CHAPTER 204: CHAPTER 204: THE MECHANICAL RACE’S PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS

"Johnnie, welcome to the Mecha Divine Nation." That cold, metallic voice echoed once again, but this time there was a hint of amusement in its tone. "Ever played your Earth’s game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds? This space was modeled after it. Your stats have been suppressed. If you want to survive, you’ll have to eliminate all other lifeforms!"

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds?

Johnnie frowned, quickly pulling up his status panel.

Sure enough, all his attributes had changed. His four basic stats were now just 10 points each. Health: 100. Mana: 100. He probably couldn’t even take on a newbie from the starter village, let alone face off against the Mechanical Race.

Johnnie tried to activate the Mountain-River Space and summon Maiev, but nothing happened.

"Master, there’s a special spatial force here suppressing my arrival," Maiev’s voice sounded in his mind.

Now this was a real problem.

Johnnie sighed in frustration. If Maiev could appear, he’d have nothing to fear from these Mechanical Race opponents.

But with his current stats, there was no way he could stand up to the elite fighters of the Mechanical Race.

"Master, this is the Fragmented Space of the Map of Heaven and Earth," Coco’s voice chimed in.

Johnnie’s eyes lit up and he asked quickly, "Can you refine and merge with it?"

Coco was the true form of the Map of Heaven and Earth. If she could refine and merge with this fragment of space, the crisis would be solved.

Faint ripples of spatial energy fluctuated around them as Coco made several attempts, but it was all in vain. She finally said helplessly, "I can’t. This space is sealed. I’m unable to refine it."

Johnnie wasn’t surprised.

The Mechanical Race knew he carried the Map of Heaven and Earth. Obviously, they’d prepared for this—otherwise, they wouldn’t have dared to summon him here in the first place.

It seemed he’d have to find a way out on his own.

Still, he wasn’t without some trump cards. He could still use the items in his inventory.

Skye’s shield was there, but it only had three uses left—he’d have to be careful.

There was no protection from the laws of the Universe Continent here. He wasn’t sure if his resurrection ring would work either.

[Ding! The Mechanical Race PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has begun. First round: Survive here for one hour. Death means complete erasure.]

The prompt messages appeared again. Johnnie looked up to see dark shadows descending from the sky in the distance—it was the Mechanical Race’s Battle Mechas.

These things were at least stage 7 in strength; there was no way he could take them head-on.

Johnnie didn’t dare linger. He quickly got his bearings and sprinted toward an abandoned wooden cabin nearby.

If this place really was modeled after Earth’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, there had to be loot spawning in the cabin.

He didn’t rush in recklessly. Instead, he peered through a crack in the door to make sure it was safe before pushing it open and slipping inside.

Sure enough, there was loot.

A pistol, a handful of bullets, an energy drink, and a grip attachment.

The energy drink could restore Mana points.

Johnnie glanced at the item descriptions and scooped everything up.

As for the pistol—only 10 points of damage. Not great, but better than nothing.

Rustle...

Suddenly, he heard faint footsteps outside.

Johnnie’s nerves tightened instantly. He pressed himself behind the door, peeking out cautiously.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, and a bullet screamed past.

Luckily, he’d been ready and jerked his head back just in time.

"A mechanical dog?" Johnnie’s eye twitched as he caught sight of his attacker—a robotic dog.

Are you kidding me?

Right now, his stats were suppressed. He was just a regular human, and he had to go up against a Mechanical Monster?

Vmmm!

The mechanical whirring grew louder, making Johnnie’s heart pound wildly—a wave of deadly menace washed over him.

Without a second thought, he dove and rolled to the side.

Rat-tat-tat!

A barrage of bullets tore through the air, shredding the flimsy wooden cabin to splinters.

Johnnie dashed out of the ruins, bullets still whistling after him.

Pfft!

A sharp pain shot through his calf—Johnnie tumbled to the ground, his leg pierced by a bullet, blood gushing out.

This was nothing like a game; it was more like a hyper-realistic, deadly version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

"Damn it, I have no choice!" Gritting his teeth, Johnnie realized there was no way he could escape now. He rolled desperately to avoid another barrage of bullets, raised his pistol, and aimed shakily at the mechanical dog.

Bang!

The shot rang out but missed completely.

Sweat beaded on Johnnie’s forehead. This was his first time handling a firearm—for all his experience in virtual worlds, he’d never even touched a real gun before.

He took a deep breath, steadied his aim, and fired again.

Clang!

This time, the bullet struck home, but only a harsh metallic clang sounded. The mechanical dog was completely unscathed. Behind it, he heard the chilling click of a gun reloading.

"My bullets can’t even get through its armor?" Johnnie cursed inwardly. This wasn’t a fair game at all.

A flash of red light swept toward him.

Panicking, Johnnie fumbled out his Skye Shield and raised it just in time.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

A hail of bullets screamed toward him, slamming into the shield with a deafening racket.

The Skye Shield’s powerful defense easily withstood the onslaught, blocking every bullet fired his way.

But things couldn’t go on like this.

Johnnie spotted more mechanical dogs in the distance.

His shield could easily smash one of them to pieces with a single blow, but that would be a total waste.

He could only use the shield’s attack three times—using it on these weak mechanical dogs would be overkill.

"Bullets?" His eyes caught the spent shells scattered across the ground. An idea struck him.

The handgun didn’t pack much of a punch, but he could use the Technique of Swordsmanship for Controlling Swords to manipulate the bullets as projectiles.

