Chapter 242: Fragments

The ideal Mechamancer: a wave of the hand summons a legion of mechs, transforming into a steel tide, advancing on every front in unison, crushing every enemy foolish enough to stand in their way.

The reality of being a Mechamancer: time to tighten some screws.

Creak, creak.

In the three-dimensional warehouse, Li Cheng lay on a vehicle repair board, wearing a hard hat and work gloves, twisting a Phillips screwdriver to tighten a screw. He let out a long breath and slid out from beneath the cannon.

The upper half of this cannon was perfectly normal — a 105mm caliber howitzer, 30 calibers long, green paint job, fitted with a muzzle brake and an autoloader.

The lower half, however, had six metal legs installed. Each leg was divided into upper and lower segments, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, with motors housed inside that allowed movement in multiple directions.

Because it was an experimental model, large amounts of power and data cables were left exposed.

Paired with crude, bulky rivets and steel plates, it looked far from shoddy or on the verge of falling apart — instead, it had a strangely ugly, ferocious beauty.

It looked just like the Terror Drone from the video game *Command & Conquer: Red Alert*.

"Rise, my turret!"

Gripping the wrench, Li Cheng shouted with full vigor, and the diesel engine inside the chassis of the six-legged turret immediately let out a noisy rumble, belching thick black smoke.

The six legs moved slowly, supporting the turret as it stood up and walked down off the maintenance platform.

"What the hell is that noise."

Hui Yu, who had been doing homework in the corner of the warehouse, put down her textbook and came over curiously to investigate.

"Perfect timing — stand that target wall up."

Li Cheng waved his hand grandly, having Hui Yu lift the reinforced concrete wall from the corner of the warehouse, place it into a metal frame, and stand it upright on the spot.

Once Hui Yu had stepped back a bit, Li Cheng swung his fist downward, and the six-legged turret, which had been facing away from the wall corner, immediately swiveled its gun barrel to aim at the target wall.

At the same time, the six legs paired off, forming three large tripods at 120° angles to one another, providing stable support for the turret.

Boom!

The turret fired with a thunderous roar, the high-explosive shell striking the concrete wall and producing a violent explosion.

Before the deafening sound had even faded, the autoloader loaded another shell. This time, the turret didn't fire from a standstill — instead, it switched back to its six-legged form and fired while moving.

A recoil device augmented with magic greatly reduced the recoil force.

The flexible six-legged locomotion allowed the turret to traverse complex terrain including steep slopes, staircases, and urban ruins.

"If you want to relocate quickly..."

Li Cheng snapped his fingers, and the side armor panels on the six legs flipped upward, revealing the hidden load-bearing wheels and tracks.

The cannon's center of gravity lowered, and it switched to track-based movement, its speed on flat ground nearly matching that of an armored vehicle.

"If you want to switch shell types..."

Li Cheng snapped his fingers again, and the cannon's barrel suddenly disassembled, transforming into basic components in midair.

Bang bang bang bang!

The components automatically rearranged and recombined — the barrel grew longer, the muzzle narrower. This time, what fired was no longer a physical shell, but a cone of flame.

The searing rain of fire rapidly consumed the surrounding oxygen, and rolling waves of heat warped the air, making the six-legged cannon look like a monster that had broken out of hell.

"Just now it was a flamethrower, now it's a force-field ballista."

Li Cheng snapped his fingers one last time, and the cannon's body changed once more.

The barrel grew shorter, the muzzle wider — like an early mortar.

Boom!

The cannon roared, and the invisible force blasted from the muzzle struck the concrete target wall dead-on.

This target wall had been built from C140 high-strength concrete — extremely sturdy. Even after being hit twice in the same spot by anti-tank high-explosive shells, it had only had its outer layer of concrete chipped away.

This time, however, the target wall, along with the metal frame supporting it, was blasted back three meters and slammed heavily into the warehouse wall.

"Not bad, right?"

Li Cheng boasted proudly, casually waving his hand to store the magic cannon in his backpack slot.

As one type of magic cannon, the force-field ballista was somewhat like the Air Cannon gadget from *Doraemon* — it converted all of the shell's damage into invisible kinetic energy.

If it hit a person, it wouldn't even be "Shang Yang split five ways" anymore —

They'd just turn into hero fragments, scattered all over the ground.

"Pretty solid."

As a legendary tank, Hui Yu knew a fair bit about taking hits. "But mid-to-high-level Transcendents basically all have rapid displacement abilities, right?

Can this magic cannon really hit them?"

"Uh—"

Li Cheng's smile froze. True enough — players at that level all had a few tricks up their sleeves: acceleration, flight, burrowing, teleportation, transmission.

No matter how fast the turret swiveled or how accurate the prediction, it couldn't keep up with people zipping around through the air.

"Then there's the noise — an engine this loud, a target this big. In the field it's one thing, but fire one shot in a city and half the district will hear it. Way too conspicuous."

Hui Yu critiqued sharply: "And finally, defense — compared to enemies at this stage, the magic cannon itself is far too fragile.

You'd be better off stripping all the armor to reduce weight and maximize speed as much as possible, so that after firing you can run farther, get off more shots, and squeeze out whatever value's left before being destroyed.

Or alternatively, bury explosives around the magic cannon as a trap, and detonate them when the enemy comes over to destroy the cannon."

Hui Yu held a primary school workbook in her left hand and a mechanical pencil in her right, speaking confidently and at length.

The more Li Cheng listened, the more suspicious he grew. Wait — when did this girl's IQ get this high? She could actually deliver such a long speech without reading from a script.

Is this still Hui Yu?

He stepped forward, circled around Hui Yu, and sure enough, discovered a Bluetooth earpiece from Prometheus Company Product in her ear.

This earpiece was a new product released just last month, with comprehensive and powerful features — it could translate over a hundred languages and dialects in real time, and had a built-in AI program capable of answering relatively complex questions.

Of course, it could also help with homework.

"Can't you learn anything decent?"

Li Cheng rolled his eyes and pocketed the Bluetooth earpiece.

To cope with homework, Huiyu had truly exhausted every ounce of her lifelong wits.

At first she only looked up answers online, then she learned to use phone apps like "Homework Helper," and now she was using a Bluetooth earpiece linked to a large-model database.

If she had put that brainpower into proper studying, she would have graduated elementary school long ago.

Instead, here she was, needing to pore over the instruction manual just to use an e-cigarette.

Boom—

The next second, the ground beneath their feet began to shake violently; shelves not far away swayed back and forth, and a great number of goods crashed to the floor.

"Earthquake?!" Huiyu blurted in disbelief. "Or is someone downstairs using a floor-shaker?"

"No."

Li Cheng's expression shifted slightly. The three-dimensional warehouse existed in its own separate space and would not be affected by the outside world.

The earthquake did not come from outside—it came from… himself.

His face solemn, he opened his backpack panel and drew the two stone-slab keys out of the void.

【Achilleus Toy Sun Changyao 3】

【Achilleus Toy Sun Changyao 5】

The two stone slabs trembled violently; the surface stone, which had been able to withstand the baptism of temporal turbulence, crumbled off on its own and turned to flying ash.

In the end, all the stone vanished, revealing two brass gear-keys buried within.

【Appointment trigger condition met】

【Quest Type: Multiplayer Deathmatch (Special)】

【Quest Name: Toy Commando】

(End of Chapter)