Lu Xing had witnessed humanity's regular army.
Well... perhaps that wasn't entirely accurate.
The human unit launching a sneak attack on the Honkai Beasts couldn't be called an "army" in terms of numbers; at best, it was half a regiment-sized formation.
Neither their arm patches nor their armor insignia depicted emblems Lu Xing recognized—it was neither a military flag nor that of the Fire Moth.
They looked more like some special forces unit.
Their equipment was exceptionally well-made. Although Lu Xing lacked the expertise to judge what kind of weaponry qualified as "well-made," one could generally tell good equipment by its looks... and this unit was equipped with mechs.
Around 5 meters tall, with a very metallic, deep crimson, streamlined chassis.
Their size was far smaller than a Gundam.
But the two mechs of this type he had seen so far, with just a single slash, had very easily cleaved a Paladin-class in two.
The spindle-shaped tips of their arms extended bright yellow blades of immense power.
From the clean cuts on the Paladin-class, it was clear this was a "Thermal Blade" formed by purely super-heated condensed energy.
The particle-like halo diffusing around these mechs further indicated the power source driving them:
Honkai energy.
Ding!
Lu Xing subconsciously used [Appraisal] on one of them.
[Appraisal] had no effect on humans—whether this was due to Lu Xing's insufficient ability or a limitation of the mechanic was still unknown—but it could still work on armaments driven by Honkai energy:
Type: Prototype Divine Machine Mistilteinn
Level: 30
Other: Unknown
————
"Divine Machine?"
Lu Xing looked at the information fed back by [Appraisal].
The opponent's color scheme and construction looked more like the "Divine Machine Baldr" that Schicksal would produce in the future, just without the "Mech Ring" behind the head used to collect and drive Honkai energy. And the name "Mistilteinn" was identical to the humanoid mech "Mistilteinn" later produced by Schicksal.
"Just how much did Otto pla..."
"No, just how many good things are hidden within the Void Archives?"
Lu Xing silently吐槽 (grumbled to himself).
After seeing the Mistilteinn display its might, Lu Xing didn't linger any longer.
He could already feel a bone-chilling coldness and a fog gradually enveloping the Honkai Beast army—clearly, the Knight Captain was rushing to the front lines.
"Time to go."
Lu Xing's current hiding spot wasn't far from the battlefield.
The best option now was probably to enter the human-controlled zone's interior. After the armed forces and Honkai Beasts mutually tied each other down, even if the human side had reserves, their vigilance would inevitably be much laxer.
Lu Xing intended to take a deeper look.
It shouldn't be difficult to try and find some intelligence he could use; at the very least, he needed to know where he currently was.
————
Deep within the human-controlled zone.
The situation was completely different from the border areas.
This place had indeed been destroyed by the Honkai once; the apocalyptic, ruin-like scenery was no different from the other half of the city. On this foundation, "Black Boxes," imbued with the aura of civilization's creations and connected by large cables, were everywhere.
These objects of unknown purpose were scattered throughout the city.
Over a not-so-long distance, Lu Xing had already glimpsed at least 10 of these things.
"Some kind of experiment."
Whether it was humans or Honkai Beasts.
Neither side had a large number of troops in this city.
They were elite, to be sure, but the "scope" was relatively small.
This was understandable for the Honkai Beasts, but for the humans... considering the "Divine Machines" that had appeared earlier, the strongest guess was that this was a testing ground for some unit's new weapons.
What further solidified this belief for Lu Xing.
Was the Honkai energy concentrated in various parts of the city, along with the Black Boxes.
These areas were not widely distributed, but the Honkai energy concentration there was even greater than on the Honkai Beast side—normally, if humans wanted to reclaim a city, expelling Honkai Beasts and mitigating Honkai energy erosion were both essential tasks.
After all, in places saturated with Honkai energy, the attrition of personnel and equipment was astronomical.
But here, the situation was completely different.
From the locations with the highest Honkai energy concentration, Lu Xing even sensed human auras... human auras fused with Honkai energy, possessing attributes of both.
"Honkai Sickness."
The Honkai would erode civilization.
This also included the species "ruling" this civilization.
For humans eroded by Honkai energy, the consequences were generally one of several: those with poor adaptability would die acutely or chronically depending on the situation; those with good, but not great, adaptability would turn into zombie-like "Deadmen"; the very few best among them would become the Honkai's "Herrscher" spokespersons.
The above was what happened without civilization's intervention.
When humans dabbled in the power of the Honkai and used it on themselves.
The "Fusion Soldiers" of this generation and the "Valkyries" of the next generation emerged.
The auras Lu Xing sensed, however, had their human part already quite dim, while the Honkai part, and the part fused with Honkai, were extremely strong. This situation definitely had nothing to do with "Fusion Soldiers."
If they were soldiers, they wouldn't be placed so "freely"; if they were civilians, they shouldn't have remained in this war-torn city.
Meaning...
Voom.
A drone equipped with a .50 caliber machine gun and an omnidirectional surveillance camera flew overhead.
Drones relied on optical means to detect targets; as long as one hid in advance, they wouldn't be discovered. The main purpose of these surveillance devices was actually to monitor spies who had infiltrated the ranks; after all, when encountering Honkai Beasts, the enemy would definitely rush to shoot down the drones, making cameras irrelevant.
Perhaps because the front line was currently engaged in battle, the number of armed drones wasn't high. Lu Xing easily slipped through the patrol gap between two drones.
A bowl-shaped building made entirely of metal, as if inverted on the ground, appeared before Lu Xing unimpeded. A square box of the same color, connected to black cables, was placed not far from this building.
Lu Xing silently drifted towards the black barred gate.
"..."
The entire building was empty and narrow.
Apart from two humans, one large and one small, there were only gurney-like beds, like those used temporarily in a morgue, and a set of a table and chairs made entirely of stone.
A European-descended female.
The older one lay on the bed dressed in plain clothes.
The ends of her withered-looking long hair trailed from her left shoulder to rest on her chest. Corresponding to this dangerous hairstyle were external features that clearly indicated she didn't have long to live:
Deep purple veins spread across the surface of her skin.
Lu Xing made a judgment at first glance:
The woman would die soon, or turn into a mindless, low-level Deadman, like a zombie.
An "ordinary person's" resistance to Honkai energy would continuously weaken with age. This human, who should have some adaptability to Honkai energy, wouldn't become a particularly strong individual even if she turned into a Deadman.