Stationmaster
It's said to be similar, but it's not the straightforward kind of similarity; it's more about the person's facial features. The person in the photo is a woman in her thirties, wearing the typical white lab coat of a researcher. It only covers half of her face, leaving only her eyes and eyebrows visible. She bears about ninety percent resemblance to Ying Chenlin, who is standing next to her.
Ying Chenlin noticed You Su's shift in gaze, and the person beside him moved his hand away. "What's wrong?"
You Su's gaze moved between the portrait and Ying Chenlin's face. He removed his hand covering the portrait on the person, originally thinking it was just his own illusion. However, as Ying Chenlin compared himself to the portrait at such a close distance, the familiarity on each portrait seemed replicated.
He asked, "Take a look at this person."
The person blocking his view stepped back a few steps. Ying Chenlin turned to look at the woman's portrait, feeling a slight shock.
It's challenging to judge similarity directly, especially for a single feature like eyebrows and eyes.
Seeing Ying Chenlin's attention, You Su added, "Her eyes look a lot like yours."
"Indeed, they look very alike!" Theo's voice rang out. "The eyes are just like Ying Chenlin's!"
You Su glanced sideways, noticing Ying Chenlin's unusual expression.
Ying Chenlin didn't move; his attention was entirely on that photo. From the person's eyes in the picture to her entire face, this face gave him a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling. It wasn't about recognizing facial features; it was about recognizing the woman from his memory.
In the old album shown to him by his grandfather during his childhood, there were a few pictures of his parents together. The person in the photo looked exactly like his mother.
Ying Chenlin seldom reminisced about things related to his parents. In his memory, there was no experience of being with his parents. Raised by his grandfather since childhood, his memories related to his parents were only briefly mentioned by his grandfather. With the changes in two lifetimes, these memories had become inconsequential to him. Thinking about his parents now, he only remembered that they were outstanding people who had unfortunately passed away.
However, when he first saw this photo, Ying Chenlin suddenly realized that in his memory, his parents were a blank area.
There were about ten photos on the portrait wall, with the woman's photo in the middle of the third row. Next to it were some text information about the research project. Ying Chenlin stared closely at that photo, seemingly trying to confirm the similarities between the photo and the one he had seen in his memory. Under the photo was the notation of the woman's identity—Chief Researcher (Shi Xuejun).
Shi Xuejun... Ying Chenlin's gaze paused for a moment, then quickly swept across the other portraits. The speed of his gaze was fast, and he had seen all the photos in no time. After looking at these, he took a few steps to the side.
On the other side of the portrait wall, there was no headshot information. Dense text information summarized the previous research goals of the research institute inside the station. Ying Chenlin swept over keywords like 'pollutants,' 'weapons,' and his steps became somewhat urgent, as if trying to quickly deduce something from this information.
The information on the wall was not comprehensive, and the virtual screen seemed to have been damaged by something, with cracks running through it.
The broken virtual screen almost created a disjointed effect, and black blocks were scattered throughout the blurred information.
Seeing Ying Chenlin walking from the photo to the end of this virtual screen wall, also following, You Su walked over. When he thought Ying Chenlin would look at the information on the other side, he found Ying Chenlin stopped at the end of the virtual screen, seemingly fixating his gaze on a certain point.
The virtual screen at the end was almost entirely destroyed, with only black blocks left in the mixed and blurry information.
You Su watched as Ying Chenlin's gaze remained fixed and didn't leave, "What do you see?"
Ying Chenlin's hand hovered at the very end of the text information, "Here."
Looking at the end, it was a signed message.
When You Su saw the information at the end, his brows furrowed tightly, "Ying."
Koria Pollution Zone C-147 Station Chief—Ying.
The latter part of the name was conveniently blocked by the color blocks, and only the information that this station's original chief was surnamed Ying was visible.
"Is it related to you?" You Su asked.
Ying Chenlin did not respond. His gaze lingered on the character "Ying" for a few seconds, then suddenly looked towards the only console in the hall. He didn't hesitate and ran straight towards it.
The console was covered in layers of dust, as if no one had set foot in this place for many years. The portraits on the portrait wall, the Shi surname signature in the bulletin information, and the connection with Yu, who had been responding since near the Restricted Zone, made Ying Chenlin think that all these were related. However, he didn't know where these connections were leading.
