"What?!"
Heimerdinger, Jayce, Viktor, and Skye, who stood silently beside, were all taken aback.
"Exceptional test subjects? Who in Valoran could spar with Gaboga?" Jayce's face showed a bewildered expression. "Could it be Janna, the Goddess of Wind? But I feel she... um."
Before he could finish, everyone understood what he meant.
Ordinary humans couldn't possibly contend with Gaboga, even the archmages proficient in arcane magic.
Even in the ancient times, perhaps only the ancient dragons could exchange a few blows with Gaboga.
But ignoring the fact that the traces of ancient dragons are almost gone nowadays, even if they exist, being killed by Gaboga is only a matter of time, as long as Gaboga's ammunition is sufficient.
In comparison, the ordinary elemental dragons in Piltover's Great Library records are far inferior to the ancient dragons in terms of size alone, with the ancient dragons being three to five times larger, and their breath and scale defense power far surpassing elemental dragons.
In other words, an ancient dragon is considered the king among elemental dragons and can command many ordinary dragons.
With the current 100,000 bullets and 2,000 rockets equipped by Gaboga, it is definitely not enough to kill the ancient dragon.
Therefore, when discussing potential test subjects to evaluate Gaboga's performance, their first thought was Janna, the guardian deity of Piltover City.
Coincidentally, Li Lin had helped her before, even creating a church for her and organizing followers, which everyone knew.
But in their view, Janna had not shown any actual combat prowess, only saving thousands of people during the "Great Collapse" incident, where several thousand people also died due to the man-made disaster.
If she could only manipulate storms and stir up tsunamis...
Gaboga wasn't afraid of this at all, unless she could directly penetrate the cockpit and deal with the person driving the mech.
After careful consideration, Viktor continued, "I don't think it's the Goddess of Wind."
With his left arm across his chest and his right hand rubbing his bald chin, Viktor turned to Li Lin, raising his eyebrows slightly. "If I'm not mistaken... are you looking for an experiment with the Grand Scholar?"
Rumble, who had just walked over with Ziggs, exclaimed, "Grand Scholar?!"
"Yes, the Grand Scholar, Nasus, also known as the Archivist by the people of Shurima." Viktor's gaze shifted downwards as he looked at Rumble. "Mr. Rumble, I remember you mentioned earlier that you knew Li Lin in Nashramae?"
"Yes, but do you have any misunderstandings about the Grand Scholar?!" Rumble widened his eyes, his two short arms waving in the air. "That's a demigod! The lost legend of Shurima! How could you just say it like that..."
"You probably left too early to hear, but later I did see Nasus, who was almost half a body taller than me."
Jayce said with his arms crossed, but his somewhat proud tone made Rumble somewhat unhappy.
To avoid Rumble, who had a somewhat irritable temperament as a yordle, from arguing with Jayce, Li Lin immediately said, "I traveled with Nasus in the desert."
Without giving Rumble a chance to speak, he continued, "Sivir, you know, right?"
"The commander of the Siharo Mercernary Group, well known in Nashramae." Rumble frowned, "I remember you hired her with a group of Noxus people into the desert. What does this have to do with her?"
"She is of royal blood in Shurima! You didn't even know that." Jayce chuckled, "You didn't see it, but even Nasus was respectful to her."
Rumble was stunned. Even Jayce's tone didn't seem to care much, muttering, "Shurima has been extinct for so long. How could there suddenly be a royal bloodline?"
"Sivir is the only royal bloodline left, and it was she who awakened Azir, who had been asleep for a long time... but that's not the point today."
Li Lin did not explain further to Rumble, "The test subject I'm looking for to spar with Gaboga is neither Janna nor the Grand Scholar."
"Then who else can test Gaboga's performance?"
Even Heimerdinger was puzzled, "You don't happen to know the demigod of Freljord? Or the nature spirits of your hometown Ionia? But I think Gaboga should not have the strength to match them."
Li Lin smiled mysteriously, "You'll know when the time comes."
...
...
Three days passed in an instant.
During this time, Li Lin specifically went to the Undercity and went down to the mine to find Malphite.
Fortunately, this big guy was still digesting the Void he cleared from Zaun and had not left Zaun to return to Piltover, otherwise, he would have been in trouble.
Li Lin discussed with Malphite about the "friendly sparring" with Gaboga. As soon as it heard there was a fight to be had, it got so excited it nearly collapsed the mine.
Since gaining consciousness and operating in the world for hundreds of years, there wasn't much that could make Malphite "move his bones".
It dared not venture deeply into the corrupted Void in Icathia, where there were still some Void creatures with strength comparable to demigods wandering around.
Hindered by unconsciousness or the Void Watchers still gathering power to prevent their chaos, these colossal "Beasts of Disaster" have never left Icathia for millennia.
Malphite merely bullies weak Void creatures invading other areas and the underground Void vines.
Now, an entity seemingly capable of matching himself has arrived, and he couldn't be happier.
