First, Calm Down

"This wanted criminal, designated 'Thunder Emperor,' single-handedly annihilated an entire... no, wait, two armored battalions. The base's reinforcements were still assembling when they suffered a devastating defeat."
"The two military experts also equipped with biological mecha never even got a chance to engage him..."
"So it wasn't that he dared to challenge this place alone, but that they dared to challenge him with just two battalions' worth of firepower."
"The survivors were forced to evacuate urgently, activating the base's self-destruct protocol, leaving behind the ruins I witnessed earlier..."
"And the Emergency Escape Device detonated at the critical moment. I wonder how many managed to escape?"
The information in this video was overwhelming, leaving Xiao Bai feeling as if his worldview had been shattered.
Not long ago, I still believed in science...
Is this what a High-Tier Mecha Warrior looks like? Is this the Funeral Rangers?
And this Devil Head is only ranked fifth in the Overall Ranking? Does that mean there are four even more terrifying figures out there?
Though Paradise is vast, home to every conceivable wonder, theoretically, any scenario is possible.
Xiao Bai understood the principles, but witnessing this scene firsthand left him deeply unsettled.
After a long moment to compose himself, he strained to recall the information he had about the Funeral Rangers, that notorious criminal organization.
There wasn't much: just the name, their reputation for extreme brutality, and their frequent association with the infamous Children of the Abyss. The authorities often held them up as archetypes of organized crime.
Compared to the Children of the Abyss, who committed every imaginable evil—from petty frauds and extortion to arson, poisoning, drug trafficking, and even human trafficking—the Funeral Rangers' crimes rarely made the news.
Now it seemed clear: it wasn't that the authorities didn't want to mention them, but that they dared not.
"This base was destroyed by the Funeral Rangers. And I was beaten into a 'Second Dimension' state by a masked villain who wasn't wearing mecha armor, then tossed here. Could that villain have been one of the Funeral Rangers? Could it even have been that Devil Head, the Thunder Emperor himself?"
"No, no, no. Calm down, calm down. If that bastard really did it, I'd be a corpse, not just a 'Second Dimension' case."
"Let's start by sorting out the timeline..."
Xiao Bai forced himself to calm down, then reopened the earlier video and specifically checked the recording time.
"From last year? Just looking at those dried-up corpses on the ground, I thought they were from decades ago. Looks like the radiation here accelerated their 'dehydration' process."
"I remember the Mood Diary mentioned this 'Paradise' was numbered 2-114. The '2' represents a hazard level of 2, meaning 'unsafe.' The number 114 is quite low, indicating this place was discovered before the Third Abyss Invasion—twenty years ago."
"Many of the mecha in this graveyard are likely leftovers from that fierce battle. That's why most of the things I've scavenged are from that era."
"Then, at least five years ago, an organization called the 'Foundation' acquired this place and established the research base I'm currently at, focusing on gene-related research."
"Maybe their research involved unethical human experiments, or maybe, like in the movies, they wanted to use the radiation here for some nefarious purpose?"
"I don't know if that Biological Mecha counts as their research result, but either way, that terrifying Thunder Emperor came and turned this place into a true graveyard."
Xiao Bai first reviewed the major events that had unfolded at the Mecha Graveyard before shifting his focus back to himself.
"And me, a first-year student at the Mecha Academy with average grades, whose greatest ambition was to join the Defe nse Force after graduation and have my own Second Master. Instead, I was attacked during a practice class by thugs so violently that it triggered interference from parallel worlds and quantum entanglement, fusing me with my counterpart from another world."
"Alright, I just made that principle up. The point is, I was dumped here and have been barely surviving by scavenging."
"Anyway, there are still many unanswered questions. What exactly is this 'Foundation'? Why did the Thunder Emperor raid this place? And why was I thrown here? If they just wanted to dump a body, there are plenty of other options, right?"
"But none of that matters now. What I need to know most is whether that Devil Head is still here."
"Just in case, I'll assume he's still here. I need to quickly explore the rest of the base and then return to the graveyard. No more straying from my comfort zone."
As Xiao Bai spoke, the omni-directional wheels beneath his feet whirled, propelling him toward other areas of the base.
After rounding another corner, the scanner suddenly picked up a signal.
"Huh? An ammunition depot?"
Xiao Bai's excitement surged. He crashed through several walls, forcibly breaching the small ammunition depot.
Strictly speaking, it should have been a large depot, but the base's self-destruction had left it shattered, with only a small portion remaining.
Even so, a depot that once supplied two armored battalions for an extended period meant that even a fraction of it contained mountains of ammunition crates and bundles of missiles—more than enough to satisfy his needs.
Small-caliber ammunition absorbed: 1,000
Large-caliber ammunition absorbed: 500
The panel's notifications were rudimentary, categorizing ammunition only by caliber and using "bases" as the unit of measure instead of individual rounds or missiles.
One base of small-caliber ammunition equaled 5,000 rounds, while one base of large-caliber ammunition equaled 100 rounds.
Remarkably, regardless of the weapon's specific model, as long as it fell within the corresponding caliber range, the ammunition could be loaded into it. Both 20mm autocannons and 7.62mm rifles used the same type of ammunition, and both 155mm howitzer shells and 120mm rockets shared the same ammunition.
Only the missiles were a bit different. To reload them, I had to use electronic components at a 1
ratio, consuming the components I had previously collected.
"Not entirely unexpected. The parts I scavenged from the trash can synthesize into the Mechs on the blueprint, which means the Panel's 'compatibility' is quite strong. As long as the major category matches, they can be mixed and used."
"But things like 'electronic components,' 'biological chitin,' and 'mechanical parts' are too different and have to be used separately. The two calibers of ammunition also follow this principle."
"This ammunition should keep me going for a while. At least it's a bit of relief."
Xiao Bai looked at the now-empty ammunition depot, then followed the Scanner's results, charging straight ahead until he reached another somewhat peculiar area.
"What the hell is this now?"
Before Xiao Bai stood a laboratory half-collapsed from what seemed to be a violent explos ion. The place was covered in high-temperature burn marks, and the floor was littered with highly carbonized debris. The power was completely out, leaving it pitch dark. Only through his night vision ability could he see a massive well right in the center.
The wellhead, with a diameter of 30 meters, was completely blocked by a massive collapse of the ceiling. Only through the scanner could we glimpse its interior.
The rough structural diagram revealed a deep well over 300 meters tall, its interior stabilized by several massive mechanical arms. A colossal skeleton hung motionless within, resembling a gigantic specimen display.
Or perhaps... a culture dish?

Chapter end