Overpower Mode

"No way, again?"

The three looked behind them and saw the thick brick wall, several meters high, collapse with a crash amid a series of cracks.

The tunneling machine smashed through it. It was moving fast and was so close that Red One and the other two had no time to dodge.

Blue Two and Yellow Three were trampled beneath several of its feet and left sprawled on the ground, while Red One was pushed along by its demolition saw.

"Aaah! F***! Haaah!"

Charging headlong, the tunneling machine sensed something hard tangled up with its demolition saw. After thinking it over with its current boar-level intelligence, it decided not to retract the saw.

Instead, it kept the saw running at high frequency, determined not to stop until it had ground the unidentified object to pieces. The scraping made Red One howl, but his cries of pain were drowned out by the even louder noise around him.

The spinning teeth shredded his fancy suit, and the exposed armor of his mechanical body threw off showers of sparks as it scraped fiercely against the demolition saw.

In the midst of her fierce battle, Koleda noticed the commotion around Red One. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something resembling a Dayun truck barreling toward her.

Koleda hastily dodged aside, leaving the not-so-bright grabber machine standing where it was to take the tunneling machine's full-force charge.

The grabber tried to stop the demolition saw with both arms, but its screen, flickering with garbled characters, still made heavy, intimate contact with Red One's back.

All four of the grabber's feet strained, its engine running at full power, but it still could not immediately stop the brute force of the tunneling machine's charge. Meanwhile, Red One had gone silent.

"Is that the tunneling machine? What's going on? Didn't Ben and the others stop it?"

Koleda watched the two machines struggle against each other, still unsure what had happened.

And because of her viewing angle, she did not see Red One sandwiched between them.

Koleda looked toward where the tunneling machine had come from and saw the shattered brick wall, along with the dust-covered Blue Two and Yellow Three slowly picking themselves up.

Why were those two over there? And it looked like the tunneling machine ran them over. Didn't I tell them to take shelter? Why were they still here?

They seemed fine, though. Those metal bodies really were sturdy. But where was the other one?

"Enough already-!"

A furious roar came from between the two machines.

Koleda looked over and saw that the gap between the tunneling machine and the grabber seemed to have widened a little.

Red One had planted himself between them in a wide stance, his left hand pushing against the grabber's face and his right forearm braced against the spinning demolition saw.

With his own considerable strength running at full capacity, he forcibly opened a meter-and-a-half gap between the two.

But he looked a sorry sight now. His original clothes lay in tatters on the ground, exposing his entire mechanical body, and the once smooth, gleaming armor on his front had been scraped rough.

Even his face had suffered. Like a screen mauled by a hundred cats, it was covered in scratches.

Although the self-repairing nanocoating on his body's surface was slowly repairing the scratches and chipped paint, it would not be finished anytime soon.

And precisely because of that, Red One was now seething with anger.

"My paint, and my face! You two inferior machines!!!"

Auxiliary system notification: activating Overpower Mode. Unnecessary functional modules disabled. Core overclocking initiated. Cooling module activated...

Red One said nothing more. A faint red light began shining through the gaps in his armor. He raised his right foot and stomped down hard, sinking it slightly into the ground.

Then, with his left foot freed up, he delivered a powerful side kick straight into the grabber's face.

The grabber, which had been locked in their contest of strength, was kicked sideways more than two meters by Red One. Cracks appeared across its screen, and the armor around the screen's frame caved in.

The kick seemed to have had quite a lingering effect on the grabber. Apparently dazed, it staggered backward.

Seizing the opportunity, Red One faced the tunneling machine and planted his left foot into the ground alongside his right. His freed left hand and his right instantly shifted position, gripping the demolition saw from above and below. Then he exerted force with both hands.

With a crack, Red One's hands locked the constantly spinning demolition saw in place. His palms clamped firmly onto its teeth, forcing it to stop rotating.

"Haaaaaaaah!"

Red One roared furiously, his heat-dissipating red hair venting scalding air. His surface temperature rose rapidly, and the air around him warped from the heat. Now he was going full throttle.

His arms and torso strained, and the ground beneath his feet cracked under the sudden increase in pressure.

Before Koleda's shocked eyes, Red One gripped the demolition saw and forcibly lifted the entire tunneling machine off the ground.

Ignoring its four feet flailing in midair, Red One held it overhead and unleashed even more power, laboriously turning his body before swinging it hard behind him.

The grabber had only just recovered and had no time to react before the tunneling machine Red One swung over smashed it off its feet.

Red One spun around twice more with it to build momentum, then aimed at the grabber and hurled the tunneling machine, knocking the grabber back to the ground as it tried to get up.

