Chapter 7 Leaving the Arena

After leaving the arena, Snow sped off on his motorcycle, scattering "spider beacons" that he had prepared before the match along the way.

These beacons resembled mechanical spiders, and they could indeed crawl like spiders. They were tiny and fast, making them hard to spot even on bare concrete. In grassy or sandy areas... they were mostly detectable only with special "visual" abilities.

This... was also one of the advantages of Machinery Specialization players. They could prepare small, permanent gadgets that could be put into their bags before the match and then taken out for immediate use.

More on the function of these beacons later; for now, let's focus on Snow...

He rode for over a dozen kilometers, though in terms of time, it was only about ten minutes.

Then, he saw the "boundary" of the battlefield.

The "boundary barrier" was transparent, but when sunlight shone on it, it refracted various colors of light, making this invisible wall visible from afar.

Soon, Snow arrived at the barrier, stopped his motorcycle, and reached out to touch the transparent force field. Then... he received the relevant system prompt.

Having confirmed that he could not further increase the distance, Snow wasted no time. He immediately jumped off the bike and activated [Construction Summoning Art – Cybertron Warrior].

As the name suggests, this skill could summon a Transformer.

Seeing this, do you think Optimus Prime, Megatron, and other such characters were about to appear?

Anyone who thinks that... is clearly too young.

Warriors of Optimus Prime or Shockwave's caliber would require at least an A-level skill with certain special conditions or a large consumption cost to summon. As for characters like Megatron or Sixshot, they would definitely require an S-level skill. As for things like Unicron or Primus... just think about it, don't get hung up on it.

Currently, Snow's skill was only a B-level dual-specialization skill. The so-called "Cybertron Warrior" was actually just a randomly summoned warrior-type Cybertronian.

However, because he was equipped with the passive skill [Artisan's Spirit], the skill's effect was somewhat enhanced. So, in a few cases, he could randomly summon warriors of the caliber of Steeljaw or Fireflight.

Squeak, crackle, crackle...

Accompanied by a strange transforming sound, an ordinary Cybertronian warrior appeared before Snow. It seemed his luck was average today, and he didn't summon a named character.

But it didn't matter; he never intended for this character to fight anyway.

The advantage of this type of semi-machinery, semi-summoning skill creation was that, unlike pure machinery specialization creations (like the motorcycle just now), it didn't require the caster to spend time and energy to "build." He could summon it immediately by just taking out the consumables mentioned in the skill description.

As soon as the Cybertronian stood still, Snow immediately issued a "dig a pit" command, while Snow himself... began to take out various materials from his bag.

The two worked in sync, and their efficiency was high. Before long, the tall Cybertronian warrior had dug a large, deep vertical pit similar to a "well." Snow also used the skills [Synthesis Art – General-Purpose Parts] and [Synthesis Art – Special Parts] to make some basic materials on the side.

Then, Snow activated the skill [Armor Transformation].

[Name: Armor Transformation]

[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Learned]

[Skill Category: Machinery]

[Effect: Allows you to perform a cool armor transformation lasting twenty seconds (cooldown time: two hours)]

[Consumption: Stamina Value 200, a pile of metal or machinery specialization creations weighing no less than your own body weight]

[Learning Conditions: General Specialization A, Machinery Specialization C]

[Note: After transformation, your strength, speed, and endurance will increase or decrease depending on the materials you use for the transformation. The duration of the transformation is theoretically infinite unless you actively remove the armor or release any transformation-based skills again.

Please note: This isn't like those cartoons where they reuse the same footage for an entire season; your transformation process can be interrupted by any external force other than yourself.]

After the skill was activated, BGM started playing from somewhere...

Then, Snow levitated in place, waiting for the "armor parts" that had changed shape in the white light to cover his body one by one. During this process, every time a part "touched" him, a "ping" sound effect would be emitted, and Snow's body was involuntarily changing poses to cooperate with the "transformation."

The six teammates watching Snow from the spectator space (the rectangular spectator container would focus on the members of the team, and when the player moved away from the initial battle area, the container would quickly teleport above him or to another suitable viewing position; at the same time, the enemy player's situation would be displayed on one wall of the container in a small split screen) were already numb to it.

After all, they had been playing with Snow for a month, and they were used to this embarrassing transformation.

But... the members of the enemy team were shocked.

