Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 949: Twelve Finds It Very Amusing

The approaching aircraft instantly vanished into thin air, but the surging airflow and powerful inertia remained, and they sent Lin Sanjiu flying away.

Caught off guard, she accidentally bumped Twelve off the platform. Fortunately, she reacted quickly, flipped over, and grabbed his arm. Even though Twelve couldn’t help but scream in pain, she managed to prevent him from falling.

After both of them caught their breath and stood up from the ground, Twelve glanced at her and asked with a pale smile, "This... is your card ability, right? It’s really convenient."

Lin Sanjiu didn’t answer, she just found a suitable spot and carefully released the aircraft again. Having learned driving from Yu Yuan before, she had seen a fair share of "Pig Runs." She shattered the cabin door with a few punches, forcefully tore it off, and casually threw it onto the long platform.

Twelve raised an eyebrow. Watching her bend down and crawl into the aircraft, he quickly followed suit. The cabin was cramped and narrow. He securely fastened himself with a safety belt before asking, "But... how do you plan to get out?"

"I’ve seen the place where the dock breathes out the aircraft. Before reaching the exit, there is a transport conveyor for the aircraft to glide on."

This answer obviously didn’t dispel Twelve’s doubts, but she had no intention of explaining further. Lin Sanjiu sat in the pilot’s seat and fumbled around for a while. After enduring rough treatment, the aircraft finally trembled and made a whooshing sound from its tail.

Silvan didn’t allow her to uncard Erudite, and the Munitions Factory didn’t provide much protection for it. There were several possibilities... she thought to herself as she piloted the unstable aircraft upwards. Now she could only rely on her intuition and gamble on the most likely possibility.

Although it wasn’t fair to Silvan, priorities had to be considered, and she could only figure out a way to make it up to him later...

By the time Lin Sanjiu reached this point in her thoughts, she had already spotted the transport conveyor in the distance. She pushed down on the aircraft’s nose, accelerated, and the wind rushed into the cabin. The aircraft wobbled and surged onto the conveyor, flying faster and faster towards the end of the conveyor—a steel valve had completely sealed off the exit, resembling a small silver coin at the end of a tunnel.

"Do you really plan to break through that door?" Twelve raised his voice, filled with disbelief. "With this tiny aircraft?"

"Shut up and hold on tight!" Lin Sanjiu shouted without turning her head. "I’m not good at flying. Don’t fall out of the doorway!"

The wind rushing in became louder and fiercer, causing the aircraft to shake violently. If Lin Sanjiu hadn’t tightly controlled the direction, it would have collided with the walls at any moment. The piercing sound of air being torn apart in the tunnel resounded clearly and loudly, along with the wind, rushing into the cockpit. The small silver coin grew larger and larger, and the aircraft, as if seeking its own demise, charged straight towards the sealed exit.

Now was the time!

When the aircraft was only a hair’s breadth away from the steel valve, Lin Sanjiu leaped from the pilot’s seat and dashed to the doorway amidst the roaring winds. She raised her hand and flung a card out of the door, instantly swept into the tunnel. Just as the aircraft was about to crash into the valve, Twelve couldn’t help but let out an excited cry. Before his exclamation could fade away, Lin Sanjiu had already rushed back and forcefully pulled the direction upwards.

With a loud bang, the aircraft collided with the top of the tunnel, and its underbelly received a heavy blow. In an instant, a bright light suddenly appeared below, and a scorching, corrosive white light filled the entire field of vision.

She had no idea what would happen next, and she couldn’t even be sure if she was truly alive in this moment. The aircraft had long missed its opportunity to stop and could only continue to charge straight into that sea of white light.

Just one second before the aircraft collided with the steel valve, it was shattered by the white light. Countless shards of steel were propelled into the sky by the shockwave, and from the splattering sparks emerged a heavily damaged aircraft.

For a few seconds, even Twelve was dumbfounded before he turned to glance out of the aircraft’s rear window.

"What... what was that?" His weak voice was drowned out by the roaring winds, making it difficult to hear. But Lin Sanjiu could guess what he was probably asking, "What just happened?"

"Don’t stick your head out, sit tight," she commanded loudly. "It’s not over yet!"

"Not over yet?" Twelve was taken aback but then turned his head back with curiosity, staring at the rear window. It seemed that he genuinely didn’t possess the innate fear of death that ordinary people had.

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t spare any attention for him. She quickly twisted the direction, and the aircraft, lacking agility in mid-air, made a turn and faced the dock exit they had just rushed out of.

