Chapter 135: My Death Is Not Unjust

Pushing all influencing factors to the absolute limit, refining the plan to the absolute limit, wearing down the unbeatable enemy to the absolute limit, and developing one's own potential to the absolute limit can turn the impossible into the inevitable.

At this moment, Ren Zhong had injected the standard-dose level-four mental stimulant from Sun Miao two minutes in advance.

This single dose of medicine was worth as much as ten thousand contribution points, and its potency was extremely fierce. It could fully unleash the brain reaction of a level-four mecha warrior, bringing him an effect that doubled exponentially.

Today, his brain reaction index had doubled from 1522.9 to 3045.8, once again surpassing his carrying power and physical fitness index, which both stood at 2467.4 kilowatts and shared the same numerical value at this moment.

Under the reinforcement of gold-pounding power, his brain reaction index had finally reclaimed its former majesty.

This was the combat posture to which Ren Zhong was most suited.

In the past, when sparring with Ma Xiaoling, he did not use it because he could not win even with it, and the efficacy of the level-four stimulant was too strong, leaving a period of lethargy after the medicine faded. There was no need for this during training.

Wielding his blade for just the first time, Ren Zhong roughly tested the maximum power he could continuously and perfectly command using the amplifier under the blessing of his super-standard brain reaction index: precisely four thousand kilowatts.

This seemed even inferior to the eight thousand kilowatts from his previous casual sword swings, but there was an essential difference between the two.

The previous eight thousand came from a preset program he had completed in advance, which was equivalent to handing over combat dominance to the exoskeleton armor. The power that could be called upon in this state was higher, basically matching whatever the upper limit of the armor was. The disadvantage was that it was inflexible and extremely easy to die like a wasteland beast.

The current four thousand, however, was an autonomous state identical to the conventional state without the amplifier activated, possessing real-time response with ultra-low latency, coming readily to hand, with man and armor as one.

Of course, Ren Zhong used the level-four stimulant, and Lin Wang did too.

To survive, Lin Wang also pulled out all his trump cards.

The two simultaneously activated their dielectric thrusters and anti-gravity engines, floating and interweaving in this narrow space, tangling into a fierce battle.

Lin Wang gripped a short silver gun in each hand, dancing wildly like silver snakes escaping their cages, with plasma spewing forth.

Ren Zhong held a crimson heavy saber in both hands, alternating thrusts, sweeps, slashes, and various standard killing moves he had figured out on his own.

Simultaneously, the firearms, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and flying mine dispensers attached to each of their bodies also fired at full throttle.

At this point, the self-reactive protective equipment on Lin Wang's body was almost depleted, but his offensive equipment still had ample ammunition.

Ren Zhong's situation was similar. Due to limited funds, he had taken things to the extreme, only upgrading the armor's own protective performance while preparing no self-reactive protective equipment at all, bringing out the characteristics of heavy offense and light defense to the absolute extreme.

In terms of shooting methods, he fought offense with offense.

In terms of melee weapons, his fighting style was even more bold and unrestrained, highlighting a wild style of being fierce, stubborn, and trading his life for the enemy's.

Lin Wang showed timidity.

After a brief exchange, Lin Wang realized that Ren Zhong could definitely not be a novice level-four warrior who had broken through recently.

Ren Zhong's five-senses resonance was extremely pure, even surpassing his own.

What was even more outrageous was that Ren Zhong's combat experience was extremely rich. Not only were his armor-fighting skills pure, but his judgment of weaknesses was also extremely precise.

At the same time, his multitasking with various auxiliary killing equipment was methodical, both insidious and seasoned.

For example, both parties were releasing micro flying mines outward, but Lin Wang could only turn on the friend-or-foe identification system, letting the flying mines he released fly about chaotically to explode upon hitting Ren Zhong, and they were frequently detonated prematurely by the aftermath of the two's melee weapons.

However, Ren Zhong's placement of flying mines had naturally formed a formation. Whenever he gained the upper hand and wanted to pursue, he would step back, and the surrounding flying mine array would fiercely spring into action to block the pursuit.

When he fell to a disadvantage and wanted to escape to the side, the flying mine array could always accurately lock onto the best escape route, forcing him to take Ren Zhong's offensive head-on.

In short, Ren Zhong alone with one armor vaguely produced the effect of a multi-functional combat vehicle squad.

This was obviously not an ability that a wild-path warrior could master. Ren Zhong must have received good, systematic training in the citizen system's professional academy.

