novelraw Chapter 140 : Mechanical Tower
Chapter 140 : Mechanical Tower
"Should we go check it out?"
Puluo belatedly reacted.
Chen Sui's perception circled around the point of energy anomaly, her gaze glancing toward Xie Chunshi: "The energy fluctuation is too low. Either there's spatial attribute energy interference, or special materials attracting energy erosion consumption, or there are special attribute energy bodies interfering with energy fluctuations."
Regardless of the possibility, it seemed to align well with Zhu Jing Fu's purpose.
Xie Chunshi nodded: "Let's go."
With the Commander's order, the Zhu Jing Fu team immediately changed direction. Not rushing toward the main base station, they quickly advanced toward the anomalous location.
The audience now completely understood that Zhu Jing Fu had no intention of racing against time to complete device placement.
But thinking carefully, the difficulty of catching a timing advantage was immense. The other academies knew Zhu Jing Fu wanted to race against time and would surely go to the main base station early to intercept them. This timing advantage might not be caught, and they would accumulate insufficient points, making it counterproductive.
It was better to continue their previous approach: accumulate enough points, then obtain the multiplier.
If Zhu Jing Fu raced against time, their energy points in the third match would be low. Although the other school teams would also be low, if there were higher cumulative point scores in the next two matches, there might still be a chance to overturn the result after multiplying. But if all three matches had high cumulative points plus the multiplier, even mistakes in the next two matches wouldn't matter.
In essence, it was a high-stakes gamble. Zhu Jing Fu was betting on high points rather than early device placement.
The audience, with their god-like perspective, roughly understood Zhu Jing Fu's plan, but the other academies still didn't understand.
From the perspective of the attacking academies, Zhu Jing Fu was always full of tricks. Even if they understood that Zhu Jing Fu might not race against time, to be safe, they would still guard early outside the main base station.
After all, Zhu Jing Fu was the type that would seize even the slightest opportunity to crush their opponents.
And now, the black-gold mecha team, hotly discussed in bullet comments and forums, was already approaching the site.
The Mechanical Tower's metal ground extended far. Beyond the tower cities, a layer of silver metal covered the ground, but as it extended to the barren mines, traces of metal gradually disappeared.
Some mining areas on Tata Mine Star had rich energy content, not easily eroded, and the terrain still maintained its original form. Looking out, it appeared somewhat gray and desolate—mine mountains with large holes dug out, mining pits built with metal walls in circles, extremely tall arm-lifting machines, and mining bases constructed in the mining area that had partially collapsed but still retained their general form.
Zhu Jing Fu passed through a layer of Star Alliance special metal walls. The special markings left by the Star Alliance had been blurred by energy, making the year unreadable for now. But Chen Sui looked at the remaining work site ahead and some robot parts scattered on the ground, identifying the approximate manufacturing time from the model: "It's the thirty-seventh generation industrial robot, serial number kb-37-452579."
This type of robot was generally used in energy extraction operations in large mining areas, assisting micro-robots in establishing material processing assembly lines.
"The conveyor belt isn't completely damaged," Xie Chunshi found the main switch position of the mining area and checked the circuit. Such fragile devices certainly couldn't survive in energy storms, but based on the main switch distribution, he could roughly understand the conditions of various parts of the mining area. The Commander walked to the giant conveyor device in front, replaced the energy pipe, and after new energy was delivered, the conveyor belt started running at an extremely slow speed with several crackling sounds.
The mining base's layout extended underground, with only sparse few layers on the surface. Each layer had specialized conveyor belts, along which transport devices connected to various subdivided layers.
"According to the general mining area layout, there should be transport devices to the underground operation area in the center."
Xie Chunshi explained.
As several mechas entered the mining base, their vision roamed around, with the Commander's brow never relaxing for a moment: "By logic, it shouldn't be this way. Although the Mechanical Tower's descent time hasn't been long, the base stations are well-established. These usable resources wouldn't be set aside. This mining area hasn't been protected, seemingly just a part routinely cleared by the Border Army."
Generally, small mineral veins don't need base stations for protection, but the current mining area's scale was not small, and the erosion degree wasn't severe. The Star Alliance would protect it regardless.
