348 -353
Chapter 348 - Escape in High Gear!
When the Caesarian ace operator regained consciousness once more and opened his eyes, he had already returned to the resurrection point of the Swift Dragon base.
The resurrection point of the Swift Dragon base was actually a large room. Normally, the room doors were tightly shut and the NPC soldiers would never enter this area. This was because the mainframe had set it so that resurrection points were considered safe spots. Anyone who resurrected here would never be discovered by the NPC soldiers as long as they did not exit the doors.
The Caesarian ace operator stood up feeling regretful but found that there was someone peeking around the room doors ... black hair and yellow skin, it most definitely had to be that Huaxian who had died alongside him. He decisively drew the dagger at his calf and leapt over.
Hearing the whistle of the wind, that person rolled forwards and evaded his strike. The man turned to look at his attacker and his irises contracted. "Caesarian." He was the adjutant who had died by the force of the magnetic energy beam cannon. Having just come out of the resurrection point, he had had no choice but to stick around the area due to the patrolling guards of the base outside the doors. Of course, he also did not know what had happened outside.
"This time, you will still die by my hand!" The ace operator from Caesar pounced as he cried out gleefully.
The adjutant was taken aback by those words, and then as if figuring something out, his gaze narrowed as he once again dodged the other's attack. Tone hateful, he asked, "The magnetic energy beam cannon, you all were the ones who arranged its activation?"
The Caesarian ace operator sneered with a blade in his hands. "Looks like you aren't stupid. Indeed, if we hadn't changed the settings, how could the supreme commander of this base mobilise the base's ultimate weapon for just a small starship?"
It turned out that that final message sent out by D1 was primarily to the supreme commander of the base. It ordered the other to kill off all invaders at any cost. Of course, once the ultimate weapon was mobilised, those final members of Caesar still hiding on the Caesarian spaceship would able to find out in time that something had gone wrong.
If Little Four had been a little more careful back then, he would have noticed in time. With Little Four's capabilities, he could have changed this order completely, perhaps even uncover the hidden Caesarian spaceship based on the clues obtained from the message. Then, he would have been able to find the Caesarians hiding aboard the ship and silently annihilate all of them, truly wrapping up all loose ends.
Then, Ling Lan and the others, including the Federation soldiers, would not have been thrown into this current predicament. They would not have had to tide through difficulty after difficulty; they would definitely have been able to easily depart from the Swift Dragon base ... it could only be said that Little Four, who had learned something of human emotions, had also picked up some of the weaknesses of humans at the same time. For example, carelessness, or the tendency to hide some little secrets he felt were not very important and would not affect the larger picture ...
The Caesarian ace operator's words caused an expression of realisation to appear on the adjutant's face. He had in fact been puzzling over the matter all this while — the ultimate weapon would typically not be mobilised unless the survival of the base was threatened. They had only hijacked a ship and tried to flee the base — this would not affect the safety of the base at all, so the ultimate weapon should not have been activated.
Taking the other's explanation into consideration, everything made sense now. The adjutant looked sullenly at the Caesarian before him and responded belligerently, "I will not die a second time by your hand." The magnetic energy beam cannon was too powerful for him to resist, so he had no complaints about dying to it, but he definitely would not die at the hands of an equally human enemy.
The two of them confronted each other in a stalemate for several seconds, and then they suddenly leapt at each other. The adjutant pulled out a short dagger from behind his waist in an instant, stabbing it viciously at the opponent.
"Clang clang clang ..." Cold weapons clashed again and again. Both of them being ace operators, their physical skills were equally good. They were actually fighting on even ground — it would be hard to determine a winner anytime soon.
Excitement bloomed in the eyes of the Caesarian ace operator. As expected, the one who dared to pull a mutual destruction move on him was an extremely formidable adversary. Due to Ling Lan's ingenious scheme, the Caesarian ace operator could never have known that he had actually misidentified his opponent.
Meanwhile, because the adjutant had stayed in this room all this time after reviving, he was not very clear on some things that had transpired. He hated the other side for mobilising the ultimate weapon and stranding him at the Swift Dragon base, and after finding out that this was all a nefarious scheme of Caesar, he had taken the other to be an enemy right away and could not wait to kill the other.
In this manner, for various reasons coupled with some clever manipulation from Ling Lan, her hand in the matter was completely concealed. Until the very end, the Huaxia Federation and the Caesar Empire never discovered that there had been the involvement of a hidden third party between them.
********
After finishing off the Caesarian ace operator, Ling Lan finally let out a breath of relief. In truth, that final scene had all been an illusion by Little Four. The so-called explosion of the engine and the mecha losing control were all fake — even the beam saber had been intentionally discarded by her to fool the opponent. The scene of plunging his blade into Ling Lan's cockpit the other saw was naturally also an illusion. It was impossible for an ace mecha's beam saber to pierce through the cockpit of an imperial mecha. The other's beam saber had only grazed by the waist of Ling Lan's mecha, not harming Ling Lan's mecha one bit.
In the end, taking advantage of the moment the other had let down his guard in joy, Ling Lan had equipped Regretless, which she had long kept on standby, to pierce through the other's cockpit. Regretless's unique sharpness once again showed its prowess — the outer shell of the ace mecha had no way of stopping Regretless. The blade pierced cleanly through the cockpit to kill the opponent instantly.
However, this bout of control, fighting, and calculation had indeed tired Ling Lan out to the extreme as well, and her stamina was also at its limit. Ling Lan knew that she needed to return to the starship as soon as possible, otherwise, her body would not be able to take it if she continued to operate this imperial mecha.
When they saw their team's adjutant choosing mutual destruction with the enemy, all the Huaxian soldiers in the control room of the starship closed their eyes in pain ... in order to live so they could return and report this situation to military headquarters, they had no choice but to abandon their comrade who had given his life to win them this opportunity. This feeling was very painful to them. Their only consolation was that they were currently in the virtual world. As long as there were no spectres, their comrade would only be temporarily trapped here without any danger to his life.
Right at this moment, a team member who had been keeping his post and monitoring the progress of the power accumulation all this while suddenly shouted, "Reporting to the commander! Power at 50%!"
At these words, the commander's eyes sprang open and forcefully suppressing his worry for his adjutant, a trace of resolution flashed across his eyes. He instantly gave the order, "Shift to high gear immediately!"
Subsequently, the team member in charge of speed control firmly pushed the speed dial to its maximum setting.
"Order received. Shifting starship operation from low gear to high gear ... warning, actual height is insufficient, gravitational force is too large. Starship may be damaged. Warning, insufficient power. High gear can only be sustained for 7 minutes. Please choose carefully, please choose carefully ..." The starship's A.I. processed the actual situation and made a determination, instantly issuing an emergency alarm alerting the starship operators that shifting speed settings now was a mistake and was extremely dangerous.
The team members that were in charge of shifting speeds lifted their heads to cast a panicked look at their commander when they heard this alert from the A.I.. After all, they were not specialized starship operators. Encountering this sort of unanticipated situation, they were flustered, unsure what they should do.
The commander clapped his hands fiercely together and said firmly, "Shift to high gear. We'll take the risk." If he continued to dilly-dally, once the enemy fired the third round of the magnetic energy beam cannon, they would truly be doomed. He definitely must not waste this time the adjutant had sacrificed his life to give them. He must lead his team members back to the central district successfully and report the situation to military headquarters in time. This way, he would also be able to save the adjutant faster ...
"Confirm shift to high gear. Countdown begins now. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, shift to high gear successful. Beginning power drain countdown. 420, 419, 418 ..." The A.I. executed the command to shift to high gear. The moment time was up, the initially slowly climbing starship suddenly sped upwards at high velocity like a propelled arrow.
Because they had not achieved the minimum required height to switch to high speed, under the opposing forces of gravity and the propulsion force of the engine, a part of the armour on the tail part of the starship was ripped off to fall from a height of 1800 meters ...
