Chapter 122: Escape

Chapter 122: Escape

Ou Qinglan replied, “Wait, let me think.”

Chen Feng waited anxiously. “We can’t wait anymore. I’m going out to put on my gear now.”

“Don’t even dream about it. When they stripped Sister Tianxin of her position, everyone at your Great Snow Mountain Base was temporarily stripped of their gear control rights. If you go put on the Starblade Armor now, you’d just be putting shackles on yourself and walking into a trap. The psychological tests happening in your base right now are to figure out if she still has any supporters.”

Hearing this, Chen Feng suddenly understood. “So that’s how it is.”

He was at a bit of a loss now.

“I have an idea!” Ou Qinglan said suddenly.

“Tell me!”

“I’ve been in charge of improving the design of the Starblade Armor. I can break through its defense system. In a moment, you go directly to the storage room. I’ll hack the electronic lock on the storage room door first, then disable the device lock on one set of Starblade Armor. Then you can wear it. After that, go to the hangar at the rear of the Great Snow Mountain Base. The control system of the Hornet-type combat ships on standby there was also designed by me. I planned for extreme situations and included an offline mode. First, connect the Starblade Armor’s data cable to the Hornet combat ship, then input this string of code to activate offline mode. That way, you can leave the Great Snow Mountain Base.”

Ou Qinglan quickly recited a long string of code. Luckily, Chen Feng’s memory was strong enough now, and he memorized it quickly.

“Good, I’m setting off now!”

“No problem. I’ll meet up with you at the Capital.”

“Huh?”

“What do you mean ‘huh’? Hurry up!”

After they finished speaking, Chen Feng logged out of the Holographic Simulation System.

He didn’t dare take the flat loader. Instead, he quietly slipped toward the fire escape, planning to take the stairs down.

While going downstairs, he started formulating a battle plan in his mind.

Chen Feng was no longer a junior officer.

The rank of Colonel might not mean he held great power, but at least he was in the middle-to-upper layers of the military pyramid.

He knew a lot of basic information.

There weren’t that many garrison troops stationed at the global Capital in the Americas.

There was a Mothership above it.

The defense base housed five large Cruisers, fifty combat frigates, a thousand combat ships, and over ten thousand micro-combat ships represented by the Hornet-type.

Additionally, there was a standing garrison of thirty thousand people, including three thousand Starblade Armor Warriors, hundreds of ground artillery turrets, and ten thousand Artificial Intelligence combat robots.

Times were different. Now the whole world was united under the World Government’s flag, and with the threat of an outside enemy like a bone in the throat, the vast majority of humanity’s military forces were spread across the Solar System, especially concentrated near Earth’s orbit.

The Capital, being the main headquarters on Earth itself, actually had relatively fewer troops because there wasn’t much to defend against.

The only force not under jurisdiction was the Escape Faction.

But the Escape Faction itself didn’t advocate rebellion; they only cared about charging out of the Solar System.

The World Government didn’t suppress the Escape Faction, nor did they believe they would foolishly fight amongst themselves and waste humanity’s precious resources.

Of course, no matter how weak the Capital’s defenses might be, Chen Feng was just one man, one suit of armor, and one ship. Rushing over like that was like an ant trying to shake a tree—sheer suicide.

Chen Feng knew very well in his heart the most likely outcome he would face.

That was defeat and death.

But so what? It was just death.

He would die, sleep, wake up, and be a hero again, just wasting one chance to travel through time.

He could completely bear that cost.

What he couldn’t bear was knowing Tang Tianxin would be executed and doing nothing, just watching her die.

That would make him regret it so much he’d feel utterly depressed, and he would be completely consumed by his own anger.

He would feel disappointed in the human race.

He knew he was the only hope.

So, what the world thought didn’t matter. Where he would die also didn’t matter.

I know you are all being controlled, and I want to save you too.

But before that, whether I kill you or not doesn’t shake the overall situation.

Because the only thing that matters is my own feelings, my firm will to do something for humanity. That must never be shaken!

On his way down the stairs, Chen Feng received a warning from the Military.

They had already noticed his unusual movement.

Chen Feng ripped off the wearable AI Brain terminal on his arm and crushed it into pieces with his foot.

Then he moved even faster, whistling through the stairwell, rushing rapidly from the 39th floor of the residential building all the way to the ground.

He was originally the head of security. He knew every monitoring and self-defense mechanism in the Great Snow Mountain Base like the back of his hand.

He knew the location of every camera probe and every concealed automatic particle gun hidden in the walls.

He transformed into a furious, irritable gust of wind, sweeping through the dark corners of the Base, heading straight for the storage room.

His blood gradually began to boil.

Chen Feng started imagining, over and over in his mind, the scene of Tang Tianxin—selfless, completely unsuspecting of the Military higher-ups, filled with trust and the beautiful hope of persuading everyone—being suddenly arrested, and the possible grief and anger she might have felt then.

His heartbeat sped up a notch; his adrenaline secretion doubled.

He then began imagining the scene tomorrow morning, if he failed to get there in time, Tang Tianxin being executed by firing squad in public.

His self-directed mental suggestion worked very well.

Even too well.

He successfully further ignited his own furious rage. His adrenaline exploded, and his heart pounded like a roaring imperial engine.

He decided to stop holding back.

The outcome couldn’t get any worse anyway.

Everything would just start over next time anyway.

Some people now would disappear into the river of time by then, while others would still exist and be saved by him.

Yes, I am going to save them.

But before saving people, I have to go on a massive killing spree.

Because I’ve already reached a conclusion now, solving half the problem.

