Defend Namsan Park

Chapter 97 Supporting Edges
Years later, when Chen Yu recalled the scene Shang Lu had described to him, he also found it absurd—two grown men meeting secretly late at night, sitting side by side reminiscing about a deceased woman.

It's hard to tell if they're rivals or brothers.

So he wrote in his notes: The lack of maternal love is a common symptom of this era. The Great Collapse brutally tore out a few pages from people's household registration books, creating a huge, traumatic cavity. The idyllic life of the Golden Age has become a shared, grand fantasy of human society. Everyone shows an extreme attachment to the past, like an infant unwilling to leave its warm cradle, thinking about it day and night. But what's the use of thinking about it? The unidirectional, irreversible thermodynamic arrow of time is such a hateful thing because it points to a gloomy, painful, and hopeless future.

“My sister wasn’t a model student in the traditional sense. She didn’t follow the rules, but she was good at using them. No matter when or where, she was very good at using other people’s power to achieve her own goals,” Shang Lu said. “To put it bluntly, she was a bit cunning, a bit scheming, a bit calculating, and even a bit ruthless.”

Wei Mao's eyes showed surprise, but he remained silent.

“She was like that in school, and she was like that at work. She was good at using her position to find key points in the gaps of this society, and then using small forces to leverage huge energy. She was not bound by any means to achieve her goals.” Shang Lu continued, “Let me tell you, once my sister led a team to participate in a bidding. At 2 a.m. the night before the bid opening, she called the police to report that her biggest competitor was soliciting prostitutes and gambling in a hotel. As a result, the other party was taken away by the police for questioning and missed the bid opening time. The other party was so angry that he cursed her for being uncivilized.”

Wei Mao laughed when he heard this.

"Isn't she very good to you?" Shang Lu leaned over and asked, "Isn't she incredibly caring and attentive to you?"

Wei Mao nodded.

"That's only because she thinks you have value," Shang Lu said. "To her, you are a handy and useful tool, so she has to take good care of you and protect you until you play a role at the right time and in the right place to achieve her goals. Love and hate in this world always have a reason. You have value, so others will treat you well. Campus beauty, why were you sent to Chongqing?"

Shang Lu got up, took two steps forward, and walked into the shadows where the streetlights couldn't reach.

“Eliminate…eliminate the snail angels,” Wei Mao replied.

"You are the person the Central Military Commission has determined is most suitable to carry out this mission."

"Because I am very patient."

Wei Mao was very patient; he was the most patient of all the mech pilots. Snipers have always needed patience, especially the sniper with the longest shooting distance in history.

If Shen Jiang were here, she would probably drive the Crimson Lotus around the entire area and head straight to South America to intercept the Snail Angel. Impatient people can't do that kind of job. Wei Mao's patience is universally acknowledged in the Giant Machine Pilot Squadron; it's practically legendary. If you were to ask him what he's particularly good at besides numerical relativity, Riemannian geometry calculations, and attracting men and women, it would be waiting.

The pokeweed stood in the shadows, its eyes shining brightly:
“You are a mecha pilot trained by your sister. You are the result of her hard work and dedication, her precious academic achievements, and a powerful weapon for humanity to resist the angels. So of course she cherishes you. But she cherishes all mecha pilots. You are not unique.”

Looking into the other person's eyes, Wei Mao thought that Shang Lu might be right. A mysterious and powerful woman like Shang Jun should look down on the world with a domineering attitude.

Shang Lu took a few steps back, pointed to his chest, and said in a firm and resounding tone:

"If there is only one person in this world whom she cares for and loves unconditionally—that person can only be me!"