The original berth in the harbor had been torn open, leaving behind a wound-like gaping hole, filled with chaotic traces of violent destruction. In the towering Heaven Zone, the frantic blaring of sirens seemed like an everlasting background noise. White smoke wafted from the broken steel, and the interior of the tunnel was shrouded in a gray-white blur, where only a faint outline could be vaguely seen. It was as if slender black shadows floated up from the white mist.

"What is that?" Twelve shouted, his voice raised. "Did it just...?"

Before he could finish his question, he had his answer.

"Erudite" — that quiet and majestic Special Item, towering like a fossilized dinosaur skeleton — suddenly burst out from the white mist at an unimaginable speed. Its numerous slender and elongated metallic bones all unfolded, pounding on the surrounding walls and ceiling with a "clatter clatter." It resembled an enraged warhorse and a frenzied giant spider at the same time. In the blink of an eye, it reached the edge of the exit and came to a stop, staring directly at the aircraft suspended in mid-air.

"Wow, what is that?" Twelve asked in a high-pitched voice, seeming to find it more amusing than dangerous. "Did it break the door just now?"

"It’s not aiming for the door," Lin Sanjiu said with a serious expression, feeling sweat forming in the palm of her hand as she gripped the control handle. "Its target is us!"

Her speculation turned out to be correct. The reason the Munitions Factory didn’t bother protecting Erudite was probably because it was more dangerous than most of the combat members combined. What triggered it to enter combat mode? Did it "wake up" and realize it was no longer in its original position? If it would immediately be triggered into a fighting state when moved by an external force, then it would indeed be safe. After eliminating the enemy, Erudite could simply return to the Munitions Factory on its own.

In just a fleeting moment, these thoughts crossed her mind, and it seemed that Erudite had already locked onto its target. Lin Sanjiu didn’t dare to waste any time and immediately pulled the flying craft upward again, swaying left and right as it rapidly ascended nearly a hundred meters. She didn’t want to expose the backside of the flying craft to Erudite, afraid that it would unleash a long-range attack from behind. She could only keep raising the heavily damaged piece of scrap iron, hoping to escape from a height that it couldn’t reach.

"What is it doing?" Twelve stretched his neck and looked down, suddenly asking.

Lin Sanjiu hastily glanced back, and her heart tightened instantly. She had seen Erudite analyzing and manufacturing items before, and even though she was far away now, she was certain that she hadn’t mistaken it. Several components on its body were rotating frantically, and a network of flashing words and images flowed through its skeletal structure, as if it was actually manufacturing something.

To manufacture items, it needed raw materials. But who knew if the Munitions Factory had emergency reserves of raw materials stored inside it? If the flying craft ascended any further, it would likely lose control due to the lack of an airlock and the resulting pressure imbalance. Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth, turned the flying craft around, and jetted outwards at maximum speed.

"Someone followed us out of the Heaven Zone!" Twelve exclaimed excitedly.

The Twelve Worlds Centrum were indeed quick to react. Numerous black openings appeared on the towering structure of the Heaven Zone, and from those openings, various types of flying craft swiftly emerged into the sky. They immediately found their targets and, without prior arrangement, all chased after Lin Sanjiu’s craft from behind.

The flying craft she had seized was originally small, and she had further damaged it, rendering it semi-crippled. It was only a matter of time before the pursuers caught up. In fact, within the short span from Twelve’s warning to her turning her head to look, those ships had already ascended to the same altitude, significantly reducing the distance.

Just as Twelve was about to say something, the sound of engines came from outside the opening of the craft. A flat, sleek silver disc emerged from the side porthole of the flying craft, extending two rows of dark gun barrels calmly.

There was no other option.

Lin Sanjiu closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

The following period of time felt unbelievably long. Every thought and every action seemed to play out in slow motion, where everything stretched and spread, crystal clear. The flying craft turned around and fled back to the Heaven Zone, but after just a few seconds of flight, it was surrounded by unfamiliar spacecraft from all sides.

She remembered slowly removing her hand from the control lever and reaching towards the console. Twelve’s loud laughter sounded distant and distorted, as if separated by multiple layers of water ripples.

Suddenly, the engines of the flying craft went silent in mid-air.

The force of gravity took control, causing the small flying craft with one side lacking an airlock to plummet. The pursuers had to twist their bodies, adjust their directions, and descend along with it.

At that moment, the Special Item fired by Erudite streaked through the air towards Lin Sanjiu’s flying craft.