Chapter 367: Making Mischief!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
It should be said that Gao Jinyun's team was truly very fortunate. In their critical moment of danger, Ling Lan had arrived in the nick of time.
Speaking of which, how had Ling Lan known to come here? When Ling Lan had completed her preparations in the hidden room, she had entered the launch port tunnel, and then, using the ejection force of the launch port, she had activated her engines to fly out of the storehouse into the air outside.
That moment was also coincidentally when Qi Long and the others of her team were leading the 100 odd mecha operators of the New Cadet Regiment out of the mecha storehouse. Ling Lan looked out at the entire military academy from her bird's eye vantage point and, using Little Four's ability, she opened up multiple channels showing different viewing angles in an attempt to get a comprehensive grasp of the entire battlefield.
Before determining for sure whether the people of the New Cadet Regiment could handle this battlefield, Ling Lan was not going to participate in the fighting directly. Her first responsibility in this battlefield was to ensure the survival of as many members as possible. Ling Lan was well aware that the mortality rate was most often the highest at the start of a battle. Once a fighter had adapted to the battlefield, they would not die so easily.
Ling Lan knew that if she wanted her party members to grow up and increase their strength, they would need to rely on their own strength to fight. Thus, Ling Lan would not act like an old mother hen and watch over her faction members till the end. Once they had safely gotten through this most dangerous period of adjustment, Ling Lan would let go completely and let her faction members fight to secure their own survival.
The existence of two Ling Lans, from her life experience of two worlds, had caused Ling Lan's personality to become very complicated and filled with contradictions. She had the gentle compassion and considerate heart of her previous world within her, but she also possessed the cold-blooded ruthlessness and resolve forced upon her by the learning space of this world ... she could not bear for the innocent companions by her side to be sacrificed pointlessly, but she was also ruthless enough to leave her companions in a desperate situation so they would have an opportunity to break past their limits and find their own path to survival.
At this time, the fighting was already in full swing in the entire campus area on planet Newline. The battlefield which had initially started more than 10 kilometres away from the school had now spread all the way inside the military academy. The flames of war had been kindled at every corner of the military academy, with the dormitory district being the area which saw the most fighting. Almost half of the ground forces were tied up there, with an equally large number of enemy mecha attacking, almost more than half of the total invading mecha force.
Seeing this, Ling Lan's brow furrowed slightly. This situation proved that the objective of these mysterious enemies was indeed like she had deduced — they were aiming for them cadets. The only thing she could not be sure of was whether this sudden and unexpected attack was specifically targeting her team.
A cold gleam appeared in Ling Lan's eyes. If her team had truly been exposed, then she would have no choice but to let her dad step in. The 23rd Division would be the best protective umbrella for her team. Ling Lan believed that Ling Xiao would definitely be able to protect them till they grew up enough. At that time, they would no longer be helpless targets for the enemies to slaughter as they liked. If any enemies wanted to deal with them then, they would have to stop and consider whether they could afford to pay the price.
Ling Lan had just thought of a response plan if things really ended up developing into a worst case scenario when, before she could breathe out, her attention was drawn by one of the panels on her mecha's screen. It was the team led by Gao Jinyun — they were in danger.
As expected, it was not that easy for a team made up of only intermediate mecha to survive the battlefield. If they had had an advanced mecha to lead them, then this kind of situation where they were rendered helpless would never have happened ... Ling Lan decisively pushed all of her thrusters to send her mecha flying like a streak of light towards Gao Jinyun's team.
Although the mecha Ling Lan was currently piloting was not the fastest among all of the ace mecha, its speed was not just one or two times faster than an advanced mecha's but was in fact up to five or six times faster. Of course, Ling Lan could also push the speed to the maximum because her body was currently extremely tough, completely able to withstand the feedback force brought on by the movement of the mecha. If this had been her body from three years ago, things would probably not have been as easy.
And the results were just as we all were witness to — at that most critical moment, Ling Lan managed to rescue Gao Jinyun in the nick of time, and then finished off the enemy advanced mecha in one move.
After sending Gao Jinyun and company off, Ling Lan switched her mecha's battle mode from close-range combat mode to night-cloak assassination mode. This was directly reflected in the mecha's appearance — the energy beam shield of the mecha which had initially been glowing softly instantly turned dark as pitch. The entire mecha no longer emitted any bit of light, merging as one with the darkness of the night ...
The ace mecha which had been hovering in the air all this while vanished just like that. Ling Lan was not at all arrogant. Not knowing what level of enemies would be coming here, she would not stand here blatantly and be a convenient target for the enemies to attack.
A minute later, in the distant night sky, framed by the flames of war, the indistinct silhouettes of five mecha appeared.
"This should be the place. The coordinates M03 gave us is right around here." The five mecha seemed to be unrelated, but they were in fact communicating with one another in their team commlink.
"Three minutes ago, M03 fell out of contact. I'm afraid something has happened to him. Everyone, be careful."
"Yes, M01," responded the other mecha in unison. M01 was likely to be the leader of this team.
