Chapter 25 Killing Many Birds with One Stone <TOC> Chapter 27 Pythius's Collection
Translator: SumTLMan
“So exciting…”
The wind was blowing and scraping his face raw while his ride felt like a roller coaster with many ups and downs.
Rayne climbed on the tail end of a stripped-down mechanical city with nothing left but the bare bones, clinging to the steel frame and struggling to keep himself from being jolted off.
He has to say that the steam-powered boiler, which drives the heavy steel mechanical city, is fast enough to “fly” without its previous weight holding it down.
Yes, it was actually flying!
Every time it hit a pothole; the mechanical city jumped very high because it simply moved too fast. It looked like a lumbering toad jumping up and down with the clatter of metal, always dropping a few useless steel parts…
And so, it went, all throughout his journey on the mechanical city as it dropped some rivets, nuts, wheels and other bits of iron along the way.
Rayne climbed with trepidation, praying that the bare-bones mechanical city’s remaining parts would hold up and not just fall apart after one of its leaps.
He thinks his luck is turning for the better.
The more parts that fell off the mechanical city, the lighter it became, and the faster it moved, with the distance travelled so far being over ten or twenty kilometres…
In the end, it had actually managed to successfully escape from the encirclement in one go.
…….
A short time later, looking back at the shores of Storm Lake, the “Black Market Fair” had become a sea of flame.
The Omagh Imperial Army had ambushed a dozen “War Beast Grade” mechanical cities on the outskirts of the temporary city with a huge encirclement of tank-sized troop carriers leading the charge that was slowly closing in.
The encirclement had gradually taken shape, like a rucksack slowly being pulled to a close, which contained thousands of mechanical cities belonging to the bandit gangs surrounding the lake.
Only a small wave of bandit gangs, who had first chosen to abandon their mechanical cities and lighten their loads, had escaped before the “rucksack” had been completely closed off.
Rayne was one of the lucky ones who had escaped.
……
After an adrenaline-pumping ride on a bare-bones mechanical city that could’ve fallen apart at any moment as it avoided the artillery shells flying overhead from time to time…
Rayne, whose grim face was blown by the cold wind in the wilderness, was pleasantly surprised to discover that incredibly no pursuers were coming after those that had slipped through the net.
“Have I really managed to escape?”
He had a sparkle in his eyes and felt a little incredulous.
Could it be that the aura of bad luck which was surrounding him had finally turned good?
But his intuition told him that things weren’t so simple.
Although Rayne didn’t know how to lead soldiers, he had at least read Romance of the Three Kingdoms in his past life.
As he looked at the battlefield before him, he suddenly felt that this scene overlapped with a tactic he had remembered from his past life.
There seemed to be a tactic called “surrounding three and missing one”?
Thinking of this, Rayne mumbled something like this: “Is there an ambush ahead?”
Then, in the blink of an eye, he wanted to slap himself on the face!
Chug, chug, chug…
As the bare-bones mechanical city approached, the sound of a tractor engine starting up began immediately roaring nearby.
At a second glance, the thick wilderness foliage was somehow densely populated with ambushers.
Although there were no large mechanical cities discovered in advance as far as the eye could see. Lurking in the grass were impressively legions of strangely shaped “mechanical cavalry”.
“What the hell is this… Are these steam-powered motorcycles?”
This was the first time Rayne had seen such strange steam-powered machines.
These strange steam-powered vehicles looked like Harley-Davidson motorcycles with big iron rings around them. They were about three metres in diameter, with cambered tracks gripping the outside of the wheels, flanked by six large-calibre wheeled muskets on both sides. The miniature steam-powered boiler was emitting white smoke with the usual dark steam-punk theme.
“Is this really a motorcycle?”
This was an eye-opener to the usually calm Rayne.
One could call this thing backwards, but he hadn’t ever seen such a fancy motorcycle created by the technology in his past life.
One can also call it advanced since it’s a steam-powered contraption…
Looking at the brass legionary coat of arms on the vehicles, it impressively showed off the emblem for Omagh’s First Royal Regiment.
This is the most elite force in the Omagh Empire–The Royal Steam-Powered Cavalry!
……
Obviously, this isn’t the time to be concerned with how these iron ring motorcycles were created.
There were hundreds of steam-powered vehicles before him as they had soon caught up with the bandit gangs as one would’ve expected of mechanised cavalry.
Without armour protection from the bandit gangs’ mechanical cities, they had all became sitting ducks.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The vehicles were mounted with six large-calibre wheeled muskets that sent burst-fire of flames and reduced the mechanical cities into cheese graters with only one round of shots.
It was only then that Rayne realised that this was the backstop to the “surrounding three and missing one” tactic.
