bioinnovel Chapter 528 7 Seconds!
Chapter 528 7 Seconds!
The moment the countdown started running at the window, Zhang Yan was already moving.
It wasn't that he was waiting for the system to give him instructions; rather, the moment those seven coordinate points lit up in his mind, the output power of the mech's power reactor jumped directly to its maximum.
The crystallization activity of the final form of the Heavenly Craft dropped by six points. The thrusters burned at full speed, and the mecha cut in from a distance of one thousand kilometers from the outer orbit. The acceleration was not like that of a mecha, but more like that of a stone being launched.
"7.2 seconds," the stargazer announced.
Three gravity barriers.
Zhang Yan saw it three seconds in advance. It wasn't the detector that saw it; it was the 3.2% synchronization rate that caused it to be automatically marked subconsciously.
The coordinates of those three barriers were clearly red in his mind, showing their location, width, and force field direction, with no blind spots.
For the first direct interception, he didn't go around it. He cut out with the Azure Dragon Core, and the space folded at the contact surface, tearing a gap in the barrier. The mech passed through, and the right side armor grazed the edge, creating a dent.
Six seconds.
The second barrier is twice as thick, rendering folding ineffective. Zhang Yan cuts into his White Tiger form, overloads the power furnace for one second, and crashes through with pure physical impact.
The impact rebounded, tearing a crack in the left armrest but not hitting anyone. A section of the armor on the right arm of the mech was torn open, and it floated away.
"4.8 seconds."
The third barrier was located off-center, not directly in front, but at a 40-degree angle to the left. The speed was too fast for him to fold, so Zhang Yan simply discarded his left arm shield and used the shield layer to break through it.
The shield exploded, shattering into fragments that scattered outwards, exposing the mech's left arm without any protection.
"Three seconds."
As the outer shell of the mother structure drew closer, its energy density became so high that the detector's image blurred, and the seven coordinate points grew brighter and brighter in Zhang Yan's mind.
But he was still too far away. He calculated that if he approached at a constant speed, it would take 3 seconds to cut in.
However, the penetration of consciousness requires the mech to be stationary as an anchor point. The error rate of penetration while in motion is 1.8%, which is not precise enough and may result in missing the target.
He needs a 0.3-second still window.
Zhang Yan recovered all the ship's energy, shut down all the thrusters, and the mecha glided in the vacuum by inertia, its speed decreasing until it reached near zero at a distance of 100 kilometers from the outer shell of the mother ship.
"One and a half seconds."
He pulled up an image from the mecha's holographic projection system. It was a face that Guan Xing had extracted from the Guixu database. It was the appearance of the first generation of maintainers 30,000 years ago: thin, with light-colored eyes and a straight jawline.
Zhang Yan projected the holographic image of this face directly onto the outer shell of the mother structure, covering an area of two kilometers and shining brightly.
The mother's energy reading jumped at that moment, not an ordinary fluctuation, but something was detected. Then the seven nodes surged at the outer shell, and the energy frequency of the hatred system all rushed towards the projection direction.
"Countdown to zero."
Zhang Yan pushed his consciousness into the final stage of the Heavenly Craftsmanship's consciousness deconstruction matrix, applying all 3.2% of the synchronization rate. The consciousness line was like a needle, aimed at the first coordinate point.
The feeling of going in was not like encountering a defensive line, but more like stepping into a muddy field. The seven nodes did not have hard defenses, but were soft and extremely dense. As the consciousness line went inward, the inner walls of the nodes were squeezed back.
Zhang Yan ignored it and continued pushing.
The first node broke, and the internal structure began to disintegrate. Energy flowed inward from the edge. He did not stop; his consciousness line shifted to the second coordinate.
The second one was thicker than the first and took about 0.9 seconds longer.
The third one, 0.7 seconds.
Fourth, after advancing halfway, the opponent started to push back. It wasn't a defensive mechanism, but rather a stress response and contraction of the node after sensing damage. The further in they went, the greater the pressure became.
