Read Novel Full Chapter 1765: Blacksheep: Part-1
Chapter 1765: Blacksheep: Part-1
Young Aether loaded the suitcase containers into the armored transport trucks one by one, working alongside the crews in biohazard suits.
The metallic clang of locking clamps echoed throughout the underground bay, while rows of blue holographic indicators confirmed each container had been secured inside the vehicles.
“You take this truck,” one of the workers wearing a sealed biohazard suit ordered, pointing toward the last armoured transport.
Young Aether gave a silent nod before walking toward it. As he pulled open the front door, his eyes landed on a fully armoured mech-suit operator sitting motionless behind the steering controls.
“What are you looking at? Get in,” the mech-suit soldier said impatiently, motioning with a metal-clad hand.
Without another word, Young Aether climbed into the passenger seat and quietly closed the heavy door behind him.
One after another, the trucks rolled out from the hospital’s underground facility.
Massive doors slowly parted before the armoured trucks emerged onto the city’s elevated highways. Young Aether’s truck remained at the very rear of the convoy as civilian traffic automatically shifted aside, guided by the city’s intelligent traffic grid. Floating signal drones projected crimson warning lanes into the air while autonomous vehicles obediently cleared a perfect corridor for the military transports.
“So… is it true we’re about to wage war against other worlds?” Young Aether asked with curiosity.
The mech-suit driver remained completely silent.
Young Aether tilted his head slightly before asking in a calmer voice,
“Did you already take control of the truck?”
The driver frowned.
^Affirmative. Vehicle command authority has been transferred to me.^
RIN’s voice echoed through the truck’s integrated command system as every holographic interface instantly shifted under her control. Navigation routes, engine diagnostics, weapon authorisation, and steering permissions were silently overwritten in less than a second.
“What the…?”
The mech-suit pilot barely had time to react.
Tang… Chukkk!
Twin Eclipse flashed through the cabin like a streak of ivory lightning. The blade slipped effortlessly through the mech-suit, slicing apart layers of composite armour as though they were nothing more than warm butter. The soldier’s head separated cleanly from his body before either half even realised what had happened.
Young Aether calmly activated his storage, causing the corpse to disappear.
“I’d rather not stain the seats.”
His gaze drifted toward the weapon resting quietly in his hand.
“It really cuts through them like butter,” he muttered with quiet satisfaction. “Even military-grade combat frames barely slowed it down.”
He slid into the driver’s seat before removing the biohazard suit. His eyes briefly followed the convoy ahead through the windshield.
“Just keep following them and open the tailgate.”
^What exactly are you planning to do?^
“Just do it.”
^…Fine.^
The truck’s rear cargo door slowly rolled upward while it continued speeding down the highway. Red emergency indicators flashed across the cargo compartment as warning sirens remained muted under RIN’s control.
Young Aether glanced outside before lowering the driver’s side window.
Step!
His figure vanished from the cabin.
A fraction of a second later, he appeared inside the cargo compartment where the suitcase containers were stacked in perfect rows.
He grabbed one.
Step!
The surrounding scenery distorted for an instant before he reappeared beside an abandoned service wall hidden beneath layers of elevated highways. He carefully placed the suitcase against the concrete before covering it with scattered garbage, broken plastic sheets, and discarded paper debris until it blended naturally into its surroundings.
“You’re sure the municipal cleaning drones won’t collect it?”
^Yes. After analysing over seventeen thousand hours of city maintenance footage, I can confirm with 100% certainty that this location falls outside every automated cleaning route.^
Young Aether simply nodded, trusting RIN’s calculations without hesitation.
Step!
Step!
His figure returned to the moving truck before immediately grabbing another suitcase.
Then he disappeared again.
Step!
Step!
One after another, the suitcases quietly appeared throughout the sprawling city. Some rested deep inside narrow alleys hidden between towering skyscrapers. Others disappeared behind massive advertisement panels projecting holographic commercials.
A few were concealed beneath abandoned maintenance platforms, beneath broken overpasses, or inside forgotten utility corridors where countless pedestrians passed every day without ever looking twice.
With RIN continuously mapping the city’s surveillance blind spots, civilian movement, drone patrol schedules, and predictive pedestrian flow, Young Aether distributed the suitcases almost perfectly along the convoy’s entire route.
