Chapter 32 - 26: Iron Hide Toad

Yuanli Huang is probably in trouble.

There’s little chance of being taken out, but the likelihood of being grounded is quite high.

Back at the Old Metal Recycling Station, Gao Gong quickly put these things behind him and focused on his work.

The Mechanical Hunter is considered one of the more combative professions among the basic classes.

The main reason lies in a professional skill—a "Mechanical Hunting Transformation."

Mechanical Hunting Transformation lv5 (Profession): You can make a certain degree of transformation to your combat body, enhancing the chances of capturing prey.

This prey isn’t just radiation beasts; it can also be humans.

Although Mechanical Hunters can’t create prosthetic bodies, they can modify prosthetics based on their situations, making them more dangerous.

When Gao Gong was still a rookie in his previous life, a high-end player who followed the Mechanical Hunter path shared many methods of "Hunting Transformation" on the forums.

Because of the formidable combat power of the "Hunting Transformation," this high-end player once made it into the top ten in the early game player rankings.

What seemed like a beginning turned out to be the peak.

That high-end player, after much effort, mixed into the Knight Order’s upper echelons, only to get banned by artificial intelligence.

Moreover, he had a name that you can’t forget—Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella.

Soon, the welding sound in the recycling station started up again.

Holding a launcher embedded in metal materials, with a combat battery built-in, adjusting circuits, and single-molecule lines...

Single-molecule lines are a specialty of Nightless City, a particularly sharp and sturdy advanced material, very stealthy, and able to cut metal.

Typically, it’s a weapon that assassins prefer to use.

However, the "basic load-bearing version" chosen by Gao Gong is construction material.

A single hair-thin single-molecule line can bear a weight of one ton.

Although this "load-bearing version" isn’t sharp, it’s only relative, and ensuring it functions properly without damaging modified equipment presents a challenge.

Fortunately, after Sister Rose took Gao Gong "racing," she sent over a lot of precious materials.

After about three hours, a new hunting equipment took shape.

Its shape resembles a "metal arm guard," composed of a metal shell and a beast-hide lining, extending from the forearm to the palm.

Its switch is a tactile nerve flow enhancer, and Gao Gong tuned it to a special frequency.

Embedded on the surface of the arm guard is a small metal claw, roughly the size of a chicken claw, made from "titanium-steel alloy," which is harder than the material of the "Red Unicorn," using scraps Sister Rose had leftover from making a glove.

As for its function—Boy, haven’t you played Sekiro?

Gao Gong flicked his wrist, passively triggered the launcher, and the alloy claw shot across over twenty meters, embedding into a thick iron plate.

The next moment, a powerful dragging force directly pulled him to the ground.

"What the—!"

Gao Gong, caught off guard, hit the ground face-first, as if being dragged like a corpse for more than ten meters, finally with a ’clang,’ hitting his head hard against a steel plate.

If his skull hadn’t been modified, he wouldn’t have avoided a Level 2 concussion.

The key is, damn it, how embarrassing.

"Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!"

Gao Gong, rubbing his head, spat out the dirt from his mouth.

Luckily no one saw it, or else his titles of "Wilderness Lone Wolf," "Reaper Killer," and "Rich Lady’s Little Wolf Dog" would be ruined.

"The launcher strength needs lowering; it’s too fast for the enemy to react, and I can’t keep up either."

Then followed a series of trial and error, adjustment, more trial and error, and more adjustments.

Two hours later, with a normal steel bar in his left hand (the Red Unicorn is still under repair), Gao Gong flicked with lightning speed with his right hand, the alloy claw once again embedding into the wall, and Gao Gong slid forward, crossing over ten meters, then with force from his palms and calves, leveraging the claw’s momentum, leapt high and swung again, the alloy claw entered "telescopic mode," and simultaneously the steel bar was drawn, striking the wall heavily.

He smashed four bricks into pieces.

Although his landing was somewhat unsteady, it was at least a success.

"Not bad, the ’Slide-Feeding Tiger Style’ succeeded, let’s try the ’Wall-Hanging Impact Style’ next."

Although that "Rainy Night" pro claimed this combat style as the "Rainy Night Knife Killing Mode," a high-end play style, showing off skills all over the forum, it was soon mimicked by silly players, forming two ecosystems: "High-end Games" and "Casual Games."

Then "Casual Games" with "Spider Egg Stuck," "Heroic Wasted Knees," "Slide-Feeding Dog," "Hook Rope Hanging," "Flying Suicide" and other death-seeking ways successfully proved that, apart from the Mechanical Hunter profession, other professions can’t handle this flashy play.

A good technical post turned into a comedy post.

Back then, while Gao Gong was still quietly developing on the path of custom character faces, unable to play flashy moves, he could only be an enthusiastic audience member.

But after starting to practice skills again in this life, Gao Gong found it’s indeed very difficult, and to say the least, the same pull works for sliding but not for hooking a tree.

