The steel-forged barriers rapidly rose, completely sealing off each area.
At the same time, the surrounding buildings began to tilt with a violent tremor.
Sitting in the cockpit of the VF-1, He Ming clearly saw the objects on the street, not yet affected or destroyed by the battle, detach from the ground and rapidly fall downwards amidst the violent tremor.
“Quick… get out of this area!! MACROSS is transforming!”
The last warning from the Second Defense Force came through the communication channel.
But He Ming's attention was on the other side.
He heard a scream.
It was the panic in the face of death!
It was also the terror of falling into darkness!
Without thinking, the VF-1, still maintaining its G Form, swiftly changed direction under He Ming's control and flew towards the street behind the building.
Fortunately, precisely because the MACROSS was transforming, the cluster of buildings blocking the VF-1 only required one leap to fly past from the other side.
The next moment, the screen in front of He Ming locked onto a target.
Amidst the chaotic and rapidly falling tables, chairs, cars, potted plants, and other miscellaneous objects, a colorful light flashed by.
And in front of that colorful light, a pedestrian overpass was clearly visible.
In an instant, this pedestrian overpass would likely become the burial place for that colorful light!
In a flash, He Ming knew what he needed to do.
The VF-1 raised its right hand, fired all its remaining Gatling gun ammunition, directly shattering the pedestrian overpass, then accelerated at full power, passing through the numerous falling objects, and approaching the colorful light in the shortest time possible.
The locked icon kept changing, and finally, the true appearance of the colorful figure fully appeared before He Ming's eyes.
The VF-1 swung its right hand, batting away objects falling from above to prevent them from hitting the figure.
No, to be precise, it was a young girl in a colorful dress.
He Ming also observed that the young girl seemed to have fainted.
He had to quickly bring the young girl under the VF-1's protection.
The thermonuclear engine roared continuously, and cooperating with He Ming's operation, it drove the VF-1 to quickly and precisely close the distance.
Then, He Ming cautiously controlled the VF-1 to extend its left hand towards the young girl.
Closer!
The icon in front of He Ming slowly pulsed, guiding He Ming and the VF-1 to deftly and precisely catch the unconscious young girl.
Suddenly, He Ming, who hadn't even had time to breathe a sigh of relief, felt a sudden palpitation.
“Boom!”
With its hands clasped in front of its chest, protecting the young girl in its embrace, the VF-1 abruptly turned, facing its back downwards.
“Boom!!”
Then, a terrifying impact force swept up from the dark street below.
——————
【Confirm survival, open... *&￥%#￥#%】
Amidst a cacophony of sounds, He Ming, on the verge of suffocating, suddenly woke up.
His hands, which had instinctively slapped the ground, felt a bone-chilling cold.
He Ming instinctively withdrew his hands, only to see that he was lying on a vast, boundless, seemingly endless sea.
However, the sea beneath He Ming's feet was not the sea he remembered.
As He Ming got up, the sea beneath his feet slowly rippled, spreading out into the distance.
And within those ripples, He Ming seemed to see specks of starlight.
“Where is this?”
He Ming frowned.
This kind of peculiar sight was something He Ming had never seen in his life.
It was as if this vast, rippling sea, with its visible specks of starlight, could not possibly be the reality He Ming was familiar with, nor a peculiar sight he could witness.
Moreover, by focusing his gaze, He Ming could even discern some scenes within the faintly shimmering starlight accompanying the ripples beneath his feet.
Scenes of human activity, of life itself.
This was not reality at all!
A wave of headache struck, forcing He Ming to avert his gaze and not scrutinize the peculiar ocean beneath his feet.
At the same time, as the pain became clearer, He Ming remembered the previous battle.
“Battle? VF-1? And, that figure?”
The memory of the battle was so incredibly clear!
Even now, the sensation of controlling the VF-1 and fighting aliens could still make He Ming's blood boil!
Furthermore, He Ming had no idea whether the figure he was supposed to save was alive or dead.
Because the world he was currently in was not reality.
At least, it wasn't the world where He Ming was born and grew up, nor was it the cruel world where He Ming was drawn into battle.
“Drip!”
A faint sound of water dripping quietly emerged.
A strange ripple undulated from afar, passing by He Ming's feet.
