SEC Chapter 1335 Weather Weapons
Chapter 1335 Weather Weapons
Lin Yi led the group of students to the gray, makeshift buildings on the north side of the King Kong Dynasty fortress. It had originally been the engineering department's materials warehouse, but a few students from Millennium University complained that the warehouse was too small and too close to the city wall. They worried that stray bullets might blow up the experimental equipment if a war broke out, so they moved it overnight to a relatively open space behind the tail section of the spaceship. They built a few sheds with alloy plates and canvas, and wrote a line of words on the door in crooked paint: "No Entry Without Permission." The handwriting was delicate but the strokes were messy, as if it had been painted on casually.
King Kong followed behind him, taking the half-smoked cigarette from his ear and putting it in his mouth as he walked. He lit it with a lighter after a couple of tries, took a deep drag, and exhaled smoke from his nostrils.
He glanced at the row of sheds, his expression a complex mix of curiosity and impatience.
"Doctor, you dragged me down from the city wall just to see this?"
"It's not a visit, it's to take things."
"Why can't someone else take what I need? Why do I have to make the trip myself?"
"I feel more at ease leaving the things with you."
King Kong's lips curled into a slight smile; it was hard to tell whether he was happy or something else, but at least he stopped complaining.
Lin Yi lifted the canvas curtain at the entrance of the shed and went inside. The space inside was larger than he had imagined, at least two hundred square meters. The floor was covered with an anti-static rubber mat, and there were several pieces of equipment that he couldn't name. Some of the equipment had their casings open, revealing dense circuit boards and wires inside. Some of the equipment also had labels handwritten by engineering students, and the handwriting was from the same person as the line of text at the entrance.
The notes contained all sorts of things. Some said, "Please do not press this button," others said, "If it smokes, please unplug the power immediately," and still others said, "This device has not been tested. If you see it explode, please let me know. Thank you."
At the far end of the shed, against the wall, there was a metal workbench piled high with blueprints, parts, and several half-eaten energy bar packaging bags.
There was a person sitting behind the workbench, or more accurately, a person sitting in a wheelchair.
Starry Night is staring at a tablet screen in front of her, which displays a set of complex data curves. She swipes her finger across the screen a few times, and the curves change. She swipes a few more times, and the curves change again.
Hearing someone come in, she looked up and, upon seeing Lin Yi, a smug smile immediately appeared on her face.
"Ah, the teacher is here. You've come at the right time. I just finished a theoretical derivation, and the result was perfect, so perfect that even I find it unbelievable. Of course, for a super genius sickly beautiful hacker like me, this level of perfection is just everyday stuff."
She was sitting in an electric wheelchair, the model of which Lin Yi had never seen before. Judging from its appearance, it was probably a modified one she had made herself. There were two metal tanks on the back of the chair for unknown purposes, and a control panel on each side of the seat, with more than a dozen buttons and knobs densely packed on it.
King Kong peeked out from behind Lin Yi, glanced at Mingxing Riju, then at the wheelchair she was sitting in, and then let out a meaningful click of his tongue.
Starry Night's gaze shifted from Lin Yi to King Kong's face. The smile on his lips remained unchanged, but a hint of unfriendly light appeared in his eyes.
"Ah, it's Mr. King Kong. Last time you crashed next to my wheelchair track, your butt was swollen for ages, are you all better now?"
King Kong's smile froze for a moment, then he gritted his teeth and said, "That was an accident; your wheelchair was going too fast."
"The wheelchair is designed for a speed of 500 kilometers per hour. Who can you blame for your own operational error?"
"A wheelchair that can travel 500 kilometers, who in their right mind would ride in that thing?"
"So I'm not a normal person, I'm a super genius, sickly, beautiful hacker girl. The difference between a normal person and me is probably about the same as the difference between you and Bai Ye."
Lin Yi ignored their bickering and walked to the workbench.
"I heard you've developed something new, specifically for fighting alien species."
