In the mecha's cold electronic eyes, Lin Qingyue's figure was stretched into a series of uncapturable afterimages.
Its logic core emitted a desperate buzz, calculating frantically, yet it could never lock onto that pink ghost.
"Target lost! Recalculating trajectory!"
"Warning! Threat level increased! Target is approaching at high speed!"
Just as the alarm of one of the mechas reached its highest decibel.
Lin Qingyue's figure appeared like a ghost at its side.
She did not attack the seemingly fragile joints, nor did she search for the energy core.
She simply extended her right hand, which was clad in a white glove.
Her slender index finger, on that metal thigh covered in thick rivets, on an inconspicuous screw head, tapped lightly.
The movement was as gentle as brushing away a fallen leaf.
Without a trace of killing intent.
This gesture was as elegant as a magician, under the gaze of everyone, announcing the final miracle.
The next instant.
An invisible wave, with her fingertip as the center, suddenly spread.
"Kacha, lala lala!"
In the canyon, a symphony composed of countless metal unlocking sounds roared to life!
That killing machine, weighing dozens of tons, was like a precision toy with all its key fasteners instantly released.
Armor plates, pistons, pipes, gears...
Hundreds and thousands of steel components collectively lost their connection to each other at this moment, declaring a "strike" in perfect unison!
Boom!
A muffled, thunderous sound.
It wasn't an explosion, but the roar of countless metal parts hitting the ground simultaneously.
The previous second, it was a Steam Magitech Mecha representing coldness and death.
The next second, it became a pile of metal scrap of various sizes, even stacked quite neatly on the ground.
A few shiny screws spun and rolled to Lin Xiyue's feet, flickering with a cold metallic luster in the dim light.
The entire scene was so absurd it made one question life itself.
"What... is the principle behind this?"
On the high platform, Su Wan's blue eyes, which were always as calm as an icy lake, showed a chaos like a data stream overloading.
Her worldview was being pressed to the ground and rubbed frantically by an invisible force.
This wasn't scientific.
This wasn't even magic!
This was simply a forced disassembly initiated at the "rule" level!
With the first strike a success, Lin Qingyue didn't pause for a single moment.
Her figure once again blurred into an afterimage.
To that brainwashing BGM that could send a person to their grave, she was like a black cat flitting through a graveyard of steel, flickering between the other two mechas that had crashed into a logical deadlock after their comrade's instant disintegration.
"Next, the heat vent cover on your back."
She whispered softly, and her fingertips tapped down again.
"Kala kala..."
Another pile of parts fell to the ground with a crash, stacking up into another small mountain of scrap iron.
"Last one, the weapon mount base."
"Hualala..."
The final pile of parts collapsed with a roar.
From beginning to end, it all took less than ten seconds.
Three war machines, representing the pinnacle of military might in this dungeon, were turned into three neat piles of steaming scrap metal.
Inside the canyon, the gunfire ceased, the roars vanished.
Only that magically brainwashing BGM continued to echo tenaciously, proving that everything that had just happened wasn't a collective hallucination.
"Deng deng deng deng! Deng deng deng deng!"
Lin Qingyue stood in the center of the three piles of parts, elegantly patting the nonexistent dust off her gloves.
She turned and gave a playful wink to her long-petrified teammates.
"The magic show has concluded perfectly."
"Dear audience, did you enjoy it?"
Su Wan and Xia Lian stood dazed in the distance, temporarily losing their ability to form words.
Lin Xiyue emerged from behind the rock wall, carrying the giant shield, [Blackstone's Protection].
But her gaze didn't immediately fall on those piles of scrap metal, instead, it locked onto her own sister.
Her eyes slowly moved down from Lin Qingyue's mischievous, smiling face.
Finally, they settled on the snow-white valley between the folds of that magic costume, which was stretched into a breathtaking arc.
"Sis," Lin Xiyue asked with a serious expression, "you call this a magic show?"
"With you dressed like this, I feel like the audience's attention will be completely sucked away by this bottomless 'magic pocket' of yours. Who would even look at those little tricks of yours?"
Before she finished speaking, a wicked grin spread across her face, and her sinful, groping hand blurred into an afterimage, heading straight for the main subject!
"Come on, let your little sister verify the authenticity of the magic prop!"
Slap!
A crisp sound rang out.
Lin Qingyue was quick to react, slapping the back of her sister's restless hand.
"Get lost! If you want to verify, go verify Su Wan's. Hers aren't any smaller than mine!"
"Hehe."
Lin Xiyue retracted her hand with a sheepish grin. Su Wan, whose name had just been mentioned, felt her cheeks flush with a barely noticeable crimson as she subconsciously puffed out her chest.
