Genius Mechanic: Chapter 205

Slared Contaminated Zone(Star Alliance Mission)

205. Restoration of Slared’s Abandoned System.

Proofread by Cloud Chip Cake and An Zheee 

The plant roots spread throughout the entire ice layer, revealing a fierce appearance while under the continuous bombardment. Thick and thin roots broke through the ice and thrust into the ground, their ferocity starkly contrasting with their previously silent demeanor. The booming sounds of cannon fire and breaking ice echoed together, causing chunks of ice to fall from above, making the entire underground ice layered space look like it was on the verge of collapse.

Zhao Lejie maneuvered with his shield up, dodging the onslaught of roots. His thrusters were pushed to their limits as he narrowly avoided the roots ahead, only for more to pierce through the shield’s perimeter, cracking the ice near his feet.

Huo Yan shouted from a distance, “Lao Zhao, protect yourself!”

“Damn! Are you guys trying to get yourselves killed? Get inside the shield!” Zhao Lejie leaped to Ying Chenlin’s side, holding his shield up to protect him. “Don’t stay out there too long; be careful not to get frozen in place!”

Ying Chenlin stepped into Zhao Lejie’s shield, knocked off the frozen ice around him, and then darted back out beyond the shield’s protection. His Energy Cannon fired at the distant ice pillars, while Lin Yao, with sharp eyes, followed Huo Yan. Amid the repeated attacks from the roots, Lin Yao picked up the fallen ice chunks and stuffed them into his storage compartment.

Zhao Lejie had no choice but to keep up with KID’s pace.

This damn underground space was no place for free combat. They were barely moving around thanks to the roots wrapped around their bodies, and their time outside the shield was limited to about one minute! Even if they needed to lure out these pollutants, couldn’t they devise a strategy first? Recklessly provoking it like this, if he were the pollutant, he would definitely want to kill them all right here.

The dark environment in the underground ice layers drastically increased the difficulty of mecha combat.

At that moment, the temperature around them suddenly plummeted once again, dropping by 15 degrees Celsius in the blink of an eye. The speed at which ice layers condensed around the mechas increased significantly.

“It’s really coming this time,” Ying Chenlin said.

Zhao Lejie was stunned for a moment, “What’s coming?”

Searchlights swept through the darkness of the ice layers, and amid the constant sounds of breaking ice, a faint, unusual noise seemed to surface. You Su, with his sharp hearing, quickly adjusted the direction of his Energy Cannon, firing at the source of the sound.

The Energy Cannon cut a path of light, bringing a violent tremor with it upon hitting the ice layer’s ceiling, striking a pollutant that had been stealthily observing the scene.

You Su said, “The culprit behind the freezing energy.”

Zhao Lejie aimed his searchlight at the spot where You Su had fired, and suddenly, he saw something hanging upside down about fifty meters away on an ice ridge. It was more like a pair of special rings. A series of small circular rings, glowing a faint blue, surrounded a deep, endless blackness at their center.

“Rings…?” Huo Yan noticed the oddity. “No, those are eyes.”

They were a pair of black eyes enveloped in tiny blue light spots.

The moment they noticed the eyes, You Su’s Energy Cannon fired again at the same location.

Just as the Energy Cannon was about to hit those eyes, the eyes, which had been hanging upside down on the high ice ridge, moved. The mecha pilots who were watching closely immediately saw the full form of the creature.

The pollutant, resembling a crow, was entirely coated in a color similar to the translucent ice layers, blending seamlessly into this peculiar environment. It flapped its wings, which resembled ice. The vibrating wings carried a strange cold current as it suddenly swooped towards the nearest target, Lin Yao.

Lin Yao quickly dodged, but the silent cold current was unavoidable. Before he could take more than a few steps, the rapidly condensing ice layer instantly froze his thrusters. The faint sound of the thrusters’ energy ceased, and Lin Yao, with one leg immobilized, lost his balance and fell onto the icy surface.

Before anyone else could ask questions, they saw Ying Chenlin switch the searchlight to ultraviolet-mode, causing the illumination diagonally in front to suddenly dim. As the Medical mecha swept the ultraviolet light upward, they saw glowing specks moving away in the ice layer, surrounding the dripping energy fluid on the ice pillars.

