467 - 471
Chapter 467 - The Incident of the Yang Chun Noodles!
Zhu Jing was a long-range attacker. Because he was familiar with all methods of long-range operation, he was even more aware of how impressive Ling Lan was. Although Ling Lan had shown very little in her two matches, Zhu Jing could already tell that Ling Lan was definitely a formidable opponent.
However, despite taking Ling Lan very seriously, Zhu Jing did not think he had no chance of winning. No matter how perfect the other's basic controls were, that did not mean that they would be able to seriously contend with advanced techniques.
Advanced techniques were developed from basic techniques — birthed from basic techniques, their power was several, perhaps even several multiples of ten, times stronger than that of the basic techniques. This was also why mecha operators would often abandon basic techniques in the later stages to focus on studying advanced techniques to form their sure-kill techniques.
In mecha combat, the ones who most often survived were those who had more advanced techniques under their belt. From this, it could be seen how important advanced techniques were to mecha operators.
Zhu Jing felt that those advanced techniques he knew would be enough for him to contend with his opponent.
Under the guidance of the staff, the two contestants walked out onto the field from two separate passages.
Seeing the two mecha appear on the field, the audience broke out into raucous cheers. After checking to see that both contestants were ready, the referee swung his green flag, signalling the official start of the match.
As soon as the green flag moved, the two mecha zoomed backwards almost simultaneously. Zhu Jing was piloting a long-range mecha, so he naturally wanted to attack from long range. Meanwhile, although Ling Lan was piloting a balanced mecha, she intended to hone her long-range operation, and so ended up sharing a common goal with Zhu Jing to bring the fight into long range. This made the atmosphere less tense than it had been in Zhao Jun's match.
Right then, the top-class mecha masters watching the fight could not help but frown as they observed Ling Lan's operation. They found that Ling Lan had not displayed that wonderful on-the-line operation she had performed yesterday. Even though her speed was still very fast, those with keen eyes could still see the difference.
Ling Xiao had been watching the field all this while with a slight smile, and at this moment, his smile became even more noticeable ...
Last night, after the matches for the day had ended, as soon as the joyful Lan Luofeng had returned to their living quarters, she had stared mournfully at Ling Xiao.
Ling Xiao very resolutely turned to leave. As a general and a god-class operator, how could he lose to his wife's harmless gaze?
"Hubby~!" The undulating tones of this cry made Ling Xiao's body shudder uncontrollably. The gaze on his back was searing, causing cold sweat to break out all over his body, but he was still determined to pretend he had not heard anything.
Knowing Lan Luofeng well, Ling Xiao knew what would be waiting for him if he turned his head. Lan Luofeng would definitely make an extremely difficult request that he just could not refuse ... experience told him that he must muddle through this somehow!
"Ling Xiao!" Seeing that being sweet and petulant was not working, Lan Luofeng instantly morphed into an angry lioness and roared angrily. Hells, so brave now, eh? Daring to ignore me?!
Ling Xiao rubbed his forehead helplessly. After a brief hesitation, he finally turned around and asked with a wry smile, "Luofeng, did you want something?"
"I want to see Lan-er!" Hands on her hips, Lan Luofeng put forward her request imperiously like a queen.
As expected! Expression gentle, Ling Xiao coaxed softly, "Okay, okay. Wait till after the battle royal and I'll find a chance for you two to meet."
"I mean that I want to see her right now!" How could Lan Luofeng let Ling Xiao muddle his way through this? Just as Ling Xiao knew her well, she too knew what Ling Xiao was plotting under that gentle smiling face of his.
"Lan-er must be tired after today's fights. Let's not disturb her and let her rest ..." Ling Xiao's face was a picture of concern as he attempted to shake Lan Luofeng's resolve.
"That's why I want to see Lan-er. Every time Lan-er is tired, she will always want to eat the Yang Chun noodles 1 I make!" Lan Luofeng secretly crossed her fingers in her heart — please forgive her for stealing Auntie Nan's 2 credit, but she was the one who had instructed Auntie Nan to cook it anyway, so it was not too much to ask for some of the credit, right?
Cook Yang Chun noodles?? When he heard this, Ling Xiao almost did not manage to keep the smile on his face ... thinking about the n-times Lan Luofeng almost burned the kitchen down ... Ling Xiao thought to himself, 'Wife, could you be any more fake?'
Knowing that her excuse was untenable, Lan Luofeng decided she might as well go for broke. "In any case, I want to give our daughter a bowl of Yang Chun noodles no matter what! If you can't get it done, then don't even think about stepping one foot into the bedroom!"
This move again? Godd*mmit, this was the move he was afraid of! Resigned and helpless, Ling Xiao could only agree!
Of course, Ling Xiao also believed that, with his skills, smuggling a person over was still doable.
However, in truth, Ling Xiao was not only smuggling a person over, but he was also bringing along a bowl of Yang Chun noodles which Lan Luofeng claimed to have made. As for who was the one who had truly made the bowl of Yang Chun noodles ... erm, the truth of the matter was only known by the Ling Xiao couple themselves 1 !
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Ling Lan took a soothing shower and loosened her joints, and then she finally laid down on her bed to rest. But only several minutes later, Ling Lan suddenly sprang nimbly off the bed and with a quick dash, she was standing behind the door ...
"It's me!" Her father Ling Xiao's voice rang by her ear, and Ling Lan instantly relaxed. She quickly opened the door and after a streak of shadow dashed past her, she immediately shut the door after it.
"This late, father, why are you ... mum!" Ling Lan's initially calm voice turned into a cry when she saw the woman inside Ling Xiao's arms. She was startled!
"Hi, Lan-er!" In Ling Xiao's embrace, Lan Luofeng lazily lifted the bag in her hands, shaking it softly in Ling Lan's direction. A smug smile hung on her lips as she said happily, "I've brought you Yang Chun noodles!"
Yang Chun noodles?? Wasn't that the noodle dish that her mum just could not learn no matter how hard she tried to teach her which had become a specialty of the housekeeper Ling Nanyi in the end?
"I made it, you know!" Lan Luofeng jumped out of Ling Xiao's arms and pulled Ling Lan by the hand to sit down on the sofa. She carefully opened the bag to reveal a piping hot bowl of Yang Chun noodles ...
Ling Lan cast a critical eye over the bowl of Yang Chun noodles — it really looked pretty good. However, her mum was a culinary killer — even pigs would turn their snouts up at the things she made ... with a solemn expression, Ling Lan accepted the chopsticks Lan Luofeng passed over, and under Lan Luofeng's enthusiastic urging, she finally gathered her courage enough to pick up a strand of noodle and then, with the determination of staring death in the face, she took a bite.
Eh? Ling Lan's eyes lit up and she looked down at the Yang Chun noodles before her with astonishment. It tasted very good! Even better than the noodles housekeeper Ling Nanyi made. There was a unique flavour to it — so warm, like rippling sunlight, making her feel completely relaxed.
"Mummy, you made this?" Ling Lan could not help but be suspicious. When had her mum transformed from a culinary killer to a master chef of an imperial kitchen?
At this time, Lan Luofeng's eyes had narrowed into a single line. When she heard Ling Lan's question, she nodded excitedly once more. "Yes! Isn't it very delicious? I tasted it too and was very surprised. For the first time mak- ... er, making such a delicious taste!"
First time making it? Ling Lan had caught Lan Luofeng's slip. She was sure that this bowl of Yang Chun noodles had not been made by her mum. Even if her mum had been sent back to the forge to be remade, she would not have been able to turn into a culinary master — she just was not born with any talent in cooking. Ling Lan involuntarily turned her gaze to Ling Xiao — perhaps her father could give her some hint.
Ling Xiao shiftily avoided Ling Lan's searching gaze, the fingers of his right hand unconsciously rubbing against each other ...
Ling Lan noticed that the pads of Ling Xiao's shifting fingers were somewhat red, as if they had been scalded ... Ling Lan decisively turned her head to place her attention back on Lan Luofeng. She did not dare to confirm her suspicions. If it ever got out that a god-class operator's precious hands which were used to operate a god-class mecha were scalded while cooking noodle for his wife and child, would she and her mother become the public enemies of the entire Federation?
Contemplating the possibility, Ling Lan shuddered. Once again, she was sure that she really did not know anything at all ... yup, and as for this bowl of Yang Chun noodles before her which was the evidence, she would demolish it with relish.
Ling Lan suddenly lifted the large bowl and the chopsticks in her right hand flew. Within the span of several seconds, the Yang Chun noodles had been completely gobbled down, with not even a single drop of soup remaining. She burped loudly before setting down the large bowl in her hands.
Catching sight of the still smugly smiling Lan Luofeng, Ling Lan was crying in her heart. Oh mum, this time, your daughter was perceptive and caught this early, completely destroying all the evidence. Next time, you must definitely remember to never let dad cook. That's just asking for some major trouble!!!
How could Lan Luofeng know about the mental anguish Ling Lan was going through inside? When she saw that her daughter had finished all of the noodles, she threw a smug look at Ling Xiao. Ling Xiao saw it and a fond and deeply affectionate smile spread all the way to his eyes. There was also a trace of satisfaction in his eyes so subtle that it was almost imperceptible.
Since Ling Lan was done eating, Lan Luofeng clasped Ling Lan's hands and began nattering on — of course, everything she said was centred around her care and concern for Ling Lan. She told Ling Lan not to be reckless in the tournament and to be careful and so on. Ling Lan listened to it all patiently, assuring her mum every once in a while that she would do as she said.
Ling Xiao looked at the mother-daughter pair before him and his smile deepened even further. He wished dearly that he could move forwards to envelop these two people he loved most in a hug, to convey his happiness and contentment. Ling Xiao had never ever been disappointed that Ling Lan was not a boy — even if he had no other children in this life, he would never regret it.