However, the starship still flew on tenaciously. As a plume of smoke curled around its tail, it prepared to break through the atmospheric layer to enter outer space!
"Commander, now what?" As the starship suddenly accelerated, zooming towards the skies above, the calibrating magnetic energy beam cannon instantly lost its target. The officer in charge of attacking this time immediately reported this to the supreme commander of the base.
The supreme commander wordlessly put down his polar telescope. The power of the magnetic energy beam cannon was indeed very horrifying, but once a target entered higher airspace, especially at the extreme high speeds of the starship in question, it was very hard for the cannon to do anything. In the end, he could only say regretfully, "Forget it. Formally seal away the ultimate weapon. Consider them lucky this time, actually managing to escape from the Swift Dragon base."
"Yes! Commander!" The officer responsible for the magnetic energy beam cannon immediately arranged for the cannon to be sealed and put away.
After this remark, the supreme commander stubbornly raised his polar telescope again to stare out at that starship that was about to fly out of the atmospheric layer. An idea sparked through his mind and he set the telescope down. Turning to the officer beside him, he said, "New orders. All able fighting crew of the Swift Dragon base are to assemble immediately and board their ships. Thirty minutes later, we will officially take flight and give chase to our warship that has been taken hostage. We must destroy it within the range of the Nebula Boundary."
"Yes, Sir!" The adjutant by his side instantly accepted the order and turned to disseminate this urgent call to arms.
Several seconds later, an ear-splitting emergency alarm blared out across the entire base. In all the encampments, the base's DMC's voice rang out, "Emergency notice. All able warriors of the Swift Dragon fleet, please assemble at your respective warships within 30 minutes. Thirty minutes later, the fleet will officially set off ... Emergency notice. All able warriors of the Swift Dragon fleet, please assemble at your respective warships within 30 minutes. Thirty minutes later, the fleet will ..."
The entire Swift Dragon base began to bustle with activity as all of the warriors rushed towards the respective warships they were assigned to. Thirty minutes was extremely tight; they had not a moment to lose.
Chapter 349 - Never Letting Go Again!
The supreme commander of the base saw all the soldiers below beginning to move and only then did he turn to leave the command centre. Coming to his personal office, he acted according to his original setting and sent a situation report to the Mecha World mainframe, detailing all the orders he had given in response as well. However, the transmission channel had already been altered by the Caesarian hackers so that his report would be sent directly to the mainframe of the spaceship hidden on the base. Meanwhile, the Federation mainframe remained oblivious to everything that was happening here.
********
The starship had successfully shifted to high speed and was temporarily out of danger, but this risky order of the commander left Ling Lan in a sticky situation. When the commander had commanded for the ship to shift into high gear, Little Four, who had immediately grasped the information, had quickly passed on the bad news to Ling Lan.
If Ling Lan had not been too far away from the starship, the amount of time left would have been enough for Ling Lan to board the ship again. However, it just so happened that back when Ling Lan had been fighting the Caesarian ace operator, in order to finish the other quicker, she had purposefully pretended to lose control to trick the opponent. At present, she had already fallen to about an altitude of 800 metres, almost a whole 1000 metres away from the starship's altitude of 1700 metres.
This distance cut Ling Lan's time extremely short. She operated her imperial mecha to fly at high speed towards the starship, trying to land within the ship while it still had not officially entered high gear. But just as Ling Lan was about to successfully enter a launch port of the starship, the ship managed to activate high gear and shoot forwards like an arrow, leaving Ling Lan to pounce onto empty air. The ship instantly pulled a considerable distance away from Ling Lan.
Seeing this, Ling Lan clenched her teeth and decisively pushed the imperial mecha to its maximum speed, which was the mecha's overdrive. Overdrive mode was typically in a sealed state and would not be readily activated, because running in overdrive was a great burden on a mecha's engines. The energy consumed per second was no less than when firing a heavy energy projectile cannon. Not only that, overdrive would also take a high toll on the operator's body.
The reason Ling Lan had not activated overdrive mode from the start was because she was afraid her body would not be able to bear it. At the same time, she was placing her hopes on the long shot that she would be able to successfully board the starship by only using high speed. Unexpectedly, all of her cautions was for naught in the end. However, presented with the dire situation of having to stay behind at the Swift Dragon base if she did not use overdrive, Ling Lan naturally would not hesitate any longer!
She needed to board the ship successfully before the starship broke through the atmospheric layer. Otherwise, based on the mecha's power and mobility alone, she would not be able to escape the gravity of the planet to fly into outer space. Even though Ling Lan was currently piloting an imperial mecha, it was still out of the question unless Ling Lan was controlling a god-class mecha. Frankly, even if an imperial mecha could fly into outer space, Ling Lan's current level of strength and physical constitution would not allow her to sustain long periods of cross-level operation anyway ...
This time, Ling Lan's caution taught her a bloody lesson. She understood now that she needed to apply her full strength in all things from now on and not put her hopes on luck and chance, otherwise she might have to pay an even greater price.
Time was running out bit by bit. Ling Lan's mecha came closer and closer to the starship. 100 metres, 50 metres, 30 metres, 20 metres, 10 metres ... she saw the number countdown of the 5-minute limit she set for herself to operate in overdrive dwindling smaller and smaller, and cold sweat poured uncontrollably from her forehead. For the first time, she felt how truly helpless she was.
She clearly only needed to speed up a little more to wrap her hand around that handle at the outermost edge of the final launch port of the starship, but no matter how hard she tried, she just could not close that final bit of distance. Meanwhile, the x192 high-glazed nuclear power source had also begun to emit the red lights warning that its power was about to run out ... could it be that she was still going to fail in the end and be unable to leave the Swift Dragon base? A bad feeling coursed through Ling Lan's heart.
What made Ling Lan even more nervous was the fact that she had begun to feel pain in her body. It started with minor cramps, which slowly turned into an acute ripping sort of pain. It looked like the feedback force of cross-level operation had already seriously impacted her body, and with the passage of time, her condition was only getting worse.
Just as Ling Lan was beginning to despair, a voice suddenly rang out in her mecha's comms, "Rabbit, come on!"
Ling Lan's spirits rallied. She raised her head and saw the figure of a familiar mecha appear at the tail end of the launch port. It was the leopard — with one hand on the handle, he reached his other hand out towards Ling Lan, attempting to grab hold of her mecha.
Seeing the leopard, Ling Lan's heart fluttered and she stretched out her right arm with determination. Her companions had not abandoned her, so why was she giving up hope? Without fearing the acute pain coming from all over her body, Ling Lan pushed her mecha's engines till they were working on overload. Ling Lan's mecha's speed boosted even further and her hand came closer and closer to the leopard's outstretched hand. Five metres, three metres, one metre ...
"Argh ..." Ling Lan let out an unwilling scream. The x192 high-glazed nuclear power source finally fizzled out — Ling Lan pushed forwards at that final moment, reaching out with a desperate hand, and the two mecha's fingers were linked for a moment before slipping apart. Ling Lan's mecha lost all mobility and fell out of her control ...
"Rabbit ..." Ling Lan could almost hear the leopard's mournful wail. She had failed, hadn't she? However, as long as the leopard passed the document to the city lord of Grandsweep City, their mission would be complete. Even if she remained at the Swift Dragon base, it would not affect the formation of the clan.
Ling Lan closed her eyes, resigned, and just as she was about to give up, she suddenly felt her mecha being grabbed hold of by some external force, stopping it from falling. Stunned, she opened her eyes and found that the leopard had already grasped her mecha's right hand with both of his hands ...
"Rabbit, I will never let go again," said Li Lanfeng with a smile. His words had a double meaning — even as he said this to Ling Lan, he was also saying this to himself. He would never again let go of this friendship like he had seven years ago due to miscellaneous reasons.
Li Lanfeng's words puzzled Ling Lan. She saw Li Lanfeng's hands wrapped around her own right hand and could not help but feel her heart skip a beat. Could it be that the leopard had jumped off the starship? Deciding not to leave for her sake?
