Chapter 20

The phenomenon of the Star Nebula would cause a brief magnetic storm, something many people were aware of.

But no one expected that someone would take advantage of the chaos to kill, especially in such a manner.

After Yan Cheng fell to the ground, chaos ensued at the scene. Screams mixed with the raging electromagnetic noise, ringing in people’s heads.

“Bang!” After Qin Chu Yue shot and killed Yan Cheng, she quickly retreated into the corridor. Leaning against the wall, her heart pounded, but she felt unusually excited.

“Wow! That was exhilarating.”

“Don’t get too excited yet.” Ji Fu’s voice came intermittently through the earpiece due to the magnetic storm.

This headset has been specially modified by Ji Fu, but it still got affected under intense magnetic fields.

Qin Chu Yue struggled to distinguish Ji Fu’s words: “You… at most… one and a half minutes.”

“S-class mechs are equipped with emergency brakes, at most one and a half minutes, then those two S-class mechs can return to normal.”

She didn’t catch the sentence afterwards. Qin Chu Yue couldn’t catch her breath and cursed softly, “Damn!”

Despite that, her hands didn’t hesitate at all. She quickly threw out a mechanical grappling hook, throwing it out, and leaped directly down from the middle of the top floor staircase.

She had been scouting around this shop for the past few days, and she remembered the locations perfectly.

The moment she landed, she sprinted away, just withdrawing from the shop when she heard a loud bang behind her.

The building behind her was smashed to pieces by an S-class mech.

Qin Chu Yue gritted her teeth and ran forward regardless.

Fortunately, she had already planned out the best route before the operation, so she just needed to run along the route simulated hundreds of times.

All her equipment had been modified, especially the boots on her feet, which allowed her to cover hundreds of meters with a single step.

This almost gave her the speed of flight as she maneuvered through this residential area.

Sizzle, sizzle…

Qin Chu Yue heard the crackling behind her, and the next moment, she heard Ji Fu’s voice in her earpiece: “The magnetic field disturbance has ended, activate the shield device and change equipment.”

In almost an instant, a mobile screen appeared in front of her, displaying the terrain map of the entire area, and the system quickly provided the best navigation.

Qin Chu Yue activated the shield device and followed the screen’s guidance with her head down.

At the same time, after the magnetic field disturbance ended, Ji Fu sent out everything that had been prepared.

The moment the magnetic field reaction ended and operations resumed, everyone’s light-brains popped up with a window.

[Prison backbone abuses power, judicial departments cover up for each other, thirteen innocent prisoners executed, is this the so-called justice of the alliance?]

The forcibly popped-up news window was exactly the same as the previous interstellar news.

Ji Fu even used a headline similar to theirs.

What she invested in was all the evidence of Yan Cheng’s abuse of power in detaining innocent citizens, plus edited footage of the executions, repeatedly broadcasted on everyone’s light-brains.

She even opened the permission for online comments from netizens on the starnet at the same time.

For a moment, the light-brain information overload after the magnetic field was restored.

Directly blocking the footsteps of those who reacted to the scene and chased after Qin Chu Yue.

While Qin Chu Yue ran wildly, she whistled, “Baby, you’re reliable.”

“Turn right, enter the underground room.”

At this moment, according to the navigation, she had entered an extremely narrow alley. If she were caught by the mech here, she would basically be dead.

But she still followed Ji Fu’s arrangement without hesitation.

“There’s a password.” Qin Chu Yue stopped outside the mechanical gate at the end of the alley, panting. She looked around and asked, “Where is this?”

“Huang Family Family’s temporary material warehouse.”

Qin Chu Yue:?

She laughed at once, “You’re letting me go to Huang Family’s material warehouse, what’s the difference between this and putting a mouse in a rice bin?”

“But why isn’t there anyone guarding here?”

“This is not the main gate.” Ji Fu swiftly scrolled through the terrain map and said softly, “The guards are unmanned mechs, but they’ve been reassigned.”

“But without the password, we still can’t get in.” Qin Chu Yue had just spoken when she heard mechanical sounds coming from another alley.

Her face changed, and she immediately activated the shield device, lightening her breathing.

She wanted to directly invade the system and forcibly break open the mechanical gate.

But Ji Fu said, “Hunag Peilan is more cautious in her actions. If you force it, you’ll probably be noticed.”