The ice layer was rich in special elements, and the ultraviolet light revealed many fluorescent points within the ice.

Among these fluorescent points, a few particularly bright and dense lights stood out, and these lights were moving towards the end of the ice cave’s tunnel at a visible speed.

Huo Yan quickly realized, “Energy fluid!?”

“Energy fluid flow…?!” Zhao Lejie instantly understood, “You’re looking for the source!”

This plant-based pollutant’s range was too extensive. With so many roots everywhere, searching at a normal pace might not allow them to find this plant pollutant’s penultimate root before their mecha energies are depleted.

Ying Chenlin had previously observed that some plant roots were black while others were transparent. This indicated that the roots absorbing the pollutant energy were black. By using the energy fluid as a tracer, they could make the pollutant absorb it and determine the direction it flows in under the light through the root’s glow.

The energy fluid contained abundant mecha energy, and the rich metallic elements in this energy had fluorescent properties.

Using ultraviolet light to scan it could reveal certain details—such as the flow direction of the energy in the transparent roots.

Zhao Lejie suddenly understood. No wonder Ying Chenlin wanted to destroy the ice pillars; causing the plant roots to react was just the first step. His real goal was to find the active, energy-absorbing roots. These ice pillars on the ice layer’s surface acted as absorption points, and starting from this direction, they could track the flow.

Ying Chenlin said, “If the energy detection system hadn’t failed due to magnetic field interference, we could move faster.”

With several mecha systems malfunctioning, they had to rely on basic physical reaction methods for tracking.

“Wait?! Do you have enough energy tubes?” Zhao Lejie suddenly remembered. “Didn’t you use some on the surface? How many energy tubes are left?”

“Enough,” Ying Chenlin explained. “Before Dawn’s spacecraft departed, I took all the energy tubes from the landing pad.”

Wait? Next to the landing pad in the Dawn spacecraft is the resource storage room, right?

All the energy supplies brought by Gale and the Dawn Galaxy were stored there. Zhao Lejie was astonished. “You… took them all out????”

Huo Yan added, “Don’t worry. We always take all our supplies when we depart. It should last us for a long time.”

Zhao Lejie: “That seems to be the entire team’s supply for this mission?”

Ying Chenlin nodded. “Yes, I remember that your captain, Boss Zhang, said the supplies could be taken. Didn’t he say that this time it’s fully covered by Dawn Galaxy?”

Zhao Lejie, in his panic, realized that, oh yes, this time it was supposed to be covered by the Dawn Galaxy… but wait! Even if it was covered by Dawn Galaxy, the first to use it was still their Gale’s stock!

A large ice spire suddenly crashed down, and a thick root pierced through the ice layer, hitting Zhao Lejie’s light shield and knocking his entire mecha back several steps. Zhao Lejie could no longer worry about how much stock was left; he saw that the glowing points high up had already moved a significant distance. He braced his shield and tried to move forward, but in the next moment, a thin layer of ice formed on his shield, severely obstructing his vision.

They wanted to follow the energy fluid, but the Ice Crow had already approached. With a flap of its wings, it stirred up a chilling airflow that nearly filled the entire space.

“Damn!” Zhao Lejie shouted. “This bird can flap so hard?”

Moreover, with the Ice Crow’s approach, the pervasive chill around it seemed to intensify for everyone. No wonder they only felt a slight drop in temperature before, but now that they were at this lower level, the temperature dropped so drastically. The Ice Crow didn’t just stir up chilling air with its wings; the temperature around it dropped to an absolute freezing point, instantly freezing any pollutant fragments that fell to the ground.

If they got too close, they wouldn’t have time to track the energy.

At that moment, a similar blue dot appeared behind the Ice Crow.

Huo Yan spotted the pollutant and shouted, “Be careful, there’s a smaller one behind it!”

Ying Chenlin was taken aback. “Two?”

A smaller Ice Crow followed behind the larger one. As the large Ice Crow stirred the chilling air, the smaller one followed suit, completely blocking the path ahead. Ying Chenlin gripped Yuan’s key and looked towards the distant Ice Crows with a trace of coldness in his eyes.

“Chenlin, don’t be impulsive,” Yuan’s voice advised in time. “This place isn’t suitable for changing mechas.”

