Chapter 538: Fireworks

Tens of mechanical hatches inside the equipment room opened up simultaneously. Inside the hatches were rows of construction androids; all of them were in a dormant state. Now however, Zero City had activated them all.

The construction androids moved into groups and rushed toward the large Energyquake Bomb. Next, their mechanical arms transformed into various instruments as they hastily went to work.

A considerable number of androids had also appeared beside the special mech, almost the same number as those working on the bomb. Their large mechanical arms pushed the mech out from the storage facility. Next, they slowly pushed it across the floor until it was in the centre of the equipment room.

The construction androids were like ants working on the surface of a giant’s body.

Chen Xiaolian observed what was happening in shock. He could hear the rumbling sounds from the construction work that the androids were performing.

Meanwhile, sounds of explosions continued to reverberate forward from the closed underground factory’s passageway leading into this room.

After around two minutes, a flash of golden light burst out and cracks appeared on the surface of the final gate. A golden glow seeped in from the final gate.

“They are coming.”

Zero City spoke up, “This is the strongest gate within this underground factory, but they will be breaking through it soon. Now, move according to my instructions.”

“What should I do?”

The moment those words left Chen Xiaolian’s mouth, a map appeared on his personal system’s radar. Surprisingly, it was the map of this underground factory.

Marks labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. quickly appeared on the map.

The marks appeared in every corner of the map.

“Later, run toward the marked numbers in sequence. First, head toward the spot marked no. 1. When I say begin, quickly run toward 2, 3, 4, 5… just keep going according to the sequence. Remember, you must move toward the marked spot in sequence.”

“Why?”

“It is very simple, all the defensive turrets within this factory had received the input for the targeting and shooting areas. All you need to do is move according to the marked coordinates. Keep moving so that the Electronic Guardians will follow you through this area and the defensive turrets will open fire on them.”

“… … …” Chen Xiaolian was taken aback. “I will be the bait to lure them into the fire zone? In that case, I…”

“You do not have to worry about your safety. All the defensive turrets are energy-tier weapons and I had already given them the identification program to identify friend and foe. The standard used for this program is a temperature sensor. Do you remember the warm-up I asked you to do earlier?”

“You mean when you told me to abandon the hover car and run toward this room?”

“Yes. As you were running, your temperature were taken and recorded. All the turrets are under my control and the criteria for identification of friend is your body temperature. Thus, when the energy turrets open fire, it will make due calculations to ensure it does not hit you. I need you to do this not only to kill the Electronic Guardians using the energy turrets but also to delay their advance. That is in order to make the precious time needed for the final tasks on the Energyquake Bomb. According to my calculations, if everything goes well, there will be less than 1.6 seconds of discrepancy.”

Zero City’s words surprised Chen Xiaolian. However, there was no time to think about it. He quickly asked, “What happens after I finish getting to all the coordinates?”

“Return to this place and enter the mech. At the same time you enter, I will detonate the Energyquake Bomb.” Next, Zero City added. “Remember, the defensive turrets will not be firing at you as they will deliberately avoid firing at you. You do not need to worry about friendly fire from the turrets. However… you are still the Electronic Guardians primary objective, one they are intent on killing. Thus, you will need to take good care not to get yourself killed.”

Chen Xiaolian gritted his teeth and shouted, “All right!”

Even as he shouted, he had begun running into the factory as he rushed toward coordinate no 1. At the same time, the large gate blocking the passageway finally burst apart with a flash of golden light.

A tightly packed swarm of Electronic Guardians charged inside.

They swarmed across the floor and up the ceiling. The sight of their mechanical tentacles caused Chen Xiaolian’s scalp to tingle.

Countless number of the mechanical octopuses spread open their tentacles as they moved toward Chen Xiaolian. At the same time, the defensive turrets on the walls and ceiling opened fire.

Chen Xiaolian bit down on his lips heavily before rushing toward coordinate no. 2…

…

It became obvious that the Electronic Guardians had locked onto Chen Xiaolian as their ‘primary objective’.

Thus, despite suffering from the bombardment from the defensive turrets, the Electronic Guardians did not retaliate. They did not move to destroy the turrets. Instead, they simply charged after Chen Xiaolian.

Chen Xiaolian quickly made his way to coordinate no. 2. As for the Electronic Guardians, they moved into the fire zone as planned by Zero City.

This was the optimal result from the calculations made. The path that the Electronic Guardians was taking was the most optimal firing zone for the turrets. It allowed the turrets to achieve its biggest crossfire effect and deal the most harm to the Electronic Guardians.

