Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 740: Section 507: Wisdom is the Most Dangerous Weapon in Human Hands (Part Five)

Chapter 740: Section 507: Wisdom is the Most Dangerous Weapon in Human Hands (Part Five)

When Malin and the others brought the Mech Soul Armor back to Sim Port, Malin specifically asked Eleven about Carn Kadel, the sergeant of the Seventeenth Corps. The armor immediately found the name in its database, not only revealing his service number but also the coordinates of his last call to the Union—near the coordinates of that beautiful hotel.

"Have you met Mr. Carn?"

"To be precise, it was his last words."

Malin shared this information with Eleven, who fell silent for a moment before asking, "Sir, do I need to introduce myself again?"

"Hmm?" Malin hummed a questioning sound as he looked at it.

"What you mentioned, about twenty years before the start of the Great Destruction Era, the concept of an artificial neural brain was proposed by the East Asian Science Academy because early assault mechas had significant deficiencies in understanding and learning. The Europa Science Academy Zone, leveraging the expertise of the East Asian Science Academy, used the brains of natural humans as the carrier for artificial neural brains, completely digitizing them. I am a subsequent model, with intelligence equivalent to that of a human at sixteen years of age, capable of discerning the most basic good and evil," Eleven paused for a bit before organizing its thoughts. "The giant humans I killed earlier, I started hunting after failing to communicate because they were very similar to the madmen I had encountered before. But when I saw that the young individual did not abandon the severely wounded, I realized that not all giant humans are the same. I let him go and eventually met you."

"Where did your brain come from?" Malin was curious but also very wary.

"It’s cloned. Europa couldn’t use criminals’ brains directly as North American Science Academy did. They used cloning technology, and the brains of young people who died accidentally were also donated," Eleven answered, then looked at Malin. "You don’t seem surprised by the actions of the North American Science Academy?"

"Yes, I’m not surprised. Jason, come and discuss my identity with Eleven," Malin called Jason, then took out a map of the Northern region: "... Those madmen you mentioned, they must be members of Chaos’s army. Where did you find them?"

"Heading north from the accident site, they have several settlements. I can mark the coordinates on the map, right here at these locations," Eleven pointed thrice on the map, then began exchanging data with Jason.

With Eleven’s responses, Malin confirmed the coordinates, and then heard Eleven’s surprised exclamation, "You actually come from an era before the Union—no wonder you look down on the North American region. To be honest, I also dislike those who called upon the Evil God. In the last year that the Union existed, the entire North American region was swept by a wave of faith, claiming that deities were revealing themselves. Now it seems, it was just the Evil God sounding the bells of destruction." Eleven then fell silent: "The central AI Jason in the database transferred me a lot of knowledge. Only then did I realize that so much had happened during the eight thousand years of my slumber."

"Too many people have silently vanished in the long river of history for the survival of civilization," Malin finished speaking, then lit a cigarette for himself.

This one, in honor of all the fearless who faced death for this civilization.

The sledge convoy moved southward through the wind and snow, and as it approached Sim Port, Malin felt the vehicle slow down. He turned around and saw the distant flames and smoke columns.

"Sim Port has been attacked, what’s going on," old Jack was frantic: "We must get back quickly!"

"Salis, go scout ahead," Malin released his falcon, and as the sled started moving again, Salis shared the situation with Malin—some folks who appeared to be from Chaos had breached a wall of Sim Port, and street fighting was underway.

"That’s great, from which side should we enter the port?" Angry old Jack asked on the parallel double sleds.

"From the sea, a part of it is frozen over, I can use spell formations to strengthen it," Malin suggested, then looked at Eleven: "Eleven, you enter the port from the land side, climb over the wall, and we’ll convene behind the wall. Let’s share coordinates."

"No problem," Eleven answered.

So, as they neared the port area, Eleven jumped off the sled, activated its camouflage, and proceeded while Malin, standing on the seat, began to closely monitor the sea ice as the sled entered the icy area.

Approaching the wall, some of Chaos on the ice discovered them, but faced with the automatic firearms, they were quickly dispatched to the ground, with old Gaiate’s marksmanship being much better than his old friend’s.

The last stretch of sea ice had been broken up by the port’s people, but Malin used a spell formation to relay the ice, and the sled entered the port area without incident.

"Fantastic! You’re back! Chaos also gained access to attack the port area!" complained a sergeant.

Malin disembarked, took a glance at the Chaos rushing onto the sea ice, snapped his fingers, and the next second, an explosion rocked the area, with limbs of Chaos soaring into the sky, and a head of Chaos landing in the arms of the sergeant.

As he watched the man fumbling to rid himself of it, Malin kindly offered, "It’s the head of a Chaotic Sorcerer. Friend, are you sure you don’t want this windfall from heaven?"