Is Yu related to this place? Or is it that his parents, who had never appeared in his memory since childhood, are related to this place?
The external information was too scarce. To understand more, they could only rely on the station's system.
However, when Ying Chenlin touched the start button on the console, a startup platform suddenly appeared in front of him, displaying a series of special characters, asking for an access password.
Looking at these familiar characters, Ying Chenlin was suddenly stunned. He recognized these characters; this was the access algorithm used by Yu to initialize the system.
-*-
In the station's control room, the layout of the main building inside the station was not complicated. The two quickly arrived at the station's control room. However, before entering the control room, Huo Yan's hand blocked in front of Qi Sicheng. "Captain Qi, how about I go in alone?"
Qi Sicheng looked at Huo Yan, "When I entered with you, I was prepared to share responsibility with you."
The Restricted Zone was already shrouded in secrecy. Since they teleported in, the attitude of the Koria Management Bureau and the actions of the Border Army pointed out the close relationship between this place and the management bureau and the border army. In such a secretive place, staying operational in the Restricted Zone's station was undoubtedly not simple.
The most sensible approach would be to bypass this station directly, not minding anything, and find the entrance and exit of the Restricted Zone by detouring. After that, the Border Army and the Management Bureau's pursuit would, at most, be considered a violation of entering the Restricted Zone.
Qi Sicheng observed that the facilities of this station had not been renovated. Many facilities had already fallen behind in connection with the outside world, indicating that, apart from the outer shielding system of the Restricted Zone, the management bureau or the border army had not entered this station for a long time and had not renovated it.
Not renovating probably meant that they believed the existing functions of this station were sufficient to achieve their goals.
However, it was strange. In an impossible-to-enter Restricted Zone, opening the outermost defense system could protect the station from
the influence of pollutants. However, why were the internal systems of the buildings in this Restricted Zone station all turned on? It wasted energy, and everything seemed irrational.
Placed in the past, Qi Sicheng would choose to avoid risks, but when he saw that pollutant, he had already changed his mind.
"There's no pollution reaction, but there's a strong energy reaction. The direction of the extension disappears right next to this running station." Qi Sicheng had a bad premonition. "The station has a lot of anti-pollution systems turned on, which can affect radar detection corresponding to the operation of the station. I suspect the pollutant that attacked us may be right under the station."
Huo Yan asked, "Aren't you afraid this place is a secret location of the Border Army?"
"How is the Border Army of the Dawn? I know in my heart. If they're really worried that we'll discover their secret, the safest way is to keep us in place from the beginning and not let us go anywhere." Qi Sicheng said, "But obviously, they didn't."
The strength of that pollutant, both Qi Sicheng and Huo Yan had an assessment.
A small team of the Border Army would find it challenging to complete the extermination task. They suspected that the existence of that pollutant might not have been discovered by the Management Bureau or the Border Army. If it was indeed the case, the situation was clearly abnormal.
"It's best if it's our illusion."
When Huo Yan was about to push open the door, he found that access permissions were required inside the control room. They tried to use the universal task identification code of the Mecha Alliance to log in, but they couldn't enter.
"It seems that unlike other pollution zones, this station's permissions are significantly higher." Qi Sicheng saw this situation and said, "They are indeed not afraid of us wandering around, but they have set another threshold inside."
"... It's not a permission issue; it's an automatic lock." Huo Yan slightly moved aside to let Qi Sicheng see the prompts on the control screen. "I've passed by abandoned bases in certain pollution zones during missions before. The control rooms there have an automatic lock on permissions. Generally, if there's no internal access within the base for more than 7 days, it automatically locks, and you need to access it again to resolve the automatic lock issue."
"Can't this automatic lock be opened?" Qi Sicheng asked.
"These are automated programs, unrelated to remote control by the management bureau. The entire system needs to be activated through internal access within the base. If no one uses it for too long, the system shuts down automatically, requiring permission to restart," Huo Yan explained, shaking his head. "If it weren't for this automatic lock, maybe we could have entered—"
Before he could finish speaking, the virtual screen in front of them, which was requesting the entry of the permission password, suddenly flickered. As they were talking, both of them noticed the change on the virtual screen. The page asking for the permission password disappeared in a flash, and another interface popped up.
