Chapter 652: Yang Yixie: I Still Have to Do the Beginning and the End

The monster let out a painful scream, its back arched, its forepaws all covering its head, as if struggling against something spreading inside its body.

That Cannon blast was swift and loud; for ordinary people at a distance it was at most a fright, but up close it was unbearable.

Shen Zexi had never been that close to a Cannon, and though his ears rang as if about to be blasted, he instantly judged the scene, and his voice pierced the monster's scream, reaching Qi Hengyu and Luo Jinyou clearly.

"Now's the chance!"

Qi Hengyu moved at once, sprinting toward the side‑abdomen of the monster where a crack was being torn open by Ying Guang Lu; at the same time Luo Jinyou circled to the monster's rear, his claw tip plugging the widening fissure briefly.

Min Tianyou stayed back, but his ice spear flew in from another direction, wedging itself beneath the crack like a wedge to halt the wound's self‑healing.

The wound was expanding.

Through the gaping fissure, a vaguely human shape wrapped in black slime could be seen; its off‑white coat was almost unrecognizable, and the torn red cloak was nowhere to be found amid the chaos.

Meng Kexin flipped her war hammer half a turn, leapt high, and the hammer head traced a short arc behind her, gathering momentum.

Chen Mo Zhi acted simultaneously, releasing gray‑green toxic mist from his fingertips; it spread low across the ground like a thin veil clinging to the floor, and upon touching the monster's ankle it began to crawl upward, clearly corrosive.

Meng Kexin's hammer head landed on the edge of the red crystal, wedging into the seam like a chisel, then she forcefully pried it sideways.

The fissure was stretched nearly apart, and more black slime surged from the gap, flowing down the monster's surface.

Meng Kexin stood on the monster, reaching to pull the red crystal out, when the black slime twitched and its surface quickly bulged with several swellings.

Immediately, the black liquid that had merged with the red crystal secreted several glossy tentacles, flinging them in all directions.

One of them struck the side of Meng Kexin's war hammer, snapping the hammer head and her arm back; the impact shoved her body half a step backward, sliding her a short distance across the debris‑strewn ground.

The tentacle also coiled around Luo Jinyou's wrist, flinging him away, and another swept toward Chen Mo Zhi; the gray‑green toxic mist hit it like a wall, was pushed back, rolled and dissipated.

After blocking the entire assault, the slime tightened again, pulling the red crystal deeper, and the edges of the fissure began to close at a visible speed, the wounds torn open by Ying Guang Lu sealing as well.

Only Qi Hengyu's fist hammered solidly into the monster; the creature staggered a few steps, toppling a support pillar already bent from the earlier fight.

The pillar fell, dragging down the various high‑suspended decorations above them; at this rate they might not even see the battle end before the mall collapses.

In other corners of the mall, countless inconspicuous devices simultaneously lit weak Ying Guang Lu indicator lights, like a swarm of electronically awakened fireflies flickering quietly in the dark.

Sister Zhang still covered her ears, but through the gap in the passage she saw the situation outside shift.

Her lips moved a few times, about to ask, when she saw Yang Yixie wholly focused on the projected keyboard beside him.

Yang Yixie slightly frowned, lowered his head to lock his phone again, slipped it into his pocket, then stood and walked toward the passage opening.

As he left Zhiruo's side, Zhiruo heard his low muttering.

"…It's so annoying, I still have to finish it myself."

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Though the few of them wanted to rush over immediately to investigate where that Cannon came from, the current situation still held them back.

Yang Yixie stepped out, standing by the second‑floor railing, and saw the group still confronting the monster.

"A bunch of people are just dawdling here."

Yang Yixie couldn't help but say, "A group of over‑forty‑level fighters, most of whom are mechanical super‑model monsters, and they've managed to stall this long together."

Although Yang Yixie knew their original intent wasn't to eliminate the Aberrant Species but to rescue people.

They wanted to buy as much time as possible without endangering ordinary people, to extract the red crystal inside, but Yang Yixie understood the urgency and couldn't worry about that.

If they kept stalling without eliminating the Aberrant Species, allowing it to use this as a foothold to keep infiltrating, the world's condition would only worsen.

Yang Yixie placed his hand on the cold metal railing, looking down from above at the chaotic battlefield not far below.

The monster's wound was still healing rapidly, though now slower than before; the earlier assault hadn't freed the red crystal, but it had drained some of its repair energy.

Just looking at the thing, Yang Yixie felt as if he could already smell the briny sea air.

Come to think of it, Shoudu itself sits by the sea, but he's never been interested in the ocean, never gone to play there.

He raised his hand, and the projected keyboard beneath his fingertips lit with several green traces; items he pulled directly from the Game Backpack, unlike the remote deployment that required time, this was instantaneous.

While the others over there were still trembling with the monster, Yang Yixie had already hit the final Enter key; a muffled thud echoed through the second‑floor corridor, followed by a low‑frequency hum of heavy equipment starting up, shaking the shattered glass at their feet into vibration.

The once‑fleeting mech reappeared, charging straight out of the second‑floor corridor; it smashed a large section of the railing, its all‑black exterior still intact, its interior glowing with Ying Guang Lu energy, exuding high‑tech coolness.

It landed successfully, the shoulder armor plates automatically readjusting their angle upon impact; as Yang Yixie tapped the keyboard, the mech took a step forward, charging at the monster at a speed that belied its bulky shape.

Yang Yixie didn't expect the mech alone to breach the monster's defense and extract the red crystal; he kept tapping the keyboard, and green luminous lines spread behind him like circuitry currents.

And among those circular nodes, countless pitch‑black apertures burst forth, all aimed directly at the monster below.