In the control room watching Zhu Jing Fu's live broadcast, seeing this scene, Jian Run provided an answer: "Oh, if I'm not mistaken, it should be this place."
Jian Run circled a spot on the map.
The outer map was all drawn from Border Army records after clearing and real-time signals from base stations, but the terrain within the energy field was variable and not completely consistent, allowing only rough estimation.
"This used to be the Star Alliance's white phosphorus mining area. I remember after the energy field's descent, the mining area was triggered by energy, resulting in ground explosive movement. The bottom was occupied by a high-level energy body. Because a high-level energy body exists at the bottom, the Border Army didn't convert it into a protected area."
With Jian Run's words, viewers who had followed the Mechanical Tower's descent immediately recalled the situation at that time.
The white phosphorus mine site on Tata Mine Star contained extremely rich mineral resources on the ground, used from the early days of the Star Alliance until now. It even preserved the collection base established under Master Jin's guidance when the Star Alliance was initially formed. But subsequent explosions occurred, and many underground structures collapsed, including collection operation devices.
Hearing this, Gu Pingyang's eyes flickered for a moment: "So that's how it is. I heard Zhu Jing Fu is accustomed to returning fully loaded from energy fields. I wonder if they can find residual ore in the mining area."
"Hehe, they probably can," Jian Run made an exasperated expression away from the camera.
Don't think he didn't know—previously, Zhu Jing Fu had extracted quite a few rare resources from energy fields, and the Gu family had repeatedly proposed to the council, demanding Zhu Jing Fu hand over the rare resources to the Star Alliance.
Coveting even what children found—their greed was too obvious.
Gu Pingyang didn't care about the mockery and contempt in his words. His eyes couldn't leave the Zhu Jing Fu perspective for a moment. Initially focusing only on examining Xie Chunshi, the Zhu Jing Fu analyst's performance in the Mechanical Tower hadn't been prominent. Gu Pingyang leaned back against the chair, behind his gentle eyes carrying cold contemplation.
It was somewhat different from what the family head had said—currently, there was nothing abnormal about this analyst.
But with little time left before Xie Liuyun left the Prison Tower, the Gu family had to act in advance.
In the energy field, watching the conveyor belt move slowly, several mechas looked at each other. Chen Sui tentatively stood on the transport belt. Initially, there was some stuttering, but as energy was input, the transport belt's speed gradually recovered.
Behind her, her teammates followed suit, already standing on the transport belt.
Following it into the base's interior, past various assembly line-like material processing workshops, the black-gold mecha dodged among collapsed machines, moving along the transport belt toward the underground section.
"The vibration of the equipment inside the base doesn't seem like it was caused by energy storm impact, possibly by collision."
Chen Sui explained on the team channel: "If there are still mineral veins underground, triggered by energy storms, energy collisions might occur."
As for the result of energy collisions, it would of course be explosions.
"After the explosion, are there still mineral veins?" Zhou Chen didn't care about explosions. After learning there were mineral veins below, he had only one thought—this wool must be sheared.
Chen Sui immediately understood his meaning: "If it could explode, there should be some remnants."
The energy from concentrated mineral veins colliding with energy storms would trigger explosions, and some mineral veins should remain. Seeing that the base's upper part hadn't been excessively destroyed by energy erosion, it was possible that the mineral veins below were preserved.
Just not sure what type of minerals they would be, Chen Sui thought.
The transport device gradually carried Zhu Jing Fu down. Entering underground, Chen Sui finally sensed the floating energy fluctuations around: "The energy level is changing."
She sensed the energy concentration, noticing that most of the Mechanical Tower contained metal attribute energy. This one-sided suppression made the survival space for other attribute energies extremely difficult. But unexpectedly, Chen Sui not only sensed fire attribute energy appearing in coordination with metal attributes but also some water and wood attributes that should theoretically be extremely thin.
Her brow furrowed, the sense of anomaly growing stronger, feeling that the energy attributes in the energy field were disordered to a certain degree.
This was too strange.
In Sand and Mirage, only the fire attribute change was intense. In the Mechanical Tower, other attributes had also begun to fluctuate, and the fluctuation frequency was far higher than fire attribute energy.
Chen Sui suppressed her inner concerns and continued sensing the surroundings.
"Thud!"
The transport device dropped with a thud, the container stopping on the lifting platform below. The mechas standing inside were shaken by this abrupt stop.
