With a plan in mind, it didn't take them too long to put their plan into action.
Leyah's soldiers were pretty fast in locating most of the 2X and 3X Ribots that could still be used. The ones that were in a difficult location and couldn't be found were located and collected by Zhihao using the map that Alvi had given them.
When Zhihao counted all the Ribots that stood in front of them, he couldn't help but be a little surprised to see that he couldn't count them. There were at least well over an army of 10,000 2X Ribots and another 10,000 or more 3X Ribots.
They were already out of Utopia and were gathered in the city center. It seemed that Leyah had already expected there to be such a huge crowd and had known that they wouldn't fit in Utopia so she gathered them all here. A place large enough and at an equal distance from all the different locations where the Ribots were found.
Zhihao leaned over towards Li Ling's ear and asked in a volume that was slightly above a whisper, "Are you sure we'll be able to control them?"
Li Ling smiled as he questioned back, "Are you doubting yourself right now, Mastermo?"
Zhihao pursed his lips and gulped as he shook his head in denial.. With a fake scoff, he added, "Why would I need to do that? There's no way I won't be able to control them. It's just an army of 10,000. Nothing impossible."
Li Ling chuckled as he heard this. To say that controlling an army of 10,000 Ribots was easy, even if it was just a bluff, only Mastermo could say something like that with such an honest and confident expression.
Zhihao turned his head to face Leyah as he asked, "The war... How far is it?"
Before Leyah could reply, the ground beneath them started shaking once again.
By this time around, they had already gotten used to the frequent earthquakes, however, when the ground finally stopped shaking, Leyah's face seemed to have lost all color as she spoke up, "It seems that the war will be coming sooner than expected."
Zhihao frowned as he heard this answer that he had hoped not to hear.
"That's actually good," Li Ling commented as he patted Zhihao's back, "We can get this done and over with."
Zhihao nodded with a hint of reluctance as he agreed, "You're right."
Once again, the ground beneath them started shivering, but it was different this time. This was nothing like a natural earthquake.
It almost seemed as if something was running towards them and that something was quite... Heavy.
They turned their head towards the direction where a loud thumping of footsteps was coming from.
Zhihao equipped his gun and got ready to shoot whatever it was. Leyah had a confused expression on her face as she stood there and Li Ling looked to be just a bit curious and nothing more.
When the thing that was running towards them could finally be seen, Zhihao and Li Ling immediately recognized it and pursed their lips in unison.
Leyah's eyes widened a bit as she looked at the Ribot, "XY Ribot...?"
She looked to be surprised and in the next second, she rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
Following behind Zhou Xinyi and Wang Guiying was another army of Ribots which looked to be lesser in number than the 2X and 3X Ribots combined, however, one XY Ribot was the same size as three 2X or 3X Ribots and hence the army that came running towards them looked to be massive.
Wang GuiYing came down from his comfortable seat on Zhou Xinyi's shoulders and walked up to Zhihao as he smiled happily and exclaimed, "We found them all."
Zhihao nodded in satisfaction as he heard this.
Wang GuiYing smirked proudly, "Aren't we just too amazing?"
Zhihao pursed his lips and said nothing to that.
Li Ling chuckled as he looked over at Zhou Xinyi, "You must be the one that did all the work, right? Good Job."
Wang GuiYing, "..."
Zhihao chuckled as he also turned to look at Zhou Xinyi and lightly bowed his head as he thanked the man inside the giant ribot, "To find them all in such a short span of time must not have been easy. Thank you for all your hard work."
Wang GuiYing frowned as he interrupted them and patted his chest as he defended himself, "I helped too!! I was the one that was navigating him! Don't I deserve a 'good job' too?!"
Zhihao chuckled as he acted as if he was suddenly deaf and couldn't hear Wang GuiYing.
Li Ling also did the same as he spoke up, "All that's left now are the newly created Ribots."
When Zhihao heard this, he couldn't help but frowned as he questioned, "Are you sure she'll bring them over...?"
Li Ling had an indecipherable expression on his face as he tilted his head and answered, "Of course she would. Do you think she has the guts to disobey me?"
Zhihao squinted but said nothing to that.
The real earthquake came once again and this time, Leyah's whole face was pale as she looked at Zhihao and with unhidden worry apparent on her face, she spoke up, "Captain Burn, I don't know who you are waiting for, but I don't think they'll be making it in time."
Zhihao gulped as he heard this.
"If she doesn't arrive here on time, it's fine," Li Ling commented sharply, "As long as she does come, the time doesn't matter."
Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows but said nothing out loud however he was a bit skeptical about it. His trust in Alvi was something that could be measured as a drop of water in a desert. It was basically nonexistent.
Sometimes she would help them but most of the other times she would just be tricking them one way or another.
Zhihao's eyes widened slightly when he saw that this time the earthquake had actually caused the ground to crack.
The crack was small in the beginning but as the earth continued to shake, the crack grew wider and wider.
"Umm... Is it just me or is it lasting longer this time...?" Zhihao sounded a bit panicked as he questioned.
"It's not just you," Li Ling reassured.
Wang GuiYing clutched onto Zhou Xinyi tightly as he cried out, "What the hell is this?!"
Zhihao didn't bother looking up at him as he answered the question, "A monster trying to make its presence known!"
Zhihao thought the earthquake would go away like all the previous times, however, he was disappointed to see that it just grew in intensity as if the monster underground had gone nuts and was trying to come up or something.
Just like Leyah had said, the war came sooner than they had expected and it started with the crack on the ground that grew to be at least more than 20 meters in size.
Zhihao prayed that nothing would come out from that crack but sadly, his prayers weren't heard.
Before he could even react to it or mentally prepare himself for a war, there was a loud bellow coming from the crack.
Zhihao felt a shiver go down his spine as he heard that. He gulped as he put his gun away and equipped his shoulder-fired missile.
Whatever that was, there was no way a gun would be able to stop it, and hence, Zhihao wouldn't want to risk it.
As a friendly greeting to that thing, Zhihao was going to directly blow it up with a shoulder-fired missile, or at least he would try to.
If the creature wanted to be blown into bits or not was totally up to its own decision. There was nothing Zhihao could do about it.
Not even a second later, dust rose up from the crack and poured out like water, burying some soldiers and Ribots in the process.
Li Ling and Zhihao ordered the Ribots to back away as they let the crack have its own distance to vomit out the soil.
A huge thing with a dirty metallic body could be seen coming out from the crack and just as Zhihao had planned, he activated his shoulder-fired missile and aimed it at the creature without even bothering to see what the thing was.
Zhihao was immediately disappointed to see that his missile plan had been a waste just like he expected it to.
Li Ling chuckled as he ordered his Ribot army to aim at the thing together and shoot at the same time.
Thousands of Ribots all had their explosive air guns aimed at the creature however, they did no damage to the thing.
Zhihao gulped as he looked at the creature, "Gege... I take it back."
"Huh?"
"I'm definitely doubting myself."
Li Ling took a minute to respond as he chuckled, "That's okay. If you're afraid, just stand back and watch. I'll make sure to give you a good show."
Zhihao pursed his lips as he pondered over it for a second. He was almost tempted to do exactly that, but at the end of the day, he would never let Li Ling go out alone in a fight like that.