Volume 1, Chapter 41: Epic Grade, Core of a Hundred Battles

The moment the purple source crystal appeared, the swarm of rats erupted in a frenzy.

The herd of elephants went equally wild.

Epic-level source crystals were absolute treasures for mechanical creatures.

Lacking intelligence, the mechanical rats simply could not suppress their inner craving for the epic-level source crystal.

They threw themselves at Zhang Wei regardless of their lives.

"Courting death!" Zhang Wei snorted coldly. After putting away the source crystal, he gripped his sword with both hands and slashed fiercely.

All the mechanical rats pouncing on him like famished wolves were cut down.

The hovering cannons fired at extreme speed for a short duration, and freezing grenades bloomed everywhere.

A purple death laser extended for dozens of meters, instantly clearing a straight path.

Zhang Wei's frantic slaughter acted like a bucket of cold water poured over the heads of both the mechanical rats and the elephant herd.

Especially when the mutant mechanical rats clearly felt the killing intent emanating from Zhang Wei, the frantic mutant rats panicked and grew terrified.

The elephant herd also ceased its agitation.

The mutant mechanical rats turned and fled. The ordinary mechanical rats did not run; they were still being controlled by instinct.

The elephant herd did not flee immediately either; they still wanted to see if there was an opportunity to snatch the epic-level source crystal.

"Where do you think you're going?" Zhang Wei shouted angrily.

The mutant mechanical rats that had already turned to run trembled in fear at Zhang Wei's roar.

At the same time, they directed the ordinary mechanical rats to charge at Zhang Wei, buying time for their escape.

However, the ordinary mechanical rats were simply unqualified to stop Zhang Wei.

A combat power rating of over a thousand was no joke.

Wielding his thermal greatsword, Zhang Wei's mecha surged forward by at least eight or nine meters with every stride. Ordinary mechanical rats along the path were battered into utter chaos, and many were sent flying, turning into metallic wreckage before they even hit the ground.

The mutant mechanical rat targeted by Zhang Wei wished it had been born with four fewer legs. When the shadow cast by Zhang Wei's mecha enveloped it, the mutant mechanical rat knew its time was short.

It wanted to resist, but unfortunately, it lacked the capability.

With a single sweep of the sword, the mutant mechanical rat was decapitated, and its high-grade source crystal became Zhang Wei's trophy.

Zhang Wei did not stop his advance. There were still plenty of mutant mechanical rats remaining, and he intended to slaughter as many of them as possible.

Seeing Zhang Wei wreaking havoc among the rat swarm, the elephant herd's resolve wavered.

"Run!"

The thirteen mechanical elephants had been frightened out of their wits. The combat power displayed by Zhang Wei was simply beyond anything they could resist.

Seeing this, Zhang Wei immediately abandoned the pursuit of the mechanical rats.

Although the mutant mechanical rats could also drop high-grade source crystals, they were undoubtedly inferior to those dropped by the mechanical elephants.

When the time came to make a choice, Zhang Wei naturally prioritized obtaining better-quality source crystals.

With a burst from his thrusters, Zhang Wei's body floated briefly in the air before he lunged fiercely toward the direction of the elephant herd.

"You guys run!"

The leader of the elephant herd possessed a strong sense of responsibility.

It knew that if they did not stall Zhang Wei, not a single one of them would escape.

Therefore, it ordered the herd to flee while it turned back to charge at Zhang Wei.

"You can't stop me."

Zhang Wei evaluated calmly.

Had Zhang Wei not utilized super-powered combat enhancement, this elephant leader might have truly been able to stall him for a moment.

Although the mechanical elephant's combat power was only a little over 200, which was far inferior to Zhang Wei's rating of over 600, the sheer size of the mechanical elephant was a factor; even with a thermal greatsword, dismantling it piece by piece would take time.

However, enhanced by super-powered combat, Zhang Wei's combat power now exceeded one thousand points, making him four to five times stronger than the mechanical elephant leader.

Watching the steel trunk lashing toward him, Zhang Wei swung his sword without a moment's hesitation.

The thermal greatsword and the mechanical elephant's trunk collided violently.

Sparks flew in all directions, though they only lasted for a moment before extinguishing.

