Mecha Chapter 78: Provoke

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo wants to protect 125  ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ

 

Luo XiaoLou was so frightened that he almost wanted to run out of the training ground, but he didn’t move. Then, he remembered that it was only a stereoscopic image, and not the actual Yuan Xi standing in front of him.

After the white mecha reached the middle of the clearing, Yuan Xi began to do the most basic exercises. Luo XiaoLou’s heart was sore, and he silently compared the difference between him and Yuan Xi again, but this only led to a more serious blow to his fragile heart. Some people were born to exist to strike others.

However, from another perspective, there were too many people who couldn’t compare to Yuan Xi, and people had to live, so he just had to try his best. Besides, he could completely rely on his craft to earn money to support his family when he left Yuan Xi. But if Yuan Xi was left alone, that would be a tragedy. Yuan Xi had no money, could not cook, could not do the laundry or even housecleaning, had no hands-on skills — he’d just die of depression from eating bad food prepared by robots.

The first thing Luo XiaoLou noticed was that Yuan Xi was doing a basic routine over and over again, and he also noticed that Yuan Xi’s movements were very standard. It was almost as if he was measuring the distance between his steps, without even slightly changing the direction. Then Luo XiaoLou realized that Yuan Xi had done such a simple basic movement at least a hundred times before changing to a different basic movement to continue his training. Next, was a few clips of Yuan Xi doing different basic movements.

Then, an image of Yuan Xi passing an obstacle trial was brought up. The white mecha’s graceful and agile figure moved quickly in the midst of intense gunfire, those basic movements being used in the shortest amount of time and covering the shortest distance possible. None of the obstacles were hit, and no monster that needed to be annihilated was left behind. 

Luo XiaoLou’s heart was in his throat at the thrill of the closing scene, with the white mecha standing proudly at the end of the final act. Finally, there were videos of Yuan Xi and others battling against each other, where those difficult moves such as the Avet Arc step and multi-angle high-frequency shifting began to appear.

Luo XiaoLou came back to his senses long after the images disappeared, and in addition to marveling at Yuan Xi — which Luo XiaoLou had now seen, he discovered something even more tragic. Among the fighters Yuan Xi battled, Luo XiaoLou saw Luo ShaoTian and Ling Xu’s mecha, apparently they were also members of the Radiance Club. After staying for a while, Luo XiaoLou could only comfort himself that those people must be in Group 1, and the chance of meeting them was still very small.

After that, Luo XiaoLou walked over to the dark blue mecha and started doing basic training. He thought that Rocky’s purpose in showing him this microchip was twofold: the first was to get him to focus on basic training, as examples of success were readily available; the second was to learn the standard movements from Yuan Xi in the video.

Luo XiaoLou bit the bullet and fought to be able to handsomely drive the mecha in the future. He also followed Yuan Xi’s training method and did the same move hundreds of times. Luo XiaoLou was about to cry. This was not the same as the speed training in the virtual cabin.

Luo XiaoLou was so confused with the direction, strength and hand speed that he had to perform the same movement two hundred times. But he didn’t think he could do it the same way every time. Luo XiaoLou took a five-minute break after completing the movement two hundred times. Then he performed it another hundred times with gritted teeth, and came out of the mecha covered in sweat.

The training took him two hours. After a ten minute break, Luo XiaoLou looked at the time, which showed 6:10. He could only train his physical strength for half an hour at most. Luo XiaoLou came back to the physical training room, and looked at Rocky’s training plan. He didn’t rush into it and first jogged for half an hour.

At 6:40, Luo XiaoLou wiped off his sweat and walked towards the door. 

125 took a look at him, wondering if he wasn’t as angry as yesterday, and then changed into its pet form. Probably afraid of being recognized, this time it was a tawny Tyrannosaurus Rex with two horns on its head. When it saw Luo XiaoLou coming over, it headed out the door itself first. 

What the hell kind of vision was that — Luo XiaoLou complained in his mind as he stared 125 up and down. Then he noticed 125’s posture.

With its tail between its legs, and obvious frustration, Luo XiaoLou’s heart suddenly ached as he looked at 125 like this.

