IRCDM Chapter 71

Chapter 71: Breaking the Situation – My Luck Has Always Been Good

A hundred-meter-tall mecha stood at the edge of the mine, beneath its feet a mountain of rotting corpses of heteromorphs. The smaller mecha transformed, taking the lead in logging in. As the core system of the upgraded Submerged Dragon mecha, it finally returned to its main body. This giant mecha, famously named Submerged Dragon, affectionately called Small One, was now in an excellent mood.

“Submerged Dragon signal system is reinstalling, estimated time fifteen minutes and thirty seconds.” Submerged Dragon lowered its head, looking at the human standing before it, its deep tone making it seem much more composed. “Please load the core signal receiver.”

Li Yao looked at the hovering light screen in front of him. The seven signal tower stabilizers of the Eastern District Base had been successfully deployed. Not a single person messed up, a testament to his brainwashing skills.

For the hundred and first time, he lamented how lucky he was to be a good person.

The tracking map in the upper left corner showed that Number One had already entered the Eastern District Base and was rapidly approaching the military headquarters building in East 1 Rich District, without any hesitation.

He was somewhat relieved, and a little regretful, but the trace of reluctance was overwhelmed by a sense of release.

Overall, he was very happy. His A+ level mental power allowed him to successfully establish a mental link with Submerged Dragon, re-logging into the 3S-level mecha. The surging and familiar mental power revitalized him, and his 2S+ physical fitness was enough for him to maintain the frequency of the core signal receiver –

Ten years ago, when the Joint Fleet was on the verge of total annihilation, Chen An personally handed him the core signal receiver, which was related to the fate of humanity.

The continuous explosions were like a dirge played in space. He could no longer see Chen An’s face clearly, but Chen An’s voice was incredibly clear.

“Li Yao, it’s too late, we can’t retreat.” The deputy commander, who was about the same age as his mother, had never been kind to him, but now she was like a mother. Her warm hand gripped Li Yao’s tightly, her voice firm, “No one but you can resist the pollutants left by the heteromorphs. You are the only one among us who can return alive.”

Li Yao was thinking rapidly, he instinctively squeezed Chen An’s hand: “No, I can find a way back, I’ll take you back with me, I—”

“It’s too late.” Chen An interrupted him, the high mental power dysfunction caused by the pollutants making her pronunciation difficult. “You have two choices. First, take the Joint Fleet’s black box back to the military. They will know the truth of this accident and prove your innocence. Tell them that there are heteromorph sleeper agents in the military, cleanse the heteromorphs, and then start again.”

“But if you take the black box back, don’t trust anyone, absolutely don’t give it to them, you must find a suitable time to make it public, so that you have a chance to survive.”

Li Yao lowered his head, scalding blood flowing from Chen An’s eyes and splashing on his wrist.

“Second, you take the core signal receiver back.” She was reluctant, but she squeezed Li Yao’s hand tightly. “The laid signal towers have been destroyed, but we will try our best to keep the core route. The coordinates from this star to the outer star systems have been completely blocked. If a new coordinate that can link to the outer star systems can be re-established on this star, the shielded signal tower route can be restarted, the hidden new star coordinates can be found, and the Dawn Project will not be a failure.”

Li Yao did not hesitate: “I’ll take the signal receiver back to this star.”

Chen An shook her head with difficulty: “No, listen to me. You can only take either the black box or the receiver back with you, their radiation is too strong for the human body. If you don’t have the black box, the military can convict you just by the wrong coordinates you transmit back. And those heteromorphs will not let you go. Besides you, the Joint Fleet and the vanguard are all dead, you have no way to prove your innocence.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Li Yao said, “That’s so cool.”

Chen An twitched the corner of her mouth, as if amused by his childishness. She placed the key to the core signal receiver in Li Yao’s hand: “Before… before activating the new coordinates and restarting the space signal tower route, don’t let anyone know. The degree of heteromorph infiltration into the military high command is far beyond our imagination. If the coordinates of the new star fall into their hands, humans will be trapped on this star. You must hold on until the last second of activation of the new coordinates. The route cannot tolerate any mistakes, otherwise, it will be all in vain.

Activating the new coordinates requires a 3S mecha as a signal receiving carrier, and sufficient mental power to stabilize the frequency. Even if the coordinates are successfully activated, you may not survive in the end.”

Li Yao squeezed the key and nodded: “Okay.”

“You know the military’s interrogation methods, hide the receiver, and don’t go back with your memories, you… you think of a way.” Chen An was almost completely immersed in blood, instructing him word by word.

“As long as you go back alive, there is hope for humanity.”

The explosions were getting closer and closer. Chen An struggled to stand up and walked with difficulty to the central control console. The military uniform on her body was soaked in blood, but her shoulders and back were still straight: “Go, we’ll clear the way for you.”

The voices of other commanders came from the public channel of the control console.

“Emergency adjustment of the fleet direction completed.”

“Currently, there are 36,000 survivors, 458 available mechas, and 1.3 percent of fuel remaining.”

“Direction confirmed: New star system, new star, detectable coordinates of 30 trillion, wrong coordinates are being parsed.”

“Single escape pod is ready, fuel has been filled, and the landing coordinates of this star system have been confirmed.”

“Hiding the core coordinates of the signal tower route is starting…”

Li Yao squeezed the blood-stained key in his hand, raised his hand and gave a military salute to Chen An and his comrades-in-arms in the explosion, and then turned and left without hesitation.

