ã€ŠThe Undying Mecha Emperorã€‹


 Chapter 1 Humble Beginning

    This is where it all began.

    A junkyard.

    Oh no, this isn''t your clean, mechas-only junkyard that was the ''starting point'' of many mecha geniuses out there.

    I have seen and heard my share of rags-to-riches stories, and many of them imed that they had started from ''junkyards'' and slowly grew to be where they were right now. From Zero to Hero, they dered. You can do it too, they said. As long as you work hard, everything is possible, they imed.

    I call bullshit.

    Life doesn''t work like that.

    All those professed Zero-to-Hero geniuses are definitely middle to low ie families who still have houses to live in and regr meals three times a day. The ''junkyard'' they imed to have started from is definitely just a scrappy second-hand mecha shop down the street.

    I can bet everything I own on it.

    For one thing, they all look too clean to be junkyard scrappers like me. They speak too nicely, their hands are too smooth, and their eyes are shining too brightly, god damn it.

    Yes, they are all skilled beyond measure. Yes, they all took the world by storm. Yes, their stories inspired billions of young children to work hard.

    But they definitely didn''t start from a mecha junkyard.

    Because for another thing, it is impossible to get anything of value in a mecha junkyard. Period.

    All the things they throw into a mecha junkyard have passed through many nimble hands and sharp, discerning eyes from various organizations before finally reaching the junkyard. And everything that reaches the junkyard is well and truly that. Junk. Bits and pieces of mechas that have absolutely nomercial value left.

    Of course, one man''s trash is another man''s treasure. So to lowborns like us, a mecha junkyard is still a wonderful ce where we can find bits and pieces of metal and wires which we could use to stay alive. Just that, mind you. Stay alive.

    Not to create a mecha out of spare parts that can take the world by storm.

    The idea of finding something iparably precious in a junkyard that could somehow change a person''s life is absolute nonsense. Truly.

    It''s a myth, born of fantasy, spun into a delicious tale meant to do one thing. Entertain, and entertain only.

    Me? My turning point came from a real junkyard. And it isn''t even a mecha junkyard.

    It''s just a regr junkyard.

    If junkyards could be graded, then a mecha junkyard would sit veryfortably at the top of the list. Then below that would be an airne junkyard, an automobile junkyard, a ship junkyard, then right at the bottom would be the regr junkyard and the rubbish dump.

    Thest two didn''t really need to be separated, since both were absolutely simr in value. But at least the regr junkyard doesn''t smell.

    And that, my friends, is where Ie from, and where everything started for me.

    Because although I had just spent the past few minutes iming that getting something even remotely useful from a junkyard is a myth meant to entertain bored young people with too much time on their hands, (it is very certainly that way for everyone else) it was not the case for me.

    I was scrounging for useful stuff in that regr junkyard one fine morning. (If you''re wondering why I was in a regr junkyard instead of a mecha junkyard, it was a Monday. And I spend my Mondays in a regr junkyard just to switch things up a little.)<novelnext></novelnext>

    I had a great start to the day, I actually found an entire length of wire deep within the junkyard. A full two hundred centimeters, still connected to a weird squarish wirehead.

    Feeling encouraged by such bountiful harvest, I began to attack the humongous pile of junk with great fervor. If an almost intact length of wire could be found there, what other treasures would that particr pile of junk yield?

    But as usual, I found nothing else of worth. Just piles and piles of scrap metal and broken pieces of¡­ junk. Just as I was about to take a deep breath of resignation and leave that pile to move on to the next, I saw a dust-covered curved item hiding beneath some tattered cloth.

    In fact, I barely caught a glimpse of anything. Most of the item was under that piece of cloth, the only thing that caught my eye was that the item was most likely to be spherical, and it had a rtively smooth surface.

    Point to note for you aspiring junkyard scrappers out there, if it''s spherical and smooth, grab it. More often than not, it''s worth something. Even if it is just a broken piece of what used to be a spherical item, you can at least use it to drink and eat.

    And grab it I did. To my great joy and surprise, it was an intact spherical item!

    A full andplete sphere the size of a human fist!

    My heart almost burst from happiness. Whatever it was, it was still intact, and it might just be repairable.

    I held the sphere with trembling hands and began to wipe it with the bottom of my¡­ well I would say T-shirt, but it wasn''t much of a T-shirt anymore. Let''s just say clothing. Yes, I began to wipe it with the bottom of my clothing.  And piling joy upon joy,  I immediately noticed a series of very familiar runes etched on the sphere. I gasped in shock. I actually recognized the object.

    It was a mecha core.

    Holy smokes. Talk about hitting the jackpot.

    Up till that point, I had never seen a mecha up close before, much less a mecha core. But I had devoured every little bit of information I could get my hands on about mechas, their pilots, their stories, everything. And I knew for certain that I had in my hands an intact mecha core.

    I remember feeling faint. I couldn''t believe it. I copsed on the ground, closed my eyes and counted to ten. I then did several difficult multiplications in my head. Finding that I could do them smoothly, I took a deep breath and prepared for the final test. I had to do it right.

    PIAK!!

    I gave myself a tight p.

    OWWWW!!!

    I yelped in pain. IT HURT LIKE HELL! Damn it. But inside my heart I was trembling with joy.

    It was not a dream. I had a mecha core in my hand.

    I turned back to check on the spot where I found the mecha core. I wasn''t expecting anything else, but hey it never hurt to be thorough and check.

    I cleared the space a little, and found that it was the rear end of a car. In the ancient days, they had thispartment at the rear of the car where they could put stuff in it.

    I lifted the tattered cloth up to check what else was in thatpartment and got another big shock.

    It was a human skeleton.

 Chapter 2 Experimental Mecha Core

    It was unquestionably a human skeleton.

    Time had left its corrosive mark on it and it was almost unrecognizable. But I could still see the skull, pieces of the spine and the pelvic bone.

    I grimaced slightly, and started to feel rather nauseous.

    I was no stranger to death. You couldn''t grow up on the streets and not see death at some point. But I was totally unprepared to meet with the remains of a human being so up close and personal. You see, whatever could be said of me at that time, one thing was for sure.

    I was young. Very young.

    I don''t know my age exactly, (I think almost everyone living on the streets are the same, who cares about birthdays?) but I was definitely no older than ten.

    By ten, you were either independent and streetsmart, or you''re dead.

    I was the former. Very much so, if I may boast a little.

    Anyway, I digress.

    I fought down my nausea and bravely searched the trunk for other valuable stuff.

    Jackpot!

    A satchel!

    Could this day get any better? I remember thinking of that ecstatically. I grabbed it and quickly closed the hatch of thepartment once more. I put the mecha core in my pants where it would be safe, and hugged the satchel as I left the pile of junk to look for a safe ce to check out my treasure.

    I peeked out of the pile of junk and checked the surroundings. I was scrounging very early in the morning when I knew that there would be very few people around. But I was a cautious boy. Because well, cautious boys stay alive, and careless boys die.

    Finding that the coast is clear, I ran down a path that was surrounded by piles and piles of junk that seemed to stretch out infinitely into the horizon. It was one of many paths that criss-crossed the junkyard. Some lead to deadends, some lead to exits and entrances, and some lead to the worst ces in the junkyards - gang hideouts.

    I picked the one I knew that would lead me to an exit near my ''home'' and ran as fast as I could. It would be really bad if a gang member caught me running with a treasure such as the satchel I was holding on to.

    After a heart-poundingly scary few minutes, I finally made it out of the junkyard interior. I slipped past the main (broken) gates of the junkyard and darted into a small pathway leading into a small forest just outside the junkyard.

    After a minute or two of scampering about, I reached the ce I humbly call home.

    It was a double engined helicopter wreckage. It was a monster helicopter when it was operational, and it was a spacious home now that it was a wreckage.

    Pathetic as it may sound, living in such arge wreckage was actually a luxury among junkyard scrappers. I was extremely fortunate to have found thisrge helicopter wreckage. It had everything I needed, which was a roof, and the asional electricity if I managed to scavenge or rob a power source.

    Yes, yes. I do rob other junkyard scrappers. I didn''t have to, but I did. I am not a kind person. So there. If you don''t like it, you can... go eat candy.

    I breathed a sigh of relief once I entered my home. I never had a visitor ever since I moved in two years ago, and I wasn''t expecting to have one anytime soon.

    I quickly sat down on what used to be a cockpit and took a deep breath.

    Save the best forst, I told myself.

    I nodded sagely and forced myself to open the satchel first.

    The mecha core can wait.

    It won''t go anywhere. I told myself.

    I snapped thetch on the satchel open and lifted its cover. My eyes grew wide in wonder as I beheld the treasures within.

    J.A.C.K.P.O.T.<novelnext></novelnext>

    A handheldmunicator of some sort greeted my eyes which were shining in excitement. I would definitely be able to get it up and running again. It just needed an electrical boost.

    Aside from the handheldmunicator, there was also a half-rotted folder filled with rectangr pieces of parchments. The ink on the parchments have long faded away and they were worthless.

    And then there was the final item. A ne with a metal te. I gingerly took it out of the satchel and ran my fingers on the engraving.

    Dr. Andrew Kennedy

    Mecha Engineering

    Central Division

    The skeleton in the storagepartment of the automobile was a Mecha Engineer! He must have been murdered and his body dumped there before the automobile was disposed of.

    I ced the ne back into the satchel, and hid the satchel in a secretpartment I found in the helicopter. After that, I took out the grand prize that I''ve been waiting so eagerly to study.

    The mecha core.

    If I somehow manage to y this right, this would be the key to a qualitative change in my life. My ticket to a better future.

    I wiped the mecha core clean with a piece of cloth and studied it very carefully.

    It was blood red in colour, and semi translucent.

    I frowned deeply. I had never seen or heard of a mecha core that was blood red in colour.

    A mecha core is a practical application of a massive technological breakthrough in energy maniption early in the 22nd century. Surprisingly it was a scientist from a third world country who made the breakthrough, discovering apound element and a unique method which allows for a controlled nuclear fission triggered by electricity to happen.

    It was a massive turning point for humanity as energy became a non issue within one short decade. With unlimited energy at their disposal, the scientists and engineers of the world made breakthroughs in almost every field of study and application.

    However, it was the undisputed number one power of the world, The United States of All Americas (USAA) which weaponized the technology.

    They developed the technology further, finally culminating into palm sized energy capsules that produced enough energy to power massive robots that packed a ton of firepower.

    The second ranked power of the world, The European Empire, soon followed suit. Within a decade, the other powers of the world had developed their own oversized robots powered by simr applications of the technology.

    The age of mechas had begun.

    Almost every mecha core was electric blue. The rare and more powerful ones were white. The rarest of them all were golden.

    There was no such thing as a red mecha core.

    I gently caressed the mecha core with my fingers as I contemted the issue. That it was a mecha core, was undeniable. The runes etched on it were definitely the ones in almost every single mecha core I had seen in the documentaries.

    However, it was also undeniable that red mecha cores were non-existent. How could they exist? Only threepound elements were found to be suitable to be used in mechas, and they were blue, white and golden in colour. Could this be a fourth element? But why was it in the junkyard in the body of a murdered scientist?

    Wait... Could this be an experimental mecha core that failed?

    "OUCH!" I yelled out in shock. A sharp paining from my fingers jolted me out of my reverie.

    I looked at my thumb in great surprise as it began to bleed profusely. I quickly sucked on it to stop the bleeding.

    But before I could do anything else, the mecha core in my hands cracked, and then exploded.

    I stared at it in horror as it transformed into a wave of red energy and pierced into my tummy. An overwhelming deluge of pain assailed my senses, and I passed out.

 Chapter 3 Devour

    I woke up with a sudden-ness that was astounding to say the least. There was no sense of lethargy, nor was there a need to re-orient myself. I became conscious and my brain whirred back to full speed as though it had never cked out.

    I opened my eyes and noticed that the sky was already bright. It was noon. But at that moment, I couldn''t care less.

    I remembered the wave of red energy that pierced my tummy and instinctively braced for pain. But thankfully, and rather surprisingly, none came.

    Weird, but definitely good.

    After a second or two, I looked down and lifted my clothing up to check on my tummy. There was no trace of anything entering it.

    No wounds, no scars, no dried blood, nothing.

    I touched it gingerly, and upon feeling no pain once more, I got slightly bolder and pressed on it lightly.

    Nothing.

    I frowned slightly, and pressed down on my tummy with more strength.

    Still nothing. Everything felt normal.

    That''s really good, but the weird part was starting to bug me.

    Was it a dream?

    My eyes swivelled to the secretpartment where I kept the satchel. I sprang up with great agility and quickly opened it up.

    There it was. The satchel was still there.

    I breathed a sigh of relief.

    That''s really good. It was still weird, but at least the good parts were still there.

    It was not a dream.

    The red mecha core was real.

    And it was within my body.

    I was a ten year old junkyard scrapper. I''ve had my share of wounds and bleeding. Some were trophies from idents which made me stronger instead of killing me, and some were inflicted by other junkyard scrappers as we fought for¡­ well, scraps.

    And all my experiences by that point had taught me one thing. If you''re not in pain, you''re probably fine.

    So in proper junkyard scrapper fashion, even after confirming that I did indeed have a weird wave of red energy entering my body, I was still calm and collected.

    I sat down quietly, trying to sense the energy within my body.

    There it is! I thought in surprise. I didn''t expect to detect it so quickly.

    It was still in my tummy area, where it had made its entrance earlier.

    I felt my adrenaline pumping really hard in response and to my continued surprise, the adrenalin began to mix with the red energy.

    My heart began to pound wildly in excitement as I felt the adrenaline-infused energy start to circte around my body.

    One round.

    Two rounds.

    Three rounds.

    As it circted around my body, the energy grew smaller and smaller until it became a quarter its original size. Thereafter, it stopped in my heart and disappeared.

    Weird, why-

    GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

    Blinding pain suddenly engulfed my entire body. It was so painful that my nerves had no idea what sort of pain it was. Was it hot? Cold? I didn''t know what sort of pain I was feeling, only that it was pure agony.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I crumpled onto the floor and began to convulse uncontrobly.

    The pain continued unabated for many long minutes, but by then I had already lost control of my body.

    I could only lie down there on the cold metal floor of my home in an awkward position, enduring waves and waves of never ending pain.

    Finally, the pain stopped.

    Gah! I gasped in relief. The sudden disappearance of such incredible pain was like heaven to me.

    I straightened my body and stretched. Ahh, pure bliss!

    Bliss!

    I still remember to this day how wonderful it felt.

    Truly the greatest pleasure can only be enjoyed in light of the greatest pain.

    I am no philosopher, but I know that statement to be true.

    I had never experienced such pain again, and I am extremely thankful for it. But because of that, I also had never experienced such bliss again. And to an extent, I am kind of regretful. But not regretful enough to want to go through that hell once more, thank you very much.

    I took deep breaths and examined my body.

    My body was no longer as it was before.

    Before the blinding waves of pain, I had a scrawny ten year old body, a hundred and forty centimeters tall and weighing barely thirty kilograms.

    After the blinding waves of pain, I was still a ten year old, but my body had changed.

    I was definitely at least a hundred and sixty centimeters tall. And judging by the muscles on my arms that seemed to be chiseled out of marble, I was probably around sixty kilograms.

    You would think that I would be shocked to the core.

    I was shocked, yes, but only slightly. I was still basking in the relief and bliss of the absence of pain, and couldn''t spare much shock to deal with the change in my body.

    Plus at that point, everything was already so weird that having my body suddenly grow a couple of years on me was not that big of an issue for me. Plus apparently, it was a great two years worth of growth.

    Good.

    I smiled dreamily as I put down my right arm after checking out the solidity of the muscles with  my left hand.

    I felt really FULL of power. My cells were brimming with energy, and I had half a thought to go hunting for a few gang members to rob once I was done with enjoying the blissful feeling which had yet to dissipate.

    I was stretching out my hands t against the cool metallic floor of the helicopter wreckage when I felt a strange resonance.

    I could clearly visualize every single detail of the helicopter wreckage, and I felt a deep sense of connection to it. A physical connection of some sort.

    But there was more, I could also feel a weird mental resonanceing from the control panel of the helicopter.

    I felt like I could reach out and just¡­ take them?

    How do I -

    CRACK!

    A deafening crack sounded, and to my utmost shock¡­ Yes I was truly shocked at that time, blissful feelings be damned.

    To my utmost shock, the helicopter wreckage which had protected me from the snow, rain, wind and sun for the past two years, suddenly just¡­ poofed? Burst into grey particles and surged into my body.

    A stream of white energy also entered my brain from the direction of the control panel.

    I was beyond shocked.

 Chapter 4 Amelia Dragonos

    Bam. My butt hit the ground as the helicopter wreckage disappearedpletely.

    The odds and ends which I had gathered throughout the two years were scattered everywhere around me.

    I stared absently at my surroundings, my eyes took in everything there was to note about the situation, but my brain wasn''t having any of that.

    Queue up, it told the information that my eyes were transmitting to it sternly. I''m currently overloaded. And so the information waited patiently somewhere in the holding area of my brain.

    Because, overloaded it truly was.

    A deluge of information had exploded within my brain, everything pertaining to the helicopter wreckage.

    Detailed blueprints on how to build and modify it, images of every singleponent and their names and their functions and how they rte to otherponents suddenly appeared in my mind.

    And not only that, theputer program that was controlling the entire helicopter was also there. In my brain.

    I suddenly knew every line of code needed to write the software to control The Chinook.

    Oh yes, I finally knew what model the helicopter was. It was called The Chinook. ZH-47J. A twenty fifth generation Chinook stationed in Japan. What a beauty it was.

    But the true beauty, I realized, was theputer program that ran it. It was called the Advanced Avionics Architecture System (AAAS). It was connected directly to the pilot''s neuralwork, allowing him/her to fly the helicopter simply by thinking about it.

    It was very, very cool.

    It reminded me of my younger days when my dad was still around. He was the one who taught me how to read and write. He had instilled in me a great love for reading and learning, and up till the moment we were betrayed by his closest friend and he was killed right before my eyes, reading and learning was all I did.

    My dad was a military man, and all he had at home were military books. There were no fairy tales or feven adult fiction. Literally every single book was military in nature. Tactics, strategies, analysis of hardware and software, history, political science, technology etc.

    I didn''t care. I devoured them all hungrily. And so although I was a junkyard scrapper, and a sessful one at that, I wasn''t totally without capital to seed in life.

    I had in my mind a wealth of knowledge about the military. Knowledge which I had intended to fully utilize for one single glorious purpose.

    Revenge.

    Oh yes, now you know why I did what I did a few years back. But the details of that story willeter. All you need to know that my thirst for vengeance is sated¡­ for now.

    Anyway, I knew everything about the helicopter. In mind-blowingly intimate detail. Heck, at that moment, I felt sure that I could make one if I just had ess to the materials I needed.

    And thinking of that made me feel rather strange.

    I could make the Chinook if I had the materials. Definitely.

    But I felt like I could do¡­ more than that. I felt like I could make the Chinook. Period.

    I thought of the Chinook wreckage which disappeared into a haze of grey particles and entered my body. Could it be that I can¡­ make the Chinook? By force of will alone, perhaps?

    Because I was just thinking of ''taking'' the helicopter wreckage when suddenly, I actually did take them.

    Make a Chinook. Imanded my body firmly while pointing at the ground in front of me.

    Nothing. Damn it, why? Make a Chinook! Imanded my body again.

    Still nothing. DAMN!

    Make a Chinook!

    Nothing.

    "MAKE A CHINOOK! MAKE A MINI CHINOOK! MAKE ANYTHING WITH HELICOPTER BLADES DAMN IT!" I shouted angrily out loud, feeling slightly disappointed.

    At that, my body began to respond. Metal tes grew out of my flesh at frightening speed.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Within seconds, I was fully encased with metal armor, from my head to my toe. And a four-ded helicopter rotor grew out of my back.

    I took a sharp breath and my heart pounded wildly once more in shock.

    I did it. It actually worked.

    "I MADE A MECHA OUT OF NOTHING!" I screamed in tion.

    Well, technically not nothing, but you get what I mean.

    I tried controlling the rotor. It responded exactly just how my arms would respond to my brain. I didn''t even have to think much about it, I just did.

    I adjusted the rotor so it was ced above me, supported by little pirs that were connected to my shoulder armor. I ced the tail rotor on my back like a shark''s fin.

    Then gingerly, I started the rotors and vo, we have lift off.

    HOLY SMOKES! HOLY SMOKES!!

    What just happened?! I remember feeling ecstatic and surprised and confused and afraid and a bunch of other major human emotions all piled into one.

    Remember your first times?

    First time you tried the roller coaster, first time you went to school, first time you had chocte, first time you skipped school, first time you kissed, first time you had¡­ well. All those first times, add them up together and multiply it by ten.

    You''ll be somewhere within the vicinity of what I was feeling then.

    It was incredible.

    And you can imagine my frustration when that first time was cut extremely short.

    "Ding! Life forms detected. Approaching at high speed." A robotic voice sounded from the Over Head Disy.

    Damn it, the gangs must have detected something.

    Retract! Come back! I cried.

    Immediately, my mecha armor disappeared.

    Bam! My feet hit the ground just as the first members of the gang burst through the trees with their handheld weapons levelled at me.

    Within a few seconds, twenty Red Dragon gang members surrounded me. A beautiful woman with red hair and dressed in striking red leather walked out of the group.

    Amelia Dragonos. Leader of the Red Dragon gang. My heart dropped to the pits.

    She was extremely notorious for being vicious. Precious few people could kill at the drop of a hat. Amelia could kill even before the hat was touched.

    "Well, well. What do we have here?" She demurred at me coyly as she noticed my handsome features. She ignored me for a moment as she began to study the area. After a few short moments, she looked at me in confusion and asked, "Where''s the helicopter wreckage? And where''s Justin? Are you his¡­ elder brother? Father?"

    I stared dumbly at her for a moment. I could feel my world crumbling around me. So my home wasn''t as hidden as I thought? People actually knew that I lived here?  AMELIA DRAGONOS knew I lived here??

    Apparently she noticed my shocked look and wasn''t too happy about it because she immediately snapped at her underlings, "Capture him and bring him back to base. Bag everything in the area and look for clues."

    She red at me as her men moved to secure my hands and feet with various gadgets. "You better have a satisfactory answer for me regarding what just happened in this area. If not, your limbs will be amputated and you will live the rest of your life as my toy."

    She turned around and stomped off.

    And that was it.

    My first meeting with Amelia.

 Chapter 5 Ill Start With You Guys!

    I do not remember much about the trip back to the Red Dragon base. Although I was beaten up early on, it took everything I had to stop myself from grinning widely like an idiot. I can''t wait to actually steal all the mechas that Amelia had!

    I was cuffed, gagged, blindfolded and dumped unceremoniously into a vehicle of somesort. I could smell other people near me and the distinct acrid smell of the tobo that I had smelled earlier on the gang members who had handled me so roughly.

    I sat up and bowed my head, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Apparently I failed miserably.

    "Stinkin'' b*****d." Snarled a gang member as hended a kick on my stomach.

    "Ooof!" I grunted in shock. I did not see thating.

    Literally.

    And figuratively.

    "You ruined my day off! A*****e!" Hended another vicious kick on my body.

    "Enough." A soft voicemanded.

    The fact that I was left alone for the rest of the trip bore testimony to the clout that the owner of the voice wielded in this particr squad. I took a note of that voice and bookmarked it somewhere in my brain.

    Thereafter, I spent a rtively peaceful few minutes in the vehicle.

    Peaceful, and incredibly exciting.

    The resonance I felt with the helicopter wreckage was back, and it was back at full force. I could sense with extreme rity the number of vehicles in the convoy as well as other sophisticated machines within them.

    Three Armored Transport Vehicles including the one I am in. And a high-grade transforming automobile that could turn into a mecha!

    I also knew for certain that if I but willed it, these four vehicles would immediately turn into particles and be absorbedpletely by me. I could easily turn into the mecha and make good my escape.

    But I didn''t, because well, I was a smart boy.

    Okay fine, a greedy boy.

    I knew there would be more machinery and mechas in the Red Dragon base, and I certainly was not going to miss the chance to enter the base and get close to all those delicious ''food''.

    Sorry Amelia. If you''re reading this, that was me. The first of many, if I might add.

    But I''m not THAT sorry because you deserved it. You''re not a very nicedy at your tender age of fifty now, and you certainly were not any better when you were thirty five.

    Although, I have to add that out of the people I''ve stolen multiple times from, you certainly were the most generous. And this first incident was a fine example of your generosity.

    It truly set the path for my rise to glory.

    I immediately knew the second we entered the Red Dragon base because I could feel a powerful surge of resonance that was unlike anything I''ve felt before. It was so strong and it drew my interest and desire so much that it felt like hunger pangs.

    It was the presence of a powerful mecha somewhere beneath me. I shivered slightly as I ''beheld'' it in my mind.

    At a hundred meters tall, it would dwarf everything in the vicinity if it ever left its storage area. But its size was not the reason for sparking the strong desire within me. The main reason was its mecha core.

    Oh yes, that mecha core.

    It was a beautiful white mecha core. So rare and so valuable. Amelia must have either robbed a Universe grade trader to get the money to buy one from the ckmarket, or robbed a dying white mecha pilot that crashnded nearby.

    The other alternative was to rob a military convoy, and as impressive as it was, the Red Dragon gang was merely that, a junkyard gang. There was no way it could go against a military convoy with a white mecha in it. It would be like an ant trying to rob abrador.

    No bloody way.

    Under normal circumstances, it was almost impossible to see a white mecha on this side of the world.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But there it was. And it was incredible.

    It''s really difficult to exin just how incredible a white mecha is. I guess I have to start at the beginning.

    You see, after USAA weaponized the technology that revolutionized everything, the age of mechas dawned upon humanity. Human controlled mechas quickly dominated the battles that took ce.

    Nothing could beat the firepower and flexibility that human beings could produce with coordinated attacks made by squads, toons,panies or even battalions of mechas.

    It was the perfect weapons tform.

    Where previously, hundreds of men were needed to maintain and operate a weapons tform capable of levelling a small town such as a battlecruiser, now just a single pilot in a mecha could do it.

    A pair of mechas couldy waste to an entire tankpany. If manned by capable pilots, flight capable ones could even go head to head with a squadron of the air force''s best fighters.

    Imagine a thousand such mechas marching towards you. You may be surrounded by hundreds of thousands of other men with sophisticated technology such as tanks, artillery and even the airforce.

    Trust me, you''d still be shaking in your boots.

    And because of that, within a century, the armies of the world were almost exclusively mecha.

    At first, the trend was to build human-sized mechas that packed a tremendous punch. They were extremely flexible and agile, and the militaries of the world loved them.

    However, these human-sized mechas were quickly overpowered byrger ones who were able to install stronger weapons systems and deliver more ''punch''. Soon, the trend went back to creatingrge, oversized mechas toplement the shorings of the smaller mechas.

    Theserge oversized mechas were installed with ridiculous amounts of firepower. They became so powerful that they were ssified as ''Nuclear Grade'' and were subject to the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT).

    Only the biggest powers could own them.

    And so, what began as a ballroom dance of mecha innovation devolved into a couple dance between the USAA and The European Empire.

    They banned the development, production and deployment of mechas above a certain grade which was determined by the core of the mecha.

    Only the two superpowers were allowed to develop, produce and deploy gold mechas.

    The rest of the world would only be allowed to build the blue mechas. For a select few allies of the two superpowers, they were allowed to build the higher-grade white mechas, and only in very limited amounts.

    These white mechas were a symbol of penultimate power.

    And not only were they powerful symbols, they also had something that made them extremely powerful and special, unique powers that were not found in the blue mechas.

    White mechas are able to trigger their cores and release a minor nuclear explosion, one that would be strong enough to obliterate everything in a square kilometer. Excluding themselves, of course. They were built to resist that minor explosion.

    Now you understand why I was so ecstatic in finding a white mecha in Amelia''s base. Upon consuming it, I would gain the power equal to any nation in the world not called USAA and The European Empire.

    I studied the white mecha with my senses for a few seconds more and somehow I knew that I wouldn''t be able to ''eat'' it in one go. It was way too big and way too powerful.

    "Interesting" I thought to myself.

    I still had no idea how my ''devouring'' ability worked, and I was very eager to find out. But I guess that white mecha could wait.

    Because, to my great delight, I could sense a few blue mechas in the vicinity too.

    Ten, to be exact.

    I''ll start with you guys! I thought happily to myself.

 Chapter 6 Emperor Justin

    "Get in there, freakin'' lowlife." The gang member with the acrid breath shoved me roughly. I stumbled in surprise at the sudden push forward, and fell really hard, t on my face.

    Bam. "EMPH!" Then...

    BANG!

    I could hear a metal door m close nearby and the clicking of a lock being put in ce.

    "You cany there and rot today. NO FOOD FOR ALL OF YOU! You can thank this sted neer for ruining my day off!" Roared the gang member.

    A few secondster, another BANG! Sounded, and I knew that he had left the building. Or room. But probably a building.

    I knew I was probably in some sort of a prison.

    The bad news was, I was still blindfolded, gagged and cuffed. Plus the room really stank big time.

    The good news was, I could sense that the blue mechas were within range. I could absorb them any old time I want.

    I grinned widely.

    Or tried to anyway. Those gang members really knew how to gag a man. They had the piece of cloth tied so tight around my mouth that I was sure that if I hadn''t somehow absorbed the red mecha core and greatly enhanced my body, my mouth would have been torn.

    ? The other good news was I could sense that I could easily break through those cuffs around my hands. I knew with startling rity that the metal cuffs were made of simple iron and the energy within me could somehow corrode and weaken it.

    Apparently I had developed some sort of affinity with metals.

    I might probably be the happiest prisoner the world had ever seen at that moment. It was an incredible feeling, knowing that you''re about to rob the douchebags who had beaten you up and threatened you with painful bodily harm. And not just rob, but rob them totally blind. All I needed to do was to break out of the cuffs, wait until night time, and give the Red Dragon base a quick tour before running away.

    Heck, better yet, don''t run away and simply obliterate the base.

    But I was hesitant.

    I didn''t want to simply rip apart solid metal cuffs in front of many people. I had to find out if there was anybody nearby first.

    "EMPH!!" I tried to shout.

    "EMPHH!!!"

    "EMPHHHH!!!!!!!"

    Other muffled sounds rang out from everywhere around me.

    Other prisoners?

    Very soon, after EMPH-ing for a few more times, the other prisoners went silent again. What was the point? Nobody knew what the other person was EMPH-ing about. It was a hopeless situation for them.

    I waited for a few minutes, making sure that there were no other sounds apart from the ones from the other prisoners near me.

    And then I took a deep breath and began to pull my hands apart. I could feel my hands grow slightly hot as I instinctively circted and directed the unique energy I felt previously around my hands. Slowly, I could feel the energy affecting the metal cuffs around my hands.

    That''s it! I eximed internally. Destroy the cuffs! Destroy the cuffs! I chanted internally in my mind. I didn''t know exactly what I was doing, but my desire was clear, and the energy somehow responded to it.

    After almost a full minute of exertion, I could feel my hands finally draw further apart. And then...

    NGIIIIIKK! CRACK!<novelnext></novelnext>

    The metal cuffs around my hands creaked mightily before giving way.

    My hands were free!

    I quickly ungagged myself, removed my blindfold and checked my surroundings.

    It was exactly what I had envisioned. I was in a cell with metal bars all around me. There were three more cells to my left and right, and four more opposite us, making it an 8-cell prison. With four to a cell, they could at most contain 32 people. And right now, every cell except mine, which was empty except for me, was fully upied.

    Not a big base at all, I realized. Maybe not even a base, by all external appearances. A hideout perhaps? But it definitely packed the power of arge base. With a white mecha, ten blue mechas and a transforming mecha, it could deal with all the armies any country could send their way.

    "A secret base then. This Amelia Dragonos is a much more important person than I realized. She''d probably throw a princess tantrum once I rob her of everything here" I mused.

    "The Red Dragon gang is definitely just a front for another big organization. The questions to ask would be, which organization, and what are they doing here, in the junkyard of all ces? Are they looking for something?" I thought to myself for a moment before my eyes finally widened in shock as everything clicked.

    "Oh my god. They''re looking for the red mecha core." I realized as a cold, sinking feeling rushed through my body. "That''s why they sent such a high ranking person with a white mecha to the area. I need to make sure they don''t discover the fact that the red mecha core has been absorbed by me. I need to rob them quickly and esca-"

    I stopped mid-thought as another realization hit me.

    "They would probably know its function! And they would instantly know what was happening the second they see the deconstructed mecha particles rushing towards the prison area. That ''Justin''s brother/father'' had absorbed the red mecha core and triggered its use."

    I closed my eyes and tried to calmly analyze the situation. My mind whirred at high speed as I thought through various ideas and strategies.

    After a few minutes, my breathing calmed down as an idea presented itself to me. "Yes, this could work¡­" I murmured. "Definitely. I''ll do that, then."

    I smiled and gave myself an imaginary pat on the back. "Well done, Sir Justin. You''ve just out-did yourself once more." Iid down on my back and tried to make myselffortable. I would move out as soon as it got dark.

    I spent afortable day justying there, rxing and thinking of what I could do next, and deciding what I really wanted out of life now that I had the key to sess.

    A great warrior, maybe the greatest general the world had ever seen? That probably went without saying.

    A life of greatfort and luxury? Of course.

    A family? Definitely.

    A harem? Uhh¡­ I had heard the other older boys talk about girls sometimes at that point, and they had a lot of fun hooting andughing about all the things they did with them. But to tell you the truth, I wasn''t really interested... yet. I''ll make that decisionter, I decided. Topic shelved.

    Helping the world be a better ce? Noble and worthy of pursuit. That as well. Definitely.

    How do I do that? A general would have the power to make the world a better ce, but he wouldn''t have the freedom to do so.

    I have the power to do whatever I want. Now, I need to fight for the freedom to use that power however and whenever I want. And for that, I needed to be¡­

    My lips curled into a wide smile.

    Yes, it was at that very moment when I decided that I wanted to be¡­

    An Emperor.

    The path before me was set.

    Emperor Justin. Yes, that had a very nice ring to it.

    In fact, it still does, even now.

 Chapter 7 Phase Three

    When darkness finally fell upon thend, it came very suddenly. One minute it waste afternoon, and then with startling crity, it grew darker and darker and then before I knew it, it was dark.

    I opened my eyes and smiled. It''s time to put the first phase of my n into action - Prison break.

    With a thought, metal particles surfaced from my skin and quickly formed metal armor over my clothes.

    With a whoosh, I was in a mecha bodysuit.

    With that bodysuit, destroying locks and chains became as easy as slicing loaves of bread with a sharp knife.

    I quickly went around the prison cells and freed the prisoners. There were all enemies of the Red Dragon gang who still had value. As such, most were civilians, traders,ndowners and the sort, those with a lot of assets and money.

    And so, being mere civilians and coupled with the extreme state of weakness they were in, they were sufficiently cowed by my ferocious looking mecha and obeyed my instructions very quietly.

    "I am organizing a prison break. If you go out now, you''ll probably get caught again, or worse, you might die. But if you don''t do that, you''ll definitely die here in captivity. The Red Dragon gang does not have a habit of releasing prisoners. Plus, you don''t have a choice anyway. You have one minute to get out of here before I start shooting. Go." I rasped in a robotic voice and pointed my machine gun at them.

    I wasn''t proud of my actions that night. Out of 28 prisoners, 20 died. 7 were captured once more and after the whole thing was over, were probably tortured to their deaths. Thest one¡­ was Emma.

    After 27 of them scampered away, I turned to the final person who still sat there, unmoving and staring at me quietly.

    It was a little girl, maybe seven, eight years old. She was small for her age, and ridiculously thin. She was obviously malnourished. Even so, she had an extremely obstinate look about her, a determination and strength of will that shone through her physical weakness.

    I sighed, there was no way I could force her to go out. I wouldn''t, and I probably couldn''t anyway.

    I had to save her and bring her with me.

    "Let me stay with you." She said softly, her eyes showed stubbornness, but at the same time, they were also full of fear. Fear that I would force her out, and worse, fear that I would shoot her right there and then.

    When I nodded lightly in agreement, relief flooded her eyes and her stiff shoulders sagged a little bit as all the tension left her.

    That relief quickly turned to surprise as my mecha bodysuit suddenly shimmered and arge backpack appeared behind me. A hatch opened and revealed a small ce where she could sit.

    I even made a seat belt for her.

    "Justin, you sure are a thoughtful person." I thought wryly.

    "Get in, I''ll bring you with me." I said as I lowered my body so she could ess the backpack.

    Emma mbered in and quickly fastened her seatbelt. That backpack was actually just an extension of my back armor, so there was nothing separating it and my body.

    "Th-thank you." Emma said from behind me.

    "Don''t thank me yet. We still have to get out of this base alive." I said cynically.

    Prapapapapat!

    Gunfire erupted from somewhere in the base. Screams and shouts of surprise could be heard.

    "It''s beginning." I said softly.

    I closed my eyes and reached out to the blue mechas with my senses. I had to do it fast.

    I released the red energy within me and it shot out towards the blue mechas in a straight line, passing byyers of brick, mud, steel and concrete in the process.

    Absorb! Imanded once I had a firm grip on a blue mecha.

    Poof! The mecha turned into grey and white particles and began to make its way back to me. Amid the darkness and chaos that was reigning outside, nobody noticed the grey and white stream of delicious particles rushing towards the prison.

    Whoosh!<novelnext></novelnext>

    An amazingly pleasant feeling filled my body and mind as the stream of metal particles and information hit me. I could feel my body responding by growing slightly as it gorged on high quality metal and a wonderfully delicious blue mecha core.

    I closed my eyes and my eyelids began to flutter rapidly as extremelyrge amounts of information began to fill my mind.

    It is quite difficult to exin how I felt in that very first time I absorbed theplete knowledge and technical understanding of how a blue mecha worked.

    I remember being absolutely astounded by the endless deluge of information that just kept on appearing in my mind one after another.

    The blue mecha was close to the pinnacle of human technology, and the software that powered it was humongous andplicated as hell. Millions of man hours were used to design and program the software to be what it was then. And that humongous set of information only took my brain a short five minutes to store and process.

    Every single second, I gained knowledge equivalent to the theoretical and practical understanding needed to build thetest generationndjet from ground up.

    The physics, mathematics, ergonomics, engineering¡­ Everything.

    It was such an out-of-this-world experience that it became a spiritual experience of sorts for me.

    To me it became proof that God exists. The brain was God''s product, and it had no problems digesting the best and mostplicated software that man could ever dream of building.

    None at all.

    It was like an ocean absorbing a swimming pool. Every drop of information simply entered my brain and nestled somewhere, ready to be utilized at will.

    I opened my eyes after five minutes. By then, the prison break was in full swing. There were a few fighters in the group, and by the sounds that I could hear, those fighters had somehow managed to get a few guns for themselves. Intense gunfire could be heard.

    Time to execute Phase 2 of my n.

    I turned around and stealthily created a hole in the rear of the prison where I knew there were no machines of any sort in that direction.

    I left the prison quietly and quickly distanced myself from it. Once I was far enough, I took a deep breath and began to unleash the blue mecha.

    Ah yes, I remember that first time. It was a wonderful feeling.

    My excitement was palpable and so was my nervousness. Although everything happened extremely quickly, two seconds at most, I could still remember the feeling as though it just happened this morning.

    I could clearly feel the potential of a powerful form that I could unleash at will. I could practically see it. All its tinyponents, its energy pathways and weapons it had at its disposal. Everything was in my mind, and I felt their potential infinitely clearly within my body.

    And when I willed that blue mecha to take form around me, my body simply reacted. Just like breathing out, the blue mecha materialized around me as the helicopter armor dematerialized.

    The blue mecha was humanoid in shape and a full twenty meters tall. The cockpit I found myself in was very sleek and minimalist, and as before, I was able to control the blue mecha with my thoughts.

    But because it was a much more advanced piece of machinerypared to the Chinook, it was actually much more difficult to control.

    Still, for some reason, I was able to do it with rtive ease. I didn''t really question the "why" behind my capabilities back then, I was just happy I was able to control the blue mecha easily.

    Phase two - Absorb a blue mecha, wasplete.

    Time to start Phase three.

    Wiiiiiiii.

    I raised my hand cannon at thergest and fanciest building in that base, a three story building with all sorts ofmunication towers on the top.

    HUM! BOOM!

    A ray of blue energy shot out from my hand cannon and hit the building, creating a massive hole in the middle.

 Chapter 8 Emma

    "DIE RED DRAGON DOGS!!" I roared out with glee. My blue mecha amplified my sound hundreds of times over, causing it to resound gloriously throughout the entire Red Dragon base.

    WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOO!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOO!!!

    The sirens began to re and the chaos immediately intensified as every single Red Dragon gang member mobilized and tried to get to their stations with great urgency.

    I fired a few rockets into the base to increase the chaos.

    BOOM!! BOOM!!

    The thing about emergencies is that theypletely reveal thepetence and the cohesion of a group. And judging by the absolute absence of out-of-control pandemonium in the Red Dragon base at that moment even with my rocket barrage and a copsed main building, my spections were confirmed. That the Red Dragon gang was no street gang which struck gold and somehow managed to grow big.

    It was definitely part of a muchrger, far better trained group of people.

    Yes, the base was in a mess, with almost every single person running around and shouting into theirmunication devices. But there was great order in the chaos. There was not a single person running around aimlessly, not a single cry of fear, nor for as far as I can see, a single misstep in what looked like a standard emergency response to a sudden attack.

    Within moments, the first fighting elements of the Red Dragon gang had separated themselves from the crowd and tried to surround me.

    "Three blue mechas and a dozen other smaller vehicles. One mecha with the vehicles up front approaching quickly, and the other two mechas trying to nk me. Very impressive."I quickly found out their strength and locations through the resonance that I felt with their machines.

    My eyes narrowed in concentration and my heart began to pound. The key moment had arrived.

    I released my red energy and had them shoot out towards the blue mechas and the vehicles. Within a quick second, I had all of them firmly in my mind. With a single thought, I disabled a keyponent in the mechas in front of me and to my right.

    BOOM! BOOM!

    The sounds of two heavy objects impacting the ground came almost simultaneously.

    I aimed my grenadeuncher in the area in front of me and fired three smoke grenades. And then I promptly turned around and began to dash madly for the forest just beyond the base.

    Behind me, I could sense the final blue mecha immediately dashing after me in pursuit. The vehicles from the main group began to elerate as well, but they were destined to fail. Track or no track, no vehicle can keep up with the speed of a blue mecha.

    CRASH! CRASH! I smashed into the tree line and plowed onwards. I had not gone for more than a few seconds before loud crashes sounded behind me, indicating that the other blue mecha had joined me in the forest.

    I grinned. My n was going rather smoothly.

    With my absolute control over my mecha, I was sure that no other mecha of the same grade can ever beat me in a one on one fight. And I was itching to put that confidence to the test. But my rationality fought down that itch savagely.

    It wasn''t time to engage in funparisons. That could happenter. The most important thing at that moment was to make sure that the Red Dragon gang did not suspect me of having the red mecha core.

    I spun and fired a few quick shots at the blue mecha with my energy weapon.

    PEW! PEW! BOOM!

    Two misses and a hit!<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, the blue mecha pilot was pretty lucky.

    He had raised his shield up as he crashed into the forest to protect himself, and had maintained that position since. My shot was actually blocked by his shield!

    Damn the mecha pilot really had dog shit luck! But no matter, I didn''t want to destroy him there. I needed to be further away from the Red Dragon base.

    I spun around once more and began to go deeper into the forest.

    The blue mecha kept himself hot on my heels and asionally fired a shot or two at me.

    However, unbeknownst to him, he had fallenpletely into my trap. I actually had him dancing on the palm of my hand.

    First, I had disabled hismunication and tracking device, so he was actually fully cut off from the rest of the gang. Yes, I was breaking through a new road in the forest, and they probably wouldn''t have any problems locating us. But at least they wouldn''t be actively discussing and coordinating evil strategies to take me down.

    Second, I had weakened his power routes, so every single weapon and movement module in his mecha was underpowered.

    It was pitiful, really. Amelia Dragonos was probably from one of the richest families in the world, but she certainly had the worst mecha pilots. I had weakened his mecha from the very beginning, and he didn''t even notice.

    A few momentster, the blue mecha pilot that was chasing after me began to slow down as he finally noticed that there was something seriously wrong with his mecha. I slowed down as well, and maintained the distance between us at afortable fifteen meters apart.

    "Base, Base! This is Falcon 2. This is Falcon 2. Do you copy? Hello? Base! This is Falcon 2 requesting backup at my location!" I could hear his panicked voice trying to talk to base.

    Toote brother! I grinned happily. I had just decided that we were far enough from the main base, and that it would be a great time to absorb this second mecha.

    I spun once more, drew my mecha sword and charged at the blue mecha.

    "BASE! BASE! I AM ENGAGING THE ENEMY! REQUESTING BACK UP IMMEDIATELY!" I could hear him scream into hisms even as he prepared his shield to block my attack.

    Tsk tsk. People should really understand this. The best defense is offense. The only correct response in dealing with an attack from someone with simr strength as you is to counter attack, and counter attack with far more ferocity and savagery as the attacker. Going on defense is definitely the wrong move.

    BAM! My sword hit his shield with startling power, much more power than a normal blue mecha could possess.

    Of course.

    I had the blue mecha core AND a red mecha core in me.

    His mecha fell down unceremoniously onto his knees, unable to withstand the pressure I was exerting.

    BAM! BAM!

    I struck the mecha again and again, and after less than a minute, the mecha waspletely destroyed. I quickly absorbed the mecha core and turned around to run deeper into the forest. However, at that moment, a soft voice rang out from behind me.

    "You should kill the pilot." Emma said.

 Chapter 9 Come Get Me

    I was stunned. More than stunned actually. I was actually horrified and felt rather sorry for her.

    A cute little girl advising me to kill a fully grown adult in apletely helpless and unthreatening position?

    Damn, what sort of life had this little girl lived for her to be so heartless and decisive at such a tender age?

    "He knows about your fighting abilities. Or theck of it. Soon, he would know the general direction of your escape. Kill him to shut him up." Emma said softly.

    Damn it. She was right.

    I hesitated for a moment before making the decision to do as she advised. I pointed my weapon at the pilot who was partially visible after I had smashed open his chest armor to reveal the cockpit. I gritted my teeth and fired three quick shots.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    Hello adulthood.

    I was a junkyard scrapper, and at the age of 10, I already had a string of crimes under my belt. Assault, robbery, and well¡­ murder. That mecha pilot was not the first person I had killed. But he was definitely the most helpless.

    I hated killing him. It made me feel¡­ evil. But I hated leaving loose ends that could potentially lead to my demise even more. So I did it.

    Damn you Emma. You made me lose the final bit of innocence I had. Poor me. If you''re reading this Emma¡­ Damn you.

    And also please forgive me for... that other incident. I truly didn''t mean to do what I did. Come back to me. You know where to find me.

    Anyway, after I killed the pilot, I turned around and sprinted deeper into the forest. Phase three - Destroy a pursuing blue mecha and let the remains be found, wasplete.

    This was to keep Amelia from thinking about the possibility that I had somehow escaped using the power of the red mecha core, while at the same time, allowing me to get some loot.

    I had taken away the blue mecha core, but that was understandable. The winners of mecha battles almost always looted the losers if possible.

    Mecha cores are extremely valuable and are worth more than half of the entire mecha itself. Only a fool would leave a mecha core unlooted. A fool, or a very rich person. A stupid rich person, at that, because well, what''s the harm of getting a valuable blue mecha core even if you''re filthy, stinking rich?

    After getting away from the immediate vicinity of the battle, I immediately started Phase Four - Create pandemonium!

    I veered and began to run parallel to arge river that was flowing downstream towards Lake Andrews twenty miles down away.

    Lake Andrews was the Sub-Headquarters of the National Armed Forces. Making it look as though I was escaping full speed towards it would only serve toplicate the situation for Amelia.

    Although she was more than powerful enough to take on the entire base with her white mecha, doing that would only serve to derail her primary mission objective, which was to find the red mecha core.

    There was no way that the country would allow a foreign white mecha to operate within its boundaries. They would definitely begin operations to surround and limit the movements of the white mecha and the Red Dragon gang, as well as create a ruckus in the internationalmunity which would definitely see the involvement of the USAA and The European Empire.

    It would be aplete gobblesmack for Amelia and her primary mission.

    No, she would not do anything to the Sub-Headqarters. In fact, she would be worrying that somehow her secret mission was leaked, and she would try to stay as far away from the National Armed Forces as possible.

    That would be the best way forward for Amelia.

    But not for me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    For me to be able to get my hands on the white mecha, I would need to do more than justplicate things for Amelia. I needed to hand her a wonderful disaster that would force her to bring out the white mecha into the open and let the whole world know that she has one in that little Red Dragon base of hers.

    And then when I finally steal it, she would have a thousand organisations to suspect. Plus, the other organizations and countries would not believe that a white mecha core would simply disappear into thin air anyway, and she would be hounded mercilessly to publicly bring the white mecha, which she didn''t have anymore, out of the country.

    I grinned when I thought of my excellent n. Amelia would be pissed big time. That''s what you get for threatening me.

    After running at full speed towards Lake Andrews for around five minutes, I finally exited the forest and reached the perimeter of the National Armed Forces Lake Andrews Sub-Headquarters.

    There was a mile of emptynd between me and their base. A killing field.

    "Unidentifiied mecha. Halt your advance immediately, or we will open fire! I repeat, halt your advance immediately, or we will open fire!" A loud voice red out of therge outdoor megaspeaker.

    "Wait! Don''t shoot! I am Falcon Two from the Red Dragon gang. I''m just here to say hello¡­ and to deliver a message."

    There was silence for a moment before a stern voice rang out of their megaspeakers.

    "What message do you have for us that couldn''t be sent by the usual line ofmunication?"

    "Oh the message I have is rather unique. Here, let me deliver it now."

    I fired my energy weapon which I had charged for five full minutes as I was running towards the base.

    "GET OUT OF THIS AREA! RED DRAGON GANG IS NOW OFFICIALLY OCCUPYING LAKE ANDREWS!" I hollered as I released several rockets into the base before turning around and running away.

    PEW!!!! BOOM!!

    An electric blue ray of energy shot towards the base, smashed into their front gate and kept going until it hit a solid looking building and created a massive dent on it.

    Pratatatatatatatat!!

    BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!!

    The anti-rocket machine gun immediately destroyed my rockets, creating wonderfully scary sts which was what I was aiming for.

    "OPEN FIRE!!" The stern sounding voice roared.

    PEW! PEW! PEW!! PRATATATATATATAATATATATATAT!! BOOM!! BOOM!!

    Energy weapons of their own, heavy machine gun fire and old fashioned cannons began to rain down on me.

    But they were a hair toote. I had exploded and ran away with all my strength after I had released my rockets, and the one second head start which I got was enough.

    I crashed back into the tree line, disappeared from their sight and cursed them onest time to make sure that they came after me.

    "Come get me, you ipetent retards!" I hollered loudly.

 Chapter 10 The Whole World Stops And...

    I smashed through the trees and made a beeline towards the Red Dragon base. After a few minutes of running, I finally found what I was looking for. A clearing!

    I immediatelyunched my helicopter des and took to the skies. I kept low, just slightly above the tree line and flew off to the south, away from both the military and the Red Dragon gang.

    It was a master stroke from me. It truly was.

    The military would definitely follow my trail and when they found that it was suddenly cut off with no viable exnation on how it happened, they would get very rmed.

    Not only did the Red Dragon gang provoke them, it appeared that they have some sort of a secret too. They would raise the priority of obliterating this Red Dragon base to the highest. A confrontation of epic proportions was no longer avoidable.

    They had to get to the bottom of if at all costs. If they couldn''t, they would call for backup and make sure the back up could.

    Phase Four - Create Pandemonium. Complete.

    It''s time for Phase Five - Absorb the White Mecha.

    And for that, I needed the confrontation to happen first. I needed to find a ce where I could observe the battle, and somehow still be far enough from being detected by the two belligerents of the mini-war that was about to begin.

    Very soon, I saw the edge of the forest. I found a small clearing nearby where I couldnd and quicklynded.

    Whoosh!

    The mecha suit disappeared into my body. I turned around and looked at Emma, who had a calm and rather cold look on her face.

    "Hey." I said.

    Emma stared at me for a moment before replying with a "Hey." of her own.

    "Who are you?" I asked.

    "Emma Whitefrost." She replied.

    I blinked a few times. Trying to remember where exactly I''ve heard of the family name Whitefrost before.

    "Uhh¡­ Daughter of a rich businessman?" I ventured a guess.

    Emma shook her head.

    "Famous politician?"

    She shook her head once more.

    "Famous general?" I asked, randomly throwing out important roles in the government. Of course, I was well and truly surprised when she finally nodded her head.

    "General Whitefrost?" I frowned.

    "GENERAL WHITEFROST!!" I shouted as I finally remembered why that name sounded so familiar.

    "Yes." Emma replied. "Ex-General Whitefrost of The Chinese Federation. Not daughter, though. Grand daughter"

    I stared at her in absolute surprise. No wonder she asked me to kill that pilot. General Whitefrost was a ferocious soldier. He rose from the lowest rank of a mere private to be the most feared general of The Chinese Federation.

    During the Third World War near the end of the 22nd century, he led the Chinese Army to victory from one insane battle to the next, going against all odds and defeating every army sent his way until he was finally captured by thebined might of nations that would eventually be USAA and The European Empire.

    And even then, his capture was merely due to the fact that he had run out of ammunition. Fifty thousand men against almost a million men. And he only lost because he ran out of bullets.

    His capture was the only reason why The Chinese Federation was not a superpower at that point in time. The Chinese Federation had so much riding on him that after he was captured, it only took the other countries five weeks to end the war.

    If you''re not a student of history, it is kind of difficult to exin the notoriety of General Whitefrost. You might think he was merely another captured great general of an enemy country.

    Yes, he was all that.

    But he was more than that.

    His tactics and strategies were incredibly beautiful. So beautiful and ground breaking that they caused the rewriting of countless military textbooks. His applications of the ancient 36 Strategems of Sun Tzhi were absolute works of art and deserved to be included into the modern rendition of that famed military book as glowing examples of how creativity and ancient strategy could lead to incredible results.

    And not only was he a great strategist, he was also a famed Mecha Pilot as well. His White Mecha held the record at that time of one thousand seven hundred fifty three kills. Of course, I broke that record rather easily early on in my career. But during the time of the Third World War, one thousand seven hundred fifty three mechas was a LARGE number. He was impressive. Very, very impressive.

    He was THE general of that generation.

    I had delved so deep into my new life as a junkyard scrapper that the memories of my life before my father died seemed so very far away. It was actually quite incredible that I forgot who General Whitefrost was, considering that he was my idol. Maybe it was a defensive mechanism that my mind took instinctively to protect me from the pain of remembering too much.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I read countless books about General Whitefrost in my father''s library a long time ago. He was my one and only idol. The person I wanted to be when I grew up. Before my father was murdered before my eyes, of course, and that dream disappeared like the morning mist before the afternoon sun.

    And before me was the granddaughter of that man.

    What could I do? I gulped and gave her a weak smile.

    "How¡­ How''s your grandfather?" I asked carefully.

    "Looking for me, I presume. Worried sick. Killing people left and right." Emma shrugged, talking about her grandpa killing people as though he was merely out going shopping.

    "Oh." I said stupidly. And gulped once more.

    "What is that?" Emma asked as she pointed at my chest curiously.

    I nced down and saw that my chest was glowing red.

    "Oh this. This is some sort of a mecha core, it''s pretty mysterious, I don''t really know how it works" I exined.

    "Yeah. Of course you don''t. You just broke out of a heavily armed base, baited a military base full of soldiers toe after you, all based on some mysterious mecha core which you have no idea how to operate." Emma nodded sarcastically in "understanding".

    I blinked at her in surprise.

    "Truly the granddaughter of a military demon!" I remember thinking.

    "Yeah. Be more sarcastic to the person who just saved you and holds your life in his hands. Good going, keep it up, little girl." She wasn''t the only one who knew how to be sarcastic!

    "Based on what you did earlier, you can break down mechas from a distance at will. You can absorb them and turn into them. And I am guessing that it''s all because of that red mecha core." Emma said quietly and ignored my sarcastic reply. "You just got your hands on a unique and very powerful experimental mecha core."

    Emma, that little demoness, was very, very smart.

    Well, of course she was, considering that she wasn''t born of natural means.

    But I had no idea then, and I was very suitably impressed by that eight year old who had just disyed the observational and thinking skills of a sixteen year old.

    Or a ten year old junkyard scrapper like me.

    Junkyard scrappers are, afterall, forced to grow up much, much faster than normal kids.

    In a survival race between a ten year old junkyard scrapper and a sixteen year old kid from a wealthy family, I''d dly put all my money on the ten year old junkyard scrapper.

    Every cent.

    Anytime, everytime.

    But I digress. Back to the story.

    "Alright, fine. You''re right." I conceded. "I can do all that. Happy?"

    I must have sounded much rougher and angrier than I thought, because at my words, Emma fell silent. Her body quivered lightly in what I assumed was fear.

    I sighed.

    First she got all sarcastic on me, then she became all fearful and started trembling.

    What on earth do I do with her?

    After a moment, her trembling stopped as she regained control of her body.

    "But look. I can do this too." I summoned a mecha armor over my arms and gave them little helicopter des. I switched them on and directed them at Emma which blew at her powerfully.

    "You can turn them into portable fans. That''s really useful! Especially during summer." Emma smiled at me.

    I stared at her, mesmerized.

    I still remember that moment as though it was only yesterday.

    It was the first time I saw her smile, and by God she was beautiful. When she smiled, it truly felt like time the whole world stopped and stared at her for a while.

 Chapter 11 The Whole Cake

    I smiled back at her and retracted everything back into my body.

    I didn''t like the fact that my secret waspletely revealed to another person, but it was something that was unavoidable as soon as I made the decision to save her.

    Like it or not, I had to live with the fact that Emma knew about the red mecha core, and I had to depend on her to keep the secret safe.

    The alternative was killing her topletely keep the secret safe, and it was something I didn''t have the heart nor the balls to do at that moment.

    "Do you want to go home?" I asked her. As much as I like her and want her to be with me, she was, afterall, a little girl. She must miss her mommy and daddy very much, especially after her traumatic experience as a prisoner.

    She remained quiet as her face turned serious. She looked away for a moment and stared at the many, many trees that surrounded us. She looked up at the little patch of sky that was visible through the foliage. Somewhere in the distance, loud booms could be heard as mechas mobilized. And then she gave a deep sigh.

    "Of course she wants to go home, you dumbass!" I cursed at myself for asking such an obvious and stupid question.

    "Of course you want to go home, what am I saying." I quickly said. "Well, I-"

    "I don''t want to go home." Emma interrupted me. "Well, at least not yet."

    "Err¡­ Are you sure?" I asked her in slight confusion. "Don''t you miss your parents and err¡­ your grandpa?"

    At that, her eyes teared up slightly and her lips quivered.

    However, she was Emma. And she was already really strong and really stubborn even at the tender age of eight. She bit down on her lower lip decisively and the stubborn look which I wouldter often see appeared on her face.

    "No, I do not want to go home yet." She said firmly.

    "It''s going to get very dangerous very soon you know. I''m nning a heist of the most epic proportions."

    "I know." Emma said nonchntly. "That''s exactly why I don''t want to go home just yet. I want to see how this story progresses, and how this¡­ heist of yours will end up."

    "You''re not afraid?" I pressed on.

    She sighed. "Quit treating me like a little kid. I''m already eight! If YOU''RE not afraid, why should I be?"

    I chuckled lightly. "Isn''t it obvious? I can absorb and release mecha suits."

    "So? Whatever you absorb and release, wouldn''t I be in them as well, right next to you?" She asked me in annoyance.

    "That''s true¡­" I said ruefully. Secretly though, I was rather happy. I''ve never really had buddies to do the things I did together. Although she was still really young and had a very sarcastic tongue, having Emma with me was really good for me.

    Although I hated to admit it, I was feeling very lonely at that time.

    So yes, I was happy she decided to stay with me for the meantime.

    "Alright. I guess you can stay." I pretended to agree with her grudgingly.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Okay." She said with a small smile on her face. "What do we do next?"

    "Well, I want to wait until the military attacks the Red Dragon base, and then if it gets hot and fiery immediately and Amelia produces her White Mecha, I will steal the White Mecha after the battle. If they''re engaging in dialogue and all that diplomatic nonsense, then I guess I have no choice but to pretend to be Falcon Two again and attack the military to trigger the fight." I exined my n to Emma in detail.

    Emma nodded. "That''s a really good n. And really well thought out"

    "It is, isn''t it?" I said happily as I sat down on a rock. Emma came over and sat down on the rock next to me as well. "I spent quite some timeing up with it and I think it will work pretty well."

    "It''s probably going to work. What you have is a game-changer." Emma said while pointing at my glowing chest. "It''s a secret weapon that they have no idea exists. That in itself is a powerful element of surprise. Add the fact that it is a really powerful weapon.. If used correctly, you can definitely achieve great things."

    "Yeah, this really changes everything for me¡­" I said with a smile. I took a deep breath and felt the power of the red energy. It was there within me, ready to respond to my will - be it to summon mecha suits or absorb more mechas.

    I clenched my fist. Emperor Justin.

    Soon. Soon.

    "There is one very important thing you need to consider though." Emma said seriously and interrupted me from my thoughts.

    "Oh?" I raised an eyebrow at her. "Ament from the granddaughter of General Whitefrost! This is going to be epic." I smiled and rubbed my hands together half sarcastically, half in genuine anticipation.

    She either failed to detect my sarcasm, or shepletely ignored it (knowing her, it was most probably thetter), but she immediatelyunched into herments.

    "What you''re doing is abination of three of Sun Tzhi''s strategems. Sloughing off the cicada''s golden shell, attacking with a borrowed knife and disturbing the water to catch a fish. And by merit of using three strategems, you''ve also used a fourth - chaining different strategems to achieve sess. It is very impressive for you to be able to do that." Emma began.

    I smiled widely and a warm feeling began to feel good about myself. A mistake. I would grow to learn to be suspicious of Emma''s praises soon, but that was definitely the first time I tasted Emma''s sharp tongue. And her deep, deep insatiable hunger for glory.

    "However, you''re thinking too small. It''s like you''re looking at this magnificent cake, full of delicious cream, frosting and filled with many, many kinds of fruits within. On top of the cake is the biggest, juiciest strawberry you''ve ever seen. What you''re doing is aiming to steal the strawberry on top of the cake and leave the whole cake behind. This is the weakness of little, unambitious men. You don''t dare to dream big, think big and thus, will never achieve great things." Emma said.

    "Huh?" My mind nked a little at her vicious put down. My heart, which was beginning to soar earlier, plummeted and crashed into the deep blue sea of misery. However, indignance soon reared its head in my heart.

    "Exin yourself." I demanded.

    "It''s simple. You have before you two entire bases. The Red Dragon base and the Lake Andrews base. You''re already executing threeplex strategems. Why stop there and settle for just one White Mecha? Just by executing several more strategems, you can get the whole cake - both bases with all their firepower and manpower."

    "What?!" I was stunned. This crazy little firecracker was actually thinking of taking over TWO bases? "Absolutely not. Why risk all that I have now for something that might blow up in my face? I am TEN years old!"

    "At least hear me out before you chicken out." Emma said dryly.

    "Hey! Who''s chickening out? IF, and that''s a big IF, you can think of a good n to get it done, I''m ALL for it!" I said hotly, feeling a great need to defend my masculinity.

    "Okay, this is my n¡­" Emma leaned forward conspiratorially.

 Chapter 12 Overlords

    "That''s the most ridiculous n I''ve ever heard!" I shouted. Of course I hadn''t heard many ns to take over military bases before, but in my defense, it WAS a very ridiculous n.

    Emma''s eyes narrowed slightly in anger.

    Gone was her fear of me, and at that moment, only getting this muddleheaded dumbass who somehow lucked out and got himself a powerful experimental mecha core to acknowledge her ideas mattered.

    "It''s NOT ridiculous. It will work." Emma said stubbornly with a high tone herself. She folded her hands in front of her and red at me. "You''re afraid."

    "I''m definitely not afraid. Oh wait, YES. I am afraid. VERY afraid of getting killed by your ridiculous n!" I shouted at her.

    Why did I keep shouting? Because in spite of all my bluster, I was actually quite excited.

    And of course, Emma being Emma, she immediately realized that point as well. So she did the very thing that would work in that moment.

    She kept quiet and allowed my own excitement to boil over and make my decision for me.

    And she stared at me with her beautiful round eyes, because despite being very malnourished, her eyes were really beautiful and a little encouragement from that aspect couldn''t hurt.

    She couldn''t have known at that moment that her pair of perfectly formed, beautiful eyes full of intelligence, confidence and determination had short circuited my brain instead.

    I blinked a few times as I stared back at her, trying to jump start my brain once more. It was a difficult struggle, but I finally managed to drag my good for nothing pair of eyes away from her. I looked up into the sky and sighed.

    Damn her. Why did she have to look so perfect? And damn you, stupid heart of mine. Why are you pounding so hard?

    "Well?" Emma demanded.

    "Uhhh¡­Let me think some more. Shhh." I shushed her without looking at her. With my condition at that moment, if I made decisions while looking at her, my damn tongue would probably bypass my brain and say yes to all of her suggestions.

    "Let me see. The first step of her crazy n is stealing a military mecha during the first engagement.That''s easy enough." I muttered.

    "The next step would be to use that military mecha and the Red Dragon blue mecha I took earlier to set up a ''parley'' after stealing the white mecha and capturing both leaders there - "Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief. That''spletely crazy." I thought to myself.

    "Which ten year old in their right minds would actually consider capturing not one, but TWO adultmanders with hundreds under theirmand? It''s impossible!"

    ¡­

    The image of Emma''s face with her beautiful eyes appeared in my mind. I sighed.

    I was only ten at that time, and damn it, I had a suspicion that I was falling in love.

    Love is blind, right? It didn''t how old you were, and it sure as heck didn''t care how old I was.

    Plus I had a feeling that it could work, somehow.

    And so I revisited the idea again in much greater detail.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Is it really impossible? It shouldn''t be too difficult to get them both toe to the parley. Amelia would be frantic to find out who took her white mecha, and the military would be frantic to know more about who Amelia is and where the white mecha came from. So, with a little bit of acting, I probably can get them toe..." I mused.

    "Capture them¡­ Well, I should have a white mecha by then, so it should be easy to capture them."

    "Next, force the enemy leaders to draw out the soldiers from both bases one base at a time - "Lure the tiger off its mountain base. Capture them and force them to surrender. This is¡­ nuts." I muttered.

    "Hey, luring the tiger off its mountain base and capturing them AND forcing them to surrender is nuts!" I shouted loudly to Emma. "How the heck am I supposed to get one thousand fully armed soldiers to justy down their weapons and listen to everything I say? They would probably end up running away and alerting every single base from here to the north pole that a rogue white mecha had appeared."

    I turned to look at her.

    "It''s not nuts." She quickly replied.

    "How do you n to control hundreds, if not thousands of fully grown men and women then?" I demanded.

    "You''ll be in a WHITE mecha, don''t forget that. What''s the point of having a white mecha if you don''t use it?" She said rather crossly.

    "I am going to use it." I retorted back. "I am so going to use the heck out of it!"

    "Yeah? To do what? Run away to some corner and rule over a bunch of street rats?" She said viciously.

    "Do you even understand the full power of a white mecha? It''s not just about its destructive power. It''s about what it represents! It represents the power of either USAA or The European Empire! Once you''re in a white mecha, NOBODY would probably dare to open fire at you. If they did, their ownmanders would probably beat you to kicking the living daylights out of them! And they won''t "run away and tell everybody from here to the North Pole that a rogue white mecha had appeared." They would probably think that you''re sent by some super power! And THAT''S exactly how you''ll control the two bases! Wu Zhong Sheng You - Creating something out of nothing!"

    "I know that." I grumbled in a small voice. I did know that. Really. I just didn''t think of putting it into practice so quickly. Heck, I hadn''t even gotten my hands on the white mecha! Who on earth would even make an entire nplete with anticipating how the enemy would think based on something that you haven''t even got your hands on?

    But of course, Emma did. She''s an extremely rare genius. You know that.

    "Then what''s the problem?" She demanded again.

    "Well, even if I manage to get them all to listen to me, what do I do with them? Plus, I don''t NEED two bases!" I shot back at her.

    I expected her to give me another scathing reply, but unexpectedly, she didn''t.

    Instead, she smiled widely and said, "That''s exactly the root of YOUR problem, isn''t it? You might know what you want to achieve in life, but you don''t really know HOW to achieve it. But lucky for you, I know."

    "Really?" I asked very doubtfully.

    "Yes." She lifted her little hand and beckoned me over.

    I obliged her. I really wanted to know what she had to say.

    She leaned forward and whispered in my ear. "If you do as I say, I will guide you to be the overlord of this country within three months."

    At that moment, I didn''t know whether I wanted tough or be impressed.

 Chapter 13 Backfired

    (Sorry, I missed posting the real chapter 12. I uploaded the real chapter 12, and then added a new chapter at chapter 15. Sorry, I got mixed up a little bit :))

    Booooom! Booooom!! Boooooooooom!!

    I could hear continuous explosions reverberating from the distance.

    The military had begun their attack.

    I nced at Emma once more, and received a reassuring nod from her. I sighed.

    The operation had skyrocketed in scope, and I wasn''t toofortable with it. It had expanded from merely stealing a white mecha and making good my escape to gaining full control of two bases by sheer maniption.

    I am a very ambitious person. Yes, of course you know all about it. But for all my ambition and aggressive pursuit of said ambition, I was only ten at that moment, and had only spent a very short day with my red mecha core. Wild ambition which would take me to heights I had never imagined before was merely a seedling in my heart.

    I was not ready.

    Not ready to take big bites out of established gangs with secret back ups and the country''s military. Not ready to nt myself squarely in the crosshairs of every armed organization within a hundred kilometers of my position with nothing but a lie and a white mecha. Well, the white mecha made it much more bearable, but still, you get my point.

    All I wanted at that moment was to hide in some obscure corner, take a deep breath, and hatch dark ns to slowly grow my power. Slowly but safely, thank you very much.

    However Emma, this may sound like a cliche, but by God, she was born ready. Eight years old, and a mere few hours of exposure to my red mecha, and already the crazy n to take over the country had taken form in her mind.

    Or maybe, just maybe, the n was already there in the first ce, nted by her incredibly out of this world genius but also out of this world crazy grandfather. Who on earth teaches kids the 36 strategems of Sun Tzu to the point where they could easily put them into practice at 8 years old??

    And of course if the n was already there in the first ce, then I must be her final piece of puzzle. Or a wild card. Or a catalyst of some sort which hastens the execution of the grandfather-granddaughter crazy grand n.

    Or maybe, she was just an incredible genius who saw a golden opportunity before her and grabbed it with both hands.

    As you can see, I have absolutely no idea where the n came from. Yes, even now. I never did get to ask her about it.

    Because, as you know also, that crazy n backfired on us.

    Exploded.

    Boom.

    And from the ashes of that first n, Emma brought forth another n which culminated in what you people call "The Lake Andrews Fiasco."

    The first and most important ability that a general can have is the ability to remain cool under fire. The second most important ability is the ability to give clear and timely instructions, especially when bombs are exploding all around you and everybody is panicking.

    In the heat of battle, especially if things are going south and all of your battle ns are shredded into little atomic pieces by your wily and despicable enemies, even the most stalwart veteran will panic.

    And in that moment, a general''s ability to give clear and definitemands is much more important than whether themand is good or not. As long as your troops can feel that you are calm and in control, they will quickly clear their heads and respond to yourmands.

    Maybe not respond. A better word might be cling. They will cling to yourmands like a drowning sailor clinging to a lifeline. And yourmands will probably very much be a real lifeline for them.

    And not fifteen minutester, I was very clear that Emma was born to be a general.

    I was dashing through the trees in a modified blue mecha, trying to get as close to the battle as possible. I needed to know whether or not the white mecha was deployed.<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, curse my rotten luck, I stumbled into three Red Dragon mechas sneaking about. They were probably trying to nk the military andunch a surprise attack.

    A fool''s errand, if you ask me. Although blue mechas were equipped with anti-detection technology, they would never be able to take a military force by surprise. They would have nketed the area with countless spy drones and would have detected them the moment they entered the drone''s range.

    Still, their foolish errand unexpectedly bore fruit and sent a dagger straight to the heart of Emma''s original n.

    The three mechas immediately opened fire at me.

    PEW! PEW! PEW! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    "GAHH!!" I shouted in surprise. I threw myself to the ground and rolled away, dodging the high energy beam attack by the blue mechas.

    I was about to turn and run away when Emma''s voice rang out coolly from behind me.

    "Cut left and focus fire on the left mecha. Do it now."

    I didn''t know why at that time, but I instantly did as she instructed. I dashed madly to the left and fired three homing missiles at the left most mecha. I also fired off a few low energy beams at it for good measure. At the same time, I released a little bit of my red energy, trying desperately to weaken the other two mechas without overdoing it.

    It would be fatal if they reported anything back to base.

    Plus, I thought I could do with real life mechabat practice. I needed it pretty badly.

    PEW! PEW! PEW! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    The leftmost mecha raised its shield and took my missiles and energy beams head on.

    The other two mechas continued to press their attack on me.

    PEW! PEW! PEW!! BOOM!!!

    One energy beam hit me on my side.

    "OOF!" I was thrown to the ground. But before they could press in for the kill, I rolled away once more.

    "Go into closebat with the left mecha!" Emma shouted from behind me.

    I gritted my teeth and leapt at the left mecha!

    Crash!! I crashed into it.

    Immediately, the other two mechas stop firing at me.

    It worked!

    Iughed maniacally and began to rain down punches on the downed mecha. Of course I did not forget to absorb many crucialponents while I was at it. The blue mecha core,munication chips, everything.

    After two quick punches, that mecha was basically a mere shell.

 Chapter 14 Two Bases

    (Sorry, I missed posting the real chapter 12. I uploaded the real chapter 12, and then added a new chapter at chapter 15. Sorry, I got mixed up a little bit :))

    "Excellent!" I said to myself in satisfaction as I felt the red energy and the stream of delicious blue mecha ''nutrients'' fill me up. I could feel the power coiling within me, ready to be released at will.

    With most of the three blue mechas absorbed, I distinctly understood how I couldbine them to create an ''enhanced'' blue mecha.

    Which I did immediately, of course.

    WHOOSH!

    I quickly strengthened my arms and legs, causing them to be much harder than before. Additionally, I fully realized that the three blue mecha cores I had absorbed also allowed me to burst out with much, much more power.

    Not that I needed it. My red energy effectively puts to sleep any mecha opponent I face. Permanently.

    But it''s good to know that I am growing stronger.

    At that moment, with one mecha down, I finally had time to think.

    "I should have just absorbed the mechas straight away! Why bother fighting them?" I said as I gave myself an imaginary face palm.

    "No, it''s alright. You need thebat practice." Emma said non-chntly from my side. "Just make sure you disable theirms first."

    I narrowed my eyes into slits and scowled at Emma lightly. That little minx. She could have reminded me to simply absorb the mechas. But she wanted me to fight to improve my mecha skills!

    I sighed. She was right, though. I had absolutely ZERO training and fighting skills, and I desperately needed the practice. Not that it would do much good, but every little bit was better than nothing.

    "Closebat it is!" I thought to myself, very much encouraged by my first sess.

    Seeing theirrade disabled so quickly and bingpletely unresponsive, the other two mechas became slightly wary of me. They split up and began to nk me.

    "Feint left and attack the right one." Emma''s voice rang out from behind me.

    "No need." I replied as I charged with surprising power and speed towards the left mecha while activating my red energy to weaken the right mecha''s right foot. That should slow him down enough to allow me to quickly disable the left mecha.

    BAM! I crashed into the left mecha and we both fell to the ground. Instantly, my red energy worked its magic and absorbed yet another blue mecha''s core and criticalponents.

    "AHH!!!" The mecha pilot screamed out in fear as he frantically tried to move his unresponsive mecha.

    Pointless struggling.

    I turned around and parried the third mecha''s downward sh with my bare hands. He probably chose not to use his energy weapon in fear that he would identally hit his buddy. So, to his great misfortune, he chose to engage me in closebat.

    BAM!!

    Gotcha. I grinned.

    WHOOSH!

    The third and final blue mecha crumpled on the ground as essentialponents left him.

    "You shouldn''t have used your red mecha power. How do you expect to improve your skills if you keep using that? Anyway, you need topletely absorb these mechas and get rid of the pilots'' bodies." Emma reminded me.

    "I know, I know." I grumbled. "Stop nagging at me."

    WHOOSH!! The mechas burst into streams of ''nutrients'' and quickly made their way into my body.

    BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! I quickly fired at the pilots and pulverized them before they could cry out and beg me to spare their lives. Although I am getting slightly used to killing people now, I still very much preferred to do the killing quickly and cleanly.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    The sounds of battle in the distance continued to intensify. Apparently the White Mecha had yet to show itself.

    "We can still carry out my n." Emma began. However, she was quickly cut short when three military mechas burst through from behind us.

    "There they are!" I could hear the lead mecha shout into hisms. My senses had advanced once more, and my hearing became extremely sharp.

    "Where are the other three? I thought you said there were four mechas sneaking around here!" Another shouted.

    "FOCUS! Take down the mecha first before asking so many questions!" A loud roar of anger could be heard from the lead mecha.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Excellent! More practice! Well, not so much practice. By that point, I had grown so strong that threemon mechas posed absolutely no threat to me whatsoever. I could simply stand still and let them do their worst in attacking me, and I would still be fine. Afterall, I had the power of FIVE mechas in me.

    But still, practice was practice, and I obligingly enteredbat with them, dodging their attacks and dishing out my own.

    DODGE!

    BAM!

    I punched out at the lead mecha. One down.

    BAM! A powerful energy beam scratched my back.

    BAM! I turned around and fired my own energy beam, striking it down.

    BAM!!!

    I lifted my arm and parried the final mecha''s attack.

    BAMM!!

    And kicked it into pieces.

    Battle over.

    "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT MECHA!?" The lead mecha roared angrily.

    "By the way. You forgot to disable theirmunication system. Military mechas have body cameras as standard issue. They know that there is a vastly more powerful blue mecha in this area now." Emma said quietly as she dropped the bombshell at me.

    "WHAT!" I shouted in surprise. I turned and looked at the lead mecha and scanned it.

    Damn it! She''s right, there''s a camera and it''s pointing straight at me!

    "They would send reinforcements to this area very soon. We need to clear the area fast!" Emma urged.

    WHOOSH!!! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!!

    I quickly disabled theirmunication system, absorbed the three mechas and put to rest the three mecha pilots. After that, I bailed out of the area and dashed towards the Red Dragon base.

    "Where are you going?" Emma asked.

    "Change of ns. I am going to lead the military reinforcements towards the Red Dragon base to force out the White Mecha. And then I will absorb it right there and then!"

    "You aren''t going to absorb it on the sly and then pretend to be a white mecha from The European Empire? I thought that''s our n!" Emma asked me in surprise.

    "Let me teach you the firstw of battle which my father taught me." I grinned at her while I continued my mad dash towards the Red Dragon base.

    "What? Know yourself and your enemy?" Emma snapped irritably at me.

    "Nope. The firstw of battle is: Everything gets f-ed up as soon as the enemy arrives. THAT''S why he''s called the enemy." I pronounced smugly.

    "So?" Emma asked, still very irritated.

    "So, my dear girl, if you want to seed in real life, you need to get out of your bubble and realize that ns are castles in the clouds. You need to react and respond quickly based on what''s happening in real life. And right now, the military has one more reason to press the attack. Me. I need to lead them to the Red Dragon base." I exined in a condescending voice.

    "That''s no reason to absorb the white mecha right there and then and not on the sly as we nned." Emma pointed out.

    "Of course it is. The military would probably direct a very strong attack our way. AND the Red Dragon base knows that we''re not part of them. And being a very visible threat, they would probably focus fire on me too. I would have TWO groups of people trying to kill me with all their strengths! I need that white mecha to survive." I exined.

    At that, Emma stayed silent for a while. And then she spoke the words that would change our destinies forever.

    "If that''s the case, then let''s not bother with manpower. Just absorb everything in the Red Dragon base and kill everyone there. Go back to the military base and do the same. At the very least, you will get the fighting power of TWO bases as well as the White Mecha." Emma said.

    My heart skipped a beat at her words.

    "Is she really just eight years old?!" I eximed silently in my heart.

 Chapter 15 Much Stronger

    "Trust me in this." Emma said very simply, her gentle demeanor and cute girly voice at that moment contrasting very starkly with the very thing she asked me to trust her with.

    Theplete murder of every single person in tworge bases.

    "Uhh. That''s a little bit too much, don''t you think?" I said while frowning slightly. "Those people have families too! They are sons, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters, mothers¡­"

    "Yeah? So what? I am a daughter too. And a granddaughter. They had no problems kidnapping me, torturing me and making ns to kill me." Emma said coldly. "They deserve to die. Killing them is the same as doing the world a favor."

    "Uh¡­ Well. That may be true for the Red Dragon gang, but the military¡­" I began to reply.

    "Are just as bad. Do you think they have no idea that the Red Dragon gang had prisoners? And that those prisoners are innocent civillians? And that they are getting tortured?" Emma snapped. "Do you know how many times I haveforted myself by saying that the military will definitelye and¡­ and¡­" Her voice cracked slightly at the end before she stopped speaking.

    "Even so. Killing all of them is too much. Let''s not go down to their level." I said quietly as I sped through the forest towards the Red Dragon base. I tried to be as quiet as I could to avoid alerting the enemy.

    There was an awkward silence for a while before I finally said with a smile. "But I WILL definitely clean house on everything that I can absorb from both bases. I am not sure that I can though, definitely not in one go. We might have to stick around for a few days while I ''digest'' everything."

    Emma stayed silent for a few more moments.

    "Yes. You need to take everything from them. If not their lives, then everything else they own." She said softly.

    I was chilled to the bone. It was the first time I glimpsed her deep, and dark side, one that was so full of anger and hatred.

    I was tempted to ask her right there and then why she was so angry and so full of hatred, but I held myself back.

    "She probably felt that way because of the kidnapping and living under the cloud of death for so long." I told myself. "Stop asking stupid questions!"

    "How long were you imprisoned there?" I asked instead.

    Emma remained silent for a few long moments. However, she eventually answered me.

    "Two hundred and seventy four days." She finally said. "You rescued me on the two hundred seventy-fifth day."

    I nodded. I was about to say something when she unexpectedly continued to speak.

    "I spent those days in three prisons from three different organisations. I suffered through seven invasive ''medical check ups''. Two operations. And countless ''interrogation'' sessions. By pure amateurs."

    There it was. The source of her anger and hatred. It wasn''t mere imprisonment. It was torture! AND possibly organ stealing.

    My blood began to boil at that moment.

    "Look." She pulled up her shirt a little and showed me two scars on her thin body. Overly thin body. She was so thin that I was sure she was severely malnourished.

    By that time, I had seen my share of torture and pain. Heck, I had even been subject to bullying which could probably be technically described as torture.

    But driven by youthful infatuation, a deep sense of indignance welled up from the deepest reaches of my heart at that moment that quickly turned to zing hot anger. My blood began to boil and ,olten fire coursed through my veins.

    All the goodness within me and willingness to take the ''higher road'' towards Red Dragon evaporated when I saw the two badly stitched up scars that were still extremely red. True, they might not be the ones who operated on Emma, there were two other organizations who were guilty.

    But it didn''t matter to me.

    I was a boy who just discovered that the girl I liked had just suffered through unimaginable pain and suffering in the hands of an organization that I had more than enough power to destroy.

    "I will kill every single one of them." I whispered. "Those animals!"

    I clenched my jaw tightly and released more of my power. At that moment, I fully intended to kill every single person in the Red Dragon base. Every single person.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Immediately, the power of eight blue mechas manifested all around me.

    The density of my armor increased drastically and within my chest, I could feel a startling change happening with the mecha cores.

    Spurred on by my anger, the little red mecha core pulsated powerfully in my heart and began to activate.

    It filled my whole body with red energy which surged alongside the power of the blue mecha cores. The eight blue mecha core particles, which were merely circting around my body previously and powering my mecha suit, began to be absorbed by the red mecha core.

    "GAH!" A sharp pain shot through my heart and my whole body!

    I stumbled and fell down hard as I lost control of my mecha suit.

    "Ahh!" Emma screamed in surprise. Thankfully, she had seat belts on so she escaped that incident totally unharmed.

    "GAAAHHH!!" I shouted in agony. My whole body felt like it was burning up in mes!

    "What''s happening? Are you alright?" I could hear slight panic and concern in her voice. And because of that, somehow I felt slightly better even though the pain slowly intensified.

    I quickly turned my attention inwards as all the muscles in my body clenched up in a reflexive attempt to suppress the pain. Slowly, through the pain, I could sense the energy of the eight blue mecha cores disintegrating and the red mecha core growing dramatically in strength and power.

    I could feel that my capacity to absorb was growingrger andrger! Additionally, my senses grew more acute and they spread out over a muchrger area. I could feel my resonance with all sorts of mechas and machines all around me increasing sharply.

    "Yes!" I cried out internally with great excitement. "If this is the power that I get, then by all means, bring on the pain!"

    The red energy was also a much purer source of energy, with each energy unit able to generate much more power in the mecha. With the enhancement, I would grow much more powerful.

    And I would be able to take revenge for Emma much morepletely.

    "None of the Red Dragon gang would be left alive!" My rage fueled my strength and allowed me to go through that round of enhancement with rtive ease.

    After a few long minutes, the pain subsided.

    I gasped with great relief and took deep breaths.

    "Are you okay?" Emma asked me, her round eyes opened wide.

    "Yes." I replied breathlessly. "That was the red mecha core absorbing the power of the blue mecha cores I absorbed earlier." I exined.

    "So you''re much stronger now?" She asked.

    I nodded.

    "How much stronger?" She asked curiously.

    "Much stronger." I replied excitedly.

    "That''s not a real answer." Emma said irritably.

    I chuckled at her amiably.

    Whoosh! A powerful burst of energy erupted from within my body.

 Chapter 16 Battling The White Mecha

    The blue armor on me shimmered lightly and was reced by a set of sleek ck armor with beautiful red trim. The upgraded red mecha core allowed me to simply rece my current suit with whatever I wanted without having to retract the old one first.

    Convenient.

    Plus, my new mecha suit definitely looked much better in appearance. I am sure you are familiar with that suit''s design. I used it for quite some time and aplished many things with it. Of course, from your point of view, they wouldn''t be ''aplishments''. They were probably ''disasters'' or ''fiascos''. If I remember correctly, you even called it the Mecha Cataclysm.

    The Jimbaran Fire. The Hignd Defense. The Pacemaker Loophole.

    All of them featured The Mecha Emperor with that design.

    That moment could technically be the birth of The Mecha Emperor since the title was acquired using that particr mecha design. Although the mechaponents and strengths vary as I continued to increase in power relentlessly, I kept that design for a pretty long time.

    But of course, at that moment, appearance was thest thing on my mind.

    A deeply powerful sensation suffused throughout my body as I familiarized myself with my new mecha suit.

    I clenched my fist and gave a quick one-two punch.

    WHOOSH! WHOOSH!! BOOM!!

    I moved so fast that a mini sonic boom appeared!!

    "Amazing!" I eximed.

    I quickly created energy pathways down my arm and onto my hands, creating a hand cannon that could fire off powerful energy beams like a famous cartoon character I used to know. Metal man or something.

    However, instead of using my hands and feet as thrusters, I decided that I would rather have a backpack module that allowed me to fly. It allows me to maintain flight stability while I do all kinds of things with my limbs.

    "Making your hands and feet thrusters is a pretty bad idea." I thought to myself as the flying module came to be behind me. "I wonder how he even got things done while flying."

    I powered up my hand cannons.

    HUM!!

    "Hey, you''re not thinking of firing that, are you?" Emma asked in surprise.

    "Uhh, I am thinking of test firing it. Why?" I asked in slight irritation.

    "You shouldn''t. Why announce your presence with a pointless test firing of a hand cannon? We need to keep ourselves hidden while we study the situationter. The best strategy would be to attack the faction that is winning the battle so that the situation continues to be chaotic. We need to -"

    PEW!!!

    A fearsome energy beam erupted from my right hand and obliterated all the trees and nts in front of me. The beam continued to rip through everything as it shot ahead with devastating power.

    "You¡­" Emma gritted her teeth angrily. "You''re such a little boy!"

    I smirked lightly. "Take that, you control freak!" I thought. "What''s wrong with test firing my new weapon? I need to know exactly how powerful it is so that I can be more effective in battle." I said with a smile.

    "You-" Emma began. But before she could say much of anything...

    BOOMM!!!

    A massive explosion resounded in the distance ahead of us.

    "Uh oh." I thought to myself.

    "The energy beam must have hit something that could explode." I said to Emma sheepishly.

    But it was not the end. Before Emma could respond¡­

    BOOOM!!!!!

    BOOM!!!!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    Two more explosions could be heard resounding in quick session.

    "Make that three things?" I gave Emma a foolish grin.

    Emma merely sighed.

    "Alright alright. No more fooling around. I''ll be serious from now on." I said seriously and straightened up.

    "Toote." Emma said quietly. "I think you''ve attracted a lot of unwanted attention."

    As usual, she was right.

    Amelia Dragonos may be many things, but coward was definitely not one of them. Her response to my ''attack'' was swift and absolutely brutal. Of course ''swift and brutal'' was in the context of a person without a red mecha core that could devour anything and everything mechanical like me.

    In my case, her ''swift and brutal'' response became ''swift and generous'' instead.

    My ''attack'' apparently had destroyed a blue mecha and tworge tanks. She had immediately identified me as the biggest threat, and very possibly the military''s trump card. And so, she deployed her trump card as well.

    The White Mecha.

    BAMMM!!!

    A massive and powerful energy beam burst out of the trees ahead and smashed into me, taking me byplete surprise.

    I flew backwards with great force and smashed into severalrge trees before finally stopping.

    If not for my enhanced mecha armor, Emma and I would have died right there and then. But thankfully, I had the new and enhanced mecha suit on me, and it resisted the exploratory attack by the white mecha very well.

    Apart from being shocked to the bone by the sudden attack and slightly bruised from the impact, Emma and I were totally fine.

    "Damn it!" I cursed loudly. "Emma, are you alright?" I asked her anxiously.

    "I-I am fine. I think." Emma said shakily. She was so shocked that she didn''t even have time to cry out.

    I quickly got up and dashed ahead furiously while firing several of my own energy beams ahead, in the direction from whence the massive energy beam from the white mecha came from.

    Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Four red streaks of energy burst forth from my hands and sped towards the white mecha which had finally shown itself.

    "Take that!" I shouted while running as fast as I could.

    Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

    My footsteps pounded the ground rhythmically and rapidly. I needed to close the distance between the white mecha and me so that I could quickly absorb it.

    Screw strategies. Screw stealth. Screw tactics. I am going to absorb that white mecha and wreakplete havoc! I am going to go crazy!!

    Ahead of me, the white mecha was slowly rising up to its full height at a full hundred meters tall.

    It towered over everything.

    Blue mechas, watch towers, buildings, everything seemed tiny before it.

    "Oh my God." Emma eximed in shock. "That is a white mecha??"

    The four energy beams which I had fired off angrily earlier smashed onto the white mecha like four tiny red ants attacking a little kid.

    However, it struck the white mecha with surprising power.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!

 Chapter 17 Unforgiving Instructor

    Amon, and sometimes fatal misconception about white mechas is that because they are so supremely massive, they had to be slow as well. Much like how elephants are huge and slow creatures, lumbering everywhere in a stately fashion, arriving fashionablyte to every elephant appointment in the elephant world.

    The white mecha was not only fast in the sense that it had an insanely high top speed, it was also insanely explosive. It''s eleration from zero to a hundred kilometers per hour was below half a second.

    Half a bloody second!

    Many first time opponents of the white mecha, if they had not studied it beforehand or had never really believed the rumours of how powerful and deceptively quick the white mecha was, would usually be left confused or stunned by the white mecha''s disappearing act.

    One moment it was there, and the next moment it was gone. They would stare at the spot where the white mecha was in disbelief. And then they would be drawn by the sonic boom, and their heads would slowly swivel and THEN they would believe.

    Fervently so, with a religious fervor that rivals the most devout follower of God.

    Finally.

    Most would die in the act of conversion, however, for the white mecha was an unforgiving instructor. Deadly quick to find fault, deadly quick to reprove, and altogether merciless in its correction.

    In the same way, if it wasn''t for my powerful red mecha core, my name would have been an inglorious addition to the list of zealots who died mid-conversion by a white mecha''s heavy hand.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!

    The four energy beams which I had fired off earlier struck the white mecha with surprising power.

    It was probable that the white mecha swayed backwards a few inches. Probable.

    But in any case, the surprising power my four red energy beams exhibited was a moot point. The white mecha was so supetively powerful that it took the much stronger than expected blow in stride as if it was another insignificant blue mecha''s attack.

    BOOM! It disappeared from my sight like magic and before I could even frown in confusion, my enhanced senses began screaming out DANGER!

    I instantly released all the red mecha energy that was lurking within me and burst forward with all my strength.

    BOOM!!!

    A massive crater appeared in the spot where I was mere milliseconds ago.

    "DAMN IT!" I shouted half in panic, half in frustration, half in shock and half in anger. That''s two, I know, but my emotions were truly overflowing at that moment.

    I was ted at the fact that I had be vastly stronger than before after undergoing that hellish, excruciating pain, and was anticipating reaping the benefits of such an agonizing experience. Surely after going through all that, dealing with the white mecha would be a piece of cake, right?

    Wrong!

    And the fact that I was wrong, and that it would not be as easy as I thought it would be, caused me to feel frustrated. Disappointed too.

    Plus I wasn''t expecting the white mecha to be THAT fast, and for its attack to hit me THAT suddenly.

    And of course add to the emotional soup a fewrge portions of panic due to the fact that if I take one wrong step, I could very well die in that ce, and vo. You have my emotional state at that moment.

    Half panic, half frustration, half shock and half anger.

    And right there,dies and gentlemen, is the key to all of my sess.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The red mecha core''s main trigger is my emotion.

    Back in the helicopter wreckage, the excitement that I felt at sensing that the mecha core was within me triggered the painful experience that led it to fuse with my body.

    A few minutes prior, my overwhelming anger at the Red Dragon gang caused the red energy to absorb the blue mecha cores and evolve once more.

    And then of course, you have that emotional soup that I was in at that moment.

    The red energy within me was stimted very powerfully and I could sense it go into overdrive within me. An impossibly powerful surge of energy filled my body.

    "GAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" I let out a powerful animalistic roar to vent a little bit of the power that was filling me to the very brim.

    WIIIIIIII!!!!!!

    All of a sudden, every single thing seemed to slow down in my perspective, and at the same time, everything came into startling focus and rity.

    My vision sharpened and my hearing became extremely acute. I turned my head around to look for the white mecha, and I quickly found it.

    Among everything else in the area, only it was moving at normal speed.

    And at normal speed, the white mecha was just another big, fat, juice b of meat for me.

    I remember that vicious exchange with the white mecha vividly.

    I was still out of range for absorption, and I knew that I needed to close the distance. But for some reason, the white mecha refused to let me close.

    I remember dashing forward toward the white mecha with my newfound strength.

    BOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

    My feet stomped down upon the ground so powerfully and so rapidly that it sounded like one prolonged BOOM instead of multiple BOOMS.

    But the white mecha moved backwards with equal speed and maintained the distance between us, firing its massive arsenal of weapons at me all the way. Energy beams, missiles, machine gun fire, and all sorts of projectiles nketed the area between the white mecha and me.

    PEW!! PEWWW!! PEWWWW!! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    I dodged, and ducked, and weaved through the firestorm released by the white mecha with amazing agility. Sharp energy beams that had the power to pierce through blue mechas like hot iron through butter missed me by the smallest of margins. And even so, somehow I knew the margins were enough.

    My senses were well and truly in overdrive. To me, the barrage was nothing.

    But for the rest of the fighters in that battlefield, it was a fearsome, fearsome scene.

    Every single soldier caught in our crossfire probably disintegrated on the spot. The rest quickly scampered away and maintained their distance from the white mecha and the strange red-ck mecha which was strangely pursuing the white mecha instead of the other way around.

    In a way, I understood why Amelia Dragonos chose to maintain her distance between us that day. It was the only thing she could do.

    Amelia Dragonos was a pretty good mecha pilot. She is awesome now, but back then, she was only pretty good. And she probably did not have much experience piloting a white mecha.

 Chapter 18 PUTT PUTT PUTT

    Piloting a massive mecha is not an easy task.

    For you people who are merely watching the battles, you have no idea just how difficult it is to pilot a huge mecha such as the white mecha. The biggest challenge for the white mecha pilot is to apply the right amount of force to achieve the right amount of mecha movement to achieve the right amount of results.

    Just imagine a little toddler suddenly bing a two hundred kilogram heavyweight boxing champion, and then asking him to beat up a small but vicious dog. It would be incredibly difficult. The baby would not be able to wield the boxer''s strength, agility and instincts efficiently, and would end up squandering much of his advantages against the dog. In fact, the giant toddler might end up losing entirely.

    In the same way, Amelia had to adjust the way she looked at the world around her to take on the perspective and rtivity of a hundred meter tall giant with the power to go from zero to a hundred kilometers per hour in HALF a second.

    Moving it around slowly is easy. Using it as an overpowered weapon to bully little blue mechas is easy.

    But piloting it with efficiency to achieve specific battlefield objectives? Not so easy.

    And that was probably exactly why Amelia Dragonos did not want to get into a melee battle with a strange mecha which somehow resisted its initial attack like it was nothing. Plus the fact that I was a much smaller mecha probably added much to her reluctance to fight with me head on. It would be like a clumsy, lumbering bear going against a mongoose armed with a lightsaber!

    Supetively powerful or not, underestimating an unknown enemy in a mecha you''re not familiar with is the fastest way to die. Young pilots should learn from Amelia Dragonos on this point.

    Secondly, and more pragmatically as to why she was maintaining her distance, Amelia was probably afraid of the repair bill. That''s right.The repair bill.

    A white mecha is a strategic weapon for most countries lucky enough to be gifted one from a superpower. And being a gift, the country obviously had no way to fix it should it get damaged. Any repairs had to be done by the superpower, and the superpowers, being superpowers, had no qualms charging absurdly high prices for their services.

    In Amelia''s eyes, even the tiniest scratch on the white mecha''s coat of external paint would be like a stab into her heart. And wallet.

    Anyway, whatever her reasons were, it resulted in the strange situation which we were in. A white mecha attempting with everything it had, to maintain a respectable distance between itself and a much smaller mecha.

    In a regr fight against a strangely powerful smaller mecha, it would be the most logical choice, and one that would probably allow her to gain a cheap victory.

    But I was not a regr strange-but-powerful smaller mecha.

    I didn''t even need to get to melee range, I only needed to get her within range of my red energy.

    I adjusted my hand cannons firing mode to ''rapid-fire'' and released two volleys on her left nk.

    PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

    PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

    My hand cannons may be on rapid-fire mode, but because I had grown much stronger somehow, each of the sts of red energy streaking towards the white mecha was markedly much stronger than the ones before.

    I imagine at that moment, her danger sensors must be ring loudly within her cockpit.

    The white mecha dodged slightly to the right. Even though her armor had proven to be rather resilient against my red beams of energy, Amelia Dragonos exercised an abundance of caution in the face of a strange mecha that had obviously and very abnormally powered up mid-battle and worked really hard to dodge my attacks.

    PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

    PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

    I kept on pressuring her left nk, forcing her to keep dodging to her right.

    I knew that there was a steep ravine somewhere within this forest, and I was trying to ''herd'' the white mecha in that ravine''s direction.

    "She definitely just got her hands on the white mecha." Imented to Emma. "Look at how clumsy she is! AND just how unwilling she is to even get hit by a harmless energy beam like mine!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Be very careful. She may have very legitimate reasons to keep her distance. But she is, afterall, a highly trained soldier, and the mecha she is on is still, afterall, a white mecha. We should be suspicious as to why she is so unwilling to engage us. She might be leading us into a trap." Emma cautioned.

    "Good point!" I said as I powered on forward, all the while firing my hand cannons liberally in the general direction of the white mecha''s left nk.

    PEW! PEW! PEW!

    The white mecha returned fire as well, but it felt rather half-hearted on her part, considering that her shots missed mepletely, some even missing me by such a wide margin that I wondered if she even aimed her energy weapon in my direction.

    "The white mecha must be giving her much more trouble than I had estimated." Imented. "She seems to be losing control!"

    "Watch out!" Emma shouted.

    BOOM!!!!

    I plowed into a shrewdly ced bomb, half hidden behind arge tree. Amelia Dragonos must have hastily pped it on the tree as she ''retreated''. However, Emma''s warning hade on time and I managed to lift my arms and conjure up a powerful shield to resist the explosion.

    I stumbled clumsily to my right as I reeled from the st. However, I did not slow down much.

    "Sneaky little b***h!" I cursed as I released several more volleys of my own.

    PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

    PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

    I smirked lightly when I saw her slowly and inadvertently position herself before a steep ravine. The white mecha had no problems traversing the steep ravine, of course, but it would slow her down.

    I was sure Amelia Dragonos knew exactly what I was trying to do and knew that she would have no problems keeping me beyond melee range even as she leapt across the ravine. That was the only reason why she would let me ''herd'' her towards the ravine. That, and the fact that she probably thought I was making a fatal mistake.

    As a white mecha, leaping over a ravine the size of the one before her would be a piece of cake. She could simply power up her boosters and cross the ravine in one giant leap. But as a much smaller blue mecha? It would take me much longer. Much, much longer.

    That ''mistake'' of mine would give her plenty of time to aim and fire at me using her powerful long distance weapons.

    "Gotcha!" I whispered as I saw the white mecha pause to stabilize itself and ignite her rear boosters in preparation for a powerful jump.

    BOOMM!! My own powerful booster rockets ignited first and propelled me rapidly towards the white mecha, the distance between us disappearing by a significant amount even in just the first second.

    BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!! The white mecha''s muchrger boosters erupted with much greater force and power. However, before the physics could kick in and lift the white mecha up and across the ravine....

    PUTT!! PUTPUTPUT!!!!! Jsssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

    The white mecha''s boosters sputtered and died.

    I had gotten within range.

    As soon as I did, I shut down her white mecha core.

    CRASH!!!

    The white mecha lost its bnce and fell head first into the steep ravine!

 Chapter 19 Brain Enhancement

    WHOOSH!

    I wasted no time exerting all of my energy in an attempt to dissolve the white mecha core and pull its energy particles towards me. However, I had not expected the white mecha core to be so, very, very dense.

    I had absorbed eight blue cores by that point, and I had no problems at all dissolving and sucking in all those delicious blue core particles. Dissolving those blue mecha cores was like crushing a chicken egg. Just a surge of energy and CRACK! It''s crushed.

    Pulling the blue core particles was effortless too. Sure, I could feel the weight of the particles, but it was well within my power and ability to draw them quickly across the distance and absorb it into my body. It was like dragging an empty wheelbarrow on a smooth road. Easy.

    However inparison, the white mecha core was like a tough, giant ostrich egg covered with a thickyer of squishy goo which resisted my best efforts to crush it!

    "What are you doing?" Emma shouted from beside me. "Start absorbing the white mecha!"

    I gritted my teeth and tuned her out. It was definitely not the right time to get into a shouting match with her.

    I took a deep breath and sent more energy to surround the white mecha core. And then with everything that I had, I forced the red energy to crush the white mecha core!

    NGGGGGGHHHH!!!

    Nothing happened!

    "Damn it!" I shouted in exasperation.

    "What''s going on?" Emma asked.

    "The white mecha core is too tough for me to crush! I can''t dissolve it!" I cried out.

    "Crush? If brute force doesn''t work, then try to slice it into pieces instead! Or drill a hole into it?" Emma suggested.

    "My God, Emma you''re a genius!" My eyes almost popped out as I mentally face palmed myself for not thinking of such a simple idea. I quickly adjusted my red energy into a sharp, spinning drill and sent it smashing into the white mecha core.

    After a second, it began to pierce through the gooey exterior and into the white mecha core!

    "YES! IT''S WORKING!" I cried out excitedly.

    "Get closer!" Emma urged me. "Get the absorption done as quickly as you can before the otherse!"

    "On my way!" I quickly made my way to the white mecha.

    "GAHH! WHY WOULDN''T IT POWER UP! STUPID MECHA!!!" BAM! BAM! BAM!

    I could hear Amelia Dragonos cursing the white mecha and venting her frustrations by punching and kicking her cockpit.

    "Hehehe. Don''t worry, Amelia, very soon, you won''t have to put up with your ''stupid'' white mecha anymore." I sniggered as I ced my hand on the white mecha''s giant foot.

    Once I ced my hand on the foot though, I realized one thing. Physical touch causes the resonance I have with the white mecha to shoot through the roof!

    All of a sudden, I felt like I had much more leverage against the white mecha.

    Previously, my resonance with the white mecha core was rather tenuous, as though I was connecting with it via several proxies. It felt like I was watching it through a camera screen which was pointed towards another camera screen which was pointed towards yet another camera screen which was pointing at the white mecha.

    But with physical touch, it felt like I was watching the white mecha with my own eyes. The resonance I felt with it was very real, and very strong. And with the increased resonance, the red energy seemed to strengthen drastically in power.

    And not only that, the gooeyyer around the white mecha disappeared as well!

    CRACK!!

    The red energy drill immediately pierced through the white mecha core and caused it to split in half! And to make things even better, the physical contact also allowed me to inject far more red energy than before.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I quickly surrounded the white mecha core with my red energy once more. If I could crush it into particles, I would be able to absorb it much faster. At that moment, speed was the key.

    "LET''S GO!" I shouted and contracted the red energy around the white mecha core with all my strength!

    CRRRRRRACK!! POOF!

    Sess!!

    The white mecha burst into a cloud of white particles. I immediately tried to pull it towards me.

    NGHH! It was really heavy.

    But thankfully, I had physical contact with the white mecha, so I was able to pull the white mecha particles slowly towards me.

    "That''s it. Come on!" I gritted my teeth and sent in the rest of my red energy to hasten the process of absorbing the white mecha core.

    When the white mecha core finally entered my body, I gasped.

    For the first time, I tasted power.

    POWER!!

    REAL POWER!!

    I arched my head backwards and breathed in sharply.

    Let me just say this, because well, I am the only one qualified to say it.

    I am the number one human being in the world.

    And that moment was the moment I ascended into that position.

    Without mechas or external technology, just with physical bodies, I was the strongest human being in the world.

    Oh yes.

    Stronger than even those biological frankensteins the Russians made. What was their boast again? The physical strength of a thousand men? The eleration and top speed of a race car?

    Pfffft.

    Ants.

    I had within me EIGHT blue mecha cores, one WHITE mecha core and an experimental RED mecha core. I had enough energy within me to power an entire city for YEARS.

    I could probably smash a hundred of those frankensteins with one hit.

    But that was not all.

    You see, the red mecha core had spent all the energy it had absorbed from the blue mecha core to strengthen and enhance my body, but it hadrgely left my brain untouched. At first I thought that it was just how it works. It strengthens my body, and allows me to generate mecha suits at will.

    But it turned out that I was wrong.

    The red mecha energy could enhance my brain too.

    With the overflowing energy that it got from absorbing the white mecha core, it finally had enough to start its work on my brain.

 Chapter 20 Crucial Questions

    As usual, the red energy had no issues doing its ''dirty'' work as and when it pleased. I can be on the verge of releasing the biggest dump of my life, or in the midst of the most dangerous battle I have ever encountered, it wouldn''t care. It wouldn''t even deign to tell me anything. It would just simply work its magic on me whenever and however its requirements were met.

    Who cares what the host felt, right? Even though the host is your god damned ticket to living well you stupid, brainless spherical thing.

    Ah. I really have a love-hate rtionship with this mecha core. Mostly love, of course. It is the only reason why I am here right now, telling this story to you instead of watching some other lucky person do it. But the hate I also have for its insanely irritatingly annoyingly uncontroble timing for advancement is... Well and truly as deep as the oceans.

    At times, it would advance my strength at the most inopportune times, and I repeat, the MOST inopportune times.

    The example I mentioned about it doing its dirty work on me when I was on the verge of releasing the biggest dump of my life? Not a joke.

    Yes, youugh. I know it is funny.

    But when you''re the one looking forward to finally taking a dump after WEEKS of not being able to, and then it pulls that kind of crap on you, you would destroy the entire toilet in a fit of anger like I did.

    Yes, that was why I partially destroyed that vi.

    Anyway, I digress once more.

    As you can already guess, what followed next was a horrifying, horrifying few minutes of pure, blinding pain. I actually was rather surprised after the few minutes ended that my head was still intact. I had thought that if my head hadn''t burst openpletely, I would at least suffer severalrge cracks on my skull, considering the inhumane level of pain I had to endure.

    Compared to the pain I felt in my head, the pain in my body were leagues below. In fact, even at the risk of sounding like a masochist, I would probably consider them mild.

    "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake upp!!!" Emma screamed as she nudged me as hard as she could from the side. As if I wasn''t already suffering from enough pain. *rolls eyes*

    But I understood her panic. I had suddenly screamed and then remained absolutely silent and motionless for a few minutes. Any reasonable person would have feared that I had died. Emma probably did too.

    Plus, we were in the middle of a battle. True, nobody in their right minds would voluntarily join in a white mecha battle without another white mecha of their own. But we had remained silent for a few long minutes by that time, and the foolhardy and curious members of both factions were definitely already either on the move to investigate the situation, or were sorely tempted to do so.

    Either way, there would be peopleing to join us really soon if I didn''t make a fearsome move or gesture of some sort.

    And boy did I make a fearsome move or gesture of some sort after that.

    "Gahhh!!" I opened my eyes and released all the excess energy that I had within my body in the form of abined sonic/energy explosion.

    BOOM!!

    A ripple of pure energy erupted from my body and cascaded outwards all around in a powerful shockwave.

    Whole trees were ttened outwards and rocks crumbled beneath the pressure of the shockwave that I emitted.

    With my enhanced mind and body, I was able to increase the speed at which I absorbed the white mecha core, and so I did.

    "AHHH!!!" I could hear Amelia Dragonos screaming in pure frustration and anger. At that point, the white mecha was totally power-less. Not even its auxiliary power remained. I had made sure I took care of that as well.

    Amelia Dragonos was totally stuck.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I grinned widely and nced at Emma.

    She had remained strangely silent after her outburst.

    "Hey, you alright there?" I asked.

    She just sat there, gazing at me with her pretty eyes and remained silent.

    I sighed and decided to ignore her and focus on my task. She''ll talk when she''s ready. If not, then I was okay with silence too.

    I gazed at the white mecha core that was reforming slowly within my body, and sensed that I had barely absorbed one percent of its power. It was incredible.

    Just one percent, and it was already enough to trigger another upgrade to my body, and specifically, my brain?

    I could instinctively sense that I had grown much more intelligent. It was like looking at the world, seeing the exact same things, but realizing their significance and rtions to countless other things instantly.

    Let me give you an example of how my brain changed after that little painful episode.

    See this pen? What is the first thing on your mind when you see this pen? The very first thing, mind you. Don''t overthink it.

    It''s ck, right? Or maybe, it''s rather fancy for a pen. Or even, hey I have one exactly like it at home!

    That would be what normal people with normal intelligence would think.

    It was different for me, all those years ago.

    If I looked at this pen then, instantly, I would think the following things. ck gel pen. The gel probably made up of Copper Pthalocyanine and Iron Oxides suspended on water and Xanthan Gum. stic case, twenty centimeters, three centimeters longer than the average pen. Approximate price, one Euro. Approximate age based on wear and tear, eight months. Good for another two months based on your current usage rate.

    And all that urred within the first second.

    (Author''s Note: Had to google all that information for quite a few minutes lol. Damn if only I had such intelligence.)

    I had no idea where I read or maybe glimpsed the information on gels, but it is there in my head.

    And the enhanced intelligence I had simply allowed me to ess all those hidden and inactive parts of my brain''s memory bank.

    In addition to vastly enhanced processing speed, of course.

    All in all, I became a much smarter person. And of course, that instantly led me to a series of very crucial questions.

    If the red mecha core was this powerful, why didn''t Dr. Andrew Kennedy, the engineer who died with the red mecha core in his satchel, use it himself and destroy his enemies? Who killed him? And most importantly, were there any side effects?

 Chapter 21 Battle

    Along with a vastly enhanced intelligence, my resonance with machines had also shot through the roof.

    Before thetest upgrade, I could extend my resonance to approximately a hundred meters around me, and the feedback I received from my resonance was rather murky.

    I could still make out the different machines; cars, trucks, helicopters and the sort, but it was not without difficulty. Sensing these machines around me was like looking into the distance through ayer of fog.

    Making out which ones were mechas was much easier due to their mecha cores. In my resonance sensing, the blue mecha cores were shining like giant lighthouses in the deep darkness of night. Fog or no fog, the brightness of the lighthouse could not be denied.

    But after the upgrade, it was like the fog had lifted. I knew exactly what every single machine was doing within a radius of five hundred meters around me.

    It was almost as strong as the resonance I felt when I had physical contact with the machines. It wasn''t quite as strong, but it was close.

    I could feel my heart start to beat faster.

    In one of my father''s military books, there was ament made by a renowned general. He said, "This is the first thing you have to do to your enemies in every battle - blind the bastards."

    Which basically meant take out their scouts, their sentries and grab the flow of information into their camp by the neck and start squeezing.

    Even without my ability to break down machines and devour them, my resonance would prove to be extremely useful. I would never be one of those bastards who got blinded.

    As I continue to grow and the range of my resonance expands, I would eventually get to the point where I would always know how many and what sort of machines were arrayed against me.

    And considering that most potent strike forces capable of threatening me would need to involve at least some sort of machine, I would be almost immune to ambush.

    And that was merely my resonance.

    It wasn''t even the real power of my red mecha core!

    At that moment, I was exceedingly excited.

    I knew that once I lose the need to keep my powers a secret, I can enter ANY battlefield, I would be absolutely unstoppable. With that kind of range for my red energy, I would be impervious to close range and medium range mechas!

    Every machine entering the range of my red energy could be obliterated as and when I liked!

    It was an incredible thought.

    Throw me into any setting, and I would dominate.

    Urban, jungle, desert, snow, underwater, anything.

    I was a walking machine detector, obliterator and devourer.

    Just imagine this- Oh wait, you don''t need to imagine.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The Defense of Belgorod.

    That was me at my very best urban mode. Untouchable, and absolutely dominating.

    Well for half of the battle, at least.

    Emma, that little minx. She truly makes for a terrifying, terrifying enemy. If not for her devious sneak attack on my position, I would have managed to hold that town for sure.

    She was the reason why I said I was "almost" immune to ambush, because well, she did ambush me and forced me out of the city.

    Still, what was the final tally? Three hundred medium mechas, two hundred light mechas and fifty heavy mechas? All of that absorbed without breaking a sweat, and within the first five minutes of battle.

    I might have lost the city, but I definitely won the battle for resources.

    By that point in my life, I was already so strong that you could throw the entire mechanized armed forces of the European Empire at me, and I would still be able to hold that city.

    Of course, this was assuming that there were no other experimental cores out there.

    Anyway, at that time, I was thinking that if they could build one, they could build two, right? And judging by the circumstances in which I found my red mecha core, a lot of time had passed since its creation. Many other experimental cores could be made in that time.

    And if there were many other experimental cores, then that simply meant that there would be many others capable of shutting me down.

    I needed to maintain my cover. I could not afford dealing with a bunch of elite investigators from the various superpowers sniffing at my trail. I had bigger things to do than to worry about finally being discovered each and every day!

    Of course we know now that the "devour" of the red mecha core is one of a kind. But I didn''t know that then. So I "kept my head down", just in case.

    At a ''nce'', I immediately knew that the remaining four Red Dragon blue mechas were idling in the middle of the Red Dragon Base. They had suffered light to medium damage from their earlier skirmish, but were still very much operational. There were also sixty three Red Dragon exo-suits active, and of those, fifty two were already critically low in power.

    True to their high level of training, emergency repairs were already beginning on the four blue mechas. I could sense various strange and unique machinestching and working on the blue mechas, repairing the mechas on the fly to a much higher degree than I thought possible. Deep within my subconscious, I made a note to make sure I absorb those machinester.

    However, I knew those emergency repairs were merely temporary stopgaps for the more obvious damages at best, and without fully diagnosing and repairing the blue mechas in a proper facility, they would not be returning to full power anytime soon.

    In short, the Red Dragons were in full defensive mode. I didn''t have to worry about them swarming over to my position any time soon.

    Their only hope was for their glorious leader to win her own battle, return to them triumphantly, and send these military dogs running with their tails between their legs.

    And in their desperation, and because all their hopes lied with the white mecha, they were the first to send out scouts to find out what was happening.

    On the other side of the battlefield, I could sense that the military was still very much close to their full strength.

    They still had ten blue mechas, and a literal horde of exo-suits, at least a thousand of them.

 Chapter 22 Mecha Virus

    Apparently my little stunt had thoroughly pissed them off and they had mobilized a huge portion of their troops to crush the Red Dragon base.

    They were probably expecting to steamroll over the outrageously arrogant gangsters, and as such, they were caught totally off guard when the white mecha appeared.

    With the appearance of the white mecha and the fearsome firefight that urred not long after, the military strike force had pulled back to a respectable distance and had adopted a wait-and-see attitude even as an entire firestorm of a discussion was raging in the upper echelons of the government.

    Oh I can already imagine those old fogeys arguing.

    An unauthorized and unidentified white mecha has appeared within our borders! We need to mobilize our armed forces and drive it out!

    You fool! It is a WHITE MECHA! A superpower must be behind it! We must not act rashly! Even a single scratch on it would be extremely expensive to repair!

    You blithering penny pincher! Our national sovereignty and dignity is at stake, and you''re still thinking of repair costs? I say we destroy it! Send a powerful message that we''re not some pushover nation that they coulde in and out as they please!

    NINCOMPOOP! Do you want to start a war?! Who''s going to pay for the war? You? And HOW do you propose we destroy it? Using your imaginary white mecha?

    We have more than a thousand blue mechas ready to mobilize! I refuse to believe that we can''t destroy one white mecha using a thousand of our blue mechas!

    ... Who the **** voted you into office? You dumb ****!

    YOU''RE THE DUMB ****! YOUR MOM IS A DUMB ****!

    *&^*^&%&^%*&^*&^*&^&*%

    *&^*^*%&$&^%R&*^(*&)*)(&*

    So on and so forth.

    Oh nono, it''s definitely true. In fact, I might have been a tad too mild in my use ofnguage. In the following years, I''ve eavesdropped on their ''discussion'' sessions many times and I''ve alwayse out enlightened in the creative application of curse words.

    Are you kidding me? Our nation is a tiny nation. Of course our government is being eavesdropped. If not by the top ten powers, then at least by the two superpowers. Mine was definitely not the only ear listening in.

    Anyway, back to my story.

    The military sent out multiple flying drones to keep tabs on the situation. They could not afford to lose sight of the white mecha at that point.

    And that in short, was the situation I was facing at that moment.

    I had an entire white mecha to absorb. And I needed to do it without a bunch of curious dudes checking me out from the rear.

    I could not break them down and absorb them, because that would reveal my power. I could not even break them down, as that would create a verypelling mystery to solve, and which might just lead them on to me.

    I know I absorbed ten blue mechas already. But that was in the heat of battle, and the two factions would probably be too busy pointing fingers at each other to investigate properly.

    But if scouts and drones were to magically disappear in a period where both factions were in an unofficial and temporary ceasefire, then the questions would be raised.

    If they didn''t do it, then who did?

    It must be that strange mecha and his faction! How did they do it? Investigate!

    And that was the worst thing that could happen to me. No can do.

    Sabotage it is then. With sabotage, the suspicion would be directed inwards. Who had ess to the units in question? There must be a spy somewhere! Investigate!

    With a thought, tiny slivers of red energy shot out from my body. A few entered the drones and took out a minor steeringponent. With my enhanced resonance, even picking out a small part at such a distance was not a problem.

    Immediately, drones began to fly in circles, totally unable to proceed to their destination.

    The rest of the tiny slivers of red energy shot into the exo-suits of the scouts. Suddenly, the scouts stopped dead in their tracks. They had lost all power to their legs.

    Mission aplished.

    With the enemy temporarily blinded, I immediately got to work.

    I tightened my grip on the white mecha and sent my red energy around the coreponents of the white mecha.

    CRACK!! POOF!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    Coreponents broken down.

    GULP! GULP! GULP!

    Coreponents absorbed.

    I grinned. That was delicious! I could feel my body''s potential shoot up once more. At the same time, I suddenly realized that I could manifest a far more powerful mecha than before. Far, far stronger in armor, in firepower and in mobility.

    Awesome!

    I went on to break the rest of the white mecha down section by section.

    CRACK!! POOF!!

    First, the head. Then, the arms, and feet. I purposely left the cockpit forst because I wanted to capture Amelia Dragonos instead of killing her. I needed more information about the organization behind her, just in case that despite my best efforts, they were already somehow on to me.

    Afterall, being forewarned is forearmed.

    After going through so many enhancements, my body had a much greater capacity, and I was able to effortlessly absorb the white mecha.

    Physically, I had no problems. No sir. My body was groaning with pleasure. I could not wait to unleash the full power of a white mecha condensed in a small andpact mecha frame!

    The problem came when I absorbed the white mecha''s software.

    The sheer amount of information that flooded my brain made it excruciatingly painful for me, yet at the same time, my brain could not help but admire its wonderful beauty.

    The white mecha software was an incredibly wonderful piece of work. It was totally a masterpiece of epic proportions, and I couldn''t help but gasp at the beauty of it all.

    But my brain, as enhanced as it was, was not ready to deal with such humongous and intricate information.

    Previously, absorbing the blue mecha''s software hardly caused a blip in my normal sized brain. All the information simply nestled down somewhere in my brain, and stood at the ready to be utilized at will.

    However, the white mecha software was nothing like it.

    The science and technology that went into perfecting a software that could wlessly control and exert all the power that a hundred-meter robot could bring to bear was millions of times moreplicated than that which went into a standard ten-meter tall blue mecha''s.

    I grimaced and gritted my teeth for a full minute as I forcibly disengaged my active brain from delving into all the information that was filling my brain to the brim. Instead, I focused on assimting the white mecha and immediately enhancing the mecha I was in.

    Interestingly, I was able to vastly reduce the pain I was experiencing in my brain when I did that.

    "What do you n to do with Amelia?" Emma asked as she stared at the white mecha''s cockpit with an intense hatred that was absolutely chilling to see.

    I sighed deeply. That was definitely way too much hatred for a little girl to be dealing with. Waves of sympathy sprouted from within my heart.

    She must have gone through absolute hell for such hatred to form.

    "I n to capture and interrogate her for information." I said evenly.

    "Good." Emma nodded in satisfaction. "I will help you do that when the timees."

    I shook my head with a sigh and did not reply her.

    It was a dilemma for my ten year old self. I knew that torturing Amelia in revenge would not make the painful memories go away. It would only expose her to the pain of being lowered to the level of her torturers.

    But to deny her revenge when it was right in front of her would probably cause her to hate me. I didn''t want that.

    "Nevermind. That is a dilemma that future Justin can deal with. Present Justin had other things to do." I thought.

    I reached down with my right hand, grabbed the cockpit and reced it with a metal cage, revealing Amelia Dragonos in all her evil glory.

    Why did I do that? I don''t really know. I could have just picked up the cockpit as it was and ran. But I didn''t.

    I chose to rece it with a cage. And thus allowed her to have direct ess to me and unleash her final trump card on me, one that would drastically disrupt all the ns I had made for my future.

    She released the Mecha Virus on me.

 Chapter 23 So, Youre The One.

    With the entire world basing almost all of their military might on mechas, it should note as a surprise that some crazy genius scientist out there would create some sort of ultimate virus that could shut down a mechapletely.

    Such a virus would be worth TRILLIONS of dors. If it was sold sessfully, of course. I could not even begin to imagine the horrors the seller would have to go through.

    In this evil world, without enough power, owning a priceless treasure is a crime punishable by death.

    If it was developed by a world power and utilized correctly, a superpower could easily wipe out the other superpower and gain full overlord status of the entire world. In fact, a second tier power could probably do that as well, albeit with far greater difficulty.

    It was a game-changing virus, and much was at stake.

    With such a powerful motivator, and with humanity''s ingenuity, it was only a matter of time until the mecha virus or its equivalent was created.

    And apparently, the time was at hand.

    I became the first victim of the first working prototype of the mecha virus.

    As viruses go, it was extra malicious and extra concupiscent.

    Sorry? Oh. Horny. Concupiscent means horny.

    As soon as that green, acid-like substance hit my mecha hands, it just melted and disappeared, like water poured on parchednd.

    "Take that you bastard!" Amelia Dragonos snarled viciously. "I know you''ve got your hands on devour! Now go to sleep¡­ and let me cut you up like a pig like you did to my mecha!"

    A deep sense of foreboding crashed into my entire being as all of my attention fell upon the spot where the substance hit my hand. I immediately directed my red energy towards it to stop whatever that managed to enter my hand from spreading deeper into my body.

    But I was toote. That damned horny mecha virus replicated itself so fast that by the time my red energy reached my right arm, it was already a powerful force that smashed the red energy apart.

    I ''stared'' in horror as the green virus host coursed up my arms.

    What I did next probably saved my life. And it should serve as a powerful reminder to all my enemies. I would do all it takes to survive, and I would have no qualms whatsoever, in doing it immediately.

    Including cutting off my own arm.

    SLASH!

    A sharpyer of metal sliced through my right arm at my shoulder and stopped the green virus from entering my main body. My right arm, along with Amelia Dragonos still stuck in her cage, fell down to the ground.

    Next to me, Emma screamed out in shock.

    However, I paid them no attention. I was slightly toote. A tiny portion of the virus had managed to enter my body!

    It quickly exploded in size and a tiny bit became a small blob in an instant.

    But thankfully, my red energy was at the ready and in full force.

    I gritted my teeth, fought down the near-blinding waves of pain and sent every single bit of my red energy to swarm the growing green blob of viruses.

    An intense battle immediately erupted. The green mecha virus was somehow able to destroy my red energy very easily. But it was a suicidal sort of attack. For every bit of red energy it destroyed, it too lost a little bit of itself.

    And because only a tiny bit managed to enter my body, I was able to send my red energy in a suicidal attack against it at a rate that outpaced its growth.

    For a few crucial seconds, my life teetered on the bnce. The red energy level within my body plummeted with heart wrenching speed.

    I could sense both my red energy and the green blob dwindling down rapidly.

    Which one would prevail?

    If the green energy prevailed, I was as good as dead.

    It is extremely difficult to express the mix of emotions I was feeling at that moment. On one hand, I was dealing with the pain of losing my right arm. And I was also extremely horrified at the potency of the virus.

    A little part of me was also downright pissed at Amelia Dragonos, but it was relegated to the back of my mind at that moment.

    Mostly though, I was in dismay. "Is this it?" I remember thinking as my heart plunged into near despair. "I knew it was too good to be true. But... I DON''T WANT IT TO END! I WON''T LET IT END THIS WAY! FIGHT ON!"

    I squeezed out every little bit of red energy from all of the muscles in my body and sent them to die along with the tiny blob of green virus which was about to destroy the final tiny bit of red energy in my body.

    Thankfully, it proved to be sufficient.<novelnext></novelnext>

    With nary a flourish, the final bit of red energy managed to wipe out that green viruspletely.

    The battle within my body for my life and my future was over.

    I had won.

    But at a horrendous, horrendous cost. I lost my right arm.

    And all of the red energy within me was gone.

    Flooded with deep relief after a life-or-death battle, and also because of the incredible blood loss, I cked out.

    I barely remembered what happened in the next few hours.

    Emma wouldn''t tell me anything about those few hours when I asked her, and I only had snippets of what happened in my memory.

    Most of what I know, I read from the news.

    "The Lake Andrews Fiasco" they call it.

    It is such an inurate name.

    It''s real name should be "Emma''s Revenge" or better yet, "Emma''s First Time Piloting A Mecha".

    No?

    I remember hearing a lot of her voice.

    Panicked at first. But then it became strangely soothing and very persuasive.

    I remember doing a little bit of this and that in response to her soothing voice as I went in and out of consciousness.

    "... ¡­ Can you do that?"

    "Controls, Justin. Let me help you. Do you want me to help you? Yes? Then please listen to me. I need control over your mecha¡­"

    "Joysticks. Can you make joysticks? You can? Excellent! You''re so great, Justin. You''re a really strong person. There you go¡­"

    BANG!

    "Take that you¡­"

    ¡­ ¡­

    BOOM!

    "DAMN IT! Just die already!"

    ¡­ ...

    "Justin. Hey, they are catching up. Can you make¡­"

    "Justin? Fly Justin fly! Look, there''s a bird. Do you want to join it up in the sky?"

    "Justin! Give me control over your flight system! JUSTIN! Ah, well done! Good job¡­ You can go back to sleep¡­"

    "Justin. Justin. Hey. Retract your armor. Keep it all inside you. Can you do that? Retract your armor. Retract, yes that''s it. Here, this too. It''s your right arm¡­"

    And then there was a different voice.

    "We need her blood now if we want to save his life. Only Emma¡­"

    When I finally woke up after what seemed like a long time, I found myself in a beautiful room styled in Ancient Chinese decoration.

    "So. You''re the young man who saved my granddaughter." An aged voice rang out powerfully from somewhere beside me.

 Chapter 24 Resonance Purity Level

    The thing about first impressions is that in most cases, it is more powerful than fact. For a time.

    You can tell me many things about a person, but if what you''re telling me is contrary to my first impression of that person, you would have to spend a long time trying to convince me.

    I might eventually be convinced if you are persistent enough and present enough evidence-supported facts to me. But it won''t be easy. You would have an obstacle to ovee, and that obstacle is the powerful first impression of the person I had in my mind.

    The point is, first impressions are extremely powerful.

    The human mind ''thin-slices'' and passes judgement over a person within the first few seconds, based on anything and everything it could sense.

    It can be how a person looks, smells, sounds, feels, or in cases involving extreme situations, how a person tastes.

    No, I won''t borate how a person can make a first impression through taste. You figure it out on your own.

    Anyway, a person would take input from all five senses and instantaneouslypare it against his own pre-set associations about those inputs.

    For example, if I love the smell of roses and it somehow reminded me of how an authoritative figure in my life used to smell, and then I meet a girl who smelled like roses, she would have garnered a huge amount of points in the first impression that she made on me. Plus, subconsciously, I would be more susceptible to her attempts to establish authority over me.

    However, if I hate the smell of roses, then she would lose points instead of gaining points.

    My first impression of Emma''s grandfather, Defence Minister of the Chinese Federation, was incredibly powerful.

    I regained consciousness and full ess to my mental faculties almost at the same time. As before, there was absolutely no lethargy nor a haze of sleepiness in my mind. One moment I was out, and the next moment I was fully aware.

    I opened my eyes and beheld a tastefully designed room in ancient Chinese decoration. My first breath upon waking up filled my nose and lungs with mildly sweet incense which was really... nice. The gentle sound of trickling water filled my ears.

    A wave of weakness washed over my body at that moment, telling me that something was definitely wrong with me. But before I could think of much, an aged but powerful voice rang out from somewhere on my right.

    "So. You''re the young man who saved my granddaughter."

    I whipped my head around in surprise and saw a tall and powerfully built old man in full military uniform,plete with his military cap and a huge bunch of colourful medals on his right chest.

    His face was extremely wrinkled, and a pure white moustache and beard filled almost the entirety of his lower face. Light pockmarks also covered a portion of his cheeks. Everything about his face screamed "I am old! I am tired! And damn it I am too wrinkly by half!"

    Everything, except his eyes.

    His gaze was still steady and keen. I could totally sense the razor sharp intellect and cold-bloodedness that lurked behind his eyes.

    He may have said that I was the young man that saved his granddaughter, but by God, the aura he was giving out was like someone who was about to execute a hated enemy.

    All that, and the fact that my dad was a military man and raised me up to respect and revere the military, caused me to have an incredibly powerful first impression of Emma''s grandfather.

    That damned old man was totally just putting on a show! He was definitely trying to form an unforgettable first impression. He was, afterall, the one who taught me all about it.

    He was actually nothing like that to his family. He was very gentle and kind to his kin, uproariously funny at times and rarely was he stern, especially to his grandkids. And being someone who just saved his beloved granddaughter whom he had spent almost the entirety of the previous year desperately searching for, I was definitely family.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But I didn''t know that. All I knew was that a powerful old military man who literally ughtered thousands of his enemies, and who was my childhood idol, was standing before me with a cold look on his very aged face and a cold, bloodthirsty aura rolling off his body in billows that was almost tangible.

    What could I do? I replied in the only way I knew how, ingrained into the very fibre of my being by my own military family.

    "YES SIR!" I shouted.

    That damned old man nodded very seriously in approval of my response. His cold and bloodthirsty aura receded very significantly.

    He picked up an electronic tab by my bedside and nced at it.

    I could swear right now that he was totally just pretending to read it. Knowing him, he had probably memorized everything on that tab by heart within the first few seconds of reading it a few hours prior.

    "Hmmm. How are you feeling, Justin?" He asked as he sat down on a chair that was perfectly ced by my bedside to have a conversation with me.

    "I feel fine, sir!" I replied instantly. At that moment, I nced down at my right arm and sighed. It was gone. Still, I was alive, and that was the most important thing.

    He nodded once more and ced the electronic tab on my bedside table.

    "That''s good. You had lost a lot of blood by the time we found you, and you were very close to death. I am d that we were able to save you. It would be poor justice if we failed to save the person who saved my precious Emma." He said seriously.

    "Thank you, sir!" I replied once more.

    "Tell me about yourself, Justin." He said as he settled down on his chair. It was a cushioned chair but with hard leather which was perfect for old and tired backs.

    "I... " Where do I even start? I wondered.

    "I am a junkyard scrapper." I decided to start with the present. "I''ve been a junkyard scrapper for a few years now, ever since¡­ My father was killed."

    He nodded at me encouragingly upon hearing that. His cold and bloodthirsty aura had disappearedpletely by that time, and was somehow reced by a gentle and grandfatherly aura which soothed me to no end.

    That old man was a really nice person. Well, at least he was to me. To his enemies? Not so much.

    "I never knew my mother, and my father was an orphan, so I had no family." I continued. "The person who killed my father, he dumped me at the junkyard, probably thinking that I would die. But I didn''t. I lived on until now."

    "I am assuming that your father was a military man?" He asked.

    "Yes. My father was a Major in the Armed Forces of Han."

    The old man raised his eyebrows slightly at that. Han was a small country in the West of the Chinese Federation which had broken away after the end of the third world war. The Chinese Federation had its eyes on Han for many years now, and still considered it part of their country.

    "Interesting. Tell me, Justin. How did a ''junkyard scrapper'' like you who was once the son of a Major of the¡­ extremely tiny and ipetent Han Military, manage to have a Resonance Purity Level of ny two percent? And most importantly, how did you manage to save my granddaughter?"

 Chapter 25 Extortion

    I remained silent as I grappled with the question. Should I tell him everything? Or not? Partially maybe?

    "I would appreciate the truth." He added simply.

    "Emma¡­ She¡­ didn''t tell you?" I asked hesitantly.

    "Emma was surprisingly tight-lipped about the entire incident. She refused to speak a single word about it. The only thing she cared about ever since she returned was for us to do our best to save your life. In fact¡­" The old man hesitated slightly for a moment, before continuing.

    "In fact, by a strange stroke of fate, you have a very unique blood type that my doctors had never seen before. To ensure that noplications arise after, we had to takerge amounts of blood from Emma and transfuse it into you." He grimaced slightly at that. "If I had my way, I would risk theplications instead of taking blood from her. But Emma, she insisted that we take as much as we needed to save your life, refusing to talk and eat until we did so."

    I was touched.

    Truly, I was. At that point, Emma was extremely malnourished. She was beyond thin. She was literally a walking bag of bones. She could have easily left me to the care of her family doctors the moment we got saved and went on to have her own treatment, yet she hovered around me long enough to find out that her blood was needed, and then she insisted on having her blood taken.

    "But what''s done is done." He sighed. "Your life is saved and Emma is recovering well. I am grateful for everything that has happened in the past twenty four hours. Still, there are many questions that need to be answered, and many lives to be held ountable for everything that my Emma had to go through."

    His gaze hardened considerably and his fearsome bloodthirsty aura returned in full st.

    "And I intend to do a full ounting." He said softly.

    I did not mistake his soft voice for aged fatigue. No, that was not the voice of an elderly grandfather.

    It was the promation of a maddened killer, a promise to fully unleash bloody massacres on his enemies and their families.

    I knew at that moment that the next few days would be a bloody one.

    Creak!

    The door to my room opened and Emma came in. There were a few people behind her who stood respectfully outside the room, probably her personal servants, but I ignored them all. I only had eyes for Emma.

    "Grandfather, what are you doing here? Aren''t you supposed to be busy at work?" Emma asked with a slight tone of annoyance in her voice.

    She was dressed casually in a cute pink dress and her hair was neatly tied up into a bun. Although she was still extremely thin, I could sense a vitality in her that I did not notice before. She was certainly recovering well. Extremely well, in fact.

    To my surprise, the cold and bloodthirsty aura that the damned old man was radiating just seconds ago disappeared into thin air.

    And to add to my surprise, instead of reprimanding Emma for speaking so rudely to him as my father would have done if a little girl dared to speak with such a tone to him, the damned old man actuallyughed sheepishly!

    What was going on!?

    "Ah hahaha! Emma! My dearest. Come here, sit on grandfather''sp."

    Emma blushed lightly when she heard him say that and coolly ignored him. Instead, she dragged another chair and sat down on it daintily. Still, the fact that she ced her chair right next to his told me that she was really close to her grandfather.

    That damned old man ruffled Emma''s head happily and literally oozed out adoration from his every pore.<novelnext></novelnext>

    What happened to the real grandfather? This must be a doppleganger! I cried out internally.

    "So?" Emma demanded. "Why are you here instead of at work looking for¡­ you know."

    "Ah hahaha. I was just here to talk to our hero!" That damned old man beamed at me as I stared at his jovial and happy expression in shock. "And to express my gratitude to him, of course! He has rendered great merits to our family! Great merits indeed! He deserves to be rewarded!"

    "I see." Emma''s voice turned gentle and she smiled sweetly at her grandfather. "What sort of rewards are we talking about?"

    "Well. Ehm. Of course I would be generous to the savior of my precious Emma! Let''s see. Fifty thousand-"

    Emma frowned deeply.

    "Ah, I mean Five hundre-"

    Emma blinked, but her frown was still there."

    "Ah, five mil-"

    Emma sighed impatiently and blinked again slowly.

    "FIFTY MILLION!" The damned old man shouted. Little droplets of sweat started to form on his wrinkly forehead.

    Emma nodded lightly in approval.

    "Fifty million dors for the savior of my dearest granddaughter." He repeated while wiping his forehead with a dark green military handkerchief. He was getting bullied and he knew it.

    I fidgeted ufortably. Those two were talking about me as if I wasn''t there! I mean, I was d that the topic was about rewarding me and all, but damn it. They didn''t even look at me as they haggled about the price!

    "That''s a good first reward, grandfather." Emma smiled sweetly as she reached out and took the green handkerchief from him and dabbed at his sweaty forehead.

    "But we''re not a low ss merchant family who only knows how to reward our benefactors using money, right?" She asked innocently.

    "Of course not!" The old man shouted grandly, diving straight into the trap as though it was the world''s sweetest honey..

    The maddened killer had totally transformed into a bully ma in front of his granddaughter.

    "We''re a powerful military family, the pir of the Chinese Federation and the example for all the other families to follow!"

    "Exactly." Emma asked as she continued to dab at the sweat that continued to appear unabated on his forehead and his head. "After all, how you reward my savior will speak volumes about how much you love me. What would people say if you only give a pittance to my savior?"

    "Ehm." The old man gulped.

    This granddaughter of his had always been a vicious ''extorter''. She was absolutely merciless when ''extorting'' money from her beyond-loaded grandfather!

 Chapter 26 Monster

    "You''re the princess of our Whitefrost n! And as such I will prepare three rewards for the savior of my precious granddaughter." The old man dered solemnly.

    "Three is a good number." Emma nodded in approval.

    "For the second reward, I will give him our family treasure, the Gene Optimizing Pill!"

    Bang!

    My room door mmed open and a group of people stomped in arrogantly.

    "Father!" A beautiful but cold-looking middle-aged woman in an exquisite red dress spoke loudly.

    "Father." A handsome middle-aged man that looked a little bit like the damned old man spoke up as well.

    "Grandfather!" A group of six kids ranging from around ten to sixteen greeted the damned old man.

    "Kids, grand children." He nodded with a gentle smile.

    It was very interesting to note that his voice and his smile carried none of the warmth that he showed to Emma. In fact, if one were to pay close attention, there was even a hint of coldness to his voice.

    But of course, they were oblivious to it all.

    They were not there to spend time with him or enjoy hispany for the day.

    They were there to make sure that the little fox Emma did not swindle her grandfather of the family treasures that they had their eyes on.

    "That''s excellent, grandfather! The Gene Optimizing Pill would be an excellent second reward for Justin!" Emma said sweetly,pletely ignoring the group of people who just came in.

    "Father! What do you mean you''re giving him our family''s Gene Optimizing Pill! We only have three left! And you have six grandchildren!" The beautiful middle aged woman shouted loudly.

    "Seven. I have seven grandchildren." The old man said evenly. His eyes which were filled with warmth and joy previously even as he was being mercilessly extorted by Emma, grew cold.

    "Ah yes, I meant seven." The middle ageddy corrected herself without any remorse whatsoever. "Which makes it even worse! How can you give away our family treasure to aplete stranger? That Gene Optimizing Pill would strengthen our children and increase their chances of bing a Resonance Master!"

    I perked my ears up at her words. "Resonance Master? What is that?" I thought to myself. "It must be linked to the Resonance Purity Level which that damned old man mentioned earlier."

    Her aunt was obviously biased against Emma. And knowing Emma, she probably would not take it lying down. However, the expected scene of a full blown family conflict between Emma and her aunt did not happen then. At least not yet.

    "It is bad enough that you gave Emma our only Gene Cleansing Pill all those years before. But now you want to give a Gene Optimizing Pill to an outsider? Simply on the ount that he saved EMMA?"

    "She is your niece, Isabe. She carries the blood of the Whitefrost n. Anyone who saves a member of our Whitefrost n deserves to be rewarded." The old man replied patiently.

    However, I could see that he didn''t like the direction in which the conversation seemed to be going, and his eyes grew slightly clouded with worry.

    "She. Is. Not. My. Niece!" Isabe spat out each word hatefully. "And she is NOT part of the Whitefrost n!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    At that point, the old man simply decided that he didn''t want to discuss things there and he stood up.

    He levelled his gaze at the middle aged woman and said one word.

    Just one word, and softly at that.

    But he said it with a tiredness and a tinge of impatience which somehow caused the middle aged man to nch.

    "Enough."

    Something really bad must have happened in the past when the old man disyed such a side of him. Something that made the middle aged man feel deep fear and trepidation even till that day.

    However, Isabe either didn''t get the memo or she was too caught up in her own emotions to notice the change in the old man because she ploughed on with her tirade.

    "MY niece died a long time ago. SHE is just a -"

    SLAP!

    The middle aged man stepped up to Isabe and gave her a mercilessly heavy handed p that sent her staggering.

    "MOTHER!" Three girls screamed out in shock!

    "Father!" The two boys and the youngest girl also gasped out in surprise!

    The other two boys and the little girl were simply in total disbelief.

    They probably had never seen their father hit a woman before, much less a family member.

    Jason was the second son of the Whitefrost n, and he was extremely well brought up. He was not only talented in diplomacy, but also utterly deadly in a mecha. He had piloted his mecha into fame when he almost single handedly crushed the base of a rebel uprising which his patrol group had identally stumbled upon.

    He had quickly risen through the military ranks and he was the second youngest general in the history of the Chinese Federation. Second to only his elder brother, Emma''s father.

    Despite his extreme prowess in the battle field, Jason was always the perfect picture of a refined gentleman who exemplified strength through diplomacy. He preferred resolving conflict through diplomacy and was a firm believer of the saying ''The pen is mightier than the sword." He rarely went out of character, not even during the greatest of emergencies.

    For him to p Isabe that day, he must have a deep rooted fear of that damned old man when he was in that state. I wonder what happened. I never did find out to this day. But I do have my suspicions though.

    That old man was, in many ways, a monster. Jason must have caught a glimpse of it somehow.

    "Our apologies, Father. Isabe is not feeling well. She must have allowed her illness to misguide her tongue. She only has the very best of intentions for our n." Jason said in a soothing and conciliatory voice. He was obviously putting all of his diplomatic skills into practice at that moment.

    "Brother! How could you do this to me!" Isabe stared at her brother in horror. Her left hand was cradling her left cheek, where a small trickle of blood had appeared near her luscious lips at the location of Jason''s forceful p.

 Chapter 27 Operation Lightning Storm

    "We will take our leave now. Father, have a good day." Jason announced and literally dragged Isabe away.

    "NO! I WON''T GO! I STILL HAVE THINGS TO SAY! EMMA YOU LITTLE B*TCH! YOU MUST HAVE BRAINWASHED YOUR GRANDFATHER! THE WAY YOUR SL*T OF A MOTHER BRAINWASHED YOUR FATHER!" Isabe screamed as she struggled against Jason''s tight grip.

    "Shut up Isabe!" Jason hissed and tried to drag her away faster. But Isabe was not so easily defeated. She was, afterall, a daughter of a military family.

    She twisted and turned expertly, causing Jason no small amount of trouble. Jason had to step in and utilize both hands to counter her expert moves.

    A full blown fight was about to erupt! And, very strangely, internally within the faction that was obviously biased against Emma!

    "Stop." The old man said quietly. "Let her express herself."

    Jason opened his mouth to say something, but was immediately silenced by a look from the old man. He sighed in resignation and rxed his grip on Isabe.

    Isabe flung Jason''s hands away angrily and marched back into the room, her towering rage disyed prominently on her bruised but still coldly beautiful face.

    "FATHER! That little b*tch Emma is not to be trusted!" Isabe spat venomously.

    Her anger at being pped had obviously loosened her self-control over her tongue.

    "She must have nned this little ''kidnapping'' as an evil scheme to weasel you out of our family treasure! Otherwise, how could she have escaped from her kidnappers with just the help of a little runt like him?!" Isabe pointed her slender fingers at me.

    "It must be a staged kidnapping! I am sure of it. How dare she covet the Gene Optimizing Pill even after receiving the benefits of a Gene Cleansing Pill! What a greedy little b*tch!" Isabe cursed at Emma hatefully. "Father, you cannot give the Gene Optimizing Pill to her! It is like throwing pearls at swine!"

    "Really. Then who do you think I should give the Gene Optimizing Pill to?" The old man said with a cold gleam of anger in his eyes.

    Isabe seemed rather surprised at the question, but she recovered remarkably quickly. "Why, of course to your grandchildren! Catherine and Elizabeth here have excellent scores in their Resonance Purity Levels!

    Catherine scored a seventy two and Elizabeth scored an unbelievable seventy eight! They are both Elites! The Gene Optimizing Pill would improve their Resonance Purity Levels by a huge margin and they might even breakthrough in score to ny, into the Gifted level!"

    The two oldest girls who looked a lot like Isabe immediately nodded their heads enthusiastically. They must be Catherine and Elizabeth.

    A pretty girl of around fourteen who looked a lot like Jason nced at the final girl, who was merely around my age.

    She met her cousin''s nce and merely shrugged as she maintained an expressionless face. There was not a whit of emotion on her face, even though she had just been excluded from her mom''s ''potential recipient'' list of the Gene Optimizing Pill. Her self control was not bad for a ten year old girl. Not bad at all.

    "The other one you can give to Jeremy. He is an Elite too!" Isabe continued. She shed a look to Jason which said "Look! I''m still looking after your interest even after you pped me!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Jason merely sighed and looked away. He knew that she had crossed the line. She shouldn''t have talked about the death of her ''niece''. That was the old man''s bottom line and everybody knew it.

    Although he hade to try and prevent the Gene Optimizing Pill from falling into an outsider''s hands as well, he had no intention of crossing his father.

    "She should have known better than that! How could she expect the old man to give her the Gene Optimizing Pill if she went beyond his bottomline like that? What a dumbo." His facial expression seemed to say.

    I have to say, I agree with him. Isabe truly was a dumbo. However, Jason probably did not know that his sister was more than just a dumbo. He had no idea just how far into the darkness his sister had fallen to. Not yet.

    "So you''re saying that Emma staged the kidnapping, starved herself to the brink of death, got a butcher to operate on her and took out her own kidney, and then came back after a year with her ''savior'' so that she could make me give him a Gene Optimizing Pill which would be passed on to her?" The old man gave a cold smile as a deeply ferocious aura seeped out from him.

    At that time, even Isabe, for all her thick headedness, could sense that something was horribly wrong. But she had gone too far to turn back. She could only go all in.

    "Yes!" Isabe cried out passionately. "Don''t you see? All of that self-suffering was to make the kidnapping more realistic! What is a kidney and a portion of a liverpared to a Gene Optimizing Pill? It was part of her n! She''s a devious snake, just like her mother!"

    At that, a thunderous silence filled the air.

    "I see. I finally see¡­" The old man said heavily after a while. "I did not believe¡­ No, I had refused to believe it until now¡­"

    He nced at Jason whose face showed a growing sense of horror and disbelief. The old man sighed. He knew that as a high ranking military officer, there was no way that Jason missed it.

    "You have to believe it, Father! I know it is difficult toe to terms with it, but the light of truth can never be hidden, even by the darkest of night!" Isabe''s tone turned soft and as she gently helped her aged but still powerful father to sit back down.

    "Thank goodness we discovered her schemes before it was toote!" Isabe gave Emma a vicious and triumphant look.

    Emma simply blinked back at her with a highly amused expression. She must have caught the slip as well.

    "Men." The old man called out with a heavy but determined voice. He pushed Isabe away and closed his eyes, as if steeling his heart for a big decision.

    Isabe frowned slightly. A growing sense of unease blossomed in her heart, but she could not for the world figure out why.

    Immediately, three burly men in military uniforms entered the room and saluted the old man smartly.

    "Execute Operation Lightning Storm."

 Chapter 28 Risk Of War

    "Yes, Minister." One of the men saluted and quickly left to ry the old man''s orders. The other two remained in the room upon receiving a signal from the old man. They took up positions behind him.

    The old man turned to Emma. He opened his mouth to say something, but Emma shook her head. "Later."

    The old man nodded and gave her a weak smile.

    He then turned to me. "Justin. I apologize in advance for what you''re about to see. But, as Isabe had so aptly said, the light of truth can never be hidden, even by the darkest of night."

    I merely nodded in confusion.

    I had caught onto the slip, of course. The old man made no mention of Emma''s liver being harvested. But Isabe had mentioned it. How did she know if she was not involved? That slip, in addition to all the evidence that his men had collected in secret, was finally enough to confirm that it was her own aunt, Isabe, who had plotted to kidnap Emma!

    But I had no idea what the old man was nning to do.

    The fact that the entire room had begun to vibrate lightly added to the mystery of it all.

    The old man turned to the two adults and six kids who were still standing up. "Sit down, all of you. And face that screen. Consider what you will see next as a life lesson on the consequences of treason."

    He pointed at the wall opposite me and immediately, arge screen appeared. It was divided into two, showing two very different things.

    The first one was a live video which showed a massive courtyard with a thousand heavy mechas slowly lifting off from the perspective of theirmander who was watching them from the rear.

    "That must be Operation Lightning Storm." I thought to myself as I studied the mechas with interest. They looked really impressive.

    Huge and angr, bristling with thergestnces I had ever seen, they looked like a thousand avatars of death and destruction. Their blood red coat of paint decorated very lightly with golden yellow trim only added to the ferociousness they exhibited.

    The entire gigantic courtyard looked like a red sea of monsters.

    Part of the mystery was solved then. The vibrations in the room were caused by the thousand mechas lifting off. The second part of the mystery was, where were they going?

    What they were about to do was no mystery, of course. Nobody would send a thousand heavy mechas to the grocery store to buy carrots for the family rabbit. No, blood was about to be spilt, and the only question was, whose blood?

    The second one part of the screen merely showed the blueprint of a building with several hundred bright red dots, and one bright red star.

    "Grandfather? Aren''t those your personal guards? Where are they being deployed to?" Emma asked in confusion.

    She did a quick count and then asked suspiciously."Are you sending ALL of them? That''s one thousand heavy mechas! And is that Uncle Jared''s ''Blue Murder''? If he isn''t the one leading your personal guard, then it must be Uncle Ajax! What''s happening? Why is even Uncle Ajax and his white mecha being deployed?!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "What do you think, girl?" Jasonughed harshly. He nced at Isabe, whose face was still full of confusion.

    "What? Oh no, grandfather, you can''t!" Emma whispered. "They''re too strong..."

    "I don''t give a damn how strong they are." The old man said softly. But the power, the fury and the bone-chilling bloodlust that was contained within was truly unmistakable. "I am not a defence minister right now and those aren''t the army.

    I am a GRANDFATHER, Emma. YOUR grandfather. And those soldiers... They are a grandfather''s wrath."

    He turned his head to look at Emma. His eyes were gentle, but at the same time, simmered with a deep-seated fury which he was barely able to control.

    "If some imbecile thinks that he could kidnap and torture my GRANDDAUGHTER - without consequences - then he is the world''s biggest fool. A fool who is about to burn to his death." He said harshly.

    Realization finally dawned on Isabe.

    I could see the moment her confusion turned to shock, then disbelief, then finally panic.

    It was a very interesting and satisfying experience, and I enjoyed it very, very much. I had only met this woman for a few minutes, and already, I hated her with an intensity that was startling, even to myself.

    "FATHER! YOU CAN''T DO THAT!" Isabe screamed hysterically as she leapt up and grabbed the old man by the arm. "WILLIAM IS THE HIGH AMBASSADOR OF THE EUROPEAN EMPIRE! ATTACKING THE EUROPEAN EMPIRE''S EMBASSY IS LIKE DECLARING WAR ON THEM!"

    "Sit down, Isabe." The old man said in an icy voice as he turned his head to look at the screen once more.. He did not bother to look at her. "The only reason you''re not there with them is because you''re my daughter. Do not put that rtionship into jeopardy by defending your fool of a husband."

    That was it. The mystery was finally solved.

    Apparently Isabe was married to the High Ambassador of the European Empire to the Chinese Federation. No wonder the old man was struggling slightly as he made this decision! It was truly a monster of a decision, one that would reverberate through the eons toe.

    A suffocating silence permeated the room, broken only by Isabe''s heavy and panicked breathing, as we all stared at the thousand mechas flying off.

    The thundering vibration in the room slowly eased and then stoppedpletely as the mechas finally flew away.

    "Father, please! I beg you, don''t do this! Think of the consequences!" Isabe pleaded. "The entire nation would be plunged into war! Millions will die! Do you want to sentence those millions of soldiers to death because of one girl?"

    The old man stared ahead at the screen like a statue. Of course he knew his decision carried a very high risk of war.

 Chapter 29 All Hell Broke Loose

    But war was bound to happen sooner orter anyway. It didn''t matter to him if war broke out sooner.

    In fact, he was probably looking forward to it breaking out sooner, because then, he would still be able to lead the Chinese Federation Army into battle, aspared to the war breaking outter after he had died.

    Hepletely ignored Isabe''s desperate pleas.

    The old man was the type of guy whose mind was impossible to change after he had made a decision, especially important ones. He would stick to his decision through thick and thin, down to hisst breath and hisst drop of blood.

    In many ways, Emma was very much like him, especially in this specific trait. This extremely inflexible, stubborn, mind-blowingly irritating and incredibly annoying persistence to see things through to the end!

    This pigheadedness of hers is the only reason why we''re not together right now! Emma you little minx! I know you''re reading this. Stop this madness, you''re trading your future for your past! LOOSEN UP A LITTLE BIT FOR GOD''S SAKE! Enough is enough!

    I''ve said it before and I''ll say it again. You know where to find me. Come back!

    Anyway, I digress.

    Both the Whitefrost residence and the European Empire Embassy were located in prime locations in Shanghai, the Capital City of the Chinese Federation, and as such, the distance between them was not too far away.

    By air, it would only take a few minutes at most. The Embassy building was already showing up on the screen.

    "Father! I admit my mistake! I should not have schemed to kidnap Emma! We were only after the Gene Optimizing Pill! I thought that with Emma out of the way, there would be a higher chance that the pill would be given to us. IT WAS ME! It was at fault, not William''s! I was the one who forced him to use his connections to kidnap Emma! Please! Father! Please do not do this! Let William go, please¡­! Your grandchildren¡­ They cannot do without their father! Please! Father PLEASE!" Isabe sobbed.

    Only silence replied her.

    Her two daughters fidgeted ufortably and were frowning deeply. I could sense that they were in distress. But strangely, they were also extremely tensed up, like springs coiled down tightly and ready to explode into action any moment.

    Very strange. I decided to keep an eye on them, just in case.

    The third daughter, on the other hand, was strangely calm. She had a frown on her face too, but there was also disappointment and dismay. I nced at Emma and noticed her studying Isabe''s three daughters like I did.

    I had already formed my own conclusions by that point, and what happened in the next few minutes, though tragic, was not shocking to me in the slightest.

    On screen, the thousand heavy mechas circled the Embassy and got into position.

    "Ready!" Ajax barked, his voiceing out crystal clear from the speakers. As one, the thousand heavy mechas trained their heavynces which doubled asser cannons downwards towards the huge European Embassy.

    The European Embassy was built like a medieval European Castle. It looked extremely imposing. The fact that it was ten times bigger and taller than conventional castles simply made it even more imposing.

    It had a keep in its interior, towers, battlements, gates and even a huge moat around it. All of it was up-sized to allow mechas to man the battlements and towers.<novelnext></novelnext>

    It was a monster of a building, and the fact that they were able to build it in prime real estate in the middle of the city simply bore testament to the European Empire''s might and influence, even in the heart of the Chinese Federation.

    The thousand mechas looked like little ants holding little toothpicks aiming at a small up-turned table.

    A trio of European white mechas rose into the sky to meet them. The screen showed the veritable sea of heavy mechas parting to let Ajax move forward to municate'' with them.

    "Emma! Emma, please ask your grandfather to show mercy! Please! I apologize! I am sorry! Please, Emma!" Isabe turned to Emma and begged her.

    Emma merely looked at her and said nothing.

    Knowing her, she was probably enjoying the intery of fear and panic and despair on Isabe''s face.

    "I am General Charles Leon, Commander of the European Empire''s Mecha Regiment in the Chinese Federation. This is European Empire Airspace! Stand down at once! Or we will treat this as a deration of war!" General Charles Leon''s voice could be heard from the screen''s speakers.

    His arrogance was so thick that I felt like I could almost touch it.

    His assurance of the European Empire''s might and invincibility was soplete and unshakable that he did not even consider the possibility of the situation devolving even further.

    And because of that, he did not mobilize his mechas even though he had five full battalions of them. Instead, he opted to deal with the situation with only three white mechas.

    He probably thought that three white mechas were enough to deal with the ''Chinese Plebeians'' who only had a single white mecha in their entire rabble army. It was a pretty good looking army, to be sure. But they were only blue mechas afterall.

    He and the rest of his countrymen in the Embassy would pay for his arrogance with their lives.

    sh!

    Ajax moved so fast that the screen barely captured his movement. I could only catch a brief glimpse of a red streak slicing the humongous white mecha diagonally up from its lower right waist to its neck.

    BOOM!

    "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Isabe wailed. Next to her, her three daughters began to cry as well.

    The die was cast. There was no turning back.

    The first European white mecha, piloted by General Charles Leon, younger brother of the European High Ambassador William Leon, also known as the 19th Prince of the European Empire, exploded into pieces.

    And then all hell broke loose.

 Chapter 30 Bloody Freaking Idiot

    The thing about heavy mechas is that they are extremely heavy.

    Most of their weightes from the multiyered armor which covers their entire frame. These incredibly tough armor allows the heavy mecha to take a TON of beating before they have to retreat. And this is especially true if their enemies are non-heavy mechas.

    In most cases, long before the heavy mecha had to beat a retreat, their non-heavy mecha enemies would either run out of ammunition first, or die a miserable death in the hands of the heavy mecha''s own deadly weapons.

    Unless of course, the heavy mechas were ridiculously outnumbered.

    Then in that case, in addition to anticipating his victory, the enemymander would do well to also prepare his heart to pay for a simrly ridiculous butcher''s bill. It might just save him from suffering a heart attack when the smoke of the battle field finally clears and the battle (read: massacre) report reaches his hands.

    A total victory by non-heavy mecha legions over a legion of heavy mechas would be a pyrrhic victory in the truest sense of the word.

    Heavy mechas are the mainstays of all the armies of the world, and they are so because they truly deserved to be.

    Not all of the heavy mecha''s weightes from their armor though.

    A significant portion of the weight alsoes from the heavy melee weapons that these mechas would typically wield. These weapons range from massive halberds to heaven-defyingly heavy war hammers which, when used skillfully, make the heavy mechas an absolute terror at melee range.

    Finally, thest bit of their weightes from their twin shoulder-mounted long-rangeser cannons which could deal certain death to their non-heavy mecha enemies from a respectable distance.

    The Chinese heavy mechas, or at least the ones that the old man fielded as his own personal guards, were typical heavyncers with minor modifications. In true believer of ''the best defense is a good offense'' fashion, the old man had reduced the armor covering the rear of his mechas, and opted instead to strengthen the frontal armor.

    These modifiedncers would be nigh imprable in frontal defence, and absolutely unstoppable in their offensive charges.

    Additionally, the old man''s heavyncers were not only absolute monsters in battle, they were also a sight to behold.

    Their mecha armor was designed in such a way so as to resemble ancient Chinese armor, and all of the old man''s heavyncers looked like legendary Chinese heroes of old.

    ck demon-mask visagesplemented their red-yellow armor spectacrly, giving all who saw the scene a deeply chilling sensation. It was as though the army of hell had been deployed and was about to reap the lives of the devil king''s designated enemies.

    A short moment after Ajax made his move, the thousand heavyncers fired their mid range heavy cannons as well as their shoulder-mountedser cannons at the remaining two white mechas.

    PEW! PEW! PEW!

    A barrage of powerfulser beams riddled the huge white mechas with holes.

    Surprise attacked by five hundred heavyser cannons and a thousand shoulder-mountedser cannons each, the two white mechas never stood a chance.

    BOOM! BOOM!

    They exploded a mere second after their glorious General Charles did.

    They were faithful retainers when they were alive, and they disyed their faithfulness even in death by following him quickly into the underworld so that he would not be lonely.

    Not that they were given any choice in the matter, though.

    With the three white mechas out of the way, the remaining five mecha battalions were as good as dead. They were, afterall, tragically unmobilized.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Of course, there were some ster minds among the European pilots who had thought that the Chinese were totally out of character that day, and had stood at the ready by their mechas.

    ''Just in case.''

    Unfortunately, these smarter-than-General-Charles-Leon members of the European Embassy were too few in number and far too hopelessly low in authority to make much of a difference.

    They had merely added a hundred and fifty mechas to the hundred and twenty mechas who were already in active duty patrolling the Embassy grounds.

    In total, the European Embassy had two hundred and seventy mechas as theirbat-ready force when all hell finally broke loose.

    They never stood a chance.

    "Destroy them." Ajax''s cool voice sounded. "No prisoners. No mercy."

    The thousand Chinese mechas immediately let out a roar filled with battle fury and charged at the European mechas in a mighty air.

    PEW! PEW! PEW!

    The Chinese mechas unleashed a volley of heavyser cannon fire at the European mechas even as they ate up the distance between them at a frightening pace.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    Many of the Europeans managed to raise their shields to block theser cannon volley, but not all managed to do that. Those that didn''t simply ate theser cannon attack and exploded into pieces.

    "Steady pace!" Ajax barked at his men. "Stay together!"

    A few overeager mechas who were already pulling ahead slowed down slightly to stay with theirrades. Some, though, ignored Ajaxpletely.

    "Hold the line! HOLD THE LINE D*** IT!" Ajax roared angrily.

    One particr Chinese mecha was so excited that he shot into the European line much faster than the rest of hisrades.

    With his heavynce braced solidly against its body in an underarm grip, he charged at the lead European mecha at full speed.

    The lead European mecha who was carrying a huge tower shield, skillfully adjusted his shield at thest second and deflected thence charge instead of meeting it head on.

    SCREEEEEEEEE!!

    Taken by surprise, the Chinese mecha could not adjust hisnce in time and merely scraped the European Mecha''s shield instead of smashing into it and blowing the European mecha away. Instead, it was him who blew right by the European Mecha and exposed his lightly-armored back.

    "Bloody idiot." Ajax muttered. "I told him many times not to break formation. Old man, I''m not taking responsibility if he gets himself killed today. His skull is as thick and as empty as yours when you were his age. Maybe even thicker. Not emptier though. Can''t get emptier than empty. Bloody freaking idiot."

    Despite the gravity of the situation, I swear I could see a gleam of mirth sh briefly in the old man''s eyes.

 Chapter 31 Bring Me His Head

    In an one-on-one engagement, this move of his would have given the European a massive opportunity to deal horrendous damage to the out-of-position heavy mecha. A simple thrust of his sword to any of the exposed weak points of the could very possibly end the heavy mecha''s involvement in the battle, if not the pilot''s life.

    But unfortunately for him, it was not a one-on-one engagement.

    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

    Three other Chinese mechas smashed into him and ripped him to pieces.

    The scene repeated itself all over the battlefield.

    Outnumbered four to one, and against heavyncers, the European line held out very impressively for a few minutes.

    The soldiers stationed in the European Embassy in Shanghai counted many veterans among their number. They had long learnt through endless study and experience that the Chinese Heavy Lancers cannot be faced head on. Like the first European Swordsman, some among them were able to take advantage of their greater skill to deflect the initialnce charge and find the asional rare opening for the well-thrust de.

    But not many managed to do so, and those that did, found that it was the only thing they managed to do before they werepletely gang banged by their victim''srades.

    Much greater numbers, and powerfulnces coupled with near-imprable armor rendered the Europeans'' greater skill moot.

    Within a single minute of intense fighting, the initial line of European Mechas were nothing but a memory.

    However, whatever could be said about the Europeans, cowardice was definitely not one of them. They were ferocious fighters who had, as a collective continent, once almost ruled the world in its entirety.

    Even after the initial line of defenders copsed, more mechas continued to pour out of the keep and the barracks as pilots scrambled to power up their mechas and took off to meet their enemies in battle as soon as they could.

    Caughtpletely out of position and out numbered during the brief moment of their appearance, the European Mechas were fallen upon by the Chinese Mechas and died almost as soon as they appeared.

    In that way, due to a single man''s arrogance in not mobilizing the five battalions when he had the chance to do so, three thousand European Mechas - three full battalions, died tragically, one little group at a time, without inflicting a single casualty on their attackers.

    The only thing they managed to do was to buy time for the remaining two thousand mechas to be mobilized and make theirst stand in the keep.

    Still, their own final stand against the old man''s mechas, though incredibly short, were absolutely glorious and spoke volumes about their courage, skill and sheer ferocity in battle.

    After the final European Mecha had copsed beyond the keep''s walls, there was a brief moment of ceasefire as both factions prepared for the final battle.

    "10-Wedge Formation!" Ajax barked.

    The old man''s mechas formed up into 10 100-mecha wedge formations arrayed all around the keep.

    With their heavyser cannons pointing at the keep and thrusters at the ready, it would only take a single word for the keep to fall.

    At that moment, the Chinese government finally got online with the old man.

    Ring!

    My heightened sense of hearing heard a soft ring from somewhere behind the old man''s ear. It was hismunication device.

    Whoever called must be of extremely high rank, considering that he or she had a direct line to the Defence Minister.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "RUSSEL WHITEFROST!" An enraged female voice exploded from the old man''s earpiece. "WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU DOING?!"

    "Secretary Jessica Wang. How are you today?" The old man greeted his caller mildly and politely.

    "I''M KNEE DEEP IN S**T OF YOUR MAKING, THAT''S HOW I AM TODAY YOU BLITHERING OLD NINCOM! THE EUROPEAN EMPIRE''S G** D*** FREAKING EMPEROR IS CURRENTLY SPEAKING TO THE PRESIDENT! THE VICE PRESIDENT IS FREAKING OUT! THE MEDIA IS REPORTING THE START OF FREAKING WORLD WAR FOUR! I NEED ANSWERS G** D*** IT!"

    "The Europeans were behind Emma''s kidnapping. The secret is probably out." The old man replied tersely.

    There was a stunned silence for a few moments before the woman''s voice sounded again. It was, however, strangely calm. "Are you sure?"

    The old man merely chuckled. He was extremely amused by the Secretary''s question.

    "I need to hear it." The woman said.

    "I have a confession from Isabe." The old man said coolly. "Plus you already have all the evidence I''vepiled."

    The woman sighed deeply and went silent for a few moments to digest the enormity of what she had heard. "Make sure you wipe them outpletely. I''ll talk to you againter. We have an Emperor to yell at. AND GIVE US A FREAKING HEADS UP FIRST NEXT TIME A*****E!!"

    Click.

    "A secret within Emma?" My mind, with all its enhanced processing power, began to whirr at full speed.

    There were four major clues which I had bookmarked earlier.

    Emma was hyper intelligent.

    She had ingested a "Gene Cleansing Pill".

    She had an extremely powerful vitality.

    Isabe didn''t consider her as her niece, iming that her ''niece'' is dead.

    All of that pointed to one possibility. Enhanced cloning. But enhanced cloning is hardly a secret exclusive to the Chinese Federation. And if the Europeans truly wanted the best of enhanced cloning, they should probably kidnap a Russian princess or something, considering that the Russians were probably miles away from the rest of the world in that field.

    "No. There must be a deeper secret." I finally concluded.

    I nced at Emma and identally caught her looking at me. She blushed slightly and quickly turned to look at the screen.

    On screen, Ajax was waiting for the old man''s finalmand. Once they charged into the keep and killed the European Empire''s High Ambassador, World War 4 would probably erupt. Ajax, even though he was a battle hardened warrior with thousands of kills under his belt, still felt the weight of the action which he was about to do very keenly.

    The old man understood his hesitation and pulled the trigger for him.

    "Go." The old man said heavily. "Bring me William Leon''s head."

 Chapter 32 You Made Me Do This

    "Fire." Ajaxmanded.

    As one, a thousand heavyser cannons red and released thick, fist-sizedser beams which punched through the keep walls like a hot knife punching through butter.

    BOOM! BOOM!

    Several explosions sounded from within the keep as some of theser beams found unwilling victims.

    "Connect." Ajax barked out another word.

    Theser beams immediately moved and sought to connect the hole they just made with others made by theirrades. Huge gashes immediately appeared on the keep walls as the thousandser beams moved chaotically and connected with each other.

    BOOM! BOOM BOOM!

    More explosions sounded as theser beam''s erratic movement took many of the gathered defenders by surprise.

    Ajax was definitely an experienced besieger. He knew how to squeeze maximum effect out of the tools and weapons he had on hand. Even though he could have easily ordered a full charge immediately which would have worked just fine, he opted to soften the enemy with aser barrage first.

    Such an act served two purposes.

    One was to weaken the keep walls'' integrity which would allow the heavy mechas much greater ease when they physically charged at the walls to bring them all downter on.

    The second was to create chaos within the keep, which would break the defensive formations of the defending mechas and lower fighting power which would make it easier for the heavy mechas to clean house.

    Not that they needed the additional edge.

    They were a thousand heavy mechas going up against two thousand medium mechas. Unless all the Chinese Mecha Pilots suddenly died and the heavy mechas became sitting ducks, victory was practically assured.

    Still, Ajax wanted a perfect missionpletion without any casualties. He would take any advantage he could get his hands on.

    After an entire minute of carving the massive keep walls, the heavy cannons finally ran out of juice.

    The fact that the keep was still standing even with the numerous gashes running through its walls bore testament to how well the keep was built. But it was all for naught. The best built keeps had no hope to keep out a thousand heavyncers on the charge.

    And charge they did.

    "Go." Ajax''s voice sounded out heavily one final time.

    VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

    A thousand thrusters erupted with extreme power and propelled the insanely heavy mechas to maximum speed within a few seconds.

    CRASHHH!!!! CRASSSHHH!!!! CRAAAASHHHHHHHH!!!