Very soon, they discovered mecha M03 on the ground. They immediately flew over and landed. Three of the mecha stood guard as one of the remaining two mecha rushed over to M03's side and squatted down beside the prostrate mecha to check on its condition. Meanwhile, the last mecha looked as if he were just standing around, at ease with his hands hanging loosely by his sides, not at all on guard, but an experienced mecha operator would be able to tell that the mecha's current stance was actually the best stance for counterattacking. This was because two extremely short long-range power beam guns 1 were strapped to the outsides of the mecha's thighs.
Mecha equipped with this kind of weapon suspension system were known as sharpshooters. Just when you believed that the other had no weapons in their hands and let down your guard, the other could give you a fatal shot. Within 0.01 seconds, the other could draw the long-range beam guns from their thighs and strike your mecha's vital points. This type of mecha had one other name, and that was ambusher!
"M01, M03's mecha has been pierced through the cockpit by someone with one blow. M03 died instantly from the resulting injury ... based off the extent of damage on the mecha, they might have fought for quite a while before it happened. Otherwise, the arms of M03's mecha would not have been chopped off. Preliminary speculation is that after M03 had his arms chopped off, he was then stabbed through the cockpit without being able to put up any resistance." The mecha examining M03's mecha quickly reported his analysis to M01.
"M05, do you know what weapon the opponent used?" The one operating the sharpshooter was the team's leader, M01. After listening to M05's report, he immediately followed up with this question.
"Based on the marks left on the cockpit, it's an overbearing cold weapon. It gives off a very similar feel to the giant sword of the among the ace mecha." M05 carefully examined the breaks at the front and back of the cockpit — those huge diamond-shaped holes inevitably brought to mind that giant and domineering weapon.
"Didn't the intelligence report say that the mecha the Thunder King was proficient at was the long-range < King of Star Space 2 >?" M01 could not help but frown when he heard M05's report. Although the two were both ace mecha, the control style of these two mecha belonged to completely opposite ends of a spectrum, with there being a great distance between the two mecha's techniques. Typically, mecha operators who were proficient on one front were very unlikely to be able to operate mecha with a completely different and opposing style. The long-range and the close-range fell precisely into this scenario of diametrically opposed control styles.
"Could it be that there is another ace mecha operator?" M01's question caused M05 to jolt, and this question slipped out from his lips.
"We do not know what exactly happened here three minutes ago, so anything is possible," replied M01 calmly. At the same time, he turned his radar scanner on to its maximum setting. Regardless of whether it was the long-range or the close-range , if they were ambushed by the opponent, things would not go well for their team.
Compared to M03's arrogance, M01 was obviously much more cool-headed and self-aware. Facing an unseen enemy, he brought all of his focus to the fore, fearing an ambush by the opponent.
Suddenly, his radar picked something up. He instantly drew the two guns by his thighs to shoot frenziedly at a particular corner. Meanwhile, the three mecha standing watch at the edges of the scene reacted swiftly as well. They followed M01's lead to aim at that spot and began to shoot their beam guns just as wildly.
After a round of attacks, the grass in that area had been completely destroyed by the powerful beam energy to turn into a pile of ashes. Within the ashes, the hilt of a burnt beam saber 3 could be seen. It turned out that the energy reaction on the radar previously had actually been emitted by the beam saber.
"That beam saber is M03's." M05's vision was sharp. Although the beam saber's hilt had already been struck so much that it had been deformed, its original form almost indiscernible, M05 had still noticed the remains of the owner's label on it.
"That's strange. Why would the beam saber suddenly give off an energy reaction? Could it be that someone activated it just now?" asked M01 with a frown. A beam saber needed a person to activate it — it should be said that a beam saber hilt lying on the ground would never give off any energy waves without it being used by someone. But then, if someone had activated it, M01 did not believe that there was anyone fast enough to dodge his sharpshooting and escape his attack range in that brief instant.
M05 also could not figure out this issue that had stumped M01. He could not help but shudder and ask timidly, "Could it be a ghost?"
"How could that be possible?!" barked M01 angrily in return. Several millenniums of scientific research had proven that ghosts were merely figments of the Huaxians' imagination — they did not exist.
M05 too felt that he was being ridiculous, and so he did not dare to say anything more. Perhaps the beam saber's switch had been defective and had let some energy leak out.
Right at this time, M01 sensed the radar responding again, highlighting the spot right behind M05. M01 shouted, "M05, move!"
M05's reaction was swift — he immediately threw himself to one side — and M01 timed things masterfully. M05 had barely moved aside to reveal an opening when the beam gun in M01's hand let loose a deluge of shots. This time, the three other team members behind M01 did not manage to keep up. Only after M05 had dodged aside completely did they follow up with their own attacks, shooting at the same area M01 was shooting at.
Very soon, this round of attacks ended. This time, there was a beam gun lying there in the aftermath, a blackened lump already completely deformed from the barrage of attacks. M01's expression shifted at the sight, because he realised that this beam gun was also a weapon of M03's ... could it be that M03 could not rest in peace and so was trying to give them some hint? Or perhaps someone was using M03's things to cause mischief?
"Bastard, don't try to use these kinds of tricks to scare us! Bloody come out and face us if you have any godd*mn balls!" M01 suddenly switched comms channels to connect to his external speakers and shouted.