Chapter 12

The anger within Zheng was one of mixed feelings that he couldn’t describe. The core of it was his guilt toward the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died and his sense of helplessness in changing this situation. This helpless sensation had begun to accumulate long before this event. The precise time chased back to when he first entered this realm.

Helplessness when faced with the movie worlds, when placed in a fate unknown to him, when the end was no where to be seen. He strived to become stronger, yet there were still so many stronger than him. This weight continued to exert so much pain. And there were the times he did things against his heart in order to survive.

Humans weren’t robots. They weren’t protagonists in novels who could slaughter people the moment they appeared in texts. He was merely an office worker. He had been changing himself, becoming stronger, but his heart was not the heart of a monster. His heart was still the heart when he was a normal office worker!

How could he not feel lost after he encountered so many deaths and endured so much pain? How could he not feel angry? The anger of his lack of control and of fate!

A thousand meters beneath the ground. Tiger’s Soul slashed open the barrier and revealed a corridor made of metal. The corridor was thirty meters tall and seventy meters wide. It could be seen that the hydrogen bomb had crushed this corridor. The barrier that just appeared was created in a rush. That was why Zheng was able to slash it open in one hit. The four people moved into the corridor.

“Gando, remember. If we seized the AllSpark, grab it and fly back the way we came. Once you exit this corridor, activate the electric jet system and fly as fast as you can to as far as you can. I will cut the corridor off and have WangXia detonate the bombs we plant once you left into the corridor. It will stop the robots chasing you. It takes an hour after we obtained the AllSpark to return… So please. Even if you are going to die, hand the AllSpark to Zero before you die!”

Gando felt as if a knife stabbed into his heart. He could not see Zheng’s expression since he was inside the Valkyrie. But a sense of terror suddenly fell upon him. He felt as though a cold, sharp sword was there right next to him. The sharpness made him shiver.

Perhaps Zheng had not noticed it himself. His eyes at the moment looked sharp as a blade. He appeared to be walking casually with Tiger’s Soul in his hand, but every step he took embedded the floor with a three centimeters deep footprint. Gando could not easily see the floor but WangXia and Xuan saw them clearly. As they looked to Zheng again, he looked nothing like the Zheng they knew. The killing intent he exerted was overwhelming. It felt like he would swing his blade at the next person he saw.

Xuan frowned and said to WangXia in a low voice. “This is far enough. Plant as much plasma bombs as you have here then you can go back up first. Zheng isn’t looking right. It seems similar to the berserk state of the fourth stage that you mentioned. If that’s the case…” Xuan frowned further, like something was making him think.

WangXia nodded without a word. He stopped then took the Sky Stick from Xuan and began planting mines and timed bombs. In reality, he was starting to panic. He couldn’t be sure but he could tell a sense of determination from Xuan’s words. Was something unexpected going to happen in this mission?

(Has Zheng’s berserk state returned? Is it going to be dangerous for Xuan?)

WangXia’s hesitation and worry aside, Zheng said. “Are you worrying that I am going berserk again?”

“Yes.” Xuan said candidly. “It’s what I am worrying. There is no information related to what the fourth stage is about because it reaches into the genetic layer and a person’s consciousness. In simpler words, it’s influencing genetics with a person’s consciousness, which I can not understand. Since I can not understand, I will choose not to trust you for the time being.”

Zheng looked at Xuan. His gaze was still sharp as a blade. It was an expression he never had before. He turned his head away and said. “I do not know the scientific reasoning behind the fourth stage. But I want to let you know that I did not return to the initial berserk state.”

Zheng suddenly charged forward as he finished his sentence. Several robots of varying sizes appeared in front of the corridor. The front most robot fired an energy bullet at them. Zheng and Xuan dodged it swiftly. The bullet hit the Valkyrie then exploded. The explosion was on par with an anti-tank missile.

Zheng was extremely quick. He activated instant Destruction and Shoru the instant he dodged the bullet and rushed to the robot with a speed beyond what the bare eyes could capture. The robot was not so big at four meters tall. It was also quick to react. It flipped backward. Its hands pushed off the floor and threw itself back.

“Trying to run?” Zheng’s expression was colder than he ever was.

Tiger’s Soul slashed forward the instant the robot’s hands touched the floor. A mist like white light blade flew across. He retrieved his sword. The robot only backed two meters when its body shattered into pieces and fell to the ground. That one slash cut the robot into thousands of little pieces. The pieces then exploded, causing a storm inside the corridor.