Only then did Lin Xiyue turn her attention to the pile of parts. She circled it twice, kicking a relatively intact mechanical arm with her foot.
"Clang."
"Just like that... it's disassembled?" she muttered to herself. "This is... ten thousand times faster than me smashing them with my shield."
"It wasn't disassembled; it was 'unlocked'."
Su Wan had already walked over. She crouched down and picked up a complex gear assembly, data streams flashing rapidly in her deep blue eyes.
"The connections of all the parts seem to have been instantly unlocked by an incomprehensible force."
"There are no signs of violent destruction, and even the smallest latches are completely intact."
She looked up, her voice tinged with a hint of shock:
"It's almost as if... someone hacked into the mecha's factory backend, executed a 'one-click factory reset' command with the highest authority, and even included a perfect disassembly service."
Xia Lian walked over as well. She looked at the parts scattered all over the ground, and the eyes that always carried a hint of shyness now held only pure shock.
She had imagined countless scenarios of bitter battles and bloody struggles, but she had never imagined the outcome would be so... comical.
"Sis, is your ability... the bane of all mechanical units?"
Lin Xiyue finally snapped back to her senses and looked at Lin Qingyue, who had already deactivated her transformation and returned to her Pink-Haired Priest form.
"I suppose so." Lin Qingyue nodded, but her expression wasn't entirely relaxed.
"This Heroic Spirit is indeed incredibly effective against such precisely structured mechanical creations."
She raised a finger and tapped her temple in the air.
"I can instinctively find the 'singularity' in their structure. With a light touch, I can trigger a chain reaction that makes them disintegrate from the inside out."
"It sounds invincible," Su Wan added calmly, "but it requires close-quarters combat and is a one-on-one 'art'. Against legion-scale firepower coverage, this kind of movement is meaningless."
The group's excitement cooled slightly.
It was clearly unrealistic to rely on this ability to steamroll all the way to the "Prophet" and forcefully dismantle his army of mechas.
"So what do we do?" The excitement that had just ignited in Lin Xiyue was once again doused with cold water. "Do we still have to resort to guerrilla warfare and chip away at their patrols bit by bit?"
That would be too slow and extremely risky.
Heaven knows how many of these tin cans that "Prophet" from America was hiding.
"No."
Lin Qingyue shook her head, a mischievous glint gleaming in her pink eyes as if she were eagerly awaiting a grand spectacle.
"Who said we have to do all the heavy lifting ourselves?"
Her words left everyone stunned.
"I've already sent the intelligence about the 'Genius Graveyard' up the chain. The Chinese authorities will definitely notify the other poor sucker nations immediately."
Lin Qingyue analyzed, "Those arrogant geniuses from all over the world who've suffered such a huge loss, do you think they'll just retreat in disgrace? No, they'll be even more eager than we are to flip the tables of America and the Evil God."
Su Wan immediately caught on. "You mean next, the entire Dungeon will be filled with 'anti-fraud' victim rights squads just like us."
"Exactly!" Lin Qingyue snapped her fingers, her smile radiant. "Now this 'Prophet' fellow isn't facing just one small squad, but an 'Avengers Alliance' from all over the world. No matter how many mechas he has, when spread across such a vast area, how many will be left? He's bound to leave one end open while guarding the other."
She kicked a huge steam boiler at her feet.
"Don't forget the [Gravity] rule. Maintaining high-intensity flight patrols in this high-gravity environment must consume an astronomical amount of energy. Their endurance won't be that great either."
Lin Xiyue finally understood. "So, we don't need to rush to the front lines and become the canary in the coal mine?"
"Of course." A smile played on Lin Qingyue's lips, as if she were getting ready to watch a show.
"Right now, the enemy is in the open while we're hidden. Besides, his enemies are all over the world. What are we rushing for?"
"Let our 'anti-fraud' colleagues be the ones to clear the path, to wear them down, and to force the 'Prophet' to deploy his precious army of tin cans everywhere."
"Once he moves, the problem with his endurance will be completely exposed."
"When that time comes, he'll either have to withdraw to his base for resupply or contract his defensive lines and hide like a turtle in a shell. He has to choose one."
"Any change will create a weakness."
A plan, one could call a "salted fish" plan, took shape in Lin Qingyue's mind.
She scanned her eager teammates and announced lazily:
"So, our next task is simple."
"Find a cave with a good view."
"Set up a game board and brew a pot of tea."
"And bet on how many days that 'Prophet' fellow can hold out under the combined assault of our 'anti-fraud' colleagues."
She paused, a mischievous glint flashing in her pink eyes.
"Once he's tormented to his wit's end and his formation is in disarray..."
"We'll make our grand entrance and give the 'Prophet' a 'surprise' he'll never forget for the rest of his life!"