‘Is that guy crazy? The worst thing that could happen if he competes with Boss in ranged combat is that he could get hit and lose all his points. The only thing that could be even worse than that is probably the shots being too strong, accidentally destroying his mecha, but that wouldn’t bring harm to himself as long as he operates well. When it come to close combat, though…’
Qi Long’s body shook violently as he thought back to that time when he was beaten to a pulp. He firmly suppressed that thought, holding it back—he really didn’t want to bring up that memory again.
Qi Long’s words made Han Jijyun’s hands shake, so much so that he couldn’t hold the sunflower seed in his hand and let it fall. At that moment, Han Jijyun’s teeth began to ache. Seriously, he really didn’t want to recall the experiences of doing close combat with Boss Lan, alright?
Looking around him, he saw that everyone else had terrified expressions. It seemed that because of Qi Long’s statement, they had all gone back to those horrific times. Luo Lang’s reaction was the most exaggerated, holding himself with his arms and shaking violently, his handsome face turned completely pale.
Aside from Qi Long, Luo Lang had taken the hardest beating by Boss Lan because the latter wasn’t too fond of Luo Lang’s delicate and beautiful appearance, always wanting him to become stronger. It was a shame that after so many years, Luo Lang had ended up becoming more delicate and beautiful each time he was beaten by Boss Lan—completely unlike Qi Long who looked like he was evolving into a wild beast. This had made Boss Lan disheartened and helpless, always thinking that she wasn’t beating him hard enough, and so she would then proceed to beat him even harder.
“Do you guys think we should give a heads up to the medical team to let them be ready at a moment’s notice?” Li Shiyu said weakly. After experiencing close combat with Ling Lan, Li Shiyu had immediately initiated research for a psychological and emotional medicine to prevent his team members from accidentally being beaten to insanity by Boss Lan.
“Probably won’t need it, right? Boss Lan knows when to stop,” Chang Xinyuan, who had joined the gang later and still had high hopes for Ling Lan, said with uncertainty.
Knew when to stop? Was their boss capable of this? Qi Long and the others looked at the sky, baffled. It was probably better if they directly contacted the medical team rather than hoping their Boss would limit himself.
In the arena, Ling Lan and Ye Feiyang were flying rapidly, one after the other. Ling Lan’s mecha’s speed had already reached the limit of special-class operators, but unfortunately she still couldn’t throw her opponent off her tail. This meant Ye Feiyang’s control of his mecha was similarly remarkable, as expected from the second strongest individual from the First Co-ed Military Academy.
Of course, if Ling Lan really did want to lose him, she could do it. It was just that if she did that, she would have exposed her real operating potential. Ling Lan didn’t forget that the imperial operators hidden above them, along with the the referee team monitoring the match, were all top-class operators. She didn’t have the confidence that she would be able to conceal anything in front of them.
“Man, so troublesome!” Ling Lan thought, frustrated. She had originally wanted to use this chance in the team battles to practice her long-range operating skills. Unfortunately, this guy, Ye Feiyang, clearly wanted to fight a close-up battle with her until the very end.
She favored close combat more, but it was just as she said: it was annoying! She was so familiar with close combat that she was afraid that she might go berserk, performing top-level techniques that she shouldn’t perform and exposing her actual level of control—too many people had found out about it already. In the beginning when she was battling with Qiao Ting, she hadn’t managed to keep her secret from the principal, and her mentor, Tang Yu. She really needed to be extra careful as she couldn’t let anymore people find out.
Ling Lan wasn’t a stubborn person who would decide to do something as they would want all the time. Since fighting at long range was out of the question, Ling Lan wouldn’t force the issue but instead choose to meet the demands of close combat from her opponent.
Ling Lan made a decision and instantly operated her mecha to perform a 180-degree spin, and at the same time her mecha’s engine which was rapidly propelling her forward stopped completely. In addition to that, at the moment she span around, with her right hand she took out a beam saber from behind her, while with her left she took out a beam handgun holstered by her waist.
Ling Lan had originally wanted to continue to fight using long-range attacks, so the equipment she had on her were mostly prepared for long-range purposes. The two weapons she had drawn were the only two standard equipments on balanced-type mecha that could be used in close combat.
