Chang Guang rose and pressed a button on the test bench.
In an instant, the entire factory seemed to dim by several degrees, as an absurd amount of electrical power was used to sustain the mechanism's operation.
Right in front of the two of them, the iron floor slowly opened, and Xia Ya easily saw an underground river beneath it.
But immediately afterward, the surface of the river began to ripple slightly. The sound of mechanical gears made everyone realize just how heavy the object being lifted must be.
And when the object's full form appeared before them... an overwhelming sense of shock gripped everyone's heart.
It was a massive machine standing a full two people tall. Its crimson, meteor-like design made Xia Ya fall completely in love with this Exoskeleton Armor at first sight.
This almost absurdly massive design could be said to have pushed the definition of heavy Exoskeleton Armor to its absolute limit!
This was definitely an Exoskeleton Armor that belonged to me!
At that moment, countless Anti-Entropy members in the underground factory couldn't help stopping what they were doing and gazing reverently at their masterpiece of the past few years.
"Does it have a name?"
Apparently sensing Xia Ya's satisfaction, Chang Guang couldn't help smiling brightly as she introduced it with confidence.
"MSN-04—Sazabi!"
"Sazabi..."
Xia Ya stepped forward, and the armor seemed to sense his approach! It actively opened its outer armor, revealing the cockpit inside.
This thing could no longer really be called an Exoskeleton Armor—it was a genuine weapon of war!
"This armor is equipped with biometric identification. Since it detected that it was you, it opened automatically and exposed the cockpit. I think that with it, your plan won't encounter any mishaps."
"Does it have any special functions?"
"Of course. See those cylinders on the opened shoulder armor?"
Xia Ya leaned closer. Each shoulder armor had five cylinders, and the pitch-black hollows at the front of those dark-red cylinders reminded him of something unpleasant.
"What are these?"
"These little things are Sazabi's true trump card for defeating its enemies—and the time is almost here. Mr. Xia Ya, would you like to get inside and experience it personally?"
A strange smile spread across Xia Ya's lips.
"Mm. Very good."
······
"How could this... happen..."
At that moment, everyone had gathered at Jiuting Base. It was 5:46 in the morning. Not only had the earliest inspection train already departed, even the first train operating on the main line had entered service.
There simply weren't many people who would take the subway at this hour.
And since everyone had gathered together, it meant that all the trains had already been checked by Klein.
The conclusion was—nothing abnormal...
"How can there be nothing abnormal?" Xu Qi's eyes were full of disbelief. He wouldn't doubt Klein's inspection: the electrical signal transmission was normal, all the cables were in normal condition, and the pneumatic system tests were normal.
If that was the case... where else could have caused the brakes to fail?
Only Xin An was a little puzzled.
"Shouldn't there be nothing abnormal...? Engineer Xu, why are you so certain that Supervisor Xia would do... something so utterly insane?"
"Right outside Xia Ya's home, Mei and I were attacked by terrorists."
Xin An's eyes suddenly widened.
"Terror... What!?"
"So I can be almost certain! Today! Xia Ya will make a train's brakes fail completely! Could it be... that I guessed wrong? Was it not Line Nine?"
31, Mei: You're not taking advantage of my boyfriend, are you?
At Jiuting Base, everyone fell silent.
Elysia and the others had already heard about it from Mobius, but at the time, she had only said that Xu Qi and the others had run into trouble. Who could have imagined that this trouble would involve terrorists?
"Are you sure, Xu Qi?" Yae's expression was extremely serious.
"One of them had a gun."
"Waaah!" Pardofelis was so frightened that she immediately hugged Xu Qi from behind. Neko desperately needed someone who could make her feel safe.
Mei looked over suspiciously. For a moment, she couldn't tell whether Pardofelis was really frightened or merely taking advantage of her boyfriend. Er... no, wait. Why did it look as if Xu Qi was the one taking advantage of her?
Just then, Xu Qi's phone rang—it was Vil-V.
"Sister Vil-V?"
"Xu Qi! Something's very wrong! We've checked every train at Jinqiao, and they're all normal! We haven't found anything abnormal! What about your side?"
This time, Xu Qi fell even more silent...
He replied quietly, "Same here."
"Could it be that it's not Line Nine?"
"But even if it's another line, it's already too late." It was 5:30, and the first trains had already departed! Not to mention the standby trains and inspection trains.
As everyone spoke, several more trains left the depot.
Why—what had Xia Ya done!?
At that moment, Jinqiao Base.
Hearing everyone's discussion, Kosma couldn't help frowning.
The young man keenly noticed the seriousness of the situation. The other side had evidently used unconventional methods, which was why they had been unable to properly inspect everything.
But... the result wouldn't change.
The young man named Kosma was best at getting straight to the heart of a problem.
He looked toward the trains gradually preparing to depart for the main line and came up with a bold idea.
