Chapter 1378: Chapter 534: Soaring to the Clouds (2)
Rumble!
Lin Xian sped into the turbulent dust of the earth. The entire land seemed to be caught in a super sandstorm. However, soon he heard the intense sound of gunfire, and the sky was filled with various zombies and Abnormal Bodies, with countless biological tissues swirling about.
Gradually descending, he suddenly saw a massive shadow in the sky. Silent City was firing all its cannons, moving southward at high speed.
And below it, the ground’s crustal plates had completely fractured, mountains collapsing, and the sea overturning!
That was at the southernmost tip of the South American continent, Ushuaia. The entire Storm Strait had turned into a floating wall of seawater, with storms sweeping across.
Lin Xian pushed forward with all his might, diving straight into the suspended seawater. With a boom, the deep sea spread!
Without hesitation, he accelerated through the floating layer surrounded by seawater and immediately discovered a bizarre light curtain ahead, like a waterfall rising from the ground, reaching toward the sky. Within this light curtain, the dimensions were bizarrely distorted and collapsing.
"Just as I thought!"
Lin Xian’s expression changed, and the propeller of his power armor ran at full capacity, driving him upward with fierce acceleration.
Just as he plunged into the light curtain, a wave of intense heat swept from the front, caused by the friction of the air. Simultaneously, a strong sense of weightlessness suddenly sent him falling downward for a short distance.
Fortunately, the power armor quickly reacted, correcting his posture in the air.
Suspended in mid-air, Lin Xian now faced a cold, stormy black sea, with raging waves crashing.
In the sky, the dense interstellar army’s air fleet was rapidly withdrawing, flying southward.
He suddenly turned around, shockingly seeing a seemingly solid dimensional wall extending toward the sky but halting its spread in the middle of the sea.
"What’s going on?"
Lin Xian was horrified. Why hadn’t the High Tower Civilization’s uplift transformation covered the entire Blue Star, extending over the whole Polar region? Was it deliberately giving humanity a respite?
Though his heart was a storm of emotions, Lin Xian had no time to dwell. The Mechanical Space Gate he controlled was frantically drawing on his consciousness.
"Ku, ku..."
The feeling of suffocation surged as Lin Xian’s vision started to blacken. He resisted the metallic taste surging in his throat, using his remaining consciousness to propel the power armor back into the high sky.
"Viola, help me calculate the distance to the shore..."
"Find the launch angle."
"Time, distance, hurry..."
Spitting blood, Lin Xian climbed rapidly. He had no time to head for the other side of the storm to find a suitable landing platform.
He could only continue ascending, seeking a suitable angle after the Joint Train broke through the dimensional wall, and then use the Black Star Body to guide a metallic torrent from the iron-nickel planet to pave the way for the train.
[Understood, the current height requires constructing a 113-kilometer cross-sea bridge, with advance planning for deceleration tracks. Current initial speed ( v_x = 277.8 m/s) ... the track must accommodate the entire train length plus deceleration stopping distance, ensuring the train can safely stop once the tail enters the track. If deceleration is larger (such as ( a = 1 m/s^2 )... ]
Viola’s voice wavered in Lin Xian’s ear as he rose above the thunderstorm clouds. At that moment, he saw the glaring sunlight and atmospheric light curtain.
The Blue Star’s atmospheric reflective layer cast soft lines into view, and Lin Xian murmured,
"The world is still here..."
He couldn’t wait for Viola’s calculations. With the last of his consciousness, he hurled all his strength toward that distant shore beyond the strait!
Boom!
The rapidly expanding Space Gate unfolded in the sky again, violently ionizing the clouds apart.
In the next instant, a crimson metallic stream poured down from the horizon like a rainbow bridge.
"All on you now..."
Lin Xian’s voice crackled and faded in the lost signal of the communicator, his vision flickering.
Beep beep.
[Driver lost consciousness, proceeding to takeover.]
[Viola has taken control of the power armor, propulsion system activated, deploying navigation route...]
