The latter saw a peculiar smile on the face of the Lord of Gems, causing an inexplicable chill in his heart, then... he nodded blankly.
....
"Bang!"
A piercing blast erupted, with white waves rolling.
Several shadows of red gold charged towards Lu Yuan almost simultaneously.
Two at level seven, three at level six.
Lu Yuan instantly assessed the strength of his opponents.
And he wasn't the only one receiving such grand treatment.
After the main force, serving as the main action body, was drawn in by the Life Source Ore, those cautious star thief "elites" who hadn't acted became the targets of the red gold mechas' siege.
"Is this considered an open strategy? Dividing the battle group directly with profits and slowly defeating them one by one?"
Faced with the siege of five red gold mechas, Lu Yuan's face showed no signs of panic, as he contemplated the deeper meaning behind the Lord of Gems' series of actions.
Each red gold mecha was elite; the weakest was at least level five, with many at levels six or seven.
By using the temptation of the Life Source Ore to disrupt their formation, you first focused fire to take out some people, then slowly handled the remaining ones.
This strategy was indeed clever, fully exploiting the weaknesses of the star thieves — weak cohesion and loose organizational discipline.
But the number of red gold mechas was too few.
No matter at which level of strength, their numbers were only one-third of the star thieves' side, or even less.
Unless the Lord of Gems had other forces yet deployed, it would be unrealistic to rely on just these red gold mecha guards to completely consume all the star thieves.
Facing the siege of several red gold mechas, Lu Yuan remained calm and did not directly engage.
Instead, he moved swiftly, effortlessly breaking through the encirclement with his speed advantage, then charged towards the nearest level seven star thief mecha.
Several red gold mechas pursued relentlessly.
Upon nearing the target level seven mecha, Lu Yuan suddenly changed direction to another area.
He seemed to hear curses from the increasingly pressured level seven star thief transmitting through the mecha.
Lu Yuan's expression remained unchanged, continuing to shift positions.
On another side of the battle group, a rose-red female mecha was doing similar things to Lu Yuan.
Constantly maneuvering between small battle groups, disrupting and linking them together, which were initially cut like tofu blocks.
He and Sonice took advantage of several "trouble eastward" moves, waking the star thieves from their dreams, prompting them to actively close in on each other.
They were no fools, clearly understanding Lu Yuan's intentions.
At this moment, grouping up for resistance was evidently far better than fighting separately.
Earlier, they hadn't thought of this because their minds hadn't conceived it, nor did they trust each other sufficiently.
This scenario wouldn't work even if explained beforehand; there would always be someone with a rebellious streak refusing to cooperate.
Now, whether Alfanzo did it intentionally or inadvertently, he's forcing them into a union, ironically making these star thieves unusually cooperative in "unity".
"Shoo——"
Lu Yuan's figure manifested in the air, barely stabilizing when two offensives simultaneously attacked him from left and right.
Lu Yuan's arms shook lightly, weapons akin to claw blades dragged vast afterimages in the void, forming a faint cross pattern.
He disregarded the right-side attack, eyes fixated solely on the incoming left-side offensive.
"Boom!"
"Bang!"
Two muffled sounds erupted in succession.
Lu Yuan retreated slightly in mid-air, his long, strong alloy arms naturally drooping, standing calmly.
Beside him, a solid, bulky bronze-colored mecha wielding two laser swords laughed heartily in a voice reminiscent of Red Beard, having just blocked one side of the attack for him.
"Alfanzo, you should thank me, or your head would've moved houses by now...."
Lu Yuan glanced at Red Beard, without speaking.
At this moment, the star thieves' over a dozen level sevens had successfully grouped together, with similar "cooperation" maneuvers between him and Red Beard seen frequently.
Facing red gold mecha guards double their number didn't just ease the pressure; everyone was relieved emotionally.
And Lu Yuan's objective was achieved.
His choice to promote the grouping of star thieves wasn't a determined decision to side with them.
