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Himeko's worries didn't reach Sora's ears.
He carefully analyzed the existence of the fragments of the Rift while holding the containment box, and then made an interesting guess to Black Tower: "My client may have paid me to deal with these things."
"Your system wants to destroy the star core?"
Heita raised an eyebrow.
"It's Party A, a cooperative system provided by this world. To say that it's eliminated is not accurate enough. Oftentimes, we can deal with the cancer in the world in many ways other than radical cure, such as introducing the laws of other worlds to fight poison with poison, or removing some cancers to slow down the release. The simplest way is of course to try to cultivate the cancer into harmless rules that can coexist—"
"…Why do I feel like you are using medical theories to explain something more complicated…"
"It's essentially the same thing, except the patients are bigger guys now."
Sora spread his hands and handed the box to Ester.
The rich young woman had been standing at the back for a long time waiting for a chance to show her abilities, but it was never her turn to shine, and in the end, the stationmaster was reduced to a laborer.
Should we say that Heita loves his daughter too much or that she is just too competitive for no reason?
"Heita, please inform us on the public channel before the next fight. We were almost trampled to death by the puppets just now." Finally, Kong tried to emphasize to Heita the importance of reporting the next action to teammates during a team battle.
"No, all the dolls are lightweight, and I've set up a function that automatically avoids green-labeled objects."
Heita put his hands on his waist and muttered: "But Dr. Kong actually chose to protect Walter first..."
"This is just a subconscious reaction. Walter would do the same."
"No, I will create a well of repulsion in front of us to push the puppets away... It seems that it has been a long time since you have to personally participate in the battle, Captain, before you can make such a conventional... reaction."
Walter sneaked back behind the two of them without knowing when.
"……yes."
Kong pursed his lips and looked at the cowering Paimon. They both saw the sadness in each other's eyes.
"I'm used to it."
"It's good to be more conventional - Jizi and I want to ask you a favor." He moved his cane aside, as if this was a small gesture to show his sincerity when asking for help.
"you say?"
"I'd like you to help train Xiao Sanyue and Danheng."
"No problem. Why are you taking it so seriously?"
Kong thought about it, then glanced sideways at Sanyue, who was still fiddling with the wall that had just been opened by the rift. Sanyue, with a curious look on her face, was trying to stop Danheng from continuing to pick at the wall like an old man.
"But you know how intense my training is, so don't beg for mercy on the kids when the time comes."
"It seems that you have been planning to train them since early on?"
Old Yang couldn't stop smiling.
He missed the relaxed feeling of being with old friends...the feeling of taking care of each other instead of just having to take care of others himself.
"Walter, if you don't have anything more important to do, please go away. I still have a topic to discuss with Dr. Kong."
But Heita was unhappy that Lao Yang was occupying the seat next to Kong, so he started to chase him away.
She was actually a little jealous of Lao Yang—yes, she was jealous of even men:
"No! We should continue to clear out the area further. Stop dawdling and grab your stuff and leave!"
Seeing Heita's look, Kong could only shrug at Lao Yang and say, "I'll write a training schedule for you to refer to when we get back."
……
After traveling to several places, the battles were too easy, which made Kong realize that without the erosion of the star core, the scale of the rift could not be increased. He was afraid that he could not intuitively feel whether its upper limit was as exaggerated as he thought.
He could only ask Ji Zi if there were any specific data charts to help analyze the impact of the exposed star core on the environment.
Kong thought that since Jizi often opened up new routes, she must have a more intuitive feeling about the damage caused by the star core and would have more complete information.
Even if Heita wanted to take away this "right to interpret", because Kong ran directly to ask Jizi for advice, she could only stare at his back with a slightly resentful look, slowing down with Esta who was half a step behind, to eavesdrop on their conversation.
The club's 83rd seat and the stationmaster had never been so "ignored" before, but they had no choice but to let Sora "jump left and right" - after all, Eula, who was on the reserve team at the time, didn't complain.
Although Ji Zi intentionally kept a certain social distance from Kong, after knowing Kong's concerns, she immediately showed him two curves through holographic projection on the drone box.
"The highest point of the rift erosion at the Black Tower Space Station is currently here."
