Chapter 111: Chapter 108: Insidious Little Spider
At the Black Tower of the Forge’s annual grand event, the "Black Tower New Star Cup," the spectator stands were buzzing with excitent.
A circular, floating spectator platform was suspended a hundred ters in the air, where nearly five hundred apprentices whispered to one another.
Below them lay a massive, simulated battlefield of urban ruins.
The competition grounds of the Black Tower of the Forge were open to the public, so junior apprentices and mbers of other schools could also co to watch.
In the very center of the spectator platform, a giant Magic Light Curtain displayed the scene below.
The best seats in the front row were reserved for several professors of the alchemy school.
rcer Iron Star was among them. He leaned back in his chair, his brass chanical arm particularly conspicuous, his expression unreadable.
"Ladies and gentlen! Welco to the finals of this year’s most thrilling event, the Black Tower New Star Cup!"
An Alchemy Puppet with a graceful figure, resembling a songstress, levitated into the air and floated lightly in front of the Magic Light Curtain.
Her sweet voice, amplified by an Amplification Array, echoed throughout the entire competition grounds:
"Thirty-seven contestants, thirty-seven killing machines, will stage the purest form of chanical Body warfare for us in these simulated ruins!"
As she spoke, the huge Magic Light Curtain split into thirty-seven screens of varying sizes with a SWISH.
There were no caras; so form of tracking Witchcraft locked onto each competing chanical Body, displaying their real-ti movents for all to see without reservation.
"Look! It’s the ’Abyssal Python’! Its unparalleled crushing power turned many Alchemy Puppets into scrap tal last year!"
On one screen, a tallic python over ten ters long was coiled atop a collapsed building, its scales glinting with a dark light.
"And there’s the ’Armored Barrier’! Look at the nacing muzzle of that Magic-guided Cannon. It’s practically a mobile war fortress!"
The view switched to a tracked vehicle resembling a tank, crushing rubble under its treads as its cannon muzzle slowly swiveled.
So of the senior students had already participated two or three tis, so the capabilities of their chanical Bodies were well-known.
Although repeat participants could only win Magic Stones, the Advanced Apprentices of the alchemy school were always eager to compete, seeing the event as a testing ground to hone their skills.
"Oh! Victor Iron Fla’s creation! The handso newcor of our alchemy school this year!"
The announcer’s voice jumped an octave as the screen switched to a chanical Body that was crimson from head to toe.
It was a nacing tal scorpion nad the "Molten Champion."
The carapace on its back was thick and smooth, and its two massive pincers glowed from within like molten rock, looking as if they could lt steel at any mont.
At the tip of its tail, a sharp crystalline lens glinted with a dangerous light.
"A beautiful design! Imnse firepower!"
Gasps of awe and murmurs of discussion erupted from the spectator seats.
After introducing a series of popular contestants, the announcer’s "cara" quickly scanned across the other screens. On one of them, Allen’s "Spider Slayer" lay motionless.
"And... the other entries."
The announcer brushed past it with a single sentence, showing no interest in introducing the unremarkable black spider.
This inconspicuous mont naturally caught Victor’s eye in the stands.
He was seated not far from the professors’ section, surrounded by a few friends.
"Is that your fellow apprentice Allen Wesren’s chanical Body? It looks... pretty boring," one of them said with a laugh.
Victor narrowed his eyes, not even bothering to reply.
’What Allen Wesren’s chanical Body can do remains to be seen,’ he thought. ’But anyone approved by Master rcer can’t be that simple.’
"The competition... officially begins!"
At the Alchemy Puppet’s command, hundreds of patrol puppets, serving as targets for points, were activated in the urban ruins.
After receiving the start signal, most of the competing chanical Bodies initiated their pre-programd search-and-destroy protocols, while so took cover in the nearby ruins.
The "Abyssal Python" scored the first kill. It dropped its camouflage and lunged out, twisting an Alchemy Puppet into scrap in a flash of movent to earn the first point.
