Chapter 157

"Can you see the energy on my body?" Prophet asked in disbelief.

"That's right. Unlike the energy of the Ceph, theirs is red, while yours is blue," Wang Jing said, pointing to the scattered Ceph energy cells on the ground nearby.

"Shit, you're not turning into a Ceph too, are you?" Prophet asked in surprise upon hearing Wang Jing's words, because only someone whose genes were highly integrated with the Ceph, like himself, could emit the kind of energy radiated by the Ceph energy cells.

Therefore, Prophet strongly suspected that Wang Jing had also integrated with Ceph genes.

"Probably not. It's likely I absorbed the energy emitted by the anti-aircraft tower during the explosion just now," Wang Jing said, looking at the anti-aircraft tower, which had already been blasted into two sections.

At that moment, the roar of fighter jets swept overhead, followed by a series of explosions in the distance.

Seeing this, Wang Jing immediately got back into his battlesuit and said, "Keep moving forward. We're about to enter the lair of the Ceph mastermind!"

Without the interference of the anti-aircraft towers, the subsequent battle became much easier. Almost all of the Ceph aliens were destroyed by the bombs and autocannons of the Transformer fighter jets.

Wang Jing and his group only needed to mop up a few scattered Ceph aliens hiding in the buildings, while the main force behind them followed closely behind Wang Jing and the others without encountering any obstacles.

Until they reached the side of the beam shooting into the sky, looking at a beam as thick as a basketball court, Liu Peiqiang couldn't help but sigh, "Where on earth does that thing get so much energy?"

"Never mind what kind of energy it is. The problem now is how we get down there," Wang Jing said, pointing to the source of the beam.

At that moment, the beam in front of them suddenly became much thicker, and then a powerful energy surged up from the underground, knocking everyone to the ground with its massive shockwave.

When Wang Jing climbed up from the ground, he saw the ground around the crater dissolving piece by piece, being pulled toward the column of energy light in the center.

When he saw this scene in the game, Wang Jing was deeply shocked, partly because the graphics were so realistic.

However, after seeing this scene truly unfold in reality, Wang Jing finally understood what true shock felt like.

The sensation was akin to the end of the world, and the distant beam of light gave the impression of descending directly from the heavens.

***

However, Wang Jing quickly snapped out of it, cursed "Shit!", and shouted through the comms channel, "Everyone, brace for impact! The ground is about to collapse!"

Right as Wang Jing finished speaking, the building next to them crashed down.

Just as the collapsing building was about to crush him, Wang Jing pulled the people around him close and triggered a jump.

A minute later, when Wang Jing and the others returned to the Crysis dimension, they found that the entire ground had collapsed, forming a massive deep pit.

Wang Jing hurriedly called out to the survivors over the comms channel, but after shouting for a long time, the only response was crackling static. Just as Wang Jing was feeling distressed, the voice of the Dimensional Expeditionary Force commander came through the comms.

"Dimensional Expeditionary Force received. We're still relatively safe, but all the heavy equipment was crushed by the rocks."

"As long as people are fine, that's what matters. Where is everyone right now?" Hearing that only the heavy equipment was lost, Wang Jing couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. As long as the people were still alive, equipment could be manufactured again. If people died, they were truly gone.

"I have no idea either, but I think we've fallen right into the nest of the Ceph aliens. There are aliens everywhere down here, along with various devices of unknown purpose."

Right after he finished speaking, the sound of gunfire echoed from the other end, and the communication was abruptly cut off.

Wang Jing looked back at the beam of light shooting into the sky, intending to plunge down along the column of light to reinforce the others.

Just then, Prophet pointed at the deep pit below and said, "There's a fissure down there we can use to get in!"

Following the direction of the fissure, the group saw a Ceph transport ship flying inward through the pitch-black crack.

Seeing this, Wang Jing immediately flew over, followed closely by the others, while Prophet grabbed Liu Peiqiang's battlesuit and flew down toward the fissure below alongside them.

Following far behind the Ceph transport ship, they soon entered a massive underground cavern. On the ground ahead lay a metallic material extremely similar to the exoskeleton of a Ceph alien.

Wang Jing deduced that the Ceph must have established a base here in ancient times, and that beam of energy light was likely emitted by this very base.

In the past, Wang Jing had always thought this was a spaceship, but after observing it firsthand, he immediately dismissed his previous hypothesis.

***

After all, what kind of spaceship would place its charging device outside the vessel?

As they continued forward, the intense sound of distant gunfire could be faintly heard.

Locating the trail of the Dimensional Expeditionary Force, Wang Jing quickly put his mecha back on and used his electromagnetic machine gun to take out the Ceph transport ship that had been dutifully leading the way for them.

Then, he rushed toward the direction of the gunfire at top speed.

Soon, Wang Jing spotted the Dimensional Expeditionary Force surrounded by a large horde of Ceph aliens. Without the support of heavy weapons and ammunition supplies, the combat capability of the Dimensional Expeditionary Force had dropped noticeably.

The only reason they had managed to hold out until now was because they relied on the remaining five mechas and dozens of humanoid Transformers holding the line at the front.

It was also clear how hard they were struggling. Had it not been for the energy shields blocking the plasma cannons of the heavy Ceph Ravagers, they would have long been reduced to spare parts.

Upon joining the battlefield, Wang Jing went directly above the position of the Dimensional Expeditionary Force, unleashed a barrage of crazy fire from the 12-barrel electromagnetic machine gun in his hands to suppress the enemy's firepower, and then launched every missile in the launcher on his back, blowing all the Ceph aliens hiding behind cover straight to the sky.

After landing, Wang Jing crossed back to the main dimension and brought over all the ammunition he had prepared.

Since they were deep underground inside the Ceph lair, traditional heavy weapons like tanks were no longer suitable. Therefore, to make up for the lack of heavy firepower, the United Government dispatched a large number of Transformers. Among them were Jetfire, who had been hiding in the hangar taking it easy, and Sentinel Prime, who had been quietly helping the United Government set up dimensional communication equipment.

The newly re-equipped Dimensional Expeditionary Force launched a counterattack. Having replenished their ammunition, they seemed determined to reclaim the dignity of their humiliating retreat earlier.

Their firepower was more than double what it had been at the start. Rocket launchers and grenades rained down on the enemy as if they cost nothing, and bullets—needless to say—turned anyone who dared to show their head into a pile of minced meat within two seconds, even the heavy Ceph Ravagers.

Before the Ravagers could even raise their Reaper cannons, the dense barrage of bullets would blast their most vulnerable heads to pieces in an instant.