Love, Gun, Cupid

The Hale rockets used to test the enemy's air defenses all missed their targets. The shields on the heads of some of the Baker Street Squad's golems rose and joined together to form a spherical shield with no blind spots, which withstood the first wave of attacks from the town.

If the town's garrison had the Imperial Army's standard weapons, they could have annihilated the moving force the moment the drones locked onto the ground target... But they didn't, so they could only watch as the golem and the wanderers lost in the magic mirror slowly approached.

At a distance of 15 kilometers, the town's garrison launched a second wave of close-range attacks. This time, they used a limited number of genuine weapons, but the damage was limited, mainly aimed at slowing down the Baker Street squad's march.

For the defenders, holding off the enemy was a victory, because the returning Bak had already gathered enough personnel and supplies in the Empire to crush the enemy, and was scheduled to arrive around 1:30.

Outside the stone wall, Cyrus's team had set up camouflage positions and minefields, hoping to deceive the enemy and have them project their precious energy onto them. However, in the eyes of Mi○Lin Diamond Elf 93, all illusions and falsehoods were seen through. She led the Baker Street team through the camouflage positions and then used the flesh and blood of the Wanderers to clear the minefields.

Looking at the scene recorded by the drone, Lin Jiade instinctively felt physically uncomfortable. His team was on standby near the teleportation magic circle, ready to support Cyrus's squad on the stone wall at any time.

To defeat the birds sent by the Empire, they must sever their connection with the Empire's homeland; to break the teleportation magic circle, they must breach the shield; to breach the shield, they must destroy the shield generator on the stone wall... Thus, the stone wall became the primary target of the Baker Street Squad's offensive.

At a distance of 8 kilometers, both sides' spells simultaneously locked onto each other's shields, and their individual weapons began to take effect. The sky was filled with dazzling fireworks and falling sparks, and the pale blue shields trembled, producing ripples.

The Baker Street Squad advanced to within 3 kilometers of the stone wall before splitting up. Two squads ambushed the town and quickly cleared out the cannon fodder that had entered. However, the Baker Street Squad's golem-based firepower blockade temporarily prevented them from taking further action.

The next main event was the tedious exchange of fire between the shielded stone walls and the shielded golems. This situation favored the defenders because around 1:30, Buck, the captain of the 20th District squad, would arrive with reinforcements, at which point the Baker Street squad would be completely obsolete.

Lin Jiade stared nervously at the time. At 1:30, he saw the teleportation magic circle light up and breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled at Mu Mian and said, "It looks like we don't need to do anything this time."

Buck was the first to jump out of the teleportation magic circle, followed by more armed personnel. The Sector 20 squad happily greeted their captain, but what awaited them was a massacre.

“No need to leave any survivors,” Buck said.

The mercenaries behind it raised their weapons, and spells, bullets, and chainsaws instantly wiped out the unsuspecting Sector 20 squad. Four mangled corpses fell, each with a look of astonishment on their face.

Chapter 100 Worms: Breaking the Oath

The betrayal came so suddenly that the nearby Kapok Squad and District 19 Squad could only fight back while hastily retreating.

"What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? Why is there a traitor among us?"

Lin Jiade fought and retreated with the team. Yuki and Jianlan cast spells to enhance the team's speed and defense. Otherwise, they would have been vaporized by the rebels' projectile fire after retreating a short distance.

They could escape, but they were powerless to stop the rebels from destroying the teleportation magic circle and severing the town's connection with the empire.

Currently, only five of the six squads remain. Two are active outside the shields and are being blocked by the enemy at all costs. One is pinned to a stone wall, while the other two are being hunted down in open areas lacking cover.

Buck brought more than thirty rebels. Of these, more than ten went to hunt down the District 19 squad that was moving toward Stonewall, while the rest headed straight for the Kapok squad.

"Squad 19, please retreat to the second cantilever of the Stonewall defense system to continue the resistance, and ensure the safety of the Stonewall energy supply system."

Squad 18, please proceed to the location marked on the map and activate the spider mech. Use its firepower to clear out the enemy forces at the transport magic circle.

Squad 15, Squad 16, respond if you hear me! If you can escape the town area, please flank and attack from the 3 o'clock position. I need your offensive to ease the enemy's advance outside the walls.

Cyrus Smith’s calm voice echoed on the public channel. His command was methodical and reassuring, but the failure of Districts 15 and 16 to respond to his call cast another shadow over the Imperial combatants.

"It could be electromagnetic interference, or they might be too busy to deal with their own problems," said Kapok.

