Chapter 444: It"s A TRAP!
Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Hitesh_
"I wish it was that easy. Not everyone can be lucky like me, you know." Ma Xiaoru said, trying to coax w.a.n.g Tong into submission.
Ma Xiaoru"s honey-coated words worked. w.a.n.g Tong heaved a sigh of resignation and then said, "Fine, fine. I will go somewhere else. See you later."
"Alright."
Being forced out of Ma Xiaoru"s room, w.a.n.g Tong wandered around on the wars.h.i.+p by himself. The Ark was on its way to Mars to receive the last batch of crew members into its rank. In addition, the Ark would replenish its supplies while it was processing the crew admissions. Although the Ark was a self-sustained city, it would not hurt to have a few extra supplies laying around.
w.a.n.g Tong"s friends had all gone to the shopping district, but he never liked shopping. So, he lost interest in the streets very quickly and decided to head back to the training room.
One might think that only someone who hated himself, such as w.a.n.g Tong, would come to the training room on the weekend. But he found out that he was not alone; Patroclus was also there. They looked at each other for a brief second and smiled, but didn"t exchange a word. However, the desire to spar danced in both of their eyes. w.a.n.g Tong also found Apache and Cao Yi in the training room, and he was not surprised at all. They were both a.s.signed to the s.p.a.ce METAL unit, the most awesome job of all, and even got to wear a s.p.a.ce METAL once during their training.
s.p.a.ce METAL combat had a very high requirement, and even Apache and Cao Yi felt it was difficult to catch up.
"w.a.n.g Tong, don"t run away. We need to spar together," Apache announced.
"No problem! I am so bored. A fight should lighten up my mood a little." w.a.n.g Tong cracked a smile.
"Perfect, see you later then."
"Boss, there"re some young Templars here as well. Should we ask them to join us? They had been of great help lately." Cao Yi said.
The Templars had been a.s.signed to the same squad as Apache and Cao Yi. Knowing their connection with the young master, the Templars had offered quite a lot of help to the two.
w.a.n.g Tong nodded. He had been avoiding the Templars because he still couldn"t get used to their addressing him as the "Young Master". It gave him the jitters every time he heard it. Nevertheless, he conceded that he couldn"t bury his head in the sand forever. The world is not going to change because he was not looking. After being detached from the recent developments for a while, w.a.n.g Tong had come to terms with the reality. If he couldn"t deny his connection with the Blade Warrior, he might as well embrace it.
As w.a.n.g Tong entered the gravity simulation zone, he was greeted by the sweaty Templars. Respect rose inside him on seeing how disciplined the Templars were.
As soon as the four Templars saw w.a.n.g Tong at the threshold, they immediately stopped their training and bowed to w.a.n.g Tong.
"Greetings, Young Master."
The name made w.a.n.g Tong cringe again, but he held back the urge of turning his back and plastered a smile on his face, "Would you like to join me for some sparring?"
The four Templars looked at each other in surprise. The grand master had ordered them to befriend w.a.n.g Tong, so they had been very frustrated by w.a.n.g Tong"s constant cold shoulder, until now.
"That...That is awesome, dude!" Ye Kai beamed from side to side.
"Shus.h.!.+" Zhang Buyu glared at Ye Kai for not addressing w.a.n.g Tong appropriately.
"That"s fine, that"s fine. Haha… I have encountered some problems in my cultivation, and hope that you guys could help me." w.a.n.g Tong announced.
"We are at your disposal, young master." Zhang Buyu nodded and said.
w.a.n.g Tong felt the jitters again, but he didn"t show it on his face. He nodded and cranked up the gravity intensity.
He had learned that not only did his body heal faster under greater gravity, but his mind also worked better.
w.a.n.g Tong usually kept the gravity setting at moderate, but today, he felt the urge to challenge himself. So, he cranked it up to as high as possible.
As w.a.n.g Tong entered deeper into the gravity simulation room, he met another familiar face in the 15g zone: Li s.h.i.+ming.
The two exchanged a glance before w.a.n.g Tong plodded deeper into the 16g zone.
After w.a.n.g Tong had disappeared into the next chamber, Li s.h.i.+ming cleared the sweat off his forehead and left the gravity room.
Porten looked at his watch from time to time. He connected the skynet and announced to the other end, "Let"s start." An ugly grin found his face after he hung up. The gravity room was p.r.o.ne to mechanical failures, and it would be very unfortunate if someone happened to be inside the chamber when it failed.
Porten had been planning this a.s.sa.s.sination almost as soon as he boarded the Ark. He had been watching w.a.n.g Tong for a while even on Earth, so he was confident that w.a.n.g Tong would use the gravity chamber sooner or later.
Was it despicable? Yes. But, Porten believed that being despicable was one of humans" merits.
Porten approached the gravity chamber. As the mastermind behind the plan, he wanted to see how it was executed. Watching his plan unfold always put a smile on his face.
It didn"t matter if he were the Dragon Warrior or the Blade Warrior. No one could withstand a stab in the back.
Sirens were suddenly set off inside the gravity rooms as the floor started to tremble. Porten was sitting quietly in a corner like a shadow, watching the chaos unfold. The destruction wouldn"t hurt anyone in rooms of 15g or less, but it would be dangerous for anyone in rooms with greater gravity.
"ALARM—ALARM—ALARM—PLEASE EVACUATE THE GRAVITY ROOM IMMEDIATELY—ALARM—ALARM—ALARM"
Everyone stormed out of the training room, including Li s.h.i.+ming. The maintenance crew had also arrived, and the preliminary diagnosis indicated that the gravity intensity inside the chambers was increasing exponentially. The crew tried to shut off the system, but to no avail.
Li s.h.i.+ming watched the entrance to the training room quietly. There was still no sign of w.a.n.g Tong.
By the time w.a.n.g Tong realized that something was wrong, he was already trapped inside the chamber. He banged on the door and tried to pry it open, but failed.
Li s.h.i.+ming scanned the crowd that made it out of the training room, and he found Porten"s dark glinting eyes in a shadowy alcove set deeply in the wall.
Was that disappointment in Porten"s eyes? Was he trying to kill Li s.h.i.+ming as well?
Porten had imagined a world without the two most powerful young fighters. Things would become much more interesting for sure, he had thought. Although Li s.h.i.+ming had gotten away from his deadly trap, killing w.a.n.g Tong would give him at least half the satisfaction.
Inside the gravity chamber, w.a.n.g Tong hammered at the door. He could feel the gravity around him increasing by the second.
w.a.n.g Tong had used every trick up his sleeve, GN force, mastery, and even Einherjar Lance, but the door wouldn"t budge. In order to secure the chamber, its doors and walls were made out of special alloy and doubly fortified. Even the emergency exit malfunctioned and wouldn"t open.
"Someone must have done this on purpose." w.a.n.g Tong"s mind raced. But, he quickly dropped the matter as his priority right then was to make it out alive.
The tech unit had learned of w.a.n.g Tong"s situation via a CCTV camera. The profoundness of this incident suddenly came over the captain.
"I don"t care what you do, do it now!"
"Captain, the central control system was hacked! We lost all control over it, even our overwrite rights."
"What about the emergency exit?"
"It"s blocked, sir!"
Kaost knotted his face. Someone was trying to kill w.a.n.g Tong, which was clear as daylight.
"Shut off the power!" Kaost shouted.
"Sir! We can"t. We lost access to its power supply as well."
Kaost"s face blackened. He was caught off guard by how quickly the situation had escalated.