Hearing Malin speak, the head that was almost thrown away was tightly embraced by the man.

Malin patted his shoulder with a smile, "Keep an eye here, don’t let Chaos through."

After that, he quickly jogged to catch up with the two elders.

Along the way, the citizens in this seaport were orderly evacuating toward the port area, seemingly ready to board ships.

Malin followed the two old men through the harbor district’s city gate, which seemed to still be under control of their side—if the outer walls had been lost, the top would already be swarming with Chaos.

But this was good, for the Chaos forces would have to suffer the firepower of the walls if they wished to enter the city district. Considering that the Northerners’ firearms were probably all muzzle-loaders, Malin thought their firepower was meager, much like the curve on that child he had encountered last time—obviously a girl, yet flat as a plank... Ah, he was getting off track.

Hearing the battle cries ahead, Malin took his firearm into his hands, "Eleven, you can come out now."

"Okay," Eleven appeared beside Malin.

"Father, Mr. Jack, I’ll go around from this side; you two keep moving forward, and be careful," Malin said.

"You too, kid," old Gaiate replied.

Malin did this because Salis had confirmed that the Chaos on Malin’s side had made progress. Some of them had already climbed up the wall using the passage behind it, and the newly arrived forces had breached the defense on this side. Both sides were clashing in the streets. Malin was going to cut off the Chaos reinforcements with Eleven.

"The decay of civilization is severe, Mr. Malin," Eleven said, observing everything in front of him.

"Look at it this way, at least there is still civilization, which is a comforting thought," Malin said while donning heavy bulletproof plates for protection, pulling up his hood and goggles, and moving Bippo’s nest to his back, "Let’s go, Eleven."

With a punch, Eleven shattered the door of a small building, and Malin walked into the kitchen, through the living room, and opened the front door.

Eleven, lowering his head to exit through the front door, held the shotgun Malin had given him and stood in the middle of the road, raising the gun towards the Chaos forces charging at him with swords and wild cries.

Continuous shooting. The shotgun pellets mowed down a large number of Chaos forces, halting their advance.

But Chaos was not the kind to recoil from slaughter, and they kept pushing forward with howls.

Then Fio, brandishing Blood Roar, along with Eleven, whose arms sprouted electric blades, unleashed a bloody storm among the ranks of Chaos.

The Chaos blades couldn’t even produce a spark against Eleven’s body, and the World Tree Sapling was invulnerable to their crude iron, so the one-sided battle continued.

At this time, Malin had gone upstairs, pushed open the balcony door, and then climbed up to the rooftop. From here, he could see the human soldiers and the mixed mass of Chaos tightly packed atop the city wall.

Malin raised his rifle, now loaded with armor-piercing bullets, and fired three short bursts into the ranks of Chaos. Those near the wall fell off like dumplings, and with their numbers dwindling, the remaining Chaos forces began getting shoved towards the breach by the human soldiers.

As the ones exchanging fire with the human soldiers on the other side of the damaged area lost their footing, and after Malin emptied the 45 bullets in his magazine, the rest of the Chaos forces screamed as they were pushed off the wall.

"Thank you, sir!" The soldiers didn’t recognize Malin, but they knew to thank him.

Malin just smiled in return, and then glanced at the situation on the streets—the Chaos troops were now cowed by the two avatars of death, quickly retreating towards the breach.

"What are these guys supposed to be?" Malin jumped off the rooftop and asked a soldier who ran up, "I’ve always been living in the South, so I’m not clear on what these things are."

"They are Chaos giants. In ancient times, some Frost Giants sought power and pledged allegiance to Chaos. Without faith and worthless, they are revolting traitors, and I am ashamed to share kinship with them," a soldier with obvious Frost Giant ancestry approached, noticing Malin, "You must be Mr. Malin Gaiate who arrived this noon. Thank you for stepping in."

"It’s nothing. I was just curious because their equipment is rubbish," Malin replied with a smile.

"These Chaos giants live like primitives in the North. Every so often, they descend southward to wage war against our Northern Kingdom and the Frost Giant Royal Court." The soldier frowned, "Chaos is sounding their horns; they are preparing a final assault."

Just as Malin was about to refute this soldier’s statement, he heard a voice, amplified by a Spell Formation, coming from outside the city.

"I! Mendelson! The fearsome Champion chosen by Chaos, hereby challenge the tenderfoots to a duel! Who dares to face me in a glorious Champion’s combat?"

"Damn, it’s his clan... Wait a minute! Mr. Malin, where do you think you’re going!" the Frost Giant asked, looking at Malin.

"Well, I’m off to duel him, of course," after saying that, Malin walked away, taking off his bulletproof panel.

Friend, heard you’re the Champion chosen by Deity?

What a coincidence, so am I.