—[Welcome, please enter the access identification code]
Qi Sicheng asked, "Did you do something?"
"No." Huo Yan paused when he saw the access identification code. "The automatic lock disappeared... It turned into an identification code access interface."
The two exchanged glances, and Qi Sicheng asked, "Permission granted by the management bureau?"
Huo Yan denied, "Impossible. The management bureau has remote access. This kind of internal access can only be manually done through the facilities inside the base."
Internal locks that could only be manually lifted—
The expressions of both of them changed slightly. Qi Sicheng looked towards the corridor behind him. "Someone is accessing it internally, removing the automatic lock."
Qi Sicheng and Huo Yan exchanged a glance. "Shall we go in?"
Without saying a word, Huo Yan entered the universal task identification code of the Mecha Alliance, and as soon as it was entered, the access interface opened. The control room door, which had been sealed for a long time, slowly opened, revealing the scene inside to the two.
At the same time, in the Koria Management Bureau's main control room.
The coordinate system displayed all mecha entering the abandoned base. The Koria Director and Old Qiu closely watched the coordinate interface. When KID and Gale entered the abandoned base, they immediately communicated with the abandoned base through the Restricted Zone system.
"Haven't we contacted KID and Gale's team yet?" the Koria Director asked.
A staff member replied, "We've sent multiple communication requests to Captain Qi and Huo Yan, but there's been no response."
Old Qiu took a few steps forward, his gaze fixed on the Restricted Zone system. The abandoned base was the core midpoint of the Restricted Zone, supporting the existence of the entire Restricted Zone system. If KID and Gale's mecha systems had the Restricted Zone program, they should have already contacted them by now. "Maybe we thought too much. We should have had them wait in place from the beginning. We didn't expect them to go to the base."
"Has anyone gone to the base recently? They should also find nothing there," the Koria Director said with a hint of a headache. "Hopefully, they entered the base just to contact us, and they meant no harm."
At that moment, a red warning message suddenly popped up on the Restricted Zone system. The staff member was surprised and immediately shouted, "Not good, Director! Colonel Lu has sent an urgent warning."
The Koria Director, who was discussing the follow-up solution with Old Qiu, was stunned. "Urgent report!?"
Old Qiu stepped forward quickly. "There's no report of pollutants on the Restricted Zone system."
"Are you sure it's from Colonel Lu?" the Director asked.
Before he could finish speaking, the Restricted Zone system displayed the latest communication request, coming from a Border Army squad.
The staff hurriedly connected, and the voice of Colonel Lu, the leader of the Border Army, appeared on the communication channel.
With a slight interference of electric current in the communication channel, he said seriously, "Old Qiu, the Restricted Zone situation has changed. We've discovered unidentified energy pollutants."
-
In the Koria Restricted Zone, several mecha were flying at high speed through the scorched tree forest. Under the withered branches and rotten leaves, many strange things were crawling out from the decay. The mecha's internal pollution detection system showed only a small part of pollution reactions, but within their field of vision, there were significantly more pollutants than detected by the Restricted Zone system.
The unexpected changes occurred ten minutes ago. As they moved towards the base, they noticed traces of movement on the ground. They discovered massive trenches hidden under the scorched soil and fallen leaves. Before they could investigate the cause of these trenches, they were attacked by a large number of pollutants.
"Colonel, there are thirty from the east."
"Pollutants are also coming towards us from the west!"
"Colonel, all information has been transmitted back to the bureau through the system."
Colonel Lu quickly distanced himself, locking onto those strange pollutants. The pollutants that had just attacked them were no less than Grade A, but there was no corresponding Grade A pollutant signal on the Restricted Zone system.
Colonel Lu frowned, "Full speed towards the base."
Outside the abandoned base, Ji Qingfeng and the Mother Mantis waited at the entrance. After dealing with the Mother Mantis's hind legs, Ji Qingfeng retrieved the spatial displacement ability crystal from behind the Mother Mantis's carcass. During the processing, the larvae that fell during the handling had quickly crawled away. "Little girl, your descendants are too many."
Once processed, he realized what the Mother Mantis's insides looked like. The originally sharp, thorn-covered exoskeleton had no deterrent power. Inside, it was basically filled with bugs. After dealing with it a few times, he couldn't extract any usable materials; it was essentially just a shell.