Yuan was equipped with dual fire-type weapons, giving it an advantage against pure ice-type pollutants. However, changing mechas would require leaving the cockpit. In such a cold environment, even with Zhao Lejie’s shield’s protection, a normal person leaving the cockpit would likely turn into an ice pillar instantly.

Ying Chenlin relaxed his grip and was observing the blind spots of the two Ice Crows’ coverage when he was distracted by two successive Energy Cannon shots fired nearby. You Su moved faster than Ying Chenlin; he flew swiftly along the edge of the ice cave towards the large Ice Crow, firing Energy Cannon shots and sweeping through the ice spires in front of the Ice Crow. The falling ice blocks obstructed the line of sight for both their enemies and themselves.

At this moment, You Su coldly said, “Ying Chenlin, take them away.”

“Don’t stand there, go!”

Ying Chenlin looked sharply at You Su and saw the Artillery mecha rapidly maneuvering through the falling ice pillars, heading towards the Ice Crow’s direction. “You—”

Huo Yan activated his thrusters to catch up with You Su’s pace. “Leave these two birds to us; my shield can hold for a while. Go ahead.”

As You Su’s Energy Cannon fired, its speed was reduced by the chilling airflow generated by the Ice Crow’s flapping wings. The surface of the rapidly moving shells showed signs of energy freezing. He increased the energy output to the maximum and operated the mecha even faster. “After I deal with this, I’ll come find you.”

Seeing the situation, Zhao Lejie urgently said, “Damn, don’t split up in this ice cave—”

“Go!” Ying Chenlin pushed past Lin Yao and grabbed Zhao Lejie, pulling him forward without looking back. “Lin Yao, keep up!”

Lin Yao shouted, “Coming!”

With ice blocks crashing down from above and the chilling airflow swirling around, the thrusters of the three mechas were pushed to their limits. Seeing the three mechas enter the bombardment zone, the red and white Artillery mecha aimed his Energy Cannon at the ice layer above, firing continuously. The Ice Crow changed its position in response to the falling ice spires, he was trying to force the Ice Crow into different positions.

As Ying Chenlin skated through the ice cave, he shattered the ice pillars one by one, seizing the opportunity created by You Su to pass through from the Ice Crow’s lower flank. Zhao Lejie had no time to see what was ahead; his shield was covered with ice pillars, and he could only follow the Medical mecha leading the way, navigating the treacherous ice cave.

Once the three mechas were out of sight, You Su switched the Energy Cannon to sniper mode. “Huo Yan, don’t leave my side.”

Huo Yan understood. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it doesn’t freeze you.”

You Su locked onto the high-flying Ice Crow. “Then let’s make this quick.”

In the dark cave, the mechas moved further apart amidst the commotion. The Artillery and Tank mechas stayed in place, while the remaining three mechas navigated through the ice pillars. As soon as they were out of the Ice Crow’s attack range, the deadly chill eased significantly.

Ying Chenlin kept the ultraviolet lamp on, and, after passing the Ice Crow’s range, destroyed another ice pillar. The drips of energy falling on the ice pillar glowed clearly, and while picking up the pollutants, he continued to fire ahead. There seemed to be other movements high up, but he couldn’t afford to be distracted; his main focus was moving forward.

“Downhill ahead!” Lin Yao shouted.

Zhao Lejie couldn’t see in front of him. “Ice is blocking my view!”

Ying Chenlin pressed Zhao Lejie’s head, correcting his direction. As they fell into the slope, he skated down the ice, shouting, “Activate your shield and follow me!”

The long ice slide stretched endlessly ahead. 

Lin Yao adjusted the direction of the ultraviolet light. “Turn left!”

Zhao Lejie couldn’t see clearly through his shield. He only heard the sound of an Energy Cannon from the mecha a few meters to his side.

As the three mechas jumped into a sharp downhill turn, they landed heavily on the ice, sliding across the surface. Ying Chenlin deactivated his thrusters and could see nothing but darkness ahead. He held the Energy Cannon with one hand, targeting each protruding ice pillar and blasting them away in the dim light of the ultraviolet lamp, maneuvering Zhao Lejie to avoid one obstacle after another.