What was even more terrifying was that Ren Zhong would occasionally hack or thrust with astonishing skill, unexpected and untraceable.

He would often make moves without thinking, and this blade momentum was both fierce and domineering while implicitly conforming to certain rules, always pushing his own physical fitness and armor performance to the limit simultaneously.

At the same time, he could always seize the inevitable operational intervals caused by small details such as inertia, equipment energy transmission characteristics, and cooling characteristics on his opponent's part.

Lin Wang fought with extreme discomfort. Clearly, his armor's performance, power, and parameters had an overall advantage, yet he could not even maintain a situational advantage.

Following Ren Zhong's combat strategy, the battle between the two today would inevitably end in mutual destruction.

Lin Wang found an opportunity, feinting a head-on clash with Ren Zhong, but actually executing a false move and charging toward the location where Ren Zhong had previously stood.

That was precisely the only passageway leading to the exit.

However, the moment he stepped into it, he felt a slight tremor beneath his feet.

Immediately afterward, he saw on his helmet display a terrifying energy-level reaction reaching tens of thousands of points, with the total energy-level index exceeding two thousand points! It reached the intensity of a head-on strike from a level-five wasteland beast!

In the three-dimensional modeling, the passageway right in front of him leading to the exit transformed into the bloody mouth of a mountain-swallowing behemoth.

The walls, the ground, and the overhead were all dyed a crimson red representing extreme danger.

This was precisely the final high-power trap meticulously crafted by Ren Zhong at great expense!

A new version of the "Grand Red Lotus" composed of hundreds of level-three bombs疊加ed in power!

The designer was still Ou Youning, and it carried Young Master Ou's lifelong dream.

As long as one was willing to spend time, put in the capital, carefully polish it, and have sufficient preparation space and time, a level-one demolitionist could also kill a level-four!

At this moment, Lin Wang felt Young Master Ou's burning murderous intent, and only two words remained in his mind.

"Danger! Retreat!"

Just as he sidestepped a step to the side, he saw a brilliant flash of light behind him.

The deafening sound driven by the shockwave arrived closely afterward.

Boom!

Taking that cave entrance as the origin, a flame red lotus almost akin to a solar flare eruption splashed and sprayed outward.

Lin Wang fled fast enough, only grazing his back against this flame red lotus, but he still suffered heavy injuries.

He only felt the high temperature reaching his body at his back, and the equipment damage warning sound brought by his auditory resonance even overwhelmed the mecha's volume control system, turning into a piercing, demonic sound.

Fortunately, the last few pieces of self-reactive protective equipment inside his armor were all released before the explosion occurred.
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He was not blown to death instantly.

Under the impact of the explosion, Lin Wang was sent flying forward, crashing heavily against the inner stone wall of the pit.

At this very moment, he barely raised his neck to look ahead, his pupils shrinking violently.

Directly in front of him, Ren Zhong—who had jumped into the pit in advance to avoid the direct impact of the explosion—was kicking away the soil and leaping out, holding his saber in both hands with the crimson tip pointing forward, shooting across like an electric bolt, breaking through the flame torrent and shockwave spewed by the explosion.

The demon-modified flame-slashing giant blade was like a fish in water within this high-temperature pit environment, releasing a temperature several tenths higher than usual.

Lin Wang was greatly horrified.

The aftermath of the explosion had not yet subsided, and the temperature inside the pit was still rising, yet this lunatic Ren Zhong did not flee and instead advanced.

Ren Zhong's murderous intent was so dense that it seemed to have formed substance!

Lin Wang roared in anger, raising his twin guns in front of him to block.

The tip of Ren Zhong's blade suddenly changed direction.

Lin Wang also erupted with unprecedented sharpness in his lifetime, quickly shifting positions at the intersection of the twin guns.

With a loud clanging sound, the tip of Ren Zhong's blade was accurately met and blocked by the twin guns.

Amidst the sound of violent collisions, the two retreated backward separately.

The armor of both parties was somewhat overheated, and they unexpectedly reached a tacit agreement, halting their aggressive attacks and each taking a brief rest.

At this moment, blood was churning inside Lin Wang's body, and the armor's temperature control system had long been operating at full throttle to resist the external high heat.

Lin Wang secretly looked back and drew a sharp breath of cold air: the path he had fled along had been completely blown into magma, melting into a lump.

