Chapter 76: The Grandeur of Powerful Occupations
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Before his voice faded away, the young military officer’s eyes suddenly shone as brilliantly as new stars.
His military uniform swelled up, and he released waves of black flames that shone with a golden light.
Almost one thousand black flames gathered behind him. Gradually, they turned into a black war fortress. Then, they grew limbs and turned into a black steel giant!
“Twenty years ago, a small tactics unit of the Red Dragon City once defended a war fortress to their very last man. Unfortunately for them, the fog cut off their escape route. They were surrounded by monsters and found themselves in a hopeless situation where they were alone with no backup,” the young military officer said.
“But even when dealing with a h.o.a.rd of monsters, the resolve of the commander and his nine combatants did not shake. They faced death with a smile and defeated waves upon waves of monsters. They lasted three days and three nights. When there was only one soldier left, he grabbed a bunch of grenades to die together with the monsters!
“Their bodies might have perished, but their wills remain forever in the realm of the living. Their determination to defend the war fortress to the death has also been deeply embedded in the land where their blood was spilled.
“After more than a decade’s worth of refinement, the ten soldiers’ final determination was gathered together, and they turned into this heroic spirit known as Black Steel Guardian.
“I am Chen Tai, Captain of the Red Dragon Army. I have been fortunate enough to be acknowledged by this heroic spirit, and I have resonated with the determination and wills of the martyrs. I became the heroic spirit user of Black Steel Guardian. Here, I swear that I will continue to carry out the martyrs’ dying wish. With my flesh and blood, I will turn the martyrs’ determination into the sharpest blade and walk down the path of the martyrs to continue protecting our hometown for eternity.
“The martyrs were able to protect the fortress for three days and nights while encircled by monsters. Hence, Black Steel Guardian’s ability is Impenetrability!”
The young military officer shouted, and the heroic spirit turned into black fog to envelope him.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
Someone fired a gun at him, but the dense shower of bullets was blocked by the heroic spirit.
Another person then picked a rocket launcher to fire a shot at him. But to the examinees’ shock, the rocket was also blocked by the heroic spirit. The projectile froze in the air in a bizarre fashion.
“Heroic spirit, enter my body!”
The young military officer growled, and the black fog entered his body. It bulged up, and his skin instantly turned a shiny sheen of black, which gave off a metallic feeling. He looked like a mighty, black metal tower.
He stepped forward and threw a punch at the rocket that was frozen in the air.
Boom!
The rocket exploded, but he was completely unharmed.
“Spirit weapon, become one with me!”
The young man shouted again and lifted a warhammer that was made with nanometal, liquid alloy, monster materials, and the crystals of the Other World.
Golden runes and black flames seeped out of his body to crawl into the warhammer through his arm. The warhammer then changed shape. The students could not believe their eyes when they saw that it became larger and grew all sorts of skewers and spikes that created a b.u.mpy surface.
Such a gigantic thing that should weigh several tonnes was not something humans could swing.
But the heroic spirit appeared behind the young military officer again. With the power given to him by Black Steel Guardian, he swung the warhammer and created a tornado. He delivered a full-powered strike, and the remains of a discarded war truck were lifted and thrown more than one hundred meters into the air.
The examinees felt their hearts surge when they saw this.
“This is a heroic spirit user, one of the four great fighting occupations in Dragon City!”
“He’s so fierce and strong!”
“The ones who resonated with the captain are just the heroic spirits of a small tactics unit. Even so, they’re already so terrifying. There are plenty of peerless fighters who left behind their wills and determinations after they died. The stronger their spirits are, the more likely they are to turn into powerful heroic spirits. Won’t those who can resonate with such heroic spirits be invincible?”
“It’s no wonder why the minimum pa.s.sing score for the heroic spirit course in the military school is so high! I’m going to give it my all! I have to get into the heroic spirit course!”
Chu Feixiong was so excited that he hooked his arm around Meng Chao’s neck. “That’s the one! Becoming a heroic spirit user is my dream!”
