Beyond the Zenith

Shen Yixiu needed to swap out her energy cores. Her unique situation meant her very life hung in the balance, so she couldn’t afford to let her source energy run close to depletion. At the very least, she needed two energy cores equipped on her body at all times, with one ideally being at full capacity.

Han Qingyu noticed this and, after asking a couple of questions, told her not to use her own. Instead, he had her take one of the seven stored in the case.

This sudden wealth left Shen Yixiu rather uneasy. She felt like a starving beggar employed to help at a banquet, only to end up eating from it.

The logic made sense, though. Her help yesterday had been a personal decision, but she had still used her energy cores. The enormous consumption during the battle meant the team ought to provide her with a fresh supply and combat necessities.

As Shen Yixiu stepped away, He Tangtang scratched the back of his head, still baffled.

“Is Iron Maiden not fair-skinned? And isn’t that a compliment? Also, it’s not like I said it without reason. I couldn’t exactly look her in the eye and call her pretty with all that metal plating covering her,” he reasoned. After a moment, he leaned in closer. “Hey, what do you guys think Iron Maiden actually looks like? Do you think she’s pretty?”

Wen Jifei mulled it over. “Who the hell knows?”

“If we ever get the chance, we could look at photos of her from before she was twelve,” Liu Shiheng suggested.

“Girls change as they grow up, though. Who knows how they’ll turn out? Besides, Iron Maiden grew up inside that metal plating, nourished by source energy.” Wen Jifei turned to glance at Han Qingyu. “Little Qing, what do you think?”

Han Qingyu looked up. “Huh?”

“What? Can you try being a little more normal?” Wen Jifei scoffed. “We’re asking whether you think Iron Maiden is pretty. Take a guess.”

“Oh. You know, I think you’re the weird ones for guessing whether a robot girl is pretty and caring about whether she’s fair-skinned.”

Shen Yixiu came back to quiet laughter. Though briefly puzzled, she didn’t press the matter and instead remarked, “I swapped in one of the Snow Lotus energy cores. I was a bit worried at first, but it felt about the same.”

“Wait, there’s a difference between our energy cores and Snow Lotus ones?” Han Qingyu asked after processing her words.

Shen Yixiu nodded. “There are some differences. You can tell if you look closely. I checked just now. Of the eighteen cores, a full fifteen are Coalition ones. My guess is that the major and the first lieutenant saved them up over the years and brought them over as a show of good faith.”

“Are they insane?” Wen Jifei wore a look of bewilderment. “They handed over all their energy cores. What could they possibly get in return?”

“Probably a lot of money and an easy life. Maybe even a chance to go into hiding for a while,” Shen Yixiu explained. “It’s well established that Snow Lotus has super-wealthy backers secretly involved and funding them. It’s just that we can never really track down who exactly all those people are.”

She paused, then added in a speculative tone, “On top of that, not every Coalition soldier wants to keep fighting on the edge of life and death forever. Some people crave an easier life and are willing to risk trading everything they have for a period of comfort, enjoying the moment.”

The other three nodded, their attention unwittingly shifting toward Liu Shiheng, the rich kid.

“My family... I...” Liu Shiheng lowered his head in thought, then peered up at them. “Honestly, if this had been before I joined the Coalition... If they’d shown me this technology, ones that defied common logic, and told me there was a chance to live for hundreds of years, I probably would’ve secretly supported them too.”

“Isn’t this tendency to defect dangerous for the Coalition?” Han Qingyu asked. After all, if everyone could defect, the number of people who would make that choice probably wasn’t small.

“Correct. That’s why the Coalition has a dedicated traitor elimination unit, led by S-rank operatives. They spare no cost, and they don’t stop until the target is dead,” Shen Yixiu said gravely. “Across the years, their overall elimination success rate has stayed above eighty percent, so the deterrent has always been there.”

