Chapter 71: Steel Warrior

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Steel Warrior

"Kill and search!"

Thousands of Mechanical Warriors flew majestically toward the eastern and western districts.

Although they didn’t have the numerical advantage, their artificial intelligence was far superior to that of the blood-colored birds.

Therefore, they weren’t at a complete disadvantage when it came to searching for Dream Gems.

They could even play the part of robbers, mugging the blood-colored birds that were carrying Dream Gems.

Chen Qi and Felix had managed to reach a fragile stalemate on this front.

Compared to the success here, the situation on the other front was far from optimistic.

The thirty-meter-long Molten Salamanders were practically cheating; they devoured Mechanical Warriors in a single gulp.

Worse, these creatures could spit magma, and when injured, they didn’t bleed blood, but rather the same searing, blood-colored magma.

Their stomachs were veritable furnaces. The Mechanical Warriors began to melt the instant they entered, causing most of Chen Qi’s self-destruct commands to fail.

"Combine and reconfigure!"

Their size was insufficient, so they would compensate by grouping up. Chen Qi certainly wouldn’t just sit by and watch his soldiers be devoured for nothing.

With his new command, dozens of Mechanical Warriors merged and reassembled, forming a small, thirty-meter-tall Mecha.

Calling it a Mecha was a stretch; it was really just an enlarged suit of Exoskeleton Armor.

But at least it could now trade blows evenly with the Molten Salamanders.

For a time, Chen Qi not only stabilized the front but even managed to push back.

Faced with a chainsword over ten meters long, even the Molten Salamanders, whose blood was like magma, would grow cold.

"Hahaha, 500 at last!"

"Come forth, Dark Giant! I’ve already won this game."

Despite being thwarted by Chen Qi, Felix had still managed to collect over 200 more Dream Gems, pushing his total fused count above 500.

This was a critical dividing line for power levels.

It meant that a player’s abilities had entered the LV4 era.

To advance to LV5, one would need 1,000 Dream Gems, which was practically impossible to achieve.

After all, the game would end the moment the final opponent was killed.

BOOM!

Beneath Felix’s feet, a depiction of endless darkness unfurled.

To an ordinary person, it might have looked like a pile of blood-colored ink blots.

But in the eyes of an abstract artist, it was layers of suppressed distortion and rage.

ROAR!

A pair of giant hands tore through the darkness, thrusting a hundred-ton head into the Dream Arena.

The head was monstrously huge; its two nostrils alone were like small wind tunnels howling with gales.

As the giant hands exerted their strength, the massive Dark Giant finally pulled itself free from the dark mire and entered this new world.

However, after appearing in the Dream Duel Arena, it didn’t obey Felix’s command to attack Chen Qi. Instead, it snatched the hundred-meter-tall giant ape beside Felix and stuffed it directly into its mouth.

The poor hundred-meter ape was like a little chick in the Dark Giant’s mouth. CRUNCH!

"I command you! Go and destroy my enemy!"

"Go now, you idiot!"

Felix shrieked his commands, continuously imposing his will on the thousand-meter-tall Dark Giant.

Finally, the Dark Giant began to move, lumbering toward the South District.

BOOM, BOOM. With every step the Giant took, half the district trembled.

’Damn it. It’s still too much for me to control an LV4 skill with my current Spirituality!’

’But in the end, I’ve still won.’

’Go crush that bird-man for me! Does he really think he’s an Angel from the Ancient Angel Empire?’

His youth restored, Felix couldn’t help but feel a competitive streak. Anyone would be annoyed seeing their opponent show off so flashily.

His vision piggybacked on a small bird, following swiftly behind the Dark Giant.

Soon, they reached the South District. The great battle there was nearing its end; the Mechanical Warriors and Molten Salamanders had more or less wiped each other out.

* * *

’This is incredible!’

’Is this the power of LV4?’

’No, that’s not right. I can feel the absurdity and irrationality of the Dream.’

Before the Dark Giant arrived, Chen Qi had just fused another 200 Dream Gems.

He then felt his abilities take a qualitative leap, as if they had reached another level—LV4.

If Felix had witnessed this, he surely would have been angry enough to forfeit the match.

’Why did it take me over 500 Dream Gems to reach LV4?’

After leveling up, however, Chen Qi’s face showed no joy. Instead, it was filled with deep disappointment.

Because he sensed "fakeness"!

At the LV4 level, the Dream Duel Arena became less about the game and more about the Dream.

And while the Dream was better at fulfilling one’s wishes, it was also filled with absurdity and irrationality.

Or perhaps, it was precisely because the Dream was so absurd and irrational that a rookie like him, at only LV2, could upgrade his skills to LV4.

It was no different from a regular dream, except this one was more detailed, more specific, and more easily controlled.

’It seems the Game Monarch’s level isn’t so high that it’s beyond my comprehension after all.’

’This Dream Duel Arena is only suitable for deducing abilities up to the LV3 level!’

’At that stage, the data in this private server game created by the Game Monarch is quite authentic. He probably stole it directly from the King’s Game.’

’But at LV4, due to a massive lack of data, advancement relies entirely on the unique nature of the Dream and the player’s own imagination!’

’As long as a player believes their development path can lead to LV4, they can achieve it with the help of Dream Gems.’

’The more confident the player, the firmer their belief, the fewer Dream Gems they need to spend!’

’In that case, this so-called LV4 is just a dream. Without the support of real data, it’s completely hollow in reality.’

’Still, it is rather satisfying to cut loose in a dream.’

Having seen through it all, Chen Qi looked disdainfully at the mountain-like Dark Giant.

’It’s just something fabricated from imagination.’

Felix had never seen a real Dark Giant. This thing probably had nothing to do with a real one, aside from a similar appearance.

’When it comes to imagination, to experience... Felix, you can’t compete!’

"Come forth, [Steel Warrior]!"

At this moment, Chen Qi’s golden wings already spanned a hundred meters.

Blazing golden flames enveloped him, making him look like a child of the Sun, born from the Sun itself.

What radiated from the golden flames was no longer a stream of particles, but strings of code interwoven with Cloud Patterns and Sleep Text.

If there were still any humans in the Chaotic City below, they would surely have been entranced by the dream, worshiping Chen Qi as the Sun God.

Whether it was Brain Escape technology or virtual game construction, Chen Qi knew how to do it all.

But what Chen Qi was using now was not the Infinite Hypnosis Ability he had conceptualized.

That ability wouldn’t work on the fake Dark Giant.

Chen Qi was using the dream-like nature of the Dream Duel Arena to create his childhood action figure, the Steel Warrior.

Although the [Steel Warrior] was only the lowest-tier model in the Heaven-Supporting Empire’s [Warrior] series, it was more than enough to crush this hollow-shelled Dark Giant.

RUMBLE!

Upon the ground, countless streams of liquid metal filled with mechanical code converged and merged, forming a silvery lake.

Within the silver lake, 129,600 gears took shape. They interlocked and connected on their own, constantly growing larger and stronger.

Finally, a gleaming, three-thousand-meter-tall steel giant was born!