novelraw Chapter 138 : Mechanical Tower
Chapter 138 : Mechanical Tower
Zhu Jing Fu's position was three cities away from the Mechanical Tower's secondary base station.
As an SSS-level energy field, the Mechanical Tower had three main base stations located at two edges and the center. As Tata Mine Star's extremely expansive energy field, the three main base stations and dozens of scattered secondary base stations jointly maintained the stability of the energy field.
Zhu Jing Fu's destination for placing their device was the central Base Station C.
At present, the black-gold mecha hovered at the edge of the city, looking at the densely packed high-rises ahead, the hover cars constantly shuttling between them, and the robots on the ground. The analyst's perception spread out layer by layer as the Commander scanned the scene before them, beginning to create holographic projections on the team channel.
"Flying in the sky, walking on the ground—they're all energy bodies."
Chen Sui sighed as they entered the sensing band surrounded by a faint blue light at the city's edge, and her gun cannon began charging energy.
Just as the black-gold mecha broke in, the entire city seemed to come alive instantly. The lit neon lights began to flicker, and the hover cars rising to mid-air emitted a series of sharp horn sounds.
"Crack—"
The doors of the mechanical buildings opened, with mechanical collision sounds coming from inside, sounding like a giant steel ball rolling on the ground.
Cleaning robots that had been sweeping the ground in the distance suddenly stood upright, their extremely long mechanical arms retracting from the upturned floor tiles, waving in mid-air like trembling branches for a few seconds, then simultaneously looking toward the city entrance where the black-gold mecha had appeared.
"Swoosh—"
The robots' eyes lit up with dazzling red light.
"Damn," Zhou Chen looked at the hover cars charging toward them. His mecha jumped up, propelling directly from the spot into mid-air. "There are so many of them? How do we fight?"
The five Zhu Jing Fu members immediately scattered, rushing in different directions. Puluo, carrying the absorption device, was the main attractor of energy bodies and followed directly behind Chen Sui.
The analyst's gun cannon finished charging and fired forward, the fierce blue light breaking through the mechanical energy bodies in front. Ice spikes exploded from within, and as the shell exploded, white mist spread from mid-air, like a grand smoky rain.
[Ah, so it's mist bombs and control cannons? I thought Chen Sui would bring high-attack gun cannons]
[Zhou Chen has the lightning magnetic cannon. Looking at Gu Qinxue, the fierce fire cannon is with her]
[Xie Chunshi is carrying the devouring cannon. Couldn't see what gun cannon Puluo has yet]
[Something's not right. I feel something's off. Chen Sui actually switched to a support cannon?]
[Good, good, don't think like that. Maybe my sister just wants to be gentler today?]
[Don't believe it]
Chen Sui was indeed carrying mist bombs and control cannons, which after her enhancement could create a large-scale confusing environment.
The energy bodies that had been charging toward Puluo suddenly stopped in the mist after it spread, their mechanical joints making a stuttering sound. Unable to brake in time, a hover car rushed toward the ground behind Zhu Jing Fu, crashing directly into it.
Zhou Chen dodged the energy body behind him and turned to see the hover car crash into the ground, flames rising from it. The hover car, twisting some unknown joint, directly twisted and crawled up from the ground like a crouching beast. Its front cover opened, the engine began to roar, charging up to turn, and then smashed into the white mist again.
"No way? The hover car transformed?"
Although Zhou Chen had already learned about the Mechanical Tower energy field and Xie Chunshi had even developed a quick city-crossing plan, watching this scene, everyone present suddenly felt a chill toward these hover car things.
"Energy clusters planted yet?"
Chen Sui rushed out of the white mist. Around them, lights on the high-rises began to sway, seemingly scanning the positions below. The originally harmless neon lights suddenly burst with high-fluctuation energy, like lethal infrared killing lines, directly sweeping toward the mechas.
Chen Sui's eyes quickly caught the high-rise beside her, and she pushed back to dodge.
"Slash!"
"Boom—"
As the light swept by, the high-rise she had used as cover was cut open.
The upper part of the building slid down along the incline, crashing directly to the ground, the building scattered in pieces, exploding like flowers on the ground.
"Damn, these energy bodies attack indiscriminately."
