Chapter 403: Black!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
"Only if your modification was successful would you know that the outer appearance of a modified ace mecha is different from that of official ace mecha. Only then would you realise this issue," explained Ling Lan indifferently. This kind of demeanour where it seemed like everything was according to plan received the deep admiration of the battle clan members — as expected of their Boss Lan; nothing could be hidden from him.
Chang Xinyuan nodded, thoroughly convinced. "Boss Lan, you're completely right. I have indeed finished modifying the ace mecha successfully. Today, I'm just here to tell you this news. I would like for you to go online to test it out so I can conduct a data assessment and make some final adjustments to the mecha." At this point, Chang Xinyuan scratched his head bashfully, becoming somewhat embarrassed. "Although I think that I've modified it successfully, without feedback from an operator, I can't be sure whether my modification is truly successful."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's all go take a look!" Qi Long was the first to leap up in excitement. This was the first time he would see a modified ace mecha! It was truly too exciting!
Qi Long's words received hearty approval from everyone. At this moment, Lin Zhong-qing, Xie Yi, and Luo Lang had finally brought all their food over. Before they could even set down the dishes, everyone was rushing at them like hungry wolves.
The three of them did not have enough time to react before the dishes had been snatched away, leaving them with only the large empty trays in their hands. They stared at each other in bewilderment, eyes filled with incomprehension. It had only been several minutes and their companions had become so hungry to this extent?
Frankly, after learning the truth, the members did not wish to waste time eating here. If they hadn't had to eat lunch to replenish their strength, they would have long left the canteen to return to their respective dorms and logged in to the virtual world ...
Even though he was eating rapidly, Han Jijyun still maintained his usual graceful air. Catching sight of the dumbstruck three at the door, he sighed softly inside his heart and said, "Eat quickly. Later, log onto the virtual world. There'll be a great surprise."
Beside Han Jijyun, Qi Long raised his head at Han Jijyun's words to nod emphatically at Lin Zhong-qing, Luo Lang, and Xie Yi, confirming that his sworn brother was telling the truth. His gaze was obviously telling them that they would regret it if they missed out.
Although Lin Zhong-qing was unsure what the so-called surprise Han Jijyun had said could be, he also knew that for their companions to be so worked up, the surprise must not be some trivial thing. And so, he threw Xie Yi and Luo Lang a pointed look, and then turned into a ravenous wolf like the others to join in the scramble for the food.
In less than three minutes, they had finished off the meal. In contrast to the others' messiness, Ling Lan was the most composed, but moving the swiftest, she had certainly been the one to eat the most ... this caused the team members' eyes to express an extremely mournful sort of gaze. Boss, when can you share this ultimate skill with us? Speaking of which, they still were not full yet ...
Soon, the battle clan members assembled at top speed in the large main base camp of the Lingtian Battle Clan in Mecha World. As they had accomplished an SSS-rank mission, the Lingtian Battle Clan possessed their own camp grounds. And in order to support the intensive cultivation of Chang Xinyuan, Ling Lan had spent an exorbitant amount of financial and materials resources to build a mecha modification research centre for him in the camp.
As soon as everyone entered the research centre, they were automatically discharged from their respective mecha. In the spacious and empty research centre, there was no sense of crowding even though there was suddenly ten more people within it. The crowd had yet to get over their shock at how vast the research centre was when their attention was drawn to the grand and mighty-looking mecha standing tall in the centre of the space.
This mecha was currently still in the original steely-grey colour of mecha steel, and because Ling Lan's original choice was a close-combat mecha, Chang Xinyuan's modification direction was also heavily focused on close combat. The whole mecha's appearance had become extremely ferocious — in contrast to the typically graceful long lines of ace mecha, this mecha had veered away from this characteristic to pursue a sort of ultimate barbarism. In particular, the mecha's arms and legs were obviously much thicker.
"Holy sh*t, this form, so powerful, I like!" The moment Qi Long set eyes on it, he was utterly besotted by the mecha. Red hearts bloomed in his eyes as he rushed forwards uncontrollably to stroke the mecha carefully, as if he were caressing the body of the woman he loved. That intoxicated expression on his face prompted goosebumps all over the others' bodies.
Qi Long, who had been chasing in Ling Lan's footsteps all this time, had also inherited Ling Lan's style when it came to mecha combat and operation. He preferred thrilling and dangerous close-combat attacks, so he had no defence at all against this type of powerful close-combat oriented mecha.
Zhao Jun and Qi Long's feelings for the mecha were almost identical. If not for the fact that he had only joined the clan not too long ago, Zhao Jun most probably would have added one to the number of people molesting the mecha. Luckily, in order to retain his good impression in his clan leader's eyes, he managed to restrain himself. Of course, it was worth mentioning here that the primary hero which had enlightened Zhao Jun in time to stop him from committing such a mistake was Li Lanfeng's unmerciful stomp from beside him. It had almost fractured the bones in the back of Zhao Jun's foot.
The others, such as Luo Lang, also revealed envious looks. However, though Luo Lang was envious, he was not as worked up as Qi Long and Zhao Jun. This was because he knew that close-combat mecha had nothing much to do with him. He knew his own body well — although it looked like it was similar to Boss Ling Lan's body type, slender and lean, in terms of strength, his body was considerably weaker than his boss's. If not for Li Lanfeng still being worse off than him, Luo Lang would have even suspected whether being part of a pair of twins had affected his constitution ...