Ling Lan's emotions were instantly in turmoil. For the first time, someone was willing to brave danger for her ... but Ling Lan's sentimentality only lasted for a moment. Cool logic once again reasserted itself, and she instantly realised that the two of them were not falling rapidly but had been tethered by some force and was flying swiftly upwards with the starship.
Ling Lan turned to look unerringly behind the leopard and saw that the two legs of his mecha were currently caught securely in the hands of Qi Long's mecha ...
"Yo, Boss, it's rare to see you in such a predicament." Qi Long's laughter rang out in Ling Lan's comms, and Ling Lan's heart relaxed as joy stole over her. Even though she was brimming with emotions, accustomed to being as cold as ice, she could only respond dispassionately, "Yes, are you very satisfied by this?"
Ling Lan's cool demeanour strangled Qi Long's laughter, and he felt a chill invade his heart. He could not help but shudder — if his hands had not remained steady, this shudder may have spelled great trouble.
Qi Long was silently regretful — how could he forget that his boss was a cold and ruthless person who would take revenge for the slightest grievance? Qi Long could already foresee that when they got back, he would be captured by his boss for some brutal torment in the private training rooms ... Boo hoo hoo, his little life was surely forfeit.
"Boss, even in such a predicament you are still the most handsomest boss!" Qi Long tried to salvage the situation and alter his impending tragic fate. He feebly tried to suck up to his boss, but in his panic, his skill at flattery fell short of its usual standard, actually missing its mark completely 1 .
"Ho ho, so I am the most handsome when I'm in a sorry state like this, eh?" The corners of Ling Lan's lips tilted up subtly as she responded levelly, though she was actually in a very happy mood. These were her companions — at crucial moments, they would run over to protect her ... Alright, at this moment, the leopard's figure had once again been relegated to the recesses of Ling Lan's mind.
Ling Lan's words made Qi Long almost want to slap himself. Why was he so stupid? Actually reminding Boss about what he said wrong to begin with ...
In the end, it was still Han Jijyun who took pity on his sworn brother and tugged Qi Long away, helping him out by saying, "Quickly, everyone help out and pull Boss back in."
It turned out that all the other members were here as well. Luo Lang and Han Jijyun were right behind Qi Long, each with one hand holding onto Qi Long firmly. Meanwhile, Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing were standing behind Luo Lang and Han Jijyun and holding onto them in turn.
Why had they appeared here at this opportune moment? The facts of the matter were ...
Before the starship had shifted into high speed, while Ling Lan was working hard to approach and board the starship, Little Four had been secretly controlling the starship and had surreptitiously opened the launch port at the tail end. The Federation soldiers in the ship's control room were completely ignorant of this series of actions, but Qi Long and the others who had been waiting all this while in the hold at the tail end immediately noticed. They saw the launch port which had been shut all this time finally open up, and it went without saying that it was definitely their boss returning.
But before they could rejoice, the subsequent events not only caused Ling Lan to miss the chance to board the ship, they also left Qi Long and the others dumbfounded. The starship had suddenly shifted into high gear and sent the unprepared group tumbling. Fortunately, they had all still been in their mecha, so even though they had been thrown about terribly and things had been a little awkward, they had not incurred any great injury. Any minor injuries they had suffered had been quickly handled by Li Shiyu.
By the time they had stabilised their own mecha, they discovered that they could see no sign of Boss. Qi Long and the others knew then that their boss must not have caught up to the ship in time. They were instantly filled with worry and anxiety, but they also did not know what to do at that moment in time.
And then, Li Lanfeng, who had been silent all this while, suddenly retrieved the document from his bag and handed it to Qi Long, saying, "Qi Long, I want to go check things out at the launch port. It may be dangerous over there ... I'll leave this document in your care."
Qi Long immediately refused and said, "This is a task Boss entrusted to you. I cannot go against Boss's orders. Besides, I should be the one to go through the tail-end's passage."
Qi Long's direct refusal made Li Lanfeng fall silent. He merely shoved the document at Qi Long outright and before Qi Long could react, Li Lanfeng had already turned away and left.
By the time Qi Long realised what had happened, Li Lanfeng had already disappeared through the first set of doors leading to the tunnel. Speechless, he held onto the document and glanced over at his surrounding companions, and then he decisively shoved the document at the still stunned Chang Xinyuan.
This move of Qi Long's startled Chang Xinyuan, who instantly asked in a panic, "Why ... give it to me?"
1. 拍马屁: In Chinese, to suck up to someone is written as 'to pat a horse on the ass'. Here, the original literal sentence states something like 'failed to pat the horse on the ass and ended up patting the horse's hoof instead'. :p Taking the metaphor further, you're going to end up getting kicked if you pat a horse's hoof.
Chapter 350 - Flee the Base!
"You, have the worst control skills out of the entire team. As a safety precaution, you just stay put and guard these documents properly. If, in this situation, you still mess up and get yourself killed, your sorry ass had better not even dream of joining us, the Lingtian clan," Qi Long threatened aggressively.
This speech left Chang Xinyuan burning with embarrassment. He meant to snap back but found that Qi Long's words rang true, and at that moment he was actually left dumbstruck.
As soon as Qi Long was done speaking, without even considering how Chang Xinyuan would react to his words, he gestured with a wide sweep of his hand for his teammates to leave the mecha hold and then sprinted towards the launch port. Qi Long was actually feeling agitated and worried, not knowing what fate had befallen his boss. He had long thought of travelling to the tail end of the ship to check out the situation for himself, but alas, Li Lanfeng had beaten him to the punch...
At this thought, Qi Long started to grumble about Li Lanfeng in his heart. This fellow really knew how to put on a hell of a show, never missing an opportunity to increase the Boss's awareness of him. Although Qi Long had some quibbles with Li Lanfeng, deep in his heart he held great admiration for him, because only someone who truly held Boss Lan in such high esteem could have this calibre of performance.
The minute Qi Long moved, Luo Lang, Han Jijyun, and the others followed suit. In fact, if it had not been for Boss Lan's previous instruction for them to obey Qi Long's orders the whole way, they would have rushed to the tail end of the ship long ago, unable to contain themselves.
The last one to leave was Li Shiyu, who, before he left, shot a glance at the stupefied Chang Xinyuan who was frozen in place. Sighing softly, he changed directions to walk over to Chang Xinyuan's side, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Don't overthink it. Qi Long's orders are out of consideration for you. Just trust him and follow his orders. In fact, I think he's right, your control really is a little weak. At the tail end, if there is any danger, it will be difficult for you to even protect yourself. So you might as well stay put here and protect this vital document well."
Chang Xinyuan cast a mournful eye at Li Shiyu. Was this how a teammate from the same battle clan was like? Could he not pick at the scabs on his soul? Could they still get along with each other happily? Chang Xinyuan suddenly found that Li Shiyu, who seemed like such a kind-hearted, nice guy, absolutely had the potential to be a black-bellied person.
Li Shiyu could not know the complaints Chang Xinyuan had in his heart, because right after he was done speaking, he had swiftly chased after Qi Long and the others. Frankly, even though he did not like Ling Lan that much, Ling Lan's actions all this way had still obtained his acknowledgement. He too did not want anything bad to happen to this team leader who looked out for his team members at every turn. Thus, he was also planning to go check things out at the tail end with the rest.
Only Chang Xinyuan was left in the entire mecha hold. He looked down at the document in his hands and sighed in resignation, then carefully tucked the document away in his bag. Like Li Shiyu had said, this document was vital — it would determine whether their team would be able to successfully establish a battle clan, so there was no room for error.
Chang Xinyuan knew deep down that Qi Long words had not been out of contempt for him, otherwise the other would not have placed such an important mission item in his care. In fact, Qi Long's distribution of tasks was extremely appropriate considering the situation. Someone from their team had to live to submit the document and complete the mission, and for safety reasons, this person needed to remain in the mecha hold and avoid danger.
