Dow and Carbon-Based Monkey Breeding Guidelines

Chapter 973: Tianxiaze (Part )

The flames were bright yellow, very similar to the color of summer sunlight shining on the waves. At this time, the outer flame temperature was roughly around 1,300 degrees, far from the performance limit of the nozzle, but Li Li thought it was enough. She argued that this temperature could kill any carbon-based organisms that would be damaged by the toxins, while not destroying the power transmission pipes and power modules in the movable bracket. If necessary, a specific nozzle could continuously release a blue-white flame flow of 2,000 to 3,000 degrees, at the cost of damaging adjacent modules and rapidly consuming energy.

Luo Binhan was a little worried that this would not be enough. He was so used to seeing Jing Huang emit balls of magical flames that he subconsciously regarded fire as a safe and harmless creative force, rather than a source of destruction and death. But in the mortal world, this was obviously wrong, stupidly wrong. Although he jumped as far as he could, he could still feel the rolling heat waves burning the back of his head, and the slight pain spreading on his scalp. His hair might be a little burnt, but he had nothing to complain about. Li Li had advised him to wear a protective helmet before.

He was fine, because his clothes were insulated with ceramic fibers. The wind whistled under his feet, as if he was about to fly in the air, and then the inertia ended, and he fell straight down, landing on a metal sheet that had been extended in advance. He immediately squatted down to regain his balance.

Each minimum independent unit support plate is only half a meter square, and the wind is very strong at high altitude. He instinctively wanted to reach out to the edge of the thin plate for support, but he immediately retracted it. He couldn't take risks, because this metal plate was dispatched from the edge of the sea of ​​fire a second ago. There is no problem with the shock-absorbing boots with heat insulation interlayer, but it is hard to say with bare hands. Alas, Li Li also advised him to wear gloves, but the test showed that it really affected his mid-range and long-range shooting accuracy. There is gain and loss, and he, a crash course hunter, has no time for corrective training.

The platform was swaying very slightly, rising and moving outward at the same time. He crouched quietly for two seconds, giving the movable brackets under his feet time to adapt to the new force balance. If you were to watch this scene from the ground, it would have seemed both funny and thrilling: a metal pole that was not even as thick as an arm, bent and tilted to a height of 40 to 50 meters, but an adult man had to stand on the top. This was a bit like using a plastic straw to support a shot put. No stilt walker would want to have such a nightmare.

But this thin straw made of alloy can stand upright. It's not because of its special material - they haven't been able to steal the drill pipe from the Kola Deep Well - but because it is supported by a cleverly designed internal skeleton; inside each bracket, there are movable support structures called "electronic joints" distributed at regular intervals. These connecting parts that connect the single brackets in series can adjust the inclination angle of each segment according to the change in force, and also assist the hydraulic system in bearing weight, so that the movable platform on the top maintains dynamic balance.

Li Li once announced that this facility was not beyond the technological level of their hometown. This was true in terms of hardware, but at the same time she also cunningly concealed another fact: the algorithm that could keep thousands of "electronic joints" in real-time dynamic balance was probably not something readily available in their place. The "Colosseum" facility itself was just a mechanical shell with thousands of hands and feet, but its soul was not beneath the surface. The supercomputing center with terrifying performance and complex judgment capabilities still lay in his bedroom in Lihai City.

Luo Binhan was held in the air by her "arm of strength" and quickly glanced at the ground. The towering garbage mountain had fallen down, turning into a chaotic and turbulent muddy stream, rolling along a swirling trajectory. He guessed that the wind system was activated before the core facility was raised to readjust the positions of the bombs, accelerants and hydrofluoric acid injection ports. The scene was dizzying, like a giant snake coiled around the world tree, wriggling layer by layer. He was delayed by this bizarre scene for another half a second, and then turned around to look at the burning tower.

The structure that resembled a tower was disintegrating. It was not a real tower building, but a pseudo-building structure cleverly combined with dozens of independent movable platforms and a small number of jet supports, just like a dozen thin colored ropes tied into an exquisite slipknot. It was so beautifully tied that people would believe that they were originally one.

