Chapter 1

More than twenty armed helicopters took off one after another from the eight helipads on the shattered dome, ascending into the high sky.

Half went to patrol the sea, while the other half remained in place, illuminating the fortress below with searchlights.

Rumble—

Accompanied by the roar of engines, the three thousand-ton hangar doors on the sea-facing side of the fortress slid open to the left and right along the chutes, revealing three heavy mechs.

The brightly painted, relatively slender Crimson Typhoon was the first to emerge from the hangar.

Its feet, equipped with magnetorheological dampers, stepped into the seawater. After only a slight tremor, it regained its balance, using the massive amount of seawater to support the weight of its body.

"Crimson Typhoon advancing, estimated to arrive at the designated location in one minute."

In the cockpit, the Wei triplets, with their Eastern faces, pushed the control sticks in unison, walking with unified steps.

The heavy mech strode through the waves, heading towards the sea, illuminated by the helicopter searchlights in the sky.

In this world where the Kaiju War had broken out, human civilization had to find another way to obtain the power to contend with the giant deep-sea monsters.

They collected the pineal gland organs of the deep-sea monsters and connected them to human pilots, mechs, and mech AI through a device called the "drift system,"

forming a four-corner connection.

The drift system includes the following parts:

Full-coverage tactical suit—this tactical suit is covered with circuit sensors that can read physiological data.

Spinal clamp—this part uses the robotic arm in the cockpit to attach to the back of the tactical suit during combat. The role of the spinal clamp is to transmit the pilot's movements from the full-coverage tactical suit to the mech. At the same time, it organizes the pilot's chaotic brainwaves so that they can be understood by the mech AI.

Relay gel—this gel is similar to light yellow orange juice and fills the helmet component of the tactical suit, submerging the pilot's face. The pilot can breathe in the relay gel without suffocating. After being energized, the relay gel turns transparent.

At the same time, the relay gel also plays the most crucial role—integrating thoughts.

A single pilot cannot control a heavy mech over 50 meters, nor can they control the pineal gland of a level three or four deep-sea monster to release the A.T. field.

Therefore, multiple pilots must jointly bear the huge load connected to the pineal gland organ of the monster.

Even that is not enough. Once the drift system is used, the brains of multiple pilots will be connected together, and they can feel each other's thoughts and read all of each other's memories.

They can even understand the most unknown, darkest, and dirtiest subconscious fragments in their hearts.

If one party cannot bear this mental burden, the other pilots will quickly lose control, resulting in mental disorder in mild cases, and death on the spot in severe cases.

PPDC has paid a heavy price in blood for this in history.

Therefore, after the drift system technology matured, all PPDC mech pilots were divided into groups of two, three, or four.

Each group of pilots must be close to each other and able to share memories at will.

The Wei brothers, who piloted the Crimson Typhoon mech, were young triplets born in Hong Kong.

Alex Kaidanovsky and Sasha Kaidanovsky, who piloted the Cherno Alpha mech, were childhood sweethearts who had become husband and wife.

And Herc Hansen and Chuck Hansen, who piloted the Striker Eureka, were a father and son from Sydney, Australia.

"Crimson Typhoon has arrived at the designated target location. Mech shoulder beacons activated, patrolling the sea surface."

Wei Jinlong, the eldest of the Wei brothers, took a deep breath and reported to the command center through the broadcast system.

He stood in the middle of the cockpit. Although his appearance was no different from his two younger brothers, the expression between his eyebrows was more calm and steady.

General Stacker Pentecost's voice came from the command center, "Command center received.

Crimson Typhoon, this time the deep-sea monsters are the power-type Leatherback and the agile Otachi. As usual, the stronger and more heavily armored Cherno Alpha mech will attract their attention.

Wait until Cherno Alpha entangles one of them before you launch an attack.

The Striker Eureka mech will stay behind you, ready to provide fire support at any time.

As for the one hundred and twenty small and medium-sized deep-sea creatures that followed Leatherback and Otachi, they will be intercepted by other medium-sized mech arrays at the coastal port.

You only need to deal with Leatherback and Otachi."

"Understood."

Wei Jinlong nodded heavily, his voice as calm as ever.

But his brother Wei Yinhu next to him frowned slightly, and after the broadcast was turned off, he asked in a deep voice, "Big brother, are you worried about mom and dad?"

"Yeah."

Wei Jinlong nodded. There were no secrets between the three brothers connected to the drift system. "I don't know if they are safe in Pengzhou..."

In order to ensure that the mech pilots had no worries, the Wei brothers' parents were previously arranged to be in Pengzhou, which is further inland.

However, the Pale World lichen mutation just now had a wide impact, and even Pengzhou may not be absolutely safe.

"Mom and dad should be fine. PPDC colleagues will protect them."

Wei Tongshi, the youngest of the three brothers, comforted him, "Even if the situation gets out of control, we who are piloting Crimson Typhoon have the ability to resist.

At worst, we'll drive Crimson Typhoon and let that Li Risheng completely destroy the lichen he created."

Crimson Typhoon is a fourth-generation mech manufactured by Northern Industries Corporation. It has learned from the experience and lessons of the previous three generations of mechs and optimized various details.

Its style is high mobility, low armor, and melee specialization.

It can make more flexible tactical movements than other heavy mechs.

The cutter formed by the rotation of its three hands has so far killed seven deep-sea monsters, turning them into seven star sticker patterns pasted on Crimson Typhoon's chest.

