145. The Luminous Guide
Boom!
The enormous mechanized armor, [Future Watcher], erupted with powerful flames, carrying its immense force and thrust, quickly pushing toward the darkened sky.
Gravity • Zero
With gravity nullified, the [Future Watcher] instantly broke free from the grip of Earth's gravity. It proudly lifted its head, like a sword, bravely charging into the vast red-black Calamity-filled sky.
Hum!
The mechanized armor's blade slashed down onto the ground as the crew peered out, gazing at the sky thick with the Calamity.
"Li Aozi calling ground, Li Aozi calling ground!"
Li Aozi grabbed the communicator and called out to the ground:
"Altitude 4,500 meters, speed 850 kilometers per hour, we're accelerating, passengers are in good condition!"
The terminal recorded the image of Li Aozi and the others. The items on their bodies mysteriously floated up but were secured by safety belts to their seats. All the players in disguise reacted authentically within their characters.
"We're flying! Mom, can you see me? I'm not killing people; I'm a hero now!"
"We're flying at 30,000 feet! Space isn't our limit!"
"That lady who saved me earlier, we're now 10,000 meters above ground."
"The Calamity is right above us—damn it, crash into it! No one can stop us from reaching space!"
Hearing the laughter and awe over the communicator, Du Zexin sighed in relief and broadcasted through the robot:
"Ground received, good luck, guides."
The mechanized armor on the ground raised its gun, aiming at the sky, but couldn't pull the trigger.
"Hey, what are you doing? Shoot already!" Commander Shouye roared anxiously. "Our fighters are taking off, stop them!"
"Let me take a look." The crew of the mechanized armor stared blankly at the distant figures in the sky. "Maybe they're crazy, but it's the first time in this era we've seen such madmen."
The white mech charged into the high sky, with the Calamity looming near. For the first time, the players faced the crimson-black Calamity clouds, endless, swirling with eerie, ancient mystery.
Everyone instinctively held their breath, their eyes reflecting the monstrous Calamity. For the first time, they felt how terrifying the entity that had ruled Azure Star for 500 years truly was.
"Hey, Azure Star people, lift your heads, look up."
Li Aozi unbuckled his seatbelt—it was his turn to act.
Li Aozi left a phantom using [King's Exchange], pushing away the mysterious woman as he climbed out of the biochem pool, retrieving the nuclear bomb from above. The phantom clung tightly to the biochem pool, never letting go.
[Dominator Mode Activated]
[DOMINATE ALL]
The wings of Pegasus spread wide, magnificent stardust wings. Compared to the sky of the Calamity, they seemed like an ant against an ocean.
"In 500 years, no one has launched an attack against the Calamity's sky. They held weapons capable of destroying each other but dared not attack the true force oppressing them."
"They chose compromise, bowing to the darkness and cold."
To protect the hydrogen bomb from the Calamity's erosion, Du Zexin had prepared a protective shell using his own armor. Li Aozi grabbed the hydrogen bomb, pushed open the casing, and entered the password engraved in his mind—00000000.
Simple and easy to remember.
"I choose to resist! To fight, to rebel against anything that oppresses life!"
Li Aozi watched as the countdown on the nuclear bomb began, timing it perfectly.
[Gravity • Contact] — Stack
The gravitational field expanded to its maximum, enveloping the entire ship and hydrogen bomb. Li Aozi shot into the air, breaking the sound barrier with a deafening sonic boom, diving headfirst into the Calamity.
[Lifeforce Severance] — Stack
Tendrils wrapped around his wrist, greatly enhancing his strength.
[Soul Engraved Swordmaster • War Ghost] — Stack
A dark purple aura like a flag wrapped around his long sword, and a phantom warrior materialized behind him, enveloping Li Aozi completely.
[Immortal Blood] — Stack
His flesh rapidly regenerated, forming a stable connection with his armor.
[Armor of the Mountains] — Stack
The obsidian armor became coated with rock layers, elongating into a flattened structure at high speed.
[Natural Ignition] — Stack
"Qiu Ran, Nomi, and my friends across this planet who understand me."