Although Chang Xinyuan had not joined the team for long, he could clearly see the deep bonds between Qi Long and the others and Boss Lan. Their relationship was not the typical friendship and comradery between team members, but was more similar to the blood ties of family. Chang Xinyuan believed that if Boss Lan met with any misfortune and ended up stranded at the Swift Dragon base, Qi Long and the others would likely choose to leave the ship and remain at the Swift Dragon base as well even if they would die for their choice. They would want to go through thick and thin with their boss ...
At this point, Chang Xinyuan could not help but envy the deep brotherly bonds between Boss Lan and Qi Long and the others. If possible, he too wanted to be a part of that, advancing and retreating alongside Boss Lan and Qi Long and the rest. However, having the worst mecha control skills, he had ultimately been selected by Qi Long to be the one to stay here to ensure the mission would be completed. And there was nothing at all he could say to argue against the decision.
This was because Chang Xinyuan was well aware that the Swift Dragon base was rife with danger. Now exposed, deep within the Swift Dragon base, they would definitely have to fight ferociously and cut a path of blood through the base to have any chance of survival. Thus, those who followed Qi Long must be very good at combat, otherwise it would be pointless to go and they may even create trouble for Boss Lan. Chang Xinyuan was very clear on this point. This was why he had remained silent and had resigned himself to accepting Qi Long's arrangement in the end, becoming the person left behind to safeguard the document.
Frankly, Chang Xinyuan was unwilling, because he did not want to be the member left behind. This made him feel very useless.
"Weakest control skills, eh? If I want to stand next to Boss Lan and not get tossed aside, only relying on my modification innate talent is far from enough. I must become stronger, and be like Lin Zhong-qing and Li Shiyu. Even as a support member, I have to become the most formidable one ..." Chang Xinyuan clenched his fists silently, determination flashing in his eyes. Never again would he be so naive as to truly believe, as he did before, that modification was everything.
Having maintained a breakneck speed the whole way, Li Lanfeng was the first to reach the launch port at the tail end. As he reached the mouth of the port, the scene that unfolded was that of Ling Lan piloting a mecha, desperately trying to catch up to the starship. At present, he was about 10 metres away and looked like he could board successfully soon enough. However, Li Lanfeng then noticed that Ling Lan's mecha's power supply seemed slightly unstable, as if it was almost depleted. The mecha was also unable to maintain a steady speed, speeding up and slowing down erratically, which prevented Ling Lan from closing the gap.
Thus, despite his delight at seeing the rabbit here, Li Lanfeng could not help but feel his heart in his throat, fearing that the rabbit would not catch up in the end. With a glance at the outer area of the launch port, he realized that the outermost rim was lined with handles, probably support structures to help mecha flying at high speed to land quickly on the starship. As he brought his mecha to the entrance, it was promptly sucked out of the starship by a tremendous force. In that instant, he gripped tightly on to one of those handles, simultaneously activating the adhesion mechanism on his feet to secure his mecha's position.
Having done all that, Li Lanfeng activated his comms link and roared, "Rabbit, come on!" as he daringly stretched his body out, right hand outstretched to its limits, reaching with all his might for Rabbit's mecha, so close yet so far.
The rabbit must have heard him, because Li Lanfeng saw him stretch his own right hand towards him, intent on catching Li Lanfeng's hand ...
The two great metal arms were inching closer, but just before they could catch each other, the roaring engines of the rabbit's mecha suddenly died. Even though the rabbit had put all his energy into a final surge forward at that final moment, allowing them to link fingers, the immense weight of the mecha and the recoil from the high-speed flight was not something their fingers could bear. Their fingers were only linked for a moment before they were instantly flung apart.
As Li Lanfeng witnessed the rabbit's mecha stalling and about to plummet, without even thinking about it, he slammed the controls causing the mecha to leap forwards, bursting out from the starship's launch port to tightly clasp the right arm of the rabbit's mecha the second before it started to fall ...
"Rabbit, I will never let go again," was all Li Lanfeng remembered saying with a smile. He knew the true meaning behind his words — Seven years ago, he had chosen to abandon the rabbit, but from now on, he was never letting go again!
Just as Li Lanfeng thought that he and the rabbit would fall down to Swift Dragon base and have to brave life and death together, he felt his mecha being tethered by a great force. His and the rabbit's mecha were suspended below the starship and were quickly being lifted upwards. It turned out that at that crucial moment, Qi Long and the others had made it in time to catch his mecha by the feet with lightning speed.
Like links in a chain, Qi Long's mecha was tightly held onto by Luo Lang and Han Jijyun, while behind them were Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing. The four of them each had one fist firmly wrapped around one of the support handles on the launch port walls, forcibly negating the downward momentum of Li Lanfeng's and the rabbit's mecha.
Han Jijyun was about to signal for all of them to haul Li Lanfeng and Rabbit back to the starship when Li Shiyu appeared as well. With his help, Qi Long was finally able to pull Li Lanfeng back on board, ultimately succeeding in dragging Ling Lan back onto the starship.
Ling Lan, who had only just narrowly escaped disaster, had just entered the starship when she barked out, "To the hold, now!" She charged ahead, leading the clan members back to the mecha hold in the tail end, acting on Little Four's information that the starship was about to breach the atmospheric layer. For any of the unsecured and underpowered mecha, remaining in the launch port at that moment would be absolutely suicidal.
Everyone stampeded towards the mecha hold as Little Four swiftly closed seal after seal behind them. When Chang Xinyuan, who had been waiting safely in his secured seat, saw Boss Lan make it into the mecha hold ahead of the rest, he was overcome with emotion. He instantly cried out, "Boss Lan, you're back!"
Before Ling Lan could reply, the starship started to shudder violently. Except for Chang Xinyuan, who was untroubled due to his being firmly planted on the secured seat, everyone was sent stumbling by the violent vibrations.
"Fall flat!" Everyone's comms channels rang with the sound of Ling Lan's sharp command, and they immediately got into a prone position. The cacophony of mecha clanging against mecha ensued in the hold. If the entire starship hadn't already been quaking uncontrollably, the noise they made would definitely have caught the attention of the Federation soldiers in the main control room.
At that very moment in the main control room, all the Federation soldiers were anxiously hunched over and gripping the control panel before them. The juddering from breaching the atmosphere was extremely powerful — people of lower physical fitness stood no chance of adapting to it. Of course, the reason they suffered so greatly was because the starship did not have sufficient power. In order to ensure that the starship could successfully break out of the Swift Dragon base's atmospheric layer, they had no choice but to conserve every ounce of energy and that meant not activating the starship's anti-shock mechanisms, which left them no choice but to grit their teeth and persevere through it all.
Close to 5 minutes of violent juddering almost caused all of the Federation soldiers in the main control room to be severely injured enough to spew blood. Finally, the starship wrested free of the base's gravity, successfully leaping into outer space. Only then did the violent shaking stop, becoming incomparably stable. Sensing that the situation was now stable, the Federation soldiers stood up straight again. However, their complexions were very pale — the intense tremors may not have hurt them seriously, but their bodies had still been unable to bear the shock well. They would probably need a stretch of time to recover from this once they returned.
Chapter 351 - Mission Reward!
The commander suppressed the roiling blood and qi in his chest and took in a deep breath before commanding once more, "Shift to low gear immediately." He still remembered that the ship was running low on power — it wouldn't do to exhaust all their power. Although they had already come out to the starry skies, temporarily escaping the Swift Dragon base, the commander knew that in outer space, the Swift Dragon fleet still had several ships on duty patrolling the area. If they happened to bump into those ships by chance, as a ship without power, they would definitely be at the other's mercy. Having gone through so much trouble to escape from the Swift Dragon base, he did not want to die here now and be stranded back at the Swift Dragon base again.
