Infinity, The Arcade Age

With a sharp buzz, two searing beams of energy streaked through the air in an instant.

A second later, before the heat waves in the air could dissipate, a deafening explosion erupted in the distance.

Several buildings were pierced through by the shot, leaving two massive, meter-wide holes in their structures.

The energy beam tore through four buildings in succession, continuing to travel hundreds of meters before finally dissipating.

Qin Ming, hastily pulling the reins to slow his warhorse, turned to look at the rapidly collapsing buildings, his face going pale.

Such absurd destructive power! This was far beyond anything his so-called steel-hard body could withstand.

If he were hit head-on by that cannon blast, he wouldn't just be injured—he'd be turned into a patchwork of bruises and scraps!

Panicking, Qin Ming swung his machine gun around and began wildly firing at the Harvester tank charging alongside him.

The barrage of bullets sparked and ricocheted off the tank's armor, but it didn't even leave a dent on the front-facing heavy plating.

Even when he used his Supersonic Hand Blade—both regular and charged versions—he could only leave faint marks on the tank's surface. Penetrating the armor was out of the question.

Meanwhile, the Harvester tank, despite its main cannon still cooling down and unable to fire, had two heavy Gatling guns mounted on its sides. These began to spin, compensating for the downtime of the main cannon.

A deafening roar erupted as the dual Gatling guns unleashed a relentless barrage, blanketing Qin Ming's surroundings in a storm of bullets.

The metal storm tore through everything in its path, leaving the ground riddled with craters and sending clouds of dust and debris into the air.

Walls were obliterated, and even abandoned cars on the roadside were shredded into swiss cheese, riddled with countless bullet holes.

Seeing such terrifying firepower, Qin Ming dared not stand his ground. He frantically spurred his horse forward, charging into a nearby building at the last second.

The metal storm swept across the building, sending sparks flying inside and tearing the interior to shreds. Shelves, counters, and furniture were blown apart, reduced to splinters and fragments.

But thanks to the thick interior walls serving as cover, Qin Ming managed to evade the hail of bullets and used the building's complex layout to escape the deadly barrage.

Just as he burst through the back door of the building and thought he had bought himself some breathing room, another loud explosion rang out behind him.

Turning around in shock, Qin Ming's eyes widened in disbelief.

Behind him, through the rising smoke and dust, the massive Harvester tank had smashed through the wall of the building and emerged unscathed.

Using its impenetrable armor and immense weight, the tank had bulldozed through the structure, creating a massive hole in the lower floor before continuing its relentless pursuit.

Name: Heavy Artillery Tank - Harvester (Metal Slug 1)

Weapons:

Heavy Gatling Cannons: Fixed damage: 50–100Experimental Dual Energy Cannons: Fixed damage: 200–400 (45-second recharge)

Defense:Front Armor: 50Side/Rear Armor: 25

Durability: 4868/5000

Description: A super-secret weapon developed by the rebel forces to counter the Metal Slug tank, renowned for its overwhelming firepower.

The Harvester tank's attack power, defense, and durability were all off the charts!

This third-mission boss from Metal Slug 1 had combat capabilities far beyond any standard boss.

Or rather, it wasn't designed to be handled by a single individual at all. As a big boss in a gun-focused world, it was clearly meant to take on entire armies!

With a deafening roar, the Harvester tank smashed through obstacles, relentlessly chasing Qin Ming while spraying bullets wildly.

Meanwhile, Qin Ming, steering his warhorse, used every available piece of cover, zigzagging and dodging frantically to stay ahead of the tank's guns. There was no way he dared face this monster head-on.

Luckily, his warhorse was fast enough and had a speed-doubling trait, allowing him to maintain some distance.

If not for the horse's speed, any ordinary adventurer in this situation would have been dead already—either gunned down or run over on the spot.

As Qin Ming fled, the idea of leaping onto the tank and destroying it from the inside briefly crossed his mind.

After all, close combat was his specialty, and tanks were particularly vulnerable to being boarded.

