Make money by hiding in the interstellar battlefield!

Lin Zhizhi found the energy bar of the White Meerkat mech.

"Brother, activate the energy bar shield."

Following Zhizhi's instructions, Jiansheng activated the armor shield on the energy tank and placed a finger into it. An energy flowed between her finger and the energy source, and at that moment, a memory entered her brain via the mecha's nervous system.

These are the memories in the young Hydra's mind: which intelligent beasts it had seen in the past few days and hours, where they appeared, their routes of movement, the commands they received, and so on. These images quickly overlapped with the map of the northern forest in Jian Sheng's mind. Its brain began to work at breakneck speed, constantly reasoning about the feasible routes for their future actions and relentlessly summarizing the most likely safe routes. Meanwhile, the energy core in Jian Sheng's energy bar began to dim, and its energy level rapidly decreased.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

Jiansheng slowly recovered from the high-speed load.

"It's nothing. I was just processing the memories you just transferred to me to plan a reasonable route. This Hydra's memories are still too limited to accurately plan a safe path. We need to find a way to catch a few more. This kind of memory reading must be very taxing on your body, right?"

"It's alright. As long as the level of this intelligent beast isn't too high and its mental strength isn't too strong, I'll be fine."

"Okay, let's continue."

Jian Sheng retrieved the spare energy core and then removed the energy crystal core that had been completely depleted. He pondered a question: This patch system currently exhibits three main capabilities—probabilistic statistical ability, memory storage ability, and the third—reasoning ability. Suppose that one day, if there is enough data, large enough and sufficient, could it be possible to predict the future?

Judging from the recent use of this reasoning ability, its energy consumption is extremely high, which the current C-class mech's energy core can hardly handle. Within just a few dozen seconds, its brain planned hundreds of thousands of action routes. Although each reasoning attempt seems to consume very little energy, the sheer volume is unsustainable. If future data demands are further increased, the energy required will likely be even greater. This may explain why upgrading physical talents is so difficult and why it demands such high energy levels.

Following the same method, they captured several more low-level star beasts. By continuously reading their memories, they gained an understanding of the current battlefield situation and troop deployment, and constantly planned new routes.

Marcus, following behind them, was very puzzled. He had initially thought they would likely be discovered, surrounded, and eliminated before they could even travel 100 kilometers. Yet, they had already safely advanced over 200 kilometers. He couldn't help but admire Jian Sheng and Lin Zhizhi's reconnaissance and planning abilities.

He had always been very respectful to this captain, but that was merely a professional and obligatory duty. In the past, he had only seen him as a lucky guy with exceptional shooting skills. But at this moment, he suddenly realized that the captain's abilities far exceeded his expectations. No wonder Miss Louise had privately warned him not to underestimate him.

Just as they had been traveling at breakneck speed for over 15 hours and were less than 20 kilometers from the Queen's nest, Percival's mechs finally appeared.

His mech shone brightly, descending in front of the column like a streak of lightning. After 15 hours of rapid marching, many team members were bleeding from their mouths and noses—brain damage caused by battery overload. But they persevered, daring not to fall behind, for falling behind meant death, meant mission failure.

Although they were children of wealthy and powerful families, they received military-style education and management from a young age. Objectively speaking, their birth and starting point were far superior to those of ordinary people, and they worked much harder, so their excellence was natural. The second generation of children corrupted much more slowly during wartime; this was a byproduct of external pressures.

"Reporting to the Colonel, the mech squad is authorized to have 30 members, and all 30 members are present. Requesting further operational orders."

The fluid metal on Percival's mech face faded, revealing his handsome face with blond hair and blue eyes.

This gave everyone present a huge boost of confidence; with this war god leading the way, they felt they could accomplish anything. Only Jian Sheng among them looked worried.

"I'm surprised you were able to get here safely; your mission is complete."

When Percival reached this point, everyone was quite surprised. However, Jian Sheng wasn't too surprised. By absorbing and reviewing the memories of several star beasts, he finally concluded that this mission was fake, merely a feint, because the probability of its success was zero.

When he saw Percival land "riding a rainbow," he knew they were just bait. The bait wasn't big enough; they alone wouldn't be enough. Only Percival, this human mech warrior, could catch a truly large fish. Soon, the fish he was after roared from the distant sky, and hundreds of flying beasts rushed towards them.

At that moment, Percival walked up to the Libra mech.

"I can take someone with me now, and there's a chance we can return to the city safely. Are you willing to pledge allegiance to the Windsor family? If you are, I can take you back alive now."

The Libra mech opened its mask.

"Why can't it be two or three people?"

"The probability of bringing one person back alive is 80%. The probability of bringing two people back is less than 50%."

"If you're unwilling to take our captain back with you, then I'll choose to stay."

Zhizhi's tone was resolute, without the slightest hesitation.

Percival then turned to Marcus.

"Come back with me."

Marcus was stunned for a moment. He first looked at the Libra mech, then at Jian Sheng's white mech, and then turned to look at his tribesmen and teammates who were following him—blood was still flowing from their mouths, noses and eyes.