But the trick was over now. The person who had tied the knot was unraveling it with incredible speed, and it unfolded layer by layer and stretched out section by section, turning back into many thin, curved, and freely stretchable tentacles in a blink of an eye: some of them were connected to thin platforms at the ends, which were specially designed for people (basically, just him) to stand on and move and aim; others were rotating nozzles that did not provide footholds, and they also released high-intensity electric currents on the sides of the spray gun to protect themselves.

The entire island's surface was covered with such mobile platforms and balance brackets. This was the ultimate battlefield they painstakingly built to defeat the monster. It didn't look like a Colosseum or a hunting forest at all, but a thousand-legged sea monster lurking under the remnants of civilization. The sea monster's heart came from the sky. At this moment, it was moving the mobile platform carrying Luo Binhan outward while manipulating the jet nozzles in the area to rotate up and down, burning the bracket shells that once formed the tower.

Luo Binhan also raised his gun and squinted to observe the interlaced flames. He saw several slender and tall brackets standing up at the edge of the island. They were Li Li's multi-type observation eyes. There were both high-frame cameras and short-wave radars, and of course infrared thermal sensors, but they might not work well in the fire. The same was true for the ground observation point. The two of them were observing and searching.

The fire dragon continued to dance and circle. The flames were dazzling, but there was almost no smoke because they were using electric flames and hydrogen. Li Li was completely unwilling to take the risk of leaving the high-pressure liquid fuel pipe to Zhou Wenxing as a water gun, even though a large amount of mixed combustion agent had already been placed in the garbage liquid swamp on the ground.

Luo Binhan wanted to find clues in the clear light: a wisp of black smoke caused by burning impurities, or the sulphurous smell of burning protein, but he never found it. This was not surprising. Things were not so easy. He didn't want to fire blindly at the fire dragon to avoid accidentally damaging the electrical pipes, but he couldn't wait any longer because he knew Zhou Wenxing might have disappeared, just like he disappeared in the voucher room. If this thing did it again, he would have to take the only feasible countermeasure and rush to the right place at the right time.

The movable platform carrying him has moved to the limit of its own block - all movable platforms, restricted by the fixed position of the bottom of the bracket, can only move within a specific block. Luo Binhan lowered his head to glance at the thin plate under his feet and saw the number "E3-35" printed on its front side. Movable plate No. 35 in East District does not have a third digit, a standard movable platform, no hidden spray guns, and no electric shock traps. The corresponding location map naturally emerged in his mind. Originally, he did not need a location map. He was about to vomit on this island and could walk from east to west with his eyes closed. But now the situation is different, because the surface features have been completely changed, and the pseudo-tower traps in the central area have been completely disintegrated, and can no longer provide directional instructions. He can only cooperate with Li Li based on the location map and numbers he had memorized in advance. "Go to West Two," he said, "Go to East Four, North Three."

A movable platform at the edge of East District 4 popped out from the ground and connected to him within two seconds. Luo Binhan stood on it and let the platform take him to the next block. His eyes did not leave the place where the flames were flying, and he was still searching for shadows lurking in the flames from different angles. Zhou Wenxing was not stupid, and he should understand that the situation had changed at this moment. In such a space where there were no barriers, no walls, no ceiling, and even almost no floor around the opponent, his ability to enter and exit or even move in different spaces could not gain much advantage. Moreover, according to their inference, the use of such ability requires certain conditions. If Zhou Wenxing had been a little careful, he would not have easily fallen into an unknown trap.

The platform reached the end of East Zone 4. The edge platform of North Zone 3 had already popped out. In order to ensure the efficiency of his movement, the platform's rebound and elevation response was designed to be very fast, but as a price, the retraction became very slow, just like putting a spring that has exhausted its power back into a box. This design flaw that is difficult to achieve will inevitably provide the enemy with an additional foothold, so Li Li was extremely cautious and strictly limited the number of brackets that popped out. As soon as Luo Binhan moved to the new platform, the old platform of North Zone 3 had already lowered.

