Helping Others

The waves surged, mechs opened fire, tentacles snapped, and the monstrous beast roared.

When that pure beam of light descended from the sky and pierced straight through the monster as it charged toward the wormhole, everything came to a standstill.

It was a deafening clamor, and also the silence of all things being annihilated.

Starlight rose from the sea, then suddenly froze in midair. As gravity reversed, it plunged back into the collapsing wormhole.

Fission energy powerful enough to destroy the entire landmass bloomed endlessly like white flowers, as if it meant to take root and grow across the planet's surface.

The blinding light continued climbing toward the sky, only to be sucked into the hole without pause.

The devastating shockwave hurled all the seawater within several miles into the air, exposing the cratered seabed.

Dozens of mechs slammed into the shore like bowling balls and lay motionless.

Even the transport fleet hovering in the air wobbled out of position under the influence of the violent currents.

Splash!

Ten seconds later, seawater came crashing down from the sky like a heavenly river.

It was the first sound anyone heard.

[Warning: Full-body armor damaged by 50%!]

Xingtian struggled to its feet in the crater and looked toward where the monstrous beast had been.

The wormhole had vanished, and so had the beast.

A golden sun rose above the horizon, dispelling the dark clouds. Sunlight fell on the devastated shore, warming the battered mechs.

"The wormhole has collapsed. The energy readings have disappeared." Yuan Zhen picked up the communicator and announced the outcome over the public channel.

"Everyone, we did it."

No one cheered. No one erupted with excitement.

All that could be heard was the heavy breathing of people utterly exhausted.

Aboard the transport ships, many people took off their headsets, covered their faces, and slumped in their seats.

Along the shore, most of the pilots gazed at the rippling sea, unwilling to get up for a long while.

Their feelings were impossibly complicated: joy, relief, regret, exhaustion...

They had just resolved a major crisis, and this operation was destined to become a landmark in the history of the war.

Yet the war was not over.

Leviathan still lurked in the vast central sea, like a long blade held to humanity's throat, constantly reminding them that the danger had not passed.

But no matter what, humanity had managed to turn the tide, if only for now.

It was time to head back.

Four hours later.

Gan Kingdom, Cangyue City, Watchman Alliance First Division.

Five large legion-class transport ships were parked on the vast landing apron. Among the crowds coming and going, engineering vehicles and drones could still be seen from time to time.

There weren't enough hangars here to accommodate dozens of mechs at once, so the repair crews simply left the mechs in the transport ships' makeshift hangars and drove the engineering vehicles aboard to work on them.

Yet beneath this busy scene, everyone concealed an irrepressible curiosity and excitement.

A few minutes later, the scene everyone had been waiting for finally appeared.

The transport ship of Xuanse Cangqiong opened its massive bay doors, and a black mech and a white one emerged from two makeshift hangars.

An unheard-of pilot, and a mech with a mind of its own.

Either one alone would have been major news, let alone the two appearing together. It was nothing short of a spectacle!

The milling crowd immediately began to chatter.

"I heard that little girl hasn't even attended a pilot academy. I don't know how Xuanse Cangqiong had the nerve to let her pilot a mech."

"You're out of the loop. General Chen recruited her himself, and she even set a record for the highest neural synchronization rate!"

"Look at her. She got a new mech halfway through the trip and just hopped right in. She's piloting it better than that guy at our base who's been training for half a year."

"I think you've got the wrong thing to focus on. The girl might be a genius, but she's still human. Where are you going to find a mech that can act on its own?"

"That's just the autopilot function. Even third-generation mechs can do that!"

"Give it a rest. Autopilot still requires a pilot to synchronize with the mech first. Xingtian is genuinely unmanned. It has a mind of its own!"

"Good heavens... Monsters were already enough of a headache. Now mechs are coming to life, too? At least it's on our side."

Yu Xiao's receiver picked up every word.

But the person beside him clearly hadn't heard a single one.

"How did you end up like this?" Bai Ying was intensely curious about what had happened to Xingtian.

"You could say I merged with two other mechs." Yu Xiao came up with a simple explanation.

"Ah! You can do that...? So are you Xingtian, Cobra, or Demon Scorpion now?"

"Those two mechs don't have minds of their own. I just merged with their bodies..." Yu Xiao almost got himself tangled up in his explanation, so he quickly changed the subject. "You only need to know that I'm Xingtian. What about you? How did you get here on a transport ship, and why were you piloting a new mech?"

"The escape pod had an emergency signal beacon. After you tossed me out, I ran into a transport ship from Xuanse Cangqiong." Bai Ying calmly recounted what had happened. "That's when I found out that after General Chen got Gao Tianzhi's call, he immediately contacted his friend in Omega."

"A friend in Omega?"

"Yes. The vice president of the Hall of Omniscience, one of Omega's founders, Dr. Yuan Zhen."

Yu Xiao was inwardly marveling at the connections.

So General Chen knew one of Omega's top executives!

He'd assumed that Xuanse Cangqiong had offended Chris, and that had somehow led to Omega getting involved. But it turned out Chris had offended a friend of his own superior!

No wonder General Chen had dared to leave Xingtian at the base. As expected, everyone who made it to that position was an old hand...

"As for the transport ship, every legion has one. But Xuanse Cangqiong is short on funds, and it costs a lot to take one out, so we hardly ever use it. But when General Chen found out we were in trouble, he immediately had someone bring it over."

"And your new mech? Surely that wasn't some treasure left gathering dust at the base, too?" This was actually the question Yu Xiao cared about most. If the base had a mech like that, why would an old fossil like him need to protect everyone?

"This mech... Dr. Yuan lent it to Xuanse Cangqiong after she heard that we'd run into trouble in the Silent Graveyard." Bai Ying was uncharacteristically hesitant. "She said it was still in development and needed combat data, so she lent it to us first. That would also help her make adjustments later."

She really had gone all out to help them!

An experimental mech cost far more than a standardized one that had already been perfected. If she could lend them even that, Yu Xiao would believe they were close friends—or even siblings, despite having different parents.

But that thought lasted less than a second in Yu Xiao's mind before vanishing without a trace.

He didn't believe in getting something for nothing. If a pie really did fall on his head, there had to be a price.

If Yu Xiao's guess was right, Xuanse Cangqiong definitely had something that interested Yuan Zhen.

The thought made his scalp prickle.

Because the first thing that came to mind was himself.