Chapter 86: It Can Only Be You

Chapter 86: It Can Only Be You

Three seconds later, Ding Hu jumped out of his Azure Dragon Armor and retreated into the inner array of the Research Institute. Chen Feng jumped into Ding Hu’s Azure Dragon Armor almost at the same time.

Although this left Ding Hu without combat ability, it was clearly the best choice in this situation.

“Why? Why?”

Something unbelievable happened.

Lin Bu had clearly fallen, but his voice still came from that heavily modified, smoking armor.

Chen Feng immediately became alert. While urging the Azure Dragon Armor to adjust to his body size as quickly as possible and preparing for battle, he stalled for time by saying, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

He was genuinely confused. Hadn’t that person’s body been shattered? Was he still not dead?

“I can’t accept this. You brainwashed soldiers have no conviction, you’re just pathetic tools. Why did I lose to you?”

Lin Bu continued to murmur.

The rescue team from the Escape Faction had rushed out and was trying to cut open the chest plate of the modified armor to pull Lin Bu out.

Chen Feng wore a bitter smile.

Brainwashing?

He wasn’t too sure about the military training Ding Hu and the others received.

As for himself, there really was no need for brainwashing, and it was impossible for him to be brainwashed.

That was because Chen Feng knew better than anyone what the ultimate predicament looked like.

He had already experienced it fully three times.

“I know what it’s like out there. I also know the government’s reasons for banning our actions. But, what gives you the right to make decisions for us! Why can’t we try once? Why can’t we have our own right to choose? Rather than staying on Earth like cowards, rather than waiting for a meaningless death, I’d rather die in the Universe!”

“I have this vitality, what makes you think I can’t charge out carrying the hope for our race’s survival! Do you know, what we want to take into space isn’t just the thousand people here, but also the 200,000 perfect egg embryos we painstakingly collected!”

“What gives you the right to stop us? Can’t you let us walk our own path for once?”

Over there, the modified armor was finally cut open.

The voice grew fainter.

Chen Feng watched as several medical personnel from the other side pulled out a head from the armor, its eyes still wide open with fury. The parts below the neck were indeed shattered.

It was a face as young as his own, staring with unwilling eyes firmly at the entrance of the Research Institute.

The gaze was full of madness, obsession, and confusion.

“Everyone, don’t save me, I can’t hold on. But my death is not meaningless. I have already taken out one of his Azure Dragon Armors. The rest of the work is up to you. Everyone, go, for our belief, for our ideal. No one is smarter or nobler than anyone else. We do not accept the World Government’s path! Go! Don’t let my death be in vain!”

Lin Bu let out his final roar.

The remaining dozens of old-model Exosuit Armor pilots let out a simultaneous, sorrowful and furious roar and charged forward.

“Chen Feng, what are you spacing out for! Go!”

Ding Hu shouted from the rear.

Chen Feng took a deep breath and wore a bitter smile inside his helmet.

At that moment, his impression of the Escape Faction changed a lot.

It turned out they weren’t despicable, they just had different ideals.

He took a deep breath, quickly increased the parameters of this Azure Dragon Armor that originally belonged to Ding Hu, and launched forward with lightning-fast steps.

Everyone, I admire your conviction and courage, but this time, I can only say I’m sorry.

The brutal battle erupted fiercely five seconds later.

Reinvigorated by the heightened emotions on both sides, the renewed fighting turned white-hot from the very start.

Chen Feng felt a degree of respect for these people, but his actions became more ruthless, each move lethal.

Perhaps he was numb.

Perhaps he didn’t want others to suffer more pain like Lin Bu did before dying.

When only five Exosuit Armors of the Escape Faction remained, they finally launched a desperate, all-out assault. Heavy weapons on the armored vehicles and large combat machines began powering up.

They were willing to risk destroying the Changhe 711 inside the Research Institute.

Seeing this, Chen Feng quickly retreated to guard the main entrance, holding the shield in front of him. “Brother Hu, you all need to retreat into the underground bunker now!”

Ding Hu, who had switched to the heavy sniper rifle, shook his head. “There’s no time.”

A blinding red light lit up ahead, like the rising sun.

The glow from over twenty Thermal Fusion Cannons converged on the shield Chen Feng held as he blocked the entrance.

Only by threatening the lives of his comrades behind him would Chen Feng obediently stand there and be hit.

Chen Feng braced his shoulder against his arm, both pushing from behind the shield. But in that instant, he felt the shield surface grow hot and scalding, almost too hot to hold.

Ignoring the searing pain in his hands, he looked back and saw many people fallen behind him.

Although the Alloy Shield helped him block the frontal barrage for the moment, the flaming splatter to both sides had caused heavy casualties among the Research Institute’s defense forces behind him.

Ding Hu, holding the heavy sniper, had stood up from behind the defense works.

There was a palm-sized, round hole in the defense works below his waist. White smoke and a red glow came from the dark opening inside. Melted, flowing sand was slowly trickling out, drying into orange-yellow crystals before even touching the ground.

Ding Hu supported the rifle with his left hand, the stock resting against his waist. He wore a faint smile on his face and was waving directly at Chen Feng.

His lips quivered slightly.

Reading his lips.

He was saying.

“I kept my promise, I died before you. Chen Feng, live on for me. The Escape Faction understands nothing. Only you stand at the peak of human combat skill! If this world is destined to be destroyed, then so be it! If this world must have a Savior, it will be you! It can only be you!”

There was a perfect round hole where his heart was.

No blood gushed out.

The inside of the hole was black, completely carbonized.

“Chen Feng! Go! It’s enough already! Live! Live to the end of Civilization!”

Ding Hu shouted with a voice tearing from his throat as he fell.

Chen Feng’s eyes suddenly turned red.

No tears.

He had seen the end, experienced the end.

In this era, he pitied no one.

But somehow, inexplicably, he seemed to vaguely see Ding Hu’s soul soaring from his back.

So tall.

It blotted out the sky.

Finally, it turned into a brand that settled upon this Azure Dragon Armor that originally belonged to Ding Hu.

Over there, the armored vehicles and combat machines had begun their second power-up cycle.

The Alloy Shield in Chen Feng’s hands had turned into molten metal, dripping at his feet, splashing up white smoke that enveloped him.

The sky.

A pillar of light ignited.

A brilliant blue radiance descended from the heavens, smashing into the vast square before him.

This radiance seemed to carry immense weight, pressing down and sinking the square’s ground.

The light faded, and the whole world was enveloped in a fairy-tale-like white mist.

A flying vessel, dozens of times larger than an aircraft carrier, descended from the sky.

Propulsion particle streams turned into a fierce wind, dispersing the white mist.

The armored vehicles and remaining old-model armor gathered on the square before Chen Feng vanished without a trace, leaving only blackened marks on the ground.

The ground had sunk nearly ten meters. The cement surface was long gone, replaced by a parched, massive-cracked ground like the embers left after a bonfire.

The wind grew stronger and stronger.

But the white mist seemed impossible to blow away.

Chen Feng looked up at the sky.

Reinforcements had finally arrived.

Ten seconds late.

The power of this ion beam super-cannon was truly astonishing.

But still ten seconds late.

He looked towards the direction of the Escape Faction’s combat machine.

That sizable metal construct was now only half its original size.

A few medical personnel stood dumbfounded in the half-collapsed Medical Capsule.

In front of these medical personnel lay a transparent frozen box containing Lin Bu’s head.

The fierce wind howled in the sky.

Nearly a hundred black dots floated in the air, rapidly approaching.

They were all Azure Dragon Armor soldiers from this Mothership.

Chen Feng sighed.

No matter how strong the reinforcements were, they were useless if they arrived too late.

“Damn it! So meaningless!”

Holding Ding Hu’s ashes as he returned to the Great Snow Mountain Base, the first words Chen Feng said when he saw Professor Ouyang, Tang Tianxin, Pang De, and the others were these.