From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword

Two robots walked up to Lu Heng's glass chamber, releasing a scanning beam that swept over him through the glass walls twice.

Afterward, one of the robots extended a mechanical arm to press a button in front of the glass chamber.

The glass chamber moved slightly and began descending slowly.

Lu Heng realized he had been selected and hurriedly signaled Su Muyu and the other with gestures for free movement.

The glass chamber continued its descent into a pipe that was structured like a glass elevator, then proceeded sideways.

After a moment, it stopped at a designated position, and a square hole opened directly above.

The sides of the hole measured exactly two meters, the same width as the glass chamber.

The glass chamber began to ascend, slowly passing through the hole to emerge above the ground.

Stepping out of the tunnel, Lu Heng adjusted to the light and looked around, finding himself, as expected, in the Sikes Civilization's Mechanical Arena.

It was a massive Mechanical Arena, easily accommodating a crowd of a hundred thousand from a rough sweep of the eye.

Such a level of arena ranked within the top ten across the Sikes Civilization.

Placed on any single planet, it was essentially the largest arena.

Right now, sparsely scattered in the seats were various oddly-shaped Sikes people, most of them having undergone mechanical transformations.

To a newcomer seeing a Sikes for the first time, the impressively designed mechanical shells might be astonishing, and they might assume these Sikes with flashy mechanical modifications were people of great importance.

That wasn't really the case.

The Sikes Civilization had gone through various phases in its process of mechanical transformation.

In the initial phases of mechanical transformations, roughly two centuries ago, the Sikes Civilization was just sparking a frenzy of enhancements, and citizens prided themselves on possessing impressively designed mechanical limbs.

Back then, if one wanted top-notch mechanical limbs, significant financial resources were necessary.

By the mid-stage of the Mechanical Civilization's transformation, more than 90% of Sikes people had undergone some form of mechanical modification.

Some modified an arm, others a leg, and some even modified their ears and other organs.

At this stage, acquiring flashy mechanical limbs was no longer a trend.

Mechanical transformations became more diversified and evolved into various factions.

Some Sikes liked transforming their bodies to resemble wild beasts, insects, or various strange, even repugnant creatures.

Such peculiar tastes existed among the Sikes, though they never became mainstream.

Diversity was the norm, especially mechanical transformations capable of morphing, which were popular for quite some time.

In the late stages of the Mechanical Civilization's transformation, or about twenty to thirty years ago, a "Renaissance" emerged within the Sikes Civilization.

The upper echelons began to revert to the most primitive look of Sikes people, utilizing the most expensive bionic skins.

Beyond ordinary bionic skin was the thermoregulating bionic skin.

Without peeling back the bionic skin to see the internal structure, the touch and feel almost perfectly mimicked that of organic creatures.

Hence, those in the stands with flashy mechanical modifications were actually those of lower status.

The true nobility of this civilization were those Sikes who appeared unmodified but were fully mechanized inside, disguised with bionic skin that mimicked organic beings.

Clearly, today was a kind of recreational event, hence the crowd in the stands wasn't very large, but still amounted to a couple of thousand people.

...

After the glass chamber rose, the door opened.

Lu Heng stepped out of the glass chamber, looking ahead at a Mechanical Beast spaced ten meters away.

This Mechanical Beast was incredibly robust, resembling a beetle bristling with spines.

This Mechanical Beetle, even on its six legs, stood over three meters tall, its frontal spikes just beginning to curl upwards, seemingly ready to sprint forward and impale its opponent against the wall.

Lu Heng knew this creature was now his opponent.

Mechanical Beasts were the technological pinnacle of the Sikes Civilization, so the combat power of this Mechanical Beetle wouldn't be inferior to that of a Mechanical Tiger, at least A-level.

If he exerted full strength, Lu Heng was confident he could win.

However, showing all his cards in front of so many Sikes people wasn't a good strategy.

Moreover, the Main Quest didn't require winning the beast fight, merely to survive in the competition.

After stepping out of the glass chamber, the chamber behind him began to descend, sinking below the ground as the hole completely closed.

At that moment,

the sound of the starting bell rang out in the Beast Fighting Arena.

Ding...

After three chimes, the previously stationary Mechanical Beetle immediately sprang into action, charging towards Lu Heng, its spikes thrusting forward.

Lu Heng moved his feet to dodge, his high Agility making evasion relatively easy.

As he dodged, Lu Heng also observed the Sikes in the stands.

Clearly,

this was a frequent type of entertainment event for the Sikes Civilization, where Mechanical Beasts slaughtered organic creatures for sport.

The spectacle of such competitions lay in watching Mechanical Beasts tearing organic life apart, demonstrating the might of their mechanical bodies.

However, today's bout didn't align with the audience's expectations.

The Mechanical Beetle launched several attacks, none of which reached Lu Heng.

The audience yearned to see a Mechanical Beast ripping apart a fleshy being, desiring gruesome, blood-strewn scenes.

Yet, Lu Heng continued to dodge, running swiftly on the ground and along walls.