"Um... I say, Miss Hong Guoguo, maybe you should just stay back... It looks like Miss Hyacine has the upper hand right now..."
Further off, inside another car, the driver stared blankly at the rainbow streaks flying back and forth in the distance and the colossal booms echoing periodically, muttering to himself.
Hong Guoguo, sitting in the back seat, was equally dazed by the scene unfolding ahead.
She had been incredibly anxious when she first heard Hyacine was in trouble and wanted to rush over to see how she could help. But looking at it now, it seemed... perhaps... she really wasn't needed?
"No, I still have to go check. But it's too dangerous up ahead, so I'll go alone."
"Hey! Wait!"
The driver tried to stop her, but Hong Guoguo darted right out of the rear window, vanishing in a flash.
"Why is everyone like this!"
The driver didn't know what to say. Frustrated, he slammed his hand against the steering wheel and turned the car around again to find more help.
Meanwhile, on Hyacine's side.
[Commanded Little Ica to crash xxx to death, Stellar Jade +40]
"Great job, Little Ica!"
After seeing the system notification, Hyacine happily scooped up the returning Little Ica.
"Now, I just need to deploy Little Ica nine more times to finish off the rest!"
Hyacine looked down at the little creature in her arms. "How is it? Can you keep going?"
"Doo-doo!" (No problem at all!)
"Good!" Hearing Little Ica's response, Hyacine looked at the remaining nine armored warriors. "Then, Little Ica, let's finish them all off in one go!"
As soon as she spoke, Little Ica erupted with startling speed again. Trailing a rainbow wake, it charged out once more.
BOOM!
[Commanded Little Ica to crash xxx to death, Stellar Jade +40]
BOOM!
[Commanded Little Ica to crash xxx to death, Stellar Jade +40]
BOOM!
...
After knocking one back, Little Ica didn't lose momentum. It took to the sky again and plunged toward another armored warrior. For Little Ica, the fact that it felt no weight during the impact, combined with the brief invincibility during the crash, made every hit feel effortless and burden-free.
"Looks like this will be over soon."
Seeing the frequent system broadcasts, Hyacine began silently calculating her earnings.
Four hundred Stellar Jade... plus the nearly two thousand from yesterday's treatments. I'm only eight hundred and twenty short of twenty pulls. I should be able to get that from treatments today.
But before long, Hyacine looked up in confusion. The continuous roar of explosions was still echoing in her ears.
"What's going on? Weren't there only ten armored warriors? Why aren't they finished yet?"
"And the system stopped notifying me of Stellar Jade income. What exactly are these armored warriors Little Ica is hitting now?" Hyacine frowned, murmuring to herself.
Because the area around her barrier was shrouded in dust and smoke, Hyacine shifted her perspective to view the battlefield differently.
Little Ica was still relentlessly slamming into armored warriors rushing in from all directions. Strangely, even though these suits were being smashed to pieces by Little Ica, they would stand back up a moment later with their hulls perfectly intact, as if they had never sustained any damage, and resume their charge toward Hyacine.
Furthermore, it wasn't just those ten; many more units of the same model she had first encountered had appeared, attacking her barrier with a suicidal lack of fear.
After seeing this, Hyacine called out to the sky:
"Little Ica, come back."
A moment later, Little Ica flew back from its rampage.
"These armors are wrong. It's like they can't be broken." Hyacine frowned.
"Doo-doo!" (I can still keep going!)
"No need, Little Ica, take a rest." Hyacine shook her head. "I'll observe what they're trying to pull first. They won't be breaking my barrier anytime soon anyway."
The offensive reached a temporary lull. Realizing she couldn't truly eliminate the enemies, Hyacine stopped sending Little Ica out. Meanwhile, the Genesis Tech armored warriors were unable to shake Hyacine's shield, leading to a stalemate.
However, after waiting for a while, there was no turn for the better. The Genesis Tech offensive did not weaken; instead, it grew more intense.
Sighing, Hyacine muttered, "This stalemate isn't a solution... maybe I should have Cipher head over to the Genesis branch..."
Before she could finish, a rapid ringing suddenly went off.
"Why is the Terminal ringing?"
Hyacine looked at her Terminal in confusion and pressed 'Accept'.
"Hey! Sister Hyacine!"
"Guoguo?" Hyacine immediately recognized the familiar voice. "Are you..."
"It's me! Sister Hyacine, are you wondering why those armors won't stay dead?" Hong Guoguo's voice carried a mix of tension and pride. "I just snuck into the Genesis Tech ventilation ducts and eavesdropped!"
"Long story short! To deal with you, they activated something called an 'Armor Repair Unit.' It can rapidly repair all damaged armor. They want to turn this into a war of attrition to drain your power until you can no longer support the barrier's defense."
"The most important part is that the 'Armor Repair Unit's' master control device is hidden right inside their branch building! As long as it's running, it can remotely power the subsystems in all the armor. Those tin cans will never stay broken!"
"I see," Hyacine realized. So Genesis Tech wanted to use this "Infinite Repair" relay tactic to wear her down?
They really underestimated her. Did they truly think that breaking her barrier was her only trick?
Still... remote rapid repair? What kind of black technology was that? To work over such a distance, how did they handle the energy transmission and matter reconstruction?
"I understand. Thank you, Guoguo. Get out of there now; I'll handle the rest."
"Got it! Good luck, Sister Hyacine!" With that, Hong Guoguo's voice vanished from the comms.
"No wonder... Little Ica smashes them, and they stand back up like new in the blink of an eye."
Hyacine turned her gaze back to the flood of armor tirelessly battering her screen, her tone somewhat helpless.
"So I have to destroy the main device to completely wipe out these annoying suits?"
Her vision swept past the battlefield, locking onto the cold skyscraper in the distance that symbolized Genesis Tech.
"Since the master device is in the Genesis Tech branch... then, if I just destroy the branch itself, that should work, right?"
As she spoke, the last trace of warmth vanished from Hyacine's eyes. Simultaneously, the once-clear sky suddenly darkened as rolling black clouds began to quietly gather in the heavens above.