Chapter 515: Pressure!
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Seeing that the situation was no longer looking good, Li Yingjie immediately ordered, “Sh*t. Advance forward. Keep the opponents occupied and relieve some pressure for our brothers.” After saying this, Li Yingjie turned on the mirror beam s.h.i.+eld. He turned his engine up to the highest setting and his mecha shot out like a cannonball, darting straight towards one of the mecha.
“AHH.” The operators of the 15 oddly shaped transport mecha all screamed out angrily and followed their captain in pouncing on the enemy.
Although the operators of the logistics mecha team were all advanced mecha operators, they were neither impulsive nor blinded by anger. The opponents that they chose were also advanced mecha operators. While relieving pressure for their comrades, they also wanted to battle until the end of the battle royale at the same time.
With Li Yingjie’s 15 mecha joining in, Wu Jiong, Han Yu, Mu Shaoyu and the others instantly felt their pressure decrease by a great deal. The two sides fought brutally. One side knew clearly that if they got through these people blockading them, the First Men’s Military Academy’s headquarters would be in the bag. The other side knew even more clearly that if they didn’t block them off, they would all be eliminated once the headquarters was broken through. This was an ending that they could not accept.
It should be said that the people of the First Men’s Military Academy were ready to risk everything. Although the transport mecha retained some power, it was undoubtedly not enough when compared to real battle mecha. It was necessary for the piloting skills of the mecha operators to compensate for this point; however, even an advanced mecha operator partic.i.p.ating in the Grand Mecha Tournament would be among the most exceptional mecha operators. In the transport battle team that Li Yingjie had brought, other than Li Yingjie who could still go against an opponent, the others were somewhat all in a crisis.
Gao Jinyun was one of the team leaders of the Lingtian Mecha Clan’s battle teams. Although his operating abilities weren’t bad, if he weren’t part of Lingtian Mecha Clan, he wouldn’t have had a chance to become even a transport mecha operator.
When he find out that he had been enlisted as a mecha operator for the logistics and transport mecha team, he was undoubtedly very excited. He was very grateful to Ling Lan and rejoiced at the fact that before getting admitted to the academy, he had decisively followed Ling Lan on the battles.h.i.+p to take it down. That was the proudest and smartest decision he had made in his life; it had given him the opportunity he was having right now which everyone admired.
Gao Jinyun knew that his operating capabilities counted among the lowest group out of all the members that had come to partic.i.p.ate in the battle royale; thus, every time he received a mission to transport supplies, he was very careful in not making a mistake and making Boss Lan look bad.
In reality, when Li Yingjie had ordered them to fight the enemy, Gao Jinyun knew of the outcome that awaited himself. The difference in mechas’ capabilities between the two sides, in addition to the similar levels of mecha operators, they really didn’t have any hope of winning… But even so, all the members, including Gao Jinyun, had decisively raised their beam sabers and pounced towards the opponents.
Everyone knew that in this time of crisis, only by giving their all would they then be able to protect their headquarters!
Once Gao Jinyun came face to face with his opponent, he knew the situation wasn’t looking good for him. Although the other party was also operating an advanced mecha, his opponent’s capabilities had without a doubt reached the peak of advanced mecha operators and only needed to progress a bit more to become a special-cla.s.s operator. Against a mecha operator of this level, he wouldn’t have a chance of winning even if he were to operate the best advanced mecha, not to mention the fact that the transport mecha he was operating had poor equipment and weapons.
It was just as he had predicted. After ten rounds of attacks, he was pressured from all sides, danger coming from every corner. Gao Jinyun felt that he might be struck down by the opponent in the next second.
“Ah!” A familiar voice screamed out in the commlink channel of the team. Gao Jinyun knew who it was; it was the leader of another team, Wu Fei, who also belonged to the Lingtian Mecha Clan. Recently, they had been moving together day and night, and had become very familiar with each other. Wu Fei, who was close to Gao Jinyun in operating skills, could hold on no longer and was successfully struck down by his opponent.
This made Gao Jinyun feel as though he was a fox mourning for the death of a hare. He thought to himself, “Will I also end up like that? Defeated and eliminated by my opponent?”
Right then, the image of Ling Lan coldly glaring at him appeared inside Gao Jinyun’s mind. That cold glare was accompanied with a hint of regret and disappointment…
Gao Jinyun thought back to the excitement he had felt when he was called out by Boss Lan. The members of his team had prepared a special celebratory party to send him off after hearing this news and at that time, he had told his team members that he would definitely return the kindness that Boss Lan had shown him.
