ABO Cadets

Chapter 029: Mech Battle

By the time the two returned to the dormitory it was already half past eleven. Lin Yuan had worked up a sweat from his training, so he went back to his bedroom to take a bath, blow dry his hair, and toss his clothes into the washing machine, then he reclined on his bed.

The excitement from the training still hadn't worn off, so Lin Yuan didn't feel even the slightest bit sleepy.

Lin Yuan picked up the helmet by his bedside, and logged into the holographic network system for the first time since entering school.

Today's network systems were divided into the holographic network and the graphic network. The holographic network could be used to experience a variety of entertainments, shopping, games, hanging out with friends, and the graphic network was commonly used for information retrieval and document look up, after all, when looking for information, people were still more used to searching with keywords, rather than browsing through a book store on the holographic network.

Lin Yuan put on the helmet and made himself relax, soon, he was logged into the Empire's holographic network.

Like he had just told Caesar, his username on the holographic network was "Ball", he'd registered when he was ten years old, and his character model was a small round snowball.

A child's aesthetic….. Lin Yuan refused to comment on it.

The character models on the virtual network were freely chosen by the users, therefore, when walking through the holographic network streets, it was normal to see all kinds of vigorous animals, plants, handsome men and beautiful women….. even dinosaurs.

This was a virtual and unique world.

Of course, in order to keep things child friendly, the models of these terrifying beasts were replaced by chibi versions.

Little snowball Lin Yuan and his former classmates usually hung around A1 Street in the shopping district.

A1 Street was the dedicated street for the mech market, various models of mecha were sold, but of course, B-Class mechs and above were government controlled, so only C, D and E level mechs could be sold directly.

Lin Yuan walked into a large mech shop, unable to stop salivating at the sight of the variously colored mech on display.

This shop sold the largest and most comprehensive amount of mech, it ranked first on the mech shop reputation charts year round, and the customer service was particularly good. Their monthly stock of mech were rumored to be replenished directly from a mech factory in Cepheus, where they have first-hand access to the goods. The latest and most comprehensive range of mech guaranteed a steady stream of customers to the store.

When Lin Yuan was back home, he'd often visit the store to window shop.

As soon as he entered the store, he stared at the red mech positioned on the grand exhibition stage. He'd been a fan of this mech for a long time, this red humanoid mech was this year's latest model, the design was very beautiful, the fresh metal reflecting the room's lighting, dazzling.

Lin Yuan walked up to the counter and politely asked: "Boss, how much is this mech?"

The boss smiled: "This is this year's new Syrex C3 model, if you want, I can give you a discount, 450,000 crystal coins."

"… uh, I don't have enough coins."

The boss continued smiling: "No matter, you can come back after you save enough right? Or do you want to look at the other mechs? How about that white one? Although it's an older model, the price is much more affordable, only 200,000 crystal coins."

"….." Lin Yuan silently gulped, turned around, and left the mech shop.

Being broke is so tragic…

450,000, would he even earn that much if he sold his organs?

It seemed that saving enough money to buy a mech was an impossible dream, he could only hope that he'll serve in a good regiment after graduation, in time, he could buy a good house and bring over his mother and sister, and maybe even have a mech assigned to him…

When life beats you down, look forward to a better future, it's the best motivation.

His mood brightening, Lin Yuan turned onto the gaming district's C1 Street.

Just like A1 Street in the shopping district, and B1 Street in the entertainment district, the first street of the gaming district,​​ C1 Street, was the busiest area in ​​the entire gaming district. The street was simply crowded with people, although the roads could automatically stratify to prevent traffic congestion, Lin Yuan still felt astonished seeing so many people packed together.

The reason C1 Street was the liveliest street was because the mech gaming quarter was located there. Many children like Lin Yuan whose families couldn't afford their own mechs liked coming here to play virtual war games.

Unlike the bare bones reality, the online world was still quite blissful. Each person registering here for the first time was assigned a free C-Class mech by the system, although it was a very old CR model, it was better than nothing.