In the end, Lan Luofeng was finally satisfied with her nagging. Before saying goodbye, Ling Xiao said seriously to Ling Lan, " ."
Ling Xiao's words made a jolt run through Ling Lan's heart. She thought about how she had indeed kept nothing back in her efforts to prove the limits of her long-range capabilities. With a serious expression, Ling Lan said, "Father, don't worry. I will take care!"
When he heard this, Ling Xiao was reassured. He brought Lan Luofeng away again with him from Ling Lan's accommodations. No one knew that General Ling Xiao had ever visited the accommodation area of the First Men's Military Academy more than once.
The noise of the audience brought Ling Xiao out from his memories of last night ...
"Lan-er, looks like you've already figured things out!"
Ling Xiao looked down with satisfaction at the two mecha dashing in two opposite directions at roughly equal speeds. In this match, Ling Lan had remembered what he said and held back!
Ling Lan's restraint also gave the audience the mistaken impression that the standards of the two mecha operators on the field were similar. Some of the special-class operators and ace operators were even beginning to suspect that Ling Lan's brilliant on-the-line operation yesterday was just a lucky fluke. Of course, there were also those with keen perception who would not underestimate Ling Lan just because she had shown some restraint ...
1. 阳春面: Yang Chun noodles is basically plain noodle soup. It is a basic soy sauce and chicken broth based noodle dish, and was traditionally served without any toppings at all.
2. This is referring to Ling Nanyi, the chamberlain's wife.
3. T/C: I bet all my spirit stones on Ling Xiao being the one who made it.
4. T/C: Lessons on being low-key from Daddy Ling. Please note. :3
Chapter 473 - Six-Chain Combo
"Five, six!" When Ling Lan counted to six, the combo had finally ended!
After taking Ling Lan's final hit, Zhao Jun's mecha plummeted into the ground as he spat out another mouthful of blood. He felt like he was going to die. He had always known that Boss Lan's combo could go on for more than five hits, but no one really knew how many exactly, the reason being that Boss Lan would never show it to her companions during bouts among themselves. He didn't understand why at the time; instead, he believed that she was keeping it as a trump card, without wanting to reveal it. Now he understood that the reason why Boss Lan did not use it was because somebody would die the moment it was used.
Zhao Jun thought he was going to draw his last breath, but unexpectedly his vitality was very strong; despite being so close to death and in so much pain, he didn't faint and was able to survive.
When Zhao Jun regained consciousness, he saw Ling Lan's figure, so tall and domineering as if looking down on the world. This made him feel like an insignificant ant ready for Ling Lan's executioner's blade.
This feeling pained Zhao Jun's heart deeply and a strong sense of humiliation rushed to his head! He suddenly had an epiphany. It seemed like his abilities didn't even enter Boss Lan's eyes. He was probably only compelled to accept Zhao Jun into his battle team because of his old friend Li Lanfeng! He hadn't thought that he would one day need connections to get into a battle team because of his inadequate abilities! This humiliation made Zhao Jun almost bite off his tongue.
"Ohhh!" Zhao Jun screamed angrily.
No, I will not allow anyone to look down on me. Even if I'm from a third-rate planet and not as talented as Qi Long, I will use my abilities to let Boss Lan know that other than him, I am the second strongest in the squadron. I will not lose to Qi Long!
Zhao Jun's unwillingness to give up made him forget the immense pain. Piloting his mecha, he quickly sprang up to his feet. His left hand suddenly gripped his sword which was previously only held with his right. Wielding the sword with both hands, he abruptly directed it straight towards Ling Lan.
Ling Lan had stopped attacking entirely after the six combo attack, merely watching coldly from the distance. Perhaps Ling Lan was being generous. It was because she thought that after the fifth hit, Zhao Jun would no longer be able to fight.
When she saw Zhao Jun clenching his weapon readying for more, she swung the large sword in her right hand and said coldly, "Not going to give up? You want to fight back? That's too bad. You will never be on par with me!"
Zhao Jun didn't really hear what Ling Lan said. He just silently looked at his opponent, gripping his cold weapon. It seemed that after a single second, his flickering emotions became calm and at peace.
Maybe Ling Lan was in his line of sight or maybe she wasn't. He didn't hear, see or feel anything, as if he had lost his five senses and turned into a statue—he began to forget who he was. His entire body and mind became unreactive, his mind finally going completely blank.
Zhao Jun had entered a mysterious world of his own and this seemed to only last for an instant, but also felt like thousands of years.
Zhao Jun, who had gone into a meditative state, did not realize that the intensity of his aura was rising boundlessly. He moved, his fingers suddenly beginning to dance about. In the beginning, he could still see his fingers turning into afterimages, but afterwards even those afterimages had disappeared. Yes, that's right—Zhao Jun's fingers had vanished. It seemed that his fingers' speed had surpassed the limit of special-class mecha operators, the level of "Shadow", and reached the level of "Void" which only ace operators could achieve.
Zhao Jun's mecha shot towards Ling Lan like a cannonball! He yelled, "Chain combo!"
Only chain combos could spell trouble for the formidable Boss Lan; though, his chain combo could only go up to four hits. Whether he could manage the fifth hit depended on his condition, but this couldn't compare to Boss Lan's six-chain combo. However, this was his strongest attack!
Zhao Jun knew very well that other high-level skills and special techniques would not affect Boss Lan. Having battled with Boss Lan so many times, what hadn't he used before? He still got beaten in the end, didn't he?
"Come, let's go!" called out Ling Lan upon seeing Zhao Jun executing his chain combo, and she operated her mecha to engage using a chain combo.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!" Five consecutive and loud sounds of cold weapons clashing rang out. Without thinking, Zhao Jun was even able to easily perform a five-hit combo. He felt that this wasn't his limit and continued to move his fingers, and he managed to perform an unprecedented sixth strike.
"Clang!" The sixth hit was successfully performed. Ling Lan also used her own sixth hit to block!
But no, this wasn't his limit—Zhao Jun's fingers continued to operate without hindrance, as he performed his seventh combo hit!
"Boom!" Zhao Jun's huge sword struck Ling Lan's mecha, sending it flying with a tumultuous force. Just when Zhao Jun wanted to follow up with an attack, his vision blurred and he returned back to the arena.
That mysterious room disappeared along with Boss Lan who he was in battle with. He only saw Zhou Chao-Ling on the opposite side who was preparing for the next round of attacks.
"Beep, beep, beep!" The A.I. of Zhao Jun's mecha alerted him of the condition of the mecha, "Damage to the joint on the right arm has increased by 1.6%! Now at a total of 11.3%!"
"I see, the damage to the joint has already passed 10%. I can't waste anymore time." Although Zhao Jun didn't really understand what had happened just now, he knew that he had achieved a breakthrough in that mindspace. However, he didn't know whether it could be used in real combat.
Zhao Jun's fingers moved similarly to how they did in the mindspace, dancing around rapidly, changing from fingers clearly visible to afterimages, then from afterimages to complete disappearance.
His mecha was previously holding the sword with both hands at the hilt, but suddenly its left hand moved up one meter; this stance resembled how Japanese samurai would hold their swords. However, the left hand of Zhao Jun's mecha was not holding the sword, but was making a fist to lock it in place.
This change made the audience scream excitedly, "Zhao Jun is going to make a move!"
At that moment, almost every audience member knew that Zhao Jun was in trouble. If he wanted to change his fate, he needed to change. They were all waiting for Zhao Jun to change the pace and now, their wait had paid off.
Zhao Jun's odd way of handling the sword made Zhou Chao-Ling freeze in place. He had initially wanted to go up to him and attack, but he suddenly slowed his advance. Being very careful, he decided to see how the situation played out and then decide how he would continue to fight. He already had the advantage. Zhou Chao-Ling didn't want his opponent to get the upper hand because of his own carelessness.
Just then, Zhao Jun's mecha suddenly began to charge forward. At maximum speed, his mecha appeared as though it was a beam of light, arriving before Zhou Chao-Ling in an instant. That speed had reached the highest speed limit of a special-class mecha and this made Zhou Chao-Ling fail to react in time.
Zhou Chao-Ling was not worried; he led his fingers into a swift dance, making his mecha dart around. His opponent was quick, not giving him enough time to accumulate power into his mecha—if he was to fight in this moment, he would be the one disadvantaged. Zhou Chao-Ling wouldn't make the mistake of taking his opponent head-on.
The two looked as though they were going to pass by each other after Zhou Chao-Ling evaded Zhao Jun's sudden attack, but the left wrist of Zhao Jun's mecha suddenly twisted. The cold weapon of his mecha suddenly shifted from a slashing stance to a horizontal stabbing stance.
"Ah!" This unforeseen change made the audience gasp.
Just as Zhou Chao-Ling was about to be struck by the large sword, he lived up to his name by easily operating his mecha despite the danger hanging over his head. While his fingers danced, the cold weapon in his mecha's hand blocked!
"Clang!" There was a resonant clash. Zhou Chao-Ling had managed to use the bottom of his sword to block the sudden stabbing attack from Zhao Jun.
However, it was still blocked in a hurry and so he could not neutralize the full force of Zhao Jun's attack—his mecha was sent flying by the stab, flying backwards at great speed. Because of this, however, Zhou Chao-Ling was able to leave Zhao Jun's close combat range. This gave a Zhou Chao-Ling a short breather.
However, it was too early for Zhou Chao-Ling to feel relieved. As he started to think about balancing his mecha, he saw Zhao Jun's mecha turn ominously. It was able to neutralize the inertia, turning ninety-degrees and heading directly for him!
This made the audience cry out, many among them looking at Zhao Jun in shock. What was that move? How could he almost completely offset the inertia? Was this an invention of Zhao Jun? Could it be that another personal-name technique had appeared?
