Chapter 1066: Chapter 75: The Race (Part 1)

Jeanne and Asgard, each carrying a large suitcase, walked quickly down the street. A Chaldean official staff member followed behind them.

Tila Lee was a decent Martial Artist who had worked in Chaldea for over a decade and had just become a squad leader of the City Guard Team. This time, she was coming to Jeanne’s side to serve as Chaldea’s official liaison.

While wireless communication could solve many problems, unless it’s an Inner Strength attack, you still can’t remotely stop someone from taking action. If the other party has inclinations that could harm Chaldea, this liaison must intervene to stop them.

This liaison shouldn’t be too powerful. At least the One Layer Heaven Martial Artists at the level of the Seven Guardians shouldn’t come. That would be nothing less than a direct threat. Little Sandelier still spoke some good words for these mysterious “Six Dragons Sect Hunters.” Besides, using seven One Layer Heaven Martial Artists to besiege a Martial Artist who might have One Layer Heaven skills is a bit understaffed.

Even if the Martial Studies level is much weaker than the opponent, it’s enough if they can slightly hinder the other party’s actions.

In this situation, this task fell to Tila Lee, the strongest grassroots squad leader.

Tila Lee was a bit nervous, “Does your information really indicate that there’s a base of the Six Dragons Sect located between the city’s industrial area and energy sector?”

Jeanne nodded, “Very likely, but we don’t know the exact location. We’ll have to see when we get there.”

She then glanced at Tila Lee, “Are you sure you’re very familiar with the industrial area?”

Tila Lee nodded, “I usually patrol around there… but we can’t let you approach the reactor group!”

Jeanne sighed, “If that base is really in the reactor group section, then Chaldea doesn’t need to oppose the Six Dragons Sect. It would mean there are at least several Six Dragons members in your top leadership. You might as well surrender directly.”

Tila Lee became even more nervous.

The reactor group in the industrial sector is the city’s lifeline. It’s the result of repairing wrecked reactors from battleships, operated with nuclear fuel smuggled from Jupiter and Saturn. The Asteroid Belt can provide Heroes with metal materials that are hard to obtain from the Giant Planets and Far Sun Planet, while those in charge of Saturn have nuclear fuel.

The smuggling fleet has to carefully calculate the trajectory to disguise themselves as natural small celestial bodies entering the Asteroid Belt. This job is not easy. Small ships can’t match the speed of super-large battleships, and if they get noticed by the Protector Fleet in open space, the smuggling fleet is bound to be doomed.

But the Neutral City-State must continue. They even have to find ways to smuggle nuclear fuel to the Hero communities in the Terrestrial Planets area—this is one of the prerequisites for the Heroes to help them.

For the Neutral City-State, it’s practically their lifeline there.

As for why they have to go there…

The reason is simple.

[I think that’s the most likely hiding place.]

Xiang Shan said.

What is the best way to hide reactors and nuclear fuel?

No matter how strict the measures, accidents can’t be prevented. Not to mention, the First Layer Heaven Cyborg must be accessed at critical moments, and the isolation measures applied to the Cyborg wouldn’t be too strict. This way, the unsealing wouldn’t be too troublesome.

Additionally, the person hiding this Cyborg probably doesn’t have the opportunity to maintain it frequently. No one knows how long the First Layer Heaven Cyborg will stay sealed.

So, the simplest method is to hide it in an area naturally high in radiation.

This way, even if the radiation detection equipment indices jump slightly, no one would think it strange.

They might separate the crucial processor parts and store them individually to prevent electronic equipment from being damaged by radiation.

The safety measures of reactors in this era follow the Benchmark Man’s resistance, work efficiency, and construction cost of the reactors themselves.

Of course, this is just Xiang Shan’s personal speculation. In Xiang Shan’s view, the Six Dragons Sect might have hidden the Cyborg in any area of this Space City—it could be the port, it could be the residential area. As for the “area near the energy sector in the industrial zone,” its likelihood increased by just a dozen percentage points.

There’s also a good chance that the First Layer Heaven Cyborg is hidden outside the city, perhaps inside a vessel in the spaceport.

However, a carpet search is ultimately required, so starting from this industrial area is a reasonable choice. It is indeed a likely hiding place for the Cyborg, and it allows them to test the current Chaldean bottom lines of Jeanne and the others. Also, judging from the first encounter between Jeanne and that mysterious expert and the direction he fled, if the route were sealed, the expert would have to take a long detour to reach here.

Hence, the danger of “bumping directly into the Six Dragons’ expert already armed with a Cyborg” is avoided.

Jeanne and Asgard were carrying “the best resources” they could get their hands on. Some were spare armor pieces from their ship, others were high-performance processors they temporarily borrowed from Jin (wrapped in lead), along with other potential channel components.

The Six Dragons Sect might have also dealt with the entire Cyborg by separating its parts. They might only find part of the First Layer Heaven Cyborg. In this case, Tumor Xiang Shan plans to temporarily piece together something usable.

—Of course, it’s best if it includes the reactor part. The performance of the First Layer Heaven Cyborg is impressive, and reactors aren’t easily built.

Soon, the group passed through several narrow corridors. In front of them was a gap. It was a breach in the External Armor of an Emperor Shitian-class battleship, a tear due to distortion used as a divider. The crevice was large enough for various heavy industrial machinery and transport aircraft to pass in and out, with substantial throughput. Some industrial products were transported out from here to nourish the entire city.

At this moment, entry and exit were strictly limited. Bombs equipped with propellers and thrusters floated in the air. Several steel cable blockades cut through the wide gap. Armed personnel holding firearms were stationed here, inspecting every person and vehicle entering and exiting.

Tila Lee held a pass with very high permissions. Even so, the checkpoint personnel carefully verified their information and even checked the supplies Jeanne and Asgard were carrying.

After confirming there were no weapons among the supplies, they were allowed to pass.

This delay made Tila even more nervous.

And at the first intersection upon entering the industrial area, she encountered a few unexpected figures: “Bai Ou, Jue Jue… and Madir? What are you all doing here?”

These people were Tila Lee’s former colleagues. They lingered here, forming a semicircle, vaguely blocking her party. This stance…

She couldn’t help but overthink it.