The celebrity, Riju, maneuvered her wheelchair around, and a metal plate next to the workbench slid open silently, revealing a recess. Inside the recess was a device, not very large, about the size of a suitcase, with a silver-gray casing. The surface had no buttons or screens, only a single interface.
"This is it. A portable weather controller that can lower the temperature within a 200-kilometer radius to minus 20 degrees Celsius within ten minutes. The duration depends on the ambient temperature; if the ambient temperature is high, the duration will be shorter, and if the ambient temperature is low, the duration will be longer. In the climate conditions of the Beast Continent, it can conservatively be estimated to last for more than 24 hours."
King Kong leaned over for a look and frowned.
"This little thing? Are you sure you didn't just make a refrigerator?"
Hina glanced at him, her eyes carrying the patience and superiority that a professional has when facing a layman.
“Mr. King Kong, if it were just a refrigerator, would I spend three days on it? The difference between it and a refrigerator is that a refrigerator can only make the things inside cold, while this thing can make everything around it cold.”
She paused here, as if she had suddenly thought of something, and the corners of her mouth turned up again, revealing a rather impolite smile.
"Of course, to your brain, there may not be any difference between the two."
King Kong's lips twitched slightly: "Do you think I'm stupid?"
"It wasn't me who said it, you said it yourself."
King Kong took a deep breath, then exhaled and looked at Lin Yi: "Doctor, can I hit her? Not kill her, just give her a beating."
"No."
"why?"
"If you beat her up, who's going to fix my equipment?"
King Kong was silent for two seconds, then squeezed out a single word through gritted teeth: "Fine."
Lin Yi reached out and picked up the weather controller. It wasn't heavy, much lighter than it looked. The casing was made of some kind of lightweight alloy, and it felt cool and smooth to the touch.
He turned around and looked at each side to make sure there were no extra interfaces or switches, then put it back in the groove.
How do I use it?
"Just plug it in. The interface is universal, and it will start automatically after being powered on, requiring no operation. It works when plugged in and stops when unplugged."
King Kong leaned against the table next to him, arms crossed, tilting his head to look at the device: "Minus twenty degrees Celsius, the mutants can't withstand it?"
"That's a good question, though the way it's phrased isn't very clever, but the question itself is valuable. My research shows that Xenomorphs differ fundamentally from all carbon-based life forms in that their cellular structures contain a large number of heat-stable proteins. These proteins don't denature at high temperatures and remain active even in environments exceeding 80 degrees Celsius. This is the price they pay for adapting to the Earth's high-temperature environment—the price being extremely poor cold tolerance. In sub-zero temperatures, their cell membranes begin to become brittle, nerve conduction speed decreases, and muscle contraction efficiency reduces. Around -10 degrees Celsius, they begin to exhibit symptoms such as slowed movement and sluggish reactions. At -20 degrees Celsius, most Xenomorphs enter a state similar to hibernation, with their heart rate dropping from 120 beats per minute to 20 beats per minute, and their respiration rate decreasing from 40 breaths per minute to 8 breaths per minute."
Starry Night Marie stretched out her finger and gestured in the air, as if lecturing a group of elementary school students: "Moreover, this weapon has no offensive power, which is enough to deal with beings of the Earthwalker level. Its effectiveness against Fission and Parasitic species may be somewhat reduced, but how much it is reduced depends on how you use it. If you place the device two kilometers away from a Fission and activate it, it will also be affected, but it won't go into hibernation like the Earthwalker."
Lin Yi nodded: "Have you developed anything else? Like the disposable kind?"
Starry Night's eyes lit up. She maneuvered her wheelchair backward half a meter and pulled out a metal ball, no bigger than a fist, from a drawer under the workbench. The surface of the metal ball was smooth, without any interfaces or buttons, and it gleamed dimly under the light.
"This is a cryogenic bomb. It's a drop-type bomb that releases cryogenic liquid nitrogen three seconds after landing, instantly reducing the temperature to minus one hundred degrees Celsius within a fifty-meter radius."
She handed the metal ball to Lin Yi, who took it and tossed it in his hand. It wasn't heavy, about the same weight as a softball.
