Bixing Lu had just jumped down from the mech platform when he heard a strange sound. By the time he turned around, it was too late.

He was only about eight hundred meters from the nearest mech, but he didn't have a human-shaped mech core which could turn the base upside down. All he had on him was a curved spatula!

Meanwhile, on the mech platform, Jingshu Huang had just stumblingly connected to the mental network. The compatibility level barely reached 53%, and the tenuous mind-mech link seemed as fragile as gossamer. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to calm down, and struggled to adapt to the mech's point of view. Unfamiliar as she was, the scene showing up before her nearly scared her into breaking the connection.

Since Bixing Lu and the rest started stirring the pot, the idlers in the base had all gathered outside the mech station to watch the drama. They proceeded to bear witness to this accident as well, unleas.h.i.+ng a cacophony of screams and yells. A traumatized former Self-Defense Force member grabbed the railing. "I've already said that mechs can't be operated by normal people! Why didn't you believe it?!"

Bixing Lu had no time to acknowledge him. Turning and running towards the nearest mech, he clicked open base access, trying to force the accelerating rail to close.

Despite braking, the tiny amount of friction was far from sufficient to overcome the high inertia of the mech. Thundering, the accelerating rail changed its direction. It arched upwards as much as possible, narrowly dodging the coolant tower and suspended power station. Macabre sparks jumped out from its points of contact with the surrounding structures.

Eight hundred meters - even the world record for sprinting that distance una.s.sisted was nearly one and half minutes, long enough for a mech to burst out through the thin artificial atmosphere of the base.

Bixing Lu opened the contact station remotely, yelling at the pilot who lost control, "Hold on to your mental network!"

Unfortunately, the pilot had already lost consciousness under the strong stimulation. He was frothing so much at the mouth that it seemed liable to choke him to death. The mind-mech compatibility swiftly dropped below 50%, and the mental network connection simply broke.

The closed accelerating rail could not cool down, and was unmistakably overheated - alerts were screaming across the whole mech station.

What was worse was that at the same time, other mechs connected by the inner net and contact station saw what was happening on the ground. Panic rapidly spread to the sky. Some of the pilots had never pa.s.sed the basic mental resilience requirement in the first place - many of their compatibility levels started fluctuating along to the events on the ground.

In the blink of an eye, there were already three or four pilots who had broken off from their mental network connections. The freshly-formed defensive net looked like it was going to fall apart at any moment, while panic kept spreading -

Monoeye Hawk cursed, "You can't force sludge up a wall!" He sunk his consciousness into the mental network, trying to fill the gap. However, he was already preoccupied with eight mechs. As his burden unceasingly increased, he started to show signs of mental power overload. However, the mental network of a small mech did not have Zhanlu's broad coverage. Even if he forced his mental power over its limit, he could only deal with localised problems within a short range.

Suddenly, Sat.u.r.day's voice sounded from the contact inner net.

"Let me handle it!" Sat.u.r.day said.

Monoeye Hawk felt like even his gums were oozing blood, tasting iron every time he opened his mouth. "Are you sure you can?"

"There's no other choice!" Sat.u.r.day said.

Holiday roared hoa.r.s.ely in his carrying voice, "Mom!"

Monoeye Hawk had finally seen it all. "What kind of prayer for luck is that supposed to be?"

During the construction of the mech's defensive net, Bixing Lu had taken emergencies into consideration. First, he counted the number of experienced pilots and distributed them according to their mental network coverage. If anyone fell offline, someone nearby could hold that part of mental network. After listening to his blabbering, Monoeye Hawk thought that it was bulls.h.i.+t. Those so-called "experienced" pilots were on the same level as the members of the patrol team they met when they first came to the base. They ought to thank G.o.d for not losing the connection themselves, let alone be counted on to help others!

Who would have known that so many problems would crop up before the construction of the defensive net was finished? They actually had to use the plan!

On the ground, the accelerating rail had already been pushed to its limit. Bixing Lu spotted Jingshu Huang's parked mech outside the rail from the corner of his eye. "Little Huang!"

His voice traveled through the contact linker right into the Jingshu Huang's ear, making her jump.

"You've learned this before!" Bixing Lu said.

Right. Back then, in Zhanlu's mental network, Lin had personally let them experience how to expand and stretch their mental network, and invade other mechs via the overlapping parts of mental networks.

But ... how could that be possible?

Just half an hour ago, she'd thought that she was just going to be a human mascot dragged up to the sky by Bixing Lu.

Now he wanted her to stall an out-of-control mech by herself?

Sometimes, one second could be infinitely long. At that moment, Jingshu Huang's train of thought had already looped three times around the eight galaxies, trying to find evidence that "miracles are possible". Her mind wandered through places of legend: the vast IU, the unsurpa.s.sable Eden, multidirectional interstellar routes... Such unimaginably beautiful visions were far too remote and unrealistic to give her any strength - she was just a vacucelebral hooligan adrift in the Eighth Galaxy.

One side of the out-of-control mech had already been derailed. Jingshu Huang's gaze chased after it. Her vision was narrowed to a small strip, as if everything in the world except her and the recalcitrant mech had ceased to exist.

She could hear her own heartbeat and anxious panting. Amidst useless commands she repeatedly issued to her unresponsive mech, a hopeless idea took root. "I can't do this." She thought.

Yet at the exact moment that the mech started to flip over, the mental network which had always rejected her finally hesitatingly s.h.i.+fted. It was as if some kind of trigger had been accidentally pulled - it suddenly spread out.

Perhaps one could call it luck.

Or, maybe, every turn of fate in the world arrived on the coattails of luck.

Nothing in the vast infinity of time and s.p.a.ce could escape the ruthless accompaniment of probability. From light, to the universe, to quantum entanglement, to mortal joy and sorrow - the dice of fate keep spinning towards unknown destinations.

Jingshu Huang sucked in a breath. She had just caught a glimpse of the interface of the mech in the spreading mental network. Mustering up the same unhesitating spirit she had while smas.h.i.+ng Spider's head with a wine bottle back then, she rushed in. She felt like she had been cut in two. The stress exerted on her by the mental network rose sharply. However, she had just successfully invaded the other mental network!