War Is About to Begin

For the next half month, Xiao Shou lived through hell...

Zhu Qian never joked around.

If he told you to train, he really would train you to death.

And the instructor supervising Xiao Shou was Colonel Lin Huixin.

Lin Huixin looked refined and mild-tempered, but if you thought he truly was like that, you were mistaken.

How many soldiers were actually gentle and refined?

"Train! A five-kilometer armed cross-country run leaves you gasping for breath? What a disgrace to warriors!"

"Do you know where you are? This is the Jaeger Combat Department, a military base that brings together the nation's finest technology!"

"Who are you? A Jaeger pilot! The pilot of Mount Tai! The lives and safety of Dalian—even the people across the entire country—rest on your shoulders! How can you bear such a heavy responsibility like this?"

In short, after a morning of training under Colonel Lin Huixin's demonic voice, Xiao Shou looked utterly dead inside.

Physical training in the morning, combat training in the afternoon, and neural drift training at night.

What a perfectly packed schedule.

If he had a choice, Xiao Shou would have preferred the little monsters in the virtual world.

At lunch, Xie Yushan could not help laughing when she saw Xiao Shou looking so listless.

"Alright, cheer up. Your sparring training this afternoon has been canceled!"

"Hm?"

"Mount Tai's laser weapons have been installed. The commander wants us to go take a look."

Xiao Shou immediately sat up straight upon hearing that.

Now you have my attention.

He had been coveting the two laser swords on Wanderer for a long time.

Honestly, how many people could resist a laser sword?

Xiao Shou had certainly been completely won over by them.

After lunch, Xiao Shou took a quick shower and hurried anxiously to the main hall of the Shatterdome base.

His training these past few days had all taken place on the training grounds outside the base.

He had not participated in Mount Tai's refit.

He was extremely eager to see it now.

Xie Yushan was the same, although she tried her best to look expressionless and indifferent.

Any disguise was useless in the face of a neural drift connection.

Outside the main hall.

Mount Tai stood tall on Platform One at the center of the hall.

It was like a deity, protecting the human world.

Its mighty, towering body perfectly embodied the meaning of "strength."

The damage Mount Tai had sustained in its previous battle against Bladehead had long since been repaired.

It still looked as imposing as ever.

At Mount Tai's feet, Mao Shucheng and Dr. Herman were discussing something.

Mao Shucheng had returned the day after Xiao Shou came back.

He only needed to arrange matters concerning the establishment of the Shatterdome base in Hong Kong.

He was not a construction supervisor, so there was no need for him to remain there overseeing the base's completion.

This was a key national project. No one would dare commit fraud or cut corners here.

Once the funding and manpower issues were resolved, Mao Shucheng looked positively radiant.

It even felt as though he had grown back quite a bit of hair.

And that was not all. With the country's full support, the second Jaeger could finally be formally put on the agenda.

This Jaeger would be unprecedented, because it required neural drift connections between three pilots before it could be activated.

Its weapons would be more advanced, and its power source would differ from those of the old Jaegers.

The flexible drives in its joints would allow it to execute all kinds of high-difficulty attack maneuvers.

It would feature an entirely Chinese-style design.

At present, every component of the Jaeger was being urgently manufactured at different factories.

The original plan was to assemble it in Changzhou.

Crimson Typhoon would serve as the guardian of the Hong Kong Shatterdome base.

After arranging all this, Mao Shucheng had hurried back to Dalian.

In Xiao Shou's words, this place was his battlefield.

A soldier would never leave his battlefield.

Though his battlefield would soon be moving south...

When Mao Shucheng saw Xiao Shou and Xie Yushan approaching, he and Dr. Herman stopped their conversation.

"Because the Mo Dao is difficult to repair due to certain manufacturing processes, we have decided to replace it with laser weapons. Dr. Herman will demonstrate them for you now."

Herman did not stand on ceremony. He stepped forward and activated the holographic projector.

A Jaeger identical to Mount Tai appeared before him, though at a smaller scale.

The holographic Mount Tai seemed to come alive as it automatically switched between demonstrations of its various weapons.

The electromagnetic particle cannon, electromagnetic grappler, rocket thrusters, and nano-extension devices were all functioning normally.

When it reached the Mo Dao segment, the hilt drawn from its leg was now only around ten meters long, having undergone considerable modification.

The previous Mo Dao had a twenty-two-meter hilt and a twenty-two-meter blade, in a one-to-one proportion.

Now, the hilt had been greatly shortened, making it easier to carry.

A flash of electricity ran through Mount Tai's hands, and the laser version of the Mo Dao sprang out.

Like Wanderer's laser swords, Mount Tai's laser blades were over thirty meters long, though their hilts were somewhat longer than Wanderer's.

Their color was as deep blue as the sky—a reminder from hell to update faster. No, a death warrant.

"Small electromagnetic stimulators have been installed in both of Mount Tai's hands. They stimulate a particular substance within to generate the laser, while the energy storage devices of the electromagnetic particle cannon and electromagnetic grappler stabilize the laser sword's shape and maintain it."

Herman did his best to explain the principles behind the laser weapons' application on Mount Tai to Xiao Shou and Xie Yushan in plain, understandable terms.

That gave Xiao Shou some insight. He had always thought the electromagnetic particle cannon was a weapon that charged energy on the spot, but it turned out the energy was stored in advance.

No wonder that after using the electromagnetic grappler in the virtual world, the energy would be insufficient for a second attack.

So the energy had been used up.

Just as Herman was still discussing the laser weapons with Xiao Shou and Xie Yushan, a secretary hurried over and interrupted them.

"Dr. Herman, this is an emergency transmission from PPDC headquarters!"

Herman's heart skipped a beat. An emergency transmission from headquarters could not possibly bring good news.

It definitely could not be General Jonathan calling because he missed him and wanted to catch up.

"Hello, is this Dr. Herman? The wormhole on the western coast of the Pacific Ocean has registered an enormous life-energy signal. It's very close to California and Oregon!"