Chapter 354: Modern Warfare and Cowboys
A gimmick, sure, but not entirely useless—at least it could stop rifle rounds. Still, that didn't make Ron want one for himself.
The thing was basically just some ballistic steel plates with a fancy deployment mechanism. If you wanted to talk real tech, his drones were where it was at. Ron pulled out his phone: "I'm at the coordinates now. Green light, begin operations."
Ron certainly hadn't come alone—or more accurately, he'd brought a hell of a lot more than just himself. In fact, Ron had first taken a cargo transport to a nearby airstrip, then used a semi-truck to haul his equipment to a highway staging area before flying the helo in. And naturally, that truck carried more than just one aircraft.
In the distance, on the highway, a shipping container mounted on an eighteen-wheeler suddenly opened, and a swarm of drones rose from inside, streaking toward Poppy Land.
"Jesus Christ, what the hell is that!" Eggsy muttered, staring at the drone formation in the sky.
He certainly knew what drones were, but he didn't think it was normal for a whole damn swarm to be here right now. However, before his shock could subside, one of the drones that had been hovering overhead suddenly dove.
"Shit! Harry, get down! That's a kamikaze!" Eggsy shouted in alarm, yanking Harry down and simultaneously deploying his briefcase-turned-ballistic-shield to cover them both.
However, the maneuver was completely unnecessary. The drone didn't even register them as targets, heading straight for the clerk hiding behind the donut shop counter who'd been taking potshots at Eggsy and his partner.
"BOOM!" The drone detonated inside the donut shop, blasting out two mangled corpses.
Meanwhile, in the Gallagher family's run-down house in Chicago's South Side, a kid wearing VR goggles and gripping a game controller jumped up excitedly: "Yes! Got him! Double kill! Pay up, Boss Carl!"
A small hand shot out toward Carl. Carl picked up his control tablet, checked the confirmation, and after verifying the kill, placed two quarters into the kid's palm: "Nice work, Marcus. Double kill, twenty-five cents each. Here's your fifty cents. Want to run it back?"
"Hell yeah! Playing games for free and getting paid? I've never seen anything like this before. Thanks, Boss Carl. Call me anytime you got work!"
The scrappy kid pocketed the change and pulled the VR headset back on. In his view, a 3D drone lifted off from a semi-truck and flew rapidly along the route marked on the minimap, soon arriving at the pixelated Poppy Land.
Two groups of NPCs marked as friendlies were moving through the crowd. Although the thought of fragging the friendlies crossed his mind, he remembered Boss Carl's warning that griefing teammates would get him permabanned from this cash-earning game, so he immediately restrained himself. Instead, he maneuvered his drone to circle overhead and quickly spotted another high-value target: a pixelated figure carrying a rocket launcher, marked in red as hostile.
"You're mine!" Little Marcus thought, just about to dive-bomb his drone when another player beat him to it, slamming into the target.
"Yes! I got him too! Boss Carl, I smoked a heavy weapons guy!" Another kid suddenly stood up.
"Good job! According to the rules, heavies are worth seventy-five cents. Here's your money. Everyone keep playing. As long as you stay in the game, I guarantee nobody goes home empty-handed!" Carl said with authority; at this moment, he was the undisputed leader of the crew.
The game they were playing was called Sky Strike Heroes 3D, a drone control program developed by Ron's tech team with only minor modifications to the UI.
All terrain features were rendered as 3D map models, while human figures were all pixelated, with only basic enemy and friendly IFF markers. Through satellite relay stations overhead, drones could be controlled from anywhere in the world to engage designated targets.
The prerequisite was getting the drones to their operational area, but Ron had already handled that part; now, the control center simply operated the drones like playing Call of Duty.
Originally, Ron had instructed Carl to recruit homeless adults as operators, paying them five bucks per confirmed kill. However, Carl had thought of a better option: the street kids found everywhere in the projects. Not only would they have better reflexes and gaming skills, but he could also skim a profit off the top.
Well, if Ron knew, he'd definitely reiterate his assessment once again: this kid's going places!
"Holy shit! Those drones are helping us. They're not Golden Circle assets, Eggsy, get up!"
Harry pulled Eggsy to his feet. They didn't need to do much; the Golden Circle operatives in Poppy Land had already been thrown into complete chaos by the drone strikes. All the Kingsman agents had to do was mop up the fleeing cartel members.
But even that simple task, Ron did better.
Ron calmly retrieved his leather vest from the aircraft's cockpit, pulled it over his flannel shirt, grabbed a Stetson, and strode confidently through the gates of Poppy Land.
As soon as he entered, he saw two robotic dogs dart out from a building in the center of town.
"I don't get it—it's the twenty-first century and people still buy into these animal-shaped robots." With that, he drew two revolvers.
"Bang bang bang bang!" Four .357 Magnum rounds instantly shattered the camera lenses mounted on both robotic dogs.
"Pfft—toys," Ron spat.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, his instincts screamed danger and he quickly ducked. A sharp whistling sound sliced through the air where his head had been.
Ron glanced sideways and saw a mechanical iron fist flying over his head. The end of the fist was connected to a metal cable, which traced back to a man with a prosthetic arm—Charlie, the Kingsman defector.
"I told you people, quit it with the outdated tricks!" Ron holstered one revolver, switched to a combat knife, and slashed at the cable above his head, sending sparks flying—but making no real damage.
"Whoosh!" The cable retracted, and the fist rocketed back past Ron's face, reattaching to Charlie's arm.
"Last time in the Alps, you embarrassed me. Now it's my turn for payback." Charlie grinned menacingly as he advanced on Ron.
(End of Chapter)
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