As a result, Gao Gong began the "Jumping Off a Building Suicide" style of practice.

Thankfully, the attributes of this body are good enough; falling from the third floor at most causes some health loss, not outright death.

Practicing until midnight, Gao Gong slapped his forehead and suddenly realized that he didn’t need to practice slide-feeding and tree-hooking with the same tension.

He could adjust the frequency of the ’Tactile Nerve Flow Enhancer’ to form two different tension modes.

With more divergent thinking, the grip strength of the alloy claw can also be adjusted; grabbing walls, trees, weapons, or even radiation beasts, all can be adjusted to the most suitable grip strength.

However, this transformation can’t rely solely on adjusting ’tactile’; it’s best to install a ’Combat Chip’, input various combat modes into it, and continuously update them.

Gao Gong finally understood why only Mechanical Hunters could participate in ’High-end Games’, because only ’Mechanical Hunting Transformation’ could constantly adjust the hook claw, coordinate with the attributes of other prosthetic bodies on oneself, and form the most suitable force system for oneself.

Unfortunately, ’Mechanical Hunting Transformation’ is a professional skill, and its skill level cannot advance or exceed the professional level.

Otherwise, it would be too much of a bug.

Back then, the expert ’Rainy Night’ surely had a rough time practicing before showcasing his operations.

Practicing the ’Single-Molecule Hook Claw’ for a day, Gao Gong even felt more exhausted than hunting for a day.

"Two more days, by tomorrow, my teammate should have arrived."

"By the way, what was his name again?"

In a warehouse of the public cargo hold, Iron Hide stood earnestly in front of the mirror, squeezing out a flattering smile.

"Ahem, Brother Gao, I’ve arrived."

"No, this isn’t good. Someone of that caliber surely doesn’t like bootlickers. I should play it cool."

"Little Gao, from now on, I’m your teammate, I’ve got your back."

"Wouldn’t that be too pretentious? Being too arrogant isn’t good either; it might get me a beating."

A roommate in the same warehouse yawned.

"Do you think the best Mechanical Hunters in Automobile City would pay you any attention? I suggest you wash up and go to sleep."

"Nonsense, Brother Gao personally sent someone to invite me—talk about having clout, that’s what clout is!"

"What do they want from you? Your lack of hygiene, your penny-pinching habits, or your refusal to upgrade your prosthetic body?"

Iron Hide was furious, kicked his roommate off the bed.

"There must be a reason; I must have some quality even I haven’t realized yet!"

The next day, Iron Hide got up early, specially oiled his mechanical body, and looked eagerly down the street.

Many people had heard that Iron Hide was invited to team up by a famous Mechanical Hunter and came to join the fun.

"Frog, don’t do anything stupid. I’ve heard that having limb hallucinations is a sign of cyber psychosis."

"That’s not a limb hallucination; it’s clearly a brain hallucination."

"Hallucinations in the brain, what’s that condition called?"

"I told you, human transformation shouldn’t touch the brain. Look, even the thoughts are malfunctioning, just like those virus-infected AI."

"That’s called brain downtime."

Iron Hide gritted his teeth, enduring the chorus of ridicule, and waited. It seemed the teasing made time crawl slower, but finally, the appointed time arrived.

At the end of the street, two black dots appeared.

Soon, two vehicles entered the crowd’s view.

One was a large-displacement off-road vehicle common in the desert, and the other was twice the size of the off-road vehicle, looking like a steel fortress from a distance.

"Wow, a military armored vehicle!!"

The Security Corps’ armored combat vehicle and the Old Civilization Era’s military armored vehicle are entirely different species. To prevent high-level beasts from assaulting, the vehicle’s armor can even withstand some rockets, and the vehicle’s power source is a special model of energy board. With eight tires, its top speed can reach 230 km/h.

Under expressions of amazement, the door of the armored vehicle opened. Little Finger yawned, glanced around, and casually asked, "Who’s Iron Hide?"

"It’s me."

"Hop in."

Seeing Iron Hide still dazed, Little Finger gave him a look, "What, need me to invite you?"

Iron Hide shivered, quickly scrambled aboard, not forgetting to flip off the crowd as he did so.

The vehicle sped away, leaving only stunned onlookers.

Little Finger wasn’t driving; he sat in the passenger seat yawning repeatedly, not sure what he was up to last night.

On the other hand, Iron Hide eagerly introduced himself: "Brother Finger, hi, I’m Iron Hide, nicknamed Iron Hide Frog; you can call me Little Iron."

"Er, you know me?"

"Of course I do. These days, anyone in the smuggling—er, small business, knows you."

Little Finger took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and studied him through the rearview mirror, letting out a small sound of surprise.

"Frog, your modifications are interesting. Biobrain modifications are something only available in big cities, and your mechanical body, wow, what a heap of junk! This stuff still works?"

Iron Hide looked down at his exposed wires and battered organs, feeling wronged, "Brother Finger, I was conned into this state."