Chapter 98: Escape

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Thud— Lu Yao was yanked out of the lab by Creisson, slammed into the railing of the suspended corridor. The old, rusted railing wobbled, seeming as if it might topple backward. The dizzying drop beneath made Lu Yao’s heart skip a beat; for a moment, he thought he was about to fall.

Creisson grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back, glancing at a makeshift elevator nearby. “Let’s go.”

Pale-faced, Lu Yao led the way. Creisson and the mechanic followed, descending over thirty meters to the bottom of the test pit via the elevator.

Long, cumbersome robotic arms circled the cylindrical pit, overseeing the mecha steel framework, which had already risen some twenty meters. Giant floodlights illuminated only the middle section, creating a hazy halo above.

When Creisson arrived, Lu Yao had been eating and resting. The machinery in the pit was temporarily inactive, and the various instruments piled at the bottom were shrouded in darkness, shapes indistinct.

“Go check the condition,” Creisson told the mechanic. Lu Yao’s expression was calm, but faintly annoyed at being disturbed.

The mechanic floated a light orb and climbed the elevator platform, moving between the gaps in the mecha framework while comparing several mecha schematics. Soon he returned to the ground. “No issues. Progress is faster than I expected.”

Creisson’ cold face shifted into a teasing, satisfied grin. “Engineer Lu, your reputation is well-earned. I won’t bother you further. I look forward to the day the mecha is fully operational. Now, I need to check if the factory has figured out how to produce new weapons according to your electromagnetic annihilation gun schematics.”

As Creisson turned to leave, the mechanic stared thoughtfully at a large machine in the dark corner. “Engineer Lu, did you bring out the wind tunnel already?”

“What wind tunnel?” Creisson asked warily.

“A wind tunnel prep device,” Lu Yao explained. “There’s no dedicated wind tunnel here. I had to plan the instrument placement in advance. Once the steel structure is complete, I’ll run a wind tunnel test to ensure its strength before continuing assembly.”

“Will that work?” Creisson asked the mechanic.

“It should,” the mechanic replied, pondering. He could fix holes in a starship but had zero experience building a mecha from scratch. He had to rely on Lu Yao’s guidance.

Creisson, knowing even less, only understood starship piloting basics. “Fine. If you need instruments or materials, tell me. I’ll get them.”

Once the pirates left, Lu Yao returned to the lab, sitting briefly at the desk. The snow leopard padded to the door, pressed his ears to the floor, confirming the pirates’ footsteps had faded, then nodded at Lu Yao. Lu Yao donned his jacket, tied back his hair, and carried Torque following snow leopard into the bathroom.

The bathtub was piled with nutrition packs and healing medicine accumulated over the past few days. Lu Yao had analyzed sand brought in by the pirates; its porous, weathered structure revealed the planet’s harsh conditions: dry, windy, and with extreme day-night temperature swings.

He sorted the nutrition packs and medicines into a backpack. Using salvaged solar sail material, he cut small pieces to smuggle into the bathroom, and crafted a few screws into makeshift needles. While Lu Yao pretended to sketch designs under external surveillance, Zhou Yunchen transformed into human form inside, sewing the solar sail into the backpack. Lu Yao hadn’t expected Zhou Yunchen to have such craftsmanship.

After adding miscellaneous supplies and a signal transmitter, Lu Yao closed the backpack, hiding it beneath his jacket, and positioned Torque to mask its bulge. With the snow leopard, he slipped into the pit’s shadows, descending to the bottom.

The space was pitch-black. From the old cameras, only Lu Yao and the snow leopard’s silhouettes were visible; their movements were indistinct. Lu Yao crouched. “Ready?”

The snow leopard pressed his nose to Lu Yao’s cheek and nodded.

“All right. Stick to the plan.” Lu Yao slung the backpack forward, tucked Torque inside—only his head peeking out to breathe.

“Meow?” Torque didn’t understand what would happen next. The metal tag on the snow leopard’s collar lit up, and the liquid metal spread over his body.

Lu Yao reached a five-meter-high fan, activated it, and input the precisely calculated parameters, stabilizing wind direction and frequency. The airflow from the fan’s elongated vent wasn’t strong enough to disturb the central mecha framework, though it lifted Lu Yao’s coat and the snow leopard’s fur. Torque shrank into the backpack.

