Chapter 231: Sneak Attack!
Chapter 231: Sneak Attack!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: mjn0898
[No Mecha Unrepaired] knew that those seemingly harmless rabbits were actually extremely horrifying for low-level mecha operators, being able to kill them easily in an instant. However, this scene before him — this mecha rabbit, obviously still a trainee, going on a rampage — gave him the false impression that even he would be able to go forward and kick those rabbits around and slaughter them as he liked.
Time passed by bit by bit; the number of rabbits still alive on the field grew fewer and fewer. By the time the blood of the final rabbit was splattered onto the grassy field, precisely 2 minutes had passed, not a millisecond more or less than what the rabbit mecha had claimed at the start.
What strength and confidence was this, for the other to be able to give such an accurate timeframe? [No Mecha Unrepaired] could not help but pinch his cheeks within his cockpit, only believing that this was real at the resulting sting of pain he felt.
Heavens, what level of mecha operator had he ended up hiring? Even an advanced mecha would not have been able to defeat such a large number of mutated rabbits so easily within two minutes, especially under conditions like this where it had been surrounded on all sides. [No Mecha Unrepaired] could not help but shudder at that moment ... could the other be a special-class operator? Considering that possibility, he was beyond exhilarated. Perhaps this time he would really be able to successfully arrive at Suncreed City, no longer being stuck at Three-Seas Town, unable to improve his mecha repair skill level.
Ling Lan easily finished off the final rabbit — aside from a few drops of blood dripping from the red carrot weapon, there was not a single speck of blood on the white body of the rabbit mecha, which remained as pristine as before. This was the result of Ling Lan slowing down her speed and her skilful control.
With a stomp of its hind feet, the rabbit mecha sprang off the ground once more and engaged its thrusters, arriving in the blink of an eye to stand before [No Mecha Unrepaired]. This sudden movement once again gave [No Mecha Unrepaired] a fright. However, this time, he no longer reflexively shifted into a defensive stance — humans were truly extremely adaptable creatures.
Ling Lan controlled the rabbit mecha to use its carrot to rap on the humanoid mecha, and asked calmly, "So?" The voice was as frigid as before, but the threat behind the tone was palpable, as if at the first hint that [No Mecha Unrepaired] would even dare to utter 'no', he would be immediately destroyed.
Right then, [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s heart was filled with joy, not one bit of unwillingness to be found. He hurriedly replied, "It's great! Sir [Lingtian First-String], this mission is in your hands now." Then, he quickly contracted Ling Lan for his mission — he did it very speedily, afraid that Ling Lan might reconsider and refuse.
Of course, once this contract was established, it would be maintained by the mecha world's mainframe, which would not allow either side to break the agreement without good reason.
Sir? Did her voice really sound so much like a man's now? Speechless, Ling Lan pressed the button to accept the mission. She did not know whether she should be proud of herself for impersonating a man so successfully ...
Since the two of them had come to an agreement, they did not continue to linger here, immediately beginning their journey towards Suncreed City.
Along the way, Ling Lan not only encountered small packs of mutated wolves and many mutated wild bulls, but even a pack of five mutated black panthers in the end. The further along they went, the stronger the beasts became. When a pack of mutated cheetahs showed up, they wasted quite a bit of Ling Lan's time due to their extraordinary speed. After all, in comparison with the mutated cheetahs, the rabbit mecha's speed was nothing. Fortunately, her innate talent Profound Insight was very helpful — it discovered the cheetahs' weakness not soon after, allowing Ling Lan to kill them. Still, the struggle had lasted a full five minutes.
"Looks like, against the stronger mutated beasts, a trainee mecha is still rather weak overall." If Ling Lan had been given an advanced mecha, these cheetahs would have been killed with a swing of her arm. Even if she had not been given an advanced mecha, but a lower mecha instead, Ling Lan still would not have wasted five minutes. It was likely that she would have only needed one to two minutes to wrap things up. This was the mecha's limits — even for Ling Lan, who was already at ace operator level control, it was impossible to execute an instant kill against a beast that was stronger than the mecha's abilities.
Even as Ling Lan was feeling rather sorry about the state of her mecha, [No Mecha Unrepaired] was filled with awe at how easily Ling Lan had dispatched these beasts. Mind you, back then, he and the three intermediate mecha warriors had been killed at this spot, instantly being sent straight back to revive by these cheetahs. Back then, they had not even seen much of the cheetahs before they had been killed and returned to the town.
But now, the five cheetahs had appeared at the same time, but had still been easily handled by the other within a short period of time. With this, [No Mecha Unrepaired] was even more confident in their chances of arriving at Suncreed City safely. Furthermore, he had also confirmed to himself that the one controlling this rabbit trainee mecha was most definitely a special-class mecha master. He felt extremely fortunate, actually being able to coincidentally meet such a strong person in the game world. Only a strong person such as this would be able to make his way freely around the low-level world using just a trainee mecha.
Ling Lan had just finished off the five cheetahs, not yet moving ahead, when she heard Little Four exclaim joyfully, "Boss, it's right here! The starlight conversion power core should be inside the ancient den of the monster of this mountain."
Ling Lan said calmly, "Done killing the viruses?" Ever since Little Four had been seen through by her, and had used the excuse of killing a virus to run away, he had not presented himself again. Ling Lan had thought that this brat would not dare to face her anymore — unexpectedly, he had suddenly emerged again now.
