Volume One, Chapter 54: Leaving the City, Pursuing the Two Hans

This was the first time Zhang Wei had encountered such a situation—not only in this life but also in his past lives.

“I’m just reincarnated, it shouldn’t cause such a huge change, right?” Zhang Wei fell into deep self-doubt.

It made no sense that a mechanical creature left no source crystal upon death.

Without a source crystal, it was like a car without an engine, lacking any power. How could a mechanical creature move?

“Fine, if there isn’t one, there isn’t one.”

What else could Zhang Wei do?

Beat the corpse to vent his anger?

If the source crystal didn’t drop, beating the corpse a hundred times wouldn’t make it drop.

“Let’s go back!”

Zhang Wei sheathed his thermal greatsword and turned to run toward Chuan City.

He already had enough source crystals; now he had to undergo the third mecha evolution.

Although there were no large mechanical creatures around where Zhang Wei stood, after all, this wasn’t the city. Without someone guarding him, Zhang Wei wouldn’t feel at ease.

The safest way to evolve the mecha was to return to the city.

Not long after Zhang Wei left, a small crab cautiously approached the corpse of the mutant crab.

It exerted all its strength to retrieve the mutant crab’s head. After roughly reattaching the head to the body, it crawled inside the mutant crab’s corpse.

Ten seconds later, the mutant crab’s once-dim eyes suddenly emitted a brilliant blue glow.

The mutant crab had come back to life.

As it turned out, it had inserted its own source crystal into the small crab’s body; the source crystal inside before belonged to the small crab.

The reason Zhang Wei hadn’t obtained a source crystal after killing it was that the mutant crab had completely exhausted the energy from that ordinary source crystal.

Now its own source crystal had returned to its body, and naturally, it revived.

Such a feat was made possible only because the legendary-grade source crystal had granted it wisdom; otherwise, who would believe this mutant crab was so fearless and tenacious?

“Chuan City, I will take my revenge on you,” the mutant crab glanced toward the direction Zhang Wei had left, then quickly gathered the small crab and continued to flee.

As for how it planned to avenge Zhang Wei, the mutant crab already had a plan in mind.

Zhang Wei, of course, was unaware that the mutant crab could come back to life. He hurried all the way back to Chuan City.

By the time he entered the city, dusk was settling in.

At the Zhang family villa.

“Big brother, you’re back!” Zhang Tao called out loudly from a distance as soon as he saw Zhang Wei.

“Big brother, come check out the new skill I got.”

After saying this, Zhang Tao unleashed a Thunder Strike on Zhang Wei.

Seeing this, Zhang Wei kicked out directly.

Before Zhang Tao’s fist could reach him, Zhang Wei’s single kick sent him flying.

Thunder Strike only doubled Zhang Tao’s strength and speed.

However, even with doubled strength and speed, Zhang Tao was still no match for Zhang Wei; dealing with him was a simple matter.

“Damn!” Zhang Tao tumbled on the ground several times, making quite a commotion.

“Big brother, you’re… way too strong!”

Zhang Tao was on the verge of tears.

Being kicked flying was one thing—not too painful, and the mecha wasn’t seriously damaged—but the defensive armor’s durability dropped by fifty points just from that one kick.

Is this even human?

It was just a simple kick.

A few more like that, and the armor would be completely ruined.

“What happened?”

Zhang Wei was too lazy to waste words with Zhang Tao. He hadn’t asked earlier what was going on, but now that he was back, he naturally wanted to know.

“Well…” Zhang Tao, ignoring his armor’s durability loss, immediately launched into a boastful tale.

After all, he had single-handedly fought off four hundred mechas—a glorious feat he had to show off.

Zhang Wei paid no attention to Zhang Tao’s heroic acts; what concerned him was that Han Xu had appeared again.

“These two guys are truly persistent to the point of obsession,” Zhang Wei muttered.

“If you’re so eager, then there’s no need to continue experiencing this apocalypse.”

With that, Zhang Wei turned and walked away.

“Hey, big brother, where are you going?” Zhang Tao was stunned; he hadn’t finished telling the story, yet Zhang Wei was already leaving.

“Haven’t I already found traces of their departure? I’m going after them.”

“Big brother, don’t joke around! They ran out of Chuan City. The outside world is huge—how are you supposed to find them?”

Zhang Tao had tried searching but found that all traces disappeared once outside the city, making it impossible to locate them.

“I can find them,” Zhang Wei said confidently.

Before acquiring the detection core, Zhang Wei wouldn’t have stood a chance.

But now, with the detection core, if Han Xiao and Han Xu survived tonight, Zhang Wei would consider it a loss.

“How will you find them? Big brother, I’ll go with you,” Zhang Tao asked, puzzled. But now was not the time to argue; following him was the priority.

“I’ll watch the house; I’ll come with him,” Lin Qianying suddenly volunteered.

“I…” Zhang Tao was heartbroken.

Why did someone always steal every job?

Zhang Wei glanced at Lin Qianying but did not refuse. Lin Qianying was much faster than Zhang Tao, so it wasn’t a problem to have her along.

Besides, Zhang Wei suspected Lin Qianying had something important to say, not just tagging along.

“Let’s go.”

Zhang Wei beckoned, and Lin Qianying followed closely.

It wasn’t long before Lin Qianying led Zhang Wei out of Chuan City. During the day, she had followed the traces they found to scout ahead, so she naturally knew the way.

But once outside the city limits, it was Zhang Wei’s turn to take the lead.

Where others found no clues, Zhang Wei’s refined detection could uncover even the faintest sign.

However, Zhang Wei didn’t immediately begin tracking; instead, he looked at Lin Qianying.

“Speak. What is it?”

“You really can’t be deceived. My superiors want to make a deal with you,” Lin Qianying said to Zhang Wei.

“What kind of deal?”

“They want to buy the metal scraps—the large pile we have north of the city.”

Zhang Wei was somewhat surprised, looking at Lin Qianying. “They’ve accepted the construction of the metal fortress?”

He had thought it would take time for some of the old guard to come around.

If not for the mechanical creatures teaching them a harsh lesson, they wouldn’t have been so compliant.

“They accepted it, why wouldn’t they?” Lin Qianying replied matter-of-factly.

“Fine, then we can hand it over.”

“Did you ask what they’ll pay with?”

Selling something without knowing the price—how could that be reasonable?

“Equipment exchange is impossible. It has to be source crystals.”

There were so many military personnel and mechas, and the military didn’t even know their own equipment shortages. Trading with gear was out of the question.

So, it had to be source crystals.

As for how many, Zhang Wei wasn’t really concerned. What mattered was maintaining good relations with the military, which was the main reason he kept Lin Qianying by his side. Appearance and such were secondary.

“Sometimes people are too smart for their own good. They initially didn’t want to offer many source crystals, but thanks to my efforts, they’re willing to pay a thousand medium-grade source crystals for that pile of metal scraps. How about that? Not bad, right?”