“Ling Lan changed up his strategy first. It seems the opponent is pressuring him, forcing him to give up on the long range combat that he is more adept in and choose the other side’s desired mode of combat. Looks like Ling Lan is going to be passive.” After seeing Ling Lan’s actions, the audience all sighed internally, worrying greatly about Ling Lan’s prospects in this match. This added more uncertainty to whether the First Men’s Military Academy could take first place or not.
Ling Lan’s decision also attracted Qi Long and the others’ attention. Qi Long even yelled out, “Boss really did choose to fight in close quarters.”
“Do you guys think Boss will use everything at the beginning and violently beat his opponent to a pulp?” Qi Long asked, his expression full of interest.
“No way!” Han Jijyun and Li Lanfeng said simultaneously. They looked at each other and smiled seeing how they had both come to the same conclusion.
“Why? Boss’s close combat skill is so overwhelming,” Qi Long asked in disbelief.
Han Jijyun didn’t say anything in explanation to his sworn brother, but instead made a ‘please’ gesture towards Li Lanfeng—it seemed he wanted to hear Li Lanfeng’s thoughts first. Li Lanfeng wasn’t as modest and directly said, “Boss Lan has been hiding his prowess for so long, so he wouldn’t give it all up just because of this match.” Li Lanfeng knew Ling Lan well. When it came to enduring, no one could compare with Ling Lan.
“Then we were simply worrying for nothing just now?” Qi Long said with regret.
Li Lanfeng didn’t answer this time, instead turning to Han Jijyun and hinting to him that he should answer. Han Jijyun didn’t give any excuse to not answer. He explained, “Your worries weren’t unnecessary. We were just saying that Boss Lan would not go full throttle right at the start to destroy the opponent. We didn’t say that he wouldn’t destroy his opponent.”
“Ah?” Qi Long turned his head and immediately understood. “Are you guys saying that Boss will destroy his opponent at the end and take the match?”
“Correct.” Han Jijyun nodded firmly.
“If it’s like that, then we should bet on it. We’ll bet on how many hits Boss Lan uses to defeat his opponent,” Xie Yi said with a large smile on his face.
“How are we betting?” Qi Long seemed to also be quite interested in this.
“Within 10 hits, return is 10-fold; Within 20, return is 5-fold; Within 30, return is 2-fold; Within 50, 1 to 1!”
“You don’t have a choice of more than 50 hits?” Chang Xinyuan asked confusedly.
When Luo Lang heard this question, he laughed coldly. “With Boss Lan’s capabilities, 50 hits is the limit no matter how much he tries to conceal it!” At this, Xie Yi nodded firmly in agreement. When it came to talking about battle strength, Luo Lang’s intelligence increased at an exponential rate—there was no way he would be wrong.
“I bet 10 hits! 10,000 credits!” Qi Long said instantly. He was quick to start because he wanted to make Han Jijyun give up on his attempt at stopping them from betting. They already knew that there wouldn’t be a hard beating in the beginning, so why would he be so confident in betting on 10 hits? It was clearly impossible.
Han Jijyun asked confusedly, “How do you have so much credits?” That’ll end up in a terrible loss, Han Jijyun thought. He shouldn’t put this month’s added meal allowance into the pool.
In Ling Lan’s battalion, every member would give a certain amount of credits to Ling Lan. Qi Long and others were already in the habit of giving up all of their allowance. Ling Lan would give all this money to Little Four to organize. A portion of the money went to Lin Zhong-qing for the battalion’s logistics and supply fund, and there was also an additional portion set out for extra meal allowance to increase the team member’s nutrition intake. Of course, if there was the need to purchase large weapons or other necessities, they could ask Lin Zhong-qing. If they still didn’t have enough money, then Lin Zhong-qing would ask Ling Lan to add more funds.
In response to his sworn companion’s question, Qi Long whispered something in Han Jijyun’s ear. Han Jijyun’s serious expression suddenly changed, then he pointed at Qi Long with horrified look and said, “You…”
Seeing that his sworn brother was going to blurt out his secret, Qi Long covered Han Jijyun’s mouth with lightning speed, talking in a whispering voice, “Shhhh, don’t say it out loud!” If Boss knew he had participated in a bet, he would definitely get his ass kicked.
