Genius Mechanic: Chapter 223

Slared Contaminated Zone(Territory-Wide Abnormal Move)

223. Territory-Wide Riot

Proofread by Cloud Chip Cake

E.M.’s Stealth immediately contacted Alex upon hearing this, and the mechas above also halted.

“It might not necessarily be our WHG’s displacement weapon,” the WHG’s commander said. “Doesn’t your Dawn team also have a weapon? There should be a reserved target point in the upper layer, right?”

Everyone looked toward Ying Chenlin. Though they didn’t know the exact details of Ying Chenlin’s weapon, they were aware that Dawn’s displacement weapon could set target points.

Their weapon had a longer displacement range than WHG’s. For the less than 40 kilometers left, Dawn’s weapon could displace them by 30 kilometers, leaving less than 10 kilometers to traverse. If both teams dug simultaneously, the distance they would need to dig might only be around 3 kilometers. If the mecha pilots above dug faster, they could escape in even less time.

Zhao Lejie remembered that Ying Chenlin had modified the target points several times. “I recall there aren’t any target points left.”

“I don’t have any target points for now,” Ying Chenlin said, looking up at the coordinates directly above them. The only coordinates following them belonged to Huo Yan and Hu Luobu. “The only target point I have left above us is Lu Xi, but she hasn’t reached the area directly above us. My weapon is unusable.”

Ying Chenlin’s spatial weapon could only set five target points, excluding himself. When he separated from Huo Yan and the others on the upper level, he had set two target points, on Huo Yan and Lu Xi. After entering the underground, for more efficient personnel allocation and future control, he had switched Huo Yan’s target point to Qi Sicheng and later replaced it with E.M.’s Stealth.

Currently, the five target points he controlled were on Lin Yao, Ji Qingfeng, You Su, and E.M.’s Stealth Milo, with the last one on Lu Xi.

“Lu Xi!?” Everyone looked toward Lu Xi’s location, realizing that the coordinates of the Dawn members above them belonged to Huo Yan and Hu Luobu. Lu Xi and Ke Lin were further behind and hadn’t caught up with the two in front. 

Their attention had been focused on the situation underground, but upon scanning the situation above, they found that the situation in the ice cave above was no simpler. Pollutant sources were closing in, and the mecha pilots of various elite teams had been evenly spread out.

“The situation above isn’t as smooth as we expected—they’ve been surrounded by pollutants as well,” Ying Chenlin said, his gaze darkening slightly. “I just tried to contact Lu Xi, but I couldn’t reach her. Her coordinates haven’t moved. I suspect she may have been entangled by a pollutant.”

“Fuck! How did she end up falling behind? Hu Luobu, did you hear that?” Zhao Lejie immediately contacted Hu Luobu upon hearing the situation.

Hu Luobu had been following the coordinates of the Dawn team. He and Huo Yan had run ahead due to the sheer number of pollutants gathering on the surface. Ke Lin and Lu Xi, who were responsible for controlling pollutants, had been holding them off during the action. Hu Luobu and Huo Yan had moved ahead to assist. “Shit! Why didn’t you say that the target point was Lu Xi earlier? I thought it was on Captain Huo! They’re still near the ice cave’s entrance, and I’ve just tried contacting Captain Ke, but I can’t get through either—”

The inability to reach them could only mean they had been held up by some special pollutant.

Huo Yan frowned. The distance for him to go back and find Lu Xi was too far, and there were many pollutants along the way. He couldn’t move quickly enough on his own. “I’ll head back—”

At that moment, a special communication channel from the Star Alliance’s command was established in the area. Before Huo Yan could finish speaking, he was forcibly pulled into a special channel by the Star Alliance’s mission system, along with all the nearby mecha pilots from various teams, including the command channel from the Star Alliance’s central command.

“What’s happening?” Hu Luobu paused.

“It’s the Star Alliance’s united command channel,” Huo Yan replied.

A large number of pollutants were pouring into the ice cave, and the situation on the surface wasn’t looking good either. After the Star Alliance’s mission system issued a notice regarding the Super-S pollutant, the 19 mechas trapped underground, which included elites from various top teams, became the priority for rescue. No one wanted to lose mecha pilots in this Contaminated Zone.

When the united command channel was established, nearby rescue teams, including E.M.’s team, were gathered together. The surface rescue teams adopted a parallel rescue strategy: some mecha pilots focused on clearing pollutants, while others carried out the rescue plan. The two rescue points were the original ice cave entrance and the area following the underground coordinates.

The rescue team was assembled, led by E.M.’s captain, Alex.