Lin Jiade looked up and saw that two-thirds of the firepower from the golems and wanderers driven by the Baker Street team was hitting the stone wall defense system, while the rest was heading towards the town. Every time an explosion occurred, shards of mirror could be seen flying.

Kapok led her squad toward the location of the spider-shaped mech, with the enemy in hot pursuit. Arcturus roared and unloaded the rocket launcher on his back, firing rockets. The enemies dodged, but upon landing, they only created plumes of smoke.

Yuki looked utterly disappointed: "Arcturus, do something useful! Why don't you launch something that can actually kill people!"

Arcturus was somewhat speechless: "You seem to have forgotten that I am a healer. My martial arts and weapons are for self-defense. You expect a healer to kill people?"

Starfish spread its arms out in front of it, and a golden shield wall rose up, blocking the enemy's attack that penetrated the smoke—perhaps it was an enemy magic researcher with X-ray vision, or perhaps the enemy was firing randomly into the smoke.

Yuki crouched down, put on her infrared aiming device, and fired from behind the shield wall, while Arcturus threw everything out of Yuki's backpack: stun grenades, fragmentation grenades, regular grenades, flashbangs, energy bars, toilet paper, sanitary napkins, used underwear, stockings...

"Wait, what did you lose?!" Yuki shouted.

"Oh, why did you put it with weapons?"

Arcturus fired another smoke grenade with a rocket launcher. Their little drama didn't amuse Interstellar Flying Fish; on the contrary, sweat dripped from his forehead. The rebel attack had taken a toll on him.

"Hey, hurry up and get the mechs up and running!" he shouted.

Lin Jiade and Mu Mian had arrived near the spider-shaped mech. They tore off the camouflage net and rainproof cloth. Mu Mian turned around, took out a mini submachine gun, and riddled a stealthy assassin with bullets.

"You pilot the mech, I'll cover you!"

Without hesitation, Lin Jiade climbed onto the mech, opened the hatch with both hands, and muttered as he crawled inside, "A spider-shaped mech, even a dog wouldn't fly it..."

But right now, he was determined to die for his cause—no, to die like a dog—so he settled into the pilot's seat and said on the public channel, "OK, I'm in the spider-like mech now. Who can teach me how to fly it?"

A technician from the 19th District team began an on-site tutorial, teaching Lin Jiade how to turn on the device, move, aim, and shoot in a way that even a small fry could understand. A spell from the enemy ended the technician's tutorial, and also ended Lin Jiade's beginner's guide.

"OK, OK, Lin Jiade, relax, you can do it!"

Jianlan kept encouraging Lin Jiade. Following the previous tutorial, Lin Jiade turned on all the switches one by one. Five seconds later, his vision suddenly rose upwards. The excitement of operating the violent machine made him shout uncontrollably, "Unit-01, prepare for sortie!"

The observation equipment folded down from the top of the cockpit extended downwards. Lin Jiade took off his helmet, put the goggles at the end of the observation equipment on his face, and switched to infrared vision. The enemy in the smoke became clearly visible.

"Arctus, move, move! Make way for our mechs! Yuki, Arcturus, we're here as accompanying infantry, take out anyone trying to get close to this mech!"

The situation outside the mech was under the jurisdiction of Kapok, while inside the mech, Lin Jiade was directly responsible to Commander Cyrus Smith. As instructed by the commander, the novice, who had just completed half of the beginner's tutorial, drove the spider-shaped mech to the center of the road. The aiming device popped out from below and was mounted on the observation equipment, so a crosshair appeared in Lin Jiade's field of vision.

"Fire button, fire button..."

Lin Jiade was busy in the corner. With his left hand, he grabbed the lever that controlled the rotation of the turret on the back of the spider-like mech, and with his right hand, he grabbed the firing handle, quickly aligning the crosshair with the enemy under the thermal imaging, and pressed the button.

Energy was injected into the spider-like mech's back turret, and a pale purple beam shot out from the turret, piercing through the wall without damaging it. Enemies hit seemed to vanish suddenly, leaving only their clothes and equipment lying on the ground.

He turned the lever with his left hand, aimed at the enemy in the ditch, and pressed the button with his right hand, eliminating the enemy there in the same way, leaving only a pile of clothes and equipment, and then advanced along the road.

He trusted the Cotton Squad as his accompanying infantry, and he trusted Cyrus Smith, who guided him. At the same time, the betrayal of the District 20 squad and their tragic fate fueled his anger.

He piloted the mech forward, and together with his comrades, they killed all the enemies they observed. Within minutes, they had pushed back to the teleportation magic circle. In the field of vision provided by the observation equipment, the fruits of their hard work over the past few days had been completely destroyed, and the wreckage was covered with the flesh and blood of innocent people.

