The First Analyst of the Interstellar Era

Chapter 150 : Mechanical Tower

"Judging by the routes, when each academy passes through tower cities, they get anchored by the energy storms inside, with the energy morphing to match the form of the anchored mecha."

Zhang Yingjie's glasses reflected the blue light from the screen, his black short hair falling across his forehead without obscuring his clear, sharp gaze.

The Ink Hills Commander rationally overlaid the route map with the appearance locations of the giant mecha energy bodies, concluding, "This means if these energy bodies' target is the main base station, what we'll be facing are many enlarged versions of our mechas."

Military school mechas' configurations are much stronger in all aspects compared to other structures, and with attack and defense configurations, when enlarged and covered with energy, confronting them would definitely not be as easy as other SSS-level energy bodies.

Even one giant Zhu Jing Fu mecha required so many people's help, and that was with Chen Sui's advantage of understanding Zhu Jing Fu mechas.

Wait...

Zhang Yingjie's gaze paused, slowly turning toward Zhu Jing Fu's position.

After hearing his words, Xie You added from the side: "The giant energy bodies also have bizarre forms. During our battles, they can anchor our mechas and directly generate mecha forms."

Bizarre forms referred to locations not passed by mechas, where they couldn't successfully anchor any military school mechas, forming huge metal chunks roughly integrated together from the city ruins.

"This is thorny. We can't contact the Competition Committee now—are we just going to hide in the base station?"

Lu Hang Jiu found the very thought frustrating; any energy field appearing in his field of vision was a challenge to him.

"That's not necessarily the way to think about it," He Lanqi suddenly spoke, her expression quite strange: "There's a possibility that the main base station won't withstand such energy impacts either?"

"What?"

He Lanqi focused her dispersed gaze, enlarging the energy spectrum that had been monitoring fluctuations: "Energy fluctuations are still surging. The main base station's isolation device threshold is the SSS-level standard threshold, but at this rate, the main base station barrier is very likely to be shattered under the energy storm and energy body attacks."

"If the main base station is shattered, energy field collapse won't be far behind."

Song Yuan clenched her fist, her expression severe.

Beside her, Noya opened his lips, wanting to tell her that the current situation was already enough to indicate the energy field was in collapse.

But the main base station stored large amounts of energy field information and various devices maintaining the energy field's normal state. Once breached by the energy storm, the restraints on the energy field would be broken, allowing the energy field to cross boundaries and contaminate surrounding areas. Without restrictions, it could potentially contaminate an entire planet.

"With the absorption instrument, we should be able to hold on for a while. The Competition Committee will find a way to come in despite the signal disconnect, but the premise is that when these guys arrive, we need to eliminate them to prevent them from triggering more intense storm attacks on the base station."

Noya's finger passed through the light screen, pointing at screenshots of a group of giant mechas.

Zhang Yingjie looked at Chen Sui, waiting for everyone's thoughts to flow through before slowly expressing his own idea: "If we could understand other mecha structures, could Chen Sui speed up the resolution of giant mecha energy bodies?"

Since they were giant mecha energy bodies, if all their structures could be analyzed clearly and their weaknesses known, wouldn't they be much easier to deal with?

And choosing Chen Sui—who was already a repair technician, analyst, and constantly on the front lines battling energy bodies—couldn't be more appropriate.

Hearing this, Chen Sui understood his meaning. Her gaze slowly swept over those around her: "I have no problem with that, except—"

"In that case, your mechas will be completely transparent to me. Once you've decided, just give me your rings and sequences."

She was certainly confident she could understand the structure of each academy's mechas in a short time, but this meant that afterward, she would know what any movement of the mecha intended to do—not a good thing for others.

"It makes no difference whether you look or not. You're saying as if you couldn't predict if you didn't see the mechas," someone in the crowd who had been pinned to the ground and beaten by Chen Sui said.

Lu Hang Jiu's mouth twitched: "That makes sense."

As he spoke, he pulled off the mecha necklace from his neck and handed it to Chen Sui: "Here, Little Sister Sui, I entrust my Lucius to you. By the way, could you fix it for me? My mecha was quite damaged by your beating."

Lu Hang Jiu's eyes brightened. Lucius was his mecha's name. During his battle with Chen Sui, it had been probed and jabbed by her spear in various ways, and its damage level wasn't low.

