Lone Tank, Few Enemies

Six hours later, Hong Fei woke up.

It was high noon, the sun blazing bright. After showering, he changed into a clean, crisp set of casual clothes and went downstairs, where he found Helen Zhao sitting by the window flipping through a magazine.

Her long, jet-black hair hung naturally, the thin gold frames of her glasses reflecting tiny glints of light, the vermilion on her lips even more vivid.

"Good afternoon."

Hong Fei greeted her, and Helen Zhao looked up, immediately breaking into a smile.

She stood up, a hint of shyness in her tone: "Mr. Hong, I wanted to wait for you last night, but I got too tired in the end."

Hong Fei waved a hand as he walked to the seat across from her: "No worries, sit down. I didn't expect to be back that late myself. I'm the one who wasn't a good host."

"You're too kind." Helen Zhao gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, then added: "I saw the news report about last night. Those two... strange creatures were terrifying. Thankfully, the military acted quickly. Even if using artillery in the city shocked a lot of people, at least they kept the damage under control. If those two creatures had really fought it out, the consequences would have been unpredictable."

Hong Fei's eyebrows formed half a frown: "That's what the news said?"

"Yes. Mr. Hong, weren't you there last night? I personally wouldn't recommend you do that again—the risk is too great, and completely uncontrollable."

Hong Fei gave an awkward smile: "I wouldn't actually get close. I stayed far away."

Ross really had no shame, directly taking credit for the operations of Hong Fei's unknown faction. Only by doing so could he offset the negative impact of his string of failures to some extent. The Hulk could be called an accident, but the Abomination was almost entirely his own creation.

Helen Zhao nodded slightly, then her gaze drifted a little. "I'm guessing those two creatures last night were both military experiments. One of them had appeared before. Based on the incident analysis, I think the military was trying to create something to counter the Hulk, but their experiment got out of control again." She shook her head gently, a note of pity in her voice: "Those two poor humans."

This analysis was slightly off from the truth, but close enough.

If the timing weren't so early, Hong Fei would have wanted to take her to see the Abomination right away—it might even spark new inspiration in her biological research.

But there was no rush. For now, The Leader could temporarily take over that work, and Helen Zhao could focus entirely on her Regeneration Cradle project.

Hong Fei turned and pointed out the window at the open land in the distance: "Dr. Zhao, that's where I mentioned the lab site would be. The greenery there is excellent, there's a small natural lake, and it borders the estate's boundary. If you ever need to expand in the future, it's possible—after all, there's no one else on this hill but me."

Helen Zhao's eyes lit up: "Could I go take a look?"

"Of course."

Hong Fei accompanied her to the door, then waved over Number One, who was patrolling nearby: "Take Dr. Zhao to check out the lab site. You can discuss the architectural design requirements while you're at it. Dr. Zhao, I have some things to take care of—we'll talk later."

"No problem, go ahead."

Turning around, Hong Fei went straight down to the third basement level.

He walked through the corridor into the monitoring room, and his subordinates immediately stood up.

Hong Fei smiled: "How is it? Still not awake?"

"Yes, boss. No movement since last night."

On the screen, the Abomination lay motionless in the all-metal room. If not for the normal vital signs data, anyone would have thought he was dead.

"Good work. Keep watching him."

"Yes, sir!"

After that, Hong Fei entered an empty room alone.

With a flick of his finger, the green card appeared in his hand. He flicked it lightly, and the card dissolved into light, pouring into the Card Slot.

Activating it again, waves surged rapidly within the slot. Hong Fei felt energy drain from his body at high speed, vanishing in an instant.

Fortunately, the amount of energy wasn't tied to his physical condition, so there was no external effect.

The light radiating from the card grew brighter and brighter, until it was as emerald as a gem. Then, the space in front of Hong Fei trembled.

In the next moment, a tank materialized from the ground up, tracks, armor, barrel, and other structures forming one by one, until it became a brand-new, flawless king of the battlefield.

Without any hesitation, Hong Fei climbed onto the turret and ran his hands over the thick barrel.

It was still a 120mm caliber, but this was a tank!

Intuitively, Hong Fei definitely preferred this universally recognized king of land warfare.

He climbed inside the cabin, and the various display instruments and unfamiliar control structures only excited him more.

This was the awe of the unknown.

He fiddled around for a while, touching this and that.

After a short time, his energy recovered somewhat. Hong Fei tried pressing his palm against the tank, focusing his mind. Energy surged outward, and in an instant, a piece of information entered his brain: if he wanted to, he could fire the gun right now.

Could a tank that wasn't even running fire its gun?

Hong Fei didn't understand, but he was deeply impressed.

He quickly withdrew his energy and pulled his hand back. After a long while, he reluctantly returned to the turret.

Sitting cross-legged, he pulled out his phone and started looking up relevant information.

The M1A2SEP was the US military's current main battle tank, and the version with the SEP (System Enhancement Package) suffix was the newest and most advanced model.

The sighting, fire control, weapon, power, communication, and vehicle management systems made Hong Fei happy but also a bit confused.

Overall, this wasn't the simple, headlong brute he had imagined—it was a highly advanced digital tank.

After a moment, he let out a soft sigh.

The benefits of digitization needed no explanation, but for a lone man like him, a Lone Tank with Few Enemies, lacking external system support and coordination with other combat units, the power and effectiveness this so-called main battle tank could display would naturally be greatly diminished.

So the question is: can this Skill Card only generate one tank? It can't be unlimited, right?

Even though he already had an answer in mind, Hong Fei still wanted to test it.

But his current energy recovery wasn't enough for a second use of the skill. Come to think of it, ever since his physical fitness broke through, his energy recovery speed seemed to have improved quite a bit.

His gaze fell back on the tank. Hong Fei pondered for a moment, then shifted his perspective.

Those digital functions didn't seem as important to him as he'd imagined.

After all, his goal wasn't to lead North Americans to overthrow the U.S. empire. For now, his battles were typically small-scale, localized, and the number of combatants rarely exceeded a hundred—even fifty was a stretch.

That being the case, one tank was enough, because this thing wasn't something just anyone had.

Besides, taking a step back, condensing that one tank had already drained all of Hong Fei's energy. He didn't have a single drop left to spare, only passively waiting for recovery.

Unless this tank could also use real shells besides energy—that needed testing, but having seen its internal structure, Hong Fei was fairly confident.

Moreover, a tank wasn't like other weapons.

Guns and ammo were sold on the streets, a Mortar could be easily hidden, but a sixty-ton beast like this—once it showed up and got exposed—would inevitably cause a huge stir.

The simplest point: this was Eagle Country's main battle tank, made by a single manufacturer worldwide. Where the hell did you get one?

So either don't use it, and if you do, it's best to kill everyone who sees it.