Of course, Qi Long hadn’t just randomly placed a bet. He only made bets on Ling Lan’s matches because he knew their boss was amazingly capable. He would win the bet every match, and although betting on the number of hits had a lower betting win rate, it would still definitely be a win for him. Not once had Qi Long considered the possibility of their boss losing.
Qi Long making his bet made the rest of the team members become more interested. Luo Lang chose 20 hits. According to Boss’s habits, giving up 10 hits would be the utmost limit, then he would finish off the opponent within the next 10 hits. 20 hits was definitely the utmost limit that Boss Lan could endure.
As for Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan, they chose within 50 hits, both staking 2,000 credits each. Lin Zhong-qing chose 30 hits after carefully thinking about it and believing that that was the safest bet, similarly betting 2,000 credits. Only Han Jijyun and Li Lanfeng didn’t bet. Xie Yi, of course, wouldn’t let these two get away so easily; he persisted in trying to convince them to participate, saying it was a team build exercise and that was why they shouldn’t miss out.
Li Lanfeng and Han Jijyun looked at each other and said virtually at the same time, “30 hits!” Han Jijyun wagered 5,000 credits, while Li Lanfeng wagered 1,000 credits, the lowest amount out of the rest.
After hearing Li Lanfeng’s bet amount, Han Jijyun looked at Li Lanfeng. The both of them smiled simultaneously before returning their attention to the arena.
Right then, the two mecha in the arena were not fighting. It turns out that after Ling Lan’s mecha suddenly turned and stopped, she had floated in mid-air waiting for Ye Feiyang, but Ye Feiyang was unsure of what to do. Although his decision was relatively decisive, the inertia from the sudden stop made him move forward for more than 10 meters, leaving the distance between the mecha to be less than 50 meters. The two mecha faced each in the air and the atmosphere of the whole arena became tense. No one knew whether these two mecha would make a move on each other in the next second.
Ten seconds passed. One minute passed. Three minutes passed. The two mecha still didn’t move an inch. The audience members began discussing among themselves due to the long wait. They couldn’t understand why these two were looking at each other for so long, as it just didn’t make sense. In the other matches, weren’t all of them diving straight into fighting after engaging in close combat?
Some brilliant mecha operators did realize what was happening because both of their defenses were impossible to breach, meaning that the both of them hadn’t found a chance for an opening. Now, they had to keep enduring, waiting for an opportunity.
“Tsk, another weakness!” Ling Lan was getting restless. During this time, she had not seen just one of the weakness her opponent had involuntarily exposed, but she controlled herself to not take action, the reason being that these openings were hidden too deep and weren’t something a special-class operator should be able to to see—Ling Lan had no choice but to let them go.
Just when the audience was at the limits of their patience, Ling Lan’s eyes lit up because she saw an opening that a special-class operator could see, so she took action. However, the way in which she acted was surprising, yet also seemed logical. It was how Ling Lan should have acted anyways.
In fact, the method of attack Ling Lan had acted upon was not close combat based—she had ultimately fired her short-range beam handgun.
Short-range beam handguns were suitable for mid to short range attacks, as it had a short range but was quite powerful. For close combat mecha, short-range beam guns were a bit useless, but for someone like Ling Lan who had strong long-range capabilities, this short-range beam gun was precisely the weapon that she used the most smoothly.
The facts above was what the audience had thought to be true.
However, once Ling Lan attacked, her actions seemed to prove another thing—when a gun was shot consecutively to create an area of effect attack, the tricky angles that the beams shot out at would seal all possible routes of evasion for the opponent.
One had to admit that Ye Feiyang was very skilled at operating. Although he was in a somewhat difficult position, he still managed to dodge Ling Lan’s consecutive beam shots. Ye Feiyang was unwilling to be passive like this, so he operated his mecha with great effort, using spontaneous, lightning fast footwork with the goal of closing the gap between the two mecha in order to seal the opponent’s beam gun. But of course, Ling Lan wasn’t an idiot. She knew what her opponent was trying to do, but to make sure she kept her prowess hidden and to also leave some dignity for her opponent, she dodged quickly instead.
