Nobita's Time Heist

Chapter 99: Heavy Snow in the Desert

The moment he heard a low-frequency vibration, Da Xiong realized something was wrong. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind: this overwhelming army of locusts was not only meant to overwhelm the enemy in numbers, but also a brilliant cover. If the enemy were to hide their real trump card among them, it would be impossible to discern it with the naked eye.

Unfortunately, he guessed right.

"Boom--!"

A whooshing sound rang out, and at close range, the trump card hidden among the locusts suddenly struck, unleashing a massive sonic boom that even blew away its own allies. In a fleeting glimpse, Da Xiong couldn't make out its appearance, only knowing that its target, from the very beginning, was crystal clear: the commander of the Golden Land!

"Helia, watch out—!!"

Unfortunately, slow motion is rare in real battles. Opportunities are fleeting, and the same applies to the enemy. They've endured for a long time, sacrificing a large number of elite troops to prepare Hylia's grilled locusts for this moment, so naturally they can't afford to be negligent for even a moment. In an instant, a shadow collided with the girl's petite body, producing no sound other than the tremendous noise of crossing supersonic speeds. The two crashed through the clouds and sky, like shooting stars, plummeting towards the distant desert.

"..."

Nobita and Kogane exchanged a glance, and Dekisugi immediately turned his head and looked into the distance.

"A classic variable acceleration maneuver, descending at a 35-degree angle, breaking Mach 6, and in about 9 seconds they will appear... there!"

The instant Dekisugi pointed to the ground, Nobita immediately took out the Anywhere Door, had him grasp the doorknob, pushed open the door, and tightly closed the wooden door before any locusts could follow and crawl in.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The battlefield shifted abruptly from the air to the ground, inevitably causing a moment of disorientation. Da Xiong and Dekisugi, due to loss of speed, tumbled several times on the sand, swallowing mouthfuls of sand. However, even so, their fate was much better than Hylia's, who had a hard landing... With a loud "bang," the fiery meteor, almost leaving a trail of flame, crashed directly beside them.

Water splashed out—this was Hylia's shock-absorbing measure; she enveloped herself in a mass of rapidly flowing liquid to mitigate the force of the violent impact with the ground. Amidst the dust and sand billowing up, they finally made out their opponent: a creature that seemed to have the words "elite monster" written all over its face, with a human-like torso, multiple limbs, and a shell as hard as a rhinoceros beetle. Its ability to accelerate through the air alone suggested it was no ordinary mass-produced creature.

It was also much larger, with its lower limbs able to firmly support the body. Pure white crystals climbed up from the exoskeleton, forming several blades that resembled ice crystals but were actually a hundred times stronger. At this moment, it was using these primitive cold weapons to pierce little by little into the ice elemental shield that Hylia had condensed, aiming for her unguarded heart.

Until a beam of light shone from behind it, shrinking it to the size of an insignificant ant.

"Da Xiong-kun, wait..."

"boom!"

Before he could finish speaking, Nobita's shoe had already landed, crushing the shrunken elite monster to pieces due to the huge difference in weight.

"Ah...actually, I was thinking that perhaps we could spare them and preserve them for experiments to study their origins, such as their genetic makeup." Dekisugi's tone was somewhat helpless. "However, since they've already been killed, there's nothing we can do about it."

"The shrinking flashlight has a limited lifespan; once it's gone, it'll revert to its original size. It's best to get rid of it as soon as possible." Nobita put the gadget back in his pocket, looked at the approaching green tide on the horizon, and sighed. "The problem is, what are we going to do with these guys..."

"Wow!" Hylia, her hair still damp, came running over with tiny steps, exclaiming repeatedly, "That just now! Did it shrink completely? How did they do that?! Can I see that magical staff?"

"..." This time, Nobita looked at her with a slightly surprised expression. He even exchanged a glance with Dekisugi, only to receive a helpless shrug from the latter.

"Didn't I tell you this already?"—he seemed to hear Xiaoshan say this.

“If they really are locusts, there are actually better ways…” Dekisugi wiped the sweat from his forehead and said in a deep voice, “These insects are quite sensitive to temperature changes. If the temperature drops below 15 degrees Celsius, their survival rate and mobility will be greatly reduced.”

"Temperature, huh... that's a bit too easy." Nobita didn't even think much, relying on muscle memory to casually pull out the [Weather Box]. He rummaged through the weather cards, pulled out the one with the "blizzard" image, pressed it in, and started setting the effective range.

