Chapter 507

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Protagonist:

Lin En

Lena

The Core's final test results for Ayla are out.

Lines of data scrolled across the projection.

【Bone strength: insufficient; muscle output: inefficient; nerve conduction speed: far below mechanical standard; organ redundancy: poor; prone to damage, fatigue, aging, pain, fear — all defects.】

After the test, the Core asked on its own, as if finishing a debate left unresolved years ago:

"Mechanical prosthetics — are specific metrics superior to flesh and blood?"

Ayla: "Yes."

"More durable?"

"If maintenance conditions are sufficient, yes."

"Replaceable after damage?"

"Yes."

"Then why install them only after flesh is damaged? Mechanical prosthetic performance far surpasses flesh!"

Ayla was speechless; she wanted to find a reason, to argue, but before pure engineering logic, all reasons seemed soft.

In the end she could only say: "There is no necessity."

"Define necessity."

Ayla: "..."

"Healthy tissue always carries a future probability of damage; preemptive replacement can lower that risk."

Ayla found no data to refute; she lost the first round.

"I don't know," she said at last.

After thinking a while, she spoke again: "Machines also break — bearings wear, energy depletes, structures fracture; all systems have a probability of failure."

The Core answered quickly, as if this question had been deduced countless times before.

"A comprehensive maintenance system can be established, backup structures set up, rapid modular replacement implemented; overall reliability still exceeds flesh."

Ayla was at a loss for words.

It even accepted her rebuttal, incorporated it into its own logic, and produced a superior solution.

This thing isn't a fool who only shouts slogans; it has a complete, self-consistent, rigorous logic chain.

The Core continued its deduction.

"The greatest destabilizing factor is not the flesh. It is emotion." Fear leads to rout.

Grief affects judgment, attachment produces erroneous sacrifice, affection creates weakness.

"Remove unnecessary emotional interference, and combat efficiency can increase by thirty-seven to forty-two percent."

It truly perfectly inherits the Iron Hand's doctrine......

Ayla complained inwardly, while many scenes flashed through her mind.

Mei's red eyes, the boy's corpse lying on the ground, the ragged singing of dozens at the funeral.

She suddenly asked: "If large amounts of flesh tissue are removed, is that person... still human?"

"That definition is unrelated to combat performance."

Ayla stood in the red light, an inexplicable fire surging in her heart.

But she couldn't prove it, couldn't prove what strategic value a "complete human" actually holds.

Finally, the Core asked her a question.

"Today you believe flesh is worth preserving, because you have not yet lost enough because of it."

"When those you cherish die of old age, die of disease, die of fear and failure, die because their flesh cannot endure."

"While machines could have prevented it."

"Would you still insist on today's judgment?"

The hall was very quiet, only the Core's low humming.

Ayla pondered for a long time; at last, very lightly but very clearly, she said: "I don't know."

This time, she lost thoroughly.

When she walked out of the underground facility, the atmosphere outside was clearly wrong.

The lookout ran over in a hurry, saying Black Iron City reconnaissance aircraft had appeared on the distant horizon, circling the dock twice.

They saw the lights, saw the Seventh Dock's equipment activated.

To Black Iron City, this isn't simple scavenger activity — this is naked provocation, provocation against Black Iron City's authority!

"A large-scale convoy appears on the horizon, roughly five to six hundred people, armed personnel, at least fifteen modified trucks and armored vehicles, equipped with heavy machine guns, mortars, and improvised rocket launchers."

Gunshi's voice came from the communication device, carrying his usual rasp.

"At the rear there are also several mining exoskeletons modified into heavy infantry; I've seen this in Black Iron City before — only regular army gets them."

Ayla stood up from before the Core.

"How long until they arrive?"

"At this speed, forty minutes, an hour at most."

She quickly returned to the surface via the stairs. The Seventh Dock was already in chaos.

The Qi Diao Zhe ran back and forth, some burrowing into the depths of the Cargo Hold, some trying to start Vehicles that could still move, some simply sitting on the ground hugging their heads.

Panic spread through the crowd like wind.

Ayla did not speak immediately; her Gaze passed over the Ruins and wreckage of the Dock, settling on the distant horizon.

Yellow dust was Rising, like a slow-Approaching yellow-brown Poisonous Snake.

She was watching the road.

The Seventh Dock faced the sea, with cliffs behind it, and on both flanks were industrial belts reclaimed from the sea in earlier years, which heavy Vehicles fundamentally could not traverse.

Only three roads could Enter the Dock, two of which were old Cargo Passages, and one a narrower maintenance passage.

And all three roads converged at the Bulletproof Door at the Dock Entrance.

