Chapter 406: Hidden Machinations?
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Three minutes passed swiftly. Everyone felt themselves being tugged by a powerful force into a black hole — the power behind the pull made everyone groggy, unable to maintain their clarity of mind for a beat.
Only Ling Lan was an exception. She had long gotten used to this sort of pulling force and so still retained her mental awareness. Compared to the brute pulling force of the learning space, this tug by the Mecha World mainframe was clearly much gentler.
As soon as Ling Lan entered the battle map, without any delay, she was conscious and aware.
Every mecha which entered the map had 10 seconds of protection time — the entire mecha would shine with a white light, marking its invincibility. This was also an example of Mecha World's fairness mechanisms. After all, the time everyone needed to adjust to this pulling force varied — some only needed two to three seconds to adjust, while others might need seven or eight seconds. Perhaps some might even need over ten seconds to regain their consciousness, but for those people, the mainframe would judge them as unworthy to operate mecha. For them to be killed in a sneak attack after ten seconds were up was perfectly acceptable.
Because the moment one's mecha operation level entered lower mecha operator tier, one would require the support of the minimum level of spiritual power. Those who regained their clarity of mind slower were typically the type to have extremely low spiritual talent. With little potential to develop, it was pretty much a declaration that your future in mecha operation was unpromising.
Taking advantage of her mecha's invincible state, Ling Lan quickly scanned her surroundings. This was a large map combining both a desert and an oasis — other than some small shrubs, there were no so-called majestic trees or mountain rocks for mecha to hide.
With unhindered yellow and green as far as the eye could see, as soon as a mecha approached, it would be very easily discovered. It should be said that there was very little chance of a mecha executing a successful sneak attack. Thus, to a large extent, this map was more suited for those mecha with vast experience and adequate strength.
"This map ... is advantageous for the Leiting Mecha Clan." The cadets spectating the fight saw the map displayed before their eyes, and all of them came to the same conclusion. Anyone who understood the Leiting Mecha Clan knew that this time, Qiao Ting had brought experienced senior cadets with two or three years' worth of mecha battle experience with him. As such, how could the Lingtian members who had just started using mecha for not too long compare?
Even those who mentally supported Lingtian could not help but swear and be alarmed when they saw this map. Lingtian was just too unlucky for the mainframe to actually draw this map.
At this time, in one of the VIP rooms inside the military academy, a large screen was broadcasting the fight. Inside the room, there were about 20 people watching the screen avidly. When this map appeared, quite a few of them smiled, but there was also a small number who frowned.
"Tang Yu, what do you think?" asked an old man sitting beside Tang Yu. He was the principal of the First Men's Military Academy, and was presently attending this viewing arranged for the administrators and the mecha instructors.
"Principal ... this map ... did the academy really not have a hand in this?" asked Tang Yu with a grim expression.
"I only set it so that this match is an open fight," replied the principal calmly. "But you know that the authority to designate the battle map does not lie solely with me."
Tang Yu did not answer, but a trace of disgust flashed through his eyes. Hidden machinations ... regardless of the outcome, this was a disgrace to them mecha operators.
"Are you not happy about this? Leiting's regiment commander, the team leader of his side in this match, Qiao Ting, is the student you are so proud of, isn't he?" said the principal jokingly.
"Ling Lan, Qi Long, Luo Lang, Wu Jiong, and Li Yingjie will likewise be my students starting next month. I believe that three years later, they too will be students I will be proud of ..." Tang Yu suddenly turned his head, quirked an eyebrow, and said, "Besides, this time, all the students I've accepted are from the Lingtian Mecha Clan, unlike the previous batch where, out of the five students I took in, only Qiao Ting was from the Leiting Mecha Clan. Five versus one, don't you think I should stand on the side of the Lingtian Mecha Clan more?"
"Are you trying to protest the injustice being done to your students now?" The principal's lips curved into a smile. This was why he admired Tang Yu the most. Qiao Ting had been with him for three years — undoubtedly, Tang Yu should favour Qiao Ting more — but this did not mean that he could accept this sort of secret manipulation. It was unconscionable even if his student would be the one to benefit.
"I just want to see a fair and exciting match," answered Tang Yu. "However, I don't think the Lingtian Mecha Clan will really be so helpless." Thinking back to one year ago, in order to obtain victory, these children had managed to stand their ground on the arena stage with their steadfast determination despite the multiple wounds they received. Their tenacious spirit had earned Tang Yu's approval and respect, which was why he had ignored the objections of the school administrators and broken the faction balance by insisting on accepting five students from the same clan.
"I also do not think that Lingtian will lose just because of a map." The principal surprisingly agreed with Tang Yu's words, shocking Tang Yu into whipping his head around to stare at him.
The principal smiled meaningfully, a subtle gleam in his eyes. Tang Yu's heart clenched; it looked like the principal was planning to use this match to do something ... he turned his gaze back to the large screen in front, his heart heavy.