After receiving the intel from underground, Alex quickly pinpointed the upper-level coordinates corresponding to the slope Ying Chenlin had mentioned. He swiftly flew to its location, his right hand wielding a specially designed Sniper Cannon. A special beam of light gathered at the cannon’s muzzle, and in the next second, its trajectory disappeared as a dull thud echoed. The entire snowfield exploded into a deep crater.

“All Artillery mecha pilots, come over here,” Alex ordered. “All Artillery, clear the way. The rest, cover and block the surrounding pollutants.”

-*

After the Star Alliance commander issued the order to prioritize the rescue of the mecha pilots, the starship captains of the major teams unified their stance. The competition for the new energy was put aside; rescuing the trapped mecha pilots underground was top priority. No team wanted their mecha pilots to suffer underground.

When the information was transmitted to Dawn’s ship, Shen Xingtang had already used the Star Alliance’s system to locate Lu Xi’s position. She discovered a special pollutant energy point near Lu Xi and Ke Lin. This pollutant source was marked as ‘S,’ and it was unclear when it had sneaked into the area where Lu Xi and Ke Lin were.

“All the coordinates on the radar stopped moving when this S-Level pollutant appeared,” Jiang Simiao, sweating profusely, wiped sweat from his glasses. After comparing the data of this pollutant with Slared’s old files, he found information related to the frontier. “This pollutant isn’t native to the Slared Contaminated Zone; it’s a frontier pollutant that breached Slared’s frontier during the riot ten years ago.”

The members of Dawn looked at the data Jiang Simiao had pulled up: an S- Level pollutant, [Pale Butterfly], with the recorded ability [Domain Interference].

“A domain-type pollutant. It’s similar to one with a spatial ability, but its main power is causing special interference in certain areas. This interference mainly comes from a special electromagnetic wave it emits. It not only disrupts signals but can also affect a mecha pilot’s combat abilities,” Jiang Simiao explained. “This pollutant appeared ten years ago but hasn’t been seen in Slared since.”

This interference had not only frozen Lu Xi and Ke Lin’s coordinates but also those of other mecha pilots in the area.

“Not just that—I’ve also traced back the pollutants emerging from the depths of Slared’s Snowy Mountains. Many of them are frontier pollutants,” Jiang Simiao displayed an analysis chart of the energy information from beneath Slared. “I’ve heard from Huo Yan that there are large quantities of frozen pollutants in the second layer of the ice cave—there’s some bad news: the temperature beneath Slared’s Snowy Mountains is rising.”

In the communication channel, which was a temporary rescue and coordination channel set up by several mecha bases, a liaison from Star Alliance’s fourth team, SLY, spoke up: “According to information from our captain, Alice, beneath the Snowy Mountains of Slared lies a frozen tomb of pollutants. These pollutants’ bodies have been absorbed by plant roots, and while most of them are dead, some remain alive.”

The virtual screen showed that the temperature beneath the Snowy Mountains was steadily climbing, with the intense cold previously present now fading away.

This meant that the temperature melting the ice cave’s underground was releasing those pollutants that had been frozen but not completely dead.

“Wait a minute! If you’re saying these pollutants are frontier pollutants—” Zhang Ge suddenly realized something. “Then the batch of pollutants originally frozen underground must be the ones that broke in during the riot ten years ago!”

The unique pollutants within the ice tomb, combined with Slared’s native pollutants and those that have been uncontrolled and reproducing for the past decade, meant that Slared had now entered its worst state since the past ten years. Every mecha pilot was facing a battle against numerous frontier pollutants.

“But isn’t this melting happening at an unusual speed?” a staff member nearby whispered. “It seems like no other parts of the Snowy Mountains are melting, so why just this area…?”

“Chronos,” E.M.’s head coach said. “The Super S-Level pollutant Chronos can cause rapid dissolution.”

When Chronos, the Super S-Level pollutant, was mentioned, the members of Dawn hesitated. Their only knowledge of this pollutant came from Star Alliance mission data—it had appeared once and was a highly wanted Super S-Level pollutant. Beyond that, they knew almost nothing about it.

“What kind of pollutant is this exactly…?” Shen Xingtang asked the leaders of the elite teams. “We need more precise information.”

E.M.’s head coach replied, “Chronos is the name of a god from the ancient Blue Star era, a deity of time in that myth. You can understand that this pollutant’s known ability is related to time.”

“The ability to control time!? That’s outrageous!” Zhang Ge exclaimed in disbelief. “We’ve never heard of such intel.”

