Chapter 648: Old Joe's True Form

The owner of the shuttle was already beyond angry. The "fall" of the last secret launch channel was the final straw that broke Old Joe's back. After realizing that all the systems in the fortress had slipped out of his control, he simply shoved the control stick to the limit, recklessly pushed the engine output to maximum, and activated the shuttle's self-defense cannons.

The antigravity engine and propulsion engine roared simultaneously. The thin aircraft began struggling to break free from the platform's stasis field. As the hull moved with difficulty, two light particle rapid-fire cannons let out sharp howls. Clumps of scorching high-energy particles shot toward the isolation gate at the end of the channel and the locking mechanism beside the gate.

But at that moment, the sound of rumbling quickly approaching from afar suddenly interrupted Old Joe's last-ditch effort.

It sounded like a massive war beast was demolishing buildings along the way. Terrifying collapse sounds and the crashing of walls and support beams boomed like thunder, exploding in the sealed base space. The sound grew closer until the entire channel began to tremble. Then the lights on one side of the platform started flickering violently—as part of the power suddenly cut out, a large hole collapsed in an isolation wall leading to the fortress. Instantly, smoke billowed, and the noise was deafening!

"What the hell is this..."

Old Joe only had time for a startled cry when he saw a huge silver-white figure burst out of the smoke. The figure was surrounded by blazing blue flames and charged straight at his shuttle like a kinetic warhead at full speed.

"Boom!!!"

The shuttle, which had just struggled free from the stasis field, hadn't even had time to accelerate forward before it was headbutted over by the silver-white beast, almost slammed sideways into the wall of the launch channel. Half of the fuselage was instantly crushed into a twisted mass of metal scrap. Then the runaway rapid-fire cannon coils caught fire. Old Joe, dizzy and disoriented, still not understanding the situation, saw a huge fox head suddenly emerge from the sea of fire outside the cockpit window.

That snout was bigger than his whole body. The giant fox spirit caught the front half of the shuttle in her mouth, then began shaking and jumping wildly, leaping up and down, shaking it countless times before she finally tore the front and back ends of the shuttle apart. Then, with one claw pinning the fuselage, she used her mouth to tear open the last layer of protection outside the cockpit.

Hu Li stuck her head into the cockpit, rummaged around, and used her mouth to pick out a figure that was struggling and twisting wildly. With a "ptui," she spat it onto the ground nearby.

Well, what can you say? He was truly a black spot warlord who had maxed out his "mechanical ascension" skill tree. An ordinary person would have died several times over from this ordeal, but Old Joe was still conscious. Even at the moment of landing, he pulled out a small self-defense pistol and fired repeatedly at the giant fox spirit before him. However, Hu Li didn't seem to feel much. She just felt a bit of an itch in her nose, so she sneezed two heavy sneezes.

The first sneeze blew Old Joe to the ground and knocked the weapon out of his hand. The second sneeze carried foxfire and welded half of Old Joe's leg to the floor.

"Benefactor~" The giant fox spirit raised her head and called out cheerfully toward the large hole in the wall not far away. "The filling's been scooped out!"

"Coming, coming... you're too fast," Yu Sheng said as he ran out of the big hole, followed by Ai Linuna and Luo. "No need to be so rushed. I've already melted the outside of this channel into a solid lump. He can't escape anyway."

Old Joe's body was severely damaged and "welded" to the floor by foxfire. He struggled desperately but couldn't escape. He could only watch as several figures emerged from the dust and smoke—

Leading them was a male human who appeared to be in his twenties, with an unremarkable appearance. His face was as pale as if he had lost too much blood and was about to drop dead at any moment. On the man's shoulder sat a black-haired, red-eyed doll whose face was exactly the same as the eerie dolls that had appeared in groups in the fortress. Beside them, a tall figure nearly two meters high walked out gracefully—the "Artificial Saint" who had previously annihilated several action squads. She was wearing a skirt robe in the style of an Algrand Star Maiden, resembling a nun's habit.

Old Joe's gaze passed over these figures and finally landed behind Yu Sheng.

It was the Algrand elf wearing a silver-white dress with her blonde hair loose—Luo stood behind Yu Sheng, looking at the "old opponent" before her with calm eyes.

Old Joe suddenly stopped struggling, but there was still a hint of disbelief in his eyes. As if until this moment, he still couldn't believe that this "experimental animal" that had escaped from his laboratory had actually brought people to break into his fortress and stood here as a victor.

At this time, Yu Sheng suddenly frowned. "This one is also an iron shell?"