"Click."
The door in front opened, revealing the pitch-black mine cave below.
The black-gold mecha didn't hesitate, directly following the mine cave toward the deeper part.
"Be careful, there's energy fluctuation, with unstable levels. Initial judgment indicates there should be concealment attributes," Chen Sui said in a lowered voice.
Behind her, her teammates nodded, and energy micro-light emerged from the mechas.
"Can you sense any spatial attribute energy?" Xie Chunshi asked.
The analyst shook her head, and just as she was about to say something, a faint white light suddenly flickered on the rock wall, attracting her attention.
Chen Sui immediately moved closer, looking at the rock wall. The mecha's finger wiped the wall, seemingly picking up something that also emitted such light on the fingertip.
Traces of white phosphorus stone seemed to be triggered by their energy signals. Following the mecha's position, it spread forward all the way. Besides the powder traces wiped on the side rock walls, there was a very obvious dragging mark on the ground, with the blurred white light from friction brightening.
"It's white phosphorus ore."
Chen Sui turned to look at everyone.
White phosphorus ore, a special energy material.
Although this material wasn't related to mecha or weapon materials, as an energy reserve, it still occupied an extremely important position throughout the Star Alliance.
As soon as she finished speaking, Xie Chunshi immediately found relevant information in his mind.
"Tata Mine Star has a total of three large white phosphorus mines, one of which is right here. If not mistaken, we should be at this position in the energy field, less than five days' journey from the main base station, with many adjacent mining area resources nearby."
"This white phosphorus mining area on Tata Mine Star should be the cooperative relationship established with the White Day Group from Yuguang Star. After the energy field's descent several decades ago, this mining area was no longer used. At the initial descent, the white phosphorus mining area experienced an extremely high-intensity underground explosion, completely destroying the entire underground structure."
"This explosion created a perfect first opportunity for Border Army rescue."
With Xie Chunshi's reminder, the others suddenly remembered.
Even someone as slow as Zhou Chen remembered: "Oh, I recall, the Heaven-Chosen Mine Pit, is it here? Legend has it that the underground explosion killed a group of high-level energy bodies, creating an extremely intense energy wave, causing most energy bodies to converge toward this location, giving the Border Army rescue opportunities, creating a record for the lowest casualty rate in high-level energy fields."
Regarding the Mechanical Tower mining area explosion, Chen Sui remembered that some StarNet marketing accounts had specifically discussed this part, saying the underground explosion not only attracted many energy bodies but also completely trapped these energy bodies in the mine pit area.
But this theory wasn't verified as energy bodies built nests in the underground area.
"It seems the underground energy body group can be confirmed," she turned back, looking at her teammates, "Shall we dig?"
Zhou Chen immediately nodded: "Dig dig dig!"
How could they not dig? This was white phosphorus ore!
The Star Alliance already had limited white phosphorus ore. After the whole territory of Koris Mine Star fell, many energy mining products were updated and replaced. After Tata Mine Star and several white phosphorus mines were occupied by energy bodies, the Star Alliance began to improve its energy system again.
"Good," Chen Sui gave him a thumbs up, "Let's dig up the energy bodies too."
Save the trouble of finding them later and wasting time.
Zhou Chen was stunned for a moment, quietly asking: "Approximately how many energy bodies are down there?"
"Um, not many," Chen Sui blinked, saying without any guilt: "Just thirty to fifty or so."
Zhou Chen's voice suddenly became high-pitched: "Not many?"
Hearing so many energy bodies, his first reaction wasn't fear. Joke aside, he, Emperor Zhou, had never been stupid, dull, or cowardly.
He was mainly afraid that with so many energy bodies, it would be time for him to draw aggro again.
Thinking of this, Zhou Chen's legs felt weak.
"Don't worry, there are just a handful of SSS-level ones."
Chen Sui patted his shoulder, white phosphorus powder falling on his mecha, decorating the black-gold mecha with white starlight-like patterns: "For you, it's a piece of cake, easy-peasy."
Zhou Chen: "..."
His speechlessness was so obvious that even StarNet viewers could see it through the screen, filling the bullet comments with laughter.
Only the Zhu Jing Fu members still in the energy field became extremely vigilant after this conversation.