The voice faded, and soon all senses disappeared, leaving only a diminishing feeling of weightlessness fading away.
Silently, he fell from the sky, plunging into the black storm sea through the clouds.
At that moment, above the sky, the Joint Train, carrying millions, screamed through the dimensional wall, landing directly on the floating metal bridge, rushing forward with sparks and lightning, as thunder roared above.
...
Lin Xian felt that sometimes slumber was a good thing.
He realized he was alive, or he wouldn’t find himself in the Jiang City apartment.
The sunset was about to fall, night was approaching, and the eerie whispering echoed in the derelict city streets, as zombies wandered slowly, grass growing through the streets, vines covering buildings, the city alive with a breath of death.
Beep beep, beep beep.
The watch beeped, startling Lin Xian awake from the balcony chair, looking perplexedly at the massive cumulus cloud in the distant sky.
Stowing the binoculars, he hurried back inside, pulling down the metal grille window panels, casting a colorful light pattern across the room.
The protective door was always shut, and the apartment hallway outside was pitch black, with only an emergency passage light glimmering green.
"Do you think that in the apocalypse, hiding in such a shelter might be a good choice?"
Chu Yan sat on the sofa, observing the supplies Lin Xian had gathered—food, water, daily necessities, gasoline, a heap of batteries, and generators from the supermarket and other apartments, nearly filling the spacious living room, creating a strong sense of security in the room.
Those iron windows and doors were crafted by his Mechanical superpower, seemingly simple protective gear, yet incredibly rare in the apocalypse. Without Lin Xian’s Mechanical superpower, they would be extremely difficult to come by.
This was also the main reason he survived the first Extreme Night.
"Pretty much."
Lin Xian opened a bottle of beer, took a sip, realizing he had forgotten the taste of beer—it was neither cold nor alcoholic.
Like a mouthful of dry sand.
He sat on the sofa. The room’s colorful sunset light made the space seem dim, with eerie rustling noises occasionally coming from outside, causing a chill.
Looking toward the door, Lin Xian remarked, "It’s probably Uncle Li, a corpse controlled by the Black Centipede. These things are etched deeply in my memory."
Then, he turned to Chu Yan and said, "If not for escaping Star Abyss, hiding would really be a good option. Look at the Federation’s Underground City. If nothing went wrong, humans could stay in there for a hundred years."
Chu Yan smiled, "But the reality is, the apocalypse isn’t just about zombies."
"If it were zombies, it wouldn’t be the apocalypse." Lin Xian said, "Human weapons technology, those things are insignificant. The real fear is those civilizations whose levels far surpass ours."
"You mean the High Tower Civilization, or the existence behind the Foundation and your Mechanical Heart?"
Lin Xian shrugged, "It’s all the same. We’re all just fleeing in distress."
Looking at Chu Yan, Lin Xian said with complex emotions, "Did the train survive?"
Chu Yan nodded, "Thanks to you, many people survived."
"Can’t you let me rest a bit more?" Lin Xian said helplessly, "Entering my consciousness specifically isn’t dangerous, isn’t it?"
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay, and in this state..."
"...it’s not under your control either?"
Chu Yan nodded, "My consciousness and yours have started to entangle. For instance, now I’m conversing with you while awake."
Lin Xian queried, "Our consciousnesses won’t cross-identify, will they?"
"I don’t know..."
"Okay, then... what’s the situation now?"
"Viola brought you back to the train. Our landing was thrilling. Silent City and Sky Dome Train, along with the interstellar army’s air support unit, arrived, preventing the Joint Train from falling into the sea. This process... sacrificed many lives. But without your last bridge, most of these millions might not have survived."
Chu Yan spoke flatly, though the sparse words painted a picture of peril at that moment.
Yet, she didn’t elaborate, just told Lin Xian that the outcome was still favorable.
"Your superpower was overextended, leading to kidney failure and some complications. After three days of rescue, we saved your life."
Lin Xian smiled helplessly, "I’m truly lucky to be alive..."
