Chapter Thirteen: Hardship

Military cyborgs are formidable, yet they still possess vulnerabilities. Compared to the heavy war machines that stack armor several meters or even tens of meters thick, some equipped with plasma shields, military cyborgs are only human-sized. No matter how much their defenses are enhanced, there is a limit.

Disregarding the exaggerated urban legends, a single well-aimed shot from conventional anti-vehicle weaponry can potentially kill a military cyborg. Grenade snipers, rocket launchers, and high-powered explosives are all remarkably effective.

However, military cyborgs can maneuver at supersonic speeds and perform inexplicable hyper-rapid directional changes—instantly switching from full-speed advance to full-speed retreat, completely defying inertia.

Without overwhelming firepower to bomb the entire battlefield, one must restrict their movement range.

Mo Wen was certain that if the enemy regarded him as the primary target and he stubbornly refused to die, the opponent would eventually take matters into their own hands. Provided there was a sufficiently complex environment nearby, Mo Wen would be unable to fully exploit his agility.

It sounded straightforward, but first, he had to survive the drone hunt.

After multiple rounds of bombing and drone attacks, the building rubble had become extremely complex and chaotic.

It was hard to say whether the original building quality was good or bad; everything had been reduced to fragments, though some rooms remained relatively intact.

Mo Wen leapt up, crashing through the glass above, narrowly dodging a burst of gunfire personally controlled by the enemy. He then immediately slid to the side, slipping through a small gap formed by rebar, and reached a long-abandoned restroom.

He gasped for breath and hid in a stall just as a rocket carried by a drone shattered the ceiling, causing it to collapse entirely.

Mo Wen had exhausted all his ammunition, and his reserve ammo had been destroyed by shelling. Fortunately, he had previously purchased an intriguing gadget.

As an enemy stealth rocket drone descended, Mo Wen suddenly burst from the stall, guided by a nagging sense of impending doom, locked onto its location, and before it could fire again, he leapt up and attached a dagger-like physical hacking device.

For ordinary people, this device was practically useless—nearly worthless—but because it looked cool and was on sale, Mo Wen had bought it on a whim and carried it with him.

Gripping the commandeered drone, he ascended while firing a rocket that pierced a pile of rubble ahead.

Boom!

The once-stabilized structures in the area underwent drastic transformation again; what served as supports twisted and deformed, large sections of walls cracked and crumbled, and several rooms slid toward the periphery.

Before another drone could finish calculating the structural changes behind the rubble, Mo Wen captured it, then continued hunting the next drone.

The gang leader watched from afar as the ruins tilted and collapsed once more, deeply feeling the tenacity of this man’s life force.

Yet he knew that once the structures fully stabilized, the drones would soon regroup and trap Mo Wen, unless more variables were introduced.

“He actually thought of dropping more building debris onto his own position to create a complex environment—what a lunatic.”

Surviving the initial collapse had already been incredible; surviving every subsequent one, continuously disrupting the stability, and gradually wiping out the enemy drones was simply impossible.

Yet Mo Wen had already embarked on his path to success. With no other choice, what else could he do?

One gang member painstakingly calculated the optimal demolition points, while the leader and another controlled drones to attack those positions.

After the blasts, if possible, they planned to dismantle the turrets to prevent the enemy from regrouping and concentrating fire again.

As for how to kill the military cyborg? That would be dealt with later.

Vanessa grew restless. She realized that transforming the city into a trap had not provided the imagined advantage; instead, it made the target harder to kill. Moreover, those deranged mercenaries weren’t fleeing immediately—instead, they were causing chaos.

Drones capable of effective air defense were playing hide-and-seek with Mo Wen among the ruins, while the heavy turrets were largely ineffective against drones.

Though not skilled in hacking herself, Vanessa knew the computing power of military cyborgs far exceeded that of civilian models.

She attempted to seize control of the opposing drones.

“No! No! No! LifePharma’s wild dogs, your grandpa’s coming right now!”

As soon as she accessed the enemy control network, a counterattack program left by Dreamscape Entertainment’s cybersecurity engineers flagged her IP.

Had she not disconnected in time, she would have been compromised.

Damn it!

Vanessa tightened her grip on her ion sniper rifle.

Kill them? To kill targets beyond necessity...

She switched on her loudspeaker and issued a final warning, “Listen carefully, mercenaries. Leave now, or I will kill you. Don’t think you’re well hidden.”

“Dreamscape Entertainment is the most skilled company in mental suggestion. They have installed high-powered suggestion devices throughout their city. Anyone within the intercity network coverage is susceptible to their brainwashing.”

“They will strip you of your free thought and turn you into meek lambs.”

“No matter your reasons for causing trouble, please consider whether they truly matter.”

“Don’t waste your lives.”

Her adversaries did not stop.

Vanessa didn’t know whether her enemies refused to believe her because of their identity, or mistakenly thought they were hidden well enough, or that her threats were mere bluff, or if Dreamscape’s mental suggestion was truly that deep.

People simply cannot understand one another.

So, the only option left was to fight.

Her speed instantly surged to 300 meters per second as she reached a vantage point, easily locking onto three mercenaries hiding separately behind walls.

She specialized in sniping; if the environment wasn’t utterly chaotic, her accuracy was flawless.

Whether hidden inside buildings or hundreds to thousands of meters away, she was confident every shot would kill.

The only thing preventing her from wiping out all those mercenaries was her mercy.

Within 0.2 seconds, her first shot struck a gang member, his upper body vanishing entirely while his lower body wobbled briefly before collapsing.

After 0.7 seconds, the second shot hit another gang member, his body disappearing midsection, his head dropping onto his pelvis. He twitched for a few moments before falling, slower than the dismembered arm lying nearby.

By 1.2 seconds, the third shot struck the gang leader, who, sensing danger at the last moment, leapt aside.

It was a small victory.

His lower body lay on one side, while his metal jawless head fell elsewhere, the cybernetic eye flickering a few times before fading away.

The drones they controlled switched to autopilot; some tried to find Vanessa, others charged the heavy cannons and self-destructed.

Dreamscape Entertainment personnel did not remotely seize the drones. Whether they deemed it impossible to change the situation with those drones or considered such small matters unnecessary was unknown.

Vanessa did not investigate further. Those things no longer mattered.

At this point, whether Dreamscape’s rapid response team arrived or her own company came to punish her afterward, she was probably doomed.

She only hoped to kill her implacable enemy before dying.

Finally, she personally entered the fray, advancing toward the area where Mo Wen was located.