The team member responsible for shifting gears immediately pulled the speed control back to low gear. The starship's power had already fallen to 70% at present — if they had been a minute slower in charging through the atmospheric layer, they would most likely have been dragged by gravity back to the Swift Dragon base due to running out of power. Just entertaining the possibility sent chills down everyone's spines.
Shifting to low gear, the starship began to slowly cruise through the starry skies, accumulating power as it went along. They needed to store up 100% power as soon as they could, and then leave this place at high speed. As the commander waited for the power to accumulate, he could not help but pray that their luck would hold out so they would not bump into any of the patrol ships of the Swift Dragon base. Of course, he also hoped that the ships on the ground would not ascend so quickly; otherwise, up against the dozens of warships of the Swift Dragon fleet, they would have no chance at all of escaping.
It should be said that the luck of the commander's group was decent. Before they were at full power again, they were not discovered by any of the Swift Dragon patrol ships. About 10 minutes later, the starship was back at 100%, and then it flew rapidly towards the central district.
Twenty minutes later, the Swift Dragon fleet successfully rose into the air. Thirty military vessels of various sizes made up the Swift Dragon fleet. The fleet began to search for clues to the whereabouts of the hijacked starship. Unfortunately, they found nothing useful. This frustrated the fleet's captain — as long as a ship had been through the area, it would definitely leave some trace of energy behind, but there was nothing of the sort in this planetary sector. It was as if the starship that had lifted into the air thirty minutes ago had never existed.
With no clues, the Swift Dragon fleet could only resort to the crude method of searching in the general direction of the central district. This slowed them down significantly, allowing the starship moving in high gear to pull further away from them.
The primary hero who had obscured their tracks from the Swift Dragon fleet was Little Four. Without requiring any instruction from Ling Lan, Little Four had scrambled the locations the starship had passed through. In other words, it would be impossible for the devices on the warships to track their flight path.
This was part of Little Four's abilities. He could render advanced high-tech equipment useless or mess up their readings. Of course, he could only affect the Swift Dragon fleet's devices so thoroughly because Ling Lan's group was currently in the virtual world. If this were in the real world, Little Four might not be able to achieve such a godly effect.
With Little Four helping from the shadows, the starship would detect the enemy's presence before it could encounter any patrol ships of the Swift Dragon fleet. Thus, the commander had enough time to employ evasion measures to avoid the enemy's detection. The commander was rather baffled — why would the radar scanner on this ship be better than those of the other ships in the same fleet? — but unable to find an answer, he could only ascribe it to their luck being better in the end. Their radar had just functioned at its maximum capacity right whenever they needed it to.
In this manner, the entire journey was fraught with tension but there was no actual danger. The starship finally left the Nebula district and entered the next planetary sector. Although they had yet to arrive at the central district, this still proved that they had successfully escaped the pursuit of the Swift Dragon fleet. The Swift Dragon fleet did not have the authorisation to enter another planetary sector.
However, it was similarly very dangerous for them. After all, the warship they had appropriated to bring them here was also a ship belonging to the Swift Dragon base. Still, those Federation soldiers in the main control room specially sent here by the mainframe had a special way of contacting the mainframe. The moment they were out of the Nebula Boundary, which was no longer under the mainframe's control, they were able to make contact with the mainframe.
After receiving news, the mainframe arranged for them to enter the central district via a special flight route, green-lighted the whole way through to bring them straight into the district. If not for this approved special flight route, as they continued flying forwards, they would have been mercilessly shot down if they were detected by any patrolling fleet. The Federation soldiers naturally would not do such a stupid thing.
Finally, the starship safely arrived at the central district, landing in one of the planet's cities at the outermost region of the central district. As long as they touched down here, they would be able to log out of the virtual world and report directly to military headquarters about the situation at the Swift Dragon base. Perhaps out of their urgency to report, the soldiers disembarked and left in a hurry without carefully inspecting the insides of the ship.
Ling Lan's group took the chance to slip out from the starship. They were dressed in the standard combat uniform of the Federation, disguised as NPCs. Under Little Four's guidance, they evaded all the surveillance systems of the spaceport, silently left to the military spaceport, and returned to the city.
The moment they entered the city, it was back to a world of mecha. This made Ling Lan feel that they had truly returned to Mecha World ... Ling Lan's team of nine swiftly changed into their individual mecha and joined the bustling crowd of mecha. Ling Lan and the others pretended to sightsee in the city, and then they drifted naturally over to a transportation array. Selecting the city they wanted, they left the area. They did not leave any trace to show they had ever been to this city, because all of their figures along the way had been wiped off the surveillance systems by Little Four.
They finally arrived at Grandsweep City and Ling Lan retrieved the document from [No Mecha Unrepaired]. Although she had her own copy, things that should be covered up should still be properly covered up. Getting to the city lord's manor of Grandsweep City took a little time, and upon arriving there, they once again sought out the city lord.
The city lord of Grandsweep City thought that Ling Lan was here to plead with him to revoke the SSS-rank mission. Besides that, he already had a bad impression of Ling Lan from the start, so his attitude was extremely cold and unfriendly.
Ling Lan was not someone who liked to make nice with people. In the learning space, everything the instructors taught was all based on true strength. Therefore, she too did not waste time with any nonsense, directly shoving the document in her hands to the city lord. Er ... that attitude really could not be called respectful ...
This behaviour of Ling Lan's was obviously rather impolite in the city lord's eyes. His brow furrowed, but before he could speak, he felt an alert being transmitted from his hand — he was holding a key item which marked the completion of the SSS-rank mission. The city lord's expression shifted and he read intently through the document in his hands. Only when he was done did he lift his head to look at Ling Lan again. There was shock in his gaze, as well as some unconcealable excitement.
This expression of the city lord's finally vented the frustration Ling Lan had carried all this time. It looked like what her instructors had said was right. As long as you had enough strength, even those people who looked down on you at first would still change their opinion of you in the end. And when your strength was far greater than the other's, you would not need to go curry favour, for others would come running to curry favour with you.
The city lord of Grandsweep City pushed down the complex jumble of emotions in his heart and quickly submitted this document up to the Mecha World mainframe. After receiving confirmation that there was no mistake, the initially austere expression of the city lord's instantly cleared up to become cheerful and affable, and he said, "[Lingtian First-String], you are truly a hero among youths. You've performed well. You are the first in Mecha World history to complete an SSS-rank mission. I am proud of you ..."
As expected, the city lord's originally disdainful expression had changed; his entire persona was much more enthusiastic and friendly now. Seeing this, Ling Lan's lips tilted up at the corners. Even though her expression was as stoic as ever, she still patiently listened and waited for the city lord to finish his spiel.
The reason why Ling Lan applied patience to finish listening to the city lord was out of consideration for what had happened before. When she had come to accept the mission previously, she had only received the ultra-rare SSS-rank mission that only appeared once every hundred years because she had not gotten along well with the city lord of Grandsweep City. Ling Lan suspected that the difficulty of the mission and the mission rewards were very likely to be somewhat related to the impression the issuer of the mission had of her. Of course, Ling Lan believed that under the mainframe's monitoring, the main rewards would not be skimped. Still, there was sure to be some additional optional rewards that might be held back if the other was in a bad mood. If that happened, Ling Lan would be really depressed. Mind you, this SSS-rank mission had really been treacherous, almost costing them their lives to complete. Any bit of extra reward would be great.
Finally, the city lord of Grandsweep City finished his lengthy speech of encouragement, and only then did Ling Lan calmly reply, "Many thanks, City Lord. May I trouble you to bestow our final rewards?"
Seeing Ling Lan's calm composure in the face of praise, the city lord was filled with even more joy and fondness for Ling Lan. His impression of Ling Lan had truly taken a 180-degree turn — he completely forgot how he had made things difficult for Ling Lan back then, beginning to think of himself as Ling Lan's sponsor. He had already discerned how extraordinary the other was from the start, which was why he had given him this SSS-rank mission. This outcome proved that he had judged astutely to identify this hero among the masses! The city lord was internally smug ...
