Page 121
"Damn, this scene reminds me of Terra and Arachne. It's so obscene."
Sora, who hoped that the Gustav support he had requested would arrive immediately, or that he would curse in the depths of his consciousness with a chainsaw sword in his hand, but he remained calm and gave orders in the public channel:
"Eula, plan B, transfer the people away, rescue the goods if possible, and leave the ones that can't be taken care of where they are! I'm afraid we have to give up this passage temporarily - Xiluwa, follow Eula, I don't have enough team capacity to teleport you away!"
"Eh? Oh oh, but where should I go? Do I have to go to the lower area too??"
The blue hair ends of Shiluva, who no longer knew where to use her skills, had been illuminated red by the light from the densely packed mechanical compound eyes.
"I have many ways to find you, Sambo. Don't lose the terminal. You have to use that thing to locate it. Also, remember to find a way to block the way down!"
With one axe, Kong chopped off the spider mecha that was trying to climb up the wall. He then used the axe to whip the remains and swept them away, fearing that the core of the spider mecha would be unstable and collapse the load-bearing wall, burying everyone on it.
"Ah? This is the smuggling route closest to the city!"
When he heard that Kong wanted to "seal" this exit, Sangbo's listless eyes suddenly widened, and it seemed that he was awakened by the fright.
"I knew you had some secret routes somewhere else! Aren't you determined to escape? Now's your chance to shine! Go back underground quickly, I'll contact you again! The key is to save manpower - we can still gather more cargo!"
She unhappily scooped up the beetle in front of her and made way for the black tower that had landed. As the situation was tense, she slightly revealed a corner of her power through her intelligence, quickly condensed the monocarbon element, and with one hammer, she chiseled out a diamond with a diameter of more than three meters, which she dunked on the heads of the mechas.
The ability to create matter out of thin air made Sangbo's eyelids twitch - he didn't dare to continue questioning Kong's decision. Before Lao Xie tried to say something about never leaving him, he pulled him down the ladder.
"Did you hear me? Save as much as you can - Sangbo, don't f*cking hold me, I want to drag some ore away! This is all meat, all meat!"
Although he had realized that sticks and shovels alone were no match for the torrent of steel below, Lao Xie's voice remained the same.
"If you don't leave now you're going to be drowned by the mecha soldiers, daddy!!"
After seeing the students' fierce fight, the members of the Earth Fire Team decided that the current battle was no longer something they could participate in. Their previous bold words were just nonsense. The two young men dragged the stubborn old man and followed Sambo all the way back to the depths of the tunnel, while Eula and Sylva each dragged a truck of earth marrow that had not yet been unloaded and moved it inside.
Seeing that the red light of the mechas was about to drown their heads, Eula threw away the cart and slashed at the bracket in the pipe. The exquisite control of force caused the exit to be quickly filled with collapsed and twisted brackets and ladders, blocking it. Although it could not be called a reliable "seal", it could still prevent the invasion of some small mechas. Then the second diamond thrown by the black tower successfully blocked all the exits, leaving only the muffled sound of the metal partition, which made people feel uneasy.
"Leave here immediately and find an underground anchor point - I don't know exactly where it is, but as long as I find the anchor point, I can quickly teleport over to join you! Brothers of the Earth and Fire, you have already taken the meat, please help take care of my companions! I will not forget you if there is any benefit in the future!"
Green friendly army symbols were approaching from the north one after another, but Kong no longer expected them to have enough time to collect much earth marrow. The most conservative option now was to let them turn around.
"Jepard, let your mechas stay where they are for a while! We can go back the same way - the problem here is very tricky... Sorry, Black Tower, I need you to help cover our retreat -"
"...Well, I know that dolls are supposed to be used at times like this, but if they are destroyed, you have to make me a new one."
She agreed readily, without considering that Kong would leave the emergency teleportation team position for this puppet. She swung the hammer to sweep away a circle of mechas, creating space for Kong to escape.
Taking advantage of the space cleared by this powerful "circle", he kicked quickly on the walls on both sides with his left foot stepping on his right foot, and activated the unique and dangerous device on his tactical uniform that no one else was equipped with.
Kong disappeared from the black tower and the mechas' search systems, leaving only a shadow. When he emerged from the phase again, he had flown nearly a hundred meters away, getting closer and closer to Asuna and Karin who were trying to return to the battlefield, and looking for a central location where he could activate anchoring.
"Girls - prepare to teleport, we don't want to waste time with this bunch of scrap metal!"
"Buzz!"
What Heita didn't expect was that when she was ready to donate the doll, the moment the Deep Sea Prowler's circular saw almost cut her face, the scene in front of her suddenly changed, and the wooden interior of the train filled her vision again.
