pjbooks Chapter 348 The Lost 'Pioneer Core'
Chapter 348 The Lost 'Pioneer Core'
The night rain gradually subsided.
The air was filled with a salty, fishy smell, a mixture of rust and seawater.
In the abandoned cargo port of Cannes, towering cranes stand like silent steel skeletons, casting eerie shadows in the dim light.
Chen Yifan did not keep the appointment.
Or rather, what came was not his true form.
On top of a container a kilometer from the port, he didn't even lift his eyelids, his whole being like a stubborn rock blending into the night.
【Return to Shadows】 has already been activated.
A shadow clone, identical to him in aura, form, and even heartbeat, walked alone into this steel graveyard made of rusty shipping containers.
He never believed anyone's promises, especially those of the Order Council, which were madmen who were using him as a pawn.
"Tick-tock, tick-tock."
Rainwater dripped from the edges of the container, forming puddles of muddy water on the ground.
The shadow clone walked to the agreed coordinates, a relatively open area.
No one is empty.
The clone stood still, hands in pockets, patiently waiting.
Three minutes later.
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
Five figures silently slid down from the shadows of the surrounding containers, landing steadily on the ground, forming a semi-circle that surrounded the clone.
They were all dressed in black, tight-fitting combat suits, but their exposed limbs gleamed with a metallic texture, and their joints featured sophisticated hydraulic transmission structures.
The lead cyborg, whose face was half-covered in bright silver alloy, swept the red light from his electronic eyes around Chen Yifan's clone.
"You're Chen Yifan?"
His voice was also a completely emotionless, synthesized electronic voice.
Chen Yifan's clone raised an eyebrow but did not answer.
"Did you bring the things?"
The lead cyborg didn't seem to care about his attitude. He made a gesture, and a team member behind him stepped forward and threw a heavy silver metal box on the ground with a clatter.
"The 'deposit' you requested is all inside."
"One-third of the materials on the list are complete." The cyborg captain crossed his arms, his alloy arms reflecting a ghostly light in the rain.
"Now you can inspect the goods."
Chen Yifan's clone crouched down and opened the box.
Inside the box, various rare treasures emitted different colored halos under the dim light.
The Void Dragon Lizard's reverse scales rippled with spatial fluctuations, the Star Steel Mother as heavy as a star core, and even a specially made container containing a section of a living tentacle of a Deep Sea Demon Octopus that was still slightly wriggling...
The Council of Order has indeed spared no expense.
However, just as Chen Yifan's clone was about to touch the materials inside the box...
hum...
An invisible energy surge erupted from the metal box!
Four blue beams of light descended from the sky, instantly enveloping the area completely, forming an airtight energy cage.
On the ground, countless runes lit up, and a powerful binding force tightly suppressed the space inside the cage.
"Heh." The leader of the cyborgs let out a piercing electronic laugh.
"Mr. Chen Yifan, in addition to delivering goods, the 'Council' has given us another task."
"Let's test just how sharp your 'weapon' really is."
The other four cyborgs simultaneously activated their weapon systems, their arms transforming into high-speed rotating plasma blades, and dark energy cannons popping out of their chests, as powerful energy began to converge.
They had no intention of a peaceful deal at all.
The so-called "deposit" was just bait to lure him into a trap.
"idiot."
A faint voice, not coming from inside the energy cage, suddenly rang out behind the cyborg captain.
"!"
The cyborg captain whirled around, his electronic eyes instantly locking onto Chen Yifan's true form, which had appeared behind him without him even noticing.
His processor overloaded instantly, unable to comprehend what was happening before his eyes.
The target is clearly trapped in the energy field, so who is this?!
"you……"
He only had time to utter one word.
A hand had already gently placed on the top of his head.
There was no terrifying energy burst, nor any earth-shattering sound.
"Click."
A crisp sound, like cracking a walnut, rang out.
The special alloy skull, capable of withstanding artillery fire, along with its sophisticated central processing unit, was instantly crushed into a lump of scrap metal by an invisible yet domineering force.
The flashing red electronic eye dimmed instantly.
"Team...Captain?!"
The four cyborgs beside the cage were completely dumbfounded.
Why were their targets outside? How could the captain be killed in an instant?
For the first time, their modified brains, which should have been absolutely calm, overflowed with an emotion called "chaos."
At this moment, the "Chen Yifan" trapped in the cage curled up a mocking smile, his entire body turning into a wisp of black smoke and dissipating into the air.
fake!
It was fake from the very beginning!
"Oh no! It's a trap!"
"Activate at maximum power and eliminate the target!"