    The keep walls copsed like a house of cards under the ferocious charge of a thousand heavy mechas.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    Intense sounds of battle erupted from the keep and reverberated all throughout the area as almost two thousand medium mechas fought for their lives. The cornered rat is the most dangerous rat in the world, and the remaining European Mechas truly made that quotee to life that day. However, they fought not like rats that day, but like lions.

    Even though they were ridiculously overpowered, they fought with everything they had and managed to forestall the inevitable for many more long minutes, much longer than Ajax had anticipated, judging by the constant stream of curses that only grew filthier and filthier as the seconds ticked by..

    Ajax had remained in the air, content to let his men gain some experience fighting a life and death battle. If he had nned to participate in the battle, then there wasn''t even a need to bring the thousand heavy mechas in the first ce.

    From his vantage point, he could only see the peripheries of the fighting. But judging by how quickly the red dots were flickering out on the second screen, the battle was going pretty well for the Chinese.

    Within minutes, the intense sounds of fighting slowly transitioned into wails and death cries.

    A scream. Cut short.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Then another.

    And another.

    And another.

    And another.

    The battle was over.

    The massacre, on the other hand, had merely begun.

    The old man was a vicious and fearsome man who loved his family, especially his youngest granddaughter, with a ferocity that would put the fiercest tiger to shame.

    His eyes gleamed with cold fury as he watched his men butcher all of the European Embassy workers.

    In his eyes, every single member of the Embassy was guilty by association. There were no innocents, only criminals whom he had sentenced to death the moment he found out that William Leon was the one who organized the kidnapping of his beloved granddaughter.

    The room was utterly silent as each member watched the red dots in the second screen disappearing one by one until only the star and several red dots around him remained.

    And soon, even they flickered and disappeared.

    "You made me do this, Father." Isabe whispered with tears running down her face as she realized that her husband was no more.

    Her intense grief had probably driven her to madness.

    For an old man, his instincts, reflexes and speed were definitely top notch. He had immediately understood what was about to happen and had burst into action even before Isabe finished speaking.

    But it was still toote.

    "Gaghhhh.." Jason gurgled as blood seeped out of his mouth.

    BAM!

    The old man''s palm smashed onto Isabe''s arm and broke it instantly, causing her to let go of the dagger that was stabbed into Jason''s chest.

    "Ahh!!" Isabe cried out in pain.

    A mere secondter, one of the two guards that was standing at the ready behind the old man reached Jason and injected a bluish liquid into his body.

    The other one had gone for Isabe and quickly dragged her away from the scene. He immediately gagged her and cuffed both her hands and feet.

    "FATHER!" Jeremy shouted in horror.

    "NO!" Next to him, Julie, his younger sister, also cried out in shock.

    James, Jason''s youngest son, merely sat there with his mouth open.

    "Jason!" The old man caught his son''s limp body and cradled him.

    Jason''s face was frozen in shock and blood continued to flow out in copious amounts from his mouth.

    "The Cryostasis Fluid has been sessfully administered, Sir! I have also requested for a Grade One emergency medical support." The bodyguard reported. "They should be here within one minute."

    However at that moment, before anybody could react, Catherine and Elizabeth burst into action as well!

 Chapter 33 Third Reward

    Catherine lunged towards Emma while Elizabeth sent a vicious strike at Jeremy''s neck who was sitting right next to her.

    Still in shock over his father''s sudden predicament, Jeremy was caught totally off guard and Elizabeth''s strike immediately broke his neck.

    Julie, Jeremy''s sister, cried out in anger and immediately retaliated with a vicious palm strike of her own. Her powerful palm strike hit Elizabeth''s chest and sent her flying with blood spurting out of her mouth.

    "Garo!!" The old man yelled at his bodyguard while pointing at Jeremy.

    "Yes sir!"

    Once more, the old man''s loyal bodyguard sprung into action and immediately performed emergency first aid for a broken neck on Jeremy.

    Come to think of it, Garo, that bodyguard, truly rendered a lot of merits that day. I hope he survived the Whitefrost Catastrophe. I would love to meet up with him and convey my gratitude before I leave.

    Anyway, breaking someone''s neck will not instantaneously kill them unless the broken neck also severs the brain stem. Most people merely lose ess to oxygen and in that case, intense medical intervention during the golden ''hour'' might be able to save them.

    Thankfully for Jeremy, Elizabeth was merely a vicious but inexperienced 13 year old. Her strike to Jeremy''s neck failed to instantly kill him. And because of that, his life was saved.

    On the other side of the room, Catherine was experiencing far less sesspared to her younger sister, Elizabeth.

    Far, far less.

    Upon seeing Catherine lunge at Emma, I had reflexively flung my nket at her with all of my strength to break her advance. Even though I was feeling weak, my weakness was only rtive to my peak strength. Compared to a normal human being, I was still extremely powerful and because of that, to the fifteen year old Catherine, the nket I flung at her felt more like a collision with a hard object instead of with a soft nket.

    It probably felt like somewhere between a p and a m. A mp.

    SLAMP!

    Catherine mped into the nket and fell heavily backwards onto the floor. Immediately, I leapt off my bed and sat on her. I pressed my left hand on her neck and began to squeeze lightly.

    Her wild, frantic eyes met my cold gaze and instantly cooled down. There was no mistaking my killing intent at that moment, and she knew that if she created even the slightest bit of trouble, I would have no qualms snapping her neck right there and then.

    There was no question at all as to whether I was capable of doing it. She could feel the power oozing out of my left hand upon her neck just fine.

    "Jeremy!" Emma ignored the incapacitated Catherine and dashed towards her elder cousin whose face was already turning slightly blue. She grabbed his hand lightly and watched with bated breath as Garo skillfully worked to save his life.

    Thankfully, Garo was extremely proficient in emergency first aid and within seconds, he had sessfully performed cricothyrotomy on Jeremy. He had used hisser cutter at low power to open up a small hole in Jeremy''s neck below the fracture to establish an airway for him to breathe.

    "He''ll be fine." Garo told Emma in a reassuring voice. "We have the best medical team in the country right here in Whitefrost Estate."

    Emma could only nod weakly. There was nothing she could do apart from trusting his words.

    At that moment, the room door burst open and the emergency medical personnel immediately swarmed in.

    A tall bespectacled woman took a quick nce at the situation and immediately assigned her medics to Jason, Jeremy and Elizabeth.

    They quickly and professionally performed scans on all three of them to determine the proper way of transporting them before carefully taking them away.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Your orders, sir?" The woman asked the old man politely.

    "Make sure they survive." The old man replied.

    "Yes sir!" She saluted and left the room with the rest of her retinue.

    And just like that, the near-fatal emergency ended anticlimactically.

    It was definitely a far more exciting ending to the little family drama than I would have liked.

    After they left, the atmosphere in the room grew extremely heavy.

    "Secure Catherine and Isabe. Make sure they remain alive to await my questioning. Bring James and Julie to their mother." The old man instructed his bodyguards.

    They immediately saluted and proceeded to do his bidding.

    "Margaret¡­" The old man began.

    "I didn''t know anything, Grandfather." Margaret replied calmly and looked straight into her grandfather''s eyes.

    "I know." The old man said with a sad smile. "If you''re part of the conspiracy, Jeremy would have been dead at the very least. Don''t worry, I just want you toe with me and help me figure out how all this happened."

    Margaret nodded, her eyes shing slightly in surprise. She was probably surprised that her grandfather knew exactly how strong she was at that moment.

    Margaret, as you know, was only eleven years old then. But even at that age, she was already a monster.

    The Whitefrost n truly had excellent genes. They produced so many ster geniuses, especially during our generation.

    "Emma, I also need to talk to you about¡­" The old man faltered as he couldn''t bring himself to say the words.

    "Don''t worry grandpa. I am what I am. I am fine. We''ll have this conversation after you figure out everything you need to figure out." She smiled sweetly at the old man.

    "That''s good. That''s good." Relief flooded the old man''s face.

    "But there is one very important thing that we must do today." Emma said seriously.

    "Of course. What is it, my dear?" The old man asked as his countenance grew serious. "I will make sure we do it today."

    "The third reward. You haven''t told us what his third reward is." Emma said while pointing at me.

    The old man blinked a few times before finally bursting out inughter.

    "To think that the "very important" thing that Emma meant, even after the insanity of what just happened, was her savior''s third reward! What a¡­ cute little girl! I need to make sure he gets the best third reward ever!" Those exact words must be what the old man was thinking at that moment.

    Because his third reward for me¡­ truly blew my mind away.

 Chapter 34 250 Billion Dollars

    "That is truly¡­ important." The old man said with a wide smile after he finished his heartyugh.

    "Yes it is." Emma said seriously. "Much more than you think."

    "Ehm." The old man coughed lightly and straightened his back to regain hisposure and aura. "Very well. In that case, I shall give you¡­"

    He looked me in the eye and produced a simple butrge golden coin.

    "This."

    I looked at the golden coin curiously. It only had an ornately designed letter "W" on it and nothing else.

    "Take it!" Emma hissed at me. "Quick! Before he changes his mind!"

    I frowned lightly and hesitated. A family token? "Would that bind me to the Whitefrost n and force me to be part of them?" I wondered to myself as I looked at the old man suspiciously.

    "It''s the Whitefrost Family Token." The old man said with augh. He purposely withheld any exnation about it and merely waited for me to take it.

    That damned old man was probably enjoying the fact that I was being so suspicious over such a ridiculously precious item.

    "A GOLD, Whitefrost Family Token." He added, while keeping his hand outstretched towards me patiently.

    What was I supposed to do? I had no idea what the Family Token meant. I hesitated and simply studied the token and the old man''s smiling face.

    "What does it do?" I finally asked.

    "Many things. All of them good." The old man replied vaguely.

    I nodded lightly and came closer to my decision. I was about to reach out and take hold of it when Emma took the decision totally out of my hands. Well, "into" my hands would be a more urate description.

    She grabbed the token and ced it on my left hand forcefully!

    "There! It''s yours now. Bind it with a drop of blood!" Emma red at me, as if berating me for myck of decisiveness.

    "Yes, it would be good to bind it as soon as possible. Many people, including even Whitefrost n members, would not hesitate to rob or even kill you for an unbound Gold Whitefrost Token." The old man agreed. "Emma, why don''t you give Justin a brief introduction on the Whitefrost n and the Whitefrost Gold Token. I have many things to discuss with Margaret."

    "Leave it to me, grandfather. Sister Margaret, I believe you." Emma gave Margaret a smile.

    Margaret smiled back at Emma appreciatively.

    After that, the old man and Margaret quickly left the room, leaving me alone with Emma.

    "Well? Go on and bind it!" Emma said.

    I looked at the Whitefrost Gold Token in my hand, my ONLY hand and wondered how the heck I was supposed to get a drop of blood out of my body.

    "How?" I red at her while waving the Whitefrost Gold Token in front of her.

    "Oh. Right. Sorry about that." Emma said sheepishly. "Let me help you."<novelnext></novelnext>

    Emma went to a shelf nearby and took out a sewing kit. She then took a needle and tried to pierce my index finger with it.

    "What''s wrong with your skin? Why is it so hard to pierce?" Emma grumbled as she deftly spun the needle like a drill.

    "Must be all the mechas I absorbed." I shrugged.

    Finally, she managed to pierce through the skin and drew a few drops of blood which she quickly dripped on the token.

    The token glowed brightly for a second before returning to its normal state.

    "Whoa. That''s pretty cool." I remarked.

    "It''s nothingpared to its function and the privileges it gives you. This Gold Whitefrost Token represents grandfather''s person. You will be able to ess almost everything that requires his authorization. Mechas, resources, you name it. Of course there is a limit, but it is as good as the sky for us."

    "Wow. So¡­ I''m rich?" I looked at the coin and marvelled how my fortunes had shifted so very, very suddenly.

    From the very bottom of the food chain to¡­ I don''t know. Controlling a chunk of the Whitefrost n''s wealth probably ced me very securely within the top 1% of the country''s wealthiest individual list.

    "You don''t look very thrilled." Emma remarked.

    "I''ll probably be more excited once I know what I want to buy with the money. At this point, I don''t even know what is avable and what I want." I replied with a rueful smile.

    "Right. I''ll make sure I bring you to our treasury and a shopping district soon. Actually, although I am really grateful to you for saving my life, I was quite surprised grandfather actually gave that token to you.

    There are only five of those in the family, and the other four went to incredibly talented family members who contributed A LOT to the n. So much so that their contributions far surpasses the money and the treasures they can withdraw from the family treasury." Emma said. "That''s why they can get the token."

    "Okay¡­" I said. Somehow the token started to feel heavier in my hands.

    "Anyway, apart from granting you a lot, A LOT of money, the Gold Whitefrost Token also serves another extremely important function." Emma said.

    "What''s that?"

    "It doubles as your participation token in the tri-annual Mecha Tournament." Emma said with her eyes aze."

    "Mecha Tournament? What''s that? Sounds like a fun event." I asked.

    "It is MUCH more than fun! It is a HIGHLY prestigious tournament, its rewards are EXTREMELY generous and it is extremely difficult to join." Emma said seriously. "The Whitefrost n was only allocated five participants. For grandfather to give you the token simply means that he has great confidence in your skills as a mecha pilot."

    I nodded in understanding. "He probably made the decision when he saw my Resonance Purity Level, whatever that is." I thought to myself.

    "Tell me more about the tournament and its rewards." I said.

    "It''s very simple. The Mecha Tournament is a month-long free-for-all battle involving 100,000 mechas in a ruined megacity. If you win, you will get a mecha worth two hundred fifty billion dors." Emma said casually.

    "WHAT?! TWO HUNDRED FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS?" I eximed incredulously. "And¡­ 100,000 mechas!?"

 Chapter 35 Eighty Year Old Grandma

    "Uh-huh." Emma replied nonchntly.

    "Tha-that''s insane! What kind of mecha is worth two hundred fifty billion dors?" I sputtered.

    "The kind that is twelve mecha gradesbined into one." Emmaughed lightly at my shocked expression.

    "What? How are there TWELVE grades? Light, Medium, Heavy and Ultra-heavy. That''s four!"

    "Times three. A set of four each for the sea,nd and the sky."

    "How? How can a mecha be all of those things at once?" I asked in amazement.

    "It''s thetest high tech modr mecha." Emma exined. "The mainframe is fixed while everything else can be detached. So you can pick and choose which type of armor, weapons, engine, flight systems, and even the number of limbs."

    "Holy smokes. That''s... One impressive mecha. Really extravagant for a prize." I breathed heavily in awe.

    "Yep. Imagine what YOU could do if you are able to devour them all." Emma gave me a conspiratorial smile.

    "Exactly." I nodded. I could already feel my adrenaline rushing out once more. If I could get hold of that mecha, it would open up the world for me.

    Nothing would be out of my reach!

    And then I remembered that I had lost all my red energy.

    "Damn." I sighed deeply. "It''s too difficult."

    "What do you mean? The tournament is perfect for you! You can absorb so many mechas there! You just have to be careful not to absorb too many mechas so that you don''t attract any attention." Emma said.

    "I lost my power to devour and manifest mechas." I told her sadly.

    "What? You lost your power to devour and manifest mechas?!" Emma asked in surprise. "What happened?!"

    "Amelia Dragonos happened. That sneaky b*tch threw some sort of anti-mecha poison at me! I had to cut off my right arm to prevent the virus from invading my body, and then I had to use all the red energy within my body to resist the tiny bit that managed to sneak in!" I cursed Amelia vehemently. "Without that red energy, I can''t devour mechas at all, and I can''t release the ones I''ve already devoured."

    "I see..."

    "That''s why I said its too difficult for me. If I had ess to my red energy, I would definitely have a fighting chance to get first ce. But without it..."

    "Let''s give it a few days and see what happens. Maybe the energy mighte back on its own." Emma suggested.

    "Yeah. I guess that''s the only thing I can do right now..." I replied rather morosely.

    "Cheer up. If there is one thing I learnt from my time in captivity, it is that bad things happen to everybody. The difference between a survivor and a non survivor is simply our response. That, and a bit of luck, I suppose. You''ve been lucky so far, maybe you''ll get lucky again. You can''t control luck, but you can control your response. So..."

    I nced at Emma in surprise. "That''s... really really wise. You sound like an eighty year old grandma."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Thanks." Emma replied half sincerely and half sarcastically at my halfpliment and half insult.

    "Wee." I grinned at her. My mood had lifted quite significantly after listening to her words.

    "She is right. I need to respond well to this crisis! Instead of moping around, I will work hard to find a solution!" I decided.

    "Anyway, with or without your power, I think you should join the tournament!" Emma said.

    "It''s too difficult. 100,000 mechas?" I sighed. "Which smartass came up with such a massively stupid tournament anyway?"

    "If it''s easy, they wouldn''t give such epic rewards. Plus, the tournament itself is a really great chance to train and temper ourselves." Emma said and ignored my question.

    "Yeah, I guess so. Still... The scale is incredible. A 100,000-mecha free-for-all in an entire ruined megacity... Amazing." I shook my head in wonder.

    "You have exactly seven months to prepare for the tournament. And with the way you fought against the Red Dragon gang members, I reckon you''d need every single second of those seven months. You need to brush up your skills if you want to make sure that you make it out alive. The risk of death for the tournament had been assessed as "moderate" by the government.

    "Although killing is not allowed, there were always "idents" in every tournament. I heard that the total number of deaths had surpassed fifty thousand in thest thirty two tournaments." Emma continued.

    "Ugh. I think I need some air." I said.

    100,000 mechas. Ruined megacity. Two hundred fifty billion dors. Modr mecha. Moderate risk of death.

    All of those things were too much to digest in one go.

    Emma nodded in understanding and led me out of my room.

    "Take some time to digest all this information first. If you don''t want to join, we can always give the opportunity to another Whitefrost n member. Just so you know, the right to enter the tournament is selling for billions of dors in auctions outside." Emma said.

    "Right..."

    "Let''s go get some air. I''ll give you a tour of the Whitefrost Estate while we''re at it."

    "Sound''s good!" I said.

    We left my room and entered a wide and tastefully decorated corridor.

    On my left I could see a series of doors spaced around ten meters apart and a massive double door leading out to what seemed like a beautiful garden at the end.

    "You''re staying in the VIP Guest Room of the West Wing of the main building." Emma began. "The West Wing has only 1 floor and apart from your room, there are six other guest rooms in the West Wing. Come this way."

    Emma led me to the right and we entered a massive, hyper-luxurious living room with high ceilings. It was at least a few hundred square metersrge. Beautiful sofas, lounges, bars, bookshelves, carpeted ying areas as well as a massive TV were beautifully and ergonomically arranged within it.

    At that moment, only two people were in it, and they were in deep conversation about something and did not notice us.

 Chapter 36 Nothing A Punch Couldnt Fix

    "This is the main living room. Feel free to hang out here and rx. There are snacks, food, drinks, and books for you to read. There will probably be a few Whitefrost n members here at all hours of the day and night. They will all be core members, so they might be a little haughty. Don''t mind them too much." Emma said while pointing at the various things she mentioned.

    "How many people live in the main building?" I asked curiously.

    "Only grandfather''s direct descendants live in this building. So that''s¡­ Fourteen of us. However, the ground floor''s facilities and amenities are open to all members of the Core Whitefrost n.

    In all¡­ Around a hundred and fifty people have ess to this room."

    "Whoa. That''s a lot of people!" I remarked.

    "They are all descendants of grandfather''s four siblings." Emma exined.

    "My granduncles and aunts all have their own buildings located around the main building. But because the main family holds most of the power in all of Whitefrost held operations, many Whitefrost n members oftene to the main building for one reason or another."

    "I see." I nodded.

    "Apart from the main living room, there are five other smaller living rooms, three dining rooms, ten study rooms, ten meeting rooms, ten entertainment rooms and a massive auditorium in this Central Living Area.

    The East Wing is reserved for the main family''s bedrooms."

    "It''s a very big building." I said, feeling extremely impressed.

    "It''s nothingpared to the real main building though." Emma chuckled.

    "What do you mean?" I asked. "Isn''t this the main building?"

    "It is the main building¡­ aboveground. The real main building is actually the basement, which is approximately¡­ I don''t know. Thirty times bigger than the entire above ground main building?" Emma said. "We call it the "Training Room."

    "Training Room? Why do you need such a big training room? What do you do there?" I asked in amazement.

    "Mecha Battles of course." Emma replied in an as-a-matter-of-fact voice.

    My heart which was absolutely still in the face of the Whitefrost n''s hyper luxurious main building began to pound mightily.

    Mecha Battles!

    I have always loved mechas, and after the red mecha core became a part of me, I have considered myself a full participant in the world of mechas and its future emperor.

    My eyes shone brightly in excitement and a surge of adrenalin shot through my entire body.

    BA-DUMP!

    "AGH!" I screamed softly and clutched my chest as a powerful wave of pain originating from my heart washed over my whole body.

    "Hey! What''s going on?" Emma grabbed my shoulder in rm.

    However, the pain receded as quickly as it hade.

    "I''m alright." I gasped. My heart was still thumping really fast in response to the sudden pain.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Are you sure?" Emma asked me doubtfully. "Maybe you should go back to your room and rest."

    "No, I am fine now." I straightened my back, took a deep breath and released it slowly as my mind raced to analyse what just happened.

    "My excitement probably managed to trigger the red mecha core within me." I thought excitedly.

    "Then that means that although the red energy within me ispletely depleted, the red mecha core is still active and well within me! I have a chance to recover the red energy! Right now, the best way for me to recover would be to allow myself to experience a myriad of emotions to trigger the red mecha core." I quickly concluded.

    And coincidentally, we''re going to a mecha training room. It''s the perfect exercise to get my heart pumping and adrenaline rushing through my veins.

    I clenched my fist in excitement and a powerful sense of inevitability settled within my heart.

    Sense of inevitability over what, you ask?

    Over the fulfilment of all my wildest dreams, of course.

    Over the fact that I will definitely be the Mecha Emperor of the world.

    With my Red Mecha Core and its devour ability, what could stop me?

    Emma could, of course. But at that time, she was still very much on my side.

    And we were both so young.

    "Do you want to take a look at the Training Room? Will you be able to take the excitement? Do you need a wheelchair? A lollipop to take the edge off, perhaps?" Emma asked sarcastically.

    "Of course I can go to the training room!" I dered and totally ignored her other questions. I was feeling extremely magnanimous and nothing she said could dampen my spirits.

    A profound sense of gloom had sprouted deep within my heart when I realized that my red energy had totally dried up. Although I had suppressed that feeling heavily, I never realized just how profound it was until it was lifted from my heart.

    "I could recover my power to devour mechas! I could! YES!! YESSS!!!" My heart was literally bursting at the seams.

    Emma blinked once at my high spirits and gave me a small smile.

    "Let''s go then." she said and led me to a lift at the corner of the living room.

    "Hey Emma." A female voice rang out from behind us.

    Emma and I turned around and found that the two Whitefrost n members who were in deep discussion in the living room were standing behind us.

    A cold look appeared on Emma''s face as she ignored the girl who greeted her. She was a beautiful teenage girl who looked a little bit like the old man. Just a little bit.

    Unfriendlies. I decided after picking up on Emma''s attitude.

    "Hey. What are you doing with a one-armed viger, Emma? Have you resorted to hanging out with scum like him because you were too lonely? Poor little unwanted Emma, ying with lowborns because nobody wants to y with her. Boo hoo hoo." The tall boy next to her sniggered. His handsome face was twisted in an evil expression that made me feel like giving him a huge punch.

    "Very ugly expression, but nothing a few jabs to the face and a sharp left hook couldn''t fix." I thought.

 Chapter 37 Your Job Isnt Finished Yet

    "Really, Emma. You''re such a useless girl. Why the old man keeps you around him is aplete mystery to us all. He must be bing senile in his old age." The beautiful girl shook her head in mock sadness.

    "He is such a sucker for your fake ass smiles and all your pathetic sucking up. You''re such a bitch, you know that Emma? You should have just died in the kidnapping. Why do you even bother surviving anding back?"

    My heart bristled at her words. What vicious words from such a beautiful girl!

    At the same time, I also realized why Emma''s words are so sharp sometimes. She must have suffered a lot under the verbal torture of her cousins and a little bit of that viciousness had somehow made its way into her own words.

    "She''s just like a cockroach that wouldn''t die. The day she came to this world must be the worst day in the history of our n. Why God? Why curse our n with an existence such as this wretched girl?" The handsome boy said woefully.

    My hand twitched slightly as I held back my urge to punch his face.

    ? "Self-control. Self-control." I told myself. "You''re a guest afterall. You can''t go around punching that old man''s descendents."

    "Hey Jen, hey Joseph! Guess what grandfather gave him?" Emma said in a bright and excited voice. "A gold token! Can you believe it? The final gold token that everybody was hoping to get actually went to him! Grandpa is so generous! We''re just about to go down to the training room to bind it!"

    My jaw dropped.

    "Emma that little firecracker! Just as I was feeling rather sympathetic for her...

    She''s trying to throw me into a fight with those two teenagers!" I thought incredulously to myself.

    "Justin, show them your gold token!" Emma said excitedly and winked at me. Although her friendliness was utterly fake, I sensed that her excitement was real.

    I shook my head helplessly and sighed. She probably wanted to borrow my tougher-than-steel body to teach her cousins a lesson.

    "Fine. I will do it for you this once." I thought to myself as I produced the gold token and put on a fake excited smile as well.

    "Hey big bro and big sis! Look! Grandpa gave me this Whitefrost Gold Token! Isn''t it beautiful? He said that it is extremely valuable! I wonder how much I could get if I try and sell this in an auction?" I said brightly as I waved the token in front of their faces.

    The two of them immediately stared at the gold token on my hand with hungry expressions. Their nostrils red lightly and I could hear their hearts begin to beat faster.

    "Heh heh heh heh. Joseph. What do you think?" Jennifer asked slightly breathlessly. Her pupils were already dting in excitement and I could sense her muscles tensing and coiling. She was preparing for action.

    I was no fighter, but my years as a junkyard scrapper taught me how to read people. I knew at that moment that an attack was imminent.

    "I think it''s finders keepers." Joseph''s eyes glinted with greed. "I don''t think anyone would mind if we ''found'' it on the floor after having a quick spar with our guest."

    "Excellent. My thoughts exactly!" Jennifer smirked.

    Emma chuckled with satisfaction. Both her prey had fallen for the trap hook, line and sinker. She daintily took a step back to stay clear of the action that was definitely going down very soon.

    Jennifer and Joseph nced at each other and nodded slightly before exploding into action together.

    Jennifer sent a powerful right hook towards me while Joseph bent low and executed a low reverse roundhouse kick.

    "Hey big bro! Big sis! What are you doing!" I wailed like a chicken being feathered alive as I deftly avoided their attacks. "Why are you attacking me? What did I do? Did I make you angry by waving the gold token too close to your faces?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    Whoosh! Jennifer''s straight right missed my face by the barest of margins!

    Whoosh! I spun lightly and avoided Joseph''s powerful axe kick!

    "This viger is pretty good at dodging." Jennifer sneered as she unleashed a series of high speed jabs at my face.

    I quickly ducked to avoid them.

    "Big sis! Why? Why are you attacking me? Are you sad that you didn''t get a Gold Whitefrost Token?" I wailed innocently.

    WHAM!!

    I parried Joseph''s savage flying back kick with my left arm.

    "Big bro! You too? Are you really and totally broken hearted that you didn''t get a Gold Whitefrost Token as well? Are you sad? Are you really, really sad? Do you want a lollipop to take the edge off?" I shouted and offered him a lollipop generously.

    Emma snickered loudly when she heard me use the exact same words she used on me earlier.

    BLOCK!

    I lifted my right leg to block Jennifer''s ferocious kick!

    "Big sis! I have a lollipop for you too! Don''t be jealous!" I shouted.

    "Shut up!" Jennifer screamed.

    "Big bro! Big sis! Don''t be so sad! I''m sure you''ll get another chance to get a gold token! Work hard for it! Persevere! Don''t give up! Maybe in forty to fifty years, you''ll get a gold token for yourselves!" I encouraged them loudly.

    "KYAAA! This low life is pissing me off!" Jennifer screamed and unleashed a powerful roundhouse kick at me!

    I threw myself forwards and downwards to avoid her kick.

    And smashed straight into Joseph''s uppercut.

    BAM!!! CRACK!

    "UWAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" A shrill and girly scream sounded from Joseph as the bones in his hand cracked upon impact with my face.

    "Uh oh. I think the game is up." I sighed and nced at Emma who had a wide and satisfied smile on her face. She looked really pretty smiling that way.

    "Joseph!!" Jennifer cried out as she rushed to his side.

    I raised my eyebrow slightly at Emma as though asking her, "Happy?"

    Emma gave me two thumbs up and jerked her head towards the two. "Your job isn''t finished yet." She seemed to say.

 Chapter 38 Training Room

    I nodded slightly at her and turned to the two teenagers once more.

    "Mwa ha ha ha! How does that feel?" Iughed sinisterly and taunted Joseph whose left hand was clutching his right wrist. His right hand was a mangled mess after smashing into my rock-hard face with full force.

    He was kneeling on the ground and whimpering lightly like a little beat up puppy. Tears streamed down his face freely as his face contorted in great pain.

    Jennifer stared at Joseph''s hand incredulously. "Ho-how¡­ What¡­" She sputtered.

    "I''ve been trying my best to protect you from myself by dodging and ducking, but you¡­ You insisted on smashing up your hand¡­ Don''t me me. If you want to me anyone, me yourself for being so weak! BA HA HA HA HA! WEAKLING!" Iughed hysterically in front of his face before turning around to face Jennifer.

    "YOU! Ugly little b*tch! You''re lucky my reflexes were so good! If not, you''d definitely have your hands or your feet broken as well! You''re such a weak ass sorry excuse for a Whitefrost n member. No wonder you don''t qualify for a gold token! I''d rather give the gold token to the family dog than to give it to you! OH WAIT! You''re a B*TCH so you''re a family dog as well! WOOHOO! Congrats! You qualify¡­ wait for it in your next life! HA HA HA!" I totally destroyed her with my evil words.

    Her mouth merely twitched as she held back her retorts. Fear was written all over her face at that moment. She had literally kicked at a metal te, and at that moment, if the metal te decided that it wanted to fall on her and injure her in someway, she would have no escape.

    "Grr!" I growled and pretended to attack her.

    "KYAAA!" She screamed in fear and gripped Joseph''s broken hand by ident!

    "ARGHHHH!!!" Joseph shouted in agony!

    "HA HA HA HA!" Emma burst outughing.

    "Emma, I''m done here. Let''s go!" I announced. There was no point wasting more time with them. They were minor characters afterall.

    "Hee hee hee. Okay Justin! Let''s go!" Emma giggled cutely and led me into the lift.

    And off we went.

    "How do you like my performance? Pretty good eh?" I asked Emma smugly.

    "It was very, very good." Emma nodded approvingly. "So good that I will rmend my school principal to sign you up for drama ss at all costs!"

    "What? What school principal are you talking about?" I asked with a growing sense of doom building up in my heart. Are these Whitefrost lunatics sending me to school??

    "Oh, we really do need to start talking about the Gold Whitefrost Family token and all of its uses. You''ll be going to school starting next month." Emma informed me casually.

    My jaw dropped.

    "SCHOOL?!" I shouted in horror. "I DON''T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL!"

    "Of course you have to go to school. You totally suck at everything!" Emma rolled her eyes at me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I''m not going to school. I''m perfectly fine the way I am right now thanks. In fact, with the fifty million dors your grandpa gave me, I am set for life! I don''t need to go to school at all. Who needs to learn how to write essays and stuff like that anyway?" I said firmly.

    "You''re not going to a regr school, silly. You''re going to a mecha pilot school. You''ll be learning all sorts of useful things! Basicbat, teamwork, tactics and strategies for sea,nd and sky-based operations, ALL sorts of things!" Emma said.

    "Nope." I shook my head resolutely. "I don''t need to learn any of that."

    Actually I knew I needed to learn all that. One day, maybe. But not right then.

    "I just got fifty million dors and a game-changing mecha core! Let me enjoy my life for a bit, at least! I don''t want to be stuck in school!" I remember thinking.

    "You know how bad you are in closebat. Apart from having an unusually thick skin, what other advantages can you boast of when you fight with someone at your level?" Emma said scathingly. "Plus if you don''t learn all that, how on earth do you expect to achieve your dreams? What was that again? Mecha Emperor? Or was it Mecha-Pilot-Who-Can''t-Even-Fight?"

    I was about to retort back when suddenly the lift stopped.

    Ding! The lift door opened and a maaaaaaaaaaassive underground dome appeared before me, instantly overwhelming me with a huge sense of smallness.

    All thoughts and worries of school immediately left my mind as I stared dumbstruck at the massive space before me. Exciting sounds of mecha battles hit my ears like music.

    It was a glorious ce.

    Imagine the biggest stadium you''ve ever seen. How many could it fit? A hundred thousand people? How tall are the walls? Fifty meters?

    Now take that stadium, multiply it by sixteen in size and by four in height, and ce it underground. You''ll see what I was seeing.

    It was I N C R E D I B L E ! ! !

    "It''s massive." I said softly in awe as we stepped out of the lift and into the "Training Room".

    "It''s a small sized mecha training facility." Emma said in an amused voice. "But I do understand your awe. Although this is only a small sized mecha training facility, it IS the biggest one indoors. Most mecha training facilities are outdoors."

    I nodded numbly.

    In this mecha dominated era, everything is up-sized. As a pitiful junkyard scrapper, I was totally cut off from the rest of the world, and had absolutely no idea how things are outside of the junkyards that I frequented.

    Whether or not the "Training Room" was big or smallpared to other training facilities, I had no idea. All I knew was that the "Training Room" was singrly the most epic and wondrous ce I have ever seen in my entire life!

    The lift opened up to arge balcony that was actually made fully out of ss. Stepping out of the lift was like stepping into the main training ground itself. The only thing was that the balcony was around a hundred meters above the ground!

 Chapter 39 Bloodsucker

    "This is amazing!" I eximed as I walked towards the far end of the balcony. "It feels like I am walking on air!"

    "You''re actually doing very well for a first timer." Emma chuckled. "Most people be dizzy when they step out of that lift."

    I turned around and scowled at Emma lightly.

    "I bet you were hoping to see me get dizzy and maybe even copse!" I said to her usingly.

    Emma merely giggled cutely.

    At times like this, she was acting exactly like a mischievous eight year old. And there was no way I could get mad at her when she was like that.

    I merely rolled my eyes at her and turned back to marvel at the huge "Training Room".

    The ss wall was overlooking the main training ground. It was like the VIP section of a ser stadium, only that the "ser field" was approximately two kilometers by two kilometers, and the VIP section was around a hundred meters above the ground.

    How exactly a wall of ss intended to protect the room fromser guns and other projectiles baffled mepletely at that time.

    But because of the ss wall, I could see that a group of approximately fifty mechas were standing at the ready on each of the training ground''s far left and right side.

    A massive fifty versus fifty mecha battle was about to begin!

    I could feel my heart pounding once more.

    "Come, let''s register for a mecha battle and have a little bit of fun. I only have clearance to pilot the practice mechas. But I''m sure we can still enjoy ourselves!" Emma grinned evilly at me.

    "Uhh.. Sure." I nodded. I was totally torn between wanting to watch the epic fifty versus fifty mecha battle and experiencing a mecha fight that was not using my own mecha suit for the very first time.

    Emma noticed my torn expression and seemed to understand my thoughts perfectly.

    "Or¡­ We can register for the practice battle, then watch the main mecha battle first before we go on to our own practice?" Emma suggested.

    "That is PERFECT!" I cried out. "Let''s do that!"

    "Alright. Let''s go." Emma led me out of the balcony and into a massive and beautifully decorated lobby.

    There was a huge waiting area on the left side of the lobby with lots of sofas which had their own viewing screens attached. The right side was fully dedicated to registration where there were around fifty to sixty youths queueing up in three neat lines in front of four counters. The fourth counter was manned, but there was no one queueing there.

    Emma walked directly to that fourth counter.

    The entire room fell quiet for a short moment and I could feel everybody''s attention suddenly fall upon the both of us. However, they quickly resumed whatever they were doing upon discovering that it was only Emma and a one-armed dude.

    In fact, I could even hear a few derisivements with my enhanced sense of hearing.

    "It''s just Emma. I heard she came back from her "kidnapping" with a lowborn lover in tow."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "What? She''s only eight! How is that possible?"

    "Hmph. Anything is possible with her! Afterall, she''s a¡­"

    "Shh. We''re not allowed to mention it."

    "Fine. Anyway, she''s such a leech. I heard the main family spends millions each month just to¡­"

    "SHHHH! Do you want to die?"

    Emma marched past her gossiping rtives coldly and ignored them all. I red at the gossip mongers and had half a mind to teach the little s*cker who was gossiping and ndering her a lesson. But my attention was quickly drawn to a new problem.

    "I want to reserve two practice mechas for me and my friend." Emma told the receptionist.

    "I am sorry, but practice mechas are only for ten year olds and above. You''re still too young to pilot mechas." The receptionist shook her head and rejected Emma''s request with a half-concealed smirk.

    "I was given an exception by the Patriarch himself." Emma replied in an annoyed tone. "Hurry up and process my request!"

    "I am sorry. Rules are rules. Come back in a few years, little girl. Now bring your viger friend and go away before I tell your parents!" The receptionist said rudely.

    "Why is Emma so unpopr in the Whitefrost n?" I wondered to myself. "Even a lowly receptionist dares to show her bad attitude!"

    Emma stared at the receptionist with a strange look on her face. "You must be new here."

    "So what if I am?" The pretty but apparently extremely naive receptionist scoffed.

    "You''ve allowed your opinion of me to be influenced by mere rumours, and you''re trying to be an obstacle to me because you don''t like what you hear about me." Emma stated.

    "Hmph!" The receptionist looked away and ignored Emma.

    "Judging me unfairly based on mere rumours is bad enough, but you''re also stupid enough to actually act out on me." Emma shook her head in wonder. "I''ll give you one chance to apologize to me and process my request."

    "Little bloodsucker." The receptionist sneered at Emma instead.

    Emma sighed and turned around.

    She looked at me and asked, "I don''t understand. Why would people throw away their future just to be mean to me? I don''t really suffer much from their words and actions, but they lose any chance of seeding in the Whitefrost n. It''s such a bad tradeoff for them. Am I missing an angle here somewhere?"

    "Maybe they think they can get away with it?" I suggested, feeling rather surprised by Emma''s sudden questions.

    "They NEVER get away with it." Emma said firmly as she stretched out her hand at me. "I''ve always made sure of that. And now, I have another even better method to do that."

    "So what do we do now?" I asked her as I looked at her hand dumbly. I was feeling rather let down at the thought of not being able to pilot a mecha and totally confused as to why she was stretching her hand out at me.

 Chapter 40 Handicaps

    "We are going to get that irritating kid fired and get ourselves practice mechas to y with. Give me your gold token." Emma said.

    I narrowed my eyes and nced at the fifty to sixty people in the room warily. "Are you nuts? I can''t fight with fifty people at once!" I hissed.

    "You won''t be fighting anyone. Fighting is strictly prohibited here, so it''spletely safe. Give your token to me, quick!" Emma said impatiently.

    "Oh, in that case, okay then!" I fished out the token from my left pocket and gave it to her.

    Emma took it, turned around and mmed the token on the receptionist''s table.

    "I want to talk to the office manager. Now." She red at the receptionist fiercely.

    The receptionist looked at the gold token and frowned. "What is that?"

    "That is a Gold Whitefrost Family Token. It represents the Patriarch''s will and person. I am Harold, the Office Manager on Duty. How may I be of service, Lady Emma?" A tall and handsome middle aged man walked out of the door behind the receptionist and gave Emma a deep bow.

    Apparently his attention had been drawn by the less-than-polite words of the receptionist and had already approached us, just in time to see the gold token being mmed on the table.

    "Mr Harold. Thank you foring out to see me. I want two practice mechas for me and my friend here." Emma said as passed the gold token back to me.

    "Of course." He snapped his fingers and summoned an aide. "My aide will lead you to your practice mechas. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

    "Much appreciated." Emma smiled at him. "I also want this stupid receptionist here fired and banished from all Whitefrost owned operations effective today."

    "What? Wa-wait¡­" The receptionist nched and sputtered.

    "As you wish. I apologize for any difort that she may have caused you." Harold said courteously.

    "That will be all."

    "Have a good practice match then, Lady Emma." Harold bowed respectfully once more.

    "WAIT!" The receptionist shrieked. But a couple of guards immediately grabbed hold of her and knocked her out.

    And with that, she was gone.

    Have I mentioned that you shouldn''t piss Emma off at all costs?

    "Come! Let us have a match!" Emma gave me a triumphant grin.

    "Yes!" I pumped my fist once in excitement. I knew I totally looked like a country bumpkin then, being so excited over a mere practice match, but I didn''t care. I was about to pilot a real mecha!

    "Let''s watch the mecha battle first though!" I reminded Emma.

    "Right. Bring us to the VIP viewing gallery." Emma told the aide.

    "As you wish, Lady Emma." The aide replied respectfully.

    Within a few minutes, we entered a small but luxurious room which, like the balcony, was madepletely out of ss and jutted out of the side of the "Training Room" walls.

    Such a design gave us a full and perfect view of the main training grounds.

    Five hyper luxurious sofas were ced in the middle of that room, and each sofa had several screens that could have their sizes and positions adjusted at will.

    "Neat!" I eximed and immediately hopped into one of them. I tinkered on the screens for a few seconds and realized that they could give me all sorts of viewing options!

    From point-of-view perspectives of any of the mechas involved to various bird''s eye views from the many cameras positioned all around the training ground!<novelnext></novelnext>

    It was perfect.

    Sitting on one of those sofas and getting ready to watch an epic mecha battle felt heavenly.

    I feltplete bliss.

    Just right when I thought life couldn''t get any better, the Aide handed me a menu.

    "Heaven! I am definitely in heaven right now!" I thought to myself.

    PIAK! I pped myself really hard, much to Emma and the Aide''s EXTREME shock!

    "OW!! Okay. It''s not a dream." I muttered in satisfaction.

    My smile widened to its maximum stretch as I ced an order for steak, fries, and lots of interesting looking drinks.

    "What are you ordering?" I turned to look at Emma, who had a rare, soft and gentle look on her face.

    "I uh¡­ I''ll have what he''s having." Emma told the Aide quickly.

    He bowed and left the room.

    Ding! A massive hologram of a countdown appeared in the middle of the training ground.

    5 Minutes 00 Seconds.

    4 Minutes 59 Seconds.

    Five minutes to go!

    "Let me exin to you how mecha battles work." Emma offered.

    "Sure!" I agreed enthusiastically.

    "There are three main types of mecha battles. Team battles, like the one we''re about to watch, Battle Royales, where you fight to be thest mecha standing, and handicap battles, where a stronger team purposely start with less mechas." Emma began.

    "Battles involving up to twenty mechas are called small battles. Medium battles involve up to one hundred mechas,rge battles involve up to a thousand mechas. Any battle involving over a thousand mechas are called Grand Melees."

    My eyes shone brightly at her words. She had only begun and already, I was extremely intrigued!

    Somehow, watching training battles felt much more excitingpared to watching the old man''s personal guard attacking the European Embassy.

    That fight was just stressful for me to watch.

    I guess the prospect of me being able to participate in the training battles myself made it much more relevant and thus exciting for me.

    I was already imagining myself standing victorious among an entire field of broken and defeated mechas!

    "So we''re about to watch a medium team battle." I noted.

    "Yes." Emma nodded. "What''s interesting about this match is that this is a variant of the handicap battle I mentioned earlier. Usually, handicaps involve the stronger team fielding a smaller number of mechas.

    In this case however, the blue team, which isposed of higher ranked mecha pilots, is fielding the same number of mechas as the red team, but are handicapped by their mecha grade. They are only fielding light and medium mechas, while the red team can field heavy mechas.

    As you can probably guess, grade handicaps are extremely difficult to ovee, much more than number handicaps."

 Chapter 41 Resonance

    "I see." I nodded in admiration. "This is excellent training for the stronger mecha pilots! I admire their dedication to improvement."

    "Dedication to improvement? HA! More like they are unwilling to drop in ranking!" Emma snorted.

    "Ranking? What ranking?" I asked.

    "Well¡­ Let me start from the beginning. The Whitefrost n is a powerful n in the Chinese Federation. We are one of the few powers that are allowed to field our own armies. We''re a level two n, which means we can field up to two thousand mechas. Grandfather had opted to divide the two thousand mechas into two units.

    His personal guard corps, called the Red Dragon Battalion, is made up of a thousand heavyncers. You saw them in action earlier today." Emma pointed out.

    "Yes. They are really impressive!" I remarked.

    "They better be. They are extremely expensive to maintain." Emma grumbled.

    "Penny pincher." I teased her.

    She ignored me, of course.

    "The other battalion is called the Monkey King Battalion, and is a mixed battalion with all sorts of mechas. This battalion is extremely versatile and can do all sorts of missions. Itplements the Red Dragon Battalion perfectly.

    The Red Dragon Battalion is basically just a thousand heavyncers dedicated to death and destruction. No finesse, no subtleties, just BOOM! Just the way my grandfather likes it." Emmaughed lightly.

    "Just the way most boys like it." I corrected her. "I love it too!"

    Emma rolled her eyes lightly at me.

    "Anyway, each year we have pilots retiring or dying or for some reason or another, are unable to continue in their capacity as soldiers of the Whitefrost Battalions. So we will pick their recements from a pool of reservists. At any time, there would be at least one thousand reservists who are battle ready, and another thousand reservists in training. These numbers fluctuate, and I was told that the numbers would even double or triple during wars.

    The thousand reservists in training are grouped into fifty and are ranked each week based on the number of points they acquired during the week. The top ranked group would receive the most amount of resources for the next week, and the top ranked group upon graduation would receive a fully customized mecha for each member of the group."

    "That sounds really generous." Imented.

    "''Generous'' is too mild a word to describe what we''re doing!" Emma snapped in slight annoyance. Apparently she didn''t really agree with the amount of money being spent for custom mechas.

    "A single standard "off-the-rack" mecha costs anywhere between a hundred million to ten billion dors, depending on the grade and design. A fully customized mecha usually costs a full fifty percent more expensive than the standard version! If all fifty of them choose the highest quality heavy mecha to customize, that''s seven hundred fifty billion dors!" Emma grumbled.

    I merely blinked. At that point, the number ten billion dors already meant nothing to me due to apleteck of reference. Heck, I didn''t even know what a million dors was good for, much less seven hundred fifty billion dors.

    But I did realize one thing. The Whitefrost n was extremely, extremely rich.

    "The only reason why I didn''t raise this issue andin to the old man is because at least our reservists consistently rank first ce in most categories of the National Mecha Games. If they performed any worse, I would definitely make sure their budget for customizing is cut." Emma went on, oblivious that she hadpletely lost me in her financial boration.

    "Anyway, back to the mecha battle. The blue team is the current second ranked team this week and the third ranked overall. If they manage to win this battle, they would rise to the top ranked this week and second overall. If they lose, they will drop to third rank this week and fifth overall. Much is at stake for the blue team this time." Emma exined.

    "I see. Medium mechas going up against heavy mechas. This feels like the European Embassy battle all over again." I rubbed my hands in glee.<novelnext></novelnext>

    ? "Oh no, if my estimations are correct, this would be NOTHING like the European Embassy battle." Emma disagreed. "For starters, it is not medium mechas against heavy mechas. It is LIGHT mechas against heavy mechas!"

    "What?!" I shouted. "Is the blue team crazy?!"

    "They definitely are not." Emma smiled at me. "The blue team is called the ck Smander Company and they are all Elites."

    I gave her a nk look. "Elites?"

    "I really have to exin every little thing to you, haven''t I?" Emma sighed.

    "Yes please." I tried to blink my eyes cutely at her.

    Only for her to stare at me as though I was crazy.

    "Alright let me exin everything." Emma took a deep breath and began.

    "Mechas are powered by Mecha Cores, right?"

    "Right."

    "Mecha Cores are basically controlled nuclear fission. The control over such a powerful process is actually granted to us by a uniquepound element which humanity called the Mecha Element."

    "Creative." Imented.

    "Very. Anyway, that was discovered and implemented the Mecha Element into Mecha Cores sometime in the early 22nd century.

    Sometime in thete 22nd century, humanity discovered that a rapidly growing number of people had started to develop a unique ability - resonance with metals."

    "What?" I shouted in surprise. "Resonance with metals?!"

    "Yes." Emma replied in surprise as well. "What''s wrong?"

    "Uhh¡­ Nothing. Nevermind. Please continue." I quickly said.

    Emma pursed her lips slightly in annoyance and suspicion. But she continued her lecture.

    "These people who gained resonance are all mecha pilots or people who spent a huge amount of their time daily dealing with mechas.

    When scientists finally did their research, they discovered that the cause of the resonance in all those people is the existence of the Mecha Element within their bodies!

    We don''t know for sure how it happens, but when human beings are exposed to the Mecha Element for a long enough period of time, their bodies will start producing it."

 Chapter 42 Lets Bet!

    "This Mecha Element exists in different amounts and in different purity levels in all those people.

    After several long years of experiments and quantifying the different effects of the Mecha Element within them, the scientists finally came up with aprehensive measure and exnation of the phenomena.

    What is resonance?

    Resonance grants pilots the ability to extend their senses into metals as well as increase their ability to exert control over said metals."

    My jaw dropped at that point.

    That was exactly what I had! Resonance!

    "Damn it." I thought. "So I am not that special after all!"

    "How is resonance measured?" Emma continued.

    "Resonance is affected by two main factors. The purity of the Mecha Element within you, and its amount.

    The purity of the Mecha Element is fixed upon birth and is measured by the Resonance Purity Level. The higher the purity level, the higher the sensitivity and control limit that you can achieve with metals.

    For example, if you have an RPL of seventy, then theoretically, the highest level of sensitivity and control you can achieve with a mecha is seventy percent. You basically can receive 70% tactile feedback from the mecha''s exterior as well as exert 70% granr control over the mecha. Do you understand the significance of tactile feedback and granr control over a mecha?" Emma asked me.

    "Yes. Tactile feedback simply allows the pilot to respond faster and better. For example when you''re parrying a sword strike. Having tactile feedback would tell you how much power your enemy is using and whether or not you have enough reserve to push back and overpower him. Without tactile feedback, all you know is that you''ve sessfully parried, and you will not know just how much power behind the enemy''s strike that you''ve actually parried."

    Emma nodded in approval.

    "Granr control is basically fine motoric control. You will be able to make even the smallest movements with your mecha. The best example would be in closebat. If you''re able to make small movements, you would be able to maximise efficiency in dodging and most importantly, aim for much smaller openings in the enemy''s defense."

    "Excellent." Emma replied. "That''s Resonance Purity Level for you. The higher, the better.

    The second factor that determines Resonance is the Resonance Volume. It refers to the amount of Mecha Element you have in your body.

    The more Mecha Element you have in your body, the more you will be able to reach your theoretical maximum set by your RPL.

    The Resonance Volume is quantified into numbers which refer to the physical range that a 100% RPL pilot can exert resonance over.

    For example, if the 100% Resonance Purity Level (RPL) pilot has a Resonance Volume (RV) of 10 meters, then he would have a range of 10 meters in which he could exert his Resonance over.

    However, if it was a 90% RPL pilot with an RV of 10 meters, then he would have a range of (90% of 10 meters) which is 9 meters.

    An average blue mecha is around 10 meters. And the average pilot has an RPL of 40. That means for the average pilot to be able to exert his full 40% resonance over the average mecha, he would need an RV of..."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "10 meters is 40% So 100% is 25 meters!" I replied easily.

    "Yes. For a 40% RPL pilot, he has to train his RV to 25 to merely be able to exert a 40% Resonance over his mecha.

    Contrast that to the extremely rare 80% RPL pilot. He merely needs to train his RV to 12.5 meters to exert a whooping 80% resonance over his mecha!

    That is why RPL is so important. However, a high RPL needs to be matched with sufficient RV for the pilot to achieve his full potential.

    Resonance Volume will grow over time. The more you are exposed to the Mecha Element, the more your RV will grow. So even geniuses will need to train hard to grow their RVs!"

    "I understand." With my enhanced brain, understanding it was simplicity itself.

    "The old man told me that I had an RPL of NINETY TWO! That must be the effect of the red mecha core. And Emma said that an 80% RPL pilot is "extremely rare"! Awesome! I am still very special after all." I grinned happily to myself.

    "The ck Smander Company members are all elites. This means that they all have RPLs of between 70 - 79. They are going up against the Giant Pegasi Company, which is a lower gradepany with an average RPL of 50. Even with heavy mechas, they would find it difficult to win against the ck Smanders."

    "Really?" I replied doubtfully. "I understand that tactile feedback and granr control are extremely important. But it does not change the fact that their armor and firepower are much, much lower! I do not believe that resonance can make that much of a difference!"

    "Resonance alone won''t guarantee victory. But if two teams with simr skills battle against each other, the team with the higher average resonance will usually win." Emma said.

    "Even when their mecha grades are so different?" I frowned lightly. "I don''t think so."

    "Wanna bet?" Emma smirked at me.

    "Hmmmm. Let me think." I switched on my screen and opened the team members'' details to get more information, and hopefully find an X-factor somewhere.

    I was sure that the Giant Pegasi and their heavy mechas would win, but I needed to be sure. I didn''t want to lose to Emma!

    "Huh?" I noticed something interesting in the Giant Pegasi Company''s information page. "Interesting! Alright Emma. Let''s bet!"

    "Awesome! Let''s bet one hundred- no wait. ONE THOUSAND academy credits then!" Emma smiled sinisterly and looked at me as though I was a delicious crispy piece of fried chicken.

    "What''s that? I don''t have academy credits!" I protested.

    "Don''t worry. You''ll get academy creditster when you go to school. So? Do you dare to bet or not? If you''re so confident, you shouldn''t worry about what you''re betting. Unless of course you''re all bluster and no act." Emma taunted me.

    "Fine! 1000 academy credits it is!" I shouted.

    "I''m not going to school, so there''s no harm betting 1000 credits." I smirked inwardly.

 Chapter 43 Heavy Assassin

    We shook hands on it and turned to look at the training ground as we waited eagerly for the battle to begin. It was already a very exciting battle to begin with. The bet had just made it twice as exciting.

    I could feel my adrenalin pumping!

    BA DUMP! BA DUMP!

    The familiar pain surged in my chest.

    Okay, make that THREE times as exciting! My red mecha core was reacting to my excitement!

    YES!!

    Very soon, the countdown for the final few seconds began.

    5!

    4!

    3!

    2!

    BATTLE!

    As soon as the countdown reached zero, the ground began to rumble slightly and many openings began to appear all over the main training area.

    Half ruined buildings of every kind began to appear and rise up from those openings.

    RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

    Within a few seconds, the t and open training ground transformed into a half-destroyed city.

    "Wow." I breathed. "This is excellent! It''s exactly like an urban scene!"

    "Hmm. Each battleground will be randomly selected by the system. But urban battlegrounds appear more often than all the other typesbined. The Whitefrost n is probably preparing for a major offensive involving city battles." Emma''s eyes shone brightly in excitement as well.

    On the far right, I could see the Giant Pegasi Company''s heavy mechas forming up into six groups of seven and spreading out in a single line until they were approximately two hundred fifty meters away from each other.

    After that, the six groups began to advance slowly on the ground. The remaining eight mechas split into two groups of four and trailed after the six groups.

    I nodded in approval at their formation.

    Their six groups were able to upy almost the entire breadth of the training ground, ensuring that the enemy would not be able to nk them and attack them from the rear.

    Having seven in a group also provided each group with enough firepower to resist an engagement with the light mechas for a few minutes, long enough for the other groups to converge on their location and crush the enemy with their superior firepower.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The two four-man groups trailing behind them would also serve as a powerful emergency back up in case any individual group met with all of the enemy mechas at once.

    The only thing Imented was that they did not have any light mechas to serve as scouts. In every battle, having ''eyes'' on the enemy is extremely important. Still, they should have no problems wiping out the ck Smanders.

    I turned my head to my left and studied the formation of the ck Smanders. With all fifty mechas being light mechas, they had no shortages of scouts. And as such, they had equipped ten of their mechas with flight systems and had already taken to the skies to scout out the enemy position and formations.

    The rest were standing still in ten groups of four mechas.

    "The Giant Pegasi are already doomed." Emma remarked from my side. "They don''t have any scouts. They wouldn''t even know what hit them when the ck Smanders finally make their move."

    "I don''t really know what light mechas are capable of inparison to heavy mechas. But I have confidence in the Giant Pegasi''s leader." I replied to her confidently. "Plus, the Giant Pegasi are mobilizing exactly the way I predicted they would."

    "Really? Why is that so?" Emma asked me curiously.

    "Deng Da Jun. Twenty-year old male. RPL 65%. Joined the Whitefrost n five years ago. Prior upation: Junkyard Scrapper. Orphaned since birth." I showed her his profile. "He was a junkyard scrapper!"

    "So?" Emma asked again in confusion.

    "Emma, I am a junkyard scrapper, and I''ve only been a junkyard scrapper for a few years. I may not be anything much, but I definitely am one thing. A survivor. That''s what I do. I survive.

    This Deng Da Jun, however, was a junkyard scrapper from birth all the way till he was fifteen years old. That tells me one thing. He''s either an incredible survivalist, or a gang member. And there is no way in hell the Whitefrost n would recruit a gang member."

    "So? He may be a good survivor in a junkyard, but that doesn''t mean anything in a mecha battle." Emma refuted me stubbornly.

    "If he is a new recruit, yes, his ability to survive would not mean anything. But he has been training in here for five years now. He would have definitely integrated his survivor instincts into his fighting techniques and as a leader, into his deployment tactics." I exined. "Plus, the fact that he is apany leader with his less than ster background tells me that he is probably brilliant!"

    "I don''t see much of this "survivor instinct" in his deployment tactics." Emma scoffed lightly. "It''s just a textbook heavy mecha deployment tactic, and it is even one without the scouts."

    "It would be extremely textbook if everything is merely what it seemed." I grinned widely at her. "Oh I''ve lost count how many times I''ve tried so hard to make everything look like what they merely seemed, only to hide a deadly trap within. Look at his mecha and the modifications he had made."

    I pointed out the interesting thing which had caught my attention earlier.

    "He had removed most of his heavy armor and¡­ reced them with a flight system?!" Emma gasped in disbelief. "And an additional high powered heavy rifle?!"

    "Yes. And look at where he has positioned himself." I said gleefully.

    Emma swivelled her head around to her screen and quickly brought out Da Jun''s position. "He''s trailing behind the main line in the group of four. In fact¡­ he''s even beginning to slow down and separate himself from the rest of his team!"

    "Yes! I knew it the moment I saw his background and his mecha modifications. He is a heavy assassin!" I proimed triumphantly.

    "Uhh. Okay. That might throw a small wrench into the ck Smander''s ns. But I doubt it would be enough to cause them to lose." Emma said. But doubt was already surfacing in her eyes.

 Chapter 44 Eighteen For Eighteen!

    "Look! He has made his way up the tallest building! And his men are setting up formation in a wide semi-circle around his position.! Perfect!"  I cried out. "They''ll just stand their ground and let the ck Smanderse to them while Da Jun snipes the living daylights out of them!"

    "Stop looking at the Giant Pegasi and look at the ck Smanders. You won''t like what you see." Emma chuckled lightly.

    I turned around to study the ck Smanders. Their scouts have returned and they were¡­

    "What on earth are they doing?" I asked incredulously.

    "Weaponbination." Emma replied smugly. "It is a Whitefrost n special development. "We are able tobine weapons to increase their grade. As you can see, all the mechas in the ck Smanderpany had sacrificed their armor modules to open up more weight allocation for their rifles. As such, they are all carrying their original light rifles as well as an additional medium rifle!"

    "WHAT! I didn''t know that''s possible! You¡­ You cheated!" I used Emma.

    "Haha! Of course I didn''t cheat. YOU didn''t do enough due diligence before cing your bet! You only have yourself to me if you lose!" Emma cackled evilly with glee.

    "Grrrr. Cheater." I grumbled. But despite my misgivings about not knowing that the light mechas were able tobine their weapons, my eyes were shining.

    "This is incredible! We''re going to have a mecha shootout!" I thought eagerly to myself.

    The ck Smander light mechas quickly set up their weaponbinations.

    "Two light rifles canbine to be a medium rifle, two medium rifles canbine to be a heavy rifle, and two heavy rifles canbine to be an ultra heavy rifle." Emma exined generously.

    I have noticed this about Emma. Although she is generally impatient and short tempered, she is surprisingly patient when teaching. I have benefited from that patience of hers while she was teaching many times.

    "Combined weapons provide an unparalleled flexibility for lower grade mechas to fight above their sses. However, they are not without weaknesses. Abined weapon is much less durablepared to a normal weapon of that grade.

    The logic behind it is actually very simple. A high grade weapon deals with a much higher amount of firepower and energy. As such, detachable parts from a lower grade weapon are unable tost very long.

    This is especially true for light riflesbined to be an ultra heavy rifle. In the best case scenario, such a rifle could only fire six times before breaking downpletely. In most cases, being able to fire four times would already be a cause of celebration."

    "Are they making ultra heavy rifles?" I frowned deeply. If all the light mechas sacrificed their medium and light rifles, they could end up with eighteen ultra heavy rifles, one heavy rifle and one medium rifle. Although the remaining thirty would be unarmed, the eighteen ultra heavy rifles would be enough to destroy the entire Giant Pegasipany.

    The ck Smander Company was truly an impressivepany.

    "It appears so. An ultra heavy rifle will have no problems piercing the armor of the heavy mechas!" Emma said with barely suppressed excitement. Whether she was excited about the uing battle or the one thousand credits that she thought she was about to win, I had no idea.

    "They have absolutely no armor though. Even simple machine gun fire can totally wreck them." I pointed out.

    "They had no chance to survive the heavy mechas'' heavy rifle fire in the first ce. Might as well go all out on offence." Emma shrugged. "It''s a shrewd strategy. I like it."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "They only have twenty armed mechas against Da Jun''s fifty! That''s insane! Plus they have very little margin for errors. If we go by your estimation of four shots per ultra heavy rifle, they only have 72 shots before their rifles break down." I noted. "They have less than one and a half shots per enemy mecha!"

    "No problems." Emma grinned at me. She was probably already thinking what she could do with my thousand academy credits.

    The ck Smander light mechas quickly finished their work and true enough, twenty mechas wieldingrge ultra heavy rifles, a medium rifle and a heavy rifle appeared. Twenty of the remaining thirty partnered themselves with a rifle-bearing mecha each and they began to disperse. The remaining ten took to the skies once more to maintain a supply of up to date information regarding the enemy''s positions and movements.

    Half of the ten who took to the skies began to pepper the northern Giant Pegasi groups with their light grenades. Although they did next to no damage to the heavy mechas, they made a huge ruckus and drew the attention of the heavy mechas north.

    PEW! PEW! PEW!

    The heavy mechas opened fire at the light mechas.

    However, the ck Smander pilots showcased their impressive skills andpletely dodged the sporadic heavy rifle fire by the seven mechas in the northern group.

    "That''s some impressive flying by the ck Smanders." Imented to Emma.

    "Indeed. The ck Smanders are really famous for their ace pilots." Emma said. "But today, the stars of the show aren''t the fliers. Look! The twenty light mechas wielding the ultra heavy rifles are almost in position!"

    She was right.

    The group of forty light mechas had managed to stealthily position themselves in several half-destroyed high rise towers in the south-eastern area of the training ground - cing the heavy mecha groups well within range of their ultra heavy rifles, but cing themselves just slightly beyond the range of the heavy mechas'' heavy rifles.

    It was the perfect sweet spot, the result of excellent scouting work.

    After a few seconds of coordinating their targets, the ck Smanders opened fire.

    BO-BO-BO-BOOOOOMMM!!!

    Several loud shots rang out almost simultaneously.

    SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!!!

    Red paint exploded on eighteen unlucky mechas of the southern groups and instantly, their heavy mechas powered down.

    "EXCELLENT SHOTS!" Emma whooped for joy. "Eighteen for eighteen!!"

 Chapter 45 Mwa Ha Ha Ha!

    However, a mere second or twoter...

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    Three shots rang out. Deng Da Jun had opened fire with his own ultra heavy rifle!

    SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

    Three light mechas wielding ultra heavy rifles powered down. In fact, the shots were so urate that the paint projectiles had hit the ultra heavy rifles first before smashing into the light mechas.

    Their mecha partners were unable to pick up the three ultra heavy rifles.

    Fifteen ultra heavy rifles were left, and only sixty shots remained.

    On the other side, thirty two heavy mechas remained.

    Although the ck Smanders seemed to be leading at that moment, they had lost the element of surprise, and their positions were revealed.

    "He he he." Emma was definitely feeling pleased with how the battle was progressing thus far.

    However, I wasn''t worried at all.

    In my opinion, the Giant Pegasi, though vastly outnumbered, still had an advantage overall.

    Like white mechas, the heavy mechas are deceptively quick. They may be big and heavy, but they are also usually equipped with equally heavy thrusters which allow them to elerate almost as quickly as light mechas.

    In fact, they are even capable of sharp changes in direction thanks to their massive side-thruster rockets. However, those rockets are single-use and thus the heavy mechas are limited in how many times they can change directions abruptly at full speed.

    In short skirmishes, heavy mechas are unbeatable powerhouses.

    Still, the ck Smanders certainly put that statement through a round of hellish testing.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    Deng Da Jun''s deadly onught continued unabated.

    SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

    Three more light mechas powered down! Thankfully for the ck Smanders, all three were the rifle-less light mechas who had immediately interposed their bodies between Deng Da Jun and their designated partners.

    With their deadly mission aplished and their positions revealed, the light mechas instantly retreated. Their light weight made them extremely agile and quick on their feet, and within seconds, they were out of their half-ruined buildings and dashing away at full speed.

    However, the heavy mechas knew that if they allowed the light mechas to disengage sessfully and disappear from their sights once more, their next sneak attack might well prove to be a game-ending one.

    VROOO!! VROO!!

    The heavy mechas instantly powered their thrusters to full power and all thirty-one remaining heavy mechas aside from Deng Da Jun shot out towards the light mechas!

    They bore down on the ck Smanders with a fury that would make a watching mad bull nod in deep approval.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    The Giant Pegasi heavy mechas fired everything they had as they chased after the retreating ck Smanders.

    SPLAT! SPLAT!

    A few unlucky ck Smanders were taken down that way.

    However, the ck Smanders'' superior Resonance Purity Levels began to shine through at that moment as their much higher level of mecha control allowed most of them to dance around the Giant Pegasi''s linear attacks and avoid getting hit.

    In every battle, there would be a make-or-break moment. A white hot stage where everything could be decided in an instant, where the first mistake could snowball into a crushing defeat in a matter of minutes.

    That moment had arrived for the ck Smanders and the Giant Pegasi.<novelnext></novelnext>

    It was the perfect time to unleash their trump cards if they had one!

    Morale was high in bothpanies as they worked feverishly to capitalize on their strengths and cover their weaknesses.

    The ck Smanders used their higher agility to avoid getting hit while the Giant Pegasi tried to vary their attacks as much as possible so as to be less predictable.

    To both theirpany''s credit, neither the Giant Pegasi nor the ck Smanders were dashing around aimlessly.

    The Giant Pegasi were dashing forward in waves to prevent the ck Smanders from nking them and attacking them from the rear.

    The ck Smanders had also split into three groups, forcing the ck Pegasi to split as well or face withering pincer attacks from the other ck Smander groups.

    It was at that moment that the ck Smanders decided to reveal their trump card.

    VROOO!!!

    All of the remaining light mechas powered up their hidden flight modules and took to the skies!

    "Oh my god." I muttered. "That''s disgusting. As if they need more agility and mobility!"

    "Hee hee." Emma merely giggled.

    Once they were airborne, the already extremely agile ck Smanders became even more agile.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    They wasted no time at all and immediately opened fire on the heavy mechas.

    SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT

    Several more heavy mechas were instantly taken out.

    However, heavy mechas weren''t sitting ducks. They immediately focus fired on a cluster of light mechas and sessfully shot them down.

    Still, the heavy mechas were having difficulty tracking down the rifle-bearing mechas due to their high speed maneuvers and the asional rifle-pass to a different pilot to mix things up a little.

    And to make things worse, the ck Smanders chose to unleash their final trump card at that moment. All of the rifle-less light mechas drew out their short swords and plunged towards the heavy mechas in a wave of suicidal attacks.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    While the heavy mechas tried to shoot down the suicidal light mechas, the other rifle-bearing light mechas took the opportunity to shoot at the distracted heavy mechas.

    SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

    The ck Smanders truly showed the spectators why they were the overall third rankedpany that day. Their aims were perfect. One shot, one kill.

    At the end of the day, a mecha is only as powerful as its pilot, and an army is only as strong as itsmander.

    The ck Smanders had far better pilots and an extremely shrewdmander.

    Thirty one heavy mechas went up against seventeen rifle-bearing light mechas and twenty seven rifle-less light mechas during that second engagement.

    The heavy mechas lost.

    Six rifle-bearing light mechas still stood when the dust of that second engagement finally settled.

    "Mwa ha ha ha!" Emmaughed evilly.

    "Mwa ha ha ha!" Iughed evilly as well.

 Chapter 46 One On One

    "What are youughing about?" Emma frowned in irritation. "The Giant Pegasi has only one mecha left while the ck Smanders still have six! Six better pilots against a single weak pilot in a heavy mecha. Deng Da Jun has no chance at all!" Emma proimed confidently.

    "Yeah? You''re very confident aren''t you?"

    "Very. Da Jun has no chance at all."

    "Why don''t we raise the stakes then? If you dare." I taunted her provocatively.

    "Sure! If you''re so willing to give me all your future academy credits, I am happy to receive them all." Emma smirked at me. "Just don''t go crying to grandpa when you finally realize your mistake!"

    "Let''s raise the stakes to five thousand academy credits then!"

    "Five thousand?? HA HA! YOU ARE ON!" Emma cackled happily.

    "Oh I love betting with ignorant fools like yo-"

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    "Oh look, it''s three vs one now. HA HA!" I cackled happily.

    The three remaining light mechas immediately dispersed in three different directions and opened fire at Deng Da Jun''s heavy mecha which had finally revealed itself.

    Sometime during or after the engagement, the three light mechas had somehow gotten their hands on additional heavy rifles, thus allowing them to fire at Da Jun freely without having to worry about their rifle melting down.

    Deng Da Jun had also separated his ultra-heavy rifle into two heavy rifles and he fired both rifles at an unlucky light mecha.

    "Hey, one of Da Jun''s heavy rifles seems to have a much better rate of firepared to his other heavy rifle." Imented.

    "Yes, Da Jun had invested a huge amount of his resources into his heavy rifle, increasing its power, durability and rate of fire." Emma replied.

    "I see. So each pilot owns their own mecha weapons?" I asked.

    "Not really. As I mentioned before, each week, pilots will receive various resources based on their performances. They are allowed to invest their resources into anything they want.

    If they choose to take the path of an elite sniper, for example, they can buy a long range sniper rifle and they can tweak its range, power, durability, rate of fire, as well as its scope. You can even tweak how the trigger mechanism feels when you pull it.

    If they are particrly sessful, they can even save up to buy a mecha and customize that mecha too!" Emma exined. "Of course they would have to sign a life contract with the n if they buy a mecha from us. But most already intend to stay with us permanently anyway, so that''s usually not an issue."

    "That''s an excellent system." I nodded in approval. "Makes the soldiers dedicated to the n. Are there any customized mechas in this particr battle?"

    "Of course! The ck Smanders are a rich bunch, especially their top yers. In fact, all three remaining light mechas are actually customized mechas!"

    "Really? I can''t tell at all!" I said in amazement.

    "The mark of an excellent customization is that it doesn''t look different at allpared to the original. The only thing different should be its performance. Here, take a look at the profiles of the remaining light mechas. He he he." Emma snickered lightly as she sent some info to my screen.

    "... ¡­ These light mechas are practically medium mechas! 50% enhanced armor, 40% enhanced speed, 80% enhanced melee damage¡­ What a bunch of cheaters!" I looked away from my screen in disgust.

    "HA HA HA HA! Now you know why I am so confi-"

    BOOM!<novelnext></novelnext>

    SPLAT!

    "Hey, it''s 2 vs 1 now!" I said, feeling very pleased by Deng Da Jun''s performance.

    He had finally activated his flight system and had taken the mecha he was firing at byplete surprise when he suddenlyunched into the sky at high speed. Da Jun had sshed him with a devastating glob of paint that served to indicate a fatal melee attack.

    "That''s alright. The ck Smander''s Leader and Co-Leader are the two remaining fighters. They would have no prob-"

    BOOM!

    SPLAT!

    Deng Da Jun took the second light mecha byplete surprise as well when he elerated at a speed far beyond their expectations. Another devastating glob of paint hit the second mecha and it too powered down.

    "Their LEADER, Lin Jian, is one of the top ranked pilots. He will have no prob-"

    BOOM!

    SPLAT!

    Silence.

    And then...

    "HA HA HA HA! What a crazy bastard! He actually flung the light mecha at, what''s his name again? Lin Jian! Forcing him to dodge into the path of his heavy rifle fire! What an excellent tactic!

    AND THE GIANT PEGASI WINS!!! FIVE THOUSAND ACADEMY CREDITS! HERE I COMEEE!! YEAAHHHH!!!!" I shouted and whooped and screamed for joy.

    I had never won anything before in my entire life, and even though I had no idea what five thousand academy credits was good for, it still felt extremely good. Especially when I saw Emma''s extremely sour and sulky face!

    HAHA! I bet you''re still sour about that loss Emma!

    Five minutester, we were out of the VIP room and were walking rapidly towards the practice area.

    I furrowed my brows and frowned deeply.

    After a moment, I sighed deeply.

    "I give up." I told the still-pouting Emma as I handed her back her mobilemunicator which contained her school handbook. "I really don''t know what to spend my five thousand academy credits on! I guess I''ll know what I want when I get to school! HA HA!"

    If looks could deal damage, I would have totally died then.

    "We''re here!" Emma snapped at me irritably as we entered arge room. "Get in and choose a mecha!"

    It was a pretty simple room.

    Approximately fifty meters by fifty meters, there were four mechas to choose from, each located in a corner of the room, each with a different colour theme. It was probably one of their smaller practice rooms that catered to one versus one or two versus two practice matches.

    Emma quickly marched to the nearest mecha which was red in colour and climbed in.

 Chapter 47 Humility Is A Virtue

    I nced at the mechas and discovered that my resonance could sense them very clearly. It was like I had another organ for sensing and I was really aware of them.

    "This should be an interesting practice match." I thought to myself.

    "Just pick one and get in. They are all the same type. There are no grade differences in practice mechas." Emma''s voice sounded loudly through the mecha''s voice amplifier.

    I climbed into the nearest mecha and powered it up. It was ck and looked extremely cool. "Perfect first mecha for the future Emperor." I thought.

    The mecha immediately connected to my brainwaves and all at once, I felt like I could control the mecha with my thoughts.

    "Ahh it feels good to be able to move both arms again!" I said aloud as I waved my arms around happily.

    "I''ll give you five minutes to familiarize yourself with the mecha." Emma said from her side of the room.

    I quickly jumped around, lunged left and right and swung my practice metal quarterstaff this way and that way.

    I must have shown much more dexterity and fluidity in my movements than I thought, because at the next moment, Emma asked me suspiciously.

    "Hey! What''s your RPL?"

    "Hehehe. Let me show you instead of telling you." I grinned widely and beckoned her over.

    "Hmph! Don''t get too cocky. Your RPL may be high, but without skills, you''d still be my punching bag. Here Ie!" Emma shouted.

    Emma boomed her way towards me while holding her long quarterstaff in an underarm grip braced under her armpit like ance.

    I scoffed lightly. Such a grip would give her huge striking power, but very little in terms of flexibility and reduced her range drastically.

    In one versus one, an inch longer is an inch stronger.

    Not willing to lose out on momentum, I began to dash towards her as well. But my long quarterstaff was held horizontally out to my right in preparation for a wide sh.

    I figured that a sh would be more effective than ance charge. Once you miss ance charge, you miss totally. But a wide sh would give me arger area of attack which would make it more difficult to dodge.

    I was so wrong.

    Once we neared each other''s striking distance, I began to swing my quarterstaff towards her and prepared to dodge her piercing attack.

    However, Emma suddenly elerated and closed the distance between us in an instant!

    She wasn''t running at top speed before!

    In addition, she also changed her grip and stabbed her quarterstaff sharply towards my head!

    "What a sneaky little girl!" I cried out bitterly in my heart as I jerked my head violently to the right to dodge her attack.

    I wasn''t fast enough.

    BAM!

    Her quarterstaff struck the side of my head and flung it backwards savagely as I failed to dodge her attack.

    BAM!

    My own sh smashed into her half a secondter. But it was very much weakened by her attack which broke my momentum.

    Emma had no problems parrying my wild sh with her armored arm.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    Emma unleashed a flurry of attacks to take advantage of the fact that I was slightly disoriented by her sessful attack to my head.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I tried my best to block her attacks, but her quarterstaff stabs were extremely devious and managed to avoid my attempts to block them.

    Two secondster...

    "DING! Round over. ck Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

    "DAMN IT!!" I shouted in exasperation. "AGAIN!"

    Emma gleefully obliged as we returned to our sides of the room.

    "Ready!" I shouted and dashed towards Emma without waiting for her reply.

    "I will win this time. I am ready for her tricks!" I dered to myself.

    But I was not. She was totally right. My heightened senses and control were of no benefit to me in light of vastly greater skill!

    I approached her with a double grip on my quarterstaff like an ancient samurai warrior.

    "HA!" I shouted as I leapt up right before we entered each other''s maximum range.

    BAM!!

    My head smashed into something incredibly solid and was flung backwards violently once more as Emma threw her quarterstaff like a javelin.

    "AH!!" I screamed and fell down heavily.

    BAM!

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    "DING! Round over. ck Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

    "AGAIN!"

    "DING! Round over. ck Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

    "ARGH! AGAIN!"

    "DING! Round over. ck Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

    "I don''t believe I will lose to you five rounds in a row. AGAIN!"

    "DING! Round over. ck Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

    By the end of the fifth round, Emma was exhausted. She had just recovered from a serious bout of malnutrition and she was unable to fight for extended periods of time.

    And so even though I desperately wanted to challenge her for more battles, I kept my mouth shut for her sake.

    Of course, she had no idea that I was thinking for her and assumed that I had given up. And she made sure to "stomp" on me heavily while I was down as a form of revenge after losing 5000 academy credits to me.

    "HA! Why aren''t you challenging me to ano-ther fight?" Emma panted. "Are you - too scared? Scaredy cat! Chicken! Pok pok pok!! Kukuruyuuuu!! Pok pok pok!!!"

    Even though she was so tired, she still gave all she had to insult me! She must be extremely bitter about her 5000 academy credit loss!

    HAHA!

    "Sigh. See, Justin. It is - never good to be so cocky. Humility - is a virtue. You have to be more like - me! Being humble is not simply the words - you say or the actions you do. It is the state of - your heart!" Emma panted and lectured me rather proudly herself.

 Chapter 48 Beef Stew!

    "Remember! Pridees before a fall! And look how far you have fallen! HA HA HA!" Emmaughed happily at me.

    I opened the cockpit''s hatch and jumped out easily. I was still full of energy, and I could probably go for another few hundred rounds before I tired.

    But Emma needed to rest.

    "Fine. You win! The score is five - zero. We''ll continue next time!" I said, feeling rather magnanimous for ignoring all her barbs and still acting with her best interest at heart.

    People might call me names for being too nice to Emma. But I don''t really care. I''ll treat Emma exactly how I want to treat her. The rest of the world can go¡­ What was it again? Eat candy, yes. The rest of the world can go eat candy.

    Emma opened her cockpit hatch as well. Her beautiful but obviously extremely tired face was beaming happily.

    "Good practice though! Don''t worry, if you work hard, you''ll definitely improve." Emma continued her lecture as she slowly exited the mecha.

    "Right." I offered her my hand and helped her out of her mecha.

    "What do you want to do now?" Emma asked me.

    "Well, I know quite a bit about the Whitefrost n now. Why don''t we go to the living room and you can tell me more about the Mecha Tournament as we rest for a while?" I suggested.

    "Excellent idea! Let''s do that!" Emma agreed.

    Emma is such apetitive girl. Winning that practice session really put her into an agreeable mood!

    The rest of the day passed byzily as we hung out in the main living room. For the first time in my life, I had a totally rxing afternoon.

    Emma and I really clicked that day and we talked about many things. Although she had a very sharp tongue and enjoyed cutting me up into a thousand pieces verbally, I knew that she was actually a kind girl. Kind of a softie with a really spiky exterior.

    I enjoyed herpany immensely. And I knew she truly enjoyed mine as well.

    All too soon, it was dinner time.

    Whitefrost family members can skip having lunch together, but unless an emergency was underway, dinner was non negotiable.

    Everyone must be present.

    And so, I soon found myself seated on a huge chair around a massive round table that could seat twenty. All sorts of delicious food was on the table, and I remember my mouth watering like crazy almost as soon as I sat down.

    I remember the scene on the table very clearly like it was nly yesterday. Fried Chicken. Roast Chicken. Beef Ribs. Stuffed Duck. Three Layered Pork. Steamed Fish. More Steamed Fish. Three huge tes of vegetables I don''t recognize. A giant te of noodles. A giant te of fried rice. Small cups of tea all around.

    My goodness. The entire table looked like a huge gathering of joy and happiness. I couldn''t wait to make friends with all the food!

    However, our friendship was not destined to start immediately. The old man still had things to say.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Justin. I should have asked you this earlier, but with all that had happened, itpletely slipped my mind." The old man began.

    Only the old man, Emma, Margaret (Isabe''s youngest daughter), Julie (Jason''s daughter), James (Jason''s youngest son) and I were present.

    Jason''s wife, Lydia, was by his side and taking care of him and their son Jeremy, while Emma''s father and mother were mysteriously absent.

    "Would you like to join the Whitefrost family?" The old man asked.

    The mood during dinner was subdued after the day''s near tragedy, and his question brought some much needed excitement to the dinner table.

    "Join our family? As what?" Julie was the first to speak.

    "Are we adopting him?" James asked rather excitedly.

    "No, we''re not adopting him." The old man replied to James with augh.

    "I''m inviting you to join us as a ck Dragon candidate." The old man told me before ncing at Julie.

    "WHAT? HIM?" Julie shouted. "Why?"

    The old man held his gaze at Julie for a moment.

    "Sorry grandpa." Julie apologized hastily. "I was just surprised, that''s all. The ck Dragons are¡­ Well. I don''t know what you see in him. First the Gene Optimizing Pill, now this¡­"

    "I understand your confusion. All will be made clear in due time. Right now, you have to trust grandpa, can you do that?" The old man spoke to Julie gently but firmly.

    Julie sighed and nodded. "Yes grandpa. That I can do."

    The old man turned to look at me once more. I quickly tore my gaze from the heavenly looking roast chicken to meet his gaze.

    "Let me exin my offer. The Whitefrost n has two main mecha battalions. The Red Dragon Battalion and The Monkey King Battalion. That''s what the whole country knows. But we have another secret army. One that is much more powerful than both battalionsbined. We call it the ck Dragon Army." The old man said.

    I nodded in approval. Of the beef stew.

    I could smell the beef stew clearly. My goodness, it was the best smelling stew I had ever smelled.

    "The ck Dragons are a group of elite Mecha Pilots whom our family had secretly trained up over the years." The old man continued, fully assuming that my nod of approval was over his words. He was totally oblivious that my heart and my mind, heck my entire SOUL was totally and fully mesmerized by the food on the table.

    "They are spread out all over the world, and all of them are ster Mecha Pilots in positions of influence and power in major organizations.

    ck Dragons enjoy the highest respect, the mostvish treatment and the highest degree of freedom in the n. You are basically free to do anything you want to do. There are only two requirements. One is that you do not betray the Whitefrost n. And two, that you will act and give your all in defense of the n in our hour of need."

 Chapter 49 Shadows Of The Blood Moon

    Deep in my heart, I was actually extremely impressed. What an awesome system! The Whitefrost n truly had extremely deep roots. In fact, what they hid underneath might well be much bigger and stronger than what was visible.

    But all I could think of at that moment was¡­ What an awesome looking stuffed duck! The cook must be really talented! In fact, what they hid within the duck might well be much more delicious than what was visible.

    I swallowed my saliva and forced my brain to focus on the old man''s words.

    "There are no negatives to being a ck Dragon of our Whitefrost family unless you consider being secretly affiliated with us a negative." The old man said. "So, what do you think? Good?"

    "Good!" I shouted immediately. "Very very good! Excellent in fact."

    Before today, only God and I knew that I was actually referring to the Three Layered Pork when I shouted out those words.

    "Very good! I admire your decisiveness and enthusiasm. So from today onwards, you''re one of us. Wee to the Whitefrost family!" The old man smiled at me warmly and raised his teacup.

    "YESS!" I thought. "The meal is finally about to start!"

    I quickly raised my teacup as well and smiled widely in anticipation.

    "It''s so close. Be patient stomach. Be patient tongue! Just a few more seconds, once this toast is over¡­ What are we toasting to again?" My brain asked. But before it could search itself for answers¡­

    "DRY THE CUP!" The old man shouted as gulped his tea down.

    "DRY THE CUP!" I immediately shouted after him, eager to move things along.

    GULP!

    I drained my own teacup like a man. A very, very hungry man.

    "Well done. Now, on to the feast! Dig in!" The old man beamed at everyone present.

    "HERE WE GO!!!!!" I shouted excitedly in my heart.

    Om nom nom nom.

    For the next few minutes, I was in heaven.

    My brain decreed that it was entering closed-door cultivation with his new friends and refused to entertain anything apart from my sense of taste. Well, except for sight as well, but that was auxiliary. I only needed them to pile more food onto my te and make sure my chopsticksden with food entered the right hole.

    All the sound of the world suddenly receded into the background and everyone else sitting around the table seemed to disappear.

    The only things that exist are my chopsticks, all my friends on the table and my mouth.

    ¡­ ¡­ ¡­

    "Ahhhh." I let out a deep breath filled with incredible satisfaction. I was finally done making friends.

    "Chicken, Beef, Pork, Duck and Fish! Although our friendship was short, I will never forget you!" I vowed as I rubbed my belly fondly.

    Blink.

    My brain exited its closed-door cultivation and beamed at the world in happiness.

    My hearing and sight returned.

    "Huh? Why are you all staring at me?" I asked.

    "Hahahaha! He''s a growing boy! Eating a lot is good! Good! Very good!" The old manughed awkwardly. "The rest of you, if you''re still hungry, go tell the servants to make supper for youter! Hahaha! Ok I have to go for a meeting. You kids enjoy yourself!"

    With that, the old man stood up and quickly left the room.

    Emma, who was seated next to me, leaned to her side slightly to peek at my tummy.

    "How big is it?" James asked Emma curiously.

    "It''s not even bulging." Emma replied with a slight frown.

    "Impossible. He must be sucking in his stomach." Julie said firmly.

    "Justin, can you stand up for a moment?" Emma asked me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Uhhh. Sure." I stood up and stretched my body slightly. "Uwahh."

    * B U R P P! !  *

    "That was a really good meal. Do you guys eat like that everyday?"

    "It''s really t." Julie mumbled in disbelief. "Where did all the food go?"

    The rest ignored my question as well and merely stared at me as though I was a freak.

    "Huh?" I looked at Emma questioningly. "What''s happening here?"

    Emma pointed to the table with its empty tes. And then she pointed at my beyond messy te. And then she pointed at all the other ces with barely any food stains.

    "You ate almost all of the food on the table." She said.

    "What? Impossible! I don''t remember doing such a thing!" I replied defensively.

    "Hahahahaha!" James burst intoughter. He found it ridiculous that I could deny something that everybody had just seen with their own eyes.

    ? "Well maybe I might have eaten a little more than I usually do¡­" I conceded as I stared at the mess that surrounded my te.

    "A little bit more? More like ALL! I barely had a bite!" James said indignantly.

    "Why didn''t you?" I asked him with a frown.

    "I was¡­ too busy looking at you gobble up everything." He said sheepishly with augh.

    "Me too." Julieughed along with James.

    Margaret remained silent, but there was a trace of a smile on her face.

    "Heheheheh¡­ Sorry guys. I didn''t even realize I was cleaning up the whole table! I totally lost myself in the awesomeness of the meal. I never, NEVER had such an epic meal before in my entire life! Ha ha ha!" I scratched my head andughed loudly.

    "Well, that''s okay. I think I''ll just have dessert. I''m not that hungry today anyway." Julie said. "What about you guys?"

    James, Margaret and Emma quickly nodded in agreement. Not wanting to be left out, I nodded enthusiastically too. "Dessert sounds good!" I agreed. "I need something sweet to wash down all the -"

    "Not you!" James cried out. "You''ve had enough to eat already. Leave some for us!"

    "I need dessert! I am a growing boy, grandpa said so himself!" I argued.

    "No you don''t! You just ate everything on the table!"

    "Did not!"

    "Did so!"

    "Liar!"

    "... YOU''RE THE LIAR!"

    "Hahahaha!" Julie burst outughing at the absurdity of what was happening. Two boys arguing about who gets dessert in the beyond affluent Whitefrost n. The rest stared at James and me incredulously before joining Julie inughing at us.

    We had a great time that evening, just talking and getting to know each other. James, Julie, Emma, Margaret and I.

    Weughed together for quite some time and the pain from the day''s events slowly receded.

    It was the first of many, many meals we would share together.

    The first of countlessughter we''d share.

    It was the beginning of the group the world would eventually call "Shadows of the Blood Moon".

    Oh yes. That''s us.

 Chapter 50 I Challenge You!

    I remember my testing day like it was yesterday.

    "Rise and shine youzy bum. It''s your school entrance test today. Grandfather wants to meet you before we go to schoolter." Emma mmed open my room door, marched into my room as though it was her own and opened the curtains with a flourish.

    Bright rays of sunlight streamed in and immediately attacked my eyes.

    "Uhhh." I groaned and turned to face the opposite direction.

    Whoosh!

    Emma pulled my nket away from me and exposed my warm body to the biting cold of the Chinese Winter.

    "Nooooo!!" I curled my body up like a cat and covered my head with my shiny brand new prosthetic right arm.

    Even though I was physically enhanced to the point that I could probably punch a steel pipe into two pieces if I wanted to, my senses towards temperature were totally untouched.

    I still felt cold like everybody else.

    I should have also felt indignant at Emma''sck of respect for my privacy, but I was too sleepy to care.

    "Let''s go! Breakfast is ready and James is already digging in! He''s focusing all of his attention on the bacons-"

    My eyes snapped open as a feeling of horror bloomed in my heart.

    My bacons!!!

    "YOU SHOULD HAVE STARTED WITH THAT!" I roared angrily at her and leapt off my bed!

    Emma smirked evilly as she watched me run out of my room and straight to the dining room.

    "Ah! Justin! You''re up early today. Come join me. Breakfast should be served soon. Sigh, if only all my other grandchildren are like you. They are all probably still snoring like little piglets. Thank goodness you''re here! You can keep mepany!" The old man beamed at me.

    I stared at the empty breakfast table and sighed with great relief. The bacons were still safe! I could feel my pounding heart gradually slow down and the day seemed full of endless glorious possibilities.

    Chief among those possibilities was one that stood out prominently.

    Eating up all the bacons served that day before James came down.

    Emma brushed past me as she walked into the dining room and sat next to the old man coolly as though nothing happened.

    "Good morning Grandfather." Emma said sweetly.

    "Good morning Emma!" The old man lovingly patted her head. "Here, have a ss of orange juice first. Look who beat you to the breakfast table! Justin, why are you standing there? Come have a seat!"

    I quickly made my way to the table and red at Emma as I helped myself to a ss of orange juice. Although her ruse had made mee down earlier than James and ced me in prime position to enjoy all the bacons by myself, the fact remained that she tricked me.

    She merely blinked at me and smiled innocently.

    Ah that ridiculously beautiful smile. My poor heart which had only just settled down was roughly jolted into action once more. Thankfully, something almost as beautiful as her smile appeared at that moment to pull me out before I could lose myself.

    I smelled it before I saw it.

    SNIFF!

    BACON!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Here, let me help you." I told the servant and freed her of the burden of carrying the huge te of bacons. I ced the te in front of me and began to dig in shamelessly, all thoughts of being angry at Emma disappearing the instant the frenzy of awesomeness touched my tongue.

    Fried bacon.

    Nothing in this world is as delicious as fried bacon.

    After a few minutes, a horrifying wail of anguish sounded from the entrance of the breakfast table.

    "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" James wailed as he watched the final bit of bacon enter my mouth.

    I munched on it slowly as I threw him a triumphant look. I could see his eyes focusing on my jaws and the tiny specks of bacon and oil that was on my lips.

    After munching for a few seconds, I swallowed the bacon with an audible gulp and licked up all those bits of treasures around my lips with great relish.

    "Good morning James!" I shouted with glee. "Good of you to finally join us! Come! There''s toast, and eggs and baco- oh wait! I just finished all the bacon! Sorry! I guess you''ll have to do without bacon AGAIN this morning! HA HA HA!

    I roared out withughter while Emma and the old man exchanged nces with each other.

    "Why did you bring home a nut case?" The old man''s eyes seemed to ask.

    "The "nut case" was the only one strong enough to save me." Emma''s gaze seemed to reply.

    The old man sighed and nodded understandingly.

    "Grandfather!" James cried out grievously. "Kick him out of the family! He''s evil, cold-blooded and without a shred of kindness in his heart! He KNEW how much I loved bacon!"

    James padded into the dining room, sat down next to me and poured himself a ss of orange juice.

    After taking a few big gulps, he continued his tirade. "In these five days, he had done nothing but eat, sleep and y in the training room!"

    "TRAIN in the training room." I corrected him.

    James ignored me and went on. "He is a huge drain on the Whitefrost family''s resources! Very soon, we''ll run out of critical resources-"

    "Bacon, you mean. Critical bacon." I corrected him once more and caused Emma tough and almost choke on her orange juice.

    "RESOURCES! We''ll be out of resources very much required for the growth and sess of our own family members!" James shouted and red at me.

    The old man simply rolled his eyes and continued to read the news on his pad.

    That James and I had be bosom friends had not escaped his notice even though he was rarely home during the day.

    "You shamelessly finished all the critical resources I needed to seed in my day today." James used me.

    "That I did." I nodded seriously in agreement. I was definitely shameless. Even the old man and Emma didn''t get a single piece of bacon.

    "I challenge you to a duel!" James mmed his empty ss down on the table after draining it with one big gulp.

    "epted!" I shouted.

    I wasn''t going to back down from a duel challenge by the runt (but still older than me) of the Whitefrost n!

 Chapter 51 Dads

    "Denied." The old man drawled. "Justin has an entrance test to go to this morning. He needs to be briefed so that he can get the highest score and secure the top spot. I will not have the Whitefrost family name trailing behind the Lin family name again likest year."

    The old man nced at James who turned beet red and remained silent.

    He sighed and turned to look at me seriously.

    "Justin. Since you represent the Whitefrost n now, you need to take your public actions and public records seriously. This includes your performance in the entrance test and your performance in school." The old man began.

    I nodded to indicate that I understood.

    "The Whitefrost n has many rivals, most of them are weaker than us, but a notable few are stronger than us. The Long Family and the Wang Family are the two families that have always outperformed us, and I have no qualms losing out to them. But other families like the Lin family and the Wei family are DEFINITELY not allowed to outperform us!" The old man said.

    Although his voice was calm, I could see a ze ofpetitiveness ignite in his eyes.

    "This year, the Lin family, the Wang family and the Long family will be sending their heirs and affiliates to take the National Mecha Pilot Academy entrance test as well. You are allowed to lose to the heir of the Long family. But you are NOT allowed to lose to the Lin family heir. Do you understand?" The old man barked.

    "YES SIR!" I shouted reflexively.

    "Good. If you can get first ce, it would be a great achievement and a great honor to the Whitefrost n. I will give you a great reward if you can do that." The old man said.

    My eyes gleamed with visible greed.

    "GRANDPA! How can you offer this despicable and greedy resource-drainer-"

    "Bacon." I coughed.

    "RESOURCE-drainer even more rewards!" James cried out.

    "That''s because I still have the rewards I promised I''d give you if you got first ce in YOUR entrance exam." The old man red at James.

    "Ah. That¡­" James sputtered and kept quiet.

    "If you fail to defeat the Long Family heir but still score above the Lin Family heir, I will also give you a reward." The old man promised.

    I nodded eagerly.

    "However! If you score below the Lin Family heir, even if it''s second ce¡­ You''ll be banned from having bacon for the rest of the year." The old man said very seriously.

    "WHAT!?" I shouted in horror. What a horrible punishment!

    "That''s all I wanted to tell you. Your fate is in your hands young man. I hope you do well." The old man said to me sternly.

    I nodded and sulked lightly. I didn''t like people threatening to take away what I held so dear in my heart.

    But deep within me, my heart soared on wings like eagles.

    I truly felt epted by the Whitefrost n members, especially by the old man and James.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The old man''s stern admonitions, though harsh, told me that he considered me one of his own already, just like James'' constant teasing.

    I was really grateful for them. For the first time in my life ever since my father died, I felt like I belonged in a family.

    That is why I did what I did during the Whitefrost Catastrophe.

    No one gets away with hurting my family. No one. Not then. Not now. Not ever.

    "Emma, make sure Justin is briefed and ready for his test." The old man said.

    "Yes grandfather." Emma replied sweetly.

    "Good girl. Come give grandpa a kiss before I go to work." The old man smiled very tenderly and leaned in to let Emma give him a quick peck on his right cheek. "Ah hahahaha. Okay! I''m off to work! Have a-"

    "GRAND PA! DON''T YOU WANT A KISS FROM ME TOO?" James hollered from his seat and pursed his lips.

    "HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE!" The old man shouted and disappeared from the dining room.

    "Did he just¡­" I gaped at the spot where the old man was just a second ago.

    "Yeah he executed a movement technique." Emmaughed.

    "Just to avoid getting kissed by me¡­ How could he¡­" James clutched his chest in mock heartbreak.

    "Maybe he''ll stay for your kiss if you brush your teeth first beforeing down for breakfast." Emma told him.

    "HAHAHA! That''s true!" Jamesughed and took a big bite out of his tuna sandwich.

    Very soon, Margaret and Julie joined us for breakfast and the atmosphere grew rowdy and merry as we began a friendly fight for the remaining food on the table.

    "So the Whitefrost n has many rivals huh? What''s the difference between a n and a Family anyway?" I asked them while I brute-forced my way to winning the final piece of fries..

    "There''s no difference. Just a preference on how you want to be called I guess. The important thing about ns and Families are their levels. The Whitefrost n is level two, just like the Lin, Wei and Chu families. The Long and Wang Families are level three." Emma exined as she watched me munch on my fries loudly in front of James with an amused expression.

    "The levels are granted by the Government based on the current hard contribution points the ns/Families have. The Government grants two types of contributions - hard contribution points (HCPs) and soft contribution points (SCPs)." Julie added.

    "HCPs are granted for highly meritorious deeds that impact the country significantly. For example, Grandpa won a huge chunk of HCPs for the Whitefrost n when he led our outnumbered armies from victory to victory during the previous war. Father also won a pretty sizable chunk of HCPs when he almost single handedly wiped out that rebel HQ five years ago." Julie said with a tinge of pride in her voice.

    "Your father must be a great Mecha Pilot!" I remarked.

    "The very best!" James dered proudly.

    "After MY dad." Emma added smugly. But her face soon fell after saying that. She frowned deeply and I could see that she was worried. Very, very worried.

 Chapter 52 Entrance Test

    "What about soft contribution points?" I asked to break the awkward silence that was threatening to form.

    "Soft contribution points (SCPs) on the other hand are for more routine contributions such as generating tax ie exceeding a certain amount, or having a certain number of people serving in critical government positions. SCPs are even given out for children with excellent achievements!" Julie looked at me seriously.

    "The top scorer of the annual National Mecha Pilot Academy entrance test will win 1000 SCPs for the n/family he/she represents and 10 SCPs personally."

    "Hmmm. I see. No wonder the old man wanted me to beat the Lin Family so badly. Losing to them would mean that they get an SCP advantage on the Whitefrost n for that particr event. What''s the difference between hard and soft though?" I asked.

    "HCPs are permanent. We can im the rewards and favors against those points but they will remain in our n record. SCPs, however, disappear once we use them.

    So for example we have 500,000 CLAIMED HCPs, 500,000 UNCLAIMED HCPs and 500,000 SCPs. We would have a buying power of 1,000,000 contribution points. (500,000 unimed HCP and 500,000 SCP) If we use up the 1,000,000 contribution points to, let''s say, buy the right to set up and govern a new city, what would happen is that the 500,000 unimed HCPs would be 500,000 CLAIMED HCPs, and the 500,000 SCPs would be used up.

    After that transaction we would be left with only 1,000,000 imed HCPs." Julie exined.

    "Finally, SCPs can be converted to HCPs at a ratio of 10:1. That means 500,000 SCPs can be converted to 50,000 HCP at any time." Julie said.

    "The implication is simple. If you want to raise your n/family level, you need to contribute significantly to the country. However, having arge amount of SCPs is also beneficial. Who knows when a treasure or a priceless City Build Order bes avable for sale?"

    I nodded. The world of the upper ss was definitely much bigger and infinitely moreplex than mine. Even with the addition of the red mecha core, my life was still rtively simple.

    It went from having to focus on finding enough scraps to trade for food, to having to look for mechas to absorb and power up.

    Of course having a family and school to attend adds to theplexity of my life a little bit. But they were niceplexities to have.

    "Don''t let the issue with the contribution points bother you though." Julie said. "Win or lose, it doesn''t matter. Just make sure you do your best and pass the test."

    I nodded and smiled at her appreciatively.

    Julie was actually a pretty kind girl. But they did say that the nicest people make for the vilest demons when they fall.

    I guess that saying is true.

    Very soon, I found myself standing in front of a massive¡­ I didn''t know what to call it. Calling it a building or a skyscraper seemed rather inappropriate. It was far toorge and far too grand to bebelled as a mere building.

    Citadel. That''s right, it was definitely as big and as grand as a citadel.

    It was a hundred storeys tall and covered an area of several square kilometers.

    It was massive.

    But the citadel was just the main building.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The National Mecha Pilot Academy actually took up an entire mountain range,plete with eight natural mountains, vast valleys and an incrediblyrgeke that looked more like a small ind sea than ake.

    The test took ce somewhere within one of the valleys near the main building.

    Emma and James could only watch me through a video feed in an auditorium where all the rtives of the participants were gathered.

    I nced at therge mass of kids that were all clustered in groups, talking,ughing, ying and some even fighting with each other. We made for a pretty interesting sight.

    Close to a hundred thousand ten year olds in ck tracksuits gathered in a valley with absolutely no adult supervision. What on earth was happening?

    Near me was a mid-sized group of five kids. There were two boys and three girls, and all looked totally different from each other. Tall, short, fat, thin, pretty, handsome, ugly, dark, fair, curly hair, short hair, no hair¡­ They were all represented in that group of ten.

    The biggest boy who represented tall, fat, dark, ugly and no hair saw me look at them curiously and gave me a friendly smile.

    "Hello. My name is Andrew from the Big Star Merchant Group. These are all my teammates." He said while gesturing at the rest of his team. "What''s your name? Are you alone?"

    "Hey there." I said with a smile of my own. "My name is Justin, and yes, I am alone."

    "Want to join us? Whatever the tests will be, it will be safer if we travel in a group." Andrew offered generously.

    "Sure. Thanks for that, brother." I agreed, immediately marking him as a potential nice guy.

    "Wee brother." The other boy nodded and said in a friendly voice. He represented tall, thin, handsome and curly hair. "My name is Kenny."

    "Hi Justin! I''m Fey." A pretty girl with brown hair and bright eyes greeted me.

    "Hello Justin! I''m Sera." A plump girl smiled at me.

    "Tes." The final girl merely told me her namezily. She was ying with a couple of small rocks, throwing and catching them at the same time in a pretty impressive disy of dexterity.

    "Thanks for having me." I told them politely.

    "Which organization are you from?" Andrew asked.

    "White Tiger Hunters." I replied. Emma had told me to avoid using Whitefrost n when interacting with the kids in the entrance test.

    "The Whitefrost n is a pretty strong n in the country. We have many enemies. If our enemies find out that you''re from the n, they might hinder you and make you fail. We have our own contingent of participants from many of our affiliate organizations, but you''re our secret weapon, so you won''t be going with them. The White Tiger Hunters is a small hunting group secretly managed by the Whitefrost n. Just use their name." Emma had said.

 Chapter 53 I Am So Victimized!!

    Andrew simply nodded. There were too many organizations in the country, not hearing of the White Tiger Hunters before was normal. In fact with such a huge number participating in the entrance test, actually meeting a group you know would be extraordinary.

    The day was shaping up to be extremely extraordinary indeed because I spied not one, but two groups nearby that I actually recognized!

    "Hey, are they¡­ the Wang family?" I pointed at two cute girls with striking red hair.

    "Ah yes! They are the Wang family''s Twin Phoenixes! Elise Wang and Eliana Wang." Andrew replied with a voice filled with awe. "My father said that they would probably bag the first and second spot this year."

    Because Andrew didn''t bother to lower his voice when speaking, the two girls heard what he said very clearly. Like a princess bestowing her favor upon a plebeian viger, one of them turned and gave him a small smile.

    "Sh-she actually smiled at me!!" Andrew gasped and smiled back foolishly.

    "Hmph! Your father must be a senile old man if he thinks that the two weirdos will take first and second ce!" An arrogant voice rang out.

    I turned around and was surprised that I actually recognized the owner of that voice too! Emma had shown me pictures of all the heirs of the big families and forced me to memorize them on the way to the Academy.

    "Remember them, and make sure you sabotage them if and when you get the chance." Emma had said. "Especially Victor Long from the Long family. He is a rarely seen genius, and has the potential to be the best of our generation.

    "Victor Long!" Andrew glowered. But he didn''t say anything else. Victor Long was from the Long family, and they could easily destroy the entire Big Star Merchant Group in half a day if they wished to.

    However, I wasn''t from the Big Star Merchant Group. And that moment seemed like an excellent opportunity to get into a fight with the heir of the Long family and "identally" disable him.

    "What? Not happy? You''re just a no-name loser. Get out of my sight you dog shit licker!! Go home to your loser of a dad and your whore of a mom!" Victor Long spat at Andrew cruelly.

    I hate proud bastards from high society like him. Even if Emma didn''t tell me to sabotage him, I would have definitely done so anyway.

    "Really? You must know that because YOUR father is the glorious leader of the country''s old and senile association! And why do I find your face so familiar? OH THAT''S RIGHT! Your mother is the prostitute I took pity on from the streets! I paid her two potatoes to wash the butt of my old and senile gardener! What is the son of a butt-washer doing here?" I taunted him viciously.

    "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Victor Long roared furiously at me. He was so angry that his face turned red and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets!

    "Butt-washer! Your mommy is a hairy butt-washer!" I shouted at him. "Your father is old and senile! He''s probably having indecent rtions with all the other old and senile old men in his old folk''s home!"

    Giggles and suppressedughter began to ring out all around us. Imagining the Madam of the Illustrious Long Family as a hairy-butt-washer probably made for an entertaining thing to imagine. The other image was probably too indecent for the little kids to imagine.

    "GAAAHHHH!!!" Victor Long charged at me furiously! Behind him, all thirty plus kids representing the Long family contingent charged at me as well.

    Holy smokes. I didn''t expect that every single kid from the Long family contingent would be so reckless!! "Where are the rational ones who should be pulling these kids back and preventing a fight from breaking out?!" I cried out indignantly in my heart.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But it was toote for regrets. Well, it wasn''t like I had many regrets, I knew I was impervious to damage caused by cute little angry ten year olds. But being jumped at by over thirty kids wasn''t a nice way to start my entrance test.

    BAM! Victor''s left hook smashed into my face, causing me to take half a step back.

    CRACK!!

    "ARRGGHHHHH!!!!" Victor shrieked in pain and copsed. He probably broke all of his knuckles.

    BAM!! A vicious flying kick smashed into my chest at full force.

    CRACK!!!

    "OOOOOOOGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" The poor boy who unleashed that beautiful flying kick probably broke his foot. He too crumpled next to Victor.

    BAM! ARGHH!!

    BAM! AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

    BAM! AAAHHHHHH!!!

    Three more kids had to break their bones before the entire Long family contingent halted their advance.

    Iter learnt that four out of the five were direct heirs of the Long family when they gave the old man a visit toin about my actions. The old man had merely listened gravely and said nothing. After the Long family left, he gave me a hundred million dors for a job well done, and for giving his old soul such a marvelous treat.

    (Author''s Note: Omg old man, give the author some too please. Old man: Shut up and keep writing! TT_TT)

    I stood over the moaning, groaning and whimpering heirs of the Long family and began to wail even louder than them.

    "Is this how the Long family treats other people? By sending thirty to attack a single person?! Oh what a painful experience it is for me! The trauma I would carry for the rest of my days! The horror of having to stand my ground against thirty, no forty of the Long family''s best and bravest! Ah! Woe! Woe to me! The pain! The blinding pain! Someone help me! Please!!" I shouted shamelessly.

    "Errr¡­ Brother Justin." Andrew tapped my shoulder from behind.

    "Brother Andrew! You saw what happened right? The Long family contingent suddenly ALL rushed at me and attacked me!" I shouted and shook him by the shoulders. "I''m the victim here! I''m so victimized by the Long family!"

    "Ye-YES! I saw it with my own eyes! The Long family contingent attacked brother Justin first!" Andrew shouted in surprise at my sudden move to shake him so hard.

 Chapter 54 Ten Year Old Demons

    I continued to shake him hard.

    "Vi-Victim! Brother Justin is the victim here! Guys, do you agree?!" Andrew turned and roared at his teammates.

    "YES! BROTHER JUSTIN IS A VICTIM!" They shouted in chorus.

    "Wang family!" I cried dramatically at the two girls and the group of kids who were standing nervously behind them. "You saw what happened right? They attacked me first! And without any provocation whatsoever from me!!"

    "Ah yes. I saw everything." A red-haired twin confirmed with a giggle.

    "I will make sure I make a full and clear report to my parents after the entrance test is over." The other one said and smiled at me beautifully.

    "Excellent! Thank you very much! Please make sure that justice is served!" I told the twins and turned to look at the Long family contingent who had ugly expressions on their faces.

    If we were allowed to bring our own personal things to the test, I would have extorted each and every Long family representative there out of all their valuables. Too bad we weren''t allowed to bring anything.

    I sighed deeply in regret.

    There was nothing else I could do.

    My task wasplete and I had to let them go.

    But of course, I wouldn''t let them go without a final "kiss goodbye".

    "THE LONG FAMILY HAD SHAMELESSLY ATTACKED AND BULLIED ME, A POOR, POWERLESS, HELPLESS NOBODY!" I shouted shamelessly.

    "THEY ABUSED THEIR GREATER NUMBER TO SURROUND ME AND BEAT ME UP! LOOK AT MY WOUNDS!" I showed the watching crowd my wlessly smooth arm. "OH MY HORRIBLE, HORRIFIC WOUNDS!"

    "I AM SO DISTRESSED! I AM SO TRAUMATIZED! I CAN BARELY STAND DUE TO MY PHYSICAL WOUNDS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA!" I shouted energetically, my voice reverberating clearly all throughout the valley.

    By then, all eyes were on me.

    "LONG FAMILY BULLIES! STOP BULLYING ME! STOP IT! STOP IT! I CAN''T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!" I shouted as I took a threatening step towards them.

    As one, they got up, grabbed the Long family heirs, and escaped before they ended up vomiting blood out of sheer anger!

    Who was bullying who, brother???

    And as they mbered off, a ragged cheer went up from the crowd who were watching us!

    "Well done! Good riddance!"

    "Wahahaha! It''s actually my first time seeing the Longs running away! Awesome! Awesome!!"

    "Good morning children." A gentle woman''s voice boomed from the sky immediately after that. It was as though the voice was waiting for the debacle I had instigated to be over first before speaking.

    Knowing her, it was probably exactly what she did.

    As one, over a hundred thousand heads swivelled up to look at the source of the voice.

    It was from an exquisite white mecha!

    A collective gasp sounded from all the kids. It was impossible not to have a reaction to such a powerful and glorious looking mecha.

    The mecha was a light white mecha, as evidenced by itsck of heavy armor and rtively small stature at around sixty meters. Most white mechas were around a hundred meters tall.

    However, its angr and sharp design gave it a fearsome and dangerous feel that far outstripped the feeling of danger exuded by the white mecha I had absorbed from Amelia Dragonos.

    Coated white with sky blue trim, it was singrly the best looking mecha I had everid my eyes upon.

    It slowly descended into the valley andnded at an empty area near the entrance.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Wee to the entrance test for the National Mecha Pilot Academy. I am Veronica Wu, your examiner for today. I am one of the Academy''s three hundred Senior Teachers and my National Pilot Rank is 11,290."

    Another gasp sounded from the kids. But this time, it was much louder than before. I had no idea then why it was so. How could I? Nobody told me about the National Pilot Ranking System and what a ranking of 11,290 meant.

    "There are one hundred ten thousand four hundred fourteen of you here this morning, hailing from all over the Federation.

    Only five thousand of you will be epted by the end of today. So prepare your hearts. There is more than a 95% chance that you won''t be selected today.

    Alright enough dilly dallying. Let''s start the first test of the day. Physical fitness."

    Physical fitness??

    My mouth had already curled into a smile even before she pointed at the nearest mountain.

    "Get to the peak of that mountain before I finish my lunchter. If you arrive after I am done eating, you would be disqualified. Ready? Go."

    With that, she took to the skies once more and remained there to oversee our progress.

    The moment she did that, mayhem erupted.

    Whoever said that ten year olds are cute and adorable had obviously never seen a National Mecha Pilot Academy entrance test before.

    None of the ten year olds taking part in that test was cute or adorable.

    None.

    Zero.

    Zilch.

    Yes, not even me.

    The valley we were in was quiterge. However, the entrance of the valley leading up to the mountain which Veronica Wu had pointed at earlier was rather narrow.

    It would be difficult for so many kids to leave quickly. Still, we could have easily left the valley in a matter of minutes if we all did it in a neat and orderly fashion.

    But of course leaving the valley in a neat and orderly fashion was thest thing in our minds.

    Once Veronica Wu said "Go", ten year old kids transformed into ten year old demons.

    Iter found out that fifty seven kids had died in our attempt to leave the valley alone. The rush to leave the valley was a deadly one.

    Unfortunately for me, I was situated deep within the valley and was rather far away from the exit.

    "Stick close to me." I told the group and began to use my insane strength to part the crowd, pushing them away strongly and allowing the group of five to follow after me before the crowd closed behind them once more.

    By the time I bullied my way out of the valley, more than half of the kids were already rushing up the mountain.

    "Brother Justin, thank goodness we have you in our team!" Fey said as she kept close to me.

    "Yes, without you, we would never make it out of the valley as quickly." Sera agreed.

    "No problem!" I told them.

    The mountain was not a punishing one to climb. In fact, the slope we found ourselves in was rather gentle. Trees were even able to grow, providing a firm ground for us to run on. Even six year olds won''t have trouble climbing it, much less ten year olds like us.

    The only problem was, a gentle slope means a much longer distance to cover before we can reach the peak. A steeper slope, though much harder to climb and much more dangerous, would also be much faster to traverse.

    Should I take the steep slope?

 Chapter 55 Beyond Scary Mom

    If I only aimed to pass the test, I would definitely just take the easy way out and jog my way up with the rest of the kids. But I needed to defeat the Lin Family heir! If not, I wouldn''t have bacon for the rest of the year!

    But still, Andrew had generously invited me to join their group when I was alone and had no idea what the test would be. To leave them then after knowing that I could ace the test by myself would be a despicable act.

    I sighed deeply and prepared to say goodbye to my bacons.

    "Justin, you should go ahead first." Andrew said.

    "What? No, we''re a group. We should stick together." I said firmly.

    "No, you''re destined to do well in this test." Andrew shook his head. "I''ll be damned if I be the obstacle of the brightest rising star of our generation. If you value our friendship, then you should listen to me and go."

    I frowned lightly and considered his words silently.

    "It''s not betrayal brother Justin." Kenny said with a smile. "We''re not suffering from any loss with your departure. And if we don''t let you go and achieve your highest potential, then WE would be the ones betraying you."

    "You should go, brother Justin." Fey and Sera said almost at the same time.

    "Hmmm." Tess nodded in agreement.

    "Well in that case, I''ll go ahead first." I said reluctantly, but also with an increasing sense of excitement.

    "Maybe it''s not goodbye after all, dearest bacons!" My heart sang.

    "No problems, Brother Justin! You''ve already done enough. See you at the top!" Andrew promptly replied.

    "See you at the top!" The rest said.

    I nodded at them, swerved sharply to my right and began to make my way towards the steeper slope.

    By the time I reached the rocky slope nted at a dangerous sixty degrees, I realized that quite a few of the ten year old kids had the same idea as me. There were at least ten kids ahead of me and another twenty behind me.

    If you were a bad climber, jogging up the gentle slope would be a much better and faster option. However, if you were a good climber, climbing up the steep slope would save you at least an hour''s worth of climbing.

    I was not a good climber in terms of techniques. Heck, I had NO techniques.

    But I was by far the strongest person in the entire mountain. And by merit of that fact alone, I was THE best climber there.

    I got on all fours on that steep 60-degree slope and began to make my way up.

    Within a few seconds, my near superhuman physique allowed me to catch up to the first group ahead of me.

    "See ya guys up top!" I called out in a friendly voice as I overtook them from the side.

    "F*** you and your whole family!" The lead boy of the group cursed at me.

    I was aghast. What''s with the unwarranted hostility?

    I sighed and ignored them.

    "Jealousy is such a vile poison for the soul." Imented sadly.

    Very soon, the next group appeared in front of me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "See you guys up top!" I called out in a friendly voice once more and smiled at the lead girl.

    "Shut your dirty mouth you freaking moron!" She cursed at me vehemently.

    I flinched at her vicious words and left the second jealous group behind quickly.

    After two full minutes, I finally caught up to another group. They were resting as best they could on such a steep slope. Thankfully, there were manyrge rocks all around, so they could at least lean on those rocks to rest their muscles and catch their breath.

    It was the Wang family group.

    "Hey! What''s up?" I called out excitedly. Surely the Wang Family group wouldn''t curse me like the other two nameless groups?

    One of the twins nced my way and then smiled beautifully. "Hey there! Fancy seeing you here. You must be a pretty good climber to be able to catch up to us!"

    "Ha ha ha. Not so much. I was just lucky to be born slightly stronger than the others." I said half humbly and half proudly.

    "You''re definitely much stronger than you look." The second twin looked at me in marvel. "Justin, right? I am Elise Wang. My twin sister is Eliana Wang."

    "Nice to meet you!" I greeted them politely.

    "Which organization are you from?" Eliana Wang asked me curiously as she beckoned me to join their group.

    "I am from the White Tiger Hunters." I replied as I made my way closer to them.

    "Ah. I see." Eliana Wang said.

    But at that moment I felt that the aura around her and Elise Wang had chilled considerably.

    "They know that the White Tiger Hunters belong to the Whitefrost n!" I realized and froze.

    The two girls stared at me and realized that I knew that they knew too.

    For a moment, we stared at each other, gauging and considering. Finally, the girls snapped out of any delusions of grandeur on their part and simply epted reality.

    There was nothing that they could do to me. In fact, it was the other way around. If I wanted to, I could kill them all right there and then.

    Elise Wang sighed deeply with regret. "Just go then."

    However, I remained silent and continued to stare at them as I considered my options. Should I attack them so that they would not threaten my pursuit for first ce in this exam? I wondered.

    ? Wait a minute. Elise WANG?

    "Hey, is your mom Jessical Wang?" I asked them.

    The two girls nodded lightly and frowned. "Why is this dumbo asking such an obvious question?" Their expressions seemed to say.

    I sighed. Their mom was beyond scary. She even dared to call the old man and scream at him and call him names.

    If she dared to do that to the crazy old man, she would definitely have no qualms carving ME up into pieces if I pissed her off.

    There was no way I''m doing anything to their daughters!

 Chapter 56 I CALL DI-

    "Okay fine. I''m off then." I quickly turned around and resumed my rapid climb.

    "What is he on? He is so strong!" One of the girls in their team eximed.

    "Yes, so strong!"

    "Oh my god, look at that! His arm strength is incredible!"

    "He must be cheating. He''s probably on high grade steroids."

    "There is no way anybody can get away with cheating in this test. He must be a fool if he''s cheating."

    "What an idiot."

    "Yeah, biggest idiot I''ve ever seen."

    I nearly puked blood listening to them suddenly call me an idiot mere seconds after praising me.

    Truly, we would be miserable if we lived our lives caring about what other people say about us!

    I continued to climb tirelessly.

    Apparently, the Wang family was in first ce because I didn''t meet anybody else for the remainder of my climb.

    After a full hour of non-stop climbing I finally reached the peak!

    "UWAHHH!!! Finally!!" I stretched my almost-aching limbs and jumped around the beautiful mountain peak energetically.

    I looked around and realized that the peak of the mountain was actually arge teau. Large enough tofortably fit a few thousand kids, maybe even ten or twenty thousand of them, but definitely nowhererge enough for a hundred thousand.

    "Miss Veronica must be somewhere adjusting her eating speed ording to the progress of the top few thousand kids." I chuckled out loud.

    VOOOOOOOOOOOO... BOOM!

    Veronica Wu''s exquisite white mechanded gently around thirty meters away from me.

    Her cockpit hatch opened and a drop-dead gorgeous woman in a red tracksuit leapt out of it with great agility. My jaw dropped as I watched hernd on the ground lightly.

    Agile, nimble and extremely beautiful. What an asset to the world!

    Whoosh!

    In a blink of an eye, she appeared before me.

    She must have executed a movement technique to get to me so quickly.

    What a formidable woman!

    I''ve only met her for a few short seconds and already, my heart was already full of praise.

    "Hi there kiddo!" Veronica Wu smiled at me brightly and ruffled my hair as though I was just a little boy.

    "Hi Miss Veronica!" I replied with an equally bright voice of my own.

    "You''re too early by over an hour. Do you want to share my lunch with me?" She asked me generously.

    "OF COURSE!" I shouted just a tad too enthusiastically.

    Junkyard scrappers never reject offers of food if it was from a safe source!

    Veronica Wu chuckled and motioned for me to follow her. "Tell me about yourself while I prepare our meal."

    "My name is Justin and I am from the White Tiger Hunters." I began.

    "You mean the Whitefrost n." She said with augh.

    "Ah yes. Ha ha. I guess it''s not so much of a secret. So many people know about it, I wonder why they even bother to tell me to say that I am from the White Tiger Hunters." I remarked ruefully.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "It''s still useful to hide your identity from the low and middle ss groups. But most of the high ss participants were probably briefed on the different secret affiliate organizations of their rivals. You must be a neer if you don''t know about all this." Veronica said.

    "I see. Yes I am new. I just joined the Whitefrost n a few days ago." I nodded at her while I watched her quickly set up a pic for us.

    "Come, sit and let''s enjoy an early lunch." Veronica told me.

    "Thank you very much!" I sat down near her and epted a wrapped sandwich eagerly.

    "The Whitefrost n is extremely lucky to have found such a formidable kid like you." Veronica Wumented.

    I was wolfing down the sandwich like a starved peasant, so I couldn''t answer her.

    "Did they offer you to be a ck Dragon candidate?" Veronica Wu gave me a sly look.

    COUGH! COUGH! COUGH!

    I began to choke and cough in surprise.

    "I''ll take that as a yes." Sheughed and passed me a bottle of water. "Here, have a drink."

    "Thanks!" I sighed after I cleared all the stuff that''s stuck on my throat. "How did you know?"

    Veronica Wu smiled and tossed me a ck token.

    I caught it and realized that it looked almost exactly the same as the Gold Whitefrost Family Token which the old man gave me. An ornate "W" adorned both sides of the token.

    "You''re a ck Dragon!" I gasped.

    Veronica Wu nodded.

    "Why are you telling me this? Isn''t it supposed to be a secret?" I asked.

    "There''s no one here. My mecha has the most powerful jamming system in ce so they won''t be able to see or hear us this close to it. I am telling you because I want you in my faction." Veronica Wu said simply.

    "Faction?" I asked as I tossed her ck Dragon Token back at her.

    She nced up and looked far into the distance. "You''ll know once you finish the entrance test. When that momentes, remember to pick my faction. Remember not to tell anyone about us."

    I nodded and stared at the spot she was staring at.

    "Those old fogeys sure respond quickly when something good appears." Veronica Wu said sourly.

    Very soon and with surprising speed, a few dots appeared on the horizon and quickly became huge white mechas thatnded near us.

    BOOM!

    BOOM!

    BOOM!

    Three white mechas.

    Three "old fogeys" with white hair came out of the mechas and made their way to us.

    "HA HA HA! Another physical freak has arrived!" A big and muscr old man in white pantsughed happily as he scrutinized me from head to toe. He was bare-bodied and had numerous horrible-looking scars all over his body. He was alsopletely bald, had white mustache and long white beard which made him look rather aged and wise.

    If not for his hyper sneaky, cunning and sly-looking eyes of course.

    One nce at him and I knew that this "old fogey" is a shameless master of deceit and maniption!

    "I CALL DI-"

    SMACK!

    The old woman next to him smashed her long staff on his bald head!

 Chapter 57 I Will Stay Here

    "No you''re not calling dibs, you miserable old coot!" The old woman snapped at him.

    She was tall, slender and had a headful of lush winter-white hair. She was wearing a white outfit that made her look otherworldly and mysterious. I could tell immediately that she was once an earth-shattering beauty. Even in her obvious advanced age, she still looked amazing.

    In a grandmotherly sort of way, of course. But amazing.

    "Hey, don''t smack my head in front of the kids!" The muscr old man frowned and chided the beautiful old woman.

    SMACK!

    "I''m going to smack you whenever and wherever I like!" The old woman snapped irritably at him. "If you don''t want to get smacked, then stay away from me!"

    "I AM staying away from you! YOU''RE the one who''s following me!" The old muscr old manined like a little boy. "How am I supposed to maintain my distance when you''re following me around like a duckling? Don''t tell me that you''ve finally fallen fo-"

    SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

    "Follow your head! Fallen your head! You perverted old man!" The old woman unleashed a barrage of staff techniques that the old man was barely able to dodge.

    "They were once a couple." Veronica Wu whispered loudly to me. "But many years ago when they were still young, Elder White, the olddy, caught Elder Liam, the old man, with another woman. She dumped him and she had been smacking him with her staff whenever he got within range ever since. Everytime. Without fail."

    "Enough." The third "old fogey" said in a raspy voice. This time, the third old fogey truly was an old fogey. He was slightly hunched, his head was filled with sparse, stringy white hair, and every inch of his time-worn skin was wrinkled beyond belief.

    He was wearing a white outfit simr to Elder White, but with gold trim instead of red.

    Elder White sighed and withdrew her staff which was about to smash Elder Liam''s head. Strangely, even after being hit multiple times, Elder Liam''s head was totally fine.

    "Elder White. Elder Liam. Grand Elder Xing." Veronica Wu bowed in greeting.

    I immediately copied her actions and bowed as well.

    "Senior Teacher Veronica." Elder White greeted her back and smiled gently.

    "Who do we have here?" Elder Liam asked eagerly like a little kid about to open his Christmas present.

    "This is Justin from the White Tiger Hunters." Veronica Wu introduced me formally.

    "Ah a Whitefrost brat! I like you already!" Elder Liam eximed happily. "Your senior brother, Jeremy, is in my faction!"

    "Hey! No recruiting is allowed before the "Bazaar"!" Elder White shouted at Elder Liam. Her hand which was gripping her staff twitched lightly.

    "I''m not recruiting him. I was merely expressing my admiration for his background and telling him the fact that his senior brother is in my faction, which coincidentally is a faction which favors unarmed melee-"

    "Ehm." Grand Elder Xing coughed lightly.

    "Ah yes. Grand Elder Xing, would you like to speak with young Justin here?" Elder Liam hastily changed the subject.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Grand Elder Xing, for all his aged look and weak, raspy voice, moved gracefully like a wild tiger. He made his way closer towards me and looked straight into my eyes.

    I felt a slight shiver run down my spine at Grand Elder Xing''s cold and prating gaze.

    "What is your name, boy?" He rasped.

    "My name is Justin, Grand Elder!" I replied promptly.

    "Which organization are you from?" He continued to ask, all the while keeping his sharp gaze on me.

    "I am from the Whitefrost n." I said and prepared my heart for the real question.

    I knew the first two questions would be questions which had obvious answers to see my natural reaction. The real question woulde after that, and if my reactions were suspiciously different, then I would be caught lying.

    "How did you get so strong?" Grand Elder Xing asked casually.

    Here we go.

    "I ingested a weird looking pill I found in the coat pocket of a skeleton in a junkyard. I''ve been strong ever since." I answered without hesitation.

    Technically I wasn''t lying. The red mecha core WAS round like a pill.

    Grand Elder Xing nodded in approval after detecting no traces of falsehood in my words. Although extremely strange, it was not an impossible urrence.

    "A junkyard scrapper!" Elder Liam cried out in pleasant surprise. "That''s it. I''m putting my foot down on this. He is a PERFECT fit-"

    "Elder Liam. Please remind me, what is the third use in Chapter Fifteen of the Staff Regtion Book regarding recruitment of Faction Disciples? I seem to have forgotten it." Grand Elder Xing red at Elder Liam coldly.

    "AH HAHAHA! If even the Grand Elder has forgotten it, how can I, a mere Elder, dare to remember it! I forgot it as well! I forgot! Hahahaha! Ah! I seem to remember that I have an urgent matter to deal with. I''ll be taking my leave first. Grand Elder Xing. Elder White. Senior Teacher Veronica. And... Justin. See you allter! HAHAHA!" Elder Liam immediately ran to his white mecha, flew off in a burst of eleration and disappeared into the horizon within seconds.

    "Justin. I do apologize for that old coot- Ah, I mean Elder Liam." Elder White smiled benevolently at me. "You did a great job reaching here so quickly. I think you broke the record by almost an hour!"

    "By sixty three minutes at three seconds, Elder White." Veronica Wu corrected her.

    "By over an hour!" Elder White beamed. "Excellent job. Excellent job indeed."

    "Good job young man. It''s been a while since any of our entrance exam records got broken. The Dragon Prince will definitely be interested in you. Justin eh? I will remember that name." Grand Elder Xing nodded, turned around and left.

    "Well. It''s a good day to be out. I believe I will stay here and enjoy the view with the both of you!" Elder White announced and smiled at Veronica Wu''s quickly souring face.

    Of course Veronica Wu was only putting on an act. She thought that she had already secured my faction choice by revealing that she was a ck Dragon.

 Chapter 58 The Lins

    "Well, since it''ll be a rather long wait until the other kids reach this ce, why don''t we y a game to make the time pass a little bit faster?" Elder White "suggested" with a yful gleam in her eyes.

    Being the highest ranked person in our little group of three, of course we had to agree.

    "Sure, Elder White, let''s y a game." Veronica Wu agreed readily.

    "Yes, Elder White!" I agreed as well.

    "This game is called ''Catch the finger''." Elder White said. "I will ce my finger vertically on your open palm. Your goal is to catch my finger and my goal is to avoid being caught. We both only have one try at catching and escaping. If I escape before you make a move, I lose. It''s very simple. Veronica, why not you and I have a go first and let the little kid take a look."

    "Why not?" Veronica Wu''s eyes shed eagerly as herpetitive spirit began to burn.

    She opened her right palm and Elder White ced her right index finger pointing vertically down in the center of Veronica''s palm.

    "Ready when you are." Elder White said and focused on Veronica''s hand.

    Whoosh!

    Veronica Wu jerked her hand and clenched her fist so fast that I could hear the sound of the wind when her fingers moved.

    However, Elder White was much too fast for her. Veronica Wu lost!

    "Alright. Justin, your turn. Try and catch my finger. If you can catch it, I will give you a reward!" Elder White said.

    "Reward? I''m game!" I thought to myself.

    I quickly stretched out my left hand and Elder White got her finger in position.

    "Ready when you are." Elder White said.

    Knowing that Elder White was watching my arm and hand muscles like a hawk to get an indication of when I wanted to make my move, I tensed my arm muscle slightly, and caused Elder White''s finger to twitch.

    I tensed my arm muscles again, and Elder White''s finger twitched again.

    Veronica Wu giggled lightly.

    I repeated that for two more times before finally making a move right when Elder White''s finger was twitching. In addition, I also moved my hand up while my fingers were closing.

    "GOTCHA!!!" I shouted excitedly.

    "WELL DONE!" Veronica Wu shouted and leapt up while pumping her fist. "YES!!!"

    Elder White looked at her finger which was undeniably caught in my hand in shock. She definitely did not expect to be yed and defeated by a mere ten year old.

    "Well done." She finally said. "Did you already know that the only way to seed is to move your hand up while closing your fist the way you did earlier?"

    "Ah, not really. I sort of did that by instinct." I said.

    "Absurdly fit and strong, cunning, sneaky and able to understand the unsaid." She nodded in approval. "The Whitefrost n really got their hands on a gem this time."

    She took a little box from her pocket and tossed it to me. "Your reward, as promised. You can use it or sell it for academy credits, up to you."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Thank you, Elder White!" I said gratefully as I caught the little box.

    "Last game before I go." Elder White continued. "This is called avoid my staff."

    "Huh?" I immediately had a really strong premonition that something bad was about to happen.

    I was right.

    Whoosh!

    Her staff came swinging towards my head!

    I quickly ducked, rolled away and got up. Just in time to parry her staff which was swinging towards me at a much higher speed than before!

    Ding! The staff hit my prosthetic right arm.

    However, that was as far as I managed. Her next three strikes came so fast and in such weird angles that I couldn''t even react.

    "Really badbat skills though." Elder White sighed deeply. "I guess you couldn''t be too greedy and expect to have everything in one package."

    It was then I realized that Elder White was merely testing me!

    "Talk about being cunning and sneaky." I grumbled to myself.

    But still, I got a "small" reward out of it, so I guess I had nothing toin about.

    "Continue to do your best in the following segments of the entrance test. I will be keeping tabs on you, so don''t disappoint me!" Elder White said before leaving in her white mecha.

    After her mecha disappeared over the horizon, I went back to sit down next to Veronica.

    "What was that really about, Miss Veronica?" I nced at Veronica Wu questioningly.

    "Those three old fogeys are from three different factions." She exined. "They came to take a look at the record breaker and to get advance information to report to their faction leaders."

    "I see. What are factions?" I asked curiously.

    "You''ll get a full exnationter on." She said mysteriously as she stood up. "For now, we have to greet our second ced student! What a year this year is turning out to be! Two physical freaks!"

    I turned my head in surprise to look at the neer. It was a girl. A short haired, freckled little girl with beautiful eyes and a pretty smile. The only thing was, she wasn''t alone.

    "Make that three freaks!" Veronica Wu eximed happily. "Wee to the peak and congrattions on getting second and third ce!"

    "What? There''s already someone here?! Oh nooo..." The girl groaned. "Sheera! It''s all your fault! Slow down slow down slow down! See? All your nagging made me lose the record!"

    The first girl turned around and nagged at another girl who copsed next to her once she reached the peak. She was so tired that she couldn''t reply to her friend''s nagging.

    Veronica Wu appeared before them and handed them both a small bottle of water. "Here! Have a drink! I am not supposed to give any of the participants anything, but just for the few of you who broke the previous record by such a huge margin, I am making a special exception! What are your names, little girls?"

    "My name is Sherry Lin! This is my stupid cousin, Sheera Lin!" The first girl epted the small bottle without a word of thanks and proceeded to pour its contents on Sheera''s face!

 Chapter 59 I Am The Best

    "HEY!" Sheera yelled through her exhaustion. "Oh, hey - that actually feels good. Do it again!" Shemanded her cousin.

    "Again your head!" Sherry dropped the empty bottle on Sheera''s face.

    PLONK!

    "HEY! That hurts you know!" Sheera shouted. However she didn''t even bother to remove the bottle from her face. She was too tired!

    "I know. That''s exactly why I did it." Sherry replied smugly. "That''s your punishment for making me lose a prestigious record!"

    "You''re not a nice person, Sherry." Sheera told her cousin seriously. "You need to be nicer, or else you will not have any friends. And if you don''t have any friends to hangout with, then you''ll keep bothering me. That''s not a good thing at all."

    "I don''t need friends." Sherry scoffed. But she did stop pouring and dropping things on Sheera''s face. "I''m fine by myself."

    "No you''re not fine by yourself." Sheera replied automatically. "You''ll go crazy if you''re alone all the time. And if you go crazy, you''ll probably drag me to do crazy things. That''s also not a good thing at all."

    "Errr¡­ you girls want a sandwich?" Veronica Wu smiled at their childish conversation.

    "A sandwich sounds good." Sheera said from the ground.

    "No thank you, Miss Veronica. We''re fine." Sherry shook her head and declined.

    "Hey! I said a sandwich sounds good!" Sheera protested.

    "Shush. Weak bodied little girls like you have no say on what to eat after strenuous exercise." Sherry shushed her cousin.

    "Gahhh." Sheera just groaned in resigned eptance and closed her eyes.

    She seemed very used and resigned to her cousin''s domineering ways.

    "Well, if you change your mind, I still have five-"

    "Two!" I shouted. "You have two left, Miss Veronica."

    "What? I brought seven! And I only had one!" Veronica Wu stared at me in surprise.

    "Ah hahaha. I was hungry so I ate another three." I scratched my head sheepishly.

    "You¡­ Haiya." Veronica Wu could only sigh and shake her head helplessly. Her n on bribing the top few kids had disappeared into my stomach.

    "Hehehe."

    "Who are you?" Sherry asked while looking at me curiously. "Which organization are you from?"

    "I am Justin from the White Tiger Hunters." I gave her my standard answer.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "WHAT? WE LOST TO A WHITEFROST?!" Sherry shouted in shock as her eyes opened wide and bulged outwards creepily.

    "Ah shucks. This is bad." Sheera sat up with a big frown on her face. "Gramps won''t let this one pass easily. I might even get my allowance reduced!"

    "Justin from the Whitefrost n huh." Sherry narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized me from head to toe.

    "Finally her eyes got smaller!" I sighed internally. "That was creepy. I thought her eyes were about to pop out!"

    "You must be quite an important person for them to invest so many resources into making your body so strong." Sherry continued.

    "Who are you really? Uncle Jason''s bastard son? Or Uncle Phil''s? Oh! You must be the descendant of the crazy old man''s secret mistress! And you''re here to snatch the Whitefrost Inheritance from Emma and the other Whitefrost losers!" Sherry''s eyes shined at the her own make-belief fairytale on my background.

    "Stop making up stories about other people! Especially one as imusible as that!" Sheera snapped at Sherry and her absurd story. "He''s probably just a secret assassin assigned by the Long family to kill the crazy old man!"

    Veronica Wu chuckled at the two girls and their overactive imagination. "The Whitefrost n and the Lin Family are still at odds huh? Do you kids even know why?"

    I shook my head.

    The girls shook their heads too.

    "It doesn''t really matter why. Gramps promised to give me a Modr Mecha if I defeat all the Whitefrost kids in this entrance test. That''s a good enough reason for me to go all out!" Sherry said.

    "Modr Mecha? You mean the two hundred fifty billion dor mecha that''s the reward for the first prize in the Mecha Tournament?" I asked in surprise.

    "Hahahaha! What are you talking about? Do you think the Lin Family prints money? Of course not that one! That''s thetest and the best Modr Mecha produced by the National Mecha Corporation! Gramps merely promised the Lin Family''s own Modr Mecha. We produce mechas too you know, unlike your pathetic n." Sherry sneered at me.

    "Alright enough." Veronica Wu finally had enough of Sherry''s aggressiveness. "Compete with all your strength, that''s good. But there''s absolutely no need for insults. After all is said and done, we are still from the same country. The Whitefrost n depends on the Lin Family for mechas, but the Lin family depends on the Whitefrost n to lead our soldiers to victory. We are all brothers and sisters!"

    "The Lin family can lead our soldiers as well as the Whitefrost n." Sherry sulked, unwilling to go along with Veronica''s attempt to reconcile them with such an uneptable reason.

    Veronica Wu''s eyes gleamed slightly at her words. It was very slight, but I could feel a dash ofpetitiveness in her gaze as she looked at the two girls. But that feeling disappeared as quickly as it appeared, and the two girls did not detect anything.

    "Well! That''s the spirit! Don''t ever think that you''re second best until you''ve fought to your veryst drop of blood!" Veronica said encouragingly.

    "Yeah! I agree!" Sheera shouted passionately in agreement.

    "Hmph! I''ve never considered myself second best." Sherry said. "Whether it is theory or practice, closebat or marksmanship, as long as its rted to mechas, I''m definitely the best of the best!"

    "We''ll find out soon enough." Veronica Wu said with a mysterious smile.

    We all sat down near Veronica Wu''s white mecha and waited for the rest of the kids to finish their hike.

    Surprisingly, the fourth, fifth and sixth finished less than fifteen minutester. If they were in any other batch, they would have broken the previous record and came in first!

 Chapter 60 Weeding Out The Weak

    That particr year was definitely a massive gathering of dragons and phoenixes. Their names still resound with glory unmatched, even until now.

    Among all the great warriors that the National Mecha Pilot Academy produced and whom I consider my brothers and sisters, they are definitely my most bosom ones.

    However, that day, they were not yet my brothers and sisters. Oh no, especially not the ones that came in fourth, fifth and sixth.

    "Victor Long! Hailey Long! Gerald Long! Congrattions foring in fourth, fifth and sixth!" Veronica Wu warmly congratted them.

    I have to say, I was extremely impressed. They managed toplete their hike so quickly and in near record time even with the heavy injuries that I had infli- ehm, I mean, that they had inflicted upon themselves!

    The three of them were in a subdued mood and merely nodded at Veronica Wu.

    However, when they saw me, they immediately bristled with anger.

    "YOU!" Victor Long snarled and took a menacing step towards me.

    However, his rtives seemed to have grown a pretty decent set of brains in the hours after they ah, inflicted those injuries on themselves and during the hike. They held Victor Long back and whispered some things in his ear urgently.

    Probably reminding him of the pain and agony he felt when he broke his hands against my steel-like body.

    Whatever it was, it worked.

    Victor Long merely glowered at me after that andpletely ignored me.

    I gave a light chuckle and nced at Veronica Wu to check her reaction. Apparently she had the same idea as me and our eyes met. She grinned. I grinned.

    All hail the Whitefrost n. Haha.

    However, Veronica Wu had to keep up appearances. "AH look at you guys! You''re injured! Let me heal you!" Veronica Wu fussed over them and quickly injected a fast-acting serum which quickly mended their broken bones.

    "There! As good as new!" She beamed at the Longs who muttered their thanks and quickly sat down near the white mecha.

    After the arrival of the Longs, we had to wait for another hour before hundreds, then thousands of kids came rushing into the teau. After ny minutes, twenty thousand panting and half dead ten year olds were finally gathered at the peak.

    When that happened, Veronica Wu got on her mecha and made an announcement.

    "Sorry everyone, I have just finished my lunch. As of this moment, if you do not have any part of your body touching the peak of the mountain, you''re officially disqualified. Feel free to remain on the mountain side to enjoy the view. However, you have to leave the premises of the National Mecha Pilot Academy within 3 hours. If you''re found anywhere within the premises after 3 hours, you will be treated as a hostile enemy and will be dealt with appropriately. See you guys next time. Bye!"

    After that, Veronica Wu opened her cockpit hatch and stood on it while gazing down at the groaning bunch of kids all around her. They had given their all to rush up the mountain and were utterly exhausted.

    She kindly gave them a few minutes to rest and recover a little bit of their strength.

    I quickly took that time to scour the peak for Andrew, Kenny, Fey, Sera and Tes. After several minutes of looking around, just as I was about to give up finding them, I heard an excited but exhausted voice cry out.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Justin! Over here!"

    It was Fey! Beside her were the other four kids who were lying on the ground, totally spent. Strangely, although Fey looked tired as well, she was in a much better conditionpared to the other four.

    "Fey! Andrew Kenny Sera and Tes!" I said warmly as I made my way towards them. "It''s good to see you all here!"

    "Yeah, we were one of thest ones to make it here, thank God we gave all we had and sprinted the final hundred meters!" Fey said excitedly and began to tell me in brief what happened along the way. The rest were too tired to even say hi to me.

    "Good! Good! Let''s stick together from now on!" I said to them with a smile.

    However before Fey could reply, Veronica Wu''s voice thundered out once more from her white mecha.

    "Well done all of you. You have passed our physical fitness test! There are now only twenty thousand of you and after this next segment, less than ten thousand of you will remain. Before we begin, please take out your entrance exam tokens and raise them high.

    Come on, I don''t have all day! Right. Okay. That''s it.

    All of your tokens are now updated with points ording to how fast you made it here. Your next assignment is very simple. See that mountain over there? Get there with two updated tokens before I finish my midday snack. Ready? Go!"

    What a vicious test!

    Immediately after Veronica Wu finished her announcement, the entire peak exploded into a mess of shouts, screams and fighting.

    Many of theteers who were lying on the ground exhausted were especially unfortunate. They were set upon by vicious kids who sought easy prey. Even after their tokens were robbed, they were attacked again and again as the attackers had no idea whether they still had their tokens or not.

    Some of the smarter ones immediately dashed off the peak and prepared to ambush those who left the peakter on with their tokens.

    Othersunched surprise attacks on their buddies, friends and anyone close enough to be attacked.

    It was pure chaos, made much worse by the fact that those who managed to reach earlier were much more well rested and were generally fitter to begin with.

    The second segment was clearly designed to weed out the weak by doubling down on testing their fitness and adding a test on their ability to fight and make crucial decisions in times of massive pressure..

    "HIYAAAA!!!" A fancy roundhouse kick by a tall boy came flying my way. I dodged it easily and countered with a quick jab to his head.

    BAM!

    He fell down heavily onto the ground and fainted.

    I was about to lean down to free him of his exam token, when suddenly, I was attacked by two girls!

 Chapter 61 Battling An Elder

    A right hook and a low kick came flying my way. I met the right hook with my left hook and BAM! The impact of our hand collision broke her fist in many ces.

    "KYAAAAAA!!!" She screamed in agony.

    "KYAAAAAA!!!!" The second girl who sent a low kick my way screamed out as well! She probably felt like she kicked a wall with all her strength!

    Both girls copsed to the ground while clutching their broken hand and foot.

    I had thought that with three kids sprawled on the ground, the rest would be more cautious and would avoid attacking me.

    However, for some reason, the reverse was true. The ten year olds somehow saw me as a weak and easy target and kepting at me.

    Five kids came charging out of nowhere and attacked me together!

    I finally got tired of being so passive and proceeded to bash them up.

    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

    AHHH!

    GAGHHHHH!!

    I took their attacks without a care and punched them down ruthlessly. After those five, I went on to attack the kids around me and the group.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    I went on a short rampage and quickly disabled twenty to thirty kids who were unlucky enough to be in my way.

    My physique, even in that early stage of my life, was already one of, if not the strongest in the world. Those snot-faced ten year olds I attacked that day truly deserved pity and sympathy at the maximum degree.

    But the entrance test was extremely important to me.

    Bacon was at stake.

    After disabling so many, there was finally a little peace and quiet in my little area.

    "Guys, take their tokens and let''s go." I said seriously as I took one off the moaning body of a little scrawny boy who had the nerve to attack me earlier.

    "Yes let''s do that. Come on girls, let''s go!" Andrew agreed as he did the same to another boy.

    Together, we took the tokens we needed from the nearest kids and left the peak.

    We proceeded at a slow and steady jog with me at the very front. Andrew and Kenny took the rear to protect the team from rear sneak attacks.

    Every once in a while, a few unlucky kids wouldunch a sneak attack at me and I would instantly respond with a vicious jab that more often than not would break a bone or two.

    It was a tragic day for the city as thousands upon thousands of ten year olds wouldter leave the entrance exam with grave injuries, broken bones and worst of all, broken spirits.

    However, such was the struggle to reach to top in the overpopted Chinese Federation.

    It was a constant, bloody struggle for resources. Being THE top Mecha Pilot Academy in the country, it was normal that the National Mecha Pilot Academy''s entrance test would be so difficult to pass.

    With me easily taking down all the sneaky ambushers, the incredibly difficult second segment of the test became a breeze for us.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Very soon, we left the ambushers behind. At that point, Andrew immediately told me to go on ahead again.

    "Break the record for us, brother! Make sure that you be number one in this exam! Go! Go now!" Andrew urged me as the other four also voiced their agreement.

    "You''re not my brother if you allow me to hold you back this way!" Kenny shouted at me. "Go!"

    I smiled at them and felt extremely touched.

    "Alright, to justify my action, I will smash that record to smithereens!" I dered. "All of you take care! Don''t let up and get to the second peak as soon as possible!"

    With that, I dashed off, not knowing that I would not see most of them again for a very, very long time. If I knew then that I would not be seeing them for such a long time, I would probably have stayed with them and slowly make our way to the second peak. Afterall, even by doing that, I would still be first for that second segment.

    But life never turns out the way we want it to, so away I went, seeking to smash the second record once and for all time.

    Free to exert the full strength of my enhanced body, I immediately made extremely good time and reached the second peak within thirty short minutes.

    "HAPP!" I shouted as I leapt up high, cleared the final obstacle andnded on the peak with flourish.

    "JUSTIN! HA HA HA! I knew you would be first! Wee! WELCOME!!" Elder Liam stood up from his seat and greeted me excitedly with a loud voice.

    I gaped in surprise at Elder Liam and the rest of the Elders who were seatedfortably in arge gazebo. The gazebo was facing sixrge arenas divided into two rows, each with two practice mechas standing at the ready.

    I had not expected that the second peak was actually a mecha sparring arena!

    However, even as I was gaping at the presence of so many Elders in white uniform and the existence of the mecha sparring arenas, the Elders were gaping at me in surprise too.

    "What on earth is happening here? Did he just break the record for the second segment exam by a whole hour?"

    "I think you''re mistaken. It''s not an hour, it''s two hours!"

    "Incredible! I must recruit him to join my Tiger Faction at all costs!"

    "Hmph! Your faction is full of losers. Why would he join it? He should join my Mongoose Faction where his maximum potential can be achieved!"

    "HA! Don''t make meugh. Both your factions are loserspared to my Eagle Faction."

    "EAGLE FACTION? HAHAHA! You must be nuts. He should join my Shark Faction!"

    "Elders, please. We are not vegetable and fruit shopkeepers, let us not squabble over a mere boy like that." A soft but authoritative voice rang out.

    "Ah hahaha yes, yes of course, Grand Elder She!"

    "Of course! Of course!"

    All the squabbling elders immediately conveyed their agreement and then shut their mouths.

    I looked at the owner of the soft voice curiously. She looked really young, even younger than Veronica Wu who, by the way, was not present on that second peak.

    "Come this way, Justin and have a seat." Elder Liam pointed at the space between the gazebo and the arenas. "You can pick which Elder you want to battleter when the rest of the kids reach this ce."

    "WHAT? Battling an Elder?!" I shouted.

 Chapter 62 Breadsticks

    "AH HAHAHA! I shouldn''t have told you that, should I? Ooops!" Elder Liamughed and scratched his head sheepishly at his slip of tongue amid the frowns of the rest of the Elders."

    "Elder Liam! What''s the meaning of this? Are you trying to win his favor by giving him critical information before the event begins? Are you trying to break the rules set forth in the Staff Regtion Book! " Elder White stood up and attacked Elder Liam viciously with her words without a shred of mercy.

    Elder Liam''s face turned really ugly and there was even a slight tinge of fear as he nced at Grand Elder She nervously.

    "Oi you loathsome old woman! Why are you using me of purposely breaking the rules without understanding the situation? It was a slip of the tongue! A slip of the tongue!" Elder Liam shouted back at Elder White loudly.

    "Enough, both of you. Elder Liam, please refrain from further acts of misconduct. Purposely or not, I would be forced to take action if you do that again. Consider this my final warning. Elder White, let us be magnanimous today in front of our new students, shall we?"

    "Of course, Grand Elder She." Elder White replied smoothly with a bow and then sat down with a satisfied smirk on her face.

    "OF COURSE GRAND ELDER SHELLA!" Elder Liam shouted thankfully. "REST ASSURED IT WOULD NOT HAPPEN AGAIN! HAHAHA!"

    He shot Elder White a sharp re and then sat down with great relief.

    I watched the whole thing with amusement and of course with rapt attention. The politics of the higher ups are definitely something that the bottom feeders have to know in great detail if they want to survive and even thrive in any organization.

    I learnt that early as a bottom feeder junkyard scrapper.

    I sat down where I was supposed to sit and waited silently for the rest of the kids to arrive. As expected, after approximately ten minutes, the two ferocious cousins came in second and third again, and with a full blown all out squabble in progress.

    "YOU were the one who said WAIT!" Sherry shouted as she hopped into the second peak. "If you hadn''t said wait, I would have definitely kicked her away! Look at what she managed to do! She scratched my arm! It''s RED NOW!"

    "I thought you were going to kick the rabbit! How was I supposed to know you were aiming at the girl who was hiding in the bush next to the rabbit?" Sheera shouted back as she climbed up into the second peak with a trembling rabbit cradled in one of her arms.

    "OF COURSE I was aiming at a person. Why in the world would I kick a cute little rabbit for no reason? The fact that you thought I was capable of such an act is unforgivable! How could you have such a low impression of me?!" Sherry yelled loudly.

    "Stop yelling so loudly! You''re scaring the rabbit!" Sheera yelled as loudly as Sherry.

    "You''re yelling!" Sherry yelled.

    "NO! YOU''re yelling!" Sheera yelled back.

    "Wee to the third segment of the entrance test, girls." Grand Elder She greeted the two girls in a soft voice which was amplified by a powerful device. As a result, her words thundered resoundingly through the entire second peak and cut into the two girls'' argument.

    The two girls swirled their heads around at her voice and squealed loudly.

    "AUNT SHELLA!!! Long time no see!!!"

    "AUNT SHELLAAA!!! LOOK! WE FOUND A RABBIT!!!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Enough, enough. Calm down and sit next to that fine young man over there." Grand Elder She said with obvious amusement and gentleness in her voice.

    "Alright Aunt She."

    "En!"

    The two girls obediently followed Grand Elder She''s instructions and promptly forgot about their earlier argument.

    "You again! So you''re not only strong, but also very good at fighting huh? You''ll be a fine rival for me!" Sherry red at me.

    "Why do you automatically assume he''s a good fighter? He might be really bad at fighting, and merely reached this ce first because he''s just so darned strong physically!" Sheera guessed with eerie uracy.

    That''s Sheera Lin, the Great Undying General for you. At ten, her instincts were already as sharp as a seasoned killer''s.

    "Of course he is a good fighter." Sherry nced at Sheera in irritation. "I can sense it!"

    Sherry Lin, on the other hand, was not quite as angry and violent as she is now. But the seed was definitely there.

    The Undying General and her Eternal Warrior. Truly a fearsome pair.

    "Sense it? What are you? A irvoyant?" Sheera scoffed at Sherry while gently stroking the trembling rabbit in her arm.

    I sighed deeply and tuned them and the rest of the world out as the two girls continued to squabble. I closed my eyes and tried to sense the red mecha core and the red energy within me.

    The moment I closed my eyes, my resonance with the mechas on the practice arenas zoomed into focus. I tried to shut them out as well, and directed my attention inwards into my body.

    I tried to remember what it felt like when I was controlling the red energy, and tried to look for a sense of familiarity in every nook and corner of my body.

    Nothing responded.

    There was a slight tension in the area near my heart, and I instinctively knew that the red mecha core was still there. However, it did not respond to my attempts tomunicate or control it.

    It remained there, dormant and out of reach, waiting for a catalyst of some sort to trigger it.

    Still, although the red mecha core was dormant and no red energy circted within my body, I could sense that my body had been slowly and passively absorbing the white mecha core and the white mecha particles.

    Everyone who knew my incredible strength probably considered my body as an unnatural anomaly born of biological experiments like what the Russians are doing. A freak of nature, but still part of nature nevertheless.

    They never would have guessed that at that moment, I could easily break those Russian biological "supermen and women" like breadsticks with my current physical strength!

 Chapter 63 I Will Get Something For You

    It was only natural, of course.

    With so many blue mechas and their cores absorbed, it would be a shame if I couldn''t even do that to mere Russian "Superhumans"!

    And with my body also slowly but surely absorbing the white mecha and its core, very soon my body would be as tough as a real mecha.

    Still, I deeplymented the fact that I had lost almost all of my red energy.

    If I still had it, I would definitely be Mecha Emperor much earlier.

    Without the red energy to facilitate the absorption, it was really slow going. The white mecha core within me was like a huge source of incredible energy which I had no way of harnessing.

    After a full hour of futile effort searching for a trace of the red energy, I finally gave up.

    When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to find that there were at least three thousand kids already gathered around me, and tens more were arriving every second.

    I nced at them and to my additional surprise, many were shooting strange looks at me.

    "Huh? What''s with all the strange looks?" I wondered.

    I nced at the elders and realized that some of them were looking at me strangely too. However, some of them were frowning deeply as if they were disapproving something.

    "Brother Justin." A soft voice sounded from next to me.

    I turned around and to my surprise once more, it was Tes!

    "Tes! Hey, you''re here! Where are the others?" I asked her with a smile.

    Tes merely shook her head, sighed deeply and said three words. "Disqualified through injury."

    "WHAT? What happened?" I shouted.

    Tes simply pointed at a group of kids to my side.

    My eyes followed her finger and rested upon a small group of twenty smirking kids.

    "The Long Family. They attacked you guys?" I said softly as a rising tide of anger surged powerfully from my heart.

    "Yes." Tes said and showed me her wounds.

    Her hands were ck and blue in many ces, and I just realized that she was pale, much paler than usual.

    "Hey Whitefrost brat. Had a good sleep? You useless lump of flesh. To think you''ll ignore your girlfriend getting attacked and mocked at by the Long family like that!" Sherry said to me with a trace of anger and discontent in her voice.

    "What are you talking about?" I frowned and asked her.

    "Were you really sleeping you useless oaf? That girl next to you was getting chased by the Long family brats until she reached the second peak half dead from exhaustion! And after she made her way to your side, she was still mocked and insulted by them! Didn''t you hear all the dirty words they used to insult her and her family? To think she considers you as a friend. POOH! You''re pathetic!" Sherry fumed.

    I took a deep breath to keep my anger in check and gritted my teeth as I forcefully suppressed the fury that was rising like a tidal wave within my heart.

    BA DUMP!

    A surge of blinding pain shot through my heart.

    The red mecha core was reacting to my anger!

    "Ghhh." I tried my best to endure the pain without showing anything in my outward appearance. Apparently it worked because Sherry went on with her tirade.

    "You''re an embarrassment to all men out there! You make me sick! Coward! Loser!" Sherry fumed at me.

    BA DUMP!<novelnext></novelnext>

    Another, even more powerful wave of pain wracked my heart.

    "Yes!" I eximed internally. "More! Scold me more!"

    Sherry must be psychic, because she totally did what I mentally told her to do.

    "You''re the biggest loser I''ve ever seen in my entire life! And trust me, I''ve seen A LOT of losers! GAH!! I can''t stand looking at you! Sheera, take over and yell at him for me! I''m about to die here out of loser overload!"

    BA! DUMP!

    BA DUMP!

    PAIN! EXCRUCIATING PAIN!

    "Gahh!" A groan finally escaped my lips and I copsed to the ground.

    "Brother Justin!!!" Tes cried out in rm and rushed to my side.

    However, I ignored herpletely because at that moment, I was "staring" at my heart in shock.

    The tiniest tendril of red energy had appeared outside my rapidly beating heart!

    It wasn''t much, barely more than a wisp.

    But it was red energy!

    And I could control it!

    Immediately, I thought of making armor around my ankles to give it a go.

    Whoosh!

    Vo!! A thinyer of armor appeared around my left ankle!

    Sess!!

    "It''s finally back... The red energy is back!!!" I screamed in my heart.

    "Brother Justin, are you alright?" Tes asked with concern in her voice.

    "I''m okay Tes, don''t worry." I said as I sat back up again and smiled at her. "Just an injury I sustained earlier."

    Tes nodded in relief and sat back down again.

    "Phew. I thought he died after getting insulted by you." Sheera said while ring at Sherry. "What will you say to grandpater if you kill a Whitefrost brat by insulting him to death huh?"

    "Hmph!" Sherry looked away from me in disgust. "Gramps would probably reward me for it! And the world would praise me too for getting rid of such scum from the face of the earth! Look at his friend, she''s still concerned for his well-being even after he sat through her tragic insults by the Longs!"

    Sheera merely sighed, shook her head helplessly and turned away as well.

    "You''ve suffered a lot." I said gently to Tes.

    She merely shrugged as though it was no big deal.

    "Wait here. I will get something for you." I told Tes. "And for Andrew, Kenny, Fey and Sera as well."

    My euphoria faded as my fury returned in full force.

    I looked at the Long family kids and made my way towards them slowly, all the while giving them a cold smile that wasplemented perfectly by the bloodlust that was beginning to show in my eyes.

 Chapter 64 Not By A Long Shot

    As they watched me slowly eat up the distance between us, their expressions started to get uglier and uglier.

    "He-hey you. What do you want to do huh?" One particrlyrge boy stammered and pointed at me.

    I recognized him as one of the unlucky kids who had broken their bones while attacking me earlier that morning.

    I clenched my right hand and began to punch my left hand powerfully, creating unusually loud punching sounds.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    "Hey! There''s no fighting allowed in the second peak!" The boy shouted loudly to attract the attention of the elders. "NO FIGHTING ALLOWED IN THE SECOND PEAK!"

    I ignored him and continued to make my way slowly towards them.

    100 paces.

    70 paces.

    "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO!" The little boy shouted, the fear in his voice was evident.

    "Shut up!" Victor Long snarled at him. "Stop being a coward! The rest of you. Prepare to defend yourselves!"

    Oh what a naive little boy.

    40 paces.

    10 paces.

    When I reached them, the little group of twenty had already spread out in a crescent formation and was ready for me. Too bad I had no intention ofunching the first blow.

    "Victor Long." I said coldly with a smile.

    "What do you want?" He replied in a tense voice.

    By then, every eye in the second peak was upon us, and there was almostplete silence as they anticipated watching a fight break out.

    "Victor Long. Your father is a man whore." I said loudly.

    "What?" He shouted back in surprise.

    "Master Long of the Long family is a dirty slut who slept around with all his servants! Both male and female!" I shouted as I began to warm up to my subject.

    "Yo-you..." Victor Long''s face began to grow slightly red out of anger.

    "He slept with YOUR MOTHER!" I pointed to a particrly nasty looking little boy next to Victor.

    "My mother is his father''s sister!" He replied stupidly in horror.

    "EXACTLY! WHAT A SLUT! WHAT A WHORE! WHAT A DISGUSTING MAN WHORE! MASTER LONG SLEPT WITH HIS OWN SISTER!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

    Everybody knew that it wasn''t true, of course. But it was still funny to hear such words being spoken.

    Loud chuckles and sniggers began to sound from all over the peak. A few even came from the Elders who were seated in the gazebo.

    Victor Long''s face grew redder and redder. "SHUT UP YOU IMBECILE!" He roared in anger.

    However, I was not done yet. "YOUR MOTHER! SHE SLEPT WITH-"

    Victor Long finally exploded with extreme anger and charged at me.

    "SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH!" He roared while swinging his right arm in a powerful right hook.

    "THE GARDENER! THE COOK! THE GUARDS!" I screamed.

    BAM!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    CRACK!!!

    "GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Victor Long screamed in pain. But his anger at that time was much too intense to be dimmed by mere broken bones.

    Whatever could be said about Victor Long, he was definitely a fearsome fighter. His ability to fight through even the most debilitating pain would lead him to a level of greatness that was overshadowed only by the brightness of my sess.

    Oh, I forgot to mention. He is a member of my little clique too.

    Yes. The Shadow of the Blood Moon.

    In fact, he is one of my vice leaders. A true veteran and one of the most effective fighters I''ve ever had the honor and pleasure of working with.

    Unbelievable? Of course it is. How else do you think we get all of the critical information about our enemies?

    Anyway, back to my story. He had a broken hand. But he still had another which was not.

    BAM!!!

    CRACKKKKK!!!

    His left hand smashed into my face and broke as well!

    "GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

    Victor Long leapt up high andunched a powerful axe-kick at me! If that kick hadnded, he would have definitely broken his hip.

    Thankfully, by that time, one of the Elders had arrived at our location and quickly intervened by grabbing Victor Long away.

    "Enough!" He told Victor sternly.

    "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Victor Long struggled mightily against the Elder, but it was no use. The Elder was much too strong.

    "YOU!" I continued and pointed at therge kid who was shouting at me earlier. "YOUR MOTHER! SHE-"

    "ENOUGH!" The Elder shouted at me in anger.

    "What? What do you mean, enough?" I shouted in mock surprise and indignation. "HOW CAN IT BE ENOUGH? WHERE IS THE JUSTICE? WHERE IS THE FAIRNESS?!"

    I whirled around and faced the rest of the Elders who were watching us with rapt attention.

    "Is this how the best academy in the country treats her students?! By favoring the bigger and stronger families?" I shouted with great passion.

    "I SAID ENOUGH!" The Elder shouted again and motioned for the other Long family kids to take Victor Long away from him.

    "When Tes was getting mocked at, WHERE WERE YOU?" I roared at the Elder who was walking menacingly towards me.

    "WHY DIDN''T YOU COME OVER AND SAY ENOUGH TO THE LONG FAMILY BRATS WHO WERE INSULTING HER?

    Now that your precious LONG family is getting mocked at, you had to intervene and shut me up? WHERE IS THE JUSTICE? WHERE IS THE FAIRNESS IN THIS?"

    "BIAS! FAVORITISM!" I screamed with all my might as I pointed at the Elder usingly.

    Just like Victor Long, the Elder''s face grew red with anger. He raised his right hand threateningly.

    I gave him a vicious smirk to encourage him to hit me.

    However, Grand Elder She intervened and said softly. "Come back here, Elder Harris. Let the kids settle their differences by themselves."

    Elder Harris'' face turned extremely ugly and he spat at my feet vehemently. "Watch your back, you Whitefrost bastard." He said under his breath before going back to the gazebo.

    I sneered at him and turned to the rest of the Long family brats.

    I was not done yet. Oh no, not by a long shot.

 Chapter 65 Third Segment

    "YOUR MOTHER!" I resumed my shouting at therge boy who flinched violently at my words.

    I had only shouted two words and he was already breathing heavily in anxiety.

    "SHE SLEPT WITH AN OLD MAN NAMED HARRIS! SHE SLEPT WITH HIM EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY!" I screamed with all of my heart, my soul and my strength.

    Elder Harris stopped and I could distinctly see his body trembling as he fought for control.

    "She can''t sleep with OLD MAN HARRIS on Tuesday and Thursday because YOUR FATHER IS SLEEPING WITH HIM THEN!"

    At that, many kids burst outughing uncontrobly. Even some Elders choked as they tried to hold back theirughter.

    I swear if therge boy didn''t make his move right then, Elder Harris would have snapped and attacked me with all his strength. I could see his right foot press down heavily against the ground as he prepared to pivot and turn around to charge at me.

    Lucky for him, therge boy moved first.

    "SHUT YOUR TRAPPP!" The boy roared in anger and leapt at me.

    BAM!

    He was smart and didn''t throw the full weight of his body behind his kick. In fact, his kick was more like a vicious push.

    It was no use. I was as stable as a rock, and instead of pushing me down, he fell backwards heavily.

    He didn''t stand back up.

    "That''s right! Stay down you miserable loser who only knows how to bully girls. Stay down! Stay there where you belong! Under my feet!" I said viciously.

    Oh yes, I am not a nice person. I step on my enemies when they''re down. I y dirty. I hit them where it hurts the most. And when they are screaming in pain, I hit them there again to make them scream louder.

    Nobody harms my family and my friends, and gets away with it. Nobody.

    "You''re aplete embarrassment to the Long family name! Look! You''re a coward who doesn''t dare to stand up and fight for your mother''s name! For your father''s name! Didn''t you hear what I said? YOUR MOTHER SLEPT WITH AN UGLY OLD MAN NAMED HARRIS! YOUR FATHER TOO! Nothing to say? Of course you have nothing to say! Because it''s true!"

    Therge boy grappled with his fear of bodily harm and his desire to defend his parents'' honor for a few seconds before closing his eyes in shame.

    His fear had won, and his soul will be forever scarred by his decision.

    That will teach him that bullying is bad.

    Very, very bad.

    I smirked at him and began to insult the next Long family brat.

    And from then on, my insults lost their variety and focused exclusively on their parents and a particrly ugly and lecherous old man who liked the dirtiest, most unthinkable things.

    The old man was, of course, named Harris.

    One by one, I instigated the Long family brats to attack me. And one by one, their bones broke upon impact with my steel-hard body like biscuits. After the fifth kid, however, they finally wisened up.

    They grabbed their disabled family members and ran.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "THAT''S RIGHT! RUN AWAY YOU COWARDS! USELESS, SPINELESS BULLIES! LIVE IN FEAR FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES!" I roared at their disappearing backs. "ENJOY THE GENES THAT A PERVERTED LOWLIFE CALLED HARRIS HAD BESTOWED UPON YOU BECAUSE HE''S YOUR REAL FATHER! HE SLEPT WITH ALL YOUR MOTHERS!"

    After that, I turned around and made my way back to Tes.

    When I did that, a thunderous cheer erupted from all of the kids there.

    "HUUZZZZAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

    Many of them were children of merchant groups, families and ns who had endured the bullying of the Long family before and all of them had a bellyful of rage that they couldn''t vent.

    And then I came along, delivered supremely delicious insult after insult after insult and embarrassed the living daylights out of the Long family contingent.

    What I did was beyond satisfying for them.

    Their cheerssted for a minute before Grand Elder She finally silenced them with an amused "Enough." from the gazebo. But even she couldn''t wipe away the smiles and silence the frequent bursts ofughter as the kids retold the incident again and again, pointing out all the juicy bits and pieces andughing so hard that many copsed and almost choked to death.

    When I got back to Tes'' side, she simply hugged me tightly for many long seconds. Her cold face bloomed into a beautiful smile, a smile that I had no idea was as rare as ck diamond, and as beautiful as the most beautiful flower.

    "Thank you." She said very simply.

    I nodded at her and grinned. "Don''t worry about it."

    We sat back down to a veryfortable silence and waited for the third segment to begin.

    It was a very short wait.

    By that time, the kids arriving at the second peak had slowed to a trickle. And after a few short minutes, the trickle stopped entirely.

    Grand Elder She gave it another five minutes before finally standing up from her seat and making her way forward to stand in front of all the gathered kids.

    "Kids. Wee to the third segment of the entrance test." Grand Elder She boomed in her soft voice.

    The peak instantly went silent.

    "I am Grand Elder She. I am one of the Academy''s ten Grand Elders and my National Pilot Rank is 10,252."

    A murmur of surprise and awe swept through the crowd.

    ? "Congrattions on making it this far. You have proven yourself to be fit and also resilient in face of chaos, two very important characteristics that you will need to seed not only in our glorious academy, but also in real life.

    However, those two characteristics alone are not enough. You need to have talent as well.

    In this segment, we will examine one thing, and one thing only. Your Resonance Purity Levels.

    The top one thousand participants with the highest RPLs will automatically be epted into the Academy without further testing." Grand Elder She continued.

    Instantly, a sense of intense excitement bordering on hysteria began to fill the air at her words.

 Chapter 66 Divine

    All of the participants for the entrance exam were confident of their RPLs.

    They all truly believed that although they probably won''t be able to be the number one in RPL, getting into the top one thousand would be a piece of cake!

    That was the sort of confidence that top geniuses should have.

    The eight thousand remaining kids were the cream of the crop in the entire country in terms of physical fitness and fighting skills. Their confidence was not unwarranted.

    "The next five thousand will continue to the fourth segment. The remaining three thousand of you will be disqualified. The Elders will lead you back to the main auditorium where your guardians are waiting. Any questions? No? Good.

    There are fifty elders here. Form up into lines in front of these elders and take the test for your RPL. Your name and your rank will be disyed in this hologram."

    Grand Elder She pressed something on her wrist and arge hologram filled with empty rows appeared behind the gazebo.

    "Alright. Begin!"

    Almost as one, all eight thousand kids stood up and rushed to the Elders nearest to them. They pushed and jostled their way forward, causing quite a few to fall down and cry out in pain.

