Chapter 537: Run Kiddo

“Something feels wrong.” The muscular driver, who was standing beside Shen, wiped the cold sweat trickling down his forehead. “Guild Leader, the Electronic Guardians, they seem to be…”

“The objective has changed.” Shen narrowed his eyes. “As expected, the primary objective had been changed. The system… … in the end, it still cares more about… … humph!”

“They are all on the move!” The muscular driver pointed at a distant area on the south street. “Those Alliance fellows…”

Even without him saying, Shen could already see for himself through his personal system. There, a dense and packed number of green dots, representing the people on his side, were swiftly moving out.

However, they were no longer heading toward the Board of Patriarchs’ building. Instead, they were heading west.

“The primary objective is on the move.” Shen knitted his brows.

Inside his personal radar, the ‘primary objective’ pinpointed by the system was rapidly moving away from the Board of Patriarchs’ building, heading westward.

“What about us? Guild Leader, we… …” The muscular driver turned to face Shen. Although he had not spoken those words, his thoughts were evident. Shouldn’t we pursue the primary objective as well?

After all, the system was offering such a lucrative reward for it. It was an unprecedented level of reward that could drive anyone mad.

“Relay my commands.” Shen suddenly took a deep breath. “Have everyone…”

“Yes!” The muscular driver instantly straightened his body as he looked right at his leader.

“… have them all standby!”

“Wha… WHAT?!”

Shen gave his new assistant a glance and said coldly, “Is there a problem? Or was my command not clear enough?”

“No, not that. I mean, we, we…”

“Just relay my command.” Shen showed no intention of explaining things. He simply waved his hand.

The muscular driver was dumbfounded for a whole second. Then, he was unable to stop himself from shouting, “Sir, this command… … I, I object!”

Shen appeared to have anticipated such a response. He cast an indifferent glance at him and said, “Speak.”

“The rewards that the system is offering… there is no reason why we should give up on it… additionally…”

However, before the muscular driver could finish, Shen replied with one word.

“Overruled.”

“… …eh?”

“Overruled.” Shen said calmly. “As my assistant, you have the right to express your objections. I have listened to your argument and I overruled it – do you still not understand? Now, relay my command.”

Seeing the dazed expression on the muscular driver’s face, Shen gave a sudden sigh. Next, he whispered something to him. The contents of the whisper caused his assistant’s body to flinch.

Shen’s words were: “Who was the one who determined that Players must act according to the system’s instructions?”

The muscular driver’s body shuddered.

Players… … Players not following the system’s instructions?

That… … what?

As those thoughts rocked his mind, Shen shook his head and walked out.

“Sir, where are you going?”

“I am going to find that primary objective.”

A look of comprehension suddenly dawned on the muscular driver’s face. “I understand! Of course! Only a high-ranking master like you could have the qualifications to obtain such a monumental reward! Are you personally going to collect the reward?”

Shen cast a peculiar gaze at this subordinate of his. Seeing the way Shen was looking at him, the muscular driver lost the courage to say anything else. Next, Shen said coolly, “Whoever told you I am going to kill that primary objective?”

After saying that, Shen strode off.

“Not, not to kill the primary objective? Then, then you are going for…”

…

Chen Xiaolian was running.

Bolting. Running with everything he had.

Without using the [S] class power, Chen Xiaolian was bolting across the street area at his fastest possible speed.

In less than one minute, he ran a distance of over one kilometre. This speed was sufficient to scare even Olympic runners. However, for Chen Xiaolian, who had enhanced his body before, he knew that this was not really very fast.

“After another 200 metres, turn left. There is a transport there.”

Zero City’s voice rang inside his head.

Chen Xiaolian followed its instructions and turned left at a junction after running another 200 metres. There, he saw a hover car parked beside a street.

Clearly, someone had carelessly left it there. There was no way to tell to whom it belonged to.

For now, this area had yet to become a battlefield. Chen Xiaolian ran until he was beside the hover car.

Before he could properly halt his feet, the hover car automatically flashed to life and its turbines revved up.

Chen Xiaolian sat on the car as one would ride a motorcycle and the hover car abruptly sped forward.

“Did you do this?”

“Of course. Theoretically speaking, I can control everything inside Zero City.” Zero City’s voice remained devoid of emotion as it said indifferently, “Continue moving forward and rise up.”