"Colonel, I want to stay with my team. You should go back directly. You are the hope of our race. Nothing can happen to you. Your value as a person is far greater than ours."

Percival let out a slow sigh, patted Marcus on the shoulder, and the golden shimmering light on his mech closed again, sending a long rainbow soaring into the sky once more. Then, Marcus donned his mech mask and issued commands.

"Prepare for battle."

The entire so-called base raid was actually a ruse, because a single C-tier mech battle group was simply insufficient to destroy the Mother Nest base. It was merely a feint, forcing the Omnics to withdraw their air units to provide support. Currently, the core military gap between the Terrans and Omnics lies in their air units.

The Terran race only has 12 S-class mechs capable of flight. Although each S-class mech possesses extremely powerful aerial combat capabilities, they are outnumbered. Therefore, in this counter-encirclement operation, the S-class mechs need a safe environment to concentrate their forces. Meanwhile, the Insectoids' aerial units are highly mobile and can launch concentrated attacks whenever a small force gathers, always employing a combined air-ground strategy and overwhelming the Terran forces. This prevents the Terran mech units from effectively regrouping, inevitably leading to a disproportionate casualty ratio, ultimately resulting in a collapse of their fighting strength and the complete encirclement.

A squadron of Terran mechs, along with Percival, the Terran War God, was used as bait to infiltrate the Orcish rear. The Orcs dared not gamble; they could only send a large number of air units to their aid. This created the battlefield environment for the Terran mech forces to gather in the northern forest area.

As for Percival's value—the value of a near-S-rank talent team member is naturally greater than that of an excellent commander within the clan; and the value of an excellent commander within the clan being one of their own is far greater than his own value as a dual-C sniper captain. He didn't ask Jian Sheng's opinion because he knew that if Lin Zhizhi chose to stay, then Jian Sheng couldn't possibly leave either. These nobles are always so proud, even unwilling to waste a single word. In this respect, he and George Thorne are the same—that kind of self-confidence.

Percival's departure meant their mech squadron had become the target of everyone's fire. Fortunately, Percival didn't turn back but continued flying towards the Zerg Queen's base. This meant he could still draw fire for the squadron temporarily. The best course of action at this point would have been to conceal their fire, believing the Omnic flying units would ignore them, as the greatest threat was undoubtedly the S-class mech warrior Percival. However, Marcus still chose to intercept them with aerial firepower.

Jian Sheng's feelings were very complicated. He admired Marcus's spirit of facing death with equanimity, but he was also annoyed: "You fucking want to die, but I don't." This is perhaps the tragedy of the little guy, whose fate is never in his own hands. For the little guy, there is no way to "survive" because your life is a chip on someone else's gambling table, and it can be thrown out at any time.

Percival was unwilling to carry the weight of two people because he believed his own life was far too valuable; he couldn't afford to be harmed. An accident would be a tremendous loss to human combat power, and for his family, it would be devastating. Therefore, the 30% reduction in their chances of escape that Percival might bring was not worth as much as Percival could possibly offer.

The higher a person's position, the more "compassionate" they are; they are the true "Black Lives Matter"!

As over a dozen lines of fire shot up on the ground, screams echoed from hundreds of flying beasts in the air. However, the vast majority of these hundreds of flying insects ignored the fire nets and continued their rapid advance, chasing after Percival's rainbow. Only a few beasts circled overhead, their purpose less to eliminate Jian Sheng and his companions and more to monitor them. They were trying to pinpoint their location; presumably, by this time, the intelligent beast race's command center already knew their exact location and was deploying troops.

Jian Sheng's mind raced, frantically calculating escape routes and plans. But countless plans yielded zero chance of survival. They were like frogs trapped in a pot, unable to escape no matter how hard they jumped. Finally, he came up with a plan that offered a sliver of hope: they had to first eliminate the dozen or so flying beasts monitoring them, then break up the group, splitting into smaller groups to break out in batches. Perhaps one or two of them would survive.

"Fire high-intensity flares into the air, northeast, at an altitude of 1000 meters."

Soon, the artillery team fired two powerful illumination flares, revealing the silhouettes of the flying beasts hovering in the air. Jian Sheng picked up the heavy sniper cannon from Libra and rested it on Libra's shoulders, like an anti-aircraft gun. He pushed the probability and reasoning functions to their maximum power. Due to the long march, his brain was already under immense strain, constantly alarming, and blood kept gushing from his nose.

Immediately afterwards, bang bang bang bang bang.

"Reload."

Libra quickly loaded the reserve magazines from its shoulders into the magazines of the heavy sniper cannon. Then, bang bang bang bang bang bang. As 28 high-explosive armor-piercing shells shot into the sky, the dozen or so flying beasts circling overhead fell one by one like rain.

Looking up at the scene in the sky, one of the team members couldn't help but exclaim, "That's incredible skill!"

"I hope everyone can return to Seventh Ring City alive. May Mother Goddess bless you."