Chapter 448: Single Mecha Combat!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
As time went by, the results of the various competitions were revealed.
Other than the early procurement of first place in the first aid event, the next competition to end was the starship navigation event Han Jijyun was participating in. Although Han Jijyun’s final ranking was only 27th place, it was still a significant improvement from his 43rd placing at the start of the competition.
As one of the only two second-year students participating in the starship navigation competition, Han Jijyun’s results were undoubtedly something that one could be proud of and was worthy of praise. However, it just so happened that there was Luo Chao too in the tournament this year. Everyone heaped their praises on this little girl instead because, as a second-year student herself, Luo Chao’s performance was breath-taking in the finals. If she had not relaxed in that final critical moment, which had allowed the contestant right behind her to overtake her starship at the last second, perhaps she would have made history as the first second-year to become champion. In the end, she could only regretfully become second place.
However, Luo Chao was not too disappointed. She had come to participate in the tournament primarily because she wanted Boss Lan to see how much she had grown. Of course, she still was not at the peak perfection of her growth yet, but she believed that as long as she continued to work hard, there would be a day when she would become the most excellent ship captain of the Federation. Then, she would be able to navigate a ship for Boss Lan and her big brothers and keep them safe.
The other events also ended one after another. In physical skills combat, Qi Long was stopped at the top 8, but he gained much from his participation. The stubborn bottleneck frustrating him all this while had finally loosened — as long as he went back and put some effort into it, he should be able to break through his current realm and enter the early stages of advanced level Qi-Jin.
Meanwhile, of the other four participants with him, one ended in the top 100, one in the top 50, one in the top 16, and the last one actually ended up in the top 4. Unfortunately, in the finals, he encountered a sixth-year top-class master whose physical skills were already at a very high peak 1 whose physical skills were already at a very high peak The author does not give the actual stage name here, but based on the great commotion every time Domain is mentioned, I’m guessing that this fellow mentioned here must still be at most in the topmost level of Qi-Jin and not Domain yet, otherwise there would be more commotion from the audience. and could only accept his defeat with regret. That top-class master finally nabbed first place with no trouble at all.
Still, the collective score of the five contestants was considerable. In total, their score placed them in third place among all the military academies for physical skills. As such, Ling Lan was not disappointed by these results.
After several rounds of competition, Chang Xinyuan was slowly breaking free of his mental block — after every round, his ranking would shift a little forwards compared to before. By the time the final round came, he had successfully created an advanced mecha with an elegant outer form based off extremely reasonable design principles. After deliberation, the referee team declared Chang Xinyuan as the champion of the competition, leaving Chang Xinyuan weeping tears of joy.
Close after that was the tactical planning competition. Han Jijyun managed a turnaround, his final results placing him in the top 3 in third place. The first and second place went to the Second Men’s Military Academy and the First Co-ed Military Academy respectively. Han Jijyun did not feel at all disgraced in losing to the contestants from these two esteemed academies.
That aside, Li Lanfeng’s final ranking was 13th place. This ranking would net his academy a pretty decent amount of points, and would also lead the other academies to underestimate him at the same time. With that, he was extremely satisfied at achieving what he wanted.
During this time, Ling Lan had already secretly met up with Lan Luofeng under Ling Xiao’s lead. She had felt Lan Luofeng’s almost overflowing maternal love from her endless nagging concern — even as Ling Lan was touched, she surreptitiously sent a pleading look to her dad for help … Boo hoo hoo, one year away from mum and she had become even naggier than before …
Finally, Ling Lan could feel the spirit of rebellion rearing up within her. Her rebellious phase had come so late though … she was almost 40 now if she added up both her lifetimes. At this thought, Ling Lan was truly chagrined — she really did not live up to her mental age.
She knew that Ling Xiao would only leave after the battle royal, so Ling Lan repeatedly reassured Lan Luofeng that she would definitely make time to come see her for the duration of the Grand Mecha Tournament; only then did she manage to convince Lan Luofeng to let go. When Ling Lan left, she spoke to her dad, hinting for him to work harder to get her mum pregnant earlier, so that she could be free …
Immediately after throwing out these hints, Ling Lan brushed her hands of the matter and ran away without taking any responsibility, leaving behind a gobsmacked Ling Xiao. His cheeks and the tips of his ears quickly flushed red — for the first time, he felt embarrassed in front of his daughter.
Unfortunately … Ling Xiao sighed deeply, but his expression soon eased out again. He had no more regrets in this life since he had this daughter Ling Lan 2 .
By the seventh day of the grand tournament, the miscellaneous specialization competitions were all consecutively coming to an end. The First Men’s Military Academy was pretty much dominating the rankings. After taking everything into account, the First Men’s Military Academy’s total score put it in first place for the moment. However, The Second Men’s Military Academy, Third Men’s Military Academy, and First Co-ed Military Academy were close behind it. The total points of all four academies were extremely close, merely a few points separating them from each other …
All eyes were on the mecha combat event which was about to officially begin. If any of the other three academies could become the final victor of the mecha combat event, they would be able to break the current status quo and become the front-runner in one fell swoop.
Having said that, there is a need to explain the point distribution of the various events in the Grand Mecha Tournament. First off, on the final day of the tournament, the most important battle royal will account for half of the overall points. In other words, even if a school was at the bottom of the barrel in terms of points before the battle royal, as long as they became the final victor in the battle royal, they would still be able to achieve an upset and win the whole tournament. Similarly, even if a school was at the head of the rankings with their previous score, if they did not do well in the final battle royal, they would also be plummet from the clouds into the mud below.