The "Armored Barrier’s" Magic-guided Cannon let out a roar, blasting two puppets clustered together into pieces from a distance, instantly taking the lead.
The scoreboard on the Magic Light Curtain flickered rapidly as Victor Iron Fla’s na also shot up into the top ranks.
His "Molten Champion" swung its great pincers, easily lting a puppet’s outer shell into molten slag. The beam emitter on its scorpion tail then precisely pierced the target’s faceplate, racking up points with astonishing efficiency.
However, amidst all the chaos, the screen for number 27 seed completely out of place.
Allen’s "Spider Slayer" hadn’t joined any of the skirmishes.
In the very first second of the competition, it scuttled away on its six jointed legs, silently avoiding all combat zones and patrol puppet routes, and headed for the tallest, most structurally complex abandoned building at the edge of the map.
It moved quickly but with exceptional stability, each leg landing precisely on the most solid footing, like a ghost gliding through the ruins.
"Hey, look at number 27. What’s it doing?" a junior apprentice in the stands asked, pointing at Allen’s screen with a bewildered expression.
"It’s running away? What kind of tactic is that? Is it planning to hide until the last hour?" the person next to him wondered aloud.
In the contestants’ section, Allen sat quietly in a corner, paying no heed to the surrounding chatter, calmly watching his Spider Slayer operate autonomously.
Once the competition began, a Rune Barrier severed all ntal links with the contestants.
Now, everything was left to the autonomous judgnt of the competing chanical Bodies.
The "Spider Slayer’s" climbing ability was astounding.
Its six legs dug deep into the nearly vertical wall of the building, scaling it as if it were flat ground. It ascended silently, soon reaching a dilapidated, shadow-enshrouded lookout post at the very top.
This was the highest point on the entire battlefield, offering a superb field of view while also being perfectly concealed by a broken wall.
The "Spider Slayer" wedged its body into a corner, its six legs firmly anchored by spikes, and completely rged with the shadows.
[Engaging silent sniper mode.]
[Scanning environnt... Filtering targets... Assessing threats...]
[Calculating optimal attack sequence...]
The outer shell of the Spider Slayer’s head slid open, and a sniper module slowly unfolded and extended.
The weapon mounted on the Spider Slayer was a downgraded, low-spec version of the Judgnt Platform. It could only maintain its precision and power within 600 ters, but that was more than enough to deal with these low-level puppets, which cost no more than 1,000 Magic Stones each.
Three hundred ters away, a Shield Guard Puppet holding a massive shield was patrolling the street. Its defenses were incredibly formidable, making it a tough nut to crack that most competing chanical Bodies would choose to avoid.
The "Spider Slayer" locked onto the unarmored back of the Shield Guard Puppet’s neck.
[Target locked: Shield Guard Puppet]
[Attack solution generated. Weakness: Neck structure.]
[Executing.]
A barely perceptible glimr of energy gathered.
"PFFT."
A soft sound.
A beam of dark blue light, as thin as a strand of hair, instantly shot across several hundred ters of space and precisely entered the unarmored gap.
Down on the battlefield, the patrolling Shield Guard Puppet’s movents suddenly froze, and the energy lights all over its body instantly went out.
"CRASH!"
The tal creation, weighing several tons, crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Huh?"
"What was that?" an Advanced Apprentice on the spectator platform asked in surprise.
His chanical Body specialized in armor penetration. He had just selected his target when he saw the puppet in front of him suddenly "die" on the spot.
’Who did that?’
In the stands, a portion of the audience was also baffled.
"What happened? Did the Alchemy Puppet malfunction?"
"Was that an attack from that chanical Body? I didn’t see anything."
In the front row, rcer Iron Star narrowed his eyes. His gaze slowly shifted from the fallen puppet to the screen in the corner of the Magic Light Curtain, showing the forgotten number 27 chanical Body.
At the sa ti, on the giant scoreboard, an unremarkable na’s score jumped from "0" to "1."
[Allen Wesren: 1 point]
Atop the high-rise, hidden in the shadows, the "Spider Slayer" turned and began searching for its next target.
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