The two of them turned their heads to look at the big screen, on which countless big and tall trees appeared. This was the hardest map in the compet.i.tion—the forest map."The best map to sneak attack and be sneak attacked." The corners of Tang Yu"s mouth lifted up to form a smile. "Ling Lan"s luck is not bad. He managed to get a map that suits her the most."
The princ.i.p.al immediately asked out of curiosity, "Why is it so?"
"Although Lingtian"s special-cla.s.s operators only advanced not long ago and have much less experience as compared to those in Leiting, Ling Lan always liked to torture them. He would a.s.sa.s.sinate them despite having the ability to overpower them in a normal fight." Tang Yu recalled the "one versus many" battle that he had previously witnessed and gave a silent laugh.
At the time, everyone had thought that the powerful and mighty Ling Lan, who always meant what he said, would fight them face to face. Hence, they had all gathered together and prepared to attack her together too. Unexpectedly, though, Ling Lan went into hiding and a.s.sa.s.sinated them using all kinds of methods when they were not prepared for it. Ling Lan"s strange a.s.sa.s.sination methods made everyone go crazy… in the end, Ling Lan won easily. The people who fought with Ling Lan came out of their c.o.c.kpits with pale faces. They didn"t manage to regain their senses for the entire day.
Tang Yu also knew that this kind of battle didn"t happen only once. The Lingtian Battle Clan was already used to Ling Lan"s torture, so if Leiting wanted to ambush and a.s.sa.s.sinate them on this map, it would be really hard. The members of Lingtian had learned some techniques from Ling Lan and they were able to perform a.s.sa.s.sinations on their own as well… Tang Yu felt that Leiting would be the ones getting tortured, not Lingtian.
The princ.i.p.al"s eyes lit up. "If what you say is true, this map is really advantageous for Lingtian. I antic.i.p.ate the performance of those punks." Because of Ling Lan, the princ.i.p.al and Tang Yu supported Lingtian. Hence, Leiting was given up unknowingly.
At this moment, in the forest map, the mechas from the two clans appeared in different positions. When they entered the map, they would be transported to a location automatically. The name of the team was labeled in front of the mechas and then a series of numbers followed.
The people in the battle would not know who was in the mecha; only the audience would know. Both sides had to predict the person in the mecha by a.n.a.lyzing their strength and techniques. This tested the student"s adaptive ability as well as their knowledge of their opponent.
"This time, the team leader of Lingtian is their captain, Ling Lan, and the team leader of Leiting is their most powerful special-cla.s.s operator called Tian Jiajun. He is the dux of the fifth-years, but his hand speed has been stuck for a year. He has not found the opportunity to make a breakthrough, so he is not yet capable of advancing to ace operator. However, you cannot deny that he is one of the strongest among the special-cla.s.s operators." At this moment, an instructor was introducing the teams to the person beside him in the VIP room. He sounded a little sad.
Tang Yu knew who this instructor was; he was called Qiao Yi. He was also an ace instructor and was taking the second-years this year. Tian Jiajun was his student from the last semester and was one of his prided pupils.
The person beside the instructor knew of the relationship between Tian Jiajun and Qiao Yi. He immediately consoled him, "It is just a matter of time. He will advance to ace operator in the future. Also, remaining as a special-cla.s.s operator will allow him to gain a stronger foundation. Once he becomes an ace operator, he will be able to rise up the ranks quickly. Many people who managed to become imperial operators got stuck at special-cla.s.s operator status for a long time too."
Qiao Yi nodded his head and gave a smile in response. Although his student was currently not as good as Qiao Ting, who was brought up by Tang Yu, this did not mean that his student would still be of a lower status than them in the future. Once Qiao Yi had this thought, he couldn"t help himself and turned his head to look at Tang Yu.
Tang Yu nodded his head politely at him and Qiao Yi returned the greeting with a smile. Afterward, they shifted their gazes away in a natural manner, but the princ.i.p.al still noticed the hidden rivalry going on between them.
"Seems like Qiao Yi wants to win against you once," the princ.i.p.al said with a smile.
Tang Yu sighed lightly. "I don"t mind if he wins once, but his luck is too bad." And how could it not be bad? After Qiao Ting left, he had accepted an even more capable individual, Ling Lan, as his student. He himself didn"t have the confidence to win against her, so which person in this military academy could?
The princ.i.p.al was in total agreement. He said, "Yes, his luck is really bad." Otherwise, why would his students not be as talented as Tang Yu"s?
However, the rivalry between Tang Yu and Qiao Yi did not gain anyone else"s attention; everyone was focused on the screen in front of them.
"They are moving!" Compared to the hesitation of their opponents, the other clan moved with great swiftness; they began moving as soon as they entered the map. These individuals were from Lingtian.
"There"s no pattern to Lingtian"s movements at all," someone shouted in surprise.
