Crossing to the Future, it's Not Easy to Be a Man

"This definitely isn"t something a newbie can do. Who the heck is he? Who exactly is the operator of that rabbit mecha?" The humanoid mecha was currently overcome with shock and awe, beginning to guess at the other"s background.

Right then, something stirred abruptly behind the humanoid mecha.

"Squeak squeak squeak ..." These sounds were transmitted from a distance. Although they were extremely soft, the powerful sound systems of the mecha had still captured them accurately.

These were the cries of the mutated rodents! The humanoid mecha operator"s face paled drastically, and he shouted, "Not good! It"s time for the mutated rodents to resp.a.w.n ... run!"

The humanoid mecha knew without having to think about it that the road he had taken to come here was certainly already blocked off. His only option was to speed up and move forwards for any hope of survival. If he was luckier, he might even be able to break past the newbie area and enter the human town.

The humanoid mecha decisively revved his engines to the max, zooming forwards speedily ...

The sounds behind him were getting increasingly louder — the chaotic cacophony from behind him proved that there were countless mutated rodents on his tail. Sweat poured in a steady stream from the forehead of the humanoid mecha operator, flowing down into his eyes.

Real sweat carried the taste of salt, and the mecha world faithfully reflected this — the operator felt his eyes stinging from his sweat. However, he did not dare to wipe them away nor to even blink, afraid that any slight pause or hesitation would allow the endless swarm of mutated rodents behind him to chase up to him, making him end up as their gourmet meal ...

The mutated rodents in the wastelands were extremely powerful — their claws and teeth were their weapons, easily tearing through the metallic outer sh.e.l.ls of mecha. Such a vast amount of mutated rodents behind him would be able to consume him entirely in an instant. Thus, the moment he was surrounded, there would be practically no hope of survival — death would be certain ...

The mecha"s screen suddenly indicated that there was a signal coming from ahead, a distance of about 100 metres. Was it the exit? Hope flared in the humanoid mecha operator"s eyes. He kicked his mecha"s engines up another notch — in other words, the mecha"s engines were currently operating beyond capacity. But for the sake of living on, this was a natural choice.

80 metres, 50 metres ... there was a turn up ahead — what was that flashing light? Could it be a portal?

The humanoid mecha operator"s eyes were filled with hope. As long as he could charge through this portal, he would be able to enter the human town and leave this newbie wasteland behind. He must do his best now!

30 metres ... success was in sight! The humanoid mecha operator"s face was filled with joy. He had never expected that he would be able to leave the newbie area so quickly. Perhaps he would break the record, becoming the fastest recruit to break through into the human town?

At this moment, a violent "bang" suddenly rang out in this eerie and silent underground tunnel. The humanoid mecha operator felt his mecha being struck forcefully by an external force, his initially swiftly flying mecha being thrown off course by this collision ...

No, he could not fail like this! The humanoid mecha operator"s expression was twisted in a fearsome rictus as he desperately tried to stabilise the mecha"s body. Still, his mecha finally fell to the ground, and with a trip, it stumblingly continued to run forwards. There were only 10 metres left — he just needed another 3 seconds, no, just 1 second would do, and he would be able to leave this horrific underground tunnel behind ...

However, the time he yearned for was not bestowed by the heavens. Another loud sound of collision rang out — he was. .h.i.t by a second attack. Yet another mutated rodent had slammed into him viciously, and the attack this time threw the humanoid mecha completely off-balance. It was sent flying to fall right before the portal ...

Just one more metre and he would be able to touch the portal, but unfortunately he would no longer have the chance ... the endless swarm of mutated rodents behind him leapt on him without mercy, submerging the humanoid mecha, and then the cruel sounds of crunching teeth filled the tunnel ...

No! The mecha operator looked despairingly at the portal right before his eyes ... and then his screen turned black. This was because the mutated rodents had fully covered all his cameras with their bodies. An instant later, he received an alert — do you choose to revive? Fearing that the operators would suffer mental trauma from the various sufferings before death, the system by default would set the effect from pain and death to zero in the mecha world.

The operator grimaced and pressed the b.u.t.ton to confirm. When the mecha"s screen lighted up once more, he had already been returned to the revival point of the wastelands. The humanoid mecha operator was currently extremely frustrated and regretful. If he had only entered the tunnel a minute earlier, no, if he had only entered a second earlier, or perhaps had not stopped to look at those rodent bodies, choosing to run at full speed, he would not be here right now. Instead, he would be in the human town district, truly entering the exciting world of the mecha world ...

The chance only came once; it was gone if you missed it. Now, to get through the newbie area, he could only wait for more companions to cooperate with him to fight through the tunnel.

Ling Lan, who had already arrived at the human town could not know that such a thing had happened behind her, that a humanoid mecha operator had almost managed to sweep past the newbie area by riding on her coattails. Right now, she had just received a system notification telling her that she had broken the record for being the fastest to enter the human town. The system asked her whether to publish her name or remain anonymous, and Ling Lan naturally chose to remain anonymous. Still, she scorned the mecha world system for being miserly, not even awarding a prize for breaking the record ...