Since this was a talent he had discovered and cultivated, how could he let the other suffer any indignity? The city lord of Grandsweep City had taken Ling Lan in as one of his own, so he decided he would give the other a great advantage. After contemplating for a moment, he announced the final reward.
Reward 1: One clan-formation certificate. Bring this certificate to the city hall to register and your battle clan will be successfully formed. Due to perfect completion of the SSS-rank mission, the battle clan shall be instantly upgraded to five stars from the initial zero stars. Starless battle clan: 6-12 clan members; 1-star battle clan, 6-18 members; 2-star: 6-24 members; 3-star: 6-30 members; 4-star: 6-38 members; 5-star: 6-50 members.
Reward 2: Due to perfect completion of the SSS-rank mission, 1 Hero's Heart Emblem (level 1) is awarded. This emblem needs to be activated by the clan leader. Once activated, the combat power of the entire clan will be increased by 10% for a duration of 10 minutes. Cooldown period: 7 days!
Reward 3: Every member of the clan can redeem a mecha above special-class and below ace-class for free. Condition: The clan member must meet the requirements to pilot the mecha to be redeemed. Time limit: Unlimited!
Reward 4: Ability to accept any mission in Mecha World (all level restrictions voided); penalty for failure cut by half!
Reward 5: Select any 10 mecha accessories or weapons from the warehouse of the city lord of Grandsweep City, as well as 10 super energy blocks, 10 mecha modification materials, and 10 other associated materials ...
Reward 6: Freely choose any of the unclaimed lands within Grandsweep City to become the battle clan's main camp, which will be instantly upgraded to a 1-star camp. Twenty NPC guards gifted as a bonus, along with 4 defensive laser cannons.
Reward 7: One challenge exemption token. Allows user's clan to be exempted from being challenged by other battle clans for one year in Mecha World ...
At one glance, Ling Lan could tell that the first four rewards must have been awarded by the mainframe. They were truly generous. Meanwhile, the final three rewards should be personal rewards given by the city lord of Grandsweep City. It looked like her patience earlier had paid off.
Ling Lan was not moved much right now by some of the other things the city lord had gifted them; she was all but drooling over those 10 super energy blocks. Don't blame Ling Lan for being shallow — it was just that the mission this time had completely wiped out all of the energy blocks the team had accumulated. Without these energy blocks, it could be foreseen that all the members of the team would be kept wildly busy trying to earn more energy blocks in the upcoming days. If not, they would not even be able to start their mecha.
Just one mission was enough to render Ling Lan's team this poor! At this thought, Ling Lan's heart wept!
Chapter 352 - Operation Kill the Fledgling!
In a vast hidden chamber, on three large screens as large as the walls they were affixed to, nine stern-faced old men dressed in military attire were gathered. The atmosphere seemed rather tense.
"Sixteen years and after spending uncountable manpower and resources, the final outcome is a crushing defeat. Not only that, we, Caesar, have lost over 30 top-class hackers all at once, as well as 6 top-class spectres," said a grim-looking general on the screen with a document in his hands, tone displeased.
"I can only say that the Huaxians are just too sly, secretly sending over so many spectres, ruining our project-T in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, as our men were caught unprepared, they were almost utterly annihilated. If we hadn't had another hidden team lurking there, we might not have learned of what had transpired there even now." A general with a kindly appearance on the screen could only smile bitterly and say.
"According to information from above, Huaxia 1 did not escape unscathed. One of their top-class spectres ranked in the top ten was sacrificed in this campaign ..." another cold-faced general interjected.
"But our Caesar lost four top-class spectres ..." the expression of a general on a different screen instantly turned dark at these words, "One Huaxian spectre is not at all enough to compensate."
"Yes, and there are still those 30 top-class hackers to account for. This campaign has almost gouged us deeply. The next time there is a virtual war, it would be very easy for us to fall into a passive position. We can't just forget this grievance," said a general from the side in agreement.
"We must make the Huaxians pay!" hollered a general at the outermost edge, face flushed with anger.
"We must make the Huaxians pay!" Another general on the same screen agreed.
"We must make the Huaxians pay!" Very soon, all of the generals were in accord.
In the centre screen, the oldest general who had been silent all this while plucked the pipe he had been smoking from where it was perched on the corner of his lips, and finally said, "It's about time for those allies of ours who want to share a piece of the pie to contribute something now. We must give the smug and complacent Huaxia a bloody lesson."
"According to the latest news from the intelligence bureau, a prodigy mecha operator has appeared in Huaxia's First Men's Military Academy. Some time ago, he managed to advance to ace operator status at just 19 years of age. He's lauded as the second coming of Ling Xiao ..." At this time, a general shared the latest news he had obtained with the others.
"Ling Xiao!" When the present generals heard Ling Xiao's name, their gazes instantly became dark. Several were even gnashing their teeth as they muttered Ling Xiao's name repeatedly. It was clear to see that these generals were extremely fearful of Ling Xiao.
"We can't let Huaxia have another Ling Xiao, otherwise our Caesar will truly be down against Huaxia by a head." A general finally voiced the hidden thoughts of all the generals there.
Ling Xiao was the youngest operator to ever advance to god-class, and then he had also obtained the most well-balanced IN god-class mecha <Belief> which was considered the most powerful IN mecha by all the nations. From then on, anyone who understood the intricacies of IN god-class mecha knew that the strongest person in the human world in future would definitely be Ling Xiao without a doubt. This was also the major reason why they had conspired with other nations sixteen years ago to eliminate Ling Xiao. They could not allow Ling Xiao to grow further and become the strongest in the world. Caesar, which considered itself the strongest nation, just could not allow the strongest person to belong to another nation. That would be an absolute disgrace to them.
Unfortunately, all the effort and manipulation they invested had still been unable to eliminate Ling Xiao. Now, it would no longer be as easy to harm Ling Xiao as it had been at the start. The day Ling Xiao would become the strongest was within sight — despite their reluctance, they could only accept this fact. Still, one Ling Xiao was already the limit of their tolerance. The title of 'second Ling Xiao' had undoubtedly triggered the neuroses of the Caesarians ...
"Since Huaxia has destroyed so many of our high-end talents, we must destroy their future hope!" The oldest general in the centre screen gripped his pipe, a ruthless smile appearing on his face. "The First Men's Military Academy of Huaxia ... Hmph, did the Huaxians really think they could conceal him away so perfectly?"
The old general's words made the eyes of all the other generals light up. Unified in their decision, the nine great generals very quickly formulated their revenge plot. They called this action plan —— Operation Kill the Fledgling!
********
Right then, the Huaxia Federation was unaware that danger was about to befall the First Men's Military Academy which they had always taken so much pains to keep concealed and secreted away. Military headquarters knew the Swift Dragon base had been occupied by an unidentified faction, and that there were even many spectres there. In order to ensure the stability of the virtual world, Huaxia had dispatched a fleet along with as many as ten spectres, with three of those being spectres ranked in the top ten. With the commander who had escaped from the Swift Dragon base leading them, they had hurried towards the Swift Dragon base.
But during this period of coming and going, the Caesarians lurking in the Swift Dragon base had managed to retreat. Only after finding the surviving adjutant did they learn that this group of people had come from the Caesar Empire. The Huaxia Federation was livid. They raised a serious protest to Caesar, but the Caesar Empire denied all allegations, brushing it all off as slander. They had never sent any hackers or spectres to invade the virtual world of the Huaxia Federation.
The two nations began to quibble on the diplomatic front — and while the attention of everyone in the Huaxia Federation was focused on the diplomatic byplay between the two nations, several countries had begun to move surreptitiously.
All the turmoil occurring on the diplomatic front did not affect the enlistment assessments of the First Men's Military Academy. After a week of tests, the assessment at the military academy was nearing its conclusion. Each of the various great army divisions was making their final candidate choices. The number of people taken in by each division was not much — in order to obtain the best and most suitable talented cadets for their divisions, the assessors had no choice but to consider their options again and again.
