Genius Mechanic: Chapter 222

Slared Contaminated Zone(Territory-Wide Abnormal Move)

222. Chronos

Proofread by Cloud Chip Cake and An Zheee 

What do you mean by accelerated time flow!? Zhao Lejie didn’t have time to fully grasp what he meant by the accelerated time flow. The moment You Su spoke, he immediately increased his movement speed. “You’re being way too creepy! What the hell!? Move faster?”

Ying Chenlin’s gaze remained fixed on the radar distances, and in his mind, Yuan had already swiftly reported the corresponding displacement. “It’s not that our movement speed increased, it’s that our time has been accelerated.”

The problem wasn’t that their movement speed had increased, nor was it the distance they were covering.

Within the time they perceived had passed, their displacement exceeded their calculated range. They instinctively believed that their movement speed had increased, but that wasn’t the case. The movement speed they used was determined by their mechas, it wasn’t possible for their movement speed to inexplicably increase. Instead, they were covering more distance at the same speed—the issue wasn’t with their mechas but with time being accelerated in this specific area.

They thought they had traveled for 3 minutes, but they had actually covered a 4-and-a-half-minute journey.

Neither the radar nor the magnetic fields showed any obvious changes, and the surrounding environment was even more stable than it had been before they dealt with the Blue Heart. For something like this to happen in such a stable environment was beyond comprehension… and it certainly wasn’t the doing of a regular pollutant’s ability.

The scariest part was that they didn’t even feel like time had sped up.

“Hurry and notify Yao Bao and the others to run!” Ji Qingfeng shouted.

Wen Yi had already sent an emergency alert to them, and besides that, he was also calling the rest of Dawn’s team stationed above the ice cave. After sending out the emergency signal, Qi Sicheng immediately cranked the speed booster to its maximum. The force acting on all the mechas was obvious. Everyone was sprinting out with all their might.

Ying Chenlin’s gaze shifted away from You Su. He was sure You Su knew something, but now wasn’t the time to talk; the priority was to get out of this area. As he flew forward, he spotted WHG and GBK’s teams further back and could only send them an emergency communication: “There are still people behind us.”

Qi Sicheng quickly responded, “I’ve already sent them an emergency notice. GBK responded, saying all mecha pilots from both teams have made it out.”

“What the hell is going on?! Wasn’t it all resolved?” Zhao Lejie’s scalp tingled. “Didn’t we just have to go back to get out of here?”

You Su blasted through an obstacle in front, clearing the way for everyone. Hearing Zhao Lejie’s voice, he coldly replied, “A Super-S pollutant.”

“Ge, you’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Ji Qingfeng asked.

You Su sneered, “Do I look like I’m joking?”

“Did we at Dawn poke a nest of Super-S pollutants?” Zhao Lejie asked.

Ji Qingfeng: “It seems like we’re destined to run into Super-S’s?”

“This pollutant is very dangerous, more dangerous than the Black Hole.” You Su didn’t have time to explain further, they all needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. He glanced at Ying Chenlin. “We’re 30 kilometers away from the target.”

With the change in time flow, they had unknowingly closed the distance between themselves and Lin Yao. Now, Lin Yao was within their displacement range as the target.

“Get closer!” Ying Chenlin activated the Spatial Displacement Staff, and the spreading red light instantly enveloped all the mechas in flight.

The Spatial Displacement Staff activated, and all the mechas instantly teleported 30 kilometers to Lin Yao’s location.

The surroundings shifted abruptly, and Ji Qingfeng had just stabilized when he was caught off guard and collided head-on with a light red mecha, sending it flying more than ten meters away. He steadied his thrusters, bewildered. “What the heck! Why is there oncoming traffic!?”

Ying Chenlin paused, only to see that after Alice, two Dawn mechas brushed past them.

Zhao Lejie: “Crap!? Did you guys run in the wrong direction!?”

Seeing them teleport over, Chi Lizi shouted, “Move! Don’t stop!”

“Why did you guys teleport over!?” Lin Yao pulled Ji Qingfeng up and urgently yelled, “Run, we can’t go forward anymore!”