"...Why did you bring my doll back to the car? Didn't you say you were going to cover us?"
After Sora pulled up the prone Karin and squatting Asuna, he said as a matter of course under Kurita's subtle gaze: "We must save the equipment if possible - and when did I ever say that we must abandon the dolls?"
"Airline passengers! How did you get covered in dirt? Wow, such dirty footprints!"
While Pam rushed over waving a feather duster to clean up the dirt, Kong had already done the secondary positioning and set the teleportation location to Shiluwa's workshop - after just a few quick repairs, he planned to continue on his journey.
"I have to go down again... Sambo told me in a private message that there is a smuggling passage from the snowfield outside the city into the underground... Eula is going deep into the lower area along the way they came... It seems that I have to go to the market today to see the underground world."
He paused for a moment, and then said to the students who were still unsatisfied and the puzzled Black Tower: "...I will go down alone this time. If something goes wrong again, I will bring them all back and make plans...This Beloberg is a bit evil. The Rift Creation actually chased us...I suspect that Cocolia did something behind the scenes and exposed our coordinates."
198. Lick first as a sign of respect
[Ace! Kadotate Karin has killed the most enemies! Exclusive MVP music is playing: "Step by Step"!]
The moment he heard the system playing a song that was so cheerful that it didn't seem like it was only for MVP, Kong heaved a sigh of relief - this meant that the battle had entered the summary stage, and Eula had successfully escaped from the battle with Dihuo.
Again, although a batch of goods was lost, as long as there is no loss of life, "there is no doubt that they will make a comeback."
The inventory at Jeppard's camp can last for two days. If there is no other way, I can only show them a hand-rubbed radiator and fuel - but now, I have to change the plan... bring Eula and the others back, and then meet with the person in charge at the lower level.
"You really don't need me to help you anymore?"
Although Heita thought that the intensity of this conflict was just like children playing house, she actually enjoyed the feeling of fighting side by side with Kong and even found it a bit addictive.
"Don't worry about me, a single person will be a much smaller target,"
"Ha, that was really dangerous just now, but suddenly I have to take a break... I feel a little empty..."
Asuna's face was full of desire. She had just adjusted her state - but due to the need to protect her allies and conserve energy, she couldn't completely let go and have fun, which was a bit of a pity.
"Don't worry, there will be plenty of internship opportunities for you later... But Asuna, your performance today can only get a 'good'. You need to keep up the good work. Karin's support is very good, so I'll give you an 'excellent'."
"Thank you, teacher, but did you forget something?"
Hua Lin put the anti-tank rifle flat with an indifferent look and let out a long sigh.
Looking at the densely packed heads of robots moving from a high altitude is really a test of one's concentration.
"Forgot something?"
"Have all the companions hidden underground? Paimon... I didn't see her."
"Oh, here she is."
As he said that, Sora opened the backpack behind him and dumped Paimon out.
"This girl has maxed out her skill of seeking advantage and avoiding harm. When a fight breaks out, she will find a place to hide without my reminding her."
"Wow, Hua Lin cares about me more than you do!"
The first thing this guy did after flying out was to pounce on the blanket that Holhaiya left in the observation car, as if he was frozen to death.
In fact, she just didn't want to accompany Kong back to the bullet-ridden Beicheng, and tried to hide in the blanket to escape reality, but Kong's ruthless iron hand reached out and lifted her up from the cloth filled with Haiya's body fragrance again:
"Didn't I give you all the remaining flashbangs and smoke bombs? Why don't you do something with them? You can't escape from the battlefield anyway, so why don't you hold the Glock and move with me."
"Gu... I'm back to the days of uncertainty again... Why? The train is so comfortable and safe..."
Paimon muttered to himself, but still accepted the reality that he had to work overtime:
"I'm going to sleep all day after this mission is over!"
"Well, for your sake, I will also take a break, don't worry."
Heita looked at Kong Ge teasing Paimon and thought to himself, the situation was so critical just now, how did you manage to adjust your emotions so easily?
Dr. Kong is obviously very afraid of death, but sometimes he seems to have no regard for his life... Why doesn't he choose to use a puppet as a substitute like himself?
"Dr. Kong, does your client require you to complete the mission in person on the surface? Can't you give remote instructions?"
"Well, I know what you want to ask. I can't complete the task by controlling the puppet with my mind - because I can't make my system and body rules conflict with local rules, and I can't perform screening and optimization."
Kong didn't show any resistance, as if he had gotten used to it. "This is something only I can do..."
"…Find a time to go back to the space station and bring a batch of puppets over. You can deliver three puppets at a time. If necessary, I can give you two-thirds of the total. I'm afraid you'll encounter something unexpected during your mission."