Li Lin and Malphite quickly agreed on a time and set the battleground in the sea between Valoran and Shurima, near the desolate island of Tereshni Bay in Shurima.
The island is where sailors or fishermen take refuge during ocean storms, known to the residents of Tereshni and Bel'zhun as "Gades" Island.
It means "shelter" in Shuriman.
Gades Island is divided into two parts, a smaller northwest part half the size of the rugged mountains in the southeast, but mostly plains with gentle terrain.
Due to scarce supplies and no fresh water resources, the former governor of Tereshni and Bel'zhun of Shurima, and now the steward of Noxus, no one wants to build a town there.
The time was approaching noon.
The councillors boarded airships and teleported through the Hex Gates from Bel'zhun to the northwest of Gades Island.
Other curious noble families also flew in their airships, following the council's airship to the uninhabited island.
With coordinates confirmed by the AI, Gaboga had already arrived at Gades Island in the morning.
To Li Lin's delight, although Gaboga belongs to the Piltover University, almost everyone assumes he is the mecha pilot, and he will test Gaboga's performance.
This greatly suits Li Lin's intentions.
Even if they cannot develop an "interdimensional teleportation device" from the Arad worldview in the future, they cannot summon Gaboga's fists remotely to help them target the attack.
With Heimerdinger's and other councilors' approval, he thinks piloting Gaboga against the enemy is very likely.
Of course, before the Void War, Li Lin's Infinite War Armor and Mechanized Army were sufficient unless they faced Dark Follower, Xerath, or Demigod in the future.
To avoid the aftermath of Gaboga's battle with Malphite spreading to everyone, Li Lin thoughtfully dispatched hundreds of mech engineers to shoot from all angles and transmit them in real-time to the display screen specially installed for the airship.
Not only that, but the footage shot by the mech engineers was edited and could be shown in the grand theater and then looped on TV.
It wasn't long before everyone had a simple lunch on the airship, and everyone's attention was drawn to the nearly 200-meter-high mechanical giant on the screen.
Before everyone got addicted to watching mechas, the screen suddenly turned, and the huge waves suddenly stirred up in the ocean approached Gades Island, seeming to have some sea monster rapidly moving on the sea surface.
In Gaboga's cockpit, Li Lin, wearing an Infinite War Armor, was connected to various exquisite and complex devices from head to toe, connecting the machine to the cockpit through various wires.
As the footage shot by the mech engineers was transmitted, Li Lin turned slightly and looked northeast towards himself.
"Here he comes..." he murmured.
After more than ten minutes, the five to six-meter-high waves only reached the plain island in the northwest of Gades Island, covered with hard granite, with many spikes high above the head, and the figure like a small mountain Malphite climbed onto the island.
Feeling the surging energy, Malphite froze for a moment, fixed his gaze on the towering steel guy in the distant direction, and involuntarily scratched his forehead with a hand several times larger than his own, looking confused.
"What is this?"
After four to five seconds of guidance, Gaboga flashed its body and teleported from a few kilometers away to several hundred meters in front of Malphite.
By comparing their heights, Gaboga was even half a body taller than this lava giant!
By now, the airship floating in the sky had already exploded.
They were all born and raised in Piltover since they were young, and they had never seen such a "fierce and terrifying" creature, and they all screamed monster and demon.
In contrast, the airship carrying Caitlyn, Kai'Sa, Jayce, Viktor, and Skye from Kiramman family was much quieter.
Originally, Caitlyn was a little worried about Li Lin, but judging by his height and appearance alone, all he needed to face was a rock-spirit giant monster, and there seemed to be nothing to worry about.
Li Lin and Malphite below couldn't hear the discussions of the people on the airship, nor did they care about them, focusing their attention on each other.
"Hello, Malphite!"
Out of consideration for Malphite's brain capacity, Li Lin deliberately processed Gaboga's loudspeakers to try to make his voice sound less mechanical so that he couldn't tell.
"Li Lin... are you really inside this, big guy?"
Malphite looked shocked, obviously not knowing what had happened.
"Yes, just like the powered armor I wore when I saw you before, in short, this mecha is an enlarged version." Li Lin briefly explained to it.
"This guy, the energy contained inside, can even surpass me, it's incredible!"
Hearing Malphite's sigh, Li Lin probably understood the energy level provided by the large fusion reactor.
"This is us... to make things clearer, a Yordle inventor provided energy technology."
"Yes, Yordle, smaller than your human... men, I like to call them, Young Man."
Malphite's speech was very slow, almost a word-by-word break.
Originally, it would only take ten or twenty seconds to finish speaking, but it took him almost a minute.
But Li Lin expressed his understanding, after all, Malphite's independent consciousness was born from the monolith fragments, inheriting only a tiny part of the wisdom and memories of the original living floating fortress.
He can communicate normally, and can't ask for too much.
It seems that the long-lost war spirit is flowing again in Malphite's core, and he hits his fist hard, causing a visible shock wave of air that resonates with the sky.
"Let's... fight!"
(End of this chapter)
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