Jiram nodded. "Yes."
"Then I was the one who killed it," Bai Ye said, looking behind Jiram. "A mecha?"
If an indigenous person piloting a mecha had appeared before him, Bai Ye's shock would have been considerably less.
But Jiram...
A Chosen One...
Bai Ye felt a chill.
Was this something obtainable at this stage?
After all, the difficulty of acquiring a mecha was probably even higher than obtaining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit could be obtained and its proficiency slowly improved, but a mecha had to be assembled whole.
This wasn't something that could be obtained now, was it?
"Impressive!" Jiram exclaimed from the other side. "Can I have the corpse?"
Bai Ye asked, "Hm?"
Jiram stated frankly, "Abomination is my target, but I only need the corpse. So, it doesn't matter if you killed it, or I can offer some compensation."
"Oh?" Bai Ye raised an eyebrow and mused, "Are you familiar with this area?"
Jiram replied, "Reasonably. I've been around here for a month."
Bai Ye took out a sea chart and said, "I'm lost. Can you help me navigate, and of course, you can take the corpse."
Jiram glanced at Bai Ye's sea chart. "I have a sea chart too, and it's a bit different from yours. How about we talk on shore?"
Bai Ye asked, "On shore?"
"Yes!" Jiram said. "It's not far from here. If it were the deep sea, I wouldn't have come out to intercept the Abomination directly."
Bai Ye was taken aback, then a look of realization dawned on his face.
Right!
The sea beasts before were swimming, but this one could stand directly, with one-sixth of its body exposed above the sea.
That sea beast was at most about 150 meters tall, which meant the water depth here was at most a little over a hundred meters. Deep sea depths were generally around two thousand meters.
After a moment of thought, Bai Ye said to Jiram, "Then I'll trouble you to lead the way."
Jiram nodded. "Follow me."
The projection screen before Bai Ye vanished, and then the massive, hundred-meter-tall mecha slowly turned and began to move through the sea.
Bai Ye's figure flickered, and he appeared above the mecha. He reappeared and landed on the mecha's shoulder.
In that instant, Bai Ye felt as if he possessed the world.
This was a mecha!
The ultimate romance for a man, the epitome of romance.
Compared to a mecha, a lightsaber was just a small toothpick.
Although he couldn't enter the cockpit, Bai Ye found it quite enjoyable to stand on the mecha and "party."
The mecha moved forward, pushing aside the seawater.
Soon, Bai Ye saw land and frowned slightly.
"Doomsday zone?"
The land was clearly a city, or perhaps "formerly" a city would be a more accurate description.
As for now...
Bai Ye thought calling it ruins was more appropriate. There were remnants everywhere, collapsed buildings, and piles of rubble resembling small mountains.
However, along the coast, something was being constructed. Bai Ye estimated it to be a wall.
A very tall and formidable wall.
From the completed section, the wall was about three hundred meters high, far exceeding the height of the mecha and the sea beast. The extension of the foundation made it even more daunting.
Such a towering wall was intended to cover the entire coastline?
Looking at this, Bai Ye had a good idea of where he was.
Gao Ming's sea chart was incomplete, naturally omitting unknown areas. Furthermore, for connected sea areas whose conditions were unclear, Gao Ming had blackened them, marked them with yellow question marks, and added simple notes.
To the southwest of the sea area where Bai Ye set off, there was a blackened region. Gao Ming's note read: An exploration team entered, lost contact after three days, and with no response for twenty-one days, likely deceased.
Based on the time and distance, Bai Ye suspected he had entered this area due to the storm.
And judging by the scene before him, this was likely a doomsday zone.
At this moment, Jiram's projection reappeared, and he said to Bai Ye, "Please wait a moment, I'll be right there."
There were many construction workers around the wall, but further back, there was an open area where a large metal support structure, about 150 meters tall, stood.
Jiram piloted the mecha forward and, once positioned in the designated spot, metal pipes extended from the support structure, connecting to the mecha.
In the next instant, many people in uniforms rushed out, carrying various tools and driving construction vehicles. They dragged cables and ascended via a lift on the side of the support structure to begin maintenance on the mecha.
Simultaneously, the mecha's chest opened, and Jiram emerged. To Bai Ye's surprise, the mecha was not single-pilot. Next to Jiram was a scruffy-looking middle-aged man with blond hair.
Soon, Jiram descended via the lift and approached Bai Ye, extending his hand with a smile. "My apologies for using a projection earlier; it wasn't very polite. Let me formally introduce myself: Jiram Zak Vidoks, a Chosen One like yourself."
Bai Ye shook Jiram's hand. "Bai Ye."
Jiram said, "Come, let's find a place to talk."
Bai Ye glanced at the middle-aged man walking towards another area. "Not with us?"
"Him?" Jiram chuckled. "He's not a Chosen One; he's an indigenous person."
Bai Ye was stunned, then realized. "I was originally going to ask you how to obtain a mecha at this stage, but it seems I don't need to anymore."
Bai Ye obtaining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit at this stage was already outlandish, but that was because the gacha machine had a bug, wasn't it?
If Jiram could possess a mecha, it would be even more incredible than the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
However, that mecha required two pilots, one of whom was an indigenous person. Bai Ye understood now.
That mecha didn't belong to Jiram. Jiram had merely obtained the right to pilot it due to a mission or for some other reason.
But neither the control nor the ownership of the mecha belonged to Jiram.
Ownership was easy to understand; the mecha couldn't be put into inventory, nor could Jiram trade it.
As for control, Jiram could only pilot the mecha for specific purposes and couldn't use it for personal gain.
For example, if Jiram piloted that mecha into a safe zone, it would be a massacre, allowing him to frantically harvest God Stone fragments, or to conquer a restricted area, making him an invincible force.
Unfortunately, Jiram couldn't do that. He couldn't even attack unrelated individuals like Bai Ye with the mecha. Even the mecha's operational range was limited.