Wasteland: My Items Can Be Infinitely Upgraded-Chapter 473 - 235: The Warrior Devoured by Battle Armor, Biological Demon Armor_2
Upon the judge’s announcement of the result, and in the instant the contest was over, Patriarch Li of the Li Family, Li Hao, led his members onto the arena center, gathering around the ruined Rock Horse Armor.
Li Hao stood beside the headless armor, observing what was happening inside, lowering his head in silence.
An aide handed over the severed head. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
Li Hao took it, then immediately turned the armor upside down.
With a few shakes, bloody white bones fell from the neck opening.
From rib bones to vertebral pieces, from fragmented hip bones to sturdy thigh bones.
A fresh pile of bones finally stacked up.
Only then did everyone realize that the disappeared Rock Horse Warrior had been devoured and digested alive by the Level 20 Rock Horse Armor.
Seeing the pile of bones, Li Hao’s face changed slightly, then he placed the helmet he held onto the shattered neck.
The previously severed tendons and muscles, under the liveliness of biological colonization, instantly reattached, reinforcing themselves, with new muscles becoming sturdier and a hard keratin layer starting to grow.
This substance will, over time, accumulate through the secretion of Rock-Horned Horse Evolutionary Cells, gradually forming new Tao Steel.
The armor seemed to possess higher intelligence or survival instinct, forcing it to quickly adapt to dangerous environments with more rapid response measures.
What originally needed generations of inheritance to evolve neck reinforcement measures now only needed a single injury to timely rectify.
For a long time, as long as this set of armor is not completely destroyed, it can continuously self-improve, self-evolve, until it can cope with any threat.
This should have been a matter worthy of joy.
But Li Hao’s silent demeanor, alongside the furrowed brows of the surrounding core high-level members, explained everything.
Because the armor’s upgraded evolution came at the expense of the life of its drivers, the Rock Horse Warriors.
The contestant sent to wear the Tier Two Armor and participate in this arena contest was originally second to Li Mingquan in talent within the Li Family.
Had it not been for the contest victory, he certainly would have become the new Tier Two Rock Horse Warrior, a pillar of the family in the future.
Yet such a promising young talent, with resources heavily invested by the family for his upbringing, died at the hands of the Rock Horse Armor...
Even as the path leader of the Rock-Horned Horse, Li Hao felt a shiver of unease.
When he looked up at the others, realizing the atmosphere was amiss, he immediately began to reassure:
"Everyone, don’t worry. He burned himself out, wanting to use himself as the cost to win the contest, but as long as you withdraw at the burst moment, surrendering, exiting the Sublime state, such a mistake won’t happen."
"This is something I didn’t expect; perhaps we need to remind all contestants not to blindly trust in the power of sublimation."
"After all, this technology is still in the exploration phase, certainly with some unknown side effects or aftereffects. Later use must be with extreme caution."
The crowd nodded and followed the Patriarch away.
But everyone’s gaze still locked onto that bloodstained armor, especially the contestants about to perform next, whose faces turned pale.
Elsewhere, inside the Oasis Battleship, upon seeing the odd happenings on the field, Lin Feng and the Great Assistant Priest were somewhat surprised.
Yet Lin Feng’s hesitation lasted for merely half a minute, after which he’d largely deduced the situation internally.
Having had sparring experiences with Li Hao, Lin Feng knew well the shortcomings of Rock Horse Armor - besides the most severe issue of insufficient burst, there was also the internal armor, which would overheat during sustained intense combat.
The Rock-Horned Horse has a biological photovoltaic panel on its back for internal and external cooling cycles, akin to a cooling air conditioning device; thus, even after traveling hundreds of kilometers, it wouldn’t face overheating.
Or rather, they have evolved to utilize the scorching sun energy from Three Days in the Sky to satisfy their daily energy expenditure.
Skipping the plant photosynthesis stage, directly utilizing photonic energy.
In this way, not only does it circumvent the harsh environment of the Scorching Sun, but drastically reduce energy consumption, turning all consumed food into flesh.
The meat ratio can even reach one-to-one.
Therefore, it is considered the best breeding species.
But such wasteland-adapted evolved species aren’t necessarily the best battle armor materials.
Rock Horse Armor pursues extreme defense effectiveness; to prevent surface flaws, it cannot transfer the biological photovoltaic panels from the raw material’s back.
Not to mention if the brief energy replenishment can keep pace with the massive consumption during Evolver combat.
The armor’s less than 2 square meter back is completely unable to provide adequate energy unless it, like a clan leader-level Rock Horse Giant Beast, has dozens of square meters of back space.
Thus, without the photovoltaic power supply, Rock Horse Armor must absorb materials with higher energy density to meet the high-intensity combat consumption.
Such as Evolutionary Meat from other Rock-Horned Horses.
But even this wouldn’t cause the eerie accident witnessed.
In usual combat scenarios, if there’s insufficient energy, the armor will prioritize halting, reducing energy consumption, or crashing directly into a hibernation mode.
Like a bear’s winter sleep.
But if it is kept in an absolute excitement state, maintaining vigorous energy, wanting to grow swiftly, proliferating to divide new tissues...
