Chapter 228 - The Adorkable Rabbit Mecha!
"This definitely isn't something a newbie can do. Who the heck is he? Who exactly is the operator of that rabbit mecha?" The humanoid mecha was currently overcome with shock and awe, beginning to guess at the other's background.
Right then, something stirred abruptly behind the humanoid mecha.
"Squeak squeak squeak ..." These sounds were transmitted from a distance. Although they were extremely soft, the powerful sound systems of the mecha had still captured them accurately.
These were the cries of the mutated rodents! The humanoid mecha operator's face paled drastically, and he shouted, "Not good! It's time for the mutated rodents to respawn ... run!"
The humanoid mecha knew without having to think about it that the road he had taken to come here was certainly already blocked off. His only option was to speed up and move forwards for any hope of survival. If he was luckier, he might even be able to break past the newbie area and enter the human town.
The humanoid mecha decisively revved his engines to the max, zooming forwards speedily ...
The sounds behind him were getting increasingly louder — the chaotic cacophony from behind him proved that there were countless mutated rodents on his tail. Sweat poured in a steady stream from the forehead of the humanoid mecha operator, flowing down into his eyes.
Real sweat carried the taste of salt, and the mecha world faithfully reflected this — the operator felt his eyes stinging from his sweat. However, he did not dare to wipe them away nor to even blink, afraid that any slight pause or hesitation would allow the endless swarm of mutated rodents behind him to chase up to him, making him end up as their gourmet meal ...
The mutated rodents in the wastelands were extremely powerful — their claws and teeth were their weapons, easily tearing through the metallic outer shells of mecha. Such a vast amount of mutated rodents behind him would be able to consume him entirely in an instant. Thus, the moment he was surrounded, there would be practically no hope of survival — death would be certain ...
The mecha's screen suddenly indicated that there was a signal coming from ahead, a distance of about 100 metres. Was it the exit? Hope flared in the humanoid mecha operator's eyes. He kicked his mecha's engines up another notch — in other words, the mecha's engines were currently operating beyond capacity. But for the sake of living on, this was a natural choice.
80 metres, 50 metres ... there was a turn up ahead — what was that flashing light? Could it be a portal?
The humanoid mecha operator's eyes were filled with hope. As long as he could charge through this portal, he would be able to enter the human town and leave this newbie wasteland behind. He must do his best now!
30 metres ... success was in sight! The humanoid mecha operator's face was filled with joy. He had never expected that he would be able to leave the newbie area so quickly. Perhaps he would break the record, becoming the fastest recruit to break through into the human town?
At this moment, a violent 'bang' suddenly rang out in this eerie and silent underground tunnel. The humanoid mecha operator felt his mecha being struck forcefully by an external force, his initially swiftly flying mecha being thrown off course by this collision ...
No, he could not fail like this! The humanoid mecha operator's expression was twisted in a fearsome rictus as he desperately tried to stabilise the mecha's body. Still, his mecha finally fell to the ground, and with a trip, it stumblingly continued to run forwards. There were only 10 metres left — he just needed another 3 seconds, no, just 1 second would do, and he would be able to leave this horrific underground tunnel behind ...
However, the time he yearned for was not bestowed by the heavens. Another loud sound of collision rang out — he was hit by a second attack. Yet another mutated rodent had slammed into him viciously, and the attack this time threw the humanoid mecha completely off-balance. It was sent flying to fall right before the portal ...
Just one more metre and he would be able to touch the portal, but unfortunately he would no longer have the chance ... the endless swarm of mutated rodents behind him leapt on him without mercy, submerging the humanoid mecha, and then the cruel sounds of crunching teeth filled the tunnel ...
No! The mecha operator looked despairingly at the portal right before his eyes ... and then his screen turned black. This was because the mutated rodents had fully covered all his cameras with their bodies. An instant later, he received an alert — do you choose to revive? Fearing that the operators would suffer mental trauma from the various sufferings before death, the system by default would set the effect from pain and death to zero in the mecha world.
The operator grimaced and pressed the button to confirm. When the mecha's screen lighted up once more, he had already been returned to the revival point of the wastelands. The humanoid mecha operator was currently extremely frustrated and regretful. If he had only entered the tunnel a minute earlier, no, if he had only entered a second earlier, or perhaps had not stopped to look at those rodent bodies, choosing to run at full speed, he would not be here right now. Instead, he would be in the human town district, truly entering the exciting world of the mecha world ...
The chance only came once; it was gone if you missed it. Now, to get through the newbie area, he could only wait for more companions to cooperate with him to fight through the tunnel.
********
Ling Lan, who had already arrived at the human town could not know that such a thing had happened behind her, that a humanoid mecha operator had almost managed to sweep past the newbie area by riding on her coattails. Right now, she had just received a system notification telling her that she had broken the record for being the fastest to enter the human town. The system asked her whether to publish her name or remain anonymous, and Ling Lan naturally chose to remain anonymous. Still, she scorned the mecha world system for being miserly, not even awarding a prize for breaking the record ...
She looked over a map and found the mecha combat challenge hall. Unexpectedly, when she requested entry, she was denied because she did not have enough points, thus not even having the right to enter to spectate in the challenge hall ...
Only then did Ling Lan realise that the minimum requirement to enter the mecha challenge hall was 10 points. Every time you entered the hall, whether or not you spectated, you would be deducted 10 points. This was an absolutely tyrannical rule!
As for taking part in a mecha challenge, even the most basic level trainee mecha challenge fight would require 1000 points. In short, for Ling Lan to enter and make a successful challenge, it was impossible without at least 1010 points.
Ling Lan glanced at her personal information. In the column tallying her points, a large '0' stared back at her. Right now, she had absolutely no hope of entering the challenge hall; her main priority now was to find a way to quickly accumulate these 1010 points.
Frankly, Ling Lan was only in these dire straits because she had not gone through foundational training. As long as one took things step by step and completed the set series of foundational training till they passed, and if they did not use any points to redeem other types of mecha, 1000 points were basically a confirmed thing. Every newbie would have accumulated that much by going through the normal process. If anything was to blame, it was what an oddball Ling Lan was. Having already been through foundational training long ago, she of course would not go through it again, which was why she did not have this basic point accumulation.
"What should I do now? How can I get these points as soon as possible?" Thinking deeply, Ling Lan reflexively set the rabbit mecha into preset control mode. The rabbit mecha was thus seen to sit in place, nibbling on the carrot in its front paws as its head twitched.
This cute and adorkable appearance turned the heads of all the mecha passing by. Several female mecha operators were even stunned into stopping, eagerly watching the extremely adorkable rabbit mecha. Some desire even stirred in their hearts to maybe try and redeem a similar rabbit mecha for themselves.
Ling Lan was oblivious to the fact that she had become the focus of attention. Right then, she was asking Little Four, "Little Four, have you found the relevant data?" Whenever Ling Lan was at a loss, the all-capable Little Four would be brought into play.
"Boss, I've found it! There's a mission hall here where you can accept missions. Once you complete the missions, you will be able to get a certain amount of points." Little Four was very reliable, very quickly finding a course of action.
"What kinds of missions are there? Which of them will give me more points, and are more suitable for me to do?" Ling Lan continued to ask.
"The missions include the standard system missions, special missions, limited-time missions, as well as player-assigned missions. The standard missions from the system tend to be more troublesome and take more time, but are pretty easy. However, the points they give are also relatively little. They are more appropriate for beginner level recruits for practice. As for the system special missions, that would depend on the mission you accept. Sometimes the points awarded will be very high, but there are also times where the points awarded can't even compare to that of the standard missions. For the limited-time missions, things are unclear. It seems to be associated with luck. If your luck is good, you'll get more points, while if you're unlucky, you may even get no points for your effort. As for player-assigned missions, they are typically harder and more difficult to complete. In contrast though, they tend to give much more points than those missions provided by the system. Most strong players will choose this type of missions."
Listening to Little Four's explanation, Ling Lan first eliminated standard missions and limited-time missions from her consideration. Like Little Four said, standard missions required too much time for little gain, which made them unsuitable for her situation of needing to accumulate 1010 points in a short amount of time. Meanwhile, limited-time missions required particular levels of luck, and she had just had 100 points deducted off her luck value. Who knew if her final point gain would be influenced because of that?
