In mobile combat, every performance aspect of the vehicle was critical, especially in such an open, singular setting.
If one participated in this journey with the thought of running to the end, they were either absolute idiots or possessed absolute confidence.
Of course, there were also those who engaged in a sort of nihilistic play, standing inside the vehicle to launch missiles they could not withstand themselves, and burning to death if necessary.
It was hard to imagine what they had gone through before, how they maintained a subtle, rational, seeking-death mental state.
Not everyone was like them, witnessing Mackinaw taking an anti-tank missile without any reaction, those who could run completely gave up on fighting in Evil Land, while those who couldnât clenched their teeth:
As long as the others were slower, they could hold out until the next section of the track!
"What about me, what about me! Open a window for me!"
V held the Maoyou Sniper Rifle, the barrel leaning across the window, blocked by the armored plate, the stock kept hitting Lilleâs face with the vehicleâs motion.
"You..." Lille couldnât finish his sentence before getting hit by the stock again, his head buzzing from the impact. He got closer to Vâs ear, took a deep breathâ
"I said you can talk directly to Legend... to the car! Donât talk to me! Iâm damn busy!"
This time Lille practically shouted into her ear, finally overcoming the huge noise from the carâs movement and bullets hitting the armor.
After yelling, Lille unfastened his seatbelt with the help of Octopus Arm, and moved towards the cargo holdâ
"Why are you yelling so loudly!" V slapped the front control panel, almost wedging the gun under her armpit: "Trans... Da Mai! Give me a window!"
Legend felt a bit odd, Little Octopus was little, this Mackinaw, somehow had a touch of "Da," right?
Legendâs central control was an AI developed by Little Octopus, having long overcome the situation where it had no concept of "names" when Lille first discovered it.
Perhaps Little Octopus had programmed the feeling it first got when given a name, the central control Da Mai suddenly boomed:
"Window opening!"
An armored plate outside the window slowly lifted due to electromagnetic force, revealing a perfectly sized shooting window.
Although the vehicle was fully enclosed, Thunder Companyâs panoramic Crystal Ball technology allowed the car to observe the outside world seamlessly, assisted by two small drones flying overhead, best for observation.
Wind speed, relative velocity, road conditions, altitude differences...
All data went straight into the database.
But V was a shooter relying purely on intuition.
Bam!
A bullet with a slight blue arc shot out under the red sunlight, and on the highway, a mercenary similarly leaning a sniper rifle by the window suddenly could only hear from his right ear.
The bullet hit the window edge, shattering fragments from the kinetic energy directly smashed into his ear.
Si Anweisitan was enough for this shooter to see the disparity:
Just now, he had fired too, but judging by the trajectory, the bullet fell into the dust trailing behind Legend Mackinaw...
Boomâ
A huge sound came from the sky, and all contestants simultaneously looked towards Evil Land, away from the road.
As the sun set and the wind began to rise, that ominous low roar was the source of the abrupt soundâ
In 2076, the world suffered from environmental degradation due to nuclear war and widespread industrial pollution, with North America nearly barren from years of warfare.
Storms came and went without warning; contestants didnât know whether to cry or laugh:
From the end of this long highway, to the entrance of the city, there were still 80 kilometers to go.
The long 80 kilometers would be stretched further by the impending storm, but perhaps it was also their chance to escape from Legend Mackinaw?
"Ha Da Bo!" Da Maiâs voice resounded again, shaking the three in the car.
Lille stuck close to Jack, the tools at the tips of two Octopus Arms reaching into the autocannon mount: It must be said, the sniper earlier had decent aim and good luck.
Jackâs first shot was a miss, but that sniper was accurate, hitting the lightweight armor draped over the autocannon straight on.
This was also the vehicle systemâs weakest point. Although the Maoyouâs shot didnât break the autocannon, it rendered the built-in stabilizing gyro and steering system inoperative, needing an external adjustment on site.
Bam!
The Octopus Arm retracted, producing a loud noise from the autocannon mount.
"Mano!" Jack shouted from the operatorâs seat, "The dust is too thick!"
In mere seconds, the dust had reduced visibility to within fifty meters, sporadic flashes of light erupted from the obscured highway.
This was a bit awkward because, thanks to Legend Mackinawâs powerful mobility system, the vehicle could choose to travel on the road or Evil Land at high speed anytime, with plenty of freedom to fight or avoid.
This was why, upon seeing the vehicleâs defensive capabilities, everyone unanimously abandoned the idea of collaboratively taking down Mackinaw here:
A fast, agile, and broad-ranging heavy vehicle, simply wasnât something they could mess with.
But now it was different, they had to maintain close combat.
Bam.
Lille sat back in the driverâs seat: "Good thing, donât forget weâre a heavyweight truck, recall the drones, use the onboard sensors, activate the recording system, switch to special driving mode."
"Action mode switching complete."
Whether it was an illusion or not, Jack and V instantly felt the vehicleâs vibrations decrease significantly.
The main reason was the engine had greatly reduced its horsepower: The Vulture Engine was powerful but required a large air intake.
Special driving mode first required increasing the complexity of the filtration system, affecting intake, and hence closing some combustion chambers was necessary.
The engine output diminished, speed decreased, and the vehicle drove on the highway; now only the sandstorm could shake it.
Evidently, the sandstorm wasnât yet capable of shaking this ten-ton truck.
On the other hand, the sandstorm greatly reduced the vehicleâs sensing range, disrupted network data transmission, and the dust from high-speed friction was more likely to become charged, making the armored plateâs electromagnetic locking system less flexible.
The vast Evil Land was covered in yellow sand, and deadly competitors vanished into the yellow-brown expanse, the overwhelming pleasure of trampling replaced by vigilance against the unknown.
The whole world became a blizzard of dust.
"What do we do now?" V placed the gun in the corridor.
"Now..."
Boom!
Before Lille could finish, a loud noise erupted ahead, and less than ten meters away, a burning vehicle suddenly appeared, rolling and crashing into their vehicle!
"Hold tight!!!"
Da Maiâs voice was deafening, V reacted quickly, grabbing Lille...
Bam!
The car shook violently from the collision, Lilleâs head almost smashing into the front windshield armor!
"Now." Relieved from the near-hit, Lille sighed, "Act on instinct..."
Boom!
Almost at point-blank range, a vehicle beside Legend exploded into scrap metal, sparking fiercely as it was blown off the road.
Suddenly, the probability of combat damage increased substantially.
Lille astutely noticed one thing: The chassis of both wrecked cars were severely deformed and on fire.
There were landmines.
Bam!
Before the three could react, Legend rammed directly into the rear of another vehicle; at close range, the three saw through the HUDâs small window that two daring desperados jumped out from the back of the front car!
Even the sensors observed an interesting phenomenon:
The two jumpers were equally shocked!
They had just wanted to jump out of the car, unaware it was the fiercest one!
"Jack!"
Boom!
As soon as Lille shouted, both vehicles simultaneously jumped...
Stepping on mines!