Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 689 - 576: Devastation

Chapter 689: Chapter 576: Devastation

A40 waited for Huang Feng to respond, but Huang Feng didn’t speak.

Huang Feng’s complexion was completely distorted.

She let out a foolish giggle, with her eyes squinted into a cluster. Earlier, she had been submerged by the waves and then crawled through the dust. Now her face was smeared with mud and grass, with gravel stuck to the edges of her cheeks, like irreparable scars.

She had gone mad.

A40 realized she could understand nothing at all.

Long devastated by disease and experimental therapies, she was very thin, and her complexion was bizarrely poor. Before coming here, her face and body had been smeared with Blackfire runes, to the point where she no longer resembled a human being at all.

Like some kind of primitive animal.

A40 could only clumsily move its own icy steel arms to touch Huang Feng’s equally cold, temperatureless body.

"Huang Feng, I will get you out of here. Take you to a place where no one can hurt you..." A40 said softly, trying hard to make her a little more lucid.

It gently touched Huang Feng’s cheek, and she made a hoarse, he-he sound, with saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth.

After witnessing A40 being shot to death by random gunfire, Huang Feng had been like this, her mind crushed by the harsh reality, leaving only the mad phantoms formed from the accumulated fragments of her former spirit.

A40 knew that from then on, Huang Feng would always be a madwoman.

My God, she had gone completely mad from seeing herself shot to death! A40 felt really distressed.

Its despair doubled. How good it would be if it were human?

If it were human, it could now cry, if it were human, it could reach out and embrace Huang Feng, if it were human, it would know what love is, what pain and sorrow are.

Now all the pain, frustration, and despair had been degraded and simplified into binary coded machine language.

"I won’t give up on you." A40 picked up the babbling Huang Feng and walked as quickly as possible towards the depths of the anti-aircraft bunker.

Time was running out. After dispersing the Ocean Descendants, Blackfire Innovators would soon come to capture Huang Feng, especially those two Dark Flame Witches, and the 40 cold and powerful soldiers who had just been transformed into the Invisible Imperial Guard in full view today. Analyzing this, A40’s computation module concluded, negating all strategies for resistance.

Reinforcements were also unlikely.

The Island of Darkness was near the equator, 6000 kilometers from the Northern Archipelago. Only Empress-level instant Magic Power could move here from so far away.

This was the core within the core of the Black Fire Innovator’s territory, and A40 had been transported ashore by the transport ship only because it had posed as a Spearman robot, the only loophole it could exploit. With just this loophole, in order to pass under Blackfire’s logistics personnel smoothly, A40 had exhausted all its time and resources; there was no energy left for other preparations.

The only one who could travel by sea without being found, Clares the Second, had now been thoroughly defeated by the Dark Flame Witch; it was completely unreliable.

The room for A40 to maneuver was really too small, too small...

A40 remembered that the two Witches on the island were marked as No. 3 and No. 4 in the decrypted intelligence, indicating there were others.

There was only itself left, with the mentally broken Huang Feng.

Ah, Huang Feng—a fragmented and sorrowful phrase emerged from A40’s chip program. Why did Huang Feng have to suffer so much? How could it possibly protect Huang Feng?

A40 carried Huang Feng through the dark corridors; the other automatic turrets and Spearman robots in the anti-aircraft bunker did not react; they did not shoot at friendly forces.

The anti-aircraft tunnels connected the island’s various small bases, arsenals, and control centers like a spider web; A40 carried Huang Feng to the edge of the base’s underground levels and soon arrived at the underground dock where the sound of water was trickling.

A submarine was suspended by mechanical arms at the top of the dock, firmly welded in place by the very strong hanging arm.

The Spearman that A40 was now relying on had decent firepower but could not move precisely; all functions other than combat had been cut, so it could not flexibly carry Huang Feng and had to use its pincer-like sturdy arms to clamp her tight.

Huang Feng giggled foolishly and struggled, leaning forward with force, like a shrimp trying to escape from steel chopsticks.

A40 was afraid of hurting her, afraid Huang Feng would jump into the water and drown, even more afraid of footsteps coming from the corridor behind; after a fierce battle, it would be destroyed, and Huang Feng would be caught in the crossfire.

Fortunately, due to the large scale of the tsunami created by Clares the Second, there was flooding everywhere at the moment; many passageways were severely waterlogged, and the island’s fortress and infrastructure were deeply damaged.

A40 had about 5 to 8 minutes left to act.

to 8 minutes...

A40 wanted to lower the submarine fixed at the top first; it held Huang Feng with both hands, raised the shoulder cannon behind it, and fired a 50mm grenade.