Yuan’s calm and orderly voice continued in Ying Chenlin’s mind and Ying Chenlin yelled sternly. “Jump!”

Zhao Lejie instinctively jumped, and the two mechas leaped over the striated ice gorge on the ground and entered another tunnel. At this moment, he glanced sideways and saw the Medical mecha firing Energy Cannon shots amidst the chaos. He then heard the crack of fire and the rumbling of ice blocks hitting the ground.

The three mechas moved rapidly. Lin Yao noticed the glowing points above change direction again. “Turn left!”

“F*ck! This is more thrilling than parkour!” Zhao Lejie’s vision was completely blacked out, entirely obscured. He couldn’t even see the glowing points and just followed the mecha next to him.

At that moment, Lin Yao saw the glow above descending and shouted, “Down!”

Zhao Lejie’s shield cracked as the thin ice at the front gave way. “Down???!!!”

The three of them were stunned. As they looked ahead, they saw a huge section of broken ice several meters ahead.

Zhao Lejie: “F*ck! We’re going to fall! It’s too fast; the thrusters can’t stop us!”

At this moment, Ying Chenlin activated the Spatial Displacement Staff and thrust it into the ground to slow their descent. He tightly controlled the impact with the ground with his right hand and, together with Lin Yao, pulled Zhao Lejie, who was sliding with his shield, to safety.

The three mechas came to a sudden stop at the ice shelf’s edge, successfully halting at the cliff’s edge.

Zhao Lejie’s heart raced as he saw they had stopped and sighed in relief. Looking up, he was stunned by the sight before him.

“What the f*ck is this!?” Zhao Lejie exclaimed in shock.

Ying Chenlin remained calm. “We’ve arrived.”

Below the broken ice layer, under the ultraviolet lamp’s light, countless glowing points floated directly in front of them. A mass of roots hung above the broken ice surface, swaying and floating. The dense, bright, and dim glowing made their scalps tingle.

—All the roots’ endpoints, growing deep in the ice crevice, were covered in a large number of plant roots.

If they hadn’t stopped, they would have fallen directly into the roots’ source and couldn’t have climbed out!

“Keep quiet and don’t disturb them.”

The plant roots here were very quiet and seemed to have no intention of attacking the mechas.

Ying Chenlin suddenly pulled Zhao Lejie away from the cliff’s edge. He noticed the ultraviolet light source scattering and saw Lin Yao’s figure flickering on the far left.

“It’s foggy,” Ying Chenlin said.

The fog looked exactly like the one they had encountered on the snowfield.

Lin Yao steadied himself. “Have we arrived?”

Zhao Lejie looked up and scanned the surroundings with a searchlight. As he lifted his head, he immediately spotted a large red flower hovering above them. He lowered his voice instantly. “A flower??”

Hearing Zhao Lejie’s voice, Ying Chenlin looked up and saw the enormous flower through the thin mist. The flower extended from the ice layer’s surface, with a bizarre ice-red color for the pistil and yellowish dots on the petals. Surrounding it was a thick ice fog.

Lin Yao looked up. “…Is this the source of the plant roots?”

“No,” Ying Chenlin replied as he directed the light to the side. The source of the roots was below the broken ice layer. If the flower on top were the source, the broken ice layer wouldn’t have these roots; instead, it should be dispersing from the flower.

He looked at the flower high above. “I think I’ve seen this kind of flower in the database.”

Zhao Lejie asked, “A Slared indigenous species?”

Ying Chenlin accessed the cached Slared database and quickly identified a similar pollutant based on the flower’s appearance. “It’s a type of Parasitic Flower from Slared’s Forest region.”

Parasitic Flower—an ancient plant that thrived in humid and warm environments, growing in Slared’s Forest region.

Zhao Lejie saw the information on the Parasitic Flower. “A Parasitic Flower? How does it survive in this cold environment?”

“Pollutants don’t care about the environment; it must have undergone a major mutation,” Lin Yao observed the flower above. “Is it only B-Level? Does it even parasitize?”

According to the data, Parasitic Flowers of this kind had no leaves, roots, or branches and derived nutrients from the host’s roots.

