Ch75 – I Hear I’m a Battle G.o.d (12)
The two people were a pair of male and female. The one who’d spoken was the male.
The boy had a pair of docile puppy-dog eyes, while the girl’s appearance was as light as a jasmine, very delicate and pretty, with a head of curly hair tied up into a high ponytail. Even though they had an undisguisable proudness to them, their overall temperament couldn’t be considered mean.
Chi Xiaochi looked the two people head to toe, asking Ji Zuoshan, “What do you think?”
Ji Zuoshan could hardly conceal the excitement in his voice, “Very good. ……Look at the girl’s hand.”
Chi Xiaochi looked over as per his directions. “En.” Very pretty.
Ji Zuoshan, “I probed them with my spiritual energy. The bracelet on her wrist corresponds to a weapons-focused specialised mecha.”
Chi Xiaochi, “……En.”
Ji Zuoshan then said, “Look at the guy’s bracelet, he uses a agility-focused specialised mecha.”
Chi Xiaochi, “……” Very good, seems like he’s planning on being someone totally indifferent towards s.e.x.
Rosie glanced at them, then asked Chi Xiaochi, “I don’t mind. You?”
Chi Xiaochi nodded. “Just don’t drag us down.”
The boy smiled, revealing his dimples. “We won’t. Let us introduce ourselves, my name is w.a.n.g Xizhou. This is my jiejie……”
The girl eyed Chi Xiaochi carefully, then nodded her head slightly and said, “w.a.n.g Xiaoqing.”
Like that, their team formation could be considered complete.
Chi Xiaochi went off to register their team, while Rosie sat down on a nearby rock, a single earbud in her ear. She opened up a box of milk and started drinking it slowly, not planning on chatting with her two new teammates.
What they would have no lack of on the road was time, there was no need to rush.
The brother and sister from the w.a.n.g family weren’t in a hurry to get closer as well, huddling together to talk.
w.a.n.g Xizhou was very happy. If he had a tail, it would be wagging. “This is great, I thought it would be really difficult.”
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing, “We’ve only pulled up a connection. Dajie wants us to get on good terms with him.”
w.a.n.g Xizhou’s tail drooped. “……Oh.”
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing, “Dajie said, the South Road Army wants him no matter what. It’s up to you now.”
w.a.n.g Xizhou was a little troubled. “I feel like he’s really hard to talk to…… He’s fierce, like our dad.”
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing, “Before you expect a genius to have a good temper, you should expect pigs to fly.”
w.a.n.g Xizhou acted cute, “Jie……”
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing was quick to toss this hot potato, “It’s not my problem. I’m here to complete the task.”
w.a.n.g Xizhou wilted, blinking up at her.
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing shot him a look, thinking that their older sister getting their dumb younger brother to coax people was really too useful.
However, she still had a point of dissatisfaction. “But I don’t think that partner he brought is all that reliable.”
w.a.n.g Xizhou, “Ah?”
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing, “That sissy boy next to him……”
Then, she gave Rosie a subconscious glance.
Who would’ve thought that Rosie would be looking back at her, as if she’d heard what she’d said. When their gazes met, her blue eyes curved slightly.
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing was a little embarra.s.sed, and turned away.
Rosie looked down at herself, and found that to facilitate combat, she’d worn a binder, and put on a camo vest.
……Hah, no wonder.
She ran her index finger along her shorn, inch-short hair, and swept her knuckles along the silver, lizard shaped earring on her right ear, finding it a little interesting.
Chi Xiaochi made his way back through the crowd, holding a piece of paper.
Rosie asked him, “When do we set off?”
Chi Xiaochi flashed the piece of paper he’d randomly drawn in his hand. “Four o’ clock.”
Far away, Zhan Yanchao’s eyebrows relaxed.
When Ji Zuoshan’s group left, heading to a room to rest, he squeezed through the crowd, s.n.a.t.c.hing other people’s papers over for a look without an explanation. When he found that they didn’t fit his target, he shoved the paper back at them, leaving a confused person to mentally scold “probably crazy”.
With some effort, he caught a team leaving at 4:15. He opened his mouth and asked, “Is your team still short of people?”
These four clearly all knew each other, shaking their head as one and saying, “We’re not.”
According to the rules, they originally needed to register their team before having the person doing the registration draw the piece of paper telling them when to set off. Expecting them to swap people just before the battle was truly not conscientious.
But how would Zhan Yanchao be willing to let this chance go? He did his best to sell himself, “I use a specialised mecha. I can fight very well.”
When had he, Second Young Master Zhan, done something so demeaning? Before he’d even finished speaking, his face had already turned red first.
Unexpectedly, the four still shook their heads.
