Fireworks
The unfolding blast wind and fire engulfed the bloodeater crow swarm. It was a 100% charged sniper cannon carrying the burning effect, like a rapidly spreading source of fire sweeping through the air, creating a sea of flames. After this sniper cannon shot, another sniper shot followed closely behind, providing several seconds of time for the heavy mecha that had just teleported.
"We caught up!!!" Cheers erupted in the control room.
Inside the heavy mecha, Colonel Guo didn't waste the time they had gained. Almost the moment the teleportation pause passed, he immediately activated the defense system of the heavy mecha. In the narrow canyon, the massive heavy mecha tilted its head upward, swiftly flying, and moved to higher ground within the sea of fire, avoiding the risk of the bloodeater crows' impact. In the vast side view, he couldn't see the two S-class mechas that came to support.
In his mind, the image of the black-red mecha quickly passing through the blurry real-world view appeared. Colonel Guo pulled the thrusters to the maximum, saying, "I won't let you down."
Inside the heavy mecha, all the mecha pilots were fully focused on driving the heavy mecha, using its speed advantage to create distance. Colonel Guo immediately changed the destination, "We won't pass by the base station, head straight to the front line of the black hole from this coordinate!"
Everyone in the control room watched as the thrusters of the heavy mecha pushed a line of energy through the night sky, heading directly towards the black hole on the front line. The staff in the control room didn't dare to stop, they coordinated with all mecha pilots, using the overloaded communication system to notify all mecha pilots still fighting on the front line.
"The mecha pilots in the north have been notified to evacuate!"
"The mechas on the front line of the base station are preparing, we're waiting for the heavy weapons to enter the black hole! Build a safe teleportation channel in the teleportation area!"
"The black hole is still in the absorption phase! We can make it!"
In the crowd, Old Qiu's gaze lingered on the expanding sea of fire. It seemed like he saw something through the flames, and he muttered, "Is that the anomalous crystal? A coincidence?"
In the distance, approaching mecha pilots noticed the sea of fire. All mecha pilots entering the central control bureau's united command channel could see synchronized mecha information on the radar. When they noticed the signal from that mecha, everyone suddenly froze.
"Yuan?! Is this the identifier for Sink?"
"Sink actually came! I didn't notice him before!"
"Isn't he retired?! And he actually came, I haven't seen what he looks like."
"Is that Sink's sniper cannon? I seem to have seen it during a solo match before, but it didn't create such flames!"
After coordinating with the heavy mecha's retreat, You Su noticed more and more mechas gathering in their direction on the radar. He frowned slightly, shifted the perspective to another mecha, and the black-red mecha came into view. After firing the sniper cannon, the mecha didn't move forward. It stayed exhaustedly in place, the right hand holding the sniper cannon hanging down, unable even to stabilize the sniper cannon.
The next second, he noticed that the mecha swayed, and the propulsion flames beneath became weaker.
At the same time, a distress signal from Yuan came through.
Theo: "Distress?! It seems like it's about to fall!"
You Su's pupils contracted slightly. Theo quickly pulled the thruster to the maximum. The high-speed flying mecha swiftly rushed towards the falling mecha.
In his field of vision, the propulsion flames under the black-red mecha completely disappeared. Without the support of the thruster, the mecha fell like a puppet with a broken string from the high altitude, straight into the mountains. The same scene appeared before You Su again. He quickly flew over, reaching the mecha just before it collided with the mountain. He grabbed the entire mecha.
Theo: "It's heavy!!!"
You Su said coldly, "Hold on."
The mecha's reverse thruster was pulled to the maximum by You Su, and with Yuan, they crashed through the side of the dense forest on the mountainside. Each tree provided significant cushioning, and finally, with the mecha, they landed on the mountainside.
The KID's channel was filled with inquiries from teammates, but there was no response from Ying Chenlin. Even the faint sound of breathing had disappeared. You Su opened the mecha's communication system and signaled Yuan, but there was no response. "Theo."
Theo was fumbling around, "I'm looking for... his signal is too weak! I'm trying my best!"
It seemed to have captured a weak signal, desperately listening to the sound of the mecha, and hastily said, "There's a response, but the sound is too weak. At this rate, the signal will disappear!"
You Su looked at the surrounding scene and said, "Open the cockpit."
Theo was stunned, "Ah! It's an exposed environment here!"
You Su said, "Tell that mecha to open its cockpit!"
"This this this!! You gave me too little time!" Theo crazily sent open-cockpit commands to the channel of the just-sent distress signal. "They didn't respond to me. What if they don't open—Oh? It opened?"