He looked toward the inner cave entrance again, which had also been completely blasted and collapsed by the explosion shockwave.

The side walls of the cave chamber had not collapsed; instead, they had been pressed smoother and rounder by the internal explosion impact.

This place had transformed into a cage arena for a desperate struggle between trapped beasts.

"Ren Zhong, you're crazy! What on earth is our grudge and grievance!"

Ren Zhong laughed out loud, raising his saber to point directly at the tip of Lin Wang's nose, "Anyway, today only one of us can walk out alive at most. Captain, you are truly remarkable and amazed me; fortunately, I was fully prepared."

Lin Wang: "Why! Why! Why!"

Ren Zhong muttered as if talking to himself, "The last time I could fight you to mutual destruction, it was indeed thanks to the legion beasts. This time, I spent at least disposable consumables worth 50,000 on you, yet the injuries caused to you turned out to be inferior to those from the legion beasts. I find it astonishing myself. Of course, I also understand how outrageously low the acquisition prices of Spark Resources are."

Lin Wang said hysterically, "I don't understand a single word of what you're saying! You lunatic, a thorough lunatic! What on earth is this all for!"

Ren Zhong blinked, attempting to connect to the external network via his wrist watch.

Connection failed.

The electromagnetic shielding inside the abandoned mine pit was indeed formidable.

That being the case, he could say a little more.

"Lin Wang, the reason I want to kill you is because I was killed by you half a month ago."

Lin Wang: "What!"

He began to instinctively recall.

Half a month ago was precisely the day everyone left the Chenghui Mining Area and returned to Spark Town.

The group encountered legion beasts, and it was precisely this "straightforward" and simple fellow Ren Zhong who risked his life to rescue them, allowing himself and Bei Lihui to escape safely.

A huge question mark transformed into a meteorite falling from the sky, smashing fiercely against his forehead.

He heard every single word Ren Zhong uttered clearly, but piecing them together into a sentence made him incomparably bewildered.

Ren Zhong: "Well then, let me slightly save your fragile soul and tell you a bit more. Let me ask you, that time I encountered danger in the Chenghui Mining Area, wasn't it Pan Fenglian and Song Qianlian who encountered the leeches first, and then you made me go replace those two, right? You surely don't truly think I knew nothing, do you? Therefore, you betrayed me first."

Lin Wang remained silent for a long time.

He realized that he had always underestimated Ren Zhong's mind.

Yet he was also bewildered: as early as the first time he paid attention to Ren Zhong, his first impression of Ren Zhong was clearly that they were birds of a feather.

From what exact moment on had he started to look down upon and underestimate Ren Zhong?

"This... this is an unwritten rule. Trading the life of a level-two member for the lives of two level-four members is entirely justified."

Ren Zhong: "But you didn't ask whether I agreed or not."

Lin Wang: "..."

"Also, it was me who leaked the news to Ma Dafu, and it was me who made Ma Dafu instigate the wastelanders to block the doors of Spark Resources. That's why you received Yang Bingzhong's urging, why you decided to take a shortcut, and why you encountered the legion beasts."

Lin Wang: "What!"

Ren Zhong: "You thought that was your own decision, but in reality, you have always lived in the palm of my hand."

Lin Wang was silent for a moment, then asked: "Then since you wanted to kill me, why did you save me back then?"

"Because I knew that minor scene couldn't kill you."

"If you had managed to escape, you would have run into a convoy from Chongyi County. In that convoy... well, you would have risen to prominence."

"Wang Zhaofu, who drove the armed escort vehicle to pick us up, was also arranged by me."

"In addition, today's hunting route along the way was also within my expectations. This morning, when I was setting the traps, I already knew you would be more aggressive than usual and venture deeper."

Lin Wang: "But we encountered a wasteland beast frenzy, and I went further than usual! Your quasi-superconducting metal..."

Ren Zhong: "Well, the wasteland beast frenzy was also created by me."

Lin Wang: "..."

"As for your choice of escape route... tsk tsk, Lin Wang, you really are simple. I only needed to flick my fingers to guess all your thoughts. You must have been second-guessing my predictions, thinking: 'This must be the last trap... the last one...'"
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"You've been holding on stubbornly and made it this well until now. Well, the one that just detonated was indeed the last one. Oh right, I also calculated your propulsion speed, roughly estimated the impact of each explosion on you and Sima Wan, the time it would delay, and the degree of your contemplation and hesitation."