The six brothers from the [Super Monster Team] watched Snow complete a transformation scene common in cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s on the split screen of the spectator space. Everything from the sound effects to the movements was unbearably awkward. The strangest thing was... even after the transformation was complete, Snow still had no intention of returning to the battle, but continued to "work" in this transformed form.

The transformation was just preparation work; he created this armor for himself to be able to "work underground." After he finished, he activated [Construction Art – Dream Machine] and began to build a missile silo.

Similar to [Construction Art – King of the Mountain Road], the special effect of this skill couldn't be said to be extremely overpowered, nor could it be said to be very weak. However, its freedom and potential were great... In short, the user's wisdom determined the upper limit of its performance.

Snow was clearly a user with a lot of imagination. His tactics were not only unexpected, but also effective.

In his transformed state, he spent only five or six minutes building the basic infrastructure needed for the launch, and then activated the even more powerful [Construction Art – Demigod Machine] to start building the missile.

At the same time, Red King was still sitting there in the arena...

Brother Red was also puzzled. He had been waiting for twenty minutes, but there was no movement around him, and there were no signs of the opponent returning to fight.

Logically, after such a long time, the opponent should have been judged to be "passively playing" and started to be subject to various sanctions, but... after all, he was a member of the Inferno Front, and Red King was still a little uneasy.

After thinking about it, he decided to... leave.

Red King wasn't stupid either. He wouldn't chase straight in the direction the opponent had fled. He already knew that his opponent was a machinery specialization player, and he didn't want to suddenly die halfway by stepping on some explosive.

Therefore, he chose a roundabout route, wanting to go around a bend and head in that direction.

In all fairness, his response wasn't bad, and at least from his perspective, it was well-considered.

In this way, Red King cautiously began to flank toward the direction Snow had left, using a slow jogging pace that hardly consumed any stamina. And this speed... was undoubtedly unable to shake off Snow's "spider beacons."

About ten minutes passed, and Red King had run about two kilometers. However, because he was "flanking" instead of running straight toward Snow, the distance between the two had only shortened by a little more than one kilometer.

Just as Brother Red was considering whether to speed up a little, he suddenly saw something...

In this sunny sky and desolate wasteland with its monotonous scenery, a black dot suddenly appeared in mid-air and was getting bigger and bigger... It was hard not to notice it.

"Huh?" When Red King first saw the thing, he felt something was wrong, so he quickly stopped and raised the weapon in his hand warily, preparing to block. "Could it be a long-range hidden weapon?"

As the black dot gradually approached, his expression slowly changed.

"Wait... wait a minute..." A few seconds later, Brother Red couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Just how big is this thing?"

Before long, the black dot became a "black pillar," and the details of its appearance became clear.

"No way..." After seeing what was flying toward him, Red King hunched his back, stretched his neck forward slightly, and wore an expression as if he had just swallowed a mouthful of Coptis chinensis. He muttered, "This is unscientific... It must be an illusion!"

This self-deceiving thought didn't last long, because the missile Snow launched landed a few seconds later.

A missile is not an arrow; it doesn't need (and it's hard) to hit the target directly. It only needs to ensure that the target is within its kill range when it explodes. And Red King... was undoubtedly within the damage radius of this missile at this moment.

His real-time coordinates, movement route, and movement speed... had always been under Snow's surveillance. Calculating these data along with the speed of the missile's flight made it easy to select a suitable drop range. And when the missile approached the area where Red King was, those spider beacons could provide ground guidance, directing the missile as close as possible to the target to maximize its power.

In other words... even if Red King immediately realized that it was a missile as soon as he saw the black dot in the sky and tried to escape, with his speed... he probably still couldn't escape this attack.

Boom—

The explosion happened.

[Construction Art – Demigod Machine] was originally an A-level skill that required a large number of ordinary materials and a small number of special materials to activate. Considering the time required for construction, the user's additional abilities, and other variable factors, the upper limit of this skill was terrifying.

Even if the real Red King (the first monster in the Ultraman series to be set as "especially strong") were standing here today, he would basically be taken away in one shot, let alone a player with a hidden score of over seventy...

Thus, the first round of the vanguard battle for Inferno Front in S3 ended with "a member of the enemy team being directly evaporated by a single missile along with the soil within a radius of several hundred meters without making a single move."