The Xylosians. Truly an incessant plague, even in the depths of Doran Star... these damned tentacles.

Inside the bridge of the Behemoth, Yang Ying stared at the newly delivered intelligence report, deep in thought. This document, sent by a mid-sized resistance cell, detailed how the largest arms corporations on Doran Star were secretly channeling rare ores to the Kustar race.

One member of that resistance group had been deeply embedded within the operation, only to be silenced for certain reasons, yet miraculously surviving through sheer fortune before joining the resistance.

That individual harbored a deep, burning hatred for those arms corporations, but their influence on Doran Star was too vast. For him, revenge remained an unrealistic fantasy.

However, the Teran Mercenary Group had now arrived.

The Teran Mercenary Group possessed the capability to annihilate those arms corporations, and they had ample motivation to do so—they simply hadn't acted yet. Thus, the survivor saw his opportunity, delivering this spark to their doorstep, intending to leverage the Teran Mercenary Group’s might for his retribution against the major arms consortiums.

The motivations of that informant mattered little to Yang Ying; what concerned him was the intelligence’s veracity. If the contents were true, then the Kustar race must maintain a high-ranking official within Hwagang City.

“Hwagang City is the largest metropolis on Doran Star, a nexus of convoluted relationships. The most influential figures on the planet are almost certainly concentrated there. Moving against them will require careful, meticulous planning.”

With that thought, Yang Ying forwarded the report to the Strategy Department, tasking them to analyze and devise a suitable response. Yet, before the staff headquarters could reply, shifts began to occur within Hwagang City itself.

The massive army of armed workers finally reached the megalopolis dubbed the "Pearl of Doran Star." Numbering over two million, they finally breached the city limits, aided by their brethren already armed within Hwagang.

This grand host also included one hundred and fifty thousand resistance guerrillas, veterans of numerous engagements. They were equipped with a significant amount of heavy weaponry, alongside modified combat robot cannon fodder.

Most of the armed workers lacked systematic military training, and the resistance members were largely self-taught. Their formations were ragged and loose, showing no semblance of a professional army. Nevertheless, their sheer numbers alone were enough to inspire dread in the average citizen. The armed workers were overwhelmingly optimistic, certain that their sheer mass would overwhelm any enemy ahead; no power could stop them.

Their objective was the affluent sector of Hwagang City.

The Hwagang City rich district had always been heavily fortified, guarded by mercenaries hired by the major corporations. Their weaponry surpassed that of regular military units, and they were all rigorously trained, possessing rich combat experience—some were even elite veterans discharged from the armed forces, making their fighting capability equal to, if not greater than, standard troops.

The armed workers inside Hwagang had thrown themselves against the rich district several times before, only to be beaten back. Now, with substantial external reinforcements, they renewed their ambitions. But as they advanced toward the affluent sector, they were met with resistance unlike anything before.

The intensity of this counterattack was ten times greater than any past encounter. The disparity was so vast that the local armed workers who had previously assaulted the area almost felt they were facing an entirely different enemy.

Uranium cannons, kinetic blasters, plasma projectors, proton beams, neutron launchers—artillery of every conceivable energy level, supplemented by various models of physical missile weaponry, and armored vehicles of every configuration—it resembled a full-scale weapons exposition. Deadly beams and violent explosions, a suffocating torrent of three-dimensional strikes, taught the armed workers what true warfare entailed. They grasped that real war was not something amateurs playing with a few uranium rifles, firing indiscriminately at the enemy, could manage.

The backbone of the uprising remained the resistance, holding the bulk of the heavy weaponry. This was because most heavy weapons were useless in the hands of untrained masses; giving them to the armed workers would have been a sheer waste. In contrast, the resistance could at least field enough personnel capable of operating them.

As the armed workers were suppressed by the sudden influx of firepower, the resistance immediately retaliated with heavy arms. For a time, beams of all colors crisscrossed the sky, while missiles and rockets, trailing brilliant plumes of flame, hammered into the enemy ranks.

The resistance sent forward their combat robot cannon fodder to destabilize the mercenary defenses, but the mercenaries deployed even more robots, which flooded forward like an unstoppable, rising tide.

On a vast, open plain in the northern suburbs of the city, along an expansive front line, two steel torrents crashed together violently. When Yang Ying learned of this massive engagement underway, he dispatched an avatar specifically to Hwagang City to witness the spectacle, absorbing the magnificent scene into his sight.

Both sides had committed over a million combat robots. Even from the vantage point atop a two-hundred-story skyscraper, the avatar could not see the beginning or end of the line; the horizon was choked with masses of black metal, robots that knew no fear, obeying only orders, stepping without hesitation onto the battlefield to kill, even if their foe was their own kind.