After saying that, he casually picked up a bottle of iced tea that someone had leaned against the railing, twisted off the cap with great flair, and took a huge gulp. Wei Mao stared wide-eyed as the other man stood there, dumbfounded, as if he'd been electrocuted. His cheeks puffed out like a hamster stuffed with nuts, his face turning from white to red to a deep purplish-red. As a stutterer, Wei Mao tried to speak up to remind him, but couldn't utter a single word. It was quite a predicament for Wei Mao; Shang Lu didn't often go to construction sites and didn't know that half-full bottles of iced tea were undrinkable there.
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The railcar carrying the goods pulled into the platform, and the workers, who had been lying in wait, emerged from the darkness from all directions, quickly boarding and unloading the goods. They worked silently, their emergency lights on, without making a sound. This was a secret receiving mission, coordinated and commanded by Wang Xiangbing, deputy director of the operations office and deputy director of workshop 112. They were receiving a large batch of cables from the rear. To prevent any unforeseen complications, the operation was scheduled to take place at 5:00 AM. At other times, with too many people and too many eyes and ears, the base was quietest before dawn. Every cadre and worker who came to assist was a key member of the team personally selected by Wang Xiangbing, and they were politically reliable.

Since attaching itself to Wei Mao, the logistics support for Workshop 112 has been secured. Large and small components needed to build "Chaofeng," such as frames, skeletons, skin, pipes, cables, and even chips, have been transported from Chengdu to Chongqing in batches. Old Man Ji's legacy has long been exhausted, and the Workshop can barely keep this big ship running on its own.

Wang Xiangbing, in particular, truly experienced the thrill of building a super robot. While billions worldwide may have had this childhood dream, he is the only one to have realized it. In Wang Xiangbing's plan, the giant robot "Chaofeng" should require a five-person crew: a commander, a deputy commander, an observer, a chief engineer, and an ox/horse. He also plans to cover certain key areas of Chaofeng, such as the head, control module, and power module, with hard tungsten alloy and high-temperature resistant ceramic armor. Wearing this armor, one could use rocket nozzles as hair dryers—of course, the biggest problem right now is where to find tungsten alloy and high-temperature ceramic.

"Group one, group two, go up and unload the goods!"

Zhang Zhong personally directed the operation from the platform; he had been assigned to oversee this secret mission.

"Get two people to operate the crane! Bring the shuttle bus over! Bring it over!"

"Three groups! Pay attention to the inventory, make sure the records are accurate, and make sure the goods and codes match. Don't mix them up."

The tens of tons of coaxial cable would normally be a pile of junk, but now it's a strategic resource. Zhang Zhong knew that there were other people in 151 watching this shipment, and he was a little nervous, like a thief.

"Mr. Zhang, the goods are correct, AA!" The younger brother lifted the plastic sheet covering the crate, shone a flashlight through the gap and looked inside, then turned around and gave a thumbs up.

"Unloading will be completed within half an hour!" Zhang Zhong glanced down at his watch. "It's 5:09 a.m.! 5:40! We need to get the truck back before 5:40. Everyone hurry, there's always something going to happen."

The sky outside was still dimly lit, and the tunnel was dimly lit. Everyone relied on the headlamps on their safety helmets for illumination. Bright beams of light swept around inside the tunnel, and dark figures darted between the tracks and the platform. The workers used crowbars to pry open the nailed crates, count the delivered cables, and register them.

The registered supplies were hoisted onto the arriving shuttle trucks by crane, and each fully loaded truck drove deep into the tunnel. Batch after batch of goods flowed into the depths of the mountains, and from then on, apart from the operations office, no one knew where they were.

Zhang Zhong was quite satisfied. Before the operation, Wang Xiangbing had told him to be careful and to act cautiously. Now it seemed that his uncle had worried too much. The secrecy of the operation office was very good. No one knew that he was meeting here tonight. Some people who wanted to interfere were probably still sleeping in their beds. By the time they woke up, the big thing would be done, and it would be too late to regret it.

Thinking of this, Zhang Zhong couldn't help but laugh out loud three times.

"Zhang, what are you laughing at?"

"The plan succeeded because of secrecy. I laugh at the planners for their lack of strategy and the 1047 for their lack of wisdom. If they had set up an ambush here and now, they could have caught us red-handed..."

Before he could finish speaking, a beam of extremely bright light suddenly shone on Zhang Zhong's face.

Immediately afterwards, the loudspeaker blared:

"Everyone, put down what you're holding! Don't move!"