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Listening to the cheers and shouts by his ear, Lin Mo only felt them grating.
"Are you specifically here for me?"
Lin Mo's Adam's apple bobbed. He deliberately kept his voice low and steady, sounding like dismissive calm. "What do you want?"
G1's red single eye flickered. "I'm here to eliminate you, KING!"
"Hmph! You've got a big mouth, fellow!"
"Do you know who the person in front of you is? This is strongest man on earth (title/epithet)! A piece of junk dares to boast here!"
"Lord KING! Stop wasting words with him. Quickly use your legendary 'Purgatory Unrivaled Blazing Wave Cannon' to blast him to smithereens!"
Before Lin Mo could respond, the crowd instantly erupted upon hearing these words, as if deeply humiliated, and began furiously berating G1.
Lin Mo twitched his lips, but in his heart, he was calculating how to deal with G1.
With his current B-Class strength, a head-on confrontation was impossible. This tall robot clearly wasn't simple; its strength had likely reached Demon-level.
Although he still had the Supersonic Speed (Demon-level) skill, it seemed like that could only be used for escape, right?
But he couldn't guarantee that the robot wouldn't go berserk after he fled and attack innocent civilians.
As for the Intimidation (Dragon Class) skill, while it was remarkably effective against Demon-level and below creatures, this guy in front of him was a robot, so Intimidation definitely wouldn't work on this hunk of metal.
Just then, G1 spoke again:
"This is a performance test for my combat AI. To help me collect data more effectively, please fight with all your strength."
What the heck, combat performance test? Wait… I remember now, but wasn't it G4 in the original work… Never mind, that's not the point. What I need to think about now is how to survive… *Hiss*… Lin Mo now understood the pain of being a fraud.
The person behind G1 probably only wanted to collect G1's combat data through him to improve G1, and never intended to defeat KING with G1.
After all, he was still the man bearing the title of "strongest man on earth (title/epithet)."
As he thought, Lin Mo only felt the pressure growing.
With this tension, his heart rate quickened. The "thump! thump! thump!" sound rang out like a drumroll—the Emperor Engine had activated!
"What's that sound!?"
"The Emperor Engine! It's Lord KING's Emperor Engine!"
"Oh my god! I actually heard the legendary Emperor Engine with my own ears! This trip wasn't in vain!"
"Die, you scoundrel! Lord KING has already entered combat mode!"
The crowd was very excited. It was already rare to see the legendary S-Class Hero, but they never expected to see him take action personally. Instantly, everyone was pumped up.
"Hey, what do you mean, KING! What's with this full of weaknesses appearance? Hurry up and enter combat mode!"
G1's single eye flickered, and its voice suddenly grew louder.
"Give it your all, you bastard! Defeating you when you're full of weaknesses is meaningless. Such data has no reliability whatsoever."
"Only data collected from an all-out effort is useful!"
Lin Mo's eyes lit up upon hearing this. That's right, as long as they don't fight, it'll be fine, won't it? Immediately, he tried his best to expose even more weaknesses.
"Damn it, you bastard, hurry up and enter combat mode!"
G1 immediately entered a furious state but was helpless against KING, who was full of weaknesses.
Yes, yes, this is it. This way, we won't fight. Lin Mo was already overjoyed, and the sound of the Emperor Engine unconsciously softened a bit.
At this moment, the red-haired boy from before burst out laughing, "Hahaha, are all you robots idiots?"
Another blue-haired boy echoed, "Yeah, who doesn't know that when the Emperor Engine sounds, it means Lord KING has entered combat mode."
"Don't underestimate Lord KING in this state of apparent weaknesses. It seems full of weaknesses, but in reality, it's impregnable! As long as you attack any weakness, you will be met with Lord KING's fatal blow!"
"This is the undefeated, strongest man on earth (title/epithet)… KING!"
The two teenagers sang in harmony, cooperating flawlessly, their voices filled with convincing power.
"So that's how it is." G1's electronic voice came through. "Turning oneself into the biggest trap, luring the enemy to attack before counterattacking—a brilliant tactic. Data updated."
Its huge metal head turned towards Lin Mo, and the red light in its single eye flared:
"Go, KING! Let me witness your impregnable fatal blow!"
"Pfft—"
Lin Mo, standing beside them, looked at those two idiots singing in harmony and almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.
No… are you two actually on the other side? Or did you just eat too many red beans?
"System, use [Coin of Misfortune] on G1."
At this point, Lin Mo had no choice but to use the [Coin of Misfortune] he had won earlier.
[Coin of Misfortune]
[Type: One-time consumable]
[Effect: After throwing, you can designate a target (excluding yourself) to encounter a strong 'misfortune' matching its strength within the next hour.]
As Lin Mo confirmed his intention, a phantom, ancient coin with a crying clown face etched on it silently flipped in his consciousness space, then transformed into an almost imperceptible streak of light and merged into G1's body.
Instantly, a faint, ethereal purple aura diffused over G1's metal body, as if a premonition of misfortune.
This aura was invisible to the naked eye of mortals, but in Lin Mo's "system" perspective, it was crystal clear.
Now it was time to wait for the [Coin of Misfortune] to take effect. It seemed he had to stall G1 for a while.
Having made up his mind, Lin Mo raised his head, meeting G1's intense gaze, and spoke again. This time, his voice was filled with feigned profundity and helplessness:
"I will not fight here."
"Why?"
G1 emitted a cold, mechanical voice, "Are you also afraid of death?"
Lin Mo feigned profundity and shook his head, saying:
"You're here to collect reliable combat data, right? But there are many people here. I would have to divert some of my energy to protect them, making it impossible to use my full strength."
He paused, looking directly at G1, and said word by word:
"Under such restrictive circumstances, even if you fight me, the data collected would inevitably be inaccurate, meaningless junk data. Do you… understand?"
A red light flashed in G1's single eye. "What you say makes sense. In that case, let's find a less populated place."
With that, it sheathed its greatsword on its back and prepared to leave.
"Waaahhh… Lord KING… he's still concerned about the safety of us ordinary citizens even at a time like this…"
A sentimental aunt was already sobbing with emotion.
"So great! Is this the magnanimity of an S-Class Hero?!"
"Lord KING is the true hero!"
"Did everyone hear that?!" The red-haired boy jumped out again, raising his arms and shouting.
"Lord KING can't fight with all his strength because he doesn't want to affect us! We cannot be a burden! Everyone move to the edges, let Lord KING unleash his full power!"
"Don't worry, Lord KING!"
The blue-haired boy also shouted at Lin Mo with fighting spirit, "No one will disturb you! Please fight with peace of mind! We will cheer for you from afar!"
Before Lin Mo could react, or even form a word to stop them.
The crowd, which had been packed like sardines, under the call of the two teenagers, retreated to the sides with unprecedented efficiency, "whoosh"!
In just a dozen seconds, a huge open space was perfectly cleared.
Lin Mo stiffly turned his head and looked at the two "heroes."
He saw the red-haired and blue-haired boys proudly giving him a thumbs-up, as if seven words were written on their faces—Leave it to us!
Haha… On Lin Mo's face, a vein slowly and clearly bulged from his temple.
He now regretted it immensely.
He should have used that [Coin of Misfortune] on these two idiots just now!