The mech's overall technical advancement, strength, and record are second only to the fifth-generation mech Striker Eureka, which was just produced in Australia—that Australian father and son have killed ten monsters to date.

"Maybe."

Wei Jinlong pursed his lips, still feeling a little worried in his heart.

The A.T. field released by the Crimson Typhoon mech, which carries three pilots, can withstand the world's most advanced cluster bombs and missile bombardments.

It can also withstand attacks from all level three and four deep-sea creatures.

But for some reason, while controlling this most advanced mech on Earth, he still felt a certain unease about that otherworldly visitor who called himself Li Risheng.

Tap tap tap tap.

Next to Crimson Typhoon, the larger and more bulky Cherno Alpha mech strode through the sea with its thick legs,

followed by Striker Eureka.

The three heavy mechs stood on the sea, slowly standing still, like three gods, with their backs to the city, overlooking the turbulent sea, waiting for the enemy that would come at any time.

——————

"...So, Little Ma, you've been promoted now?"

In the shattered dome fortress command hall, Li Ang flipped through the information brought by PPDC while chatting with Black Stallion and Dawn.

"I guess."

Black Stallion smiled wryly. After the Gate Contention, although their Whale Song did not receive a direct gate reward,

the Whale Song executives did not know what kind of exchange of interests they used,

and successfully boarded the Truthside line.

Together with Monster Alliance, Thousand-Throated Beast, and a dozen other large and medium-sized guilds, they jointly developed resources in a gate under the leadership of the League of Evil Scientists.

Jin Ge Tie Ma and the other four, who had made a contribution in the Gate Contention and successfully transmitted the news of the Lion Demon of the Wastes back to other players, were also promoted.

Some time ago, they officially entered the core of Whale Song and gained access to more top-secret information.

However, this also made Black Stallion more deeply aware of the gap in strength between him and Li Ang.

Even if he was promoted to the core of Whale Song, received more resource support, and possessed perfect-level equipment and props,

he still didn't have the slightest confidence standing in front of Li Ang.

This killing game's matchmaking mechanism is really outrageous. How could a white-collar worker who plays with code be matched with Li Risheng?

What about balancing strength and ensuring fairness?

Black Stallion thought helplessly in his heart, his eyes inadvertently glancing at the pink-haired girl Dawn, who was pretending to look at the command hall's big screen but was actually peeking at PPDC's confidential information next to him.

Dawn's combat power is basically all concentrated on her personal binding equipment, the Qubeley mech. Relying solely on training herself cannot bring about rapid progress in overall strength.

However, he heard that the European Heavy Industries Group had installed a lot of new equipment on the Qubeley mech some time ago,

and judging from Dawn's action of directly summoning the Qubeley mech just now, her fighting style was also much more flexible than before, and her strength had improved.

She is suitable for playing in this script world with mechs and monsters as the theme.

"Promotion is a good thing. I'm very interested in your guild's electronic information engineering technology. We can trade and exchange it someday."

Li Ang didn't care about Black Stallion's restraint or Dawn's peeking, and with a wave of his hand, he formed a mind link in the minds of the two of them.

He said in the psionic communication channel, "Do you two have any clues about this script mission?"

"Uh..."

Black Stallion was stunned for a moment, pursed his lips, and said in the psionic connection, "Our three tasks should be the same, right?

It's all [Escape the pursuit of the human camp and kill three deep-sea monsters].

When Dawn and I teleported over, we appeared directly near the shattered dome base. Relying on my ability to control the computer system, I passed PPDC's detection methods and entered the shattered dome fortress.

Li...cough, Brother Li, your strength may have exceeded the average line of the script mission, so you were targeted.

The initial teleport location was not around us. You were directly detected by PPDC and were pursued.

This should be the first trap set by the system."

"Yeah."

Li Ang said calmly, "The technology tree of this script world is quite magical. In some aspects, it is much more advanced than Earth.

You should have seen it too, right?

The A.T. field released by the PPDC mech can greatly weaken the power of modern weapons and any form of extraordinary power.

Even Earth can't do this.

If it weren't for the Pale World lichen, it would indeed be a bit troublesome to be surrounded by a large number of medium-sized mechs."

Just "a bit troublesome"?

Black Stallion grinned. He had tested it before.

The A.T. field can not only prevent fire and electricity,

but once it is turned on, it really feels like "fighting the world with personal will."

Even Black Stallion's computer technology cannot invade the mech's interior.

If you change to a weaker player, standing in front of the mech feels like facing an unbreakable and impenetrable iron can, and the attack methods can't even break through the armor.

"Cough cough."

Dawn coughed lightly and said, "The technological level of this world is indeed slightly more advanced than Earth, especially in materials science and engineering.

But in some aspects, such as medicine, chemical biology, and molecular biology, the level is slightly lower.

It's about the same as Earth two years ago without the killing game."

"That's right."

Black Stallion added, "The technology tree of this script world is a bit crooked.

I just checked it. In addition to Hong Kong, PPDC also has several other fortresses.

Lima, Anchorage, Vladivostok, Tokyo, Sydney, Los Angeles, Panama, etc.

Their scientific research technology is shared, and there are no particularly large differences.

In addition, the other fortresses also store some specimens of the deep-sea monsters they killed, but there are no living creatures—

in previous cases, even if humans were lucky enough to capture deep-sea creatures, they would kill themselves and refuse to be captured.

Therefore, we cannot complete the script mission objective by 'killing three deep-sea monsters in cages in other fortresses.'

We can only kill the newly emerged level four deep-sea monsters to meet the mission requirements."