“We’re not sure why this pollutant appeared here either. The only information we have is about abnormal energy reactions in Slared’s three major zones,” E.M.’s head coach explained, looking serious. “The elite teams gathered here only because of the special energy source mentioned in the intel. Now that it’s clear, and Dawn has already retrieved the item… this Super S-Level pollutant is completely unexpected.”

“This pollutant is extremely difficult to capture. It roams around the frontier of the Third Star Domain, and its whereabouts are elusive. The Third Star Domain’s Frontier Army has failed to gather complete intel on it after nearly nine capture attempts,” E.M.’s head coach continued. “And that was before it evolved into a Super S-Level pollutant.”

“What do you mean? It only recently evolved into a Super S-Level?” Shen Xingtang caught onto the key point in his words.

“The last time this pollutant appeared was three years ago, and it evolved into a Super S-Level pollutant at that time. Rumor has it that a mecha pilot witnessed its evolution,” E.M.’s coach explained. “The reason this information hasn’t been made public is largely because even the Frontier Army couldn’t track its movements or gauge the strength of its abilities post-evolution. Based on what we know, this pollutant can freely control the flow of time for certain creatures or regions.”

It could control the flow of time, allowing it to melt the ice tomb or freeze it at will.

Speeding up the time flow of pollutants, gathering them for an attack… it could even control how far the pollutants developed, which was entirely unpredictable.

Zhang Ge asked, “Since it just evolved, shouldn’t it be easier to deal with?”

“It won’t be easy to deal with,” someone from PJT said. “The Frontier Army once bombarded this pollutant with heavy weapons, but it escaped through a crack in time. Oh, and that was when it was still just an S-Level pollutant. They tried nine times and failed nine times. Right now, the Star Alliance has no way of handling it.”

No way to handle it… did that mean the only option was to run?

For now, all they could see was the chaos caused by the massive number of pollutants, but the Super S-Level pollutant itself remained out of sight. All they could witness was Slared changing under its influence.

Just as the group was discussing Chronos, a sudden alarm blared from the virtual screen.

Jiang Simiao, who had been monitoring, turned his head. “Among the pollutants surrounding Chenlin and the others underground, we’ve detected several S-Level pollutant reactions. They’re about to be surrounded by S-Level pollutants.”

—

As the bombing on the surface began, Ying Chenlin and the others quickly moved to the lower slope. He noticed Alex’s coordinates up top, alongside other gathered Artillery mechas. Knowing that the attack above had already started. At this point, the 19 mechas had successfully gathered underground, with everyone stopping at the high point of the slope. WHG’s Tank and Zhao Lejie stood on either side, using their shields to block the incoming pollutants.

“They’ve started bombing above,” WHG’s commander said. “How do you plan to organize this?”

Excavating upward meant that close-combat mechas couldn’t exert their full strength; only the long-range mechas could be effective.

Out of the 19 mechas, four were Artillery mechas. Only these four could serve as the main firepower for upward bombardment.

While the other mechas held off the pollutants, Ying Chenlin calmly said, “We’ll prioritize Artillery on this side too. Bai Xuyan and Wen Yi both have ice-attribute weapons, so you two will lead the assault. Minimize the use of large-scale destructive weapons.”

“Ice-attributed weapons? What are you planning?” Bai Xuyan hadn’t even finished speaking when he saw Ying Chenlin pull out an energy tube, his brow twitching. “How many energy tubes did you guys prepare?!”

“As long as they work,” Ying Chenlin tossed an energy tube to Wen Yi and then scattered half a tube at the excavation point. “Ice-attribute weapons have a freezing effect, which can control the blast radius and allow for targeted explosions. We need to get up there, and the firepower from a few Artillery mechas won’t be fast enough—”

Before he could finish, Ying Chenlin turned to see a large number of pollutants climbing up the slope. “Hurry, don’t waste time.”

Before any of the mechas could fire, You Su’s Energy Cannon blasted the excavation point where half the energy tube had been scattered. In an instant, a crater opened up, and large chunks of ice rained down from above. The surrounding mechas quickly moved back, while You Su coldly said, “If you can’t blast it, step aside.”

Alice whistled and slammed a pollutant flying up with her hammer. “We do need to hurry. There’s an S-Level coming.”

In the midst of their conversation, a few bizarre-looking pollutants suddenly appeared among the group of A and B-Level pollutants. Each of these was marked with an S-Level energy reading, and as soon as they moved, they quickly charged toward the two Tanks. One of the particularly fast S-Level pollutants was immediately intercepted by GBK’s captain, Claude, who stood guarding the left side of WHG’s position. He and GBK controlled one direction, saying, “I’ll handle this side. You guys keep an eye on the others.”