"Assuming that the Mother Insect is indeed based on locust genes and has been modified for the environment, it's unlikely that it would focus on cold resistance. Because this is a desert, they only need to adapt to high temperatures, and as far as I know, locusts are a species that already has a certain tolerance to high temperatures." While Nobita was tapping on the settings, Dekisugi dutifully took on the role of explanation, explaining, "If the temperature drops suddenly, they will definitely be like headless flies."

“…This is only for this time.” Nobita’s expression became even more worried, as if he had already foreseen a not-so-good future. “Next time, the same trick may not work.”

"There is only one way to solve them once and for all."

Swarms of locusts stretched across the horizon like a tsunami, crashing down to grind everything to dust.

Press the button.

The heavy snow seemed to appear out of nowhere from the edge of the map, covering the entire sky.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"It must be Gian and Suneo, they've gotten into trouble again, really..." Having been through thick and thin together, Shizuka knew exactly what had happened and immediately became annoyed. "The same thing happened underwater, those two said they were going to Bermuda and went without even telling Doraemon. If it weren't for the underwater people helping them adjust to the light, they would have been crushed into mincemeat in the deep sea! Sigh..."

“Every time the two of them get into trouble, someone has to clean up the mess.”

Despite her complaints, Shizuka didn't take them to heart. She understood that everyone in a team has their role to play, and when Gian and his companion weren't acting as surprise attackers, their main responsibility was to initiate attacks. Infiltrating enemy territory to investigate was inherently risky; this was simply a case of risk materializing.

As she spoke, she pulled out the monitoring screen of the spy satellite and expertly switched the camera to bring all the satellites to this side. "Thankfully, it's just an encirclement, they haven't actually broken in... They're riding camels?"

"They believe we are accomplices of the Lan Clan. That horned boy just said that the Lan Clan once inflicted heavy damage on Golden Township. Perhaps, in their eyes, we are an extremely dangerous target and should not be attacked rashly."

"It won't be long, but it's enough." Shizuka breathed a sigh of relief. "It's also thanks to their caution—surrounding me without attacking—that I had enough time..."

"Reveal your trump card."

"Thump—!!"

Like a magician, she pulled a...

Huge artillery emplacements!

Chapter 100: The Invincible Cannon Turret

"Listen, remnants of the Storm Clan! The Great Archives where you are hiding is now heavily guarded. There are enough elementals to kill you a thousand times, ten thousand times over. Your two accomplices who escaped have also been captured! Now, lay down all weapons and surrender. The Court of Light will give you the most just judgment!"

The besieged military court was uniformly dressed in black robes, without any armor, so that the metal rings hanging around their necks could be seen. It seemed that they wanted to emphasize their identity as elementalists more than their "soldier" identity. Mira's bright red dress stood out conspicuously among the dark robes, and naturally became the subject of gossip.

However, in a society where affinity with elements is everything, she has the right to ignore these things.

"Nonsense... You haven't even seen a shadow of them, yet you dare to say you've caught them." After scanning every corner of the Great Archives, she shook her head. "Don't you all know that foreigners all have an external organ called a 'cellphone' that allows them to contact each other?"

"Their external organs don't work in the Golden Land; there's no 'signal' here!" A man with six rings, thick black hair and beard, and cold, pale blue eyes turned to the side and glared angrily. "By the way, it's all because of your indulgence, allowing these foreigners into the Golden Land, that this happened! You let in spies from the Lan Clan!"

“I didn’t know beforehand,” Mira argued in her defense. “Besides, the rising purple flames only indicate that something related to the Lan Clan has been detected, not that it necessarily means someone from the Lan Clan, right?”

"As far as I know, the Lan tribe, like us, lives in a secluded place... If I remember correctly, it should be a valley. It's just as far away from the world of the foreigners." The man curled his lip in disdain. "Are you saying that five foreigners happened to have some kind of trouble with the Lan tribe, happened to get lost in the desert, and happened to find the Golden Land?"

Mira was speechless for a moment.

“Enough, Gendry, Mira, this is not the time to argue about these things.” The priest wearing the bird-beak mask once again stepped out from the shadows of his black robes. “The foreigner who was granted the seventh ring, and the foreigner wearing glasses, should be with Lady Hylia right now. Excluding the two men, there are only two girls in the Great Archives right now.”

"If we want to reverse the situation, we have no choice but to take them down... By taking them down, we will naturally gain control of the foreigners' weakness."

Gendry nodded. "Using their heads as bargaining chips, I believe the remaining remnants of the Lan Clan will have no choice but to show themselves."