This also caused a brilliant gleam to flash in the eyes of Ling Xiao who was sitting on the chairman's podium. He had already tried his best to develop this type of mecha movements which ignored inertia. Although he had made some progress, it had not become a systematic program. He hadn't thought that a cadet would make his theories into reality…
Ling Xiao began to analyze Zhao Jun's movements mentally where countless detailed data and information went through his mind. The gift of Duplication was quite an anomaly. He only had to take one look and he would then be able to find the underlying key points.
No longer troubled by inertia, Zhao Jun did not need time to recover anymore. Zhao Jun's next attack had already arrived before Zhou Chao-Ling could balance his mecha.
"Mecha chain combo!" Everyone all began cheering once Zhao Jun's attack began. They all knew that in one-versus-one battles, Lin Xiao from the First Co-ed Military Academy was able to successfully perform a six-chain combo. How many hits, then, would this special-class operator, Zhao Jun, be able to achieve? Three, four or five hits?
No one thought he could manage to reach six hits because anything above the five-hit chain combo technique could only be performed by ace operators.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!" Four consecutive sounds of cold weapons striking one another rang out. Zhou Chao-Ling's ability to adapt was very strong—he had blocked Zhao Jun's four-hit combo attack. He hoped that the combo would stop there because he knew he was already at his limit.
Unfortunately, his hopes were shattered as Zhao Jun moved on to the fifth strike of his combo! Zhou Chao-Ling bit down hard and wielded his weapon with difficulty.
"Clang!" Following a loud clash, Zhou Chao-Ling's large sword was flung away. Although he had lost his weapon, Zhou Chao-Ling was still able to block Zhao Jun's fifth consecutive strike.
Zhou Chao-Ling took a breather, thinking to himself, 'A five-hit combo is the limit for a special-class operator. There's no way he can manage a sixth strike.'
Right at that moment, Zhao Jun performed the sixth combo hit that no one expected. The entire audience stood up at the sight of this, wearing faces of astonishment, looking at the arena. Zhao Jun and a six-chain combo? Was this real?
The reality of it was as they saw—Zhao Jun had indeed performed a sixth combo hit. At that moment, Zhou Chao-Ling was helpless as Zhao Jun struck him with great force, sending his entire mecha straight down to crash against the ground with great impact.
Chapter 469 - 52 Shots?
It was not difficult to defeat an opponent ... the difficult thing was how one could do so inconspicuously. Her dad's warning had been on point — before she had grown up enough to deal with all schemes and plots, she needed to conceal herself appropriately.
Even though she had already had a turn in the limelight due to the matter with the new technique, the fame gained from having a skill named after her would not harm her much, because that technique of hers had only been a minor adaptation on top of a foundational skill. This was just a manifestation of proficiency through practice — not enough to prove that she was remarkable enough that others needed to be apprehensive of her. Compared to Qiao Ting's advancement to ace level in his fourth year, that was just a minor thing.
Of course, if someone found out that she had advanced to ace level in her second year, the countries that were eyeing the Federation predatorily would most certainly send out countless killers after her to snuff out this future star in the cradle.
Ling Lan was lucky — right now, she could still mingle around freely within her military academy without anyone the wiser. This was completely thanks to Ling Xiao — Ling Xiao had protected her very well so that no one knew she was his child. This proved that Ling Xiao had not suffered for no reason eighteen years ago. While she had been growing up, Ling Xiao had already become strong enough to protect both his wife and daughter.
With such a large and towering tree to shield her from the elements, Ling Lan would be able to live freely and vivaciously. Even if there were some slip-ups every once in a while, Ling Xiao would be there to help her smooth things over. In fact, if Ling Xiao had not intervened, she would have long been exposed before the masses. How could such impactful news as hijacking a military vessel be so easily suppressed? All of this had been settled by Ling Xiao, allowing her to remain concealed among the crowd ...
Although Ling Lan was unclear on the details, unsure what Ling Xiao had done behind the scenes, she could still fully appreciate the love Ling Xiao had towards her and the pains he had taken to keep her safe. And so, she naturally had to listen to Ling Xiao — even as she won, she needed to make it so that others would not be able to distinguish anything from her victory.
Having made her decision, Ling Lan resolutely pulled the trigger of the long-barrelled beam gun in her hands. Beam after beam of light was sent shooting out at very clever timings, forcing Zhu Jing to run about desperately. Although he had trained how to adjust and calibrate his gun while moving, Ling Lan's shots were even quicker, interrupting him every single time.
"Crap!" Zhu Jing once again gave up on fixing the aim of his gun, evading yet another shot by the opponent. He knew that he could not continue on like this — he did not want to be chased all around the field by the opponent until the end of the match. Even if his first shot had been judged effective, he could not be certain that the referee panel would award the victory to him in the end. In order to be certain of victory, he needed to hit the opponent one more time.
" Tess 1 , calculate the opponent's gun's power usage!" After evading the shot, Zhu Jing calmly ordered his mecha's A.I..
"Yes! Captain!" replied the A.I. icily. Very soon, several seconds later, after Zhu Jing had evaded yet another shot, his A.I. reported back. "Till present, the opponent has fired 27 shots. Calculating based on a rate of 8 calories per shot, in theory, the opponent can still fire another 22 to 23 shots ..."
"Theoretically close to 50 shots?" Zhu Jing frowned. He was not pleased with the numbers reported by the A.I.. The opponent had only used about half of his power thus far — he would still have to dodge for a good long while to exhaust the opponent's remaining power reserves. Was there no better way?
After some careful thought, Zhu Jing found that there really was no other way. The opponent's speed was very fast, and his operations were pretty much perfect as well, with almost no flaw to be found. Shot followed shot, connecting almost seamlessly ... right then, Zhu Jing was silently admiring of how the opponent's basic controls were honed to the extreme, endlessly close to perfection. There was practically no hope for him to find an opening there.
In that case, then let him try his best to exhaust the opponent! Zhu Jing was confident that with his control skills, he would be able to exhaust the power of the opponent's gun. At that time, it would be his turn to counterattack.
After shooting four or five consecutive shots, Ling Lan noticed Zhu Jing's strange behaviour. The opponent was no longer trying to adjust his gun, putting his full focus into dodging instead. A spark of insight flashed through Ling Lan's mind, and she instantly knew what Zhu Jing was planning.
A slight smile appeared on Ling Lan's lips — perhaps this would be her chance to defeat the opponent!
"Little Four, how many more shots can the energy storage unit inside the gun support?" Compared to the mecha's A.I., Ling Lan trusted Little Four's judgment more.
"Approximately another 25 shots!" Little Four's spirits rallied when he heard Ling Lan's question. Ever since Boss had said that she wanted to get used to the mecha A.I.'s of this time period, she normally did not let him take over for the mecha A.I. to work with her. This left Little Four sad and bored — he actually wanted to do something practical to help his boss too!
"How many shots in total?" Ling Lan continued to ask.
Little Four replied gleefully, "After my optimizations, the time needed for the A.I. program for hand-area sensing has reached optimum levels. Each shot would only consume 7.27272727272727 ..."
"Stop. Just tell me how many shots I can fire altogether." Ling Lan sweatdropped. She had not asked for such a detailed breakdown, right?
"... you can go up to 55 shots!" Little Four said petulantly to his fingers. He had said so much all because he wanted to show off a little in front of Boss, to let her know that that rubbish mecha A.I. was no match for him, this clever intelligence entity. With such an excellent him, Little Four, around, what use was that rigid program?
Fine, Little Four was actually filled with resentment towards Ling Lan's decision to use A.I. instead of him — this was obviously depriving him of his joy of living!
"A typical mecha master can only fire 46 shots. These extra 9 shots are enough!" Ling Lan did not know what Little Four was thinking; when she learned that her long-barrelled beam gun could shoot an extra 9 shots compared to others, her mind instantly hatched a plot.
There was no change in the situation on the field — Ling Lan continued to fire shot after shot at the opponent, while Zhu Jing continued to concentrate on dodging ...
"How many shots have been fired?" Quite a few top-class mecha masters had already realised Zhu Jing's objective. They were keeping count of Ling Lan's shots, knowing that the moment Ling Lan's beam gun ran out of power would be the moment Zhu Jing launched his counterattack. Many believed that that would be the critical moment when the outcome of the match would be decided.
"46 now. It looks like the energy block in the gun of this mecha operator from the First Men's Military Academy is about to run out soon!" The mecha masters all had excellent memories — they very quickly came up with the detailed numbers. Everyone's spirits rallied and they focused even more intently on the match. This was because the energy block of Ling Lan's gun might be completely drained right the very next second.
Mind you, the energy storage unit of a standard long-barrelled beam gun equipped on special-class mecha was not constant in the number of bullets it could support. There was a certain degree of variance involved, typically between 46 to 54 shots.
This difference of 8 shots was influenced by many factors, such as the quality of the energy storage unit itself. The better the quality of the energy storage unit, the more likely the energy it stored would reach the upper limits. The basic amount a standard energy storage unit could store was 400 calories, but in reality, energy storage units could never hit this number. Even the most perfect top-quality energy storage unit could only store between 380-390 calories.
Aside from this, a mecha operator's control standards and the programming of a mecha's A.I. would also affect the energy consumption of an energy storage unit. Imprecise controls would cause each shot to drain even more energy than usual. And then, there were the issues with the A.I.'s system responsiveness to account for. No matter how good your operations were, if your A.I. was unreliable ... that would also result in a certain amount of power drain to the beam gun.
A qualified special-class mecha master could fire 46 beam shots as a basic standard. Beyond that, whether an operator could use the power in an energy storage unit to fire more beam shots would depend on how skilled the operator was, as well as how well-maintained their mecha was.
Of course, the theoretical maximum of 54 shots was almost impossible for anyone to achieve ... perhaps the 12 god-class operators could do it, but they would never lower themselves to operate a special-class mecha.
