Liu Hai was enjoying a hotpot meal from his bowl when the outside world was already in turmoil due to Gray Rat's team's major move. To small teams and even lone scavengers, Gray Rat's large-scale mobilization could only mean one thing—they must have discovered something valuable in the latest garbage dump and needed more hands to secure it.
One after another, small teams mounted their motorcycles or hover cars and followed behind. Some even tried to speed ahead from the flanks based on Gray Rat's direction. Their goal wasn't to compete with Gray Rat but to scavenge outside the area Gray Rat would eventually cordon off, increasing their chances of finding something worthwhile.
However, as dusk settled, Gray Rat's team suddenly halted, leaving the trailing teams baffled.
Boss, leading a dozen of his men on motorcycles, quickly approached Gray Rat's convoy. After identifying them, Gray Rat's team allowed them to pass through.
On a modified hover car with about 70% structural integrity, Gray Rat, clad in Exoskeleton Armor, lounged lazily, idly filing his nails.
Boss swiftly made his way through the convoy to Gray Rat's hover car and spoke up, "Gray Rat, new intel—200 energy blocks. You interested?"
"200 energy blocks? Mao Zi, you think I'm some pushover? You just took 400 from me, and now you're asking for another 200? What, you planning to sell me the same intel in two installments?"
Gray Rat immediately sprang to his feet at Black Cat Boss's words. Did they think energy blocks grew on trees? Trying to milk him twice for the same info—did they think he was that easy to fool?
Seeing Gray Rat's outburst, Black Cat Boss hurriedly explained, "No, no, it's not like that! This really isn't my fault. That armory is definitely there. This new intel was only discovered after Second Bro came to you—I'm not trying to scam you. And trust me, this info is absolutely worth the price."
Gray Rat's face darkened as he motioned for Black Cat to spill the details. If it was truly valuable, he'd pay. But if not...
Black Cat didn't blink as he studied Gray Rat's expression. Sure, Gray Rat had the best reputation, but how much credibility did scavengers really have? It was all relative—if you thought any of them were saints, you'd be dead before you knew it.
"Here's the deal. After staking out the area, we spotted a squad of ten Combat Robots emerging from that Conical Armory. They're armed with twin-linked autocannons, though we're not sure if they're energy weapons or kinetic."
Gray Rat's eyes lit up at the intel. "You sure you didn't misidentify them? Combat Robots with twin-linked weapons?"
Black Cat stroked his scruffy beard and replied firmly, "I know a Combat Robot when I see one. The only uncertainty is the weapon type."
"Good! Give him the 200 energy blocks!" Gray Rat was practically vibrating with excitement. Even if it wasn't the armory, it had to be a Transport Spaceship Component—otherwise, why would fully intact Combat Robots be lying around in a garbage dump?
"Stick with us for now," Gray Rat said, stopping Black Cat from leaving. He then dispatched scouts to recon the target location.
By the time two of Gray Rat's hover cars reached within 500 meters of the pyramid's core, night had fully fallen.
Four scouts drove their hover cars to the top of the garbage mountain, using the elevation and night vision devices to observe the distant pyramid core.
"Someone's already here?" Liu Hai hadn't even finished his meal when the smart core's alarm went off. After pulling up the projection with the smart core's assistance, he finally spotted the targets.
"Are those hover cars? With machine guns mounted on them?" Liu Hai compared the two modified armored personnel carrier hover cars with the infantry fighting vehicles carried by the pyramid core, realizing there was no comparison—the enemy's makeshift armor was downright ugly.
Instead of immediately ordering the armed robots to counterattack, Liu Hai had the reconnaissance satellite expand its scanning range. Due to the excessive metal debris, biological scans and electromagnetic radar were severely limited. It took nearly half an hour to detect Gray Rat's convoy over ten kilometers away, along with scattered scavengers fanning out to both sides—some were already within three kilometers of the pyramid core.
"It's impossible to tell how many there are or what kind of weapons they have. They're just people surviving by scavenging garbage—their equipment can't possibly be that strong." Liu Hai frowned, trying to discern their weapons. But the scavengers' vehicles were all modified from salvaged metal, blending into the garbage mountain in the darkness—it was impossible to tell which was a vehicle and which was trash.
"Tsk! They've got better camouflage than those Black guys. How do we drive them away?" Liu Hai was frustrated. Without even basic intel on the enemy, how could he defend?
Right now, Liu Hai just wanted to chase away these scavengers so he could focus on building production lines and rapidly mass-producing starships to get off this planet. Otherwise, one day, a garbage dump might just destroy his factory.
After searching for a long time, the Gray Rat scouts only spotted about twenty engineering robots continuously transporting garbage into the pyramid core. One of their hover cars then returned to the convoy to report.
After receiving the scouts' feedback, Gray Rat cast a suspicious glance at Black Cat beside him.
"Boss Gray Rat, I swear I didn't lie. We saw ten combat robots walk out of that building with our own eyes. If you don't believe me, just grab a few scavengers and throw them in to test it," Black Cat quickly suggested, noticing Gray Rat's distrustful gaze.
To Black Cat, as long as it wasn't his own people dying, it didn't matter how many others perished—it wouldn't cost him a single energy block.
"Go. Round up some lone scavengers and send them over. Tell them they can join the team if they make it back alive," Gray Rat ordered after some thought. "Take those rats from the back too, and leak some intel while you're at it."
Following the command, Gray Rat's team members sped off in their hover cars. Minutes later, the air was filled with the shrieks of tearing metal and collisions from all directions.
"Hurry up! Car Three, speed up and cut them off! Car Five, damn it, stop firing randomly—we need them alive, got it?" The leader of Gray Rat's first squad stood atop a hover car, barking orders at his underlings as they hunted down lone scavengers.
Under his command, five hover cars formed two pincer-like formations, surrounding dozens of scattered scavengers. Under the threat of the vehicle-mounted machine guns, few scavengers dared to resist and were forced to march toward the pyramid's core under the escort of Gray Rat's squad.
In less than half an hour, the five Gray Rat squads had captured over two hundred scattered scavengers. Every now and then, the machine guns would fire a burst of metal pellets into the piles of garbage beneath the scavengers' feet.
The supersonic shrieks of the electromagnetic rapid-fire machine gun's pellets echoed in all directions. Though the scattered scavengers had no idea what Gray Rat's team wanted from them, their long experience told them it was nothing good. So they dragged their feet, unwilling to move forward—only taking a few steps when the electromagnetic machine guns fired.