Meng Chao spent a lot of effort to slap Feixiong’s arm away. He rolled his eyes and said, “Aren’t you going to become a general? Why have you changed your decision to become a heroic spirit user?”
“Rubbish. You know where I stand in terms of intelligence. When I see those numbers and strategy a.n.a.lyses, I feel a headache right away. Yet you want me to go into the commanding course and slowly make my way from the bottom of the military ranks to the rank of general? That’ll take too long!”
Chu Feixiong slammed his fist against his palm. “But the heroic spirit course is different. If I can resonate with the old generals who died and become their heroic spirit user, won’t I instantly gain their abilities and become an awesome general?”
“Urk...” When Meng Chao saw how his best friend was letting his imagination run completely wild, he could not hold back from dashing his hopes a bit. “But I heard that it’s very difficult to become a heroic spirit user. You need intelligence, strength, a good personality, and good moral values. You need to qualify in all these aspects before you can have the chance to resonate with a heroic spirit. Are you sure that generals who sacrificed their lives will resonate with you?”
“You need dreams, no matter what.” Chu Feixiong was full of confidence. “My intelligence might be somewhat lacking, but I have good moral values!”
Meng Chao didn’t know what to say about that, so he just continued watching the screen.
At that moment, the video had already cut to a new scene.
Standing among the tall mountains was a large machine.
At first glance, it looked like the amalgamation of the largest truck and a mining truck that could be seen on Earth’s mines.
But in front of it was a large sc.r.a.per. Around it were dozens of cannons, and the carriage behind it was entirely sealed.
It had four large mechanical arms. One of them had an impact hammer, another one had a drill, the third had a steel hammer, and the last a quick-drying cement nozzle. It looked like a mighty steel demon.
A calm, mechanical voice came from the driver’s cabin, which was protected by layers of armor. “Many people’s knowledge of machine masters is limited to people wearing all sorts of strange-looking, strengthened exoskeletons or driving all sorts of magnificent but impractical mecha to fight against monsters.
“But strengthened exoskeletons are just a single soldier’s equipment. Its efficiency in killing multiple monsters in a go isn’t too high. Humanoid mecha that are more than five meters tall are also products born from a fantasy; they only waste resources. There are a lot of obstacles when it comes to using them, and they don’t have a lot of value in practical fights.
“These two cannot bring out the true strength of a machine master.
“A real machine master should control large, multi-function buildings or war bases to repair bridges and roads as well as connect natural moats. And while they complete the preparation work for construction, they can also build a large number of war fortresses.
“On the other side, in our cabin, we have a macromolecule polymer printing system and automatic repair system. We also have a large number of armored unmanned aerial vehicles and self-thinking war trucks. If we run into an enemy, one machine master will be equivalent to an army!”
As the man spoke, the cabin of the large machine in the video suddenly opened.
Buuuzzzzzzzzz!
Hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles flew out from within. They gathered together in the air before scattering like a swarm of bees.
Shick, shick, shick, shick!
Hundreds of six-legged machines that resembled metal spiders crawled out. They surrounded the war machine to form a tight defense circle.
With the dual protection from the sky and ground, the machine master could stay inside to calmly fix the war fortress.
Once the war fortress took shape, the soldiers at the back could be stationed inside and fortify the place. Even if monsters that numbered to more than one hundred times the number of soldiers in the fortress came to attack, it would still be very difficult for them to conquer this station.
When the stations were connected, defense towers and signal towers could be built, and humans were able to expand their living s.p.a.ce with great determination, albeit the method was a bit crude.
Hence, machine masters were able to occupy one of the spots among the four great fighting occupations.
Meng Chao watched carefully.
He knew that in the past, due to the fog and the powerful interference from the spirit energy magnetic field, the internet signal around Dragon City was not good. Hence, it became incredibly difficult to make the idea of armored unmanned aerial vehicles to launch a ma.s.sive attack come to life, because they heavily relied on signals to give them commands.