Moreover, the mech could be upgraded through online battle, as long as you used the low level CR mech to win a game, the system rewarded you a certain amount of credits. After you save enough credits, the mech could be modified and upgraded, but you could also just buy a new mech from the virtual store.

Lin Yuan started gaming here when he was 15, three years later, his mech was already CA level, which was the highest level in the virtual mech battle game.

Lin Yuan walked into the public lounge and found that the place seemed to be much more lively than usual, was there an event?

Lin Yuan curiously walked up to the lounge's giant display.

"Is Little Prince really coming?"

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"He hasn't logged on for so long ah! Why is he suddenly showing up today?!"

"Hope I can take a selfie with him!"

Looking at the public chat flooding the giant screen, Lin Yuan finally understood the reasons behind the gaming lounge's sudden liveliness today.

Little Prince - there was no one in the virtual mech battle gaming scene who didn't know about this ID.

He was rumored to be invincible, the undefeated, he's at the top of the battle rankings with a 100% win percentage and 30 million credits. Over the years, no one has surpassed him, he was simply an online god.

When Lin Yuan started playing online, he heard about his various legendary feats, but had never seen him log on.

Who'd expect that after logging in impulsively, he'd actually have a chance to meet this God level character who'd also unexpectedly logged in?

Infected by the crowd's fervor, Lin Yuan also couldn't help but get excited.

Even more exciting, that Little Prince guy was actually hosting a room in the lounge, and the room's name was blunt enough to make people gnash their teeth- Free Tutoring

This man was too arrogant, right? How was he so sure that no one could out class him?

Lin Yuan couldn't help but think about the network ID Little Prince, to choose such a tacky name, this guy obviously didn't have good taste. Maybe he was like him, a poor kid whose family couldn't afford a mech, and could only play with mechs online.

Seeing the first ranker arrogantly hanging in the room "Free Tutoring", Lin Yuan's heart immediately ignited with fighting spirit.

His win rate in the online mech battle game was over 85%, but this prince's win rate was actually 100%, this was too outrageous. This 100% winning percentage really made people fired up to beat him!

Lin Yuan didn't hesitate to directly apply to join the challenge room, almost immediately, his application was accepted.

Surprisingly, as soon as he walked in, the room was locked, becoming spectator only, no other mech was allowed to join the battle scenario.

The arena only had Lin Yuan's CA177 and the opponent's CA101, the spectator mats were densely packed.

The two both had CA at the beginning of their mech's model numbers, clearly the online mech battle's latest high level mech, but Lin Yuan's was a red humanoid, while the opponent's was a ….. white bird?

A mech's shape was designed for either land warfare or air combat. Land warfare mecha included wolves, foxes, scorpions, spiders, lions, snakes and other types, but humanoid mech were the most common in land warfare, since they were the most balanced in all aspects of battle. Air combat mech included dragons, birds, bees, phoenixes, butterflies, etc. the features of each mech were also different.

Only S-Class mech could transform into more than one of the shapes described above, lower level mechs couldn't morph. Unfortunately, the manufacturing cost of S-Class mechs was too high, the whole Empire only had about ten of them. The majority of the mecha forces in the armies were still C-Class mechs, because of the different combat requirements, the creation of different shaped mechs was necessary.

Seeing his opponent operating a white bird, Lin Yuan wasn't worried, even though the air combat mech could fly, they were quite unstable compared to land combat mechs. Also, C-Class mech couldn't fly very high, a well placed attack could send them crashing down.

Unimpressed, Lin Yuan called out: "Are you the undefeated legend? Come, teach me!"

The other side smiled and said: "Oh, I'm about to school you, don't worry."

"…"

This guy really was too arrogant ah!

Lin Yuan took a deep breath, then moved his CA177, performing a beautiful leap, unhesitantly dashing towards his opponent. He unsheathed the giant electromagnetic sword of his back, the blade positioned to strike at the opponent's neck!

