Mecha Chapter 97: Competition

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo

 

Luo XiaoLou dumbfoundedly looked at the electronic screen. The first contestant was actually him! This made Luo XiaoLou, who was already nervous, even less confident. At this moment, Luo XiaoLou just stood there, unmoving.

The tall and fat man glanced this way, snorted and said, “Who’s 521? Get ready quickly. Accompany this master down to practice first.”

The blond young man, on the other hand, after letting out a sigh of relief, began to open his eyes wide to examine Luo XiaoLou and the black-haired man who had been sitting leisurely and comfortably on the sofa.

The black-haired man sensed the sight of the fat man, Gao Qi, and the blond young man, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

Just as the fat man couldn’t hang on to his face and was about to start yelling, Luo XiaoLou, who had been standing quietly by the electronic screen, suddenly said, “It’s me. Then, see you at the match venue.” He said, calmly turning around and walking out.

The blond young man looked at Luo XiaoLou, his eyes immediately filled with pity. Luo XiaoLou looked weaker than him and was unlucky enough to have met this kind of horrible guy. Even though he himself was probably not a match for Gao Qi, it would still be possible for him to hold on for a while. As for 521, I just hope he’s lucky…

The black-haired man turned his attention to the electronic screen that took up half the wall. While waiting for the match in the lounge, the player could also choose to watch any of the matches being played in the arena.

Gao Qi looked darkly at Luo XiaoLou in front of him, who actually got to the arena before himself rather than following him, which made him feel uncomfortable. He decided to finish off the weakling as quickly as possible.

In the lounge, the blond young man took another look at the dark-haired man, wondering why this man, who was not very old and not nearly as strong as Gao Qi just now, gave him such an obvious sense of oppression. Especially with just the two of them left, the blond young man began to wonder if it was his illusion that the powerful aura had become even more obvious.

The blond young man hesitated for a moment, before sitting on a couch farther away from the black-haired man, and saying in a pleasant manner, “Hello, my name is Kevin.”

The black-haired man who was holding the remote ready to select channels swept Kevin a glance and ‘Mn’ed, but made no attempt to introduce himself.

Kevin, of course, didn’t dare ask questions, but both the man in the room and the one in the upcoming game made him feel a million times more nervous, as if he couldn’t control himself and could not say a word.

Kevin also looked at the electronic screen as the black-haired man looked at it, and found that on it was actually the match between Gao Qi and that 521. It seemed that the man hadn’t had time to change the channel yet, so he whispered, “Gao Qi will win, I guess.”

The black-haired man still didn’t say anything, his finger pressed on the remote control, as if he was hesitant to change it. Kevin actually wanted to watch his group’s match. He wanted to see how strong Gao Qi was, or weak, so he could have a strategy to deal with it.

Seeing how he could watch the match, it was more disadvantageous to be the first one to play the live match.

Staring at the huge electronic screen, Kevin secretly envied the fact that the skinny looking 521 didn’t show the slightest bit of fear and nervousness. He calmly beckoned out a huge dark blue mecha and then entered the cockpit without any delay.

Gao Qi was equally furious at Luo XiaoLou’s slow and methodical movements, which simply showed that he didn’t take him seriously.

Gao Qi held his breath and beckoned a tall golden and white mecha. In a few flashes, he had entered the cockpit. The golden mecha raised an arm and waved a victory gesture to the surrounding audience before turning around and quickly attacking the dark blue mecha. 

“What are you going to do with him?” 125 asked Luo XiaoLou who was trying to climb up. This was already considered Luo XiaoLou’s fastest speed.

“…This mecha’s speed isn’t outstanding, but it’s melee attack is very high, and its defense is a little weaker in comparison.” Luo XiaoLou squinted his eyes. His fingers moved quickly and though the dark blue mecha remained motionless in its original position, the particle gun on its shoulder had begun to fire.

Gao Qi’s heart became even angrier. That guy across the street was simply defying his patience by standing still and directly strafing! No mecha warrior had ever dared to do that to him. The golden white striped mecha quickly dodged to the side, taking a circuitous route to pounce on the dark blue mecha in the distance.

The first day of the mecha tournament, those who loved or were interested in mecha were here, even though they didn’t know the strength of the players yet.

The audience was talking about how Gao Qi’s dodging moves were okay, while the motionless dark blue mecha on the opposite side was a bit strange.

