“Then let’s prepare ourselves fully, see if they dare to come through!” There was a look of determination on East Perrin’s face. “We have firepower and defense, our food supply can probably last us for two weeks. I don’t believe they would be able to stick around that long!”
Both deputies nodded in agreement, and left to quickly survey the surroundings of the town in case there were loopholes in their defense system.
The defense team was divided into two groups of fifteen men each; one will patrol whereas the other returned to rest.
Soon, the predators which were gathering outside head towards the direction of the sounds. Not much longer, they were moving as fast as the vehicles, vanishing upon the horizon.
The people in town let out a sigh of relief.
However, through her binoculars, East Pirren could see that there were still predators far in the surroundings and still keeping their eyes on this town.
She then understood better. “We’ve been marked,” she thought to herself. The predators may not be smart, but their sense of logic was still there and was sufficient enough to make simple plans and strategies.
She has witnessed a predator’s speed. If they were to leave this town, it would not take long for the predators to catch up. Without any defense, they would not even have much resistance power to fight back.
“Guess we will just have to stand strong then.” A sense of danger lurked in her mind.
However, she was not aware that not only this area was compromised. In fact, as long as there was a crack on the ground in the radiation belt, large pack of predators will enter non-stop through the crack.
They will kill anybody on sight, and destroy any towns they see! They are like wild dogs, generally breaking out into the open once every century but this time it happened earlier and nobody expected it.
Only the radiation belt will experience this kind of catastrophe. The other territories raised up their own isolation shields, completely cutting off all contact from the radiation belt. The territories looked as if they were islands amongst the sea with their white lights, the Blackboard region’s outpost were also disengaged and commanded to return to the region.
The territories were strong but they did not expand much, allowing the radioactive people to enjoy and dig out the many minerals around the region and used it to deal business with people from the region. Because of this, they could only maintain their territory and strength this much during the predator wave. It is not that they did not want to expand, but the general folks within the territory had no idea how the predator wave will actually add on to the horror and stress if they do expand.
The entire surface of the mother planet, all the territories including Central Academy, were just like a cluster of stars distributed randomly at the center of the four cardinal points around the area, were all surrounded by the predators.
On the other hand, the stronghold of the radiation belt was that everyone was mostly holed up. Such a predator wave would last a day and only withdraw during nightfall.
Just like that every day. Even if it’s just half a day would give the radioactive people hope.
*******************
Nightfall came quietly.
Even though it was quiet for the whole day, East Perrin was exhausted from the intense pent-up feelings.
She needs to be at the forefront constantly, to provide support, to calm everyone down and to avoid chaos in town. Being the strongest radioactive person in town, if she herself were to fall, the whole town will surely collapse as well.
Back in her bedroom, she glanced at the parts of the thigh unit at the corner of the room. Its upper clasp held a bottle of nutrient solution which was already completely absorbed, leaving just a gray crust covering the surface of the component. That was the residue of the nutrient solution.
“You really did finish it?” East Perrin walked over in surprise and picked up the bottle. Looking at the bottle, it really was empty.
“Anyways, this highly radioactive nutrient solution was previously used for gardening purposes, we have plenty of it. It will be good to see how much exactly you can absorb!” East Perrin walked out of the bedroom and ordered her people to send over another dozen bottles of unwanted nutrient solution.
She poured all of the nutrients onto the part.
The surface of the part was covered with a clear, blue shade of the nutrient solution, and it was being absorbed at a speed that the naked eye could observe.
“Gee…” East Perrin’s curiosity got stronger. Amongst the many kinds of mutated creatures she had seen since she was young, she had never seen such an abnormal transformation.
And it was inside the unit where she could not see.
Garen’s curled up body had recovered to his usual size. His eyes flickered slightly and he seemed to be regaining his conscious.
The strange thing was, the two marks of Energy Machinists which were floating behind him started to glow. The Energy Machinist Key on Garen’s body which was not broken also seemed to be vibrating slowly.
‘Verifying Level Two energy machinist qualification, are you able to participate in the special ability space market in the vicinity?’
A subtle sense of Willpower force asked Garen.
“Energy Machinist… market?” Garen asked in a daze.
“… Participate.”
‘Confirmation is complete. Commencing separation of Willpower, entering the special ability space…’
Waking up and opening his eyes, Garen glanced around the surrounding darkness. Within seconds, he felt as if he had entered a rainbow-like cylindrical tunnel, flying upwards swiftly.
Not long after, the end of the tunnel appeared in a form of glowing, white light.
Flying out from the cylindrical tunnel, Garen covered both of his eyes instinctively to let it slowly adjust to the sudden brightness.
He was at the plaza which he visited last time. But this plaza seemed to be slightly different.
