novelraw Chapter 139 : Mechanical Tower
Chapter 139 : Mechanical Tower
Hearing Zhou Chen, Chen Sui was momentarily stunned. She looked back at him, saw he had already gotten up, and immediately swung the Four-sided Mace back.
"You need the analyst to catch it for you?"
The Four-sided Mace was pulled out from the black oil monster's body and swept toward Zhou Chen. As Xie Chunshi flashed past his mecha, blue light scattered, freezing the splashing black tar.
"Hurry up."
Xie Chunshi reminded them before rushing into the huge black oil pits scattered throughout the massive mine pit.
The black oil monsters emerged from the black oil ponds, black pine oil gathering on their outer layer like shiny black raincoats with a glossy sheen.
Seeing his teammates had all rushed in, Zhou Chen didn't linger. His Four-sided Mace was swept with lightning, immediately evaporating the pine oil covering its surface, and his mecha charged forward.
Chen Sui's long spear pierced into the black oil monster's body. As it thrust toward the core crystal, it was blocked by an invisible force. A layer of red lines appeared on the black oil monster's dark surface. From these lines, fierce flames quickly ignited, a fire wave rushing toward the mecha's side. Simultaneously, the black oil monster's huge black palm opened, swinging down toward the mecha dancing in mid-air.
"Bang!"
The black oil monster's hand swung into the black oil pond, splashing pine oil and drawing a shadow of flames from the water's surface.
Chen Sui's mecha flashed to the side, pulling her long spear from the black oil monster's body: "Not many energy bodies around. After we finish them, we go underwater."
"Underwater?"
Zhou Chen asked in surprise: "Which water?"
Surely not the pitch-black oil pond in front of them.
Chen Sui was cautious of the fire attribute energy's triggering effect on the gun cannon. Her every move was extremely careful. The gun cannon wasn't charging, fearing the energy would trigger the surrounding pine oil to explode. Gu Qinxue and Zhou Chen were also very energy-conservative.
Zhou Chen watched the lightning strike the black oil monster, immediately dispersing the energy to prevent lightning from rushing down into the mineral veins below through the oil pond.
"If we had this kind of energy control in the White Sand Sea Domain, what chance would Noya have had to show off?" Zhou Chen said quite proudly.
Chen Sui smiled slightly, her long spear piercing the black oil monster's body again. Green light flickered from within the black oil monster. When she pulled it out again, Wood-Born Flower's vines directly dragged out a black water column.
"Roar—"
The beast-like top of the black oil monster split open into a large mouth. The mouth opened, seemingly letting out an angry roar, because immediately after, fierce fire blasted out from the mouth, like a walking flamethrower, moving everywhere with the beast's head.
Others of its kind caught this signal call, cracks immediately appearing as they spat fire balls in all directions.
"What is this? A spitting monster?"
Above their heads, fireballs like giant stones tumbled down from mid-air, carrying intense heat. As soon as they fell to the ground, they burned along the black sand and stone. Those falling on the black oil ponds directly ignited the pond surface.
The black oil monsters were already extremely large, standing up like giants. The ones rising from the several oil ponds in the mining area completely blocked the light in the central region. Now with fierce fire falling like meteors, while also having to carefully dodge the monsters' arms, the space suddenly became extremely cramped.
"This isn't working!"
Zhou Chen dispersed the fireball in front of him, nearly getting slapped by a black oil monster's hand from behind.
The black oil monsters were somewhat similar to magma beasts. Even if parts of their bodies were cut off by energy, they could quickly be replenished by the pine oil below. Only directly striking the energy body's core could completely eliminate them.
But the surrounding black oil monsters had many defensive measures. When Chen Sui's long spear pierced them, they could instantly build fire walls to block, and the immediately surging flames didn't give the analyst enough time to break through the fire wall.
With many flammable energy sources around, Zhu Jing Fu found it difficult to use gun cannons to create distance, making the situation quite thorny for a while.
"I'm fighting so hard—this mine pit better have something good underneath, or I'm going to curse."
Zhou Chen gritted his teeth, his Four-sided Mace blocking the huge palm of a black oil monster. Lightning exploded in his palm, traveling along the Four-sided Mace toward the monster's body.
