Arknights: Mobile City

For a moment, Texas found herself genuinely curious about this so-called "Food Chain."

"Same as always. Not exactly good, but not that bad either... aside from how little time we've got," Obsidian said casually.

Over the past couple of days, he'd been keeping a close eye on the Food Chain's movements. That thing had a tendency to move through areas dense with organic and inorganic material. He'd already watched it devour entire stretches of ruin with its swarm of Fresh Food trailing behind it.

It honestly made Obsidian's heart ache a little.

These creatures didn't seem to possess any real intelligence. What drove them was a single instinct—hunger.

That's all it is, Obsidian thought to himself.

But thanks to that, the Food Chain's advance had been somewhat slowed. That, at least, gave him a bit of breathing room.

Still, even with the extra prep time, he couldn't help feeling uneasy.

Sure, using Doubts en masse gave him a decent short-term power spike. But the Food Chain was essentially a zerg rush specialist—and the sheer number of bugs it could spawn would likely dwarf his own mechanical forces.

Worse, the Food Chain itself thrived on overwhelming numbers. It was practically designed to counter swarm tactics. Based on current projections, Obsidian figured he had a shot—but nowhere near a sure thing.

And if his assumptions were wrong… if the Food Chain turned out to be even stronger than expected…

Then there'd be no hope left.

This kind of enemy couldn't be underestimated.

He had to prepare more contingencies—had to be ready for the worst-case scenario.

That much was clear in Obsidian's mind.

But with the City's current limitations, he didn't have many tools left to work with. As far as available resources went, his best remaining option… was Lunacy.

Just like before—Lunacy was the key.

There were plenty of ways to generate it. Expanding the human-activity zone could grant Lunacy, but that only worked if new territory was being claimed. When the City first came online, the activity radius was a full kilometer. That zone had gradually shrunk over time. Reclaiming lost ground didn't net any Lunacy bonuses.

And at the moment, they couldn't afford to push the perimeter further outward.

Rebuilding cultural landmarks or replicating the City's original appearance could also generate Lunacy—but clearly, that wasn't an option either.

Which meant the only viable path left… was to hunt monsters.

Obsidian had already been considering this even before Pioneer returned.

Sweepers were running dry—he'd culled so many that even a full night of purging wouldn't yield enough Lunacy for a single pull. As for other monsters, there just weren't enough of them nearby.

That left one option.

Time to steal some corpses out of the Food Chain's mouth.

Truth be told, Obsidian had been eyeing the Lunacy potential from those things for a while now. If he wasn't so outmatched, he'd have tossed the entire swarm into the Well already and watched them dissolve into blood-red fuel.

But now?

I can't take you down… but I can sure as hell kill the things around you.

This is just scavenging. I'm scavenging. From you. That's all.

Having made up his mind, Obsidian calmly spoke through Pioneer's mouth:

"All right. Tomorrow I'll head over there and check things out. Maybe I can slow them down a little too."

"Got it. I'm counting on you," Obsidian replied to himself.

With that, Pioneer turned and walked back toward one of the cabins.

Texas, listening in on the conversation, was momentarily stunned.

He's going to the Food Chain tomorrow...?

The thought stirred something in her.

Of course, she could tell Obsidian had said all this on purpose—meant for her to hear. But knowing him as she did, she understood: if he was willing to speak openly about it, that meant it wasn't something life-threatening… not if handled carefully.

Her thoughts sharpened into a decision.

Maybe tomorrow… I'll follow him. Quietly.

…

That night, Pioneer returned to the third cabin—freshly built by overworked Doubts. Obsidian estimated that once they hit five completed buildings, the system might reward them with some Lunacy.

But for now, there were no building materials left. They couldn't venture far, and everything nearby had either already been stripped by Obsidian or eaten by the Food Chain.

And so, the night gave way to morning.

As the sun rose, Pioneer stepped out of the cabin and headed toward the horizon.

Texas had been awake for some time. Now she peeked out from her own cabin. When Pioneer finally disappeared from view, she slipped outside and began trailing after him.

She deliberately kept her pace measured, careful not to close the distance too quickly.

But within just a few steps, she ran into a problem.

There, just a short distance ahead, Pioneer was waiting for her—completely still in the open terrain.

Under the morning sun, the glowing orange lenses beneath his cowboy hat fixed directly on her.

"I was wondering when you'd finally show yourself."

"You... knew I was following you?"

"I could tell from your expression yesterday. You're too easy to read. Come on."

Pioneer turned and resumed walking. Texas hesitated for a moment—then followed.

"So… what exactly are we doing?"

"Culling the bugs around the Food Chain. That's it. Simple. Look—there."

Pioneer stopped suddenly and tilted his chin toward the far distance.

Texas squinted—and her eyes widened.

Far off on the horizon, a black, seething mass blanketed the ground.

Looking closer, she realized—

They were all bugs.

And in the center of that swarm stood something colossal—massive as a hill.

It looked vaguely like an Originium slug, but it radiated a strength far beyond what anything of that class should have.

"That's the Food Chain?"

"Just the big one in the middle. The rest are its spawn—Fresh Food. Can't believe they're only four kilometers from the City now."

Pioneer's voice was level. Then he lowered his mechanical head to meet Texas's gaze.

"Go on. Equip your identity. Take a couple shots."

Texas didn't argue.

She'd been itching to test her skills on these things.

In one smooth motion, she activated her Thumb identity card, raised her firearm, loaded armor-piercing rounds, and fired.

The bullet cracked through the air with a deafening bang.

Two seconds later, three Fresh Food dropped where they stood.

But Texas didn't feel victorious.

That's barely a scratch…

She stared at the horde—countless insects chittering in the distance—and realized that three was nothing.

And then something truly disturbing happened.

As the dead bugs hit the ground, a dozen others swarmed their bodies.

In a blink, they were tearing into the corpses, spraying gore and fluids everywhere. More insects came, devouring the remains in a grotesque feeding frenzy.

Within half a second… there was nothing left.

Cannibalism...?

Texas felt a chill crawl up her spine.

She glanced over at Pioneer—who, for his part, looked completely unfazed. If anything, he seemed… unsurprised. Maybe even disappointed.

"Just as I figured..."

He muttered, crouching with a soft mechanical click-clack. Then he reached out, resting a heavy hand on her shoulder.

His voice dropped to a whisper.

"All right. Now comes our job."

He pointed toward the insect horde.

"We're going to steal some Fresh Food corpses out from under their jaws."

"...?"

Texas blinked.

Her face went blank with confusion.

"Wait. Me?"