“Unit 01, 10 o’clock, 1200 meters away, I need you to go and support Squad 19, located on the second cantilever of the Stone Wall. They are all technicians and are having difficulty dealing with the enemy’s attack,” Cyrus said.

"Received...fuck!"

The cockpit shook violently, and Lin Jiade's head hit the edge of the ledge, causing a small wound to open and blood to gush out.

Chapter 101 Worms: Battle Losses (44→43)

The reason Lin Jiade was injured was that an RPG enhanced with magic flew from afar, hitting one of the spider mech's legs and piercing through the spider mech's area shield, but without damaging the leg... Damaging one leg is no big deal, which is the advantage of the spider mech.

In the upper right corner of Lin Jiade's field of vision, a new program pops up on the screen, showing that the shield of the damaged area will not be fully restored for 1 minute and 33 seconds, which means that its shield generation method is area shield.

In the modern era, shield technology has expanded from interstellar cruisers to individual soldiers. The wide variety of shields can be categorized into two major schools of thought within the protective magic school: comprehensive defense and focused defense.

The modern practice of comprehensive defense is the area shield, which is a Euclidean geometry in which the shield energy is equal at every point.

The modern practice of focused defense is a single-point/multi-point shield, which is a shield built around one or several key areas, while other areas are relatively weak.

Comparatively speaking, single-point/multi-point shields are more in line with the combat needs of mechs, because when a region shield is penetrated in a certain area, due to its uniform energy distribution, the energy from other areas will fill the penetrated part, resulting in a decrease in overall protective performance.

However, the mech piloted by Lin Jiade is designed for urban security warfare. Its targets are terrorists, weaker superhuman power holders, and illegally gathered civilians. Therefore, its weapons can only destroy human bodies, and its protection is designed to be average, using its indestructible form to psychologically intimidate the mob.

The rebels brought by Buck seemed to have no experience dealing with mechs. Another magic-enhanced RPG flew in and blew off one of the spider mech's legs. But Lin Jiade also located them with his observation equipment. The turret on the back of the spider mech rotated and fired, silencing a fire team 800 meters away forever.

Outside the mech, the Kapok Squad was engaged in combat with infantry at a greater distance. Of the thirty-odd men Buck brought, half were still alive. They hid in the ruins, desperately and futilely firing their light weapons and weak spells at the mech, only to be either eliminated by the mech's weapons or killed by the teams from Sector 18 and Sector 19.

From their curses, it was clear that Buck had also betrayed them, causing the deaths of a group of mercenaries who had come for money. But what did that have to do with Lin Jiade? He was simply following instructions and training, with the help of friendly forces and the drones overhead, to clear all the red dots on the map.

"Aim, fire, kill... Next target, aim, fire, kill..."

Lin Jiade's mechanical cycle continued even after the enemy had been wiped out. His turret kept turning, searching for the next target. The inertia of killing continued within him, neither fanatical nor indifferent, but simply mechanical and rigid.

It wasn't until the cool air enveloped his entire body that Lin Jiade awoke from his inertia. He watched as the phantom of Jianlan embraced him. He released his grip on the joystick and realized that he was soaked in sweat. Emptiness lashed at his soul, while exhaustion tormented his body.

"Is it over?" he asked, somewhat bewildered.

“Yes, you have eliminated 33 of the 34 targets, leaving only the traitor Buck,” Cyrus said. “If you have any spare time, go with your squad to search for Buck. Don’t listen to what he says, execute him immediately.”

Lin Jiade hated traitors, but he felt he had more important things to do, so he said, "I can use it to climb the stone wall and shoot at the enemy outside, Mr. Cyrus. If this continues, the stone wall will be breached, won't it?"

"The destruction of the shield is not the end of the battle, but the beginning. We can hold on here. I don't know what Buck is up to, but it's definitely not for good. Like I said, find it and destroy it."

"understood."

Lin Jiade unscrewed the bottle cap, gulped down a large mouthful of water, and took out a towel to wipe the sweat from his face. He manipulated Unit-01 to turn around, preparing to find the traitor... He immediately saved that energy, because a pale beam of light rose from the place where 57 potential hostile elements were being temporarily detained.

“Lin Jiade, it’s her, she has come here.” Jianlan said in a trembling voice.

"Don't be afraid, Lady Gladiolus... Damn it, how did she get through the shield?!"

“It’s not that she passed through the shield, but that she was inside the shield, Lin Jiade. She is maintained because of the contract between you and me, but she doesn’t just rely on you as her life casket. There are backups of her among those 57 people.”

