Chen Xiaolian, Roddy, Nagase Komi and even Fujino Masayoshi stood right there. All four of them had their heads raised up as they observed the giant, 30-meter high door that was slowly opening up.
As the door opened, lights automatically lit up and the colossal object was revealed…
All four of them reacted in near identical fashion. They simply stood there in a daze for a long time, incapable of saying anything.
…
Magnificent! Spectacular! Beautiful!
That was the first feeling to well up as they feasted their eyes upon it!
A humanoid Mech with a height of nearly twenty meters stood inside the hangar.
There were supporting and securing metal frames on both sides to keep this Mech in a standing posture.
Its body form closely resembled the human body, with a sleek body shape; its complete body frame was filled with lines, which accentuated its sense of beauty!
The coating on its exterior was bright blue in colour with faint silvery white lines in between.
There were more than ten thick cables attached to the surface of its body. The other end of the cables were then connected somewhere into the walls.
There was a standing computer desk set up by the hangar door. Roddy was the first to run over. He switched on the computer while both hands moved, tapping the buttons on the keyboard.
With Roddy’s Mechanical Heart skill, it did not matter if this computer has certain password requirements for it. None of them could bar Roddy from prying open its secrets.
Soon enough, a three-dimensional design of the humanoid Mech appeared upon the computer screen.
Fujino Masayoshi was feeling highly excited. At this moment, this PhD holder in Electronic Engineering appeared to have recovered his instinctive yearning toward technology. Matters regarding him being ‘shot to death’ and ‘responsibility’ were temporarily forgotten.
Fujino Masayoshi greedily shoved himself beside Roddy and he stared at the screen. Both his eyes were glistening and he murmured. “I finally get to see it, I finally get to see it… it has been nine years! I finally get to see it! I am finally standing right beside it!”
For Fujino Masayoshi, this moment would be the ultimate moment in his life.
Nine years ago, he was a budding scientist in the field of research. After this research institute recruited him, he felt that he had been sucked into a completely new field.
Within these nine years, he improved his position step by step. One day, he finally came to learn about the existence of this ‘prototype machine’. He found out about this secret prototype machine, one that was hailed as a priceless treasure by the Mechanical Faction.
The vast amount of research and work that he did all revolved around this prototype machine. Most of his time was spent researching and analysing how to reverse engineer and imitate the technological achievements of the prototype machine.
Unfortunately, with the limitations imposed by the standard technology available within the current world, their attempts to reverse engineer it faced too much difficulties.
The gap they faced in trying to solve the riddle presented by this prototype machine with the current world’s level of technology was like having a civilization whose warriors rode on horses and fight with swords try to explain the mechanics behind a jet-propelled aircraft!
The countless times when they were faced with failure, the sense of helplessness, the constant struggles, all of those stemmed from their attempts to just circle around ‘its’ existence!
However, the thing that brought the most regret to Fujino Masayoshi was that, even after nine years, his level of clearance was still insufficient for him to come close to catching a glimpse of it! His clearance could not give him the privilege to touch it!
No, forget touching. He could not even get a glimpse of it!
The work type that Fujino Masayoshi had gotten accustomed to was: His research team would be assigned with a piece of technological detail that they will work on, researching and attempting to reverse engineer it. Just like a blind man trying to feel out the pieces, he never had the chance to witness the entire picture.
Today however, this wish of his finally came true!
Roddy’s eyes were shining as he stared at the three-dimensional design displayed upon the surface of the screen.
“Body height of 18.5 meters,
“Weight of 88 tons.
“Model: Type-001— Hmm, this should be the handle given to it by the staff member of this research institute.
“Armour material: Alloy (composition unknown)
“Weapon system: Retractable beam blade, energy beam discharge weapons, others unknown.
“Power system: Unknown energy source.”
After seeing that, Roddy suddenly gave an “eh”. He turned around and glanced at Fujino Masayoshi. “You installed some strange foreign weapons system on it?”
“Errr…” Fujino Masayoshi was lost for words for a moment. Then he let out a strained smile. “This was one of our attempts to imitate it. Since we were unable to fully replicate its weapons system, we installed those weapons in order to help us with our objective of imitating it. By installing our own weapon system onto it, we will be able to gather real time data analysis during simulations tests. That is why…”
Roddy pursed his lips to the side and did not express any opinion on the matter. He continued to read.
The Mechanical Faction had installed some additional weapons onto the exterior of the Mech. These weapons were all military weapons with technology from the current world. Of course, these weapons were all cutting-edge weapons.
“Tiger Fang, a short-range air to air combat missile, four.
“Tiger Roar, a multi-barrelled cannon, one. Installed on the left shoulder area, automatic thermal sight system.
