Interstellar Wars

Jake was smart enough to set up multiple land mines in different directions as he left the area, preventing Daniel from seeing through the direction of his retreat while also preventing the latter from proceeding further at the same time before dismantling said mines. Since the mines were burrowed within the many asteroids surrounding the area, it is hard for Daniel's vanguard team to identify the mines, making Daniel unable to advance and could only have the team retreat and regroup with him back in his own location.

"Let's see…" Daniel started to analyze his own situation. "The entire battle zone is set within a sphere with the radius about 100 times that of Earth's. Since my sensors aren't bringing up anything yet, we can directly cross out a quarter of the sphere… From the probe that I launched when I first arrived, I can sense the residue of the energy left by Jake's sniper rifle, so I can also directly cross out the area of impact from his previous shots, since I would have won by default if he had incinerated his own flag through those laser beams. Now we just need to track down Jake before his sniper rifle gets recharged."

After floating through the asteroid belt for more than 30 seconds, Daniel knew that Jake's rifle must have ran out of energy from the lack of shots directed towards him during that time. Therefore, since it takes around 2 minutes to recharge the rifle, Daniel needs to take advantage of this time to take his enemy out before it's too late.

"Everyone, split into 6 teams of 2, with the two remaining form a team of 3 with me." Daniel directly commanded. "We're going to explore the unmarked areas on this map as quickly as possible. Do not engage with the enemy except for our target: Jake. Abort your mission immediately and inform me when you manage to see the opponent's flag. Move out!"

Since Daniel's instructions were transmitted mentally, it all happened within less than a second. By the time, everyone had already started moving in different directions, with two general purpose mechs following Daniel on both sides like they were on bodyguard duty.

"Now that we've split ourselves apart, we can only engage in hit and run tactics against our opponent and only congregate once we manage to locate Jake." Daniel thought to himself as he willed his own mech to fly at its fastest speed: Mach 2. At such a speed, Daniel would be able to travel from one end of the zone to the other within 15 minutes. Though, it remained to be seen whether he could arrive in time to eliminate Jake before it's too late.

Unfortunately, since Jake had also placed mines around the area where he left, everyone in Daniel's team had to purposely make detours around the mine-filled areas, making them easy to track by the opposite team. Though, since the area is filled with asteroids, it's quite easy to dodge from the opponent's attack and escape through zigzagging around the many satellites, making it almost impossible for Jake's NPCs to deal substantial damage to Daniel's once they encounter each other.

However, even though it looked as though both teams were in a stalemate, Daniel is actually the one with a disadvantage since he was pressed for time, while Jake could wait it out, increasing the latter's own advantage through the passage of each second.

Luckily, at exactly 15 seconds before the sniper rifle is fully charged, one of Daniel's scouts finally managed to catch on to the location of Jake. Without even waiting, Daniel immediately yelled, "Charge!"

He directly willed all the mechs in his team to turn on their force fields and directly propel themselves through the minefield as fast as they could towards Jake's location, as there was no need to hide anymore. The sudden charge of 5 different teams from different directions caused a wave of bright orange explosions all heading towards the same direction.

<Shield strength decreasing. 43%. 32%. 25%.>

"Come on! Please make it in time!" Daniel thought frantically to himself as he continued to soar through space, destroying anything and everything in his way through a wave of his beam saber, using his mech body directly as his own defense when some of the particulates that went past the saber directly impacted against him, making his shield's energy dop exponentially.

Fortunately, just as his shield strength was about to hit 5%, he had finally arrived before Jake only to see the other standing leisurely behind a wave of his teammates as the latter blocked off all the attacks from Daniel's.

Within less than a second, Daniel directly knew what was going on. "Damnit! It was a trap all along!" Daniel cursed under his breath as he started releasing his remote-controlled daggers hidden all over his mech body and sent them towards Jake's teammates, but only managing to damage their shields.

At the same time, a huge cannon-like sniper rifle is placed directly in front of Jake, with energy visibly congregating within the cannon.

"Surrender now, Daniel!" Jake shouted through the public intercom in a gleeful tone. "You'll lose even more points if I were to directly blast your whole team into oblivion. Why don't you just give me your flag instead? At least you still might be able to gain some points that way."

Since this was still a game, one would be able to earn points by winning through a PvP battle, while losers will lose points. However, having an entire team eliminated would indeed lose Daniel more points than if he were to simply surrender his flag. However, after going through the pros and cons within his mind in an instant, Daniel gritted his teeth and shook his head, "If I'm going to die, I will take you down with me!"

At the same time, Daniel commanded all of his teammates to initiate their self-destruct sequences along with him. Since all mechs are powered through a pure fusion core, an uncontrolled nuclear reaction would cause wide destruction in the surrounding area, much less 15 mechs at the same time. Knowing what Daniel was about to do, Jake directly abandoned his still-charging cannon and directly retreated as quickly as he could, hoping that leaving his weapon there would lighten his load, allowing him to escape in time.

However, with the combined power of 15 nuclear meltdowns, the explosion directly created a chain reaction resulting in the incineration of everything within the radius of 50 Earths, directly destroying half of the battle zone while killing everyone within. The second the fusion core exploded, Daniel was directly swept away and sent back to the main menu of the war game, while Jake arrived only about a few nanoseconds later after his mech was incinerated as well.

"Damn, I didn't expect you to commit murder-suicide!" Jake shouted, glaring at Daniel in an indignant manner. "That's not fair! You're totally cheating!"

To make matters worse, just as Jake started throwing his tantrum, a bright white light appeared in front of the both of them, instantly creating a row of words that formed a sentence.

<Daniel Win. Jake Lose.>

"…WTF! How did that happen?!" Jake exclaimed, his jaw dropping towards the ground.

"Where did you hide your flag when the explosion happened?" Daniel asked as a matter of course.

"I had my flag hidden within my own mech of course…" Jake replied subconsciously before suddenly realized what had happened, "Wait, did you hide your flag somewhere else?"

"Yeah, I basically buried mine inside one of the larger asteroids within the asteroid belt located at the other end of the battle zone, so the flag managed to escape unfazed after the nuclear explosion." Daniel replied in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Damn! I thought you walked into my trap, but instead it's the complete reverse!" Jake fumed, glaring at Daniel with sheer anger within his eyes, "You were planning on doing this since the beginning, weren't you?!"

"No, that was only the last resort." Daniel shrugged nonchalantly. "After all, I wouldn't be able to gain any combat experience if I were to simply commit suicide with my mech every time I faced an opponent. Therefore, I will only do that if I know there's no chance for me to win anymore within the game."

"… Damn!" Jake cursed through his teeth. "If I had known you would do such a ridiculous thing, I wouldn't have stopped and set a trap for you and simply ran around hiding out of your reach until my sniper rifle is completely powered again!"

"That's what you get for being over-confident, Jake." Daniel shrugged again. Although he didn't look that enthusiastic about his win, the look on his face as though saying that 'it was as expected' make Jake feel even more pissed off. He would have preferred if Daniel had acted proud of himself instead.

"In the end, I didn't really get that much experience from our match." Daniel sighed in disappointment even though he was the one who won the game, making Jake feel like shooting the other person in the face right then and there.