Chapter 71: Operation (2/2)

Ye Chong acknowledged, and deployed the F-58.

Mu immediately spoke, ”Hurry!” Ye Chong was surprised at the mech’s anxiety, and dared not take his time. He slipped into the cabin quickly and immediately started the engines.

As expected, the F-58 did not alert the other party’s scanning system. Ye Chong was thinking of moving in a discrete manner forward, but Mu spoke up, ”Fly straight ahead!”

Ye Chong hesitated, but quickly recovered and flew as directed. However, he found it strange that the people moving about the area seemed to ignore the F-58, or even outright waved at him as a greeting - and that was how he flew openly into the area. Ye Chong could not keep up with what was happening, and failed to see the reason behind their actions.

The people here put heavy trust in the base’s scanning system, and did not think that someone could enter without going through proper identification. Everyone thought that the F-58 was a mech from the base.

However, Mu had no intention of explaining, and only spoke lightly, ”You now have only three minutes. After three minutes, Johansson will be here, and there’s a 78 percent probability that he’ll know your rough location.”

Ye Chong broke into a cold sweat!

Mu ignored him and continued, ”You must reach this area within one minute!” The F-58’s photon processor immediately produced holographic schematics for the base. At the north west corner was a basement about twenty meters underground, overlaid with a bright red spot - that was Ye Chong’s destination.

”Damn it Mu, you …” Ye Chong gave up with his cursing, and promptly accelerated ahead.

Mu was deliberately calm. ”Ye, don’t rush! At your speed, there’s a 94 percent probability of reaching your destination!’ Ye Chong was greatly agitated - when he heard that Johansson would arrive in three minutes, his first thought was to leave his mech and escape. ”Is this a joke? The two mechs are not even on the same level, I have zero chance of winning. Not escaping? Do you want me to die?”

However, Mu’s words seemed to be layered with some unfathomable meaning. While Ye Chong continued to curse Mu on the inside, he still flew ahead at top speed.

In just five seconds, Ye Chong arrived directly above the basement. The horizontal metal alloy door was 100 meters wide and 30 meters tall, and it was grew larger and larger in his vision.

When Ye Chong was 50 meters away from the door, Mu suddenly spoke up, ”Send out the identification signal!”

Ye Chong caught his breath at the order; already his hands were moving at top speed without thinking. On Black Cove, Ye Chong’s hands could move up to Mach 5.54 [1]; after breaking the bottleneck, his speed was reaching Mach 7, which was an astounding figure.

However, even with his speed, Ye Chong nearly choked as he executed his new order that came without prior warning. Fortunately, Ye Chong managed an abrupt halt, as the F-58 stopped just about two meters above the door. The identification signal was sent just before the mech came to a halt.

As Ye Chong recovered himself, he was faced with another dilemma. ”Signalling the other party with an identification, isn’t that suicidal?”

To his surprise, the alloy door began to slowly slide open, and beyond the door was absolutely complete darkness!

Translator’s notes:

[1] Mach: unit for speed, where Mach 1 is the speed of sound (around 340 m/s), and Mach 0.5 is half the speed of sound (and so on).