The hover car flew up to the sky, soaring across a three-storey building to enter another street.

Chen Xiaolian could feel the howl of the winds.

Zero City’s size area was very big for a city. It was comparable to a small-scale, modern day city.

Likewise, this place too, had not become a battlefield. The buildings on either side remained intact. Judging from the architecture of the buildings, they appear to be…

“What is this place? Factories?” Chen Xiaolian gripped the hover car’s handle tightly.

“This is a weapons production zone for one of the resident guilds. All right, you can get out in front. I will open up a passageway. Just maintain a downward diving motion… five, four, three, two, one… dive straight down.”

Chen Xiaolian gritted his teeth and pushed the switch for the turbines that was on the handle to max as the hover car shot straight down the ground.

What greeted his eyes was a stretch of tall buildings that were over tens of metres tall. Although he saw that the hover car was about to slam into the large building, Chen Xiaolian chose to believe in Zero City. He did not decelerate in the slightest.

He could also hear a roaring sound coming from behind.

Through the rear-view mirror, Chen Xiaolian saw a large number of Electronic Guardians in the sky behind him. Those mechanical octopuses were rapidly flying toward him.

Some of the mechanical octopuses aimed their tentacles at him and shot out waves of formless light.

Further back, the roars of Player mechs and combat units could be heard.

Following a sharp air-piercing sound, Chen Xiaolian saw an orange coloured beam shoot out from a spot no more than 20 metres from his position. It shot past him and struck a distant building, which immediately burst into a ball of flames.

“Damn it!” Chen Xiaolian swore.

“Keep diving.” Zero City continued giving instructions with an indifferent tone.

There were now less than 10 metres between the hover car and the building right beneath…

The wall of the metal building suddenly opened up, revealing a passageway. Chen Xiaolian’s hover car slipped in through the opened gap. Chen Xiaolian could feel his clothes grazing the surface of the metal walls.

Only a hair’s breadth.

The metal wall closed up again behind him, blocking off the shots fired at him.

After the hover car sped into the building, Chen Xiaolian saw that the 10-metre-high building was a huge factory.

There on the floor was a production line. Chen Xiaolian was roughly able to identify the type of production lines they were. One of them was for the production of Sentinel mechs while the other was for battle androids. Various parts could be seen on different spots on the production line.

“Continue moving forward.”

“… … I know!” Chen Xiaolian clenched his teeth.

The hover car was already flying at a low-altitude. As it was reaching the end of the factory, Chen Xiaolian saw the metal wall before him open up.

After the hover car shot out from the factory, he heard another instruction from Zero City through his mind.

“Dive.”

“Dive? We are already on the ground!”

“Dive.”

Damn it!

Chen Xiaolian swore inwardly and chose to believe in Zero City again.

He turned the hover car down and it sped down once more. At the same time, a median strip automatically opened up to reveal an underground passageway.

Once again, the median strip closed up after the hover car slipped into the underground passageway.

The underground passageway spiralled down… … it was just like the entrance to the underground car parks in the outside world. However, this one was longer and deeper.

The spiralling passageway continued going down. Despite pushing the hover car to maximum velocity, which was at close to 200 mph, it continued going down for a good one minute.

“Just how deep is this mysterious place? What is this place?”

“Underground workshop for critical assembly,” Zero City replied monotonously. “A place for this guild to produce weapons of mass destruction. For safety reasons, they had built this workshop 500 metres below ground. Moreover, the top layer of this place is blocked using countless layers of concrete and alloy. Even if a nuclear bomb were to go off on top of this place, it would fail to break through the top layer.”

Just as Zero City finished speaking, Chen Xiaolian heard the roaring sound of explosions echoing down from above.

“Didn’t you say that not even a nuke can break in?”

“Firstly, Electronic Guardians are not nuclear bombs. The piercing power of their weapons far surpasses that of the nuclear bombs. Secondly, they only need to break through the door. There is no need for them to break open the 500-metre protective layer.”

Unknown to Chen Xiaolian, countless thick layers of gates were crashing down upon the underground passageway that he had just sped through earlier.

Finally, he reached the end of the passageway.

“Stop.”

Chen Xiaolian followed Zero City’s instructions and stopped the hover car.