Zhan Yanchao’s face was practically about to catch fire. He kept chasing after them. “I’m Zhan Yanchao. Have you heard of me before?”
The four people didn’t even look at him, directly leaving.
Zhan Yanchao roughly rubbed his cheeks, wanting to cover up the redness of his face, but was patted heavily on the shoulder from behind. “You’re Zhan Yanchao?”
Zhan Yanchao turned his head.
Two of the four people were well-dressed, wearing ankle-high boots and energy bracelets connected to specialised mechas on their wrists. With one look, you could tell that they were rich young masters from superior family backgrounds. Meanwhile, the other two were tall and strong, but acted very courteous and submissive, with lowered gazes, wanting nothing more to bury their heads into their chests. The energy bracelets on their wrists were extremely common, the pattern indicating training mechas.
……Human sacrifices and their masters.
After evaluating the ident.i.ties of the four, Zhan Yanchao asked, “When are you setting off?”
The person who was the first to start the conversation had a square face. He raised his chin. “I’m the one asking. You’re that Zhan Yanchao? From the no. 1 mecha academy in District 23?”
Zhan Yanchao bore it. “En.”
Square face was amused. “Yo, Young Master Zhan can’t find a partner, that’s truly a rare sight.”
Zhan Yanchao, “……” Yo my a.s.s.
He forced down the violent urge to strike out with his whip. His words were forced out from between his teeth, “When are you setting off?”
Square face waved the paper in his hand. “3:50.”
The other rich young master was garishly made-up, especially his head full of hair gel, smeared all over especially evenly, making his hair unmoving in the eight winds.
He winked and said, “I never thought that the rumoured Second Master Zhan would also want to borrow Ji Zuoshan’s easterly wind. You have the same idea that we did.”
Zhan Yanchao’s fists clenched until they let out a m.u.f.fled crack.
He forced out, “Which one of you am I swapping with?”
Hair gel guy considered both human sacrifices like he was picking a beast of burden. He pushed one of them out by the shoulder. “You, get lost, go find someone else.”
Then, he spoke to Square face, all smiled, “This one’s not useful. Let’s have Second Young Master Zhan replace him, it’s just nice.”
Zhan Yanchao lowered his head slightly to hide his already increasingly warped expression.
The other human sacrifice who had been allowed to stay hurriedly ran to the registration office, crossed out one of their names, and changed it to Zhan Yanchao’s name.
Zhan Yanchao didn’t want to speak even a single word more to his new partners. He just stared off in the direction Ji Zuoshan had disappeared in. Thinking about how in a while he would be able to set off together with him, only then did his mood get a little better.
After sleeping all the way until 3:40 in the morning, Chi Xiaochi was woken up by 061. After some simple washing up, he went to the preparation room and put on Blue.
He met up with the w.a.n.g siblings at the set off point. When w.a.n.g Xiaoqing, clad in a camo heavy-duty weapon-filled mecha, saw the dark blue ordinary training mecha walk over, started to speak, then stopped, then opened her mouth again.
w.a.n.g Xizhou was very fast to speak. “Mister Ji, you don’t have a specialised mecha?”
Chi Xiaochi said indifferently, “Don’t need one.”
w.a.n.g siblings, “……” I give your posturing full marks.
061 thought, really cute.
They set out from the south, heading north.
This place was adjacent to a desert, and a little further ahead was an oasis.
Not long after entering the training area, a strong sense of desolation slowly fell upon them.
“The Scar” before dawn was tinted with a light green-gray. The sand blowing in the wind buffeted the visualiser, creating rising and falling grainy signals. Due to their shared senses with their mechas, the smell of roasting dirt in the day directly went up their noses. The wind was cool, but brought with it a gritty feeling, entering their hearts and turning into an outstanding suppressed frustration, making people feel inexplicably jittery.
After discussing it with Ji Zuoshan, Chi Xiaochi simply gave out his orders. “Rosie and Xiaoqing will be in charge of drawing the map, and Xiao Lü and I will be in charge of investigating our surroundings.
w.a.n.g Xizhuo, dressed in a pale green, mantis-shaped mecha, “……”
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing’s voice sounded from her mecha. “Where’s our destination?”
There was still some time before six. Were they going to keep going or find a place to rest?
w.a.n.g Xizhuo said, “Of course it’s the oasis. With this distance, we’ll probably be able to reach it in about an hour and a half, and we’ll even be able to rest for thirty minutes after that.”
Before his words fell, w.a.n.g Xiaoqing’s expression changed slightly. She barked out at a half-raised sand dune, “Who’s there?!”
With a clang, a six-barreled, miniature grenade launcher extruded from her right arm.
She aimed with her arm, and lightly pressed down on the launch b.u.t.ton with her fingertip. If it was a Zerg, and it dared to come out, its head would be blown off in the next second.