    "Stop rushing and calm down!" Elder Liam roared loudly in irritation. "I will instantly disqualify anyone caught pushing at other kids!"

    His words worked like magic as the crowd of kids instantly stopped their mad rush and instead walked rapidly towards the Elders. There was still a little bit of pushing and jostling, of course, but it was much better.

    The lines before each Elder quickly formed as Tes and I finally made our move and queued upst before in Elder White''s line.

    Very soon, the first kid''s RPL score appeared on the giant hologram screen.

    Autumn Liu - 78

    A murmur of surprise rippled through the crowd. Here and there a cry of shock and jealousy could be heard.

    "That girl is actually such a high ranking Elite! Agh I am so jealous!"

    "Totally unexpected. I heard the previous years had an average RPL score of only 67. To think that just the first kid this year is already 78!"

    "She''s crazy. I hope the rest aren''t as crazy as her."

    However, the murmur of the crowd suddenly rose violently into outright exmations of shock and awe as the second kid''s score appeared!

    Kage Tarou - 81

    "WHAT? ROYALTY? We have a Royal Grade so early in the RPL test?"

    "Incredible! We have a Royal Grade this year! Even if there are no more Royal Grades showing upter, it''s already much better than most years!" Even an Elder couldn''t help but exim.

    Their shock continued unabated as the third, fourth and fifth names appeared.

    Farrel Wu - 77

    Terry Goodwash - 78

    Austin Jeffreys - 80

    "What''s going on? Why are there so many monsters this year?"

    "Another Royal Grade?!"

    On and on, one Elite after another appeared, filling the hologram screen with a long list of 70s. Once in a while, a 60 appeared. But they were by far the minority.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Yes, it was the Mecha Element Effect.

    The first generation of pilots with Resonance were not born with it. They developed their resonance due to extended exposure to the Mecha Element. However, due to the extremely high value of having a high RPL, people began choosing their spouses based on their RPL. Their offspring would more often than not have a high level of RPL as well, often even higher than their parents.

    And as the second generation gave way to the third, and the third gave way to the fourth, and so on, the separation in society between those with high RPL and low RPL became more and more evident, until it became what it is today.

    As more people got the Mecha Element, it was only natural that there were those who got high or even extremely high RPLs. And which school do you think parents will send their kid who has extremely high RPL to?

    The National Mecha Pilot Academy of course.

    That particr year during my entrance test into the National Mecha Pilot Academy was but an example of the inevitable rise of RPLs in humanity and more evidently, in the academy.

    "Look, it''s the Long family''s turn!"

    "I wonder how high their RPL is."

    I turned around to look at Victor Long and the rest curiously. They were at the very far end of the peak, maybe forty elders away from where I was standing. But with my powerful eyesight, the distance was not a problem for me.

    As expected, Victor Long was in Elder Harris'' line.

    Victor Long - 89

    "WOW! THAT''S INCREDIBLE!"

    "ROYALTY! And such a high grade too!"

    The crowd stirred once more, even after bing numb to the endless 70s which had appeared endlessly on the hologram screen.

    Hailey Long - 85

    Gerald Long - 87

    The crowd roared in surprise!

    "As expected of the Long family! Three high grade Royalties! Unbelievable. The Long family is getting stronger and stronger each year!"

    "We better not mess around with them."

    "Incredible." Even the usually quiet Tes mumbled out ament.

    "What''s incredible? An RPL of 89? Or the fact that they have three high grade "Royalties"? Don''t tell me you''re impressed?" I teased Tes.

    Tes merely chuckled at me and said, "Both. And yes, a high RPL is impressive."

    "Really? If even the Longs for all their obviousck of character can still be impressive with a high RPL, what will a person with good character and an even higher RPL be like?" I thought out loud.

    "Higher RPL than Victor Long? That would mean an RPL of 90 and above." Tes smiled at me and shook her head as though it was an impossibility.

    "Yes. What is it called? An RPL of over 90?" I asked her.

    "Divine." Tes replied. "Apt, especially if the person has a nice character."

    "Divine eh?" I rubbed my hands in glee. I couldn''t wait to get my RPL measured and shock the entire crowd! And I especially couldn''t wait to see the expressions of the Long family.

 Chapter 67 Ready?

    Seeing their tormentor get an even higher RPL than even their treasured Victor Long would definitely put the Longs in their ce!

    As they say, the fall thates after a high is always the most crushing and painful. At that time, I truly wanted the Long family to be crushed painfully.

    However, my grand entrance was not as dramatic and impactful as I had hoped. That damned Sherry Lin, always spoiling my fun.

    "WHAT? This year''s intake is incredible! INCREDIBLE!" Elder Liam''s shocked voice could be heard shouting.

    I turned to look at the Hologram screen once more and got a huge shock.

    Sherry Lin - 91

    Sheera Lin - 83

    Immediately the crowd roared in shock!

    "WHAT? 91! What grade is that?!"

    "It''s Divine Grade fool! My dad said that thest Divine Grade pilot to appear was thirty years ago! And guess who that pilot is?"

    "Who?"

    "Phil Whitefrost!"

    "Whoaa. That Sherry Lin is destined for greatness! I should befriend her!"

    "Of course you should befriend her! But the problem is, she shouldn''t befriend YOU! HAHA!"

    Everybody seemed to be talking and shouting at the same time, so rare and so wondrous the Divine Grade is.

    "Hmmmm. Phil Whitefrost. It''s the second time I heard of the name. The first time was when Sherry asked if I was "Uncle Phil''s" bastard son. I wonder who he is and howe I''ve never heard of him? Could he be Emma''s dad?" I wondered to myself.

    "HAHAHA! Now the Lin''s family''s rise is well assured! Glorious! Glorious!!" Even a Lin Family affiliated Elder couldn''t help but exim proudly at Sherry''s results.

    "Well done, Sherry Lin." Grand Elder She nodded and smiled widely in approval. As an all-out patriot of the Chinese Federation, Grand Elder She couldn''t care less about family politics. All she cared about was that the Federation had given birth to another monster Mecha Pilot.

    As expected of the future Eternal Warrior, one of the strongest and definitely the craziest Mecha Pilots to ever grace the Federation Military.

    The uproar over Sherry''s Divine Grade score was so high that everybody forgot to be surprised at Sheera''s still mind-blowing result of 83. She totally slipped under the radar that day.

    If RPLs aren''t fixed and unchangeable for everyone (except for me, of course), I would have definitely suspected that she purposely lowered her score.

    It was so typical of her. Her signature move had always been hiding power in in sight by overshadowing it with a much greater power. She had achieved so many miracles simply using that strategy.

    Sheera Lin is definitely the greatest military mind the Chinese Federation, no, I daresay, the world, has ever seen.

    Without any disrespect to Sherry and her aplishments, which are beyond impressive, Sheera Lin is ten times more deadly than ALL of the military''s most powerful mecha pilotsbined.

    I would rather fight with ten Sherries in heavy mechas than with a single Sheera apanied by 9 mediocre pilots in light mechas.

    Truthfully.<novelnext></novelnext>

    That woman Sheera, is a demon incarnate.

    Even Russel Whitefrost that damned old man, although every bit as cunning and smart as she was and could ever be, was never as merciless and never as vicious as her.

    Her mind works in marvelous, marvelous ways, always taking the oblique approach, always tackling the problems at an angle, and always very willing to pay ANY price to achieve her objectives.

    Yes. Even sentencing her own cousin to near-certain doom.

    Which event am I talking about? The Sack of Berlin, of course. She was supposed to die there. The only reason Sherry is still alive now is because of her insane skills as a pilot and her incredibly powerful heavy mecha - The Eternal Mecha.

    Sometimes I wonder if the victories our Federation achieved under her leadership was worth the price our enemies, and by default, the collective strength of the earth, had to pay. But what''s done is done.

    I am grateful for the fact that the armies of humanity aremanded by one who, if she does not match the saints in holiness, matches the devil himself in guile.

    And what a devil we are facing right now.

    Anyway, I digress once more.

    After Sherry Lin''s incredible results, the rest of the RPL testing went on smoothly without any further shocks. A few Royal Grades appeared after that, but nobody really got surprised after Sherry.

    Even Elise Wang and Eliana Wang''s highly impressive score only garnered a few sporadic exmations of surprise.

    Elise Wang - 86

    Eliana Wang - 86

    It was all quiet with only the asional sob of a few kids who had fallen off the top six thousand in rank.

    Until it was my turn.

    Tes had gone first and had gotten a respectable 80 points, barely making into the Royal Grade. By that time, nobody even raised an eyebrow even though 80 points would make her the highest in a few of the previous intakes.

    And then it was my turn.

    Elder White smiled at me and said, "I am looking forward to your results."

    I smiled back at her and ced my left hand into the gooey substance in front of me. For a few moments, I felt the nanoparticles pricking at my skin and failing spectacrly to prate it.

    "Uhhh¡­ I don''t think the testing, errr¡­ Goo is able to prate my skin¡­ Hehehe." Iughed sheepishly at Elder White.

    "Tes-testing Goo. Ha ha ha." Elder White could onlyugh helplessly when I called a spectacr piece of technological breakthrough, "goo".

    I cupped a little bit of the goo in my left hand (My right hand was a prosthetic hand) and showed it to her.

    "Hmmm. Very unusual. Your thick and impermeable skin is indeed unique. I really need to talk to Russel about your condition." Elder White murmured as she took my hand out of the goo and inspected it. "No choice then."

    She took out a sharp, pointed de from somewhere and ced its sharp edge on my palm. "Ready?"

    I took a deep breath and nodded.

 Chapter 68 Black Flame

    Slit!

    Elder White ran the de down my palm to no effect.

    "Huh? Interesting! Just how strong is your skin??" Elder White''s eyes widened in surprise.

    "Let me do it, Elder." I offered.

    She nodded and gave her de to me. "Go ahead."

    I took the de and ced it vertically with its sharp point facing down. And then with a quick and powerful burst of strength, I pushed it into my skin and drew blood.

    Drip.

    The blood entered the gooey substance and the results immediately appeared on the hologram.

    Immediately, a few startled voices screamed out.

    "WHAAT???"

    Attracted by their screams, the crowd turned to the hologram screen once more and a loud roar, much louder than before reverberated throughout the second peak.

    Justin - 95

    My jaw dropped when I saw my own score.

    "Wasn''t it 92 before? It must be the revival of the red energy! It increased my resonance once more!" I deduced.

    "Ny five." Elder White said softly. She was probably in shock or in awe, because she remained still for a few seconds.

    I totally understood her shock. Even I was surprised by my own result, albeit for totally different reasons.

    "I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT THE MOMENT I LAID EYES ON HIM THAT HE WOULD BE THE HOPE OF OUR COUNTRY! THE PRIDE! THE JOY!!" Elder Liam shouted shamelessly as he jumped and whooped for joy!

    A few of the elders were hugging each other, and some even had tears flowing down their faces.

    Every single one of them had stopped everything they were doing and were in one way or another, expressing their joy. Every single one, except for Elder Harris of course. He looked like he just ate a pile of steaming hot crap.

    I was totally dumbfounded by their exaggerated response.

    I mean, I knew that 95 was an excellent score, but didn''t Sherry just get 91 as well?

    "What''s with the over reaction?" I mumbled to myself.

    Elder White must have heard my words clearly because she suddenly jerked up and turned to look at me.

    "Ehm. Justin, well done. Very well done indeed. You did welling to this entrance exam. Ah you must be wondering why all the Elders are so happy, right? Hahaha! Well. The reason is actually very simple. Uh¡­ Grand Elder She! How kind of you to join us. Young Justin here is just expressing his confusion over the Elders'' extreme reaction over his results!" Elder White immediately dumped my case onto Grand Elder She''s slender and beautiful shoulders.

    "Justin. Congrattions on passing the Entrance Exam. Come, follow me and let me exin some important things to you." Grand Elder She smiled warmly at me and beckoned for me to follow her.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Elder White, I''ll be taking this young man from you now."

    "Of course, Grand Elder. Please do as you will." Elder White hastily replied. Her face was full of surprise, joy and relief all mixed into one spectacr expression.

    "Uh, what about Tes? Can shee with us? I don''t want to leave her alone after everything that has happened." I immediately spoke up.

    "Tes? Tes Tang of the Big Star Merchant group?" Grand Elder She turned around and frowned slightly.

    Tes simply nodded at her.

    "Fine, you cane along. But you''ll have to wait for us in the auditorium. You''re in the top thousand anyway." Grand Elder She easily agreed to my request and led us both to the edge of the peak.

    Once there, a mind blowingly majestic and powerful looking white mecha appeared from somewhere below and hovered noiselessly before us. By the looks of its thick, resplendent armor, it was definitely a heavy mecha.

    My eyes gleamed hungrily at the sight of such a powerful mecha! And with my red energy slowly recovering, I had the right to be hungry once more!

    A hatch opened and Grand Elder She ushered us into her white mecha like a mother hen fussing over her kids.

    "Make yourselvesfortable. My White Phoenix will bring us back to the main building very soon." Grand Elder She told us and motioned for us to sit down.

    "This is a transport mecha?" I asked in bewilderment as I looked at the little room that we were in. There were two benches against the walls that would allow three adults to sitfortably per bench.

    "Of course not." Grand Elder She chuckled. "This is a full assault mecha. Thispartment is for our spies and infiltrators to sit in while I ferry them behind enemy lines inplete stealth."

    "A heavy stealth mecha." I nodded in appreciation of the many things that such a unique mecha can aplish.

    The reason why there weren''t more heavy stealth mechas wasn''t because they were ineffective. On the contrary, heavy stealth mechas are extremely effective. The reason why they were so scarce was simply because effectively putting such a big and deadly mecha into stealth is an extremely expensive endeavor.

    Heavy stealths were limited to the rich, the powerful and the extremely skillful.

    Grand Elder She''s heavy stealth mecha and her extremely young age spoke volumes about her background, her value, and most importantly, her skill as a mecha pilot.

    At that moment, however, before Grand Elder She could respond to me, Tes surprisingly spoke up.

    "This is also the mecha that fought against the ck me back in World War 3." She looked straight at Grand Elder She as she said those words.

    Grand Elder She met her gaze calmly with a hint of a smile on her lips.

    I blinked at the strange sight of two girls, one very young and tender at ten years old, and another older but still young, and extremely powerful at an approximate eighteen years old, staring at each other without blinking.

    "Uh¡­ Is that a statement or a question?" I asked Tes as I tried to break the awkward silence.

    However, it was Grand Elder She who replied me.

    "A statement, of course." She finally said with a smile. "Young Tes here, is the granddaughter of the famed hero who fought against the ck me back in World War 3, using this very mecha."

 Chapter 69 On The Gazebo

    "ck me? Famed hero?" I asked curiously as my brain whirred into action and scoured my memory bank for "ck me".

    I got the answer to my own question just as Grand Elder She opened her mouth to exin to me patiently.

    "ck me was a powerful white mecha pilot back in World War 3 when our Federation was at war with both the Empire and the USAA. He was a mercenary serving the Empire at that time.

    The Empire was pressing us from the West while the USAA crossed the Pacific Ocean to attack us from the East. As you know, the greatest hero of the war was Russel Whitefrost who created miracle after miracle as he conducted our defensive war from the Capital. He was the only reason why wested that long.

    However, he wasn''t the only hero of the war. There were many others who rose to the asion during the critical moments which could have broken the war much earlier without their contribution.

    Tes''s grandfather, Tang Hu, was one such hero. He and his Heavy Mecha Squadron, fought and dyed the ck me Battalion''s advance by three full days, giving our retreating troops much needed time to make it to safety.

    On the third and final day, ck me himself had to fight Tang Hu in order to finally smite him down and break through to continue his assault.

    Tang Hu died a hero''s death, and his mecha which was nearly destroyed, was captured by the Empire.

    We got it back after the war was over. It was repaired, upgraded, and gifted to me for exceptional merits rendered."

    I nodded. It was more or less all the information I had as well, except for one crucial piece of information which Grand Elder She missed or intentionally skipped.

    Tang Hu''s body was never found.

    The general assumption was that the ck me had captured it alongside the White Phoenix.

    But the Empire denied ever receiving Tang Hu''s body or any report of its men ever receiving his body. As a world power, the Empire had absolutely no reason to lie about a single unknown soldier''s body.

    And so the mystery remained unsolved for those in the know.

    The stink of it was, Tang Hu didn''t die and had instead defected to the Empire. But no one knew for sure, and all talk of Tang Hu died down after the Federation dered him one of 108 National Heroes of WW3.

    "Your grandfather sounds like a great man, Tes." I told Tes with obvious admiration in my voice.

    "He was." Tes replied fiercely and red at Grand Elder She, as if daring her to mention anything about him defecting and betraying the Federation. She must be pretty shaken up when she found out about the possibility of her vaunted grandfather defecting.

    Grand Elder She merely smiled and pulled up the long voluminous sleeves a little bit to reveal her slender and perfect right arm to Tes.

    I caught a glimpse of a beautiful phoenix tattooed or carved into her flesh before she reced her sleeve.

    I had no idea then the significance of that tattoo.

    "I forgot to mention that I picked the White Phoenix out of a hundred other White Mechas the government offered me. And paid for its repair and upgrade myself." Grand Elder She said softly to Tes. "Tang Hu and his battle with the ck me left a powerful andsting impression on me. I hope to be worthy of this mecha one day."<novelnext></novelnext>

    Tes stared at Grand Elder She in shock, the beginnings of a serious case of hero worship already forming within her eyes.

    Grand Elder She chuckled lightly and nced at me. "This shall be our little secret, alright?"

    "Of course." I quickly agreed.

    "Acknowledged!" Tes replied as well.

    "Good, because we''re here. Come along now, I have a lot of things to do today, no thanks to your little record-breaking spree, Justin." Grand Elder She swept out of the little room and out into a ridiculously massive hangar that housed hundreds, if not thousands of mechas.

    The littlepartment we were in had lowered itself to the ground at some point, and allowed us to exit it directly.

    We quickly followed Grand Elder She rapidly into arge and luxurious lift and felt it move at high speed. And if my senses were right, it didn''t move vertically up.

    A few secondster, the lift door opened up to arge auditorium that could easily sit ten thousand people.

    "Make yourselffortable, Tes. Your schoolmates should be here soon. There are food, drinks and the toilet is right there. Press the help button found on every seat if you need anything. Goodbye." Grand Elder She told Tes as she gently pushed her out of the lift.

    The lift door began to close even before Grand Elder She had retracted her hand.

    "SEE YOU LATER TES!" I managed to shout right before the lift door closed once more and left the still confused Tes alone in the auditorium.

    Hum. The lift shot out at a noticeably higher speed and then stabilized itself.

    I turned to Grand Elder She and opened my mouth to ask her why we were in such a hurry, when the lift suddenly stopped once more and opened up to a beautiful andrge courtyard.

    "I was right." I thought to myself. "The lift didn''t move vertically up. We''re actually on the ground floor!"

    "Come along now." Grand Elder She rapidly brought me across the courtyard and into an astoundingly magnificent garden that looked like it was ripped straight out of a fairytale book and brought shamelessly to life.

    The first thing that struck me was how peaceful and how beautiful everything was. There was a small waterfall on the far left that fed a stream that winded across the whole garden and ended in a perfect lookingke with an ind gazebo in the middle. A fancy and ancient looking bridge connected the gazebo to the rest of the garden.

    The second thing that struck me was the fact that there were two powerful figures engaged in extremely high speedbat on the gazebo!

    Like, literally ON the gazebo. They were fighting on the roof!

    "Thank goodness we made it on time. They are still here." Grand Elder She smiled in relief.

 Chapter 70 Roast Pork

    "Uhh. Who exactly are "they"?" I asked her curiously.

    "Those two are the Principal and Vice Principal of the National Mecha Pilot Academy. Bruce Pang and Jete Wen." Grand Elder She said quietly as though she was afraid of disturbing the fight that was going on in the distance.

    "Wen? The current President''s n?" I asked her quietly.

    Grand Elder She merely nodded her head in response. She was focusing all of her attention on the fight.

    It was a spectacr fight, and it was so even in my untrained eye which missed probably 99% of the intricacies and significance of their moves.

    For a few moments, both Grand Elder She and I watched the fight quietly grow in intensity and ferocity until finally¡­ BAM!

    A middle aged man literally flew out of the gazebo.

    My eyes followed him and caught sight of a handsome smiling face just a split second before he sshed into theke.

    And then my eyes swivelled back to the top of the gazebo where the woman was.

    Only to find that she was no longer there, but standing in front of me.

    "Why hello! Hello! What do we have here? She, it''s really good to see you again!" An exquisitely beautiful middle aged woman in white staff uniform beamed at Grand Elder She who was bowing deeply in greeting. There was not a single drop of sweat on her face or anywhere I could see even after the ridiculously high speed fight she had with the Principal.

    "Vice Principal Wen. Your disciple She greets you."

    "At ease. How is your movement technique training? Have you mastered the fifth stage yet?" Vice Principal Jete Wen asked her warmly.

    "Yes, Vice Principal Wen. I have mastered the fifth and the sixth stage, and I am currently halfway through the seventh stage." Grand Elder She replied with a tinge of pride in her voice.

    "Hohoho. I definitely need to see it for myselfter." Jete Wen''s eyes gleamed in sincere excitement. "But for now, who do we have here?"

    Jete Wen scrutinized me curiously with a smile.

    "Let me guess, you must be a record holder from today''s entrance test. And for you to be here at this time, you must have just finished your RPL test. Could it be¡­?" Jete Wen raised a questioning eyebrow at Grand Elder She.

    But before Grand Elder She could say anything, Jete Wen immediately shook her head and said, "No, let me figure it out by myself. What''s your name, young man?"

    "Uhhh. My name is Justin. And the Principal still hasn''t surfaced, by the way. Do we need to rescue him or something?" I couldn''t help but blurt out the one thing that was bugging me at that moment.

    Jete Wen blinked at me in surprise and thenughed out loud hriously as though she had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

    Well, maybe even the funniest joke in the universe, because even after five seconds, she was stillughing her head off.

    "Oh dear! I haven''tughed like that for so long! Thank you dear for such a treat." Jete Wen finally said to me after she vented her bellyful ofughter.

    "Would you believe it? I haven''t, in my entire life, ced the idea of "rescue" and "Bruce Pang" as its object together before! Rescue Bruce Pang from theke! Ha! I won''t let him hear the end of this." Jete Wen was still chuckling evilly as she beckoned Grand Elder She and me to follow her.<novelnext></novelnext>

    We made our way to thekeside where Jete Wen promptly shouted in a loud voice. "HEY BRUCE! DO YOU NEED TO BE RESCUED FROM DROWNING IN THE LAKE?"

    A few secondster, bubbles appeared on the surface of the calmke.

    Jete Wen chuckled. "That was probably him cursing me for being a naggy old hag."

    I smiled and nodded. "Good to know that he''s still alive."

    Jete Wen looked at me incredulously and immediately burst outughing once more!

    "Oh my goodness! You''re such an adorable young man! Good! Very good! One hundred credits for you!" Jete Wen said afterughing her head off once more.

    Ssh!

    The middle aged man suddenly shot out of theke and somersaulted his way next to us, causing us to be inundated with countless water droplets.

    "One hundred credits deducted for thinking that I needed rescuing from a mere fall into theke!" He announced loudly and then red at me.

    "One hundred credits awarded for being such a handsome young man!" Jete Wen drawledzily and rolled her eyes at Bruce Pang.

    "And one hundred credits deducted for being relieved that I was still alive!" Bruce Pang frowned deeply and continued to deduct my Academy Credits liberally.

    "One hundred credits awarded for¡­ Uhh. Being here?" Jete Wen ran out of excuses to award me credits with and didn''t even try toe up with a decent alternative.

    "Stop undermining my attempts to educate the younger generation, you demoness!" Principal Bruce Pang shouted at Vice Principal Jete Wen and shook his finger at her.

    "Have some self awareness please and stop acting like a baby. We''re in front of a new student here!" Jete Wen told Bruce Pang off sternly.

    "YOU have some self-awareness and stop spoiling him with credits! It''s bad for youngsters to get rewards for things they didn''t even do!" Bruce Pang shouted righteously.

    Jete Wen red back at Bruce Pang before finally sighing.

    "I must be getting old. He''s actually even starting to make sense." She muttered to herself.

    "BUT you can''t lie to me! You''re just pissed because he thought you needed rescuing! HA! The invincible Bruce Pang! Rescued by a ten year old from drowning in his own privateke!"

    "Demoness! Take this holy and righteous attack from me!!" Bruce Pang sent a vicious right hook flying towards Jete Wen merely stood still and said, "No roast pork for dinner if even a drop of water from your hand touches me."

    Immediately, Bruce Pang retracted his fist and released a powerful burst of internal energy that vaporized all the water droplets around us!

    "Ahahahaha! Roast pork! Did you cook roast pork today? Good! Good! I''ll wait for you at home honey!" Bruce Pang leaned forward, gave Jete Wen a quick peck on her cheeks and then turned around andughed his way towards a little hut by theke a short distance away.

    Of course, my jaw dropped to the ground at that.

 Chapter 71 Street Rats

    "Would you like to join us for dinner, She dear?" Jete Wen asked Grand Elder She amiably.

    She didn''t ask me though. Maybe it was because of how my face lit up when the words "Roast Pork" left her mouth.

    Grand Elder She was torn between wanting to show her teacher her progress in her movement technique, and having to go back and finish her tasks.

    "You can return tomorrow morning if you still have things to do." Jete Wen smiled in understanding.

    "Ah yes. That will be great!" Grand Elder She smiled beautifully in relief. "In that case, I will take my leave first, Vice Principal Wen. I still have to preside over the final segment of the Entrance Test."

    "Go. Thank you for your hard work." Jete Wen nodded and smiled at her.

    After onest bow, Grand Elder She disappeared in a blink of an eye.

    Jete Wen chuckled lightly at her disciple''s disy of her movement technique. "Halfway through the seventh stage? You can''t lie to this old woman. You''ve mastered even the eighth stage already!"

    She turned to look at me once more.

    "I hope you''re hungry!" She said with a smile.

    "Oh yes! I am very hungry!" I replied happily at the thought of having free food.

    "Good! Come along now. It''s a little bit early for dinner, but we usually have another meal at night, so we usually eat around this time. I hope you don''t mind." Jete Wen said.

    "Of course I don''t mind. Especially if there''s pork." I said without a single trace of awkwardness at speaking with the esteemed Vice Principal of the National Mecha Pilot Academy.

    "Good! I make the best Roast Pork in the world." Jete Wen boasted and spoke to me as though she was speaking to a friend. There was also no trace of awkwardness in her voice even though she was talking to a mere ten year old.

    It was as though she knew exactly what I would be.

    In his own way, Bruce Pang probably knew that too, because he sure didn''t let up the pressure on me.

    "WHAT? WHY IS THIS PUNK JOINING US FOR DINNER?" He roared when he saw me enter his little hut.

    "Uhh¡­ Thanks for having me." I immediately responded and sat down before he could throw me out.

    "Who said you could sit down? There''s no space for you here!" Bruce Pang shouted at me from across the rtivelyrge table which could fit six adults easily.

    "Be nice Bruce. He''s just a ten year old." Jete Wen remarked casually as she busied herself with taking out a huge te of delicious looking roast pork from the little kitchen.

    "He looks like he could eat a lot." Bruce Pang sulked lightly as he looked at me.

    Hmmm? Yes. Bruce Pang, the Great and Invincible Bruce Pang sulked at me. Ah, he''ll probably whoop my ass for "ndering" him, but it''s the truth.

    Anyway, Jete Wen took out three giant bowls of rice, a giant te of heavenly roast port and a giant te of steamed vegetables.

    My hand twitched as I stared at the wonderful friends I was about to make. But I had to control myself. It''s rude to start eating before the hosts.

    "Well? What are you both waiting for? Dig in!" Jete Wen smiled warmly at us and said.

    I needed no second invitation.

    My right hand flew to my chopsticks and I began my all out attack the te of roast pork.<novelnext></novelnext>

    For a few minutes, everything else faded into the background as I befriended the seriously friendly roast pork and had an exciting conversation with them.

    We exchanged a lot of good will during those first few minutes.

    After an intense start to our friendship, a semnce of self-awareness returned to me and I forced myself to look up from eating.

    "I will be in their care for the next few years." I thought to myself. "I can''t burn my bridges with them by finishing all of their roast pork in five minutes before they could even have a bite!"

    I raised my head to look at the Principal and the Vice Principal of the National Mecha Pilot Academy and caught them both shamelessly exchanging bets about my background!

    "I bet you five straight days of roast pork that he''s from the Wang Family." The Principal whispered to the Vice Principal loudly.

    "You''re on. I bet you five straight days of house cleaning andundry that he''s from the Lin¡­ No, from the¡­ Whitefrost n." The Vice Principal whispered back.

    "Whitefrost? Hmmm. They do have a habit of recruiting young talents like him. But not on the scale of the Wang Family." The Principal nodded and analyzed me shamelessly even as I stopped eating and stared at them in surprise.

    "Errr. Aren''t you guys going to eat?" I asked them when I saw their empty tes.

    "You go ahead first and have your fill. I still have lots of food in the kitchen." Jete Wen said very generously to me.

    She was definitely the nicest person in the world. Period.

    "Yes, go ahead and finish it up." Bruce Pang said to me gently.

    I had no idea then what lightning struck him that made him so nice to me, but I sure as hell took him up on his offer.

    I nodded and resumed eating.

    "Five more days ofundry and cleaning on him being a son of an affiliate power in the Whitefrost n." The Vice Principal continued making her bet.

    "Fifty days of roast pork on him being a street rat." The Principal nodded and immediately made a bet of his own.

    Jete Wen looked at Bruce Wen sharply when he said those words.

    He merely met her gaze calmly.

    "He''s right, you know." I mumbled with my mouth full. "I was a junkyard scrapper."

    There was silence for a moment as Jete gave her husband a surprised look. He merely looked at her with the slightest hint of a smile ying on the edges of his lips.

    Jete Wen nodded lightly and stood up.

    "I''ll leave you two to have a good conversation. I''m going to check on the entrance test and disturb little She for a bit." She said and quickly left the hut before I could even say anything in response.

    I looked at Bruce Pang in confusion and our eyes met.

    Awkwardly.

    I froze mid bite and was wondering what the heck was happening when his hand suddenly burst into action!

 Chapter 72 You... You Took The Roast Pork?!

    "He''s going for the Roast Pork!" I shouted in horror to myself.

    "Hey! Didn''t you say I can finish it all?" I yelled as my hands burst into action as well and began shovelling the roast pork into my mouth.

    "CHANGED MY MIND!" Bruce Pang couldn''t be bothered to waste time by replying to me properly. He shovelled a huge, juicy chunk of roast pork into his mouth and began munching on it loudly.

    While his mouth was working really hard on the juicy roast pork, his hands began to move once more!

    "I can''t let him take that one!" My eyes zed with unparalleled fervor when I saw his greedy eyes lock on to a particrlyrge and juicy chunk of roast pork.

    My right hand shot forth at high speed blocked his chopsticks with my own.

    Piak!

    Bruce Pang''s eyes widened in surprise at my strength and uracy. He probably wasn''t expecting such a decisive and powerful reaction from me.

    I smirked at him victoriously and was about to jab my chopstick into the juicy roast pork when suddenly¡­

    Piak!

    His chopsticks attacked mine with a powerful side swipe and pushed thempletely out of position! And at the same time, he had managed to get into perfect striking position!

    "Damn this old man is good." I couldn''t help but think. "But I''ll be damned if I allow you to take this juicy, heavenly b of roast pork! This is probably the very best slice left on the te!"

    My chopsticks returned to the battleground with renewed vigor and smashed into his chopsticks once more!

    "I''M BACK!" They seemed to shout triumphantly.

    Piak! Piak! Piak! Piak!

    A fierce and brutal exchange no less awe-inspiring than the Principal''s earlier fight with the Vice Principal broke out over the juicy chunk of roast pork.

    It was a desperate fight with countless close shaves and more gloriousebacks than a web novel. (A/N: lol)

    "Ah sorry, I forgot to take my¡­ Hat." Jete Wen opened the door just as our battle was heating up to its climax!

    I was using one chopstick to attack and was trying to use the other one to poke a hole into the roast pork, while Bruce Pang was parrying my chopstick with one of his and aiming his other chopstick to smash the top of my other chopstick!

    It was a messy fight and I finally couldn''t take it anymore.

    I released my chopsticks, grabbed his hand using my right hand and sent my left hand snaking in to steal the roast pork directly from right under his nose.

    But he wouldn''t have any of it!

    His own left hand snaked forward as well and blocked mine!

    I quickly dodged his hand and tried to take the meat from another angle, but he blocked it too!

    I''ve met my match and a newfound respect for my opponent appeared in my eyes.

    Apparently, Bruce Pang was impressed by me as well and he nodded in approval.<novelnext></novelnext>

    As though we had agreed beforehand, we suddenly disengaged and smiled at each other.

    ? "Bravo! Bravo!!" Bruce Pang pped excitedly. "You''re a true fighter! From this day onwards, you''re my little brother!!"

    "You''re not too bad yourself!" I cried out in awe. "Truly worthy to be my elder brother! Please ept this toast from your little brother!"

    I raised my cup of tea and shed it heartily against his, and we both drained it.

    After that cup of tea, I officially have an elder brother!

    And that, my readers, is the secret story of how Bruce Almighty Pang became my sworn brother.

    Jete Wen''s mouth dropped along with the hat that she was holding in her hand.

    She was stunned. Of course she was stunned.

    She had been married to Bruce Pang for a full thirty years, and not once had he shown any sincere care towards ANYONE except for her and his remaining family members. And to think he actually took in a little brother based on nothing but a¡­ CHOPSTICK FIGHT OVER ROAST PORK?

    "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?" She roared in anger. "BRUCE FREAKING PANG! You refused to take my cousins, my nieces and my nephews as even god-damn outer disciples, and now you''re here taking in SWORN BROTHERS?!"

    "Hey! Stop shouting at me!" Bruce Pang shouted back at his wife. "Why are you back here? I thought you''re going to disturb little She?"

    "I forgot my hat¡­" Jete Wen nced at her hand and realized that she had dropped the hat that she had returned for. She quickly bent down to pick it up and then resumed her shouting at Bruce Pang.

    "WHAT''S HAPPENING HERE?!" She demanded loudly.

    "Nothing. We had a friendly fight over a piece of roast pork, and fought to a draw. Then I made him my sworn brother!" Bruce Pang summarized the events from the past few seconds very sinctly.

    Events which Jete Wen had seen with her own eyes and didn''t require any summary of, of course. And which was also definitely not the answer she was looking for.

    "That''s not the answer I am looking for!" She shouted at Bruce Pang.

    "Then what answer are you looking for?" Bruce Pang shouted back at her impatiently.

    "I¡­ Well." Jete Wen sputtered for a moment before asking, "Why?"

    "I like him." Bruce Pang answered very simply with a confident smile.

    "You¡­ like him? Haha¡­ Haha¡­" Jete Wen was positively furious at that moment.

    Not at me, of course, although I was the indirect cause. It was over the fact that Bruce Pang had rejected taking in so many spectacr students as disciples for so many long years despite her best efforts! And then, without even knowing ANYTHING about me, so simply and due to such a ridiculously insignificant event¡­ He¡­ He...

    Munch. Munch. Munch.

    Bruce Pang''s ear twitched and then he whirled around at full speed to look at the te of roast pork (which was missing a very prominent piece of juicy b of meat) in horror.

    "Little brother!! You!! You took the juicy roast pork while I was distracted by your sister inw??"

 Chapter 73 Choosing A Mecha

    "Uh huh." I replied with a wide smile while continuing to munch on my prize with great relish.

    ¡­ ¡­

    Munch. Munch. Munch.

    ¡­ ¡­

    Munch. Munch. Swallow.

    "HAHA! Well done! Truly worthy of being my little brother!! That''s exactly what I expect you to do in life! Go after whatever you want, full speed, full power, full strength, no apologies!! Well done! Well done!! HAHAHA!!" Bruce Pang roared withughter.

    By his side, Jete Wen, who had NEVER heard her husband praise any student in the thirty years he had been the Principal of National Mecha Pilot Academy, almost puked blood when she heard him shout "Well done!" not once, not twice, but three bloody times! AND for stealing a roast pork from him!!

    "I need to sit down." She muttered and promptly sat down at her seat.

    Discovering that she wasn''t feeling any better after sitting down, Jete Wen frowned deeply.

    "I need a drink." She muttered again and poured herself a cup of tea.

    Discovering that tea wasn''t doing anything, she finally shed all pretenses and took out a sk out of nowhere and took a generous swig from it.

    "Ahhhh. That''s much better." She sighed.

    I blinked innocently and pretended that I couldn''t smell the alcohol.

    Bruce Pang was still nodding at me approvingly with a wide smile stered on his face. And then it finally struck him that he hadn''t asked me for my name.

    "What''s your name, little brother?" He asked casually and caused Jete Wen to choke and almost spit out her precious drink.

    "He hadn''t even asked him for his name!!" She thought incredulously.

    "My name is Justin!" I replied enthusiastically.

    "Which n or family are you from?" Bruce Pang continued asking. Jete Wen simply sighed deeply.

    Men.

    "I am from the White Ti¡­ ah Whitefrost n." I replied.

    Even winning her bet did nothing to improve Jete Wen''s mood.

    "Good. Whatever the Whitefrosts are these days, they are definitely still one thing. Loyal to the Federation. I picked well." Bruce Pang smiled with relief while Jete Wen snorted and rolled her eyes.

    "Picked well. Right. More like gambled well!! What if he''s from the Long Family? Or the Liu Family? You''d be shooting yourself in the foot." Jete Wen grumbled. She was still getting over the fact that her husband finally added a member to his inner circle based on a¡­ Chopstick fight over roast pork.

    The alcohol was helping, of course. But she''ll need more than just a generous swig topletely get over it.

    Now, if she could beat up- ah not beat up, that''d be domestic violence. Spar. Yes, spar with that irritating husband of hers, she was sure she''d be able to get over it much more easily.

    She nced at Bruce Pang, who promptly pretended that he didn''t understand her look.

    "I''m not in the habit of thinking about whatifs. He''s from the Whitefrost n and my little brother. It''s perfect." Bruce Pang replied with a smile. "Come. Let us finish dinner first and then talk about what brings you here."<novelnext></novelnext>

    What else could I do? It was amand from the Principal. I resumed eating.

    Very soon, all of the pork, vegetables and rice were gone and all three of us sat back with satisfied sighs.

    Yes, ALL three of us, without exception, sat back with VERY satisfied sighs.

    "So tell us, little brother. Why did little She bring you here?" Bruce Pang finally asked the most crucial question which, unbelievably, had been dyed for so long.

    "Ah, Grand Elder She wanted to exin to me why the Elders were over reacting so badly when I scored 95 in my RPL test." I replied casually.

    BAM!

    "You scored 95 in your RPL Test??? And you WAITED until now to tell us that???" Jete Wen mmed her precious sh on the table and shot up to her feet in shock!

    "Uh yes, that''s exactly the reaction I was wondering about." I nodded cheekily.

    "Hahahaha! I knew it! I could feel it in my bones! That you truly are worthy to be my little brother!" Bruce Pang shouted proudly.

    "Come! Come follow me! We''ve waited long enough for a 95-RPL freak like you to appear!" Jete Wen grabbed my arm and literally dragged me out along with her.

    Bruce Pang simply stood up and followed us from behind, his stupid and proud smile still stered on his face.

    Jete led (read: dragged) me out of their little hut and all the way into the huge and luxurious lift in which I had arrived earlier.

    She ced her palm on a touchpad and keyed in a series ofplex numbers and figures into it.

    Immediately, the lift moved and brought us swiftly to our destination.

    If I had to point at the most underrated aspect of the supremely impressive National Mecha Pilot Academy estate, it had to be their lift system.

    Those lifts literally go EVERYWHERE, at unbelievable speeds and the crazy thing is, you''ll hardly ever realize it is moving. It''s like an anywhere door that you can step through to anywhere in the academy.

    If you''re the Principal or Vice Principal, of course.

    For most of us, it was just a mini "teleportation" device to bring us to the key areas of the academy.

    That time, the lift opened up to a huge, huge room that had twelve absolutely magnificent mechas lined up facing each other neatly in two rows of six.

    Behind each of them were an additional two smaller but still majestic looking and magnificent mechas.

    Yes, they were the Twelve Mecha Guardians and Twenty Four Mecha Disciples of the National Mecha Pilot Academy.

    I don''t think I have anything to say about them that hadn''t already been said by the media.

    The media coverage on each and every one of them had been exhaustively extensive, and totally worth the time and effort if you hadn''t already watched or read them.

    When we stepped out, somehow our mood turned serious and somber.

    "What are we doing here?" I whispered to my big bro.

    "Choosing a mecha for you." He whispered back.

 Chapter 74 Blood Moon

    "What? I get to pick a mecha from this mecha throne room?" I whispered back much louder than I had wanted to and earned an instant SHHH from Jete Wen.

    "Why are we whispering?" I whispered to her.

    "Because I dislike loud noises." An aged voice sounded softly but impossibly clearly. He must have used a sound technique of some sort for me to be able to hear him.

    I turned my head to peer into the distance, trying to ascertain where the voice came from.

    "Ancestor." Bruce Pang and Jete Wen bowed low and greeted the voice at the same time.

    "Ancestor." I immediately copied their action and bowed as well.

    "Come closer." The aged voice said tiredly.

    We quickly made our way forward and walked down the enormous central walkway with the mechas staring down at us from our left and right.

    It was such a huge room that even with our near-run walking speed, it still took us nearly three minutes to reach the front of the "throne room".

    But apparently I was wrong in calling it a throne room. It was more like a meditation room, as there was no throne in that room. The only thing that greeted us at the very front of the massive room was an old man sitting quietly on a meditation mat.

    A very regr looking old man with a slender physique, long white beard and basically white everything.

    The thing about meeting new people and making first impressions is that we very often go by whatever we sense about the other person in the first few seconds. And for people with experience, 6th sense or sharp instincts, they would also depend on input from those sources.

    For a long time, I had depended on my instincts to form urate first impressions. It was crucial in my line of work - urate first impressions on whether or not a person is a spy from a gang member or truly another street rat like me would determine which set of actions I would take, and which would lead to either life or death.

    Judging from the fact that I am still alive, I consider myself a pretty good judge of character.

    More recently, I had used my sharper than normal senses to read a person much more urately than they probably had thought possible.

    However, this old man was different.

    I could not sense anything from him.

    My 6th sense and instincts were silent, and my experiences were drawing aplete nk.

    There was no sense of danger, no sense of warmth, or anything at all.

    It was like he wasn''t there.

    A little bit of my surprise must have shown somehow, because the old man suddenly smiled and said, "You''ve gotten used to depending on your instincts for input. It''s a bottleneck to your growth. Oh, it is an excellent achievement for a little boy like you, thousands would kill to be in your enviable position. But regardless of how enviable your situation is, it is a bottleneck nheless."

    I could only nod dumbly and silently at his sudden words.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "You''ve brought me a good seed this time, Bruce. I assume he has met my minimum requirement of 95 RPL?" The old man nced at Bruce.

    "Yes, Ancestor." Bruce replied respectfully.

    "Finally. The test starts in fifteen minutes. Prep him." The old man''s eyes twinkled slightly as he looked at me for a second before closing his eyes once more with a smile on his lips.

    Bruce grabbed my hand and pulled me to one side to exin the situation to me.

    "What is this, big bro? Are you making me into a sacrificialmb for some sort of cannibalistic mecha cult?" I whispered loudly while looking at the old man.

    I could clearly see the old man''s lip twitch slightly.

    "Haha! Great minds truly think alike! I thought of the same thing as well when I was brought here many long years ago!" Bruce couldn''t help butugh.

    "Great minds think alike, yes. But fools seldom differ." Jete Wen snorted. "I wonder which of the two categories you two fall under.

    "This isn''t a cult, little brother. This is a highly prestigious group of exceptional people entrusted with great power and the fulfilment of a great and secret mission!" Bruce exined without exining anything.

    "That sounds exactly like what a cult recruiter would tell his new recruits." I muttered.

    "Uhhh. Now that you mention it. It does sound like a low ss cult''s recruitment speech." Bruce Pang frowned lightly and muttered as well.

    "We only have 14 minutes before Justin has to take the test. I suggest we drop the cult topic and focus on the main issue at hand." Jete Wen said impatiently.

    "Right, right. Justin, pay attention now." Bruce Pang quickly turned serious.

    I nodded and focused on him and his words.

    "You''ve justpleted the entrance test for the National Mecha Pilot Academy, and now you''re officially a student here. What you''re about to do can also be viewed as an entrance test, but into a secret and powerful organization within the National Mecha Pilot Academy.

    Both Jete and I are senior members within this organization, while Grand Elder She whom you have just met is a junior member.

    We are called the Blood Moon, and we are the Academy''s secret force." Bruce Pang exined.

    "There are and can only be thirty six Blood Moons in the National Mecha Pilot Academy at any given time, and these are their mechas." Bruce pointed to the thirty six mechas in the giant room.

    "However, after the previous war which saw many of our senior and junior members die horribly in battle, the old man here had decided to raise the bar for recruitment into the Blood Moon, and for many long years, our number had stagnated at 10 seniors and 17 juniors. If you pass today''s test, you will be our 18th junior, and will be given one of the remaining eight Mecha Disciples."

    "Huh?" I was totally confused. "But if this is a secret organization, why were ALL the elders so ecstatic? Do they all know?"

 Chapter 75 Hello, Son

    "Oh. That. Coincidentally, we''re 1 member short for the team we are fielding to the Triannual Mecha Tournament. I told them that we won''t be participating unless we find a student with an RPL score of 95.

    And because they have a lot of bonuses riding on the sess of our academy in the Triannual Mecha Tournament, they have been frantically searching for someone like you for the past two years. That''s probably why they are so ecstatic.

    Of course, there are probably a few who were overjoyed sincerely for the country and for the academy because we''ve found yet another powerful Ace Pilot candidate, but for most of them¡­ Ha! They''re probably happy for their wallets." Bruce barked out augh.

    "But I am already participating in the Triannual Mecha Tournament with the Whitefrost n. And I won''t abandon them for the academy." I said resolutely.

    "I expected as much." Bruce nodded unworriedly. "That''s alright. There are manypetitions in the tournament, and I am only concerned about the Inter-School Tournament. You can represent the Whitefrost n in all the other tournaments, and represent our academy in the Inter-School Tournament.

    Truthfully, even without you, I have the utmost confidence that our academy will still get first. Leaving that final spot open for a 95-RPL student was only my strategy to get all the staff members to give their best in their search. Afterall, the Ancestor will not ept anyone below 95 RPL, and it is ridiculously difficult to find someone with such a high RPL. And even if we find such a person, that person needed to pass the character test as well. It really was a tall order."

    "Character test?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "I don''t remember taking any character tests."

    "Character is not formally tested. But that''s the first and most intensive test that every student went through today." Bruce looked at me slyly and said. "You think your actions throughout the entire entrance exam went unnoticed? You probably did something good to catch the attention of the Elders. If not, little She wouldn''t have brought you here."

    "I see." I nodded in understanding.

    "What did you do, though?" Bruce asked curiously.

    "Well¡­ I fought with the Longs and broke Victor Long''s hands twice. I insulted the heck out of Elder Harris and made the entire Long n attack me and then run away in fear. I''m not sure where in all that I passed your character test." I answered in an amused voice.

    "Hahahaha! Fought with the Longs not once, but twice? You must be a great defender of the weak. AND if even Elder Harris that grumpy old coot got involved, you must have really dealt a lot of damage to Victor Long." Bruce chuckled as he immediately read in between the lines and urately deduced the real situation.

    "But whatever the case was, you''re here now, and if you''re able to pass the Ancestor''s tests, we''ll finally be able to take another step towards reaching our full strength. Make sure to do your best in the test, and do not give up whatever the cost!" Bruce advised me.

    "What is the test like?" I couldn''t help but ask.

    "It''s different for everyone. But it will find and reveal the deepest and darkest side of your soul." Bruce''s eyes zed very slightly for a quick moment as he shuddered in recollection of his own test. "It will be up to you to face it and deal with it."

    I looked at him wordlessly and withheld my judgement.

    I barely knew Bruce at that point, but from what I had gathered, he was a person of strong character. If even he still had scars after taking the test so many years ago, then the test must be quite something indeed.

    I nced at Jete Wen and saw her face turn grim as well at the mention of the Ancestor''s test.

    "The test will be a real challenge mentally and emotionally. The risk of trauma is extremely high. In fact, it is almost certain that you will be scarred for life after the test. I am being extremely serious here. You wille out of this test with a trauma and an emotional scar of some sort.

    I will only ask this once, think carefully before you answer. Do you want to take the test to join the Blood Moon?" Bruce Pang asked me seriously.

    I was ten years old, and full of confidence in myself.

    Emotional scar? Trauma? Pffft. There is a price for power. And if emotional scars were the only thing I have to pay, I''ll dly pay it.<novelnext></novelnext>

    And so of course I said yes.

    "Yes." I immediately replied.

    "Good." The Ancestor said softly. "The young should be bold, carefree and confident like that. You''re a perfect candidate. Let us find out if you will be a perfect fit for the Blood Moon. Come here, young man."

    I turned around and approached the Ancestor wordlessly.

    A meditation mat had appeared next to him, and he beckoned me to sit there.

    I immediately got into the lotus sitting position and waited for further instructions.

    "Close your eyes and think about your life. Start from your earliest memory, and slowly think of everything that had happened in life. The good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the joy and the anger." The Ancestormanded me in a soft and hypnotic voice.

    I did as he said and began to visualize my life.

    A fragrant smell of herbs and flowers of some sort wafted by and immediately, the images in my mind grew sharper by several factors. I could see everything I was remembering very vividly. In fact, I could even begin to hear the sounds and feel the wind on my skin.

    I began to lose myself in my memories as countless images of things and people I had long forgotten appeared in great rity. And then like a sledgehammer upon my soul, my mother and my father appeared.

    "Hello, son." My father said with a familiar smile.

    I could feel my heart almost bursting in happiness at that moment.

    BA DUMP!

    A sharp pain shot through my heart.

    The memories in my mind lost a little bit of its rity for a moment. But it soon stabilized once more.

    "Justin. Mommy misses you so much." My mother said with a beautiful smile on her face.

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!

    Sweet, sweet bliss and joy intermingled with pain.

    A more powerful surge of pain wracked my heart once more and I could feel the red energy in my body stirring and slowly multiplying!

 Chapter 76 Deaths

    (Author''s Note: Dark chapter. Jump the gory parts if you''re underaged or easily horrified. Otherwise, enjoy¡­)

    "Hmm?" The Ancestor was so surprised at the disturbance that my red mecha core was causing within me that he even gave out an audible reaction.

    However, the pain soon receded and I was sent hurtling back into my memories once more. Before I knew it, my memories crossed the line into reality and I found myself sitting in a room I recognized as my old bedroom back when I was younger.

    When my father was still alive.

    (My mother had died much earlier for causes not revealed to me when I was even younger.)

    I quickly gave myself a tight p on the cheeks to check if it was a dream.

    PIAKK!

    Ow!!

    "What? It actually hurt? What''s going on here?" I asked out loud in shock.

    I quickly flung my room door open to check if I was really back home.

    SLAM! CRACK!

    My powerful physique flung the door open so powerfully that it mmed against the wall and cracked!

    "Justin! What on earth do you think you''re doing?" My mother stood up from her seat at the dining table and shouted at me sternly.

    "Mo-mother??" I stammered out a whisper of disbelief.

    "Don''t give me that look young man. It''s toote for regrets! How could you be so rough with the door? This isn''t like you at all." She frowned and stared at me with a strange look on her face.

    I couldn''t take my eyes off her. She was exactly how I remembered her.

    "Mother!!" I said in a slightly trembling voice. Tears were already flowing freely down my face and my heart was pounding fiercely in deep, deep joy.

    I ran towards her and hugged her tightly, all the while fighting with all my strength to hold back my sobs and failing spectacrly.

    "There, there. Did something happen? Are you alright? Don''t worry, mother is here. Your father is here too, we''ll make sure everything gets better. Don''t worry, Justin. We got you. We got you." My mother stroked my head lovingly and kept up a constant stream of chatter to soothe my obviously flustered heart.

    But the more she did that, the more I began to cry.

    I had no idea just how much I missed her.

    For a few long moments, I clung on to her as though she was my lifeline in a raging storm and bawled my heart and my eyes out.

    After my sobs finally subsided, my father finally stood up from his seat at the dining table and walked towards me.

    "It''s good that you''re crying, son. Do not pent up your emotions like that. It is not good for you. Crying one in a while when you''re in deep pain is fine. Just don''t do it too often like your mother." He teased my mother a little bit to lighten the situation.

    I couldn''t help but smile at his words.

    Yes, he was exactly how I remembered him to be.

    I could feel my happiness reach its fullness in my heart.

    I had my parents back, and it was perfect.

    "To hell with the test or whatever." I thought to myself as I sighed deeply in contentment.

    "Wait¡­ Test?"

    BAM!

    Our front door mmed open and four familiar figures appeared.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Emma Whitefrost. The damned old man Russel Whitefrost. James Whitefrost. Bruce Pang.

    "Huh? What are you guys doing here?" I was caughtpletely by surprise. I totally didn''t expect to see them at my home. How did they know where to find me? What was going on?

    However, they ignored my question and looked at my father and mother with grim and murderous expressions.

    "Han rebels. This is where you will die." Russel Whitefrost spat with a venomous voice.

    "What? NO! They are my parents, Grandpa!" I shouted at them in horror.

    "Shut up! They are Han rebels! And apparently, so are you! All three of you will die here today!" Emma shouted contemptuously.

    "Emma! Don''t do this. I saved your life, remember? You owe me your life!" I shouted.

    ? "Hmph! Han bastard. To think I considered you my friend. Disgusting!" Emma cursed at me.

    "Big brother! Do something! They are my parents!" I turned to look at Bruce and pleaded.

    "I don''t have a brother like you." Bruce Pang said coldly. "I will make sure you die a horrible death for lying to me about your background, you Han scum!"

    I began to despair. What was happening here??

    As one, all four of them drew their ancient swords and advanced on us in formation.

    "Mother! Father! Get back!" I immediately shouted and tried to push them behind me.

    "No parent will hide behind their child." My father said bravely as he grabbed the wine bottle on the table and smashed it to create an impromptu weapon.

    "We will stall them. Justin, run away and live. Do not die here with us." My mother said softly to me. After that, she grabbed the steak knives from the table and stood resolutely in front of me.

    "Run! Now!" My mother screamed and pushed me away.

    Emma and Russel Whitefrost immediately charged at my father while James and Bruce charged at my mother.

    I tried to leap forward to intercept their attacks, but to myplete horror, I realized that I couldn''t move!

    I could only watch with absolute despair as all of the people I love and those I had grown to respect begin a bloody and desperate battle.

    sh! ng! sh!

    Bloody wounds quickly appeared on my father and mother as they tried their best to stall for time.

    "Justin! Run!! Don''t just stand there!!" My mother screamed.

    "NO!! STOP!!!" I screamed hysterically at them.

    But they all ignored mepletely.

    My mother was the first to fall.

    sh!

    Bruce Pang''s sword deftly changed directions and avoided my mother''s parry to sh at her neck, severing it cleanly in one vicious stroke.

    "NOOOO!!!!!! AHH!HHHHHHH!" I shrieked. The sky seemed to fall down upon me as I watched her head fall down from her body, blood spurting out everywhere inrge amounts.

    sh!!

    My father also copsed after a savage sh from Russel almost separated his body vertically in two.

    "NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! WHY!!? WHY!!!????" My heart was crushed beyond imagination as I witnessed my parents die horrible deaths at the hands of the people I''ve begun to consider as my inner circle.

 Chapter 77 Fear

    (Author''s Note: Dark chapter. Jump the gory parts if you''re underaged or easily horrified. Otherwise, enjoy¡­)

    "For the glory of the Federation." Emma said softly as she wiped her sword stained with my father''s blood on the hem of her white dress.

    "For the glory of the Federation." The other three repeated grimly.

    "TO HELL WITH THE FEDERATION!!!!" I roared with unbridled fury. "THE FEDERATION AND ALL OF ITS CITIZENS WILL BURN FOR WHAT YOU''VE DONE TO MY PARENTS!!"

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!

    My heart began to pound with great power and my red energy began to multiply and double in volume again and again and again.

    "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I shouted and forced my body to break free from whatever was holding me down and leapt forward to attack the four of them!

    I reached Emma first and grabbed her by the neck.

    "I saved your life. And this is how you repay me??" I whispered. Not in sadness or pain at her betrayal, but in absolute fury.

    She struggled weakly and her eyes bulged out in horror and disbelief at my great strength.

    sh!

    sh!

    sh!

    The sword strikes shed at me from all directions. But they couldn''t do anything to me.

    I ignored them and stared deep into Emma''s eyes. I wanted to see the light of her life fade away.

    Crack.

    My hand squeezed and broke her neck.

    Crack!

    I went further andpletely pulverized her spine.

    Herrge bulging eyes filled with horror and shock slowly turned vacant as she died in my hand.

    I flung her lifeless body away carelessly and advanced to the next person.

    Russel Whitefrost.

    He was roaring in fury over what I had done, but I couldn''t hear him.

    In fact, I couldn''t hear anything.

    I parried his furious sword strike with my left hand and grabbed his head with my right hand.

    "Die, old man." I said coldly as I squeezed his head.

    Crack! St!

    His head was crushed like a watermelon.

    I flung his lifeless body aside as well and advanced on the other two who were staring at me with resolute looks on their faces.

    They intended to stay and fight to thest man? Good.

    I took James'' harmless sh at my neck and traded it for an uppercut to his neck.

    Crack!!

    His head spun 180 degrees vertically and he crumpled in front of me.

    I turned to look at Bruce. He merely snarled at me and attacked me with a ferocious sword thrust to my eye!

    I shifted my head slightly to the right to dodge it and stepped in.

    Jleb!

    My hand pierced his stomach and grabbed his spinal cord. And then I squeezed.

    Crack!

    The mighty Bruce Pang, Terror of Battlefields, died just like that.

    Once more, I flung his corpse to one side<novelnext></novelnext>

    I stared at the four dead murderers of my parents in confusion as my anger burned aimlessly, looking for another target to devour.

    But there were no more targets left. At least not in the house.

    I looked down at my parents'' dead bodies and felt anger quickly drain out of my body.

    Pure agonizing sorrow took its ce and I began to scream.

    Seconds.

    Minutes.

    And still I screamed.

    After what seemed like a very long time, I finally stopped.

    Not because I wanted to, but because my vocal chords gave out.

    I was in pain. Extreme and excruciating pain.

    The heartbreak I felt at that moment was unlike anything I had ever felt before.

    I dug a grave outside our home for my parents with my bare hands and buried them there.

    I spent the entire night by their grave, mourning for them, and slowly transforming my sorrow into anger.

    When daylight finally came, I stood up.

    My eyes burned with hunger for vengeance.

    I had screamed enough. It was the Chinese Federation''s turn to scream.

    Cold fury burned steadily within my heart and constantly caused my red energy to multiply over and over again as the next few days passed in a blur of blood, gore, murder and of course, endless screaming.

    I attacked and killed every single Chinese Federation citizen I came across. I massacred towns. Cities. Men. Women. Children.

    Hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands died.

    The Chinese Federation Police Force mobilized against me.

    They died.

    The Chinese Federation National Guard mobilized against me.

    They died.

    The Chinese Federation Armed Forces mobilized against me.

    They died.

    After an entire week of relentless and mindless massacre, a soft and aged voice finally thundered out in my mind.

    "Enough."

    CRACK!!!!!!

    My reality suddenly swirled and copsed.

    I gasped loudly and opened my eyes.

    I was back in the mecha throne room, and I waspletely covered by my man-sized white mecha suit. The fact that my red energy had recovered enough to summon a full body mecha suit waspletely lost on me at that time.

    However, the suit did immediately recede when I regained my consciousness.

    "Wha¡­ What''s happening? That was all my imagination??" I asked in a thunderstruck voice. I could still feel the cold fury simmering in my soul, and the emotional detachedness which drove my hands to endless murder was still firmly in ce.

    "The setting was fake." The Ancestor replied in his soft voice. "Your reactions, however, were all real. You had full control over your emotions, thoughts and decisions. "

    I turned to look at him coldly as my mind processed the information.

    For a moment, both of us merely looked at each other.

    There was something new in his eyes as I stared at him.

    "Fear." I realized with a start.

    The Ancestor feared me.

    I turned to look at Bruce and Jete, and was about to ask whether they saw what I had gone through when I smiled bitterly. The looks of utter horror on their faces told me exactly what I needed to know.

    I also realized that I couldn''t look at Bruce without feeling a deep sense of difort. The anger that I felt towards him, and the pleasure experienced in killing him was much too real and much too fresh in my heart.

    Thankfully, Jete Wen was there, and she knew exactly what I needed at that moment, the very thing that was able to soothe my highly traumatized soul.

    "Oh you poor little thing!" She cried out and grabbed me into her embrace, all the while sobbing at the horror and agony I had experienced.

    Herpassionate hug and empathetic sobs were like life giving water in a heart scorched by pain and anger, cooling me down and saving me from certain life-changing traumas that would have definitely changed my rtionship with all four people involved in the "murder" of my parents.

 Chapter 78 Second Dragon

    And even then, I still found it difficult to speak to them for many, many days.

    Jete Wen gently led me away from the two men so that they could talk freely and I could have a little bit of separation from them as I dealt with the aftermath of the test.

    The Ancestor''s test was truly a vicious emotional ripping apart of whatever iplete healing in any major wounds that we might have. It also ced us in impossibly painful situations which would squeeze out our most heartfelt reactions.

    Cowards would run and beg for their lives.

    Thieves would sneak about and steal their way out of their predicaments.

    Killers would kill, and psychopaths like me would¡­ Massacre.

    The Ancestor looked at Bruce Pang and gave him an extremely solemn and slightly worried look.

    The test result was clear.

    I was a person that was capable of doing the unspeakable and the unthinkable. True, true, it was in retaliation to an unspeakable event done to me first. But still¡­ Many would stop at killing the four murderers.

    I didn''t.

    I gave out the death sentence to the entire Chinese Federation simply because the murderers spouted patriotic nonsense about glory to the federation.

    I was a ruthless, merciless, bloodthirsty psychopath very much willing tomit genocide and try to wipe out an entire country just to take revenge.

    And with my incredible RPL score as well as the strange power which I had identally showcased, the Ancestor and Bruce immediately ced me into a very unique category of people in their minds.

    I was a time bomb.

    A ticking nuclear bomb that could blow up in their faces. Yet, if guided and molded properly, I was also a bomb that could rip the enemies of the Federation apart to smithereens.

    At that moment, the optionsid before the Ancestor were very simple. Take me in and foster me to the highest degree, or kill me to prevent me from falling into the hands of their enemies.

    Thankfully, Bruce was there and took the decision out of the Ancestor''s hands.

    Bruce gave the Ancestor an emotionless look and said with an emotionless voice. "He is my sworn brother."

    "Hmmm???" The Ancestor''s eyes shot open and bulged out in surprise. And then he gave Bruce a warm smile. "Good. Very good. Time is truly the greatest medicine. Your own test, as I remember, was not a shred easier than his."

    "Indeed. And here I am, in loyal service to the Federation." Bruce said slowly.

    My life was hanging in the bnce, and my big bro was treading very lightly and very carefully.

    The Ancestor nced at me and then turned back to look at Bruce seriously. Both remained silent for a few seconds.

    "He, and his future actions, will fully be your responsibility." The Ancestor said heavily.

    "Naturally. As I was yours." Bruce nodded.

    "And you would do well to remember the trouble and the grief you brought me all those years ago." The Ancestor said with half chucklingly and half warningly.

    "That is exactly why I am willing and ready for the responsibility." Bruce said with a little smile.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Fine. I''ll let you handle this. I''ve done what I can do, you both know exactly what you''re dealing with now." The Ancestor said while looking at both Bruce and me.

    "Yes, Ancestor. And¡­" Bruce hesitated lightly and then leaned in to the Ancestor to whisper something in his ear, who nodded solemnly.

    "You should have started with that. Just one final step left then. Bring the boy here." The Ancestormanded while staring at me with a strange look on his face.

    I remained silent, still half lost in my thoughts and my pain.

    Bruce turned around and looked back to where Jete and I were standing.

    "Come." He said softly.

    Jete Wen finally released me from her embrace and wiped her own tears away from her face.

    She led me back to the Ancestor, and then both of them stepped back to give the Ancestor and me some space.

    The Ancestor looked at me and observed silently. I merely looked back at him dumbly.

    Although he was the grand architect of my pain, I didn''t feel much towards him simply for the fact that he did not appear in my test.

    In fact, by that time, I wasn''t feeling much of anything. My pain and my shock had receded slightly and gave way to tingling numbness.

    "You passed the first test. The strength, determination and willingness to follow your heart which you demonstrated were all extremely impressive. However, if left fully up to me, I would have killed you right here and now to prevent future trouble." The Ancestor paused and nced at Bruce before continuing.

    "Still, the world belongs to the young. I am far too old to be meddling too much. When Bruce took you in as your sworn brother, he was essentially saving your life. You, and all the horrors you might unleash upon the world, are his responsibility now."

    Truthfully, I didn''t give a whit about the Ancestor''s words at that point. He probably knew what I was feeling because he didn''t continue his little lecture.

    Instead, a marvelous looking dagger appeared in his right hand and he handed it to me, hilt first.

    "Draw blood." Hemanded very simply while pointing at my hand.

    I took the dagger and ran its edge lightly on my left palm. Immediately, my powerful skin gave way and I started to bleed lightly.

    What a wondrous dagger!

    I gave the dagger back to the Ancestor who promptly did the same thing to his right palm and then beckoned for me to put my bleeding palm on top of his.

    I obeyed and felt the beginnings of curiosity stirring in my heart.

    For a few seconds, nothing happened as we remained in that position silently.

    The Ancestor then closed his eyes and frowned very slightly.

    All of a sudden, the entire massive room began to shake and rumble for a few long seconds, and then a deep and powerful scraping sound of something extremely heavy being dragged could be heard.

    "You''re right, little Bruce." The Ancestor opened his eyes and said in his soft voice which thundered across the entire room. "He is the second dragon we''ve been waiting for."

 Chapter 79 One Of Them Will Be Yours

    "This is fate." The Ancestor sighed deeply and released my hand. "I should have known when I realized the depths of your anger and your willingness to kill."

    For some reason, although I was curious, I somehow couldn''t be bothered to ask for an exnation. I knew they would eventually get to that.

    Behind me, I could hear Bruce and Jete approach us.

    "You did well making him your sworn brother that quickly." The Ancestor praised Bruce and nodded. "Saved us from a whole lot of guesswork and pain, you did."

    "Thank you, Ancestor." Bruce bowed deeply.

    "I guess you need to know the whole story." The Ancestor looked at me and sighed deeply again.

    "I''ve looked forward and dreaded this moment for so long, and now, it''s finally upon me." The Ancestor said ruefully. "Sit down here next to me once more."

    I obeyed him wordlessly.

    "Some things are better shown than told. Close your eyes."

    As before, the smell of flowers and herbs entered my nostrils and very soon, I was swimming in memories again. However, the memories weren''t mine.

    It was the Ancestor''s.

    A young and handsome version of the Ancestor was seated in a small room. His eyes were closed and his right hand was gripping an ancient looking pen and writing furiously on a piece of paper.

    "A tiger will rise from the snowy mountains and fight the good fight for the nation. He would strike down our enemies and protect us from certain doom. However, a tiger is no match for demons. He will fall and we will not avoid defeat."

    The memory shifted, and a slightly older looking Ancestor in high ranking military uniform was watching the news alone in his office.

    "Russel Whitefrost! National hero!! He orchestrated the national defense strategy which defeated every single army sent our way from both the East and the West! Against all odds, we''re winning the war! Truly, he is like a tiger among a rabble of chicken!"

    And then the memory shifted once more. He was still in his office watching the news, but the newscaster was a different person and was shouting out very grim news.

    "Russel Whitefrost, hero of the Chinese Federation, is surrounded on all sides by the enemy! They are attacking his position like a pack of demons! Why isn''t the military highmand sending out reinforcements to rescue him? If he falls, the Chinese Federation will fall too!"

    "A prophet." I realized with a start. "The Ancestor is a prophet! He is able to predict the future!"

    The memory shifted again.

    The Ancestor was in the throne room and observing the Blood Moon entrance test that a very young looking Bruce was taking. However, the shocking thing about that scene was that Bruce was sweating blood!

    His head and his body were covered with little blood droplets which slowly grew bigger.

    The Ancestor''s face was extremely grim. When young Bruce finally woke up, he was soaked in his own blood. The Ancestor put his arm around him and held him that way silently for a few seconds.

    And then, a look of absolute surprise struck his face, and then he opened his mouth to speak in a deep voice.

    The Wings of the Twin Dragons shall carry the Federation high above the Clouds of Glory.

    ck and White, Male and Female, Power and Splendor.

    The sh of the Twin Dragons shall plunge the Federation into the Precipice of Annihtion.

    ck will strike White in the light, and White will stab ck in the dark.

    Their blood shall drown the nation in grief and mourning.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Salvation lies in the hands of the Dragon... Kin.

    At his final word, the Ancestor''s gaze fell upon Bruce, who was trembling in shock and grief in his arms.

    "Bruce is the prophesied Dragon Kin? Then doesn''t that mean I am one of the prophesied dragons?" I wondered.

    Once more, the memory shifted. This time, it was a recent memory, one that was only a few years old.

    A much younger Emma, barely past toddler age, stood silently in the Whitefrost n''s main living room. The Ancestor was there, along with Russel and someone who could only be Phil Whitefrost, Emma''s dad.

    The Ancestor was holding Emma''s hand with an extremely grave expression.

    He turned to look at Russel Whitefrost and said, "The White Dragon of the Chinese Federation. She will lead us to certain glory and possible destruction."

    Silence hung in the air. As senior military men, they knew that the Chinese Federation had a zero-tolerance policy towards national threats. Threats were always snuffed out as soon as they appeared.

    And in that situation, the obvious step was to kill Emma. Sacrifice glory to stave off doom. It was the logical choice.

    Russel Whitefrost only gave the Ancestor a cold look and said a single sentence.

    "She is my granddaughter."

    "I will advise the President to grant her The Core." The Ancestor nodded as though he was expecting his unreasonable response and said emotionlessly.

    "The Core. So that''s the name of Emma''s secret." I noted to myself.

    The smell, along with the memories, faded and I opened my eyes.

    For the first time, an emotion other than pain, grief and numbness filled my eyes.

    "Emma is the White Dragon of your prophecy? And I am¡­"

    "The ck Dragon." The Ancestor nodded gravely. "You and Emma will soon lead us to greatness beyond anything the world has ever seen."

    I looked at him incredulously.

    "And then, the two of you will fight and destroy the country." The Ancestor continued. "At which point, you, little Bruce, are our only hope."

    Bruce Pang, Jete Wen and I merely stared at him, each of us lost in our own thoughts and emotions.

    "If there is one thing I learnt in my years as a prophet, it is that although prophecies will definitelye true, they often do so in the strangest and most unexpected ways. Don''t worry too much about it. Go, bring him to his mecha." The Ancestor waved us away and closed his eyes wearily. "Come back when you''re done. I have questions about your strange power.

    All three of us bowed and then turned around to leave.

    We left the front area of the room where the Ancestor had taken as his personal meditation area, and walked down the central walkway with the thirty six mechas standing on our left and right.

    Their sheer size and awesomeness demanded my attention and awe, and was able to lift my depressed mood a little.

    "Thirty six white mechas of the highest grade, divided into twelve distinct types based on the twelve elements of the world." Bruce whispered in awesome wonder.

    "One of them will be yours."

 Chapter 80 Chronos

    We took our time walking down the central walkway in between the mechas, while Bruce kept up a runningmentary about each of the mechas.

    Jete remainedpletely silent, understanding the need for me to experience a Bruce which was different from my test as much as possible. She did, however, hold my hand as we walked past the mechas slowly.

    I truly appreciated that little gesture of hers.

    I was extremely traumatized and emotionally unstable. I had to deal with new information which are mind blowing, to say the least.

    I was lost, and in desperate need of an anchor. And something as simple as holding my hand was like a lifeline to me.  She would never know just how much that simple act of holding my hand meant for me at that time.

    But then again, maybe she did know.

    Jete Wen was, afterall, the most thoughtful and consideratedy I had ever known.

    I''ve grown to love her dearly, and her murder was definitely one of the reasons why I went so absolutely nuts. In fact, I still feel the need to vent, even right now. If not for the crisis we are currently facing, the world will be a billion people less in poption.

    Nobody is allowed to harm the people I love. If you do, I wille back and kill you, your family, your friends and your countrymen.

    I''ve done that before, and I will definitely do it again if I need to.

    Anyway, despite the emotional wreck that I was at that time, it was a very educational and interesting walk for me.

    I had always loved mechas. And the 36 mechas before me at that moment were truly the most powerful and the best looking mechas I had ever seen.

    Although simrly white mechas, they made Amelia Dragonos''s white mecha seem like a cute little imitation.

    "Do you know the 12 elements of the world, Justin?" Bruce asked me gently with a smile.

    I shook my head silently.

    "Well, this isn''t scientific, of course. But based on an offshoot of Chinese Mythology, there are twelve elements in the world.

    The five Basic Elements - Gold. Wood. Water. Fire. Earth.

    The two Advanced Elements - Wind. Lightning.

    The four Royal Elements - Space. Time. Light. Darkness.

    The final Divine Element - Chaos.

    Each of the Twelve Mecha Guardians embody one of these elements. And although you might be inclined to think that they are all equally powerful, they are not.

    Of course, each of them can be much more powerful and effective than the others in very specific conditions. However, in general, the Primordial Chaos Emperor, which embodies the Chaos Element, is more powerful than, say, the me Tempest which embodies the Fire Element."

    I nodded in understanding as I stared at the mighty white mechas towering high above me.

    They all looked absolutely amazing.

    "This is Chronos. My mecha." Bruce pointed at the nearest hundred-meter tall white mecha.

    (Check out inspirations for Chronos in my discord server!)

    I looked at the mecha and my eyes widened in surprise. It looked incredible! Yet for some reason¡­

    I turned my head to look at Bruce.

    Jete Wen immediately chuckled. "You feel it too huh?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Yes. I feel as though the mecha is¡­ Hmmmm."

    "Haha! Feel free to say it. The mecha is¡­ Too¡­" Jete Wen tried to help me along my train of thought.

    "Too¡­" I struggled to find the word for it.

    "Too damned cool for him!" Jete Wen finally couldn''t take it anymore and blurted out the very thing my brain had been trying to put into words.

    "Ah!" My eyes lit up in agreement.

    "Haha!" Jete Wunughed out loudly.

    It was true though.

    Bruce is¡­ Well, Bruce. Big, powerfully built like a bull and acts like one too. He looked extremely solid and steady, like a rock you can depend on even in the wildest storms.

    Chronos, his mecha which embodied the Time Element, was his pr opposite. It was sleek, angr and intensely edgy. It looked extremely hungry for blood and its bronze-ck base colour with red trim merely increased its intensity. Its main weapons are a trio of powerful swords which suited its specialty, Timewalk, perfectly.

    Twin swords for closebat, and a giant sword almost as big as its frame which very clearly also doubled as a powerful energy cannon hung behind it on its back.

    It was the coolest mecha I had everid eyes on. Bar none. Period.

    And it was exactly like Jeae Wen had said.

    It was much too cool for Bruce Pang!

    I smiled for the first time after my test.

    "Would you like to go for a ride in it?" Bruce asked me.

    I was about to immediately agree when Jete Wen answered the question for me.

    "Of course not. We need to pick his mecha for him first. We are almost out of time, Bruce." Jete Wen reminded her husband firmly.

    "Right, right. Maybe next time eh?" Bruce replied hastily and smiled at me.

    I nodded.

    "Behind Chronos are the two Mecha Disciples styled and powered like him. One of them is taken, and if you''repatible with the other one, it might just be yours." Bruce said.

    "You''ll have yourpatibility testter after we finish our little tour." Jete Wen said.

    "Compatibility test?" I said while frowning lightly.

    I had enough tests tost me a good long year.

    "Don''t worry, it''s nothing like the entrance test. Thepatibility test is something simr to the RPL test. We''ll put you in a deep scanning device and we''ll discover your affinities with the 12 elements." Jete Wen said gently.

    "Hmmm. That sounds doable." I nodded.

    "Once we''ve determined your strongest affinity, you can then pilot all seven of the Mecha Disciples. Each Mecha Disciple will then react to your piloting and express theirpatibility with you in a number from 1 - 100.

    Usually, the mecha representing your strongest affinity will give you the highest score, thus making it mostpatible with you. However, that is not always the case.

 Chapter 81 Not Today

    "Bruce here, has the highest affinity with the Earth Element. No surprises there. However, somehow, hispatibility with Chrono Warrior, the Mecha Disciple under Chronos, was off the charts. So he picked it." Jete Wen borated slightly.

    "So I am only allowed to pick the mecha with the highestpatibility with me?" I asked to confirm.

    "The mecha with the highestpatibility with you will allow you to exert the highest amount ofbat efficiency. So we always push our members to go for that. However, if you have a strong enough reason to pick a different mecha, we can consider it." Bruce replied.

    ? "All of the mechas here are extremely powerful and extremely difficult to pilot. You will need a lot of training to be able to unlock high levels ofbat efficiency. In fact, even after piloting Chronos for almost fifteen years, I am only able to push it to 83%bat efficiency. And that is even with my God-like RPL of 92." Bruce added.

    "So picking the mecha with the highestpatibility with you will probably determine thebat efficiency ceiling." Jete Wen said. "Don''t worry too much, you''ll be able to test pilot each mecha extensively before deciding which one you want."

    "If you wish, you can even take the internal Blood Moon Time Attack Challenge mode.

    You can test pilot the mechas through a series of obstacles and executing their skills using the Full Automatic Pilot Mode."

    "Full Automatic Pilot Mode?" I raised my eyebrow and looked at Jete Wen for boration.

    "It basically helps you pilot the mecha while you give the most basic instructions to it like charge forward, sh attack, execute skill." Jete Wen exined. "It allows evenymen to effortlessly control a mecha to do very basic actions. Of course, with the Full Automatic Pilot Mode, you won''t be able to exert even 10% of the mechas''s totalbat effectiveness. It is useful for us to determine which element new students with high potential like you arepatible with."

    "Wait, I thought the Blood Moon is a secret organization? Why do we need to determine which elements new students arepatible with?" I asked in slight confusion.

    "National Mecha Pilot Academy''s mechas are all divided into these twelve elements." Jete Wen exined patiently. "And each of these twelve elements has a faction representing them."

    "AH! Factions." I nodded in understanding. "Finally. I''ve been wondering what exactly they are."

    "But you''ll have all the time in the world to learn about factions and the academy politics. I would advise you not to delve too deep into the politics and just focus on increasing your strength and honing your skills, but it''spletely your choice to make once you begin school life.

    Right now though, it''s time for you to choose your mecha!" Jete Wen''s eyes gleamed in excitement.

    I would have loved to stay in that throne room for the rest of the night to slowly savor each and every mecha, and learn of their unique skills and if possible, test pilot each and every one of them. But time seemed to be of the essence, so I was only brought to each of the avable 7 Mecha Disciples.

    "The first Mecha Disciple on your list is my old Mecha, the Chrono Warrior." Bruce said as he looked at the huge and towering mecha behind Chronos fondly. "It embodies the Royal Element of Time."

    Chrono Warrior looked very simr to Chronos. The only difference was that instead of a trio of deadly swords, Chrono Warrior only has one medium sized broadsword hung on its left hip. A huge round shield covered the entirety of its left arm.

    Although it towered magnificently at almost a hundred meters, it was still around fifty meters shorter than Chronos.

    Still, it was an amazing mecha. It may be called a Mecha Disciple, but it was a only a disciple when it was with Chronos. Outside its master''s shadow, it was an overlord in its own right.

    "The next Mecha Disciple in your list is also one of the more powerful ones. It''s called Deathscythe, and it is from the Dark Element, also a Royal Element." Bruce pointed at another cool-looking mecha. "In fact, its brother, Darkscythe, is the next one on your list. Both Dark Element Mecha Disciples are unimed at this moment."

    Both mechas were part of a trio of fully ck mechas that seemed to suck all the light of life around them.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The atmosphere around them was gloomy and sinister.

    The mecha Bruce was pointing at held a massive double-ded scythe and had sleek, bat-wing armor that covered its bodypletely. It looked outrageously deadly and powerful.

    Next to it was another very simr looking mecha. However, Darkscythe was slightly smaller, and wielded twin scythes instead of a giant one like Deathscythe.

    (As usual, checkout Deathscythe Inspirations in my discord server!)

    I could feel my senses tingling when I beheld Deathscythe and Darkscythe.

    However, it was the Dark Element Mecha Guardian that held most of my attention.

    At a hundred and sixty meters tall, it was almost the tallest Mecha Guardian out of the twelve. Like its disciples, it was fully ck in colour. However, unlike its disciples, its eyes glowed red, giving it a deeply ferocious and ruthless look.

    My heart even skipped a beat when I took in its grandeur for the first time.

    Its bat-wing armor was much more subdued than its disciples, but somehow, less was more for its case, and it looked much deadlier than its two disciples.

    Both its hands gripped a heart-poundingly awesome looking double-ded, double-sided battle scythe which looked so ridiculously cool and toy-like that I couldn''t believe that it was actually a real weapon.

    "Mecha Guardian - Death God." Jete Wen said when he saw my eyes riveted onto the mecha.

    "Unimed." Bruce added.

    Jete turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. Bruce merely shrugged.

    "Unimed." I repeated, and gulped down my saliva very audibly.

    That I wanted it badly was immediately apparent to both of them.

    I stretched my left hand out and felt my resonance with the Death God Mecha Guardian humming within me.

    I could sense it so very clearly! Just a singlemand with my mind, and I would be able to absorb the Death God Mecha Guardian! Well notpletely, because I was still very "Full" from Amelia Dragonos'' white mecha.

    But I could absolutely take its criticalponents and design.

    "No, I shouldn''t." I told myself. "At least not today."

    I closed my eyes and let my resonance spread out throughout the gigantic room.

 Chapter 82 Whats Happening Here?

    "The scythe is such an impractical weapon." Jete remarked lightly to Bruce. "I haven''t really seen any of the Dark Trio in real action, and I couldn''t for the world imagine how they can do so much killing with such a weird weapon."

    Bruce chuckled at her remark.

    "The scythe deals damage by getting ahead of the enemy, and pulling it back towards the wielder. What does that tell you about the situation?" Bruce asked Jete.

    They were both chatting away while patiently waiting for me to finish my awed study of Death God.

    "The situation? The wielder''s enemy must all be trying to run away if the killing method is by pulling them back. But there are so many other more effective ways to kill a running enemy." Jete argued back.

    Bruce shook his head with a smile.

    "Tell me, would you use your favorite hunting rifle to kill a rabbit, or a high powered machine gun?" Bruce asked her.

    "My hunting rifle, of course." Jete immediately replied and then nodded in understanding. "Even if it''s nowhere as efficient as the machine gun in killing rabbits. You''re saying that the Death God is expecting to always find itself in situations where it has the leeway to pick a favorite killing weapon instead of a more efficient weapon?"

    Bruce looked at his wife seriously for a second, and then nodded. "Yes. Always. Everytime."

    "Hmmmm. It is that strong huh? I really want to see it in action. In fact, I want to see ANY one of the Dark Trio in action. Why aren''t there any videos or footage of them fighting, I wonder? They must have seen some action in WW3." Jete wondered aloud.

    "They would make for pretty sad assassins if there were footages of them "in action"! Bruceughed.

    "Oh? I didn''t know they were assassins. Judging by their heavy armor, I thought that they would be frontline tankers and damage dealers." Jete remarked in genuine surprise.

    "The Dark Trio''s heavy armor is part of their unique feature. The armor is actually just their wings folding forward and inward. It gives them extreme maneuvering capabilities while in flight, and extreme protection while in a fight.

    Their unique skill, Perfect Darkness, allows them to absorb all light for a short time, making them near impossible to detect visually at night." Bruce said.

    "How do you know all these things? I''m the Vice Principal, and I have as much ess as you to all the restricted files and I have never seen any of these things mentioned before!" Jete asked Bruce slightly indignantly.

    "You have as much ess as me, that''s absolutely true. But what use is ess if you don''t use it. You read half as much as me, and that''s also absolutely true. For me to know twice as many things as you is to be expected." Bruce smiled as they bantered back and forth.

    By their side, I had allowed my powerful resonance to drift outwards and study each and every mecha within my reach. I realized that none of them intrigued me and pulled at me as much as the Dark Element mechas. Even Deathscythe had an extremely powerful allure to me.

    I opened my eyes and stared at the final three mechas which were out of range for my resonance to study clearly.

    "What elements are those? I pointed at them and asked.

    "The trio at the very edge are the Chaos Divine Element mechas. Why? Are you interested?" Jete asked.

    "Yes. Let''s take a look at them. I think I am close to making my decision." I told her.

    "Really? We haven''t even seen the other mechas yet!" Jete objected slightly.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I don''t need to." I replied. "I know exactly what I want. However, I do want to confirm about the final trio."

    "If that''s what you want." Jete shrugged and led us to the final trio.

    Once again, I was absolutely thunderstruck by the awesomeness of the Divine Element mechas.

    They were by far the biggest mechas out of the thirty six, and by far the most majestic looking ones as well.

    The Primordial Chaos Emperor stood at an incredible hundred and seventy five meters tall, while his two disciples stood not much shorter at a hundred and forty five meters tall.

    Even the Chaos Element Mecha Disciples were almost as tall as the other Mecha Guardians.

    All three were styled very simrly in a fearsomebination of gold, white and red. Their thick armor looked extremely solid and imprable, and all three wielded wicked looking overlord spears that were longer than they were tall.

    "Primordial Chaos Emperor, and his two Disciples, Light Primordial and Dark Chaos. All three of them are also currently unimed." Bruce said softly.

    "Why are they still unimed? If the elements aren''t equal as you said, then the Divine Element must be the strongest element." I asked.

    "The strongest. And also the one with the highest requirements. After its previous owner died, not a single person managed to score more than a single digit inpatibility with it. Not even Russel Whitefrost and Phil Whitefrost, two of the most ster mecha pilots in thest two generations, were able to sessfully "tame" the Chaos Trio." Bruce exined, feeling slightly pleased that I was talking to him once more.

    I walked up to the giant Primordial Chaos Emperor andid my hand on it.

    Instantly, a resonance and connection unlike anything I had ever felt before surged throughout my body.

    HUM!!!

    The Primordial Chaos Emperor suddenly powered up!!

    Whoosh!!

    The Ancestor suddenly appeared before us like a phantom!

    "An-Ancestor!" Bruce and Jete eximed in surprise.

    The Ancestor ignored them and focused on me as I took a few steps back to gape at the powered up Primordial Chaos Emperor.

    "I uh¡­" I turned around to look at the Ancestor and then pointed at the Primordial Chaos Emperor.

    Realizing that I had nothing to say, I immediately implemented one of the best strategies ever known to man. The best defense is offense!

    "What''s happening here? Why did it suddenly power up by itself?" I demanded as though I was the victim!

 Chapter 83 Gene Optimizing Serum

    The Ancestorughed out loud at my miserably pointless antic to defend myself.

    After all, there was only one strange variable in the entire room, and it was me and my strange power.

    He studied the Primordial Chaos Emperor and nodded when he realized that nothing was wrong with it.

    "Would you like to tell me everything you know now, or would you like me to-"

    "I''ll tell you everything." I quickly replied.

    I had no wish to go against the Ancestor. Not with so many benefits which I could gain by being a Blood Moon, and so many disadvantages being at odds with him.

    "I was about to say I''ll buy the information off you with this treasure, but it''s good that you''re willing to tell me everything out of your own ord." The Ancestor nced at me slyly as he took out a weird looking vial. It was a potion of some sort.

    "Tell you what, why don''t you try and attack me. If you cannd a hit on me, I''ll-"

    Snatch!

    My hand shot out at high speed and tried to snatch the vial from the Ancestor even before he finished speaking.

    The Ancestor dodged my attempt easily.

    Bruce and Jete could only gape in shock at my obvious disregard for respect!

    "What a sneaky fe! Truly my brother from another mother!" Bruce cried out excitedly.

    "What a sneaky fe! Truly worthy of being a Blood Moon Disciple!" Jete cried out in approval.

    "The Ancestor was probably about to puke blood. His senior Blood Moon Guardians were actually apuding me for sneak attacking him!" I thought with a slightugh.

    However the Ancestor merely smiled at me and taunted me by beckoning me to continue with his other hand.

    "Well, if you''re brave enough to willingly kick a ho''s nest, then don''tin when the hos alle out to y!" I smiled greedily at him.

    I threw away all sensible thoughts and began to attack the Ancestor in earnest with everything I had.

    Whoosh!

    I sent a powerful straight right which the Ancestor dodged with a quick step-back and a bored look on his face.

    I smirked and manifested a mecha arm which managed tond a grip on the Ancestor''s robe!

    The Ancestor''s eyes narrowed in mild surprise as he realized that he had been caught.

    However, the surprise was mostly mine when I pulled at his robe, only to find that he wasn''t in it anymore!

    "Very interesting power you got there." His aged and tired voice sounded from behind me.

    Since I was about to tell him everything anyway, I might as well do a little demonstration and get for myself a little reward in the process.

    I had no idea what was in the vial, but it must be something good!

    Iunched a ruthless back kick using my right foot towards the voice.

    Missed!

    My right foot mmed down on the ground and Iunched another kick using my left foot this time.

    Missed again!<novelnext></novelnext>

    The Ancestor kept leaning back and making simple moves to dodge my furious attack.

    Beneath his simple robe was a stunning muscr body filled with horrible scars.

    (Think: Genry¨±sai Shigekuni Yamamoto)

    I dashed forward to close the distance between us andunched another vicious straight right at him.

    He leaned to his right and avoided my punch without much effort at all.

    "Gotcha!" I smirked as my left fist swung upwards in a powerful uppercut towards his face.

    The Ancestor was about to lean backwards to avoid it when¡­

    BAM!!

    I abruptly twisted my left arm to change my uppercut midswing to be a straight left. And not just any straight left.

    I had also manifested a huge mecha arm which extended my reach by an incredible 1 meter!

    There was no way he was gonna avoid my surprise attack.

    Ancestor or not, even if he was an ancient neanderthal, he would eat that attack of mine.

    "Ooof!" The Ancestor grunted heavily as my mecha arm connected and sent him flying away.

    "Little bro!" Bruce cried out in surprise. "You.. You actuallynded a hit on Ancestor?!"

    "Wow! Well done! How did it feel? Oh my god, I''ve always dreamed of the day I couldnd a hit on him like that¡­ To think that an unskilled, untrained newbie like you could do what so many skilled warriors couldn''t? Amazing!" Jete was practically gushing with glee.

    "Well done! Well done indeed. But I can''t help but wonder, did the old man¡­ finally let his age catch up to him? Did he get soft on us?" Bruce muttered loudly to Jete.

    "Maybe. Hey, do you think we should challenge him to fight now? I think¡­"

    "Why not?" The Ancestor growled as he suddenly appeared before us in a blink of an eye.

    "Gulp. I think that''s exactly what someone stupid and out of his mind would say! Hahahahahaha!" Jeteughed inelegantly and took a few steps backwards.

    Although the Ancestor appeared as though he was teleporting to me, he was actually executing powerful movement techniques. Horrifyinglyplex techniques which did not escape Bruce and Jete''s notice.

    With such powerful movement techniques, he would be able to eat Bruce and Jete up for breakfast, lunch and dinner anytime.

    Of course, in his fight against me, he was merely taking it easy on me and dodged my painfully newbie attacks with the bare minimum to avoid getting hit. The only reason I managed tond my attack on him was simply because I had done something which his brain wasn''t able to factor in and thus avoid.

    But whatever the reason, Inded a hit on him.

    "Drink it now." He tossed the vial to me. "You should be strong enough to resist the pain."

    I caught it with my left hand and studied it carefully.

    "What does it do?" I asked him.

    "It''s a Gene Optimizing Serum." He said, as though it was all the exnation he needed to give.

    "Oh! The damned old man, I mean, Russel Whitefrost promised to give me a Gene Optimizing Pill as well. Is it okay if I drink this and eat that pill as well?" I asked in surprise.

 Chapter 84 BLAGHHH!

    "Gene optimizing pill? Ha! The Gene Optimizing Serum is much more powerful and effectivepared to the pill. This serum will fix all the errors and the weaknesses of your genes and revert you back to the most optimal version of yourself. In the process, the serum will also burn a huge chunk of the impurities found in your body.

    One serum like this isn''t enough to optimize everything, of course, but it''ll be a good start."

    "I see. Thank you very much for your gift, Ancestor!" I bowed in gratitude to him.

    I knew that if the Ancestor did not intend for me to have it, I could try and attack him for the rest of eternity and I still wouldn''t be able to get the serum.

    "Good. At least you still have the good sense to be grateful." The Ancestor nodded in approval. "Serums work better than pills. But the pill is still an item of epic rarity. The Whitefrost n is doing you an extremely great favor by promising you the pill."

    "I understand." I replied with a nod.

    "They must be pretty flush with money if they''re gifting such a precious resource to a random kid like you. Unless¡­ Russel knows about your power?"

    "Nope." I shook my head. "Well, Emma knows. She might have told her grandpa about it¡­ But my gut is telling me that the old man doesn''t know yet. He promised me the Gene Optimizing Pill as a reward for saving Emma from the kidnappers." I exined.

    At my words, the Ancestor glowered in anger.

    "Are the kidnappers all dead?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

    "No." I shook my head.

    "Hmmm. They should be soon. Unless that Whitefrost brat is going soft on me." The Ancestor nced at Bruce for more information.

    "Definitely not." Bruce chuckled. "That crazy bastard leveled the Empire''s Embassy and slew both Charles AND William Leon in the process. I don''t think that''s something someone "soft" would do."

    "Good." The Ancestor growled. "I am rather fond of the poor little girl, and I was thinking of paying the Leons a visit myself. Russel saved me a lot of trouble by doing that"

    Just like the damned old man, the Ancestor had no qualms nning an attack on the European Empire''s Embassy for the sake of revenge for Emma! It was an act that could potentially lead to World War 4!!

    "What''s with Emma?" I couldn''t help but blurt out. "All her family members except her grandfather seem to hate her. And the Empire seemed to be extremely interested in her! You also made the President give her "The Core" in your memory. Is she a clone or something?"

    The Ancestor bristled at my words, but immediately regained control of his emotions.

    "That''s not my secret to share. You''re a member of the Whitefrost n. You should go ask them." The Ancestor said. "The same way I am asking you now about your powers, instead of asking somebody else about it."

    I nodded in understanding and spoke no more about Emma. I resolved in my heart that I would go ask her myself at the first opportunity that I have.

    "Drink the serum. You can consume the pill as well when you get it. The more the merrier. Now go. Drink up." The Ancestor urged me.

    I obeyed him and immediately emptied the bottle into my mouth. Bruce and Jete merely looked on with pleased looks on their faces.

    At that moment,I felt a warm feeling rise up in my heart. Knowing that you have people who were happy when you struck gold instead of being jealous is a really great feeling to have.

    A feeling that I truly cherished.<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, the feeling didn''tst long though. It was soon reced with sharp and immeasurably excruciating paining from deep within my bones.

    It was very nearly as painful as the first time I ingested the red mecha core!

    I immediately copsed on the floor and curled up as I tried to fight and endure the pain.

    I could feel the deepest parts of my body, which had stayed absolutely still from the moment I was conceived in my mother''s womb, begin to stir very lightly.

    Minute changes were being made within it, changes that would have far-reaching effects throughout my body.

    I was strong. Insanely strong. The mecha particles I had absorbed made my body near indestructible.

    But I was like thergest and strongest building built upon an average foundation. There was a cap on how high I could go before the height of my power would cause me to copse internally upon myself.

    The Gene Optimizing Serum cleans up the errors and ws in my foundation, thus raising the cap on how high my physical strength and power could go.

    But it was a painful process, and especially so for me.

    The stronger and bigger the building, the more difficult it would be to modify the foundation. A single tiny change in the foundation would cause a huge tremor to ur in the higher levels. The higher the level, the bigger the tremor.

    In my case, the minute changes in my genes caused incredible movements and changes in the rest of my body. Painful changes.

    "Strange. I didn''t think it''d be THAT painful." Bruce muttered as he looked at my writhing body worriedly. "I was a pretty strong kid back then, and when I ingested the serum, I probably didn''t feel even half the amount of pain he''s experiencing."

    "You were nowhere as strong as he is now." Jete replied.

    "I know. But still, he is in way too much pain than I thought he would be." Bruce said.

    "The more painful it is, the more work the serum is doing. It''ll be good for him." The Ancestor said peacefully.

    "AKHH!" I vomited out ck blood.

    "Good." The Ancestor merely nodded in approval.

    "AGHHH!!!" I vomited out more ck blood.

    "Hmmmm." The Ancestor nodded.

    "BLEAAARGHHHHH!!" I vomited out more ck blood.

    That third time, there was only silence.

    "BLAGHHHHHHHH!!!" I vomited out bright purple blood.

 Chapter 85 Red Mecha Core

    "Purple blood?!" Bruce cried out in horror. "What in the world is happening??"

    The Ancestor immediately knelt down next to me and bent down to sniff at the purple blood which I had just vomited out.

    He frowned lightly and touched it with his finger.

    "Impurities." He announced. "Very weird impurities, but impurities nheless. It''s good that he''s vomiting it out. In fact, it reminds me of¡­"

    The Ancestor sniffed at the purple blood I vomited again and frowned lightly.

    "What''s with his body? Howe it''s producing such a creepy looking impurity?" Jete asked with a slight shiver.

    While the trio were looking at me with worried and concerned looks, I was rejoicing through the extreme pain.

    I could feel both my body and my red energy undergoing a major overhaul in strength.

    Oh yes, I didn''t know that the Gene Optimizing Serum was or how they made it. All I knew was that a few minutes after it entered my body, both my body and the red mecha core reacted.

    My body was slowly burning up the impurities within it, and pushing the remnant out into the ck blood which I was vomiting out.

    However, the more exciting this was that my already significantly recovered red energy was also reacting to the Gene Optimizing Serum!

    The red energy within me began to circte around my body rapidly and excitedly. The faster it circted, the more it began to vibrate. And as it vibrated, it began to produce a purple mist which my body then forced out in the bright purple blood.

    "BLEARGHHHH!!"

    "BLEARGHHHH!!"

    "BLEARGHHHH!!"

    "BLEARGHHHH!!"

    "BLEARGHHHH!!"

    After vomiting purple blood five more times, much to the rm and shock and disgust of all three National Mecha Pilot Academy seniors, I finally stopped writhing on the ground and began to gasp lightly in fatigue.

    "How do you feel, little bro?" Bruce asked anxiously.

    "Uhhhh. Good. Kind of weak but really good." I replied as Iid there next to the stinking pile of ck and purple blood.

    "You really surprised us with that weird purple thing you vomited." He said.

    "Worried." Jete coughed.

    I smiled at them and sat up.

    "I feel really good, don''t worry." I said.

    "Good. Now, please tell us what exactly you did to your body." The Ancestor said and looked at me seriously.

    I looked back at him, and knew that there was no more dying.

    "Stand back guys." I told them.

    Immediately, they moved back five steps.

    "More. Stand at least twenty steps away from me." I said.

    They obligingly did what I told them to do.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I took a deep breath, and then willed for the most perfect version of the white mecha I had absorbed from Amelia Dragonos to appear.

    Instantly, the white mecha materialized around me and I shot all the way up to around a hundred meters tall. My body was hanging suspended within the center of the white mecha''s chest, and I could see out of the white mecha''s eyes and basically sense the world through the white mecha''s five senses!

    The design I chose to use was the standard ck mecha with red trim.

    The very one that caused all of the fiascos in the following weeks toe. It was an extremely cool design, one that rivaled even the Primordial Chaos Emperor in cool factor, even if it trailed it far behind in the power department.

    "WHOA!!" Bruce shouted in shock!

    I stretched out my right hand, and immediately a powerful rifle appeared. I gripped it lightly, and then swung it slowly and turned it into a sharp broadsword. Then with a sudden jab, I thrust the sword forward and changed it into a ridiculously long spear!

    I drew the spear back and changed it into a shield and then with a flourish worthy of a showman, I dematerialized the mecha andnded nimbly on my feet before them.

    It would have looked extremely cool and awe-inspiring if I didn''t identallynd on my pile of ck blood vomit.

    "YUCKKKK!" I shouted as I leapt away from the ck blood.

    But it was toote.

    The ck blood was all over my shoes and my pants.

    "HAHAHA! Well done! Good show! Good show, little brother!" Bruceughed uproariously and pped as though he just saw the most interesting show in the world.

    However, I did notice a gleam of excitement in his eyes. And in Jete''s. And much more noticeably, in the Ancestor''s.

    "Come! Follow me!" The Ancestormanded. The excitement in his voice was very obvious to my sharp ears.

    We followed him rapidly into a room located in the far corner of the giant mecha throne room and entered what seemed to be a high-tech study.

    "Sit." Hemanded us as he made his way to arge console and began to type furiously on it. After a few seconds of intense typing and verification using his palm, voice, eyes and even a drop of blood, a screen finally appeared on the wall opposite us.

    I looked at the screen expectantly.

    "Tell me. Do you recognize him?" The Ancestor asked me as a photo of a middle aged man appeared on the screen.

    He wore the Chinese Federation Army Uniform and looked extremely nerdy with his thick sses. He was definitely not a fighter. Maybe an engineer or a researcher of some sort.

    I shook my head.

    "How about him?" The Ancestor asked as he showed me a picture of a European in the Empire''s military uniform. Like the Chinese previously, the man was obviously the researcher type.

    I was about to shake my head again when I caught sight of his name tag.

    Dr. Andrew Kennedy.

    "Dr. Andrew Kennedy!" I gasped.

    The Ancestor''s smiled widened triumphantly.

    "Then I dare say, that this final item here is not an unfamiliar one for you?" He asked as another photo appeared on the screen.

    I looked at the screen.

    And as I had expected¡­

    It was a picture of the red mecha core I had ingested.

 Chapter 86 Revenge Crusade

    "So I was right¡­" The Ancestor murmured while nodding and smiling joyously. "Devour is found!"

    "Devour?" Immediately something triggered in my mind. Something which I had forgotten in the hectess of the situation.

    [Take that you bastard!] I remember Amelia Dragonos snarling viciously. [I know you''ve got your hands on devour! Now go to sleep¡­ and let me cut you up like a pig like you did to my mecha!]

    "Oh my God. Amelia Dragonos knows I have devour! She said that before she sshed some sort of green virus on me that invaded my body and destroyed almost every bit of my red energy!" I shouted.

    "Amelia Dragonos? The Russian Fifth Princess?" The Ancestor asked. "Why am I only hearing about it now?"

    The Ancestor red at Bruce.

    "Heheh, they must have forgotten to debrief him. You know that the Whitefrost n had a near tragedy recently, right." Bruce answered rather sheepishly.

    "WHICH is no excuse at all. I understand. I will get the Secretary to reprimand Russel immediately for negligence of duty to the Federation and fine them heavily-"

    "Forget it." The Ancestor growled. "The damage is done. We will need Russel and his nsmen at full strength very soon. No point picking a little bone with him at such a critical juncture."

    "You, boy. I want everything you know, and I want it yesterday!" The Ancestor turned to me and ordered.

    Without further hesitation, I spilled everything out. From the junkyard, to the Red Dragon Gang base, to the Lake Andrews base, and to the subsequent battle and escape.

    "So you have the power of a white mecha and eight blue mechas within you now?" Bruce asked incredulously after hearing my story.

    "A weak travesty of a white mecha which the Russians cobbled together, apparently. But yes, a white mecha nheless." I nodded.

    Bruce turned to look at the Ancestor with an excited gleam in his eyes. "Your prophecy¡­ It ising true! I never thought¡­"

    "Indeed it ising true. And what our next decision here will determine the speed at which the prophecy will be fulfilled." The Ancestor nodded.

    "Before that, I''d like a briefing about the current situation, if that''s ok with you." I asked half-sarcastically. As the main yer, I had the right to know things! How am I supposed to be the dragon that brings the Federation to glory if I don''t know anything?

    "You will receive all the information you''ll need to knowter. For now, all you need to know is that the mecha you ingested is called devour, and is one of six experimental mecha cores that humanity had developed from an alien mecha which crashed near Beijing at the end of the 22nd century.

    In fact, the third world war was fought because of this alien mecha. The Europeans, Americans and Russians invaded us from all directions when talks regarding the division of the mecha broke down.<novelnext></novelnext>

    And at the end of the war which we lost, the Europeans imed the mecha''s weapons system, the Americans imed the mecha''s armor system, the Russians imed the mecha''s biotech and we are left with the mecha''s movement system.

    We know that the Europeans had developed two experimental mecha cores with two extremely distinct powers. Full armor piercing weapons as well as a Godlike targeting system that cannot miss.

    The Americans had developed two experimental cores as well. Full damage immunity and pure stealth.

    The Russians, as you know, have their superhumans. But they did not manage to sessfully incorporate biotech into their mechas. Oh they tried, to a degree of sess. But they are nowhere close to the power level that the Europeans and Americans are at now." The Ancestor gave me a quick summary of the current situation.

    "What about us?" I quickly asked. "What did we develop?"

    "We got their movement system. On the surface, we got the short end of the stick. All we managed to do was to create an experimental mecha core which could boost our mechas'' speed and maneuverability. But in actual fact¡­" The Ancestor''s face turned rather sly at that moment as he paused for effect.

    "What? Quick! Tell me!" I cried out impatiently.

    "In actual fact, you''ll know when you know." The Ancestorughed.

    "Agh, Ancestor! Why are you doing this to me?" I whined like an ordinary ten year old.

    "You''ll know soon enough. I''m not going to give up Emma''s edge for her first battle with youter on." The Ancestor grinned like a little boy anticipating watching a new episode of his favorite show.

    "Emma?" My mind whirred at full speed and I finally realized Emma''s secret.

    "Yes. Like you, she has a mecha core within her. But because she''s too young, the mecha core isn''t activated. Otherwise she wouldn''t have any issues escaping from her captors." The Ancestor sighed. "She must have gone through alot. I need to visit her soon."

    "So that''s why the Europeans kidnapped her. They want her mecha core." I immediately deduced. "Did they seed in taking it out of her?"

    "Ha! They didn''t. If Amelia Dragonos was involved as you say, their kidnappers probably crossed them and sold them off to the Russians, who had no idea why the Europeans wanted the girl really badly. So they merely did as many tests and checks as they could, and then dumped her at the nearest base. The local gangs probably sold off her organs secretly.

    Which reminds me. If Russel Whitefrost doesn''t have the balls to wipe out those gangs and their secret sponsors, you go and lead a team to wipe them out. To the veryst dog. By the time you''re done, I want to be able to go to their bases and enjoy my ten million dor red wine in perfect peace. If a single dog''s bark was to ruin my wine tasting moment, I''ll pay for the wine from your bonus." The Ancestor growled at Bruce.

    "Don''t worry. I believe Russel''s Red Dragon and Monkey King Battalions are currently fully deployed on his Revenge Crusade. In fact, he might have overreacted a little bit by deploying his reservists as well." Bruce hastily informed the Ancestor.

 Chapter 87 Nice

    "Hmph. He knows that with war looming so close, he''ll be untouchable. Well he''s right. Let him y with his reservists. In fact, I think he''s got the general idea right. Tell your brother I want the mecha cap for the top ns tripled immediately. He should be able to pass a Presidential War Order and bypass the Parliament for that." The Ancestor told Jete Wen.

    "Yes Ancestor." Jete Wen replied with a nod.

    "And tell all the top ns in no uncertain terms that they are to prepare for a long war. Immediately intensify pilot recruitment and training, I want them ready when we call. And make sure you get a real handle on that virus Justin mentioned. I don''t want to be caught with our pants down when they finally unleash that virus en-masse on us."

    "Yes Ancestor." Jete Wen replied again.

    The Ancestor turned to me and dropped the final surprise he had in store for me that day.

    "One." He raised a finger at me.

    "I will allow you to absorb ONE Mecha Disciple and its core." The Ancestor told me as his lips curled very slightly to form the tiniest of smiles.

    "Deathscythe." I replied immediately without a shred of hesitation. Unlike the Ancestor, I did not hold back my lips, and they had fully unleashed a wide, wide grin.

    The connection I had with the Dark Trio was incredible. I could feel its entire being just resonating with mine. I knew for certain that if I could sessfully absorb Deathscythe, my power would undergo a tremendous leap.

    I had a stronger connection with the Primordial Chaos Emperor for some reason, but I doubt that the Ancestor would release their strongest Mecha Guardian for me.

    "You can test them out first if you want." The Ancestor offered obligatorily.

    But both he and I knew that the decision was made.

    True mecha pilots just¡­ Know. When they''ve found the one.

    I shook my head.

    "I want the Deathscythe." I repeated myself.

    "Good. Absorb it, and then proceed to meet me at the basement. I have one final gift for you." The Ancestor said.

    "I¡­ can''t absorb it now." I admitted sheepishly. "I am still very "full" from absorbing Amelia Dragonos''s white mecha. I doubt I can absorb any more white mechas until the red mecha core somehow upgrades itself or I find a reliable way to upgrade it. Right now, the only method I know to upgrade the core is by feeling authentic and powerful emotions."

    "That''s fine as well. Let Bruce know as soon as you''re ready." The Ancestor nodded in understanding. "If that''s the case, then my final gift for you will have to wait as well."

    "Thank you Ancestor!" I bowed deeply to him in gratitude.

    "Today is a good day. Both dragons are identified. And although we might have to go to war, the Federation will definitelye out stronger." The Ancestor sighed in satisfaction.

    "But prophecy or not, life remains at the hands of reality. And the reality of this world is governed by one thing and one thing only. Power. Without power, dragons can get murdered before they can learn how to fly. Without enough power, even dragons can fall." The Ancestor warned me seriously.

    I nodded to show that I understood.

    Of course I will power up. The Federation may consider me as their dragon.

    But I never considered glorifying the Federation as MY goal. No sir, my goal is to be a Mecha Emperor.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Of the whole world, thank you very much.

    But of course the Ancestor didn''t need to know that.

    "Your task for the next six months is to power up as much as possible. If you can get first ce in the Triannual Mecha Tournament, I will give you a powerful treasure as a reward." The Ancestor encouraged me.

    "A treasure? Why not just give me the Primordial Chaos Emperor as the reward?" I asked cheekily.

    "HAHAHA! He''s my brother alright! Shameless! Direct! Greedy! Good! Very good!" Bruce praised mevishly.

    And then he gave me a heavy handed smack on my head!

    PIAK!!

    "OWW!! Why did you do that? I thought you said that it was good!?" I eximed in pain.

    "Good! But the Ancestor is the Ancestor. You are not allowed to be so impudent with him!" Bruceughed out loud. "Consider that smack a lesson for you to learn how to pick the targets of your shamelessness properly! Now, thank him for his generous offer! The Ancestor is not stingy, his reward will still be awesome! Don''t you fret, little brother!"

    "Fine. Thank you for the offer of a reward, Ancestor." I muttered.

    "Alright. We''re done here. Again. Now go before Russel starts wondering why you''re not back yet. I don''t want him barging in here to look for you. And make sure that you DO NOT reveal your power to anyone, at all costs." The Ancestor sat down on his work chair in his bare-bodied state and shooed us away. "Bruce, remain. We have much to discuss. Jete, kindly bring the boy back to Russel."

    "Yes Ancestor." All three of us bowed in acknowledgement of his instructions.

    "We will be taking our leave now Ancestor." Jete said and then quickly led me out of the room and made our way back to the main auditorium.

    Where Tes, Emma and James were waiting impatiently for me.

    The main auditorium was already empty, and all of the kids had gone home, and they were seated near the auditorium exit. All three were sucking on lollipops happily when I entered through the door near them.

    "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!" James hollered when he saw me appear.

    "Hey guys! You''re still here! Thanks for waiting for me!" I cried out happily.

    For the past few years, I never had people waiting for me with good intentions. The only reason people waited for me was to rob me blind and then beat me within an inch of my life.

    It was nice to have people waiting for me for no other reason than to go home together with me.

    Really nice.

    It''ll be better if the ones waiting to go home with me didn''t just have their fake mental projections try to kill me and my parents, but hey. Life gives you what life gives you. It''s up to you to make the best out of it.

    It''s still nice.

 Chapter 88 Ambush

    The day was so full of events, and my emotions were flung all the way up and down so many times that I was extremely tender, and the sight of three friends waiting for me made me so touched that I almost teared up then!

    A few secondster, I burst out crying for real when Emma handed me a dinner box which I saw was full of¡­

    "BACON!" I sobbed like a lostmb finding his shepherd once more.

    I received the dinner box from Emma with two trembling hands and with dramatic tears running down my cheeks.

    Then, I promptly sat down in front of the bewildered crowd and reverently opened up the lid.

    "Bacon¡­" I said in between my slowly subsiding sobs as I took in the glorious smell which made life so sweet and worth living.

    "Bacon." I repeated the word once more as if to reassure myself that I was indeed holding the treasure of treasures.

    And then I began to make friends with it.

    "What have you done to him, Vice Principal?!" James demanded rather crossly at Jete after watching my sad monologue and overreaction in absolute shock.. "Did you break him or something?"

    He was fully prepared and even expecting to get his academy credits deducted for "inappropriate speech and conduct to academy staff" when Jete''s response shook him to the core.

    "I am sorry. He¡­ Might be a little bit high-strung and emotional for the next few days. Please take good care of him." Jete said gently to James and the wide-eyed Emma.

    Emma was probably viciously thinking of a bunch of scathingments and remarks to say to me when she heard Jete''s response. She was so rmed at her words that the lollipop actually fell down from her gaping mouth!

    "Wh-what do you mean? He''s not really broken is he?" Emma asked anxiously.

    "Of course not!" Jete replied with augh. "He merely went through an emotional time where he discovered a lot about his true self. He''ll be fine in a day or two. Just treat him as you would normally. And uhh¡­ Especially you Emma, James and your grandfather. Make sure you three treat him EXTRA nice, ok?"

    "Ok." Emma nodded.

    "Give him lots of food. Lots of roast pork and ehm, bacon. He seems to like them alot." Jete added.

    "Ok." Emma nodded again and then remained silent.

    The four of them looked at me as I finished myst bite of the heavenly bacon and eggs and gulped down the orange juice in one go.

    "Well." Jete said. "I guess I''ll be going first. You kids take care. Don''t bete for school next week."

    "Yes, Vice Principal." All three responded quickly.

    "See ya Vice Principal!" I quickly stood up and waved her goodbye.

    Jete merely shook her head helplessly at me and left the auditorium.

    I looked at Emma and James with a slight frown on my face.

    The image of them attacking me and my parents was still vivid in my mind, and I found it really difficult to be in their presence.

    But I forced myself to look them in the eyes and gave them a weak smile.

    "You must be exhausted. Let''s go home." James said with a sigh. "I hope you''ll get well soon. And to make sure you recover at full speed, I won''t be touching any of the bacon tomorrow morning. All of it is for you, alright?"

    James was a generous, generous man. And to me at that moment, he was like a shining star of resplendent generosity. He was the very first person out of the four to regain normalcy in my mind.

    That was the power of bacon among brothers!

    "Alright." I nodded eagerly. "Let''s go. Tes, are you going home with us?"

    "I told grandpa about the incident in the entrance test. He asked us to bring her home with us for the time being." James exined.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Ah ok. That''s great!" I said and smiled at her.

    Tes smiled back very lightly and followed us out of the auditorium.

    Within seconds, we were seatedfortably in a cool looking Whitefrost Landjet and speeding back to the Whitefrost Estate.

    We were having fun recounting my feat with the Longs and sipping on juice when suddenly, I felt my resonance tingling lightly.

    At the same time, my instincts began to scream out "DANGER!!"

    I did not hesitate.

    "GET DOWN!" I roared out loudly and immediately unleashed a crude dome made up of mecha armor around us.

    B O O O O O M M M ! ! !

    A massive explosion rocked us a mere split second after the dome materialized.

    "What''s happening!!" James cried out in shock.

    Emma cooly reached into her pocket and pressed a panic button that led straight to the Whitefrost HQ and the old man''s personalmunicator.

    B A M M M ! ! !

    A horrendously loud and powerful impact hit the dome once more.

    "We''re under attack. The enemy''s spies and sleeper agents must be waiting for us." Emma replied calmly.

    "The Whitefrost Alert 5 mechas would reach us in thirty seconds. Can youst for thirty seconds?" Emma asked me.

    B O O O O O M M M ! ! !

    B O O O O O M M M ! ! !

    B O O O O O M M M ! ! !

    Ear-splitting explosions continued to rock us.

    I sensed the dome around us faltering lightly, and quickly reinforced the dome with more materials.

    "I can." I replied calmly. "Sit tight and don''t worry. Leave it to me."

    "Good." Emma nodded.

    Tes sat really still and maintained a tight grip on her emotions.

    The only one panicking slightly was James, as he released a constant stream of curses as the enemy''s attack on the dome grew more ferocious and desperate.

    BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!

    The attacks came on relentlessly, and they even attacked the ground around the dome!

    I quickly extended the dome to cover the growing hole that surrounded us.

    "Should I attempt to break out by manifesting a white mecha?" I wondered.

 Chapter 89 Big Brother

    "No." I finally decided. "I''ll just turtle up and wait for reinforcements. The Ancestor said to keep my red mecha core a secret at all costs. Manifesting a protective dome can be easily exined and attributed to a new defensive technology, but manifesting a mecha, especially a white mecha, will definitely tell them that I have "devour"."

    I quickly strengthened my dome and resolved to "sit" this one out.

    At that moment, my powerful resonance finally picked up a powerful and familiar "scent". As I focused my resonance to it, I immediately recognized it as a powerful Red Dragon Battalion Heavy Mecha.

    The Whitefrost Alert 5 Mecha had finally arrived.

    However, I also suddenly picked up an unfamiliar and vastly more powerful mecha approaching from a different direction!

    "A white mecha??" I was stunned.

    White mechas were supposed to be the exclusive power owned by the two behemoths of the world, USAA and the European Empire. But with the passage of time, that exclusivity had eroded and otherrger countries such as the Chinese Federation and Russia had begun to produce their own white mechas.

    Although on paper USAA and the European Empire still maintained an iron grip on military power by merit of their golden mechas, in reality, that grip was slowly weakening as more and more countries secretly produced their own white mechas.

    And in the case of the Chinese Federation, openly producing their own white mechas.

    And so, the arrival of the new white mecha did not immediately signify that it was USAA or the European Empire who had entered the battle.

    It could be reinforcements.

    It could be the Russians.

    My heart turned slightly cold when I realized that this neer was flying straight towards the Whitefrost Alert 5 Mecha with its weapon drawn.

    "Not reinforcements." I thought as a feeling of desperation slowly bloomed within me. I could easily withstand the attacks of a horde of blue mechas, even with them sting away at my dome at full power.

    But a white mecha''s all out attack was a different story.

    The white mecha I had absorbed from Amelia Dragonos was apparently a low quality one, as my resonance with the Twelve Mecha Guardians, Twenty Four Mecha Disciples and even this iing mecha was showing much more powerful resonancepared to hers.

    Much, much more powerful.

    Add that to the fact that I had barely absorbed 5% of Amelia Dragonos'' mecha, and you''ll get the crisis that I was in.

    Thankfully the dome I had to maintain was extremely smallpared to a white mecha, and so even with only 5% of Amelia''s white mecha absorbed, I was able to stuff it full of thick armor, much thicker than a normal white mecha''s armor.

    sh!! The white mecha executed a powerful attack on the Whitefrost n Alert 5 Mecha!!

    Although the Alert 5 mecha was a heavy blue mecha, it was nheless a mere blue mecha.

    ng!

    The Alert 5 Mecha was able to skillfully divert the white mecha''s first attack. But it was all it managed to do. The white mecha was faster and stronger. Its second attack hit home, and so did its third and fourth. Within seconds, it was in pieces.

    "An enemy white mecha just took out our reinforcement. I will not be able tost long against it." I told the others honestly.

    "Grandpa will be here soon. Probably with the entire military in tow." Emma said. "Give it your all."

    "Damn it. How dare they attack us right here in our own turf! They must think we''re pushovers!" James cursed with all his heart. "Damn it damn it damn it all!!!!"

    Deep in my heart, I could a sh of anger spark a burning rage that flowed through my veins likeva.

    It was nowhere close to the rage I felt earlier when I fought against Emma and the others within my mind, but it was still intensely powerful.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Powerful enough to trigger yet another resurgence of my red energy.

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!

    Right on time!

    BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!

    The enemy mechas continued to rain down their attacks on my dome furiously.

    B O O O O M !  ! ! ! ! !

    Crack!!!

    A particrly powerful attack hit us out of nowhere and caused my dome to crack!

    I raised my hand and gritted my teeth as my face contorted lightly with fury.

    "You''re not breaking through!" I thought as I manifestedyer afteryer of white mecha armor to resist the enemy white mecha that had turned its attention on us.

    B O O O O O O O O O O M M M ! ! ! ! ! !

    B O O O O O O O O O O M M M ! ! ! ! ! !

    B O O O O O O O O O O M M M ! ! ! ! ! !

    I could feel the white mecha''s attack start to get desperate.

    The pilot was probably wild with rage. Being able to position a hostile white mecha within the capital of the Chinese Federation was definitely a ridiculously expensive and difficult endeavor.

    To have activated such an asset and still fail to achieve results would probably get him killed by his superiors for pure ipetence, even if he managed to get out of the iing horde of angry soldiers.

    He only had a very tiny window left to aplish his mission before escape would be impossible!

    B O O O O O O O O O O M M M ! ! ! ! ! !

    B O O O O O O O O O O M M M ! ! ! ! ! ! B O O O O O O O O O O M M M ! ! ! ! ! !

    Apparently, the enemy white mecha pilot''s appetite for danger was really low and he soon escaped with a burst of speed.

    The other blue mechas, however, remained.

    There was no escape for them. They would detonate their mecha cores and bring down as many Chinese soldiers as they could.

    At that moment, just like a shy hero who likes to be fashionablyte, I could detect a very familiar mecha right at the edge of my resonance exploding into the scene.

    CHRONOS!

    My big brother had arrived!!

 Chapter 90 Void Walker

    Once Bruce Pang and Chronos appeared, the window of time they had to aplish their mission waspletely closed for the enemy mechas, and they knew it.

    And none felt the pressure more keenly than the enemy white mecha.

    It began to divert all of its power to its flight system, overloading it with tremendous energy to temporarily achieve a powerful boost to its propulsion system that increased its speed by nearly a hundred percent.

    In addition, it also dropped its modr heavy armor and main rifle to achieve maximum flight speed.

    BOOM!!

    Its powerful thrusters flung it forward at an incredible rate of eleration.

    It was no use.

    The Chinese Federation were given the movement system of the alien mecha that had mysteriously dropped on earth all those years ago, and its brilliant engineers had nearly finished extracting most of the technology found within it.

    Chronos was a product that had the best of what the engineers could create out of that system, and was very probably the fastest mecha on the.

    I could sense Chronos bearing down on the escaping white mecha like an enraged bull and rapidly eating up the distance between it and the enemy mecha. Soon, both of them left the range of my resonance.

    But I had no doubt what the ending of that encounter would be.

    Because in addition to my big brother''s absurdly fast mecha, I had also sabotaged the enemy white mecha''s flight system right before it left my effective resonance range.

    Its engines would soon sputter and die, and it would be savagely beaten down by Bruce Pang and his Chronos.

    Good riddance to that sted white mecha.

    Nearer to me, the blue mechas hadn''t stopped pounding on my dome.

    Compared to the white mecha pilot, these grunt pilots were impressively much more dedicated to their cause. Or maybe, they were much more resigned to their fate, knowing that theycked the tools and equipment to even dare to hope of escape.

    Either way, Jete''s Mecha Guardian, Void Walker, appeared on the scene witnessing fifteen mid-sized light mechas sting away at a white dome that was battered but still very much able to resist blue mecha-level attacks with ease.

    I could sense the anger and the indignance that Jete was feeling through the white hot energy discharge that she released from her flight system, causing her Void Walker to hurtle through the air towards us at an incredible speed.

    When the blue mechas saw Void Walker appear, they turned as one to face it. Their chests began to glow blue as they began their overload sequence to self-destruct and deal as much damage as they could to their hated enemy.

    Like their white mecha leader, they vastly underestimated the power of the Federation''s mechas.

    They thought that they would be able toplete their self-destruction sequence right on time, but Jete would have none of that. She immediately activated her skill from which her mecha''s name was derived, Void Walk, and caused all fifteen blue mechas to shimmer lightly before disappearing from sight altogether for a few quick seconds.

    "Perfect timing!" I thought as I sensed the powerful void energy enveloping the fifteen blue mechas.

    Poof!

    Right before they disappeared from sight, I crushed all of their mecha cores with a single thought!

    "Thank you for the meal." I thought with grim satisfaction and pulled the delicious blue mecha core particles down to the ground before sucking them all into me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    When the spy satellites sent videos and images of the battle to the various powers, all they would see was Jete''s Void Walker skill activating on the fifteen blue mechas. They would attribute the results to her skill as well, and I would bepletely off the hook.

    Boom!

    Fifteen powered down mechas appeared once more as Jete''s Void Walk skill expired.

    "Huh?" Jete''s confused voice could be heard as the fifteen blue mechas appeared intact instead of in pieces as she had expected. Theirbined self-detonation would have been extremely powerful, and if allowed to detonate right there in the middle of the capital, the damage and death count would have been horrendous.

    "It''s me." I sent her a message. "I absorbed their cores before they disappeared. They are fully shut down now."

    "I see. That''s a very useful skill indeed. You timed it very well. Continue keeping a low profile in your defensive dome while we clean up this mess." Jete instructed.

    "Understood." I replied.

    And what a mess it was.

    Unlike Void Walker, Chronos had no lockdown skills that could mitigate the damage done by the enemy white mecha to the surroundings. In the brief few seconds that they fought, the two white mechas destroyed an entire district and killed close to five thousand innocents.

    What did they call that incident?

    The ughter of Zhang Du District.

    Ten seconds, maybe less.

    That''s all it took for the "ughter" to finish its deadly work.

    Although he did not show it outwardly, I knew the 5000 lives he failed to save weighed very heavily in my big brother''s mind.

    I could see it in the ferociousness and ruthlessness of his actions in the following days as the federation imposed martialw on the WHOLE country and began its bloody work to weed out the enemy''s spies, agents and the families that they were able to buy out.

    Yes, families.

    You media people had always wondered what happened to the Lius, Lings, Wongs and the Xis, hadn''t you?

    You''ve made so many conspiracy theories, so many tall tales, yet you still failed to gather enough balls to level the final and most logical usation on them.

    They betrayed the Federation, and were wiped out to their roots.

    None of their direct lines remained. All family branches were ced under strict monitoring and had their finances confiscated.

    The Federation was vicious to traitors, and it had the best soldier to execute its orders.

    Chronos had been in the frontline of every raid on the family''s estates, its guns the first to fire, its des the first to reap the lives of the traitors.

    Right behind him was his little brother, hanging out in Jete''s Void Walker, having the time of his life absorbing all sorts of mechas and machines belonging to the traitors.

 Chapter 91 You Can Tell Him

    Another thousand died in the next few days before the Capital calmed down a little.

    I believe it was the Federation''s heavy handedness and willingness to execute all of the spies, agents and traitors that dyed the war by so long.

    That particr operation probably blinded our enemies for a good period of time, and allowed the Federation to finally openly act out against ALL of its suspects.

    You think all of the thousand who died in the following days were involved in the ughter of Zhang Du District?

    A generous estimate would probably put the number directly involved at around fifty people.

    The other nine hundred fifty killed were mostly family members and suspects that the Federation had ced in its watchlist.

    Sometimes, it is good to leave a spy that you''ve already identified alone. Better a spy you already know, than a new spy whom you do not know at all.

    That way you can watch him and know what he''s actually after.

    But other times, it''s good to have NO spies at all.

    The Federation went on a tight critical information lockdown after it cleansed its government of spies and agents.

    All of the nning and the grunt work of the tremendously impressive war we conductedter on were done during that time.

    However, I wasn''t part of it.

    Not at all.

    After two exciting days piggybacking on Jete''s Void Walker for the cleaning operation, my life had turned very decidedly towards a more¡­ academic direction.

    School was about to begin for me!

    "So how long do I have to stay in school?" I asked Emma nervously as she helped me pack my stuff.

    Well, not pack "my" stuff. I had nothing to my name at that point in time.

    She was helping me pack some of Jeremy''s old clothes which still fit me and a bunch of other stuff which I would need to survive in the dorm.

    "Three years of basic training. Two years of intermediate training. And if you''re still alive by then, one final year of advanced training." Emma replied as she threw another jacket into the extremelyrge and extremely messy luggage that she had prepared for me.

    She stared at the unholy mess she had made in satisfaction.

    "I think we have everything you need. I''ll go tell grandpa that you''re ready for school." Emma announced.

    "What? Wait! You''re just gonna leave me like this with this mess you''ve made?" I asked incredulously.

    "What do you mean mess? I''ve picked out all the items you''ll need for school, and conveniently ced them into the luggage so you don''t have to go all around the room and take them one by one!" Emma frowned. "AND I haven''t received a single word of thanks from you!"

    "What are you two arguing about so early in the morning?" James yawned widely as he padded into my room. "Dude, what''s with the ungodly mess you''re making with your luggage?

    James frowned in disapproval as he looked at my luggage, then at me and shook his head.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Exactly." Emma chipped in. "You should start packing your luggage properly. We''re leaving right after breakfast, so you better be ready by then!"

    My mood brightened considerably at the mention of breakfast.

    "The cook said he''ll make a unique dish featuring a creative use of bacon for breakfast this morning!" I said excitedly. "I can''t wait for breakfast!"

    James chuckled helplessly at me.

    "You know, probably 99.99% of the world, if found in your situation, would focus more on the rewards that grandpa had promised to give to you this morning instead of on the bacon. You know that with the amount of money you have now, you can buy an entire pig farm and get them to produce an endless amount of bacon for you every day, right?" James said.

    "What good is an entire pig farm if there''s no bacon on my breakfast te? And if there''s bacon on my breakfast te, who cares where it came from?" I spouted off some of the wisest words that I had ever said in my entire life.

    "HAHAHA! Wise words! You''re not my bacon rival for nothing!" James roared withughter as Emma rolled her eyes at me.

    "Your preupation with bacon will one day make you overweight and fat!" Emma prophesied. "And by that time, you won''t be able to fit into mecha cockpits!"

    "Absolutely not. Bacon is mostly protein with just a little bit of fat. Proteins are healthy, and a little bit of fat never hurts anybody! Plus, I don''t really need to fit "into" mecha cockpits!" I retorted back at her smugly.

    "Hear hear!" James agreed with me heartily while patting his already slightly protruding belly.

    "Whatever. I''m going. You better finish packing fast and get to the breakfast table before James finishes all the special bacon the cook had promised you." Emma said before leaving my room.

    "She seems pretty excited for school." Imented as I stared at the pile of clothes and other stuff in my luggage.

    "School treats her much better than some of us here at home." James said with a little sigh.

    The true sign of a brother is when he automatically helps you without even thinking.

    James sat next to my messy luggage and began to absent-mindedly pack it up neatly.

    I helped, of course. It was my luggage afterall.

    "Why is that?" I asked curiously. "I asked her about it yesterday, she merely shrugged at me and changed the topic."

    "Well, it''s a big family secret¡­" James started.

    "I know most of it. She got the inactivated experimental mecha core, right?" I asked to encourage him to talk.

    "So you already know." James said in mild surprise.

    "Just that. I don''t know why exactly your family treats her so badly."

    "I don''t think I should tell you why. It''s her story to tell." James sighed and said.

    "It''s alright, James. You can tell him." Emma said from the door.

    We turned to the door and were surprised to see both Emma and the damned old man standing there.

 Chapter 92 I Want Half The Winnings

    "Gramps? What are you doing here?" James asked.

    "Ehh¡­ Morning grandpa¡­" I said rather awkwardly after being found out that I was digging for information about Emma.

    "Morning! I''m just here to check on you boys. I hope you''re rea¡­" The old man paused a little when he caught sight of the mountain of clothes and stuff on my open luggage. "Well, I see that you''re almost ready. Good of you to offer him your help, James! Less talking and more packing please."

    "Yes, gramps. Justin here is just curious about Emma and why the family members and helpers hate her so much." James nced at Emma questioningly to confirm if she''s really ok with telling me everything.

    "He''ll know about it sooner orter anyway. Better if he hears the truth from us instead of some garbage rumors from the imbeciles that seem to popte the n nowadays." Emma sighed.

    James nodded lightly and turned to face me.

    "Well. Emma here is actually¡­ A¡­ A¡­" James struggled mightily with the word, but eventually gave up.

    "Clone." Emma finished his sentence tly. "The original died at childbirth. I am a sessfulb experiment. Specimen number 1743."

    "Meaninglessbels. You''re a beloved granddaughter." The old man said gently but firmly. "A beloved cousin, and a beloved friend. These are thebels that matter."

    "And that too." Emma gave the old man a sweet and grateful smile.

    "Well, I may not have been the best cousin so far¡­" James began apologetically.

    "You''re one of the nicer ones James." Emma assured him with yet another angelic smile.

    "Yeah? Well I try to ignore the rumors¡­" James mumbled slightly guiltily.

    "I don''t see why that would cause the entire family to hate you so much." I said. "In fact, shouldn''t they be happy for you?"

    "A rtivelyrge n like the Whitefrost n is full of family politics and jealousy." The old man said with a sigh. "Many n members are jealous of Emma and everything that the n had done to secure her life and wellbeing. Due to some mistakes-"

    "Sabotage." Emma cut in.

    "Mistakes." The old man repeated heavily. "Emma, who was supposed to be far stronger than the average human being, ended up spending her childhood being weak and sickly. She remained that way until I gifted her the Gene Cleansing Pill. She got stronger and quickly became the Emma that she was supposed to be. But of course in the process, incurred the jealousy of all the other n members."

    "That, and also the fact that the n spends a huge amount of money annually on medicine that I need to take daily until I hit puberty, makes the whole n resent me. Afterall, the resources that should have gone to them, went to me instead. Sries fell, bonuses were canceled and budgets were cut across all departments. The n has been on the decline financially for the eighth straight year now.

    Many ns who were once weaker than us have started to leave us in the dust when their offspring grow up with various pills and serums which they could afford, and which we now couldn''t."

    "I see. No wonder Aunt Isabe was so worked up about the Gene Optimizing Pill you''re nning to give me." I nodded in understanding.

    "Oh she was probably mostly worked up about her failure to kill me." Emma said with a dryugh.

    "Talking about Aunt Isabe, how''s the situation with the Empire gramps? Are we going to war for real?" James asked the old man seriously.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The old man was not known for coddling his kids, and he didn''t do so then.

    "War is a very real possibility." The old man replied grimly. "We''re throwing all the evidence we have on William Leon''s involvement in Emma''s kidnapping to their faces, and the Secretary is making a big fuss out of it. But whether or not that will stave off war remains to be seen.

    And with the purge we just conducted, the Empire is currently left without most of its assets within our borders while ours are still at full strength within theirs. They would be fools to start a war now. I estimate the earliest they would dere war would be in a year."

    He looked at me seriously after he said that.

    "You have one year to prepare yourself. After that, we will need your power to help us withstand their onught."

    "Grandpa, he''s still ten! I''m eleven and Emma''s only eight!" James protested indignantly. "He still has six more years of school before he''sbat ready!"

    "And I will do all I can to buy that six years for all of you." The old man said. "But always n for the worst. Whatever you do this year, do it as though you''ll be fighting in the frontlines of the war in one year. No cking off, understand?"

    The old man red at James sternly.

    "Why are you ring at me?" James asked rather sulkily. "Emma cked off just as much as I did. Probably even more!"

    "I''m in the elerated Program. We don''t "ck off" in that program." Emma rolled her eyes at James. "In fact, I''m probably a much better pilot than you right now."

    "Yeah? Care to put some credits to back up that statement of yours?" James taunted Emma.

    "Of co-" Emma was about to agree when she suddenly remembered that she lost five thousand credits to me a few days ago in the ck Smander VS Giant Pegasi match.

    "I''ll do it." I grinned. "I''ll bet one thousand credits that Emma will win!"

    "What? ONE THOUSAND?" James cried out in shock. "How in the world did you get your hands on that many credits?"

    "Secret. So you in or out?" I replied.

    "I''M IN! Free credits, why not?" James smirked at Emma and me. "Let''s go! A practice match before breakfast suits me perfectly."

    I nced at the old man, and found that his eyes were gleaming rather excitedly too.

    "It''s on! Lead the way!" Emma pronounced.

    "I want half of the winnings." She said to me.

    "You got it. Make it quick." I replied.

    "STOP TALKING AS THOUGH I''VE LOST!" James roared.

 Chapter 93 What Do You Think?

    As it turned out, the match was far more even than I thought it would be.

    Honestly, after I experienced so many defeats under Emma, I thought she must be an up and away prodigy. But apparently, James was just as good!

    Crash!!

    James'' ck practice mecha mmed his blunted spear onto Emma''s arm which was positioned perfectly to block his attack from reaching her head.

    BAMMM!!

    Her own quarterstaff jabbed forward and smashed onto James'' mini arm shield!

    After the failed exchange, both mechas leapt back and began to circle each other once more.

    It was already the fifth minute of their duel and both mechas had received heavy beatings from the other.

    Emma''s left arm was seriously damaged and was renderedpletely unusable. Her left leg and right arm had lost fifty percent power due to damaged circuits. Overall, her mecha effectiveness had dropped by at least sixty percent.

    James was in no better condition. His left leg had lost powerpletely, and both his arms had sustained medium damage. Although he was still able to burst out with full power, he could only do so for a maximum of one more minute before both his arms would lose power.

    The next exchange would determine the winner and the loser, as well as the recipient of one thousand academy credits!

    However, although the fight had entered a critical stage and they were both biding their time for the perfect opportunity to strike, the verbal exchange never stopped.

    "Hoho. You actually disengaged your arm shield and used it to block my attack. You''re good¡­ For a non-gifted student!" Emma''s smirk sounded loud and clear through her mecha''s speakers.

    "Hmph. You''re such a sorry excuse for a gifted student. I will beat you so badly that even grandpa with all his stinginess will have no choice but to recycle your mecha! Take this!"

    Russel Whitefrost was taken slightly aback at the sudden mention of his name. He stroked his beard thoughtfully as he reflected on James'' words. However, I didn''t miss the yful and determined glint that shed in his eyes for a moment.

    "Poor James. Win or lose against Emma, he had already lost to grandpa because of that simple statement of his." I chuckled to myself.

    This is my new technique that I just dreamt about a few nights ago. BACON JUMPS OVER BUDDHA!!" James shouted loudly as he swung his blunted spear in a wide arc low to the ground.

    Emma easily dodged it by leaping up.

    "HA! YOU FELL FOR IT!!" James shouted triumphantly! "YOU''RE THE BACON THAT JUMPS OVER ME! THE BU-"

    BAMMM!! CRASHHH!!!

    Emmanded a vicious kick at James!

    Like the little aggressive tigress that she was, Emma didn''t merely leap to dodge James'' attack. She actually leapt FORWARD tounch a leap attack!

    "DING! Round over. ck Mecha had received fatal damage. Red Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! How? How could you see through the weakness of my ultimate trump card so easily! I haven''t even unleashed the second part of Bacon Jumps Over Buddha!!" James howled in anguish.

    He leapt out of his practice mecha dejectedly and red at Emma who had exited her own mecha as well.

    "Thanks for the credits, cuz. I appreciate it." Emma flicked her hair at James and then grinned at the old man. "How''s my performance, gramps? Good?"

    "Very good. Very, very good. You''ve exhibited an excellent sense of judgment. Your decisions in the heat of battle is spot on. James, you aren''t too bad either. I am actually quite surprised by your progress." The old man praised both of them generously.

    James face lit up at the old man''s rare praise.

    "Then in that case, are you going to reward us? Ten thousand dors each, perhaps? Or a rare mechaponent for my Justice Reborn?" James asked the old man eagerly.

    "However! You should know better than to develop mecha killing moves based on dreams! Especially little boy''s dreams which are probably filled with highly inappropriate things." The old man continued with a frown.

    "Hey! You need to see the whole technique first before you say that. It''s really, really powerful! Bacon jumps over Buddha will revolutionize the way the spear is used in mecha warfare!" James insisted.

    "And as such, I will be docking your allowance for the repair cost of your ck mecha! The damage you sustained at the end waspletely avoidable if you didn''t use that ridiculous technique of yours!" The old man announced with a flourish!

    "WHAT? NOOOO!!! GRAMPSSSS!!!" James shouted in panic.

    "Why? What''s wrong? Isn''t that what stingy grandpas usually do?" The old man blinked at his beloved grandson innocently.

    "NOOO! Gramps I didn''t mean it. It was just trash talking! How could you take it to heart!" James cried out.

    "Trash talking or not, you were being extremely rude." The old man said sternly. "I will be very generous to you. You either do so well this year that you enter the gifted program, or I will dock your allowance by 50% starting next year!"

    "Gifted program? HOW ON-"

    "Wow. Grandpa, you actually have such a high opinion of James? You gave him such a high target because you saw his potential in the fight just now right?" I said loudly.

    "I MEAN, HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT WAS WHAT I WANTED TO DO THIS YEAR?" James changed his exmation midway after hearing my words. "Yes. I will definitely get into the gifted program this year!"

    "Good. You better do that. Now, go get a new practice mecha, and let me see you have a go at Justin!" The old man said with a smile. "You ready?"

    "Against James? Ha! I was born ready!" I said very confidently.

    "Hmph! You''re courting death! I didn''t want you to start your first day of school with a trouncing, but you leave me no choice. Let''s go!" James shouted.

    He looked very eager to win.

    Hmmm? Did I win? What do you think?

 Chapter 94 Bacon Jumps Over Buddha

    "BACON JUMPS OVER BUDDHA!" James shouted excitedly as he unleashed his dream-inspired killing move on me.

    However, I had seen it once before, and knew exactly how to counter it.

    I smashed my own blunted spear down on his and forced his spear to the ground!

    "BACON SWEEPS THE FLOOR!" I shouted excitedly. "Ha! How do you like the ultimate killing move counter I made specially for you? Just so you know, YOU''RE the bacon!"

    "ANGRY BUDDHA EATS BACON!!" James shouted as he pulled back his spear sharply and charged in close to me to deliver a powerful kick in one fluid move. "I''m the BUDDHA!"

    "BUDDHAS DON''T EAT BACON DUMBASS!!" Iughed loudly at him as I jumped back lightly to reduce the damage I got from eating his kick.

    Bam.

    "BACON IN MY TUMMY!" I yelled as I gripped his foot and pulled him forward powerfully, causing him to lose bnce.

    "BUDDHA SKEWERS BACON!" James shouted as he went along with my pull and leapt forward with all of his strength.

    BAM!!

    Both of us copsed onto the ground in a messy jumble.

    "BACON POUNDING TECHNIQUE!" I shouted as I began to pummel him with a series of punches.

    "BUDDHA''S MIGHTY PUNCH!" James punched back at me with all of his strength!

    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

    After a full minute of intense punching¡­

    "DING! Round over. Red Mecha had received fatal damage. ck Mecha Victory." A disembodied voice announced.

    "YEAH!! BUDDHA VICTORY!!" James shouted with tion. "Gramps! DID YOU SEE¡­ Hey! Gramps? Emma? Where are you guys??"

    The two of them were probably so disgusted at ourck of finesse and utterly unimaginative names for so many basic moves that they couldn''t stand it anymore!

    James won the fight against me that day.

    Of course he did.

    In the spirit of fairness, and to challenge myself, I didn''t use my red energy at all.

    But I made very sure that it would be thest time he did so.

    Two hourster, we waved goodbye to the old man through the internal disy of the mechas we were in.

    He waved back at us with a stiff smile.

    After that, an entire squadron of fifty Red Dragon Heavy Lancers led by a massive white mecha took off from the massive courtyard.

    James, Emma, Julie, Margaret, Tes and I were spread out randomly in the mechas, and only the old man knew exactly which mechas we were in.

    After the assassination attempt a few days earlier, the old man was taking no chances. He had ordered Ajax to escort us to school in his white mecha!

    Fifty Red Dragon Heavy Lancers led by Ajax''s mighty looking white mecha made for an impressive sight.

    "What is the name of this white mecha?" I asked Emma who was sitting next to me within the cockpit of the white mecha.

    "It''s called the Whitefrost Dragon." Ajax rumbled from in front of us. "This white mecha is the second most powerful white mecha that we own within the entire Whitefrost Estate."<novelnext></novelnext>

    My highly intelligent mind instantly caught a few critical clues.

    "It is the second most powerful WHITE mecha. So does that mean that it''s not the second most powerful overall mecha? They have another grade? A golden mecha, perhaps??" I thought to myself.

    "And it is the second most powerful white mecha IN the Whitefrost Estate. So that means that it is not second if other mechas outside of the Whitefrost Estate are included? But this makes sense. They have their secret ck Dragon Army. It is normal if those high profile warriors own several more powerful mechas than the ones found within the Whitefrost Estate."

    "Whitefrost Dragon, huh? So this mecha represents the Whitefrost n?" I asked aloud.

    "Yes, you can say that. This mecha is the drawn sword of the Whitefrost n. Barring a serious crisis, this mecha is all the Whitefrost n needs to exact revenge on our enemies and to teach them lessons that they would never forget. Or rather, lessons they would instantly forget." Ajax chuckled.

    "Because they''ll be dead." I smiled at his little joke.

    "Yes." Ajax replied.

    "Is grandpa''s mecha the most powerful mecha in the n? I haven''t seen him pilot a mecha before." Emma asked.

    "Your grandpa USED to pilot the most powerful mecha. But that mecha has been passed down to your father, Emma. Phil is now our ace in the hole. If anything happens, the weight of the Whitefrost n is upon his shoulders." Ajax said softly. "He''s still alive. I know it."

    I blinked and waited for more information to be revealed.

    But that was it.

    For the rest of the short flight to the National Mecha Pilot Academy, none of us said another word.

    Very soon, the sprawling estate that was my new school appeared in the horizon and all of the mechasnded within their Mecha Landing Zone One, and entered their secure hangar.

    "Thanks for the ride Uncle Ajax." Emma said with an emotionless voice as she hopped out of the cockpit.

    "Thanks Uncle Ajax." I said to him with a friendly smile.

    "Sure, no worries. You look pretty tough. I''m sure you''ll be fine. Don''t worry too much, Even Phil didn''t manage to get first on his first day."

    "What are you talking about?" I stopped myself from jumping out of the cockpit and turned to look at him.

    "Huh? They didn''t tell you about the first week of school for newbies??" Ajax asked me incredulously.

    "No they didn''t. Will you please tell me?" I asked him urgently as a deep feeling of unease welled within my heart.

    "Uh¡­ I am sure they had their reasons for not telling you. I don''t think I should tell you. In fact, I think I''ve already said too much. Now go! Get out of my mecha and enjoy yourself!" Ajax shooed me out of his mecha impatiently.

    I gave him onest re of disappointment before I leapt out of the cockpit, and joined the rest of the Whitefrost kids.

    "Well. We''re here. Justin! You uh¡­ Do your best, alright? Make the n proud!" Julie patted me lightly on my back.

    "You''ll be fine." Margaret said confidently.

    I turned to re at Emma and James.

    "You two want to tell me anything?" I growled at them.

    Emma and James merely grinned at me. Grinned WIDELY.

    My heart started to pound in excitement and in worry.

    What exactly would the first week of school be like?

 Chapter 95 Grand Melee

    I remember that first day vividly.

    Very, very vividly.

    After we got out of the mechas, we were immediately herded into a huge lift along with a few other kids who had arrived by mecha as well. The fifty or so of us fit into the liftfortably and with room to spare.

    "Gifted program. Prepare to exit." A tall and burly lift operator called out.

    "Bye Emma! All the best! Thanks for not telling me anything about my very important first day!" I said to her half sincerely and half sarcastically.

    "You''re wee." She grinned at me. "Whatever happens, don''t give up! AND make sure you look after Tes!"

    She gave Tes a quick hug and then stepped out of the lift as soon as the doors opened.

    Apparently they had gotten quite close during the past few days.

    I had no idea what happened.

    The past few days were a blur of absorbing mecha cores and then trying my best to ingest them as fast as I could.

    After so many long hours of ingesting all that mecha cores and blue mechas which my big bro and Jete had so generously left for me during the purge, the red energy within my body had grown much stronger than before.

    At that time I didn''t know for sure, but I also suspected that my RPL had increased once more!

    And the real good news was, I had sessfully absorbed fifty percent of the white mecha "gifted" by Amelia Dragonos. I would be able to wield the full power of a white mecha enhanced by the power of thirty-three blue mechas within the month.

    "In one month, if pushes to shove and the assassinse once more, I would be able to eat them all for breakfast." I thought grimly.

    Although I had nobat skills to speak of, the sheer power that my mecha suit afforded me allowed me topletely overlook that ring absence.

    Sledgehammers needed no finesse to smash their targets.

    I was absolutely brimming with power!

    After Emma exited the lift, it was the other Whitefrost kids'' turn.

    "All of you, except first years, please exit the lift." The operator said in a totally bored voice.

    "Bye guys. Thanks for leaving me in the dark." I resumed my sarcastic goodbyes.

    "Remember, make us proud!" Julie said as she left the lift.

    I rolled my eyes at her as the lift door closed on us.

    "Any guesses what we''ll be going through soon?" I asked Tes.

    "Guesses? I don''t need to guess. My parents told me yesterday." Tes shrugged.

    "WHAT?! You knew? And you didn''t tell me?" I half shouted at her.

    "You seriously don''t know?" The lift operator looked at me in slight surprise. "Where were you for the past few years of your life? It''smon knowledge."

    "I was¡­ Overseas." I quickly came out with an excuse. "What is it? Can you tell me?"

    "Well¡­ You''ll know in a few seconds. I might as well let you find out for yourself. It''s so rare that someone actually doesn''t know about the orientation week of the academy. I won''t ruin your surprise. Haha!" The lift operator barked out a satisfiedugh.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "You¡­ Tes! Will you tell me? Please?" I turned to Tes and pleaded her.

    "Well¡­ Emma said to let you find out during the start of the event itself. So¡­ I''ll let you do that." Tes giggled lightly. Around us, the other first years looked at me with amused smiles and pitying looks.

    But before I could give vent to my mounting exasperation, however, we arrived at our destination.

    Ding!

    "Alright first years. Go on out and all the very best. Especially for you boy." The lift operator said with augh as he shooed us out of the lift.

    I rolled my eyes at him.

    We stepped out into an utterly massive space which could only be called an arena.

    It was so huge that a horse would take many long minutes just to run a straight line from one end to the other! And all around the massive arena were rows and rows of seats. The seating area surrounding the arena was so huge that it could probably seat a million people!

    At that moment, almost twenty percent of the arena was filled. That''s almost two hundred thousand people!

    They were probably the family members of the participants, the staff and students, as well as important guests.

    The first day of the National Mecha Pilot Academy''s orientation week for first years had always been a big event, and there were nock of people who wanted to watch the event.

    "Whaaat the¡­ This is so much bigger than I had imagined. Coolios!!" A nerdy boy around Tes'' height eximed in surprise.

    "Amazing." Tes whispered as she too was astounded by the sight thatid before us.

    As far as the normal human eye can see (not my eyes of course, because mine were enhanced), huge blue mechas stood neatly in rows and columns.

    There were all sorts of mechas with all sorts of equipment in the humongous arena. Light, medium and heavy mechas were all represented there. Some had flight modules, some carried melee weapons, some carried rifles, and there were even some which werepletely unarmed.

    "Interesting!!" I immediately cried out in my heart as I gazed at the awe-inspiring sight.

    However, I soon narrowed my eyes as I did a quick calction.

    "Fifty by one hundred. That''s exactly five thousand mechas." I muttered.

    "Tes. DO NOT tell me we are going to have a GRAND MELEE as our opening event?? A five thousand mecha free for all fight??" I turned to look at her seriously.

    Tes merely smiled at me and nodded.

    "Hehehe. Finally you know what you''ve gotten yourself into." The nerdy and apparently very talkative boyughed out loud. "Don''t pee in your pants!"

    "Don''t worry. The mecha seats are made of leather. You can pee as much as you like. Haha!" A tall girl dressed infortable sports wear joined him in teasing me.

    I ignored them as my jaw dropped at her confirmation.

    "What kind of school takes their first years and immediately dumps them into a five-thousand-mecha GRAND MELEE?! On the freaking FIRST DAY?!" I thought in shock.

    However, my heart began to pound in exhration as I answered my own question.

    "THE MOST AWESOME TYPE OF SCHOOL!!" I shouted to myself.

 Chapter 96 Ten Times

    Ah the good old days.

    The National Mecha Pilot Academy was ranked number one in the whole of the Chinese Federation.

    And although I had heard about it many times in the past few days, I never truly understood the magnitude and the gravity of being the best school in a country as massive as the Chinese Federation.

    They truly used the most unorthodox and the most direct method to train up generations of incredibly talented mecha pilots.

    And the orientation week for their first years was definitely one of the highlights of the year.

    Day one: Grand Melee.

    Within a few short minutes, all the first years were finally gathered.

    "Who do you think will win? I heard that our batch smashed all the records in terms of RPL score!"

    "Yes, Sherry Lin scored 91. She''s a real demoness! I think she''ll win. Her backing is quite solid, and her piloting skills are rumored to be top notch as well! She would have no problems leading her group to dominate the Grand Melee."

    "Come on, be serious. Why are we even having this conversation? Of course the Longs will dominate again, as they always did! The sheer number of participants under their banner is ridiculous!"

    "I agree. Sherry''s RPL and skill may be godlike, but the topbatants of the Longs aren''t that far behind either. And with the topbatants almost evenly matched, it will all boil down to numbers!"

    The huge bunch of ten year olds began to gossip softly among each other, and my enhanced hearing easily caught everything they said.

    "The general opinion among the participants seems to be leaning toward a Long Family victory, and a fourth or fifth consecutive victory at that! Perfect. I will break their streak and show them who''s the boss." I thought confidently to myself.

    Of course I was confident.

    Even without exceptional piloting skills, I could easily strengthen my own mecha and weaken the enemy mechas. That way, no matter how many came at me, they would all fall like dominoes.

    "Who needs skills when I have such an overpowered secret weapon?" I thought and grinned to myself. "The Champion of this event will definitely be me!"

    Vrooooooo-OOOOOOOO!

    Everyone suddenly stopped talking and turned to face the sound of the iing mecha.

    It was the White Phoenix.

    Grand Elder She''s White Phoenix appeared in the horizon and thennded in front of us with startling crity.

    A few of the first years ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the sight of the awe-inspiring White Phoenix.

    It truly was a beautiful white mecha!

    "Good morning first years. I am Grand Elder She, the chief supervisor for your Orientation week. My national pilot rank is 10,137. Wee to the National Mecha Pilot Academy. Congrattions on making it here! Please give yourselves a round of apuse!" Grand Elder She began.

    The crowd immediately responded and erupted enthusiastically in apuse.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I joined in the apuse, but my mind was whirring rapidly.

    "Rank 10,137? She was 10,252 just a few days ago!" I thought to myself, impressed at her incredible progress in such a short period of time.

    "Okay, now that the feel-good part is over, let''s get down to business. As many of you probably already know, the opening act of our orientation week is a free-for-all Grand Melee. I will now go straight to the description, rules and regtions of the event.

    Number one. There are five thousand of you and five thousand mechas of all kinds here in this arena. Your first task is to get into one of the mechas within thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, if you''re not in a mecha, you will be disqualified.

    Number two, once the arena is cleared of all the disqualified students, the remaining will be allowed to power up their mechas by inserting a student token which will be distributed to you allter into the ignition slot middle of the cockpit. It''s big and marked in red, you won''t miss it.

    Once your mecha takes more than 75% damage, the ignition slot will break your token, and you will power down. The loss of your token will signify your disqualification.

    All, and I mean, ALL of your movements will be recorded by advanced cameras within the mechas as well as from a few thousand drones up in the sky. They will be used to analyze your decisions and actions and will be used subsequently as teaching material for you."

    At that, Grand Elder She paused for a moment as a thoughtful look crossed her face for a moment.

    "You are allowed to use all the skills at your disposal for this event" She finally added.

    To the rest of the participants, thatst statement seemed absolutely redundant. Of course they would be using all the skills at their disposal. Who wouldn''t give their all in such a prestigious event?

    But to me, the attitude of the school''s top management was crystal clear.

    They were telling me, "Show us what you can do."

    "Sure thing." I thought to myself and smiled.

    "Number three." Grand Elder She continued. "Every single action you take will be scored. Be it scoring a hit, dodging a hit, taking a hit, advancing foolishly/bravely/decisively, or running away in fear, everything will be scored. That said, don''t worry too much about your score. Just try your best to remain standing by the end of the event.

    Number four. Your score at the end of the event will determine your initial Year One Ranking, as well as your Overall School Ranking.

    Number five. You can choose to give up by hitting the red button in your mecha that says "GIVE UP". Your mecha will immediately power down and it''s armor will immediately harden by two grades. You will bepletely safe from the rest of your peers who are still fighting.

    Number six. The Grand Melee will end when there are thirty or less participants remaining.

    And finally¡­ number seven." She paused slightly for effect. "This is a new rule that we''re implementing this year to even the field a little bit and make it more interesting.

    You will gain double points for taking down the top one thousand students of the entrance exam.

    Triple, for taking down the top one hundred.

    Quintupled for the top three and¡­

    Ten times for the top student. Their mechas will immediately glow blue, green, yellow and red respectively upon powering up." Grand Elder She said with a strange smile on her face.

    The five thousand students immediately erupted in excitement.

 Chapter 97 Prey

    "WHAT THE HECK? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" I shouted loudly.

    But my voice disappearedpletely in the roar of excitement that the rest of the students were giving out.

    "No wonder they allowed me to use my special skill! They wanted to bury me under the attacks of a thousand mechas! Evil! Big bro, how can you do this to me!!" I moaned, feeling slightly betrayed.

    But deep within me, an indomitable sense of confidence began to bubble up slowly.

    I knew that I was extremely strong.

    But to have the entire Grand Melee set up in such a way so as to specifically target and bring me down, served as a powerful acknowledgement of my strength by the academy.

    I was a special existence, and required special treatment!

    "Justin, be careful, alright?" Tes gripped the edge of my sleeve tightly.

    "Don''t worry, Tes. As you probably already know, I can manifest armor. Don''t say five thousand, even fifty thousand practice mechas can''t do anything to me!" I assured her confidently.

    "Tch. Pridees before a fall. Don''t get careless!" Tes red at me.

    I smiled at her and merely nodded.

    Grand Elder She had raised her White Phoenix''s hand up to call for silence.

    "You will be separated into five groups of a thousand students each, and positioned at the four corners of the arena as well as the middle of the arena. Follow the instructions of the Elders and proceed. Thirty minutes will only start once all of you are in position and on mymand. Now, go to your starting positions!"

    Ten Elders immediately came forward and efficiently divided us into five groups.

    Tes and I were part of the group going to the center of the arena.

    Great.

    Of course I would be at the center. How would I get buried by the rest of the students otherwise?

    ? Several hugendjets came and carried us to our designated starting locations.

    "Do not leave the circle marking before the Grand Elder''s signal. If you take a single step out before that, I will immediately disqualify you." Warned the fierce looking Elder who brought us to our starting location.

    "Understood." Came a chorus of replies from the thousand of us.

    "One minute to start. Prepare yourselves." Grand Elder She called out.

    I nced around me, and saw a thousand nervous faces.

    Many of them had their eyes fixed on the mechas ahead of them, aiming to rush out as soon as possible to secure their mechas.

    Others from the same group had already clustered together, and prepared to bull through the crowd to reach the heavy and medium mechas near them.

    Very few, like me, were looking around and studying the group.

    Our eyes met briefly and an unspoken understanding passed between us.

    There are a lot of prey, and we''ll stay out of each other''s way. For now.

    "Austin Jeffreys. Kage Tarou." I continued to look around and noted the ones which were in the top thousand.

    The Lins, Wangs and Longs weren''t in my group. It was probably done on purpose to keep the strongest away from each other until thest moment.

    "It doesn''t matter. I will mow them down like wheat whenever they show themselves!" I thought to myself.

    "Tes, when the signal to start, follow my lead and attack the other students." I whispered softly to her.

    "Huh? Attack the other students? Why?" Tes whispered back in surprise.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But not a secondter, her mouth turned into an O as she understood my intention.

    "Oh¡­ I see." She whispered back.

    "Yeah. Why let them get into mechas and be dangerous enemies when we can disable them right away when they are still weak? So¡­ Get their tokens and break them. Make sure you keep your own token safe and secure during this first phase." I whispered into her ear.

    Tes giggled uncharacteristically as my breath tickled her ear.

    "Okay! Let''s do that!" Tes agreed.

    "Study them now and take note where they keep their tokens. And if possible, go for the groups first. We need to weaken them as much as possible before they get into their mechas." I said to her as I started to pick my targets.

    "Thirty seconds." Came Grand Elder She''s calm voice.

    A few of the kids started to get so nervous that they actually vomited, much to the chagrin of the kids around them who immediately shrank back from them.

    "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six¡­ Five. Four. Three. Two. One. GO!"

    Immediately, everyone burst into action!

    The roar of excitement rose to a high crescendo as many kids and the two hundred thousand spectators screamed out their exhration!

    Tes and I dashed out together and began to attack our predetermined targets.

    I pulled at the shirt of a weak looking boy in sses, grabbed the token out of his hands and immediately left him to go after my next target.

    "He-hey!! My token!!" He wailed.

    CRACK!!

    I crushed it and flung it away as I reached out to pull at the shirt of a chubby boy right in front of me.

    "HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU- MY TOKEN!!" He looked at his token which was already in my hands in horror.

    CRACK!

    "Two." I thought to myself as I pushed him away and nced up at the drones.

    I quickly shed them a grin, knowing that my big bro would be watching me.

    "You seeing this bro? I''m going to be the champion!" I shouted loudly and punched at a tall boy who was running past me.

    BAM!

    He fell down heavily, stunned.

    CRACK! Token gone.

    "Big brother!!" His three buddies yelled in shock. As one, they charged at me to take revenge for their fallenrade.

    The first one unleashed a powerful right hook at me as the second one slid down to tackle my legs. The third one was even more mboyant as he leapt up to give me a flying roundhouse kick!

    "Hohoho. These four are pretty skilled. Good prey!" I thought happily to myself as I dodged the right hook easily, stepped on the leg of the one tackling me and caught the roundhouse kick with my right hand.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    And a few secondster¡­

    CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

 Chapter 98 Uneven Fight

    "NOOO!! They shouted in horror, anguish and disbelief.

    I ignored them and continued to hunt.

    The good thing about the initial phase of the Grand Melee was that the students who got into their mechas first weren''t able to start them until the 30 minutes were up.

    This was done to make sure that the students don''t end up stomping on the other students, of course. It was the only way that the academy could implement the Grand Melee for first year students on their FIRST day.

    However, a side effect of that arrangement was that many of the elites who had been sending their n members to join the academy every single year knew exactly what would happen, and they had developed strategies to deal with it.

    Strategies which I, coincidentally, had stumbled upon myself.

    BAM! I casually punched one little boy''s shoulder and stomped on his token which fell out of his hand when he fell.

    BAM! CRUSH!

    BAM! CRUSH!

    BAM CRUSH!

    I was merciless and I left a trail of crying kids behind me as I proceeded into the forest of mechas. Token after token were crushed beneath my heel and powerful hand.

    Quite a number of kids had already boarded their mechas, but there were still many who were still running around. If I sprinted at top speed, I could probably take down another thirty or so before I ran out of kids to rob in my direction.

    And by the time I turned around to chase other kids in a different direction, they would be too far away.

    "Justin!" A cry of pain sounded from somewhere behind me.

    "Tes!" I shouted in shock.

    I whirled around and immediately sprinted towards her voice.

    "For her to be in pain, she must be attacked by a group." I thought to myself. "There''s no way that she would lose in a one on one fight against anybody!"

    True enough, I immediately spotted her on the ground, grappling with a fat ten year old who was surprisingly quite good at fighting. Around them were three other boys, one facing in to provide support for the fat boy if he needed any, and two more facing out to dissuade others from joining in the fun.

    "Trained kids. Must be from a big n. Good, exactly the targets I need to eliminate first."

    I reached them within seconds andunched a jab at blinding speed at the first kid''s tummy.

    BAM!

    He crumpled and immediately vomited.

    The second one could only stare at me in horror before my kick reached his tummy area and he too bended over and discharged his breakfast as well.

    I ignored their tokens for the moment and quickly disabled the third kid before grabbing the fat boy''s neck. I pulled him roughly backwards in a strong grip.

    "HEY!" He shouted angrily. "LET ME GO!!"

    "Let her go, or you''ll be the first fatality of this event." I threatened him viciously and tightened my grip.

    "Whaaa¡­" All the fight immediately left him as he felt my powerful hand mping down on his fat neck.

    Of course I wasn''t going tomit murder on my first day of school.

    But in the heat of the moment, and with such a chaotic atmosphere, the fat boy didn''t know that and immediately turned limp in panic.

    "Good. Now give me your token." I said in a soft voice.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "What? No¡­ I can''t¡­" He whimpered pitifully.

    "Then die!" I raised my voice slightly.

    "WAIT! HERE! HERE! TAKE IT! DON''T KILL ME! WAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" The fat boy wailed like a baby as he grabbed his token from his inner pocket and threw it down on the ground.

    Tes immediately got up from the ground and stomped on the token.

    Crack!

    "Good. Let''s go! We can still catch several more before if we hurry." I told Tes as I flung the crying fat boy mercilessly to one side.

    Tes was quite pale, but there was a resolute and determined look on her face.

    She took a deep breath and nodded. "Thanks." She said quietly.

    "Thank meter after we win this whole event." I said to her with a smile. "Let''s go!"

    We quickly crushed the other three tokens and resumed our hunt.

    Twenty more kids lost their tokens to us before they all got too far for us.

    Upon finding no more kids to chase down in front of us, we turned around to study the situation.

    A truly heartbreaking scene greeted us.

    At least a thousand kids were seated on the ground, just bawling their eyes out.

    Barely ten minutes into the first phase of the Grand Melee, and already, twenty percent of the participants were disqualified.

    Beside me, Tes gulped loudly. She was probably feeling slightly guilty. Afterall, she had contributed quite a few to the mass of crying kids.

    "Ignore the crying ones. Pity for our enemies is cruelty to ourselves and our allies." I said softly to her.

    "En." Tes immediately replied.

    "Look for the ones still standing alert like us, they are probably the predators. If possible, we need to take a few of them down. They will be our strongest enemies once the mecha battles begin." I said as I searched our surroundings.

    "There." Tes said and pointed to our right.

    I nced in the direction where she was pointing at, and true enough, there was a group of eight kids standing with at least ten kids around them, all of them either crying or moaning on the ground.

    "Good eye." I praised her with a smile. "Support me from behind, alright? Let''s go get them!"

    I jogged towards them slowly with Tes following me just two steps behind.

    One of the eight kids saw us and immediately alerted the rest of the group.

    They smiled evilly at us and got into an impressive formation. Two of the biggest boys began to walk directly towards us while the remaining split into two groups of three and took nking positions.

    It would be an uneven fight, and the other group looked like they had no intention to pull their punches.

    I was very d to see it.

    Because I sure as hell didn''t intend to pull mine.

 Chapter 99 Lancer

    "Stick with me. It won''t take long." I told Tes and sprinted the final few meters towards the tworge boys.

    Even though they were ten year olds, any kindness and mellowness during a fight had been trained out of their systempletely. They acted in unison with the clear purpose of quickly knocking me out!

    Too bad for them, I grew up around junkyards and was surrounded by gangs and other desperate scrappers which had no qualms sticking a knife on your back just to check what you have in your pocket.

    I not only had my kindness beaten out of me, I also had a streak of cold-bloodedness hammered into my soul.

    The two of them unleashed vicious hooks at me which I didn''t even bother to dodge. I ate their attacks and quickly unleashed two jabs of my own.

    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

    The two boys crumpled on the ground and remained there motionless.

    They were still alive, of course, but the other six members of their group didn''t know that. They looked at the two huge still bodies in front of me in absolute horror.

    I made use of the moment when they were stunned silly to leap to my left and close the distance with the left group.

    BAM!

    I quickly knocked out one of them with a cuff to his neck which caused the other two to begin screaming in fear!

    BAM! BAM!

    Their screams were cut short. Tes had burst into action and had very efficiently knocked the wind out of them by unleashing two powerful uppercuts into their stomachs.

    "Good!" I praised her and turned around to face the remaining three boys.

    Unfortunately for me, they were already running away at full speed, weaving in and out of the forest of mechas, and splitting into three directions.

    "Damn it." I cursed lightly and began to sprint after them.

    "Tes, get the one on the right! I''ll handle the other two!" I shouted.

    "Leave it to me!" Tes yelled in reply.

    It was a bother, but we managed to catch up with them and relieved them of their tokens.

    CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

    And with that, the first phase was officially over for us.

    The tally?

    Sixty five tokens crushed. Forty eight by me, and a respectable seventeen by Tes.

    We had taken out 6.5% of the kids in our group.

    "We have ten more minutes. Let''s pick our mechas." Tes said as she looked around for a suitable mecha for us. "What sort of mecha do you want? A light mecha with a flight system, a medium mecha with a ranged weapon or a heavy mecha with a heavy melee weapon?"

    "Hmmmm. I don''t really know what''s the bestbination. Maybe¡­ A medium mecha with a flight system? What do you think?" I asked Tes.

    "A medium mecha is heavy, and if you use a medium mecha with a flight system, then you''ll probably be really slow in the air, and that would make you an easy target for all the mechas with ranged weapons." Tes exined.

    "The mechas used for the Grand Melee are all practice mechas, so you won''t find a case where a uniquebination such a heavy mecha with flight system can work due to an overpowered flight system. If there''s a heavy mecha with a flight system here in this event, then it would be a heavy mecha with a standard flight system which will make it almost useless."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "The bestbinations are the ones I just mentioned. Light mechas with flight system so you can fly high and fast, keeping you safe from the mechas on the ground, or a medium mecha with a ranged weapon so you can keep your distance and fire at your enemies, or a heavy mecha with a melee weapon so you can quickly destroy your enemies. A heavy with a ranged weapon is a pretty solid choice as well."

    I had never heard Tes speak so many words in one go before, and I really appreciated the fact that she did so to exin to me so many critical things that I needed to know.

    "Well, I don''t really have a lot of closebat skills, so I think I need a lot of armor around me to keep me safe. My only option is a heavy mecha. And at this point, I doubt we''ll be able to find a heavy mecha¡­ They should have all been taken." I said with a frown.

    "So what if they''re taken?" Tes asked me with a rare smile. "It doesn''t make a difference for you."

    I blinked once and instantly understood her unspoken words.

    My mouth slowly curled into a smile as well.

    "Well, well. Tes, you''re much more aggressive than I thought." I said with augh. "Alright, in that case, let''s get you a mecha first. Which one do you want?"

    "That heavy mecha with the red rifle please." She said sweetly at me.

    "Heavy mecha with the red rifle,ing right up!" I proimed gantly and strode towards it.

    The cockpit lift was no longer hanging by the mecha''s leg, signifying that it was already upied.

    I calmly grabbed hold of the mecha''s leg, and slowly climbed up. Within a few quick seconds, I had reached the cockpit.

    Knock! Knock!

    I rapped on the cockpit.

    "Bugger off! This mecha is taken!" A little boy''s muffled voice could be heard through the cockpit door.

    "Open up right now, and I won''t crush your token. You''ll be able to go find a different mecha. If I have to force this door open, I''ll crush your token before throwing you out of this mecha." I threatened him.

    "Ha! You think I''m a fool? There''s no way you can force open the cockpit door! Even if it''s unlocked because the power is off, it''s still WAY too heavy for-"

    Creak.

    I opened the cockpit door casually. I reached in, grabbed hold of his token, and immediately crushed it.

    "WHAT?! NOOOO!!!!" The little boy wailed in horror.

    "Tes! Catch!" I called out as I grabbed him and dropped him from the cockpit.

    "Ooof." Tes caught the wailing boy and promptly dropped him on the ground.