"Clack!" On the field, Ling Lan's long-barrelled gun suddenly jammed. This sound made everyone sit up straight and exclaim, even as they peered eagerly towards Zhu Jing on the other end of the field. Everyone knew that the opportunity Zhu Jing had been waiting for was here!
This sound also made the expressions of the members of the First Men's Military Academy waiting backstage change. Even though Mu Shaoyu and Han Yu were lined up behind their comrades, waiting for their chance to take the field, they did not really wish for their comrades before them to fail ...
On the rostrum, Ling Xiao's brows raised at the sound. He did not believe that Ling Lan would commit such a low-level mistake and lose track of the power consumption of the gun in her hands. Therefore, the greatest possibility here was that his daughter was plotting something ... Ling Xiao cast a sympathetic glance at Ling Lan's opponent.
Zhu Jing had been waiting for this chance all this while — when he heard this sound, his eyes shone with fervent joy! His fingers danced, and his mecha which had been evading at high speed all this time suddenly jerked to a stop, and his initially low-hanging M9 long-range projectile sniper rifle was raised up once more to aim at Ling Lan.
Meanwhile, at that moment, the arm of Ling Lan's mecha slapped down sharply at its waist and a new energy block sprang out from the secured dock there!
"Emergency Wartime Power Replacement Technique!" Seeing Ling Lan use this move, everyone became worked up. Every second counted now — if Ling Lan could replace her energy storage unit a step ahead of Zhu Jing, then the outcome would still be unpredictable, but if Zhu Jing was a step quicker, then this match would end with Ling Lan's defeat.
The energy storage unit bounced out of the secured dock, and the left hand of Ling Lan's mecha swept downwards to grab it. Right at this moment, perhaps out of nervousness or perhaps just due to a control error, Ling Lan actually missed the grab — the energy storage unit slipped through the gaps between the mecha's left hand to fall towards the ground.
"Ah!" Witnessing this, everyone cried out in shock. Meanwhile, when Zhu Jing saw this, his heart settled — he put his entire focus on adjusting his gun, prepared to give Ling Lan one final attack.
There was a loud "boom"! Zhu Jing, who had just finished calibrating his gun and was about to shoot, had yet to pull the trigger when the screen of his mecha turned black. Immediately after, he felt a tremendous explosion rock the outside of his mecha, and his entire mecha spun out of his control.
His mecha's A.I. was instantly blaring with loud alarms, prompting him to swiftly eject himself from his cockpit ...
Zhu Jing slammed a hand onto his control panel in anger. Extremely unwillingly, he pressed the button to eject himself from the cockpit. Even now, he still had no idea why his mecha had suddenly exploded. Could it be that his mecha had malfunctioned? He recalled the Zhang Jing-an incident a few days earlier and the little bit of news that had been revealed after that. Everyone was wondering if some problem had been found with this batch of mecha with regards to safety.
Meanwhile, on the field, Ling Lan calmly lowered the long-barrelled gun in her hands. Right as Zhu Jing had been focused on adjusting his aim, she had already been prepared to launch her sure-kill technique — One-Point Sustained Shooting. One-Point Sustained Shooting could barely be considered an advanced technique. It was extremely common, a relatively low-difficulty technique that almost all advanced mecha warriors knew. But at this moment, before the completely unguarded Zhu Jing, it had worked perfectly, instantly destroying Zhu Jing's mecha.
"His limit was not 46 shots. How many shots were in that final One-Point Sustained Shooting?" Everyone was exclaiming in shock — had there been 5 shots or 6 shots in that string of shots? If there had been 6 shots, then Ling Lan would have made 52 shots in total. Even though it was not the theoretical maximum of 54 shots, this was still not a number the average mecha operator could achieve ...
The two imperial operators monitoring the match from the air hesitated. One of them asked, "There were 6 shots, right? Why do I feel as if something is off ..."
The other imperial operator re-watched Ling Lan's final attack again and again on his screen and finally confirmed, "There were 6 shots. Maybe there was just a problem with the lighting. That final shot wavered a little, so many people did not manage to catch it." He had only managed to confirm it after lowering the brightness on his screen.
"Then there's no mistaking it. 52 shots! This number is truly astounding. It should be almost close to perfect!" exclaimed that first imperial operator in awe.
"Yes, according to the top-secret files of the Federation military, only General Ling Xiao has managed to get so close to the perfect number with 53 shots. There are a few others more who managed 52 shots, but they are all extremely exceptional mecha prodigies!"
"In fact, from the perfect operation of that kid from the First Men's Military Academy, we should have known that he absolutely would not have only been capable of 46 shots. We were all fooled by him! What a sneaky fellow!" said the other imperial operator gruffly. When Ling Lan had failed to catch hold of the energy storage unit earlier, he had really been shocked. After all, having seen Ling Lan perform so well just yesterday, he did not wish to see him lose.
1. 特斯: I can't figure out what this could be referring to, so I just took it to be the name Zhu Jing gave to his mecha's A.I.
Chapter 470 - Ling Xiao's Pride and Troubles!
The imperial operator's words received his partner's approval. Ling Lan's amazing performance had moved the two initially unperturbed and indifferent imperial operators, making them reconsider taking in students themselves. Yes, maybe next time, when the First Men's Military Academy took in new students, they could go over there to see if there were any good seedlings ...
In the meantime, a heated debate of whether 51 shots or 52 shots had been fired had broken out among the audience. Ling Xiao, who had been quietly seated at the rostrum, showed no change in his expression, but those familiar with him realised that the corner of his lip was slowly but surely tilting upwards, the smile on his lips becoming increasingly tangible. This meant that he was in an extremely good mood ...
Of course Ling Xiao would feel good, because he had seen — and he was the only one who had seen — that there was a trick behind Ling Lan's last shot. Using a special-class mecha, she had successfully gone beyond the boundaries of her level to pull off a skill that could only have been executed by an ace mecha — Synchronous Shooting!
Synchronous Shooting was a skill that allowed an operator to shoot two beam shots at the same time. Besides the muzzle of the gun being lighted up just that little bit more while shooting, the posture and shooting frequency looked exactly as when shooting an ordinary single beam shot. As such, Synchronous Shooting was one of the hardest long-range offensive skills to detect. It was just so stealthy that even the most experienced mecha masters could not confirm for sure whether someone was actually performing Synchronous Shooting or just shooting a single shot. This was also one of the reasons why Synchronous Shooting managed to become an ace level top-class skill. It was just too hard to deal with — truly a technique that just could not be effectively defended against.
Another reason Synchronous Shooting managed to become a top-class ace level skill was that it was very difficult to execute. To successfully use Synchronous Shooting, a mecha master's hand speed needed to be at the peak of ace level. Without that level of hand speed, the mecha master would not be able to perform Synchronous Shooting even if he wanted to. Of course, even with the required hand speed, the skill might still fail. The mecha's A.I. must also be reliable — even a delay of 0.01 second could cause an attempted synchronous shot to end up as two ordinary beam shots.
Ling Lan's success made Ling Xiao feel both proud and a little helpless at the same time. His daughter seemed to have already entered the rebellious phase his parenting book had mentioned.
Ling Xiao had long known that Ling Lan had already advanced into ace level. Still, executing Synchronous Shooting with an ace mecha versus executing it with a special-class mecha were two completely different concepts. With a special-class mecha, the demands on Ling Lan's finger speed was much more stringent, because the A.I. of a special-class mecha was a hair weaker than the A.I. of an ace mecha. Do not underestimate this thin hairs-breadth of difference — it required an operator to pay several magnitudes the cost to execute an ace technique.
Since Ling Lan managed to successfully execute Synchronous Shooting, in the end, her One-Point Sustained Shooting had successfully fired 7 beam shots. In other words, Ling Lan had fired 53 shots in total and not the 52 or 51 shots as everyone else believed. This number had drawn even with the record set by Ling Xiao in the past. How could Ling Xiao not be proud? This amazing genius mecha operator was none other than his very own daughter! Who said girls could not match up to boys? Ling Xiao believed that his daughter would definitely create a miracle!
However, after the pride he felt subsided, Ling Xiao began to fret. For his daughter's own safety, he had advised her to show a little restraint. On the surface, Ling Lan had indeed seemed to have listened, but in actual fact, this move had displayed her rebellious streak — even if she had to show restraint, she would show it in her own domineering way!
Right then, Ling Xiao's thoughts could not help but stray. Was his daughter trying to prove to him that she was no longer the child that needed him to protect her from the winds and rains? That she had grown up enough to independently face the storms of the outside world?
Thinking of this possibility, Ling Xiao suddenly felt a little crestfallen. The absence of 16 years was not that easy to make up for, especially now when he had come to the realisation that his daughter increasingly did not need him anymore. This fuelled his fury against the people that sabotaged him, for making him miss the most precious childhood period of his daughter.
"It's about time to collect some of the interest on the grudges of that time!" A cold glint shone in Ling Xiao's eyes. There was a brief trace of killing intent, but between blinks of an eye, Ling Xiao had returned to his usual kindly demeanour, still as mellow as jade and as smiley-faced as ever.
Ling Lan saw the opponent eject successfully out of his cockpit and instantly relaxed. That final Synchronous Shot had been unintentional. At that time, while she had been focusing on the operations for One-Point Sustained Shooting, she had actually entered a rare state of harmony between man and nature — this state had reached a peak during her sixth shot, blasting through the bottleneck on her finger speed that had already been stalled for a full half a year to enter a whole new stage.
And it was at precisely that moment when she had naturally performed Synchronous Shooting ... in the end, she had succeeded — that extra beam shot had been like the final straw that had broken the camel's back, causing the opponent's mecha, which should only have been half-destroyed in the attack, to be completely destroyed.
Fortunately, she had been shooting at the upper half of the mecha then, giving the opponent time to eject out of his mecha. It was a truly a great blessing that tragedy had been avoided!
