Chapter 368: Power Gap!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
However, all that answered M01 was silence. Although M01 did not believe in ghosts, this situation before him now which could not be explained by logical reasoning and common sense was making him feel rather unsettled and creeped out.
"Ah ..." A horrified cry suddenly rang out in the team's commlink. M01's heart clenched and he whipped his head around. However, all he saw was one of the three guarding members pointing at M05 lying on the ground ... even without seeing the other member's facial expression, M01 could feel the fright and panic of the other.
M01 felt that something was not right, because M05 still had not gotten up from the ground after this much time. This was definitely not normal. He stepped forward and squatted down, flipping M05's mecha around. Only then did he discover that the seemingly perfectly intact mecha had actually had its cockpit pierced by a short and sturdy high-frequency blade right through a vital point on the mecha's front.
Meanwhile, a pool of blood had begun to spread out on the ground the mecha had been lying on. That team member who had screamed must have seen the spreading pool of blood ...
"Bastard, come out!" At this point, what else was there for M01 to figure out? He abruptly stood up and began shouting out at the still silence around them. There was definitely no such thing as ghosts — all of this was just a deliberate ploy of the enemy. Using those things to draw their attention, the enemy had then taken advantage of their distraction to kill the unprepared M05. And all of this had happened right under their noses.
It had to be said that the enemy's ploy was extremely clever. Even now, M01 still could not figure out what method the enemy had used to set it so that the beam saber and beam gun would release some energy response at those specific moments. M01 knew well that it was impossible for someone to activate the power switches at those two locations without being seen, yet at the same time, there was no other setup to show any hidden manipulations. This kind of arrangement that could not be unravelled by common logic had successfully captured their attention, causing them to neglect the unprepared M05. This had given the enemy the opportunity to kill M05 without any sign.
Undoubtedly, their enemy was an experienced assassin. M01 was instantly suspicious, wondering whether this person was not that Thunder King Qiao Ting like M03 had reported. Qiao Ting's talent and potential may be extremely aberrant — otherwise he would not have been able to advance to ace operator — but this kind of rich combat experience was not something a cadet could have.
"We've been duped! Looks like the opponent used the Thunder King as bait to draw us here to kill us one by one," said M01 through gritted teeth. However, he then instantly backtracked and denied his own words, "No, they do not know our target is the Thunder King Qiao Ting, so they could not have made this sort of arrangement. Unless our plans have been leaked ... also, if this was really a trap, they could not have just arranged for one person to lie here in ambush."
Although M01 had been thrown off a little by the situation before his eyes, he still managed to retain enough of his composure to think things through. He was able to tell that there should only be one enemy hiding here in ambush, but this enemy was very strong and very dangerous.
"This should be a coincidence ..." Suddenly, M01 thought of Thunder King Qiao Ting's mentor, Tang Yu, that prodigious talent who was known as the 'Versatile Ace Master'. Could it be him?
At this thought, M01 could not help but shudder. An experienced ace mecha master like Tang Yu was completely incomparable with a newbie like Qiao Ting — for them alone to go up against an experienced ace mecha master like that was an absolutely suicidal endeavour. He knew he could not afford to hesitate any longer. He immediately transmitted the news that Tang Yu could be here to central command, hoping to receive backup as soon as possible.
"Boss, I've obtained their signal source ..." Ling Lan, who had been hiding in the shadows, still and quiet like a ferocious beast on the hunt, preparing to deal death with one blow, stared coldly at the roaring M01 not too far from her. When she registered the excited yells of Little Four in her mindspace, she could not help but clench her fists. She knew that the wait was over — it was now time to kill her prey.
It turned out that all of this was part of Ling Lan's and Little Four's meticulous plan to obtain the enemy's signal source. Little Four and Ling Lan did not believe the enemy was like them, completely unable to contact the outside world. Sure enough, all of this had pushed M01 in his panic to directly make contact with the enemy's central command on a starship in space, letting Little Four obtain the other side's signal source.
Having obtained the signal source, Little Four was no longer contained on the ground. He had been completely unleashed to become a free-flying king of virtual signals 1 .
After M01 had successfully sent out his message, he had just relaxed a little when he saw a familiar thermal reaction appear once more at one point on his radar. M01's hand paused, a tendril of doubt coursing through his mind — could it be that the enemy was trying to trick him again and assassinate another one of his team members when he turned to deal with the source of the thermal reaction?
Doubt rose in M01's heart, causing his movements to slow, so he did not attack the thermal reaction point as swiftly as he had the previous two times. Right at that moment, from the spot where the heat had been picked up, which was on the left side of the dense forest behind them, a mecha shot out, coming to the area behind M01 in the blink of an eye ... yes, the enemy's target was not M01 but the three members guarding three different directions at his back.