He looked at the enemy before him and found that this "Old Joe" who had wanted to escape at the last moment was also a "robot." The two-meter-tall, burly build with exposed mechanical structures was not much different from the "avatar" that had appeared on the Gray Dwarf planet, except that it seemed a bit more refined and had thicker torso armor.

"This iron shell is different from the others," Luo said with a faint smile. The smile had no warmth, containing complex emotions that even she probably couldn't explain. She muttered softly as she stepped forward, her mechanical limbs spreading out behind her as she slowly bent down toward Old Joe. "He's hiding in here... after all, without this shell, he's nothing."

The steel shell lying on the ground instinctively leaned back. "You, what are you going to do, you bitch... I took you in back then! You have today..."

Old Joe looked especially panicked, but amid that seemingly guilty cry, one of his arms suddenly raised—a hot plasma blade shot out from the forearm armor, thrusting straight at Luo's neck.

However, at almost the same time, one of Luo's mechanical limbs had already intercepted the attack—the living metal at the end of the limb formed a sharp needle and precisely stabbed into the joint of Old Joe's arm. A tiny spark flashed, and the plasma blade went out.

Another figure flashed by from the side. Luna lightly extended her fingers and sliced off both of Old Joe's arms.

Luo said a quiet thank you, but her eyes remained on Old Joe. She extended her mechanical limb behind her, switching its end to tool mode, and said unhurriedly, "I've rehearsed this many times..."

"Do you remember? There was a 'lab riot' back then. A Gipro youth almost reached your true body. His companions had managed to paralyze all your weapon systems before that, but they didn't expect that under the arm of this body of yours was another knife..."

"I really have rehearsed this many times, Old Joe."

The tool head at the end of the mechanical limb whirred and began to disassemble the armor on the chest of the steel shell. Old Joe shook his body futilely. "I should have known... you were in on it too... I shouldn't have cut out your spine, I should have cut out your eyes first!"

The armor plate was pried open, revealing a living metal coating that looked like a living thing.

"I'm really fast at tightening screws... and I'm good with the laser knife, right?"

Luo smiled, hacked into the control center of the living metal, interfered with it to stop it, and then peeled it away.

The outwardly strong but inwardly weak intimidation finally turned into terror.

"What do you want? I can give you anything within my authority—or do you want information on the Hermit Order contacts? I have plenty of intelligence! Luo, you're a reasonable person..."

"Shh—"

Luo put her finger to her lips and softly shushed him, while using a mechanical hand to cut a line near Old Joe's neck. Then she reached into the now-stasis living metal and slowly dug out a strange device.

Cables were stripped away one by one, with sparks crackling. Yu Sheng saw the thing clearly—it was a cylindrical device of unknown material, with complex metal caps and base structures at both ends. The middle section was a transparent tube-shaped container, inside which floated a shriveled brain. Below the brain, connected to it, was a withered, deformed spinal cord and numerous tiny tubes and wires.

This was Old Joe.

The moment the container was removed, the constantly struggling steel body trembled a few times and quickly stopped moving. The biological storage tank in Luo's hand suddenly blinked lights at both ends, and a mechanized synthetic voice came from its base: "Life support system, I need a life support system! Hurry, this device can't hold out much longer—"

"When you've explained everything you need to explain, I'll naturally connect you to a life support system," Luo said slowly, standing up and looking expressionlessly at the brain in the tank. "Don't waste your energy. All the systems in this base are now under my boss's control. The frigates and fighters you parked outside have also been disarmed—all the clone troops have surrendered, and those who resisted have become cold corpses in space. No one will answer your orders anymore."

A mechanical eye on top of the tank turned uneasily, as if afraid to meet Luo's unusually calm gaze. "Boss? Your boss?"

That mechanical eye suddenly stopped and looked over at Yu Sheng standing nearby.

A string of meaningless noise came from the sound synthesizer. All the clues and guesses seemed to finally connect at this moment. Old Joe got his belated answer.

Yu Sheng grinned, showing a nuclear-friendly smile at the brain in the tank. "Nice to meet you, nice to meet you—catching you took a lot of effort. I'll just deduct the expenses from your estate later."

The brain in the tank visibly twitched (how a brain can twitch is anyone's guess). The mechanical eye on top of the container finally turned to the blonde elf beside him. "Luo! You're no different from me! Your loyalty to the Corporation..."

Luo just gently weighed the tank in her hand. "Ah, I might have a slip of the hand."

Old Joe instantly quieted down.

"Alright, let's go to a quiet place," Yu Sheng clapped his hands. "Have a good chat with this brain in a jar."

(The end of this chapter)