Qin Chu Yue frowned.

Hunag Peilan was an old friend, and she knew her quite well.

Plus, lock-picking was her specialty…

“Drip, the door has been opened.” Ji Fu heard the prompt in her earpiece and knew she succeeded.

Qin Chu Yue quickly hid in the material warehouse. After entering, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter, “Guess what the password was?”

“Huang Peilan is quite humorous. The key to her family’s warehouse is the anniversary of her eighteenth birthday.”

Ji Fu: …

She remembered Huang Peilan’s coming-of-age anniversary, she was quite humorous too.

After confirming Qin Chu Yue’s safety, Ji Fu stood up.

After the magnetic field was restored, she erased the mark Yan Cheng had placed on her light-brain.

Yan Cheng was dead, and the system he used was also destroyed by Ji Fu.

The A-class mech soldiers inside probably received the message too. Unable to view the marked location and with the commander dead, they wouldn’t dare to do anything else.

She got up and headed towards Yunlin with Yan Yan.

As she walked, she casually looked at the overwhelming abuse on the starnet, her expression calm.

Until she entered Yunlin.

This area was quieter than the iris flower field just now, unbelievably quiet.

Ji Fu pressed the call button and asked Jiang Wei, “Where are you?”

“Have you arrived? I’ll send you the coordinates.” Jiang Wei’s voice contained a hint of imperceptible surprise.

“Ji Fu!” When she saw Ji Fu, she immediately pulled her into the car and said mysteriously, “I have something great to show you.”

Ji Fu glanced at her and opened the black package she handed over like a treasure.

As the bag chain opened, the contents inside almost dazzled her eyes.

Ji Fu: …

It was a whole bag of nearly top-quality gold agate.

“Do you know what this is? I searched online, and it feels a bit like C-grade material, gold amber, but there are no such cloud patterns inside gold amber.”

She took out a piece and showed it to Ji Fu.

Ji Fu looked at the colorful stone, the flowing cloud pattern inside, hesitating to speak.

She thought for a moment and held Jiang Wei’s hand.

“Put these things away.” Ji Fu’s expression was extremely complicated. “Remember, no matter who asks later, you say you haven’t seen these things.”

“Huh?” Jiang Wei was stunned. “But the Huang family’s Optic Brain…”

Before she could finish her sentence, she heard a deafening roar.

Under the roar, the surroundings began to shake violently, almost causing her to fall off the car.

Fortunately, she grabbed the car door tightly, preventing herself from being thrown out directly.

Jiang Wei reacted and looked back in horror.

With just one glance, she saw the surrounding mountains collapse, startling countless birds and trees.

The mountain wall cracked, and within the pitch-black cliff, appeared a pair of terrifying golden-red eyes!

“This… this is…” The sudden appearance of this monster made Jiang Wei’s whole body shiver with fear.

The instinctive fear of living creatures made her body numb on one side.

She stiffened, afraid to look further, while Ji Fu beside her said, “A+ grade Golden Rock Beast.”

“A+?” Jiang Wei was dumbfounded. No wonder she said there were no living people around here, nor any exotic plants or beasts. It turned out there was a mountain-dominating behemoth here!

“Well… it used to be A+.” Ji Fu glanced at the golden agate stone in her arms.

What she didn’t say was that wherever the Golden Rock Beast appeared, there would be golden agate stones buried by it. This exotic creature was named not because it underwent a golden mutation but because of its ferocious nature, feeding on gold.

Low-grade gold consumption, high-grade…

Golden agate stone, an A+ grade exotic material.

What Jiang Wei held in her hand was the meal that this Golden Rock Beast had been saving for a long time.

Ji Fu withdrew her gaze and saw the huge eyes of the Golden Rock Beast suddenly turn crimson. She said slowly, “…currently, under the influence of the Nebula Phenomenon.”

“It is now infinitely close to S-rank.”

S-rank exotic beast!?

Jiang Wei’s face instantly turned pale, and she hurriedly turned to look at Ji Fu, asking in a shocked voice, “Then, what about us?”

“Yes.” Ji Fu looked at the bag of golden agate stones in her hand. “We’ll die in its hands.”

If Flame was in its complete form now, they would have a chance of winning.

But Flame was still only a semi-finished product.