Every placement expanded the future blast radius of his plan while minimising the chance of premature discovery.
Step!
Step!
Step!
Step!
He never stopped moving. His breathing gradually grew heavier as his body flickered across the city at impossible speed, yet his movements never slowed. He had to keep pace with the accelerating convoy while simultaneously spreading every suitcase as far apart as possible before instantly returning for the next one.
Every second mattered, and every suitcase brought his plan one step closer to completion.
Among the two hundred suitcases, 120 had already been distributed across the district, carefully concealed along the convoy’s projected route. Every location had been calculated by RIN to maximise coverage while minimising the probability of early discovery.
^Aether, we’ve arrived near the Tower.^
“On it!”
Without wasting another second, Young Aether ran onto the rooftop of a nearby building, carefully placing the final suitcase beside a cluster of ventilation units.
Step!
Step!
Step!
He instantly returned.
Thud!
Young Aether dropped heavily into the driver’s seat, leaning back as he drew several deep breaths.
“Ha… ha… that was seriously good,” he muttered with an amused grin.
After catching his breath for a moment, he turned his attention toward the dashboard.
“You said you could still control all of them remotely?”
^Yes. Even though each suitcase has an independent timer, I retain full remote access. I can override, delay, or synchronise every detonation command at any time.^
“Good.”
He nodded before looking through the windshield toward the enormous Delta Tower rising in the distance.
“…We’re heading in a different direction?”
^The rear sector of the Tower. It appears they’re transporting these through a secondary logistics entrance instead of the main gateway. Don’t worry. All we need is to get inside. We can decide our next move afterwards.^
Young Aether silently acknowledged the explanation.
Soon, the trucks began slowing as another security gate came into view. Unlike the heavily fortified front entrance, this checkpoint was considerably smaller, though it was far from vulnerable. Rows of autonomous drones floated overhead while multiple scanning arrays extended from both sides of the gate, bathing each truck in layers of blue and crimson energy.
The convoy rolled forward one vehicle at a time.
Young Aether calmly retrieved the dead mech-suit operator from his storage space and carefully positioned the corpse back into the driver’s seat. He then placed the severed head neatly upon the body before adjusting the posture until it appeared as though the driver were still operating the vehicle.
Afterwards, he quietly returned to the passenger seat, slipped back into his biohazard suit, and lowered his head just enough to avoid unnecessary attention.
^…Humans refer to this sensation as “excitement,” correct? Curious. My predictive models produced over 4.8 million possible outcomes, and exactly none of them classified this plan as “reasonable.” A single error would’ve reduced our survival probability to statistically irrelevant.^
Young Aether remained silent for a brief moment before a quiet chuckle escaped him.
The scanners completed their inspection.
Finding only two occupants inside the truck, the security system approved the transport without raising a single alert. The reinforced gates slowly opened, allowing the convoy to proceed deeper into the facility.
Everything unfolded far more smoothly than Young Aether had anticipated. He had prepared countless backup plans and distractions merely to infiltrate the Tower, yet none of them proved necessary.
The trucks descended into another underground complex before finally coming to a stop.
The moment the massive doors opened, Young Aether’s eyes narrowed.
At least twenty-five fully armed mech-suits stood in perfect formation throughout the hangar.
Young Aether quietly observed the surrounding workers as they exited their trucks. One after another, they unloaded the reinforced suitcases and placed them onto an enormous magnetic conveyor system that disappeared behind the line of mech-suits.
“Shit…”
The curse escaped his lips almost instinctively.
Nevertheless, he climbed out of the truck and calmly began unloading his own cargo. One suitcase after another disappeared onto the moving conveyor belt while his eyes constantly swept across the underground facility, searching for an alternate route.
Nothing.
Only two possible entrances existed.
The first was the conveyor system itself.
The second…
…was the heavily secured door directly behind the 25 mech-suits.
^Do not engage in combat. This appears to be the Tower’s central logistics sector. One mistake, and our chances of survival become statistically insignificant.^
RIN’s voice carried an unusual seriousness.
Young Aether clicked his tongue.
“I know. Stop bitching at me,” he muttered under his breath, maintaining an annoyed expression while continuing to place the suitcases onto the conveyor belt as though nothing were wrong.
