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The first swing of the policeman’s beam sword easily sliced through the tail of a canine skeleton. With a quick twist of his wrist, he continued with a slash downwards, taking off its rear right leg at the same time. Yet the canine skeleton didn’t seem to flinch at all, as it leapt right at the exosuit, leg or no leg.

However, the sword-wielding exosuit was already waiting for it, calm and collected as it stabbed the scorching blade of light into the monster’s head. A second later, it exploded in a flash of eerie green light. Despite its flashy appearance, this explosion did not cause any damage, but it did signify the disappearance of the strange green flame within its skull. With it, the entire canine skeleton fell apart as well…

Was that the force animating the creature then? Seems like we found a weakness in its head.

Still, while that creature might have died, the force of its leap remained. As its lifeless skeletal frame crashed into the exosuit, the suit visibly staggered, but that was the extent of its impact – seems like even a full-on charge from one of these beasts couldn’t topple an exosuit. Furthermore, its claws did not seem to leave much of a mark on the exosuit either. In other words, that scorpion tail was its strongest weapon, and strong it was.

As for the other exosuit on the bridge, he seemed to have fared worse. The moment he approached one of the beasts in melee range, he was hit by a tail attack. Fortunately, the tail wasn’t able to penetrate the exosuit this time. It merely left a sizable dent where it struck. In all likelihood, the exosuit could take another three or four of such attacks before the pilot within was hit.

That tail attack, it seemed, wasn’t as undefeatable as we first thought. That shocking one hit kill was most likely aided by the beasts’ running charge up the bridge. And that made sense as well. The area of the exosuit in question was the cockpit, it would have to be the sturdiest portion of the exosuit.

Under such conditions, the two exosuits on the bridge slowly retook the initiative from the canine skeletons. As they smoothly ducked and weaved in melee, they would throw in a few slices here and there. Whenever they couldn’t dodge an attack, they merely slammed head-on into the beast instead, easily sending it flying.

Speaking of flying, these two exosuits actually tried to take to the skies several times already. However, the canine skeletons were keen-eyed enough that they immediately sprung on them whenever they even attempted to do so.

Either way, I now had a clear idea of how these beasts worked -only its tail was a concern.

Yet just when I was about to relay this finding to the survivors, trouble struck. A dozen or so canine skeletons sprung up behind us!

“AH! They’re here… they’re right behind us…” One of the survivors immediately yelled in panic.

“I’ll take care of them! Don’t worry…”

“Ah crap… run… there are too many of them…”

“Steady now. Our exosuits aren’t that much different from the police ones, as long as we avoid those tails, we are fine.”

While I might have said that, it wasn’t exactly true that the entertainment exosuits were just as sturdy as the police ones. Initially, such a statement would be true. But the budget allotted to maintaining a game suit wasn’t ever going to be the same as maintaining a police suit. Whenever a part was due for replacement, whether due to shelf life or damage, they would be taken down. However, these parts would often get refurbished, then resold on the market. In the best case, an entertainment exosuit had the same defences as a police exosuit, but after constant refurbishments, could this second-hand car of an exosuit be reasonably expected to function as well?

The moment these monsters appeared, a portion of the survivors broke off from the main contingent in panic. There were also the braver ones who ran up to block the monsters. Unfortunately, good intentions alone wouldn’t cut it in front of the grim reaper.

Just as they were all prepared for a rousing battle, death came knocking on their doors…

The first survivor was immediately pushed back and injured while the second was summarily pierced by multiple tail attacks. Naturally, the pilot was a goner too.

As for the others, what did these survivors even expect with their sealed up weapons? They couldn’t just smash open their skulls with a hammer, could they?!

“He’s dead… dead… RUN!”

“Save me…”

Their bravado barely lasted ten seconds as they started to flee themselves. Unfortunately, the moment they tried to run away, the canine skeletons struck… Geez, did no one teach them not to show their backs to an enemy?

The fear of death was like a virus; once it spread, there was no stopping it. Once the first casualty appeared, a wave of panic washed over the whole contingent, and it wasn’t long before they began fleeing blindly.

“Everyone, calm down and maintain ranks…” Bitong tried to command the survivors to no avail.

“Big brother…let’s get out of here… these monsters are scary…” Jiaojiao said as she rode up to me in her pink exosuit. Even wrapped in a veritable metal fortress, there was no safety to be had at this point for the timid girl.

“Your Highness, the time has come for us to slay the demons!”

Compared to Jiaojiao, Lixiang was a lot more combative, but why did she turn from a magical girl to a character in a cultivation novel?

Regardless, running away wasn’t an option now. From the way these monsters seemed to be popping up in the dozens, there were most likely even more hiding out somewhere. And besides, if the police were to be routed completely, where were we to even run to? Thus, I decided to fight!

“Ding! System update… emergency mission activated… Loot system activated…”

Mission: Battle the scorpion-like monsters
Objectives: Slay all the scorpion-like monsters
Reward: Flame Whip. Activation cost of 5 SP. 2 SP per second while it’s active. Potency varies based on SP used.
Comments: Has our valued host heard of the term “loot farming”?
On failure: Permanent closure of the Loot function.

Naturally, the urgent nature of this mission meant that the system had already accepted the mission on our behalf. Still… What the heck is this Loot system? Are monsters going to drop items now?

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE