56: weaken the enemy's strength

The red scan line on the kindling system interface was still flashing, and the electromagnetic wave frequency seventeen kilometers to the northwest was unsettlingly stable. Chen Wang didn't avert his gaze, his fingers sliding across the control panel, bringing up the thermal image of Zhao Tiezhu's disabled war vehicle wreckage. The wiring interface of the missile launcher on the left side of the vehicle body still showed faint current fluctuations. Although the energy core at the bottom had been penetrated by an incendiary bomb, the outer armor hadn't completely melted, and there might still be activatable modules inside.

"Shut down all non-essential output," he said in a low voice. "Only keep weapons armed, thermal tracking, and basic life support."

Lin Wei immediately executed the command. The interior lights extinguished, leaving only the holographic interface floating in front of the driver's seat emitting a faint blue glow. The engine switched to low-frequency operation, cooling fans gradually shut down, and even the weapon cooling pump entered intermittent mode. The wuling divine vehicle was like a beast holding its breath, thin ice forming on the edges of its tracks, its cannon slightly lowered, no longer emitting any energy signals detectable from a distance.

"Silence complete," Lin Wei reported. "Current electromagnetic signature is 3.2 percent below ambient background values."

Chen Wang nodded, his gaze fixed on the wreckage's left wing. "Su Ling, do you see that exposed silver conduit? Three centimeters down from the third joint is the final connection point for the main control circuit."

Su Ling lay prone on the maintenance platform, her sniper rifle pressed against her shoulder. She switched the scope to pulse thermal mode, and a flickering red trail appeared in her vision—a sign that the enemy remnants were manually connecting to a backup power source. A figure squatted behind the wreckage, clamping a broken wire with pliers, while another handed over a tool kit.

"Target confirmed," she said. "They've started repairs."

"Don't shoot the person," Chen Wang said. "Shoot the high-voltage capacitor in the tool kit. If it short-circuits, the entire circuit will self-destruct."

Lin Wei quickly activated the vehicle's cooling spray system to rapidly cool the sniper rifle. At the same time, she released a miniature drone, which transmitted an overhead view from ten meters above the wreckage. The screen clearly showed a cylindrical metal canister in the lower right corner of the tool kit, with three yellow warning stripes printed on its surface.

"Capacitor location marked," Lin Wei tapped the screen. "Wiring expected to be completed in two minutes."

Su Ling adjusted her breathing, her finger resting on the trigger. Wind and snow lashed the gun barrel, and visibility continued to drop. She corrected the ballistic compensation value based on the angle provided by the drone, setting the firing delay to 0.3 seconds to account for bullet deviation as it passed through the windy area.

The enemy soldier squatting on the ground reached for the tool kit, his movements slow and cautious.

The moment his fingertip touched the zipper, a gunshot rang out.

The bullet pierced through the wind and snow, precisely hitting the capacitor's outer casing. The internal electrolyte instantly vaporized, the canister burst, and high-voltage current surged back along the unconnected wires. Sparks erupted along the conduit, burning all the way into the launcher control box, triggering three small explosions in succession. The entire remote fire control system was completely paralyzed.

"Left wing firepower unit disabled," Su Ling reloaded her rifle. "Circuit burn rate 97%, irreparable."

Chen Wang stared at the kindling system's scan data, his brow still furrowed. "They've changed course."

Lin Wei pulled up the real-time image: two remaining soldiers had given up on the left-side repair and instead circled to the bottom of the war vehicle, forcibly opening the protective cover of the energy channel with hydraulic pry bars. Once opened, they could connect a portable energy core and restart the shield and communication systems.

"We can't let them send any more signals," Chen Wang said.

"The direct firing angle is blocked by ice and rock," Lin Wei quickly modeled. "Conventional artillery fire error exceeds four meters, unable to hit the narrow entrance."

Chen Wang stood up and pulled open the maintenance hatch beneath the driver's seat. He took out a thirty-five-centimeter modified armor-piercing incendiary round. Its warhead was conical, covered in dark gray powder—high-density carbon crystals extracted from Annihilation Beast bones, capable of continuously releasing high-temperature plasma after penetrating metal.

