Chapter 318: Entering the Mainship!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
"Because I am a hacker." Li Lanfeng did not hesitate to reveal his other identity to the crowd.
Hearing this, Ling Lan's hands paused for a moment, but she soon continued chopping away determinedly. During this time, she had already destroyed almost half of the joint of the doors now, though Regretless' condition was also becoming extremely bad. Still, Ling Lan could not afford the time to wince and worry about it — after all, when their lives hung in the balance, all else was immaterial.
"If you all do not believe us, you can ask the control room of this transport ship," suggested Li Lanfeng calmly, seeing that everyone was still sceptical.
Quite a few mecha operators stopped moving and began to contact the control room of the transport ship for confirmation. Once they received confirmation, everyone began to panic.
While the others were communicating with the control room, the special-class operator asked Li Lanfeng, "Even if a magnetic storm forms, a mecha would not be able to fly out of range based on its own power alone anyway. We might as well stay in the transport ship. It'll be safer that way."
"Sadly, the transport ship's speed is too slow ..." Li Lanfeng only responded briefly to these words. As if thinking of something, the special-class operator kept away the high-frequency blade in his hands and said to Ling Lan who was still busily destroying the door joint, "I have a special-class beam gun here. Perhaps that might help."
Ling Lan decisively stepped away from the door, signalling for the special-class operator to come forth. Every second saved would mean an extra measure of safety.
The special-class operator decisively unhooked the special-class beam gun from his back and aimed for the joint which had already been half destroyed by Ling Lan. He shot a powerful blast at it, not at all stingy with the energy of the beam gun. In just a short 10 seconds, he had completely unloaded all of the beam gun's power.
At this time, the joint was already quite beaten up. Ling Lan was just about to move forward to resume her destruction when [No Mecha Unrepaired] suddenly said, "Let me try."
Ling Lan was taken aback — this [No Mecha Unrepaired] still had a card up his sleeve? Looks like a mechanical genius truly could not be underestimated.
Two missiles suddenly shot out from the head of [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s mecha — these were the anti-air interference missiles all mecha were equipped with. Their attack power was the worst among all of a mecha's weapons and equipment, so mecha operators generally very rarely ever thought about using them. These missiles were absolutely one of those things that had little value and yet was kept just in case 1 . It was very unexpected for [No Mecha Unrepaired] to choose to use them and attack.
A trace of disappointment was revealed in the special-class operator's eyes. Only Ling Lan's brow lifted, because she had seen very clearly that the missiles fired from [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s head were absolutely not that regular type of interference missile. Despite appearing somewhat similar, Ling Lan's keen and discerning eyes had nevertheless instantly registered the difference.
Sure enough, when the missiles hit the door joint, a tremendous blast rang out once more, completely drowning out the screams of those mecha operators who had already learned the truth.
With this violent explosion, the hold doors finally broke apart with a cracking sound. Seeing this, Ling Lan resolutely kicked out a foot to send the hold doors flying.
The air within the hold rushed out — quite a few mecha who were out of their secured seats were sent flying due to the loss of gravity, slamming heavily into the roof of the hold. Unprepared, those mecha operators who had been standing near the doors were thrown out of the transport hold entirely, ending up in outer space.
Ling Lan's group of nine had long been prepared. The moment the hold doors opened, they leapt out into space themselves. Witnessing that lovely violet ring of light that was becoming increasingly vivid in colour, they knew that that was the magnetic storm that could reap all life within this area.
"Activate all engines to their maximum. Move forwards at your mecha's fastest speed." Following this order, everyone on the team flew forwards at full speed, overtaking one transport ship after another.
"That special-class operator is following us," Xie Yi, who was bringing up the rear, alerted everyone on the team.
"Don't mind him," Ling Lan said curtly. Seeing [No Mecha Unrepaired] gradually slowing down, she instructed Qi Long, "Combat, remember to help out [No Mecha Unrepaired]." Meanwhile, the others seemed to be doing fine on their own for now.
"Little Four, how far away is the command mainship from us?" Ling Lan asked Little Four.
Little Four answered, "Moving at full speed like this, we can catch up in 19 minutes and 47 seconds. However, let me remind you, Boss, that the magnetic storm might erupt prematurely."
"What is your earliest estimation for that to happen?" Ling Lan's brow was deeply furrowed.
"It's very likely to happen in only 18 minutes." Little Four directly revealed his latest estimated time to Ling Lan. As this was the virtual world, Little Four was not overly anxious.
What bloody rotten luck! Ling Lan could not help but swear when she heard Little Four's reply. Even though dying within the virtual world did not seem like a big deal — it would only cause them to drop some level points and at worst they would simply have to start over — Ling Lan did not want to give up just like that. In her mind, she was treating everything here as if it were real, just as she did with her assignments in the learning space. Only by using this sort of mindset to put pressure on herself could she find that single slim thread of survival in her missions and complete those seemingly impossible missions.
One more point — Ling Lan also did not wish for her companions to get into the habit of taking death lightly in the virtual world. Once they returned to reality and entered a real battlefield, this kind of mentality might carry over and bring them great disaster. Only by constantly being aware that they only had one life would they be able to maintain their vigilance on the battlefield and keep on living well.
