116: Physical immunity?

Seeing this scene, Wang Yi immediately realized the severity of the problem.

Controlling the thor mecha, he tentatively thrust the spear in his hand toward another Sea Golem. The result was the same—it pierced through without any resistance, yet the opponent's counterattack was both fast and fierce.

Zhao Zihan's electromagnetic harpoon was even worse; it was like being shot into water, failing to even kick up a splash.

For a time, the three mechas were actually forced back step by step by this group of unkillable liquid metal monsters, falling completely into a passive state.

"Damn it! How are we supposed to fight this? It's like hitting a glob of mercury; there's no resistance at all!" Chen Hu roared into the channel while clumsily fending off a Sea Golem's attack.

"Their bodies can switch between solid and liquid states at any time to evade physical impact!" As an engineer, Zhang Wei quickly spotted the clue. "This is a type of memory metal we've never seen before. It's too advanced!"

In the Dragon Country Operations Center, Li Guodong and Lin Zhan also watched with furrowed brows.

"This kind of unkillable enemy is the most troublesome. Little Su, do you have a solution?"

"Minor issue." Su Yuan looked perfectly calm.

He had long since used the system to strip these Sea Golems of all their secrets.

[Species: Liquid Metal Guard 'Sea Golem']

[Danger Level: C+]

[Abilities: Form Transformation, Physical Immunity (Partial), Self-Repair]

[Weakness: Its form is maintained by a tiny liquid controller at its core; this controller is extremely sensitive to extreme temperatures.]

"Physical immunity?" Su Yuan chuckled. "In the face of absolute temperature, all fancy tricks are just paper tigers."

"Zhang Wei." Su Yuan's voice rang directly in Zhang Wei's mind.

"Administrator! I'm here!"

"Is your logistics mecha equipped with an ultra-low temperature liquid nitrogen sprayer for emergency repairs?"

"Huh? Yes, there is one set. But that's used for cooling down overheated parts; the spray volume isn't large." Zhang Wei was somewhat uncertain of Su Yuan's intention.

"It's enough," Su Yuan said. "Now, switch to that equipment and go give those tin men a cold bath."

"A... cold bath?" Zhang Wei froze for a moment, but then immediately understood Su Yuan's meaning.

If they feared high temperatures, they naturally feared low temperatures as well!

"I understand!"

Zhang Wei no longer hesitated and immediately controlled his logistics support-type mecha to charge out from the rear of the team. His mecha's arms quickly transformed, switching to a pair of massive nozzles resembling fire hoses.

"Everyone move aside! Watch me cool them down!"

Zhang Wei targeted a Sea Golem that was currently besieging Chen Hu and slammed down the spray button!

Ssss—

Two streams of white, ultra-low temperature liquid nitrogen filled with extreme chill instantly surged from the nozzles, accurately hitting the Sea Golem!

There was no violent reaction, only an eerie silence.

The liquid metal warrior, which had been flexibly attacking the titan mech, stiffened violently the moment it came into contact with the liquid nitrogen.

Its flowing silver-white body solidified and frosted over at a speed visible to the naked eye. Finally, it turned completely into a lifelike ice sculpture, even maintaining its posture of swinging its halberd.

"Chen Hu! Now!" Su Yuan's voice rang out.

"On it!"

Chen Hu, who had been holding back a belly full of fire, let out an excited roar upon seeing this.

He controlled the titan mech to lunge forward. His massive power gauntlet, carrying the fury of revenge, smashed heavily against the 'ice sculpture'!

"Shatter for me!"

Bang!

A crisp sound, like glass breaking, rang out.

The once indestructible Sea Golem became incredibly fragile after being frozen into a block of ice. Under the titan mech's heavy punch, it instantly disintegrated into four or five pieces, exploding into a floor full of silver-white fragments!

And in the center of that pile of debris, a droplet-like controller only the size of a fingernail was also crushed into powder.

"Hahaha! So you guys are afraid of the cold!" Chen Hu let out a hearty laugh as he looked at the debris covering the ground.

"We've found the method!"

"Zhang Wei is in charge of freezing! Chen Hu is in charge of smashing! We'll provide cover!"

Wang Yi immediately issued new combat orders.

In an instant, the situation on the battlefield was reversed.

The three mechas of the Dragon Team began a unique game of 'Whack-a-Mole'.

Wherever Zhang Wei's liquid nitrogen sprayed, an extra ice sculpture would appear.

