Chapter 350: Flee the Base!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
"You, have the worst control skills out of the entire team. As a safety precaution, you just stay put and guard these documents properly. If, in this situation, you still mess up and get yourself killed, your sorry ass had better not even dream of joining us, the Lingtian clan," Qi Long threatened aggressively.
This speech left Chang Xinyuan burning with embarrassment. He meant to snap back but found that Qi Long's words rang true, and at that moment he was actually left dumbstruck.
As soon as Qi Long was done speaking, without even considering how Chang Xinyuan would react to his words, he gestured with a wide sweep of his hand for his teammates to leave the mecha hold and then sprinted towards the launch port. Qi Long was actually feeling agitated and worried, not knowing what fate had befallen his boss. He had long thought of travelling to the tail end of the ship to check out the situation for himself, but alas, Li Lanfeng had beaten him to the punch...
At this thought, Qi Long started to grumble about Li Lanfeng in his heart. This fellow really knew how to put on a hell of a show, never missing an opportunity to increase the Boss's awareness of him. Although Qi Long had some quibbles with Li Lanfeng, deep in his heart he held great admiration for him, because only someone who truly held Boss Lan in such high esteem could have this calibre of performance.
The minute Qi Long moved, Luo Lang, Han Jijyun, and the others followed suit. In fact, if it had not been for Boss Lan's previous instruction for them to obey Qi Long's orders the whole way, they would have rushed to the tail end of the ship long ago, unable to contain themselves.
The last one to leave was Li Shiyu, who, before he left, shot a glance at the stupefied Chang Xinyuan who was frozen in place. Sighing softly, he changed directions to walk over to Chang Xinyuan's side, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Don't overthink it. Qi Long's orders are out of consideration for you. Just trust him and follow his orders. In fact, I think he's right, your control really is a little weak. At the tail end, if there is any danger, it will be difficult for you to even protect yourself. So you might as well stay put here and protect this vital document well."
Chang Xinyuan cast a mournful eye at Li Shiyu. Was this how a teammate from the same battle clan was like? Could he not pick at the scabs on his soul? Could they still get along with each other happily? Chang Xinyuan suddenly found that Li Shiyu, who seemed like such a kind-hearted, nice guy, absolutely had the potential to be a black-bellied person.
Li Shiyu could not know the complaints Chang Xinyuan had in his heart, because right after he was done speaking, he had swiftly chased after Qi Long and the others. Frankly, even though he did not like Ling Lan that much, Ling Lan's actions all this way had still obtained his acknowledgement. He too did not want anything bad to happen to this team leader who looked out for his team members at every turn. Thus, he was also planning to go check things out at the tail end with the rest.
Only Chang Xinyuan was left in the entire mecha hold. He looked down at the document in his hands and sighed in resignation, then carefully tucked the document away in his bag. Like Li Shiyu had said, this document was vital — it would determine whether their team would be able to successfully establish a battle clan, so there was no room for error.
Chang Xinyuan knew deep down that Qi Long words had not been out of contempt for him, otherwise the other would not have placed such an important mission item in his care. In fact, Qi Long's distribution of tasks was extremely appropriate considering the situation. Someone from their team had to live to submit the document and complete the mission, and for safety reasons, this person needed to remain in the mecha hold and avoid danger.
Although Chang Xinyuan had not joined the team for long, he could clearly see the deep bonds between Qi Long and the others and Boss Lan. Their relationship was not the typical friendship and comradery between team members, but was more similar to the blood ties of family. Chang Xinyuan believed that if Boss Lan met with any misfortune and ended up stranded at the Swift Dragon base, Qi Long and the others would likely choose to leave the ship and remain at the Swift Dragon base as well even if they would die for their choice. They would want to go through thick and thin with their boss ...
At this point, Chang Xinyuan could not help but envy the deep brotherly bonds between Boss Lan and Qi Long and the others. If possible, he too wanted to be a part of that, advancing and retreating alongside Boss Lan and Qi Long and the rest. However, having the worst mecha control skills, he had ultimately been selected by Qi Long to be the one to stay here to ensure the mission would be completed. And there was nothing at all he could say to argue against the decision.
This was because Chang Xinyuan was well aware that the Swift Dragon base was rife with danger. Now exposed, deep within the Swift Dragon base, they would definitely have to fight ferociously and cut a path of blood through the base to have any chance of survival. Thus, those who followed Qi Long must be very good at combat, otherwise it would be pointless to go and they may even create trouble for Boss Lan. Chang Xinyuan was very clear on this point. This was why he had remained silent and had resigned himself to accepting Qi Long's arrangement in the end, becoming the person left behind to safeguard the document.
Frankly, Chang Xinyuan was unwilling, because he did not want to be the member left behind. This made him feel very useless.
"Weakest control skills, eh? If I want to stand next to Boss Lan and not get tossed aside, only relying on my modification innate talent is far from enough. I must become stronger, and be like Lin Zhong-qing and Li Shiyu. Even as a support member, I have to become the most formidable one ..." Chang Xinyuan clenched his fists silently, determination flashing in his eyes. Never again would he be so naive as to truly believe, as he did before, that modification was everything.
