Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 649 - 648: Old Qiao’s True Form

The owner of the shuttle was already beyond furious; the fall of the last secret launch channel was the final straw for Old Qiao. Realizing that all systems within the fortress were out of his control, he simply pushed the control lever to its limit, heedlessly cranked the engine to its maximum, and activated the shuttle's self-defense cannon.

The anti-gravity engine and propulsion engine roared simultaneously, and the thin craft began struggling to escape the platform's suspension field. Amidst the difficult movement of the shuttle, two light particle rapid-fire cannons unleashed sharp whistles, hurling scorching high-energy particle groups towards the isolation gates at the end of the channel and the locking mechanism beside them.

But just then, a series of booming roars from the distance abruptly interrupted Old Qiao's desperate action.

It sounded as if a colossal war beast was demolishing buildings along its path, frightening collapses, and thunderous crashes as walls and support beams broke, echoing like thunder in the enclosed base space, shaking the entire channel, and soon after the lights on the platform side became erratic—power suddenly cut out, an isolation wall leading to the fortress broke into a large hole, dust and smoke rose instantly, the sound deafening!

"What the hell is this now..."

Old Qiao barely managed a startled shout before a large silver-white figure emerged from the smoke, surrounded by intense blue flames, charging straight towards his shuttle like a high-speed kinetic bullet.

"Boom!!!"

The shuttle, struggling to break free from the suspension field, didn't even have time to accelerate before being flipped over by the silver-white beast's head, almost slamming sideways into the wall of the launch channel; half of the fuselage was turned into a twisted chunk of metal waste, and soon after, the rapid-fire cannon coil caught fire. Dazed and confused, Old Qiao hadn't sorted out the situation before suddenly seeing a giant fox head emerge from the flames outside the cockpit.

Its muzzle was larger than he himself—a massive demon fox bit the front half of the shuttle, then began to shake and bounce wildly, playfully leaping and swinging in the air countless times. Finally, it tore the front and back ends of the shuttle apart, then placed a paw on the fuselage and ripped open the final layer of protection outside the cockpit.

Hu Li reached her head inside the cockpit, caught a frantically writhing and struggling figure in her mouth, and spat him onto the ground.

How should I put it—it's no surprise that the Black Spot Warlord who perfected "Mechanical Ascension," a normal person might have died several times by now, yet Old Qiao remained conscious under such circumstances and even managed to pull out a small self-defense gun at the moment of landing, continuously firing at the large demon fox in front of him. However, Hu Li seemed unaffected and only felt her nose itch as she sneezed twice firmly.

The first sneeze blew Old Qiao over, knocking away the weapon in his hand in the process, while the second sneeze came with Fox Fire, welding half of Old Qiao's leg to the floor.

"Savior~~" The massive demon fox raised her head, happily shouting towards the large hole in the wall nearby, "I've dug out the filling!"

"Coming, coming... you're way too fast," Yu Sheng said, emerging from the hole with Erinluna and Luo behind him, "No need to rush; I've melted the outside of this channel into a single clump, so he can't run away."

Old Qiao's body was critically injured, welded to the floor by Fox Fire, struggling desperately to no avail, only able to watch as a few figures emerged from the dust and thick smoke—

Leading the group was a seemingly unremarkable male human in his twenties, his face pale as if about to keel over from excessive blood loss, while a black-haired, red-eyed puppet sat on his shoulder, resembling the eerie puppets that had swarmed the fortress before. Beside them, a nearly two-meter-tall towering figure walked out gracefully, the "Artificial Saintess," who had recently wiped out several action teams, wearing an Algerde Star Maid dress resembling a nun's robe.

Old Qiao's gaze passed over these figures, finally landing behind Yu Sheng.

It was an Arglede Elf dressed in a silver-white gown with flowing golden hair—Luo stood behind Yu Sheng, calmly looking at the "old opponent" before him.

Old Qiao suddenly stopped struggling, his gaze still full of disbelief, as if he couldn't believe that this "experimental animal" from his lab had truly led people to break through his fortress, standing here as the victor.

At this moment, Yu Sheng suddenly frowned: "Why is this one made of iron?"

He looked at the enemy before him, discovering that this "Old Qiao" attempting a last-minute escape was also a "robot," two meters tall with a bulky design and exposed mechanical structure like the "avatar" previously seen on Gray Dwarf Star, but more refined and heavily armored.

