Monsters Are Coming

Cave World.

Mechanical Ruins, Underground Tunnels.

The flashlight beam wandered over the damp walls, as Ah Lan remained in Combined Form and Combat Mode, adorned with Monster Form teammates as attachments.

After this period of exploration, the Combined Mode was upgraded again.

Besides having more teammate attachments, his Star Vein Combination also had new Life Souls added.

The "Insight" Life Soul was added, helping him quickly locate the weak points on mechanical life forms, improving hunting efficiency.

Originally, he planned to embed the latest acquired Siphon Soul to enhance combat endurance.

But mechanical life forms simply don’t have spiritual power to siphon, making the hunting environment unsuitable.

In fact, as the main part of the Combined Transformers gameplay, he has many Life Souls to embed, with each one significantly boosting overall strength.

Unfortunately, upgrading the Star Vein Level is too expensive.

For the next Star Vein upgrade, he’s planning to embed the "Gold Coin" Life Soul to improve the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce’s earnings, however, the Star Vein Slot seems fundamentally insufficient.

After exploring the Mechanical Ruins City, he plans to get his teammates back on track.

Completely bid farewell to the Combined Transformation Mode and return to mainstream gameplay.

This way, he can eliminate some Life Souls specific to Combined gameplay.

Such as Life Sharing Soul and Scatter Arrow Soul, they need to be discarded after ending Combined Mode.

Teammates can also free themselves from attachment mode and officially begin their exploration of Monster World.

Walking along the path, his boots made a "squelching" sound stepping into puddles, while the air here was filled with the smell of engine oil and metallic rust.

The areas his gaze swept across were scattered with shattered mechanical parts, various gears, bearings, and broken mechanical arms piled together, resembling a special mechanical funeral.

"Captain, watch out for electrocution." At this moment, Eagle-Headed Demon teammate warned in the mind.

Ah Lan looked toward the location marked by Eagle-Headed Demon, not far away, three broken cables hung from the ceiling, occasionally sparking, illuminating the oil floating in the puddles below.

"Understood."

After responding, Ah Lan chose to avoid the electrocuted puddle area, sticking to the wall as he ventured forward.

Passing through the nearly defunct mechanical tunnel, his view suddenly widened.

Before his eyes was a silver-white scene.

At this moment, Ah Lan heard a faint buzzing sound coming from the depths of the scene where light couldn’t reach.

"Captain, it’s a lineup of sweeping robots; they can fight, they can ramble."

With a clear response from a teammate, Ah Lan raised his left hand with Rock Shield teammate, while his right hand Power Barbarian Axe teammate erupted with golden flames.

In the darkness, sweeping robots with red lights kept emerging, raising rust-removal brushes, forming a collective assault.

Ah Lan actively stepped forward, right hand sweeping the Power Barbarian Axe suddenly towards the front.

Battle Aura Soul was released; as the axe swung, it streaked with brilliance, the released axe image instantly split three sweeping robots, scattering parts everywhere.

Challenger Tips echoed in the mind, Ah Lan twisted his hips for leverage, swinging the Power Barbarian Axe again.

The sound of metal cutting rang crisp and clear.

Not long thereafter, he cleared away the group of sweeping robots which previously required teammates to barely eliminate with combined effort.

Summoning the map, he realized he was 3.8 kilometers away from the center area of Mechanical Ruins City, not far now.

With clear direction, Ah Lan did not linger and continued exploring towards the central zone.

Reaching the end of the silver-white scene, Ah Lan saw a broken production line stubbornly operating, emitting a low hum.

The metal framework of the production line was long rusted, partially bent from the collapsed ceiling, yet still defiantly reaching into the dark abyss.

The conveyor belt was filled with cracks and welding marks left by engineer robots, producing occasional harsh friction sounds.

At the starting point of the line, four old mechanical arms quivered as they picked sparse metal fragments from a mountain of waste, joints creaking, movements slow and unwieldy, seemingly prone to collapse.

Read full story at noᴠelfire.net

These metal fragments mostly recycled from mechanical ruins, surfaces covered with scratches and rust, long lost their original luster.

On the middle section of the line, a few barely-functional welding robots tried to patch these fragments into sweeping robot shells.

The welding guns emitted weak sparks, but energy supply was clearly insufficient, welding points varied unevenly.

At the end of the line, a barely-formed sweeping robot wobbled off the conveyor belt.

Its shell, albeit polished bright, handled tilted wheels, wobbling as it moved.

The sweeping robot formation encountered earlier evidently originated from here.

Ah Lan did not overlook these resources.

He eliminated the still-operating robots and dismantled energy from the production line, storing it into the Space Bag.

Including the piled mechanical remnants, nothing was spared.

Be it sacrificial offerings to Emperor Zhao or placing in the Trading House, it promised sought-after extra earnings.

Leaving the sweeping robot production line behind, Ah Lan led the team onward.

The Machine Warriors encountered later showed significant strength escalation.

Guardian Type, Combat Type, Destructive Type... their Hunting Levels reached 25+, with Destructive Type robots generally at 30+.

Even with the Combined Transformation Mode blessing, Ah Lan felt overwhelming exertion.

Progression speed needed moderation, after each fight potion consumption regained status.

The 3-kilometer trail consumed half a day.

At last, they arrived at Mechanical Ruins City’s outer central zone.