They traveled through time at the same time, but the villainous scientist

Chapter 312 The World on the Ground

After obtaining Jingnan's consent, he gained the highest authority in the engineering department and the priority supply of materials promised by the hunter team.

A comprehensive renovation plan has been officially put on the agenda.

Inside the lighthouse's engineering department, a long-absent commotion arose.

Due to the limitations of the Lighthouse's industrial base and technological level, many sophisticated technologies from the worlds of [Gundam SEED] and [Marvel] need to be significantly simplified and adjusted.

This was a painful and tedious process, but fortunately, Zhang Qi had technical support from several worlds behind him.

Through knowledge sharing, they quickly finalized a technical solution based on the Lighthouse's existing materials and processing capabilities.

That's why, when everyone in the engineering department was at a loss, Zhang Qi could always come up with a completely new solution from an unbelievable angle.

This brought his prestige in the engineering department to its peak, and those old engineers who initially had doubts now looked at him with a sense of awe.

While modifying the hardware, the rewriting of the power unit control algorithm was also carried out simultaneously.

This part is naturally a simplified version of the ZAFT MS used by the military, and with the original control algorithm of the heavy 3D, the initial version was already able to run.

This series of actions naturally amazed one type of researcher.

And so, a month later, in the enormous hangar at the bottom of the lighthouse, a brand new heavy-duty tower stood quietly.

With the removal of the heavy fuel tank, the machine's lines have become much slimmer. After unfolding the outer armor on the chest, the interior reveals the arc reactor emitting a blue glow.

Mark was already dressed in his pilot's suit and sitting in the cockpit.

He took a deep look at Zhang Qi, who was focused on the console, took a deep breath, and then started the system.

The next moment, blue flames shot out from the nozzles all over the machine, and the several-ton machine lifted off the ground and hovered steadily in mid-air under everyone's watchful eyes.

"Mark, how are you feeling?"

Zhang Qi's voice came through the communicator.

"incredible……"

Mark exclaimed in admiration, then began to control the movement of the machine. The machine immediately responded nimbly, making a smooth sideways movement and hovering precisely at the designated position.

Compared to its responsiveness and stability, its Dawn is nothing more than an iron coffin.

"Then let's try it outside; the data will be transmitted back in real time."

Zhang Qi nodded and then offered his suggestions.

Upon hearing this, Mark's eyes lit up. The electric propulsion system on the back of the heavy machine instantly unleashed a powerful thrust, transforming into a blue streak of light as it shot out of the hangar and soared into the sky.

The feeling of weightlessness and the intense G-forces pressed Mark's back tightly against the back of the aircraft, but his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

He broke free of the lighthouse's perimeter and entered the truly vast and boundless sky.

This feeling made him shout involuntarily...

This is a sense of freedom that I've never experienced before, a feeling that's almost luxurious.

In the past, it was impossible to achieve this level of flight while piloting a heavy-duty aircraft.

Mark piloted the "Dawn-Modified" and soared freely through the sea of ​​clouds.

He executed a clean barrel roll, followed by a rapid climb in an Immelmann maneuver.

These maneuvers, once only seen in old-world air combat movies, are now being easily recreated by him.

He looked down at the land shrouded in clouds, and a surge of pride welled up in his heart.

Over the years, the greatest threat to the Wilderness Hunters has not come from the most powerful King-level Devouring Beasts, but from the endless beast tides and the harsh ground environment.

Flying Devouring Beasts are ultimately few and far between; otherwise, the Lighthouse would have long since become a suspended tomb.

And now, they have the sky.

what does this mean?
This means they can strike the enemy from a completely new dimension, they can easily evade the most dangerous areas on the ground, and the efficiency of reconnaissance, support, and evacuation will be increased exponentially.

He thought of his comrades who had been swallowed by the beast horde after running out of fuel in their heavy armor. If... if they had possessed such a vehicle back then... Moreover, if every hunter had one of these machines...

