Chapter 384: The Best Enhancement Is One That Doesn't Take Up a Parking Space
Any strong fortress will be broken from within; this was the earnest teaching of the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, to Cheng Tian's generations during every summer and winter break.
The aliens' UFO had clearly broken free from its original weakness under the enhancement of the dungeon template, becoming a rather tricky existence.
Not only did it possess evasive abilities, whether it was phase shifting or spatial transfer, but it also equipped the mutated properties of dinosaur genes in the form of projectiles onto the spaceship, giving it stronger offensive capabilities.
But when this attack came from within the spaceship, then neither phase shifting nor mutated attacks were of any use.
The flames of the Metal Tyrannosaurus Rex and the frost of the Metal Allosaurus began to rage within the spacious interior of the spaceship, and with just one encounter, the alien that wanted to reset the Hundred Dragon King was roasted into a charred mushroom.
Yes, it was instantly killed.
While there was an overwhelming advantage of large mecha units over non-mecha units, it was actually related to the alien's own characteristics.
In the original work, the so-called alien final BOSS was the weakest individual among all BOSS units in the entire process, posing no threat.
In the current dungeon, the number of aliens expanded from 1 to 3, but in terms of combat power expansion, it was entirely focused on their UFO spaceship and their technological capabilities in biological gene and mechanical modification; their main bodies were actually very weak.
In other words, if these three suspected 'Martian' aliens had focused on dual modifications of dinosaurs in both bloodline and mechanical aspects, they might not have been able to produce more Six-Machine Combined Hundred Dragon Kings due to the lack of a humanoid mecha core like Aoko, but they could have relatively easily mass-produced various metal-mutated dinosaurs.
At that time, this Earth, already suffering from a great catastrophe and dinosaur crisis, would probably have turned into the world of 'Beast Wars'... Unfortunately, there are no 'ifs'. The moment they chose to forcibly recall the Hundred Dragon King, leading to Cheng Tian's invasion, their situation was no different from Princess Iron Fan's.
One could even say it was worse.
It was too late even if they wanted to throw out the Hundred Dragon King. As the entire mecha's paint job turned green, the mecha directly balled up, forming a giant roller, and began to rampage inside the UFO!
Accompanied by continuous and loud crashing sounds, the smoothly curved UFO began to show numerous outward-bulging marks from the inside. However, because this UFO used gravity control technology rather than conventional propulsion engines, it did not fall immediately; instead, it flew higher—
Until the third alien was crushed into fragments by the Hundred Dragon King in its Sonic attack form.
The completely deformed spaceship began to fall, but during its descent, the hull, which had been subjected to internal large mecha impacts but still hadn't been easily broken, first showed signs of high-temperature scorching, followed by a large amount of white steam, indicating rapid cooling. After about four repetitions, the ship's wall finally broke open, and Cheng Tian, controlling the Hundred Dragon King, charged out of the hull's opening with a fierce thrust.
The widely spread Pteranodon wings and engines allowed the Hundred Dragon King to descend slowly, while the spaceship crashed onto the small island first, turning into fragments.
At the same time, Heaven's Chosen Space also popped up a notification.
"You retrieved 'Gatling LB Aoko'. You destroyed the aliens' UFO aircraft. You killed the 'Three Martian Brothers'."
"Special Hidden Quest 'The Stolen Collection' completed."
"Martian base coordinates have been issued. You can proceed to search and obtain the quest reward 'Super Dinosaur Prime Genetic Genome Sample', and perform one scavenging right for up to 3 items within that base. (Your teammates receive an equal amount of scavenging rights)"
"Your combat vehicle 'Gatling LB Aoko' has undergone permanent attribute changes—"
"Gatling LB Aoko has obtained the 'Six-Machine Combined Hundred Dragon King' transformation right. Please check the specific changes yourself."
"Detected that your Heaven's Chosen Space save record contains a 'Metal Slug' related dungeon—"
"When you leave the dungeon and save, your act of 'killing the Three Martian Brothers' will create a plot link with relevant factions in 'Metal Slug' and cause unknown effects."
As a series of notifications popped up, the Hundred Dragon King piloted by Cheng Tian also visibly began to retract.
No, to be more precise, the five metal limbs that formed the Hundred Dragon King were undergoing deep fusion and binding with the Gatling LB. The originally orange-colored mecha's limbs and back transformed into the corresponding bloodline mutation colors of the five metal dinosaurs, resulting in a flashy paint job.
As the most common first-generation mass-produced mecha in Armored Warriors, Gatling's original attributes were very poor, almost only one-third of a third-generation mecha's. The only notable features were its shoulder cannons and modular arm replacement function.
Now, these functions were directly locked, or more accurately, permanently occupied by the limbs formed by the five metal dinosaurs.
"MSW-16 M Gatling Six-Machine Combined Type: Purple Rare / Lv-, Humanoid Mobile Weapon, Medium Combat Vehicle, Single-person Vehicle. Piloting Requirement: Cheng Tian."
"Originally a first-generation mass-produced mecha of Armored Warriors, under the technical intervention of the Three Martian Brothers, it became the core component of the Six-Machine Combination. Upon returning to its original owner, it retained all metal dinosaur limb components, significantly improving overall performance, but also losing the ability to replace modular components."
"Gatling's fuselage durability is 120/120, HP = 1200/1200."
"All of Gatling's accessory slots are occupied by metal dinosaurs and cannot be replaced—"
"Left Arm = Metal Tyrannosaurus Rex Spades, Right Arm = Metal Allosaurus Hearts, Left Leg = Metal Plesiosaur Diamonds, Right Leg = Metal Triceratops Pentagons, Back = Metal Pteranodon Clubs."
"You can, when necessary, activate Gatling's 'Six-Machine Combination' function to temporarily transform into the 'Six-Machine Combined Hundred Dragon King' form—"
"In this form, the mecha's overall data is temporarily increased to 600%. The Hundred Dragon King form lasts for 60 seconds + 50 seconds (Pilot's Mental Attribute Value * 1 second); once you activate the Hundred Dragon King form, you must return to a base or main ship for rest before this function can be used again, and activation requires the mecha's durability to be above 60%."
This was indeed a pleasant surprise beyond Cheng Tian's expectations.
Originally, Cheng Tian had planned to simply put Aoko back into the collection space afterward, but this change clearly ensured that it could still remain active in the front line of his combat vehicle sequence.
But compared to Aoko becoming stronger, what Cheng Tian cared about more was that it didn't need to occupy more of his parking spaces... Cheng Tian declared, this was the best attribute enhancement!
After calling Irene over to search the UFO crash site thoroughly and confirming there were no treasure chests, Cheng Tian knew that the loot from the Three Martian Brothers must have been integrated into the scavenging of the base.
So, now it was time to test their discerning eyes!
Sparks flew where Cheng Tian's and Irene's gazes met.