The lightning attribute energy didn't explode upon contact with the enemy but was carefully controlled by Zhou Chen. Only after the lightning net had encircled the energy body did it suddenly explode around the black oil monster.
Chen Sui pulled her long spear out again, her mecha leaping upward. The surrounding energy bodies converged toward the center, as if planning to drive all the mechas there to finish them off together.
Chen Sui's eyes darkened, and she immediately warned: "Take them down one by one. Don't keep dragging on with them."
As long as the black oil ponds remained, the black oil monsters would never be defeated. Prying out their energy crystals one by one might be the only way to break the deadlock.
Lightning burst from Zhou Chen's hand, the Four-sided Mace turning in the black oil monster's palm, directly pulling out and delivering a vertical slash.
The energy storm pierced toward the black oil monster as Zhou Chen's mecha pushed upward, escaping the surrounding energy storm. He and Chen Sui, one on each side, charged out from the encirclement of black oil monsters.
Just as he reached the perimeter, Gu Qinxue and Xie Chunshi also broke free. Puluo was hauled out, with Chen Sui placing him to her side. Looking at the black oil pond below, she said somewhat troubledly: "If there's lacquer stone, we can't have explosive disturbances, or the impact might affect the energy distribution inside the lacquer stone, reducing its quality."
Zhou Chen wiped his Four-sided Mace. Chen Sui glanced at his weapon, and Zhou Chen instantly tensed up: "Little Sui, what are you looking at?"
"Ahem," Chen Sui coughed to cover, "Ah Xue and the Commander can control it?"
Gu Qinxue had the fierce fire cannon, which, turned to the control side in combination with Xie Chunshi's low temperature, could temporarily immobilize the black oil monsters.
Zhou Chen saw her quickly scanning around and immediately asked: "What should I do?"
Chen Sui swept her long spear through the air: "You go draw aggro."
Zhou Chen tilted his head at her, unable to believe his ears: "You want me to draw aggro?"
Why was it him drawing aggro again?
Zhou Chen looked at Puluo standing with the umbrella behind him, his eyes practically bulging: "What about Puluo?"
Xie Chunshi swung an ice crystal in his hand, laughing at the question: "Puluo has a different use."
Zhou Chen bit his teeth: "Ahhh, it's me drawing aggro again!"
Zhou Chen irritably shook his head, clutching his Four-sided Mace as he charged around. Xie Chunshi watched his figure and reminded Puluo: "Fire at Zhou Chen."
[Hahaha]
[Commander Xie, you stab him in the back too, too much]
[Fire at Zhou Chen hahaha]
[My Lucky King not only has to draw aggro but also tank cannon fire, too funny hahaha]
[Hahaha man, your words are all lies]
[Verbally complaining about drawing aggro, but your body is honest]
[Hahaha, Zhou Chen, drawing aggro is either done once or countless times. The more you draw aggro, the more experienced you become]
Zhou Chen never imagined he would accumulate so much practical experience in drawing aggro, but the black oil monsters were indeed much easier to attract than other monsters.
Puluo's energy cannon fired behind him. Although it didn't hit his mecha, the scent of fully loaded energy passing in front of the black oil monsters immediately attracted the energy bodies' attention. The surrounding black oil monsters unanimously raised their palms, swinging toward his position.
Perhaps he had truly gained experience from drawing aggro—Zhou Chen navigated through hands and fierce fires, his mecha getting singed by flames, palms brushing past his shoulders, yet never getting knocked down.
On the other side, Xie Chunshi's ice bead chain danced in his hand, Chen Sui's long spear swung, and after Gu Qinxue's gun cannon finished charging, Xie Chunshi's energy trajectory, Chen Sui's mecha, and the gun cannon's streamlined burst converged from three directions, rushing toward the last black oil monster.
"Bang—"
The control side of the fierce fire cannon carried special snow melting stone energy. Xie Chunshi's energy storm swung, bringing a frosty sea tide surging toward the black oil monster. The snow melting stone exploded, contacting the extremely low-temperature frost on the perimeter, instantly bursting into a layer of fierce fire. Outside the black oil monster's body, a fire shackle directly passed through the fierce fire, controlling the entire body of the black oil monster into a rigid posture.
Its swinging palm stopped in mid-air.
The black oil monster's palm swayed, struggling a few times, but the blue light around Xie Chunshi became increasingly apparent.
