As everyone knows, Gu Jiaqi had tried all sorts of methods before, but every attempt had failed. She had been unable to pass through the black hole.
So what was going on now?
Gu Jiaqi was blasted by a fierce gust of wind until she began to question everything she knew about life.
At some point, the corner of the clothes she was holding had been reduced to a scrap of fabric, while those two people had vanished without a trace.
Gu Jiaqi looked at the city before her, swallowed up by yellow sand, and the corner of her mouth twitched.
She turned around and glanced back. Fortunately, the black hole was still there. In theory, she should immediately go back now.
But…
Those two thieves… Gu Jiaqi gritted her teeth, somewhat unwilling to return just like this.
For one thing, she knew which direction the two had fled in, and with her speed, she might still be able to catch up. For another, she was now in this unfamiliar world, and she had no idea what the conditions for entering it were. What if this was her only chance?
Perhaps it was impulsiveness, or perhaps it was simply Gu Jiaqi’s nature, but she found herself leaning more toward catching those two thieves and figuring out exactly why all of this had happened.
“Xiao Hong, are you still there?” Gu Jiaqi began contacting Xiao Hong with her mental power. Her mecha was inside her spatial chip, so normally, Xiao Hong should still have been able to receive her signal.
“Master, I’m here.” Xiao Hong’s voice immediately sounded, which meant that the technological equipment she had brought with her could still function normally in this world.
Gu Jiaqi relaxed slightly. She looked around and saw a city in ruins, with buildings of varying heights lining the streets. But Gu Jiaqi knew that these buildings were actually much taller than they appeared. On the side wall of one building, she spotted a billboard that was half buried. Usually, billboards like this were installed at the highest point of a building.
This meant that the lower portions of this skyscraper had already been buried. Anything that remained exposed could already be considered a tall building. There were probably even more houses buried beneath the yellow sand.
Gu Jiaqi could feel a certain gravitational pull coming from the black hole behind her. She lowered her head and smiled slightly. If she didn’t even have the courage to explore, then she wouldn’t be Gu Jiaqi.
As a qualified Imperial soldier, Gu Jiaqi had complete confidence in her ability to operate mechas and weapons. Unlike in the era Nan Qingchuan lived in, people in the Empire pursued compatibility with their mechas. Physical combat training was mainly for strengthening the body and keeping fit.
It could only be said that Gu Jiaqi had merely wanted to vent last time, which was why she had directly gone up against Nan Qingchuan. If he had truly been her enemy, he probably would have been shattered by her long ago.
She patted her right shoulder and switched into her combat suit, then took out her mecha and jumped inside.
The red mecha formed a stark contrast against the decaying city. Its outer shell reflected a glimmer of light beneath the rays of sunlight that seeped through the clouds filling the sky.
Generally speaking, an environment this harsh was bound to contain poisonous insects or wild beasts. Although this made her a little conspicuous, it was the best way for her to protect herself.
Gu Jiaqi piloted the mecha forward a few steps. Sure enough, she keenly sensed something wriggling beneath the sand, seemingly ready to emerge at any moment.
“Xiao Hong, enter combat readiness.”
Excitement flickered in Gu Jiaqi’s eyes. Ever since she retired, she and Xiao Hong had fewer and fewer opportunities to fight together. She had finally gotten a chance.
Therefore, Gu Jiaqi didn’t dodge. Instead, she casually let the mecha take another two steps forward. Suddenly, the yellow sand in front of her flew into the air, and a huge, earth-yellow insect resembling a centipede burst out of the ground and charged straight toward her.
However, in the next second, the giant insect was blasted apart by Gu Jiaqi’s laser rifle.
To prevent the power of the laser cannon from causing the nearby buildings to collapse, she hadn’t even used it.
Gu Jiaqi blinked. So this thing was that fragile? Compared with the Tata Beast, the difference was only about 100,000 Sois.
Fragments of the giant centipede’s body splattered everywhere. Gu Jiaqi controlled the mecha to jump over them. At that moment, she felt as though the mecha had stepped on something. She lifted its foot and looked down, and Gu Jiaqi was stunned.
This… why did it look like a person?
No, it definitely wasn’t human. If it were human, Xiao Hong would have issued a warning just now.
Gu Jiaqi gently flipped the humanoid creature over. She could only call it a humanoid creature because, once it was turned over, the dried skin on its face, sunken eye sockets, crushed body beneath Gu Jiaqi’s foot, and dangling ears and nose nearly made her throw up.
It was way too disgusting.
The thing was already dead. Gu Jiaqi hurriedly kicked some sand over from the side and buried it. Looking at this thing for too long would give her nightmares and keep her from sleeping, okay?!
After burying it, Gu Jiaqi immediately turned around and continued toward the direction in which the two thieves had fled. Unexpectedly, the mecha’s monitoring system suddenly reported two dangerous red points, one of which was coming from directly behind her.
No way…
Gu Jiaqi switched the view to the rear. Sure enough, the thing she had just buried had actually crawled back up.