"Raise the mechanical arm to maximum angle," he told Lin Wei. "I'm going to load this round into the sniper rifle."

Lin Wei activated the special module "Terrain Adaptation · Fine-tuned Hover," and the vehicle slowly lifted ten degrees, its chassis maintenance port facing the sky. Chen Wang extended the mechanical arm to its limit, steadily holding the ammunition, and slowly fed it into the sniper rifle in Su Ling's hands.

"Ammunition loaded," he said. "Delayed fuse set for three seconds."

Su Ling lay prone again, the gun barrel slightly tilted. She observed the bottom energy core through the scope, waiting for the optimal moment. The two enemy soldiers finally pried open the protective cover, revealing the complex internal energy transmission structure. One of them leaned in and began to connect the cables.

"Ready," she said.

As the man just inserted the connector all the way, Su Ling pulled the trigger.

The bullet slid several meters along the inclined ice surface, using the momentum to drill into the open energy channel. Three seconds later, a muffled explosion sounded from within, and crimson flames erupted from the cracks, then collapsed. The entire vehicle body vibrated violently, the bottom armor twisted and deformed, and the core structure was completely destroyed.

"Energy readings zero," Lin Wei synchronized the scan. "All subsystems offline. That vehicle... won't move again."

A brief silence fell inside the vehicle. Su Ling removed the gun barrel and began to wipe the internal components. Lin Wei continued to monitor the surrounding electromagnetic environment, her finger hovering above the shield activation button. Chen Wang remained in the driver's seat, his hands gripping the steering wheel, his gaze fixed on the moving heat sources on the kindling system map.

In the distant wind and snow, several faint signals were moving away from the canyon, slowly and scattered. It seemed to be the remnants of the enemy retreating.

But he didn't relax.

"They weren't repairing the vehicle just now," Chen Wang suddenly said.

Lin Wei looked up: "What do you mean?"

"When they were connecting the wires, their movements were too precise," Chen Wang pointed at the playback screen. "Each step had a fixed sequence, as if they were executing a preset program, not a temporary repair."

Su Ling stopped what she was doing and looked at the screen.

"Moreover," Chen Wang continued, "the location where that capacitor exploded should have triggered automatic circuit breaker protection. But it didn't. This indicates that their equipment wasn't original parts, but specially modified components, designed to allow the system to continue transmitting signals even when overloaded."

Lin Wei's expression changed slightly: "Are you saying... they deliberately let us destroy it, but they've actually finished transmitting?"

"Not necessarily finished transmitting," Chen Wang's voice was even lower. "It could also be that the signal was hidden in some passive component, and it will only activate when we get close."

Before he finished speaking, the kindling system alerted again.

[Low-frequency resonant signal detected, source: inside wreckage, frequency 14.7 Hz, matching Stasis Zone early experimental wake-up protocol]

Lin Wei immediately pulled up the spectrum analysis chart, her fingers sliding quickly. "This isn't active transmission... it's some kind of passive reflection mechanism. Only when a scanning wave of a specific frequency passes by will it bounce back encrypted data packets."

"Like a beacon?" Su Ling asked.

"More accurately, like a trap," Chen Wang stood up, grabbing the tool box. "It's not for sending signals, it's for luring people. Whoever gets close will inadvertently trigger its response."

Lin Wei suddenly realized something: "Then are we... now the signal source?"

Chen Wang didn't answer. He stared in the direction of the wreckage, slowly putting on his cold-weather gloves.

"Turn the main cannon towards that pile of scrap metal," he said. "Charge to 60%, don't fire, keep it ready."

"What are you going to do?" Lin Wei asked.

"If someone is waiting to see who touches it," Chen Wang opened the car door and stepped out, "then let me be the bait."

Wind and snow lashed his face, and his work clothes quickly frosted over. He walked step by step towards the wreckage, deliberately heavy-footed with each step, letting the vibrations transmit through the ice. The wrench in his hand hung by his side, his knuckles white from the cold.

When he was fifteen meters from the wreckage, the kindling system suddenly vibrated.

[Signal strength increased by 300%, external scan frequency approaching]