Before entering the Cloud Forest, she had dealt with five A-rank mechas, almost exhausting her strength.

Under severe physical exhaustion, if she were to force herself, she could only use potent nutrient fluid. But if she didn’t, with just the two of them, one C-rank and one F-rank, and without mechas, they would probably end up as lunch for the Golden Rock Beast along with the golden agate stones.

The sudden appearance of the Golden Rock Beast startled Jiang Wei, but after hearing Ji Fu’s last words, she surprisingly calmed down.

Although she was sweating profusely, she was the first to react.

Putting down the bag in her hand, pulling the handbrake, she asked Ji Fu in the calmest tone she had ever used, “Have you fastened your seatbelt?”

Ji Fu looked at her trembling hands but still remained strong and calm, intending to leave with her. She smiled lightly and asked, “Are you carsick?”

Jiang Wei was slightly puzzled. “No.”

“Then you’d better sit tight.” Ji Fu pressed the Optic Brain and released Flame, saying coldly, “Input the highest level command.”

“Mechanical integration.”

As the earth shook, the exotic beast was already approaching them.

But in Jiang Wei’s eyes, it was as if she had pressed the slow-motion button. She saw Flame merge with this dilapidated go-kart in an incredibly short time.

The entire car was covered with an extreme black, as if coated with a layer of black paint. The control interface in front of her was completely covered, and the steering wheel in front of her was removed, replaced by the red eyes of the mechanical dog appearing on the dashboard.

“Mechanical integration complete.” The mechanical voice echoed in the car.

“Activate berserk mode.” For the first time, Jiang Wei witnessed the berserk mode of the mech.

This kind of program, berserk mode, was generally applied to top-level mechas.

Ji Fu, like giving a top-level program and configuration to a mechanical dog, was the first.

But the next moment, Jiang Wei couldn’t speak.

[Mechanical adapted]

[Berserk mode loading]

Click.

As the seatbelt tightened, Jiang Wei felt as if she were bound to the car.

[Berserk activated] The red eyes on the dashboard emitted a dazzling light.

Boom!

Jiang Wei turned back in horror, and with just one glance, she saw the new car rushing out at an incredible speed.

Buzz! Buzz!

Silver-white light cannons erupted, leaving two huge deep marks on the ground.

The scorching light cannon seemed to explode behind her, but instantly increased the distance between them and the Golden Rock Beast.

Ji Fu by her side opened the panoramic navigation and said calmly, “Destination, the deep sea.”

Jiang Wei: ?

Isn’t that the name of Zhou Lu Hai’s mecha?

At this moment, tens of kilometers away from the Cloud Forest, on the edge of the foothills.

Zhou Lu Hai stopped the mecha and looked at the two mechas not far away, engaged in a fierce battle.

In the internal communication, Liu Can’s voice was calm, “Wan Feng and Sun Yiming are fighting. Are we going to intervene?”

He couldn’t see him around, but there were still quite a few people watching the excitement nearby. Zhou Lu Hai guessed that he should be on an unfamiliar mecha.

He didn’t speak, nor did he have any intention of intervening.

He was just about to leave the mecha and go down to smoke.

The deep sea suddenly sounded an alarm: [High-level exotic beast detected approaching rapidly].

Zhou Lu Hai suddenly looked up.

The people around hadn’t reacted yet.

Wan Feng had already stopped, but Sun Yiming was still chasing. Suddenly, he heard Sun Yiming’s voice change dramatically, “There’s an exotic beast attack!”

As soon as the words fell, everyone here reacted and immediately activated the long-range vision function of their mechas.

With just one glance, they saw the rampaging Golden Rock Beast.

Many people here changed their expressions. This size and state… This Golden Rock Beast was at least A-rank or higher.

Wan Feng hadn’t expected an exotic beast of this grade to suddenly appear. His face darkened, and he quickly opened the operating interface.

In the enlarged image, there was also…

A black car speeding rapidly.

The car was approaching them at a speed comparable to a starship traveling through the universe. The speed was too fast, and the entire car was pitch black, making it impossible to see the person driving.

But they could clearly see the roaring beast behind the car.

When countless people were horrified, a lively voice suddenly sounded in the current channel of the mechas: “Hello? Hello.”

“Zhou Lu Hai?” Ji Fu cleared her throat lightly. “Um, your takeout is here.”