Chapter 250

Twelve Responding Dragons launched an attack on the shoal.

Each time the laser beam flashed, two or three assembled mechs had their cores melted through;

Each swing of the chainsaw sword sent assembled parts flying into the air.

On the shoal, the burning wreckage belched thick black smoke.

Seven minutes later, all four hundred assembled mechs were wiped out.

No prisoners, no surrender, because the Responding Dragons' attack left no room for prisoners.

The cockpits were vaporized, escape systems directly destroyed, and White Elephant soldiers didn't even have time to jump into the sea before being vaporized by the high heat.

"Clearance complete." Li Yang reported over the channel, his voice calm.

"Requesting next orders."

On the Fairy Isle ship's bridge, Feng Yan watched the returned footage, his eyes icy.

The Pearl Platform was still tilting, power in the three coastal provinces had just been restored, and the preliminary estimate of economic losses already exceeded tens of billions.

And all of this was merely the dying struggle of three countries unwilling to be cast aside by the times.

"Enough." He pressed the comms key, linking all combat units, "Pass on my order: decapitation operation, engage."

"I want them to have nightmares whenever they recall today for the next hundred years."

Three hours later, in the Dragon Chant strategy meeting room.

The holographic projection displayed three battle maps: the capital region of the Crane Basin, the northeastern border of White Elephant, and the western coast of Eagle Country.

"Traditional naval battles are outdated." Li Yang stood before the map, holding a laser pointer.

"Since they used suicide subs to ram our platform, we'll respond with lightning-fast mech warfare, striking straight into their homeland."

He opened the first map: "First wave, twelve Evil-Warding Beast-3S special warfare mechs will airdrop directly into the Crane Basin's metropolitan core using the Somersault Cloud high-altitude transport platform."

The image zoomed in, showing twelve key nodes such as the Defense Ministry building, communications hub, and energy center.

"Control all targets within thirty minutes, paralyze the command system. Remember—" Li Yang paused.

"Leave no resisting force. Anyone bearing arms shall be killed on sight."

Wang Hao whistled: "Brutal! I like it!"

"Second wave." Li Yang switched the map: "Northeastern border of White Elephant. Twenty Responding Dragon heavy assault mechs, coordinated with three assault companies of the Dragon Cavalry Guard, will launch a frontal assault."

The red line advanced on the map, passing through the disputed region, pointing straight at the Eastern Theater Command headquarters of White Elephant.

"Three hours, advance 100 kilometers, destroy all military facilities along the way. No prisoners, no negotiations—only speed."

Chen Guang pushed up his glasses: "Isn't the timeline too tight?"

"Tight?" Feng Yan said, "We have Fairy Isle providing aerial support, Torch Dragon-3 for total information suppression, and Profound Dark batteries giving unlimited endurance."

"If we still can't be fast with this, then building the mechs was pointless."

"Third wave." Li Yang switched to the last map: "Fairy Isle will go itself."

The screen showed the western coast of Eagle Country, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, dense with military bases and ports.

"Just fly a loop around their doorstep." Li Yang said.

"At an altitude of twenty thousand meters, speed Mach three, with optical camouflage off the whole way, so everyone can see clearly that Longguo's aerospace carrier can appear at any time in the airspace of any nation."

"Deterrence." Chen Guang understood, "Tell them we can strike your homeland, we just don't want to right now."

"Right." Feng Yan nodded, "But if truly provoked, we can strike at any time."

The battle plan was confirmed.

At 2:00 p. m., the operation began.

Crane Basin, above the metropolis, altitude fifteen thousand meters.

Twelve Evil-Warding Beast-3S mechs leapt from the Somersault Cloud platform, rear vector thrusters igniting like twelve meteors streaking across the sky.

The ground air-wailed alarm screamed, but it was too late.

At three thousand meters above the ground, the mechs deployed their wings, switched to glide mode, and dove precisely onto their respective targets.