The Lingtian Mecha Clan had a piece of equipment that could allow them to see the location of their team members. This information was revealed last year in the battle against Qiao Ting mecha clan and had become an open secret. Everyone thought that Lingtian would gather together first, or form teams of three with the mechas closest to them just like what they did last year. This was what Leiting was most afraid of.
"They are fighting their own battle. Lingtian has given up on formation tactics." The instructors with sharp eyes immediately understood Lingtian"s intention.
"Why are they giving up on formation tactics? Wouldn"t it give them more of an advantage?" The instructors were flabbergasted at Lingtian"s actions. From their perspective, Lingtian had made a stupid decision. They had given up their advantage and opted to fight with their weakness, which was the same as seeking their own death.
"Ah, Leiting is moving too." Just as the instructors and administrators were feeling angry and disappointed at Lingtian"s actions, Leiting started moving.
"Ah, look, the direction that the Leiting is heading to… are three locations closest to Lingtian. Their destinations are the same." Very soon, everyone realized the secret behind Leiting"s movements.
"Leiting has the member locating device too. Seems like after losing last year, they have covered up their blindspots. Leiting has prepared sufficiently for this battle." Many of the instructors were starting to place their bets on Leiting.
"Strange, where are Lingtian"s mechas?" Everyone"s attention had been attracted by Leiting just then. When they looked back at Lingtian"s mechas, they realized that they couldn"t find some of them anymore.
"They are over there, hiding." Someone looked back just in time to see where Lingtian"s mechas had gone to. He personally saw a mecha changing its color surrept.i.tiously as it hid among a pile of leaves and branches at a stone hill; it started to merge with its surroundings.
"Chameleon system!" Everyone turned serious. Both teams had made ample preparations for this battle. Leiting had managed to obtain the member locating device, while Lingtian had gotten themselves chameleon systems which were known as the ultimate weapon for a.s.sa.s.sination.
The chameleon system was a top-cla.s.s disguise system, which could only be used by special-cla.s.s mecha and above. It was known as the ultimate weapon for a.s.sa.s.sination because the system could enable a mecha to integrate into its surroundings. A top-cla.s.s chameleon system could even grant perfect camouflaging ability.
In order to see through the chameleon system, another top-cla.s.s system was required—the hawkeye system. However, this system was unable to 100% see through the chameleon system. The chameleon system was almost invincible. No radar scanning would reveal the location of an opponent once they used the chameleon system; it had the ability to bluff radar scanning systems as well.
Of course, special-cla.s.s mechas could only be equipped with the lowest-level chameleon system, but it was enough to fool one"s opponents if they didn"t have a hawkeye system.
Qiao Yi immediately frowned at this new information. "How did Lingtian obtain this system?"
Although such top-cla.s.s systems were not restricted and sealed away by the military in Mecha World, that did not mean it was easy to ahold of them. The lucky ones could obtain the lowest-level chameleon system upon achieving the status of ace mecha master, yet all of Lingtian"s mechas were equipped with this system. He could almost believe that Mecha World was opened by Lingtian themselves—otherwise, how would they have been able to obtain so many top-cla.s.s systems and equip them on these low-level special-cla.s.s mechas?
In reality, Qiao Yi"s thoughts were nearly correct. With the king of Mecha World, Little Four, beside Ling Lan, it could be said that the virtual world was indeed opened by them. However, Ling Lan hadn"t asked Little Four to open a backdoor. She had merely asked him to give her the mission that would allow her to obtain the chameleon systems. Afterward, Ling Lan had prompted all the special-cla.s.s operators in the clan to go and carry out the insanely terrifying mission.
The task involved was a one-man mission. If a person wanted to obtain the chameleon system, he or she needed to pa.s.s the mission with his or her own ability; there was no easy way out. All the members of Lingtian had had no choice but to do it. They used their deaths to learn and gain the experiences needed to succeed. They didn"t know how many times they had died because all the ways they had died in were different. They died every day, died until they went crazy, died until they wanted to vomit. However, after they calmed down, they wiped their lips and continued to die.
Not all of them had had the psychological endurance to handle such despair; almost half of the members weren"t able to handle the sensation of death and started to go crazy. They became unable to differentiate reality from the virtual world and were forced out of there before they truly went crazy by Ling Lan, who had been observing them.
Luckily, Li Shiyu had already invented medication that could cure mental illnesses. Under his treatment, these people went back to being normal. A portion of them had still wanted to continue the mission, but Ling Lan had rejected them directly. She told them that before they reached ace mecha, they were not allowed to do this mission. Otherwise, if they developed any mental illness again, it would really interfere with their minds and affect their future advancements.
The people that failed heeded their captain"s advice, as they knew that he would not lie to them. If this was what he said, this was what he meant. There were all smart people and knew what they should do.
In the end, their hard work paid off. 9 members of the clan managed to pa.s.s the mission. 5 of them were from Ling Lan"s team, while the others were Wu Jiong, Li Yingjie, Wu Jiong"s a.s.sistant team leader Ye Xu, and one of Lingtian Mecha Clan"s leader Gao Jinyun.