With a large hole in its abdomen, the spider-like machine sparking with electricity was still trying to struggle to its feet.
The next instant, something that made a sharp noise sliced through the air and landed on its head, easily cutting through to the chest cavity.
At this point, the car-sized machine ceased functioning.
Seconds later, the disabled machine exploded, with countless limb fragments splattering in all directions, making the already weathered buildings—whether hundreds or thousands of years old—even more dilapidated.
Some buildings that were already on the verge of collapse directly crumbled under the impact of the debris and the explosion's shockwave, turning into piles of rubble.
Checking the auspex again, no abnormal entities were detected approaching in the vicinity.
The so-called auspex was a measuring device, a scanner, a type of active-passive sensor.
It could detect and analyze various data, including motion, invisible gases, or directional or environmental energy emissions across a wide band of the electromagnetic spectrum.
This included heat, plasma, radiation, and most other forms of electromagnetic energy released by personnel or vehicles.
Through this radar-like device, Ejie could confirm there were no enemies nearby.
But beyond the reconnaissance range, he couldn't be sure.
Of course, he couldn't relax just because the scan showed no problems within range—the data from the auspex might be false.
Additionally, the auspex itself seemed to be malfunctioning somewhat.
So, some of these machines might be playing dead, just waiting for him to relax before suddenly attacking.
But were these things really the assisting machines of the Iron Men from the Golden Age? Machines under artificial intelligence control?
Could the things that had destroyed humanity in that era really be this weak?
Where exactly had he ended up?
Originally, he had been driving a Tunneling Worm to drill open an elevator shaft, but unexpectedly the vehicle's wheels suddenly got stuck on something.
After getting out, he was forced to return to the battlefield he had previously left due to the appearance of demons.
Amidst the chaotic autocannon fire and the messy sounds on the communication channel, there was something flashing an invitation to join some channel. After he irritably responded with confirmation, he suddenly found himself here without warning, under attack by a group of intelligent machines.
Who was playing with him?
Had the Four Gods finally discovered him?
Why transfer him here so mysteriously?
This must be another planet—look at how clear the atmosphere was, not deathly silent.
And not far away, there was even a forest.
Had he been teleported to a garden world?
If someone wanted to mess with him, they shouldn't have sent him to this kind of world.
Wait, perhaps everything he was seeing now was an illusion.
Perhaps he was actually on a nauseating Chaos planet.
Just thinking that he might be surrounded by all kinds of rotting things made Ejie's scalp tingle.
In this situation, he could only connect to that place.
Taking a deep breath, he prepared to endure that feeling of living death.
Connecting to Terra—
"Unable to connect?"
The Throne interface couldn't connect, which made his expression even worse. Had he been blocked?
That shouldn't be possible.
What should he do now?
First, calm down and determine exactly where he was.
Was everything in his vision real? Or false?
Closing his eyes, he relaxed himself, letting his mind stabilize, not having any extraneous thoughts.
Carefully sensing all his conditions, he felt good and was confident he was normal.
Reopening his eyes, he saw the same world in his vision.
He deactivated the complete sealing state, allowing the air outside the power armor to circulate inside.
Hmm, there was no strange smell. On the contrary, it was exceptionally good, just like the detected report had shown: oxygen accounted for about 21% of the air, similar to Terra's ratio.
No, correction—it should be said that it was like the earlier era, when it was still called Earth, with the same oxygen content ratio.
The proportions of other components were also almost identical.
It was as if he had come to Earth.
Looking carefully at the ruined buildings around, they were clearly human constructions.
Judging from the weathering marks, they were at least three thousand years old.
It was possible that his being thrown here wasn't the doing of the Four Gods. Ejie had an idea of who might be responsible.
So if someone had rescued him from that terrible situation and thrown him here, it meant there must be some important heritage left by humans of the Golden Age here, right?
What important heritage could it be? Could it possibly be a complete set of STCs?
If there really was one, that would be fantastic.
With a complete STC, following the instructions, anyone who wasn't an idiot could easily create various things.
Especially the black technology of the Golden Age—in that era, humans had made the universe half-bow to them.
And the Men of Iron crisis that could destroy that era certainly wouldn't be at the level of these machines he was encountering now.
In other words, what he was encountering now were weakened versions?
Just as human technology had regressed, had the Men of Iron undergone a similar situation?
If there was a way to invade these things and read their data, he could understand what was going on in this world.
Unfortunately, he didn't have such a device with him.
However, at first, the auspex had issued a warning, suspecting interference from the strange electromagnetic waves of these things, which had startled him. He had feared his power armor might be taken over.
If it was taken over, he would be almost helpless, trapped in this metal can.
At that time, facing a situation with no chance of survival and without any external assistance, he might have had to expose his other secret.
Once exposed, it would be easy for the Four Chaos Gods to sense him.
Looking around, where should he go to investigate?
His gaze fell on the nearby forest.
If he needed to replenish food and water, the forest would be the easiest place to obtain them.
The ruins he was in now were all barren, with no sources of water or food.
Then, as he was walking toward the forest, the sand ground he stepped on suddenly collapsed, nearly causing him to stumble.
His body also tensed slightly, not to maintain balance and avoid falling, but because of the intense pain coming from his left abdomen.
He didn't know if it was from some fragments of the explosion or if he had been hit by a stray bullet. He hadn't had time to check before hastily putting on the power armor and trying to charge up with the Tunneling Worm, only to be mysteriously thrown here.
Reaching the edge of the forest, he came under a tree to treat his wound.
"Hmm?"
The power armor couldn't be fully opened, seemingly stuck due to rusty parts.
So, he could only rely on his own strength to pry it open, causing it to emit a sharp metallic scream.
Phew~
He finally emerged from the metal can that had been customized for a normal human body, stolen from the planetary governor.
Checking the wound, it wasn't caused by a solid bullet but by a laser gun beam grazing across, tearing open a gash.
If it had been any deeper, his intestines might have been exposed.
Taking up his tactical knife, he prepared to scrape away the charred scabs.
"!"
Biting down on his teeth, he scraped until normal muscle tissue was exposed.
The consequence of doing this was reopening the wound, allowing fresh red blood to flow out.
So why do this?
Was he afraid the burned area would rot and become infected?
This wasn't the main reason. Rather, it was because only by removing these charred and dead tissue chunks stuck to his body could his wound heal faster.
Because he had been injected with the Panacea, these burned and dead flesh pieces, if not removed, would affect the regeneration effect.