    She quickly mbered up the mecha and made herselffortable in the cockpit.

    "I''ll find you once the event begins." I told her. "Stay alive till then."

    She rolled her eyes at me and made a shooing motion with her hand.

    I leapt off her mecha and quickly went off in search of another heavy mecha.

    "Ance." I finally decided. "I want a heavy mecha with ance!"

 Chapter 100 Golden Bear Squad

    I searched the area and finally found one heavy mecha with a five meter longnce. It was perfect for me!

    As before, I mbered onto the mecha and rapped on the cockpit.

    "Get out and give me the mecha." I said impatiently. "If you do that, I won''t take your token. But if not, I''ll crush it!"

    There was a moment''s silence before¡­

    BAM!!

    The cockpit door opened and almost smashed into me!

    "Holy smokes. This pilot sure is violent." I thought,pletely oblivious that I was a kettle calling a pot ck.

    A beautiful girl stared out at me calmly from within the cockpit.

    She unbuckled her seat belts and leapt out of her seat like a spring.

    I blinked lightly and immediately recognized her as someone with an extremely powerful enhanced body.

    "Hooo. So there are even body enhancers here in the Chinese Federation. I thought only the Russians do that." I smiled at her. "Thanks for the mecha! I appreciate your wise choice in-"

    WHOOSH!

    The beautiful girlunched a powerful kick at me without even saying a single word! Heck, there wasn''t even a single trace of emotion that flitted through her eyes before she attacked. She was like an emotionless robot!

    "WHOA!" I shouted in surprise as I parried her kick with my prosthetic arm.

    BANG!!

    My arm quivered lightly at the force of her kick. My eyes widened in shock. If I hadn''t reinforced my arm with some white mecha armor, I would have definitely have a crushed right arm right there and then!

    However, the shock that finally crossed her eyes was greater than mine. She totally didn''t expect that there could be anyone who could resist her attack so easily and without receiving any damage!

    "So you''re human after all." I said as Iunched into my own series of punches at her.

    We didn''t know it at that time, but the entire school, and in fact probably the entire country had their eyes on us. Almost everybody had gotten into their mechas, and in the remaining five or so minutes, there was nothing really interesting to watch¡­ Until our fight atop the fateful Heavy Lancer.

    "I am human." She said in a silky smooth voice that was as beautiful as her face. "The question is, are you?"

    She dodged my attacks acrobatically, and disyed a control over her body that was absolutely stunning to see. Her bnce and her timing were perfect, and for all my incredible strength and speed, I couldn''t touch her at all.

    The difference between us was as clear as day to anyone in the know.

    She was a trained fighter, and I¡­ I was a clumsy buffalo. Well, maybe not buffalo. Godzi would be more appropriate.

    I was a clumsy Godzipared to her Ballerina.

    Even atop the Heavy Lancer''s neck area with the cockpit wide open, she was able to dodge my vicious attacks easily. And not just easily. She did it with absolute grace and calmness.

    It was like she was doing the dishes or something.

    "What a monster." I thought. "Did I just pick the wrong target? But I must have this mecha at all costs!"

    Whoosh!<novelnext></novelnext>

    A powerful kick came flying towards my head.

    Desperate times called for desperate measures. I took her attack without dodging and then grabbed her leg with my right hand.

    BAM!

    She frowned lightly and then leapt forward with her remaining leg! She bent the leg that my hand had caught to allow her other leg to reach me.

    To reach my groin, to be very specific. She was staking everything on this final attack!

    Too bad for her, she truly was going up against a Godzi.

    I may be without much fighting skills, and I will find it difficult to defeat a trained fighter such as her. But I was also an absolute iron te for them. My specialty was taking hits!

    I shifted my body slightly and her kick hit my thigh instead.

    With both her legs off the ground, she was totally at my mercy. And I had no mercy whatsoever.

    I immediately spun atop the mecha and flung her off!

    No, I wasn''t trying to kill her. I knew exactly how strong she was, and falling off a mere blue mecha wouldn''t damage her body a single bit.

    But I forgot that everybody else didn''t know that I knew and what I knew.

    All they saw was a little boy throwing a little girl off a ten meter tall mecha!

    I totally understand the uproar that followed, I would be pissed if I were them too. But as I had said before, I don''t care. I did what I had to do, and I had no intention to kill her. If they don''t like it, they can go¡­ Eat expired candy.

    She flipped gracefully in the air andnded perfectly on her feet, as I had known she would.

    "Thanks for the mecha!" I called out from the cockpit door.

    She merely stared at me for a moment as if memorizing my face, and then turned to the nearest heavy mecha and pointed at it.

    Immediately, the cockpit door opened and the pilot of the heavy mecha exited.

    She got onto it and quickly made her way up to the mecha.

    "He''s mine." She announced loudly to seemingly nobody.

    At that moment, twenty other mechas all around us opened their cockpit doors and their pilots leapt up to stand on the neck area of their mechas.

    My jaw dropped slightly in surprise. They were all physically enhanced!

    "Of all the mechas I could have robbed, I had to rob one that''s right smack in the middle of a group?! What luck." I thought incredulously.

    "No." A tall boy said seriously. "This isn''t a game. All of you Golden Bear Squad members listen up. Take him down together as soon as the Grand Melee begins."

    "YES SIR!" The other boys and girls shouted in unison.

    I merely blinked and sighed deeply.

    The day was turning out to be a day full of surprises for me!

 Chapter 101 Waterfall

    "Begin!" Grand Elder She''s voice sounded loudly across the entire arena.

    As soon as the words left her mouth, the entire arena rumbled into life like a horrifying giant colossusing to life.

    Raaaaaawwmmmm!!!!

    Vrrrrrrmmmmmmmm!!!!

    Shreeeeeeeeeeekkkkk!!!

    All sorts of mecha engines and weapons growled and shrieked and wailed their way to life. Some light mechas had immediately fired their flight boosters and started to rise to the sky.

    Others diverted power to their feet to begin dashing away to safety or dashing forward to attack others while they were still not ready.

    And still others immediately powered up their rifles to strive for first blood.

    If you''ve never heard the sound of thousands of mecha powering up together and the collective roar of a few hundred thousand spectators, then you''ll never understand the thick, roiling fire that coursed through my veins.

    Pure exhration!!

    It was a soul-stirring moment for me.

    BA-DUMP!

    BA-DUMP!

    BA-DUMP!

    My heart pounded with extreme excitement and my red energy began to stir powerfully within me.

    Very slowly but also undeniably surely, the red energy began to duplicate itself and move towards filling my entire body with it.

    Whatever the ending of the Grand Melee, the gains I had just from participating in it were already mind-blowingly rich!

    After the Grand Melee, my ability to break down white mechas and absorb them would have definitely increased by a huge margin.

    At first, the only sounds that could be heard were the mechas powering up. But very, very quickly, the first blownded.

    BAM!!

    And like the explosion of a dam holding back thergest river you could imagine, the entire arena erupted in sounds of messy, chaotic battle!

    Four thousand mechas had began their wild Grand Melee!!

    The roar from the spectators intensified and rose to a fever pitch as the first casualties began to appear!

    "And here we go! The first mecha casualty had already appeared!" An excited voice boomed loudly. "Ah yes, let me introduce myself. I am Elder Galtro and I will be your MC for today!"

    It was incredible. Just a few seconds in and a mecha had already received critical damage!

    However, the happenings of the rest of the massive arena seemed like a world away.

    For me, the battle that took all of my attention was much smaller in scale.

    Twenty something mechas piloted by angry little kids.

    These little kids were the type that you definitely wouldn''t want to cross. They were extremely low-profile, considering that they didn''t cause a single ripple in the entrance tests.

    But judging from how obedient they were to their leader as well as how powerful they were physically, they were definitely very well trained and well invested in.

    My first mecha fight in the Grand Melee would be a 25 versus 1 fight.

    Not the best situation for me, but I''ve been through worse.

    Much, much worse.

    "Haiyaaa!!"  Four heavy mechas armed with heavy melee weapons stomped out of the group to surround me from all four directions.

    Six light mechas had taken to the skies and ten medium mechas had their rifles trained at me and were all awaiting instructions to fire.

    "Attack." A calm voice sounded from one medium mecha armed with a massive greatsword said. It was the leader that had appeared earlier.<novelnext></novelnext>

    B-b-b-b-b-b-boooom!!! The light and medium mechas fired at me together and the heavy mechas stepped in to finish the job cleanly.

    Pew! Pew! Crash! Crash! Crash!! I was literally drowning in powerful long and medium range attacks.

    But I had reinforced my mecha with high grade white mecha armor and although the impact of their attacks made me lose my bnce a little bit, I was absolutely unharmed.

    What a joke.

    Battle grade white mecha armor against ten light and medium rifles?

    Still, I had tomend that Golden Bear Squad. Their heavy mechas still advanced in perfect precision to unleash powerful sword shes and thrusts.

    Against any other heavy mecha, their attacks werepletely overdoing it, but they still did it seriously anyway.

    For well trained soldiers, it was never about what their orders were, but always about how well they obeyed them.

    And these kids showed incredible training. It was extremely impressive.

    "Who are these kids?" I thought while feeling suitably impressed.

    I ignored the heavy strikes from my sides and my back, and stepped forward to attack the first heavy mecha that appeared before me. His greatsword was raised high in a mboyant overhead swing that would definitely inflict heavy damage if he managed tond the attack¡­ on a regr heavy mecha.

    Against me, his attack would have dealt close to no damage. But still, it wasn''t good for my training if I merely bulled my way through the Grand Melee, so I sidestepped his powerful sh and rapidly flicked my spear forward to strike its head.

    Crash!!

    My powerful spear thrustpletely smashed its head and the heavy mecha powered down instantly. The mecha turned ck as its reactive armor activated to protect the cockpit and the pilot.

    I reversed my spear thurst and sent its rounded rear smashing into the head of the mecha that was trying to attack me from the back!

    Crash!

    It turned ck and powered down instantly.

    I drew back my spear and swung it towards the third heavy mecha.

    BAM!!!

    My spear smashed into his shield and sent him flying back a few meters!!

    I had infused my mecha''s engine with a tiny bit of white mecha core energy and had tripled its power output which resulted in the ridiculous scene of a heavy mecha flying away with but a single swing of my spear.

    "Waterfall Formation." The leader''s voice rang out clearly and calmly.

    Immediately, the mechas reacted and began to regroup.

    The remaining heavy mecha began to retreat towards his buddies.

    "I''ll be damned if I let you join your buddies." I chuckled loudly and started to charge at him.

    "I am your enemy." A girl''s voice rang out from behind me as my instincts started to tingle lightly.

    I whirled around and raised an arm by reflex to parry what I imagined would be a wild overhead swing like the mecha earlier.

    But I had vastly underestimated my enemy.

    She wasn''t intending to attack me at all.

    Crash!!!

    Her massive mecha crashed into me and sent both of us tumbling down to the ground!

    "Initiate Waterfall." The leader''s voice rang out again.

    Holy smokes.

    What a ruthless strategy!

 Chapter 102 Hypocrite!

    The Waterfall strategy was simple. Keep a strong enemy grounded and rain attacks on it like a waterfall relentlessly smashing down.

    I have to say, their vicious attacks tickled.

    A couple of mechas had piled on top of the girl''s heavy mecha in a very strange but effective formation that made me unable to move but at the same time, still left many critical areas open for their allies tond their hits.

    And that way, theypletely grounded me.

    Powerful sword shes and beams of rifle attacks crashed onto my mecha body without pause for a few long seconds.

    "Very, very well trained and very, very heartless kids." I quickly came to a conclusion as I weathered their blows silently.

    By that time, they must be attacking on semi auto-pilot as they dealt with their shocks of not being able to damage me even a single bit.

    "What the heck? What''s with this heavy mecha? Why is it so powerful?"

    "Did the organizers mistakenly put in a battle grade mecha? Damn it! It should have been ours"

    "What''s wrong? Is my mecha broken? Why am I not dealing any damage?"

    I can already imagine their confused thoughts.

    "These bastards. If I wasn''t as overpowered as I am, my mecha would definitely suffer beyond heavy damage. In fact, I might even die if they hit a criticalponent! But maybe they wouldn''t be this vicious if they didn''t know my power." I cursed them slightly but then relented slightly to cut them some ck.

    "Enough." I finally decided to end the charade.

    Creaaakkkk!!!!!!

    Slowly but inexorably, I began to push back on the heavy mechas that were piled on top of me and got into a sitting position.

    With a powerful surge of energy, I flung both my arms out and caused all three mechas to crash in three different directions!

    Beams of rife attacks continued to rain down on me as I slowly stood up like an unvanquishable God of all Mechas.

    Or rather, like an Invincible Mecha Emperor.

    I gripped my spear lightly and began my "ughter".

    With my ridiculously high RPL, I was able to control the practice mecha like controlling my own body.

    I immediately exploded forward toward the nearest cluster of medium mechas and quickly "destroyed" them!

    Boom. Crash! Crash! Crash!

    "Ahhh! Demon! Mecha demon!" Finally, one from among them panicked.

    And when one panicked, it opened the floodgates of fear that every single one of them had been fighting really hard to suppress.

    Kaboooomm.

    An unstoppable wave of fear and destion finally gripped the group of kids.<novelnext></novelnext>

    They say the higher you fly, the harder you fall.

    I guess the saying was true for the mecha pilots as well.

    These kids were so disciplined and so prideful of their strength that when they finally met with a strange power that rendered thempletely ineffective, they immediately thought that they had met with a ridiculous anomaly that could very well mean the end of their lives.

    "Screw training!" I could already imagine one of them thinking. "Anything that could survive our Waterfall strategy isn''t normal! If we stay, we might end up bing his victims! Run!"

    A truly well trained army would not think that way. But let us not forget that these are little ten year old kids. Being able to execute Waterfall Strategy so wlessly was already an incredible achievement.

    It wasn''t fair to expect that their maturity level and their mental strength to be high enough to deal with such a crushing sense of helplessness that they were feeling at that moment.

    Boom. Crash!

    Boom. Crash!

    I continued to take down the mechas within my range with a single hit while the rest of their team started to disperse.

    "Disperse! Assemble at meeting point two!" The leader had no choice but tomand. Any other instruction would definitely go unheeded. Once morale was broken, it would take a far more powerful warrior and act of heroism to bring their courage back.

    Hmm? Yes, something along the lines of Sherry Lin''s ridiculous exploits such as the Sack of Berlin where she escaped death by a hair.

    And that little boy definitely did not have what it takes to do that.

    And as such, it was the right decision. Whatever semblence of obedience that remained in the kidspelled them to obey the direct order to retreat and regroup, and they were saved from beingpletely defeated by me.

    All, except the girl, of course.

    After the team had dispersed into the chaotic mess that was the Grand Melee, I was left staring at the girl''s heavy mecha. Even the leader had left decisively.

    "Still here? Could it be that you''ve given up already?" I said with a mockingugh as I took one threatening step towards her.

    She raised her greatsword and pointed it at me. "I never give up. Especially not against cheaters like you. I challenge you to a fair duel! Undo whatever enchantment or unfair advantage you''ve given yourself, and fight me!"

    Iughed at her naivety.

    "I can undo my "unfair advantage" on my mecha. But can you do the same? Don''t be a hypocrite and force me to do things that you can''t do as well!" I scoffed at her.

    "I have no unfair advantage." She said coldly as she took one step towards me.

    "Yes you do. You have ten years of training and body upgrades. You have been fed with countless expensive pills, serums and other enhancing food which I didn''t have. What are those if not "unfair advantage"? All you damned highborns do is to bully us lowborns, and then find excuses to pull us down so that you can beat us up in situations that are to your advantage!

    Hyprocite! If you want a fair fight, then fight me now with all that you have! All is fair in love and war! You should know that, highborn." I sneered at her.

    I expected her to curse at me and continue spouting nonsense about fairness.

    I truly didn''t expect her to charge at me with her greatsword raised up high in a massive overhead swing!

 Chapter 103 I Can

    "I am not a hypocrite." Her voice sounded coldly mere moments before her attacknded.

    WHAMMM!!

    Her massive greatsword smashed inconsequentially on my left arm.

    However, she was not fazed one bit by thepleteck of results her furious attack wrought.

    She used the power from the recoil of her attack to enter into another swing and attacked me with greater force!

    BAMMM!!

    Her greatsword struck me at my mecha''s weak underarm!

    It truly was an impressive attack. The power that she unleashed and the tricky angle in which sheunched her attack to reach such a difficult-to-reach spot all showed me that this girl was no ordinary ten year old.

    Her enhancement may well go beyond that of her physical body.

    BAMMM!!

    Sheunched a mighty kick at me!

    But all she managed to do was to fall backwards.

    "You should give-"

    BOOOMM!!!!

    A powerful beam of energy attack suddenly appeared and smashed onto her upraised arm!

    "HEY!" I shouted indignantly and quickly turned around to face the sneak attacker.

    As you all know, I hate sneak attackers! IF they are not on my side, of course. But on that day, I had no one except Tes on my side.

    But s for me, and for the brave girl, the Grand Melee was an unforgiving event, especially during the initial minutes. If you''re on the ground and alone, you''re almost sure to be "killed" within seconds.

    And if you''re on the ground, alone, and were located beside a mecha with a massive red glow that reached the skies worth TEN times a normal mecha in points, then you''re definitely dead as soon as you reach the ground.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    I turned around only to face more than a hundred merciless rifle beams raining down on us!

    On me, mostly, but not a fewnded on the poor girl as well.

    She was doing extremely well, dodging this way and that, and blocking the undodgeable ones with her arms and legs, but she was merely extending the inevitable.

    If nothing happened, she would "die" in seconds.

    What else could I do? She was a brave girl getting pummeled mercilessly by the enemy, and she was in that positionpletely because of me!

    Yes, yes, I could just leave her alone. Yes, yes, mercy to our enemies is poison to our allies.

    I know all that. But for some strange reason, I was absolutelypelled to act at that moment.

    I leapt in front of her to shield her with my indestructible body. Well not really, but in front of all these practice mechas, it might as well be.

    "Get up. Quick! You''ll "die" if you stay down much longer! And for God''s sake, grab a shield!"  I shouted at her.

    "I can''t." She said very simply. "My arms and legs are shot to pieces."

    At that time, I truly, truly had no idea why I did what I did next. Many people had asked me why, and my answer was an honest "I have no idea.".

    Of course nobody believed me then, and I couldn''t care less what they thought.

    But it was a strange decision, nheless, and one that kept me awake some nights and made me do not a little bit of soul searching.

    I only realized why I did it a few long monthster, when she was already an indispensable part of our group.

    A small part as to why I did it was, obviously, guilt. I had robbed her of her mecha and dispersed her twenty team mates from her side. She was about to "die" because of me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The main reason was, however, admiration.

    Not love, as most gossip mongers that pretend to be news outlets im. It was honest to god admiration.

    She was extremely clear of my strength, and still she chose to fight me. And all for what? Just to prove that she wasn''t a hypocrite.

    Damn it, she was really cool back then.

    It was like she was standing on a railway track and facing an iing freight train with her sword raised high,pletely unafraid and ready to swing her sword at it even though it meant certain death for her.

    It was folly, pure and simple. Stupidity in its purest form, even.

    But it was also insanely impressive.

    I had recognized in her an ability to do something which I wouldn''t - no, couldn''t do. And hell, I was impressed.

    And I couldn''t watch someone so stupidly brave and courageous bow out of the Grand Melee so early!

    And so I grabbed her with my left hand, and then charged out of the area at high speed.

    "Let me go!" The girl shouted with a surprised voice.

    "Just chill, and make sure you don''t die." I shouted back as I maneuvered my mecha skillfully to dodge most of the rifle fire.

    With my extremely high RPL that was probably beyond 95 by that point in time, I was able to control the mecha like my own body.

    Sudden changes in direction, speed and eleration were not a problem for me!

    I made a zig zag approach to thergest cluster of mechas who were firing at us.

    The merciless fire from all the other mechas around us continued unabated, even after I had reached the mechas!

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    The rifle fire from mechas far behind us began to reap the "lives" of the other mechas that were near me.

    "Damn it! I''m outta here!" I could hear one kid scream.

    "No you''re not!" I shouted furiously and charged at him.

    "AHHH!!! SAVE MEE! SAVE-"

    BAM!

    My spear smashed his head into pieces and he immediately powered down.

    I red at the rest of the mechas who were scrambling to get out of my range and the range of the other mechas firing at them.

    "It would be tough to hunt them down with a melee weapon." I realized.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    Rifle fire from all around continued to rain down on me.

    "I won''tst much longer." The girl said calmly.

    I was unable to dodge all of the attacks, and quite a number of rifle beams had sessfully hit her.

    "Damn it!" I cursed loudly. "You''re not dying. Not under my watch!!"

    "There''s nothing you can do. Not unless you can shut down a hundred mechas all at once."

    I sighed deeply.

    And then I said¡­

    "I can."

 Chapter 104 Wolf

    Of course I wasn''t that dumb.

    There was no way I would risk exposing my power so tantly by making the hundred mechas around us go "poof!" into particles.

    But there was also no harm in sabotaging them. More specifically, their rifles.

    And even more specifically, their targeting systems.

    The rifles could still be fired at normal strength, but they would have to be manually aimed.

    And with so many of the participants having rtively low RPLs at around 60s and 70s, manually aiming a rifle while in the air or even while on the ground, in the midst ofbat, would be close to impossible for the ten year olds.

    The rare few that could were probably in no position to attack us.

    They were probably being mobbed by the rest of the crowd as well.

    Don''t forget, those who were strong enough had bounties on their heads! They were glowing, like me. And killing them would the killers a huge amount of points!

    And so, I thought that taking out their rifles'' aiming systems were enough.

    Poof!

    Immediately after that, the energy beams that were raining down on us suddenly simply stopped hitting us.

    Some began to miss by a hair, while others¡­ I wasn''t sure if they were even still aiming at us anymore.

    "Oh look, their aims are somehowpromised. It''s our chance! Let''s counter attack!" I shouted in glee.

    I didn''t wait to hear what the girl had to say about it and promptly charged at the nearest mecha.

    WHAM!

    I swung my spear like a hammer and smashed it onto a medium mecha. It immediately copsed and powered down.

    BOOM BOOM BOOM!

    I thundered my way towards the next mecha who bravely, but very foolishly, decided to attack me with his war hammer.

    BAM!

    I blocked his downswing with my bare left arm which still had the girl''s mecha limply hanging down in my left hand, and smashed my spear onto his head.

    CRASH!!

    The mecha powered down.

    I flung it away and started to dash towards the next mecha.

    That way, I began to wreak absolute carnage on the arena.

    One thing stood out very, very clearly in my mind when I think about those few minutes.

    It was that the Chinese Federation ten year old kids which participated in that particr Grand Melee¡­ Were all ridiculously brave.

    Although quite a few ran away and refused to fight me, a surprising number of them actually stayed to fight me!

    They charged at me fearlessly even though they knew that they wouldn''t be able to damage me. It was like the thought of running away was something taboo in their minds. They would rather face certain death than run away!

    It was truly very impressive. For me whose main priority in life is staying alive, that experience was something unforgettable. It was the first time I realized that something that is greater than gaining the most amount of benefits out of any situation exists, and exists so strongly that even ten year olds understood it and lived by it.

    Pride. Honor. Patriotism.

    Whatever the reason was thatpelled the ten year old kids to engage me inbat even after seeing so many of their peers get absolutely demolished, it was something new for me.

    "What a unique concept." I remember thinking to myself. "Would I ever develop something like that? Maybe some day. But¡­ definitely not now!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    I wasn''t one to dwell on deep philosophical thoughts in the midst of battle. By the way all those kids were swarming towards me and the red glow which signified ten times the number of points, I probably had to personally take out at least half of the mechas in the arena!

    That''s two thousand five hundred mechas to trample over!

    I redoubled my efforts and speed in taking down the enemy mechas.

    Bam! Bam! Crash! Crash!

    My spear flicked urately and powerfully.

    Driven by the strength of a battle-grade mecha, my wanton attack found absolutely no resistance.

    Come to think of it, I was very literally a feral wolf unleashed in a chicken pen!

    I left a trail of powered down mechas behind me as I took out mecha after mecha.

    And still, they came. Bravery and folly were truly separated only by a very thin line.

    However, sometimes, even among mere chicken, if a wolf is unlucky, he would meet with a cockerel that would refuse to simply squawk and die under its ws obediently.

    Sometimes, he would meet with a stubborn old dude who would insist on standing its ground, and was armed with sharp chicken ws, sharp chicken beaks and a whole lot of experience surviving in the wild.

    I guess you could describe my meeting with Jaden Rushblood as a wolf meeting and old cock.

    Because by all that''s good and holy, and by all the bacon of the world, Jaden Rushblood is truly that. A d***.

    BAMMM!

    A high powered rifle beam suddenly smashed into the girl''s mecha which I was carrying along with me!

    It cleanly pierced through the girl''s neck, and severed her head, sending the girl crashing down to the ground!

    "Ah!" The girl shouted in surprise. She certainly wasn''t expecting to be taken out that way!

    "DAMN IT!! Who the **** did that!!" I roared in anger and whirled around towards the direction from which the rifle beam came.

    But all I could see was a sea of mechas brutally fighting and knocking each other down!

    I squinted my powerful eyes and tried to spot a mecha with a rifle facing my direction. But for all my effort, I couldn''t spot any.

    Bam!

    A brave but absolutely irritating heavy mecha rushed at me and attacked me with his heavy sword.

    I frowned and swung my spear at his head without bothering to even move my feet.

    BAM!!

    The heavy mecha copsed next to the girl''s mecha and powered down.

    I cursed one more time at the sneaky bastard and looked at the girl''s mecha. Her reactive mecha armor had taken effect and she waspletely immobile at that moment.

    I had taken ensuring her survival as my personal mission, and to have her killed by a sneak attack truly riled me up.

    The cockerel had struck a vicious and sneaky blow from the sea of dead and dying chicken.

    What could a wolf do in that situation?

    One thing and one thing only.

    Kill.

 Chapter 105 Youre Pretty Good

    I dare say that during those first few weeks of my enrolment, the National Mecha Pilot Academy wasn''t truly ready to have me as one of their students.

    And none of the "incidents" that happened because of me shone a light more clearly to that fact than the very first "incident" of all that took ce during that Grand Melee.

    True, Bruce and Jete knew about my power and Devour. The Ancestor probably knew much more about me than I did myself at that moment.

    But none of them were truly prepared to deal with the true extent of what a reckless, angry ten year old boy with a metaphorical huge sledgehammer in his hands could do in a massive arena full of ten year olds in weak practice mechas.

    They thought that I would be overwhelmed by the sheer number of mechas that I had to deal with. They thought that just because I wasn''t allowed to "openly unt" my Devour, that I would be forced to take the hits sent my way and they thought that it would be enough to give me so much trouble that I would lose the Grand Melee. And even if, against all odds, I managed to win, I would do so with a lot of trouble.

    Boy, they had never thought anything more wrongly.

    That Jaden Rushblood hadpletely pissed me off. He had taken something of mine from me, and by all that was good and holy, I will smite him to the ground, even if I had to do so by climbing over a thousand corpses!

    Four thousand, to be specific. And not corpses, but mechas.

    Well technically, I didn''t kill all four thousand myself. They did kill quite a number among themselves. But I doubt that the historians would bother to rify that point. In fact, didn''t one sensational-chaser even publish "ONE KID DESTROYS FIVE THOUSAND MECHAS!" as its headline?

    Anyway, after failing my self-given mission to save the girl, I decided that I was a very dangerous lightning rod.

    "Tes is better off fighting away from me." I thought. "I''ll stay away from her so that she''ll have a higher chance of making it through the Grand Melee."

    And so, I found myself all alone, surrounded by hostile mechas.

    What else could I do? I went absolutely nuts.

    "DAMN YOU ALL! BUNCH OF WEAKLINGS! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU ARE ALL COWARDS! COWARDS! IF YOU WON''T EVEN COME AND ATTACK ME, HOW THE FREAKING HELL DO YOU THINK YOU CAN FACE YOUR MOTHERS AFTERWARDS? COWARDS! LOSERS! JUST GO HOME AND DRINK YOUR MOMMA''S MILK!" I remember shouting with all of my considerable strength.

    Yes, that was the shout that revolutionized cursing in the Chinese Federation. "Go home and drink your momma''s milk" became the ultimate form of provocation.

    And it was also the reason why the whole cohort was so against me.

    After my shout which reverberated throughout the arena, almost all of the mechas turned towards me. And almost as one, they surged in my direction!

    Which was, of course, what I wanted.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    ? I swung my spear wildly and started to smash all the mechas that were beginning to surround me.

    At first, I was making good progress. Two, five, then ten mechas quickly fell to my spear.

    But as my massacre continued, I realized that the spear was bing more and more of a hindrance!

    I could only kill one or two mechas at once, and it required a rtively long time for me to reset and swing the spear around to kill another one.

    "I guess the spear is not that useful in such situations!!" I thought grimly to myself as I flung my spear away, and waded into the entire crowd of mechas.

    Whenpletely surrounded and hemmed in by so many enemies, the best weapons are your own elbows, fists, knees,  feet and head!

    BAM! I punched a heavy mecha and immediately downed it.

    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

    In the short moment when I punched the heavy mecha, four vicious weapon swings and countless rifle beams had alreadynded on me!

    However, they didn''t even cause a dent on my armor.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I hadpletely donned on my shameless cloak and hadpletely strengthened my mecha armor using a generous dose of white mecha particles.

    I knew that as long as I didn''t absorb other mechas, strengthening my own mecha could be easily exined by several high tech armor-enhancing items. Even if they couldn''t perfectly pinpoint which technology I used, their energies would be spent researching on what sort of armor-enhancing item my backing had given me.

    Their focus wouldn''t be on Devour at all.

    And so I didn''t hold back on abusing my power.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    I swung my body andunched three rapid jabs at the nearest mechas within my attack range and downed them without much suspense!

    I weaved my body and got into a good offensive rhythm.

    Left hand: Jab! Jab! Jab!

    Right hand: Hook!

    Left foot: Kick! Kick! Kick! Step forward.

    Right hand: Jab! Jab! Jab!

    Left hand: Hook!

    Right foot: Kick! Kick! Kick! Step forward.

    Each hit downed a mecha, and there was nock of mechas that delivered themselves to me.

    As I mentioned before, the generation of Chinese kids I was in waspletely filled with fearless dragons and phoenixes. But at that moment, they were still mostly fearless.

    They were not yet dragons and phoenixes, and so their excess bravery inadvertently pushed them over the line and made them ridiculously dumb.

    They literally hand delivered themselves to me and to my reputation!

    Over a hundred kids fell during the first minute of my rampage.

    Within ten minutes, a thousand.

    The roar of excitement from the crowd that was so overwhelming mere minutes ago had turnedpletely silent.

    It was not a Grand Melee at all.

    It was turning out to be a Grand Massacre.

    However at that point in time, after ten minutes and only a thousand downed mechas, it wasn''t quite a massacre yet.

    Not yet.

    And as the crowd of mechas suddenly melted away from around me to give me and one particr mecha room for a one on one fight, that point hit me really hard.

    The glow around the medium mecha was yellow. The pilot was within the top three pilots in the Grand Melee!

    "You''re pretty good." A familiar girly voice called out from the mecha.

 Chapter 106 Crossing The Line

    "Pretty good?" Iughed at her and gestured at the piles of fallen mechas around me. "These mechas around me beg to differ. They are telling me that I am the best here."

    "The words of weaklings don''t mean anything." She held her twin swords in both hands very casually and proceeded to walk towards me slowly.

    She waspletely unaffected by the incredible disy of power I had so impressively given. The billowing confidence within her heart was like a thick aura around her, giving her a mesmerizing look despite being in apletely ordinary mecha.

    Sherry Lin.

    The name that would one day inspire fear all around the world, would make her grand debut there in a one on one fight with me, the future Mecha Emperor.

    "Oh? You must be from arge n. Such arrogance can''t be found anywhere else." I chuckled at her.

    "Those who seek to wear the crown, must first learn to bear its weight." She said coldly. "I, Sherry Lin, will teach you that the crown of the strongest pilot this year isn''t something you''re qualified to wear."

    "Sherry Lin? Who is that?" I asked in the most annoying tone I could manage to rile her up and break herposure.

    As I expected, it worked perfectly.

    My question caused her to explode forward with startling speed!

    Although I had broken herposure as I had aimed to achieve, breaking herposure did not cause her to weaken as I had hoped.

    Most fighters, especially kids, will throw their training out the window once they get angry. "KYAAA!! OURYAAAA!!" They would scream in anger, and go charging at their enemy at full speed, executing wild attacks that would be easy to counter.

    But Sherry? That demonic girl was such a genius that her anger merely propelled herbat power to greater heights!

    There was no excess in her movements, no w, no mistake.

    The medium mecha that came charging at me with twin swords was like the Goddess of Death herself!

    I had awakened a ferocious sleeping tiger!

    However, I was no weakling myself.

    If Sherry Lin was a ferocious tiger with its transcendent grace and hyper efficient fighting skills, then I was a BIG, FAT, thousand ton mammoth.

    I didn''t need grace. I didn''t need fighting skills. I just needed to bully my way forward and somehownd a lucky hit on her.

    Unfortunately for me, that was as far as the illustration could go.

    Tigers can''t trip big fat thousand ton mammoths, nor can they manipte the mammoths incredible strength to work against itself.

    What the tiger can''t do to the mammoth, Sherry Lin did to me. And more.

    As soon as she closed the distance between us, she feinted to her right and made me jerk my body towards my left so that I could align my punches with her body.

    But the moment she noticed my mecha throw its weight irrevocably to my left, she immediately recovered from her feint and leapt to her left! At the same time, she struck my right leg with her powerful sword and caused me topletely lose my bnce!

    I tripped and shot forward with my hands stretching out reflexively to catch my body as it hit the ground.

    But before my hands could get into position, a powerful impact hit the back of my neck and sent me hurtling forward!

    BAM!

    I smashed head first to the ground!

    And you can probably imagine what happened next.<novelnext></novelnext>

    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

    Sherry Lin did not show the slightest bit of mercy as she wielded her twin swords like cudgels smashed them so hard on my mecha''s weakpoints that they broke after onlynding three hits each!

    "Hammer!" Sherry Lin''s cool voice sounded.

    Immediately, the sound of a massive war hammer whistling through the air could be heard.

    Wham.

    Sherry Lin caught it skillfully and used its momentum tounch a powerful attack on my back!

    WHAM!!

    "What a relentless little fire cracker!" I shouted in my heart and started to push myself up.

    However, Sherry Lin was far too wily and far too skillful to let me do that.

    She kicked my hands out from underneath me and caused me to crash to the ground once more!

    "Gah! Stop that! Let me get up at least!" I shouted rather unreasonably.

    But who in their right minds would allow their enemies to regain their footing once they have fallen?

    Sherry Lin ignored mepletely.

    Each time I ced my weight on one of my limbs so I could push myself up, Sherry Lin would kick or stomp at me to keep me grounded.

    Each time I spun my body around to get out of her range, she would already be there to kick me and foil my attempts to stand up.

    "I want to stand up! I just want to stand up!" I shouted in my heart. And all the while, her new hammer rained down upon me without ceasing!

    It was an incredible disy of dominance. My fighting skills were so non-existent and hers was so sublime that she looked like she was doing a skill demo on an unmoving piece of unpiloted mecha!

    I couldn''t help but sigh regretfully.

    Although I had so shamelessly bullied my way through the massacre with my overpowered and imprable defense, I was hoping that I didn''t have to inject more white mecha particles than what I already had.

    Afterall, there was a certain level of shamelessness which was still the funny kind of shameless.

    And then there was different, just downright despicable kind of shameless.

    For me, injecting more than 5% of a huge, hundred meter tall white mecha made of materials a million more times stronger than a practice mecha, into a practice mecha was that limit.

    Below 5%, it was still kind of funny. Yes, I know that the ones I beat up didn''t feel that way. But for me, 5% was still eptable. I was stronger than them, but I wasn''t beyond the realm of possibility to defeat.

    Very improbable, yes. Impossible? No.

    But if I go beyond 5% and into say¡­ 10%. Not even ten Sherrys with all their skills would be able to do anything to me.

    The power I would be able to bring to bear would cause even her attempts to kick my hands out from beneath me to bounce off!

    5% was the line for me.

    And at that moment, I was about to cross it.

 Chapter 107 Eternal Warrior

    My saving grace, I believe, was that I didn''t cross it for long.

    I brought my white mecha concentration up to ten percent for exactly two seconds, just enough to allow my arm to deflect one vicious kick from her.

    BANG!

    She kicked me so viciously that her right foot was smashed to smithereens!

    At the same time, I was finally able to push myself up!

    "Ahh! I am finally standing up!" I shouted with great relief.

    Sherry Lin didn''t let up and smashed her hammer on my mecha with all of her strength!

    WHAMM!

    I barely managed to block it with my right arm. At the same time, my left hand shot out to grab her mecha.

    If I could just get one good hit in, the fight would be over.

    However, Sherry Lin was far too skilled to allow me to do that. She knew that the moment I caught her ornded one good hit on her, the fight would be over.

    So she pulled out all of her tricks and considerable skills out of her bag to evade my every attempt to grab her.

    She pped my hands away, sidestepped to avoid my kicks and used her hammer so skillfully and in so many ingenious ways that the whole country waspletely enthralled by her disy.

    And all that, with a smashed up right foot!

    After a few minutes of fruitlessly attacking her, I stopped.

    "We''re wasting time. Let''s make a temporary truce and we can resume our fight once we clear out the rest of the mechas." I said.

    "epted!" Sheera Lin immediately shouted from somewhere behind Sherry Lin.

    "Rejected." Sherry Lin said tly. "You''re going down, Whitefrost punk."

    I guess part of the reason she made such a powerful impression that day was also because of thebination of my ferociousness in battle and my utterck of fighting skills.

    My ferociousness and the massacre I had just carried out made me seem much more formidable than I actually was.

    People didn''t see me as just any strong fighter. They saw me as THE student to beat. Plus the red light around me totally made me look extremely badass.

    "The number one student in the entrance test! He is so powerful! Look at how many mechas have fallen to his fists!"

    "Strong! Very strong!"

    "And not just strong. He seemspletely filled with bloodlust! Look at how fast he''s mowing down all the other students!"

    The crowd waspletely enraptured by my kill count, and they didn''t realize that I had no fighting skills whatsoever.

    And a few minutester, when Sherry Lin so skillfully locked me down, she actually managed to ce herself above me in the mind of the crowd!

    And so the crowd took all of my aplishments that day, pegged me to a very high standard, and then they conveniently ced Sherry on top of all that.

    "She''s so skillful but so modest! She could have unleashed a massacre herself, but she didn''t! What a perfect warrior!"

    "I agree! She is actually so strong, yet she avoided showing off! It was only when this stupid brute made a mess of the Grand Melee that she appeared to put a stop to his antics! What a wonderful person she is!"

    "Strong AND also humble. She deserves to be the number one student this year."

    Fools.

    If Sherry Lin could have massacred the kids like I did, she would have done it already.

    Sherry Lin was no saint.

    She is the strongest fighter I know, and one of the reasons she is so strong is partly because of herpleteck of emotions when she fights

    I suspect she was born that way.

    At any rate, she was already that way at ten years old.

    The only reason she didn''t unleash her own massacre wasn''t that she was humble, it was that she couldn''t.

    Why couldn''t she?

    Because Sheera Lin said so, of course.

    The Great Undying General, at ten years of age in the Grand Melee of the National Mecha Pilot Academy.<novelnext></novelnext>

    She was like a fish in water.

    Sheera Lin had immediately understood the words that the Grand Elder She had said AND didn''t say.

    The winner of the Grand Melee was thest mecha standing. Every action would be recorded.

    However, if the winner of the Grand Melee was thest mecha standing, then at times, wouldn''t INACTION be as valuable as action? After all, if by holding back we could have a higher chance of reaching our destination, wouldn''t that be as valuable as knocking down an enemy?

    Possibly, even more valuable?

    So she had immediately implemented the strategy of killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

    They quickly took down several tens of mechas, and then arranged them messily around them.

    The got into formation with spears pointing out and remained still.

    With so many dead mechas around them and with so many mechas in their group, the crowd avoided them like the gue and fought among themselves.

    Some even copied her strategy, to varying degrees of sess.

    None, however, managed to quite get the same feeling of ferociousness that Sheera Lin had so perfectly disyed.

    That way, for the initial minutes of the Grand Melee, Sherry Lin''s brilliance was effectively hidden.

    Until I appeared near them.

    I could totally visualize how their arguments took ce at that moment.

    "THIS IS REALLY BAD!" Sherry scowled at Sheera. "Look! He is getting all the spotlight! And it''s all your fault! I should have just left your good for nothing ass behind and do as he did! That way, more people will praise me, and I will probably get my pocket money raised!"

    "Hey! Don''t use the "ass" word!" Sheera said.

    "I''ll use any bloody word I bloody like!" Sherry yelled.

    "HEY! Don''t use "bloody" as well!" Sheera scolded.

    "Gahhh." Sherry almost pulled at her hair in frustration. But she kept quiet after that and stopped using bad words. "So what do we do now?"

    "What else can we do? Wait for him to tire and then wait for the other fools to finish him up. Then we wait for more fools to finish the fools, and then for even more fools to finish the fools who finished the fools who finished him." Sheera shrugged and said easily. "And maybe after that, we can make our move."

    "No can do. That''s too long. I am attacking him now." Sherry Lin shook her head and said resolutely.

    "No! Stick to the n!" Sheera Lin said sternly.

    "I AM sticking to the n." Sherry Lin said as she drew her twin swords.

    "You''re NOT sticking to the n. The n states that you wait here with us!" Sheera Lin said with a frown.

    "Yeah, YOUR n states that. However, MY n states that I take down that bullying little Whitefrost kid and show him who''s the real leader of our generation!" Sherry Lin said as she began to move out of their formation.

    "Gahh. Sherry Lin! You will pay for this! I am telling gramps!" Sheera Lin shouted.

    "Yeah? Go on ahead and tell him! Tell him how I magnificently made the Lin Family Name rise to the heavens with my spectacr performance! Thanks!" Sherry Linughed.

    Sheera Lin sighed.

    But she was the Undying General, and she had many ns and scenarios in her head.

    So she immediately put into y the scenario that had Sherry Lin take the spotlight.

    "Horseshoe formation!" She barked. "Escort Sherry Lin to that bulldozer over there!"

    Hmmm? Yes. I am recounting what Sherry and Sheera told me about what happened in their camp at that time. Not perfectly, of course, but that was the gist of what transpired.

    And for once, I think Sherry Lin made the right call.

    The Lin Family rose to prominence because of her performance against me that day.

    Because even until this very moment, my battle with her is the closest I havee to a defeat by a mecha pilot.

    Well, that was how it probably started.

    Back to our story.

    Sherry Lin, the Eternal Warrior, ignored my call for a truce, and charged at me once more!

 Chapter 108 The Longs

    No matter how strong you are, skill always, always trumps brute strength.

    There are no shortage of stories where skillful and experienced old fighters, probably even while dealing with acute back pain, could easily defeat muscr young men who are at the peak of their physical fitness.

    It was exactly like that in my fight with Sherry Lin. Even with a smashed up right foot, I was still unable tond a single good hit on her!

    Compared to mine, her skill level was like the tallest tree in the world to my cute little three-day-old green bean seedling.

    However, very thankfully, her smashed up right foot also gave her just enough handicap to prevent her from tripping me up like before.

    And so, our fight was surprisingly even.

    Surprising in the sense that I was able to avoid getting knocked off my feet, of course.

    It was definitely not surprising in the sense that Sherry Lin could still fight with only one good foot.

    Her skill was beyondly godly at that point in time.

    "Hey! Seriously, you''re wasting time and energy. Let''s truce for a bit and do our own stuff!" I yelled at her even as I swung my right arm in a vicious hook that would have sent her flying a few hundred meters if it had connected.

    Sherry Lin ignored mepletely and dodged my right hook with a super cool movement that left me sighing in jealousy, andunched a useless counter attack that sent her hammer smashing on my head.

    WHAM!!

    I had leapt back as soon as I felt my attack miss and that momentum backwards helped reduce the impact of her hammer attack on my head.

    Not that it mattered.

    I would bepletely unharmed even if I stood there and took her hit like a wooden log.

    But I did so because, although her physical attack had no effect on me, my reputation was about to die a horrible death.

    I needed to save it!

    I had to.

    If I didn''t, and the Whitefrost n name became aughing stock because of me, the damned old man might reduce the amount of bacon for my breakfast! Heck, he might even take it out of the menupletely!

    And to save it, I had to show a little bit of skill!

    But s, I was toote.

    I didn''t know it then, but everybody in the crowd and those watching on TV had probably alreadye to a single clear conclusion about me at that point in time.

    Strong, with a secret tech that could strengthen armor, but totally without fighting skills.

    Totally as in, totally.

    Zero.

    WHAMM!

    Sherry Linnded another hit on me as she somehow reversed the movement of her hammer swing and smashed my chest with it.

    I finally had enough of the fight.

    She wasn''t strong enough to defeat me, and I didn''t have the physical skills to take her down.

    But I did have other skills which could take her down. So I used them.

    Shamelessly, yes.

    But then again, all is fair in love and war.<novelnext></novelnext>

    As she lunged forward towards me on her good foot, I weakened the structural integrity of a criticalponent of that foot, caused it to break on the spot!

    Her mecha immediately fell to the ground with what must be for her many supporters and fans, a heartbreaking crash.

    Crash!!

    I was no saint.

    I immediately kicked her right shoulder and smashed it to pieces!

    The massive damage triggered her damage threshold and her mecha immediately powered down as its reactive armor darkened.

    Sherry Lin!

    Defeated!!!

    A huge roar of indignance and exhration erupted from the crowd!!

    "What the hell? How the heck did the National Mecha Pilot Academy do its maintenance work on the practice mechas! Why is her mecha leg so bloody weak! Foul y! Foul y I say!"

    "Nooooo!! The swan had been defeated by the ugly frog! This can''t be! This can''t be!"

    "I told you, skill cannot ovee brute strength. Watch and learn. My words are never wrong!"

    I ignored the crowdpletely and eyed the Lin Family mechas who had surged ahead to surround me.

    "You guys want to throw away the entire event now that your superstar is "dead"?" I asked them with the most badass voice I could muster. "Come at me then! I will give you all a glorious death!"

    "We are here for Sherry." Sheera Lin said quietly. "You''ve done enough. Let us have her mecha, and let''s have that truce you mentioned."

    Sheera Lin was just too ridiculous.

    Thinking back on that moment, it was startlingly clear to me that she was gambling to make the best out of a bad situation.

    Sherry had lost the mecha fight, but Sheera wanted to win the psychological battle by iming Sherry''s "corpse"!

    She was risking getting her entire grouppletely annihted by me just to get to a psychological victory that would give her group a powerful mental edge.

    She wanted to send a clear message to them.

    Fight! Fight to the death like Sherry! If you fall, your brothers and sisters will honor you and your sacrifice by making sure we secure your "corpse" and not leave you alone in this vast battlefield!

    And we will do so even if it means going up against the devil (me) himself!

    Of course I had no idea what she was doing at that time.

    And so I naively and grandly (or so I thought at that moment) agreed to her request.

    "It was a glorious fight. Take her body and stay away from me. When I meet you next, I will annihte all of you!" I proimed magnanimously and dashed away.

    I had absolutely no idea that in the eyes of the audience and the viewers, it looked like I was running away from the group of valiant Lin Family kids who had bravely charged at me to secure their fallenrade!

    I ignorantly went on to continue on my massacre of the many mechas around me.

    Very soon, the voice I had been waiting to hear finally sounded in my ear.

    "So, top scorer. Let''s see how strong you are in a mecha!"

    I smiled widely at those words.

    It was the Longs.

 Chapter 109 Junkyard Scrapper!

    From the very beginning, specifically from the moment they pissed me off during the entrance exams, the Longs were destined to be the biggest losers of the year.

    I had my sights on them like a ferocious mountain tiger eyeing a bunch of cute little baby goats.

    Okay fine, not baby goats.

    Sorry goats.

    Like a bunch of newborn ugly monsters, I mean.

    They were an arrogant, entitled and downright annoying bunch of high ss kids who loved to bully the weak, and take advantage of those without strength.

    They made other weaker groups of kids give way to them wherever they went, and made the particrly weak ones serve their every little whimsy and desire.

    Their treatment of Tes was clear evidence of their rotten character.

    I hated their kind with a deep vengeance.

    Because even within the lowest ss where I had lived for many years, bullies like them were present.

    Just because they had the backing of adult gangs, and just because they were bigger and stronger, they bullied the younger and weaker scrappers to the maximum.

    One of the reasons why I didn''t have many friends was because of them. Not many young scrappers survived their bullying.

    For the longest time, I hated their kind very, very, very much.

    And at that moment during the Grand Melee, through an ironic twist of fate, I happened to have the strength and the legal avenue to give the proudest, richest and most high ss of all bullies a good beating.

    And I will be damned if I let them go easily.

    Oh yes, I had no mercy for them.

    Against them, I had absolutely no qualms going all out. I wanted to take their pride and their confidence, and I wanted to rip them apart into a million pieces. After that, I wanted to stomp on the remains and make sure that their arrogance and pride were sopletely smashed apart that they would not be able to recover them even if they suddenly became the king of the world.

    One way or another, I knew I would beat the crap out of them, and then beat them some more while I had the chance!

    I stared at the group of mechas belonging to the Longs and quickly memorized them.

    "33 of them, divided into three groups, each led by one within the top hundred with a green glow. They must be Victor Long, Hailey Long and Gerald Long.

    And all 33 are¡­ heavy mechas." My eyes narrowed in anger.

    Of course I knew how they got their hands on so many heavy mechas for each and every member of their group.

    Bullying and intimidation.

    "Not a single one of you would leave this Grand Melee without psychological trauma!" I vowed.

    "Surround him!" Victor Long snapped at his goons. Immediately, all 32 heavy mechas burst into action.

    The Victor Long stayed in his ce directly in front of me, while Gerald and Hailey Long took positions at my four and eight o''clock.

    The remaining thirty heavy mechas formed a tight circle around us, ready to support their three leaders and sneak in an attack or two at me when the opportunity presented itself.

    "I am going to make sure this doesn''t end too quickly for you." Victor Long snarled.

    "Took the words right out of my mouth." I said with a coldugh. "Now that you''ve finished drinking your momma''s milk,e to daddy, little babies."

    I stretched out my mecha arm and gave them the fing- ah, I mean, I gave them a thumbs down.

    "Let''s see how you''ll keep spouting nonsense once I''ve ripped your limbs out!" Victor Long shouted. "Get him!"

    Hailey and Gerald Long leapt in with their swords and hammers swinging.

    Although the Longs were bullies, they weren''t like your backyard bullies who were just big and mostly victims of bullies themselves when they were younger.

    The Longs were professional bullies, if there were such a thing. They were extremely well trained and skilled.

    Even though they had 33 mechas on their side, they merely sent in two to deal with me. If they sent in more than two to deal with me, they would end up stepping on each other''s toes.<novelnext></novelnext>

    It would take a team that had spent many hours training together to be able to attack a single target efficiently with three people.

    WHAM!

    Gerald''s hammer smashed on my upraised right arm which was positioned to block him.

    WHAM!

    Hailey''s sword smashed onto my left arm.

    Their attacks wereunched very skillfully, with perfect body rotations and angles that all worked to deliver the strongest and most devastating attack their mechas could unleash.

    In fact, they were so skillful that I estimate they must have unleashed 50% more powerpared to the other kids.

    How do I know that?

    I know because that their weapon wielding arms shattered at the joints the moment their attacksnded!

    When two objects of simr density and strength collide at a collision strength that the object material still could handle, nothing much except a loud sound would be produced.

    This was exactly what happened mostly through out the Grand Melee.

    The practice mechas had high armor and that allowed them to take a beating without breaking. They were, afterall, practice mechas.

    However, when two objects of vastly different densities and strengths collide, the weaker object would crumble. Much like an automobile crashing into a tank, or an airne crashing to the ground.

    Hailey and Gerald Long''s weapon wielding arms were autonobiles to my tank. Cheap ones, at that.

    As soon as they realized their arms werepletely out of the picture, they leapt back immediately and shouted for their goons to attack with their rifles.

    "Soften him up first! FIRE!" Gerald Long shouted loudly.

    "HAHAHA! You think I will let you get away now that you''ve delivered yourself to me? Stay here and be my meat shield!" I shouted and dashed forward with impossible speed.

    I grabbed Gerald Long''s arm and immediately pulled him towards me to help me block a few of the rifle attacks.

    I didn''t need him to block for me, of course.

    But it felt good to let him "die" under friendly fire.

    He would never forget that the moment he said "FIRE!" was the moment he sealed his own fate!

    PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!

    All thirty goons opened fire with rifles they probably got from their victims earlier.

    BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

    Their rifle beams smashed onto Gerald Long and me! More on Gerald Long, of course, since I was actively swinging him about to make sure he absorbed as many of his goons'' attacks as possible.

    "NOOO!!! DON''T SHOOT AT ME DAMN YOU!!" He roared loudly at his goons who tried their very best to avoid shooting at him.

    But who was I?

    I was a Mecha Pilot with an RPL of over 95! I swung Gerald Long''s mecha with great precision to soak up all the rifle fire!

    "STOP! STOP ATTACKING DAMN YO-"

    But that was all he managed to scream out before his heavy mecha powered down in defeat!

    Gerald Long, a top 100 participant of the National Mecha Pilot Academy''s Grand Melee, had fallen!

    He was the first among the top 100 to fall, and he fell to me!

    Justin Whitefrost, Junkyard Scrapper!

 Chapter 110 Jaden Rushblood

    Seeing one of their leaders being iled around like a damned fish out of water shook the Long kids to their cores.

    Because in addition to the preposterousness of the situation, what I did at that moment was something that could only be exined two ways.

    The first was torque. A heavy mecha would need to spin at extremely high speeds to generate the momentum and torque required to physically lift another heavy mecha the way I did.

    And the whole country could see that I wasn''t spinning at all when I grabbed Gerald Long''s heavy mecha and lifted him right off the ground before iling him around like a rag doll.

    So that left the second way.

    Which was that my mecha had a much higher grade power source. And to achieve that, there were yet two possible exnations.

    One was that the National Mecha Pilot Academy identally ced a heavy mecha with a much higher power source which I coincidentally got my hands on.

    And as I remember, this was the exnation the National Mecha Pilot Academy went with, and which the Federation approved after a lengthy "investigation".

    But at that moment, the investigation hadn''t begun, and the minds of the entire nation were aswirl with the potential that it was due to the second reason.

    That I was a prodigy mecha architect!

    That I had fiddled with my practice heavy mecha''s power source and configurated it to a much higher rate of production.

    That would exin my near imprable armor, as well as my ridiculous power output.

    With just enhanced armor previously, most analysts were happy to look for external reasons as to how and why I was able to bump up my mecha''s armor rating.

    A hack perhaps, on the reactive armor''s activation trigger? Or a ground breaking barrier technology?

    But now with my power output skyrocketing to ridiculous levels, the unthinkable finally started to be thinkable in light of my unbelievable performance.

    That I was a very, very much awaited and much desired genius mecha architect!

    And in a country very much pressured by the USAA and the European Empire''s might in the form of their Gold Mechas, a prodigy mecha architect was worth at least a hundred prodigy mecha pilots!

    All the ns, families and organizations were very clear on that point. In fact, one of the reasons why the Longs were so powerful was because they once had a very sessful mecha architect, one of only three in the entire country!

    The entire arena, and very possibly, the entire country erupted in cries of shock and roars of excitement!

    The Long kids, being the creme of the crop of their generation, of course understood in a sh what I represented.

    Future trouble.

    If I was a prodigy mecha architect, there was no way that I would remain without solid backing that could easily rival or even surpass them.

    And if that''s the case, then I could very well be a metal te that they could not afford to kick!

    Victor Long is a decisive person. He is someone who is able to very quickly make hard decisions that would leave many adults paralyzed with indecision, and he had been that way since young.

    That day and that very moment was no exception.

    "Are you a mecha architect?" He asked me abruptly.

    Of course I had no idea what he was talking about. But I''ll be damned if I let him know that. So I acted like I did.

    ? "So what if I am? Doesn''t change the fact that I will kill you and all of your n members here today." I replied coldly.

    At that moment, however, before Victor Long could reply, a trio of rifle beams came flying out from somewhere to my right!

    Like a spiteful boy throwing an egg while his school mate on stage was receiving an apuse from the rest of the school, a mecha with what passed as an ultra-heavy rifle in the world of practice mechas had fired three consecutive shots at me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    And those three shots were all aimed at the unarmored inner joint of my arm!

    Immediately, I knew that it was the same evil person who shot at the girl I had determined to save earlier.

    It had the same sneaky angle and the same powerful shot.

    "Gotcha. You''re dead, asshole." My eyes glinted with anticipation of revenge and my lips curled into a satisfied smile as I tracked the rifle shots back to a medium mecha around five hundred meters away, hiding from among a cluster of medium mechas.

    "Victor Long. I wille back for you after I am done with this bastard!" I shouted as I ate up the three powerful rifle shots without bothering to dodge or even block them.

    I threw Gerald Long''s mecha down to the ground and charged towards Jaden Rushblood!

    Yes, that was Jaden Rushblood and his highly irritating n.

    Of all the heroes beloved by the nation that stood tall during her hour of need, I like him the least, and that Grand Melee was only the beginning of our rocky rtionship.

    Still, he remained faithful to the nation, and that is already much more than I can say about many other illustrious people.

    Jaden Rushblood, after all was said and done, was a patriot, and by that fact alone, he had the qualification to be called my brother.

    However at that moment, he stood squarely at the top of my kill list.

    Five hundred meters could be very far away or it could be really close.

    For a heavy mecha seeking to get close to a medium mecha or a light mecha, it was an eternity. As a general rule, medium and light mechas cannot be caught by heavy mechas.

    The heavy mechas were too¡­ heavy.

    However, for a heavy mecha powered by my red mecha core? It was but a few seconds worth of running.

    Boom. Boom. Crash! Boom. Boom. Crash!

    I thundered across the arena at high speed and barreled my way towards Jaden Rushblood like a bull charging across a field filled with sheep. The mechas that failed to get out of my way fast enough werepletely "destroyed".

    To their credit, the Rushblood n stood their ground and three mechas with green light shining down upon them stepped forward to challenge me.

    Like the Longs, they too had three kids within the top hundred.

    However, unlike the Longs, they didn''t have a single heavy mecha in their group of thirty.

    And strangely, they were all medium mechas.

    Crash!

    Just as I flung the final mecha that stood in my way away, the Rushbloods finally made their move.

    That moment was the moment that I learnt not to underestimate the enemy, no matter how powerful and how much of an edge you have.

    VROOOO!

    The Rushbloods fired up their flight modules, and all thirty mechas shot up straight into the sky!

    As one, they took out their rifles and aimed them at me.

    "Fire." Jaden Rushblood ordered his n mates calmly.

 Chapter 111 Longs?

    Thirty rifles weren''t a particrly huge number in the grand scheme of things, especially in a Grand Melee that involved thousands of mechas.

    However, when all thirty were being fired at a single target from a rtively safe and unassable position, thirty rifles were able to almost literally rain down intense rifle beams that could very decisively turn the tide of any battle.

    Each volley would take down one or two heavy mechas, and after a mere ten to fifteen seconds, most enemy groups, much less single targets, would be shredded and defeated.

    Of course against another powerful group, their strategy probably won''t turn out as smooth as that. Sheera Lin, for one, could definitely counter that strategy with a myriad of her own.

    I can already imagine the Eternal General sacrificing a few mechas and turning them into shields as her own sharpshooters take down the enemy mechas.

    Or maybe even a different strategy that would even see them win the encounter with zero casualties. With the Eternal General, who could guess what she would do?

    But the fact remained that the Rushbloods were a very impressive group and they would definitely have ended up in the top ranks¡­ If they didn''t meet me.

    Their strategy of picking medium mechas with flight modules and powerful rifles were perfect, considering that the Rushbloods were primarily a sharpshooting family with an excellent track record as the country''s top sniper family.

    A full hundred Blood Ace Snipers each racking up over a hundred mecha headshots in both real and mock battles could be attributed to the Rushblood family and their affiliates!

    That was an impressive achievement indeed.

    And in that Grand Melee, with thirty Rushblood sharpshooters raining down their urate shots at me, I experienced the strange but impressive sensation of having all of my critical areaspletely inundated by rifle beams.

    The Rushbloods knew exactly how powerful their rifles were, and knew exactly how much pushing force their attacks carried.

    The fact that they ignored the damage that their rifles were able to dish out and focused only on how much force they could bring to bear was a testament to just how deeply they mastered the art of shooting, and how well they had understood the situation in their fight against me.

    Volley after volley smashed into my right knee and caused me to lose bnce.

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    Just as I was about to throw my weight to my left foot to regain my bnce, they switched their target seamlessly to hit my left knee as well!

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    What could a wolf do when being pelted from a distance by irritating flying porcupines?

    Power forward with all of its strength and destroy them once and for all, of course!

    "I don''t give a damn about your prickly little spikes! Now eat my wolf sh and diee!!" The wolf would think in its mind.

    I wasn''t a wolf, but that was exactly what I was thinking at that moment.

    I directed my power to my legs, grabbed a downed mecha near me and flung it towards the the Rushbloods!!

    "AIYEEEEEEE!!!!" The poor pilot within the downed mecha probably screamed with all of his might as his heart probably almost burst out of his chest in fear!

    BAM!!

    The downed mecha smashed into a couple of Rushblood mechas and caused them to instantly power down.

    BOOM!! The three mechas fell violently to the ground!

    Their cockpits werepletely intact, of course, so the kids within them would be fine as well. But I dare say that if they had anything in their dders, it would have been released into their mecha suits at that moment.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Heck, I wouldn''t be surprised if the contents of their bowels were discharged too.

    629

    However, the Rushbloods were definitely not cowards, nor did they give up easily.

    Even seeing the horrific way their tworades "died" did little to dim their enthusiasm in shooting at me.

    Twenty eight rifles kept up their relentless attacks on me.

    But the most impressive thing was, all twenty eight mechas had begun to fly around randomly in the air to avoid getting hit by more flying mechas!

    And although their uracy and timing faltered slightly in the form of no longer hitting my critical areas in perfect rotation, they still managed to all hit my body in a rtively good rhythm.

    It was impressive as hell.

    And when I mentioned dragons and phoenixes in my generation, they were definitely included.

    The Lins as the Vanguard, and the Rushbloods as sharpshooters in the nks.

    Just those two families working in concert wouldpletely destroy most battalions sent their way.

    Thankfully, those two families weren''t allies in real life, and especially not in the Grand Melee.

    The Lins stayed out of my fight with the Rushbloods. But the same could not be said about the Longs.

    Remember the hard decisions that I mentioned Victor Long was capable of making?

    Well, the first one that truly impressed me was the 180 he pulled in his attitude towards me, despite all the things I said about his parents.

    They say that there are no permanent allies or enemies, only interests.

    I truly saw a glimpse of the reality of that statement that day through the actions of Victor Long and his group.

    "Fire." Victor Long''s voice sounded loudly from somewhere behind me.

    "Damn you Victor Long! You can''t wait to die, huh? Fine! I will¡­ huh?" I looked at the rifle beams flying out of the Long rifles with a confused look.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Most of the rifle beams missed their targets due to the erratic movements of the Rushbloods, but more than a few connected, and two more Rushblood mechas fell to the ground.

    My jaw dropped in shock.

    The Longs were helping me??

    The Longs managed to let off two full volleys before the Rushbloods reacted.

    By that time, only twenty three Rushbloods remainedpared to the Longs'' thirty two.

    The Rushbloods and the Longs instantly started a swirling battle that caused all of the spectators to gasp with oohs and ahhs.

 Chapter 112 Mommas Ti...

    But for all the surprising uracy and flying skills of the Rushbloods, they were, after all, medium mechas ambushed by heavy mechas.

    The Longs had the element of surprise, and the advantage of preparing against them.

    Plus, although not as good as the Rushbloods, all of the Long family pilots were still pretty good shots themselves, and they quickly established a steady rhythm.

    "Focus fire and defensive postures." Victor Longmanded as he expertly shot down a Rushblood mecha.

    His group immediately responded by hunkering down and aiming at pre-selected targets in clusters of three.

    It was a devastating strategy for which the Rushbloods had no answer.

    Within seconds, ten more Rushblood mechas fell while taking out only three Long mechas.

    The battle was as good as over.

    One of the critical traits that a goodmander must have is knowing when to retreat and salvage as much as possible out of a loss.

    The Rushbloods had definitely lost, and a goodmander would instantly lead his men to a fighting retreat to live and fight another day.

    Jaden Rushblood was a goodmander, and he would have definitely called for the retreat¡­ If he wasn''t just a chunk of powered down mecha at that moment, of course.

    I had maintained one eye on him, and had instantly fired off one flying mecha (a different one, of course. It would be intentiontal torture of I had picked the same mecha to fire off as the first one. The poor kid would have definitely fainted, if he hadn''t already.) at him the moment I caught him being distracted by the Longs.

    BAM!!

    My flying mecha had smashed into him with a very satisfactory bam and his darkened mecha had crashed very deservedly to the ground!

    "Hmph. Take that you sneaky bastard. That''s for killing¡­ uh. What''s her name? The girl I was protecting!!" I shouted at him.

    With Jaden Rushblood out of the picture, the rest of the Rushbloodssted for less than a minute.

    And by the time the dust cleared from thest Rushblood mecha that hit the ground, twenty seven Long heavy mechas still stood.

    The Longs were good.

    Very good.

    I turned and walked towards Victor Long.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    He turned to face me and gestured for his "men" to stand down.

    "I told you I will kill all of you. Helping me kill the Rushbloods does not change that at all." I growled at him when I reached his position.

    My right arm shot out and grabbed him by the neck.

    "We started off at the wrong foot. The Longs wish to build a rtionship with you. Do as you will. Whatever you do, we will not retaliate. Consider this a small part of our attempt to make amends." Victor Long said quietly.

    CRACK!!!

    I crushed his neck and took out the prodigy most predicted to win the whole Grand Melee with a squeeze of my fingers!

    "Make amends?" I scoffed loudly. "Dead men make no amends! You would have died even if you hadn''t stood still like that."

    I flung his mecha aside and moved on to the rest of the Long family.

    Slowly.

    "You will not retaliate? Truly? Let''s put those words to the test." I smirked at them as I walked towards the remaining star of the Long family group.

    Hailey Long.

    Every single Long heavy mecha stood still and unmoving before me, including hers.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I stretched out my hand and gripped her neck as I had done to Victor Long.

    I remember staring at her mecha and the illustrious green glow that covered it, and how the green glow faded with startling crity as I clenched my fist once more.

    Crack!

    Hailey Long''s heavy mecha powered down and darkened.

    I released my grip on her and allowed her to crumple to the ground.

    I had to say, I was impressed.

    Impressed by their willingness to pay the price, just to get into my good books.

    Not that I was willing to forgive and forget so easily, hell no.

    But whatever they did, it was the right step forward.

    One at a time, I went down the line and "killed" the Long family mechas which hade to my rescue mere minutes earlier.

    Crack.

    Crack.

    Crack.

    At first, I had steeled my heart and viciously crushed their necks, telling myself it was a deserved ending for the mega bullies.

    But there was a very diforting feeling in killing not onlypletely unmoving targets, but also those that had worked hard to save me earlier.

    Although they didmit the atrocious act of bullying my friend, their willingness to "die" and forfeit thepetition right there and then struck a chord within my heart.

    By the tenth dead Long mecha, my roiling fury had dissipated to a mere simmering boil.

    By the twentieth, the fire had gone out of my anger.

    And by the twenty seventh andst mecha, I was almost reluctant to kill him.

    But kill him I did.

    Crack!

    The whole arena was silent as I executed the final mecha of arguably the strongest group in the Grand Melee.

    If the Lins made a name for themselves as ferocious warriors led by a shrewd leader, and the Rushbloods as incredible sharpshooters, then the Longs made a name for themselves as being utterly devoted to their cause and their family, even to the point of paying the highest price in the event.

    They were ruthless to their victims and their enemies, but they were ruthless to themselves too.

    They had all the markings of an extremely wealthy and powerful family with a well thought and even more well implemented training system.

    Arrogant bullies, but also viciously focused on their goals. Hateful as they were, one had to admire their guts.

    "They would be very solidrades to have in a fight." I thought to myself. "But I will have to beat the damn arrogance out of them first before I will have anything to do with them."

    My eyes narrowed lightly as I remembered what they did to Tes.

    "Hmph. Good riddance." I regained a bit of my bluster.

    I turned around to face the rest of the remaining participants.

    A little more than two thousand remained.

    "Well? Are you all going to stand there and let me kill you like I did the Longs? Or do you want to go home to suck on your momma''s titties now?" I shouted at them.

 Chapter 113 Me.

    Of course that did the trick.

    Mommas'' titties were, in any situation, a strictly off limits topic. You only use them to taunt enemies.

    And I had used their mommas'' titties not once, but twice.

    Very naturally, the bunch of ten year olds red up in anger.

    Almost as one, they surged towards me to defend the honor of¡­ their mommas'' titties.

    "Stop mentioning my momma''s titties!!" One very angry boy shouted loudly. "Although my daddy said they are very saggy, he said he still liked them very much!! He said it''s the best saggy titties in the world!!"

    I could already imagine his momma vomiting blood right then and his daddyughing awkwardly at his friends.

    "Saggy tits? Hahaha! He heard wrongly! I didn''t say saggy! I said baggy! No! I meant, uh, waggy! No! Naggy! Yes! Her tits nag at me all the time! Hahaha! They kept calling out to me to¡­ uh¡­ to¡­ you know! Hahaha! Ah hahaha! Ah! I have to go! I have an important meeting! Wife let''s go!" He probably cried out and princess carried his wife away.

    "Damn you! Although my momma''s titties are still very bouncy, I stopped drinking milk from them for a long time already! Thest time I drank from them was three years ago!!" Another boy could be heard screaming with all his might as his heavy mecha charged at me.

    His mom probably didn''t vomit blood like the first one, but she definitely drew frowns from her friends. Still feeding her son breast milk at seven years old? Insane! Of course the males around her stole nces at her assets. Bouncy? Hohoho. Nice.

    "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Stop with the momma''s titties!! My momma doesn''t have titties!!!"

    HIS momma definitely vomited blood. Heck, she probably conveniently fainted as well. His father was probably staring at his son in horror. "What do you mean, son? Your momma has titties! I can testify to that! I see them and suck on them everyday!!" He was probably thinking. Maybe even aloud.

    "Why are you so fixated on my momma''s tittieeeeessss!!! Stop talking about my momma''s tittiiiiieeeeeeeessssss!! Don''t you dare say another word about my momma''s tittieeesssss!!! I will not forgive you if you mention my momma''s tittieeesssssssss agaain!!!" A hyper spoilt boy who had never said the word titties aloud screamed out half angrily half excitedly.

    All in all, my taunt worked to absolute perfection.

    Almost all two thousand remaining mechas charged at me!

    There was no formation, no cooperation, just a stampede of mechas booming down towards me in a furious attempt to reach and have a go at me.

    Heavy mechas, medium mechas, light mechas. On foot and upon flight modules, they swarmed towards me from all directions.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Those with rifles opened fire immediately, causing a waterfall of rifle beams to fall upon me.

    Without coordinated volleys, they had no chance of hitting me. The kids fired at will and made a spectacr show of their utterck of skill.

    "Crazy bunch of chicken" I said as I grinned wolfishly as I easily dodged their long distance attacks.

    I was confident of winning.

    Oh yes, very confident.

    The Rushbloods were gone.

    The Longs were gone.

    The Lins have lost Sherry, and were in damage control mode.

    Most of the strong ns were out of the picture.

    Only the Wangs were left out of the illustrious families and ns that had participated in that year''s Grand Melee.

    And although they were not allies with the Whitefrost n, they were not particrly hostile as well. So they stayed out of my way.

    In fact, I didn''t even catch a glimpse of them until the very end, so intent were they in carving out a name for themselves as far apart from wherever I was at that time.

    With the major powers ounted for, the Grand Melee rapidly approached its end.

    The remaining two thousand angry kids were myst act in the event.

    Twenty five minutes.

    That''s how long I took to clean them up with my bare hands.

    All of them knew that they had no chance against me, but they couldn''t care less.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Bravely, the two thousand charged like insane moths drawn towards a radiant me.

    At that moment, the words of my favorite poem when I was younger appeared in my mind. It was about the death charge of a brigade towards a literal wall of cannons during an ancient war.

    The Charge of the Light Brigade, it was called.

    Half a league, half a league,

    Half a league onward,

    All in the valley of Death

    Rode the six hundred.

    "Forward, the Light Brigade!

    Charge for the guns!" he said:

    Into the valley of Death

    Rode the six hundred.

    Cannon to right of them,

    Cannon to left of them,

    Cannon in front of them

    Volley''d and thunder''d;

    Storm''d at with shot and shell,

    Boldly they rode and well,

    Into the jaws of Death,

    Into the mouth of Hell

    Rode the six hundred.

    When can their glory fade?

    O the wild charge they made!

    All the world wonder''d.

    Honor the charge they made!

    Honor the Light Brigade,

    Noble six hundred!

    It was a soul stirring poem that reflected on the bravery and futility of the charge that men made towards certain death, all under the orders of other men safe and sound in their headquarters.

    It was saddening, tragic and glorious.

    Their actions screamed with nobility and werepletely deserving of remembrance.

    However, there was no glory that day for the kids, no nobility. There was nothing worth remembering. In fact, if at all possible, they would definitely want to surgically remove the painful memory of that day from their minds.

    It was a sad, sad day for the kids of my batch in the National Mecha Pilot Academy.

    They were just two thousand kids angered by the constant mention of their mommas'' titties charging to their "deaths" at the hands of a very, very overpowered future Mecha Emperor of the world.

    Me.

 Chapter 114 Aerial Battle

    ns, even the bestid ns, are like ideas drawn in the sand.

    You have a lot of fun drawing it, but as soon as the enemy appears, everything gets fu- ehm. I mean, everything gets messed up. That''s why he is called the enemy.

    I had nned for a glorious and climactic victory over the Grand Melee by dealing with the remaining two thousand, having the whole spotlight on me and securing containers of bacon and roast pork for myself that wouldst me for years.

    s, it was not to be.

    I mean, of course the crown would go to me. The bacon and roast pork too. There was no question about it.

    But the way the Grand Melee ended was definitely not the way I had envisioned at all!

    Instead of the whole crowd cheering for me, or at the very least, sitting in stunned silence over my awesomeness, they were all¡­ cheering for a red hot battle between the Lins and the Wangs!

    One versus two thousand and winning easily was epic to start off with. But after twenty minutes of mindless bashing, it gets numb and boring really quickly.

    Better pay attention to the incredible and much more bnced and thus much more thrilling fight between two of the strongest powers in the country!

    And so, I "killed" myst enemy while beingpletely and utterly ignored by the crowd.

    "Fine. Let me take a look at just how exciting the battle is." I sighed deeply and made my way towards the raging chaos a few hundred meters away.

    I could already see their battle formations, and looking back, it was incredible that a bunch of ten year olds could pull off such an epic battle involving suchplex formations and maneuvers.

    The Lins had adopted a three-part formation called [The Gryfalcon] involving ten heavy mechas in the middle and abination of medium and light mechas in the wings, with the medium mechas taking the positions closest to the center.

    It was a highly flexible formation that allowed the Lins to react to any threat ordingly.

    Having lighter and faster mechas on the outside of the wings allowed them to be highly reactive and enabled them to get to any ce quickly.

    Even if the enemy sought to cripple them by sending out heavies against both wings, they could "fold back" the wings and have them retreat behind their own heavies.

    Once there, they could easily take on "Arrow" formation with the heavies in an empty wedge formation and the mediums and lights inside firing out.

    The disadvantage was that if the wings weren''t coordinated well by a goodmander, they would be easy pickings and their formation could fall apart from the outside in.

    It was aplex but excellent formation indeed, worthy of the young Eternal General.

    On the other hand, the Wangs were led by the twins. Naturally, they were separated into two groups. However, the strange thing was, they weren''t separated into two equal groups.

    Elise Wang led a muchrger group of heavy and medium mechas, with at least twenty of them advancing in two rows.

    Eliana Wang led a small group of seven medium mechas, and they were advancing towards the Lins from the north, pretty far away from Elise Wang''s main group who was advancing from the East.

    It was the Wang''s famed [The Hammer and The Anvil] formation.

    Elise Wang would serve as the imprable Anvil which would resist the enemy, draw out and absorb the bulk of their fire, while Eliana Wang would hammer them from anywhere she liked, poking at their weak spot and delivering the killing blow.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The fact that she led a small teamprised of medium mechas granted her the flexibility she needed to poke at the enemy as well as the firepower to deliver a killing blow.

    All in all, it was also an excellent formation and no less awe inspiring as the Lins''.

    In terms of execution, however, the Wangs held the advantage right from the start.

    Elise Wang and her twenty mechas posed a massive threat, and Sheera Lin had to send out her ten heavies to resist them.

    At the same time, Eliana Wang had taken one look at Sheera Lin''s formation, and immediately struck at their northern Wing, right in the middle at their medium mechas which were between the light mechas and the heavy mechas.

    With that one move, the Wangs had unleashed their "Hammer" on the Lins'' "Wing" and had immediately gained the initiative. If they could clip one of the Eagle''s wings, the Lins would be ced in a massive disadvantage!

    Sheera Lin had the pleasure of having to react to that.

    A pleasure which she relished immensely, of course.

    For the Eternal General, she probably lived for such moments, where she could turn the tables around on her enemies.

    Eliana Wang''s medium mechas started their hammerblow by firing off a volley at one medium mecha which was defending against Elise Wang''s heavy mecha, instantly killing it.

    Thereafter, they took out their short swords and charged at the other medium mechas.

    Bam! Bam! ng! ng!

    If nothing happened, Sheera Lin''s medium mechas would be massacred, and her light mechas would be stranded! Her north wing wouldn''t just be clipped, it would be pulverized!

    However, Sheera Lin remainedpletely calm and allowed the fight to go on for a few more seconds before she finally gave out her order.

    "North wing. Arise." Sheera Lin ordered, and instantly, the nine remaining medium and light mechas sted their thrusters and shot up into the sky!

    Of course they could fly.

    What sort of eagle would they be if they couldn''t?

    However, Sheera Lin wasn''t the only one with surprises.

    As soon as the North Wing sted their thrusters, Eliana Wang and her "Hammer" ignited their own thrusters as well!

    VROOOM!!

    They shot up into the sky and joined Sheera Lin''s North Wing there.

    Seven Wang Family medium mechas versus nine Lin Family medium and light mechas.

    It would be an aerial battleing up next for them!

 Chapter 115 Go Back To Your Mommas...

    Having gained a small but important height advantage over the Wangs, the Lin mechas were able to regain their initiative and dove on the Wangs before they could even reach a respectable height in the sky.

    Crash!

    Crash!

    Crash!

    Three Lin family light mechas sacrificed themselves and purposely crashed into the Wangs!

    They fell back to the ground as quickly as they had risen, and powered down instantly.

    The remaining four Wang mechas were able to swerve away in time to avoid the other Lin mechas.

    They fired their thrusters at full throttle and immediately swung to the North to regroup. Their hammer had lost much of their striking power, and had to retreat!

    However, Sheera Lin was not one to let her prey escape so easily. The North Wing fired their thrusters at full throttle as well and gave chase!

    A swirling high speed and rtively high altitude battle started then as the airborne mechas proceeded to take the battle away to the north.

    The Lin formation had lost a wing while the Wang formation had lost their hammer.

    It was more or less equal.

    Elise Wang continued to press the attack. Her twenty mechas were strongerpared to Sheera Lin''s ten heavy mechas in the center and ten medium/light mechas in the south¡­

    Which was probably the moment Elise Wang realized her mistake.

    I could already imagine her reaction.

    "Huh? Wait a minute. Where is her South Wing??" Elise Wang turned to the south to check on the situation there. To her horror, the South Wing was nowhere to be seen!

    VROOOO!

    Ten medium and light mechas suddenly ignited their thrusters from behind the ten heavy mechas and shot towards the north where the battle was starting to rage!

    At the same time, Sheera Lin''s ten heavy mechas surged forward as well, nting slightly towards the north to block Elise Wang from sending troops to rescue her sister!

    The previously four versus six would soon be four versus sixteen.

    Eliana Wang was as good as dead.

    Sheera Lin''s heavy mechas were the key to the entire operation. They would have to stay alive so that they could be the bulwark of the Lin''s eventual attack on Elise Wang and her twenty mechas.

    It would be a disaster of epic proportions if the Lins took out Eliana and her seven medium mechas but lost ten of their own heavy mechas to Elise!

    But Sheera Lin wouldn''t be Sheera Lin if she didn''t have a n to assure the safety of her heavy mechas.

    Like me, Sheera Lin had no qualms using the "corpses" of the dead to her advantage. Even as her ten heavy mechas moved to the north to block Elise Wang from sending reinforcements to her sister, they collected the downed mechas and turned their activated armor into powerful shields!

    That way, they could block the enemy''s long distance and short distance attacks using those mechas.

    It was vicious, and one thatpletely showcased her mastery over the battlefield.<novelnext></novelnext>

    At merely ten years old, Sheera Lin had already learnt the art of using anything and everything the environment had to offer to her advantage!

    There was no suspense to that segment of the battle.

    Within a minute of intense fighting, Eliana Wang fell in a ze of glory, her four medium mechas able to take out three medium mechas and one light mecha before they died. All things considered, it was a remarkable achievement. Against such odds, most kids would probably just die without being able to take out a single enemy.

    Sheera Lin''s airborne wings quickly returned and rained down volleys of rifle beams on the Wangs from the air.

    One medium mecha fell after the other, and within a few minutes, all of Elise Wang''s medium mechas were no more.

    Only twelve heavy mechas remained, and arrayed against them were twenty one mixed mechas from the Lin family.

    Sheera Lin had spectacrly showcased her skill in that battle, and victory was almost within her grasp.

    Through her, the Lin Family had shown the rest of the country once more that they were not merely mecha producers. They were also brilliant military strategists!

    However, the Wangs were no less famous than the Lins. In fact, it could even be said that they were MORE famous! What were they famous for?

    Diplomacy, of course!

    The Wangs were experts in dealing with people and making friends. Secretary Wang, who was third in power in the whole country, was but one of a long line of powerful Wang politicians and influencers in the country!

    And in that Grand Melee, there was yet one powerful friend to be made.

    Me.

    "Hey! Bro. Help me out here. My sister and I will join your faction if you can help me defeat the Lins." Elise Wang did not mince words, and immediately sent a sledgehammer to our negotiating table.

    She had directly offered her sister and herself to me!

    Okay that came out wrong.

    But you know what I mean.

    It was a negotiating strategy they called "Short Circuiting The Enemy with Treasure."

    Yes, Elise Wang told me about that wonderful techniqueter on. It was applicable only in high pressure emergencies where the enemy, me in that case, only had a short amount of time to make a decision.

    And the thought of having the Wangs as my underlings when I finally started school properly certainly stirred my heart.

    Of course I knew the Whitefrosts would probably back me up. But the n had its own politics, and I did not think that they would all help me if the need arose.

    Not that I anticipate requiring their help.

    But still, there was no harm having outside supporters, especially one as powerful as the Wang twins.

    What could a wolf do when such a juicy b of meat was dangled in front of him?

    Of course I charged forward towards the Lins!

    "BAHAHAHA! Lin family kids! Go back to your momma''s titties!" I remember shouting very enthusiastically.

 Chapter 116 Hidden Mecha Technology

    s, Sheera Lin was a much more maturemander than I had given her credit for.

    As soon as I made my intention to fight them clear, she gave up.

    All twenty one Lin Family mechas powered down in an incredibly anti climactic ending to the Grand Melee!

    "Boo¡­" Several undiscerning members of the crowd booed at Sheera Lin and her Lin family members.

    "Just as I was about to have an exceedingly good impression of the Lins, they had to give up. What a waste!"

    "Of course she gave up! Why bother fighting with that overpowered freak? It would be aplete waste of time!"

    "It may be a waste of time, but she should still do it! Never give up! Never surrender! That''s the spirit!"

    "Ha! Easy for you to say! You''re a thirty year old soldier with countless training and experience. But they are just kids! Ten years old!"

    "Ah yes yes. I should cut them some ck. They were performing so superbly that for a moment, I forgot they were only ten! What an amazing fight!"

    "The Lins are definitely on the rise now!"

    Although the crowd was slightly disappointed by Sheera Lin''s decision to surrender, every single high leveled member of society, especially Generals and other high ranking military officers, probably started to drool over Sheera Lin.

    Never give up, never surrender are traits that soldiers must have.

    But it would be catastrophic if a General or a Commanding Officer had that trait to the exclusion of everything else.

    As I had mentioned before, one of the signs of a great General is knowing when to retreat! Although surrendering to the enemy is looked down upon, that was not what Sheera Lin was doing.

    She gave up the fight to preserve the mental health of her soldiers which would definitely have taken a painful drubbing if she allowed them to get massacred by me.

    In essence, she was saving her soldiers to fight another day.

    That decision of hers definitely got her name into the short list of must-have officer candidates that the top military scouts of the country had on hand.

    But despite that, somemanders didn''t want to wait for her to go through the selection process.

    The enhancements of the white mecha were truly no joke. Even at such an incredible distance, I was able to clearly make out the conversations that the Military VIP section of the crowd were having!

    I had directed my senses towards the various VIP sections the moment Sheera Lin gave up to snoop on the general response the higher ups had towards the Grand Melee.

    I wasn''t surprised to discover that the scramble for Sheera Lin had already begun.

    "The Mecha Air Force ys a critical role in every single battle." The General of the Air Force, General Anthony Chang began.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But the other Generals instantly caught on to General Anthony''s nefarious schemes, and blocked him before he could even finish his first sentence!

    "Not as critical as the biggest guns of the Armed Forces, the Navy." The Admiral of the Navy, Admiral Terry Wei instantly rebutted.

    "The Army wants Sheera Lin." General Peter Long of the Mecha Army said directly. "She will be crucial in our defense against the European Empire."

    General Peter Long had immediately used his strongest card in the opening move.

    Defence against the European Empire! After Russel Whitefrost''s ruthless execution of the European Empire''s High Ambassador, tensions with the Empire had reached unprecedented heights.

    War could breakout at any moment, and against such a powerful enemy, it would probably be a very, very long war.

    And as such, the Army, which would bear the brunt of the European offensive, would definitely gain first picks over the most talented youths to start training them young and prepare them for their future battles.

    The other two Generals instantly scowled at General Peter Long for his shamelessness.

    "At least give us the opportunity to present our arguments! Why so aggressive?" General Anthony Chang grumbled.

    "Yeah, Peter you old coot. Chill a little bit will you? You''ve be so morose after Russel killed old Willy." Admiral Terry sighed.

    "Do not mention that old fool in my presence." General Peter Long glowered at them. "Countless grandparents and parents had to live under constant fear that they would lose their children and grandchildren to the mes of meaningless war with the Empire due to his selfish actions!"

    "Hmmm? Did you not get the memo from Secretary Wang? The Federation fully supports his actions. The army would be sent to do the job even if Russel did not make a move. In fact, I think you owe Russel a favor for doing your job for you!" General Anthony Chang said fearlessly and with no small amount of teasing intent.

    The three old men were longtime friendly rivals, and had no qualms whatsoever pushing the others'' angry buttons. And in General Anthony Chang''s case, smashing General Peter Long''s button with absolute glee.

    "Hmph. Secretary Wang holds too much esteem for that Whitefrost undead. She is not objective and is not qualified to be the Grand Secretary!" General Peter Long scoffed loudly.

    "Oh? Why do you say that?" Admiral Terry Wei asked pleasantly, happy to hear an august member of the Long family talk some crap about an equally powerful member of the Wang family.

    "It''s just his little granddaughter. If she''s killed by the European Empire, so what? Just condemn the Empire diplomatically and do a smear campaign in the international press! Why kill their High Ambassador?" General Peter Long said rather unkindly.

    "Would you say the same thing if it was your Victor or your Hailey?" General Anthony Chang asked before realizing his mistake.

    "Of course you would. You''re the Heartless Demon after all." General Anthony said with a bitter smile as he answered his own question.

    "I think you''re underestimating Secretary Wang. I am sensing a delicious secret somewhere that they are not telling us. A deep, deep secret. Like a hidden mecha technology or something." Admiral Terry Wei guessed.

    I remember choking on my saliva slightly when I heard his words.

    That damn Terry Wei. He''s extremely smart!

 Chapter 117 BRUCE FREAKING PANG!

    But smart or not, he remained a person who had no direct knowledge of the real situation.

    Which told me one thing.

    The top echelon of the Federation did not trust their generals. It was a strange discovery for me, and one which I bookmarked for future reference.

    However, that wasn''t the moment to dwell on heavy conspiracies and future war.

    With the Lins giving up, the number of participants had dropped below the required thirty, to hit thirteen.

    The highly exciting Grand Melee, arguably the MOST exciting one ever by merit of the sheer number of Elites, Royals and even Divines, had ended!

    "Aaaaaanddieeessss and gentlemen!!! There you have it! The end of the Graaaaand Meleee!!!" Elder Galtro shouted with undisguised glee permeating his magnified voice which thundered throughout the arena.

    The crowd roared their approval and delivered a deafening round of apuse for a few long minutes.

    The practice mechas all powered down and their cockpit hatches shot open as all four thousand kids streamed out of their mechas to soak up the appreciation the crowd had for them.

    For many, it was a deeply awe-inspiring moment. Being cheered on by thousands upon thousands of supporters was not just glorious, but also seemed to make all their previous efforts and sacrifices to reach that point worthwhile.

    Many of the kids were so touched that they cried. Many, not all.

    Me?

    Of course I¡­ cried my heart out!

    I had never felt so wonderful in my entire life. It was a soul-stirring and awesome moment for me.

    Still, I remained within my mecha so that nobody could see my tears. But apparently someone did see, and even used a hyper powerful camera to posterize it.

    Who? Who else?

    The entire Whitefrost Main Building was constantly stered with huge posters of my duck-billed sobbing face for the next few holiday seasons.

    Damn you, James.

    Elder Galtro allowed the crowd to express their excitement and let the apuse go on. He was an expert at reading and ying the crowd, and the sheer energy that the crowd was giving out was incredible!

    "What an amazing battle! What a great exhibition of youthful courage! Creativity! Passion! And skill!" Elder Galtro roared as the crowd continued their impassioned apuse and stomps.

    After a few minutes, the outroar finally receded slightly, and Elder Galtro expertly continued.

    "The Wang family had surprisingly beaten all odds and retained TWELVE mechas at the end of the event!! ording to the rules of the Grand Melee, the Wang family is hereby crowned the Contingent Champion!! Congrattions!! Would the Wang Family head please make your way forward to ept your reward and to say a few words to address the participants and the crowd!"

    The crowd erupted into apuse once more, but it was notably more subdued and more systematic in nature. There was none of the inmed zeal of before, but there were also very few who did not p.

    The Wangs were, after all, a patriotic and a very powerful family. Though the way they achieved victory in the Grand Melee was definitely no cause for celebration, they still deserved to be honored.

    A gleaming and extremely joyful looking old man appeared on the massive screens that disyed the award ceremony immediately taking ce live.<novelnext></novelnext>

    His pure white hair wasbed neatly all the way back and his formal attire with a pin on his cor indicated his profession as a politician.

    He was Jasper Wang, Senior Minister of the Chinese Federation, one of twelve esteemed old men and women who advised the President on critical matters, mostly foreign policy.

    In short, as I would learn in the following months, one of the puppet masters of the Federation.

    "Hahahaha!" His joyfulughter boomed out of the massive speakers. "I am a very, very happy old man! For too long, the dam- ah, I mean, the glorious (smirk smirk) Long family had dominated the Grand Melees! How many times has it been? Three? Four? It was an impressive streak, but TOO BAD IT IS OVER!! HAHAHA!

    My Wang Family Twin Phoenixes have just shown all of you, that thebination of the PEN and the SWORD is not an impossible feat! Diplomat Warriors are the way to go!!

    The Contingent Champion this year is well deserved! Well deserved!! Well done my dearest Elise and Eliana!! Well done! Hahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha!!!"

    Stillughing loudly, Jasper Wang grabbed the massive Contingent Champion Trophy with one hand and walked off the stage very triumphantly.

    Of course he did not forget to smirk at the Long family head as he passed her by.

    "What a passionate and errr¡­ wonderful speech by Senior Minister Jasper Wang! Please give him another round of apuse!!" Elder Galtro shouted.

    The crowd obliged.

    "Annnnddd now! The moment you''ve been waiting for!! Who will wear the Crown of this year''s Grand Melee? Who will enter the year as the undisputed Champion of this year''s first graders??

    I will invite our Principal, the esteemed and honorable Professor Bruce Pang to make the announcement!! Please wee him with a round of apuse!" Elder Galtry shouted excitedly as he too pped his hands loudly.

    The crowd rose to their feet almost at the same time and roared their approval as they pped and stomped their feet to wee my big bro to the stage.

    At that time, I had no idea that he was so well known and popr!

    His familiar, grinning face soon appeared on the giant screen.

    And like Jasper Wang before, he began his speech with a bellyful ofughter.

    "Hahahahahahaha!! What an exciting Grand Melee!! This is the best one we''ve had in the entire history of our National Mecha Pilot Academy, don''t you all agree??" Bruce Pang shouted.

    "YES!!" The crowd agreed with a resounding roar.

    "Ahahahaha!! This year is doubly exciting and doubly special for me!! Do you know why? Because! The Champion this year, the one who will wear this glorious Crown made of solid gold!" Bruce Pang raised the shiny golden crown up high for effect.

    "Is. My. Brother! Justin of the Whitefrost n!!! Congrattions, Justin!!!!" Bruce Pang roared.

    But instead of a thunderous roar of approval, all he got was a loud collective gasp of shock, and a low murmur of disbelief from the crowd.

    And a shrill¡­

    "BRUCE FREAKING PANG! WHEN THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU HAVE A BROTHER??"

 Chapter 118 Barbarian Class

    Like opening the floodgates of a massive dam, that shrill shout triggered a deep roar of surprise from the entire crowd!

    Bruce Pang!

    One of the top mecha pilots, and one of the Eight Mecha Gods of the Federation, actually had a brother?

    AND a Whitefrost, at that? Impossible!!

    When did the Pang Family and the Whitefrost n have such close rtions??

    "The Pang Family and the Whitefrost n are in an alliance? Impossible!! That wouldpletely disrupt the bnce of power!!"

    "Old man, so you secretly made such a powerful ally through such an earthshaking method. You''re making me, the top Diplomat of the Federation,pletely embarrassed of holding the title. Sneaky bastard." Secretary Wang looked at Russel Whitefrost and rolled her eyes at him.

    "Ah? The Pangs and my Whitefrost n are allies? Hahahahahahahahahaha!! Now you know the true power of my diplomatic skills! Whahahahahaha!!" Russel Whitefrost shamelessly took credit for the blockbuster move that I had identally made.

    Of course, that only made the shrewd Secretary Wang realize the truth. She could read Russel Whitefrost, an upright warrior, like an open book.

    "Huh? Not even you know what''s happening? So what''s really happening?" Secretary Wang frowned deeply.

    "HAHAHAHA! Shocked? Surprised? Don''t be! My brother will be the top student of the first graders, and let me assure you, that he would be ranked within the top hundred thousand of the National Pilot Ranking! Within! Six! Months! Hahahahahahaha!!" Bruce Pang shouted with evil glee and sealed my fate as an outcast within not only the first graders, but also in the rest of the academy, and in the rest of the young generation in the entire Federation!

    If I wasn''t blessed with such great natural skills in making friends, that damned Bruce Pang''s announcement would have made my years in the Academyplete hell!

    He not only announced our brotherhood, but also made such a high-sounding boast! And all that with his notoriety as a super-stingy-with-praises Principal!

    Thousands of youths working extremely diligently day in day out, night and day, desperate to catch his eye and earn a word of praise looked at me and saw the most ridiculous thief ever.

    They couldn''t wait to defeat me and show Bruce Pang that they were more worthy than me to be his brother!

    With just a few words, Bruce Pang had set the stage for my debut into the Federation''s spotlight.

    His unspoken words for me that day was simply "I am sending the entire Federation''s strongest and best up against you. Beat them all up. Once you''re done, climb up the National Pilot Rank, and beat THEM all up."

    Damn you, big bro. I understand what you were trying to do, but¡­ Damn you.

    "To the best of the best! I present to you, my dearest little brother, the Crown of this year''s Grand Melee Champion!!" Bruce Pang roared as he leapt off the stage and within a few seconds, appeared next to a dumbstruck looking me.

    The massive spotlights swivelled hastily after him and shined down upon us.

    Our faces appeared in every single news channel of the country, as well as on every single international news channel who were broadcasting the event.

    It was a master stroke from him, of course.

    They wanted to make me popr, and hide Devour under in sight.

    Nobody but the crazy Bruce Pang would dream of exposing such a critical national treasure to such public scrutiny.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Congrattions. You did well." Bruce Pang said proudly.

    Despite knowing that he had doomed me to years of conflict with every single school going aged kid, I couldn''t help but feel extremely touched by his sincere pride.

    Here was a man who truly cared about me, truly wanted me to seed, and who saw my victories as his own victories!

    He may be as gentle as an enraged bull, but damn it, it felt good to be able to make him so proud.

    So I smiled back at him and saved my curses for another day.

    He ced the Crown upon my head. And when he did so, a magnificent mecha appeared in the sky and quicklynded behind us.

    It was covered with thick cream coloured armor, and it wielded a massive broadsword and an equally massive round shield.

    It looked brutish, rough, and extremely willing to get into closebat.

    "A surprise reward for this year''s champion. A Barbarian ss Medium Mecha." Bruce Pang said softly. But his voice reverberated throughout the entire arena.

    Like an explosion going off, the crowd roared their approval.

    "Barbarian ss? Isn''t that the newest product offering from the highly prestigious and boutique Soaring Dragon Mecha Company? I heard that their products are extremely easy to control, and if we can master them, we have a chance of creating something called affinity boost with our mechas!"

    "What?? There''s such a marvelous thing? Where is their shop? I want to buy one!"

    "Buy one? Dream on! Their products are all sold via invitationals! If you aren''t invited to buy, you will never get your hands on one!"

    "What about the second hand market? Any sellers there?"

    "Zero. When you buy a Soaring Dragon Mecha, you must sign an agreement to sell the mecha back to them if you ever want to sell! There are totally no second hand Soaring Dragon Mechas avable! I heard that a rich young master from an unnamed family has a standing offer to buy one, any one, at one hundred times their purchase price. But there are no takers!"

    "Incredible! Damn that cheater. He is so lucky!!"

    By just listening to the uproar of the crowd, I quickly understood just how precious the reward was that year.

    "This mecha will apany you for the rest of your journey here in this Academy." Bruce Pang continued. "Take good care of it, and make us proud."

    The crowd continued to roar out their approval and their jealousy.

    Of course, I could also feel four thousand pairs of jealous eyes drilling into me from every single direction.

    They had to start with practice mechas for their first year.

    Simply by having my Barbarian ss Mecha, even if my RPL wasn''t that high, I would more or less be guaranteed to win most one on one battles.

    My Student Pilot Rank within the National Mecha Pilot Academy was destined to be extremely high right off the bat!

 Chapter 119 All Hail Bruce Pang

    For those of you unfamiliar with how rankings work, let me give you a brief exnation.

    Most rankings in the Chinese Federation are all historically urate.

    That means, there are no time limits. In other words, once you''re ranked, then your name will forever be listed in that ranking system.

    If my rank is first in any ranking category, for example the National Rank, then I am first for ALL time, including all who have died.

    It is very much like the ranking system of most sports. It doesn''t matter if you''re alive or dead. As long as you''ve scored a point in let''s say, the National Basketball Organization, then you will forever be ranked against everybody else who has ever scored points.

    That was why Veronica Wu''s rank of 11,290 and Grand Elder She''s rank of 10,137 were so impressive.

    Their rank among active mecha pilots, including those actively serving in the military, was actually around 1000!

    There were only around a thousand mecha pilots who had higher contributions than them in the country! That was extremely insane to think about.

    The Chinese Federation had at least a million active mecha pilots serving in the military at that time, and probably a grand total of one hundred million mecha pilots still alive and well serving in various capacities in the country, or just retired but still able to operate a mecha.

    That means that they were within the top 0.0001% of the country.

    They were the elite of the elites.

    The best of the best!

    There are also various rankings created to motivate everyone to work hard to improve their skills and contributions.

    There are five main rankings.

    The main overall ranking system, the most prestigious and the one mostmonly known is of course the National Mecha Pilot Ranking.

    Almost half a billion names were in it.

    Any rank above a million was considered elite.

    Please note that Bruce Pang said I would rank in the top one hundred thousand in this ranking system within six months.

    It was an arrogant boast, to say the least, and it was like him carrying me and forcing me to step on the feet of a hundred million active mecha pilots, iming that I would be better than all of them within six months.

    Thanks, big bro.

    Anyway, that was the first and main ranking system.

    The second most prestigious ranking system would be the Military Mecha Pilot Ranking. As its name suggests, it ranks the top pilots within the Military. It was usually used to measure the Military''s strengthpared to the rest of the Federation.

    It had slightly over five million names ranked, and any military pilot ranked below five million in the National Mecha Pilot Ranking would be theughing stock of the entire military.

    It simply meant that there were civilians who were better pilots than them or even had more contributions than them!

    The third, fourth and fifth ranking systems were all rted to schools, and all three are active-only rankings.

    They were the Youth Mecha Pilot Ranking system which ranked all youth pilots below twenty one years of age, which served like the National Mecha Pilot Ranking for kids, the Advanced Trainees Mecha Pilot Ranking which ranked all advanced students nationwide, and the respective ranking systems within each Academy nationwide.

    Each ranking system was based on a very simple form.

    Their RPL score + Points.

    The points can take the form of Contribution Points, Examination Points, Tournament Points, anything. Most of the rewards for mecha pilots are linked to the ranking system, and that made the ranking system all the more urate and reflective of reality.

    That way, an effective pilot with a lower RPL could be ranked higher than one with a higher RPL if he worked hard enough and smart enough.<novelnext></novelnext>

    That said, a person''s natural gifts would not only give them an edge in terms of points, but also in their ability to get Contribution Points.

    All in all, it was a realistic and fair system.

    The fact that I was gifted a Barbarian ss Mecha would make me ridiculously difficult to dethrone from my lofty first ce within the first graders.

    Not only do I have an incredible head start with my high RPL and the Victory Points I got from winning the Grand Melee, I would also be practically impossible to beat in the battles ahead!

    I remember staring at the beautiful Barbarian ss Mecha, and feeling a deep hunger to devour it.

    My red energy had grown by leaps and bounds, and I was nearly ready to start devouring something big and delicious.

    Deathscythe awaited me, of course. But the Barbarian ss Mecha would make for a perfect appetizer.

    I sighed and merely smiled at Bruce as I stretched out my hand and touched the mecha.

    Hummmm.

    I could feel every single aspect of the mecha extremely clearly, much more clearly than before.

    In fact, I had the distinct feeling that I could turn on the mecha if I wanted to.

    Bruce Pang smiled back at me and inconspicuously pushed my hand away.

    He probably thought I was about to devour it or something, because he hastily sent the mecha away.

    "Wonderful! The mecha will be kept for safe keeping until you start your sses. And there you have it,dies and gentlemen! The end of our annual Grand Melee for first years!! Thank you for joining us! Good bye and don''t fall down the stairs on your way out!! Hahahaha!" Bruce Pang said as he dismissed the crowd just like that.

    The crowdughed good naturedly at his joke and started to slowly disperse.

    "And now! All you first years. Well done on a wonderful fight!! I am sure you had a lot of fun ganging up on your schoolmate just now, right?" Bruce Pang beamed at the first graders.

    Most of themughed, nodded and agreed with him in one way or another.

    It would be thest time theyughed that day.

    "GANGED UP AND LOST!!" Bruce Pang sudden roared out in anger!

    He raised his hand up, and near instantaneously, Chronos appeared in the sky andnded behind him with a stupendous BOOM!!

    Bruce Pang leapt up a hundred meters into his cockpit as though it was nothing, and turned to face us once more.

    "IF YOU WANT TO GANG UP ON ANYONE, MAKE BLOODY SURE YOU WIN THE BLOODY FIGHT!!

    WHY?

    BECAUSE YOU ARE WASTING VALUABLE MECHAS WHILE YOUR ENEMY IS ONLY WASTING ONE!

    FIRST LESSON OF THE YEAR! EVERY DAMN THING HAS ITS COST!!

    GET INTO YOUR DAMN MECHAS!

    I WILL BE YOUR TEACHER TODAY!!"

    All hail Bruce Pang.

    Hahaha.

 Chapter 120 OWN THE HELL UP!

    Four thousand kids scrambled back into their mechas and switched them back on.

    VRMMMMMM!!!

    All four thousand mechas rumbled to life.

    The damage threshold had been switched off, and all of the mechas which were still physically mobile were able to move once more.

    "FORM UP INTO ONE LINE!" Bruce Pang roared as he pointed at a random direction.

    Many of them were damaged, mostly by me, and at that moment, a very sorry bunch of mechas started to try their best to get in line.

    Beingpletely undamaged, the Wangs, the Lins and I were the first to form up.

    Sherry Lin was among them.

    I gave her a friendly wave and only got a loud HMPH! In return.

    I guess she was still sour from her spectacr loss and her crownless head.

    Those who merely had their arms blown away were the luckiest. They quickly formed up beside us.

    Those without legs were less lucky, but still not that unfortunate. They were able to use their arms to crawl their way to the line.

    Those without heads were even less lucky. They had lost all of their sensing instruments, and had absolutely no idea where Bruce Pang pointed.

    Out of those without heads, the Longs were definitely the luckiest. They only had their necks broken by me, and they still had their instruments physically intact.

    A simple electrical bypass was all they needed to jumpstart their basic instruments. Although they could no longer turn their heads, at least they were not blind.

    They mbered out of their mechas, did the bypass for themselves and those who didn''t know how to do it, and within a few short minutes, the Longs were almost at full strength once more.

    Powerful and devilishlypetent indeed.

    Those withpletely crushed heads, however, had to depend on their buddies.

    They tried calling out to their friends to guide them to the line, but not many responded.

    The most unlucky ones were those without arms and feet. They were utterly unable to obey Bruce Pang''s orders.

    The girl I had tried to save was one of them.

    I quickly noticed her in the distance, and without hesitation, I stomped my way towards her to help her.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    I guided my mecha to go against the wave of mechas trying to get into line and reached her within seconds.

    "Hey." I said as I reached her.

    "Hey yourself. Why are you here?" She snapped at me. Being unable to obey Bruce Pang''s orders and thinking that she would miss out on a valuable first lesson had ced her in a very sour mood.

    "I''m here to help you, of course." I said in an as a matter fact voice and grabbed her by her neck.

    "You don''t have to trouble yourself. My teammates will help me." She said sourly even though it was clear to both of us that none of them were nearby.

    They were eitherpletely destroyed as well or were too far away to locate her in the mess.

    "Sure they will." I said cheerfully as I started to look around the area to look for Tes. I was wondering what had happened to her.

    The girl gave an audible sigh and kept quiet.

    There was nothing she could do even if she didn''t want to be helped anyway. Her arms and legs werepletely unresponsive.

    "Tes!" I shouted loudly. "Where are you?"

    "Justin! I''m here!" A soft voice located really far away replied to me. "I can''t move!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Hold on! Don''t go anywhere! I aming to help you!" I shouted rather gantly but very stupidly.

    Of course she wasn''t going anywhere. She just said that she couldn''t move.

    "Uh. Okay!" She replied back good naturedly with a slight tinge ofughter.

    "Dumbass. Of course she won''t go anywhere." I muttered aloud. "She just said she can''t move!"

    "Hee hee hee." A cheekyugh sounded from the girl''s mecha.

    I don''t know if I blushed then, but I sure as hell felt very stupid.

    "By the way. What''s your name?" I asked the girl and tried to change the subject as I stomped my way towards Tes.

    By that time, the arena was clearing up as those who could move had already moved, leaving behind those whose mechas were too damaged to move, and the very rare few like me who were helping out another mecha.

    "My name is Olivia Summers." She replied. Somehow, my stupidment had made her warm up to me slightly. And probably also due to the fact that I had bothered to help her and was on my way to help another person.

    Olivia Summers had always admired those who were strong and kind, and my actions then definitely improved the impression she had of me.

    "Nice to meet you. I''m Justin from the Whitefrost n." I said.

    "I know. I also know that you won the Grand Melee. I am a psychic. Fear me." Olivia Summers said dryly.

    "Hahahaha! Wow! A psychic! Quick tell me! What colour underwear am I wearing??" Iughed loudly and barrelled through yet another stupidment.

    Olivia Summers didn''t say another word for the next five minutes.

    The same thing couldn''t be said of me though.

    "What? You can''t see what colour underwear I am wearing today? What about tomorrow then? What colour underwear will I wear?" I asked her gleefully,pletely oblivious that she was probably either blushing like a tomato, or stunned silly by my idiotic questions.

    Knowing her, it was probably both.

    She was blushing and probably racking her brains how an idiot like me could win the Grand Melee.

    I cheerfully yed on and peppered her with a bunch of questions that would be easy for a real psychic to know.

    Will it rain tomorrow?

    What colour is Bruce Pang''s underwear?

    Is he even wearing any underwear?

    My many questions about underwears, even though it was very obviously my awkward attempt to be funny, made Olivia think I had an underwear fetish, and she was the one who coined the "Underwear King" nickname for me a few weekster that would dominate most of my first term in the Academy.

    But I have to make it very clear.

    I do NOT have an underwear fetish.

    Very soon, myrge strides brought me to Tes, and I couldn''t help but grit my teeth in anger at her pitiful sight.

    Like Olivia, she wasn''t able to control her four limbs anymore. But unlike Olivia, her four limbs werepletely destroyed.

    She probably fought so fiercely that her enemies got pissed off and cut off her limbs out of resentment.

    But of course, that wasn''t the case. Mecha damage management was a very important skill, and Tes happened to be an utter genius at that.

    She had managed the damage she received so perfectly that she was able to squeeze everyst drop of functionality from her mecha until her four limbs gave out, before finally triggering the damage threshold.

    Still, I had no idea at that moment that it was the case. I thought a bunch of resentful kids had tortured her to death.

    And so I did what I usually did when I get angry at that age.

    "WHO THE HELL DID THIS TO MY FRIEND!!! OWN THE HELL UP!!" I roared angrily!!

 Chapter 121 Ambush!

    "They''re all "dead". I only left one standing, and you''re standing on him" Tes said with a slight chuckle.

    "Ah?" I quickly nced down and noticed that in my hurry to reach Tes, I had identally stepped on another mecha!

    "He tortured you this way?" I could feel a massive wave of anger starting to bubble from deep within my heart.

    "Of course not. How could he torture me? This may be a practice mecha, but its reactive armor isn''t something that other practice mechas could deal with." Tes replied as I grabbed her with my other hand and easily ced her on my shoulder.

    "Oh." I nodded in understanding and immediately felt rather stupid.

    I should have known.

    "Well, dude, since you didn''t torture my friend, it''s your lucky day. I''ll bring you along with me." I said to the mecha whom I had identally stepped on earlier.

    "Uh. Thanks?" A little boy''s voice sounded reluctantly. He probably still hadn''t forgiven me about the things I said about his mom''s titties.

    I sighed deeply and grabbed him with my free hand.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    I made for a striking sight as I made my way across the arena with three destroyed mechas on me.

    By that time, I was the only one moving in the arena.

    Those who were able to move had made their way to the line that Bruce had demanded to be formed, and those that weren''t able to move were strewn all messily everywhere.

    "Lin Family members. Move out and help the other fallen mechas." Sheera Lin''s voice rang out quietly.

    At once, all surviving Lin mechas leapt ahead and started to help the other fallen mechas.

    "Wang Family. Help them." Eliana Wang''s voice rang out as well.

    Like the Lins, the Wang mechas also started to make their way to the nearest fallen mechas.

    The Longs remained silent and watched them coldly.

    A few seconds passed as the rest of the mechas hesitated. Should they follow the Lins and the Wangs, or emte the Longs?

    However, before the other mechas coulde to a decision, Bruce Pang''s voice suddenly sounded loudly from behind them.

    "Attack." He said coldly.

    Instantly, hundreds of practice mechas appeared from all directions and started to attack all of us mercilessly!

    Hundreds of rifle beams started to fall upon us like a hailstorm.

    I nced at them and winced.

    "The kids would be "massacred". Again." I thought grimly as I dodged the rifle beams as well as I could.

    VROOOOO!! VROOOOO!!

    The new practice mechas which were all yellow painted with ck stripes, descended like so many fearsome tigers upon the arena to finish us all off!!

    "Defensive formation. Use the fallen mechas." Sheera Lin''s calm voice rang out as she ruthlesslymanded her Lin Family to grab the fallen mechas and use them as shields.

    "Wangs. Join me, or we''ll all die." She added.

    Elise and Eliana Wang weren''t one to dawdle, and they immediately instructed their family members to join the Lin Family.

    "Obey Sheera Lin as you would me." Eliana Wang had instantly decreed.

    "Acknowledged!" Her family members responded.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Elsewhere, within the Lin family circle.

    "Give me your mecha." Sherry Lin instructed a Lin family medium mecha, and within a few seconds, they had swapped mechas and Sherry Lin, the Eternal Warrior, was back in a fully functioning practice mecha.

    The group of forty something mechas led by Sheera Lin was by far the most cohesive and most intact group.

    The Longs were the second most intact group.

    And as such, the hundreds of mechas focused their fire upon them.

    A hundred mechas peeled off from the main group and surged towards the Longs while two hundred mechas charged towards the Lin-Wang coalition.

    Another hundred circled around me. They were there not to "kill" me, but to tie me down and prevent me from impacting the rest of the battle.

    The rest charged at the line of functioning mechas and immediately started to finish them off.

    It was an incredibly crazy move by Bruce Pang, and the lessons we learnt that day were allpletely unforgettable.

    He truly was a Master Teacher.

    The crowd, which were about to disperse, had all eximed in shock, went back to their seats and resumed eating their popcorns.

    The show was not over!!

    "This year''s Grand Melee is incredible!!" They all shouted with words to that effect.

    All eyes were upon us, and deeply calctive minds continued to analyze our actions, picking out seeds for future leadership.

    In that chaos, not many of us shined.

    But those that did, shone brighter than the stars, like a daybreak of multiple suns.

    I wish I could say that I was one of them, but my moment of fame that day was over.

    Bruce Pang had shrewdly shown me that in a real battle, brute strength may be incredible, but real leadership would be required to win...

    And to save the lives of mypanions.

    I was humbled that day by my sheer inability to save those I wanted to.

    What Bruce Pang had created was, in effect, an ambush situation.

    A bunch of 10 year olds, being taught how to respond to an ambush in real time,plete with the shock, injuries and fatigue of a long battle.

    If it wasn''t teaching at its finest, then I have no idea what is.

    "Firstw of ambushes. Stay calm and listen to instructions.

    Secondw of ambushes. Those within the kill zone, return fire and take cover. All at the same time." Bruce Pang''s voice rumbled out loudly above the din. "Those outside the kill zone, locate and ce suppressive fire on the enemy."

    I had no idea how many of us responded to his words, but apparently, not many did so in the first few minutes.

    There were four thousand of us and only a few hundred of the ambushers, probably around six hundred or so.

    If we all responded perfectly, we would have massacred all six hundred ambushers within seconds, considering that they were all light mechas.

    But of course we didn''t.

    A thousand of us died a second time within the first minute of the ambush!

 Chapter 122 Big Fat Juicy Calf

    The hundred mechas assigned to deal with me were all experts.

    And smart.

    They had refrained from killing Tes, Olivia and the little boy, forcing me to carry them with me everywhere and impeding my movements.

    With them in tow, my effectiveness was halved, and I was barely able to defend myself, much less deal damage to the enemy!

    They all danced around me like so many irritating but highly trained flies, peppering me with waves of rifle fire while keepingpletely out of my reach with their superior speed and mobility.

    I charged at the hundred light mechas around me like a fat little lion cub chasing after butterflies. Although I managed to take out a few in the next few minutes, I was, in effect, renderedpletely useless to impact the rest of the battle.

    My great strength had been effectively taken out of the picture at the very reasonable cost of merely a hundred mechas.

    The ambush was perfectly executed!

    "Thirdw of ambushes. Those not under fire, counter attack and rescue friendly units withrgest firepower." Bruce Pang continued to teach us.

    I had no idea if anybody paid attention to him at that moment, but I wouldter find out that quite a few did, and they made all the difference for many of us.

    The pandemonium continued at full strength.

    The Lin-Wang coalition was performing admirably. When the ambush hit them, they were in the process of rescuing the disabled mechas and thus, they had a lot of "shields" avable to be used.

    It was ruthless, of course. But such is war.

    However, that said, although the huge amount of shields afforded them an effective defense, battles are not won by defending.

    Sherry Lin, Elise Wang and Eliana Wang grouped up and blitzed the enemy from their right nk, the nk that was facing the Longs.

    I believe that moment was the first time the "Three Unicorns" took action together.

    Sherry Lin was her usual incredibly deadly self. She weaved in and out of the tens of rifle fire aimed her way with great agility.

    As a medium mecha and coupled with her godlike skills, she was able to quickly reach her enemies and begin her furious counterattack with her twin swords.

    Behind her were the two horriblypetent Wang twins in their heavy mechas, with huge tower shields protecting their nks as they charged after Sherry Lin who drew most of the fire from the front.

    BAM! BAM!

    SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

    Within seconds, theypletely disrupted the enemy formation!

    The mechas facing them had to retreat, while the others had to divert fire from the Lin-Wang main group to try and take them down.

    That way, and with suppressive fire from the Lin-Wang main group, the trio managed to clear out a path towards the Longs.

    "Victor. Join up." Sheera Lin called out from within the center of the Lin-Wang coalition.

    Victor Long was no fool.

    Arrogant, yes, but a smart one.

    His group of twenty had dwindled to merely twelve. Although he had stabilized the situation by using the eight "dead" mechas as shields, it would only be a matter of time before his entire group got wiped out.<novelnext></novelnext>

    He immediately understood that his best chance to survive was if he joined up with them. At the same time, he also knew that being the weaker party, the standard enemy response would be to team up and immediately try and destroy him before their link up was sessful.

    Still, what choice did he have? In true blue Long fashion, he coolly gave the order to link up.

    "All of you, proceed towards the Lins and Wangs. Maintain defensive formation!" Hemanded.

    His group began to make their way towards the Lin-Wang coalition who were also slowly inching towards them.

    As Victor Long had guessed, and very definitely ording to Sheera Lin''s n, the ambushers reacted.

    They instantly noticed the movement, and all two hundred of the ambushers aiming at the Lin-Wang coalition suddenly changed targets and focused their fire on the weaker Long group!!

    Three hundred against twelve, it would be a miracle if they couldst for more than a minute.

    And there were no miracles that day.

    All of the Longs, apart from Victor Long and Hailey Long who survived due to their top tier skills, were wiped out within one minute.

    But that minute was extremely expensive for the ambushers.

    Left almostpletely alone, the Lin-Wang coalition was free to counter attack, and they did so in a fashion that would embarrass the wildest and most ferocious bull alive.

    Under the lead of the Three Unicorns, they smashed into the three hundred ambushers with unparalleled ferocity!!

    They discarded their "shields" and drew out their swords, hammers and spears.

    WHAM! BAM! SLASH!

    The ambushers were highly disciplined fighters, and they stayed true to their battle objective. None of them wavered from their withering fire on the Longs, and only those under immediate attack by the Lin-Wang coalition moved to defend themselves.

    But they were light mechas against mediums and heavies. They had no chance.

    So great was the desperation of the coalition that they managed to destroy a hundred of the ambushers within the minute which the Longs had purchased for them!

    It was a disastrous exchange for the ambushers who lost a hundred mechas in exchange for merely ten Long mechas.

    I am sure those three hundred pilots lost quite a bit of points that day.

    Anyway, after taking out the Longs, the remaining ambushers tried to retreat and regroup before engaging with the Lin-Wang coalition once more.

    But Sheera Lin was like a Python who had managed to catch its prey, a big fat juicy calf, with its body.

    There was no way she would let them go.

    Instead, she started to squeeze.

    "Five of you, hammer them towards us." She called out.

    There was no need to specify who the five were.

    Like the massive head of a python, they struck at the big, fat, juicy calf hungrily.

 Chapter 123 Failed

    One hundred ambushers were assigned to me.

    Three hundred were assigned to the Lin-Wang coalition and the Longs.

    The remaining two hundred or so ambushers struck at the remaining participants.

    The way they divided themselves spoke volumes of how they perceived our threat levels were, and for the most part, their analysis were spot on.

    Mostly.

    The only mistake they made was assigning two hundred to deal with the other mechas.

    Although the other mechas numbered an impressive two thousand or so, they were mostly leaderless, and therefore, not a major threat.

    They should have gone all in and sent all five hundred mechas to wipe out the Lins, Wangs and Longs first!

    And because of that slight underestimation, their whole battle n, which was going rather excellently apart from the three hundred fiasco, went straight to hell.

    The five future stars skillfully pressured the two hundred mechas towards Sheera Lin like five ferocious wolves coraling two hundred sheep.

    sh!! Bam!!

    Sherry Lin sliced off the head of an enemy mecha and kicked it violently towards its buddy.

    As both enemy mechas tumbled down in a messy heap of metal, a third mecha appeared suddenly from her blindspot andunched a blisteringly quick spear thrust!

    She tilted her head slightly and dodged it by the barest of margins before exploding sideways towards it.

    She mmed her right sword into the third mecha''s belly and immediately "killed" it.

    However, her momentum was so powerful that she reached another enemy mecha before she could even fling the one impaled on her sword away!

    sh!!

    Her left sword shed down with incredible speed and took out the fourth mecha''s right arm.

    Then, with a flourish that many of the audience would never forget, she swung both her swords outwards to her sides.

    Her left sword beheaded the fourth mecha while the third mecha which was still impaled on her sword was sent crashing to the ground.

    Boom! Boom!

    "Show off." Hailey Long grumbled as she dispatched her own enemy, but with far less flourish and style.

    "Get to my level, and find out for yourself if I am showing off or not." Sherry Lin replied coldly before speeding off to take on another enemy.

    "Grrrrr." Hailey Long growled in frustration and kicked an enemy mecha''s leg from under him. She smashed her hammer down on its head viciously and crushed it to smithereens.

    "Calm down. Your anger is making you inefficient. We''re in a coraling mission. Just exchanging blows with them and disabling them is enough. Kill them only if it doesn''t slow your advance. Stay focused." Victor Long reprimanded his cousin.

    "Fine." Hailey Long sighed deeply and did as she was told.

    The five of them pierced through the entire formation of the two hundred light mechas and left a trail of destruction behind them.

    A well trained army of mechas would probably ignore them and focus on their mission objective which was to retreat and regroup.

    But s, they were only eleven year olds.

    Second years in the National Mecha Pilot Academy.

    Most of them reacted to the five mechas instinctively and ganged up on them, to devastating consequences.

    Sherry Lin.

    Elise Wang.

    Eliana Wang.

    Victor Long.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Hailey Long.

    The mere mention of any of these five names would be enough to send thousands of ex-enemies shaking in their boots as their horrible memories resurfaced and their traumas triggered.

    And even as ten year olds, their skills were utterly in a ss of their own.

    The second years who piloted the ambushing mechas did not have a shred of chance against them.

    And against the Undying General, Sheera Lin?

    Two hundred light mechas against her thirty was unfairness at its maximum.

    Unfair to who?

    Unfair for the poor second years, of course!

    Two hundred mechas against her was unfair.

    Any less than two hundred mechas would just be a joke.

    A cruel joke.

    631

    The clean up of the two hundred mechas took exactly five minutes.

    After that, another ten minutes to deal with the other two hundred mechas.

    By that time, I had finished with the hundred mechas on my side too.

    Whether unfortunately or by foolish purpose on the part of the hundred mechas, Tes, Olivia and the poor little boy had been "killed" once more. Free from the burden of having to protect three defenseless mechas, I had instantly went on a rampage and took down the hundred mechas near effortlessly.

    Barely an hour after the end of the Grand Melee, Bruce Pang''s first lesson of the academic year ended.

    And for many, it was extremely memorable.

    For others, it would forever be seared into our minds like a ming hot brand upon the backs of cows.

    "Gather around." Bruce Pang ordered.

    We obeyed.

    As best we could, of course. Our conditions were worse than before, and many had lost the ability to move.

    Those of us still able to move gathered together, and opened up our cockpits to listen to our Principal''s first lecture.

    "All you first years, listen up. By the merits¡­ or I should say, by the failures of a few, you have defeated the ambush, but lost the battle." Bruce Pang said as he began his lesson.

    I nced at Sheera Lin and Sherry Lin quickly. As expected, Sheera Lin''s face was emotionless, and Sherry Lin was scowling deeply.

    "Lesson number one." He said as he maneuvered Chronos towards us.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    "In any battle, there must be a leader tomand the soldiers." He raised Chronos''s right hand and pointed at us. "Having the power and strength to lead, but failing to rise to the challenge, all of you Elites, Royals and Divine pilots have failed as leaders."

    The entire arena fell silent at his words.

    Even the crowd held their breath as they allowed the analysis of the most powerful mecha pilot to wash through their minds and sink into their hearts.

    Bruce Pang may be teaching the first graders specifically at that moment, but the entire crowd and every single person watching the broadcast were his students.

    His words were spoken softly, but they thundered down into the souls of his students.

    His finger shifted to point at me.

 Chapter 124 Master Teacher

    "You had just been crowned Champion right before the ambush. You were far and away the strongest in this arena. And you did not step up to lead. You have failed to use the resources avable to you effectively, and thus, you have failed as a leader." Bruce Pang said seriously as he looked me in the eye.

    I gulped and nodded weakly.

    A soft murmur rippled through the crowd as they adjusted their viewpoints.

    Many probably thought I did an incredible job. But Bruce''s words shed light on the real situation.

    I had failed to live up to my potential, and to the responsibilities that my power had given me.

    It was a sobering revtion for me.

    He shifted his finger to point at Sheera Lin.

    "You are a genius. But you limited your genius to only leading the Lins, the Wangs and the Longs. You have betrayed your countrymen, and left them to die. You have failed to use the resources avable to you effectively, and thus, you have failed as a leader." Bruce Pang announced Sheera Lin''s failure solemnly.

    A look of surprise shed on Sheera Lin''s face for a moment before she nodded solemnly as well.

    "I will put your lesson to heart, Principal." Sheera Lin replied calmly.

    Bruce Pang nodded in approval even as yet another murmur spread through the crowd.

    Sheera Lin'' performance was incredibly... incredible.

    But damn, by Bruce Pang''s standard, she was a failure too!

    The crows struggled to ept it, but eventually they had to. Bruce was right.

    As insane as it sounds, Sheera Lin could have and should have done more.

    "Lesson number two. In any battle, all effort must be spent to do two main things. Achieve mission objectives, and to save the lives of your brothers and sisters." Bruce Pang said seriously.

    I could already hear the sighs of all the first years.

    Chronos shifted his finger to point at me again.

    "You were one of the few to bother to help your friends before the ambush. You did well as a team mate. However, you merely moved to save your friends, and not the others. You have failed as a soldier of the Federation. You could have used your influence to rally more people to do as you did, but you did not. You have failed as a leader of this generation." Bruce Pang said mercilessly.

    By then, I had understood where Bruce Pang wasing from and his world view.

    I nodded solemnly.

    But he was not done.

    "In the battle, you werepletely useless. You were rendered ineffective by a mere 100 enemy units. You have allowed your desire to save your 3 immobile friends to limit your impact to the main battle. You have sacrificed your main mission objective to save your friends, which you failed to do as well. You have failed as a soldier."

    I nodded solemnly again.

    His finger shifted to Sherry Lin.

    "You have the skills that most pilots can only dream of having. But you did not use those skills to defend or protect any of your countrymen, even those of your n. You allowed them to die despite having the power to save them. Although you fought well toplete your mission objectives, you have failedpletely as a team mate."

    Sherry Lin nodden sullenly. She knew he was right.

    "Wangs. You two have the most rtions in this arena. You did not utilize them."

    "Longs. You have thergest group. But you contributed nothing."

    "Rushbloods. You are the sharpshooters of the generation. You did not identify and shoot down the enemy leader."

    One by one, Bruce Pang leveled the single result of our performance thus far.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Utter. Failure.

    A near depressed atmosphere had fallen on the arena as many ten year old kids started to tremble and fight back their tears.

    They had fought so hard! In two particrly insane battles!

    And they had failed spectacrly! And in public!!

    It was a vicious lesson indeed, and one that none would forget for the rest of their lives.

    Bruce Pang finished his grand analysis, and allowed the silence to fester for a few minutes, and for the lessons he had taught topletely take root in our hearts.

    And then as the master teacher that he was, he deftly led us all out of the valley of darkness, and into glorious light.

    "This is my final analysis." Bruce Pang said quietly.

    "All of you are the biggest failures this academy had ever seen."

    A few sobs and whimpers could be heard breaking the silence of the crowd which thundered ominously.

    "But all of you are also the best and the strongest generation I have ever seen in my entire life. I did not mean for you all to win the ambush, but you did. Not only did you win the ambush, you won with thousands still alive.

    If you can learn from your mistakes, you will grow to be the strong pirs that will carry the heavy responsibility of defending this country, and killing those who seek to harm us.

    For your future service and sacrifices for our country, I, Bruce Pang, thank you from the very bottom of my heart."

    And with that, Bruce Pang bowed deeply to us.

    And if Bruce Pang was bowing, how could his staff do any less?

    As one, every single teacher stood up wherever they were, and bowed to us.

    The dams that were holding back the tears of the ten year olds exploded at that moment, and every single one of us bawled our hearts out.

    As I had said before.

    Bruce Pang is a master teacher.

    His main weapon wasn''t teaching technique. It was his sincere and earnest heart.

    He truly believed that we were the strongest.

    He truly believed that we would be the nation''s pirs.

    And he truly was grateful for our future services and sacrifices, especially with the war looming in the distance.

    And you know what?

    We were the strongest.

    We were the nation''s pirs.

    And we did sacrifice ourselves for the country.

    Yes.

    That, we did.

 Chapter 125 Sinister Grins

    Our first day of school was finally over, and we were quickly shown to our rooms in the dormitories.

    The first years, second years and third years shared the same building.

    Our dorm looked like a beautiful mansion with a West Wing, East Wing and a Central Common.

    The Central Common had a massive auditorium on the third floor, amon room/library on the second floor and amon cafetaria on the first floor.

    Eachmon room could seat every single student in the dorm with room to spare.

    The boys took the West Wing, and the girls took the East Wing.

    The first years had the first floor, the second had the second floor and the third had the third floor.

    Each room had four bunks and a toilet.

    That, in short, is a brief description of our dorm.

    I shared a room with three very unique guys.

    I remember that first meeting very vividly.

    "Hey guys. I''m Justin. What''s up?" I called out to them as I entered the room.

    They had arrived earlier than me, and they had already picked their bunks.

    Of course the two bottom bunks were taken, and only a top bunk on the left side of the room remained unimed.

    "Oooohhh, we are sharing a room with the Champion! How amazing! I am so excited! Ah! My head feels faint from the awesomeness of this moment! Help! Guys! Help!" A big, chubby boy on the bottom right bunk said in a very t and bored voice as he fanned himself with the wee booklet.

    I took one look at him and immediately identified him as the joker of the group. A t, and dry sort of humor, but the joker, nheless.

    I am sure you know about group dynamics.

    There will usually be several types of characters in a group.

    In my experience, more often than not there would definitely be a King, the Loyal General, the Princess, the Genius and the Joker. There would be variations of the five types, of course. But these five were the mostmon.

    And that fat boy, Barrick Rui, was definitely the joker.

    "Woweee! We got the Champ!! Hey, you want to take my bottom bunk? Come take it! I''ll take the top bunk!!" A scrawny boy shouted eagerly and immediately packed his stuff.

    "Loyal General. Or Sneaky Bootlicker?" I remember thinking as I looked at Rnd Hu curiously.

    "Hmph. Asslicker." The third boy scoffed. He sat on his bed on the top right bunk and eyed me coldly. His body was quite big for his age, and he looked really strong.

    "Hmmm. This one is probably the best fighter out of the three." I thought to myself.

    He was, of course, Jack Yang.

    "Arrogant Genius? Or Jealous Loser?" My mind quickly thin sliced the three boys as I tried toe to a quick conclusion about their characters.

    "Asslicker your ass." Rnd Hu immediately snapped at Jack Yang. "Champions deserve to be treated like Champions. And losers like you should just shut up and enjoy your damn top bunk."

    Hohoho.

    The battle for group hierarchy had begun.

    Rnd Hu had immediately recognized my unassable position, and had wisely chosen to butter me up. But he''ll be damned if he took any crap from the yet unproven Jack Yang.

    "Losers like me? Ha. You think just because I let you take the bottom bunk, that I am scared of you? Let this daddy teach you a damn lesson!" Jack Yang leapt down from his top bunk with great agility and unleashed two very quick jabs at Rnd Hu!

    Whoosh! Whoosh!<novelnext></novelnext>

    Rnd Hu leaned back and easily avoided Jack Yang''s attack.

    Right as Jack Yang was pulling back his jab, Rnd Hu unleashed his own counter attack and sent a ferocious right hook towards Jack''s face!

    Jack Yang skilfully sent his left arm to tap Rnd''s right hook away from the inside and caused Rnd to lose bnce.

    And then without any flourish, he viciously delivered a perfect uppercut on Rnd''s jaw.

    BAM!!

    Rnd Hu was hit so hard that he actually flew up for a little distance before crumpling down onto the ground!

    However, to our surprise, Rnd Hu groaned lightly before standing up once more.

    "Good uppercut. Well delivered. But kind of weak for someone your size, don''t you think?" Rnd Hu shook his head lightly to clear the effect of that vicious uppercut he just ate, and retook his stance. "Come, let daddy show you how to do a proper uppercut!"

    "Hmph. You sure can take a hit. Just like a damn cockroach. Let me sho-"

    BAM!

    A loud sound suddenly rang out from the wall behind the right bunk.

    "It wasn''t me. I didn''t do anything." Barrick Rui saidzily. He didn''t look one bit surprised, and neither did the two boys.

    Apparently they already knew what was happening.

    I strained my hearing for a little bit, and started to chuckle lightly as I quickly brought myself up to date.

    All around the dorm, fights were breaking out!

    Hierarchies that would probablyst for the next three years were being formed. And very understandingly, the teachers were absent to allow the first years to do their thing.

    It must be a ritual of somesort.

    "Hey guys. Instead of fighting among ourselves, why not check out the other rooms? We should bully them a little and show them who''s the boss." I grinned at the three of them widely.

    The three of them nced at each other with uncertainty in their eyes.

    Of course they had been briefed by their family about the hierarchy fights that would take ce.

    But they had never heard of anybody actually going round the dorm rooms and establishing dominance!

    Just what on earth was happening?

    Surprisingly, Barrick Rui was the first to respond.

    "Let''s do it." He announced and started to heave his massive body out of the bed. "I could do with a little bit of exercise anyway."

    Rnd Hu blinked once, and then lowered his fighting stance. "Count me in! Whatever the Champ does, I will too!" He said cheerfully.

    We all turned to look at Jack Yang, who merely sighed, shook his head helplessly, and walked towards us.

    "Grab a bag each. Your biggest one. We will need a lot of space to collect our "tribute". I said with a grin.

    And at that, all three of them also broke into grins.

    Sinister grins, of course.

    We weren''t called the four demons for nothing.

 Chapter 126 Prey

    The first room we gave a friendly visit to was, naturally, the one to our right.

    "Oof! Damn you! Take this!"

    Bam.

    "You call that a punch? My grandma- oof!"

    "Your grandma what? Your grandma has no titties?"

    "Shut up! Take this!"

    Muffled sounds of what seemed to be a ferocious free for all fight could be heard from outside.

    BAM!

    I kicked open the door and identally smashed it on one of the boys, who was flung rather violently across the room.

    Bam. He crashed into another boy who was standing directly opposite him.

    "Hey!!" He roared angrily as the other boy pushed him away with all of his strength.

    "Hey too!" I said pleasantly.

    "Hey! Don''t kick the doors like that." Barrick Rui said. "They''ll deduct the repair cost from our academy credits!"

    "Oh! Damn it, I didn''t know that!" I cursed loudly. I had not even done any extorting, and my ie was already negative!

    "What the hell are you all doing in our room?" The biggest boy in that particr room took it upon himself to be the leader and shouted at us.

    He must have been listening quite intently to Bruce Pang''s lessons.

    There must be a leader in a group!

    I nodded at him in approval.

    "Heyy guys. We''re here for a friendly visit, of course." Rnd Hu immediately stepped forward with a friendly smile.

    "Friendly visit your mother! Get the hell out of our room, before I go over there and make you!" The big boy threatened.

    "Can you hear it? The sound of so many ferocious and angry boys fighting?" Rnd Hu ignored him and cupped his ears.

    True enough, with the room door wide open, the sound of fighting everywhere was extremely clear.

    "Yeah? So what?" The big boy asked in slight confusion.

    "We are here to offer you our services! For a small fee, we will help you make sure that no harm falls on you this day. Didn''t you hear what our glorious Principal said earlier today? We must protect our brothers and sisters! And being our neighbours, we are here to protect you!" Rnd Hu eximed with a very righteous sounding voice.

    "You are extorting us?" The big boy was no fool, and he immediately caught on to the situation, and called it as it was.

    Not that we would ever admit it.

    "Goodness gracious! Extortion? Heavens no! We are protecting you! How in the world did you even manage to think that we are extorting you? Big bro! He must be feeling dizzy! Please help him get better!" Rnd Hu said to me with a very concerned voice.

    I stood there and sighed deeply. My sharp eyes had immediately studied the room and its contents, and I hade to a conclusion.

    These boys were definitely not rich young masters. Their personal belongings looked rather old, and frankly speaking, quite significantly worse than mine.

    Extorting working ss merchants was definitely not something I wanted to do.

    The four of them looked at me warily.

    They recognized me, of course.

    The Divine Grade pilot, the "Victim" of the Long "bullying", and the Champion of the Grand Melee.

    They immediately knew that fighting against me was definitely a bad idea. Their bones would definitely be broken, and the extortion would still take ce anyway.

    But they were not cowards.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "You want my stuff? Come get them." The big boys growled and entered his fighting stance. The other three immediately did the same.

    "We may not be as strong as you, but I''ll be damned if I let you walk all over me like that." The second boy said softly.

    "No, we are not here for your stuff." I said to him firmly.

    "We are not?" Rnd Hu turned to look at me in confusion.

    "We are not." Jack Yang said quietly. He had made the same observation and reached the same conclusion as me.

    "We are just here to¡­ uhm. Say hi. Which we have done. Ok, bye." I said before turning around and leaving the room.

    My three henchmen quickly followed me.

    "Huh?" The four boys werepletely confused.

    However, their own hierarchy battle beckoned, and they quickly forgot about us.

    But still, after showing a united front against amon enemy, I dare say their hierarchy battle would be settled very quickly.

    There was no need to squabble about who was the leader among brothers.

    We went on to the next room.

    I was about to open the door, with my hands this time, when Rnd Hu stopped me.

    "Wait a minute. Please tell me what''s going on! Are we getting tribute or not?" He asked with a tinge of exasperation in his voice.

    "We are. But only from rich ones." Jack Yang replied for me.

    "Or from the bullies." I added.

    "Oh. Like Robin Hood?" Rnd Hu finally realized what was going on.

    "Yes, like Robin Hood. Only that we don''t give our spoils to the poor." I grinned at him.

    "Alright. Fine by me. Give me a signal if we are going ahead with our uh¡­ protection scheme." Rnd Hu said.

    "Sure." I said and went ahead to open the second door.

    Unlike the other rooms, that particr room was quiet.

    All four boys were seated on their beds, and three of them had bruises on their faces.

    The fourth one, seated on the top right bunk, waspletely free from injuries.

    The fight to settle the hierarchy had ended, and there were only two levels.

    The fourth boy at the top, and the other three at the bottom.

    The fourth boy turned to look at us, and frowned deeply.

    "What the f*** are you doing here? Get the hell out of my room this very instant before I destroy you and your broke ass family!" He snarled.

    I smiled.

    Rnd Hu smiled.

    Jack Yang smiled.

    Barrick Rui¡­ he actually yawned. But let''s just say he smiled as well.

    Barrick Rui smiled.

    We had found our prey.

 Chapter 127 Didnt Have A Single Care

    We opened almost a hundred doors that day, and got all sorts of tribute from at least sixty rooms.

    Clothes. Pants. Watches. Wristbands. Even caps.

    As long as the boys in the room treated us roughly, we would respond in kind.

    Even if they didn''t, we would insist those with wealthier goods to be generous and share their luxury products with us.

    It wasn''t the most noble action.

    Looking back, I wasn''t really proud of what I did back then.

    But it was what it was, and I am what I am.

    I was a wolf in a massive building full of fat, clucking chicken. Some were even evil chicken.

    It was difficult not to take a bite!

    Or sixty.

    If I only just broke your erroneous impression that I was a hero''s hero from my childhood until now, then I have to say you''re a fool.

    I was a junkyard scrapper in possession of enormous power.

    I was no hero.

    I''ve killed people.

    I had personal agenda.

    Personal peeves.

    Personal grudges.

    And especially so against bullies.

    But I digress.

    Anyway, after a hundred rooms, our bags were full, and we decided to go back to our room.

    Weughed and joked all the way back, and somehow we failed to realize that the roar of all the fighting hadpletely subsided, and only a peaceful silence pervaded the atmosphere.

    Too peaceful.

    We only realized we were screwed when we saw a solemn looking Elder walking down the hallway with two burly teachers walking behind him.

    They had walked past our room, and had definitely found it empty because I could see that our room door was open.

    "Damn it." Rnd Hu swore softly under his breath. "I forgot about the fifteen minute time limit."

    "I didn''t." Barrick Rui grinned without a care.

    "What time limit?" I asked them in a whisper.

    "The unofficial time limit the academy would give us to settle the hierarchy issue." Barrick Rui replied.

    "Why didn''t you remind us?" Rnd Hu snapped at him rather frustratedly.

    "Why should I? It''ll be fun to see what the academy will do to us." Barrick Rui rolled his eyes at Rnd Hu.

    "You¡­" Rnd Hu gritted his teeth in frustration.

    "Rx. They allowed the fights to happen. They wouldn''t do anything to us." Jack Yang said softly.

    "Chill guys. Let me handle it." I said softly to them.

    "Well well well. What do we have here? The Champion and his buddies back from socializing with his many fans?" The Elder said with sarcasm dripping in his voice.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I sighed deeply.

    A hostile Elder. It won''t be pretty.

    "Ho! What are those bulging bags you have in your hands? Interesting! Interesting!" The Elder smiled sinisterly at us.

    "Good evening Elder, good evening teachers!" We all shouted as soon as we were close enough.

    "Good evening boys." The Elder glowered at us. The two burly teachers behind him merely remained silent. One of them, arge female, sneered at us.

    "May I ask what the four of you were doing outside your rooms?" The Elder asked even as his eyes stared daggers at us.

    At me, specifically.

    "We were socializing with the team mates with whom we had won today''s victory, Elder!" I shouted shamelessly in reply.

    "Socializing?" The Elder scoffed at my brazen lie and pointed at the bulging ck bag in my hand. "And what are in those bags?"

    "Gifts, Elder! Our team mates were so thankful at what I had done earlier today that they insisted that we take these gifts back with us!" I shouted loudly.

    "Hmph! Nonsense!" One of the teachers, a in looking bespectacled middle aged woman in a boring white dress scoffed at my words.

    "No, madam! It is not nonsense at all! In fact, some of them even screamed words such as "TAKE THIS! AND THIS! MY SURNAME WON''T BE HUANG IF I LET YOU WALK OUT OF THIS ROOM THIS WAY!!" I shouted loudly.

    Indeed they had screamed words like that.

    In apletely different context, of course, but the words were exactly the same.

    "Great. A tongue twister." The other teacher sighed deeply. But he did so with a smile.

    My mood brightened considerably when I saw his smile.

    A friendly!

    "This crisis might be resolved far more easily if I have a friendly teacher to bounce my words and schemes against!" I thought happily.

    "Open the bags." The Elder demanded in a silky smooth voice that brooked no disobedience.

    But I had not managed to outlive thousands of stronger and faster junkyard scrappers, and steer myself out of certain doom by being obedient, even in the face of the scariest adversary.

    And so I merely smiled at the Elder and said¡­

    "No."

    The Elder''s eyes bulged out in shock.

    He truly did not expect to be rejected outright!

    The smile on the burly male teacher widened even as the frown on the huge and boring looking female teacher deepened.

    "You dare defy me?" The Elder hissed and took a threatening step forward, cing himself ufortably within my personal space.

    "Yes." I replied in an annoyed tone and straightened my shoulders while jutting my chest out. I did not budge from my position and merely stared back fearlessly into his eyes.

    "Article seventeen of Student Rights within the National Mecha Pilot Academy. Students have the right of privacy over their personal items, unless during an emergency." Barrick Rui''szy voice drawled out from beside me.

    The Elder whipped his head towards Barrick Rui so quickly that he even took me slightly by surprise.

    His eyes glinted dangerously at Barrick Rui.

    "Very good. Let us take that article and examine your actions against it. I hope you also memorized that all who are found in breach of said article will receive discipline ranging from mild to harsh, depending on the severity of the breach, to be executed by any member of higher rank after being corroborated by a second person." The Elder sneered at Barrick Rui who merely shrugged as though he didn''t have a single care in the world.

    I chuckled.

    He probably didn''t.

 Chapter 128 Elder Urama

    For the second time that day, the door of the room next to us mmed open.

    BAM!

    Thankfully, or rather, unfortunately, no one was behind it that second time.

    It would be an interesting case if the Elder identally injured a student by mming the door open too hard.

    "WHO THE- oh. Good evening Elder Urama!" The big boy was about to curse vehemently when he caught sight of the Elder and stopped himself in time.

    "You boys. Answer me truthfully and immediately. Did these four troublemakers take anything from you?" Elder Urama barked.

    "No, Elder, they did not!" The four boys shouted in unison.

    "Good. As you were." With that, Elder Urama pushed us out and closed the door.

    Or tried to close the door.

    But because I had broken the door earlier, it failed to close properly.

    "Elder, you shouldn''t have mmed the door open so hard. See? You''ve broken the door. The poor boys probably can''t sleep properly tonight because of this!" I said loudly and shamelessly pushed the me to that damned Elder Urama.

    "What? I did not break anything! The room door was already-" Elder Urama began.

    However, I sighed deeply and right on cue, Rnd Hu whispered loudly to Jack Yang.

    "It was already broken when I found it! That''s exactly what my five year old brother said when he broke my dad''s vasest week! To think that an Elder of this prestigious academy is acting like a five year old!" Rnd Hu said in a whisper that was so loud that the boys in the room could hear it.

    Even though they tried to hide their sniggers, they failed to do so spectacrly.

    "You!!" Elder Urama glowered at Rnd Hu angrily.

    Rnd Hu merely looked at him and blinked innocently like an innocent ten year old boy.

    Well he was a ten year old boy. But innocent he definitely was not.

    "Fine! I will pay for the full repair of this room door!" He roared. "Let''s go to the next room!"

    Like me, Elder Urama learnt his lesson, and he opened the next room door rather carefully with his hand.

    "You boys! Did these four troublemakers take any of your things?" Elder Urama asked them loudly.

    Upon hearing those words, the fourth boy who was the young master of an affluent and powerful family, immediately leapt down from his bed!

    "Yes! They beat me up and stole my most expensive shirt and pants! Elder! You must give me justice today!" He shouted loudly and grabbed Elder Urama''s hand desperately.

    "Well well well. What do we have here?" Elder Urama''s angry face suddenly softened and became gentle like an angel. "Don''t worry, my dear boy. I will make sure that justice is served today. So, you''re telling me that they BEAT you up, and then TOOK your shirt and your pants?"

    "Yes! They did! Look at my wounds!" The fourth boy cried out indignantly and showed Elder Urama his bruises on his arms, legs and feet.

    We had done a thorough job on that spoilt bully, and he was truly a pitiful sight back then.

    Not that any of his bunkmates looked any better though. HE had done a thorough job on them as well, before we got to him.

    "So, assault and robbery." Elder Urama''s eyes glinted dangerously as he turned to look at the four of us.

    I could hear Rnd Hu gulp lightly in fear and his heart beating fast. However, very strangely, Jack Yang and Barrick Rui''s hearts were calm and their heartbeats steady.

    They had no fear at all over what wasing.

    "Teacher Judy and Teacher Tom. You two are my witnesses. What are the consequences of assault and robbery within our glorious academy?" Elder Urama asked in his silky smooth voice.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "For assault. Ten demerit points, a written first warning, and five publicshes with a cane." Teacher Judy immediately replied with undisguised glee.

    "Excellent. I shall hereby execute the disciplinary action! For the assault of student-" Elder Urama turned to look at the fourth boy.

    "Daniel Lie." He replied eagerly.

    "Of Daniel Lie! Ten demerit points to the four of you! A written warning. Teacher Judy, proceed to send the warning to their families right now. And five publicshes." Elder Urama smirked at the four of us as a thick but flexible looking cane suddenly appeared in his hands.

    "You-you can''t do that! Every-" Rnd Hu was about to protest in absolute horror when Barrick Rui suddenly grabbed him and closed his mouth with his hand.

    "Keep quiet." Barrick Rui said softly and seriously.

    Barrick Rui was no loser who would roll over and allow anyone to trample over him that way. And neither was I.

    At that moment, the two of us were as two wolves allowing ourselves to be ensnared by the evil hunter.

    We were retreating to advance, and somehow, we understood each other perfectly.

    Jack Yang, though nowhere as sneaky and cunning as the two of us, was an excellent read of character.

    He had long understood that Barrick Rui and I were not to be underestimated in any circumstance, especially in a circumstance such as that moment where we stood to lose quite a lot.

    So he took our silence as what it was in actuality - a part of a bigger n.

    "Hmph. It is good that you know your ce, fatty. Fiveshes! Starting with you then!" Elder Urama raised his cane and swung it down suddenly and very savagely upon Barrick Rui''s left arm!

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    Even though he had his shirt on, blood immediately seeped through it as his skin tore and started to bleed.

    Barrick Rui winced mightily and released his grip on  Rnd Hu as he tried to deal with the massive wave of pain shooting up his arm. He was barely able to take a deep, shuddering breath when...

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    Elder Urama''s cane cameshing down once more at the exact same spot!!

    It was beyond vicious.

    My eyes had narrowed to a slit, and my heart burned with anger.

    BA-DUMP!

    BA-DUMP!

    The red mecha core within my heart started to react to my great anger.

    But at that moment, I was too angry to care!

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    Three more viciousshes struck Barrick Rui with ferocious strength, and by the end of it, Barrick Rui was in so much pain that he copsed onto the floor powerlessly.

    "He is dead. He is so dead." I swore in my heart as I watched Elder Urama''s face smirk in satisfaction.

 Chapter 129 Tremor Cane

    "Next up, you, little coward." Elder Urama smiled evilly at Rnd Hu.

    By that time, as scared as he was, he had finally figured out that something was up. And that the punishments were a necessary step in that process.

    So he gritted his teeth and steeled his heart for what wasing.

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    PIAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

    Like Barrick Rui, he too copsed to the ground, bleeding profusely from his arm. But unlike Barrick Rui whose face was merely contorted in pain, anger and a deep sense of anticipation, Rnd Hu was whimpering and in tears.

    He was quite thin, and Elder Urama''sshes had ripped the flesh out of his arm, and exposed the bone!!

    It was a miracle that he did not faint.

    Thankfully, the burly male teacher had some advanced medication on him, and he immediately moved to help Rnd Hu.

    Apparently he hade prepared. It probably wasn''t Elder Urama''s first rodeo.

    "You should let them taste the pain a while longer, Teacher Tom." Elder Urama said disapprovingly.

    However, Teacher Tom ignored him and immediately applied powerful medication to ease Rnd Hu''s pain and heal his arm.

    After that, he continued to do the same to Barrick Rui.

    "Hmph. A teacher, yet so unteachable." Elder Urama spat. "Come here, you!"

    Jack Yang obliged and took a step closer to Elder Urama to get within his range

    Knowing that Teacher Tom would instantly move to heal him anyway, the vicious Elder Urama struck Jack Yang with all of his strength!!

    In fact, he was so savage in his attack that by his fifth strike, Jack Yang''s arm actually snapped into two!

    The stoic faced Jack Yang finally cried out in pain when that happened.

    My mind nearly snapped along with Jack Yang''s arm.

    I had already lost track of just how many times my red mecha core had triggered in my heart, nor did I pay attention to the vast amount of red energy that had gathered in my body.

    All I could do was fight back the haze of anger threatening to overwhelm me by holding on to the thought that I would soon y that son of a bitch the same way he did my friends.

    "Hahahahahahaha! Oops. I identally broke his arm. Teacher Tom, you have the medication to heal him, don''t you?" Elder Uramaughed out gleefully as he watched Teacher Tom scramble to help Jack Yang.

    After a few seconds, he turned to me.

    "And now for the champion! s! It is such a pity that such strength is apanied by such vile character. I should teach you a proper lesson so that you can repent of your sins.

    And I know that you have an exceptionally strong body. Elder Harris had told me all about you. And so, in the name of fairness so that you too will feel the purifying pain that your friends did, I will be executing your punishment by using this special Tremor Cane!

    What exactly is a Tremor Cane? Ha! I will let you find out by tasting it yourself!" Elder Urama hooted with evil glee.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But at his words, Teacher Judy had widened her eyes in shock.

    "Elder! The Tremor Cane is a Grade B weap-" Teacher Judy started to say urgently.

    "Shut your mouth, Teacher Judy." Elder Urama hissed softly at her. She nched in fear and instantly shut her mouth as she was told.

    However, Teacher Tom stood up and red at Elder Urama sternly.

    "No. I will not let you use the Tremor Cane on a ten year old boy." He said quietly.

    "You will not LET me?" Elder Urama''s already soft voice dropped even lower.

    "I will not." Teacher Tom repeated himself as he clenched his fist and prepared to prevent the Tremor Cane from being used on me at all costs.

    "Teacher Judy. On my authority as an Elder of the National Mecha Pilot Academy, Imand you to arrest Teacher Tom for rebellion." Elder Urama said grimly.

    There was only a slight hesitation on Teacher Judy''s part before she leapt ahead to tackle Teacher Tom.

    Teacher Tom was no slouch, and very soon, they werepletely entangled in a furious fight.

    "Justin, run! Find another Elder! Quick!!" Teacher Tom shouted desperately.

    But that was all he managed to say before Teacher Judy''s ferocious attack sequence forced him to pay full attention to his defense.

    Of course at that moment, I had no ns to run. In fact, I was even looking forward to seeing just how viciously powerful the Tremo Cane was.

    "You aren''t gonna run? I have to say, you''re a brave boy." Elder Urama''s smile returned at full force when he realized that he didn''t have to waste energy chasing after me.

    He kept his bloodied cane and reced it with a simr looking one which started to hum lightly as soon as he pressed a button.

    If a simple observer heard that hum, he would probably just look at the Tremor Cane in confusion.

    "Why is the cane humming?" They would think.

    The even more innocent, or rather, foolish ones, would even think, "Could it be a strange toy of sorts? A fake, low quality lightsaber, perhaps?"

    But for me with my sharp senses, I could clearly see and hear exactly why the Tremor Cane was humming.

    It was vibrating at extremely high speed!

    If it was to be smashed at a normal metal te, the metal te would instantly be violently shredded off at the point of impact.

    It was no toy. It was a vicious weapon designed to inflict incredible damage upon armored objects, or inhumane pain upon unarmored life forms!

    For it to be used against a ten year old first grader¡­

    "Good. Very good." I remember thinking with cold fury roiling in my heart. "Let''s see if my white mecha armor will break first, or your damn hand holding on to the Tremor Cane!"

    "Good boy. Now stand still while I¡­ WHIP THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF YOU!" Elder Urama roared loudly and raised his Tremor Cane up high in a two-hand samurai grip!!

    Hum! BZZZZZAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!

    The Tremor Cane smashed against my left arm with incredible power!

 Chapter 130 Attacking An Elder?

    The Tremor Cane was a very well designed weapon. It had a powerful shock absorbing system which allowed the wielder topletely avoid experiencing the "tremors" of the cane.

    But only up to a point.

    Against most objects that human beings could wield with their bare hands such as shields and swords, the Tremor Cane would definitely st through them like hot steel through butter.

    Or a more apt illustration would be a hammer being smashed on a lump of butter.

    That was why it was a Grade B weapon - Extremely Dangerous at Close Distance.

    However, against stronger objects such as the armor of a heavy mecha or even a well made tank, the Tremor Cane waspletely useless.

    In fact, it was more than useless. Wielding a Tremor Cane as smashing it against armor above its ability to destroy would force the cane''s destructive vibrations to travel up the wielder''s hand instead of through to its target.

    It would be as though the wielder was using the Tremor Cane on his own hand.

    And that, in short, was exactly what happened then.

    The powerful Tremor Cane smashed onto my fully armored left arm with the full strength of an Elder.

    The Tremor Cane''s powerful downward motion was forcefully halted by my white mecha armor and its violently vibrating segment shattered its shock absorption systempletely.

    And then, every single ounce of destructive force released by the Tremor Cane travelled up Elder Urama''s hand and, I kid you not, caused his hand to explode on the spot.

    RIPPPPPPPP!!!! SPLATTTT!!!

    Blood. Flesh. Bone fragments. Finger segments.

    A bloody shower of what used to be Elder Urama''s hand erupted all around me.

    Caughtpletely by surprise and utterly unable to handle the pain, Elder Urama''s self defense mechanism kicked in and caused him to copse in a dead faint.

    Bam.

    His body crumpled onto the floor and the Tremor Cane left his hand where it immediately detected the absence of wielder, and switched itself off.

    "Elder Urama!" Teacher Judy shouted in horror before her chest heaved and she vomited her half digested lunch out.

    Teacher Tom immediately took out hismunicator and smashed the emergency button.

    By that time, I had retracted my armor, and was looking down at Elder Urama coldly.

    A pool of blood was rapidly forming around his badly mangled shoulder stump, and he would die within the minute if nothing was done.

    Of course I didn''t want him dead.

    Dying right there and then was mercy for him.

    So I did what the whole world misinterpreted as a saintly action on my part.

    "Teacher Tom! Stop the bleeding! Quick!!" I shouted desperately.

    "There''s no way I would let you die so easily!" I thought to myself.

    But of course, I was the only one who knew my thoughts. Everybody else thought I was concerned for Elder Urama''s well being.

    Horseshit.

    With Elder Urama''s fainting, the immediate drama came to a screeching halt.

    The emergency quick response team reached us within two minutes, while Bruce Pang and Jete Wen reached us within three. A bunch of other teachers, Elders and Grand Elders reached us within four.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Bruce Pang saw the Tremor Cane, Elder Urama''s stump, my bunkmates'' bloody shirts, the wounded kids from the room next door and our bulging bags, and he instantly knew what happened.

    Who was Bruce Pang?

    He was one of the Eight Mecha Gods of the Federation, and the Principal of the National Mecha Pilot Academy.

    He could read battle tracks like a book, and the situation then was as easy as reading a children''s book for him.

    His eyes narrowed down in anger at the horrendouspse in security within the dorm, and at the danger that had been leveled at his little brother.

    True, no harm whatsoever had befallen on me. But it was only due to my own incredible strength.

    A truly dangerous situation that could easily kill any other kid had developed around me, and that situation''s development waspletely uneptable for Bruce.

    "How are the three kids?" Bruce Pang asked Jete Wen who had immediately dived to my bunkmates to check their condition without even sparing the unconscious and bloodied Elder Urama a nce.

    Her first priority were the students!

    The fact that she didn''t give me more than a very brief nce spoke volumes of the confidence that she had of me.

    "They are perfectly fine." Jete Wen said in a relieved voice. "Teacher Tom, you did well to administer the medication on them swiftly."

    "I failed to prevent the final fiasco. I have failed you, Vice Principal Wen." Teacher Tom said softly but firmly.

    "We will discuss that after a full investigation." Jete Wen said as she stood up and finally looked at me properly.

    Of every single person involved in the incident, I was the only one who was fully unscathed.

    Not a single hair was out of ce, and not a single mark sullied my perfect skin.

    Any outsider looking at the situation would definitely think that I was the perpetrator instead of the victim.

    But there were no outsiders there. Only factions.

    And the politics began almost as soon as Jete Wen confirmed my bunkmates'' safety.

    "Attacking an Elder! With a Tremor-" An young male teacher who was obviously in a faction that was against me or the Whitefrost n started to say.

    But that was as far as he got.

    WHAM!!!!

    Bruce Pang whirled and gave him a massive back handed p so powerful that the young male teacher was sent flying away!

    He crashed on the side wall heavily and passed out.

    "For failing to notice the obvious, and for being so god damned stupid, you''re fired." Bruce Pang said softly to the young teacher''s unconscious form.

    Oh he was pissed.

    More than pissed, in fact.

    The dead bodies that piled up in the following days proved it beyond reasonable doubt.

    All of his staff members remainedpletely silent and still. None wanted to be on the receiving end of Bruce Pang''s anger.

    "Take him away." Jete Wen said to the teachers around him with a sigh. "And make sure he gets on his way properly."

    "Yes, Vice Principal Wen." Two male teachers responded immediately and took him away.

 Chapter 131 Ready To Devour Deathscythe!

    "Grand Elder Hisui. Preserve the scene. Get statements from everyone involved, and get the Dragon Faction''s Grand Elders to meet me in my office." Bruce Pang said emotionlessly to the emergency response team which consisted of a Grand Elder, two Elders and five teachers.

    "The Dragon Faction was in a s***load of trouble." Everyone there had no trouble peering into the future and determining the fate of the Dragon Faction.

    "Yes, Principal." The Grand Elder Hisui bowed in acknowledgement.

    "Make sure this retard stays alive to pay for his¡­ idiocy." Bruce Pang added. Of course he knew that Elder Urama was no idiot.

    No teacher was so stupid to use a Grade B weapon on a first grader.

    But whatever his motivation was behind his action, his fate waspletely sealed.

    Angry Bruce Pang is someone you should avoid at all costs. ALL costs. Even if you had to rip your arm off to make a clean escape.

    "Go back to your rooms after giving your statements." Bruce Pang said to the four of us gently. "I will give you and your families an exnation for this incident."

    "Yes, Principal Pang." We said quietly.

    We gave our statements and quickly went into our room with our loot- ah, I mean, our tribute intact.

    We settled down on our beds, and Iid down with a deep sigh.

    I wasn''t quite ready to let Elder Urama go just yet, I still needed the emotional release of watching him suffer!

    But I knew from the start that even if I managed to flip the tables around on him, it would be a long road, so I reluctantly let the issue go. Temporarily.

    After all, he had fainted, and Bruce Pang was already involved.

    He couldn''t run away even if the President himself were to intervene.

    Plus, it had been an extremely long day for me, and one that was actually quite an emotional roller coaster.

    The gains I had made in terms of red energy was extremely abundant, and I actually couldn''t wait to check my harvest!

    However, my bunkmates still needed exnations.

    "What the hell was that?" Rnd Hu was the first to open his mouth. Understandably, he was shaken, and he needed a reason for the great pain he had to experience earlier.

    "Yes. What were you two nning?" Jack Yang asked curiously. Unlike Rnd, Jack was much calmer, and he was only curious about our ns.

    I nced at Barrick Rui who had a thin smile on his face, and indicated that he do the exining.

    "Ehm. Well, basically. Elder Urama was making a mistake by punishing us, and I wanted us to eat those punishments first, before turning the table on him. You see, even though the "assault" usation he ced on us was actually true, it was definitely something which the academy didn''t want to process.

    Because if we were processed for "assault", then-"

    "Then the entire first grade must be processed for assaulting each other! It would be a horrible mess!" Rnd Hu''s eyes immediately widened in realization.

    "Yes." Barrick Rui said grimly. "I was nning to get my family to demand justice by forcing that damn Elder Urama to uphold justice and punish every single student who fought today. Elder Urama would definitely get on the wrong side of the academy, AND the powerful families."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "That is a good n." Jack Yang nodded in approval.

    "WAS a good n. With his ill advised-"

    "You mean dumbass." I interrupted him with augh.

    "I apologize. Yes, with his dumbass act of using that vile Tremor Cane on Justin, he had very literally shot himself in the foot. Arm, in his case, and more than just a gunshot." Barrick Rui chuckled evilly.

    "Hmph. Good riddance. I hope his arm never grows back." Rnd Hu spat vehemently.

    "Grow¡­ back?" I thought to myself and nced down at my own prosthetic arm.

    "I doubt anybody would bother growing it back for him. He''s a liability to any faction now. And if my guesses are right, Elder Urama would soon be an ex-staff of the academy, and very probably the newest addition to the National Prison." Barrick Rui continued.

    He turned to look at me seriously.

    "Justin, you''re extremely lucky that Tremor Cane malfunctioned when it did. If not, you might just be the first student to die on your first day." Barrick Rui said.

    I merely chuckled and didn''t say anything.

    They didn''t see the mecha armor which materialized on my arms. They were probably still numb with shock over what was happening then.

    As resoundingly impressive as their names are right now, they were, afterall, ten year old kids then.

    It was natural that they missed the biggest clue I had revealed to the world about Devour.

    Bruce Pang probably also cleaned up the CCTVs that day, because nothing came out of the reveal of my mecha armor in that incident.

    "Yes. You''re beyond lucky." Rnd Hu added. "But it is extremely strange, though. Using a Tremor Cane on a first year student is basically attempted murder! Why did he do that?"

    "I have no idea." I replied honestly. "He probably had an inted view of my physical strength. I did thrash the Longs up pretty badly in my entrance exam after all."

    "That you certainly did!" Jack Yang said enthusiastically. "I was actually quite close to your location when you took them on in that starting valley! Damn, you were so cool back then!"

    "Cool? He''s more than cool! He''s like a real life superhero!" Rnd Hu cried out with even more enthusiasm. "I have never seen or even heard of the Longs being so embarrassed in my entire life! My dad had always warned me to stay away from them at all costs. They are not worth the effort to get close to, he always said. But damn, you really took them down a notch that day!"

    "Down a notch? More like smashed them into the mud and dragged them around for a couple of miles!" Jack Yang hooted with gleefulughter.

    I chuckled at their joyful recollections of the pleasant memories I made for them in the past few days and allowed my attention to wander into my body.

    As soon as I did that, I was instantly shocked beyond measure.

    My entire body was filled to the BRIM with red energy! And most importantly¡­ I was done assimting everything I had absorbed!

    The white mecha cores, the blues I absorbed in the cleansing of the country, everything!

    "Holy smokes." I remember thinking. "I am ready to devour Deathscythe!!"

 Chapter 132 Chatting With Bunkmates

    That moment was an incredible one for me.

    My "devour capacity" had increased tremendously due to the advancement of my red energy quality caused by the Ancestor''s serum, as well as due to the sharp spike in red energy volume caused by the emotional roller coaster I was on for the past few days.

    And with all the "digesting" done, I was finally ready to do more devouring.

    Blue mechas, white mechas, anything. All I needed was targets.

    "I need to find the strongest white mechas and devour them secretly!" I thought to myself. "If possible, IF I could somehow find a golden mecha¡­"

    I remember feeling extremely exhrated at the thought.

    "Hey guys!" I said very loudly to interrupt Rnd and Jack who were arguing quite heatedly about how quickly the Long Family would be overtaken by the Whitefrosts as the premier family in the Federation now that I hadpletely thrashed their youngest and brightest generation.

    And also to wake Barrick Rui up who was already snoring loudly on his bed.

    "What do you know about golden mechas?" I asked them as soon as I had gotten their attention.

    "Golden mechas? The most powerful mechas in all of creation?" Rnd Hu''s voice rose to a high pitch in surprise and reverence.

    "Yes, those golden mechas. Do we have them in the Federation?" I asked him eagerly.

    "Of course¡­ not!" Jack Yang said with a ruefulugh. "If we had a golden mecha, we would not be bullied by the Americans and the Europeans this way! The reason why they are the only two countries to call themselves superpowers in this world with no other country bold enough to call themselves that is simply because they are in possession of golden mechas."

    "Golden mechas are that powerful? How exactly do they make America and Europe superpowers?" I asked curiously.

    "A single LIGHT golden mecha is worth a thousand HEAVY white mechas. And that is a modest estimate." Barrick Rui said with a huge yawn.

    "A squad of ten golden mechas can sit in ten different cities in this Federation and hold the citizens of the entire country hostage, and we would have absolutely NO way to dislodge them apart from detonating all of our nuclear arsenal.

    But that would defeat the purpose of detonating them in the first ce since the nuclear st would kill all of our citizens.

    Golden mechas are, in short, the backbone of superpowers.

    The only reason why America and Europe are not in full control of the entire world is simply because they are wary of each other, and are very aggressively checking each other''s powers.

    This world is in a stalemate of their making, and the fate of our freedom is at the whim of their decisions." Barrick Rui said heavily and instantly destroyed the slightly fun mood which the room was in.

    "I have never heard of our situation phrased that way before." Jack Yang finally said quietly after several long seconds had passed.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "It sucks big time." Rnd Hu added bitterly.

    "Your parents have been foolishly shielding you from the truth." Barrick Rui said rather unkindly, but in a gentle tone to take the edge off his words.

    Rnd Hu and Jack Yang merely sighed.

    "You must be a nobleman''s son." Rnd Hu said to Barrick Rui. "Only noblemen teach such heavy stuff to their children. Just what does the Rui family do anyway? I have never heard of you guys."

    I looked at Barrick Rui with great interest. Although I wasn''t done asking my questions about golden mechas, I was quite interested in Barrick Rui''s family background.

    His words, his thinking and his actions had been pretty impressive thus far.

    "Of course you have never heard of us. We are not very high profile, and we are not very powerful like the Longs and the Whitefrosts." Barrick Rui said with a chuckle. "We are content to just livefortably, mind our own business, and merely act to safeguard our interests."

    His words sounded extremely reasonable, and we all instantly believed him.

    "He is probably the son of a middle-high ss nobleman who is extremely well educated and very updated with the world''s situation. Probably dealing with foreign rtions or something." We all thought, and left it at that.

    I wouldter learn just how powerful the Rui Family actually was, and just how ridiculously wide ranging the words "act to safeguard our interests" were, which as you know is their favorite narrative.

    "Aren''t you a nobleman''s son too, Rnd?" Jack Yang asked. "Your physical enhancements are quite impressive. Most kids would have fainted after getting hit by my uppercut earlier. But you weren''t even injured!"

    "Oh that. My father got a gift from one of his nobleman clients whom he had helped very tremendously. It was a powerful physical enhancement serum, and he gave it to me to eliminate my physical weakness." Rnd Hu said dismissively, but with pride clearly oozing out of his voice.

    "Lucky you." Jack Yang said with a regretful sigh. "Would be great if I could get my hands on a physical enhancement serum as well."

    ? "Why the interest in golden mechas anyway? For us, even being the elites of the country doesn''t ce us any closer to being able to see a golden mecha, much less ride in one, much, much less pilot one." Barrick Rui asked me to steer the conversation to more interesting stuff.

    "They are the most powerful mechas in existence. Of course he is interested. I am too!" Rnd Hu said as he answered Barrick Rui''s question automatically for me.

    "Yes, I really would like to see one if possible. It''ll be such an awesome experience." I sighed with great yearning. "And a FILLING experience too!" I thought to myself.

    "If you just want to see one, it isn''t impossible." Jack Yang said suddenly.

    "What? What do you mean? Where can I see a golden mecha? Tell me quick!" Rnd Hu, ever my spokesperson whether intentionally or not, shouted all the questions that I wanted to ask with great fervor.

 Chapter 133 Breakfast Rush

    "Well, I am sure you know about the tension between the Federation and the European Empire, right?" Jack Yang said.

    "Of course. Russel Whitefrost massacred their High Embassy. It was crazy!" Rnd Hu replied instantly.

    "I heard a rumor that the Europeans n to send a golden mecha to "visit" the Federation to investigate the case! And because the Europeans are sending in a golden mecha, the Americans would be doing the same thing too! If that''s the case, then there would actually be two golden mechas in the Federation soon. And if they are here, then merely catching a sight of them wouldn''t be a problem." Jack Yang said.

    My eyes gleamed at his words.

