Chapter 43: This One’s in the Bag

Half an hour later, the four members of the team returned to their lodgings.

It was already half past ten. The celebration outside was still in full swing, exceptionally lively, yet the expressions on the faces of the group were far from relaxed.

Ray, inspecting the three reasonably intact batteries he had just purchased, spoke up:

"The condition is very new. They should have been salvaged from some sealed equipment."

"Just now, during the power-on test, both the voltage and current outputs were very stable. Compared to brand-new versions of batteries, the degradation should be minimal."

"All three of these batteries can be used on the exoskeletons we found. I even suspect they were originally stripped from exoskeletons in the first place."

"If that's truly the case, the situation becomes a bit complicated."

"Is the Cathedral of the Holy Blood using the Mechanicus to feed us information, or has the Mechanicus already discovered what happened in Xiama Town and is probing us with these three batteries?"

After Ray finished speaking, Chen Jian shook his head and replied:

"I don't know, but it ultimately boils down to these two possibilities."

"The Cathedral of the Holy Blood has the motive to do this, and judging by the timeline, news from Xiama Town should be arriving about now."

"However, their actions are a bit too clumsy. What era is this? You can find three perfectly usable batteries simply by strolling through a night market. Don't they find that exaggerated themselves?"

"God knows..."

Shen Yue, while trying to fit a sleeve arrow into its launcher, continued:

"Trying to understand them using our own mindset is impossible, but what if we change the perspective?"

"Perhaps those miners in Xiama Town were completely unimportant to them. What matters is that someone ransacked Xiama Town and took away certain items from within."

"And these items happen to be things they find useful, yet don't know how to use."

"If I were in their shoes, I would probably use the exact same method to probe—though, of course, I would handle it a bit more smoothly."

"Indeed..."

Chen Jian pondered for a moment and continued his speculation:

"If this logic holds up, it means they still have similar exoskeletons in their possession and can repair them once they master our technology."

"Only then can their series of actions be reasonably explained."

"I think so too."

He Shuo nodded, then asked:

"Is there any possibility we could cooperate with them directly and get our hands on the remaining exoskeletons they hold?"

"If the issue of Xiama Town is no longer an issue, then I feel cooperation might not be entirely out of the question."

Chen Jian shook his head and answered:

"The prerequisite for cooperation is exposure, which is not a good thing for us—the Blood-Born are fine, as there are no direct conflicts of interest between us, but the philosophy of the Mechanicus shares a fundamental convergence with our own."

"However, I do have a compromised approach—let the Blood-Born go demand the items."

"If they refuse to hand them over, then their intention in sending the batteries becomes self-evident, which also means we have been targeted and should prepare for confrontation."

"If they do hand them over... that would be even better."

"For all we know, we might be overthinking everything, and they simply didn't realize how important these things were, having had them stolen and resold by some internal personnel."

"Are they really that foolish?"

Shen Yue asked in disbelief.

"What's so surprising about that... back during the Qing Dynasty, even artillery shells and gunpowder were being taken out and sold."

"Don't overestimate human nature, especially the human nature of turbulent times."

Chen Jian waved his hand and said decisively:

"We'll walk on two legs. I'll go contact Xu Lie, and the three of you study this equipment."

"Ray, see if you can piece this exoskeleton back together."

"He Shuo, take the sleeve arrow apart and prep the launcher."

"Shen Yue, give them a hand with the auxiliary work."

"Let's strive to get everything ready in a day or two. That way, when we go to the urban area for reconnaissance, our chances of winning will be much higher!"

"Understood!"

The three of them answered one by one. Chen Jian pushed open the door and strode without pause toward the lodgings of Xu Lie and his companions.

Two hours later, Chen Jian had ironed out the details with Xu Lie, fabricating a sufficiently convincing story.

Relying on this story, Xu Lie wasted no time and immediately reported to the Cathedral of the Holy Blood, intending to use his team's exploits—"slaying a level-five monster and creating the strategic opportunity to wipe out the Blood Skull camp"—to trade for the equipment Chen Jian desired.