“Get off the car.”

Chen Xiaolian looked forward and saw that it was a huge underground assembling line.

The underground space before him was tens of metres high and several stadiums in size.

Resting before his eyes was a large platform with a huge partially constructed machine on it.

One glance was all it took for Chen Xiaolian to identity the machine.

“Tidal Fighter! I have one of those.”

Only about half of the Tidal Fighter’s outer shell was fitted into place and many of its internal structures were left exposed.

“Gen 3 technological products. It could be considered an advanced piece of technological equipment,” Zero City commented in a cool voice. “I was the one who gave them this piece of technology. Thanks to that, the resident guilds of Zero City were able to construct these items. However, with their present level of technology, there is still a huge level of difficulty involved in replicating this piece of technology. Creating one requires the consumption of two Construction Modules. Even when putting the maximum number of strength into its construction, they would still require 10,000 hours for it.”

Chen Xiaolian exhaled deeply. No wonder. Back when Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild gave him one, they had treated it like a precious treasure.

“Where do I go now?”

“In the 12 o’clock direction. Move forward in that direction for 600 metres. There, you will find a special equipment room,” said Zero City coolly. “You had better hurry. I have already shut down the 24 gates for this place. Even so, they remain hot on your heels. Considering the speed at which they are destroying it, they would take no more than three and a half minutes to arrive here.”

“Special equipment room? Why am I going there?”

No answer came from Zero City and Chen Xiaolian could only run forward.

As he was running through the production line area, he saw the rows of turrets installed upon the walls near the ceiling moving automatically. Judging from the shape of the muzzles, those turrets were clearly energy-tier weapons. They turned and aimed right at the opening of the underground passageway behind Chen Xiaolian.

“I have activated the defensive systems here. There is no need to consider energy usage here. The defensive turrets here can delay them for around 30 seconds. Work hard on running.”

Chen Xiaolian gnashed his teeth and dashed forward into the distance.

…

Chen Xiaolian used only half a minute to run 600 metres. In doing so, he had to push his body to its limits. His lungs felt as though it was on fire.

Looking forward, he saw that there was a large metal wall before him. At the same time, there were also large warning symbols there.

“I have a question. Why did I have to get off the hover car just now and run here? Why can’t I just ride the hover car here?”

“Because I needed you to undergo an adequate amount of warm-up,” Zero City replied coldly.

Warm up? What kind of ridiculous reason is that supposed to be?

The huge gate before him began rolling up. The moment Chen Xiaolian made it before the gate, it had rolled up just high enough for him to rush in.

After running in, he became stunned.

“This… … this is what you call the equipment room?”

In Chen Xiaolian’s opinions, this place… … how should he put it? No matter how he tried, he would be unable to use the word ‘room’ to describe it.

What stood before him was a colossal… …

“Just one look is enough to tell me it’s dangerous!”

Yes, dangerous is the right word.

Have you ever seen a 30-metre tall bomb?

“Is this a bomb?” Chen Xiaolian gulped. “Not even nuclear bombs would be this big!”

The thing before him resembled the large launch vehicle.

However, the top part was not shaped like a bullet. Instead, it was oval-shaped.

“This is an important weapon,” replied Zero City coolly.

“Hey, your important weapon looks to be incomplete.” Chen Xiaolian smiled wryly.

One third of the large bomb’s surface appeared incomplete and many of its internal areas were left exposed.

“The Energyquake Bomb, a hi-tech product of the Fourth Era. It packs enough power to destroy planets … … naturally, you will have to strike the core position in order for that to happen.” Zero City quickly continued, “Simply put, it is a fledgling Stardestroyer-tier weapon. Although it is only at the fledgling level, it is still a Stardestroyer-tier weapon. In Zero City, its might is the strongest among all the existing weapons… … however, the work on it is not finished. More accurately, it is only 63.7 per cent complete.

“If not for that, those fellows would have dragged this thing into the south street to be used against the invading Players.

“It operates by automatically scanning the crust surfaces of the respective planet. The light energy on its top part could turn into a drill to pierce through the thick crusts of the target. After reaching the core, it will detonate its energy quake function to destroy the planet.

“That is also why it is so difficult to construct.

“I had shared this piece of technology to the resident guilds more than a decade ago. As of now, they have only built three. This one is the one with the highest rate of completion. The other two is not even 30 per cent complete.”