Right now, the missions that suited her purpose were only the system's special missions and the player-assigned missions. Ling Lan could only hope that her luck was better, that she would be able to find a high point mission that could be completed quickly. Er, why did this seem to have something to do with luck again?
Having decided, Ling Lan operated her rabbit mecha to go to the mission hall. She did not know that a video of her rabbit mecha had already been recorded by some busybody and uploaded to the shared highlights of the mecha world, letting everyone know that an extremely adorkable rabbit mecha had shown up in the remote Three-Seas Town 1 ...
********
Somewhere else in the mecha world, in the extremely lively and bustling large plaza of Dunhuang City 1 , two humanoid mecha were currently patiently waiting for their other teammates to gather. The blue-white humanoid advanced mecha suddenly cackled audibly, causing the equally advanced red mecha beside him to jump in fright. He could not help but speak up to ask, "Zhao Jun, why are you laughing so creepily?"
"I'm laughing that someone who loves rabbit mecha as much as you has finally appeared in the mecha world. Of course, he's even more ostentatious than you are, directly operating a rabbit mecha into the mecha world ..." cackled Zhao Jun.
"What's so strange about that? Don't all recruits have a certain probability of drawing a rabbit mecha?" asked the red mecha.
"But when they enter the mecha world, 99% of rabbit mecha users would definitely change their mecha into some other type of mecha. There are almost none who can persist and keep using a rabbit mecha," said Zhao Jun, "Of course, I've also not seen someone with a rabbit mecha complex quite like you 1 . Even the core mecha in your mecha space has been set to a rabbit mecha ..."
1. 三洋小镇: For those interested, original pinyin name of the town would be 'Sanyang Town'.
2. 敦煌: No specific meaning for this that I know of. 'Dunhuang' is a relatively common name used for Chinese enterprises, because it gives the impression of glory and majesty. Split up, the first character refers to a traditional grain receptacle, while the second character refers to radiant sparkling. So ... I suppose you could extend your thinking and take it as sparkling grains? It's not conventional though, which is why I decided to stick with the pinyin here.
3. T/C: Oooh, someone has a penchant for rabbit mecha ... *smirk*
Chapter 229 - Accepting a Mission!
Every time this notion popped into Zhao Jun's mind, he would find himself extremely baffled. It should be known that one's core mecha should be the strongest mecha among all the mecha one possessed. Yet, his good friend, Li Lanfeng, went against the grain, choosing the weakest rabbit mecha as his core mecha. What hidden charisma did the rabbit mecha have? Enough to cause Li Lanfeng to be so fond of it, to the extent that he would do such an insane thing?
In response to his good friend's questions, Li Lanfeng was as unforthcoming as usual.
Zhao Jun was already used to it by this point, and so did not really expect Li Lanfeng to suddenly have a fit of kindness and tell him his thoughts. He casually continued to say, "Lanfeng, that rabbit mecha operator's abilities seem to be pretty good. Even in standby mode, he has set the rabbit mecha to rest in an extremely cute manner. Twitching its head and nibbling on a carrot, very interesting!"
Li Lanfeng jerked. "What?"
Zhao Jun sad, "Huh?"
"What did you just say?" Li Lanfeng did not seem to have heard what Zhao Jun had to say clearly, asking him to repeat himself.
Zhao Jun racked his brains to think back on what he had said, and then offered somewhat uncertainly, "About that rabbit mecha being interesting? How its standby action is to twitch its head and nibble a carrot?" Was this what he had said earlier?
Li Lanfeng only responded to this after a long while. "That is indeed very interesting!"
Zhao Jun glanced dubiously at Li Lanfeng. His good friend's voice sounded a little hoarse — could it be that he had caught a cold from enjoying the breeze with him last night? Zhao Jun suddenly felt guilty. If he had not been so restless, he would not have pulled Li Lanfeng along with him to the top of the high tower to enjoy the night breeze.
Li Lanfeng did not know what Zhao Jun was thinking. Inside his mecha's cockpit, his gaze became unfathomable, as if he were recalling something.
********
At this moment, Ling Lan had long arrived at the mission hall, and was currently resting with her eyes closed. Of course, she was not killing time — it was just that there was already a diligent little worker Little Four helping her sift through the hundreds and thousands of available missions to pick those most suited for her. Leaving Little Four to it was clearly much more professional and efficient than if she were to do it herself.
Like right now, it had only been 30 seconds when Little Four's smug voice rang out within her mindspace. "Boss, I've found it."
"What do you have?" said Ling Lan with an approving expression as she stroked Little Four's head.
Little Four was all smiles as he basked in his boss's affection, replying, "There is only one player-assigned mission, while there are three special missions from the system. They all suit us very well, and don't seem to require much time or effort. Of course, the points given are also not bad." With a wave of his hand, a sheet of white paper appeared in Little Four's hand, which he then passed to Ling Lan. Little Four felt that the information was too detailed to explain clearly, so he decided to just use text to display what he had found.
Ling Lan accepted the paper and saw the following written on it:
Special System Mission:
1) Find the missing 'starlight conversion power core' of Three-Seas Town, allowing Three-Seas Town to possess night-time defensive ability! Reward — 1 mecha starlight conversion power core (equipment adapted for mecha use); 500 points.
2) One week later, Three-Seas Town shall be the target of a coordinated attack by the mutated beasts of the wildlands. The mayor of Three-Seas Town received the news, and in order to save the town, he has requested you, warrior, to bring a letter to the mayor of Suncreed City 1 , in hopes that the other can send some elite troops to come and help defend the town ... Reward — 1 Supreme Frost Moon Battle Sword (equippable back weapon for mecha); 200 points.
3) On the only road between Three-Seas Town and Suncreed City, a horde of mutated savage beasts have appeared. Three-Seas Town has issued a generous bounty for their elimination! Reward — 1 low-level mecha evolution stone (adds a certain degree of success when modifying lower mecha); 1 high-performance beam gun (equippable right-hand weapon for mecha); 200 points.
Player-assigned Mission:
An advanced mecha warrior requested to escort the client safely inside Suncreed City. Completion reward: 1 mecha repair toolkit (perfectly repairs any mecha below advanced mecha level once); 1 application of emergency repair (temporarily restores an intermediate mecha with damage of 60% and above back to perfect condition, time duration 1 minute! If used when damage level is below 60%, condition is only restored by 35%! Percentage of restoration will decrease in correlation with lowered damage levels); 200 points.
Ling Lan flicked a finger at the paper and said, "Your meaning is to accept all four missions together?" 1100 points in total — that would cover the minimum requirement of 1010 points for the mecha challenge hall.
"Yes," replied Little Four decisively.
"Why? The second and third system's special missions and the player-assigned mission do seem related, so it makes sense to accept them together. But the first system mission ... I just can't see how it relates to the other missions." commented Ling Lan with a frown.
Little Four chuckled gleefully, "Other people might of course not know the secret behind this, but who am I? A large-scale search is indeed very difficult, but this small-scale search is no trouble for me. The starlight conversion power core is actually in the main nest of the savage beasts. We should just pick it up along the way and bring it together to the mayor of Three-Seas Town to collect the reward."
Ling Lan cuffed Little Four lightly on the back of his head, "Smart aleck, accept them all then."
Little Four said smugly, "I've already done so! I was afraid if I waited, someone else would take them first."
Looking at Little Four's 'praise me, praise me!' expression, Ling Lan could not help but sweatdrop. This little brat was beginning to get too full of himself again — this called for some discipline ... and so, she fiercely pinched Little Four's chubby little cheeks.
Over Little Four's cries for mercy, Ling Lan asked, "How do we contact that player?"
Little Four escaped from Ling Lan's demon fingers with great difficulty, and rubbing his brutalised cheeks mournfully, he said, "He will contact us on his own."
Right at that moment, the A.I. of Ling Lan's mecha suddenly sounded an alert. [No Mecha Unrepaired] requesting communications, YES or NO?
