Chapter Twenty-Seven: Thank You All for Reporting In

Shen Jiang stared intently at the gradually brightening point of light. All of Crimson Lotus’s Riemann probes were sounding alarms. The girl’s solemn face was cast in amber light, and her raised arms slowly lowered.

"Zero-One, what is the situation?"

"I cannot hit it at this distance," the girl replied. "It is too small. I estimate its contact surface in our universe is less than 0.1 square micrometers. At a range of three hundred meters, the 'insecticide' cannot be aimed accurately. Our pair of cudgels are far too clumsy and blunt."

Crimson Lotus was an absolute close-quarters weapon. On the battlefield against the Angels, all conventional human weapons were rendered ineffective. The only thing capable of dealing lethal damage to four-dimensional objects was a secret weapon embedded within the giant machine’s arms—a device nicknamed "Insecticide," though it actually bore a long, convoluted, and nonsensical name: "Kambala Brahma Monastery Dragon-Subduing Thunderbolt Fire."

Whoever named it intended from the start to obscure its true nature.

Even the giant machine’s pilots did not know exactly what was hidden inside those black cylinders. This was perhaps the greatest secret of human society. During training, pilots were merely told that they were delicate, fragile, and extremely power-hungry—the most electricity-intensive modules in the machine. From the factory to transport and installation, they had to be accompanied by high-voltage generator trucks. Power could not be cut for a single second; a ten-second power outage would turn them into duds.

These "insecticides" were not meant to be sprayed like real pesticides. They were close-quarters weapons similar to daggers, switchblades, or syringes. Their attack range was extremely limited, but their internal toxic agents were far more effective against Angels than ordinary insecticide was against cockroaches. No matter the variety of Angel, once stabbed by this syringe, it would, without exception, vanish from the face of the earth.

But now, the projected area of Lighthouse No. 092 was smaller than the tip of a syringe needle.

Crimson Lotus’s hands hung low, and slender black cylinders, four or five meters long, popped out from her palms like poisoned sleeve swords.

"Unit One, this is Zero-One," Shen Jiang said, eyes fixed on the trembling point of red light. "I am waiting for it to unfold."

Clearly, Crimson Lotus was now a dual-wielding swordswoman holding daggers (even if both arms grew on the same side). Trying to poke a tiny point with a small knife was impossible, but it was perfect for cutting wires.

The Command Center was startled.

"Zero-One, the risk is high. Please, be cautious."

"Its projected contact surface in its retracted state is smaller than we estimated; it only has a sufficient target area once it unfolds," Shen Jiang said, speaking rapidly. "No. 092’s current state is unstable. The spatial curvature of the contact surface is rising, the precession of the gravitational gyroscope is shifting, and the tidal forces don't fit my model. I am modifying the parameters... Damn it, the Schwarzschild metric is failing. There’s no time; I can’t calculate it."

"You can't calculate it?" The Command Center was stunned.

"Forget it, I’ll guess," Shen Jiang said. "From here on, it’s intuition."

"Zero-One, once No. 092 unfolds, it enters an attack state with extreme speed and lethality. Crimson Lotus cannot withstand a single strike from it."

"But it cannot withstand a strike from me either. If it hits me, I die; if I hit it, it dies," Shen Jiang said in a low voice. "Then let’s gamble. As long as I am faster and more accurate, I will be the one to win."

Waves surged on the lake surface beneath the Lighthouse Angel. The air above Yinglong Lake created powerful convection. Although the contact surface of Lighthouse Angel No. 092 in three-dimensional space was minuscule, the high heat it radiated caused the surrounding air to enter a plasma state. This small ionization field was only the size of an adult’s fist, but all the electrical charge carried by No. 092 was concentrated within this area, creating a potential difference with the earth exceeding one hundred million volts.

Pale purple, thick electric arcs pierced the air in an instant. Thousands of brilliant lightning bolts erupted, whipping the air with crackling sounds. They spread in all directions from Lighthouse Angel No. 092, resembling a massive Tesla sphere with a radius of several hundred meters.

When an Angel reveals its violent side, its power is far beyond anything humanity can match.

Yet, standing before it was a man-made god.

Crimson Lotus remained unmoved, holding a blade on one side, its fifty-meter-tall frame standing firm amidst the thunderstorm.

It was a silhouette as grand and towering as a thunder god, with winding electric arcs rising from its feet, clinging to its metallic skeleton and crawling upward with a constant crackling sound.

"Calculation core unlocked, shutting down, disconnecting interface, detaching from host," Shen Jiang said, raising a hand to press her helmet. "Unit One, I’m leaving the calculation core here. Remember to come and retrieve it."

