bookbashuk Chapter 48 The Leaking Oil Reptile
Chapter 48 The Leaking Oil Reptile
The entire experimental area fell silent for a moment.
The next second, the entire vectoring machine jumped off the scanning table, moving so fast that she didn't even have time to process it herself.
Red Spider's face darkened first: "Something's happened?"
"Yes." Vector spoke quickly, "Something happened at home."
She turned and rushed out, but stopped abruptly after taking just one step.
In that instant, her brain module pulled all the wires together faster than she could do herself.
What a coincidence!
She was forced to come to Qingqiu City today.
This formal contact with Red Spider and Shockwave was delayed until today.
Zhen Tianzun is still in the recovery period.
But the arena just happened to choose this time to come.
It was intentional.
Some people have included the Starscream and Shockwave lines in their calculations as well.
Yin Vector stood at the door, his chest tight, his guide fins taut and straight.
She turned around abruptly, looking at Starscream and Shockwave. In that instant, she made her next move, her voice low and fast, without any hesitation, revealing her true intentions.
"The trouble I'm experiencing is related to Zhen Tianzun."
Red Spider didn't say anything, he just stared at her.
Shockwave's single eye quietly watched her.
Continuing with the vector, the brain module becomes extremely clear-headed under extreme emotional states.
"The arena's management has likely been in cahoots with the higher-ups. They've been watching me and Zhen Tianzun for quite some time now, and that's why I asked for leave before. They can also see your work-related interactions."
She looked at Red Spider, "They adjusted your public work hours so that this is the only time we can get together, using you to get me out of the way."
She looked at Shockwave again, her tone as hard as a taut string.
"This wasn't a coincidence. They deliberately created a gap in our schedule where I wasn't present and Zhen Tianzun hadn't recovered yet."
She implicitly acknowledged that the two knew about the final gladiatorial match at the Caron Arena a few days ago.
Red Spider's expression had turned completely cold.
The shockwave listened quietly without interrupting.
Yin Xiang's chest heaved violently, yet every word he spoke was exceptionally clear.
"Today they are using me to suppress Zhen Tianzun, and tomorrow they can use your scheduling, authority, and overt working relationships to suppress yourselves."
She paused for a moment, then squeezed out the last sentence almost through clenched teeth.
"You're already in their net."
The experimental area fell silent for a moment.
Red Spider spoke first, his voice colder and thinner than usual.
"Okay, now get back to taking care of your business."
He didn't damage the machine, much to his surprise, nor did he stop her.
The shockwave then speaks, its voice still low and flat.
"The current event chain has a high degree of logical continuity. Your judgment is highly likely to be correct."
His red monocle rested on her.
"Return. This is the optimal solution."
This is equivalent to allowing passage directly.
The air that seemed about to explode in the vector's chest felt even more substantial.
She didn't say anything more and turned to leave.
Red Spider suddenly spoke just before she rushed to the door: "Vector."
She turned around.
Red Spider stared at her, its wings pressed low, its eyes icy cold.
"Don't die on the way," he said, "otherwise all the data I've collected so far will have been for nothing."
Okay, it's the same old Red Spider-style concern.
Vector didn't have time to argue with him about wording, so he simply nodded.
Shockwave is even more direct than Starscream.
"If the situation gets out of control, survival will be the priority," he said. "Further research will require continued consideration of the variables."
The vector's lips twitched.
Neither of these machines is functioning properly.
But before rushing out the door, she left behind a very short message: "You all be careful too."
Then she rushed out without looking back.
-
She didn't pay any attention to the speed index as she rushed back from Qingqiu City.
The vehicle swept past the end of the main road, the magnetic levitation component at the bottom emitting a very low hum, and the entire assault boat was thrown out and rushed close to the ground.
She didn't take the usual, safer route.
He simply floored the accelerator and accelerated himself to the maximum speed.
The air at the edge of the city was sliced apart by the hull, and visible shockwaves were left on both sides of the air deflectors. The airflow behind was forcibly compressed, leaving a thin, almost white line. Her entire vehicle surged forward with the fierce, pulsating energy in the fire, its speed increasing in successive waves, so fast that the buildings on both sides became only blurry metallic afterimages.
She herself didn't have time to calculate exactly how fast things were progressing.
All I knew was—go faster.
When the sound of wind blows past the sides of the hull, it is no longer wind.
It's compressed air screeching.
At one corner, she didn't even slow down properly, relying solely on instinct and an absurdly fast response to violently fling the entire hull around, the stern scraping against the edge of the metal wall and leaving a trail of blinding sparks. Further on, she simply stopped suppressing the ever-present, pent-up power output, pushing the propulsion module to its absolute limit in one go, and at a certain moment, the air behind her finally exploded into a tiny white shock ring.
Sonic boom.
She herself didn't realize it; she just kept moving forward.
The brain module keeps repeating the same sentence over and over again.
Come back home.
-
When she rushed outside her residence, there was no need to confirm anything.
She could see it from afar.
A large section of the outer wall was cracked, with metal fragments scattered everywhere. One side of the wall, which had been intact, was pierced through. The ground was littered with energy fluid, fragments of the outer armor, and deep marks left by the impact. The air still carried the lingering heat and the smell of burning metal.
More importantly, the battle is not over yet.
The moment she landed back in robot mode from her vehicle form, another deafening explosion echoed from inside the building. Immediately afterward, a silver-gray figure was slammed against the edge of the building, sliding a considerable distance backward, its shield leaving a trail of sparks on the ground.
Zhen Tianzun.
He was still standing.
But her condition was much worse than before she left. The shoulder and arm coordination, which had not yet fully recovered during the recovery period, was now messed up again, and the structural layer on her chest and abdomen, which was originally adapting, had obviously been torn again. The old and new wounds on her outer armor were stacked on top of each other, and it looked almost shocking.
