Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 81

Chapter 81 – The Rainbow Virus Database

The fleet that regained their internal network opened up the route orderly towards the headquarters like an unstoppable wave.

Lin Jingheng just scanned the damage report on the AUS headquarters’ shield and quickly grasped the Freedom Corps’ offensive strategy. At the same time, there just happened to be an opening in the formation where a mech got shot down in friendly fire earlier. He pointed towards the coordinates and asked Lu Bixing to sneak in the opening, open fire when needed and pull up shields when necessary in an extremely precise manner to the point where it’s almost impossible to tell their mech apart from the real fleet.

Despite his trustworthy looks on the outside, the commander was clearly experienced in swindling and deceiving enemies on the battlefield.

Lin Jingheng was completely unreserved as he beat up a group of pirates disguised in another group of pirates, there was no mental pressure. Yet, on the other hand, Lu Bixing was clearly more worried and continued asking Zhanlu: “We just snuck in like that, what’s gonna happen if they find us?”

Zhanlu responded with friendly advice: “You can give the access of my network to my master, he will figure something out with the missiles.”

Lu Bixing clicked his tongue and complained: “Why do you all want to rely on violence so much? We’re here to steal things, can’t we just settle things peacefully? Like maybe I can introduce myself as a salesman for medical insurance, these superhumans are too unstable physically so they clearly need our products.”

Zhanlu sharply determined the joke within this line and responded confidently: “Hahaha.”

Lin Jingheng: “…..”

This was the first time Commander Lin saw a ‘soldier’ be able to carry out a whole stand-up talk show with a mech. He wasn’t sure if it was due to the fever or the noise from the chatter, he couldn’t withstand the headache and finally said: “You either give me access to the network or you report in the situation of the battle to me in real-time, how do you even have time for small talk?”

“Mister Lin sir, look at my face,” Lu Bixing pulled his expression down as he spoke to the commander, “this expression is called ‘anger is still lingering’, we haven’t settled our case yet, don’t even try and play your expired authority card with me.”

Even though that was the response he gave, Lu Bixing still reliably gave out a proper real-time report: “I can see the AUS headquarters through the mental network right now. I just captured a long-distance signal the headquarters sent out, it’s likely they’re calling for support…hm, wait, they just got intercepted by the Freedom Corps, so the signal didn’t get sent out. The headquarters is pulling back all their firepower, it seems like they might want to centralize their available forces to break out of the barricade.”

Lin Jingheng frowned: “Pulling in all their firepower, are you sure?”

Lu Bixing felt a breath of anger stuck in his throat; it seems like if he doesn’t give the network back today, this high and mighty Mister Lin would question everything he says.

He displayed an admirable scholarly mannerism and tried asking as calmly as he could: “Commander, have you ever trusted your comrades after so many years?”

Lin Jingheng thought about it and answered: “I don’t have comrades, only subordinates.”

“Does the Silver Fortress always act on solo missions? Do they not have times where they have to cooperate with other times to carry out a mission before?”

“Very rarely.” Lin Jingheng leaned back to preserve his energy and answered in a small voice, to the point where it almost sounds like he’s speaking very carefully.

The ‘kind’ Commander Lin said softly: “They can listen to my arrangements or they can leave.”

Lu Bixing: “……”

“It’s strange that the AUS decided to backtrack and centralize their firepower right now,” Lin Jingheng said, “their interception and signal disruption technology is actually very high, even the Union had a taste of it before, it wasn’t just that little trick earlier. If they really want to break through the barricade, the most reasonable thing to do is to send out a strong disruption signal to confuse the enemies, and then escape separately from the loopholes. Even though the Freedom Corps is filled with mostly neutral superhumans that have no control, there’s also a few ‘herders’, if…”

Lu Bixing heard him cough a bit and felt his heart sink. He suddenly forgot about the cold war between them and quickly followed up: “I got it, the AUS doesn’t have much firepower left right now, so even if they decide to break through by centralizing their arms and then intercept the enemy’s communication system, the Freedom Corps could also potentially give up their superhuman fleet and choose to pursue to the escapees. That’s a huge risk—so that means they’re planning on hiding something? Zhanlu, let’s find what they’re trying to hide, start from the transfer portals.”

He picked up the key point very quickly, which saved Lin Jingheng a lot of time.

Zhanlu reported: “There are no unknown transfer portals within the area.”