You Su pressed the command to forcefully open the cockpit, completely exposing Theo to the external environment. After coming out of the cockpit, he quickly climbed to Yuan's cockpit position. Just as he climbed onto the cockpit, he noticed that the cockpit had lifted to a certain extent. Immediately, he forcefully opened the outer armor of the cockpit, revealing the condition inside.
Ying Chenlin's spiritual power was only A-class, and it was probably a forced connection with the S-class empathetic link. A-class spiritual power entering an S-class mecha was like pouring water into a leaking cup. He had to continuously pour spiritual power into it to stabilize the activation of the S-class mecha. However, such empathy was excessive consumption.
How could A-class spiritual power easily activate an S-class mecha? If spiritual power couldn't be provided continuously, even the activation of an S-class mecha wouldn't be stable.
Inside the cockpit, the sympathetic nerves connecting the mecha pilot had all dispersed.
"Ying Chenlin?" You Su asked.
The guy lying inside had completely lost consciousness, showing no response.
Without hesitation, You Su entered the cockpit, took out the team jacket from the storage, and without a word, wrapped Ying Chenlin up. When he was about to leave, he noticed that the anti-interference system in the cockpit was turned on. On the light screen in the field of vision, several words appeared:
[Take him away, thank you]
Theo: "You Su, You Su, Yuan just talked to me. It said for us—"
"I know." With one hand holding the person, You Su wrapped the outer jacket tightly around him. Grabbing the edge of the cockpit, he pulled away.
Once out of the cockpit, he jumped from Yuan to Theo's side. Just as he was about to enter the cockpit, he saw the mecha that hadn't completely disappeared. He frowned slightly, hooked out the mecha key from Ying Chenlin's collar, invaded with powerful spiritual power, and then met resistance from the original owner of the key's spiritual power. "Withdraw the spiritual power."
Soon, that weak spiritual power withdrew. You Su put Yuan into the mecha, stuffed Ying Chenlin into the cockpit, and Theo felt the intrusion of other spiritual powers. "It's too crowded in here!"
Yuan's voice was weak: "Sorry for the trouble."
Theo: "!?"
It immediately changed its tune: "...It's not crowded."
The single-person designed cockpit had never considered the situation of two people. With the detection of the owner's entry, the cockpit door closed tightly. The surrounding floating screen vision and so on all lit up. The floating empathetic nerves wanted to connect with the mecha pilot's limbs but were affected by another body inside the cockpit. They floated around, unable to find You Su's hand.
You Su was in a hurry to save people, but when he actually saved them, he began to hesitate.
The cockpit couldn't accommodate another person. It was filled with floating empathetic nerves, and the presence of a new individual would disrupt the flexible exchange of empathetic nerves. If they let Ying Chenlin be, without proper safety measures, the bumps generated by the mecha's driving would inevitably lead to various issues.
"Ying Chenlin?" You Su called out again.
Ying Chenlin was drenched in sweat, and his face was unusually pale.
Theo, noticing contaminants approaching with the scent of mecha energy, hurriedly said, "Why are you still hesitating? Just hold him! Hurry up, contaminants are coming!"
There was no time to hesitate.
You Su immediately picked up Ying Chenlin and used the left side of his body to support him.
Sitting in the pilot's seat with some difficulty, You Su felt the floating empathetic nerves around him attaching themselves to his body.
Theo, seeing that You Su was taking a while to adjust, shouted instructions from the sidelines, "Put your hand around his waist, hold him still, and then—"
You Su, feeling a headache, said, "Shut up."
After readjusting his position, You Su activated the mecha, albeit with only his left hand. But this didn't hinder his control, he single-handedly wielded the energy cannon to clear contaminants around, and the S-class mecha took off again from within the dense forest.
Theo commented, "You don't have to be so harsh, there are other guests in the mecha!"
Other guests? You Su noticed the lingering empathetic energy on Ying Chenlin, which hadn't dissipated. This energy felt different from Ying Chenlin's, as his empathetic energy had visibly depleted.
It wasn't Ying Chenlin's empathetic energy, but an individual capable of carrying his empathetic energy—
You Su asked, "Is the intelligent system of Mecha Yuan still active?"
Theo replied, "It is, but it's very weak. I can barely hear one or two sentences."
Something was amiss. You Su flew the mecha outward, and with his left hand holding Ying Chenlin, he felt around. He found something besides the mecha key around Ying Chenlin's neck. He remembered that a storage device was attached to the key, and its temperature was slightly high. Was it an issue with empathetic energy, or did this storage device contain something?
Theo asked, "What are you doing, You Su?"
You Su's thoughts paused. He considered throwing Theo back to the factory for a remake. "Shut up."