Ling Xiao's 23rd Division assessment team finally came to a consensus and passed a final shortlist of names to Ling Xiao. Ling Xiao browsed through the list casually, and then said, "That'll do."
"General, don't you want to think on it a little more?" The adjutant by his side finally could not hold back from asking.
Ling Xiao cast a puzzled glance at him and then asked with a smile, "Adjutant Qiao, what do you think? It's okay, we can study this together."
Ling Xiao was not that type of strict general — constantly smiling and affable, his subordinates always felt as if greeted by a spring breeze while with him. Even as they idolised him, they were not afraid to speak their minds.
Adjutant Qiao daringly flipped to one of the pages of the list and pointed out several names. He reminded softly, "These few people, not too long ago with Young Master Lan ..." Ling Xiao peered at him with a half-smile, causing adjutant Qiao to turn red and quickly change his form of address, "With Ling Lan ... they had gone up against each other in a wagered arena fight. They were defeated by Ling Lan's group. One of the members of their clan had initially applied for enlistment with our division, but ended up missing the assessment this time due to severe bodily injury. According to Major Qin Feng who assessed them, he inadvertently overheard them discussing their intentions to take revenge against Ling Lan."
Ever since knowing that Young Master Lan was the general's son, these assessment team members who had come here with the general had long taken the effort to learn all they could about everything that had happened since Young Master Lan had entered the school. When they found out that the first year New Cadet Regiment led by Young Master Lan had defeated the higher grade Leiting Mecha Clan, which was also the number one faction in the military academy, in a wagered fight, they could not help but be proud. As expected of the son of their god-class operator General Ling Xiao — already so strong at such a young age.
Ling Lan had been fully accepted by them — this made their hearts lean infinitely towards Ling Lan's side. Even if Huo Zhenyu and his group were indeed some rare talents, the very idea that those boys were planning to retaliate against Ling Lan several years later made the men rather unhappy. If not for their ethics as soldiers preventing them from being biased and abusing their power, they would have long swept those boys out from the list.
In the end, they still included them in the final shortlist, but they still felt disgruntled about it. This was also one of the reasons why Adjutant Qiao had brought the issue up with General Ling Xiao.
At these words, Ling Xiao could not help but laugh, "Isn't this great?"
Ling Xiao's words left Adjutant Qiao speechless, unsure what his general meant by them.
"I'm still afraid that when Ling Lan joins my division later on, you uncles will take care of him too much. Without any challenge or competition, he might become slack," mused Ling Xiao, "With these people around, it'll make things a little more difficult for him. A greenhouse cannot foster strong sprouts 1 ."
After saying this, Ling Xiao glanced at the adjutant with a half-smile and added, "In our 23rd Division, there is no such thing as privilege or status. No matter who they are, everyone has to start from the beginning and go through all the necessary tests and trials. No one is exempt. If these people truly have the skills, then cultivation should be given as appropriate. Don't manipulate things in any way. If in future, Ling Lan is really bullied by them, that would just prove that he isn't strong enough. What right does he have to say anything if he loses?"
Adjutant Qiao was startled by the knowing look in Ling Xiao's eyes; it was as if he had been seen through. His back was instantly coated in cold sweat, and he could only console himself desperately by telling himself that he was overthinking things. Hearing what Ling Xiao said, he quickly nodded repeatedly in agreement, no longer daring to say more.
After obtaining Ling Xiao's final approval, Adjutant Qiao swiftly departed from Ling Xiao's living quarters to hand the list over to the military academy. Tomorrow, this name list would be announced along with the name lists of all the other divisions on the official web page of the First Men's Military Academy. This also marked the end of their assessment tasks here. After one rest day, they would leave the First Men's Military Academy.
Ling Xiao watched indifferently as the adjutant left, a trace of coldness in his eyes. When he turned to return to his room to rest, he found his official bodyguard, Lin Zhengnan, staring at him with a serious look on his youthful face. His gaze was filled with rage and disapproval. At the sight of him, Ling Xiao could not help but quirk a brow and ask, "Lil' Lin, you have something to say?"
"Adjutant Qiao's behaviour earlier was obviously fishy. Why do you still trust him this much, General?" Being able to become Ling Xiao's personal bodyguard was his luck and fortune. Since he was small, he had always idolised Ling Xiao, wanting to become Ling Xiao's left or right arm, his most trusted subordinate.
Many times, Lin Zhengnan could tell that Adjutant Qiao's actions were obviously intended to mislead Ling Xiao, trying to get Ling Xiao to do something disreputable, such as abusing his power for personal reasons. Young as he was, he could no longer refrain from speaking up and asking the general he revered like a god about the matter ...
1. 华夏: Ok, I'm changing the name of the 'Chinese Federation' to the 'Huaxia Federation' in line with its base pinyin. I had originally translated it as 'Chinese Federation' because 'huaxia' is an older way of referring to China/Chinese. But it's getting a bit too confusing for my liking. @.@ (Retroactive edits will be applied when I have time. For those rereading, you can help me by letting me know on the discord when you find any mention of the Chinese Federation that hasn't been fixed yet. Thanks!)
2. 温室中可培养不出健壮的好苗子: Being sheltered from the elements in a greenhouse, seeds might grow up into lovely sprouts, but they will never be as strong as those who prevail outdoors despite the elements. In other words, challenge builds character.
Chapter 353 - A Father's Responsibility!
Ling Xiao could not help but laugh at Lin Zhengnan's words. He did not respond until he passed by Lin Zhengnan on his way to his room. Reaching out a hand to ruffle the other's hair, his tone was fond but resigned as he said, "Brat, you're oversimplifying the issue ..."
The young were truly hot-blooded and saw things in black and white. But in the field, how could things be that simple? In the past, he too had not wanted to compromise and go with the flow, but the outcome of that was a whole 16-year separation from his family. At this thought, Ling Xiao's brow furrowed slightly ... but if they still believed he was the same Ling Xiao as before, then they would be mistaken!
Behind him, Lin Zhengnan touched his own hair in stunned amazement. He never expected his beloved and revered sir general to actually rub his head so affectionately. Excited, he looked respectfully at the figure of Ling Xiao in the distance; he did not notice that passing cold glint in Ling Xiao's eyes.
Outside the room, a hidden guard concealed in the shadows saw the interaction between Ling Xiao and Lin Zhengnan, and a trace of envy flashed through his eyes. He too was an admirer of Ling Xiao 1 . As for Lin Zhengnan's idiotic behaviour, the hidden guard could only sigh internally though he was also happy for Lin Zhengnan. Only General Ling Xiao would have the good temperament needed to accommodate Lin Zhengnan's brash and blunt character. If it had been any of the other generals, Lin Zhengnan would definitely have been mercilessly kicked aside, because he was sure to cause trouble someday.
After returning to his room, Ling Xiao sat alone quietly on his sofa. His mind, however, was busy recalling the things his daughter had told him two days ago, as well as that confession document she had secretly sent to him. Every time he thought of these things, his heart would clench with fear. If anything had happened, he would have lost his daughter completely.
Back when he had first heard that Ling Lan had received an SSS-rank mission, he had only been astonished at his daughter's horrible luck. Unwilling to see the defeated expression of his daughter after failing, and also because he wanted to increase his daughter's chances of success, he had gifted his only transferrable imperial mecha <Wind's Shadow> to Ling Lan, just in case.
If he had known earlier that the Swift Dragon base had been successfully infiltrated by people from the Caesar Empire, he would definitely have stopped his daughter from going on that godd*mn mission. Fortunately, there had still been an investigation team sent by the Federation military travelling along with them, and the team not only had top-class hackers but also several top-class spectres. They succeeded in drawing the attention of the Caesarians, so his daughter had managed to take advantage of that.