    Not one, but two golden mechas??

    Jackpot!!

    Now, if I could somehow devour them both, and make it look like the other party somehow stole each other''s mechas...

    My mind started to race as scheme after scheme, n after n, and scenario after scenario ran through my mind.

    "How did you hear of that? I thought that was actually ssified information. My dad said not to tell anybody about that." Barrick Rui then chuckled at his own words when he heard how it actually sounds.

    "Yeah. As if "don''t tell anyone that" actually means anything in this time and age." Jack Yangughed.

    "Oh well. I guess there''s no harm telling you that the golden mechas will arrive sometime this week. Both would be arriving together in the same ship. In fact, it would be apletely joint investigation led by the American Goldie "to keep things objective"." Barrick Rui said.

    My ears perked up at those words.

    "By ship? What ship? Which port? When exactly?" Rnd Hu once again read my mind and asked the exact questions I wanted to ask.

    "Of course I wasn''t told the details. Do I look like an important member of the Federation''s weing party to you?" Barrick Rui replied while rolling his eyes at Rnd. "But it isn''t hard to figure out that the mechas would arrive in the Shanghai Port. That''s the only port big enough to aodate the two mechas."

    "So we just need to look out for a humongous ship big enough to fit two golden mechas, and we will have a chance to catch a glimpse of them when they leave the ship?" Rnd Hu asked excitedly.

    "More or less. If you''re a homeless streetrat of Shanghai, you might be able to do that. Too bad for you, you''re a student of the glorious National Mecha Pilot Academy, and you would be thousands of miles away buried in schoolwork when the mechas arrive. Woe to you." Barrick Rui said in his trademark dry voice.

    "Oh bummer. Lucky street rats." Rnd Hu grumbled and sighed deeply as heid down on his bed.

    After that, the conversations sort of died down as each of us slowly got lost in our own thoughts. Well, for three of us, at least. Barrick Rui was lost in his dreams within minutes.

    Two golden mechas.

    It is extremely difficult to exin the allure that the two golden mechas had on me.

    They were the very definition of power, and I had the ability to take them and make them a part of me.

    It was like looking at a video of highly skilled martial artists, and knowing that if you are able to just get close to them, you would be able to absorb all of their powers.

    Something like that, just scaled up a billion times.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Or maybe it was like a master thief looking at news about the most expensive set of jewelry ever created, full of fist sized diamonds and emeralds and rubies set upon pure, unblemished gold, and knowing that if he was able to find out where the jewelry was located, he would definitely be able to steal it, one way or another.

    I was hungry for the golden mechas.

    Starving, in fact.

    I spent the whole night nning and scheming how I could get my hands on the golden mechas.

    And when dawn broke the next day, I had turned into a grumpy, mentally exhausted little kid without a wink of sleep after a ferociously exciting and tiring first day of school.

    True, physically I was actually fine. I was brimming with my red energy and the power of many, many blue mecha cores and a white mecha cores swirled in their dormant states within me, ready to instantly respond to my will.

    But my mind was tired.

    And because of that, I was very, very irritable.

    And no, I am not making excuses for what happened that day.

    I am merely stating facts about my mental condition.

    Straight facts, unblemished.

    "Good morning guys!" Rnd Hu shouted loudly as soon as our central rm rang loudly. "It''s our second day of school, and first day of official lessons! Let''s not bete!"

    "Gah!! Central rm! If I had known they had central rm systems in here, I wouldn''t have agreed toe! Damn it! Damn it all!" Barrick Rui cursed his parents vehemently and buried his head under his pillow.

    "I heard breakfast is firste first served. I think we shoul-"

    SLAM!!

    Jack Yang hadn''t even finished his sentence when Barrick Rui and I somehow got to our room door, mmed it open and dashed towards themon cafetaria!

    "Damn it all! Why is our room so far away from the Central Commons!!" Barrick Rui shouted as we ran at top speed, neck and neck towards the cafeteria.

    "Damn it all! Look at that! At least five room doors are open! We need to hurry before all the good stuff gets taken!" I shouted in near panic.

    "You''re right! Faster! Faster!!" Barrick Rui shouted as his eyes gleamed maniacally. He increased his running speed and incredibly, began to edge forward ahead of me!!

    I was 60 kilograms, physically boosted by a bunch of mecha cores.

    He was 120 kilograms, unboosted.

    That damned fatty must be starving!

 Chapter 134 Irresponsible Elder

    As it turned out, we were worrying for nothing.

    Themon cafeteria was¡­ ridiculouslyrge.

    It wasrge enough to seat fifteen thousand kidsfortably, and feed them till their stomachs burst.

    No matter how much the first thousand kids ate, they wouldn''t be able to put a dent on the supply of the "good stuff".

    Infinite food!

    For street rats like me, it was heaven on earth!

    We charged towards the blindingly bright light that was the cafeteria at full speed and burst out of the corridor triumphantly.

    The ceiling, which was a decent four meters tall in the corridor, suddenly opened up to a full ten meters, and rows upon rows upon rows of tables and benches were lined up neatly in front of us, nearly filling up the enormous room.

    And of course, because the central rm had just rang, there were barely a thousand students there.

    I quickly realized that we were rushing for nothing. All was well! All the good stuff were still safe!

    "Ehm." I cleared my throat and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible as I transitioned from a full sprint to a casual walk within a split second.

    However, with Barrick Rui and his 120kg body running at an even faster speed than me, there was no such thing as inconspicuous in the oue of our mad sprint.

    I was able to slow down instantly into a casual walk.

    But Barrick Rui? Hell no.

    He tried to stop, but s! He was way too big, way too fast and way too close to the tables which were hidden behind the re of the cafeteria''s bright lights earlier!

    BANG! CRASH!! BAAMMM!! BOOOMMMM!!! SCREEEEE!!!

    He collided into the nearest table at full speed and caused it to crash at the benches and the next table at an angle, and then caused them to crash to the next ones, and the next ones, and the next ones as well!!

    It was a spectacr¡­ spectacle.

    Unfortunately, or rather, thankfully, there was only one person caught within the "explosion" of tables and benches.

    And wonderfully, for me, that person was none other than¡­ Elder Harris!!

    "Barrick! Are you alright? Oh my god, you look awful! Who the hell ced a table so close to the entrance of the corridor?!" I roared in "anger".

    Have I told you that offence is the best defence? If I hadn''t, then I am telling you now. And this story should help to cement that saying as the most powerful saying ever created by military strategists.

    "Someone! Help! My friend Barrick crashed into a very badly ced table near the corridor!!" I shouted.

    The nearest teacher instantly sprang to her feet and dashed towards us to rescue Barrick from his crash with ah, a very badly ced table.

    Barrick Rui had mmed onto the first table with his two hands positioned in a cross to protect his belly and his little Barrick.

    As a result, his arms were broken due to the massive impact caused by his great speed and great weight.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Aohhhh." Barrick Rui groaned in pain as heid there on the ground.

    The teacher instantly took out an advanced healing serum and injected Barrick''s broken arms with it.

    Within seconds, his arms were as good as new!

    "Hey there, little boy. You''re okay now." The teacher said gently as she sighed with relief that everything else with Barrick seemed fine.

    "Thank goodness. It would be a catastrophe if something serious happened to another kid, right after the fiasco that happened yesterday evening!" She murmured softly.

    The teacher was a pretty young woman, probably in her early twenties.

    She was very well endowed, and had a nearly perfect figure. In my opinion, she was a tad too well endowed. But for others, she was probably beyond perfect because of that.

    Her red hair was tied up neatly into a bun above her head, revealing a beautiful neck and wlessplexion that would make the beauty queens of the world gag with jealousy.

    Her white teaching attire and her ck rimmed sses made her the most beautiful teacher I had ever seen.

    From Barrick''s point of view, she was God''s most beautiful angel sent down to bring light to his dark and gloomy world.

    "Oh my god. I can''t believe I died because of that stupid crash with a table." Barrick muttered as he gaped stupidly at the beautiful teacher.

    "You''re not dead yet, silly!" The teacher giggled at Barrick''s cute expression and words.

    "I''m not dead? How can angels lie? My pain instantly disappeared, and you appeared before me. If this isn''t heaven, then where else could this be?" Barrick asked rather stupidly.

    His brain must still be in shock or something.

    "Uhm. The cafeteria? Haha!" The teacherughed. "Come on, get up now. You''re fine! I need to clean up this mess before the rest of the kids arrive."

    "Huh?" Barrick Rui lifted his head a little, looked around and finally saw me smirking down at him from a few steps away.

    "Oh thank god. I really am not dead. It''s impossible for that bastard to be in heaven." He sighed with relief as he slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position.

    "Hey, watch your words. I was the one who called for help! If not, you''d probably still be crying in pain right now." I said to him sternly as though the teachers wouldn''t have heard the massive crash if I hadn''t shouted for help.

    I helped him to his feet and grinned at him. He grinned back at me stupidly.

    However, his grin soon disappeared as he pointed to a spot behind me in horror.

    "Huh? Is that¡­ a human leg over there??" He shouted.

    "Oh! Yes there was someone sitting on this table earlier. He must be the one who moved it so close to the corridor!" I shouted even louder in an using voice.

    The pretty and very helpful teacher immediately leapt ahead to rescue the owner of the leg sticking out under a table.

    "Huh? Elder Harris? Are you alright??" She shouted in horror as she lifted the table covering him away.

    "An Elder? An Elder actually did such a dangerous thing of blocking the main corridor? How could there be such aN irresponsible Elder?" I shouted in mock disbelief.

 Chapter 135 Sandwiches

    "Hahhhhh." Elder Harris groaned in pain.

    The suddenly crash hadpletely taken him by surprise.

    He was sitting there very innocently (for once) enjoying his morning double half boiled eggs and toast with jam when his table suddenly heaved upwards with great force and mmed into him!

    He had fallen down, and was immediately piled on by his table, his coffee, his double half boiled eggs and his toast.

    "Ah Elder Harris, you''ve got a concussion. But apart from that, you''re fine. You might want to change your outfit though." The beautiful teacher said with an incredible smile.

    "Justin. I am in love." Barrick Rui said numbly.

    "You''re ten bloody years old. You are incapable of romantic love." I replied dismissively and rather hypocritically, if I might add.

    "You are the one incapable of romantic love. Your family is incapable of romantic love!" Barrick Rui snapped at me.

    "Alright, you''re in love. Congrattions. You have officially had your first meeting with the woman you love¡­ In your cute little tiger cub pyjamas! Hahaha!" Iughed at him mercilessly.

    Barrick Rui looked down at his PJs inplete horror and immediately dashed away to change.

    I snickered lightly at Barrick''s retreating figure and nced at the beautiful teacher who was helping Elder Harris to sit up.

    "Oh! So it is Elder Harris! Elder, are you alright? Why did you sit so close to the corridor? It''s so dangerous! Don''t you know that hungry kids will always run to the cafeteria? Haiya Elder Harris. You need to be more careful, especially at such an OLD AGE! Get well soon, Elder Harris!" I shouted with glee and immediately went off to have my breakfast without even bothering to listen to his response.

    In the whole school, I was probably the only one brave enough to do what I did.

    I had nothing to lose, and I absolutely didn''t care about doing well in the academy.

    Heck, I didn''t even want to be there in the first ce!

    So I did what I wanted to do there without a single care in the world.

    It was a fun period for me.

    But that second day of school was truly¡­ interesting.

    Seeing Elder Harris that way cheered my irritated mind slightly.

    Seeing the amount of heavenly bacon and roast pork avable for breakfast cheered my irritated my significantly.

    In fact, they did wonders to invigorate my mental fatigue.

    For the entire breakfast session, I was in bliss.

    But all too soon, breakfast was over.

    And the first ss of the day began.

    Day two, morning ss - Introduction to Combat.

    Yes, that''s right.

    Introduction to Combat.

    It wasn''t orientation, it wasn''tbat theory, it wasn''t even mecha theory.

    The first day of school was a Grand Melee.<novelnext></novelnext>

    And the second day of school was Introduction to Combat.

    Only the National Mecha Pilot Academy does crazy shit like this.

    They were extremely focused on "Experiential Learning" and wanted all their students to learn by experiencing things.

    Iter learned that it was an initiative by Bruce Pang to reform education in the academy in such an extreme way.

    I could already imagine Bruce Pang''s conversation with his predecessor.

    "ssroom lessons on COMBAT? Bullshit. Which idiot wrote the curriculum? Ah, you did, sir? I didn''t mean idiot in the literal sense of course. You definitely are not an idiot. I meant it in the philosophical sense. God damn it, you''re an aplished mecha pilot! When have you learned the most aboutbat? When you''re fighting of course! When have you learned the most as pilot? In the cockpit of course! And why the hell do you have so many ssroom lessons? I''m changing everything! EVERYTHING!"

    Right, maybe not so much of conversation, and more of a dramatic monologue.

    But whatever happened then resulted in aplete overhaul in the academy''s curriculum, and a massive spike in quality of education in an already high quality education.

    The National Mecha Pilot Academy''s hold on the top pilot academy in the Federation waspletely unshakeable under Bruce Pang.

    Well, there was that one special year, of course. But that''s a story forter.

    Anyway, my first ss was Introduction to Combat Theory, and it was held in a massive open field.

    The 5000 of us were broken down to smaller sses of 50 students each, and we were clustered together with a white attired teacher standing in front of each ss.

    Strangely, every single teacher was holding a massive sandwich.

    "Is it a reward for today''s ss? Awesome! I will make sure I do my best and win that sandwich!" I remember thinking very naively.

    The teacher in front of my ss was a slim and bespectacled young man with a bored look on his face. He was around 1.8 meters tall, and looked really nerdy.

    But he did give out a very dangerous aura, so I did not underestimate him. Not at all.

    I quickly nced at my ssmates, and realized that they were mostly boys. However, I was quite happy to find Tes and Olivia in my ss. My bunkmates were there too.

    I think it was Jete pulling the strings a little to fill my life with friendly faces.

    She was certainly the best.

    But the academy was full of awesome teachers and staff, because thebat instructor for us first years that year was also extremely epic too.

    Instructor ck Kong.

    Damn it. Even his name is so bloody cool.

    "Good morning kids. My name is ck Kong. You can call me Instructor ck Kong. I will be teaching you how to fight.

    You are all in sses of 50. Standing before your sses are ss Instructors. They are all holding big sandwiches.

    You have the time it takes for them to finish their sandwiches tond three hits on them.

    If you can do that, you can skip running for fiftyps around this giant field.

    Good luck. ss Instructors, you may begin eating your sandwiches."

 Chapter 136 Thank You For Being Lenient!

    Short and sweet.

    Instructor ck Kong didn''t mince words, and immediately got to the point of what was about to happen in the clearest and simplest words he coulde up with.

    He then didn''t bother taking questions, and immediately started the timer.

    CHOMP!!

    All one hundred ss Instructors took a massive bite out of their sandwiches!

    "Holy smokes! Our ss instructor looks like a damn nerd, but damn it, he sure can eat! Attack!!!" Rnd Hu shouted in near panic.

    At his words though, the rest of our ssmates woke up from their shock and were immediately galvanized into action!

    They jumped at the teacher from all directions!

    The students were smart. They knew that they were no match for the ss instructors inbat, but they also knew that if they could somehow tackle them down to the ground, they would have won.

    So many of the students flung themselves bodily towards the ss instructors, hoping to catch them by surprise!

    But s, it was not the ss instructor''s first rodeo. Well, it wasn''t for most of them anyway. But even if it was their first time, they had been briefed very carefully on what to do.

    None of the students managed to catch any teachers in those first few seconds of chaos.

    Wham! Bam! Oof! O!

    All over the ce, students collided into each other and crashed heavily onto the ground.

    The ss instructors didn''t even bother exhibiting anybat skills.

    As soon as the green light was given to eat the sandwich, most of them had instantly taken huge bites and started to run away in the opposite direction!

    "Catch them!"

    "Stop running!!"

    "Are you teachers all cowards? Stand and fight!"

    "Cowards! Go home to your momma''s titties!"

    I remember chuckling and thinking that the student who shouted thatst taunt would probably not have an enjoyable term.

    It was one thing to taunt your fellow ssmates on their mother''s titties.

    It was apletely different thing to do it to a staff of the National Mecha Pilot Academy!

    However, the taunts seemed to work for some lucky sses, and their ss instructors stopped running away to re at them with dangerous glints in their eyes.

    They may have scored a chance to fight to avoid running fiftyps around the massive field, but that chance may yet prove to be a more costly and painful endeavor than just running.

    A few ss instructors who were extremely confident of their skills stayed behind from the get go to y with their students.

    My ss instructor happened to be one of those who stayed behind.

    As usual, my instinct was right.

    He was extremely dangerous.

    The fifty of us started to swarm around him as fast as our short legs could carry us.

    However, in a disy of extreme skill in movement techniques, he effortlessly kept himself just outside of our range and continued to chomp on his sandwich.

    I studied the situation intently as I reyed Instructor ck Kong''s words in my mind.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Something doesn''t feel quite right with the situation.

    The students were very much focused on chasing down their own ss instructors, and several times, I saw a few ss instructors even rushing into the crowd of a different ss to create more chaos.

    "Hmm? This is an introduction tobat ss, why the hell are we ying tag?" I thought to myself.

    But as soon as I reviewed Instructor ck Kong''s words in my mind, I immediately discovered the sneakiness of the ss.

    His instruction was merely to nd three hits on THEM".

    There was no specific mention on punching our own ss instructors! And for that matter, there was no mention of punching either!

    "It was three HITS on THEM! It could be any type of attack on any of the instructors!" I realized with a delicious chill running down my spine.

    Out of the five thousand kids in that field, there were only less than five hundred who withheld themselves from joining the chaos.

    These were the kids with calm hearts and cool heads.

    Potential officer candidates.

    "Guys. Do as I do." I called out to my bunkmates and to the two girls who were all holding themselves back from joining the chaos and were simrly checking out the situation.

    I immediately moved towards our ss instructor, but in a roundabout way that would cause our path to intersect with our neighbouring ss instructor.

    "We will attack the other ss instructor." I said very softly. "When I attack, unleash your three strikes immediately."

    Like so many lightbulbs turning on, realizations dawned on their faces and their lips all curled up slightly into cunning grins.

    We jogged lightly, and like an inexorable march towards certain explosion, we finally got within a couple of meters from the other ss instructor!

    She opened her mouth wide to take another bite of her sandwich which was already almost half eaten.

    And as her sandwich enters her mouth...

    "NOW!" I roared and leapt towards her!

    She had no chance.

    Completely taken by surprise and caughtpletely out of position, she had no time to react before my powerful hands grabbed her arms and I stomped my right foot on hers quickly three times!

    Next to me, my bunkmates and the two girls quickly gave her three quick taps using their hands and feet.

    With our jobs done, I released her and stepped back politely.

    "Thank you for being lenient on us." I bowed courteously.

    "Thank you for being lenient on us!" The others echoed loudly.

    The ss instructor had no time to respond to us except for a loud "HMPH!" before she had to whirl away at top speed to avoid being attacked by other students.

    She managed to escape the students from her ss through a series of very impressive footwork.

    The other students who were watching and studying the situation had of course caught sight of my actions, and hade to their own realizations.

    A few dumb ones had even shouted it aloud.

    "We can attack ANY instructor, not just our own!" A fat boy cried out excitedly.

    Instantly, the atmosphere in the entire field changed.

 Chapter 137 Little Stones

    Several of the ss instructors caught in extremely bad situations surrounded on all sides by students instantly exploded into action and tried to get into an open space.

    But s, all of the ten year olds epted into the National Mecha Pilot Academy were no slouches. They were all exceptional kids!

    There was no way they would allow a fish already caught in a to escape.

    WHAM! WHAM! BAMM!!

    Hundreds of overeager students unleashed attacks on those poor ss instructors with all of their strength!

    "Argh! Damn you little punks! Be gentle with your kicks damn it!" Roared a tall, burly and tattooed but particrly unlucky ss instructor angrily as nearly a hundred kids leapt on him and tackled him to the ground with sheer numbers!

    He was, of course, ss Instructor Savage John, one of the rare caucasian staff in the academy.

    Savage John was, well, big and savage. In a street fight, he would be aplete fighting machine, dishing out horrific incapacitating attacks by the dozens per minute.

    Elbows, knees, knuckles, headbutt, anything and everything would be used to deal damage.

    But against ten year old kids, he was just a big, fat lump of cushion.

    He couldn''t retaliate at all, for fear of injuring them!

    "ss Instructor! You''re really bad at fighting! Haha!" Shouted a little girl gleefully as she unleashed a powerfulbo of kicks and punches at his tummy.

    "He''s like a soft teddy bear! I have one just like him at home!" Shouted another boy loudly.

    "Teddy bear? More like a bolster!!

    Wham! Bam! Bam!

    The physical and emotional damage continued to roll in unabated onto ss Instructor Savage John.

    And finally, the inevitable happened.

    "UWAAAAA!!" Savage John stood up forcibly and flung at least ten punching and kicking kids away from him in the process.

    "DAMN YOU LITTLE PUNKS! WHO WAS IT THAT CALLED ME A BOLSTER? DO I LOOK LIKE SOMETHING YOU''D DRY HUMP?" He roared angrily.

    He red at the kids scattering round him and pointed at a random one.

    "IT WAS YOU, WASN''T IT?" Savage John bellowed like a maddened bull.

    "N-no! Of course not!" The kid quailed under Savage John''s immense glower and quickly scampered away to look for an easier and less prickly target.

    However, his outburst had caused an unexpected problem.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Dry hump? What''s that?" The kids who had sessfullynded three hits on the ss instructors asked each other curiously.

    "A hump is like a camel hump. Dry humping is probably turning a bolster into a camel hump-like shape." A little boy said sagely.

    "You idiot. What''s the purpose of doing that? Dry humping is using a bolster to dry your snot when you are having runny nose, so that you don''t have to waste tissue paper. That''s why he got pissed!" A little girl scoffed at the little boy sage.

    "Dry humping is drying snot? That''s interesting. My dad is currently down with the flu. I will buy him a bolster to dry hump so he can get better soon." Another little girl said.

    "I have a spare bolster. I''ll give it to him to dry hump too." Her best friend said generously. "The more bolsters he has to dry hump, the better."

    "Thanks Emily!" The little girl said happily. "Dry humping is so awesome!"

    A nearby female ss instructor almost choked when she heard the kids discussing what dry humping was.

    She quickly moved to disperse the kids before they coulde up with even stranger and more outrageous theories on dry humping, but the damage was done.

    A wave of furious parents probably called in soon after that when their precious daughters started gifting their sick friends and rtives bolsters to "dry hump" to get better soon.

    But I digress.

    Apart from Savage John and his "dry humping" outburst, the first lesson went on pretty much ording to what Instructor ck Kong had intended.

    With so much pressure, the ss Instructors finished their sandwiches in record time and at least four thousand kids had to runps because of that.

    Although more kids managed tond three hits on ss instructors than nned due to my brain wave and the subsequent fat boy''s loud exmation, most of them still failed to do that on the fleet footed ss Instructors.

    And speaking to a bunch of half head students a few hourster, Instructor ck Kong drilled in the lessons of that morning''s ss.

    "Lesson number one inbat." Instructor ck Kong said grimly four thousand panting kids and one thousand kids with smug smiles and smirks on their faces.

    "Understand the parameters of your mission! I did not say that you only have one target. You assumed, without bothering to ask me for rification, that you could only aim for your own ss instructors! IDIOTS!

    When you ASSUME, you''re making an ASS out of U and ME!

    You dumb idiots kept charging at your own ss instructors for more than half the time they took to eat their sandwiches! And during that time, you ignored many other ss Instructors running around near you!" Instructor ck Kong roared at us.

    The kids knew that wasing, so they merely stared back at him sullenly.

    "Always be clear on your objectives. Many of you could have avoided running theseps if you were clear on what you had to do." Instructor ck Kong said. "Today you ranps as a consequence of beingplete idiots. In a real mission, you would be dead. Remember that."

    He let the silence hang for an entire minute to allow his words to sink into our minds. And for four thousand kids, the words were seared directly into their flesh, powered by their aching muscles and for a few, swollen ankles.

    "Lesson number two! Why the hell are you all charging at your ss instructors in the first ce? What the hell are these right here?" Instructor ck Kong stomped his foot down and caused a couple of little stones to jump up.

 Chapter 138 Academy Slice Of Life - Final Mission

    Instantly, the smug smiles and smirks on the other one thousand kids disappeared.

    The sense of superiority and the satisfaction of achieving what most of their peers failed to do evaporated into thin air like a shallowyer of water under the withering heat of an afternoon desert sun.

    "Stones. I''ll be damned." Muttered one student.

    "Always, always utilize the environment to aid you in your mission objective." Instructor ck Kong said softly as he picked up a stone and flicked it towards one of the ss instructors expertly.

    SMACK!

    "OWW!! ck Kong! What the hell??" Savage John shouted as the stone hit him urately on his arm.

    Instructor ck Kong merely red at him without saying a word. He already knew that the "dry humping" fiasco would probably cause a wave of angry parents to call up the academy, and was expressing his displeasure on Savage John.

    But the main target of his anger wasn''t Savage John. It was us!

    "With long range capabilities, and multiple targets, the "casualties" of today''s lesson should not exceed more than half of you. Bruce Pang said that you guys are the best he had ever seen. I call bullshit. YOU GUYS ARE IDIOTS! IDIOTS!!" Instructor ck Kong''s ferocious roar thundered down the entire field.

    Almost all five thousand kids flinched at his words.

    "Because, lesson number three." At this point, his voice dropped low. "You were five thousand going up against one hundred." Instructor ck Kong said quietly.

    "None of you stepped up to coordinate with the other sses. All of you fought for yourselves. And as a result, almost all of you "died". Did our Principal''s words yesterday not mean anything to you? What would it take for the lessons on unity and teamwork to sink into your minds? The deaths of your team mates? Because let me assure you, without proper teamwork, your friends. Will. Die."

    Once more, he paused to allow his words to sink in once more.

    All five thousand of us remained silent and began to carve his lessons in our hearts.

    Introduction to Combat was not a ss onbat techniques or fighting skills.

    It was a ss onbat philosophy!

    After a few minutes, he continued.

    "The lessons you have to learn today are very simple. One. Listen to instructions carefully. Two. Utilize the environment. Three. Always work as a team.

    For those of you who failed tond three hits on your ss instructors, I expect to see fifty MOREps done. The rest of you, you may be dismissed." With that, Instructor ck Kong and the rest of the ss Instructors turned around and left the field.

    We were five thousand ten year olds, stunned at the severity and the imbnce of the punishments given.

    A total of one hundredps around the giant field for merely failing the objectives of the first lesson of the second day?

    Insanity!!

    A few of the one thousand kids who managed tond hits on their ss instructors stood up and started to walk away from the field.<novelnext></novelnext>

    It was just after twelve noon and the sun was beating down on them like an angry old man with a stick.

    They wanted nothing more than go back to their rooms, take a cold shower and then have a nice, sumptuous lunch with a couple of ice cold drinks!

    However, Eliana Wang immediately stood up as well and called out to them.

    "Do you guys really think that the ss is over?" She said loudly.

    "What are you talking about? Instructor ck Kong said it''s over. He even left with the ss instructors! What, you think he left you in charge? Are you going to teach us now, O princess of the mighty Wang Family?" One of the kids who was about to leave sneered at her.

    "Hey there, four thousand of our buddies here still need to run fiftyps." I said. I didn''t bother exining the exact situation to him.

    If he''s still too dumb to learn the lesson, then maybe he''s too dumb to be a part of the academy.

    Instructor ck Kong didn''t say the ss was over. In fact, he just gave four thousand kids a near-impossible task!

    And he did so right after saying that we needed to listen to instructions carefully and we needed to have teamwork.

    ? He also didn''t send the thousand of us who managed tond hits on the ss instructors away. He merely said we MAY be dismissed!

    Permission was given to dismiss IF we wanted to!

    For those who took his lessons to heart, one thing was clear. The fiftyps around the giant field for the four thousand half dead students who JUST did fiftyps were definitely a final mission objective for us.

    "Yeah? Let them run fiftyps then. It''s none of my business. I''m going to have a nice shower and a nice lunch before the next ss. Bye suckers!" Heughed loudly and walked off.

    "That''s your attitude towards your team mates? Then don''t expect anybody to help YOU the next time you get into trouble!" Sherry Lin shouted at him angrily.

    He merely scoffed at Sherry Lin and continued to walk away. However, most of the kids who were leaving with him had the good sense to return to the main group.

    All in all, we only lost a hundred of them.

    "Alright guys, let those losers go. For now, let us review his instructions. Lesson one. Listen to instructions carefully. The real parameters of this final mission must be hidden unsaid within his words!" Elise Wang, ever the diplomat, immediately stood up and tried to lead the ss.

    "He expects to SEE fifty moreps done. But he''s not here. How will he see the fiftyps done?" Hailey Long spoke up from within the crowd.

    "Geolocation tags." Victor Long said immediately.

    "That''s it! As long as all four thousand geolocation tagsplete the fiftyps, we should be done!" Sherry Lin shouted excitedly. "Where are the geolocation tags? I don''t remember receiving one when I get here."

    "The geolocation tags are embedded on our EduLink devices, dumbass." Sheera Lin scolded her cousin with a sigh. "Thepulsory wristwatch we have to wear that contains all the textbooks and video projections of everything we need in this first year."

 Chapter 139 Academy Slice Of Life - Cafeteria Fight

    "Oh. I didn''t know they have geolocation tags in them. AND YOU''RE THE DUMBASS, DUMBASS!!" Sherry Lin yelled at her cousin.

    "Alright, it''s settled then." Elise Wang ignored the two Lin family girls who had started squabbling.

    "All four thousand of you, give us your EduLink devices. We will wear them and run the fiftyps for you. There are nine hundred of us and four thousand of you. That means each of us will wear around 5 EduLink devices when we run." Eliana Wang added.

    "No, I suggest one hundred of us carry 40 each, and sprint sixps. Then we''ll swap and keep doing that until we hit fiftyps." Victor Long shook his head and said.

    "That''s actually a better idea. Alright! Let''s do that." Eliana stood up and immediately arranged for her team to gather forty EduLink wristwatches each and start running.

    The others did the same thing.

    The four thousand kids gave up their EduLink wristwatches gratefully to the first hundred kids and watched them sprint around the giant field with touched looks on their faces.

    It was a solid team building moment for us.

    Exactly as the instructors had intended.

    The hundred that left earlier missed all that, of course. But their time woulde.

    With nine groups sprinting sixps each, the fiftyps werepleted in record time!

    We all went back to our dorms exhausted, but in excellent mood.

    Which, unfortunately, didn''tst very long.

    "Haha! The losers are done with the fiftyps! That''s really fast! Did you all carry them on your backs or something?" The little punk who left earlier hooted loudly when he saw us enter the dorm through the main entrance.

    He and the other hundred kids had already finished their lunches, and were on their way to our next ss.

    "The guts on that punk." Rnd Hu growled angrily.

    "Huh? What punk?" I asked loudly in a puzzled tone.

    "Those punks over there!" Rnd Hu said loudly while pointing at the group ahead of us.

    "I don''t see anybody there. Hey Barrick, do you see anyone there?" I asked as I changed my walking direction slightly and led the group directly on a collision course with the hundred of them.

    The main entrance actually opened up to a wide atrium which was connected to the humongous cafeteria. As such, there was actually a lot of room for us to walk.

    But of course I wasn''t going to meekly walk away from those little bastards. Plus seeing them so neat and tidy, and obviously full after a hearty lunch had put me in a bad mood once more.

    So I stomped towards them like the petty little boy that I was and prepared to barrel into their ranks violently.

    "Nope. I don''t see anyone. Rnd, you must be hallucinating after that mad sprint around the field. You need to drink more water! Let''s go to the cafeteria now and get some drinks!" Barrick Rui chided Rnd lightly with an evil grin on his face.

    Most of the kids were exhausted, and had no wish to pick a fight, so they didn''t join me.

    But the Wangs had pledged their allegiance to me, and the Longs wanted to court me, so the sixty or so of them swerved and fell into ce behind me.

    "What? Unhappy? Looking for a fight? Do-don''t think that we''re scared of you guys!" The lead boy shouted with a slightly panicked voice.

    We were less than fifty meters apart, and a collision was imminent.

    I merely sneered at him and continued in my beeline towards him.

    "Elder Harris is at the cafeteria." Tes, who was following me closely behind, suddenly said softly.

    "He''s looking this way, and boy, he really looks pissed. He must still be angry from this morning''s incident." Barrick Rui chuckled.

    "What did you guys do to Elder Harris this time?" Victor Long asked with a sigh.

    "Nothing much, we just identally dropped a table on him. It was entirely his fault, of course." Barrick Rui replied.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "If we fight here, he will be a witness and he will probably deal with us on the spot." Elise Wang said quietly. However her steps did not waver and continued to follow me loyally.

    "Let him." I said carelessly and continued to walk ahead towards the boy.

    My mental fatigue had returned at full force, and I was at a state where I couldn''t care less about minor characters like Elder Harris.

    I WILL barrel into this little punk, and then take things from there as it unfolds.

    "All of you. Don''t throw any attacks. Just deflect and defend. Do it cleanly!" Eliana Wang barked out softly.

    "Understood."

    Ten meters.

    "Wha-what are you doing??" The boy said with his eyes wide open. Behind him, his buddies had squared their shoulders and prepared to stand their ground.

    A fight was imminent.

    And without much suspense, we crashed into them!

    I was like the diamond tip of an industrial grade drill.

    There was no way ten year old boys had a chance to stand their ground against me!

    "Haiyaaaa!!" His hands shot out in front of him in reflex and tried to push me away.

    Bam! I pushed my chest out and barreled into that little punk.

    He fell down to the ground heavily with a crash and a mournful wail of pain!

    "Aaaaaahhhhh!!!" He screamed.

    His wail of pain was like the trigger to the massive cafeteria fight that involved nearly two hundred kids!

    Wham! Bam!

    Punch! Kick! Shove!

    Screams of pain and shouts of anger started to fill the air.

    "STOP THIS FIGHTING AT ONCE!!!" Elder Harris roared from the cafeteria.

    But none of us listened.

    Wham! Crack!!

    I blocked a vicious right hook from an angry little boy with my arm and immediately broke his knuckles!

    "Uwaaaaaaaa!!!" He screamed in pain.

    Wham! Crack! Uwaaaa!

    Wham! Crack! Uwaaaa!!

    Wham! Crack! Uwaaaaaa!!

    It was merely the second day of school, and the kids had yet to learn that I was invulnerable to physical damage.

    And so, I blocked all of their attacks mercilessly and broke all of their bones.

    It wasn''t a very long fight.

 Chapter 140 Disciplinary Court

    From the outset, pitting the Wangs and the Longs against anybody was unfair. They were both from elite ns, and their kids were extremely highly trained.

    Mere minutes after the first punch was thrown, the fight ended.

    In fact, it would have ended much sooner if the Wangs and the Longs did not limit themselves to merely defending and deflecting.

    The sixty of us stood victoriously over one hundred downed kids, many of them wailing in pain.

    "ALL OF YOU LITTLE BASTARDS ARE SUSPENDED! SUSPENDED!!" Elder Harris screamed with rage as he pointed at us. "FIGHTING ON THE SECOND DAY OF SCHOOL! OUTRAGEOUS!! OUTRAGEOUS!!"

    "Fighting? You lie, Elder Harris! We weren''t fighting at all!" I shouted.

    "You dare use me of lying? Let''s see if you can still say that in our Disciplinary Court!! All of you! Proceed to the Detention Room at once!!" Elder Harris roared.

    He was so pissed he didn''t even care that his precious Long Family members were part of the group he sent to the Detention Room.

    I merely shrugged and started to make my way to the Detention Room.

    "Get the medical team over! Heal these punks and send them to the Detention Room as well!" Elder Harris roared at his aide.

    It truly was a very eventful second day of school. Bruce Pangter told me that our batch was far and away the most troublesome batch in all of his years as a Principal!

    Of course we were.

    You can''t expect a bunch of little dragons and phoenixes to act like house lizards and farm hens right?

    Anyway, we quickly reached the Detention Room which was located in a separate building a short distance away from the Dorm.

    It was designed like a huge prison.

    It had bars instead of walls, and the entrance was exactly like a prison door.

    It was designed to intimidate the wrongdoer and to create a trauma so that they would do all they could to avoid being sent into that room ever again.

    However, for the sixty something of us, its intimidating effect was mostly useless.

    There is something in doing things together, especially dangerous and outrageous things, that brings people together.

    We trooped into the Detention Room, sat down, and then grinned at each other.

    Whatever happened next, we wereforted in the fact that we would face them together.

    Even though I still had negative feelings about the Longs, good ones were beginning to form as well.

    They had followed me in my foolhardy decision to create trouble without a word of protest, and were about to be punished with me.

    Impressive!

    "What will happen next?" Olivia asked Eliana Wang quietly. She had promptly left her group to stand at my side when I made my move towards the hundred kids.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Olivia Summers knew that I was up for trouble, and did not hesitate to throw her lot with me.

    She is a righteous person, but she is more loyal than she is righteous, and thus there she was.

    "We will wait here while the Disciplinary Court convenes to look at the CCTV recordings. Once they see the evidence, we will be summoned to stand before the court to provide our statements. And then the Court will make its judgement." Eliana Wang exined.

    "We didn''t attack any of them. We should be fine." Elise Wang said breezily. "There are no punishments for self defence."

    "But Justin did make the first move by purposely walking towards them. They might rule that as an act of aggression, and our actions to join him make us aplices." Hailey Long said thoughtfully.

    "That punk Farrel called us losers first. Justin was merely walking over to tell him that it was not friendly to say such words to us, and that for the greater good of the ss, we need to be positive and supportive instead of being so aggressive with our words. But s! Before he could say a word, that aggressive little boy Farrel actually tried to push Justin violently away!" Barrick Rui said dramatically and made the restugh lightly.

    They doubted that the Disciplinary Court would be so dumb as to believe that horseshit, but it was funny nheless.

    Still, the fact remained that he did call us losers first, and that, ultimately, was the deciding factor that saved me from suspension.

    It took the court merely thirty minutes to summon us, and another thirty minutes to make its ruling.

    The Disciplinary Court was a simple room. There was a raised dais where three Judges sat behind a long table.

    Directly in front of them was an empty area that would serve as an evidence exhibition area if required.

    And in front of the empty area were rows and rows of seats for the staff and other students.

    The offending parties were ced to the left and right of the empty area within two barred spaces.

    Apparently they had anticipated dealing withrge groups of naughty students when they made the Courtroom.

    That day, the Courtroom was filled with all avable Teachers, Elders and Grand Elders. Even Vice Principal Jete Wen was there!

    Behind them were all the students who managed to squeeze themselves into the super packed courtroom.

    After listening to all of our statements, the lead Judge, Grand Elder Xu gave her judgement.

    "The Disciplinary Court finds that Farrel Lan was the instigator of the incident by aggressively calling the rest of the ss losers. He was also the first to physically attack another student.

    The Disciplinary Court hereby sentences Farrel Lan to a two week suspension, one hundred hours ofmunity service and fines him two thousand credits.

    The Disciplinary Court finds that Justin Whitefrost engaged in a retaliatory aggressive act by changing directions and walking directly towards Farrel and the others that resulted in the fight.

    The Disciplinary Court hereby sentences Justin to twenty hours ofmunity service and fines him one thousand credits.

    The Disciplinary Court hereby fines all other students engaged in that incident one thousand credits each."

    A murmur of approval sounded from the crowd of teachers and students.

    But of course, there were some who weren''t happy at all with the light sentence.

 Chapter 141 Golden Mecha

    "I respectfully request the Disciplinary Court to give Justin Whitefrost a harsher sentence." Elder Harris said loudly as he stood up from his seat in the Elders Row.

    "As the Champion and as one of the strongest students in this batch, he has the responsibility to lead by example. As they say, with great poweres great responsibilities! His transgressions must receive heavier punishments."

    Grand Elder Xu turned to look at Elder Harris coldly. She was by no means a frog in the well, and everyone in the Academy knew of my dirty tirade about Elder Harris in the Entrance Examinations.

    Shepletely despised the fact that Elder Harris allowed his personal grievance with me to guide his words and actions.

    At the same time, what he said made perfect sense too. So she did the only thing that made sense to her.

    "Very well. The Disciplinary Court notes Elder Harris and his constructive feedback.

    As leading members of themunity, the Whitefrosts, the Wangs and the Longs all have the responsibility to lead by example. They have been severely remiss in their actions.

    On that note, I hereby sentence Justin, the Wang Family students and the Long Family students to an additional fifty hours ofmunity service.

    That is all. Dismissed." Grand Elder Xu mmed her gavel and immediately stood up to leave.

    "Wa-wait! The Longs too? Wh-" Elder Harris sputtered in panic.

    "All rise!" The court attendant shouted loudly.

    The sound of the crowd standing up drowned out Elder Harris'' objections.

    "Bow!" The court attended shouted loudly once more.

    And with that, a roar sounded as the whole crowd started talking to each other excitedly.

    My first, but definitely not myst Disciplinary Court session was over.

    The Teachers, Elders and Grand Elders were noticeably pissed off with Elder Harris.

    "This is bad news for the nobles. With this precedent, all of their children will be liable for heavier punishments when they make mistakes! That Elder Harris just made himself a whole bunch of enemies!"

    "Hmph, what an idiot. His personal issue with the Whitefrost kid has caused us massive losses! With this, our faction had just been pped with a massive disadvantage! All of our members are children of nobles!"

    Even the kids didn''t hold back their words too!

    "Haha! Elder Harris sure is kind! With this, we have a chance to beat the nobles in the rankings!"

    "Damn that idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! He is the biggest, most perverted idiot in the whole academy! No! The whole world!"

    "Who is the idiot?"

    "Of course it''s some idiot who just caused us a lot of trouble! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Big fat perverted idiot!"

    Elder Harris'' face turned extremely ugly as his own sharp hearing caught almost every single insult being hurled his way under so many breaths.

    But what could he do? He could only grit his teeth and joined the crowd to leave the room.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Clear the court." The court attendant shouted loudly.

    The crowd quickly dispersed, leaving Vice Principal Jete Wen in the Courtroom.

    The court attendant released us from the barred area and gestured for us to step into the central area to face her.

    "Well well. You guys had a wild second day of school huh?" Vice Principal Jete Wen shook her head lightly at us. "Go on and get to your next ss. You will not have lunch, and instead will have afternoon tea as soon as your first segment of your second ss today ispleted. Justin, stay behind."

    "Vice Principal Wen, I will share whatever additional punishment you have for Justin." Olivia Summers spoke up immediately.

    "So will I."

    "So will I."

    "Me too."

    "Yes, me too."

    Without exception, every single member of the group of sixty students immediately spoke up to share in my punishment.

    "Hahahaha! Impressive! I admire your deep friendship, and only on the second day of school too! Reminds me of the good old days when I was still in school." Vice Principal Jete Wen sighed ruefully.

    "But don''t worry. I am not going to punish him. I just have something to say to him. Go on ahead. You are extremelyte for ss. And if I am not mistaken, your second ss has an extremely fierce teacher. Every second counts." Jete Wen pointed to the exit and caused all of the kids to burst into action with her words!

    Within seconds, I was alone with Jete Wen.

    "Follow me to my office." She said.

    "Well, Justin, you sure are amazing. In two days, you managed to be the Champion, robbed over two hundred kids, caused a teacher to get fired, an Elder to be convicted of attempted murder and another Elder to lose almost all of his influence.

    Any single one of those would already be a feat worthy to be remembered and gossiped about for years.

    What do you have to say for yourself?" Vice Principal Jete Wen chuckled lightly when we were safely seated in her office.

    "Uhh¡­ I¡­ probably take after my big bro? Hehehehe." I tried to joke my way out of it.

    ? "If I called you here to discuss your recent actions, I would have spanked you for not taking it seriously." She rolled her eyes at me. "But as such, that''s not why I called you here, so I will let that one slide. Still¡­ You''re definitely right on that. HAHA! Bruce did make a mess as soon as he got here. Not as big as yours, but quite something."

    I grinned at her.

    "Anyway, I need an update on your condition. How is devour?" She immediately turned serious as soon as she got onto that topic.

    "It is doing great. Its strength and capacity has risen quite dramatically recently. In fact, I am ready to devour Deathscythe now." I said seriously to her as well. "Are you here because of that?"

    "Good. Very good." She nodded in approval. "And no, I am not here about Deathscythe. It''s yours if you want it, of course. But right now I have another more delicious target for you. Tell me Justin, do you know what a Golden Mecha is?"

    My jaw dropped.

 Chapter 142 The American

    I nodded slowly as I stared at Vice Principal Jete Wen''s beautiful and elegant face, not entirely believing what her words signified.

    "Did she just put the words "delicious" and "Golden Mecha" together in one sentence?" I thought incredulously. "She wants me to devour the Golden Mechas???"

    "And I suppose you''ve heard about the two Golden Mechas which are enroute?" She looked at me slyly.

    "So that''s why she ced me in the same room as Barrick Rui!" My mind instantly realized. "What a sneaky and wonderful Vice Principal I have!"

    "Hehehehe." Jete Wen chuckled lightly at my thunderstruck face. "I am NOT giving you my permission to do anything to the Golden Mechas, of course. I am not allowed to encourage anything that would make the already insane tension we have with the Europeans any worse."

    I blinked slowly as I processed her words.

    "I am not giving you my permission to¡­" is different from "I forbid you from¡­".

    ? Of course I knew the distinction.

    The first one was merely her doing her duty by not officially "permitting" me to do something. If I wanted to do it, I would have to do it without her official permission.

    The second one would be her personal and explicit order for me to stand down.

    I just couldn''t believe that she would actually "suggest" such a thing!

    "And so, officially, I am not here to discuss doing anything to the Golden Mechas at all. I am here to inform you that in two weeks, the two Golden Mechas will meet at the Kuril Inds, East of Japan for an unofficial spar.

    Having two Golden Mechas from the two superpowers in the same ce in a joint event is a rare and momentous asion, and both powers are extremely curious to know which Golden Mecha and ACE pilot is stronger.

    Being an outstanding student of the National Mecha Pilot Academy, you are invited to join the Chinese Federation Delegation to watch the spar.

    Please bear in mind that we would be in INTERNATIONAL WATERS, and in an area where the Chinese Federation has almost no power, no authority whatsoever.

    It would be beyond foolish, and COMPLETELY unthinkable for the Chinese Federation to do anything to the Golden Mechas then. So I am sure that we won''t do anything apart from just watching a good show.

    Even if bad things were to happen to the Golden Mecha at that time, the Chinese Federation would be at the bottom of the suspect list.

    Do you understand what I am talking about?" Vice Principal Jete Wen looked at me calmly.

    I nodded slowly once more, my mind racing wildly at top speed.

    "As with all things, do not take action unless you''re absolutely clear that it cannot be traced back to you. Better not to gain an advantage than paint a bullseye on your back for two superpowers. We are trusting you to bepletely discreet in this. Can you do that?" Jete Wen asked me.

    "Of course. I may be just ten years old, but I am probably as smart as a twenty year old." I assured her to the best of my ability.

    "As cocky as a twenty year old too." Jete Wen muttered while scowling at me lightly. "You two aren''t rted at all by blood, but you are both so simr. You two must be real brothers in your past lives."

    "Hehehe. Don''t worry about me. The only one who knows I have Devour is Amelia Dragonos. If you have taken care of her, then I should be able to do that without drawing any suspicions." I said with a confident smile.

    "Good. Don''t worry about Amelia Dragonos. You just need to be careful and watch out for yourself." Vice Principal Jete Wen then gave me an extremely rare cunning smile which made her lookpletely sneaky and totally unlike the wise and elegant middle ageddy which she so perfectly portrayed at all times.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I couldn''t help butugh at her sneaky look.

    Hahaha!

    Hahahaha!

    Hahahahaha!

    Like two evil viins scheming, we both started tough. Sinisterly at first, then in outright glee, and finally with ticklish mirth at our own childishness.

    Well, her childishness.

    I was ten, and had all the rights to my childishughter.

    "What are you twoughing so evilly about?" Bruce Pang said loudly as he opened the door and strode into the room without knocking.

    "Hey big bro!" I waved my hand cheerfully at him without bothering to stand up.

    Bruce Pang sat down on the sofa next to Jete Wen and proceeded to give her a peck on her cheek.

    Jete Wen blushed lightly like a school girl and then elbowed him away.

    "Oof!" Bruce Pang groaned with a massive grin on his face.

    "We were just discussing the invitation I received to attend the Golden Mecha spar." I said with a smile.

    "Ah yes. So? Can you absorb them?" Unlike Jete Wen who still maintained a semnce of political correctness in her words, Bruce Pang smashed through all of that like a charging wild bull.

    "Hehehehe. I probably could. But even if I can''t absorb the entirety of the two mechas, I can absorb their cores at least." Iughed outright at Bruce Pang''s directness.

    Jete Wen could only sigh deeply.

    Well, at least she tried.

    "Good. I assume that after you absorb them, you will be able to provide us with the blueprint to create them?" Bruce Pang asked with a gleam of excitement in his eyes.

    "Yes. And not only that. I will be able tobine them into one and create one with both their strengths and none of their weaknesses." I nodded.

    "Good! Very good! Make sure you absorb them cleanly! And if you have to pick one, make sure you pick¡­"

    "The American mecha. I know. You don''t have to teach me such basic stuff." I said while rolling my eyes at him.

    "WHAT? The American one? Why on Earth woul- Oh." Jete Wen''s eyes widened in realization and then whistled in appreciation.

    "You sneaky bastard." Bruce Pang said in admiration.

 Chapter 143 Croaks

    "Hey. Watch yournguage." Jete Wen said sharply, more out of reflex than anything. Her mind was still reeling from my words.

    "Stealing the American Mecha and leaving the European Mecha intact. That would definitely cause the Americans to use the Europeans of sabotage AND make THEIR rtionship plunge into hitherto unseen levels of tension!" Bruce Pang marveled at the awesomeness of my idea. "Maybe we should do that instead."

    "Definitely not." I objected firmly. "I don''t know when I will be able to get near any more Golden Mechas. I need to absorb both of them when I still have the chance."

    "You need to look at the bigger picture and make an objective decision based on the benefits that we could reap." Bruce Pang said as he started to lecture me.

    But I shook my head stubbornly.

    There was no way I would be giving up a Golden Mecha for the sake of politics!

    Screw politics. Give me power!

    "I have to agree with Justin in this. Absorb them both. But do so at different timings. First absorb the American Mecha and cause the Americans to use the Europeans of foul y. And then absorb the European Mecha and make them think that it was retaliation from the Americans. That way, they would be at odds against each other." Jete Wen said with a sweet and innocent smile.

    I was impressed.

    At her idea, yes, but more by how she could maintain such an angelic look on her face while suggesting an idea that could potentially plunge the two superpowers into a world war that would result in the death of billions.

    "Good. We''ll do that." Bruce Pang said decisively. "I will discuss the timing with you in detail next time. For now, you can go back to ss first. I still have things to discuss with your sister inw."

    "Alright. Can I get a written free pass for the day though? Sister inw said the teacher of my second ss is troublesome." I asked them hopefully.

    "Of course not." Both of them said at the same time and thenughed.

    What an evil couple.

    They knew exactly what was in store for me, and they still sent me to face it so heartlessly!

    Five minutester.

    "What an evil couple! What an evil Instructor! What an evil school!" I cried out passionately in my heart.

    The afternoon ss was Physical Fitness ss, led by Instructor Ashley Tang, AKA White Haired Demoness.

    Her ss was being held in the same field where we had our Introduction to Combat ss, and when I reached it, almost five thousand kids were sprawled all around the field, groaning in pain.

    Their groans and moans made for an eerie sound. But to the White Haired Demoness, it was probably music.

    Those who had participated in the Disciplinary Court session were still running.

    "Good afternoon Instructor Ashley! I was called by the Vice Principal-" I tried to use the Vice Principal''s name to make myteness more eptable.

    But s, the White Haired Demoness would have none of it.

    "I was not informed. You''re two hours and seven minuteste. You owe me one hundred and twenty sevenps around the field. Plus, I know your body has a Grade A physical enhancement.

    So make that jumping squats with both hands behind your head for one hundred and twenty sevenps around the field.

    Go."

    Now you know why I called them evil!

    Even at the zing fast speed of five minutes around the giant field for eachp, it would take me more than ten hours to finish the one hundred twenty sevenps!

    It was insane!

    But if it wasn''t insane, then she wouldn''t be the White Haired Demoness then, would she?

    For the next few hours, a bunch of kids ran with all of their might around the giant field while one particrly saddening kid squat jumped his way around that same field.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Thankfully, the White Haired Demoness had failed to judge my physical enhancement level urately.

    Of course I didn''t just have a Grade A enhanced body. My body was much more powerful than even the triple or even quadruple S Grade enhancement.

    So apart from having to circle the field in an awkward and embarrassing manner, I was rtively okay.

    Soon, the ss dispersed, leaving only the White Haired Demoness standing there to supervise our punishment.

    After around three hours, the first Wang Family kid finished her punishment.

    It was Elise Wang.

    She copsed next to the White Haired Demoness and rested there for a quick minute before standing right up.

    "Requesting permission to share Justin''s punishment!" She panted heavily.

    "Granted." The White Haired Demoness said with a tiny smile.

    Immediately, she started to jump squat her way around the field.

    I truly was touched.

    After Elise Wang, a few others did the same thing for me.

    Eliana Wang, Victor Long, Hailey Long, Gerald Long, Tes, Olivia Summers, Jack Yang, Rnd Hu and even Barrick Rui.

    With so many helpers, the punishment that would have taken me over ten hours to finish took merely five!

    "Good. You are done for today. Make sure youe to my ss on time." Instructor Ashley Wang said with a rare smile on her face as she looked at ourpletely spent forms but with strangely satisfied smiles on our faces, lying on the ground.

    With that, she turned around and left us there under the darkening sky.

    Lying there that night, my heart was jubnt.

    I knew I had found a bunch of people I would be proud to call friends for the rest of my life.

    "What a bitch." Rnd Hu croaked.

    "The biggest." Victor Long croaked in agreement.

    "Language." Elise Wang croaked.

    "She''s not a bitch. She''s a demonic bitch." Hailey Wang croaked loudly.

    "Hey. Language." Eliana Wang croaked.

    "No. She''s not A demonic bitch. She''s THE demonic bitch." Jack Yang croaked.

    "The Demonic Bitch Queen." Gerald Long croaked.

    "Why are you guys croaking like frogs? Let''s go back and have dinner! I am hungry!" I jumped up energetically and pointed towards the cafeteria.

    All of them looked at me in disbelief.

    "That bugger is still so energetic? Why the hell did I even help him then? And whose bloody fault is it that we''re croaking like half dead frogs??" Those words were etched very clearly on their faces at that moment.

    "Asshole." Elise Wang croaked.

    "The biggest asshole." Eliana Wang croaked in agreement.

 Chapter 144 I Made Sure I Got Them

    I slept well that night.

    Well maybe not slept.

    A more urate verb would be "cked out".

    I remember closing my eyes and opening them again to the loud ring of the cent4al rm in what felt like only a second in between.

    "Damn central rms and their evil designer!" I cursed loudly.

    "God if you''re real and if you can hear me, make the evil designer of the central rm wake up early every morning! Don''t let him sleep in ever, at all!" Rnd Hu shouted with frustration.

    But that was all we could do. Curse, grumble, and then curse even more.

    We quickly got up, showered and had our usual massive breakfast before going to our usual practice field.

    It was the third day of school, and it was a beautiful sunny day, with nary a white cloud. The sky was a gorgeous deep blue and the air was crisp with the freshness of the uing spring.

    The massive field was filled with five hundred massive practice mechas that day.

    "It''s a perfect day for exercise. I wonder if they will end up running the whole day away until night fall again?" A particrly vicious looking boy sniggered loudly when he saw me and my bunkmates appear.

    "Shut up weakling." Jack Yang snapped at him. "You''re a titsucker, and titsuckers should shut the hell up."

    "Chill Jack, the titsucker is just cranky coz he hadn''t sucked on his momma''s tits for three days now." Rnd Hu said loudly.

    "Yeah, chill. He is probably cranky coz he had to suck on his bunkmates'' hairy and inverted tits the whole night to help him sleep." I said even louder and caused a huge swathe of students to burst outughing.

    The little vicious boy''s face turned red and he quickly stomped off with his friends.

    We settled down on the huge field with huge smiles on our faces. What a pleasant start to the day!

    The first lesson of the third day was Introduction to Mechas.

    Before we were began our training using mechas, we would begin our journey by studying them closely, from the outside in.

    Most of the students already know the basics, of course. But it never hurt to revise and make sure that all of us understand the various parts that make up a mecha, what they are called, and what are the main things we needed to look out for.

    Ten of us were assigned to one mecha, and in usual National Mecha Pilot Fashion, we were immediately plunged into the deep end of experiential learning.

    "The mechas before you are the simplest mechas in existence. They are the most basic functioning mechas you can get your hands on. Additionally, they are also modified for easy maintenance.

    Your mission today is to study the mecha manual within your EduLinks and dismantle the mecha within five hours." Instructor ckwood shouted excitedly. "Every member on the first team to finish will get one thousand academy credits each PLUS a surprise reward! I assure you, the surprise reward is EPIC!! And thest team to finish will lose one thousand academy credits each!

    This is a race! Dismantle them well! Dismantle them fast! If you break anything, their repair cost wille from your academy credits! Bear that in mind anddddd... Begin!!"

    Instructor ckwood was a short but powerfully built man, much like a tall dwarf. He was extremely excitable and his mood spilled over to affect us that day.

    As soon as he said begin, we all burst into action and a loud roar erupted from five thousand throats!

    We were given five hours toplete the assignment. But that was in consideration of those with low RPLs.<novelnext></novelnext>

    For those of us with extremely high RPLs, our resonance with the mechas allow us to instinctively know what we needed to do with only the asional nce to the manual.

    The race to first ce would be decided within thirty minutes.

    It was especially true for me.

    My RPL was extremely high, and I had the knowledge to build an entire white mecha from scratch. Dismantling the practice mecha was a piece of cake!

    If I wanted to, I could dismantle it by myself within twenty minutes.

    But as with every lesson in the National Mecha Pilot Academy, there were lessons within lessons.

    I knew that it wasn''t as simple as dismantling the mecha. It was training for teamwork and effectivemunication!

    My team that day was created at random, and I did not know anybody there.

    "Guys! Let''s work together to win first prize!" I started to say excitedly. "I will-"

    "Who died and made you our leader?" A tall and rtively pretty looking girl interrupted me loudly.

    "Yeah! Just because you''re the Champion does not mean that we have to follow your instructions. We know how to dismantle this mecha too!" Another girl scoffed at me.

    "Exactly. You think you''re the only one with high resonance? I have a Royal grade RPL! I can sense the mechas as well as you." A nerdy looking boy sneered at me.

    "Yes. Just sit there and think of your momma''s titties." Another little boy said smugly as they started to gather around the mecha to discuss and assign tasks.. without me!

    s.

    My team mates that day were all students who disliked me and were probably insulted by my constant use of "mother''s titties".

    No matter how I tried, they would not listen to me!

    What else could I do?

    I am the god damned future mecha emperor of the world!

    There''s no bloody way I would just sit there nicely and watch them work.

    Plus, I was starting to be aware that the journey to the top would be filled with obstacles, and many of those obstacles would be stuff like being alone and being misunderstood.

    Smal prices to pay.

    I wanted to be first.

    I wanted the thousand credits.

    I wanted the mysterious epic reward.

    And so I made sure I got them.

 Chapter 145 Blueprints

    "Stay the hell out of my way, idiots! If you don''t want to die crushed by falling mecha parts, then f*** off!" I shouted and climbed up the practice mecha with great agility.

    I unleashed my insane RPL to the full and my mind raced with great speed to figure out an action n to dismantle the mecha as fast as I could.

    Within seconds¡­

    BAM!

    The mecha''s head mmed down onto the soft grass right next to the bunch of kids!

    "Eeek!!" A girl in the group screamed in shock at the sudden appearance of the mecha head near her.

    The rest of the group''s face turned extremely ugly at my actions, but I couldn''t care less at that point.

    Screw teamwork.

    Screwmunication.

    I''m ploughing ahead by myself!

    "Wow wow wow! Look at that team! They already have the head of the mecha perfectly dismantled! I wouldn''t have thrown the head down like that if I were you guys. If it is damaged, I will make sure to deduct its repair cost from your academy credits! Be gen-"

    Bam!

    The mecha''s right arm mmed down onto the ground loudly.

    "Hohoho! What an impatient young man! Ah! What joy it is to be young! Carry on! Carry on!" Instructor ckwood cheered "us" on and then went on to do the same to the other groups, urging them to be faster, to be more careful, and to be more efficient.

    There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would be the first.

    My actions were steady and extremely efficient. Within fifteen minutes, the mecha had all five limbs separated from its body.

    I sneered at the nine irritating kiddos as I walked past them and continued to attack the mecha with great fervor.

    Ten minutester, just as I finished dismantling the final arm¡­

    "Wow wow wow!! We have a double winner!!" Instructor ckwood suddenly shouted excitedly.

    At his words, a loud groan of disappointment rose up from the rest of the kids, including several loud curses from the teams that were almost done with their mechas.

    "Little girl, what''s your name? Sheera Lin! Well done! I had my eye on you the whole time. You''re an excellent coordinator! You did very very well!!" Instructor ckwood continued to shout excitedly. "And we have here a solo effort!

    A solo effort by a single student while his team mates merely looked on from the side! Not very good at team work, are we? Young man, you may be skilled, but without team work¡­ wait a minute. That¡­ Sheera Lin! Your mecha isn''t fully dismantled! Look! That leg isn''t properly dismantled!

    Oh my Lord! The winner¡­ The winner is the solo effort from this group! What a plot twist! Incredible!"

    It may have a slightly dramatic ending, but the main point of that story was, I won. And the distance between me and the rest of the cohort widened.

    They were already biased against me to begin with. What I did merely antagonized them even more.

    Not that I cared.

    "Hahaha! Yes!" Iughed loudly. "A thousand credits and a mysterious reward! All for twenty five minutes work." I grinned widely.

    I had failed the lesson within the lesson for me that day, but it also made me realize that I would never have a proper ce with the normal kids.<novelnext></novelnext>

    It solidified my resolve to reach the peak by my own strength.

    Teamwork is good.

    But having the power to do alone what teams can only do together is even better!

    Screw teamwork!

    Screwmunication!

    Give me power!!

    I quickly made my way to Instructor ckwood to receive my one thousand credits and my "epic" reward.

    "Your epic reward is a few selected blueprints from my own personal collection of mechas." Instructor ckwood said with a wide smile.

    My eyes widened in excitement.

    I already had a white mecha blueprint, and logically I didn''t need any low level mecha blueprint, especially ones that a mere instructor in the National Mecha Pilot Academy could so easily give away to his students.

    But I needed the variety.

    Every single mecha design, even though their end product will end up doing work within the same measure of scale, are all unique in their own ways.

    Some had unique applications of mechatronics which were in theory, groundbreaking, but were difficult to be scaled up, thus limiting their applications to low quality low grade mechas.

    Some had unique approaches to defensive, offensive, targeting, flight or even movement systems that, ifbined with other specific systems, would give birth to a true monster on the battlefield.

    I was like the ultimate mecha factory that could produce any mecha I wanted.

    All I needed was enough blueprints to make them!

    "Wow! What a generous gift! Thank you very much, Instructor ckwood!" I shouted so excitedly that for a moment, I gave off the exact same excitable vibe as him.

    "Hahahaha! You are a very rare young man who appreciates the value of blueprints! Awesome! Awesome!" Instructor ckwood pped me happily on my back as the details of his selected mecha blueprints entered my EduLink.

    "Of course I appreciate them, Instructor! In fact, I appreciate them so much that I hunger and even thirst to see ALL of your mecha blueprints! Can I take a look at them?" I shouted very passionately with excitement pouring out of my every pore.

    "Kissass." A little boy from my group snorted loudly as he walked back after receiving his credits and blueprints.

    I ignored him and continued to implore Instructor ckwood with what I hoped was irresistible puppy eyes.

    Apparently they were rather awesome puppy eyes because Instructor ckwood passed me his TeachLink and opened up to the folder with all of his blueprints in it.

    "I can''t give you any more blueprints, of course. If I do then I will run out of rewards to give out! But I will let you see my collection to whet your appetite. Here, you have until the rest of your ssmates finish to look at my collection!" Instructor ckwood said with a wide smile.

    He couldn''t, for all the world, imagine that by doing that, he was essentially giving me all of his blueprints!

    I grabbed his TeachLink eagerly and sat down near him to "browse" through his collection of mecha blueprints.

    It was awesome.

 Chapter 146 Ultra Heavy Mecha

    For the foreign reader, let me exin a little bit about the Mecha Industry in the Chinese Federation.

    Let us begin with the core of the Mecha Industry.

    The Mecha Blueprints.

    Mecha blueprints, like all other machinery blueprints, are divided into civilian and military categories.

    Most civilian mechas are like normal cars on the road. They aremercialized and mass produced with beauty, speed, efficiency, quality and profit in mind.

    Some civilian mechas look really cool and have excellent performance statistics. Others are workhorses, and yet others are antiques and collector items.

    Like cars, all types of civilian mechas exist.

    And like cars, there are best selling mechas within the industry.

    These blueprints are guarded like the money making treasures they are by civilian mechapanies. It would be impossible to gain ess to these sorts of blueprints.

    However, to encourage the growth of mechapanies, the Chinese Federation had made several basic mecha blueprints public, and encouraged mecha designers to work on these public blueprints and upgrade them.

    These mecha designers are then able to work on these basic designs and put their personal touch into upgrading them.

    Then they can put their upgraded blueprints for sale to the National Mecha Design Agency, who will buy them at a generous price if their work meets a certain standard.

    Their blueprints will then end up as public property as well, allowing the next aspiring mecha designer to take it and work on it further.

    Using this method, the Chinese Federation had created lines of highly advanced mecha with thousands of creative variations.

    Additionally, to regte the Mecha Designermunity, the Chinese Federation had also created a grading scale.

    Mecha Designers are divided into seven distinct grades.

    Newbie Mecha Designer.

    Novice Mecha Designer.

    Intermediate Mecha Designer.

    Advanced Mecha Designer.

    Master Mecha Designer.

    Grand Master Mecha Designer.

    Mecha Architect.

    Each grade had ess to a moreplex and powerful mecha blueprint than that below it within the public repository.

    Such a policy had led to an explosion in the number of mecha designers within the Chinese Federation.

    Thousands of blueprints were being worked on at any given day, and hundreds were being submitted to the National Mecha Design Agency for review and sale.

    With so many blueprints being worked on, the next aspect of the Mecha Industry was, of course, the main beneficiary.

    The Mecha Manufacturers.

    Mecha Manufacturers did not need to spend huge amounts of money on cutting edge research, all they needed to do was to maintain a small but skilled team of Mecha Designers to modify and enhance the best mecha blueprint publicly avable and then pay the National Mecha Design Agency a license fee to produce and sell them.

    Most Mecha Manufacturers took this route and found great sess.

    Apart from them, there were also Boutique Mecha Manufacturers who chose to design their own mechas from ground up that cater to a niche market.

    The producer of my Barbarian ss Mecha, the Soaring Dragon Mecha Company, was one such manufacturer.

    With such a vibrant Mecha offering from the Manufacturers, the market for Mechas was also simrly full of life, and mechas soon became highly specific in their functions to meet all the unique needs of society.

    All sorts of mechas with different specifications were produced, and they needed very specific materials to build.

    Companies specializing in sourcing and supplying these needs started to sprout as well.

    Thesepanies themselves needed to employ the use of extremely powerful mechas to source the unique materials from deep within the earth, underwater and even far away in space.

    All in all, the civilian mecha industry was booming.

    However, if the civilian mecha industry was booming, then the military mecha industry waspletely in supernova mode.

    Every single military in the world was modernizing.

    They were either transitioning into mechas, or were upgrading their old mechas into newer ones.

    Being the unofficial third superpower in the world, the Chinese Federation sold tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands of mechas to other countries!

    Ocean exploration and space exploration were exploding off the charts, and it was a time unlike any other time in the economy of the world.<novelnext></novelnext>

    At a time like this, having a blueprint is nothing out of the ordinary. But having a good blueprint is pretty rare indeed.

    As such, you can imagine my excitement as I browsed the blueprints Instructor ckwood had in his personal collection.

    "Instructor ckwood must be a pretty good Mecha Designer." I thought excitedly as my mind devoured the first few designs. "These mecha designs are pretty good! He must be at least an Intermediate Mecha Designer!"

    My enhanced brain, my photographic memory and my deep understanding of white mechas allowed me to quickly identify the crucial aspects of the mecha blueprints and secure the information in my mind for future study.

    The National Mecha Design Agency can afford to be picky and buy only the designs that had great potential and contained sparks of creativity in them.

    As such, the designs I purviewed that day all gave me wave after wave of inspirations and ideas.

    My mind was whirring at top speed as I thought of many different alternatives to create stronger, faster, more efficient mecha manifestations, all the while studying the blueprints in deep fascination.

    The first few mecha blueprints were light mechas, but very ingeniously designed to maximize speed and firepower, bringing up their specs to near medium mecha levels at the expense of armor.

    "Awesome! These mecha designs are so inspired and so high quality!" I thought to myself approvingly. "I can utilize the principles of aerodynamics and thruster positioning applied here into my own mecha manifestion. It wouldn''t be an overhaul on my power, but raising it by five or six percent should not be a problem. On the grand scheme of things, it''s great!"

    I went on to the next few mechas which were medium mechas. Once again, the mecha designs were ingenious. As a jack of all trades, the medium mecha could do many things well, and as such, needed high specs across the board.

    The medium mecha blueprints which Instructor ckwood collected were simr in output, and were in general fifteen to twenty percent higher than normal medium mechas.

    However, the awesome thing was, they all reached that same output level using very different methods!

    Each was a clear exhibition of mastery at various aspects of mecha design.

    One focused on achieving its high output by way of highly advanced mechanical design, while another did it by ingenious energypression and maniption.

    Yet another one did it by sheer genius in energy conversion efficiency.

    Each mecha blueprint was an eye opener for me!

    I was chugging along steadily, finishing my greedy devouring of the seventh mecha blueprint when I finally started to flip to the eighth mecha.

    For the past few seconds prior to that, I noticed in my extremely sharp periphery vision that Instructor ckwood had started to keep one eye on me.

    At first I thought it was to make sure I did not try to tamper with his TeachLink. Which was strange because there was definitely no way I could do that. The TeachLink was an extremely secure device which could only be operated by recognized users.

    Instructor ckwood had to specifically grant permission for me to even flip the pages of the mecha blueprint design folder.

    However, when I opened the eighth mecha design, I finally realized what he was doing.

    He wanted to see my reaction to the eighth mecha design!

    And judging by the triumphant look that shed across his eyes, he got what he wanted.

    My jaw dropped as I couldn''t help but shout.

    "What the hell?"

    The mecha blueprint that appeared before me was truly a wonder among wonders!

    It was the blueprint of an Ultra Heavy Mecha.

    But it was not just any Ultra Heavy Mecha, it was in the shape of a massive T-Rex.

    It was obviously¡­

    "Godzi??" I whistled lightly in admiration. "I can see its appeal in terms of awesomeness and aggressive looks, but functionality wise¡­"

    "This Mecha Godzira is not made to be the best in terms of performance, but to deliver nostalgic awesomeness to a generation who grew up watching its movies." Instructor ckwood said rather proudly.

    I nodded my head in understanding.

    The Mecha Godzira was one of the "pretty boys", a mecha made with looks as its top priority.

    Click. Click. Click.

    My photographic memory instantly memorized its key features and internalized its design in my mind.

    "Damn I can''t wait to trample on my enemies using this epic design!" I remember thinking extremely excitedly and wishing that a mecha uprising that somehow required my intervention would suddenly take ce near me!

    "Hehehehe. Awesome, right? I am impressed you actually know about the Mecha Godzira. Work hard in my ss, boy, and one day, this awesome and godly mecha design might just be yours!" Instructor ckwood encouraged me.

    I grinned widely at him and nodded vigorously.

    "En. En. I will work hard to make sure I get this mecha blueprint. But I am sure you have more awesome ones! I will continue looking!" I said eagerly as I prepared to flip through to the ninth mecha.

    But before I could do that¡­

 Chapter 147 Ranking Elder Chen Jun

    "Breaking news! Breaking news! Principal Bruce Pang has just epted a five on five friendly mecha battle challenge against the Glorious Sky Mecha Pilot Academy! It would be our fifth years versus theirs!" An over-excited third year ran out into the field, screamed loudly at the top of his lungs, and then disappeared as quickly as he came.

    However, even though he was gone, the wave of excitement he brought with him instantly infected everyone in that field.

    "Five on five battle against Glorious Sky Mecha Pilot Academy! The top ranked Aerial Mecha Academy in the country! I assume it will be an aerial battle??"

    "Of course it will be an aerial battle! Theirnd and sea based mechas are pure crap. Bruce Pang will never waste our time by sending us to uselesspetitions!"

    "Oh my god oh my god oh my god. This is so epic! I heard my big bro say that we''ve always consistently, and I mean CONSISTENTLY, lost to them in terms of aerialbat! This friendly challenge will be anything but friendly!"

    "Damn right it won''t be friendly! My big sis is in her fifth year, and she had been going on non stop about wanting to win the Aerial Mecha Trophy in this Tri-annual Inter-School Mecha Competition for the WHOLE six week holiday! Everybody is fired up about the Aerial Mecha Tournament this year!"

    "I heard their fifth year Ace Pilots, Hu Lin Tao and Xia Jing had been scouted by the ck Knights of the Chinese Federation Air Force!"

    "Xia Jing! She is super pretty! She is the prettiest girl in the Federation!"

    I instantly got all the information I needed to know about the Glorious Sky Mecha Pilot Academy by just listening to the kids gossip about the news.

    Their excitement was so thick and palpable that I felt as though I could touch it! The atmosphere was instantly electrified.

    Even Instructor ckwood was affected.

    "Hohoho. It''s just the third day of school, and the first challenge has already arrived? The other academies sure are impatient. They can''t wait to give their students more pressure so that they can improve rapidly before the Preliminaries of the Tri-annual Mecha Tournament!" He said with shining eyes.

    "The first challenge? Preliminaries? So you mean¡­"

    "Yes! There will probably be lots and lots of challenges this year! And maybe even some at your level! And all that even before the preliminaries set to take ce three months from now. Of course our National Mecha Pilot Academy won''t have any problems at all with the preliminaries. We usually field our third stringers for that.

    But every battle is very valuable experience for greenhorns like you guys.

    So make sure you focus on your lessons and improve yourselves! Who knows you might just be selected to represent our academy in a challenge against another school!" Instructor ckwood said loudly to encourage us.

    Of course everyone was excited.

    We were kids, we lived topete with each other and to one up each other.

    To have the chance topete against other academies and show the rest of the country how awesome we were was something extremely appealing to us.

    Even I was excited.

    "The friendlypetitions and the preliminaries will be officially graded and each participant would receive Competition Points which would go towards your ranking systems! Don''t forget that you are all currently listed within the National Youth Pilot Ranking and the local National Mecha Pilot Academy Ranking!" Instructor ckwood said.

    "Oh my god. That''s right! Rankings! Ipletely forgot about them! Let''s go to the Ranking Valleyter during lunch to check our ranks!" A boy shouted loudly.

    At the mention of the Ranking Valley, all of the kids burst into excited chatter.

    The first two days of school were so intensively exciting that we had all forgotten about rankings!

    "Hehehehehehe." Iughed gleefully in my mind.

    (Picture Anya''s signature smile from Spy x Family lol)

    "I am definitely ranked first in this batch! And very very high up in the local academy ranking! And in fact, I am probably among the top in the National Youth Mecha Pilot Ranking too! The juries and judges were probably extremely impressed by my "secret technique" which made me extra strong and extra resistant against my enemies!"

    I was very confident that I did very well. Who wouldn''t, after doing what I did?

    And so you could imagine my shock around three hourster when we checked out the Ranking Valley.

    "What the heck? I am ranked 28,347th in the academy??? Impossible!!" I shouted with my eyes bulging out in utter disbelief and no small amount of frustration.

    My bubble of gleeful anticipation of seeing my name right at the very top of the list was popped in the worst way possible.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Not only wasn''t I ranked first, I was ranked so low that it took my extra sharp eyes a full minute just to find my name near the bottom of the list!

    "This is ridiculous. There is no way Justin is ranked so low. This ranking board must be broken! Let''s find a teacher and report this!" Rnd Hu said loudly.

    "Broken? Ha! This massive ranking board is a marvel of technology! It is linked to all the teachers'' TeachLinks and will update in real time! It is linked to three backups in threepletely different servers in three separateworks.

    If there is any discrepancy in information, full time technicians working around the clock will instantly tackle the issue.

    There is no way all four systems are faulty at the same time on the same student." A thin and weasely faced Rushblood n member shouted happily at Rnd and me.

    "Face it! Your rank is that low! Your status as Champion is probably being revoked right now, and reced by Cheater! Hahaha!" His ugly and equally weasely faced friendughed at me as well.

    I glowered at them and wondered if smashing their faces in right there and then would be worth the trouble I would get into.

    But at that moment, a sleepy faced Elder came out of a nearby small maintenance building and approached us.

    The Ranking Valley was a very important ce that was revered by all students.

    There was almost a sacral atmosphere within it.

    It was located in a real valley between two mountains at the front end of the academy''s sprawling estate, and so it was within walking distance for us.

    Within the Ranking Valley was a massive screen that was at least a hundred meters wide and twenty meters tall!

    There was a massive assembly field that doubled as a mini mecha battle arena in front of it, and a couple of maintenance buildings nearby.

    All five major ranking systems were located there, and we can all keep track of the ranking of every single member of the academy, staff and students alike.

    Unlike the original rankings, it was an active-only ranking that took away all retired and historical figures.

    The numbers attached to the rank though, were the ones that included the historical value, so as not to confuse us.

    The National Mecha Pilot Academy Ranking system was right at the edge of the screen, and it was where we were gathered at that time.

    The sleepy faced Elder that came out of the maintenance room was dressed in a regal ck Elder uniform and despite of how sleepy he looked, managed to cause my senses to tingle a little.

    There was a faint sense of bloodthirst emanating from his very being, and I could sense it very clearly.

    I knew without a doubt that before me was a man that could butcher all nearly five thousand of us without missing a single beat.

    He took a nce at our excited faces and guessed that we were first years.

    "Hello cute little first years! I was wondering when you guys would show up. My goodness, you first years this time are so uninterested in rankings huh? Took you three days to get to this ce! It''s a brand new record." The sleepy faced Elder sighed deeply.

    "In the fifteen years I''ve served as a Ranking Elder in charge of the Ranking Valley, your batch by far took the longest toe here."

    "Ranking Elder! Wow, you''re the famous Elder Chen Jun that killed hundreds of rebel mechas by yourself in the Dark River Uprising more than twenty years ago!" Barrick Rui shouted in a rare moment of excitement.

    "Wow! What do we have here? A very well learned student!" Elder Chen Jun beamed his sleepy face at Barrick and gave him a wide smile.

    "Your exploits are legendary, Elder Chen Jun! Of course I know about you! I''ve studied all satellite footages of your final battle, and I just can''t get enough of it. May I schedule an interview with you?" Barrick Rui, in true information gatherer fashion, instantly tried to secure his source of information!

    However, at the mention of the final battle, Elder Chen Jun suddenly paled slightly, and then turned back into his building without a single word!

    "Huh? What was that about?" I asked curiously. "I thought he would be giving us a brief exnation of the ranking systems and everything. And I wanted to ask why the heck is my ranking so low! Why did he just turn away like that without a word?"

    "I think you just touched something he was trying his very best to forget." Jack Yang said to Barrick Rui.

    "His final battle was ssified information apart from whatever I just said. I think he lost a lot of his mates in that battle¡­" Barrick Rui said softly with a contemtive look on his face.

 Chapter 148 Get Those Rocks!

    My mind was split in two at that moment.

    One part was truly curious about the story behind the famous Elder Chen Jian that even had his final battle kept behind the ssified information wall! Without a doubt, his final battle was hair-raisingly exciting and probably also heartbreakingly tragic.

    I needed to get my hands on that story!

    However, the other part of my mind was truly desperate to know why the hell was my ranking so embarrassingly low.

    Not only did I not leap ahead any the second years, I was even way below the halfway mark within the first years.

    It was impossible for my achievements to not get any points!

    By that point, I had:

    Saved Emma.

    Saved her again from Elizabeth.

    Broke records in the entrance exams

    Scored an extremely high RPL

    Became a damned member of Blood Moon!

    Protected myself and the Whitefrost kids against an ambush by a WHITE MECHA and tens of blues!

    Won the damned Grand Melee!

    Landed three hits on the ss instructor!

    Finished first by myself in dismantling the mecha!

    "Where are all my points!" I remember raging internally against the academy.

    Knowing that you truly and definitely were entitled to more, and then discovering that you merely received a fraction of it was a terrible feeling indeed.

    Indignance welled up in my heart and I was prepared to march into Bruce Pang''s office to demand justice!

    At that moment, however, a few of my friends came over.

    "Hey guys. What are your ranks?" Olivia Summers asked as she broke away from her group to join us. "I''m ranked 25,878th."

    "Whoa. Nice. We''re quite close. I am ranked 25,907th." Jack Yang said in a pleased voice.

    As he should be. 907th in our batch was an extremely high rank in that collection of Dragons and Phoenixes.

    And Olivia Summers was actually ranked extremely high.

    I had no idea how they calcted her points, but her score was truly a surprise for me.

    "I''m 27,071st." Rnd Hu said sourly.

    "That''s still above average. You should be proud!" Barrick Rui patted him on his back.

    "Easy for you to say. You''re probably ranked in the top thousand as well. What''s your rank anyway?" Rnd Hu asked him.

    "29,552nd." Barrick Rui replied serenely.

    All of our jaws dropped.

    "That''s¡­ that''s¡­" Rnd Hu sputtered.

    "You''re almost deadst. What the hell? Why is your rank so low?" Jack Yang asked with a frown.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I didn''t get a mecha in the Grand Melee." Barrick Rui replied. He looked as though he hadpletely epted his fate, and was at peace with his horrendous rank.

    As one of the very active participants who very efficiently prevented hundreds of kids like him from essing mechas, I could only give a soft and awkwardugh at his words.

    "Hot damn. You''re a victim of the ruthless bastards who attacked all those kids before they could reach their mechas? Those kids are too much!" Rnd Hu shouted passionately.

    "Yeah. They truly are too much!" Olivia Summers said with a wide, mischievous grin on her face. "Tell me, what would you do if you got your hands on one of those ruthless bastards?"

    "That sly little trouble maker!" I thought as my eyes bulged incredulously at her clear provocation.

    But of course Rnd Hu bit onto the baitpletely, hook line and sinker.

    "I will teach him a lesson he will never forget! Big bro Barrick will lead the way, of course since he has the biggest beef against that person. And followed by big bro Justin since he''s a walking armored tank. And then brother Jack and I will help them by kicking his head in!" Rnd Hu dered.

    Oh yes, that Rnd Hu is a person who truly knew his ce and lived out his role to perfection.

    At ten years old, he already knew that he would lead no clique, and that his role was to support.

    And so even though he bought Olivia''s bait whole, he wasn''t truly caught in a dilemma caused by his own words.

    But Olivia continued on her self given mission to try and get me beaten up without a moment''s hesitation.

    "Excellent! I know one ruthless bastard that did exactly that. In fact this ruthless bastard actually robbed me of my mecha before the start of the Grand Melee too! Shall we teach him a lesson together?" Olivia Summers asked my bunkmates passionately.

    "YES!" Rnd Hu roared.

    "Let''s teach that bastard a lesson." Jack Yang nodded, righteousness shining out from his eyes.

    Even Barrick Rui, who was usually toozy to do anything, started to nod eagerly.

    I sighed.

    "Alright! Follow my lead! Attack whoever I am attacking!" Olivia Summers cried out.

    "Let''s go!"

    And without further ado, she turned and then leapt on me with a shrill, excitedugh!

    "Beat this ruthless bastard up!" Sheughed loudly as her body smashed onto mine and caused me to lose bnce and fall down.

    My three bunk mates stared at us in shock for a split second before hooting with glee and started to beat me up as well!

    "Hey! Hey! I was only doing what I thought was best in that situation!" I cried out as I tried to block them as gently as I could.

    "Don''t punch him! His skin is too thick! Grab those rocks over there and beat him up using them!" Olivia Summers ignored mepletely and cried out.

    "What? Rocks? Are you guys crazy!!" I yelled loudly.

    But they scrambled to get the rocks and quickly returned with a huge armful of them, sinister grins stered on their faces.

    "Attack!!" Rnd Hu howled excitedly.

    As one, theyughed out loud and pounced on me!

    "Hey! What are you guys doing?" Tes shouted as she burst through the crowd to reach our position.

    Simrly, the two Wang girls and the Long trio reached us at the same time as well.

    My dumb bunkmates'' loud battle cries had attracted a lot of attention, and most of our schoolmates were already staring at us and preparing to watch a good show.

 Chapter 149 Whats YOUR Rank?

    "Beating up this bastard who made brother Barrick Rui and others like him not get a mecha before the Grand Melee started! Join us!" Rnd Hu shouted with glee as he tossed a few rocks to the neers. "Here are some rocks! Get him!"

    Oh yes.

    My best brothers and sisters, even the ones who did exactly as I did that day because there was no way in hell the Wangs and the Longs did not do anything to prevent other kids from getting mechas, ganged up on me that lunch time and tried their best to beat me up.

    The keyword was, of course, "tried".

    Theypletely failed to do any damage to me, which was probably why they did what they did, and at the same time, they managed to create a form of camaraderie among themselves, which was also probably why Olivia did what she did.

    Plus, it was probably a hell lot of fun for them.

    I was a living and breathing punching bag who was able to dodge, block and counterattack by grabbing at their rocks and smashing them to pieces!

    I moved my head slightly to dodge a vicious downward blow from a grinning Tes and allowed her rock to smash down on my shoulder.

    CRASH!

    Her rock cracked to pieces and she was the first to bow out of the "Rebellion" against the future Mecha Emperor.

    She didn''t really want to rebel, of course. She was just joining in the fun.

    The same could not be said of the rest of them.

    My eyes focused on the main culprit, Olivia Summers who was still veryfortably seated on my tummy and happily smashing down her rock over and over again on my chest.

    With pin-point uracy, I smacked her rock away and instantly rendered her weaponless. With her weapon gone, she became just a little girl sitting on top of a little boy.

    Apparently it wasn''t something that she wanted to dwell on for very long, and she immediately rolled off.

    Next in line was Barrick Rui.

    I remember thinking at that moment¡­

    "Bloody hell! I''ll be damned if I allow that fat blob of fat to sit on me!!" I cried out in horror.

    It was one thing to allow a cute little ten year old girl to sit on you.

    It was an entirely different thing to allow a massive 75kg ten year old calf to sit on you.

    I ignored all the potential damage I could do to the others and immediately threw my body to one side to avoid Barrick''s body attack!

    SLAMP!

    Barrick''s body mped down next to me, narrowly missing my body by a few centimeters!

    "Hey! Enough!!" I roared out loudly.

    "Enough? Would you have stopped if I said "enough" when you were robbing me?" Olivia shouted even louder from the side as she picked up a brand new piece of rock.

    At her words, it was as though something clicked in the minds of the others, and they redoubled their efforts to attack me!

    They wereughing yfully earlier when they were attacking me, confident that their attacks would deal no damage whatsoever to me.

    At that moment, they were stillughing, true.

    But theirughter had a rather savage edge to it, as though they were actually eager to draw my blood somehow!

    I sighed.

    We were close then, but the fact remained that we merely knew each other for a few short days.

    We were still exploring the limits and boundaries of our unique friendship, one where I was shrouded by mystery but clearly destined for greatness, and where they were potentially destined to be the supporting cast to my glorious future.

    They were hesitant to ept it, but also reluctant to go against it. So there we were¡­ "celebrating" our friendship.

    Plus they were still very curious as to just how strong my body truly was.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Was my body strong enough to withstand full forced attacks by rocks?

    "It''s time to find out!" They probably thought.

    The next few minutes wereplete chaos as my best buddies unleashed their strongest attacks on me!

    I was unwilling to injure them, so I merely did my best to dodge and disarm them by smashing their rocks apart.

    The Long trio, with their abundant experience dealing with my "indestructible" body, kept an especially cautious sequence of attacks against me.

    Bam! Wham!

    Rocks clutched in their hands, they attacked me again and again from all around me.

    They pushed me, tried to trip me, threw rocks at my face, and did every single dirty trick their ten year old minds could think of.

    But¡­

    "Damn you monster!" Olivia Summers panted heavily as her final rock smashed against my arm and crumbled to pieces.

    One by one, they all ran out of rocks to use against me.

    "He must- be as- strong as- the Russian freaks." Rnd Hu panted.

    "Definitely." Jack Yang panted.

    "No. He is- definitely- stronger." Elise Wang panted.

    "He must be- a Russian spy." Eliana Wang panted.

    "Let''s- report- him." Barrick Rui wheezed in agreement.

    I smirked at them triumphantly.

    "Well! You little bunch of weaklings! So many of you versus one, and look who are the ones panting like cute little dogs! Weak! Weak! The Federation''s future is bleak! Oh woe! Woe to the Federation!" Iughed at them mercilessly.

    They all nced at each other for a moment, and then somehow came to an unspoken, unanimous agreement.

    "I am ranked 24,963." Eliana Wang started.

    "I am 24,964." Elise Wang continued.

    My lips twitched at their words.

    Their ranks were above 25,000!

    That meant that they overtook several 2nd years in rank! And all that in merely the third day of school!

    Ridiculous.

    And more than that¡­

    "I should be ranked at least 24,000 then!" I raged in my mind.

    "25,009." Victor Long said.

    "25,010." Hailey Long smirked.

    "25,191." Gerald Long said with a stiff smile.

    "25,120." Tes said quietly, and caused Gerald Long to whirl around and look at her in shock.

    But what they were trying to do was extremely clear.

    "What''s YOUR rank?" Eliana Wang asked me loudly.

 Chapter 150 One Piece

    "My rank is currently under maintenance!" I shouted back at her loudly.

    "Under maintenance? Pfffftt!!" Olivia Summers snickered loudly.

    "He''s ranked extremely low, way above 28k." Rnd Hu beamed at the girls.

    "Exactly. There is no way I am ranked so low after winning the Grand Melee. My rank is definitely wrong, and thus it is officially under maintenance until further notice! No one is to mention my rank until it is fixed!" I dered.

    It would be extremely worrying for the country if my pathetic deration actually stopped the kids from teasing andughing at me about my rank.

    Thankfully for the country, and unfortunately for me, they didn''t give a crap about what I had to say and continued to tease me mercilessly.

    I won''t bore you with the details, but suffice to say that I had to live as "that low ranking weakling" for the next few weeks.

    The remainder of the day passed by rather uneventfully.

    In fact, the remainder of the week passed by that way.

    By the end of the week, I had gone through all the sses at least once, and I had to say that being in school was not as bad as I originally had expected.

    The theory sses were all useful sses, and the practical sses were all interesting and eye opening.

    As a first grader, I had to take only two theory sses called Basic Physics and Basic Biology which taught us how mechas and our bodies work.

    They were prerequisites to learning essential intermediate sses called Mechatronics and First Aid.

    Apart from those two theory sses, the remaining sses were all experiential learning sses, aka practical lessons.

    Physical Fitness, Personal Combat, Mecha Movement and Teamwork.

    The practical lessons were all twice a week, and the theory lessons were only once a week. Each lesson took up the entire chunk of time before and after lunch aka Morning ss or Afternoon ss.

    The lessons weren''t very advanced, but all of them were extremely important for me and the strengthening of my basics.

    Those few weeks solidified all of our mindsets as mecha pilots, and gave us exactly what we needed to seed in the long run.

    Mecha Movement sses were basically training us to execute all sorts of movements either alone or in teams, and always across extremely dangerous and difficult terrain.

    Not only did we have to be extremely precise with our mechas, we needed to do so in the correct timing and the correct manner.

    It was extremely challenging for the kids, even for the Royals.

    For Divines such as me, and especially me, it was much easier.

    I remember one particrly difficult session sometime in the second week or so.

    We had finished practicing with standard practice mechas the week before, and did rather well by our standards.

    Apparently the teachers felt the same way, and decided to raise the difficulty by a notch. Or a few notches.

    The entire batch was brought to an ancient battleground somewhere deep within the Chinese Federation early one morning, and there we found five thousand mechas in varying states of disrepair.<novelnext></novelnext>

    In fact, disrepair was a very mild word to describe those mechas. Five thousand atrocious mechas looking like a mecha junkyarde to life stood before us.

    There were absolutely no mecha which was intact, and none that sported two limbs belonging to the same original mecha.

    It was a hodge podge of mecha partse together in a frankenstein-like festival!

    "What the hell? Are we supposed to pilot those pieces of junk?" Jack Yang muttered loudly as our massive transport shipnded and the gate opened to reveal the five thousand mechas in all of their inglorious state.

    "Junk? I''ve seen junk and they look like brand new Soaring Dragon mechaspared to these pieces of crap!" Victor Long grumbled.

    "No you haven''t seen junk. And they definitely didn''t look like brand new mechas, much less Soaring Dragon ones." I rolled my eyes at that pampered little punk born with a diamond spoon.

    "Look on the bright side. At least today''s lesson won''t be as boringly easy asst week''s." Elise Wang saidzily as she stifled a yawn.

    "Yes, that''s right!" Gerald Long added, eager to agree with her. That poor little Long boy had somehow managed to get himself to "fall in love" with Elise Wang and had spent the past few days either following her around or getting yelled at by Victor Long.

    Elise Wang was by no means a maniptive b***h like so many budding politicians who liked to y with boys'' hearts, but she was also a little girl who just had her first fan, so she did nothing to push him away, and merely enjoyed his attentions.

    Of course she assionally allowed him to carry her stuff, buy her cute little things such as diamond studded dresses and all, but that''s just normal... Right?

    Right??

    Anyway, we all trooped out of the massive transport apprehensively and quietly entered the mechas randomly, getting into the ones that we felt he had confidence in handling.

    There was no need to bother staying together as the instructors usually formed groups consisting of random students.

    They liked to put us among new people each lesson so that we would be constantly forced to deal with different kinds of team mates and not createfort zones into which we could fall.

    I found myself in a small, humanoid mecha with a pair of raptor legs, a drill as a left hand, and a three fingered hand on the right.

    It also had a huge third arm protruding out of its back that hung over its head like a strange nt giving it cover from the sun.

    That third arm looked extremely out of ce, and felt like the mecha designer wanted to still give the mecha two arms which still had fingers, but was unwilling to sacrifice the drill on its left arm.

    I powered up the mecha and allowed my powerful resonance to wash over the mecha and study it in a level of detail that not even its creator probably had.

    Instantly, I realized that despite its ridiculous look, the mecha was actually more powerful and more ferocious than most of the blue mechas in the Red Dragon Gang!

    The mecha designer that made the strange mecha must be a genius!

    "Alright! Are you all ready? If you''re ready, take a good look at the battlefield in front of you. Today''s task is very simple. Get to the other end of the battlefield!

    In!

    One!

    Piece!" The instructor shouted.

 Chapter 151 Ambushing The Ambushers

    The battlefield thaty before us was aplete mess.

    It was situated in a valley of sorts and stretched for almost as far as the eye could see. Dark silhouettes of what seemed to be mountain sides surrounded us on all sides.

    Massive rusted wreckages littered the area and thend was filled with huge craters within craters probably caused by mecha core explosions.

    There were several spectacr craters that were probably caused by the explosions of white mechas.

    All of us studied the terrain cautiously, preparing our hearts and figuring out the routes that we would take to traverse the valley.

    My sharp eyes quickly noticed several suspicious things.

    The first was fresh mecha tracks.

    On several of the wreckages, there were traces of bright paint where mechas probably identally brushed against them.

    There was no way the paint would stay bright after so many years. Paint scratched off mechas wouldn''tst more than a few days, especially in a ce as windy as the valley where the elements beat down very mercilessly on them.

    The second was the movements of the small animals in the valley. Thousands of them were scampering about, as if they were in a mass migration.

    The two clues instantly told me one thing was for certain.

    "Ambush." A mecha near me said softly through its speakers.

    I was surprised.

    There was someone whose power of observation was as sharp as mine!

    "Ambush? What are you talking about?" Another mecha asked nervously.

    "You mean this was a site of ambush many years ago?" Another one asked.

    But the mecha who spoke up remained silent.

    I took note of the mecha who spoke up, and marked him as one of the more capable students.

    "If at all possible, I would like to know who he or she is." I thought to myself.

    By that time, the lessons of leadership, responsibility and teamwork were starting to sink in on us. So several kids had already taken advantage of the lull before the beginning of the mission to organize each other into groups.

    Unlike the previous lessons, the instructors did not actively put us into groups, and merely left us alone.

    It was obviously a test for our initiative.

    I rose to the challenge and tried my best to lead my schoolmates.

    "Friends!" I called out loudly through my personally enhanced speakers.

    "I believe that there will be an ambush on the battlefield ahead. Let us get into groups, and prepare to traverse the battlefield in waves so that we can slowly overwhelm the ambushers and maintain a semnce of order!"

    An uproar instantly ensued after my announcement.

    "Ambush? Bullshit! You just want the majority of us to wait while you charge ahead to victory!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Advance in waves so that those in front can absorb the damage while those of you at the back advance safely? You sneaky bastard!"

    "Why the hell should we follow you? Who the hell are you?"

    "The ambush is there, whether you like it or not! If you think there''s no ambush, feel free to go first and be the first wave!" I shouted loudly. "If you think there''s an ambush, stay back and be the second wave! But do not forget to charge and help those in the first wave when the ambush strikes!"

    "I think there is no ambush! I am charging ahead!"

    "Me too! If you think there''s an ambush, then move back! If you want to charge ahead first, thene forward!"

    "Shut the hell up and stop ordering us about!"

    "YOU SHUT UP!" I finally upped the volume on my speakers and roared loudly!

    "If you don''t want to follow instructions and work together, THEN SHUT THE F*** UP! When have the missions given by the school been as straightforward as reaching the end? The real mission here isn''t reaching the end! But teamwork! Scouting! Reacting to emergencies! Oveing the damn ambush together as a team!"

    At my words, the rest were finally stunned into silence. Well, maybe it wasn''t due to my words, but due to the fact that I my shout had been ridiculously loud and their ears were ringing loudly.

    But whatever the reason, the rest were silent, and the atmosphere turned more cooperative.

    "Let us assume that there is an ambush then. If you want to proceed first, thene forward! If not-"

    "READY! ON YOUR MARK! GET SET! GO!!" The instructor chose that moment to interrupt my words and galvanize the crowd to action.

    But I was determined not to let them mess up the mission!

    "WAIT! WE DON''T HAVE TO GO JUST BECAUSE THEY SAID START!" I bellowed right after the instructor finished. "OUR MISSION IS TO GET TO THE END! NOT TO GET THERE FIRST!!"

    A few ignored my words and around a hundred mechas leapt ahead to charge into the battlefield.

    "I am Victor Long. Listen to me. Let them be the first wave. Long family members, and those willing to listen to me, get ready to support them. We will be the second wave. Step forward and get into position!"

    Immediately, around two hundred mechas started to rumble ahead to follow Victor Long into battle.

    I sighed in relief.

    I could not have organized all five thousand mechas by myself. I needed other voices!

    ? "This is Jaden Rushblood. I will lead us in a nking maneuver to support the second wave. Rushbloods and those willing to follow me,e this way." Jaden Rushblood called out and started to make his way to the right most corner of the battlefield.

    Around a hundred mechas lumbered after him.

    "Wang girls. Get a thousand mechas each and approach the battlefield in two separate waves far apart from the East and West." Sheera Lin called outzily.

    "Fine. Come this way guys, we''llplete this assignment together!" Elise Wang agreed. She knew that Sheera Lin was a genius, and instantly followed her instructions.

    "I need a thousand this way too!" Eliana Wang called out.

    For a few minutes, there was mini chaos as the mechas sorted themselves out, but they quickly got into position. The hodge podge frankenstein mechas looking damaged beyond belief were actually quite sturdy.

 Chapter 152 What A Death

    "I need to form ten teams of a hundred mechas. You will be suicide squads to charge and lock down any ambushing parties that appear. Trust me, your contributions would not go unnoticed. These academy instructors record everything." Sheera Lin called out.

    "I will lead the first Hammer Squad!" I shouted eagerly. "If you want to join my Hammer Squad, follow me!"

    Instantly my bunkmates and Tes jumped ahead toe after me.

    "I will lead the second Hammer Squad." Olivia Summers called out resolutely.

    "Golden Bear Squad, form up!" A familiar voice rang out. It was the Golden Bear Squad leader''s voice.

    One after another, volunteers started appearing. Pre formed squads and brave individuals jumped up and called for their buddies and friends to join them.

    "Come! Let''s give those damned ambushers a taste of their own medicine! Get revenge for what they did to us in the Grand Melee! It''s probably the same bunch of idiots!"

    "There is no greater love than those whoy down their lives for their friends! You brave souls! Join me!"

    "Come join my Hammer 7! We will destroy those ambushers single handedly and im the greatest glory for today''s mission!"

    With so many enthusiastic kiddos jumping forward and lighting up fires in the hearts of all the kids, hundreds responded.

    Very soon, all ten Hammer Squads were filled.

    It was amazing how things turned out from being openly hostile to my initial attempt to gather them, into one that filled a thousand suicide spots within minutes!

    "The rest of you will advance when I say so. Your task will be to knock down any ambushers still alive AND to bring with you your fallenrades. Remember, LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND!" Sheera Lin''s voice rang out with righteous fervor.

    "Yes!" The rest of the kids shouted excitedly.

    At that moment, the first bunch of idiots finally triggered the first ambush.

    Fifty standard practice mechas suddenly burst out of arge pile of wreckage and swarmed a small cluster of five mechas passing by them.

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    The five mechas had no chance. They were quickly put down.

    "Charge! Get the others!" The leader of the fifty ambushers shouted loudly and sprinted towards the next cluster of mechas.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    Upon seeing the fifty ambushers, the other frankenstein mechas finally realized their mistake.

    "Damn! There really are ambushers! As if getting across this hell hole at high speed isn''t difficult enough!" One of them cursed and immediately tried swerve away from the iing ambushers.

    However, the ambushers were designed with speed in mind, and they very rapidly closed the distance between them and the next bunch of mechas.

    They were doomed.

    "Charge!" Victor Long shouted.

    As one, the fiendishlypetent Long family members and their stout hearted followers charged forward in their frankenstein mechas.

    Ghastly raptors, humanoid monsters, beast form mechas and all sorts of travesties thundered forth towards the fifty ambushers!

    "Heavy mechas above fifteen tons take the nks." Victor Long calmly instructed. "Wedge formation."<novelnext></novelnext>

    The group mechas shifted their formation as they charged and formed up behind Victor Long at the lead.

    Like the first wave, the second wave was most probably doomed. There was no way that there were only fifty ambushers. They would probably get ambushed as well.

    But it was crucial that they charge to bait out even more ambushers, so that the others could then deal with them.

    Victor Long was a brave kid, and more than that, he was alsopetent and confident.

    Even though he knew he was doomed, he also knew that a solid performance by him was crucial.

    If he was able to solidly resist his own ambushers and force them to send out more mechas to deal with him, he would disrupt the ns of the ambushers and create chaos within their ranks!

    And when that happened, the chances of them winning would rise dramatically.

    His actions were impressive as hell.

    As expected, three hundred practice mechas surged out of several wreckages around Victor Long and his group.

    They closed around Victor Long like a clenched fist.

    "Keep charging ahead after me!" Victor Long shouted. His group of frankensteins immediately punched through the fifty or so mechas blocking them from the front and continued their mad dash towards the fifty ambushers.

    "Justin. Go on ahead and reinforce Victor. After that, remain in the battlefield and fight till the end." Sheera Lin said calmly.

    In effect, she had just sentenced me and my group to death, even if we seeded in our first mission objective to relieve Victor''s group.

    And she probably did so without batting an eyelid. The Eternal General knew my strength, and wished to use me and squeeze mepletely dry in the field of battle.

    It was the first time she did that to me. But it was definitely, definitely not thest time.

    "Fine. So be it." I replied in a calm voice as well. "Brothers. Dying in battle with you today is my greatest honor! Charge!!"

    I said those words in what I thought was a mighty and grandiose manner.

    But s, itpletely failed to achieve what I set out to do.

    Instead of inspiring my men to shout out with an impassioned and resounding roar, I merely got a bunch of sarcasticments in reply.

    "Huh? You''re dying? With who? Are you sick?" Rnd Hu shouted loudly even as he charged directly behind me and to my right faithfully.

    "Who the hell wants to die here? Dumbass!" Jack Yang cursed at me as he took his position behind me as well to my left.

    "Pui! Dying with you here is a disaster! I should have stayed behind and joined the final clean up group!" Barrick Rui grumbled.

    "I''m not dying here. But don''t worry, I will carry your dead mecha with me if you do. Consider it me returning you the favor." Tes said quietly.

    "Yeah, dumbass." Another unknown punk cursed at me.

    "Dumbass." Another one agreed.

    To a man, they "died" with great honor that day.

    But what a death they had.

 Chapter 153 True Elite

    It is difficult to truly exin the atmosphere in that ancient battlefield.

    The base starting emotion was one of somber solemness brought about by the hugeness of the battlefield and its absolute state of misery.

    The fact that thousands of real men and women, heroes all of them, actually died right there all those years ago made it all the more solemn.

    The ground once feasted upon the rivers of blood that flowed out of their dead bodies, and depending on whether you believe in ghosts or not, the air was still thick with their wandering spirits.

    As soon as the ambush was sprung, the atmosphere had taken a more thrilling and dangerous edge, but it was like a hot campfire trying to burn a hole on the thickest, most fire resistant nket you had ever seen.

    The participants of the battles were screaming, shouting and executing thrilling moves, but they did not bring any life back to the deadness and the stillness of the battlefield.

    We were like little ants fighting in a massive and empty football field.

    "Let''s go! Death to our enemies!!" I shouted heroically.

    "Corny." Mumbled another unknown punk from somewhere behind me.

    "Who is this Guan Yu wana be?" Sighed another.

    The heavy atmosphere was making it difficult for me to spark any sort of passion or fire in the hearts of my men.

    But despite all of that, their steps behind me did not waver, and as one, we thundered down towards the three hundred practice mechas surrounding Victor Long''s group in a mighty air.

    Victor Long''s group was holding out magnificently, and in the few minutes that had passed, they barely lost any mechas. And more importantly, they were not locked down in ce.

    His group was still charging forward towards the fifty mechas which were ambushing the first bunch of idiots, and his mission objective was still very much alive.

    And because of that, the situation at that moment was looking pretty good for us.

    Our first group was trying to escape. Neutral score. Their ambushers were still on their way. Neutral Score.

    Our second group was well on its way to rescue our first group. First mission objective - Approach the first group - Sess. Their ambushers failed to stop them. First mission objective - Stop the Frankenstein Mechas - Failed.

    Of course the second group''s second and third mission objectives were to actually rescue the first group AND stay alive! Those two were still ongoing.

    Our third group, mine, was charging towards the ambushers'' second group, and our mission objective was simple.

    Wipe the enemy mechas out.

    And by God, I will wipe them out!

    However, considering that I was actually in training mode, I resolved in my mind not to use the advantages I got from my red mecha core and try my best to improve on my skills.

    When would I improve if I always depend on my red mecha core?

    I unleashed my full resonance upon my mecha and piloted it skillfully despite the many problems and near-malfunctions due tobining so many strange and different parts together.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Go that way and cut through those wreckages." Jack Yang said as he pointed to a particrly huge pile of twisted metal parts of that looked like it used to be a massive and glorious aircraft.

    Seeing that the route Jack Yang rmended would allow us to catch up and approach our enemies at an angle, I immediately swerved and charged down towards the wreckage.

    s, it was a bad decision.

    Very, very bad.

    I leapt up the first pile of junk and lifted my mecha across into the massive broken down aircraft carrier.

    And came face to face with a thousand practice mechas hiding there!

    "HOLY S***!!" I shouted in horror!

    "DAMN IT! WE GOT DISCOVERED!!" The lead enemy mecha shouted in greater horror.

    Completely by ident, I had led my team to ambush the ambushers!!

    "ALL OUT ATTACK!!!" I roared in excitement as I skilfully plunged my left drill into the lead mecha''s belly.

    It immediately darkened as its reactive armor activated and its main power shut down to indicate that it had been "killed".

    "What the hell? We''re ambushing them? Justin, you''re a genius!" Barrick Rui shouted with glee as he swung his oversized right hand in a vicious swing and caught a practice mecha still lying down in ambush morepletely out of position and smashed it to "death".

    "Uh. Sorry for that. Hehehe."  Jack Yangughed sheepishly as he threw his mecha forward and stomped on several mechas trying to get up.

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    His piloted his massive mecha skilfully and stepped on the enemy''s hands and feet, quickly keeping them grounded and allowing those behind to finish them off.

    "Chargee!! Get deeper into their lines!! Chargee!! CHARGEE!!" I shouted loudly to ignite battle fervor in the hearts of my Hammer Squad members.

    Wham! Wham! Boom!

    In a melee ambush like the one I was currently executing, the most important thing for those in the front was to get into the thick of battle and allow those in the rear to engage in battle as well.

    I took a leaf from Jack Yang''s book and started to stomp ahead after him while ignoring the ones that I had partially incapacitated.

    A hundred mechas in my Hammer Squad One took a thousand of the enemy byplete surprise, and in the first few seconds? We dealt a horrendous amount of damage to them.

    With Jack Yang and I leading, we waded deep into battle and managed to take down over a hundred of the enemy before they could react adequately.

    "Counter attack! Get the hell up and attack them!" Their leader roared loudly.

    He stood at the rear and was in a slightly different looking mecha. His mecha was painted ck instead of dark blue and seeing him charge down from the rear to the front line in mere minutes told me one thing very clearly, he had the movement skills of a true elite.

 Chapter 154 Chiliarch

    Chiliarch.

    In ancient Rome, that word meant "leader of a thousand men".

    And although the mecha charging ahead towards me was piloted by a mere eleven year old, he was nheless a Chiliarch.

    But he was also one who had just lost more than ten percent of hismand in just a few short minutes without inflicting a single casualty on us.

    In military statistics, it was a horrendous loss!

    In an even battle, especially in final stands where the stakes are high, casualties can go as deep as 70 - 80 percent of the total number of participating soldiers from each side before one side beats a retreat or surrenders.

    But in most battes with low stakes, an opening engagement which had our results woud be more than enough to send the enemy beating a strategic retreat to regroup and re-engage at ater time.

    Ten percent to none losses in a few minutes during an ambush against a numerically unknown enemy should be more than enough reason for any sanemander to retreat towards a safer location.

    In military terms, it was a disaster!

    And apparently he was aware of the enormity of the disaster that was striking him at full force, because he was taking matters into his own hands, a clear sign of amander who trusted more in his own fighting abilities, and not in his ability tomand.

    And one who was either very brave and confident of his men''s ability to weather the storm and turn the situation around, or one who was batshit crazy.

    But the fact remains that in moments like the one he and his men was in, clear instructions by the leader is worth more than a few dead enemies.

    His instructions roared out in sentences filled with expletives would galvanize his men and direct their fire that could very well dictate the progress of the battle for the next few minutes!

    He had made a critical mistake, and knowing the National Mecha Pilot Academy, its lessons would probably be mercilessly hammered into them in the following few days.

    However, his mistake had be a problem for me at that moment.

    Because as you know, the "numerically unknown" enemy he was fighting against was actually just a hundred of us in weaker frankenstein mechas!

    We were outnumbered by freaking ten mechas to one, and if they managed to throw all remaining nine hundred mechas at me in one go, my Hammer Squad 1 would be goners within minutes.

    I need to kill him fast and send his men into absolute chaos!

    "He wants to stand his ground? And he aims to lead by example and inspire his men to fight more ferociously? My favorite kind of enemy leader." I thought to myself and grinned.

    However, my grin degenerated into a curse real quick because...

    "God damn! What''s with that ck mecha? Is it military grade? Its movement speed is insane!" Jack Yang cursed with all his strength as he spun his mecha to face it.

    He barely got into position when the ck mecha deftly positioned himself behind his massive shield and gave Jack Yang a horrific shield charge.

    WHAM!!!

    Jack Yang''s frankenstein mecha wasn''t built for straight up battles with a bull of a mecha like the ck mecha, and he immediately powered down as our first casualty of the battle!<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Damn it! We have a monster boss on our hands! Join me in triple teaming it and kill it quick!" I shouted as I leapt ahead to meet the ck mecha in battle with my loudly creaking frankenstein mechas.

    I gritted my teeth and forced myself to keep my red mecha energy dormant.

    "This is trainig! I will not use my red mecha energy for any reason today!" I vowed.

    My mecha''s major weak point was in its joints.

    Well, it wasn''t probably just mine.

    Every single frankenstein monster out there probably had extremely weak joints due to the sheer insanity that seemed to drive the mecha designer''s mind when building them!

    And with weak joints, we would not be able to unleash powerful swings or attacks that ces too much pressure on those joints.

    Our best options were thrusts or body attacks that ce the weight of our attacks directly onto our mecha frames.

    But I wasn''t aiming to execute an attack at that moment.

    Hell no.

    Having seen his incredible speed and incredible power, I''ve already categorized him in the same category as an angry grizzly bear.

    And in a fight against an angry grizzly, especially if you''re as weak as I waspared to it, you would be ying straight into his n if you tried to match strength against it.

    The most effective way was simply to lure it into a vicious bear trap and then kill it when it was down.

    It was inglorious, sneaky, dirty, and damn bloody effective.

    My raptor legs pumped hard and propelled me forward towards the ck mecha.

    Seeing me charge so boldly towards him, the ck mecha roared out his challenge and charged towards me as well!

    I smirked at a job well done, and immediately spun to retreat at full speed towards the "bear trap" called Rnd, Barrick and Tes.

    At that moment, they were dealing with other mechas, and were looking away from me.

    It looked like I was beating a full retreat deep into the ranks of my army, a clear sign of cowardize and the first indication that the enemy forces was about to be routed.

    And in that situation, the wisest thing amanding officer could do was to order a full charge to y the fleeing enemies.

    How in the world that ck mecha actually got himself to believe that we were being routed and was on the brink of fleeing waspletely beyond me.

    Still, we need to bear in mind that he was an eleven year old!

    It wasmon and understandable that he would bepletely caught up in the exhration of downing Jack Yang and seeing my fleeing figure probably sent his excitement through the roof.

 Chapter 155 Zac Long

    As I had hoped, the ck mecha charged after me and fell neatly into our trap.

    "Now!" I shouted as soon as he entered into my kill zone, a space in the middle of all four of us.

    Wham! Wham! Wham!

    Rnd, Barrick and Tes quickly unleashed disabling attacks on their enemies and whirled to gang bang the ck mecha from three different directions!

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    Miraculously, the ck mecha was able to somehow block all three attacks in an impressive disy of skill!

    "Hot damn! This mecha leader might have the skills to actually fight against Sherry Lin!" I thought to myself.

    But I wasn''t a spectator in the fight against the grizzly.

    Having blocked three ferocious attacks unleashed by my teammates, the ck mecha waspletely out of position to block mine.

    CRASH!!

    The rapidly spinning drill on my left arm prated into his belly and immediately "killed" him!

    "You shouldn''t have given up yourmand just to fight and die in a trap like this. Your men are doomed." I said sinisterly to him and lifted his "lifeless" mecha up using all three of my mecha arms.

    Yes, all three.

    That damn practice mecha was heavy!

    "The enemy leader is dead! Kill them all!!" I roared as loudly as I could.

    Instantly all of my men responded by roaring out their maddened battlecries!

    "Kill them all!! Kill those f*****s!!!"

    "Kill those weaklings!! Open their cockpits and kill the pilots!"

    "Take the pilots out and stomp on them! Crush them to pieces!"

    "No mercy! Kill! Kill them all!!"

    In the heat of battle, it wasn''t all that embarrassing for kids to listen to our ferocious and bloodthirsty battlecries and feel a deep sense of fear and panic overwhelming them.

    Open the cockpits and kill the pilots?

    Damn it I had no idea who started that battlecry, but it spread real quick and it worked even quicker.

    All remaining nine hundred mechas wanted nothing to do with us, and as one, they surged out of the massive aircraft wreckage screaming in fear!

    It was a damn, damn impressive sight.

    One hundred frankensteins putting a nine hundred practice mechas to flight!

    And not just flight, but with bone chilling, hysterical screaming from each and every one of them!

    The entire battlefield instantly turned around to look at the spectacle.

    And of course, the Eternal General would not let such an awesome opportunity and momentum slip past her fingers so easily.

    Pointing at two huge wreckages around the area, she immediately ordered the Wang girls to move out.

    "Get to those wreckages and check if there are enemy mechas hiding within them. Take them out if there are, and then charge ahead down those routes towards the end. Do not stop for any reason." She instructed them.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Acknowledged. Move out team." Eliana Wang nodded.

    "Let''s go." Elise Wang said.

    The two thousand frankenstein mechas moved out in two different directions and made a huge ruckus, contributing to the chaos that was gradually descending upon the area.

    If you had not been in a battle situation where the oue waspletely unknown and the situation was shifting dramatically against you, you would not be able to understand the sheer panic and fear that must be coursing through the veins of our ambushers that day.

    Plus, the fact that nearly a thousand of their team mates were screaming as though they had seen a horror moviee to life made their panic that much worser.

    Their morale were at the edge of a cliff, and if nothing happened, they would probably rout even before the main action went down.

    However, the second years had aces among them as well. Like a timely m dunk to reverse the momentum of a basketball game, a spectacr move by their aces would still be able to rapidly turn the situation around for them.

    Crunch times such as the moment we were in then were like crucibles in which heroes were formed.

    And one such hero arose from the second graders that day.

    Zac Long.

    He was a little boy of very, very few words. But his actions and his battle prowess that day needed no exnation nor verbal apaniment.

    Without him, we could have ended the battle right there and then with the nine hundred hysterically screaming kids making an already heavily oppresive atmosphere a million times worser for them.

    s!

    Zac Long prevented all of that.

    He led his squad of five hundred mechas and charged out of their hiding ce a couple hundred meters away!

    They quickly positioned themselves to meet their escaping team mates head on, and to let them see that reinforcements were enroute.

    His tactic worked like a charm.

    When the nine hundred escaping mechas finally noticed their reinforcements, a semnce of rationality returned and they all slowly came to a halt.

    Behind them, my buddies and I tore into their ranks with unparalleled ferocity, very quickly taking tens of them out.

    However, we had lost the element of shock and awe. Or as I would have called it, shock and scream.

    The remaining eight hundred mechas turned around and quickly joined up with Zac Long''s five hundred.

    As the highest ranked officer there, all thousand four hundred mechas had to obey his instructions.

    And his only instruction was given in a loud and undeniably clear voice which reverberated through all of our ears and our hearts.

    "Fight to the death!" He roared without hesitation.

    My heart sank. 1400 mechas fighting to the death would be a very, very tough nut to crack!!

    Of course a single instruction from an unknown and unbattle tested kiddo probably won''t make 1400 other kiddos fight to thest man.

    They would probably still break and run after receiving around 50 to 60 percent of their number depending on how quickly that could happen.

    But it was something that my tiny band of mechas were unable to do at that moment.

    There was no way each one of us could take out seven mechas each on average and still remain alive!

    In fact, as things were, we would already be considered as beyond skilled if we could even take one enemy out each before sumbing to our deaths!

 Chapter 156 Red Mecha Energy

    At that point, my Hammer Squad One had effectively tied up the enemy who were approximately fifteen times our number, and in doing so, had thrown a mega wrench in their ns.

    With only five thousand of them, a thousand five hundred were thirty percent of their avable mechas!

    "A hundred of us against one thousand five hundred of them. I guess we really are "dying" in this battle." Tes sighed as she swung her war hammer and knocked down an enemy mecha with a loud WHAM!

    "You jinxed us, Justin you bozo." Barrick Rui sighed as well as he dodged a vicious attack by an enemy mecha and then gave a fatal counterpunch that smashed its mecha head to pieces.

    Even with an inferior mecha and having almost no training at all, my buddies and I had such ridiculously high RPL that we were able to easily dispatch our enemies.

    If it was a hundred versus a hundred, we would win the battle within one short minute.

    Even if it was a hundred versus three hundred, we would still be able to win easily.

    But we would have absolutely no chance against a thousand of them, much less a thousand four hundred.

    "Dying in a critical battle thatpletely shreds the enemy''s ns to pieces against an enemy fifteen times our number? Ha! I couldn''t wish for a better death!" I shouted loudly, fully expecting another series of sarcastic quips to rain down on me.

    However, to my very pleasant surprise, all I got was a roar of determination and peerless confidence!

    "Death to the enemy!"

    "Death to the enemy!!"

    My group members roared out their defiance against the huge bunch of enemy mechas that were surging ahead to surround us.

    I nced around, and finally spotted theirmander.

    "Damn it." I swore lightly under my breath.

    Zac Long acted like a propermander, and remained at the rear while giving out clear and concise instructions to his team.

    It would be extremely difficult to cut off the head of the snake this time.

    "Fight! Fight! Leave none alive!" Rnd Hu shouted in a slightly high pitched tone that was slightly girly if I were to be honest, and which contrasted wildly with what he was calling out for.

    But in such a heated battle, every single defiant battle cry was another rocket to boost our morale.

    We all charged ahead fearlessly and struck with everything we had.

    The faster we could take down our enemies, the longer they would take to surround us. And the longer we remained unsurrounded, the longer we could fight, and the longer we fought, the longer they would take to surround us!

    We were in a losing battle against time, but for each second that passed, we charged a butcher''s bill to our enemies.

    Our frankenstein mechas were weaker than our enemies in general, but we did have a solid advantage.

    Our limbs and appendages were so weird that many times, our enemies had no idea to block our attacks!

    And in those situations, fights between equally skilled pilots which would have be drawn out and long were quickly ended with an unexpected attack from an unexpected appendage.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Within that first few minutes, we were like a bunch of murderous death gods reaping the lives of our victims!

    Wham!

    My third arm punched downpletely unhindered and smashed my victim''s head to smithereens.

    Wham!

    I swung it sideways and caught an enemy mecha charging past me towards apanion of minepletely by surprise, and downed him as well!

    "Kill that three limbed beast first!" Zac Long shouted from the rear. "Surround him and take him down at all costs! Launch suicide attacks now!"

    "What a bastard! He''s targeting me!" I shouted in horror. "Save me guys!"

    I immediately redoubled my efforts to strike down the enemy mechas around me as quickly and as efficiently as I could.

    My above 95 RPL shone like a bright shining star at that moment, and I weaved and dodged an increasing amount of attacks thrown my way with unmatched agility!

    But a high RPL could only do so much without skill in movement techniques. Within mere seconds, the number of mechas surrounding me had grown far too many for me to be able to dodge their attacks effectively.

    "Guys! If you don''t help me, I''ll be dead soon!" I cried out to my buddies.

    But none of them replied!

    I spared a split second to take a quick nce, and my heart sank when I finally realized just how efficient Zac Long and his team were.

    Each and every one of my buddies were embroiled in life and death battles of their own!

    Even though my team had a glorious first few minutes taking down enemies left and right, it wasn''t meant tost. Somehow, even in the heat of battle, Zac had managed to assign a squad to handle each and every one of us, and the results "spoke" for themselves.

    We were allpletely isted from each other.

    One after the other in extremely quick session, I could sense my Hammer Squad One members fall.

    I finally realized that if I didn''t do anything, my participation in that training session was over.

    And then an epiphany hit me.

    "Wait a minute, if I don''t use my red mecha energy and I die right here and now... Wouldn''t that mean that I will lose out on participating in the remaining training session? Wouldn''t it be better if I used the red mecha energy so that I could remain active in this training session, and hone my skills??" I thought to myself.

    I gave myself a mental smack on my own forehead.

    "Yes! I will use my red mecha energy just enough to remain alive, and then continue to fight and train myself! What better training ground could there be than a battle with over a thousand enemies?" I thought as I grinned sinisterly at my enemies, and started to unleash a little bit of my red mecha energy.

    Instantly, my defense rating started to climb, and my mecha''s power source started to emit slightly more power. Not much, just an extra 20% or so.

 Chapter 157 Up Skill

    With stronger defenses and a more powerful mecha, I was instantly transformed from a three-limbed freak of a mecha, into a three-limbed deadly monster.

    Attacks that would have shut me down previously, rained down upon me and merely bounced off with minimal effects.

    Spear jabs, hammer swings and sword shes found their mark on my strengthened armor and left behind small marks on it before rebounding away uselessly!

    Stab! Wham! sh!

    Of course I did not just stand there to stupidly receive their attacks, that would be counter productive and defeat the whole purpose of my use of the red mecha energy.

    I tried my best to dodge and evade their attacks while at the same time countering with my own vicious and unpredictable attacks.

    They say that the best teacher is experience.

    Ipletely agree.

    My brain and my senses were enhanced by the red mecha core, and I was an extremely quick learner.

    The theories on the basic movement skills and techniques we received from our EduLink shed repeatedly in my mind like a kaleidoscope and bit by bit, I began to put them into practice.

    Wham! Evade! Bam! sh! Jab!

    At first, I only managed to evade one attack from every ten that rained down upon me.

    However, as the seconds ticked by into minutes, I was soon able to evade the second one, then third, then fourth.

    My movements became smoother and more precise. My senses became sharper and my mind processed my sensory inputs at ridiculous speeds. In split seconds, I was able to determine and process every single relevant information that came my way.

    Enemy attack speed, projection and strength were all as good as beingid bare before me, allowing me the luxury of choosing appropriate responses to each and every one of them.

    "Amazing." I whispered softly and semi absent-mindedly as I lost myself in the heat of ferociousbat.

    At first nce, any outsider looking at my situation would instantly think that I was being bullied by a huge bunch of bigger, stronger and faster mechas.

    At that moment, at least a hundred of Zac''s mechas had surrounded me and were taking turns to attack me!

    However, a second look would reveal clues that it was otherwise.

    Their eyes would widen slightly at the sight of the pile of downed mechas around me which was slowly growing, and the loud shouts and curses of anger by my bullies would begin to sound more like shouts of fear and disbelief.

    As their eyes continued and to catch on to the full details of the battle, they would realize that very few of the bullies'' attacks were actuallynding on me!

    In fact, as the minutes continued to tick by, the fight was bing more and more like a very realistic y by real mechas!

    Why a y?

    Because the main character, me, was impossibly dodging all of the bullies'' attacks!

    It was somethingpletely unbelievable if it was not scripted and acted out by actors in a drama or an exciting y!

    "What the hell! This bastard is as slippery as an eel! I know because my dad owns a seafood restaurant and I''ve tried catching an eel before, and it''s as god damn difficult to catch as this asshole!" A particrly foul mouthed boy shouted loudly as he swung his oversized broadsword this way and that way in a useless attempt to hit me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Shut the hell up and attack him only when you''re supposed to! You''re messing up our timings!" His squad leader barked at him.

    The squads that came at me were rather well trained, worthy of being the 2nd graders of the best mecha pilot academy in the country.

    They knew that hitting hard was not as good as hitting urately, and that hitting urately was not as good as hitting urately in rapid session.

    Their attacks wereunched at incredible speed and in an even more impressive manner that would lead the attacker away to allow the other mecha behind him to unleash their attack as well.

    "Sequential group attack." I nodded in approval as I recognized the textbook maneuver they were executing. It was a difficult but powerful attack strategy that allowed weaker mechas to go up against a single more powerful mecha.

    "The enemy leader is formidable indeed. He or she understands that I am a superior enemy and applies the appropriate strategy against me. This is not possible if the leader is arrogant or ipetent. Very good! I will take you on and defeat you! You will be my stepping stone today!" I vowed as my evasive maneuvers slowly reached sublimation.

    Those few minutes were the most intensely pleasurable minutes I had ever experienced in my young life.

    The feeling of very, very visibly seeing your skill in closebat evasive maneuvers improve by leaps and bounds in real time was like a powerful drug to me.

    I couldn''t get enough of it!

    "Now that I am able to easily evade these goons, let me see if I can take them out using whatever mildly reinforced mecha limbs I have." I thought eagerly.

    Evade! Bam! Bam! Bam!

    Dodge! Wham! Boom! Bam!

    My three limbs immediately got to work and started tounch powerful counter attacks after each and every attack I managed to evade.

    The pile of down mechas that trailed behind me as I pushed my way forward deeper into enemy lines started to grow very rapidly.

    Every second, a mecha or two would join them as my punches urately struck the enemy mechas'' critical spots!

    Heads were smashed.

    Stomachs were pierced.

    Hands were ripped off.

    I was their worst nightmaree to life.

    An untouchable and thus unkible frankenstein monster!

    Within those five minutes or so, I personally took down half the remaining mechas. The rest of my team members had sumbed to their vastly superior numbers, but not before impressively taking out two hundred of their number.

    In total, a thousand of their mechas had fallen to Hammer Squad One!

    We had achieved the impossible! With just a hundred of us, we have locked down a full thirty percent of the enemy!

    And with Victor Long doing an impressive job surviving against three hundred and fifty more, together we have managed to tie up 1850 of the enemy.

    That''s 37% of the enemy!

 Chapter 158 Close Combat Foundations

    As expected, Eliana and Elise Wang''s group of a thousand mechas each found a huge bunch of enemies hiding within the massive wreckages!

    Chaos instantly erupted around the battlefield as thousands of mechas started screaming and shouting and cursing, all the while hammering away at each other with all of their strengths.

    I had no idea what Sheera Lin did and how in the bloody hell she managed to do it so quickly, but the massivemotion that arose in Eliana and Elise Wang''s battles died down extremely quickly!

    A mere ten minutes after the massive roar of shing mechas erupted, a strange silence descended upon the battlefield!

    At that time, I did not pay the battlefield too much attention because I was having the time of my life.

    Most of the remaining five hundred mechas had retreated by then, and only five enemies were left.

    However, the five of them were probably the best of the best in the second grade because damn it!

    They were good!

    Zac Long, like most of the Long Family kids, was impable and extremely all rounded in his abilities.

    However, he must be a devil king in the second grade because all four of hispanions were freaking demons!

    I remember that particr fight as clearly as though it happened just yesterday.

    I was in a state of extreme excitement over my rapidly rising skill level in mecha closebat, and all that happened in that fight were etched within my brain like so many godlymands engraved upon stone tablets.

    Their strategy was devilishly simple.

    Zac Long fought against me one on one topletely tie me up, while the other four took position in the four cardinal directions around us.

    Wherever Zac and I danced to, all four demons kept their positions around us.

    And due to that, there was always one of them who had free ess to unload all of his or her attacks on my unguarded back.

    "Bastards! Bastards!" I cried out with all of the bitterness and indignance my heart could muster as I dodged this way and that way to evade the attacksunched by Zac Long and the three mechas I could see.

    All the while, the final mecha behind me attacked me again and again and again!

    Wham! Bam! Bam! Bam!

    I had no choice but to inject a little bit more of my red mecha energy to bolster my rear armor!

    If I didn''t do that, I would have definitely died in that first minute of engagement.

    "I need to figure out a way out of this formation." I thought with great determination and no small amount of shamelessness as I weathered the powerful attacksnding on my back very easily.

    "Rotate." Zac Long calmly instructed and like well oiled cogs of a machine, all four mechas around us suddenly rotated clockwise, and a new member of the quintet started to hack and sh away at my back.

    All five of them were individually extremely skilled pilots. Although they were not very close to Sherry Lin''s godly level, they were not that far behind either.

    However, when all five worked together as one, the pressure they emitted was actually higher than Sherry Lin''s!

    Sherry Lin would definitely not agree, of course. And knowing her, she will probably challenge Zac Long''s group straight after reading this, our demonic enemies be damned.

    And at this moment, considering her current skill set, she might even win.

    But at that moment in that battlefield, fifteen long years ago, Zac Long''s quintet was a more difficult enemy for me than Sherry Lin.<novelnext></novelnext>

    They left absolutely no gap in their wless sequential attacks and they left no error unpunished, no unguarded openings unravaged.

    Without my red energy, I would have died a thousand times over in that fight!

    However, I did have the red energy, and I did not die.

    I shamelessly stood my ground and ate up their attacks, all the while continuing to dodge, evade and try to counter attack.

    And after five minutes, I had yet tond a hit on any of them! They were really, really good!

    All of my attempts to counter attack would either be very deftly redirected or evaded.

    They did not even try to block my attacks! They probably knew that I would be able to unleash incredibly powerful attacks, and that even blocking might still cause them to take fatal damage.

    So they deflected my attacks very skilfully.

    I assume that I do not have to exin just how exponentially more difficult deflecting attacks arepared to merely blocking them?

    Blocking an attack is simply eating up the attack by allowing a more powerful defence to negate that attack.

    Shields can do that, or maybe even a powerful arm.

    However, deflecting calls for a precisely timed and urately ced counter attack to redirect my attack!

    They were insanely strong.

    A portion of my heart was dismayed at my utter inability to inflict damage on them.

    However for the most part, I was exhrated.

    Because once more, I could feel my skill level rising!

    None of the beautiful moves unleashed by all five of them escaped my senses.

    I could see, hear and feel their movements very clearly, and the textbook maneuvers which those movements took after shed in my mind as well.

    I was learning from them, and learning at a very frighteningly fast pace.

    One second Zac Long would execute a beautiful move to dodge my counter attack, and in the next second, I would be executing the exact same move to dodge his buddy''s attack.

    His buddy would attack me at a very sneaky angle and sessfullynd what should be a powerful crippling blow against my imprable armor, and in the next moment, I would be using that exact same move against Zac!

    It was experiential learning at its finest.

    The foundations of my incredible closebat skills that I had been exhibiting all these years even in times where I was not able to use my red energy was solidly formed that day.

    I owe Zac Long my gratitude.

    For being such an excellent punching bag!

    Haha!

 Chapter 159 Close Combat

    I had no idea about martial arts and the levels of power associated with it at that moment.

    But even in that ignorant stage, I knew very well that the normal stages of power found within most movies or even novels wereplete bullshit in the world of mechas.

    There were definitely no body stages or muscle stages to pass, and definitely no dantian or inner power to acquire.

    Additionally, there was no freaking way in hell that big fat lumbering mechas could exchange a hundred moves in a second and for personal fights to go on for more than half an hour, much less for days like what we usually find in most stories.

    In fights, the slightest mistake could lead to instant defeat or death. And in most battles, mistakes would probably be made within the first minute.

    A wless fight for five full minutes against an equally strong enemy was probably as rare as a unicorn.

    For a personal fight to go beyond ten minutes?

    A rainbow colored unicorn.

    And so effective martial arts that could be applied in real battle were simply made up of six simple tools and three simple philosophies.

    Firepower. Speed. Armor. Movement techniques. Fighting techniques. Aiming system.

    Knowing at all times your own defensive and offensive capacity.

    Knowing at all times your enemy''s defensive and offensive capacity.

    The wisdom and experience to use all of the above.

    If it is a team fight, include teamwork and formations in them. However as you know, I am not much of a team person, and I don''t really ce much importance in teamwork.

    And I hope you noticed that I mentioned firepower first.

    Because with sufficient firepower, everything else can be disregarded.

    No skill? No speed? No wisdom? No experience? Surrounded by a bunch of enemies? But you''re in a golden mecha?

    You win.

    The way I won against Sherry Lin with my overpowered red mecha energy was a perfect example.

    But we won''t always find ourselves in a position of superior firepower, and when that happens, every single item below it bes of critical importance.

    Unless of course the enemy is in a golden mecha. Then you''re probably screwed.

    Back to the story.

    That particr training session was intensely beneficial for me.

    I already had firepower, speed, armor and an aimbot in the form of a white mecha''s targeting system. Against golden mechas, I was nothing more than prey. But against the kiddos in the academy and most of the enemies I would be facing?

    I was God.

    All I wascking was a solid foundation in fighting techniques and movement techniques.

    For example, I needed to know what is the most efficient response when I am piloting a standard practice mecha in a defensive pose, and an enemy with powerful legs but weak armses charging at me with a broadsword in an overhead swing.<novelnext></novelnext>

    In that particr example, I would have a vast selection of responses I could take, and all of them would probably be pretty solid choices.

    I could dodge the attack, or even block it with my sword. Both wouldn''t be bad choices.

    However, with proper fighting and movement techniques, I would be able to execute a better choice.

    The right choice would be to raise my shield at thest second so that it would end up bashing the broadsword and cause damage to its weak arms, possibly even damaging them and putting them out of action.

    To do that, I needed to have the required movement technique to position myself correctly and the required fighting technique to do a shield bash with such critical timing and positioning.

    Still, the above situation was a rtively easy one to deal with.

    What if I was in a frankenstein mecha caughtpletely out of position, and three enemies with powerful everythingse attacking with a spear, sword and hammer swing from three well coordinated positions?

    The options avable to me would be much, much fewer in number, and a thorough mastery of fighting techniques and movement techniques would allow me to KNOW my options in that situation.

    Wisdom would allow me to make the right choice and experience would allow me to make that right choice in less than a split second, possibly even reflexively.

    And those critical techniques were the ones shing in my mind and making their way slowly into my muscle memory.

    There may be shortcuts to understanding things, but there are no shortcuts to mastering closebat.

    eleration due to excellent potential, yes, but not shortcuts.

    Everyone, geniuses and idiots alike, have to work hard to train up their skills, gain wisdom and go through hell to gain experience.

    And despite beingpletely unthreatened by the huge number of mechas I was up against, that training session was pretty much hell for me.

    WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

    The spear, sword and hammernded on me at the same time and took mepletely by surprise.

    I had been dodging the attacks rather sessfully for the past few seconds, and I did not expect three extremely insidious attacksing from such tricky angles toe at me together that way!

    "Oof! These attacks would have killed me if I didn''t have my red mecha energy. Damn it, these bastards were taking it easy on me earlier. They''re only starting to get serious!" I muttered as I took a step back and tried to reset.

    However, the three mechas would have none of it.

    WHAM! BAM! BAM!

    Once more, theynded three clean hits on me!

    "DAMN IT!" I shouted loudly in frustration.

    Having managed to increase my fighting and movement skills to the extent of being able to dodge all the other attacks perfectly just seconds ago and then having all of that satisfaction ripped away from me with not one, not two but SIX consecutive clean hits was extremely frustrating, to put it mildly.

    "Secret technology or not, this is the end for you." Zac Long''s voice sounded calmly from one of the three mechas closest to me.

    "Stop bullshitting and try to do some real damage to me, weak ass bastard. You''re the shame of all the second graders!" I taunted him mercilessly.

 Chapter 160 Rout

    Zac Long is a man of few words. And at ten years old with less vocabry avable to him, he was a boy of very few words.

    He ignored my taunting and proceeded to show me just what the best of the best the second graders were capable of.

    He and his two buddies finally revealed their full strength and did not pull their punches at all.

    Like Sherry Lin in our epic battle in the Grand Melee, they sought to pin me down using their much higher fighting techniques and beat the living daylights out of me.

    But I was not someone who would fall twice into the same hole, or get caught with my pants down by the same technique.

    The spear, sword and hammer came swinging and piercing at me again and again, aiming very urately at my weak joints.

    Their relentless attacks aimed at my joints served two purposes.

    One was to try and break my limbs. And two, they wanted to keep me off bnce and hopefully get me to fall to the ground where they would try and finish me off with the sheer bullying power of a hundred mechas against one.

    It was exactly what I needed to fine tune my fighting techniques!

    Images depicting Jiu Jit Su, Taek Won Do, Aikido, Karate, Capoeira and especially the traditional Chinese Kung Fu shed relentlessly in my mind and provided me with abundant options to respond to every single situation.

    My highly enhanced mental strength analyzed each and every technique at light speed, and in a bizzare show of unbelievably ugly but equally unbelievably effective set of movements, I managed to block AND counter all of their attacks!

    Wham! Bam! Bam!

    I dodged the iing spear thrust by the barest margin and slid into Zac''s close range where I promptly punched his head using my third overhead arm.

    At the same time, my right arm pped the sword from the second mecha away and my left arm which ended in a drill smashed into the third mecha''s hammer head on!

    Zac and his two buddies were excellent fighters, and as such, I did not hurry to finish them off even though I could do it easily.

    My attacks wereunched at full speed, but for the attacks Iunched at their bodies, I disengaged 90% of the power at thest millisecond and ended up giving them harmless ps instead of fatal ones.

    That way, I extended the fight for a full five minutes and exulted deeply as my grasp in closebat rose again and again and again and again.

    Revtion after revtion on how to fight and move more efficiently dawned in my mind, and my body very rapidly got used to responding to my mind''s instructions at near light speed.

    Being able to dodge and counter three highlypetent fighters with newfound skills was truly an invigorating feeling.

    It was like fighting with prompts on what to do next!

    After a while, the rate at which I was improving suddenly teaued.

    "The lesson is over." I realized with satisfaction.

    I had mastered all the skills and techniques I could with only these grade 2s as my teachers.

    Wham! Wham! Wham!

    In a blink of an eye, I unleashed fatal attacks on the three mechas and downed them!

    "Thanks for the lesson. Good bye!" I called out to them before dashing off to take down the remaining twelve mechas who were standing around us.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The rest had managed to finish off my Hammer Squad One, and had left to reinforce the team going against Victor Long.

    I nced at the battlefield quickly as I approached my prey.

    ? The ambush that was supposed to clean us up had beenpletely sprung, and an all out battle involving thousands of mechas all over the massive field was currently going on.

    At first nce, it wasplete chaos.

    But I quickly realized that our frankenstein mechas had the situation firmly under control!

    Victor Long, by sheer skill and determination, was still alive. He was standing with only Hailey Long guarding his back, and they were surrounded by at least fifty mechas.

    The first bunch of idiots who dashed ahead had very surprisingly banded together, and were actually charging towards Victor in what seemed like a counter rescue mission!

    A Hammer Squad was also enroute from another direction. If Victor and Hailey could stay alive for another minute, they would be saved.

    Elsewhere, the Wangs were in the middle of the biggest fights in the battlefield, and with timely counter charges by the Hammer Squads, they were actually holding out very well against a numerically superior enemy!

    And the final thousand or so frankenstein mechas were...

    "Why the freaking hell are they singing??" I shouted crossly as I charged after the twelve mechas who were very wisely but uselessly running away.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    They purposely mmed down each step down hard in unison, and caused the ground to tremble lightly.

    "Death! Death! Death!

    No mercy to our enemies!"

    The voices from a thousand young but enthusiastic throats rang out in a simple but ominous melody.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    The thousand or so mechas moved slowly but inexorably forward in a fearsome air.

    "Death! Death! Death!

    Leave none of them alive!"

    Many of the mechas still fighting had turned their heads around quickly to look at the spectacle, and many of them reacted exactly as Sheera Lin had expected.

    They broke and ran.

    It was too much to expect a bunch of eleven year olds to stand their ground when fighting desperately against a powerful enemy and seeing that the enemy had a thousand reinforcements stomping their way towards them.

    After the first twenty or so enemies broke apart from the battle to run away, it did not take long for the rest to follow suit.

    Nobody wanted to remain in a massive battlefield surrounded by hostiles, especially ones that were shouting their intent to leave none alive!

 Chapter 161 Instructors

    The ambush failed.

    It was the mildest way to describe what transpired in that battlefield.

    A more unrestrained observer wouldment that the ambushers had their butts kicked, stomped, grilled and served back to them on a te with pretty flowers on it.

    Over three thousand of our frankenstein mechas were still standing when our victory cry finally resounded for five full minutespletely unabated.

    It was a glorious victory!

    We were untrained first graders with weaker mechas deliberately sent into an ambush by our seniors set up and disguised perfectly as a mecha movement ss.

    Five thousand frankenstein mechas got ambushed by five thousand solidly stronger practice mechas¡­ And won!!

    We were meant to lose the battle and taste the bitterness of defeat, but instead, we smashed our enemies to pieces!

    "You guys really showed up this time." The instructor said with the broadest smile I had ever seen as soon as the final mecha crossed the finish line with his downed buddy in tow.

    His name was Instructor Fuiyooh.

    Yes, Fuiyooh.

    Nobody knew what his real name was, not even Bruce Pang.

    Of course he was made fun of mercilessly by his co-workers and students alike. But he seemed to enjoy being made fun of, so all was good.

    He was an excellent mecha pilot, and receiving hispliments at that moment felt really good.

    We knew we did well, and we basked in the awesomeness of his praise like so many little sunlight-starved kids sunbathing for the first time.

    "Movement techniques, top notch. Fighting techniques, mostly okay. Strategy, top notch. And above all, your ability to read in between the lines¡­ perfect! Fuyoooo!! I am really impressed!" Instructor Fuiyooh cried out in deep approval and pped happily like a little boy.

    We allughed at the ridiculous sight of a perfectly handsome and muscr middle aged man with a twirly mustache apuding us so enthusiastically.

    He was standing atop an open mecha cockpit and was speaking through his mecha''s speakers. Four other instructors were spread out all around us, while five other instructors were rounding up the second graders and probably preparing a massive scolding for them.

    "As always, there are many standouts among all of you, and some blockheads as well. Your ss instructors will break down your performance soon and give you feedback on what you did well and what you can improve. But for today, all of you can take the rest of the day off!" Instructor Fuiyooh announced.

    "Hoorrraaaay!!!" My schoolmates screamed joyfully.

    "Long live Instructor Fuiyooh!!" Came the fateful cry from one of the students.

    "I hereby dere today''s lesson aplete-"

    BOOMMM!!!!!!!

    A massive explosion suddenly erupted from underneath Instructor Fuiyooh''s mecha!!

    I remember very distinctly the look of horror that was on his face as he was flung out of his cockpit and sailed through the air.

    For some reason, he wasn''t killed by that explosion even though his mecha was more or less disintegrated by the massive explosion.

    He must have some sort of safety device that allowed him to survive that horrendous st.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But even though he was physically fine, he must have beenpletely and utterly horrified by the significance of what just happened to him.

    Enemy attack.

    And upon ten thousand kids in half broken mechas with only nine instructors left to protect them.

    BOOM!! BOOM! BOOOM!!

    Three more explosions rang out.

    Six instructors left.

    "Sheera!!" I whirled around to shout at Sheera Lin. In an instant, I knew that the brilliant mind which won us the day''s ambush would be our only hope to survive the real ambush.

    "Eliana, Elise, to the wings, be ready to move on mymand. Victor, lead the rest into a defensive square formation around our downed mechas." Sheera Lin said calmly. "Justin and Sherry, get three Hammer Squads each and prepare to engage the enemy."

    As usual, Sheera did not hesitate to put any of us into harm''s way. For her, the most important thing was achieving her objectives.

    In that particr case, her objective was very simple. Save as many kids as possible in the next few minutes and wait for backup to arrive.

    And if it took the death of five thousand kids to save the other five thousand, then so be it.

    "ALL OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LISTEN IF YOU WANT TO FUCKING LIVE THROUGH THIS DAY!" I instantly bellowed with all of my strength and quickly ryed Sheera''s instructions.

    As I was doing that, the enemy continued their sneak attacks on our instructors.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!

    Three more explosions rang out in quick session as our enemies ambushed three more.

    Only three were left.

    "There are only three of them." Sheera Lin quickly concluded. "And only blue mechas. We can take them on if we can locate them and get close to them."

    I nodded and continued to gather my three Hammer Squads. Only around five hundred Hammer Squad members were left, and I was splitting them up into two.

    However, at that moment, my heart was already sinking.

    The enemies were very obviously targeting our instructors. That could only mean one thing.

    They weren''t on an assassination mission for me or any of the top students in that battlefield. If they were, they wouldn''t have bothered killing the instructors first, and would have gone for their targets immediately.

    No, those weren''t assassins we faced that day. We were faced with butchers who wanted to wipe us all out.

    The remaining three instructors were over in the second graders area, and were already in full emergency mode.

    They knew that the enemies were targeting them, and our best chance at survival was if they could defeat all three ambushing enemies in one fell swoop.

    "Bastards! All three are cloaked and wield stealth rifles! Triple threat formation now!" One of the remaining instructors shouted loudly.

    The other two instructors quickly obeyed and they proceeded to execute a very risky maneuver by taking to the skies in three different directions to achieve a threefold purpose.

 Chapter 162 Battle

    One, they wanted to gain a clear view of the battlefield.

    Two, they wanted to bait the enemies out. Any attacks made on them would be clearly seen by the others, and stealthed rifles or not, the enemy would have their locations revealed.

    Three, they would be able to quickly respond to any developing situation by diving straight to the target area.

    But by doing so, they were separating themselves up and leaving each of them extremely vulnerable to the enemy.

    Any enemy attack on them would be three on one, and whoever the enemy chose to attack first was probably as good as dead.

    As instructors, they truly were the best any student could ever hope to have.

    At the almost literal drop of a hat, they were ready to sacrifice their lives for us!

    It took a minute for the chaos among the kiddos to subside and for then to begin stomping their way into formation.

    In that short minute, many, many things happened.

    First, the three enemy mechas attacked once more.

    Amid the chaos, I detected a very slight fluctuation of power from three different directions, and almost instantly, one of the three instructor mechas exploded with a loud boom!

    "SECTOR WOLF AND SECTOR FOX!!" I bellowed immediately and charged towards the enemy mecha in the Fox Sector of the battlefield.

    Let me pause here to exin how the Chinese Federation divides every battlefield.

    The first division is between ally controlled and enemy controlled areas.

    Ally controlled areas are called White, and enemy controlled ones are called ck.

    The next division is between nine major areas, just like a square divided into nine equal parts.

    The western squares from top down are called Bear, Wolf and Fox respectively. The central squares are Dragon, Smander and Snake, while the eastern squares are called Phoenix, Eagle and Sparrow.

    In a chaotic battle, if I wanted to say that a particr spot is under enemy control, I could just say "ck Wolf!" for example, and all would understand that the middle western square of the battlefield is under enemy control.

    It was an efficient and easy way to quickly ry critical information.

    In that particr situation, I skipped the ck and White description because it was irrelevant.

    But as soon as I shouted Wolf and Fox, the two remaining instructors immediately unleashed a massive barrage of rockets down on Wolf, which was at that moment devoid of students.

    Boom boom boom!

    As soon as the rockets exploded, the enemy hiding in Wolf was knocked out of stealth.

    The two instructors dive attacked the enemy and instantly engaged him in a ferocious battle.

    I did not pay much attention to the fight because I was charging down towards Fox area where two enemies were hiding.

    I did, however, remember to give my two instructors a gift.

    Guided by the fluctuations of power I felt, I was able to cast my resonance towards the area and quickly found the two enemy mechas.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Without bothering to even say much, I immediately disabled themunication systems of all three mechas and broke down small but criticalponents of their mechas into energy particles and absorbed them cleanly!

    In a real battle with lives involved, I was definitely not shy in using my power. My only worry at that moment was that there were more than three enemy mechas, and if I were to openly unt my power, the enemy would find out about my existence.

    Thus, I had to do it very sneakily.

    Littleponents like the spring within their triggers, connectors in their electricals and armor, all of which remainedpletely undetected by the mecha''s systems.

    All they knew was their guns stopped firing, their stealth mode was disconnected, theirms were down and their armor malfunctioned as soon as the first blownded.

    Effects that could be easily exined by an airborne mecha virus or highly advanced targeted disruption beams.

    "Bastards!" I shouted as I charged at the first exposed mecha within Fox Sector which had several second graders still making their way towards Dragon Sector.

    It was a standard blue mecha but with an oversized rifle connected to not one, not two but three freaking blue mecha cores!

    No wonder it was able to easily destroy the instructors'' mechas! The rifle was powered by three freaking blue mecha cores!! Which god dammed bloody idiot actually made a bloody rifle which could unleash the full power output for three bloody blue mecha cores??

    It was ridiculous!

    It was like bringing a lightsaber to a sword fight!

    Against such a preposterously unreasonable enemy, I did not hold back my strength, and I got into the first mecha''s close range within a blink of an eye.

    Wham!! I punched him full in his face using my third overhead arm andpletely smashed it to pieces!

    My speed must have been extremely shocking to him, because he totally did not do anything to block or even dodge my attack.

    I was able to unleash attacks even with my other two arms.

    DRILL!!!

    My left arm drill spun at insane speeds and pierced that first mecha''s armored belly. Enhanced by my red energy, the enemy''s reinforced army gave way to my drill like a dentist''s tooth drill piercing through butter.

    BAM!

    My enhanced right fist smashed into his cockpit, and caused it to getpletely twisted out of shape.

    At that point, the pilot was either dead, or waspletely stuck in his cockpit. There was no bloody way it was able to open that twisted cockpit hatch. Additionally, with his head gone and stomachpletely pierced through, he had no vision, no power distribution center and totally no power.

    In other words, he was no longer a threat.

    However, I was not out of danger yet.

    The second enemy mecha was still there!

    And despite being weakened by my sneak attack, it was still piloted by a real living and breathing expert pilot, with a mecha with four god damned mecha cores.

    It was still able to deal a huge amount of damage!

 Chapter 163 Virus

    One of the main reasons why assassinations work was because of the assassin''s ability to deal an enormous amount of damage on an unguarded target that would more often than not kill the target.

    And that particr ability rested upon one very foundational requirement.

    Stealth.

    The assassin had to remain undetected until the moment he strikes.

    And as soon as the assassin made his move, more often than not regardless of whether he seeded in killing his target, he would have to try and flee.

    Assassins are not built to stand their ground and fight, and in most cases, their high value targets would be surrounded by powerful guards, which makes sticking around very dangerous for them.

    However, albeit very rarely, some assassins were so up and away more powerful than anything that their targets and their target''s minions could muster, that they could simply remain at the site of the assassination and unleash a full massacre.

    These were the elite of the elites.

    And the ones that we faced that day were such assassins.

    Their overpowered rifles, absurdly thick armor and extremely high mobility were very clear indications that their mechas were tuned to sit at the very peak of blue mechas, and maybe even approach the power of white mechas!

    They could unleash an incredible amount of damage on their targets while they were stealthed. And even after being knocked out of stealth, they were still able to stand their ground and fight whatever forces were thrown their way.

    The two instructors were caught by surprise by the sheer power that the blue mecha in the Wolf Sector brought to bear during that fight, and both ended up fighting for their lives.

    The only reason they did not die was because I had weakened the enemy''s mecha and the many surprising malfunctions threw himpletely off bnce.

    In the Fox Sector after I had disabled one of the enemy mechas, I was instantly ced on the defensive back foot as the second enemy mecha charged at me and unleashed a literal torrent of attacks on me!

    Wham! Bam! Bam! Boom!

    His massive rifle was a triple function weapon, serving as a spear and a massive de at the same time.

    And against me, he swung it like a gunde, smashing into me and causing me to fall to the ground!

    "Damn it! He is much stronger than I thought! Damn you and your mom! No more pulling punches!!" I shouted loudly in my heart.

    However, even though his power took me by surprise, the fact that his wild sword swings at me failed to crush my mecha took him by even greater surprise.

    "What the f*ck are you? You''re no student of the academy!" He snarled half in anger and half in pure disbelief.

    "I''m the dude that will take your momma''s milk and feed it to my puppies!" I shouted at him and threw the vilest curse I could think of at him as I pushed his sword off me and tried to stand up.

    "What the f*ck? My momma''s milk?? Why the f*ck are you talking about my momma''s milk?" He growled in even more disbelief. "And what the f*ck are puppies here in this case? You sick pervert!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "What sick pervert? What''s wrong with giving my puppies milk?" I shouted at him as we started to engage in high speed close quartersbat.

    Wham!

    My overhead hand blocked his sword swing easily.

    Bam! Bam!

    My other two hands swung towards him in a dangerous sequence of attacks.

    But the enemy pilot was extremely skilled and managed to catch both swings with his shoulder and arm at an angle, and avoided a fatal attack.

    "You f*cking asshole! You''re a goddamn instructor pretending to be a student, aren''t you? And your f*cking mecha is a bare bones white mecha disguised as a f*cking piece of junk isn''t it? F*ck you and your f*cking Federation!" The enemy mecha pilot snarled angrily as he leapt back and started to circle me warily.

    "You milk deprived idiot! Did your momma not have enough milk for you or something? Why are you so angry and so vulgar?" I shouted at him and pointed my middle fingers at him to piss him off.

    But he wasn''t some amateur who would fall for my petty tricks.

    He knew that the window to kill as many kids as possible was fast closing, and he didn''t have time to deal with me.

    But after our quick exchange, he also knew that I wasn''t someone he could leave alive. In fact, I could already see his mind weighing the value of killing me against killing a bunch of kids.

    It was a no brainer.

    He pressed a button on his rifle, and separated it into twin des.

    "You must be a new breed of shock troopers the Federation is training up. I will capture you." He said softly and a strange green glow started to appear at the edges of his twin des.

    However, having fallen victim to it once before, I knew extremely intimately what that strange green glow signified.

    "Mecha Virus." I said softly to him. "No, my friend. You will not capture me. It is I who will capture you."

    "You know what I am carrying? There''s a mole in our ranks??" His shock was so great that I could even hear it very clearly in his voice. "You truly are a very valuable target. With you in our hands, we will find out who the mole is who leaked our secret. Justy down obediently and die!"

    He leapt ahead suddenly and swung both swords in a wide arc at me.

    The green glow suddenly intensified and released a massive puff of green gas that shot out towards me at high speed!

    "I won''t fall to such petty tricks any more. I know your damned virus is airborne." I scoffed at him as I exploded backwards with all of my might to avoid his attack.

 Chapter 164 Chinese Vengeance

    At the same time, I had also finished scanning the area around the battlefield for resonance and realized two things.

    There was one unidentified powerhouse still in stealth somewhere in Eagle Sector, and that reinforcements were already on the way.

    The problem was, our reinforcements would pass by the hiding unidentified powerhouse!

    I did not hesitate.

    I did not believe that the enemy could do more than hide three overpowered blue mechas and what seemed like a white mecha so deeply within the Chinese Federation, especially after the massive purge that ured recently.

    However they did it and whatever assets they had left within the Federation, I was sure that the four mechas were thest assets they had.

    And if the hidden powerhouse was thest of them within that battlefield, then it should be safe enough for me to unleash a bit more of my power if I were to shut him down as well.

    Why they were activated at that moment and what objectives they were after were things that Ipletely could not even begin to imagine at that moment.

    But I knew I would get the answers if I managed to capture them.

    So I did not hesitate to unleash a little bit more of my power at that moment.

    I exerted my red energy and crushed the mecha cores of all four mechas into pieces!

    Poof!

    Their mechas instantly powered down!

    "You think you''re the only one with a mecha virus?" I snickered evilly at my enemy. His green mecha virus had dissipated harmlessly around him and his mecha was standing motionlessly a few meters ahead of me.

    "If you''re talking about virus, then the Chinese Federation is the World King of Viruses! Mwahahahahaha!" I cackled evilly.

    I had no idea why I said what I said that day to apletely powered down enemy, but it was all that saved me from having Devourpletely exposed.

    Because unbeknownst to me, there was a fifth enemy mecha!

    I realized that as soon as I sensed four of our reinforcements peel off to shoot upwards towards the sky.

    The fifth enemy mecha was hiding high up above the clouds!

    "Damn it! There''s actually another one??" I shouted in shock. However, the enemy mecha was extremely well hidden, and I was not able to use my resonance to quickly find him.

    Thankfully our reinforcements were equipped with anti stealth technology and they had no problems detecting him.

    I nced upwards and maintained a vignt supervision of the four reinforcements surging ahead. I was intent to help them by weakening the enemy as soon as I couldy my red energy on him.

    But before I could do that...

    "You''ve done enough. Let us deal with that fifth mecha." My older brother''s voice sounded warily through myms.

    "Big bro!!" I shouted in surprise.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I''ve ced you and your schoolmates in danger once more by failing to anticipate this ambush. I am sorry, little brother." Bruce Pang''s voice was full of half suppressed anger and guilt.

    "What the hell are you talking about? With me around, nothing could happen to these little kiddos. Don''t worry. I will protect them in your absence." I said rather grandly on purpose.

    I quickly turned the conversation around by cing myself as his co-worker who would strive to protect the kids instead of remaining as someone who needed him to actively protect me!

    "Hahaha. Thank you for your attempt to cheer me up. I appreciate it. But the fact remains, I have failed once more, and our enemy is growing more and more desperate day by day. Drastic actions need to be taken. Meet me in my office tonight, little brother. We have much to discuss."

    After saying those words, Bruce Pang shut off hisms and went on to personally collect the prisoners to make sure that nothing went wrong.

    And with that, a very exciting lesson was over!

    Tragically, three instructors died that day.

    The others had life saving equipment of sorts on them, and they managed to survive the explosion of their mechas.

    But the three instructors who died did not, including the brave instructor who took to the skies to draw the attention of the hidden enemies.

    He died asplete hero, and I made sure that I learnt all about him and his life in the following days to honor and respect the memory of him.

    I had seen death before, but it was the first time I saw someone sacrifice his life so bravely for me.

    Their deaths lit a fire of sheer anger and desire in my heart to find my enemies and then rip them apart into pieces.

    I was sure my big brother felt the same way as well, and probably in greater intensity considering that it was his staff members who died that day.

    And within a few hours, my guesses were proven right.

    At nine pm sharp, I found myself seated before both Bruce Pang and Jete Wen in hisfortable but dimly lit office.

    There was a small area in front of a very full desk that had fourfy sofas around a small table.

    I was seated on a single sofa and they were both seated on a double sofa.

    It was a simple office, almostpletely undecorated and filled to the brim with an air of utter thoughtfulness.

    The fact that rows upon rows of books filled the bookshelves thatpletely filled all four walls was definitely a big factor in contributing to that atmosphere.

    However, at that moment, the atmosphere was anything but thoughtful.

    Both had extremely serious looks on their faces, and I could feel a deep aura  of righteous wrath simmering around them.

    It wasn''t an out of control kind of anger that sought to burn one and all around them.

    On the contrary, it was one of cold, calcting and merciless anger that would stop and nothing to get their vengeance.

    "Do you know how the ancient Chinese exact vengeance?" An aged and tired voice sounded from somewhere deep in the shadows of Bruce Pang''s office.

 Chapter 165 Death Bringer

    It was the Ancestor.

    I can''t say I was surprised to see him get involved.

    After all, the deaths of three instructors were no small matter.

    But I was slightly surprised to see him appear in Bruce Pang''s office.

    I had taken him as a reclusive old powerhouse that would never leave his cave until his dying day or until his cave copsed all around him.

    "Ehm. Hello Ancestor. It''s good to see you again so soon." I said politely.

    "Good to see me?" The Ancestor couldn''t help but bark out a derisiveugh at my words.

    Next to him, Bruce Pang and Jete Wen chuckled lightly as well.

    "You wouldn''t be saying that if you live through the next few missions you receive directly from my hands." The Ancestor said with a tired smile. "Enough small talk. Answer my question."

    "To answer your question, the ancient Chinese had several methods for vengeance, but for me the most notorious would be the tearing apart of the five limbs by tying them to horses running in five different directions." I answered after a quick moment of thinking.

    The Ancestor nodded.

    "What about vengeance against arge group of people?" He pressed on.

    "Hmmm. Then in that case, the saying cut the grass and destroy the roots would be most appropriate. Kill everyone, including their children, even babies." I replied easily without batting an eyelid.

    Silence fell upon the cold room after I finished my words, and I had the very distinct feeling of standing before a sharp precipice. It was as though something momentous was about to happen to me, and that I was on the starting line of a wild, wild ride.

    "What do you think of such things?" The Ancestor finally said after a while.

    "Ipletely agree." I said with a light shrug. "I am an undestroyed root that will one daye back to haunt my father''s murderer. And if I n to kill anyone, I will make sure no roots survive toe back and haunt my future."

    The Ancestor nodded with satisfaction.

    "You''re actually a little bit too young for such missions, but it is good to start you early so that you can get used to it. Deathscythe, I hereby order you to show our enemies the real cost of killing our brothers. The Blood Moon will mobilize. Bruce, Jete, prep him." With that, the Ancestor stood up from the shadows and held out a scroll to me.

    I nced at Bruce and saw him nod slightly to indicate that I take the scroll, which I did very hastily.

    "Open it and drip a drop of your blood on it." The Ancestormanded.

    I did as I was told and as soon as I did that, I could feel a strange resonance with a powerful mecha.

    "Deathscythe!" I cried out in surprise as I recognized the mecha.

    "He is yours. Pilot it or absorb it, it is up to you." The Ancestor said heavily.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Thank you very much, Ancestor!" I bowed low to show my gratitude.

    "Thank me when you return." The Ancestor said with a sigh and held out his hand once more. "And here, this is the gift I wanted to give you thest time."

    I took the gift curiously.

    It was a strange, finger sized weapon that looked like a sword and riflebined into one.

    "A... Keychain?" I winced lightly as I asked the question because I knew that it probably wasn''t. But what else could I say? It was shaped exactly like a damned keychain!

    "He''s cold blooded AND a dumbass. Make sure you train him well." The Ancestor chuckled lightly and said to Bruce Pang as he started to head for the door.

    "Yes, Ancestor." Bruce Pang bowed lightly with a smile.

    "Stay healthy, Ancestor." Jete Wen bowed as well.

    "Bye! Thanks for the gift!" I quickly called out as the Ancestor''s back disappeared out the door.

    "BYE?? Thanks for the gift?? KEYCHAIN??? YOU DUMBASS!" Bruce Pang roared at me and gave my head a massive smack!

    "OUCH!! DAMN YOUU!!" He shouted an instantter as he gripped his right hand with his left hand in pain!

    "Hey! You are the one smacking my head, why are you the one ouching and cursing me?!" I shouted indignantly.

    "I''m outta here. You guys get ready. We move out in fifteen." Jete Wen sighed and quickly escaped from the room.

    "See what you''ve done? You''ve driven my wife away from me!" Bruce Pang shouted dramatically as he stretched out his hand and asked for my ''keychain''.

    "Driven her away from you? You drama king! She''s not driven away, she''s just taking a break from your excessively dramatic self!" I shouted back at him and gave him the keychain.

    "Drama king? Of all people, you dare to call me a drama king??" He bellowed angrily as he took my hand and shed the sword lightly on my hand. The little sword glowed gold for a quick moment before fading away almost instantly.

    At the same time, a torrent of information about the sword entered my mind, and I was so shocked by the details of the weapon thay I actually forgot to shout back at my big bro!

    My eyes widened lightly as I beheld in my mind the wonder of the weapon I had received.

    Images on how to use it and how powerful it was shed continuously in my mind for a few seconds, and caused me to gasp lightly.

    "Who was it that caused so much trouble within the first few days of school? Who was it that got called into a god damn disciplinary court and broke the record of being the earliest to be trialed by the court?" Bruce Pang took advantage of the fact that I was dumbfounded by my shiny new weapon tounch his tirade at me.

    But I couldn''t be bothered to argue with him

    I was far, far too excited by the awesomeness of the "Death Bringer"!

 Chapter 166 Dont Absorb The Damn-

    What I held in my hands at that moment was actually my first Gold Grade Weapon.

    As you probably know, weapons and armor are divided into several grades.

    White, Bronze, Silver, Gold, tinum make up the entirety of our Earth Based Grades.

    White Grade weapons are weapons that could deal certain death to a single unarmed target. Guns, arrows, swords are all White Grade Weapons.

    Bronze Grade weapons are weapons that could deal certain death to more than one single unarmed target within a second. Machine guns, grenades, massive oversized swords, hammers and the like.

    Silver Grade weapons are weapons that could deal certain death to a single blue mecha. Ultra Heavy Mecha Rifles, Mecha Close Combat Weapons and the like.

    Gold Grade Weapons are those that could deal certain death to multiple blue mechas. These sort of weapons were extremely rare, and are usually not mass produced. The triple-core rifles held by the three enemy mechas earlier that day was a good example.

    Finally, tinum Grade Weapons are those that could deal certain death to a single white mecha. These are probably only wielded by peak White Mechas and Golden Mechas.

    You can imagine just how ecstatic I was at receiving two incredibly precious things then, my very own near-peak White Mecha, and a Gold Grade Weapon!

    And all that after a massive roller coaster chain of events earlier that day!

    After realizing that I was not intending to continue on our friendly verbal joust, Bruce Pang merely sighed lightly and sat back on his sofa to wait for me to finish inspecting "Death Bringer".

    And no, I was not the one who named it.

    I received its name alongside all its other details in the form of images as I familiarized myself with it.

    As I mentioned earlier, Death Bringer looked abination of a Sword and a Rifle.

    The barrel of the rifle had extremely sharp edges and doubled as a sword de. The stock could be straightened to form a sword grip and the trigger could be retracted neatly to create a bnced sword when required.

    Both the Rifle and the Sword were Gold Grades each and of themselves, and thus had the power to kill more than a single blue mecha at one go!

    Death Bringer truly was an impressive weapon. But if it was just that, it probably wouldn''t stun me for as long as it did.

    Because in reality, the Rifle and the Sword were merely add ons. Death Bringer was actually mainly a third type of weapon.

    It was a Scythe!

    The sharp edge of one of the Sword''s body could be spun forward via a hinge-like device at the nozzle of the Rifle Barrel to form a massive and fearsome looking Scythe!!

    And it wasn''t just any Scythe, it was a Double Edged Scythe that could deal death with both its inside and outside!

    As a weapon, Death Bringer was truly a freak of nature.

    Most hybrid weapons whichbined two or more functions had to sacrifice many things to get the weapon to work.

    Most had to see massive reductions in critical areas such as¡­ Durability. Bnce. Power Output. Efficiency. Ease of use. Weight.

    However, Death Bringer was so ingenuously designed and made up of such ridiculously strong materials that it maintained Gold Grade specifications for all three Weapon Functions!

    And the most wondrous aspect of it all was the fact that it could be shrunk and resized to a maximum size of a hundred meters tall in size.

    At. Will.

    "This is an incredible weapon." I finally said to Bruce Pang softly after a full minute of studying it.

    "Yes. It truly is. The Ancestor is a Weapon Designer and this Death Bringer is one of his Masterpieces. With this Gold Grade Weapon, we are able to fight head to head with even the stro-"

    Poof.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I unleashed my red energy and caused Death Bringer to disappear into a bunch of particles.

    "WHAT THE BLEEDING HELL DID YOU JUST DO??" Bruce Pang shouted in horror.

    "Huh? What? I merely absorbed it. Now that I have its blurprint, I can easily recreate whatever weapon I want, and I do not need to sacrifice any aspects to gain the triple function. I can pour all of the rare material into the most powerful Scythe Design like this."

    Whoosh!

    I created the Double ded Double Sided Scythe that was held by the Mecha Guardian Death God.

    Whoosh!

    I instantly caused it to disappear and recreated the Triple Cored Rifle which was carried by the enemy mechas earlier.

    Whoosh!

    I caused it to disappear once more and created a powerful looking sword that was a cleaner and more powerful version of the Sword that Death Bringer could turn into.

    "This¡­ this¡­" Bruce Pang sputtered in confusion.

    On one hand, he was extremely impressed by my ability and by the power of the weapons I created

    But on the other hand¡­

    "That means you didn''t need to actually take freaking Death Bringer!! You can just ask for its blueprints and you''ll be able to reproduce it for yourself, right? Why the bleeding hell did you absorb a Gold Grade Weapon that took us five bloody years to ma-"

    BAM!!

    The door to Bruce Pang''s office mmed open and a slightly panicked looking Ancestor came running in.

    "Don''t absorb the damn-" His words were cut short when he saw the clean looking Gold Grade Sword in my hands.

    ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    ¡­ ¡­ ¡­

    "Well. F*ck." The Ancestor sighed and then left the room again.

    Bam!

    The door mmed behind him.

    Bam!!

    The door opened once more.

    The Ancestor came in again and then red at me.

    "You." He growled.

    "Ehm. Yes Ancestor?" I summoned all the innocence I had within me and asked him in my most innocent voice.

    The Ancestor took out a device and gave it to me.

    "You have five minutes to study everything in it and produce them with your power." He said with a tone that was clearly a painfulbination deep regret, anger, hope, greed, excitement and impatience.

 Chapter 167 Gold Grade Blueprints!

    "What''s this?" I asked curiously as I took the device and delved my mind into it.

    "It''s my-" The Ancestor started to reply. But I didn''t let him finish.

    "HOLY SMOKES!! ARE THESE ALL GOLD GRADE DESIGNS???" I shouted loudly as I beheld the huge number of Gold Grade Blueprints within that device.

    The Ancestor merely sighed and kept quiet.

    He was probably thinking "Why the bleeding f*ck are you asking the questions you are about to get the answers for? And why the bleeding f*ck am I bothering to answer him?"