Zhou Chen looked at the commotion on her side. Behind him, Gu Qinxue leaped between the high-rises, her steps extremely fast, her thorny fire whip dancing. When the light swept over, the thorny fire whip with a layer of fierce flames swung out, directly exploding the surrounding air and colliding with the light. The two clashed, creating a distinct invisible energy wall.
"Bang!"
As the thorny fire whip moved away, the fire wall dissipated. The light passed through, carrying the energy of the golden energy wall, reconverging into harmless light and sweeping toward Gu Qinxue's rear.
Zhou Chen twisted his body, spinning in mid-air, as the light rushed past beneath him.
The high-rises touched by it were easily cut like pastries, crashing to the ground.
After the sliced buildings fell for a moment, they visibly rebuilt themselves at a rapid pace.
Chen Sui had already rushed to the center of the city, with a tall spire revealed at the top of the highest building, below which was a huge clock tower. Her mecha directly rushed to the top of the tall spire, and the analyst grabbed the soldier with one hand and placed him to her side.
Puluo skillfully took out his shield umbrella and opened it in front of them.
[Throughout the whole process, Chen Sui was firing cannons, fighting, kicking energy bodies. Puluo: carried by Chen Sui, had energy bodies cleared by Chen Sui, held umbrella to avoid building dust splashing on him]
[Goodness, the Lucky King must be crying with envy]
[Zhou Chen must be wondering why he didn't get this treatment when he was drawing aggro]
"Puluo, switch guns."
Chen Sui tossed the mist bomb to the soldier. Puluo handed her the gun cannon from his back.
Only when the gun left did everyone see that Zhu Jing Fu's soldier was actually carrying an energy cannon.
[What's the energy cannon for?]
[Isn't the energy cannon for drawing aggro? The absorption device should be enough, why bring this?]
[Even the control cannon is better than the energy cannon]
Chen Sui couldn't see the confused bullet screen comments. Her energy cannon followed Zhou Chen's trajectory, firing directly at the spot after the agile attacker left.
Zhou Chen brushed past the cannon fire; if he had been a bit slower, he could have been blasted from mid-air by the energy cannon. But there wasn't a trace of worry on his face—his trust in Chen Sui was etched into his bones. Zhou Chen didn't doubt for a moment that Chen Sui would hit him.
The energy cannon exploded with a mechanical gasoline scent. The mechanical energy bodies were still pursuing the mecha's footsteps. On the other side, Chen Sui reported the position, and from behind the shield umbrella, Puluo extended the mist bomb, firing it toward the location she reported.
White mist spread throughout the city, enveloping the output and Commander of Zhu Jing Fu.
Zhou Chen's footsteps moved around the city buildings on all sides, and Chen Sui's energy cannon followed him, firing everywhere.
"Done yet?"
As the energy cannon ran out of energy and was being replaced, Chen Sui asked a question over the team channel.
Xie Chunshi's long blade trembled, sweeping away the giant robot in front of him. He gathered an ice chain in his hand, twisting it around the huge light pillars nearby, then winding his way past the energy bodies' forms, pushing toward the tall spire position.
"Strength is enough," the Commander reminded, quickly locking down the retreat route and alerting other teammates, "Prepare to converge."
Gu Qinxue softly acknowledged: "Understood."
Zhou Chen was surrounded by a group of energy bodies and couldn't immediately break free. The strong attacker flashed past his side, and at the same time, a fierce fire cannon with rapid flames rushed over.
Zhou Chen instinctively dropped toward the ground. As he fell on his back, the fierce fire cannon in front exploded, flames scattering, directly pushing the energy bodies surrounding him outward.
"Snap!"
The thorny fire whip wrapped around once, encircling the falling agile mecha and lifting it up. Along with Gu Qinxue's figure, they rushed toward the tall spire.
Before his teammates arrived, Puluo extended his shield umbrella, the double sides closing together. The huge shield umbrella formed a sphere, surrounding all four people except Zhou Chen.
Of the five Zhu Jing Fu members, four were encased in a sphere at the tall spire position. The agile attacker was tied by a thorny fire whip extending from the sphere, struggling to climb the tall spire. The mecha propelled toward the top of the tall spire.
[I don't understand. What is Zhu Jing Fu trying to do?]
[Ah, didn't Emperor Sui say it? Blow it up]
[Huh?? Wasn't that just said for show?]
[Our Zhu Jing Fu never shows off (sincerely)]
[Hmph]
[Are they really going to blow it up? It's such a large city]
[Zhou Chen and Xie Chunshi seemed to have planted quite a bit of energy just now?]
