Chapter 7: The Metropolis of Machines

  As expected, not long after Dylan finished speaking, Tan Heng led Fang Kai out of the temple with a high and proud attitude. Sisadawa's tense face suddenly relaxed, he glanced at Fang Kai, who was expressionless, and couldn't help but say with a smile: "Old friend, it's been a long time." Sisadawa deliberately emphasized the two words "long time", which made Fang Kai glance at him, but he didn't dare to say anything. When you're under someone else's roof, you have to lower your head, that's just the way it is.

  "Haha", Tan Heng Luo patted Si Da Wa's shoulder, laughing: "Old what friend, just a little white mouse." Tan Heng Luo very arrogantly raised his middle finger to Ke Kai, the mocking meaning was self-evident.

  If it weren't for the bigger picture, Fang Kai really wanted to rush up and give Tan Heng a good beating. "Endure for a moment, calm and peaceful, I endure." Fang Kai constantly reminded himself in his heart not to be impulsive, and couldn't afford to ruin everything because of a momentary anger.

  At this time, Dylan spoke up, and saw him move his eyes eastward, meaningfully saying: "Let's go, it's time to take back what belongs to us."

  "Let's go." Tan Heng Luo gave Fang Kai a push, the latter looked at the people of Zeta Ceti for a moment, but didn't say anything else and followed step by step. However, Fang Kai was thinking about the profound meaning hidden in Dilan Ka's words.

  What's ours? What does Central America have that belongs to the Zorvathians? Mission, objective... I get it! Thinking of a certain possibility, Fang Kai's eyes suddenly lit up.

  To verify whether his guess was correct, he decided to pretend to be a guinea pig. "You want me to be the guinea pig, haha, let's see who is the real guinea pig." Fang Kai's face showed no emotion, but in his heart, he had already clenched his fists.

  After Fang Kai and the three Zergs left, a shadow suddenly emerged from the dark entrance of the temple. The shadow waved its hand, and the entrance to the temple was instantly filled with vines again. As for the shadow, it glanced at the people who had gone far away, and then flashed into the bushes.

  A group of people kept walking east, Fang Kai closely observed the surrounding environment and found that they had crossed several shrub thickets. After about a few hours, they stopped at a mountain pass.

  The mountain pass was formed by two large peaks, with primitive forests covering the peaks. Fang Kai and others stopped at the foot of the mountain, near the pass. At this time, only to see Sisadawa carrying a metal gun, turning over the pass, and then coming back, saying to Dilanka with a serious face: "Inside is indeed heavily guarded, we need to make arrangements in advance, otherwise..." Sisadawa stopped abruptly, it seems that there must be something inside the pass that makes him apprehensive.

  Fang Kai's heart skipped a beat, and then he saw Dilara press her lips together, closing her eyes after a long time: "No problem, with the white mouse around, we can lure the snake out of its hole." Dilara suddenly looked at Fang Kai with great significance, making him feel very unnatural, his goosebumps rising all over.

  "It turned out that they really wanted me to go and gather intelligence, but what exactly was inside the fort, not even the people of Zetsukai were sure?" Fang Kai suddenly became very curious about the world inside the fort.

  Three Zorvathians conferred and finally determined their strategy. Tan Heng Luo and Si Da Wa were sent to the two mountain peaks respectively, looking for opportunities to sneak into the pass. Fang Kai was followed by Dilar Kana in secret, drawing away the guards at the pass.

  As soon as the plan was set, several people immediately took action. After flipping over a group of bushes, Fang Kai finally saw the scene inside the mountain pass! With just one glance, he sucked in a breath of cold air.

  In the depths of a vast and low-lying valley, a city stood towering. The city was square in shape, and at first glance, it seemed ordinary, but upon closer inspection, one-third of the city was an ancient town close to the ground; while the other two-thirds floated in mid-air, astonishingly all made up of mechanical components!

  The city's architecture seemed to follow a certain rule, and Fang Kei roughly looked at it, only to find that it was Mayan text. Connecting to the database, Fang Kei gradually learned that the text meant "Tikal". Wait, Tikal? Wasn't that... With a hiss, Fang Kei took another deep breath.

  Wow, an ancient city from thousands of years ago is so mechanized! What's even more incredible is that the remaining ancient city, although scarce, is separated by mechanical buildings in a staggered manner, beautifully combining ancient and technological atmospheres. Fang Kai couldn't help but admire the people who built this city for their extraordinary ideas.

  Mechanical buildings are "moving", Fang Kai noticed that some factories, roads, administrative buildings and even hub crystals are floating up and down. Standing on high ground, Fang Kai can see that the roads are densely packed with silver dots.

  Squinting his eyes, Fang Kai made an effort to observe carefully and finally discovered that those silver dots were actually individual mechanical men! Looking again at the city gate, there were indeed several rows of mechanical guards patrolling.

  "Could it be that the legendary city of Tikal has become a kingdom of mechanical people?!" Witnessing all this, Fang Kai's mind was shaken for a long time and couldn't calm down until he was poked in the back by Dilan.

