Chapter 1368: Chapter 529: There Will Always Be an End (Part 2)
"I love you, Captain Lin, I love you..."
...
During the day, Lin Xian and Sha Sha accompanied each other to the military transport trailer, gazing at the massive mecha weapon—Planet Raider—that lay horizontally, occupying two carriages.
This unit was rescued by Ryuji from a swarm during evacuation; the pilot was really lucky, only suffering minor injuries.
However, the mecha was nearly scrapped.
Fortunately, this was not a problem at all for Lin Xian.
"Brother Lin, if you put your Black Tortoise Mechanical Arm on it, wouldn’t that mean one less means of attack?" Sha Sha, dressed in protective armor, remarked.
"You’re still worrying about me," Lin Xian chuckled. "But after careful consideration, just adding an arm along with your Flying Peach might make it unbalanced."
"What should we do then?"
"That’s easy."
With a wave of his hand, Lin Xian opened the massive mechanical door in midair, quickly devouring the remains of the mecha, then handed Sha Sha a blueprint.
"I’ve preserved the core of the Raider and that Orbit Shock Star Cannon, then remodeled your Flying Peach into a detachable operating center. For the rest, I’ll use the framework from the Black Tortoise and Vermilion Bird Emperor Mechas for the body, and upgrade the armor layers. The resulting combat strength will definitely exceed the second generation Emperor Mecha, and it also has escape capability."
"Though the framework is old, you can modify the blueprint, let Viola help you calibrate the executable parameters. Once done, I’ll manufacture it directly in the Mechanical Space."
Sha Sha’s eyes sparkled with stars as she heard this.
"Wow!!! Brother Lin, you’re amazing!"
"Don’t jump to joy yet; the scale of this thing is quite large. Even working non-stop, it’ll take several days to build, so try not to make it too complex. Sometimes, excessive complexity doesn’t necessarily improve combat capabilities," Lin Xian said with a smile.
"Mm-hmm, I understand.~"
Sha Sha beamed with delight. "Can I design the color, shape, and add a flight module?"
Lin Xian broke into a sweat: "Color and shape, even weapons, aren’t a big deal, but the flight module isn’t that simple. An Emperor Mecha easily weighs over ten thousand tons, requiring eight Hercules units for transportation. Regular Starry Sky Propellers are hard to reuse, but if you build a Starship flight module, it will be too bulky."
Sha Sha instantly replied: "That’s simple. As you said, just separate the flight module from the mecha. When needed, combine them; when not, it’s an independent floating ship."
Lin Xian exclaimed: "Good grief, you want me to build a full Transformer module and a floating ship?"
"Hehe~" Sha Sha hugged his leg: "The mecha is formidable, but it’s not agile; it was mostly used for strongholds and positional defenses. At critical moments, it needed remote deployment, so I’m thinking about maneuverability."
Lin Xian nodded: "That’s reasonable; alright, you’ll need KIKI and Viola to help perfect the blueprint."
"Hehe, Brother Lin is the best~"
...
The grey snow and crimson fog grew thicker.
So thick that even Starships lost terrain scanning ability, and signals were compressed to less than a hundred meters. The Air Fleet had to rely on denser drones to maintain low-altitude connections with the convoy.
Meanwhile, the high-altitude Sky Dome Train and Silent City switched to relaying messages back and forth to reduce drone consumption.
This resulted in the ground troops and the two aerial fortresses losing real-time communication, roughly every five minutes receiving a single transmission.
"Never seen fog this dense..."
"Outside feels like another world, silent, eerie, covered in grey snow."
"Does anyone know where we are? Heard we’ve passed Panama, but without reference, we can’t be sure."
"It’s a strange feeling, like we’re moving on another planet."
Inside the train network, the survivors kept guessing, as everyone sensed the changes outside.
Most notably, the train’s speed slowed further.
Currently, it’s moving at merely 40 kilometers per hour.
Because the snow is too thick.
Beneath the snow, there are all sorts of strange bugs and zombies.
A moment later, the command center and train groups were discussing the status of the large convoy.
"Everyone’s worried about the train getting buried in the snowstorm, worried about this crimson change, but you seem unconcerned."
In carriage No. 12, Chu Yan looked at Lin Xian, who was focused on heavy suspension liquid, and spoke.
"Is worrying helpful?"
Lin Xian took a deep breath: "If the snowstorm buries us, we’ll clear it; we have so many Superpower Users, it’s no problem at all. As for the crimson change? Even less to worry about..."
He looked up at Chu Yan: "If the world shifts dimensions the next moment and we turn to fragments, what can we change now?"
Chu Yan frowned: "What’s gotten into you? You never had this mindset before."
"But am I wrong?" Lin Xian asked with a smile.
Chu Yan’s expression tightened: "You’re speculating that Mechanical Heart might relate to the world’s end, making your only support uncertain, so you’re unwilling to think or try?"
Lin Xian’s hands stopped, and he lowered his head: "Wow, we don’t need a relationship for you to comprehend my thoughts?"
"No need," Chu Yan crossed her arms: "Because if I were you, I’d probably think the same."
"There you go."
Lin Xian looked at the strange container in his hand, spoke helplessly: "But I haven’t given up, am I not researching it right now?"
Chu Yan pondered, moved closer, and took out a silver sphere from her mechanical limb, handing it to Lin Xian.
"Since you’re curious, use this to contact Hua Xiaoling; this is also a mission from the Foundation."
Lin Xian glanced at it, shook his head: "Why would I bet my brain on an answer? Even if I win, so what? I’m not like you, equipped with Spiritual Power Ability. If some will gets erased and I rebel, this train would be done for."
"Then why not discard your Civilization Preview Ball, knowing this?" Chu Yan retorted.
Lin Xian shook his head: "I don’t know either."
"But..." he slightly lifted his eyes: "I sense she’ll come to me."
"When."
"Before we cross the Storm Strait." Lin Xian held onto the container, his eyes deep: "And she will surely appear."
Chu Yan looked at him solemnly: "Is this also why you don’t use consciousness links to contact the Commander?"
"Suppose... yes."
Lin Xian raised his hand to put the container away, stood up, leaned by the window, the light inside the carriage flickering against the outside fog’s reflective shadows.
"Before determining the Foundation’s intentions, I don’t want to set any pre-defined answer here. On a personal level, I have complete trust in the Phoenix Society and Professor Ye; as you said, our stance is identical, and since it’s identical, there’s no good or bad. As long as it’s for the survival of Human Civilization, but I’m keen to understand what the Foundation means by saving humanity."
Chu Yan’s eyes glimmered: "I’m also curious, whether my Gravitational Lens and consciousness link relate to the Foundation."
Lin Xian nodded: "Right, I’ve expanded my thoughts. In this world, if there are two civilizations, then the crux of this game surely isn’t us. Since it’s not us, we can only follow the routine, according to human habits—migration, escape, traverse north and south, reach the Polar region. Any changes should be created by ’them’; we won’t alter anything."
"Given this, we might as well go with the flow and keep running along this track."
Chu Yan looked up at him: "Because there’s always an end."
"Indeed."