Luo XiaoLou could still communicate with Yuan Xi or anyone else at school, but what about 125? It was so big-mouthed and always chattering, but now there was no one for it to talk to, joke with, give it some attention or anything like that. How hard would it be to have someone who always talked with you, not talk for two days? 

What’s more, it had been waiting alone for years before Luo XiaoLou first spoke to 125. Time might have passed faster when it had no energy to even power up, but what did 125 do when it was awake? 

Luo XiaoLou suddenly felt that he had been a bit cruel for ignoring 125 in the past two days. He thought of 125 as a child, but it was still a mecha, and it even thought that Luo XiaoLou was using it as a pet — he and 125… What was the big deal?

Luo XiaoLou looked at the short, chubby body in front of him and couldn’t help but pick up his pace. He decided that no matter what 125 said, he was ready to make peace with it. He was such a generous owner, wait, why was this tune similar to Yuan Xi…

While Luo XiaoLou was struggling with his tone of voice as he chased after 125, several people came out from the other side of the tunnel. Because he was staring at 125, Luo XiaoLou didn’t look up at the person in front of him, but he could clearly see that the person in front of him was deliberately blocking 125. Even though 125 dodged to the side, he still took a step to the side and purposefully bumped into it.

Luo XiaoLou, like any parent whose child was being bullied, immediately blew up. But the guy across the street blew up even harder than he did, “What the fuck is this crap! How dare you hit me!” With a curse on his lips, he kicked 125 down and then stomped it hard with his feet.

Luo XiaoLou only felt an instant surge of unsuppressable anger in his heart. He clenched his fists hard, walked up to the group and said in a stern voice, “Take your feet off right now, or I won’t be polite. Don’t you feel ashamed that you, a mecha warrior, deliberately embarrassed an intelligent robot?”

The leader raised his head. He was in his early thirties and had black hair that hung loose on his shoulders, matching the shape of his face and making him look a bit obscene. His narrow eyes were clear with malice and burned at Luo XiaoLou.

He looked up to judge Luo XiaoLou for a moment, sneered and said in a strange accent, “Today is really going out to step on dog shit, the trash in the way one after another, what are you, also to care about old man?”

Luo XiaoLou looked at him coldly. With his personality, he would have normally analyzed that he wasn’t a match for this group of people first and then taken a more tactful solution. But at this moment, he couldn’t control his anger at all and looking at the bad man, Luo XiaoLou angrily said, “Honestly, I think you’re more like trash! I’m its master, you’d better let it go now!”

The man raised his eyebrows in surprise, and the person behind him looked at him and laughed, “Kid has guts. I was worried about having to find the owner of this guy to compensate me for my loss, so I’ll talk to direct you.” Saying that, he lifted his foot and kicked hard at 125. The first thing you need to do was to take a look at the product and make sure that it’s in the right place.

The man took a step back, while Luo XiaoLou retreated a full two meters, and 125 took advantage of the gap to climb up and swish down Luo XiaoLou’s other leg onto his arm, while staring angrily at the group across the street.

When their legs touched, a sharp pain inevitably came from the two. Still, Luo XiaoLou was stunned, he had expected that leg to be more devastating, but apparently, he could actually endure it. It couldn’t be because he had miraculously improved his fitness by jogging for half an hour, only that this man’s strength wasn’t as great as he thought.

The man’s face changed a few times, then he sneered, “It seems this kid is deliberately trying to get in my way. There’s nothing else to say. Now, either you kneel down and call your grandfather, and then destroy that trash in your hand; or we’ll have a duel, and the loser will give the winner twenty million.” 

Luo XiaoLou felt 125’s body against him begin to tremble. He looked at the man across from him and said without hesitation, “Fine, you tell me how to duel.”

The man had an unkind smile on his face and was about to speak, when someone came up to his ear and said something. He narrowed his eyes, looked at Luo XiaoLou a few times and then said, “Of course, it’s a mecha duel. Seeing as you’re a novice, I’ll let you prepare and, in a month’s time, the two of us will face each other at the Radiance Club. However, tomorrow, we both have to pay twenty million to the club’s match judge, and the winner will automatically the loser’s twenty million. However, if you can’t afford the money, I can also take your mecha in exchange.”