But the twin Gatling guns, firing endlessly in a crisscross pattern, made such an approach nearly impossible. The relentless firepower ensured the tank always maintained enough distance to prevent him from getting close.

Qin Ming wanted to jump onto the tank, but he never had the opportunity.

The overlapping streams of Gatling fire were so intense that even turning to charge the tank would have been suicide.

With another thunderous boom, the Harvester's main energy cannon, now fully charged, fired again.

The dazzling energy beam shot past Qin Ming, slamming into the ground and carving out a trench over 100 meters long. The resulting explosion caused yet another building to collapse into rubble.

The Harvester tank's overwhelming destructive power—taking down entire buildings with a single shot—was a terrifying reminder of just how absurd the strength of a Metal Slug world boss truly was.

Even among B-level difficulty worlds, the bosses in Metal Slug stood in a league of their own.

For instance, the Dynasty Warriors 2 world was rated B-level, not because its bosses were particularly powerful—on the contrary, they were fairly average—but because it was full of massive armies, with countless soldiers overwhelming the player.

Similarly, the Fatal Fury world earned its B-level rating because of its storyline characters, whose exceptional one-on-one combat skills made them deadly opponents.

But Metal Slug was different. Even with the protagonist team supported by armies of soldiers, both sides fighting on nearly equal footing, the world was rated B-level purely because the bosses were monstrously strong.

Take this Harvester tank, for example. It alone could easily annihilate the previous major boss, Xiahou Dun, along with his entire army.

The Harvester's firepower was so outrageous that even Captain Hook with pixie dust-enhanced powers wouldn't survive a direct hit from its main cannon.

This war machine, equipped with absurdly powerful weaponry, was entirely beyond the limits of physical resistance.

As another blast from the Harvester's cannon missed its mark, the tank resumed its relentless assault, unleashing its twin Gatling guns to spray bullets at Qin Ming.

From within the tank, the crew watched the enemy racing ahead on horseback, and even they couldn't hide their astonishment.

After all, seeing a horse outrun a tank was enough to shock anyone.

What kind of horse was this? It wasn't a horse—it was practically an all-terrain assault vehicle!

The Harvester tank was equipped with four propulsion systems, yet it still couldn't keep up with this beast of a horse.

Against a typical tank, this horse would have left it in the dust long ago.

The crew could only stare as the warhorse leapt several meters in a single bound, clearing piles of rubble effortlessly before landing and breaking into another full-speed sprint.

Meanwhile, the rider atop the horse, Qin Ming, was operating the machine gun mounted on its side, raining bullets on the tank and leaving its surface riddled with dents.

The Harvester's crew watched in disbelief as their tank's armor, supposedly impenetrable, was visibly battered and deformed under the relentless fire. They almost thought they were seeing a ghost.

Frustrated, the crew retracted the Gatling guns into the tank to reload. Gritting their teeth, their expressions turned fierce.

Their strongest experimental tank, debuting for the first time, was being humiliated by a flesh-and-blood warhorse. It was the greatest insult imaginable.

Today, they swore to kill this enemy and roast that horse for dinner!

Once reloaded, the crew redeployed the twin Gatling guns, preparing to unleash another round of fire on the target.

However, just as the guns were about to roar to life, a deafening barrage of explosions erupted around them.

In the next second, the crew's faces twisted in shock as their Harvester tank's armor was riddled with deep bullet holes.

These bullet holes were over a foot deep! If not for the Harvester's massive size and thick front armor, the tank would have been completely penetrated.

The fact that machine gun bullets had nearly pierced the heavy tank's armor was so absurd that the crew froze in disbelief.

At the same time, Qin Ming, who had unloaded a full barrage of bullets and managed to breach the Harvester's front armor, couldn't help but grin.

Realizing that this tactic actually worked, he let out a furious roar and raised his energy machine gun once more.

This time, the energy machine gun was engulfed in white flames.

Bloodline Ability Activated: Dreamlike White Fire!

(End of Chapter)