Lin Mowei used her ability, pinning the figure in place at the cost of trading her own life for injuries.
But how long could she hold on? No one knew.
Mu Qingqing lost track of how many times she had asked the technician the same question.
“How much longer?”
The technician wiped a mixture of rain and sweat from his face.
“We still need about 30 minutes.”
“That long!”
She clenched her teeth hard, yet she knew there was nothing else to be done.
The more precise the instrument, the more fragile it was. Although it hadn’t been pierced through directly, the damage was still significant.
After the emergency repairs, it was already a miracle that the Positron Cannon could fire at all.
‘Chief…’
Her eyes were fixed on the screen, which displayed the footage of the two figures locked in combat.
Calling it combat might not have been accurate, because Lin Mowei was the one being suppressed and beaten.
What on earth was that? A humanoid Rift Beast? She had never heard of such a thing before.
Not just her, but even the regressed Lin Mowei had no idea what kind of creature she was fighting.
She used her ability to regress once more, restoring her body to a perfect state.
While her body could recover, her spirit was already exhausted, and her brain was gradually failing to keep up with her physical movements.
The opponent’s spear lunged toward her heart. Almost instinctively, she parried from the side and was sent flying by the force of the blow.
While she was in mid-air, a memory suddenly flickered in her mind.
It was from several years in the future when a piece of inaccurate and rather strange intelligence had been placed on her desk.
The report stated that someone had seen a “human” figure among the Rift Beast swarms. At the time, the situation was too chaotic, and it could not be verified later.
She had thought the witness had simply seen wrong. Looking at it now, it must have been this creature.
But that was supposed to happen several years later. Why was it appearing now? And why here?
Perhaps because she was so mentally exhausted, Lin Mowei suddenly felt a surge of intense frustration.
Why had so many things changed after her rebirth? It wasn’t supposed to be like this…
An unknown fire spread in her heart as anger began to flood her mind. Her eyes behind the visor gradually turned red, and her body temperature rose.
Suddenly, the notification from the Biological Armor’s intelligent AI sounded.
[USER, PLEASE REMAIN CALM. YOUR STATUS IS APPROACHING THE CRITICAL ‘OVERLOAD’ THRESHOLD.]
This voice was like a bucket of cold water, instantly extinguishing Lin Mowei’s angry thoughts and forcing her to regain some sanity.
No, she couldn’t be impulsive.
She couldn’t win even while clear-headed; that state would be even more dangerous.
“Phew…”
Taking a long breath, she adjusted her mindset and resumed her stance, forcing herself to focus on the next round of attacks.
Clang! Clang!
The massive sounds of impact were continuous.
Having regrouped, Lin Mowei discovered that although the opponent’s strength was extraordinarily high, it didn’t seem to be sustainable.
And endurance happened to be her greatest strength.
During the Five-School Joint Exercise of her year, her team hadn’t been the strongest. When facing teams more powerful than them, they had relied on her incredible endurance to grind the opponents down.
Now, she suddenly had a feeling that the opponent’s relentless, violent offensive would soon show signs of weakening.
That would be her chance!
Sure enough, after about 30 seconds, Lin Mowei spotted an opportunity after dodging another heavy blow.
The spear slammed into the ground. This time, it didn’t immediately swing back toward her but paused for a fleeting moment.
Lin Mowei dodged to the side, her right foot planting firmly as she twisted her waist. She swung her long blade toward the opponent’s neck.
Just as the blade was about to hit, the opponent leaned back quickly. The edge sliced across the keratin on its chin, barely missing a lethal blow.
Lin Mowei gritted her teeth in regret. However, it wasn’t a total loss; she had poured a great deal of power into that hard-won strike.
The keratin below the nose area was shattered. But what lay beneath was not the mangled flesh Lin Mowei had expected.
Instead, the area without keratin revealed human-like facial features, including a mouth. Fresh red blood flowed from the corner of a lip that had a small mole.
Rift Beast blood was not red. This proved…
Lin Mowei pulled back, her voice trembling with shock and doubt.
“You… you are human? Why would you…?”
For a moment, she didn’t even know how to ask. Why would a human stand on the side of the Rift Beasts?
Furthermore, was it really human? Or did it just possess a human form?
A series of questions surged from her heart, and her grip on the blade loosened unconsciously.
The creature opened its mouth, and a string of strange pronunciations came out.
Lin Mowei knew that was not a human language. The trace of hesitation in her heart vanished instantly.
“Hmph. No matter what you are, everything will be clear once I catch you—dead or alive!”
When the unknown was gradually understood, fear transformed into a kind of anger at being toyed with.
She kicked off the ground and charged forward with her blade. For the first time, Lin Mowei took the initiative to attack.
The rain continued to fall. This torrential rain, which had been held back for several days, seemed intent on draining itself all at once. There was no sign of it letting up.
But no matter how heavy the rain was, it couldn’t extinguish the confidence gradually rising in the rear.
The battle reports sent back by the observers informed everyone that Lin Mowei had gained the upper hand and was now counterattacking.
The joy of impending victory lingered in everyone’s hearts.
However, a few people thought of a problem. Where was the other King Beast? Or rather, was there another King Beast?
Although the current situation was already far from normal, considering the heavily injured King Beast from earlier and this absurdly strong humanoid creature, if there were another King Beast, wouldn’t the combat power here be a bit too terrifying?
How badly would the intelligence have to be botched for only a force of this scale to be sent?
To put it bluntly, if Lin Mowei hadn’t arrived, the initial wave of self-destructing Rift Beasts would have caused heavy casualties, let alone the even more ruthless ones that followed.
A single person might not be able to turn the tide of a battlefield, but if they were strong enough, it was a different story.
Mu Qingqing was also pondering this question. If there was another King Beast, why hadn’t it appeared yet?
The situation was becoming clear, so why did she still have a lingering sense of unease?
Something was wrong…
She looked up at the sky outside the tent. This rain really came at the worst possible time…
At that moment, the communication device beside her flashed a red light, as if to confirm her suspicions.
-This is an emergency communication from Star-Ring Town.
*
At the resort.
Lin Yu was worried about his sister’s situation. He declined Xia Ran’s invitation to eat together. Since it happened to be raining, he simply had a robot deliver food to his room.
After lunch, he stood by the window, gazing at Star-Ring Town through the curtain of rain. From time to time, his gaze drifted further toward the Black Tower.
‘I wonder how it’s going. It should be going smoothly, though.’
In his past life, this operation had been a victory, so he wasn’t overly worried. However, the King Beast that had appeared so suddenly still puzzled him.
He rubbed his chin, his mind wandering through various thoughts.
Suddenly, he saw something. Unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, he rubbed them and looked closer.
The scene before him made his jaw drop.
“This… this is…”
The ground next to Star-Ring Town was torn open, and a massive figure slowly crawled out from within.
It was exactly what the intelligence had predicted—the intact King Beast that was supposed to be inside the Black Tower.
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