Seeing that the other was alright, Ling Lan calmly instructed Little Four to handle any evidence which could easily expose her secret and her strength. For instance, her long-barrelled beam gun and her energy storage unit had to be destroyed — if it was ever discovered that there was still enough calories inside for two more beam shots, she would definitely be pushed to the forefront of danger. At that time, even her father Ling Xiao would probably be unable to ensure her safety.
Little Four was very efficient, instantly destroying the electrical circuits of the energy storage unit. He also applied a little cover-up to make the energy storage unit look like it had shorted due to having been overdrawn on calories. At the same time, he also modified the saved records on the A.I.. Data on Ling Lan's operations would be saved on the A.I. — this was initially a function meant to help mecha operators review their own operations to identify their shortcomings and fix them, but it was now a potential source which could expose Ling Lan's true strength. Little Four naturally would not overlook it.
Little Four only needed one or two minutes to deal with all of these things. The reason why he even needed that much time was that it was a little more troublesome to edit the saved records on the A.I. and still keep things reasonable. If he could have just formatted it to wipe everything, he would have been done in just one second. However, if he really did that, it would be too conspicuous and would have certainly aroused suspicion even if there had not been any suspicion to begin with.
Still, a minute or two was not very long — by the time Ling Lan's mecha was descending slowly towards the ground, Little Four had already reported back to Ling Lan that everything was OK.
When Ling Lan alighted from her mecha, Zhao Jun raised two thumbs up high, cheering for her. Fifty-two shots! That was the number which almost every special-class long-range operator aimed for. Unfortunately, this number was not so easily achieved. Those who managed it and survived till now were all imperial operators of the Federation without any exceptions, and some had even achieved god-class status ...
Qiao Ting looked at Ling Lan striding over to them and his fists clenched so tightly that his fingernails were practically digging into his flesh. Despite that, Qiao Ting felt no pain, only a powerful sense of danger creeping over his heart. He even wondered if such an outstanding person would enter ace level earlier than he had ...
Thinking of the possibility, it was like a fire was burning in his chest, leaving him feeling extremely uncomfortable. He took in a deep breath to suppress the agitation within him ... perhaps after he returned from this tournament, he should really contemplate how he could best conserve his power calories while shooting so he could increase his number of shots to the utmost limits!
"I will not lose!" Qiao Ting once again threw down these words like a promise to himself before boarding his mecha and preparing for his match. This left Ling Lan quite speechless. It seemed as if every time she returned victorious, Qiao Ting would come and throw this phrase at her. How proud did this Qiao Ting have to be to be so tenacious in his desire to beat her? Even willing to go to the extent of replicating her attack methods to compete against her? Should they not walk their own paths like the saying ' let the four winds blow as they will, I will remain standing steadfast still 1 '?
The Jingan Military Academy had lost the second match as well now, and in such a miserable way to boot. Even though Zhu Jing had not been injured because he had ejected himself in time, after a staff member had examined Zhu Jing's mecha and declared that there was nothing wrong with it, the expressions of the Jingan contingent turned sour. They felt as if they had been given a big hard slap ...
In particular, after seeing how he had been defeated from a replay, Zhu Jing found himself gnashing his teeth in anger towards Ling Lan. He felt that he had lost too pathetically — it had just been an oversight which had led to him falling for the opponent's plot. He had not been on guard, which was why he had been defeated by the opponent's sneak attack.
"Although our defeat is already a foregone conclusion, we cannot let the First Men's Military Academy defeat us in straight matches 1 . No matter what, we need to at least win one match!" encouraged the team leader of the Jingan Military Academy.
Since they had already lost two matches before Qiao Ting had appeared to represent the First Men's Military Academy, this meant that they no longer had any chance of winning the round. This was because they had no one capable of contending with Qiao Ting, so their only wish now was to win a match or two before being defeated to save some face as the 6th rank. Otherwise, if they were defeated in straight matches, then they would be no different from those other military academies who had been defeated by the First Men's Military Academy prior to this. Those schools had just been unlucky enough to meet the First Men's Military Academy a little earlier ...
However, this wish of theirs was instantly crushed when they saw that Qiao Ting was the third contestant. As the third member of Jingan walked onto the field, his complexion was green. If at all possible, he really did not want to take the field just to be tormented by Qiao Ting. The gap between their levels gave him no room to put up a fight ... he could only hope that Qiao Ting's fighting spirit was not too intense so that he would be able to last a little longer and not lose too much face.
Perhaps triggered by Ling Lan's 52 shots (Because no one had even considered the possibility of someone using a special-class mecha to execute the top-class ace level technique Synchronous Shooting, and after factoring in the judgment of the two imperial operators monitoring the match, the referee panel had determined that Ling Lan had fired a total of 52 shots in the end.), Qiao Ting's desire to attack was overwhelming. As soon as the match began, he pulled away at top speed, and when he had gained enough distance, he immediately used two advanced techniques to finish off his opponent.
This match broke the record for the shortest time taken by a long-range operator to end a fight. Long-range operators were unlike close-combat operators who could clash at the first instant to decide the outcome. They needed to first pull a certain distance away before they could carry out their attacks. This also resulted in the time needed for a long-range operator to finish a match being longer than that needed by a close-combat operator. Even such an outstanding long-range ace operator as Qiao Ting who was a head above most others would never be able to compete against the record time of a close-combat operator in defeating an opponent.
However, all of this was not enough to affect Qiao Ting from being the most popular contestant in this tournament. Even though Ling Lan had managed to obtain the excellent results of 52 shots, she was outshined instantly by this new time record of Qiao Ting's.
Ling Lan was extremely pleased by this outcome. She suddenly found that this serious competitiveness of Qiao Ting was actually pretty good for her. At critical moments, he could totally become her shield to deflect attention, allowing her to hide behind him.
"Perhaps, I can try provoking Qiao Ting a bit more? And let him perform a little better?" Ling Lan stroked her jaw as she thought to herself.
The First Men's Military Academy defeated Jingan in three straight matches, letting them move on into the tentative top 4. Meanwhile, at the same time, the three other mecha fights to determine the top 4 were being held at three other mecha combat fields. After Ling Lan and the others had stared for a period of time at the large screen backstage, they received news on it that the First Co-ed Military Academy had also defeated their opponent to become the second to enter the tentative top 4. This was closely followed by the Third Men's Military Academy's advancement. The difference between the two academies' victories was only about 2 to 3 minutes.
The battle for the final slot into the tentative top 4 was rather intense. Since the Second Men's Military Academy had lost prematurely and was not part of the top 8 this year, this had caused the initial solid past rankings of the top 4 to lose one of its corners. This also pitted the original number 5, Qiguang, and number 7, Yaohuang, against each other. Neither side was willing to give up on this chance to progress; the round was fought till the final fifth match. In the end, the 5th-ranking Qiguang won by a slim margin by the referee panel's ruling to advance into the tentative top 4.
After the top 8 military academies had fought, the two resurrected academies, the Second Men's Military Academy and the Federal Defence Military Academy, respectively challenged the initially 9th and 8th rank schools. Having already lost one round previously, the Second Men's Military Academy was no longer as arrogant and conceited as it had been at the start. In order to guarantee their victory, they had cautiously chosen to challenge the weakest academy among their available opponents, the ranked 9th military academy which they had the most confidence to defeat.
It should be said that Jiang Shaoyu's re-entry had caused the Second Men's Military Academy's strength to rise on a vertical axis. Fighting as a resurrected wildcard, they quickly defeated the 9th-ranking military academy in three straight matches to replace the other in the top 8. Meanwhile, the Federal Defence Military Academy clashed with the original 8th-ranking academy, but they were not as lucky — after five tough matches, they had still been defeated in the end.
And so, the defeated Federal Defence Military Academy and the initial 9th-ranking academy that had been defeated by the Second Men's Military Academy would be fighting next for the 9th and 10th position in the rankings of this tournament. If there were no surprises, these two schools which were ranked 9th and 10th in previous tournaments as well would retain their original rankings. This was still an acceptable outcome for both military academies.
Meanwhile, at this time, the Second Men's Military Academy which had been resurrected joined the other 3 schools which had lost to the tentative top 4 academies. Just as with those other academies, they now had a chance to challenge one of the top 4.
The former 8th-ranking school which had been defeated by the First Co-ed Military Academy naturally chose to challenge the 5th-ranking academy. Among the tentative top 4, they were the comparatively weakest one.
However, even though the 5th rank's strength was weaker than that of the First Men's Military Academy, the Third Men's Military Academy, and the First Co-ed Military Academy, the academy was still not weak enough for the 8th-rank to overcome. After fighting 4 matches, the 5th-rank had already managed to win 3 matches, securing their position in the top 4.
Immediately after was the 7th-rank's challenge. Aside from being unable to challenge the opponent which had already defeated them, the 5th-ranking military academy, all the other military academies in the top 4 were viable options. After some consideration, the 7th-rank chose to challenge the Third Men's Military Academy. Of the remaining three academies they could pick, the Third Men's Military Academy was undoubtedly the weakest one — one should always choose the softest bone to chew on.
However, the 7th-rank still lost their challenge. The Third Men's Military Academy may not have an ace operator holding the fort like with the First Men's Military Academy, the Second Men's Military Academy, and the First Co-ed Military Academy, but their five representative mecha operators were all equally powerful, all of them at the peak of special-class. The 7th-rank still was not strong enough to snatch three matches from these five opponent members.
Next, the 6th-ranking Jingan Military Academy which had been defeated by the First Men's Military Academy chose to challenge the 5th-ranking academy. The two schools were very close in ranking, and their strength levels were extremely similar as well. Perhaps feeling repressed from being bullied by the First Men's Military Academy earlier, the Jingan Military Academy exploded with great ferocity, struggling against the opponent for all five matches to finally wrest victory from the jaws of the opponent. They won their third match by a narrow margin and successfully replaced their opponent in the tentative top 4.