He Ming instinctively looked up, but was surprised to find a figure shrouded in golden light standing not far away.
A faint sound, like a gentle breeze, brushed past He Ming's ear.
“Who are you?!”
He Ming instinctively asked.
The figure shrouded in golden light quietly looked at He Ming, raised its right hand, and pointed in another direction.
He Ming's gaze followed.
The next second, He Ming's pupils suddenly constricted, and his soul seemed to be momentarily stunned, as if shaken by something vast and indescribable.
Huge,
Tall,
Enormous, and all other words used to describe the size of objects, constantly flashed through He Ming's mind.
Ultimately, they faded into nothingness.
He Ming could not find any suitable words to describe the sight he witnessed.
A towering tree, formed by countless stars, quietly stood in front.
Its roots extended downwards,
Stretching into the depths of the sea beneath He Ming's feet, which shimmered with countless stars, as if to completely pierce through this sea.
Through the shimmering starlight, He Ming saw an enormous and unimaginably developed root system that almost entirely occupied the space beneath the sea where He Ming stood.
“This, this is?!”
Such a breathtaking sight rendered He Ming incapable of thought.
This almost overturned He Ming's understanding of the world.
Similar to the massive root system entrenched beneath the sea, on the branches growing upwards, towards the unknown chaos, there were either shimmering stars or dim, almost extinguished sparks.
At first glance, it was a scene of abundant fruit.
“A tree? A towering tree growing on the sea?!”
He Ming turned his head to look at the golden figure, but found that there was no longer any figure there.
Only a sigh remained, a call.
“Embark! Young Inheritor!”
“Wait, wait!”
He Ming instinctively took a step, but a sensation of weightlessness immediately followed, dragging the unprepared He Ming beneath the sea.
The deep blue, starlit seawater submerged He Ming's head, and immense pressure surged from all directions towards He Ming.
Before darkness enveloped him, He Ming only saw the root system entrenched beneath the sea slowly becoming active, and countless unknown memories flooding into his mind.
He didn't know how much time had passed; He Ming, in the darkness, lost track of days and the outside world, only remembering the moment when the immense pressure almost crushed his existence, an unknown power quietly emerged, protecting He Ming through that instant of life and death.
Unintentionally, in the boundless darkness, a faintly glowing speck of light silently appeared, drawing He Ming's gaze.
His thoughts, which had become sluggish due to the encroachment of darkness, gradually became fluid.
The warmth flowing on his face further accelerated this process.
【Dynamic Event Update! Please ensure Lin Mingmei's survival! Note: Target is currently injured and bleeding.】
The ethereal and cold voice, like a bolt from the blue, completely jolted He Ming awake.
He instinctively raised his hand to touch the warmth on his face.
What met his eyes was a dazzling crimson.
A few drops of blood also followed, slowly floating into He Ming's field of vision.
“Rumble…”
As the rumbling of vibrations came from the depths, He Ming also saw the figure floating in the air, mixed among the debris.
“Is it her?!”
In an instant, He Ming understood the identity of that figure.
She was the one he had saved.
At the same time, she was also the person mentioned by the mysterious voice, Lin Mingmei.
Almost without hesitation, He Ming reached out and opened the safety buckle, then raised his hands and forcefully pushed open the already shattered cockpit canopy. With a light push of his foot, his entire body flew out of the cockpit, rapidly approaching the young girl, Lin Mingmei.
It was strange, however.
The environment He Ming was currently in should have been microgravity, or even zero gravity.
But He Ming, who had never received professional training, moved like a fish in water in this microgravity environment.
Could it also be the change brought by that mysterious voice, allowing He Ming to master the techniques of moving in a zero-gravity environment in the blink of an eye?
However, at this moment, this was merely an aside.
Gently pushing away the debris surrounding Lin Mingmei, He Ming's expression immediately became serious.
Although the upper part of the young girl's colorful dress was somewhat damaged, overall, it was still in good condition.
The problem was the lower part; a dazzling crimson had already stained nearly half of the skirt, and blood droplets seeping from beneath the skirt were continuously accumulating until they broke free from the skirt's confines and floated away.
The situation was urgent!