The sea sprite's figure emerged again from a blue water droplet, a cry from the deep sea resonating. Waves of sound scattered outward.
As the sea sprite's singing voice rose, the concentrated ice attribute energy ahead became increasingly dense. The temperature plummeted, and the black oil monster's flames in the traversing layer of frost energy alternately extinguished and died, like candle flames blown by the wind.
"Little Sui!"
Hearing Gu Qinxue's reminder, Chen Sui was already close to the black oil monster. Her long spear flashed silver, and with a twist of her wrist, she thrust it forward.
"Splish—"
The long spear penetrated the soggy head of the black oil monster. The black pine oil seemed to melt on her spear. The position locked by the fire shackle was already dissolving into the oil pond below, with part of the body completely locked in place by fire attribute energy.
"Little Flower."
Chen Sui called softly.
A green light scattered from her body, with Little Flower settling on her shoulder. Her humanized face looked seriously forward as a green light cluster traveled along the spear's trajectory into the black oil monster's body.
In Chen Sui's mind, her consciousness controlled the energy, achieving maximum synchronization with Wood-Born Flower.
Wood attribute energy continuously poured into Chen Sui's body under her will.
At the tip of the long spear, embedded wooden parts began to sprout buds.
In the blink of an eye, green sprouts directly emerged from the black oil monster's body, like the lingering glow of life blooming from black earth and ruins.
The black oil monster, already controlled, instantly froze in mid-air as the green sprouts penetrated through its body.
Surrounding ice attribute energy spread, completely extinguishing the flickering fire light. The black energy body's surface was frozen by frost.
"Retreat."
Chen Sui softly uttered one word.
Spider-web-like cracks began to appear on the frozen black crystal surface.
The new sprouts retracted from the outside of the black oil monster toward the inside.
"Crack."
The body frozen by Xie Chunshi's energy began to split open.
The new sprouts retracted all the way back to the long spear. Wood-Born Flower blinked, showing a somewhat tired expression.
The sea sprite emerged from the water light, originally approaching Chen Sui's shoulder to nuzzle the grass leaves on Wood-Born Flower's head, but was shyly avoided by Little Flower. The wooden stump blinked with tired eyes and whispered to Chen Sui: "Master, I'm going back..."
"Mm," Chen Sui's hand ruffled her grass leaves, while her other hand deftly pulled out the long spear, collecting the energy crystal brought out by the vines, then turned to signal her teammates: "Continue."
Gu Qinxue's long whip lashed out, bursting the black oil monster's body on the spot, with fragments crashing into the black oil pond.
On the other side, Zhou Chen watched their actions while moving the remaining energy to one side.
Taking them down one by one was much more efficient than being surrounded by black oil monsters in the center for a mass attack.
Although it took longer, the mecha damage and energy consumption were much less compared to the latter approach.
Time was precisely what Zhu Jing Fu had in abundance on this battlefield.
After simultaneously defeating the three black oil monsters surrounding Zhou Chen, several small explosion sounds rang out. A burst of golden light exploded around Puluo, with the silhouette of a metal mushroom bouncing and leaping, rushing back to the mental domain in front of him.
"So that's how Puluo is used."
Zhou Chen looked at the explosion area covered by metal attribute energy, with the low-charge gun cannon controlled within a range. When the fire exploded, it didn't even disturb the surface ripples.
"Not just that," Chen Sui said with a smile. She shook off the black pine oil from the surface of her long spear, wiping the silvery-white spear with energy light, then turned to Puluo: "Puluo, we're going underwater, give us a ball."
"Coming!"
Puluo responded loudly. As his voice fell, golden light spread around the black-gold mecha, completely enveloping the Zhu Jing Fu members within it.
The golden light converged into a sphere. Chen Sui stopped the mecha's propulsion, and the sphere crashed toward the water surface.
"Splash!"
Black waves several meters high splashed up from the water surface.
Xie Chunshi's hand urged the water flow beneath the black oil pond to surge, pushing the golden sphere downward.
"Is this ball a viewing version of the shield ball?"
Through the golden energy and surrounding faint light, Zhou Chen could see the excavated rock walls and mine tunnels beneath the oil pond. Compared to the shield ball where they could only stay inside without moving, this sphere gave the feeling of a sightseeing parade car.