Just after these seven to eight attacks, Ling Lan got an unexpected feeling. He had only given up a small opening, yet Ye Feiyang was able to use that to successfully move close to her. Since Ye Feiyang was prepared for close combat, his choice of weapons was also of the close-range type. The weapon in his right hand, unlike those long and large weapons that others were fond of, was an odd short sword used in close combat.
Ling Lan’s eyes lit up at this development. She was very familiar with this weapon. It was exactly the weapon that she was best at, but one that she also sealed away. Ling Lan subconsciously looked at her opponent’s empty left hand…
“Bzzz!” The two mecha’s beam saber and short sword finally clashed for the first time. The collision of the two different weapons created a fury of sparks in the air, the beam saber’s high temperature was eating away at the short sword. It could be seen that after one hit, a large black spot appeared on the once polished surface of the short sword. However, both contestants knew very well that it merely looked serious—all one needed to do was take a cloth and wipe the black mark off, and the short sword would then be as good as new.
“Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!” The sound of the beam saber and short sword clashing coming in one after the other. The battle between Ling Lan and Ye Feiyang was extremely fast-paced, and this made the audience members instantly shift from their initially bored state to a very tense mood. Many those watching even almost forgot to breathe, worrying that a single breath could disturb the performance of the contestants in the arena.
The two of them clashed for around five to six hits. When their weapons clashed again, the audience could not hold in their excitement and began to cheer. As bystanders, they saw at an angle that Ling Lan could not see—Ye Feiyang had secretly taken out a sharp spike by his mecha’s waist. He planned on forcefully stabbing the right shoulder of Ling Lan’s mecha when Ling Lan used her whole body to defend against his short sword.
Ye Feiyang was a dual-wielding operator! After seeing this, the audience came to a sudden realization. The reason Ye Feiyang didn’t choose a long weapon and went with a short sword was because he was a dual-wielding operator. He hid the other cold weapon in the very beginning in order to use it when he got the chance.
The attack came too suddenly, and it was also something no one could have seen coming. Everyone believed that once Ling Lan was struck, the engine on her right side would produce a loud exploding sound; this would be the result from operating over the limits. Using the great force generated by the right-side engine, Ling Lan’s mecha moved the attacked side of the body and performed a large sidestep. Ling Lan dodged timely enough for the spike to only scratch the surface slightly.
However, it was possible that Ling Lan’s focus was all used on this right-side dodge. The left hand of her mecha holding the beam gun suddenly lost control and released its grip, the short-range beam gun dropping down.
Ling Lan’s reaction was very timely. She quickly reacted, grabbing the short-range beam gun once again. However, she had ended up grabbing the gun backwards in her haste; the entire barrel was facing upwards.
“That was a mistake!” The audience sympathized with what occurred. Just then, maybe it was because the way she had grabbed it, but the short-range beam gun suddenly shot a beam of light from the barrel. The beam coincidentally hit the left wrist of the hand that Ye Feiyang was holding the spike and striking forward with.
The attack was so strange and sudden, similar to his own, that Ye Feiyang was not prepared. This made it seem as if Ye Feiyang had come in to make his attack only to just to get hit.
“Boom!” A small explosion sounded out at Ye Feiyang’s wrist. This was a long range shot by Ling Lan and the defense energies of the wrist joints were the weakest. One shot destroyed the wrist’s operating wiring system, making the left no longer able hold the spike, instantly falling to the ground.
“It wasn’t a mistake!” Those who thought she had made a mistake saw this development and instantly changed their views on her actions. However, the top-class operators weren’t swayed by the success of the shot, but instead began to frown. They were speculating whether that shot was calculated or if it happened just by chance. After some speculation, most of them believed it to be a mistake because if it was calculated, then that would mean Ling Lan knew beforehand that the opposition would attack her in the way he did. With that knowledge, she would have been able to perform this sequence of operations to achieve this result. However, even they hadn’t known beforehand that Ye Feiyang was a dual-wielding operator.
It was because dual wielding operators came solely from the top-level elite Ye family. Even the top-level mecha operators from the army who could dual-wield were either descendants of the Ye family or had joined as one of their officials. This guy Ye Feiyang was undoubtedly a descendant of the Ye family. It was just that they hadn’t figured that out in the very beginning.