“There must be, it’s just locked.” Just then, the Freedom Corps’ barricade closed in more into the AUS headquarters. Lu Bixing’s words accelerated as if he secretly installed an accelerator in his mouth: “There are three ways to lock transfer portals: the drainage method, trajectory method, and one-way barrage method. Among them, the trajectory method will require the most space, and this location doesn’t fulfill this requirement, so if they want to lock a transfer portal, they will need to use the other two methods–the drainage method will require other surrounding transfer portals to provide the energy sources to lock and blockade, and if it’s the one-way barrage method there must be a signal receiver on land. Zhanlu, let’s split up the search; you’ll scan and inspect any abnormal energy waves in the surrounding areas, I’ll take care of their on-land internal network.”

Lin Jingheng stared blankly for a moment–Lu Bixing was connected to the mental network, he didn’t actually have to speak in order to communicate with Zhanlu. Plus, Zhanlu’s database is extremely powerful, as long as there are key terms like nouns and verbs grouped together, he can carry out any order and doesn’t need this long explanation.

Lu Bixing explained all of this on purpose for him, afraid that this needy commander would waste energy to question again.

Lin Jingheng felt something touch his dense heart gently as he experienced what felt like being taken care of by someone…it was a little strange, slightly awkward, but very heartwarming.

Just then, the centralized forces of the AUS began firing desperately into the fleet. At the same time, Lu Bixing received an order on the mech from the commanding ship of the Freedom Corps to counterattack with full firepower.

Lu Bixing was clearly disrupted by the change in the environment and was hesitant about following the fleet.

Lin Jingheng ordered clearly: “Ignore it, retreat from the fleet.”

“Huh?” Lu Bixing instinctively followed his orders but wondered in his mind: Won’t we get shot down if we disobey the orders and leave our post right now?

They snuck in during the times the Corps was affected by the signal disruption and were sailing around like headless chickens, so it wasn’t hard to join in the mess. Yet right now, as a small mech that flew out of line clearly disobeying orders, the rest of the fleet immediately caught the traitor in an alert.

Within a short amount of time, all the cannons were pointing at them; but before Lu Bixing could react, a much stronger and complex interception signal shot out from the headquarters of the AUS and immediately turned the Freedom Corps into a fleet of aimlessly flying insects. It was as if their antennas snapped and turned into headless flies, nobody was able to reorganize effectively.

Just then, Zhanlu immediately reported in: “Headmaster Lu, I’ve located a hidden transfer portal through drainage!”

Lin Jingheng: “Emergency warp.”

Lu Bixing grabbed the giant transformable ice pack and folded it like a sandwich around Lin Jingheng, then while holding the commander tightly inside the pack, and ordered the mech to make an emergency warp.

The protective airbag shot out twice its normal amount and flew right towards Lin Jingheng, who felt like he got shoved inside an amber, stuck solidly within time-space where he almost couldn’t feel the impact of gravitational changes brought by the emergency warp.

The next instant, the mech escaped out of the chaotic fleet of the Freedom Corps and headed straight into the hidden transfer portal. Just as they were about to leave, an alarm rang inside the mech.

Zhanlu: “An abnormal energy wave has been detected within one sailing day away…”

Lu Bixing lifted his head in shock—the AUS headquarters exploded!

It wasn’t the level of a mech armory explosion, the entire operational base turned into a ball of fire.

The station that held the AUS operational base was massive with close to over ten thousand square kilometers big, nothing that Old Fart’s tiny space station can compare to. It was essentially a floating fortress. Now, the entire base exploded from the center out until it physically transformed into an artificial sun. The massive ball of fire shot through the air and opened up its burning mouth to rip through the thin artificial atmosphere like paper, and expanded out towards the Freedom Corps fleet.

The disorganized and messy fleet was already too close to the point of eruption.

The centralization of firepower earlier was actually to dig up a big trap with their own lives; the entire AUS headquarters had no intention of escaping and planned on ending their lives with their enemies.

There were no responses from the superhuman fleet as they were annihilated almost instantly. The ‘herders’ of the fleet happened to stay in the outermost rim of the formation and immediately turned around to run for their lives the moment they regained their senses from shock.

Just then, a small merchant ship passed through the transfer portal that Lu Bixing just used and quickly made their escape—

Lu Bixing quickly took notice and realized that the suicide explosion in the AUS headquarters wasn’t a desperate attempt to bring down the enemy, it was to hide this tiny ‘merchant ship’. Everyone and all the mechs inside the base became part of the bait.

What is this, sacrificing for the special few?