Chen Sui paid attention to the surrounding fluctuations, signaling Puluo with her gaze, watching the soldier point out various directions.
Zhou Chen felt his Lucky King pathfinding status being challenged and asked in confusion: "Why aren't you asking me which way to go this time?"
There were many underwater forks in the road, why wasn't Chen Sui asking him this time?
Chen Sui replied somewhat exasperatedly: "Because Puluo can sense the concentration of metal attribute energy in the surroundings."
Within the Mechanical Tower energy field, metal attribute energy was concentrated. Some long-term mining areas had accumulated considerable metal attribute energy. As an analyst, Chen Sui's perception of such energy was not as sensitive as an energy body's, but as a same-attribute awakened one, Puluo was quite sensitive in this respect.
The golden sphere was maintained by his energy, which was also why Chen Sui hadn't let Puluo participate in the battle against the black oil monsters.
Maintaining the energy sphere and guiding the way was enough of a drain for Puluo.
The sphere rolled along the underwater mine tunnel, finally bursting out of the water area and crashing into a pitch-black underground mine cave.
The black pine oil reached the water level line in this tunnel. The mecha walked forward, with the water surface passing from knee level, gradually lowering to cover just the feet. Climbing up from the bottom of the mine cave and entering a mine tunnel with faint light, the black oil completely disappeared. The ground had only some damp moisture, along with moss and unidentified saprophytic organisms growing.
Zhou Chen sniffed the air in front: "There's still a very strange smell."
"That's good," Chen Sui's gaze looked into the dark cave ahead: "Let's see if there's lacquer stone at the end, and by the way—"
Chen Sui turned to Zhou Chen, extending her hand: "Four-sided Mace."
Zhou Chen immediately caught on, instantly hugging his weapon warily: "Wh-what for?"
He turned his eyeballs, using the mecha's searchlight to look around.
Ah, there were some inconspicuous black protrusions around the mine tunnel, probably regenerated ore after being cleared.
He could tell with his mecha's toe that Chen Sui definitely wanted to use his Four-sided Mace to mine!
"Dig a bit."
Chen Sui negotiated with him.
Zhou Chen shook his head rapidly: "No way! Absolutely! Not!"
His Four-sided Mace had just been repaired to pristine condition during the preparation period, extremely formidable. Using it to fight energy bodies was fine, but mining was absolutely unacceptable!
Chen Sui rubbed her brow: "Zhou Chen, let's broaden our perspective. What is mining for?"
[Here she comes here she comes]
[Good good good, Lucky King, your teammate is going to deceive you again]
Though Zhou Chen was somewhat slow, he was particularly alert at this moment. Hearing Chen Sui's question, he immediately answered: "Mining is for repairing mechas."
He was quite careful with his words under the StarNet camera, not specifically saying it was for repairing Xie Chunshi's mecha.
He only knew the Commander's mecha needed a material that had to be found in the mining star.
"No," Chen Sui seriously denied his answer, "it's to find better materials to improve your Four-sided Mace's strength. Haven't you noticed your Four-sided Mace has become much more flexible in opening and closing, and smoother in energy induction lately?"
Zhou Chen hesitantly nodded: "I have noticed."
That's why he treasured it even more.
"That's right," Chen Sui didn't even blink, while Xie Chunshi and Gu Qinxue looked around, actually both holding back laughter as they listened to the analyst make up reasons to deceive the agile attacker: "I've checked, and your Four-sided Mace can be improved a bit more. When the time comes, its insulation could withstand Chi Buyu's full power attack, but we still need to find defensive materials."
As she spoke, Chen Sui reached out to Zhou Chen: "Whether we can dig it out depends entirely on your Four-sided Mace."
Zhou Chen's brain was still trying to clarify the relationship between finding defensive materials and digging with his Four-sided Mace.
By the time he instinctively handed it over, he suddenly reacted: "Wait, this isn't defensive material!"
But Chen Sui had already snatched it when he extended his hand, and the Four-sided Mace smashed hard against the rock wall.
"Clack!"
The extremely loud impact and collision sound made Zhou Chen's heart quiver.
"Doesn't matter, it works the same."
Chen Sui applied force, directly smashing off the protruding black ore and pulling it out.
She looked at the base: "After a long time, pine lacquer ink forms crystals around it. These crystals look similar to lacquer stone, be careful to distinguish them."