Little Four hurriedly shouted, "That's him!"
Ling Lan pressed the button to accept, and instantly heard a feeble voice say, "Excuse me, are you the one who accepted my mission?"
Ling Lan said calmly, "Yes!"
"This mission is to Suncreed City. The savage beasts there are very powerful; it's impossible to pass if you're not an advanced mecha warrior. I would like to ask, are you an advanced mecha warrior?" The other did not seem to have a lot of confidence in Ling Lan, and could not help but give a warning.
"Since I accepted your mission, I will definitely send you to your destination. You don't have to worry." Ling Lan looked at the rabbit mecha representing trainee status and her face was dark. This mecha truly did not have much persuasive power.
The other seemed to glean Ling Lan's connotation from her words, and so said, "Then I'm afraid I can't give you this mission. A while earlier, three intermediate mecha warriors accepted this mission together, and still they did not manage to pass ..." As if thinking of something, he added, "The more people are involved in this mission, the more savage beasts there are, which makes it even harder. Trying to power through with sheer numbers is useless in the mecha world; individual ability is all that matters here."
Hearing this, Little Four immediately said, "Boss, do you want me to help you create an illusion, making your mecha look like an advanced mecha to the other party?"
The corner of Ling Lan's lips quirked. "No need. I will use my strength to prove that this mission is mine to complete." Glancing at Little Four, Ling Lan reminded once more, "Little Four, you must remember, right now I am using my real identity. So, anything involving the outside world cannot be manipulated. Don't let anyone discover your existence."
Startled, Little Four quickly nodded his head and said, "Understood, Boss!"
Ling Lan ruffled his hair and said, "You must be careful with your actions in the future. I cannot lose you, Little Four!" The emphasised concern in her tone made Little Four's eyes turn red. He hurriedly nodded emphatically, mentally reminding himself not to let his boss worry anymore. Boo hoo hoo, so this is what Boss's care and concern was like. There was a sweet and sour feeling in his heart, but he was energised by it! No, he couldn't take it anymore, his core chip seemed to be a little overheated ...
Ling Lan did not sense Little Four's reaction to her words. Currently, all her attention was on [No Mecha Unrepaired] as she responded coolly, "Even for advanced mecha warriors, if their control skills are not up to par, they still will not be able to complete the mission. Besides, to find an advanced mecha warrior in this Three-Seas Town is most likely very difficult." Along the way, Ling Lan had observed that this area was basically a mecca for trainee mecha and lower mecha; there were very few intermediate mecha, and as for advanced mecha, Ling Lan had not seen even one.
Ling Lan's words made the other choke, because what Ling Lan said was the truth. Setting aside the question of whether advanced mecha warriors would appear in Three-Seas Town, just looking at the reward the client was offering, he would not be able to attract any advanced mecha. He could only hope for an advanced mecha who just happened to be on his way to Suncreed City to accept his mission as a matter of convenience. He could never have imagined that Ling Lan was in fact accepting his mission precisely because it was conveniently along her way for her other missions ...
"Instead of waiting indefinitely for an unknown possibility, you might as well take a gamble on me. Of course, you can first take a look at my combat ability. If you still think it's no good, it won't be too late to reject me then," Ling Lan continued to say.
Ling Lan's suggestion convinced the other, who replied, "What you say makes sense. Let me see your combat ability first then. If it's fine, I'll give this assignment to you. Let's do this, let's meet at the town's western gate."
Ling Lan naturally agreed to this. It was necessary to pass through the western gate of the town on the way to Suncreed City anyway, so the other's suggestion would not waste too much of either of their time.
However, Ling Lan did not let Little Four go just because of this. She rapped Little Four sharply on the back of his head, causing Little Four to look at her in confusion, unsure why Boss was hitting him for no reason again.
"This doesn't count as troublesome? A waste of time?" Ling Lan threw an icy glare at Little Four, scaring him so much that he could only bow his head timidly, muttering in a small voice only he could hear, "Isn't this because you, Boss, are unwilling to let me manipulate things ..." His final thought that this was all Ling Lan's own fault remained unsaid, as no matter what, Little Four would not dare to give voice to it, only able to forcefully swallow it back into his gullet.
With a 'whack', Little Four's head was given another firm cuff. Tears bloomed from Little Four's two eyes, and he glanced at Ling Lan in complaint. Boo hoo hoo, Boss, why are you bullying me again?
"It's my own fault?" said Ling Lan with a half-smile as she stared at Little Four. That stare made Little Four's entire body feel cold — how had he forgotten that his and Boss's minds were connected? Even if he did not voice that thought, Boss would still know about it ...
Little Four was indeed very shameless; he immediately said with an innocent look, "Boss, never, definitely not, you must have heard wrong. No, no, no, sensed wrong!" Feeling as if this was not persuasive enough, Little Four suddenly said with an enlightened expression, "Ah ... it must definitely be an invasion of an unidentified virus! Little Four must go kill the virus! Boss, Little Four has to go handle things now ..." That said, he ran away with a whoosh.
1. 信阳城: Literal pinyin is 'xinyang' city, which can be interpreted as belief in the sun.
Chapter 230 - The Open Secret of the Military Academy!
"This Little Four is really becoming more and more daring!" Ling Lan once again confirmed that this intelligence entity of the learning space was definitely an oddball, acting in all ways exactly like a real child. He had displayed all kinds of emotions and behaviours, including playing mischievous tricks and shirking from his responsibilities.
Ling Lan piloted her mecha to the western gate of the town. The western gate had slightly less traffic than the other gates, because this was the beginning of the pathway to Suncreed City. It should be known that even if the path to Suncreed City was cleared by someone, it would only take one day for the savage beasts inhabiting it to respawn and repopulate it. Most notably, those savage beasts were truly too formidable — anyone below advanced mecha warrior status just had no hope of passing through, so this was considered the hardest road to take during the newbie period.
Ling Lan's rabbit mecha laid there nibbling on its carrot, twitching its head. Its adorable appearance drew significant attention again, though that attention very quickly subsided as well. After all, in the end, a mecha's worth still depended on its capabilities. Aside from a portion of women who would be sold by the sheer cuteness, men would just toss a curious glance or two at it and then cast it to the back of their minds 1 .
Very soon, Ling Lan saw a humanoid mecha appear at the western gate, looking around left and right. She thus knew that this person should be [No Mecha Unrepaired], and so operated her mecha to hop over to the other. This sudden movement seemed to startle the other, as the other reflexively went into a defensive stance. It was clear to see that this mecha operator's reaction time was not bad.
"[No Mecha Unrepaired]?" asked Ling Lan in the public comms channel.
"[Lingtian First-String]?" The other's tone of disbelief clearly showed how disappointed he was in the appearance of Ling Lan's mecha.
"Yes!" replied Ling Lan.
"Sorry, but I have to go now!" [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s voice was tinged with anger — he felt that he had been played. He immediately turned his mecha around to leave, but found a carrot-shaped sword held up before his mecha.
"We agreed that you would take a look at my combat ability. I do not wish for someone to violate the agreement." Ling Lan's voice was extremely cold. For some unknown reason, [No Mecha Unrepaired] actually felt a chill penetrate into his heart.
"Hn?" This questioning sound of Ling Lan's carried a hint of a threat, though she was internally sweatdropping. For the sake of points, she was actually in the process of threatening someone now ... where had her morals gone?
"Fine!" Without thinking about it, [No Mecha Unrepaired] agreed. As a genius mecha modifier, he was very well-versed in mecha controls. He had turned around so swiftly, but in the same period of time, the other had been able to take two steps forwards and bring up a weapon to block him. Based on that operation alone, he could sense that the other's skills could not be weak. This was one of the reasons why he had capitulated so easily; of course, he would never admit that he had been scared into changing his mind.
"This road leading to Suncreed City has a lot of savage beasts along the way. Of course, the savage beasts closer to the western gate are not as fearsome as those deeper along the path. As we move ahead, we will see the first wave of savage beasts. If you can obtain my acknowledgement, I will give the mission to you," said [No Mecha Unrepaired], "Of course, if you can't satisfy me, I will not continue on with you."
