The so-called “Big Guy” was actually a giant mecha.
Ling Ling estimated that mecha to be about six stories tall.
The mecha’s build wasn’t the slender, agile humanoid design typical of sci-fi works. Instead, it had a thick, heavy industrial style.
Its entire upper body formed an oppressive, inverted triangular structure.
Two slender arms hung at its sides, their length nearly two-thirds of the mecha’s total height. At the ends of those arms were a pair of sharp metal claws.
Each shoulder mounted a set of multiple missile launch pods, but since the mecha was in standby mode, the pods contained no projectiles.
On its back was a large hump-shaped structure, and inside that structure sat a massive reactor emitting a faint blue light.
The massive ability fluctuation that Ling Ling had sensed earlier inside the pipe was exactly what that reactor was radiating.
That eerie fluctuation reminded her of a characteristic similar to Xiao Jiu’s Ability Silence.
The mecha’s head was a sensor array emitting red light.
As for the lower half, it consisted of a pair of huge reverse-jointed legs. Every joint on those legs had enormous hydraulic rods to support the massive upper body.
Looking at this colossal steel beast, Ling Ling felt puzzled.
This world did have humanoid mobile weapons, but they were usually humanoid structures similar to Gundams.
The giant mecha before her, covered in pitch-black armor and resembling a beast, was something she had never seen before.
This industrial design, so different from the current era, might be a relic from the Prehistoric Civilization—but that was just Ling Ling’s speculation.
She took out her phone and snapped a few photos of the Big Guy.
Just as she was taking pictures, the reactor on the back of that originally quiet steel beast resonated once. After the resonance, its head sensor array seemed to detect something. It suddenly activated, scanning the surroundings, then fell silent again.
Down in the lab, a researcher who had been staring at a monitoring screen stood up and shouted:
“Unauthorized ability signal detected entering the development zone!”
Ear-piercing alarms rang throughout the huge circular space, and the red warning lights on the walls flashed wildly.
Upon receiving the emergency transmission, the mercenaries stationed on the upper level immediately swarmed down.
The first to arrive were three A-Class Espers wearing standard-issue Aode Consortium equipment. At their head was a bald, burly man with a perception-type ability.
He shouted toward the pipe:
“Little mouse, come out now. This is Aode Consortium territory—not a place you can just come and go as you please!”
Realizing she had been discovered, Ling Ling quickly thought in the pipe about how she had been exposed.
Maybe when that steel beast’s reactor did its periodic resonance, it accidentally canceled out my Ability Concealment and exposed me.
But since she was already found out, there was no need to keep hiding.
If she took out everyone below, then it would be as if she had never been here at all.
She leaped down from the pipe opening.
Her black figure landed lightly on the ground, her combat boots making a soft sound as they met the floor.
Ling Ling didn’t intend to give the opponent a chance to react. The moment she landed, she pushed off hard with both feet, exploding forward at a terrifying speed beyond that of an ordinary A-Class Esper, charging straight at the bald man.
Clearly, the bald man hadn’t expected this “little mouse” to have such explosive speed.
He could only instinctively cross his arms in front of himself. The ability shield generator on his arms was charging rapidly, and the light blue barrier was still expanding when—
Ling Ling was already in front of him. She raised her left leg.
Then she landed a heavy kick directly at his head.
A loud thud exploded within the warehouse.
The man’s body flew sideways as if struck by a massive force, then slammed heavily into the wall.
However, A-Class Espers were naturally tough. That heavy kick wasn’t enough to take him out completely—it only left him temporarily unconscious.
It was then that the other two A-Class Espers finally reacted.
One tall, lean A-Class Esper drew the blade at his waist.
He infused it with his ability and swung out a huge wind blade, slashing horizontally at Ling Ling.
The moment the wind blade flew, Ling Ling already sensed its approach thanks to her powerful perception.
Before the wind blade reached her, she leaped into the air, dodging the horizontal slash.
Then, midair, she activated Ice Crystal—copied from Ye Fengxue—and sent several huge ice spears flying toward the tall, lean Esper.
He reacted quickly, raising a shield before the ice spears arrived, blocking their attack.
But Ling Ling didn’t intend to give him a chance to catch his breath.
While the ice crystals were still clashing with his ability shield, she landed back on the ground and punched toward his shield with a fist wreathed in flames.
That blow didn’t shatter his shield completely, but it forced him back a significant distance.
Just as the residual shockwave from Ling Ling’s flame fist colliding with the ability shield was dissipating,密集的枪声就在巨大圆形空间的四周响起。
Dense gunfire erupted from all around the huge circular space. The mercenaries who had arrived earlier had set up firing positions and were now shooting at Ling Ling.
Crossfire poured in from all sides.
Special bullets, each imbued with elemental abilities, shot out from the muzzles of standard ability rifles, weaving a brilliant network of fire in the air.
Against such dense fire, no matter how fast Ling Ling’s reaction speed was, she couldn’t dodge everything.
Even though she could rely on her perception—enhanced by the Divine Relic—to analyze the trajectories of most incoming bullets from all directions,
her physical reaction speed wasn’t fast enough to evade every shot.
Meanwhile, the other tall fire-type ability user activated his power, launching a huge fireball toward her at the same time.
Facing such a crisis, dodging was out of the question.
She stomped the ground, activating an earth ability she had copied earlier from some unlucky fool.
A layer of hard earth-and-concrete armor wrapped around her body. Its thickness was enough to withstand some of the bullets without affecting her mobility.
As for that enormous fireball, it posed no real threat to her.
She charged straight into the fireball. Flames engulfed her figure.
Seeing this, the tall fire-type ability user’s lips curled into a grin.
But when the flames dissipated, he saw her walking out completely unscathed.
“How is that possible!”