Operation

It was night, and Ye Chong moved silently like a spirit through the darkness. The night provided the best cover for Ye Chong; if it was in space, Ye Chong would not dare to move so freely, even with his F-58. While there was more radiation in space, the geography was less complicated. Scanning systems can be used to their full potential in such terrains. On the other hand, within the atmosphere, the various environment severely restricted the effective perimeter of the scanning system, besides significantly decreasing its accuracy. Most importantly, the government has strict rules regarding atmospheric scanning, such as allowed scanning frequencies, methods and so on.

The fact was that the F-58, with its advanced anti-detection system, would be the best candidate for the task at hand, but Ye Chong was unsure if Johansson’s mech had a special communication link with the F-58. Hence, he kept the F-58 undeployed.

In fact, the best time to infiltrate the Ji family was immediately after he killed the surveillance team, and before the Ji family received the news. Now that the Ji family was informed, security would be tightened. However, his infiltration was planned entirely by Mu. When Ye Chong noticed that Mu had gathered a large amount of data about the Ji family, he made the rational decision of letting Mu plan for the infiltration. Ye Chong had absolute trust in Mu. Mu did not explain the details of their operation, but only calculated the probability of the final outcome. The probability of success was 72 percent; the probability of failure and successful retreat was 20 percent; and the probability of dying mid-operation was 8 percent.

Ye Chong felt that attacking the Ji family now would not deal a big enough blow, since he was not exactly powerful, and would risk exposing himself. However, Mu had insisted on the operation, and Ye Chong believed that there must be a good reason behind it, for Mu would not do anything carelessly.

Ye Chong carefully moved in the shadows as he always did when hunting on the trash planet. The mutants were far more alert than humans, and had uniquely enhanced senses, such as an incredible sense of smell and, more generally, highly sensitive hearing. The most problematic for Ye Chong were mutants that could see infrared light.

Multichromatic lightings illuminated the night, as the gorgeous lights winked at each other. Seen from above, one would find it a mesmerising sight. The superstars in holographic advertisements looked more enchanting than they were during the day. The safety lights from the mechs flying above made them look like a sprinkle of dancing fireflies.

Ye Chong was not in the mood to appreciate the scene that would have been impossible on the trash planet. Within the shadows of the dark, he was now moving silently like a cold-blooded venomous snake.

Ye Chong carefully kept himself concealed as he asked, "Mu, what’re our objective for this operation? Don’t keep me guessing!"

Mu lightly replied, "You’ll know when it’s time. Based on available information, the probability of you understanding then is 91 percent."

Ye Chong nearly tripped at the mech’s response. "Of course I’ll know then! I meant now!"

Mu continued calmly, "Based on available information, there is still an 8 percent probability of you not understanding by then. As for now, I regret to inform you that my calculation results indicates that the probability of you guessing right is 0 percent."

Ye Chong cursed to himself. "Damn it Mu, are you saying I’m stupid?"

Mu kept his cool. "Logically speaking, that is absolutely accurate!"

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Ye Chong carefully hid himself behind an artificial tree and examined the base closely. Every 15 minutes, a few small mechanical birds would fly over the area. Their bodies were equipped with amplified scanning devices that greatly increased the scanning perimeter and accuracy. However, Ye Chong managed to hide in a blind spot under Mu’s guidance.

Ye Chong asked, "Mu, what is this place?"

Mu ignored him and said, "Ye, you should be able to avoid detection with the F-58!"

Ye Chong acknowledged, and deployed the F-58.

Mu immediately spoke, "Hurry!" Ye Chong was surprised at the mech’s anxiety, and dared not take his time. He slipped into the cabin quickly and immediately started the engines.

As expected, the F-58 did not alert the other party’s scanning system. Ye Chong was thinking of moving in a discrete manner forward, but Mu spoke up, "Fly straight ahead!"

Ye Chong hesitated, but quickly recovered and flew as directed. However, he found it strange that the people moving about the area seemed to ignore the F-58, or even outright waved at him as a greeting - and that was how he flew openly into the area. Ye Chong could not keep up with what was happening, and failed to see the reason behind their actions.

The people here put heavy trust in the base’s scanning system, and did not think that someone could enter without going through proper identification. Everyone thought that the F-58 was a mech from the base.

However, Mu had no intention of explaining, and only spoke lightly, "You now have only three minutes. After three minutes, Johansson will be here, and there’s a 78 percent probability that he’ll know your rough location."

Ye Chong broke into a cold sweat!

Mu ignored him and continued, "You must reach this area within one minute!" The F-58’s photon processor immediately produced holographic schematics for the base. At the north west corner was a basement about twenty meters underground, overlaid with a bright red spot - that was Ye Chong’s destination.

"Damn it Mu, you …" Ye Chong gave up with his cursing, and promptly accelerated ahead.

Mu was deliberately calm. "Ye, don’t rush! At your speed, there’s a 94 percent probability of reaching your destination!’ Ye Chong was greatly agitated - when he heard that Johansson would arrive in three minutes, his first thought was to leave his mech and escape. "Is this a joke? The two mechs are not even on the same level, I have zero chance of winning. Not escaping? Do you want me to die?"

However, Mu’s words seemed to be layered with some unfathomable meaning. While Ye Chong continued to curse Mu on the inside, he still flew ahead at top speed.

In just five seconds, Ye Chong arrived directly above the basement. The horizontal metal alloy door was 100 meters wide and 30 meters tall, and it was grew larger and larger in his vision.

When Ye Chong was 50 meters away from the door, Mu suddenly spoke up, "Send out the identification signal!"

Ye Chong caught his breath at the order; already his hands were moving at top speed without thinking. On Black Cove, Ye Chong’s hands could move up to Mach 5.54 [1]; after breaking the bottleneck, his speed was reaching Mach 7, which was an astounding figure.

However, even with his speed, Ye Chong nearly choked as he executed his new order that came without prior warning. Fortunately, Ye Chong managed an abrupt halt, as the F-58 stopped just about two meters above the door. The identification signal was sent just before the mech came to a halt.

As Ye Chong recovered himself, he was faced with another dilemma. "Signalling the other party with an identification, isn’t that suicidal?"

To his surprise, the alloy door began to slowly slide open, and beyond the door was absolutely complete darkness!

Translator’s notes:

[1] Mach: unit for speed, where Mach 1 is the speed of sound (around 340 m/s), and Mach 0.5 is half the speed of sound (and so on).