59: Engineers in the cloud

The first seriously wounded Soldier successfully reached the opposite bank.

A green signal flare traced an arc of hope across the night sky.

On this side of the cliff, suppressed cheers erupted.

Chen Xi's heart also eased slightly.

He turned, preparing to send the second wounded Soldier.

"Boom!"

A violent explosion suddenly thundered by the cliff's edge!

The unexpected shockwave knocked several nearby Soldiers to the ground.

Rubble and dirt fell like raindrops, making people's scalps sting with pain.

An artillery shell!

The Japanese Army's artillery fire began to extend toward this location!

"Quick! Take cover!"

"Protect the wounded!"

The Soldiers fell into a chaotic mess.

Chen Xi's expression instantly darkened.

He knew the Japanese Army had noticed.

They were out of time.

He grabbed the stretcher of the second wounded Soldier, preparing to force-hook him onto the zipline.

Just then.

A unique bullet comment suddenly appeared in the center of his vision with an overbearing posture.

It was a golden, bolded bullet comment, seemingly carrying an unquestionable tone of command.

It was completely different from the previous bullet comments that were either excited or prayerful.

It was cold, precise, like a scalpel.

[Road and Bridge Group: Main Anchor Point A is vibrating, structural displacement 0.3mm, suspend transport! Repeat! Suspend transport!]

Chen Xi's hand, ready to push out, stopped abruptly in mid-air.

Road and Bridge Group?

What is that?

"Boom!"

Another shell landed even closer.

A giant rock at the edge of the cliff was blown to pieces, with countless fragments falling into the abyss.

Under the impact of the air blast, the zipline let out a tooth-grinding hum.

"Mr. Chen! Hurry! If we don't go now, it'll be too late!" Shangguan Zhibiao roared anxiously.

Chen Xi ignored him.

His eyes were fixed intently on that golden bullet comment.

Intuition told him this thing was extraordinary.

The next second, another golden bullet comment popped up.

[Road and Bridge Group: Fixing Point No. 2, displacement 0.5mm, cut the rock, wedge it in!]

The instruction was as concise as garbled code.

But Chen Xi understood.

Without the slightest hesitation, he took out the "weeding sickle" that cut through iron like butter from his backpack.

He began to cut precisely into a piece of hard granite on the cliff face.

Sparks flew everywhere.

Under everyone's puzzled gazes, he used the tip of the sickle to quickly cut off a thin, angled stone flake.

The error of the stone flake did not exceed three millimeters.

Then, he wedged this stone flake fiercely into a natural crack next to Fixing Point No. 2.

A miracle happened.

The unsettling vibration of the zipline instantly weakened by seventy percent.

"This..."

Shangguan Zhibiao, beside him, was already too shocked to speak.

He didn't understand at all why the rope stopped shaking just because Mr. Chen stuffed a random rock in.

But a layer of cold sweat broke out on Chen Xi's back.

He knew that the vibration just now was resonance.

If not eliminated immediately, the aftershocks of the next artillery strike would be enough to make the entire zipline system collapse.

[Wind Tunnel Group]: Crosswind, 7m/s, hang water bottle, 3 o'clock direction, quick!

A new instruction arrived.

Chen Xi immediately unhooked the water bottle from his waist and hung it on the outside of the stretcher.

Under the blowing crosswind, the stretcher began to tilt to the left.

But the weight of the water bottle, like a perfect counterweight, instantly neutralized the tilting force.

After shaking violently a few times in the air, the stretcher stopped steadily in the middle of the zipline.

"My God..."

A young Soldier murmured to himself.

"How... how on earth did he know?"

Chen Xi had no time to explain.

He pushed the second wounded Soldier out with force.

Year 2026, Great Wall Command Center.

"Meteorology Group! When will the next wave of strong winds arrive!"

"Reporting to Long Lao! In thirty seconds! The wind force will increase to level five!"

"Road and Bridge Group! Has the stress analysis for Anchor Point B come out yet!"

"It's out! It has reached eighty percent of the critical value! It can withstand at most two more impacts!"

"Ballistics Analysis Team! Prediction for the landing point of the enemy's next shell!"

"Area A! There is a ninety percent probability it will land in Area A! Tell them to evade immediately!"

Long Lao looked at the figure on the screen, who was constantly performing various inconceivable operations based on "bullet comment" instructions on the 1937 battlefield, his palms drenched in sweat.

This wasn't a game.

This was a collaborative operation spanning eighty-nine years.

On one side were the "Cloud Engineers" who gathered the top wisdom of the entire nation.

On the other side was the sole operator who gambled his life to execute with one hundred percent accuracy... 1937, by the cliff.

The third wounded Soldier.

The fourth wounded Soldier.