    But as before, I couldn''t be bothered about him.

    My mind was already lost in the wonder of absorbing all of the wonderful Gold Grade Blueprints!

    Rifles. Sniper Rifles. Machine Guns. Swords. Hammers. Shields. Flight Systems.

    It was like the weapons and movement system repository of a mega rich and mega spoiled white mecha pilot!

    Everything a White Mecha could ever want or need could be found within that device.

    Bear in mind that those were all WORKING blueprints, ones that could be made at a moment''s notice should the skills and materials required to make them were avable.

    And in absorbing so many working blueprints, I could sense a strange thing happening to my brain.

    It seemed to be extracting all of the principles and philosophies found within all the designs and¡­ absorbing them as well?

    At first, I beheld the designs with the awesome wonder of an end user, thinking of ways on how to use them inbat.

    However, after absorbing my tenth design, I started to view the blueprints with a slightly more critical eye of a novice designer.

    I was able to appreciate theplexity that went behind its design and the ingenuity that was the underlying driver in the merging of so many different physical principles and design theories!

    And after the hundredth design made its way into my mind, I finally noticed the first ws. I had approached the mindset of a Beginner Weapon Desginer!

    I blinked slowly as I pondered upon a particr weakness I found in a design of a Sniper Rifle.

    A slow rate of fire due to its highly advanced application of soundless and sightless technology. It was a stupidly powerful rifle that would produce no sound and create no visual footprint as it fired its projectile!

    In most circles, a Sniper Rifle having a slow rate of fire was extremely normal. It was expected, in fact.

    However, there was a blueprint which I had absorbed earlier which implemented a two-hundred-forty-round-per-minute firing system on a Sniper Rifle. With no recoil.

    And because of that particr breakthrough, the sixty-round-per-minute rate of fire on the soundless and sightless Sniper Rifle became a weakness in my eyes.

    "Why notbine both rifles into one?" I thought aloud.

    At that, the Ancestor''s eyes shot wide open and his mouth opened slightly in anticipation and excitement.

    Of course he knew what I was talking about.

    As a Weapons Designer, it was probably something he couldn''t stop thinking about!

    But after ying with some ideas for a quick minute without any results, I finally put them aside and proceeded to continue to absorb the blueprints first.

    Who knows if my brain will continue to evolve as I absorbed the other blueprints?<novelnext></novelnext>

    Two hundred.

    Three hundred.

    I could feel my brain continue its slow evolution.

    By the four hundredth and final design, I finally experienced a mild breakthrough.

    I had drawn level with the Ancestor and finally achieved the mindset of an Intermediate Designer.

    I could easily see the weaknesses and ws of each and every blueprint, and how they were all severely limited by the type and quality of materials that the Chinese Federation had.

    I could see exactly where thepromises were made due to ack of materials, where the sacrifices were made due to ack of manufacturing skill, and where the obvious weaknesses were epted due to ack of technological breakthroughs in real life.

    Machines were required to build the machines that could eventually build theponents which the Ancestor needed. And for such tech-heavy work, the Chinese Federation was sorely undermanned.

    But I had no such constraints.

    I did not need skilled cksmiths and artificers to physically bring my blueprints to life.

    I did not need a huge amount of materials since I could reuse the ones I had to create every type of weapon I wanted.

    All the Ancestor wanted to do but couldn''t due to ack of all of the above, I could.

    The only question was¡­ Should I let him know?

    I came to the answer very quickly.

    Of course not.

    The Ancestor might be kind enough to give me all these blueprints, but at the end of the day, he did it because he had something to gain from it.

    There were no eternal allies, no eternal enemies, only interests matter. The Ancestor treated me well because it was in his best interests to have me cooperate with him.

    But what would happen to me if treating me well is no longer in his best interest?

    As one of the leaders of an entire Federation of billions, he would not hesitate to throw me aside.

    I could understand why he would do it of course. What is the value of a single boy, no matter how brilliant and how lovable,pared to the whole country? Cold and heartless as it may seem, leaders of countries have to put the lives of many ahead of the life of a little boy like me.

    But being able to understand something does not make me a willing participant.

    No, I will hide my full abilities.

    I still need trump cards, just in case!

    "That''s it? Only four hundred designs? Do you have more?" I asked him hopefully and very irritatingly.

    Four hundred Gold Grade Blueprints probably took him his entire life to make and collect. But I had to try my luck. Maybe he had a tinum design hidden somewhere.

    No. Not maybe.

    "He DEFINITELY has a tinum design hidden somewhere." I thought to myself.

 Chapter 168 Show Us That Weapon

    "I have tinum Grade Blueprints." The Ancestor said calmly. "But you won''t be getting your hands on them."

    "Aww why? I am pretty sure I can make them as well! Let me see pleaaasee¡­. Just one? And for just five, no, three seconds!!" I begged the Ancestor with all of my considerable begging ability.

    But of course he ignored me.

    "Show me what you can do." The Ancestormanded me.

    I sighed and pouted lightly before I produced a Sniper Rifle.

    The one which was able to fire two hundred forty rounds per minute, or four bullets per second.

    Did I mention that it could do so without recoil?

    The Ancestor nced at Bruce Pang, who immediately pressed something on hismunicator.

    Instantly but noiselessly, I could sense the room moving.

    I was impressed.

    Bruce Pang''s office could actually move around the academy!

    "Super cool!!" I remember thinking naively to myself.

    After a few seconds, one of the shelf-filled walls suddenly started to sink below ground, and the office became the starting point of a massive firing range!

    "Whoa!" I couldn''t help but exim in pleasant surprise!

    "I am sure you''re curious how a Gold Grade Sniper Rifle works." The Ancestor said with a smile. "Feel free to try out all the Gold Grade rifle designs while I observe."

    Although I knew that the Ancestor simply wanted to see if my ability to create the weapons were standard or not, I couldn''t care less.

    As he had said, I really wanted to try out the Gold Grade Rifles!

    I eagerly held the rifle up and started to aim at the nearest target down the firing range, at around a hundred meters away.

    Both Bruce and the Ancestor started to stare at the rifle very intently to see if it could work as it was designed to.

    I sighted down the target and very gently, squeezed the trigger once.

    Wham!

    A rtively soft sound rang out of the rifle and¡­

    BAM!!!!!

    The target a hundred meters away literally blew up!

    It was hard to exin how I felt at that moment.

    It truly was an amazing Sniper Rifle.

    With zero recoil and almost no loud sound apanying that shot, it was able to very urately hit its target!

    Plus, pulling the trigger of that rifle felt really, really satisfying.

    "It''s awesome!" I couldn''t help but exim loudly.

    "Awesome? You''ve seen nothing yet kid. Bring in the wind. Max velocity." The Ancestor said smugly.

    "Max velocity? That''s 600kph!!" Bruce Pang said with a frown.

    The Ancestor turned to look at him and rolled his eyes.

    "You think I don''t know? I am the one who designed this office, remember?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Ah hahaha. Yes, yes of course I remember. Max wind velocity it is. Let me apply the anti-wind clear gel first." Bruce Pangughed sheepishly and pressed several buttons on hismunicator.

    Immediately, a thin film of clear gel appeared on the ce where the wall once was.

    "Anti-wind gel!" I breathed out in wonder.

    "Indeed. This gel here will automatically repel the wind. Don''t ask me how the physics work. I don''t really understand it myself. Suffice to say that it works and works very well indeed." Bruce Pang said as he pressed yet another series of buttons.

    After he did that, the gs that was ced down the entire line of the firing range to give the shooter an indication of wind speed started to p vigorously.

    "Two hundred kph. Three. Four. Anddd¡­ Six hundred kph winds. These winds can uproot entire full grown trees." Bruce Pang said with anticipation.

    "Aim at the furthest target as you would with no wind." The Ancestor instructed me calmly.

    "Are you saying that your bullet is wind resistant?" I asked him incredulously.

    It was a verymon knowledge that all who wanted to shoot at a target at long range had topensate for the wind depending on its speed, direction and the bullet''s weight.

    To shoot across 1 full kilometer over 600kph winds was actually a physical impossibility. No sane sniper would take that shot. It would be easier to shoot at the targetpletely blindfolded after being spun around at high speed!

    "I am not saying anything. I will let that rifle do the talking." The Ancestor said with his smug smile still stered on his face.

    I immediately did as he said and aimed at the furthest target as though there was no wind.

    At 600kph, I could clearly see the airflow streaking past the clear anti wind gel.

    If anybody stuck their hand through the anti wind gel, he would definitely get his very flesh on his hand ripped out of his bones.

    In fact, the entire hand would probably get ripped off.

    It was that fast.

    Wh-wh-am!!

    I fired three shots in quick session.

    KABOOM!!!

    The target exploded in the next instant.

    It was true.

    Anti wind sniper rifle!!

    "I''ve never seen that one before." Bruce Pang said admiringly. "I am assuming that the blueprint is actually for mechas?"

    "Yes. It is supposed to be for mechas. The technology is far too clunky to be used in human rifles." The Ancestor nodded while looking at the rifle in my hands with a strange expression on his face.

    "You can''t take it." I immediately said. "It''ll just disperse into energy if it gets too far away from me."

    "So you''re like a portable weapons depot." The Ancestor grumbled.

    "And he''s far too valuable to be used that way, even for Gold Grade Weapons." Bruce Pang said with augh. "But seriously though. This is going to be a game changer. The first few long range sniper assassinations we take during storms will be a guaranteed sess. We need to pick our targets carefully."

    "Yes. I know. But that''s not what I am after right now." The Ancestor said with a gleam in his eyes.

    "No? What are you after then?" Bruce Pang asked excitedly.

    "Come on. Show us that weapon." The Ancestor urged me.

    I smiled at them and with a single thought, I changed the shape of the sniper rifle with a flourish.

 Chapter 169 Ten Freaking Kilometers

    The new sniper rifle was a sleek, 1.5 meter long ck beauty that radiated a silent but bone chilling confidence.

    As soon as it took form, the atmosphere grew strangely reverent.

    Bruce Pang opened and closed his mouth several times, and looked like he had things to say, but somehow, each time he closed his mouth with a shake of his head.

    The Ancestor merely stared at the weapon as though he was looking at his long lost wife who had suddenly appeared once more, looking drop dead gorgeous like the day they got married.

    He swallowed his saliva once, then twice, then thrice.

    "Well?" It was my turn to be smug.

    That particr rifle was particrly difficult to manifest, but it was still well within my ability.

    Manifesting a massive hundred meter or even two hundred meter tall white mecha was difficult, but it was in the sense that it was heavy lifting.

    It would take a huge chunk of my red energy to manifest a full strength two hundred meter tall heavy white mecha at that moment.

    However, that sleek and small 1.5 meter long ck rifle was a different type of difficult. It was the kind of difficulty that made nanotech engineers much more valuable than civil engineers.

    The difficultyid in how small and how insanelyplex the rifle was! It was so small that the precision I needed to employ to manifest that particr rifle had to go down nearly to the atomic level.

    I could understand why the Ancestor was so taken by that rifle.

    Even creating a fifteen meter mecha version of that rifle would take at least one full year with the technology avable at that time.

    And I had made a 1.5 meter human version within a split second!

    It was a miracle that the main emotion on his face was not jealousy!

    "Ehm." The Ancestor cleared his throat. "We need a much stronger testing range for this particr weapon."

    "Yes, a much, much stronger one." I quickly agreed. I had seen andpletely understood the design of the rifle.

    And by the Gods, I would never want to pull that trigger if I was not protected by a full god damn nuclear bunker.

    Of course it wasn''t a nuclear rifle in that it could fire nuclear bombs. If that''s the case, it would not be called a rifle, it would be called at the very least, a bazooka. Though it would still be a ridiculous thought for a bazooka to be able tounch nuclear bombs.

    How the hell would the bazooka operator survive the st of his own attack?

    However, although it did not fire a nuclear bomb, it would single fire ridiculously heavy heavy bullets at such ridiculous speeds that the impact generated by that bullet would create a mini nuclear explosion.

    The bullet itself weighed a full ton and would leave the rifle bore at over twenty kilometers per second.

    A horizontal attack from level ground towards any enemy that was not a white mecha or an equally armored object would simply rip it apart. The bullet would not even lose much speed.

    Against an object that could stop its forward motion, a fearsome explosion would ensue and would, more often than not, kill its target as cleanly as a pierce through would.

    Anti weight and anti sonic boom technologies were also in ce to give it the light weight and silence it requires to be a fully functional sniper rifle.

    It was the King of all Earth Based Sniper Rifles, and it satpletely unchallenged at the peak of Gold Grade Weapons.

    None other in its ss could bring to bear a power that was anywhere close to what it was able to do.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "A stronger testing ground? Do you want to move to the white mecha practice ground?" Bruce Pang asked the Ancestor politely but in an obviously intrigued voice.

    "No. Let''s go to the desert testing ground." The Ancestor said.

    "Desert??" Bruce Pang asked with great surprise and great excitement. "Alright! Let''s go!!"

    My eyes gleamed in excitement, and I turned around to face the door.

    I didn''t even think about it.

    I mean, we''re going to the desert, right? So we have to leave the room, get into some sort of transport and go to the desert... right?

    Wrong.

    Bruce Pang merely pressed several buttons on hismunicator and immediately, a soft hum sounded from somewhere in the room.

    Pshhh.

    The ground near us suddenly opened up, and a small, sleek elevator that could only fit five popped out from the hole.

    "Let''s go." The Ancestor didn''t bother to exin what the heck and how the heck it happened, and stepped into the elevator eagerly.

    We followed suit.

    Haven''t I mentioned this before?

    The greatest part of the National Mecha Pilot Academy is its transportation system. Its Elevators.

    They truly could go ANYWHERE and at TOP speed!

    We stood silently in the elevator for exactly one minute and three seconds.

    And when the doors opened after that, we were in the desert.

    And it wasn''t just any mini desert that was at the fringes of a city.

    No, it was a real, full blown desert with nothing but sand all around us!

    The wind howled powerfully and blew gusts of sand towards us.

    I winced lightly in shock and instantly produced a thin but sturdy wall right right next to me that blocked the wind and the sand.

    "Very useful trick." Bruce Pang said to me in deep approval as he brushed the sand away from his clothes.

    "Set up here and shoot at that target in the distance. Can you detect it?" The Ancestor said loudly over the howling wind and pointed into the darkness.

    I waved my hand and produced a powerful radar system that instantly detected the target the Ancestor was referring to.

    It was a fifty meter tall lump of metal around ten kilometers away.

    Ten. Freaking. Kilometers. Away.

 Chapter 170 Chaotic Fighting Style

    I sighed.

    It was obviously a target meant for mechas.

    How the freaking hell did he expect a mere human like me to shoot at Beyond Visual Range targets at ten freaking kilometers away in pitch ck darkness in a freaking sandstorm?

    But even as a human being, it was still within my capabilities to shoot at that target.

    I had my radar.

    The rifle had its anti wind technology.

    And it obviously had the strength to shoot at targets ten kilometers away.

    In fact, with its ridiculous payload, I probably wouldn''t want to shoot it at targets LESS than ten kilometers away!

    "Yes I can detect it." I said.

    "Good. Shoot it down." The Ancestor said in approval.

    I held the rifle in a firing position, and allowed the radar and my resonance to guide me.

    After a few seconds of adjusting my aim, I feltfortable enough to...

    Click.

    Whoosh!!!!

    Once again. There was no recoil, no sound, and even no incredible burst of light to indicate that a mini nuclear payload had just been released.

    I was about to open my mouth to ask about it. But before my lips traveled for more than a millimeter, the Ancestor grabbed Bruce Pang and me and flung us into the elevator once more!

    His hand mmed on a bright red button on the elevator and near instantly, the elevator door closed and we shot off at an incredible speed!

    We went so fast that all three of us were actually thrown to the ground by the force of the lift''s eleration that broke through even the lift''s usual anti shock settings!

    "What''s going on, Ancestor??" Bruce Pang asked in rm.

    I was seated on the floor of the elevator, feeling rather pissed at the turn of events and only slightly confused.

    Ipletely missed the fact that the Ancestor actually had a worried look on his face, and that Bruce Pang, the usually steady and immovable source of strength for everyone, was actually rmed at that!

    "The damned Wyrm King was actually nearby! I felt it burst towards us as soon as Justin fired the rifle. If we were just a few se-"

    CRACK!!!!

    SCREEEEEECHHHH!!!!

    "The Wyrm Queen?!?!?! She was lying in wait for us!!" The Ancestor cried out in shock.

    Because those two Wyrms were not machines, I could not detect them even in the slightest. But since that so called Wyrm Queen had appeared and had even blocked the elevator I was in, it was literally asking me to give it a good beating.

    So I obliged.

    I immediately manifested a cockpit around us three, and then absorbed the elevator and all of its track in a wide radius around us.

    "Let me handle that Wyrm Queen" I said to the two old men heroically.

    Bruce Pang opened his mouth and stretched his hand out to stop me, but the Ancestor merely raised his hand and shut him up.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Let him do it." He said quietly, his frown easing up and instantly turning his expression into one of intense intrigue and anticipation.

    And like a massive God of the Desert, a hundred meter tall white mecha in midnight ck coating rose up from the depths of the sands.

    With a simple thought, I caused my massive thrusters to fire and brought me up into the sky.

    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

    Tens of flying spotlights shot out from my body and then turned themselves on, turning the huge swath of desert around me from night time into day time!!

    SCREEEEEEE!!!!!!!

    The Wyrm Queen screeched out its battlecry and rose majestically upwards from the desert.

    It was a heart poundingly giant and terrifying worm.

    Its thick scales were mostly red, with yellow and ck sshes everywhere, giving it a fearsome aura that struck mercilessly into its enemies.

    Its head was basically a huge mouth with rings of sharp teeth, and disgusting slimy ps of skin all around its supposed neck opened and closed like the gills of a fish out of water.

    There was no bloody way anybody could take a look at that scary ass worm and not feel a deep sense of trepidation rise up from his heart.

    "Bloody hell! What on earth is that? Why is it so close to our academy?" I shouted at the two old men as I quickly manifested a massive Gold Grade Broadsword.

    "That''s a Wyrm Queen, a beast that rules this desert. And no, it is not near our academy at all. We are many hundreds of kilometers away from the academy." The Ancestor''s eyes gleamed as he looked at the sword I manifested.

    "Kill it quick." Bruce Pang said calmly. "Before its matees."

    "Damn it. Two giant apex predators that would require a white mecha to deal with! Why the hell did you bring me here then?" I shouted half in frustration and half in exasperation.

    I truly did not understand how the minds of those old coots worked.

    But I no longer had the luxury of cursing them andining about the situation.

    The freaky Wyrm Queen was attacking!

    It shot out of the sand at breakneck speed and lunged towards me with its massive jaws, that could swallow even my hundred meter frame whole, opened wide.

    I unleashed my side thrusters and immediately dodged to the right.

    However, that damned Wyrm Queen actually turned and adjusted its attack direction!

    I could no longer dodge!

    "Stupid wyrm. You want to swallow me? Fine! Swallow me then!!" I shouted furiously at the Wyrm Queen.

    "Wait, WHAT??" Bruce Pang shouted.

    I quickly changed the shape of my mecha into a supremely spiky fifty meter wide sea urchin and strengthened my armor to its maximum.

    And without bothering to wait for the Wyrm Queen to swallow me, I fired a huge bunch of thrusters and shot directly into the stupid wyrm''s mouth!

    "Oh my God!!!" Bruce Pang shouted in horror!

    As stoic and as stout hearted as he was, he truly had not experienced such a chaotic fighting style as mine!

 Chapter 171 Mushroom Cloud

    And very obviously, neither had the Wyrm Queen.

    Instead of snapping her mouth shut like any intelligent life form would do at the sight of massively spiky sea urchin shooting towards its mouth, it merely gaped at me and allowed me free ess into its interior.

    I am sure you could guess what happened next.

    The Wyrms of the Chinese Desert were a notorious bunch, and one of the main things they were famous for was their fearsome and stupidly powerful armor.

    But as with every other things in nature, powerful armor was there to protect something extra squishy.

    And as I quickly found out that day, that extra squishy something was the insides of the Wyrm.

    I spun my spiky sea urchin mecha exterior like a high grade shredder and did what I intended to do with utmost efficiency and effectiveness.

    Shred! Shred! Shred!

    SCREEEEEEEE!

    The Wyrm Queen gave out an absolutely miserable wail of pain!

    If she could speak out loud, she would probably be saying¡­

    FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCKKKKKK!!

    Deep waves of inconsble regret would be crashing over her heart at that moment.

    "Why did I swallow that damn spiky metal ball? Whyyy?? AAARGHHHH!!!"

    However, thankfully for her, the waves of regret would soon stop crashing over her heart because¡­

    SHRED!!

    "Wow that particr organ sure gave out a lot of Wyrm Juice!" I couldn''t help butment as we shredded through a particrly thick and juicy organ.

    "That''s her heart." Bruce Pang said with a slight wince.

    I didn''t me him for wincing at that moment.

    I mean, what we were going through at that moment was definitely something that no living being had ever experienced.

    We had probably just killed a very ferocious Wyrm Queen! And in the most gruesome and disgusting manner!

    "Ouch. That must have hurt." I muttered with a slight wince myself. "But at least it''s dead now."

    Within one short minute, I had shredded the insides of the Wyrm Queen into Wyrm Juice!

    Bam!!

    The very dead carcass of the Wyrm Queen copsed onto the desert sand and caused a massive valley to appear.

    "Well done." The Ancestor said as he nodded approvingly. "Your selection of strategy and execution were absolutely on point."

    "Yes. Disgustingly on point." Bruce Pang said with a slight chuckle. He had recovered from the earlier shock of diving straight into the jaws of a Gold Grade Beast and had regained his cool air.

    "Thank you elders." I beamed happily and maneuvered us deftly out of the Wyrm''s mouth.

    "Now let''s see how you will deal with her enraged husband looking for revenge. Let me give you a heads up. You can''t use the same strategy against him. Let me also give you another heads up. His nickname is¡­ Thousand Jaws." The Ancestor said with a strange smile on his face.

    Very, very worryingly, Bruce Pang did not say a single word. He merely gulped.

    That gulp sent a real shiver down my spine.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "If shredding its insides won''t work anymore, then let''s see how it will fare against a real, full sized King of Rifles. Let this be a showdown between two Kings!" I shouted enthusiastically and quickly manifested the giant version of the sleek ck rifle which I had earlier.

    "Speaking of which, what happened to the block of metal I shot at jus-" I swivelled my mecha head around to look at the damage I caused, and waspletely stunned.

    There was absolutely nothing at the spot where the huge lump of metal was.

    "What''s going on? Wouldn''t the explosion cause the sand to turn into ss?" I asked in confusion.

    "It would. And it did." The Ancestor replied.

    "So where are all the ss?" I asked.

    "Are you sure you want to worry about ss right now? The Wyrm King is getting closer." The Ancestor reminded me.

    I nced at my radar and cursed.

    The Wyrm King had traveled more than ten kilometers in the past minute! It was originally around fifty kilometers away - yes fifty.

    As I had said before, the elevator was insanely fast.

    But in the time I took to deal with the Wyrm Queen, it had reduced the distance to a mere thirty kilometers.

    And with the Wyrm King''s speed, that was less than three minutes away.

    "Damn it, that Wyrm King is so bloody fast!" I shouted and immediately fired my thrusters to shoot up into the sky.

    Click. Whoosh.

    At around a kilometer up, I ced the rifle into firing position and aimed at the Wyrm King.

    Next to me, I could feel the Ancestor''s intense stare at the rifle. He was evaluating its performance!

    "Take a good look at this, old man. I''ve upgraded your rifle quite a bit." I said smugly as I pressed the trigger.

    WHAM!!!!

    Surprisingly, a loud explosion sounded as a bus sized bullet shot out of the massive rifle in my mecha''s hands!

    Almost instantly, a bright light lit up the entire night sky in the distance.

    The bullet traveled at such insane speeds that there was only a brief second''s dy between firing and impact!

    "You upgraded the rifle? Are you freaking crazy??" The Ancestor shouted at me, lookingpletely aghast.

    "Why? There are several inefficiencies which I noticed, I merely smoothed them out. In total I only increased its damage output by 10%." I frowned at the Ancestor''s over reaction.

    Wham!!!

    A shockwave full of sand smashed into me mere seconds before the loudest explosion I had ever heard rang out gloriously.

    BOOOOOOOM!!!

    For a few seconds, the explosion was all we could hear.

    I grinned stupidly at the two of them and ignored the Ancestor''s angry re.

    "Did you really think that I didn''t know about those inefficiencies??" The Ancestor growled at me through gritted teeth. "Those inefficiencies were there to limit the effect of the weapon''s damage! Because if they weren''t there, the weapon would break through the Gold Grade and hit tinum!"

    He then jabbed in the direction of the massive eruption and mushroom sized cloud that was rising up into the night sky.

 Chapter 172 Strongest Attack

    "That is exactly what I wanted to avoid! tinum Grade explosion!! Now the whole world knows what we are capable of! And I will probably have to deal with that irritating Wang girl-"

    Ring! Ring! Ring!

    "Damn it! She''s already calling!" The Ancestor cursed.

    "The Wyrm King isn''t dead, by the way." Bruce Pang said mildly as he pointed at the massive explosion.

    True enough, a massive serpent like creature was still wriggling its way towards us.

    "Kill it before I finish this phone call, or else..." The Ancestor red at me angrily before answering the call.

    "ANCESTOR! HAS YOUR DAMNED ANCESTRAL BRAIN FINALLY EXPLODED? WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING THERE!!" A shrill shout could be heard from whatever earpiece the Ancestor was wearing.

    "Ahahahaha! Little Wang girl!! How are you??" The Ancestor''s angry face suddenly transformed into a genial old man''s as he started to try and cate Secretary Wang.

    "LITTLE WANG GIRL YOUR LITTLE ASS!! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?? NOW THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS WE ARE CAPABLE OF PLATINUM GRADE NON-NUCLEAR ATTACKS!!"

    "Well, I am extremely angry at what happened too! You wouldn''t believe this, but I was testing a new rifle I just made, and somehow it exceeded all expectations andpletely shot past the Gold Grade boundary!" The Ancestor lied smoothly through his teeth.

    But Secretary Wang would have none of it.

    "BULLSHIT!! TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE I TELL MOMMY!"

    "Mommy??" I mouthed to Bruce Pang in surprise.

    "I suggest we avoid using that rifle to kill that Wyrm King." Bruce Pang said still in his mild voice andpletely ignored my question.

    "Yes yes. Let''s not use that rifle again. I wouldn''t want to deal with that crazy woman." I hurriedly agreed and immediately transformed the rifle into a massive spear.

    "Spear is an excellent idea. Now get close to it and show me what you''ve got. I reckon you have at max, two minutes before the first spies from USAA and the Empire crack our anti-spy dome around this area. Kill it before that happens." Bruce Pang said pleasantly.

    "Two minutes. I can go all out?" I asked him.

    "Go all out." Bruce Pang agreed. "But don''t cause explosions like before."

    "No worries! If I can go all out, I don''t need the damned rifle." I grinned confidently and immediately shot ahead to charge at the Wyrm King.

    GRAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

    A deeper and much more masculine roar sounded through the shroud of sandstorm that was still expanding outwards rapidly due to the earlier explosion.

    As before, I unleashed more flying spotlights and included powerful blowers on them to help blow away the sand from the direction which they were shining on.

    It didn''t really help much due to the strength of the storm that was still raging, but it was better than nothing.

    Of course, my flying units were not limited to just spotlights.

    With hundreds of Gold Grade designs in my brain, I could easily create automated flying rifles!

    With a single thought, I quickly unleashed a hundred Gold Grade Assault Rifles that could fire twelve thousand high powered rounds per minute!

    And not just any high powered rounds.

    They all fired the Relvaro Mecha Armor Piercing High Explosive rounds that cost almost a thousand dors EACH to produce.

    A hundred rifles firing twelve thousand such rounds per minute meant I was burning through twelve million dors worth of ammunition per minute!<novelnext></novelnext>

    But thankfully they were all free for me.

    I was a walking Gold Grade Ammunitions factory and depot!

    "Come you big fat ugly worm." I grinned evilly as I charged into the storm with fearless confidence.

    Having finished a fruitful session earlier that day with a weird three armed mecha design, I was quite taken with the uniqueness and the utility that design provided, and I had implemented an upgraded version of that into my mecha.

    I was a grotesque, six armed mecha that looked not unlike an ancient god depicted by a certain race of people!

    Each arm carried a long and unstoppable Gold Grade Laser Based Sword that I was extremely confident could pierce through anything, including wyrm armor.

    "BEHOLD SHIVAM!! THE SIX ARMED GOD OF MECHAS!" I shouted with great fervor and a lot of glee.

    Please be reminded that I was ten years old.

    GRAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

    I finally pierced through the final thick plume of sand that was between me and the Wyrm King, and for the first time, we came face to face with each other.

    "WHAT THE BLEEDING HELL??" Shivam the Six Armed God of Mechas shouted in panic. "What the hell is wrong with this Wyrm? WHY IS IT SO DAMNED DISGUSTING!!! DAMN IT!! DAMN IT ALL!!!"

    If I was Shivam The Six Armed God of Mechas, then that Wyrm King was Disgustoro, the Thousand Headed God of Disgusting Wyrms.

    It was hands down, legs down, EVERYTHING down the most disgusting monster I had everid eyes on or will everyy eyes on both in real life and in my dreams.

    It was fat and long and huge, and was had an even more disgusting colour palette and pattern than his already disgusting wife. Purple, Neon Green, Dirty Yellow and Pale Brown.

    Yuck.

    But the worst thing was, it had THOUSANDS of smaller heads that protruded out from literally EVERYWHERE around him in all directions!

    It was DISGUSTING!

    "FIRE! FIRE! SHOOT EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN LITTLE DISGUSTING MINI HEAD DOWN!!" Shivam the Six Armed God of Mechas shouted as he winced at such painful sight.

    Instantly, all hundred flying rifles got to work. Their powerful aiming systems coordinated with each other and avoided shooting at the same target.

    And as one, all opened fire and unleashed their super expensive Relvaro rounds at the damned Disgustoro, the Thousand Headed God of Disgusting Wyrms.

    PRA TA TA TA TA TA TA TA TA TA!!!!!

    Each assault rifle unleashed a grand total of a hundred rounds at their target before moving on to the next.

    GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

    The Wyrm King roared its defiance at me as each of its thousand little heads suddenly spat out clumps of sticky but extremely strong webs that managed for the most part to block my super expensive Relvaro rounds!

    "WHAT?!" I shouted in disbelief. "That damned Wyrm can shoot out spider webs too? That''s cheating!!"

    "You have one minute. Kill it now." Bruce Pang said to me sternly. "Stop getting shocked over every little thing like a little five year old boy!"

    "Damn it. Fine! I''ll stop toying with this bastard. Come back to me all of you!" I shouted and reabsorbed all my rifles and all of the bullets I fired at the Wyrm King.

    And with all of my strength, I unleashed my strongest attack.

 Chapter 173 Expressive

    At this point, all of you might be thinking.

    "What could be stronger than a hundred Gold Grade automated flying rifles firing Relvaro Armor Piercing High Explosive Rounds at twelve thousand rounds per minute?"

    Well, the answer is very simple.

    Gold Grade Laser Coated des fired by Gold Grade Maic Hyper-repulsion Firing Systems.

    Ibined the sturdiness and sheer unblockable-ness of Gold Grade melee weapons with the explosive power of Gold Grade Rifles'' firing systems, and stretched my power to the very limit by producing a full twenty thousand of them.

    I gritted my teeth as the burden on my mental facilities and my red energy suddenly spiked to my limit.

    "Be careful." Bruce Pang said softly. He had no idea what sort of pressure I had to withstand with such a fearsome set up, but he knew it definitely wasn''t something that could be dismissed with but a wave of his hand.

    At that point, his words were utteredpletely as an elder brother. He truly was concerned for my well-being!

    But I was fine.

    I wasn''t able to execute such a fearsome attack twice in a row without injuring myself, of course. But doing it once was still very much within my limit.

    "Pierce." Imanded my des through gritted teeth as I clenched my fist to give my mentalmand a physical movement.

    Without a single sound, all twenty thousand des elerated from zero to a mind-blowing two kilometers a second in an instant and sliced through the Wyrm King''s thousands of spider webs and then through its humongous body.

    My ultimate attack worked!

    GRAaaaaaaahhhhhh¡­

    The Wyrm King released a mournful cry as almost all of its thousand heads dropped lifelessly to the ground, severed by my Gold Grade Laser des.

    At the same time, disgusting purple blood spurted out of every segment of his extremely fat and long body in copious amounts.

    Despite my sessful attack, it wasn''t quite enough to kill the Wyrm King! Its vitality was much too high to be killed by just twenty thousand (rtively) small des.

    "Damn it." I cursed quietly as I closed my eyes to try and regain my energy a little.

    I quickly dismissed all twenty thousand des, and instead formed ten huge but thin des, each the length of a ten storey apartment.

    All ten des floated in the sky and started to spin slowly.

    With only ten items to control, the burden on my mental facility was much, much lower. However, because the mass of the ten des were actually the same as the previous twenty thousand des, the burden on my red energy was the same.

    At that moment, my red energy was being once again stretched to the limit.

    I could feel a deep fatigue creeping up in my heart.

    "This will be my final attack." I said to Bruce Pang softly.

    "Make it count." He replied with a nod of acknowledgement.

    Graaaaahhhhh!!!

    The Wyrm King was heavily wounded, and it was wriggling on the ground weakly.

    Any casual observer might think that it was dying judging by the horrendous amount of blood it was losing every second.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But the keen eyed observer would notice that even though blood was constantly flowing out of the Wyrm''s body, the purple pool of blood around it wasn''t growing anyrger.

    It could be attributed to the sand absorbing the blood, of course. But the keen eyed observer would definitely see that a good portion of the blood flowing out of its body was being reabsorbed by it!

    And all around its body, disgusting red lumps of flesh were forming slowly. The thousand severed heads were all regrowing!

    If I failed to kill it within the next few minutes, there was a strong possibility that it would recover to its full strength!

    Plus, I only had less than a minute before my two minutes were up.

    It was all or nothing.

    I let the ten des reach maximum velocity in their spins for a few crucial seconds before once again sending them hurtling down towards the Wyrm King.

    sh! sh! sh!

    Without his thousand disgusting heads spitting out webs to slow down and hinder my des, they were able to m into the Wyrm King''s body at maximum power.

    And without much fanfare, they sliced his body into eleven messy segments!

    The Wyrm King did not produce a death cry after that attack.

    How could it?

    All of its energy and vitality were instantly drained out of its body through the eleven gaping holes.

    Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!

    Purple blood exited its body and drenched the sand around it.

    Its eleven segments quivered lightly for a moment or two before finally remaining still.

    The Wyrm King was dead.

    Killed by the future Mecha Emperor!

    "Good. Retract everything and reform into a light blue mecha. You''re now a scout." Bruce Pang said calmly.

    I did as he was told and changed my form.

    As I did so, the Ancestor was sent squishing next to us and I could once again hear Secretary Wang''s very enthusiastic curses with great rity.

    "... don''t care! You will meet with the god damned USAA and European delegation and show them a fake weapon capable of non nuclear tinum grade explosion that could once and for all exin this god damned fiasco! First Russel now you! Will you damned old fogeys stop causing me trouble!! Don''t you know how close we were to having a god damned world war erupt because of Russel''s stupid massacre? We don''t need to give the god damned Europeans another god damned reason to attack!"

    "She''s very¡­ expressive." Imented to Bruce Pang very softly.

    But apparently, I wasn''t soft enough.

    "Who the hell just said that I am very expressive? I will go over there right now and give that god damned punk a real EXPRESSIVE beating! Is he the idiot who caused this fiasco?? God damn it!" Secretary Wang shouted very expressively, much to my absolute horror.

    Both the Ancestor and Bruce Pang immediately turned and red at me.

 Chapter 174 Famous Last Words

    "Ah? Hahaha! What a beautiful voice? Who are you speaking to, Ancestor? Are you speaking with a famous singer?" I responded in the only way I could.

    "A god damned entertainer! So that''s how you god damned punks at the academy think of me, huh? I am entertaining you by running this way and that way trying to defuse a ticking time bomb? God damn it! I will be there in two hours! Just you wait!!" The shrill voice sounded and then ended with a loud click.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    For a few seconds, there was only stunned silence among us as we contemted what just happened and what sort of tribtionsid before us.

    "Well¡­ I guess this experiment is a sess?" I said hopefully.

    For a moment, both Bruce Pang and the Ancestor looked like they were about to explode in exasperation. However, both sighed deeply almost at the same time and shook their heads ruefully in a startlingly simr fashion that spoke volumes about their close rtionship.

    Only people that had spent a lot of time intensely arguing and debating and sharing their lives together could have such simr reactions towards an event.

    "Well, he did manage to create a non-nuclear tinum grade explosion. Technically he exceeded the scope of this experiment, which was to determine if he could actually create your Gold Grade Weapons." Bruce Pang said evenly.

    "That he did." The Ancestor agreed grudgingly.

    "And although in a manner that waspletely unexpected, he did manage to get Secretary Wang toe visit us. It is something which you had tried to do and failed for the longest time, right?" Bruce Pang added.

    "That¡­ he did." The Ancestor said again, this time with significantly better mood. In fact, I swear I also detected the slightest hint of a satisfied smile.

    "So the beating she mentioned earlier was just a joke, right? She isn''t going to actually beat me up?" I asked them anxiously.

    "Oh she WILL beat you up for damn sure, no question about it." The Ancestor replied with more than just a hint of satisfaction. In fact, that old coot even grinned at me sinisterly!

    I frowned deeply at his words.

    The prospect of having to deal with a furious higher up of the Chinese Federation was not something I enjoyed contemting about.

    "You need to protect me from that angrydy." I said firmly to Bruce Pang. "You''re my big bro."

    "I am afraid I can''t do that for you." Bruce Pang said as firmly to me. "I will face a hundred Wyrm Kings for you anyday, but against that Wang Demoness, you''re on your own. I will be extremely busy with very high level and important stuffter on the hour of her visit."

    "So will I." The Ancestor said gravely. "National Security stuff."

    "Hmmm." Bruce Pang nodded. "Fate of the country and stuff are at stake."

    My lips twitched lightly as I realized what they were doing.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Betrayal! They were leaving me as a punching bag for the furious Wang Demoness!

    "Well, if that''s what you two are nning to do¡­ Don''t me me for doing what I am about to do!" I remember thinking as an extremely childish but utterly evil thought appeared in my mind and took hold of me.

    By that time, I had already mastered several very solid underwater and aerial mecha blueprints from Instructor ckwood''s personal collection.

    And after being betrayed by Bruce Pang and the damned old man, I decided to do a little experiment with several of Instructor ckwood''s blueprints!

    Whoosh!

    With a simple thought, I urged my tired red mecha energy to stir once more and created a Double Cockpit Deep Diver Mecha with an Aerial Module!

    VROOOOOMMMM!!!!!

    The aerial thrusters exploded with great ferocity and sent us hurtling through the air with insanely quick eleration!

    "HEY!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!!" The Ancestor bellowed angrily from the second cockpit behind me which, by design, had the functionality of a small prison.

    "I am bringing us for a quick field trip!" I called out to them with a sinister grin.

    "A field trip? What the hell are you talking about! I authorized no such thing! Where do you think you''re going? How long will this damn trip be??" The Ancestor shouted. He immediately realized that I had effectively imprisoned them both at the rear cockpit!

    "Oh I don''t know. I am thinking of the Pacific Ocean. I think there should be a few interesting monsters there we could fight with. And with regard to how long¡­ Hmmmm. A day? How long will the Wang Demoness stay in the Academy once she realizes we''re not there do you think?" I replied casually as I steered us into the direction of the Pacific Ocean.

    Boom!

    We continued to hurtle through the air at insane speeds, going up to Mach 10 before stabilizing at that speed.

    "Oh. Hmmmmm." The Ancestor quietened down for a bit.

    "Pressing monster emergency brewing in the Pacific Ocean sounds legit." Bruce Pang said after a while as he tried to make himselffortable in the back seat. There was a gleam of excitement in his eyes, and a little dangerous smile I would see quite often in the following days.

    "I won''t get to see that little Wang girl, but that isn''t such a bad thing too, considering her mood." The Ancestor thought aloud.

    "Maybe we can even do the Blood Moon mission you guys were nning while we''re at it." I added eagerly.

    "Nah. The Blood Moon needs the practice." The Ancestor said and dismissed my suggestion immediately. "But there are several monster cores I would like to collect from the Pacific Ocean. This trip might actually work very well."

    "Let''s just do it. How long will collecting a few monster cores take anyway? We would be back at the academy within 24 hours. We should be fine. Jete can handle things while we''re away." Bruce Pang said with a little yawn.

    Famousst words, anyone?

 Chapter 175 Horse Gavarel

    We reached the Pacific Ocean within minutes.

    I lowered our speed to a mere few hundred kilometers per hour and sliced into the ocean with a big ssh that disturbed its calm surface for a few seconds before all traces of our entry disappearedpletely.

    My hare-brained scheme to escape from Secretary Wang actually turned out into a real and exciting mission to collect monster cores!

    It was pretty cool, actually, even by any wildly imaginative measure a ten year old coulde up with.

    "So, what monsters are we hunting?" I asked them both excitedly as soon as we dived. "Please don''t tell me we are hunting monsters on the level of the Wyrm King though, I am fatigued, and won''t be able to fight at full strength for at least a couple of hours!"

    "Don''t worry. The monsters we are hunting for aren''t carnivores. Catching them will be as easy as turning your palm around. The only problem is..." The Ancestor hesitated slightly at this point.

    "I don''t like the sound of this." Bruce Pang said with a sigh. He knew the Ancestor well enough to take him very seriously when he used words like "problem".

    "It''s guarded by some horrible, sentient deep sea megalodon or something?" I sighed and hazarded a guess.

    "Of course not!" The Ancestor said sharply. "Who do you think I am? I would never consider a weakling such as a punkass Megalodon as a "problem", sentient or not."

    "Ah damn it all. So what is the problem then?" I said as I continued to dive deeper into the Pacific Ocean. I wanted to walk on the ocean floor.

    "A herd of Horse Gavarels." The Ancestor said with a calm voice.

    I had no idea what Horse Gavarels were, but apparently Bruce Pang did, and he did not like what he was hearing at all.

    Not in the slightest!

    "Horse Gavarels, I''ll be damned. Turn back! Bring me back home! I''d rather deal with the Wang Demoness than with another damn f*cking herd of damn f*cking Horse Gavarels!!" Bruce Pang moaned in mental agony.

    Of course I was instantly rmed by his words. For a mere fight with monsters to be worse than facing the Wang Demoness could only mean one thing.

    Exhausting!

    I forced myself to reluctantly ask the next and most obvious question.

    "What are Horse Gavarels?" I asked with half excitement and half dread.

    "The closest thing I could think of to describe them would be Double Sided Underwater Centaurs." The Ancestor said gravely.

    I managed to blink twice before the wave ofughter that bubbled within my heart made its way out of my mouth.

    "Wahahaahahaha! What the hell? Double sided centaurs? That''s so funny!" Iughed out loudly and uproariously for a few seconds before realizing that the two old men weren''tughing along with me.

    Heck, they weren''t even chuckling.

    Or smiling.

    The Ancestor nced at his personalmunication device and then pointed to my right.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Go that way for fifty kilometers. You will find a huge cave. Kill whatever is in it, and rest there until you regain your full strength. You will need every iota when you fight with the Gavarels." He said quietly.

    All of the mirth I felt at that moment at the ridiculous mental picture of a double sided centaur evaporated instantly at his words.

    I did as he was told, and within minutes, I was meditating atop the dead carcass of a massive mutated octopus.

    I spent the next hour internalizing what I had learnt from the lesson earlier that day, the previous experiments and the battles with the Wyrms.

    Once in a while, my muscles twitched as I relived the critical moments and analyzed my actions, the enemy''s actions and drew out all the lessons and notes I needed to remember.

    It was a very beneficial hour for me.

    After one hour, I could feel the final vestiges of red energy fatigue leave my body.

    I took a deep breath and reformed the underwater mecha into my standard two armed ck-red mecha. I figured if I needed the extra arms, I could just manifest them as and when I needed them.

    Why walk around as an ugly six armed freak when I could travel cool?

    I ingeniously integrated the principles of underwater mecha movement and fighting efficiency into my mecha, and I ended up with my usual awesome look but with no less underwater fighting strength as all underwater mechas.

    And with the change in mecha form, both Bruce Pang and the Ancestor rejoined me in my cockpit.

    WHAM!!!

    Bruce Pang gave me a resounding smack on my head!!

    "OUCH!!" Bruce Pang shouted in pain. "Damn you and your thick head!"

    I merely chuckled at him.

    "Are you fully recovered?" The Ancestor rolled his eyes at Bruce Pang and asked me seriously.

    "Almost." I nodded at him. "I should be fully recovered in thirty minutes tops. I figured we probably would take more than that to get into an all out fight with these horseys, right?"

    "You are right. Before we go, let me exin to you what you should do when you meet the Horse Gavarels. Turn us into a fully armored spiked sphere and shoot at all of them to get them to charge at us and attack us. We need to weather their heaviest attacks for fifteen minutes while you send out ten of your drones to collect the beasts we came here for. Make sure your drones have at least one cubic meter in storage." The Ancestor began.

    "Wait a minute. You want us to just sit there and let the damned Gavarels attack us? Are you nuts?" Bruce Pang shouted at the Ancestor rather rudely.

    "Why? What''s wrong with the Gavarels? Are they really that powerful?" I immediately asked.

    "They are powerful, but from what I see you are capable of, I am sure you would have no trouble defending against them." The Ancestor said calmly.

    "I beg to differ. We lost THREE white mechas thest time we came here." Bruce Pang disagreed hotly.

 Chapter 176 Smile

    Chapter 176

    "You guys lost THREE white mechas thest time you came here??" I asked them incredulously.

    "An exaggeration. They could barely be considered white mechas. More like blue mechas on steroids." The Ancestor said dismissively. "You''re only around half my age and already you''re sounding like an over excited old man."

    "They may be miserable pieces of junkpared to our Blood Moon Mechas, and truly they were barely above the minimum energy output set by the Federation-"

    "The already very low standards set by the Federation." The Ancestor interrupted Bruce Pang mildly.

    "Yes that. But they were nheless certified white mechas. And they were all destroyed by the damned Gavarels. It is too dangerous for us to be passively taking on their attacks." Bruce Pang said adamantly. "Especially considering that he had not absorbed Deathscythe, and the mecha output he could manifest at this point is probably nowhere as strong."

    "You''ve been spoilt by our Blood Moon Mechas." The Ancestor said to Bruce Pang quietly. "Don''t you remember your good old days when you thrived without your Chronos?"

    "I do. I will and I can do all of that again if I have to. But I won''t if I don''t have to. And in this case, we all don''t have to cut it close like this. We can easily go back and get him to absorb Deathscy-"

    "You want to go back and deal with that Wang Demoness?" The Ancestor interrupted Bruce Pang once more.

    However, this time he managed to shut him up.

    At that time, I was pretty amused by their extreme dislike of dealing with Secretary Wang, to the point of preferring to deal with Horse Gavarels instead of her.

    "What a bunch of losers, scared of a mere woman." I remember chuckling at them.

    They merely gave me a haunted smile at my words.

    "I will remind you of your words when you finally stand at the receiving end of the Demoness Wang''s tirade." Bruce Pang said with a tired smile.

    With hindsight, that tired smile should have been enough warning for me to stay the hell away from Secretary Wang. But Ipletely ignored it.

    "Sure. By all means." I grinned at him naively.

    "Anyway, we should be fine. Justin, the smaller your mecha is, the more condensed you can make your mecha armor, right?" The Ancestor asked.

    "That''s right. If I merely make our spiky ball the size of a small car, I can make it as strong as ten white mecha armor stacked on top of each other." I nodded.

    "Good. Let''s do that then. Here, use this armor specification." The Ancestor said calmly and passed a small device to me.

    My eyes gleamed greedily and I immediately took it with eager hands and let my mind dive into it.

    "Wow¡­ This is¡­ Amazing¡­" I breathed out in awe as I studied the blueprint of a Gold Grade Mecha Shield.

    Of course there were mecha shields in the list of blueprints I absorbed earlier, Gold Grade Shields as well that could easily withstand thebined attacks of multiple blue mechas.

    But that particr Gold Grade Mecha Shield Blueprint was truly something different.

    For one thing, it gave the definition of ''shield'' the wildest and most ridiculous identity test ever.

    Could a shield deal ridiculous damage?

    I mean, yes shield bashes are extremely powerful, and if used at the right time, it could very well kill a recklessly charging enemy outright.

    And yes, there is a story about an American captain with a round shield which he throws around like a frisbee to kill his enemies.

    That story is far fetched andpletely detached from reality. But even if it''s real, it still didn''t give the shield an identity crisis like that particr one.<novelnext></novelnext>

    That shield waspletely bonkers.

    It was like a weapon designer got forced to design a shield at gunpoint, and then grudgingly designing a shield but secretly giving the shield the soul and the effective function of a weapon.

    It could block attacks, yes, but that was the only thing "shield-y" about it.

    Everything else, all of its special features screamed "I WILL KILL YOU, AND I WILL KILL YOU NOW! THERE IS NO ESCAPING ME!"

    So what were its special features?

    The first and mildest feature it had was its tagging function. The shield was made up of nanoparticles, and the user had the option to cause a tiny amount of its nanoparticle to stick to the attacking weapon and ''tag'' it.

    Wherever the weapon went from that point on, the shield wielder would be able to track.

    It wasn''t an attacking function, but it sure exhibited the designer''s deep desire of not letting any of his enemies escape.

    The nanoparticles werepletely undetectable and unremovable. Once you got tagged, you''re tagged.

    But still, all things considered, it was¡­ Mild.

    The second feature it had was nothing like it.

    It was aptly named ''death by a thousand cuts''. The shield was pre programmed to release a thousand small but highly powerfulser coated des that would surround the tagged target in a vicious tornado of swirling des that would ravage any and all unarmored matter into shreds, such as exterior sensors which were not sufficiently protected.

    Against flesh and bone, that tornado de would turn even thergest mammoth into nothing more than bloodstains on the ground within minutes.

    Harsh.

    However, it was like a lover''s gentle caresspared to the third feature.

    The third one was its most powerful feature, and in that feature, the "weapon designer" had done away with all pretenses of wanting to design anything but a full frontal weapon that could take on any and all of his enemies in flurries of furious and unstoppable attacks.

    It was called "Smile".

    "Only the manic and bloodthirsty God of Death would smile at such a stupid form of attack." I couldn''t help but mutter when I understood the full scope of the shield''s third feature.

    The Ancestor merely snickered lightly. However, he remained quiet otherwise.

    He was watching me very intently with a contemtive look on his face.

    "I totally have no idea why this third function works this way. I mean, I understand the logic of having the nanoparticlestch on to whatever touches the shield and then "biting" off chunks of the weapon/body part.

    That''s an excellent feature that works in a simr manner to the second feature. It''s not as devastating as it has a much shorter range, but it is moreplete in its destruction as it rips the enemies apart at the molecr level.

    But why the hell would the shield actually store whatever it had "bitten" off within itself? It doesn''t do anything! It just makes the shield heavier!" Iined. "No, it does do something. It makes the name "Smile" truly appropriate¡­ IF I am a bloodsucking vampire!!"

    "Smile isn''t apleted design. It is merely the first baby step in replicating¡­ well. You know what." The Ancestor smiled.

    ? "Replicating I know what? What do I kn- ¡­ what? You''re trying to replicate Devour??" I shouted in shock.

    "Smart kid. Yes. Our nanotech design had improved by leaps and bounds and we are able to mimic the act of breaking down everything like Devour. It''s not as powerful and incredible as Devour''s red energy, of course.

    But I think this is a good step forward. Still, we met with aplete nk with the second step of synthesizing them into things that we want." The Ancestor sighed as he exined the background of the third feature.. Smile.

 Chapter 177 They Have... Machines?

    ''Not as powerful and incredible'' was a gross understatement of the difference between the Gold Grade Shield and my red energy, of course.

    There was no bloody way a mere nanoparticle gold grade shield could evene close in replicating the red energy, and I wasn''t in the very least shy in vocalizing my opinions.

    "Mimic? It''s like a little five year old boy mimicking the actions of an NBA veteran doing a full Tomahawk 360 degree m dunk!" I snickered at the Ancestor mercilessly.

    "Yes. But imagine what you can do if you have this shield as your cover¡­" The Ancestor let his words trail and smiled enigmatically at me.

    My jaw dropped.

    He was right.

    That shield was my ticket to being able to absorb enemy mechas openly!!

    It was not a strong enough cover for me to be able to absorb white mechas though, much less gold mechas. But with it, I would be able to freely absorb blue mechas and atrge enough numbers, it would still be awesome!

    I could already see it.

    Me carrying a huge tower shield and charging deep into enemy lines, smashing mechas left and right, absorbing tens, hundreds maybe even thousands of mechas!

    And if the Ancestor managed to pull off a debut for a tinum Grade version of the shield¡­

    "Ancestor¡­ You''re a genius!!" I eximed and began my shamelessplete 180 turnaround in my attitude towards him.

    "I know I am." The Ancestor said as a matter of factly and tried to sound as nonchnt. However my sharp ears detected a slight trace smugness in his voice. "I designed it within seven days. No other designer in the Federation could do that.

    "Seven days? Did you design this shield just for me?" I asked him, feeling touched.

    "For you, yes. And for me. And for the Federation. The stronger you are, the stronger the Federation is. You are, after all, one of the Dragons that would help us rise." The Ancestor said frankly.

    I nodded in appreciation of his words and his openness. I preferred people like him who openly dered their desire to make use of me, and made it clear up front.

    To such people, I was more than happy to reciprocate their openness in kind.

    "I will do what I can. But though I may owe you and the Federation many things, I will not sacrifice myself." I said solemnly.

    The Ancestorughed out loudly at me and said nothing.

    At that moment I had no idea just how perfectly he was manipting me.

    He saw exactly how vicious I was to those who killed those I loved, and he knew that as soon as I developed feelings for any of the members of the Federation such as Emma and Bruce, there was absolutely no need for him to even try to make me be loyal to the Federation.

    My ties and my attachment to those people would automatically make those who harm them my enemies, and wouldy waste to them without even a second thought.

    And if ever they had to be sent into the frontlines, then even if I had to kill a million enemy mechas, I would fight, and kill, to keep them safe.

    "Anyway. Use this nanoparticle tech to stay on the defensive AND offensive. We''ll be fine as long as you don''t run out of energy." The Ancestor said. "How long can youst?"

    "Against a thousand blue mecha level attacks? At this point probably a full twenty four hours. Against a hundred white mecha level attacks? Probably less than an hour." I gave a rough estimation.

    "That''s good enough. If all goes well, we will be out of the area within half an hour." The Ancestor said. "Let''s go when you''re ready."

    I spent a few more minutes fiddling with the nanoparticles to get used to them, and when I could control them freely, I took a deep breath and proceeded forward.<novelnext></novelnext>

    We stayed within the cockpit quietly as my sea urchin mecha dove deeper into the Pacific Ocean towards the coordinates given by the Ancestor.

    The minutes rapidly ticked by, and very soon, I could feel my strength returning to its peak.

    I opened my mouth to tell them that I was ready to face whoever and whatever when all of a sudden¡­

    KAAAAAAAAGHHH!! BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!

    Hundreds upon hundreds of small beads struck us with startling power and then exploded with even greater strength!!

    The first fewyers of my white mecha armor instantly disintegrated!

    "Holy smokes!" I shouted in shock.

    "They are here." Bruce Pang said calmly. "This is their standard opening volley. ck Air Beads, highly reactive in salt water."

    "Their standard opening volley can destroy seven freakingyers of white mecha armor??" I shouted incredulously.

    "WHAT? YOU LOST SEVEN LAYERS ALREADY??" Bruce Pang shouted with even greater shock.

    "I damned well di-"

    KAAABOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

    KAAABOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!

    Even more explosions rocked my sea urchin and this time, they cleanly snapped a few of my sharp spikes!

    I gritted my teeth and rebuilt my white mecha armor, quickly reabsorbing all of my spikes and turning into a perfectly smooth and spikeless sphere.

    I''ve lost three percent of my energy within that first ten seconds.

    If things went on at that rate, I would run out of energy in five minutes!

    "Attack." The Ancestor ordered calmly. "Piss them all off and capture their attention. Then release your drones to my control. I will get the treasure and be back within ten minutes."

    "I won''tst more than five minutes at this rate! If I capture all of their attention, I won''tst three minutes!" I shouted at him in panic.

    "You mustst ten minutes. Our lives are in your hands." The Ancestor said calmly and thenpletely ignored me as he focused on his drones.

    "Insanity!" I muttered as I started to unleash my area of effect attack.

    Close to a thousandser cannon barrels protruded out of my sphere and I unleashed five ferocious volleys at full strength while rotating wildly to hit as many of those yet unseen Horse Gavarels as possible.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    Faint and muffled explosions could be heard all around us.

    It was then that a thought finally struck me.

    "Explosions? They have¡­ machines??"

 Chapter 178 One At A Time

    Without hesitation, I spread my resonance out and to my utmost pleasant surprise, I realized that in the distance all around us, we werepletely surrounded by machines of sorts!!

    "Oh my god! These Horse Gavarels have mechas! And they havepletely surrounded us!" I cried out happily.

    Bruce Pang: ¡­ ¡­

    Ancestor: ¡­ ¡­

    Although they understood why I was happy, they still found it difficult topletely digest that a piece of news which would havepletely spelled their doom if they were without me, was actually awesome news which was equivalent to an endlessly hungry fat dude finding out that he was surrounded by thousands of his favorite dessert!

    "I am free to unleash all my power here, right?" I asked them happily.

    "Feel free to absorb and transform into anything you want." The Ancestor nodded. "Just don''t unleash tinum grade explosions."

    "Awesome!" I cried out and immediately spread my red energy out to the maximum.

    "They are Biomechs." I immediately realized as soon as my resonance enveloped the first Horse Gavarelpletely.

    "Impressive. Just ten short years and they have managed to develop their experimental biomechs to such a degree that even allowed for mass production and deployment. We should have fought harder to suppress them in that war." Bruce Pangmented with a sigh.

    "What''s with their strange and¡­ freaky design?" Iined lightly as my resonance continued to envelop more and more Horse Gavarels.

    Their shapes were mostly like seahorses with several critical differences.

    Their tails weren''t curled forward like seahorses, but were spread out backwards like a peacock''s fan-shaped tail.

    Instead of small cute fins at their sides, they had two pairs muscr human arms that ended in at least seven fingers each. Every Horse Gavarel held two massive spears with two hands, one on each side.

    Their snouts weren''t short and stubby like seahorses too, but long and muscr like elephants.

    And finally¡­ they were huge.

    The smallest among them were at least 2.5 meters tall, with thergest going up to 5 meters in size!!

    All of them were half covered with armor which were impressively connected to their brains and became part of their bodies.

    "Hahahahaha!" Iughed out a very cockyughter as my red energy enveloped the final Horse Gavarel. "You dumb horseshits! I have your lives in my hands! With just a single thought, I canpletely wipe all of you out!" I shouted triumphantly.

    They answered with yet another volley of ck Air Beads which they released from their elephant like snouts and which shot towards me with startling speed.

    Kaboooommm!!

    Their attacksnded on me and caused another tenyers of armor to disintegrate.

    "Bastards!" I shouted. "You dare attack your daddy? Die!"

    With a vicious thought, I made my red energy crush each and every Horse Gavarel!

    Pew!

    Kaboooommm!!

    My jaw dropped.

    My red energy¡­ failed to break them down into particles!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    "What the hell? They are resistant to my red energy??" I said,pletely stunned by the shocking development of events.

    I had never, not even for the briefest second, ever considered that such a thing could exist.

    "A counter for my red energy actually exists??" I remember thinking in horror and watching my previously rock solid dream of bing a Mecha Emperor start to be less solid, and the once smooth and clear road towards ultimate power became shrouded in fog.

    "Focus on defense, and let''s capture one biomech." The Ancestor said coolly. "We''ll find out what makes them resistant, and wr can develop a solution."

    As a veteran of thousands of battles and many wars, having ns screwed up within seconds of executing them was something he was not only used to, but also something he was expecting.

    His calm demeanor coolled me down immediately and I started to move towards the nearest biomech.

    "Try and absorb those wrecks." Bruce Pang said as he pointed to several biomechs destroyed by myser barrage earlier.

    I waved my hand towards one and clenched it decisively.

    Crack!

    Whoosh!!

    The wreck disappeared with a poof and immediately a stream of grey particles surged towards me.

    "Their resistancees either from their life energy or their biomech energy. It is not their material." Bruce Pang quickly summarized.

    With another wave of my hands, every single of the hundred or so biomech wreckages disappeared and surged into me, providing a much needed defensive boost.

    Feeling somewhat cheered up that traditional weapons still work against them, I unleashed close to a thousandser cannons this time, and unleashed volley after volley against the damned Horse Gavarels!

    However, after a few hopeful seconds, the much anticipated sound explosions did note.

    "The damned Horse Gavarels somehow found a way to resist myser cannon fire as well?" I eximed with great incredulity. "What exactly are we fighting against? Full blown mutants that can adapt on the spot??"

    "The Horse Gavarels are all rounders." Bruce Pang said grimly. "They attack and defend well, they have good team work, good adaptability and most important of all, good intelligence. They have faced attacks from conventional mechas for hundreds of years. They have learned how to counter most conventional attacks. If you want to clean them up all at one shot, you''ll need to use something that they have never experienced before, like¡­"

    "My red energy." I finished his sentence dryly. "Which coincidentally, they are resistant to. They are insanely strong!"

    "Not necessarily." The Ancestor shook his head lightly. "If the ancient chinese were to give up everytime they faced enemies hiding behind their high walls, then we won''t have the brilliant strategems of Sun Zi."

    "He is right. The thing preventing your red energy from working are the high walls behind which your enemies are hiding. What do you do now?" Bruce Pang added.

    I narrowed my eyes in determination as I understood their point and let the lesson sink into my heart.

    They were absolutely right, of course.

    The damned Horse Gavarels had somehow very luckily found high walls to hide against my red energy.

    But if I can''t take them all down at one shot, what''s preventing me from taking them down one at a time?

    I raised my hand and pointed at one of the smallest Horse Gavarels nearby.

    "Go." I said softly.

    At once, all of my red energy surged towards it from every single direction.

 Chapter 179 Biomech Army

    My red energy is a part of me, and I can control it the way I control my other body parts even though it is in energy form.

    How exactly I am able to control it, I don''t know for certain. All I know is that wherever I will it to go, in whatever manner I want it to go, it goes.

    When I pointed at that poor Horse Gavarel and willed every single of ounce of my red energy to crash into it at maximum velocity with the intention of crushing andpletely obliterating it with extreme prejudice, well¡­

    That was exactly what happened.

    But instead of only obliterating the machine parts of the biomecha as I expected it to, it obliterated the entire Horse Gavarel!

    Metal, flesh, bone¡­ Everything.

    One moment it was there, and another moment it was an underwater cloud of blood, bone dust and metal particles.

    And the shocking thing was¡­ My red energy absorbed everything!

    My jaw dropped as I sensed the vitality of the Horse Gavarel Biomech stream towards me and enter my body at near lightspeed.

    "What the hell¡­" I breathed out in confusion.

    Bruce Pang and the Ancestor were monsters in the battlefield, and one of the reasons that they were monsters was of course because of their monstrous observational abilities.

    Nothing much escapes their notice.

    And the way that particr Horse Gavarel just exploded into bloody dust and then quickly disappeared was something that stuck out like a sore thumb to them both.

    "You can devour life forms too?" Bruce Pang asked me in amazement. However, one look at my stunned face told him clearly that I was as, if not more, shocked as he was.

    It took several seconds before the effects of absorbing the life energy of the 2.5 meter tall Horse Gavarel could be felt. But when it did¡­

    "Power¡­!!" I gasped in wonder!

    Every cell within me felt like they just got upgraded! And without a shred of doubt, I just know that I was able of punching out and dealing at least ten times more damage than before!

    Don''t get me wrong, I was already plenty strong before that due to the enhancements I received from the mechas I devoured.

    But those enhancements merely affected the strength of my skin and my bones. It was like a human suddenly putting on a high tech suit of iron and gaining ess to physical power that he could only previously imagine.

    However, absorbing that Horse Gavarel was likepletely upgrading the core of my physical being.

    My endurance, my vitality and just the sheer life energy that I was giving offpletely rose to a higher level.

    All of my organs and their functions more than tripled in their effective strength, and as a human being, I had officially evolved into a higher life form.

    There was no other way to describe what happened to me.

    And with the sessful devour of the Horse Gavarel, all of the secrets within that race wereid bare before me.

    The memories of that particr Horse Gavarel shed rapidly and randomly in my head. Within a minute, I had an extremely clear picture of that Horse Gavarel''s life.<novelnext></novelnext>

    And in that Horse Gavarel''s life, one ring fact stood heads and shoulders above everything else in its life.

    "Alien technology." I said softly as I held on to one particr image from the Gavarel''s memories.

    It was a massive wreckage that was mostly buried within the ocean bed. The Horse Gavarels had managed to unearth a small pod not far from the wreckage and triggered some sort of inheritance handover that gave them a flood of technological inspirations.

    Those inspirations had led to the rapid development, production and implementation of the biomech enhancement on the entire race using the raw materials they salvaged from thousands of half destroyed mechas and drones.

    However, what caught my attention wasn''t the millions of biomechs that the Horse Gavarels had amassed.

    It was the image of the leader of the Horse Gavarels, a particrly massive beast almost fully covered in ck and menacing mecha armor.

    And glowing a deep shade of red on its chest, was a strikingly familiar mecha core.

    "Is that¡­ Devour? Could there be two Devours?" I asked the Ancestor hesitantly.

    "Another Devour?" The Ancestor''s face fell and grew extremely dark even as the attacks from the thousands of Horse Gavarels continued unabated.

    They seemed content to fire at us from afar for the time being.

    I searched the Horse Gavarel''s memories frantically for more details on their leader, but for all my efforts, I found nothing.

    The Horse Gavarel I devoured was far too low ranking to have many interactions with their leader and as such, it didn''t get to see him in action.

    "I need to devour another one." I finally decided grimly andid my eyes on the biggest and baddest looking Horse Gavarel.

    I pointed at him, and once more, my red energy charged at him with unstoppable power!

    Poof!

    He crumbled into a mass of bloodied flesh as metal particles appeared and surged towards me.

    I frowned deeply at the sight.

    My mecha devour seeded, but I failed to break down the physical body of the Horse Gavarel!

    I willed my red energy to attack the lump of flesh and break it down into absorbable particles, but somehow, nothing happened.

    My red energy floated right over the lump of flesh like a hand waving at nothing.

    "Interesting." The Ancestor merely nodded lightly. "Keep going, and let''s see what you can get."

    "He''s right." I immediately realized. "It''s probably a numbers game. The more I devour, the higher the chances I can somehow trigger that devour of a Horse Gavarel!"

    However, I was also extremely clear on another thing. It was not just a numbers game, it was also a time game.

    "By the way, the Horse Gavarels have more than a million Biomechs in their army. This bunch of Biomechs right here are just one of their Battalions that happen to be stationed in this area." I said to the two of them casually.

 Chapter 180 Demoness

    "I am extremely confused about one thing though. If they have a million biomechs at the ready, why aren''t they attacking us? I mean, based on the ones I devoured, the Biomechs allow them to breathe outside of water and even have the ability to walk rapidly onnd." I asked them as I focused my attention on devouring more and more Horse Gavarels.

    I first focused on two at a time, and upon realizing that I could easily handle two, I went on to three, four and so on until I found that my maximum was around nine at a time.

    Poof poof poof poof poof.

    A constant stream of biomech materials and power sources made their way into me and gave me a solid boost to my strength.

    I was extremely satisfied by what was happening.

    The long range attacks by the Horse Gavarels were nullified by the constant stream of strength I received and barring any new form of attack, I was pretty much able tost against their attacks indefinitely.

    I diverted my attention to the drones which the Ancestor was controlling to check on their progress.

    "WHAT THE HECK?" I turned around and shouted at him. "Why aren''t the drones moving? You realize that we are on a tight schedule here??"

    However, he remained silent andpletely ignored me. He was staring very intently at hismunicator.

    I nced at Bruce Pang, and he too was staring intently at hismunicator.

    "They aremunicating with HQ." I finally realized. And then another epiphany hit me. "About the million Biomechs? They were surprised that the Horse Gavarels had biomechs earlier. They must be beyond stunned to know that over a million had been amassed and withnd based capabilities¡­ Holy smokes. Are the Horse Gavarels preparing an invasion ofnd??"

    And then yet another realization hit me.

    "The oceans arerger than thend masses on earth!! There must be other races and monsters that have gained what the Horse Gavarels gained. Doesn''t this mean that a global war is about to erupt?"

    After a few seconds, the Ancestor finally took a deep breath and sighed.

    "Change of ns. We are not gathering materials anymore. We are to act as an advanced scout on the Horse Gavarels and determine the fullbat readiness of their army and¡­ their intentions." The Ancestor said calmly with only a slight tinge of worry.

    "Intentions? I dare say their intentions are pretty obvious based on their biomech capabilities." I said with equal calmness. "In fact, I just absorbed one that even has flight capability. They have fliers among their number."

    Bruce Pang pressed something on hismunicator and immediately projected a grave looking woman in herte forties.

    "Secretary Wang will remain connected with us as we proceed with our mission." Bruce Pang said heavily. "She has been briefed with your abilities and you are to inform us, and her, of any findings you discover immediately. Secretary, he has discovered that one of their number has flight capabilities."

    "Exin in detail about their flight andnd capabilities as you proceed with your devouring." Secretary Wang ordered with a light voice.<novelnext></novelnext>

    She gave out an aura of sheer dominance, and shepletely expected me to obey her without dy.

    However, for some reason, seeing her strict and unfriendly face made my rebellious streak rear its head and snarl at her angrily.

    "I think words like please and thank you are in order." I said while rolling my eyes at her. I continued to devour the biomechs relentlessly even as a ringing silence that struck us much like thunder enveloped us after my words left my mouth.

    I nced at the two men in my cockpit, and was amused to see a look of shock, disbelief and¡­ joy? sh across their faces for a quick moment.

    "This Wang Demoness had terrorized my big bro and this old man for far too long. I think it''s time I flex my muscles for a little bit to help my big bro out." I thought with a naive sigh. "After all, sis inw had given me lots of delicious roast pork. I need to return the favor."

    "Please and thank you?" Secretary Wang said with a tinklingugh. "Of course. Would you please let me know the details of whatever information you discover? Thank you very much."

    "Of course I will do that if you asked so nicely." I said with slight surprise. The Wang Demoness seemed pretty¡­ undemonic?

    "I only need the information so that I can prepare the country''s armed forces to better fight against the uing invasion that''s sure to happen. The country''s armed forces, as you know, will probably be sacrificing their lives to fight against these monstrous creatures so that your freedom and your way of life can be preserved." The Wang Demoness began.

    "Hmmm." I nodded my head appreciatively.

    "They are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of their own families. Babies, toddlers, kids are being left without their loving presence, families are being split apart because of war. Sons grow up under the care of strangers without even the shadow of their fathers to learn from. Daughters try to bloom bereft of much needed critical guidance from their mothers.

    Aged parents are left in foster care and they will live on knowing that the treasures of their lives that they had given their life''s blood to raise would enter their graves earlier than them.

    Lives are being ced on hold as we mobilize the men and women that would soon die for the sake of the country.

    For the sake of their countrymen.

    For your sake.

    Every bit of information I can get at even a single second earlier would allow us to prepare the men and women better so that less of them would need to die.

    I live every moment of my life in a race against time, so that better preparation could be made, so that more woulde out of the war alive, where their families would wee them with tears of joy that by the grace of God, their beloved can live through yet another war that took the lives of their neighbours and friends.

    That by some miracle, their kids, parents, would be spared the agony of not knowing the loving touch and embrace of their father or mother in theing days.

    I apologize for not thinking to say please and thank you when I asked you to give me all the information you have." The Wang Demoness said.

 Chapter 181 Large Drill

    I consider myself a cold blooded killer. Most killers can kill at the drop of a hat. Me, I can kill before the hat is even touched.

    Maybe it was the extreme ease in which my power allows me to kill my enemies, and the extremely detached manner in which I could kill them, but killing people who wanted to harm me had quickly became something that was easy for me to do.

    However, I am only a cold blooded killer against those I consider evil people.

    I am mostly kind to strangers, and I am generally more inclined to do good than bad.

    Hmmm?

    Yes, I would help an old woman cross the road. And yes, even if it took me out of my way.

    Having seen my father murdered before my very eyes, and experiencing first hand what it felt like living without parents, I was extremely sympathetic of the little kids who had to suffer as I did.

    That Demoness Wang''s words¡­

    They hit home.

    What a bitch.

    BA-DUMP.

    My heart roiled with stirred emotion and the red mecha core even got triggered once due to how strongly I felt about her words!

    "Ah. Yes. Yes. I will definitely give you everything you asked for." I said hoarsely to her and then went on to focuspletely on devouring the rest of the biomechs as fast as I could!

    I could not wait for the mission to be done and to be gone from that Demoness and her damned freaking ability to make me feel guilty.

    Thankfully, she did not continue with her tirade, and was merely content to nod at me in acknowledgement of my utter defeat.

    Bruce Pang promptly gave me a strange, small and round device the size of a coin that hummed lightly. "Put this on your temple."

    I did as he was told, and then¡­ Click.

    The device attached itself to me and forcefully injected some nanoparticles into my head.

    "You can transmit highlyplex information directly to the Secretary through this device. You just need to visualize them in detail and send those thoughts towards the glow that should have appeared in your mind." Bruce Pang exined.

    I visualized the full design on the flight capable biomech I had devoured as sent it into the glow.

    Whoosh.

    The device hummed lightly and immediately, and holographic rendering of the device I absorbed appeared next to the Secretary.

    It was exactly as I had thought.

    I nodded and and went on to send all the information I had about the Horse Gavarels, including all of their biological data.

    For the next few minutes, a deep and lingering silence hung around us as I zed ahead deep into Horse Gavarel territory, leaving a trail of bloody mess behind us.

    Despite the silence though, my heart was slowly uplifted by the quality and the quantity of mechas I was absorbing.

    Even though there were no white mechas among their number, the sheer number of mechas I absorbed more than made up for their absence!<novelnext></novelnext>

    With the blueprints I had received from the Ancestor, I was able to easily incorporate the strongest armor design into the existing white mecha blueprint I already have. And of course, I easily incorporated thetest nanotechnology armor I received from the Ancestor as well.

    All in all, the offensive power and defensive strength I was capable of bringing forth at that moment was definitely among the top tier of white mechas!

    And to cap it all off, I was also able to change my shape at will.

    To say that I was a Versatile Nuclear Cannon would still be a gross understatement.

    After that Demoness Wang''s words, I was feeling pretty sucky, and I really, really ached for a good, glorious fight.

    There must be a God somewhere listening in on the deepest corners of my heart, because at that moment, my resonance picked up a powerhouse of a Biomech unlike anything I had ever seen before.

    The power level it was emitting was actually close to that of the Mecha Disciples of the Blood Moon!

    Behind him were at least another thousand biomechs, and they were all of much higher quality than those which I had nearly finished absorbing.

    I did not hesitate.

    I immediately directed all of my red energy and sent them hurtling towards that powerhouse with extreme speed and an overwhelming sense of greed.

    In that instant, I suddenly remembered the technique I used to forcibly devour my first white mecha.

    "Drills!" My eyes widened as I cursed myself for being a dumbass goldfish. How could I forget such an important thing!!

    I changed the shape of my red energy into thousands of spinning drills in a blink of an eye.

    If I could devour that damned biomech¡­

    WHAM!!!

    My red energy drills smashed into that big fat biomech with the strength of a thousand sledgehammers.

    "Breakthrough, damn it!" I shouted with gritted teeth and a deep frown of concentration as I willed my red energy drills to spin faster and push harder against the biomech powerhouse''s rock hard resistance.

    "DAMN IT ALL!!" I howled with frustration as I realized that my red energy failed to breakthrough!

    "Try again. This time give it more speed and weight." The Ancestor ordered calmly.

    "Right." I swung my hand to the right and made my red energy swing away far into the distance.

    The biomech recovered from the shock of being smashed into by a strange and invisible energy, and instantly ordered an all out charge against me!

    He wanted to engage in closebat.

    "No, not closebat." I realized as I took note of how the biomechs were charging at me with no weapons gripped in their four hands. "He wanted to surround me with an unbreakableyer of biomechs and forcibly capture me that way!"

    "Not if I devour you first." I sneered with determination and swung my hand back to point at that powerhouse.

    My red energy came hurtling at him once more, with greater speed and greater power, in the form of a single,rge drill.

 Chapter 182 2 Things

    At the same time, I created a rapidly spinning ring of des around me to destroy the biomechs that were trying to physically surround and capture me.

    RIPPPP!! SHREDDDD!!

    Biomech after biomech started losing bits and pieces of their body parts.

    Even though those parts were so close to me, I could not spare a single iota of energy to break them down to absorb them.

    My main focus was the biomech powerhouse that was still very miraculously resisting my massive red energy drill!

    "Whatever power the Horse Gavarels have to resist my red energy, I must have it." I muttered to myself. "I must devour it and let my red energy gain immunity against it!"

    It was, of course, the right way and the only way to deal with Darkblood Energy. But I had no idea that I had instinctively stumbled upon the solution that many researchers were already grappling with for so long.

    Although the Horse Gavarels were a ferocious bunch, they had never fought against one such as me who had metal de tornadoes at their beck and call.

    Shrieks of agony and fear started to sound from the second bunch of what was supposed to be stronger and more Elite Gavarels.

    In an important engagement against a visibly simr enemy, most armies could sustain over thirty to fifty percent losses before routing.

    In an even battle against an enemy that was also visibly weakening as quickly as they were, they probably couldst up to seventy five percent.

    The numbers vary wildly depending on the quality of the soldiers, of course. An excellently trained and brainwashed army could even fight to thest man if themander is crazy enough to will it so.

    However, against an unknown enemy that was decimating them with great ease, most armies would notst longer than sustaining fifteen percent losses before fear would ovee them.

    And by the looks and sound of it, the second Gavarel army was about to break.

    Unlike the first Gavarel army who had the false impression of safety due to being physically far away from me and each other, these bunch of Gavarels could see my de tornado ripping theirrades apart at close range, and their gruesome deaths worked wonders to undo the tough training they had been through, and to send them plunging into the deep depths of horror.

    After another minute of butchery, both things I had been aiming to achieve suddenly happened within seconds of each other.

    With one fearsome wave of panicked screaming, the second Gavarel Army finally broke formation and fled in all directions!

    And a second after that, soundlessly, theirmander finally sumbed to my red energy drill and exploded in a burst of blood and metal parts.

    Poof!!

    "YEAHHHH!!!" I screamed out victoriously and immediately spread both my hands wide as I willed my red energy to disperse and to devour every single biomech up.

    At that moment, right when I thought I was at the peak of my tion, my red energy pierced through the bits of flesh which was what remained of the Horse Gavarel Commander, and devoured it as well!

    "HOLYYYYYYYY SMOKEEESSSS!!!" I screamed in an ecstacy I never knew I was capable of feeling.

    I truly felt like I was a poor peasant winning a billion dor lotto!!

    After every victorious battle, the looting is always the best and most looked forward part.

    And it was the same for me in that case.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I was inplete and utter bliss as the streams of high grade biomech particles from the downed elite soldiers and flesh from theirmander surged towards me from all directions and enhanced my already incredibly powerful self.

    Several unique biomech designs presented themselves to me, including themander''s very unique and much more powerful design which was equivalent to a standard medium white mecha from the Chinese Federation.

    I wasted no time to send those designs to the Demoness, and then closed my eyes to make sense of the images that was already starting to sh in my mind.

    Like the previous Gavarel I absorbed, the images were shes of memories belonging to themander.

    I ignored his personal memories and focused solely on their race, politics, economic and military details.

    What I discovered astounded me to my core.

    That the Horse Gavarels were preparing an invasion on thend dwellers was not a surprise for me.

    However, the sheer scope and preparation of the invasion that were happening was something that truly blew my mind away.

    Apparently, the Horse Gavarels were only one out of nearly a thousand ocean dwelling races that had evolved rapidly and were in a coalition to invade the entire world!

    No, not invade¡­

    To CONSUME the entire world!

    The deep ocean civilisation had very unknowingly developed at an explosive rate,pletely skipping decades of intellectual, cultural and technological gestation to reach a startling level of maturity that resulted in hundreds of advanced tech being implemented in their ever growing armies.

    I did not say a single word, and merely transmitted all the information I got from themander Gavarel into the transmitter.

    Within seconds, I saw Secretary Wang''s face pale very visibly.

    The information transmitter delivered the information directly to the Secretary and bypassed both Bruce Pang and the Ancestor. However, Secretary Wang''s natural reaction did not escape their notice at all.

    Their faces turned grim.

    If the information that I got from themander''s memories was serious enough to make even the Demoness turn deathly white in fear, then¡­

    "I think we''re pretty much screwed this time." Bruce Pang couldn''t help but mutter. He then turned to look at me earnestly.

    The Ancestor did so as well.

    I sighed and told them the gist of what I saw.

    "They say in every danger lies an awesome opportunity." The Ancestor said sagely, albeit in a slightly trembling voice.

    "Awesome opportunity?" I asked him carefully.

    "Indeed. If the tech is as advanced as you say, then we must achieve two things here in our mission." The Ancestor said.

 Chapter 183 King Of The Ocean

    "What two things?" I immediately asked.

    "One is of course for you to steal those tech and give us the blueprints." The Ancestor said.

    I nodded.

    I expected as much.

    "The second thing is¡­ to destroy their military bases and mechas as much as we can!" The Ancestor said with a gleam of excitement in his eyes.

    Of course, he actually meant "as much as YOU can" instead of we, since I would be the one doing all of the heavy lifting.

    With my stupidly overpowered ability to destroy machines almost at will, I was a walking disaster for all military bases not protected by Darkblook Energy.

    What''s Darkblood Energy?

    Ah yes, I apologize for not borating on it before. I forgot that it was ssified information for a very long time.

    Darkblood Energy is the name we gave to the alien energy that the Experimental Mecha Core "Clone" uses.

    Hmmmm?

    You do not know about the existence of Clone?

    Well now you do.

    This part of the story is about Clone and the massive twists and turns that we all had to experience in our attempt to get it.

    And yes, Clone was the Mecha Core that powered the leader of the Horse Gavarels.

    Anyway, that''s a story forter.

    At that moment, the three of us made the decision that would cause massive shockwaves to reverberate through the entire sea dwellingmunity of civilisations.

    "Let''s do it." I said with a nod.

    "If we are to do it, then we have to do it properly." Bruce Pang said with a sigh and took out a little mecha keychain out of nowhere, and looked at the Ancestor.

    The Ancestor nodded.

    I looked at that keychain in mild surprise.

    I had not detected it earlier, but at that moment, I sensed a monstrous amount of resonance with it!

    "Could it be¡­" I gaped at it in wonder.

    "Nanoparticles are extremely hard to manipte." The Ancestor grunted. "But its applications are endless."

    He pointed to Bruce Pang that was already covered by nanoparticles to create a powerful body suit to resist the water pressure outside.

    "Creating a mecha at will like you is still very far from our reach. But creating a rtively powerful suit of armor isn''t too difficult. That, and the fact that Chrono can appear anywhere almost instantly, makes Bruce Pang one of the deadliest living beings on the face of this earth." The Ancestor nced out the window and then added. " Let him out. Chronos is here."

    I was startled.

    Chronos had already arrived?

    "All the way from the academy?" I couldn''t help but blurt out a question.

    "Where else?" The Ancestor grunted in annoyance and gestured for me to quickly let Bruce out.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I quickly created a barrier in between Bruce and us, and then dissolved the covering around him.

    Within seconds, he was in Chronos, and the title King of the Ocean, which was previously me, shifted to him.

    Because as powerful as I was at that moment, I was but a cute little boy in the face of a seasoned warrior.

    With Chronos, Bruce Pang was beyond deadly.

    I didn''t know if he was showing off or not, but I waspletely impressed out of my mind in the next few hours.

    Of course, at that moment, I had no idea that he was that good yet, and being the cocky little boy that I was¡­

    "Ha! Big bro! That''s a cool looking mecha you got there. Is it any good?" I snickered loudly through my speakers.

    "Is it any good? I am not one to boast with words, little brother. Why don''t you sit back, rx and open your mouth in awe as I clean up all our enemies for us?" Bruce Pang instantly shot back at me.

    "Yeah? Why don''t we have a littlepetition then to see who can do more damage to the Horse Gavarels in the next say¡­ three hours?" I very foolishly challenged him with great confidence.

    "Let''s do that." Bruce Pang said very serenely. "As an elder brother, I shall give you a headstart and count all the damage you''ve dealt so far into ourpetition."

    "All the damage so far? That''s two thousand biomechs and a Captain! You are looking down on me, Big Bro. You will regret it! Let''s go!" I frowned lightly and then fired my undersea thrusters to explode forward to charge deeper into the territory of the Horse Gavarels.

    Chronos kept pace next to me very effortlessly.

    We travelled quietly for the next minute or so as we quickly ate up the miles in what was probably an empty area between Horse Gavarel bases.

    After a while, the Ancestor finally spoke up.

    "We''ve reached the first major Gavarel Military Base. Be careful you two."

    I nced at him in surprise.

    I had no idea how he detected the presence of the base when all my advanced radar and resonance were showing nothing.

    But he was right, because mere secondster, I detected hundreds of long range attacks converging on our position from all around us.

    We had passed by Horse Gavarel fixed weapons tforms without me detecting anything!

    An uneasy premonition appeared in my heart at that moment.

    "Just how many unknown tech do the Horse Gavarels have implemented?" I thought glumly as I created hundreds of separateser guns to fire at the explosive projectiles that would soon hit us.

    However, before myser guns could even finish forming, the hundreds of attacks from all around us suddenly exploded!

    "I will be making my move first, little brother. Watch and learn." Bruce Pang said loudly just before he disappeared from my side.

    "Ha! You watch and learn!!" I shouted back loudly. I quickly finished creating my hundred powerfulser guns, and set their firing mode to "search and destroy".

    Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

    Muffled explosions started to ring out endlessly everywhere.

    I frowned as I doubled checked on my hundredser guns.

    They had not fired a single shot!

 Chapter 184 Stingy Old Bastard

    Chronos was, putting it grossly understatedly, very fast.

    It had time dtion reactors in ce that allowed it to move at speeds that the human mind could not fathom.

    Of course, the time dtors were extremely crude at that stage, and the top speed which Chronos was able to achieve was barely mach 100.

    But even that was mind blowingly fast then.

    Bruce Pang didn''t even bother to fire anything.

    It was much faster for him to physically cut down all the projectiles¡­ AND then the incorrigibles that fired them in the first ce.

    I merely opened my mouth in shock and gaped at the explosions that were starting to ring out EVERYWHERE.

    "Close your damn mouth and start absorbing the wreckages, at least." The Ancestor said grumpily.

    I snapped my mouth shut and sent my red energy to quickly break down all avable exploded biomechs and absorb them.

    Wherever possible, I aimed at the medium to small sized machine or biomech which Bruce Pang missed.

    Correction, not missed.

    Which he couldn''t be bothered to deal with.

    Within an incredible minute, the first major Horse Gavarel Military base waspletely destroyed!

    "What the hell." I couldn''t help but mutter. "Why is the Chinese Federation still a second rate power if Chronos is so damn powerful?"

    "Chronos is powerful." The Ancestor agreed as he gestured for me to proceed and go on to the next military base. "But its power was a very recent upgrade. It wasn''t this powerfulst week.

    Plus even at this strength, Chronos is already the second or third most powerful mecha in the Blood Moon. The Americans and the Europeana are both able to field such behemoth powerhouses in the tens, if not hundreds. Plus they have their stupidly overpowered Golden Mechas. Not even ten Chronoses could handle even a single one of their Golden Mechas."

    I blinked slowly as I tried to digest his words.

    My eyes roamed the utterly destroyed undersea military base.

    Massive ck domed walls which once housed thousands of powerful defensive cannons now sported thousands of holes where those defensive cannons once existed.

    Huge Captain level Biomechs were reduced to mere chunks of bloody flesh and thousands upon thousands of normal biomechs dotted the massive underseaplex everywhere.

    The glorious result of one minute of frenzied outburst from Chronos.

    Just one.

    Whoosh.

    A massive wave mmed into me as Chronos came to match my speed and cruise next to me.

    "The time dtors are working very well." Bruce Pang reported to the Ancestor. "But the energy drain is horrendous."

    "That is as I had predicted. How much power do you have left after that one minute outburst? Sixty percent?" The Ancestor asked.

    "Sixty? Ha! I wish. I have just a hair under forty five percent power left. I can do what I just did one or two more times before I ampletely out of energy." Bruce Pang barked out ruefully. "The trip here probably took slightly under a minute. So that''s two full bursts for 55% power."

    "Forty five?? sted Jackrabbits." The Ancestor cursed.

    "Destroying a major base in one minute utilizing only twenty five percent power sounds like an extremely¡­"

    "Bad deal." The Ancestor grumbled rather forlornly. "The major base is not worth the value of a full quarter of a white mecha core. I can easily achieve the same result with half the cost using an army of blue mechas. It has terrible energy efficiency."

    "That''s true. I probably can destroy the entire base and not use up a single ounce of energy. In fact, I will even profit from it." I said very loudly with a wide grin to rub salt into Bruce Pang''s already salty mood.

    The Ancestor red at me for a moment. And then a strange look suddenly appeared on his face.

    "What? I don''t like that look on your face." I immediately said and shrank back defensively.

    "You are able to manifest small weapons tforms outside and separate from your body, right? What about energy source? Can you manifest a white mecha core or¡­ charge up a white mecha core?" The Ancestor asked me hopefully.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "What?! You n to use me as a charging station for your damn Blood Moon Mechas? No bloody wa-"

    At that moment, the Ancestor took out a data device.

    I immediately snapped my mouth shut.

    "Could it contain tinum Grade designs?" I thought to myself as I stared at it greedily.

    "I will give you one tinum design for every twenty five missions you serve as a portable charger for all the mechas fielded." The Ancestor said seriously.

    "Twenty five? You think my energy is free and renewable? Bah! One tinum design for EVERY mission! Take it or leave it!" I shouted at him eagerly.

    "Twenty five." The Ancestor shook his head.

    "Two! And that''s final!" I shouted at him.

    "Twenty five."

    "Fine, three and that''s my final offer!" I red at him indignantly like a hungry man being forced to pay using his kidney just for a bite of fried chicken.

    "Twenty five."

    "You disgusting old man!" I howled in desperation. "Four! Any more than four and I would rather live the rest of my very long life without tinum designs from you!"

    "Twenty five."

    "WHAT?! Go lower damn it!" I shouted with disbelief.

    Can you believe that guy? He refused to budge from his opening price!

    But of course, that''s the correct way to negotiate with an obviously greedy little boy like me.

    "You are unbelievable! Six!"

    "Scrooge! Scrooogee!!! Seven!!"

    "Oh my god. I am going to vomit blood soon. Eight!"

    "What the hell??? Fine! The deal is off!!"

    ¡­

    "Nine!!!"

    "Ten!!! ¡­"

    After another minute of me being bullied andpletely taken advantage of, we agreed on¡­

    Twenty five.

    "I demand payment in advance!" I shouted angrily at the stingy old man and stretched out my hand at him.

    The old man merely smiled at me serenely and shook his head.

    I was stunned.

    "YOU STINGY OLD BASTAAARDDD!!!" I shouted with all of my pissed off heart!!

    In the end?

    What end?

    I got my tinum design only after I finished twenty five missions of course!

    Stingy old bastard.

 Chapter 185 Combining Cores

    The major military base we destroyed was extremely delicious.

    Yes, for me it was like going to apletely brand new country and being served meals like a VVIP.

    The base was probably a supply depot for many minor bases and a regiment or so Horse Gavarel Elites (which was sadly not on site).

    It contained a mind blowing amount of machinery and armament which Bruce Pang and I had very efficiently destroyed.

    I was able to easily break them all down and absorb them like a ravenous wolf.

    New biomech designs and even curiously advanced technology started to appear in my mind. I packed them all up without hesitation and sent them to the Demoness.

    All, except two crucial bits of information and technology that pointed to the existence of the Darkblood Energy, of course.

    The first technology which I withheld from the Demoness was a tiny device found in their factory which was able to channel Darkblood Energy in very limited amounts into their biomech raw material make up.

    It was a highly advanced technology catering to the maniption of Darkblood Energy which was definitely beyond the ability of the Horse Gavarels to create.

    And that tech rtes to the information which I withheld from the Demoness.

    There was no apparent purpose for the Darkblood Energy which the Biomechs contained.

    And that meant only one thing.

    Whoever was working behind the scenes, knew about the power of Devour, and was acting to resist it.

    "If they know about the true power of devour, then they would probably be searching high and low for it. They would have infiltrated countless organizations through third party organizations and they would be listening for clues about its existence." I thought to myself as I analyzed the situation.

    "That means the show I put up during the Grand Melee, even though it could be exined by the existence of other tech, would definitely serve as a clue for whoever was looking specifically for Devour."

    My heart grew cold and my expression turned rather grim when I realized that point.

    My cover could very well be blown already.

    And if that''s the case, the first target of the Horse Gavarels and the other Ocean Civilisations would be¡­ The Chinese Federation.

    And once they get their hands on Devour, then it would be the rest of the world.

    The squabble between the Americans, Europeans, Chinese and Russians was nothing more than kids fighting over crumbs.

    There was an alien mind that was probably eyeing the entire world as its prize, and that alien mind had been working very quietly behind the scenes for a very long time.

    The civilisations of the Oceans had been prepped and were about to strike.

    And when they do, humanity would be taken byplete surprise.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The only question for me was¡­

    "Do I stand and fight? As the owner of Devour, I would be sitting on the hot seat. Or run and try to survive?" I thought seriously.

    But deep in my heart, I already knew the answer.

    There was no way I was leaving Emma and the others to die.

    I took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

    And then I sent the information to the Demoness.

    The Demoness was an excellent reader of people. She instinctively knew how all the different types of people think and what their actions meant.

    As soon as she saw the dyed information she received from me, she knew what had gone through my mind mere seconds before.

    Her eyes flicked towards me for a few brief seconds as she re-evaluated me and took into consideration what my decision meant for the fate of the Federation in light of the crushing new information she just received.

    She nodded once in acknowledgement, and then continued to work and digest the information and blueprints I sent over with her team.

    "Ancestor, was that a nod of approval from the Demoness I just saw?" Bruce Pang''s voice rang out in a whisper in our cabin. "I can''t see clearly from here, I must be seeing things. Maybe my head is feeling faint from the exertion of energy earlier. It''s impossible for the Demoness to approve of anything."

    "It was definitely a nod of approval. For what though, I have no idea. It must be for something really precious. Maybe the brat found a map that leads to an undersea gold mine. No, she has more than enough gold from the Wang family. Maybe it was a map to an undersea diamond mine." The Ancestor whispered loudly back to Bruce Pang.

    The microphone in my cockpit was, of course, working perfectly.

    The Demoness heard everything clearly.

    "A diamond mine? That sounds really precious. And useless. I don''t think the Demoness would be in the mood for diamonds. Maybe it was a map to an unguarded mecha storage containing a thousand white mechas and a couple of gold mechas." Bruce Pang whispered loudly and thoughtfully.

    "A couple of gold mechas to earn my nod of approval? What do you take me for, a generous bitch nodding at every little passing cat on the street? It is for confirming the existence of another experimental mecha core¡­ That¡­ and the alien that is actively manipting the Horse Gavarels and other deep ocean races." The Demoness said sweetly to the two dumbass blokes.

    "Justin confirmed the existence of another Devour?" Bruce Pang snapped at the Demoness seriously.

    "No, not Devour. He just sent over a device that could manipte that experimental core''s energy, and it had no devouring properties. However, if I am not reading its energy signatures wrongly¡­ It is vastly simr to Devour''s mecha manifestation signatures, and at vastly higher amounts." The Demoness said heavily.

    I was stunned by her words, of course. She had analyzed my red energy signature to such an extent, and was able to use it to find a simrity with the second experimental mecha core?

    "And manifestation energy signatures? What the hell does that mean? The second experimental mecha core can manifest things as well, and at much higher numbers? Isn''t that¡­"

    "Cloning." The Ancestor said with great excitement.

    "If we are able tobine Devour and Cloning¡­" Bruce Pang said thoughtfully and equally excitedly.

 Chapter 186 Chronos!

    My mind whirred at high speeds at Bruce Pang''s words.

    "If I can devour a golden mecha, manifest one and then clone it endlessly¡­"

    "Let''s call this experimental mecha core "Clone." Demoness Wang said. "And this clone is resistant to Justin''s Devour. So that means our only method of destroying the current wielder is by traditional means. We need to fight through all of its armies and clones to get to the wielder."

    At that, the Demoness turned to look at the Ancestor straight into his eyes.

    The Ancestor merely nodded.

    "I will make my move if these two punks fail to breakthrough. One has Devour, an experimental that is no less, if not more powerful than clone. And the other is Bruce Freaking Pang. They probably don''t need me."

    "They probably don''t. But it doesn''t hurt to prepare for the worst case scenario. As you know, you''re not young anymore and you need time to prepare." The Demoness said rather gently.

    "Ha! Is that concern I sense from you?" The Ancestor barked out augh.

    "Of course it is concern." The Demoness said sweetly and caused the Ancestor to flinch slightly.

    He had learnt to look beyond the sweetness of the Demoness'' demeanor and expect a ded verbal outburst.

    "It''s be really sad for me if you go to battle without ample preparation and die halfway through the battle. The enemy will retain its control over Clone AND gain control over Devour AND your dead body which contains a host of national treasures. My heart can''t bear the loss of so many valuable¡­ things!" The Demoness said with an innocent smile.

    Bruce Pang frowned.

    Although he was d his name had been left out of her words, he was also feeling indignant that he wasn''t important enough to be mentioned by her!

    It was aplicated feeling.

    "Anyway. The parameters of your mission are hereby expanded. By all means and at all costs¡­ Capture the experimental mecha core ''Clone''. Acknowledge." The Demoness said.

    "Acknowledged." Bruce Pang replied.

    The cockpit then fell into a calm silence for the next few minutes as I continued to absorb the entire military base without ceasing.

    As the final bit of energy returned to me, I could not help but let out a satisfied sigh.

    "That was good. I think very soon, I would be able to manifest a mecha that is at the very peak of the white mecha power scale. I just need a few days to quietly draw out technological principles andbine them into the current white mecha design I have." I said with a confident tone.

    Bruce Pang merely snickered and said nothing.

    "If you can defeat Bruce Pang in Chronos BEFORE you devour Deathscythe, I will give you all of my tinum Designs for free." The Ancestor said seriously.

    "Ha! You''re the one who said it! Don''t bail out when I actually defeat him!" I shouted at the old man excitedly.

    "I don''t "bail out" of my words." The Ancestor said serenely.

    "Alright! Let''s go and find the next major military base then! I will absorb everything the Gavarels has to offer and then smack my big bro senseless in a glorious battle!" Iughed and powered my mecha explosively forward.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Bruce Pang kept pace easily and together, we ventured ever deeper into the ocean.

    "There." The Ancestor pointed somewhere to my right. "Proceed that way for five kilometers. Prepare for battle."

    I obeyed and did as he was told. At the same time, I also cast my resonance out on him once more, slowly and carefully.

    "Nothing? He has no gadgets on him? What on earth is he using to detect the enemy at such great distances?" I wondered privately.

    "Thepetition is still on, little brother. I think the score is roughly even now. You need to unleash all your strength if you want to at least make me sweat for my victory." Bruce Pang said easily.

    "Or I can just sit back, rx and watch you finish all your energy first and then clean up the rest of the battlefields once you''re an unmoving, energyless chunk of metal." I retorted back with a grin.

    "Hahaha! I was just trying out the new time dtors just now. I have far less energy consuming methods of mass destruction at hand if the enemy is only at this standard." Bruce Pang said. "Don''t say that I didn''t warn you!"

    "Okay. In that case¡­ See ya!" I shouted before manifesting ten massive thrusters behind me and firing them at full power!

    Boom!!!

    I shot forward with exhrating speed and left Chronos far behind!

    Or so, I thought.

    "Haha! Sneaky little bastard! But good! Let''s go!" Bruce Pang shouted with glee as he appeared next to me a secondter, before shooting ahead of me with greater speed than I could ever imagine possible!

    "Chronos is the fastest mecha in the Federation, with or without time dtors." The Ancestor chuckled at me.

    "Not for long." I scowled and unleashed even more thrusters. I did not hold back, and somehow fitted a hundred more thrusters connected to an eight-armed star shaped tform behind me!

    KABOOOM!!!!!

    Once again, I leapt forward at an insane speed and quickly ate up the miles thaty ahead between the military base and me.

    I reached the base after thirty seconds which felt like an eternity!

    And as soon as I got there, I was once again astounded by Chronos and my big bro''s stupidly high efficiency.

    "What the hell? Did he really not use his time dtors?" I shouted loudly at the Ancestor with my eyes opened wide with shock.

    "Of course not. You should be able to measure his energy level more urately than me. It''s holding steady at forty two percent." The Ancestor smiled smugly at me.

    "Then how the hell did he manage to do so much damage in such a short amount of time?!" I shouted again in disbelief.

    The Ancestor merely smiled at me mysteriously.

 Chapter 187 Chronos And Me

    The second Horse Gavarel military base was not weaker than the first in the slightest.

    The massive dome that surrounded it was equally massive and foreboding looking, and the weapons tforms all over it was probably greater in number.

    And the bad thing was, or rather, good thing, depending on how you look at it, unlike the first base, all of its soldiers were present!

    As soon as I reached the base, I picked up the resonance of at least two hundred thousand biomechs!

    AND thirty five Captain grade biomechs!

    AND five which were at an even higher grade!!

    But impressively, I also noticed that at least ten thousand of the biomechs nearest to us were already in ruins.

    It took Bruce freaking Pang thirty freaking seconds to destroy ten thousand biomechs?

    Doesn''t that mean that he could single handedly destroy the entire base with all of its upants in ten short minutes?

    Ridiculous!!

    I was about to open my mouth toin to the Ancestor when my resonance told me something incredible.

    Of the two hundred thousand biomechs in that particr base, a full one hundred thousand of them were¡­ unprotected by Darkblood Energy.

    I needed no second invitation.

    Poof! Poof! Poof!

    "WHAT THE HELL?" Bruce Pang bellowed in shock as the battalion of biomechs he was massacring suddenly disappeared around him.

    "Heh heh heh." I snickered triumphantly and unleashed a thousandser gun tforms all around me and began to unleashplete hell upon the remaining biomechs.

    I had very solidly taken the lead once more!

    Both of us began to shamelessly kill the remaining Horse Gavarels at a clip that could only be described as astronomically catastrophic.

    But the Horse Gavarels were not without their own high level fighters.

    Within seconds, the fearsome auras of five biomechs that were above normal white mechas shot out from the rear of the half ruined base towards me while thirty five normal white mecha grade biomechs converged around Bruce Pang.

    It was a standard strategy when fighting against two enemies of seemingly different strengths.

    Send out a bunch of weaker fighters to distract the stronger enemy while killing the weaker enemy with your full strength.

    Then while the stronger enemy was distracted by your weak fighters, take him by surprise and kill him.

    "Good strategy! The only problem is¡­ you picked the wrong weaker enemy!" I shouted gleefully as I unleashed powerful drones of all shapes and sizes to impede the advance of the five beyond white mecha biomechs.

    At the same time, I also unleashed one hundred exceedingly powerful gold grade rifles.

    Each of them were nowhere as strong as the incredible tinum grade rifle I made earlier in the experiment. But together, they could give that rifle a run for its money in terms of sheer destructive impact.

    As soon as the five biomechs appeared, all of my rifles took aim at their weak points.

    The five biomechs were asrge as the strongest white mechas at over a hundred meters tall.

    They all had uniform ck armor, and had fearsome patterns engraved on them which gave out a disheartening feeling to all thatid eyes on them.

    All carried the usual Horse Gavarel weapon of twin spears, each grasped by two hands on their left and right.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The only difference was that each of the ten spears carried by the five Horse Gavarel leaders were exceedingly dangerous looking.

    A strange warp of sorts covered their des, and I had the distinct feeling that if those spears were tond direct hits on my strongest armor, they would be able to pierce it with ease.

    "I won''t let you get close enough to use them." I thought resolutely. "I will cut you all down before you get to melee rangr!!"

    B-b-b-ooooom!!!!

    All of my rifles fired at almost the same time and smashed into the five biomechs with exhrating power.

    KABOOOOM!!!!!

    "Holy smokes! What are those biomechs made of??" I could not help but shout when the five biomechs burst out of the massive explosion almostpletely unharmed.

    A strange protective field that was still burning slightly shimmered around them.

    "If you can resist explosives so easily, then let''s see if you can deal with nanoparticles as well." I said determinedly.

    With a thought, I changed all my rifles into the strongest particles I could create and sent them surging towards the five mechas with the intention of encasing thempletely in imprable covering.

    "If I can''t destroy them, then maybe I can capture them instead!" I thought.

    Within a split second, all five biomechs were covered by a thickyer of powerful mecha armor!

    Booom! Boom!! Booom!! Booom! Boooommm!!

    Loud sounds of powerful struggles could be heard from within the armor that covered the five mechas.

    I narrowed my eyes and clenched my fist.

    Crack!!!!

    All of the armor around them suddenly copsed upon them and sunk into every single nook and cranny.

    I sent all of the nanoparticles deep into the biomechs and then with a single vicious thought, I turned them into des and severed everything they could sever.

    Tendons. Wires. Blood vessels. Connectors. Muscle fibres. Everything.

    Within seconds, all movements ceased from the five Horse Gavarels.

    Poof.

    With their deaths, somehow the Darkblood Energy protecting them dissipated and I was able to absorb them with ease!!

    "Yes!!" I exulted as I felt the serious firepower of the five beyond white mecha biomechs fill me up.

    Without a doubt, I was one of the strongest white mechas in existence!

    I turned to look at Bruce Pang, fully expecting him to still be in the heat of battle against the thirty five biomechs.

    But of course he wasn''t.

    He had killed them very, very quickly and had long gone to the rest of the base to unleashplete hell upon them.

    "Too bloody fast!" I muttered as I quickly manifested as manyser guns as I could and started firing at the biomechs just outside the range of Chronos.

    The battle (between Chronos and me) was on.

 Chapter 188 Be A Man. Just Do It.

    The thing about the biomechs was that although the power output they were capable of bringing to bear could bepared to blue or white mechas, that power output was due to a uniquebination of flesh and machine.

    And so even though I had absorbed the remains of five beyond white mecha grade biomechs, effectively though, I had only absorbed five white mechas'' worth of machinery.

    Maybe even less than that.

    And that made the thirty five white mecha grade biomech remains I was absorbing merely somewhere along the lines of overpowered blue mechas.

    Not that I wasining.

    It was, by all and any standard, a sumptuous feast beyond all sumptuous feasts.

    I was just rifying that the overall strength I had absorbed at that point in time was probably around seven white mechas'' worth, maybe eight.

    And rifying that point is extremely crucial to understand the next battle which I am about to describe.

    With the death of their forty exalted leaders, the second base was quickly annihted by both thebined might of both Chronos and...

    Hmmm.

    Let''s call my Mecha Form at that moment ck Prince.

    I was hardly a King back then, much less an Emperor.

    A Prince was as high a nobility status as I could im to be then.

    Hmm? Nobility level exnation?

    Sure, why not.

    Nobility levels are not formal, mind you.

    But among us mecha pilots, blue mechas and white mechas are far too vague, and could refer to vastly different mecha power outputs.

    Thus we all have our own informal method of ssification.

    Barons are the lowest, and refer to cannon fodder blue mechas.

    Viscounts, or Vissies, are standard blue mechas.

    Counts are peak blue mechas capable of almost challenging sub par white mechas.

    Marquises are those sub par white mechas.

    Dukes are standard white mechas.

    Princes are peak white mechas.

    We reserved King, Emperor and God for the Golden Mechas. But most of them had never and will never see one, so they hardly mention it.

    Anyway, Chrono and my ck Prince had no trouble cleaning up the rest of the Horse Gavarels.

    And once more, I devoured the second base without hesitation.

    However, two major bases were the Horse Gavarel King''s bottomline, apparently.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Because as I was happily devouring all the delicious wreckages all around me, the Ancestor suddenly let out a vicious curse.

    "!@#$#@!!!" The Ancestor cursed viciously.

    "What''s happening?" Bruce Pang immediately asked sharply.

    "We''repletely surrounded." The Ancestor said gloomily.

    "By?" Bruce Pang pressed on.

    "By monsters biomechs. Annoying, hard to kill monsters." The Ancestor said with a sigh.

    "Even for Chronos? I mean, if both Chronos and I set our minds to escape, surely we can do so easily?" I asked him doubtfully.

    "Of course. But we do not want to escape, do we? We want to destroy as many bases as we can and steal as many tech blueprints as possible. And being surrounded is the worst development for us at this point in time." The Ancestor said. "I was hoping we can pick off their bases one by one for a few more times. But our game is up."

    "Monster Biomechs, huh? Sounds delicious." I said with cocky bravado.

    "Updating mission parameters. Stay alive. Destroy the enemy. Acknowledge." Demoness Wang''s voice rang out calmly.

    "Acknowledged. There is no way we are dying here." The Ancestor said while rolling his eyes. "It''s just an annoying development. Bruce, go for the head of the snake. No, wait. Little punk, you go for the head of the snake."

    "You want me to find the boss of whoever managed to take an armyrge enough to surround us from beyond a five kilometer radius, and then kill him in front of that stupidly massive army?" I asked the stupid old man to rify the mission he had so casually dumped on my head.

    "No. I want you to find the boss of this army division that has surrounded us from every single direction from ten kilometers out, punch through theyers of soldiers to reach him at the far end of the army, then kill all of his special forces which are probably over a thousand in number, all of which are beyond white mecha grade biomechs, and then kill his supreme generals who are probably at near gold mecha grade, and then kill the boss." The Ancestor rolled his eyes at me.

    I blinked once and processed his words slowly, assessing if I could actually do that.

    "I meant ASSASSINATE him you fool!!" The Ancestor exploded in exasperation. "How dumb can you get to actually think you are able of doing exactly what I just said? Do you even know what sarcasm means?"

    Bruce Pang chuckled lightly.

    "I like his self confidence." He said mildly.

    I gave him a cheery smile at his words.

    "Even though he is a god damned idiot for having such a misced and utterly erroneous confidence on himself." Bruce Pang added with augh.

    "Enough foolishness." The Ancestormanded. "You have in your list of Gold Grade Designs, a particr blueprint for an experimental stealth bodysuit. Take its principles and apply it on a mini mecha that could fit us both. Then look for the boss and kill him."

    "Fine." I said sourly at them both and started to conceptualize and then finalize the stealth blue mecha which was, if not for its stealth function, probably just at the Baron level.

    Within seconds, apletely stealthy blue mecha slowly sank towards the bottom of the ocean.

    There were already enemies advancing along the ocean floor towards us, of course. But with so many rocks, ridges and all sorts of things there, it was much easier to break through the ever shrinking blockade.

    "Erm. I am assuming you want me to distract all of their attention? All one million of them? All by myself?" Bruce Pang''s voice rang out with a slightly aggrieved tone to it.

    "Be a man and do it withoutining." The Ancestor said to him.

    "Yes big bro, be a man. Do the right thing. Life is short. You only live once. Just do it." I said and spewed a bunch of nonsensical tag phrases to piss him off.

 Chapter 189 Unkillable

    "Dragon kin my ass." Bruce Pang sighed as he referred to the prophesy which the Ancestor had made about him as being my Dragon Kin. "More like Dragon Babysitter."

    But he drew out a pair of fancy, glowing scimitars and then unleashed a numbing aura of strange force field.

    Bruce Pang was never one to shy from a fight, no matter how outgunned and outnumbered he was.

    And he definitely won''t do it in front of his little brother and his teacher.

    "Come at me, you fools. I know about your damn experimental clone mecha core. I will get my hands on it today!" He shouted with disdain at the ginormous bunch of biomechs that had just crossed the nine kilometer mark.

    Battlefield wisdom: Fluster the enemy as much as possible. Tell them anything that would make them lose their cool. Mommies and their titties are very eptable topics.

    But of course, Bruce Pang would not stoop to the mommy titties level. He was content to dwell on the supremely delicious ways he would be cooking their beloved children and cute grandchildren as soon as he won the battle.

    Which was, in my opinion, no less awesome than mommy''s titties.

    "Freaking dumb ass underwater donkeys. You better make sure you kill me today! If not I will catch all of your ugly little donkey babies, and bring them to the maind! I will deep fry them and make them into delicacies! Then I will take all your ugly donkey wives and steam them to feed them to our farm animals to eat!" Bruce Pang shouted rather guiltily through his vastly enhanced speakers which carried his voice very quickly in all directions.

    The Horse Gavarels had no problems understanding his words, of course. They were all equipped with high tech biomechs that had trantors built in.

    "Nasty." Imented lightly to the Ancestor

    "Sloppy." The Ancestor growled. "Remember kid, all is fair in war. Being kind to your enemies is being cruel to your allies. I expected more from Bruce. If talking trash about your enemies is too sensitive for you, then I suggest when you go back tond, you quit the academy and apply to be a babysitter and coddle rich little spoiled brats for the rest of your miserable life."

    "Of course." I nodded in agreement and slight amusement. That old man must have really bad experience with regard to being kind to enemies for him to snap at me so strongly.

    "In light of your words, yes, big bro is being sloppy. Very sloppy. You should scold him." I said with a sinister smile even as our stealthy mecha slowly made its way to the looming ocean floor.

    "Quit being a p***y and do your god damn job properly." The Ancestor snapped into themunication device which fed directly into Bruce Pang''s ears.

    And apparently that was all Bruce Pang needed to turn into the most sacrilegious, foul mouthed, ck tongued, venomous heathen verbal devil that had ever graced the deep ocean with his creative expression.

    The things he said about their wives, daughters, sons and in particr, helmets, werepletely unsuitable for people to hear.

    Do not ask me about the helmets.

    Anyway, his words really bit deep into the Horse Gavarel psyche. They were very uplicated life forms to begin with, and were only catapulted ahead in their civilisation stage by merit of alien maniption and as such, they were not very used to such foul mouthed curses.<novelnext></novelnext>

    To say that they were aghast and disgusted and pissed off beyond measure by Bruce Pang''s curses would be a dramatic understatement!

    The loudest roar of anger you could ever imagine started to sound from the million elite Horse Gavarel soldiers.

    The Horse Gavarels were extremely fearsome creatures. In their biomech form, the weakest of them could easily beat a hundred underwater Barons easily.

    What we were facing at that moment was probably the entire expeditionary army of the Horse Gavarels which they had prepared to throw at the human race.

    Of course the Horse Gavarels were only one of many other races that would be throwing their armies at us.

    But even so, their army could not be underestimated.

    The million strong Gavarel elites could wipe out the entire Chinese Federation if they decided to attack without caring to preserve their lives.

    As powerful as the Blood Moon and the top fighters of the Federation were, they were but a handful of mechas.

    They could not stop a tsunami of Horse Gavarels sweeping in from every single beach and river in what would have been a surprise attack if we had not made our little escapade.

    It would have been aplete massacre, and although most of the top fighters would survive, the rest of the Federation would not.

    And at that moment, Bruce Pang was a single Blood Moon White Mecha facing that tsunami in their home element.

    And he just pissed that tsunami off big, big time.

    "He''ll be fine, right?" I asked the Ancestor quietly and seriously.

    "Against any enemy below Gold, Chronos is unkible. It doesn''t matter where and how many of them are arrayed against him. As long as he has energy left, and which he has in abundance, thanks to you and your little modification, he would at the very least be able to escape. In fact, I am rather looking forward to see how many biomechs he could take down this time. Anything less than a full five hundred thousand would be a disgrace to his name." The Ancestor replied.

    "Anything less than half the army prepared to destroy entire countries is a disgrace?" I couldn''t help butugh at the absurdity of the whole situation.

    "Considering the number of races and their armies which would probably total up to hundreds of millions, anything less by one of our top fighters would be devastatingly worrying." The Ancestor said seriously. "But enough about Bruce. Let him do his job. You focus on yours now. Locate the leader and kill him."

    "Of course." I replied and cast out my resonance as far and as wide as I could.

 Chapter 190 Damn You Old Man!

    After a few moments, I realized that the enemies arrayed from the south were the thickest and gave out the most terrifying sensation of the entire bunch.

    "That way." I pointed at the south.

    "Good." The Ancestor grunted in approval.

    "Hehehe." I grinned and started to sneak my way towards that direction.

    "I have but one piece of advice for you." The Ancestor said. "Attack where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."

    "Aren''t I already doing that?" I grumbled at his cryptic words. "What the hell is this super advanced stealth mecha for if not so that I can appear where I am not expected?"

    "You''ll see. Just remember my words." The Ancestor said mysteriously.

    "Okay, you definitely know something I do not. You better spill now, everything I don''t know about the enemy jeopardizes this mission by that much!" I demanded.

    But the Ancestor fell silent, and wouldn''t say another word no matter how hard I asked and provoked him.

    Finally, I sighed in resignation and continued to make my way along the ocean bed.

    It was a very uneven surface. Massive rocks and ridges were everywhere, and because of that, I had a rtively easy time sneaking past the horde of Horse Gavarel Biomechs that were for the most part, distracted by my big bro''s shy fight.

    Slowly but safely, I proceeded forward for a kilometer, then two, then three.

    At three kilometers, I was already behind enemy lines. But I continued to make my way forward. My resonance was telling me that the strongest enemy was still ahead of me.

    However, at that moment, the old man''s words suddenly appeared in my mind.

    "Attack where he''s unprepared¡­ He''s very prepared here. Of course he is, he is in the middle of a capture operation. Appear where I am not expected¡­ I am in stealth mode. He couldn''t be expecting me here¡­ could he?" I stopped for a moment to gather my bearings and check my surroundings.

    I was descending into a massive ridge and there was absolutely nothing above and below me.

    My next step would have brought me away from the side of the ridge where I would be crossing the chasm towards its other side.

    Beyond that, my resonance was telling me that the most powerful enemy I had ever encountered was waiting for me just a few hundred meters away.

    "I am inplete stealth mode. No bio sensor, heat sensor or even metal sensor can detect me in this mode. The only thing that can give me away is if theyid eyes on me. But I am surrounded byplete darkness here¡­ so I should be appearing in an unexpected manner¡­ right?" I pondered over my situation for a quick moment before deciding to throw the stupid old man''s words out the window.

    "Useless advice." I concluded rather sourly. "He''s probably ying the part of a wise old man and felt the need to say something wise butpletely irrelevant. What an arse."

    With that thought, I kicked off from my perch on the side of the ridge, and started to sail across the chasm.

    And directly into a massive air bubble.

    BLAREEE!!! BLAREEE!!!!

    My resonance started to scream at full st as it suddenly detected a MASSIVE metallic form from beneath me.

    "There''s something within the chasm!!" I thought in horror. My mind raced at full speed. An air bubble and a metallic form? "A massive biomech!!"

    And not just any massive biomech. It was one that could escape detection from my resonance!

    All of the above pointed to only one thing.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Trouble.

    Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

    "Armor integrity at 97%." A rarely heard system warning rang out from my mecha.

    Wait, not rarely. I had never heard that system AI say a single word before that moment.

    "Huh? That''s right, I have an AI assistant! Initiate scan! What the hell is attacking me? Talk to me damn it!" I shouted at my stupidly silent AI system.

    I was in a weak mecha at that moment to minimize my energy signature to maintain perfect stealth. At that moment, I decided that the time for stealth had passed.

    But before I could unleash my full power, the Ancestor cleared his throat.

    "Erhm."

    That simple act from him made me pause for a quick moment.

    And it was all I needed toe to an insane but awesome conclusion.

    I leapt back to the ridge as quickly as I could and made my way up, my stealth mode stillpletely intact.

    GRRRRRRRRRRTAKTAKTAKTAKTAK

    A strange and ominous sound drifted upwards from the deep chasm. My resonance was indicating that the massive biomech was making its way upwards.

    It was a massive biomech serpent of sorts!

    Apparently, its sudden appearance did not merely take me by surprise, but also the leader of the Horse Gavarels.

    My resonance was telling me that the magnificent Gavarel Biomech was powering up and was making its way towards me!

    "Come on now you ugly snake. Get out of your damn hole and let me hide on your body!" I muttered my n out aloud as I gazed impatiently at the ck chasm.

    I needed to hide myself on it before the Horse Gavarel Biomech Leader appeared!

    I figured that if I couldunch a surprise attack on the Horse Gavarel Biomech Leader from the body of the snake monster, I would be "attacking where he is not prepared, appearing where I am not expected".

    "Analysisplete. Substance identified as Dragon Saliva." The AI''s voice rang out calmly.

    "DRAGON SALIVA?" I shouted in shock.

    GRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

    As if on cue, the massive Dragon Biomech finally exploded forth from the chasm and gave out a fearsome roar!!

    "Perfect!" The Ancestor couldn''t help but shout eagerly.

    "Damn you old man! You knew that there was a dragon here!!" I shouted usingly at him even as I gaped at the wondrous sight of an adult underwater dragon appearing in all of its horrific glory.

 Chapter 191 Epic Plan

    I am sure you''ve all seen images of dragons before. And as Chinese members of the internationalmunity, the critical question that we have with regard to dragons was, which version is the correct version?

    The European version where dragons are basically oversized lizards with wings? Or the Chinese version where dragons are oversized snakes which can somehow fly without wings?

    The answer is, surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, both.

    At least in terms of sea dragons.

    The one that appeared was a freakishlyrge serpent with a pair of wicked looking horns protruding from its wicked looking head where a wicked looking smile was stered all over its face.

    As soon as it cleared the chasm, it unfurled its massive wings, or rather, fins.

    I stared at it,pletely astounded by its horrific majesty. I had seenrge serpent-like creatures, of course. Killed them, in fact, just very recently. The Wyrm King and Queen were no smaller in sizepared to the seadragon.

    The two worms were angry, furious and overwhelmingly powerful. They both gave out a raw and savage aura that could strike fear in all of their enemies.

    But whenpared to the sea dragon, they were like little bullies to a seasoned psychopath.

    The sheer majesty and evil confidence that emanated from the dragon was utterly crushing, and bone chilling.

    It was as though it knew your weaknesses, and it was relishing the sensation of slowly taking advantage of those weaknesses to get to you and eventually devour you.

    Yes.

    The sea dragon was an intelligent life form.

    "Who dares disturb my slumber?" The sea dragon rumbled.

    I kid you not.

    As cliche as it sounded, it was exactly what the dragon said.

    It said those words in its ancientnguage, of course.

    But I had devoured countless Horse Gavarel Biomechs, and within their software was aplete trantion of the ancient undersea dragonnguage, so I knew exactly what the dragon was saying.

    It truly was sleeping, and its hyper sensitive instincts towards danger woke it up when I ventured close to it.

    However, because I was in stealth, and because the Horse Gavarel Leader was nearby, the seadragon instantly assumed that it was awakened by the horsey.

    It floated above the chasm in darkness, a horrifying image of death incarnate. Without bothering to wait for an answer to its question, it fired a massive beam of dragon breath at the Horse Gavarel Leader!

    As it did so, I quickly made my move and leapt ahead to attach myself to its hyper thick scales. Because it was sorge, I was like a fat little fly perching on a big fat dude''s back.

    It totally had no idea I was there.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Of course, I am sure its instincts were ring like never before, but with the horsey to distract it, I was able to hide very sessfully.

    GRAAAAHHHHH!!!

    The seadragon roared furiously and surged downwards to charge at the Horse Gavarel Leader.

    Its over two hundred meter long form shot downwards like an arrow after being propelled by a strangely effective swing of its massive fins.

    The Horse Gavarel Leader easily darted away and maintained its distance. Although it was no less fearsome at a hundred meters in size, the horsey seemed reluctant to engage the dragon in battle.

    I was just wondering why it was so when they conveniently gave me the answer.

    "Lord Blue Dragon. This is my final offer. Half of the spoils that my Horse Gavarel n will gain from the battle. My million warriors will pige and loot from a thousand civilisations, and you will get half of it, if only you join me, as my equal, in this war." The Horse Gavarel Leader''s voice rang out calmly.

    At his words, the Ancestor gave an ugly grimace.

    The situation was much, much, much more critical than he had initially estimated.

    "Half your spoils? You make it sound so generous. But without me, you will have no way of dealing with my damned Silver Cousin. And without me, you are doomed to lose your war. This is my final offer, you pathetic seahorse. I will take nine parts out of ten. Take it or leave it." The Blue Dragon rumbled.

    It was bad.

    The powerful leader of the Horse Gavarels was actually in the process of negotiating with the Blue Dragon. They were potential allies!

    I needed no prompting to realize that I had to break this deal up at all costs.

    My mind raced as I searched for a n to do exactly that.

    "I heard that there is an alien core just like mine somewhere in the human country nearest to us." The horsey said.

    "Damn it! He''s trying to use me as a bargaining chip to gain the cooperation of a real dragon? What an asshole!!" I thought incredulously in my mind.

    "Another alien core?" The Blue Dragon rumbled in what sounded like a very intrigued dragon voice.

    "Indeed. But it is a huge country, and looking for such a small item would be difficult. I am willing to utilize all of my warriors to search for that core, and give it to you when I find it. The core will be above the fifty percent spoils that we will split." The horsey said enticingly.

    "I have to make a move soon and break up this deal before they agree." I realized. And within seconds, an insidious n formed in my mind.

    "I need to do something to piss the dragon off, and make it seem like it was the horsey who did it. Let me¡­ turn into a Horse Gavarel and¡­ attack the dragon with "Dragon Tranquilizers"! Hahahaha!"

    I wasted no time executing my "epic n" and I immediately transformed into anrge, white mecha grade Horse Gavarel. Both pairs of my arms gripped massive hollow spears which functioned like injections and I stabbed them both into the Blue Dragon''s body.

    "My Lord, the Dragon Tranquilizers are sessfully administered!" I shouted fluently in Horse Gavarel even as the Blue Dragon roared in pain!

 Chapter 192 Greedy Enemy

    GRAAAAHHHHHHHH!!

    "Attack!! Knock it out!" I shouted and immediately manifested a thousand Horse Gavarel long distance rifles and shot at the Blue Dragon with awesome power.

    "What the hell?? Lord Blue Dragon, it isn''t me! It''s an impostor trying to get us to fight each other!" The horsey shouted in panic as it started to shoot its many weapons at me.

    "Good shot, My Lord, keep attacking!" I shouted as I tried to stab the Blue Dragon with my spears once more while dodging the horsey''s attacks.

    Thankfully, by that time, the Blue Dragon was thrashing wildly, and many of the horsey''s shots actually fell upon the Blue Dragon!

    "You say its an impostor, but you''re shooting at me? Bastard! I will devour your entire Horse Gavarel Race!" The Blue Dragon howled in anger.

    "Yes!!" I thought triumphantly to myself and stabbed at the dragon once more, pumping in a huge amount of highly advanced paralyzing toxins into it.

    The Blue Dragon turned its head very agilely and tried to bite me. At the same time, it unleashed massive amounts of Dragon Saliva from EVERY part of its body!

    Whoever named that substance "Dragon Saliva" was aplete dumbass.

    However, I had left my weak stealth mode and was in the form of a Horse Gavarel Mecha which boasted my full defensive power.

    I was not afraid of its damned saliva.

    And after sessfully killing a Wyrm Queen from the inside, I was not afraid of its bite too. In fact, I was looking forward to do the same thing I did to the Wyrm Queen to it!

    But as it turned out, I was wrong on both counts.

    The saliva that I experienced earlier in stealth mode was merely in amounts which the Blue Dragon SUBCONSCIOUSLY released. It was in trace amounts, and much like a tiny drop of diluted hydrochloric acid dropping on an adults hand.

    It tingled.

    However, in its rage, the Blue Dragon was unleashing intensely concentrated Dragon Saliva in the HUNDREDS of gallons!!

    And apparently, it wasn''t trying to bite me. It was angling to fire its dragon breath at me!!

    Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!!

    "Warning. Defensive integrity at 84 percent." The damned AI shouted calmly.

    "Warning. Energy beam attack imminent." The damned AI shouted calmly again.

    "HOLY SMOKES!! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!" I shouted and unleashed a mega torrent of raw energy out of my mecha andunched myself away from its back in an instant!

    However, although I was able to get out of the immediate vicinity of its concentrated Dragon Saliva, I was unable to escape its Dragon Breath.

    VRAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

    The Blue Dragon''s breath exploded from its mouth and shot after me.

    WHAAAMMM!!

    "Warning! Defensive integrity at 74 percent!" The damned AI continued its irritating announcement of my impending doom.

    The dragon breath was so powerful that it was able to bring down my defenses by a full 10 percent with just a single moment''s worth of direct hit!<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Wouldn''t that mean that it could kill me in ten seconds?" I thought to myself as I directed all of my energy towards enhancing my defences at the spot where the dragon breath was impacting me.

    "Defensive integrity stabilizing at 70 percent." The AI shouted calmly.

    After concentrating almost all of my defensive power to the particr spot resist the dragon breath, I was barely able to match its power output.

    Barring any increase in its dragon breath power, I would be able to indefinitely resist it!

    "But at the cost of almost sacrificing my other defenses." I thought grimly. "It would be bad if the horsey attacks now."

    Of course, after thinking such a thing and jinxing it, it would be strange if the horsey did not attack.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    The damned horsey had split itself into three and hadunched themselves at me!

    "Great! It''s not only a stupidly powerful being, it''s also a fiendishlypetent fighter!" I shouted with exasperation as six highly urate and skillful spear attacks came at me.

    Please note that this was in a situation where I was escaping at top speed, with the dragon breath following me!

    That horsey was indeed the top fighter among its race.

    I was only able to dodge three, and the other three smashed onto my body, left arm and right leg with fearsome power.

    With most of my energy spent to resist the dragon breath, the spears ripped my arm and leg cleanly off.

    On the grand scheme of things, it was negligible damage. I was able to regrow those limbs with but a single thought.

    But if I did that, I would be revealing my existence as a wielder of Devour!

    The body attack, however, was not a negligible attack. The spear was lodged into my body, AND it was interfering with my red energy!

    The experimental mecha core wielded by the Horse Gavarel Leader produced energy which was on the same level as my red energy, and was able to resist and influence its movements!

    That moment was one of the most dangerous moments I had ever experienced.

    It was almost on the same level as the time where three gang members held a knife at my throat as they robbed me. My life waspletely in their hands, and I could die at any moment.

    There was no knife at my throat then, but the spectre of death was approaching very quickly.

    Another hit by any of the three fiendishly capable horseys could end my life.

    Thankfully, the same thing that saved me from the gang members back when I was a kid, saved me again then.

    It was the greed of my enemies.

    The gang members did not kill me because they thought they could make me their personal ve.

    The horsey did not kill me because it wanted whatever secret I had that allowed me to take the form a Horse Gavarel so perfectly, and of course to find out whatever insanity that led me to attack that Blue Dragon that way.

    And like the gang members, he would regret his decision dearly.

 Chapter 193 Assimilation

    With such a dangerous situation at hand, I couldn''t care less about exposing myself as the owner of Devour anymore.

    With a thought, I restructured my mecha into the most efficient defensive form possible.

    A sphere.

    A sphere would reduce the area of direct impact with the dragon breath into a mere needle point, and at the same time, it dislodged the irritating spear that was stuck in my body.

    All I wanted to do at that moment was to get the hell out of that ridiculous 2-on-1 situation and reset.

    PRATATATATATATATATATA!!!

    I got all one thousand of myser guns to switch to explosive projectile rifles and fired them all at the Blue Dragon''s maw.

    BOOM BOOM BOOOOM BOOOOOM!!!

    The explosions from the projectiles were much more devastating underwater than they were above ground, and they worked extremely well to distract the Blue Dragon enough for it to stop attacking me with its dragon breath.

    As soon as the Dragon Breath stopped, a great relief surged through my heart and I instantly resumed my act as a Horse Gavarel Warrior to drive the final nails into the coffin that was the deal between the Horse Gavarels and the Blue Dragon!!

    "My Lord!! Why did you attack me? I have stopped its dragon breath! Quick!! Unleash your secret weapon! This is our only chance to capture it!!" I shouted with all of my heart!

    Of course as soon as the Blue Dragon heard that the horsey had a secret weapon, it resoubled its attacks, and shifted them all to the horsey!

    "You wish to capture me? You pathetic sea horse. Die!!!" The Blue Dragon roared furiously and unleashed its dragon breath on the horsey and its clones!

    "My Lord!! I will protect you!! Run! Run away from the Blue Dragon!" I shouted as I directed my rifles to fire at the Blue Dragon''s maw once more. But instead of the explosive projectiles which were so effective in stopping the dragon breath earlier, I had switched the rifles back toser rifles!

    Although they had far greater prating power, there were less effective in damaging the highly armored Blue Dragon than the explosive projectiles which caused a huge amount of shockwaves to enter the dragon''s throat.

    And as such, the Blue Dragon was able to quickly and efficiently destroy the two horsey clones!

    However, killing the main horsey body was not as easy. It had immediately retreated at top speed and summoned ten more clones to confuse the Blue Dragon.

    If I didn''t do anything, the horsey would be able to escape from the Blue Dragon in a matter of seconds, and the battle would quickly spiral into a stalemate between us three.

    There was no way I would let that happen.

    I pointed at the horsey''s real body which I could easily identify due to its fearsome resonance, and sent every single iota of my red energy to surge towards it in an all out attempt to crush and absorb one small but criticalponent in its biomech structure.

    Its thruster injectors!

    If I had aimed to break down anythingrger than the injectors, I would have probably failed.

    The experimental mecha core Clone still had a considerable amount of energy left, and every single part of its body was being protected by the Darkblood Energy.

    However, as the wise saying goes, if the opponent reinforces everywhere, then everywhere would be weak.

    Its energy was being spread out to cover all of its body.

    It was not able to resist my all out attack on aponent that was merely ten centimeters in length.

    Poof!!

    Horsey''s thrusters died down instantly and its forward momentum slowed down considerably.

    GRAAAAHHHHHHHH!!

    The Blue Dragon was no fool. He knew that the clones were all freshly created, there was no way their thrusters would fail just like that.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The only one that could experience a thruster failure was the one that had already experiencedbat and possibly sustained damage.

    The real body.

    CHOMP!!

    The Blue Dragon reached the powerful leader of the Horse Gavarels and bit down hard on its massive behind.

    CRACK!!! CRACKKKK!!!

    Metal and bone alike splintered into pieces under the massive jaw pressure of the magnificent Blue Dragon.

    Horse Gavarel blood spurted everywhere.

    "NO!!!" Horsey screamed in absolute denial and anger. But it was no use. Its death was written in stone as soon as his thruster injectors disappeared.

    HISSSSSSSSS.

    The highly corrosive Dragon Saliva rapidly burned its flesh into nothing and just like that, Horsey died.

    CHOMP!!

    The Blue Dragon started to eat Horsey savagely.

    I clenched my fist and instantly broke down every single avable horseyponent and absorbed them.

    However, try as I might, I could not break down Clone!

    It glowed a mesmerizing green in colour, mere meters away from the Blue Dragon.

    And yes, of course.

    The Blue Dragon took it.

    "Damn it!" I cursed vehemently.

    "Kill the dragon." The Ancestor ordered me with a quiet voice.

    "KILL WHAT?" I shouted at him to rify.

    "Kill the dragon." The Ancestor repeated himself. "Its monster core is worth much more than you can imagine. Its body is a treasure trove of materials. And... You will need that experimental mecha core."

    The Ancestor pointed at the Blue Dragon which had the green mecha core in its ws and was forcing it very savagely into its chest area.

    Did I mention that the Blue Dragon was a biomech as well?

    I did?

    Yes, its mecha parts on its chest were at that very moment, wriggling and reforming themselves.

    It was adjusting itself so that it could assimte with the green mecha core!

    Of course there was no way that it could fullybine with it and wield its full power right there and then with such a crude method.

    But it would be able to draw upon the Darkblood Energy to power its attacks, AND most importantly, gain resistance against my red energy!

    There was no bloody way I would allow that to happen!

 Chapter 194 Silence

    My red energy swirled into drill shapes for a quick moment before I sent them surging toward the Blue Dragon.

    Wham! Wham!

    Strangely, although the Blue Dragon had not assimted with the experimental mecha core yet, its resistance against my red energy was surprisingly high!

    "What the hell, its so strong!" I gasped as my red energy drills failed to break the Blue Dragon down in one attack. However, I could sense that it couldn''t stop my red energy entirely. It was barely holding itself together.

    "One smallponent at a time then." I thought to myself determinedly and redirected my red energy to start attacking its vital biomechponents.

    Poof! Poof! Poof!

    Bits and pieces of the Blue Dragon started to break down from everywhere.

    GRAAAHHHHH!!!

    It gave a roar of defiance and spun its fearsome head to re at me.

    However, I was quite far away from it, and safely out of the range of its Dragon Breath.

    It whipped its massive wing-like fins around itself in a defensive act and started to focus entirely on speeding up the assimtion process with Clone.

    If it somehow seeded in assimting itself with Clone, I was screwed.

    Fighting against a trio of highly skilled horseys was already a nightmare.

    I would definitely not be able to deal with a bunch of Blue Dragon clones.

    At that moment, it was a race.

    Either I kill the dragon first, and im everything, or the dragon assimte with the experimental mecha core first and gainplete immunity against me.

    "Go for its brain." The Ancestor ordered.

    "Go!" I whispered as I released my thousandser rifles and white mecha form, and manifested the barest minimum to resist the crushing water pressure, to give my red energy the maximum amount of strength I could muster.

    At the same time, I did as the Ancestor ordered and sent my red energy to attack the biomechponents that were in charge of its brain.

    I did not go for theponents near the experimental mecha core because the Darkblood Energy surrounding it made my red energy extremely sluggish.

    Wham! Wham! Wham!!

    I sent my red energy drills smashing against the Blue Dragon''s head again and again and again.

    Grahhhhh.

    The Blue Dragon couldn''t help but give out a groan of pain!

    Poof! Poof! Poof!

    The headponents of its biomech enhancement started to fall apart bit by bit.

    But I could also sense that the assimtion process was about to bepleted!!

    And judging by the rate of progress, the assimtion process would finish first!!

    "We won''t make it." I thought aloud with a sinking feeling spreading in my heart.

    It was at that moment that the Ancestor revealed his trump card.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Get closer, and release me in an exosuit." The Ancestor said.

    I did not hesitate and immediately did as he said.

    A few long secondster, the small figure of the Ancestor''s exosuitnded on the back of Blue Dragon''s head which was still sticking out of the wing-like fins covering the rest of its body.

    At the same time, I could sense that the Blue Dragon''s assimtion process with the experimental core was right on the cusp ofpletion!

    "Whatever you n to do, do it now!" I shouted at the Ancestor. "It will be done any time now!"

    After the words left my mouth, a bright light erupted from within the Blue Dragon!

    Darkblood Energy coursed throughout its body and instantly healed every single wound that I had managed to cause.

    Even the hard won damages I had inflicted on its head started to heal!!

    "Damn it! Ancestor! Come back!!" I shouted in horror.

    The Blue Dragon had fused with the experimental mecha core!! It waspletely immune to my red energy! And by the Gods, physically it waspletely way out of my league.

    "If I don''t escape now, it might be toote for me." My mind screamed out with a stunning realization that sent a deep chill running down my spine.

    But if I left him then, the exosuit around him would probablyst a minute at the very most before dispersing. Even if the Blue Dragon did not kill him, the water pressure would.

    "Screw it! Let me make onest attempt to save the Ancestor, and the get the freaking hell out of here!!" I thought to myself as I manifested the strongest exosuit I could muster and dived after that damned old man.

    GRRRRRRRRTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAK!!!!!

    An ominous sound rang out from within the Blue Dragon''s body.

    Whoosh!!

    I fired all my thrusters and quickly reached the spot where Ist saw the Ancestor.

    "Ancestor!! Get your f*cking fat ass over here!! The Blue Dragon is about to go ballistic!!" I roared with all my strength.

    But strangely for some reason, both the Ancestor and the Blue Dragon remained silent.

    After a few seconds, I realized with a deep sense of relief that the Blue Dragon won''t be making a move anytime soon. Its heartbeat had slowed down from ten beats per second to almost one beat every five seconds!

    It had somehow fallen into a dormant state.

    "What the hell is happening here?" I shouted at the damned old man.

    But for a few seconds, only silence greeted me.

    That damned old man had gone MIA on me!

    "Big bro! The Ancestor is missing!" I shouted into my inte.

    "The Ancestor? Let him do whatever he wants! He''ll be fine! Have you killed that damned head of the damned snake? Hurry the hell up!" My big bro roared at me as soon as he heard my voice.

    "A Blue Dragon ate the head of the snake!" I shouted back at him. "The Ancestor approached the Blue Dragon earlier and went missing!"

    Annoyingly, after I said that, I was greeted with silence from my big bro as well!

    "Hello? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? WHY IS EVERYBODY NOT SAYING ANYTHING!" I shouted at them both.

 Chapter 195 Mental Enslavement

    "That crazy old man." Secretary Wang finally said in a voice that was barely a whisper. If my sense of hearing wasn''t exceptionally sharp, I might even have missed it.

    But I didn''t, and her words brought even more questions.

    "Justin. Can you secure the Blue Dragon and bring it with you?" Bruce Pang said in a sombre voice that worried me.

    "Yes. I cannot guarantee that my cage can resist the Blue Dragon if it wakes up though. In fact, let''s just assume that it can''t." I replied.

    "That''s fine. Secure it now and retreat. This mission is over." Bruce Pang said in a voice that brooked no disagreement. And not surprisingly, Secretary Wang remained silent in tacit agreement to his words.

    However, as I unleashed my red energy to create a massive cage around the Blue Dragon, Secretary Wang suddenly let out a vehement curse.

    "Damn it! The Europeans and the Americans are two minutes away! They have detected your energy signatures! Hide!" She shouted at us.

    In a blink of an eye, Bruce Pang''s mecha appeared next to me and grabbed me.

    "There is no hiding from Golden Mechas, especially not here in this battlefield, and double especially not with this massive Blue Dragon. Our only hope is getting to hostile territory and hope that the enemy hinders them enough to allow us to remain undetected." Bruce Pang said.

    "You can''t outrun Golden Mechas." Secretary Wang said quietly. "And as you mentioned, especially not with a Blue Dragon in tow."

    "It''s better than hiding here." Bruce Pang said stubbornly.

    "No, I have a better idea." I disagreed and pointed to the direction of the Blue Dragon''s chasm. "The Blue Dragon was able to remain undetected from me even when I was mere meters away from itsir. There must be something there that can protect us from being detected by the Golden Mechas. Plus it is also big enough to hide the Blue Dragon."

    Bruce Pang was a decisive person.

    Upon hearing my words, he did not even pause to say anything in agreement. He simply exploded into action and brought us straight to the chasm.

    "I am sending over a scout team to keep up appearances. As usual, fall off the grid ande up only when the white heart disappears." Secretary Wang said.

    "Understood." Bruce Pang said tersely even as we sped towards the chasm at an insane speed.

    He understood, I didn''t. But it wasn''t that difficult to understand once you know the tech. Each white mecha in the Federation was equipped with two small ball-shaped devices, one ck and one white.

    These ck and white balls had their "twin" back in the Mecha HQ. The technology allowed the balls to be paired to each other and instantly crumble into pieces if its twin were to be destroyed.

    It didn''t matter how far away they were separated, the balls would shatter as soon as the other did. Instantly and without releasing a single blip of energy or signal.

    It made for the perfect emergencymunication tool.

    In our situation then, if the white heart in Bruce Pang''s mecha were to shatter, it would simply mean that the coast is clear, and we are free to make our way out.

    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!<novelnext></novelnext>

    We reached the chasm in what must be record speed and quickly disappeared into its pitch ck darkness quietly.

    At that moment, we were hundred meter tall mechas towing a three hundred meter behemoth dragon beast traveling at insane speeds underwater.

    It was physically impossible not to make massive waves underwater that would definitely alert the Europeans and Americans of our location.

    However, Chronos was an extremely impressive mecha, and the technology he carried with him was somehow able to make our short journey to the entrance of the Blue Dragonir as quiet and smooth as a ninja leaping from tree to tree.

    We barely made a ripple in our mad dash to the chasm, and within seconds, we had sessfully made our way deep into it.

    The chasm narrowed all the way down to the point where I had to dismantle the cage and pull the Blue Dragon carefully down to avoid scraping his body against the rough side walls.

    But how careful can one be when dragging a massive dragon underwater at high speed?

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    I winced after each time the dragon''s body smashed onto the side of the ever narrowing tunnel.

    "At this rate, the golden mechas would definitely hear us." I grumbled to my big bro. "We should slow down!"

    "No, I think we are already safe here." Bruce Pang replied calmly as he continued to drag us downwards. "I felt a slight sensation of entering a unique spatial zone a few seconds earlier. We should bepletely undetectable here."

    "Unique spatial zone?" I asked in surprise. I had not felt anything. "And if so, isn''t that all the more reason we should slow down? There is no more need for us to hurry!"

    "There is still a great need. We have to get to the Blue Dragon''sir as soon as possible. It should have certain things in its treasure hoard that could help the Ancestor win his battle." Bruce Pang said solemnly.

    "Treasure hoard? The Ancestor is in a battle?" I immediately zoomed in on the two key points and asked.

    "Its a Blue Dragon. It has a treasure hoard, that''s for certain. We need to loot it. And yes, the Ancestor is currently in a battle. He is¡­" Bruce Pang paused slightly at that moment.

    "What? What battle?" I asked him sharply.

    Bruce Pang sighed.

    "It''s aplicated thing to exin, but long story short¡­ The Ancestor had induced the Blue Dragon into the same trance which you went through during your test. But instead of merely examining the Blue Dragon''s mind, he is being extremely hostile.

    The Ancestor is trying to¡­ mentally enve the Blue Dragon."

    "WHAT THE HELL??" I couldn''t help but shout in surprise!

 Chapter 196 Driving The Blue Dragon

    "He can do such a thing?? Doesn''t that mean that if he wanted to, he could enve me during that test?" I sputtered in shock.

    "If he wanted to, he could kill you in a billion different ways and enve you in a thousand different methods even without having to put you into that trance." My big bro said with a thin smile.

    I blinked a few times at his words.

    Of course it didn''t make me feel much better. But it did reveal to me a little bit the extent of the old man''s power.

    Not that I needed the extra revtion though.

    He was at that moment trying to enve a full grown Blue Dragon, damn it. As a human being, double damn it.

    He was an iparable existence!

    "So how can we help him win the battle? It would be great if we can have a tame Blue Dragon on our side." I finally said after a few seconds of silence. All the while, we were speeding down deep into the Blue Dragon''sir.

    By my estimation, their was an incredible ten kilometers under the ocean bed!

    "We need to weaken the Blue Dragon''s mind and strengthen the Ancestor''s. To do that, we need to find a bunch of mental poison and drug the Blue Dragon, while also find some to boost the Ancestor''s." My big bro said.

    "And you are sure that you will find them in the Blue Dragon''sir? Won''t they bepletely soggy after spending years underwater?" I asked doubtfully.

    "Soggy¡­? Ha! You are so strong that I forget that you''re just a dumb ten year old." My big bro barked out augh.

    He started to slow down at that point. We have reached an underwater cavern of sorts.

    "Lights." Bruce Pang said.

    With a single thought, I created a hundred powerful omni directional light sources and spread them everywhere.

    However, to my surprise, the hundred powerful light sources failed to illuminate the entire cavern!

    "Holy smokes, this cavern is seriously massive." I eximed as I created a thousand more light sources and spread them out even further away, right at the edges of my initial hundred light source''s range.

    But still, I failed to illuminate the sides of the cavern.

    It was more than five kilometers deep!

    I refused to be defeated by the sheer size of a mere cavern, and I immediately created the brightest, most powerful sources of light the world had ever seen and sent a full ten thousand of them surging deep into the damned cave.

    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

    And finally, my efforts bore fruit.

    Our mecha visual sensors finally caught sight of the cavern walls, twenty five freaking kilometers deep.

    "There!" I cried out triumphantly to my big bro. "How do you like this brightly lit room? You''re wee."

    However, he ignored mepletely.

    He was slowly scanning the entirety of the cavern, presumably looking for the treasure trove that he knew must be hidden somewhere within.

    I decided to lend him a hand and quickly unleashed my resonance in all directions as well, while I slowly drifted forward into the bright butpletely still body of water.

    I figured that if it was a treasure trove, it wouldn''t be a strange thing if there was a machine of sorts, right? Or maybe I could even detect his biomech parts.

    Whoosh.

    My resonance spread out far and wide, covering the entire cave¡­ and found nothing!

    "Huh? There are no machines here in this damnedir? What sort of stupid treasure trove has no machines at all?" I muttered, feeling rather disgruntled.

    "Lair?" Bruce Pang finally responded in an amused voice. "You think a peak existence like a Blue Dragon would be content to make this¡­ hole, itsir?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "This is not itsir?" I asked in confusion. "The water is still in this ce. This is the end of the "road" here. There is nothing beyond this ce!"

    "Exactly. And the question is, where is the entrance?" Bruce Pang said.

    "Ahh¡­ So this is an antechamber. The waiting room into itsir." I finally understood the situation.

    Or so, I thought.

    "No, this is not a waiting room." Bruce Pang said calmly. "This is a killing room. The empty space before a fortress'' walls. A ce for enemies seeking to attack itsir to die."

    I could only gulp nervously with his revtion, and slowly make my way back towards the entrance.

    For a few long minutes, we merely hovered there near the entrance, trying our best to detect the gate at least.

    But it was for naught.

    There was nothing in front of us, just a massive body of empty, still and lifeless water.

    There were no nts, no life forms there.

    Finally, Bruce Pang sighed.

    "I guess we have no other method except for¡­" He nced at the unconscious Blue Dragon where the Ancestor was still hidden somewhere within its body.

    We didn''t have time to physically confirm the Ancestor''s body. But Bruce Pang had ascertained earlier that he was there somewhere, so he was content with it.

    "Except for what?" I asked to urge him to tell me his n.

    "Except for you to lead the way with the Blue Dragon''s body. The entrance might be biologically programmed to only open in the presence of its owner''s body. However¡­"

    I sighed deeply and braced myself for the catch that would probably ce me in some sort of extreme danger.

    "The biological defenses might detect that the Blur Dragon is unconscious and react ordingly to save him." My big bro said solemnly.

    "Biological defenses? I don''t like the sound of that. And it can detect the Blue Dragon''s mental state? Are you sure?" I asked rather doubtfully.

    "No, I am not sure. Do you want to risk it?" He asked me seriously.

    It was the first time my big bro actually asked me a question as an equal and sought my opinion.

    Of course I told him my most honest thoughts about the situation..

    "Hell no. Let''s not risk anything. Let''s just throw the damned lizard forward and wait here. If the entrance opens up, we go after it. If the defenses react, then we react too." I answered.

    "And risk the Ancestor''s life?" Bruce Pang rolled his eyes at me.

    "He is hidden somewhere within the Blue Dragon, we won''t be risking his life in the slightest." I said and stuck to my guns obstinately. "In fact, he should be much saferpared to us if everything goes south. I mean, the "biological defenses" you mentioned probably won''t attack their own master, right?"

    "Yeah? Okay, in that case let''s hide ourselves within the Blue Dragon''s body as well. If it is as you say and it is much safer being found in the Blue Dragon than outside of it, then it should be the best way forward." Bruce Pang said and nodded at my words appreciatively.

    I gaped at him in surprise at his sly maneuvering of the conversation.

    "Sneaky bastard!" I verbalized my thoughts without holding anything back.

    "Let''s go. I will leave Chronos behind. Give me an exosuit as well and let''s make our way to the Ancestor. Once we''re there, you can drive the Blue Dragon forward." Bruce Pang said.

    What else could I do?

    Within moments, I was driving the damned Blue Dragon forward.

 Chapter 197 Truth

    If I had to name the most fatal weakness that my big bro has, it would be that he is sometimes ridiculously unlucky.

    I can name several critical emergencies that he found himself in that was due to his ridiculous bad luck.

    Most of them were ssified situations, so the world has no idea. But one of them was high profile.

    The Holy Zamrud Heist.

    It was a heist that was not supposed to "happen" since we had a perfect replica of that emerald.

    But as you know, the rm was somehow triggered and the whole world descended into near chaos trying to search for the thief.

    I could admit now with a clear conscience that we were the thieves.

    Of course we see ourselves as Robin Hoods, stealing from the mighty and rich European Empire so that the poor Chinese Federation could get a power source for¡­ Ehm. You''ll know when you know.

    Anyway, it was Bruce Pang who triggered that damn rm.

    A single strand of his stealth fabric had been ripped due to a tricky trap earlier. And right before we made our escape, that strand of fabric had to sashay past a highly sensitiveser sensor and caused the entire fortress to lockdown.

    The world called it a heist.

    Those who knew the details called it a robbery.

    Because I had to st open the final protection dome and devour at least a thousand mechas cleanly to make good our escape.

    Not that I wasining. The thousand mechas were the best of the best.

    But what was supposed to be a clean heist turned into a fiasco thanks to my big bro and his damned bad luck.

    Still, that streak of bad luck knew how to discipline itself, and didn''t rear its ugly head all the time. It only appeared on several asions.

    Other times, it allowed its good brother named ridiculous good luck, to hang out around my big bro.

    Because if I had to name one of Bruce Pang''s greatest strengths, it would be his luck as well.

    Sheer, unadulterated, good luck.

    Just like at that moment when we had to drive that Blue Dragon forward into the vast cavern.

    "Say, why don''t you give this Blue Dragon some sort of full body armor, and include a helm around its head? Make blue light shine out of it, so if we happen to meet with his minions, they would not realize that their master is out cold." Bruce Pang casually suggested.

    "Minions? From the biological defenses you mentioned?" I asked as I immediately did as he suggested.

    The Blue Dragon quickly turned into a fearsome half armored beast biomech that sported an angry looking helm with ominously shining blue eyes.

    "When you said biological defenses, I thought it would be viruses or automated biomechs. But minions¡­ that would probably include other blue dragons, right?" I asked. "Or maybe even¡­ a mate??"

    The thought of meeting with an angry blue dragon wifey really didn''t sit well with me at that moment.

    "I have no idea." Bruce Pang answered honestly. "But it would be good to be prepared just in ca-"

    GRAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!

    A fearsome roar sounded out of nowhere!!

    "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO?!"

    Was the trantion of the roar given by the AI.

    Yes.

    It was a blue dragon wifey.

    As I said, Bruce Pang''s luck was just ridiculous.

    Ridiculously good, in that instance.

    GRAAAAAHHHHHH? GRAAAHHH!!!!

    "What''s with that awesome looking armor? Come in and let me take a look!"

    Bruce Pang and I shared a very, veryplex look at that moment.

    On one hand, we managed to gain ess into the Blue Dragon''sir. It was awesome!

    On the other hand, his wife was in it! It was horrible!<novelnext></novelnext>

    GRAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! GRAAAAHHHHHH??

    Another dragon roar that was clearly different from the first one sounded.

    "Husband you''re home!!! What present did you get for me this time??"

    Came the trantion.

    Both our eyes widened in utter disbelief.

    "What the hell?" I mouthed.

    But they weren''t done.

    GRAAAAAHHHHH!!! GRAAAAAHHH!!!

    GRAAAAHHH!! GRAHHHHH!!!!!

    "Shut the hell up! You''re just a concubine, know your ce!"

    "You shut up! You old ugly dragon!!"

    The slightest hint of mirth started to appear on Bruce Pang''s shocked face.

    GRAAAHHHHHH!!!! GRAAAAAHHHHHH!!

    GRAAAHHHH!!! GRAAAHH!!!

    "You slimy bitch of a dragon! I will teach you a lesson right here and now!!"

    "Come then! Bring it on you senile old witch!"

    For some reason, I started to feel sorry for the Blue Dragon dude.

    Graaaahhh!! Graaahhhhh!!

    Graahhh!!

    Graaaaaaaahhhhh!! Graaaaahhh!!!!

    Three cute roars suddenly rang out also, just as we reached the end of the cavern.

    "Mommy! Stop fighting with that ugly witch!"

    "Yes mommy, ignore her!"

    "Stop fighting! Dad check on dad''s condition please, he seems kind of strange!"

    The roars may sound cute, but their words cut really deeply.

    GRAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! GRAAGRAGRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!

    A roar of anguish and indignance rang out from the first dragon that was presumably the childless main wife.

    "HUSBAND!!! COME IN AND TEACH YOUR SLUTTY CONCUBINE AND HER HELLSPAWNS A LESSON!!!"

    At her words, a massive portal shimmered into existence and we smoothly entered it without pausing.

    It may be a vicious family drama, but somehow everything worked perfectly for us.

    It would be really troublesome if they didn''t fight and the main wife did not open the portal for us as wepletely had no idea how to make the portal appear!

    Upon entering the portal, we were immediately transported into a strange area.

    Or rather, a more urate description would be, a beautiful paradise.

    It may soundpletely unbelievable, but everything I am about to describe, well everything I have said and will say, for that matter, are all true.

    I don''t need you to believe me, but for the sake of an urate recounting of my time on earth and for posterity to know and enjoy my story, I will leave out no detail, no matter how absurd they will sound.

    And no, it is nothing like the fictional work written by a particr delusional author.

    His stories are meant to entertain.

    Mine are meant to inform.

 Chapter 198 Drama

    The Blue Dragonmunity within earth was an extremely cautious one.

    Firstly, they hid their only entrance deep within the Pacific Ocean, as far away from pesky human eyes as physically possible, protected by kilometers of water.

    Then, they put in ce an advanced stealth force field as their secondyer of defense, mostly to avoid their loud roars and mechanical parts from being detected by sonars and sensors when they were out of their paradise for the asional trip around the ocean.

    Then there was the massive killing room which could easily massacre millions of human beings or hundreds of thousands of their mechas.

    And finally, their hidden entrance in the form of a portal.

    All of these measures pointed to one very clear fact.

    The Blue Dragons were in hiding, and they did not want to get involved with the rest of the world.

    It was the only logical conclusion, of course. If not, why would they live so peacefully for so many uncountable number of years when they had the power to openly rule the entire world?

    And what were theyers of stealth and protection for if not for defending against a powerful enemy, the likes of which the world definitely did not have?

    Apart from these logical conclusions, there was also the matter of the alien mind behind the rapid rise of the Horse Gavarels and the other oceanic civilisations.

    The alien was obviously aware of the existence of devour as he had made precautions to shield his chosen race, the Horse Gavarels, from its power.

    The alien probably thought to use the Horse Gavarels as shock troops to secure Devour when its location was finally revealed.

    And at the same time, although the Horse Gavarels and the Blue Dragons were both biomechs, they were also probably not in the same faction, as evidenced by the Horse Gavarel Leader''s attempt to negotiate with the Blue Dragon.

    The fact that they were not in the same faction, as well as the fact that the Blue Dragons, despite all of their efforts to hide themselves, decided to reveal themselves to this alien who was in possession of the experimental mecha core "Clone", also pointed to an additional conclusion.

    The experimental mecha cores were extremely precious! To the point that the Blue Dragons considered them more valuable than their continued separation from the world!

    All these thoughts ran rampant in my head as we entered the portal without hesitation, and with a boatload of caution and wariness.

    Whoosh!

    One second we were in a gloomy underwater cavern, the next second we were in a vast open grasnd! A massive river windedzily across it towards what seemed like a cliff, ending in a huge waterfall.

    Very, very far away in all directions, silhouettes of massive mountains could be seen.

    Remember, the silhouettes were despite my powerfully enhanced eyesight! Those mountains were really, really far away. Probably a few hundred kilometers away!

    Clear blue skies with only the asional fluff of cloud framed the horizon, creating a vibrant contrast with the sea of green that surrounded us.

    "Where are we?" I whispered to my big bro.

    "Wrong question." He whispered back.

    "What''s the right question then?" I asked.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Where are the other dragons?" He whispered as he scanned the area around us.

    There were no indications of the dragons.

    However, as soon as I cast my resonance out, I could VERY clearly sense the presence of at least a hundred or so mega powerful biomechs!

    I gulped and opened my mouth to tell my big bro about it.

    But before I could do that...

    GRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! GRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!! GRUU!! GRUUU!! GRUUUU!

    "My dearest and super handsome husband!! You ugly witch of a mate was bullying me reaaally badly!! HU HU HU!!!" The AI tranted the roars in a t and emotionless tone.

    Whoosh!

    A strange shimmer appeared somewhere in front of us and at least twenty Blue Dragons appeared.

    "Light refraction? They are able to hide in in sight? Impressive!" Bruce Pang whispered in surprise and in awe.

    GRAAAAAAAAA!!!! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! GRAAAAAA!!!! GRABAAA!!!!

    "Damn you cheap slut! Stay away from Bluey! He must be tired from negotiating with the disgusting seahorses! Stay the hell away before I bite your skinny butt!!" The main wife roared angrily.

    There was no need for introductions, I could identify them very easily.

    The main wife was a massive blue dragon that was almost as fearsome and as imposing as the Blue Dragon dude. She was at least a hundred eighty meters in size, and equally wicked horns protruded from her equally wicked face. In fact, if not for the difference in their sizes, I probably would not be able to tell them both apart.

    The concubine was a much smaller specimen, probably at around a hundred and thirty meters in size, with two simple unicorn horns and a rather simple face and a sinister smile. Its scales were also a more subdued blue in color, and had none of the main wife''s deep luster.

    Three small (rtively) Blue Dragons followed behind her like three cute baby ducklings. Only that they weren''t cute baby ducklings, but horrific evil serpents with a nasty bite and a nastier breath. One of them, the smallest one, looked decidedly different from the rest, with his father''s wicked horns and a shinier set of scales.

    Behind the five of them were around twenty other Blue Dragon warriors, all of them at least a hundred and fifty meters in size with simple horns and pale scales like the concubine.

    I instantly understood the situation.

    Blue Dragon Dude was probably royalty who married another royalty, but had no children. So he married another Blue Dragon who was, s, not royalty. He had three kids with that second wife, and the third one seemed to carry his genes.

    Of course the two wives didn''t get along well.

    One was a high and mighty but childless royalty, the other was a low born but had three kids with the blood of the King.

    "Their squabble might be our only hope of surviving this mess." I told my big bro grimly, a mere split second before the sledgehammer fell on us.

 Chapter 199 Black Pearl

    The sledgehammer was, of course, the hyper intelligent third child.

    "Stop squabbling you guys! Look at daddy! There''s something seriously wrong with him!" He roared with all of his little voice.

    At that moment, as the AI''s trantion sounded lightly through the speakers within our exosuits, I could feel my heart drop like a mic drop from a raised stage down to the dance floor.

    I winced and nced at my big bro to see what his reaction was, but to my frustration, he was being aplete Bruce Pang.

    There was no panic, no worries, just a Mecha God casually studying the dragons and his surroundings.

    Thankfully for us, even though they were terrifying dragons that could easily rule the world with their matchless might, they were also like any family out there.

    They don''t pay much attention to their youngest kids.

    Even though that smartass had raised the rm over the strangely still Blue Dragon dude, the two female dragons were too busy ring and roaring at each other to notice.

    Even the two elder siblings of the smartass didn''t pay any attention to him.

    "Just proceed towards that direction and ignore them." Bruce Pang said casually and pointed towards the north where I could see a massive round stage of sorts somewhere in the distance.

    "How?" I asked him in confusion. "Should I deploy thrusters? Or try and p his wings to fly?"

    "Deploy thrusters and also full armor." Bruce Pang said. "Don''t mind the other dragons. You''re the king of this ce. Act like it."

    "King? That I can do." My eyes brightened at the green light I was given to behave like a Lord of All.

    Whoosh. Whoosh.

    White mecha grade nanoparticle armor formed around the Blue Dragon as well as two massive thrusters that could swivel on its side.

    VROOOOO!!!!!!!

    My thrusters exploded forth with great power and noise as I took off vertically.

    "HEY! HUSBAND! Where are you going??" The concubine roared in anguish.

    "Yeah! That''s right! Just go and ignore this stupid slut! Go have your rest, dear! I have prepared delicious food back ho-..." The main wife began. But as she saw me maneuver the Blue Dragon towards the strange circle stage, she quickly changed her words. "Or you can go to your Circle Trove! Your favorite meditation elixir is there! Go and have some to get yourself some peace and quiet from this noisy slut!"

    "Circle trove. Meditation elixir." Bruce Pang grinned at the incredibly juicy bit of information the main wife just offered up.

    "If there is a circle trove, then there must be square, triangle, rectangle, star etc." I verbalized the bit of good news that was obviously blooming in both our minds. "And meditation elixir! Sounds like exactly what the Ancestor needs."

    "It certainly is. I have read about the legendary meditation elixirs that the Russians found when they did their deep sea explorations in pursuit of maturing their biotech. The elixirs could strengthen the mental faculties of all who ate them by at least fifty percent. Permanently." Bruce Pang said excitedly. "Those elixirs are the only reason the Russians are still viable in this modern age. If not, their utterck of technological breakthroughs would definitely have moved them down to being a third tier country!"

    "And if we can feed the Ancestor these meditation elixirs¡­" I let my words trail as we zoomed across the grass ins towards the circr stage.

    Although it was exciting to think about the idea of the Ancestor sessfully enving a full grown dragon, we still had to figure out how to open the trove and get the meditation elixirs.

    Unfortunately, Bruce Pang''s luck seemed to be running out.

    Instead of leaving the Blue Dragon dude in peace, the damned concubine slut decided not to let things go as they were!

    "NOOO!! HUSBAND!! YOU MUST PUNISH THE OLD WITCH! I AM THE MOTHER OF YOUR CHILDREN!!" The concubine slut roared adamantly and chased after us!

    "Ah damn it." Bruce Pang cursed.

    "I''VE HAD ENOUGH OF THAT UGLY OLD WITCH!! YOU MUST BANISH HER FROM TH-"<novelnext></novelnext>

    SLAP!!!!!

    I did not hesitate at all.

    I turned around in midair by a series of extremely skillful maneuvering, and gave the noisy slut a tight p on her face using my fully armored wings!

    Crack!!!

    I hit her so hard that several scales on her face cracked!!

    For a few seconds, there was only a heavy and stunned silence from all parties, Bruce Pang included.

    And then¡­

    GRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

    "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The AI tranted emotionlessly.

    GRAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Graaahhh!! Graaahhhhhh!!!!

    "HAHAHAHAHA! Well done!!! Well doneee!!!!" The main wife shouted with great exultation.

    "Husband!!! You¡­ you actually pped me!! Don''t you love me anymore? I am the mother of your children!! The mother of your favored Crown Prince who carries 90% of your genes and your power!!"

    "HUSBAND!! You did well in pping that stupid bitch! Here is the treasure you''ve been asking me for! Now that I know your true feelings for her, I have no worries in letting you make use of this ck Pearl for some time!! HAHAHAHA!!!" The main wife shouted joyfully and unleashed an aura of pure majesty for a few seconds.

    Humm.

    A ck Pearl of iparable beauty the size of a human fist drifted from her open maw and floated towards me.

    My resonance touched it briefly, and instantly my heart thundered wildly in my chest.

    BA-DUMP!

    BA-DUMP!

    BA-DUMP!!

    BA-DUMP!!!

    BADUMPPPP!!!!!

    The experimental red mecha core reacted violently within my heart as it sensed the ck Pearl.

    There was no doubt about it.

    The ck Pearl was another "experimental mecha core"!!!!

    Yes, it was nowhere near as powerful as Devour or even Clone.

    But it was on the same level nheless, and had its own extremely powerful effect, whatever that was.

    "Is it what I think it is?" Bruce Pang asked with quiet disbelief.

    "Yes. There is absolutely no mistaking the sense of absolute imprable-ness that I am sensing from it. It is an experimental mecha core!!" I replied with a slightly trembling voice.

 Chapter 200 Big Fat Cocky Little Fox

    As soon as the ck Pearl left the main wife''s maw, it was like she aged a hundred years in an instant. Her vitality dropped low and the deeply horrific aura that surrounded her dropped a few notches in intensity.

    Her majesty and regalness remained untouched, however.

    "Life force." I instantly noticed the clue.

    "Indeed. Don''t devour it. Keep up appearances and continue to act like a king." Bruce Pang cautioned me.

    I moved the Blue Dragon dude''s w and grabbed the ck Pearl. After that, I stared deep into the main wife''s eyes for a few seconds before giving her the tiniest of nods.

    "HAHAHA! Now that we''re on the same page, I am at ease! I am at ease!! Guards! Prepare the Royal Mating Ground!! My dear husband, I will be waiting for you there to give you the best time of your life!!" The main wife roared loudly before leaving with her personal guards.

    "Ro-Royal Mating Ground?! That stupid witch!! Guards!! Prepare my Love Nest Paradise!! My dearest and handsomest husband, I will be waiting for you at our usual ce. Don''t think that you''ve already experienced all the pleasures that I could offer. I recently learned a new mating position that will drive you insane with pleasure!! Come to me!! I will wait for you there!!" The concubine said in a sultry and what must be a draconic version of charm before leaving with her guards and two kids.

    The third and final kid remained.

    "Hahahahahaha!! Wonderful!! What a lucky dragon! He actually can pick between two females everyday? Which one would you choose Justin?" Bruce Pangughed out loud before realizing that he was talking to a ten year old little virgin boy.

    "Ah nevermind I said that." Bruce Pang waved his own words away as he stared at the ck Pearl in extreme interest.

    I ignored his words for the moment, but quietly filed them in my mind to use in ckmail against him one day when I need to.

    I could already see it.

    "Give me that!"

    "No! I won''t"

    "You won''t? Well, why don''t I tell big sister inw about the time when you said that having two females to choose from every night was something super wonderful?"

    "You bastard!!! Here!! Take it! Take it!!!"

    Ha!

    But that was dyed gratification. I decided to bide my time before using it.

    At that moment I did my own intense study of the ck Pearl as well as the third dragonling who was staring at us with deeply suspicious eyes.

    "You are not my father." The dragonling announced. "I know it."

    "Ignore that little kiddo." Bruce Pang said immediately. "Let''s go to the Circle Trove."

    I did as he said and fired my thrusters. The little dragonling followed us stubbornly.

    I ignored him and brought in the ck Pearl so that I could touch it with my bare hands.

    BA-DUMP!!!!!

    As soon as I touched it, my red mecha core nearly exploded in happiness!

    "What the hell is going on?" I asked even as pure ecstacy coursed through my veins.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The ck Pearl glowed lightly and gave out a sensation of rightness as it sat there on my hand like the most beautiful stone in existence.

    Hummm.

    Hummmmm.

    It started to vibrate lightly.

    After a few seconds, I realized that the resonance my red mecha core was giving out was slowly syncing with the ck Pearl!

    "What are you doing?" Bruce Pang asked me in a tone of surprise.

    "What do you mean? I am not doing anything." I immediately replied in confusion.

    Bruce Pang merely pointed at my body.

    I nced down and got the biggest shock of my life!

    My entire body was covered in some sort of ethereal ck mes!

    "What are you doing to the ck Pearl? I can sense its aura changing!" The little dragonling shouted from behind us.

    "He seems to know a lot about the ck Pearl. Maybe we should capture him and interrogate him." I said with a frown.

    My mind raced at top speed as I tried to make sense of the situation. But there was apleteck of information.

    I could not make heads or tails out of it.

    "Or maybe we can negotiate with him. He seems like a pretty smart kid. He knows the adult dragons are not going to listen to him anyway. Let''s see what he wants and what is his price." Bruce Pang said wisely.

    "Ok. To do that, I will capture him anyway." I said and quickly manifested a powerful cage around the little dragonling before establishing amunication bridge with it.

    The little dragonling did not struggle, and merely settled down in the cage as though he had expected it to happen all along.

    As a little dragon, it was rather impressive. It was a full thirty meters long, and probably the height of two double decker buses stacked on top of each other.

    If you can imagine three double decker buses lined up in a line, and you make two such lines, and then stack another six double decker buses on top of them, you will get the approximate size of that little dragonling.

    It was pretty scary facing it as a mere human being, even with a thickyer of white mecha armor between us.

    "Little dragon, you seem to know a lot about the ck Pearl." Bruce Pang began, and spoke into themunication device which quickly tranted his words into ancient dragonnguage and ryed them into the cage.