Koleda said, "...Is this guy really that strong?"

Those moves left Koleda dumbfounded. She had never expected Red One's body to be this powerful, toppling heavy machines countless times his size in just a couple of moves.

After throwing the tunneling machine, Red One had only gotten halfway through enjoying himself and was still thinking of going over to land a few more punches and kicks. But the moment he took a step, his auxiliary system automatically took him out of Overpower Mode.

Warning: waste heat has reached dangerous levels. Initiating forced shutdown of Overpower Mode...

No, wait!

Koleda watched Red One's distorted silhouette spring forward a step, then fall flat on his face. His momentum even carried him another two or three meters, pushing up a cloud of dust.

Koleda said, "What's wrong with him?"

"He was forced out of 'Overpower Mode.'"

Koleda turned toward the voice and saw Blue Two and Yellow Three, who had just finished dusting themselves off and had arrived beside her at some point.

Yellow Three watched Red One picking himself up and said with lingering fear:

"Good thing. We were lucky."

Blue Two said, "I don't even know whether I count as lucky or unlucky."

"Fucking hell, it's hot! I'm burning up!"

As Red One got up, his auxiliary functions restarted, bringing his speech module and bodily feedback module back online.

Red One helplessly fanned himself with both hands, but his residual heat of over a hundred degrees was not something he could cool down just by fanning.

With no other choice, he could only endure his current state and walk over to Koleda and the others first.

"Mr. Red One, are you all right? You haven't burned yourself out, have you?"

Koleda was a little worried about Red One's current condition.

Red One said, "I'm fine. I should cool down naturally in another ten or twenty minutes. But it sure is hot. I wish there was something to cool me down faster...

Hey, hey, what's with you two? I get her avoiding me, but why are you two keeping away too?"

"You know perfectly well why we're avoiding you."

"F***, you two..."

Blue Two and Yellow Three dodged Red One's outstretched hands again, but he refused to give up and began chasing them around Koleda like the King of Qin circling a pillar.

"President! We're here!!!"

They stopped and looked toward the hole the tunneling machine had smashed open. It was Anton and Big Ben, arriving belatedly and hurrying over to Koleda.

Koleda said, "Great, you're here. Looks like you're both fine."

Ben leaned on his iron pillar, panting as he said, "Whew, whew. Sorry, whew, President, for causing you trouble. And these three... Hm? What happened to you...?"

Red One waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. I'll explain later!"

Anton looked at Koleda and scratched his head sheepishly.

"President, we couldn't stop the tunneling machine and let it get over here. But it looks like you've already dealt with it."

Koleda said, "Not yet. Those two can still move."

As if to answer Koleda's words, the tunneling machine and the grabber were trying to get up in jerky fits and starts, only to slump back down helplessly.

They were already badly damaged, with electrical sparks flickering out of numerous damaged areas on their bodies.

After Red One's rough treatment, three of the tunneling machine's four feet were completely damaged and immobile. As for the grabber, it seemed Red One's kick had badly damaged its core area, and the impacts had affected its hardware as well, causing it to malfunction.

It looked like there was no need to worry about them for now.

Anton said, "Huh, hasn't Grace dealt with the tunneling machine yet?"

Koleda said, "Grace? Didn't she say she was going after the pile driver? Where is she now?"

Anton said, "Grace climbed inside the tunneling machine's cab."

Ben said, "President, didn't Grace call out to you?"

"What?"

Koleda and Red One's trio froze for a moment, then all eyes turned to Red One in the middle. Koleda asked:

"Mr. Red One, did you hear Grace's voice when you were caught between them?"

Ben said, "...Huh!?"

Red One said, "Well..."

Blue Two and Yellow Three also looked at Red One. If they remembered correctly, Red One had just spun the tunneling machine around a few times with Grace inside before throwing it.

Could Grace, inside that cab, withstand that?

Red One tried hard to recall, then said awkwardly and uncertainly:

"I-it was so noisy then, I really don't know whether she called out. And I didn't know Miss Grace was inside either!"

Had he known Grace was inside, Red One would not have been so rough.

Koleda said, "...Never mind. The tunneling machine's cab has been through crash testing too, so Grace should be more or less fine.

Let's get Grace out first, then scrap these two, and then..."

"Shorty-!!!"

The sudden nickname gave Koleda a fright, and she looked toward the voice along with everyone else. Grace was standing on the completely shut-down tunneling machine, waving her terminal-holding hand high overhead as she called out to them.

"Everyone! The tunneling machine's taken care of!!"

Grace shouted, but she did not notice the blood running from her hair down to her cheek.