Heita's way of showing concern was still very unique, but the look in his eyes that showed he didn't want Kong Ga to be disappointed came completely from the heart.
"Can't you just hope for me a little bit...Okay, this is a good suggestion."
Sora nodded. "Using local people to solve local problems is just to prevent social legacy issues. But if the situation gets worse... we'll see how it develops. If Cocolia declines, maybe we won't have to go to such lengths to deal with her."
While he was advising Black Tower and the students to get some sleep to recuperate, he was also contacting Eula and her group who were already underground, and distractedly asking Jeppard to retrieve all the mechas.
"How's the view of the lower area? I'll go underground from the outskirts of the city right away... Jeppard, the operation failed. I'll try to go to the battle area and see if there are any minerals left that can be recycled. But unfortunately, I can't bring you enough fuel tonight."
"I understand the situation, Captain Lei. Let's consider the meat as a gift to Dihuo. By the way, regarding the passage provided by Sambo, can we use it to transfer troops?"
"...I'll give you his contact information, you guys can discuss it...but he's already been screwed pretty badly today, so it's best not to continue to provoke him."
The switch between the public and private frequencies was almost seamless. The psychic information that could overwhelm an ordinary person's brain was handled in an orderly manner by Kong. He could even have a private chat with four people at the same time and still have time to think.
As more and more companions join the band, the burden will slowly increase, but he is sure that as long as it does not reach the level of burden he had when he was a star region governor, it will still be easy -
Sora clasped his hands together at Pam, who was unhappy with her hands on her hips, and said good night to Heita and the students. Then he put on his helmet and disappeared into the carriage.
Such skillful and elusive style of coming and going made the students and Heita feel a strange sense of "satisfaction" while secretly regretting it.
They are filled with a sense of security and satisfaction that "their men are working hard".
After this strange emotion arose, Kong's system popped up a prompt - the students who were already very favorable towards him had their favorable impressions increased a little more.
……
"...The lower area... is really a bit stuffy. It's not like a layer of rock, and it's also different from the underground caves of Xumi. It's more like a desert. The temperature difference in each area is huge... How did this strange temperature difference come about..."
Eula's psychic energy was filled with discomfort, and it seemed that she preferred the "cool" feeling of being on the surface:
"We are on our way to the headquarters of the Underworld. Old Xie said he would introduce us to their chief Olega. Should we go meet this man now?"
"Go ahead. It is necessary to establish good relations with the underground 'Silver Mane Iron Guard'... I will rush to the negotiation site as soon as possible... How is Xiluwa doing?"
At the same time, Kong was already running on the roof of Beloberg. His movements were strange and swift. They were not noticeable but also very vigorous. They were much faster than the speed they took when they entered the city by car. As the tail flame of his backpack flickered, he was really "flying" to maneuver. After a while, he jumped onto the edge of the cliff and looked at the snowy field outside and below from the towering city wall.
"Me? This feels very strange. This place is completely different from the lower level area I remember..."
Shiluwa in the frequency band was extremely unstable.
"What exactly is wrong?"
"It's too depressing. Although I know that life underground won't be much better after the blockade of Cocolia... but... it's like the ghost street, even more dilapidated than the abandoned residential areas on the surface..."
Xiluwa's tone was full of self-blame: "I didn't know anything about it..."
"Don't take all the responsibility on yourself. The main responsibility lies with the star core. How can a researcher like you explode with your classmates?"
Sora simply consoled her with a few words, and she regained her spirits, as if she wanted to take in all the sufferings in the underground to strengthen her resolve to resist Cocolia's rule.
"The rift has eroded underground. The 'Rivet Town' we are currently in, which is close to the large mining area, is the hardest hit area. Most of the underground residents have moved away from here... Kong, you really should come down and take a look... There is a reason why Xiluwa is upset. The scenery here is even more desolate than the Wind Dragon Ruins."
"Is the impact of the underground rift so serious? Wait, let me bring you into the team first..."
The team formation recognized by Party A's system can ignore distance. In case Sylva and Eula encounter a crisis that they cannot handle, Kong can also bring them all back to the car through the air - but doing so is a bit unkind to Dihuo and is not the optimal solution.
"They took me around some areas where monsters might spawn. So far, I've only caught a glimpse of some wandering afterimages of Eternal Winter from afar."
"How far is it to the safe zone?"
"Sangbo said that there is a settlement called Panyan Town about seven kilometers away. It's incredible - they dug out such a wide space underground, and most places are affected by the earth's marrow, and there is a certain amount of warm light to provide lighting."
Eula sighed, "Ever since I applied for an overseas assignment with Qin and went on adventures with you, I always get to see amazing sights that I will probably never forget for the rest of my life."