louisehourcade Chapter 239 Mission Complete!
Chapter 239 Mission Complete!
Zhang Yan stored all three mechs into his storage space.
The final energy data is as follows: White Tiger 21%, Xing Tian 52%, and Black Scorpion 58%.
They all need to be charged, but there's no rush.
He searched the jungle around the nest for three hours.
The system's passive scan did not detect any further remnant energy reactions within a five-kilometer radius.
With the core of the lair destroyed, the contamination network in the area completely collapsed.
The mutated bark, the grayish-red leaves, the sticky moss—all accelerated death and decomposition.
After another rain or two, the jungle will swallow it all up, as if nothing had ever happened.
Five o'clock in the morning.
A sliver of gray and white had just appeared on the horizon.
Zhang Yan sat down at the base of a large tree and leaned against the trunk, closing his eyes for twenty minutes.
It's not about sleeping.
It's to let your mind, which has been tense for too long, relax a little.
Twenty minutes later he opened his eyes, and it was already daylight.
The jungle looked perfectly normal in the morning light.
Birds were chirping, insects were crawling, and a brightly colored lizard scurried past his feet.
Zhang Yan stood up and patted the mud off his pants.
He took out a satellite phone.
The money was transferred to Qin Changfeng.
"I've finished taking care of things here."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.
"Are you hurt?"
"no."
"..." Qin Changfeng's voice sounded like he had just woken up, or like he hadn't slept all night, "You young people, can you stop making this old man worry in the middle of the night?"
"Be more careful next time."
Zhang Yan smiled.
"What about the Dragon Scales?" he asked.
"Everyone returned to the country last night." Qin Changfeng's tone finally softened. "Not a single one is missing."
"casualties?"
"Chen Mo suffered a fracture in his left arm, and the heavy hammer was grazed by shrapnel, but the others were unharmed."
Qin Changfeng paused for a moment.
"The equipment you gave them saved at least three lives."
"Those monsters on the third floor, without the defensive bonus of the exoskeleton, would kill at least two people if we tried to fight them head-on."
Zhang Yan hummed in agreement.
"Li Zhan asked me to pass on a message for him," Qin Changfeng said.
"What?"
He said, "The note has been received, and everyone has been brought back safely."
Zhang Yan remained silent.
There was a two-second silence.
"I see."
He hung up the phone.
Standing in the morning light, I put away the satellite phone.
A system notification popped up on the watch.
He hadn't looked at it until now, and only opened it now.
【Ding! 】
[Main Quest "Prospering Abroad" - Completed!]
[Mission Rating: SS]
[Completion Condition 1: Assist the Dragonscale Squad in completing the decapitation mission - Completed.]
[Completion Condition 2: Ensure the safe return of all members of the Dragon Scale Squad - Achieved.]
[Hidden condition: Independently destroy the Ruins' Nest (Secondary) - Completed.]
[Rewards being distributed...]
[Reward 1: S-Rank Mech Blueprint - "Tyrannosaurus".]
[Reward 2 (Hidden Reward): Passive Skill "Battlefield Intuition - Elite" (Increases the speed of predicting danger sources in combat by 40%).]
Zhang Yan's gaze lingered on the second line.
Tyrannosaurus Rex.
He opened the blueprint.
A three-dimensional holographic model slowly rotates on the watch's projection screen.
It is twelve meters tall.
Walking on two feet.
Its overall silhouette is somewhere between a dinosaur and a humanoid—the lower body is a robust beast-like leg structure, while the upper body is a humanoid cockpit and weapon platform.
Its armor thickness is three times that of Xingtian.
But what first caught Zhang Yan's attention was its weapon system.
It has two arms; the left arm is a short-barreled rapid-fire cannon with an exaggerated caliber, while the right arm integrates a composite structure of a heavy hydraulic breaker and a plasma cutting blade.
There is a set of triple missile pods on each side of its back.
Right in the center of his chest was a scaled-down version of an electromagnetic railgun—two sizes smaller than the one on Baihu's back, but with a firing rate four times faster.
Tyrannosaurus Rex.
True to its name.
If the White Tiger is a precise scalpel, then the Tyrannosaurus Rex is a combination of a bulldozer and a firepower platform.