However, their luck ended there. The resurrected Second Men's Military Academy chose to challenge them immediately after. Perhaps Jingan had used up all their strength in the previous challenge round, or perhaps they lost confidence at the thought of facing the Second Men's Military Academy which had the ace operator Jiang Shaoyu leading them — in this match-up, Jingan lost to the Second Men's Military Academy in three straight matches. The Second Men's Military Academy efficiently dispatched the Jingan Military Academy and took their place in the tentative top 4.
With that, all the matches in the morning were done. The official top 4 had been decided. They were still the same few schools who had dominated the past tournaments, unshakeable by thunder or lightning 1 . They were respectively the First Men's Military Academy, the Second Men's Military Academy, the Third Men's Military Academy, and the First Co-ed Military Academy.
After a short break at noon, the matches resumed in the afternoon. At this time, whether it was the live audience on planet Qiming or the rest of the Federation public who were at home watching the live broadcast, all of their attention was on the combat field. They were all eagerly anticipating the upcoming semi-finals and finals.
The feelings of the four academies waiting backstage for the final match-up list to be revealed were all different. The five members of the First Men's Military Academy were as steady as Mount Tai, extremely at ease. No matter which opponent they drew, they had the confidence to defeat them and advance to the finals.
As for the other three academies, they were all plagued with worry at the moment. Their greatest concern was, of course, meeting the First Men's Military Academy early. Leaving aside the fact that the First Academy had the publicly acknowledged number one of all the military academies, the ace operator Qiao Ting — below him, there was still Zhao Jun, who had managed to force a draw against the ace operator Jiang Shaoyu; Ling Lan, who had perfect basic controls, created a new personal-name technique, and achieved an almost perfect shot-count; Mu Shaoyu, who had already achieved the peak of special class; as well as Han Yu, who was still able to overpower 80% of the special-class operators in this tournament despite being slightly weaker than his teammates. Not a single one of them would be easy to handle.
All three schools knew that if they were to encounter the First Men's Military Academy in the semi-finals, that would certainly spell tragedy for them. And even if they managed to crunch down this hard rock by some lucky fluke and advance to the finals, they would definitely be too exhausted to compete with their opponent in the finals. Some members of these respective academies even began praying silently that any passing gods or spirits would help them out — please, please, please do not let them meet the First Men's Military Academy in the semi-finals ...
No matter how worried they were, the destined time would come eventually — one academy was destined to become the sacrifice on the First Academy's altar this round ...
When the final match-up listings appeared on the large screen, the Third Men's Military Academy could only bemoan their horrible luck this year. Actually already matched up against the killer First Men's Military Academy in the semi-finals!
Ling Lan and her team continued to use the same method, playing 'rock, paper, scissors' to decide their line-up. This time, Han Yu finally achieved a revolution 1 and snatched up the right to fight first. Mu Shaoyu also performed well, nabbing the second slot following Han Yu, while Zhao Jun would be fighting third. In the final showdown between Qiao Ting and Ling Lan, Qiao Ting managed to narrowly beat out Ling Lan to obtain the rights to fight fourth. Hence, Ling Lan could only resign herself to being the last to fight, holding the fort for her team.
In reality, Ling Lan and the rest all knew that Han Yu's chances were not good in the first fight. After all, his opponent was also a long-range fighter who was already at the peak of special class, which was a small rank higher than Han Yu's own realm. Unless Han Yu managed a sudden breakthrough during the fight, there was almost no chance of him winning the match.
In spite of this, Qiao Ting, Ling Lan, and the rest of the team still entrusted their hopes to Han Yu, wishing he would perform well in his fight. However, hopes were just hopes in the end — reality was harsh and cruel. Han Yu was suppressed by his opponent from the very start of the match. Both combatants being long-range fighters, Han Yu was so outclassed that he could only exhaust himself running around the field with no way of even fighting back. Still, this was also the match that showed the audience how skilful Han Yu was in evasion manoeuvres. Despite being chased around so badly by the opponent, the opponent only managed to land a handful of effective attacks on him.
One attacking while the other dodged, the two fighters eventually used up all of the time allocated for the match. Unsurprisingly, Han Yu lost due to a lower points total than his opponent at the end. Han Yu knew very well what the outcome would be even before the referee panel made their call — after greeting Ling Lan and the others when he returned, he shuffled off to sit in a corner, staring soullessly into the distance.
Even though Han Yu's personality was a little irritating, Qiao Ting and the others could see that, other than those first few matches where he had performed badly due to looking down on his opponent, he had always tried his best after that whenever it was his turn to fight. This included this last match. Although he had still been defeated in the end, Han Yu had still managed to last till the time limit ran out with a handicap of being one rank weaker than his opponent. It was clear to see how resilient he was and how hard he was trying.
Thus, when Han Yu behaved oddly after returning, Zhao Jun and Mu Shaoyu were rather worried. As Mu Shaoyu had to prepare to fight next, he could only push aside his concern for the moment, boarding his mecha to make some final adjustments.
Zhao Jun hesitated for a moment, but then walked over to Han Yu's side. He wanted to ask him how he was doing. After all, he had worked under Han Yu for four years before this — even though their relationship had been more one of mutually using one another, they had still been working together for a long time. There was some bond there, so he should still check in on the other for a bit.
Zhao Jun had just reached out to shake the other when another hand acted faster than his. Before he could even touch Han Yu, that hand grabbed hold of Zhao Jun's wrist.
Zhao Jun felt his hand go numb, and his hand was rendered immobile. He turned his head in shock, only to see that the one who had stopped him was in fact Boss Lan.
"That fight just now has inspired Regiment Commander Han," said Ling Lan as she released Zhao Jun's hand.
Zhao Jun was astonished. "Boss Lan, are you saying that Han Yu ... has received some insight?" Even though Zhao Jun asked this question, he did not expect to receive an answer. This was because he knew that Ling Lan would never lie. If Boss Lan said Han Yu was processing some insight, then Han Yu was most certainly in the process of enlightenment.
Right then, Zhao Jun could not help but feel envy-jealousy-hate stir in his heart towards Han Yu. How blessed was he to gain this opportunity for insight? Zhao Jun thought of himself and was instantly tearing up inside ... why couldn't he be that lucky? Everyday yearning for an epiphany yet never ever receiving one — that solid barrier blocking him from advancing to ace level all this time ... when would it loosen up?
Knowing now that Han Yu was busy with his insights, Zhao Jun did not try to disturb him anymore. Fifteen minutes later, it was Mu Shaoyu's turn to take the field!
1. 任尔东西南北风. 我自岿然不动: This phrase is a combination of lines from two separate Chinese poems "题竹石" by 郑燮 and "西江月.井冈山" by 毛泽东. I will not go into those two poems here as that would end up as a whole essay. The original Chinese actually names the four winds — East, West, South, North — but IMO it flows better in English to condense them into 'the four winds'.
As for the meaning, it refers to how people should keep to their own principles regardless of the pressures exerted by the outside world. Here, Ling Lan is saying that they should just walk their own paths without worrying about each other. She is boggled at why Qiao Ting is so persistent in their rivalry.
2. Fun fact: The Chinese way of saying this is 'to shave (someone) bald'. Leave them no face! Take all of their hair!
3. i.e. very secure in their positions.
4. 翻身农奴把歌唱: Literally 'break free from serfdom to sing songs (of freedom)'. Han Yu managed to overcome his fate of being oppressed thus far. :p
Chapter 471 - Zhao Jun's Predicament!
For the second match, both mecha which took to the field were balanced special-class mecha. The two contestants had also participated previously in the single mecha combat event, both having managed to make their way into the top 16 there. With roughly equivalent strength levels, it was possible for either side to win.
The First Men's Military Academy attached great importance to this match. If they lost another match, the situation would be grim for them; there would be no room at all for error in the following three matches. On their end, the Third Men's Military Academy viewed this match with even more importance. If they managed to win this match as well, their chances of advancing to the finals would be significantly increased ... as long as there was a chance, no one would be willing to give up, and the Third Men's Military Academy was no exception.
As both contestants were balanced mecha operators, the audience began guessing before the match began — what mode of attack would the two choose? Would it be long range or close combat? Or perhaps first close combat then long range?
At the instant the referee swung his green flag, the two mecha leapt out like tigers out of cages, charging ferociously at the opponent.
In unplanned unison, both fighters had chosen close combat!
With a clang, the weapons in their hands clashed.
There were two major types of attack weapons — one was energy-type weapons like beam sabers, while the other was traditional cold weapons. When both combatants chose to engage in close range, the weapons they chose was also exactly the same: traditional cold weapons.
As soon as the match began, the series of movements both mecha made — from drawing the cold weapons from their backs to clashing violently against each other — were a blur in the eyes of the audience. Many of the spectators were yelling in excitement, awed at the shocking speed of both fighters' operations.
Of course, these only applied to the average audience members; those truly top-class operators were completely calm in comparison. Although the operations of both the fighters on the field were a little better than the average mecha operator, this display was still not enough to amaze them. Only something like Ling Lan's on-the-line operation could move them.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! ..."
On the field, the two combatants were attacking each other fervently. The noise of clashing cold weapons rang out again and again — this intense scene left the audience staring with wide eyes, afraid that they might miss the definitive moment when the outcome would be determined if they even blinked.
Backstage, Qiao Ting, Ling Lan, and Zhao Jun stood to the right of the large screen, opposite the Third Men's Military Academy members who were standing to the left of the screen. They were staring intently at the video feed being played on the screen, mentally analysing the winning chances of both sides.
After staring at the screen for a long time, Zhao Jun felt that his eyes were a little dry and aching. He reeled in his gaze, planning to take a break, and this was when he saw that Ling Lan actually had her eyes closed. He instantly blurted out in surprise, "Boss Lan, you aren't watching?"