Wherever Chen Hu's fist struck, the ice sculpture there would shatter into pieces.

Wang Yi and Zhao Zihan were responsible for clearing the area on the side, forcing back the Sea Golems that tried to get close to Zhang Wei one by one.

The dozens of once-aggressive Sea Golems were cleaned up completely in less than ten minutes under the Dragon Team's seamless coordination.

The entire plaza returned to peace once more, leaving behind only a floor of metal fragments as evidence of the battle that had just occurred.

After clearing the Sea Golems in the plaza, the Dragon Team did not linger. They continued to advance toward the depths of the city under Su Yuan's guidance.

The deeper they went, the more they could feel the greatness and incredibility of this city.

The architectural style here was full of an artistic sense beyond human imagination. The streets were empty yet spotlessly clean. Some automated cleaning robots were still tirelessly carrying out the programs set for them tens of thousands of years ago.

"This city... seems to have been abandoned entirely," Wang Yi said thoughtfully as he looked at everything around him. "There are no traces of war, nor any signs of disaster. It's like... the people here just collectively vanished one day."

"Maybe they ascended?" Chen Hu joked.

"Stop guessing blindly and stay sharp," Wang Yi reminded them. "It looks peaceful here, but no one knows what kind of ghost thing will pop out around the next corner."

While the team members were exploring the city, Su Yuan, far away in Beijing, had his attention completely drawn by a frantically flashing energy signal source on the Administrator panel.

This signal source was located at the very top of the building in the center of Atlantis, which looked like a giant tower reaching to the heavens.

The energy fluctuations it released were so massive, pure, and stable that Su Yuan's system issued a slight alarm the moment it detected it.

"What... is this thing?"

With a hint of curiosity and excitement, Su Yuan focused his 'Omniscient Perspective' over there.

The next second, detailed information about that energy source appeared on his panel.

[Item: heart of the sea god (Zero-Point Energy Reaction Core)]

[Grade: SSS-grade (Rule Creation)]

[Description: The supreme masterpiece of the Atlantis civilization. A perpetual motion machine that can theoretically draw infinite energy from the vacuum. It is the power source of this city and the foundation that supported the entire Atlantis civilization for ten thousand years.]

[Note: This item possesses the great power to rewrite the course of a civilization.]

Hiss—

When he saw the description of this item clearly, even with Su Yuan's vast experience, he couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.

Zero-point energy!

Perpetual motion machine!

Infinite energy!

These top-tier concepts that only existed in science fiction novels were now actually appearing before him in the form of a physical object!

Su Yuan's heart began to thumping wildly out of control.

He knew better than anyone what it would mean for Dragon Country, and even for the entire human civilization, once this thing was manifested into the real world!

Although Controllable Nuclear Fusion was powerful, it ultimately still required fuel and carried certain risks.

But this 'heart of the sea god' was a clean energy source in the truest sense—inexhaustible and unfailing!

It would completely liberate Dragon Country from the shackles of energy!

Interstellar travel, warp drives, Dyson spheres... countless dreams that were once out of reach would all have the possibility of realization because of its appearance!

"I must! I must get my hands on it!"

An unprecedented light erupted in Su Yuan's eyes.

The strategic value of this thing was even higher than all the previous rewards combined!

However, just as he was extremely excited and preparing to find a way for Wang Yi and the others to retrieve it, a line of small text at the bottom of the item information poured a bucket of cold water over him.

[Warning: This item is currently sealed by a 'Chronos Lock' and cannot be moved or acquired by any external force.]

"Chronos Lock?"

Su Yuan's brows instantly furrowed.

He clicked on the explanation for this term, and his expression became even more solemn.

[Chronos Lock: A top-tier sealing technology based on the laws of time and space. The time flow rate and spatial coordinates of the locked item will be fixed, effectively 'stripping' it from the current universe. Unless the seal is released, any attempt to touch it will only pass through a hollow phantom.]

"Damn it, that's so absolute?" Su Yuan couldn't help but curse.

After all that work, it turned out to be a pie in the sky that could be seen but not touched.

Refusing to believe it, he immediately began to try using his permissions in the Administrator backend to perform a brute-force crack on this so-called 'Chronos Lock'.

[Attempting to analyze 'Chronos Lock'...]

[Analysis failed! Target permission level is too high!]