The situation changed too quickly for anyone to grasp. Hearing Chi Lizi’s shout, everyone turned around and ran back.

Inside the ice cave, besides the sound of mecha thrusters, there was also a faint rumbling noise, seemingly coming from the direction of the ice cave’s entrance.

Theo scanned the surrounding environment, shouting urgently, “You Su! A large number of pollutants are approaching!”

“Chenlin.” Yuan’s timely voice reminded him, “The road ahead is blocked.”

Ying Chenlin’s eyes darkened. The path to the upper levels of the ice cave was cut off.

In Slared’s ice cave, large plant roots emerged from the ground, and the fissure in the ice cave had been destroyed, revealing a wide passage leading straight to its depths below. At this moment, deep within the first level of Slared’s ice cave, in a tunnel that had yet to be visited, signs of melting began to appear in a pollutant ice tomb. The ice attached to the pollutants was thawing, and the not-yet-dead pollutants broke free from their eternal icy prison, escaping from the ice pillars.

Not only that, but the rumbling sound from deep within the tunnel grew more distinct. It seemed that the pollutants buried beneath Slared’s Snowy Mountains had been triggered by something. The scattered pollutants stopped in their tracks, with half of them targeting those above the ice layer and the other half those below it. In an instant, they launched an assault on all mechas within Slared.

On the surface of Slared’s Snowy Mountains, the elite teams stationed there all halted their movements. Everyone shifted their focus from the coordinates of the escaping pollutants underground to the subtle environmental changes around them. The eerie gravitational force pressing on their mechas intensified, and the surface of the Snowy Mountains began to tremble with a low hum.

“What’s happening below?!” Ke Lin paused briefly. “Qi Sicheng sent an emergency message, only saying that a special pollutant appeared underground.”

“I’m trying to contact Tang-jie,” Lu Xi didn’t dare relax. “They said they’ve already conducted a scan underground, and the energy is temporarily—”

She suddenly heard Shen Xingtang say something, “Wait, she said the pollutants underground are changing.”

Hu Luobu’s pupils dilated. “Hey, hey, something’s not right! Why are they running back!? They’re not using the caves anymore!”

As Dawn realized the problem, the other elite teams noticed the same anomaly.

Information networks from all sides quickly activated at that moment. Mecha pilots stationed throughout the Slared Contaminated Zone received news simultaneously. At that moment, the Star Alliance’s mission system within all their mechas urgently flashed with a notification from the Star Alliance’s highest command. The prominent red notice made all mecha pilots instantly stop in their tracks.

[Notice to mecha pilots executing Star Alliance missions: The originally planned 1478th Star Alliance Special Mission has been terminated early. All points and mission records have been sealed. The Star Alliance Special Mission Summons is now active.] [Summons Targets: All mecha pilots within the Slared region.] [Location: The entirety of the Slared Contaminated Zone.] [Summons Mission: A wide-range phenomenon in subordinate manipulation has appeared across Slared, suspected to be related to a special energy reaction from the Super-S pollutant [Chronos]. All mecha pilots are to suppress the situation in each area. The Star Alliance will provide full support.]

Nobert’s eyes became serious. “…Whoa, it’s that time-manipulating Chronos?”

When Alex locked onto the mention of [Chronos], his face subtly changed. “That pollutant’s been hiding here all along?”

While they were speaking, a pollutant suddenly surged out from the entrance of Slared’s ice cave behind Nobert. With quick reflexes, Nobert counterattacked the pollutant with a strike and created some distance. When he looked down, he saw dark shadows surging from within the ice cave. “The pollutants from underground are coming out—”

“This is trouble.” Alex locked onto the group of fleeing mechas underground, his gaze sharp. “The mechas underground are too heavily damaged!”

The Dawn mecha pilots no longer paid attention to anything else, their focus locked onto the suspected Super-S pollutant displayed on their screens.

Huo Yan flew toward the ice cave but was quickly blocked by the pollutants continuously pouring out. It wasn’t just the pollutants emerging from underground; a large number of pollutants on the Snowy Mountains’s surface were also launching attacks on the mechas suspended in the air. If the surface pollutants were already this troublesome, the ones chasing the others underground would be even worse.