Instead, the Lord of Gems gave him an inexplicably peculiar feeling, always leaving him with a vague unease.
No matter the reason, he didn't want the Star Thieves to "fall" too quickly, or rather...
He didn't want some of the Lord of Gems' plans... to proceed too smoothly.
"Damn these guys... are they so obsessed with collecting stuff that they're possessed by Demons?"
"I've been shouting for ages and not a single one of them paid attention to me, just watching us get surrounded and bullied..."
"Red Beard" stood beside Lu Yuan, cursing and swearing, unable to resist opening the remote cannon on the Mecha and firing two shots below.
The energy cannon blasted into the pile of Life Source Ore, erupting in two blobs of dark green flames.
The two shots from Red Beard were obviously meant as a warning to the underlings picking up the Source Ore below, but the Mechas near the explosion point didn't seem affected at all, continuing to use their Mechas to collect and absorb the Life Source Ore in front of them.
Even though the storage space inside their Mechas was already full, and pieces of Life Source Ore were being "eaten" and "spat" back out, they seemed completely oblivious, repeating their actions.
"Have they really gone mad?!"
Similar scenes were happening to many of the Star Thieves. Not just Red Beard, but other seventh-level Star Thieves who hadn't gone down also gradually noticed something was amiss.
"Each of these Life Source Ores has been marked with a space imprint, can't be stored in spatial storage tools, can only be carried one by one!"
"These ores are peculiar!"
Amidst the siege by the Red Gold Mecha, the Star Thieves faced the pressure while discussing in confusion and uncertainty.
At this moment, even the dullest person realized something was off.
The communication channels they established when they came, now only had those who hadn't gone down speaking inside them.
Those who went down to snatch ores, whether the fourth, fifth, or sixth, even seventh level.
At this time, not a single one of them, not a single response.
Every one of them seemed possessed, their mechas overloaded with Source Ore, slow in action.
They looked like fat worms, lying on the piles of Life Source Ore, greedily "gnawing."
As if, aside from the Source Ore in front of them, everything else was forgotten, became unimportant.
"Crack ——"
On the mountain of Life Source Ore, a mecha "stuffed" to capacity wobbled and with a boom, fell backward.
The hatch of the cockpit immediately opened the next second.
Then a Star Thief, eyes bloodshot and expression frantic, scrambled out.
He almost dove onto the ore mountain, and at the moment he landed, he frantically shoveled pieces of green Source Ore into his arms and onto his body.
Seconds later.
The Star Thief frantically collecting ore suddenly halted his actions, and then...
"Boom!"
A flame as bright as coins suddenly burst from his body.
Ferociously bright yellow flames instantly engulfed the Star Thief, with a piercing, agonizing scream tearing through the air.
Only a distorted humanoid figure seemed to flicker at the center of the flames.
When the flames extinguished, large chunks of Life Source Ore glistening with beautiful green light fell to the ore mountain, covered by a thin layer of black ash.
The original Star Thief had long disappeared without a trace.
"Hiss ——"
The group of seventh-level Star Thieves who witnessed the scene gasped collectively.
Before they could process their shock, similar incidents began happening one after another below.
The shock quickly turned into horror, terror... silently spreading among the Star Thieves' hearts and eyes.
"What is... this?!"
Lu Yuan was also shaken to his core.
His eyes were fixed on the mountain of green Source Ore below, where clusters of yellow flames ignited.
For some reason, the color of the flames reminded him of the Abyss Demon Coin in his hand.
The color similarity was striking, and both held... an equally eerie flavor.
Lu Yuan furrowed his brow, looking back at the direction of the Lord of Gems, seeing the plump, round man watching everything with a smile and hands behind his back.
From a certain angle, at a glance...
Lu Yuan thought.
The Lord of Gems before him, somehow resembles the Fallen Demon with a big belly, thin legs, and a wide-toothed grin on the Abyss Demon Coin he held.... inexplicably similar!
