Three days passed in a hurry.
At present, Sado Island could be said to have gathered more than half of the world's scientific and technological talent.
Aside from the researchers, the second largest group consisted of Tactical Surface Fighter pilots. They had come to experience the newest operating system—the master-slave follow-up mech system.
This would be a revolutionary Tactical Surface Fighter operating system, one that could shorten the training time for TSF pilots by more than ninety percent.
"Please immediately remove all dangerous items from your person. Approach is prohibited. Repeating: please immediately remove—"
The electronic voice made the newly arrived members of Bao-Feng Squad look over. A robot had already aimed its gun at someone unwilling to cooperate, making cold sweat pour down the other party's face. In the end, he could only follow the request and take several dangerous items from his body.
In other words, to enter the interior, no threatening items could be carried inside unless they passed the other party's manual inspection and approval.
Otherwise, anyone who forcibly crossed the line would be shot dead by the robot without hesitation.
And over the past few days, people had indeed died beneath the machine's cold, merciless gun barrel.
Of course, some people had come here for sabotage from the very beginning. So over these past few days, batch after batch of intruders had reportedly been cleared out.
"Captain Yifei, don't you think that robot is too scary?"
"What's scary about it?"
Cui Yifei did not see what was so frightening.
As for why she was being called captain, it was because all those who had come were rookies, and she, the rookie with the best results, had been assigned to lead the team.
Most of the Tactical Surface Fighter personnel from other countries were probably rookies as well.
On one hand, the TSF system upgrade would not happen that quickly. If veterans came first to adapt to the new operating system, then went back only to operate the old system, it might instead cause confusion in their movements. So they might as well let the rookies train first.
On the other hand, rookies were rookies. They were not that familiar with the original TSF system, so they might be able to learn the new system faster.
Once they had learned it to a certain level, some TSF systems might already have been updated, allowing them to transition seamlessly.
"It's just that the robot's movements are too natural. If you covered it with human skin, it might be no different from a person."
"That makes it scary?"
"You don't think that's scary? What if the people around you were replaced by robots?"
"Then ask them a few more questions. You'd figure it out through conversation, wouldn't you?"
Cui Yifei rolled her eyes at her teammate.
Although the robot's movements were said to be almost as smooth as a human's, and it could perform movements humans could perform—even with greater ferocity—once you spoke to it, it was an idiot.
After all, it was still a machine. It was a program. If you asked a few flexible questions, it would not be able to answer. Would that not expose it as a robot?
Good. It was their team's turn to register, and they entered the venue.
She wondered if she would be able to see that guy.
While looking around, she ended up bumping into someone.
"Ah? Sorry."
"No, it's fine. I wasn't watching where I was going."
Since she had been the one not looking where she was walking, Cui Yifei naturally apologized to the blond woman in front of her.
"Stella Bremer, from Switzerland."
Stella, who had been accidentally bumped into, introduced herself, looking as if she intended to make friends.
"Huh? Cui Yifei, from China."
Cui Yifei also reached out and shook hands with her.
Suddenly, a commotion drew their attention. A manned aircraft they had never seen before had appeared, accompanied by two XV-104 Riptides and ten unmanned combat drones, the Beewings.
"That aircraft looks a little like one of the machines introduced earlier, the Ho 229 Tactical Surface Fighter," Stella said.
In Dr. Yuuko Kouzuki's promotional materials, there had been a Tactical Surface Fighter code-named the Ho 229, which could transform into both a fighter and a TSF.
The guarded aircraft was probably a manned version designed based on that shape.
As the aircraft landed, they saw an old man in a wheelchair being pushed down. A group of uniformed attendants accompanied him.
It looked like this was the force behind Dr. Yuuko Kouzuki.
At the same time, inside the cockpit of the XG-70b Susanoo II, Marimo Jinguuji was already inside.
Yuuko had only just told her the true purpose of this technology-sharing conference a short while ago. Marimo had never expected it to be this insane.
Now the arrow was already on the string. There was no turning back.
All Marimo could do was support her with everything she had and protect this place.
Suddenly, she saw Tohru point at one of the screen windows. It was surveillance footage of one of the four metal pillars. A person had climbed over the fence and was approaching the pillar.
No matter how one looked at it, something was wrong.
As for why the robots had not attacked him, it was because anyone approved to enter had been recognized as someone not carrying dangerous items and judged as a safe target.
In reality, this approaching person had long since been confirmed as someone who had brought dangerous items inside. It was just that he had deliberately not been inspected properly.
His mission was to destroy one of the metal pillars and sabotage the electromagnetic shield.
As for how they knew that this was his mission, naturally, it was thanks to Tohru's hard work scanning and reading minds over the past few days.
Just then, an alarm suddenly sounded.
"BETA?"
Marimo's expression changed slightly. BETA were approaching Sado Island.
No, they had already landed on one of the beaches.
This was the enemy's doing as well. In order to barely create an excuse to attack Sado Island, they had gone to great lengths to bring BETA here.
It was not as if humanity had never captured BETA. They had. The United States had a secret BETA-related experimental base in Alaska, where many BETA were imprisoned.
Over the past few days, they had taken great pains to transport them by large transport aircraft to the nearby sea, then load them onto submarines and bring them close to Sado Island.
Yuuko had also only just told her this information.
"A BETA invasion? What is going on?"
Yui, who was responsible for guarding the venue, immediately rushed toward the invasion point with three Valkyries TSFs.
She kept feeling that something was wrong today.
Was it the BETA?
For them to appear at a time like this was far too convenient. It was strange.
The footage from the landing zone connected.
"Huh?"
In the plaza in front of the master-slave follow-up mech system experience hall, TSF pilots from various countries stared in shock at a large screen. It displayed the reason behind the sudden alarm and showed footage of the BETA landing.
"What is that? A Tactical Surface Fighter? Is it with the BETA?"
A strangely shaped TSF seemed to be leading the BETA ashore and attacking the United Nations forces along the coast.
"No, you can tell at a glance that thing is shoddy. It's a counterfeit fake!"
"A fake? What fake?"
Stella looked at Cui Yifei in confusion as Cui grew agitated.
"That thing is a Tactical Surface Fighter. It isn't a Tactical Surface Fighter-class BETA machine."
"Huh?"
Stella was completely confused.
"In any case, that definitely isn't the machine I saw. It's a crude knockoff!"
Cui Yifei could confirm that this machine had absolutely not been manufactured in a BETA Hive factory. Instead, it seemed that humanity had taken BETA body material and forcibly grafted it onto a Tactical Surface Fighter.
They had created such a crude counterfeit, and it was controlling the BETA—
Correction. It was not controlling them. It was simply running in front of the BETA, or perhaps attracting them to follow it.
What was the point of luring them here?
"Um, can you explain that more clearly?"
"Ah? Well, that's..."
This put Cui Yifei in a difficult position. She had been warned again and again that she absolutely could not leak what she had seen. It was classified.
However, her hesitation did not last long before a sudden disturbance at the venue interrupted her.
"What?"
"They're dropping a G-bomb here?"
"Are you kidding me? Are they insane? Why would they drop a G-bomb?"
Someone had received a report from space—
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]