As he said this, Lu Hang Jiu instinctively marveled that it was fortunate Chen Sui hadn't brought strong attack cannons. Otherwise, the damage to his mecha wouldn't have been so simple, and even... Lu Hang Jiu thought, the monitoring base station might not have remained intact.

"Sure," Chen Sui nodded while receiving mecha rings passed from other directions.

"Then I'll go to the repair room first."

After determining the response plan, the Commanders looked at the main control room light screen with grave expressions. Analysts prepared to go to the monitoring base station and defense base station, while strong attackers, according to arrangements, began entering and exiting the base station through temporary passages, starting to establish defensive lines against energy bodies.

Chen Sui separated from the crowd, counted the number of mechas, and spoke to the Commander.

Xie Chunshi's brows were tightly knitted, seemingly somewhat disapproving: "Go to the medical room to treat your wound first."

He persuaded gently.

Chen Sui's bandage still had bloodstains, and he remembered that wound.

"Ah, actually—"

The reason Chen Sui hadn't immediately gone to the medical room was that she hadn't had time to spare mental energy to think about it earlier. Now that the competition issue was resolved, she scanned herself with her mental power and was surprised to find that her wounds showed signs of healing.

Her wound had gradually stopped bleeding. Initially, blood had seeped out before healing, concealing the unusual phenomenon, but if one were to unwrap the bandage on her arm now, they would see that the palm-sized wound, which had been deep enough to nearly expose bone, now only remained as a shallow scar.

Chen Sui instinctively wanted to decline, but meeting Xie Chunshi's gaze, she seemed to understand something. She nodded, her figure about to leave appearing quite obedient in the light: "Okay, I'll go to the medical room first then."

Chen Sui didn't really need the medical pod's treatment. Whether influenced by the surrounding surging energy concentration or because her connection with the Wood-Born Flower had become closer again, she had indeed noticed that her body was showing signs of regeneration, albeit extremely slow.

Inside the energy field, military school students began to act. Outside, the Competition Committee was applying to Zone Eleven for in-competition rescue.

With signals cut off inside the base station, the Competition Committee knew earlier than the military school students in the energy field.

The Border Army dispatched to enter the energy field and bring out the starship received an abnormal surge of energy as they emerged through the flight passage.

Among the Border Army executing the mission, some had participated in the God-Abandoned Domain riot before and responded rapidly to this abnormal fluctuation emergency. Thus, before the energy riot destroyed the flight passage, the aircraft directly passed through, though at the cost of crashing, falling outside the energy field, but still safely escaping.

But after they escaped the energy field and prepared to rejoin their unit, they discovered that the entire Tata Mine Star's energy level began to skyrocket, with sharp alarms sounding from monitoring instruments in all major cities.

When the signal connecting the Competition Committee to Zone Eleven came through, everyone was shocked to realize that it wasn't just Tata Mine Star—

The entire Star Alliance domain had begun experiencing energy concentration surges. The energy level in the air had already exceeded normal concentration, even allowing spirit bodies to be summoned directly without activating simulated energy fields.

And this was just the beginning.

The Competition Committee had noticed the energy field anomaly since the Border Army's escape and was preparing to remind military school students through broadcasts when they discovered the disruption in the live broadcast signal. All broadcast screens had turned into a white flurry.

All communications were cut off. The Competition Committee could only see the damage status of various academies through emergency rescue.

When the Zhu Jing Fu analyst's damage level protection was activated, Song Xingzhang, observing in the main control room, suddenly changed expression.

"But our students are still inside!"

In the main control room, the review panel appealed to the Border Army for assistance.

In the image, Zhao Loulan looked exhausted. Even though her hair was meticulously covered by a hat, the weariness between her brows couldn't be smoothed away.

"I understand," Zhao Loulan's voice remained calm, "The Border Army is on its way to rescue, but please understand that with Star Alliance energy fields jointly rioting, the range is enormous. It's impossible to guarantee large military forces to rescue military school students. I must be responsible for the life safety of Star Alliance citizens."

"They are also Star Alliance citizens," Song Xingzhang stood up from his chair. Rationally, he knew he shouldn't direct his emotions at Zhao Loulan, but emotionally, from the moment he saw Chen Sui's damage maxing out, Song Xingzhang felt his thoughts plunging into a bottomless abyss, "So, what's Zone Eleven's rescue plan?"