“I’ll take the right,” said WHG’s commander. “There’s one S-Level here; I’ll handle it with my Stealth.”

Alice picked a direction that wasn’t being covered. “Then I’ll take this side.”

With GBK and WHG covering their respective directions, Alice rushed forward without saying another word and faced an S-Level pollutant one-on-one. The remaining forces of Dawn could only stall the S-Level pollutant on Zhao Lejie’s side, with only Ji Qingfeng and Ying Chenlin capable of holding it off. Meanwhile, Chi Lizi and Qi Sicheng focused on controlling the mass of pollutants surging towards them from a distance.

These accelerated pollutants were particularly difficult to deal with. The time manipulation ability affecting them wasn’t just altering their speed; it also gave them a strange amplification. Ying Chenlin had long suspected that the strange growth in Slared’s Snowy Mountains wasn’t just related to the energy converted by the Blue Heart, but might also have a significant connection to this time-controlling Super S-Level pollutant.

E.M’s Stealth and Lin Yao guarded the flanks, dealing with any pollutants that slipped through, without engaging in the main battle.

“Luobo told me they’ve already contacted the other mecha pilots,” Zhao Lejie, acting as the communications officer, said. “They’re going to find Lu Xi and bring her over. If they make it in time, we can speed things up.”

“Good.” With a serious expression, Ying Chenlin switched to his Flowing Fire Sword, his gaze locking onto the nearby S-Level pollutant.

They were lucky that only four S-Level pollutants had shown up. With enough mechas on their side, they could still manage. This place was spacious enough to fight without being restricted.

The difficult part was not knowing how many more pollutants were on their way. They had to hold these off; otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to continue excavating.

“This thing has way too much fur!” Ji Qingfeng, mingling among the A-Level pollutants, finally located the source of the S-Level pollutant. “What’s with all that fur on its body?!”

It was a fluffy creature about half the height of a mecha, covered in spiky gray fur, slowly walking in their direction without initiating any attacks. Seeing this, Ji Qingfeng took the initiative and launched an attack. Just as his Curved Blade hooked the creature’s neck, its fur suddenly exploded outward. The scattered fur landed on Ji Qingfeng’s mecha and detonated instantly, the powerful blast knocking Ji Qingfeng back.

Ying Chenlin quickly caught Ji Qingfeng and swung his Flowing Fire Sword, triggering the remaining floating fur in the air to explode.

“Fuck! Its fur can explode!” Ji Qingfeng took a few steps back, exclaiming, “This thing’s a fire-type pollutant. As soon as you attack it, its fur explodes—there’s no way to get close.”

The pollutant, covered in gray fur, seemed to be like a walking bomb, making it extremely difficult for a close-combat fighter like Ji Qingfeng. “Chi Lizi, can you blast it?”

Chi Lizi aimed and fired at the pollutant, but not much fur was blown off, and the next shot was dodged by the creature. “No good, it can dodge long-range attacks. We’ll still need close combat.”

Just as Ying Chenlin was pondering how to deal with it, he suddenly felt a gust of wind pass by. His gaze froze slightly, and he swung his Flowing Fire Sword to the side but hit nothing. “It felt like something just passed by.”

Zhao Lejie, standing in front of Ying Chenlin, said, “How could something have passed by? My shield is right in front of you—”

At that moment, a sudden clash of metal echoed from behind them.

Ying Chenlin and Zhao Lejie turned around sharply. Lin Yao’s staff had collided with the sharp claws of a shadowy creature, his mecha standing firmly to protect the damaged E.M Artillery.

When did that pollutant get over there!?

“Shit! Yao Bao!” Ji Qingfeng caught a glimpse of it, “What is that thing!?”

Lin Yao swung his staff, knocking the pollutant away, and stood side by side with E.M.’s Stealth. He pressed his Spatial Staff against the ground, shielding E.M’s Artillery behind him. “I’m fine, I can hold this—”

Suddenly, the shadowy creature drifted back for a moment, its entire body moving like the wind.

Ying Chenlin’s pupils contracted sharply as he sensed something. He urgently shouted, “Lin Yao, get out of there!”

The shadowy creature’s body floated like wind, passing through Lin Yao’s spatial barrier without breaking it.

The entire movement was ghostly, impossible to track. In an instant, it darted in front of Lin Yao, its dark shadow forming sharp claws that slashed toward him.

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