As for the remaining half of the points, the mecha combat event took up another half of this half. This was also why there was so much attention on the mecha combat tournament. And this huge share of points was again split into two parts — single mecha combat and group mecha combat (five-person teams).
The first to be held was single mecha combat. Both the mecha combat events, single and group, would be using real mecha. This added a very real element of danger, and blood was certain to be shed at every tournament during the mecha combat events and the final battle royal. There had even been one year when the blood had flowed like a river, the wings of many outstanding talents broken right here in the tournament.
Some had suggested for the tournament to use virtual mecha instead, but the military had rejected the proposals in the end. The military felt that if a contestant could not even protect themselves in this type of combat competition intended for training purposes, then they certainly would not be able to survive in a cruel battlefield. As such, those cadets might as well just wash out of the military system. (The Grand Mecha Tournament typically resulted in severe injuries or disabilities — though there had of course been deaths as well, those were much rarer. After all, everyone knew to hold back a little in the tournament. Moreover, the Federation’s greatest medical team would be on standby throughout the entire tournament. If any accidents occurred, the team would also be able to mobilise as quickly as possible to rescue the wounded.)
The high-profile ace operator Qiao Ting finally appeared before the public — not only would he be participating in the single mecha combat event, he would also be participating in the group mecha combat event. Generally, the five combatants a military academy would send for the single mecha combat event would often also be the five members participating in the group combat event. After all, these would be the school’s strongest five … but there were also exceptions. For example, this year, when the First Men’s Military Academy had submitted their registration form, the reception staff had at first thought that he had misread it.
In the competition this time, Qiao Ting had two main competitors. Namely, Lin Xiao, who was suspected of being an ace operator, from the First Co-ed Military Academy, and Jiang Shaoyu, a confirmed ace operator from the Second Men’s Military Academy.
It should be said that the organizers had arranged things very well. The three ace operators would not meet right from the start. The mecha combat competition was split into 4 blocks, and the three ace operators were in three separate blocks. Only when they entered the top 4 would they have any chance of clashing, of course with the premise that they were not unexpectedly eliminated from the competition earlier on.
The single mecha combat event would last for a total of three days. The first two days would be knockout matches among the contestants within the four blocks. The winner of each of the four blocks would then move on to the top 4 and engage in battle on the third day. And after the single mecha combat event ended, the group mecha combat event would begin, and it would likewise go on for three days.
Zhao Jun, who had been pushed by Ling Lan into participating in the single mecha combat event, had luck which was off the charts compared to the other participants from the First Academy. During the draw, he did not pull any of the three blocks hosting one of the three ace operators. Instead, he pulled the only block filled will just special-class mecha, which was the block predicted by all of the audience to be the most competitive area with the most brutal fighting.
And it was indeed so. This block did not have an ace hanging over them, so everyone believed that they had a fighting chance to become the winner. This caused everyone in the block to fight to the end, unwilling to back down. Every mecha seemed almost berserk when they fought, and this block was the one which incurred the highest number of injured operators as well as the worst injuries. The emergency medical team on site was thrown into a chaotic rush to handle all the injuries, running themselves ragged to save these gifted talents.
In this wild massacre, Zhao Jun displayed his prowess, bringing down opponents left and right to finally secure a place for himself in the finals of this block, and then obtain the one and only non-ace position in the top 4 of the event. This result was met with the envy-jealousy-hate of the other three contestants from the First Men’s Military Academy — they had just been unlucky, pulling the other three blocks. Without any doubt, when they had encountered the respective ace operators in their blocks, they had lost cleanly.
After the successive battles, Lin Xiao of the First Co-ed Military Academy, who had initially been hiding his true abilities, was proven to have indeed already advanced to ace. He entered the final top 4 without any problems, and Qiao Ting and Jiang Shaoyu soon followed him as well, clinching the top 4 slots of their respective blocks.
On the final day of the single mecha combat event, the top 4 contestants arrived punctually at the mecha combat field. At this point, they still did not know who their opponent of the day would be. The referee on the field first made them each choose a ball from four balls rolling around quickly within a device. The person who got the same number would be their opponent for the first match. The winners of those two first matches would then move on to the final match to determine the first and second place, while the losers would fight to compete for third and fourth place.
The first to step up and choose a ball was Jiang Shaoyu. Qiao Ting heard Zhao Jun take in a deep breath beside him — although their two mecha clans were rivals in the First Academy, they were comrades right now, so Qiao Ting felt that he needed to show some concern. He asked in a low voice, “How are you? Nervous?”
Zhao Jun licked his lips and said with barely repressed excitement, “No, I’m just thinking … who’ll be my next opponent?”
“Is there someone you want to fight?” Qiao Ting had noticed the deeply hidden excitement in Zhao Jun’s eyes. At that moment, he recalled how Zhao Jun had not shown any fear either when the other had fought him back then, so why would he fear another now? Qiao Ting could not help admiring the other, thinking to himself, ‘This fellow Zhao Jun is really pretty good.’
“Yep, that one on the stage,” said Zhao Jun without any hesitation whatsoever as he pointed at Jiang Shaoyu.
“Why him?” asked Qiao Ting, boggled. Compared to Jiang Shaoyu, Lin Xiao looked easier to handle.
“Because, he attacked Luo Lang before.” Zhao Jun’s reply was simple. His gaze narrowed and a tendril of killing intent seeped out. Since the other dared to lay a hand on his teammate, then even though he knew he was no match for that guy, he still wanted to leave some mark on him …