Chapter 499: Arms

Li Cheng had clashed with Batmos during the Toy City mission and was deeply impressed by the latter's datafied domain.

At the time, it was fortunate that Toy City was an independent polity with no hostile factions, lacking missile silos or automated swarm drones; otherwise, swiftly capturing Batmos would have been genuinely difficult.

On the radar screen, green dots flickered slowly, emitting a regular "tick-tick" sound.

"Every Whale Song member possesses datafied abilities: they can rewrite the environment to create advantages, or phase out to evade and flee thousands of kilometers. Their survivability is maxed out."

Claudia narrowed her eyes and said quickly: "Ordinary peril can't trap him, and in a lethal dead end, he can simply opt to exit—Shudder missions carry no penalties."

"Hard to say. In the Killing Field, there are still many ways to counter datafied abilities."

Bai Ma Mu Bei glanced at Li Cheng, clearly referring to the earlier inverted pyramid realm, where the transcendentals had their player essence halved by Cai Anjie's split personalities, rendering them unable to return to the real world.

"So, shall we go check it out, or continue the mission?"

Lei Yesi said gravely: "Batmos's signal source is roughly thirty kilometers from our mission guidance direction."

A straight-line distance of thirty kilometers is about as trivial to mid- to high-level transcendentals as walking downstairs to buy groceries.

"Let's vote by raising hands—I lean toward continuing the mission."

Claudia said coldly: "Something out of the ordinary always hides danger. The probability of meeting in an almost infinite space, a completely unreasonable distress signal—who knows if this isn't a trap? Just notify the Whale Song Guild, and we've done our part."

Just notify the Whale Song Guild, and that's more than enough.

Lei Yesi slightly raised his hands. Shudder missions often appear in team form; if Batmos's distress signal wasn't meant for him but for some high-ranking guild member's lover, relative, or disciple, ignoring it might later draw blame—better to abstain.

Lei Yesi slightly raised his hands; many tremor missions appear in team form. If Bart Mo Si's distress signal wasn't meant for him but for some high-ranking guild member's lover, family member, or disciple, then ignoring it might make him a target of blame later—better to forfeit.

Bai Ma Mu Bei thought for a moment, then murmured: "If worst comes to worst, you all stop thirty kilometers away—I'll go alone to check the situation."

Claudia wasn't surprised by Tombstone's choice and sighed: "In horror movies, sometimes just one extra glance invites death."

"True. When I was a kid watching horror films, the Alien said, 'What are you looking at?' and the Predator replied, 'So what if I am?'—and they started fighting."

Li Cheng rubbed his chin. With Lei Yesi abstaining, the vote stood at one-to-one—he naturally had to decide.

"Let's take a look. No need to go to the scene ourselves—we've got this."

Li Cheng picked up the Shahed-136 drone and decisively activated his Odd Mechanic ability to begin modifications.

The original Shahed-136 drone was developed by Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Corporation: its fuselage is 3.5 meters long, wingspan 2.5 meters, empty weight 200 kg, maximum range over a thousand kilometers, flight speed 185 km/h, and its warhead can carry 50 kg of high explosive—equivalent to ten full 155mm artillery shells.

Since it uses civilian-grade GPS and Iran's copy of the German MD550 two-stroke aviation engine, its cost is extremely low—at only $20,000–30,000, far below the price of anti-air missiles, placing enemies in a frustrating predicament.

Take Israel as an example: each Iron Dome short-range interception missile costs $50,000; medium- and long-range interceptors exceed a million dollars—and they often fail to intercept.

In cost, it's been utterly crushed by a motorcycle—the two-stroke engine is commonly used in motorcycles, hence the Shahed-136's nickname: "Little Motorcycle."

"The only flaw of this loitering munition drone is its slowness; otherwise, it's cheap, carries a massive payload, and has long range—America simply can't avoid copying it." Li Cheng, holding a screwdriver and aided by his Odd Mechanic ability, swiftly replaced the drone's engine and removed the warhead, replacing it with a relay communication system and a small quadcopter.

His movements were so fluent and effortless that Bai Ma Mu Bei marveled: "Is this the Odd Mechanic's ability? It's truly useful."

"I could modify it without the Odd Mechanic ability—just a bit slower."

Li Cheng said casually: "Before mastering the Odd Mechanic power, I already learned to heavily modify drones by paying homage to and self-studying under the Arms Queen·Liu."

Lei Yesi asked puzzled: "Arms Queen·Liu?"

"You don't know? She's your peer."

Li Cheng said offhandedly: "The U. S. State Department once issued a global warrant for Liu Baoxia, a woman in her eighties from Weifang City, Shandong Province, for selling large quantities of drone electronic components to Iran, America's adversarial nation. The bounty is $15 million."

Converted into One Piece currency, that's 2.25 billion Berries—enough to rival pre-inflation Pirate Emperors."

So, AAA Arms Wholesale Sister Liu, right?

What's this "BIGMOM" nonsense?

Amid the strained expressions of the others, Li Cheng shrugged and muttered: "Of course, the FBI's global bounties have never been honestly paid out—even if you completed it, Specialist Shi Misi would just double-cross you. Who'd believe it?"

With that, he finished modifying the drone and carried it onto the pirate ship's deck to launch it.

After modification, the Little Motorcycle drone's speed surged significantly and became remotely controllable.

After flying for over ten minutes in the Abyss, it neared the signal source, entered cruise-hover mode, activated its signal relay function, then deployed the small quadcopter.

Through the signal relay system, Li Cheng continued controlling the quadcopter via remote, activated its infrared function, and slowly approached the signal source—finally seeing Batmos suspended within the green orb.

Compared to their last meeting, the hacker's hair had turned white, two rows of bright silver metallic implants were embedded in his temples, his left eye was gone, replaced by exposed metallic frontal bone.

His right eye was tightly shut, apparently unconscious; his left arm was severed, his right hand clenched tightly around a phone-shaped personal terminal; his lower body had been severed at the waist, his cybernetic organs exposed to the air.

Judging solely by his wounds, Batmos had clearly endured a brutal battle—but no enemies were visible nearby.

Bai Ma Mu Bei asked solemnly: "Can you fly into the orb and retrieve his action camera? The camera footage could reveal what happened to him."

"The orb itself has a force field—you can't fly into it."

Li Cheng paused. If he sent the Little Motorcycle into a direct dive, he might smash through—but he might also kill the already dying Batmos outright.

Li Cheng hesitated. If he dove straight down on the mini-motorcycle, he might crash through—but he could very well kill Bart Mo Si outright, already on the brink of death.

Li Cheng thought of something and instead input a command, instructing the drone's speaker to blast a loud noise toward Batmos: "How can you sleep? At your age, at your stage, how can you sleep? Do you have any dignity at all?"

The drone's speaker looped the audio. Batmos himself didn't wake—but green data streamed from behind his cervical spine, forming a head: his own personality backup.

The drone's speaker looped the audio, but Batemos himself did not wake—instead, green data flowed from behind his cervical vertebrae, forming a head: his own personality backup.