Its ground was made of white jade, a water fountain with a levitating leaping dolphin was right in the middle, as if Anti-gravity Skills was used.
There were not many shops surrounding the square, just five or six. Maybe that was why the plaza seemed relatively small.
“Garen!!”
Suddenly, a woman’s voice arose from a distance.
Garen lifted his head and looked over just to see a haggard Celine running over quickly. They were not surrounded by many people, at most about twenty or thirty people.
A few energy machinists were squatting by the stalls communicating with the stall owners in silence. Some were standing and asking questions as if investigating something.
There were also a few who were standing together and exchanging whispers. Celine walked over swiftly without attracting attention, and pulled Garen aside towards a corner.
“Relax, only you can hear my voice!” Celine said loudly. Her face was filled with joy. “I knew you were alive!”
“I also thought I will die.” Garen shook his head. “Such bad luck, both factions somehow dragged me into their battle. I guess destruction pursues the great.”
“Destruction pursues the great? Nice saying,” Celine nodded in agreement, her eyes were slightly red.
“I’ve been here waiting for you for almost ten days. There is a predator wave, the special ability space is now the only medium to communicate and trade items. Furthermore, all territories in the area are completely out of touch, hence the influence is really small. Even if you are a wanted fugitive, nobody here would care. Heinous energy machinists here are also treated equally, so as long as you don’t disobey the law set by the Federation of Energy Machinists, everything from the outside world no longer matters.”
“That’s great then!” Garen sighed in relief. Thinking back what happened this time around, he did not expect Professor Van Doe to give up on him. On the other hand, their opponent the Divine Wind would definitely not allow the Van Doe faction to have another prodigy, hence seized the opportunity. In the end, the slightly weaker Van Doe side had to retreat.
A prodigy who was dead or crippled would just be a dead waste, that was perhaps the main reason why Van Doe gave up at the end.
“Where are you now? If you need help you had better be quick, I’m at the Polar Region already. The protection shield is not closed completely. Have you escaped the territory?” Celine asked quickly.
“How do you know!?” Garen asked in shock.
“The energy machinist’s key in your body has a weak signal over here. Besides me, nobody knows you entered this area or crossed over to the special ability space, so I can roughly sense your presence,” Celine responded instantly. She looked left and right nervously.
“Listen, I can’t do much about most of your things. I tried my best with your Exclusive Mech but still wasn’t able to get it back from Fila. I have already hid some of the leftover Mastery Energy Ores earlier. As for the materials for your biochemical pool, I only managed to hide the Mila Cells. The other rare materials that you’ve been collecting this past two years had been taken by Professor Van Doe’s men. If you still want your Mila Cells, I can immediately send it over before the predators break into air territory.”
“Van Doe took them?” Garen was stunned.
“You don’t believe me?” A look of sarcasm flashed in Celine’s face.
“When you were at your worst, your professor sent men to your place right away and rummaged the whole place just to find information on how you process the Rainbow Stone. Unfortunately, they came up with nothing. He thought he was secretive enough to hide his tracks well but what he didn’t know was that I had people at your place at all times to keep a lookout.”
Garen remained silent.
“Now that we’re under their watch, I don’t have time. Other than your family, the men sent by your professor wanted me to surrender your skills information too. Hehe.” Celine snickered.
“There has been zero news from Fila’s side but as for your professor, he’s been sending men every day to keep a lookout on me. What happened to your family was also his doing, Fila doesn’t even bother meddling with your family.”
Garen pondered for a while and asked.
“What happened to my family?”
“They were detained. Your sister was captured and sent to Van Doe, God knows what he did to her. I rushed over immediately to bring her out but I think she was drugged as she was heavily disoriented, answering every question I asked. As for your parents…their company was shut down and they have disappeared, but don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to them!!” Celine said firmly in a low voice.
Garen took a deep breath. Even though he had no feelings attachment towards this dimension’s Nonosiva family, but he was still the reason they were facing such disasters.
“Thank you.” He patted Celine’s shoulder firmly.
“What are you planning to do?” Celine asked warily, “Please don’t do anything impulsive! You can’t win them!”
“Don’t worry, I might not be able to make it as a Pilot but I still am an energy machinist.” He had a cold glare in his eyes.
The Seventh Divine Wind General, Van Doe, Fila. Truth be said, he did not blame the Divine Wind General or Fila. As the enemy, using tactics to fight back was normal.
But what was saddening was that as his own professor, Van Doe did not give him the education and knowledge he needed. Everything he knew about the Black Wind was already something given that people of the Black Flood Party knew already. In the end, he became the sacrifice of a battle between two factions, he became the interest of a trade. The one who gained the most in the end, was still Professor Van Doe himself.