Chapter 292: Top-Class Elite [belief]!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
The enlistment assessments at the military academy officially commenced; almost all of the attention of the cadets were drawn by this major assessment. As the leader of his assessment team, Ling Xiao had to be present for the first day at least. This made Ling Lan feel as if her time was her own again.
These past few days, Ling Xiao had made Ling Lan bring him all around the school, his excuse being that he wanted to understand the conditions of his daughter's campus. Regarding this, Ling Lan was extremely disdainful of Ling Xiao — could it be that when her dad was giving this reason, he had completely forgotten that he himself had graduated from this very school 20 years ago ...?
Of course, Ling Lan understood inside that this was just her dad finding opportunities to get closer to her — after all, having been absent for 16 years, whether it was Ling Xiao himself or Ling Lan, they both needed this kind of opportunity. Thus, Ling Lan may have been disdainful of his lame excuse, but she still gladly accepted this task and accompanied her dad around the campus for the past few days. It should be said that the effect was still pretty good. At the very least, the two of them were no longer like they were before, awkwardly silent in each other's presence — now, they could at least find a few topics to discuss.
However, having obtained half a day of free time, after eating lunch, Ling Lan was once again summoned by her dad's incessant pestering 1 . Apparently, after showing his face for courtesy's sake, Ling Xiao had excused himself and then came running back.
Arriving at the place Ling Xiao was staying, Ling Lan saw Ling Xiao standing at the doorway, casual and nonchalant, and then she looked back outside where the sun was blazing brightly at the zenith of the sky, and instantly felt that going out at this time was really not a good idea.
Seeing Ling Lan frown as she looked outside, Ling Xiao glanced over as well, and then scratched his nose a little embarrassedly, "Er, it looks like it's rather hot now."
With his mind filled with the thought of seeing his daughter again, things like the weather were not something Ling Xiao had considered. "Why don't we just rest for a bit inside?" Ling Xiao's temporary quarters was also a villa, and it was one that was even more luxurious than Ling Lan's.
Although Ling Lan was not afraid of the heat, she too did not want to go out and be roasted by the intense noon sun for no reason, so she gladly agreed. However, after she and Ling Xiao finished drinking their third pot of iced red tea, she began to think that it was rather silly for her and her dad to just keep drinking tea in silence like this.
Ling Xiao seemed to have also noticed this, and this made Ling Xiao rather dejected. Over the past few days, he had already explored all the topics they could talk about, and now, he truly did not know what else to say. Was he really going to just go over all the questions he had asked in the past few days all over again? Would this cause his daughter to run away because she really could not take it anymore? Or perhaps she would blow her top and just send a fist flying at him?
Seeing the ice in his daughter's eyes, Ling Xiao believed that it was far more likely for Ling Lan to dash away ... how could he willingly to let this hard-won opportunity to hang out with his daughter slip away like this? Ling Xiao began to think hard — what exactly could he ask her? A 16 years old girl should already be at the age when romantic passions begin to blossom ... should he ask Ling Lan whether she has anyone she likes or perhaps admires recently 2 ?
Just as Ling Xiao was struggling with indecision, the long silent Ling Lan who had been stroking her teacup finally spoke up. "Father, do you have any virtual network login pods here?"
Ling Xiao was startled, but he quickly replied, "Yes, on the third floor!" In order to properly accommodate the assessment officers of the divisions, all their accommodations had been installed with virtual world login pods. This made it very convenient for the officers to log on to the virtual world during their spare time.
Ling Lan placed her teacup back on the tea table, lifted her head to peer intently at Ling Xiao, and said, "Father, since you're free this afternoon, come with me to explore Mecha World."
"Go to Mecha World?" Ling Xiao thought about it — ever since he had ascended to god-class operator, he had not been there for a very long time, almost about to forget the youthful days he had spent there. He too had once been an obsessed member of Mecha World ... his heart moved as his interest was piqued. Of course, most importantly, this was a personal invite from his darling daughter — even if he had never ever been to Mecha World, he would still want to go take a look now.
"Alright," Ling Xiao happily agreed. And so the father-daughter pair swiftly went up to the third floor and laid down in two virtual login pods. Right before Ling Lan entered her pod, she did not forget to tell Ling Xiao that her username in Mecha World was [Lingtian First-String].
"[Lingtian First-String]?" Ling Xiao stared at the closed hatch of the login pod beside his, and smiled contemplatively.
********
Meanwhile, at this time in Mecha World, in a sealed private mecha combat room, two mecha were in the middle of an intense spar.
One was a standard Federation advanced mecha, its body painted with traditional blue and white. Other than being equipped with some weapons of personal preference, almost no modifications had been done to it.
In contrast, the other mecha was extremely unique in both form and colour — it was distinctly different from the blue, white, silver, or red basic colours of standard mecha, instead coloured black, which was rather infrequently used within the Federation 3 . The mecha's entire outer frame, when compared to the other standard advanced mecha, was obviously much taller and bulkier — just its four limbs alone were twice the size of the other mecha's, not to mention its equipped weapons, which all belonged to the higher tier of cold weapons. With just one glance, one could tell that this mecha was most definitely a close combat type.
Anyone familiar with Mecha World would know that this type of unique mecha was certainly a special-class mecha, and those who could operate them must certainly be special-class mecha masters.
Generally speaking, when an advanced mecha warrior encountered a special-class operator, the combat would end in a one-sided win. In other words, the special-class operator would definitely obtain the final victory, while the number of moves it would take would all depend on how great the gap was between the two combatants' skills.