With a mix of excitement and complex emotions, Mark piloted the heavy-duty 3D aircraft for nearly an hour until an alarm for excessively high thruster temperature came from the control panel. Only then did he reluctantly turn around and land smoothly in the hangar.

The hatch opened, and Mark took off his helmet. His face was flushed, and his hair was soaked with sweat, but his eyes shone with an astonishing light.

"Haha~ This is absolutely fantastic!"

He jumped off the plane and punched Zhang Qi on the shoulder, his voice hoarse from excessive excitement.
"Qi, you're a real genius!"

Before Zhang Qi could answer, the veteran hunters around him swarmed forward and surrounded Mark, chattering amongst themselves.

"Captain, how are you feeling? Can you really fly that long?"

"That speed! It was terrifying to watch from below!"

"This thing is completely different from the old one!"

As warriors who have fought on the brink of death against the Devouring Beasts year after year, they understand better than anyone what this endurance and mobility mean.

That was survival, that was victory, that was the guarantee of returning home alive.

Seeing Mark's performance just now, everyone's eyes turned red. They practically pounced on Zhang Qi, clamoring to modify their own vehicles.

"Don't rush, we've already used up our quota for core materials. Want more modifications? That'll have to wait and see what we get from our next operation."

Zhang Qi smiled and waved his hand, signaling everyone to calm down.
As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd fell silent for a moment, then erupted into even more enthusiastic cheers.

Then I became even more excited for the next mission...

Two more weeks passed, and with everything ready, the day for the hunters to set off finally arrived.

Zhang Qi, carrying a backpack filled with various recording devices and special tools, followed Mark onto the "Grizzly-01" heavy transport vehicle.

Inside the carriage, the hunters were checking their equipment. The atmosphere was tense and solemn, but in each of their eyes, a flame unlike any they had ever seen before flickered.

After sitting down, Zhang Qi opened his personal terminal and browsed the mission briefing.

Target: New Asia, the ruins of the R-49 interstellar spaceship.

According to his understanding, in order to escape the Mana ecosystem at the end of the Old World, humans adopted various plans, the most common of which was the extraterrestrial migration plan.

Therefore, on every continent, giant spaceships were built in preparation for escaping Earth.

But for some unknown reason, at the very moment these spaceships were about to take off, all the crew members, along with tens of thousands of staff members at the ground base, were simultaneously drained of their life essence and transformed into a terrifying thing known as "flesh soil".

But because of this, these spaceship ruins have become treasure troves sealed by time.

There were abundant energy blocks, unspoiled canned food, and, more importantly, spare parts for repairs, high-strength alloys, and even weapons from the Old World in the spaceship's hangar.

Just as I was lost in thought, a strong feeling of weightlessness washed over me. The transport truck's massive engine began to adjust its power, the vehicle tilted slightly, and it began to penetrate the clouds below the lighthouse.

He pressed his face close to the reinforced glass of the porthole and looked out.

The thick, viscous fog was torn apart, and a completely new, grotesque world slowly unfolded before his eyes.

Below, there was no green, no blue, only an endless, chilling crimson expanse of land.

The color was as if the blood of billions of living beings had soaked into the soil and fermented over a long period of time, turning into a viscous and eerie dark red.

The abandoned skyscrapers, like gnawed skeletons, silently pierce the sky.

What's even more chilling are the things clinging to these buildings.

Those weren't vines, but rather thick, fleshy tentacles that twisted and tangled like blood vessels and tendons, covered with dark purple patterns, pulsating rhythmically at an extremely slow pace.

At the tops of those vines, in what was once the city's most bustling rooftop garden and helipad, bloomed bizarre, gigantic flowers. These flowers had no petals; their shape resembled some kind of dissected viscera, shimmering with phosphorescence, opening and closing, scattering visible, red spores.

This was the first time he had seen the ground with his own eyes since he came into this world...

(End of this chapter)