“I already said, they might not even be remnants of the Lan Clan…” Mira sounded helpless and had no choice but to accept this condition. “So, what is the battle plan?”

The next moment, a clear and bright female voice suddenly came from mid-air and from all directions, successfully attracting everyone's attention.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"The battle plan is this: while you're rambling on and wasting your time, I've already upgraded the entire Great Archives from the inside out."

In an instant, this haphazard army began to waver, with shouts and doubts erupting all around. Ultimately, they hadn't received even the slightest bit of military training. In the eyes of the elementalists, battle was simple: summon the elements to kill the enemy, and that was it; everything else was simply not their concern.

Such a team has no morale whatsoever, and if something unexpected happens, it will immediately tend to collapse.

"Calm down! Calm down! It's just sound element magic!" Gendry shouted through the ranks to bolster morale. "Don't be misled by the Lan Clan's lies!"

The next moment, the spy satellite projected Shizuka's holographic image onto the screen of the air. Immediately, elementalists launched attacks—lightning, fireballs, ice spikes… all sorts of things—which passed through the holographic projection, only causing it to tremble slightly.

……

"Ah... this is like talking to a brick wall..." Shizuka could naturally see this scene as well, and sighed helplessly. But she still sent a satellite around the Great Library to photograph what she had arranged and show it to people outside.

When they saw this enormous steel monster lying prostrate in front of the window, the previously boiling noise noticeably subsided.

Arms displays are always the quickest way to calm people down.

"As you can see, I have installed an item called 'Invincible Turret' at the four corners of this great library, in the east, west, south, and north, and removed its security restrictions."

(Invincible Turret: This is not a gadget belonging to Doraemon. After Suneo's repeated pleas, Nobita agreed to his request to get revenge on Gian and secretly used Doraemon's Future Department Store account to apply for and purchase this gadget. Once installed, the turret will automatically fire at anyone who intends to attack the user (within safety limits, it is not fatal). Similarly, it will launch a combined attack on anyone other than the user who tries to approach it. It is basically immune to the effects of other gadgets and can be described as having no weaknesses, hence the name "invincible".)

(From the original manga "Invincible Turret", Nobita and Suneo ultimately swapped consciousness using the gadget "body-swapping rope" through a clever idea. Nobita then fired the cannon continuously in Suneo's body, forcing Suneo to give up his right to use the turret, and the matter came to an end.)

"If you don't believe me, please allow me to show you..."

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Shizuka slowly raised her right hand and snapped her fingers.

"Snapped!"

The four giant cannons started operating simultaneously, slightly adjusting the angle of their barrels to aim at the sky in all directions.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

There should have been four cannon shots, but they overlapped, appearing as if there were only one. People witnessed four bursts of intense heat erupt from the four corners of the Great Archives, like pure fire and light, merging together and rising high into the sky above the Golden Land, and then…

Explode at the same time.

"boom--------!!!!"

A terrifyingly loud bang, powerful enough to shatter eardrums, swept across the sky and earth with a powerful cloud of flames, quickly passing through the protective shield and raising dust in the desert.

The flames, the explosions, the impact, and the ever-expanding, enormous fireball that seemed poised to engulf everything were more convincing than anything else. The four cannons fired simultaneously, and although aimed at the sky, the powerful impact caused those on the ground to feel a deep tremor in their internal organs. Some of the weaker individuals almost coughed up blood.

This time, astonishment descended equally on everyone's faces, including the priest's. However, he was wearing a mask, so as long as he didn't make any physical movements, he could still remain calm.

"This is only one of my defenses. Imagine if you had the ability to storm this place."

Time was short, and Shizuka had only set up this one defensive system, but boasting didn't cost anything, so she figured she could stall for as long as possible.

The remaining task is to find a way to stall for as long as possible and reunite with the others.

"I am well aware of the unpleasant history between the Golden Village and the Storm Clan, and it is true that our group did visit the Valley of the Wind and fought with the Storm Clan at that time. However, I can assure you that we have absolutely no connection with them. Whatever your reasons for making the judgment that we are related to them... it is a misunderstanding!"

Shizuka knew very well that the real time for negotiations would be after appropriately demonstrating force to make the enemy wary.

All truths can only be effective within the range of a shot.

"If anyone wants to speak with me, please enter through the main entrance, but I advise you not to take the risk. After all..."

"Everyone only gets one chance to enjoy life."

Chapter 101: Those Who Descended into the Abyss

The intertwining of yellow and white creates a rather counterintuitive scene that is hard to imagine.

