Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The saying, "The brave are angry and draw their swords against the stronger; the cowardly are angry and draw their swords against the weaker," is widely circulated but focuses more on the moral realm than truly depicting reality. After all, in the history of struggles passed down through the ages, the majority of victors have been those who bullied the weak and oppressed the strong.

—Zhao Yingkong blinked, and a contrast between strength and weakness suddenly formed in her mind.

What are my strengths?

Strength, speed, reaction time, energy reserves, maximum and normal output—she held the advantage in all these areas of combat. And not just a little, but a revolutionary, more than tenfold advantage. Every movement of the mechanical lifeform in her eyes was like a high-definition movie played at a tenth, or even a fraction of its speed, in slow motion. And while the internal structure of the creature was not yet directly discernible to the naked eye, its total energy reserves were immediately apparent.

I am very strong, at least compared to this opponent, I am overwhelmingly strong in every aspect.

What about your own disadvantages?

No.

No matter how you look at it, the humanoid mechanical life form in the sky is nothing more than a mortal being equipped with A-level enhancements, whose energy manipulation level is at most at the level of unlocking the third-level gene lock. It doesn't even qualify as the limit of the third level. Even if it uses the tentacle-like free energy absorption device behind it to accumulate a huge amount of magical energy—or elf energy—it can at most unleash a near-divine attack comparable to the early stage of the fourth level. In fact, what it is doing right now is just that.

However, this level of understanding was far from sufficient. Through Zhao Yingkong's time perception, which had been slowed down dozens of times, the young assassin could not only easily discern the partial structure and ultimate power of the spell, but also directly deduce the words broadcast from the speaker by the mechanical lifeform when it unleashed its attack based on the vibrations of its voiceprint.

——'Pseudo-canon·Yan Longxiao'

The shared data reveals that this technique was acquired by the Machina race during their battle against the Yamato Dragon before the Dragon Break. Because Machina races possess the ability to record and learn, they can quickly analyze and replicate any technique they have personally experienced. While the power and precision of the technique may differ from the original, it remains a powerful and somewhat unreasonable innate skill.

Powerful and unreasonable, but the user base is not sophisticated enough. Perhaps if enough Mechs were accumulated, they could produce a qualitative leap in power. But for now, this lone Mech existing in the surrounding area is still lacking.

Are there any other aircraft types nearby?

No.

Are there any unusual messages or disturbances in the surrounding area?

No.

The assassin girl was utterly bewildered; she couldn't fathom what could have caused this turn of events. After all, reasoning wasn't her forte; assassination was her primary profession.

Assassination... Could this be an assassin trying to kill her?

That's impossible. There's no way an assassin could be that clumsy.

So, is it because this lone machine race noticed its own abnormality, which cannot be categorized into any known race, that it decided to strike first to eliminate a future crisis for its race?

This is even more absurd. Leaving aside the fact that Zhao Yingkong is wearing a fire-resistant suit, making it impossible to directly identify her race, and considering that the behavior patterns of the Machine Race don't support such a measure, even if it were truly a malfunctioning individual with a programming error, wouldn't it be far more efficient to simply broadcast this message to its own kind?

It is incomprehensible and difficult to analyze.

It couldn't possibly be because Zhao Yingkong noticed several weak, mortal-like beings within the goblin ruins, and that it attacked her despite its unhealed wounds to protect those beings from interference, could it? That would be utterly ridiculous, completely disregarding basic logic.

So……

The time for doubt has ended; the mindset has switched to annihilation mode.

Beneath the sky, the tide of energy surged violently, and high-density beams carrying the concept of 'destruction' crawled 'slowly' through the atmosphere in segments within Zhao Yingkong's slowed vision. The young assassin still couldn't understand why this seemingly female mechanical life form would attack her, an enemy it clearly couldn't defeat, like a moth drawn to a flame. But that didn't stop her from extending her palm in response, her five fingers loosely clenched.

The spatial structure within the celestial canopy then collapsed inwards, like a deflated balloon, with the mechanical life form at its center.

—'Clatter!'

....................................

The concealed optical barrier shattered into pieces like a broken mirror. When Zhan Lan and his group emerged from their concealment and cornered the leader of this hidden human settlement—a black-haired boy who looked not much older than Xiao Honglu—in his 'command room, the reincarnators did not receive hostility or vigilance.

"Good afternoon, everyone! Oh, although the concept of 'afternoon' may have long since disappeared in this world, as a fellow townsman, I think this greeting might bring you a sense of home?" The black-haired boy was taken aback when he saw the group of people who suddenly appeared, but then his face immediately lit up with genuine joy. He looked at the reincarnators in front of him with a 'I've been waiting for you for so long' gaze, and then immediately jumped off his seat with a cheerful smile.

