Chapter 325 – World Upside Down
These two were as good as dead.
Tu Ran didn’t need to waste any more time on them.
However, she had to act before the Federation and seize the core inside the original’s body.
A helicopter hovered above the lookout tower, lowering a rope from above. At the end of the rope hung a person dressed as a pioneer.
The person held a dagger, aiming it at the original’s back.
The Federation already knew the original wouldn’t survive, so they were planning to steal his core.
The original was curled up on the ground in pain, completely powerless to fight back. His companions on the lookout tower didn’t seem inclined to help.
The clone still hadn’t realized the original was in danger, staying focused on Tu Ran.
Tu Ran raised her right arm to block the clone’s punch, and with her left arm, a dagger materialized out of thin air, aiming for his neck.
The clone leaned backward, and the tip of the dagger grazed his hat, knocking it to the ground.
For a split second, the clone lost focus as he looked at the fallen hat. Seizing the moment, Tu Ran’s right leg swept across and landed a powerful kick to the side of his neck.
The kick was delivered with full force, and the man’s head snapped to the side, blood gushing from his nose as he fell to the ground, unable to get up.
Tu Ran didn’t spare him another glance. She raised her laser gun and shot at the rope hanging from the helicopter.
The rope snapped, and the pioneer dangling from it plummeted to the lookout tower.
The helicopter tried to retreat, but Tu Ran wasn’t letting it go. She fired a blue flame beam, slicing through the helicopter’s tail.
The helicopter immediately lost balance, swaying left and right as it veered off course, eventually crashing into an armored vehicle at the Threshold entrance, exploding in a mushroom cloud.
The pioneer who had landed on the lookout tower wasted no time. Gripping the dagger, he plunged it into the original’s neck, ignoring the agonized screams as he carved out the core from the original’s body.
He held the core between his two fingers, a triumphant smile spreading across his face. At the same moment, the clone, whose limbs had gone limp from Tu Ran’s powerful kick, lost all signs of life.
With the original dead, the clone followed suit.
Another helicopter, fully intact, lifted off and lowered a rope to the lookout tower.
Just as the pioneer was about to climb the rope and leave, Tu Ran sprinted toward the tower, kicking the supporting metal frame beneath it.
The sturdy metal support snapped like a piece of straw, breaking with a sharp crack and falling in the direction opposite to Tu Ran.
The pioneer, unable to reach the helicopter in time, panicked. Seizing the last moment before the lookout tower collapsed, he jumped, trying to grab the end of the rope.
The man with [Air Extraction] on the lookout, quick to react, grabbed the pioneer’s legs, pulling him down a little. The pioneer cursed under his breath, “Useless piece of trash,” shaking his legs in an attempt to shake him off. He failed, but fortunately, his physical strength was extraordinary, and he still managed to reach the rope, gripping it tightly. He shouted up at the helicopter, “Pull us up!”
Before anyone from the helicopter could respond, Tu Ran’s voice came from nearby, cold and calm, “Are you sure they can pull you up?”
The voice came from just below him, so close it seemed like she was standing right beneath him. The pioneer froze, a chill creeping up from his feet. Slowly, he lowered his head to see the situation below him.
Tu Ran stood atop the collapsed lookout tower’s highest point, gripping one of the “useless” man’s legs, and the “useless” man was holding on to the pioneer’s legs, and the three of them were aligned in a single line.
The helicopter couldn’t pull them up for the moment.
“Let go of me!” The pioneer shouted urgently at the “useless” man holding onto his legs, trying to shake him off.
The man below, knowing that the pioneer was his only lifeline, refused to let go. He used every ounce of his strength to hold on, terrified of being tossed aside.
As the standoff continued, the surrounding guards had already closed in. Tu Ran held on to one of the man’s legs with her right hand, gripping the laser gun with her left. She restored the gun’s full power and began to fire, rapidly taking down countless guards.
“You have two minutes left. After that, the Pioneer Team will arrive, equipped with the latest Federation weapons and six laser guns,” Zero urged.
Tu Ran immediately applied more force with her right hand, pulling down hard. The two men hanging from the rope and the helicopter swayed, nearly being pulled down.
They’re holding on tightly. Tu Ran smirked.
She didn’t want to pull too hard and risk tearing their arms and legs off, making the scene too gruesome.
Using the wreckage of the lookout tower as leverage, she pushed off with her feet and leaped up, agilely climbing over their bodies to grab the rope hanging from the helicopter.
“Come down.”
Tu Ran wrapped the rope around her hand, lowered her center of gravity, and then leaped downward with all her strength. The helicopter followed in a rapid descent. She twisted the rope, spinning the helicopter like a kite around her. It swept through the guards surrounding them, and then Tu Ran quickly released her grip, sending the helicopter crashing into a row of cannons.
The bombs that hadn’t been fired inside the cannons collided with the helicopter, igniting flames and setting off a chain reaction of explosions. The deafening sound of cannon fire echoed into the sky, and a blinding inferno erupted.
The guards scrambled to escape. With their lives at risk, they no longer cared about Tu Ran’s whereabouts.
Tu Ran picked up the knife that had fallen earlier, walked over to the pioneer who lay on the ground, dazed from the fall, and retrieved the inner core from his chest pocket.
She then walked over to the other unconscious man, flipped him over, and without blinking an eye, extracted his inner core.
After completing these tasks, Tu Ran glanced back at the chaotic scene, where flames still rose into the sky, and followed the route Zero had planned for her to leave the area.
…
News of Tu Ran’s return spread quickly across all forty-two states of the Federation.
As soon as she returned, she caused a massive stir, disrupting everything outside the Threshold and sending a video of the chaos circulating widely.
The Federation’s citizens were stunned and curious. They wondered why she had returned and what kinds of abilities she possessed.
Some admired her, some were in awe, and even a group of people began to see her as a symbol of defiance against authority.
However, before long, the Federation government released an official statement about Tu Ran: She did not belong to the Federation; she came from another world.
Blue Star, a backward world, a low-level world that the Federation was about to conquer.
Tu Ran’s reputation on the internet flipped quickly. All previous admiration for her vanished, replaced by fury.
A person from another world had caused such chaos in the Federation. It was an insult to their identity as Federation citizens.
Comments that once expressed admiration for Tu Ran disappeared, and the internet’s opinion on her miraculously aligned into a unified call for vengeance. People shouted for her death and demanded the Federation swiftly conquer Blue Star to show those lowly beings the Federation’s might.
While these comments filled the Federation’s network, Tu Ran had already quietly arrived at the black market. She tossed her hover car into a secluded corner, donned a mechanical helmet, and changed into a leather jacket and pants, her appearance now almost indistinguishable from a robot. With confidence, she walked into a small clinic.