Ling Lan waited as her ten seconds of invincibility passed by. During this time, within the range of her radar, Ling Lan did not pick up anyone other than herself. It was as Ling Lan expected; she and Little Four had guessed correctly. This mecha fight which the academy attached such great importance to was indeed unlike previous mecha fights where both teams were given time to assemble and prepare before hashing it out in proper teams. It would not be so simple.
"Little Four, can you find the coordinates of the other members? And contact them as well?" Seeing this, Ling Lan immediately asked Little Four.
This map which seemed disadvantageous to the Lingtian Mecha Clan was instead most advantageous for them with the omnipotent cheating device Little Four on their side. In contrast to Leiting's true situation of fighting blind and solo, with Little Four's help, the Lingtian Mecha Clan could locate their own companions within the shortest amount of time.
"No problem!" responded Little Four. Once they entered a virtual world, he would become an omnipotent god with everything under his control. This was also why he especially loved virtual worlds.
"Also, get me the enemies' coordinates as well," added Ling Lan.
Ling Lan stood in place as she calmly waited for Little Four to find what she asked for.
Meanwhile, all the cadets spectating the fight had already chosen the viewing perspective they wanted to view this sensational battle from.
There were three viewing angles to choose from — Challenger view, Defender view, and God view.
Viewing from Challenger view was, indeed, choosing to watch from the challenger's perspective. In this fight, that would be Leiting's battle team. Those who selected that viewing angle would be offered the selection of Leiting's 12 mecha. They could then freely choose whichever they liked and view the battle from that mecha operator's perspective, and could even experience the coping ability and mecha control ability of the operator second-hand.
Almost more than half of the cadets chose Challenger view, and 70% among these chose the ace mecha Thunder King Qiao Ting was piloting. To the cadets, this was a rare opportunity for them to experience the control methods of an ace operator and learn from it. They just could not resist this temptation.
Meanwhile, those who chose Defender view, that is to view the battle from the Lingtian Mecha Clan's perspective, similarly had 12 mecha to choose from. However, those who chose the Lingtian Mecha Clan were very few. Other than those members of the Lingtian Mecha Clan who were not participating and those other freshmen factions who were supporting the Lingtian Mecha Clan in secret, there were not many others.
Those who chose to view from Lingtian's perspective were also not as concentrated under one operator. Instead, the viewing distribution was quite spread out, but overall, those who chose to view from the team leader Ling Lan's perspective was still the majority. After all, the team leader should be the strongest one in the battle team, and the Federation had always taught the students to honour the strong.
Aside from that, those who chose God view, which was in fact the full map perspective, could choose any of the 24 mecha to zoom in on. Of course, even after zooming in, their viewing angle would still be that of an outside observer, able to take in the entire scene as well as the distribution of the other mecha on the map. That said, it would not shift automatically like the other viewing angles, but relied on the viewer to search and adjust on their own.
All of the cadets entered the match under their respective viewing angles ...
"Boss, I've found it!" Little Four projected the locations of the members he had gathered into Ling Lan's mindspace. Twelve green dots appeared, the one marking her position closer to the right side of the map. Of course, Little Four did not forget to mark down Leiting's coordinates as well with red dots.
This time, the mainframe had scattered the members of both teams as expected. From the distribution of green and red dots, the two sides were interspersed all over the map. Each member not only had comrades by their sides, they also had enemies around them. This also showed that, if Little Four did not exist, whether the members of either team would encounter friend or foe would have depended solely on luck.
"Little Four, send all members the coordinates of our members and our opponents, and choose an assembly point nearest to the members and tell them to focus in on it at the same time," ordered Ling Lan. Being able to gather before the opponent could would give Lingtian a huge advantage. "Also, help me find Qiao Ting's position."
Right now, the most important thing was to isolate and neutralize Qiao Ting. As long as Qiao Ting did not have the chance to attack her members, Ling Lan believed that even if they met the other members of Leiting, it was not impossible for her members to win.
"Found it, Boss." Little Four quickly highlighted Qiao Ting's position. Ling Lan's forehead scrunched up — it turned out that she was very far away from Qiao Ting's position; they were almost on completely opposite ends. If she wanted to meet Qiao Ting, she would need to cut through many other members of Leiting first. Similarly, for Qiao Ting to fight her, he would have to go through some trouble as well.
It looked like the mainframe did not want the two team leaders to meet so quickly, and so had positioned the both of them so far from each other ...
"Is this so that Qiao Ting has more chances to show off?" sneered Ling Lan. It looked like the mainframe was still biased towards Leiting. Lingtian's three special-class operators were all very far away from Qiao Ting and were spread out at three distant points. Judging by the distance, by the time they rushed over to Qiao Ting's area, Qiao Ting would have had more than enough time to defeat the other members of Lingtian.
"In that case, let's see who'll remain till the very end." Ling Lan decisively scrapped her initial plans. Since the mainframe intended for Qiao Ting to shine, then she would just let Qiao Ting show off a little. Besides, Ling Lan also hoped that her team members could go up against an ace operator once. This was also a type of experience — even if they would be badly defeated in Mecha World, it would still be worth it.