She clicked the upper right corner of the screen again, and like a tall building rising from the ground, another curve appeared, more intuitively showing the impact of the star core on the proliferation of the rift.
"This is the growth curve of the Rift when the nuclear disaster on the Azure Star occurred less than an Amber Age ago. The peak is when the Black Tower sealed the star core. The Rift will continue to rise and fall after that. The impact is already there. As you said, it is difficult to cure it completely."
Kong's expression immediately became subtle.
…It turns out that Ji Zi heard my complaints about the Black Tower from such a long distance away.
It seems that everyone's attention is focused on me today...
Damn it, it must be the group of villains in the Black Tower who caused this! I just wanted to complete the daily tasks and take the girls out to relax!
While the Black Tower was venting its resentment towards Kong, Kong couldn't help but vent his resentment towards the Black Tower as well. It was quite a sight.
"Even if the rift realm is out of the radiation range of the star core, it will continue to multiply? If the star core is the main energy source and central control, then if the rift realm is separated from it, why can it exist for so long and occasionally grow larger?
"We don't have a particularly scientific explanation for this, Dr. Sora."
Finally finding a point of entry, Heita rudely interrupted the conversation between Jizi and Kong: "Many members of the Genius Club have also conducted special research, but the conclusion they reached is nothing more than that the dead around the Rift will nourish and strengthen them with their souls. In layman's terms, it will continuously absorb spiritual energy, both negative and positive."
"They eat all kinds of spiritual fragments and souls, regardless of whether they are in the positive or negative direction?"
But this thing doesn’t meet the definition of “Heaven” and “Nine Hells”, right?
Sora felt that he had to correct his stereotype of the Rift:
"The 'population' of creatures in the Rift expands as the Rift expands, but do other creatures within the Rift sometimes appear in places where they shouldn't be?"
“It happens.”
Ji Zi didn't care about Heita's disrespectful behavior. She had seen similar situations many times.
"For example, we have accidentally discovered that Rift Creatures circulate on nearby polluted planets, and even migrate across star regions. The more common view at present is that the Rift is conscious. It will learn and reproduce the form of Rift Creatures that can quickly cause disasters elsewhere. However, this situation is very rare-"
But just as Ji Zi finished saying this, a terrifying humanoid monster with a crystal body jumped out from the outline of the rift in the distance.
Its appearance was different from that of a virtual soldier, which immediately made Ji Zi freeze.
101. I thought I was just catching a petty thief, but I ended up poking fun at his lair.
The crystal clear ice reflected Ji Zi's slightly surprised face - the search distance of this thing was different from the previous minions. After staring at it for less than two seconds, Kong felt a chill on his back and a sharp pain in his head as if he had been electrocuted.
"Befa! Engage the enemy!"
Perhaps it was an instinctive judgment, or perhaps it was the plan that had been made long ago that produced an effect beyond reaction. The moment the giant made of ice crystals turned its head, Kong's reminder and artillery guidance were in place at the same time, not only arousing the vigilance of all teammates, but also Befa quickly dressed without hesitation. The miniature turret on the ship's suit fired a round of salvos at a position less than 60 centimeters above Kong and Jizi's scalp. The tracer of the high-explosive shells passed over their heads, causing Jizi to lower her body as Kong pulled her.
"boom!!"
A strong wind followed, and before the puppets in the black tower had time to form a formation, 12 flames exploded from the alloy walls of the containment chamber and the body of the "ice giant". The shock wave submerged the vegetation area used for gas exchange, and everything in sight was turned into a scorched earth.
“Ah, ah??”
The Black Tower's flagship puppet widened its eyes, and just as it was about to turn around and control the rest of its troops, a series of streaking fire covered the ice man in the smoke that had not yet dispersed.
"What's going on? Dr. Sora??"
"My instinct tells me that guy is dangerous! Suppress him with fire first--"
Sora took off the assault rifle attached to his back, and shouted to the black tower who didn't understand the situation in the hail of bullets: "Avoid the frontal fire and flank it from both sides! Quick, open your mind and let me in! Otherwise I can't use the psychic link to merge you into the command channel!"
"That's just extraterrestrial ice! It's not some high-end stuff!"
"No, there's something behind it!"
Sora continued to yell, trying to cover the roar of the Belfa's main gun with his own voice.