His entire body ignited into flames, streaking across the sky like a comet. Qiu Ran's determined gaze seemed to fly beside him.
Li Aozi held onto the hydrogen bomb, his armor and flesh corroding and decaying rapidly, only to be restored just as fast. For a moment, Nomi's small figure seemed to reappear at his side, cursing while desperately regenerating his cells.
[I've made it this far thanks to everyone's help. This world loves me so much; what else can I say?]
[Thank you. Thank you, Azure Star, for letting me meet some decent people in this messed-up world.]
[In return, let me show you something nice.]
Li Aozi's figure trailed a crimson shadow, his massive momentum tearing through the sky of the Calamity.
"Watch closely, this is what the sun looks like!"
[Six-in-One • Morphedrien's Sky-Cutting Sword!]
Warm afternoon sunlight slowly spilled out, and those on the ground who lifted their heads immediately noticed the unmistakable azure hue.
"Is that…"
"A blue sky. I've never seen it before."
"Is that the true color of the sky?"
Beep, beep, beep…
The hydrogen bomb's countdown approached its end, and with the sky torn apart, Li Aozi raised his hand, hurling the bomb into the front of the dark clouds.
The Calamity instantly swallowed the bomb as if it had disappeared into the sea without a trace. A few seconds later, Li Aozi turned and swiftly flew in the opposite direction.
———Boom!
The next moment, a massive explosion echoed across the entire planet. For the first time in 500 years, fate, long oppressed, screamed out in fury as the light that once belonged to it vanished.
A searing fireball, like a mushroom, rapidly expanded. It was hundreds, thousands of times brighter than an artificial sun. In an instant, even the storms on the Outside world paused slightly. The fireball spread across dozens of kilometers, and even the Calamity, which devoured everything and increased entropy to the limit, was forced to dissipate in the face of this sacred fire of science.
Fire itself is the process of increasing entropy. How could you kill something that was already dead again?
The shockwave hurled Li Aozi several hundred kilometers away. His speed instantly exceeded the second cosmic velocity, flinging him further into the sky. Li Aozi immediately activated [King's Exchange], switching places with the phantom on the ship.
Using the nuclear explosion's initial velocity, Li Aozi returned to the [Future Watcher], shouting:
"The skies ahead are clear! We're headed to heaven! Everyone hold on tight!"
At that moment, Li Aozi's livestream reached its peak. The terminal in the biochem pool wasn't destroyed by the EMP, allowing most people to witness the sky, blasted open by the searing fireball.
Those on the ground raised their heads. When the fireball of destruction faded, they weren't greeted by darkness as expected.
Warmth.
Golden afternoon sunlight spilled over the land, melting the snow. Everyone stared blankly at the sky—gazing at the azure blue expanse.
The soldiers stopped fighting, gazing at the sky, murmuring with the innocence of children:
"So, there really is a sun in the world."
The sun's light was warm, gentle, unlike artificial sunlight, which felt like a cage, trapping them within walls.
The sun was a benevolent mother, spreading light and warmth selflessly to people, a life-giving force for those in the Outside world.
The people of Triangle Town walked into the streets, the brilliant light shining in their eyes. For the first time in their lives, they felt their bodies filled with strength. No medicine could compare to the beauty of this light.
"This is the light we once had."
Gretorvo reached out, trying to grasp the light, whispering:
"How magnificent, how beautiful… Jing, do you see it? Light really isn't just a word."
Alexia lifted her head, her shadow stretched long, her braids loosened by the wind. She squinted her eyes, stretching leisurely:
"Beloved homeland, do not worry about me."
She whispered to the sun, identical to the one from the old era:
"People now, they have hope."
The long night was torn open by the first ray of dawn. Countless people stared at the sun, even hurting their eyes, feeling dizzy before stopping, tears streaming down their faces, unable to contain themselves.
"We have light! There really is light in the world!"
Du Zexin's mechanical body collapsed on the ground. He didn't know why, but he felt an indescribable surge of emotion.
"How come my eyes won't leak oil… What a perfect flaw."
