Master of the Stars

Fist Two was still wearing the exoskeleton armor within the car at this time. Only his helmet was off, exposing the pale face of a middle aged man.

He was already outside of combat, yet he was still wearing the exoskeleton armor. This was because his left arm was broken, the right half of his muscles were largely withered up, and his ribs were broken. The unique support structure of the Deep Blue Walker allowed his various fractures to be kept in place and not become deformed.

This bitter injury was caused by none other than Rui Wen. Therefore when Fist Two saw the condition of Jack’s body, he was mentally reminded of his own misfortune and was rather rueful.

Facing across from him was the short and stout Wall Five, who was unloading his armor. Wall Five held a breathing device and leaned over there pretending to be dead. He opened his mouth with eyes half open to speak obscurely, his lips bringing the scent of blood:

“My inner organs are going to be completely empty too..... What’s inside?”

“Dunno. Let the hospital dissect him later then,” spoke Fist Two. Then he laughed bitterly, “We’ve been dissected ourselves too.”

Wall Five gritted his teeth in recollection: “F**k man, what kind of nefarious ability does this target have? To be this sinister to this degree? Is her stomach just stuffed with poison?”

Fist Two pressed lightly against his stomach, but obviously, he wouldn’t be able to feel it since he was wearing the thick armor: “I heard that the target was the face of the underground fighting arena. She participated in below-18 fights and she just awakened half an hour ago. She should be a gifted class based on the type of her ability. But the feeling I got when facing her is completely different....”

Wall Five coughed: “If she’s a gifted class, I’ll dig out my own heart!”

“Even if you don’t dig your heart out, it’s going to be dug out anyway. The scale of alteration you’ll need will easily exceed 50%. Us two comrades must head on the path of Altered Humans to survive.”

Wall Five banged his head against the steel plating of the vehicle: “Altered Human. Altered Human. My ten years of sweat and blood... will become wasted from this alteration.”

“That may not be true.” Fist Two lowered his head to look at the sinister appearance of Jack’s death, “This fellow is an Altered Human, but he is a Burner as well.”

He reached out his hand to touch Jack’s skull while he was talking. The dark-red rays were coming from precisely inside to radiate outwards through the sutures of the skull.

But he never expected Jack’s skull to be this frail. The scalp had flaked and split. The finger enveloped in armor touched the skull lightly causing a piece of bone to actually come off and fall inside the skull with a despondent sound.

And so a cavity was formed. The red glow inside was even more eye-catching now. Fist Two and Wall Five had good eyes. With just a glance of an eye, they were able to get a general idea.

Wall Five was given a fright: “This brain tissue...... Will the condition of my body be like this in the future?”

Fist Two snorted. He didn’t rush to check Jack, instead, he accessed the team comms: “An anomaly has been discovered with Jack’s intracranial cavity......”

“Open it and take a look.” Yan Yongbo took matters into his own hands once again, speaking over Brain One’s position. In the end, he supplemented with, “Open the shared view.”

“Understood.”

Fist Two turned on the camera built into his shoulder and exerted force at the same time. Jack’s malevolent skull was pinched to pieces like a dried up eggshell. He could see the shriveled and withered brain tissue inside. It had shrunk to merely the size of an egg. Normally brain tissue was whitish gray, but this tissue was nearly black. It was as if a fire had blazed it to be burnt. It was seriously deformed.

But even more eye-catching was the object in the center upper section. What looked like a wheat kernel was embedded there, still radiating with a subtle light.

Fist Two scanned the kernel with instruments and reported back with the relevant information: “The brain tissue has lost activity. The kernel in the center has the qualities of a metalloid. Its surface temperature is 90 degrees centigrade......”

“Take it out for further inspection.”

“Understood.”

Fist Two reached out with his right hand with nimble and elaborate fingers, even though they were enveloped by a thick metal glove. He pinched and lifted the “metal wheat kernel” practically without touching the deformed brain tissue at all.

Various sensing instruments continued to display their effects. Soon high precision scans enlarged the fine structure of the metal wheat kernel to full view.

Yan Yongbo waited before confirming at this time that this wheat kernel was actually formed from a thin, hair-like metal wire coiling tightly and closely woven around itself. The coiling loops of lines were so densely woven that no slits could be seen at all.

“Dynamo Core?”

“It’s none other than the Dynamo Core....... Deep Sea Type 4. Never thought it could be arranged into this form?”

The back door of the vehicle opened at this time and Snake Seven said a word in passing. He carried the unconscious Rui Wen aboard and the vehicle immediately started.

“Deeper inside, deeper inside.”

Snake Seven shooed the two injured soldiers to go deeper inside and his leg to kick Jack’s corpse aside in passing. Only then did he put Rui Wen down and take off his helmet to reveal a face of a young man. His face was slim and slightly sunken, but it was one that loved to smile and was full of sunshine.

He let out a long sigh: “Things are finally settled. Why is it when I’m late in coming back that you all just smash someone’s skull in pieces? Do other places use proxies too?”

Fist Two was over ten years older than this young man. He was normally very caring for this little pal. He was unwilling to let this kid be too presumptuous in front of their superiors and attract bad impressions. So, he gave him an eye signal and drew him into a proper topic:

“The radiation rating there is far too high. The follow-up work won’t be an issue right?”

“No problem. I’ve already started my ‘active interference’. I wouldn’t have come back so late if I didn’t...... Back to what you were saying Yan, sir. What particular usage does the Dynamo Core have in this form?”

Before Yan Yongbo could respond, Brain One transmitted over: “Vehicle No. 2. What the hell did you all do? The route is wrong.”

“You were the one who planned all the routes ahead of time......”

Snake Seven extended his head to look toward the driver’s area in the front. But his face only reached halfway before his pupils suddenly enlarged and a shout exploded from his throat:

“Your eyes!... Careful!”

His body exploded with the ignition of the Format of Fire upon speaking. His body leaped forward with ferocity, and then his forehead went a bit numb just like that.

Snake Seven was unable to deal with anything else. He used his forward momentum to reach out with his hand and grab his two heavily injured comrades.

Fist Two and Wall Five were both veteran burners. They discovered that something was wrong at nearly the instant when Snake Seven’s face turned color. They did precisely the same as Snake Seven. Their first reaction was to ignite their Format of Fire.

But the problem was, they were doomed to the impossibility of realizing the peak of their reactions with the current state of their bodies; they may not even be able to succeed in forming the Format of Fire.

The two were more than a step behind.

When Snake Seven was rushing over, his eyes, supported by the Format of Fire, were able to despairingly see several thin threads that were hard to see with the naked eye. They came splitting out from the metal wheat kernel in between Fist Two’s fingers to pierce into the eyeballs of Fist Two and Wall Five.

Then came a vibration of terror, forming a moment of irreversible destruction. Wall Five’s eyeballs exploded and he fell askew with a moan. The metal wheat kernel clearly took Fist Two as its main attack target amidst Fist Two’s screams. Countless of the same threads, hard to see with the naked eye, pierced through the internals of Fist Two’s exoskeleton armor.

Snake Seven’s right hand grabbed onto Wall Five’s calf at this time, his left hand already holding onto Fist Two’s shoulder.

Fist Two’s foot was raised noiselessly amidst his screams. The foot heavily stomped into Snake Seven’s stomach with explosive force. Though this young man was holding onto Wall Five, this one kick expelled them out of the vehicle.