After confirming the information, Zhou Yi had traveled from Jade City all the way to the Northern Forest Zone, scaring the forest sheep on the treetops into hiding.

Guided by Ye Zhao, he indeed found the exposed cannon installations from within the forest.

Hammerhead Soldiers streamed out from Jade City one by one, and with a consistent dinging sound, they excavated the buried battle vehicle.

It was an eight-wheeled battle vehicle painted in yellow camouflage. Its body was severely deformed by compression, and the wheels were nowhere to be found. There were numerous dents on the exterior, showing clear signs of being damaged by intentional blunt force strikes.

It had four cannon barrels on each side of its top, but all were twisted and bent, rendered unusable. Only a black Gatling cannon situated in the middle remained intact—it was the part that was exposed above the ground.

Zhou Yi approached the wrecked battle vehicle and placed his hand on the metal shell.

Energy input failed.

Basic confirmation: consciousness dead.

He had no choice but to dig out the remote control and describe the situation of the battle vehicle.

Red Kestrel responded quickly.

—That's the one. Desert digital camouflage, 8×8 wheeled chassis, 25mm Gatling cannon. Its model is 625E, very rare, and the only one possible in the northern region.

—After returning to Recursive City, I looked up the situation before and after we were attacked and found out that this 625E was basically a Mechanical Thug. It often attacked other electromechanical lives to plunder Guangna Boxes, with ordinary Guangna Species also being its prey. It was wanted by Mechanical City, rated as C, but there had been no news of it since that incident.

Zhou Yi was puzzled, "Why could a Mechanical Thug break free from the constraints of the order program and attack its kin and other lives?"

—The reasons are varied.

—Some are due to intrinsic malfunctions that cause the primary program to fail, and some have the self-restrictions lifted through external modifications. The result, in any cases, is that they are no longer restrained. Dealing with such unordered electromechanical lives is usually handled by investigators.

Zhou Yi asked, "Are the investigators all dispatched by City 404?"

—Apart from City 404, both Suzheng City and the Security Department also have investigators.

Red Kestrel elaborated in detail.

—The investigators dispatched by these three locations each have their missions.

—Suzheng City's investigators mainly deal with individuals with strong self-destructive tendencies to prevent this tendency from spreading further and affecting the entire electromechanical life community through various forms.

—The target of the Security Department is the lives that disrupt the order of Mechanical City, whether they are electromechanical life or Guangna Species. They investigate, curb, and arrest them. Mechanical Thugs also fall within their arrest scope.

—City 404 is the most unique, with the fewest number of dispatched investigators; they deal with extremely dangerous individuals and possess unlimited firing rights.

The other two were understandable.

Zhou Yi asked, "Is the Security Department a general department?"

—Yes.

—The Security Department exists in every Mechanical City and was established to ensure the stable operation of the entire electromechanical life society's order.

That cleared things up.

Since the Mechanical Thug had already been scrapped and turned into a pure machine.

It was worth seeing if anything useful could be salvaged.

Zhou Yi operated Jade City to lift the entire battle vehicle onto the roof, then returned to the company headquarters to have Qian Su take a look.

The Weapon Merchant looked the scrapped battle vehicle up and down, her gaze finally lingering on the cannon, "This caliber is good, I'll check inside first."

She opened her toolkit, pulled out a tiger head pliers and a crowbar, and proficiently pried open the deformed cabin door and entered.

Moments later.

The machine cannon began to move up and down slowly and rotated left and right, seeming very agile.

After moving for a while, the machine cannon pointed skyward, then the entire barrel began to rotate, emitting a slight buzzing noise.

Qian Su poked her head out from inside.

"Mr. Zhou, other structures are also significantly damaged. This machine cannon is well-preserved, with targeting and aiming unaffected. The Light Imprint Structure is intact, just repair some local metal deformations, mount an energy pack, and it can fire."

"This is a C-class 25mm high-speed main gun prototype, not a cloned Light Imprint Device. Its range is at least above 500 meters, its value immense."

She looked at the black barrel, unabashedly showing her fondness.

Zhou Yi glanced at the remote control screen in his hand.

Red Kestrel had provided detailed data.

...

[C-class 25mm high-speed Gatling cannon]

Damage: 18-22

Cooldown: 0.3

Range: 1500

...

The range was exceptionally good.

It could fire 3 Death Light Cannons per second.

With such formidable firepower, it was not hard to understand how Red Kestrel's rescue team was directly wiped out.

But who had destroyed this 625E armed with such a cannon?

Zhou Yi consulted Qian Su.

The girl, wiping the mud and dust off the barrel with a towel, said, "I can be sure that it was destroyed by the Red Monster."

Qian Su pointed at the indentations on the vehicle's surface, "Look, these dents were caused by stones and fists—the marks are very clear."

"The nature of Red Monsters is such that if you yield to them, they will walk away. If you provoke them or attack them first, they will find ways to hit back. If the opponent is tough, they will look for help to seek revenge mutually."

"In the face of an Alien like Jade City, Red Monsters can't do anything but stay far away or submit. But when dealing with electromechanical lives, they never hold back."

"This battle vehicle had ample firepower, but its protective ability was low, being a light vehicle intended for mobile warfare. It couldn't utilize its full potential when operating alone."

