Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the previously still trucks suddenly began to emit faint sounds of twisting metal.

At first, it was just a trickle, then a stream, and then… visible deformation occurred.

In the grating, teeth-clenching noise, the dozen heavy trucks brought by the Doctor Battle Gang seemed to have developed their own will. With chilling changes, they twisted into bizarre entities, amalgams of contorted steel and tangled wires.

They resembled weapons, yet also resembled human arms…

The drivers of these trucks had long since left their cabs, yet these twisted heavy trucks moved as if each one possessed its own consciousness, beginning to act on their own.

Under the control of some invisible will, these seemingly actionless twisted entities started to converge in the same direction.

"Click!"

"Click!"

"Click Click Click Click!"

The more these abnormal entities merged, the more intense the interlocking sounds became.

When the last sound of connection went silent, a giant steel figure that had been lying on the ground now stood up like a colossal giant.

As the "giant" revealed its true form, red and blue lights in the pattern of wires coursing throughout its body began to dart around, as if… neural signals were being transmitted through a neural network.

The giant began to truly control its body.

Its height of several dozen meters even gave the impression that the giant could touch the top of the rock walls that isolated the Upper Middle City District with a mere stretch of its hand.

Its size, at least two to three times larger than the largest mechas of mankind, meant that even a casual movement could whip up a violent windstorm.

Witnessing this monstrous "creature" that had emerged in just tens of seconds, security team members standing close at its feet could not even discern its true form.

Although they had encountered countless strange events, they had never anticipated witnessing the scene before them, but still, they tried to keep their minds clear.

"Is this the work of those demons? It must be the work of those demons!"

Look at that twisted abomination and the red and blue lights coursing through it; it must be the devilish trickery of a demon's shriek!

"No!" Caesar's gaze hardened as he looked up along the twisted yet aesthetically imposing colossus, only to find that he could not penetrate the fog in the high darkness above.

As a graduate of the Spiritual Power Managers Center, although he wasn't as professional as those enforcers from the Demon Arbitration Court, he did have his own understanding of detecting the presence of demons.

"It has nothing to do with demons… it's just…"

…

"… just an ocean of pure sincerity."

Unlike mechas, the giant moved without a hint of awkwardness.

But it still cautiously crouched down, its steel arms bristling with weapons, and swiped towards the security team engaged in a fight with the Doctor Battle Gang.

As the pressure of its motion caused their garments to billow, the fearsome steel hand, covered in barrels and gun muzzles, suddenly stopped just above their heads.

"Creak~"

The machine gun's cylinder rotated without firing, but the menacing intent was clear.

"Move aside."

The elderly leader of the gang watched through tears as he gazed up at the end of the enormous giant that seemed endless.

Though he could not see his old comrades, he knew that they must be able to see him.

They were watching themselves.

Everything done to this date was in the name of a promise made long ago.

...

"I heard that tomorrow they're planning to have the new batch of artificial human soldiers go up against the old vets in a military exercise, two thousand against two thousand. Who knows how it will turn out..."

Under the warm glow of the barracks' lights, Carlos leaned close to the elderly man lying in bed, his hands firmly clasping the man's carelessly draped left hand, speaking in a clear and quiet voice, "Which side do you favor more?"

The old man smiled and shook his head, "Either side is fine, after all, they are both soldiers of the barracks. But if the numbers are equal, the new soldiers couldn't possibly beat the veterans, could they?"

"But I feel that these two thousand new soldiers, after Bai E's special training, must be somewhat different."

"General Bai E..." The elderly man murmured the name softly, his eyes looking somewhat unfocused.

"He was the first one you discovered. Forgive me, but when I first met him, I even failed to notice what made him different..."

"In truth, I didn't really understand either..." the old man said with a smile tinged with helplessness, shaking his head, "I still don't know why I made such a decision back then. Perhaps, it was just a feeling."

"Your feeling wasn't wrong, today he is indeed the first one who might truly change the status of artificial humans," Carlos said with an intense gaze, looking at the old man, "You have given so much for these newly born children..."

'Given so much?'

The elderly man muttered inwardly, laying back against the pillow and closing his eyes.

In a daze, it was as though he had returned to that afternoon years ago—

"Report! The results of the first batch of artificial human combat tests are in! These artificial human soldiers adapt to the battlefield incredibly well. They showed no fear of life and death on their first foray to the front lines, each one courageous and commendable!"

"What about the severely wounded individuals, how should we handle them?"

"Severely wounded?" The elderly man, a marshal at the time, casually answered, "As per usual, give them a sum of money and send them home."

But on second thought, what home did these artificial humans have?

With a sigh, he instructed, "Let them stay in the military hospital to recover."

At that time, the barracks were not yet influenced by any old notions about these fresh artificial humans, and everyone was genuinely curious about these new comrades joining them.

No one had any objections to his order.

But eventually... the natural humans in the barracks realized something—

They did not possess the boldness and bravery of the artificial humans. Even though the artificial humans suffered heavy casualties, there were always some lucky enough to survive.

Those artificial humans who fought bravely and survived nearly monopolized all of their promotion opportunities.

Even though their fighting was for defending their homes and country, they too needed to have some hope for their own future while defending their country.

Now, all those hopes were monopolized by those artificial humans.

So, murmurs started to arise in the barracks concerning the group of artificial humans, until... the day came when the beds in the military hospital were almost fully occupied by artificial humans.

"There was a mutiny in the hospital this afternoon, forcing us to start paying serious attention to the handling of these disabled artificial human soldiers."

"I propose that we simply recycle these incapacitated artificial human soldiers. After all, the production lines only need biomass, and we can make good use of the remaining heat from these disabled artificial humans."

"I second the motion!"

"I second the motion!"

"I refuse."