Fu Yafang gazed at the colossal transport mecha before her, her heart a tempest of emotions.
This expedition, who knew what dangers and hardships awaited.
"Qinglian, time is up," Huang Yaohui urged, standing at the mecha's base.
Fu Yafang nodded, pulled out a worn communication wristband, and sent a message to Liu Feng:
[Liu Feng, if I haven't contacted you in three years, do not think of me again in this life.]
As Fu Yafang typed these words, her eyes welled up, and a tear traced a silent path down her cheek.
But in the next second, Fu Yafang wiped away her tears, her gaze firm, and walked towards the mecha.
...
Deep in the jungle at night, Gu Ya stood atop the serpentine behemoth, watching the defeated Wang Can squad with cold eyes.
Wei Ping had already been rescued by them. She hung her head, repeatedly apologizing to her two teammates.
"It's alright, we'll be more careful next time," Wang Can consoled in a low voice.
Huang Bo looked up at Gu Ya, a flicker of malice appearing in his eyes, and said, "Wang Can, if we take down Gu Ya now..."
Wang Can turned and slapped Huang Bo across the face, stating righteously, "Losing is losing! If you're outmatched, don't resort to dirty tricks!"
Hearing Wang Can's words, Gu Ya felt a sliver of comfort. Although Wang Can's skills were inferior to his, his principles were quite sound.
"You wait for rescue," Gu Ya said softly, preparing to leave.
"Gu Ya!" Wang Can called out, "This time, it was Wei Ping's carelessness that led to our defeat, not our lack of strength. Next time, I will challenge you to a one-on-one duel."
Gu Ya said with a casual air, "I'm always ready."
With that, Gu Ya controlled the mechanical behemoth, spitting out Wei Ping's mecha, then moved a massive tree trunk aside and entered his own mecha.
At this moment, the Xuan Lang team, one kilometer away, observed Gu Ya's battle using a micro-drone mecha.
Wei Yongji asked, "What method did Gu Ya use to control the mechanical behemoth?"
Xuan Lang's face showed a knowing smile, saying, "Interesting."
He realized that Gu Ya must possess an unknown ability.
"What should we do? Should we take him down now?" Wei Yongji inquired.
"What's the rush? Let's take it slow," Xuan Lang said with a smile.
"In this entire region, it's just us and Gu Ya. He's alone and won't rashly attack us," Xuan Lang stated.
"Jiang Tingyue, maintain surveillance on Gu Ya. Wei Yongji and I will go search for behemoths and traps."
"Received!"
"Understood!"
Gu Ya's mecha did not leave immediately. He watched Wang Can and the others walk away before cautiously returning to his original spot.
Suddenly, a red dot in the distant sky caught his attention.
It was the infrared detection from the micro-drone mecha's night vision. The only presence nearby was the Xuan Lang team.
It seemed his previous battle had been witnessed.
Should he take the initiative or wait and see? Gu Ya pondered. Regardless, being monitored made him feel uncomfortable.
Gu Ya controlled his mecha and picked up a giant tree branch, then hurled it forcefully at the reconnaissance mecha without warning.
Jiang Tingyue calmly piloted the drone mecha to evade. When she adjusted her view to look back, the battleground was empty, and even the behemoth had vanished.
...
From the encampment outside the jungle, Xie Fangbin rushed over, staring at the holographic screen, replaying the recent events again and again.
Wei Ping had discovered Gu Ya first, but less than a minute later, Wei Ping was defeated.
What fighting power was this!
What method did Gu Ya use to defeat Wei Ping in such a short time?
"I have high hopes for Wei Ping. Her performance is good, and her background is also excellent. However..." Xie Fangbin sighed.
Shi Heping smiled slightly and said, "Now, doesn't Gu Ya feel a bit like Wang Shangmeng?"
"Hmph, he's still far from it," Xie Fangbin replied coldly.
...
After disrupting the unmanned reconnaissance mecha, Gu Ya quickly exited the cockpit, used [Void Wrap] to reclaim the mechanical behemoth, and swiftly piloted his mecha to evade.
It was deep into the night. After a day of exhaustion, Gu Ya felt profoundly tired.
Moreover, his stomach had been empty for a long time.
"When I was building mechas with Wu Xuan before, I could stay awake for two days and two nights without issues."
"Recently, I've been feeling hungry all the time. It's probably because I'm growing."
Gu Ya took out a ration pack and chewed it vigorously.
Suddenly, Gu Ya thought of something.
Everyone was human, so opponents would also feel fatigue. Fatigue bred laziness, and laziness led to oversight.
Gu Ya smiled knowingly, having thought of a plan.
Immediately, he controlled his mecha and flew towards the depths of the jungle.
The deep jungle must surely hold more fierce beasts and traps. It seemed dangerous, but it was also the best place to hide.
At night, many small animals emerged to forage, making the jungle floor even livelier.
A small mouse darted out from the gap between fallen leaves and low bushes, instantly scared away by the sight before it.
Ahead, Gu Ya stood atop a behemoth coiled like a small mountain, disassembling its scale armor with tools.
When the joints of this alien mecha contracted, its body was twenty-three meters long and five meters thick.
It had a massive snake head, with its mouth opening to a full eleven meters, capable of biting an academy mecha.
And when its body fully extended, it was a staggering one hundred and five meters.
Seen at night, it was terrifying.
"This giant snake relies on a micro-analog battery to power its tens of thousands of precise and continuous mechanical components. Coupled with its body being cast from silent materials, it can move stealthily."
Gu Ya muttered to himself with a smile.
"Utilizing this behemoth effectively will yield remarkable results."
"The only problem now is achieving remote control."
But this was no obstacle for Gu Ya. He summoned the system store, and among the tens of thousands of products, he found a multipopulation dense array processor for only 650 system coins.
He only needed to install the master and slave processors on the behemoth and his own mecha, replacing the behemoth's old fixed-behavior program decoder.
Then, encrypt the communication, set up complex communication protocols to prevent opponents from deciphering it.
Finally, edit the action code for the mechanical behemoth within the mecha's program.
This would enable remote control of the behemoth.
"Alright, done!" Gu Ya stood up, admiring his masterpiece with satisfaction, then slipped into his mecha to begin debugging.
It was one o'clock in the morning. Gu Ya estimated that he would finish writing all the action programs for the behemoth and complete the debugging around three o'clock in the morning.
"Three o'clock, exactly when humans are dozing off."
Gu Ya thought, feeling another surge of delight.
On Xuan Lang's side, they had also not rested. He and Wei Yongji had jointly taken down a behemoth.
Meanwhile, Jiang Tingyue, piloting the drone mecha, had finished searching for hidden locations within a five-kilometer radius and reported, "Still no sign of Gu Ya."
Wei Yongji yawned and said, "Why don't we take turns resting? It's only the early morning of the second day, and there are still two days left. Besides, nighttime is unfavorable for combat."
Xuan Lang was also starting to feel the strain. "Alright. Tingyue, you're on surveillance for an hour and a half. Wake us up then."
"Understood," Jiang Tingyue replied calmly.
At three-fifteen in the morning, Gu Ya finally lowered his hands, gazing at the dense programs on the mecha screen, and smiled wearily.
"Heh heh, the night raid has begun."
"Welcome to my world of horror!"
Gu Ya smiled, pushed the control stick, and the mecha started smoothly.
The coiled giant snake on the ground also began to slowly unfurl its body.
Suddenly, Gu Ya felt a dizzy spell...