"Okay!" Ling Lan agreed to [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s conditions. "But, you need to keep up with my speed, otherwise I won't bother with you." Ling Lan did not wish to have to divide her attention to protect him while she was fighting. Ling Lan's thoughts went like this — if the other could not even protect himself while she blocked off a majority of the savage beasts, she would rather give up the mission than help him. Ling Lan felt that if he was not skilled enough, he might as well continue training in Three-Seas Town, waiting to become strong enough before travelling out into the greater world outside.
"Alright!" [No Mecha Unrepaired] peered at this rabbit mecha before him and replied.
The two mecha flew rapidly towards Suncreed City. There were several mecha operators around who recognised [No Mecha Unrepaired]; some of them quickly turned on their communicators and shared their latest discovery with their friends.
" Extra, extra 1 ! I just saw [No Mecha Unrepaired] challenging the road to Suncreed with a rabbit trainee mecha."
"Tch, this fellow still hasn't given up? Didn't he die enough last time to scare him off?"
"He's really keeping worse and worse company now, actually trying it with a trainee mecha this time. I bet that he will die halfway through again." This was a voice filled with schadenfreude.
"Who asked him not to join the Thunder King Faction? Serves him right to be stuck hanging around Three-Seas Town! I heard that the Thunder King has already put out the word that no one is to help him. Weren't there three outsider punks who accepted his mission a few days back? It was lucky that their team was wiped out on the mission, otherwise those three punks would have been wiped out by the Thunder King's men anyway." This was a student from the First Men's Military Academy. Only someone from the First Men's Military Academy would understand the conflict between [No Mecha Unrepaired] and the Thunder King.
"Hey, where do you think that rabbit mecha is from? Actually courting death by accepting the mission?" asked another First Men's Military Academy student.
"He's most definitely not from our First Men's Military Academy, or else how would he dare to accept that mission? At the military academy, this is already an open secret. Even the new cadets of this year would have been warned by the older cadets," replied another First Men's Military Academy student, "Only those new cadets from the other military academies might not know about this and dare to take the mission. However, once they are taught a lesson a few times, these newcomers will probably not accept [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s mission anymore."
"Say, do you think the Thunder King will make a move this time?" Even more military academy cadets joined the conversation to ask curiously. It turned out that the channel they had been using to chat was the channel exclusive to the military academies.
"Do you think they can pass the Suncreed passage mission?" someone shot back, "If they can't pass, why would the Thunder King act? Still, it's possible he might punish them after the fact."
"That rabbit is really too unlucky. New to the mecha world, and already clashing with the Thunder King." Someone began feeling sorry for that extremely adorable rabbit.
"This rabbit is still considered fortunate. At most being punished in the mecha world would not do him any real harm. If he were a First Men's Military Academy cadet, then that would truly be called terrible. The Thunder King will definitely not let anyone who disobeys him go free." In the First Men's Military Academy, the Thunder King was the undisputed one of a kind king. His strength was formidable and his faction was strong — even the leaders of the second and third factions did not dare to oppose him openly.
"Have you all heard? This year's new cadets are pretty wild, actually forming their own new cadet regiment, unwilling to join any other factions. Is the Thunder King and the others just gonna leave them be?" Someone suddenly brought up this question.
"These new cadets may be having the time of their lives now, but they'll have lots to cry about later. The Thunder King does not have time now to bother with these trivial things. He's in Closed Door Meditation right now. Once he is done, he will be the first 4th year of our military academy to ascend to ace operator! At that time, you think the Thunder King will let these new cadets do as they like, breaking the order of the academy?" This speaker was most likely from the Thunder King Faction; his news was extremely up-to-date.
"So that's how it is!" The comms channel was filled with sighs of admiration. Someone could be heard to mutter, "I wonder if the Thunder King Faction is still accepting people ..."
The informant said haughtily, "To enter the Thunder King Faction, the minimum requirement is to be at intermediate mecha warrior level. Once you all achieve that, perhaps I can put in a word for you all."
"Alright! I'll add you as a friend. You must follow through and help me out in the future, okay?" The people in the channel all became excited, all speaking up to request a friend slot with the informant. If they could really join the Thunder King Faction, it would be pretty much guaranteed that they would be able to strut around on campus without worry for their remaining six years at the First Men's Military Academy.
"Hehe, no problem ..." The informant did not expect that he would become so popular just by revealing a little bit of news about the Thunder King. In his mind, he once again praised himself for the amazingly accurate decision of joining the Thunder King Faction back then.
********
Ling Lan and [No Mecha Unrepaired] had no idea that after their departure, those mecha operators who recognised [No Mecha Unrepaired] would spread the word of their meetup. They were currently fully focused on getting as fast as they could to the closest savage beast territory from the western gate.
Very quickly, they had arrived at the location. Observing the teeming horde of white-furred animals with crimson eyes before them, Ling Lan's brow twitched involuntarily, "Rabbits?" Godd*mmit, asking her rabbit to kill rabbits? Why did this seem so comedic no matter how you looked at it?
[No Mecha Unrepaired] did not seem to sense anything wrong with the scene, replying seriously, "Yes. Don't underestimate them. These mutated rabbits are very terrifying. Their teeth and claws are their killing tools, but what's even more frightening is their kicking power, fully capable of killing lower level mecha instantly ..." That said, he cast a worried look at Ling Lan. The other was just a trainee mecha rabbit. If by any chance he was killed in the very first second of attacking, that would be too pitiful ... [No Mecha Unrepaired] could not help but add on kindly, "If you think it's impossible, why don't we just go back?"
Ling Lan's rabbit mecha removed the carrot from its mouth with its front claws. She then said coldly, "Give me two minutes!"
Although it really would not take that long for her to kill off all these rabbits, Ling Lan did not want to reveal the full extent of her capabilities before someone unfamiliar. Thus, she had extended the time needed to 4 times what she actually needed.
Then, Ling Lan controlled the rabbit mecha to spring powerfully off its hind legs, and the entire rabbit mecha flew towards the horde of mutated rabbits ...
"Ah, you can't do it that way ...!" Seeing the rabbit mecha's actions, [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s expression paled dramatically as he gave a mournful cry. Once the ground began to shudder violently, the rabbits of the entire area would be drawn over — at that time, even an advanced mecha might lose his life easily if he weren't careful. This was yet another reason why the path to Suncreed was so hard to get through.
[No Mecha Unrepaired] quickly operated his mecha to flee the scene, running up to 100 metres away before turning back tremulously to peek back at Ling Lan. And then, he was flabbergasted by what he saw.
Ling Lan controlled her rabbit mecha to swing the carrot-shaped sword in its hand around in a deadly dance. Each and every rabbit that leapt at her was sent flying with one strike, where they then laid still, never getting up again.
[No Mecha Unrepaired] quickly halted his mecha and zoomed in on the image on his mecha's screen. The rabbits on the ground had all had their chests pierced clear through, dying instantly.
In his utter stupefaction, [No Mecha Unrepaired] shifted his screen back to focus on the battling Ling Lan. Only then did he see how casual and easy every move of Ling Lan's seemed; never once did that red carrot strike air. One time, he saw the other control the rabbit mecha to stomp heavily on the ground, sending the entire mecha up into the air. Then, with a whirlwind gyration of its body, all the mutated rabbits leaping at it had been swept away. That scene was just as if a peerless ultimate master rabbit had come to terrorize a bunch of harmless and puny rabbits who did not know how to fight ...
1. T/C: I beg to differ. The author has obviously not met male friends like mine who coo over fluffy kittens and chubby corgis.
2. as in the phrase 'extra, extra, read all about it!', indicating breaking news.
Chapter 231 - Sneak Attack!
[No Mecha Unrepaired] knew that those seemingly harmless rabbits were actually extremely horrifying for low-level mecha operators, being able to kill them easily in an instant. However, this scene before him — this mecha rabbit, obviously still a trainee, going on a rampage — gave him the false impression that even he would be able to go forward and kick those rabbits around and slaughter them as he liked.
