Chapter 1009: The Mad Engineer's Secret

Hearing the Mad Engineer’s shout, Ethan didn’t waste a second asking questions. He immediately opened the official forums, where a post was pinned right at the top: Eastern Frontier Region’s “Feather” Announces Withdrawal from Three-Faction Alliance.

Ethan clicked it open, his eyes narrowing slightly as he read. This was completely unexpected. Feather was an old rival; back in the real world, Ethan had already defeated him once, and he never imagined the man would back down here without a fight.

“Boss! Little Horn from the Southern Frontier Region just posted too!”

Sure enough, another announcement had already appeared: Southern Frontier Region’s “Little Horn” Announces Withdrawal from Alliance, Declares Close Partnership with Renegade Alliance, Hopes to Join Forces When Borders Open. The title alone was ridiculously long.

A smile spread across Ethan’s face; Little Horn’s decision was exactly what he’d expected. In the blink of an eye, the three-region coalition had completely fallen apart.

Only OneSwordBreaksArmy’s Western Frontier Region had yet to make any public statement, but one region alone wasn’t enough to threaten them anymore. Even if someone still wanted to stand in their way, it would only be the Western Frontier forces.

Still, judging by everything that had happened, that headbutt really must have rattled OneSwordBreaksArmy harder than Ethan had thought; otherwise, Meatball wouldn’t have found the enemy outpost completely deserted.

Even if the other two regions had withdrawn, if OneSwordBreaksArmy still intended to fight, he would have already teleported a massive force over to block them.

Ethan let out a quiet breath. Everything had fallen into place. Dragon City was as good as his.

Unfortunately, someone standing behind him wasn’t nearly as satisfied.

“What the hell?! Those spineless cowards! I’ve been cruising along this whole time, barely got to show off once, and then they all ran away?!”

Ethan turned around and stared at the Mad Engineer in disbelief; the guy looked genuinely offended.

To be fair, the Demonic Siege Engine had only fired a single volley during the entire campaign, wiping out the enemy’s flying mounts along with those WCC drones. After that, the battle had practically ended before the engineer could enjoy himself.

“Boss, can we hurry up already? This is boring. I finally built something amazing, and nobody sticks around long enough for me to use it. Let’s get to Dragon City already. I’ve still got research waiting for me.”

After venting his frustration, the Mad Engineer looked hopefully at Ethan.

“Hurry? With what? This thing crawls across the map. It’s not exactly built for speed.” Ethan felt frustrated too.

“Get all the Warlocks on board,” the Mad Engineer said as he casually pressed a button. Below the enormous siege engine, panels folded open with a series of metallic clanks.

“What are you planning?” Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ll take them ahead. Once we arrive, the Warlocks can summon everyone else over. Fast enough, right?”

Ethan blinked. “This thing… can actually move faster?” He had always believed its sluggish speed was a permanent weakness; at least, that was how it had been in his previous life.

The Mad Engineer shrugged. “Money solves everything.” Ethan couldn’t even argue with that; money happened to be the one thing he had plenty of.

If the Mad Engineer really had another trick hidden away, Ethan was more than happy to see it.

He immediately relayed the orders to Victor and the others. Warlocks peeled away from the marching army and boarded the siege engine from every direction.

More than thirty thousand Warlocks entered first, and the Mad Engineer simply waved them onward. “Keep going. Plenty of room.” The loading continued until nearly two hundred thousand players had squeezed inside. Only then did he seal the hatches.

“Ready, Boss.” A mysterious grin spread across his face. “Try not to freak out.” His fingers danced across the control panel.

Clank. Clank. Clank. Heavy machinery rumbled throughout the colossal fortress.

The Demonic Siege Engine’s outer armor began shifting before Ethan’s eyes; massive plates slid apart while enormous wing-like structures unfolded from both sides.

Ethan’s eyes widened. “Holy crap… don’t tell me you’re actually going to fly this thing.”

The Mad Engineer only chuckled. “Heh…”

With one final press of a button, the entire siege engine trembled. Across its kilometer-long underside, countless armored panels retracted, and dark openings emerged one after another.

There were ten gigantic thrusters mounted beneath the hull, and those weren’t the only ones. Hundreds of smaller thrusters were distributed across the body, adjusting the machine’s balance and direction.

The next second, blue light burst to life inside every engine, and flames roared outward. The earlier vibrations hadn’t been mechanical strain at all; the thrusters had simply been powering up.

Slowly, the enormous war machine rose from the ground, climbing about ten meters before coming to a perfectly stable hover.

“Moving out! Everybody clear the way!” the Mad Engineer’s voice boomed through the loudspeakers.

Players ahead of them immediately scattered to both sides, and farther ahead stood Meatball’s endless skeletal army.

Then the Mad Engineer slammed the final control, and five even larger thrusters unfolded from the rear of the siege engine, each one dwarfing the ten mounted underneath.

FWOOOOSH! The engines exploded with blazing fire, and an overwhelming burst of acceleration slammed into Ethan, forcing him to brace himself to keep his footing. The scenery outside instantly blurred into streaks of light.

“Holy shit! You could do this the whole time?! Why didn’t you tell me?!” Ethan shouted over the deafening roar after finally steadying himself.

Earlier, he’d seriously considered loading half the army onto the siege engine and making a direct sprint for Dragon City. The only reason he’d abandoned the idea was because everything he remembered from his previous life told him the machine’s greatest weakness was its painfully slow speed.

The Mad Engineer looked at him with an unbearably smug grin. “Boss, that’s not fair. You never asked.”

Ethan’s eye twitched, and for a brief moment, he genuinely wanted to punch him.

Meanwhile, everyone watching the live broadcast was completely losing their minds. What the hell was this? He’d been hiding this feature the entire time? The thing could fly? Not only fly, but move even faster than flying battle companions? Then why had it been crawling across the map all day? Had he seriously been messing with the entire world?

OneSwordBreaksArmy was so furious he started throwing anything within reach, feeling like he’d been played from beginning to end.

Ethan had practically challenged everyone with, ‘This is as fast as I can go. Come stop me if you can.’ So he had, charging over confidently only to get his skull smashed in. Then, after he died, Ethan casually revealed that the siege engine had another speed mode all along, which felt like a personal insult.

Even so, while venting his frustration, OneSwordBreaksArmy couldn’t deny one thing: that headbutt had completely knocked the arrogance out of him. He wasn’t thinking about revenge anymore; regional pride? Forget it. All he wanted now was to reach Level 125 as quickly as possible so he could challenge the Druid God again in a proper one-on-one fight.

As the flying fortress disappeared into the horizon, countless players could only watch in stunned silence; the grand battle everyone had expected never happened.

The ones who regretted it the most were the players who had only recently left the Northern Frontier Region. They’d hoped the alliance armies would slow the Renegade Alliance down long enough for them to catch up and earn themselves free access to Dragon City, but instead, the Druid God had simply flown away.

Many wisely turned back toward the Northern Frontier Region, while others stubbornly continued forward. Five hours later, every one of them regretted that decision.

The wilderness beyond was filled with monsters no lower than Level 120, and they barely lasted seconds before being ripped apart and sent back to the Northern Frontier Region’s respawn point.

From takeoff to Dragon City’s gates, the Demonic Siege Engine needed only thirty minutes, and after doing some quick calculations, Ethan estimated its flight speed was roughly fifty times its normal travel speed.

His eyes immediately lit up. ‘With something like this… there was nowhere he couldn’t reach.’

Dragon City was finally within his grasp, and with that accomplished, the Nation Wars were drawing closer. The Serpent Islanders and the Sablon Republic… they’d better be ready.