The remaining robots weren’t weak either. They were hugely different from the ones destroyed in the surface. A ten meter tall robot shook its shoulders and transformed them into gatling cannons. The cannons fired a series of energy bullets. Explosions followed one after another in the corridor. Another seven meter tall robot leaped backward then transformed into a tank in two seconds. Its muzzle roared.

Before the third robot could take action, the gatling cannon robot suddenly flew backward. A man with a red sword stood at where it was. Zheng kicked the robot away then threw out Tiger’s Soul. The tank exploded. The third robot seemingly saw a white tiger biting at the tank’s barrel. The next moment, Zheng was standing on the remains of the tank. He pulled Tiger’s Soul out of the remains. A white misty aura swirled away. Two spiky, black bat wings spread out from his back and shredded his clothes. The wings opened up to three meters long.

“You can not protect the people important to you without power. You can not fulfill the petty wishes you have without power. You can only do things against your heart without power!” A crimson redness overtook Zheng’s eyes. He bit his teeth and uttered as he turned to the last remaining robot.

By the time the robot raised its gun, Zheng was already standing behind it. The energy bullet exploded inside the barrel and the robot also exploded.

“Ohhh!” Gando shouted in shock. “Man, that’s too impressive. I heard they talk about the terrifying power of Zheng in the fourth stage when he went berserk and thought that was an exaggeration. The fourth stage is too strong. He doesn’t even need us to wipe out all the robots here!”

Xuan shook his head. “It can’t be the berserk state. Otherwise, his sword would land on me first, given how much he hates me. Which means that this is the intermediate fourth stage?”

Xuan pondered for a moment. Zheng’s speed was astonishing right now. Xuan didn’t have the time the think and said to Gando. “Let’s go. The mission has just begun. Charge into the core of the base, seize the AllSpark, then run. Their target is only the AllSpark. We will delay them for some time. As long as they can’t get their hands on the AllSpark again, we will be safe. Charge!”

Ahead of them, Zheng left behind a trail of metal remains. With the eyes of a blade and wings on his back, he charged through the corridor like a demon. Nothing moved on the path he went through, whether it be living or dead.

There was a dark side within every person, and similarly, a bright side. No human could exist as pure evil or good. Such inconsistency was how we were.
Zheng was also feeling contradicting. He did not want to go against his heart and let the hundreds of thousands of soldiers die, yet he also wanted to protect his comrades, to survive this movie without casualty. This contradicting thought prevented him from denouncing Xuan. However, he could not peacefully face his true self and decided to run away from it. He handed everything to his instincts in the unlocked mode, the him that resided in the depth of his DNA.

(Perhaps… there’s really a demon hiding in my DNA…) He felt such comfort after he let loose of himself, giving his control to the demon in his DNA. If he must describe this comfort in a word, it would be freedom. A freedom of both his mind and body, as though he could fly through the sky in an instant and split the earth in halves. He nearly drowned himself in this feeling, if it wasn’t the last bit of reason held him back.

However, this feeling was amazing. And this power… overwhelming!

Zheng felt as though time returned to the moment he unlocked the fourth stage when they went to steal the prototype T virus in Resident Evil. He experienced this same delightful sensation. By the time he woke up, all the evolved Lickers had been slaughtered. This power was hiding inside his DNA all along. Whether it was good or bad, and whether he could return to himself again or not… was not questions he would consider now.

Zheng sprinted among the incoming energy bullets. There was space big enough for someone to move through inside the seemingly crowded waves of bullets. Zheng’s reaction speed was fast enough to catch this space. Soru gave him faster movement speed than the bullets. He sprinted through the corridor in the blink of an eye. Zheng’s hand clawed at the front most robot. It was not too big, only five meters tall. After his hand clawed across smoothly, the robot was torn up into five sections at its chest. Zheng then kicked the remains of the robot off a few dozen meters away, knocking down numerous robots in the way.

Strong. Incredibly strong. This adjective perfectly suited to the Zheng in this moment. His claw was tougher than the alloy body of the robot, and destroyed it in one hit.

Zheng did not pause after kicking the robot away. He charged up then slashed his sword downward. A mist like white light blade flashed across. The destroyed robot and those knocked down were shredded into centimeter big pieces under this slash. Tiger’s Soul was nothing like a weapon anymore after the upgrade. It was closer to a magical item used by Cultivators.

