Redemption

The Cloud-Mist High-Pressure Magnetic Storm Ring had everyone in the Command Center running themselves ragged.

The magnetic storm field was gradually expanding. Warning lights bathed the entire Shatterdome in red, and everyone had already evacuated from the mech hangar where Kunlun stood.

As the magnetic force grew stronger, several metal workbenches in front of Kunlun's right hand were magnetized by the powerful field, then sent flying outright. The tiny metal parts formed a miniature tornado, whirling at high speed around Kunlun's right hand like satellites.

The four work crews in the distance had been standing there watching when Kunlun's right hand suddenly pointed at them. Everyone scattered at once.

"Fuck?!"

A nail struck less than three centimeters from Sethi's right cheek like a bullet, making him curse furiously.

Left with no choice, he turned and fled like everyone else.

The Command Center was affected next. Every metal frame began creaking and groaning under the magnetic field, twisting and breaking under the strain as dust rained down from the ceiling. Several aging computers in the center crashed instantly.

"Quick! Shut down Kunlun's neural link system!"

Jiang Tianzheng was frantic as he shouted—only now did he regret it, regret that he had still held even the slightest hope for that man named Mike.

The kaiju horde was almost here. He had wanted to add another measure of strength to humanity, but instead, humanity was about to lose even more.

A technician immediately shut off Kunlun's neural link system.

But there was no response.

The engineer monitoring the mental connection immediately shouted, "No response! The neural link is still ongoing! The connection between the pilot and the mech is too strong—we can't cut it off immediately!"

"Get out of here!! Now!!" Jiang Tianzheng did not hesitate this time. He immediately ordered an evacuation, and the technicians and operators all rushed toward the back of the Command Center—a scene that had played out many years ago, when Gipsy Danger had gone out of control. This time, it was Kunlun.

Everyone left the Command Center except Jiang Tianzheng. He desperately typed commands into the keyboard, trying to reset Kunlun's operating system.

The magnetic field in the mech hangar had reached its peak. Out of the corner of his eye, Jiang Tianzheng could even see several bright arcs of electricity sweeping across the floor, throwing up bursts of violent, dazzling sparks.

The Cloud-Mist High-Pressure Magnetic Storm Ring had finished charging.

Jiang Tianzheng dared not imagine the devastation Shatterdome would suffer if the Cloud-Mist High-Pressure Magnetic Storm Ring began attacking. Heavy mechs such as Shandong, Huangshan, and Changbai might escape unscathed, but the other facilities would certainly not be so lucky. The mech hangar would be reduced to ashes. The residential area on the second level, the research area on the third level... before the Cloud-Mist High-Pressure Magnetic Storm Ring, those areas were as helpless as tofu beneath a steamroller.

If the magnetic storm struck Shatterdome's transformer room, the entire Shatterdome would collapse across the board. Those fragile circuits would melt instantly in the heat generated by the magnetic field, and rebuilding them would take years at minimum.

By then... the kaiju would march straight in over Shatterdome's ruins.

Then China would fall, and humanity would head toward extinction.

Jiang Tianzheng had done everything he could, but it still had no effect.

Just then, the Command Center doors suddenly opened, and two figures rushed inside.

"Why did you come back?!" Jiang Tianzheng kept his head lowered as he continued trying, cursing loudly as he did so. But to his surprise, a slender hand suddenly rose before his eyes.

Jiang Tianzheng looked up and saw Lin Yin's grave expression.

"I have a way." Lin Yin paused slightly, then turned and looked resolutely at Kunlun outside the window.

"I'll destroy it," Lin Yin added. "Right now."

The street outside the alley was being ravaged. Windows all around shattered, glass shards and rubble flew everywhere, and in just one minute, God of Desire had carved several floors off this cluster of buildings.

Rosen could only curl up in the corner against the wall. He had no other choice. Sand and grit poured down before his feet, nearly burying him.

Rosen felt dizzy and disoriented. Strands of blood ran down his cheeks. Even though he knew this was all an illusion, his brain had deemed everything before him "real."

If he "died" here, the Rosen outside would suffer brain death and become a vegetable forever.

Even so, Rosen still did not know why he had entered this illusion.

It was now 2020. At that time, Rosen had only just been born. How could his one-year-old self possibly have memories from then?

But the huge maw above his head, drawing ever closer, felt incomparably real. Rosen could even smell the foul stench from God of Desire's mouth.

This memory definitely did not belong to him. That left only one possibility—no matter how unbelievable it was.

"Kunlun..."

Rosen stared wide-eyed at that abyssal mouth.

This was Kunlun's memory.

