Jerome nodded. "That's right."
"So I'm the one who took it down," Bai Ye said, observing Jerome's back. "A mecha?"
If a native had appeared before him piloting a mecha, Bai Ye's shock would have been considerably less.
But Jerome...
A Chosen One...
Bai Ye felt a sense of dread.
Was this something obtainable at the current stage?
After all, the difficulty of obtaining a mecha might be even higher than that of the Raging Thunder Fruit. The Raging Thunder Fruit could be obtained and then its proficiency slowly improved. A mecha, however, had to be assembled entirely.
This wasn't something that could be obtained now, was it?
"Impressive!" Jerome exclaimed from the other side. "Can I have the corpse?"
Bai Ye blinked. "Hmm?"
Jerome stated frankly, "Abomination is my mission target, but I only need the corpse. So, it's fine that you killed it, or I can pay a certain reward."
"Oh?" Bai Ye raised an eyebrow and pondered for a moment before asking, "Are you familiar with this area?"
Jerome replied, "Reasonably so. I've been around here for a month."
Bai Ye took out a sea chart. "I'm lost. Can you help me figure out the route? Of course, you can take the corpse."
Jerome glanced at Bai Ye's sea chart. "I have a sea chart too, and it's a bit different from yours. How about we discuss it on shore?"
Bai Ye asked, "On shore?"
"Yes!" Jerome said. "It's not far from here. If it were deep sea, I wouldn't have come out to intercept Abomination directly."
Bai Ye was taken aback, then a look of realization dawned on his face.
Right!
The sea beasts before had been swimming, but this one could stand directly, with one-sixth of its body emerging from the sea.
That sea beast was at most about 150 meters tall, which meant the water depth here was at most a little over a hundred meters, while deep sea depths usually reached around two thousand meters.
After a moment of thought, Bai Ye said to Jerome, "Then I'll trouble you to lead the way."
Jerome nodded. "Follow me."
The projection screen before Bai Ye disappeared, and then the colossal mecha, a hundred meters tall, slowly turned and began to move through the sea.
Bai Ye flickered his figure and appeared above the mecha, reappearing and landing on its shoulder.
At that moment, Bai Ye felt a sense of invincibility.
This was a mecha!
The romance of romances, the ultimate romance for men.
Compared to a mecha, a lightsaber was merely a small toothpick.
Although he couldn't enter the cockpit, Bai Ye felt it was quite good to be able to stand on the mecha and feel the thrill.
The mecha moved forward, pushing through the seawater.
Soon, Bai Ye saw land and frowned slightly.
"Doomsday zone?"
The land was clearly a city, or perhaps "once a city" would be a more accurate description.
As for now...
Bai Ye felt that "ruins" would be a more fitting term. Everywhere were broken walls, collapsed buildings, and piles of rubble like small mountains.
However, on the outermost edge, near the sea, something was being built. Bai Ye estimated it to be a wall.
A very tall and formidable wall.
Judging by the constructed sections, the wall was about three hundred meters high, far exceeding the height of the mecha and the sea beast. Looking at the foundation's extension, it was even more terrifying.
Such a towering wall was meant to cover the entire coastline?
Seeing this, Bai Ye had a rough idea of where he was.
Gao Ming's sea chart was incomplete, with some unknown areas naturally not drawn. Additionally, some connected sea areas with unclear conditions were blacked out by Gao Ming, marked with yellow question marks, and accompanied by brief notes.
To the southwest of the area where he had set off, there was a blacked-out region. Gao Ming's note read: A group explored, lost contact three days later, with no response for the following twenty-one days, highly likely deceased.
Considering the time and distance, Bai Ye believed he had likely entered this area due to the storm.
And judging by the scene before him, this should be a doomsday zone.
At this moment, Jerome's projection reappeared. He said to Bai Ye, "Please wait a moment, I'll be right there."
There were many construction workers around the wall, but further back, there was an open area where a massive metal support structure stood, about 150 meters tall.
Jerome piloted the mecha forward. After standing in the designated position, metal pipes extended from the support structure and connected with the mecha.
The next moment, many people in uniform emerged, carrying various machines, driving engineering vehicles, and dragging cables. They ascended the elevator on the side of the support structure and began to maintain the mecha.
Simultaneously, the mecha's chest opened, and Jerome emerged. To Bai Ye's surprise, the mecha was not piloted by a single person. Beside Jerome was a middle-aged man with blond hair and a scruffy beard.
Soon, Jerome descended the elevator and walked over to Bai Ye, extending his hand with a smile. "Using a projection earlier was not very polite. Let me formally introduce myself again, Jerome Zack Vidox, a Chosen One like yourself."
Bai Ye shook hands with Jerome. "Bai Ye."
Jerome said, "Let's go, we'll find a place to talk."
Bai Ye glanced at the middle-aged man walking away. "Not coming along?"
"Him?" Jerome chuckled. "He's not a Chosen One, but a native."
Bai Ye was stunned for a moment, then realized. "I was going to ask you how you managed to get a mecha at this stage. Now it seems I don't need to ask."
Bai Ye obtaining the Raging Thunder Fruit at this stage was already outrageous, but that was because the gacha machine had a bug.
If Jerome possessed a mecha, it would be even more outrageous than the Raging Thunder Fruit.
However, that mecha required two pilots, one of whom was a native. Bai Ye understood.
That mecha did not belong to Jerome. Jerome had merely obtained the control of the mecha due to a mission, or for other reasons.
But neither the right of control nor the ownership belonged to Jerome.
Ownership was easy to understand; the mecha could not be placed in the inventory, nor could it be traded by Jerome.
As for the right of control, Jerome could only pilot the mecha to perform specific tasks and could not use the mecha for personal gain.
For example, if Jerome piloted that mecha into a safe zone, it would undoubtedly be a massacre, allowing him to frantically harvest Divine Stone fragments, or to conquer a forbidden zone, making him an invincible existence.
Unfortunately, Jerome could not do that. He couldn't even use the mecha to attack irrelevant individuals like Bai Ye. Even the mecha's operational range was limited.