The explosions and intense heat did not deter Zheng, as he walked toward the fires. He could not count how many robots he destroyed on the way, hundreds or even a thousand. These robots weren’t the newly created ones. These could all transformed. Their movements were quick and agile, almost as agile as the Valkyrie when Gando entered the unlocked mode. Their firepower filled the corridor with explosions the moment Zheng appeared. Still, Zheng went against such firepower and destroyed all of them. Most importantly, he did not even active Explosion. He merely used a few instances of instant Destruction.

Three minutes passed since the party entered the corridors. Xuan and Gando were almost sprinting this whole time despite Zheng being the one fighting. His breakthroughs were too fast that Xuan and Gando were barely catching up. The three of them charged through the main path and did not clear out the branching paths. As such, while they advanced, over a hundred robots came out from the branching paths and chased them.

“Would you call this sandwiching?” Gando shouted. “Xuan! Didn’t you say the final hydrogen bomb would clear out most robots? What’s with this? I will haunt you if I die here!”

Xuan glanced at the Valkyrie. His tone remained calm. “This is the best case among my expectations. The four hydrogen bombs destroyed tens of thousands of robots. We would be nothing in front of those numbers. A single volley could kill our whole team. That won’t be a battle, but war. An individual’s power is always insignificant in a war.”

Gando paused for a second then continued to shout. “Then what should we do now? It’s good that Zheng became so strong but I can’t be confident that he won’t turn his sword at us. That thing is simply scary. One slash and a bunch of robots turned to pieces. If it lands on us, we are going to become human spaghetti. There’s also a hundred robots chasing from behind. I don’t think I have the power to bring the AllSpark up to the ground even if we were to obtain it!”

Xuan said in a serious tone. “I don’t care what you think. This is a battle of no compromises. Do you wish to beg the Decepticons for mercy? Or live a little longer from running? Don’t kid me! Gando, I know you never wanted to die since the moment you entered this realm. And what’s the outcome? If it weren’t for the members of the team, you would have died in Starship Troopers. It’s the same here. Fight with your life if you don’t want to die. Don’t keep asking like a child. We must succeed. Otherwise the Decepticons will only keep growing. Remember. You can not drop the AllSpark even at the cost of your life!”

The corridor brightened up. A huge open area appeared in front of them. A metallic cube floated in the center. The cube was not more than two meters in length. Intense electricity flowed down from the cube into the floor. It seemed like a pillar of lightning.

Nearly three thousand robots stood in this open area. Their guns fired at the exit of the corridor without a word. The explosions forced Xuan and Gando back inside. Zheng was the only one who charged out with his insane speed.

He moved into the crowd of robots. Tiger’s Soul slashed across, sending out mist like light blades. All the robots within fifty meters of him were shredded after a few strikes. As the robots exploded, he borrowed from the force of explosion and rushed toward the lightning pillar.

Dong! Zheng’s hand clawed at a red robot but a light flashed in front of it. He only chipped off some scraps. The robot’s armor looked vivid as if it was painted.

“Starscream! Don’t fear! The newly evolved phase shift armor can defend against his attacks as long as you have energy! In this room, energy is never a problem for us! Protect the AllSark!”

Nearest to the AllSpark was a huge robot almost fifteen meters tall. A rainbow of colors were flashing on its armor. It appeared to be more advanced than Starscream’s armor. This was probably the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron. He looked hundreds of times more powerful than the broken Optimus Prime. The AllSpark had probably bestowed him the power during these days.

Failing the claw, Zheng readied Tiger’s Soul for another attack. However, a brilliant light flashed over Starscream. The brightness of his armor declined and then an invisible shockwave struck Zheng. This force was powerful enough to knock Zheng back over ten meters. He flapped his wings to halt himself in the air. However, he was twenty meters away from Starscream at this point. Countless bullets hit him and covered the place he was on with explosions. Zheng couldn’t break out from the rain of bullets at once.

Back at the corridor, Gando attempted several times to rush out. He valued his life dearly but he knew Zheng was the core of the team, and especially this battle. Once Zheng died, it would be the end of them. However, the sight of the firepower of these thousands of robots extinguished his courage time and time again. Before he decided whether to charge out, he noticed Xuan pressed his glasses. His eyes turned sharp.

(The heck? Are main characters with sharp eyes the trend nowadays?)

While Gando was confused, Xuan moved. He disappeared from Gando’s sight the next instant.