Having maintained a breakneck speed the whole way, Li Lanfeng was the first to reach the launch port at the tail end. As he reached the mouth of the port, the scene that unfolded was that of Ling Lan piloting a mecha, desperately trying to catch up to the starship. At present, he was about 10 metres away and looked like he could board successfully soon enough. However, Li Lanfeng then noticed that Ling Lan's mecha's power supply seemed slightly unstable, as if it was almost depleted. The mecha was also unable to maintain a steady speed, speeding up and slowing down erratically, which prevented Ling Lan from closing the gap.
Thus, despite his delight at seeing the rabbit here, Li Lanfeng could not help but feel his heart in his throat, fearing that the rabbit would not catch up in the end. With a glance at the outer area of the launch port, he realized that the outermost rim was lined with handles, probably support structures to help mecha flying at high speed to land quickly on the starship. As he brought his mecha to the entrance, it was promptly sucked out of the starship by a tremendous force. In that instant, he gripped tightly on to one of those handles, simultaneously activating the adhesion mechanism on his feet to secure his mecha's position.
Having done all that, Li Lanfeng activated his comms link and roared, "Rabbit, come on!" as he daringly stretched his body out, right hand outstretched to its limits, reaching with all his might for Rabbit's mecha, so close yet so far.
The rabbit must have heard him, because Li Lanfeng saw him stretch his own right hand towards him, intent on catching Li Lanfeng's hand ...
The two great metal arms were inching closer, but just before they could catch each other, the roaring engines of the rabbit's mecha suddenly died. Even though the rabbit had put all his energy into a final surge forward at that final moment, allowing them to link fingers, the immense weight of the mecha and the recoil from the high-speed flight was not something their fingers could bear. Their fingers were only linked for a moment before they were instantly flung apart.
As Li Lanfeng witnessed the rabbit's mecha stalling and about to plummet, without even thinking about it, he slammed the controls causing the mecha to leap forwards, bursting out from the starship's launch port to tightly clasp the right arm of the rabbit's mecha the second before it started to fall ...
"Rabbit, I will never let go again," was all Li Lanfeng remembered saying with a smile. He knew the true meaning behind his words — Seven years ago, he had chosen to abandon the rabbit, but from now on, he was never letting go again!
Just as Li Lanfeng thought that he and the rabbit would fall down to Swift Dragon base and have to brave life and death together, he felt his mecha being tethered by a great force. His and the rabbit's mecha were suspended below the starship and were quickly being lifted upwards. It turned out that at that crucial moment, Qi Long and the others had made it in time to catch his mecha by the feet with lightning speed.
Like links in a chain, Qi Long's mecha was tightly held onto by Luo Lang and Han Jijyun, while behind them were Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing. The four of them each had one fist firmly wrapped around one of the support handles on the launch port walls, forcibly negating the downward momentum of Li Lanfeng's and the rabbit's mecha.
Han Jijyun was about to signal for all of them to haul Li Lanfeng and Rabbit back to the starship when Li Shiyu appeared as well. With his help, Qi Long was finally able to pull Li Lanfeng back on board, ultimately succeeding in dragging Ling Lan back onto the starship.
Ling Lan, who had only just narrowly escaped disaster, had just entered the starship when she barked out, "To the hold, now!" She charged ahead, leading the clan members back to the mecha hold in the tail end, acting on Little Four's information that the starship was about to breach the atmospheric layer. For any of the unsecured and underpowered mecha, remaining in the launch port at that moment would be absolutely suicidal.
Everyone stampeded towards the mecha hold as Little Four swiftly closed seal after seal behind them. When Chang Xinyuan, who had been waiting safely in his secured seat, saw Boss Lan make it into the mecha hold ahead of the rest, he was overcome with emotion. He instantly cried out, "Boss Lan, you're back!"
Before Ling Lan could reply, the starship started to shudder violently. Except for Chang Xinyuan, who was untroubled due to his being firmly planted on the secured seat, everyone was sent stumbling by the violent vibrations.
"Fall flat!" Everyone's comms channels rang with the sound of Ling Lan's sharp command, and they immediately got into a prone position. The cacophony of mecha clanging against mecha ensued in the hold. If the entire starship hadn't already been quaking uncontrollably, the noise they made would definitely have caught the attention of the Federation soldiers in the main control room.
At that very moment in the main control room, all the Federation soldiers were anxiously hunched over and gripping the control panel before them. The juddering from breaching the atmosphere was extremely powerful — people of lower physical fitness stood no chance of adapting to it. Of course, the reason they suffered so greatly was because the starship did not have sufficient power. In order to ensure that the starship could successfully break out of the Swift Dragon base's atmospheric layer, they had no choice but to conserve every ounce of energy and that meant not activating the starship's anti-shock mechanisms, which left them no choice but to grit their teeth and persevere through it all.
Close to 5 minutes of violent juddering almost caused all of the Federation soldiers in the main control room to be severely injured enough to spew blood. Finally, the starship wrested free of the base's gravity, successfully leaping into outer space. Only then did the violent shaking stop, becoming incomparably stable. Sensing that the situation was now stable, the Federation soldiers stood up straight again. However, their complexions were very pale — the intense tremors may not have hurt them seriously, but their bodies had still been unable to bear the shock well. They would probably need a stretch of time to recover from this once they returned.