Infinity, The Arcade Age

"Major General Collins! Control your men! Look at the state they're in—completely lawless! Do they even resemble soldiers anymore? What do you mean by 'previously earned merits'? Does having battle achievements mean they're above military law? Being a soldier is first and foremost about following orders! If he were under my command, I would've had him executed already!"

Inside the command tent, Five-Star General Jamie Foss was berating Collins, the frontline commander. Meanwhile, Collins stood with his head bowed, not daring to make a sound.

Seeing Collins' dejected posture, Jamie Foss sighed heavily in frustration.

After all, Collins was the son of an old friend, and Jamie couldn't bring himself to scold him too harshly.

The bigger issue, though, was that Jamie understood perfectly well how Collins had become a major general—it wasn't because of his military accomplishments but because his father was a military commander.

To put it bluntly, Collins was a parachuted-in second-generation elite, a privileged officer whose abilities were questionable at best.

With such a figure in charge, it was no wonder that the hardened officers and troops under his command were hard to control.

It wasn't uncommon for soldiers to ignore orders when their commanding officer lacked authority.

But even with all that said, Jamie had never seen a subordinate so brazen that even after hearing his own five-star rank, they dared to act arrogantly.

Collins might be a lightweight, but Jamie certainly wasn't.

He was a general who had climbed the ranks through merit, battle after battle. In fact, the entire Jamie family owed their status to proven military prowess.

This was why Jamie had insisted on making his daughter, Feio, rise through the ranks starting as a common soldier—it was the family's ancestral tradition.

Grabbing his teacup and taking a sip, Jamie decided he'd had enough of this drama and shifted the topic.

"Have Feio and her team departed yet?"

Collins quickly straightened his posture, bringing his heels together, and saluted sharply.

"Reporting, sir! They've already set out!"

"Make sure their supplies and logistics are flawless. Support must be ready at all times."

"Please rest assured, General! We will do everything we can to assist the Peregrine Special Ops Team!"

"Good… Is this area secure?"

"I've already dispatched forces to clear out the remaining small pockets of rebel forces nearby. You can relax, sir. This is our territory now. There's absolutely no way—"

BOOM!

Before Collins could finish his sentence, a deafening explosion shook the camp.

The sound was so loud that even the command tent trembled violently.

Collins and Jamie Foss, nearly thrown off balance, steadied themselves by holding onto their hats, faces full of shock as they looked around in confusion.

Collins turned to the tent's entrance and shouted, "Guards! Guards! What's going on out there?"

In response to his call, the door burst open, and a panicked soldier ran in, his face pale with fear.

"Sir, it's bad! Outside—there's an enemy attack!"

"Enemy attack? Didn't we just clear out all enemy forces in the area? Where could they possibly come from?!"

"From above! In the sky!"

The soldier's stammering response left both Collins and Jamie Foss momentarily stunned.

They shoved the guard aside and strode out of the tent, stopping at the entrance to look upward.

And what they saw left them utterly dumbfounded.

Hovering above the military camp, suspended in the sky, was an enormous warship.

No, it wasn't a battleship or a plane—it was a ship, a vessel crafted from wood and steel, resembling an ancient galleon.

But this was no ordinary ship—it was massive, so large that it seemed more like a floating island, a small city drifting in the sky.

From the underside of the ship, energy spheres rained down in a relentless barrage.

The glowing orbs traveled at astonishing speeds and exploded on impact, leaving destruction in their wake.

The camp was quickly engulfed in chaos as explosions erupted all around.

At the bow of the ship, a giant ramming spike shaped like a human skull jutted forward, exuding an air of menace and terror.

This flying fortress loomed over the camp like a harbinger of doom, its shadow stretching across the ground below.

The massive battering ram at the ship's bow, shaped like a human skull, exuded a terrifying aura.

Looking up at the enormous ancient warship covering the entire military camp, raining down a carpet of energy bombs, Jamie Foss and Collins were completely dumbfounded.

This was something far beyond their imagination—seeing a Japanese-style ancient warship hovering in the sky felt even more absurd than a modern supercarrier doing the same.

Before the two could snap out of their shock, the sound of howling wind echoed through the air as a large number of soldiers leapt from the ship.

But as these figures landed with thunderous impact, they revealed themselves not as ordinary soldiers, but as mechanized samurai armor, constructed from steel and wood—a cross between traditional samurai suits and mechanical mechs.

Their sizes varied wildly, with the smaller ones resembling human-sized warriors and the larger ones towering over four to five meters tall.

Armed with weapons in hand, these magical mechs killed anyone in sight, plunging the camp into total chaos.

Above them, the massive magical fortress slowly descended, unleashing close-range bombardments to further devastate the camp.

Anyone who had ever played arcade games would instantly recognize the distinctive design of these samurai mechs and the enormous airborne warship.

They originated from none other than the legendary arcade shoot-'em-up game "Sengoku Blade"!

The invincible stronghold of the game's antagonists: The Sky Castle Fortress!

And the automatic shikigami mechs, powered by female souls, were one of their most fearsome creations.

However, the Sky Castle Fortress had undergone a major change. Its Sengoku-era insignias had vanished, replaced with a giant KOF (King of Fighters) emblem!

This indicated that the Sky Castle Fortress now belonged to the King of Fighters Clan, who had repurposed it into a superweapon of war—the Sky Castle!

This colossal war machine was the very reason why the King of Fighters Clan had managed to quickly gain Modern General's trust and form a partnership with him in the first place.

Aboard the Sky Castle, a group of adventurers was focused on operating the fortress's weapons systems, raining destruction down upon the camp below.

The team leader, his face stern, issued commands in a cold, calculating tone.

"Everyone, listen up! Target: Jamie Foss! Make sure we eliminate this five-star general who's dared to come to the frontlines! If we succeed, our credibility with Modern General will skyrocket!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Hearing the order, the adventurers nodded in unison and immediately began adjusting the fortress's cannons, unleashing heavy bombardments directly at the command tents below.

The Metal Slug world was a large-scale mission instance, allowing up to 500 adventurers to participate at once.

Of these 500, over 300 belonged to the King of Fighters Clan, effectively giving them control of more than half the instance.

This dominance was no coincidence. The King of Fighters Clan had been planning this major operation in the Metal Slug world for a long time.

Not only did they spend an astronomical amount of points to bring their Sky Castle Fortress into this mission instance, but they also strategically split their forces into two teams—one joining the Regular Army, the other infiltrating the Rebel Army.

Their goal was to exchange intel between the two sides, playing both ends to achieve total domination.

When the team embedded in the Regular Army informed their comrades that Jamie Foss, a high-ranking official of the Regular Army, had arrived at the frontlines, the Rebel Army faction of the King of Fighters Clan didn't hesitate.

They immediately activated the Sky Castle Fortress, preparing to annihilate the entire front-line base along with Jamie Foss himself.

The Sky Castle Fortress made its dramatic entrance, bombarding the camp and throwing the Regular Army into complete disarray.

The massive energy blasts turned the camp into a scene of chaos—tents were obliterated, soldiers fled in panic, and what was once an organized military base became a wasteland.

The large, conspicuous command tents were the first to be reduced to rubble.

However, despite the devastation, Jamie Foss, their primary target, remained unharmed.

Realizing the dire situation, Jamie Foss had retreated into an underground bunker, escorted by his personal guard and Collins.

(Chapter End)