This sword angle was excellent, almost all of the opponent's head area was covered in the range of the electromagnetic sword's attack, even if the other side immediately took flight, he would definitely be struck by the blade!

The audience exclaimed in surprise -

Unexpectedly, the opponent didn't choose to take flight, rather, he nimbly ducked underneath the humanoid mech's shoulder socket to pop up behind him!

Lin Yuan was unperturbed, seeing the opponent dodge, he swiftly spun around to deliver a neat and tidy roundhouse kick!

But the white bird simply flew up, unfolding its wings to fly higher and higher, casting a huge shadow over the earth bound mech.

Lin Yuan immediately raised his mech's arms up in a 60 degree angle, his elbows outstretched, the particle cannons hidden in the mech's arms mercilessly firing out three shots! The three missiles' launch routes were extremely accurate, running separately yet simultaneously, aiming for one of the bird's wings, its abdomen, and its head, as long as one of them hit their target, the bird would plummet!

The crowd of onlookers held their breaths…

On edge of imminent peril, the bird suddenly turned to the right and did a 360 degree aerial somersault, the three missiles brushing dangerously close to its wings as they flew passed!

The audience immediately exploded -

"My God, he dodged it!"

"If that was me, I'd be scrap metal!"

"A 360 degree aerial somersault! The pilot also has to spin around in the mecha, isn't he dizzy?"

"Little Prince really is the first ranker! He's too strong!"

"This Ball guy's also pretty strong, did you see the angle of those three shots? Not just anyone could dodge that!"

"Honestly, if that was me, I wouldn't even be able to dodge that sword strike ….."

"They're both experts!"

While the audience was chatting excitedly, on the battlefield, Lin Yuan, who still hadn't lost his fighting spirit, was maneuvering his humanoid mech to chase after the bird. He launched wave after electromagnetic wave of light energy missiles at it, but none of them landed!

Lin Yuan felt extremely depressed!

On the surface, it looked like he was keeping his opponent on the run, but in fact, he was completely disadvantaged. He could work himself to death for a long time and not gain the upper hand, while the other side could lead him around the field, like walking a pet, a relaxing stroll.

Lin Yuan hadn't played such an exciting match for a long time!

This kind of disadvantage unexpectedly fired him up even more! He recalled the intensive attack drills in today's training room, the more difficult the circumstances, the calmer you needed to be, hot bloodedness was a good thing, but too much hot bloodedness would only give the opponent an advantage.

Lin Yuan quickly forced himself to calm down and withdrew his particle cannons. He stood in place, readying himself for a defensive counterattack.

At this time, the system suddenly popped up a timer notice, and the two mechs were immediately teleported back to the opposing maintenance ports.

Lin Yuan froze - online battles had a twenty minute time limit, he'd already been fighting this guy for twenty minutes? Ordinarily, he'd defeat his opponents within three minutes, or if he met a higher level player, he'd be beaten by them within three minutes, so this was the first time Lin Yuan encountered a battle that couldn't be settled within the twenty minutes.

Lin Yuan was somewhat puzzled, thinking: Why didn't he fight back? To be honest, if he fought back, I would've lost already.

Sure enough, a legend's thought patterns were too incomprehensible for normal people.

Because the two mechs had no casualties, the system automatically scored them according to the two sides' mech maneuvering, the final winner was Little Prince, who was rewarded 300 credits.

The scene immediately exploded into enthusiastic applause.

Lin Yuan was somewhat dissatisfied: "Let's go again!"

But the opponent replied: "Nuh uh, I'm sleepy."

….. How does every sentence this guy utters make me want to punch him?

Lin Yuan was silent for a moment, then he sent out a friend request and opened a private chat: "Then, will you log back on later?"

These words, just like a child tugging on an adult's hand, expectantly asking them: Do you have any more candy?

As soon as Lin Yuan sent these words, he couldn't help but blush slightly.

Contrarily, the Little Prince was still very calm: "I'll be back, I've had some free time lately."

