Chapter 76: Close Range Attack Ship Ready

Judging by the Mutants’ actions, they intended to trap everyone inside and keep outsiders ignorant of the situation. Chen Gu couldn’t figure out what the Mutants wanted and asked again, "Besides the generator, what other valuable targets are there in the building?" The branch director also furrowed his brow. "As far as I know, there shouldn’t be any. All the classified documents are strictly encrypted; the Mutants wouldn’t be able to decrypt them even if they got their hands on them." "And we specifically checked before coming down—the records room wasn’t attacked." The elevator reached the ground floor, and the branch director led them straight to the central control room. "We must repair the control system as quickly as possible, at least restore part of it, and lift the highest alert level. I don’t think we have much time left!" Inside the central control room, a dozen desiccated corpses lay on the floor; one was sprawled over the control console. There was no time for niceties. The branch director shoved the corpse aside and hurriedly began repairs. Chen Gu was helping nearby, but his gaze suddenly fell upon a holographic structural diagram. "Is this the overall structure of the building?" "Yes," the branch director answered without looking up. Chen Gu pointed to a section of the diagram. "What is this?" 「...」 Kloya issued an order, "Release the Antelope No. Close Range Attack Ship!" From the side of the flagship, a massive mothership opened its lower hatch, deploying a comparatively "petite," sword-shaped, flat warship. The Antelope No. Close Range Attack Ship activated its engines and began a slow descent toward the planet’s surface. On the flagship, Qiao Shengyi repeatedly emphasized, "General, please ensure there are no survivors in the building before commencing the attack." "Rest assured," Kloya said, "this is a standard operating procedure." Qiao Shengyi still felt uneasy. He approached Aviloya, sighed, and asked, "Director-General, do you think... is there any hope for those in the branch?" Aviloya didn’t answer. She didn’t know how to respond to such a question. 「...」 The branch director hadn’t yet answered Chen Gu’s question when [Star Wind Centurion] suddenly rushed to the window, his eyes wide, pointing outside. "The military’s Close Range Attack Ship! They—they’re going to bombard us with its main cannon!" The branch director also panicked and rushed to the window. In the distant sky, the enormous, flat warship was slowly approaching. Close Range Attack Ships could fly at cosmic speeds in the Star Sea, but their massive size actually slowed them considerably upon entering the atmosphere. Even so, it would appear above Zhaojieze City in a dozen minutes at most! Compared to the mothership, the Antelope No. seemed quite petite. But as it neared the planet’s surface, it revealed its exceptional massiveness, comparable to half a city! The branch director, panicking, raced back to continue the urgent repairs, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. The branch director wouldn’t mind sacrificing himself to face a powerful enemy or for a noble cause. But to be blown up by friendly fire after struggling with all his might to overcome the crisis—that, nobody could accept! [Star Wind Centurion] let out a roar and blasted a powerful particle stream at the window. The window instantly vanished, but the super-strong ionization layer outside didn’t even ripple as it assimilated the particle stream. "This..." Chen Gu, however, still persistently pointed at a part of the structural diagram. "What is this?" The branch director glanced at it impatiently and said quickly, "That’s the underground energy transport channel. The generator requires immense power, so we specifically built a transport channel connected to Zhaojieze City’s Energy Field..." Chen Gu’s heart skipped a beat. He shouted, "This is bad! The Mutants’ real target is Zhaojieze City’s Energy Field!" Chen Gu was currently drawing upon the memories of the Nuclear Explosion Nun. Within Milna Katerina’s recollections was a particularly obscure piece of knowledge about the Mutants. Humanity had entered the era of antimatter energy. The device that converted antimatter into a stable energy output was called an "Energy Field." For Mutants, an Energy Field could function similarly to a generator! However, the success rate was even lower than with a generator! This was different from the fallen professionals Chen Gu had previously encountered. This was the mass production of Mutant professionals! On the surface, there seemed to be little difference, but in reality, the latter were many times, even dozens of times, more powerful than the former. Every Energy Field was heavily guarded by the military. Breaching their defenses was far more difficult than infiltrating a branch office. Therefore, the Mutants had chosen the branch building. And although the success rate was extremely low, a sufficiently large base number could still yield many successful individuals. After attacking the branch building and contaminating a large number of personnel, the Mutants certainly had the numbers they needed. But as soon as Chen Gu shouted his realization, the branch director refuted it. "Impossible! That’s an energy conduit, designed solely for energy transmission. It’s physically impossible to pass through..." As he finished speaking, he himself faltered. Mutants were always enigmatic, capable of developing many unimaginable abilities! The branch director said gravely, "Ji Canghai, take him to check the energy channel." Ji Canghai was the [Star Wind Centurion]. He hesitated. "I should be assisting you with the repairs." "I can manage alone!" the branch director said. "Go quickly!" "Yes!" The energy channel was at the very bottom of the building. The generator was on the nineteenth sublevel, and the channel access was five levels further down. They hurried to the eighteenth sublevel via the elevator. The floors below that had been destroyed in the battle between Chen Gu and Nagano Takesakura, so they had to climb down. The two professionals were agile and quickly reached the twenty-fourth sublevel. It was shrouded in darkness, with only the emergency lights casting a blue-green glow. Ji Canghai tried to turn on the main power but got no response. "The lines are damaged." Chen Gu said nothing. He had already spotted the energy transport channel. The entire level contained no other equipment, only rows of metal pipes. Among them, a conduit as thick as a washbasin was particularly conspicuous—this was a superconductive transmission channel. Ji Canghai, more familiar with the area, quickly found a section with a damaged casing. "Here!" Chen Gu went over and found some black mucus around the damaged spot. "Mutants!" Ji Canghai was puzzled. "Even if such special Mutants exist, there must be very few, perhaps only one or two. What good would it do them to go to the Energy Field? The probability of them becoming Mutant professionals is too low. The most likely outcome is that they’d exhaust their efforts only to die in the Energy Field." Chen Gu had already explained to Ji Canghai on their way down how the Energy Field affected Mutants. "Have you forgotten our current situation?" Chen Gu said. "The exterior of the Energy Field is heavily guarded by the military, but the interior is staffed by high-tech personnel..." Ji Canghai’s expression changed. "They’re turning all those people into Mutants!" Chen Gu started climbing back up. "We have to find a way to get this information out!"