Surrounding him were five machines.
None of them are ordinary machines.
His physique, stance, and manner of cooperation make it immediately clear that he's there specifically to do something; just take him out or cripple him.
The entire vectoring machine was instantly enveloped by a chilling aura born from the extreme compression of rage.
Without hesitation, the outer armor of her left arm slid open completely with a "whoosh," and a slender energy blade shot out, its cold blue-green light trailing all the way to the ground.
She didn't say a single unnecessary word.
They charged straight in.
The outermost machine didn't even have time to react before it felt an exaggeratedly fast, cold light flash from its side and rear. The entire machine, like a sharp sword that had been shot out, used the momentum from its return from its maximum speed vehicle mode to slash diagonally upwards into the opponent's waist and abdomen connection.
In that instant, she clearly felt what she had cut open.
Outer armor.
wire.
Then there's the innermost structure.
When the energy liquid suddenly splashed out, her spark also jumped violently.
She killed someone.
It wasn't training, it wasn't in the arena, it was truly taking the initiative.
But that was just a fleeting thought.
The next moment, her brain module was so cold that not a single superfluous thing remained.
If we don't kill them, she and Zhen Tianzun will be the ones who die today.
If we don't kill them, they will be suppressed, dismantled, and forever trampled underfoot.
She didn't accept it.
So she preferred to strike first.
Before the enemy plane she had sliced in half had completely collapsed, the vector blade had already drawn back and turned, the blade trailing a trail of cold, gleaming energy liquid as it lashed out in an arc, the sound squeezed out between her teeth.
"I just want to live."
The next strike was aimed directly at the side neck of another machine.
"Why are you forcing me like this?"
Zhen Tianzun was bracing himself against the heavy blow from one of the machines when he caught a glimpse of her rushing in, and the entire machine visibly froze for a moment.
It wasn't because she came back.
Instead, after she returned, she didn't hesitate for a moment and immediately carried out the killing, both steady and ruthless.
The vector was too busy to look at him at that moment.
Her senses were heightened by the battlefield, becoming cold and clear. She could only see who was closest, who was about to raise their hand, who was losing their balance, and who would pounce on Zhen Tianzun in the next second.
She and Zhen Tianzun briefly formed the most troublesome combination.
One is a direct, forceful attack, its power unreasonable, its shield and cannon enough to shatter the entire field; the other is a quick and cunning side-step, a charge, a close-range kill, like a cold blade that can always pierce from the most disgusting angle.
They stirred up trouble in just one encounter.
The opposing machines clearly realized this immediately, so they quickly changed their tactics.
Instead of trying to hold both devices together, they started to deliberately separate them.
One machine held off the frontal attacks of the Zhen Tian Zun, while another forced the Yin Vector to reposition itself. The remaining machine, like a shadow, constantly sought out the gaps between the two machines, specifically targeting the most suitable point to cut them apart.
The vector was quickly forced to move two, three, and then even further away from Zhen Tianzun.
A fire suddenly surged in her heart.
"You bunch of scrap metal, you really don't know when to quit while you're ahead."
As she cursed, she swung her knife backhand and slashed it hard into the arm joint of the machine that was approaching her. When the blade was pulled out, it brought out several scattered, severed wires from the machine.
But the next second, she saw an even worse scene.
One of the machines circled around to the back of Zhen Tianzun.
The heavy weapon in his hand was already raised high.
The angle was extremely tricky, and the timing was extremely ruthless.
It was clearly aimed at knocking Zhen Tianzun unconscious, or even directly breaking the machine's support shaft.
The entire vectoring unit exploded, as if something had suddenly been ignited.
She didn't even have time to think in that instant.
The flame in his chest suddenly contracted, and then the magnetic ring around the edge of his chest, which had only occasionally appeared, was completely lit up. The cold blue light spread outwards along the flame chamber, rapidly expanding along his chest, shoulder line, arm armor, and internal rails.
A quiet yet terrifying network of energy instantly connected the entire machine to another kind of power.
The vector itself didn't even have time to understand what it was.
She instinctively raised her hand and hurled it at the machine that was preparing to launch a sneak attack on Zhen Tianzun.
In the blink of an eye.
The air seemed to be suddenly compressed and then collapsed by something invisible.
Before the machine could even react, it was as if an invisible hand had pressed it down from mid-air, causing its movement to abruptly halt. Then, it was forced into the side wall at a terrifying speed.
boom--!
The metal wall shattered on the spot.
Cracks crawled wildly along the panels, and the entire upper body of the machine was violently embedded by that invisible gravity. The outer armor emitted a teeth-grinding cracking sound, and the energy liquid and armor fragments exploded together.
The entire venue fell silent for a moment.
At that moment, Zhen Tianzun also raised his head, his pale blue optical mirror suddenly looking at her.
He was completely frozen in that moment, his mind blank for a second.
He didn't know she had this ability.
Little did she know that this ability would erupt in such a fierce and unrestrained manner when she was enraged to the extreme.
At that very instant, a spot on Zhen Tianzun's chest also throbbed.
I still don't have time to look at him.
Her entire machine was burning hot; the cold blue light on her arm armor hadn't dissipated, and the magnetic ring around the edge of the flame was dazzlingly bright. She could feel the power still coursing through her body's veins, and it could continue operating as long as she wanted.
She stared intently at the remaining two machines, her voice low and hoarse, even trembling noticeably, yet every word she uttered was chilling enough to send shivers down the spine of anyone speaking.
"You oil-leaking reptiles..."
She raised her hand, which was still gleaming coldly, her eyes devoid of any warmth.
"Who gave you the audacity to act recklessly?!"
The next second, she pounced on him again.