[By logic, shouldn't this be Puluo's main stage in the Mechanical Tower?]
[Ah, it's not Puluo's turn to shine yet]
[6]
Zhou Chen leaped into mid-air, charging his lightning magnetic cannon. The blue cannon mouth with violent lightning was turned downward by him, directly pointing at the tall spire and his teammates' position.
This left the bullet screen comments collectively stunned.
However, as the lightning magnetic cannon fired, Zhou Chen shouted: "Zhou Xiaoguai!"
"Eight-Direction Lightning!"
In the daylight, the lightning was not conspicuous under the glaring sunlight, only faintly visible as a few lines passing through with scattered sparks.
Only when the lightning magnetic cannon fired could the rolling thunder be heard, clouds churning, black clouds pressing down, blocking the sunlight, instantly adding many shadows to the ground.
"Boom—"
The lightning magnetic cannon roared like a giant beast, striking directly down at the tall spire.
The lightning exploded, scorching the outer surface of the round shield with blue-purple electricity, making the metallic luster even more brilliant, as if newly cleansed.
Xie Chunshi's energy control moved.
Outside the sphere, the Black Arrow Hawk's form covered the sky, its sharp eagle cry tearing through the howling wind.
Amid the purple lightning, a blue light flickered, a water droplet falling from the black clouds. The sea sprite's huge form rolled out from the water droplet.
Lightning spread out along the steel needle of the tall spire, melted by Xie Chunshi's ice chains surrounding the city into streams of water, connecting the energy clusters Zhou Chen had dropped, forming a large net on the city map.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
...
Throughout the mechanical city, explosions like the earth splitting erupted everywhere.
Countless mechanical fragments flew in all directions. The metal ground was pried up by lightning as if an underground dragon were turning over. The high-rises were split by lightning strikes, crashing downward. Lightning coursed through the ruins, sparks flickering, splitting the large fragments again.
"Save me save me save me!"
After firing the lightning magnetic cannon, Zhou Chen immediately cried out anxiously.
Below, a small gap appeared in the sphere. Puluo controlled the shield umbrella with both hands, opening it. Zhou Chen's mecha crashed directly toward the tall spire.
"Thud!"
Zhou Chen landed steadily inside the sphere, immediately switching his gun cannon to the Four-sided Mace. Outside the shield umbrella, the Four-sided Mace spread out, with lightning overflowing from it layer by layer.
The tall spire scattered lightning, and the central high-rise couldn't withstand the earth's movement. As explosions sounded around them, the high-rise split, and the tall spire collapsed.
"It's a bit, bumpy, ah," Zhou Chen held his Four-sided Mace as the sphere rolled on the ground, rolling among various collapsed buildings and energy bodies rendered defunct by energy, still covered with layers of lightning. Where it rolled, traces of black scorch marks and lightning strikes trailed behind.
"How do you control the direction of this thing!"
Zhou Chen rolled in all directions inside the sphere, either pressing on others or being pressed by others. The mecha damage prompt frequently sounded.
Gu Qinxue's energy spread outward, gathering wind attribute energy from the air, which was blowing the sphere and making it roll.
From the StarNet viewers' perspective, Zhu Jing Fu had initially fired energy cannons around for no apparent reason.
After the mist bombs confused them, the energy bodies moved toward the energy cannon positions, gathering in clusters.
Then Zhu Jing Fu wrapped themselves up, Zhou Chen unleashed a lightning storm, directly destroying the entire city. The energy bodies attracted and gathered by the energy were directly blasted apart by the combined effects of the lightning magnetic cannon and the surrounding lightning attribute energy.
And in just a few seconds, after turning the towering city into ruins, a sphere hiding its contributions was pushed by the swift gusting wind behind it, rolling beyond the city.
"Ugh—"
Viewers could even hear Zhou Chen's vomiting sounds. "It's a bit shaky, sorry, this road is difficult to traverse."
[......]
[Why is it difficult?]
[Zhu Jing Fu blew it up]
[My perspective was too narrow. I was still thinking how tiring it would be to bombard such a large city cannon by cannon]
[To be fair, Zhu Jing Fu's damage from drawing aggro earlier was less than the impact damage inside the sphere later]
[This shield is really useful]
[Zhou Chen's Four-sided Mace + round shield, finishing off afterward. I saw several energy bodies that weren't dead yet—the shield ball with the Four-sided Mace created a lightning net on the ground, directly blasting them to death]
[So dreamlike]
The ruins behind still carried the scent of gunpowder, with lightning directly pushing down from above, completely demolishing the city.