"This iron shell is different from the others," Luo said with a smile that lacked warmth, containing complex emotions that perhaps even she couldn't explain, murmuring softly as she approached, her mechanized limbs unfolding, bent over Old Qiao, "He's hiding in here... without this shell, he's nothing."

The steel body on the ground instinctively leaned back: "What, what are you going to do, you bitch... I sheltered you! You wouldn't be here today..."

Old Qiao looked exceedingly panicked, but amidst his seemingly timid exclamations, his arm suddenly rose—a hot plasma blade sprang from the forearm armor, aimed at Luo's neck.

Yet almost simultaneously, a mechanized limb behind Luo intercepted the attack—its tip formed into a sharp needle of living metal, piercing precisely into Old Qiao's elbow joint. Tiny sparks flashed by, extinguishing the plasma blade.

Another figure flashed past, and Luna deftly stretched out her fingers, slicing off Old Qiao's two arms.

In a low voice, Luo said thank you, but her gaze still lingered on Old Qiao. She extended the mechanical limb behind her, switching to tool mode at the end, and said calmly: "I've practiced many times already...

"Do you remember? There was a 'laboratory riot' years ago, a Jipro youth almost reached your main body. His companions managed to disable all your weapon systems, but they didn't expect there would be a knife hidden under the arm of your body...

"I've genuinely practiced many times, Old Qiao."

The tool head at the end of the mechanical limb buzzed as it started dismantling the armor at the chest area of the steel shell, and Old Qiao futilely shook his body: "I should've known... You were involved that time too... I shouldn't have excavated your spine, I should've gouged out your eyes first!"

The armor plate was lifted up, revealing a layer of living metal inside, as if it were a living thing.

"I really screw fast... and I'm good with the laser knife, right?"

Luo smiled, hacking into the control center of the living metal, interrupting and then peeling it away.

The outward threat finally turned into terror.

"What is it that you people want? I can give you anything within my authority— or do you want the information on the Hidden Monastery contacts? I have plenty of intelligence! Luo, you're a rational person..."

"Shhh—"

Luo put her finger to her lips, gently shushing, while cutting a line near Old Qiao's neck with a mechanical hand. Then she reached into the layer of now-stalled living metal, slowly prying out a peculiar device.

Connecting cables detached one after another, accompanied by sizzling sparks, Yu Sheng saw it clearly— it was a cylindrical device of unknown material, with complex metal top and base structures at both ends. The middle was a transparent tube container, inside floating a wrinkled brain, beneath it attached a shriveled, deformed spinal cord, along with many tiny pipe-like circuits.

This was Old Qiao.

The moment the container was extracted, the steel body that had been continuously struggling trembled a few times and quickly stopped operating. The biological storage tank in Luo's hand suddenly flickered to life at both ends, with a mechanized synthetic voice coming from its base: "Life support system, I need a life support system! Quick, this device won't last long—"

"Once you've disclosed everything you need to, I'll naturally connect you to the life support system," Luo slowly stood up, looking expressionlessly at the brain inside the tank, "Don't waste your efforts, all systems of this base have now been taken over by my boss, your guards and fighter jets stationed outside have been disarmed— all the clone troops have surrendered, those still resisting have become cold corpses in space, no one will respond to your commands anymore."

A mechanical eyeball at the top of the storage tank uneasily rotated, seemingly unable to meet Luo's notably calm gaze: "Boss? Your boss?"

The mechanical eyeball suddenly halted, looking towards Yu Sheng standing to the side.

A string of meaningless noise emitted from the voice synthesizer, all clues and suspicions seemingly finally connected at this moment as Old Qiao received the overdue answer.

Yu Sheng grinned, showing a kind smile to the brain in the storage tank: "Well met, well met— catching you really took quite the effort, I'll just deduct the fee from your estate later."

The brain in the storage tank visibly twitched (who knows how a brain twitches), and the mechanical eyeball at the top of the container finally turned to the golden-haired Elf: "Luo! You're no different from me! Your loyalty to the corporation..."

Luo just lightly juggled the tank she held: "Ah, my hands might slip."

Old Qiao instantly fell silent.

"Alright, let's go somewhere quiet," Yu Sheng clapped his hands, "have a good chat with the brain in the jar."