The mechas underground had nowhere to escape.

“We need reinforcements,” Lu Xi’s expression froze for a moment.

“Damn it!” Hu Luobu turned and sprinted toward the coordinates underground, his mecha’s communicator frantically pinging Zhao Lejie below ground. “Hold on, Lao Zhao!”

Inside Dawn’s spacecraft, Shen Xingtang and the others were still scanning the underground situation. When the Star Alliance’s mission shifted to a mecha pilot summons, expressions in the control room instantly changed. What was going on in the Slared Contaminated Zone? Not only were there so many pollutants, now there was even a Super-S pollutant. Wasn’t there already a failed reserve S-Level? And now there’s another one!?

And it already had a codename!? Chronos?

Zhang Ge was stunned. “Wait! What about the mecha pilots underground? The pollutants have blocked their path. They have no choice but to retreat now.”

The radar map displayed widespread pollutant riots throughout the whole of Slared. This situation was identical to the previous subordinate manipulation triggered by the plant roots, but now the scale was even broader and more terrifying. Pollutant source reactions from unknown S-Level pollutants had appeared not only in the Snowy Mountains but also in the Volcanic, Forest, and Plains regions.

“What’s the Third Star Domain’s Frontier Army saying?” Shen Xingtang looked to the side.

“They’re deploying emergency support. The Frontier Army is holding back the pollutants in the abandoned Contaminated Zones, and reinforcements have already entered the Contaminated Zone,” a staff member reported. “But the rescue is extremely difficult. It’s nearly 40 kilometers underground, and all the S-Level pollutants are gathered near the Snowy Mountains.”

The plant roots could manipulate lower-grade S-Level pollutants, but now all the S-Level pollutants in Slared were on the move.

Fighting wasn’t the issue—they had elite mechas from the Star Alliance Mecha Union here, and it was only a matter of time before they suppressed the riots. But how could they rescue those trapped underground? While the other mechas weren’t afraid of sustaining losses, the ones underground couldn’t afford any more damage!

“Boss Shen, we’ve received communication requests from E.M., SLY, PJT and Aegis… among others,” a staff member reported. “The elite teams are reaching out to us.”

Inside the Third Star Domain Frontier Army’s starship, one mecha after another flew out from the spacecraft, heading toward the Slared Contaminated Zone. The Star Alliance commander stood before the energy detection screen, where all information from inside Slared had been transmitted to the Frontier Army within minutes.

“Preliminary scans show the same reaction as Chronos from three years ago. It seems to have shifted from the frontier to here,” a soldier reported rapidly. “Its current energy reaction is located at the base of Slared’s Snowy Mountains. Nineteen mechas are trapped underground, and most of them have sustained over 50% damage. They require immediate rescue.”

Chronos, a Super-S-Level pollutant on the Star Alliance’s wanted list.

It appeared once in a Contaminated Zone near the frontier three years ago, and had been missing ever since.

The Star Alliance commander’s expression was stern, with a hint of gravity. “The damages are too severe. Priority is to rescue the trapped mecha pilots.”

–

In Slared’s underground, the Dawn team was caught off guard by the surge of pollutants following their displacement. A large number of pollutants poured down at the entrance of the ice cave. Forget about moving forward—there were S and A-level pollutants among the mass. With their current level of damage, charging ahead would be suicide. The exit was completely blocked.

“Stop playing, we can’t go around at all, there’s no way to move around, there’s no target, it’s all pollutants, and they’re all coming down!” Zhao Lejie had turned around and was running for his life when he received the communication from Hu Luobu. The most painful thing about the fucking situation was the only thing that had to happen, rushing to the exit only to be killed by a sudden rush of pollutants, happened. How could they displace? Displacing would just get them crushed to death by a flood of pollutants.

Ying Chenlin turned to the sound of vibrations behind them. He couldn’t see the pollutants yet, but the radar was filled with a swarm of red dots approaching rapidly—faster than they had expected. “The gathering happened too suddenly.”

A few minutes before they displaced, the surrounding energy and pollutant reactions had been relatively calm. It was as if everything had exploded in an instant, catching them all off guard.