“Geez, why aren’t you moving? It’s pathetic, you’re probably going to fail soon.” Kevin in the lounge simply couldn’t bear to watch.

The black-haired man’s eyes twinkled, then he smiled slightly, “Kind of funny.”

Even if others praised Gao Qi and questioned 521, Gao Qi himself understood that from just now, or from the moment he waved to the surrounding audience, the A.I. of his mecha had already been giving him a warning with one sentence: The C1 area has been attacked and has been hit.

Because of that annoying warning tone, Gao Qi kept changing his posture and route. He even deliberately took a few steps around the distance, but the system tone without any tone fluctuation remained the same, even the area of the attack remained the same. A sharpshooter with a long-range attack that was so high that it was bizarre? A trace of unease appeared in Gao Qi’s confident heart, and then it was pressed back by him.

No matter what, he was going to be in the top fifty of the tournament this time! Since you can’t hide, you simply don’t have to, just get to the heel and finish the damned guy off with a single slash! Long distance? This mecha of his was relatively weak in long-range attacks, and he was more used to melee combat.

Gao Qi no longer circled around Luo XiaoLou, and instead, rushed directly in front of Luo XiaoLou and swung his sharp golden blade. Then, under the audience’s enthusiastic eyes, the blade fell directly to the ground.

After a few seconds of silence, the host’s pleasant voice rang out in the arena, “Arena 851. First match of the group, 521 wins.”

The people in the audience were stunned. In less than a minute, the battle was over and one side hadn’t even moved. Wasn’t this a trap? They had also paid for the tickets to come in ah, what was this??

The host then laughed and commented, “I didn’t expect to see such an exciting match right at the beginning, I must say that player 521 has god-like long-range attacks. The battle ended within a minute, with all eleven particle bombs hitting the same spot. What was even more surprising is player 521’s calculation ability! Player Gao Qi fell in front of player 521 at the last second, but this was definitely not a coincidence! We venture to guess that perhaps this is one of the earliest fights to end today!” 

Someone in the audience laughed out loud as the host’s commentary came on.

Kevin stared blankly at the electronic screen, unable to recover, and muttered, “How?”

The black-haired man got to his feet and spoke for the first time, “Gao Qi’s sensors are down. Simply put, his mecha is now out of control.” Hitting the same spot every time, looks like that little mouse has a really good long-range ability…

Kevin saw Gao Qi jump out of the mecha in frustration, then followed Luo XiaoLou outside.

Luo XiaoLou’s face was still relatively calm as he entered the lounge, but his hands were sweaty and his heart was beating much faster than usual. The first match had ended too quickly and he didn’t have the real sense of having already won the match.

Next, he had a twenty-minute break, and then the names of the next opposing players would appear on the electronic screen.

Kevin looked at Luo XiaoLou with a complicated expression and tried to lean in to speak, but stopped.

Luo XiaoLou sat down on the couch and closed his eyes to calm down. Gao Qi had gone to repair his mecha so there were only three people in the lounge. The dark-haired man had changed the electronic screen channel and was watching the other groups.

Twenty minutes later, the name of the second group automatically appeared on the electronic screen: 521 vs Kevin.

Luo XiaoLou wasn’t sure who Kevin was, but when he saw his name, he couldn’t help but frown. Why was he like a jackpot today? The first and second games were all about him.

Luo XiaoLou took a deep breath. It had its advantages. If he won this time, then it wouldn’t matter if he won or lost the third game, he only needed to win two games a day to advance. However, if he lost, the situation would be quite bad for him, not to mention the fatigue, at least the psychological pressure would be minimal.

Luo XiaoLou saw the young blond man stand up and stare at him, and then smile at him. In his heart, he was relieved. And to be honest, he was afraid that it would have been that black-haired man over there. For some reason, that man gave him a similar feeling to the likes of Yuan Xi, Luo ShaoTian, and others.

Kevin took a deep breath and turned towards the door.

As Luo XiaoLou entered the cockpit, he noticed that the light yellow mecha was already retreating away from him.

The moderator then said, “Looks like player Kevin has made a wise choice and widened the distance — he’s starting his long-range attack! After the last one, we already know that Player 521 is pretty good at long-range attacks, so will this one be a great long-range vs. long-range matchup? Now let’s see how accurate Player Kevin’s aim is.”

Kevin had some confidence in his long-range attacks. His genetic rank was only B, a rank where he was just able to pilot a mecha. All his other levels were average, but he had worked hard. Especially with his teacher’s instructions, he had worked on long-range attacks a lot. If 521 could win using long-range attacks, then why not him?