Upon restarting the mecha, messages flooded in from all directions on the communication system.
"Is everyone okay?" anxiously asked Huo Yan.
You Su replied, "Should be okay. Get them checked by a doctor when we're out."
He informed the situation to KID's other team members, as they arrived on the scene.
Ji Qingfeng, dragging a heavily damaged right leg, arrived at the front line. He heard You Su say they rescued someone but didn't see the impressive large mecha. "Did Yuan retract? Are you two squeezing into one cockpit?!"
Huo Yan asked, "Is it cramped? Isn't it too narrow?"
Lin Yao, puzzled, said, "Huh? Isn't the cockpit spacious enough?"
Ji Qingfeng retorted, "Can your petite cockpit compare to You Ge's cockpit?!"
Afterward, he asked again, "Is it cramped? If it is, let Yao Bao carry him."
You Su remained silent.
"It is."
At this point, Lu Xi looked at the radar on the mecha, where many mecha signals had disappeared. "Did the signal of S-class mecha Yuan disappear?"
This sentence caught the attention of Shen Xingtang and Li Jingyan.
"Maybe there are too many signals, and it got covered," another staff member explained.
More and more mecha approached, and the blue dots representing mecha mixed with the red dots of contaminants, affecting the accuracy of the entire radar system. Shen Xingtang looked at KID's team signals on the radar, ensuring they were all in one area. She comforted herself, hoping that You Su had been on-site, and they would reunite with Ying Chenlin.
They must be okay...
Inside the central control bureau, alarm signals increased. All staff were busy making final adjustments. The magnetic field near the black hole had reached the peak recorded value, and at any moment, it could switch from the absorption phase to the repulsion phase. Once in the repulsion phase, it would mean delaying time further... and the current situation couldn't afford any more delays. The more time passed, the more terrifying the unknowns surrounding the black hole became.
"Mecha pilots nearby have activated magnetic field disruptors!"
"Disturb them to the death. We can't let the magnetic field around the black hole strengthen anymore!"
"Hasn't the heavy weaponry arrived yet!?"
"Almost there! Three minutes until arrival in the black hole area!"
On the field, the supporting mecha pilots were giving their all, fighting against the increasing number of contaminants. On the way to the black hole, there were battles everywhere. Zhao Lejie, seeing the heavy mecha fly overhead, couldn't help but curse, "This weapon better blast the black hole into nothing!"
Ke Lin closely observed, "But we mustn't enter the repulsion phase again. If we do, our mecha might not endure it."
Excluding the recently supported mecha pilots, most of the mecha pilots on the field had endured three days or even more of continuous battle, changing numerous mechas. The participating teams, including YDS and KID, were becoming numb to the situation. Although the battles were long, the high-intensity combat for an extended period was a first for them.
A mecha pilot said, "We should be able to hold on! Sink came to support!"
Jiang Yu, hearing the name "Sink," thought he must have misheard and inquired with disbelief, "Are you sure? Mecha pilot Sink!?"
Mentioning the ID of Sink was not unfamiliar to the mecha pilots present. Regardless of team battles or solo battles, this ID had an enormous reputation. Sink was, after all, the legendary mecha pilot who broke the single-person history of the Dawn Star System. However, when the ID actually appeared, most mecha pilots were in disbelief. Since retiring, Sink had disappeared without any information. No one knew why he retired, where he went after retirement, and other details.
Sink was young, having just reached adulthood before retiring. Information about him was only available within the Mecha Alliance, otherwise, it was non-existent.
The likelihood of such a retired mecha pilot receiving a recall notice was too low.
Thinking others wouldn't believe it, the mecha pilot continued, "It's true. When I rushed over, I happened to see the signal of Mecha Yuan. He was the one who coordinated when the landing point shifted, and that sniper cannon, we're all familiar with it. It's definitely him."
Jiang Yu was slightly stunned, looking down at the crowded mecha signals on the radar.
But the signals were too many, making it challenging to find Mecha Yuan's signal among the blue dots.
"Heavy mecha entering the black hole area!"
As the heavy mecha approached, almost everyone focused on the largest target on the radar, watching as it was escorted by all the mecha pilots and successfully entered the black hole area. The collapsed mountain terrain no longer retained its original shape, and the absorption phase of the black hole had turned the surroundings into nothingness. It was hard to imagine that this place was previously a vast canyon landscape.
When KID and the others arrived, they saw the heavy mecha aiming at the black hole.
You Su gazed at the black hole in his field of vision, feeling the person leaning on him move slightly.
He immediately noticed and said, "Ying Chenlin?"
The latter did not respond at all, as if it were just an illusion.
The circle of the black hole expanded more and more, and the speed of absorption and consumption showed no signs of stopping.