“Oh.” Han Qingyu nodded and didn’t press further. That alone was enough to deduce that the Coalition had moles among the Wipers too, and not just one or two.

Such was the nature of humanity—an overly intelligent species with too many desires and conflicting values. This made it extremely difficult for humans to reach a consensus.

“So what’s the deal with the Wipers’ energy cores? Setting aside the ones they steal from us, where do the rest of theirs come from?” He Tangtang asked in bewilderment.

Shen Yixiu let out a small laugh. “That’s probably the question that the Coalition wants answered the most. The only person who could answer that question, though... We can’t find him.”

“Ne?” Han Qingyu asked.

“Yeah.” Shen Yixiu nodded. “From what I’ve heard, Ne suddenly defected after a large-scale scientific expedition that he personally championed and led failed. He almost certainly knows things that even the Coalition doesn’t.”

This was the fourth time Han Qingyu had heard that codename, Ne—a traitor with the word “great” attached as a footnote.

“What exactly did he do for the Coalition?” Han Qingyu asked curiously.

Shen Yixiu thought for a moment. “Let’s put it this way. He changed the course of the Coalition’s history. Ne achieved a historic breakthrough in how the maneuvering device channels source energy into the human body, shifting from internal connection to surface connection. That drastically reduced the suffering and death rate among soldiers and indirectly enabled the Coalition to expand and grow.”

A row of blank stares greeted her explanation.

“You didn’t know?” she asked. “The generation of Coalition soldiers before us, like the legion commander and my grandfather, had their maneuvering devices surgically connected to their bodies with metal bands that were inserted directly into them. They still have the surgical scars.”

Liu Shiheng couldn’t help but hiss. “That’s terrifying.”

Shen Yixiu nodded and said nothing more on the matter. She was connected in exactly that way, and to a degree more severe and complex than those soldiers by orders of magnitude.

“Is Ne already dead?” Wen Jifei asked.

“No—I don’t know. Probably not,” Shen Yixiu answered.

“Then shouldn’t the Coalition’s top priority be capturing him at all costs?” Wen Jifei pressed.

“Yeah... if they could.”

“They can’t?”

“No. We have absolutely no idea where he is.” Shen Yixiu shook her head. “We don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

“What about Snow Lotus, then? Doesn’t he manage them? If not him, then who?”

“Many people. Each faction has its leader. The strongest faction in combat power should be—” Shen Yixiu cut herself off, abruptly realizing she had revealed too much. Much of this was hearsay. The reason she even knew any of this was twofold: her grandfather was an army commander, and her mechanized state made people overlook her presence.

Wen Jifei saw through her hesitation and smiled reassuringly. “It’s okay, we won’t tell anyone.”

“Then... you absolutely cannot mention this name when you go back.” Shen Yixiu paused. “His name is Ye Jian. More than twenty years ago, he was the greatest pride of our Ninth Army. Later, he became our greatest shame and taboo.”

This was probably the name Mira had once stopped herself from saying.

“S-ranker Ye Jian. His time as a recruit”—Shen Yixiu glanced at Han Qingyu—“was actually far, far more brilliant than yours. What’s more, one year after graduating from recruit training, he did something that’s still considered one of the most impressive individual feats in the Coalition’s history.”

“What did he do?”

“In an era when the Wipers were producing elite fighters in droves, and the threat of assassination against the Coalition’s leadership and top operatives was at its peak, he chose to carry ten energy cores across the Sahara Desert by himself. Before he set out, he personally tracked down several Wiper and Preserver strongholds and left a message that said, ‘Personal training session. You’re sincerely invited to come and kill me.’”

“And... in the end?”

“He nearly died, but the Wipers’ assassination operations went silent for three years after that.”

The group fell briefly silent.

“Three years later, Ye Jian suddenly defected and joined the Wipers,” Shen Yixiu quietly continued. “The Coalition launched its counter-assassination campaign. The first person to fail and die in battle was his best friend in the Coalition.”