CHAPTER 90: CHAPTER 89 THE DEATH OF BLUE DEMON! EVERYTHING RETURNS TO NORMAL

At this moment, both Blue Demon and Chen Pingchuan were clad in lightweight Mechanical Battle Armor. Unlike regular exoskeleton Mechas, the battle armor they wore was of a demonstrably higher grade and boasted greater power. Their agility was far beyond that of an ordinary human, while their speed was only slightly lower than that of a Seventh-level Genetic Enhancer focused on physical conditioning. This sacrifice in speed, however, granted their armor-clad forms a much higher resistance to impact.

In an instant, Blue Demon launched himself from the base’s entrance hall to Chen Pingchuan’s position. He swung his blade down, unleashing blue arcs of electricity that tore through the air. A wild energy clung to the blade, imbuing it with apocalyptic might as it slashed toward Chen Pingchuan’s head, seemingly determined to cleave the madman in two with a single strike.

Facing this incredibly swift attack, Chen Pingchuan remained perfectly calm. Just as the blade was about to make contact with his Mecha’s shell, he sidestepped, instantly appearing on Blue Demon’s left. He landed a heavy metal punch that sent Blue Demon staggering off-balance.

Before Blue Demon could recover, Chen Pingchuan’s figure reappeared on his right. The deceptively clumsy Mecha executed a move no ordinary human could perform: a rising knee followed by a powerful side kick. Blue Demon was once again sent flying in the opposite direction.

But when the disparity in power is so great, even falling to the ground becomes a luxury. Blue Demon found himself helplessly juggled in mid-air. No matter how hard he struggled to resist, Chen Pingchuan would always appear in a spot where he couldn’t possibly react, venting his fury with the most direct and brutal of methods.

"No, impossible!" Blue Demon shrieked. "Your speed... you can’t be this fast! It’s a spatial leap, isn’t it? This Battle Armor... it’s a Profound Heaven-grade! What rotten luck!"

Trapped in the air with no foothold, Blue Demon could only try to use the counter-force of air currents to perform basic turns. His blade had been knocked away by Chen Pingchuan during their first exchange. Now, under the continuous, thunderous attacks, the energy levels of his defense shield were nearly depleted.

"Who are you?" Blue Demon yelled desperately. "No force other than our Celestial Palace could possess Battle Armor of this level! So, which branch sent you? Your target must be the Young Palace Master, right? There’s no need to make things difficult for me!"

Blue Demon thought he had deduced Chen Pingchuan’s identity, but he received neither a reprieve nor any mercy. Changing tactics from his initial assault, Chen Pingchuan deployed his Battle Armor’s built-in weapon: the Electromagnetic Energy Cannon. Two shots were all it took to shatter Blue Demon’s personal energy shield. The cannon then retracted into the left arm as a slender energy sword materialized from the right.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

The once incomparably arrogant Blue Demon was sliced into five pieces.

"Agh, are you a demon?" The dismembered pieces of Blue Demon spoke in unison. "But honestly, even if you kill me, it’s useless. At worst, I’ll just get a new body. That’s why our Celestial Palace will always be one of this planet’s major powers. Logically, if you were really one of us, you couldn’t possibly be unaware of this. So, you really were created by an outsider... but who?"

For a moment, Blue Demon himself was puzzled. Although his body was in five pieces, he felt no pain, not even a flicker of fear. Gazing at the silent Chen Pingchuan a short distance away, he spoke again.

"That’s not important. If you ask me, you should join us. It doesn’t matter what you did before. Since you’re also a machine fanatic, wouldn’t joining us be perfect?

"With your current strength, you can completely break free from the shackles of whoever is controlling you. The boss outside isn’t in a good mood right now, but if I put in a good word for you, there’s a high probability you could live out in the open again.

"Compared to skulking in the cold, dark shadows, don’t you miss the feeling of sunlight on your skin?"

Blue Demon tried his best to sound casual, hoping to persuade Chen Pingchuan to spare him. Although his words sounded reasonable at a glance, they didn’t hold up to scrutiny. He was just trying his luck; after all, it had been two years since he was last humiliated this badly.

Chen Pingchuan executed a spatial leap, appearing directly in front of Blue Demon’s remains and looking down at them.

"You should stop disgracing yourself with such petty tricks," Chen Pingchuan said coldly. "Death always has a price. That’s true even for Divine Spirits. As for you, if I’m not mistaken, each death erodes a trace of your spirit. Die enough times, and the consciousness you have stored away in the Celestial Palace will fall into an eternal slumber, becoming a pitiful soul trapped in darkness forever. No, at that point, you probably won’t even count as a ghost."

"I know my request might seem ridiculous, but can you spare me? After all, I’m just following orders," he continued, still trying. "What good would killing a lackey like me do you? If you let me go, I could still..."

Chen Pingchuan stomped down hard, crushing Blue Demon’s energy core and finally silencing the incessant babbler. The world fell quiet.

With the battle over, Chen Pingchuan’s expression grew vacant. He stood rooted to the spot as an intense battle began in his mind. It was a war between his humanity and his rage.

A few moments later, Chen Pingchuan disengaged his implanted armor, and the Mechanical Battle Armor was absorbed directly back into his body. Of course, the changes were not merely external; his expression began to turn strange.

Various speculations surfaced in his mind.

I transmigrated to this world three years ago, then spent a year in a coma. And now, in this live-action simulation instance, I have recovered one of my lost emotions: anger! I’ve also regained my past memories. So the question is, who exactly am I?

Chen Pingchuan had never felt his mind so clear. The experiences of his life up to this point played out like frames of a film, ready to be reviewed at any moment.

Perhaps it’s possible... that I become a god in the future. Just like the information prompt from my very first simulation. The initial simulation information rarely contained useless nonsense. I should have realized it long ago. The reason I didn’t is simple: I was deliberately interfered with by my future self. He took away several of my emotions and sealed away part of my intellect, effectively dumbing me down.

The more Chen Pingchuan thought about it, the more he felt his past self had been a fool. Rage shot through him, but he quickly suppressed it.

Stop it, now is not the time for anger.

He seemed to be talking to himself, or perhaps to the entity that now resided within him. The more he pondered, the more shrouded in mystery the future seemed.

Ultimately, he drew a simple conclusion based on the information he had.

In the future, I will become a god. I will have one or more enemies. I will be forced to travel back in time to leave a legacy for my current self.

Thinking of the shielding device Markel had mentioned, and the Mechanical Heart he had obtained from his future self, Chen Pingchuan reached another conclusion.

This means that I can grow stronger through the simulator while also gaining powerful tools and rule-based skills. So, what kind of enemy could make even a god tremble with fear?

Many doubts still swirled in Chen Pingchuan’s mind, waiting to be untangled.

But plans are no match for sudden changes. A violent shockwave surged from the base entrance once again.

BOOM