Chen Xi's movements became faster and faster.

His coordination with those golden bullet comments also became increasingly seamless.

From initial hesitation to current absolute trust.

He didn't even need to think.

Those instructions seemed to have become a part of his body.

[Pulley Group: Detected insufficient lubrication in Pulley No. 3, friction coefficient increased by twelve percent! Risk of jamming!]

Chen Xi immediately took out the "mosquito repellent spray" and gave the pulley's bearing a precise spray.

The nano-grade lubricant instantly boosted the pulley's rotation speed by a level.

[Materials Group: Section C of the main cable, two fibers broke during the impact just now! Strength decreased by three percent! Recommend reducing weight for the next person!]

Chen Xi immediately made the next Soldier preparing to depart throw away all non-essential equipment on his person.

Under his command, the speed and safety of the wounded transfer increased geometrically.

What originally took five minutes to complete one transport was now compressed to one and a half minutes.

In the eyes of Shangguan Zhibiao and the Soldiers, Chen Xi had completely transformed into an omnipotent deity.

He seemed to be able to predict the wind direction.

He could see through the internal structure of the rocks.

He could even adjust the angle of the pulleys with his eyes closed.

They didn't know.

Behind Chen Xi stood the top bridge experts, wind tunnel experts, material scientists, and ballistics experts of the entire Dragon Nation.

They were using the wisdom of the entire nation to safeguard this life passage.

Just as the retreat was halfway through.

The most critical situation occurred.

A blood-red bullet comment with the highest warning level suddenly occupied Chen Xi's entire field of vision.

[Ballistics Team: Warning! High-explosive shell! Predicted landing point, Main Anchor Point A! Repeat! Predicted landing point, Main Anchor Point A! Arriving in five seconds! Immediately cut the load-bearing cable!]

Cut the load-bearing cable?

Wouldn't that make the person currently sliding fall straight down? Demonic!

This is suicide!

A trace of hesitation flashed through Chen Xi's mind.

But the next second, he made a decision.

He chose to believe!

"Sickle!"

He let out a roar.

The High-frequency Vibration Particle Combat Knife instantly activated.

He slashed fiercely at an auxiliary cable that seemed crucial, connected to the main anchor point!

"Mr. Chen! Don't!"

Xie Jinyuan let out a cry of horror.

But it was already too late.

The cable snapped at the sound.

The entire zipline system, having lost its key tension, suddenly sagged downward!

The Soldier currently sliding on the zipline let out a scream, as if on an out-of-control roller coaster, plunging over ten meters toward the abyss!

At that very instant.

"Swoosh—"

A heavy artillery shell, trailing a deathly whistle, flew past the height where they had just been, missing them by a hair!

"Boom!!!"

The shell precisely hit the cliff wall next to Main Anchor Point A!

If not for Chen Xi's shocking slash just now.

If the zipline hadn't sagged at that moment.

This single shot would have been enough to blow the entire zipline, along with the person on it, into smithereens!

The massive fear of surviving a disaster gripped everyone's hearts.

Shangguan Zhibiao stared blankly at all this, looking at the comrade who was safe because the zipline fell, then looked at Chen Xi, who stood with the knife like a celestial being.

Trembling, he asked the question he had been holding in for a long time.

"Mr. Chen..."

"Who... who on earth are you?"

Chen Xi slowly lowered the sickle in his hand.

He didn't turn around.

He looked at the golden bullet comments that were still rapidly scrolling in his vision, filled with wisdom and power.

[Structural Group: Main cable has stabilized, reconnecting to the backup anchor point!]

[Meteorology Group: Wind force weakened, can continue!]

[Medical Group: The next wounded person has lung damage, remind to slow down the sliding speed!]

For the first time, a heartfelt and incredibly brilliant smile appeared on Chen Xi's face.

He lighty said,

"I am just an executor."

"Behind me stands a group of remarkable engineers."

"A group of... engineers on the clouds."

After saying that.

He turned around, facing the livestream camera that only he could see.

He straightened his casual clothes, which had long been tattered in the artillery fire.

Then, he brought his feet together and straightened his spine.

Facing the screen, he solemnly gave a standard military salute.

This military salute was to honor all the nameless heroes of that era who dedicated themselves to the country.

And even more so to honor the "Cloud Engineers" in another time and space who were staying up all night for him and for these four hundred-plus lives.

Year 2026, Great Wall Command Center.

Everyone silently watched that incredibly solemn military salute across time and space on the screen.

The white-haired chief engineer, the exhausted ballistics expert, the meteorology doctor who was just arguing about wind speed... all the people working intensely, at the moment they saw this salute, subconsciously straightened their backs.

Something called "mission" and "glory" reached a silent resonance between the heroes of the two eras.