Free Web NovelChapter 167: [167]: The Titan Depot, Bypassing the Lock
Declan stepped out of the Abyssal Rover.
His boots hit the pristine white concrete of the Sector 6 military base. The air here was still slightly toxic, but his base stats completely ignored the debuff.
They climbed out behind him. Morgan dropped down from the roof of the tank, her stealth suit shimmering as she deactivated her camouflage.
They stood in front of the massive white steel dome.
The main entrance was a set of heavy blast doors easily thirty feet high. The metal was incredibly thick, designed to withstand direct hits from siege artillery.
"It’s locked down," Nova said, walking up to the small blue terminal mounted next to the doors. Her fingers flew across her data pad.
"Atlas initiated a total facility lockdown before he marched his army over to our sector. He wanted to make sure nobody raided his stash while he was gone."
Nova frowned. She tapped the terminal screen. A harsh red warning box popped up.
[Access Denied. Executive Biometric Scan Required.]
[Security Level: 75. Vault Integrity: 100%.]
"Can you hack it?" Sloane asked, looking nervously at the dark, empty buildings surrounding them. The area was quiet, but they all knew the monsters were out there.
Nova sighed. "It is a Level 75 corporate firewall. It uses a dynamic encryption key that cycles every three seconds. I am Level 55. My processing power is high, but brute-forcing this kind of code will take at least four hours."
"We don’t have four hours," Morgan stated coldly. She had her combat daggers drawn. "I am picking up multiple heat signatures moving toward our position. The local mobs heard the Rover."
Declan didn’t look worried. He walked right up to the massive steel doors.
"Step aside, hacker," Declan said smoothly.
Nova stepped back, giving him room. She watched him carefully. "You can’t just slice this one, Boss. The doors are laced with kinetic-reflection plating. If you hit it with your halberd, it will bounce the force right back at you."
"I am not going to hit it," Declan said. freēwebnovel.com
He didn’t pull out his +40 Eclipse Severance. He didn’t pull out the +20 Carnage Cleaver.
He just raised his right hand and willed an item out of his inventory.
A small, sleek piece of dark metal covered in glowing purple runes dropped into his palm. It was the +20 Sovereign Root Override keycard he had mutated back in the Apex Paradigm headquarters.
Declan didn’t look for a card reader. He didn’t look for a biometric scanner.
He just slapped the heavy dark metal slab directly against the solid white steel of the blast door.
"System," Declan commanded, his voice rumbling with that heavy, unnatural bass. "Override physical lock. Force entry."
The purple runes on the keycard flared with blinding light.
The system threw up a massive red warning box.
[CRITICAL ERROR. Unauthorized Access Attempted.]
[Initiating Lethal Defense Protocols.]
Suddenly, the smooth white steel walls of the depot shifted. Hidden panels slid open, revealing dozens of heavy automated plasma turrets. The guns spun around and aimed directly at Declan’s back.
"Declan, look out!" Kendra screamed, raising her sniper rifle.
"Do not shoot," Declan ordered without turning around.
The automated turrets fired. Dozens of super-heated pink plasma bolts rained down on him from all directions.
Declan didn’t dodge. He didn’t even equip his Black Aegis shield.
He just let his Abyssal Sovereign stats handle it.
His physical density was perfectly synced completely. His body possessed the raw mass of a collapsing star. And thanks to his Leviathan physiology, he naturally negated thirty percent of all incoming damage.
The plasma bolts slammed into his pitch-black Predator’s Coat.
They didn’t burn him. They didn’t explode. They literally just flattened against his back like someone throwing wet paper towels at a brick wall.
The plasma fizzled out into harmless sparks and dropped to the floor.
A string of pathetic damage numbers popped up in his vision.
[-12 HP]
[-9 HP]
[-15 HP]
Declan’s massive health pool, sitting at a completely absurd 6,600,000 points, didn’t even notice the hits. His passive regeneration healed the damage instantly.
The jaws of everyone outside the depot dropped as they stared at Declan as though he had run mad!
Not even those who underwent a successful mutation and awakened a god Talent would dare to brag of facing a Level 75 defense grid all by themselves! Not to mention doing it without dodging!
Nova stared at him with her mouth hanging open. "You just face-tanked a Level 75 defense grid without using a skill."
"It tickles," Declan muttered.
He pressed his hand harder against the keycard. The purple Abyssal energy poured directly into the steel doors.
The game engine actively fought him. It tried to maintain the structural integrity of the vault.
But his SSS-Rank talent completely bulldozed the server’s logic.
[Talent: Boundless Enhancement overriding error.]
[Security Protocols Bypassed.]
The heavy steel blast doors groaned loudly. The metal shrieked as the locking mechanisms inside literally snapped and dissolved into blue pixels.
With a deafening crash, the massive thirty-foot doors slid open, revealing the pitch-black interior of the supply depot.
The automated turrets outside instantly powered down and folded back into the walls.
"After you," Declan smiled, gesturing toward the open vault.
Sloane, Kendra, and Nova slowly walked inside. Morgan stayed near the entrance, keeping watch for the wandering mobs.
Declan stepped into the dark room. His synced vision perfectly pierced the gloom.
The inside of the depot was absolutely massive. It was the size of three commercial warehouses combined. And it was completely packed.
"Oh my god," Sloane whispered, her capitalist instincts completely taking over.
There were towering stacks of refined steel ingots. There were hundreds of crates filled with high-grade mana crystals. There were rows upon rows of pristine corporate combat mechs, completely untouched and waiting for pilots.
Titan Heavy Industries had hoarded enough resources here to build a second city.
"We are taking everything," Sloane declared, already pulling up her inventory logs. "Declan, we need the Rover to haul this back. It will take us fifty trips."
"We are not doing trips," Declan said.
He tapped his +20 Ring of the Void-Hoarder. The Mythic ring acted like a massive vacuum. He just walked down the aisles, pointing his hand at the crates and the mechs.
Entire stacks of steel and heavy machinery vanished instantly into his digital storage. Because the ring nullified item weight, he didn’t feel a thing.
He cleared out half the warehouse in less than two minutes.
As he reached the very back of the depot, he stopped.
Sitting in the center of a raised metal platform was a massive piece of machinery. It was not a weapon. It was not a mech.
It looked like a massive industrial 3D printer mixed with a nuclear reactor. It had heavy robotic arms hanging over a wide conveyor belt. The central core of the machine glowed with a dull, inactive orange light.
A golden system prompt appeared before him.
[Target Information]
↳ Name: Automated Heavy Assembly Line
↳ Tier: Epic (Facility Core)
↳ Description: A massive industrial forge. Automatically converts raw metal and mana crystals into basic combat drones. Requires a Level 50 Artificer to operate. Production rate: 10 drones per hour.
Declan stared at the prompt.
Ten drones an hour. That was a solid production rate for a normal guild. It meant they could pump out a decent army of expendable robots over a week.
But Declan didn’t do ’decent.’ He didn’t do normal.
He needed an automated army that could strip-mine the entire planet while he slept.
"Sloane," Declan called out. "I found our new toy."
