“Glad you’re okay! Hang on a moment—we’ll be right there.”
Wang Tianwei and Zhang Lyra hauled Huang Yan back to safety, dangling him by the rope. Below them, Jian Jingyu smoothly activated the low-temperature adaptive module, and the temperature inside the submarine began to climb steadily.
“Phew, I’m alive again... Good thing it wasn’t one of you who fell. Let me tell you, down here it’s basically a slushy! No, wait—an ice slurry...”
Huang Yan observed their surroundings through Jian Jingyu’s camera feed.
“We should be on an ice sheet, with seawater underneath. Goldfish, can you transform and fly out now?”
“No, the space underwater is too tight—I’d get stuck. Plus, the ice slurry... it’s way too thick! I need to get out of the water first before I can switch forms, but the sub can’t fly.”
“Tch, we didn’t think that through.”
Wang Tianwei immediately whipped out her notebook and jotted down what Jian Jingyu had said, already planning to figure out a fix once they got back.
Zhang Lyra zoomed in on Goldfish’s feed. All around him were smooth ice walls, offering no foothold for him to climb out.
“Then we’ll have to pull you up. Don’t worry, just wait there—we can see you.”
“Got it.”
Above, the three reactivated their anti-gravity levitation and pushed through the fierce wind back to the hole where Jian Jingyu had fallen through. They dropped the grappling hook again.
The hook’s rope twisted and swayed in the wind, but it steadied a little once it sank into the crevice. The problem was the depth—it had to be over a hundred meters down! The rope wasn’t long enough, so they had to reel it in and let Wang Tianwei double its length on the spot.
Just as they tried lowering the rope a second time, the radar, Huang Yan, and Jian Jingyu all sounded the alarm at once!
“Something’s coming!”
“Watch out!”
Zhang Lyra was facing the sudden swarm of mutant birds. The moment she looked up, she swung the guns on her back into action and opened fire.
Huang Yan locked onto the lead birds with her mental power. Before the frontrunners could even launch an attack, their necks twisted and they tumbled from midair, thudding dully onto the pristine snow.
Wang Tianwei’s mech still had a long rope dangling underneath, so she had to put rescuing Goldfish on hold for a moment. She turned, pulling out a rifle to add covering fire.
“Holy crap!”
The mutant birds’ wingspans stretched at least five meters. They didn’t fear the storm at all, swarming in and blotting out the sky—even scarier than the virtual shooting simulations Burgundy Yan used to make.
Each bird bore an abnormally sharp beak and dove at incredible speed.
“They’re Ice Siren Eagles! Don’t get too close—they spit freezing mist and icicles. The mist can freeze you solid, and the icicles are extremely hard.”
Huang Yan kept shifting position, using a mix of firepower and mental power to lock onto the birds at the back, sidestepping as icicles shot toward her.
Wang Tianwei listened, then asked, “Can you eat them?”
“... No! They’re poisonous!”
“Then get out of the way—I’m launching a rocket.”
If they can’t be eaten, what’s the point in keeping them?
Without a second thought for preserving intact bodies, Wang Tianwei pulled out heavy weaponry.
With the three working together, over twenty giant birds were blown to pieces. One almost blocked the fissure where Jian Jingyu had fallen, but Zhang Lyra was quick on the draw—a single electromagnetic blast sent the ice siren eagle’s carcass flying off.
“Kirin Military Academy, Squad Four: plus twenty-seven points.”
The score announcement came just in time. Huang Yan rose up and scanned the area, confirming no other immediate threats before the three lengthened grappling hooks slowly descended.
“Mmph! You (mmph) got ‘em?”
“Huh? Goldfish, what are you sneaking a snack for?”
The teammates couldn’t see inside his mech, but the livestream audience had a clear view.
While Huang Yan and the others were fighting, Jian Jingyu had piloted his submarine deeper to check underwater. After confirming there were no other exits and no threats below, he’d parked in the cockpit, pulled up the synchronized feeds from the other three mechs, and started snacking.
Not a hint of worry for his teammates—only confidence. He even paid special attention to watching Wang Tianwei’s marksmanship, nodded in satisfaction, and went back to eating chips.
“Heh, just refueling a bit. Haul me up now!”
The mini-submarine was dragged out by the three grappling hooks. The moment it broke the surface, it snapped back into its original form, ice shells clattering off in sheets as it transformed.
“Whew, Captain Ma, you have no idea how freezing that water was down there...”
“We need to tread even more carefully moving across this glacier.”
Huang Yan warned her teammates.
Luckily, the fissure below had only been water. If it had been ice stalagmites or needles frozen for who-knows-how-many years, that would’ve been way more dangerous!
Wang Tianwei tapped the list of components in her space ring. “When we take a break, I’ll see if I can rig up some kind of detector. Otherwise, these hidden ice holes are impossible to spot.”
“Good idea.”
Before moving out again, Huang Yan had everyone link their grappling ropes together in a single line—like how they used to tie themselves together in the desert to avoid falling into quicksand.
At the front, Jian Jingyu kept a long blade in hand. Every step, he tapped the ice first to make sure solid ground was underneath.
As for why they didn’t use anti-gravity levitation again? The storm was simply too intense—visibility was poor, and the fierce wind kept pushing them off course.
By the time the team moved away, the livestream chat was already flooding the entire screen:
“Can someone explain? What’s the difference between ‘visual sync’ and a regular camera?”
“What level is Huang Yan at now? Mental power kills mutant beasts outright? That got me pumped!”
“For you laypeople, here’s the deal: our livestream cameras have delay no matter how close the feed is—they’re only good for recording or broadcasting what happened. But visual sync is real-time—instant, right now. Whatever one squad member sees, everyone else sees too. It provides supplementary angles in combat, meaning you see several POVs at once! Anything you miss, someone else catches. It’s especially useful for squad leaders. Wasn’t Huang Sir the one who shouted ‘activate submarine mode’ the moment he spotted water under that fissure? Meanwhile, Goldfish was still staring at the sky above!”
“... That’s seriously high-tech? But honestly, Jian Jingyu’s transformation was pretty fast too!”
“That proves their squad comms have zero latency too! Do you realize how insane that tech is?! Officer Ma is a freaking goddess!”
“@Federal Military, Mom! I want this!!”
“@First Military District, Commander, we need these extra battle POVs for fighting star beasts!”
“@Second Military District, hungry hungry, gimme the food.”
“Don’t just @ the military. Don’t military academies need this too?”
“Well, at the Resource Bureau, during mining ops... Bottom line, boss, buy it!! @Federal Resource Bureau”
