Weapon System Chapter 52: Journey to the Otherworld (1)
Fifteen minutes later, the monster was barely twenty kilometers from the city sports arena. Feathered and Immortal had donned their photon armor and, propelled by radiant wings, soared through the air, launching relentless attacks against the cockroach beast. Their courage mounted with each engagement.
The two pets' flight speed was clearly superior to the giant cockroach’s, allowing them to leave faint scars on its body during each aerial assault. Despite the cockroach monster’s hard shell, razor-sharp wings, and jaws capable of destroying anything, it was helpless against the pets’ swift and frequent harassment.
Especially after some time training under the Real One, the pets had mastered unique combat techniques: Feathered’s canine kick and Immortal’s feline claw swipe, both executed with impeccable timing.
At this moment, the two pets received Zhang Mingjing’s order: target one of the cockroach monster’s wings. Feathered’s photon beam flashed by, augmented by speed, and delivered a fierce photon-powered kick to the wing, exposing its root. Immortal followed, diving from high altitude at supersonic speed, his sharp photon claws slicing through the exposed root. Their teamwork was flawless.
With this powerful and clever strike, the cockroach’s wing wasn’t entirely severed, but its base was halved, rendering it unable to fly. The giant cockroach lost its balance, wobbling in midair before plummeting to the ground.
Yet this mutated cockroach was far from defenseless. Upon landing, it continued crawling rapidly toward the energy sphere. The pets resumed their high-altitude dive attacks. As they neared the cockroach, it suddenly flipped over, kicking out with its four legs and striking the diving pets. Caught off guard, the two pets were sent flying hundreds of meters. Fortunately, their photon armor shielded them, leaving them only dazed and soon able to fight again.
Zhang Mingjing grumbled, “Those legs are incredibly resilient! They took that hit at such high speed and didn’t even fracture!”
This time, Zhang Mingjing hadn’t instructed the War God Satellite to report the cockroach monster’s data to the War God Squad, so the squad missed the opportunity to join the battle. Thus, Catherine and Jemily were able to pilot their photon swords and assist the pets.
Despite Feathered and Immortal’s relentless pursuit and attacks, the cockroach monster advanced ten kilometers further, finally entering Catherine and Jemily’s ambush zone.
Under Zhang Mingjing’s telekinetic boost, Catherine and Jemily each controlled four photon swords, aiming to sever the cockroach’s six limbs. The tactic proved effective: within two minutes, the monster lost four legs and was left struggling in place.
Catherine and Jemily directed their photon swords at a weak spot on the cockroach’s back, but the monster repeatedly shielded itself with its hardened wings. Just then, two supersonic beams with sonic booms streaked in—a bizarre photon canine kick followed by a sharp photon feline claw. Both struck the damaged wing, finally severing it, which flew off and embedded itself deep in the cement wall of a building twenty meters away.
The cockroach’s back weak spot was now completely exposed. The photon swords transformed into drills, relentlessly boring into the vulnerability. In less than a minute, the cockroach monster fell.
...
Feathered and Immortal returned triumphant, carrying a small piece of the cockroach monster’s limb as ordered.
“Whoa! Why do you want this thing? It reeks!” Zhang Mingjing took the limb with one hand, pinching his nose with the other, complaining to the five-dimensional space mind model.
“Because this limb contains the encoding of the temporal monster’s mind model. Before it dies, you can use it to glean some information about your future opponents!”
“Didn’t you say it’s best not to know the future?”
“I’ve reconsidered. Knowing just a little might be harmless—perhaps understanding your future enemies could be beneficial.”
“But I have three satellites monitoring Earth in real time, and the Real One helping me. Is it really necessary to rush to learn about my enemies?”
“What if some enemies aren’t on Earth?”
“What? That’s a bit terrifying!”
---
“I’m not trying to scare you; this is what causes future uncertainty.”
“Come on!... Well, with what you’ve said, I’m a bit intrigued. So, tell me, how do I use this cockroach monster’s limb to learn a little about my future adversaries?”
“Hehe! The limb contains the temporal monster’s mind model encoding, which is entangled with other scattered codes. Get it?”
“I get it! As long as I access the encoding in the limb before it expires, my consciousness can infiltrate it, and through entanglement, I’ll know the other surviving encodings. If those codes have hosts, those hosts are my future enemies.”
“Correct! But you can only learn about one segment of surviving encoding—not all.”
“Why?”