"Wait." Luo Binhan said. He saw a shadow swaying at the bottom of the flame. He immediately jumped onto the old platform and looked up from 20 meters above the ground. Zhou Wenxing was hiding under the fire dragon. Because the bases of the multiple crater supports were too close, the swirling and staggered flames formed a very small blind spot in the central area directly below. Zhou Wenxing was hiding in the blind spot, grabbing the two lower-level supports of the crater respectively, and his whole body swayed gently with the airflow and mechanical operation like a hanging vine gourd. The flames had not hurt him yet, but the surrounding heat radiation had made his face sweat and his breathing rapid. This was the first time that Luo Binhan saw him have such a physiological reaction like a living person, but he still looked calm, and was thinking with his head down at a height of eight stories above the ground, looking at the uncontrolled garbage sea below. He probably wouldn't die if he fell, but he would inevitably fall into a trap - his guess was not wrong. The more obvious answer was that he would become a living target on the high-altitude shooting platform, and the hidden additional answer was that there were highly dense thermal kinetic energy sensors and nearly ten thousand variable-direction jet nozzles on the ground.

Luo Binhan smiled at him and pressed the control button on the back of the headset with his left hand. "I really wish you had asked me for something before." His voice echoed across the island through the speakers hidden in the garbage dump, "That would have saved a lot of trouble. But it's good now, and I prefer this method."

Li Li had already dispatched enough nozzles from the neighboring blocks to cover the lower level area. Luo Binhan also raised his gun and shot at Zhou Wenxing's head. Just as he raised his arm to aim, Zhou Wenxing had already loosened his right hand and quickly slid down along the bracket held by his left hand. Luo Binhan predicted his falling path and fired, but he suddenly stepped on the bracket, jumped high upward, and pounced on the nozzle bracket that had just stretched out from nearby. Luo Binhan fired another shot, and the laser passed through Zhou Wenxing's body, from his left shoulder to a certain part between his ribs.

He didn't have time to confirm where he had hit, Zhou Wenxing had already landed on the bracket one meter below the nozzle. In a flash, Luo Binhan could only clearly see his hand - slender and exposed pale fingers, with sharp and deformed ends, like the claws of a vicious monster in a fairy tale, and like the remains of a tortured person who had been tortured by the shackle. The hand was barely able to hold the bracket, and then a dark stream flowed out from between the fingers.

Luo Binhan immediately raised his gun and fired. Although the laser gun that Yalai left him had strong penetration, and its medium and long-range aiming was more stable than metal bullets, and there was no concern about the amount of ammunition, its flaws were finally exposed at this moment - as a killing tool, its caliber of damage was really pitifully small. He wanted to break Zhou Wenxing's wrist first, but the bracket on the opposite side kept shaking, and the laser beam only left a scorch mark on the target's arm. Even though the situation was urgent, he couldn't help but hatefully think of the reasons Li Li gave when she refused him to use heavy machine guns and explosive bombs around the pseudo-tower trap: saying that such equipment was difficult to obtain (after she quickly built such a Colosseum), and that it was impossible to achieve fast and accurate sniping by remote operation. He knew that these were essentially excuses. Li Li felt that these weapons were too uncontrollable, and if they were seized by Zhou Wenxing, it would put his life in danger.

Facts have proved that being cautious is not always a good thing. If they had deployed long-range heavy firepower, Zhou Wenxing would have been beaten to pieces by now. Luo Binhan fired the third shot. He was sure that he hit Zhou Wenxing's back and was ready to make further efforts. Li Li lowered the support that Zhou Wenxing was holding to prevent him from using the height to jump to the shooting platform. She was also on guard against more supports approaching and perhaps becoming Zhou Wenxing's mobile springboard, so she left the attack mission to Luo Binhan and just retracted the support where Zhou Wenxing was. Once Zhou Wenxing landed, she would undoubtedly deploy the ground explosives in place.

However, in just a few seconds, the bracket that Zhou Wenxing was holding had changed its appearance. The alloy shell turned into a dark black color without any reflection, as if it was covered with some kind of zero-reflection paint. Luo Binhan had never seen this trick before. Before he could figure it out, Zhou Wenxing gently bent the dark area, and the entire pipeline was broken softly. Luo Binhan had hoped that the high-voltage current inside would give him a good beating, but Zhou Wenxing was holding the broken end with his hand without any problem. There was no arc radiation or exposed pipeline inside the broken end, just a dark mass.

The broken upper half of the support began to fall. It was already bent and retracted before it lost control, but it was still more than ten meters long. Zhou Wenxing gently pulled his arm and stood on the broken support, just like a martial arts master standing on the swaying bamboo shoots in a martial arts movie. Then he turned his face around, and Luo Binhan was aiming a gun at him from 20 meters away, and their eyes happened to meet.

