154: Chapter 154 Jiang Chen: Close the door, release Pikachu!

Moon Base, Airlock Chamber 3.

The heavy alloy hatch was tightly shut, and red warning lights rotated rhythmically overhead.

Jiang Chen crouched on the ground, holding a custom-made mini spacesuit that looked like a transparent bubble, struggling to put it on Pikachu.

"Inhale! Suck in your stomach! I told you to eat fewer batteries, but you wouldn't listen!"

Jiang Chen grumbled while stuffing Pikachu's chubby little belly inside. "This is a nano-protective suit that Academician Chen Shuyin rushed to make overnight. It's radiation-proof, vacuum-proof, and can even amplify your electric-type skills. If you break it, I couldn't even afford the repairs if I sold you."

"Pika... chu..."

Pikachu looked completely hopeless.

Its two iconic pointed ears were pressed inside the transparent helmet, looking rather cramped.

Its short limbs were encased in a miniature mechanical exoskeleton; when it walked, it looked like a penguin that had just learned to walk, which was hilariously funny.

It wiggled its butt, and its lightning-shaped tail flicked back and forth behind it, seemingly protesting this inhumane "forced labor."

"Don't try to act pitiful with me."

Jiang Chen patted its helmet, which was made of special glass and made a solid sound when tapped. "See that big black thing outside? It's full of bad guys who are here to steal your snacks."

He pulled a vacuum-packed premium sausage out of his pocket and waved it in front of Pikachu.

In that instant.

A light comparable to lasers instantly burst from Pikachu's previously listless eyes.

Its little nose twitched frantically through the helmet; although it couldn't smell anything, that foodie instinct from the depths of its soul had already awakened.

"Finish this job, and this sausage is yours."

Jiang Chen, like a creepy uncle luring a child, coaxed, "Plus, I'll add two high-energy lithium batteries for dessert. How about it? Is that a good deal?"

"Pika! Pika!"

Deal!

Pikachu waved its little fists, and the red sacs on its cheeks began to sizzle, looking like it was ready to "slay gods if they block its path for the sake of a sausage."

"That's the spirit, go!"

Jiang Chen stood up and pressed the open button for the airlock chamber.

As a burst of white depressurization mist sprayed out, the heavy hatch slowly rose.

Outside was the dead, cold, and perilous lunar wasteland.

And in the shadow of a crater a few hundred meters away, that assault craft, looking like a black ghost, had just touched down.

"Go, help them break their internet addiction."

Jiang Chen pointed in that direction, a mischievous smirk curling the corner of his mouth. "Remember, don't electrocute them to death all at once. Leave them a breath; we still need them to write apology letters."

Pikachu nodded, dropped to all fours, and despite wearing a bulky spacesuit, its movements remained agile.

Like a yellow bouncy ball, it bounded into the endless darkness.

...

At this very moment.

The American "Shadow" assault craft had just completed a soft landing.

The hatch opened, and the fully armed leader of the Ghost Squad, Steve, was the first to jump down the gangway.

His boots stepped onto the lunar soil, kicking up a layer of grey-white dust.

The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet; that absolute vacuum silence made even a battle-hardened special forces soldier feel a hint of inexplicable oppression.

"All units pay attention, maintain radio silence."

Steve lowered his voice on the channel, his high-energy kinetic rifle scanning the surroundings vigilantly. "The target area is five hundred meters ahead; that is the Dragon Country's temporary base. According to intelligence, that little alien girl is being held inside."

"Captain, thermal imaging shows no heat source response ahead."

The assaulter behind him reported, with a hint of confusion in his tone, "Strange, do they have no defenses at all? Not even a sentry?"

"Hmph, the Dragon Country people are too arrogant."

Steve sneered, staring greedily through his helmet visor at the metal structure looming in the distance under the searchlights. "They think they're invincible just because they have that big ship? In the field of special operations, we are the ancestors!"

"Move out! Make it quick!"

Six agents formed a tactical formation, using the crater rocks as cover, and crept toward the base like ghosts.

However.

Just as they had advanced less than fifty meters.

"Wait."

The scout walking at the very front suddenly stopped, saying in the channel with confusion, "Captain, what... is that?"

"Did you find the enemy?"

Steve immediately raised his gun and looked through the scope.

He saw that on the grey-white lunar soil ahead, an extremely conspicuous, bright yellow "little dot" was bouncing toward them.

That is...

A mouse?

No, to be precise, it was a round, yellow... big rat wearing a transparent spacesuit and carrying a mini oxygen tank?

It wasn't running fast; its two short legs looked a bit clumsy in the moon's low-gravity environment. Every time it jumped, it would float quite a distance, and when it landed, it would bounce twice like a ball.

It looked simply... stupidly cute to the extreme.

"What... what the hell is this?"

Steve was stunned, his finger hooked on the trigger, but he hesitated to pull it.

He had imagined countless scenarios for an encounter:

Either fully armed mechanical sentries, or ferocious military dogs, or even thought he might encounter the Wasteland Empress known as the "Valkyrie."

But he never expected.

That the one coming to "intercept" them was actually... a rat wearing clothes?

"Is this the Dragon Country's defensive force?"

Snickers from the team members came over the channel, and the previously tense nerves instantly relaxed.

"My God, this is so ridiculous. Do they think this is Disneyland?"

"Captain, should we shoot? I think this little thing... seems to be that Jiang Chen's pet?"

"A pet?"

Steve looked through the scope at the yellow creature that was getting closer and even stopped to scratch its helmet. The contempt in his eyes was almost overflowing.

He lowered his muzzle, not even bothering to waste a bullet.

In his view, this was not only an insult to their Ghost Squad, but also a sign that the Dragon Country people were at their wit's end.

"It seems the Dragon Country people have truly gone mad."

Steve shook his head, a cruel and mocking smile hanging at the corner of his mouth, and sneered into the microphone:

"Where do they think this is? Filming a cartoon?"

"Sending a mouse to its death?"

"Since that's the case..."

He lifted his metal combat boot, covered in exoskeleton armor, and aimed it at the little thing that didn't know any better:

"Then let's crush it and use it to... mark the start of our operation!"