Mecha Chapter 289: Enter

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

The mysterious metal door was finally open. The civilizations that were cooperating on the surface remained friendly and cordial, but in fact there were dark undercurrents, and their small movements became more and more frequent.

Before the mysterious door had slowly opened, some people were excited, while others began to get apprehensive. A first level civilization even left after the door opened. But most still expected to get something from behind the mysterious door.

Although the war was now spreading mainly in the An Empire and the Federation, the suddenly mutated octopus people had a tendency to become more and more crazy. Their strength and weapons were developing at an alarming rate, so who could know if it would burn all the way to their own country? So given the chance to be stronger and more advanced, it was no surprise that no one wanted to back down.

Luo XiaoLou followed Yuan Xi. In order not to cause unnecessary trouble, both 125 and Cloudy Sky went into their space buttons. They were far more advanced than a first level civilization should have.

Ahead of them were Yuan Lie and Feng JiaLing, and there were two hundred people chosen to follow them in. This was almost the smallest group of people to enter among all the civilizations, but Feng JiaLing wouldn’t agree to bring more people in. In addition to twenty senior researchers, the rest who had been selected were all extremely talented mecha warriors.

Except for Federation and An Empire, this kind of direct entry of the top leaders was not very common.

According to Yuan Lie’s intention, Yuan Che should have stayed outside, but Yuan Che, for some reason, asked to go in no matter what. Because of Luo XiaoLou, it was even more impossible to let Yuan Xi stay behind. In the end, Yuan Nuo was left behind. Of course, by Yuan Nuo’s side was the rare little Yuan Yu, who also expressed his eagerness to retain Luo XiaoLou and the entire top echelon of the Empire.

Even if the people who entered did come to a bad end, the Empire wouldn’t be left without a successor.

Yates and Tian Li weren’t selected, but Luo ShaoTian was in the entourage. Ling Xu and two of Yuan Xi’s deputies were purposely left outside by him, while the Tier 10 mecha was given to Luo ShaoTian by Yuan Xi.

Mu Chen was chosen, but before the trip began, Arthur, who was supposed to return to Grey Galaxy, suddenly barged in, pressed Mu Chen in front of everyone and kissed him deeply for a long while. It was only when Mu Chen got annoyed, that Arthur let him go, came up to his ear and said, “I’ll go for you. Be good and wait for me to come back.” Then he pulled Mu Chen out of the crowd, and pushed himself in to stand in the accompanying line.

Mu Chen coldly looked at his playful Arthur, then finally turned his head, as if he was too lazy to look at him again, but from the side, they could still see Mu Chen’s sweet red lips.

When he entered the dark underground, Luo XiaoLou’s chest, which had calmed down for the last two days, began to throb rapidly again. Yuan Xi reached out and pulled him tightly to his side as he led him downward.

Luo XiaoLou tried his best to suppress the symptoms with his Yuan Power. The temperature of Yuan Xi’s palm became more and more obvious, and fondly remembered in that gloomy environment.

Luo XiaoLou held Yuan Xi tightly as well. They had come here. To now. He couldn’t in his last moments, in front of lovers and family and friends, and also in front of the door of success, fall down.

Luo XiaoLou didn’t move to wipe away the cold sweat on his forehead. Soon they stopped. Then Luo XiaoLou saw a scene that once made his breath halt. That huge metal wall, in this dim underground hollow, appeared in front of him with a compelling aura, like a behemoth.

In that instant, Luo XiaoLou almost lost his voice, which was followed by the feeling of unparalleled shock. When he saw it with his own eyes, he realized that the pattern on the huge metal wall was like a bizarre and esoteric symbol, and possessed an endless attraction that would make people get lost in it after a moment. The images on the electronic screen couldn’t compare to reality.

In front of the huge metal wall, the people from various civilizations couldn’t help but speak in lowered voices.

The Attius and Telles people were in the most prominent position, and were twice as numerous as the An Empire. Yuan Xi narrowed his eyes, and shot a glance at the Golden Dragon, Saint Gerald, who stood at the forefront, as he considered whether to bleed the stupid guy out a bit. If anything happened to him, his own child’s upbringing would be in jeopardy. With the existence of the blood seal, for three years the child couldn’t be separated from the essence of Saint Gerald’s blood.

Saint Gerald, who came in his father’s place, suddenly winced, and looked around suspiciously and uneasily. He had been in a state of bad luck ever since he arrived at the damned asteroid, or rather, since he met the egg.

Luo XiaoLou was also looking around. Li Mo was nearby. He could feel it, but he couldn’t pinpoint his exact location. However, it was very obvious since Yuan Che was now a little distracted. Perhaps, he had found the reason why Yuan Che insisted on coming.