It doesn't need to dodge.
It doesn't require positioning.
All it needs to do is one thing—run it over.
Zhang Yan glanced at the list of materials.
Meteorite iron (large quantity), titanium-chromium alloy, deep-sea memory metal, fragments of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart (for core drive)...
He already has most of the materials, or is able to obtain them.
The only problem is time.
He turned off the projector and looked southeast.
The coastline is over there.
When he arrived, he anchored the Sea Devouring Shark underwater near the shore, setting it in a standby position.
The straight-line distance is approximately thirty kilometers.
Zhang Yan started walking back.
There was no mech being ridden, nor was any equipment activated.
A man, dressed in training clothes stained with mud and black putrid liquid, walks in the morning light of the Southeast Asian rainforest.
It took about two hours to walk.
The smell of the jungle is changing, gradually transforming from the inland smell of decaying leaves into a salty, damp one.
The sound of the sea breeze seeped in through the gaps in the tree canopy.
His phone rang again.
Nie Qingcheng.
"Are you up?" Zhang Yan answered.
"You thought I was asleep?"
"...Not asleep?"
"I've been waiting for your message until now." Her voice was a little hoarse, with a gritty quality from not having slept all night. "Zhang Yan, if you don't message me soon, I'm flying over here myself."
"I've sent it now."
"What time is it now?"
"Seven o'clock in the morning."
"Your time is one and a half hours behind Jinghai's, so it's 5:30 in the morning there."
"..."
"You said you'd finished working overtime at 2 AM, but didn't contact me until 5:30 AM. What were you doing for those three and a half hours?"
"Finishing the job."
"What? It takes three and a half hours to clean up?"
Zhang Yan thought for a moment.
"Clean up the battlefield."
There was a five-second silence on the other end.
"You won?"
"Um."
Are you hurt?
"no."
"real?"
"real."
There was silence for another three seconds.
Then he heard a very soft, nasal exhale.
It's not a sigh.
It's more like the sound of a string that's been stretched for a long time finally being released.
"When are you coming back?"
"We'll leave today and arrive tomorrow."
I'll pick you up at the dock.
"No need, I—"
"Zhang Yan".
"Um."
"This is not something to be discussed."
He didn't say anything more.
The corners of her mouth curved slightly.
"it is good."
I hung up the phone.
After passing through the last patch of bushes, the view suddenly opened up before us.
Pebble beach.
The grey-blue sea shimmered in the morning light, and the waves lapped against the shore, leaving dark, damp marks after the foam subsided.
Zhang Yan stood by the water and turned on his watch.
The location signal of the sea-devouring shark is 300 meters away, 40 meters underwater, in standby mode, and everything is normal.
He took out a disc.
Blue light shone on the sea, refracting into a patchwork of blue.
The energy integrity of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart is 61%.
There are four pieces now.
Three more pieces are needed to fully restore this ancient energy core.
At that time, the creation of the Azure Dragon will have its most crucial heart.
He put away the disc.
Walk into the sea.
The seawater reached above the ankles, above the knees, and above the waist.
Just as the water was about to reach their chests, a huge black figure silently rose from the seabed.
The sea-devouring shark.
A six-meter-long streamlined mechanical body emerged from the water in front of him, and the cockpit opened automatically, like a mount waiting for its master.
Zhang Yan rolled over and entered the cockpit.
The hatch closed.
The seawater was kept out.
The instrument panel lights up, and all systems pass self-test.
He entered the heading—northeast, Jinghai.
Estimated sailing time: 14 hours.
The sea shark dived to a depth of 100 meters, activated its thrusters, and silently glided into the deep blue ocean current.
Zhang Yan leaned back in his seat.
He hadn't relaxed like this in a long time.
It's not because of safety.
The deep sea is never safe.
It's because of the direction.
He knew where he was going.
In that direction, there were villas with lights on, people waiting for him on balconies, and soup in the refrigerator that he had been told to "heat up before drinking."
There's one more thing.
"Wait for you."
Zhang Yan closed his eyes.
On the watch, the 3D blueprint of the Tyrannosaurus Rex was spinning silently.
The shark leaves a solitary trail in the deep sea.
Facing north.
Heading towards home.