Dual-wielding was not actually using two cold weapons at the same time, but rather using them in unison. Paired with it came a set of mecha dual-wielding techniques, which allowed the cold weapons the user wielded become 1+1 > 2, even increasing the power many more times over. This was why dual-wielding was a technique that only the Ye family had access to, unlike those techniques which anyone could use easily.
Ling Lan’s attack made the referee team busy. It was, of course, an effective attack; they should make the proper deductions for it. However, they wanted to clarify whether Ling Lan’s attack was a mistake or not because this affected how the contestant would be judged on their overall performance.
The referee team overall score would be written into the contestant’s file and used as a reference to determine the officer rankings when they entered the army, and thus they had to be very careful about it.
One hit destroyed the opponent’s left hand and derived the opponent of their ability to hold a weapon with their left hand. This result had basically reduced Ye Feiyang’s battle strength by half. No matter if Ling Lan did it intentionally or it was all luck, the current situation on the arena was without a doubt greatly in Ling Lan’s favor.
Having his left hand suddenly destroyed, Ye Feiyang was unusually frustrated. He was so confident with himself that he didn’t believe that this hit was all by Ling Lan’s design; he believed that it was a matter of luck. He could only be frustrated that his luck was so terrible.
However, Ye Feiyang didn’t let up after losing his left hand. Although dual-wielding gave him confidence that he would be able to take the match, he also believed that even with one weapon, he could take down this opponent in front of him who was weak in terms of close combat.
These consecutive face-offs gave Ye Feiyang confidence boosts one after the other. The two of them fought through another 6 to 7 hits. Ling Lan was slowly losing and was now was being pushed to a corner.
This also proved that Ling Lan was indeed weak in close combat. The audience was not surprised at the fact. If Ling Lan was equally outstanding in long range and close range combat, they would have been truly shocked and surprised, perhaps thinking that it was the coming of another Ling Xiao. And that was why Ling Lan’s current performance made them feel that it was normal.
Despite seeing that Boss Lan had already traded over 10 blows and already losing all of his credits, Qi Long was not planning on giving in. He asked, “Xie Yi, how many hits has it been?”
“It definitely passed 10 hits already,” Xie Yi, who was watching the battle excitedly, replied with a face of irritation. He wasn’t thinking of the how he had hosted the betting game.
“It’s already been 20 hits. If no issues arise, then Boss Lan will finish the opponent within 10 hits,” Han Jijyun explained kindly.
“You’re that sure that Boss will defeat his opponent within 30 hits?” Qi Long asked angrily in response. He had lost the bet and so had Luo Lang. If the number of clashes went over 30, then Han Jijyun and Li Lanfeng would also lose the bet. It was possible that the winners would be Li Shiyu, Chang Xinyuan and the rest.
“Most definitely. Boss was never very patient in close combat. It’s just as Luo Lang said—it will be really hard for Boss to endure up to 20 hits. 30 hits was a number that I came up with because of Boss’s impressions of the First Co-ed Military Academy. The seniors take care of Luo Chao and Han Xuya, so he has to give them some dignity because of that. However, 10 more hits would be Boss’s limit, even though his acting seems perfect right now.” Han Jijyun said this with confidence because Li Lanfeng looked at it the same way, which emboldened him.
In the arena, Ye Feiyang attacked more ferociously after seeing that his opponent was being pushed back. He wanted to keep up the advantage and not give his opponent any chance to recuperate.
Ye Feiyang consecutively attacked three more times in following. Ling Lan could only block strenuously. Due to the powerful blows dealt by the opponent’s short swords, the energy of her beam saber had depleted very quickly—the light of the beam saber began to flicker, showing the sign that it was running out of energy.
Upon seeing this, joy flashed in Ye Feiyang’s eyes. Without a beam saber, how could anyone be able to go against him? He revved his engine once again and rushed rapidly towards his opponent.
“Bzzz!” The two’s beam saber and the short sword clashed again. This clash depleted the beam saber’s last bit of energy and the blade of the saber suddenly disappeared, only leaving a lonely hilt. With no blade to stop it, the opponent’s short sword came straight for Ling Lan.
