228: Chapter 228 Rending the Sky and Devouring the Sea

Lu Chen exerted force with his fingers. With a crisp click, the red physical lever was pushed directly to the end.

The master control console erupted with blinding red lights. All alarms in Underground Level 3 went silent simultaneously. This was the forced takeover state.

Wei Jianguo's hands trembled uncontrollably. He tried twice, but couldn't get a firm grip on the oil-stained switch blade.

Lu Chen walked over in two steps and kicked Wei Jianguo aside. He reached out himself, grabbed the handle of the external protection power switch, and pulled it down hard.

A large burst of blinding blue-white electric sparks showered over him. His old leather jacket was burned with several black holes.

"Don't shake while working. If you shake, someone else will take your place." Lu Chen turned and walked toward the console. "Old Song, disengage the safety."

Song Changming gripped the hydraulic safety wheel with both hands. His ten fingers split open at old wounds. Blood flowed along his palm lines into the gaps of the wheel. He gritted his teeth and spun it with all his might.

"Hydraulic lock disengaged." Song Changming kicked the wheel open. He fell to the ground, gasping for air.

Wu Dong was covered in sweat. His hands smashed against the mechanical keyboard, creating afterimages. Lines of green code scrolled frantically across the screen.

"Permissions written. Command issued." Wu Dong slammed the Enter key with both hands. "Boss, the ten-thousand-square-meter hydraulic array is activated."

One second. Two seconds.

Boom.

A dull, deafening roar exploded directly above everyone's heads. The sound completely drowned out the seismic activity deep underground.

Plaster from the ceiling of Underground Level 3 fell off in large chunks. In the depths of the underground, which hadn't seen sunlight for centuries, a three-hundred-meter-long crack slowly tore open in the steel dome overhead.

Fierce winds whipped up rain, slamming directly into the basement through the crack.

Lu Chen didn't even blink, letting the cold, muddy rainwater lash against his cheeks. He lit the half-smoked cigarette hanging from his mouth.

Old Zhou's desperate, hoarse shouting came through the walkie-talkie.

"Factory Director! You're insane! What on earth are you doing?" Old Zhou was hopping mad on the roof of the main factory administration building, his voice completely cracked. "Why has the dome of the North City foundation pit split open? You're going to drag everyone down with you! The water wall is coming!"

Lu Chen didn't pick up the walkie-talkie. He bit down on his cigarette. "Old Wu, patch his video feed to the main screen. Let him see clearly."

The big screen flickered. Old Zhou's pale face was projected onto it. In the background were the ruined streets of the city, where everyone was caught in a frantic escape.

And at the end of the street, in the direction of the East Sea, the sky had turned completely black.

That wasn't just dark clouds covering the sky; it was a wall of water composed of black seawater, mud, sand, and urban debris. It was over 120 meters high, swallowing all light on the horizon.

"Factory Director! The city government building has collapsed! A building over a dozen stories high was shattered by a single strike of the wave!" Old Zhou pointed behind him, weeping loudly. "The vanguard of the water wall has flattened the riverside development zone. It's rushing toward you!"

Lu Chen reached out and flicked the ash from his cigarette.

"Tell the million employees in the plaza to hold hands. No one is allowed to move." Lu Chen exhaled a puff of white smoke. "Old Zhou, shut up and watch closely."

The dome opened faster and faster. The crack widened to fifty meters. The rain poured down in torrents. Underground Level 3 was instantly flooded with half a foot of water.

On the big screen's external surveillance feed, over a million employees in blue work uniforms stood in the storm, hand in hand, forming a human wall. No one spoke. No one ran.

The surrounding city streets were full of screaming citizens running in panic. The army of a million stood rooted to the spot. Not a single person crossed the warning line.

Da Biao looked at the screen and grinned. "Boss, this money was well spent. A million people—damn, they're tough."

Lu Chen ignored him, his gaze fixed intently on the overhead.

"Wu Dong, report the time." Lu Chen spat out the cigarette butt.

"Ninety seconds." Wu Dong stared intently at the huge red blob on the radar. "It has flattened all the outer water barriers. It hasn't slowed down from 500 kilometers per hour. The impact force has exceeded the structural limits of all buildings."

"Old Song, report the data." Lu Chen turned his head.

Song Changming couldn't even bother to wipe the rain from his face. He was sprawled over the inspection port of the core cabin, his eyes glued to the high-pressure gauge. "Charging progress is at 85 percent. The high-dimensional energy matrix is stable. Engine preheating is complete."

"Not enough. Open the valves fully. Pressurize and inject." Lu Chen ordered.

Wei Jianguo rushed toward the massive ion melting extraction furnace on the side. "The extraction furnace is already overloaded. Forcing the pressure will make the pipes explode. It's filled with hundreds of degrees of biological high-pressure plasma."

"If it explodes, hold it together with your hands. If we can't inject it, we'll all die here today." Lu Chen looked at him coldly.

Wei Jianguo gritted his back teeth and slammed his hand onto the forced pressure valve.

The flow rate of the dark green high-dimensional dissolving fluid doubled again. The translucent infusion tubes let out a strained, screeching sound.

The vibration beneath the chassis became increasingly pronounced.

Suddenly, a harsh, metallic grinding sound came from overhead. The massive dome that had been sliding to both sides stopped. The opening was stuck firmly at a width of one hundred meters.

"What's going on?" Lu Chen frowned.

Wu Dong's fingers flew across the keyboard, knocking two keys off. "The No. 7 main bearing is jammed. Crustal movement caused the rails to deform. The right half of the dome won't move."

Wu Dong suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot. "Boss, the opening isn't big enough. A 120-meter-high tsunami is coming down. If the opening is stuck halfway, the immense water pressure will form a high-pressure water cutter. The inverted triangular chassis can't withstand that kind of concentrated cutting force. It will be cut directly in half."