The crowd in front of him moved, and started to enter. Luo XiaoLou finally gave up searching for Li Mo, and turned his head to look at Yuan Xi beside him. He was as handsome as usual, with an unquestionable determination on his face.

Yuan Xi felt Luo XiaoLou’s eyes, and turned to look at him. He suddenly said, “Come back with me.” The words seemed to carry a prayer, but also not. That word, it really didn’t fit Yuan Xi.

Luo XiaoLou covered his chest, and said without any hesitation, “Believe me, I want to come back with you more than any other person.” He was a selfish person. Up to now, all his hopes were just, that no matter how, he wanted to live. Only if he was alive, could he feel the pure love and tenderness that his domineering lover hid from others. Only if he was alive, could he grow up with his child. Only if he was alive, could he continue to watch the fat green guy go back and forth in their home. Only if he was alive…

The first to enter wasn’t the two secondary level civilizations. It was a subsidiary of Telles, a first level civilization under long-term subordination. So even if they knew that the first to enter filled the role of cannon fodder, they had no right to refuse.

Hundreds of people quickly entered the doorway. It was more than twenty meters high and ten meters wide, and after a white flash, the people outside could no longer see them. There was neither cheering nor screaming. The people outside couldn’t even receive their messages.

After a while, Duke Moga, the leader of the Telles group, smiled and said to Saint Gerald next to him, “Your Highness, although there are no messages, the special life devices I put on them show that their lives are not in danger, so it seems we can go in.”

Attius and Telles, two second level civilizations, entered the metal wall one after another, followed by several first level civilizations.

As he entered the door, what caught Luo XiaoLou’s attention was a hall so huge that it could accommodate 10,000 people and that the whole hall was built with the same extremely hard metal. Also, except for a platform in the middle, the surrounding area was completely empty. After they entered, the warriors of the Empire immediately surrounded them, so that Luo XiaoLou, Yuan Xi, Yuan Che and the two majesties were in the middle.

On the side of the room farthest from them, there was another door.

On the platform in the middle was a metal table with a black ball suspended on it. At this point, a number of people were gathered around the table as they studied the console of the table and the suspended sphere.

Finally, an officer from Telles pointed to the tabletop and said, “Your Highness, there is a simple topographical map here. It should be an underground palace. We are on the first floor of the palace, and the door to the next floor is on the other side. Goodness. With six whole floors, they have hollowed out the whole inside of this asteroid…”

While he was talking, someone finally couldn’t resist, and touched the ball.

The next moment the huge hall lights went out. Yuan Xi kept ahold of Luo XiaoLou’s hand and said to him, “Don’t panic.” Luo XiaoLou wasn’t panicked. Compared to the others, his Yuan Power allowed him to be aware of everything around him, even in the dark. The moment the lights dimmed, he found that now Luo ShaoTian and Arthur were both standing beside him along with Yuan Xi.

Someone tried to turn on a lighting device, but soon those lights disappeared again one after another.

Could it be that the defense device on the first floor had been activated? That it deliberately plunged them into darkness?

Not far from them, a little light flashed. Then, it was as if that little light had exploded, and countless other lights quickly appeared all around them, and turned into tiny dots of light that enveloped the whole hall in a very short time.

Those points of light began to grow larger the moment people raised their weapons. Finally they became a sphere.

“Wait, it’s not an attack.”

“Oh my god, it’s a cosmic star map!”

“…… No, it’s not simply a star map!” An Attius officer quickly said, with obvious excitement in his voice, “This star map. This star map is much bigger than our most comprehensive star map!”

With a single word, everyone in the hall fell silent, Attius was the fastest growing civilization among them. If this was more comprehensive than Attius’ star maps, then the value of this star map was immeasurable.

“Wait, this star map actually has advanced star coordinates!” An Imperial research worker behind Luo XiaoLou shouted.

With that sentence, Yuan Lie quickly said, “Leave five technicians. In addition, the first squad stays.”

All the civilizations left behind people to record the star map. With interstellar coordinates, they could hope to reach more distant galaxies and more planets. That represented uncountable deposits of minerals and raw materials.

More people, on the other hand, headed for the next floor.

The passage from the first floor to the second was brightly lit. The second floor apparently held an even bigger surprise for them than the first.

The moment they entered the second floor, people saw that neat mecha and various weapons that filled the second floor’s hall, which was also too big to see the sides.

Saint Gerald and Duke Moga’s faces obviously did not have the joy of those from the first level civilizations. After a brief talk about distribution, each left a few people in charge of collection, and quickly headed forward again.