The four cyborgs finally reacted, and all the cannons and blades instantly turned around, locking onto Chen Yifan.
However, it was too late.
Chen Yifan was too lazy to even use the other supernatural abilities he had just learned.
He simply raised his eyes.
Within his sea of consciousness, the three-story purple-gold pagoda trembled slightly.
The pages of the "Starry Sky Codex" floating atop the tower turned, and a spiritual force more than ten times purer than before emanated from it.
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
Four barely audible soft sounds.
The four cyborgs, who were preparing to launch a thunderous attack, suddenly froze.
Their movements remained in an attack stance, but the red light in their eyes mysteriously went out at the same time.
On a spiritual level that they themselves could not perceive, four invisible spikes formed from pure spiritual energy precisely pierced their central cores.
God Meteor Thorn.
Now, in his hands, it can be instantaneous, multi-target, and silent.
Thump, thump...
Four cold, metallic bodies fell to the ground one after another, splashing water everywhere.
From the moment Chen Yifan appeared to the end of the battle, it took no more than three seconds.
The entire port fell silent once more.
Chen Yifan walked to the corpse of the cyborg captain whose head he had crushed and squatted down.
"Let me see what your so-called 'truth' really is."
His hand rested on the other man's tattered breastplate.
Stealing everything!
launch!
[Theft successful!]
Congratulations! You have obtained a partial (incomplete) memory fragment of 'Observer-13'!
Chen Yifan immediately focused his attention on the newly appeared memory fragment.
Soon, blurry images flashed through his mind.
"...The 'Sacred Relic' has been retrieved by the 'Lamp Bearer'..."
"...Location confirmed, Kangcheng's seventh secret outpost, codenamed 'The Hive'..."
"...The 'prison guard' is of unknown identity, and the danger level is assessed as 'S'..."
This is all information about the mission; it's not of much value.
Chen Yifan continued to delve deeper.
Finally, he saw a scene that made his pupils shrink.
It was a laboratory filled with futuristic technology.
In the life support capsule in the center of the image, a mechanical heart is slowly beating!
It is made entirely of some unknown silver metal, and its surface is engraved with billions of energy circuits that are thinner than a hair.
On the data panel below the life support pod, a line of striking text made Chen Yifan's breath catch in his throat.
[Project Name: Pioneer-03 Core]
[Status: Hibernating]
[Note: One of the keys to the arrival of 'Truth'...]
Pioneer Core!
It turns out to be one of the seeds left behind on Earth by the "Machine Pioneers"!
This power is almost identical to the broken mechanical body he saw in the abandoned mine ruins of Jiangcheng!
The Council of Order's goal isn't some damn "holy relic" at all, but rather this key that can unlock a certain plan!
Chen Yifan forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart and continued to flip through his memories.
But my memory ends here.
Clearly, this team leader's authority only extends to this level of understanding.
But a new question arose in Chen Yifan's mind.
Why would the lamplighter receive something so important?
Moreover, the "prison guards" who were watching over it were actually assessed as "S" level dangerous by the Council of Order?
The water in this pool was deeper than he had imagined.
Chen Yifan stood up and put the metal box on the ground into his storage space.
He glanced at the few cold corpses, then without pausing, his figure flashed and disappeared completely into the night of the port.
……
Half an hour later, in an abandoned sewer somewhere in Kangcheng.
Chen Yifan found a dry corner and took the metal box out again.
He took out the materials one by one and carefully counted them.
The Void Dragon Lizard's Reverse Scale, the Star Steel Mother, the Deep Sea Demon Chapter's Living Tentacles, the High-Dimensional Spirit Crystal...
His expression shifted from calm to confusion, and finally to an extremely strange smile.
He discovered something very interesting.
The "deposit" that the Council of Order gave him was indeed one-third of the list.
However, the list he initially provided was tampered with.
The materials listed above were not only three times the amount he actually needed, but also included many useless but equally valuable items to mislead him.
And now, the "deposit" placed in front of him is actually...
They actually managed to gather nearly 90% of the core materials needed to "unlock" others!
There are even enough to feed seven or eight people at the same time!
Those tin cans treated him like a fool.
Little did they know that they themselves were the ones being played.
Chen Yifan was playing with a piece of advanced spiritual crystal.
Feeling the pure energy contained within, the smile on his lips grew wider and wider.
The materials have arrived.
Why would he even bother trying to break into that damn "Honeycomb"?
For information about that elusive fragment of the "World Core," would you risk your life against a mysterious "prison guard" rated as "S" dangerous?
This deal... doesn't seem like a good deal.