Was he going to return that kindness like this? How truly idiotic! Gao Jinyun stared ahead in anger, hating his weakness. He would not be defeated like this. Even if he were defeated, he would take his opponent down with him! Otherwise, how would he repay the trust and the chance Boss Lan had given him? He would stay loyal to the very end—he couldn’t let Boss Lan down!
“Sh*t, even if I lose, I will take down the opponent with me. Self-destruct!” Gao Jinyun yelled angrily. He pulled on the mecha’s engine throttle and using the fastest speed possible, he operated his mecha to ruthlessly crash into his foe.
Although transport mecha could not be compared with actual battle mecha in all aspects, they were stronger than battle mechas in one aspect; they could carry more supplies. These transport mecha were modified to resemble heavy tanks, which meant that the weight of these mecha was heavier by 2 to 3 times compared to battle mecha. Once they accelerated and crashed into something, the powerful force would make battle mecha back up and not dare to face them head-on.
As expected, Gao Jinyun’s rus.h.i.+ng movement made his opponent back off and dodge to the side. He was preparing for Gao Jinyun to use all of his strength and then attack.
Seeing this, Gao Jinyun’s eyes lit up and knew this was his chance. He followed through and attacked the opponent furiously because Gao Jinyun knew clearly that once this chance pa.s.sed, he wouldn’t have any more.
The time pa.s.sed by quickly. One decision could be a fate-changing decision. Gao Jinyun’s opponent suddenly discovered that after he dodged backwards, he no longer held the advantage he had from the start. The one being pressured now was actually himself.
However, this mecha operator was an individual with plenty of experience. His emotions kept in check, he didn’t worry but instead, he calmed himself and defended with all his might. Even though Gao Jinyun’s attack was insane, he still managed to block it and didn’t give Gao Jinyun any chances.
As expected, those partic.i.p.ating in the Grand Mecha Tournament weren’t there just for show! Gao Jinyun silently praised and admired the opponent’s performance. He didn’t realize that his operating speed had advanced beyond his original limit and entered the next level. This made him jump straight from middle-level in the advanced cla.s.s to the peak. If he could successfully stabilize his advancement, he would definitely have a chance to break through into the level of special-cla.s.s operator after one year. If he was lucky, he too would be able to join the ranks of special-cla.s.s operators.
Gao Jinyun put all of his efforts into the fight. He only had one thought and that was to crash into the opponent. This was the only chance he had to win this battle.
“Bang!” A loud collision could be heard—Gao Jinyun had finally crashed into his opponent.
After Gao Jinyun crashed into him, the opponent’s expression changed slightly. Although he had throttled his mecha’s engine to its limit, he discovered that the full force from the opposition’s crash made his mecha unable to fully take on such a large impact. Finally, after holding on for a few seconds, his mecha lost control and was knocked back with a great force.
“Sh*t! What’s happening?” The mecha operator who lost control couldn’t help but swear under his breath. It had seemed that the opposition’s speed was clearly slow enough for him to dodge. Why did he make a mistake just now and fail to dodge the attack?
This mecha operator didn’t expect that Gao Jinyun would improve during the battle; the latter’s finger speed had broken through into a new level. This also made the mecha operator have a bad judgment call and was also the reason why he could dodge many times before but not this time.
Seeing that his opponent’s mecha had lost control and was sent flying, Gao Jinyun was overjoyed. He didn’t hesitate to lift up his beam saber and stab ruthlessly in his opponent’s direction. The beam saber struck the chest area of the opponent.
“Bzzz!” The beam saber and the beam s.h.i.+eld’s violent collision created a slew of sparks, and the energy of the s.h.i.+eld and saber began to deplete rapidly. The mecha whose energy was depleted last would be the victor.
The two mecha created a beam of light in the sky. Right when the beam saber was about to deplete into nothingness and Gao Jinyun felt hopeless, the force blocking his weapon suddenly instantly vanished, and the beam saber easily stabbed through into the opponent’s mecha. A fleeting moment later, a force flicked his beam saber out of the mecha. Gao Jinyun knew that this was the support safeguard mechanism that the mecha were equipped with for the battle royale.
As expected, Gao Jinyun, whose beam saber was ejected, saw that his opponent’s mecha was already falling to the ground from the sky. Gao Jinyun held onto his beam saber that was nearly depleted of energy and suddenly fell into a blank daze.