"Absolutely cannot open the energy field lockdown and forcibly enter," Zhao Loulan's expression was cold and severe. Once the energy field lockdown was opened, the Mechanical Tower's energy would spread to the surroundings. The mining areas and citizens of Tata Mine Star hadn't been fully evacuated yet, and such an action would inevitably cause massive casualties.

The Border Army director looked at those present, leveling her voice, "As long as the passage inside the energy field opens, the Border Army can enter and launch rescue operations."

"But Director Zhao," Mo Qiu'an could understand Zhao Loulan's difficult position.

After all, those inside the energy field were not only Star Alliance's most promising next generation but also included heirs from various major families on the Main Star. Yet precisely because of this, the current rescue operation was constrained by various parties, as not all competition participants included members from all major families.

"The energy fluctuations inside the Mechanical Tower energy field are abnormal. Under the influence of the anomalous energy storm, the passage has completely lost control."

The Mechanical Tower is one of the few metal-attribute energy fields, possessing very powerful anchoring and assimilation effects. The material for establishing passages is irreplaceable, incorporating some metal. Although energy isolation devices were used for concealment, under the powerful energy storm, this isolation layer was erased, exposing metal affected by energy, making the entire passage extremely unstable.

Unless the energy field's level returns to normal and the metal-attribute energy significantly decreases.

Otherwise, the passage cannot be used normally.

And moreover—

Mo Qiu'an expressed her concern: "In this situation, even the base station might collapse, and then all students would be directly exposed to high-concentration energy storms."

"What is the source of the riot!"

Someone shouted angrily.

Zhao Loulan rubbed her brow, saying softly: "The energy comes from the Ten Major Energy Fields."

"All Ten Major Energy Fields are rioting simultaneously, establishing 'passages' between them and other energy fields. The fracture's energy is directly injected into the energy fields through these 'passages,' causing energy field collapse, which then drives changes in normal energy concentration in the air..."

In other words, many energy fields had already rioted before the normal areas of Star Alliance experienced energy fluctuation changes.

"If they rioted in advance, then why—"

Mo Qiu'an knew she would hear such questioning. Even during the council session, more than one person had questioned her. Before Zhao Loulan could answer, the head of the Energy Management Department, standing at the front of the main control room, turned around decisively, staring at the Gu-surnamed person who had questioned her, coldly saying: "Because these energy bodies are unified, rioting simultaneously."

"At the first moment of the riot, I sent reports to Zone Eleven and the council, but at that time, you were all discussing whether to enter the Mechanical Tower, weren't you?"

The Gu-surnamed person's face immediately darkened, because the proposer of this council session was the Gu family's chairman. If truly held accountable, it was uncertain who would bear the responsibility.

Zhao Loulan was weary of dealing with such arguments. After explaining Zone Eleven's handling, she switched to communications from other star rings.

At this moment, Zone Eleven was much more chaotic than anyone imagined. All active Border Army members had been dispatched to various star rings, a batch of personnel had entered the Ten Major Energy Fields to maintain base stations, frantic recruitment notices from various associations were being sent, and medical wards were overcrowded.

The spreading energy fluctuations, centered on the Ten Major Energy Fields, were expanding toward surrounding star regions, quickly turning normal areas into quasi-energy field domains with extremely high energy concentration.

Rising energy concentration not only meant awakened individuals could freely summon spirit bodies but also that energy bodies could leave energy fields and appear in normal areas.

This was precisely what worried the council and Zone Eleven most.

At this moment, external information was isolated by layers of energy barriers outside the energy field.

Inside the energy field, Chen Sui had already arrived at the repair room. After repairing wounds that hadn't yet healed in the medical room, she hurried to the repair room without delay.

While observing other academies' mechas, Chen Sui was also scanning Forest Envelopment's condition.

A large hole had been blasted in the back of the mecha, but fortunately, the special elements made from red rust connecting the various components made repairs not too difficult.

Even so, compared to other mechas, Forest Envelopment's condition was still somewhat serious. Chen Sui had to consider what items could substitute for the scrapped element positions.