On the top floor of the Defense Ministry building, Defense Minister Yamamoto was roaring in an emergency meeting: "We must hold the coastline! As long as we stall the Longguo fleet……"

Crash!

The floor-to-ceiling window shattered explosively.

A silver-gray mech crashed into the conference room, its mechanical feet stomping spiderweb-like cracks into the floor.

The optical sensors swiveled, locking onto Yamato.

"You…" Yamamoto slumped in his chair.

The mech's speaker broadcast standard Japanese, an AI-generated cold female voice: "Under Article 3, Paragraph 1 of Longguo's Military Control Ordinance, you are sentenced to death for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian facilities. Execute immediately."

Yamamoto still wanted to say something.

A laser beam flashed.

A charred little hole appeared on his forehead, his expression frozen in the moment of terror.

The mech turned, facing the other officials frozen like wooden chickens: "Surrender, or die. Choice time: three seconds."

Three.

Two—

"We surrender! We surrender!" Everyone raised their hands.

The same scene unfolded simultaneously at eleven other locations.

The communications center was paralyzed by an electromagnetic pulse, the energy hub implanted with a self-destruct virus, and the transportation hub guarded by mechs.

Within thirty minutes, the core of the metropolis fell completely under loss of control.

And the entire process was livestreamed in full by the mechs' built-in cameras.

Global viewers watched as officials usually high and mighty knelt begged for mercy, watched elite guards crushed by mechs like swatting flies, and watched this nation lose its brain in half an hour.

The barrage fell silent.

After a long while, someone posted: "Is this... the generation gap?"

The northeastern border of Bai Xiang.

Twenty Yinglong mechs formed a wedge formation, marching in neat steps across the border line.

Opposite them, the Bai Xiang army had set up three lines of defense: the first was a tank cluster, the second an artillery emplacement, and the third the remnants of hastily assembled mechs.

"Fire!" the Bai Xiang commander bellowed.

Hundreds of guns roared in unison, shells falling like rain.

The Yinglong mechs neither dodged nor evaded.

The laser turrets on their backs automatically intercepted, each shell detonating in midair.

The firelight from the explosions merged into a sheet, like a wall of flames erected before the mechs.

The mechs passed through the fire wall unscathed.

The tank cluster began its charge.

Yinglong raised its right arm, the electromagnetic railgun charging.

Hiss—

Invisible to the naked eye, the projectile shot out; the armor of the first row of tanks was torn apart like paper, their internal ammunition detonated, and a chain reaction turned the entire tank battalion into scrap metal within ten seconds.

"Devils… they're devils, run!" Bai Xiang soldiers began to rout.

But they couldn't escape.

The missile bays behind the Yinglong opened, and hundreds of tiny Bi Fang missiles swarmed out, homing in on each fleeing soldier as if they had eyes.

Explosions rang out incessantly, and the three defensive lines were reduced to scorched earth within forty minutes.

In the Eastern Military Region headquarters, Xin Ge watched the monitor, his hands shaking so badly he could barely hold the communicator.

"General, the front line… the front line has been wiped out!" the staff officer's voice trembled with tears.

Xin Ge slumped into his chair, muttering: "What kind of existence have we provoked…"

Eagle Country's west coast, 3 p. m.

Penglai deactivated its optical camouflage, appearing a hundred nautical miles off the coast of San Francisco.

At an altitude of twenty thousand meters, its silver-gray hull reflected a cold light in the sunlight.

Air-raid alarms blared across the entire west coast.

"Unidentified flying object detected! Altitude twenty thousand… wait, it's descending!"

"Speed Mach 3! Heading for Los Angeles!"

"All aircraft, scramble! Quick!"

The Eagle Country air force urgently launched over two hundred fighter jets, but by the time they climbed to sufficient altitude, Penglai was already hovering over Los Angeles.

The ship's bow slowly turned, aiming at the city below.