The Omagh Empire’s person behind the scenes had long anticipated that those who had escaped would be lightly armoured mechanical cities and determine that their army’s lightly armoured mechanical cavalry would be enough to deal with the unarmored bandit gangs.
“Turn off the boilers, surrender and live!”
“If you resist, you will be killed on sight!”
“…”
The cavalrymen on the vehicles kept on trying to persuade the enemy to surrender.
Unfortunately, most bandits who chose to escape were desperate outlaws with a long list of crimes. None would be foolish enough to surrender so easily.
The two sides engaged in a fierce gun battle.
The bandit gangs’ firearms were all high-grade black market goods, no less powerful or accurate than the Imperial Army’s standard equipment.
The brutal fight was difficult to stop with no determinable outcome.
Boom, boom, boom, boom…
Fire splashed everywhere as lead bullets flew all around.
Rayne was in a complete mess while dodging the hails of bullets.
……
“I… What should I do now?”
Rayne’s heart was very bitter at being forced into such a challenging situation.
He had just hitchhiked such a good ride, but now he was being chased down and couldn’t even climb jump off.
However, the good news was that he didn’t know whether it was because he was wearing a “white coat” that identified him as a doctor or because he hadn’t made any moves toward raising his gun to fire…
So, the musket men on the steam-powered vehicles, by default, didn’t fire at him.
Even so, the shrapnel continued raining down on Rayne, leaving him wounded in many places.
If this continued to drag on, he would sooner or later be taken prisoner or shot to death.
……
After Rayne became one of the first ones who got through, many other bandit gangs’ miniature mechanical cities also began continuously escaping from the encirclement and suppression one after another.
But it was clear that the Omagh Empire’s ambushing army was more numerous. Stream after stream of mechanical cavalry appeared, like hyenas rounding up buffalo, eating away at the fleeing bandits in their pursuit…
The bandit gangs weren’t foolish enough to break through in clusters but began scattering in a frenzy. The battle lines grew longer and longer as the two opposing sides chased each other across the vast wilderness.
Rayne had thought about jumping off his ride many times.
But after making a deliberate observation, he noticed that the battle line was now very long and scattered. Omagh Empire’s Mechanical Calvary’s main aim was rounding up those mechanical cities.
Two or three small shrimps jumping off their rides won’t draw much attention at all.
But if Rayne jumps off from his ride within their attack range, he will end up being caught and imprisoned by the soldiers cleaning up the battlefield.
Therefore, he had to have some sort of high-speed mode of transportation to escape from this encirclement.
And the sight of these one-man steam-powered motorcycles before him became a perfect choice!
“Gee… If it operates like the motorcycles in my past life, why don’t I take one for a spin?”
All of a sudden, Rayne looked behind at the steam-powered motorcycles that had been shot down, and this bold idea began brewing in his mind until it could no longer be contained.
His “Wisdom Brain” had just analysed how those riders had driven those motorcycles, and it seemed no different from the motorcycles in his past life.
In his past life, Rayne was known as the “Small Prince of Motorcycles” and wasn’t afraid of anyone when it came to racing.
If he could grab a motorcycle, no one would be able to catch up with him in the wilderness!
…….
“Let’s do it!”
With a split-second decision, Rayne was going to take his chances on this bet.
Since he had no intention of becoming a prisoner, what’s the worst that could happen other than jumping off his old ride?
With this in mind, there was no hesitation at all as he decisively jumped off the bare bones mechanical city that was almost soaring into the sky while moving at breakneck speeds.
Leap, land, roll, play dead…
Fortunately, as he had suspected, no one paid any attention to a small shrimp like him as he jumped off the moving vehicle…
All the motorcycle riders chased after the mechanical cities one after another.
As the army of motorcycle riders roared past, Rayne, without taking a breather, crept up to a fallen steam-powered motorcycle, pulled the body straight up, and then rode off by himself!
The motorcycle’s miniature steam-powered boiler hasn’t been shut off yet, and with a twist of the bike’s throttle, the big wheels spun rapidly.
A violent pushback came from the bike, making it seem as if he were riding on a raging bull.
“Bingo, it works!”
Rayne was ecstatic.
With his rich motorcycle riding experience, he handled the steam-powered vehicle with ease. After only a bit of adaptation, he got used to it.
Then he chose a very different direction from the rest of the pack and drove off at top speeds…
As he had expected, no one cared about one person slipping through the net.
Even if the mechanical army had seen this “deserter”, no one would’ve chased after him during this stage of the siege.
Besides, even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to catch up with this guy as he rapidly sped away…
Chapter 25 Killing Many Birds with One Stone <TOC> Chapter 27 Pythius's Collection