“Throwing type, Electronic Pulse Bomb…”
Seeing that last entry, Roddy could not restrain himself and made a face. “Are you planning on using this Mech as a heavy fighter?”
Fujino Masayoshi however, remained calm. “That is because we were unable to extract any specific parameters from it, thus everything remains in the testing stage. It would be more accurate to say that, ever since we acquired this prototype machine, we have been unable to control it. We could not even open it up! For tens of years, it has been placed within this warehouse. We do not even know how its battle mode would look like.”
Chen Xiaolian let out a low whistle and mumbled in a low voice. “We should bring them to Zero City and let them take a look at how those mechs do battle.”
“We cannot even take it apart in our attempt to conduct research on it. Its external armour is so hard that we were simply incapable of breaking through it. At present, all of our research is focused on locating a non-critical part of the armour. Then, we will proceed to cut a part out and use it for reverse engineering research. However, the cost involved in this process is extremely high,” Fujino Masayoshi gave a distressed smile. “From what I can gather, each time they make a cut, they will end up scrapping at least ten super powered instruments. Each of those instruments cost several million US dollars to manufacture.
“Simply put, we do not even know how it operates. All of it remains unknown to us.
“It is just like facing an elephant. What we have been doing for the past tens of years was just to conduct research on certain parts of the elephant, like its legs. We were unable to even open up its main body parts!”
“What are those cables for?” Chen Xiaolian suddenly pointed at the thick cables connected to the surface of the Mech.
“That… is to make use of its energy,” Fujino Masayoshi hesitated for a moment and forced out another smile. “Truth be told… this underground base of ours, all the energy needed for its operation is ‘stolen’ from its body.”
“What?” Roddy was shocked.
“Its energy is extremely immense. Back then, you saw that energy particle that we cut out from it. Truth be told, that energy particle is just a residual part that came out when we were cutting into its external weapon. Its real energy source is something we could never find. All we know is that this energy source is immense. According to our calculations, the energy of this Mech is comparable to a small nuclear power plant – possibly higher.
“The undertaking going on within this underground base is very big. Additionally, in order for us to maintain the operations of this underground base, we need a vast amount of energy. As you all might know, we Japan, is a country lacking in energy.
“The earliest plan involved building a nuclear power plant to maintain the operation of this secret base. However, after some research, the upper management found an even better method. That method is…”
“That method is to make use of this Mech like one would use a very big battery?” Roddy could not help himself and he smiled.
“Correct,” Fujino Masayoshi’s expression was solemn. “The process of extracting its energy had taken a huge amount of effort. We cut its external weapon system and successfully made a connection with its energy. Only then were we able to channel out its energy.
“To our surprise, its energy was immense and seemed almost inexhaustible!
“We were extremely shocked. This meant that its energy was either extremely immense or… it possesses self-regenerating properties.
“At any rate, since the day this underground base was set up until this day, a time period of over ten years, we have always been using its energy. Moreover, it has never been depleted. We suspect that our usage of its energy within the last ten plus years has never reached the maximum limit that it could provide.”
Chen Xiaolian and Roddy turned to look at one another.
Chen Xiaolian then whispered out. “It seems… we should be able to complete our quest. This should be the quest target set by the system, the research results of the Mechanical Faction, right?”
“I feel like I just hit the jackpot,” Roddy was grinning with squinted eyes.
“Do not be too happy just yet. We now have two problems before us,” Chen Xiaolian said in a heavy tone of voice. “First, that Tian Lie will be catching up to us at any moment. Additionally, this place probably will not have any other exit. This place is the secret warehouse. It would not have much entrances and exits.
“The second problem… did you forget about the self-destruct sequence? The one hour countdown… how long do we have left?”
Roddy’s face sank and he checked the time. “There is still… 37 minutes!”
“At the present, we face the question: Under what condition will we be considered to have ‘acquired’ it? What do we need to do to clear the quest condition set by the system? We are currently standing before it, but the system is not giving us any response at all,” Chen Xiaolian frowned.
“… I will go up and give it a try!” Roddy made up his mind, his eyes burning with desire. He pointed toward the elevator on the support frame. “I will climb up and then I will try to use my skill on it.”
Chen Xiaolian nodded his head. “Be careful!”
Pausing, Chen Xiaolian’s face turned solemn. “I know you really like this big guy… however, I am going to remind you, do not forcibly try to use your ‘Mechanical Heart’ to control it! Its level of technology and class is clearly very high. As for your skill, its class is very low. This thing is not some ordinary stuff like electronic doors or electronic locks. I fear that your skill would prove lacking, causing you to get hurt if you force yourself in your attempt to control this thing!”
“Do not worry!”