    "You can skip the chit chat. I want half of the ck Pearl. In exchange, I will let you absorb the other half and gain ess to the entire Circle Trove." The little dragonling immediately said without missing a beat.

    My big bro and I shared a look of pleasant surprise before grinning widely like two wolvesing to an agreement to not only rob but alsopletely manipte a young, innocent, cocky little fox.

    A big, fat, cocky little fox with ess to a dragon n''s riches.

 Chapter 201 Dragonoid Mecha

    "Half the ck Pearl? Ha! You must think that we are a social organization built to help others get rich at the expense of our own assets!" Bruce Pang barked out a scornfulugh.

    "You won''t be able to activate the ck Pearl without me. You can take my offer and gain half of it, or reject me and gain nothing at all." The little cocky dragonling replied.

    "What makes you think we need you to activate the ck Pearl? You said so yourself, we''re already doing stuff to it which you have no idea about." Bruce Pang sneered.

    "That may be so, but you won''t capture me this way if you don''t need me at all. And apart from the ck Pearl, what do you need me for? There''s no greater treasure than the ck Pearl, unless¡­ You have not sessfully taken over my father. And in which case, you''re screwed if you don''t take up my offer." The dragonling said with a sly smile on its little wicked face.

    "This little bastard is good. He is going to be a tough nut to crack." Bruce Pang muttered to me away from thems device.

    "But he still revealed too much of himself to us. Firstly, he told us that he ces great value on the ck Pearl, much more than probably all of the treasure trovesbined. And secondly, he ces more value in getting even half of the ck Pearlpared to his father''s freedom. We can work with that." I said to my big bro with a confident smile.

    "Alright. Why don''t you show me what you''re capable of." Bruce Pang said and let me gain control of thems device.

    "Little dragon, you''re a pretty smart one. Alright, I will negotiate with you. I want ess to all of the treasure troves in your tribe. I want full information on the ck Pearl. And all that for a twenty percent share. Non negotiable." I said in a casual voice.

    "Half the ck Pearl for the Circle Trove. Non negotiable." The dragonling said in a casual voice as well.

    "You seem to have no idea that I was being nice, little dragon. Fine. If you don''t want to cooperate, then maybe you should just spend the rest of your life suffering while I escape with the ck Pearl. My fellow seatribe researchers can definitely figure out how to activate it." I said and immediately shut off themunication device from its side before tightening the cage around the dragonling.

    Stab. Stab. Stab. Stab.

    Thick spears shot out from the sides of the cage and pierced into the little dragonling''s body mercilessly.

    That little dragonling was a damned Crown Prince. He had lived a life of purefort and luxury.

    My brutal and barbaric methods of negotiation took himpletely by surprise!

    "Cold." Bruce Pang nodded in appreciation.

    "Ahhhh!!! Ahhhhh!!! You bastard!! It hurts! It hurtsss!!! Ahhhhhhh!!! You bastardddd!!!!! Aahhhhh!!!"

    Came the screams of anguish from my speakers.

    I ignored his screaming and proceeded tond on the Circle Trove.

    With a single thought, I sent my resonance sweeping across the entire area, and instantly found the entrance mechanism into the Circle Trove!

    "Ha. You want half the ck Pearl for the Circle Trove? Take a good look as I empty out this damned trove in front of your eyes!" I said with a triumphant smirk.

    I deftly manipted the lock mechanism and easily opened the door.

    Click.

    The circr stage split open in halves very smoothly.

    "Excellent. Let me out. I will search for the meditation elixirs immediately." Bruce Pang said as we dropped into the humongous underground room.

    It was like an entire world ss mecha stadium down there. It was so huge that the Blue Dragon dude could roll around in every direction for a full minute and he would not reach the walls of the room.<novelnext></novelnext>

    And that humongous room had piles and piles and piles and piles of shiny, glittering treasure of every single kind!

    I couldn''t help but gulp as I forced down my greed which was rearing its head powerfully in my heart.

    I quickly released Bruce Pang and started to slowly scan the treasures.

    Most of it was of course, gold, precious stones and the sort. There were a couple of piles that had extremely strange looking nts and life forms.

    Another couple of piles which Bruce Pang was excitedly approaching were filled with bottles and boxes of every sort.

    And finally, around ten or so massive piles were¡­ weapons, biomech parts and¡­ mechas.

    "The damned Blue Dragon dude had a collection of mechas!!!" I couldn''t help but shout out excitedly!

    I was like a little boy gaining ess to a treasure vault full of toys r us toys and candies!!

    And most importantly¡­

    A quick scan revealed that there were at least fifty mechas and they were allpletely strange mechas withpletely different hardware and software!!

    I did not hesitate for even a single second.

    Zilch.

    The moment I realized that there were fifty strange mechas, I instantly unleashed my red energy and tried to crush them all into particles!

    Whoosh.

    But nothing happened.

    All of the mechas were totally resistant to my red energy!!

    "Daaaaammmmmmmmmmnnnn itttt!!!!!!" I cursed with extreme frustration.

    It was so bloody close, yet so bloody far!!

    I leapt out of the stitose Blue Dragon dude and made my way to the nearest mecha.

    It was a red dragonoid mecha that was only around fifty meters in size, much like our blue mecha Barons. It had mechanical wings that was folded just like a real dragon, and unicorn horns on its head that indicated its non royal status.

    But my earlier initial resonance indicated that it was no cannon fodder.

    It had the strength of a Count! A peak blue mecha! And for it to be hidden in the Circle Trove, there must be something unique about it.

    Wham.

    My feet hit the mecha''s head heavily and I quickly ced my hand on its cold, shiny armor to give it an extremely detailed scan with my resonance.

 Chapter 202 Stunned

    Peak blue mechas can unleash the power that neared a mini nuclear explosion in a small, one kilometer radius.

    The range of its explosion was the approximate benchmark of its power.

    There was really no need to give the intensity of the explosion that urred within that kilometer radius a deeper measure other than "almost a nuclear explosion" because well, not many would survive it.

    And those that could, would do so with extreme ease.

    You''re either a white mecha grade being, or you''re ashes in a nuclear explosion.

    But as soon as I unleashed my resonance deep into the scarlet dragonoid mecha, I realized that we would soon have to create and name the different levels of explosion intensities.

    Because although the power output of the dragonoid mecha was that of a Count, the technology that powered its explosions was definitely beyond even that of gold mechas.

    It utilized a multi-point injection system in a strange and unique weapon ignition chamber that could either be fired off as a savage energy beam in an all out attack that would drain it of most of its energy, or used more conservatively as propulsion for what looked like extremely high explosive rounds.

    It may sound simple, but then again, a robust engine is but aplex application of simple pulley systems.

    With a single scan, it was abundantly clear to me that the dragons had pushed that particr multi-point injection technology to heights that was probably simr to that of ants looking up at the Eiffel Tower.

    Not only that, each and every aspect of the mecha outssed, outperformed and outpowered every single metric that our peak blue mechas had.

    Some, such as top speed, eleration and maneuvering, probably even outssed our white mechas!

    But that was not the most impressive part about the mecha.

    Oh no, not by far.

    The most impressive part of that mecha was a tiny, almost unnoticeable, grain of sand sized empty chamber in the middle of its body where its heart was supposed to be.

    If not for the obvious energy channels leading away from it to every single conceivable corner of the mecha, I would definitely have missed its existence.

    But there it was, a spot for an energy source that could power the mecha in all of its technological wonders, the size of a mere dot.

    "It is definitely a spot for a piece of the ck Pearl!" I realized as I pieced that empty chamber and the fact that the cocky dragonling had proposed to split the ck Pearl, together.

    "Insanity, the ck Pearl could be split into such small parts? And if such a tiny part is all it takes to power a Count, then wouldn''t the ck Pearl be powerful enough to power even Golden Mechas?"

    I nced at the ck Pearl which was still glowing and at the ck, ethereal mes that still covered me.

    "With Devour and the ck Pearl¡­ I would definitely be unstoppable!!" I thought intensely to myself.

    The only question was, what do I do first? Try and absorb the dragonoid mecha? Or deal with the ck Pearl?<novelnext></novelnext>

    "AHHHH!!! LET ME GO!! I WILL TELL YOU ABOUT THE BLACK PEARL!! I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING!!! LET ME GOO!!!" Came the anguished sound of the answer to my question.

    "Hmph! You should have told me when you had the chance! Now, it is toote. I don''t need your stupid information." I scoffed at the naive little dragonling.

    Always remember, in a negotiation where you have the upper position, the one whopromises first loses, and after your opponentpromises, NEVER agree to it.

    Agreeing to his firstpromise would give him hope, and generate thoughts such as "did I give in too quickly? Should I have held out for more?"

    No, reject hispromise, and force him to take another step down again first.

    You''ll be a stubborn, unreasonable asshole, but you will secure the victory in the negotiation.

    This is very useful especially when you are negotiating with an enemy.

    "NO! YOU NEED ME!! AHHHH!!! THE INFORMATION I WILL GIVE YOU IS SOMETHING YOU WILL NEVER DISCOVER BY YOURSELF!! LET ME GOO!!"

    "Information I will never discover by myself? Like the fact that just a tiny part of the ck Pearl can power an entire Dragonoid Mecha? Or the fact that it has a secret dark power¡­?" I said with a casualugh.

    I had no idea what its secret effect was at that time. I was only trying to sound as though I knew. Describing the effect as "secret dark power" was merely because of the core''s name which had the word "ck" in it.

    But to the foolish dragonling whose mind was clouded by thick fogs of pain, it sounded as though I knew its secret, especially after I revealed the fact that just a tiny part of it could power the dragonoid mecha!

    "Let me go¡­ Please!! I can''t take the pain anymore¡­" The dragonling moaned in defeat. "I cannot bear another second... Please! Please!!"

    "Tell me everything you know now to verify my information. If I find it useful, I might let you go. If its not useful at all, I will leave you in pain until you die. If I find it extremely useful, I might even give you something special. Whether or not you spend the next few days in pain or not is up to you. Do not me me for what will happen to you next. Now speak!" Imanded him with a strong voice.

    ? "I will tell you everything¡­ Everything¡­" The dragonling whined and sobbed. "The ck Pearl is a power source from the Higher Heavens. Its unique power is "Control". As long as a portion of the ck Pearl is imnted into a mecha, the recognized owner of the ck Pearl can control it! Its secondary effect is unlimited power. Please¡­ Let me go¡­"

    Higher Heavens.

    Control.

    Secondary effect.

    Unlimited power.

    Was I stunned?

    You''re damn right I was.

 Chapter 203 Oath

    The most pressing question among all of the pressing questions that the dragonling''s confession raised was¡­

    "What is the secondary effect of Devour?" I thought to myself. "Is the breakdown of mechas considered one effect, and devour another effect, and the manifestation as another effect? Or are they all considered one effect? If they are separate effects, then wouldn''t there be three effects?"

    "And? Just two effects? You really like being in pain huh?" I asked him, careful to inject a huge amount of scorn and remove all traces of excitement from my voice.

    "The tertiary effect¡­ We do not know it yet! Ahhhhhhh!! The pain is unbearable¡­ We do not know it yet!! Its¡­ My father said it is missing a crucial trigger! We don''t have the trigger! We¡­

    ¡­ ¡­

    You! You have the trigger!! That''s why you know so much¡­ That''s why you are able to do something strange to the ck Pearl!"

    "Well well well. You maybe a naive little dragon. But you definitely are also a smart little bastard aren''t you?" I conceded that much to the foolish dragonling.

    "But don''t you also know that knowing too much could be very detrimental to your lifespan?"

    "No! NO!!! Ahhhhhh!!!! Nooooooo!!!!" The dragonling wailed brokenheartedly when it finally realized it had inadvertently struck the nails in its own coffin.

    "I can''t let you go now, but I can let you live. In fact, I can let you live and make you the most powerful dragon ever. Do you want that?" I asked him lightly.

    "Yes! Yes! I want it! I will do anything! I will be anything! Just release me from this pain!!!" The dragonling shouted with all of its heart.

    In situations of extreme pain and doom, hope, even a distant hope, bes a power that would drive any life form to do the wildest and craziest things.

    And in that particr case, the dragonling was driven to do the one thing that no dragon in the long history of dragons had ever done.

    "Swearplete fealty to me. I want your loyalty to me to be above and beyond all other loyalties, including to your race, n, family and¡­ your own blood." I said half seriously and half carelessly.

    Of course I wanted hisplete fealty. But at the same time, I had no idea how to make his oath binding, so I just asked for the most stringent and most extreme one.

    You can imagine my very pleasant surprise when I found out that dragons are able to invoke the power of nature itself to bind their oaths!

    The dragonling had no idea I didn''t know that, and so it assumed that I knew, and invoked the full power of nature to bind his oath.

    "I swear!! I swearplete fealty to you! Above my race, my n, my family and my blood!! Let nature be my witness and my executor if I break this oath!!" The dragonling shouted in a resigned voice.

    Whoosh! Crack!!!

    At that moment, a gust of strange wind blew at me and a tiny streak of ck lightning appeared out of nowhere and struck the dragonling''s body.

    All at once, I knew without a single shred of doubt that the oath was in effect, and if the dragonling broke it, the ck lightning that entered its body earlier would instantly kill it from within.

    Additionally, the oath also suppressed the dragon''s active emotions, and made it calmly obedient to me. It was the only way forplete fealty to take ce, and nature made it happen.

    It was amazing.

    "Huh? So¡­ Now I own a baby dragon!?" I remember thinking in surprise. And then of course came the unbridled joy that all lottery winners probably felt when receiving a very desired but unexpected prize!

    "Hehehehehehehehehehehehe." Iughed maniacally deep in my heart.

    I waved my hand, and quickly released the dragonling from its misery.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Plop!

    It dropped out of the cage I made for it, and crumpled onto the ground in a very pathetic and miserable heap.

    It was in very, very bad shape.

    Four huge circr stab wounds on its body were releasing huge quantities of blood, and it was visibly weakening every second.

    I nced around the Circle Trove and quickly tried my luck in breaking down several of the nearest mechas around me.

    "They couldn''t all be fully resistant to my red energy, right?" I muttered to myself. "Surely there must be one or two that''s¡­ YES!"

    An ancient looking serpentine mecha with old, semi rusted armor trembled lightly as my red energy mmed into it from all directions.

    Although it did not break down outright into particles, it was the only one that reacted.

    There was a w in its red-energy resistant armor!

    Without further ado, I sent all of my red energy which was spread out across a wide area surging towards it and smashed into it with incredible power.

    CRACK!!!

    It broke apart into pieces first before at longst¡­ POOF!

    It disappeared into particles!

    I absorbed all of its software, technology in one fell swoop, while leaving all of its armor out.

    "Since Devour is divided into three effects namely break down, absorb and manifest, it would be logical if I can use them separately. And if that is the case, then I should be able to manipte the mecha particles without absorbing and gaining possession of them. And if I could do that, then I would be able to instantly create mechas at will! I would be a portable mecha factory!!"

    BA-DUMP!

    BA-DUMP!

    I was excited.

    Very, very excited.

    If it was true, then I would just devour the materials for a million mechas, manifest them into a million even more powerful ones, insert parts of the ck Pearl into them, and vo!

    I would have a million mechas under my direct control!!

    "Let''s see if it works." I muttered to myself excitedly.

    I waved my hand again, and quickly injected a surge of nano medibots made up of the serpentine armor particles into the dying dragonling''s body and started to close its wounds with the mecha grade armor.

    At the same time, I even took the most powerful biomech design which I had personally enhanced and implemented it into him.

 Chapter 204 G-Drake

    As a baby dragon, it wasn''t a biomech yet, and fixing his near fatal wounds seemed like a good asion to formally enroll him into the life of dragon biomechs.

    Within minutes, its constant moans and groans subsided, reced by an asional grunt of pain as the nano tech worked at full speed to heal him then install a series of top grade biomech parts!

    That serpentine mecha I absorbed maybe really old, but it was still made up of armor which was incredibly strong at peak blue-mecha level.

    Within a short minute, the dragonling started to look really, really cool.

    How cool?

    Please remember that I was a ten year old designing and making my first biomech. If you think about it from that perspective, maybe you could understand why the dragonling looked like it did.

    The very first thing I did was to make it more like a true ancient chinese dragon than a mixture of chinese and western dragon.

    I restructured its wings and made them really short in wingspan. However, I stretched them all the way down for half its body length, making it look more like a Concorde rather than a standard Boeing 747.

    For its flight module, I gave it a Vertical Take Off and Landing system, so it had no need to depend on its wings anymore.

    Next, I gave its four limbs a huge boost in strength and the ability to stretch out for three times its original length.

    When I was younger, I had a passing interest in a fictional monster called Godzi. I was fascinated by how the fins on its back could glow and generate some sort of power that would allow it to release a powerful energy beam.

    Now, with the knowledge of countless incredible technologies, I was able to conclusively say that the person who thought of the fin idea for Godzi was either from the future which had extremely inefficient technology or a technological fool.

    Energy absorption and the following reaction to generate energy beams could not be done that way. It would be highly inefficient with a horrendous amount of energy loss, and insanely difficult to implement with a stupidly massive need to create energy pathways to allow the energy to move.

    Plus, it would be a massive liability duringbat. Who on earth would want their energy absorption devices so out in the open and so easy to rip off?

    However, on the cool scale, it was off the charts.

    So I gave the dragonling that.

    Of course, I made it so that they were merely secondary methods of energy absorption and conversion, a mini and inefficient turbo to the main engine, if you will.

    But twin lines of sharp fins ran parallel down its back when I was done with my modification.

    It was able to unleash its standard dragon breath, and choose to double its payload as and when it liked by activating the mod.

    The dragon breath would serve as its primary long range weapon. Of course I did not forget to give it a host of advanced energy turrets and the standard propulsion machine guns and missiles.

    My offensive package made it was a veritable war machine.

    I did not forget to include a mini pod on its body, of course.

    I had a dragon, and I will be damned if I don''t take it for joyrides once in a while!

    Finally, I gave all of the biomech mods I made a Growth Module, one that would grow along with the dragonling. I would have to periodically inject additional mecha armor particles into this module to keep up with the dragonling''s growth, but that was easy for me.

    I was very very pleased when I was done with my first masterpiece.

    And I was even more pleased that my insane idea worked!!

    "Hot damn! Mecha Emperor with millions of Mecha Army, here Ie!" I thought to myself as I admired my handiwork.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I shall name you, Godzi Dragon." I pronounced solemnly. "But because it is too long, your nickname shall be G-Drake."

    "G-Drake greets master." The rtively small but still very big thirty meter long enhanced dragon biomech rumbled loudly.

    "Good. Now tell me how to make this ck Pearl recognize me as its master." I immediately got down to business as soon as I finished inspecting my new toy in approval.

    I still had the ancient serpentine mecha I absorbed earlier to study and dissect, but it was nowhere as interesting as the ck Pearl.

    I wanted the main course first.

    "Give the mecha core a single drop of your blood, master. If it ispatible with the core, it would respond." G-Drake said.

    I smacked my forehead when I heard those words. Hard.

    "I should have known!" I grumbled to myself. "It was exactly how I got Devour in the first ce!"

    I quickly slit my hand and allowed a drop of my blood to trickle down to the glowing orb.

    And as soon as they touched, WHOOSH!!

    POOF!!!

    ck Pearl broke down into particles and streamed into my body in a small but dense wave of ck energy!!

    My eyes widened and my mouth opened in pleasure as the red energy in my body started to devour ck Pearl!

    Cling!!!

    A clear tinkle sounded from somewhere in my body as Devour and Control began to merge together.

    And then a feeling that I never wanted to feel ever again swept through my body.

    Fshhhhhhhh.

    My red energy disappeared without a trace, and Devour turned dormant as it retracted everything to digest Control.

    "DAMN IT! WHAT THE HELL???" Came Bruce Pang''s angry shout from somewhere in the pile of rare medicine treasures as his exosuit disappeared.

    "I just devoured the ck Pearl! Devour is trying to digest it and it suddenly went dormant!" I shouted at him to quickly exin the situation.

    "What??? Doesn''t that mean that the old man''s exosuit is also gone?" Bruce Pang shouted.

    "Damn. He''s right!" I thought in horror as I looked up at the Blue Dragon which was still unconscious. All of the armor I had ced around it was gone. But I could hear very clearly that his heartbeat was already speeding up slightly.

    The old man was losing control of the mental envement process!

    "Big bro! You got the elixir?" I shouted desperately at him.

    "Yes! Running back now!" Came his shout in reply.

    "G-Drake! Bring that guy up to your father''s head area now!" I ordered.

 Chapter 205 Going Back

    G-Drake quickly brought Bruce Pang up to the Ancestor''s location where he stuffed the meditation elixir into his mouth without missing a beat.

    I arrived a split secondter and could not help but cry out in shock.

    It was no wonder that the Blue Dragon was winning the battle against the old man.

    The highly corrosive Dragon Saliva vapor was leaking from its body, and it had caused the old man''s skin to bubble everywhere! Many of the bubbles had even burst, causing blood to seep out from those wounds.

    The Ancestor was in a world of pain, and it was affecting his mental battle against the Blue Dragon.

    Thankfully, Bruce Pang knew exactly what would happen, and he brought along other medicine that could help resist the Dragon Saliva vapor and heal the old man''s wounds.

    He administered those medicine quickly, and the old man''s condition rapidly improved.

    But the damage was done.

    The Blue Dragon had turned the tables around, and it was winning the battle. Its heartbeat had increased to around 50% of its normal rate, and would soon recover.

    There was no time to lose.

    We had to escape.

    There was no way that we would be able to deal with a pissed off Blue Dragon which had assimted with Clone, and who just had his Crown Prince enved by me.

    No bloody way.

    "Let''s go." I said grimly and pointed to the joyride pod on G-Drake which I had very fortunately made earlier. "I have enved this dragonling. We can escape with him."

    Bruce Pang turned to look at me and nodded.

    He grabbed the Ancestor and within seconds, we were squeezed together in the small pod, and then we were off.

    We blitzed past the entrance of the Circle Trove and exploded towards the portal at incredible speed.

    The Americans and Europeans were probably still out in the Pacific Ocean, of course.

    But meeting them was far better than meeting with an angry dragon.

    In fact, having the dragon meet with the other human factions would be an interesting sight to see. I wasn''t opposed to that scenario at all.

    I kept looking back, fully expecting an angry Blue Dragon king to burst out and chase after us in full fury.

    But thankfully, it never did.

    "It must still be reeling from the battle with the Ancestor. The Ancestor isn''t awake either." Bruce Pang said reassuringly.

    I nodded and breathed out heavily.

    We escaped the Blue Dragonir at hyperspeed, and plunged into the dark icy waters of the chasm.

    "How''s the old man?" I finally asked as a measure of relief flooded my heart.

    "He''s fine. In fact, he is more than fine. He had eaten a meditation elixir and a bunch of rare treasures that would make him many times stronger physically. He should be waking up soon." Bruce Pang said as he eyed me with a thoughtful look.

    "That''s good to know. But what the heck are you doing looking at me like that?" I asked him as I squirmed ufortably in that small pod.<novelnext></novelnext>

    It was a spacious pod for one person.

    But for three, it was woefully small. Bruce Pang''s face was a mere meter or two away from mine.

    "I presume that your body does not need anymore strengthening after eating another experimental core and a huge bunch of Gavarels?" He asked me curiously.

    "Yeah. I am stronger than most white mechas. You don''t have to worry about my body." I said confidently.

    "Good." Bruce Pang nodded. "So I don''t need to give you anything. I didn''t manage to take many rare medicinal treasures with me. I will share what I have with your sister inw and the rest of the Blood Moon team."

    "Oh, yes sure. I don''t need any physical boosting treasures." I said as I nced at his bulging backpack.

    Didn''t take many rare treasures? Yeah right.

    I nced at the old man for a second or two and nodded in wonder. His vitals were strong, and a trace of ck was already showing at the roots of his white hair.

    That damn old man was actually turning back time and bing physically younger!

    Ridiculous.

    But it was good news.

    The longer we had him around, the better it would be for the country.

    I nced at the control panel and noticed that it would take us almost an hour to reach the academy if we set off now.

    "Should we go back? Or should we hang out here first?" I asked my big bro.

    "I need to check the ck and white hearts in Chronos. Your body should be able to withstand the water pressure, right? Get into Chronos and check the situation." He said as he shoved a small Chronos keychain into my hand.

    I did as he said, and quickly made my way into Chronos.

    A sense of frustration surged in my heart as I saw a white ball intact behind a small ss panel. Next to it were ck coloured broken pieces.

    The ck heart had shattered.

    The coast was not only not clear, it was fully dominated by the enemy.

    I took the white heart with me and made my way back to the pod.

    "What do we do now?" I asked Bruce Pang with a frown.

    "The blue dragon is probably still unconscious. And if that''s the case, we must avoid alerting the Americans and Europeans to our activities here. For now... We hide. The most dangerous ce is the safest ce. Let''s go back to the blue dragonir." Bruce Pang said calmly.

    I gulped and then nodded.

    "G-Drake. You heard the man. Find us the safest hiding spot in yourir." I instructed him. "Make it quick! We don''t want to meet with your dad."

    "Understood." G-Drake said calmly and turned around to go back into the portal.

    I was worried about the blue dragon, of course. But I was also quite looking forward to having my red energy restored and absorbing the rest of the awesome mechas in the Circle Trove!

 Chapter 206 Streamlining Efficiencies

    That was life, I guess.

    One second you wanted nothing but getting your ass out of a ce, and the next second, that very ce became the ce you had to get to as quickly as possible.

    We dived into the portal once more and found ourselves back at the same open grasnd.

    Swoosh.

    G-Drake swerved right as soon as we appeared and he flew at an impressive speed towards one of the medium sized mountains that seemed to ring the entire ce.

    There was absolutely nothing I could do to improve our situation at that moment.

    My red energy waspletely dormant, and I had lost all of my powers

    Apart from being exceptionally thick skinned which could allow me to resist even a minor nuclear explosion, I was just a in little boy sitting in a pod on the belly of a startlingly striking biomech dragon.

    Which wasn''t a good thing in that situation. We wanted to hide and stay away from unwanted attention. But we were traveling in broad daylight in the most ring ride ever to grace the skies of that blue dragonir.

    None in their n had ever seen a dragon biomech which had such strange wings and cool back fins!

    If even a single eye were to catch sight of G-Drake at that moment, we would be screwed.

    "Fly low and fast." Bruce Pang instructed G-Drake calmly.

    As if he knew that Bruce Pang was my elder, G-Drake obeyed him instantly.

    Bruce Pang''s insane luck held strong that day though, and we managed to spend the most part of our trip towards the mountains in peace.

    The idea of traveling so far in the open just to get to a hiding spot irked me to no end, but there was no choice.

    We were in a wide open grasnd afterall.

    After around half an hour of high speed flying and unbelievable luck, we finally reached our destination.

    The mountain range to the east of the grasnd.

    Although it looked like we were flying towards a medium sized mountain range, it still turned out to be a massive, massive set of towering mountains which pierced the clouds and disappeared from our view into the heavens.

    We were like a tiny flea flying around the base of the Empire State Building.

    G-Drake brought us deep into the mountains, past valleys and winding rivers and waterfalls and mini forests.

    Finally after another ten minutes of zigzag flying, we reached a rtivelyrge forest which had a beautiful horseshoe shaped waterfall feeding a massive river which winded through its center.

    It was a pretty sight.

    Not because of the wondrous natural view, but because of the cover the humongous trees afforded us.<novelnext></novelnext>

    We dived into the forest and crashed through the canopies of the massive trees beforending at a small clearing near the river. G-Drake''s ease in finding such an awesome spot indicated that the clearing was probably his personal secret spot.

    I remember the pleasant surprise I felt when I stepped out of the pod.

    The air was thick with a sharp, woody foresty smell and I could also make out a scent of herbs from somewhere nearby.

    Strange trees of several kinds towered from all around me, and left me feeling rather small.

    "These trees would probably be sticks in my hand if I could turn into my ultimate mecha form." I muttered lightly as I looked up and squinted my eyes to try and see the top of the trees.

    I couldn''t.

    "Don''t be so intimidated by the size of mere trees." Bruce Pang chuckled at my words. "You''re not in apetition against nature."

    "I am not intimidated. As soon as I regain my power, these trees are but little sticks." I frowned at Bruce Pang and quickly made my way towards a cluster of huge rocks that overlooked the massive river nearby.

    I sat down on one of the rocks and started to regte my breathing. Meditating would calm my body down and ce it in an optimal state which could be beneficial to the red energy.

    It may be an inconsequential thing, but I wanted to speed up the process of the red energy digesting the ck Pearl as much as I could, and every little speed boost mattered.

    G-Drake sat down obediently next to me while Bruce Pang carefully tended to the still unconscious old man.

    The situation was very calm and serene, and very soon, I was lulled into a semi-conscious state of rest.

    At the back of my head, my brain processed all the blueprints and designs of everything I had absorbed in the past few hours while my body fine tuned itself to give my red energy as much support as possible.

    There was nothing much we could do, really, until the white heart crumbles.

    And so, just like that, hours passed.

    There wasplete silence in that small clearing.

    However, it was a different case entirely in my mind.

    Even though I was in a semi-conscious state, the back of my mind was an explosion of fireworks. After absorbing the strange serpentine mecha and fully digesting its design, it was like my mind was evolving in creative and highly imaginative ways.

    The strange but wondrous alien principles that powered the serpentine mecha were very clearly notches above human-derived engineering and design principles!

    I had thought that the design of white mechas were a thing of incredible beauty. But the design of the serpentine mecha opened my eyes like never before.

    I started to notice horrendous inefficiencies in energy conversion and application within the design of human white mechas, as well as gross deficiencies in the ability to conserve energy in pathway designs.

    What was once beautiful turned out to be fat, bloated and full of unnecessary trinkets!

    "This is great. As soon as my red mecha core finishes devouring Control and awakens, my full power output would at the very least triple in strength, and I would be able to fight all out for at least ten times longer." I remember thinking very emotionlessly.

 Chapter 207 Shapeshifting

    The human mecha designers and engineers weren''t actually bad.

    The fact that they actually managed to create military grade two hundred meter tall metal behemoths capable of flexible fighting like a real human being bore testament to that.

    It was just that we were a very young race.

    We did not have the umtions of the aliens which had millions of years under their belt, and strings of failures that would beggar a billion earths.

    And without failures and time, how would we learn?

    And so the aliens did it much better than us in terms of mechas.

    Design objectives that we needed three to four big devices to aplish were aplished in one tiny device, whileyers uponyers of instion and the sort were discarded and reced by only a thinyer of cream-like substance, a result of ingenious elemental maniption that surpassed anything our smartest and craziest minds could imagine.

    Massive amounts of space were freed and made avable to store other much more critical parts - firepower.

    That serpentine mecha''s power was approximately equivalent to a standard white mecha. But with such incredible tech, I suspected that in the alien''s military line up, it was but a cannon fodder.

    That thought actually sent chills down my spine.

    We weren''t alone in the universe, and those with whom we shared the universe were millions of years ahead of us in terms of technology and strength.

    We needed to increase our strength, and fast! Our mecha grades had to rise exponentially in strength in order to be able to survive the eventual confrontation we would have with the aliens.

    And at that moment, I was humanity''s only hope. I needed to steal their tech, and just like the sea civilisations, leapfrog thousands, even millions of years of experimentation to reach tech maturity within decades.

    The road was extremely long, but every journey of a thousand miles started with a single step, and I had just taken it.

    The serpentine mecha I absorbed was probably an ancient alien relic, judging by the state of disuse and rust that covered every part of it.

    However, old rusted junks do not have a ce in dragon treasure troves. I knew that there was something special about the old serpentine mecha, and I wasted no time studying its design in minute detail to determine exactly what its X factor was.

    Due to the huge amount of wondrous technology that was contained within the serpentine mecha, it was not readily apparent to me which one of them was the X factor.

    All of them looked really epic to me!

    I decided to go through them one by one, and ponder upon them and their massive implications.

    However, the simple act of overviewing all the avable tech and breakthroughs already took several hours. If I were to do aplete analysis, it would probably take days!

    I opened my eyes and nced at Bruce Pang who was meditating next to the still unconscious Ancestor.

    All seemed peaceful.

    "I probably have time. The Americans and Europeans would probably take more than a few days to scour the entire ocean. Might as well start now. It would be good for me to be fully ready to make full use of these tech breakthroughs as soon as Devour wakes up." I thought before I sunk my mind into the wondrous process ofbining alien design principles with human ones.

    Without realizing it, time passed very quickly once more.

    The hours turned into a day.

    And one day turned into three.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Apart from doing the bare physical necessities, I waspletely focused on the study of new alien tech.

    You might wonder just how much could be aplished by studying for only three days. But you would be surprised.

    A Eureka! Moment only needed a few seconds of enlightenment and realization.

    I got like a thousand of those within the first few hours.

    The next few days were spent studying the "answer sheet" in the form of the serpentine mecha and then re-engineering the white mecha designs I had in my mind.

    Why stick with the white mecha designs that I already had and not recreating new ones from scratch?

    Well for one, I had no ess to alien raw materials, so I would not be able to create mecha army if I recreated a brand new design using purely alien design principles and tech.

    Secondly, although human beings were far behind in terms of tech, ourck of ability actually forced us to be creative in other ways. There are still several things that we did better than the aliens.

    Little things, true, but these are little advantages that we would have over the aliens, and I wanted to maximise them.

    And finally, I am a human being, for god''s sake. I would be damned if I only used their tech and none of ours!

    After three days, the barebones re-design and re-engineering of ck Prince waspleted.

    Let us call that design, ck Serpent Prince.

    My ck Serpent Prince was a true beauty.

    It retained its humanoid form and its original look of hyper coolness.

    However, in terms of its deadliness, I could safely say that if I were to meet with the ugly as hell Horse Gavarel Leader once more, I would be able to kill it within seconds.

    Screw fighting skills.

    Screw experience.

    The shocking power and utility that my ck Serpent Prince was able to bring forth would trap it within one simple move and then kill it with the next!

    My armor, which was already near the peak of white mecha strength, easily exceeded the maximum limit and entered Golden Mecha level.

    In terms of energy output, conversion, maniption, storage and movement, I was also probably at the very cusp of Golden Mecha level.

    Yes. I understand that golden mechas are a thousand times stronger than white mechas.

    I was truly very, very close to that level.

    However, it was in terms of utility which I truly excelled at that moment.

    The first utility was shapeshifting.

 Chapter 208 Dumbass Sense Of Design

    Previously, I was able to change my form as and when I liked. It was the power that my red energy afforded me.

    However, as with all forms of energy usage, excessive use would deplete it, and if I were to keep using the red energy to withdraw and remanifest my forms, I would not be able to use it for extended periods of time.

    At that moment after absorbing so much alien tech, one of the more useful utility effects I got was near instant morphing.

    To avoid getting into a deeply technical discourse, I would make my exnation of the tech very short.

    In brief, what the tech did was two very critical things.

    The first was to allow materials to have a vastly increased capacity to store energy within them, and the second was to regte the state of the material by manipting said energy.

    At very specific temperatures and kic state, the material was programmed to change its state from near imprable solid armor to a simrly imprable but highly mobile liquid state which would then allow the mecha to shapeshift.

    It sounds very simr to the nanotech that human beings already have, and to an extent, they both work on the same basic principles.

    However, the keywords in my exnation would be "imprable" and "specific temperatures and kic state".

    The good thing about the alien tech was that they were able to maintain a state of imprability during the entire shape shifting process, and notpromise on safety even for a microsecond.

    However, their weakness was that they were not controlled by the mind. The specific temperatures and kic state served as a form of physical password for the shapeshifting process. It was vastly different from the nanotech of human beings which could be controlled at will.

    Controlling tech using brainwaves was one of the aliens'' few weaknesses, and I did not forget to fully exploit that.

    Ibined their epic energy maniption tech with our nanotech, and created a mecha that could shapeshift at will without loss in armor integrity, and without much energy expenditure.

    To put it simply, I had seeded in making a function of my red energy into viable tech which could be mass produced!

    The second utility which I had managed to partially master was spatial shield.

    At that moment, I was able to manipte spatial energy in a very unique manner that allowed me to create a spatial shield around a predetermined object. That spatial shield would cause every iing thing be it energy or matter, to enter a dimensional tunnel with preset distance which would allow them to pass by the object without touching it.

    In effect, it was like giving the shielded object the effect of phasing out to avoid being impacted. But instead of the object phasing out, it was the spatial shield which made the iing energy or matter to phase out.

    It was a utility with a massive amount of creative applications, and I couldn''t wait to put them into action.

    I could already imagine my swords bypassing shields and my opponents'' attacks missing me entirely!

    The third and final utility was, of course, the most epic.

    Invisibility.

    No, it is not advanced stealth.

    It is visual invisibility, pure and simple.

    For a very limited amount of time, I was able to manipte my mecha to bepletely permeable to light!

    It was a physical impossibility.

    But the aliens managed to develop that ability.

    And I got my hands on it.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The question was, which one was the X factor? Or was there another one which I missedpletely?

    But before I could give the issue more thought, a piece of good news finally came our way.

    "UWAAAA!!!" The Ancestor suddenly opened his eyes and screamed!

    "Old man!" Bruce Pang shouted in concern.

    "Damn damn damn damn damn damn!!" The Ancestor cursed aloud. His curses wasn''t all "damn", of course. But everything else apart from it was too filthy to be mentioned here.

    So let''s just assume it''s all damn.

    Upon hearing his very creative string of curses, I smiled without even bothering to open my eyes.

    He was healthy, alright.

    "What''s wrong? What happened?" Bruce Pang asked.

    "I almost had that big fat lizard! I almost had it! It was so close!" The Ancestor howled in frustration, anguish and fury all in one.

    "Oh. That sucks." Bruce Pang scrunched up his nose slightly in disappointment."But more importantly, how''s the dragon? Is it awake? We are still currently hiding in hisir."

    At his words, the Ancestor''s eyes widened slightly in surprise and dismay.

    "We are hiding IN HIS LAIR?" He said with a slight wince.

    "As you always say, the most dangerous ce is the safest ce." Bruce Pang said.

    "Indeed that is true. But this particr dragon is a little bit more than just dangerous. I''ve pissed him off too much for it to merely be wholly furious at me and our human race. If he somehow discovers us here..." The Ancestor said grimly.

    "Hence my question, how is it? Is it awake?" Bruce Pang asked.

    "It is not. I have inflicted a horrendous amount of mental damage to its brain. I expect that it would take at least three days to wake up from its pain. Maybe-"

    Graaaaaaaahhhhhh.

    A distant roar of absolute draconic rage sounded softly.

    Even with such great distance, its blinding fury could still be felt quite keenly.

    "It has been three days!?" The Ancestor asked sharply.

    "Apparently the damage you took wasn''t light either." Bruce Pang nodded.

    "We need to get out of this ce as soon as possible. The world is in danger." The Ancestor said very seriously. "That damned dragon won''t rest until it finds me and kills me. Update me on the situation."

    Sinctly, Bruce Pang told him everything.

    "I see. So this is G-Drake." The Ancestor eyed my awesome dragonling as soon as Bruce Pang finished.

    He sighed deeply and muttered. "Kids and their dumbass sense of design."

 Chapter 209 Giant Mutated Squid

    "But we have much bigger things to worry about than just ugly dragonlings." The Ancestor nced at me. "How is Devour? How long till it finishes digesting Control?"

    "I have no idea. It ispletely dormant now. There are no clues" I said with a shrug.

    Grahhhh! Graaahhhh!!! Graaaahhhh!!!

    The sound of many, many blue dragons roaring suddenly rang out faintly.

    The dragons were on the move. But strangely..

    "They are not leaving their? They know that we are still here!" I eximed with a start.

    "Father has a treasure that can, to an extent, aid him to sense the general location of someone he has had close contact with. They know we are still here in thisir." G-Drake calmly dropped a bombshell on us.

    "Damn." The Ancestor cursed softly. "How specific is this "general sensing" you''re talking about?"

    "The treasure bes more urate the stronger Father''s emotions are about the target, and also the closer the contact Father has had with the target." G-Drake said.

    "Then it is safe to assume that he knows we are here. And in that case, we are faced with two very real facts. The world is still safe from the dragons because he won''t be leaving anytime soon, and that we are pretty much screwed." The Ancestor said gloomily.

    "Not necessarily." G-Drake said. "I know a secret passage that would lead us out of this ce."

    At that, we all fell silent. The choice that we faced was pretty difficult.

    Stay in the blue dragonir and keep the world safe at massive cost to ourselves, or escape from their and risk unleashing the dragons upon the world?

    Or... The third choice. Leave the old man behind.

    "You both leave now with the dragonling." The Ancestor instantly picked that third choice andmanded us to leave him behind.

    Both my big bro and I remained silent.

    I was silent because I knew without a shred of doubt that I was leaving, and as hardened as my heart was, it still did not feel good leaving someone behind.

    My big bro was silent because he was probably, no, definitely weighing the probabilities of him staying and somehow being able to make an impact and turn things around, against the fact that the Federation still needed him and everything he had to offer.

    Was the risk of him dying there worth the potential reward of saving the old man?

    "It is not worth it." The old man shook his head at Bruce Pang. "Leave. I can take care of myself. Do not forget your responsibilities. Billions of souls, each far too precious to measure, need you and your leadership. Do not betray their trust."

    The old man did not mince words and immediately struck at Bruce Pang''s rock solid sense of responsibility.

    Bruce Pang''s lips twitched slightly, probably holding back a mouthful of curses at the damned old man for mentioning the obvious and fast forwarding his decision process to remove the agonizing internal back and forth that would have served to lessen his guilt slightly.

    The Ancestor smiled at him wryly.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "You do not have a moment to lose. Save the ninny whiny goodbyes for if I really die. Go before they discover us. Where is this escape tunnel you mentioned, dragonling?"

    "It is right here, at the center of this river." G-Drake said.

    "Very good." I nodded in approval at his impressive initiative. "I assume nobody else knows about this escape tunnel?"

    "My mother probably knows. But she has no idea I am sworn to you now. So there is no reason to suspect that you have all escaped through this particr passage. We just have to send the Ancestor away first before we escape."

    "Drop me somece nearby and thene back here immediately to escape then." The Ancestor said. "Just far enough to move their attention and focus away from the secret passage."

    "There is a better way." G-Drake said calmly.

    "Tell us." Imanded him immediately.

    G-Drake gave a soft growl ofmand, and a slight rustling sounded from all around us.

    Within seconds, rtively small dragon-like creatures appeared. They were only three meters in size, hornless and with leathery wings that made look like mutated snakes than dragons.

    "Wyverns!" The Ancestor eximed in pleasant surprise.

    G-Drake growled a couple more times, and thergest, four meter long wyvern stepped forward hesitantly.

    "Good! With wyverns, I might even be able to mount a counter attack, and resume my mental attack on the blue dragon!" The Ancestor said with an excited gleam in his eyes.

    "Good good." Bruce Pang said with relief. "In that case, let''s go! Here. Take these treasures with you. You might need them."

    Bruce Pang tossed his bulging back of treasures at the old man, who nced at its inside before nodded once in gratitude.

    The fact that Bruce Pang did not hesitate to give all of the treasure to the old man, and the fact the old man did not hesitate to receive it told me many, many more things about them in that instant than the past few daysbined.

    The old man held a very important role in Bruce Pang''s heart, and that the old man''s chances of making it out alive from this predicament was actually quite low.

    There was nothing much else we could do other than say a simple goodbye.

    The Ancestor got onto the navy blue wyvern and pinched a strange flower of sorts that made the Wyvern''s eyes ze for a brief moment. And immediately after that, the wyvern took off with a powerful kick and flew off towards the grassy ins once more, angling towards a different mountain range to our left.

    "Let''s go." I said to my big bro, and we both entered the pod once more. "Where will this passage lead us to?"

    "There is a small portal that will lead us to an underwater cave not far from the real portal''s chasm." G-Drake replied.

    "Perfect." I said enthusiastically and made myselffortable in the pod.

    "However, that cavern is home to a giant mutated squid. We might need to fight it the moment we exit the portal." G-Drake added.

 Chapter 210 Insane Big Bro

    "Giant mutated squid? Sounds delicious." I said off handedly. After facing a massive blue dragon and hundreds of thousands of Horse Gavarels, a giant mutated squid sounded really meh.

    "My father once said that if the squid is 25 percent smaller, he would hunt it down and eat it. But because it is so darned big and strong, getting to eat it was not worth the effort to kill it." G-Drake borated calmly.

    "Tell me the coordinates of the cave." Bruce Pang said. "I will get Chronos to standby in the area. With Chronos, killing mere beasts would not be a problem."

    G-Drake obliged and told him where it was even as we dived into the river and made our way towards the secret passage.

    "What is so troublesome about the squid?" I asked curiously.

    "Its skin is extremely rubbery and almost impossible to prate. Going against its thirty rubbery tentacles is just too troublesome. It would attack you from all directions and squeeze your body parts with surprisingly overwhelming strength. The tentacles are pure muscle, and could bring forth an incredible amount of strength." G-Drake said.

    "Sounds chewy and nutritious." I chuckled, unwilling to take a mere squid seriously, even one that the king of blue dragons found annoying.

    If it was mere physical strength and tough sticity, I was not worried in the slightest!

    The damned squid might be able to resist the sharpness of the blue dragon''s ws, but it would have no defense against my incredible nanotech which I had very fortunately included in G-Drake''s system.

    G-Drake''s ws had sharpness that was at the nano level and strength that exceeded even that of diamonds.

    A biological mutation, no matter how ferocious and stupidly ridiculous, would have no chance against ws that were designed to be unstoppable even against the strongest of all human mechas!

    "I would not underestimate the giant mutated squid, master. It is almost ten timesrger than me, and would probably be able to crush me with ease." G-Drake said seriously.

    "You underestimate yourself and my power too much." I said to G-Drake with a confident smile. "I made you almost perfect. You would be able to slice and dice that damn squid easily. Don''t worry too much about it. When the timees, just attack with your dragon breath and with your ws when it gets close."

    "Understood." G-Drake responded with a solemn rumble of his draconic voice. "We should be there in three minutes. Master, prepare for battle."

    "Good. I will prepare to eat fried squid." I responded with augh.

    Three minutester, however, my mirth evaporatedpletely.

    We had exited the portal cautiously, so as to be able to gather our bearings first before we were embroiled in battle.

    But as soon as we floated out into the cave, our breaths were caught in our throats.

    Before us was the giant mutated squid, as expected. But it was¡­ I wouldn''t say dead, because its too mild a word to describe the poor squid''s state.

    It was¡­ shredded. Yes, shredded would be a pretty urate description of how dead the squid was.

    A huge number of fleshy strips of muscle fibre surrounded us in a cave that was slightly reddish in colour due to the squid''s blood that had yet to dissipate.

    Something hadpletely obliterated the mutated giant squid that even the blue dragon had found troublesome to kill!

    And not just obliterated in the sense that it took advantage of the squid''s weakness to kill it.

    On the contrary, it had gone up against the squid''s greatest strength, which was its near imprable, rubbery armor, and very coldbloodedly shredded it!<novelnext></novelnext>

    The thought that something was able to do such a thing caught us by surprise and worried us much more than the disgusting scene that appeared before us.

    "The kill was very recent. An hour at most. Be careful. The killer might still be nearby." Bruce Pang warned us.

    "Where is Chronos?" I asked him softly.

    "It''s safely parked nearby. Don''t worry, no harm will fall upon it. Let us focus on identifying and locating our enemies first." Bruce Pang replied seriously.

    "Scanning the area." G-Drake said softly. "Two energy signatures detected ten kilometers away. Both are¡­ tremendously powerful, each of them almost as powerful as my father. I do not think that he would be able to fight against them both at once!"

    "Golden mechas." Both Bruce Pang and I said in unison.

    "They are moving away from our position. It is very probable that they are the killers of this squid." G-Drake continued as a tinge of excitement finally appeared in his unusually calm and emotionless voice.

    I nced at the white heart.

    It was still intact.

    The Pacific Ocean was still filled with enemies.

    "The golden mechas are both stopping. They are making their way back here in this direction!" G-Drake said with a surprised voice.

    "Get back into the portal now. Chronos wille with us!" Bruce Pang instructed us immediately.

    We obeyed without hesitation. It was a critical moment for us.

    Behind us, we had an infinitely angry blue dragon king that may or may not already know about our existence.

    In front of us, we had two massively powerful golden mechas that came from two aggressive superpowers of the world.

    At that moment, I truly understood what being stuck between a rock and a hard ce meant!

    As soon as we''re back in the portal, Bruce Pang quickly briefed me about his n.

    "This escape route is unuseable. The golden mechas probably detected G-Drake''s unique biomech signature. They would definitely lock the ce down." He said slowly.

    "Is there another secret passage? I doubt a massiveir like this only has two." Bruce Pang asked G-Drake.

    "There is a third and final portal. It is in my father''s private chambers." G-Drake said.

    "Good. We''ll use it." Bruce Pang said with a thoughtful nod.

    "Wait a minute, we are going to use the portal in his private chambers?? Are you nuts?" I shouted at my obviously insane big bro.

 Chapter 211 Battle!

    "Yes, I am nuts. And based on my experience, the crazier the n, the better our chances to catch the enemy by surprise and thus achieve our objectives. Thankfully, what I am definitely not is, suicidal. So rest assured that my crazy n has but one objective - our survival!" Bruce Pang said firmly.

    "Chronos will distract the enemy by going to the old man''s rescue. With Chronos, his chances of survival would increase manifold and will also serve to attract the enemy''s attention.

    Once the old man has made a sufficientlyrge ruckus, we will sneak into the blue dragon''s private portal and get the hell out of this ce.

    G-Drake, where will this third portal lead us?" My big bro asked him.

    "I have no idea. I''ve only been through it once when I was very young, and I do not know where we appeared. But that part of the ocean felt particrly vibrant and calm. It might be somewhere pretty far away from the other two portals'' entrance." G-Drake answered.

    "Good enough. Let''s go!" Bruce Pang said.

    And with that, Chronos disappeared from sight.

    I had no idea how Bruce Pang intended to send Chronos to the old man, but he managed to pull it off perfectly.

    Within five minutes, the ruckus he was expecting urred.

    Kaboooommmm¡­

    Graaaaahhh. Graaaahh. Graaahhh.

    Kaboooooooommmm¡­

    Kabooooommm!!! Kaboooommm!!

    Graaaaahhhh!!

    Whatever was happening at wherever Chronos and the old man were, it sounded supremely messy and chaotic.

    It was perfect.

    We set off soon after towards the blue dragon king''s private chamber.

    "This is actually a pretty good n." Imented to my big bro as we traversed the massive ins rather peacefully.

    We were flying fast and low, with G-Drake''s body rustling the assional tall weeds.

    "Hush. Don''t jinx it." Bruce Pang frowned at me.

    "Alright, alright." I conceded and cast my resonance out to study the situation around us.

    As before, I was rather surprised at the presence of various seemingly powerful resonance signatures around us but not being able to see any of them.

    "Where are all these machines that I am sensing?" I asked G-Drake curiously.

    "You are sensing our invisible sentinel defenders, master. They are littered everywhere in the grasnds, and would activate only upon my father or mother''s explicitmand. I have never seen any of them before in my entire life." G-Drake admitted.

    "I see. So they are not invisible dragon biomechs just milling around huh?" I asked G-Drake.

    "Well, sometimes-"

    GRAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

    Damn me and my loud mouth.

    I had barely posed the question when a loud roar of surprise sounded from somewhere near us!

    "Third Prince! Is that you? What happened to you!!" A draconic voice bellowed.

    "Damn." Bruce Pang cursed softly.

    "The pod ispletely stealthed and built into G-Drake''s armor. We should be safe." I reassured my big bro. "But our secret trip to the private chamber isn''t going to be a secret for much longer."

    "We must get to the chamber as quickly as possible." Bruce Pang said seriously.

    "No choice then. G-Drake, kill that dragon and let''s go. Get to the private chambers as quickly as you can!" I ordered.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Without hesitation, G-Drake exploded with a massive amount of power and charged towards the now-visible blue dragon at an incredible rate of eleration.

    The blue dragon warrior had unicorn horns and was around a hundred meters in size. It was a young adult blue dragon.

    "Third Prince!! What has gotten into you? Wake up!" The blue dragon roared loudly as a shimmering, bluish barrier appeared in front of it, mere seconds before G-Drake crashed into him!

    BAM!!!

    STAB STAB STAB STAB BITE!

    RIPPPP!!!!!!

    In a disy of unparalleled ferocity, G-Drake bunched all four of his ws together and easily broke through the bluish barrier.

    Its four wed limbs pierced into the body of the shocked blue dragon warrior and its rtively smaller head bit the warrior''s neck.

    And then very viciously, G-Drake pulled its ws and flung its neck powerfully to the side, causing the blue dragon warrior to be ripped apart!

    Gore!

    Ruthlesness!

    Sheer power!!

    Without missing a beat, G-Drake elerated towards his father''s private chambers once more.

    This time, all attempts at doing it secretly were discarded, and we sted off at full speed.

    Vrooooo!!!!

    GRAAAHHHH!!! GRAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

    Two more ferocious roars sounded from two different directions as soon as we broke the sound barrier.

    "Ignore them. Go to the chamber." Bruce Pang ordered.

    VROOOOOO!!!

    G-Drake directed more power to its flight module and we leapt ahead with even greater speed than before!!

    On our left and right, I could detect two powerful energy signatures approaching us at high speed.

    In terms of power, they were both below the blue dragon king, and by a rtivelyrge margin.

    However, together, they were able to bring forth a level of power that was neared their glorious king!

    "Who are they?" I asked.

    "They are father''s personal guards. We have entered his personal territory. They will attack all who enters without permission." G-Drake replied.

    "Not a good enemy to tangle with right now. But you should still be able to handle them. Thankfully there are only two personal guards. I doubt you would be able to handle three. My mods are strong, but not that strong." I said.

    "My father has five personal guards." G-Drake corrected me. "Two are with him at all times. Usually, there are three guarding his territory. The third one must be with him now."

    However, a ridiculously massive energy beam suddenly appeared from diagonally right in front of us!

    "Or not!!" I yelled as G-Drake unleashed his side thruster bombs to rapidly throw his body to the left to avoid the energy beam!

    Whoosh!!

    The surprise attack missed us by mere centimeters!!

    "Attack the third one first!!! Go!" I shouted as my instincts kicked in.

    In every fight, I would always try to take out the strongest one early on if at all possible. Allowing the fight to drag out without taking out their strongest fighter would only serve to seal my defeatter!

 Chapter 212 Mecha Core!

    "Third Prince! You are not allowed to be here! Leave immediately or else we-"

    CRACKLE!

    G-Drake''s back fins powered up ominously and instantly generated a humongous amount of energy.

    GRAAAHHHHHHH!!!

    A chilling beam of yellow energy surged out of G-Drake''s maw and smashed onto the third blue dragon that had only appeared a mere second earlier.

    BAMSPLECHHH!

    The energy beam pierced through whatever strange defensive barrier that the blue dragons had and vaporized an entire chunk of the third dragon''s chest!

    G-Drake was already a dragon of royal bloodline, and boasted a vastly more powerful dragon breath than non royal dragons. Even if he was but a little dragonling, his dragon breath was already extremely potent.

    Add that to the fact that I had given him a biomech mod that enhanced his attack by a serious amount, it was no surprise that the third personal guard was felled with just one dragon breath attack!

    One of its four limbs fell to the ground and a copious amounts of dragon blood spurted out of its gaping wound like a water fountain.

    Graaaaahhhhhh...

    The third dragon roared weakly in shock as its lifeblood quickly disappeared from his body and he too followed his limb to fall to the ground with a loud BAM!!

    Dragons were not a cowardly race, and I was reminded very strongly of that fact when I sensed the two blue dragons behind us speeding up even after seeing their brother dying so quickly and so miserably under G-Drake''s surprise attack.

    Graaaahhhh!!!!

    G-Drake roared out a ferocious bellow of warning, but the two dragons kepting.

    "Ignore them. Full speed ahead towards our target!" Bruce Pang repeated his orders.

    VRAHH!! VRAAAHHHH!!

    Twin energy beams shot out towards us from the two dragons.

    But G-Drake dodged them easily with a series of deft maneuvering.

    Still, the energy beams served their intended purpose perfectly. They slowed down G-Drake and allowed the two dragons to close the distance between us.

    VRAAHHHH!! VRAHHHHH!!

    More energy beams came our way, and G-Drake lost even more speed as he swerved this way and that way to avoid the attacks.

    Within seconds, the two adult blue dragons reached us!

    G-Drake may be an inexperienced dragonling, but its battle instincts were top notch.

    As soon as the two dragons got into range, he unleashed a massive barrage ofser and rocket fire upon them!

    The dragons had never fought against such strange weapons before, and were both taken byplete surprise.

    To make things worse for them, a few of theser cannons actually hit them in the eyes!!

    With a simple move, G-Drake sessfully executed the firstw of battle: blind the bastards.

    Graooooooooo!!!!

    The two dragons howled their indignance and in excruciating pain as their sight quickly left them.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But their fight was over.

    That was life.

    Against superior enemies, battles are rarely drawn out. The stronger party would always strive to end the battle as quickly as possible, and if the strength discrepancy wasrge enough, more often than not, the stronger party would seed.

    Just like our short trip that day.

    Four massive blue dragons that would have wrecked absolute havoc if released upon the world were very quickly taken out by G-Drake.

    After we took out the four dragons, the rest of the trip went on very smoothly.

    We quickly reached the blue dragon king''s private chambers and entered it without pausing.

    No blue dragon in their right minds would be brave enough to enter the chamber, and those not in their right minds would probably not be able to survive the ambush by the three personal guards.

    G-Drake was the only existence in the entire blue dragonmunity that could do that.

    Being in the private chamber of the king of blue dragons was an incredibly eye opening experience.

    The idea that dragons loved hoarding treasure and sleeping among them was actually very very true.

    There was no decoration in that private chamber.

    Like the Circle Trove, there was just piles and piles of treasure everywhere in that gigantic room.

    My resonance tingled even as I mourned my inability to absorb the various delicious mechas and strange machines I sensed.

    "If only Devour was not dormant." I groaned in extreme heartbreak.

    "May I suggest you take a couple of treasures that you might find extremely useful, Master?" G-Drake said calmly.

    His t tone contrasted rather wildly with the incredibly treasonous but also highly exciting words that he just uttered.

    "Of course!" I eximed. "Where? What should I take?"

    "Hurry. We don''t want to spend too much time here." Bruce Pang said, his own eyes gleaming with barely controlled greed. But Bruce Pang was Bruce Pang.

    Greed had no hold on him, and it did not cloud his judgement.

    Wordlessly, G-Drake leapt towards one of the middle piles of treasure and grabbed a sword that was sticking out of a huge mountain of golden trinkets.

    After that, he went on to one of the rear piles and grabbed a round object that resembled a mecha core.

    "Is that a mecha core?" My eyes widened at the sight of the glowing, yellow coloured sphere.

    "Yes, it is an energy core. However it is not at the level of Control. It does not have effects. Still, it is an extremely powerful energy core which might be useful to you." G-Drake said in his calm voice and dropped both items into the pod.

    However, unbeknownst to him, as soon as the sword and the mecha core touched my hands, my red mecha core reacted.

    BA-DUMP!!

    "No effect? Hahahaha! I am not so sure about that!" I rememberughing joyously in my heart. It was truly turning out to be an excellent mission trip for me. Not one but two experimental mecha cores??

    "Good haul. Let''s go." Bruce Pang said with a slight tinge of impatience. He couldn''t wait to get the hell out of the blue dragonir!

    "Let''s go, G-Drake." I said in a calm voice that masked my rising sense of incredible excitement perfectly!

 Chapter 213 Little Girl

    G-Drake made his way to stand before a strange looking disc the size of a car tire and triggered the bio portal activation sensor.

    Whoosh.

    The portal activated without any fanfare.

    We quickly entered the portal, and as G-Drake had mentioned earlier, we appeared in an idyllic underwater paradise.

    We were underwater, but the water was so remarkably clear that we could still see the sunlight streaming in slightly!

    Of course we weren''t very deep underwater, but in most cases, sunlight would cease to make its presence felt even only after two hundred meters, and photosynthesis would no longer be possible after that depth.

    My sensor reading was telling me that we were almost three hundred meters in, and still the sunlight was streaming in!

    The water was as clear as clear can be and lots of colourful fish and strange ocean fauna were everywhere.

    The ce was teeming with life, and nature seemed to be very, very generous with its blessings upon that particr ce.

    "Where are we exactly?" I asked as I marveled at the beautiful underwater scene.

    I was a ten year old who had never seen the ocean in a positive light before, and I never knew that oceans could actually be so beautiful when they are not filled to the brim with murderous civilisations hungry for human blood.

    "We''re still in the Pacific Ocean, approximately a hundred kilometers from the other entrances. But we seem to be in some sort of¡­ ecological bubble." Bruce Pang said in a thoughtful voice as he studied every single instrument reading in the pod.

    All the tension was gone from his voice, and it waspletely understandable.

    Although we had not traveled far from the portal, there was a world of difference between being on the other side of an unopened portal where should we fail to open said portal, we would be trapped and possible be dragon food, and of course being on this side of the portal where we could escape at anytime in any direction we wanted.

    We had left the dragonir, and we could afford to rx.

    Just a little bit.

    "An ecological bubble is a very apt description. I am detecting an abnormal amount of life density within a three kilometer radius from our position. Beyond that, everything is suddenly normal." G-Drake reported.

    "From our position?" Bruce Pang asked sharply.

    "Indeed." Came G-Drake''s reply.

    "Hohoho." My eyes shined with undisguised greed. "There must be another treasure that is causing this phenomena! Let''s look for it!"

    "There''s no need to search for it. I think whatever is causing this excess life energy to flood the area ising from that thing." Bruce Pang said quietly and pointed to what seemed like arge bus-sized m.

    We made our way there, and G-Drake easily forced the giant m open.

    Crack!

    "Oh my god." My jaw dropped when I saw what was in the m.

    A beautiful little girlid there within an ethereal air bubble, unconscious. Her hair was glowing an incredible golden colour, and her pale skin waspletely unblemished.

    She looked around my age, and she waspletely naked.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Close your damn eyes!" Bruce Pang growled at me as his left hand shot out and smacked my face where my eyes were.

    "Ow! Dude! I won''t look, what do you think I am? A pervert?" I shouted indignantly.

    However, my big bro ignored me and ordered G-Drake to get the girl into the pod.

    "Slowly and gently, damn you and your fat dragon ws!" Bruce Pang shouted at G-Drake.

    "Slowly. Get the secondary hatch open first. Okay, now grab the m flesh around her, don''t get your damn ws on her! Slowly! Slowly!" Bruce Pang nagged at G-Drake like a fussy old woman.

    I grinned at this new and naggy side of him.

    "Keep your damn eyes closed!" Bruce Pang warned me threateningly.

    "I got it, I got it. Stop nagging like an old woman." I grumbled.

    I heard the secondary hatch close, then the primary hatch open.

    "She''s so thin!" I heard my big bro say with a voice that was filled with fury. "G-Drake, scan the area! Find out what the hell is going on here! Justin, you too. You can open your eyes."

    As soon as my eyes opened, I saw that beautiful little girl wrapped in Bruce Pang''s outer jacket.

    She was so small that just his jacket alone was able to cover her from her shoulders down to her feet.

    "Her eyshes are so long." I couldn''t help butment when I finally saw her up close.

    It was true, she had the longest eysh I had ever seen. Not to the point of being ridiculous, of course. In fact, I think she looked really pretty with those eyshes.

    But it was the first thing I noticed, even among the sea of beautiful features that I could have chosen from.

    "That''s a strange thing to focus on, but okay." Bruce Pang said. "Start scanning the area. We need to gather as many clues as we can before we leave soon."

    "Right." I gave the beautiful girl onest look before casting out my resonance as far as I could.

    With my red mecha core dormant, my resonance was rather limited in strength and my range was reduced by a prettyrge amount.

    But even with all those limitations, I had no trouble sensing the presence of a massive underground machine that was connected to the giant m.

    It was shaped like the roots of a tree, with a rounded cylinder connected to the m as the trunk, and spreading out into hundreds, then thousands of root branches deep into the ocean bed.

    At that very moment, it was slowly powering up and giving out a strange hum that sounded very much like an irritated hum of sorts.

    "What''s going on? Why are my senses telling me that something bad is about to happen?" Bruce Pang demanded.

    "There''s a massive root-like machine underneath us. It seems like it''s activating. And¡­ irritated?" I said in slight confusion. "G-Drake. Get us the hell out of here."

    But as soon as those words left my mouth, the oceanbed started to rumble.

 Chapter 214 Daddy

    "Go go go!!!" I yelled at G-Drake.

    Kabooommm!!!!

    G-Drake did not hold back on his strength, and immediately sent us hurtling through the ocean at a couple hundred kilometers per hour within the first second, and all the way to four hundred within the fifth second.

    RUMBLE!! RUMBLE!!

    The rumbling of the ocean bed beneath us continued to rise in intensity.

    Just as we were about to break out of the three kilometer radius of the giant m, the water all around us that was previously filled with life suddenly turned dark and a sharp suction force appeared out of nowhere.

    "Gahhhh!!!!" I gasped in horror as a fearsome sensation of my life force being forcefully sucked out of my smashed into me like a speeding container truck filled with rocks.

    Grahhhhh!

    G-Drake gave out a simr groan of weakness and shock as he started to lose consciousness in an instant.

    Thankfully, we were at the very edge of of the three kilometer range of the machine, and we did not stay within the fearsome life suction for more than a split second.

    G-Drake''s powerful thrusters brought us rapidly out of the range of the suction force and we rapidly regained our energy.

    "What in the world was that?" I gasped in bewilderment.

    "What a strange feeling of weakness. I wonder what caused it." Bruce Pang said in a rtively unperturbed voice.

    I nced at him strangely.

    "Strange feeling of weakness? What the hell? I thought I was about to die right then!" I shouted at him.

    "Hmmm. And G-Drake seemed to be very much impacted too. I think he even cked out for a moment there. If that''s the case, the stronger the life form, the greater the effect." Bruce Pang rapidly drew a conclusion out of the situation.

    As one, we turned our heads at the little girl, and got the biggest shock of our lives.

    Even though she was only exposed to the suction force for the briefest of moments, her previously beautiful golden hair had turnedpletely white, and her unblemished skin had turned very wrinkly like an old woman''s!!

    "HOLY SMOKES!!" I shouted in horror.

    Without hesitation, Bruce Pang drew his pocket knife and shed his arm!

    In case you''re wondering, Bruce Pang was a human being who had consumed various treasures, and had extremely strong vitality. He had also consumed several treasures from the Circle Trove earlier, so his blood was extremely nutritious and had a slight healing power.

    He wanted to help the girl at all costs!

    However, even before the first drop of blood hit the girl''s mouth, her white hair started to glow golden once more, and right in front of our shocked eyes, the wrinkles on her face started to disappear at a rapid pace.

    Within a single second, right as the first drop of Bruce Pang''s blood touched her lips, the little girl was fully healed!!

    "Whaat?" I muttered in surprise.

    That week was an incredible week indeed, chock full of surprises that I would never in my wildest dreams be able to guess that I would experience.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But even in an insane week, that moment had to be the craziest.

    That, and the following next few minutes, of course.

    Bruce Pang''s little trickle of blood touched her lips, and slowly made their way into her mouth.

    For some reason, even with all of the incredible treasures my big bro had consumed and the wondrous effect they had on him, his blood still felt like something dirtypared to the pure life aura that the little girl was giving out.

    However, instead of choking on the blood or even spitting it out, the little girl actually gulped down and swallowed them!

    Her tongue darted out and licked her lips clean of my big bro''s blood.

    Due to his powerful life force, he had an incredible rate of regeneration, and the wound he made on his arm was not able to release much blood before it scabbed and started to heal.

    As such, only around ten drops of blood managed to make their way into the girl''s body.

    But apparently, it was enough to trigger the bonding.

    A red glow suddenly appeared around the girl and my big bro before winking out almost immediately.

    My lips twitched slightly as I held back a loud exmation of shock.

    "What in the world was happening?" I asked myself and nced at my big bro who has a simrly confused look on his face.

    But apart from confusion, there was also a touch of tenderness in his eyes as he looked at the little girl.

    Which, of course, made me even more confused.

    And then her beautiful eyshes started to flutter as she slowly woke up from whatever caused her to be unconscious before.

    She opened her eyes to reveal the most searingly beautiful pair of eyes I had ever seen. Somehow, she managed to look innocent, naive, adorable, powerful, confident and wise all at the same time.

    And then came the biggest surprise of the week. And probably of my life, for that matter. Well, one of the biggest of my life. There were a few after that could rival it.

    The girl opened her mouth and said in the sweetest voice you could imagine a single world thatpletely turned my world upside down.

    "Daddy!"

    "WHAT THE HELL? I AM NOT YOUR DADDY!!" I shouted with all of my heart.

    "Hell no, I don''t even know how the hell babies are made in the first ce!!" I remember thinking incredulously.

    The little girl giggled cutely at my shout and immediately caused my shock to melt away like snow in the rising of the bright morning sun.

    "Not you, silly!" She said to me while smiling her perfect angelic smile. And then she pointed at my big bro.

    "That''s my daddy!"

    It was Bruce Pang''s turn to be shocked. But of course he took it much better than me. Instead of shouting at the girl for her incredulous im, he fainted.

 Chapter 215 Autistic Little Boy

    Bam!

    His unconscious body hit the floor of the pod.

    I truly have no idea what sort of shock a grown man with nerves of steel had to go through for him to actually faint.

    I mean, the process of fainting from shock is pretty straight forward.

    Extreme emotional distress causes the heart rate to drop drastically, which in turn causes ack of oxygen to enter the brain, which in turn causes it to lose consciousness briefly.

    The key issue for my big bro was the extreme emotional distress.

    True, a little girl calling him Daddy was quite shocking, but for his battle hardened body and highly experienced mind to react that way meant that he probably had very high pre-set expectations and prior emotional build up with the girl, which when unmet, became a source of great emotional distress.

    In other words, he knew the girl. Or at least, he knew about the girl and what she was supposed to be.

    And what she was supposed to be was definitely not his daughter.

    "Daddy! Are you alright?" The pretty little girl, who was back to being extremely vibrant and healthy, immediately jumped up and grabbed hold of my big bro''s hand.

    As she did that, the jacket that was covering her naked body slipped off.

    I hastily turned my head away.

    I was not someone who would take advantage of a little girl, much less a little girl with godly regenerative power who was probably the source of the incredible life energy for a three freaking kilometer radius.

    A short burst of vitality surged from the little girl and immediately after that, Bruce Pang gasped and awakened.

    "Daddy! Are you sick? Did someone bully you? I do not have my full power back yet, but I think I can still give every single life form here on this a good walloping if I need to!" The little girl said anxiously.

    "Ah? Hahaha! I am fine! I am fine!" Bruce Pangughed awkwardly. "Don''t worry about me. More importantly¡­ why are you calling me Daddy?"

    "Why am I calling you daddy? Do you not like the word Daddy? Would you like me to call you Father instead? That''s a little bit too formal, don''t you think? Dad, perhaps? Or old man? But you''re not that old. Or maybe¡­ Papa?"

    With that final word, Bruce Pang choked slightly and started to cough.

    "You don''t seem well. Are you sure you weren''t bullied by anyone? I can detect very clear signs of distress and shock in your physical condition. Something must be pressuring you. Do not worry, Papa, I, Princess Augustine, willy waste to anything and anybody who dares to make you feel so distressed!" The little girl dered. "This has nothing that can endanger me in the slightest!"

    "Princess Augustine? This? Truth be told, little girl, I am a native of this. I have no idea why you''re calling me Daddy or Papa. I do not have a daughter." Bruce Pang said very, very gently.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Of course you have a daughter. I am here now, am I not?" Princess Augustine immediately said in an as a matter of fact voice. "And as to why I am calling you daddy, that''s because your blood now runs in my veins. Physically and biologically, I am your offspring. It is only natural that I call you Daddy."

    There was silence for a few moments as Bruce Pang and I tried to digest her words.

    "I have a lot of questions." Bruce Pang finally said with a sigh.

    "Ask away, pops! I haven''t spoken to anybody for the longest time! I miss having conversations!" Princess Augustine said happily. "And why is that little mecha boy facing away like that? Is he autistic or something?"

    "You can turn around now Justin." My big bro said with a chuckle. "He''s not exactly autistic, but sometimes he does act like he is."

    "Poor boy. Here, let me give you a gift." Princess Augustine said with an obvious trace of sympathy in her voice as I turned around to face her.

    The jacket was back to cover her frail little body and she was looking at me with a pouty little face that was full of regalpassion.

    Much like the Queen of the universe about to gift a poor little beggar a meaningless gold coin that wouldpletely transform the beggar''s life.

    She stretched out her cute little hand and touched mine.

    CRACKLE!

    BA-DUMP!!!

    CRACKLE!!

    BA-DUMP!!!!!

    Two powerful surges of electricity jolted through my body and caused my red mecha core toe to life for two brief moments before falling dormant once more.

    "Wow. Your little mecha core truly is azy one. I''ve given him two shots of life energy, and still he wouldn''t wake up! Haiya. I have never seen such azy familiar! If it wasn''t toote for your to change it, I would definitely advise you to throw it away and sign a contract with a new familiar!" Princess Augustine remarked with a slight frown and caused a veritable explosion of questions to appear in my brain.

    "Wha-whaaat???" I managed to stutter.

    "Ah pops. Your little friend Justin here really has some brain defects. He doesn''t seem to be able to understand what I am saying. Or maybe he hasmunication issues? Is he someone precious to you? If he is, I can try to help him a little bit more." Princess Augustine said while pursing her lips slightly

    "Ah. Ehm. Yes, this little autistic dude is actually my sworn brother. Please help him as much as you can." My big bro said very loyally even as he dragged my name through the mud.

    "Oh he''s your sworn brother! Okay, in that case I will be serious in helping him. Hey autistic boy, I. Am. Going. To. Help. You. Okay? Don''t. Worry. Everything. Will. Be. Fine." Princess Augustine said very slowly and considerately so that the little "autistic boy" would be able to understand her.

 Chapter 216 King Bruce?

    Have you ever tried shabu-shabu? It''s an eastern dish that dumps a huge amount of meat, vegetables and all sorts of stuff into a pot of clear soup.

    It''s a very simple way to cook a meal with all the nutrition that a family requires. Just one pot of everything in it, and that''s all. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served.

    At that moment, my heart was an emotional shabu-shabu.

    I was shocked at the insane revtion that the little girl was

    A princess.

    From another

    Able to inject life energy to my red mecha core

    Able to identify said mecha core as a¡­ familiar? What the hell was a familiar??

    I was ecstatic that

    My red mecha core''s digestion of Control seemed to have progressed by a huge amount!

    My red mecha core is alive? It is a familiar? Again¡­ what the hell was a familiar??

    I was relieved that she did not know

    That my red mecha core''s ability was devour

    That I was in the process of devouring another "familiar"

    I had another mecha core which was very probably another "familiar"

    I was extremely excited at the idea that

    "Familiar" sounded as though there was an entire power system in the outside universe!

    Devour was probably a very powerful type of "Familiar"!

    Even if I had to participate in that power system in the outside universe, I would probably still be a pretty powerful force!

    I was slightly dismayed that

    Even after absorbing so much and attaining a physical state of near imprability on earth, I was still like a little beggar in front of this Princess Augustine.

    We were of simr age, and yet if she''s Bruce Pang''s daughter, wouldn''t that make me her¡­ uncle??

    "He seems rather overwhelmed, pops. Poor boy. There, there, everything will be fine soon. I will give you a Royal Gift, one befitting of a Royal Uncle." Princess Augustine said gently and kindly even as her little hands touched mine once more.

    "This will hurt slightly. Don''t worry, though! Just think happy thoughts¡­ Happy thoughts!!" She said soothingly.

    JLEB!!!

    Her cute little hands suddenly turned into extremely sharp ws and pierced into the flesh of my hands!

    CRACKLE!!! CRAAAACKLEEEEE!!!!!

    Pulses of what seemed like powerful life energy surged into my body through my left hand.

    And what followed wasplete and utter agony.

    Iter understood that what she did was actually extremely beneficial to me.

    When I absorbed the bodies of the two Horse Gavarels, I had also absorbed alongside them a massive amount of impurities.<novelnext></novelnext>

    At that moment, my body was like a juicer filled to the brim with the fibrous waste of two very disgusting fruits!

    Princess Augustine flooded my body with her pure life energy and through sheer flooding of her higher grade life force, she brutally forced the impurities out of my system.

    ck and red tar-like stuff that smelled like decayed and rotten food started to seep out of my body.

    At the same time, blinding pain ripped through my body and caused me to ck outpletely.

    There was just no way I could remain conscious through such excruciating pain!

    I had no idea how long I was out for, but when I woke up, Bruce Pang and Princess Augustine were chatting quietly as G-Drake slowly made his way across the Pacific Ocean.

    And as my senses came online and started giving me feedback about the state of my body, I could not help but bepletely floored once more.

    I had never felt more alive in my entire life!

    I could feel my entire body very, very clearly!

    It was like I was previously a blind man who suddenly gained vision over what was happening in his body.

    I could sense my energy just flowing around the various pathways in my body, and how they were nourishing and powering my muscles and organs.

    I could also sense that everything in my body was functioning perfectly, and that a massive potential for increased performance lurked underneath everything.

    If I wanted to, I could exert a force that was hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million times more than what I was actually producing at that moment!

    What could I say? It was glorious.

    I felt like the strongest man, or boy, in the world!!

    Of course, the benefits I got were not only limited to my body.

    My mecha core benefited as well!

    It was still dormant, as before. However, at that moment, I could clearly sense that the digestion process had reached approximately sixty percent, and that the rate of digestion had also been elerated by a whopping two hundred percent!

    It was a very exciting piece of information for me. Especially when I calcted that the remaining time required for me to finish the digestion process was around fifty days.

    What originally required an entire year to process would bepleted in just fifty days!

    Awesome.

    Plus, the increase in the rate of digestion simply meant that the quality of my red mecha core had increased as well.

    Double awesome.

    And when I recalled that I still had the treasure sword and the mecha core to slowly examine and possibly absorb, my heart waspletely filled to the brim with bliss.

    Triple awesome.

    After taking stock of my very happy situation, I finally turned my attention to the conversation that my big bro and my niece was having.

    "... not worth it." Bruce Pang was shaking his head.

    "Of course it is worth it. I am Princess Augustine. You are my old man now. You are rightfully the King of Shra-Gaz. My Royal Brother will step down and cede the throne to you. He''d better. Without me, the Kingdom of Shra-Gaz will crumble before the might of the Dark Empire. If I say his time as king is over, then he had better hand over the damn throne back to me, and with a damn cherry on top with the biggest smile he could manage!" Princess Augustine said fiercely.

    "Hey. Language." Bruce Pang said sternly.

    "Hee hee. Sorreeey! Anyway, don''t worry pops. Just wait here for my return. When I do, I will bring you back home to be King!"

 Chapter 217 Root Thing

    I had to blink a few times to digest the words that Princess Augustine was saying.

    "She wants to bring my big bro back to her and make him King of a kingdom called Shra-Gaz? And get her royal brother who is actually the current king to step down in the process? Insanity." I thought to myself incredulously.

    "No. That''s too much. I do not need, nor do I want to be king. I don''t even want to go to your. As I mentioned before, I still have many things to do here! My wife, my responsibilities are here." Bruce Pang said firmly.

    "Don''t you want to spend time with me back in Shra-Gaz, pops?" Princess Augustine pouted cutely.

    "Haha. The answer to that question, surprisingly, is a resounding no." Bruce Pang said with a patientugh.

    "Fine. I guess the old saying is right. The reason you don''t love me is because you don''t know me yet. Very well. I will stay with you here then, and spend more time with you. I will make you and mommy love me, and then when I ask you to return to Shra-Gaz with me next time, you both will have no choice but to agree! Mwa ha ha ha!" Princess Augustineughed sinisterly with an overdose of cuteness.

    "Sure. Do that. In fact, while you''re here, you can help your old man''s country by physically strengthening our citizens and sharing your knowledge with us." Bruce Pang chuckled in a pleased tone.

    "Why don''t I just kill all your enemies for you? I can do that very easily as soon as I recover to my full strength." Princess Augustine said very casually.

    "Yeah. Why not? When will you recover?" Bruce Pang asked.

    "I will probably fully recover in thre-" Before she could finish her words, she suddenly copsed in a dead faint.

    "Augustine!!" Bruce Pang shouted in shock.

    At that moment, a fearsome, metallic voice reeking of chilling fury thundered loudly around us.

    "You have had enough fun with my treasure, little thieves. Now, give it back to me, and I will give you a clean death."

    Without hesitation, I cast out my resonance and immediately discovered that somehow, the fearsome root-like machine that had attached itself to the m where Princess Augustine was sleeping in had stealthily caught up to us, and had alreadypletely surrounded us in a three kilometer radius!

    It was on the ocean bed directly beneath us and its root-like tentacles formed a massive cage around us.

    If it was allowed to unleash its fearsome life draining suction on us, there was no doubt that we would die.

    We would not be able to reach the edge of the three kilometer radius on time, and even if we could, we would probably need more time to break free of its tentacles, and time was something we did not have.

    "Damn it." I cursed with a sinking feeling in my heart.

    "G-Drake, attack that robot''s main body!" Bruce Pang ordered calmly.

    G-Drake immediately dived down and shot towards the damned root''s main body.

    "You won''t give her up? Then die." The fearsome voice rumbled loudly.

    "It''s charging its power! G-Drake! Energy beam its body, now!!" I yelled.

    Graahhhhhh!!!

    G-Drake fired off a quick attack on the root''s body.

    BOOMM!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    The crackling energy beam smashed onto the metallic body of the root with surprising strength and caused a huge chunk to melt away.

    "It''s body is weak!" I eximed loudly in excitement as hope suddenly bloomed in my heart. "Keep shooting energy beams at it! Make your way down and let''s kill the bastard!"

    Graaahhhh!!!

    G-Drake fired off another energy beam. However, before that energy beam could hit the root''s body, a burst of power suddenly exploded from it!

    VROOOSSHHHH!!!

    A strange vital force crashed onto the energy beam and easily neutralized it. At the same time, I could sense that the damage which G-Drake had caused early had beenpletely repaired!

    "That machine had sessfully incorporated the regenerative power of flesh based life forms into its existence as a machine!" I gasped half in horror at the troublesomeness of our new enemy, and half in excitement over what seemed like a massive breakthrough in technology.

    "Get close to it and physically rip it apart." Bruce Pangmanded. "Justin, prepare to exit the pod and attack it with all your strength.

    "Ok! G-Drake! Keep firing energy beams at it while you close the distance!!" I shouted as I leapt up from my seat and moved to the secondary hatch.

    Boom! Boom! Bam!! Boom! Boom! Bam!!!

    Just like that, G-Drake fired off energy beam after energy beam at the root''s body, and it unleashed wave after wave of vital force at us as it healed itself and tried to keep us at bay.

    But its rate of fire was much too slowpared to G-Drake''s, and it was unable to keep us from closing.

    Within a minute, G-Drake was finally able to sink his ws into the rooth''s main body!

    I exited the pod and shot out towards the root''s body too.

    However, just as Inded on it, I sensed that its many root branches were actually speeding towards us! It would reach G-Drake within five seconds!

    "I have to kill this damned thing in five seconds!!" I thought desperately and gathered my full strength beforeunching a massive punch!!!

    WHAMM!!

    My entire fist smashed the root body''s metal armor apart and pierced deep into its body! However, I was unable to find any vital organs. There was nothing but mush in it!

    I withdrew my fist, aimed at another part of its body andunched a more powerful punch than before.

    WHAAAMMMMM!!!!

    Once again, my fist pierced into its body! But once again, I found nothing but mush!!

    "Noo!!" I shouted in horror as I noticed the countless root branches shoot towards G-Drake!

    Stab! Stab! Stab!!!

    The first few branches finally reached G-Drake and managed to pierce into it''s body!!

 Chapter 218 Clowns

    GRAAAHHHHH!!!

    G-Drake bellowed out a tremendous roar of pain!

    Thankfully, I could see that the root branches only managed to pierce G-Drake''s body very shallowly.

    None of its vital organs were hurt even though more than enough pain tost him a lifetime was caused by them.

    However unfortunately for him, the three root branches to pierce him were but the frontrunners of a massive crowd of simr brothers and sisters!

    GRAAHHHH!!

    G-Drake unleashed a massive energy beam from its maw and forcefully twisted its body rapidly.

    Thebination of the energy beam and the increased defensive capability of his armor by way of spinning was surprisingly potent, and G-Drake was able to avoid getting pierced by the rest of the root branches.

    "Excellent job, G-Drake!!" I hollered triumphantly and quickly returned my focus to the gruesome task of physically punching the damned root body to death.

    With the root receiving my personal tender loving care, it waspletely unable to unleash its life force sucking attack, and for the moment, I was safe.

    However, I was also unable to find its vital organs, and all of my attacks were frustratingly un-fatal!

    "Where the hell is your heart or your lungs, damn it!" I shouted as I plunged my tenth or eleventh punch into its body.

    "You will regret this." A deep, rumbly voice sounded from somewhere beneath the root body.

    "Below?" I quickly made my way down towards where the voice came from. Although I was able to hold my breath for much longer with my vastly enhanced and strengthened body, the longer I spent without breathing, the weaker I would get.

    So I really had to work fast to be able to unleash as much damage as I could.

    As soon as I reached the bottom of the root body, I was once again greeted with a nasty surprise.

    "What the freaking hell!!!" I shouted and winced painfully as I beheld the ugliest thing I had ever seen in my entire life.

    There underneath the root body, was actually a freaky face with human-like featuresplete with eyes, nose, mouth and a pair of saggy cheeks!!

    "Die human!" The saggy cheeked face rumbled angrily and sent a hundred root branches hurtling at me.

    I sensed the iing branches and was immediately inspired by them.

    "You want to stab me with your damned branches? Here! Have a taste of your own god damned medicine!!" I grabbed the nearest branch and easily snapped it off, even as the rest of the branches mmed onto me.

    But what was I?

    I was a human being with white mecha armor grade skin!!

    Every single branch that tried to stab me either bounced off, or broke cleanly in two!

    I kicked against several of the branches and propelled myself towards the ugly saggy cheeked face, and stabbed the branch I had snapped off into its freaky left eye!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    "AAHHHHHHH!!!!" It wailed loudly.

    "What did you say? You want more? Okay! You''re the one who asked for it!!" I shouted and stabbed the branch into its right eye!!

    "AAAHHHHHHH!! YOU DEMON!! YOU DEMON SPAWN!!!!" It shrieked at me.

    "What?? More more more? You sadist bastard. Fine! Here take this!!" I grabbed some of the tentacles that had snapped in two from around me, and then proceeded to stab its entire face with tens of sharp branches!

    And when I said stab, I meant stab very, very deeply until only small parts of the snapped off branches were visible.

    At that moment, the root machine/beast was either dead or fainted, because for the next few minutes until I confirmed that it was well and truly dead by getting G-Drake to shred it apart into well, shreds, it did not utter another word.

    Within a few minutes, I was back in the secondary hatch of the pod.

    A massive st of hot air smashed into me and dried me uppletely before releasing me into the pod where Bruce Pang was waiting for me with a slightly exasperated look on his face.

    "What? Did I not do well? I managed to kill that ugly beast!" I said to him with a slightly boastful tone.

    "Yes. Well done for killing a dangerous beast in ten minutes with your bare hands when you could have killed it in one with this sword." Bruce Pang said dryly and tossed the sword which G-Drake had specifically retrieved for me from his dad''s piles of treasure.

    "Oof." I said and winced at my stupid mistake. "I knew I had forgotten something."

    Bruce Pang sighed again and quickly went back to looking anxiously at Princess Augustine.

    "She is not awake yet? I wonder what happened. She fainted so suddenly without any indication of being attacked." I said as I made my way towards her.

    "She should be waking up soon. As soon as you killed the beast, her eyes started to flutter. But she has yet to open them." Bruce Pang said.

    "Really? Is she just pretending to sleep? Hey you sneaky little girl. I know you''re awake. Say something!" I said carelessly without much thought.

    However, to my surprise, Princess Augustine actually opened her eyes at my words!

    "Oh wow. So you WERE pretending to sleep! Haha! You sneaky princess!" Iughed at her. "Lucky I am pretty good at pretending to be asleep as well, so I was able to immediately detect your pretense!"

    "It''s good that you''re awake, Augustine. Don''t mind the autistic kid." Bruce Pang said with a relieved voice. "How do you feel? Why did you suddenly faint?"

    But s, s, fate really seemed to love giving us surprises.

    Because yet another one greeted us full force!

    "Who the hell are the two of you?" Princess Augustine said in a cold, regal voice that could probably turn summer into winter. "The crime for kidnapping a princess of the Shra-Gaz Kingdom is punishable by death. You better give me a satisfactory answer before I kill you two clowns."

    Crash!!

    That was the sound of our jaws dropping to the ground.

 Chapter 219 Weaklings

    "You lost your memory? What''s thest thing you remember?" Bruce Pang said with a concerned frown.

    "I¡­" Princess Augustine hesitated slightly in confusion before her face turned cold once more. "I am the one asking questions here, not you. It will be good for you to know that I can kill you with a single thought. Now tell me. Who are you two?! Who sent you to kidnap me? Where are we?"

    "Hey look here little ki-GAHHH!!!" I copsed to the ground as a powerful wave of life energy crashed into me!

    However, after a brief moment of pain, the energy calmed down and turned into a sea of pleasure instead.

    "Oh wow. This actually feels good! Don''t stop!" Imanded Princess Augustine as my body and my red mecha core absorbed the wondrous life energy greedily.

    "Huh? You''re not affected? Impossible! No living being can resist my power unless¡­ Could it be¡­ The Royal Blessing of Purification?" Princess Augustine''s frown deepened. "Only a small handful of people can grant that blessing to you, and they are allpletely loyal to the Shra-Gaz Church. Who are you, really?"

    Her tone mellowed downpletely as she finally realized that we were not enemies.

    "As I was saying before you rudely assaulted me, look here little kiddo. We rescued you from a bus sized m a few kilometers from here, deep within the Pacific Ocean. A root-like machine of sorts was draining your life away, and it followed us here and tried to get you back. However, because of my immense strength, I was able to kill it easily. Now, I will appreciate a simple thank you and a rare treasure as payment for all my eff-"

    BAM!

    Bruce Pang smacked me in the head with unrestrained strength.

    "OUCH!" I roared in surprise. I felt the pain and the force behind it, of course, but it was nothing to me.

    "Hee hee! Ehm. Hmm." Princess Augustine giggled slightly at Bruce Pang''s actions before coughing lightly to regain her augustposure.

    "What was that for?!" I shouted at my big bro.

    "That''s for trying to weasel your way into getting another gift from her after receiving that Royal Blessing of Purification. Your greed knows no bounds! Repent!" My big bro said sternly to me.

    "Wa-wait! I was the one who granted that Royal Blessing of Purification??" Princess Augustine eximed in deep surprise. "Why would I do that? It''s a very costly process that would set my strength back for several months!"

    "What?! Why would you do such a costly process for a buffoon like him?" Bruce Pang eximed loudly in dismay while pointing at me.

    "That''s exactly what I am asking. Answer my questions! Tell me everything that happened in detail! I will figure it out myself." Princess Augustinemanded with narrowed eyes.

    Bruce Pang sighed and then recounted all that had happened quickly but with impressive detail and conciseness.

    "You dripped your blood into my mouth at that moment?!" Princess Augustine shouted in horror when my big bro reached that part of the story. "Are you freaking nuts? Why would you do that? Are you a necromancer?!"

    "What? Of course I am not a necromancer! Why would you say that?? My blood has healing properties! I was just trying to heal you!" Bruce Pang said defensively.

    "My God. What a ridiculous mess. Go on." Princess Augustine ced one small hand daintily on her forehead and sighed deeply.<novelnext></novelnext>

    After Bruce Pang was done, Princess Augustine sighed the biggest sigh I had ever seen.

    "No wonder I gave you the Royal Blessing of Purification. You are technically my Royal Uncle now."

    "Huh? "Are"? I am still your Royal Uncle? Didn''t you lose your memory?" I asked her in surprise.

    "Bonds of blood once formed are not so easily broken." Princess Augustine said grimly and then turned to her pops.

    She examined him carefully from head to toe for a few seconds.

    "You gave me your blood right as my power waspleting its recreation of my full strength and my full being. It automatically incorporated your blood into my body. Although I am not your daughter in the way such rtionships are formed, I am biologically rted to you. And considering your age¡­ I guess being your daughter is the most logical rtionship." Princess Augustine sighed ruefully.

    "I see¡­" Bruce Pang replied rather awkwardly.

    "No wonder I felt an inexplicable sense of kinship when I first peeked at you just now." Princess Augustine said. "I can''t believe I got myself a father. After an entire life of not having one, now I am stuck being a daughter of a weak middle aged dude."

    I snickered loudly at her words. Weak middle aged dude! Ha!

    But I quickly turned serious. As funny and as ridiculous the situation was, it was still one that was chock full of critical mysteries!

    "Many questions remain to be answered though. What exactly is that root thing? Why are you here? What exactly is your power? Why did you faint just now? Why did you lose your memory? Did you know my big bro prior to this? And most importantly, what''s the outside universe like? Are you the most powerful kingdom? Do you guys know about our civilisation? Are you guys friendly?" I unleashed a barrage of questions at her.

    But I wasn''t done!

    "What is a familiar? What is YOUR familiar? And what did you mean when you said necromancer earlier? How do I be a necromancer?" I continued.

    "Is your sworn brother a journalist or something?" Princess Augustineined to my big bro andpletely ignored all of my very legitimate questions. "Don''t tell me he really is autistic?"

    "He''s actually quite normal, despite being so abnormal." My big bro said rather contradictorily.

    "I will answer all your questionster. For now, I need toy down for abit. What''s with this very small ce anyway? This little transport lizard seems very capable of carrying a much bigger lounge." Princess Augustineined and tried to make herselffortable.

    "I didn''t design this pod for three people. I meant it for myself." I replied in slight irritation. I was really looking forward to the answers of all my questions. And I was rather peeved that my supremely awesome Godzi Dragon was called a "transport lizard"!

    "Insensible. My opinion of you is really low now, Royal Uncle. Why would anyone put such a small pod on a transport lizard? It''s like making a cannon and giving it a pencil sized barrel. Very, very insensible indeed. Why can''t you be more normal and put in a much bigger pod? Or at least travel in a much bigger mecha. Like those two mechas that''sing our way. Those two look reallyfortable. Abit weak, but I definitely would have room to rx in there." Princess Augustine said with a yawn.

    I looked at Bruce Pang in rm as I cast out my resonance.

 Chapter 220 Lets Go Back!

    "Golden mechas?" Bruce Pang asked with a sigh to no one in particr.

    He probably had a feeling that he had reached the end of his wonderful run of good luck.

    And he was right.

    Of course they were golden mechas.

    Our much dreaded confrontation with the Americans and Europeans was about to happen, and we had a huge bunch of things that we couldn''t really find a fake exnation for.

    Most ring of all was of course, G-Drake.

    "They probably locked on to my signal." G-Drake said. "They lost it when we escaped through the portal, but regained it when I exerted my strength in the earlier battle."

    "Golden mechas? Sounds so garish. Why are theying our way?" Princess Augustine askedzily.

    "They are most probably here to find out what G-Drake is. They will probably capture us for interrogation as soon as they discover us." Bruce Pang said grimly.

    "Help us." I immediately said to Princess Augustine.

    "Why should I? What''s in it for me?" Princess Augustine asked with a sly look on her face.

    My lips twitched as I held back a withering curse at her.

    "Where the hell did the sweet version of you go to?" I muttered. "How did you manage to have such a massive change in character with just a simple memory reset?"

    "Oh I can be sweet. I can be reeally sweet if I want to. But why should I be sweet to you?" Princess Augustine retorted back.

    "YOU tell me. You were really sweet before!" I shot back at her.

    "Stop arguing kids. The golden mechas are almost here. We need to figure out how to deal with them." Bruce Pang cut in firmly.

    "Where''s Chronos? If it cane to our position, we can use it to escape. It is probably strong enough to drag G-Drake along, right?" I asked my big bro.

    "Chronos is... currently dormant. The Ancestor is probably hiding somewhere. Or captured. Either way, I can''t risk bringing it to our position right now." Bruce Pang said.

    "If we can''t run, then we must fight. There is no way I will allow myself to be captured without a fight." I said with great determination. I shot Princess Augustine a nce, but she had her eyes closed, and seemed content to let us deal with the situation.

    I knew I had to throw out a juicy bait or a prepare a sharp stick to galvanize her into action.

    "Bait first then." I thought to myself and took out the two treasures which G-Drake specifically got for me from his dad''s massive piles of treasures.

    I swung the treasure sword lightly with my right hand and caused it to give out a slight hum as mysterious energies sparked into life and created a trail of blue electrical discharge behind it.

    From the corner of my eye, I saw Princess Augustine sneak a quick peek at the sword before turning away without a single change of expression.

    Bait number one, failed.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "G-Drake, use this mecha core to power your reserve core. Unlike what you told me earlier, I discovered that this mecha core actually has several very powerful effects!" I said loudly and moved towards the control panel which I had ced in the pod.

    "WAIT!! What is that? Let me see!" Princess Augustine suddenly shouted excitedly.

    Bait number two, awesome sess.

    "Oh this? This is a hyper rare and powerful energy core which is the principal treasure of the n of blue dragons hiding away on this." I lied through my teeth smoothly. "But s, since you don''t want to help us deal with the golden mechas, this will probably fall into the hands of the Americans or the Europeans."

    "Give it to me, and I will deal with the two golden weaklings for you." Princess Augustine said eagerly.

    "I will let you hold it for two minutes if you can disable the two golden weaklings and lead us back to my home." I immediately made a counter offer.

    "I will do all that if you give that energy core to me." Princess Augustine said with an annoyed pout.

    "One day. I will lend it to you for one full day if you do all that. That''s my final offer. Take it or leave it!" I said firmly and dangled the mecha core in front of her to help speed up her decision making process.

    It worked beautifully.

    "Hmph! Fine! One day in exchange for cleaning up those weaklings." Princess Augustine hmphed impatiently.

    She waved her little hand and pointed at the two golden mechas which were already within a couple of kilometers away.

    Through the window, I could see a pair of massive bubbles float away very rapidly towards the two unsuspecting apex mechas of Earth''s superpowers.

    Both the pair of bubbles and golden mechas were traveling at such high speed that their collision happend just a few secondster.

    Blub. Blub.

    The two massive golden mechas plopped straight into the bubbles, and then by some strange power, they suddenly stopped movingpletely!

    Princess Augustine waved her little hands once more, and brought the two massive golden mechas towards us!

    "There. I captured the two weaklings as agreed upon. Do whatever you want with them. Now give me that energy core!" Princess Augustine said and stretched out her hand impatiently at me.

    With a wide smile, I tossed the yellow mecha core to her.

    "Good deal." I said happily and grinned at my big bro who could onlyugh helplessly at the two little kids who took care of two golden mechas that were so powerful that they were basically overlords of the entire world as though they were trading favors for little toys in the yground!

    Princess Augustine grabbed the yellow mecha core greedily and immediately closed her eyes to study it.

    My big bro and I proceeded to marvel at the two massive toys that had so very generously delivered themselves to us, and we were about to grin at each other when Princess Augustine''s voice rang out from behind us.

    "I want this core. And more of it. Let us go back to the dragonir to look for them!"

 Chapter 221 Rolls Royce Container Trucks

    ? But what were golden mechas?

    Even if they belonged to only two countries, in the grand scheme of things before an alienmunity, they were the pride and joy of Earth!

    Despite havingparatively clunky tech and inefficient energy maniption systems, they were still walking nuclear reactors.

    Both golden mechas suddenly gave a loud hum as the pilots unleashed their full power!

    KRRRR!

    Small sounds of cracking could be heard as Princess Augustine''s bubble strained to keep the golden mechas in ce.

    Instantly, G-Drake retreated a couple hundred meters away.

    "Ok this is not good. Whatever you just did, it''s not strong enough to restrain them! They will escape soon! Strengthen your bubble!" I said to Princess Augustine urgently.

    "Strengthen my bubble? Ha! You think I am wielding a water bubble gun? That''s already my strongest cage, and its strengthes from its reaction with its target. A secondary bubble has no effect. Why are you so worried? If they escape, I''ll just wrap another one around them." Princess Augustine replied dismissively.

    It may sound strange, but it was at that moment that I realized one thing.

    Princess Augustine, despite the incredible power she wields, was extremelycking in battle experience.

    She had no idea that her earlier sess waspletely due to the element of surprise. The golden mechas had no idea what was about to hit them!

    But at that moment, they did.

    And it would be impossible to repeat the sess she had earlier so easily.

    In order to even get a chancd to repeat her sess, she would need to get her secondary bubbles ready and standing by around the golden mechas, ready to reapply the restraints at a moment''s notice!

    And even then, I doubted that it was doable. The momentum the golden mechas got after breaking through the firstyer would probably destroy the secondyer before it could take effect.

    With chilling certainty, I realized that there was no way we would be able to restrain the golden mechas for much longer.

    I sighed deeply.

    So close yet so far!!

    If only my red mecha core wasn''t dormant. I would have definitely broken down the two golden mechas and reformed them into something easy to transport before getting the hell out of that ce and hiding somewhere to slowly absorb them!

    And when that happened, I would be one of the top powers of the world! But s, it was not meant to be.

    KRRRRRRRRR!

    The golden mechas continued to exert their full strength on the bubble, and caused the cracks to sound unceasingly.

    I opened my mouth to renegotiate with the princess. But before I could say a single word, Bruce Pang suddenly said softly.

    "Chronos is on the move. It is...ing this way."

    "Excellent! Let''s just escape!!" I cried out. I actually had enough of the adventure, and wanted to slowly consolidate my gains first.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Without my red mecha core, I was just a hopelessly thick skinned little kid incapable ofbat against powerful mechas!

    However, my story would be a boring one if there are only so many twists and turns.

    And if I have to say, my story is extremely exciting.

    The biggest twist of my little undersea adventure had just arrived.

    "Whoa! Kiddos! I thought that I just pulled off the greatest feat in all of human history by capturing a full grown blue dragon! But what the hell! You both somehow managed to capture two golden mechas?? Are you freaking kidding me?? How the hell did you two do it!" A familiar but much more energetic voice than usual rang out in ourms.

    "You managed to capture the blue dragon??" I shouted back in surprise. With the blue dragon and a little negotiating with the Princess, we should have enough firepower to take down the two golden mechas!

    "Hahahahahahahaha! Who do you think I am? Of course I managed to do it! I enved the damned lizard and took most of its treasure with me! We are rich! We will soon be a superpower like the Americans and Europeans!" Came the Ancestor''s smug voice.

    "Good!" I quickly replied. "Prepare for battle! The two golden mechas are about to break free of their restraints!"

    "WHAT THE HELL?" Came his indignant shout. "Why do such a half assed job on two god damned HEAVY GOLDEN MECHAS?!?! How many times must I tell you, never attack a stronger enemy unless you have absolute confidence in winning!!"

    But I ignored him and turned my attention to the Princess.

    "Your part of the deal failed. And you heard the old man, he got the dragon and its treasure. Help us deal with the golden mechas, and you can take the next energy core we find among the dragon''s treasure." I said to Princess Augustine.

    "Deal." She immediately agreed and tossed the energy core back at me.

    Right on time.

    CRACKKKKKK!!!!!

    The restraints on the two, nearly three hundred meter tall golden mechas finally broke!

    Without a single moment''s dy, the two golden mechas immediately attacked us.

    Imagine that you are back in your childhood at say, five years old. Can you remember that far?

    Remember how small, weak and vulnerable you were?

    And now imagine that you''re standing in the middle of a highway, and the biggest, sturdiest Rolls-Royce container truck was trumpeting its horn and speeding towards your five year old self at two hundred kilometers an hour.

    No, make that two Rolls-Royce container trucks.

    That was exactly how we felt in the thirty meter long G-Drake when the two three hundred meter long golden mechas finally burst into action and came at us.

    "Old man! Get your damned dragon to hold back the golden mechas! We won''t be able to resist both of their all out pissed off attacks at the same ti-"

    Whoosh!!

    WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMM!!!

    The loudest underwater collision to ever happen in the history of the world probably took ce at that moment as the blue dragon threw itself at the two golden mechas and crashed into them!

 Chapter 222 High Speed Brawl

    Battle was joined.

    Two peak white mechas, an adult blue dragon and an alien Princess wielding strange life energy, versus two golden mechas, the very best the world had to offer.

    How do you think the battle went down?

    "Stay the hell back and prepare to escape with Chronos!" Came the Ancestor''s grim voice through ourms.

    "We found an alien healer. She can help from a distance." Bruce Pang said calmly in reply.

    "Then heal the dragon! Oof!" The Ancestor yelled as the first golden mecha, who was shaped like a boxy giant, smashed its shield onto the blue dragon''s head.

    The two golden mechas belonged to the Americans and the Europeans.

    They were not allies, and they definitely did not share their technological breakthroughs with each other.

    Although their spyworks made the less important tech belonging to each superpower readily avable to each other, their most powerful tech was held under very strict protection, and as such, they were bothpletely different even though they were both at the golden mecha grade.

    The American golden mecha was boxy, and looked extremely formidable in terms of defense. It carried a pair of tower shields on its arms and massive, twin overlord spears in its hands.

    Although it looked extremely bulky, its speed was deceptively quick due to its incredible movement system.

    The shield that smashed onto the blue dragon was just its left shield, and its right hand which was gripping a massive overlord spear was already shing down in a vicious overhead swing!

    The second golden mecha was ignoring the blue dragon, and was exploding towards me!

    It was the European mecha, and it was shaped like a full blown ancient God of War.

    Sleek, angr and wielding a pair of rapiers, it looked very speedy and deadly. In addition, a pair in looking shoulder mounted cannons had appeared, and I was not stupid enough to dismiss them because of how they looked.

    My sixth sense was ring loudly and screaming at me to leave the area as quickly as possible!

    But it was toote.

    Golden mecha pilots were the aces among aces. Hesitation was not a word that they were familiar with.

    PEW PEW!!

    Two small and redser beams shot out of the shoulder mounted cannons towards G-Drake.

    "Whoa. Those are pretty concentratedser beams. I thought that you''re a very primitive civilisation based on the tech you''ve installed on the transport lizard, and the power output I sensed from these two golden mechas earlier. But your applications of energy are actually quite creative. Theseser beams are pretty strong! Not as strong as me though. Hee hee!" Princess Augustine giggled lightly as she waved her hand like a street magician.

    But what appeared around G-Drake a split secondter were no party trick.

    A blue barrier shimmered into life around us, and caused the two powerfulser beam bursts to immediately disperse upon contact!

    "Antiser shield." Princess Augustine said with a slight tinge of pride. "Even in the main universe, this technology is quite new."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Good." I merely gulped in relief and in stress.

    We managed to neutralize theser beam attack and stay alive.

    But the European golden mecha was still making its way very very quickly towards us!

    GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

    The Ancestor ordered the massive blue dragon to ignore the American golden mecha for the moment and charge straight at the European golden mecha!

    sh!! STAB!!

    The American golden mecha managed to cut and stab into the blue dragon, but due to the dragon''s movement away from the mecha, the attacks weren''t fatal.

    VRAAAAA!!!!!

    The blue mecha unleashed a powerful dragon breath which shot towards the European golden mecha at a sizzling speed, forcing it to abandon its advance forward towards us and dodge the dragon breath.

    "What the hell? Why is that dragon attacking me? What the hell are you doing? Do your damn job properly!" Came a little girl''s voice from the European golden mecha.

    "By God, it''s a real dragon! I thought it was just a dragon shaped mecha!" Came a male, middle aged exmation of surprise from the American golden mecha. In my mind, the image of a tall caucasian with a messy beard and mustache appeared.

    "Quit whining like a little bitch and hold it down! I can''t get to the little lizard if it keeps bothering me!" Snarled the little girl.

    "Watch yournguage, little girl!" Came the middle aged man''s reply. However, he did as the little girl said, released the overlord spear on his left hand and grabbed the blue dragon by its tail!

    WHAM!!

    The old man was no newbie in a brawl like this, and he immediately ordered the blue dragon to use its tail to p the American golden mecha''s hand away!

    "Oh no you don''t!" The caucasian shouted as he used the force generated by the blue dragon''s tail p to spin his mecha and swing down his other hand which was still gripping his overlord spear in a powerful attack!

    "Hmph." The Ancestor ignored the iing sh and instead shot forward to tackle the European mecha who obviously was very focused on capturing G-Drake!

    "What a reckless old man." Princess Augustine sighed loudly and then wiggled her fingerszily. That little action caused a torrent of energy to explode from her body and she sent a spiral of life energy shooting out towards the American golden mecha''s massive limbs.

    Crash!!!

    The American golden mecha''s hand stopped midswing as though it hit something really solid.

    "We need to work together! Stop being an arrogant European princess and help me deal with this dragon!" The caucasian man shouted.

    "Grrrr. Fine! Let''s deal with the fat dragon first then!" The little girl''s voice sounded and in a surprising turn of events, turned around and ganked on the blue dragon!

    Both pairs of fighters were surprisingly coordinating very, very well with their partners, and the fight had instantly be a very high stakes, high speed and high skilled doubles brawl!

 Chapter 223 Jacksnot Jackrabbits

    Blue dragons were ancient and formidable beasts. They were able to manipte the energy of nature in strange ways and mold them into defensive or offensive constructs.

    Theyman would call what they did "magic", and for the purposes of exining the effects of what those dragons did, they were probably not wrong.

    What the blue dragons could do in the absence of technology truly seemed magical.

    However, there was nothing inherently magical or supernatural in what they were doing.

    Blue dragons had energy-sensitive bodies that were able to not only sense but also manipte the energy around them.

    After thousands or even millions of years, they had developed their abilities to manipte energy into an art form.

    And apparently, in the outside universe, there are various other races that could do that too, as evidenced by Princess Augustine''s incredible show of power.

    However, whether or not Princess Augustine was the norm or a notable exception remained a mystery for me at that point in time.

    Still, whatever Princess Augustine was, one thing remained abundantly clear - Earth wasgging behind in everything!

    Human beings do not have inherently energy sensitive bodies. We needed biological enhancements to facilitate energy maniption, but it was a technological realm that human beings have yet to achieve, and without reaching that realm, we will never be able to understand the workings behind the blue dragons'' seemingly magical actions, much less duplicate them.

    And so, even though our two golden mechas were incredibly tough and powerful, and boasted the most powerful offensive arsenal the world could field then, they were still hopelessly outgunned by the blue dragon!

    And it was not just any blue dragon that they were facing at that moment.

    It was a blue dragon that had assimted, crudely, yes, but sessfully nheless, with the experimental mecha core, Clone.

    It was a being that was originally already quite resistant to my red mecha energy, and with Clone added into its arsenal, the blue dragon, which previously was vulnerable to me simply due to my ferocious red energy which was able to break its biomechponents down one at a time, became a being that truly had no equal in the face of this world.

    Having Princess Augustine helping him from the sidelines only made the battle that much easier for the blue dragon!

    GRAAH!!

    The blue dragon fired off two short sts of draconic energy at the sleek European mecha, and forced it to stop its advance once more.

    But with the attention of both golden mechas on him, the Ancestor had pretty much gotten what it wanted.

    "I guess it''s time to find out if the newest member of Blood Moon has what it takes to rival the superpowers." The Ancestor said with an obvious tinge of excitement in his voice. "Blue Storm, go all out!"

    All at once, a strange energy started to swirl around the enved blue dragon king which the Ancestor had named Blue Storm.

    WHIRL!

    The water around Blue Storm started to be highly agitated and then with startling speed and power, began to swirl around the massive blue dragon! And not just that, streaks of white hot electricity also started to shoot out in all directions from Blue Storm''s body!<novelnext></novelnext>

    RUUUUUMMBLEEEEEEE!!!!!

    The strength of the whirlpool around Blue Storm was nothing to be scoffed at.

    Even though the two golden mechas were extremely powerful and wielded the strength to easily stand unmoving in the wildest of storms, they were, after all was said and done, still as tiny ants before the might of nature.

    And at that moment, it was as though the power of the entire ocean was smashing against them, pushing them along as they revolved around Blue Storm.

    "This damned dragon is able to manipte water really powerfully. I have to exert twenty five percent of my power just to stabilize myself." The American said. "We have to be careful, if its power is already so strong at this range, then it must be fearsome indeed at close range!"

    "Shut your trap old man! As powerful as it is, it will never be as strong as the European Empire! God Bless The King! Devil Laser Barrage!" The little girl shouted loudly.

    "HA! What a noisy little girl! She is so unlike me, who is so calm and collected." Princess Augustine said in a rather loud voice herself. "Anti Laser Shield!"

    As before, a blueish shield appeared in front of Blue Storm and cleanly absorbed theser barrage!

    "Gah! It''s that strange blue shield again! For it to be able to neutralize my Devil Laser Barrage, it must be an alien technology!" The little girl shouted angrily.

    "HAHA! How old are you? Five? Of course it''s alien tech! We''re fighting against a dragon!" The Americanughed at the girl''s obvious statement.

    "Shut up! If you don''t n to attack, then go back to your stupid vige and rot!" The little girl yelled while her mecha started to glow an ominous orange in color.

    "Good. Water Domain established. Don''t think that I will give you damned golden mechas the time to charge up and unleash your full power! Next up, attack! Unleash Lightning Domain!" The Ancestor shouted.

    CRACKLE!! CRACKLE!!

    The many streaks of white lightning that were radiating out from Blue Storm suddenly underwent a massive boost in power!

    They started tobine together in fives or sixes to form massive and dangerous looking lightning bolts.

    CRACK! CRACK!

    And under the Ancestor''s masterful guidance, the lightning bolts started to shoot out towards the two golden mechas!

    "Jacksnot Jackrabbit! This isn''t good. Get behind me little girl! God''s Bulwark!" The American shouted andbined the two massive tower shields on both his arms into one.

    As soon as they did, a ck miasma radiated from it and extended the size of the defensive shield to cover the entire body of the American golden mecha.

    "Stop giving me instructions and mind your own business! Lightning Bolt!" The European girl sneered at the American and threw out a small ball towards Blue Storm!

 Chapter 224 Clone

    Tens of lightning bolts converged upon the golden mechas as though they were massive lightning rods standing tall in the middle of a lightning storm.

    KABOOOMM!!!

    The first group of lightning bolts smashed onto the massive shield of the American and threw him violently backwards.

    The next group of lightning bolts were all attracted by and crashed into the small ball which the little girl threw out.

    Because of that, the European mecha was rtively untouched by the lightning bolts.

    She burst out of the explosion at high speed and shot out towards Blue Storm with both her rapiers extended out.

    She looked very determined to close the distance between them and engage in closebat!

    However, she barely made any progress when a literal wall of lightning bolts shot out once more from the blue dragon and hurtled towards her!

    "Shit! Lightning sh!!" The European mecha''s twin rapiers suddenly glowed orange and the little girl swung them diagonally forward in a clean defensive and offensive act.

    Her own orange coloured lightning shot out of her rapiers and crashed into the iing wall of lightning bolts.

    With that surprisingly powerful move, the little girl managed to safely survive the next batch of lightning bolts.

    But that was all she could do at that moment. Survive!

    There was no progress to be made against such fearsome spells!

    "What the hell? Are these lightning bolts endless?" The little girl yelled in exasperation as she was forced to retreat a distance away so that the new walls of lightning bolts which were constantly spawning did not target her.

    "Water Domain and Lightning Domain established sessfully. Excellent. Now, take it up a notch! Charge ahead and bring the fight to them!" The Ancestor hooted loudly and half victoriously, doing the exact same thing that the European mecha was trying to do just a mere second ago.

    In such a situation, where both parties were eager to close the distance and get to closebat, it simply meant that both were confident of theirbat prowess.

    However, the chances of them having equal strength was minuscule. One of them was definitely stronger than the other.

    The only question was, which one?

    Blue Storm dashed ahead and brought along with it the massive swirling ocean tornado and the hundreds of lightning bolts which had rapidly umted around him.

    "You''reing towards me? Good. Come and meet your death, you damned lizard!" The little girl cried out and charged ahead fearlessly as well.

    However, she had very sneakily thrown out a handful of small balls to her left and right.

    CRACKLE!! CRACKLE!!

    Grouping the bunch of small balls together seemed to have an exponential effect in their ability to attract lightning, and as soon as they activated, every single lightning bolt which had umted around Blue Storm shot towards the small balls!

    KA-KABOOOOOMMMM!!!!

    They exploded magnificently.

    But they did much more than explode.

    They cleared a path towards the blue dragon!

    VROOO!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    The golden mecha fired all of its considerably powerful thrusters and dived straight ahead with its pair of deadly looking rapiers.

    HUMM!!

    Both rapiers glowed orange and then fired off a pair of stunningly powerful nuclear beams!

    "What the hell? I had no idea golden mechas could do such a thing!" The Ancestor howled in indignance as he made the blue dragon swerve violently to the side to avoid the nuclear beams.

    But s!

    The nuclear beams were somehow powered and directed by the aiming system of the alien tech the Europeans got, and they actually swerved and repositioned themselves to eventually smash into Blue Storm!!!

    BOOOM!! GRAAAOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

    The blue dragon shrieked in pain as the twin nuclear beams ravaged its left arm and shoulder!

    "They are able to direct even energy beams? And what the hell? Were those nuclear beams?" The Ancestor cursed vehemently. But he didn''t get very far because the little girl wasn''t done pressing home the advantage that her little balls had gotten her.

    She managed to get into sword range within a split second and unleashed a highly skilled barrage of rapier shes at Blue Storm in a short blink of an eye!

    "Her rapiers are actuallyyered with nuclear energy?" The Ancestor eximed grimly as the little girl shed off the blue dragon''s wounded left arm.

    In the battle between the god-like blue dragon and Europe''s golden mecha, surprisingly, it was the golden mecha who was holding a clear advantage!

    "Regrow!" The Ancestor snapped at the blue dragon. "And I said, go all out! Why the hell aren''t you activating clone? Create a couple of clones and kick that damned European mecha''s ass!!"

    Graooooo!!

    The blue dragon howled a strange howl, and activated a green glow!

    Instantly, its dragon arm regrew, and two smaller but clearly otherwise exactly the same blue dragons suddenly shimmered into being made by power of the Clone mecha core.

    "Huh! This dragon is capable of cloning itself? This is bad. I''m out of here!" The little girl shouted very, very decisively before applying full brakes and reversing her direction!

    The fact that she was instantly able to choose to retreat showed that she was a formidable warrior who was not lost in her own world of false invincibility.

    She may be a little girl, but her maturity and decision making wisdom was off the charts.

    Additionally, her sensors were also top notch. She was able to immediately discover that the two smaller dragons were not simply harmless illusions, but were true blue illusions which could definitely pack a strong punch if allowed tond hits on her mecha.

    VROOO!!!

    The European golden mecha exploded off in the opposite direction as quickly as it had tried to close the distance.

    But would the Ancestor allow her toe and go as she pleased?

    Oh hell no.

    The Ancestor got the two little clones totch on to the European mecha, and started to attempt to stop her from making good her escape!

    "You think you can leave so easily? What am I? A god damned restaurant? Stay here and prepare to die!" The Ancestor shouted.

 Chapter 225 Advanced Element

    But golden mechas were no slouches whose movements could be so easily impeded, and especially not by mini blue dragon clones.

    VROOOOO!!!

    The European golden mecha maxed out her throttle and exploded away at full speed!

    There was nothing we could do except to watch her quickly disappear before our very eyes.

    It truly was a high level battle.

    The exchanges were short and heavy, and the weaker party immediately beat a retreat as soon as the odds were stacked against him or her.

    At that level, there were no hard headed fools who would overstay in a low stakes but dangerous battle.

    Well, maybe not exactly none.

    A few secondster, one such fool showed up before us.

    The American golden mecha which was flung by the barrage of powerful lightning bolts had made his way back to the battlefield!

    But before we could attack, he raised his hands up in a show of non-aggression.

    "Wait! Don''t attack! I am not here to continue our fight!" The American said.

    GRAAAAHHHHHH!!!

    The blue dragon roared menacingly at the golden dragon. But the Ancestor held it back from attacking.

    "My name is Jackson Brown-Smith. I represent one of the two superpowers of this world. We would like to engage in dialogue with you." Jackson said.

    "Just disable and capture him. There is no need for lions to dialogue with rabbits." Princess Augustine said with a yawn.

    "You have found a very, very interesting fe there, Bruce. I really like her." The Ancestor said with augh. But he did not make a move.

    He merely got the blue dragon to growl softly in a show of willingness to listen.

    "As expected. You understand me. America is the strongest country in this world. Would you like to discuss your intentions and your ns with us? I am sure we cane to an ord." Jackson said amiably.

    "An ord? Haha! When has America been so meek? This dude is obviously extremely scared of us!" Iughed loudly.

    But Bruce Pang''s face remained serious.

    "This dude is very crafty. Our answer might very well reveal much of what we want to keep a mystery." Bruce Pang said softly to the Ancestor.

    "Just capture him. You guys are being very meek yourselves. Quickly! I want to get my pick of the energy core from the blue dragon!" Princess Augustine said impatiently.

    "I do not think that he would be so stupid as to stay here if he doesn''t have a trump card that would ensure his escape. Capturing him would be no easy feat." The Ancestor said gravely.

    "Not answering is an answer. I hope you understand that, old man." Princess Augustine said. "Make a decision!"

    "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush." I said. "Capture him and get whatever he has to offer. Surely whatever you want to gain from engaging in dialogue with him couldn''t be more valuable than a golden mecha and the information its pilot possess?"

    "How about an alliance with America? Would that be more valuable than a golden mecha and an enemy out of them?" The Ancestor said.

    "No." Both Princess Augustine and I said at the same time.

    We nced at each other and shared a conspiratorial smile.

    "An alliance is a weakling''s idea of peace. It leaves the power in the hands of your "ally". True peace is when you have the power in your own hands!" Princess Augustine said wisely.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Indeed. You took the words of my mouth. I could not say it better myself." I nodded in agreement.

    "Hmmm. If this is how the younger generation thinks, then our country is definitely destined for war." The Ancestor said ruefully. "But so be it. Little girl, you seem to have a lot of strange powers. Can you disable him for a few seconds?"

    "Three seconds." Princess Augustine said.

    "That''s good enough. Please do so whenever you''re ready." The Ancestor said.

    "I am always ready." Princess Augustine said and wiggled her fingers.

    "I really need to learn how to do that." I said as I watched her wiggling fingers in fascination.

    "Ha! This is not something you weak life forms are able to do. Only Ascended Beings like me can do that." Princess Augustine said proudly even as another massive bubble shot out of G-Drake at high speed.

    Blub.

    Jackson was on the defensive against Blue Storm and was caughtpletely unaware by the surprise attacking from us. And as such, the bubble sessfully wrapped around him and froze him in ce.

    However, because he was ready for battle, he had most of his power standing by, and was able to wield them almost instantly to break out of the bubble wrap!

    Crack!!

    A massive crack appeared on the bubble wrap, a split second before it disappeared altogether!

    All in all, only less than two seconds had passed!

    "Oops." Princess Augustine said with a giggle. "The weakling is not as weak as I thought."

    But thankfully, the old man was done.

    He took the time Princess Augustine bought for him to rapidly gather Blue Storm''s energy and made a full sized clone!

    "Oh you sneaky bastard! So you had no intention of dialogue huh? Fine! Then feel the full might of the United States of All Americas!!" Jackson shouted before the full sized and two mini clones flung themselves at him!

    Crunch!!

    Crunch!!

    CRUNCH!!

    They bit into his mecha with their powerful jaws and held him in ce.

    "Good! Now for the finale. Frozen Winter!" The Ancestor shouted.

    Immediately, a massive burst of ice energy shot out of Blue Storm''s maw and smashed into the golden mecha!

    "FOR AMERI..."

    Whoosh.

    The entire golden mecha was frozen solid before Jackson could finish his sentence. And with that, we had sessfully captured our first golden mecha!!

    But apparently, capturing the golden mecha wasn''t the most exciting thing at that moment.

    There was something even more interesting.

    "What the hell? The blue dragon actually has control over the ICE Element?! That is an advanced element!!" Princess Augustine shouted in shock!

 Chapter 226 Pills

    I blinked in confusion as I considered which one I should get hyped over first.

    The captured golden mecha, or the blue dragon which was surprisingly more surprising that it already was?

    But because I am the wielder of Devour, the golden mecha held a much greater attraction than the blue dragon''s surprising mastery over an "advanced element".

    "Yes! We got the golden mecha! Let''s get the hell out of here before his backup arrives!" I shouted gleefully.

    "Let''s go. Little girl, you can tell me all about the advanced elementter." The Ancestor said and quickly got his blue dragon to grab hold of the golden mecha.

    "Sure! But only if you agree to loan me the dragon for a couple of years. Mastery over an advanced element! That is awesome!" Princess Augustine said happily.

    "You don''t happen to have some sort of tool to keep the golden mechapletely hidden, do you?" The Ancestor asked her hopefully.

    "Hidden from your primitive technology? Ha! Of course!" Princess Augustine wiggled her hands once more, and a thinyer of light appeared around the golden mecha.

    "Awesome! For that, I will dly lend you the dragon for two years, after the Chinese Federation wins the uing war." The Ancestor said in a pleased voice.

    "That''s fine. I have been looking for one for the longest time! To think I''ll find it here, in the middle of nowhere! Ha!"

    At her words though, I was reminded of several of the critical questions that I still had.

    "In the middle of nowhere? So where is the middle of everywhere? Why and how was she captured by the strange m? What exactly happened that caused her to have such amnesia earlier?"

    I nced at Bruce Pang, and could see his deep set eyes also clouded with worry.

    I was sure that he was wondering about the exact same things as I did.

    But what he was thinking at that moment would be something that I failed to find out, even till now, because for thest time that day, Princess Augustine suddenly copsed in a dead faint.

    "Augustine!!" My big bro shouted in horror.

    But there was nothing much we could do.

    For the rest of the short trip back to the academy, we were inplete silence.

    Nothing else happened all the way back home.

    I mean, what could happen? We were an adult blue dragon, a peak white mecha and a powerful biomech dragon.

    As soon as we neared the surface, we all transfered to Chronos and got the dragons to return to theirir.

    We weren''t ready for the big reveal of our brand new weapons of mass destruction just yet. The right thing at the wrong time is wrong.

    We wanted to gather the required intel first, and the Ancestor wanted to debrief the blue dragon as well.

    But that could wait.<novelnext></novelnext>

    We had been away from the Academy for too long.

    Plus, the Demoness Wang was waiting for us as well!

    "Stay low for the next few days and don''t cause any trouble." The Ancestor said tersely to me as wended on his private mecha hangar.

    It waste at night, and the academy was deadly silent.

    However, I peeked at Chronos'' controls earlier, and everything in the security report was green. All was well with the academy.

    After the surprise attack that resulted in the deaths of our instructors, I would be shocked if the entire wasn''t in high alert.

    Vice Principal Jeae Wen was probably in Alert 5 status at that moment.

    "I believe I do not have to remind you that everything that happened is top secret? Nobody, including the Whitefrosts, can know about even the tiniest detail."

    I opened my mouth to reply, but he wasn''t done.

    "Come to Bruce Pang''s office first thing tomorrow morning. The Demoness will probably want to talk to you. And tell me the moment Devoures back online! At that very moment, you hear?" The Ancestor said sternly to me.

    "How the heck am I supposed to tell you right away? What if I am doing number two in the toilet after a huge meal?" I asked him with an irritated tone.

    "Here. I don''t care if you''re on number two or number three. Call me right away!" The Ancestor said as he updated myms with his personal contact.

    I was probably the only student in the entire academy to have his contact on my personalms, but we were too caught up in our own thoughts to bothermenting on that historic fact.

    As soon as wended, my big bro held Princess Augustine and leapt out of the cockpit.

    Jete Wen and a medical team were already there, and they quickly disappeared.

    An instructor I did not recognize brought me back to my room, and it was only when I looked at Rnd Hu, Jack Yang, and Barrick Rui''s wide open eyes staring at me as though they were seeing a ghost that I finally felt I was¡­ Home.

    "Holy smokes, is that Justin?" Rnd Hu whispered loudly to the other two.

    "No way, Justin is dead, remember? He disappeared without a trace for so many days! Farrel and the other punks were already celebrating his death!" Jack Yang whispered back.

    "Justin? Who''s Justin? I do not know anybody called Justin." Barrick Rui said with a frown. "That being over there is obviously the spirit of a traitorous bastard who disappeared without first telling his best buddies what the hell was happening. Let us exorcize it."

    I grinned widely at them and threw three small pill bottles at them, spoils of war from the abundant treasures the Ancestor had brought along with him from Blue Storm''s personal collection.

    "Holy smokes! That traitorous bastard spirit is throwing things at¡­ Hey what''s this? This looks really rare!" Rnd Hu shouted.

    Without any sense of embarrassment after calling me a traitorous bastard, all three of them opened their pill bottles and chomped on the pills greedily.

 Chapter 227 Getting Stabbed By A Sword

    It felt good to be back at the academy.

    Really good.

    My short "field trip" might have started out as an incredible adventure, trying out new blueprints and designs, then fighting against giant, ugly worms, but it sure as hell didn''t turn out as one.

    Yes, the harvest for me was especially bountiful, all things considered. I was probably a pretty solid designer of mechas and weapons by then, thanks to the many designs gifted by the Ancestor and the Horse Gavarels, and the resulting sublimation of my mind.

    I was also incredibly full after devouring so many biomechs, and even the physical bodies of two Horse Gavarels. Add to the fact that I had received a "Royal Blessing" or something that cleansed my body from every bit of impurity within it, I was the very embodiment of life and health at its peak.

    And yes, I was also incredibly ecstatic that I had not one, but two new experimental mecha cores in my possession, and one was even being devoured at a rapid pace.

    But all those gains were very much overshadowed by the massive, massive threat of a potential alien invasion from within the earth itself, and from the outside universe.

    The sea civilisations would be invading us soon. They were probably set back by quite a bit with the utter destruction of the Horse Gavarels and the missing energy core called Clone.

    And the Ancestor would also probably get the blue dragons to hinder their progress as well.

    But all in all, their eventual invasion was set in stone. The blue dragons would not be able to hold back millions or even billions of underwater beasts from rising out of the ocean.

    A war would take ce, and it would be extremely bloody.

    And it wasn''t even the worst thing about the war. The worst thing was that the war was very definitely being orchestrated by an alien mind. And if so, then there was a chance that if the invasion by the ocean civilisations failed, the aliens would take action themselves.

    This fact was further evidenced by the presence of a prone-to-fainting Princess of Shra-Gaz Kingdom who was able to wield strange but powerful life energy.

    The thought of these two things was enough to send anybody into the brink of depression.

    But was that all of my worries? Of course not. I still had the Americans and the Europeans to worry about.

    War was about to erupt between the superpowers too. Tensions had never been higher with the death of the European High Ambassador within the Chinese Federation.

    And with their discovery that the Chinese Federation was already capable of non-nuclear tinum grade explosions, and with the disappearance of the American golden mecha, it would be extremely strange if war among us did not break out within the year.

    But as fearsome as theing days would be, it was all still in the future.

    At that moment, watching my bunkmates calling me a "traitorous bastard" and then shamelessly chomping on my gifts, I could feel a sense of belonging and of being home that I never thought I would be able to feel.

    These were my friends who had epted me for who I am. Although they did not really know much about my true powers yet, they have epted me as a person, and although it might sound like mumbo jumbo bullshit, it was enough for me.

    "Let future Justin take care of future problems!" I thought with a grin.

    "You guys are out of your damn minds. A traitorous bastard spirit turns up and gives you all pills to eat, and you eat them up like candy? Do you guys even know what I just gave you¡­" I asked them with a sinister look on my face.

    At my words, Rnd Hu''s eyes bulged and he stopped chewing.

    Jack Yang''s vigorous chomping slowed down considerably.

    But Barrick Rui, the one who called me traitorous bastard spirit first, continued to chomp on his pill without stopping.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Keep. Chewing." He gestured at the other two. "Pill. Efficacy. Maximum."

    And then they both resumed their chewing at full speed.

    Iughed and went on to plop down on my bed with a satisfied sigh.

    For a minute or two, the only sound in the room was their vigorous chewing.

    And then¡­

    Gulp.

    Gulp.

    Gulp.

    The sound of them finally swallowing their pills.

    "They were sex change pills, by the way. You three will be cute little girls in about three¡­ weeks? Maybe a month." I said casually.

    I immediately heard a sharp intake of breath.

    That''s Rnd Hu.

    Then a soft click of teeth in consternation.

    Jack Yang.

    And a bored but contented sigh with pats on a fat belly.

    Barrick Rui.

    "For real?" Rnd Hu swung his head down and looked at me with a deep frown on his face from the side of his top bunk.

    "Uhuh. I gave it to you guys so you can use it on Farrel and the other idiots. But s¡­ You three were the bigger idiots! You guys actually ate them without asking me what they were first!" I said with a dramatic sigh. "But that''s okay. I don''t mind having more girls around me. Rnd, I''ll call you Riley once your be a girl."

    "No way¡­ I don''t believe you!" Rnd Hu shouted at me. "Barrick, he''s lying, right?"

    "Of course not. I''ve always wanted to be a girl. As soon as I saw those sex change pills, I knew that I had to take them immediately. They are so rare you know! And of course I didn''t want to be a girl by myself, that''s why I urged you guys to finish chewing those pills properly." Barrick Rui saidzily.

    A choking sound could be heard from Jack Yang''s bed.

    "Just rx and enjoy the process. It won''t hurt until the balls and the penis actually fall off. And oh, also when the vagina slit is actually formed. I heard it would hurt like crazy, much worse than getting stabbed by a sword." Barrick Rui added.

    "No way! You''re lying!!" Rnd Hu shouted in horror.

 Chapter 228 Gene Unlocking Pill

    At those words, I was already fighting really hard to hold back myughter.

    Trust Barrick Rui to take a prank and bring it all the way to near traumatic shock levels on Rnd''s mind!

    "No, of course I am not lying." Barrick Rui lied smoothly. "Being a girl is so awesome. You get boys chasing after you, buying you flowers, giving you gifts, treating you to delicious meals. Plus, I heard my eldest sister talk to her best friend about something supremely miraculous. Something that she said was so nice that she almost died in pleasure."

    He paused for effect and looked at me to continue the prank.

    "What''s that?" I asked in a steady voice, with my facepletely scrunched up to keep myself from cracking up.

    "Multiple ogazems." Barrick Rui said seriously.

    "Ogazems? What''s that?" I asked in genuine confusion.

    "Well, I am not so sure myself. But my sister mentioned it in the context of creating love with her husband or something. She said it made her the happiest woman on earth. And she said that it was just too bad guys are not able to experience it." Barrick Rui exined.

    "I see." I nodded and filed those two words in my mind for future reference. "Well I hope you will get multiple ogazems everyday for the rest of your life once you be a girl."

    "I hope so. Hey Rnd, you need to eat more. You don''t want to be a t chested girl, do you?" Barrick Rui said loudly. "If you want to have mountain sized titties like that cafetaria aunty which you keep staring at, you need to eat at least three times more than what you''re eating now!"

    At the mention of mountain sized breasts, Jack Yang finally couldn''t take it anymore.

    "HAHAHAHAHA! Oh my god! If Rnd actually bes a girl and has mountain sized titties like that, he definitely won''t be able to stand up straight! Those mountains would be too heavy!! HAHAHAHAHA!" He roared withughter.

    I joined in theughter and soon all four of us wereughing together.

    Which, of course, reverberated very loudly in the deadly silent dormitory.

    WHAM!!

    Our dorm room door mmed opened, and a pissed off looking instructor appeared.

    She was dressed in ckbat tights and a high gradebat spear was gripped tightly in her off hand.

    "What is going on here." She asked in a soft but dangerous voice. "What is it about mountain sized titties that''s so funny?"

    At that, all four of our gazes zoomed in on her chest area, and beheld her own mountain sized titties, which was clearly entuated by her tightbat suit, in awesome wonder.

    We may be very young, but the topic of titties was already very exciting for us.

    We all gulped nervously and gave her awkward smiles.

    "I want no more sound from this room for the rest of the night, do you understand? If I hear so much as a snore from any one of you, I will make sure you all wear fake mountain sized titties on your chests for the rest of the week!" She threatened us with what I considered to be the scariest threat for kids ever conceived by the human mind.

    "YES MA''AM!" We all shouted loudly.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Wham!

    She mmed the door close on us.

    The four of us exchanged funny looks and thergest grins ever before we pulled our nkets up and fell asleep.

    It was a good reunion for the four of us.

    We all woke up bright and early the next day, right before the general rm clock rang out.

    I sighed deeply as soon as I woke up, and prepared my heart for an interrogation with the demoness.

    However, as it turned out, a short memo had been shoved through from under the room door that simply said "Justin, morning meeting with demoness cancelled. Go to ss and stay out of trouble."

    "Yes!!!" I shouted as a massive burden seemed to be lifted off my chest.

    "What''s that?" Rnd Hu asked nosily as he grabbed the memo from my hand.

    He nced at it quickly before throwing it to Jack Yang who had his hand stretched out, asking for it.

    "Demoness? What demoness? What the hell have you been up to? And what did you give us yesterday? I don''t feel any difference." Rnd Hu asked.

    "Did you join a cult or something. Why are you dealing with demonesses." Jack Yang asked as he crumpled the memo and tossed it into the bin.

    ? Barrick Rui was putting on his shirt, and had his usual heck-care look on his face.

    Of course he did not ask to read the note. He didn''t really care about such things. He knew that I would tell them as soon as I could. And if I couldn''t, I probably won''t tell them even if he asked anyway.

    Which was exactly how it would turn out.

    "I''ll tell you guys about the trip I made as soon as I gain the permission to do it. Don''t worry too much about it." I replied vaguely. "And what I gave you guys were actually potential boosting pills called Limit Breaker."

    "Hmmm? Tell me more." Barrick Rui said as soon as those words left my mouth.

    "Limit Breaker pills serve to increase the cap your bodies can achieve in terms of speed, strength, flexibility and endurance. It has no immediate impact. But with hard work, you would be much more than you could originally be." I exined as simply as I could.

    The Limit Breaker pills were a little bit more useful than that, of course. They were able to also increase the speed of their body''s growth, regeneration as well as resistance against various natural poisons. It even allowed them the ability to deliberately unlock a state where they could function at ten percent higher muscle utilization rate, but it was too troublesome to exin to them at that moment.

    And even without exining those things, the three of them were already shocked beyond their minds.

    "WHAT? ISN''T THAT EFFECTIVELY A GENE UNLOCKING PILL??" Barrick Rui shouted!

 Chapter 229 Sex Change Pills

    "What''s a Gene Unlocking Pill? It sounds much cooler than my Limit Breaker pills." I joked lightly.

    But the three of them were too shocked to pay my weak attempt at a joke any heed.

    "A Gene Unlocking Pill does exactly what you just mentioned. Raise the cap of our body''s limit to a level that is even higher than our genes can theoretically achieve, past theplications and negative mutations passed down from generation to generation!" Jack Yang eximed in wonder.

    "Hmmm? That sounds like a Gene Optimizing Pill. Or a Gene Cleansing Pill. What''s the difference?" I asked in slight confusion.

    "A Gene Cleansing Pill is like a car wash for a car. It works to clean the impurities in our genes that impede the physical manifestation of what the genes actually have in them.

    It is different from a Gene Optimizing Pill which is like a car mechanic. It will fix the errors within the gene code itself, which will cause a weakened physical manifestation even without any impurities to impede it

    A Gene Unlocking Pill however¡­ is like the car factory itself. It will not only fix the gene code, depending on the strength of the pill, it will unlock the potential of the gene code and modify the code to make it stronger!" Jack Yang exined.

    "Oh. I don''t think that''s what my Limit Breaker Pills do. They just raise your physical cap. I am not sure if they did anything to your genes¡­" I said in consternation as I recalled the words in the brief description of the treasure.

    "Nope. No mention of genes in thebel." I confirmed.

    "Does it matter? If it does what you just said it would, then I would receive the benefits of a Gene Unlocking Pill. That''s worth a lot. A couple billion dors at least." Barrick Rui said while patting his tummy happily.

    "A COUPLE BILLION DOLLARS!?" It was my turn to shout. But I frowned deeply for a moment as my brain came up empty on the things I could buy with two billion dors. "That sounds like a lot of money."

    "It is a lot. And with the current market, you won''t be able to get your hands on one even if you have the money. So it might even be as expensive as ten, eleven billion dors right now.

    For three pills at once? At least fifty billion." Barrick Rui said with a smile. "You''re a good big brother to follow. Bring us more such goodies plea- WHAT THE BLEEDING F***?!"

    Barrick Rui stared at the little box that I just took out which was filled with such "Gene Unlocking Pills".

    Around fifty or so.

    Rnd Hu pointed a shaky finger at the box and said in a whimpery voice.

    "Is¡­ is that¡­ are those¡­"

    Barrick Rui, however, did the only thing a best friend could do.

    He sighed and stretched out his hand.

    "Big bro, how can you keep so many to yourself! Give me five at least. Two for my parents, two for my siblings, and one for my safety just in case I need the money."

    I grinned at them and gave each of them ten pills.

    "I don''t think your bodies can support more than one. So either give the pills to your families or save them for a rainy day."

    Nothing buys loyalty better than wealth or riches.

    At ten years old, I just gave them wealth beyond anything they could imagine.

    And if I could give them such insane wealth at such an age, what would they get if they followed me for the rest of their lives?

    That''s just how the human mind works.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Cost and benefits is our primary point of consideration.

    Brotherhood would go beyond that, of course, but brotherhood is a hallowed level of rtionship whose path is strewn with difficulty.

    Difficulty which would be made easier to traverse with treasure.

    Lots of treasure.

    "Thanks." Barrick Rui said happily. That fat bastard truly is a materialistic bastard. He didn''t even smile when he saw me again after my disappearing act.

    But after receiving the treasures from me, he was smiling like the smiling buddha. What a dickhead.

    And Barrick Rui being Barrick Rui, showing him one treasure only made him think you have more.

    "What other treasure do you have? Come now don''t be stingy. I am sure there is more where that came from!" He said eagerly, a vast contrast to Rnd Hu and Jack Yang who were still staring dumbfounded at the massive amount of wealth on their hands.

    "Of course there''s more." I said automatically and slid my hand into my pocket. Barrick Rui''s eyes gleamed and widened in greedy anticipation.

    I took my hand out and then proceeded to give him a powerful whack on his head!

    Bam!!

    "There! I got a whole lot of that in my trip! Let me share them with you!" I shouted and started to pummel him with punches.

    "Ow! O!!! Bastard! Give some to Rnd and Jack too!"

    "They didn''t ask for more treasure! You did! Now eat this!"

    Bam. Bam. Bam.

    I gave him a proper beating that morning for being so greedy.

    Not too hard, of course, he''s my brother.

    But not too lightly either, since he''s a greedy bastard.

    Ten minutester, we were eating our breakfast with gusto.

    Tes, Olivia, Elise, Eliana, Sherry, Sheera, Victor, Gerald and Hailey were there with us.

    As before, I distributed the goods to them, and like the other three idiots, they ate them without asking anything beforehand.

    That our friendship had progressed to such unquestioning trust was nothing less than a miracle to me, who did not have a single person I could even call acquaintance, much less a friend, before the whole thing with Devour and Emma.

    But of course it wasn''t just unquestioning trust. Especially for the Longs and the Wangs. All of them were pretty smart, and they knew treasure when they saw one.

    "They are sex change pills!" Rnd Hu announced with a devious smile on his face.

 Chapter 230 Challenge!

    "What?? Sex change pills?!" Gerald Long roared in horror.

    Victor and Hailey rolled their eyes at their supremely gullible cousin.

    "Yes! And it will hurt like crazy when your balls fall off!" Rnd Hu shouted excitedly.

    He was ecstatic.

    He did not expect to find that there was another idiot in the group that would fall for such a stupid prank!

    "MY BALLS WILL FALL OFF? JUSTIN YOU BASTARD!! WHY DO YOU WANT TO TAKE MY BALLS FROM ME?" Gerald Long bellowed with all of his strength.

    The rest of the group roared withughter.

    In a blink of an eye, Gerald realized what had transpired. He red at Rnd Hu angrily.

    But Rnd Hu was still caught up in his excitement.

    "Yes! And not only your balls! Your wee wee will drop off too! It will hurt! It will hurt like¡­ OW!"

    "Like this?" Gerald Long asked as he grabbed Rnd''s ears and pulled them hard!

    "HAHAHAHA!" Sheeraughed so hard that she copsed on her bench and started to gasp for breath.

    "Boys are so dumb." Sherry smirked at the antics of the two idiots at the end of our long table.

    "Not all boys, thank you very much." Victor immediately replied.

    "All boys are dumb." Sherry repeated herself while staring at Victor in an obvious challenge to him.

    "Very well. I shall represent all the boys in this academy and the world to prove once and for all that not only are boys not dumb, we are smarter than girls." Victor said with a slight smile that bordered on a sneer and a condescending smirk.

    "Good. Today''s first lesson happens to bebat wisdom ss. We''ll determine the winner in this ss." Sherry said with a confident smile of her own.

    I sat there in the middle of the table, and couldn''t help but feel a strange mixture of excitement and underwhelming helplessness.

    Excited because my two friends would be having a bat wisdom" showdownter.

    Underwhelming helplessness because well, everything seemed so unimportant in light of what had happened to me recently.

    A little bit of both must have showed somewhere on my face, because Olivia suddenly punched me on the arm.

    "What? Not high stakes enough for you? Hey Sherry, the Grand Melee Champion here thinks your uing battle with Victor is worse than a boring grandmother tale. Make it more interesting somehow!" She said in a tant attempt to create chaos.

    Sherry was, of course, happy to take the bait and explode everything up into a big and proper battle.

    "Is that so?" She said grimly.

    "That is NOT so." I said very firmly. "I did NOT say a single word."

    But Sherry ignored my words.

    "If that''s the case, then let''s have a boys versus girls battle! There are seven girls and six boys. If you''re soooo good, I am sure that a one girl handicap isn''t a problem for you?" Sherry said as she glowered at me as the representative of the boys.

    "It IS a very big pro-" I began.

    "No problem at all. In fact, we don''t need six. Just me and Justin is enough to beat you seven girls senseless and down to your knees." Victor long dered with a wide, undisguised smirk on his face.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "HEY! What the hell? I said it''s a problem! It''s a BIG problem!" I shouted at Victor.

    "Seven versus two? Let''s make it seven versus three. Don''t say that we bullied you when you loseter and find yourselves crying in the corner of the ss." Sherry said.

    "SIX! I want seven versus six!" I protested loudly and gotpletely ignored by the two ring leaders who were staring daggers at each other.

    "Suit yourselves. Two is doable. With three, it will be beyond easy." Victor said with a careless shrug.

    "Awesome! Losing group will have to serve at the beck and call of the winning group for the next week, no! The next month!" Olivia eximed happily.

    "NO DEAL!" I shouted.

    "Deal." Victor said calmly and overrode me.

    "Yippieee!! Personal maids for the next month!" Oliviaughed.

    The other girlsughed along with her.

    They were really light hearted, and looking forward to the next ss.

    I sighed deeply and red at Olivia who was the cause of all my uing misery.

    She merely gave me a peace sign and stuck out her tongue at me.

    I gave her an ugly face and went back to slurp thest of my milk tea.

    "With what''sing up, this milk tea is probably the best part of the day." I thought to myself glumly.

    Seven versus three against the Eternal General was a terrifying prospect indeed.

    But of course not all the girls were battle hungry maniacs like Sherry and Olivia.

    "You''ve been rather quiet and strange this morning. If there''s anything you can''t deal with alone, just tell us. We''ll help." Tes said quietly while looking at me with herrge, beautiful eyes.

    I nced at her and gave her a grateful smile.

    "You''re the best, Tes." I sighed. "If not for you, I would think that girls nowadays are all battle crazy and bloodthirsty!"

    Of course my words made Tes blush slightly, and all the other girls frown deeply.

    "Battle crazy? Bloodthirsty? I will show you battle crazy and bloodthirstyter!" Olivia pouted.

    "Dear Justin, I wasn''t nning on going all out today, but well¡­ since you said that I am bloodthirsty, I guess I have to give it my all now, haven''t I?" Elise Wang said sweetly.

    "What''s wrong with being battle crazy? I like being battle crazy. I can be friendly AND battle crazy at the same time. Don''t worry Justin, I will show youter." Hailey Long said with light frown.

    Sheera did not say anything, and merely smiled a meaningful smile at me.

    For some reason, her response was the scariest of them all.

    "Bro. Now you''ve done it." Victor Long sighed. "You''ve stirred the ho''s nest. Don''t me me if we lose today!"

    And with that, the setting for the day''s epicbat wisdom ss was set!

 Chapter 231 War

    We trooped to our usual training ground in a mass exodus from the cafeteria.

    Five thousand kids, all of them in high spirits,ughing and joking all the way to ss.

    All except for me, Victor and Barrick.

    Yes, Barrick.

    I was four man short, and I figured Barrick was so fat that he would count as one and a half, so my deficit would be only three and a half.

    Not much of an improvement, but still better than four.

    We all arrived to cluster of sombre looking instructors.

    Their heavy mood seemed to inject the atmosphere with depressants, and within seconds of arriving, the boisterous ss fellpletely silent.

    Five thousand kids stood neatly in front of twenty five instructors.

    The lead instructor standing in front of the small cluster of instructors was a massive, bearded monster of a man. He looked at least two and a half meters tall, and he probably weighed two hundred kilograms.

    ck haired, yellow skinned, d in ck instructor tracksuit, he was a sight to behold.

    His name was Instructor Titan.

    "You are ten years old." Instructor Titan began. "Young. Very young."

    He gestured at the group of instructors, and immediately, the instructors brought forward an adult bull and a cute little calf.

    "This bull is a very strong specimen. It is an adult, in the prime of his life. In human years, it should be around thirty years old. It has a powerful charge, and is able to easily kill two grown men, or destroy a practice mecha."

    We studied the bull carefully, anticipating all sorts of things with regard to the uing lesson.

    MOOOOO!!!

    The bull bellowed loudly.

    We could feel its strength, and its anger at being held by strange devices.

    Instructor Titan drew a small projectile gun and aimed it at the bull''s head.

    "What do you think would happen if I shoot this gun at its head?" Instructor Titan asked.

    "It will die, Sir!" A brave little boy answered.

    "Good! Let''s see if its true." Instructor Titan said. He cocked his gun and...

    BANG!!!

    He fired the gun and shot the bull in its head.

    It copsed to the ground, dead.

    ? I could literally hear five thousand throats swallow their salivas.

    Heck, you probably did as well.

    "It''s dead." Instructor Titan said needlessly. And then he gestured for his team to bring the little calf forward to him.

    Mooooo!!!

    The little calf was not dumb. It saw its father die, and it waspletely freaking out.

    It struggled, and tried to resist being led forward, but it was too weak!

    Moooo!! Moooooo!! Moooooooo!!

    It screamed in fear.

    A soft murmur rippled from the students as Instructor Titan raised his gun and pointed it at the little cow''s head.

    He cocked the gun.

    Mooooo!! Mooooooo!!!

    The little calf was hysterical by that time.

    The murmur grew louder. Surely he wouldn''t kill that cute little-<novelnext></novelnext>

    BANG!!!!!!!

    Instructor Titan shot the calf in its head and killed it like he did its father.

    Gasp!!

    The crowd was shocked, and some girls even whimpered lightly.

    "Remember this. In war, no one in the enemy camp gives a bleeding f*** how old you are. If the enemy gets the chance, he or she will ughter you as surely as they would me.

    Exactly like how I killed that strong bull and that helpless calf.

    You think I care how old that calf was? You think my bullet cares? You think the enemy would stop you and ask you how old you are?

    Wake the f*** up!!

    You either kill the enemy, or the enemy kills you!

    This isbat wisdom number one. Your f***ing age grants you no special treatment!

    This isbat wisdom number two. The one with the gun kills the one without!

    BANG BANG BANG BANG!!

    Instructor Titan fired at the little calf''s carcass to emphasize his point.

    It was a very tense start to the day''s lesson. In fact, thinking back, it was a miracle nobody vomited their breakfast out.

    "Today''s ss is very simple.

    There are thirty six thousand students in this academy. Thirty thousand across six years in the regr academy, and six thousand in the gifted program.

    Your mission is to defend your mission objective, specifically that g over there, capture the other six gs and bring them here.

    The mechas you have here are selectedpletely at random, and so are the mechas that the other grades have.

    The entire academy mountain range is your battle field.

    This ss will not end until we have a winner.

    You may begin." Instructor Titan said tersely.

    Tough lesson?

    It sounded tough.

    But going through it was a thousand times worse than it sounds!

    There was no hesitation in us.

    As soon as Instructor Titan finished his speech, our little group brought Sheera Lin and carried her to stand atop my shoulders.

    "Listen to the strategist who brought us the victories against the second years in the ambush!" I bellowed.

    A few groups started to jeer and tried to peel away to form their own group.

    Some even tried to stand atop their friends'' shoulders and do as we did.

    We gave them no chance.

    The Lins, Wangs, Longs and various other groups were in our faction, and we immediately took action to silence them.

    In fact, we even took the drastic act of dragging them to where we were.

    But it was not to beat them up, of course, but to quickly make them our much needed captains.

    They who were vocal enough and irritating enough to go against us would make the best captains.

    We removed their dissenting voices and acquired their strong personalities in one fell swoop.

    "Time is short. Our enemies are many, and they are all stronger than us. We cannot wait here and let theme to us. We will bring the g with us, and as one, we will attack the enemy bases and capture their gs! Sheera Lin instructed us calmly.

    As expected of the Eternal General. She had immediately grasped the unspoken key to victory.

    We were allowed to move the gs!

 Chapter 232 Something Feels Wrong

    "Get to your mechas and assemble! Jack, Sherry, Victor, Rnd, Barrick and Olivia, confirm the location of the enemy gs and await our arrival in a safe ce.

    Justin, you take the g and lead our charge into the enemy base." Sheera instructed.

    "They won''t be expecting our full charge and our g to appear that way. It will cause them to descend into chaos, and allow us to gain an advantage." She exined.

    "Alright. I will do it. Find me the fattest and strongest mecha-"

    "No. Carry it in a light mecha." Sheera interrupted me.

    "What!!" I exploded at her. "You want me to die?"

    My Devour was dormant, and I had no way of strengthening my mecha. If I charge into the enemy using only a light mecha, I would be screwed.

    Big time.

    "Hmmm? Lost your secret technique?" Sheera frowned at me.

    "It''s uh, currently not avable." I admitted.

    "Fine. n B it is. Get the heaviest mecha you can find, take the g, a couple hundred mechas and charge at the nearest enemy base. If you can get the enemy g, shoot the green signal, we wille and reinforce you.

    If you lose the g, shoot the red signal and try toe back alive. We will let the other grades fight it out first before we sweep in near the end to win it all. Being first graders, the others won''t find it suspicious that we lost our g so quickly " Sheera said and looked me in the eye.

    It was another suicide mission.

    Have I told you that Sheera Lin was a vicious, cold blooded genius general?

    It was an excellent n, of course. If I did well, we would have two gs, and she was confident she could duke it out with the other grades.

    If I didn''t do well, well, it was Phase One of her n.

    "Try and seed." She smiled at me before turning to the rest of the kids.

    "We will proceed in three waves. The first and second waves would consist of one thousand mechas, the third wave would be three thousand. Gather up! We will move out towards the mountains in five minutes!"

    It was utter chaos, of course.

    Nothing could get done in just five minutes.

    Thousands of kids were running all over the ce, calling out to each other, trying to get to their groups.

    But nheless, the first bunch of mechas, around three hundred or so, were gathered within those five short minutes.

    I had found myself a normal looking heavy mecha with a massive tower shield and a long spear, and was among the three hundred who were ready.

    "Special Forces! Move out! Engage the enemy as soon as you make contact!" Sheera Lin called out from her own heavy mecha surrounded by the entire Lin Family kids less Sherry Lin.

    "Woah! We''re part of the Special Forces? Awesome!"

    "Move out!!"

    "Let''s go kill some weak ass second graders!"

    Morale was very high after our incredible victories in the past few weeks.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But I wasn''t feeling it.

    A critical part of our victories were due to my prowess on the battlefield, which was dormant and inessible at that moment.

    Without it, I felt like I was just a littlemb delivering our g to the enemy.

    I hated that feeling.

    "I had grown far too reliant on Devour." I realized. "This is not good. I will use this opportunity when Devour is dormant to prove to myself that I am still able to dominate! Afterall, my RPL is probably still miles ahead of everyone!"

    With extreme ease, I piloted my heavy mecha and charged ahead of my little group of just three hundred.

    I was headed in the general direction of the northern mountains while I awaited thetest intel on the enemy position.

    In a mission that requires us to locate our enemies, our mecha''s heavy footsteps became jarringly conspicuous.

    It was something I did not notice during direct battles with the enemy.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    Our footsteps thundered down the valleys and revealed our position to anyone nearby with a pair of ears and a brain.

    I frowned.

    I knew Sheera was sending me to my doom. But was there anotheryer of y which she was nning? Everything seemed off somehow.

    "Something doesn''t feel right." Eliana announced calmly.

    "Yes, you''re right." Elise agreed without hesitation.

    The two girls had been assigned to my suicide squad, for some strange reason I did not understand.

    "Why waste two perfectly good general-calibre manpower to die along with me when they could be better assigned to die elsewhere? Oh right. They are pawns just like me. This is probably another chess move by Sheera. Kill the g bearer and pretend to defect or something." I had thought glumly.

    But it was not the time to think dark thoughts. I had an entire academy of future aces as my opponents, and it was an excellent opportunity for me to learn by doing and grow into my full potential.

    "Three step halt." Imanded.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    The three hundred kids who came along with me were the fastest ones to their mechas and the fastest ones to gather, and as such, they were probably much better in quality.

    The three hundred mechas impressively executed the three step halt wlessly, and the entire valley we were in fellpletely silent all of a sudden.

    "What are you nning to do? Why have we stopped?" Elise asked me.

    "We''re sitting ducks here out in the open. I think we should hide somewhere instead of just standing here like free targets." Eliana added.

    Eliana was right, of course. I should have given it more thought before ordering the three step halt.

    But I would be damned if I admit that I gave the order on a whim to the two pretty Wang girls.

    "Rx. Trust me." I told them easily and confidently. "There''s more than what meets the eye. Just wait for my next instruction."

 Chapter 233 Incorrigible *********

    "Oh alright. You''re the boss here. He who is prudent lies in wait for the enemy. You''re pretty impressive." Elise said admiringly.

    "Interesting. Let''s see what will happen next. Attack is the secret to defense, and defense is the nning of an attack. I think this is defense flowing into attack." Eliana guessed with a tinge of excitement in her voice.

    I winced lightly in my mecha.

    There was no philosophy behind my actions. I merely acted on instinct.

    I wracked my head and tried to think what would be an impressive next step for us.

    And after a full minute, I came up empty. There were simply not enough information for me to act upon.

    And without information, I could only rely on my instincts. And my instincts were telling me that making too much noise at that particr point in time was too dangerous.

    At that moment, a strange beeping sound could be heard from the g I was holding in my hands.

    "g bearer GPS mapping sequence initiated. The g will produce increasingly loud and urgent beeping sounds when it approaches another g." Came the brief announcement from the g.

    It wasn''t too loud, and only the two girls who were standing right next to me could hear the g.

    "Hmmm? The g is beeping rather slowly andzily. There must be a g not too far away from us." Eliana said as she pondered the options avable to us now that a new variable had entered the fray.

    "Wait a minute. It is very slowly increasing in speed!" Elise eximed.

    And very far in the distance, my sharp ears finally caught it.

    Boom. Boom.

    The faint sound of a huge number of mechas on the move.

    "Power down. Completely. All eyes on me. When I power up, follow suit and charge the enemy with me!" I immediately ordered.

    The three hundred mechas obeyed instantly.

    By then, the booming sounds were very audible. They knew that we were about to ambush our first enemy!

    "And not just any enemy. A g bearing one." I smiled grimly as I tracked their progress with my weakened resonance.

    I could feel my resonance getting stronger and stronger, which was really good. It meant that Devour was making progress.

    But even with Devour dormant and my resonance weakened so drastically, I was still able to sense the enemy mechas.

    It was a vague feeling, but I could easily estimate their number at around a thousand. Maybe slightly less. And thankfully, none were airborne.

    It would be a fullnd battle!

    "Three hundred against a thousand. With the element of surprise, but with far weaker pilots. I need to increase the odds in our favor." I thought.

    "The expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him. We should move the g and make the enemy chase after it." Eliana''s voice sounded in my ear as my personalms came to life.

    ? "Excellent suggestion. Power up and move southeast for one kilometer. Wait for my instructions." I agreed.

    Eliana''s mecha came to life and I quickly tossed her the g.

    She exploded into action and rapidly disappeared from sight.

    Not long after, the enemy''s massive footsteps started to elerate as well.

    Boom boom boom boom.

    They were angled slightly to our right, and based on their trajectory, they would pass by us by the narrowest of margins.

    We were on the left slope of a small valley, and there were trees spread out all over.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Visually, we wouldn''t be very visible.

    I could only hope that there were no sharp eyed kiddos in the iing group.

    Their thousand mechas would be dashing across the base of the valley, and it would be more than perfect if we could spring an ambush on their rear.

    Those in front would be immediately ced on a spot. Fight against the enemy and let the g go? Or leave theirrades and go after the g? But what if there are more enemies up front? Should they run away instead?

    There would be different opinions from among them, and beautiful chaos would descend upon them.

    If that happened, my three hundred would have no problems destroying every singlest one of them!

    But a wise man once said, battlens are always fuckd when the enemy appears, that''s why he is called the enemy.

    And it was true.

    "Justin, just so you know, the g is currently double beeping. There is another g nearby!!" Came Eliana''s voice through myms.

    "What? Damn it." I cursed Sheera Lin vehemently and cast out my resonance as far out as I could towards Eliana and her surroundings.

    But as soon as I did that...

    "F***!!!!" I shouted with all of my heart.

    There were not one, not two, not three but four groups of mechas!!

    For some reason, several grades had chosen toe to the mountain range we were in!

    And then with startling rity, I realized what was going on.

    The other grades had more intel than us.

    They knew where our starting point was.

    And they were hunting us!!

    "The instructors really want us to have a taste of failure, huh? Well guess what? I WON''T LET YOU!! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT THAT HUH?" I roared in anger!!

    I was pissed.

    They purposely stacked the odds against us!

    BA-DUMP!!

    BA-DUMP!!

    BA-DUMP!!

    My heart started to pound heavily as the dormant red mecha core awakened in response to my roiling fury.

    A small amount but incredibly dense red energy leaked out from the semi dormant red mecha core.

    As soon as that happened, my resonance strength spiked and I was able to urately sense the details of the mechas that were around us.

    "Bunch of sneaky, incorrigible arseholes." I grimaced as I surveyed the situation. "The damned old man must be behind this. He purposely took the opportunity when my red mecha core is dormant and forced the situation to make me taste defeat!!"

    Four groups of mechas were marching to our position.

    All four groups were at least two thousand strong, and these were excluding the first thousand which were already closing on us!

 Chapter 234 Gifted Program

    Three hundred first graders being surrounded by nine thousand older students eager to gain a free g and break our winning streak.

    It didn''t look good at all.

    The entire situation was almost definitely set up from scratch to purposely teach us a lesson.

    And to make things worse, Sheera Lin had probably guessed that it might happen, and purposely sent me and the g away with just three hundred kids to preserve most of the first graders'' strength.

    "A devilish old man and a devious ssmate. How am I supposed to survive to the end of the year? Woe! Woe to me!" I thought to myself miserably for a split second before my anger returned to full force.

    "But against all odds, I will triumph! I will show them that it is useless scheming against me!" I curled my lips in furious disdain and started to look for a solution to my predicament.

    My power was partially back. It might be a little bit of an exaggeration to call the tiny wisp of dense red energy which returned to me as "partially". In fact, it was probably less than even a fraction''s fraction of my full red energy capacity.

    But it was apletely transformed wisp, and despite its minute amount, it was enough to increase my armor by multiple times. I was probably as strong as a Viscount - a standard blue mecha, in terms of armor.

    Alternatively, I could direct all of the red energy and boost my speed to Count level as well if I chose to.

    Against practice mechas, I could probably deal with a few hundred or even a thousand mechas at once if I wanted to.

    With a couple of good strategies, I still had a fighting chance to not only survive the engagement, but alsoe out victorious with three gs!

    "Hide the g somece difficult to ess and return." I immediately ordered Eliana.

    My first strategy was copied from Sheera Lin''s. Let them fight over the g with all of their strength. We''ll clean them up after they are all heavily injured.

    My second strategy was even simpler.

    Hide.

    Or rather, remain hidden.

    There was no ce in that mountain range to effectively hide three hundred mechas. Where we were positioned was already the best the terrain could offer.

    Besides, moving at that moment would alert the enemies to our position. So we might as well stay put.

    But those two strategies only applied to my three hundred.

    I had my red energy wisp with me, and I was able to easily modify my armor slightly to blend in with the enemy during the uing battle.

    Once there, I would be doing my god damn best to stir up chaos!

    Very soon, Eliana returned to our position stealthily, and my resonance told me that the four groups of two thousand mechas were already partially converged.

    A secondter, sounds of mechas fighting violently sounded.

    I nodded grimly in approval of my own genius and prepared to move out.

    My first strategy was quite effective.

    However, I quickly realized that something was wrong.

    "Where are the thousand mechas?" I asked in a puzzled tone. I spread my resonance in the direction Ist sensed them, and then gasped in surprise as I realized that they too werepletely unmoving like us.

    And not just that, they were also barely a couple hundred kilometers away from us!<novelnext></novelnext>

    "They are waiting for the four groups to duke it out first before swooping in for the kill." I realized. "Should I take this opportunity and strike at them when they are stillpletely powered down? Or strike at them from the rear when they make their move? But the longer I wait, the higher the chances they would notice us.

    But if I attack now, I would alert the four groups that at least two more groups are nearby. They might not fight all out if that''s the case."

    I pondered about the situation for a moment before deciding to pull the trigger.

    Destroy the one thousand mechas nearby first, before they destroy us.

    I powered up my mecha and raised up my spear.

    Hummmm.

    The three hundred mechas started to power up all around me.

    "Charge!!" I yelled and leapt forward towards the thousand mechas!

    Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

    Three hundred grey coloured first grade practice mechas burst out of the trees around us and thundered down the slope towards the thousand mechas!

    Within seconds, they came to view.

    They had purple bands on their arms and purple trim on their mechas.

    "Purple? They are the gifted program students!" Elise Wang gasped in surprise.

    "Gifted?" My eyes widened in surprise. I did not expect to meet them so soon. "Is Emma among them?" I wondered as I leapt over a fallen log and quickly reached their first mechas.

    WHAMMM!!

    I barrelled into one mecha who was still powering up and pushed it down.

    STAB! STAB! WHAM!

    I gave two quick jabs with my spear to down the two nearest gifted mecha students and twirled it to give the third one a fearsome whack which easily caused it to lose bnce and fall down as well.

    Having experienced ambushing the enemy before, we all knew what to do.

    We charged deep into the enemy lines without bothering to cleanly finish off our foes and tried to deal as much shock and awe damage as possible in the shortest amount of time.

    Wham! Bam!! Bam!! Stab! Stab!

    Shoulder barrels, shield smashes and ruthless spear thrusts rained down on my enemies as I led my men in what seemed like another sessful ambush!

    Very quickly, we managed to reach around halfway into the thousand mechas.

    But I waspletely shocked to find that after I burst out of the line of five hundred downed enemy mechas, I was brought face to face with the remaining five hundred enemy mechas in neat defensive formation!

    "Shit." I cursed.

    The second half of the thousand mechas were ready!

 Chapter 235 Weak Ass Whitefrost Punk

    There was no bloody way I would be able to turn around and escape in time before the enemy charged us.

    If I gave themand to turn around at that moment, the time it would take for my squad to process themand and actually act on it would be more than enough for the enemy to make their move.

    Plus the five hundred downed mechas around weren''tpletely out of the action.

    In fact, the ones furthest behind which did not "die" were already standing up.

    If I retreated, I would be running into a wave of furious mechas with our backs turned to even more of their brethren attacking us in formation!

    I could not retreat.

    My ambush had failed, and I had to lead my three hundred to fight for our survival.

    What else could I do?

    In times of emergencies where only a split second was avable for us to make a decision, we usually fall back to ourfort zone and do what we were used to, or at least what we did before.

    It was the same thing for me.

    I needed to quickly make them lose their temper and break formation for my squad to even have a chance of making our way through.

    So I resorted to my tried and tested method of provocation.

    "YOUR MOMMA''S TITTIES ARE SO HAIRY!!" I roared out loud. "WHEN SHE CUT THE HAIR ON IT SHE LOST TWENTY KILOGRAMS!!"

    My squad roared withughter at my words.

    I dare say not a few of my enemiesughed as well, but most of them responded as I hoped they would.

    They charged.

    Proud gifted students having their mom''s titties joked upon andughed at? There was no way they would take it lying down.

    The desire to teach us cocky first years daring tounch a sneak attack on them and thenugh at their mother''s titties probably burst through their hearts more powerfully than a meteor crashing onto earth.

    "GO BACK TO YOUR MOMMA''S HAIRY TITTIES!!" I shouted again for good measure as I crashed into my first victim.

    I wanted to create as much room as possible for the rest of my team to break through their defensive line and hopefully make it to the other end, so I focused on pushed the mechas before me to the left and right, causing theirrades to lose bnce and allow Eliana and Elise who were charging next to me to easily make their way through.

    Thankfully, they quickly caught on to what I was doing, and did the same thing to their out of bnce victims, thus making it easy for theirrades to get through as well.

    I had no idea how many did as I did down the line, but all I knew that after a few intense minutes of fighting and barreling my way through, I looked back and was surprised to find that at least fifty of my men made it out!

    The thousand purple trimmed gifted student mechas were aplete mess, their morale was probably in tatters, trampled by our fearless and highly effective charge down their ruined formation.

    After spending so much time with their heads inted and being treated like precious aces of the academy, to get trounced by a numerically inferior and younger enemy was probably a horrible mental blow.

    Not that I cared.

    All I cared about at that moment was finding out if they were going to reform and chase after us.

    But thankfully, they didn''t!

    Their g was still in their midst, and they knew that we had no gs with us.

    Dealing with us was aplete waste of time and energy.<novelnext></novelnext>

    So they merely stayed to finish off our downed brothers and sisters.

    I looked at them doing that and was tempted to charge back at them to rescue my squad.

    But wiser heads prevailed.

    "Leave them. Better two fifty dead than three hundred." Elise Wang said very simply.

    I gritted my teeth and nodded.

    "My brothers and sisters! We''ll take revenge for you when the timees. Purple mechas, you''re all dead meat!" I shouted at them from a distance to boost the morale of my surviving squad members and then quickly moved away from the valley.

    Everything was turning out to be rather disastrous for me.

    A wise man once said, night is darkest just before the dawn. Or in other words, how much worse can it get?

    That man was probably right.

    It was just that for me, apparently, it wasn''t dark enough yet.

    I only had 50 student-troopers left, morale was kinda low, and my g was being fought over by eight thousand mechas.

    And just as I was escaping from the battlefield, my resonance tingled.

    A bunch of mechas were moving towards me at high speed.

    From the air!!

    "Shit! Defensive formation! Prepare to be attacked from the sky!" I shouted to my squad despairingly.

    If we were to be attacked by another bunch of mechas, it would be over for us. Logically speaking, there was no reason for the enemy to attack us.

    I mean, what was the point? They would gain absolutely nothing by obliterating us.

    Nothing... Unless of course it was personal.

    Revenge was a dish best served cold. Or hot. Or warm. Whatever.

    As long as it was served, it would taste awesome!

    And judging by the trajectory of these flying mechas, they were going straight for me!

    "They must be second graders." I said aloud as I readied my shield and spear. "Our journey today would most probably end here guys. But let''s not make it easy for them! Before we go down, let us charge them a butcher''s bill! No one here is to die without taking at least three of the enemy along with you! DEATH!!! TO THE DEATHHH!!!"

    DEATH!!

    TO THE DEATH!!

    My passionate cry stirred a fire in the hearts of my squad and we all roared our battlecries with great zeal.

    But to my great shock, a familiar voice sounded from the skies as the first airborne mechas came to view.

    "So eager to die? What sort of Whitefrost are you, weak ass punk?" Came the mocking voice of James Whitefrost.

