MORIC - Chapter 144
Chapter 144: Earthworm Burrowing
Piloting a mecha was one thing, but the cheerful female voice coming through the intermittent comms amidst the smoke that couldn't disperse due to the heavy rain clearly showed Xi Zhoumeng's current mood.
She sounded absolutely thrilled.
The question was, what on earth was she so thrilled about?
Wen Xinghuo was speechless for a long time. Instead, it was a similarly surprised Sheng Yangkui who cautiously asked Xi Zhoumeng on the other end of the comms, "Senior Xi, you... where did you come from?"
Everyone knew about Xi Zhoumeng's mecha. If Wen Xinghuo's "War God" was the undying legend of the Empire, then her mecha was like a cold, stark moon in the dark night. It was magnificently understated, yet a second glance revealed it to be incomparably gorgeous, not losing out to the "War God" in the slightest.
This was a mecha used by the Xi family's ancestors, so it wasn't surprising that Xi Zhoumeng could bind to it.
What was surprising was that Xi Zhoumeng was an Omega. Even if she bound to it, she shouldn't be able to operate it.
But the rules of the mecha storage room had been fixed for years: whoever could bind to a mecha could take it.
What could be done about it?
It was her Xi family's ancestral mecha anyway, so it was fine for Xi Zhoumeng to take it. They just treated it as the young lady having another trinket. She'd probably return it when she got tired of it.
Xi Zhoumeng was just as arrogant when she took it, and she really did bind it to her light-brain and bring it along.
Even the teachers thought she was being overly ceremonial. You can take it, you can bind it, but you can't operate it.
Oh well, who could argue with the young lady's temper?
Now, the Zerg in this area had been blasted into fragments by Xi Zhoumeng's maneuver. Even when these creatures were torn apart, their limbs still twitched. Amidst the smoke and rain, Xi Zhoumeng piloted her mecha over, almost bringing Sheng Yangkui to tears.
After all, just a moment ago, she had been so desperate that she found grim humor in the thought that this counted as dying together.
Just then, the head of the Zerg lieutenant rolled over, looking like it was about to reassemble itself.
The silver-cast roses on Xi Zhoumeng's mecha's shell suddenly disassembled. Under the pilot's powerful spiritual control, they easily pierced through its brain. The Origin Stone's energy ignited petal-shaped flames, coldly disintegrating the hideously ugly creature's head.
As the powder dissipated in the heavy rain, Xi Zhoumeng's voice, mixed with the downpour, was slightly hoarse but couldn't hide her very cheerful tone—
"I came from a cave, not in this area."
With another boom, four or five meters of metallic, tail-like vertebrae suddenly extended from the rear of Xi Zhoumeng's mecha. The thing was covered in dense barbs, with a hook at the end. It flung out another mecha from somewhere.
That mecha was damaged, but it didn't look too serious. It just looked as if it had been swallowed by something, its surface covered in a scalp-numbing slime.
Wen Xinghuo recognized it as Ling Xun's mecha and asked anxiously, "How is she?"
Xi Zhoumeng glanced at the Zerg in the distance, which seemed to want to charge over but also seemed hesitant, and sneered, "She was almost swallowed."
She even had the leisure to show off: "Good thing our little fir tree added a few layers of anti-corrosive coating to this ordinary mecha, otherwise Ling Xun would have been digested."
The Zerg varied in size. The ones recorded in the archives, from low to high level, were all bizarrely shaped. Calling them ugly was a compliment.
But Xi Zhoumeng was ultimately disgusted by the sight of these things swarming together. The joy of having completely marked Chi Yueshan couldn't hold, and she actually gagged a little.
Wen Xinghuo: ...
Sheng Yangkui: ...
The fact that she could gag didn't seem like she was possessed. It looked like Senior Xi had truly resisted the consciousness invasion.
How could the Zerg Queen be so disgusted with her own subjects?
As expected of Senior Xi.
"Where's Yueshan?"
Wen Xinghuo returned to the control console. Now that the situation had improved, she activated the mecha's automatic repair system while asking the question.
Then she continued to call for Xi Shuang.
Xi Zhoumeng sat at her own mecha's control console, which had been modified to her liking. Even though it was from the same era as Wen Xinghuo's, hers didn't feel old at all.
It even resembled a private lounge. Though not massive in size, every inch of the cockpit's interior was well-arranged by her.
The exhausted Chi Yueshan was lying on a soft mattress, deep in a pleasant dream. With a turn of her head, Xi Zhoumeng could see her sleeping face.
The feeling of differentiating into an Alpha gave Xi Zhoumeng a sense of complete, unclogged pleasure, not to mention the joy that came from the inside out after a complete marking.
Encountering Zerg right after carrying Chi Yueshan out of the cave didn't even sour her mood.