  Fang Kai suddenly woke up, and suddenly remembered the content of the conversation with the Zekr people before. His face changed instantly, and he thought to himself: "Could it be that they want me to lure away the guards at the entrance?" Looking at those armed mechanical men, Fang Kai couldn't help but smile bitterly.

  As expected, Dillan Ka pointed at the mechanical guards and said calmly: "You, go lure them away. I don't care what method you use, if you fail, then you'll die." Dillan Ka's tone was cold and detached, as if Fang Ke's life wasn't worth mentioning in his eyes.

  Looking at his facial expression, Fang Kai suddenly felt a surge of anger in his heart. Why could he be so arrogant, so cold-blooded, and so ruthless? Did his life count as a life, while others' didn't? This Tskel star person, why did he get to point fingers at himself, why did he get to control his own life and death?

  Fang Kai clenched his fists, and his face turned red with rage. It seemed that he could no longer hold back, and was about to erupt. Just then, the central crystal of Tikal City emitted a warning sound.

  "Warning, warning, someone is invading, someone is invading!" The crystal ball repeated the alarm signal. Dylank's face changed and he glared at Fangkai: "Thanks to you, it's not needed now, get down for me." Fangkai's eyelid twitched, and he felt his body lighten, and was actually kicked off the ridge by Dylank.

  The plan to lure the snake out of the hole failed, and Fang Kai naturally became a sacrifice, being ruthlessly abandoned in front of the mechanical man. However, in crisis lies opportunity. Although he was discarded by the Zergs, wasn't this what Fang Kai had wanted? This way, he might be able to escape even better.

  But on one condition: he must escape the mechanical guards' pursuit.

  The whole city was no longer quiet, with alarms filling the sky. Group after group of mechanical people walked out of the armory and transportation channels, in an orderly manner, heading towards the gate.

  As for the guards who were originally stationed at the gate, they had already gone to the east. Because the lowlands were full of grass and not too far from the slope, Fang Ke used some landing techniques and didn't die from the fall. After roughly bandaging his external injuries, Fang Ke picked up his metal gun and prepared for battle.

  Only to see the mechanical guards divided into two columns, forming a "yan" character shape surrounding Fang Kai. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that those holding cannons and guns were staggered, surprisingly having the meaning of an array method.

  "At this time, the earth's technology is indeed powerful, even mechanical people are so intelligent." Fang Kai couldn't help but sigh in his heart, if there hadn't been a nuclear war outbreak, maybe he wouldn't have come to these ghostly places either.

  Biting his lip, Fang Kai roughly formulated a strategy. First, he had to shake off these guards; otherwise, when the reinforcements arrived, he would really be unable to escape. Secondly, he had to infiltrate Tiqar City. Think about it, the Zergs were so obsessed with this city, which meant there must be something important inside. And weren't those despicable guys always searching for the remains of Crystal Warriors?

  As soon as he thought of the Crystal Warriors, Fang Kai suddenly remembered the box containing the skull. Fang Kai recalled that he had carefully placed the box in the palm of his right hand, where some parts of his body had been modified to store important items (such as weapons). He wondered if it was still there.

  "It should be there..." Fang Kai thought that except for himself, it was impossible for anyone else to know where he would hide the box. But when he bent down into the grass and opened the palm-sized door with his right hand, he found that inside was empty, the box had flown away!

  This really scared Fang Kai, although it was a bit lucky, but in order to get the crystal warrior's head, he and Ruò Zǐ had gone through many dangers and spent countless heart and blood. Now, the box said that it was lost, how could Fang Kai explain to others? "How can this be, what exactly happened, where did you lose it?"

  Fang Kai kept asking himself, and suddenly his mind stayed in a certain place. Ah! He remembered that after he drove away the electric wolf, he fainted, but then appeared at the entrance of the Feather Snake Temple. Could it be that the box was lost during his unconscious period? Then, who exactly moved it? Logically speaking, except for Fang Kai himself, no one would know where the box was hidden!

  Fang Kai was deep in thought, unaware that the mechanical guards had already launched an attack.

  With a loud roar, a cyan laser beam burst out of the mechanical gunner's hand, and behind the laser beam, countless silver bullets were mixed in. The target of these ammunitions was undoubtedly Fang Kai.

  With a loud "bang", the grass thicket where Fang Kai was hiding caved in, revealing some brownish-yellow soil, and countless green blades of grass were snapped off.

  "My god, I'm scared to death." On the other side of the big pit, Fang Kai stood up, constantly patting his chest, with a look of fear. It turned out that when the laser beam and silver bullet were shot out earlier, Fang Kai had rolled over to the side, almost getting blown to death. However, the mud splashed by the explosion made Fang Kai extremely dirty all over.

  However, Fang Kai just poked his head out and hadn't caught his breath when the mechanical artillery locked onto him again. This time, it wasn't just one laser beam, but a whole row of them!

  As he saw the hail of gunfire and cannonballs coming his way, Fang Kai finally steeled himself for a fight to the death.

  "Are you the only ones with cannons?" Fang Kai hummed, picking up the pulse cannon and aiming at the mechanical guards. It seems that both sides are about to enter a real battle.