True Apocalypse Game

When Shen Feng saw the corpse’s eyes suddenly emit a faint glow, he froze for a moment. Then, with a raised eyebrow, he slapped the outer wall of the cultivation tank and chuckled to himself.

"That gave me a start."

After surviving several viral apocalypses, Shen Feng had become an expert in virology and biology. He understood now: the active substance in the cultivation tank had to be incredibly potent to have preserved the corpse for so long without it decomposing.

It probably contained some kind of microorganism, like a bacteriophage, and some microbes are naturally fluorescent.

This fluorescent effect would be especially noticeable in the dark.

Shen Feng pulled out his flashlight again, switched it on, and carefully examined the cultivation tank.

If the Fusion Reactor was the Super Giant War Armor’s power core—its heart—then the biological pod in the cockpit was its brain, its central nervous system.

These two technologies were the fundamental reason humanity could build such an epoch-making weapon of war.

Once a Super Giant War Armor, thousands of meters tall, was moving at full speed, the acceleration from every swing of its body, or even a single step, would be terrifying. It was far more than an ordinary human body could withstand, which was why pilots needed to be fully immersed in this culture fluid.

The substance was likely similar to the "deep space fluid" used in interstellar travel, designed to protect the pilot’s body from being torn apart by the immense G-forces.

Then there were the various wires inserted into the pilot. As he expected, these wires fully integrated the pilot’s nervous system with the entire War Armor, allowing them to control it as extensions of their own body.

The pilot’s corpse before him was an incredibly valuable specimen, one that could help Shen Feng understand exactly how this contraption worked.

He could see the corpse was pierced with hundreds of wires and circuits of all kinds. Several thick tubes were even inserted into its digestive tract. The body was hooked up to more cables than a patient in an intensive care unit.

After a moment’s thought, he punched the outer wall of the cultivation tank. It was incredibly hard and didn’t budge in the slightest.

It clearly had extremely high impact resistance, likely enough to withstand powerful explosions. Otherwise, it couldn’t protect the pilot inside.

"Tsk, tsk... Humans... what a powerful and cruel species," Jingwei’s voice echoed in Shen Feng’s mind, laced with a deep sigh. "There’s a reason they became the masters of this world."

Shen Feng couldn’t help but purse his lips.

"What do you mean, ’they humans’? I’m human, too... But I have to admit, the design of this Super Giant War Armor is impressive."

They both spoke this way because they had already deduced the secret of the cockpit.

Such a complex and powerful war machine couldn’t be piloted by just anyone.

The neural integration with the War Armor alone required extremely stringent conditions.

The culture fluid was also incredibly valuable and clearly demanded strict preservation conditions, such as a perfect seal.

Every time a new pilot was installed, the culture fluid and various components had to be replaced, and the entire neural integration process had to be repeated.

This integration wasn’t some simple psychic resonance; it was a highly complex connection of countless microscopic neural synapses.

Therefore, in the face of the World Beasts’ relentless onslaught and the constant warfare, there was only one truly practical solution: never replace the pilot.

Keep the pilot permanently in a state of piloting the Super Giant War Armor!

In other words, once a pilot entered the War Armor’s cultivation tank, the tank was sealed for good. The pilot was then plugged into a dense network of tubes and wires, becoming one with the War Armor, never to be separated again!

For the pilots of the Super Giant War Armors, these machines were also their metal prisons, from which they could never escape.

Their every need, from nourishment to waste disposal, was handled by tubes. They lost all social contact, freedom, entertainment—everything. The only thing left in their lives was war.

Even in death, their bodies would remain submerged in the damaged cultivation tank, becoming just another part of the War Armor’s wreckage.

To become a pilot of a Super Giant War Armor was to become a prisoner for eternity.

The sacrifice this entailed was simply unimaginable.

For this reason, only the most powerful warriors, those with minds tougher than steel—fearless, selfless, and unyielding—could become pilots for the Super Giant War Armors.

At this thought, Shen Feng couldn’t help but nod slightly at the warrior in the tank, a gesture of respect.

These warriors were the backbone of humanity, true devotees who commanded his deepest respect.

He had originally considered breaking open the tank to extract its contents, but now he dismissed the thought.

’Let this warrior rest in peace.’

The ruined cockpit was completely filled with seawater. However, because the War Armor was a thousand meters tall, the water pressure at his current depth wasn’t as intense. As a result, the equipment here was in much better condition than in the wreckage of the sunken warships.

Without further hesitation, Shen Feng began to swim through the various compartments and components of the Oglala Mad Horse, searching for any useful information.

Although the Super Giant War Armor’s control hub was the pilot’s cultivation tank itself, information storage and processing clearly still relied on electronic devices.

Guided by Jingwei, Shen Feng searched around and managed to find several data storage units, though he had no idea if they still worked.

He then did another wide sweep around the ruined War Armor, hoping to find anything else of note while also extracting its various design parameters.

As he studied the details of the Super Giant War Armor, Shen Feng marveled that it was a true miracle of brute-force engineering.

At its core, the machine was still powered by a Fusion Reactor engine.

With a near-infinite power source, humanity was able to create such unbelievably powerful war machines to go head-to-head with the World Beasts.

The design philosophy of the Oglala Mad Horse War Armor was also clearly tailored to fighting the World Beasts. Shen Feng even found the muzzles of what looked like mass-produced Energy Concentration Cannons on its arms.

However, it seemed that once in actual combat, the Energy Concentration Cannon wasn’t used as a typical Energy Cannon, but rather as a melee weapon, like an Energy Blade.

It seemed that humanity never fully solved the Energy Concentration Cannon’s energy dissipation problem, so they settled for a compromise.

Shen Feng spent hours bustling about the massive wreckage, getting a basic grasp of the War Armor’s parameters. He also found a number of data chips which, though unreadable for now, he carefully collected.

If he ever got the chance to read them, they would likely contain a great deal of useful information.

After thoroughly searching the cockpit, Shen Feng began inspecting the War Armor’s various weapon systems. He then swam downward, intending to examine the transmission mechanisms in the lower body.

Suddenly, his flashlight beam flickered once, then died completely.

Shen Feng was speechless.

’After all this time, the flashlight finally ran out of juice.’

He was about to see if there was any usable lighting equipment inside the War Armor when a faint glimmer from the seabed below caught his eye.

He turned to look. Down in the sunken ruins of San Francisco City, a soft light was shining from a window in a skyscraper hundreds of meters tall.

The light was both eerie and serene, seeming as if it had always been there. He’d likely missed it before due to the great distance and because it had been obscured by the glow of the Energy Concentration Cannon.

If he weren’t deep underwater, Shen Feng might have mistaken it for the light of an office where someone was working late.

’There’s someone in this sunken city?!’