"Launching missiles is a bit much, don't you think?"
"Were the Spirit Beasts this strong before?" Elder Fuli grumbled, criticizing Wang Qiqi.
Meanwhile, as Elder Fuli and Wang Qiqi chatted, the sound of smoke and explosions resounded within the testing grounds.
Although the electromagnetic railgun hadn't fired, the defense system had already determined that ground urban combat units needed to be deployed once the Ba Mountain Mosquito landed.
Rockets launched from turrets, but they didn't explode; instead, they flew at tricky angles directly towards the forest floor, avoiding the dense trees and shrubs, embedding themselves askew in the ground.
The boosters detached, and special rockets, 1.8 meters tall, landed, bursting out in a bluish electric light, radiating a high-intensity electromagnetic field outwards. Metal hatches on the rockets gradually opened, releasing insect drones no bigger than pen caps.
With support from wireless charging stations, although tiny, they were loaded with ammunition. They had no batteries or cameras, being directed entirely by the defense system, guided by radar and cameras deployed among the forest wolves.
The swarm of insect drones took to the air, resembling rising black smoke.
The black cloud ascended, coiling and twisting, covering the direction the Ba Mountain Mosquito fled.
The rocket fire didn't stop, continuously predicting its escape route.
The black smoke formed an impenetrable net, with the insect drones having a distinct cost advantage over the previous beehives.
Each cost only 9.3 yuan, even counting the ammunition they carried, the total cost was just over ten yuan apiece.
The black cloud formed a closing circle, with tiny lights like fireflies starting to flicker in the dark forest.
One by one, the insect drones self-destructed.
Chemical adhesive covered the encircled area, coating the surface of the forest in a layer of glue.
The Ba Mountain Mosquito fell into a sticky hell.
The chemical adhesive swelled with moisture, and with every movement to escape, the glue tugged at its skin or fur, causing pain that made it hesitant to move.
But even as it stayed still, the glue continued to expand, weaving webs between the forest floor and the trees, trapping it.
"Oh oh oh..."
The Ba Mountain Mosquito ceased its struggle to escape, collapsing to the ground with cries of pain.
Upon landing, the glue on its body began to fuse with the adhesive on the ground, cementing it there like mouse trap glue with no leverage for it to escape.
Despite its great strength, able to rip the soil under the glue, it was of no use; tearing up soil merely added weight and chains. Without removing the chemical adhesive, the Ba Mountain Mosquito couldn't achieve true freedom.
And here.
The urban defense system validation was completed.
At the wrap-up, an electromagnetic railgun was supposed to be deployed.
But...
It's completely unnecessary, as the Ba Mountain Mosquito was charged with a fee.
The remaining 'fireflies' gradually returned to base under AI system guidance. At the forest's edge, spider robots with eight metal arms slowly rose, shaking off dirt or descending from trees.
Each had four legs, with four iron-claw-shaped arms on both sides, capable of freely digging into the earth or adhering to city walls for climbing.
However.
The upgraded urban combat wolf-pack machines can't yet operate completely autonomously, requiring human control.
The structure is too complicated, and the database needs more time to build a complete urban combat data file...
The spider robots entered the field, opening the iron-claw front arms to reveal round apertures, spraying misted adhesive remover, starting the rescue of the Ba Mountain Mosquito from the adhesive hell.
Moving in from the outer perimeter took the robots a full half-hour to clear a safe path and another three minutes to remove the adhesive from the Ba Mountain Mosquito.
"Awesome..."
"That's the power of your thing, so, pay up..." The Ba Mountain Mosquito, upon escaping, stood before the two-meter-high, compact-sized spider robot with arms spread.
The spider robot, upon hearing these words, tilted its head and upper body back slightly.
Apparently.
The operator of the spider robot was taken aback by the Ba Mountain Mosquito's directness.
Lady, you still want more?
The firefly robot almost took your life!
The robot operator was left speechless.
......
"Elder Fuli, any thoughts?" Watching the whole exhibition on a tablet while in the Sky Pit, Wang Qiqi asked Elder Fuli beside her, noticing something amiss on the screen, her brow slightly furrowed.
"It's already pretty good, but for city use, it's still somewhat lacking."
Gazing at the screen content, Elder Fuli shook his head, seeing that the Ba Mountain Mosquito was clearly being overhyped.
The fireflies did capture it.
But before the fireflies could surround it, its high-speed flight generated enough wind pressure to prevent the fireflies from even approaching, let alone forming a real encirclement.
Even falling into the adhesive trap, with the power of the Ba Mountain Mosquito or the Guardian Level Spirit Beast, as long as it could ignore the painful drag, it could break free.
Of course.
This assumes no railgun bombardment.
And for the ever-changing Ba Mountain Mosquito to break out, the needed actions are very simple, just as Elder Fuli knows, the salamander form could break out.
Salamanders can secrete moisturizing mucus on their skin, and while the chemical adhesive absorbs moisture to grow.
This growth takes time, and the Ba Mountain Mosquito has plenty of time to transform and burrow into the ground before the mucus runs out, escaping underground.
However.
The Security Bureau promised it Spirit Particle Potion, so it chose not to use its abilities to escape but waited for a meal instead.
Against ordinary Physique-specialized Spirit Beasts, the Security Bureau's low-cost strategy is sufficient.
But for slightly higher-end scenarios, it's inadequate.
Not to mention, Ansheng even reckons, in a city, if he encountered these.
Just lifting a sewer cover, a gust could scatter the firefly robots.
The rockets, wherever they came from, he could return before they completed deployment.
The laser interception system...
Although hard to dodge, it doesn't seem to have significant lethality unless one stands still for it to burn... The most dangerous part, Ansheng feels, is the diffuse reflections from the laser light grenades.
If it catches his eye, eye drops will be needed later.
"But this defense system is indeed very well done." Despite many internal complaints about the city compound defense system's shortcomings, Elder Fuli sincerely praised it when speaking, with no insincerity.
Technology is not mysticism.
From drones to swarms, now to firefly robots.
This defense system's real aim is not massive lethality, but to minimize harm to urban residents in emergencies and to capture malicious beasts.
If you were genuinely after massive damage, you could just bring over an agricultural drone; they can already carry a hundred kilograms of payload or even install a missile.
But such measures would cause unpredictable destruction to the city and casualties.
Ansheng recognizes the intention behind this defense system.
Its major destruction, digging holes when rockets land, is easily repairable with just a couple of buckets of asphalt on the roads; it's nothing major.
The only hassle might be the chemical adhesive.
"Hmm..."
After pondering for a while, Wang Qiqi shook her head, closed her tablet, picked up Elder Fuli, and walked out.
As Elder Fuli said.
This version of the system is just missing a little something.
But!
From the initial beehive drone system, requiring pre-setup and deployment, to the firefly system now, upgraded to precisely cover a 100-kilometer radius, providing capture and strike support at any time.
It went from not very useful to reduce casualties to being usable, although maybe not so handy in some specific situations.
Wang Qiqi was not dissatisfied.
The only pity.
The validation was only practical testing and a system response test.
Reliability validation is the most time-consuming.
From verification to small-scale deployment remains a very long road, or rather, perhaps not to deploy at all.
Maintain the current situation, letting developers engage in new research.
Wait until the technology matures for small-scale deployment.