After hearing this, Wei Jianguo's legs went weak, and he slumped into the water.

"Da Biao!" Lu Chen roared without turning his head.

"Here!" Da Biao stepped forward into the rain. His ten-ton-class Exoskeleton crushed the water on the ground.

"Take your men up there. Push it by hand." Lu Chen pointed to the rails above. "Within sixty seconds, you must push the dome to a fully open state."

Da Biao grinned, letting the rainwater flow into his mouth before spitting it out mixed with saliva.

"Second Squad, hook up the ropes! Get up there and get to work!" Da Biao drew his ultra-high-frequency oscillating combat blade. "Anyone whose legs go weak and can't put in the effort, I'll take their legs off first."

The two hundred Death Squad Soldiers didn't hesitate. High-strength alloy steel cables ejected simultaneously from the backs of their Exoskeletons, anchoring firmly into the steel load-bearing beams on the inside of the dome.

The winches retracted at high speed. Two hundred figures in dark gray armor were pulled straight into mid-air. They landed steadily on both sides of the jammed rails.

Da Biao was the first to rush toward the deformed drive shaft, which was over three meters in diameter.

He reached out with both hands, his Exoskeleton clamps locking tightly onto the edge of the bearing.

"Get your hands on it! Pull!" Da Biao roared, the veins on his neck bulging high.

Over a dozen Death Squad Soldiers grabbed on simultaneously. Over a hundred tons of physical thrust were applied to the jammed mechanical rails.

A harsh, metallic screeching sound erupted. A large amount of sparks flew in the storm.

The rails let out a miserable wail and were forcibly straightened by these monsters.

"Wu Dong, give it power! Keep pushing!" Da Biao shouted at the top of his lungs from mid-air.

Wu Dong slammed the Enter key. The stalled dome slowly cracked open toward the sides again.

Countdown: fifty seconds.

The charging data directly beneath the chassis was still skyrocketing.

Song Changming jumped up in excitement. "88 percent! Boss, the gravity parameters have dropped below normal values! This hunk of iron is about to float on its own!"

The massive, wide, black metal chassis that occupied most of the underground foundation pit had its bottom edge slightly lifted off the support frame. It hovered a few centimeters in mid-air. The surging water below flowed directly through the gaps in the chassis.

Without any support, the tens of thousands of tons of solid metal relied solely on its own magnetic field to resist Earth's gravity.

Lu Chen glanced at the chassis. "Ignore it. Keep your eyes on the pressure gauge. Be ready to manually cut the charging lines at any time."

Countdown: forty seconds.

The night sky overhead was completely exposed. The storm poured down without obstruction. The water level in the basement had already reached everyone's thighs.

Old Zhou let out a sound of extreme terror and retching through the communicator.

"Boss! The water wall is here! It's right outside the north city wall!"

Lu Chen looked up.

The 120-meter-high water wall had already crossed the abandoned buildings in the north of the city. Hundreds of tons of concrete debris were rolling in the waves. The air was being rapidly compressed. Everyone's eardrums were buzzing, and breathing became extremely difficult.

The black wall of water brought an irresistible sense of physical crushing power.

"Thirty seconds." Wu Dong bit his lip until it bled. Blood flowed into the gaps of the keyboard.

The two hundred Death Squad Soldiers slid down from the rails. Their Exoskeleton combat boots slammed heavily into the water. They stood in a circle around Lu Chen.

Da Biao wiped his face. His Exoskeleton mechanical arm slammed heavily against his chest armor. "Boss, the channel is fully open."

Lu Chen nodded.

The soil around the underground foundation pit began to collapse on a large scale. Boulders wrapped in mud rolled down next to the chassis.

Song Changming stared intently at the dial. "90 percent. 91 percent. The charging progress is sufficient. It can withstand the impact."

"Old Song, continue." Lu Chen had his hands in his jacket pockets, his tone devoid of any fluctuation.

"The water wall is about to crash down! If the pipes aren't cut, the chassis won't be able to complete the suspension maneuver!" Song Changming shouted.

"I want it to gorge itself to death. I want this iron plate to eat up all the seawater above, clean and dry." Lu Chen stepped onto the edge of the master control console, directly pointing his hand toward the overwhelming black tide overhead.

Countdown: ten seconds.

The massive shadow completely covered Underground Level 3. Even the fierce wind was compressed into a vacuum.

Boom.

The first wave of murky water, mixed with floor slabs and cars, slammed heavily against the outer shell of the inverted triangular chassis, emitting a dull, deafening roar.

The armor shell's automatic extension modules instantly erupted with a ghastly white energy halo. The terrifying physical kinetic energy generated by the seawater impact was frantically absorbed and digested by the shell matrix.

"Data! Give me data!" Lu Chen roared.

Wu Dong looked up, his face pale. "Boss, the chassis armor has converted the impact energy into electrical energy. The energy peak inside the engine is climbing directly to the next level."

"95 percent. 98 percent. It's exceeded! Old Wei, the extraction furnace valve won't close! The high pressure has blown the locking device!" Song Changming scrambled to pull the plug. The backflow speed of the high-dimensional dissolving fluid was completely out of control.

Countdown reached zero.

The 120-meter-high main wave of the super tsunami, carrying a terrifying weight of tens of billions of tons, crashed directly through the 12,000-square-meter gap in the dome, pouring into the underground foundation pit.

In that instant, all background noise vanished. The entire world was left with nothing but pure vibration.

Lu Chen shoved Wei Jianguo, who was blocking his path, aside. He strode toward the edge of the master control console. His hand gripped the red communication microphone on the side, his knuckles turning pale from excessive force.