The thudding roar of the helicopter overhead grew louder and louder, even drowning out God of Desire's furious howls. A massive shadow passed over Rosen's head—he looked up and saw a crimson figure suspended beneath the helicopter leap into view, only to vanish behind the high-rises moments later.

The kaiju continued attacking the buildings and was about to reach Rosen. Its enormous palm shoved into the alley and slammed down less than five meters in front of him. The asphalt ground was like paper, instantly collapsing into a huge pit.

When the palm lifted again, the vortex of air it stirred even pushed Rosen's body rolling toward the pit!

"No! No!"

Rosen had no power to resist. He rolled straight into the center of the pit—then, like a mold beneath a stamping press, waited for that huge hand to crush down again.

Watching the black shadow above him grow ever larger, Rosen felt that he was about to die.

He had spent countless hours studying how to kill kaiju. Now, he was going to die first beneath a kaiju's claws.

At that critical moment, something violently yanked God of Desire away, and it vanished from sight in an instant. The gray sky appeared above Rosen once more.

Then the kaiju let out an earthshaking roar, accompanied by another rumble—a mechanical rumble!

A heavy truck flew high through the air like a toy before crashing into the ruined building to Rosen's left.

Rosen hurriedly shielded his head, then climbed out of the pit and rushed toward the mouth of the alley. A series of thunderous explosions erupted nearby, leaving his ears ringing.

Outside the alley, a fierce battle was unfolding on the street ahead. A crimson robot with three arms was launching a savage assault at God of Desire's head—

The palms of its first two arms transformed into two massive sawblades in the blink of an eye, slicing straight for its target's neck. The kaiju swiftly dodged to one side, evading the cutting range of the blades as several intact buildings were instantly reduced to dust by its charge.

After missing several strikes, the mech immediately changed tactics. Its two sawblades transformed back into hands and clamped tightly onto the kaiju's shoulders. At the same time, its third arm rose from behind its back and aimed at the kaiju. Its palm rapidly transformed into an electromagnetic cannon barrel, light already beginning to shine within it.

"Crimson Storm!" Rosen cried out.

The mech before him was the famed Chinese Generation Four mech from Rosen's memories—Crimson Storm.

But the kaiju was clearly not intimidated by a mech's reputation. It launched a fierce counterattack.

God of Desire roared as it raised its left knee and struck Crimson Storm beneath the right arm—the armor there immediately caved in.

The kaiju seized the chance to break free of Crimson Storm's hold and rammed it far away. Then God of Desire strode forward to press its advantage.

"Come on!" Rosen roared as he chased after them, having forgotten that he was inside an illusion.

God of Desire shoved Crimson Storm across two whole blocks and kept pushing onward. Two deep trenches formed beneath their feet, stretching into the distance. Rosen could no longer see what happened next. Panting heavily, he reached the place where the mech and kaiju had just fought, but the two figures had already gone far away.

Rosen could only hear the rolling thunder of their battle echoing among the buildings.

Suddenly, a flash illuminated the entire sky.

Every sound stopped in an instant, and heaven and earth returned to silence—or rather, Rosen had temporarily gone deaf.

Rosen could only make out a pillar of light rising from the ground, piercing through the gray clouds and reaching the sky.

Then the ground trembled—something enormous had fallen.

Rosen wanted to go see who had won, but at that moment, a strange feeling reached his heart.

"..."

Was something... crying?

Rosen's hearing gradually returned, and a faint cry, almost impossible to catch, reached his ears.

Rosen immediately looked toward where the sound came from. It was in a pile of rubble not far ahead—

It happened to lie between the enormous footprints left by Crimson Storm and God of Desire.

"Could it be..." Rosen suddenly remembered something. He threw himself onto the rubble and desperately began digging through the broken stones.

The crying grew clearer and clearer, as though it were rushing straight at him.

Rosen did not even stop to wipe away his sweat. The hand armor of his Pilot Suit had already shattered to pieces, and his palms were covered in blood, but he still did not stop.

After moving aside the last piece of rubble, Rosen's hand froze in midair.

The expression on his face changed as well—shock, confusion, bewilderment, and finally, relief and joy.

"Is this what you wanted to tell me, Kunlun?"

Rosen reached out his blood-soaked hand and lifted something from the rubble—it was a baby, its umbilical cord not yet cut.

The baby briefly stopped crying and looked curiously around at the world. But when it saw Rosen, it cried even harder. Strangely enough, Rosen began crying too.

Rosen smiled, yet tears streamed down his face.

Then he gently held the baby in his arms.

"You really aren't good at expressing yourself..." He seemed to be speaking to the baby, yet also muttering to himself.

The blood on Rosen's cheeks mixed with his tears, staining the baby crimson as well.

"From today onward, your name..."

"Will be Rosen."

The fog dispersed.