Lin Jiade slammed down the pedal, and the spider-shaped mecha roared. A stream of heat shot out from the tail, and the mecha's power continued to rise until it reached the highest level of its design.

The spider-like mech moved even faster than before, each step leaving furious marks on the earth's spikes. Crimson markers appeared on the map, indicating the location of the azure pillar of light. Lin Jiade's determination was so strong that it was palpable without him needing to speak.

Kapok found some usable motorcycles nearby and had her team split into two to follow Lin Jiade. Because they were concerned about potential hostile elements in the detention center who did not deserve to die, they did not rashly open fire on the buildings.

Is this a bottom line or an incredibly foolish mistake? No one had time to think about that when making such a judgment.

The beam of light dissipated fifty-five seconds later, and the silhouettes of the pale woman, Buck, and two members of the Baker Street squad appeared in the viewing equipment.

Lin Jiade manipulated the turret joystick with his left hand, aimed the crosshair at the pale woman in the sights, and fired. A purple torrent filled the space between him and the pale woman. The woman reached out, and a gray shield appeared in front of her. The moment the purple torrent hit the shield, the torrent froze, extending all the way to the shield on the turret.

Lin Jiade continued firing, and the pale-skinned woman raised her arm. The dead on the battlefield were summoned by her and flew toward the spider-shaped mech, detonating continuously and causing a rain of blood to fall in Lin Jiade's vision.

Lin Jiade's body was unharmed, but his spirit was corrupted; the urge to vomit was brewing in his stomach. He punched himself hard to suppress the discomfort, which was replaced by the enrage of the pale woman's desecration of the corpse.

He fired, fired, and fired again and again, each shot creating new icicles in the sky, while the pale woman's attention was mostly focused on her arm, where a large amount of energy climbed and formed the shape of a giant sword.

Jianlan realized the danger and screamed without regard for her dignity, "Lin Jiade, no, we have to get out of the way!"

However, it was too late. The pale-skinned woman had already finished preparing the spell and then suddenly swung down the giant sword-shaped spell.

Chapter 102 Worms: Persuading Them to Surrender

While Lin Jiade piloted his spider-shaped mech to fight against the pale woman, his accompanying infantry were also engaged in combat with the enemy.

The pale-skinned woman was surrounded by three guards, but only 93 and ?, belonging to the Baker Street Squad, actually attacked. High above, the Diamond Elf, whose physique resembled the Mi-Lin Tire Man, unleashed a hail of arrows. She alone was worth the entire firepower of the Kapok Squad.

Yuki fired arrow after arrow in vain; her modern compound bow couldn't match the firing rate of the traditional Diamond Elf longbow... No, wait, she realized that 93 was only holding a Wanderer-style patchwork longbow.

Defeated by an enemy using basic weapons, Yuki felt even more humiliated, but against a high-level magic researcher, there was nothing she could do. So, she was forced to hide behind the shield wall of the interstellar flying fish, attempting to snipe her opponent, but all her arrows were swallowed up by 93's rain of arrows.

Arcturus and Kapok could have circled around to get closer to 93, but the elusive, assassin-like figure restrained them. Kapok pulled the trigger, the energy of the ammunition flowing into the blade, and silver threads emanating from the tip of the sword chased after the figure.

He nimbly dodged, but Arcturus swung her battle axe down at his body from behind, only to see her backflip. Arcturus raised her arm, and she landed lightly on the axe handle. She swung the handle, trying to flip him over, but he used the momentum to flip over her head, grab her horns, and step on her back.

Horns are the dignity of the minotaurs. Arcturus dropped her battle axe and eagerly reached for the assassin behind her, but the latter clung to her body with acrobatic skill, seeking gaps in her armor to stab his weapon in. Each time he pulled it out, his dagger was smeared with fresh blood, and the minotaurs' cries of agony and revenge always came a step too late.

The approach was despicable. Fearing that it might accidentally injure friendly forces, the Kapok was unable to act. Reality is not a game; teammate damage is a real phenomenon. The Kapok's attack would simultaneously damage Arcturus and the enemy. I'm afraid... Arcturus would suffer even more damage.

Just then, the pale-skinned woman finished her long-awaited spell, and the giant sword slashed down, releasing a torrent of energy that transformed into dazzling light that overwhelmed everyone's vision.

It took the Kapok Flower a few seconds to regain normal vision and see deep cracks in the ground. The stone wall was torn apart from the inside, and its power supply system was completely destroyed. Then the pale blue light curtain disappeared from above.