"Befa, release the smoke screen! Black Tower, adjust your formation, cover Ji Zi and keep your distance, and follow my command first!"
The ship girl was still like an empty arm for him to use at will. White smoke emerged in streams from the ship's smoke generator, but this time even the strong wind from the muzzle could not blow away the thick smoke, which blocked the Black Tower army and the train set.
“Okay, okay…!”
Heita obeyed Kong's request and tried to make contact with Kong's slightly sharp psychic energy.
Then she found that there were a lot of people in the frequency band that Kong had pulled her into, and Kong gave instructions to almost everyone:
"Old Yang, build two ejection repulsion wells on both sides of the passage, three meters apart, for acceleration! Follow the old specifications - Eula Befa Haiya Ester's fire suppression should not be interrupted, and they should be covered alternately. Ester, activate the 'Skyfire' and 'Starry Sky' systems! Black Tower, divert the puppets from both sides of the fire line and continue to push forward. I need your puppets to share the vision with me!"
"Share vision? All we need to do is walk out, right?" Black Tower was shocked by the overly detailed and even somewhat long-winded command, which was actually arranged by Sora in just a few milliseconds.
But she still carried out Sora's request.
"Yearing for the key to the secrets of the stars, grant your true blessings to the pioneers!"
As the black tower puppet emerged from the smoke screen, Estelle's cute and playful voice suddenly recited a long string of strange lines that seemed to only appear in magical girl animations -
"?" Eula, who was holding a gun next to her, tilted her head strangely towards her who was holding the "staff" high.
"?" Hol Haiya also appropriately expressed her doubts. She had seen many operators who liked to play awkward roles, but this was the first time she had heard such an awkward and long move name.
"Don't look at me like that. I get shy too. It's the system startup password! Is it wrong for me to make it longer for encryption?"
Even Esta, who had a thick skin, couldn't withstand the constant questioning and embarrassing voices in everyone's channel.
But as everyone's bodies became lighter, the starry sky system was activated normally, and the anti-gravity blessing successfully took effect on everyone, they finally withdrew their strange gazes.
"…Mitsuki gave the shield to the puppet that led the black tower."
Kong did not comment on Esta's miraculous activation code. After all, the most time-consuming and time-consuming task of seizing the opportunity to fight had already passed. He quickly transformed the battlefield and his tone of voice became steady without any unnecessary emotions.
The black tower doll that rushed out along the rightmost side of the road first felt lighter, and then crashed into the "ejection" repulsion well created by Lao Yang. She was pushed out violently, and at the same time, the surface of her body was quickly protected by the six-phase ice. In the process of almost flying towards the rift, she also brought back the vision of the front end of the rift.
The outer armor of the monster that the Black Tower called the Ice of Outer Universe had been melted a lot by the high-explosive bomb, but its main body structure was still intact and looked very resistant.
But the key is not the injured monster, but the group of monsters behind it.
Creatures from the Rift swarmed out, filling the entire gathering area with an overwhelming number that did not match the size of the Rift. Some small fish with low defenses - those small creatures whose bodies also showed wonderful attribute reactions - had been suppressed by the firepower and turned into fragments, forming a thick layer on the charred floor.
But while Befa and the others continued shooting, monsters continued to pour out, gradually occupying a large area and starting to merge in an arc from both sides, rushing towards the train.
It wasn't just the puppets that were accelerated and ejected by Lao Yang's repulsion well. There were also Befa's shells, as well as Eula and Haiya's particle beam shots. Just like an electromagnetic cannon, the rotating flying objects had the penetrating power to penetrate the alloy wall of the space station after being accelerated multiple times.
All three of them squinted one eye, but they did not rely on their own vision, but the vision shared by the black tower puppets. Every shooting correction depended on the leading puppet that kept flying over the group of monsters.
In the firelight, the puppet in the black tower gradually consumed the thrust of the catapult, twisted its waist horizontally in the air, and with an inhuman and counter-intuitive twisting movement that even Eula could not do, slid its body diagonally towards the pile of strange object storage boxes behind it, stepped on a storage box whose volume was almost as large as that of a shipping container, causing it to slightly concave and deform, and then swung the hammer at another "fire man" who had just emerged from the rift behind him.