Chapter 187: Don’t Understand

PS: Returned to my hometown, exhausted from the back and forth. I’ll try to get the remaining three updates out earlier.

Yang Bo left the military base and moved towards the outskirts. He quickly found an area of intense combat on the mini-map.

It was a factory area. What exactly was being produced remained unclear, but seven or eight mechas were fiercely battling people inside the factory.

The factory complex wasn’t small. Square workshops, rectangular buildings, and a variety of round metal canisters stood alongside tall cooling towers and other structures.

The battle was happening in one of the square workshops, about one thousand meters long and 300 meters high, with battleship armor embedded in the walls. Yang Bo found it strange.

“So it’s a transport ship repair factory.” After circling around, Yang Bo finally discovered it was a factory for repairing transport ships. No wonder it was so grand.

“I wonder how many people are inside.”

“No wonder these buildings are built so sturdy.” Yang Bo now understood.

The top of these repair factories can open, allowing damaged ships to descend, be repaired, and exit from the top again. The surrounding support structures needed high-strength materials to handle that.

Considering the 300-meter height, this place only serviced small transport ships.

Larger warships and transport ships are repaired at spaceports since they can’t land on a planet’s surface.

About a dozen mechas were entrenched in the factory’s advantageous terrain, with some others wielding laser guns.

“The terrain is complicated.” Yang Bo glanced at the dense steel structure of the factory.

The entire interior was constructed with metal to accommodate large equipment and movement of the maintenance robots.

It looked like the metal framework used in rocket launch towers on Earth.

As Yang Bo wandered outside the factory, some military leaders began to grow dissatisfied.

“This isn’t an important facility. Why is he here?”

“He should be at the military base. The losses there are massive.”

“This is what happens when you’re unorganized and undisciplined.”

“That’s how these game players are. They’re nothing compared to our trained mecha pilots.”

“The transport ship repair factory has a complex setup, and he’s unfamiliar with the interior.”

Having understood the intricate layout of the factory, Yang Bo felt a little disappointed: “Why don’t these guys move to public buildings?”

“By this point in the battle, all the weak places have likely been wiped out. The drones can be replenished quickly, so the enemy’s not a match.”

“It seems the last wave of kills will only be at the military base.”

After circling the factory, Yang Bo was hit by a laser gun. His mecha had beenn targeted through a gap in the facility, but the enemy quickly retreated. Catching him would be too difficult.

Yang Bo noticed a strange, bell-like object, five meters in diameter and seven meters tall, discarded randomly next to the factory. It looked familiar.

The surface of the object was rusty, blackened with what seemed like a layer of something else covering it.

Yang Bo pulled out a weapon designed for mechas and scraped at it. The inside was still black.

“This thing!” Yang Bo examined the object closely once more and finally recalled what it was.

“It’s a transport ship energy core shield.” Yang Bo finally remembered. If it weren’t for the round and square holes around it, it would’ve looked just like a hunk of scrap metal.

Yang Bo then used his mecha to pry up the weird object with a metal pole. He maneuvered the mecha and squeezed inside.

“It’ll barely do.” Inside, everything on the screen appeared dark. The radar data was also chaotic, as the radar waves couldn’t penetrate the shell.

After some careful adjustments, Yang Bo could now observe the external environment through the round and square holes.

“Heh!” Yang Bo chuckled to himself.

With that, he charged towards the military base, concealed under the blackened object.

Since the radar was useless, Yang Bo had to rely on his mecha’s cameras to see outside.

Sometimes he’d move the mecha’s arms slightly to peer outside through the little holes.

Yang Bo’s action caught the attention of the military personnel, who curiously turned to the Colonel in charge of the operation.

The Colonel was sweating nervously since his subordinates hadn’t yet identified what the blackened object was.

“This is a bit slow.” Yang Bo thought as he hurried along. The only downside was the slow pace, mainly due to the object’s small diameter limiting the mecha’s stride.

From a distance, the sight was almost ridiculous. It looked like someone wearing an upside-down bucket, scurrying along with tiny steps.

“Still can’t identify that thing?” A military leader asked the Colonel after a couple of minutes, noticing he hadn’t explained yet.

The Colonel looked at his team, who were still searching for answers. Unfortunately, the black object had no identification plate, and its material wasn’t distinctive. There were too many similar items.

Nearly ten minutes later, Yang Bo finally approached the military base. If he had run without this thing, he could’ve reached it in two or three minutes.

The game players at the base saw the black object approaching. If it weren’t for the radar marking it as a friendly, they would’ve started shooting.

A mecha, hidden under the blackened object, charged straight toward the military base entrance.

“Isn’t there a defense cannon? This guy’s looking for death!”

“What is that thing on his head?”

“Never seen it before?” Yang Bo’s mecha was covered by something black and featureless, so even the game players hadn’t seen it before.

The defense cannon at the military base fired, shooting directly at the blackened object on top of Yang Bo.

Yang Bo was practically navigating based on the limited camera feed. His mental map of the base wasn’t precise enough to position himself to expose the holes.

Suddenly, the mecha shook slightly, but when Yang Bo checked the data, everything seemed fine.

“Perfect.” Yang Bo knew his guess was correct.

The game players and military leaders outside were stunned. The defense cannon, capable of destroying mechas with one shot, hadn’t even scratched this blackened thing.

These cannons were specifically designed to counter mechas, but this shielded object took a direct hit without much visible damage.

A bizarre scene unfolded. The two defense cannons at the base gate continued firing at it, each launching dozens of shots per second, but the blackened object slowly crawled toward the entrance like a snail.

At this point, Yang Bo’s mecha had to crouch as it waddled forward, concealing its legs to avoid attacks.

“Still don’t know what it is?” Several military leaders, growing impatient, glared at the Colonel.