Reborn as a tiger, he was chosen by the nation as its guardian beast.

Chapter 171 Taking the Regional Mastermind Back

The fluctuations of spiritual energy deep within the mine grew increasingly intense, like boiling water.

Time ticked by, and the atmosphere grew increasingly tense.

About five minutes later, just as Lin Yue was getting impatient, the violently fluctuating mental energy suddenly subsided.

Immediately afterwards, the dummy that had been bowing slowly straightened up.

His face was expressionless, and his eyes had become empty, like a real robot.

A cold, emotionless, mechanical synthesized voice resounded directly in Wang Hu and Lin Yue's minds.

"I agree with your proposal."

It was the voice of the mastermind.

It ultimately made its choice.

Rather than being swallowed up without dignity by Number Thirteen in the future, it's better to take a gamble now and entrust your fate to China, perhaps you can still have a glimmer of hope.

"Very good, you've made a wise choice." Lin Yue nodded in satisfaction.

This result was entirely within their expectations.

"Boom—"

""

With a muffled thud, the ground in front of Wang Hu and Lin Yue suddenly began to tremble violently.

The solid rock layer split open in the middle, and a huge lifting platform slowly rose from the ground.

On the platform, instead of the giant insect Wang Hu had seen in this space before, there was a huge metal sphere emitting a ghostly blue light.

The sphere is about five meters in diameter, with a smooth, mirror-like surface covered with countless intricate, circuit board-like patterns. In the very center of the sphere is a rhombus-shaped crystal, identical to the one on Number Thirteen's forehead, only much dimmer.

Countless thick neural pathways connect the metal sphere from below the platform, acting like an umbilical cord to supply it with energy.

"This is—my true form."

The mainframe's voice came directly from the metal sphere.

Lin Yue curiously stepped forward, circled the large iron ball, and even tapped it.

"Clang clang clang".

The sound is crisp and clear; it is solid.

"You look nothing like that big, serpentine creature, number thirteen."

Lin Yue clicked her tongue in amazement: "Aren't you two born to the same mother? How come your styles are so different?"

"Form is merely an evolutionary direction chosen to adapt to the environment."

The mainframe's voice sounded somewhat frustrated: "It" chose the path of biological evolution, transforming itself into a perfect fighting body. I, on the other hand, chose to retain my most primitive form, devoting all resources to data storage and computation."

Upon hearing this, Wang Hu understood.

No wonder this guy is such a coward.

It's basically a weakling with a combat power of 5. All its points were put into intelligence, turning it into a super database and server.

Let alone fighting a fourth-tier mutant like Gan Sanhao, it could probably be torn apart by any third-tier peak mutant beast.

Its only reliance is its massive army of mutants.

But this legion is nothing more than cannon fodder in the face of truly top-tier experts.

For the regional mastermind in this area, the best solution would be to hide its true form.

Make yourself untraceable to everyone.

It's likely that the giant worm he saw in this cave was just a smokescreen created by the regional mastermind.

Or rather, ever since China destroyed several regional masterminds with Dongfeng Express, these regional masterminds in the other world have been constantly evolving, and the core direction of this evolution is to hide their true location.

It's possible that the giant snake that the mainframe of Area Thirteen manifested wasn't its true form.

"Alright, stop explaining."

Lin Yue waved her hand impatiently: "Since you've agreed, then hurry up and pull out all these tubes and come with us."

The mastermind remained silent for a moment.

"Once the connection is severed, I will completely lose control of this base and will no longer be able to restrain these mutants."

There was a hint of hesitation in its voice.

This is its last trump card; once it's given up, there will truly be no way out.

Do you think you have any other options right now?

Lin Yue's pointed voice suddenly rang in its mind.

A simple sentence, yet it was like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing the last glimmer of hope in its heart.

Yes, I have no other choice.

"Click! Click! Click!"

One by one, the neural pathways connecting the metal sphere detached from the sphere and retracted into the ground.

As the last pipe broke, the light on the surface of the huge metal sphere dimmed instantly, leaving only the diamond-shaped crystal in the center emitting a faint glow.

A sense of weakness emanated from its mental fluctuations.

Having lost its base's energy supply, it is now like a computer that has been unplugged, struggling to survive on its own battery.

"Alright, we can go now." The AI's voice became somewhat weak.

The surrounding mutants immediately descended into chaos the moment the mainframe lost control. They began to roar frantically and attack each other, instantly turning the entire mine into a bloody arena.

"Never mind them."

Lin Yue didn't even glance at the monsters; all her attention was now focused on this walking "big baby."

She rubbed her hands together excitedly, then jumped onto the huge metal ball, stepped on it, and found it to be quite sturdy.

"How do I get around this thing?" she asked curiously.

As soon as he finished speaking, eight thick metal limbs suddenly extended from the bottom of the metal sphere, like spider legs, steadily lifting the huge sphere off the ground.

Immediately afterwards, the giant iron spider began to walk out of the mine. And it was quite fast.

"Hey, that's pretty high-end!"

Lin Yue laughed, plopped down on top of the ball, and patted the metal shell beneath her: "Big iron ball, from now on you're with me!"

The mastermind did not respond to her teasing.

Wang Hu also nimbly leaped onto the top of the ball and found a comfortable spot to lie down.

Although this thing is a bit ugly, it's still quite spacious and stable as a mount.

"Old Cui, Old Cui, can you hear me?"

Sitting on her "mount," Lin Yue couldn't wait to take out her communicator and start showing off her achievements to Cui Jiuyou.

A buzzing sound came from the communicator, and soon, Cui Jiuyou's calm voice rang out.

"Lin Yue? How's the situation over there? Have you found the mastermind?"

"Found it! Found it!"

Lin Yue exclaimed excitedly, "We didn't just find it, we brought it back! Now it's our mount, and we're riding it back right now!"

Cui Jiuyou on the other end of the phone was visibly silent for a moment.

He was probably also surprised by Lin Yue's audacious move.

After several seconds, he said in a tone that was both amused and exasperated, "You guys—you've managed to bring out the mainframe's core?"