Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!-Chapter 576 - 294: Corruption

"Actually, I warned you, but you were too confident, I thought you could really do it."

"...Damn."

Guo Xu spat out a curse.

He couldn’t remember the last time he cursed.

It seemed that ever since he joined the Forbidden Army, he had truly become a Saint.

But the things he faced today really made him unable to hold back from swearing.

"How many are left?"

"Those people... are they really planning to resist until the end?"

Hearing Guo Xu’s words, Yu Qian shook his head.

His gaze shifted to the smart visor, at this moment, the drone footage showed the bishop in red in Wanzhou City leading the remaining forces to retreat to the church.

The Mechanical God Sect emblem on the top of the slightly deformed building of waste steel was already on the verge of collapse.

"I don’t know."

Yu Qian tore open the bandage from the first aid kit.

"Their resistance is indeed quite fierce—by rights, this battle going this way, these Church Protection Army should have collapsed long ago."

"The situation here is indeed very complicated."

"Maybe they’re hiding something you don’t know about."

After finishing the bandage, Yu Qian stood up.

At his feet lay a Church Protection Army that Guo Xu had previously stabbed in the chest with a knife.

The person’s pupils were already dilated, but their mouth was still muttering scriptures like "Reciprocating piston is a prayer."

In the distance, the church’s door was blasted open by breaching rounds.

When the bullets of the 201 machine gun swept through, the power here finally completed a transition in a bloody manner.

At this point, Guo Xu had also recovered from the brief dizziness following his injury.

He staggered to his feet, raising his hand to signal the regrouping of the team.

With Liu Hao and Zhang Chao leading, this "survivors after disaster" group gathered together.

But by now, they had already lost more than half of their personnel.

Even those who survived had dirty, ash-covered faces, with injuries everywhere.

"These people are crazy..."

Zhang Chao opened his mouth and said:

"They didn’t even give us a chance to withdraw!"

"They didn’t even... think about letting us survive!"

As his voice fell, Yu Qian immediately turned to look at Zhang Chao.

Then he asked:

"So... how did you guys start fighting?"

Zhang Chao looked at Guo Xu, who sighed and answered:

"Let me explain."

"In fact, we had just entered Wanzhou City when their ambush began."

"Back then, they didn’t know our identity, their so-called preparations were merely to prevent potential situations."

"I even think that if we were just a mercenary team living off robbery, they might not have attacked us."

"It’s precisely because they learned of our Forbidden Army identity that they chose to kill us without mercy."

"During the negotiations, that bishop kept stalling for time."

"From the start, he never intended to talk, he just wanted to deploy his troops properly to wipe us out in one fell swoop."

"It’s really strange... what exactly are they trying to do?"

Yu Qian furrowed his brow.

After a brief consideration, he spoke:

"Actually, you should ask yourself first, what kind of city Wanzhou really is."

"Anyway, let’s check out the church first."

"Perhaps there will be answers inside."

"Exactly."

Guo Xu wrapped the bandage on his hand, then stepped towards the Mechanical God Church.

At this moment, for the first time, he truly noticed the anomaly of the church.

The rusted emblem hung crookedly on the spire, like a rotten eyeball on the verge of falling.

The outer walls of the church were covered with dark red rust, from the cracks seeped black-brown oil stains, looking like congealed blood.

The bronze doors were carved with scriptures, but those twisted words were peeling off, exposing layers of bizarre patterns underneath.

Inside the church, the air was thick with the stench of mixed engine oil and rotting flesh.

Several exoskeleton remnants were nailed to the walls on both sides, with shriveled corpses curled up inside the exoskeletons.

Guo Xu stared speechlessly at the scene before him—no matter which church he had been in, he’d never seen such "blasphemous" sights.

"Is this... still the Mechanical God Sect?!"

He exclaimed in shock, while Yu Qian said solemnly:

"You should be the one asking that question."

"Wanzhou City counts as one of your important strongholds, yet you don’t even know about the changes here??"

"We can’t know."

Guo Xu let out a long exhale, trying to expel all the foul air from his lungs.

"This place is too far from the core area of the Mechanical God Sect, plus in recent years we never organized any large-scale explorations towards Mountain City, this city has actually..."

"Been abandoned."

"Of course, the support for it never actually stopped."

"We still transport supplies and personnel here, but it seems... these supplies and personnel haven’t had the intended effect."

"That might not be the case." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Yu Qian pointed to the corpses in the corner:

"They might have been used elsewhere."

"People here seem to be conducting some kind of experiment."

"Can you tell what they’re doing?"

"If only I could tell."

Guo Xu walked to the exoskeleton on the wall and observed the dried-up bodies closely.

Their spine had pierced through the skin at a bizarre angle, emerging from the joints of the Power Armor and welded to the mecha’s drive shaft.

"Could they be trying to... power the exoskeleton this way?"

Guo Xu spoke subconsciously, but immediately shook his head.

"Impossible."

"They can’t be foolish to such an extent."

His tone was resolute.

Because even before the Huaxia Army appeared, even before seeing living, moving exoskeletons, he knew that exoskeletons weren’t powered by "human strength."

Although the heritage of "electricity" was nearing collapse, most knowledge was locked away in the Great Book Collection, people of this world still had a basic understanding of electricity.

They didn’t know how electricity worked, but knew it could work.

Ordinary people knew this, so could the bishops and priests of the Mechanical God Sect be ignorant?

"This seems more like some kind of... ceremonial idol."

"They sacrificed people to the exoskeleton... these people were nailed to it alive."

"We need to find the church’s records archive, there might be clues there!"

Guo Xu’s eyes were filled with concern, but at that moment, Yu Qian suddenly waved his hand.

"No need."

"This is a ritual."

"Mountain City... they’re trying to become part of Mountain City."

"What??"

Guo Xu looked at Yu Qian in disbelief.

The latter was holding a blood-stained booklet.

After skimming through a few pages, he tossed the booklet to Guo Xu.

"It was found on that bishop."

"They believe that entering Mountain City means becoming ’the Mechanicals of Holy Trinity’."

"So, to enter the Holy City, they’re delusionally trying to turn themselves into machines."

"They found some technical materials on ’prosthetics’ from somewhere."

"Ridiculous..."

"If they had learned in Jinling New City and understood the prosthetics knowledge, they wouldn’t have done such foolish things."

Guo Xu remained silent as he took the booklet.

He silently flipped through the blood-soaked booklet, which became fragile and crumbling.

One turn later, the booklet was already in tatters.

Just like his mood now.

"These people... are truly insane."

Guo Xu said:

"But this should just be an aberration, most of the Mechanical God Sect—"

"Not an aberration."

Yu Qian interrupted Guo Xu.

Then, he said seriously:

"The knowledge inheritance of the Mechanical God Sect has already fallen below the warning line."

"This was something the commander predicted long ago."

"Your religion is soon to completely collapse."

"More and more bizarre, irrational things will happen."

"Then, like bacteria, it will thoroughly corrode the entire Mechanical God Sect."

"You have no hope."

"Of course, you can still make some last attempts."

"But actually, your attempts are meaningless..."