While the Speed Mecha was being modified in a race against the clock, Lin Xinghai returned to the top floor of the outpost.

Although a mere three minutes had passed, the green poison fog in the distance had already expanded by more than tenfold and was now less than two kilometers from their outpost.

"Have you calculated how much longer it’ll be before the poison fog reaches us?" Lin Xinghai asked a nearby observer.

"Based on its current rate of expansion, we have about eight minutes," the observer quickly reported.

"Mm," Lin Xinghai nodded, then looked to Zhang Yue at his side. "How much longer for my Mecha’s modifications?"

"Even though it’s just some simple adjustments and fitting new parts, it’ll still take at least five minutes."

Zhang Yue’s brow furrowed as he watched the green poison fog billow ever closer. "By then, you might have to fight deep inside that fog for the entire mission. Visibility will be extremely limited. Are you sure that’s okay?"

"Don’t worry. It’ll be fine," Lin Xinghai said with confidence. ’My Perception Range is already approaching 600 meters. It can completely substitute for my eyes.’

Zhang Yue glanced at Lin Xinghai. He was curious but didn’t press the issue.

Time ticked by, and in the blink of an eye, five minutes had passed.

When the Speed Mecha was wheeled out of the warehouse, its overall appearance hadn’t changed much, aside from a few inconspicuous new attachments.

Of course, each of those inconspicuous attachments was a valuable piece of hardware that couldn’t be bought through normal channels.

"Miaomiao, let’s go!" Lin Xinghai said, hopping into the Mecha’s cockpit first.

The cockpit had been adjusted and slightly enlarged, but the expansion was extremely limited. After all, there was very little room to cannibalize from other parts of the Mecha, and time had been tight.

So when Liu Miaomiao climbed in after him, she had no choice but to squeeze in tightly with Lin Xinghai.

Lin Xinghai grinned and, taking full advantage of the situation, wrapped an arm around her slender waist, pulling Liu Miaomiao into his arms.

With so many people watching from outside, Liu Miaomiao’s cheeks instantly flushed crimson. She didn’t dare look at anyone, burying her face directly into Lin Xinghai’s chest.

"Tsk! When I get my own Mecha, I’m gonna have it modified just like this. Then I’ll invite a girl to ride with me," Xu Haishui said, a little envious.

The others all shot him a look but said nothing. They were all far too noble to voice such thoughts, even if they were thinking the exact same thing.

As for Lin Xinghai, he had only just begun to enjoy the warm, fragrant embrace when his consciousness linked with the brainwave interface. All physical sensations vanished instantly, replaced by a stream of data from the Mecha’s various sensors.

’Good thing the technology in this era is so advanced. If I had to manually input commands to pilot the Mecha, there’d be no way to bring someone else along,’ Lin Xinghai mused. He then piloted the Mecha toward the defensive line outside the outpost.

At the same time, he opened his communication channel and contacted Xu Jinwu, the artillery squad’s captain.

"Begin data synchronization," Lin Xinghai said.

"Yes, sir!" Xu Jinwu’s reply came instantly over the Communication Device.

A stream of data flooded Lin Xinghai’s vision. When he looked into the distance, he could see a series of red circles materializing on the path ahead, each marked with a number.

These were the shell impact points and precise detonation times, calculated by the computer in real time.

The red circles appeared at roughly 10-meter intervals, stretching all the way into the horde of Mutated Zombies three kilometers away.

That’s right. They were going to blast a path all the way there.

After all, when facing a Zombie tide, even someone like Lin Xinghai would have their Speed severely hampered.

If he wasn’t fast enough, it could lead to all sorts of unpredictable complications.

Under everyone’s gaze, Lin Xinghai took a deep breath and slowly announced, "Operation Lightning, execute!"

"Yes, sir!" the members of the three artillery squads responded in unison.

Then, the firing platforms whirred to life, feeding shells for the Grenade Cannons and Mortars to their launch tubes.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The Grenade Cannons fired first. Following specific patterns and angles, they launched shell after shell. Each one’s trajectory had been meticulously calculated to land a direct hit on the red markers in Lin Xinghai’s field of view.

The interval between each shell was only 0.1 seconds. Exploding in rapid succession, they instantly blasted a straight path forward through the dense Zombie tide.

However, there were so many Zombies, packed so tightly they were practically a solid mass, that the path blasted open by the Grenade Cannons began to close up almost immediately.

However, Lin Xinghai, piloting the Speed Mecha, had already started moving just before the firing platforms launched their first salvo.

He timed his movements perfectly, surging forward the instant each shell detonated, following the "road" being blasted open for him.

Then, all the soldiers and Mercenaries in Outpost 108 witnessed an incredible sight.

Shell after shell exploded within the Zombie tide, and a single Mecha followed in their wake as if it were a shadow, covering a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

An ordinary Mecha would be hard-pressed to reach such a speed, even if it wasn’t wading through a Zombie tide.

Lin Xinghai, however, was far from satisfied. After all, his current Speed was only equivalent to about 1,000 points.

His Speed Mecha, with its recent modifications and augmented by his Superpower, could reach a top Speed of 5,200 points.

Naturally, he wanted to push the Mecha to its maximum Speed by the time he launched his actual attack.

So, after getting used to this method of advancing behind the rolling barrage, he immediately contacted Xu Jinwu.

"Captain Xu, I’m starting to accelerate as planned. Can you guys keep up?" Lin Xinghai asked.

"No problem. Our data is synced. The firing platforms’ computers will continuously adjust the trajectories based on your Mecha’s performance. As long as you don’t suddenly accelerate or decelerate, we can keep up," Xu Jinwu replied instantly.

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Lin Xinghai didn’t hesitate and immediately began to accelerate. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

In the time it took for that short exchange, the Mecha had already covered another kilometer, plunging completely into the dense green fog and rapidly closing in on the horde of Mutated Zombies.

The Speed Mecha’s Speed quickly rose to 2,000 points and was still accelerating, pushing toward 3,000.

At first, Xu Jinwu was quite calm. But as the Speed Mecha’s Speed continued to surge, the processing load on the firing platforms’ computers shot up almost vertically, making his heart pound in his chest.

However, this was apparently just the beginning. When Lin Xinghai’s Speed surpassed 3,000 points, the processors’ load hit 100%. They had to switch to an Overclocked State just to barely keep up with the Speed Mecha.

To his horror, he discovered that the Speed of Lin Xinghai’s Mecha seemed to be limitless, as it just kept increasing.

He instantly realized he had been far too overconfident.

Having never fought alongside Lin Xinghai before, he had no idea a Mecha could even reach such a Speed.

It defied all common sense.

If this kept up, the firing platforms’ processors would definitely buckle under the strain.

Just as he was hesitating whether to tell Lin Xinghai to slow down, the deputy captain beside him suddenly let out a sigh of relief.