"Captain, there's a cleaning robot 30 meters ahead clearing the mechanical debris we just defeated."

"Understood." The captain nodded, raised Ah Lan's transformed Rock Shield, and quickly walked toward the end of the tunnel.

Soon, they encountered the cleaning robot mentioned by the Eagle-Headed Demon teammate.

This cleaning robot was stronger than the ones they had encountered before, with a Hunting Level of 5. It was using a steel brush to clean rust marks off the ground, then piling broken mechanical debris into a corner.

The captain took a step forward, wielding the Power Barbarian Axe, and struck directly at the cleaning robot.

"Trash detected, proceeding with clean-up!"

The green light on the surface of the cleaning robot suddenly switched to red, entering combat mode.

But before the mechanical arm could even lift, it was immobilized by a teammate's Binding Soul affixed to its chest. The Level 8 Power Barbarian Axe easily cleaved the metal shell, slicing the cleaning robot in two, with arcs and sparks bursting from the cut.

"Done."

The captain smiled as he stepped forward, storing the cleaning robot along with the mechanical debris they didn't have time to pick up earlier into the Space Bag. He then called upon the sacrificial function, offering it to Emperor Zhao.

The obtained sacrificial power was evenly distributed among each member of the team.

As the battle commenced, the warning red lights atop the Mechanical Ruins tunnel lit up, signaling the start of a new round of intense combat.

Robots they had previously encountered surged back along the tunnel.

The captain decisively lifted the Rock Shield, charging toward the nearest repair robot.

Binding Control, Light Shield for defensive support, Power Barbarian Axe for attack, Eagle-Headed Demon for warning alerts, Rock Shield as the main defense, stone-statue ghost resisting deadly attacks... The Fusion Body wreaked havoc in the tunnel.

But the issue with lower levels was weak stamina.

Especially when Ah Lan's transformed Rock Shield was low on health; they needed to retreat quickly.

Having the captain replace the Rock Shield with the stone-statue ghost for tanking damage was not feasible.

The captain was covered with teammates in their Life Soul Forms, occasionally using empty areas to absorb damage himself. If the captain became the main damage absorber, it would likely affect other low-health teammates.

For instance, the teammate embedded with Binding Soul on their chest.

One hit and they would be at low health.

If the captain absorbed the damage with his chest, there was a high probability the teammate would die suddenly.

Thus, under fusion mode, Ah Lan's transformed Rock Shield was the core tanking unit in the team.

The battle lasted less than 20 minutes before the captain successfully slew the remaining four robots. After storing the debris into the Space Bag, he offered it to Emperor Zhao.

After distributing the earnings, they continued exploring the depths of the tunnel.

On the next stretch of their journey, the number of blocking robots significantly decreased.

"Do you think there's any opportunity here?" Tu Bai's voice came through the team chat channel.

"Not sure about hitting it big, but there's a good amount of small gains. The mechanical debris decomposed by energy elements outside, which have accumulated over countless years, aren't worth much. But the mechanical debris inside the tunnel is ready-made wealth, all crafted using Spirit Ore and can be directly offered to Emperor Zhao for sacrificial power."

Saying this, the captain approached the mechanical debris pile left in the corner by the cleaning robot. After storing the pile into the Space Bag, he offered it, gaining 124 points of sacrificial power.

"Hehe, it's first come, first served. Those who come later don't even get the soup." a teammate said proudly.

The debris collected by the captain from the corner was regarded as useless junk by many forces in Monster World.

Even though it's forged with Spirit Ore as material, to reuse it would require refining and sorting different spiritual materials, which is quite a troublesome process.

Only powerful forces like the Black Tide and Insect Tide have the resources to devour all materials and convert them into usable energy.

And players like them also have similar capabilities.

As long as it's a spiritual material, it holds value in the eyes of players.

Brother Di Zhao recycles all waste, turning trash into treasure.

So along the way, the mechanical debris is seen by the team players as "sacrificial power red envelopes" scattered in the tunnel.

Exiting the tunnel, the view suddenly widened.

Before them was a spacious control room, with the piercing mechanical noise coming from outside the control room.

The captain approached the workstation, looking through the transparent glass into the hall below.

At the far end of his vision was a still-operating large Mechanical Core, protected by a thick energy barrier with internal lights blinking in alternation as it rotated slowly, occasionally jamming and emitting screeching noises.

Nearby the mechanical instruments stood a pile of metal eggs the size of heads.

"Everyone search around, there might be hidden treasures here," the captain advised at this moment.

Hearing this, the teammates deactivated their Life Soul Forms and spread out in their Main Forms.

Ah Lan stepped forward to the control platform, his gaze sweeping over the array of complex buttons, focusing on a stack of blueprints tucked into the corner.

Reaching out, he pulled out a sheet. The paper material was unknown but had withstood the ravages of time.

The complex lines and numerous symbols on the blueprint left him momentarily puzzled. His eyes focused on the symbol information, and the text automatically twisted.

Translation function activated.

The title on the blueprint turned into a striking line of text before Ah Lan's eyes: "Consciousness Transmission and Mechanical Immortality Concept Blueprint."

"Huh?!"

The concept of mechanical immortality was not foreign to Ah Lan.

The Moon Eclipse Clan, to which he belonged, had experienced numerous developmental bottlenecks over their long history of growth.

What is known as a developmental bottleneck refers to the inability for technology to further advance in a certain field.

This is an inevitable problem in the development of any race.

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