What Should I Do If My Ex-Girlfriend's Pheromones Smell Too Good? - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Demolition

Shu Qiong and Yan Xiangyu exchanged a glance. The latter gave a slight nod, then immediately hopped out of Xinghai and returned to her own mech.

Once this was done, both heard a series of dull, humming drones. Even through the thick walls, they could imagine the chaotic scene outside.

After an indeterminate amount of time, the instructor’s reassuring voice finally came through the public channel. The voice told Shu Qiong and Yan Xiangyu to prepare for a pickup, saying that support would arrive at the signal tower very soon.

Just as Shu Qiong acknowledged the message, she felt a wave of tremors. The vibration came from beneath her feet, making it nearly impossible to stand steady; it felt as if the entire signal tower was being uprooted.

Immediately following that, an unfamiliar voice came through the channel: “We’ve reached the outside of the tower. Are the people still on the top floor?”

“Yes. Do you need us to come out?”

After speaking, Shu Qiong looked toward Yan Xiangyu, who was already standing behind the door of the machine room, ready to open it at any moment.

The voice from the other side came through with significant static, speaking at a rapid-fire pace: “Yes! We will pick you up at the top-floor observation deck. Arriving in two minutes.”

Shu Qiong had no objections: “Understood.”

Without much hesitation, Yan Xiangyu opened the machine room door. As the heavy metal door slid open, she controlled Standby to charge out fiercely, predictably encountering a swarm of Zerg blocking the entrance.

Shu Qiong followed close behind, not forgetting to slam the door shut again.

Her thermal weapon ammunition was running low—she had already used most of it on the way here. She didn’t dare be extravagant with her fire to clear the path now; she could only brace her cannon to fire precise shots at the densest clusters while drawing a simple long-handled blade to parry.

Slaying as they advanced, their progress remained orderly.

Yan Xiangyu kept an eye on her companion with her peripheral vision and curled her lips into a slight smile: “It seems the intensive training from a while ago was quite effective.”

Shu Qiong remained noncommittal.

She felt that a large part of this progress was forced by circumstances. After all, it was a life-or-death moment; if she didn’t squeeze out some potential, she’d be dead, and she wasn’t ready to lose her life just yet.

Her combat skills couldn’t be called sophisticated—they were mostly just functional. Compared to Yan Xiangyu, her style was exceptionally plain: a slash was a slash, a roll was a roll. However, her few cannon shots could be described as unerring; every blast achieved its maximum effect.

The distance from the machine room to the observation deck was short—it would usually take only a moment—but now it felt like fighting until the end of time.

Shu Qiong was nearly losing her temper from the endless grind of the insect tide. Her mech had acquired a few corrosive scars from accidental splashes, though fortunately, they weren’t serious.

This was the trouble with close-quarters combat; the weapons and the mech itself would suffer a considerable degree of wear and tear.

Maneuvering carefully along the way, Shu Qiong and Yan Xiangyu finally arrived at the top-floor observation deck.

The view here was excellent; one look could take in everything within a several-kilometer radius.

Down on the ground in the distance, several unfamiliar mechs were struggling to kill insects, but the swarm was too large, making it difficult for them to approach the signal tower for the moment. Only a few fighter jets in the air and a large helicopter were circling near Shu Qiong and the others, seemingly intending to cover their evacuation.

The instructions coming through the public channel were not smooth, mixed with messy static. The general idea was for them to climb the rope ladder hanging from the helicopter.

However, things did not proceed as smoothly as planned. Just as Shu Qiong controlled Xinghai to grasp the rope, an unusual buzzing sound rang out nearby.

Almost instinctively, she ducked her body and let go of the rope, rolling to the side as a reflex.

In the next instant, a puddle of purple-black mucus splashed onto the spot where she had been standing. It corroded the floor, continuously emitting a foul stench and white smoke. Some of the purple-black sludge also hit the steel rope ladder hanging from the helicopter; the pilot hurriedly steered the fuselage higher to evade.

“That’s…” Shu Qiong panted and looked up, her pupils shrinking.

Yan Xiangyu also looked up and saw the black airborne hives they had encountered previously during the assessment.

These were honeycomb-like objects suspended in the low sky by giant winged Zerg. The hives were covered in hexagonal holes from which various insect soldiers crawled out from time to time, spitting highly corrosive mucus.