Time passed by bit by bit; the number of rabbits still alive on the field grew fewer and fewer. By the time the blood of the final rabbit was splattered onto the grassy field, precisely 2 minutes had passed, not a millisecond more or less than what the rabbit mecha had claimed at the start.
What strength and confidence was this, for the other to be able to give such an accurate timeframe? [No Mecha Unrepaired] could not help but pinch his cheeks within his cockpit, only believing that this was real at the resulting sting of pain he felt.
Heavens, what level of mecha operator had he ended up hiring? Even an advanced mecha would not have been able to defeat such a large number of mutated rabbits so easily within two minutes, especially under conditions like this where it had been surrounded on all sides. [No Mecha Unrepaired] could not help but shudder at that moment ... could the other be a special-class operator? Considering that possibility, he was beyond exhilarated. Perhaps this time he would really be able to successfully arrive at Suncreed City, no longer being stuck at Three-Seas Town, unable to improve his mecha repair skill level.
Ling Lan easily finished off the final rabbit — aside from a few drops of blood dripping from the red carrot weapon, there was not a single speck of blood on the white body of the rabbit mecha, which remained as pristine as before. This was the result of Ling Lan slowing down her speed and her skilful control.
With a stomp of its hind feet, the rabbit mecha sprang off the ground once more and engaged its thrusters, arriving in the blink of an eye to stand before [No Mecha Unrepaired]. This sudden movement once again gave [No Mecha Unrepaired] a fright. However, this time, he no longer reflexively shifted into a defensive stance — humans were truly extremely adaptable creatures.
Ling Lan controlled the rabbit mecha to use its carrot to rap on the humanoid mecha, and asked calmly, "So?" The voice was as frigid as before, but the threat behind the tone was palpable, as if at the first hint that [No Mecha Unrepaired] would even dare to utter 'no', he would be immediately destroyed.
Right then, [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s heart was filled with joy, not one bit of unwillingness to be found. He hurriedly replied, "It's great! Sir [Lingtian First-String], this mission is in your hands now." Then, he quickly contracted Ling Lan for his mission — he did it very speedily, afraid that Ling Lan might reconsider and refuse.
Of course, once this contract was established, it would be maintained by the mecha world's mainframe, which would not allow either side to break the agreement without good reason.
Sir? Did her voice really sound so much like a man's now? Speechless, Ling Lan pressed the button to accept the mission. She did not know whether she should be proud of herself for impersonating a man so successfully ...
Since the two of them had come to an agreement, they did not continue to linger here, immediately beginning their journey towards Suncreed City.
Along the way, Ling Lan not only encountered small packs of mutated wolves and many mutated wild bulls, but even a pack of five mutated black panthers in the end. The further along they went, the stronger the beasts became. When a pack of mutated cheetahs showed up, they wasted quite a bit of Ling Lan's time due to their extraordinary speed. After all, in comparison with the mutated cheetahs, the rabbit mecha's speed was nothing. Fortunately, her innate talent Profound Insight was very helpful — it discovered the cheetahs' weakness not soon after, allowing Ling Lan to kill them. Still, the struggle had lasted a full five minutes.
"Looks like, against the stronger mutated beasts, a trainee mecha is still rather weak overall." If Ling Lan had been given an advanced mecha, these cheetahs would have been killed with a swing of her arm. Even if she had not been given an advanced mecha, but a lower mecha instead, Ling Lan still would not have wasted five minutes. It was likely that she would have only needed one to two minutes to wrap things up. This was the mecha's limits — even for Ling Lan, who was already at ace operator level control, it was impossible to execute an instant kill against a beast that was stronger than the mecha's abilities.
Even as Ling Lan was feeling rather sorry about the state of her mecha, [No Mecha Unrepaired] was filled with awe at how easily Ling Lan had dispatched these beasts. Mind you, back then, he and the three intermediate mecha warriors had been killed at this spot, instantly being sent straight back to revive by these cheetahs. Back then, they had not even seen much of the cheetahs before they had been killed and returned to the town.
But now, the five cheetahs had appeared at the same time, but had still been easily handled by the other within a short period of time. With this, [No Mecha Unrepaired] was even more confident in their chances of arriving at Suncreed City safely. Furthermore, he had also confirmed to himself that the one controlling this rabbit trainee mecha was most definitely a special-class mecha master. He felt extremely fortunate, actually being able to coincidentally meet such a strong person in the game world. Only a strong person such as this would be able to make his way freely around the low-level world using just a trainee mecha.
Ling Lan had just finished off the five cheetahs, not yet moving ahead, when she heard Little Four exclaim joyfully, "Boss, it's right here! The starlight conversion power core should be inside the ancient den of the monster of this mountain."
Ling Lan said calmly, "Done killing the viruses?" Ever since Little Four had been seen through by her, and had used the excuse of killing a virus to run away, he had not presented himself again. Ling Lan had thought that this brat would not dare to face her anymore — unexpectedly, he had suddenly emerged again now.
Little Four stiffened, and then forced a pandering smile on his face. "All done, all done. Oh Boss, you really do care about me! Little Four is so touched ...!" That said, he did not forget to hug Ling Lan's thigh and act cute with all his might, desperately hoping for Boss to forget his previous disrespect.
Ling Lan lightly flicked Little Four on the head. "Don't try to act cute and brush it off. In a bit, you'll be helping me to redeem yourself!" Little Four hurriedly agreed. Boss was clearly prepared to let him off — of course he would not be so stupid as to let this chance go by.
And so, Ling Lan changed directions to follow an almost indiscernible mountain trail, heading into a dense forest.
Seeing this, [No Mecha Unrepaired] panicked, shouting hurriedly, "Sir [Lingtian First-String], where are you going?" Did the other not want to bring him to Suncreed City anymore?
Ling Lan replied, "I want to clean up the old den of the mutated beasts a little."
"Ah, those mutated beasts in the home den are all very formidable! We definitely can't go. It's too dangerous! Besides, to get to Suncreed City, we only need to keep following Suncreed Road. There is no need at all to take this risk."
Ling Lan abruptly turned her head to look at [No Mecha Unrepaired] and said flatly, "This is my mission. If you don't want to go, then just wait for me here."
Being pierced by the vacant gaze of the rabbit mecha, [No Mecha Unrepaired] did not dare to offer any more objection. Right then, he finally realised that he was really just a convenient tag-along for the other. Having figured that out, he came to to find that Ling Lan was gradually pulling further and further away. He abruptly shouted, "[Lingtian First-String], wait for me! I'll go too." Leaving him here all alone ... it was definitely much more dangerous to stay behind than to follow the other. He had no intention of losing his life here.
"What? You're not afraid of accompanying me to your death?" Ling Lan halted to mock icily.
[No Mecha Unrepaired] hurriedly said, "We've travelled all this way together. No matter what, there's some bond between us now. How can I watch a friend brave danger on his own and stay behind alone? No matter what, we should share our joys and pain, and go through thick and thin together ..." As if knowing that these words of his were not at all convincing, [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s voice became softer and softer as he spoke, almost not daring to meet the spirited rabbit eyes of Ling Lan.
Ling Lan merely glanced at the other without puncturing his lies. Since [No Mecha Unrepaired] dared to brave danger with her, it meant that he trusted her abilities to a large degree. Ling Lan did not say anything further, tacitly agreeing to let [No Mecha Unrepaired] tag along.
The two of them entered the forest depths. They had not gone far when Ling Lan suddenly shoved [No Mecha Unrepaired]. This movement was too sudden — [No Mecha Unrepaired] was totally unprepared. He fell to the ground instantly, tumbling two circles away ...
"Boom!" Where [No Mecha Unrepaired] had been standing, some unknown item had crashed heavily into the ground, throwing up countless amounts of dirt and fallen leaves.
Right then, Ling Lan's rabbit mecha suddenly pushed its engines to send the entire mecha into the air, flipping into an upside down position with the carrot in its hands facing downwards. Then, like with a nail, it drove the carrot powerfully straight into the ground below.
"Boom!" This was the sound of the mecha hitting the earth. Immediately after, the rabbit mecha leapt up nimbly to dash 5 metres away and land securely on all four feet.