He reached out his hand to the reincarnators.

"My name is Liu Yu, I'm twelve years old, just an ordinary transmigrator in this great era. Hmm... maybe I should start with a more down-to-earth approach... Everyone, have you eaten?"

This sudden development was so bizarre that a group of reincarnators who could have easily crushed the self-proclaimed transmigrator boy into dust with a single glance were instantly frozen in place for several seconds. Their prepared rhetoric to persuade the local leaders was completely forgotten in an instant. Even after several seconds, only Xiao Honglu managed to recover from his mental turmoil, struggling to organize his thoughts before finally speaking and asking questions.

"You, you're a time traveler!? You said you've been waiting for a long time... you knew we were coming?"

He instinctively went into a state of alert, and not only him, but the other reincarnators who came to their senses also gripped their weapons tightly with shocked expressions.

"They're transmigrators, transmigrators from the Celestial Empire. But I didn't know 'you' would come. I only guessed that transmigrators similar to us would descend upon this world. Perhaps I'm wrong? But it doesn't matter." The boy who called himself Liu Yu shook his head slightly, ignoring the wariness of the reincarnators—he didn't really need to do anything, because his every move showed that he was just an ordinary mortal without any enhancements. One glare from him would be enough to kill him.

He shook his finger and said, "I traveled here two years ago, or more precisely, two years and seven days, or maybe seven hours. I was learning to draw on a computer when a window suddenly popped up. I clicked on it, and here I am."

The reincarnators looked at each other in bewilderment. After a half-second of eye contact, Zhan Lan, who had a more approachable appearance, softened her voice and asked.

"Do you want to know the meaning of life? Do you want to truly...live? —Is this the window to it?"

“No.” Liu Yu shook his head slightly, his gaze sweeping over a jumping red line in the 'command room.' It was a simple mechanical structure that monitored the external environment through threads and some homemade sensors—he seemed to mutter unconsciously. “Is the main force of the orcs coming… I see, this time there really is no escaping it.”

He continued the previous topic before the reincarnators could react.

"The pop-up window I saw said, 'One location, one cause, one reward'—though I couldn't understand what it meant no matter how hard I tried. Anyway, I was sent here. It took me quite a while to figure out what kind of world this was, and then I became one of the human leaders here—I remember there were fifteen of them at the beginning. Now there are probably only three or four left."

"【One position, one cause and effect, one reward】?" Xiao Honglu subconsciously tugged at the stray hairs on his forehead. "This sentence, like the invitation from the main... large light sphere, is ambiguous. Could it be that there is another 'similar organization'? And cause and effect and reward... does the other party consider time travel as the reward?"

"I don't see this as any kind of reward." Liu Yu's gaze swept over the reincarnators without any attempt to conceal it. "You big brothers and sisters must be transmigrators different from me, right? The difference between a company and a sole proprietorship? Ah... Although I don't quite know where you all come from, my intuition tells me that any one of you is a hundred times stronger than me. So I think you all should know what a ridiculous world this is."

He shrugged.

"The war of the fifteen races, after the Dragon Break, even shifted from ground warfare to interstellar conflict. The mortals living in this world of Disbod are practically like the Baghdad rats of 2003. Even if they hide in their own little nests trembling in fear, they could still be sent to their graves by a rocket that suddenly comes flying at them. And the Baghdad rats will never be counted in the casualty statistics; they will simply be erased from the world along with all traces of themselves, as if they never existed."

He sighed again after spreading his hands.

"The dead rats might actually be considered lucky, after all, there were plenty of ordinary citizens in Baghdad in 2003 struggling to survive amidst the flames of war. For them, rats were a rare delicacy. Just like the beastmen and demons are to humans today—there used to be vampires, but after the Dragon Break, they became players on the chessboard instead of just pieces wandering aimlessly amidst the flames of war. Perhaps this can be considered good news."

"So, I think this is less a reward and more a mockery of God. But I believe there's a reason I was thrown here—I just discovered through some emergency detection methods that a sizable elite orc force is heading straight for this place. Although I don't know what you all did up there, I think this place has been completely exposed. But since you're here, I think the two thousand four hundred and thirty-three mortals living here should be of some use to you. And my prestige here can probably save you a lot of trouble."

"Aren't you afraid..."