Following Xie Chunshi's route, after completing the energy finishing blow, Zhu Jing Fu rolled out of the mechanical city. The sphere stopped, with mechas standing up one by one. At the bottom, the crushed Zhou Chen rolled on the spot, spinning on the metal-covered ground like a dead fish.
Puluo patted himself and put away his shield umbrella, touching its surface.
Black marks from lightning strikes remained on it. Puluo looked somewhat distressed: "So many scratches."
[Puluo, you...]
[Fine, fine, you're all good at showing off]
[Dude, why don't you look back? Your shield umbrella just has a few scratches, but behind you, their city has collapsed]
[Puluo has ultimately become like the rest of Zhu Jing Fu]
[You guys just noticed? I think he must have been taking advanced lessons from Emperor Sui]
Zhou Chen got up from the ground. Puluo considerately extended his arm to help him. "I'm going to throw up. The road was too bumpy."
Chen Sui patted him: "It's okay, these points are worth it."
She looked at the point rankings. For teams that had just entered with similar scores, Zhu Jing Fu had directly blown up a mechanical city. Though the countless energy bodies inside weren't particularly high-level, the accumulated points directly placed them in the lead, widening the gap with other teams.
The teams constantly observing Zhu Jing Fu immediately noticed something was off. Saint Laurent was on a path avoiding the city when Noya's footsteps paused: "Hiss."
"What's going on with Zhu Jing Fu?"
Shouldn't they be rushing anxiously toward the main base station? Do they still have time to collect energy body points?
The analyst looked at the point rankings and immediately showed a surprised expression: "How long have they been in? How did they get so many points?"
"Did they fall into a mine pit?" He Shuangmu guessed. Usually only in such situations would Zhu Jing Fu show such fighting motivation.
Noya pondered for a few seconds: "Possibly. I don't know where their landing point was. Did they face-to-face run into so many energy bodies?"
Otherwise, could it be that Zhu Jing Fu actively sought the fight?
Noya didn't quite believe it. If Zhu Jing Fu were smart, they'd know that the four schools would do everything to block them this round. Yet they weren't rushing to the base station—could Zhu Jing Fu be confident they could take on all four schools?
Noya snorted a few times, feeling that Zhu Jing Fu was holding back something big.
"That's so worth it. Should we do it a few more times?"
Zhou Chen looked at the points—his waist didn't ache anymore, his back didn't hurt anymore, and he could even suppress the urge to vomit. He drew his Four-sided Mace, put away his weapon, and said excitedly.
"There are three cities on the way to the secondary base station. Plenty of opportunities for you to shine. Now, we need to get some useful things."
Chen Sui reminded him, looking back.
The Mechanical Tower's cities weren't one after another. Their city structure was essentially a group of energy bodies forming an energy body group. These energy body groups weren't the main ecology in the Mechanical Tower energy field but landmarks interspersed among the mining areas.
The original Tata Mine Star's mining areas were the main ecology of the energy field.
The Mechanical Tower's descent time was brief, and it couldn't completely erode all of Tata Mine Star's mining areas. Many mining areas still retained mineral vein growth, even undergoing different mutations under the special metal-property energy.
Chen Sui checked the surrounding energy fluctuations. Besides the tower cities with groups of energy bodies blocking the way, there was a high-level fluctuation in the distance, likely a mining area.
"We can't use strong attack weapons in the mining area, or we might damage the mineral veins. Be careful with the lightning magnetic cannon," Chen Sui looked at Zhou Chen, also reminding him, "Energy fluctuations indicate high-level energy bodies inside."
SS-level and SSS-level fluctuations were somewhat frequent.
"Understood," Zhou Chen nodded and put away his lightning magnetic cannon. This high-attack weapon had extremely powerful shells, several times stronger than quantum cannons. Simultaneously, its energy consumption was like flowing water. The energy Zhu Jing Fu had reserved was for clearing tower cities along the way.
It was specifically meant for accumulating points.
After checking their mecha conditions and determining approximate damage and energy consumption, the team moved toward the mining area location marked by the analyst.