Zhang Yan pressed the surface of consciousness into an extremely thin line, found the direction of the thinnest inner wall of the node, and cut in little by little.
Then he went inside.
The interior of the fourth node was grayish-white. He looked inside for a fraction of a second, his consciousness circling around, and found the core structure.
The final step of the ultimate formula is automatically triggered deep within the Heart of the Craftsman. He doesn't need to do anything; he just needs to mark the location, and the formula unfolds on its own.
All four nodes began to collapse simultaneously.
But that's at the level of consciousness.
When Zhang Yan pulled his consciousness out of the node, he realized that the loss was not just a little, but a huge amount.
The boundaries of his consciousness were becoming unclear, and the information he was inputting was out of focus at the edges. He knew what this meant; it was written in his memo that it was a precursor to a large-scale memory erasure.
He controlled the mech to begin its retreat, restarting the power unit and pulling it towards the outer orbit.
The mother's roar came again, wider than before, but the frequency began to become unstable. Four of the seven nodes were collapsing, and the remaining three began to shrink frantically into the depths. The mother had already sensed it.
Zhang Yan sent the return coordinates to Qin Xiao and disconnected the communication.
"Four nodes completed, window closed, exit."
Qin Xiao immediately replied: "Received. The Ink Soldier Formation will cover your retreat route. Give me thirty seconds."
Zhang Yan didn't wait and pulled him away immediately.
The mech's right arm armor was half shattered, its left arm had no shield, and its crystal activity dropped to 54%, which wasn't a good number, but it could hold out until it reached a safe orbit.
He tried to recall his training from this morning, but couldn't find it.
Then I tried to recall the last few words I exchanged with Nie Qingcheng before we left. They were blurry and unclear, like looking through glass. I could see the outline, but I couldn't grasp the details.
He wrote down the result and saved it in the system notes.
The mech retreated to 500 kilometers outside the outer orbit. The mothership's pursuit signal began to weaken. The collapse of the four nodes was affecting its consciousness computing power, and it was unable to expand its attack range in time.
Qin Xiao's voice came through the communication terminal.
"Brother Yan, confirm the status."
"Mech damage is moderate, consciousness has been erased, range assessment in progress, crystallization 54%, can continue fighting."
"The remaining three nodes—"
"Wait for the mother to calm down, wait for the next window." Zhang Yan sealed the exposed joint on his left arm, temporarily welding it shut. "What about your Ink Soldier losses?"
"Two are completely destroyed, six are slightly damaged, and the remaining one hundred are on standby."
That's enough.
There was a moment of silence in the channel. Qin Xiao didn't hang up, and neither did Zhang Yan.
Zhang Yan found the note in the system, read it once, and didn't have any special reaction. He then forwarded the record to Nie Qingcheng's communications archive.
Then he opened the memo, found the section about Nie Qingcheng, and read on.
By the seventh line, the feeling of the data cable going out of focus subsided somewhat; it wasn't that the memory returned, but rather that other parts became more stable.
Qin Xiao's voice suddenly came from the channel, without any preamble.
"Brother Yan, I received the note you just forwarded. Don't worry, I've forwarded it to your wife."
Zhang Yan: "I didn't ask you to send it."
"I know, I posted it without permission." Qin Xiao paused for a moment. "My sister-in-law replied and asked me to tell you that she'll fill in the blanks for you, and you should focus on the remaining three."
Zhang Yan stared at the mecha fragments floating in the space without saying a word.
After five seconds, he spoke.
"Tell her that I'm going to inspect the right arm armor before the second window opens."
Qin Xiao: "Received. My sister-in-law said to have your left arm welded as well, don't cut corners."
"Um."
The communication channel was kept open, and neither end spoke; only the occasional background noise from the instruments could be heard in the space.
The mother body's energy readings fluctuated slowly on the periphery, while the progress bars of the four collapsed nodes ran quietly deep within the Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship. Zhang Yan looked at the numbers and began calculating the time when the next window would appear.
There are three nodes remaining.
That's enough.