Chapter Ninety-Six: Ascender!

Once the information on the tablet finished playing, countless white specks the size of grains of rice appeared throughout the control room’s main hall.

As time passed, their number kept growing.

Little by little, they filled the entire chamber.

After covering the whole hall, the white specks rose toward the center and gradually gathered together, taking on the shape of an Ark Tower.

Qin Fei naturally recognized them. Those white particles forming the Ark Tower were none other than the station’s governing artificial intelligence, the Observer.

As soon as the Ark Tower appeared, a new message lit up on the diamond crystals worn by the three of them.

Main Objective - Control: Defeat the space station’s artificial intelligence, Observer, and gain control of the station.

Here it comes.

Qin Fei’s expression grew solemn.

Not long after the mission prompt appeared, dozens of drone aircraft emerged from all directions of the control room and closed in on the three of them.

Laser cannons were mounted atop those machines.

Once they drew near Qin Fei and the others, the cannons adjusted their muzzles and aimed squarely at the three of them.

A barrage of beams flashed out.

But Qin Fei and the others reacted just as quickly.

The instant the drones attacked, the Tek chestplates they wore came to life, blasting air from the rear.

Using that recoil, the three of them sprang from the floor.

Dodging the incoming laser fire, they raised their Tek rifles and began firing controlled bursts at the drones overhead.

The robotic beams were dense and relentless.

While in midair, Qin Fei and the others had to keep moving at high speed just to barely avoid them.

To sustain that pace, their Tek armor had to remain at full output the entire time.

At that rate, every minute or so, one or two Tek element units in their packs would be consumed.

By then, crab-like machines had also begun appearing on the floor.

These crab robots could curl their bodies into a compact shape and roll swiftly across the ground, making them extremely mobile.

That left Qin Fei and the others with no way to land.

And it did not stop there. The drones and crab machines seemed endless. Every time the three of them shot down part of the wave with their Tek rifles, new enemies would immediately pour in from the edges of the hall.

Qin Fei frowned.

If this dragged on any longer, their Tek element would be exhausted sooner or later.

“Forget the robots. Shoot the Ark Tower!”

The others clearly realized it too. All three of them turned their muzzles away from the swarming drones and redirected their fire toward the Ark Tower in the distance.

As the white particles that formed the Ark Tower came under attack, they instantly scattered in all directions.

A few seconds later, they regrouped once more.

This time, the white particles reassembled into a giant white spider.

That form was unmistakably the Broodmother they had slain earlier.

Qin Fei, who knew the level’s clear conditions inside and out, understood at once that this was the Observer’s second form.

The Broodmother could not fly.

So while Qin Fei and the others kept firing at the Observer with their Tek rifles, they only needed to keep an eye on the drones in the air.

Soon, the Observer’s spider form was shattered as well.

Its white particles scattered and reassembled again.

Then the Observer successively transformed into a Kong and a fire-breathing dragon, but under the overwhelming power of the Tek gear, both forms were likewise torn apart by Qin Fei and the others.

After those three forms were defeated, the Observer reverted once more to the Ark Tower.

The tower could unleash laser-electric fire in a perfect full circle.

However, the beams it emitted were not especially lethal.

Unlike the offensive beams from the drones, the Ark Tower’s lasers mainly served to pin Qin Fei and the others in place for one or two seconds, preventing them from moving.

At that point, the crab robots and drones surrounding them would surge forward and strike directly.

Relying on the defensive strength of the Tek armor, they endured the attacks from the smaller machines and poured relentless fire into the Observer, now transformed into the Ark Tower.

As time went on, the Tek armor they wore had begun to show varying degrees of damage.

This could not go on.

Qin Fei pulled out the cryopod containing the Giganotosaurus and hurled it toward the Ark Tower.

Roar!

With a thunderous cry, the Giganotosaurus entered the battle at once.

Qin Fei whistled at the Ark Tower before him.

At the same time, he made an attack gesture with his right hand toward the Giga.

Receiving his command, the Giganotosaurus charged straight at the Ark Tower.

With the Giga taking over the assault, Qin Fei and the others only needed to keep picking off the drones nearby and focus their attention on defense.

Because the Ark Tower was now under attack by the Giganotosaurus, part of the crab machines and drones that had been besieging Qin Fei and the others immediately peeled away and turned to attack the beast instead.

The battlefield descended into chaos.

Under the Giga’s relentless biting and tearing, the white particles forming the Ark Tower began to darken.

Some of them even turned gray.

The Observer was almost finished.

But at the same time, under the combined assault of the drones and crab robots, the Giganotosaurus was also left covered in wounds.

Qin Fei was frantic.

If this kept up, then even if the Giga succeeded in killing the Observer, it probably would not survive much longer either.

Still, by then Qin Fei had no way to call it back.

To retrieve a pet with a cryopod, the user had to stand perfectly still.

That would leave Qin Fei exposed to attacks from the Observer and the surrounding drones. Yet the Tek armor he was wearing was already covered in cracks.

Whether the Giganotosaurus could be recovered afterward was uncertain, but Qin Fei would certainly die on the spot.

So be it. At this point, he could only trust fate.

Clenching his teeth, Qin Fei made the hard choice to sacrifice the chariot to save the commander.

...

As the Giganotosaurus kept biting and tearing at it, the white particles that formed the Ark Tower gradually shifted from white to gray.

At last, they disappeared completely from the control room.

With the Observer defeated, a mission completion notice appeared on the diamond crystals around the three of them.

Successfully slain: Observer.

Sample Implant / Ancient Relic: Authority increased.

Sample ID: Ascendant and Core Island Space Station Controller.

Mission complete: Survive on Ark’s Core Island and defeat the Observer before it collapses.

Reward: Increased authority for your Ascendant implant.

You have gained the right to traverse the extraordinary technology, magic, and supernatural realms.

Main mission world 2 unlocked: Ark - Aberration!

Mission complete. Returning now. Uploading data...

By then, the Giganotosaurus, gravely injured in battle, had collapsed to the ground and looked on the verge of death.

Qin Fei rushed forward at once.

While the great beast still had its last breath, he held up the cryopod and took it in.

Once sealed inside the cryopod, a dinosaur’s bodily state would be suspended.

That gave Qin Fei enough time to seek a way to save the Giga.

The teleportation countdown had already ended.

Before they even had time to say farewell, the bodies of the three of them turned into streams of data composed of zeros and ones, fading away in the hall.

Ark: Survival Evolved - Core Island Arc, End.