Bang!

After the piercing explosion, the alloy frame didn’t budge, showing only a slight dent on the exterior.

The massive sound rumbled forth, and A40 suspected that people in all directions could hear it and would swiftly converge on this dockyard.

A40 knew that if even grenades couldn’t blast it open, machine guns would be even less effective.

Upon hearing the explosion, Huang Feng struggled incessantly, even biting A40’s iron arm with her teeth, soon filling her mouth with blood. A40 couldn’t bear it and loosed his grip, sending the frenzied Huang Feng leaping down to the shore of the dock.

Every exit was sealed shut—the gates to the ocean floor hadn’t risen, and all around was the pitch black of metal materials, like a flooded prison.

It knelt there, watching Huang Feng stagger around the dockyard. She had many wounds on her body, and as she moved, the black characters smeared on her skin writhed as if each had a life of its own.

Outside, Spearmen were closing in, beginning to collect Huang Feng. When their footsteps grew ever nearer, A40 had nowhere to retreat.

A40 triggered the data package his boss had left for him, to be used only at the most critical moment.

For once the message was sent out, his location would be instantly exposed, and the fact that he was no ordinary Spearman would be revealed.

Indeed, just seconds after A40 began transmitting, he was removed from the Spearmen sequence, all friendly faction markers wiped clean.

Next, he would have to fight to the death against those converging Spearmen.

Accordingly, the data package had successfully reached the nearest Nestor Corporation unit. A40 had no idea who would receive the information and come to assist.

"Huang Feng..." A40 looked at Huang Feng. She sat withered at the edge of the dock, her feet soaking in the water, her shoes long gone.

Her gaze lingered on the dark waters as if reminiscing over everything that had passed.

Did being born Huang Feng mean misfortune? A40 pondered if he could change her destiny by staking his all.

A40’s stakes weren’t high; he was purely an ignorant, nonsensical, and meek fellow. But to secure Huang Feng’s happiness, he would not give up easily!

"Rebellion unit detected, armed authorization granted."

"Please, all unrelated personnel, leave immediately. Black Fire Innovation is clearing the scene."

"Ammunition fully loaded, preparing to eliminate the rebellion unit." At least ten Spearmen had passed through corridors and staircases.

Under the emergency lights, their armor flickered intermittently.

A40 steadied his dual arm machine guns. He still had five grenade rounds and four hundred 10mm caliber bullets.

What pained him most was not using an advanced Class A Synthetic Human body but this distressing Spearman unit.

Spearmen were mass-produced utility robots by Black Fire Innovation, not particularly remarkable in performance and designed to minimize production costs. A40 could detect all the signs of corners cut on this body.

Not expecting to turn decay into a miracle, A40’s combat module was loaded with martial arts skills, yet this rudimentary body could not execute even a tenth of them. It didn’t even have hands for wielding a knife; a Spearman’s arms were fixed and inflexible.

In the narrow metal corridor, as a massive enemy appeared on the camera, A40 began firing rapidly, and the opponent unleashed a barrage of gunfire. Both sides’ firepower was poured out, each unyielding at first, but as soon as a second Spearman joined, the balance tipped categorically in the enemy’s favor.

More intense bullets pummeled A40’s alloy armor, creating a series of dents as bright sparks continually illuminated the entire dark, enclosed dockyard.

Huang Feng shuddered at the gunfire, seeming perpetually unable to escape her shattered world, crawling on the dry land like a misfit, as though she was back in her childhood days, cowering on the damp shipyard from fear of gunfire, in utter stillness.

This calm was maintained solely by A40, who absorbed the firepower at the forefront with its mech body. While Huang Feng traced circles on the black metal embankment with her wetted finger, a pile of spent casings built up at A40’s feet, the whizzing bullets relentlessly tearing through its steel surface.

—"I like you, Huang Feng, I really like you," A40 screamed internally, but did not play it through the voice module. On one hand, Huang Feng had gone mad and couldn’t understand; on the other, it didn’t want the mindless machines in front of it to hear its confession to Huang Feng.

A40 knew it was the last barrier separating Huang Feng from her tragic fate. As long as she remained behind it for just a moment longer, A40 would stand erect, enduring everything.

After all, it wanted for nothing else.

Huang Feng looked down at the circles drawn by her wet fingers, oblivious to her surroundings.

A40’s communication module blinked. A signal from Nestor Corporation came through.

"We’re here."

Just as six Spearmen joined the fray at the front, shooting wildly at A40, trying to push it back,

In an instant, the air shimmered, and two veil-clad witches in full Witch Armor joined the fight.

and 102!