“You think they’ll let you just hack their codes? These are the mind model codes of ruthless temporal monsters; interfering with their entanglement will easily be noticed! So, reading information about one future enemy is already fortunate.”
“Just one enemy’s info—what good does that do?”
“Whether it’s useful or not, you’ll know after you experience it.”
“All right. Since I’m free now and not in the mood for meditation, I’ll give it a try. Is it dangerous?”
“Come on, what a low-level question! How could it not be dangerous?”
“Really?... Then maybe I shouldn’t go!”
“Relax! With me here, you’ll get out unscathed.”
“Should I trust you absolutely?”
“You must! Who else will you rely on?”
The five-dimensional space mind model, though unable to foresee every plot of the solar catastrophe, had warned Zhang Mingjing of a very tough future. But Zhang Mingjing seemed oblivious, lacking any sense of crisis. To keep him vigilant and dedicated to cultivation, the mind model decided he needed to experience firsthand the power of future enemies, thus devising this method.
...
“This is a good idea—at least it gives Zhang Mingjing some pressure and prepares him psychologically for the future,” the elders of the five-dimensional space agreed.
“Indeed. Hopefully it spurs his fighting spirit,” said Elder Zhang A.
“But it’s not without risk,” another elder noted. “Since he’s using the temporal monster mind model encoding’s entanglement to glimpse his enemy, the enemy can also glimpse him, so attacks are inevitable.”
“Right.”
Elder A added, “If he can’t win, he can run—I think he’s capable of that.”
“Haha...”
“And the five-dimensional space mind model will help him escape.”
...
“I don’t mind hacking the code, but I object to holding this limb the whole time; it stinks! Isn’t there another way? Do I really have to keep it so close, and touch it?” Zhang Mingjing complained.
“That’s easy enough!” The five-dimensional space mind model said, and suddenly, the foul odor from the limb transformed into the fragrant scent of apples.
“What’s going on?” Zhang Mingjing asked in surprise.
“No big deal! I rewrote the code for its emitted scent, so the molecular structure rearranged.”
---
“Oh my, that’s exactly it! But now I feel scarred—how will I ever eat apples again?”
“Would you prefer I rewrite your consciousness’s flavor preferences, so you like the giant cockroach’s scent?”
“Uh, why would you even think of something so evil?”
“All right, enough fussing. Let’s get started!”
“This isn’t fussing—it’s testing my tolerance!”
...
Despite the banter, Zhang Mingjing, driven by curiosity to see alien monsters, entered the boundary. With the help of the five-dimensional space mind model, he infiltrated the entangled energy of the temporal monster code.
This hacking operation was almost comical—like the mind model opening the way ahead, with Zhang Mingjing trotting along behind. He found himself thoroughly enjoying the journey, as it was indeed eye-opening.
He felt himself traversing a wormhole, moving a little faster than light, so when he looked around, the surrounding light seemed frozen, as if everything were mere two-dimensional projections.
Moreover, he finally saw that every strand of light was composed of neatly aligned photons, and his excitement nearly made him want to embrace and kiss the mind model.
The mind model sensed it and teased, “Humans! When you’re excited, you either hit or hug someone.”
“Hehe... So, this is the legendary wormhole?” Zhang Mingjing asked.
“Correct! We’re following the entangled energy of this temporal monster coding. We’ll soon meet the entity entangled with it.”
“But these photons look huge—as big as basketballs!”
“That’s because what’s traversing the wormhole is your consciousness, not your body. Consciousness’s perception is far more acute than the eyes, so you see photons as big as balls.”
“Oh! So I’ve shed the constraints of the physical eye!”
“You’re finally catching on.”
“I’ve always been gifted. Otherwise, why would you choose me? But since we must traverse wormholes to meet future enemies, that means the distance is truly vast!”
“No. This time, it’s unimaginably far, yet also inexplicably close.”
“Don’t tease me! We’ve been flying so long—how could it be close?”
“That’s just your perception. Outside, it’s only a moment.”
“Huh—this is wild! It’s wrecking my worldview! Please explain.”
“Time in the consciousness realm not only has length and width, but also height. You’re in a three-dimensional time now. Thus, a moment outside is a vast space inside; it takes a while for you to exit, so it feels like ages have passed.”
“Amazing! My mood is nothing but exclamation marks now!”
“I can sense it.”
“Is there anything even more astonishing you’re hiding from me?”
“Yes! We’re leaving your universe and about to enter another parallel universe.”