The effect of lacquer stone was far better than crystal. Zhu Jing Fu didn't need to take crystals this time; this material would be covered by the shares from other academies.
Chen Sui's goal was to find materials that could substitute for White Satin Gold Gilt, as well as other rare high-grade materials.
"Fine, fine, I understand, just be a little gentler," Zhou Chen watchfully looked at her smashing the Four-sided Mace against the wall.
Zhu Jing Fu moved forward along the mine tunnel. Other academies occasionally checked the point rankings, and seeing Zhu Jing Fu's point growth rate had almost stopped, the Commanders all relaxed.
Seeing Zhu Jing Fu had no activity for a long time, Noya sighed in relief: "Goodness, did they really fall into a mine pit?"
He looked at the route—Saint Laurent was still one mechanical city away from the base station.
"Don't know where Zhu Jing Fu's position is, maybe we could meet them at the secondary base station."
Noya calculated in a low voice, but after calculating, he immediately hesitated: "These people, surely they don't plan to skip the secondary base station too?"
As curious as he was, Noya checked the point situation. Zhu Jing Fu had accumulated very impressive points when they first entered.
Hmm, they must have consumed a lot of energy.
Noya thought, even with the power of Gu Qinxue's thorny fire whip, dealing with so many energy bodies would require significant energy support.
And Zhu Jing Fu couldn't all be using thorny fire whips. Chen Sui's fierce fire cannon and quantum cannon were not small energy expenses.
Noya felt reassured, "Let's go to the secondary base station first."
Perhaps they would meet Zhu Jing Fu there.
The energy at the secondary base station was inexhaustible. Xie Chunshi looked at the direction of the mine tunnel, and as they were about to reach the end, he glanced back at the analyst still mining ore: "The nearest secondary base station is just ahead. We should be able to reach it before dark."
His mecha radar continued scanning, detecting around Base Station C: "The destination has three secondary base stations, distributed in the north, southwest, and east directions. There aren't many mining areas there, with mining areas concentrated in the central part."
If the Mechanical Tower were centered around Base Station C, then the outermost secondary base stations would be the most numerous, the central area would be dominated by mining areas, and the area closest to Base Station C would have the most mechanical towers.
Chen Sui nodded, digging out a palm-sized piece of lacquer stone from below: "The energy storms in the outer mining areas aren't strong, with low degrees of mining area mutation, and not much change in energy mine performance."
The mined ore still had basic functionality without special mutations.
Chen Sui had come specifically looking for mutated ore, as it would be difficult to use conventional materials to fill the place of White Satin Gold Gilt.
Hearing the regret in her tone, Xie Chunshi comforted: "Let's go a bit further."
The black-gold mecha returned to the surface from the remaining mining facility.
Puluo had just landed on the black soil, with collapsed mining machinery spanning behind him. Irregularly distributed mine pits spread across the ground. The protective base built on the outskirts had been upturned and destroyed by energy storms, with only the foundations of watchtowers and signal monitoring stations faintly discernible from the bases embedded in the ground.
Chen Sui looked at the remaining metal, struggling to identify the model from the remaining markings: "Hmm, this mining area has been around for quite some time."
It had existed for nearly a hundred years.
"I feel very strong metal attribute energy over there," Puluo raised his eyes from the ground and looked toward Chen Sui. The analyst's perception swept past: "Energy body concentration isn't strong."
After she finished speaking, her increasingly distant perception returned with information that made Chen Sui suddenly furrow her brow: "Hmm?"
"Something's not right."
Xie Chunshi looked over at her.
"Why is the energy fluctuation on this side so low?"
As an SSS-level energy field, the Mechanical Tower's surrounding energy fluctuations should far exceed SS-level. But the energy fluctuations returning from Puluo's direction, compared to the surroundings, revealed that at a certain point, it had reached an extremely low level.
Chen Sui's perception continued to roam around: "It's even floating. The energy body signal remains unchanged, but the energy level is changing."
With this analysis, the eyes of the Zhu Jing Fu members immediately changed.
The analyst, Commander, and strong attacker looked at each other.
"Space?"
The three said simultaneously.
Zhou Chen and Puluo had just finished listening to Chen Sui's words and hadn't yet reacted. Hearing this, they instinctively responded: "Huh?"