60: The first "space-ground collaboration"

The edge of the cliff.

At a Japanese Army observation post, a metallic reflection suddenly flashed across the lens of a high-power observation scope.

That reflection came from the nearly invisible cable car line strung between the cliffs.

The observation soldier was stunned for a moment.

He adjusted the focus and looked again.

He saw it.

He saw a black dot sliding at high speed along that line.

The next second.

At the Japanese Army's frontline headquarters, the commander's frantic roar rang out.

"Target, the cliff! Coordinates 334, 581!"

"All artillery units, suppressive fire!"

"Volley fire!"

...Year 2026, Great Wall Command Center.

A sharp, piercing alarm instantly tore through the silence of the entire space!

"Warning! Large-scale shelling signal detected!"

"Quantity: one hundred and twenty guns!"

"Ballistic analysis complete! Targets: the cableway and the anchor points at both ends!"

On the main screen.

Hundreds of red lines representing shell trajectories instantly covered the entire screen like a dense spider web.

They had only one target.

The tiny green dot on the screen representing Chen Xi.

"There's no time!"

"He's still on the cableway!"

"Intercept! Intercept quickly!"

A young staff officer let out a desperate roar.

The chief ballistics expert's face turned pale; he stared fixedly at the screen, his lips trembling as he spat out two words.

"Checkmate."

Elder Long's eyes were bloodshot.

His clenched fists were so tight that his knuckles had turned white from the exertion.

He watched the airtight red network of death rapidly closing in on the screen.

His voice was hoarse, yet it carried an unquestionable, iron-like resolve.

"Activate 'Swarm' interception."

"Activate 'Pendulum' protocol."

...Year 1937, on the cableway.

Chen Xi's pupils contracted sharply.

At the edge of his vision, countless tiny black dots were rapidly enlarging.

Artillery shells!

The muscles across his entire body tensed instantly as he prepared to force an acceleration.

Just then.

A cold, emotionless mechanical voice rang out in his mind.

[Lethal threat detected.]

['Cloud Brain' has taken over physical control.]

['Pendulum' evasion protocol, activated.]

The next second.

Chen Xi felt as though his body no longer belonged to him.

He became a spectator.

A first-person spectator imprisoned within his own body.

His hands actively let go of the pulley in a manner that defied survival instincts!

A sense of weightlessness hit him.

He began to fall straight down toward the abyss a hundred meters below!

[It's crazy! The system has gone crazy!]

[This is suicide!]

In the livestream room, after a moment of dead silence, overwhelming despair broke out.

At the very moment he let go.

From the direction he had come—the roof of the Sihang Warehouse.

Dozens of barely visible points of light soared into the sky.

They were armed Swarms disguised as moths.

Without hesitation, they flew toward the steel storm of artillery shells.

No dodging.

No evasion.

They were like a Swarm of moths to a flame—resolute and tragic.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

In mid-air, bursts of brilliant, fleeting fireworks erupted.

Dozens of light points self-detonated the moment they collided with the shells.

They couldn't destroy all the shells.

But they successfully caused the first dozen or so shells to detonate prematurely in the air.

The shockwaves from the explosions formed a chaotic blast of air.

This bought Chen Xi a precious 0.3 seconds.

0.3 seconds.

It was enough.

After Chen Xi's body had been in freefall for less than ten meters.

His left hand shot out like lightning at a speed exceeding human limits.

With precision, he once again grabbed the cold, hard main cable of the cableway!

His body was jerked violently by the massive tension!

He didn't stop.

Like an ape swinging on a cliff, he used his body as a Pendulum and swung violently toward the left side of the cableway!

The "Pendulum" protocol.

This was the "Pendulum"!

Whoosh—

A 75mm artillery shell, carrying the whistle of the Grim Reaper, screamed past the vertical line where he had just been!

If he hadn't swung to the left.

That single shot would have been enough to tear him to pieces!

Before he could even catch his breath.

The 'Cloud Brain' commands drove his body once again.

Pull up!

The muscles in his arms exploded in an incredible way, jerking his entire body upward!

"Boom!"

Another shell detonated with a roar at the lowest point he had just swung through!

