Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 647 - 646: Total Annihilation

A puppet?

Old Qiao stared in astonishment at the dark mass on the floor, initially thinking he was mistaken— it was a puppet that appeared to be only a few dozen centimeters tall, resembling the "dolls" that children hold, yet incredibly exquisite, with a lifelike face that seemed like a miniaturized "living human".

The puppet was dressed in a luxurious black dress, looking very pretty but covered in dirt, as if it had just crawled out of a dusty place. She lay motionless on the floor not far away, without any signs of life like breathing or heartbeat.

But she had body temperature— the sensors detected a temperature similar to that of a human.

Old Qiao's eyes flashed red, and he immediately raised his arm without hesitation. The triple-barreled hand cannon hidden in his forearm popped out instantly, firing three scorching energy blasts directly at the puppet.

It's impossible for the base to have such childish things, especially under the current invasion situation. Anything unusual appearing in the corridor is a danger signal in itself. No matter where that thing came from, opening fire is the safest choice— cautious as he was, at times like this he would not foolishly approach it.

As Old Qiao fired, other soldiers followed suit, and the air around the puppet seemed to twist slightly. However, before anyone could see clearly what was happening, explosive flames engulfed the area where she was.

But almost simultaneously, a sudden sense of alert arose. An ominous intuition of being targeted shocked Old Qiao and the genetically engineered clone soldiers around him!

The next second, a flash of scorching light appeared at the edge of Old Qiao's vision. A high-energy beam pierced through the ventilation duct layer on the corridor ceiling, shooting straight at the closest clone soldier.

The soldier's shield blocked the first beam, but that was just the beginning— a deluge of thermal rays instantly shredded the entire ceiling along the ventilation duct, countless flashes filled everyone's vision, beams sizzled through the air, burned shields, and melted steel!

The clone soldiers reacted swiftly. At the moment the first beam descended, they were already raising guns to fire. However, the downpour of beams from above clearly exceeded their ability to resist, and amid the continuous screams, the number of people around Old Qiao suddenly reduced by a third. Immediately following, the roof riddled with holes collapsed continuously, and countless black tiny figures fell into the corridor from the ventilation duct.

These were small-sized puppets— black-haired, black-dressed, exquisitely made, identical puppet army.

"Fire, fire!" Old Qiao shouted in panic, the fact of being ambushed in his own base made him both astonished and furious. The scene of the ceiling breaking open to continuously drop puppets stirred an indescribable… tingling sensation in his heart. He led the soldiers quickly toward the relatively safe corridor corner, constantly aiming and firing while a tremendous sense of shock filled his mind— why hadn't the base's invasion perception system reacted? How had these puppets climbed into the ventilation ducts invisibly?!

The sound of gunfire echoed through the corridor, the flashes of firing continued endlessly. At this moment, more puppets were still dropping from the ceiling, even the ventilation fan openings on both sidewalls began to have their figures crawl out. These exquisite little monsters had vacant eyes, were fearless of pain, hard to aim due to their agility, and the lasers emitted from their fingertips could easily cut through steel. No matter how many were knocked down, new puppets continued to emerge from unexpected places, rapidly filling the gaps.

This scene was chaotic and deceitful.

A clone soldier nearby shouted, and Old Qiao hurriedly turned back, seeing more puppets crawling out from the corner ventilation hole— some were immediately shot into pieces by the soldiers, but the remaining ones had deftly darted through the hail of gunfire, simultaneously firing beams around while crazily climbing onto the soldiers!

One soldier was a tad slow and had a creepy puppet climb onto his leg. In a hurry, he drew a laser dagger, trying to get this terrifying little monster off, only managing to cut off half of her small leg— the next second, the puppet climbed onto his shoulder and her tiny hand suddenly clamped around his head.

"Help—"

The soldier managed only a short, terrified shout before a scorching flash erupted between the puppet's hands, effortlessly penetrating the helmet of the power armor, roasting the head inside.

Although that puppet was shattered to pieces by nearby soldiers the next second, at this point, the number of standing soldiers around Old Qiao had already decreased to less than half.

Meanwhile, in another connecting passage hundreds of meters away, a different "Old Qiao" was swiftly advancing toward the core area with his troops.

"Damn it! Bastard! It all started when that bitch returned to the Dark Meteor Domain…" The steel giant kept cursing under his breath, his eyes flashing red, fury burning in his mind module.