These grotesque things were like warships unique to the Zerg.

Shu Qiong heard someone curse briefly on the public channel and saw the helicopter forced to gain altitude, realizing the awkwardness of their situation.

The rescue helicopter could no longer get close to the observation deck they occupied. This kind of low-altitude blockade by the hives increased the difficulty index of the rescue operation significantly.

“How should we solve this?” Shu Qiong asked on the channel, deciding to consult the opinions of those with experience. “We will fully cooperate.”

Yan Xiangyu didn’t speak; she swung her blade to strike down several Zerg swarming from the corridor to the observation deck, using action to affirm Shu Qiong’s words.

On the other end of the channel, the person responding had a calm tone—it sounded like a middle-aged woman: “We can only solve this at the source. We are trying to control drones to deliver high-yield explosive charges to the Broodmother’s floor. You have two choices: one is to find a temporarily safe place to wait for rescue—returning to the machine room is fine. However, once the floor where the Broodmother resides is successfully detonated, the entire signal tower might collapse.”

Shu Qiong said without hesitation: “I choose option two.”

The other side paused, seemingly letting out a faint laugh, or perhaps a muffled sigh: “Look up.”

Shu Qiong and Yan Xiangyu looked up at the same time and saw a wobbling drone dangling a silver-white box, falling toward them.

The middle-aged lady on the other end of the channel spoke with a complex tone: “Option two is for you to go to the Broodmother’s floor to perform the demolition. Inside the box is a high-yield bomb for the demolition; once activated, it will take twenty seconds to count down before exploding.”

“Drones cannot enter the signal tower; they will be intercepted and destroyed once they get close. The rest of the mech units are also blocked outside the signal tower by the insect tide; only you are closest to the Broodmother.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “Of course, you are only students. I will not force you to accept this mission…”

“Mhm,” Shu Qiong said straightforwardly. “I need to know the exact location of the Broodmother and the specific structure within the floor.”

After a few seconds of silence, both she and Yan Xiangyu received a simplified map. The middle-aged lady said: “The sixth floor.”

Shu Qiong tilted her head and looked at Yan Xiangyu.

Yan Xiangyu said only one thing: “Together.”

Shu Qiong let out a breath and forced a smile: “Then… the two of us, jump off a building together?”

Yan Xiangyu didn’t even ask for a reason; she nodded with total trust: “Give the explosive to me.”

Shu Qiong pursed her lips, opened the silver-white box, and took out the unactivated demolition device to give to Yan Xiangyu. The drone that had delivered the explosives had already “died in the line of duty” and was destroyed; Shu Qiong put the waste to use by throwing it off the observation deck down the building.

As the drone wreckage passed the sixth-floor observation deck, three Zerg flew out from inside and sliced it into scraps with their sharp bone-blade forelimbs in an instant.

Shu Qiong watched in silence.

The middle-aged lady’s voice came through the channel: “Immediately leave after you place the demolition device on the sixth floor. The helicopter will find the right moment to pick you up outside the tower.”

Shu Qiong acknowledged. Her movements paused as she began to tally her remaining ammunition.

Once the count was finished, she asked about the state of Yan Xiangyu’s mech’s thermal weapon arsenal, receiving the answer that very little remained.

With mutual understanding, the two braced their cannons and filled them with all the remaining ammunition.

Boom! Thud—

The shells were fired without regard for cost, bombing and clearing a large area of surrounding insects.

Immediately after, Shu Qiong began to strip the thermal weapon racks from their two mechs.

Her movements were nimble and skilled; in just a few moves, she finished stripping off the empty thermal weapon racks. The fuselages of Xinghai and Standby became significantly lighter.

“We will succeed,” Shu Qiong looked at Yan Xiangyu inside Standby through the layer of the mech shell and promised, “Definitely.”

Yan Xiangyu’s tone was relaxed: “I believe you.”

She fully understood what Shu Qiong was about to do and was the first to leap down from the top floor of the signal tower.

Even with the thermal weapon racks removed, the weight of the mechs was still considerable. The gargantuan, heavy metal lumps plummeted downward, piercing through the stagnant air as if opening a path named “Survival.”

Shu Qiong shouted sharply at the right moment: “Prepare to decelerate!”