He Ming gently embraced the young girl's delicate body, then turned and pushed off a larger piece of debris nearby, rapidly flying towards the wreckage of the VF-1 below.
【Dynamic Event Update! Target, Lin Mingmei, is in critical condition. Please provide immediate medical treatment! Then, establish a suitable shelter to provide a safe environment for Lin Mingmei! If the character dies, it will greatly affect the future, leading to the complete annihilation of MACROSS, and the death of all humans, including you!!】
The mysterious voice once again reminded He Ming of Lin Mingmei's importance to him and to this warship.
In fact, even if this mysterious voice hadn't spoken, He Ming would have tried everything to save Lin Mingmei.
After successfully finding the emergency kit beneath the VF-1's cockpit, He Ming breathed a slight sigh of relief.
At least, Lin Mingmei's injuries should be able to receive initial treatment.
After finding a relatively flat area nearby that met the basic conditions for treatment, He Ming began to treat Lin Mingmei.
The treatment process went very smoothly.
So smoothly that He Ming found it somewhat unbelievable.
Perhaps it was due to the mysterious voice?
Or was it the Inheritor mentioned by the golden figure he saw in his dream?
That mysterious sea of stars,
And that colossal tree rooted in the sea of stars, extending countless branches towards chaos.
Too many mysteries lay before He Ming, preventing him from ever seeing the truth behind them.
Especially now, in the cosmic battlefield of humanity's despair, what He Ming could do was probably only to throw himself into this battle?
After skillfully tying the bandages, He Ming finally let out a sigh of relief.
He looked up, his gaze sweeping past the clean bandages and finally resting on Lin Mingmei's pale face, when He Ming suddenly felt something was wrong.
Rapid breathing, flushed face.
He Ming's expression changed, and he reached out to touch her, thinking, “This isn't good.”
When it rains, it pours!
It was the most undesirable situation after injury and bleeding: infection and fever.
Medicine could be found in the emergency kit, but drinking water…
Looking left and right, He Ming applied the cooling patch from the emergency kit to Lin Mingmei, then took out a flashlight and some glow sticks and turned to leave.
“Sorry! Please wait for me here. I’ll be right back.”
Even though He Ming was not very clear about the outside situation, from the surrounding circumstances and his and Lin Mingmei's encounter, this was probably an isolated area formed after the MACROSS transformed.
In other words, this was, in a sense, an island space.
Moreover, it was an island space in outer space.
Fortunately, in this space, there should still be a lot of supplies that had fallen here during the previous battle.
As long as he found these supplies, the rest of the matter should be easy to handle.
He Ming's figure constantly moved back and forth, weaving between walls and debris.
Every time he passed a corner or an area with a lot of debris, He Ming would leave a faintly glowing glow stick as a marker for his return.
After a thorough search, He Ming returned to the wreckage of the VF-1 with enough drinking water and food, and gave Lin Mingmei the medicine.
Watching Lin Mingmei's condition gradually improve, He Ming was finally able to put his mind at ease.
No matter what, the future of this ship, and even his own, would finally not be annihilated due to Lin Mingmei's injury and death.
While He Ming was taking care of Lin Mingmei, the Second Defense Force submitted a report about the unknown reinforcements.
After multi-party confirmation, investigators finally focused their attention on Shelyayev, who was hospitalized with injuries, the original owner of the VF-1 He Ming piloted.
Facing the investigators' questions, Shelyayev, lying in his hospital bed, took all responsibility upon himself.
Yet, when he was found, he was in a state of severe injury and unconsciousness.
Roy Focker of Skull Squadron shook his head helplessly after seeing his old friend dismiss the investigators, close his eyes, and adopt an attitude of ignoring everyone, then turned and walked out of the ward.
“Captain. What about Captain Shelyayev's condition?”
The three waiting outside the ward were Roy Focker's squad members: Hikaru Ichijo, Gina, and Kakizaki Hayao.
“The situation is okay.”
In fact, even if they couldn't get more information from Shelyayev, the investigators had already narrowed down a general range.
“Next, we are responsible for the western area. It is very likely that the mysterious pilot who supported the Second Defense Force is there.”
Roy Focker's expression became serious.
“Remember! No matter what the truth is, until it is thoroughly investigated, no reckless actions are to be taken against that pilot.”