Chapter 3: The Machine Soul Is Ecstatic!

The star fell, and the Nest City's year‑round toxic cloud sea turned the night into a darkness where one could not see one's own hand.

Our forces and the enemy interlocked like teeth; apart from the tightly held positions, no one dared to light any campfire in the wilderness.

Only at dawn the next day, when the flames were no longer glaring, would small warming fires be lit in some corners.

A remote wilderness far from the battle zone.

In the wind‑sheltered corner of the slope, soldiers bearing Rifles gathered, some crouching, some standing, huddling together to forcefully keep warm.

There was no flame, no hot food; each soldier held only a cold, hard piece of compressed starch, perhaps older than his own grandfather.

Only the earlier childish fear had changed; now they sat on the ground, faces alert, calmly melting the food in their mouths.

The crowd was quiet until a "clack" sounded from afar, the crisp strike of hard‑sole boots against solid ice.

"Group Leader!"

"Hail, Group Leader!"

The veterans rose one by one, saluting Xisi; Xisi returned the salute swiftly, while watching the soldiers' pitifully scant food in their hands.

"Supply disrupted; the limited resources were given priority to the Star Realm Army, and we only received a few pieces of compressed starch."

The logistics officer explained upon seeing this; Xisi withdrew his gaze and turned toward the corner of the forward slope, where a neatly dressed Star Realm Army Messenger Soldier stood.

Seeing Xisi approach, especially the enemy blood clots still solidified on Xisi's uniform from previous fighting, the Messenger Soldier lost the cold arrogance he had shown toward the Planetary Defense Force, and bowed early before Xisi drew near.

"Regiment Commander, the Command Center's order!"

A parchment was handed over; after a casual salute, Xisi took it, scanned it quickly, and his brows furrowed slightly.

A moment later, Xisi folded the order away:

"Understood, my unit will head to the target immediately."

The Messenger Soldier, watching Xisi accept, let out a huge sigh of relief, while cautiously glancing at the surrounding crowd.

He didn't know why, but even being glanced at peripherally by these soldiers gave him a prickling, uneasy feeling.

Not to mention the Xisi before him, exuding a strong scent of blood.

After saluting, the Messenger Soldier fled as if escaping, leaving only the soldiers staring at Xisi, awaiting their Group Leader's command.

"How much longer will the starch last?"

Xisi asked, and an officer quickly replied:

"If we ration it, it can barely last two days."

Hearing this, Xisi looked toward the distant Nest City, towering like a mountain breaking through the cloud sea; after a moment, he let out a faint sigh:

"Then we must speed up."

We can't go back, we can't starve to death, and we can't be disloyal! To survive, Xisi has only the one path: follow the order to the Supply Station!

Ten minutes later, in the shadowed corner of the slope, the surviving thousand‑plus battle‑hardened veterans, lightly equipped and bearing Rifles, ran toward the Nest City.

The sky was bright yet dark; as another day's sunlight pierced the cloud sea, the Regiment, which had been on continuous duty for a day and a night, finally approached the target.

The soldiers gasped heavily, hiding in the shadowed corner of a ruined building outside the Nest City; a massive transport pipe rose straight from above them toward the front.

Xisi stood in the pipe's shadow, using a telescope to scan the distance.

Lasers, roars, explosions—before a large gate, hundreds of soldiers from the Star Realm Army and the Planetary Defense Force mingled, surrounding a makeshift fortification and struggling to repel the Rebel Forces' assault.

"Fortunately, it looks like the Supply Station hasn't fallen yet."

Xisi exhaled, turned to the soldiers behind him whose breathing was gradually steadier, exchanged a glance, and nodded:

"Finish the starch, and in ten minutes we'll launch the attack!"

The veterans, in unison, swallowed the last bit of starch, then kept busy, immediately checking their weapons and loading the final ammunition into their magazines.

Xisi counted the time until a sudden violent explosion rang out from afar; he watched a defending soldier clutch an Explosive pack and perish together with the charging Rebel Forces, his eyes showing resignation, ignoring the countdown.

He drew his sidearm, and with his right hand lifted the already curved blade of his saber.