Following this series of actions, a string of violent snapping and twisting could be heard. In the end, everything fell silent again, and when all the flying dirt and leaves finally settled back onto the ground, the scene became clear to the eye.
Only then could [No Mecha Unrepaired] see that, where he had initially been standing was now a deep gouge of about half a metre wide and 30 centimetres deep . That gouge which looked like the result of a whip let [No Mecha Unrepaired] know that if he had been struck by it, even if his mecha had not been destroyed, the power behind the blow would have been enough to rattle him to death.
[No Mecha Unrepaired] could not help but glance gratefully at Ling Lan; the other had saved his life once again. If the other had not pushed him aside so decisively, he would have died and returned to Three-Seas Town. But before he could speak up to thank the other, he was shocked into silence by the scenario on Ling Lan's end.
Not five metres away from the rabbit mecha, a gruesome large mouth was opened ravenously. Four razor-sharp teeth shone with a chilling light as the jaw opened and closed while the creature continued to struggle, as if wanting to leap forwards to swallow the rabbit mecha not too far from it whole. However, no matter how much it struggled, it could not escape from its bindings to move even another step ...
[No Mecha Unrepaired] very quickly realised that he was looking at the head of a snake. Moreover, at the critical juncture between the head and the rest of its body, a sword had penetrated to the hilt. The hilt of the sword was green in colour, and was shaped like leaves. [No Mecha Unrepaired] naturally knew that this was that carrot blade of the rabbit mecha.
Meanwhile, the flesh beneath the pierced juncture, spreading as far as half a metre, had already become a mess of minced meat. The tail part of the snake, due to being disconnected from the head, had reflexively curled up on itself, unable to make any more attacks.
This horrifying beast before them was a gigantic mutated python, whose attack power must be unrivalled. If an intermediate mecha warrior had come here, he might very well have died from a sneak attack before even being able to actually meet it head on. No, perhaps even an advanced mecha warrior would have found it difficult to escape from this unorthodox attack. But now, this mutated python had had its vital point pierced by the rabbit mecha in the span of just one sneak attack, completely losing its ability to fight back.
"Can you still stand up?" Ling Lan looked towards [No Mecha Unrepaired], frowning. Had she used too much strength earlier, inadvertently injuring the other?
Only then did [No Mecha Unrepaired] stir from his stunned torpor. He quickly scrambled off the ground and said, "It's fine, I'm fine."
Chapter 232 - The Python Family!
The gigantic python finally ceased its struggles. The giant snake head crashed abruptly to the ground, sending some dirt and leaves up into the air again. [No Mecha Unrepaired] said carefully, "It's dead ..."
"Not yet!" responded Ling Lan coldly. How could this petty trick fool her? In the primordial forest, what savage beast had she not seen? Some were even slyer than this python here.
"Ah ..." [No Mecha Unrepaired] stared gobsmacked at the python — in that state and it still wasn't dead?
Ling Lan drew a short sword each from behind the two hind legs of the rabbit. With a powerful swing of her left hand, one of the short swords flew, whistling through the air right at the head of the python.
Just as the blade was about to strike, the python suddenly raised its head to snap its jaws savagely over that flying short sword. With a loud crunch, that short sword made of high-durability steel broke into pieces. It was clear to see how great the bite force quotient 1 of the python was. If Ling Lan had walked forward personally, her vital points might have accidentally been caught in its sneak attack, destroying her mecha and losing her life.
However, this frightening strike was also the python's final attack. Heaven knows when, the second short sword in Ling Lan's hands had been sent flying out without a sound. Even as the python's jaw shattered the first short sword, the second short sword buried itself in the snake's eyes, piercing through the entire snake head.
In the throes of death, the python seemed to be in great pain. It split its mouth open wide in a howling cry to the heavens. After a long ear-splitting wail, the snake head finally fell heavily to the ground once more, sending yet another spray of dust and dirt into the air.
Seeing this, Ling Lan made the rabbit mecha jump forwards. [No Mecha Unrepaired] was horrified by this, shouting loudly, "[Lingtian First-String], watch out in case it isn't dead!" If by any chance the other was playing dead again, wouldn't it be very dangerous for the rabbit mecha to just approach it like that?
"This time it's really dead," replied Ling Lan calmly as she walked up to the head. She pulled out the carrot sword pinning the snake by its vital point, placing it back securely into the rabbit's mouth. Next, she pulled out the short sword which had burrowed into the snake head, rubbing it against the ground a few times before putting it back behind her mecha's hind legs with some disgust. There was no helping it — the weapons on the trainee mecha were just too few; Ling Lan could not afford not to take it back.
As Ling Lan made preparations to leave, [No Mecha Unrepaired] spoke up once more, "Um, aren't you taking the spoils of victory?"
Previously, when the rabbit mecha had finished off those other mutated beasts, it had never once taken the spoils of victory off those mutated beasts' bodies. [No Mecha Unrepaired] felt his heart ache at the waste — mind you, those were all points! Although each spoil would only offer several decimal points worth of points, many a little makes a mickle 1 ! With that many beasts, if they had collected all of the spoils, it would have amounted to over at least several tens of points.
Living in the mecha world, restrictions were everywhere if one did not have points. If he had countless points, then he would not have been stuck so pitifully at Three-Seas Town for so long. He could have just offered 10,000 points as a reward — then, even the Thunder King would not have been able to stop a strong mercenary from bringing him out of Three-Seas Town.
"Spoils of victory?" asked Ling Lan curiously. She truly had no idea about these sorts of things.
"Yes! The beasts have lots of good things on their bodies. As long as we collect them, we can take them to an exchange store to redeem points. For instance, the teeth of this python — each one could be worth 3 points, 4 of them giving a total of 12 points. Like the pelts of the rabbits you have been killing all this way — each would be worth 0.2 points, while the pelts of the wild wolves would give 0.3 points ..." [No Mecha Unrepaired] really knew the value of the spoils of victory like the back of his hand. He detailed all the wastage Ling Lan had committed this entire journey.
After listening for half a day 1 , Ling Lan finally got the gist that there was still this method of gathering points within the mecha world. However, she took a look at that snake's head ... fine, she really had no interest in touching that ugly body again, so she said, "You collect it!"
[No Mecha Unrepaired] thought Ling Lan was letting him help her collect the spoils, and so happily made a sound of acknowledgement before moving forwards to collect those 4 sharp teeth from the snake's head. Ling Lan's terrifying combat power this entire way had let [No Mecha Unrepaired] understand that that bit of reward he was offering was totally insufficient to hire such a formidable mecha operator. He really wanted to use something else to supplement his payment — if he could help the other collect the spoils of victory and get a bit more points that way, he would feel less guilty.
As [No Mecha Unrepaired] harvested the teeth, he sighed, looking at that centre section of the python which had been smashed into mincemeat. This was the result of Ling Lan plunging down from a tall height, using gravity and the weight of her own mecha to crush the snake's body with one strike. This move was flawless both in terms of timing and accuracy, proving that Ling Lan's mecha control skills had already reached a point where her body and the mecha had become one. This was the mark of a special-class operator, which also proved that [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s deduction was correct. The operator of this rabbit mecha before him was most definitely a mysterious and powerful special-class operator.
Of course, [No Mecha Unrepaired] was not sighing over the other's strength. Instead, he was sighing over the fact that that section of snake skin had been ruined by Ling Lan's brute force. He silently thought to himself that, if they could have peeled it off in perfect condition, such a ginormous piece of snake skin would have been worth at least 30 points. This was already among the highest amount one could get from the redemption of victory spoils. Alright, in the process of accumulating points to hire a master, [No Mecha Unrepaired] had undoubtedly become somewhat of a point-freak.
[No Mecha Unrepaired]'s harvesting ability was rather strong — the four teeth took him less than two minutes. Still, even so, Ling Lan felt this was not worth it. Perhaps that was why Little Four had not suggested this method to her. Ling Lan only needed perhaps several seconds to kill a beast, but collecting the spoils would waste a lot of her time. This was definitely not something Ling Lan wanted.
