Chapter 43: Exoskeletons Aren't Necessarily Inferior to Endoskeletons!
After transporting the exoskeleton back to the office, it underwent another round of localized modifications, making it bulkier overall. Many parts of the body were now covered with metal plates, and a 35mm, 200KG explosion-proof alloy shield was added.
Lin Miao tested it out, and even a 12.7mm machine gun would have to work hard to penetrate this shield without using armor-piercing rounds.
Of course, in a real confrontation, it's likely that the person behind the shield would be the first to go down rather than the shield itself.
Over these past few days, the players managed to put together four sets of exoskeletons: two light and two heavy models, priced at 15000/20000. Unfortunately, no one can afford them right now.
The money they have isn't even 1/10th of that amount, leaving them envious, as a 10% discount coupon could at least save them 1800 to 2000.
And yet, it's exhilarating!
Lin Miao was not surprised when the Night Wanderers showed up at their doorstep.
After all, with the increasing number of players, expanding the activity range made it only a matter of time before they were discovered by those people.
If the number was sufficient and he had grasped the Night Wanderers' defense situation, he would have taken the initiative to strike long ago.
Now that this group had delivered themselves to their doorstep, it was a perfect opportunity to test the effectiveness of the exoskeletons.
.....
Wildman, who was hiding in the cover, heard the sound of vehicles and gunfire. Peeking through a gap, he saw a familiar vehicle, with Poor Warrior and Red Barrel protruding from the sides, firing backward.
Both sides had been engaged for a while; bullets had turned the vehicle's body into a tattered mess. However, the garbage in the back of the vehicle served as a massive cover, blocking quite a few bullets for the players.
"The vehicle is here! Red Barrel and the others are back!"
"Open the gate and let them in."
The gate had been modified from manual to electric; the two iron doors swiftly slid open along the tracks, revealing the passage.
Shui Yue, who had been driving with his head down to avoid being hit by stray bullets, immediately gunned the throttle when he saw the gate open. Meanwhile, Rainy Night Without a Knife had already been shot, but the injury was not severe, just a graze from a stray bullet.
The vehicle rushed into the office, and the iron gate closed immediately, but the Night Wanderer convoy, persistently tailing, had also arrived outside the office.
Faced with the over two-meter-high wall, they had their own solution.
"R!P!G!"
A shoulder-held rocket launcher spewed a puff of white smoke, accelerating fiercely toward the closing gate.
Bang!
The explosive flames and shockwave blasted the gate open, sending shrapnel flying, even burning out the door motor. If no player had been standing behind the door, there would likely have been heavy casualties.
The temporary leader of the Night Wanderers was Tariq. The reason he was temporary was that the unit was cobbled together by several families, and he was the one pushed forward. Winning this battle beautifully could grant Tariq considerable influence.
He discarded the still-smoking launcher, raised his mechanical arm, and shouted loudly,
"Open fire! Take them down! Teach these fools who dare provoke the Night Wanderers a lesson."
The convoy and the number of Night Wanderers were more than the players had imagined; more than fifty Night Wanderers came to take down this suspected company stronghold.
"Damn! This intense?"
"No worries!" The Bighead wasn't concerned about any anti-armor measures, immediately pushing away the cover in front, exposing a firing port. He mounted a previously confiscated machine gun and aimed at the Night Wanderers, pulling the trigger. The fiery tongue of the gun and its recoil sent his adrenaline surging. In the blink of an eye, several Night Wanderers had their bodies blown apart, turning into a mist of blood.
But the Night Wanderers were no pushovers; they were clearly prepared for a siege battle, with another rocket launcher aimed at the bunker.
"Holy shit! Run!"
The Bighead screamed, scaring the ammo-reloading Potato. Both of them retreated quickly, as the machine gun and the bunker turned to ashes with the rocket blast. Players from other locations also began firing, engaging the Night Wanderers in battle.
Gunfire erupted, bullets flew wildly, and explosions rang one after another.
On the other side of the battlefield, behind the Night Wanderers, two sneaky figures were inching closer.
"Can that thing of yours really work?"
Brother Ni looked at Jianxue Wuming's explosive device, heart pounding, fearing this guy would blow both themselves and him sky-high.
Players can research data after logging off, and naturally knew what Jianxue Wuming had made. Explosive sounds from the lab had been frequent these days, and the worst incident saw Jianxue Wuming blowing his own hand off, his body a bloody mess hanging by a thread. If not for being quickly put in the modification pod for rescue, this chemical plant technician might have become the first victim of his own product.
"It's fine, absolutely fine." But he was still excited, not fearing death at all, as he attached a cylindrical explosive to an arrow, handing it to Brother Ni, "I've tested it, I'll press, and it'll definitely work."
Brother Ni swallowed hard, trembling as he took the explosive crossbow, nocking it, aiming, and firing.
The arrow, now weighted by the explosives, traced an arc in the air, missing its initial target and falling onto a vehicle.
But that didn't matter; Jianxue Wuming immediately activated the detonator in his hand.
This signaling device was cobbled together by Big-Eared Tutu using scrap phones and some electronic chips. The detonator in the explosives contained a receiver, and once it got the signal from the emitter, it would activate, the battery triggering a spark.
The spark activated the mercury fulminate, further igniting the Semtine explosives.
This explosive, even more potent than TNT, unleashed flames that instantly engulfed two nearby vehicles. The three nearest Night Wanderers didn't even have time to react before being blown into the sky.