Soon, the unloading operation finished.
The trucks automatically sealed their tailgates before preparing to depart from the underground facility.
Young Aether quietly returned to the passenger seat.
His eyes shifted toward the truck ahead.
“Increase the throttle… overload the Origin Crystal… then ram the truck in front.”
^Understood.^
SSSNNNN!!
Without warning, the truck roared to life.
The engine howled as the accelerator locked itself wide open. Red warning symbols flooded the holographic dashboard while emergency alarms echoed throughout the cabin.
RIN effortlessly bypassed every security protocol before forcing an immense surge of energy directly into the truck’s Origin Core Crystal.
Hairline fractures rapidly spread across the glowing crystal core.
The truck accelerated like a missile.
CRAAASH!!
It slammed directly into the transport ahead with overwhelming force.
Step!
The instant before impact, Young Aether vanished.
BOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
Both armoured trucks erupted into a deafening inferno as the overloaded Origin Crystal reached its critical limit. A blinding sphere of blue-white energy swallowed the underground hangar, followed by a violent shockwave that hurled burning metal, shattered armour, and fragments of reinforced plating across the entire facility.
“ALERT!! EMERGENCY!!”
The nearby mech-suits reacted instantly, rushing toward the burning wreckage with military precision. Automated suppression drones descended from the ceiling while pressurised white firefighting foam erupted from concealed nozzles, rapidly blanketing the flames before they could spread through the underground hangar.
Warning sirens echoed across the facility as emergency holograms illuminated every wall in crimson.
One of the mech-suit soldiers focused entirely on extinguishing the burning trucks. For the briefest moment, his visor swept toward the one door.
He saw…
Nothing.
What he failed to notice was the single foot that had silently slipped onto the moving conveyor belt before disappearing into the darkness beyond.
***
Meanwhile, Young Aether lay completely flat atop the conveyor belt, his body perfectly aligned with the suitcase beside him as both disappeared into the enclosed transport tunnel. Darkness immediately swallowed everything around him, leaving only the quiet mechanical hum of motors echoing through the narrow passage.
^Not bad.^
Even RIN couldn’t help appreciating the simplicity behind his plan.
Young Aether remained completely silent.
The conveyor continued carrying him deeper beneath the Tower until, far ahead, a faint glow slowly emerged from the darkness.
The exit.
“Let’s hope nobody’s waiting for us on the other side,” he whispered, quietly tightening his grip as his muscles prepared to react the instant he emerged.
The conveyor finally carried him beyond the tunnel.
Light flooded his vision.
His eyes widened.
“…”
His jaw slowly fell.
Before him wasn’t a storage warehouse.
It was an industrial-scale assembly complex.
Hundreds of empty mech-suit frames travelled across massive magnetic conveyor systems suspended several stories above the ground.
Endless rows of modular weapons moved along neighbouring production lines, each one assembled by towering robotic arms operating with machine-like precision.
Gigantic combat frames, easily twice the size of ordinary mech-suits, advanced through separate construction lanes.
The entire chamber resembled the beating mechanical heart of Delta Tower.
“INTRUDER DETE—”
Bob!
The instant Young Aether caught the warning, his body moved before his mind could process it.
He twisted backwards in one smooth motion.
The Energy Diffuser.
His DIY weapon materialised in his hand from storage.
Click.
He pulled the trigger without hesitation.
A silent energy pulse expanded outward.
The drone hovering behind him suddenly lost all power. The glow within its optics disappeared as its propulsion failed completely.
Tang!
It crashed onto the steel floor.
Young Aether initially thought it was only one drone.
Then he looked upward.
“…”
His expression immediately darkened.
The entire ceiling…
…was covered with surveillance drones.
Hundreds of them.
They hovered in perfectly organised formations, monitoring every square meter of the manufacturing complex every second of every day.
Fortunately…
The pulse had already reached them.
One after another, their optical sensors flickered violently before going dark.
Tang!
Tang!
Tang!
Tang!
Tang!
Tang!
Tang!
…..
…
The metallic impacts echoed relentlessly throughout the enormous chamber as every disabled drone rained from the ceiling like mechanical hail.
Young Aether instinctively froze.
His entire body stiffened.
