When the bombing stopped, the abandoned underground base was already in a mess. The collapsed rocks blocked countless paths, and the originally complicated terrain became even more complicated. From time to time, the sound of rocks falling could be heard in the darkness.
At the bottom of the base, smoke and dust filled the air. The large rocks and metal plates that had fallen formed a small mountain, burying Nero tightly.
Suddenly, a sound could be heard in the darkness. It sounded like a sticky liquid flowing.
Hu hu!
At the bottom of this pile of debris, an area with a diameter of about two meters gradually lit up with a red light. As the light grew brighter, the metal and rocks melted, revealing a hole.
Nero limped out of the hole with his back hunched. His hands continuously shot out heat rays from afar, and the high temperature caused the surrounding air to distort.
"Cough cough cough …"
A muffled cough could be heard from the mechanical suit's mask. Nero took in a few deep breaths before doing a health check on the mechanical suit.
"Left leg bone is slightly dislocated. Do you want to allow the mechanical suit's structure to change automatically to correct it?"
"Yes."
The armor on his left leg tightened slightly to correct the misaligned bone. Nero let out a muffled groan before relaxing. Who knew how many tons of debris had smashed onto his body? His mechanical suit was fine, but the recoil had caused him some minor injuries. After all, he was just a weak Mechanic.
The radar showed that the enemy was right above him. Nero forced himself to calm down and hurriedly contacted his teammates.
"Captain, this is Nero. Where are you guys? How's the situation?"
A chaotic voice could be heard in the channel. There were also intermittent cries of pain. Nero called for quite a while before receiving the public message from his team.
"The situation here isn't good!" A teammate's face popped up on the tactical screen. His face was filled with bruises and abrasions, and his tone was hurried. "I'm beside the captain. When the base collapsed, the captain was hit by a cannon that penetrated through the ground. He's now heavily injured, and many people have been separated. No matter who receives this message, immediately save him and gather everyone here. We have to break out of this encirclement immediately."
Nero immediately opened the team's health monitor. Seeing the screen filled with red, he was shocked.
Everyone's injuries were more serious than his, and a few of them, including the captain, were on the verge of death. As they had fallen to the bottom of the base and been buried, he had managed to avoid the cannon fire and was the least injured.
Without even thinking about it, the Luck Halo above his head was shining brightly.
"I'm the only one who's in perfect condition …" Nero immediately felt the pressure on his shoulders increase.
He gritted his teeth and immediately turned on his teammate's location. Every teammate's position was marked on the tactical screen. The mecha's AI worked at high speed, quickly planning the fastest rescue route.
Nero flew out of the crater at the bottom of the base and started to rescue his scattered team members.
The terrain was complicated, but he did not have the time to take a detour. He constantly shot out Heat Cannons from his palms, melting all the obstacles in front of him and saving his teammates one by one before the Kunde Race's ground troops arrived. Only then did he meet up with the captain.
After blowing apart the metal plates blocking his way, Nero flew into the room and landed on the ground with a clang. He saw his captain and the rest of his team members, all of whom were injured.
The captain was slumped on the ground, his upper body leaning against the wall. His armor was charred black, revealing large holes. He looked up with difficulty, squeezed out a smile, and spoke weakly.
"Nero, you're here. You did well … cough cough, well done."
"Captain, don't speak anymore."
Seeing this, Nero bent his fingers, and a short needle shot out from his fingertips, which he inserted into the captain's chest like a claw.
Aurora's special life potion was injected into the captain's body through the needle, instantly healing his injuries.
The captain's condition improved at a speed visible to the naked eye, and he let out a satisfied cry. "Is this the special life potion made by Her Excellency Aurora? It's really good stuff. "
Aurora would occasionally use her Esper ability to produce life potions, but there was a limit to the amount that could be produced. Thus, not every Black Star soldier would be equipped with a life potion. Most people would only use normal healing potions, but with Nero's wealth, he would naturally be equipped with Aurora's potion.
"Those who are heavily injured, come over. I still have some potions, and I will help you recover," Nero said loudly.