Without armored unmanned aerial vehicles, the fighting power of the machine masters was mostly taken away from them. When they worked outside, they had to depend on other fighting-oriented occupations.
But as the fog scattered away and Earthlings discovered all sorts of information transferring technology that could fight the interference, the machine armor style, which was a fighting style that used armored unmanned vehicles, self-thinking war trucks, and strengthened exoskeletons, continued to increase the status of machine masters.
If they had sufficient resources and stable signals, a well-trained machine master could control more than one thousand unmanned armored vehicles and self-thinking war trucks, which made them practically invincible.
Quite a number of examinees in the carriage who were interested in machines shouted in glee. Their faces were bright with excitement. It looked as if they had already managed to get into the University of Technology’s machine course and become an honorable machine master.
Then, the video changed again.
It still showed the plains, but this time, they were covered in bugs.
All sorts of deformed and mutated insects squirmed in the area.
There was only one empty spot at the depths of the insect swarm, and it had the diameter of around three to five meters.
Sitting cross-legged at the center of the empty spot was a girl with an indifferent face.
The savage and ugly insects were a stark contrast to the girl’s fair skin. The examinees’ hearts pounded when they saw her. They were worried that she would be torn to shreds by the insect swarm the next second.
However, the insects looked as if they had been bewitched. They were rooted to their spots and even trembled a little. They... appeared to be kowtowing to the girl.
The girl suddenly opened her eyes.
Purple light shone within them. Spirit marks moved from the corners of her eyes to her temples. Then, they shot out to turn into tens of thousands of thin electrical arcs that shot toward the insect swarm.
The girl stood up and started walking forward elegantly.
The insect swarm immediately split up and opened a path for her before gathering up behind her. They went into all sorts of formations according to the girl’s will, as if they were her most loyal army.
The girl with the purple light shining in her eyes faced the camera and said coolly, “I... am the insect h.o.a.rd!”
“How cool! Scenes that will only appear in the ancient games on Earth turned into reality over here!”
Silence filled the carriage for a while before the examinees gasped in surprise.
“This is the monster controlling course from Agricultural University, right? The monster controllers are very powerful. They can use all the monsters in the world, and they have more room for freedom compared to the steel army formed by the machine masters. Their requirements for resources are also very low. They’re most suited to fighting in the depths of the fog, since it’s filled with dangers everywhere.”
Meng Chao felt tempted.
Agricultural University was known as Monster University, and it was one of his goals.
Agricultural University had two ace courses. One of them was the resource course, and the other was the monster controlling course.
The resource course was a support course, while the monster controlling course was a fighting course. Fighting courses were more popular, which was why the minimum pa.s.sing score for the monster controlling course was usually higher.
‘Should I use my in-depth knowledge about monster structures and become a monster controller?’
He thought about it carefully, but decided not to.
Monster controllers had to use their minds to invade monster brains.
But mind connections were two-way paths. When the monster controller controlled monsters, some part of their brains’ nerve ganglion was open for invasion, and it was very easy for enemies to take over their minds.
Meng Chao could not say anything about others’ minds being invaded, but he had a lot of secrets in his head, so it would be better if he were a little more careful.
The introductions for the heroic spirit users, machine masters, and monster controllers were complete. Now, the three great fighting occupations in the supernatural category were made known to the examinees.
The last was the main attraction, and it was naturally the introduction of the martial artist. It would be introduced by Dragon City University’s martial arts course.
But not much needed to be said about it, because the examinees were far too familiar with it.
First, their bodies and mental strength index had to be refined to the point that they were as strong as steel.
Then, the spirit energy would be led into their bodies so that they could activate all one hundred and eight main spirit meridian systems.
The spirit energy would circulate through them and the spirit acupoints that intersected with the main spirit meridians, which made it look like an electric circuit board. They would then form a complicated spirit picture in the body.
Each spirit picture could activate different spirit magnetic field rotation energies, which unleashed the potential in a person’s genes. It could also guide the spirit energy in the world so that the user could release mighty attacks.
People who could do that were known as martial artists.