They were so willing to become a bait–were they fooled into this or brainwashed into thinking that they were sacrificing for a great cause of humanity?

The base already exploded, there was no way to check now.

Lin Jingheng pushed the ice pack and protection airbag off his body and stood up abruptly. However, he got up too fast and couldn’t feel his leg and fell to his knees when his lower leg fell asleep. Lu Bixing ran to hold him up in shock: “Lin!”

Lin Jingheng: “The mental network.”

He forcefully entered Zhanlu’s mental network just as he finished; even though Lu Bixing would sometimes argue with him, he wouldn’t try to fight under these circumstances and immediately backed out of the network.

Lin Jingheng reached across him and grabbed a syringe from inside the ice pack. Before Lu Bixing could react, he clipped it onto his arm without hesitation. Lu Bixing turned suddenly as he heard the sound only to see an empty relaxant fall off Lin Jingheng’s arm.

Lin Jingheng hissed softly after injecting the relaxant; his muscles contracted too quickly to the point he could feel the tightening down to his bones. He took in a deep breath as he froze up in pain.

At the same time, Zhanlu’s vast mental network rolled out like a giant web; the small merchant ship that just escaped was clearly a mech in disguise and was caught immediately by the network like a fly that flew right into a trap.

The weaker Lin Jingheng’s physical state is the stronger his mental strength. The enemy pilot was knocked off the mental network immediately, and without giving them a chance to react, Lin Jingheng immediately turned off all internal gravity and balance systems after taking control of their mech. The mech spun at high speed right immediately passing through the transfer portal; the people inside the mech felt as if they jumped right into a washing machine, all the cells in their bodies about to be squeezed out. They spun around chaotically until they were almost knocked unconscious and lost their chance to regain control of their mental network.

Lin Jingheng just picked up a blade and cut down a mech on his own. His body was like a half-dead corpse that just got fished out of the water, and after powering through a whole minute of the relaxant’s impact, fell onto Lu Bixing lifelessly. For a second, Lu Bixing felt like he couldn’t see the commander’s chest rising and frantically went to check his pulse. When he finally caught a weak heartbeat from the commander’s neck, the line that was stuck in his throat finally dropped as he almost felt himself breaking down as well: “Do you want to die!?”

Lin Jingheng’s throat was too dry for him to speak; he only quietly took the two mechs together and passed through another transfer portal. The moment they escaped the Freedom Corps’ signal disruption range, he sent out a long-distance signal towards Qiming.

Through the internal network of the Freedom Corps, the main fleet of the AUS seems to only be lured out of the headquarters and was not completely annihilated. And the reason why the Freedom pirates were so quick to charge in was that they were afraid that the enemy’s main fleet would return at any time, so the area wasn’t safe.

And even as careful and meticulous as Lin Jingheng is, he had no control over luck. Just as they were about to leave, a small team of AUS mechs suddenly appeared around the transfer portal they were staying at. The time in between their transfer and when the fleet appeared was less than a minute, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the AUS headquarters was already blown up, it almost seemed as if this was a planned ambush.

Zhanlu: “Sir, the hostage mech’s location tracker has been activated.”

Lu Bixing was stunned: “How did they get to it so fast?”

Lin Jingheng immediately locked on all the trackers on the hostage mech and removed them, but it was already too late.

Zhanlu expanded his mental network fully and activated his long-distance scan. The area of inspection increased to include all surrounding transfer portals they can choose to use.

At this point, their coordinates have been fully exposed. The enemy didn’t follow up immediately as there was a hostage in their hands but have already spread their forces out to control all accessible transfer portals Lin Jingheng can use.

If this was drawn out like a map, they would be like a little bug surrounded by a bunch of predators.

Both sides temporarily entered a stalemate.

Lin Jingheng grabbed onto Lu Bixing’s shoulders and struggled to pull himself up. He was already used to all the bad turn of events on the battlefield and said: “Connect the hostages over.”

The ‘merchant ship’ being held hostage began sailing towards them slowly and connected to their own mech. After the gravity control fully adjusted the air pressure, a row of robotic soldiers rushed into the merchant ship and began carrying out all the tied-up hostages like corpses.

There were a total of seven people wearing the same long cotton robes. Their hairs were all cut short, and surprisingly there were no traces of any technological devices on them such as personal devices. On the backs of their robes, there was a symbol of the AUS—a circle of ivy surrounded a silhouette of a person that looked like what the old ‘Prophet’ looked like on AUS missionary booklets. It was clear that these people were core members of the AUS, but it’s hard to say if they’re scared of the mutated Rainbow Virus.