Someone could not help but speak up. "Leave some for yourself. There will be a bloody battle later. What if you get injured?"
"It's fine. I still have other potions." Nero did not mind.
Everyone looked at each other and shrugged. It was not bad to have a tycoon in their team. It would be a waste not to hug his thigh.
Nero healed his teammates one by one, and during this process, they were discussing their battle strategy.
The captain's tone was solemn. "Everyone, the current situation is extremely disadvantageous for us. We have fallen into a trap, and our entire fleet has been ambushed by the enemy. The others can't even take care of themselves, so they won't be able to provide support for us. We are already isolated, and we can only rely on ourselves to break out. There are three Kunde Race battleships above us, and we don't have any transport vehicles. It's extremely dangerous … "
"If the enemy continued to bombard us with their fleet, we would be in a dire situation. However, the enemy stopped their attacks and sent their ground troops to approach us." The vice-captain's eyes flashed. "This means that the enemy has the intention of capturing us alive. This might be our only chance to escape."
"That's right!" The captain nodded. "If we want to escape, we have to obtain control of the air. The fleet won't be able to provide support for us, and we can only snatch a spaceship ourselves. The chances are slim, but there is at least some hope.
These ruins are our barrier, and if we rush out, the enemy will be able to bombard us without fear. We can only wait for the enemy soldiers to enter the underground base before exchanging fire with us. In order to prevent accidental casualties, the enemy will not fire casually. Thus, we have to split into two teams. One team will deal with the enemy soldiers in these ruins while the other team will snatch the spaceship … "
As he said that, the captain paused, and everyone looked at each other.
This was an important mission that concerned their lives, and they might only have one chance. It was extremely dangerous, and there was only a slim chance of survival.
Thus, the question was, who should be the one to snatch the spaceship? Logically speaking, the strongest person should be the one to carry out this mission. The strongest person in the team was Nero, who had a strong background.
To ask a young man with a strong background to take on such a dangerous mission … everyone was hesitant.
Upon seeing that, Nero also realized it. He gritted his teeth and made up his mind.
"I'll go. There's no one more suitable than me here."
The captain glanced at him and did not try to shirk away. He nodded slowly and said in a serious tone, "Okay, we'll rely on you. We'll deal with the enemy and buy you time … Remember, all of our lives are in your hands."
"… I understand."
Nero took a deep breath and calmed himself down. He operated his mecha and entered high stealth mode. He looked at everyone deeply before leaving and disappearing into the darkness.
The captain sighed and looked at everyone sternly. "I don't think I need to emphasize what we should do. No matter what, we must drag the enemy here."
"We understand." The vice-captain nodded with a complicated expression.
Other than Nero, everyone knew what the captain was saying. In reality, there were two sets of battle plans. They would drag the enemy here while Nero snatched the spaceship. This was only the first plan.
When this plan failed, they would unhesitatingly carry out their hidden backup plan … which was to change from delaying to fighting to the death, allowing the clueless Nero to abandon them and escape by himself.
This was not only because of Nero's relationship with their Army Commander but also because they knew that this young man's future would far exceed their imagination. Only by letting a young man with such great potential escape would they be able to take revenge for them.
…
After moving in the darkness for a while, the battle between his teammates and the Kunde Race soldiers finally broke out in the communication channel.
At this moment, Nero was no longer on the battlefield. He had come to the entrance of a collapsed tunnel that led to the ground. He concealed himself and locked onto the nearest spaceship with his radar.
Nero's palms were filled with sweat as he carefully released a unique hovering guard. It was black and gold in color, and its texture was completely different from all of Nero's other equipment. It gave off an incomparably high quality feeling, and after being released, it circled around Nero's head.
"I'll be relying on you, brother." Nero touched the hovering guard and calmed down.
"Don't worry, kid. With your big brother here, no one will be able to hurt you," the hovering guard suddenly said.
This was Nero's final trump card. This hovering guard was a gift that Han Xiao had given him when they first met.