The scorching air current, like an invisible giant hand, gave Chen Xi a fierce shove.

Using this momentum, his body swung toward the higher, right side of the air!

The shells were coming.

Swing right!

Release!

Grab!

Pull up!

Swing left!

Drone No. 3, intercept!

Boom!

Chen Xi completely gave up on thinking.

He was like a puppet being controlled by that invisible hand.

Between the gaps of shells and the intervals of death, he danced a frantic, magnificent waltz.

His body was sometimes like a gecko, clinging tightly to the cold cable.

Sometimes like a bird, gliding through the whistling air currents.

Time and again, shells exploded at the positions he had just vacated.

The air currents pushed him toward his next landing point.

Every swing was a brush with death.

The entire process was soul-stirring, yet it carried a strange, fluid beauty.

Year 2026, Great Wall Command Center.

Everyone was standing.

Everyone held their breath, staring fixedly at the main screen.

On the screen, the green light representing Chen Xi was dodging frantically through that airtight red ballistic network in a trajectory that humans could not comprehend.

Left!

Right!

Up!

Down!

Every dodge was hair-raisingly close.

Every evasion was nothing short of a miracle.

"He succeeded..."

"He dodged it again..."

"My god..."

When the final shell screamed past Chen Xi's feet and exploded into a fireball on the distant mountain wall.

The entire battlefield returned to silence.

The command center also fell into a deathly silence for a full ten seconds.

Everyone looked as if their souls had been sucked out.

Until.

On the screen, that green dot completed its final swing and landed steadily on the cliff on the opposite bank.

"He... he landed..."

A technician's voice, carrying a sob, trembled.

The string snapped.

The string in the entire command center that had been tightened to its limit completely snapped.

The white-haired chief ballistics expert's legs gave out, and he collapsed directly into his chair, gasping for air.

The chief structural mechanics engineer beside him grabbed him, and the two men in their sixties hugged each other and wept like children.

More people didn't know what to do.

They just shed tears and clapped their hands as hard as they could.

The applause grew from a scattered few to a thunderous roar that filled the entire command center.

Elder Long remained standing where he was.

He slowly closed his eyes.

A hot, cloudy tear quietly slid down from the corner of his wrinkled eye... Year 1937, the opposite bank of Suzhou Creek.

Chen Xi knelt on the cold rock.

Control of his body had been returned to him.

He was panting heavily, every breath bringing a burning pain to his lungs.

He looked back.

Behind him were his comrades, whom he had just saved, survivors of a narrow escape.

Before him was a supreme respect that spanned across time and space.

In the livestream room, that dead silence was broken.

Without any warning.

A massive, golden banner suddenly took over the entire screen.

[ID: "Dragon Country National Strategic Reserve Foundation" gifted the streamer "peerless statesman" X 1]

On the screen, an ancient seal made of pure gold and engraved with the four characters for "peerless statesman" descended from the sky and slammed heavily into the center of the image!

Immediately following.

[ID: "Dragon Country Academy of Sciences" gifted the streamer "Great Power's Heavy Tool" X 1]

A massive blue blueprint, filled with a sense of future technology, slowly unfurled, covering the entire screen!

[ID: "Huaxia Aerospace Science and Technology Group" gifted the streamer "Sea of Stars" X 1]

A massive aerospace carrier roared in from the edge of the screen!

Then.

Came the utter madness from the general public.

[ID: "An Ordinary Mother" gifted the streamer "our hero" X 999]

[ID: "A Retired Veteran" gifted the streamer "our hero" X 999]

[ID: "A Protected Child" gifted the streamer "our hero" X 999]

...Countless golden medals and bright red hearts representing "our hero" flooded in frantically from all sides of the screen like a bursting dam!

They converged together.

Forming an unprecedented, grand decoration ceremony that spanned two eras!

Chen Xi watched all of this.

He looked at those "peerless statesman" awards representing the nation's highest recognition.

He looked at those "Great Power's Heavy Tool" awards representing the respect of all scientific researchers.

He looked at the overwhelming "our hero" messages from 1.4 billion compatriots.

His vision blurred.

He knew.

From this moment on.

He was no longer alone.

What he carried was the weight and glory of two worlds.