“They must have brought the main database information of the AUS when whey escaped,” Lin Jingheng spoke through the broadcast on the mech through the mental network to Lu Bixing, “try searching around, and once you find any information on the mutated Rainbow Virus, find a way to set up a long-distance channel and send it to Turan.”

“Oh.” Lu Bixing responded coldly and grabbed Lin Jingheng’s arms around his shoulders, half-dragging the latter out.

Lin Jingheng: “You…agh, what are you doing?”

“You’re trying to lure me over there and then disconnect both mechs, right? You’re using the same method as before, do you even have any sincerity here? You’re not allowed to leave my side.”

Lin Jingheng was just about to give himself an excuse when Lu Bixing interrupted him in a distrusting manner: “You don’t need to explain, your trust with me has completely gone bankrupt—if it wasn’t for the fact that Zhanlu can open up any digital locks, I’d lock you to my arms right now.”

Zhanlu–while his access now returned to Lin Jingheng, he still missed the kind Lu Bixing–laid his arms out and responded treacherously in front of his boss: “Sorry Headmaster Lu, I suggest you manually use your own hands to lock him up; that I won’t be able to intercept.”

Lin Jingheng: “……”

The leader of the AUS fleet was a heavy mech; it peaked its head slowly from the transfer portal not too far ahead of them and locked a row of cannons at their small mech the moment it entered their field of vision.

The enemy sent a communication request.

Lin Jingheng: “Zhanlu, receive the call for me.”

Zhanlu immediately accepted the request and stood before the camera as Lin Jingheng controlled his speech through the mental network. The group of hostages in the back was caught on camera along with Zhanlu as it clearly displayed on the screens of the AUS fleet.

The enemy perhaps mistook them for the Freedom Corps and immediately questioned them when the communication connected: “Our brothers are fighting with their lives in the Union to free all of humanity, and as a fellow extraterritorial group, how can you use this opportunity to backstab us like this?”

Zhanlu’s artificial face imitated an eerily realistic sneer: “You can say whatever you want, but your people are in my hands right now.”

The AUS member’s face showed an expression of repressed anger as he said: “I know what you guys want, I can share the data on the Nuwa Project, but you must release the hostages and return the ‘ark’ to us!”

Lu Bixing commented quietly: “So this small mech that disguised as a merchant ship is called the ark.”

Lin Jingheng’s expression was a bit grave. He spoke through Zhanlu’s mouth: “Don’t try and fool me, the data of the Nuwa Project is on the ark, right? It’s also in my hands right now, what makes you think you can bet with my chips? Do you still want the lives of these prophets? If you do, make way immediately, or else I’ll kill one every minute. Who do you think should die first?”

The member of the AUS bit down his lips and said: “We are fighting for all of humanity, and when necessary, we can sacrifice anyone and anything. Don’t think you can threaten us with this!”

Lin Jingheng responded uncaringly and casually: “Sure, you guys can open fire then.”

Lu Bixing had already opened up the core system of the ark at this time; the hidden data files looked as if they were kept inside a transparent file folder that popped up one by one as he went through them. His decoding speed was incredibly fast and was not a bit delayed by dragging Lin Jingheng closely beside him: “I found it, wait, there’s a really complicated locked file in here…hm, it uses the Alecto code, this is going to be a bit troublesome…”

Before he could finish, the locked file was triggered by the hacking attempt and sent out a system alert. What’s even more strange was that the same alert also rang within the AUS internal network.

Lu Bixing: “Did I hit the jackpot?”

Lin Jingheng thought: Shit.

Lin Jingheng immediately turned up the shield of the mech to full power and accelerated to full speed. The tiny mech that was just quietly parking in space suddenly charged forward like lightning and barely passed through the line of missiles from the AUS–the enemy really didn’t care about the hostages anymore and would rather blow up both the hostages and the ark in order to protect whatever top secret information they have at the cost of everything.

Countless mid-sized mechs behind the heavy mech all began locking their cannons on the lone fly. At this point, the communication channel had already been cut off and the world around them was replaced with a web of particle cannons and missiles.

It was impossible to escape.

Just then, the long-distance signal they sent out finally received a response as the two-way connection to the operational base in Qiming opened up.

In that critical moment before Lu Bixing sent out all information about the Rainbow Virus over, he saw Turan’s virtual figure–even if both of them perished into stardust, at least the Eighth Galaxy will no longer have to suffer the trauma of a second pandemic.