Beyond the Zenith

A sharp crack rang out as Shen Yixiu crushed the ape-man’s neck. The ape-man didn’t even have time to cry out in pain before it died.

The two earlier lulls in the fighting had been a deliberate choice on the Wipers’ part, but this one stemmed from pure shock.

This whole sequence of events had taken less than three seconds, from the four ape-men leaping into the air; to Plague Chicken driving the minivan onto the scene and slamming the brakes into a sideways skid; and finally to the robot punching through the roof, snatching an ape-man out of the sky mid-leap, and casually crushing its neck after landing.

Silence permeated the street once more.

The black mech stood wordlessly on the dilapidated old street, head tilted slightly upward to stare at the people on the rooftops. It still had a tight grip around the dead ape-man’s neck, its body curled up and dangling from one hand.

It was the picture of manly heroism.

Yet, beneath the armor was a teen girl, and one who was still a minor at that. She was tall for her age, and, as she had put it herself, not fat.

The contrast almost had Han Qingyu bursting into laughter, but the movement tugged at his wounds and left him wincing instead.

Shen Yixiu finally let go.

The ape-man’s corpse hit the ground.

“Wow...” Liu Shiheng breathed in wonder.

The people on the rooftops finally reacted. Mr. Zhu cried in a panic, “Wha-what is that?!”

The answer to his question came from the Wiper soldier who had been thrown to the ground earlier.

“Mech! It’s a mech!” he screamed himself hoarse, his voice raw with despair.

They had gone to intercept a suspected A-ranker in the van, only to run into the legendary mech armor.

Both the Coalition and Snow Lotus had fervently researched mech armor but had ultimately shelved the project for the time being. Still, the term itself was a familiar one.

“How is this possible?! The Coalition has a mech?!”

“Impossible!”

Those two lines were all the Wipers could manage. Even the speakers themselves sounded unconvinced of their own words. None of the other Wipers found it in them to muster up a response to their disbelief.

Wen Jifei jumped out of the van and ran to Han Qingyu’s side. The first thing he did was check the three of them for injuries. For once, the eternal optimist looked shamefully apologetic.

“This is my fault. It’s all my fault. Iron Maiden would have arrived sooner if not for me.”

Wen Jifei and Shen Yixiu had fought their way out. The enemies sent to intercept them hadn’t all been dealt with yet.

“To be fair,” Wen Jifei added, lowering his voice, “if Iron Maiden hadn’t ambushed those ape-men like that, she wouldn’t have caught one that easily either. They’re way too agile. If only Mira were here too... Damn it, my marksmanship still isn’t good enough!”

Frustration and self-blame were evident in his tone.

Meanwhile, Shen Yixiu turned, looked Han Qingyu up and down, and walked over to stand beside him. “Are... you alright?”

Han Qingyu smiled. “It’s nothing.”

Then, bending over, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. As he straightened up, he raised a hand in assurance. “I’m fine. In Regiment 425, coughing blood doesn’t count as being injured.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard,” Shen Yixiu said hesitantly. “The Blood Gourd Boy Regiment.”

Han Qingyu didn’t know what to say to that.

As this standoff persisted, twenty-some Wipers had positioned themselves across the rooftops on both sides of the street. The ground troops from earlier peeked out from the alleys. They had the numbers, the ape-men, and a major holding it all together, yet none of them dared to move.

On the Coalition’s side, they had all of five people, standing in the open street with blades in hand.

Dead iron scraped against dead iron as Shen Yixiu drew the blade from her back.

The others had never noticed the blade until this instant. She had never used it during her sparring sessions with Han Qingyu, and nobody had seen it earlier either. She had likely hidden it somewhere in the van.

Wen Jifei and Liu Shiheng stood in the middle of the group.

“Hey, where did you get that girl?” Wen Jifei asked Liu Shiheng.

“Found her. Here, she’s yours.” Liu Shiheng passed the girl and her schoolbag over.

Everyone with close ties to Wen Jifei, such as He Tangtang and Liu Shiheng, already knew about his actual condition by now.

Wen Jifei stared at him, then dismissively waved his hand. “You hold her.”

“You hold her.”

“You do it. I might land a big hit.”

“Please, I can at least put out consistent swings.”

After a long staring match, both of them sighed. Forget it. They were both dead weight.

“Get ready,” Shen Yixiu said from beside Han Qingyu. “We’ll cut our way out together.”

“Cut our way out?” Han Qingyu repeated, confused.

“Yeah?” she asked in clear bafflement. The balance of power still wasn’t in their favor. What were they going to do if not break through? Stand and fight?

“Rust Girl... have you never hunted anything or robbed anyone before?” Han Qingyu paused. “Wipers are walking energy cores.”

Shen Yixiu’s eyes lit up behind her faceplate, and she turned to look at Han Qingyu.

“We’ll never get rich just from sparring. Let’s make money together, Robot Girl.” Han Qingyu stole a glance upward. The people on the rooftops were still hesitating.

“Yeah, but—”

“No buts. What matters right now is looking strong.” Han Qingyu activated his dormant device, kicked off a wall, and vaulted onto the rooftop. Both blades swung wide as he yelled, “Don’t let a single one escape!”

The Wipers scattered and fled.

In the end, they only managed to kill one more ape-man and four more Wipers. That was the absolute limit of what Han Qingyu and the others could accomplish. They couldn’t stop Mr. Zhu, the major, or most of the rest from escaping.

They did, however, find the Wipers’ vehicle nearby. It seemed the group hadn’t had time to drive away.

***

Downstream at a river bend not far from the battlefield, the group opened ‌a leather case they had picked up from the Wipers’ car.

“One, two, three...” Han Qingyu counted. “Eighteen total.”

Eighteen blue crystal energy cores sat in the case.

Han Qingyu looked up to find five pairs of eyes ‌fixed on him.

This was roughly four years’ worth of non-combat energy core allowance for a captain and platoon leader like Lao Jian. It was also nine months of life for Shen Yixiu at her most frugal.

“Do we... do we have to turn these in?” Liu Shiheng stammered, still staring at Han Qingyu.

Wen Jifei scoffed. “Turn them in, my ass!”

All eyes stayed on Han Qingyu, awaiting his decision.

“Turn them in my ass,” Han Qingyu repeated.

The others laughed. “But when they arrive later?”

“They can come eat shit,” Wen Jifei said. “Where were they when we were fighting?”

“Yeah.” Han Qingyu nodded.

“The question is, how do we hide them? How do we not get caught?” Shen Yixiu wondered aloud for the first time, seeming to confirm that she wasn’t as rigid as one would think. Then again, perhaps she had simply adapted to the company she was keeping.

“Simple,” Han Qingyu said. “We won’t be waiting for them to come.”

“Huh? Then what do we—”

“We never won the fight. The Wipers spotted reinforcements coming and fled. As for us, we barely managed to fight our way out and escape. Even the roof of our van got smashed in. We panicked and just ran. Understood?” Han Qingyu’s gaze swept over them all.

“Understood.” Everyone nodded firmly, Shen Yixiu included.

At that moment, a clamor rolled in from the direction of the battlefield. It seemed reinforcements had finally arrived.

What a shame we didn’t get to clean up the whole scene, Han Qingyu lamented in silent mourning.

In the rush, he had only managed to touch the energy cores on two or three of the bodies. Han Qingyu’s heart ached at the thought of the lost haul as he loaded everyone into the van and drove away.

There were holes in this plan, of course, obvious ones, but Han Qingyu had already thought it through. If that lunatic Qi Shantong dared to investigate him, he would go straight to the army group and report the man right back.