Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

The negotiation concluded.

Bai E heard the opposing team's acting captain give the answer he wanted, "We can move with you... but if it's not feasible, we will cooperate with your retreat as much as possible after giving you a heads-up."

"Sure!" Bai E readily agreed, "No problem."

Voiced decisions were always better than abandoning one's own in the heat of battle.

Bai E hadn't expected the other party to fully share his enthusiasm, but their sincere articulation of their thoughts was surprisingly unsettling...

"Pack everything up, the supplies we won't be needing for now should be stashed somewhere to reduce our load. Prepare for the assault!"

Bai E glanced at the battleground they had just set up for an ambush. With a curt tone, he issued orders.

"Yes, sir!"

...

As they truly neared the enemy fortress in their vehicle, the voice of the opposing team's acting captain rang out through the radio they had successfully synced.

"Captain Bai, you must realize that there are only two reasons they could act against the supporting base settings—either they have received pre-input superior commands, or there is an original generation of artificial intelligence commanding. Aren't you afraid it's the latter possibility?"

Bai E was well-versed in these facts about AI since becoming a captain and was of course no stranger to them.

This time, he just chuckled softly, calmly responding, "I know... but if we can't obtain enough information, our city's understanding of this remains a blank slate."

"..." The other party was silent for a moment before asking softly, "Is Captain Bai an artificial person?"

"...Yes."

...

The fortress was situated against a crimson backdrop.

The sunlight was slanting from the west in the sky, but there was still some time before it would set completely.

Bai E raised his wrist to check the time, "4:32 p.m., we have at most one hour of combat time left."

Nighttime was never the domain of humans.

The AI, with its various means of observation, had far superior capabilities to discover and pinpoint targets in the dark compared to humans, and if they couldn't take it within an hour, it would also mean the enemy's tenacity and continued nighttime operations would offer them no advantage.

"If we can't take it down, we retreat; now is our last chance."

As the leading advocate for the combat plan, the combined operation of the two small teams defaulted to follow Bai E's commands.

Hence, his speech became even more decisively commanding.

The attack on the transport team had been broadcasted; the lack of response from the fortress did not mean the AI at large had no reaction.

They might have already dispatched reinforcements from their more distant base, currently en route.

So the hour before nightfall was their last period of combat, and if they could not take it tonight, they could not hope for tomorrow.

To seize it directly! Or to gather enough AI information to inform the military were his only two choices.

"Big Mountain, move aside, I'll drive."

It was an unwritten rule in the military that soldiers skilled in close combat were prioritized for learning to drive, as those adept at ranged attacks were more effective aboard a moving vehicle.

However, at this moment, Bai E trusted his own skills more.

Sitting in the driver's seat, Bai E buckled his seat belt and gave terse instructions.
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"We're charging directly."

Facing an unknown fortress, notions of tactics were irrelevant.

Nothing was as straightforward and decisive as a frontal charge, the reason they had dumped all unnecessary vehicle equipment was for agility in this very moment.

The performance of the all-terrain vehicle was fairly good, and in evading the turret attacks, the vehicle could move a greater distance than a human, making it easier to dodge.

The sunroofs were open, Zero and You both holding the barrel, aiming at the fortress in their line of sight, ready to fire at any moment.

Rose took Bai E's large gun, resting it on the unfolded and secured car door, waiting to handle critical firepower points.

Her talent was all-around; she had recently dabbled in long-range shooting skills, which, though not as proficient as her close combat skills, were useable.

"Hum! Hum!"

The engines of the two stationary all-terrain vehicles began to roar violently; amidst the tremble of the car bodies, they sounded like beasts poised to strike with piercing roars.

"Charge!"

Bai E's voice tersely fell in the communication channel, and then the brakes of both vehicles released at the same time, the primed cars shot out like arrows.

Across the vast land, two tiny black dots charged towards the distant black steel fortress in a lonely assault.

"Squeak squeak squeak~" The AI's fixed machine guns and turrets, under their independent but interconnected intelligent systems, immediately began to swivel and aim precisely at the two charging vehicles.

Facing the rapidly moving and position-changing vehicles, their internal systems were quickly analyzing and summarizing the vehicles' movement patterns, including any limitations on maneuverability due to mechanical quality, which determined the performance ceiling of the two all-terrain vehicles.

The AI's mechanical force linked them together, and the powerful integrated network soon perfectly distributed the performance data represented by the actual behavior of the two all-terrain vehicles to every independent system.

And because of the mechanical force communication, the different roles of each gun position were also unified and harmonized.

Prediction, interception, pursuit.

One third of the turrets and machine guns arranged for the two all-terrain vehicles' charge immediately opened fire, with bullets and shells of various sizes and specs drawing different trajectories at different speeds, targeting the same speeding vehicle.