Hyberian Wars Chronicles

Two days later, in this small area, a deep pit was drilled every three meters.

Weibahe remained calm; he understood the difficulty of this task. On the other hand, he admired the Harvester for persisting despite having drilled so many holes without any results, rather than giving up on this area and trying somewhere else.

In fact, Qianlong wasn't too confident either. According to Phantom, mining this resource partly relied on luck. Of course, if one had enough time to take it slow, they would eventually find such resources in known locations.

When Qianlong began to re-scan the area, the communication channel within the team crackled to life.

"Not good, Captain! We're under attack!"

Weibahe's heart sank, and he asked, "What's the situation?"

"We've encountered three Type I Soldier-Class Kijuu and are currently trying to shake them off, but we haven't succeeded yet."

Weibahe quickly issued a command.

"Evasive maneuvers in a circular trajectory with a radius of five hundred kilometers. If that fails, regroup here."

"Understood, Captain."

Qianlong, listening to their commands, turned to Phantom in confusion.

"Why don't they just eliminate the Type I Soldier-Class Kijuu on the spot instead of trying to escape? Is it really that difficult to kill them?"

"While Kijuu are resilient, they aren't exceedingly difficult to kill. With the current weaponry, we can easily breach their Spore Armor and take them down; it's just a bit more complicated," Phantom explained.

Qianlong glanced at Weibahe, sensing that he was hiding something.

He chose not to question Weibahe further and continued the exploration.

In their current situation, any doubts were pointless; the priority was to complete the mining and leave this place as soon as possible.

After giving the order, Weibahe pondered for a few seconds and attempted to connect with another small team.

However, he received no response.

No signal? Interference? Weibahe controlled the mech to look up at the sky, where a mech was hovering, and everything seemed normal.

"Wei Lang…"

Weibahe began calling for his team members.

But still, there was no response. After a few attempts, Weibahe gave up, a terrible feeling lingering in his mind.

Weibahe turned to the two team members beside him.

"You two stay here."

"Understood, Captain."

Weibahe flew towards the mech in the distance.

Phantom suddenly issued a warning, "Higgs particle reaction detected."

Qianlong immediately looked in Weibahe's direction and saw a dazzling explosion spreading out.

The two mechs guarding Qianlong also noticed it, but they restrained themselves from leaving, demonstrating exceptional discipline.

Qianlong activated long-range optical imaging and adjusted the angle towards the explosion.

Weibahe was relentlessly attacking an irregularly shaped, tentacled red creature, which should be the Kijuu.

Weibahe's attacks were fierce, and his accuracy was high; the Kijuu was like a target, its body continuously dissolving.

Qianlong suddenly realized something. Weibahe had many heavy weapons at his disposal, yet he was using only the most basic ones.

The explosion earlier had originated from the mech that had been shattered into pieces.

Casualties had begun to occur.

Qianlong checked his progress; only a small portion remained. If they could endure for about a day, they would finish exploring this small area.

But now, Qianlong felt that time was running out.

Phantom suggested, "I recommend a large-scale scan."

"What's wrong?" Qianlong asked.

"Risk levels are continuing to rise."

"Scan," Qianlong replied.

Phantom began scanning the entire area. "Unidentified organisms approaching; no designated energy biological reactions detected."

"How many?" 

"Displaying now."

Qianlong's body stiffened, and his expression froze.

The scan showed a dense array of red dots, but strangely, Phantom did not issue an extreme danger alert.

The number was absurdly high, and there was no reason for it to remain undetected—unless...

Qianlong asked, "What is the size of the entities?"

"Very small; analysis in progress," Phantom responded.

Parasites—this explained everything. Why the team member named Wei Lang had quietly encountered trouble right under their noses.

"It should be parasites. What threat do they pose to us?" Qianlong spoke.

"Danger level low; classified as automatically immune," Phantom provided an unexpected answer.

"Are you sure?"

"Analysis results indicate that the organism is a spore-like unicellular organism with a weak Higgs reaction, capable of parasitism and combination."

Qianlong understood parasitism, but he was completely unclear about combination.

"Disguise activated," Phantom continued.

The Harvester piloted by Qianlong was covered with a thin layer of transparent Spore Coat, appearing completely normal to the naked eye.

"What will happen to them?" Qianlong asked.

Phantom replied, "50% chance of death, 20% chance of parasitism, 10% chance of escape, and 20% unknown factors."

Just as Qianlong was contemplating what to do, the detection tools locked in place, and data was transmitted back.

"Star Crystal detected."

Qianlong didn't know whether to feel happy or troubled.

Weibahe's voice crackled over the communication channel, "Stop the detection, retreat."

"Captain? Which direction should we withdraw?" 

"Outer space." Weibahe said without hesitation.

Qianlong glanced at the scan distribution map; escaping into space was indeed the wisest choice.

After a moment of hesitation, Qianlong decided to fly upwards with the escort.

The three mechs continuously ascended, everything going smoothly. At this rate, they would likely escape the planet soon.

At that moment, Phantom's voice rang out, "Spore organisms are beginning to invade."

Qianlong was quite surprised; he looked around but saw nothing unusual. Even the data on the Harvester showed everything was normal.

"What does the invasion look like?" Qianlong inquired.

Phantom replied, "They penetrate the body through respiration and contact, then absorb nutrients to reproduce."

Qianlong felt a chill run down his spine. "This feels very dangerous. Why didn't you issue a danger alert?"

"Single unicellular spore cell invasion is harmless due to my presence, so I assessed it as non-threatening. The invading spore cells will be absorbed by me in reverse," Phantom explained.

Qianlong was momentarily at a loss for words. Suddenly, he noticed that the two mechs beside him had fallen silent, eerily quiet.

"Have they been invaded?" Qianlong asked.

Phantom confirmed, "They have already fallen."

Qianlong fell into silence. Despite making the right judgments and actions, they still couldn't escape.

After a long while, Qianlong finally

spoke, "Let's go back and mine the Star Crystal."

Phantom replied, "Understood."

Qianlong's mech stopped ascending and began to descend.

(End of Chapter)