What the hell was this thing? Its chest had been crushed, yet it could still get back up? And what was that thing beside it? A dog? That dog had been reduced to a skeleton, with only its head still intact, yet it could still walk normally.
Gu Jiaqi was deeply shaken. This wasn’t scientific!
As the two things crawled to their feet, rustling sounds came from both sides of the street corner, and more and more humanoid creatures appeared. At a glance, Gu Jiaqi saw that not a single one of them had an intact body, nor did Xiao Hong identify any of them as living organisms.
Interesting. They weren’t living organisms, yet they could still be full of energy. Were they perpetual-motion machines?
With that thought in mind, Gu Jiaqi stepped on the “dog” that had already lunged at her. Its skeletal frame naturally scattered, but its head was extraordinarily hard, and Gu Jiaqi had to apply some force before she could crush it.
She glanced at the dog’s crushed head. It stopped moving completely.
It seemed that the fatal point of these things wasn’t their chests, but their heads.
That made things easier. Naturally, Gu Jiaqi couldn’t go around stepping on their heads one by one. That would be far too inefficient.
“Xiao Hong, equip Barrel No. 4.” This barrel was a laser gun barrel with extremely strong penetrating power, specifically designed to deal with Zerg with hard exoskeletons.
“Bang!”
The head of a humanoid creature beside her exploded, and it collapsed to the ground, no longer moving.
Sure enough, there was no unbeatable enemy.
Within the next minute, Gu Jiaqi took down all the humanoid creatures surrounding her.
She had to admit, light guns were really useful!
Having cleared the obstacle in front of her, Gu Jiaqi found them too much of an eyesore and buried them in the sand as well. She was just about to continue forward when a group of people suddenly came around the street corner ahead.
The reason Gu Jiaqi could tell at a glance that they were human was because they were dressed just like the two thieves, with their entire bodies wrapped up tightly.
Each of them was carrying a gun. From a glance, Gu Jiaqi estimated that the guns were roughly on the same level as those from Nan Qingchuan’s era.
“Master, the two people we were chasing just now are among them as well.”
Those two thieves actually dared to come back?
Gu Jiaqi decided to hold back for the time being and see what these people from another world had come here to do.
She watched the wary figures with some amusement. They were clearly apprehensive about the red machine that had suddenly appeared and immediately hid behind a nearby building, occasionally poking their heads out to sneak a look.
But they clearly had a leader. After hesitating for quite a while, a tall man led them over in an assault formation.
They probably thought the mecha was a machine being controlled by someone from outside. After running over, they began searching around, but they couldn’t find anyone.
“Brother Qi, could she have been…”
The mecha’s highly sensitive audio reception allowed Gu Jiaqi to hear a worried voice. It seemed to belong to a young girl. Then a low voice sounded.
“Let’s look around again. Maybe she hid inside one of the buildings.”
He called everyone over and gave them some instructions before they dispersed.
It seemed they really had come looking for her. Gu Jiaqi lowered her eyes and spoke.
“Are you looking for me?”
At that moment, the leader happened to be searching near the mecha. The instant he heard her voice, he immediately raised his gun and turned around.
Gu Jiaqi said, “Where are the two thieves who stole my vegetables?”
There was no emotion in her voice, and she made no attempt to hide the fact that she was inside the mecha. The leader slowly walked over. He looked at the towering machine before him and fell silent for a moment.
“They went to look for you.”
Hearing him frankly admit that the two thieves were indeed here, Gu Jiaqi raised an eyebrow. At least he was honest.
And this man seemed to be someone who could keep his composure. Even when faced with such a gigantic machine, he hadn’t lost his composure. At least judging by his body language, he was a calm person.
“Bring them over.”
Gu Jiaqi had come here this time specifically to catch the thieves. She wanted to see exactly who could pull her into a black hole along with them.
In fact, the conversation between the two of them had already been heard by the others. Everyone slowly emerged from the buildings as well.
Gu Jiaqi had Xiao Hong switch the visual perspective, and she quickly found the two figures. She wanted to see whether this man would hand the thieves over.
The leader before her was clearly hesitating. He looked at the mecha in front of him with a complicated expression. It was obvious that this wasn’t something that could exist in their world.
It took nearly a minute before he finally spoke. “I was the one who ordered them to steal. Whatever happens, I’ll take responsibility.”
Oh? So he was a loyal sort.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t very good at lying. His body had remained completely steady when facing a mecha whose combat capabilities were unknown, but the moment he lied, his entire body stiffened.
“Brother Qi!” It was the young girl from earlier.
“He wasn’t the one who ordered it!” another clear male voice said.
The moment he finished speaking, the two people Gu Jiaqi had been aiming at immediately jumped out and shouted anxiously.
“It was me! I was so hungry that the first thing I thought of when I saw those vegetables was to steal them. If you’re going to arrest someone, arrest me!”
Hearing the young girl’s anxious voice, tinged with sobs, Gu Jiaqi suddenly felt that the atmosphere was a little strange.
Why did it feel as though she was some kind of great villain when she was the one who had been robbed?