Chapter 49: The Threat of Long-Range Attacks
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: mjn0898
A cold smile graced Ling Qin's lips. If the opponent had attacked him as a group from the start, he might already be a horizontal corpse lying on the ground. But now, besides the one man who had been gunned down by the type II submachine gun, he had successfully ended the lives of three men with his own hands. It was no longer that easy for the remaining four people to hold him back.
In all honesty, Ling Qin was very surprised himself — why was the hover car not reacting? The reason he had attacked so furiously was that he wanted to eliminate as many opponents as possible before he was taken out by the hover car, so that Ling Lan would have a greater chance of escape.
Regardless, Ling Qin was very pleased with the current situation. It was clear that something had gone wrong on his opponents' end, and this was extremely advantageous for him. From the certainty of death to the renewed hope for survival, Ling Qin's attacks only became fiercer and more powerful.
If living was an option, would anyone choose to die? Ling Qin also wanted to live — he wanted to watch Ling Lan grow up, get married, and have kids. He still dreamed of the day he could hold Ling Lan's children in his arms. For this objective, Ling Qin dug out all the inner potential he could from within his body.
Ling Qin weaved left and right, nimbly avoiding all of the opponent's wild shots. He used the irregular flicker to its ultimate effect, leaving Ling Lan astounded as she watched. She decided then that if both Chamberlain Ling Qin and her survived this, then she must get Grandpa Chamberlain to teach her this move — it was just too goddamn beautiful.
Evasion aside, Ling Qin's lethal attacks became even more unpredictable. His dagger flew through the air gracefully like he was dancing, and the mysterious rope being controlled by the fingers of his left hand was even more terrifying.
Every single time the men saw the fingers of his left hand twitch, they couldn't help but back away. The men really couldn't be blamed for being fearful — out of the three men Ling Qin had killed, two had died because of this thin rope. They hadn't been observant enough and had let the rope loop around their necks, and with just a quick twist, their heads had been severed from their necks, blood spewing everywhere. That just went to show how sharp that rope truly was, and combined with how hard it was to see – appearing and disappearing without any warning – how could they not fear it?
Ling Lan watched it with greedy eyes. This was undoubtedly a most subtle killing tool. Who knew that such an unassuming thin rope looped around Ling Qin's wrist would be so terrifying? Ling Lan decided that she must ask about the origins of this rope later, and if possible, she wanted one of her own.
Today's experience taught her that the world she was living in was truly dangerous. She needed to work much harder to improve her own capabilities and diversify the weapons and tools she could use — both were equally important.
Still, although Ling Qin's feat in killing three of the men could partly be attributed to his strange choice of weapon and his own individual strength, a large part was still due to sheer luck. Certainly, the first person he killed was a result of his careful planning, but the following two were just opportunities presented through the opponent's own mistakes.
If the team leader had not moved to abandon his own team member, the other members wouldn't have been so afraid of becoming the next sacrifice, all choosing to withdraw to protect themselves instead of focusing on attacking. In that case, then Ling Qin wouldn't have been able to kill two more men in the chaos, turning the tables around.
All that can be said was that the opponent's team had an idiot in it — and most unfortunately, this idiot was the team leader with the authority to decide whether they lived or died.
Luckily, this idiot was not an idiot to the extreme, deciding to change his orders in time. The remaining four men quickly arranged themselves into the formation of an inverted trapezoid, cooperating with each other to coordinate their attacks and defense as they faced the aggressive Ling Qin who was rushing towards his fourth intended victim.
The tips of four particle-beam guns lit up, spewing out countless particle beams in Ling Qin's direction, blinding the eyes of all observers, including the two mecha pilots closely watching the proceedings here.
"Head, why don't those idiots fire the cannons?" One of the mecha pilots wondered out loud. He rubbed at his blurry eyes — the display screen on the mecha relayed what was happening live, so his eyes would get tired from staring at it for too long
He really just couldn't understand it — there had clearly been several really great opportunities to launch those cannons, but the men had just let those opportunities slip by, while the hover car just continued to hover there uselessly.
The mecha operator called Head replied, "Who knows? All we need to do is do clean up. Only if those people fail, then it'll be up to us."
"But the opponent has already sent out a signal flare — reinforcements are sure to be on the way. If we don't resolve this matter soon, we may be discovered by the people heading here. Head, didn't you say that the superiors don't want our involvement to be revealed?"
"That's right. If the superiors find out they botched this, we won't have a good time of it either. Oh, what the heck, let's just do it. I'll leave that annoying flea jumping around to you — make sure to get a headshot in one shot." After being reminded of the consequences by his subordinate, the operator called Head abruptly changed his mind and ordered his subordinate to eliminate Ling Qin quickly.
"Got it, Head. Watch me as I take the stage." Finally, it was time for him to show off his skills. The mecha operator who had waited for so long was ecstatic. He controlled his mecha to swing about the huge long-range sniper rifle on its right shoulder, and then the 4-metre high mecha bent into a half kneeling position. Its metal left arm steadied the rifle, which had its sight aimed at the busily evading Ling Qin.
The mecha's movements did not escape Ling Lan's notice. Ever since Chamberlain Ling Qin had begun fighting head on with those men, Ling Lan had been keeping an eye on the two mechas, wary of a sudden attack. Now, seeing one of the mechas getting ready to shoot long-range, she knew they were about to attack Grandpa Chamberlain, but she was not worried.
Within this time, while Chamberlain Ling Qin had been fighting for his life, she had not been idle. After much calculation and strategizing, she had finally found a way to handle the two mechas. It may not be the best plan, but it was good enough to hinder and delay them.
"Little Four, raise a hover car! And then calculate the trajectory of mecha A's attack." Ling Lan had randomly labelled the two mechas as mecha A and mecha B for ease of reference when communicating with Little Four.
Following Ling Lan's order, one of the unmanned hover cars suddenly rose up from the ground, and not even a second later, it was hovering 2 metres above the ground. Meanwhile, in front of Ling Lan, a map of mecha A's attack trajectory had appeared, with coordinates and height clearly labelled on it.
"Move the hover car here," said Ling Lan decisively, pointing at a point nearest to the hover car.
Before her words had faded, the hover car had already shifted into position under Little Four's control.
"F*ck, what the hell? Actually blocking my line of attack." Resentfully, mecha A put down his sniper rifle. The operator was extremely displeased — that had been a prime opportunity to shoot, but it had been ruined by that errant hover car.
That was probably unintentional, it just happened to move there." Mecha B also didn't know what was going on, but he still didn't hesitate to console mecha A, saying, "Don't mind it. Let me try this time."
That said, mecha B started adjusting his own rifle's angle, aiming at Ling Qin who was still deep in battle with the four men. As for whether his shot would hit any of the men on the ground in the process — that was none of his concern.