Zhao Jun's question drew Qiao Ting's attention and made him turn his gaze around to look at Ling Lan as well. His eyes were questioning too.
Ling Lan replied evenly, "It's nothing much. I just feel that Regiment Commander Mu will win and so did not continue to watch."
Ling Lan's words made the members of the Third Men's Military Academy across from them glare angrily at her. The fighting on the field was clearly on equal ground right now, and that punk actually dared to conclude that they would lose just like that ... this was really testing their tolerance! If not for the fact that they were not allowed to fight backstage, they would definitely have charged over to teach that punk with that irresponsible mouth a hard lesson.
The members of the Third Men's Military Academy fumed to themselves. They did not know that this rather cold-looking and somewhat unremarkable 'punk' was actually a super strong fighter with physical skills already at the Domain level. If they knew, they probably would not have dared to have such thoughts — it could only be said that ignorance breeds fearlessness.
Ling Lan's words made Zhao Jun's eyes light up. In the Lingtian Battle Clan, Ling Lan had never ever said anything useless. Since Boss Lan said Regiment Commander Mu would win, then he was certain to win. (Here was yet another person who had been successfully hoodwinked by Ling Lan ...)
In contrast, Ling Lan's explanation left Qiao Ting blinking blankly. He peered dubiously at Ling Lan, unsure whether Ling Lan was just saying this to deal a mental blow to their opponents backstage, or if she truly felt that Mu Shaoyu would win.
Qiao Ting looked back at the large screen sceptically. On the field, the two contestants were still fighting on equal ground — anyone could win, anyone could lose ... he really could not see any sign that Mu Shaoyu was going to win yet.
Qiao Ting carried this sense of uncertainty as he continued to watch the fight unfold. Fifty moves went by, then 100 moves ... when the fight was close to 150 moves, finally, the opponent made a mistake. Mu Shaoyu did not let this opportunity slip by — a round of forceful attacks instantly beat the opponent into a defensive position with no more room to fight back.
This scene left Qiao Ting gaping in astonishment as he turned to look at Ling Lan. "You really saw this coming?"
Ling Lan glanced at Qiao Ting and said calmly, "How could that be possible? It was just a random comment."
No matter how heaven-defying her innate talent of Profound Insight was, it still could not help her see the outcome of a close fight like this more than 100 moves before the deciding moment. She had only felt that Mu Shaoyu had been radiating an extremely tenacious fighting spirit when he had left for the field. With that attitude, it would be hard for him to lose!
A random comment? Boss Lan, that's too irresponsible of you! Zhao Jun was crying inside when he heard these words. Mind you, when he had first heard what Ling Lan had said, he had really believed in it!!
"Even being so accurate with just a random comment?" Qiao Ting did not believe it.
Ling Lan glanced coldly at Qiao Ting and said sarcastically, "Could it be that you want Regiment Commander Mu to lose?"
This question stabbed deep into Qiao Ting, leaving him speechless. That was true ... they couldn't very well disparage themselves and say one of their own would lose, right? Annoyed, Qiao Ting turned back to look at the large screen, mentally berating himself for being so careless that he was fooled by Ling Lan!
Even as they were talking, the fight on the field was reaching its end. Mu Shaoyu launched into another round of powerful attacks, striking the body of the opponent's mecha repeatedly, instantly reducing the opponent's points to zero.
When the field referee received the judgment of the referee panel, he decisively stopped the match. Mu Shaoyu obtained the victory for this match, and the overall score was now 1 to 1.
The leading team leader of the Third Men's Military Academy — that is, the strongest of the five representing members — could only shake his head at the outcome. It was a pity his teammate had made some mistakes that he shouldn't have, allowing the opponent to grab hold of the opening to win the match. If not for that, the outcome of this match would probably only have been decided when the time ran out.
He glanced over at the three representatives of the First Men's Military Academy who had yet to fight and clenched his teeth. He would be the one to fight in the next match, and he hoped that the First Men's Military Academy would not be sending out Qiao Ting ...
As the line-up of the First Men's Military Academy was extremely bizarre with no logic to be found behind its arrangement, it was impossible to deduce what the opponent's final line-up would be. He had decided to place himself for the third match largely because he was betting that the opponent would not send Qiao Ting out to fight among the first three. That way, they would be able to directly win three matches to advance to the finals.
At this thought, the team leader once again thought to himself what a pity it was. If they had only won the second match, then he would have the confidence to win the third match as long as his opponent was not Qiao Ting!
"Leader, the contestant for the third match from the First Men's Military Academy has come out. It's Zhao Jun!" The super substitute on the Third Men's Military Academy side who would likely have no chance to fight had been observing the First Men's Military Academy all this while. When he saw Zhao Jun board his mecha in the final 10 minutes before the fight to calibrate his mecha, his expression shifted and he immediately alerted his team leader.
"So it's him!" The leader's face turned serious. Even though he was confident that he could win against any of the others aside from Qiao Ting, among the remaining four, Zhao Jun was the one he was most wary of. He had not forgotten how Zhao Jun had succeeded in forcing a draw with the ace operator Jiang Shaoyu in the single mecha combat event. Although there had been an element of luck involved there, Zhao Jun's own solid mecha control skills were also one of the reasons for his success.
Perhaps that Ling Lan would have been easier to deal with! The team leader thought to himself with some regret. However, his morose mood soon shifted into happiness — his match-up against Zhao Jun was actually very advantageous to their Third Men's Military Academy. As long as he defeated Zhao Jun, no matter which of his two remaining teammates was matched against Ling Lan later, there would be hope of victory.
Though that Ling Lan had been able to successfully add some flair to the basic techniques, successfully defeating opponent after opponent, those victories had all been achieved through some element of surprise — his opponents had only lost due to being caught off-guard. If one was on guard against them, could these basic techniques triumph over advanced techniques? Especially if it came to those special-class techniques which were even one level higher than that?
At this thought, a smile appeared on the team leader's face. He could almost see the scene where they successfully advanced to the finals ... with regards to the line-up arrangement this time, the heavens were undoubtedly on their side.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Qiao Ting saw the team leader of the Third Men's Military Academy boarding his mecha and his expression shifted. "Who'd have expected it to be him —— Zhou Chao-Ling 1 !"
Qiao Ting had a very deep impression of Zhou Chao-Ling — the First Men's Military Academy had once had a practice spar with the Third Men's Military Academy, and back then, Qiao Ting had led the Leiting Mecha Clan against the mecha clan led by the other in a team battle. At that time, he had already been a special-class operator for quite a long time, while Zhou Chao-Ling had only just advanced to special-class operator level.
By all accounts, a special-class operator who had just advanced should show some signs of instability every so often while operating his special-class mecha. However, the other had not seemed to have this problem — his controls were so stable that he did not seem like a newly advanced special-class operator, instead appearing extremely solid and reliable. What was even more memorable for Qiao Ting was Zhou Chao-Ling's composure and self-assuredness. Even though he had clearly known back then that he was no match for Qiao Ting, he had not lost his mental balance. Throughout the entire fight, his calm heart had allowed him to make almost no mistakes. In the end, if not for Zhou Chao-Ling's realm being a little lacking, leaving him unable to accurately determine the exact target-point of Qiao Ting's sure-kill technique, Qiao Ting was unsure whether he would have been able to win that spar.
In Qiao Ting's opinion, if Zhou Chao-Ling had been able to advance to ace level before the Grand Mecha Tournament, the opponent he most worried about in this tournament would probably not be Lin Xiao of the First Co-ed Military Academy but this Zhou Chao-Ling instead.
The change in Qiao Ting's complexion was noticed by Ling Lan. A thought stirred, and she quietly instructed Little Four to look up the detailed data on Zhao Jun's opponent. She swiftly browsed through it and, seeing his achievements all these years, her countenance slowly turned grim ... what a truly troublesome opponent!
Mu Shaoyu, who had been in a state of excitement ever since the end of his fight, also saw Zhou Chao-Ling boarding his mecha in the opponent's area. Without a doubt, he would be the third person to fight. Mu Shaoyu's heart sank and his mood instantly fell. Moodily, he said, "F*ck, why is it him? Zhao Jun's luck is really too horrible."
Some information appeared in Mu Shaoyu's mind: Zhou Chao-Ling, special-class operator (peak); 5th rank in single mecha combat; team leader of the Third Men's Military Academy!
"Zhao Jun is not necessarily going to lose." As Qiao Ting said this, he sent a pointed look at Ling Lan. His gaze was clearly telling Ling Lan that one should leave some wiggle room when speaking and not act as if one knew everything with full confidence and mislead others. It looked like he still could not let go of how he had been fooled by Ling Lan during Mu Shaoyu's match.
Ling Lan's lips quirked up almost imperceptibly, and with a lift of her brow, a powerful surge of domineering presence swept towards Qiao Ting. With conviction, she said, "Zhao Jun will win!" As Zhao Jun's boss, even if the final outcome was a complete and utter mess of a defeat, at this moment, she would still firmly support her follower.
As soon as Ling Lan's force of presence spread out, Qiao Ting's force of presence was triggered as well. The two powerful forces pushed against each other between the two of them. Mu Shaoyu, who was standing in that vicinity, quickly stepped away, face paling slightly.
He stared at the two equally powerful people before him and felt a little crestfallen. He had initially thought that one Qiao Ting was already a rare one-in-a-century prodigy — who could have guessed that a junior three years younger than him would be able to match Qiao Ting so closely ... Mu Shaoyu believed that, based on Ling Lan's outstanding control skills, he would have no trouble at all advancing to ace level while he was still in the academy. The only question was whether he would advance in his fourth year like Qiao Ting, or would it happen in his fifth year?
Mu Shaoyu never even considered whether it could be in his third year because he did not think someone could do what even General Ling Xiao had not been able to achieve. This once again proved that Ling Xiao had already become a legend under the Federation military's purposeful branding and promotion.