"Be careful of the underground situation," Xie Chunshi reminded. Chen Sui's energy vines emerged, binding all their mechas together. Puluo also extended his long staff, ready to open the umbrella at any moment.
With underground explosions, there might be gaps causing upper collapses.
Zhu Jing Fu was already very experienced in dealing with mine cave collapses.
With the team moving forward in high alertness, the mechas advanced.
The mine cave's internal downward structure was completely chaotic. The descent device was somewhat malfunctioning. Halfway down the descent path, it was blocked by collapsed giant rocks, unable to completely descend to the lifting platform.
"Let's just jump down," Chen Sui looked at the distance below. With the mecha's propulsion, they should be able to land stably.
When the door opened, the black-gold mecha immediately leaped down, landing in the uneven rocky mine cave below.
"Hiss, this collapsed from above, right?"
Zhou Chen looked up. The foundation part built on the upper layer had split open, and the upper mine cave layer had fallen, crashing everywhere. This layer didn't seem much more stable either. Chen Sui noticed there were obvious metal steel spikes formed by energy condensation among them.
"There's white phosphorus ore ahead," she looked into the mine cave's interior, immediately noticing a glimmer of white light appearing at the corner in the distance, and reminded them.
Zhou Chen didn't care which part had collapsed and which hadn't, his tone excited: "Let's go! Let's dig!"
He directly rushed toward the front. Chen Sui followed behind him, about to catch up, when she saw Zhou Chen's footsteps suddenly stop after turning the corner: "Holy crap!!"
"No, no, no, slow down!"
Zhou Chen turned back in terror, making a gesture for them to wait.
Chen Sui hadn't approached yet, but she heard the sound of the mecha's footsteps braking. At the same time, her ears twitched as sand and stones rolled down from above, carrying subtle wind sounds.
"What's going on," Puluo in the back looked forward. He also enjoyed the analyst's treatment, being surrounded in the center and protected by the output handlers.
Chen Sui reached out and pulled the vines. Zhou Chen felt the tug, immediately noticing the pull at his waist. The cold sweat induced by the suddenly disappearing path beneath his feet also somewhat dissipated.
"This part has collapsed too."
Zhou Chen moved to the side, letting his teammates see the full view ahead.
Except for several weight-bearing pillars built by the Star Alliance supporting the space in front, the mine cave ahead was cut off as if severed, directly falling below.
And below the spacious big hole ahead, a metal circular platform held collapsed giant rocks and fragments.
"We need to go down from here," Chen Sui looked. The light source was below, with the mineral vein from the circular platform's layer extending to the other side. Beneath the circular platform's ruins and in the underground mine cave, bright white light shone through: "The white phosphorus ore is below, and, the energy body's aura is very close."
Zhou Chen patted his chest, recovered and nodded: "Let's go down, jump down? It's not that high."
Compared to the height of the collapsed mine cave, this distance wasn't high. It's just that he was mentally unprepared, directly encountering a cliff, and hadn't recovered for a moment.
The Zhu Jing Fu members didn't hesitate. After confirming the fluctuations below and the analyst determining the energy body positions, they all propelled downward together.
The vines pulled everyone to land together.
Standing on the small mountain piled on the circular platform, Zhou Chen's figure stabilized, and he immediately looked at the soil mound below. It had loose and consolidated soil blocks, not particularly steep, and occasionally his foot would step into empty space.
Going down from the circular platform's soil mound, Zhou Chen looked in the direction of the light: "Why is the white phosphorus ore so far down? How do we dig it?"
Chen Sui looked. Simply and brutally, she said: "We'll just blow it up when we come out."
Zhou Chen was silent for a second, then turned to look at her: "That's just like you."
Chen Sui looked ahead: "There's more ahead."
The agile attacker didn't dwell on the white phosphorus ore here and led the way forward.
As the Zhu Jing Fu members turned, they didn't notice the soil mound behind them suddenly shake.
Chen Sui up front suddenly looked back, her movement instantly freezing, not moving a bit, like a wooden person.
Chen Sui was inwardly surprised for a second. As she turned her head, near the circular platform position, a thin golden spike pierced through but didn't break through the soil mound above, thus no one noticed.