However, this fight was rather different. Although overall, it seemed like the advanced mecha warrior was indeed always at a disadvantage, they were only disadvantaged — the fight was not a clear one-way landslide. Several times, there were indeed precarious situations where the advanced mecha operator was being suppressed by endless blows, almost unable to catch their breath, but in the end, the advanced mecha warrior still managed to push through.
And so, the fight became a fight of endurance — in the end, what they were competing on was neither their mecha control skills, nor was it the capabilities of their mecha, but rather the stamina of the operators.
The two mecha clashed once more in mid-air, causing a loud noise of collision. In close-combat, the advanced mecha was obviously at a disadvantage — this could be seen from the distance the two needed once they sprang apart to land.
After the attack this time, the two mecha did not continue to grapple with one another, instead facing off from a distance.
"Huff huff huff ..." Due to the absence of outsiders, the two mecha had opened their public comms, and intense panting could be heard coming from the comm channels.
"D*mmit, Li Lanfeng, you freak," The first to recover from panting was the black mecha, who could not help but swear as soon as he caught his breath. The speaker was none other than Zhao Jun, who had already advanced to special-class mecha.
"Hehe ..." chuckled Li Lanfeng weakly. The gap between levels was not so easily made up — he could make it so Zhao Jun could not defeat him, but that was already the extent of his abilities. This outcome made him rather dejected — he was not at all pleased by this outcome which would already be greatly astounding by anyone else's standards.
"Wasn't I - almost - defeated - by you - a few times - back there?" Still panting heavily, Li Lanfeng spoke in fits and spurts. In terms of stamina recovery, he was no match for Zhao Jun and his type of physical constitution.
"Tsk, didn't you manage to push through? Just like an unkillable cockroach," grumbled Zhao Jun. Fighting with Li Lanfeng was always a frustrating matter for him. He kept having the sense that he could defeat the other, but he would always fall short by just that one breath. Quite a few times, the victory at-hand would just graze by him narrowly ... the disgruntlement he felt was no less than Li Lanfeng's.
"How the heck did you train? Able to resist my special-class operator attacks just as an advanced mecha operator, if you advance to special-class operator, what am I supposed to do?" Zhao Jun felt that his position as number one mecha expert was being threatened — it looked like he would have to train harder now, so as to prevent himself from being out of a job once Li Lanfeng advanced.
Zhao Jun was very rational. Ever since he had discovered how aberrant Li Lanfeng was, he had been determined to stick with Li Lanfeng. His brain was actually pretty good, but after being showed up many times by Li Lanfeng, he did not want to waste the mental effort anymore, so he had set himself the role of supreme thug ... er, no, make that supreme fighter. But now, he found that this goal was actually pretty tough to realise as well.
"Don't worry, there's still quite a block of time before I advance to special-class operator level. By that time, I reckon you would already have touched upon the gates to ace operator level." Li Lanfeng had finally recovered enough to speak in proper sentences again. "So, you'll still be able to lord over me by a head. You'll be fine," consoled Li Lanfeng with a smile.
"Are you comforting me or mocking me?" Zhao Jun muttered back, discontent ...
Right then, a bright red system notice startled everyone, as well as interrupted the conversation between the two.
"Heavyweight news! The great top-class mecha elite [belief] 4 has graced the mecha world with his presence. Does his coming herald the successive appearance of other top-level elites? It can be predicted that the mecha world will once again bear witness to great waves ..."
"[belief]!" Zhao Jun and Li Lanfeng shouted almost in unison. This name was just too familiar — this was the name of god-class operator Ling Xiao's mecha. Despite not knowing what Ling Xiao's name in the mecha world was, the moment this name was linked to a top-class elite, they could not help but suspect whether this person was Ling Xiao himself.
"It has to be fake, right? How could General Ling Xiao have time to come to Mecha World?" Zhao Jun's face was filled with disbelief and he was the first to voice a denial. They were well aware that General Ling Xiao was currently establishing the 23rd Division, as busy as could be. Even if he had time, he would not come to Mecha World, this sort of virtual world where youths made up the majority. If he wanted to find a PK partner, he would more likely go to a virtual simulation mecha battle stadium specially set up for the Federation military, where only military officers in service could enter.
"I don't know, but these top-class elites are basically all old beasts from ten or so years ago or perhaps even decades before that ... it could just very well be him." In contrast to Zhao Jun's disbelief, Li Lanfeng did not outright reject the possibility. Perhaps General Ling Xiao had been seized by whimsy and had decided to come back and indulge the nostalgia for his younger days. Who knows?
Leaving aside Zhao Jun's and Li Lanfeng's uncertainty, everyone else in the mecha world had also been struck dumb by this heavyweight news. It could be said that the entirety of the initially raucous virtual world descended into a long moment of silence, while there were even some mecha operators who lost their lives 5 to the monsters they were battling due to the distraction. However, all of this was not a problem. Very soon, the mecha world was swept up in commotion once more ... people all turned to the companions beside them and asked, who in the world was this top-class elite [belief]?
Several of those with quicker minds immediately logged onto the official website of Mecha World to look up information on [belief]. Unfortunately, they were disappointed. This was because the information of top-class elites could only be accessed by elites of the same level. All they obtained from their search was the response that their strength level was not high enough, hence they did not have enough clearance. Thus, they could not glean any clues from the website.