Little Four stiffened, and then forced a pandering smile on his face. "All done, all done. Oh Boss, you really do care about me! Little Four is so touched ...!" That said, he did not forget to hug Ling Lan's thigh and act cute with all his might, desperately hoping for Boss to forget his previous disrespect.
Ling Lan lightly flicked Little Four on the head. "Don't try to act cute and brush it off. In a bit, you'll be helping me to redeem yourself!" Little Four hurriedly agreed. Boss was clearly prepared to let him off — of course he would not be so stupid as to let this chance go by.
And so, Ling Lan changed directions to follow an almost indiscernible mountain trail, heading into a dense forest.
Seeing this, [No Mecha Unrepaired] panicked, shouting hurriedly, "Sir [Lingtian First-String], where are you going?" Did the other not want to bring him to Suncreed City anymore?
Ling Lan replied, "I want to clean up the old den of the mutated beasts a little."
"Ah, those mutated beasts in the home den are all very formidable! We definitely can't go. It's too dangerous! Besides, to get to Suncreed City, we only need to keep following Suncreed Road. There is no need at all to take this risk."
Ling Lan abruptly turned her head to look at [No Mecha Unrepaired] and said flatly, "This is my mission. If you don't want to go, then just wait for me here."
Being pierced by the vacant gaze of the rabbit mecha, [No Mecha Unrepaired] did not dare to offer any more objection. Right then, he finally realised that he was really just a convenient tag-along for the other. Having figured that out, he came to to find that Ling Lan was gradually pulling further and further away. He abruptly shouted, "[Lingtian First-String], wait for me! I'll go too." Leaving him here all alone ... it was definitely much more dangerous to stay behind than to follow the other. He had no intention of losing his life here.
"What? You're not afraid of accompanying me to your death?" Ling Lan halted to mock icily.
[No Mecha Unrepaired] hurriedly said, "We've travelled all this way together. No matter what, there's some bond between us now. How can I watch a friend brave danger on his own and stay behind alone? No matter what, we should share our joys and pain, and go through thick and thin together ..." As if knowing that these words of his were not at all convincing, [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s voice became softer and softer as he spoke, almost not daring to meet the spirited rabbit eyes of Ling Lan.
Ling Lan merely glanced at the other without puncturing his lies. Since [No Mecha Unrepaired] dared to brave danger with her, it meant that he trusted her abilities to a large degree. Ling Lan did not say anything further, tacitly agreeing to let [No Mecha Unrepaired] tag along.
The two of them entered the forest depths. They had not gone far when Ling Lan suddenly shoved [No Mecha Unrepaired]. This movement was too sudden — [No Mecha Unrepaired] was totally unprepared. He fell to the ground instantly, tumbling two circles away ...
"Boom!" Where [No Mecha Unrepaired] had been standing, some unknown item had crashed heavily into the ground, throwing up countless amounts of dirt and fallen leaves.
Right then, Ling Lan's rabbit mecha suddenly pushed its engines to send the entire mecha into the air, flipping into an upside down position with the carrot in its hands facing downwards. Then, like with a nail, it drove the carrot powerfully straight into the ground below.
"Boom!" This was the sound of the mecha hitting the earth. Immediately after, the rabbit mecha leapt up nimbly to dash 5 metres away and land securely on all four feet.
Following this series of actions, a string of violent snapping and twisting could be heard. In the end, everything fell silent again, and when all the flying dirt and leaves finally settled back onto the ground, the scene became clear to the eye.
Only then could [No Mecha Unrepaired] see that, where he had initially been standing was now a deep gouge of about half a metre wide and 30 centimetres deep . That gouge which looked like the result of a whip let [No Mecha Unrepaired] know that if he had been struck by it, even if his mecha had not been destroyed, the power behind the blow would have been enough to rattle him to death.
[No Mecha Unrepaired] could not help but glance gratefully at Ling Lan; the other had saved his life once again. If the other had not pushed him aside so decisively, he would have died and returned to Three-Seas Town. But before he could speak up to thank the other, he was shocked into silence by the scenario on Ling Lan's end.
Not five metres away from the rabbit mecha, a gruesome large mouth was opened ravenously. Four razor-sharp teeth shone with a chilling light as the jaw opened and closed while the creature continued to struggle, as if wanting to leap forwards to swallow the rabbit mecha not too far from it whole. However, no matter how much it struggled, it could not escape from its bindings to move even another step ...
[No Mecha Unrepaired] very quickly realised that he was looking at the head of a snake. Moreover, at the critical juncture between the head and the rest of its body, a sword had penetrated to the hilt. The hilt of the sword was green in colour, and was shaped like leaves. [No Mecha Unrepaired] naturally knew that this was that carrot blade of the rabbit mecha.
Meanwhile, the flesh beneath the pierced juncture, spreading as far as half a metre, had already become a mess of minced meat. The tail part of the snake, due to being disconnected from the head, had reflexively curled up on itself, unable to make any more attacks.
This horrifying beast before them was a gigantic mutated python, whose attack power must be unrivalled. If an intermediate mecha warrior had come here, he might very well have died from a sneak attack before even being able to actually meet it head on. No, perhaps even an advanced mecha warrior would have found it difficult to escape from this unorthodox attack. But now, this mutated python had had its vital point pierced by the rabbit mecha in the span of just one sneak attack, completely losing its ability to fight back.
"Can you still stand up?" Ling Lan looked towards [No Mecha Unrepaired], frowning. Had she used too much strength earlier, inadvertently injuring the other?
Only then did [No Mecha Unrepaired] stir from his stunned torpor. He quickly scrambled off the ground and said, "It's fine, I'm fine."