From the control room's perspective, seeing Zhu Jing Fu leave their original position but not moving toward Base Station C, Jian Run curiously emitted a questioning tone, instinctively pulling up the Mechanical Tower map.
"Director Jian, what do you think Zhu Jing Fu is planning?"
From the other side, Gu Pingyang looked over with a gentle smile. Jian Run twitched his lips, suppressing some impatience as he looked at the satellite image.
Gu Pingyang leaned forward to look at the rapidly scrolling bullet comments: "It seems everyone is quite curious. I've watched the previous matches, and Zhu Jing Fu appears quite good at attacking, but defending is different from attacking."
"Zhu Jing Fu has plenty of tricks," Jian Run traced their route with his finger, glancing at Gu Pingyang. Seeing the calculation and assessment in the old fox's eyes, he felt somewhat annoyed.
During this competition venue selection, the Gu family had intentionally inserted several irrelevant venues. It was Zhao Loulan who overruled the majority to put resource-rich emerging venues into the options. Jian Run wasn't quite clear on Gu Pingyang's purpose for coming here, but it didn't prevent him from knowing it definitely wasn't anything good.
The other man didn't seem to notice Jian Run's reluctance to talk and looked naturally toward He Lanrui: "What does Master Yi think of Zhu Jing Fu's analyst's performance? I heard she's a strong attack analyst trained by Master Song. The sharpness about her is indeed very similar to an old friend."
Jian Run couldn't help but clench his hand.
Old friend?
In his younger days, Gu Pingyang was indeed in the same class as Vina and Song Baining. It's just not clear which one he was referring to.
He Lanrui didn't think too deeply about the probing meaning in his words and politely answered: "Chen Sui's perception is becoming more mature. Although Master Song's training is high-intensity, her progress is indeed significant."
Gu Pingyang looked at Zhu Jing Fu's advancing direction, then scanned the other academies: "It seems Na Luo River is leading the way. Zhu Jing Fu's chances of arriving early are probably slim."
Jian Run let out a light snort.
He could see that Zhu Jing Fu had no intention of ending quickly. What were they planning?
Could they be planning to wear down with rotating battles? But fighting like this, it's not certain whether the four schools or Zhu Jing Fu would be worn down more.
However, at present, Zhu Jing Fu, under the control room's attention, remained quite leisurely.
After leaving the Mechanical Tower city, they faced the rugged road to the mining area.
From some cold oil mines, several black oil-stained energy bodies popped up, bringing a burning sensation. From the moment Zhu Jing Fu stepped onto the surrounding rocks, flames flickered on the black oil pond. After the energy bodies appeared, the flames immediately exploded.
"This thing is quite smoky," Zhou Chen covered his nose. The black oil mine emitted a particularly unpleasant smell, like flames passing through the nostrils, making the entire respiratory tract smoke. "Cough, cough, are there a lot of dust particles?"
Chen Sui looked at the black oil mine pit ahead. "Pinewood lacquer ink, fuel for old-style warships."
This material, after the old-style warships were phased out, became the engine liquid material for various combat robots.
Zhou Chen spoke with a heavy nasal tone: "No wonder combat robots aren't widespread anymore. It smells pretty bad."
"Don't complain about the smell. At the end of the pinewood lacquer ink oil mine, there might be lacquer stone, a high-grade mecha material."
Zhou Chen's eyes lit up, and he immediately lowered his hand covering his nose: "Damn, I'm going for it!"
Chen Sui expected his enthusiasm, but as soon as he finished speaking, he rushed out.
"Be careful, don't strike lightning, or it might splash out and easily explode."
Chen Sui watched as Zhou Chen drew his Four-sided Mace, about to unleash lightning. Her voice came from behind, and his gathered energy paused. The beast-like energy body emerging from the black oil mine directly spewed a flame at him.
"Damn, isn't it black? Why is it so similar to a magma beast?"
Zhou Chen's Four-sided Mace left his hand, directly thrown into the air as he actively dodged downward. The flame brushed past his mecha.
Chen Sui, seeing this, pushed forward, leaping up to catch the Four-sided Mace.
"Bang!"
Zhou Chen crashed to the ground, rolling outward. When he nimbly got up, he looked up to see her with a long spear in one hand and the Four-sided Mace in the other, swinging at the black oil monster's body.
"Little Sui!"
Zhou Chen protested: "You saved the Four-sided Mace but not me?"