Just as Izumi had predicted, these insects had never encountered a low-temperature environment before and were unable to adapt, being defeated instantly. The blizzard rendered them unable to fly; frost covered their wings, making even a simple flapping incredibly difficult. The once overwhelming green ocean now plummeted from the sky one after another, crashing onto the sand and creating craters of varying sizes, like a nauseating downpour.

These creatures' exoskeletons proved utterly powerless against gravity, the planet's most powerful weapon. The extreme cold further weakened them, causing them to shatter instantly upon impact with the falling air. Dekisugi had originally planned to take one back, but after searching around and finding none intact, he had to abandon the plan.

To halt the Mother of Insects' further actions, the blizzard had to continue, but this also brought disadvantages to Nobita and his friends: their bamboo copter couldn't take off, and Hyria's wind elemental magic couldn't fly smoothly in such harsh conditions. They could only resort to the most primitive method—returning home from the desert… or rather, the land that was turning into a snowfield.

This time, Nobita didn't use the "Time-Traveling Vending Machine" to conjure up any new gadgets. Instead, he dutifully took out the new energy vehicle that Doraemon used for racing on the far side of the moon. Dekisugi was clearly very interested in this futuristic civilian technology and volunteered to sit in the driver's seat.

The engine started, the entire car body floated up, cutting through the wind and snow without making a sound.

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

The mangled bodies of insects continued to fall from the sky, occasionally hitting the roof and windshield. Fortunately, the car was sturdy enough, and Dekisugi's mental fortitude was much stronger than the average person's. Despite being hit by those grotesque-looking creatures, he remained unfazed and continued driving as usual.

"The next time I see them, they should be able to move around normally in the heavy snow, right?" Dekisugi sighed. "What many species take tens of thousands of years to complete in terms of evolution, they can do in just a few days."

“It’s the Mother of Insects.” Hylia gripped the car window with both hands, her face almost pressed against it, clearly very curious about everything foreign. “She possesses some kind of magic… beyond the elements, dark magic! She can make her race multiply like weeds, endlessly. I’m afraid she has other trump cards up her sleeve that she hasn’t used yet.”

"Speaking of which, I've never heard you explain in detail what exactly the 'Mother of Insects' is," Dekisugi asked while maneuvering the silent hovercar. "Is it a coincidence that the Golden City is located above her nest?"

“How could that be?” Hylia sighed inexplicably. “Of course not, she…”

"……Why?"

However, before she could reveal this shocking secret, Nobita interrupted her. It was rare to see him interrupt so aggressively, and Dekisugi was secretly alarmed. But this usually lazy and honest man was unusually serious; there must be a reason. So, he decided to remain silent for the time being, focusing on driving and handing the initiative to Nobita.

"Huh?" Hylia looked around, completely bewildered. "Nobita, are you asking me something?"

"Those people in red robes, aren't they your guards too?" Da Xiong's tone became serious. In his view, this wasn't something that could be easily dismissed. "Why should we just watch them die?"

Hylia looked puzzled, as if she had just heard someone ask her why one plus one equals two.

"You have the ability to save them before they are torn apart by the locusts... or before that, you can summon lightning to tear a few gaps in the swarm's defenses, and then organize your forces to launch an offensive. No matter what, they certainly won't be completely wiped out!"

Nobita gritted his teeth, trying hard not to think about the screams that echoed in his ears—the suppressed wails of the fire sorcerers before they were torn apart, "You clearly had the ability to create something better..."

"Just because you have the ability, does that mean you have to do it?" Hylia's tone remained calm, even slightly smiling, as if she wasn't offended by Nobita's tone at all, and was simply engaging in an academic debate. "Why?"

"Why?" Nobita found it incomprehensible. "They...they died protecting you. Does that mean nothing to you?"

“Before donning this red robe, they all took a sacred and pure oath to the Spirit of Fire, and no power can break this oath,” Hylia said calmly. “I won’t repeat the specifics, but it basically means that they are willing to give up everything they have to protect me.”

“Da Xiong-kun, this is different from oaths outside… This is an oath made before the Spirit of Fire, and it must be kept. From this day forward until the last moment of their lives, the oath will continue to be effective. In other words, they chose to dedicate themselves to their duties in order to uphold this sacred oath.”

The girl shook her head slightly and smiled, "This is the path they chose themselves. Being selected for the Royal Guard is an honor in the Golden Land, representing that their control over the fire element has reached a state of perfection. Believe me, Nobita, if you heard the oath, you would understand."

“They are very clear about what they are doing.”