Each collision made him more certain the sound would alert everyone inside the facility.
Unable to do anything else, he simply squeezed his eyes shut, silently wishing the noise would end sooner.
Finally…
Silence.
Slowly, he opened one eye.
Then the other.
The vast factory floor was now littered with disabled drones scattered everywhere like broken metal insects.
He quickly glanced around.
Nothing… No mech-suits rushing toward him.
Nobody seemed to have noticed.
“Thank goo—”
Tang!
“FUCK!!”
Young Aether nearly jumped out of his skin as one final drone, delayed by a failing stabiliser, dropped from the ceiling and smashed into the floor behind him.
He let out an irritated groan, immediately storing the only drone that had originally detected him before anyone could investigate its logs.
Without wasting another second, he sprang lightly from one conveyor belt to another, carefully avoiding every moving weapon, mech frame, and robotic assembly arm before landing silently on the factory floor between two towering production lines.
^…Your reflexes continue to exceed my projections.^
RIN sounded genuinely impressed.
Young Aether frowned slightly before asking, “What do you want?”
^Huh? I’m actually being nice, you know.^
Young Aether simply stared at the holographic interface with a completely flat expression.
The look alone said it all.
Bitch… I know you.
RIN remained silent for a brief moment.
^Well…. Would you consider acquiring one of those mech-suits? It would increase our survival odds considerably. I dislike dying simply because you’re underdressed.^
Young Aether merely gestured toward her display as if saying, See? I knew you wanted something.
Only then did he shake his head.
“I thought mech-suits were supposed to be synchronised with their registered users?” he asked while watching dozens of empty mech-suits glide past on the magnetic conveyor belts.
^Normally, yes. Every mech-suit is permanently synchronised to its designated operator through biometric encryption, neural mapping, genetic authentication, and Origin Signature. Once that process is complete, anyone else attempting to operate the suit would either be rejected or immediately immobilised.^
^However… these units haven’t reached that stage yet. They’re freshly manufactured frames awaiting their first synchronisation. Since they haven’t been claimed by their assigned operators, their identity registry remains blank. More importantly, they’re only C-Class mech-suits. Their security architecture is relatively primitive compared to higher-grade models, making it entirely possible for me to infiltrate their operating system and overwrite their initialisation protocols.^
Young Aether rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“C-Class…” he murmured. “Remind me again. What’s the classification hierarchy?”
^From highest to lowest, the military classifies them as follows.^
President-Level Mech-suit… President Class.
Governor-Level Mech-suit… Governor Class.
Commander-Level Mech-suit… Commander Class.
Operator and Enforcer-Level Mech-suit… Unit Class.
C-Class Mech-suit.
^As you can see, the hierarchy directly corresponds to governmental and military authority. The higher the position, the more advanced the mech-suit. President Class units possess the most powerful combat systems ever developed, while Governor and Commander Classes serve as strategic battlefield assets. Unit Class suits are assigned to elite operators and enforcers responsible for specialised operations.^
^At the very bottom are C-Class units. They’re inexpensive to manufacture, easy to replace, and issued to ordinary soldiers. Simply put… they’re expendable. If one dies, command authorises another without hesitation.^
“I see… If I wear one… would it actually work?”
^It will… mostly.^
RIN paused, evidently calculating countless probabilities.
^Your body lacks the registered neural signature required by the suit, so you’ll likely experience synchronisation errors, delayed response times, and occasional command rejection. However, if I overwrite the installation data before the initialisation sequence completes, I should be able to convince the operating system that you’re the designated pilot.^
^The process will require approximately one hour, and I cannot guarantee the suit will function at one hundred per cent efficiency. At best… it’ll operate as a heavily modified prototype.^
Young Aether fell silent.
His eyes slowly swept across the immense manufacturing complex.
This… was the heart of Delta Tower.
Walking around dressed as himself would only get him killed.
But if he became just another faceless soldier…
If he disappeared into the countless identical mech-suits…
Then even the Tower itself might fail to notice the intruder already standing inside its own heart.
After a long moment of consideration, he finally nodded.
“Fine.”
His eyes drifted across the endless rows of mech-suits before stopping on one particular frame that appeared slightly more suitable to him than the others.
Without another word, he stepped toward it.