Chapter 996 - 41: Facing Destruction

Boom——

Distant artillery tore through the sky, the shockwaves blasting deep craters into the ground!

The Latovia armored vehicles carrying soldiers were flipped by the shockwave on the spot, and several combat robots were blown to scrap metal immediately!

Like a swarm of locusts, the Ultron robots charged at the armored vehicles under the cover of artillery fire, with countless missiles and machine guns flying overhead, and shells crashing down beside them...

Quickly, the soldiers snapped out of the bombardment; they had to keep moving forward!

To locate Ultron’s central core, they had to advance!

They needed UAV support, so they couldn’t let their vehicles remain overturned in the desert, lest they be bombed into scrap metal!

The driver climbed out of the vehicle directly:

"The vehicle’s overturned!"

"Damn it, then set it right! The enemy is coming—cover fire!!!"

The soldiers in Mecha immediately stood up, pushing against the side of the vehicle with all their strength under their comrades’ cover, flipping it back over!

But the Ultron robots also descended from the sky, engulfing him in a rain of bullets and missile bombardment!

"Bombardment——"

Bang bang bang bang bang——

Bang!

The vehicle rocked from the explosion, but thankfully didn’t overturn again. As the surrounding soldiers regained their senses from the bombardment, the soldier in Mecha from earlier lay distorted and motionless in the crater.

This scene chilled everyone’s hearts...

But it was just a chill.

The UAV operator inside the armored vehicle immediately controlled the UAV in the sky to counterattack, temporarily easing the pressure from above, and the leading captain stood up again—

The air was full of radio interference, so to allocate more resources for UAV control, he abandoned using communication channels, instead shouting with his voice and an amplifying device:

"Stop gawking, get in the vehicle; the metal hunk has more firepower than elsewhere, we might be close to our target!"

"Get in! Everyone get in! Move out!!!"

Boom!

Another shell fell, but this time the vehicle didn’t overturn!

Four big soldiers clung to the deformed armored vehicle’s sides, gripping their guns, as the vehicle zigzagged in the desert, evading shelling and bombing, racing madly towards the enemy’s direction under UAV cover!

For every inch they advanced, the enemy density increased, UAVs fell one by one, and Ultron robots on the ground grew more numerous, the artillery fire more intense...

Boom!

Finally, a shell struck the rear of the armored vehicle, completely crippling its power system.

But as the captain slammed into the ground, to his astonishment...

He seemed to have hit something incredibly hard, something not from the vehicle’s wreckage...

"Damn... in such a vast desert, I managed to hit a stone..."

But it wasn’t a stone.

It was metal.

The metallic footsteps of Ultron robots approached steadily, a strange odor lingering in the air. The captain shifted his gaze from the dead comrades to the scene before him:

The desert seemed to vanish, replaced by a world covered in metal...

The Ultron robots aimed their guns at his head, but he smiled:

They’d found the direction.

Bam!

...

[C07 Sector reports anomaly]

[A06 Sector reports anomaly]

[A07 Sector reports anomaly.]

Receiving a casualty report, Lille finally saw something beyond the endless robots and artillery:

The scale of Ultron was far more astonishing than Lille imagined!

As the human-controlled mechanized forces formed a front line advancing towards the Middle East, after witnessing mountains, rivers, plains, and deserts, mercilessly cutting off Ultron’s supply routes, the scenery abruptly changed, transforming everything into endless machinery!

The horizon vanished!

The roads and power networks manufactured by Ultron completely clung to the surface like lichen, erasing all natural traces, with giant furnaces and factories sprawling like anthills over this metallic lichen, massive mobile manufacturing complexes slowly moving on its surface, continuously consuming materials to produce new machines and weapons!

Estimating merely the mechanical nests almost covering the surface, the occupied area might exceed 150,000 square kilometers, not to mention the numerous logistics routes and outdoor mines—

Ultron’s industrial capability had completely supplanted "natural order," this was no longer a part of Earth, but a part of Ultron!

Robots emerged like waves from Hell, crawling out of the metallic earth’s scars, swarming towards the human world!

Overwhelming numbers pressed against the front line, maybe because humans had touched its core, the countless Ultron robots increased the pressure on the front exponentially!

At this point, people realized none of Lille’s words were lies or exaggerations, or Lille’s estimate severely underestimated Ultron’s capability, as this terrifying robot might already possess the power to sweep across Europe—

At this moment, everyone had to rely on Lille’s strategy to be executed!

Whoosh——

The King’s Throne pierced through the clouds, facing the scene of Ultron robots like emerging from Hell, this colossal fortress seemed to charge from Heaven to Hell, all firepower pouring down, a terrifying electromagnetic bullet striking a peripheral hive data station...

The battle that truly decides the situation began!

Lille tapped the chair.

[Operation begins, Titan ready for deployment.]

.....

Within the metal factory core that eroded Earth, a massive mechanical fortress, also Ultron’s core data suite, Ultron watched the approaching King’s Throne, a smile appeared on its mechanical face—

To ordinary people, this kind of smile would surely be creepy.

"You simply don’t understand my power, arrogant and foolish humans..."

"Why do you think you managed to get here?"

"Humans’ folly lies in thinking they can predict everything..."

"How will you face endless long-range artillery?"

Ultron liked to launch attacks using endless robots, a tactic he used in Turkey and Italy, or rather, a combat habit.

However, the experience of being overwhelmed by the firepower of the King’s Throne already made him tweak his industrial line, an action that would take humans years or even decades to correct, but for him, it was just an hour’s calculation and adjustment.

At this moment, beneath the mechanical nest city that covered the surface, lay a staggering amount of long-range firepower: artillery, missiles, machine guns were all present.

"Bringing your whole home to battle is unwise, maybe this is human folly, pitiful heroism, always unable to confront true power...."

"Despair before my power."

The metallic ground opened numerous enormous mouths.

From just one glance, without any need for calculated decision-making or smart brains, one could understand this was firepower the King’s Throne could not intercept.

[Ultron: Foolish humans...]

[Ultron: Like moths to a flame.]

[Ultron: Want to try some more dirty words?]

After a moment’s silence, Ultron received a reply:

[Meet your destruction.]

Ultron watched as the King’s Throne fell...

The feeling of joy transformed immediately, Ultron was stunned.