The Star Alliance’s notification also reached them through the mission system, but what good was it now? They were trapped underground, barely managing to protect themselves, with no time to deal with the pollutants above!

E.M.’s Stealth dragged his twin brother as they followed Dawn’s team in retreat, now joined by Alice. When Alice connected to Dawn’s main communication channel, all she could hear was a chaotic mess of chatter.

Ji Qingfeng: “Just like You-ge said, it’s a Super-S. The Star Alliance notification has already come through.”

“Damn it, does your KID naturally attract Super-S-Level pollutants? That Black Hole from Qiu Jin was also your doing!” Zhao Lejie continued complaining to Hu Luobu while in the call, “Everything was fine until you buried GBK and WHG and woke it up, wasn’t it?”

“What does that have to do with us? We bombed other places, and no Super-S-Level pollutants showed up!” Ji Qingfeng retorted. “But how did the Star Alliance react so fast? The pollutant just appeared, and it’s already named Chronos. Is the Third Star Domain’s tradition to name it first and study it later?”

“The most recent Super-S-Level pollutant recorded by the Star Alliance was indeed the Black Hole, but that doesn’t mean only two have been discovered in the last 20 years,” You Su spoke coldly, his tone firm and commanding. “There’s a well-known fact: all Domains under Star Alliance control were once part of the frontier, managed after being opened up.”

The most dangerous regions of the Star Alliance are the unknown, unexplored areas, guarded by the Frontier Armies of each major Star Domain.

In those vast, uncharted regions of the universe, countless pollutants, unrecorded in the Star Alliance’s database, proliferate. The Black Hole that ravaged the Dawn Galaxy was one such pollutant that had come from the frontier.

Beyond the resolved Super-S-Level pollutants, there are many whose traces have been discovered but remain uncontained. Most of these pollutants originate from the frontier. If a Super-S-Level pollutant has a name and codename, it means only one thing: it has appeared before.

Ying Chenlin’s expression froze slightly as the information about Slared he’d read before flashed through his mind—

The Slared Contaminated Zone is a Contaminated Zone that spiraled out of control following a frontier riot. In less than 10 years, it deteriorated to the point where it could no longer be resolved through normal means, leaving it to the elite forces of various Star Domains under the Star Alliance to handle. The events of 10 years ago, marked as ‘□□,’ were triggered by a frontier riot, making the Slared Contaminated Zone a riot-related zone that had been linked to the frontier. Under these circumstances, it was indeed possible that pollutants from the frontier may have flooded in.

“It seems like time has returned to normal,” Qi Sicheng had been closely monitoring the changing seconds on the mecha’s timer, and the fast-moving seconds had stopped. “It seems like—”

Ying Chenlin stared at it. “No, the seconds are slower.”

Ji Qingfeng was dumbfounded. “Don’t scare me! Can this thing speed up and slow down? That’s insane!”

In another cockpit, You Su coldly observed the approaching pollutants while quickly processing the others’ discussion. Positioned at the rear of all the mechas, his sharp eyes scanned the detailed data of all the mechas and said in a cold voice, “Chronos’s known ability is time manipulation within a certain area, but its control isn’t complete.”

“Didn’t you notice? If the time of everything, both living and non-living, sped up in one area, we wouldn’t even perceive the difference in time flow,” You Su continued calmly, “The mechas’s time flows have sped up, but the flow of our personal times haven’t changed.”

Everyone immediately realized what he meant after hearing this.

If everything in space moved faster, then what they see and feel within that time would seem normal to them—they wouldn’t notice the time speeding up. In other words, it’s the mechas that are experiencing accelerated time, while a person’s time remains normal.

“We just didn’t sense the time difference because of our mental link with the mechas.”

You Su said, “Which means that within the current timeframe, only we, the mecha pilots, haven’t been affected by the altered time flow.”

“It’s not a suspicion anymore,” Ying Chenlin suddenly realized. “We might be inside the domain of a Super-S-Level pollutant—it’s manipulating time.”

From the moment they first noticed the time trap as they ran toward the exit of the ice cave, their mechas’ time had sped up. Now, as they tried to retreat and found the exit blocked by pollutants, time within their space had slowed down, while the other pollutants moved faster. This pollutant was manipulating time from behind them, trying to draw them closer to it.

