Chapter 817: Chapter 76: White Tiger (Part 2)

"Do you know who the pilot of the White Tiger is?" Ya Qiaoxi couldn’t help but ask.

"I don’t know." Candle Dragon shook his head, "The pilots of the Four God Beasts, just like Sun Hang’s detailed file, are the Federation’s top secret. However, some people say that the pilots of the Four God Beasts have long integrated with their machines, becoming the living CPU of the mecha, which is the so-called..."

Ya Qiaoxi: "Wetware?"

"Yes, wetware." Candle Dragon subconsciously glanced at Sun Hang, not understanding how Sun Hang could remain so calm at this moment. Clearly, they could get the answer just by asking the main brain, yet he seemed to be enjoying this puzzle-like process... or did he already know who the pilot of the White Tiger was?

Right at that moment, Sun Hang’s squad communication channel suddenly received a request to enter the channel, the applicant’s identity code was unfamiliar, but Candle Dragon recognized at a glance that this code belonged to the Dragon City Defense Army, and the permission level was quite high.

"The pilot of the White Tiger?" Candle Dragon gave Sun Hang a questioning look, then let the person into the communication channel.

"Ladies and gentlemen, are you surprised by my entrance?" Nagano Souta’s voice came through the communication channel.

"Spring Wind... Boss?" Ya Qiaoxi couldn’t help but widen her eyes.

"Mr. Nagano?" Candle Dragon’s expression was also somewhat baffled, "You are the... pilot of the White Tiger?"

"Yes..." With a long sigh from Nagano Souta, the White Tiger stood up completely, and the engine inside the mecha emitted a series of low roars like a tiger’s growl, "Although I haven’t been in contact with this old pal for many years... the feeling it gives me is still so familiar."

"Why is the White Tiger at Yumen... Isn’t the mission of the Four God Beasts to guard Dragon City?" Ya Qiaoxi quickly asked the question everyone wanted to know the most.

"Because I have retired from the Dragon City Defense Army, but this old buddy doesn’t recognize anyone but me." Nagano Souta said, "I had no choice but to bring it to Yumen... In a sense, I’m still doing the same job as before, only now the place I’m guarding has moved forward by more than a hundred kilometers."

"So your old injury is because you had to pilot the White Tiger..."

"Mr. Candle Dragon, you have the cause and effect reversed. I was chosen to become the pilot of the White Tiger because I had my limbs removed and became crippled." Nagano Souta explained, "To operate this machine, one must connect their own nervous system into the mecha’s neural network. Even a normal person would have to have their limbs removed and replaced with the mecha’s special access plugs. Then, thousands of neural signal diverter chips have to be implanted into the spinal cord to make it work... I guess I was already a cripple at that time, and the crystalization of muscle tissues from old injuries made me an ideal candidate for bioengineering surgery. So, I decided to give it a try, never expecting that my synchronization rate would be the best among hundreds of testers... Haha, would you say this is fate’s way of playing tricks on me?"

"The pilot of the White Tiger is, in fact, a suitable candidate for this deceitful equipment... Apart from the Dragon City Defense Army, your file should be under the Dubhe Tower’s Institute No.1, right?" Candle Dragon asked.

"Oh, them? They send people every year to help check on my health." Nagano Souta said with a smile, "I’m alive now thanks to their help."

"But... should this kind of job not be lifelong service?" Ya Qiaoxi asked puzzled, "How could they allow you to... ’retire’?"

"Haha, about that... let’s just say, using a term that’s quite popular now, piloting a mecha like the Four God Beasts, requires the pilot to ’burn one’s life’... The pilots of the Four God Beasts are not only the living CPUs for the machines but also one of the machines’ most heavily consumed ’resource’ components." Nagano Souta said, "Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise have changed pilots several times, but White Tiger is peculiar, it doesn’t recognize anyone but me, and after I became the official pilot, the synchronization rate with other testers fell to zero... So you can also understand that before I die, the White Tiger can be considered my exclusive mech."

"Your current ’balance’... shouldn’t be much left, right?" Sun Hang suddenly asked. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Yes, precisely because I have little ’balance’ left, Dubhe Tower and Dragon City have allowed me to do something interesting to me in my final time." Nagano Souta smiled, "Mr. Sun Hang, can I ask you for a favor?"

"You want to ask me, that if you die in the no-man’s land, I help bring the White Tiger back to Dragon City, right?"

"Talking to smart people really saves effort." Nagano Souta laughed heartily, not at all like someone about to face death.

"I’m just curious... what exactly are you after?" Ya Qiaoxi asked with a peculiar expression, "Just to see what that treasure is?"

"It’s my father’s dying wish, and my mother’s as well." Nagano Souta said in a low voice, "It’s also been my long-held wish... My mother and I have always wanted to know, what exactly made my father still hold it in his heart, even after forgetting us completely for many years, until his last moment of life."

Ya Qiaoxi pursed her lips, wanting to speak but stopping.

"I worked for Dubhe Tower for most of my life, then served in Dragon City for another fourteen years. In all those years, I never had the time to do what I wanted to do, and now, I finally can... Whew." Nagano Souta took a deep breath, "It’s six o’clock, time to set out."

The White Tiger took a step forward, its massive mechanical claws hit the ground, stirring up a huge cloud of dust.

Sun Hang stood atop a half-demolished building, watching as the mecha’s silhouette passed through the ruins, while on the distant horizon, the enormous red sun rose slowly, painting that side of the sky in a fiery golden hue.

"Let’s go!"

Hunter and the mercenaries grew restless, many letting out unintelligible howls—many recognized the White Tiger, and although they didn’t know why one of the Four God Beasts from Dragon City appeared in Yumen, the White Tiger’s involvement undoubtedly injected everyone present with a surge of confidence.

Even if they hadn’t personally seen White Tiger in battle, stories about the Four God Beasts had always circulated throughout the Hexi Corridor Region.

In some of the more exaggerated versions, the Four God Beasts could even directly resist the deadly sandstorm.

The crowd boarded their vehicles one after another, and cars followed the White Tiger Mecha, one by one, driving along the already cleared main road of Yumen, heading toward the northwest.

"Let’s move too."

Sun Hang leapt down from the top of the ruined building, landing lightly on the roof of a jeep—he suddenly understood why Mr. Wang always liked to land on car roofs. Besides anything else, this move was really cool.

Candle Dragon slid down from the slanted wall of the building, leaving a layer of thin ice where he passed, which glinted faintly gold in the morning sun.

Compared to Sun Hang and Candle Dragon, Ya Qiaoxi’s descent was much more standard—she descended to the ground holding onto a grapple, casually dusting off the dirt, then grabbed the helmet hanging on the motorcycle’s handlebars and put it on her head.

"Which column do we follow?" Ya Qiaoxi started the motorcycle’s engine, and asked in the communication channel.

"The one with the most people." Sun Hang replied.

"Are you sure?"

"I’m sure."