Luo XiaoLou’s actions paused. He immediately understood what the man meant, looked at him coldly and said, “I’ll hand over twenty million to the judge tomorrow, but until there’s a match, the winner is still unknown.” 

“Fine, then I’ll wait for you here tomorrow. Don’t think of running away. If you don’t have the guts to play slick, I’ll have a way to double the jackpot.” The man said fiercely.

After the group of men cursed and left, a friendly young man leaned over to Luo XiaoLou and said, “Little brother, you really shouldn’t have agreed to him.” 

Luo XiaoLou was silent and just carried 125 up to look it over. There didn’t seem to be any other injuries on its body except for a big shoe print. He hadn’t wanted to agree to it either, agreeing to it would be like giving away twenty million to someone else. But what choice did he have?

“That’s Luca, who’s been in the Radiance Club for many years now, and specializes in targeting newcomers who have just entered the club. He uses all sorts of rogue tactics to provoke new members with low combat power, and excite newbies to fight against him so that after winning the battles, he can take the newbies’ money openly. After all, most of the people who can come to this kind of club are rich people.” The young man said. Then he looked twice at Luo XiaoLou’s plain and casual dress and, with infinite sympathy, added, “Of course, there are some people who borrow money to come here to do mecha training in order to get ahead. But when they meet Luca, they become very unlucky.”

Luo XiaoLou was stunned. He had thought that person just had a bad personality and was picking on 125, but it turned out that the main goal was to provoke him. Even if he didn’t bother with 125 at all, he would have probably still come up with other tricks at another time to provoke Luo XiaoLou. 

When the young man saw Luo XiaoLou’s dumbfounded look, he patted him on the shoulder and said, “So, most newbies will choose to find someone with power to bring them in and be under their care. By the way, a reminder, Luca is from Group 5, and he will deliberately hide some strength every time he is provoked. So, if you really can’t go up against him, don’t be reluctant.”

“Thank you, I’ll pay attention to that.” Luo XiaoLou thanked him, and then turned to walk out. 

When he had agreed to the duel, he had the terrible idea of giving that trash twenty million for nothing. Now, after the heat of the moment had passed, he started to worry. 

Twenty million! There was almost nothing in his account, so what would he do about the money he had to give to the judges tomorrow? Pay with Yuan Xi’s money? No, he was not cheeky to the extent of losing against someone and then making Yuan Xi pay for it.

Luo XiaoLou changed back to his clothes midway through the game, changed his appearance, and 125 also reverted to a green Tyrannosaurus rex. Luo XiaoLou looked at it and sighed. He reached out and touched the top of its head, and said, “Don’t be angry, let’s make up.” 

Then Luo XiaoLou realized that the words he’d just said were actually mumbled.

125 also raised its big teary eyes in surprise, looked at Luo XiaoLou for a moment, and then suddenly pounced on him with a loud cry. “You bad man, you must be the worst master ever! You actually ignored me for two days!” 125 howled and kept biting Luo XiaoLou’s neck with its big teeth.

Luo XiaoLou’s heart, which had been suffering all this time, suddenly felt lighter. He patted 125’s buttocks with his hand and said, “All right, all right, I’m the worst master. Hey, you’re not allowed to rub your snot on my neck —” 

“……say that you love me, you’ll spoil me, and that I’m your only pet.”

“Well, I love you and I’ll spoil you. You are supposed to be my only pet too.” Luo XiaoLou said, touching its head. 

“Say that I’m more important than money!” 

“…… you are much more important than money. Besides, how can money buy such a fat Tyrannosaurus Rex? You see, I’m throwing a lot of money for you — even though it’s only to get a cry from you guy.”

125 whimpered for a while, finally calmed down, and said otherwise, “That, that’s fine, although I don’t quite understand, but I’ll discuss things with you in the future.” 

Luo XiaoLou laughed.