How much is left?
"Five hundred rounds, just finished last night. I wanted to make more, but the engineering department's production line was full of ammunition, so I had to make them by hand, which was a bit slow."
Lin Yi put the metal ball into his storage space: "That's enough."
Celebrity Riju maneuvered her wheelchair back to the workbench, reached out and picked up an energy bar, tore open the wrapper with her teeth, took a bite, chewed twice and swallowed, then continued staring at the tablet.
Lin Yi looked at the packaging paper of the energy bar in her hand, which read "Nutritional Fortification - Strawberry Flavor". There were hundreds of boxes of this kind of energy bar on the spaceship's supply list, but nobody liked to eat it because it tasted like a mixture of compressed biscuits and strawberry-flavored toothpaste.
"How long has it been since you last ate?"
“I’m eating it right now, aren’t I?” Celebrity Riju held up the energy bar in her hand and shook it.
"This is not food."
"For me, it is. It's efficient, saves time, I don't have to queue in the cafeteria, I don't have to talk to anyone, and I can continue working after eating. This kind of life is perfect for a super genius, sickly, beautiful hacker like me. Mundane diets would only slow down my thinking."
Lin Yi paused for two seconds, then turned to the two SRT students standing at the door: "Take her to the cafeteria, watch her finish her meal, and then let her go."
Two students walked in, one of them grabbing the armrest of the celebrity Riju's wheelchair and pushing her out. Riju hadn't even put down the energy bar in her hand yet, and as she was being pushed out, she was still shouting, "Wait, I'm not finished yet, my deduction is still missing the last step."
"Let's eat before we finish the simulation."
"It's just a meal, we can eat it later."
"It's just a meal, it won't take long."
As the celebrity Riju was being pushed out of the tent, her voice came from the doorway, sounding somewhat muffled through the canvas curtain: "Teacher, wait here. When I come back after I finish eating, I'll write a program for you so that you'll have to get my permission to walk from now on."
Lin Yi didn't answer. He turned around, glanced at the scattered blueprints and parts on the workbench, and then said to King Kong, "Let's go."
King Kong straightened up from the table, lifted the weather controller out of the groove, carried it on his shoulder, and followed Lin Yi out of the shed.
The two walked to the assembly point near the fortress gate, where 20,000 students were already lined up.
The leader was Mika Seizono. She was wearing a white coat that reached above her knees, a black leather belt around her waist with several spare pouches full of ammunition hanging from it, and dark knee-high boots.
Her hair was tied into a low ponytail at the back of her head, with a few stray strands hanging down from her temples, swaying gently in the wind.
Seeing Lin Yi approach, Mika Seien's eyes lit up, and then she ran straight to him, grabbing his arm with both hands and hanging half of her weight on his arm.
"Teacher, you've finally arrived."
Her tone was light and cheerful, with an undisguised intimacy, like a pet cat rubbing against its owner's trouser leg at the door when the owner comes home.
Lin Yi was pulled to one side by her, but he regained his balance and looked down at her.
"Is leading the team okay?"
“No problem, Saintia has already arranged the route and formation.”
King Kong walked over from behind, glanced at Wei Hua hanging on Lin Yi's arm, then at Lin Yi's expressionless face, and let out a soft, ambiguous laugh.
"Doctor, your student is quite interesting."
Lin Yi ignored him and pulled his arm out of Wei Hua's hand.
"Set off."
Under the blazing sun, a procession of tens of thousands of people marched across the grassland. The outline of the gray-green fortress behind them gradually shrank, from a complete building to a blurry shadow, and finally disappeared completely from sight.
The grassland was covered with wild grass that was half a person tall. The grass blades gleamed with a withered yellow luster under the midday sun, and when the wind blew, they looked like a slowly undulating wave of wheat.
Su Xiao led the assault team. His mission was simple: break through the fortress's front defenses, find an opportunity to escape, and infiltrate the fortress to wait for the right moment.
King Kong walked a few steps to his right, carrying the weather controller on his shoulder.
