“Look at this world!”
Mark suddenly stood up, his large palm slamming onto the holographic projection table, causing the image of the Antarctic icebergs to tremor.
“The FBI has been chasing those ‘monsters’ like mad dogs in California recently, but each time it’s perfectly covered up by ‘gas explosions’ or ‘laboratory accidents’!”
“How many farms and ranches globally have turned into insect farms overnight? The official explanation is ‘high-protein feed research’? Bullshit! What do those bugs eat? How fast do they grow? No one delves deeper! The entire world seems to be covered by an invisible giant net, all acting according to a script we can’t see!”
He took a deep breath, trying to suppress the surging sense of powerlessness in his chest.
He clearly remembered before his Rebirth: at midnight on December 31, 2017, deep in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, a “door” that tore through dimensions silently opened.
At dawn on January 1, 2018, the first hundred-meter beast, codenamed “City Breaker,” landed in San Francisco.
Its body, covered in thick biological armor, was immune to conventional weapons, and its scorching toxic blood was like molten lava; after being killed by hyper-saturated firepower and self-destructing, the spraying corrosive blood turned half the city into smoking ruins…
Human civilization collapsed amidst screams, forced to retreat behind steel high walls, and had no choice but to build equally massive mechs to fight them with cold weapons, to seize that glimmer of hope.
And Mark was once a member of that steel torrent, serving as a senior researcher and pilot of the mechs until his last moment.
He returned with this heavy memory, gathered his core comrades from his previous life, and tried to accumulate enough power before this catastrophe erupted, to cope with this terrifying tribulation.
Initially, he accurately predicted several stock market fluctuations and minor disasters, winning the team’s initial trust.
He secretly prepared with the funds and intelligence brought by these “premonitions.” But now…
“Mark,” Iron Anvil Tom’s voice was like rusting gears turning; he was the oldest and most composed.
“The giant beasts you mentioned, that ‘door,’ we believe. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here with you in this godforsaken place. But you said the world has changed…”
He pointed to Te Ye on the screen, who was passionately introducing “Ice Crack Exploration,” “If everything has changed, then how can you be sure that ‘door’ will still open on January 1st? Maybe… maybe the disaster has been fanned away by the butterfly effect?”
This was precisely Mark’s deepest fear and confusion.
The timeline seemed to have been scrambled by an invisible hand.
The Te Ye he “remembered” should have exposed the ice-sealed base during a live broadcast in Antarctica, triggering global panic, instead of promoting a movie.
This deviation made him doubt his Rebirth memories more than ever before.
He felt like he was running in a thick fog, and the path beneath his feet could disappear at any moment.
“I don’t know, Tom.” Mark’s voice carried a rare weariness as he wiped his face.
“I really don’t know anymore. It feels… like someone has altered the script in my mind. But the only anchor I can grasp is that ‘door’ at the bottom of the Pacific. It’s the clearest, most certain event in my memory. If it doesn’t appear either…”
He paused, not continuing.
That would mean he might truly be insane, or fate had been completely twisted.
Jackson looked at the struggle in Mark’s eyes, feeling a bit unbearable: “Boss, it’s not that we don’t believe you. It’s just… this waiting, this feeling that the entire world is strange, it’s driving everyone crazy. Rat hacked into satellite data a few days ago and found several suspicious deep-sea anomalies, but the locations don’t match the coordinates you mentioned. The FBI’s recent actions have also become more secretive, almost impossible to track.”
Mark sighed, knowing that his teammates’ doubts were only natural.
He could feel a subtle sense of estrangement within the team, like cracks in bulletproof glass, unseen but definitely present.
Fortunately, his biggest trump card was still there.
“Come with me.”
He stopped watching the live broadcast and turned to walk towards a huge alloy door deep in the warehouse that required triple biometric authentication.
The door slid open silently, and cold air mixed with the scent of fresh machine oil wafted out.
The massive xenon lights suddenly illuminated, like an artificial sun, instantly dispelling the darkness and completely illuminating the towering steel giant deep within the warehouse.
“Hiss—” Even though they were mentally prepared, when everyone truly stood at the foot of the “Titan Guardian,” they couldn’t help but gasp.
Its colossal body, over one hundred and twenty meters tall, was forged from special steel secretly smelted by Mark using advanced alloy formulas from his Rebirth memories, gleaming with a cold matte finish.
Streamlined armor covered its entire body, and its joints contained energy conductive fluid shimmering with a faint blue light.
Its thick hydraulic limbs seemed capable of crushing mountains, and its massive metal feet were deeply embedded in the reinforced foundation.
Its chest armor was heavy, with a softly glowing blue annular device—a miniature nuclear fusion reactor—embedded in the center.
Its head was fierce in design, with compound eye sensor arrays flashing dangerous red light.
On its left shoulder plate, a simple SEAL Team skull emblem was etched.
“God…”
Rat Rick looked up, his mouth wide enough to fit an egg, “This… this is a ‘Titan’? Can it really move?”
“Theoretically, it can tear apart any flesh and blood body.” Mark’s voice regained its strength as he caressed the mech’s cold ankle armor, as if stroking a lover’s skin.
“The nuclear power core provides almost infinite sustained combat energy. Both arms are equipped with high-frequency oscillation cutting blades, which are remarkably effective against biological armor. A hidden electromagnetic railgun array on the back can launch attacks from beyond visual range. The full-body titanium-tungsten alloy armor layer can withstand direct hits from heavy armor-piercing rounds.” He turned back, his eyes burning with an iron-like will, “This is our last hope against those monsters.”
He walked to the mech’s left leg, opened a hidden hatch, revealing the complex ladder structure inside.
“The cockpit is in the abdomen. The neural synchronization operating System I personally designed requires extremely high mental resilience and reaction speed from the pilot.” Mark skillfully climbed up, his movements agile despite his build.
The cockpit door closed, and a soft light came on.
A complex holographic interface unfolded before Mark’s eyes, with countless data streams cascading down.
He put on the neural connection helmet, feeling the cold sensation against his scalp.
When the System’s self-check hummed, all the external noise—his teammates’ exclamations, the world’s strangeness, his inner confusion—seemed to be isolated by the thick alloy.
Only here, only this steel giant, which embodied the culmination of his two lives’ efforts and hopes, could give him a sense of control over his destiny.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The cold metallic scent mixed with ozone; this was his battlefield, his fortress.
......