It was a high-grade orange machine that was created by a Beyond Grade A Super. It was powered by dark energy and was enhanced with [Emperor's Gift] and [Machinery Fusion — Give]. After Han Xiao had obtained the Mechanical Life Tinder, he had modified it into a mechanical life form that possessed its own consciousness and the ability to grow.
When Nero was young, even without the enhancement of Mechanical Force, the Heavenly Guardian could deal with a Grade C Super.
Now that Nero had become a Grade C + Super and possessed perfect Mechanical Sense, the power that the Heavenly Guardian could unleash was not weak even among Grade B Supers.
Most of the time, Nero would not use this trump card, especially when sparring in the academy. Even if the Pugilist he was sparring with suddenly appeared in front of him and beat him black and blue, he had never used this trump card.
Even Mia, who was the closest to him, did not know about his true strength.
In the academy, Mia had sparred with him countless times, but in truth, she had never known how strong he was when he went all out.
Looking at the target marked on the radar, Nero took a deep breath and adjusted his state of mind, allowing the energy in his body to boil.
"Phew, I can do it …"
After calming himself down, Nero no longer hesitated and activated the thrusters.
Boom!
His entire body suddenly shot up into the air. With a loud bang, he smashed through the rocks at the entrance of the cave and soared into the sky!
The three battleships in the sky immediately fired their cannons at Nero.
The power of the cannons was lethal to a Grade C Super. However, the next moment, the Heavenly Guardian following Nero trembled slightly and formed a golden shield that protected Nero.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
All the cannons on the ships fired, exploding into bursts of light that resembled fireworks. However, only a slight crack appeared on the shield, and it was still repairing itself, forcefully enduring a round of concentrated fire.
At the same time, the few Kunde Race battleships in the sky also understood Nero's intentions and immediately activated their shields to prevent outsiders from boarding.
"Create a passage for me!"
With a thought from Nero, the Sky Guardian flashed with a flash of Mechanical Force and quickly changed its shape, revealing a hexagonal cannon in the middle. Dense dark energy burst out, and a series of extremely penetrative dark energy beams shot out.
Whoosh!
The rate of fire was simply too fast, and it felt as though someone had to pee frequently.
A hole appeared in the shield of the target battleship, and Nero took the opportunity to charge into the hole.
Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! A few compressed orbs were shot out by him, and they turned into a laser drill that stuck to the battleship and rapidly cut open the outer armor of the battleship, creating a hole that led to the interior of the battleship.
Nero rolled and crashed into the battleship. Without a second word, he threw out a bunch of mechanical soldiers and started to slaughter the battleship. A large number of spaceships fell under his cannon fire.
Because this battleship had sent a portion of its soldiers to deal with the other members of Nero's team, there were not enough soldiers in the battleship.
Nero, who was going all out, did not take long to charge into the main control room. He took out the army's standard intrusion chip and inserted it into the artificial intelligence core of the battleship. He was not a Virtual Mechanic, but the army had an automatic intrusion device.
Right at this moment, Nero suddenly staggered and realized that the battleship was shaking violently!
Rumble!
Looking out through the porthole, he saw that the other two battleships had turned around and were focusing their fire on the battleship that he had boarded.
"They actually attacked the spaceship of their teammates. How ruthless." Nero was speechless. However, his actions were not slow. He charged into the command room and successfully took over the control of the battleship.
He injected the majority of his energy into the battleship's shield and controlled the battleship to slam into the nearest enemy battleship.
Bang!
The collision between the shields of the two battleships caused large amounts of sparks to fly. The enemy's battleship lost its balance and flew to the side.
Coincidentally, this battleship was flying toward the other enemy battleship. As the two battleships collided, they lost control of the battleship at the same time.
Making use of this opportunity, Nero piloted the battleship and used the body of the battleship to stand between the two enemy battleships and the ground troops.
"Come out quickly! I have snatched the battleship! Charge to the ground from the coordinates I have set. I will use the tractor beam to pull you guys up! "Nero immediately shouted in the channel.
