<h4>Chapter 96: Survival</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    There were 3 engines located within Samuel in total - one of them was ced beneath the abdomen along with the others at the outer thighs being the supportive engines. This is one distinct design that made the Samuel style mechs identifiable.


    Ye Chong was bothered however. While the Blue Winter turned out to be quite a remarkable ranged weapon and the "marksmanship" ofnces taught by the great Mu was impable on both paper and performance, Ye Chong felt uneasy conducting his fight in this way. It did not feel asfortable as brandishing cutters like the maic de or the ming sword. He was fond of the closebats as if he was born for them.


    Despite all that, Blue Winter thence remained glued in his hands. It was a good weapon anyway, that Ye Chong would not let go this quickly. The uneasiness holding a foreign weapon had disintegrated into a mere preference of weaponry the moment he witnessed the capability of Blue Winter in that fight with 6 men before. Its offenses were of a perfect score. Even if it were to impale Hak’s mech, it would an effortless attempt to inflict actual damage. Other than the Blue Winter, there were a few other weapons in Harmony, but Ye Chong had yet to test their capabilities.


    He clenched his teeth as heunched the mech to propel. Harmony of the Winter Aria skipped its way like a bird with a broken wing - clumsily and tactlessly.


    Kai stomped onto the ground as it bent its body like a drastically pressed spring under Hak’smand.


    The energy umted over time was unleashed, as Kai sted off like an unstoppable bullet right towards Ye Chong.


    Kai zoomed past Ye Chong. "That was very fast!" Ye Chong eximed that there was hardly time for him to react! Hak picked such a precise timing to strike back right when Ye Chong was withdrawing thence. As long as Kai got close enough to this nuisance before him, he would be able to taste victory fairly soon.


    Wham!


    Ye Chong felt as if he would spit sts of blood in no time at this rate. Hak’s timing maniption was wless, and that was diforting to Ye Chong.


    One of the pair of wings on Harmony was truly broken and it had negatively affected the overall bnce in travels. Not only that, the aerodynamic of the mech had been disrupted, making it difficult to control! That was why Ye Chong hated unnecessary spreading wings on a mech.


    Droplets of sweat rolled over his forehead one after another. He had achieved the maximum speed of his hands on the control panel!


    Ye Chong’s Harmony grabbed thence in the right and backed off speedily, at an attempt to keep a distance from the terrorizing enemy. Ye Chong was too upied to pull off a fight. Arge amount of input was allocated on the bncing of the mech by making tiny adjustments in its positioning using the supportive engines.


    Even though Ye Chong tried to maintain a distance between them, Hak had already been absolutely enraged by that moment. Till the final blow he made, his mind was engrossed by the rages after what Ye Chong had done on his mech, while the clear order of bringing Ye Chong in one piece by ck Cove authority echoed.


    Providing Ye Chong was still breathing after the fight, with the help of current medical technology, it would not be challenging to make Ye Chong return in whole piece, no matter how injured he was. Hak trashed his concern away as he made up his mind to give this kiddo a "proper lesson"… of life, of course.


    This was the moment when Instructor Hak demonstrated his unrivaled skills. Kai moved energetically like an actual living thing in spite of the major injury under his control. Ye Chong was utterly cornered!


    Instructor Hak snickered as his eyes glowed coldly at the ancientnce which started to wield slower. If it was not this spear which made him to act cautiously, the kiddo would have been lying on the ground way back! The Ji family was potent enough to produce such a high-leveled craft even at this decade. Hak was stupefied at first nce. That mech would be some juicy details to be included in his report when he went back… with Ye Chong, needless to say!


    Although Kai was made out of the ssic Samuel’s design in the past, it had undergone several rounds of heavy modification aplished by the ace technicians at ck Cove. Practically speaking, other than the appearance and cement of the mainponents being simr to the old-fashioned Samuel style, it was literally a brand new mech inside the body. These upgrades were madepatible with Hak’s powerful unarmedbat skills.


    Harmony was immediately in grave danger as Kai inched forward.


    With such a fearsome velocity, Ye Chong’s new toy had somehow be a burden to his fight. The Blue Winter, apellingnce it might be, was still a slow weapon inparison to such a mighty opponent.


    The instructor sneered slightly as he knew what Ye Chong would do. Most of the kiddo’s attacks, counterattacks were from the his lecture back at the ck Cove and those were nothing against his techniques. Hiya! A left crush from Kai’s left shoulder, the Harmony’s bnce went crumpled as its body swung consecutively. Ye Chong’s hands hurriedly stormed upon the control panel again as he inputted themand, hoping to regain bnce in time. Seeing Ye Chong acting in such a panic, the instructor was joyful. Hak watched his opponent carefully. "There!" Kai’s left arm was raised a little, putting itself into a stance. Shush! Bang! The Blue Winter came piercing underneath of Kai’s left arm, tightly like a sword back into its sheath. As if he was prepared for the iing attack the whole time, Hak predicted the attack and obviously he did not give the kiddo a chance tond a counterattack. Klink! Kai’s left arm gripped thence tightly and the right fist struck upon the Harmony right after.


    The metallic fist glossed in the dark with the spikes spreading out.


    The punch was unavoidable even with Ye Chong’s hacking speed of his hand movements. It would be impossible to dodge the punch fully, considering how the major parts of Harmony were within its range of attack. Even if he turned his engines to the maximum, it would be toote for him to dodge.


    It was probably the end of Ye Chong’s adventure.


    He lost.


    …as if.