He walked for a while and got a little bored, so he switched the weather controller to his left shoulder, took out a compressed biscuit from his pocket, put it in his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and swallowed it.
Su Xiao noticed the fission variants first when they appeared high in the sky.
Those fission species flew very high, almost level with the clouds, their figures appearing as tiny black dots in the sky, easily overlooked unless one looked closely.
They hovered in the air, their wings flapping slowly, making it look more like they were gliding.
Su Xiao frowned slightly: "There's something up there."
King Kong looked up, squinted, and asked, "How many birds?"
"Fission variant".
"How many?"
Six.
King Kong took the compressed biscuit out of his mouth and stuffed it into his pocket: "Shoot it down?"
Upon receiving Su Xiao's gaze, the two snipers simultaneously stopped, crouched down, took the sniper rifles off their backs, rested them on their knees, adjusted the scopes, calculated wind drift, and then pulled the trigger.
Bang, bang.
Two gunshots rang out almost simultaneously. The bodies of the two fissioners in the sky trembled violently, their wings lost control, and they fell obliquely from the sky like two withered leaves blown away by the wind.
Their bodies tumbled through the air a few times before crashing into the grass in the distance with a dull thud.
The remaining fission species reacted the instant their companion fell; they stopped circling and accelerated toward the fortress.
All six fission variants crashed within a dozen seconds, none of them managing to fly back to the fortress to report the news.
The group advanced for nearly forty minutes, and the number of fission species in the sky began to increase, changing from groups of three or five to groups of more than ten.
Instead of circling in the distance, they lowered their altitude and flew close to the clouds. Occasionally, a few even swooped down from below the clouds, skimming over at a height of less than two hundred meters above the ground.
King Kong looked at the fission variants and cursed, "We can't hide it anymore."
Su Xiao did not answer, because his attention was no longer on those fission species.
He looked up and gazed ahead, his eyes passing through the patch of wild grass swaying in the wind, and landing on a silhouette on the distant horizon.
The silhouette gleamed with a grayish-white luster in the midday sun, like a giant rock growing out of the ground.
As the procession continued forward, the outline became clearer and more concrete, transforming from a blurry shadow into a towering city wall.
The fortress walls are at least sixty meters high, nearly eight times higher than the walls of the Paradise of Reincarnation fortress.
The city wall is made of huge rocks piled up, with the gaps between the rocks so tight that they are almost invisible. The edges of each rock have been meticulously polished, and the interlocking grooves connect the entire city wall into one.
At each of the four corners of the city wall stands a massive black pillar, each pillar being over five meters in diameter and nearly twenty meters taller than the city wall itself, with its tops pointing straight to the sky.
A dull, thudding sound emanated from inside the fortress, each sound sending a shiver down one's spine.
Countless terrestrial creatures leaped down from the city wall. Their figures seemed insignificant against the sixty-meter-high wall, but their numbers were overwhelming.
Thousands upon thousands of ground creatures leaped down from the city wall at the same time, like a black waterfall cascading down from the top of the wall, landing on the open ground in front of the wall, splashing up dust and gravel.
Without hesitation, they rushed towards the group after landing.
King Kong took the weather controller off his shoulder, placed it on the ground, and bent down to plug the power connector into a portable generator carried by a student next to him.
The device's indicator light lit up after the power was turned on, changed from red to green, and then emitted a low humming sound.
The temperature began to drop around us. At first, it was just a slight chill, like someone had turned on the air conditioner in the room. Then the chill became more and more obvious and more and more biting.
Tiny water droplets began to appear on the blades of grass, and within seconds they condensed into frost. The frost layer spread from the edges of the blades of grass toward the center, enveloping the entire blade of grass in a thin white shell.
The ground-dwelling creatures' charging speed began to decrease. Their limbs stiffened in the low temperature, and their movements went from fluid to sluggish, like a machine operating in freezing temperatures, the lubricant between the gears beginning to solidify, each movement requiring several times more force than usual. (End of Chapter)