Seeing how fascinated everyone was with his modification, Chang Xinyuan was unbelievably excited. He said to Ling Lan, "Boss Lan, because I didn't know what colour you like, I haven't painted the outer armour of the mecha yet. Now you just need to say the word. What colour would you like it to be? Or perhaps you would like a combination of colours?"
Ling Lan had been studying the outer appearance of the mecha. Sure enough, the modified mecha looked very different on the outside from normal ace mecha. If Chang Xinyuan had not said that this mecha had been modified from her ace mecha, she would probably have been unable to determine the level of this mecha at short notice. When she heard Chang Xinyuan's question, an idea sparked in her mind and she said, "Black will do."
"Black?" The other members of the battle clan could not help but exclaim at Ling Lan's choice. Even Chang Xinyuan was gobsmacked — the Federation military had regulated that black was the specified colour for special-class mecha. Generally, modified mecha, unless they were special-class mecha, would avoid this colour and choose some other hue.
"Won't that be interesting? Since no one believes that ace mecha can be modified, then let's just use the colour set for special-class mecha and fool Leiting into thinking that it's a special-class mecha," said Ling Lan coldly. Her composed demeanour belied how cunning and sneaky her words were; this was obviously a scam ...
"What a great idea." Li Lanfeng was the first to step up and express approval for the plan. The fellow was a black-bellied sort to begin with, liking to snare and set up others, and this decision of Ling Lan's was obviously meant to trick Qiao Ting, so of course he would approve with his entire being.
Frankly, Ling Lan's meaning was already very clear — all those who were not the slightest bit slow-witted in the team quickly picked up on the subtext, and their eyes began to shine. Although Chang Xinyuan was focused on research so he was much more naive than the others, he had also picked up on Ling Lan's obvious connotation. Additionally, he had suffered so much at the Thunder King's hands, so now that he found that his modified mecha could be used to trick the Thunder King, he was instantly pumped up. Loudly, he replied, "Understood, Boss Lan, leave it to me. I definitely won't let the other suspect that this mecha isn't a special-class mecha." Thrumming with excitement, he immediately went to his experiment panel and began to mix and test colours ...
The others surrounded him with interest, putting forth suggestions to Chang Xinyuan to try and make this mecha look as much like a special-class mecha as possible, with no care about whether the nonsense they were spouting would bother Chang Xinyuan.
Ling Lan saw the excitement and enthusiasm in everyone's faces and once again found herself astonished at how unpopular the Thunder King was. There were so many people here who wanted to see him stumble — being too arrogant truly resulted in bad outcomes ...
Only Zhao Jun did not join the crowd surrounding Chang Xinyuan. He glanced at the calm and composed Boss Lan, and then turned his gaze towards Li Lanfeng who was busy helping Chang Xinyuan with a face full of scheming intent. He finally understood why Li Lanfeng had wanted him to join Boss Lan's battle clan. Hells, these two were birds of a feather! In contrast to Li Lanfeng's obvious surface cunning and sneakiness, Boss Lan was the true master of black-bellied masters ... right then, Zhao Jun profoundly realised that this seemingly cool and aloof Boss Lan was someone he absolutely could not offend.
Chang Xinyuan had a thorough understanding of all aspects of knowledge with regards to mecha — even with so many inept advisers 1 interfering with his work, it took less than 20 minutes for him to finish formulating that black dye used for special-class mecha; all that was left was the actual production.
Setting down the work in his hands, Chang Xinyuan asked Ling Lan to board the mecha and test it out for fine-tuning adjustments. Over the course of half a day, Ling Lan basically obtained a preliminary understanding of this modified mecha.
This mecha almost abandoned all long-range power — only the most basic long-range weapons were retained. However, its close-combat capabilities were much enhanced. The strength of its arms was now 1.5 times stronger than before. Do not underestimate this tiny 0.5 increment — the moment mecha clashed in actual battle, if the opponent really believed this mecha was a special-class mecha, or even if they knew the truth but was unprepared for this extra 0.5, this additional strength would be enough to strike the opponent's weapon from their hands. At that time, how could a weaponless mecha still be taken as a serious opponent? This would pretty much decide the final victory.
Not just that, the mecha's mobility had also seen a breakthrough improvement. Although its outer form was savage and fierce, the mecha's mobility and adaptive ability had become nimbler than other ace mecha, perhaps even exceeding that of the most agile speed-type ace mecha. Ling Lan found that other than the requisite main engine and two secondary engines, Chang Xinyuan had added an additional row of miniature auxiliary engines at the back of the mecha. Though the thrust of these engines was very small, they could still assist the mecha in making fine adjustments during high-speed movement.
In the past, there had been others who had suggested similar designs, but the research had ground to a halt due to the lack of appropriate miniature auxiliary engines. After Chang Xinyuan had completed that triple-S modification mission, the most valuable among the miscellaneous rewards were these legendary miniature auxiliary engines. They had allowed him to successfully upgrade the close-combat ace mecha's mobility and made it even more responsive. This would undoubtedly allow Ling Lan to design and execute countless super challenging combination moves other mecha could not, perhaps even producing more powerful combo attacks.