The time that followed consisted purely of waiting for Chen Jian's team.

Fortunately, this waiting was far from monotonous.

The group first spent four or five hours completely disassembling all the sleeve-arrow missiles on hand, sorting out the functioning components, and reassembling them. Ultimately, they obtained six sleeve-arrow missiles that "should be usable," bypassing the difficulties of repairing precision electronic components.

Afterward, they spent nearly ten hours stripping the exoskeleton down to its bare parts, figuring out its entire operational mechanism.

This step was fairly complex for Chen Jian, Shen Yue, and He Shuo alike, but for Ray, it was second nature.

This was precisely his area of expertise!

He was originally an elite student from a university of electronic science and technology, majoring in electronic engineering, and he had entered military service through direct recruitment. He was initially trained as a technical soldier, but due to his all-around development, he eventually ended up in the field team.

Taking apart such trinkets was hardly a challenge for him. Chen Jian had even witnessed him once, under the guise of routine maintenance, tear the remote-controlled weapon station on the team's fierce warrior vehicle into absolute shreds. At the time, the team's combat commander was a major general who had seen every grand spectacle imaginable, yet he was still furious enough to threaten Ray with a demotion to civilian status unless he restored the weapon station completely.

Obviously, since he remained on active duty, it went without saying that he had successfully restored it.

Therefore, even though the scattered parts on the floor nearly covered the entire first-floor living room, Chen Jian remained full of confidence in Ray.

"How is it? Is it fixable?"

Chen Jian asked.

"Not easily fixable. We're missing parts."

"Two bearings are broken and completely beyond repair."

"The outer casing of one multi-stage hydraulic cylinder has a slight crack, and one oscillating hydraulic cylinder is rusted. Without tools, we have no way to precision-grind or weld them."

"The motors are all usable, though I'm really not familiar with this specific model of stepper motor. To fully understand it, I'd need to take it apart and study it thoroughly so I can fix it if it breaks in the future."

"But for now... let's set it aside."

"There are some issues with the cabling, but nothing major."

"The computer was known to be dead long ago, so good riddance. The sensors are all still functional, which is fantastic."

"Everything else is basically fine; it's a full titanium alloy frame, and a bit of grinding and lubrication will make it usable."

"To put it bluntly, for people like us right now, going from not being able to move to being able to move—even if it's just a single step—is actually a gap of two whole eras: industrial and informational..."

Ray sighed, and Chen Jian patted him on the shoulder, saying:

"Look on the bright side, maybe it's three eras?"

"It's fine, we can always find replacement parts later. No need to rush..."

"Knock, knock!"

Before he could finish speaking, the front door of their lodging was suddenly knocked upon.

After confirming the identities of the visitors, Chen Jian opened the door.

Standing outside were none other than Xu Lie and Li Shi, and behind them, they were dragging a canvas-covered handcart that looked heavy at a single glance.

"Is this the stuff I wanted?"

Chen Jian asked.

Xu Lie nodded and replied:

"Yes, quite a lot of it."

Chen Jian let out a soft breath of relief and continued:

"What did they say?"

Xu Lie motioned for Li Shi to wheel the items inside, then answered:

"They said these things are broken, and the most valuable batteries inside have already been lost, so they could give the whole lot to us."

"They even asked me what use such garbage could be, seeing as even the cathedral of the Mechanicus hasn't managed to figure out the principles behind it."

"These special metallic materials aren't valuable either; they can't be forged into weapons."

"......What did you say?"

"Just as you taught me, I told them these items could be pieced together into armor mounting racks for our own use."

"Splendid!"

Chen Jian nodded with satisfaction. By this time, Li Shi had already begun hauling the damaged exoskeletons into the room.

At a glance, there were at least ten exoskeletons piled on the handcart.

Ray stared intently at the newly arrived items, conducted a brief inspection, and gave Chen Jian a thumbs-up.

Then, he declared:

"This time, we've got it in the bag!"