She pointed to the Gatling cannon, "This anti-aircraft cannon is mainly for engaging high-altitude targets, though it can also fire horizontally. But once the Red Monster gets close or ambushes it, it's done for. Whether flipping the battle vehicle or removing the wheels, the cannon would struggle to be effective."

Qian Su tapped the metal shell with the crowbar, "I deduce that it must have been lured by the Red Monster into a ground trap where it got stuck and couldn't escape. With the cannon restricted, it was directly smashed and dismantled."

"The most direct evidence is," I found the Red Monster's hair and feces inside. These guys like to mark their victories by leaving their enemies' intact bodies, displaying them on their territory as a deterrent to other invaders."

"However, Red Monsters usually don't go berserk, it must have been a conflict with the combat vehicle."

Zhou Yi pondered.

According to the style of 625E, it should have fired first, and then the Red Monster clashed with it.

As a result, this time high tech lost to the savage beast, ambushed and beaten by the enemy, it died in the forest.

Qian Su added, "The prototype is very simple to use because it's highly complete and the technology is mature."

"I just tried it, it still has target-locking capability, no operation needed. Just replenish the energy pack, and it will aim at every moving target in the air, press the fire button, and let it do the rest.

"If you want it to be more precise, I can also make more detailed debugging settings to target more specifically."

Zhou Yi asked her to help fix it.

Then Qian Su, holding a wrench, squeezed into the deformed combat vehicle, tinkering inside with a pair of iron hands.

The sky gradually darkened.

After nightfall, the summer temperature finally dropped.

Zhou Yi turned around and cooked two bowls of instant noodles, bringing over two cans of Coke.

They sat beside the combat vehicle on the rooftop for dinner.

Qian Su really enjoyed the instant noodles, even drinking up the soup cleanly.

With her face smeared with some greasy dirt, she drank the Coke and said, "Thanks for the meal, it's tasty. Actually, it's already fixed."

"That fast?" Zhou Yi was surprised.

"The main gun suffered minor damage. I detached it from the combat vehicle to ensure it operates independently, so it consumes less energy. However, related launch tubes, driving balances, mobile shooting, cooperative firing, and the like—I've taken them apart and didn't bother with them; they are too complicated, and I don't know how to fix them."

"But the main gun is usable now."

"Let me show you."

Qian Su put down her bowl, wiped her mouth with a tissue Zhou Yi handed her, and then stuffed the tissue into her pocket. She walked to the combat vehicle and took out ten energy packs—these items were square tin boxes, only the size of a lighter.

She turned her face, looking serious, "This needs to be reimbursed."

"Of course."

Zhou Yi nodded.

She then relaxed, and directly loaded all the energy packs into it.

"I am now turning on air-defense mode and will fire at the sky."

Afterwards, Qian Su climbed out, holding a button box, connected to the combat vehicle with a wire.

She pressed the button on the box.

A small red light lit up on the Gatling gun on the combat vehicle, and the barrel began to slowly rotate, scanning the sky for targets.

Suddenly, the muzzle spewed out flames.

Dada Dada! Dada Dada!

A rhythmic three shots per second.

The air-defense shooting lasted for about fourteen seconds.

Qian Su concentrated intensively throughout, only speaking after it ended, "A total of 14 seconds, 42 shots, just one Light Seed can only last so long. The consumption is still quite large."

At that moment, a spherical light body dived down from the sky.

Red glowing binoculars emerged on it, "So it was this that was attacking me, hit quite accurately, and it hurts quite a bit."

It turned out that the fire had locked onto the Hunter.

Zhou Yi explained the situation to him, and Lie Hai was quite pleased, "That's great! When encountering a large swarm of thorny birds, it's more useful than me, can quickly eliminate those annoying little monsters."

"Chairman, after Mr. Saint Petersburg's special training, I can now use weapons too. If you trust me, I can also use it to shoot. My shooting is very accurate!"

The Hunter actually knew how to use equipment now.

Zhou Yi felt a surge of relief.

The previously mama's boy little monster had now grown into a qualified warrior.

Zhou Yi told him, "There will be opportunities for you to use it in the future."

At that time, Red Kestrel sent a message.

They had already processed all the paperwork, obtained the official authorization and certification, and brought the first batch of goods back.

Zhou Yi turned to Qian Su, "How much can you earn from the weapon business in a year?"

The girl spoke a bit gloomily, "That's hard to say, sometimes more, sometimes less. You also have to consider all sorts of taxes, greasing palms, transportation costs, the past three years have not been prosperous, I've only earned a total of 300 Light Seeds."

Zhou Yi was shocked, "That little?"

He had originally thought that Qian Su would definitely belong to the high-income group.

"Just this much net profit, it looks okay on turnover."

The girl sighed, "My and the mission's expenses are also huge. My body needs maintenance, the mission is electromechanical life, even more costly, actually this income is not enough. Mainly, my customers are too few, and it's hard to compete with those big merchants."

Zhou Yi breathed a sigh of relief internally.

He had initially thought her high salary would make it difficult to recruit her.

Since that was the case.

Zhou Yi said, "How about considering coming to our company? I'll give you a base salary of 200 Light Seeds a year."

"Okay!"

She agreed briskly, "Am I supposed to handle weapon-related matters?"

Zhou Yi shook his head, "We don't do weapon business."

"The company is going to establish a new courier center, I want you to get the company's courier business up and running..."

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