His stats were being suppressed, but his skills were still intact.

The only downside was his Mana Points—he had just 100 left. Controlling a flying sword with the Technique consumed 10 Mana Points per second per projectile, so at best, he could control one bullet for ten seconds.

Luckily, he still had an energy drink to restore Mana.

This was his only choice.

Johnnie downed his lone energy drink in one gulp. The wound on his calf was slowly healing, but he barely noticed.

He activated the Technique of Swordsmanship for Controlling Swords, guiding a single handgun bullet through the air—howling toward a mechanical dog.

Thwack!

The bullet struck, the gunpowder igniting instantly. The resulting force sent the mechanical dog flying.

It worked!

Johnnie’s eyes lit up.

He quickly manipulated two more bullets, sending them whistling through the air.

Thwack! Thwack!

[Mechanical dog killed. Mechanical Perception +1]

The system prompt appeared. It ended up taking ten bullets to bring this thing down.

Who’d have thought—killing a mechanical dog actually increased his Mechanical Perception.

Johnnie could tell that this mechanical dog was much weaker than the Battle Mecha units from the Mechanical Race.

He checked the loot it had dropped:

an AK rifle and over a hundred rounds of ammo.

No energy core, though.

A little disappointed, Johnnie scooped up the rifle and bullets, cast a glance at the mechanical dogs charging at him in the distance, and slipped straight into the thick forest.

Now, the roles of hunter and prey had been reversed.

He climbed up to the top of a tall tree, concealed himself among the branches, and laid out the rifle rounds in front of him, waiting silently for the mechanical dogs to arrive.

Rustle, rustle...

The sound of movement in the underbrush—two mechanical dogs appeared, sweeping the forest in tandem, scanning for threats. But neither of them looked up.

Johnnie couldn’t help but smirk. These mechanical dogs looked high-tech, but compared to what Earth had to offer, they were way behind. At least they didn’t have infrared or thermal imaging—so as long as he stayed out of their line of sight, he could easily avoid them.

But Johnnie wasn’t here to hide—he was here to hunt.

With a flick of his mind, he sent two bullets soaring downwards, hurling them at the mechanical dogs below.

Bang! Bang!

Two blasts rang out. The rifle bullets packed way more punch than the handgun rounds—both mechanical dogs were thrown to the ground, their armored shells torn open.

Without hesitation, Johnnie manipulated four more bullets, splitting them between the two targets.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gunfire echoed through the woods. Very soon, both mechanical dogs were destroyed, and Johnnie’s Mechanical Perception increased by another two points.

By his calculations, it took about four or five rifle rounds to take down one of these mechanical dogs.

After making sure the coast was clear, he jumped down from the tree to check his spoils.

More AK rifles and plenty of ammunition.

He couldn’t be bothered to lug around more firearms, so he just pocketed the bullets.

"I still need to find more energy drinks," he muttered, glancing at his slowly recovering Mana Points. At a recovery rate of just one point per second, it wasn’t nearly enough to keep using the Technique of Swordsmanship for Controlling Swords.

He’d have to find more energy drinks, fast.

The forest was safe, but it wasn’t a place to find resources.

After a moment’s hesitation, he left the trees behind.

Luckily, the gunshot wound in his leg had healed, and with the Skye Shield in hand, he’d be safe as long as he stayed alert.

Johnnie skirted the edge of the woods, searching for ruined buildings. These scattered structures rarely had rare loot, but there was still a decent chance to find energy drinks.

...

After a while, Johnnie had gathered more than thirty bottles of energy drink and taken down over a hundred mechanical dogs. His Mechanical Perception had climbed by more than a hundred points.

But then trouble found him—a Battle Mecha had locked onto his position.

Vmmm...

A beam of light flashed behind him as an energy cannon shell streaked through the air.

Johnnie raised his shield in a panic, bracing himself.

Boom!

With a thunderous blast, Johnnie was sent flying.

The Skye Shield was powerful enough to block the Battle Mecha’s direct attack, but the force of the explosion was still more than he could handle.

The worst part was, this Battle Mecha’s defenses were insane—Johnnie had already used the Technique of Swordsmanship for Controlling Swords to launch dozens of attacks, targeting its head and chest, but still hadn’t managed to bring it down.

He couldn’t even be sure where its mechanical core was located, so all he could do was keep trying different spots.

"Keep going!" he muttered through gritted teeth, chugging another energy drink. He locked onto the Battle Mecha and sent eight bullets whistling through the air toward it.

Bang, bang...

The bullets exploded on impact, the energy shockwave barely making the machine pause for a moment. It simply kept coming, sword of light in hand, relentlessly pursuing him.

Johnnie still had one trump card left—he knew the Skye Shield could kill this thing instantly.

But he didn’t want to waste it; with only three shield attacks available, he had to save them for Divine-class Mechanical Battle Mechas.

He launched another volley of bullets at the Mechanical Battle Mecha.

Bang, bang...

The battle raged on, shield in hand as Johnnie fought and retreated, step by step. It took over ten minutes and more than a thousand rounds of ammo before he finally managed to blow the thing apart.

[Battle Mecha of the Mechanical Race killed. Mechanical Perception +1]

The notification flashed before him, and Johnnie finally breathed a sigh of relief. He stepped forward to check the Battle Mecha’s loot.

An energy core, an energy sword, and an energy cannon.