29: The Frozen Fleet! The Awakening of the Doomsday Vault!

【Edge of the Arctic Ocean, Deep Blue breaks through the ice】

“Temperature plummeting! Outside -62℃! Ice thickness exceeds expectations!”

“Energy readings abnormal! Large-scale quantum fluctuations detected 300 nautical miles ahead!”

Inside the Deep Blue's bridge, alarms and reports intertwined. Lin Feng stood before the main screen, the injury on his right arm mostly healed, but faint blue energy traces occasionally flickered beneath his skin. His gaze was fixed on the real-time polar satellite images—in the center of the Arctic ice cap, a massive, ring-shaped rift valley over ten kilometers in diameter was forming. The ice at the rift's edges was collapsing radially, as if violently torn from within by some force!

And in the center of the rift, several colossal black ship silhouettes, like mountains, were slowly surfacing!

“Is that… the ‘Icebound Fleet’?” Chen Hai’s voice was dry.

Lin Feng didn't answer, his finger zooming in on the image. The outlines of the black ship silhouettes gradually became clear—streamlined hulls covered with the same faint blue patterns as the Pioneer Ruins, but interspersed with ominous blood-red energy flows. The bow of the ship was a sharp cone, with no traditional gun emplacements, replaced instead by some kind of crystal array.

“Not conventional warships…” Old Zhao suddenly pulled up a decrypted segment of Su Yuanshan’s log. “The log mentioned it! The Doomsday Vault is an ancient military warehouse discovered by the Ark in the early stages of the cataclysm, containing a sealed automated defense fleet from the ‘Pioneer’ era! But Su Yuanshan warned… this fleet was once corrupted by some kind of ‘pollution’!”

“Pollution?” Lei Lie frowned.

“Look at the hull patterns!” Old Zhao pointed at the blood-red mixed with faint blue energy on the screen. “Normal Pioneer technology is pure blue, but these…”

Lin Feng’s eyes suddenly turned cold: “The Observer isn't trying to awaken the fleet; he's trying to unleash contaminated killing machines.”

As if to confirm his words, a column of blood-blue light suddenly shot out from the rift, piercing the sky! The clouds were instantly penetrated, revealing distorted aurora! Immediately after, the crystal arrays of all the black ship silhouettes lit up simultaneously!

“Detecting super-large-scale energy reaction! It’s… it’s orbital strike weapons!”

---

【Ark Council's Last Bastion, Beneath the Ice】

“Defenses breached! They're in!”

“Council Speaker! Please evacuate immediately!”

Ark Speaker Marcus slumped in his command chair, watching the unstoppable black mechs on the monitor screen—these were killing machines that had poured out of the rift, resembling mechanical spiders but ten times their size. They easily tore through the Ark’s last defensive forces, blood and metal fragments littering the corridors.

“Evacuate? To where?” Marcus gave a bitter laugh. “The Observer betrayed humanity… they don’t care about ruling; they only want to destroy!”

His trembling hand opened a holographic projection, displaying a dusty record:

> 【Ark Top Secret Archives】

> Project Codename: World Purge

> Discovery: The Arctic “Doomsday Vault” contains a “Purge Protocol” fleet left by the Pioneer civilization, intended for civilization reset.

> Warning: The fleet’s core has been “outer source contamination” (archive corrupted), activation will lead to uncontrollable world-ending behavior.

> Sealing Resolution: Permanently frozen. Keys distributed to three parties— “Ark Council”, “Observer”, “Deep Blue Project”. *

“We thought the Observer just wanted to seize control of the fleet…” Marcus murmured, “But they were already mad… they deliberately used a contaminated key to activate the fleet, precisely to make the Purge Protocol go out of control!”

Boom!

The fortress gate was violently broken open! A black mech, five meters tall, stepped in, its six crimson compound eyes locking onto Marcus. On its chest plate, a twisted golden spiral emblem, similar to Lin Feng’s left-hand mark but full of a sense of defilement, was branded!

“For… a pure new world.” The mech emitted a synthesized electronic voice, its right arm transforming into a particle cannon and raising.

What Marcus saw last was a blinding white light.

---

【Deep Blue, Pre-Combat Deployment】

“Ark Council signal lost!”

“The Icebound Fleet is starting to surface! Number… 12 ships! The smallest one is twice the size of the Deep Blue!”

Lin Feng looked at the terrifying fleet gradually awakening on the main screen, then suddenly turned to Old Zhao: “The ‘keys distributed to three parties’ mentioned in Su Yuanshan’s log… where is the Deep Blue Project’s key?”

Old Zhao froze, then his eyes widened: “Could it be…”

“It’s within me.” Lin Feng raised his left hand; although the golden mark had disappeared, it was now faintly warm. “The reaction from the Antarctic Ruins proves that I have some kind of Pioneer genetic marker. This is the key hidden by the Deep Blue Project.”

The bridge fell silent.

“So the Observer wanted to kill you…” Chen Hai suddenly understood, “They don’t need a complete key; they just need contaminated fragments to distort the fleet!”

“And now, the fleet has awakened.” Lin Feng’s gaze was like a knife. “The only way to stop it is for me to get close to the fleet’s core and overwrite the contamination with the complete key.”

“That’s suicide!” Lei Lie growled. “Those mechs will tear you apart!”

“No.” Lin Feng pulled up the real-time data for the Xing Chen (Stardust) energy core. “We have this.”

On the screen was the prototype design of a single-person power armor, just finished testing—a streamlined black armor, with a miniature Xing Chen (Stardust) fusion core embedded in its back, and miniaturized psionic pulse generators mounted on both arms.

“Old Zhao, can it be used?”

“Yes! But it hasn’t undergone human testing! Energy overload might…”

“Modify it.” Lin Feng interrupted him. “Add the Antarctic Ruins’ shield module and equip me with a weapon that can cut through Pioneer alloy.”

He turned and walked towards the armory, his voice chillingly calm:

“One hour from now, I will personally board that flagship.”

“Either control the fleet, or… blow it up.”

---

【One Hour Later, Edge of the Arctic Rift】

Blizzard howled. Lin Feng stood before the hatch, fully encased in the pitch-black Xing Chen (Stardust) armor, the faint blue light of the fusion core swirling on his back, and in his hand, a high-frequency particle oscillation blade just rushed out of the laboratory—the space at the blade's edge was slightly distorted, a product of reverse-engineering the Antarctic Guardian's chainsaw whip technology.

Beneath him were the twelve fully awakening contaminated fleet ships, and thousands of killing mechs with crimson compound eyes.

Behind him were the charging lights of all the Deep Blue’s cannons, and Lei Lie’s squad’s assault boats, ready for action.

“System, status report.”

【Armor System: Online】

【Pioneer Shield: Active (Strength 78%)】

【Fusion Core: Output Stable】

【Detecting increased host gene marker activity… Resonance index with target fleet: 17%… Continuously increasing…】

Lin Feng took a deep breath, his faceplate dropped, and his vision was tinted light blue by the tactical interface.

“Deep Blue, commence fire support.”

“Lei Lie, let’s go in and kill.”

The hatch opened, and the Arctic cold wind, laden with ice and snow, poured in. Lin Feng leaped out, the fusion core roaring, his armor cutting a faint blue trajectory through the blizzard, diving towards the largest black flagship in the center of the rift!

In the depths of his consciousness, that golden brand suddenly shone brightly!