While resisting the Zerg Queen's consciousness, Xi Zhoumeng had quickly grasped a few core words.
Learning a new language was second nature to Xi Zhoumeng, even if it wasn't a human one.
Besides, the God's Arbiter wasn't necessarily human.
But the consciousness confrontation was too brief. The Zerg Queen had for generations only received the short-term memories of its subjects, so its consciousness was filled with too much clutter for Xi Zhoumeng to bother sorting through.
The low-level vocabulary was enough to maintain a small area of safety around her.
But she wasn't a Zerg, after all, so this command had an expiration date.
Even the lowest-level Zerg's nerves were quite active, enough to distinguish that the one issuing the command was not one of their own.
However, this bit of time was enough for Xi Zhoumeng to bring Chi Yueshan into the mecha cockpit.
Even though Xi Zhoumeng hadn't systematically studied mecha theory during her years in this world, the Xi family's teachings were enough for her to learn through osmosis.
Moreover, she had a photographic memory, so she could easily grasp what things were and how to operate them.
Not to mention that the future version of herself that the system had shown her was also an expert at all this.
After differentiating into an Alpha, all aspects of her physical fitness had improved dramatically.
The abilities brought by the Soul Chain also seemed to be enhancing her post-differentiation body. Xi Zhoumeng didn't even need to look at the star map on the mecha's dashboard to sense danger from all directions.
And the faint breath of a human from a certain direction.
Chi Yueshan liked machinery. Whether it was mechanical toys or modified mechas, she would leave her unique mark on them.
Especially after getting together with Xi Zhoumeng, when materials were in ample supply.
Phosphor powder that used to cost over ten thousand Star Coins a gram in Chi Yueshan's eyes was now nothing special. Xi Zhoumeng had even spent a fortune to buy her top-grade phosphor powder that was incredibly rare. The light it emitted was gentle and high-class, but Chi Yueshan's mark was a bit ugly.
The moon was fat and round, and the fir tree was a crooked stick figure, like an earthworm burrowing through a hole. It was so ugly that Xi Zhoumeng couldn't bring herself to praise it. The first time Xi Zhoumeng saw it, she was silent for a long time. Just as she was about to speak, Chi Yueshan interrupted her—
"Alright, don't say it."
She had even thought of Xi Zhoumeng's lines for her: "Don't say things like 'hideously ugly' or 'so sloppy.' You'll piss me off to death."
Which was why when Xi Zhoumeng said "earthworm burrowing through a hole," Chi Yueshan punched her directly.
"You're the damn earthworm! What hole?! Is there such a good-looking hole?"
Unfortunately, the young lady took the opportunity to pull her into an embrace, a fragrant breeze wafting over. Her long fingers moved from bottom to top as she teased, "If I were an earthworm, I'd be the best-looking one."
"As for the hole..."
She didn't finish, but the moment Chi Yueshan met her eyes, she understood, not to mention those mischievous, almost harassing fingers.
Xi Zhoumeng was shooed away, completely unaware of the glaring bite mark on the chin of her face, which she spent millions on maintaining every month.
Yet the person in question was still savoring the "earthworm burrowing through a hole," and it was a good thing she didn't look too simple-minded, or she would have looked very silly.
That day, when Xi Li returned, he saw his precious little sister walking towards him with a foolish grin and an ambiguous bite mark on her chin. He wanted to say something but was too embarrassed.
He could only brush past Xi Zhoumeng and look back, noticing that even her retreating figure radiated bliss.
Xi Li thought to himself: I didn't realize she was a bit of an M before.
What kind of weird habit was this? Is biting faces as a mark of affection a trend among young people in love now?
The next second, it dawned on him. A mark.
Well, since his sister hadn't completely turned into an Alpha yet, she had to go through the motions.
The top-grade phosphor powder was still eye-catching in such a rainy, foggy night. By the time Xi Zhoumeng piloted her mecha over, only the very tip of Ling Xun's mecha was still exposed.
That Zerg looked to be about three stories tall, like a mutated spider, its head covered in tentacles that were all eyes.
The moment Xi Zhoumeng arrived, it suddenly turned and parted the thick fog with a roar.
The low-grade Zerg on the ground scattered in all directions, as if this thing even devoured its own kind.
Xi Zhoumeng almost threw up. Her comms had just been restored, and on the other end was the heart-wrenching conversation between Xi Shuang and Wen Xinghuo.
It sounded like they were in a critical situation too.
The mecha's central control console was dotted with starlight, and even the buttons were shaped like flowers, each one personally made and replaced by Chi Yueshan.
She had previously gotten the blueprints for this mecha from Zhou Fengqin; her master had restored it based on pictures from the internet.
With the real thing in front of her, Chi Yueshan's excitement could keep her awake for several nights in a row.