They squeezed the triggers of their drilling rifles, unleashing barrages that sounded like endless rainfall. Hundreds of thousands of beams lanced out every second, painting the ground with a vibrant, multicolored carpet of energy impacts.

The robots fought with an emphasis on offense over defense. The battle lasted barely an hour before the resistance’s combat robots were more than half destroyed. Although they inflicted significant losses on the enemy, the sheer numerical superiority of the opposing automatons was overwhelming.

Behind the mercenaries stood the major arms corporations. Only they knew the true extent of their robot reserves, but it was certain the number was at least eight million, and likely more.

Several factories remained operational on Doran Star. Although the pre-war daily production rate of two million robots had drastically plummeted due to the worker uprising, the remaining output was still considerable. Yang Ying’s initial hope was a swift victory, cooperating with the resistance to ignite this revolt precisely to curb the production of combat robots. Otherwise, merely eliminating the daily output would consume all the Teran Mercenary Group’s available forces.

Returning focus to the battlefield, as the enemy robots crushed their own mechanical units and surged forward like an unstoppable tide, the armed workers did not flinch. Their morale remained high. The numerous cities they had previously conquered gave them ample confidence. The garrison troops and private mercenaries they once thought impossible to challenge had been defeated one by one; a minor setback now should not prompt a rout.

Sometimes, when people gather in a crowd, they lose perspective. Things that an individual might process clearly become muddled within a group. Perhaps some among them realized that the armed workers' prior string of victories was due to the capitalists not exerting their full strength, and now that they were serious, the situation looked grim!

However, even if they realized it, they could not voice it. Surrounded by a throng pulsating with high morale, where the majority opposed retreat, speaking their true fears would only result in being suspected of trying to undermine morale, perhaps leading to an even swifter death.

Thus, they could only grit their teeth and push forward.

The result was predictable. As more and more armed workers were struck down by the enemy robots’ sustained beam fire, their morale rapidly eroded. Advancing under superior enemy firepower, the armed workers' inherent disadvantages quickly became apparent. Untrained, they knew nothing of self-preservation in combat, charging forward on sheer zeal only to be mown down by crisscrossing energy beams after a few steps.

Under normal circumstances, new recruits die fastest on the battlefield, let alone those who weren't even soldiers—mere amateurs.

Seeing this, the resistance immediately swung their cannon muzzles around, providing heavy fire support to the advance of the armed workers. This maneuver was initially effective, steadying the workers’ line.

But the primary mission of heavy firepower on the battlefield is suppressing the enemy’s heavy firepower. The resistance was not a regular army; under crisis, they defaulted to an impatient response. They shared the same flaw as the armed workers: even if a few intelligent minds recognized the danger, they could not overrule the majority opinion, and were forced to follow the crowd by shifting their cannon fire.

This redirection allowed the mercenary side, already possessing a firepower advantage, to unleash a ferocious counterattack. They brought their full arsenal to bear against the resistance’s heavy weapons positions, slaughtering them. Soon after, the resistance's heavy artillery suffered catastrophic losses, and their support for the armed workers dwindled.

At this point, the mercenary forces swung their heavy artillery back toward the armed workers, bringing utter devastation. Plasma bolts descending from the sky instantly vaporized dozens of workers, leaving behind only carbonized, shattered skeletal fragments that crumbled to black dust upon hitting the ground. Energy beams sweeping across bodies carved out new gaps with every pass. Searing fireballs erupted in the crowds, the shockwaves tearing apart everything within tens of meters.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The battlefield was consumed by fire and light beams. In this hellish tableau, the armed worker army finally broke. They fled backward at a speed ten times faster than their earlier charge, their earlier confidence utterly forgotten. Fear was etched onto every face; all they desired was to escape this nightmare landscape and never return as long as they lived.

From the high-rise in the distance, Yang Ying’s avatar shook his head and muttered, “In the end, these people are just a rabble. They fight well when things go their way, but they cannot endure a single defeat. Once routed, they collapse completely; they are useless for the immediate future.”

He gazed toward the northern plains and added, “These corporate magnates struck hard to suppress the worker revolt, and they showed no prior warning signs. They don't seem concerned about the Teran Mercenary Group’s involvement. It confirms the intelligence must be true—have they truly secured the Kustar race as their ultimate backing?” Hmm, a deeper probe is required.

On the other side, Yang Ying contacted Foxto: “Inform everyone now. We are pulling out of the city; it’s time to start the sabotage.”