CHAPTER 450: CHAPTER 220: AWAKENING

On the overpass.

The two bombers that had landed smoothly had already opened their payload bays. Lei Jie quickly walked towards the three Mechanical God Sect Forbidden Army members waiting nearby and said:

"Load everything onto the planes!"

"Hurry up, we only need one plane to take off."

"There are still two spots on our planes—though we might have to squeeze a bit to fit everyone in."

"You’ll come with us."

"Jiang Yu, your plane needs to carry three people, it will definitely cause weight distribution issues."

"Be careful when flying, especially when landing."

"Understood!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yu nodded, then also turned to the Forbidden Army, carefully surveying them before saying:

"The two of you with smaller builds, come with me."

"We’re going to have to squeeze in... and it will be tight."

"But it’s okay, we’ll land in at most 30 minutes, just bear with it."

"Where are the items?"

"Over here!"

The Forbidden Army Leader immediately turned to the roadside, then lifted up a disguise previously arranged with grass and branches, pointing to a not-so-large square device:

"We found it like this, almost unchanged."

"This is the corpse of the monster carrying it, we brought it along too."

"Very well!"

Lei Jie nodded to the Forbidden Army Leader.

"Humanity will remember your contributions."

As he spoke, he crouched down to touch the monster’s skin.

At the moment his fingers touched, he immediately felt a chill that was definitely not of carbon-based biological skin.

"Seems like some kind of flexible metallic material."

"With electrochromic coating, the cross-section features carbon fiber characteristics, but doesn’t look like carbon fiber."

"High-tech... this thing couldn’t have been made within 20 years."

"Fu Xi, have you seen this material before?"

"Unable to determine at the moment."

Fu Xi’s voice came from Lei Jie’s earpiece.

"But based on the current returned images, this material bears a strong resemblance to the flexible composite armor research from 2045."

"It could possibly be an upgraded version of the M77 flexible composite armor."

"Understood."

Lei Jie exhaled lightly, then drew a dagger from his waist, and started cutting from the neck down into the monster’s severed head.

Only then did he discover, the "helmet" covering the monster’s head was made of different material than the armor on its body, and there were connection breakpoints between the two materials.

And this is most likely why its head could be easily severed.

The resistance encountered by the dagger was significant, but Lei Jie still successfully sliced through the mask on the monster’s head.

Underneath the mask was a face that had long become twisted, its eyes blind, or perhaps regressed, with only shriveled eyeballs left in the sockets.

The sight made Lei Jie’s scalp tingle, and while the others were loading the cargo, he flipped over the monster’s head.

At the back of the monster’s skull was a metal module embedded into the occipital bone.

Brain Machine.

Intrusive Brain Machine.

Without a doubt, this monster is of the same origin as those monsters controlled in the Beast Tide.

Is it also controlled by a Brain Machine?

Or is its brain machine system "functional"?

Lei Jie couldn’t make a judgment at the moment.

Anyway, this corpse was to be transported back, and there would be plenty of time to dissect it then.

At this time, the "control device" had been fully loaded.

Lei Jie walked towards his plane, beckoning to the Forbidden Army Leader:

"You come with me!"

The words fell with no response.

He had already climbed into the bomber cockpit, watching the burly Forbidden Army Leader still standing in place, so he asked:

"Why are you hesitating? Get on!"

The Forbidden Army Leader instinctively took a step forward, but then stopped in place.

His eyes betrayed an evident longing, one could even say a devout obsession.

Anyone standing in front of him could see he wanted to board the plane to see how "the Holy Trinity’s Angel" operated.

However, it seemed as if some force stopped him.

"I’m not going with you."

The Forbidden Army Leader said firmly:

"Thank you for your kindness."

"May the Holy Trinity protect you, your bravery in fighting the monsters will be remembered by us."

"But please forgive me for not accepting your invitation."

"Take my companions, they need to survive."

After he finished speaking, Zhang Chao and Liu Hao, who had been eager initially, suddenly halted in their tracks.

The two exchanged glances, then almost simultaneously turned to Lei Jie.

With a slight bow, Liu Hao spoke:

"Thank you for your kindness."

"But our brothers are still fighting at the Qili Lake, we must join them."

"Are you crazy?!"

Lei Jie was stunned.

"This is a pointless sacrifice!"

"The Qili Lake Defense Line can’t hold anymore, even if you rush there now, you won’t be able to help them!"

"The Supreme Army will definitely withdraw from the so-called Xuyi Defense Line within 6 hours, they will retreat all the way to Jinling City!"

"How do you plan to do that? Are you going to walk?!"

"Come back with us to Jinling New City, if you still want to return, we’ll send you back!"

"No, we must advance and retreat together with our brothers."

The Forbidden Army Leader answered resolutely.

"The Holy Trinity would never allow us to abandon our brothers."

"Even if we die here, we must stay."

"Insane..."

Lei Jie shook his head disapprovingly.

In truth, he couldn’t completely understand the act of sacrificing for faith, because his own squad had walked the same path all along.