Without M01's guidance, the three members were not at all on guard against that particular spot. When they noticed the mecha leaping at them ferociously, their only response was to pull the triggers of their beam guns desperately, trying to use overwhelming firepower to force the opponent back ...
But, all of this was in vain — the mecha's figure shimmered, and the entire mecha drew a streak of shadow through the air. Their seemingly dense and concentrated firepower merely struck virtual impressions the opponent left behind. Between blinks, that enemy mecha was already before them.
"Bang bang bang!" Three loud collisions caused M01's heart to jerk. This was followed by three terrible screams in M01's team commlink. These three almost simultaneous screams caused M01's gun hand which was aimed at the opponent, about to shoot, to tremble ...
He who had never missed before, perhaps due to this tremble, actually shot wide ... after that mecha achieved his objective with one strike, he suddenly leapt backwards, retreating back into that dense forest, disappearing completely from M01's radar once more ...
M01 looked out at the surroundings before him — there was nothing but the sound of the wind and the distant sounds of cannonfire. There was no other sound in this patch of dense forest ... his entire body felt cold, a chill penetrating deep into his heart. Here at this place, with M03 as the first to go down, four more of his team members were now lying on the ground ... Of the initially rather complete 6-man team, he was now the only one left.
He involuntarily turned his gaze to those three team members of his who had just lost their lives, and his irises contracted. Those three team members had truly died in such a pitiful way. They had had no so-called chance at all of fighting back before they had been crushed alive by the opponent's sheer brute strength. The cockpits of those three mecha were now deeply caved in — M01 did not have to look closer to know that the men inside were now probably ground meat by now. Even if the damage was not to that extent, there was still absolutely no chance of survival.
The way they died proved the enemy had killed them without having to use any advanced combat techniques. By relying only on his mecha's inherent superiority and his horrifying giant sword, he had easily killed those three team members. By this time, M01 had confirmed that that mecha was indeed an ace mecha. Although it was not one with the military's powerful configurations, being merely a trainee mecha of the academy, due to the sheer prowess of its operator, this mecha with its basic configuration had still displayed formidable combat power —— the was truly strong and terrifying, striking fear into his heart.
The gap between their strength and that of this ace mecha master was really too wide. A surge of bitterness rose in M01's heart. He knew well that if the enemy wanted to kill him, just another two forceful attacks would be enough to finish him off. The moment the enemy managed to get close, he was sure to have no hope of survival.
M01 stared at the unresponsive radar and a futile hope actually fluttered in his heart. He hoped that the ace operator had already left ... for the first time, this kind of cowardly notion entered his mind on the battlefield. Before this, no matter how perilous the situation, he had never ever feared for his life like this. M01 knew that he had already lost. Facing that ace operator once more, he most probably did not even have the courage to stake his life in battle anymore. Even now, he had the urge to run away — it was only the pride of a warrior which kept him in place to await his final outcome.
"Have you cracked the other's signal?" Once again concealed, Ling Lan calmly observed her prey who had lost his calm as she questioned Little Four within the mindspace.
"Already cracked!" Little Four raised both his arms to express his excitement. "He actually thought that, Boss, you are the ace mecha instructor Tang Yu ... believing that Qiao Ting is somewhere here as well, he has already requested reinforcements from their central command."
Hearing the name Tang Yu, an image of the referee instructor who had been vaguely biased towards her side on that arena stage emerged uncalled in Ling Lan's mind's eye. He had not favoured the Leiting Mecha Clan just because he was Thunder King Qiao Ting's instructor. It should be said that the New Cadet Regiment's triumph in that battle was in large part also due to his consideration for them.
"Does this mean that the other side will also be sending masters here as well?" Ling Lan's expression turned grim. She naturally wanted to fight against skilled masters, but if a group of masters came, she would not be able to continue with her original plan of waiting here for rabbits to fall into her snare 2 .
"It must be, but I've already obtained the signal source of their communications. I'll keep an eye on them and will definitely figure out how many people the other side has sent here," responded Little Four confidently. He would not let his boss fall into danger!
"That's good. Since everything is settled, it's about time for me to finish off this fellow." Little Four's reply caused Ling Lan to relax. Since she had already received the answer she wanted, then there was no longer any need to keep this enemy before her alive ... Ling Lan decisively brought out her giant sword and pointed it straight at the enemy who was still trying to locate her.
M01 stared at his radar with mixed feelings, unsure whether he wanted there to be a response on the radar. Right at this moment, several energy responses appeared on the radar at the same time. These few points were all close to him, and there were even three points that were right by his side. This sudden situation made him raise both his guns in a flailing panic. Aiming for those few spots, he began shooting with both hands, madly sending a flood of beam energy pouring out from the guns in his hands ...