"What happened!"
Yi Wenliu clutched his head, looking around anxiously.
"Don't worry, it's just a minor scrape," Jing Mingqiu said unhurriedly. He tapped the back of his seat twice, deflating the airbags while observing the outside through the gap.
Four heavy trucks had the bulletproof sedan Jing Mingqiu was in sandwiched between them. More than twenty masked strongmen quickly surrounded the vehicle, affixing two black squares to its body. Then, they pulled out megaphones and shouted into the car.
"Listen up, people inside. We have placed a large amount of plastic explosives on the car's exterior. I know your vehicle is bulletproof, but with bombs of this yield, the infrasound they generate will shatter your internal organs."
"Don't expect any reinforcements either. We've jammed all signals and created a false impression that you're continuing forward. No one will come to your aid for at least five minutes. If you want to live, hand over Yi Wenliu, or we detonate the bombs immediately!"
Faced with the threat of explosives, Yi Wenliu's initial despair was followed by a flash of resolve. He drew three silver needles from his waist, held them between his fingers, and adopted a posture of defiance unto death.
"Jing Mingqiu, they're after me. I'm sorry for dragging you into this. I'll go out first to create a diversion and chaos. You seize this opportunity to escape."
"That's not how it should be said," Jing Mingqiu pressed Yi Wenliu's hand. "They're targeting you mainly for my prescription. Strictly speaking, you're taking the fall with me. They've certainly prepared thoroughly, but I'm not entirely unprepared either."
"Passphrase: Steel Flood. Ding Yi, activate combat mode immediately and show them what a real mecha is!"
Ding Yi straightened his back and said sternly, "Passphrase verified, combat mode activated."
"Click, click!"
Under the gaze of numerous attackers, the bulletproof sedan, which had been resting quietly on the ground, suddenly stood up. After a series of dazzling, special-effect-like transformations.
The black sedan had morphed into a colossal humanoid mecha. Its hand-held, gleaming Gatling gun and the densely packed missile launchers on its shoulders clearly told everyone that this was no toy, but a true instrument of mass destruction.
The leader of the attackers, sensing something was wrong, opened fire while shouting, "Something's not right! Detonate the bombs immediately!"
"Thinking of detonating the bombs only now? Too late!" Jing Mingqiu sneered. "Ding Yi, initiate sterilization protocol."
"Yes!"
As a deep crimson button was pressed, a large amount of specialized fuel instantly covered the entire mecha. A spark flashed, and flames exceeding a thousand degrees Celsius swept across the mecha. The detonators, encased within the plastic explosives, were reduced to scrap before they could even function.
Yi Wenliu looked at the flames outside the cockpit, his face pale. "Jing Mingqiu, they attached bombs, why are you setting it on fire!"
"Don't worry," Jing Mingqiu explained with a smile. "They attached plastic explosives, C4 for short. This type of explosive is very stable. Apart from a specific detonator, high temperatures and flames alone won't cause it to explode."
Yi Wenliu breathed a sigh of relief. "So that's how it is, I feel relieved. Oh, be careful, rocket!"
Before he could finish speaking, three thumb-sized missiles flew from the giant mecha's shoulders, intercepting and detonating the incoming rocket in mid-air.
Jing Mingqiu glanced at the attackers who had already begun to scatter. "Ding Yi, use tranquilizer missiles, capture them alive."
Ding Yi quickly tapped the control panel several times. The missile launchers on his shoulders sank, and a row of missiles with green warheads slowly rose.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
More than twenty missiles ignited simultaneously and launched, like a swarm of bees, sweeping across the entire road and catching up with the attackers attempting to escape by car.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The missiles exploded in succession, and yellowish-green smoke instantly engulfed all the attackers. Even though they immediately held their breath.
However, the anesthetic agent within these missiles had been modified by Jing Mingqiu using the system. It didn't require inhalation and could take effect upon contact with skin.
In the blink of an eye, all twenty-plus attackers fell into a deep coma.
Following this, Ding Yi piloted the mecha to overturn the four heavy trucks that had lost control, preventing them from crashing and causing unnecessary casualties.
To avoid further incidents, Ding Yi did not rush to revert the mecha to a sedan but maintained a vigilant posture.
Only when others discovered the situation and dispatched troops for protection did he open the cockpit and escort Jing Mingqiu and the others out, allowing the army to escort them forward.
Yi Wenliu, sitting inside the heavy armored vehicle, looked back at the giant mecha that had just displayed its might and couldn't help but ask, "Jing Mingqiu, did you know we would be attacked today and deliberately have the car we were in modified?"
"How is that possible?" Jing Mingqiu waved his hand. "I'm not a fortune teller who can calculate the exact time of their attack. I just made a contingency plan and happened to practice modifying giant mechs."
"The small mechs on the market now can only be used as support. To conquer the vast universe and wage interstellar war, we need giant mechs, or even super-giant mechs thousands of meters tall!"
To more directly showcase the grandeur of super-giant mechs, Jing Mingqiu took out his phone and played an anime clip of mecha aerial combat.
After watching, Yi Wenliu, filled with shock, showed a hint of doubt in his eyes. "Mingqiu, these are products of fantasy. Can they really be realized?"
Jing Mingqiu glanced at the system panel and said confidently, "You don't need to worry about that. I've already prepared the design blueprints for giant, even super-giant mechs. As soon as the basic materials are ready, they can be built immediately!"
"I have another question," Yi Wenliu said, pointing at the combat footage of the mechs in the video. "Why would such advanced giant mechs use primitive combat methods like cold weapons? Wouldn't bullets or missiles be more powerful?"
Upon hearing this question, Jing Mingqiu couldn't help but chuckle. "These mechs are not equipped with ordinary steel blades; they are high-tech weapons like molecular resonance and ion cutting."
"As for why not use bullets or missiles? It's not that their power is insufficient, but in space combat, these items are difficult to resupply in time. Compared to that, cold weapons that primarily consume energy are more suitable..."
As Jing Mingqiu was enthusiastically explaining, the vehicle suddenly stopped. Immediately after, the floor of the armored vehicle split open, folding automatically to reveal a downward passage. Two robots identical in appearance to Jing Mingqiu and Yi Wenliu walked up the passage, one after the other.
"What is this?"
Yi Wenliu had barely begun his question when a hoarse yet majestic voice suddenly echoed in his ear.