The Almighty Ring

“This is beyond vexing!” Jiang Fei snarled through his teeth. The people that Ariel had pointed out were real people. They were China military soldiers. Jiang Fei, Ariel, and Isabella had gone all out during the fight, causing vibrations so strong that they could be felt physically. People in the military base did not need to rely on machines to know that something was up.

The only thing that 0542 had done right that day was obtaining the authority of the Main Engine room. With a single touch on the metal wall, the entire facility was stored away in the ring’s inventory. Once the entire facility was gone, a dark space of more than thousands of empty square meters was revealed.

“They’re coming!” said Ariel, standing in front of Jiang Fei to protect him from whatever that was coming.

A loud explosion followed her words and a large hole appeared right above their heads. A large number of soldiers, Androids included, could be seen.

“Put your hands behind your head and come out of the hole quietly!” A loud voice, spoken through an amplifier, could be heard from the surface.

“ARGH!” Isabella screamed before releasing a violent storm of lightning at them. The soldiers and Androids bore killing intent, thus triggering a fight response from Isabella, who was still in the Berserk state.

“Attack! Attack now!”

“We can’t! All our equipment were damaged! We have no means of attacking now!”

“Hold on then! I will call this in!”

…

With no working instruments that they could use, the soldiers sent in the Androids to hold down the fort. An almost unending wave of Level 4 Androids jumped down to the caverns, all destroyed almost instantly as they entered the cave. Isabella was ruthless to anyone who dared to try and harm Jiang Fei. The military had Level 5 Androids but at this point, they only had two functioning ones left. They knew the Androids would be utterly destroyed if they sent them in.

“No need to fight any longer. We have… achieved our goal. Let’s go back. Ariel, fetch Isabella and get us out of here,” said Jiang Fei. If he allowed Isabella to continue to fight, she would eventually chase them back to the base and destroy it entirely. It was too dangerous, not to mention too damaging to her due to the Valium inside her bloodstream.

To be honest, Jiang Fei had little to no care about the soldiers of his own nation. He was more worried about Isabella’s condition. He could not allow Isabella to burn out the last remaining Valium he had with him.

“I’ll try…” said Ariel as she mustered all her powers just to get close to Isabella. As soon as the violent, indiscriminate lightning storm was over, Ariel quickly flashed herself to Isabella and grabbed her and Jiang Fei before teleporting away to the Winter Islands.

The moment they reappeared, Jiang Fei was violently tossed off his feet. There was a clash of power, between Ariel and Isabella. Although she bore no killing intent toward her, Isabella had misunderstood Ariel’s act of teleporting away as an attack. With unfocused eyes and bared teeth, Isabella held Ariel up by her neck with just one hand.

Ariel struggled with everything she had but she was ultimately weaker than Isabella.

Jiang Fei quickly picked himself up and charged toward the Berserking Isabella and held her from behind.

“Isabella! It’s me! Calm down! There’s no danger here! Only family!” he cried out.

In that instant, upon hearing Jiang Fei’s voice, Isabella immediately let Ariel loose. She froze in place and was seen struggling with something. Her entire body began to tremble as her voice started to return.

“Ack. Urgh…”

“That’s right! Calm down! We are all safe here. No one will hurt you anymore!” Jiang Fei continued his attempt to subdue Isabella as Ariel got to her feel to recollect herself. This continued for only less than 2 minutes before Isabella calmed down. The entire process was much faster and debatably less violent than the last time. The violent energy that was flowing in her body began to calm down and after 5 minutes, Isabella was completely back to normal.

“Bella, could you not control your power? Not even the slightest?” said Jiang Fei, referring to when she was in her Berserk state. 0542 had mentioned that wearing the Core of Will would stabilize Isabella’s state of mind even during Berserk mode. However, whenever Isabella tapped into the power of Berserk, she appeared to be stronger and more violent each time. Although Isabella grew stronger with every Berserk, Jiang Fei could not help but feel that something was wrong.

“0542, prepare the backup Teleportation Core and start collecting Energy Crystals,” said Jiang Fei after Ariel had sent Isabella back to her room to rest.

“Yes, captain.”

“How many are we able to gather?”

“The backup Teleportation Core could send in at least 10,000 Energy Crystals every 24 hours.”

“Sh*t! Here I am using the backup when the Main Teleportation Core could be giving me 15,000 Energy Crystals a day!” Jiang Fei barked angrily. To think that the Main Teleportation Core had been accumulating 15,000 Energy Crystals a day, every day for at least 7,000 years, and it was not in his hands!

Then again, Jiang Fei was not thinking logically. Even though the Main Teleportation Core had been active for 7,000 years, the storage for Energy Crystals was limited. There were not as many halls as Jiang Fei thought it had. Even so, the storage capability of the now empty Main Engine room was certainly plenty.

“What can I do with only 10,000 Energy Crystals?! I need to get those back! They are mine!” Jiang Fei said angrily as he sat down on the sofa. 10,000 Energy Crystals were plenty but he needed over 30,000,000 Energy Crystals just to revive Isabella! How much longer would he have to wait before he could revive Nina, Sylphy, and the rest of the girls in the game?

Jiang Fei was pissed. There was no way he would allow himself to sit idly by for years to wait. He had to do something soon!

“0542, how could you not trace their location?” said Jiang Fei.

“Captain, the enemy is using powerful jamming signals to render the radar system ineffective.”

“That’s alright. They can run for now, but not forever! I will find them eventually!” said Jiang Fei, a sinister grin showing up on his face as he clenched his fists hard. Even though he had no idea where the Unknowns hid the Main Teleportation Core and the stolen Energy Crystals, he could still find their approximate location via the super radar system.

“Captain, I cannot encourage you to launch an attack,” said 0542 out of the blue.

“Any reason for that?”

“We do not possess any reliable information about the Unknowns. Secondly, the Unknowns are individually strong. Barging into the enemy base without knowing anything about them is risky. Besides, there’s no need for you to make an enemy out of them.”

“What this? Are you telling me they aren’t the enemy? Even when they had clearly stolen the Main Teleportation Core and the accumulated Energy Crystals that I could use to save Isabella and revive Nina and Sylphy? How’s that not an act of war against me?” Jiang Fei roared. He was so aggravated that he punched the table. That sudden burst of energy broke the flooring of his house and even made the entire island shake a little. Luckily, it was extremely faint that no inhabitant of the island felt it.

While Jiang Fei was venting, he had failed to realize the irregularity that was 0542. As a support system, 0542 should only be able to help Jiang Fei to assess the situation or plan for him. It should not be able to provide any opinion without prior consent by the Captain. When 0542 had suggested Jiang Fei not make an enemy out of the Unknowns, it was a clear breach of protocol.

Unfortunately, Jiang Fei’s mind was clouded with rage and anger to realize that something was wrong with 0542. Then again, due to the relationship he had with 0541 as a support system, he had the utmost trust in 0542.

“Enough. Stop talking. Isabella is worn out, and so am I. I’ll call it a day today. Tomorrow, I shall pay them a visit. Directly in the stink hole from which they spawned!” said Jiang Fei decisively.