Even though Ji Qingfeng took away the ability crystal, the Mother Mantis, controlled by the queen bug, could still move. The presence or absence of the ability crystal made no difference to it.
The ability crystal was easy to handle, but how to deal with the queen bug?
Ji Qingfeng was hesitating whether to first release the binding lock or to decide on further processing after Aplomb arrived.
Suddenly, he noticed some movement in the distance in the scorched tree forest. Something was swarming in the dense forest, and a pollutant suddenly swept through the scorched tree forest, rushing towards their direction.
Ji Qingfeng paused, dodging the attack the next second and dragging the Mother Mantis's body to the side.
Just as he evaded the attack, he shouted into the intercom, "Lao Zhao! Yao Bao!"
Dark masses were moving back and forth in the scorched tree forest. Ji Qingfeng kicked one of them away and turned to look at the dense forest, where a large number of things were coming towards them. At the forefront were several mecha.
Zhao Lejie, who was talking to the medical mecha pilot Gale in the base's hangar, turned around in surprise when he heard Ji Qingfeng's shout. "Why so loud?"
Ji Qingfeng kicked away a pollutant, "It seems like the Border Army's brothers are bringing a ton of pollutants over."
Zhao Lejie, confused, said, "?"
The next second, he saw the situation outside the base, "What the hell! Is it necessary to be so exaggerated!"
The medical mecha pilot, stunned, asked, "Why so many!? Why didn't the base raise an alarm?"
Outside the base, a large number of pollutants were gathering towards this location, and inside the base, it was eerily quiet, with not even the most basic alarm system sounding.
Silently approaching made it difficult for the mecha pilots to guard against. The mecha pilots who were originally resting and waiting for contact returned to their mecha, immediately entering combat mode.
Lin Yao took a few steps and jumped onto the mecha cockpit, shouting, "Xi Mei, go inform the others!"
Lu Xi slowed down two steps behind Lin Yao, hearing Lin Yao's shout and noticing that there was no warning at the base behind them. Everyone, including Ying Chenlin, was inside the base's buildings. She quickly turned and ran towards the buildings. "I'll go find them!"
The entire abandoned base hummed as a large amount of pollutants gathered outside.
Ji Qingfeng watched the Border Army mecha flying in the sky. Just as he was about to assess the situation, he felt a strong gust of wind rushing towards his left. In the next moment, he saw a familiar tentacle rise from a high place.
Years of combat experience allowed him to make a timely turn in a critical moment, narrowly avoiding the attack.
The tentacle's target was clear. It swiftly swept towards Ji Qingfeng, and this time, its attack was no longer mechanical. The enormous tentacle instantly bound the Mother Mantis's body.
They couldn't break free from the tentacles. The mantis's body would be dragged away directly.
"Damn!" Ji Qingfeng's pupils contracted. The moment he saw the Mother Mantis being bound, he immediately retracted the binding lock sickle and switched to the commonly used short blade. The short blade accumulated a large amount of energy. Ji Qingfeng leaped onto the Mother Mantis's body in three or two steps, directly severing the mantis's neck with a single stroke.
The fragile exoskeleton was easily severed by Ji Qingfeng. The queen bug fell from the mantis's neck.
Ji Qingfeng: "Queen bug! Run!"
The detached queen bug lost all constraints. Its movements were somewhat sluggish, seemingly aware of the danger. It scurried into the ground after a few attempts.
Lin Yao saw this scene when she came out to support, "Big Feng!"
The tentacle dragged the mantis's exoskeleton but didn't leave directly. Instead, it continued to attack Ji Qingfeng using the tentacles.
Ji Qingfeng's short blade hit the tentacle multiple times. The queen bug was their prey, and they hadn't killed it yet. How could they let this ugly thing get away!
-
Outside the base was chaotic, but inside the base, it was relatively quiet.
Special soundproof buildings isolated all external sounds. When Ying Chenlin successfully entered the permission password on the operating console, the door inside the research institute opened before them. When entering the interior of the research institute, Ying Chenlin saw well-lit corridors and virtual displays flashing at the entrances of each room.
