Chapter 720: The Vanished Remains

Seeing this situation, Randall immediately drew the combat knife at his waist, kicked the body remains of the CL103 beside him to the side with one foot, and quickly charged toward CL101.

The moment the muzzle of CL101 lit up, Randall had already lunged behind it!

The arm covered in Power Armor clamped around CL101's neck, and the combat knife in his other hand stabbed into the gap connecting its hind neck and skull!

Stab! Rip!

The combat knife instantly destroyed CL101's connection structure and internal circuitry!

CL101's raised muzzle hung down powerlessly, and the blue light in its eyes extinguished completely.

"Go to hell!"

Randall panted heavily and kicked the completely scrapped CL101 remains away.

Subsequently, Randall came to Fenongqiu's side and supported him.

"Hey! Buddy! How are you?"

Randall roared at Fenongqiu.

The only remaining CL107, after witnessing Captain LK7-01 being beheaded and all its companions wiped out.

Its pupils scanned the heavily wounded Fenongqiu, the berserk Kasimier, and Randall who had just finished off CL101.

Fenongqiu's physiological reaction after being heavily wounded, Kasimier's berserk power peak, and Randall's close-quarters combat mode were converted by CL107 and uploaded to the Consciousness Network.

"Final combat data... upload... complete..."

The last message flashed through CL107's Consciousness Network.

At this moment, Kasimier had already charged to CL107; CL107 raised its Vibrating Blade, the engine overload emitted a piercing shriek, and it launched a charge toward Randall, who was performing emergency treatment on Fenongqiu's wounds!

It wanted to use its own remaining chassis to attempt to collect data on the opponent's defensive loopholes while rescuing a companion!

"Seeking death!"

Kasimier swung an axe backhanded!

Chila!!!

The roaring Chainaxe hacked fiercely into CL107's head!

The Chainaxe instantly severed its skull, and the silver-white remains flew backward, crashing into the wall and turning into a pile of scrap metal.

The mall ruins finally returned to a deathly silence, leaving only smoke lingering; the ground was covered with the silver-white remains of Canglei Cyberk soldiers, some still emitting blue smoke and sparking with final electrical arcs.

Randall had already simply treated Fenongqiu's wounds; Randall patted Fenongqiu's shoulder with his arm and spoke.

"It's okay, brother! We're heading back immediately!"

Kasimier walked to the remains of CL101, which were almost split in two, and used his combat boot to fiercely crush that Head Processor.

"Dirty machine..."

He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and said in a hoarse voice.

"For Father, we won..."

"We are returning to the Third Defense Zone. Before these Aliens started fighting, they must have covered the surroundings with some kind of Isolation Field, causing our communication with the Third Defense Zone to be cut off.

The situation here must be reported to the Military District."

Randall pulled Fenongqiu up and said in his usual tone.

"Mm, indeed. I just feel like these Aliens never intended to leave alive from the start; it's more like they were probing us."

Kasimier regained his reason and nodded in agreement.

"Probing us? Do they think they are very strong?"

Fenongqiu said unconvinced.

"Alright, we'll talk about this after we go back."

"Understood."

Third Defense Zone.

After returning to the Third Defense Zone, Randall immediately sent the situation encountered here to the Ninth Defense Zone.

After more than ten minutes, a communication from the Ninth Defense Zone was sent over, and the figure of Horus appeared before the three of them.

"I have seen the data. Currently, the number of troops in the Third Defense Zone is not large. After experiencing the war, the Third Defense Zone has not yet had time to recover. You will be arranged at several nearby military bases."

"Lord Horus, I discovered that when those mechanical Aliens were attacking us, they were only attacking us singly. Rather than saying it was an attack, it was more like they were probing."

Hearing Randall's report, Horus nodded and spoke.

"This intelligence is very important. You did well. After the communication ends, begin executing orders."

"Yes!"

Ninth Defense Zone Military Region.

After Yingzhou learned that Cyberk soldiers had appeared again in the Third Defense Zone, he had Horus bring back the corpses of those 6 Cyberk soldiers before the troops there evacuated.

"Father, the corpses of those 6 Cyberk Aliens were taken away. There are clear signs of cleanup at the scene. It should be that the Cyberk Aliens returned specifically to take away the remains to prevent us from studying their corpses."

After Yingzhou arrived at Horus's office, he heard this news.

"Let me see the report on the Cyberk troops that Randall and the others encountered in detail."

Yingzhou did not exchange pleasantries, cutting straight to the topic, his voice calm.

"Yes, Father."

Horus walked to the desk and pulled up the latest reconnaissance footage of the Third Defense Zone.

In the footage, the mall ruins were still a mess, with burn marks and explosion craters clearly visible, plus some newly added charred marks and scattered metal fragments.

"When our people arrived at the scene, except for a small amount of armor fragments that could not be recovered and traces of Energy Weapon residue, the main structures, especially the Core Processor, Energy Core, and main limb modules, were all gone. The cleanup traces were very professional and highly efficient, leaving almost no trackable footprints or energy residues."

Yingzhou looked at the reconnaissance footage, his fingers tapping the desktop unconsciously.

"Taking away the corpses... this behavioral pattern is different from the ordinary Cyberk units encountered before. In previous battles, they didn't seem to care about recovering remains."

Horus frowned slightly, and after thinking for a few seconds, he said.

"They didn't care before, but now they are so concerned... especially after we just started researching their previous corpse."

Horus looked toward Yingzhou and continued speaking.

"Randall mentioned that this time, the Cyberk Alien behavior is more like a 'probe' rather than a simple annihilation. Their goal is data—data regarding our combat methods and equipment effectiveness. Now, they won't even leave their own 'corpses' for us..."

Speaking to this point, Horus smashed his right fist into his left palm, a flash of light passing through his eyes.

"They are preventing us from obtaining the same source of 'data'!"

"They know we are studying them, dissecting their structures, and looking for weaknesses."

"Therefore, the remains of these new model Cyberk Aliens have also become potential sources of intelligence leaks for them."

"Recovering the corpses is to stop us from performing reverse engineering, especially regarding the melee capabilities they exposed this time!"

"Correct."

Yingzhou's gaze became grave, and he slowly began to speak.

"This further proves two points: First, the Cyberk possess a highly unified and extremely responsive command network. When important frontline units are killed, data is uploaded, the rear can immediately analyze the risk and dispatch recovery units; the entire process might be completed within the mere tens of minutes it takes for our reinforcements to arrive. Second, they lack an understanding of our technological level and research capabilities and are gradually probing us!"