As one of the mechanical elephant's few offensive tools, the durability of its trunk was unquestionable.

Yet the thermal greatsword was clearly sharper. After a brief stalemate, the thermal greatsword severed the trunk and continued with unabated momentum to hack into the mechanical elephant's neck.

Because a significant amount of the chopping force had been absorbed by the trunk, the thermal greatsword became wedged in the mechanical elephant's neck.

After a brief pause, before the mechanical elephant could make any further movement, an even more formidable surge of power erupted from Zhang Wei's hands.

"Break!"

With Zhang Wei's loud shout, the thermal greatsword began to push forward once more.

In the contest of strength between the two colossal entities, Zhang Wei clearly emerged victorious.

The mechanical elephant was forced back step by step under Zhang Wei's onslaught, but it quickly ran out of room to retreat.

Its head had already parted ways with its body; the massive elephant head rolled onto the ground, and its gargantuan carcass collapsed heavily.

Shortly after, the blue light within the mechanical elephant leader's eyes rapidly faded.

The next moment, a source crystal floated out from the gap in the mechanical elephant's neck.

Zhang Wei looked surprised. "Hm? A source crystal nearing the epic grade!"

Although the mechanical elephant was a mutant creature, it was definitely not a king-tier monster, as Zhang Wei hadn't seen it use any skills.

Yet it had dropped a source crystal emitting a faint purple glow, which exceeded Zhang Wei's expectations, as this indicated that the source crystal was on the verge of evolving from high-grade to epic-grade.

Pondering thoughtfully, Zhang Wei put away the source crystal and decided not to continue pursuing the elephant herd.

"Run along, I'll give you three days," Zhang Wei muttered to himself.

If the mechanical elephants only dropped high-grade source crystals, Zhang Wei would have definitely pursued them immediately.

However, since the source crystals inside the mechanical elephants showed signs of evolving to the epic grade, Zhang Wei was suddenly in no rush to kill them.

Why not let the bullets fly for a while, and harvest them when the time was ripe?

How to choose between a dozen high-grade source crystals and a dozen epic-grade source crystals was a distinction Zhang Wei could easily make.

Seeing Zhang Wei turn to chase the elephant herd, the mutant mechanical rats had thought they were saved.

To their dismay, after slaying just one mechanical elephant, Zhang Wei turned right back around to slaughter them once again.

Was this any way to treat someone?

Had their joy even lasted half a minute?

The mutant mechanical rats went frantic once more.

And they fled frantically.

Fortunately, they possessed intelligence and knew to scatter in all directions.

In this situation, whoever got caught was purely a matter of bad luck.

One minute later.

The enhancement effect of the super-powered combat on the mecha expired.

Zhang Wei's speed plummeted sharply.

After a few more minutes, no living mechanical rats remained within Zhang Wei's line of sight.

"Dozens of mutants got away, and ordinary mechanical rats numbering over twenty thousand escaped," Zhang Wei sighed, shaking his head.

"I still lack area-of-effect skills."

With that thought, Zhang Wei immediately contacted Zhang Tao.

"Zhang Tao, bring the people back and clear the battlefield."

Zhang Tao was on his way back to the villa area when he received the call, and he was clearly stunned for a moment.

"Boss, what's the situation?" Zhang Tao asked instinctively.

"It's already taken care of. Hurry up and bring the people back," Zhang Wei urged.

The battlefield was quite expansive, and mechanical rats slaughtered by Zhang Wei were scattered everywhere. Some source crystals were buried beneath metallic wreckage, and since these were all his spoils of war, none could be left behind.

Zhang Wei had no intention of cleaning up the battlefield himself, which was why he notified Zhang Tao.

"You got it, coming right now!" Zhang Tao was overjoyed. He wasn't particularly curious about how Zhang Wei had dealt with the mechanical rats and elephants; in his view, as long as Zhang Wei was alive, everything was fine.

Receiving a definitive reply, Zhang Wei ended the communication. He first gathered all the high-grade source crystals, then impatiently opened the cargo hold and retrieved the epic-level source crystal.

"Open!"

"Ding! Obtained Epic-grade, Hundred-Battle Core."

"What the hell?" Zhang Wei couldn't help crying out in astonishment.