Seeing [No Mecha Unrepaired] done with the harvesting, Ling Lan did not linger, continuing forwards. Although they remained vigilant for the rest of the way, they did not encounter any more savage beasts, nor did they meet any dangers. The strangeness of the situation made [No Mecha Unrepaired] become restless and unsettled. However, for some unknown reason, seeing the rabbit mecha hopping unhurriedly before him — each hop eating up the same amount of distance, with the exact same arc and rhythm — this precise operation soothed his emotions, allowing him to regain his calm ...
After travelling for about 5 minutes, Ling Lan suddenly stopped and said, "Careful."
Although [No Mecha Unrepaired] was not officially trying to become a mecha warrior, these couple of years of watching out for himself had given him extremely rich combat experience. Hearing Ling Lan's warning, he instantly assumed a defensive stance, multiple viewing angles popping up on his mecha's screen to cover his surroundings. However, aside from the silence, there was nothing else strange about the situation.
No, in fact there was still noise. It was the sound of tree leaves being rustled by the wind, but this was extremely normal ... Sweat beaded on [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s forehead — the calmer and more normal things seemed, the more it meant danger was imminent.
At this moment, [No Mecha Unrepaired] still did not realise that he now trusted Ling Lan unconditionally. It was because of this that he took Ling Lan's simple warning so seriously, to the extent that he would believe a hazard was right before them.
"Jump!" shouted Ling Lan abruptly. Without even thinking, [No Mecha Unrepaired] operated his mecha to leap into the air. In his screen, he saw a flash of red light sweep beneath his mecha's feet.
"Swish!" It was the sound of something piercing through flesh and blood, or perhaps stabbing into earth. [No Mecha Unrepaired] had not yet figured out the sound when he heard a tremendous snapping sound coming from not too far behind him.
Before [No Mecha Unrepaired] could expand the scope of vision of his mecha to look, he felt his mecha being thrown into the air by a great force.
From his screen, [No Mecha Unrepaired] could clearly see that the one who had attacked him had been the rabbit mecha. The other had given him a solid kick with its hind legs. This kick was even more forceful than the force Ling Lan had used to shove him aside earlier, causing [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s mecha to fly up high, soaring over several large trees, before crashing heavily to the ground about 30 metres away.
If not for the fact that [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s physical constitution could still be considered excellent, just this series of collisions alone could have given him grave injuries. Despite not being injured, [No Mecha Unrepaired] still felt his Qi and blood roiling from the concussive force, and could not help but spurt out a mouthful of blood ...
"Could it be that [Lingtian First-String] is trying to kill me?" This was [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s first thought. However, he quickly dispelled it, because he believed that with [Lingtian First-String]'s abilities, killing him would be as easy as a lift of a hand. He would not just be left with such minor injuries.
Meanwhile, on Ling Lan's end, she had borrowed the reaction force from kicking [No Mecha Unrepaired], assisted by the thrust of her engines, to rise up swiftly into the air. This allowed her to dodge the speedy attack of a silver beam of light, while also helping [No Mecha Unrepaired] to dodge this ruthless killing attack at the same time. Based on the trajectory of the silver light, the first one to be hit would have been [No Mecha Unrepaired].
Ling Lan controlled her mecha to land securely on the ground. She carefully observed a gigantic silver python coiled up approximately 10 metres away, which was already preparing to launch its next attack. This python was even more colossal than the python Ling Lan had killed earlier. Two snake eyes as large as lanterns were beaming with coldly sinister light, not at all trying to hide the killing intent within them.
"Who'd have thought that the savage beast occupying this area would be from the python family." Ling Lan's brow furrowed. Even though Ling Lan had been schooled by the learning space in such a way that she was already no longer like a girl, not at all afraid of any fierce beasts or savage creatures, this did not eradicate her inherent nature of loathing these types of slithery cold-blooded animals. Therefore, when she discovered that the opponent was these pythons, some dislike still reared within her heart.
Ling Lan cast a glance at a distance not too far off, where her carrot-sword had already pinned a slightly smaller python. That python was struggling desperately, trying to wrest free of the carrot-sword's blade.
She could not help but 'tsk' in annoyance; Ling Lan knew that she would definitely not be able to retrieve the carrot-sword right now to attack. Furthermore, as the rabbit mecha was a trainee mecha, other than the carrot-sword, it only had two high-performance steel short swords as its cold weapons. One of the swords had already been 'nobly sacrificed' in the previous fight, so the only cold weapon Ling Lan could use now was that one remaining short sword.
Although there was still a beam handgun on the back of the mecha, Ling Lan knew very well that it would be impossible to overcome the defensive power of this humongous python's skin relying on that handgun alone. Of course, it could not be said that it would be useless — if one managed to shoot a vital point, it would still be effective. For example, the eyes of the python, or perhaps the vulnerable mouth cavity unprotected by the skin ... however, in a moving fight, it would be extremely difficult to hit these points accurately. Unless it was absolutely unavoidable, Ling Lan did not plan to use that unreliable beam handgun.
Ling Lan lifted up the only remaining short sword she had with her left hand. Right now, she was a little regretful at her own overconfidence. She should have prepared a sharp long sword beforehand, or perhaps a lightsaber — that way, killing these pythons would be much easier.
1. This is an actual thing, referring to the force of an animal's bite. Google the term to find out more. :3
2. i.e. bit by bit gathered up becomes a lot.
3. i.e. it was a long-winded explanation.
Chapter 233 - The Weapon 'Regretless'!!
Another resounding "Bam!"
The giant python was pouncing forward again. Ling Lan controlled her mecha to leap up into the air, kicking forwards forcefully with its hind legs. The python was sent flying back by the powerful kick — the python and the mecha were only in contact for a brief moment before they were moving off in different directions again to land in two separate locations, once more facing each other in a standoff.
"Warning! Over-capacity usage of mecha's hind legs. Damage at 7%. Please use with caution; cherish your mecha!" Within the cockpit, the mecha's mainframe immediately issued a warning, protesting the brute actions of its operator.
That last kick may have pushed the python back, but because the giant python was really just too big and too heavy, the mecha had had to bear a force which exceeded its anti-shock capacity, causing the mecha to incur a certain degree of damage.
"Tch, even this is no good?" Ling Lan had thought to use the mecha's own body to attack to compensate for the lack of weapons, but now it looked like things would not be so simple. She smacked the control stick moodily and said, "This trainee mecha is just too godd*mn fragile."
Little Four could not help but dab at his sweat inside the mindspace. Since the start of her studies, Ling Lan's mecha combat style was already showing signs of being of the wild and barbaric type. He still remembered how she had caused her mecha to be all scratched up, bearing wounds from being pushed beyond its limits. In the end, they had had no choice but to spend so much credits to repair the mecha, only thus preventing the mecha from completely breaking down. Therefore, regardless of how strong or solid the mecha was, it would not fare much better than this rabbit mecha in Ling Lan's hands. This was because Ling Lan would forever bring out the greatest combat power a mecha was capable of, even pushing for more — it would be stranger if the mecha did not break down!
********
[No Mecha Unrepaired] rubbed away the trickle of blood at the corner of his lips, forcefully suppressing the nausea he still felt from the bloody stench as he operated his mecha to get up from the ground. Meanwhile, the inside of his cockpit had long become flooded with alerts from the mainframe, which was warning non-stop that the mecha had been attacked, and displaying the resulting damage levels. He unstintingly used a low-level repair kit, letting the mecha be completely repaired in a very short period of time.
Of course, while he did all this, his gaze had not once left the battle scene 30 metres away. When he saw that the rabbit mecha was left with only one short sword weapon, he could not help but become anxious; he understood that if the rabbit mecha could not finish off this frighteningly ginormous python, the both of them would definitely lose their lives here.
"No, it was so difficult to find such a strong mecha operator to bring me to Suncreed City, I definitely cannot die here, wasting all that effort!" [No Mecha Unrepaired] was naturally unwilling to just admit defeat. He opened up his bag, desperately searching through it to see if there were any cold weapons the rabbit mecha could use within it. Right then, he was somewhat thankful that he was in the wilds, and not in a combat arena. In a combat arena, it was not permitted to change one's equipped weapons halfway.