She looked over a map and found the mecha combat challenge hall. Unexpectedly, when she requested entry, she was denied because she did not have enough points, thus not even having the right to enter to spectate in the challenge hall ...

Only then did Ling Lan realise that the minimum requirement to enter the mecha challenge hall was 10 points. Every time you entered the hall, whether or not you spectated, you would be deducted 10 points. This was an absolutely tyrannical rule!

As for taking part in a mecha challenge, even the most basic level trainee mecha challenge fight would require 1000 points. In short, for Ling Lan to enter and make a successful challenge, it was impossible without at least 1010 points.

Ling Lan glanced at her personal information. In the column tallying her points, a large "0" stared back at her. Right now, she had absolutely no hope of entering the challenge hall; her main priority now was to find a way to quickly acc.u.mulate these 1010 points.

Frankly, Ling Lan was only in these dire straits because she had not gone through foundational training. As long as one took things step by step and completed the set series of foundational training till they pa.s.sed, and if they did not use any points to redeem other types of mecha, 1000 points were basically a confirmed thing. Every newbie would have acc.u.mulated that much by going through the normal process. If anything was to blame, it was what an oddball Ling Lan was. Having already been through foundational training long ago, she of course would not go through it again, which was why she did not have this basic point acc.u.mulation.

"What should I do now? How can I get these points as soon as possible?"Thinking deeply, Ling Lan reflexively set the rabbit mecha into preset control mode. The rabbit mecha was thus seen to sit in place, nibbling on the carrot in its front paws as its head twitched.

This cute and adorkable appearance turned the heads of all the mecha pa.s.sing by. Several female mecha operators were even stunned into stopping, eagerly watching the extremely adorkable rabbit mecha. Some desire even stirred in their hearts to maybe try and redeem a similar rabbit mecha for themselves.

Ling Lan was oblivious to the fact that she had become the focus of attention. Right then, she was asking Little Four, "Little Four, have you found the relevant data?" Whenever Ling Lan was at a loss, the all-capable Little Four would be brought into play.

"Boss, I"ve found it! There"s a mission hall here where you can accept missions. Once you complete the missions, you will be able to get a certain amount of points." Little Four was very reliable, very quickly finding a course of action.

"What kinds of missions are there? Which of them will give me more points, and are more suitable for me to do?" Ling Lan continued to ask.

"The missions include the standard system missions, special missions, limited-time missions, as well as player-a.s.signed missions. The standard missions from the system tend to be more troublesome and take more time, but are pretty easy. However, the points they give are also relatively little. They are more appropriate for beginner level recruits for practice. As for the system special missions, that would depend on the mission you accept. Sometimes the points awarded will be very high, but there are also times where the points awarded can"t even compare to that of the standard missions. For the limited-time missions, things are unclear. It seems to be a.s.sociated with luck. If your luck is good, you"ll get more points, while if you"re unlucky, you may even get no points for your effort. As for player-a.s.signed missions, they are typically harder and more difficult to complete. In contrast though, they tend to give much more points than those missions provided by the system. Most strong players will choose this type of missions."

Listening to Little Four"s explanation, Ling Lan first eliminated standard missions and limited-time missions from her consideration. Like Little Four said, standard missions required too much time for little gain, which made them unsuitable for her situation of needing to acc.u.mulate 1010 points in a short amount of time. Meanwhile, limited-time missions required particular levels of luck, and she had just had 100 points deducted off her luck value. Who knew if her final point gain would be influenced because of that?

Right now, the missions that suited her purpose were only the system"s special missions and the player-a.s.signed missions. Ling Lan could only hope that her luck was better, that she would be able to find a high point mission that could be completed quickly. Er, why did this seem to have something to do with luck again?

Having decided, Ling Lan operated her rabbit mecha to go to the mission hall. She did not know that a video of her rabbit mecha had already been recorded by some busybody and uploaded to the shared highlights of the mecha world, letting everyone know that an extremely adorkable rabbit mecha had shown up in the remoteThree-Seas Town1...

Somewhere else in the mecha world, in the extremely lively and bustling large plaza ofDunhuang City2, two humanoid mecha were currently patiently waiting for their other teammates to gather. The blue-white humanoid advanced mecha suddenly cackled audibly, causing the equally advanced red mecha beside him to jump in fright. He could not help but speak up to ask, "Zhao Jun, why are you laughing so creepily?"

"I"m laughing that someone who loves rabbit mecha as much as you has finally appeared in the mecha world. Of course, he"s even more ostentatious than you are, directly operating a rabbit mecha into the mecha world ..." cackled Zhao Jun.

"What"s so strange about that? Don"t all recruits have a certain probability of drawing a rabbit mecha?" asked the red mecha.

"But when they enter the mecha world, 99% of rabbit mecha users would definitely change their mecha into some other type of mecha. There are almost none who can persist and keep using a rabbit mecha," said Zhao Jun, "Of course,I"ve also not seen someone with a rabbit mecha complex quite like you3. Even the core mecha in your mecha s.p.a.ce has been set to a rabbit mecha ..."