His several bodies led their teams from different directions to reinforce the core area, and at the moment, three squads had been attacked in the corridors and garages. The attackers were those bizarre living dolls; when singled out, the tiny puppets looked harmless, even somewhat cute and comical. However, as they swarmed out from ventilation ducts and windows, firing scorching beams everywhere while crazily climbing onto soldiers, even dismantling soldiers' power armor barehanded and roasting people through the armor… it was anything but cute.

But more concerning than those unknown-origin puppets was the situation in the base's core area—

The alert system suddenly became unresponsive just moments ago, followed by sensor errors one after another, and the monitoring system continuously going offline from the core area outward as if an invisible black hole was slowly expanding from the base center.

At this moment, Old Qiao suddenly regretted having arranged all the living defense troops outside the core area for "security"— but then again, who could have anticipated the invaders would drill directly into the core hall? Who would have thought the base's own defense systems would be the first to "betray"?

Anxiety and anger intensified in his heart, while Old Qiao had to remain vigilant, perceiving the surrounding situation. He adjusted the detection function of this body to the maximum, constantly guarding the ventilation ducts and maintenance passage exits left for autonomous robots.

The base's security system is no longer reliable, and he can only rely on himself now.

Those dolls don't breathe or have a heartbeat, so conventional life detection radar is ineffective against them. However, they have a human-like body temperature and make tiny noises when moving in clusters, which can be detected.

Strangely, while all areas are under attack, this connecting passage is eerily quiet, with no dolls detected.

Feeling uneasy, Old Qiao instinctively slowed down, his gaze scanning the surroundings.

This should be an ideal place for an ambush, with narrow terrain and only one exit... Have those dolls failed to find this spot?

Just as this thought flashed through Old Qiao's mind, he noticed a cloned soldier ahead suddenly sway, then silently fell to the side.

"What are you..."

He had just uttered a few words when he saw a thin crack on the soldier's Power Armor—stretching from the head down to half the body, as if sliced instantly by something extremely sharp.

A soldier on the side seemed to sense something, hastily raised the gun and fired, the muzzle flash illuminated the dim connecting passage, and in an instant, a faint black shadow flashed by nearby.

The firing soldier and two of his comrades nearby immediately collapsed.

But they managed to slow down the attacker slightly—in the instant when vigilance reached its peak, Old Qiao finally captured a shadow swiftly charging towards him.

Mechanical joints overloaded in an instant, extra Shield activated, armor energized, and Old Qiao's iron body suddenly burst with speed and power beyond imagination, managing to withstand dozens of fierce slashes and stabs in the blink of an eye, a terrifying impact that could almost break his arms; he stumbled back several steps, then almost entirely by luck, caught a sharp blade aiming at his chest with his wrist joint, finally seeing the opponent's appearance clearly in shock.

A smiling pale face appeared before him, the elegant Mechanical Girl slightly tilted her head, her figure flashed, drawing the blade back, then pounced again—cutting down two cloned soldiers attempting to rush up to protect their master in the process.

Old Qiao was shocked beyond words, finally unable to suppress a curse: "… Is it TM Artificial Saintess?!"

The Hidden Monastery has made a move against me? Why?!

...

In the last connecting hall leading to the central area, a steel giant advancing with a heavy firepower team suddenly halted.

I lost a shell—the attacker is an Artificial Saintess.

First, the bizarre living dolls swarmed into the base, then the ambush by the Artificial Saintess in the connecting passage, coupled with the sensors continuously losing contact and the slowly expanding "sensory black hole" in the base center.

The impulse brought by overwhelming anger quickly cooled, and the warning of crisis perception and assessment program from the logic chip sent a cold warning, causing Old Qiao to suddenly calm down, realizing things seemed to have slipped out of control.

Something is not right, ever since that "little animal" appeared on Gray Dwarf Star, everything has deviated from his expected development—it seems there is some inexplicable "interference" constantly affecting his judgment, and now he finally vaguely perceives the tightening noose around his neck from this interference.

The cloned soldiers looked at each other, waiting for their master's orders.

Old Qiao bit his lip, but just as he was about to speak, a bizarre..."thing" suddenly floated out from the side door in the corner of the hall, interrupting his words.

It was a furry big tail...

"What is this..."

"Boom!!"