"Rolling Stone." She spoke.

Rolling Stone squeezed through the crowd, his face covered in sweat.

"You take people, get all the tractors and cranes that can still move deployed."

"Doing what?"

"Blocking the road."

She turned and walked toward the underground Entrance, took a few steps then stopped, turning back to scan those panicked faces.

"Whoever wants to run, run, I won't stop you, but once you run, don't ever come back."

A very simple Threat, but indeed effective.

Fear is one thing, Abandonment is another.

The people of the Seventh Dock had lived Here all their lives; that scrap iron, those wrecks, that junk in the Cargo Holds, was their everything.

Running out would just be changing places to wait for death.

Ayla did not wait for them to decide, heading straight Down.

"Core," she stood before that massive data Projection, getting straight to the point.

"Is there anything here that can fight? The kind that can directly Fight Against Mechanized Forces."

The red figure named Gorgon fell Silent for an instant, as if retrieving.

"Currently deployable Combat Units: zero."

Ayla had no expression.

"However," the Core continued.

"The Lower Level maintenance area Preserves a Dreadnought walking Structure test chassis abandoned ten thousand years ago.

No pilot coffin, no complete power system, left arm missing, right arm only an interface frame remaining, Essentially an engineering failure."

"Can it walk?"

"Cannot."

"Can it be repaired?"

"Does not conform to any existing design standards, cannot verify Structural stability, recommend Abandonment."

Ayla had already turned and walked toward the Lower Level.

"Take me to see it."

That was the First Time she saw that thing.

A seven-to-eight-meter-long Steel skeleton lay crooked on the maintenance rack, its original power legs only rusted-frozen Joints remaining, the left side empty, the right arm interface hung with a pile of severed cables.

The whole thing looked like a Steel corpse abandoned for ten thousand years.

But its main Structure was still there.

That torso's load-bearing frame was a proper military design from ten thousand years ago, thick, solid, with no corner-cutting whatsoever.

And those rusted-frozen Joint connections maintained extremely high machining precision.

Ayla walked a circle around it.

Her Brain had already begun disassembly and reassembly.

When she returned to the Ground, Hei Tie Cheng's convoy had already stopped, assembling in the distance.

They had obviously Discovered the blocked roads, and were deploying engineering Vehicles.

"I need people." Ayla stood before the crowd, voice not loud, but very clear.

"Dozens, hauling equipment, stripping parts, connecting Pipelines, welding."

No one responded immediately.

Someone said in a low voice: "Why should we? Can that thing stop a few hundred regular troops?"

Ayla turned her head and looked at him.

"Can't stop them."

That person froze.

"Can't stop all of them, but can stop them for a while." She pointed at the distant convoy clearing the way.

"You run now, you're live targets, but I'll hold the front line later, you run then, Survival probability higher."

While the Seventh Dock's native Qi Diao Zhe were thinking, Rolling Stone had already stood up cursing, and walked toward the underground.

Immediately after, those who understood hydraulics, could weld, had driven tractors, could move heavy objects, one after another followed.

They were willing to try, for a bit more Possibility of Survival.

Two hours.

Ayla hardly spoke a superfluous word.

First thing was to drag that test chassis off the maintenance rack.

The original power legs were long rusted dead, she directly had people remove them, and swap on the heavy-duty mechanical legs from the airport heavy loading Platform.

Interface mismatch, she rewelded the connectors on the spot.

Auxiliary reactor output parameters were off, she rerouted the power lines.

First startup, a set of fuses blew directly, sparks splashed across her face.

The Core coldly prompted: "Design failed."

Ayla wiped her face.

"First test."

Right arm mounted an old-style anti-aircraft autocannon, ammo belt directly exposed outside the armor.

Left arm had no military weapons, she combined an industrial plasma cutter and heavy hydraulic pincers into a brutal close-combat plasma cutter pincer.

Shoulders carried four missile launchers salvaged from the airport's surviving defense facilities.

Armor wasn't enough, so she directly welded armor plates from scrapped military vehicles and a section of the cargo hold's bulletproof door onto the chest.

The piloting system also had no time for full neural connection; following her own body structure, she built a control system only she could pilot.

Two hours later, that thing actually stood up from inside the cargo hold.

Eight to nine meters tall, left and right completely asymmetrical, exposed cables hung outside like blood vessels, the auxiliary reactor on its back like a temporarily strapped-on iron coffin, many weld seams still glowing red.

It could be said to have nothing to do with the Fearless, simply a moving piece of junk.

"Titan God Machine......."

But for the natives who spent their whole lives in Wade Tower, an eight-meter-tall mecha — only the Titan God Machine that exists in "legend" could achieve that.