The moment the escape pod was launched, the mecha fleet exploded behind him, much like the grand and dazzling fireworks that the military group let off in front of the window to get him to join.

“Dawn Star, good luck.”

In the public channel, someone said with a smile at the end, and then his consciousness fell into darkness completely.

The signal receiver that his comrades had protected with their blood and lives was now integrated with his body, beating with his heart.

“Successfully logged into the combat pod, welcome, master.”

Li Yao laughed in the combat pod: “Why so formal all of a sudden?”

Small One said seriously: “After all, we will be saying goodbye in fifteen minutes. I am very happy to be able to fight side by side with you. I will send you off with a firework.”

“Hopefully not the middle finger.” Li Yao leaned back in the cabin with a relaxed posture, habitually wanting to reach for a cigarette, but came up empty.

It must have been taken by Liang Huan.

Even though he couldn’t remember, the bad habit of controlling people hadn’t changed. He couldn’t help but smile, lowered his head and opened the chip on his wrist, wanting to open the photos in the encrypted folder, but the chip prompted no network signal.

“Warning, the internal radiation value of the combat room has seriously exceeded the standard, the damage to the human body is irreversible.”

“Prompt: Signal tower stabilizers No. 1 to No. 7 have been successfully linked to the Submerged Dragon signal system. Prompt: The core signal receiver has been successfully loaded. Do you want to activate the core signal receiver?”

“Warning, life signs are detected to be decreasing rapidly, do you want to refuse activation?”

Li Yao raised his hand and wiped the blood on his face, regrettably turned off the chip on his wrist, looked up at the endless sea in front of him and the snowflakes falling in the sky, and smiled: “Activate the core signal receiver.”

The receiver had been integrated into his bones and blood. Although he could feel the existence of the receiver at all times in the past ten years, he had been in a vague and unclear purpose due to the chaotic memories. He deeply remembered that his final end would be death, but he never knew how he should go towards death.

At first, he only thought that Liang Huan was an ordinary spy, but it was too late when he realized that the other party’s identity was complicated. Liang Huan’s mental disorder period became his best excuse, knowingly indulging in this relationship, treating it as a romantic and handsome farewell to the world before death.

Fortunately, Liang Huan didn’t remember.

“Prompt: A large number of coordinate signal anchor points in this star system in outer space have been detected. Prompt: An unknown signal tower orbit has been detected. Do you want to activate this star’s coordinates and link to the orbit?”

Inside the combat pod, countless tiny metal probes stretched out, piercing his flesh, going deep into his bones, like a precisely woven neural network, piercing the heart that countless people had risked their lives to preserve. Li Yao clearly felt the pain and the coldness of the metal, the dizziness caused by the high-intensity radiation made his soul float.

He remembered his mother’s eyes looking at the sea, and those eyes overlapped with Chen An’s eyes looking at the boundless universe, reflecting dripping blood and heavy darkness, containing tears, but also calm and firm.

Snowflakes were falling on the sea, and he heard his own difficult breathing.

And the unreserved hope.

He raised his hand, and those probes that were like neural networks piercing his body were also pulled together, and his gradually stiff fingers took out the handkerchief in his pocket. He smiled and rummaged in it againUnwilling to give up.

Then he took out a transparent chip, inlaid with half a pink crystal core slice. He had tried many ways to preserve a complete one, but unfortunately he failed, so he could only use some black technology.

He didn’t like pink very much, but he liked the way this little bit of pink was reflected in Liang Huan’s pupils, and he also liked Liang Huan’s pretentious smile and kiss.

He seemed to smell the scent of fallen leaves in the forest.

Li Yao squeezed the chip and put it around his neck with stiff movements.

“Master, it’s snowing.” Small One suddenly said.

Li Yao no longer had the strength to make a sound. He breathed heavily. Small One next to him seemed to be still saying something, but he could no longer hear it.

His body was the core signal receiver, his spiritual source was the new coordinates of this star, the Submerged Dragon mecha was a buffer to assist the new coordinates in accessing the cosmic signal tower orbit, and the signal stabilizer was running in the entire Eastern District Base behind him.

The first second that Liang Huan stepped into the military, the mecha I Department would receive the new star system coordinates transmitted from the signal tower in orbit. The Dawn New Star would lead mankind and restart the interstellar voyage plan.

Li Yao closed his eyes with satisfaction –

High-intensity heat-melting bullets pierced the body of the combat pod, the bullets grazed his cheek, leaving a scorching scar.

Li Yao suddenly opened his eyes, and saw Liang Huan smashing open the shattered transparent glass with one punch, breaking through the dense neural network probes around him, his bloody palm grabbed his collar.

Li Yao looked at him in astonishment.

Liang Huan’s hair and eyelashes were covered with frozen snow, his black military uniform was covered in blood, behind him was the damaged central control station of the giant mecha and the turbulent sea.

He raised his eyes with a cold expression, his eyes were a chilling red, the mental wave band of the signal tower orbit crazily poured into his spiritual source, the anti-interference mechanical arm next to him pierced his shoulders and back, the wound on his neck was so deep that the bone was visible, blood gurgled out, the high mental power dysfunction induced by radiation made his muscles spasm, and the compression of his bones made a tooth-aching cracking sound, but he forcibly pulled Li Yao out of the dense line probe.

He raised his hand, brushed Liang Huan’s hair back, touched Liang Huan’s still warm cheek, and gently rubbed it.

Li Yao could no longer think, but just instinctively reached out his hand, trembling to wipe away the frost and snow on his eyelashes.

“…Crying?”