The Zhu Jing Fu team walked into the mine cave interior. Below, many white phosphorus ores embedded in the walls were clearly visible.
Seeing Zhu Jing Fu's practiced mining techniques, several reviewers in the control room all showed some amusement.
Only Gu Pingyang's smile didn't reach his eyes.
White phosphorus ore was not only a precious energy material; it also had another use—it was one of the propulsion fuels for old-style mechas.
Compared to the current mecha fuel adapted for new mechas in the Star Alliance, the old-style fuel was obviously more compatible with old-style mechas.
Currently, the old-style mechas still participating in battle in the Star Alliance could be counted on one hand.
Among them, the most famous were only Ghost Knife and—Black Execution.
But Xie Chunshi hadn't actually considered these aspects. Black Execution's repair was currently a problem, so naturally he couldn't think of so much.
Chen Sui, however, was somewhat excited while collecting white phosphorus ore.
However, her perception wasn't wrong. Besides the white phosphorus ore aura, Chen Sui was prepared to encounter energy bodies. But unexpectedly, just as they descended to the next layer, a surge of energy storm abruptly appeared in the mine cave below.
A raging metal attribute energy fanned out from below, accompanied by an angry beast's roar.
"Roar!"
"Boom—"
A muffled explosion echoed in the mine cave.
Puluo was prepared. Almost the instant the energy appeared, his shield umbrella was completely open. The Zhu Jing Fu mechas skillfully retracted backward, all covered by the shield umbrella.
"Bang!"
The crackling impact sound hit the shield umbrella, and the metal attribute energy storm immediately transformed into blades, slicing past the shield umbrella's surface, blooming like flowers, rushing toward the surrounding rock walls.
After one strike, Puluo's shield umbrella closed. Chen Sui stepped forward.
With just this step, the underground energy body roared again. Puluo's shield umbrella, not yet fully retracted, directly opened forward.
"Bang!"
The powerful energy storm was like a giant iron fist, directly punching the energy shield's surface!
Xie Chunshi's eyes moved, seemingly seeing through the situation: "Something's not right. The energy body's intention seems to be preventing us from going down."
Chen Sui snorted with a laugh, her tone somewhat cold: "Just because it says no, we can't go?"
Zhou Chen saw her grip her long spear and immediately understood the analyst's mindset.
Good, you energy body dare challenge our analyst.
You're finished.
Zhou Chen drew his Four-sided Mace, lightning flashing from its surface.
Chen Sui glanced at him and Gu Qinxue: "White phosphorus ore will explode when encountering violent energy storms. Be careful."
Gu Qinxue raised an eyebrow and nodded.
Chen Sui certainly wasn't afraid of explosions; she mainly feared hitting her teammates.
She wasn't opposed to blowing up this mine pit.
"I'll lead the way," Xie Chunshi looked at the analyst. Ice attribute energy gathered in his palm, directly rushing out in front.
A water column from behind the shield umbrella circled around its edge, rushing forward to meet the iron fist head-on.
"Thud!"
The two fists collided, instantly exploding into a strong energy sweep. Fierce wind rushed back behind the shield umbrella, sweeping sand and stones to the rear.
"SSS-level energy fluctuation no less than 5, concealment 78, concealment direction is energy fluctuation concealment. Be careful of hidden attacks, watch out for surrounding fluctuations."
Chen Sui reminded.
"Crack—"
The water column condensed into a chunk of ice, thrusting an ice pillar from the ground, with ice spikes rushing toward the iron fist, directly piercing through the metal attribute energy, crashing all the way down.
A flowing ice path formed in mid-air, with blue light bursting on it, instantly illuminating below.
The Commander lightly dispersed the concentrated energy, looking at the analyst: "We can blow it up directly when we come out."
He, working with Zhou Chen, could blast this place apart.
Chen Sui looked at him with approving eyes: "Well done."
In high spirits, she called Xie Chunshi by his nickname: "As expected of you, Little Brother Chun."
Xie Chunshi's eyes moved, smiling faintly with some resignation at this form of address.
Gu Qinxue and Zhou Chen looked at each other. As the iron fist broke, they patted Xie Chunshi's shoulders, one on each side.
Zhou Chen: "Getting more and more on board, Little Brother Chun."
Gu Qinxue: "Mm, Little Brother Chun."