Chapter 303: The Essence of the Ruin City.
A阁螳螂 with a golden hue so dazzling it hurt to look at lay on its back, its limbs twitching faintly. It looked dead… or maybe not?
“So difficult…”
Jie Jie let out a sorrowful sigh.
There are two beautiful things in this world: dismantling someone else’s Gundam and assembling your own Gundam.
He’d already experienced the former, but as for the latter… what if some of the materials had to come from his own body?
What if the materials were all broken and lacked any symmetry?
Even worse, what if there weren’t enough materials and no blueprints?
The beautiful thing became torment.
Creating the Ruin City and operating it wasn’t as hard as he imagined, what truly tormented him was that the construction material was messy, asymmetrical, and imperfect.
The half-finished product created by the Queen Mantis already had an outline and could receive natural embellishments from the brain.
But he had burned all the silk threads, though it looked cool, it also turned the formed outline into a pile of junk.
Broken bricks, rotten metal, shattered bones, none of them had any regular shape.
Using this pile of junk to pursue the perfect outline in his mind was like challenging his aesthetics, reshaping his rational logic.
Was it really that hard?
With a little more effort, it can be done!!!
Looking at the broken outline hanging upside down above him, Jie Jie flipped over his body with nearby silk threads, crossing his mantis arms.
Had enough rest, time to continue.
He climbed up after fiddling with the silk net that wrapped around the Ruin City.
The Queen Mantis didn’t have wings and couldn’t fly, but the woven silk net was a better scaffold than flight ability.
Spit Silk! Spit Silk! Spit Silk!
One by one, building materials were hooked by silk threads, glued and bound onto the Ruin City.
The previous battle and fire had damaged many of the Ruin City’s building materials, but since the Ruin City was made of junk anyway, being a bit more broken wouldn’t hurt.
Broken fortress walls, stones and small parts from ground fissures, bones left behind from devouring monsters.
Anyway, they were all junk, just for practice.
No longer pouring his heart into it, once he entered a slacking-off state, Jie Jie piled faster instead.
He didn’t plan to stack the Ruin City according to the Old Mountain Dragon template, naturally doing whatever was most efficient.
Still using the Strike Dragon Gun as the spine, but four legs became three, and there was neither head nor tail.
The key joints and footplates were particularly centered around metal materials to support movement.
Between the stones used in the moving parts, bones were placed, even transforming into a Giant Halberd Dragon within the fortress to find some sulfur, producing heavy oil for combustion.
Whether inside or out, it was wrapped in countless layers of interlocking silk threads, minimizing the risk of disintegration as much as possible.
Because the materials were junk, he had spit out a lot of silk threads to reinforce, so much so that when he transformed into other monsters, he subconsciously tried the spitting silk operation.
As for the cockpit part, he completely built it with steel bars, each thick silk thread on the limb joints was precisely divided and hung into the skylight gap of the steel bars. He even specially used the lever principle.
The sun set again, Jie Jie looked straight at the pile of junk that had consumed a week of his time.
It was a tripod, compared to the Queen’s Ruin City, it was smaller and simpler.
No matter how ugly, it was his creation, so it must be—
Cute in its ugliness.
The Ruin City was the nest and throne of the Queen Mantis, the Queen Mantis might spend her whole life improving the Ruin City.
He didn’t pour his heart into it like the Queen Mantis did, building Gundams was just because he wanted to do it.
The Queen Mantis’ Gundam was called Ruin City, his could only be called Earth Castle.
But just the thought of wanting to build took him a whole week.
“Ah well, no matter what, it’s my creation, let’s give it a try!”
Jie Jie didn’t weave a Golden Cocoon, his desire to spit silk had dropped to the extreme, he directly drilled into the cockpit.
Inside the cockpit was still a golden cocoon ball, containing the “Radiant Black Dragon Investigation Report” he retrieved from the Queen Mantis’ nest, and some not-so-clean human jewels.
The front claws and front limbs controlled the two front limbs of the “Earth Castle,” while the abdomen controlled the rear limbs mainly responsible for support.
Move, my Ruin City!
The terrifying giant force belonging to the King of Beetles pulled the silk threads.
Left and right, the tripod construct emitted sounds of structural fractures.
Bones were being crushed, stones were being worn down.
The front limb was lifted, pieces of parts fell from mid-air.
The front limb slammed down from the air, even more internal structures broke and fell out.
But it didn’t disintegrate, that’s success!
After stepping in place for a round, he began to attempt slow forward movement, pulling the silk threads of the right front limb downward while pulling backward at the same time.
Before the balance supported by the two legs was destroyed, the tripod construct took its first step!
Structural combustion continued, Jie Jie’s head poked out, beginning to judge the stability of “Earth Castle’s” limbs.
Still within the threshold, next is the left front limb!
“Boom!”
Due to insufficient materials, the stability of the left front limb was clearly weaker than the right front limb, large amounts of parts fragments shook off.
And as the second step, the left front limb not only had to bear the turbulence of the first step, the distance moved also had to exceed the right front limb to complete the movement.
As long as it doesn’t disintegrate or fall, everything else can be temporarily reinforced!
Jie Jie darted out, swinging silk threads around the left front limb several times before returning to the cockpit.
The structure’s combustion never stopped, but the purple crystal eyes revealed a fanatical expression.
Next was the rear limb, the third step had to be more careful, he even turned in the cockpit, choosing to control it with the front claws for insurance.
The rear limb was lifted, and the “Earth Castle” showed a serious tendency to tilt sideways, scaring Jie Jie into quickly relaxing the lifted rear limb.
Without traction, the rear limb was instantly captured by gravity, landing with some deviation.
The “Earth Castle” was slowly tilting to one side, but unstoppable.
This won’t do!
Jie Jie instantly swung out, grabbing the silk threads prepared outside the “Earth Castle,” bursting as he pulled these threads connected to the “Earth Castle.”
The tremendous strength of the Queen Mantis held the tilting construct steady, carefully adjusting several silk threads to restore the stability of the “Earth Castle” before relaxing.
“If there were enough materials, having four legs would offer higher balance tolerance during walking.”
“Or, should I add a tail to use as a cane?”
The two mantis arms rubbed against each other, he was contemplating the action templates of his other forms.
Perhaps, the three-legged structure was unnecessary, two legs plus a dragging tail on the ground would suffice!
The pulling of the two front limbs didn’t need to slow down, the faster the steadier!
Thinking about this, he hung the rear limb, disassembled the joints inside the rear limb to reinforce the front limbs, then filled the rear limb with makeshift earth and stones, turning it into a tail dragging on the ground.
That’s right, it should be like this, constantly reinforcing and modifying the Ruin City while moving!
This wasn’t assembling a Gundam according to the blueprint, but rather gradually improving the Gundam while moving forward.
The Queen Mantis wouldn’t have the template for the Ruin City in its mind from the start either, it also relied on continuous modifications and improvements to gradually perfect it.
Like life, no one starts with the best template.
Comparing the Ruin City he encountered with the Ruin City in the game, the Queen Mantis he devoured hadn’t walked far at all.
A larger Queen Mantis society and a larger Ruin City must exist!
While improving his broken-down Ruin City, the peaches Jie Jie’s mind reached for grew bigger and bigger.
