Beside her, Su Wan rubbed the space between her eyebrows.
She knew Lin Qingyue's style all too well.
When this woman started acting all mysterious and keeping them in suspense, it meant a complete and daring action plan had already taken shape in her mind.
An explanation?
That would be a complete waste of time.
Aside from their few teammates who were used to it, no normal person would believe her.
"What form do you plan to use?"
Su Wan went straight to the point, cutting to the core of the matter.
Lin Qingyue glanced at her, the curve of her lips forming a knowing smile that only her own people could understand.
Hao Chi looked back and forth between the two women, completely unable to keep up with the rhythm of this telepathic conversation.
"What form? What form?"
No one answered him.
Lin Qingyue turned her gaze back to the purgatory outside the door, her fingers unconsciously stroking the gem on her staff as her mind raced.
Venti's Wind's Grand Ode offered strong crowd control, but its range couldn't cover the three-kilometer-long canyon.
Zhongli's Planet Befall had enough destructive power, but it was still a pinpoint strike, and its area of effect was still a bit lacking.
What she needed was a super-large-scale AOE with an enormous coverage area, extreme explosive power, and a side of light pollution.
And she happened to have such a card that she had never used before.
Xia Lian observed silently from the side, finally raising a crucial question in a low voice: "Um... even if we can clear the first half, the insects in the second half will just immediately swarm up, right?"
"That's why this isn't a one-person battle."
Lin Qingyue's gaze fell back on Hao Chi.
"I will be responsible for the first wave of saturation-style annihilation, clearing the first half of the canyon to carve out a strategic window for your advance."
"The Allied Forces must seize this fleeting opportunity, launch an all-out assault, seize the bottleneck pass in the middle of the canyon, and nail the defensive line firmly in place!"
Her speaking speed quickened. When she was devising a battle plan, she was a completely different person from the usual salted-fish Priest.
"There's only one chance, and the window of opportunity is extremely short. The Allied Forces must be fast, precise, and ruthless. Before the Insect Tide completes its refill, they must turn the new position into a meat grinder!"
"Can you contact the Commander of the Allied Forces?"
Hao Chi's heart pounded wildly as he listened, his expression flickering back and forth between "this woman is crazy" and "what if she can actually do it?"
His reason screamed warnings, telling him that a Level 35 Priest could never possibly achieve something comparable to a divine miracle.
But... what if?
Anyway, being trapped here was a slow death.
Taking a gamble, they had nothing to lose if they failed, and a massive win if they succeeded!
"The Commander... I can take you to meet him. He's at Frontline Command."
He scratched his messy hair, his tone a bit strange.
"But I should warn you in advance, that Commander, um... how should I put it..."
He paused, seemingly struggling to organize his words.
"He might be a bit different from what you're imagining."
"What do you mean?"
Lin Xiyue leaned in curiously.
"You'll see when we get there."
Hao Chi shook his head, his face etched with the kind of numbness-inducing exhaustion that came from repeated torment.
"Let's go. Time is of the essence."
Along the way, Hao Chi briefly introduced the Heavenly Craft Squad's current situation.
Their team consisted of five people, specializing in alchemy, enchantment, and mechanical engineering.
After entering the Dungeon, they landed near the canyon entrance and were caught in the Insect Tide's all-out assault before they could even execute their plan.
Given their combat capabilities, a frontal confrontation was obviously unrealistic.
Fortunately, the Heavenly Craft Squad's technical skills were urgently needed by the Allied Forces.
They could repair damaged enchanted crossbows, upgrade crumbling fortifications, and even perform temporary, rapid enchantments on the weapons of Allied Forces soldiers to enhance their lethality.
With this irreplaceable technical value, they were recruited into the Allied Forces as the core of logistical support, securing a relatively safe shelter.
"Simply put, we're just laborers," Hao Chi said with a self-deprecating laugh.
"My other four teammates are probably still at the repair station, wrestling with scrap crossbow parts."