While falling, Yan Xiangyu continuously adjusted her posture. Upon hearing the command, she immediately activated the anti-gravity levitation device. Gripping her weapon with one hand and adjusting her center of gravity, she put herself in a state where she could engage enemies at any moment.

Thud!

Plummeting to the sixth floor, she controlled Standby’s left arm to hook onto a corner of the observation deck. With the assistance of the anti-gravity device, she suddenly exerted force to flip inside, swinging her whip to knock back a row of Zerg vanguard units that came to obstruct her.

The density of insects on the sixth floor was much greater than on the top floor; one look inside was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

Killing them all was unrealistic. Yan Xiangyu simply performed a basic sweep and said to Shu Qiong on the channel: “I’ve reached the sixth floor.”

“Good, then I’m coming down too.”

Shu Qiong let out a breath of relief and flexed her wrist joints.

Yan Xiangyu looked outside—she actually had the heart to joke at a time like this, extending an arm from outside the sixth-floor observation deck: “Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.”

“…” Shu Qiong imagined that scene and felt it was a bit too “beautiful”: “I’ll do it myself.”

After speaking, she leaped outward and plummeted straight down from the top floor.

The signal tower was twelve stories high, and each story was much taller than a standard building. Falling from the top floor was exceptionally “refreshing.”

Aside from not being able to directly feel the airflow slapping her body, everything else was like riding a drop tower—thrilling with a touch of disillusionment.

Shu Qiong suppressed her dizziness to estimate the altitude. At the eighth floor, she turned on the anti-gravity engine, immediately feeling a strong sense of stagnation; the mech’s descent speed was noticeably slowed.

At the same time, the black hives hovering in the low sky spat a large mass of purple mucus toward Shu Qiong, looking as if it were about to smash onto Xinghai’s back.

It was difficult for Xinghai to dodge in mid-air in time; she could only curl her body slightly to minimize the area being corroded.

With a splat, the mass of mucus hit a dark object, intercepting it halfway.

Shu Qiong escaped the disaster and saw a bloated Zerg that had flown in diagonally to block her, along with the receding shadow of a short steel whip.

The sixth floor was right before her eyes. She extended her arms in time, firmly grasping the protruding brick wall of the sixth-floor observation deck. Activating the auxiliary thrusters, she squeezed herself into the building.

The drones and small fighter jets in the low sky provided assistance all the way, helping them clear away most of the insects in the path. Seeing that both had successfully entered the sixth floor, they recalled themselves to circle near the helicopter, waiting for the moment to dive down and fish the people out.

No one spoke in the channel; there were only slightly rapid breathing sounds. Shu Qiong was completely unable to think about anything else—her mind was full of “explode, explode, explode.”

Her close-combat skills had achieved a qualitative leap under the high-pressure environment. She ran straight toward the interior following the map, taking no detours, and directly used a high-temperature blade to melt open a thin metal partition.

Yan Xiangyu followed with a fierce kick. The wobbling partition shook twice and fell backward with a clang, revealing the scene behind it.

It was a mutated specimen with a monstrously large body—the source and brain of the insect tide, the Broodmother commanding the swarm.

Its massive compound eyes reflected dense images, like countless mirror reflections of the same object from different angles. Countless piles of insect eggs were stuck to the Broodmother’s lower abdomen and the surrounding walls, while a layer of glowing green mucus flowed on the ground.

Shu Qiong and Yan Xiangyu cautiously avoided the mucus, not stepping into it rashly. The latter took out the high-yield demolition bomb, while the former immediately drew the high-temperature blade and directly fusion-welded it into a corner of the metal wall.

The Broodmother’s oppressive, gargantuan head turned ninety degrees, its mouthparts wriggling silently twice as if transmitting something.

Click.

Click.

Dozens of insect eggs around them burst open at once. One after another, deformed insect vermin bathed in mucus crawled out. All of them wiggled the antennae on their heads as if they had received a unified signal, pouncing toward Shu Qiong and Yan Xiangyu without hesitation.

After welding the bomb to the wall not far from the Broodmother, Shu Qiong ignored it and shouted at Yan Xiangyu: “Run!”

Yan Xiangyu simultaneously activated the bomb’s countdown, turned the thrusters on her body to the maximum, and bolted outward with Shu Qiong.