[Attempting to forcibly release 'Chronos Lock'...]

[Release failed! Insufficient energy! At least 1 million national fortune points are required for forced intervention!]

One million national fortune points?

Su Yuan looked at the balance of just over thirty thousand in his account, and his mouth twitched.

What was the difference between this and telling him he needed to top up a million to open this treasure chest?

"Calm down... calm down..."

Su Yuan forced himself to calm down.

"If direct cracking doesn't work, then I can only follow the process."

He carefully studied the operating principles of the 'Chronos Lock' and soon discovered a key point.

"I see... the energy for this Chronos Lock isn't independent; it's connected to the energy system of the entire city."

"In other words, as long as I can cut off the city's total energy supply, this Chronos Lock will become unstable or even temporarily fail due to insufficient energy!"

Su Yuan's eyes instantly lit up.

He immediately turned his gaze toward the central energy tower of that city.

Although the 'heart of the sea god' was at the top of the tower, its method of supplying energy was through a complex conversion and transmission system that passed energy to the energy hub at the bottom of the tower, which then distributed it to the entire city.

As long as that energy hub could be destroyed, it would be equivalent to pulling the power plug of the entire city!

"Wang Yi." Su Yuan immediately contacted the Dragon Team.

"Here, Administrator."

"Giving you a new objective." Su Yuan marked the structure of the energy tower and the location of the energy hub at its base, then sent them to Wang Yi.

"See that tallest tower? Its base is the energy core of the entire city. I need you to go and shut it down for me."

"Shut it down?" Wang Yi was somewhat puzzled. "Aren't we here to find Atlantis's lost technology? If we shut off the energy, won't this place be paralyzed?"

"Don't ask so much." Su Yuan did not explain the existence of the 'heart of the sea god'; this thing was too important, and now was not the time to let them know. "Just do as I say. Shutting it down will play a vital role in our next actions."

"...Yes!"

Although his heart was full of doubt, Wang Yi still chose to trust unconditionally.

"Everyone, target change! Full speed ahead toward the central energy tower!"

The three mechas started up again, launching a charge toward the 'heart' of the city.

As for Su Yuan, while guiding them, he continued to frantically calculate and deduce various possibilities for cracking the 'Chronos Lock' in the backend, making final preparations for the subsequent capture of the core.

Just as the Dragon Team was heading toward the energy tower at full speed, several discordant signal points appeared once again on Su Yuan's Administrator map.

"Hm? Still haven't given up?"

Su Yuan looked closely and found that these signal points were actually the India contestants he had previously knocked out using the 'Oxygen Deprivation Method'.

He was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected these people's lives to be so tough that they could actually crawl out after being thrown into a place like the 'Devils Throat'.

At this moment, these India contestants were sneakily following not far behind the Dragon Team, seemingly looking for some kind of opportunity.

"Interesting." Su Yuan watched them with great interest.

He wanted to see what kind of tricks this group of defeated opponents wanted to play... "Captain, do we really have to do this?"

In the India's team channel, a member's voice trembled slightly as he looked at the three Dragon Country mechas ahead that looked like gods descending to earth.

"That's the Dragon Team! We... we can't beat them!"

"Shut up!" the India's captain, a man named Rajesh, barked in a low voice. "Can't beat them? Who said we're going to go head-to-head with them?"

In his eyes, a greedy and venomous light flickered.

"We have the protection of the 'Shiva's Cloak,' which can grant immunity to most energy attacks! And the Dragon Country people, all their attention is on that high tower right now! This is our best chance!"

Rajesh licked his dry lips, a sinister smile appearing on his face.

"When they've worked hard to take down that tower and get the treasure inside, that will be the moment we strike! We only need to launch a sneak attack when they are at their most relaxed, grab the stuff, and run! By then, this immense credit will belong to our India!"

He had already been blinded by jealousy and greed.

He hadn't considered at all how large the strength gap was between himself and the Dragon Team. He only knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to 'pick up the scraps'.

His so-called 'Shiva's Cloak' was a B-grade defensive item that could indeed withstand some attacks. But this also gave him a false, unrealistic confidence.

He thought he could withstand the Dragon Team's damage.

He thought he could snatch the fruits of victory from right under the noses of three steel behemoths.

"Everyone, stay hidden! Wait for my command!"

Rajesh issued the order and then, like a cold venomous snake, fixed his gaze intently on the energy tower in the distance.