There was a dark side within every person, and similarly, a bright side. No human could exist as pure evil or good. Such inconsistency was how we were.

Zheng was also feeling contradicting. He did not want to go against his heart and let the hundreds of thousands of soldiers die, yet he also wanted to protect his comrades, to survive this movie without casualty. This contradicting thought prevented him from denouncing Xuan. However, he could not peacefully face his true self and decided to run away from it. He handed everything to his instincts in the unlocked mode, the him that resided in the depth of his DNA.

(Perhaps... there’s really a demon hiding in my DNA...) He felt such comfort after he let loose of himself, giving his control to the demon in his DNA. If he must describe this comfort in a word, it would be freedom. A freedom of both his mind and body, as though he could fly through the sky in an instant and split the earth in halves. He nearly drowned himself in this feeling, if it wasn’t the last bit of reason held him back.

However, this feeling was amazing. And this power... overwhelming!

Zheng felt as though time returned to the moment he unlocked the fourth stage when they went to steal the prototype T virus in Resident Evil. He experienced this same delightful sensation. By the time he woke up, all the evolved Lickers had been slaughtered. This power was hiding inside his DNA all along. Whether it was good or bad, and whether he could return to himself again or not... was not questions he would consider now.

Zheng sprinted among the incoming energy bullets. There was space big enough for someone to move through inside the seemingly crowded waves of bullets. Zheng’s reaction speed was fast enough to catch this space. Soru gave him faster movement speed than the bullets. He sprinted through the corridor in the blink of an eye. Zheng’s hand clawed at the front most robot. It was not too big, only five meters tall. After his hand clawed across smoothly, the robot was torn up into five sections at its chest. Zheng then kicked the remains of the robot off a few dozen meters away, knocking down numerous robots in the way.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Strong. Incredibly strong. This adjective perfectly suited to the Zheng in this moment. His claw was tougher than the alloy body of the robot, and destroyed it in one hit.

Zheng did not pause after kicking the robot away. He charged up then slashed his sword downward. A mist like white light blade flashed across. The destroyed robot and those knocked down were shredded into centimeter big pieces under this slash. Tiger’s Soul was nothing like a weapon anymore after the upgrade. It was closer to a magical item used by Cultivators.

The explosions and intense heat did not deter Zheng, as he walked toward the fires. He could not count how many robots he destroyed on the way, hundreds or even a thousand. These robots weren’t the newly created ones. These could all transformed. Their movements were quick and agile, almost as agile as the Valkyrie when Gando entered the unlocked mode. Their firepower filled the corridor with explosions the moment Zheng appeared. Still, Zheng went against such firepower and destroyed all of them. Most importantly, he did not even activate Explosion. He merely used a few instances of instant Destruction.

Three minutes passed since the party entered the corridors. Xuan and Gando were almost sprinting this whole time despite Zheng being the one fighting. His breakthroughs were too fast that Xuan and Gando were barely catching up. The three of them charged through the main path and did not clear out the branching paths. As such, while they advanced, over a hundred robots came out from the branching paths and chased them.

“Would you call this sandwiching?” Gando shouted. “Xuan! Didn’t you say the final hydrogen bomb would clear out most robots? What’s with this? I will haunt you if I die here!”

Xuan glanced at the Valkyrie. His tone remained calm. “This is the best case among my expectations. The four hydrogen bombs destroyed tens of thousands of robots. We would be nothing in front of those numbers. A single volley could kill our whole team. That won’t be a battle, but war. An individual’s power is always insignificant in a war.”

Gando paused for a second then continued to shout. “Then what should we do now? It’s good that Zheng became so strong but I can’t be confident that he won’t turn his sword at us. That thing is simply scary. One slash and a bunch of robots turned to pieces. If it lands on us, we are going to become human spaghetti. There’s also a hundred robots chasing from behind. I don’t think I have the power to bring the AllSpark up to the ground even if we were to obtain it!”

Xuan said in a serious tone. “I don’t care what you think. This is a battle of no compromises. Do you wish to beg the Decepticons for mercy? Or live a little longer from running? Don’t kid me! Gando, I know you never wanted to die since the moment you entered this realm. And what’s the outcome? If it weren’t for the members of the team, you would have died in Starship Troopers. It’s the same here. Fight with your life if you don’t want to die. Don’t keep asking like a child. We must succeed. Otherwise the Decepticons will only keep growing. Remember. You can not drop the AllSpark even at the cost of your life!”

The corridor brightened up. A huge open area appeared in front of them. A metallic cube floated in the center. The cube was not more than two meters in length. Intense electricity flowed down from the cube into the floor. It seemed like a pillar of lightning.

Nearly three thousand robots stood in this open area. Their guns fired at the exit of the corridor without a word. The explosions forced Xuan and Gando back inside. Zheng was the only one who charged out with his insane speed.

He moved into the crowd of robots. Tiger’s Soul slashed across, sending out mist like light blades. All the robots within fifty meters of him were shredded after a few strikes. As the robots exploded, he borrowed from the force of explosion and rushed toward the lightning pillar.

Dong! Zheng’s hand clawed at a red robot but a light flashed in front of it. He only chipped off some scraps. The robot’s armor looked vivid as if it was painted.

“Starscream! Don’t fear! The newly evolved phase shift armor can defend against his attacks as long as you have energy! In this room, energy is never a problem for us! Protect the AllSark!”

Nearest to the AllSpark was a huge robot almost fifteen meters tall. A rainbow of colors were flashing on its armor. It appeared to be more advanced than Starscream’s armor. This was probably the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron. He looked hundreds of times more powerful than the broken Optimus Prime. The AllSpark had probably bestowed him the power during these days.

Failing the claw, Zheng readied Tiger’s Soul for another attack. However, a brilliant light flashed over Starscream. The brightness of his armor declined and then an invisible shockwave struck Zheng. This force was powerful enough to knock Zheng back over ten meters. He flapped his wings to halt himself in the air. However, he was twenty meters away from Starscream at this point. Countless bullets hit him and covered the place he was on with explosions. Zheng couldn’t break out from the rain of bullets at once.

Back at the corridor, Gando attempted several times to rush out. He valued his life dearly but he knew Zheng was the core of the team, and especially this battle. Once Zheng died, it would be the end of them. However, the sight of the firepower of these thousands of robots extinguished his courage time and time again. Before he decided whether to charge out, he noticed Xuan pressed his glasses. His eyes turned sharp.

(The heck? Are main characters with sharp eyes the trend nowadays?)

While Gando was confused, Xuan moved. He disappeared from Gando’s sight the next instant.