Luo XiaoLou looked at Duke Moga. This was a man he was no stranger to. Back in Telles, Duke Moga and his cousin Yafir were clearly on the side of the Federation. And now Yue Shang was standing next to Duke Moga with his head bowed and his expression apathetic, while Yafir, who had once coveted Yuan Xi, had a woman in a black veil next to her.

Even from such a distance, one could still feel that the somehow familiar, masked person was continually looking their way with a resentment-filled gaze. Luo XiaoLou thought of Su Lan, who had been injected with something by Shao Rong.

Luo XiaoLou’s eyes quickly turned away again, not to avoid Su Lan, but because he sensed some kind of danger. Since the trip to the holy land of exotic beasts, his intuition had become more and more accurate.

The second floor was obviously larger than the first. At the beginning they couldn’t see that the weapons actually only occupied half of the place, and now they had arrived at the other half.

Here, there were countless clean white operating tables, while on them were golden eggs half a man high.

“What is this? Is it actually another rare metal…?” said a research worker of a first level civilization who couldn’t help but be curious as he looked around, though he still maintained a cautious attitude, and didn’t touch it with his hands.

Luo XiaoLou subconsciously grabbed Yuan Xi, who looked at him warily.

125’s voice rang out in Luo XiaoLou’s ears, [Not metal, just a soft metal shell with some kind of life form inside! And extremely familiar, wait–]

The change happened quickly. When the researcher was still half a meter away from the golden egg, the metal shell suddenly shattered. There was a red flash, and the only sound heard in the hall was the researcher’s harsh scream.

People simply didn’t have time to react. Where the researcher had stood was only some pieces of broken flesh and sprays of blood in all directions. Then the broken golden egg attached to a few red tentacles appeared in front of people.

Everyone quickly moved away from that location, and countless weapons aimed at the broken golden egg.

Then, the tentacles retracted. A few seconds later, there was a soft sound in the quiet hall, and the egg shell completely shattered.

“Oh my, it’s actually an octopus person…”

“A blood-red octopus person?”

Amongst the people’s chatter, the newborn octopus person, still covered with slime, stood up fully, one meter seven or so. Compared to the octopus people Luo XiaoLou had seen, it was thin, but the form was also more bizarre. No wonder 125 felt something familiar. It was actually the deadly enemy of the Empire, and obviously it had another evolved body.

The bloody octopus person slowly looked around the circle, and then, while the crowd was still watching it, suddenly moved. However, more people fired before it moved.

People imagined that the octopus person was killed, since it didn’t re-appear, but it jumped over the heads of those who blocked it with incredible speed. Its body was shot several times, and even as it bubbled red thick blood, its flexibility wasn’t affected at all.

The octopus person finally landed on a soldier. The people’s attack hesitated slightly, and the soldier was pinned under its body. There was another scream, and the soldier dried up at a speed visible to the naked eye, until he finally became a dessicated corpse. Correspondingly, the octopus person’s body was becoming stronger and taller.

“He can suck blood!”

“No, don’t let him get close to the weapons–“

But it was all too late. The octopus person reached the weapons, dodged the attacks with more cunning movements and started to hurt people.

Saint Gerald looked at Duke Moga who wasn’t far away and grunted. The young lieutenant beside him was just about to act. Next to Luo XiaoLou, Arthur suddenly leaped up in the air, red hair everywhere and with great speed, while on his shoulder was a strong super micro particle cannon. While several other masters continued to attack, the scarlet octopus person was surrounded and finally strangled.

When Arthur returned to Luo XiaoLou’s side, he was already slightly out of breath and said with a frown, “Your Majesties, they have evolved again. These are more advanced than the most powerful octopus people outside.”

The young adjutant next to Saint Gerald said, “It seems that the octopus people have made a lot of preparations and plans in order to destroy these two first level civilizations. I’m afraid all those weapons are also for those octopus people still waiting to hatch.”

Moga smiled faintly. “No wonder.” Those weapons, for a first level civilization, might be very good, but for a second level civilization, they were somewhat below expectations. Otherwise how could they be so generous in distributing them to others?

Hatching. When they heard that word, everyone’s eyes couldn’t help but look at the operating tables, so many they couldn’t see the end of them, and they were covered with countless golden eggs. As if in response to people’s attention, the sound of cracking eggshells could be heard everywhere.

The nightmare was just beginning.

Luo XiaoLou was protected by Yuan Xi and Luo ShaoTian. He also used his Yuan Power to form a protective circle to defend those around him. Then he took the time to condense his Yuan Power into sharp blades to shoot at the approaching scarlet octopus people.