Crimson Lotus then grabbed its own head with its hands and proceeded to tear it off, sinking it deep into the lake water behind it.

The headless knight held one hand across its chest to protect the cockpit with the insecticide, while the other prepared for the attack. Shen Jiang had abandoned calculation; at this moment, no one could predict in which direction Lighthouse Angel No. 092 would strike. She was betting entirely on human luck and reaction speed.

Both combatants were ruthless, having maxed out their attack power while leaving their defense at zero. Whether it was Crimson Lotus or the Lighthouse Angel, both had only one chance to strike.

Shen Jiang calculated the situation in her heart. Crimson Lotus was fifty meters tall—a super-giant in human eyes—but compared to the dozen-kilometer-long Lighthouse Angel, it was merely a speck. This meant her target profile was much smaller relative to the Angel.

She was three hundred meters away from the Lighthouse Angel. Assuming it fired its first strike in a random direction, the Angel’s attack surface would be a giant sphere with a radius of three hundred meters, with an inner surface area of 1.1 million square meters. Crimson Lotus’s frontal projection area was no more than fifteen hundred square meters. Therefore, the probability of being hit by a random direct strike was less than 0.13%. She could not react to a direct hit, but as long as the Angel’s first beam fired in another direction, she would have enough time to strike it once it swept toward her.

The dozen-kilometer-long red line was the main body of the Lighthouse Angel. As long as she used the Kambala Brahma Monastery Dragon-Subduing Thunderbolt Fire—pfft, what a god-forsaken name—as long as she struck any part of that red line with the insecticide, victory would belong to humanity.

In the cockpit, red light flooded Shen Jiang in an instant. It was not just the bright red warning pop-ups, but the red light of the Lighthouse Angel itself—that thin red line slanting down into the lake.

The high heat made the lake water boil, and white mist surged up instantly.

The dozen-kilometer-long Lighthouse Angel plunged into the earth, slicing through water, mud, and rock alike. Nothing on Earth could resist its sharpness. It was an incredibly thin blade, cutting through the land and mountains without leaving a trace.

Shen Jiang remained motionless, like a cold, solitary swordsman.

The glowing red line effortlessly broke through the soil and rock, flicked upward, and then rotated in a circle toward the sky, tracing a massive cone.

Shen Jiang still did not move; Crimson Lotus raised its black sleeve sword.

Her limit of reaction speed was 100 milliseconds. On a battlefield where a single strike decided everything, Shen Jiang held the short sleeve sword, her legs paralyzed and immobile. The opponent raised its long blade overhead. How short was the time for the Lighthouse Angel to cut down? Perhaps 0.5 seconds, perhaps 0.3, perhaps 0.1—in any case, it was extremely fast, fast as lightning. Shen Jiang’s shoulder moved slightly—just a tiny tremor. Crimson Lotus raised one arm, the black cylinder retracted, it formed a fist, and blocked!

Deeply immersed in the BCI system, her brain’s perception of time was perhaps different from an ordinary person’s. Within that short 100-millisecond window, Shen Jiang had time to think. She knew she had aimed correctly; the Lighthouse Angel was hacking down directly toward the front of Crimson Lotus’s forearm, and the lethal insecticide for the Angel was hidden inside that arm.

As long as it sliced open the insecticide’s shell, the moment it touched the toxin, the Lighthouse Angel would be completely annihilated.

She could almost see that thin red line slicing through the metal skeleton of Crimson Lotus’s arm, the hydraulic pipes, the fiber-optic cables, slicing open the weapon bay, the slide rails, and the Kambala Brahma Monastery Dragon-Subduing Thunderbolt Fire—the red line vanished.

Shen Jiang froze.

It wasn't destroyed, because the insecticide’s shell remained intact.

It had retracted. It had pulled back to its origin the instant before making contact with the insecticide.

"Oh, no!"

Before Shen Jiang’s cry of alarm could escape her throat, another red line shot out from the origin. It grazed the right side of Crimson Lotus’s waist and pierced the air. Then, it cut diagonally downward, slicing through the giant machine’s right thigh and left knee. The cross-sections aligned perfectly. After severing the thighs, the line whipped upward, shearing off the arm Crimson Lotus had raised to block.

Shen Jiang heard the sound of metal twisting and snapping. In an instant, the situation reversed; the sky collapsed and the earth crumbled.

Crimson Lotus swayed like a gold mountain toppling and a jade pillar falling, its several-thousand-ton frame crashing heavily into the reservoir.

In that final second, Shen Jiang, in the darkness, only had time to reach out with all her might! She lunged forward! Gripped tight! And with a roar, she turned, using every ounce of her strength to strike from bottom to top!