At the same time, the mecha's cannons also needed modification, as she hadn't anticipated energy field accidents when entering the energy field.

Time had become an extremely precious commodity here.

Chen Sui wished she could split herself in two, and all military school students in the energy field were on the same frequency as her.

Military school students who had rushed in from the periphery dotted with energy traps had a nutrient solution in one hand and spirit body feed in the other, downing them simultaneously with their spirit bodies behind them, while their feet continued to move rapidly outward.

No one dared to stop. This defense involved not only the safety of all military school students but also the lives of all citizens in the safe zone around the Mechanical Tower. Once the base station fell, energy bodies forcibly put to sleep by the base station's signal would awaken, and this half-dormant SSS-level energy field would reveal its most cruel aspect.

In the main control room, Commanders with bloodshot eyes still stared at the screen, analyzing the massive information flow in their minds.

When a certain string of data flashed by, someone finally let out a long breath, seeing the problem within the base station's information report.

"Found it," Zhang Yingjie captured and extracted the abnormal data flow, displaying the diagnostic report on the light screen. The surrounding people looked up.

As they read the text above line by line, the Commanders' brows gradually furrowed.

"How is this possible to achieve!"

Noya's clenched fist fell uncontrollably, hitting his other palm. The soft-haired golden shota's hair bobbed up and down, clearly in a state of extreme anger.

"What's wrong with this energy field!"

Xie Chunshi looked at the report above, his gaze somewhat deep: "If it's a passage problem, then as long as we can open the passage, external rescue can come in?"

"If we can find the cause, the Competition Committee should know earlier, which means rescue should be just outside the energy field."

"But how can we completely eliminate the influence when the passage is affected by the energy inside the energy field!"

Everyone present fell silent for a few seconds, seemingly thinking of something, their gazes slowly converging toward Xie Chunshi's position.

Song Yuan reacted, immediately shaking her head: "Impossible. The situation in the Mechanical Tower is different from Red Moon Snow Plain. Not to mention that the energy concentration has skyrocketed dozens of times, in Red Moon Snow Plain at that time, the transition state was changing, and the lightning attribute itself was decreasing. The two are completely different!"

"With such energy, even if awakened individuals with devouring attributes simultaneously devour, it would be difficult to make an impact. Instead, awakened individuals would cause mental domain collapse due to excessive energy."

Noya looked at Xie Chunshi, asking: "How's the absorption instrument?"

"The instrument is made by the Research Institute, targeting the standard form of SSS-level. Under this multiplying influence, it's difficult to control the energy to the concentration required for opening the passage." Xie Chunshi shook his head.

All attribute energies inside the Mechanical Tower were skyrocketing. The absorption instrument could originally quell the abnormal energy in the energy field, but in the current situation, it would be a blessing if the instrument didn't break down.

"So, there's only one path?" Xie You glanced at those around him. He leisurely pulled out a pair of black fingerless gloves, continuing as he put them on: "Kill all the energy bodies in the energy field, and the energy concentration should decrease, right?"

The surrounding Commanders looked at him, and the analysts on the other side also glanced at the Na Luo River Commander.

Xitisi analyst He Chigui said softly: "But there are so many energy bodies in the entire energy field."

How could they possibly handle them all?

"Lower your voice," Jiang Zhongyu tossed his braid behind him, his valiant brows and eyes looking over, though his voice wasn't low at all, "You're interrupting Commander Xie's show-off."

He Lanqi laughed outright, not concealing it at all.

Xie You's face immediately darkened, his eyes sweeping over to Xie Chunshi.

Discovering his elder brother looking over with surprise, the tips of his ears immediately turned red, spreading to his neck.

What did Xie Chunshi mean—did he think he was childish?

"Childish," Noya uttered these two words at him, "This set of talking big while maintaining a poker face to show off—I only played that as a child in make-believe games."

"Commander Xie, don't make such grand promises, it's a bit hard to swallow," Zhang Yingjie stood up, patting Xie You's shoulder.

Although the Commanders were joking, they all knew that Xie You's method might be the only way.

Only by controlling the energy could they open the passage.

"Alert! Alert!"

Just as they were about to determine tactics against the energy bodies, throughout the base station, an extremely sharp alarm suddenly sounded.

"Energy source approaching!! Warning!!"