Seeing that the situation wasn’t good, the people on the other side immediately scrambled out. “It’s me, we’re humans.”
At a glance, Chi Xiaochi recognised who that black combat mecha amongst them belonged to. He didn’t speak.
Square face, in his mecha, smiled brightly and said, “We happened to meet, we must have fate with each other. Let’s move together, partner up.”
Chi Xiaochi saw the crevices of their mechas were filled with sand. Clearly, they’d been crouching there for a long time.
Rosie sneered and greeted Zhan Yanchao in the other group. “Zhan. It really is fate.”
Zhan Yanchao didn’t react to Rosie’s barb, just staring straight at Ji Zuoshan’s mecha, only to find that his attention wasn’t on him.
w.a.n.g Xiaoqing really looked down on this group, but also knew that interacting with them would only disgust herself, so she simply didn’t speak.
They saw that they’d successfully latched on to Ji Zuoshan and his group, but Hair gel guy and the others didn’t get the time to celebrate before hearing Ji Zuoshan open his mouth and say coldly to the w.a.n.g Xizhou next to him, “See, some people might use specialised mechas, but they’re still trash.”
Hearing this, Square face and Hair gel guy’s faces turned a mix of white and green, but they couldn’t act up, and could only silently remember this slight.
When they set off once more, w.a.n.g Xizhou whispered into Chi Xiaochi’s ear, “Ji-dage, aren’t you being too fierce?”
Chi Xiaochi didn’t even blink. “When you speak to humans, use human speech, when you see ghosts, what’s the point of using human words?”
In private, he complained to 061, “…..Really gave me a fright. Don’t they know that people can scare others to death?”
061 laughed.
……A shocked Chi Xiaochi was also very cute.
Half an hour faster than w.a.n.g Xizhou had predicted, the group arrived at the oasis.
Chi Xiaochi didn’t agree with settling down by the lake. The w.a.n.g siblings listened to him, taking off their mechas at a certain distance from the lake, planning on having a rest, but the two young masters had been whinging the entire way. After taking off their mechas, they went to the side of the lake to drink and bathe, and the remaining human sacrifice dutifully followed after them. Seeing that the sky was getting brighter, Rosie didn’t plan to sleep, setting out to study the forest and see if there were any interesting flora or fauna.
Chi Xiaochi also walked out of his mecha, and adjusted Blue to standby mode. Ignoring the distant Zhan Yanchao’s faintly discernible gaze, he lay down on the spot.
Blue broke a flower off a tall tree he didn’t recognise and tucked it behind Chi Xiaochi’s ear, while it sat down next to Chi Xiaochi.
061 said, “Sleep for a while. You’ll be sleeping late today.”
Chi Xiaochi said, “When I think about how we’re going to go out, I’m a little excited.”
……Are you a little kid going on a spring school excursion?
061 let out a gentle laugh, soft, yet deep, making one’s ears itch.
061 said, “When the sun rises, I’ll wake you up.”
Chi Xiaochi, “I can’t sleep.”
061, “I can read to you?”
Chi Xiaochi thought for a moment. “Sing to me.”
061 couldn’t help but laugh. “……Alright. What do you want to hear?”
After picking the song, however, Chi Xiaochi didn’t go to sleep, rather beginning to shake his leg to the melody.
Halfway through the song, 061 couldn’t quite take it any more. “Don’t shake, go to sleep.”
Chi Xiaochi’s childishness flared up again. “I want to shake.”
“It’s not like it’s a good habit,” 061 said, “Don’t lead Xiao Ji astray.”
Chi Xiaochi asked the person in question, “Will you be led astray?”
Ji Zuoshan “yi”-ed, then obediently answered, “I won’t.”
Chi Xiaochi spread his hands, indicating that he had won.
061 said helplessly, “How can you sleep like this?”
Chi Xiaochi raised a long leg, a mischievous smile on his face. “If you hold it down it won’t shake anymore.”
061’s ears flushed red instantly, “……”
But before he could think any further about that, Blue moved, and at the same time, 061 also received a foreboding signal.
He said, “……There’s something in the lake.”
Chi Xiaochi immediately put away all his improper expressions, turned over and sat up, staring at the lake surface that was sparkling, as if there were starry fishing boat lights glittering atop it.
The Ji Zuoshan in his body asked, “What is it?”
061’s voice became colder. “What exactly it is isn’t clear yet. But it’s alive.”
“How many are there?”
“One.”
Clearly it was just one, but Ji Zuoshan couldn’t hear 061’s voice relax even by a bit.
He seemed to come to a realisation. “……How big is it?”
“Half the size of the lake.” 061 looked at the two youths playing in the water, splashing it on the human sacrifice with reckless abandon. He said in a low voice, “It’s…… been woken up.”