    Out of a sudden, a ring white light shed before him. Without forewarning, Hak''s eyes squinted due to the scorching light. A rumble resounded right after the punchnded as the mech shook a little by the recoil. The processor of his mech then started wailing its rm menacingly.


    Boom! A loud explosion followed at the end of rumble.


    When Hak’s sight had recovered from the ring light after a moment, he could only see a huge dent on the wall before him. The target was nowhere to be seen!


    The rm was still ringing in the cabin madly. Hak had no idea what had just happened. He tried moving his mech but he failed! For some reasons, Kai could not move! He looked at the interface as the processor prompted, "System Failure - Main Engine Severely Damaged - Inspecting - Mobility: Negative! Mobility: Negative!" The bloody red wording peered into his eyes.


    In the meantime, Ye Chong had escaped. Yes, like a coward, he ran away gracelessly.


    Ye Chong let off a bitterugh as he stared upon the torn Harmony of the Winter Aria. After all those efforts he put in renovating this beauty, the former elegance was utterly wiped. It looked like trash that could go straight to the recycling center!


    Thest blow was delivered sessfully. The armor of Harmony took the spikes of Kai’s fist like how Kai chewed on the Blue Winter’s impale. Itnded a critical hit. There was no plot twist to save Ye Chong. If it was not under an order to bring Ye Chong back alive, the fist would have hit right into the cabin and even a titan like Ye Chong would die in a whimper.


    Ye Chong’s mood was brightened knowing how he was still alive. And thinking back how he was still able to make aeback so gorgeously - the usual indifferent he could not help but to smile slightly.


    After Ye Chong had nned to escape, he rushed towards Kai''s engines. No matter how much the Samuel mechs were overhauled, the cement of the engines would never be changed. Ye Chong, the mod expert pinpointed such w at first look.


    Back when Harmony was still under the modification process, Ye Chong had sneaked theser sword within its right hand. Theser sword would not reveal its de when unactivated. So anyone would hardly notice the remaining handle inside the palm. It was an exceptional stealth and quite a dirty trick too! Ye Chong did not use this killer-move right away simply because he could not foresee whether aser-based cutter could deal with such fatal damage to a mech from ck Cove. He gambled once and of course he won. Apparently,ser swords worked on ck Covers’ mechs like wonders. He was not sure how much damage he had inflicted exactly, but seemingly Hak did note after him straightaway. That would be more than enough to justify the significant damage he had done. Well, he spected so.


    Back at the climax of their battle, Ye Chong decided to drop thence and activated theser sword. Harmony lifted the sword and made an upper sh - a seamless chain of action, so fast it even shocked an experienced killer like Hak, all thanks to Ye Chong’s amazing speed. That ring light that blinded Hak was actually the beam of Ye Chong’sser sword upon its activation!


    Nheless, the Harmony had been torn into junks, while the Blue Winter had gone into the enemy’s hands. It was another horror story for Ye Chong to imagine if he could escape ck Cove’s hunting. Hak was not the first one who came after him, and certainly he would not be thest. The ck Cove seemed to be very keen in taking Ye Chong down. Hence, anyone could guess the fight had not ended yet.


    Sigh…


    "Ye, that was rather incredible!" Mu’s voice rang suddenly.


    "Incredible? I almost got myself killed!" replied Ye Chong and heughed bitterly.


    "It is incredible!" Mu exined, "The probability of your victory would be a measly 8%, whereas the probability of a sessful escape would be 33%. In the end, you went after that 33% chance instead."


    Ye Chong’s lips twitched as he spoke, "Mu, if you did try to be helpful just now, taking down that guy would have been a piece of cake. For real. I was almost pounded into a pancake and yet Mu, you actually sat back and did nothing?"


    "You are right," replied Mu. "However the catch is, I would provide my assistance only when the probability of your survival goes below 15%."


    "And why is that so?" Ye Chong snorted.


    "Based on the reading I had obtained from previous researches, under such circumstance humans would most likely unleash their potential. Moreover, a pilot would be required to take on countless asions of such kind to be the true pilot! Since you happened to be the owner of both Shang and I, it is essential to make you the strongest pilot!" Though Mu’s reasoning went t and calm as if describing something trivial, there was a hint of dignity in his speech which made Ye Chong lowered his eyes in disgrace.


    Anyone would have assumed that Mu was being harsh and unsympathetic, but this was reasonable to Ye Chong. Mu shared some points and he deeply understood every bit of it. It was his own life, of course he would be the one to fight for it. Back at Trash-12, Ye Chong spent his life growing on the belief that one would always be the one to manipte one’s own fate. The rtionship between Mu and Ye Chong might be of a brotherly love and a mutual trust, yet Ye Chong never expected Mu’s protection as a form of duty or responsibility. If Mu helped out, without a doubt Ye Chong would express gratitude. If Mu decided not to however, Ye Chong would not whine about Mu’s "irresponsibility". It was not his responsibility to protect, nevertheless, it was his responsibility to train! Ye Chong knew Mu well enough that he knew whatever Mu did was for his own good. Only one would be a true warrior after countless dead-or-alive battles.


    Was there nothing Ye Chong could rely on?


    No, there wasn''t.


    To Ye Chong, he knew he could best rely on his own strength.


    "Also, I was recording the opponent’s data during the battle. His battle style was rather intriguing. The final result would be released after some data analysis," Mu carried on his speech.


    "Right," Ye Chong nodded in strong approval from his experience. "Not only it is intriguing, but also strong. Very strong! But hey, Mu, don’t you think our first priority for now is to n a runaway from the Blue Ocean?"


    "Correct," Mu agreed. "We would need a spaceship."