“Ah! So are we slow or fast now? Da Feng, just give me a simple answer,” Lin Yao looked to Ji Qingfeng for help.

“Don’t overthink it. The other time changes aren’t as obvious—the most noticeable change is on the mechas in motion.” Ji Qingfeng explained quickly, “We’re in the domain of that Super-S-Level pollutant. It’s slowed down our area’s time and sped up the time on the pollutant’s side. The change isn’t that dramatic yet, but if we keep running like this, the pollutants will eventually catch up to us.”

“This Super-S-Level has intelligence; it’s trying to kill us,” Zhao Lejie said.

The relative changes in time were difficult to detect, especially since the time flow on some stationary objects wasn’t clear. The only obvious indicator was the mechas. They were lucky to have noticed the changes in time; otherwise, being caught by the pollutants would have been inevitable without realizing the issue.

Ji Qingfeng: “Ge, how do you know so much about this pollutant?”

Ying Chenlin glanced at You Su. It was You Su who had first brought up the time flow change.

He suddenly remembered—You Su’s attitude had shifted after Ying Chenlin raised the suspicion about accelerated growth in this area. At the time, You Su had urged them to leave quickly.

“Interrupting with a little reminder,” a playful female voice chimed in through the communication channel, “There are pollutants approaching from over there.”

The moment Alice finished speaking, the ice wall behind them shattered, and a pollutant suddenly jumped out in front of them. Before they could even see what type of pollutant it was, a terrifying claw swipe came their way.

At the same time, You Su fired his Energy Cannon, and the Windsteel Cannon sent the pollutant flying. The next second, another pollutant leaped at them.

“Damn it!” Zhao Lejie quickly activated his shield, blocking the incoming pollutant. “Mechas with heavy damage, get out first! Those still able to fight, cover the retreat!”

“Lao Zhao!” Ji Qingfeng shouted.

Zhao Lejie, holding up his shield as he retreated, called out, “Don’t worry, the shield’s holding! Hu Luobu, did you hear me? Get us some backup, fast!”

“The reinforcements are stuck up top on the ice cave!” Hu Luobu responded, sending a pollutant flying and rushing to follow Dawn’s coordinates.

As Hu Luobu flew to the side, he saw that mecha pilots from the teams E.M, PJT, and Aegis were also moving toward their position. It seemed like all the mechas were heading in the same direction.

Among them, only Zhao Lejie was piloting a Tank mecha, and his mecha was already severely damaged. While flying, Ying Chenlin connected the Medical mecha to Lin Yao for repairs. Upon connecting, he saw that Lin Yao’s mecha had 75% damage, a level beyond the medical system’s ability to repair. “With 5% left, you can’t sustain any more damage. Don’t join the fight—save what’s left for escape. We can’t handle another.”

E.M’s Artillery was almost completely useless, though the pilot was still in the cockpit.

If Lin Yao’s mecha failed here, it would be nearly impossible to move two damaged mechas, making it hard to ensure their survival.

Ying Chenlin kept glancing at the radar. As they moved, he noticed signals from other mechas appearing further up, indicating that Huo Yan and his group were also on the ice layer, trying to follow. The path behind them was no longer an option, as it was fully covered by pollutants. If they tried to re-enter, they would be completely surrounded, with no way out.

A pollutant appeared, and soon after, a chain of pollutants seemed to be accelerated by a special force, advancing toward the Dawn crew along the volcanic stones of the ice cave tunnel.

Alice switched out her Giant Mountain Hammer and landed next to Zhao Lejie, swinging the hammer backward to smash an oncoming pollutant. Together with You Su, they guarded the rear, while Qi Sicheng and Wen Yi followed closely behind. The Heavenly Thunder Cannon and Ice Lance Cannon were locked onto the pollutants in front of Zhao Lejie. The five mechas, retreating while fighting, suppressed the approaching pollutants, working together to protect the mechas behind them.

Qi Sicheng: “The two Stealth mechas should scout the way back. We’ll hold the rear here!”