As people on the ground rejoiced, for the members of [Future Watcher] accelerating through the atmosphere, the real test had only just begun.
"Ugh!" A player couldn't withstand the sudden overload and collapsed instantly. Just as someone moved to help, the entire biochem pool began to shake violently.
"What's happening?!"
Li Aozi quickly asked the ground:
"The Calamity—there must be Calamity particles left in the air from the earlier blast, corroding the engine! You need to dump it quickly, or the Calamity will infect everyone!"
Du Zexin said:
"How's the airspace ahead?"
"The Calamity is gathering, moving fast—at least 4 kilometers per second."
"That's enough time—Li Aozi, what's your current speed?!"
"34 Mach! Exceeding the second cosmic velocity!"
"Not enough!" Du Zexin said, "You need to overload the reactor, then do everything you can to break through the Calamity's range."
"... Can I make it?"
"For you? Probably not."
Du Zexin said, and then, the head of [Future Watcher] suddenly lit up as his voice echoed through the mech's speakers:
"For me? Just enough."
The dark blue sky, tinged with black, drew closer. The players had to start oxygenating themselves, burying their bodies in the biochem pool's nutrient fluid to prevent death from pressure imbalances. The mech's fire-resistant coating glowed red-hot from the extreme friction.
"Du Zexin, are you going to blow up the nuclear reactor yourself? You're killing yourself! If you're even a second late transferring your consciousness, you'll die!"
Li Aozi cursed immediately:
"I won't allow you to do this! We still have a chance, don't gamble on this—"
"—Trust me."
Du Zexin's words were unusually poetic:
"A mechanic won't lose his noble digital soul just because of a frail body."
"You're betting your life!"
"An engineer doesn't believe in fate," Du Zexin romantically replied, "Let the universe guess using quantum mechanics—now let me say something to your viewers."
Li Aozi, speechless, aimed the camera at Du Zexin.
"Hello, there are men left behind in Frost-Plated Republic too."
Du Zexin's electronically synthesized voice rang out monotonously, without any life, as he shouted:
"Long live the future, long live humanity, long live Azure Star!"
The next moment, Du Zexin's reactor melted down, triggering a chain reaction.
"Li Aozi, go tell the universe—we're coming!"
The scorching atomic energy burst out with radiant brilliance, the violent energy accelerating Li Aozi and the others once again. The outer shell of the biochem pool burned away in the struggle against friction as Li Aozi stood at the forefront, like Pegasus pulling the chariot of gods in mythology.
Gene Burst!
Li Aozi had no time to worry about Du Zexin's fate. He turned his head, determined not to waste even a second of this moment, as he charged through the rapidly closing Calamity clouds. His elbow pods exploded with abilities.
[Gravity], [Lifeforce Severance], [Soul Engraved Swordmaster], [Immortal Blood], [Natural Ignition], [Armor of the Mountains], [Eye of Truth], [Pegasus Power], [King's Exchange], [Death Link], [Body Reinforcement]!
Every ability he mastered, stacked together!
"Eleven-in-One—"
Li Aozi's voice was thinned out by the sparse atmosphere, his body igniting in the ionosphere, then bathed in the light of space, as a hazy yet brilliant blue armor enveloped him.
All of his ferocity and savagery shed away. The red-black crystals on him shattered under the radiation of cosmic energy, disintegrating into dust, orbiting Azure Star like silent satellites.
Li Aozi's mind felt suddenly serene. His armor reassembled on its own, and his body grew taller, over three meters high. Deep blue armor adorned with intricate golden runes covered him. The wild, ugly tendrils were gone, replaced by stardust rapidly swirling around him.
His head was now fully encased in a helmet with no visible features, while shattered meteors collided and orbited his head, forming an unassuming crown.
The universe was incredibly quiet, a perfect vacuum. The scorching sun heated his body to 200 degrees, a temperature he could withstand to combat the cold of space. But in this vastness, no one could hear the rest of the skill name he muttered:
[Armor of Li Aozi]
The name "Azure Star" comes from the lyrics of the Chinese ending theme of Ultraman Tiga:
"The azure blue planet is our eternal vigil."