Did this mean that he had won?
It was a good thing that Gao Jinyun woke up from his trance quickly. He was still in the middle of a battle and couldn’t afford to blank out for even a second.
After calming down, Gao Jinyun couldn’t tell what victory tasted like. He quickly replaced the energy unit of the beam saber in his hand, feeling silently grateful to the logistics division at the same time.
It should be known that these energy units were found by the logistics members after expending a great amount of time. They had picked them out from among tens of thousands of energy units, and every one of these energy units all contained the theoretical peak amount of energy they could carry. It was because of this that he was able to have a bit more energy than his opponent and manage to endure until the end and acquire victory.
Details determined victory or loss! Gao Jinyun suddenly remembered that when Boss Lan was preparing the supplies, he had especially made sure of this point. Gao Jinyun was now full of confidence. With a Boss who even thought of the smallest details, how could they lose here?
Gao Jinyun was undoubtedly lucky. He had saved himself along with taking down his opponent, but his other team members weren’t as lucky. However, the angry shout Gao Jinyun had made through the team’s commlink had woken up many members that were under pressure and evoked their will to not give up. Since it was going to be a losing the battle, then they couldn’t just lose without making something of it.
The members who clearly knew there was no hope chose to use a suicide attack in the end—self-destruct! (The self-destruct mechanism in the battle royale is just a simulation. Once they press down on the self-destruct b.u.t.ton, the A.I. of two opposing mecha will simulate the real energy levels of a self-destruct attack based on the distance and angle between the two. The A.I. will then make the final call as to who won, and the result won’t actually be that of a real gruesome self-destructing suicide.)
As one mecha after another among the logistics transport mecha chose to self-destruct, taking down 4 to 5 mecha operators from the opposing side, the members from the other battle teams were also moved by their actions. Even the logistics transport team performed so valiantly, so how could they, the real battle team members, lose to their comrades?
Thus, seeing that there were no more mecha that could fight, they all followed the transport team’s footsteps. One after another, mecha dropped to the ground. Each mecha operator who was eliminated also took a trophy with them when they left in the end.
On the ground, Chang Xinyuan was leading nine modified mecha and watching the situation above Area G13.
He saw the mecha of familiar comrades drop one by one. Before dropping down, they ruthlessly held onto an opponent and pushed down the self-destruct b.u.t.ton. Chang Xinyuan’s blood boiled and he couldn’t help but want to also go up there and fight. Even if he wasn’t on the same level, he still wanted to be beside his comrades. Even if it was self-destructing, he would try to take one with him… He thought of the scene from before, of Boss Lan leading his battle team to fight against Qiao Ting’s. His teammates had used this move back then to take down an ace operator.
The numbers of both sides were decreasing, but the opposition had two times their numbers, after all. Even if the First Men’s Military Academy put forth all their efforts, they wouldn’t be able to compensate for this difference.
“Captain, the situation is becoming increasingly disadvantageous,” one of the members worriedly reminded Chang Xinyuan. Right then, there were only 13 mecha that were still fighting for the First Men’s Military Academy, while the opposition had around 20. The opponents held a definite advantage in numbers.
“What you do you think we should do? We’ve already sent out those who can fight, aside from our team,” Chang Xinyuan said with a sigh.
Even after being beaten up by Boss Lan, Chang Xinyuan had only successfully advanced to advanced mecha operator after the new year. However, only top-level special-cla.s.s operators remained on the battlefield. Even if they were to help, it wouldn’t make a difference for them. They would have to worry about whether they would make it harder for their comrades and disrupt them.
It seemed that they would have to study hard for mecha piloting in the future!
Chang Xinyuan once again felt the bitterness of being unable to do anything. In reality, Chang Xinyuan’s growth was very quick. He had gone from middle-level mecha operator to middle-level advanced mecha operator in less than a year. Compared to his battle team, his rate of development was definitely comparable to those exceptional mecha operators, but he had ended up harboring a misconception only because Ling Lan’s battle team was entirely made up of aberrants; he believed that he hadn’t improved and was holding back the team.
Thus, after this Grand Mecha Tournament ended, two m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.ts would appear in Ling Lan’s battle team. One would be Li Lanfeng, who wanted to become stronger, while the other would be Chang Xinyuan, who believed he was always the one holding everyone back.
However, the m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic behavior of these two crazy individuals would also make the other members of the team feel a sense of danger; thus, they would create a new wave of studying and training, and Ling Lan’s team would grow quickly as a group from the compet.i.tive atmosphere. This was why Ling Lan’s team would be ahead of the other battle teams. This would all be explained in greater detail later.