It neither fired nor threatened, simply hovering there in silence.

But everyone knew what that meant: if Penglai wished, it could wipe Los Angeles off the map in ten minutes.

The White House emergency line was inundated.

"Mr. President, Longguo's space‑air carrier is demonstrating off our west coast!"

"Our fighters can't even reach it!"

"The public is already panicking!"

In the Oval Office, President Carlson stared at the satellite feed, his face ashen.

He recalled Davis's last words, "What exactly are we challenging?" and now he understood.

What they were challenging was a civilization already ahead by at least thirty years.

"Connect to Longguo's hotline." Carlson's voice hoarse, he said, "Just… tell them we're requesting a cease‑fire."

At five p. m., the three cease‑fire requests were almost simultaneously transmitted to Dragon Chant.

The provisional government of Ji Basin Chicken: "We unconditionally accept all of Longguo's demands, only asking that the attacks stop."

The Bai Xiang premier's office: "We are willing to withdraw immediately from all disputed territories and compensate for all losses."

The Eagle Country White House: "We request the opening of peace talks."

In the strategy conference room, everyone looked at these three humbly worded telegrams, their expressions varied.

Wang Hao grinned: "They've already chickened out? I haven't had enough fun yet!"

"Not chicken, just clear‑headed." Chen Guang pushed up his glasses.

"They finally realized we can wipe them out at any moment."

Li Yang looked toward Feng Yan: "Dean, how should we reply?"

Feng Yan remained silent for a long while, then spoke slowly:

"Tell them a cease‑fire is possible."

"The condition is just one: unconditional surrender and acceptance of military administration."

"Otherwise—" he paused, "at this time tomorrow, mechs will appear on every street of their capital."

The message was relayed back to Eagle Country, Ji Basin Chicken, and Bai Xiang.

Three hours later, the provisional government of Ji Basin Chicken replied: "Accepted."

Four hours later, Bai Xiang replied: "Accepted, but we request to retain some autonomy."

Eagle Country was the last to respond; after Penglai made another circuit over Washington, D. C., it finally replied in the dead of night: "... Accepted."

The world erupted in an uproar.

Three former great powers, in a single day, were beaten to the point of kneeling and begging for mercy.

And the reaction of the Longguo populace was unexpectedly calm.

The hottest post on social media read as follows:

"Just finished watching the livestream of a mecha blowing up the Foot Basin Chicken Defense Ministry, ordered takeout. It arrived in five minutes, delivered by the mecha, the soup not a drop spilled. Suddenly I felt, fighting wars and such… seems far away from us?"

A reply downstairs: "Because someone blocked the war outside the national gate."

A further reply below: "And it was blocked in a crushing manner."

Late night, eleven o'clock, Dragon Chant Cafeteria.

The core team rarely gathered together for a late-night snack; although the so-called 'gathering' was five people surrounding a holographic projection, with Li Yang still on Penglai, Zhao Kaiyuan at the Energy Center, and Zhao Gong at the Moon Base.

"So we really have to go into military control?" Wang Hao stirred his noodles, "That'll be a hassle, plus we'd have to send people to manage them."

"Even if it's a hassle, we must handle it." Feng Yan took a sip of soup.

"To defend against external threats, we must first secure the interior. If we don't clean up our own house, how can we face deep-space threats?"

Chen Guang suddenly said: "Torch Dragon-3 alerts that the Heaven Punishment Base Module is about to enter its final stage, requiring Director Li's confirmation."

Li Yang's hologram nodded: "I'll head to the bridge right away. Also——"

He paused: "The Moon Base side reports that the brightness compared to the neighboring star has dropped another 0.1%. Time… really is running out."

Outside the window, in the night, the enormous outline of Penglai slowly turned, heading toward the East Sea.

And on a higher orbit, the solar sails of the Heaven Punishment Base Module are slowly unfolding in the starry sky.

Like a steel flower blooming in the darkness.