Chen Xiaolian felt as though he was dancing upon the tip of blades.

Several times now, he could clearly feel the energy beams sliding right past him – the turrets on his side had fired those beams.

Despite the dangers, it was as Zero City had said. Those turrets had made the proper calculations to avoid Chen Xiaolian when firing. There were two occasions when the fired beams grazed past Chen Xiaolian’s head. However, it did not actually made contact with him.

While Chen Xiaolian was running forward, the energy turrets destroyed many of the pursuing Electronic Guardians. He kept running, pushing himself to his limits.

Even so, the Electronic Guardians were not existences that would allow themselves to be easily killed off. It became clear that the system had given these things a certain level of intellect. After suffering from the attacks by the defensive turrets, they began counter attacking instead of focusing solely on pursuing Chen Xiaolian.

The Electronic Guardians began destroying the turrets. As they did so, Chen Xiaolian ran from coordinate no. 1 to coordinate no. 2, then to coordinate no. 3…

As time passed, more and more of the defensive turrets were destroyed and the roaring sound of the energy beams gradually lessened.

The Electronic Guardians wrapped up the turrets and the formless waves of light emitted by the tentacles destroyed the turrets.

After running to the last coordinate, Chen Xiaolian found that he was gradually getting cornered. Without waiting for Zero City to give him the signal, he rapidly made his way back to the equipment room.

The rain like attacks coming his way nearly killed him on several occasions. The formless waves of light fired out by the Electronic Guardians nearly struck him a few times, but he was saved by Zero City.

Thanks to this omnipotent existence, miraculous situations occurred as Chen Xiaolian was running. A sudden pipeline explosion, the sudden collapse of a metal frame on the ceiling and others all happened during moments of crisis and the result was that the attacks targeting Chen Xiaolian would be blocked.

Chen Xiaolian finally charged into the equipment room and the gate closed up once more.

Although this gate could not stop the Electronic Guardians, it was capable of giving him some time to manoeuvre.

Chen Xiaolian rushed beneath the mech and vaulted up to the mech. The cockpit of the mech automatically opened up and he slipped inside.

As the cockpit hatch was in the process of closing up, Chen Xiaolian heard Zero City speak.

“Detonation in five seconds. The shockwaves will be intense, hold on tight!”

F**K!!!

Chen Xiaolian swore. He checked the pilot’s seat within the cockpit. There was no time for him to sit properly and he could only jump on the seat and scramble for the belts meant to be tied across the pilot’s body.

Through the monitoring screen in the cockpit, he could see that the gate of the equipment room had broken down and the Electronic Guardians were swarming their way in. The outer areas of the factory had fallen to ruins as 90 per cent of the turrets had been destroyed. Only a scattered few remained functional and firing.

Vast quantities of the Electronic Guardians practically blocked the gate leading into the equipment room as they charged in.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1… bomb detonated. Mech defensive shield raised to maximum power.”

The Electronic Guardians inside the equipment room were seemingly able to sense something as they went straight toward the mech – clearly, thanks to the lockdown; they were able to sense that Chen Xiaolian was inside the mech.

The countless Electronic Guardians charged, some crawling up furiously through the ceiling, some simply threw themselves through the air…

And then…

A burst of light…

…

Bluesea, Angel Wu and the others who were standing beside the Board of Patriarchs’ building were suddenly jolted by a quaking feeling.

The ground beneath them shuddered violently.

The magnitude of the quakes was like those of a rocking kiddie ride.

The Board of Patriarchs’ building behind them was also affected by the violent quakes and the front wall suddenly collapsed under the intensity of the quakes.

Huge cracks appeared on the ground within the south street area.

It was as though some faults had appeared in the plates underground and large, deep cracks appeared on the ground.

If one were to look down from above, they would see that several areas within Zero City had either moved into the wrong spot or risen up.

“This… … what is this?” Bluesea asked as he gaped at his surroundings.

Tens of War Bastions acting as turrets fell over due to the resulting quakes and parts of the Board of Patriarchs’ building were still collapsing. Thankfully, the main building was durable enough and no real structural damage occurred.

Angel Wu suddenly turned his head to look at a certain direction.

“There was an explosion. It came from underground… … it feels like it came from there?”

The two of them exchanged glances and they saw shock in both their expressions.

That was where Chen Xiaolian had headed toward earlier.

Bluesea forced down the shock he was feeling and raised his head to look up at the sky.

Thankfully, the earthquake did not affect the aircrafts up in the sky much. After a minor state of chaos, the aircrafts returned to order and resumed their move toward the teleportation portal.

…