Qiao Ting and Ling Lan were still very rational and knew how to restrain themselves. After a brief clash, their forces of presences were swiftly reeled back and tucked away. Meanwhile, at this time, Zhao Jun's fight was about to kick off.
From his mecha's viewing screen, Zhao Jun saw that his opponent was Zhou Chao-Ling and he was thoroughly excited. What this fellow Zhao Jun loved most was to fight against expert fighters. He felt that only by fighting against other experts would he be able to more quickly raise his own strength. He was also not afraid of losing, believing that failure was the mother of success — as long as he learned from the cumulative experiences of these failures, he would one day win everything back. Therefore, he was not at all afraid of fighting with an ace operator. Even though he knew that he was sure to lose, he would still fight a great and vigorous battle — even if he lost, he still wanted to leave some mark on his opponent. This was another reason why he had managed to force a draw with Jiang Shaoyu.
Zhao Jun and Zhou Chao-Ling were both close-combat type special-class operators who operated close-combat mecha. Everyone knew that this match was sure to be like the second match, an intense close-combat match. Compared to long-range combat which really tested the operators' skills and tactics, close combat was undoubtedly much more straightforward and exciting to watch, better able to work up the audience. Therefore, even before the match had begun, the audience was already getting pumped up in their seats.
Immediately after the referee swung his green flag down, Zhao Jun and Zhou Chao-Ling instantly clashed. Right at this moment, the calmer members of the audience could see the difference between this match and Mu Shaoyu's. Both matches had been close-combat matches, and the fighters in both matches had also started right off by drawing the cold weapons from the secured docks at their backs to clash with each other. However, the time Zhao Jun and Zhou Chao-Ling used was even shorter — some of the audience with weaker vision did not even manage to catch when they had moved.
"Clang!" The collision of the cold weapons caused a loud noise, sending out countless sparks at the same time. The sheer volume of the sound almost deafened the audience sitting right at the front. The fearsome power clash in a true close-combat match was not something balanced mecha could truly demonstrate. Only close-combat mecha could truly reach this level of ferocity — just this one clash had shown everyone the clear difference.
"Boom!" Zhao Jun and Zhou Chao-Ling's fearsome power which could rip each other apart worked up the already immensely excited audience even further — no longer able to control themselves, they shouted loudly, cheering for both mecha operators on the field.
"Equally matched!" Backstage, Mu Shaoyu was staring intently at the large screen. When he saw this scene, he could not help but yell excitedly. In terms of power, Zhao Jun had not lost to the opponent.
"Both of them have displayed the greatest power value of close-combat mecha. In terms of operation, Zhao Jun has not lost!" The austerity in Qiao Ting's face eased slightly — initially, he had been worrying that Zhao Jun would lose out to the opponent by a hair in terms of operation, but now from the looks of it, he had been worrying too much.
Ling Lan, however, was frowning. This frown was extremely subtle, so subtle that no one had noticed it, thinking that Ling Lan was just wearing her typical ice-block face.
"Boss, you've noticed it too? The power Zhao Jun is pulling out from his mecha is 30 kN 1 less than his opponent." On the mecha combat field, there were all sorts of high-tech instruments which would collect data on every move of the two mecha on the field and send it over to the referee panel to be used as evidence for their judgements. Little Four had hidden a clone of himself there so that as soon as any new information appeared, he would be able to receive it at first notice.
"How high have they reached in terms of power?" asked Ling Lan.
"Zhou Chao-Ling: 1857kN, Zhao Jun: 1827kN. After calculating based on the power formula conversion ... after 37 moves, the arms of Zhao Jun's mecha will be afflicted with some wear and tear issues due to this power difference. With further clashes, the abrasion will become worse and may damage the body of the mecha ..." Little Four was very responsible — not only did he tell Ling Lan the gap between the two fighters power output, but he had also calculated the problem that would eventually arise from it.
"Before his mecha's body is ruined, how many moves can he hold out for, approximately?" asked Ling Lan.
"In theory, at most 93 moves, but in reality, this number might be reduced by about 10 moves," said Little Four somewhat uncertainly after some calculations.
"In other words, Zhao Jun only has 83 moves to find an opening." Ling Lan's expression turned solemn. She had not expected this Zhou Chao-Ling to have concealed his strength so well, thus being overlooked by everyone. In fact, the level of his mecha operation was just a line away from that of an ace operator's. If Zhao Jun wanted to win, he would have to do so before his mecha was destroyed. That meant that he would need to find an opening to KO his opponent within 83 moves.
Only by KO-ing the opponent would he be able to win — gaining the upper hand in 83 moves would not be of any use. Once Zhao Jun's mecha started malfunctioning, an experienced special-class operator like Zhou Chao-Ling would never let this kind of opportunity slip by. Of course, this also required Zhao Jun to notice the problem before his mecha actually began to malfunction. Otherwise, if he waited till the time his mecha blared an alarm, the damage would have already become fact — Zhao Jun would have no way to do anything about the situation.
On the field, Zhao Jun was still clashing violently with the opponent. At first, he did not notice anything amiss, thinking that he was fighting on even ground with the opponent, but with each succeeding collision, Zhao Jun slowly began to sense that something was not right. After each collision, the two fighters would always be repelled back by the resulting concussive force generated between them. At first, Zhao Jun had been sent back about the same distance as the opponent, but this distance slowly grew. After about 50 moves, the distance Zhao Jun was repelled back each time had exceeded his opponent's by over 2 to 3 metres.
At this time, how could Zhao Jun still not realise? In this clash of sheer power, he had lost to the opponent. At this moment, he suddenly recalled something that had happened when he had been sparring with Boss Lan.
A jolt of fear coursed through his heart and cold sweat immediately sprang out on his forehead. He immediately commanded his A.I., saying, " Dawn Light 1 , conduct a quick check on the mecha's condition."
"Clang!" The two fighters once again clashed in mid-air and this time, Zhao Jun was pushed back even further. The cold sweat on Zhao Jun's forehead pooled together to flow down his face in rivulets. He anxiously waited for his A.I. to respond while preparing himself for the next confrontation.
"Beep, check complete. Varying degrees of damage detected at the mecha's right shoulder, elbow, and wrist. The same areas on the left arm are also beginning to show similar signs of damage." Finally, after 5 seconds, his A.I. provided an answer. Just as he had predicted, the joint areas of his mecha's upper limbs were starting to show signs of wear and tear.
Zhao Jun's heart sank and he asked, "How many more moves can the mecha sustain?"
Dawn Light continued to calculate and was faster to respond this time, only taking 3 seconds. "The theoretical estimate is approximately another 50 moves!"
"50 moves, eh? There's still time." After hearing his A.I.'s answer, Zhao Jun's heart settled. Even though he was already stuck in this predicament, the situation was not so terrible yet that he had no recourse. As long as he could keep a level head, he would still have a chance.
The average audience member still had not noticed that the situation was already unfavourable for Zhao Jun now. They still believed that the two fighters were tied in terms of strength, and that a proper final outcome would only be determined at the end of the match via referee panel decision.
Some of the top-class mecha masters in the venue could see a little clearer, however. Notably, those of imperial operator level and above already had a pretty good grasp of the overall situation at this point. The imperial operator from the Lawless Lands hovering at high-altitude airspace to monitor the matches could not help but praise, "I had originally thought that the one with the best basic controls is that Ling Lan, but that Zhou Chao-Ling is surprisingly as good. His foundations are really solid. As long as nothing goes wrong, he's sure to win this match."
His companion, however, was silent. The imperial operator was rather surprised by this and could not help calling out to him, "Tian Xuan, Tian Xuan, what's wrong?"
The imperial operator called Tian Xuan heard his companion's call and immediately replied, "Ren Ji, I just feel that Zhou Chao-Ling's operation methods seem very familiar. I'm trying to recall where I've seen it before." He had barely finished speaking when he suddenly seemed to have remembered. "Ah, it's him!"
"Who?" asked the imperial operator called Ren Ji.
"You've never met him before, but you should have heard of him. The Bull, Zhou Yuan-qing!"
Ren Ji's eyes lit up. "One of the 28 Constellations of the Federation imperial operators."
With a wistful expression, Tian Xuan said, "20 years ago, I heard he adopted a baby with extremely good talent potential. Looks like it's probably this Zhou Chao-Ling. Zhou Chao-Ling, Zhou Chao-Ling ... pfft!" After repeating Zhou Chao-Ling's name a few times, Tian Xuan burst out laughing.
"What? Is there something wrong with this name? I think it's pretty nice." Ren Ji was left completely bewildered by his companion's sudden fit of laughter. He really could not see what was so funny about this name.
"Ha, the Bull really knows how to hold a grudge. Even when naming his child, he did not forget to include a reminder to surpass General Ling Xiao 1 !" The imperial operator called Tian Xuan finally explained his fit of laughter. Zhou Yuan-qing was from the same generation as Ling Xiao. Incredibly talented, and extremely outstanding, he should have been the focus of everyone's attention — but as luck would have it, there was Ling Xiao. All the talents of that generation had been overshadowed by the unbelievably aberrant talent of General Ling Xiao and so were never able to receive the fame they would have received otherwise!
1. 周超凌: This fellow's name is rather interesting. 周 (Zhou) is the surname, so let's just leave that aside. But his given name 超凌 (Chao-Ling) can mean 'to overcome/surpass Ling', with the 'Ling' character being the same one as our main character's surname. I wonder if there's some story behind this name ...
2. The author uses 'KN' in the raws as a unit of energy here, but when I looked energy units up, what came up as a possible reference is kilonewton, which is represented as 'kN'.
3. 晨光: A really sweet name for his mecha's A.I. IMO.
4. T/C: Lol. I called it. Totally felt Zhou Chao-Ling's name was strange.