Chapter 49

Did he say that?

Just a few minutes before Xintiao Qian was found by the Executors, at the edge of the teleportation platform in the western district of Heaven's Gate City.

Section Chief Jianze watched as the frantic beast charged into the clouds, then burst out of them a second later, hurling a huge scrap-iron-like armor from its claws.

Haipa Airei King, what a name lacking intimidation... Section Chief Jianze, who isn't well-versed in tokusatsu culture, still doesn't know what kind of nonsense the forms with the two characters 'Haipa' entail.

He felt the monster deserved a more imposing name.

"Yes, he even said that as long as he gets that, he can help us take down Haipa Airei King."

Section Chief Jianze couldn't help but chuckle: "Heh, he's even more reckless than I imagined."

"If you refuse, I can immediately shut down his wild talk." The Executor obviously thought this request wouldn't be approved, merely making a routine report.

But his words still surprised Section Chief Jianze, who knew him well: "You can't even handle that kid?"

This Executor was a capable subordinate of his, known for his cold, hard style; the Section Chief had thought that dealing with a child wouldn't require any strong proof from him.

"He... is a bit weird," said the Executor, a native of Heaven's Gate City, whose literary cultivation wasn't great, and whose vocabulary to describe the youth was rather poor: "Like a student from the astrology department."

"Obviously, upon our first meeting he could say I went to the botanical garden this morning, saw whom, ate what Terran cuisine at noon, and even claimed he knew I just didn't want to deal with his affairs because I was avoiding trouble, that this application is actually not against the rules, and if I truly didn't intend to handle him I'd be complaining about me."

"Honestly, it sounds like you're completely wrapped around his finger," the Section Chief remarked calmly, unfazed by the occasional 'shooting star' flying overhead: "I thought you, who'd never even have a girlfriend, would never have a nemesis."

The scene resembled meteors streaking across the sky bursting above his head—after countless tracking missiles performed a dazzling Banana Circus-like chase in midair, most of them indeed slammed into the giant beast.

Even though the latter flew fast and was agile, its huge bulk still let out a low, rumbling pained roar from the obvious damage.

Just a light wound.

The giant beast wasn't brought down by this strike; after roaring, it became even more aggressive, charging and slashing with its claws, the crystals embedded along its spine flashing bright purple light one by one, splitting into two paths extending toward the rending claws and the vicious tail sweep.

Between its claws were several blades of light a hundred meters long, while its tail swept out a thick electric arc nearly a thousand meters long; released together, they filled each other's gaps to form a dense AOE wall, directly causing several smoking warships and Gundams to crash.

Even among the Gundams, there were differences.

Some Gundams had already activated triple red to dodge the high-energy beams sprayed by Airei King, while others were like clumsy imitations of the original's youthful creations—not only dying under the AOE skill's tail electric arc, but also having poor marksmanship when alive, once accidentally injuring their Duìyou; setting aside the possibility of a mole, perhaps they were just farming awakenings for their Duìyou.

As for some even lighter, more like weapon-clad mecha operators, their performance was even worse.

Among them were not a few whose armor looked especially weak, as if they also believed in the mysterious rationale that 'the less you wear, the higher your defense,' and they were engulfed by the beast's breath, which had no pity or tenderness.

Hopefully they all splurged on reconstruction insurance, otherwise they'd only be able to turn back and collect their souls to choose other subordinate services.

Like some vampires, they'd just become electronic ghosts or something.

On the optimistic side, one could remark that although the beast is plenty strong, it's not enough to make souls fly apart.

Although excessively strong electricity can also have unpredictable effects on the soul, it's mostly not too bad.

But I never expected it to breathe as well... really completely like a dragon... After working in Heaven's Gate City for so many years, the Section Chief, who had seen no few otherworldly dragons, couldn't help but sigh.

Then the voice on the other end of the call was still hesitating: "I think this isn't the same thing. Section Chief, don't laugh at me—just quickly reply with a refusal."

"Refuse what? Earlier Juanzhang guaranteed for him; let me go talk to the people at the Frontier Lighthouse first."

By the way, why aren't you planning to activate that inferior Meta domain that was cooked up during the initial technology exchange?

Now the damage and loss caused by that thing are far more exaggerated than yesterday's mechanical Godzilla, so we should activate it to prevent further destruction; also, let the TV station start a live broadcast recording, using audiovisual entertainment to compensate for some of the loss.

Section Chief Jianze was mulling it over in his mind.

Clearly such a thing exists, but he's hardly used it a few times, and he often can't figure out what the higher-ups are thinking.

"Eh?"

On the other end of the call, the Executor, who had long lost the cold, hard attitude others judged him by, turned his head wordlessly toward the youth still poring over the Beta system experiment log, his feelings complex.

"Juanzhang gave a guarantee?"

Wouldn't saying that cause an uproar in the unit?

At least there would be ten or so versions of rumors starting to spread, then once the rumor exceeded 250 people an internal investigation would begin, knowing the law and breaking it would add another offense... but none of that exists, since he wouldn't spout nonsense, and I understand why the Section Chief is willing to tell him this.

He merely turned his head to look at the youth, somewhat displeasedly conveying the news that the conspiracy had succeeded.

"What do you mean by conspiracy? No need to put it so harshly~"

The youth who received the news was obviously in a great mood, his tone even rising a bit, as if he were certain he could obtain the item.

To be frank, the Executor never understood his confidence, only attributing it to the notion that "he's probably an astrology student."

Just like that horse girl named whatever Fukurai on TV whose fortune-telling is usually pretty accurate, but since the divination content is all ordinary, it's nowhere near as unsettling as this youth makes him feel.

"What nasty things are you guessing about me?"

Noticing the Executor staring at him, pondering something and even showing a hint of disgust, Aomo also knew his earlier performance had given the other a terrible experience, so, besides being pleased with achieving his goal, he also waved and said:

"Don't make that face, I've got a promotion suggestion for you."

"If you're suggesting I turn around and bring you to fight the monster, forget about it." The Executor's attitude was firm.

"No need for you to bring me; I'm talking about an easier way."

"You really intend to go?" The Executor's cheek twitched; he couldn't understand why this youth would want to rush into such a dangerous place, previously taking the conditions he mentioned as just a momentary hot-headed impulse.

"I'm going for revenge, of course I have to go."

Upon hearing the youth say that, he wore a nonchalant expression.

"Can such words really be said so casually?" The Executor wanted to say something, but the youth's immediate follow‑up action cut him off.

"All right, let's not talk about that!"

"Let me tell you, look here, here, and here..."

The youth shared his terminal screen; in the corner hung a desktop pet that the Executor felt somewhat familiar with, appearing to be saying something as its mouth opened and closed, but the Executor heard no sound from it.

All he could hear was the youth speaking while drawing dots and lines on the electronic map:

"Right, right, and there's that big bridge too. Although you Executors might now find it hard to spare personnel to monitor this, if you can rally at least eleven people to each stake out these eight routes, you have a fifty percent chance of staking out that woman—the same woman who dressed so flamboyantly before."

The Executor finally caught the pause after the youth finished speaking, interjected to correct his choice of words, even though in his reports he was also about the same:

"Her name is Bianqin Caroline, a Pitian starperson who transmigrated 2426 years ago, titled the Monster Shape King."