A deep, resonant hum gradually filled the pit, merging with the rushing wind, source indiscernible. Lu Yao looked up at the wavering halo of light at the edge of mid-air and knew it had worked.

“Go.” Lu Yao strapped the backpack onto the snow leopard’s back, pressed low, and held his neck. Two liquid-metal segments crossed over his back, securing him in place.

The snow leopard leapt onto the elevator platform, which carried him ten meters up to the steel framework. To prevent escape, Creisson had limited the platform’s maximum height; the remaining fifty meters required climbing. The resonant hum intensified, echoing through the pit like a whale crashing into deep waters.

“Meow?” Torque peeked from between Lu Yao and the snow leopard, nuzzling Lu Yao’s cheek. The next moment, its cry shattered the sound barrier—meow!

The cylindrical pit walls rippled visibly. Reinforced concrete and steel bent like waves. The fan-induced resonance had shaken the structure. The materials couldn’t withstand the stress. After the fleeting spectacle, alarms blared and walls collapsed like thunder.

The pirates surely noticed the anomaly. Lu Yao pressed a button on a device in his hand, detonating the energy explosives secretly placed on the snow leopard’s escape route. In the distant explosion’s echo, the snow leopard vaulted, clearing five meters in midair to land on a steel beam.

The framework held, but falling debris shook the structure violently. Lu Yao clung to the snow leopard’s back as they scrambled upward along the steel. Within the lighted area, falling debris was starkly visible.

Bang bang bang! Bullets zipped past, smashing ahead into falling chunks of wall.

The snow leopard roared, halting mid-step. Two pirates below, furious at Lu Yao’s escape, climbed the elevator to pursue, but the bullets cut off their path.

The snow leopard released Lu Yao onto a sturdy beam, then lunged ten meters down at the pirates. Metal claws scorched by bullets tore into them.

Lu Yao pressed against a vertical beam, shielding his head from falling debris. Resonance and explosion shockwaves battered the walls, cracks widening. The spotlights mounted on the walls were destroyed, plunging most of the pit into darkness.

Suddenly, a shaft of light from above struck the snow leopard’s pointed ear. The metallic tip reflected the glow back onto Lu Yao, illuminating his ice-blue eyes. Lu Yao blinked, alert, gazing up at the pit’s top. The fissures were spreading. More light poured into the black abyss below.

The ceiling was about to collapse!

Lu Yao’s pupils constricted sharply. In a flash, he instinctively leapt sideways, narrowly dodging a massive boulder crashing down from the ceiling. A column of sunlight, as wide as a bowl, pierced the pit floor. The falling stone smashed into the steel framework with a cacophony of metal collisions, shattering support beams. The horizontal beam Lu Yao was on began to tilt sideways.

He scrambled upward along the beam, but his speed couldn’t match the collapse. Almost simultaneously, both he and the beam were about to plummet into the abyss. His body was thrown into midair, golden sunlight streaming through the gaps and illuminating his face. Countless fragments rained down like a shower of rose petals, dust rising thickly.

“Zhou Yunchen—” Lu Yao shouted, but in that split second of freefall, he wasn’t even sure a sound had left his lips.

The fall lasted only two seconds. In the next instant, accompanied by a roar rapidly approaching, two solid metal limbs locked around him. The snow leopard had killed the two pursuing pirates and was now racing across the collapsing steel framework toward Lu Yao. With a leap into midair, he caught him, pinning him tightly against his back.

Lu Yao’s heart ached from the impact, but the sheer joy of survival surged through him instantly. Yet the danger wasn’t over.

Though the snow leopard had saved him, the walls were collapsing. There were no footholds to leap from. Countless stones and steel beams plummeted in the sunlight that hadn’t been seen for ages, connecting heaven and hell with swirling dust. The thunderous collapse shook like a stormcloud, time seeming to pause at that moment.

The snow leopard’s silver-white mecha armor and Lu Yao’s black hair glistened golden in the sunlight, reflecting the chaos around them.

Author’s note: 

Leap, leap, little leopard!

 

 

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