Luo Binhan made a whistle shape with his mouth and aimed at the face that always smiled kindly without emotion. Come on, today they have to solve the problem of how the world will work and who is right.

He fired again. Zhou Wenxing no longer dodged, but simply hooked his foot on the upper half of the slowly falling support and kicked it towards Luo Binhan as easily as moving a section of a plastic water pipe. The several tons of broken support swept across, probably enough to break every bone in his body, but Luo Binhan ignored it. He aimed and fired the first shot, and the laser passed right through Zhou Wenxing's forehead. The second shot was intended for the throat, but it hit the chest by mistake due to overcorrection during the movement - Li Li had no time to move the shooting platform to avoid the impact, and she immediately bounced it up at the highest speed, raising the platform ten meters in one second. Luo Binhan had to aim at Zhou Wenxing's crown for the third shot. The trajectory was off. The laser passed over the top of the back of his head, leaving a shallow burn mark, as if someone had chopped him on the back with a blunt knife.

The collision occurred when Luo Binhan was about to fire the fourth shot. The broken rod flew across and slammed into the raised bracket at his feet. The entire platform instantly tilted to one side, and he was thrown out by inertia. Li Li had already popped out a tilted platform to intercept him in mid-air, but he was not prepared before being thrown out, and she could not make the interception contact point fall on the shock-proof boots. Before hitting the interception platform, Luo Binhan had to use his left arm to cushion his head and headphones, and his right hand holding the gun was also hidden behind his back. He felt a sharp pain in his left elbow joint, and the hand that was supposed to hold the platform lost consciousness, and immediately rolled off the tilted platform. Li Li then popped up three movable brackets and combined them into a rectangular platform to catch him, which almost broke his knees.

His internal organs seemed to have been turned upside down, and the secretions in his organs were squeezed into his throat, emitting a corrosive, sour and bitter taste; the sky, which was more turbid than the quagmire, was spinning like a giant whirlpool, while the earth was a light, azure gas. In his dizziness, he only remembered to hold the gun tightly and then clench his teeth tightly to avoid accidentally biting off his tongue. The pain came and went quickly, and he did not lose consciousness, but he had a hallucinogenic feeling of detachment in the first few seconds. This was an inevitable side effect of the analgesic component, and Li Li had warned him.

The numbness in the joints disappeared, and the world returned to its place. Luo Binhan quickly climbed up from the platform. His gun was fine, his earphones were not lost, and the tilting bracket that intercepted him in mid-air had not been retracted yet. It was estimated that he was unconscious for only two or three seconds. So he stood up again and looked around to search for Zhou Wenxing's trace. He didn't see anything in the first round, and suspected that Zhou Wenxing had hidden in some other space again. But soon he realized that he just saw the wrong angle. Li Li had just pulled up the platform, and Zhou Wenxing should be diagonally below him now.

He gasped and leaned over to look down. Zhou Wenxing was still standing there, right on top of the broken support. The gurgling blood first turned his clothes into a dark brown color, and then flowed down along the metal support. From Luo Binhan's position, he couldn't see his expression clearly, but he could tell that the junction of his forehead and neck and shoulders had turned a dark white, a kind of white like deep ice with a blue-green background. Only the dead have this skin color. As soon as he thought of this, Zhou Wenxing slowly leaned back in the wind, like a lifeless corpse returning to dust - and then froze in the middle, the corpse-like figure just leaned the upper body back, raised his head and looked at Luo Binhan.

What a face it was! Its owner had once had round skin, a full forehead, delicate and regular features, a dark pupil with a deep thought, and a gentle and pleasant smile. But all these beautiful things were things of his life. The body that remained before him only exuded endless pain and despair: the bluish-white skin and flesh were the characteristics of those who died of freezing in the cold, and the facial features were incomplete - they were not even frozen, but torn off by some more violent and cruel injury. The rolled muscles and broken bones were as stiff as dead wood. Of course, a laser gun could not do such a thing. Compared with the countless exposed scars, the laser hole on the forehead was as small as a mole between the eyebrows. Deep in the small hole, a black shadow bulged slightly, and then the scar healed.

(End of this chapter)