"Therefore, you accurately stepped into the traps I laid almost every single time, with only a small portion missing. Finally, I even calculated that you would definitely split up with Sima Wan at that Y-shaped intersection just now, leaving her to go out and attract the non-existent siege by Tang Shuying."

"Hhahahaha, in short, every move of yours was under my guidance. You... are like a marionette in my hands."

Lin Wang was dumbfounded, his mouth dry.

He could not utter a single word further.

An immense terror completely devoured him.

Ren Zhong swung his long saber horizontally, "Now, you can die with absolute clarity."

Ren Zhong usually spoke few words, but turning into a chatterbox at this moment served his purpose.

He was continuously stimulating Lin Wang, displaying his infallible calculations, striking down Lin Wang's confidence, and disrupting his thinking.

Finally, he captured the wavering in Lin Wang's eyes.

The next instant, the thoroughly dominated trapped beast and the most terrifying hunter engaged in slaughter once again.

This time, Ren Zhong completely pulled out his own out-of-spec special technique, one surpassing even Ma Xiaoling's sixth sense!

At the same time, Ren Zhong changed his combat strategy.

He raised the upper limit of the exoskeleton's output power to 8000 kilowatts.

Having fought fiercely with Lin Wang blade-to-blade for so long a second time, he had completely read through Lin Wang's behavioral patterns.

He began to unleash his true ultimate skill, integrating the sixth sense into the exchange process, perfectly connecting autonomous decision-making with preset programs. This was a complete set of seamless combos tailored specifically for Lin Wang to defeat the strong with the weak.

As long as the first blade was slashed, the subsequent combos would be like a raging tide crashing against the shore, continuous and unstoppable.

Moreover, as the combo gradually took shape, the armor's output power would start from 4000 and rise step by step until finally surging to 8000 kilowatts.

With his mind broken, his equipment severely damaged one after another, and his momentum having plummeted to the valley floor, Lin Wang completely fell into a disadvantage with virtually no power to fight back.

What was even more pathetic was that the cave pit was completely sealed, making escape impossible for him.

...

Swish!

Three minutes later, the flame-slashing giant blade transformed into a sharp knife, piercing through Lin Wang's helmet visor and driving fiercely straight in.

Before the helmet was pierced, before death descended, a look of relief finally appeared on Lin Wang's face.

He read new information once again.

This is the sixth sense!

It must be the sixth sense!

Being able to command the sixth sense at level-four parameters, Ren Zhong must be reinforcements invited from the Ma family by Ma Dafu to deal with Yang Bingzhong!

Your name is Ma Zhong!

I... I am President Yang's man...

My death is not unjust.

Flames spewed from the front of the flame-slashing giant blade.

Lin Wang's body rapidly carbonized and collapsed starting from his head.

Lin Wang, dead!

Looking at Lin Wang's corpse, which had turned into a lump of carbon ash inside the armor, Ren Zhong grinned and his figure swayed slightly.

He wasn't injured; it was the aftereffects of the level-four stimulant's potency taking effect with high efficiency in an extremely short time finally descending upon him.

The light and shadow before his eyes gradually dimmed, and his body went limp.

More than ten minutes later, the oxygen in the cave chamber was about to run out, and Ren Zhong's complexion gradually turned livid due to hypoxia.

The smooth walls of the cave chamber made a continuous thudding sound, and then a crack broke open.

A soil-boring spiral drill head probed out.

Thud!

A half-person-high heavy shield attached with a spiral drill head crashed to the ground.

Wen Lei, whose armor bore crisscrossing scars, propped himself up with his elbows, crawled out from the cave opening, collapsed headfirst onto the ground again, and then hurriedly got up to rush directly toward the fallen Ren Zhong.

Crawling out second behind Wen Lei was Yu Jin, who had several foot-long slash marks added to his back.

Crawling out third behind Yu Jin was Chen Hangyu, whose face was covered in mud and ash, but who was completely free of any injuries.

The three of them rushed to Ren Zhong's side in unison.

Wen Lei forcibly pried open the visor, which could not open automatically due to a malfunction, tested Ren Zhong's breathing, and hastily pulled out an oxygen tank to connect it to Ren Zhong's face, shouting wildly with joy, "He's alive!"

The three of them then turned their gazes to the other side: that was Lin Wang's armor, reduced to a mere shell.

The three exchanged glances, smiles blooming on their faces.

They won!

A complete victory!

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