"Wait. Don't panic yet, Xu Qi. Think carefully. If the train's brakes can't work, what else needs to be done to make it stop?"
The method was actually the same as when Xu Qi had stopped Train 914.
"Force the pantograph down! Once it loses its power source, the train will gradually stop on its own. The reason I had to stop it manually last time was that the test track wasn't long enough.
"But the main line is different! As long as the power source is cut, there's more than enough space for the train to stop!"
"Then would cutting the power work too?"
Xu Qi froze—Vil-V's words had snapped him out of his confusion! He had been so fixated on the trains that he had nearly forgotten about everything else.
"Of course it would! And there would be many ways to do that. We could also change the switches and send the train into an unpowered section to force it to stop."
"Xu Qi, tell me first. Do you think Xia Ya could have thought of what we've just come up with?"
"Yes!"
Xu Qi gave an extremely decisive answer!
Not only because Xia Ya had spent who knew how many years planning this revenge, but because he was Xia Ya! He would definitely have considered these details.
He had even been cautious enough to first use Train 914, which required a braking test, to observe whether the plan could be implemented. What could he possibly fail to consider?
"Xu Qi, put yourself in Xia Ya's shoes. Set aside whatever he did to the trains—we can't detect that right now. What else? What other safeguards would he have prepared?"
"The network control center and the substations! The former controls the switches, while the latter controls the high-voltage grid. In an extreme situation, we can't rule out the possibility of him changing the switches, cutting the network, and cutting the power! Xia Ya would definitely think of that!"
······
"Hmm? Engineer Tan, you're here early today."
At the substation's control center, a middle-aged man in work clothes greeted someone as he walked to his workstation.
"Little Li, is there anything abnormal?"
"Reporting to you, Engineer Tan, the entire power network is normal. Operations have already begun."
"Mm. Report any abnormalities immediately."
After saying that, Engineer Tan waited until no one nearby was paying attention before taking a black metal box from his bag and placing it on the desk.
It seemed like an insignificant action, but to the people of Anti-Entropy, it was the most crucial step in the plan. After all, one could never imagine what methods someone might use to hack into a system.
The same scene was unfolding at the network control center.
The people who brought the black metal boxes inside came from all walks of life. They might be engineers, or merely low-level clerical workers, or even cleaners.
As long as the hardware could be brought inside, everything else... would no longer be a problem.
······
"What do we do now? The morning rush will begin soon. If it happens then..."
"If the trains lose their braking ability at that time..." Xu Qi's face was ashen, and both his fists were clenched tightly.
"Rear-end collisions, with the cars nearly full—that could already be called a disaster."
"We must seize control of the substations and the network control center!"
But one of those belonged to power supply and the other to operations. They weren't even part of the same organization, so they had no way to interfere!
"At this point... we'll have to force our way in."
On the other end of the call, Vil-V smiled after hearing that.
"Understood! Kevin, go to the network control center first and find a way to hack into their system! Kosma and I will... Huh!? Where's Kosma!?"
As soon as the driver boarded the train, he saw a boy with an exceptionally youthful appearance waiting inside. The driver scratched his head in confusion.
"Uh... you're...?"
"I'm here for the daily inspection." Kosma lied without expression.
The driver understood. In that case, there was no problem.
"You're new, right? The person accompanying the train left ages ago. Why are you so late?"
"There was a malfunction. The team leader told me to handle it on the main line. This was the fastest departure."
Kosma remembered that when Xu Qi had moved to the Golden Courtyard, he seemed to have mentioned an experience from when he had once performed daily inspections.
He had said that he'd been woken at six in the morning and then sent onto the main line to inspect a malfunctioning train.
"I see... That's pretty tough. Go sit in the passenger compartment, and don't stay in the driver's cab."
"Oh."
It worked...
The train slowly left the depot. At that moment, his communicator rang. Kosma looked at it—it was Vil-V.
"Kosma!" The moment he answered, Vil-V's roar came through the communicator. "Where did you run off to!? You're on the train, aren't you!? What are you trying to do!?"
"Didn't you say so yourselves?"
At that moment, Kosma was calm in a way that was completely unlike a second-year high school student.
"The train might lose its brakes on the main line. Since I can't help with anything else right now, I figured I'd take a gamble and see whether I could board the problematic train.
"This train is numbered 956, the one that caused Romieu's death back then. We couldn't find anything wrong with it during the previous inspection, but I have a bad feeling about it.
"If I'm on the train, maybe I can help somehow. Sister Vil-V, this time, I want to do something in my own way."
This was the first time Vil-V had heard Kosma say so much. He must be nervous too...
Honestly... what a foolish child.
32, Can you dare look directly into Su's eyes?
"All of them!? You mean none of the trains left in the depot are going to depart!? Are you kidding me!?"
In the dispatch room, Xu Qi called the main-line operations center and spoke in a tone that sounded absurd, yet clearly wasn't a joke.
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