However, the increasingly powerful magnetic field triggered intense alarms for all mechas in the vicinity. Colonel Guo loaded the heavy weapon into the mecha's barrel and adjusted the explosive time of the heavy weapon to 30 minutes. He then aimed at the vortex of nothingness at the center of the black hole.
"Variant projectile B-1471 loading completed," Colonel Guo said.
All the personnel in the control bureau nervously watched the signal of the heavy weapon, and all the mecha pilots eagerly anticipated the outcome.
Li Jingyan gave the order, "Fire!"
At that moment, in the dark night, the variant projectile turned into a huge beam of light, fiercely shooting towards the black hole!
When the variant projectile touched the black hole, it paused for a moment, and then was slowly devoured by the absorption phase of the black hole. Colonel Guo shouted, "It worked!"
At the same time, all frontline mecha pilots received the latest message from the control bureau — [The teleportation channel has been established. All mechas immediately head to the designated coordinates. Evacuation time is still 30 minutes!]
Li Jingyan clenched his fist. "Young people, it's time to escape."
"I'll be waiting for your safe return at the control bureau!"
The countdown appeared on all mechas, and the mecha pilots felt a sense of relief. However, new challenges came along. They had to escape completely from Qiu Jin before the heavy weapon exploded. For a while, the night sky of the entire Qiu Jin was filled with the traces of the mecha pilots' thrusters, cutting through the vast and boundless night sky with streaks of light!
On the public channel, Lin Yao looked up during the flight and exclaimed, "Wow! It's like shooting stars!"
Ji Qingfeng said, "Shouldn't we make a wish? Ah, I hope to get rich after leaving Qiu Jin!"
Zhao Lejie happened to fly near KID. "...How can you guys make escaping sound so artistic!?"
Ji Qingfeng: "Hey, Lao Zhao, why are you flying so slowly?! Has your Qie team gone ahead?"
Lin Yao said, "I was thinking of setting off fireworks when the league ended."
Hu Luobu: "Isn't that enough? What fireworks do you want to set off!?"
Lin Yao suddenly caught sight of something and shouted, "Big Feng! A wolf!"
"I'm going, almost forgot about this thing, coming right away!" Ji Qingfeng quickly rushed towards the giant wolf's corpse.
Flying behind them, Zhao Lejie saw KID's mechas land and rush to collect the spoils. Each person dismantled a part of the giant wolf's corpse with a knife, taking away valuable components. Finally, Ji Qingfeng, who was still limping, walked past Zhao Lejie. A group of people passed by him casually.
Zhao Lejie: "..."
Damn, a bunch of poor guys!
One by one, the mechas entered the teleportation points near the base station, with countless contaminants following closely. The military heavy mecha that launched the heavy weapon became the support for all mecha pilots, guarding the front as the mecha pilots retreated.
When You Su entered the teleportation program, he could still hear the discussions of his teammates in his ears.
The process of teleportation would inevitably be turbulent. He had to hold the person in his arms a bit tighter, bringing the two of them closer.
He had just wanted to adjust his position when he suddenly felt a wave of warmth around his neck. Slow and gentle breaths sprayed onto his neck, causing a strange tingling sensation.
The mecha entering the teleportation area input the command for teleportation at the temporary teleportation point constructed with all available resources by the official authority.
Inside the control bureau, all the staff watched this scene with tears in their eyes. "I hope they all come back safely."
"They will." Li Jingyan watched the intact base station and the traces of a certain gap sealed on the base station. "Because he guarded A-26 base station until the end."
One by one, the mechas teleported. When the signals of the mechas entered outer space beyond the Qiu Jin pollution zone, the people in the control bureau excitedly reported the signals of the mechas. Until the military heavy mecha withdrew, there were only three minutes left.
The person in charge said, "Report to the Chairman, all mecha pilots have safely evacuated!"
Li Jingyan shouted, "Activate the highest defense system in the Qiu Jin Grand Canyon pollution zone!"
The Qiu Jin's highest defense was completely opened, sealing off the entire pollution zone.
The countdown continued, and all mechas floated in outer space, looking at the location of Qiu Jin.
As the countdown reached its end, the gray-white planet suddenly lit up with a widespread fire. The heavy weapon detonated completely! The heat formed a huge outer ring on the surface of the planet. The communication channel was filled with cheers from all mecha pilots.
Just as You Su was about to turn off the slightly noisy communication channel, he suddenly heard a voice in his ear.
A boy lay on him, his half-closed eyes looking at the side where the firelight was, his voice weak and mosquito-like: "...Did we set off fireworks?" After a moment, he said, "Mm."