You Su followed Ying Chenlin and entered the corridor after entering the research institute's lobby. When he saw this scene, he frowned slightly.
"What did you just input?" You Su asked.
Ying Chenlin paused for a moment and answered, "A familiar permission algorithm."
You Su remained silent, his gaze staying on Ying Chenlin.
The corridor was very quiet as the two walked forward.
When they reached the fork in the stairs, You Su thought Ying Chenlin would go downstairs, but he noticed that she didn't continue forward.
"What's wrong?" You Su asked.
Ying Chenlin grasped the mecha key inside his coat for some reason, and for some reason, his intuition told him not to go upstairs.
He glanced at the other side, and the mecha key in his hand felt warm.
You Su looked at him.
Ying Chenlin took out a maintenance kit from his belongings, rummaged through it, and finally took out a small energy detector.
"I feel like the path doesn't go upstairs." Ying Chenlin opened the energy detector, and the virtual screen that lit up showed a large number of red dots. "Sure enough, the energy reactions in this research institute are too abnormal."
He looked at the position displayed on the energy detector and walked to the other side along the corridor. When his fingers touched a certain part of the wall, a virtual screen popped up in front of him.
-
Outside the Restricted Zone, after receiving Colonel Lu's message, the entire management bureau became busy.
The unusual reactions of the detection system and the attack of a large number of pollutants were clearly beyond their original understanding. All staff members were attempting to use the Restricted Zone detection system to reposition pollutants. Without pollutant positioning, it was too difficult for the Border Army mecha squad to engage in combat.
In addition, they faced an even bigger problem.
"The reconnaissance reports from the past few years have all been normal... The Border Army should have discovered so many pollutants a long time ago," Old Qiu said seriously. "Contact Colonel Lu and ask him to prioritize the security of the base."
Staff member: "Old Qiu, we can't reach Colonel Lu, but their coordinates are near the base, probably engaged in combat!"
Koria Director: "This is bad; at least we need to determine the situation inside the Restricted Zone. Can't we connect to the base?"
"Very strange," a staff member said. "We did send a connection request to the base, but there has been no response from the base."
The Koria Director and Old Qiu looked very serious. While other staff members were busy restoring the detection system, their attention was focused on signal alerts indicating failure to respond, especially the special system representing the internal research institute in the base. It had not responded to them so far.
At this moment, a communication request popped up on the base terminal.
Everyone was startled, and the staff member quickly answered it. The next moment, they heard the voice from the other end of the communication system.
"Is this how it should be operated?"
"This system is too old. According to the prompts, it should be like this."
A staff member recognized the voices, "It's the voices of KID and Gale from the base."
By chance, they remembered that KID and Gale's team had entered the base.
Koria Director was too busy to explain too much. "Have them immediately assist the base in responding."
Staff member acknowledged, "Commander Qiu, Commander Huo, can you hear us?"
Qi Sicheng and Huo Yan just contacted the management bureau through the communication system, expecting to be held accountable, but they did not expect the other party to be even more anxious than them.
The two looked at each other, and Qi Sicheng said, "You speak."
"I, as Director Koria, hereby issue a temporary mission recall to the Dawn Mecha Alliance," said Koria Director solemnly. "In the event of a special situation, we will guide your operations. Please assist in restoring the base's system."
The Koria Management Bureau immediately became busy. Old Qiu stepped back a few steps, his gaze staying on the various systems inside the base. He took steps to find inside those unresponsive systems, and finally, at the end of the system representing the special research institute inside the base, he saw the system disconnection.
Seeing that Koria Director was coordinating with other people, Old Qiu walked to the side and asked, "Has this system never connected?"
Staff member: "No, we are trying remote control."
"The Control Room has people. Operate through the Control Room system," Old Qiu said seriously. "Use special permissions for remote access."
The staff member immediately complied. After a few minutes, he said, "Strange, there are traces of someone accessing this system."
Old Qiu was stunned when he heard this. "How is that possible?"
"I am checking the access records, and the latest access record was 5 minutes ago." The staff member pulled up the access records. "I found it. It was an internal login access in the base. The other party used permission to login."
Old Qiu frowned. "Whose permission?"
"It's advanced permission, and this permission algorithm is..." The staff member paused. "It's C-147 Station Master, Ying Songshan."