The other half of the problem is finding out how to counter that infiltration.

So far, only Tang Tianxin has succeeded. So even if the higher-ups rejected her proposal, as long as he could rescue her, and then together, scientifically analyze the details of how she broke free from the cage, studying her thoroughly from psychology to physiology, they might find the solution to the problem.

They had to find this method to counter the mental suggestion, break this incurable slow-acting poison. Then everything would return to normal, and they could completely destroy the current dead-end situation where everyone was unknowingly tied to the burning pillar, slowly edging step by step toward destruction.

Since things had come to this, he would personally become the villain, the biggest and also humanity’s final traitor since Sergey!

Chen Feng reached the storage room.

Two guards stood at the storage room door.

They were unfamiliar faces he hadn’t seen before, probably from the Cruiser above the Great Snow Mountain Base.

But these two weren’t wearing Starblade Armor; they must be just ordinary soldiers.

The moment the two saw Chen Feng, they raised their guns to aim at him.

Chen Feng started sprinting, simultaneously throwing two fruit knives he had brought with him from his room.

Thump, thump. Two dull thuds sounded, and the two men fell.

At the same time, the metal door of the warehouse clicked and slid open on its own—it was Ou Qinglan’s doing.

Chen Feng stepped forward, picked up two handheld particle guns from the ground, and charged into the warehouse wielding one in each hand.

A violent alarm suddenly blared, and ten round holes appeared on the walls on both sides of the warehouse. Auto-fire particle guns quickly emerged from the holes.

At the same time, a Starblade Armor loading case placed deep inside the warehouse briefly flickered with light—Ou Qinglan’s remote hack had succeeded.

Chen Feng’s forward stride did not slow at all.

He held a gun in each hand, keeping them tucked tightly under his armpits as he poured out fire while running.

The auto-fire particle guns, which hadn’t fully emerged yet, were destroyed one after another by this security chief who was stealing from his own post.

Finally reaching the inner part of the warehouse, Chen Feng reached out and pressed his hand against the gene-scan lock on the loading case.

At first, it showed an error: no authorization. But after a brief flicker, the error message vanished, and the case opened automatically, revealing a black cube and a metal belt buckle.

Chen Feng first fastened the belt buckle around his waist, then shouted, “Armor up!”

The black cube shot up automatically, transforming in mid-air into a fluid state composed of countless threads, rapidly covering his entire body like swamp mud.

“Welcome, Colonel Chen Feng. Your equipment is in optimal condition.”

The familiar sense of control returned to him. Chen Feng clenched his fist.

Good. He felt better than ever before!

He lowered his stance slightly, first leaping forward several steps, then lifting slightly into the air.

He maxed out his acceleration instantly—the G-forces broke through 75G in an instant!

He actually wanted to push it higher; his body could handle it, but it was this standard-issue Starblade Armor that couldn’t take any more.

Just as he burst out of the warehouse door, dozens of light dots were rapidly approaching from the low distance ahead.

Under the night sky, those dozens of light dots resembled owls in the dark—they were the armored warriors sent by the high command to take control of the situation!

At the same time, a cold, furious shout came through Chen Feng’s communicator.

“Chen Feng, do you have any idea what you’re doing? Do you want to face court-martial?”

The voice belonged to the general who had led the psychological assessment earlier.

Chen Feng grinned. “I understand better than all of you!”

Summer insects cannot speak of ice.

He cut off the communication and charged straight toward them.

In that instant, he had already formed a complete combat strategy.

The Cruisers sent this time didn’t seem as advanced as the Tianxin, and their preparations were rushed.

Altogether, five ships carried only sixty armored warriors.

Under normal circumstances, that force would be more than enough to handle the situation.

The hangar holding the standby Combat Ships was about five kilometers from the base headquarters.

That meant if Chen Feng could take down all sixty combat-type armored warriors here, then quickly move to the hangar, the Military wouldn’t have any other stronger mobile forces that could reach the hangar within one minute.

He could then switch the Wasp-type Combat Ship to offline mode in time and seize control.

So, not a single one of these armored warriors could be left standing!

Sorry about this!

His figure shifted continuously in the night sky.

In less than one second, he switched three times between sniper mode and high-speed mobility mode!

He raised the intensity of the battle too suddenly.

The enemy armored warriors ahead couldn’t lock onto him at all, while three of their own had already been hit in succession!

Chen Feng opened the communication system again. His roar echoed in everyone’s ears through the Starblade Armor’s internal comms.

“Come on! Let me see how much ability humanity has built up in preparing for war against the Invaders!”

Boom!

His black streak of light suddenly slammed into the heart of the battle.

Close-range firefights between both sides officially began.

From far away, no matter how strong his evasion skills were, he could easily be caught in the crossfire net woven by simultaneous shots.

By closing in and mixing into the fray, he could fight many with few.

Everything was going according to his tactical plan.

In this unprecedented, one-against-sixty battle—a disparity so extreme it defied reason—Chen Feng would show everyone just how strong an armored warrior with a comprehensive combat rating of one million really was.

After all, aside from him, the second-ranked warrior in the entire Military, Lin Bu, had only just broken through two hundred thousand.

There were fewer than a hundred armored warriors in the whole Military with ratings over one hundred thousand.

Most ordinary armored warriors’ ratings fluctuated between fifty thousand and one hundred thousand.

As for Chen Feng, one million wasn’t his limit—the limit was the Starblade Armor!

Of course, he didn’t actually have absolute confidence in winning.

He was just numbing himself.

He had to go all out.

Everyone dies eventually anyway.

So be it!