The veteran below, who had been looking up at Xisi, promptly attached a Bayonet to his Rifle.

Then, without any rallying, Xisi turned and charged toward the gate.

The suddenly appearing reinforcements startled the Rebel Forces, but after realizing there were only a little over a thousand, they furiously counterattacked.

The defending troops, whose morale had risen with the reinforcements, instantly dropped to ice cold after seeing the numbers.

After all, the Rebel Forces had also set up many outer defenses; these fire points, though not as sturdy as permanent fortifications, could wipe out a thousand armored Planetary Defense Force soldiers—what's the difference from a massacre?

Both sides kept swearing, but as red lasers sliced through the air, the curses were instantly choked off.

The Rebel Forces were literally silenced, while the defenders were startled.

The battle was almost foregone; the veteran's gunfire was terrifyingly precise, not to mention Xisi, whose attributes were Hundredfold enhanced.

The fire points were essentially death notices for the Rebel Forces—anyone daring to reach for a machine gun would have their head explode the next second.

Thus, until Xisi led his men into the Rebel Forces, those fire points hadn't fired even a single round.

Later, the rebels, thinking close combat would spare them from being crushed and planning to overwhelm Xisi with numbers, were instantly sobered by the lessons of sabers and bayonets.

The fight ended swiftly; under the furious charge of the thousand‑plus battle‑hardened veterans, the Rebel Forces collapsed.

Only after the battle ended did the defending troops, who had witnessed the whole process, emerge from deep near the gate, swearing as a group of reinforcements ran in.

"Emperor above, who the hell said those damned dogs broke through?!"

A hulking man rushed in carrying a machine gun, accompanied by a dozen clearly elite soldiers.

The defenders, hearing the voice, finally withdrew their attention from Xisi and his Demon Gods, hurriedly stepping aside to let the hulking man pass.

The hulking man, who had been swearing, was frightened into laying his machine gun flat when he saw a blood‑stained squad emerge opposite.

Xisi frowned, and pointed his sidearm there immediately.

The hulking man's movements froze as he stared at Xisi's barrel; though he said nothing, he knew that if his finger even dared to inch toward the trigger, his head would be moving out of its socket the next second.

His Adam's apple shifted as a nearby defender hurriedly explained the situation.

Only then did the hulking man sheath his weapon; though the tension in his eyes faded, his face still wore an annoyed expression:

"Weren't those bastards supposed to be an entire Star Realm Army? How come only you few...... people showed up?"

He wanted to call them expendables or some other insult, but seeing the thousand people before him and the battle report he had just heard, the big man forced himself to swallow the profanity.

Xisi ignored the foul‑mouthed big man and looked toward the gate ahead, where a Mechanical Goddess Priest was circling an instrument aimed at the gate, bustling back and forth.

The big man's face grew even more displeased at the sight:

"That half‑baked fucker of the Mechanical Church—if she hadn't taken half a day to blast the gate open, we wouldn't have been stuck outside this long."

Xisi, speechless at the words, glanced at the big man whose mouth always spewed filth, gave a quick look at his rank, then headed straight for the gate, passing the big man with a natural expression:

"My rank here is the highest; you are now enlisted."

Big man: "???"

Instinctively, he opened his mouth to launch a greeting loaded with an extremely high mother‑cursing level, but as soon as he looked up, Xisi was already glaring at him.

Seeing Xisi's uniform patched with new and old blood, and the larger, more terrifying Regiment, the big man could only feel his long‑lost composure suddenly return.

The veteran under his command, nicknamed 'TwoHundredBattleSurvival', automatically began setting up defenses, while Xisi approached the gate and watched the Mechanical Goddess Priest, her face full of confusion, frantically twisting the instrument.

"How could this be? Why is the power so low?"

"Could it be that the Machine Soul is displeased?"

The Goddess Priest spoke to herself, not even noticing that Xisi had finished listening, and immediately placed both hands on the instrument.

It wasn't until the instrument's energy readout, triggered by Xisi pulling the trigger, began to scream wildly.

Only then did the Goddess Priest snap her attention back, staring dumbfounded at the energy readout far exceeding its design, wildly soaring.

"Mach... Machine Soul."

"So thrilled?!!!"