The selected mecha warriors were the best, both in single combat and group combat, but they still felt overwhelmed as they tried to deal with the scarlet octopus people. They didn’t dare imagine how drastically the Empire’s situation would deteriorate if these scarlet octopus people appeared in the war outside on a large scale.

An hour later, all of them stopped panting. The scarlet octopus people were finally all wiped out. Many of the groups began to count the casualties on their side.

There were a dozen people on the Empire’s side with minor injuries and no fatalities. Except for Feng JiaLing and Yuan Lie, whose faces remained unchanged, everyone else gathered around the two Majesties and began to rest and replenish their energy.

While people were considering whether to take the opportunity to take a lunch break, someone suddenly shouted hoarsely, “No! It’s not over! There are still golden eggs!”

Everyone stood up and looked around.

Only then did people realize that the golden eggs on the operating tables hadn’t appeared out of thin air. There were several conveyor belts connected to the operating tables, and now new golden eggs were being sent over in a steady stream.

Because of the early discovery, after another exhausting battle, the newly appeared scarlet octopus people were all destroyed. At the same time people also discovered a terrible pattern. Every half an hour the conveyor belt would bring out more golden eggs. Where the golden eggs were produced was a complete mystery.

“No. We can’t keep delaying here,” Duke Moga said with a black face.

“But we can’t let the golden eggs be produced indefinitely, or we probably won’t have a way to get through here when we come out. What’s more, we still have people on the first level copying star maps.”

In the end, everyone discussed it, and each civilization left eighty percent of their people in charge of killing the scarlet octopus people that kept spawning here, while the rest continued on down.

People didn’t want to leave most of their fighting force on the second floor, but if fewer people were left behind, they simply couldn’t deal with those newly created golden eggs in another hour and a half.

Moreover, there was a shadow in people’s hearts. If the octopus people could really make adjustments according to people’s combat power, would there be more powerful octopus people when they came out?

Some people began to regret opening the door. If that door still existed, maybe it would have blocked these mutant octopus people for a while, but now, they could only block it themselves with their flesh and blood. Their choice, was it really the right one?

The Empire people left behind were led by Arthur, who leaned against the weapon placement table with his arms clasped, as he said to Luo XiaoLou and the others, “Come return early. I’ll try to fall down after you guys come back.”

Led by the two second level civilizations, they entered the third floor.

This time, there were no weapons, no octopus people, and no star maps. They didn’t even know how big the third floor was, because a blanket of white fog enveloped the space.

Instruments quickly analyzed that the white fog wasn’t harmful to the human body, it only blocked vision, so that even the most advanced holographic detection system couldn’t actually see over a meter away. Moreover, the terrain of the third floor and the previous two floors seemed to be different. People walked carefully forward a few dozen meters from the wall, but couldn’t see the door, so helplessly, people chose to feel their way along the left and right.

Even with weapons to disperse the white fog, it would soon fill the room again, so because it blocked all vision, finally people acted in unison and went to the right.

Only forty people from the An Empire came in. Thirteen were researchers without much fighting ability, so Luo XiaoLou carefully dispersed his Yuan Power to prevent unknown dangers.

Soon, Luo XiaoLou found that some unknown locations in the fog were more dense than others. He couldn’t help but look a few more times, and as a result, was surprised to find that the dense white fog looked like it had some sort of form, which eventually became clearer and clearer. It was humanoid.

Luo XiaoLou pulled on Yuan Xi and wanted to speak, but someone ahead of him had already shouted, “There’s someone in the fog!”

After the experiences of the second floor, all the people stopped in the shortest possible time and looked to the two second level civilizations.

The voice also noticed everyone’s movement and hastened to add, with a slight apology, “No danger. It’s..it’s someone who is frozen. There’s no sign of life.”

People quickly concentrated on the location where the man spoke. There was indeed a statue-like man there, and what was most reassuring was that no matter how one looked at it, it was a normal human being. Even if he broke through the ice, it wouldn’t have been as scary as the octopus people.

But Yuan Lie and Feng JiaLing’s faces didn’t look too good. Neither the people of An Empire nor Federation joined the discussion, because they had both noticed that the man’s clothes were too familiar. It was the uniform of an Empire soldier from more than twenty years ago. At that time, the Federation had long since merged into the Empire, which meant that it was one of theirs.

Feng JiaLing swept it with his eyes, then averted his gaze, and said in a low voice, “The 37th Legion disappeared back then.”

Yuan Lie stared. “I didn’t expect that they were actually here.”

Another person, however, stared blankly at the statue and froze, as he muttered to himself, “What’s going on? I seemed to have just walked past here and there no one was there…”

Luo XiaoLou was equally puzzled. There was clearly no one in that location before, but after the white fog thickened, the shape gradually formed and then the statue appeared.