Chi Lizi and Ji Qingfeng didn’t waste a second. Upon hearing the command, they immediately ran back to scout the path. They weren’t as fast as when they had been running earlier, but now, as they retreated, they gave it their all, racing against the pollutants.

After running for a while, they ran into WHG and GBK, their old rivals, in a narrow escape. WHG and GBK had teleported there and were moving faster than the slowed-down Dawn crew.

Ji Qingfeng instinctively took half a step back when he saw Bai Xuyan, then laughed twice.

“Aiya, what a coincidence.”

WHG and GBK: “…”

Coincidence, my ass!

Ji Qingfeng: “Let’s bury the hatchet for now and save the fighting for later. Our lives are on the line.”

“We didn’t see you showing any mercy when you buried the energy tubes,” Bai Xuyan sneered. Seeing them trying to move forward, he added, “Don’t even think about retreating. Pollutants are coming from behind, too.”

“We’re doomed!” Ji Qingfeng reported to Ying Chenlin, “Chenlin, we’re being pincered by pollutants from both the front and the back.”

At the lowest level of Slared’s underground ice cave, just as pollutants from the upper layer poured down, pollutants appeared at what had previously been their clear rear. Upon hearing Ji Qingfeng’s update, Ying Chenlin pulled up the entire radar map.

The large number of pollutants behind them had entered through the plant roots’ passage that Alice had initially come through. The lower-level caves had many forked paths, and at the time, the Blue Heart’s roots had spread throughout the underground. They hadn’t had time to explore the wide tunnels, and it was possible that other pollutants were coming out from unknown paths.

They were moving too fast—even ordinary A-Level pollutants were speeding up, as if the only ones slowed down in the entire area were their mechas. They were trapped with no way forward or back.

“Chenlin?” Yuan called out, confused.

“We can’t move forward or retreat,” Ying Chenlin thought quickly, then abruptly stopped his mecha, looking upward. “My spatial weapon’s teleportation target points are unusable, but WHG’s weapons can still work.”

As Ying Chenlin halted his mecha, the several mechas behind him stopped as well.

You Su looked over at him, “Ying Chenlin!”

Ying Chenlin was scanning the map records. They had already traveled this route once, and Yuan had recorded the terrain data.

The ice surface wasn’t completely flat, and amid the uneven ground, there was a higher section of terrain in this passage. “If we continue forward for another kilometer, there’s a noticeable upward slope. At the highest point of the slope, the terrain rises by 200 to 500 meters.”

“Wait, wait,” Zhao Lejie was dumbfounded when he heard this, “You’re not thinking of—”

“There’s no way forward or back,” Ying Chenlin said. “We can only dig our way up.”

E.M.’s Stealth responded: “Sink, we’re over 30 kilometers, nearly 40 kilometers, beneath the ice’s surface. We’ll be dead long before we can dig up that far.”

“We don’t need to dig 40 kilometers.” WHG’s commander chimed in, “As long as we’re within 20 kilometers of the surface, our weapons will work.”

WHG’s weapon’s teleportation range was 20 kilometers. From here to the ice cave’s highest level is 40 kilometers, meaning they would theoretically need two teleportations.

But they couldn’t teleport the entire group of mechas to the ice…

“Are you overthinking this?” Ji Qingfeng scratched his head. “I mean, last time she(Alice) dug down about 300 meters, and that took over half an hour. Twenty kilometers is 20,000 meters. We’ll run out of time, and our mechas will be destroyed before we can even get that far.”

“Not necessarily.” GBK’s commander, Claude, looked upward. “What if we dig from both ends?”

Everyone was stunned for a moment and quickly looked up, spotting the mecha coordinates 40 kilometers above them.

There were still a lot of mechas at the top. The team digging from above could move faster. If both teams dug simultaneously, they’d only need to dig through about 10 kilometers.

“Contact your captain and have them start digging above our coordinates,” Ying Chenlin turned his head toward E.M.’s Stealth, his voice slightly heavy. “We can only dig our way out before that Super-S pollutant kills us.”

TN:

Chronos –  Personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Titan, Cronus, in antiquity, due to the similarity in names. The title the author used directly translates to Cronus(the Titan) but since the pollutant is a time manipulator, I went with Chronos.

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