Ling Lan believed that the reason why Mecha World was constructed so realistically and had such harsh punishments for death was in large part in hopes that the mecha operators would cherish their lives in Mecha World. In truth, Mecha World had indeed succeeded on this point. Unless absolutely unavoidable, no one in the game was willing to give up on their lives easily. This was also one of the reasons why Ling Lan had drawn the ire of the other mecha operators when she had been destroying the hold doors.
"Right now, push all of your mecha into overdrive and activate the fastest theoretical speed of your mecha." Ling Lan decisively issued her newest order. Even if their mecha were utterly ruined by this, as long as they lived, all these losses would be worth it.
"Yes, Boss!" No one raised any objections. They all carried out the order simultaneously, increasing the speed of their mecha.
Meanwhile, Qi Long and Luo Lang did not require Ling Lan to remind them — one on the right and one on the left, they grabbed [No Mecha Unrepaired]. Revving their engines at the same time, they shot deeper into space like they were flying.
Seeing this, Li Lanfeng's gaze flashed. He was quietly amazed at the great rapport between the rabbit's team members. This rapport was something he was incapable of at the moment, but he was not discouraged. One day, he would be able to do this too.
Before Ling Lan had given her order, she had asked Little Four to send the flight path to the command mainship to everyone in the team. As long as they were not directionally challenged, they would not fly the wrong way.
The special-class operator following closely behind them saw Ling Lan's team speed up once more and could not help but curse silently. Without even having to think about it, he too accelerated after them. Although Ling Lan's team had already been moving at full speed before this, for the special-class mecha, keeping up with them had not pushed him to his limits yet then. But now, he could feel the strain, and there were even times when he was left behind by a significant margin when he could not react in time. He rejoiced internally over the fact that he was a special-class operator — if he had still been an advanced mecha warrior, he might have already lost sight of the other side a long time ago.
After flying at overcapacity for about 15 minutes, the whole team's mecha were all displaying damage levels between 15% to 20%, but their speed was showing effect — they could already see the silhouette of the command mainship. The group could not help but become infused with joy. As long as they could get on board the command mainship, they would be out of danger.
At the 17th minute, they arrived close to the command mainship. At this time, a mecha launch port on the tail piece of the ship silently opened up. If Ling Lan had not sent over the landing point on the command mainship, they would never have discovered it.
"[Priceless Kinship], go in first." According to the team's flight position, Ling Lan called [Priceless Kinship] who was closer to the front to enter first.
There was actually danger involved in being the first to enter, because no one could tell what the situation was like inside. However, when Li Shiyu received Ling Lan's order, without having to think about it, he instantly controlled his mecha to aim at the launch port and slid in like a cannonball. Sparks flew when both legs of his mecha made contact with the rails of the launch port. Apparently, in order to decelerate, Li Shiyu had used the bottoms of his legs to produce friction. However, they had initially been travelling over their limits so their speed was really just too high — even by doing so, Li Shiyu's speed was not decreased by much.
Watching helplessly as his mecha was about to slam into the second guard door, as if sensing danger, the guard door suddenly sprang apart. Li Shiyu slid in smoothly, and though his own condition was not that optimistic, he still paid attention to the situation behind him. He heard Ling Lan order [Lingtian Parcel] to prepare to jump in next.
Very quickly, Li Shiyu had arrived at the third guard door. Just as if their entry was being observed closely, right as he was about to slam into the third guard door, it once again sprang open.
At this moment, Li Shiyu no longer had any way of keeping track of what was happening behind him. After the third door, they were in fact already in the inner section of the starship, which was where mecha were housed and also where they were prepped for launching.
Sure enough, when he had zoomed past the third door, on his mecha's screen, he saw the flabbergasted expressions of the staff members on both sides of the launch rails. Having received no notice about any of this, it was clear to see that the workers were extremely shocked by the sudden appearance of mecha sliding in from the other end of the launch tracks.
Very soon, a great commotion broke out on the scene. Many staff even leapt down from the mecha they were working on to rush over and try to see what was happening.
At the end of the tracks was a protective air cushion and many cords of bungee rope to prevent mecha from being damaged. Li Shiyu crashed heavily into them but did not receive much shock from the impact.
Without hesitation, Li Shiyu borrowed the rebound force of the bungee ropes to spring out from the cushion and swiftly dashed to an empty space on the right. He had not forgotten that [Lingtian Parcel] was right behind him — he had no intention of becoming the other's 'meat cushion' and end up with an internecine outcome.
At this time, the JMC in charge of the command mainship had connected to the public comms and was asking loudly, "Who are you? Where have you come from?" At the same time, Li Shiyu saw many of the staff members lifting the weapons in their hands, directing them nervously at Li Shiyu.
"Not good, there are still more mecha coming! Run!" Before Li Shiyu could reply, a horrible screeching noise could be heard coming from the launch port. These staff members were quick on the uptake, figuring out that this mecha was not alone in stealing aboard their ship.
The staff members knew very well that a mecha sliding through the launch port at high speeds could not be controlled. If they were not careful, it might simply crush them workers to death. To ensure their lives and safety, they had no more mind to bother with Li Shiyu. They all scattered to escape to safer territory.