Chang Xinyuan’s question caused the other members to instantly become at a loss for words. Although they had modified their mecha to the point of being amazingly overpowered, their operating abilities could not be compared to that of those battle mecha operators. Thus, they could only watch with concern and yet not be able to do anything.
“Are we really going to just watch as these a.s.sholes take down our headquarters?” One member angrily smacked his head. He had always thought that researching modifications was enough. However now, he was regretting the fact that he didn’t spend enough time practicing mecha piloting. If he had done so, he would have been able to fight side by side with his comrades at this moment…
Today’s battle changed the mentality of these mechanics who were obsessed with research. After going back, they would train hard in operating skills and accidentally become the mechanics of the battlefield. It was also because they came to understand the concept of battle that they became able to invent countless strong weapons and modified mecha. This led to them becoming the mechanical masters of the Federation, and their inventions would make countless soldiers crazily pursue and admire them.
Chang Xinyuan silently looked at the sky in Area G13 and instantly pushed down on Han Jijyun’s communication b.u.t.ton. “Strategist Han, Area G13—we have 12 mecha and the enemy has 18 mecha!”
Hearing this information, Han Jijyun frowned. He was silent for a bit before replying, “I understand.” After that, he said, “You guys return to headquarters.” Chang Xinyuan and the others’ mecha operating levels were not high, so they would be just handing themselves on a silver platter to the opponents if they joined the fray.
“We, the mechanics battle team, would like permission to fight!” Chang Xinyuan didn’t take the order but instead gave his own request.
“No, your mission is to modify and not fight!” Han Jijyun didn’t even think before rejecting him.
“When all of our battle members have been eliminated, what would be the use of leaving us mechanics here?” Chang Xinyuan asked emotionally. “Don’t forget—although we’re mechanics, we are also mecha operators!”
On the other side of the commlink, Han Jijyun didn’t make a sound. A few seconds later, Han Jijyun deep voice was sent through. “I understand!”
“Captain, can we join the fight?” one mechanic asked with a tone of pleasant surprise.
Chang Xinyuan replied with a smile, “Yes! Strategist Han has allowed us to go to our ‘death’.” Chang Xinyuan spoke the truth. He was an advanced mecha operator, while some of his team members were worse than him and there was even one that was only a middle-level mecha operator. This operator was also the lowest level mecha from the First Men’s Military Academy in the entire Grand Mecha Tournament.
“Haha, the First Men’s Military Academy does not have cowards!” one member exclaimed excitedly.
“Although our capabilities are the worst, that doesn’t mean we will really just watch or give up our lives.” Chang Xinyuan pa.s.sed on the plan that he had came up with to his team members. There was detailed data on the plan along with the trajectories and directions to use.
The others were all individuals who were used to looking at plans, so their eyes instantly lit up upon seeing it. One of them couldn’t help but excitedly say, “Captain, you’re amazing. You actually calculated these things. This way, we may actually have a chance to achieve something.”
Chang Xinyuan’s eyes were s.h.i.+ning brightly. While he was watching the battle at Area G13, he hadn’t been simply watching. He would definitely give an unforgettable beating to these opponents that had dared to attack their headquarters.
Area G17.
Lin Xiao and Jiang Shaoyu were in the midst of fighting, unable to break away from each other. They both knew that their battle was the most important part of this situation; they didn’t dare to loosen up. Furthermore, their strength was on par with each other and they were familiar with each other’s attacks as well. They couldn’t do anything to each other in such a short amount of time.
However, the people that they had brought with them had already stopped battling. It wasn’t because they had suddenly become friendly with each other, but because both sides had many people become more or less eliminated; only some mecha operators had managed to stay alive. They had all taken damage and could no longer do battle, only able to eye their respective opponents and wait patiently for their commanders to determine the victor.
Han Jijyun hung up Chang Xinyuan’s call and his heart felt heavy. A moment ago, he couldn’t help but agree to Chang Xinyuan’s request; however, he knew clearly that Chang Xinyuan’s team was going to their ‘deaths’. He no longer had any more battle teams that he could use, and this made Han Jijyun feel like a housewife without rice to cook. Even if he had plans, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.
“It would good if the Boss was here!” Han Jijyun, who was now on the verge of being broken by the pressure of losing the battle, couldn’t help but think of Ling Lan