"Beautiful!"
The captain and the others were overjoyed. With their powerful individual strength, they forcefully broke through the encirclement of the Kunde Race soldiers.
Bang!
The next moment, a certain piece of ground in the ruins exploded, and the members of the squad charged to the surface. The Kunde Race soldiers were still chasing after them.
"Captain, don't stop!"
Nero's face lit up with joy, and he hurriedly shouted.
At this moment, they were in a race against time, and Nero did not have the time to care about the two enemy battleships behind him. He immediately used the tractor beam to attract the members of the squad. At the same time, he released a large number of cannons to provide cover fire for the Kunde Race soldiers chasing after them.
The tractor beam successfully sucked all of his teammates into the battleship. This unforeseen event had also attracted the attention of the enemy battleships in the city. More battleships were rushing over, and their numbers far exceeded theirs.
Nero did not dare to continue fighting. After saving the squad, he immediately charged into the sky and escaped into space.
Very quickly, the other members of the squad arrived at the command room and pounced forward to rub Nero's head.
"Brat, well done!"
"Haha, we are saved! I thought that we were going to die this time!"
"It actually went so smoothly. It seems like luck is on our side!"
Everyone had a look of joy on their faces, and they were not stingy with their praises for Nero. Nero was also rather excited.
"Don't be so happy so early. We are not out of danger yet." Although the captain said that, he still had a smile on his face.
Although there was still a large number of battleships chasing after them, the situation was much better than before.
After being happy for a while, everyone thought about their other teammates who were in danger and retracted their smiles.
"We managed to escape, but what about the other members?" someone asked.
"There's no choice. We won't be able to help. There are too many enemies, and if we rush over to help, we will only be implicated as well."
The captain shook his head. He was extremely clear about the current situation. If they were to rely on just one ship, they would only be sending themselves to their deaths.
What they should do now was to split up and escape instead of fighting. Furthermore, their current situation was not as good as the others, and they could only rely on their own luck.
Right at this moment, Nero suddenly thought of something, and his heart skipped a beat.
Right, I wonder how Mia's team is doing …
The moment he thought of that, Nero could no longer sit still. He handed the spaceship over to his teammates and hurriedly took out his communicator to contact Mia.
The process of waiting for the call to be picked up was torture, and time seemed to drag on for a long time.
Nero waited anxiously for a while, but the call did not go through. He could only call Mia's teammates one by one, but no one picked up. He became more and more nervous.
It was only when he contacted the captain of Mia's team that the call finally went through. However, the sounds of battle coming from the other side made Nero's heart sink to the bottom.
"Cough cough … Nero? You guys escaped? "
"It's me. You guys were attacked too? What's the situation? We have a spaceship that can provide support! "Nero's tone was urgent as he fired off a barrage of questions.
"Don't … don't come over. You guys should quickly run. My team has been captured, and Mia has been captured alive. I'm the only one left who is still resisting, and I won't be able to hold on for much longer. The enemy has a few battleships, and you guys won't be able to save me.
Cough cough … "After the other party finished speaking, the call ended abruptly.
Nero's face twitched, and he turned to leave with large strides towards the cabin door.
The surrounding teammates had also heard the call, and upon seeing Nero's actions, a group of people hurriedly rushed over and held him down.
"Nero, don't take things too hard." The captain shouted.
"I have to go save her!"
Nero was held down by seven to eight burly men, and he struggled with a resolute expression.
"Don't be silly. Didn't I tell you just now that it's useless for us to go save her!" The captain roared.
"I know, and that's why I didn't intend to ask you guys for help!" Nero gritted his teeth and said, "This is my own choice, and I didn't ask you guys to take the risk. You guys can pilot this spaceship and leave. I will go save her alone. Don't stop me!"
"You won't have a chance if you go alone. You'll just be sending yourself to your death. Don't be rash!" The captain held Nero down tightly.
Nero struggled for a while before gradually calming down. He sat on the ground and covered his face with both hands, not saying a word.