It had to be said that his daughter's luck at accepting missions was really terrible, but her luck in recruiting talent was off the charts. She had actually managed to recruit a spectre hiding in the civilian world and a top-class hacker (Ling Lan had told a small lie here) — and on top of that, her entire team was basically made up of advanced mecha warriors, and so possessed decent combat power. Under such dire circumstances, they had still managed to complete the mission successfully. They had obtained detailed information on the enemy, and had even managed to help the Federation investigation team from the shadows to wipe out all the Caesarian spectres. After that, they had also successfully snuck into the escape ship to return with the Federation soldiers.
When Ling Lan had told him these things, Ling Xiao was actually extremely proud, but he was also filled with fear. If anything had gone wrong at all, the result would have been utter annihilation. Even Ling Xiao could not help but admire the sheer audacity of his daughter.
Still, the outcome of the entire adventure was perfect, and the rewards they received upon its completion was also substantial. For his daughter's battle clan to leap up in one shot from starless to 5-star, it could be said to have 'ascended the skies with one step'. This rank within Mecha World was absolutely enough to place them within the top 100 battle clans.
Of course, Ling Lan's battle clan was currently no match for those battle clans at the topmost level. After all, those battle clans were all clans of old beasts that had been established for several decades already. Ling Xiao's battle clan used to be one of them, but now, unfortunately, those clan members of his from back then had all either died in battle or had left the Federation. Ling Xiao's battle clan now merely had the empty title of battle clan; it was no longer a true battle clan.
After finding out about all this, Ling Xiao had asked Ling Lan to utterly bury this incident at the bottom of her mind and tell no one. This was not only for Ling Lan's protection but also to protect that civilian hacker and spectre that had slipped past the military's radar.
At the same time, this incident made Ling Xiao realise that his daughter's ability to attract trouble was several magnitudes greater than his own. Back when he had done this clan-formation mission, he had at most caused a great furore in an enemy nation's territory, hacking up some ace operators and calling it a day. In contrast, his daughter had actually directly obliterated a whole batch of the Caesar Empire's top-class hackers and spectres ... the Caesar Empire must really be feeling the pain of their losses this time.
It looks like he'll have to have to become even stronger, or else he may really be unable to protect this powerful daughter of his who seems capable of even provoking the heavens! At this thought, Ling Xiao could not help but smile. So this was the duty of being a father — it was troubling but also so sweet and blissful that he welcomed it willingly.
Over these past two days, Ling Xiao had seemed to be idling about doing nothing, appearing unbelievably casual and at ease, but he had in fact begun secretly investigating the movements of the Caesar Empire with the secret forces of the Ling family. At the same time, he had also ordered the 23rd Division to closely monitor the movements of the various army divisions of Caesar. Unfortunately, nothing useful had come out of all this over the last two days. This made Ling Xiao feel rather uneasy. Understanding how the Caesar Empire operated, he knew that the other party absolutely would not take this affront quietly and let it go. They would definitely come for their revenge ...
Even though Ling Lan had told him that her team's involvement had not been exposed during the fight with Caesar, Ling Xiao was still worried that the powerful intelligence bureau of the Caesar Empire would still be able to dig up information on his daughter ...
"Leaving tomorrow? If only we were staying for a couple more days." Ling Xiao suddenly felt that he did not have enough time. If he had a few more days here, he could perhaps be able to create some defences. At this thought, he could not help but sigh silently. "I hope I'm just worrying for nothing."
The night passed without a word. Early the next day, all of the students of the military academy were eagerly refreshing the official forums of the First Men's Military Academy. They wanted to get first-hand information on the results of the division assessments ...
Even the freshmen were included in this frenzy because for the top three of each division's recruits, the video of their assessments would be publicised. This could perhaps give them juniors some experience. Though they knew that this was likely just their own wishful thinking — every year's assessment was not the same — the juniors of the lower years still held onto that sense of 'what if' and would go watch these assessment videos.
"Congratulations, Boss Huo!" Qiao Ting, who had already managed to get onto the official forums, sent a congratulatory message to Huo Zhenyu at first notice. Although he was rather surprised by the other's choice of enlisting with the 23rd Division and not the 1st Division as the other had previously determined, Boss Huo had still become the top recruit of the 23rd Division. As expected of their Leiting's previous regiment commander.
"Many thanks, Junior Qiao." Huo Zhenyu was also extremely happy with his results. At the same time, he saw that the others of his battle clan had also succeeded in getting into the 23rd Division. This meant that aside from the injured Nie Feng-ming who was still in recovery, every other member was in. By next year, once Nie Feng-ming succeeded in enlisting as well, their entire battle clan would be complete.
"It's just that we've lost the arena fight against the New Cadet Regiment, so in future, Junior Qiao will have to clean up the mess." After some thought, Huo Zhenyu added, "Beware of the regiment commander of the New Cadet Regiment, Ling Lan. He is really very strong."
"I believe that, when it comes to mecha combat, I will not lose to anyone," responded Qiao Ting solemnly. He knew Boss Huo was speaking out of good intentions, worried about the future clash between Leiting and the New Cadet Regiment. Therefore, he too answered Boss Huo seriously, telling the other that he had nothing to worry about.
Huo Zhenyu was silent for a moment before answering, "Junior Qiao, it's good that you are confident." He had no way of telling Qiao Ting that the feeling Ling Lan gave him was one of unfathomable depth. In the end, all he wanted to say was reduced to just this — even as he acknowledged Qiao Ting's statement, he was trying to give himself some confidence.
********
Meanwhile, in Ling Lan's villa, Qi Long and the others were also refreshing the forums. Of course, their attention was focused on the 23rd Division because that was their boss's father's division and was likely their future destination.
"Aaaaaaaah, I did not expect Uncle Ling to take in Huo Zhenyu's gang ..." Qi Long was the first to see the results, instantly clicking onto the 23rd Division to see its final acceptance name list. Those few familiar names sent him howling uncontrollably.
As Ling Xiao was Boss Lan's father, even though Ling Xiao's actual age was much younger than their own fathers, they still chose to respectfully call him Uncle Ling. Lying on the sofa, reading the information on the various open and hidden factions within the Ling family her father had given to her, when Ling Lan heard the address of 'Uncle Ling', her stony, cold face could not help but spasm. Alright, just imagining it — her father's young face really clashed with this title of 'uncle'.
"What's so surprising about that? Other than being no match for our Boss Lan, Huo Zhenyu's physical skills are the best in the whole military academy." Seeing these results, Han Jijyun was not surprised.
"I just can't figure out why he chose to enlist with the 23rd Division," said Qi Long as he rubbed his head, baffled. From the gossip Xie Yi had gathered, Huo Zhenyu was an admirer of the First Marshal — he had long ago sworn to apply for enlistment with the 1st Division.
"Perhaps because the commander of the 23rd Division is Uncle Ling Xiao," remarked Luo Lang, face filled with admiration. "In future, I too want to apply for the 23rd Division ..." That said, Luo Lang suddenly realised that his boss had not stated which division he would be applying to yet. So, he quickly asked his boss, "Boss, will you apply to the 23rd Division?"
Ling Lan turned off the virtual screen in her hands and said evenly, "Why wouldn't I? It's always good to have someone covering for you."
Ling Lan knew well that even if she chose to apply for the other divisions, her father would definitely use his authority to override her choice and bring her to the 23rd Division anyway. As such, why should she go against her dad's wishes and waste the effort? Besides, she was not against going to the 23rd Division.
"Then it's settled. We'll all apply to the 23rd Division together," said Luo Lang excitedly. His words made all the companions by his side nod emphatically; they had long decided that they would follow Ling Lan. Moreover, Ling Xiao was already their idol to begin with — they were very willing to go to the 23rd Division.
Luo Lang's excitement had just peaked when his mood dipped. Frowning in worry, he wondered aloud, "Who knows how the three new members will choose?"
1. T/C: Who isn't? :p In general, the whole Federation has been shown to be utterly besotted with Ling Xiao.