Lin Yuan immediately excitedly asked: "Then tomorrow night, same time, can we play again?"

The Little Prince yawned, "Why should I play with you, your level's so low."

Lin Yuan: "….."

Little Prince: "Unless you want to be my disciple."

Lin Yuan: "….."

Little Prince: "How about it? I think your combat instincts' not half bad, you just lack some practical experience. If you call me Master, I can take out some time to teach you."

….. This person's skin is really thick.

But he's also really strong.

How strong was he? Strong to the point where he couldn't even land a hit on him in hand to hand combat.

Anyway, he was the mech battle game's current first ranker, Lin Yuan couldn't see any disadvantage in becoming his disciple. Thinking of this, Lin Yuan straightforwardly said: "Master! Please teach me!"

"Kay, clever disciple~" Little Prince sent a hug emoji, then directly deposited 1,000,000 credits.

- Lin Yuan was dumbfounded.

Is that really one million? Did he make a mistake?

But this guy has a ridiculous amount of credits, right? So scarily dedicated as soon as he undertakes a task, he really was the legendary first ranker…..

But….. It feels so good to be nurtured by the Master!

Little Prince: "Take those credits to go buy a new mech, you've limited yourself by always using humanoid mechs, give the land combat's wolf type and the air combat's birds a try. After mastering these two, the others will be a cake walk."

"Yes, thank you Master!"

Lin Yuan took his Master's gift credits and ran to the battle platform's mech store. He exchanged 500,000 credits for a silver wolf-type mech, and used the remaining 500,000 plus his own 300,000 for a red bird.

In this battle game, many of the high level experts had more than one mech, Lin Yuan didn't have that many credits, so he only had one humanoid mech, the upgraded version of the one the system first sent him.

Today, thanks to his Master, he suddenly owned two new mechs, excited, Lin Yuan jumped into his new mechs' cockpits to feel them out, then earnestly locked his new mechs up in his pocket space. After this, he contentedly logged off and went to sleep.

***

In the neighboring bedroom, Caesar pulled off his virtua helmet and gently massaged his temple.

To go so far as to pretend to be an arrogant high level player to receive Lin Yuan as his disciple, he had only one objective -

If a stranger directly gave Lin Yuan an expensive gift, with his temperament, he certainly wouldn't accept it. But if he was his Master, he'd have grounds for sending him gifts later, and he could teach him more conveniently. Also, he could get even closer to him….. right?

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Author's Note: I see quite a few readers roasting the Little Prince network ID, here's a tiny theater extra-

Five-year-old baby Caesar watched Brian tear open mechs and play with them every day, so he also gained a strong interest in mechs. The imperial palace's mechs couldn't be casually touched, so Caesar wanted to fight mechs online.

Caesar: Wang Xiong, I want to play Mech Battle online, but the network's registration ID is binding, what's a good name ah?

Sylvan: … Just call yourself Little Prince!

Caesar: But won't people guess my identity?

Sylvan: You fool! If you call yourself Little Prince, who's going to guess that you're an actual prince? This is called hiding in plain sight, don't you get it?!

Caesar: Ooohh! Then what's your ID Wang Xiong?

Sylvan: ……

Caesar: Wang Xiong, what're you called ah? I'll add you as a friend!

Sylvan: Big Prince.

Caesar: …………………………

Compared to Brain's poor naming sense, Wang Xiong's naming sense is even more incomprehensible!

Please spare no effort to roast, Caesar's "Little Prince" ID was chosen by his big brother Sylvan when he was a naive child.

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T/N:

Dinosaurs- Apparently it's also slang for an ugly person

Free Tutoring -求虐- Qiu Nue- Seeking abuse/maltreatment. A taunt Chinese gamers say in online games to provoke others. Basically, "I'm looking for someone who can beat me up", sounds pretty kinky in English huh?

Hiding in plain sight- do something when it is least expected

Whelp I'm packing my computer up on tomorrow. Next time you guys see me I'll be in a new country. Adieu for now.