Seeing this, everyone released their hands and took a few steps back, leaving him alone.
Sensing Nero's sorrow, the captain could not help but sigh. He squatted down and patted Nero's shoulder. After pondering for a while, he could not think of a way to console him and could only mutter, "She was only captured, and she's not dead yet. Perhaps there's still a chance. Let's think of a way to save her in the future. Right now, we can only escape."
The moment he said that, Nero suddenly raised his head with reddened eyes.
"You're right. I was too rash just now. Thank you for stopping me … I can't let Mia and the rest fall into the hands of the enemy. I don't know how they will be tortured. I still have a final hope."
As he spoke, Nero stood up and took out his communicator. Taking a deep breath, he mustered his courage and dialed Han Xiao's number.
He had originally decided not to contact Han Xiao during his military service because he did not want to disappoint his godfather. If not for the fact that he had no other choice, he would not want to trouble Han Xiao …
The signal rang three times, and to Nero, it felt like a year had passed. After three precise rings, the call was picked up, and a familiar calm voice came through.
"Nero, what's the matter?" Han Xiao had a subtle smile on his face.
"Godfather, I'm sorry to disappoint you." Nero rubbed his eyes and said softly, "I've encountered a predicament that I can't resolve. I hope that you can help me."
"Speak," Han Xiao replied indifferently.
Nero quickly explained the situation and lowered his head, waiting for a reply.
Looking at his appearance, Han Xiao stroked his chin and smiled. "I refuse."
Nero raised his head with a look of shock.
"Are you very surprised?" Han Xiao kept his smile. "Your identity is different now. Not only are you my godson, but you're also an ordinary soldier. I have indeed given you excellent treatment, but that does not mean that I will always give you special treatment."
"But, but …" Nero's eyes turned red.
"It's not impossible for me to help you. Putting aside our relationship, just from a business perspective, what can you give me to hire me to help you?" Han Xiao said indifferently.
"I, I don't know."
"Then why do you need my help?" Han Xiao blinked his eyes. "Our relationship is not fake, but I will not help you for no reason. The rules are like that. If you want something, you have to exchange it with something else. Without this layer of identity, what do you have left?"
Nero's mind was in a mess as he muttered, "I, I don't …"
Seeing Nero cover his head with his hands and not speak for a long time, Han Xiao relaxed and smiled. "Why, do you feel despair? Think about it, how long has it been since you thanked me? "
When Nero heard this, his body trembled as he lowered his head and muttered, "I'm sorry.
"I'm sorry … I beg you …"
"I'm asking you, do you feel despair?" Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and spoke with a heavier tone.
Nero remained silent for a long time before raising his head again. He had already bitten his lips, and his eyes were hazy with tears as he nodded at Han Xiao.
"That's right. Remember this feeling and don't ever experience it again." Han Xiao sat up straight and chuckled. "Don't worry. This time, I promise you that I will help you save your little girlfriend."
Nero's emotions fluctuated like a roller coaster. First, he fell from the clouds into the abyss, and then he soared into the sky from the abyss. At this moment, he was stunned for a moment before he regained his senses. He held onto the communicator with both hands and was about to cry tears of joy.
"Thank you … thank you …"
"Don't be happy so early. This isn't free." Han Xiao supported his face with his palms and patiently said, "You don't know what you have to offer, but in reality, you aren't completely useless. At the very least, you have a strong mechanical talent. Why don't you use this as a bargaining chip?"
"What do you mean?" Nero did not understand.
"If you really want to explain, you can understand that I don't want you to waste your talent. There's no need to ask what I mean. You only need to answer me. Do you agree or reject?" Han Xiao smiled.
Nero still did not understand, but he had no choice. He gritted his teeth and nodded heavily.
"I agree. I beg you to help me!"
You have triggered the Special Character Mission [Nero's Request]!
Mission Introduction: Nero has agreed to your deal and is willing to use his talent and ability in exchange for your help.
Mission Requirements: Save Mia Morotto.
Reward: Choose one of Nero's abilities or talents.
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