A Safe Landing

【Anyone else feel like throwing up watching that Broodmother, but Xu Lingqu was way too cool? I spent the whole time gagging and yelling 'so awesome' at the same time.】

【That smash into the wall had to hurt... it left a crater, and Xu Lingqu was back on her feet in three seconds. Is she made of iron or what?】

【I finally get why her fighting style always felt a little off to me. She uses large, sweeping movements in combat, instinctively maximizing the space around her. It was weird when she fought humans, but it fits perfectly when she goes after the Broodmother.】

【She probably trained by playing those holographic disaster monster games, going in without a mech. Kkkk.】

【The main thing is, how's she going to get down now? That fighter that crashed into the nest—can it still fly? She's not going to just stay up there until the game ends, is she?】

"I'm going to blow this place up." Xu Lingqu stood up, a bit unsteady, and made her way back to her fighter.

The fighter's wings were already destroyed and it couldn't fly anymore, but the self-destruct mechanism was still functional. Once activated, it should be enough to detonate the entire nest.

After all, this map didn't have a decapitation mechanic, and she couldn't care less. A centipede dies but never stiffens—she didn't know what other tricks the nest might pull if left behind. Might as well blow it up and cut the weeds by the roots.

With that thought, she assigned tasks to the remaining Moye Military Academy students on the ground: "There should be more ordinary humans left on the surface than in the shelters. Their votes will go to us in the end. Keep an eye on the Qingjun people, and just wait for the game to end normally."

The Moye students no longer needed her, the Chief Commander, to watch over them every second to secure victory.

Liu Zheng was leading a group to clear out the remaining Zerg on the ground when she heard Xu Lingqu's words. For a moment, she didn't know what to say.

Of course, she didn't want Xu Lingqu to go down with the nest, but Xu Lingqu spoke with such certainty—who could stop the commander's decision?

The students of Moye had grown used to following Xu Lingqu's orders without question.

"Could you give me a little time? I can catch you." Shen Shouli suddenly spoke up.

He was also clearing out Zerg on the ground, in the city's fire rescue station. It was equipped with a mobile energy field device designed to catch people falling from tall buildings.

But that could only handle someone falling from a few hundred meters. Xu Lingqu was at an altitude of ten thousand meters.

"No need." Xu Lingqu said casually. "My chances of survival aren't worth much. Focus our strength on eliminating the ground Zerg; it's more cost-effective than trying to save me."

"It's important—your coming down alive is important. The others can keep eliminating the Zerg; I'll try on my own." Shen Shouli, who had always followed Xu Lingqu's orders without question, suddenly began to argue with her. His voice over the comms was almost pleading.

"We can't do it without you, so give me a chance to catch you."

Xu Lingqu didn't see why Shen Shouli was so hung up on this. Maybe he thought her presence would secure more votes from the surviving humans?

She glanced back at the foul-smelling Zerg nest. Honestly, dying along with this thing wasn't all that interesting. "Alright, you give it a try."

The Zerg in the fire rescue station were all eliminated. Shen Shouli retrieved the mobile energy field device from inside. It was essential—it would provide the maximum cushioning to slow the impact of someone falling from a great height.

But it wasn't enough on its own. If a person fell from ten thousand meters, they would need at least eighteen meters of snow to fully absorb the fall. With the energy field device as a base, ten meters of snow would suffice.

Ever since Xu Lingqu had come up with the plan to charge into the nest, Shen Shouli had been thinking about how to get her down safely. He had already set his sights on the snow-making machines at the ski resort on the outskirts of Xiji City. After retrieving the energy field device, he hurried to grab those snow machines.

Everyone else—the other Moye students in Xiji City, the Qingjun people, the ordinary NPCs—was methodically clearing out the remaining Zerg.

Only he moved against the crowd, walking against the grain, his steps unceasing, afraid that the chance Xu Lingqu had given him was limited, that she would lose patience and a mushroom cloud would bloom in the sky.

He had long asked Lin Xiao to help calculate the landing spot. When everything was in place, he looked up and said into the comms: "Please jump, Commander. I'll catch you."

The energy field was activated. Xu Lingqu would land first in the twenty-meter energy field to slow her descent, then drop into the ten-meter snow pile. That way, she would barely suffer any injury.

But Shen Shouli was still uneasy. Even though he had Lin Xiao calculate the position, there was still a risk that she might miss the buffer zone he had set up, falling from ten thousand meters.

He suddenly regretted that he couldn't guarantee her safety completely. If she deviated and landed somewhere else, she would be dead for sure—and then he would just be harming her.

He was so nervous that his hands trembled uncontrollably as he stared up at the Zerg nest in the sky.

Xu Lingqu said nothing. She stood up. To her, falling to her death or dying in the explosion was about the same—nothing to be nervous about. She simply didn't care.

First, she activated the fighter's self-destruct. Then she took a few steps out of the nest and, without any hesitation, leaped into the void. Behind her, the mushroom cloud rose as the nest exploded, and the shockwave only made her fall faster.

The whole scene looked like a meteor streaking across the daytime sky, descending toward the earth.

Shen Shouli kept his eyes fixed on her figure, watching her come closer, closer, his heart pounding faster and faster, as if he were the one falling from ten thousand meters.

It wasn't until he saw her land in the energy field he had set up that the frantic beating of his heart finally calmed. He quickly shut off the energy field, then climbed into the ten-meter-deep snow pit he had created.

He fumbled to throw a rope down into the pit, asking urgently, "Are you okay?"

Xu Lingqu didn't answer, but she tugged on the rope hanging before her, signaling she was fine.

She pulled herself up out of the snow pit. The snow machines hadn't been turned off yet, still diligently churning out a blizzard.

For a moment, the two of them looked like two little hawthorns coated in powdered sugar—snowballs sold from a freezer in summer.

Xu Lingqu glanced at the snow machine, now doing its best impression of a peashooter (snowflake edition): "Are you planning to open a ski resort here?"

Shen Shouli fumbled to shut them off.

She stood up in the snow pile. "Thank you. You caught me."