"Not a bad deal," Lin Qingyue commented sincerely.
"Trading technical skills for shelter is called monetizing knowledge. It's much smarter than just rushing in like we do."
"Smarter my ass!" Hao Chi groaned, his entire being radiating a dense aura of "liver cirrhosis."
"We've been trapped here for two days, and I've barely slept a few hours. I feel like my hairline has receded by at least two centimeters!"
"You think repairing crossbows is easy? The internal enchantment structures of those big things are a complete mess, and the battle damage rate is ridiculously high. We'd just finish repairing one and push it forward, only for it to be dragged back less than half an hour later because the circuits burned out from energy overload!"
"Our repair speed can't even keep up with the rate they're being scrapped at the front! If this keeps up, the defense line will eventually collapse because the entire weapon system will fail!"
He spoke as he walked, his voice echoing in the narrow corridor, tinged with a lingering anxiety.
At the end of the corridor, a heavy alloy door appeared.
Flanking the door, two Yaungol guards, as burly as small mountains, stood silently with giant axes in hand. Their heavy chainmail was covered in the scars of sword and axe strikes.
Seeing Hao Chi, one of the elder Yaungol guards swept his brass-bell-like eyes over the four unfamiliar faces behind him, letting out a low-pitched inquiry from his throat.
"Guests of the Allied Forces, with crucial intelligence that could change the course of the battle, need to report to the Commander in person."
Hao Chi pulled a metal token engraved with complex gear patterns from his robes.
The guard confirmed the token, stepped back silently, and cleared the way.
The alloy door slid open to both sides.
The space behind the door suddenly opened up.
This was a temporary command center converted from a natural rock cave.
The rock walls had been shaved flat and polished, embedded with a large number of metal components and glowing pipelines.
In the center, a huge sand table restored the entire canyon's battlefield situation with various colored markers.
A dozen or so officers from different races were gathered around the sand table, arguing fiercely.
The hot-tempered Yaungol, the bouncing-around Simian Race, and the loud-voiced Pandaren, their spittle almost drowning the entire sand table.
In the air, the smells of sweat, herbs, and metallic rust mixed together, forming a suffocating pressure.
However, the footsteps of Lin Qingyue and her three companions stopped dead the moment they saw the figure in the center of the command center.
Standing there was a "person."
Not a being of flesh and blood.
It stood over two meters tall, its entire body cast from cold, dark-silver metal, with sleek mechanical lines tracing a perfect humanoid silhouette.
A pair of blue optical lenses served as eyes, scanning every detail of the sand table with inorganic precision.
Embedded in the center of its chest was a square core emitting a faint blue glow, etched with a line of tiny, universal-script numbers:
[Military Decision Unit-Type IV-No. 055]
Lin Xiyue couldn't help but rub her eyes, exchanging a "Am I seeing this right?" glance with Su Wan.
The supreme commander of this Allied Force, composed of Pandaren, Yaungol, Simian Race, and other races...
Was actually a robot?!
"That is the Commander," Hao Chi introduced in a deadpan tone, as if he had already given up on life.
"Military Type IV No. 055. Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces War Zone."
Lin Xiyue's first instinct was to turn to Lin Qingyue, only to find that her sister showed no surprise at all.
If anything, there was a... eager gleam, as if she had found a new toy to play with.
"A robot commander?" Su Wan's voice was kept very low. "The tech tree of this world... is a bit too skewed."
"It's not a product of this world,"
Lin Qingyue answered quickly, the ancient secrets told by the Azure Dragon Celestial God Qingxuan instantly connecting in her mind.
"It should be a legacy left behind by that 'God of Machinery and Creation'."
That legendary being who descended from beyond the heavens, crushed the Ancient Gods with a torrent of steel, sealed the Ancient God's heart as the World Heart, and finally ascended to godhood.
He not only left behind the Four Celestial Gods System to maintain the seal's operation.
Obviously, he also left behind other contingency measures.
Like the one before them: a cold, efficient, and absolutely rational war machine.