Chapter 142: The Mecha Knight Order Marches South

"Finally, we've escaped..."
"Since when did the Zombie Star become so terrifying?!"
The mecha knights of the Broly family looked back toward the direction of the northern Radiation Zone.

That terrifying giant tree was still clearly visible.
Taking advantage of the giant tree's frantic growth, which covered the entire Radiation Zone in dense trees and roots, the mecha knights had used the environment as cover, pushing their power to the limit to flee wildly.

This battle completely shattered everyone's contempt for the Zombie Star... and even filled these mecha knights with extreme terror.
Looking at their captain, Connor, who was still unconscious, the vice-captain, Big Mouth, fell into a difficult dilemma.

Although their trip to the Radiation Zone had resulted in no casualties due to the sudden appearance of Apollo from the Psionic Union, their flagship in space had completely lost contact.
Before long, they would find themselves in a state of severe supply shortages.

Their landing craft had been left north of the Radiation Zone, near the ruins of the Prati Black Market.
If they returned to the ships for supplies, they worried about encountering the mutants of the Radiation Zone.
Moreover, the supplies on those landing craft were not abundant.
Even if they managed to secure them, it wouldn't be enough to sustain them for very long.

Checking the holographic map built into his mecha, Big Mouth learned that the nearest black market to the Prati Black Market was located one thousand kilometers to the south.
With the remaining energy in their mecha, these knights would never be able to make it that far; their mechas would inevitably break down halfway.

Although they had some understanding of the Zombie Star's ecosystem upon arrival, Big Mouth knew very well that in areas without large radiation or energy sources, they wouldn't encounter any overly powerful mutants.
With this mecha knight squad, whose members all possessed the powerful strength of the fifth stage, they certainly wouldn't face extreme danger.

However, food would become their biggest problem.
Without sufficient food, everyone would starve to death.
After much deliberation, Big Mouth still could not abandon the supplies on the ships.
Yet, he feared that encountering either ART or the Psionic Union would utterly annihilate them!

Thus, he detached a hundred mecha knights to take a wide detour toward the Prati Black Market, while the other hundred remained in place to await supplies.
According to Big Mouth's estimation, the food and energy stored on the ships were just barely enough to guarantee their journey to the Ironwood Forest Black Market, a thousand kilometers to the south.
Only by reaching that place would they have a chance of survival.
Once they survived the winter and the alien merchants descended, they could use the alien merchants' fleet to travel to Chaos Star, and then return to Sirius via the Chaos Star transit station.

In Big Mouth's view, the primary objective of this mission probably no longer existed.
Having witnessed the might of ART-2, Big Mouth did not believe that the mutated zombie from the video—the one capable of fighting the Kobayashi mecha—could survive an attack by ART-2.
Furthermore, they had already witnessed too many powerful mutants like the one in the video.
Capturing Yehai no longer felt like a mandatory task.
Their operational objectives had shifted.
Transmitting everything that had happened on the Zombie Star back home was now the most crucial priority.

Although Big Mouth's plan seemed to have no major flaws given the current circumstances, he did not expect that Yehai had not died at the hands of ART-2.
Moreover, space had been completely blockaded due to the awakening of the Angel species.
The entire Zombie Star had now transformed into an isolated island.
Every human left on the Zombie Star would soon face a severe crisis of food and energy.

One day later, seeing the personnel sent to the ships for supplies return without a single casualty, Big Mouth breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"How is the situation over there?" Big Mouth pulled a mecha knight over to ask.
The other party knew Big Mouth was referring to the Radiation Zone.
The mecha knight offered a bitter smile.
"Extremely fierce. For a whole day and night, frantic explosions have been ongoing over there!"
"We only used our energy detectors to observe from afar; we didn't dare get close at all!"
"I really don't know if I've gone mad, or if the Zombie Star has gone mad!"
"How can such a terrifying entity exist..."
"Vice-captain, do you think the entity controlling the magma is even human?"
"It's simply too unbelievable!"

To such a question, Big Mouth had no way to answer.
Yet, he would rather believe that Apollo of the Psionic Union was a mutant than accept that this was a level of power achievable by a human.
Big Mouth was well aware of the state of the Four Stars' super-enhanced warriors.
Sixth-stage genetic warriors might exist, but the technology was likely still immature.
Perhaps there were massive technological flaws, resulting in a low success rate.
Otherwise, as elite warriors of the Broly family whose mecha knights were universally at the fifth stage, they would surely have been the first to receive the sixth-stage genetic serum.

Even so, compared to Apollo of the Psionic Union, a sixth-stage genetic warrior would be no different from an ant beside a god.
The chasm between them was simply insurmountable.
Even if they piloted the most powerful mechas in the entire Leviathan galaxy, they would stand zero chance of victory against Apollo.

If Apollo had truly evolved from a human...
Just how terrifying had the entire Zombie Star become?
How many entities like Apollo were out there?
The more he thought about it, the more alarmed Big Mouth felt.
This was no longer a question for a lowly soldier like him to ponder.
Their current priority—surviving safely on the Zombie Star and finding an opportunity to transmit the information out—was what they needed to do, and all they could do...

After injecting Connor with a dose of healing serum and feeling the captain's breathing gradually stabilize, Big Mouth placed him back into his mecha and issued the order to migrate southward.
Soon, the entire troop of mecha knights marched imposingly toward the south.
This time, however, the mecha knights exercised extreme caution in controlling their mechas' energy output, completely shedding the arrogance they had displayed upon first entering the Zombie Star.
If they provoked another mutant faction like the one in the Radiation Zone, it was highly likely that this entire squad of mecha knights would perish on the Zombie Star.

Meanwhile, back in the Radiation Zone, Apollo was still launching relentless attacks against Areta.
Yet Areta simply smiled and sat unmoving upon a branch, watching Apollo's psionic energy surge toward her, only to be scattered by the giant tree.
The magma turned into dazzling fireworks across the sky, a magnificent sight.

Apollo had sustained such continuous attacks for a day and a night, yet he had failed to injure Areta in the slightest.
The giant tree's suppression of his psionic energy was simply too overwhelming.
Although this ninth-stage mutant giant tree displayed no psionic energy of its own, it possessed the ability to frantically absorb Apollo's psionic assaults.
By this point in the battle, Apollo knew very well that he could never harm Areta under the protection of the giant tree.

Therefore, he halted his attacks, shifted back into his human form, and stared fixedly at Areta.
"What happened to Asli?"
"Was he absorbed by this life mutant?"
Areta narrowed her eyes slightly, pondering for a moment.
A faint smile appeared on her lips as she spoke:
"No, it wasn't Grandpa Tree who absorbed him, but a very interesting egg!"
"It has already gone south..."
"Perhaps you should go and take a look."