"What's so scary? For mortals in this world, dying a meaningful death is already a very good ending. Even if you are those evil cultivators in novels who kill and refine souls, becoming a powerful human is always better than becoming food for alien races." Liu Yu said with a smile, "As for me... I think I'm actually quite tired of living, or rather, I was already quite tired of living before I transmigrated here. After handing over this responsibility of leading people to survive, I think I can go outside and have a snowball fight—I've long wanted to know what it's like to roll around in black ash."

Zhan Lan glanced at her companions, and after receiving a few approving looks, she organized her thoughts.

—This boy who claims to be a time traveler is shrouded in mystery, but some things don't need to be worried about too much right now. As long as the message from here is relayed back, there will naturally be clever individuals who can handle these strange situations.

“We… will deal with those orcs up there. And we need your help too.”

"Looks like I'll have to live a little longer." Liu Yu shrugged, seemingly not caring much.

"You just mentioned 'we'?"

“Oh, that’s another transmigrator who came from Earth with me. I call him Brother Lin Juntian, Lin as in forest, Jun as in handsome, and Tian as in sky. I met him a year and a half ago. He said he encountered a pop-up window just like mine while doing software design and was then thrown here. Now he should be leading another settlement… I think he should still be alive.”

"Two time travelers?" Xiao Honglu raised an eyebrow slightly.

“It could be three,” Liu Yu added. “But I’m not sure if that’s him, it just feels like it. He was also a leader of a settlement, and I heard he was very capable, but he didn’t say much at that only gathering of mortal leaders. It was as if he was separated from the whole world.”

"His name is Riku, Riku Dora."

Chapter Fourteen: Skywing and Mechs

Unexpected.

Unexpected.

Unexpected.

At least thirty layers of defensive barriers instantly appeared beside Zhao Yingkong, then twenty-seven of them were destroyed in an instant. A chaotic, gun-shaped streak of light pierced through the sky just as she was about to mold the overconfident machine into a storage device, its target aimed directly at her head!

A strike powerful enough to evaporate mountains in an instant, but far from enough to deal with her! The spatial structure that she couldn't reassemble transformed into a colorless shield as Yan Longxiao fell, cutting it off. And as the light gun destroyed the outer edge of the twenty-eighth layer of the barrier, the spatial structure around her suddenly changed, leaping directly from her original position to a height of about one hundred kilometers above the ground, and then tearing down the churning clouds from the sky!

The leaden-gray stratocumulus suddenly collapsed, and approximately one hundred million tons of mixed, turbid gas, laden with 'spiritual remains,' was rapidly compressed into a hundred-meter-tall plasma sphere due to the drastic change in spatial structure. Blue-white lightning surged and tore at the thinned atmosphere like the segments of a centipede, and in the next instant, this hundred-meter-tall plasma sphere was suddenly compressed inward, transforming from its blue-white size of one hundred meters into a blazing red sphere several meters in diameter!

Using plasma to drive thermonuclear reactions, a pseudo-star was created. This star was then compressed, infused with the concept of destruction gleaned from Yan Longxiao, imbued with the resolute will of a transcendent life form, and finally, catalyzed by the profound darkness of the soul. When the fiery red mass of several meters transformed into a pure black mass of one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters), a powerful spell capable of instantly shattering continental shelves, turning oceans into valleys, and transforming mulberry fields into desolate ruins, coalesced in Zhao Yingkong's palm. The entire process took no more than three microseconds. And when her vision caught sight of the unknown life form that had suddenly attacked her, this colossal blow, which even a true god would have to consider carefully, crashed down!

Selectable spell: Seal the Sun - Modified.

The black sphere moved deftly within the chaotic spatial structure caused by highly concentrated energy. It appeared beside the attacker the instant Zhao Yingkong threw it!

then!

A devastating blow, powerful enough to shift the gaze of the gods in outer space, enough to shift the structure of an entire continent, enough to end an old era and prematurely extinguish a new one, erupted suddenly. In an instant, half the planet, already shrouded in darkness, was illuminated as if it were daytime!

—[As Chu Xuan instructed, if you encounter an enemy who poses a threat during the operation, don't hesitate to use your full strength. Because compared to feigning weakness, directly intimidating all bystanders with power is a more suitable choice in the current situation.]

Zhao Yingkong's brain was working at breakneck speed. A small fraction of her computational power, diverted from the battle, detected the mechanical lifeform appearing beside the ruins of the goblin warship and deploying a protective barrier to withstand the aftershocks of the 'Sealed Sun' attack. Her fingers twitched slightly, and her mind considered over a dozen possibilities before deciding on her next move. However, just as she was about to turn and cross the void, the dazzling daylight that filled the sky suddenly vanished!

No, it's not about annihilation, it's about absorption!

