Time had passed, and Sun Jack dizzily woke up to the continuous beeping of the system at his ear.
"Warning! Warning! The principal's life-sign data has deteriorated rapidly, with a heart rate falling below 30 beats per minute, blood pressure sharply dropping below 70/40 mmHg, and blood oxygen saturation lower than 73%. Brain activity indicates severe ischemia and hypoxia, and the situation is critical. Please initiate an emergency rescue plan immediately or purchase medical rescue services..."
"Damn, why did they even install this crap," Sun Jack muttered in the darkness, shaking his head. When he realized he was still alive, he slightly relaxed.
Sun Jack tried to move but found all his limbs were completely paralyzed; he wasn't sure if they were buried in mud or broken.
Turning on the night vision of his Artificial Eye, Sun Jack saw his head was stuck inside a sturdy Armor Plate.
When he noticed the smiley graffiti on it, Sun Jack realized that this Armor Plate was from Tapai.
"Is anyone else alive? Tapai? Poet?" Sun Jack asked through the local network.
"I'm here," the Poet's voice faintly replied. Soon, accompanied by the sound of digging through the soil, the Poet unearthed the immobile Sun Jack.
When the cold acid rain hit his face, Sun Jack realized he was seeing the sky again.
But it wasn't that he had come out, rather the soil between the ground and the tunnel-boring machine had been vaporized, leaving a vast crater in the concrete wilderness, with him at the bottom, gathering more acid rain.
Fortunately, he was still alive.
Sun Jack's body was in a dismal state, bloody and mangled, half of his body was crushed out of shape, including his Titanium-Alloy Skeleton. Had his DNA not been enhanced, he would have been dead already.
The Poet wasn't much better—two steel rods had pierced through his head, and his lower body was gone.
Looking at his reflection in a puddle, the Poet suddenly grinned, his right hand raising a finger, "Aha! I've got inspiration again!"
"Forget your damn poetry! Hurry up and find the others!" Sun Jack controlled the remaining Nanoworms to enter his paralyzed body, acting as a temporary exoskeleton to move.
He activated his prosthetic body to quickly scan the muddy crater floor, looking for other survivors. When he switched to thermal imaging, there was an immediate discovery.
Soon, Sun Jack found Tapai in a bubbling pool of water, sans armor, looking very serious, with smoke billowing from his core as if he was about to combust.
"Hey! Are you okay? Snap out of it!" Sun Jack instinctively patted Tapai's body like he used to pat the old TV when the reception was bad.
Tapai suddenly grabbed Sun Jack's arm, his screen flickering like it was malfunctioning, "Quick! Run! I can't hold them back, they have located us!"
The next second, a low warning buzzed from outside the crater, as ships pierced the clouds with red lights, swooping down towards them.
Seeing this, Sun Jack's heart sank. He should have known, this decapitation operation, FFP had resorted to everything, how could they possibly let him escape so easily?
"Am I really going to die here?" Sun Jack thought unwillingly.
Soon, various combat units began targeting the helpless Sun Jack in the pit with their weapons.
Facing this certain doom, the battered Tapai reached out, pulling Sun Jack behind him. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."
The next second, explosions erupted, with fire blossoming on the FFP combat units.
The incoming missiles and lasers deviated off course.
"BOSS!!! Don't worry! We've come to rescue you!"
Accompanied by the unfamiliar voice echoing in Sun Jack's system, several fighters broke through the clouds, launching a fierce assault on the FFP's combat units.
When Sun Jack saw the crudely drawn plastic bags and cockroach graffiti on the fighters and Mecha, he realized the reinforcement of the nearby Wild Men had arrived.
The Wild Men he had once rescued picked up various weapons and began rescuing Sun Jack, a scene that touched his heart a bit, making him realize that his efforts over this period had not been in vain.
"Original body! Overlay Consciousness!" another Sun Jack Clone connected to the local network.
As Sun Jack and the arriving Clone Consciousness overlapped, his body returned to its optimal condition, and everything came back.
Recalling the situation where he had almost died, Sun Jack became furious.
"Damn it!" Sun Jack waved his hand, and the laser rod in his hand extended rapidly, piercing through a fighter jet.
"Rest easy here! I'll be back soon!" Nanoworms enveloped Sun Jack and charged directly towards the FFP's troops.
Clearly, the wilderness was the Wild Men's home field, and given that this was evidently a decapitation strike, the FFP's deployed combat units primarily focused on single combat assassinations and lacked the capability to wage a small-scale war.
As more and more of the Wild Men's reinforcements arrived, the outcome of the battle was sealed.
Soon, when Sun Jack, controlling the automatic grenade launcher, blasted a Liquid Metal Robot to bits, the crisis finally passed.
"Move fast! Don't get targeted again!" Sun Jack issued the command to retreat.
By the time Sun Jack and everyone returned to the clouds, back on the AA's Spacecraft Carrier, they were completely safe.
Inside the Spacecraft Carrier, most of the combat equipment had been converted to living spaces, turning the huge carrier into something like a small city.
When tens of thousands of Sun Jack Clones reconnected with him over the network, Sun Jack's sense of security instantly maxed out.
He immediately took Tapai to get AA repaired. Fortunately, since Tapai was a robot, as long as the core wasn't damaged, other issues were minor.
"It's not UO, he didn't betray me."
Cooling down, Sun Jack said to Tapai, "I had just finished talking to him when FFP made their move. The time between was so short, so short that unless FFP's combat units could Teleport, it couldn't have been him who leaked the information."
"Moreover, logically speaking, he and I are in the same boat, betraying me doesn't align with his interests."
"Then who do you think betrayed our location?" Tapai asked.
Sun Jack shook his head. "I don't know, but whoever it is, I must find out!"
Sun Jack said while patting Tapai on the shoulder, "You rest for now, I'm going to check on Poet in the medical department; that guy was a big help."
"OK(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧."
Seeing Tapai use emoticons again, Sun Jack knew he was all right and felt relieved to go find Poet.
However, just as he arrived at the medical department, preparing to head to Poet's ward, the familiar figure in the transparent operating room next door suddenly froze him in place like a binding spell.
Sun Jack watched her gently remove the Wild Man's deformed spine, gently install a Titanium-Alloy Skeleton, and gently screw every twisted bone together.
She seemed to feel Sun Jack's gaze; she instinctively looked up and gave Sun Jack a slight smile.
Her face was deeply embedded in his mind; it was Si Ai.