“I… I do not understand. Why make this weapon? Do you want to destroy the world?” Chen Xiaolian knitted his brows.

Zero City answered indifferently, “Naturally, it is for use within instance dungeons. Did you think instance dungeons are limited to minor fights? You have not experienced the large [Interstellar] class instance dungeons. Those have an extremely high level of difficulty. Where do you think the technological weapons are meant to be used? Did you think they were meant to be used in instance dungeons that usually use cold weapons?”

“Such instance dungeons exists? [Interstellar] class? Just like… … err, Star Wars?”

“Rest easy, those instance dungeons are temporarily still locked. However, I have already shared the technology out. Thus, according to the normal rate of development, those instance dungeons should be unlocking not too far in the future.”

Chen Xiaolian’s heart gave an abrupt pound.

Unlock… technology… higher levelled instance dungeons will appear.

Could it be… … the level of the instance dungeons depends on the power obtained by the game participants, the Players and Awakened ones?

“I… … what should I do now?”

“It is very simple. I will help you with the final work to complete the few final parts of this weapon. After that… … when those things rush inside, blow it up.”

“… … …”

Chen Xiaolian was at a loss for worlds. “Blow it up? Didn’t you say it can destroy a planet? Are you planning on destroying this planet? Oh right, but even if Zero City is not on Earth, in another space, could it be you are planning to destroy Zero City? You want to kill off everything in here?”

“Like I said, it is still incomplete. Did you think that a 63.7 per cent completed Energyquake Bomb can unleash 63.7 per cent of the power needed to destroy a planet? It is not that simple. Many critical parts remain incomplete. Given the limited amount of time we have, I can only help you finish this thing up to the point where you can blow it up. The power of its explosion… … it could probably send this underground workshop flying into the air.”

Chen Xiaolian was dumbfounded.

Flying into the air…

This place is 500 metres below ground! There are layer after layers of special concrete and alloy acting as a protective barrier in between!

Not even nukes can blow those apart!

Flying into the air?

“As it is an Energyquake weapon, it is very suited in dealing with the Electronic Guardians. Others would probably not work that well. My calculations reveal that this is the best choice.”

“Wait, wait… … if this explodes, what about me?” asked Chen Xiaolian.

This time, Zero City did not answer. Instead, it simply showed Chen Xiaolian something.

On the left side of the ‘equipment room’, the wall suddenly opened up to reveal something.

It was a 10-metre tall metal giant.

Silver white surface, sleek joints, fusiform shaped head…

“A mech?”

“The latest mech using super materials for its whole body… … mm, by latest, I am referring to the average technological standard for Zero City’s resident guilds,” Zero City said. “Due to time restraints, I will not be introducing the specific parameters of this mech to you. Let’s go with a presentational comparison… you have seen Angel Wu’s mech, haven’t you? That is the strongest True Angel mech among the Angel Corps. It is more advanced, more powerful and has more defensive capabilities compared to the Floating Angel you encountered before.”

“As for this mech, the cost of building it could roughly make… … eight of the mech used by Angel Wu.”

“…!!!”

Chen Xiaolian was utterly shocked.

Angel Wu was most certainly an [S] class expert. The [S] class mech of an [S] class expert?

This thing before him could create eight of them?

“If completed, its combat power is sufficient to crush mechs of the True Angel category. Its most outstanding aspect is its energy shield. According to my calculations, at full power, the energy shield will give you an 85.6 per cent chance of surviving the Energyquake Bomb’s detonation.”

Chen Xiaolian nodded his head. Then, he jerked his head up and said, “Wait! When you say “if completed”, do you mean to say that it is not yet completed?”

“Of course, if it is already completed, it would have been dragged to the south street for the battle,” answered Zero City indifferently. “My database shows that it is only 21.6 per cent complete. Calculating the normal rate of work, the present technological level and schedule of Zero City’s forces, this thing would still need around 2,165 days for completion.

“Besides, most of the core components are not installed yet. At present, it is only outfitted with basic mobility components. It has no weapons installed and it also cannot perform intense movements. However… … the energy shield is fully installed. In other words, its shield is useable. All you need to do is enter it and activate its energy shield. After that, just sit back and watch the fireworks.”

…