SSS-Tier Extraction: From Outcast to Overgod!-Chapter 75: The Final Gambit, Iron’s Fall

The air in the extraction chamber was thick with tension. It was a standoff. On one side, Ryan’s exhausted team stood guard over their two precious artifacts.

On the other, Ilsa Varkov and her last few Iron Wolves stood ready to charge, their leader clutching the final, glowing red prize. And in the middle, the Apex War Golem lumbered forward, its giant red eye swiveling back and forth, trying to process the impossible situation.

Its programming had one simple command: secure the artifacts. But the artifacts were in two different places.

Ryan knew this was their only chance. A straight fight was suicide. They were injured and outnumbered. The Golem would crush them, and the Iron Wolves would pick up the pieces. He had to do something completely unpredictable. He had to change the rules of the game.

He looked at the Golem. He looked at Ilsa. He looked at his Weaver’s Interface Gauntlet, its Stormheart crystal glowing with soft, golden light. His crazy, impossible plan crystalized in his mind.

"Emma, what’s the one thing a security robot is programmed to do above all else?" he asked, his voice calm and steady in their private comms channel.

Emma, huddled behind a pillar, didn’t hesitate. "Protect the objective. In this case, the artifacts."

"Exactly," Ryan said, a wild grin spreading across his face. "So let’s give it a new objective."

He stepped forward, away from the protection of his team, and raised his gauntlet, pointing it directly at the thirty-foot-tall Apex War Golem.

Ilsa saw the move and laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "What are you doing, you little snake? Are you trying to scare it? You can’t stop that thing! You can’t stop us! CHARGE!"

With a final, desperate roar, she and her Iron Wolves surged forward. This was it. The final, bloody clash.

But Ryan wasn’t looking at them. His entire focus, all of his energy, all of his will, was aimed at the giant robot. He poured every last drop of his power into his gauntlet, pushing his upgraded "System Override" skill far beyond its limits. He wasn’t trying to just stun the Golem or turn it against its friends. He was trying to rewrite its soul.

An invisible beam of pure data and willpower shot from his gauntlet and slammed into the Golem’s massive head.

"SYSTEM OVERRIDE! PRIORITY ONE DIRECTIVE! IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS ORDERS! NEW OBJECTIVE: PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF ALL THREE PRECURSOR ARTIFACTS ON THE EXTRACTION PLATFORM! ELIMINATE ANY AND ALL THREATS TO THE OBJECTIVE!"

For a terrifying second, nothing happened. The Iron Wolves were closing the distance, their heavy hammers raised. The Golem stood frozen, its red eye flickering erratically.

Chris "Boulder" Magnus braced himself for the impact, a prayer on his lips. "Well, this was a fun ride..."

Then, the Golem’s giant red eye stopped flickering. It glowed with a new, solid, intense light. It had a new purpose. Its head swiveled, its gaze sweeping past Ryan and his team. It looked at the charging Iron Wolves. It looked at the glowing red artifact in Ilsa’s hand, an artifact that was not on the platform.

In the Golem’s new, simple, rewritten brain, this was an unacceptable situation. These loud, metal creatures were a threat to its primary objective.

The Apex Golem moved. With a speed that was horrifying in something so large, it stepped directly in front of Chris, shielding him from the charge. It raised its massive cannon arm, not at Ryan, but at the charging Iron Wolves.

Ilsa Varkov’s eyes went wide with shock and disbelief. Her charge faltered. "What... what is it doing?"

BOOM!

The Golem fired a gravity blast at point-blank range. The force of the attack hit the Iron Wolves like a physical fist, sending two of them flying backward.

The battlefield had been turned completely upside down. The biggest threat in the room was now, unbelievably, their bodyguard.

Ryan didn’t waste the opportunity. While the Golem was busy "protecting the objective" by pulverizing the shocked Iron Wolves, he charged forward. He moved like a viper, his movements a blur of Haste and Phase Steps.

He met Ilsa Varkov in the center of the room. The two leaders clashed. It was a brutal, personal duel. Ilsa swung her massive power axe, each blow strong enough to shatter stone.

But Ryan was too fast, too agile. He was a ghost, a flicker of motion she just couldn’t pin down. He used his new Temporal Field skill to create a bubble of slowed time right in the path of her swing, causing her axe to move through the air as if it were stuck in thick mud.

"Tricks!" she snarled, her face contorted with rage. "You only fight with tricks!"

"They seem to be working," Ryan replied calmly.

He ducked under another clumsy swing and slammed the pommel of his knife into her wrist. Her grip loosened for a split second. He snatched the Energy Matrix Core from her hand. The red crystal felt hot, buzzing with raw power.

He had it. He had all three.

He disengaged, leaving Ilsa standing there, empty-handed and furious. He sprinted back to the extraction platform and slapped the third artifact down next to the other two.

The moment the Energy Matrix Core touched the platform, the holographic timer above it roared to life: [2:00].

A new message flashed across the system.

[UNIFICATION CHALLENGE UPDATE]

[Outpost #7 has secured Artifact 3: The Energy Matrix Core. Defense phase initiated.]

The final two minutes began. It was the longest two minutes of their lives.

The Apex Golem was a whirlwind of destruction. Confused by the fact that all three artifacts were now in the "safe" zone, it followed its programming with brutal efficiency.

It attacked anything that moved near the platform. It smashed the last of the Iron Wolves. It stomped on a swarm of Scrap-Mites that scurried out of a wall panel. It even fired a warning shot at a piece of the ceiling that crumbled and fell too close.

Ilsa Varkov stood alone, her forces shattered, her plan in ruins. She let out a final, guttural scream of pure rage and charged at Ryan one last time.

She never made it. The Apex Golem, seeing her as a final threat to the objective, backhanded her with the force of a speeding truck. She flew across the room and slammed into the far wall, her heavy armor completely shattered. She slumped to the ground, defeated.

Ryan’s team could only watch in awe. Their deadliest enemy had become their greatest protector.

The holographic timer hit zero.

[0:00]

A deep, final, booming voice echoed through the chamber, and across the entire Sector.

[UNIFICATION CHALLENGE CONCLUDED!]

[Genesis Outpost #7, under the leadership of Sector Lord Ryan Stone, has successfully completed the Unification Challenge!]

[VICTOR: OUTPOST #7!]

[DEFEATED: IRON WOLVES (OUTPOST #21)!]

[The Iron Wolves are now a vassal of Sector Lord Stone for a duration of 7 cycles.]

It was over. They had won.

They stood there, battered, bleeding, and exhausted, in a room filled with wreckage and the smoking remains of robots and soldiers.

Chris leaned heavily on his shield, a huge, goofy grin on his face. Scarlett let out a long, shaky breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Emma and Jennifer shared a tired hug.

Ryan looked at the three artifacts, humming peacefully on the platform. Then he looked at the Golem, which had powered down and was now standing silently, its duty done.

He had gambled everything on a crazy idea, and it had paid off. He had not just beaten his enemies; he had made them beat each other. It was a victory unlike any other.

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