Countless people in the middle of emergency evacuation froze mid-step, their gazes snapping skyward.
Pupils quivered, jaws hit the floor.
"Holy crap—the mecha model actually flew!"
"Say that out loud and even dogs won't believe it!"
"I'm freaking shattered—mecha are real!!"
The crowd stood dumbstruck, cursing nonstop in disbelief.
Even the usually unflappable Old Man Hua was slack-jawed, face full of shock.
"Old Wang, what's your take on this?"
"This is freaking off-the-charts insane!"
Old Wang couldn't help but swear.
The situation had already surpassed what the two old men could comprehend.
Old Man Hua lowered his eyes, pondering for a moment.
He speculated,
"Could it be Old Tian from the Eastern Theater showing off?"
"Possible, but unlikely," Old Wang shook his head.
Their minds were overheating, yet they still couldn't fathom the mecha's origin.
To claim Yixue hired some welder to slap it together—they wouldn't buy it in a million years.
A welder building a mecha—don't make me laugh!
Creating a flying mecha demands incalculable manpower, resources, and scientific depth.
It seemed the only way to uncover the truth was to start with Wang Yixue herself.
Right then—
"Boom—"
A violent Sonic Boom detonated above the estate.
Deafening, the blast nearly tore a hole in the sky.
Guests who hadn't run far were left with ears ringing.
Children wailed uncontrollably.
Wang Ning, whose legs weren't great, had just steadied herself only to plop back down in fright.
"Sonic Boom!"
Old Wang's gaunt frame jolted as he blurted it out.
Old Man Hua's pupils spasmed, startled as well.
After the initial shock, both arrived at the same thought.
Almost simultaneously,
their aged gazes turned razor-sharp, locking onto the horizon.
Overhead,
the red mecha was rapidly climbing, shrinking fast.
Behind it, the air formed a conical vapor cone, eye-catchingly vivid.
"Old Hua, am I seeing things? Did it just break the Sound Barrier?" Old Wang swallowed, unsure.
"Don't ask me—I might be deaf and hallucinating!"
Old Man Hua was so excited that, despite all he'd weathered, his words now stumbled.
Supersonic cruise during vertical climb?
Are you kidding me?
Newton's coffin lid probably can't be held down any longer!
With that unaerodynamic frame, how could it possibly go supersonic!!
It shattered their entire worldview.
Even for fighters with sleek profiles, breaking the Sound Barrier for sustained supersonic cruise
is no easy feat.
Supersonic speed against gravity—completely unprecedented.
At that moment,
Old Wang's life philosophy collapsed.
His values lay in ruins.
Old Man Hua's brain short-circuited; he questioned life itself.
In the sky, the mecha shrank to a tiny dot.
The whooshing from Old Wang's phone grew fiercer.
Only then did he notice the real-time telemetry in the corner of the screen going berserk.
[Current Mode: Beginner]
[Mecha Attitude: Anti-Gravity Vertical Climb]
[Back Engine 1 Thrust: 110 kN+]
[Back Engine 2 Thrust: 110 kN+]
[Back Engine 3 Thrust: 105 kN+]
[Back Engine 4 Thrust: 105 kN+]
[Side-Vector Engines Thrust: 109 kN+]
[Airframe Vectoring:
No.1/20, No.2/10, No.3/15, No.4/10, No.5/21]
[Airframe Temperature: 141 °C]
[Speed: mach 1.357]
[Status: All Systems Normal!]
"Hiss—"
Seriously? This counts as normal???
What kind of cosmic joke is this!
Old Wang and Old Man Hua both gasped.
Their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Question marks plastered across their foreheads.
The numbers kept ticking upward.
In a blink, temperature hit 195 °C, speed reached mach 1.94!
About to hit twice the speed of sound!
Old Wang's eyes brimmed with worry—no, fear!
At such heat, not only the mecha's circuits but the pilot herself couldn't endure.
"Little Yixue, how are you holding up?"
"Grandpa, it's so high—I'm scar..."
Signal lost.
The voice cut off; the phone screen froze.
Only the corner telemetry froze at the instant of disconnect.
Temp 209, speed mach 2.
Old Wang's hands gripping the phone trembled violently.
He snapped his gaze to Old Man Hua beside him.
"Must be cloud interference—get military satellite comms clearance now!"
"Not enough! Back to base, have techs clone this app and patch it into the Research Mainframe—only then can we guarantee contact!"
"Move!"
Under escort of trained soldiers, the two old men boarded a military off-roader and sped toward the Research Base.
Endless sky.
Amid the clouds,
Wang Yixue sat snug in the cockpit, heart racing.
Her fear spiked once comms with Grandpa cut out.
She forced deep breaths to calm herself.
Now she could rely only on herself!
After prolonged extreme tension, she could finally think straight.
Clouds blanketed her view—nothing but blinding white.
Only a translucent Data Panel glowed in the lower right.
It listed the mecha's stats in luminous text.
Only two lines made sense to her: airframe temp 240 °C, speed mach 2.3.
"Outside temp is already 240? I don't feel a thing in here. And the speed—must be over twice the speed of sound!"
As she studied the panel,
the mecha burst through the sea of clouds like a fox leaping from snowy woods.
The veil vanished; her vision opened wide.