Kevin gripped the distance and shot at Luo XiaoLou again, just to crush Luo XiaoLou. Kevin was so confident that he fired five straight particle bombs. Even if Luo XiaoLou dodged one of them, dodging all of them would be difficult, which was almost his usual best level.

However, Kevin blinked again and noticed that the blue mecha was no longer there. Kevin looked up with a start, and there was no blue mecha above him.

Kevin’s heart jumped, knowing it was bad, and immediately maneuvered the mecha to move to the side. That’s when he saw that a blue shadow had reached the position he was just in.

How fast!

Kevin was completely cold. Even with Luo XiaoLou’s first ranged attack, that was way too fast! He couldn’t see the direction Luo XiaoLou was moving in, and after Kevin missed another shot, Luo XiaoLou finally got close enough to him to slash his throat with the alloy sword.

The commentator’s voice rang out, “Excellent! 521 escaped perfectly from the five bullets and then used the melee to end the fight. It seems that our 521 is not only long-ranged, but also has remarkable speed and melee, and seems to have a famous style of movement. Second match of the group, 521 wins! Let’s congratulate him, he’s made it to the next round!”

As Luo XiaoLou entered the lounge again, the black-haired man smiled at Luo XiaoLou, his dark eyes looking at him with a little bit of eagerness, “Let’s try later.” The smile was bright, but when it appeared on the man’s face, it looked almost demonic.

Luo XiaoLou was stunned and his hand involuntarily shook, but then he calmed down again. Even if he lost, he could still make it to tomorrow.

After fifteen minutes, Gao Qi finished repairing his mecha. When he came back in, Gao Qi’s pride had returned to his face, but his eyes were not too friendly when he looked at Luo XiaoLou.

Kevin sat dejectedly in the lounge. Losing to Gao Qi would have been expected, but losing to Luo XiaoLou — there was no way for him to move forward in the mecha competition.

Twenty minutes later, the electronic screen showed two more names: Shao Rong vs. Kevin.

Luo XiaoLou looked at the black-haired man in surprise that he had such a feminine name. With a quirk of his lips, Shao Rong slowly got up from the couch and headed for the door first.

Luo XiaoLou and Gao Qi naturally didn’t change the channel and both stared at the electronic screen.

Seeing Shao Rong and Kevin fighting against each other, Luo XiaoLou suddenly remembered how that first battle between himself and Yuan Xi on the virtual network was not on the same level at all.

Luo XiaoLou asked himself if he had good speed, but he was absolutely no match for this man.

Kevin was even more pathetic than him, losing sight of Shao Rong in the first round and not even dodging Shao Rong’s first shot. The entire fight lasted no more than ten seconds. Luo XiaoLou watched the entire fight in silence, and then looked at the stunned Gao Qi, and sighed in his heart. As expected, there were still quite a few experts in the entire galaxy.

“Direct KO! The winner of the first match, Player Shao Rong!” As soon as the commentator’s voice fell, there was loud applause. The audience could naturally see that Shao Rong was much more powerful than the other three.

Originally, there were three matches in the morning and three in the afternoon, with a twenty-minute break between each match. But the speed of this group’s matches were too fast, and before the morning was over, they were already in the fourth match.

What’s more, they were about to race to the fifth game. Twenty minutes later, Luo XiaoLou looked at the names on the electronic screen: Shao Rong vs 521, hesitated a little, and then pressed the red button on the player identification card on his chest.

Immediately, a line appeared on the electronic screen: Player 521 has abstained from this match. 

This moved them directly into the next group: Shao Rong vs Gao Qi.

The people in the lounge froze, and Kevin, in a trance, stared at Luo XiaoLou, his heart rising with remorse. If only he had just made the same choice. The blow was too big for him. He had lost three times, which was fine, but the last time, the match with Shao Rong, had cost him almost all his confidence.

Gao Qi clenched his fists, suppressing the tension, and strode out.

As Shao Rong passed in front of Luo XiaoLou, he smiled slightly and said softly, “What, afraid of me?”

Luo XiaoLou didn’t say anything. The result of his match with Shao Rong was already obvious, and he didn’t want to go looking for a blow on the first day. Instead, watching Shao Rong play from here, he could learn something as well.

Besides, he was planning to go out at noon, just in case Yuan Xi got out of the arena before him, that would be a real problem.