When he came to a pitch-black weapon, he could not help but stare at it blankly. "Should we use this one?"
[No Mecha Unrepaired] looked at this cold weapon he had developed in Three-Seas Town. It was shaped like a tangdao 1 of olden times, but its blade was not like the clean diagonal-cut edge of a traditional tangdao, instead sporting an extremely conspicuous concavity. This concavity was deep near the edge, becoming gradually shallower as it travelled along the body of the blade to spread along its entire surface.
The entire sword was a sheet of black, not as eye-catching as other brighter and flashier weapons. However, it silently emitted a type of killing intent, letting people know that this was no ordinary sword. Of course, that was all they would know — only its creator and the one who used it would be able to truly comprehend the fearsome nature of this sword.
This was a lethal weapon [No Mecha Unrepaired] had forged using the best materials he could gather in Three-Seas Town. Back when he had succeeded, it had let him advance two stages, from trainee mecha mechanic to advanced mecha mechanic, in an instant. Back then, he had been young and cocky — in his pride and joy, he had forgotten that he should hide his light under a bushel 1 until he was sufficiently strong enough to protect himself. He had proclaimed his name in a high-handed fashion, allowing the Thunder King to figure out his identity. In the end, whether it was here in the mecha world, or in reality, the Thunder King had been pressuring him with the power of his faction to join his organisation.
As a result of his unwillingness to submit, he had been restricted by the other to Three-Seas Town, unable to move. If he was not able to pass the assessment this year because of this, then he would be mercilessly cast out from the First Men's Military Academy. The Thunder King was precisely such a ruthless character. Anyone who did not submit to him would definitely have their future crushed by him.
[No Mecha Unrepaired] had never ever considered selling off this cold weapon. Even though a few strong fighters had tried offering extremely high prices before out of curiosity at this weapon's stats, and he too had known that he might be able to leave Three-Seas Town if he just sold this sword ... he had still decided to keep this weapon with him until he was pushed to the absolute brink. Not just because this was his pride and honour, but also as a reminder to himself of his ignorance, his hubris, his weakness, his shame, as well as his reason for resisting.
"I named it ' Regretless 1 ', to remind myself that I have chosen not to regret. At the same time, I also hope that this weapon will be able to display its glory in the hands of a mecha operator who would allow it to attack with no regrets ... perhaps, its master has appeared!" [No Mecha Unrepaired] looked at the nimble figure of the rabbit before his eyes, and with a grit of his teeth, he resolutely pulled out the sword Regretless which meant so much to him.
As Regretless fully appeared in the dense forest, the temperature of the initially already extremely cold and sinister forest suddenly dipped further, causing [No Mecha Unrepaired] to tremble involuntarily.
[No Mecha Unrepaired] stroked the blade of Regretless affectionately. When he lifted his head once more, his gaze was filled with conviction. He knew very well that if [Lingtian First-String] truly kept his promise and brought him to Suncreed City, he would definitely offend the Thunder King. Even though [Lingtian First-String] had yet to complete the mission, [No Mecha Unrepaired] found himself somehow trusting the other without reason. They had only spent a short while together, but he had come to learn that though the other was cold and domineering, he was definitely a responsible man.
Thus, he believed that Regretless would not fade into obscurity if he gave it to him. Under [Lingtian First-String]'s skilful control, Regretless would definitely shine its brightest. He hoped that one day, if [Lingtian First-String] really ended up clashing head-on with the Thunder King, the weapon he used in that encounter would be Regretless ...
Intense light flashed through [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s eyes. He shouted abruptly, "[Lingtian First-String], catch!"
[No Mecha Unrepaired] controlled his mecha to throw Regretless; Ling Lan could only see a blur of dark light flying towards her. She calmly operated her rabbit mecha's right hand to reach out in a grab, and abruptly felt a heavy weight in her hands. Unprepared, she almost lost her footing. However, Ling Lan's adaptive ability was extremely powerful. She instantly activated the engine on her right side, using the great thrust generated by it to stabilise the mecha's slightly tilting body.
"What weapon is this, actually so heavy?" Ling Lan peered curiously at the weapon in the rabbit's hands. It was a cold weapon like a dao 1 but not a dao, like a sword but not a sword. Still, based on its weight that almost unbalanced her mecha alone, she could tell that this weapon was definitely special.
However, reality did not allow Ling Lan to think too much about it; the giant python was attacking again. The rabbit mecha's forelegs were not very strong — Ling Lan was afraid that she would not be able to wield this clearly very heavy weapon single-handedly. So, she decisively gripped the sword with both hands and swung it out fiercely towards the python's attack trajectory.
A loud "boom" rang out! The body of the sword and the snapping sharp fangs of the giant python collided violently!
Screech ~! The sturdy fang and the sword scraped against each other forcefully, emitting an ear-splitting high-pitched noise!
Crack! A crisp sound, and a fang suddenly popped out, whizzing away to bury itself in a large tree not too far away from the fight.
This sword may seem extremely thin, but its hardness had exceeded that of the mutated python's fang. At the same time, this result also proved that the sharpness of the sword was at a fearsome level.
"Scram!" Ling Lan barked, revving her mecha's engines and its supplementary thrusters to the max. With a powerful spring of her strong hind legs, the force was transmitted to the sword in her hands, actually sending the entire giant python flying back.
A loud thump! The python once again crashed into the ground. But this time, things were different. It was actually writhing in agony, bellowing loudly to the skies.
It turned out that that previous strike had not only broken off one of the python's fangs, it had also left a wound on the python's face, which was currently bleeding profusely.
"Oh my god, this sword is so sharp!" Little Four was exclaiming in Ling Lan's mindspace. Mecha cold weapons in general sacrificed sharpness to maintain its sturdiness and strength. Many cold weapons were all made in the form of spiked club-like weapons, or perhaps extremely thick swords. Their characteristics were all focused on solidness and heft rather than sharpness.
"It's not just sharp ... its tensile strength is also amazingly good. Such a narrow blade actually having the same tensile strength as broader and thicker swords — no, perhaps even better by a bit." Compared to sharpness, Ling Lan was more concerned about its tensile strength, for this would decide the lifespan of a weapon. No matter how sharp a sword was, if it did not have enough tensile strength, breaking apart after just a few uses, then it would still be utterly useless.
"This mecha world is pretty interesting, actually having this sort of weapon ..." Little Four sensed that this mecha world was not completely the same as the real world. This piqued his interest to find out all the secrets of this mecha world.
"Having this complementary weapon in hand, I don't need to waste any more time." Ling Lan felt that she could finally let loose and attack now. She twirled her new sword once, then leapt unhesitatingly towards the giant python.
"F*ck! Why didn't he first take some time to get used to the weapon? Attacking directly? Does he not want to live?" [No Mecha Unrepaired] was beyond anxious — mecha operators needed to familiarise themselves with their mecha's weapons before they would be able to generate the greatest combat power with them. Using an unfamiliar weapon may backfire due to the resultant control errors, causing a person's combat power to decrease instead. This was also why [No Mecha Unrepaired] was worried for Ling Lan.
The giant python saw its initially defensive opponent suddenly initiating an attack. Feeling as if it had been impugned, it was instantly in a towering rage. It ignored the pain of the wound on its face to leap forwards once more, ready to teach this detestable fellow before it a profound lesson. It would let him know that a king's dignity would not be trod upon.
Both sides clashed once more, and this time, Ling Lan no longer had any reservations. She used the rabbit mecha's full power from the start, causing Little Four's heart to ache, as well as causing the cockpit to be filled with the ringing warnings of the mecha's mainframe, "Warning! Engine power exceeded 120%. Mecha operating over-capacity. Mecha is sustaining damage, 5%, 7%, 10% ..."
1. i.e. a straight, single-edged sword that was said to have been invented and used during the Tang dynasty.
2. i.e. lay low and conceal his talent.
3. T/C: This reminds me so much of the naming of the pairs in 'Loveless' somehow.
4. The 'dao' here is in reference to the Chinese weapon, like in the term 'tangdao' previously.
5. Differentiated from the great evolution pathway 'Dao', which I will be capitalizing all the way.