The surging light that blotted out the sky swirled and contracted within a fleeting moment, even to those with extraordinary senses. It wasn't a rewind, but rather a vortex-like visual phenomenon drawn in by some kind of pulling force. And as this immeasurably brief passage of time passed, what finally appeared in Zhao Yingkong's eyes was a pair of black wings that suddenly unfolded to the sides.

—It's a Skywing species!

Data retrieval and file verification led to a complete conclusion in the assassin girl's mind.

[An unofficial member of the Winged Race, the only one not given the name of an angel, possessing the potential for growth, and whose strength is on par with the leader of the Winged Race. Jibril...]

Based on the released information, she might indeed be roaming freely on the surface... but she seems more likely to be looking for trouble with Zheng Zha; the chances of her running into me are extremely slim... Did something unexpected happen?

Thoughts flashed by, but the next second, the Skywinged Being with its black wings had already traversed the vast distance and arrived before Zhao Yingkong. A violent annihilation reaction cyclically recurred on those wings, which had absorbed all visible light. And as Zhao Yingkong erected a new shield in that extremely brief moment, channeling her Primordial Flame and soul to add a powerful, azure magical shield to it, the jet-black wings instantly turned pure white, and a long spear, as dark as an abyss, materialized in the Skywinged Being's palm!

The spear was drawn, and the shield shattered.

Zhao Yingkong's physical mass was reduced by nearly 30% by the annihilation reaction that suppressed the burst range of this attack. But she did not retreat or dodge. The Netherfire Fang, which she had not used for a long time, appeared in her palm. The black flames, overflowing with the poison of humanity, burned fiercely, and she stabbed it into the side of the Skywing Clan!

One strike for another, one wound for another. However, the beautiful face of the Skywing was completely obscured by the fervor of war the instant she made her move. This winged woman, a level stronger than her kind, also neither dodged nor evaded; parts of her black spear transformed into short blades, and she simply withstood Zhao Yingkong's relentless thrusts, continuously piercing the assassin's body with the ever-growing blades of annihilation!

Extraordinary blood was spilled across the sky.

Perhaps three microseconds passed, perhaps five, and one of them collapsed from exhaustion. The remaining victor then turned its weapon, obliterating the opponent's body, and then beheaded it.

..............................

Jibril exhaled sharply, and only when the formidable enemy before her fell silent and his head was sealed away did she snap out of the frenzy of war and shift her attention from victory to healing her wounds.

It hurt terribly, because pain is the body's warning signal from the senses. In that brief exchange, Jibril had been stabbed at least 1,400 times. Each stab contained black flames of an inscrutable, but certainly not benevolent, nature. During the battle, she could suppress the pain with her strong will, but once the fight ended, the excruciating pain, as if she had been torn apart by a thousand cuts, engulfed her body and mind.

For the Skywing race, no amount of pain can affect their movements in battle.

But this level of pain also proves that the body she possesses is not far from death.

But it's only not far away.

“A powerful enemy, but I will be stronger.” A faint light swirled around her, activating one of the several life-saving items bestowed upon her by her creator. Accompanied by a clear, pure light, the black flames that had seeped into her body were gradually drawn out and purified. After a few seconds, she returned to her original, perfect state.

Full of energy and vitality, even their torn clothes were completely restored. The entire Skywing race quickly recovered to its peak condition, ready to be thrown into the next battle at any time.

"Who would have thought that a casual exploration could yield such results? Oh dear, I thought it would take a lot of effort to achieve anything. But with this, I guess I've completed the task that idiot Azriel gave me. Now I should have some free time..." Her gaze shifted to the mechanical life form that had erected a protective barrier above the wreckage of the goblin warship.

"Don't you think so? A rare lone-wolf armored girl."

A beam of light silently materialized behind the Skywing, but its target wasn't the lone mechanical lifeform; rather, it was the wreckage of the goblin warship it was protecting—the goblin warship that had used its body and nearly two-thirds of its energy reserves to shield itself from the shockwaves and heat of the 'Sealed Sun' attack. The conclusion was clear: this ruin, or rather, something within it, was crucial to this mech-type.

Sure enough, faced with this subtle threat, the lone machine silently stopped all the weapons it was carrying and slowly flew to a near-space level with Jibril. Only then did the latter have the leisure to examine the machine's specifications—or rather, its physical details.

That wasn't a male model suited for direct warfare, nor was it an adult female body skilled in data analysis. What appeared before the Skywing was a young girl model, a rarity even in her memory bank. And if her memory served her correctly, this should be a special operations type of mech that appeared after Dragon Break. And each of them possessed an independent mission.