Zhao Lejie said, “Wait, if it’s parasitic—”

Ying Chenlin’s light swept around the Parasitic Flower. “It’s growing on these roots.”

These roots absorbed energy and nutrients from the massive pollutant ice tombs underground. This Parasitic Flower must have stolen nutrients from the vast amount of underground energy to grow to this extent. From the current situation, it was clear that this Parasitic Flower was more than just a simple B-Level now.

“Although it’s still unclear what the source of these roots is, the ice fog all over the snowfield is likely its doing,” Ying Chenlin said, looking at the ice fog emanating from the flower. “Normally, a Parasitic Flower wouldn’t have such great power, but it’s parasitizing these widespread underground plant roots—”

Zhao Lejie and Lin Yao understood. Normal plants wouldn’t have such a wide impact, but this Parasitic Flower absorbed nutrients through the roots it parasitized and used these roots to spread its abnormal fog.

If they could eliminate this flower, their communication and radar issues would be resolved!

“Wait, why is it spreading ice fog?” Lin Yao asked, confused.

“Are you stupid? It’s hunting. It consumes others and uses the fog to help these roots capture pollutants. In the end, it benefits itself,” Zhao Lejie said, then remembered Ying Chenlin’s previous guess. “This Parasitic Flower is behind the attack by those two Ice Crows. You guessed that these plant roots drive a large number of pollutants to hunt for it. So what’s below? Why would the elite teams be interested in this? For elite teams, aren’t pollutants…”

“Not sure,” Ying Chenlin replied, looking up. He switched his Spatial Displacement Staff to the Energy Cannon and aimed at the flower above. “But this flower needs to be eliminated.”

Zhao Lejie quickly raised his shield. “Wait! Can we check for an escape route first? The flower might have other—”

The Energy Cannon hummed and shot into the flower’s central pistil. In an instant, a large amount of liquid poured down from above, drenching Zhao Lejie’s shield. The result of the shot caused the expressions of the three present to shift slightly.

Ying Chenlin looked at it in surprise. “It went in.”

Lin Yao exclaimed, “It didn’t resist?”

Zhao Lejie: “Is it an S-Level? It let you shoot it so easily.”

Before they could finish their conversation, the surrounding atmosphere strangely paused for a moment.

Then, a moment later, a large amount of ice fog suddenly flowed back toward the flower’s pistil. The fog was being absorbed by the pistil, and the surrounding air seemed to vibrate faintly.

Meanwhile, outside the Slared Defense Line.

The highest-level Management Bureau of the Star Alliance Mission System received an urgent message from the Slared Contaminated Zone’s Management Bureau. The alarm blared throughout the control room, and all personnel turned their attention to the source of the message.

“Source of the message is Slared?”

“Isn’t Slared’s base facility abandoned?”

“The underground signal was restored!”

“Warning signal from the base’s automatic facilities.”

The warning signal cut off abruptly, and all personnel immediately took action. “Large-scale energy fluctuations have been detected in Slared’s underground!”

All the mecha coordinates within the Slared Contaminated Zone were displayed before them, and the recently restored Slared base system provided unprecedented clarity.

At this moment, all elite teams within the Slared Contaminated Zone saw an urgent message appear simultaneously.

[It has been detected that you have entered the Slared Contaminated Zone. Automatically connected to the Slared Contaminated Zone system.]

The system’s automatic connection flooded the information stream.

The automatic restoration of the system disrupted the rhythm of all teams. Ji Qingfeng, holding a Gale signal booster and acting as a manual antenna outside the base station, suddenly heard voices from all directions. The partitioned sound in the ice fog field also started to resonate at this moment.

“What’s going on?” Ji Qingfeng was stunned.

Hu Luobu in the ice fog field reacted, “That voice?! Isn’t that Ji Qingfeng?”

Wen Yi also realized, quickly switching to the radar interface. The radar signals of the mechas within a hundred-mile radius were exceptionally clear. In an instant, the coordinates of more than a dozen elite team mechas appeared on the radar, all moving rapidly towards the snow-capped mountain and snowfield area.

In the center of the gathered elite teams were blue signals representing their side.

Wen Yi said solemnly, “This is bad.”

The signals were located 318 meters underground and belonged to KID’s mechas.

Ke Lin gasped, “Exposed.”

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