I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 642 - 540: Tracking Traces

Inside the cockpit of the White Dragon, Chen Xin piloted the machine while reminding the combat group following him to stay alert.

After a tense half-hour of preparation, the White Dragon finally regained its full armament and combat strength, giving Chen Xin more confidence to face the previously encountered organism.

The six machines of the combat group he brought, though mass-produced, looked quite formidable once fully armed.

Thus, Chen Xin did not let Mo Qingyan join this time, only having Qin Lan pilot the Zhu Luan as his wingman.

Although Mo Qingyan's new machine, Lu Shu, had powerful performance, her piloting skills were even worse than a rookie's, making it clear she could not operate the mech for combat missions.

Mo Qingyan herself wanted to lend the machine to other pilots to help, but the special design on Lu Shu was not something new users could quickly familiarize themselves with, so it was simply left behind, even though it had a "healing" function specially designed by Chen Xin.

Nonetheless, the total of eight Titans was enough to carry out a small-scale localized war and investigate the situation of the previous organism without much issue.

Unless faced with a cosmic three-to-seven ratio of hive clusters or more powerful superior individuals, Chen Xin believed they could investigate the issues with two special-equipped machines and six mass-produced Titans and retreat unscathed.

Should they really encounter a cosmic swarm or powerful superior entity, he could still call for military heavy firepower reinforcements.

In fact, before setting off, Chen Xin had already notified the government about the encounter with unknown organisms, and the military was taking it seriously, with several nearby airports entering combat readiness; fighters and bombers were already airborne. If things go awry, Flame Country's air force's carpet-bombing prowess would teach those unknown creatures the meaning of saturation bombing.

Moreover, the higher-ups, after receiving Chen Xin's report, were seriously considering whether to use more terrifying weaponry.

If it truly were an extraterrestrial invasion, the matter could be quite severe.

The outcome might vary; it could be just a small group of unidentified organisms, manageable by Chen Xin and the Titans, but if it were a massive foreign species, the consequences could be extremely severe.

The country's reconstruction efforts, which have just started showing results, could vanish entirely.

After all, as depicted in many sci-fi works, whenever alien organisms reach Earth, they tend to cause natural disasters.

Indeed, this is true, just like when Europeans brought smallpox to South America, destroying the ancient Inca civilization. At times, foreign organisms wreak immense havoc on local ecosystems.

Especially organisms without natural enemies can proliferate and become disastrous.

This is evidenced by the crayfish on summer tables, which, despite being an invasive species, managed to satisfy Flame Country's culinary demands with astonishing reproductive rates, indicating just how terrifyingly vast the population is.

Imagine magnifying the crayfish's size; if this creature teamed up with an invading swarm, it would only lack a large moth shouting, "I am the swarm."

Despite his racing thoughts, Chen Xin's mood was particularly tense.

Though he personally killed the previous unknown creature, its superior physical attributes left a significant impression on Chen Xin, especially its combat temperature reaching 105°C, nearly bulging his eyeballs out.

He simply couldn't imagine what kind of ecological environment could evolve such a creature capable of boiling water inside its body.

He clearly understood what such a terrifying temperature implied.

With such high temperatures comes explosive energy within the creature, as opposed to merely relying on the strength of a bulk larger than a bull; it's not enough to compare with a special-equipped Titan in terms of power!

Crucially, energy is conserved; humans maintain a temperature of over thirty degrees through daily meals, but increasing it threefold is not simply solved by eating three times the food daily—such caloric increase, even calculated by the highest calorie food, could burst a person.

How does this creature sustain its temperature? Where does its energy come from?

By eating? If so, it could mean serious trouble; Blue Star's ecology is long extinct, so acquiring such high energy through consumption could imply munching on people for biomass.

But domestically, there've been no reports of large-scale casualty or disappearance, so Chen Xin thinks it's unlikely to sustain temperature through food.

Aside from food, what does this creature rely on?

Chen Xin hopes it's not the result he envisaged.

"Discovery ahead, to the left!" a reconnaissance pilot shouted over the communication channel.

Startled, Chen Xin snapped out of his thoughts, turning the White Dragon's viewfinder toward the indicated direction.

On the ground was a conspicuous pool of blood, frozen in the cold, yet still revealing its high temperature when spilled, as surrounding snow melted significantly, requiring exceedingly high temperatures.

Mind you, in this environment, even if a pot of boiling water were splattered, it would freeze into ice before hitting the ground. For snow to melt upon contact, the temperature must be significantly high.

"This is where I encountered and killed the unknown organism," Chen Xin glanced and instantly recognized the location as where he encountered and killed the unknown organism, promptly instructing everyone via the communication channel to spread out and search for possible traces.

The unknown organism was massive and without flight capabilities. If it didn't plummet from the sky, it must have left traces of movement. Finding these traces could reveal its origin!

Thinking this, Chen Xin piloted the White Dragon to initiate the search.

With the White Dragon and other Titans exploring, they quickly found some footprints.

"This direction?" Chen Xin looked toward where the footprints extended, with a stern expression, as it pointed toward the city area.

"The city? Impossible!" Qin Lan expressed disbelief.

"It shouldn't be the city; if an unknown organism entered, we would have been notified. The creature must have bypassed the city!" Chen Xin calmly analyzed and instructed everyone: "Continue along the footprints! We must uncover where this creature came from!"