“Goodness, Ling Lan’s going to lose!” The audience began cheering. They couldn’t think of anything that could turn this situation around for Ling Lan who no longer had a beam saber.
“He blocked it!” Just when everyone was in despair for Ling Lan, however, she was able to quickly throw away the hilt in her hand and hold onto the wrist of her opponent’s sword arm. Just like that, the two mechas were suddenly in a deadlock.
However, this deadlock only lasted for a moment—Ling Lan tossed up the short-range beam gun that she had been holding backwards, her left hand following and catching the gun. She didn’t make a mistake this time, accurately holding the beam handgun in her hand, and in the next moment, without anyone being able to react, a powerful beam of light struck near Ye Feiyang’s shoulder.
Her beam saber had run out of energy, but everyone had forgotten that the short range gun in Ling Lan’s hand still had ample amounts of energy. She caught Ye Feiyang’s right wrist, making him unable to dodge. This beam blast lasted three whole seconds which directly destroyed Ye Feiyang’s least defended right shoulder joint, paralyzing his entire right arm.
With this, both arms of Ye Feiyang’s mecha were practically destroyed. Seeing this, the main referee hesitated as to whether he should stop the match because right now, Ling Lan was benefiting from the situation. He couldn’t think of any ways for Ye Feiyang to turn this situation around.
Everyone thought that Ling Lan would continue to attack with the short range beam gun. She only needed to deal two more effective hits to make Ye Feiyang’s score fall to zero. They believed that after shooting off a couple of blasts, the winner of this match would be Ling Lan. However, Ling Lan next move stunned everyone—she tossed up the short-range beam gun in her hand, and then she held up her mecha’s fists and swung them towards her opponent…
Close quarters hand to hand combat? Wasn’t this giving away victory to the opponent? The audience didn’t forget that even though the opponent had lost the use of his right arm and his left wrist no longer functioned, his two legs were still undamaged. Ye Feiyang still had a chance to turn this around if it came to hand to hand combat.
“Oh, it’s a chain combo technique!” When Ling Lan landed a punch and then immediately followed by a swirling kick, everyone knew that this was not just any attack. This was what close combat mecha operators described as the most basic skills, but it referred to the same top-level technique name as chain combo. Everyone was on the edge of their seats because after two hits, the opponent’s points would be deducted to zero, with no chance of turning it around. Everyone only wanted to see how many hits Ling Lan’s chain combo could go up to. According to a special-class operator’s capabilities, the maximum would only be five hits.
“Three, four, five!” Ling Lan indeed successfully performed five hits, reaching the maximum chain combo for special-class operators. Of course, that wasn’t her limit, but Ling Lan made it seem so.
Although Ling Lan seemed to be weaker than her opponent in close combat, always being pushed back, the five hit chain combo in the end was quite aggressive and bold, leaving her opponent in the dust. They did not know whether that Ye Feiyang had fainted from Boss Lan’s five hit combo.
“29 hits!” Li Lanfeng said after seeing Ye Feiyang’s mecha being beaten down from the sky by Ling Lan. He knew the conclusion had presented itself—Rabbit had won. He began to smile.
“Why did Boss do something so unnecessary and use a chain combo when two shots would have done the job?” Luo Lang asked, perplexed.
“That’s because Boss was holding it for too long. He’s invincible in close combat, yet he still has to make people believe he isn’t that strong. If he didn’t let it out, he probably would have died of frustration. What’s more important, chain combos are techniques that are most tormenting to people. Boss would not like his opponent be finished that easily,” said Qi Long, laughing maniacally.
“Boss used the five-hit chain combo to prove that he is also exceptional in close combat. Being pushed back in the beginning was because the opponent was stronger than him. Boss really did make a great move this time,” Han Jijyun said after figuring out the reason Ling Lan did what she did.
Boss knew very well of what it meant by not going overboard. Enduring for too long would also cause others to suspect something. Using a five-hit combo to prove his exceptionality and at the same time show off his young and passionate side. This was the kind of attitude that was very in tune with what an exceptional academy student should have. This way, Boss would not be an unexpected member of the First Men’s Military Academy where geniuses were everywhere.