Chapter 158: Cheng Tian Drives Onto the Scene; This Calls for the Metal Max BGM.
Humans in the dinosaur kombat world, having taken refuge underground for nearly five centuries, not only saw their technological advancement—aside from genetic research—stagnate, but also experienced a significant loss and deficiency of various technologies.
Furthermore, due to the limited capacity of the underground shelters at the time, most of the devastating weapons created by humans were abandoned and subsequently submerged by seawater after the great climate catastrophe.
If one were to look at New York now, they would find that the bottom ten-plus floors of the collapsed Statue of Liberty and Twin Towers are still submerged in seawater, and this is even after the tide has receded over the years.
Even if data had been preserved before the evacuation, five hundred years is enough to change too many things. Heavy armored vehicles, typically exclusive to national armies, had clearly become a lost technology and certainly wouldn't be found in the hands of a mere poacher organization.
However, due to the unparalleled focus on genetic research, the average physique of humans in the 26th century saw a significant improvement.
And a naturally gifted individual like Bald Butcher, standing at 2.3 meters with a body of lean muscle, could, by his own strength alone, restrain dinosaurs like the Triceratops and Stegosaurus—which, despite being classified as herbivores, possess excellent size and power—and even slaughter them as easily as common livestock.
In the original work, Bald Butcher's camp was filled with dinosaur carcasses that had been killed and were awaiting transport to the genetic research institute.
But if one looks closely at the background of the game, it becomes clear that all the dinosaur carcasses and skeletons are, without exception, those of Stegosaurus and Triceratops.
It's unclear whether Bald Butcher was picking on the weak, specifically targeting herbivores, or if carnivores were harder to hunt in groups due to their generally solitary hunting habits.
However, at this very moment, the positions of the two sides were completely reversed.
Under the erosion of adventure island 3 fragments, the dinosaur population not only gained superpowers, but their original weakness of small brain capacity and perceived clumsiness was also remedied, causing them to recall memories of their companions being slaughtered by poachers.
And at this time, the Butcher Family, having received a new mission, returned to the same hunting ground, prompting the herbivores, feeling their lives threatened, to decisively launch a joint attack.
If it were the herbivore groups from before, without superpowers, then even with their large numbers, they still couldn't defeat the terrifying bipedal apes armed with firearms. But now, some breathed fire, some threw rocks, some could charge, some could cut, and some could unleash energy waves.
The Butcher Family had tried their best to overestimate the changes in the dinosaurs and prepared accordingly when accepting the mission, but they still underestimated the power of these elements combined.
Even Bald Butcher, their strongest fighter, was completely tied up and unable to spare a hand to rescue his other subordinates.
The poachers' camp, which appeared to be holding on, was only a matter of time away from complete collapse.
However, at this critical moment, accompanied by the trumpet-like cry of an elephant, a sound that had disappeared from this planet five hundred years ago, and the rumbling of tank tracks on the ground, a sound almost only heard in video archives, reached the ears of the struggling human side from the edge of the jungle.
Cheng Tian's forces, led by the drill tank, made a powerful and chaotic entry!
But almost simultaneously, an 8-bit-style musical melody, imbued with a certain exhilarating quality, appeared above the camp, accompanying the sound of the tank tracks!
Cheng Tian, inside the tank, naturally heard this sound. After a brief moment of stunned silence, an extremely excited expression appeared on his face.
Because this 8-bit melody was precisely the battle BGM from the first Metal Max, played when players first encountered the BOSS "Battle Dog" and the popular mercenary "Red Wolf" made his official appearance in his namesake tank—
Battle with the Wanted! Bounty Target Battle!
"Thanks!"
Cheng Tian shouted towards the sky, then stomped on the accelerator, sending the drill tank directly charging towards the nearest Triceratops that was in mid-charge!
Wild dinosaur units affected by the fragment erosion had improved intelligence, but this did not mean they would recognize the unfamiliar, technologically advanced weapons used by the human side, which they had never seen before.
Relying on its powerful three horns and incredibly hard bone plates, this Triceratops, even larger than the one Cheng Tian and his group had previously encountered, not only showed no signs of dodging but also accelerated forward on all fours, attempting to directly break through the damned human's alien creation head-on!
And then!
And then there was no 'then,' because the drill on the front of the drill tank had already begun to spin at high speed.
The three horns of this boss-level Triceratops didn't even last a second before being pulverized by the drill, which was designed for carving out rock caves. The tip of the drill, due to the interaction of forces, quickly broke through its forehead skin and skull, drilling directly into its brain—which might have improved somewhat, but was unlikely to have improved much!
Cheng Tian slammed his hand onto the 'Drill Impact' launch button, and the accelerating drill mercilessly drove the Triceratops's head directly into its abdominal cavity, then, in its subsequent high-speed rotation, churned it into a flying, splattering paste of bone, flesh, and internal organs!
The sound of this mixed paste hitting the ground was a dull thud, like someone plastering wet mud onto a wall or the ground.
Triceratops, possessing the characteristics of a large creature, received the penetration attribute and a 2x damage bonus from the 240-point Drill Impact. But at the same time, Cheng Tian was also equipped with the flying dragon sword red maple, and its inherent 15% critical hit chance actually extended to Cheng Tian's tank!
Normally, a vehicle is a shell wrapped around the driver, and other equipment would find it difficult to affect the vehicle's various stats. However, because Cheng Tian possessed the Chariot Master skill, allowing him to control the tank as if it were an extension of his body, the critical hit rate, which shouldn't have been effective on the tank, became effective.
And, it was applied at the final calculation.
One drill shot, 960 points of penetrating damage, directly blew up the boss Triceratops on the spot!
In that instant, the entire camp seemed to fall silent. Both humans and dinosaurs paused after witnessing this scene with their own eyes.
And at this moment, the downside of mutation, in a sense, became apparent.
In the past, dinosaurs would have been more inclined to act on instinct, their bodies moving before their minds, and such a sight might have had only a minimal impact on them.
But now, the dinosaurs had grown some brains, and this kind of deterrence, which only works on creatures with high comprehension, actually started to take effect on them!
Even though this was not Cheng Tian's original intention.
[Herbivore Pterosaur Alliance, morale -20.]
In contrast to the dinosaur faction, whose overall morale was sharply suppressed, the poacher faction, belonging to the human side, saw its morale instantly surge!
"Little ones!!! We have reinforcements! Kill all these dinosaur brats attacking the camp for me!!!"
Bald Butcher, feeling a sudden surge of strength, immediately overturned the Stegosaurus guard he was dueling and roared loudly in the direction of his subordinates.
And these poacher subordinates responded with loud shouts from their mouths or fire from their weapons!
[Butcher Family Poacher Organization, morale +20.]