252: Chapter 252 Target: Area 51, the Ultimate Showdown of Technology

It was just that the night was colder and drier.

Above the Nevada desert, the starlight was exceptionally clear.

The night sky, free from the light pollution of cities, hung low like a sheet of cold, black glass.

In the distance, the mountain ridges were layered one upon another, leaving only blurred silhouettes in the night.

The ground was a vast expanse of desert; sand, dry grass, Gobi, and the occasional low shrub appeared lifeless in the night wind.

The two sets of Battle Armor did not directly approach Area 51.

Although Lu Li spoke lightly, he wasn't foolish enough to crash directly onto his target the moment he crossed the coastline.

This wasn't some small warehouse on the street corner.

This was a core restricted zone that the United States had been operating for decades.

The defense of a modern military base was long past being as simple as setting up a few machine guns or placing a few radar stations.

High-altitude satellites were watching.

Ground radar was scanning.

Infrared monitoring, heat source detection, drone patrols, automated early warning systems, electronic warfare platforms, underground fiber-optic sensor networks, long-range anti-aircraft fire—even those seemingly ordinary hills and road signs in the surrounding desert might hide sensors.

As soon as an abnormal target entered the range, the entire defense system would complete identification, locking, assessment, and counter-measures within an extremely short time.

Scrambling fighter jets was just one step.

What was truly troublesome was that entire war machine, from detection to interception.

Therefore, Lu Li was in no rush to act.

He brought Lin Qinglan along and landed in a canyon far from the base.

The cliffs on both sides of the canyon were steep, and as the wind blew through the gaps, it made a sound like whimpering.

Lu Li scanned the environment and casually pointed to a natural cave ahead, hidden by rocks.

"We'll make do here for the night."

Lin Qinglan checked the time.

"We could also act now."

Lu Li leaned against his Battle Armor and yawned lazily.

"We flew so far, aren't you tired?"

Lin Qinglan was silent for a moment.

"I'm fine."

"Stubborn."

Lu Li waved his hand.

"Don't treat yourself like a machine. Your Battle Armor doesn't have full-automatic neural hosting, so long-distance, high-speed flight puts a significant burden on both your body and mind."

"We'll go in tomorrow night."

"Besides, Area 51 is right there; it's not going to grow legs and run away."

Lin Qinglan looked at his overly casual demeanor and ultimately did not retort.

The two sets of Battle Armor entered low-power silent mode deep inside the cave.

The silver-white and pitch-black metal shells were reduced to faint outlines in the gloom.

Outside, the desert night wind howled.

In the distance, the low calls of unknown beasts could occasionally be heard.

Lu Li leaned against the rock wall and closed his eyes to sleep.

The speed at which he did so surprised even Lin Qinglan.

She had originally thought that someone like Lu Li would have at least some emotional fluctuations before infiltrating the most mysterious military restricted zone of the United States for the first time.

Nervousness.

Excitement.

Solemnity.

There should at least be one.

Yet, he had none of them.

It was as if he were just tired from an outing and was finding a place to take a nap.

Lin Qinglan sat on the other side, glanced at him through her Battle Armor visor, and a hint of hard-to-detect complexity appeared in her eyes.

Was this the "most important card for the Dragon Kingdom's next few decades" that Elder Wu spoke of?

He really didn't look like a hero in the traditional sense.

He was more like a monster who couldn't be bothered to wear his thoughts on his face.

...

The next day.

The temperature in the desert rose rapidly.

When sunlight filtered through the canyon gaps and into the cave, Lu Li finally opened his eyes slowly.

Just as he sat up, he saw Lin Qinglan already checking equipment near the cave entrance.

Beside her lay an opened small tactical bag.

The items inside were organized extremely neatly.

Compressed rations.

Mineral water.

Portable heating pads.

Small communication module.

Spare medicine.

And a palm-sized first aid kit.

Lu Li glanced at it, his brows slightly raised.

"Did you bring your wilderness survival class with you?"

Lin Qinglan didn't look up; she simply handed him a heated compressed meal.

"The mission duration is uncertain; basic supplies must be carried."

Lu Li took it and squeezed the packaging.

"Quite professional."

Lin Qinglan handed him a bottle of water.

"Drink."

Lu Li looked at her cold, detached demeanor, yet her meticulous preparation, and suddenly felt like laughing.

"Do you usually take care of people like this?"

Lin Qinglan paused.

Then, she glanced at him indifferently.

"I'm not taking care of you."

"I am ensuring that the mission objective is not affected by low-level issues."

Lu Li: "..."

That sounded very military.

He took a bite of the compressed meal; the taste was very average.

But after being heated, at least it wasn't hard to swallow.

Halfway through eating, his gaze fell on the first aid kit again.

The box wasn't big, but it contained everything: bandages, hemostatic materials, syringes, anti-infection drugs, and an emergency suture kit.

Seeming to notice his gaze, Lin Qinglan took the initiative to explain:

"I have studied battlefield first aid."

Lu Li nodded.

"Top-tier in combat, top-tier in flight adaptation, and you know first aid."

"Elder Wu is really generous this time."

Lin Qinglan put the remaining supplies back in place, her voice calm.

"My mission is to bring you back."

Lu Li swallowed the last mouthful of rations and smiled.

"The way you say that, it sounds like I'm the burden."

Lin Qinglan looked up at him.

"It's too early to judge."

Lu Li was stunned for a moment, then laughed.

"Fair enough."

"That's interesting."

During the day, they did not leave the cave.

The airspace and ground surveillance around Area 51 were even more sensitive during the day; any abnormal reflections or heat source changes could attract attention.

Lu Li simply used this time to adjust the detection modules of his Battle Armor.

Lin Qinglan sat quietly to the side, checking the weapon systems, propulsion modules, and life support devices.

One was lazy, the other calm.

Neither said anything unnecessary.

Until the sun slowly sank into the edge of the desert.

The night once again covered the mountain ridges.

Lu Li stood up, his silver-white Battle Armor closing piece by piece.

Lin Qinglan also lowered her visor at the same time.

The eye lights of the pitch-black Battle Armor lit up, like cold-colored pupils opening in the darkness.

Lu Li looked into the distance.

There, in the direction of Area 51, the lights remained silent.

"Let's go."

"Let's go see what the United States is really hiding."

Boom—

The two sets of Battle Armor took off simultaneously.

This time, they did not charge forward at maximum speed.

Lu Li reduced the outer energy field of his Battle Armor to the minimum, and the silver-white body almost melted into a blurred shadow in the night.

Lin Qinglan followed closely behind; the black Battle Armor was already suited for the night environment, and at this moment, it looked even more like a nocturnal beast gliding along the mountain ridge.

In the distance, the outline of Area 51 gradually appeared.

Runways.

Hangars.

Radar arrays.

Low-lying building complexes.

And the massive energy reaction signal hidden underground.

On Lu Li's Battle Armor interface, layers of scan maps quickly unfolded.

His eyes flickered slightly.

"The underground space is much larger than the surface."

Lin Qinglan looked at the synchronized data, her voice lowered.

"At least six levels."

"Possibly more."

Lu Li said indifferently:

"The calmer the surface, the more things there are underneath."

The two continued to approach.

Two kilometers.

It was at this distance that a piercing alarm suddenly erupted in the monitoring center inside Area 51.

Beep, beep, beep, beep—!

Red warning lights instantly swept across the entire hall.

"High-speed abnormal target detected!"

"Bearing southeast!"

"Distance, two kilometers!"

"Target altitude is continuously changing; heat source characteristics are abnormal!"

"Radar cross-section is unstable; unable to match any known aircraft type!"