This statue, in the end, from where did it come?

Then, people were very alert to detect the statues, as they tried to ensure that the person didn’t have any signs of life, before they left.

Now people, however, were being more cautious, and stopped pulling away from each other like before as they tried to stay close to their teammates.

Soon they found that after the first statue showed up, quite a few more statues soon appeared. Most of them were human, but later, statues of some kind of monster, up to three meters tall, also appeared.

Later, as the statues of monsters began to outnumber the statues of humans, people slowed down. A researcher examined the ice with their instruments and concluded that the ice had been there for twenty-one years. All kinds of conclusions surfaced about whether what was inside was dead, but none of that could appease the trepidation in people’s hearts.

What was more, it was in the middle of a white fog. Right now it was a statue, but who could know if there was a living thing in front of them. From a look at the size, this was much more difficult to deal with than the octopus people.

While people were discussing, a gust of wind blew over from the front. The white fog actually dissipated quickly, and the river-like shape of the third floor finally appeared clearly in people’s eyes.

People’s discussions ended. They saw the statues. If it hadn’t been for the white fog disappearing, they wouldn’t have realized that there were actually so many statues, spread out to their left and right.

The three-meter-tall monsters appeared clearly in front of them now. It was a never-before-seen creature form, ferocious-looking and frightening.

Luo XiaoLou was still considering that, when Feng JiaLing suddenly stopped and looked upwards.

And at that moment, a screen suddenly appeared on the high white ceiling, and a person appeared there. He smiled at the people below and said, “Welcome to Eternal Space.”

Everyone else looked upward, but Yuan Xi and Luo XiaoLou looked at each other in shock. It was actually Jui Yuan! The previous director of the Empire’s Exotic Beast Institute. The one who specialized in capturing exotic beasts, while much evidence had shown that he was a third party mixed into the Empire, he also joined with the Federation’s Su Yun and Yue Zhuo in provoking the bad relationship between exotic beasts and humans that ultimately leading to that brutal and protracted war.

When Jui Yuan let the humans of the Exotic Beast Institute infect the exotic beasts with a virus, they destroyed the foundations of the exotic beasts, and the exotic beasts killed almost half of the humans in the war. Although it was eventually revealed to be a huge conspiracy, the wounds caused by the war in the hearts of both sides were far from being repaired.

Even after that, Jui Yuan was still implementing his ‘miracle’ plan, as he planted eggs in the bodies of Luo XiaoLou, Yuan Che, and Luo ShaoTian. Although, now only the king worm, Protura, was left in Luo XiaoLou’s heart.

Yuan Xi looked at Jui Yuan coldly, with an icy killing intent in his eyes. He was just waiting for Luo XiaoLou’s problem to be solved, so he could dispose of that person. He absolutely couldn’t tolerate that person to live, even in a corner where he couldn’t see.

Behind him, Luo ShaoTian looked at Jui Yuan with even more unconcealed hatred in his eyes.

Jui Yuan looked at the crowd without concern and smiled. “Twenty-one years ago, humans and my pets had a war here. I have to say, those people were lucky back then to have met someone who could freeze time and hold them here. However, the frozen seal will soon disappear, and those seriously injured humans and my babies will soon be able to come out. I don’t think you will be so lucky this time. This is my second welcome gift for you, gentlemen. Enjoy it!”

Yuan Xi turned to look around and noticed Duke Moga’s ironic expression. There was a deep flash in his eyes. It seemed that the connection between Duke Moga and Jui Yuan was not as strong as he thought. Back then, the two could have joined forces to explore this asteroid.

As soon as Jui Yuan’s words fell, the ice on the statues began to melt, and the people or monsters that previously didn’t have a single sign of life began to slowly move.

“Not good. They’re coming to life!”

The number of monsters was much more than humans. Moreover, the monsters were obviously more powerful than the scarlet octopus people. For the first time, terror and despair rose in people’s hearts. Were they going to disappear in this Eternal Space?

Under the influence of that desperation, people didn’t wait for the monsters to fully awaken, they had already begun to shoot. But while the particle guns failed to damage the monsters, they intensified the melting of the ice. The monsters were slowly awakening. Countless monsters, before them and behind, came towards the people surrounded in the middle.

At this time, a cold and arrogant voice suddenly sounded in this space. “I’m afraid you’re celebrating too early. I was able to seal them once, I can seal them a second time.”

 

When he heard that voice, Luo XiaoLou was surprised for a moment. Yuan Che also stiffened and looked fiercely ahead.