by the roadside.

He gripped the broken brick tightly with his two cracked and peeling fleshy arms.

Without any tactical maneuvering, it charged straight at the mech's black titanium alloy heavy shield with a ferocious expression.

"Attention, Mech 002! The target is launching a physical attack using an unregistered blunt weapon!"

The driver's bewildered, distorted exclamation came through the loudspeakers below the elevated track.

In the military academy's drill manual, they simulated countering high-frequency oscillating blades and high-energy particle cannons.

But no one ever told them how to deal with a cyber madman who was holding half a brick and shouting, "Watch me open the gates of heaven with one sword!"

"Snap—!"

A dull, physical cracking sound rang out on the long street as half a blue brick shattered on the black titanium deck, turning into countless tiny reddish-gray dust particles that flew everywhere.

The force of the recoil was so great that the scholar's right sleeve was instantly blasted into shreds.

Blood dripped down his fingers, and the bones of his right forearm snapped at a bizarre 90-degree angle in an instant.

The stark white bone fragments even pierced through the flesh, their pale whiteness nauseating in the sunlight.

The intertwining of bloodshed and sorrow is slowed down at this moment.

Yet this severely injured mortal showed not a single twitch of pain on his face.

His neurons, repeatedly subjected to the scouring of inferior high-voltage current, had long since had their pain-sensing fibers burned into a dead charcoal filament.

He feels no pain now.

In the illusory world of bliss, he believed that his physical body was radiating supreme light, and that the attack he had just delivered had taken away half of the giant monster's health.

"Haha! Experience points gained! Let's do it again!"

The scholar let out a chilling, hoarse laugh, his blood-stained face filled with an almost divine fanaticism.

He continued charging forward like a soulless zombie.

With his crippled right arm swinging helplessly at his side, he used his intact left hand to grip the gap in the mecha's hydraulic bearing, pressing himself against it like a giant ant.

He even opened his mouth wide, which was full of blood, because he couldn't close his hands.

With its teeth, covered in sand and blood, it bit down hard on the exposed dark green hydraulic hose of the mech.

"Squeak—!"

The teeth rub intensely against the polymer tubing, producing a physical noise that makes teeth ache.

His gums burst open from the force of his bite, and blood slowly flowed down the mecha's metal shell, soaking the bright green system logos.

This self-destructive attack, which completely disregarded their own lives, instantly plunged the elite dragoons in the control cabin into the most precarious law enforcement dilemma.

"Report to command! The electromagnetic chains are ineffective against it!"

The target's neurons are completely disordered, making logical persuasion to surrender impossible!

The pilot of mech number 001 gripped the main control stick tightly with both hands, and the sweat on his face fogged up the holographic mask.

According to the Chang'an security regulations recently promulgated by the Crown Prince, the use of lethal force such as microparticle cutting knives is strictly prohibited in the inner city against ordinary Tang Dynasty civilians who are not carrying high-level prohibited weapons.

But the madman in front of me is beyond the comprehension of ordinary logic.

The mech pilots dared not use lethal force against civilians.

Fearing the consequences, these two massive steel behemoths, each weighing several tons, had no choice but to reluctantly retract their high-frequency oscillation guns.

He held the massive black titanium alloy shield firmly in front of his chest, falling into a passive physical defense state.

But the sight of the two steel monsters being forced to retreat by a scholar with a broken bone turned into the most complete collapse in the eyes of the onlookers on the long street.

"We're doomed! That madman has sorcery; even the imperial court's Iron Turtle can't do anything about him!"

"Is the money in my digital wallet going to become worthless again? Run!"

The sense of security brought by new technology was shattered in that minute by the half-broken brick.

The public's skepticism and fear of the new technology turned into an out-of-control stampede, which was vented wildly at the various gateway exits of Zhuque Avenue.

"Lord Wei! We can't back down any further! If we do, the West Market's comprehensive credit index will plummet below its bottom line tonight!"

The clerk of Wannian County Government cried out in despair in the darkness, his bracelet covered with the red characters indicating a warehouse collapse.

The entire capital's wealth myth seemed poised to be reduced to a cyber joke under this blood-stained brick.

This horrific and absurd surveillance footage was transmitted back to the Taiji Hall in real time. Li Shimin looked at the scholar covered in blood who was still laughing wildly, and felt a chill run down his spine.