Spiritual power was the core of mecha control; energy couldn't reverse the situation. It almost entirely depended on the pilot's skill.
A mecha was already massive compared to a human, but it was still somewhat weak compared to a mid-grade Zerg like this.
Xi Zhoumeng wasn't in a hurry. She tested the mecha's functions one by one. Her spiritual power controlled the strength and speed, and before long, she was handling it with ease.
But the creature was being teased into a frenzy. Ling Xun's mecha was stuck in its mouth, its rear turbines still spinning, indicating that her spiritual power hadn't dissipated and she could still be saved.
But Xi Zhoumeng really didn't want to look at this ugly thing's magnified face. It was about to ruin the refreshing clarity she had just obtained, which wasn't worth it.
But when Chi Yueshan was modifying it for her, perhaps to save this lazy bum the effort of pressing the zoom button, she had made the central console screen automatically split and magnify.
Xi Zhoumeng couldn't avoid seeing the details.
She let out a grunt, painfully averting her eyes, and activated the blades to chop the thing to pieces.
Green fluid splattered everywhere. She didn't care in the slightest about depleting the priceless meteorite energy in her mecha. While hooking Ling Xun's mecha, she searched for Wen Xinghuo and even activated the bubble function to wash its shell with the rainwater.
It was a good thing Chi Yueshan was asleep, or she might have died of anger.
When she had modified this thing for her, she hadn't expected Xi Zhoumeng to actually become an Alpha. She just went with the flow, since she was committed to the person, not the secondary gender.
Xi Zhoumeng's whiny coquetry was really hard to resist. She wanted this and that, practically the world's most annoying client.
A real client, Chi Yueshan could just quit if she was unhappy, but Xi Zhoumeng was also her wife. If she didn't do it, Xi Zhoumeng might do her to death.
Like this flamboyant automatic cleaning function.
It consumed too much energy! A completely extravagant and wasteful function!
All for show!
The showy mecha washed itself and descended from the sky. Feeling that her mecha was a perfect combination of Chi Yueshan's talent and her own beauty, she smugly answered Wen Xinghuo's question—
"She's with me."
Wen Xinghuo wasn't surprised. She was anxious to find Xi Shuang and said, "I've already reported this to the supervisor, but there's no reply. This whole planet might have fallen."
Xi Zhoumeng nodded. "It's definitely fallen. The rest isn't our problem. Let's find Xi Shuang first."
She was also a bit puzzled. "Weren't the three of you together? Even if you split up, you should have tracking, right? How could you all disappear from the map?"
Logically, the wireless devices that relied on energy shouldn't fail.
Wen Xinghuo looked at the ugly creatures in the distance, which had chosen not to continue their attack after their leader died, and was also very confused. "But our comms are still connected."
Sheng Yangkui's gaze fell on the star map, and she said in a low voice, "Because our current position is close to the simulated Zerg battlefield base. The surrounding mountains have magnetic stones placed to block Origin Stone-based positioning."
Her expression was serious as she spoke to Xi Zhoumeng over the comms, "Senior Xi, the Zerg Queen is targeting Xinghuo. But you should be careful too. She invaded your consciousness, so she might read your memories like she did to me before."
The Zerg Queen wore a human skin, but its imitation wasn't perfect. This was why the consciousness of the queens who were possessed throughout history never completely dissipated.
Humans have instincts. A Zerg is a Zerg. Even with a body, it couldn't achieve perfection.
The species gap had prevented them from evolving for millennia. It was less accurate to call the Zerg a "race" and more accurate to say they operated entirely based on the Zerg Queen.
Xi Zhoumeng's voice still had its inherent static, but she never seemed to panic, remaining languid and lazy as she said, "It doesn't have a brain. Even if it reads my memories, it can't do advanced math."
She sighed again. "Ling Xun's mecha is damaged. I don't know how she is."
"The Zerg Queen is targeting the great hero Wen Xinghuo, so it probably won't bother with me. I'll get Ling Xun out now."
Wen Xinghuo felt like she had been casually mocked again.
She watched as the mechanical tail of Xi Zhoumeng's mecha shook Ling Xun out of her mecha as roughly as if shaking off lice.
Just as the other girl was about to crash to the ground, she shouted at Wen Xinghuo.
"Open your door."
Wen Xinghuo subconsciously opened the cockpit door, and Ling Xun was tossed inside by Xi Zhoumeng just like that.
Ling Xun was indeed alive, but her glasses were gone, and at first glance, she wasn't bleeding, just unconscious.
Wen Xinghuo: "Why don't you put her in your mecha?"
Xi Zhoumeng: "Isn't that obvious? She used to like Chi Yueshan. Would you be happy about it if you were me?"
Wen Xinghuo: ...
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