 Chapter 236 Control

    "James?! Oh my god, I am so d that it''s you!!" I shouted as a wave of relief washed over me. "Come! Let us work to- HEY!! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SHOOTING AT ME?!?!"

    "WAHAHA! DIE YOU OVERACHIEVING BASTARD!!" James roared out gleefully. "All units! Aim for the miserable punk I am shooting at! Fire at will Don''t stop until he is a smoldering piece of junk!! He is an overachiever with a killer resume which our parents will use topare us! Kill him! KILL HIM!!"

    At his words, my heart red up once more as all the relief that rushed through me a mere split second ago turned into fiery hot anger.

    "YOU BASTARD!! I WILL MAKE SURE YOU GET NO BACONS FOR THE REST OF YOUR DAMN LIFE!!" I howled indignantly at the unfairness of the situation just as the first wave of light mecha rifle fire fell upon me like heavy raindrops in a thunderstorm.

    Their bright rifle fire literally covered the sky and made escape for uspletely impossible.

    There was nothing we could do at that point in time.

    We were fifty melee heavy mechas going up against almost five hundred airborne, rifle bearing mechas.

    True, they were light mechas.

    But they outnumber us by ten freaking times.

    And they had rifles!

    And they were airborne!!

    I mean, I understood that sometimes life serves us lemons, and we had to learn to make freaking lemonades with them.

    Bute on!

    We weren''t given just lemons then. We were swimming in pure citric acid with barely a whiff of lemon in it! What sort of freaking lemonades could we make??

    Out of fifty, only five survived that initial onught by James and his little band of misfits.

    Yes, unlike what James had instructed them to do, the airborne mechas did not focus fire at me, and instead tried to wipe out my entire team cleanly!

    Thank goodness they failed. Eliana, Elise and two others were able to raise their shields up in time and somehow by luck or by godly skill, managed to survive.

    "Drop your weapons and grab those shields!" I shouted at them and pointed to the shields of our downedrades. They immediately did as I said, and with that, we were safe from the rain of light rifle fire.

    Which was good.

    We only had five hundred mechas to contend with next.

    Which was... not good.

    Some dude once said that when it rains, it pours.

    Indeed that''s true.

    Upon seeing that we were being beaten ck and blue by an airborne mecha group, the purple mechas actually sent in a couple hundred mechas to confirm the kill!

    And so at that moment, five of us had to deal with seven hundred mechas, all of them very highly motivated to finish the job in wiping us out.

    "Follow me. If they are so willing to kill us at all costs, then they will pay for that unreasonable preupation with blood!" I said in a confident voice to the four of them and charged at the two hundred purple mechas making their way carefully towards us.

    With one shield above us and one shield faced forward, we thundered forward and led the rain of light mecha rifle fire towards the gifted program mechas.

    "Gifted program? HA! Another bunch of bastards our parents usually use as examples to yell at us! Kill them! Kill them all!!" James Whitefrost howled excitedly.

    And that time, his team was happy to oblige.

    The purple mecha pilots realized their error far toote. Even though they immediately made the right response in trying to disperse, it was like trying to run away from the rain.

    It was impossible.

    Wham! Bam! Smash!<novelnext></novelnext>

    James Whitefrost and gang happily mowed down the gifted pilots in their attempt to get to us.

    Amid such chaos, my red mecha core seemed to be extra stimted, and I could feel the digestion process speed up slightly.

    It seemed to be able to sense my emotions, and tried to do its part to make its power avable to me once more.

    Another wisp of red energy was released into my control.

    And as soon as it appeared, I knew that it was something totally different than before.

    I had a very distinct feeling that I was holding on to some sort of steering wheel, or some sort of control mechanism.

    "Is this thebined power of Devour and Control?" I thought excitedly.

    I nced up at the maniacallyughing James Whitefrost and realized that fate was very good to me.

    I had the perfect guinea pig to use my new powers on!

    Without the slightest hesitation, I sent that wisp shooting up to the airborne practice light mecha containing my dumbass brother.

    ? Whoosh!

    As soon as the red wisp entered it, I felt as though I had ess to another mecha.

    It was like having another pair of arms, legs and everything.

    I could control it very naturally!

    "Well well well. Let''s see what sort of hell I can put you through!" I grinned sinisterly and whipped James'' rifle around and started firing at his teammates.

    PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!

    I wasn''t shy about disying my ridiculously high resonance and excellent aim, and I was able to very rapidly shoot down twenty seven of his buddies before they realized what was going on!

    "What the hell? What''s happening here? Why is my mecha moving by itself? Holy smokes! It even has excellent aim!!" James shouted. He tried to warn his teammates as well, but of course I shut off thems.

    "James has gone crazy! Put him down!" One of his buddies shouted.

    Pew!

    He went down.

    However, the damage was done. At his words, all the mechas around James turned as one and fired at him!

    Still, what was I? A weak mecha controller which would sumb to mere kids in light mechas with light rifles?

    Hell no.

    The red wisp I sent into James'' mecha also gave me the power to strengthen it the way I did my own.

    Shamelessly, I thickened my armor and charged towards the others!

    "He''s trying to get us to shoot each other! Switch to melee weapons!" One smart kiddo shouted.

    Wham!

    I threw my rifle urately and smashed his mecha head into smithereens.

    He went down.

 Chapter 237 Stuck Pig

    It was sheer, insane chaos.

    A strange battle was unfolding in the air, and two hundred gifted mecha pilots were being massacred on the ground.

    It was beautiful.

    I led my team away towards the even greater chaos that was unfolding a few kilometers away where the eight thousand mecha battle for three gs were still going on.

    By that time, they were joined by another three thousand airborne mechas, and the situation had devolvedpletely out of control.

    When they finally came into view, a horrific scene greeted our eyes.

    The roar of the battle nketed the atmosphere and thousands upon thousands of mechas were having their own private battles in twos or threes, with sharpshooters from every faction raining down death from the sky at all times.

    "Ehm. Let''s not join the battle first." Eliana suggested.

    "Excellent idea. Why wade into such messy mucky waters when we could hang out here and wait for them to kill each other?" Elise agreed.

    "Agreed." A boy named Winston grunted in agreement.

    "Yes. Yes. Let''s just sit here for a moment. I don''t think I can deal with another battle just yet." A girl named Sarah sighed deeply.

    "Sure. We''ll just wait here for a bit. The airborne mechas seemed to have a problem they had to deal with, and none of the gifted mecha pilots actually made their way here, so we''re safe for now." I agreed easily.

    But my semi awakened resonance was telling me that we weren''t the only ones with such a fabulous idea.

    All around the massive battle, clusters of mechas were actually lying in wait. They all wanted to swoop in at thest minute and im all the spoils for themselves.

    ? They were lying in wait in small groups of five to fifteen mechas.

    Prey.

    "There are several small groups near us who are also lying in wait for the battle to resolve itself. Shall we ask them for a dance?" I asked my team.

    "Small groups? How small?" Sarah immediately asked me.

    "Five to fifteen." I replied.

    "Let''s do it. I am confident I can deal with just that amount." Eliana said easily. Being a Royal Grade RPL pilot, she had great confidence in her piloting abilities.

    And apparently, Winston and Sarah as well.

    "Yep. Sounds like a fun thing to do to pass the time. Let''s go!" Winston said.

    We sprang up from our hiding ce and headed east towards the first such group with around ten mechas.

    "Hi guys! Mind if we join you?" I asked them brightly as we reached their position.

    "We''ve been discovered. Attack!" Their leader shouted.

    "No? Too bad! I like your hiding spot! I want it!" I shouted and charged into them.

    Wham! Wham!

    I used my shield to crash into one of them and my spear to whack another''s head.

    However, both mechas very easily blocked my attacks!<novelnext></novelnext>

    These were definitely senior students!

    "Huh? You guys are surprisingly bad at fighting. Are you juniors?" The leader asked in surprise as he easily smashed Winston''s mecha to death with a skillful spear bash.

    "They are juniors for sure." His buddy said grimly as he too smashed Sarah to death with a stomp of his feet after tripping her.

    "Are you sure? This one is rather talented." Another one of his buddiesined as he fought tooth and nail against Eliana.

    "Damn right." Another one facing Elise grunted.

    "Juniors? Ha! I just finished sucking on your momma''s titties this morning! You''re the junior!" I taunted them as I easily dodged the leader''s sweeping spear attack.

    Wham!!

    His knee shot up and smashed into my face!

    However, instead of my face exploding to pieces, it was his knee which did!

    "Damn it! What the hell happened?" He howled in shock.

    "You''re pretty good. But in battle, those with guns kill those which don''t." I repeated Instructor Titan''s words ominously to him before sending my spear smashing down onto his head and smashing it to pieces.

    "They are special forces with more powerful mechas sent by the instructors to throw a wedge to our battle ns!" The mecha pilot who overheard what I said to their now dead leader eximed in horror. "Retreat!"

    "Like hell I will let you retreat! Die!" I shouted and threw my spear like a javelin to impale the mecha which just shouted.

    I quickly dashed to help Elise and Eliana out and together we quickly beat their opponents up to pulp.

    However, we weren''t able to stop the rest from escaping.

    "Well well well! Fifth graders escaping from juniors? You useless bunch of junk!" A new, condenscending voice sounded from the distance.

    A group of five mechas appeared before the escaping fifth graders and with extreme prejudice, started attacking them all ferociously with several quick moves!

    "Killian you bastard! Just because you managed to get into the gifted program, doesn''t mean that you can look down on us this way! Die!" One of the escaping mecha pilots shouted a split second before he got killed by the neers.

    "Hmph. Weak bastards like you have no right to call me by name." The neer leader scoffed.

    Only ten seconds had passed after their engagement, and all the escaping mechasy dead around them.

    Overall, pretty good.

    "You''re a fifth grade gifted program student? The standard of our seniors seem pretty low if crap like you can get into the gifted program." Came Eliana''s sweet voice filled with venomous words.

    "Well well. A girl with balls of steel. You must be a freak." Killian said as he took his greatsword out of the ckened armor-activated body of his victim.

    Three first graders versus five gifted program fifth graders.

    No, wait, I meant, three first graders AND a very unwilling second grader.

    Because at that moment, I made James Whitefrost, and along with him, his bunch of infuriated buddies, fly over to help us.

    "WHAAAT THE HEELLLL IS HAPPENING TO MY MECHAAAAAA!!!" Wailed James loudly like a stuck pig.

 Chapter 238 Margaret

    Life is never fair.

    By all measures ofmon sense, even one fifth grade gifted program student would be able to very easily kill ten newbie first graders, much less five fifth grade gifted program students versus three newbie first graders.

    ? Killian and his little gang fully expected to steamroll over us before continuing to do whatever they set out to do before meeting us.

    They never expected a wailing second grade airborne mecha toe zooming towards him at top speed, bringing along with him close to four hundred other screaming second graders who were firing wildly at him.

    "Killian! Save meeeee!!!" I shouted through James Whitefrost''s loudspeakers before turning around and shooting back at a couple of his buddies for good measure.

    Vroooooo!!!

    I made James Whitefrost''s mecha dive low towards Killian and his buddies.

    "F***ing a**hole!! He''s trying to frame us!" Killian shouted. "Disperse!!"

    But it was no use.

    Ask any veteran general what is the most important thing in battle, and he would definitely say air superiority.

    He who rules the skies rules the ground.

    And in this time and age, airborne mechas were the ultimate forms of aerial superiority.

    In the grand scheme of that day''s randomized equipment allocation, the second graders could actually be considered as striking jackpot when they got the four hundred airborne light mechas!

    As such, even though the five fifth grade gifted program students boasted a bucketload of skills and even more battle experience than all four hundred second gradersbined, without shields and other anti-air defensive equipment, they were nothing in the face of an aerial barrage by so many mechas.

    They might very well be cute, giant, yellow sitting ducks!

    "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-"

    Were Killian''s final fragment of a word before almost a hundred light mecha rifle rounds fired bypletely maddened second graders with pretty solid aims smashed urately onto him.

    He  instantly turned ck like his old regr program buddies he just dispatched mere seconds ago.

    I sneered at the cocky bastard under my shield and slowly led the Wang twins away while making James Whitefrost dash off to the east towards another group around the perimeter of the massive eight thousand-mecha battle.

    Things were developing at such rapid pace that the twins were rather quiet as we made our way towards another group of mechas somewhere to the west.

    We were three hundred strong not too long ago, then fifty, then five, then three.

    Both girls had probably personally destroyed abined one hundred mechas, and judging by how the day''s battles were developing, our adventure had only just begun!

    "You girls okay?" I asked them quietly.

    "Uhuh. We''re good. We''re just tallying the number of kills we made versus yours. It seems that you''re still in the lead." Elise Wang sighed.

    "It seems that the boys versus girls battle would be pretty rough on us." Eliana sighed as well.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "You¡­" I was speechless.

    With so many exciting things happening, I hadpletely forgotten about the bet we made earlier that morning during breakfast.

    "Let''s continue our hunt. Please don''t be greedy and kill so many mechas next time." Elise Wang grumbled.

    "Yes. Stay a few paces back and allow us to initiate the battle. Be a gentleman please. There is no glory in winning the bet by being aplete jerk." Eliana Wang said daintily as she grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.

    Still deep in discussion with each other, the two girls started to pull away from me as we stomped our way towards a thick forest where the next group of mechas were hiding.

    There were only three mechas this time, and in such an even matchup, I was very confident that we could win.

    But of course, when had battle expectations turn out to be so easy to meet?

    When we got to a couple hundred meters away from where they were, the first uneasy sensation hit me.

    We weren''t hiding our progress and intention at all. We had been making a beeline towards them for quite sometime now, and they would either be dumb, deaf, blind or dead to not know that we were making our way towards them.

    But very strangely, they were stillpletely¡­ still. Unmoving. My resonance was telling me that the mechas were undamaged and powered up.

    What was going on?

    "Girls, be careful. Something does not feel right. They are not responding to our approach at all." I called out loudly to the twins.

    However, just as I finished saying that, the three mechas in front of us moved and walked up slowly towards us.

    In a situation of massive battles happening everywhere, our two factions somehow were able to stand face to face with each other in rtive peace.

    Their slow and casual non aggressive movements caught us by surprise.

    It was quite awkward.

    I mean, what do we say to three other mechas that we were nning to destroy?

    Apparently, Elise and Eliana Wang had no difficulty in finding things to say. They truly took after their mother in that regard, who was ever the diplomat.

    Or in that particr case, firecrackers.

    "You three kiddos surrendering?" Elise called out in her very obviously young first grader voice. "Sorry though, we are taking no prisoners. We have a lot of things to do."

    "Yep. If you are too scared to fight us and would like to avoid a world of pain, you can avoid doing that by voluntarily shutting down your mechas. We won''t attack you while you do that. Promise." Eliana offered generously.

    At that moment though, a clear, familiarugh sounded from the lead mecha, a maroon medium mecha wielding a shield and a spear like me.

    "Justin, you little yboy. You''re in school for such a short amount of time, and you''re already making the entire battlefield your personal dating ground? And not just one girl, but two? And by the sound of their voices¡­ twins??" Margaret Whitefrost''s voice sounded rather admiringly.

    "Margaret!!" I cried out happily.

 Chapter 239 Thirty One Thousand Mecha Wreckages

    But I quickly remembered what happened thest time I met a Whitefrost in the battle, and I immediately brought my guard back up against her.

    "Hey Justin. Don''t fraternize with the enemy." Elise said to me warningly.

    "Yes. Don''t let your guard down." Eliana added.

    "Hahaha! Your girlfriends really are the jealous type! Hey girls, I really want to hangout with Justin right now. In fact, I have two other super pretty girls with me. They are the Twin Flowers of the third grade, and probably a hundred times prettier than the two of you. Let me borrow him for a bit, alright?" Margaret said very provocatively.

    "Sorry, but he''s not for loan. There is no way in hell you girls really are as pretty as you''re saying because well, it is a physical impossibility that there are girls in the notoriously dumb and ugly third grade prettier than us." Elise Wang said while waving her sword at them.

    "Yeah. Twin Flowers of the third grade? You mean Twin Rafflesia Flowers? You poor dumbass third graders. Born ugly and still striving so hard to sound pretty by giving yourselves dumb titles like Twin Flowers. I pity unfortunate souls like you. Maybe I should let you off today on ount of how sad your life is." Eliana Wang unleashed her own barrage of verbal attack.

    "Are your faces as vile as your tongues, little girls? If they are, then I am afraid that your little boyfriend would be ours after we wipe the ground with your dead mechas." The mecha on Margaret''s left shot back.

    "What a weak reply. Your brain must be filled with mush. What have you been doing for the past three years? stic surgery after stic surgery? Maybe brain surgery? Oh! Not brain surgery. Brain imntation? To boost your previously tiny-" Elise Wang unleashed all her broadside cannons at the left girl.

    "Non-existent" Eliana Wang interrupted.

    "I apologize. I meant, non-existent brains. Ha!" Elise Wang barked out a condescendingugh.

    "Don''t get provocated by the little girl, Jackie." Margaret drawled. But it was toote.

    Her Jackie friend had already charged.

    "You talk too much for an untested newbie. Come have a taste of my de!" The mecha on Margaret''s left exploded into action and unleashed a massive overhead swing at Elise using her greatsword.

    Elise was no slouch, and she too exploded forward a split second after Jackie did, swinging her own greatsword and unleashing her own formidable attack.

    Bang! Bang!

    "Isabel, why don''t you have a little fun with the other girl as well?" Margaret suggested.

    Wordlessly, Isabel charged forward at the same time Eliana did and they both started a vicious, banging fight as well.

    Immediately, it was very clear that the Wang girls were hopelessly outssed, and that the two third graders were not pulling their punches as well.

    Thirty seconds had barely passed and already, both Elise and Eliana had received several light to medium damages.

    I hefted my spear lightly and waited for an opportunity to help them.

    "Why? Are you angry that your loud mouthed girlfriends are being bullied? They are just receiving what they deserve, you know. First graders like you guys need to learn to keep your damn heads down. Being far too ster isn''t good for you or for anyone studying in school." Margaret said lightly.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But despite her light tone, I detected a real sense of unhappiness.

    "Hmmm? You and James are saying very simr things. Just what the hell is happening here?" I asked curiously and with irritation.

    Something shady was definitely going on.

    "Hahaha! Of course! It''s so like the academy to keep you in the dark. You have no idea what''s happening! Well. Because I kind of like how you''re actually lifting high the Whitefrost name, I will tell you a little bit. Just the real name of today''s mission.

    The name of today''s mission for the rest of the thirty one thousand students apart from you damned first graders is...

    ckening the Rising Sun!

    That''s right! The entire academy is tasked to put you damned first years in ce! To make things fair, our first priority is to get the gs too, of course. But make no mistake, once the gs are safely in our hands, you first graders are gettingpletely wiped out. Haha!" Margaretughed coldly, set her shield in ce and started to move towards me.

    "I see. So you are all pissed off that we are better than you guys were when you were still first graders, pissed off that we''re being used as material to pressure you all to work harder and improve as fast as possible, pissed that the academy ces so much importance on us.

    But don''t you dare for one god damned moment think that you have a monopoly on anger.

    You think that we''re not pissed off that we''re being targeted this way simply because we''re a generation of dragons and phoenixes?

    The academy wants you to "cken the Rising Sun?" Let me tell you something. The god damned sun can''t be ckened! In fact, those who try to do so will be the ones getting ckened!!

    And if I have to make my point above the wreckage of thirty one thousand god damned mechas, help me god for I will do so!!" I roared furiously.

    BA-DUMP!

    BA-DUMP!

    Wisp after wisp after wisp started to flow out from my red mecha core and sheer, unadulterated energy surged out of my body into my practice mecha.

    Whooshh!!

    I strengthened my mecha by multiple factors and shamelessly brought its power up to white mecha grade. And upon realizing that I had left over red energy, I pointed at Eliana and Elise and caused their mechas to surge in strength to peak blue mecha as well!

    I didn''t freaking care anymore.

    "Damned old man and your shameless tactics! You have no idea what I am capable of! Just you watch, I will destroy all thirty one thousand mechas with just myself and the Wang twins!" I thought with great determination.

 Chapter 240 Change Of Heart

    Elise and Eliana were excellent mecha pilots to begin with. As soon as their mechas started disying a surge of incredible power and responsiveness to their tiniest will, the battle was as good as over.

    CLANG!

    Elise raised her shield at an angle and perfectly caused Jackie''s greatsword to be violently deflected, causing her to lose her bnce slightly.

    That was all the opening Elise Wang needed.

    STAB!!

    Elise Wang''s right hand snaked past Jackie''s shield and pierced her belly, causing the mecha to instantly cken.

    Next to her, Eliana took the simpler but more violent approach of brute forcing her greatsword down upon Isabel''s practice mecha and causing her legs to splinter due to the sheer power Eliana''s hammer blows.

    Crash!!

    Isabel''s mecha copsed to the ground in a ckened heap.

    As soon as they were done, the two Wang twins whirled around to surround Margaret.

    But they werepletely surprised to realize that Margaret''s mecha was standing subserviently a single step behind me.

    "What''s going on there?" Eliana asked as she raised her greatsword and pointed at Margaret.

    "She had a change of heart. She''s now part of our gang. Let''s continue." I replied very simply and pointed to the next cluster of mechas a couple kilometers away from us.

    Of course Margaret didn''t have a change of heart. But at that moment, her heart was not in charge.

    I had imnted a wisp of my red energy into her mecha, and her mecha waspletely mine to control!

    Just like James, I could control Margaret''s mecha as I could my own fingers at almost no noticeable increase in my mental burden.

    "At this rate, I could probably very easily control a thousand or even two thousand mechas." I thought distractedly to myself as I led the three girls forward into a trot.

    I was half analyzing my situation and half listening to the strange one sided conversation the two Wang girls were having with Margaret.

    "... never toote to repent. Now that you have turned over a new leaf and have learnt your ce as a physically inferior senior to us, you need to act your ce." Eliana was saying rather ruthlessly to the silent Margaret following behind me.

    "Yes, you have to show the highest amount of respect to us. Afterall, in war, bullets and our enemies do not care about our age. Skill is all that matters, and if our skills are above yours, then by that measure alone, you need to respect us." Elise added.

    I understood what they were doing, of course. The two Wang girls were usually very sweet girls. They were purposely being extra venomous with their words to fish out a response from Margaret to find out what exactly was going on after realizing that I was a dead end of information.

    But too bad for them, Margaret was officially out of the picture. At that very moment, she was silent processing the situation.

    I did not bother to exin anything to her. I merely said "I am taking over your mecha. Let me know when you''re ready to pledge yourself to me."<novelnext></novelnext>

    And straight after that, her mecha waspletely unresponsive to her controls.

    Margaret being Margaret, she had fallenpletely silent after quickly exhausting her list of quick tests to figure out that she had absolutely no control over her mecha, not even the emergency controls.

    Which suited me fine, of course.

    "Justin you bastard! What the hell are you doing to my mecha!? Do not say that it isn''t you! It must be you!! You''re the only one that benefits from this bizarre haywire chain of events!" James'' voice finally roared out from mym device.

    "It is me." I replied with a calm and cool voice. "I am in control of your mecha. And I am on my way to cken the damn hands that''s trying to "cken the Rising Sun". Do you want in?"

    There was a slight pause before James replied.

    "So you must have captured another victim and got the information from him huh? If you have, then you must know that seventy five percent of our annual budget is at stake. The damned Instructors said that if we don''t end the day with all the gs, our budget will be halved. The winner will get the other half. If the first graders got all seven gs, we will all lose seventy five percent of our budget to you. Tell me, if you were me, what would you do?" James demanded.

    "Do you think I care? The school is out to get me with ridiculously unfair methods. I just want to even the ying field abit. So are you in or out? Tell me quick!" I pressed James.

    "What''s in it for me? Do you have useful things that you can give me topensate for the loss in my educational budget? Things like... that strange ability of yours, perhaps?" James asked slyly.

    "My abilities are mine. But I have ess to a white mecha which you can use if we-"

    "Done. Count me in. Whatever you want me to do, I''ll do it! Just give me a white mecha!" James instantly agreed to join me without letting me finish my words.

    "IF we can source out the materials." I finished firmly.

    "Yes yes. Getting the white mecha won''t be easy, but as long as we''re making progress towards that, I don''t mind. It would be much fasterpared to getting it through the Whitefrost n! Now, what do you want me to do?" James said impatiently.

    "Come and join me. Your ssmates aren''t chasing after you anymore. Where did they go?"

    "They''ve been called to assist in the main battle. Okay! Give me back control to my mecha!"

    And with that, James became the first person in my personal clique.

    "Airborne mecha iing." Elise Wang said and raised her shield.

    "He''s a friendly." I quickly said.

    "Ah. That James dude from earlier. Another one that had a change of heart?" Eliana Wang chuckled.

    BOOM.

    Jamesnded next to us with a bang.

    "Yes. Aplete change of heart." James said with a helpless voice.

 Chapter 241 Loyalty

    "Something strange is going on with Justin and the Whitefrost n." Elise Wang announced.

    "Definitely. Strange, but exciting. Count me in please." Eliana Wang agreed.

    "Are you sure you want in? You Wangs are so high and mighty, why do you want to be involved with us Whitefrosts who are on the decline?" James said conversationally as he stomped ahead with an extra spring in his step.

    I had just infused him with a wisp of red energy, and brought his light mecha''s strength to match the Wangs at peak blue mecha.

    He was very rapidly limatizing himself to the increased power and ease of control.

    "On the decline? Maybe. But a starved camel is still more powerful than a horse. My mother always says that you Whitefrosts are still a power to be reckoned with despite your high profile losses in recent years. You guys are still the core of the Federation''s most fearsome shocktroopers. You may have lost a few of your top fighters, but the juggernaut of a system that is the n is still running smoothly, and with that old man still at the helm, the days of decline are still a ways off." Elise Wang replied with the ir of an experienced diplomat.

    "And who''s to say that Phil Whitefrost is truly dead? If he returns one day, you Whitefrosts would probably resume your ascent. Plus, I heard that his daughter, Emma, is¡­" Eliana Wang allowed her words to trail at that point.

    "Is none of your business." James finished for her.

    "Touchy, aren''t you?" Elise Wang poked James lightly from behind.

    James ignored her gantly, if there was such a thing.

    "Anyways, what I am truly interested in is of course not all those things. Our Wang family, although we cannot field a powerful army that could impact battlefields as powerful as you guys could, we have nock of money, soldiers, and most of all, allies that could do as you guys do, and possibly with more effect. What we do not have, however, are aces in the hole like¡­ Justin over here." Elise said with deep curiosity oozing thickly out of her voice.

    Sensing that I wasn''t about to bite her bait and start spilling my beans, she gave her hook and line a couple of wiggles.

    "First it''s his incredible secret in strengthening mechas so naturally! None of you Whitefrosts have shown anything remotely simr, so this ability is his and his alone. Such an incredible and exclusive power points to something that is either external of the Whitefrosts or something experimental. Considering the massive amount of unounted money our family''s investigators have found, it could very well be the second possibility.

    Second, it''s his strange hold over you Whitefrosts. How he managed to secure your support despite having such shady background and how he managed to have such incredible RPL despite having a really crappy upbringing is driving my investigatorspletely nuts.

    Finally, his recent disappearance and his change in aura upon his return. What the hell was that about?"

    I couldn''t help but gulp in slight dismay.

    I had thought that my possession of Devour was something that won''t be so easily discovered. But here I was, listening to a brief analysis by a ten year old that pointed straight to the fact that I had an incredible ability which could almost only be exined by my possession of Devour!<novelnext></novelnext>

    Thank goodness the Whitefrosts had spent a massive amount of money on Emma and the experimental core that was yet unactivated within her.

    Having another experimental core within me would still be something eptable.

    It would raise questions as to why and how the Whitefrosts managed to develop the second experimental core. But it was still far easier to ept that against a odds, the Whitefrosts was able to do that instead of the fact that I had within me the power to absorb not only white and golden mechas, but also alien tech!

    Still, the fact that the Wang twins had no idea about the experimental core within Emma proves that at least Secretary Wang knew where to draw the line with her kids.

    Training them up to be excellent diplomats was one thing, national secrets was another.

    "You want to know my secret?" I finally spoke up and asked the two girls the question that they had probably been dying to hear.

    "Yes!" Both said very coolly and nonchntly. But the fact that they both did so immediately and in unison betrayed just how excited they were.

    "There is no free lunch in this world. This secret concerns my life, my well being and my future. If you want in, then you must abide by the rules and dere your loyalty to me." I said very simply.

    I knew I sounded like the head of a secret cult, but I truly wanted that extra bit of assurance. The Wang girls would probably not betray me, their family blood ran a righteous red all over the annals of the Chinese Federation afterall.

    "Having them dere out loud their loyalty to me would probably scare them off." I remember thinking to myself. "They would never do such a th-"

    "I hereby dere my loyalty to Justin, this dude right here. After my loyalty to my Country, my Family, I will be loyal to Justin and to the secret he will share with us." Came Elise Wang''s solemn voice.

    Eliana Wang''s voice rang out not a secondter, saying the exact same thing, word for word.

    "What the hell? Are you two crazy? Swearing loyalty to him? Are you so sure he would be worth it? What if he turns out to be azy bum and merely orders you two around to serve him bacon endlessly?'' James Whitefrost exploded with a shout of disbelief.

    "What? You think he is you?" Elise Wang was probably rolling her eyes at him at that moment.

    "Have you not received his power boost? Would someone with such a world changing ability stay home and snack on bacon while the world burns with war?" Eliana Wang was also probably rolling her eyes at him.

 Chapter 242 James Whitefrost

    "You got his power boost too?" James asked in a shocked voice before turning at me and raised an using finger at me.

    "Bro! How can you give them your power? And even before they swore loyalyy to you too? They are not Whitefrosts!"

    "What I gave, I can take away." I replied with a nonchnt shrug. "And granting my power this way is very limited anyway. It would not work as soon as you exceed a certain distance away from me."

    "So are you saying that there''s another application of your power that could work even apart from being close to you?" Elise Wang asked me eagerly.

    "Absolutely. It won''t be easy to acquire the required materials for it, but I can do such a thing." I nodded confidently.

    "Awesome!" Eliana Wang said happily. "But let''s pause those happy thoughts for a bit and clean up these buggers over here."

    We crested a small hill and a few hundred meters away was a group of fifteen mechas hidden very poorly in a copse of broken trees.

    "Sloppy." James sneered before sting off to the skies. "You guys stay back! I will clean up these rabble within five minutes!"

    "What a cocky fe." Elise Wang chuckled. But she did as he said and did not make a move, her mecha''s eyes following James with rapt attention.

    "Hey hey. Watch it. Don''t start liking a Whitefrost now." Eliana Wang warned in a stern voice.

    "Huh? What in the world are you talking about?" Elise Wang asked with augh. "I don''t have a shred of feelings for THAT cocky Whitefrost."

    "Aha! You don''t have feelings for THAT particr Whitefrost! So that means that you DO have feelings for A Whitefrost?" Being her twin, Eliana Wang immediately caught on to Elise Wang''s slip of tongue and pressed her mercilessly.

    "Ah!? What are you talking about? We''re still kids! Kids! What is like? What is a boy? I don''t know? Hahahaha!" Elise Wang replied in a flustered voice.

    As the two girls bickered back and forth, James was showing off his skills as a Whitefrost splendidly.

    It was true what Elise Wang said earlier.

    Even without their top fighters, the Whitefrost n was still a force to be reckoned with. The average level of their pilots'' skills were at least a couple notches above the rest of the army''s. And having been trained since young, the average skills of their kids were also notches ahead of the other families.

    They truly were worthy of being the elites even among the shocktroopers of the Chinese Federation Army.

    James shrewedly positioned himself with the sun directly behind him to make it difficult for his enemies to see him clearly.

    Although it wouldn''t matter much because he would show up clearly in his enemies'' radars and their aiming systems would probably have locked on to him as well, a Whitefrost was trained to never waste any advantages, no matter how small.

    If their enemies happen to turn their heads at him and their eyes got caught in the re of the sun, they would be blinded for a second, and even two seconds. And in a battle, a second was an eternity. Two seconds, two eternities!

    And as it were, the bunch of fifteen mechas all turned their heads to face him as soon as he appeared in their radars.

    As one, they reflexively raised their hands to shield their eyes against the sun.

    "Haha! They must be second graders." I snickered at theirical actions which were nearly in sync.

    I knew at that moment that James would have no problems cleaning them out.<novelnext></novelnext>

    He opened with a trio of extremely well aimed and well ced long distance shots, immediately going after the heavy mechas first.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    Three heavy mechas lost their heads and ckened immediately.

    By that time, the remaining twelve mechas were reacting but in a really uncoordinated manner. Some charged deeper into the copse of trees, some raised their shields up and the others with cooler heads and rifles started to shoot back.

    But it was beyond easy for James to dodge their badly coordinated shots with a couple of rolls. And as soon as he got out of immediate danger, those that fired at him became his next targets.

    Pew pew pew! Pew pew pew!

    Six shots. Six kills.

    "Hoooo. This particr Whitefrost has some skills." Elise Wang said with deep approval.

    "This particr Whitefrost? Why are you alwaysparing this one against the one that you like? You really like him that much? Wahaha! I am going to tell mom you like a Whitefrost!" Eliana Wang squealed withughter.

    And with that, they resumed their bickering.

    I sighed and shook my head at them.

    Girls.

    But my attention was soon pulled back to the fight. James had stored his rifle and had drawn out his twin swords.

    Six mechas were left, and James would be engaging them in closebat!

    Diving down at extremely high speed with twin swords swung backwards ready to deal destructive shes, James made for a very, very cool sight.

    sh! sh! BANG!!

    He allowed his two swords to run through two mechas who were so bad that they did not even manage to raise their shields, before throwing both his feet out to deliver a crushing blow andpletely destroy a third one!

    "Oooow!" I winced slightly for the poor third mecha. There weren''t many injuries during sses because of just how powerful the reactive armors in the practice mechas were. But there were times when damage dealt against them were unintentionally stronger than the threshold of the reactive armors, and kids were injured.

    It was extremely rare, of course. But that particr kick by James was definitely one of those rare moments.

    The mecha literally flew off with massive cracks all throughout its ckened armor!

    I immediately shot a couple of red res into the sky to attract the instructors'' attention.

    That poor boy probably needed immediate medical attention!

 Chapter 243 Margaret Whitefrost

    "That''s a very nasty but very good move." Elise Wang couldn''t help but stop her bickering with Eliana and praise James.

    "He''s showing off. There was no need to do that. Those mecha pilots were obviously merchants'' kids with barely a shred of training." Eliana scoffed at James in disdain. "The fact that you find it impressive means that you like him! Aha! Scooped!"

    "Why are you so adamant that I like him? Could it be that YOU like him?" Eliana asked in a surprised tone and flipped the tables on her twin sister.

    "What? Of course not! Why would I like such a loser? My sights are ced much higher, thank you very much." Eliana said.

    "AHA! YOUR SIGHTS ARE PLACED HIGHER? SO ITS PLACED? THERE''S A BOY YOU LIKE? HAHAHAHA! THAT''S WHY YOU''RE PRESSING ON ME SO HARD!!" Elise Wang shouted very, very gleefully.

    And with that, their bickering entered a red hot stage that rivaled even James'' exciting battle with the remaining three mechas.

    Well, it wasn''t a battle, and not even a chase.

    It was target practice!

    The three mechas were running away in three different directions, and James was standing in ce taking his time shooting at them one by one!

    Pew!

    Pew!

    Pew!

    The final three mechas dropped to the ground lifelessly!

    "Wahahahaha! How do you like that performance?" James shouted triumphantly as he shot to the skies once more and flew back to us.

    But s for him, none of us were looking at him.

    The two girls were, obviously still bickering loudly.

    And as for me, I was staring at Margaret.

    Within my mecha, I was grinning very, very widely as I listened to her words.

    "I swear loyalty to you. Above my loyalty to the Federation. Above my loyalty to the n. As long as you provide me with the power to change my fate, the fate of the n and of the country, I am willing to betray them for their own good." Margaret said to me solemnly.

    Holy smoking mackarel.

    Even at that very young age, Margaret was a seriously hyper cool girl.

    She was extremely mature, extremely decisive, and was very much willing to do anything, and be anything for the sake of her n and country!

    I was seriously impressed and taken by surprise.

    Plus, her sudden deration of loyalty was in so much contrast with her earlier bravado and slightly antagonistic attitude towards me, that I waspletely unable to guess that such a thing would even happen.

    "I am able to do as you say. Serve me well, and your power will rise alongside mine." I replied very seriously.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I pointed my hand at her, released her from my control and pumped her power up to the very peak of blue mechas.

    "I don''t need you to serve my every whim. Just do you, and obey mymands when the timees." I told her.

    "That''s good. I can serve you better as a soldier you unleash rather than a soldier you control anyway." Margaret said as she tested her new found powers and executed a series of fluid movements.

    "Hey! Did none of you see what I just did?" James shouted indignantly. "I worked so hard and none of you-"

    "Shut up and quit whining." Margaret said curtly at James.

    "Oh my god. Hi Margaret! I had no idea it was you all along. Why are you so quiet? I mean, I know you don''t like talking. But you did not even say hi to- "

    BAM!!!

    Margaret unleased a powerful punch with her right fist and smashed it into James'' stomach area!

    "OOF!!" James immediately doubled down as his mecha hummed and crackled lightly. But all in all, he was fine.

    "Very good." Margaret nodded approvingly at the power she was able to unleash, and at James'' ability to withstand said great power.

    "Wow. You''re actually quite cool for a dumba-" Elise began.

    "You can stop with the irritating name calling." Margaret said calmly. "We''re on the same side now."

    "Ohhhh we are? That''s good! Hi sister Margaret! Good to have you finally join us!" Elise Wang said happily and did aplete 180 with her attitude towards Margaret.

    Knowing Margaret, she was probably holding back her response that would probably have sounded something like "You can stop with the clingy girlyments as well. We are not and will never be that close." If she let herself loose andment as she willed.

    But knowing that we would be in the same team from that moment on and to futures unknown, she merely nodded and kept quiet for the sake of getting along.

    "Sister Margaret! I am actually a big fan! I was a spectator when you had your Grand Melee two years ago, and I noticed how you zed through that entire pack of mechas to save your buddy! You''re so cool! Kyaaa!!" Eliana Wang actually gushed like a little fan girl and moved to Margaret''s side to get closer to her!

    "Yes! I saw that too! You''re sooo cool!" Elise Wang said with no less enthusiasm than her sister.

    "Really? I saw that too, and thought it was a dumb move that somehow paid off." James said with disdain. "You should have seen MY performance during my Grand Melee! Now, although I did not win it like this overpowered dude did, I had a pretty strong showing! Especially-"

    "Sister Margaret! Can you teach me how to do that super cool trick you did during the Grand Melee where you managed to parry that overhead sword swing and somehow turned it into a killing blow? It''s the coolest thing I''ve ever seen!" Eliana Wang said andpletely ignored poor James.

    "Yes! Yes! I want to learn that too!" Elise Wang said excitedly.

    I understood their excitement, of course. In fact, I not only understood it. I felt it too!

    "Sounds like a good move! Comee! Show it to us!" I joined in excitedly.

    "Very well. I will take on the next group of mechas and execute that move." Margaret sighed and agreed to our demands.

    "YIPEEE!!!" Eliana Wang shouted!

 Chapter 244 Frisbee

    The National Mecha Pilot Academy is a very good school.

    It employs the experiential learning method in teaching its students, and it not only invests a lot of effort and thought in the design of its sses, it also invests a mind boggling amount of resources into executing the lessons.

    The insane lesson we were going through was just one of many crazy ideas that the academy actually implemented in the pursuit of a highly relevant education experience for its students.

    I dare say, for the most part it seeded. Only on very, very select and unique circumstances did the academy fail in achieving its learning oues.

    One of the rare circumstances was of course for the five of us in that particr lesson.

    My new found ability to boost my team''s power hadpletely wrecked the academy''s intention of wanting to teach us how to deal with being out numbered, out gunned and out maneuvered by out enemies!

    While every single first grader was probably experiencing ambush after ambush, tense maneuvers and repositionings, and while every other student were scrambling for their lives and fighting desperately, we were having a rtively fun time!

    "The key in sessfully pulling off this move liespletely in your sword''s position. Most people receive and parry their enemy''s overhead swing at around ten centimeters above their head. This makes sense as it allows you to keep the enemy''s sword at a rtively safe distance from you, and it also allows you to bring to bear the greatest strength to parry the strike." Margaret began her exnation as the next group of enemies came to view.

    It was arge group of approximately thirty mechas.

    "However, that position is not at goodpared to receiving the enemy''s parry at a much higher position.

    The standard parry has two critical drawbacks. First, it allows the enemy''s strike toe to the fullness of its power as itpletes its arc descent towards you.

    Although you are able to bring to bear your greatest strength in resisting it, the gain you getpared to parrying the enemy''s strike higher would be less than the gain the enemy gets.

    Secondly, it ces youpletely on the defensive with no room to counter attack in that particr sequence.

    My instructor at home always say that defense is the nning of an attack. Whenever you defend, defend in such a way that a counter attack could be chained to it.

    If you take the enemy''s swing at or near your arm''s full stretch, you would be removing the momentum and power of his attack. At the same time, your sword will be beneath his sword and above his body.

    You would be in the perfect position to attack!

    Let me show you. Pay attention now."

    Margaret started to jog openly and fearlessly to the group of thirty mechas. Shepletely did not care which grade the thirty mechas belonged to.

    With her mecha at peak power, she could go against sixth grade gifted students and she would definitely still be fine!

    "Look, guys! A single mecha ising towards us. Is that mechamiting suicide?" A slightly mature voice sounded from the mecha nearest to Margaret.

    "Which grade is it from?" A domineering voice called out.

    "It has a sky blue band. Third? Fourth grade? Who knows and who cares." Came the careless reply.

    "Kill it." The domineering voice sounded once more.

    "There are four mechas just standing around a couple hundred meters behind her. Should we kill them too?"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Yes, you bozo. They will reveal our position! Fat Eagle and Fat Hawk! Go kill the four mechas! Fat Lion, go teach that solo punk a lesson."

    "Yes Fat Boss!" Came the answer from three mechas.

    The three mechas quickly revealed themselves to be two rifle bearing medium mecha fliers and one sword/shield heavy mecha.

    The fliers took to the skies slowly, their medium armor weighing down their ability to move quickly and with great agility, even in the sky.

    Medium fliers are basically flying tanks. They can pack a massive punch from the sky.

    However, it would require a top end flight system to allow them to be agile in the air, so there weren''t many good medium fliers out there.

    Most armies only like to equip their medium fliers with cheap flight systems when the war is almost won to allow them to quickly deal the finishing blow to whatever final fortress the enemy has. Even though the risk of them getting shot down was high, the war was almost over anyway.

    They could afford the risk for the sake of ending the war as quickly as possible.

    It was folly to send out medium flyers with weak flight system to fight against an enemy an equal number of mechas.

    The fact that the Fat Boss sent two such mechas to go against the four of us indicated that he was either a dumbass, or he did not take us seriously at all.

    It was probably thetter, though.

    But we would never know, because at that moment, Margaret burst into action andpletely blew our minds away!

    As soon as she saw the two mechas slowly rise to the air, Margaret flung her shield towards them!

    BA-BAM!!!

    Like a frisbee, the shield sailed through the sky and smashed into the first mecha before rebounding and smashing into the second!

    Fat Eagle and Fat Hawk were downed before they could even get to the sky!

    However, that was merely Margaret saying hi to the Fat Gang.

    Margaret was already charging towards the group of twenty eight fearlessly with her right hand gripping her sword horizontally to the right in a disy of sheer confidence.

    "All units. Go and kill that little punk for me." Fat Boss ordered his troops calmly but rather irrationally.

    Who the hell would send all of his units to go against one enemy?

    But in his case, it was the right decision. His instinct was actually quite sharp.

    Against Margaret and her peak blue mecha, any other order would be folly.

 Chapter 245 Star Of The Show

    Without a shield, most solo mechas going against even just three opponents would be hard pressed to remain standing for more than a minute.

    But for Margaret, she bullied the twenty eight mechas like a three meter tall NBA yer who spent five hours in the gym daily ying against a bunch of tall but scrawny high school kids.

    Fat Lion led the way and roared out a ferocious battle cry as they all charged towards Margaret in thunderous fury.

    They were obviously seniors in the academy as evidenced by their neat formation even in the absence of explicit instructions by their "Fat Boss".

    From our vantage point, Margaret''s solo charge against so many enemies looked extremely epic.

    "Oh my godddd she is so cooolll!!!" Eliana Wang gushed inplete fan girl mode.

    "Frog in the well." James muttered in response. But even he had his eyes glued to the unfolding scene before us.

    Within seconds, the battle was joined!

    Bam!!

    In a ruthless and awe-inspiring opening move, Margaret''s shield-less left hand flicked out and jabbed the unfortunate Fat Lion to death with a single urate strike to his head.

    Without losing a single beat, her right feet mmed down heavily to the ground and propelled her powerfully forward at jaw dropping speed that took even us, the spectators, by surprise!

    The poor mecha that was next in line had no chance to react.

    Margaret''s sword shed lightly under the sun and struck its unguarded neck at a slight angle and cleanly severed it!

    "Kyaaaaa!! Coool! Super duper cooool!!!" Eliana Wang squealed in delight.

    But Margaret was just warming up!

    What followed was a dazzling, mesmerizing sequence of attacks that could, without an ounce of inuracy, be described as a dance of death.

    Every step she took was perfectly ced and positioned. Every strike was wless without an inch of excess movement. Every kill brought her the time and space she needed to either reset or follow up to the next kill.

    If I didn''t know better, I would have imed that the battle was apletely choreographed battle scene depicting a heroine bullying her enemies!

    "Ugh. I hate it when she does that." James grumbled in an indirect admission of Margaret''s skill.

    "I wonder who will win in a one on one battle. Sherry Lin or Margaret Whitefrost?" I wondered out loud.

    "Do you even need to ask? As good as Sherry Lin is, never forget that she is still a Lin! They are a family of mecha producers, not warriors!" James replied with disdain.

    "I have to agree. Sherry Lin is a monstrous once a century prodigy. But the Whitefrost n has nock of prodigies too. And if the prodigies of the Lin family were to be pitted against the prodigies of the Whitefrost family, I''ll take the Whitefrosts anytime." Elise Wang said.

    "Hmmmm." I nodded.

    But in my heart, I could somehow sense that although Margaret was incredible, her fighting style was more like an assassin''s efficient and deadly strikes.

    A learned observer would highly appreciate her moves. But itcked battlefield impact.

    Sherry Lin''s style was far more mboyant and eye catching. Coupled with her highly grounded fighting skills, Sherry Lin was like a battlefield general, her every move able to inspire and galvanize others to action.

    A general versus an assassin.

    Who would win?

    I spent a pleasant minute or twoparing both girls and visualizing their imaginary fight while Margaretpletely trampled on the remaining twenty something mechas to their inglorious deaths.

    Finally, afterying waste to twenty nine mechas, she finally came face to face with the "final boss".

    Fat Boss.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Very good. You''re extremely talented. What''s your name? I am Gerard K-" Fat Boss began. But s, we would never know what he was about to say.

    Bam!

    ? Margaret''s right hand flicked outzily and crushed his head to smithereens.

    Boom.

    His mecha ckened instantly and he copsed to his knees.

    Bam!

    Margaret kicked it aside without a shred of empathy and emotion.

    Cold indeed.

    "Kyayayayayayayaaaaaa!!! Big sister Margaret! Please ept these kow tows as a token of respect from your student! You are now my shi fu!!!" Eliana Wang copsed to her knees and banged her mecha head heavily to the ground three times.

    I rolled my eyes helplessly.

    Thank goodness only Eliana Wang did that.

    Elise Wang still maintained a cool head and did not join her twin sister in her antics.

    "Did you guys catch that move I was talking about? I only did it twice." Margaret said when she reached us. She coolly ignored Eliana Wang and her fangirling.

    But Eliana Wang had been bitten by the fangirl bug really hard.

    She did not care that her "teacher" had yet to acknowledge her, and she dutifully stood behind her like a disciple.

    "Yeah. Its good. And not just that move, I learnt quite a lot. You''re really good." Imented.

    "Thanks. Alright, now that the show is over, what do we do now?" Margaret asked.

    "We want to get those three gs, but we don''t want to join the massive battle. So I n to sweep the perimeter and take out all those who are lying in wait, and then clean house the survivors of the main battle and secure the three gs. After that, we''ll look for the other four gs and secure them as well. Oh, and eliminate as many mechas as possible." I exined my battle strategy to her.

    "Good. Lead the way." Margaret said.

    And thus continued the "Massacre of the Eternal General".

    It was probably the only time that the academy''s lesson n and learning oue failed so horribly.

    As with experiential learning, the experience students go through was designed to trigger emotional and mental responses which would then be shaped by the events of the lesson.

    If the experience did not happen as per the lesson design, then the learning oues were basically shot.

    How could the oues be reached if the experience was different?

    And so the title of the lesson had to be changed.

    It went from "The ckening of the Rising Sun" to the "Massacre of the Eternal General".

    I think it is apt.

    Because even though the five of us did our part in the massacre, we weren''t the stars of the show.

    The main star of the show was... Sheera Lin.

 Chapter 246 Masterpiece

    What can I say that has not already been said about that particr masterpiece by Sheera Lin that day?

    I am sure that by now, everything about Sheera Lin''s past achievements have been dissected in detail and exaggerated and celebrated and probably made into a Holy Manual for War and Battles of some sort.

    But let me just briefly exin what happened that day for the sake of those who are new to our story.

    There were thirty six thousand students that participated in the "battle" that day.

    Ten thousand were fighting where I was at, and three gs were up for grabs there.

    Twenty six were fighting where Sheera Lin was at where four gs were being contested.

    Long and bloody story short, I was able to clear the perimeter without much hassle, and then swoop into the main battle which was winding down with only less than a thousand mechas left standing.

    We smashed the squads holding on to the three gs one after the other, and then spent the next few minutes happily cleaning up the entire battlefield.

    We chased the survivors everywhere, and I made god damn sure that every single one of my senior brothers and sisters in my vicinity were ckened.

    It was exciting and satisfying on a personal level, but it was nothingpared to the pure carnage that Sheera Lin was unleashing at that moment with just four thousand seven hundred noob first graders.

    In war, the acme of skill is to win a hundred victories without fighting. However, such an optimal oue was only possible through shrewd diplomacy and cunning subterfuge against enemies still having the option to surrender.

    It was not the case in Sheera''s case. She was going up against a numerically superior enemy with vastly superior skill, and whose very reason for being in the battlefield was to battle.

    There was no way to achieve victory without fighting.

    Sheera Lin had to fight, and by god, fight she did.

    I have spoken to her about her experience in the battle, and she had shared with me her thoughts in detail. What I am about to tell you is the truth of the entire matter.

    Everything you hear or read from mainstream media which contains information that is different from what I will say is bullshit. Bear that in mind.

    She sent my squad out with the g to tie up a massive chunk of the enemy, hoping to draw fire away from the main body of the first graders, and she sent out capable scouts to report back on everything that was happening around her.

    Within a few short minutes, she had grasped hold of the truth of the matter which took me a much longer time and Margaret''s generosity to uncover.

    As soon as the scouts reported back that several groups of mechas with different coloured bands were marching in their general direction and in rtive peace a couple hundred meters away from each other, she had already assumed the worst case scenario.

    Yes, she made her decisions in that battle based on the supremely urate assumption that the entire academy''s thirty one thousand students were banded against her.<novelnext></novelnext>

    People always say, hope for the best and n for the worst. But how many could literally do that? How many could even begin to imagine that the worst case scenario was such a ridiculous situation?

    In fact, she told me that she even held in reserve the possibility that their mechas were sabotagued, and that the instructors would be participating against them.

    Thank goodness the instructors weren''t insane and senile yet. They were just normal assholes.

    But the fact remains that Sheera had the imagination, guts and calcting coldness that allowed her to not only ept such a worst case scenario, but also immediately operate based on it.

    And the sess of her operation hinged upon three crucial factors.

    The first factor was of course excellent intel and even better response.

    Groups of mechas with different coloured bands marching towards them could only mean two things.

    The first was that they didn''t have gs with them.

    And the second, there was a secondary mission which did not require them to fight each other.

    And if they did not have to fight each other, then the logical choice was that they would fight her, the one that did not receive the secondary mission.

    In light of that revtion, her next decision came very easily to her. It was eerily simr to her first decision. She sent out three more squads one at a time to do as I did - draw out as many of the enemies as they could and either lead them to a wild goose chase, or tie them up long enough for them to be useless during the main event that she had nned.

    That way, from her vantage point, she was able to shave off a little bit of the enemy''s numerical advantage and lower the odds slightly from a possible thirty thousand versus four thousand seven hundred to hopefully twenty thousand versus four thousand.

    The first squad of one hundred twenty mixed mechas was led by Victor Long.

    He charged straight ahead and managed to bait two thousand mechas to charge after his squad. It was an impressive feat, and I had confirmed with him that a generous dose of graphic descriptions of the enemies'' momma''s titties were involved.

    The second squad of one hundred fifty rifle bearing light mechas was led by Olivia Summers.

    She had positioned herself in rtive high ground, and had opened fire at a big group of heavies.

    Although she only managed to lure a thousand of them, it was still considered a high sess. No momma''s titties were ndered in her case.

    The third squad of three hundred heavy mechas was led by Barrick Rui, Jack Yang and Rnd Hu. Like Olivia Summers, they positioned themselves in a high ground too.

    But unlike her, they did not intend to run.

 Chapter 247 First Wave

    They were the keys to the second factor that allowed Sheera Lin to massacre almost the entire academy''s students.

    The second factor was excellent strategy and tactics. Her use of maniption of terrain and location to her advantage was literally godlike.

    Us first graders have our dorm and practice field way down south of the entire academy. And as such, we have our backs against the wall.

    However, instead of seeing that as a disadvantage, Sheera Lin took that as a positive thing. She had one less direction to worry about.

    So she nted the juiciest part of her little army right there, way down south of the mountain range.

    Two thousand five hundred mechas arrayed in neat lines in a valley by the entrance of the mountain range.

    A couple kilometers ahead of the main first grade army was an interesting teau of sorts. A high ground with steep sides that had a rtively t top that could fit a thousand or so mechas.

    Cutting the mountain range longitudinally, the little teau was like the center part of a "W" with the two sides being the mountains that stretched all the way upwards.

    There was a narrow path on the left and right of the mini teau where mechas could pass, or they could choose to pass by the wooded slopes of the mountain side.

    But that way would be very rough going as the trees there were thick and massive.

    All in all, the mini teau was the perfect defensive high ground.

    It was there Barrick Rui, Jack Yang and Rnd Hu with their three hundred heavy mechas were ced.

    They were all carrying massive shields, swords and the strongest rifles avable.

    In the grand scheme that Sheera had nned out, the three hundred heavy mechas would serve as a bait, a defensive bulwark, and a killing machine.

    Their low number would entice the enemy, their heavy armor would prevent the enemy from killing them easily, and their rifles would allow them to destroy the enemy when they give up attacking and decide to pass them by to reach the main army.

    But even with such perfect position and situation, they were afterall only three hundred. There was a limit on how much they could actually impact the battle when everything heats up.

    They would not be able to stop the enemy if they decide to stream past them in huge numbers.

    And that was where the remaining thousand five hundred mechas came into the picture.

    Unlike the rest of her mechas, these thousand five hundred were spread out all over the two slopes in pairs.

    They all carried rifles and spears with no shields, and they only had one job. When the timees, kill.

    The massive trees that surrounded them made it extremely difficult for the enemy to be able to use their numbers against them, and at the same time gave them a massive amount of cover.

    They would have the time and terrain advantage to unleashplete hell on any enemy determined to break the tree line and enter the wooded mountain slopes.

    And if they chose to take the narrow path at the foot of the teau and the mountain slopes, even better.

    It was perfect.

    As battle ns go, Sheera''s was solid.

    And even so, shit still managed to happen.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Battle was joined rtively smoothly.

    After the three thousand enemy mechas were sessfully led away by Victor and Olivia, the remaining first batch of mechas came charging towards the teau.

    Three thousand overconfident, screaming kids came charging towards the teau in four different groups.

    These were the kids assigned to handle the secondary mission of dealing with us.

    Brandishing their swords, spears and war hammers, they thundered towards the teau in a mighty but chaotic air.

    "Die you over achieving punks! This will teach you not to be too ster in your achievements!"

    "The nail that sticks out gets hammered! You guys may be five thousand nails, but we are thirty thousand hammers! Die! Die! Die!!"

    "Sorry kids. I don''t like bullying weaklings, but nobody messes with my resources. If you do, I don''t care if you''re a cute little baby. You''re still going down!"

    Shouting their battlecries and their twisted rationales like storybook viins, they broke past the long range boundary.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    The mechas in the woods to the left and right of the teau opened fire first.

    Like a powerful cudgel, their rifle fire mmed into the first elements of the charging three thousand and flung them to the ground.

    A split secondter, the three hundred heavy mechas opened fire as well.

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    Close to a thousand rifle fire found their marks, and almost a hundred enemies copsed in that deadly first volley.

    "Shields up. Defend yourselves as you charge!" Shouted a big grey mecha from the middle of the first group.

    In a disy of good training and even better battle sense, the charging mechas raised their shields as they ran, and managed to block a considerable chunk of the iing rifle fire!

    But as good as they were in blocking, there were too many of them, and Sheera''s army was attacking from two directions.

    Those from the teau were able to aim at the ones further away which were raising their shields to defend against the shotsing in from the wooded area, and vice versa!

    "Damn! These punks have prepared well! We have walked into a trap! Call for the general retreat, damn it!"

    "Stop being a wuss! These are grade ones, they would break as soon as we close the distance! Charge!"

    Their cocky overconfidence made some of them continue their charge down the narrow path, while others started to climp the rtively steep slope to get into closebat!

    But the rifle fire did not stop, and very quickly, their numbers fell from a three thousand to barely a thousand!

    Five minutes had barely passed, and two thousand dead mechas had already graced the battlefield with their bodies!

 Chapter 248 Black Hole

    As battle engagements go, the casualty rate of that first wave of three thousand mechas was horrendous.

    It was well within the category of a massacre.

    Except for the most well trained special forces, most military units would break as soon as they suffered such a mind blowing casualty rate.

    It would be logical for students to break and run at casualty rates far below that of the standard in adult soldiers.

    However, it wasn''t the case for students entering that particr set up.

    Instead of breaking and running at fifty percent casualty, these students actually continued to charge into the battlefield until they were over 90 percentmitted!

    To an extent, one could probablyy the me of why these glorious National Mecha Pilot Academy students continued to charge in blindly into Sheera''s killing zone and to their deaths, on the terrain.

    Beyond the teau where the three hundred heavies were located, there was a small ridge that blocked the vision of any iing army. They would have to charge up the ridge first before they were able to see the teau.

    And even then, all they could see would be the steep slopes and the three hundred armored mechas atop it.

    They would not be able to see the two thousand five hundred mechas beyond, and also the thousand five hundred mechas hidden within the trees on the two slopes of the mountains.

    Their orders would probably be something like this: First battalion, engage and destroy the heavies on that hill! The rest of you, charge ahead, locate their main army and destroy them!!"

    And then as the trap was sprung all around them, the orders would probably be something like this: Ambush by the mountain sides! We have more soldiers than them, don''t worry! Second battalion, to the right! Third battalion, to the left! Take them down! The rest of you, charge!!

    And that would probably be the final order given. Knowing Sheera, she would have sharpshooters aiming for any mecha that were hanging back and pointing this way and that way.

    All their fieldmanders would be sniped within minutes.

    Without fieldmanders,plete chaos would reign. The final order given would be in effect.

    Their overconfidence, badmunication and extremely limited vision made the rest of the invading armypletely clueless to the butchery of theirrades that was happening just over the ridge.

    In unbroken streams, they would continue to charge into the battlefield.

    As soon as they crested the ridge, their bloodlust waspletely ignited by the downward sloping charge theirrades were making.

    Screaming and roaring their battlecries, they thundered down the tiny ridge and¡­ died.

    That first wave was annihted.

    Three thousand died under the withering fire of merely a thousand eight hundred.

    It was a missile-based victory that would have made King Henry V himself proud.

    As you know, King Henry V of Ennd defeated the vastly superior French Army at Agincourt in the year 1415.<novelnext></novelnext>

    He had 5000 Longbowmen who rained death upon the 15,000 strong French army for long minutes until they ran out of arrows, after which King Henry V himself led his army down from his highground to butcher the confused and demoralized French Army.

    It was a stunning victory that made its way into the annals of the most powerful military victories ever won in the recorded history of mankind.

    Compared to Sheera Lin''s victory that day, well I guess King Henry V did okay.

    Sheera Lin''s army did not suffer from ack of arrows that day, andbined with the perfect killing ground, she easily took care of her enemies in that first phase.

    The second wave arrived within an hour of the first, and once again, like a video rey, the same thing happened to them.

    Another three thousand screaming and yelling students charged in blindly into valley, and quickly surrendered their lives to the rain of death.

    However, after the second massacre ended, the once beautiful kill zone waspletely blockaded by ckened mechas withpletely disgruntled kids still stuck within them.

    Sheera Lin gave the order for the main army to move forward and drag the "corpses" back to the entrance of the valley and dumped them out of the mountain range where the students were able to get out of their mechas and watch the rest of the show in the safety andfort of the school''s facilities.

    It was not kindness, and definitely not mercy from Sheera.

    She needed to do that to upgrade her kill zone and make it more effective.

    The third wave came around an hour after the kill zone was restored.

    But unlike the previous two waves who had so rashly charged in, the third wave of just two thousand mechas gathered atop the ridge and stared coldly at the three hundred heavies on the teau.

    They were thebined armies of the third and fourth grade gifted program students, and they were no fools.

    A recording of their pre-fight conversation revealed that they were able to very urately deduce Sheera Lin''s n for the first phase and react appropriately.

    "A kill zone." Announced Avery Broodly, the leader of the third grade gifted program students.

    "A very good one." Grunted Dike Matambo, the leader of the fourth grade gifted program students.

    "Look at the ground and the countless grooves on them. Thousands had already fallen in this kill zone, and partially cleared out. Hooo¡­ These first years truly are like the rising sun huh?" Kitiara Kang, one of the best fighters in the fourth grade,mented.

    "The rising sun, no matter how bright, will still disappear within the depths of a ck hole." Rumbled Hardy Tam, the top sniper in the academy.

    "And? Why the hell are you talking about ck holes and that science shit? Are you autistic?" Kitiara said teasingly.

    "I meant that we are the ck holes that would swallow the brightness of the rising sun." Hardy tried to exin awkwardly.

    "Huh? Why would we do that? Wouldn''t that make the battlefield too dark? And how the hell do we swallow the brightness of the sun?" Kitiara asked in mock confusion.

    "I mean, we are LIKE the ck hole. We will defeat the first graders, who are being called the rising sun, and in so doing, it would be like swallowing their brightness." Hardy dutifully exined his parable in detail.

 Chapter 249 The Massacre Continues

    "Haha!! Hardy you dumbass! Kit was just teasing you! Of course we all understand your parable!" Dikeughed at his rather naive buddy.

    "Hey! Who are you calling dumbass! You can''t call him that!" Kitiara shouted at Dike loudly. "He may be a real dumbass in the truest sense of the word, aplete retard, even! But that''s not for YOU to call him that! Only I can do that, right? Hardie Dumbie?"

    "No. Don''t call me that." Hardy replied automatically. But as always and as expected, Kitiara ignored him.

    "Nobody calls him stupid! Those that dare to do that will suffer the consequences!" Kitiara mmed the butt of her spear down with great power on the ground and red at Dike.

    "Alright alright, I won''t call your precious boyfriend that." Dike said helplessly.

    "I am not her boyfriend." Hardy replied automatically.

    "Yet. You''re not my boyfriend yet, dumbie! Hee hee!" Kitiara giggled and bumped his arm lightly with her elbow.

    "You should have just let her diest time." Dike sighed at Hardy in sympathy and patted his shoulder.

    "What happenedst time?" Avery asked them curiously.

    "Long story short, Kit was thest mecha standing after our firstpany got ambushed by the fifth graders. Hardy here was the scout of our secondpany which was bringing up to our rear. He saw Kit surrounded by a hundred fifth graders, and proceeded to give Kit covering fire as she slowly killed her way out. They both ughtered at least fifty mechas before Kit sessfully escaped. And ever since then..." Dike allowed his words to trail and simply waved his hands carelessly at them.

    "I see." Avery nodded and looked at Hardy in sympathy as well.

    "Enough chit chat you gossip mongers. Give us your instructions!" Kitiara snapped at the two leaders in irritation.

    "Well. That kill zone looks perfect for a rain of death. If we charge in, our armies would be forced to split into two, and we would be very open to rifle fire from the slopes and from the teau itself. And judging from the state of the ground, I guess that was probably what happened earlier." Avery began.

    "Agreed. To counter that, I propose we circle around the mountain and attack the main army from the rear. The intel we received on the main army''s location is rock solid right?" Dike said.

    "Rock solid. I got it from a teacher. Hehehehe." Avery grinned.

    "Circling around the mountain? That would take us half a day. The battle would be over by then! I say we find a better strategy to break this damn trap. I don''t believe that we can''t defeat a bunch of noobie first graders and their weak ass trap!" Kitiara said hotly.

    "Sun Zhi once said, if the enemy is rxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move." Hardy said in a t voice.

    "Ahhh! My dumbie boyfie is so smart! See? He has the solution! All we need to do is to get them off that teau and drive them off the slope!" Kitiara squealed loudly in happiness.

    "And how do you propose we do that?" Dike asked her sternly.

    "That''s your job, Dikey. You''re the leader right? Come up with something!" Kitiara said rather uncaringly.

    "We have ten fliers. I propose we send them up and shoot at the heavy mechas. They would be forced to raise their shields up to defend themselves. As soon as they do that, Hardy can shoot at those mechas and destroy them. That should force them off the teau." Avery said.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I don''t think that could work. The heavy mechas should have powerful rifles. They could shoot our fliers out of the sky." Kitiara argued.

    "We would be shooting down from a great height. We would have much longer range than them." Avery said.

    "But it would be far more difficult to shoot with such great range!"

    "Let me shoot at them from the sky. The rest of our snipers can stay on the ground and take them out as soon as the opportunity presents itself." Hardy volunteered.

    "Okay. Let''s do that. But after we get them off the teau, what next?" Avery asked.

    "We take their teau, of course. We station our own riflemen there and provide cover for us as we clear out the slopes. Let''s get that done first before we discuss our next step. After all, things would probably develop midway that would force us to adapt." Dike said wisely.

    "Agreed. Let''s go!" Avery said.

    And with that, the next phase of the massacre began in earnest.

    Hardy Tam kicked things off by shooting up into the sky.

    Once there, he disyed his godly sniping skills and fired down ridiculously urate shots that forced the heavies on the teau to go on the defensive.

    Shields were raised, and they quickly returned fire. s, Avery was right. The range of the rifles was greatly reduced when shooting up, and Hardy was able to shoot down at the heavies inplete safety.

    The snipers from the ridge started to move forward into position and began to shoot at the distracted heavies.

    For a moment, it looked as though the n was working very well.

    The heavies began to take damage, and after two or three were taken out that way, they began to make their way down from the teau!

    "It''s time for the ck hole to absorb the light of the rising sun boys! Let''s go! Shields up towards the mountain slope!  Charge! Take the teau! " Dike hooted out his orders in excitement.

    The two thousand mechas began to charge down the ridge and into the killing field.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    The gifted students charged in formation with their own heavies in front, followed mediums and then the light riflemen bringing up in the rear.

    Within seconds, they waded into the killing zone where many mecha corpses were still lying everywhere.

    There were at least two thousand five hundred such "corpses" on the ground.

 Chapter 250 Military High Command

    The third and final factor as to why Sheera was able to achieve such a mindlessly awesome massacre was because of the colour of the mechas assigned to the first graders.

    Yes. Colour.

    The first graders were assigned the colour ck.

    And as such, whether or not we were powered down or powered up, our armor would remain the same colour.

    Sheera Lin shamelessly tookplete advantage of that fact by clearing out the dead mechas on the battlefield, and recing them with her own live army!

    When the gifted kids surveyed the trap, the first thing their "experienced" eyes looked at were the blindingly eye catching three hundred heavies atop the teau, and they barely gave the two thousand five hundred "ckened" mechas a cursory look.

    Of course it was more than understandable for them to do that. It would take a very experienced, battle hardened general to be critical enough to study the state of the dead soldiers littering the battleground.

    Gifted kids, no matter how well trained and deadly in the art of fighting,ck the cynical and suspicious of everything mindset that they would need to question if the dead were really dead.

    And so, the two thousand gifted kids charged into the trap in perfect formation.

    Heavies on the sides with their shields raised high to provide cover for the mediums in the van. Their lights followed them from the rear providing covering fire for the mediums.

    It was a damn good formation, and customized to perfection to deal with the first part of the trap.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    The first elements of their army hit the line of dead mechas and waded in.

    They trampled over a few of them and charged ahead at high speed, eager to close with the three hundred heavies, destroy them and im the teau for themselves.

    A hundred mechas waded in.

    Sheera''s mechas from the tree line opened fire and rained down a deadly wave of exploding projectiles on them.

    However, without the center teau to trigger a crossfire, the attacks from the treeline werergely negated by the shields the gifted kids carried.

    The rain of fire that crashed all around them served to ignite their bloodlust even more, and motivated them to charge in even faster and even more desperately.

    Two hundred waded in.

    Then five hundred.

    A thousand.

    By that time, the gifted kids were roaring out their battle cries and for most of them, bloodlust was spilling over in their hearts.

    Dike, Avery, and even Hardy from above were shouting their heads off in excitement.

    All, except Kitiara.

    Her voice was very noticeably missing from the recording of the battle which I had gained ess to.

    Her instincts were probably ring like the emergency air raid sirens of Ennd when the German Luftwaffe attacked.

    But she was one girl in a sea of frenzied fighters, there was absolutely nothing she could do.

    Within seconds, the first elements of the gifted army broke past the field of dead mechas and shed heavily against the three hundred heavies.

    Even though they were mediums, they were exceedingly confident of their ability to deal with mere first grade noobs, and for the most part, they were right.

    The first hundred or so medium mechas shing against the three hundred were able to impressively remain alive and even take down a couple of heavies!<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, the main reason why they were confidently charging ahead was because they knew the remaining one thousand nine hundred buddies in their army were right behind them.

    They would be able to quickly overwhelm the three hundred heavies with sheer numbers and then im the teau!

    s for them, reality was harsh.

    Very, very harsh.

    As soon as two hundred mediums crossed the field of dead corpses, the signal was given.

    Screeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

    A sharp piercing ringing sounded.

    Humm!!!

    A loud collective hum sounded all around the battlefield as two thousand five hundred mechas powered up for a few seconds.

    "Huh?"

    "What''s happening?"

    "DAMN IT ITS A TRAP! THE DEAD ARE NOT DEAD!"

    "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"

    KAABAAAMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

    All around the battlefield, two thousand five hundred mechas swung their arms, legs, swords, spears, rifles, everything and unleashed deadly attacks on the one thousand eight hundred charging gifted mechas!!

    Almost all of them fell to the ground, tripped, damaged or even killed outright by the surprise attack.

    And when that happened, there was absolutely no recovering from it.

    The attacks from the thousand five hundred mechas within the treeline began to hit home, the two thousand five hundred mechas on the ground were able to unleash their first and second attacks on unguarded targets.

    It took just two short minutes for the roar of excited battlecries to turn into wails of horror and another two minutes for those wails to be reced by an all out cheer of triumph.

    Under Sheera Lin''s monstrous genius, four thousand three hundred first graders had managed to massacre eight thousand of their seniors with barely a hundred losses!

    The renowned geniuses and fighters of the third and fourth grade gifted program Dike, Avery and Kitiara did not make a single impact worth noting in that massacre.

    Hardy survived for the time being, and he retreated to provide precious first hand intel to the next army.

    But for the moment, the instructors and guests watching the battle live was probably either cursing their heads off at the idiocy of the eight thousand kids, or drooling their salivas out at the unprecedentedly incredible treasure that had appeared in the National Mecha Pilot Academy.

    Before the massacre, Sheera Lin and Sherry Lin were already hotmodities, fought over by the various military departments.

    After the massacre, the military went silent.

    No general, nomander or admiral said another word about recruiting them.

    They knew that there was no way they would be getting their hands on Sheera Lin.

    By merit of her unparalleled genius and potential, Sheera Lin was destined for one ce and one ce only.

    Military High Command.

 Chapter 251 Emma

    Eight thousand down.

    Eighteen thousand to go.

    Close to zero casualties.

    Let me pause here for a moment and try to help you guys process the absurdity of the number.

    The first thing you need to understand is that these mechas are god damn freaking huge bodies of high tech metallium.

    Eight thousand mechas is a HUGE number. Eight thousand ducklings, not so much.

    Eight thousand mechas, even practice mechas, if marched into any third tier country, would be strong enough to upy that country, overthrow their government and set up a new regime.

    It wasn''t a cute spelling bee Sheera Lin just aced.

    She just took down a MASSIVE military force!

    The next thing which I must emphasize is that she did it with a much more inferior force.

    Inferior in number, obviously, she did it with only four thousand.

    But also very markedly inferior quality.

    As much as we were the generation of dragons and phoenixes, we were still very young then. We were still cute little lizards and chicken.

    Sheera Lin''s army, if sent to fight in an open, up front sh against even a thousand of her massacred victims, would bepletely disintegrated.

    The only reason they won against the eight thousand that day was due to Sheera''s decisions, tactics and strategies.

    It was an impressively incredible achievement!

    But she was not done yet.

    Oh hell no.

    Eighteen thousand enemy mechas were still alive, and that meant that she was just getting started.

    As I have mentioned before several times, in battles, nothing ever goes ording to n.

    The three massacres which Sheera managed to unleash upon her seniors ording to her unmodified ns were exceptions.

    And the battles that followed were notably not as easy as the first three.

    For one thing, the superstar and the notorious gangstress of the gifted program finally appeared not long after Sheera Lin reset her trap.

    "So, what do you think? Is she as smart as you?" Priamus Jin asked with a slight chuckle.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Smarter." Emma Whitefrost conceded with obvious reluctance in her voice.

    "Good. The first trait of a good leader is knowing when he or she is outssed, outgunned, outnumbered or outmaneuvered. epting reality as it really is, is the first step in creating a winning strategy." Priamus said in a gentle and somehow easy to ept manner.

    "I don''t need you to give me a sermon. I just need a thousand mechas, and I will break this stupid trap and destroy that cocky upstart." Emma snapped at Priamus in her usual style, but noticeably sharper than she usually was with me.

    No, I am not reading too much into this.

    She WAS much gentler with me even if her words were still so prickly.

    As I had mentioned before, her very harsh environment growing up made her that way.

    Yes, I am being defensive. Why shouldn''t I be? She is MY Emma.

    Anyway, I digress.

    "Hold your horses." Priamus chuckled. "You just admitted that this little general is smarter than you, and you want to charge into such an obvious trap with a quarter of our number? You know how hard it was to convince those jugheads tobine forces with us right?"

    "She is smarter, yes. I would never be able to create such a pretty trap with such effectiveness. But a trap is a trap. As soon as we figure out how to deal with it, the trap theyid for us will end up trapping them instead." Emma pointed at the mass of dead soldiers. "One thousand mechas are all I need to rush those fake corpses and rout them. Even light mechas will do."

    "I will give you those thousand mechas. But not until we have more back up ns ready. I do not have the habit of taking an obviously genius general''s weakness as face value.

    Against sneaky generals like this one, you can be sure that when they look weak, they are strong there.

    Answer this question for me. What would you do if those mechas are truly dead, and that they are hiding in those trees instead?

    Two thousand on each slope, half firing down at you, half charging in to finish you off." Priamus asked Emma seriously.

    "You and I both know that if they do that, then they would have lost. You can sweep one of the slopes with your full strength while I lock those charging in at me in ce. And once they lose one slope, their pretty terrain advantage is lost. And without their pretty trap, they are just weak first graders. I don''t even need your reinforcements to kill them. Just my little gang of two hundred is enough." Emma replied dismissively.

    "You would be taking the brunt of their fire. You sure you ca-"

    "Stop nagging like a senile grandma. Give me those thousand mechas. I will bait them out and you can do as you will. You''re not a dumbass yourself anyway." Emma snapped at him sharply. "If those are their real forces as Hardy here had said, then victory is secured. I would leave none alive."

    "Hmmmm." Priamus Jin went silent for a few minutes, probably cooking up his ridiculously genius level n which was in no way inferior to Sheera''s.

    Finally, probably mere seconds before Emma probably would have exploded, Priamus spoke up.

    "I will give you five hundred fliers. Lead them to wipe out half "corpses" on the ground, then leave the battle on my signal to attack their leader. On my signal. Not before, and definitely not after. Can you do that?" Priamus asked Emma.

    "Fliers? Good. You finally grew yourself good sense. With fliers, I would probably be able to wipe out every single one of those weak ass first graders before you give your sign" Emma said in a pleased voice.

    "No, do not wipe them out. Do not push a cornered enemy too hard. And besides, I won''t be waiting for too long. Just watch for my signal, alright?" Priamus pressed.

    "Fine! Now get me those fliers!" Emma replied impatiently.

 Chapter 252 Massing

    Priamus Jin.

    Before Sheera Lin and the rest of my monstrous cohort arrived in the National Mecha Pilot Academy and took it by storm, his name was probably somewhere in the top three most famous and recognizable list.

    Like Emma Whitefrost, he was extremely proficient in fighting, had a very cool head on his shoulders and balls made of brass. His keen intellect and sharp instincts were also top notch.

    All those attributes made for an extremely fearsomebination, and like Sheera Lin prior to the battle, he was one of the most hotly contested students among the military divisions.

    His appearance with two thousand mechas before Sheera Lin''s four thousand was probably a military scout''s wet dreame true.

    One of the top established superstars versus a scorching hot neer superstar!

    Emma Whitefrost was not a nameless character too, especially within the inner circles of power.

    However, as a result of her harsh family situation, she was a little bit of a bully in school, and she had made a little gang for herself.

    Her gang was by no means a group of budding stars. In fact, one might even say that it was a collection of the dredges of the gifted program.

    But whatever could be said of them, they were gifted students, after all.

    Two hundred of the worst in the gifted program were still two hundred of the best in the regr program.

    Additionally, her appearance with Priamus Jin pointed directly at a strange undercurrent within the academy''s student body, and was like a thrilling turn of events for the spectators who were in the know of the politics of the academy.

    Because of the many heavy weight families sending their scions into the academy, the factions formed by the students hinted at the ever changing factions of the family powerhouses in real life.

    For the government and especially for high ranking military officials who had to be kept at a certain measure of separation from their families and ns, watching the politics of the kids in the academy was like watching a news update.

    I had once browsed through a secret recording of the military spectator area for that period, and found a gem which clearly demonstrated the attitude of the military higher ups.

    "Priamus Jin and Emma Whitefrost. AND with Priamus Jin in the lead. Interesting. Very interesting. The Jin and the Whitefrosts would be a very formidablebination. It would be like a bull and a bear teaming up. They are both warrior ns." General of the Air Force Anthony Changmented thoughtfully.

    "Hmph. Emma Whitefrost and her little good for nothing gang is hardly a representation of the Whitefro- wait, correction. Emma Whitefrost and her bunch of rabble is THE perfect representation of the Whitefrost n. The Jins are stooping way beneath their level if both ns are working together." General of the Army Peter Long said in a tired and grumpy voice.

    "Grumpy old coot. Your subjective view on the Whitefrosts is a disgrace to the military. You need to get over it. I heard that your precious grandson Victor Long had already gotten over his feud with that new Whitefrost bastard. Why the hell are you still so pissed off?" Admiral Terry Wei sighed and shook his head at the old General of the Army.

    "I am not pissed off because of that incident!" Peter Long snapped. "The Whitefrosts have triggered a snowball that they cannot take responsibility for. And for some strange reason, the government is willing to cover his ass! All these unreasonable intrigue is seriously pissing me off."

    "Talking about intrigue, something big is definitely happening in the High Command. All of my smartest scientists and researchers and engineers were "invited" over." Admiral Terry Wei remarked.

    "Hmmm. Mine too." General Anthony Chang said even more thoughtfully.

    "Hmph. That Whitefrost undead must be involved somehow." General Peter Long hmphed loudly.

    "Definitely. And that Emma Whitefrost as well. Her performance this time would be an excellent opportunity to glean some clues." Admiral Terry Wei said excitedly.

    "She is just a biologically enhanced clone of a dead girl. Don''t expect too much." General Peter Long said scornfully.

    "We''ll see." Admiral Terry Wei merely said in response.

    "I don''t think the little Lin girl canst much longer. As brilliant as she is, going against Priamus Jin is much too difficult. He is extremely proficient withplex tactics involving multiple vectors and time sensitive traps." General Anthony Changmented as they all waited for Priamus Jin to make his move.

    They did not have long to wait.

    Seconds after he said those words, Emma took off with her five hundred fliers!

    At the same time, Priamus sent out half his remaining forces, a full seven hundred fifty mechas, to pressure the western slope.

    "Here we go. Priamus with the Twin Spear opener. Moving to secure air supremacy while pressuring a criticalnd based battlefield objective. A good move. Let us see how this Lin genius will res- HOLY MOLY! IS SHE NUTS?" Admiral Terry Wei shouted.<novelnext></novelnext>

    On the battlefield, the seven hundred fifty mechas Priamus sent out were suddenly met by an equal number of seven hundred fifty mechas from within the western slope!

    Sheera Lin had instructed her western wing to leave the cover of their trees and to meet the superior gifted program students in battle which she had absolutely no way of winning!

    "The very fact that you, an old geezer with one foot in the grave and with more experience than ten thousand kids like herbined, reacted in such a way proves that she is NOT nuts. She took you by surprise, didn''t she? And if you were surprised, how do you think Priamus must feel?" Anthony Chang remarked rather excitedly.

    "Yes but... why the hell? She gave up high ground with excellent cover to engage an enemy she can''t possibly win! Why? I do- HOLY SMOKES! Is she out of her god damned mind???" Admiral Terry Wei shouted loudly like an indignant little boy watching his favorite tv character doing something stupid!

    Indeed, even to the most highly trained and experienced eyes, what Sheera was doing seemed insane.

    That was just how ground breakingly refreshing her methods were.

    At that moment, the other 750 mechas in the eastern slope were also breaking their cover and charging ahead towards the mass of "corpses" in the center area in front of the 300 heavies in the middle.

    "What the hell? What is she nning? Damn it." Priamus cursed aloud. He had a cool head, and was able to hold on to his cards without panicking as he watched situations unfold.

    But in that particr situation, he truly could not make heads or tails of the situation.

    It was so strange for a well entrenched foe to willingly give up their terrain advantage!

    "They must be doing that because they are trying to secure an even more powerful advantage! Or is it a ruse to cause me to panic? Is she capable of bluffing and risking the entire battle just to bluff?" Priamus muttered.

    The seconds passed, and Emma''s fliers finally gained enough altitude to fly ahead.

    Priamus'' seven hundred fifty mechas also started to canter towards Sheera Lin''s seven hundred fifty mechas who were streaming out of the western slope in droves.

    The situation turned extremely chaotic as the mechas behind Priamus started to get rowdy.

    "Those dumbass first graders finally lost it! Their previous victories must have given them too much confidence!"

    "Yes, that''s right! They have broken their own trap! Let''s charge down and finish them!"

    "Ha! So much for their "Rising Sun" status! More like "Sinking Sun!"

    I can already imagine the heaviness in the heart of Priamus, or anypetentmander, for that matter.

    "Everything that looks too good to be true is probably too good be true." Priamus muttered. "If this was a move in the heat of battle, it might be a breakdown of sorts. But this is her opening move. Let''s just y defensive."

    Immediately, he signalled the retreat for his seven hundred fifty mechas.

    Being in the gifted program, near instant obedience had been hammered into the students, especially in battle.

    And so the mechas which had barely broken a hundred meters from their starting line, immediately slowed down and started their retreat back to the ridge.

    However, the seven hundred fifty from each of the slopes did not return to their cover. In fact, they started to gather in front of the teau in a mass of mechas.

    All in all, one thousand eight hundred rifle bearing mechas gathered in a loose formation.

    "Why are they gathering there? There isn''t a clear advantage they achieved by doing that?" Priamus thought aloud.

    "The only advantage they get in massing is increasing the strength of their volleys, which is useless. Why? Why has theirmander done that?" Priamus was baffled, and his heart was in flux.

    "Initiating attack on the enemy." Came Emma''s calm voice through thems.

    It was only then it struck Priamus.

    "They aren''t massing to attack." Priamus realized. "They are massing to..."

 Chapter 253 Meat Shield

    Defend!" Priamus grimaced.

    He had allowed the ferocious reputation of the enemy general to cloud his mind, and had taken far too many precautions in anticipation of a killer move from her.

    He had discounted the strength that his five hundred fliers posed and did not expect the enemy to take it so seriously that they were actually willing to give up their terrain advantage just to mount a ferocious defense which would be able to dish out as much as they received from the fliers!

    But before Priamus could beat himself up further and respond to Sheera''s move, she made another move which caused him to grit his teeth in anger and confusion.

    Peeee!!!

    A blue signal shot out from the rear of the teau, and immediately, the seven hundred fifty mechas from the slopes did a sharp about turn, and started to scramble back to their original positions!

    "A feint?!" Priamus almost choked in his own saliva.

    "Hoooo. A first grade self appointed general is able to execute a faint with not one, but two different units? This current batch of first years are truly impressive!" General Anthony Chang said with great approval.

    "Indeed. It is not just the Lin girl. The whole batch is excellent. Most ten year olds I know are still muddle headed bundles of cuteness. But for some reason, a full five thousand ferocious ones are gathered here!" Admiral Terry Wei said in an impressed voice.

    "For some reason? The reason is abundantly clear. Of course it is the National Mecha Pilot Academy''s incredibly strict entrance test and ridiculous experiential learning method! Which were, if you recall, heavily influenced by my Long Family methods of raising up kids.

    These kids knew from even before they started school that every single day would be a battle, and that the battles would be hard fought." General Peter Long said with a slightly smug voice.

    The other two generals could onlyugh helplessly at General Peter Long''s unprofessional and absurdly close ties to his family.

    Back in the battlefield, Priamus Jin was ordering his soldiers back to pressure the western slope.

    "You''re being led by the nose, I hope you realize that." Emma announced loudly even as she coordinated her fliers to unleash hell upon the battlefield below.

    They were flying rtively low to allow them a certain measure of uracy, but not so low that they would feel the undiminished brunt of the first graders'' rifle fire.

    It was a fine line to tread, and Emma''s standing order was to sacrifice uracy for safety.

    She would rather take nine missed shots to get to the one urate shot than go for an urate shot and lose the mechapletely to enemy fire.

    For the moment, her strategy was turning out to be a brilliant one.

    With so many dead mechas strewn carelessly all over the battlefield, her five hundred fliers didn''t really need a high amount of uracy to make hits.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    One mecha after the other were smashed by direct hits from the fliers'' rifle fire.

    "I know. We are up against a very capable general. Pressure the three hundred heavies and the fakers hard! Make sure they don''te to attack us in a pincer attack." Priamus responed curtly to Emma.

    "I hate to inform you, but I think these dead mechas on the battlefield aren''t fake first graders pretending to be dead mechas. I barely did any damage to them despite several lucky hits. They are truly ckened vic- damn it! Not all are fake! There are several real ones! Watch out! Pull up! Pull up damn you blind morons!" Emma shouted loudly.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Clusters of "awakened zombies" suddenly stood up from random spots in the battlefield and fired upon the five hundred fliers from directly underneath them where the distance between them was the shortest.

    Bam! Boom! Crash!

    The surprise attacks from the fake dead mechas took several of the five hundred fliers by surprise and managed to trigger their emergencynding systems, effectively shutting them down and removing them from the battle.

    "Press the attack. Do not let up." Priamus ordered Emma.

    "Get to your squads and initiate Lotus Cascade Attack Sequence!!" Emma shouted as she dove down in a maniacal move.

    As soon as she broke from the group of five hundred and plummeted downwards, she started rapid firing at the three hundred heavies in a breathtaking disy of courage, skill and impable decision making.

    Many of the "awakened zombies" stopped shooting at the five hundred fliers and started to shoot at her instead. At the same time, many of the three hundred also started to focus shooting at her.

    With a single move, she had drawn all of the attacks to herself and neutralized the threat to her team.

    Selfless?

    Hell no.

    She had a personal mission to aplish, and she needed her team of fliers alive and well in order to do it.<novelnext></novelnext>

    There was no way she would be able to pressure the entire first grade army enough by herself to the point of forcing me out.

    Yes.

    She wanted to fight me and thrash me again!

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Hundreds, then thousands of rifle fire criss crossed the sky as the first graders tried their very best to shoot down Emma''s mecha.

    But Emma''s RPL was no less earth shakingly high than mine, and coupled with her own high level of training and skill, none of the attacks were able to hit her.

    "Hot damn that is some really good flying! The Air Force needs her!" General Anthony Chang shouted excitedly like a little boy finding out that there was a piece of his favorite chocte on his desk while he was in ss.

    "Hmmmm. The navy needs to regenerate our pilots too. Emma Whitefrost would be an excellent addition." Admiral Terry Wei said probably with drool already dripping down his beard.

    "Feel free to squabble over her. The Army has no interest in adding any more Whitefrosts." General Peter Long sneered.

    "I want her." General Anthony Chang said firmly.

    "Yes you want her. But the Navy needs her. Needs trump wants. She is mine." Admiral Terry Wei said resolutely.

    At that moment...

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    Emma finally returned fire, and even as she was pulling off incrediblyplex and effective escape maneuvers, she was still able to urately shoot at three heavies.

    And more than that, it was one shot one kill!

    "F*** you and the navy! I want her! And that''s the end of it!" General Anthony Chang shouted hotly. "She is born to fly, and there is only one division in the military where she can fly her heart out, and that is in the Air Force!"

    "F*** the air force! How the freaking hell are you going to reach the enemy if you''re flying missions from a billion miles away? Her skills are better suited to the navy where she will be experiencing realbat real soon!" Admiral Terry Wei shouted back at General Anthony Chang.

    As the two generals squabbled over Emma, she was continuing her solo performance bypletely avoiding all the continuous rifle fire being thrown at her while slowly destroying one heavy mecha at a time.

    With the attention of the heavies and the awakened zombies on her, the five hundred fliers were free to execute their Lotus Cascade Attack Sequence to perfection, just as Emma had intended.

    Like a beautiful lotus blooming, the fliers shot upwards in a cylindrical formation for a couple hundred meters first before blooming out in ten different directions.

    Ten at a time, the fliers streamed out of their ascent and dived downwards after Emma, their guns aze and firing at the distracted awakened zombies.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    The awakened zombies started to take casualties and some crumpled to the ground, their ruse finally bing an ironic reality for them.

    However, there were at least a couple hundred of such awakened zombies, and the few that were put down did not impact the situation by much.

    The Lotus Cascade Attack Sequence, usually extremely deadly in normal battles, failed to achieve much in its deployment against Sheera Lin.

    Why was it that way?

    For the most part, it was because there were only five hundred fliers.

    The Lotus Cascade Attack Sequence depended on never ending waves of mechas flying out from a central spot to impact the battleground in all directions.

    With only five hundred, the number of waves that could be made were limited, and so is the number of mechas that could be sent out per wave.

    With low numbers, the effectivity of the Lotus Cascade Attack Sequence was diminished.

    However, it was also in a small part influenced by Sheera Lin''s genius move of getting each and every awakened zombie to be apanied by two or three ckened students from the previous engagements.

    They were the perfect "meat shields" for Sheera Lin and her soldiers!

 Chapter 254 Eastern Slope

    A perfectly executed Lotus Cascade with lower than the rmended numbers at only five hundred, versus two hundred first graders dispersed everywhere in the battlefield firing behind meat shields with imprable activated armor (and with squealing kids inside).

    What do you think the result would be?

    Damn right.

    Unfortunately for Emma, as perfectly executed her Lotus Cascade was, it was the wrong attack sequence for the situation.

    The Lotus Cascade was just a pretty name for the Chinese Federation''s most signature move applied in a fancy aerial maneuver - The Human Wave.

    If executed with enough numbers, the Lotus Cascade could very efficiently allow the general to rapidly gainplete control of a battlefield without missing a single spot.

    But for Emma and her fliers, all they managed to do was to give up their aerial height advantage and expose themselves to the return fire of the mechas on the ground.

    They achieved very little with their beautiful and fancy maneuver.

    It waspletely understandable, of course. An eight year old with her firstmand in her firstrge scale battle was probably filled with all sorts of emotions that would have probably covered her thoughts. She couldn''t be expected to be able to use the perfect attack sequence in battle.

    But then again, nobody cares whether it is understandable or not.

    In battle, the only thing that matters is results.

    And Emma messed up that day.

    Her personal performance was cemented as at the very least "Ace" level, but her ability as a fieldmander sank to horrendous levels.

    What she should have done was to maintain her height advantage and slowly wear down her enemy from above. Just ten minutes of sustained fire from five hundred mechas high above in the sky would probably mess up the entire battlefield enough for the first graders to panic, and start doing their own things.

    And if that had happened, it would not have mattered how smart Sheera Lin was. No general can regain control from a heavily wounded, wildly panicking bunch of young soldiers.

    There was no name for such a move, of course. But screw pretty names.

    Nobody cared what pretty attack sequence you used if you returned with a victory.

    Sheera Lin, on the other hand, wasted no time capitalizing on Emma''s highly erroneous move.

    There was no hesitation, no doubts, no second guessing on her part.

    As soon as the Lotus Cascade Attack Sequence was initiated, the order for all one thousand five hundred mechas on both slopes to get into firing position and attack the fliers at will was given.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    Bam! Bam! Crash!

    The first graders were extremely eager, and responded with great enthusiasm. After so many victories under their belt and every single one of them against their seniors, there was no reason for them to dawdle.

    They were utterly convinced of Sheera Lin''s Godhood as a God of Strategy, and they leapt into action with all of their heart and their strengths.

    It didn''t take long for results to appear.

    One at a time at first, then in ever increasing numbers, the fliers began to fall out of the sky.

    "Damn it! Emma your fliers are dropping like flies!" Priamus shouted. "Pull them back! All units, covering fire! Quick march on me!"

    "Damn! Abort mission! Go back to the sky!" Emma quickly shouted. She intensified her dazzling performance and started aiming at the mechas firing upwards towards her fliers.

    At the same time, Priamus also finally made his move.

    He sent his mechas marching forward for several hundred paces to get into range to provide cover fire for Emma as she desperately called off her attack.

    But it was no use.

    Sheera Lin had ordered all of her avable riflemen to shoot down the fliers, and a literal reverse storm of rifle fire was exploding upwards at full force towards the fliers!

    Those kids were probably scared out of their wits. Two thousand riflemen firing upon five hundred of them in never ending streams.

    If one rifleman was able to let off ten shots per second, then two thousand riflemen would release twenty thousand shots per second. It was a mind boggling hundred thousand shots in five seconds, and three hundred thousand in a mere fifteen seconds!

    The five hundred mechas were looking at hundreds of thousands of rifle fire rushing upwards towards them.

    There was no way the fliers would remain in the battle.

    Those that were not shot down immediately escaped with their lives. But only with their lives. Their courage and every single shred of willingness to continue fighting was probably left behind in the mess.

    Emma''s fliers were no more!<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, because the first graders were so focused on attacking the fliers, they were leftpletely vulnerable to Priamus and his thousand five hundred mechas for a few critical minutes.

    Like two chess masters trading pieces, Sheera Lin took Emma''s "Sky Cavalry" and Priamus took one of her bishops.

    Priamus crashed onto the eastern wing like a sledgehammer.

    Apart from the first few volleys of rifle fire, he did not bother with long range attacks.

    He grasped hold of the opportunity while they were busy looking upwards to send all of his mechas which were piloted by arguably the best pilots in the academy to close with the first graders.

    It didn''t take long for Priamus to finish his dirty work either.

    WHAM! BAM! BOOM!

    His mechas charged into the fray and ruthlessly dealt killing blows left and right with ease.

    It was truly like a hot knife sliding slowly through butter.

    The first graders who were all so excitedly shooting at the fliers weren''t able to adequately react to the zing fast attack by the bunch of enraged gifted students.

    "For how much longer do we have to be humiliated by this bunch of damned kids?" They were probably thinking indignantly in unison.

    Right about the same time Emma''s fliers were taken out, the first graders on the eastern slope were alsopletely wiped out by the rampaging gifted program students!

    Numerically, it would seem as though Priamus had the upper hand in the exchange. He merely lost five hundred mechaspared to Sheera''s seven hundred fifty.

    To make it even better for his case, Priamus also managed to im a critical battlefield position, while Sheera Lin lost one of her crucial wings!

    But the experienced veteran would definitely score the engagement the other way.

    Priamus lost a quarter of his best troops, and the remaining of his soldiers were all clumped up on a slope which was difficult to maneuver with almost an equal number of enemies in front of him, and with over two thousand enemies unounted for.

    To put it harshly, Priamus sacrificed his troops to get himself stuck.

    But as mentioned before, Priamus had a very cool head on his shoulders. He knew that, as embarrassing as it was, he still had over ten thousand mechas on his side which would probably be making their way to the battlefield soon to try and "cken the Rising Sun".

    Time was on his side, and all he needed to do was to get on the defensive.

    He needed to hunker down within the wooded eastern slope and repel any and all attacks made on his elevated position!

    "Unless the first graders are suicidal, they probably won''t go all out against me here in this easily defensible position. And if they don''t wipe me out here, then I would be able toe charging out of this ce to nk them when the otherse." Priamus reasoned.

    "Going on the defensive in such a situation? Hmph. Coward." Emma sneered at him.

    "At the end of the day, there are no heroes or cowards, only winners and losers." Priamus said grimly. "And aren''t I in this position because of you? You lost all our fliers!"

    "Ah. Well. Let''s let bygones be bygones shall we? Haha! I am on my way to you! Don''t shoot me!" Emma said rather sheepishly.

    "I should shoot you down to punish you for the mess you''ve ced me into." Priamus grumbled. But he did not shoot, of course.

    If Sheera decided tounch a suicide attack on his position, then he''ll need his most ferocious warrior to stand her ground next to him and battle to the death.

    For a few minutes, there was only silence within the eastern slope as they hunkered down behind their shields and braced themselves for an attack that would probablye.

    The tall trees covered many parts of the sky, and they were all standing in rtive darkness.

    A melee battle in such a situation would be beyond chaotic, and one could only hope that they don''t tangle with each other instead of the enemies!

    They did not have long to wait.

    The loud thundering sound of thousands of mechas charging at full speed soon reached their ears.

    "Prepare for battle." Priamus ordered his men grimly. "To the death!"

    "To the death!"

    "To the death!"

    They all roared.

    And then, the first enemy broke through the tree line.

 Chapter 255 Hehehehehehe

    It was Victor Long and his team of slightly over a hundred mechas.

    Under the shade of the massive trees all around them, Priamus and his men only managed to catch a quick, unclear glimpse of the ck bands upon ck mechas before battle was joined.

    "Attack!! Kill them all!!" Priamus roared. He was a goodmander, and he knew they key to any sessful defense was an aggressive offence within the confines of a defensive strategy.

    His men, I mean, his boys responded enthusiastically and sent their mechas charging forward to meet Victor Long and his hundred mechas in a ferocious battle.

    However right before they shed, in a brilliant but highly risky move, Victor Long and his boys suddenly turned around and charged back out the way they came!

    "Press the attack all the way until the tree line!" Priamus ordered.

    In a chaotic turn of events, Victor Long, with his hundred mechas, was racing back towards the tree line with a thousand five hundred mechas chasing after him in hot pursuit.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    The mechas stomped heavily in a blind charge.

    At that moment, from outside the tree line, the raucous sound of even more mechas charging towards them suddenly rang out!

    "Defensive formation! Stay within the tree line and repel the enemy!" Priamus shouted his order calmly.

    Expertly, his boys slowed down and dressed their lines as they prepared to meet the charge of the additional enemies.

    Ahead of them, Victor Long and his boys swerved to the left to avoid crashing into the iing mechas.

    "Charge in! Kill all of those bastards!" Came the furious roar of the leader of the new group of mechas.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    In a massive wave all across the entrance of the wooded area of the eastern slope, almost two thousand mechas charged in and started to engage Priamus and his men!

    "Kill!! Kill those irritating cowards!!"

    "So you finally decide to stand your ground huh? You bunch of perverted boys! Die! I hope you choke on YOUR momma''s titties!"

    The neers were strangely filled with rage and kept spouting a whole lot of nonsense about momma''s titties.

    Not to be outdone, Priamus and his soldiers shot back at them and started insulting their momma''s titties too!

    The verbal slugfest exploded with a ferocity that dwarfed even the physical fights that were taking ce in that dark and shadowy forest.

    All sorts of colourful words describing a whole lot of momma''s titties in all sorts of bizarre applications started to sound all over the battlefield.

    On and on they fought, spears colliding heavily against shield and swords shing against each other.

    Very soon, mechas from both sides started ckening as the fighting in nearplete darkness finally started to im casualties.

    Tens. Then hundreds of mechas started to fall!

    "Damn it! These first years are pretty good! Don''t give up! Keep fighting!" Came a shout of frustration from the neers.

    "Holy smokes! These first years sure are ferocious!! We are starting to take casualties!" Came a shout of shock from one of Priamus'' soldiers.

    "Press the attack! Go all out!" Shouted an angrymander from the bunch of neers.

    "Wipe them out at all costs! Do not hold back your secret techniques! Kill!" Priamus shouted desperately.

    The casualties started to mount.

    However, the gifted students under Priamus were a bunch of ferocious fighters, and their advantage in skill as the pride of the academy finally shone through the murk of the situation.

    Their losses finally stabilized at around five hundred as their higher discipline and ability to support each other in battle allowed them to take down two mechas before sumbing one of their own.

    Within that first ten minutes of intense fighting, a thousand of the neers fell.

    "You first grade bastards! You will regret being so cocky!" Howled amander of the newers as he fell under thebined attacks of two soldiers.

    "First graders? What the hell are you talking about? We are from the gifted program, under Priamus Jin!!" Shouted the soldier back even as his sword prated themander''s torso.

    "Holy¡­ Don''t tell me¡­" It was thest thing themander managed to utter before he ckened.

    "Priamus!! I don''t think they are firs-"

    "Die!! How dare you kill ourmander!" Came a howl of anger before a sharp spear crushed the gifted soldier''s mecha head into pieces.

    "Damn it! We aren''t first graders you bozo! We are being tricked!" The other gifted soldier shouted as a horrifying realization bloomed in his heart.

    "Liar! Die!!!" The neer soldier shouted before charging at the gifted soldier.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But the gifted soldier was too skilled. She easily dodged the wild attack and reluctantly stabbed the neer''s torso in a killing blow.

    "Priamus!" She shouted loudly. "These aren''t the first graders!"

    "Fall back! Defensive formation!" Priamus barked out a sharpmand.

    The newers did not hesitate, and immediately took the chance when their enemies were trying to regroup to press their attack, iming tens of new casualties in an instant.

    "I am Priamus Jin of the gifted program! We are not the first graders!" Priamus Jin roared out loudly. "Stop fighting! We are being tricked!"

    "What? Hold! Stop fighting!" Came the shout from the neer''smanding officer.

    But before his soldiers could all respond, an excited shout suddenly rang out from Priamus'' side.

    "The ruse is working! Charge now! Charge!!!"

    Immediately, five mechas charged out from Priamus'' side and rapidly killed their targets!

    Seeing that, a howl of irrepressible rage sounded in unison from the neers and they exploded forward with even more ferocity than before!

    They threw themselves upon the "lying bastards" and some even unleashed suicidal attacks!

    In the words of General Anthony Chang himself, it was a "beautiful cluster f*ck".

    Two thousand fourth graders charged into the eastern slope that day against one thousand five hundred gifted kids under Priamus Jin.

    Only fifty three fourth graders remained standing at the end of the battle, with only one hundred twelve from Priamus Jin''s side.

    Priamus Jin himself had fallen in battle.

    "As we were saying earlier. We are not the first graders. We are from the gifted program, hunting the first graders like you." Emma Whitefrost said grimly.

    The hundred sixty five exhausted mechas could only stand quietly as the full realization of what they had done sank into their hearts.

    Searing regret erupted in excruciating waves out of their very souls and coursed through their veins like hotva.

    shes of their feats previously appeared in their minds, and made their regret all the more powerful knowing that they did it against their own allies.

    "FFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*KKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!" Howled the survivingmander of the newers.

    And like a dam bursting, every single one of the one hundred sixty five mechas started to shout and curse at the first graders wildly.

    But before they could get much of their enormous rage and regret out into streams of curses¡­

    Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!

    The final straw that broke the camels'' back arrived.

    The real first graders marched in with their rifles zing, and mowed them down.

    In a real battle, it would be a merciful act as the hundred sixty souls would be put out of their misery as death brought them into his sweet, sweet embrace.

    But it was not a real battle.

    Their mechas merely ckened, and their misery continued unabated within the confines of their imprable cockpits.

    I would be very surprised if those kids did not leave that particr battle untraumatized.

    "Damn it! I will be back!" Emma swore loudly as she shot high into the sky and weaved her way out of the torrent of rifle fire that nearly covered the sky. But with so many trees providing cover for her, she was able to escape cleanly.

    The battle was over.

    It was a massacre once more, and the fourth one that day.

    In a matter of a few short hours, Sheera had massacred twelve thousand seniors in cold blood, and only sixteen thousand remained.

    All at the cheap price of seven hundred fifty of her own mechas. Three thousand five hundred mechas remained in her own army.

    "I don''t know if I should feel pissed off or ecstatic." Admiral Terry Wei sighed. "All those hotshots we had picked for the past few years had extremely dismal performance. But we have a new batch of superstars that had the potential to be ace pilots the likes of which we have never seen before!"

    "Ecstatic. Of course ecstatic! Did you not see how Victor Long performed? His trick was perfectly executed! He is the MVP of the entire battle!" General Peter Long said excitedly and very biasedly.

    "I agree. Although I am slightly disappointed with Priamus and how he executed his battle ns, this loss would be good for them. It would burn a real fire in their hearts. And yes. The new batch of kids in the National Mecha Pilot Academy¡­ Hehehehehe." General Anthony Chang chuckled.

    "Hehehehehehehe." Admiral Terry Wei chuckled.

    "Hehehehehehehehehehe." Even the grouchbag General Peter Long chuckled.

 Chapter 256 Dig In!

    It had been an incredible day for Sheera Lin and our first grade, a victorious day beyond all reckoning.

    And even if we had lost the next battle and bowed out of the day''s event, our, and more specifically, Sheera''s glory and triumph would not have been diminished in the slightest.

    But she wasn''t done yet!

    By her estimation, the most ferocious battle of the day had yet toe.

    "Reset the trap. Proceed to Formation C." Sheera Lin ordered the first graders calmly. "Scouts, update."

    "Justin has just imed three gs around twenty kilometers north of our position. The remaining four gs had been imed by a coalition of gifted and regr seniors. There are five thousand enemy mechas left, and all of them are making their way here." One of the scouts reported back. "Olivia is still escaping from the thousand heavies, I have directed her towards Justin''s position as you instructed."

    "Scouts one and two. Keep track of the five thousand. The rest of you scouts, return. Our final battle is upon us. Justin, work with Olivia to clean up the thousand heavies and prepare to nk the main enemy army on my order." Sheera Lin ordered calmly.

    Her ability to urately measure the abilities of her subordinates and give them weight-appropriate tasks is simply god-like.

    She did not have a firm grasp of my real abilities, of course. But she did not hesitate to give me impossible tasks that would clean up any messy loose ends she had, and then send me as a pincer attack to an army fifty times my size.

    Well done Sheera, you cold hearted angel of death.

    But she did well in giving me that task.

    "Alright. Our task here is done. Olivia is in trouble. She is being chased by a thousand heavies. We need to rescue her and then bring her squad to ambush a five thousand strong army and destroy it." I announced to the group. "If we destroy that army, we would win today''s event."

    "Just five thousand left? That''s pretty fast. Some sort of massive massacre must have happened somewhere." James remarked.

    "Hehehehehehe." Elise Wang merely chuckled. She was in the Commanders voice channel and knew exactly what had happened.

    "Doesn''t matter. Let''s end it and start hunting for mecha materials." Margaret said with a slight tinge of impatience in her voice.

    "Shi fu is right. Let''s go!" Eliana spoke up loudly.

    "Let''s go. We have a thousand heavies to beat up. They dare to bully Olivia, what guts they have! They must learn that my friends arepletely off limits!" I said grandly and unreasonably as I started to jog towards the coordinates provided by the scout.

    My four buddies followed me to my left and right, forming a five man wedge formation with me in the lead.

    We traversed around the body of a massive mountain which seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions.

    It did not take long for us to catch sight of Olivia and her hundred mechas.

    They had been on the run for hours, circling the mountain range and they were exhausted.

    "Olivia! To us! We are your reinforcements!" I shouted as I dashed towards her.

    "The heavies are barely a minute away. What do you have nned for us?" Olivia panted as we finally grouped up.

    Her hundred twenty mechas were still intact, and we were actually quite a reasonable force, all things considered.

    If allowed to shoot freely from a protected position, we would still be able to pack a powerful punch on the enemy.

    I checked the map of our surroundings quickly, and found an excellent spot.

    A medium sized cliff overlooking a clearing.

    "If I could lead and hold the enemy mechas in that clearing while Olivia and her riflemen shoots down from the cliff, it would be perfect." I thought to myself.

    And apparently, I wasn''t the only one with such thoughts.

    "Let''s get to this spot. Olivia, you get up the cliff. I will bait the enemy to the clearing and we will ughter them there." Margaret said confidently.

    "That sounds good. But it would take me some time to get the top of the cliff. You will need to hold them for at least fifteen minutes!" Olivia panted loudly.

    "Not a problem. Just go on ahead first. We''ll slow them down and lead them by the nose." I said and gave her a shooing motion.

    "Fine. Let''s go guys! The end is near!" Olivia called out to her team.

    Grudgingly with no small amount of protests, they trudged off.

    Just as they left, the thousand heavies came into view.

    Wordlessly, the five of us formed up into a long line with at least twenty meters between each of us, and charged towards our enemy fearlessly!

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    "Five suicidal bastards! They think they can slow us down with just five? Ha! Run them down! Trample over them! Let''s give them a trauma they won''t forget!" Came the shout of a cocky little boy.

    "Third or fourth graders. Babes in the woods." I chuckled and started to twirl my spear in a fancy, wide angled move that was utter rubbish in a real battle between equally powerful mechas.

    But between a giant and cute little ducklings, it was brilliantly effective.

    "Die!!" James hooted eagerly.

    "You guys shouldn''t have chased after my friend for so long." Elise Wang sighed loudly.

    "It''s time to regret your sins! My teacher and I willy waste your entire battalion!" Eliana Wang shouted with great zeal.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

    Five of us crashed into the line of heavies with ridiculous strength and instantly stymied their charge!

    Crash! Crash! Crash!

    We wreckedplete havoc within the ranks of the thousand heavies.

    Ten, then twenty, thirty, forty mechas quickly fell around us!

    "Enough. Let''s start pulling back before we scare them off." I ordered. "Olivia and her team needs to vent their frustration as well after being chased around for a full half day."

    "That''s very considerate of you. You and Olivia seem pretty close." Elise Wang remarked.

    "Of course. I am a very considerate person. And yes, we''re pretty close." I said carelessly as I turned around and started running away.

    "Hmmm." Elise Wang responded with a slightly heavy tone.

    "No closer than I am to you and the others." I added.

    "Ah yes. Of course." Elise Wang replied sweetly.

    We executed probably one of the best fighting retreats I had ever experienced that day.

    On a very small scale, of course.

    But we established a very solid rhythm that irritated the thousand heavies to no end.

    We would trip, wound and disable our enemies for a brief second or two, before bursting backwards quickly to keep ourselves from being surrounded.

    And we repeated the whole sequence over and over again.

    Any experiencedmander would immediately notice that they were being led by the nose towards a certain ce, probably a prepared kill zone.

    But for amander that was willing to order a thousand heavy mechas to chase after a hundred light mechas for half a day around a mountain...

    No. They remainedpletely oblivious to our precise and deliberate actions.

    After fifteenzy minutes for the five of us, we finally reached the kill zone.

    By that time, nine hundred heavies remained, and they were all angrier than a bull in heat which just had its potential mates taken away mid hump.

    "Bastard bastard bastard bastaaaaarrdssss!!!!" Came a particrly shrill scream filled with what could only be described as a mixture of guilty pleasure and genuine anger.

    Probably a spoiled kid with strict parents who never allowed him to use curse words freely.

    The nine hundred heavies stampeded out of the cluster of thin trees and into the clearing with the towering cliff dead ahead of us.

    "We have them cornered like rats! Kill! Kill them all!!!"

    "Kill the as-assholes!!!"

    "Killll!"

    I grinned widely and whirled around approximately twenty meters away from the cliff to give Olivia a good angle to fire upon those poor bastards.

    "Olivia! Fire at will!" I called out loudly.

    "Acknowledged. Aim at the enemies at the rear first! Fire at will guys!!" Olivia shouted back.

    "Yeaaaahhh!!! Take this! This! This!!"

    "This is for chasing after me for a full half day! Dieeee!!"

    The storm of rifle fire descended upon the nine hundred heavies.

    Boom! Bam! Crash!

    "Kill them all!" I ordered my buddies.

    We were only five ten year olds.

    But for that fight, we were like thousand year old shredder demons that killed every single mecha that came our way.

    With Olivia shredding up their rear, the mechas pushed forward to try and escape her rifle fire.

    But with the five of us in front killing everything that came our way, the front lines soon decided that they wanted nothing to do with us.

    And within a minute, a massive sh of heavy mechas pushing forward from the back and pushing back from the front took ce, causing them to clump together in the middle like extremely juicy meat patties.

    "Dig in!!" James shouted eagerly and waded in like a death god!

 Chapter 257 Pffft. A Lin.

    Chapter 257

    With James charging in like an undying hungry wolf god starved of food for a thousand years, what else could we do?

    We charged in along with him.

    Swinging my spear with just my right hand and holding my shield horizontally like a massive, wide de, I destroyed the mechas in front of me with ruthless abandon.

    For a few tense (read: enjoyable) minutes, we really did as James had shouted.

    We dug in.

    It is only in times of the greatest emergencies that we can see who are the heroes, who are the cowards, who are the fighters, who are the possums and who are those that were willing to throw their buddies into the fire just to escape.

    And that particr massacre caused all sorts of diamonds and filth to be uncovered in the hearts of our victims.

    "Ahhhhh mommy!!!"

    "Get the hell out of my way!!"

    "KYAAAAA!!!"

    "Get behind me! I will stall them!!"

    "DIE YOU INCORRIGIBLE FIRST GRADERS!"

    "STAND YOUR GROUND! THEY ARE JUST FIVE PEOPLE!"

    "F*CK YOU! YOU BOZO! YOU STAND YOUR F*CKING GROUNDD!!"

    "RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

    "FIGHT! DON''T BE COWARDS!!"

    "GO SUCK ON YOUR MOMMA''S TITTIIEEEEESSSS!!"

    It spoke volumes on just how much my "momma titties" curses had pervaded the entire academy in an incredibly short time when in times of emergencies such as the one they were in, they reflexively used it to curse at their allies.

    The initial minutes were utter chaos, but all the heroes that stood their ground truly did strike a whole lot of respect and reverence in our hearts. They were budding leaders of the Federation, and their future were definitely very bright.

    But for the moment, they were the first to fall.

    And after their initial defense disintegrated, killing the rest was beyond easy.

    Any veteran soldier will tell you that killing soldiers that were trying to escape during a rout is the easiest thing in the world, especially if they are notpletely cornered.

    True, the rear section was pushing forward trying to escape the unerringly urate rifle fire from atop the cliff, but it was a "soft" wall.

    They were able to physically run across the kill zone if they couldn''t escape to the front.

    And so without a hard corner forcing them to fight to the bitter end, their hearts were free to explode in all of the glory of sheer, unadulterated panic powered by a deep and intense motivation to escape to the area just ahead which they could already see with their own eyes.

    With thebination of ferocious rifle fire and our viciously effective melee attacks, we quickly thinned them to less than five hundred mechas.

    And by then, they were in full panic mode, and they finally broke and ran in every single direction. All they wanted to do was to get the hell out of the kill zone!

    We did what we could and killed all that were within range. Several hundred managed to escape with their lives. But very few would make it back to the battlefield that day.

    All too soon, the massacre ended, and I flicked my spear to kill the final mecha that had fallen helplessly on his knees.

    Bam.

    "HURRAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

    The mechas atop the cliff roared out a massive shout of victory! After being chased all over the mountain range for half a day, being able to wipe out the pesky heavies was a huge load off their shoulders.

    "LONG LIVE OLIVIAAA!!"

    "FIRST GRADE VICTORRRRSS!!"

    "SUCK ON YOUR MISERABLE LOSS! HA!!"

    "LOSERS! LOSERS! YOU SUCK! BIG TIME!!"

    The emotional first graders screamed out their heartfelt messages to their seniors before we finally moved off to continue in our final battle of the day.

    It was the deciding battle between the final survivors.

    By that time, Sheera Lin''s final supreme strategy was already well underway.

    Sun Zhi once said, supreme excellence is breaking the enemy''s resistance without fighting.

    It was exactly what Sheera Lin did that day.

    She had massacred a full eleven thousand mechas that day and lost seven hundred fifty of her own.

    There were about twelve thousand "dead" mechas that were avable for her to use.

    Being someone who never failed to engage in psychological battle, Sheera would never miss the chance to deal damage to the enemy''s morale.

    She ordered her soldiers to grab the dead mechas and pile them up into small hills all over the battleground, with an especiallyrge one above the teau.

    When she was done, her surviving mechas stood neatly behind piles upon piles of dead mecha, brimming with the confidence that could onlye from outperforming even their wildest dreams.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The iing coalition army of five thousand of the best fighters in the academy had to make their way across winding paths of the dead mechas to reach them.

    It was a master stroke, one that was aimed to drive the sharp stakes of fear into the hearts of the students.

    The message was clear.

    I have already killed twelve thousand of your school mates. I will kill you too.

    Even the hearts of veteran soldiers would tremble at such a brutal sight.

    What do you think happened to the five thousand kids marching slowly towards Sheera Lin?

    Deep within their hearts, they were all entertaining a series of very simr thoughts.

    "Holy shit, they killed so many already! What''s their secret? Where are the traps?"

    "Are they invincible? They must be invincible!"

    "Are they using real mechas? That''s cheating!!"

    "A teacher must be giving them guidance! Damn it! It isn''t fair!"

    And the most pervasive one...

    "We are screwed. We are SO screwed!"

    "We will die here. Damn! Fight to the death!"

    It was a ssic example of yet another Sun Zhi military wisdom.

    Victorious warriors win the battle in their minds first then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first then seek to win.

    But their leaders were no blind fools who did not know what the piles of dead mechas were doing to the minds of their soldiers.

    So a particrly smart one started toment andugh at the piles of dead mechas.

    "They sure have a lot of time to do all this nonsense! If we are as childish as them, we could probably do the exact same thing to the mechas we ughtered earlier too!" He shouted with augh.

    "That''s right! We won a victory that is no less impressive as the one these damned first graders did. Over ten thousand mechas died in the battle earlier this morning too! Eleven thousand dead! And we survived!"

    "Yeah!! Bunch of show off first graders! They don''t know who they are facing against!"

    His underlings rallied behind his words and probably made the soldiers feel slightly better.

    Slightly.

    Because well, they were seniors and they were no fools.

    They knew that the battle they just won was almost like a Free For All. It was different from the one the first graders won where they did it against a wholly hostile enemy.

    It would be a fearsome fight for them all, and no amount of fake bravadoments could convince them otherwise.

    The piles of dead mechas made a silent but much more convincing argument than their leaders.

    After making their way across the winding paths of dead mechas, the five thousand coalition mechas finally came face to face with Sheera Lin and her remaining warriors.

    "See? We have them outnumbered! They are screwed!" One of the leaders shouted with extreme relief in his voice.

    "Yes! There are barely two thousand enemy mechas left! We will crush them and gain the final victory!"

    "Two thousand? There should be more than that." Emma said with a frown. But she wasn''t sure, so she did not raise the issue.

    "Get in formation! Prepare to charge the enemy!" Themander in chief shouted. "Fliers! Take to the skies and test their defenses!"

    "Reporting! There are a hundred first graders making their way towards us from the rear!"

    "Battalion one! Get over there and destroy them! The rest of you, focus! We will destroy them all in one fell swoop!!"

    It was a cocky n befitting the dumbestmander to take the stage that day.

    Five hundred mechas of the first battalion immediately moved towards me, while the remaining four thousand five hundred started to move slowly forward.

    I remember casting my resonance outwards that day, and shook my head inplete marvel at the ideas that Sheera Lin had.

    I could clearly sense five hundred mechas moving towards me, moving neatly in formation across a sea of one thousand five hundred live mechas.

    That''s right.

    A sea of mechas.

    Sheera Lin had stationed almost half her forces within the piles of dead mechas!

    "Amazing." I couldn''t help but sigh.

    "Yeah. It''s amazing how quickly themander was able to pile those dead mechas." James remarked,pletely missing the real meaning of myment. "All you first graders must view whoever is leading you all as a god of some sort."

    "Yeah. Sheera Lin. She is a genius." I said.

    "Pffft. A Lin. Just how good can a Lin be?" James asked dismissively.

 Chapter 258 Red Mecha Core

    It was a very easy question to answer, of course, and one which needed no words on our part.

    Seeing piles of dead mechas from a distance was one thing.

    Actually walking past their massive carcasses which were piled high up to our eye level knowing that it was still filled with squealing live pilots who were all our seniors was apletely different thing.

    "Ok she is pretty good." James finally said grudgingly as we walked past our tenth pile, with probably another thousand more to go.

    "She only lost eight hundred mechas in total." Elise Wang said quietly.

    Nobody replied her.

    We were all in too much awe.

    We knew that Sherry Lin, the heaven defyingly powerful warrior, was with her. Butpared to her seniors, she was just another good fighter.

    Sheera Lin''s handywork which we were all beholding in all of its splendor was purely the work and result of her tactical and strategic ingenuity.

    I felt a deep surge of pride as well as no small amount of relief at that moment, knowing that she was on my side and part of my little clique of friends.

    I may be invincible against even a million, no, a billion practice mechas.

    But it would be aplete pain in the ass to fight against amander like her.

    Her ns within ns within ns within ns would take alot even from me to deal with.

    Just like the trap that we were about to spring at that moment on the unsuspecting enemy.

    Who would have thought that the devastating and highly effective psychological attack upon them was just a cover for an even more devastating and effective ambush?

    It was seriously impressive, and there was not a single dissenting voice that day that said a single negative thing about Sheera Lin among the powerhouse spectators.

    None at all.

    I checked.

    But unlike her, there were plenty that spoke up against me, chief among them the two old fogeys with whom I just spent a crazy few days in a crazy adventure.

    Oh yes. I found a recording of their conversation. ssified to the brim, under the most stringent digital lock and key, of course. But find them I did.

    "What a lucky and slimy bastard. First he had to somehow manage to recover a portion of his power in the middle of the event. Then he was even shameless enough to make full use of it. And not just that, he even gifted his friends with stupid upgrades! Bastard! AND! He had to be so lucky so as to find himself in the same generation as the smartest and deadliest genius general in the entire history of China." The damned old ancestor cursed loudly.

    "He really is like a slimy cockroach, isn''t he?" My big bro chuckled.

    "Not a cockcroach. He looks way too handsome to be a cockcroach. Probably a slimy lizard of sorts. A baby dragon." Jete Wen said fairly.

    "He is the dragon of the Federation, afterall. I guess it is good that he ispletely flipping the lessons we had nned for him. It would be distressing if he were to fail everything spectacrly instead." My big bro remarked.

    "A future dragon. Right now he is a damned ten year old bastard who needs to learn the hard lessons up front first. Loss. Panic. His ns copsing all around him.

    Without the ability to deal with emergencies, he would just be another dead dragon. As you know, we have had many near dragons die already." The ancestor grumbled.

    "None were prophesied by you. They don''t really count." My big bro responded. "Plus, who''s to say he did not face emergencies? His earlier battles looked pretty hard fought. The fact that he managed to seed in dealing with them is probably evidence that he is indeed a hard to kill cockcroach of a dragon. The best kind of dragon, if you ask me." My big bro said.

    The ancestor merely sighed and mumbled a few more curse words at me.

    But that was it about me from them. They were, after all were said and done, firmly on my side. Their utter shameless attempts to bully me that day, though vicious as vicious can be, were surprisingly born out of goodwill towards me.

    In another room, General Peter Long was having a heated argument with the other two generals about me.

    "That bastard definitely has a secret tech. I say we confiscate his mecha and imprison him immediately to search for his secret. In such a critical time, I would need every single advancement in technology to be implemented in my army! God knows we would need every single mecha, and then some more, to just be able to stand our ground against the Europeans!" General Peter Long said heatedly.

    "I disagree with imprisoning him. But we definitely need ess to his mechas. And let''s just be direct with the Whitefrosts. In the name of the Federation, let us just demand they give up their technology to the army!" Admiral Terry Weimented.

    "Why are you both so worked up? The Military High Command has been very generous and considerate of the Whitefrosts recently. They definitely know the secret already! Even if you don''t trust the Whitefrosts, you can trust the Military High Command, right?" General Anthony Chang said objectively.

    "Well... Yes. The Military High Command has proven itselfpetent enough. We can trust them." General Peter Long said grudgingly. "But it would be best if we can interview that Whitefrost bastard. I totally dislike his sneaky face. I really hope someone would be able tond a critical hit on his damn mecha''s face somehow."

    The other two generals could only chuckle and shake their heads at General Peter Long, the fiendishlypetent but rather childish General of the Army.

    I must have somehow very instinctively sensed his hostility and desire to punch my face, and responded appropriately on a very foundational and subconscious level.

    Because strangely after that point, I was gripped by a deep desire to punch at the heads of the mechas, and that was exactly what I did.

    "Minipetition." I announced loudly to my team of six (including Olivia) as soon as the five hundred came to view. "Headshots only. Winner gets one reasonable but undeniable favor from the rest of the team.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "You''re on. But limit your power output to that of our level. No cheating!" James shouted loudly.

    "Sure. Sounds fun." Margaret said in her basic confident voice.

    "Bring it on!" Olivia said eagerly. She probably was itching to try out her new powers which I had just given her.

    "Easy."

    "Too easy." Came the reply from the twins in near unison.

    "Alright then. If that''s the case, thepetition starts now!" I shouted and dashed quickly forward.

    "For ruin! And a red dawn! Fooorthhhhh Eoorrrrrrshinggaaaaaaassss!!!" Cried James loudly and erroneously.

    "Oh my god. Who is this dumbass leading us?" Came the instant shout from our rear.

    "Is that from the show Duke of the Rings or something? I heard its pretty good."

    "It''s not Duke of the Rings. It''s Count of the Rings. And yes, it''s excellent!" Lied a kid next to him.

    "Chargee!!"

    I grinned at the rxed atmosphere of the kids even though we were charging towards five hundred seniors who outnumber and outskill us by quite a significant margin.

    Our victories had boosted our confidence to an incredible level, and even the daunting mission of dealing with such a powerful enemy seemed somehow doable.

    Well, with six supercharged peak blue mecha level death gods leading the charge, they had an excellent reason to be confident.

    Afterall, they had already seen us in action earlier.

    "Who could stand against them? Not those sorry bastards in front of us!" They were probably thinking.

    They weren''t wrong.

    I unleashed full power to my feet and relished the feeling of my incredible speed bringing my powerful mecha surging ahead of the rest of my team.

    "Haaaiayaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!" I shouted in exhration.

    BA-DUMP!

    BA-DUMP!!

    My heart pounded in pleasure and once again, I could feel my red mecha core quietly surge in strength and digesting speed.

    "Awesome!" I thought happily as the first enemy mecha in front of me screamed out its battlecry before getting interrupted midcry by its armor ckening.

    I fully expected the red mecha core to return to its dormant state once more. But to my utter andplete shock, it did not do so.

    BA-DUMP!!

    BA-DUMP!!

    BA-DUMP!!

    BA-DUMP!!

    It continued to pump and stir as I bulled my way into the line of five hundred mechas!!

    "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Iughed maniacally and started to subconsciously speed up my massacre of the five hundred.

    "YES!! YESS!! COME AND DIEE YOU BASTARDS!!" I howled with great excitement!

    BA-DUMP!!

    BA-DUMP!!

    BA-DUMP!!

    The red mecha core continued to surge in strength, and speed up in its digesting process!!

    Slowly but very very clearly, I could feel my resonance spiking and my sense of control over all the mechas I had imbued my strength in start to rise.

 Chapter 259 Battle Of Two Dragons

    Awakening.

    That is the closest word I could think of to describe the feeling I had at that moment.

    Know the feeling you get every morning where your mind first kicks into gear and you start to navigate the fogs of sleep to get to consciousness?

    That is rtively close to what I was feeling then.

    I nced at all the mechas which had received my power the way you would look at an additional pair of arms that had grown out of your ribcage overnight.

    I knew I could control them with but a thought.

    "Monkey pose." I thought as I caught sight of James who was howling wildly as he was unleashing a powerful overhead swing against a heavy mecha that was hiding behind its massive shield.

    Instantly and absolutely effortlessly, the way your hand would respond to your thoughts, James dropped everything and got into a cute monkey king pose with his right mecha hand scratching his head, his left mecha hand scratching his left hip, and his left leg bent outwards with his left foot upon his right knee.

    "Oo! Oo! Ee! Ee! Aa! Aa!" I made his mecha squeal.

    "What the f*ck?" A particrly foul mouthed first grader fighting behind James shouted in shock.

    "Haha!! What in all of the world did you eat just now? Are you nuts dude?" Elise Wang shouted with augh without losing a beat in her massacre of her own enemies.

    "I knew it. I knew there was something wrong with him!" Eliana Wang shouted triumphantly.

    Margaret merely nced at me. Upon seeing my half frozen pose as I looked at James, she knew that I was at work.

    What I just did to James did not seem very differentpared to what I could already do and have done earlier.

    But the difference was massive.

    It was the difference between holding a remote control and flying a toy helicopter all over the ce, and pping your own wings to fly all over the ce.

    Controlling James'' mecha was beyond easy for me at that moment.

    "Hehehe." I grinned to myself and released control of his mecha back to him.

    "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO TO ME YOU BASTARRDDD!!" James shouted at me with all of his heart.

    His battlefury was overflowing earlier, and after being made to act like a real monkey, his overflowing emotions were instantly transformed into anger.

    However, his enemy had taken the chance during his "insane" monkey pose mid fight to unleash his own series of debilitating skills.

    Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

    A chain of impressive looking spear attack sequence rained down upon James, with the final thrust mming into his face powerfully right after he finished screaming out the word "Bastard".

    "STOP DISTURBING ME WHILE I SHOUT AT MY BRO!" James turned his mecha head around and roared at his dumbfounded enemy.

    BAM!!

    James'' right arm flicked out and crushed the poor heavy mecha''s head with a simple jab.

    "Quit whining and keep up the pressure!" Margaret snapped at James like the good older sister that she is.

    Grumbling loudly and not at all under his breath, James stomped ahead and unleashed his wrath upon the enemy without a shred of mercy.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    There was no need for finesse.

    Not for James, or any of the six of us.

    Whoever heard of little kids unleashing their best moves while stomping at ants?

    It had been a pretty long day, and though we still had more than enough juice in the tank, we were getting quite excited at the thought of finally finishing the event victoriously.

    I was getting impatient at finally being able to smirk victoriously at the damned old man, and so I started to earnestly swing my shield and spear around, creating a scene ofplete destruction around me.

    My mood must have been quite infectious, because very soon, all five of my team members were doing as I did, and together we zed five trails of carnage straight to the end of the five hundred mechas.

    "Charge straight ahead to the main army!" I shouted in exhration as I burst out of the final line of mechas and thundered down the winding road around the piles of dead mechas.

    "Charge!!"

    "Chargee!!"

    The six of us leapt ahead as fast as we could and left the rest of our hundred mechas to clean up the ravaged enemy who were so stunned by our violent attack that they were probably a minute or two away frompletely breaking and routing.

    Boom. Boom boom boom.

    The other five closed ranks behind me and we formed a wedge formation once more with me at the lead.

    As the seconds rolled by, we charged ahead faster and faster as our momentum increased to fearsome levels.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Very soon, the rear of the enemies came to view.

    A squad was already turning around and getting ready to meet us in battle.

    "What? Those first graders actually made it out of the first battalion''s attack? But too bad for them, they escaped in the wrong direction!"

    "Ha! They must be panicking so much that they had no idea where they are running to!"

    "Hey, they are actually quite fast. Can practice mechas even get up to that speed?"

    "Holy moley! They are still speeding up!! Get ready!!"

    "Counter charge in three! Two! Charge!!"

    KABOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

    The following sh was so violent that it sounded like a massive explosion instead of two mecha squads meeting in battle.

    We bulled our way into the squad, and flung them away like overpowered cavalry charging into infantry!

    "Destroy them all! And let us im the ultimate victory!" I shouted to encourage my team mates.

    But at that moment, I heard her voice once more.

    "So you''re the secret trump card of the first graders? Good. I''ll destroy you, along with the morale of you irritating bozos!" Emma''s voice rang out loudly above the din of battle as an overeager mecha rose into the sky amid the bunch of mechas flying in every direction.

    She leveled one of her twin swords at me in what was clearly a challenge for a one on one battle.

    "Hmph! You want to challenge Justin? Not so-" Eliana started to shout.

    But Margaret quickly silenced her with a simple gesture.

    "Let them fight!" Margaret said with a slight chuckle in her voice.

    "Ha! Fight her! But if you''re a man, fight her fairly!" James snickered at me.

    "Hi Emma! So this is the bunch of dead mechas walking that you''ve been hiding yourself with? No wonder you can survive till this point. Not too shabby at all." I said brightly in our first reunion after a few long weeks.

    "You''re still as irritating as before. So school life has failed to still your tongue and teach you manners huh? Let this princess teach you a lesson and put you in your ce then!!" Emma shouted and sted her thrusters to shoot straight for me!

    "Hey! I did not say I am epting your challenge!" I protested loudly. "I still need to kill all these- damn it!"

    Bam!!

    Emma flung herself at me and sent her twin swords shing down on both my shoulders in a vicious attack.

    In a move which baffled even me, I actually DE-powered my mecha armor at that moment to the level of that of a normal practice mecha!

    I guess it was the sense of chivalry within me. Don''t get me wrong, I have no problems bullying girls. Being a victim of bullying by gangster girls in my old life as a junkyard scrapper, I had long lost the gentlemanly respect for girls.

    But Emma was not just any other girl.

    She was Emma.

    So I got myself down to her level as soon as I could.

    At the same time, I twisted my body with great agility and managed to avoid the two vicious swords.

    Bam!!

    I reflexively sent an uppercut into her head in what probably seemed like a highly skilled counter attack.

    But it was just pure instinct for me at that moment.

    I was able to fling her slightly back with that attack.

    Bam!!

    However, Emma was not one to eat an attack for free. She was able to unleash a powerful kick on my groin area as well right as her body sted off backwards due to the strength and perfectly ced uppercut.

    "Oof! Thank God it''s a mecha fight!" I muttered even as I winced at the psychological impact of having my nuts kicked.

    Emma righted herself in midair through a series of highlyplex thruster explosions.

    She was extremely skilled with flying mechas.

    "Damn it. You''ve improved quite a bit." Emma was probably scowling at me at that point.

    "You''re actually pretty good at flying. Why don''t you teach me?" I asked her and pointed my spear at her provocatively.

    "Hmph. It''s good that you know I am skilled in flying. But too bad for you, flying isn''t the only thing I am good at. Take this!" Emma said before she shot forward towards me once more!

 Chapter 260 Getting Serious

    Like a Goddess of Death in some anime-based game, Emma spun in midair with her twin swords stretched forward towards me.

    It made for a very, very ferocious attack, one that would definitely deal a killing blow if it hits.

    IF it hits.

    It was an extremely big if, because such a wild attack was not only easily dodged, it was also very taxing on the attacker and could be disrupted with rtive ease.

    Just spin your body round and round ten times at extremely high speed, and you''ll probably have a rough understanding of how it would feel to execute such a reckless and wild attack.

    I have no idea why she would attack me using that particr attack sequence. Maybe she watched too much anime the night before.

    Gifted kids and their rxed schedules.

    Sigh.

    But anyhow, after being surprised for a split second, I instinctively reacted to disrupt her attack using the simplest possible method - by flinging a mecha towards her and forcing her to either crash into it or abort her attack. Both of which would ce her in a very off bnce and disadvantaged position.

    I grabbed at the nearest mecha next to me and heaved.

    "Gahhh!!!"

    The mecha not only did not budge, he alsounched a fearsome attack at me.

    I had forgotten that I had depowered my mecha!

    "Sheeeeeeeett!!!" I cursed loudly as my brain went into overdrive to deal with the massive crisis I was facing.

    In front of me was Emma with her ridiculous spinning attack, and to my right was a stupid enemy grunt attacking me with his war hammer!

    What else could I do?

    I modified my original n of picking up the heavy mecha and tossing it towards Emma, and spun my body around to get behind it.

    "If I can''t toss you, then I''ll use you as a shield!" I thought to myself as I sessfully executed myplex maneuver.

    BAAAMMM!!!

    Emma smashed into the heavy mecha and smashed it to pieces.

    "HEY!! Why the hell are you so strong??" I shouted at Emma as I scrambled away from the heavy mecha which was falling apart right in front of me!

    "Hmph! Stop hiding behind others and fight me!" Emma shouted as she flung the cockpit of the ruined heavy mecha away.

    The poor pilot.

    He or she must have pissed in his or her pants in fear.

    But I had no time to worry about piss in pants.

    Emma was disying a strength way beyond that of a practice mecha!!

    "Don''t tell me¡­ Her experimental mecha core is¡­ active?!" I thought with great excitement.

    Without hesitation, I raised the strength of my practice mecha to that of a weak blue mecha, a Baron.

    Just in time.

    Emma charged at me and unleashed a flurry of hyper fast sword strikes that I was barely able to block with my enhanced speed.

    Bam bam bam bam bam!!

    After five exchanges, I realized that her strength was around that of a standard blue mecha, a Viscount.

    But her speed¡­

    It was insane.

    She was fast!!

    Much too fast for a normal blue mecha, faster than even a standard white mecha!!

    "What the hell?" I cursed as I continuously and shamelessly raised my power just to be able to match her speed. "How are you so bloody fast?"

    Bam bam bam bam!!

    Five hits became fifty as our high speed exchange continued on.

    "Hmph! You think you''re the only special one? Let me teach you a lesson! There is always a higher mountain! And in your case, ME!" Emma shouted eagerly, the excitement in her voice betraying the sharpness of her words and revealed to me that even for her, all these were pretty new.

    Emma increased her speed once more. And not just that, she started to move in a strange but extremely efficient manner that allowed her to efficiently and with the greatest strength, unload a series of attacks that was aimed urately at my weak points!

    I waspletely overwhelmed by then.

    Out of ten attacks, I was probably able to block only eight. And as the seconds ticked into minutes, that number dropped further and further down to six, then five.

    By five minutes into the fight, her momentum had snowballed so massively that I was only able to block half her attacks!!

    If I wasn''t so shameless as to raise my power once more to that of a white mecha, I would have definitely lost then!

    In terms of skill, I waspletely outmatched!<novelnext></novelnext>

    Still, even with my serious deficiency in fighting skills, I could easily see that Emma was in a state of hyper excitement.

    Her attacks, though deadly fast and fatally urate, would be twice as deadly if she was to calm down and pick her targets properly.

    "It must have been a recent awakening. Let me see if I can infuse my power on her and control her." I thought to myself as a brilliant idea struck me.

    WHAM!!

    I darted forward as she was unleashing a down swing and grabbed hold of her arm.

    In that instant, I pumped a massive amount of my red energy into her mecha, seeking to inundate her with my power and gainplete control of her as I did the other mechas.

    But to my surprise, my red mecha energy rebounded from her mecha the way water sshes around a car after being sprayed by a high powered hose!!

    Well, maybe not quite.

    It was closer to an explosive maic repulsion by two powerful electromas.

    WWHAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!

    Both of us were flung in opposite directions with extreme force!!

    BAM!!

    Inded heavily on my ass.

    Emma, being much more agile and gifted in terms of movement techniques, managed to right herself in the air and somehownd quite impressively on her feet.

    "HOOORRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

    The entire battlefield suddenly erupted with a great resounding cheer!

    Without us realizing it, the battle had stopped, and almost everyone had their eyes on us.

    And even though every single one of them had no idea what happened, the fact that Inded very heavily on my butt, and Emmanded beautifully on her feet like a gymnast could only mean one thing.

    She won the exchange!

    "WEAK ASS FIRST GRADER! THAT''S WHAT YOU GET FOR CHALLENGING OLDER KIDS! DIE!" Shouted an extremely emotional senior boy.

    "He is fighting Emma Whitefrost. She is only eight years old." A kind hearted soul corrected his erroneous sentence and caused him to probably fall into depression.

    "All hail the gifted program!! We are the best! We are the strongest!! HUZZAAHHH!!!"

    "Hahahahaha! Finally! A real fight between two geniuses!! Awesome! Epic!! I love it! Fight more!!"

    Along with the eruption of shouts from my enemies, my allies made sure to let their thoughts be heard by me too.

    "Hey, don''t tell me you''re losing to a little girl? Damn it! Did I choose to follow the wrong person?" James shouted loudly into mym device.

    "Hohoho. You''re losing to a girl. Girls rule." Elise Wang very casually and happily gave me a verbal kick when I was down.

    "Weak. My shi fu would never lose like you!" Eliana Wang shouted with extreme bias and subjectivity.

    "Sigh. You are still so green in fighting. Tsk tsk." Olivia Summers tsk tsked at me.

    "Don''t get caught up in matching her speed. Focus on your strengths." Margaret advised me.

    "Finally a constructive feedback! All you guys are so useless! Are you even on my side?" I cursed at them all as I slowly got up and started to think on Margaret''s words.

    "Focus on my strengths. My strength is¡­ my cheat code. That''s right. Why the hell am I depowering myself? My ability to power myself up is my strength!! There is no need to be ashamed of what I have! There is no such thing as fairness in battle!! Even if its against Emma¡­ No. ESPECIALLY if its against Emma! Giving her special treatment is disrespecting her as a fellow dragon!" I thought as I finally woke up from my delusions of being a fake ass gentleman.

    "Alright Ems. Enough ying around. I will show you my real power now." I growled.

    Without changing form, I strengthened myself to the strongest level I could physically achieve at that moment.

    Whoosh.

    I became so powerful that a repressive aura surged out from my mecha and silenced every single one on the battlefield.

    Shingggggggggggg.

    The sudden absence of sound from almost ten thousand mechas on the battlefield created a ringing silence that was no less deafening than the roar of thousands.

    Boom.

    I entered the basic stance of fighting and levelled my spear towards her.

    Whoosh!!!

    Gulp.

    I could almost hear the thousands of throats gulping in nervousness as my aura sublimed and turned sharp into a killing intent.

    "Good. You''re finally serious. I will be serious too then." Emma said softly as her voice thundered around the battlefield.

    Whoosh!!!

    An aura no less impressive than mine surged out from Emma at that moment!

 Chapter 261 Margaret VS Emma

    I was stunned.

    True, I barely had ten percent of my full power out. But I had TWO experimental mecha cores and a massive bunch of mechas which I had absorbed!

    My ten percent power was probably as strong as a full blown Peak White Mecha.

    A King!

    And there she was, in a practice mecha and casually emitting billowing waves of power which easily ced her within the top fifty powers in the ENTIRE world!!

    "Hoo. So my full power is roughly simr to yours. You''re not too shabby." Emma said rather condescendingly.

    I grinned at her misunderstanding and did not bother to correct her.

    "Stop talking like you''re so strong. Come." I pointed my spear at her.

    KABOOOMMM!!!

    Even before the sound of her burst of speed hit my ears, Emma had already disappeared from my sight!

    BA-BAMMM!!!!!

    Her twin swords smashed into my shield which I was barely able to position properly with ridiculous strength.

    But if she was an unstoppable force, then I was an immovable object.

    Our sh created massive shockwaves so powerful that every single mecha around us were pushed backwards a couple of steps!

    "You can''t brute force your way to victory against me Ems. Such brainless frontal attacks won''t work!" I smirked at her as I pushed her away easily.

    Emma was someone who couldn''t care less about what other people said about her.

    But as they say, we give those whom we care about, the power to hurt us.

    And because I know she cared about me, my words at that momentpletely pissed her off.

    "Oh yeah? That''s what YOU think! I will prove to you otherwise!" Emma said hotly.

    VROOO!!

    A massive burst of power from her thrusters exploded backwards and propelled her forward to crash into me once more.

    WHAMM!!

    WHAMMM!! BAMMMM!! BAMMMMM!!

    Emma unleashed a variety of powerful and creative melee attacks at me, all of which I ate up without even bothering to dodge.

    "You want to take me down with your useless melee attacks? Very well. I will stand still and let you attack me to your heart''s content! I will push you into despair... without even making a single move on you! Ha!" I shouted at her and stood casually while cing my spear horizontally behind my neck like Sun Wu Kong.

    The fact that I was able to stand so casually without bothering to lower my center of gravity for stability was a powerful statement in and of itself.

    I was basically telling her, "I don''t need to bother with techniques to resist your pathetic and miserable attacks!"

    Not with words, but with the far louder medium of my actions.

    "You arrogant bastard! I will take you down even if that''s thest thing I do!" Emma shouted back at me angrily while pushing up the strength of her attacks yet another notch.

    CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!!

    CL-CL-CLAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNGGGGG!!

    Her attack speed snowballed to such great heights that the sound of her swords impacting me blended together into one continuous sound.

    "Wahahahaha! Weak! Too weak!! Is this truly your full power? Howe I am not sensing even the tiniest bit of threat? Am I being attacked here? Is there danger? Where am I being attacked? Oh! Look! There is an ant on my foot! I thought I felt something just now!" I shouted happily as I bent down to brush an imaginary ant away from my super armored mecha foot.

    BAM!!!

    Emma saw my butt being raised so high and immediately unleashed a powerful kick!

    As strong as I was, there were limits as to how much resistance I had against thew of physics.

    Off bnce and with my butt raised so high, her kick was finally able to move me.

    CRASH!

    I fell headfirst to the ground as a result of my extreme cockiness.

    "HUZZAAAHHHHH!!"

    "THE DUMBASS HAS FALLEN DOWN!! KILL HIMM!! KILL HIM NOWWW!!"

    "Justin you bozo! What the hell are you doing? The enemy is regaining their morale!!" Eliana Wang shouted at me. "Stop ying and finish her!"

    In the distance, my resonance was telling me that two thousand mechas were slowly making their way towards us.

    "Sheera is moving her forces forward. She still needs more time. Let me give her that time and draw the attention of every single bastard here!" I thought to myself.

    I leapt up suddenly and then shouted with all of my strength.

    "HA! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT? THE GIFTED PROGRAM IS BULLSHIT! EVEN YOUR BEST FIGHTER SUCKS BIG TIME! ALL OF YOU! COME AT ME! IT IS TOO BORING TO FIGHT AGAINST JUST ONE!"

    "Justin, you''re too much! Pridees before a fall, remember that when you finally die today! Eat this!" Emma said with an angry and slightly hurt voice.

    I felt slightly guilty, but I needed all of their attention on me.

    As much as I disliked saying all those things, I disliked losing even more.<novelnext></novelnext>

    So there.

    "COME! COME AT ME YOU WEAKLINGS! ARE YOU SCARED? COWARDS! NO WONDER YOU''RE SO WEAK! YOU ARE ALL COWARDS AT HEART!! POK POK POK! POK POK POKKKKK!!!" I continued my tirade as I started to parry Emma''s attacks.

    BAM! BAM! BAM!

    With my full power, I was able to easily match Emma''s speed and overpower her sword strikes. In fact, I parried so powerfully that I was able to mess up her momentum slightly due to the massive amount of recoil that she had to deal with.

    After ten lightning fast strikes, I managed to push her back just as the first wave of angry gifted program students came at me.

    "ATTACK!! KILL THEM ALL!!" I shouted at my subordinates who had finally managed to catch up.

    One hundred something mechas going against over four thousand.

    It was quite the sight.

    "Prepare to execute a fighting retreat back to the piles of dead mechas." I ordered them all even as we shed together powerfully.

    It was a reasonable order.

    As high as our morale was, we were outnumbered twenty times. We did not have enough mass to physically charge through so many enemies!

    Within seconds, our fearsome charge lost its momentum and many of the hundred mechas started to fall.

    "Retreat!" I shouted and brandished my spear this way and that way to keep Emma and a couple other powerful heavies at bay.

    "Yeah! Run like the puss-"

    WHAM!

    I destroyed the heavy mecha before he could finish his words.

    The sixty remaining mechas managed to disengage from the battle and started to scamper away.

    If you do not know yet, then now you know.

    Fighting retreats are hard.

    Against a pissed off enemy who outnumber us?

    Very, very, very hard.

    We need to move backwards and keep their attacks at bay AND keep ourselves alive, all the time trying our best not to stop moving.

    Within seconds, only thirty of us were left.

    I could sense the enemy''s bloodlust rising even higher and the desperation of my team mates.

    "Just a little bit more! Keep moving! Once we reach the piles of mechas, they won''t be able to kill us anymore!" I shouted at my team mates.

    "CHASE THEM! DESTROY EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!!"

    "DIE! DIE! DIE!!"

    "YOU DARE TO DISPARAGE US HIGHBORNS? DIE!!"

    The curses and the angry shouts from the enemy kepting at us non stop.

    "Guys, reverse charge and give the rest some time to run. On my mark. Three. Two. One. GO!!" I shouted at my five friends.

    As one, we stopped moving backwards and charged forward instead!

    "The rest of you! RUN!!" I yelled as I plunged deep into the enemy lines.

    WHAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!!

    Their attacks fell upon us like heavy rain.

    "This is not good. We may be much stronger than them, but at this rate, sooner orter, their attacks will prate our defenses!" Elise Wang said in a slightly worried tone.

    "Don''t worry. Our freak of a leader should still have some magic left in his book of spells. He''ll take care of it. Am I right?" Jamesughed as he unleashed a blinding sequence of attacks which left a trail of dead mechas behind him.

    But before I could answer him, I saw something sh from the corner of my eyes.

    WHAAAMMMMM!!!!!!

    Two powerful sword strikesnded on James and instantly destroyed his mecha!

    It was Emma!

    "Little Emma. You''re bullying James again? Come fight me!" Margaret shouted from the side as she bulled her way towards Emma.

    But she needn''t have bothered.

    As soon as she was done killing James, Emma turned towards Margaret and exploded towards her in a massive burst of speed!

    It was another match up of dreams. Margaret versus Emma.

    The two incredibly powerful girls of the incredibly talented Whitefrost n.

    "Nice! This will be good!" General Anthony Chang eximed loudly.

    "Hmmm." Even the grouchy General Peter Long had nothing bad to say about the match up.

    "Hell yeah! If Margaret performs well, the Navy wants her! Both of you listen carefully!" Admiral Terry Wei shouted.

 Chapter 262 Crazy Lunatic

    I pointed at Margaret and sent a tiny stream of red energy into her mecha to bring her strength up a couple of notches.

    She wasn''t quite at Emma''s level, but she wasn''t far.

    "I don''t think she needs to be exactly at Emma''s level to win. The fight will be much more interesting this way." I thought to myself.

    Margaret and Emma shed in a powerful collision that would have ended the fight and destroyed both practice mechas if they were both not enhanced by experimental mecha cores.

    But they were both unharmed by the sh and began their deadly dance of death.

    Emma was very much the aggressor in that fight as she relentlessly unleashed attack after attack with her twin swords.

    Although I did say that Margaret''s fighting style was that of a deadly assassin, one that usually went for the jugr, that particr style waspletely useless against the highly armored Emma.

    She was pushedpletely into the defensive, and she merely parried or blocked Emma''s attack with an assassin''s efficiency and fluidity.

    Much like a cobra biding its time for the perfect fatal strike, Margaret withdrew every ounce of killing intent from her attacks and very easily pulled Emma into a false sense of superiority.

    It was fearsome just howfortable the brutal exchange between the two of them looked.

    "This Margaret is apetent and mature fighter." General Anthony Changmented.

    "Indeed. She is able to instantly judge that she is underpowered, and she responded perfectly. Hell, if I didn''t have my decades of experience, I would also be lulled intocency with how this fight is turning out!"" Admiral Terry Wei eximed. "The Navy wants her! You two greedy bastards stay away from her!"

    "She is good." General Peter Long merely grunted. But even that was extremely high praise from thepliment-scrooge General of the Army.

    For the next few minutes, they continued their high speed battle and pushed the price of their stocks sky high in the minds of the military scouts and generals watching.

    Elsewhere, I continued to destroy the enemy mechas like a ferocious death god in the midst of juicy targets. My powerful attacks managed to tie up arge number of mechas around me, and so did the other four remaining team mates of mine.

    But as hard as we tried, we were not able to hold back the deluge of mechas streaming past us.

    Hundreds then thousands of enemy mechas surged around us and continued to chase after the remaining one hundred mechas.

    The question that needed answering was why the hell all of the enemy''s forces were baited sopletely to chase after such a small number of mechas.

    What the hell was the enemymander doing?

    But that was life. And such was a battle. Shit happens.

    The enemy surged past us and directly into the prepared ambush.

    And as Margaret and Emma started to engage each other in a high profile battle, Sheera Lin sprung the trap on the enemy.

    She sent her two thousand mechas charging forward from the rear first.

    "CHAAARGEEE!!"

    "KILL THOSE COCKY SENIORS!!!"

    "ALL HAIL THE FIRST GRADERS!!"

    "ALL HAIL SHEERA! GODDESS OF WARR!!"

    With a thunderous roar, they boomed their way towards the enemy.

    "Ambush from the rear!!! Battalions five through seven! Turn around and face them!! AMBUSH FROM THE REAR!!! BATTALIONS F-"

    Crash!

    A first grade mecha hidden within a pile of dead mechas couldn''t help but send his spear to smash the enemy leader''s head!!

    "Ambush!!" The mecha next to the leader cried out in shock as he swung his greatsword towards the hidden first grader. However, crash!!!

    Another first grader poked his sword out and stabbed his belly.

    Just like that, the first fieldmander of the army died almost inplete uselessness.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    Sheera Lin''s main army was able to charge very close to the enemy before the other fieldmanders situated further away managed to notice them and rally some sort of defense against her.

    "Battalions five through seven!! Go!! Counter charge!! Now!! Counter charge!!" Screamed a panicked fifth grader fieldmander.

    For a brief moment, there was chaos as the three battalions stopped their charge forward, turned around and began to charge towards Sheera Lin.

    At that very moment before they could gain any sort of momentum, Sheera finally gave the order for the one thousand five hundred hidden mechas to attack!!

    "All units, all out attack. Kill or be killed. To thest mecha!!" Her voice rang out like the rion of a war trumpet.

    "ATTAAAAAACKKKKK!!!!"

    "PEEKABOOOO *SSHOLES!!!!!"

    "GRYAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

    "DIEEEEEEEEEE DUMBASSESSSSS"

    The thousand five hundred mechas who were hiding within the piles of dead mechas burst out of their hiding ces with great exhration!

    They had been waiting and waiting for the order to be given, their hearts pounding in excitement and their hands sweating profusely.

    When Sheera finally gave the order, they exploded with pent up energy and caught the enemypletely by surprise!!

    It was the finalrge scale surprise for the day. Everything else happened ording to n after that.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Sheera''s n, that is.

    It only took a very short fifteen minutes for the final massacre to be over.

    I didn''t even manage to kill another hundred mechas before every single enemy on the battlefield was ckened!!

    "So this is how aplete rout is like." I thought to myself as I marvelled at the battlefield.

    Our triumphant army spent the next five minutes screaming out with overwhelming cries of victory before someone noticed that a very exciting fight was still going on.

    The cries of victory quickly died down as everybody started to circle the two finalbatants and watch the final fight of the day.

    Ironically, although the fight was won by the first graders, the final and most exciting fight did not involve any of them!

    It was between a third grade regr student and a second grade gifted student!

    By that time, Margaret had utterly riled up Emma to the point of indescribable rage.

    Her attacks were starting to be reckless.

    SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! BANG!!!

    She unleashed a rapid fire triple sh on Margaret''s half destroyed shield and a powerful kick to try and push her off bnce.

    But Margaret coolly blocked all her attacks.

    "Fight me, damn you!" Emma shouted angrily.

    "I am fighting you." Margaret replied with an irritating chuckle.

    "Fight me properly!" Emma shouted again as she carelessly raised both swords to make a massive twin overhead swing.

    Swoooshh!!!

    Emma threw her entire body weight behind that strike like a girl swinging down a toy hammer in a strength measuring game in the arcade.

    At that moment, the deadly cobra that was Margaret finally struck.

    As the massive swing by Emma was hurtling down, Margaret darted forward lightly and sent her greatsword in an upward trajectory at great speed.

    Coupled with Emma''s forward momentum, Margaret''s attack smashed upon Emma''sparatively more fragile head with the strength of a freight train.

    CRASHHH!!!!!!

    It immediately broke through the upper limit of Emma''s defenses and dealt critical damage on her sensors.

    "Like this?" Margaret asked her teasingly as she followed up her brutal attack with a quick pivot of her left leg, unleashing a couple of powerful shield bashes to further disorient and break Emma''s bnce.

    BAM! BAM!

    Poor Emma wasn''t able to react in time and for the first time that day, her mecha copsed and fell to the ground!

    There was not the slightest hesitation on Margaret''s part as she mercilessly chained several more devastating attacks on Emma to finish the job.

    STOMP! STOMP!! CRASH!!

    Even though she had received critical damage, Emma did not give up.

    From underneath Margaret''s heel, she fired her thrusters at full strength, and exploded backwards with great speed to avoid Margaret''s killing blows.

    "FINISH HER! FINISH HER!"

    "DESTROY THE GIFTED PROGRAM LOSERS!"

    "HAHAHA! DIE! DIE! DIEE!!"

    The crowd roared their approval of how the battle turned out.

    Spurred on by the crowd''s enthusiasm, Margaret fired her own thrusters to chase after Emma.

    However, Emma carried a movement-based experimental mecha core, and she was able to easily keep her distance.

    And additionally, Emma''s emotions had finally reached critical boiling point.

    From my position, I could clearly sense her anger and... her slowly but surely rising level of strength.

    "She is like me." I realized suddenly. "Her powers can be triggered by intense emotion!"

    And right before my eyes, Emma''s strength slowly rose, and her already mind blowingly high movement speed increased once more.

    "Margaret! You''re good! You''re really good! I will give my all to defeat you today!" Emma cried out as she started to fly around in a strange, circr pattern in the air.

    At first I was confused.

    "What the hell is she doing?" I couldn''t help but ask aloud.

    However, the answer soon presented itself.

    VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

    A massive sonic boom sounded as she obliterated the sound barrier.

    "She is gathering momentum! Margaret, watch out!" I shouted in shock. "Her next attack could be fatal! EMMA YOU CRAZY LUNATIC! STOP FIGHTING ALREADY!"

 Chapter 263 Bruce And Julie

    I could clearly sense that the speed and momentum that Emma was gathering was slowly approaching the limit of both her and Margaret''s armor resistance.

    With Emma''s strength steadily but irrevocably rising, that small increase would be like the proverbial final straw that would break the camel''s back.

    In that particr case, the camel''s back would be Margaret''s and Emma''s lives.

    "I need to stop her!" I thought determinedly as I narrowed my eyes and quickly came up with an action n that was very simple and very direct.

    I leapt ahead and prepared to manifest my power to create the most agile speedster mecha I could manage so that I could snatch Emma out of the sky before she collided with Margaret.

    However, at that moment, a gentle voice thundered from far in the distance.

    "Enough, Emma."

    "Hmmm?" I pricked up my ears in slight surprise.

    That voice had a very simr timbre with Emma''s, and I could easily tell that she was a Whitefrost as well.

    In addition, her voice was filled with incredible valiance and authority that was absolutely undeniable and final.

    In my mind if there was a Queen of the world, she would sound exactly like that.

    Regal. Valiant. And powerful.

    "Aunt Eleanor?! She''s back??" James cried out in shock.

    "Aunt Eleanor? You mean, that''s Emma''s mom?" My jaw dropped in surprise.

    "Yes. And if she''s back, then Uncle Phil¡­" Margaret''s voice was filled with hope and anticipation.

    Whooshh!!!

    Instead of slowing down, Emma''s mecha suddenly exploded with additional speed as she turned towards the source of the voice and sped off that way!

    As you know, Phil Whitefrost, Emma''s father, had gone missing months before, and Emma''s mother had fallen off the grid to look for him.

    For her to be back at that moment, it could only mean one thing. Phil Whitefrost was found. Eleanor Whitefrost would never have returned until she found him, even if she had to spend the rest of her life searching for him.

    The only question was¡­ Was he alive, or dead?

    Emma was starving for news of her father, and I could imagine the fearsome emotions that must be exploding out of her heart at that moment.

    Within a couple of seconds, she was just a blip in the distance. And after another second, she was gone.

    Just like that, the day''s event reached its supremely anti-climactic end!

    And the victors of the day''s event were¡­

    "ALL HAIL THE FIRST GRADERS!!!!" Roared a hyper excited boyish voice from somewhere in the crowd.

    "HOOOORRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

    The survivors of the massive battle roared out their victorious cries!!!!!!!

    "All hail Sheera Lin!!! Goddess of War!!!"

    "Goddess of War!!"

    "Goddess of War!!"

    "GODDESS OF WAR!!!"

    We all fought a very good fight. But it was more than clear in our minds that the credit of our victory was mostly due Sheera Lin.

    She was the singr reason we won! If it was anybody else but her, we would have lost.

    It was so abundantly clear and undeniable that we all did not stop chanting "Goddess of War" for the next half hour as we grabbed hold of her and did a victory march around the massive kill zone that took the lives of almost thirty thousand mechas!

    It was a glorious, glorious half hour for us.

    We felt like the kings and queens of the world!

    Our celebration would have gone on for at least another hour or so if we were allowed to go on that day.

    But s, it was not to be.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The event and all of its exciting twists and turns might be over, but the day was still young. More surprises were actually awaiting us.

    VOOOOOOOOOOO!!

    VRRROOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

    VROAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

    Three very loud and very distinct sounds of advanced flight systems suddenly rang out from the sky.

    Our loud and ceaseless cheers were suddenly stopped short as we all looked up to the sky in unison.

    As expected, it was three mechas.

    But by god, they were beautiful mechas.

    I could tell that all three of them were essentially the same base mecha with simr red Chinese Federation Armed Forces colour and markings on their body.

    But they were geared very, very differently.

    The left mecha was a light mecha, and it was holding what could only be described as a stupidly cool alien-style rifle.

    The rifle was fully ck, and was full of spikes like a strangely long and rifle shaped sea urchin. It was definitely not designed to be part of the mecha''s standard issue rifle. In fact, I highly doubted that it was designed by human beings at all.

    Still, it was undoubtedly a rifle, and that made the light mecha a Sniper.

    The right mecha was a medium mecha, and it was designed to be a defensive medium mecha. A defensive medium mecha was a rather strange creature, as it would probably be better off as a heavy mecha if it wanted excellent defenses. But because it also wanted agility and speed, it had to sacrifice the final bit of excellence in defense in order to gain its desired speed and agility.

    But still, looking at the medium mecha''s massively thick armor and shield, I highly doubt that any standard heavy mecha was its match in defense. The only thing that made it still fall under medium mecha category was definitely its incredibly powerful flight module.

    It was able to move as quickly and be as agile as movement focused medium mechas thanks to its powerful flight module that looked like it was centuries ahead of normal mechas.

    And finally, the center mecha was a heavy mecha. If the right mecha could be described as a defense oriented medium mecha, then the center mecha could only be described as a walking fortress.

    It was ridiculously boxy and it looked absolutely imprable! The defensive module which it was using looked as stupid as the first mecha''s sea urchin rifle, and made it look like the Tin dude in the Wizard of Ozz.

    However, its flight module was thergest, and it produced the most earth shaking sound from its thrusters.

    I did not need to ask to know for sure that even if its as heavy as a mobile fortress, it would still be the fastest and most agile of the three.

    And the sight of these three incredible mechas, especially adding to the fact that they were all Peak White Mechas, made me think of five simple words.

    "Who the HELL are they?" I shouted into myms and asked my five team mates curiously.

    And for once, their answer was a simple "How the hell am I supposed to know?"

    "Sheera Lin. Justine Whitefrost. Margaret Whitefrost. Victor Long. Step forward. You are now members of the Military High Command. Come here, we will be taking you to HQ right away." A gentle and pretty voice sounded from the left mecha.

    However, none us made a move.

    "Come on. I don''t have all day!" Snapped the pretty voice.

    "You don''t have all day? So why don''t you leave and do your recruitment in the provided window of agreement, instead of breaking the agreement anding here to disrupt our lessons?" Bruce Pang''s Chronos suddenly appeared in the middle of the practice field!

    "Bruce Freaking Pang. Hello. Good to see you again. How are you? I am fine. You look fine too. Okay now that the small talk is over. Get the hell out of our way." The pretty voice snapped at my big bro once more.

    "No thank you. This is the National Mecha Pilot Academy. I am the Principal here, and every bit of airspace here is under my jurisdiction. If you do not stand down and cease yourwless recruiting drive, I am afraid that I would have to ask you to leave." Bruce Pang said calmly, but with a tinge of irritation already showing in his voice.

    Chronos was standing at eye level with them after going at full speed from wherever Bruce was hiding it!

    "Jurisdiction?" The pretty voice sneered. "There is no jurisdiction higher than the one I received after I joined Military High Command. You either give the four kids to us, or you prepare for a damn fight! Officially, I am advising you to give up the kids. But personally¡­ I''ve always wanted to see if the Mecha God is as good as they say!"

    "Mecha God? I am not a Mecha God. And no I will not fight you. You are not my match at all." Bruce Pang merely chuckled in response.

    He sheathed his twin rapiers and drew his massive, mecha sized greatsword and started to swing it gently.

    Like the pretty voice, Bruce Pang was actually required byw to defuse the situation. But also like the pretty voice, he wanted to fight her very, very much.

    So he merely pointed the massive mecha with his greatsword and beckoned her toe towards him with his other hand.

    "Julie. Go ahead and teach this punk a lesson." Came azy voice from the lead mecha.

    "Julie? Hmph. She is ten thousand years too early if she wants to challenge Bruce! Fight me first!" Came Jete Wen''s voice.

 Chapter 264 Jurisdiction

    Jete Wen''s Mecha Guardian, Void Walker, was a peak White Mecha just like the three guests from Military High Command.

    It was a beautiful shade of dark purple ck, and sported a powerful flight system that was leagues better than a standard white mecha''s. However, I could sense thatpared to the light mecha, it was inferior.

    "Still, with her lockdown skill, she should be able to handle Julie and her mecha easily. In the worst case scenario, if she gets overwhelmed by that cocky bitch, I can just boost sister inw''s mecha." I thought to myself.

    I had only met Julie for a few seconds, and I already disliked her.

    "Fine. Julie, beat up that little girl first before you deal with that punk." Thezy voice rang out once more from the lead mecha.

    However, before anybody could even think of anything to respond to that, a strange blue dome appeared around the three Military High Command mechas.

    "Chrono Vortex." Bruce Pang said calmly.

    All three mechas frozepletely within the blue dome.

    "Youe to my school. You try to illegally take away my students. And you want to beat up my wife. You think, I, Bruce Pang, am a joke of a man?" My big bro said in an ominously t voice.

    "Bruce..." Jete Wen said warningly in a voice that probably meant "calm down" in wife-speak.

    But my big bro ignored her.

    "Bruce. Stand down." A voice rang out from the distance as several mechas scrambled to make their way to our position.

    "Demoness Wang?" I nced at the iing mecha.

    "Demoness Wang? Ha! You already know my mother''s nickname huh?" Eliana Wang chuckled lightly from behind me.

    "Bruce!!" Demoness Wang''s voice shouted once more with greater urgency.

    But my big bro ignored her as well.

    I could tell that he was beyond pissed.

    Jete Wen was his hot button, and whoever thought that they could threaten her in front of him, and expected him to just stand by and smile, was either someone who had never heard of Bruce Pang before, or aplete idiot.

    And there was absolutely no one in the entire Chinese Federation who had never heard of Bruce Pang before.

    He sheathed his greatsword and drew his twin swords.

    It was a clear indication that he intended to take his time to do whatever he wanted to do.

    Like a specter of death, Chronos entered the blue dome unhindered and moved towards the leader of the three mechas.

    "You think the Military High Command has jurisdiction here? Let me show you exactly just how much jurisdiction you have." Bruce Pang said with a little sneer as a tendril of emotion finally crept into his voice.

    BAANGGGG!!!!

    In a lightning fast move that defied even my ability to follow with my eyes, my big bro attacked the lead tin man with his twin swords. But s! His armor was far too powerful for Chronos and his twin swords failed to prate it.

    All they managed to do was to create a slight dent in its armor.

    It did not look good.

    A dent meant that the armor was malleable. It was built to absorb attacks instead of outright resisting it. It was unlike armor that resisted attacks which would have cracked instead of bent after being attacked by my big bro''s twin swords.

    Malleable armor provided less protection to shockwaves against the internals of the mecha, but it was able to resist piercing attacks much better.

    My big bro would have been better served attacking the tin man with a war hammer instead of twin swords.

    But it didn''t matter.

    My big bro could attack with a little cutter if he wanted to, and he would still get what he wanted that day.

    Because I, his little bro who was no less pissed off than him, was there to help him.

    There was no bloody way I would let my big bro fail to vent his anger after having his wife threatened so publicly!

    I would make damn sure that my big bro smashed those three cocky bastards to pieces!!

    I smiled sinisterly and withdrew all my power boost from every single mecha and in a quick move, redirected them all into Chronos.

    In addition, I squeezed the red mecha core as much as I could and pushed every single ounce of red energy out of it.

    As if understanding my intention, the red mecha core obliged and released another ten percent of its power!

    ? Vooooshhhh!!!!!

    Streams of invisible red energy surged into Chronos from every single direction and instantly raised its power from a peak white mecha directly towards the boundary of a golden mecha!<novelnext></novelnext>

    My big bro paused for a moment as if acknowledging my little gift, before unleashing yet another blinding attack with his twin swords.

    SLASH! SLASH!!

    With extreme ease, his twin swords sliced the lead tin man''s arms cleanly off!

    "HOLY SHIT!! BRUCE FREAKING PANG!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??" Secretary Wang shouted in panic as she finally reached our position.

    Ever the diplomat, Secretary Wang was trying her best to maintain peace and harmony between the various powerful factions of the country''s leadership.

    But she did not make a single move towards the blue dome.

    Within the blue dome, Bruce Pang was god. There was absolutely nothing Secretary Wang could do to save the three fools.

    None whatsoever.

    But there was one who could.

    Secretary Wang whirled around to face Jete Wen. However, she shook her head before Secretary Wang could even say anything.

    "No." Jete Wen said.

    "For the Federation, you must!" Secretary Wang said loudly.

    "For the Federation, I must not. The Military High Command is too cocky. They need this lesson. Better discipline them now before the war begins, rather thanter during war time when we would not have the time and luxury to repair their mechas." Jete Wen said calmly.

    SLASH!! SLASH!!

    Another two simple sword swings, and the tin man''s two legs were sliced off.

    SLASH!! SLASH!! SLASH!! SLASH!!

    Without missing a single beat, Bruce Pang sliced off the four limbs of the light mecha.

    However, he left the medium mecha alone. The pilot did not say anything earlier, and Bruce Pang had no beef with him.

    Calmly, Bruce Pang took all eight sliced off limbs and walked out of his Chrono Vortex.

    He stopped right in front of Jete and the Demoness, proceeded to tie the limbs up with some sort of metallic rope and then very casually stretched out his hand to present the bundle to Jete Wen.

    "Thank you Bruce." Jete Wen said very sweetly as she epted the bundle.

    My big bro tilted his head slightly in my direction to indicate that he had received critical help from me.

    "Roast pork for both of you tonight." Jete Wen announced loudly.

    "Hmmmm. Roast pork is good." Bruce Pang nodded before turning around and disengaging his Chrono Vortex with a simple wave of his hand.

    Voosh.

    "YOU INSOLENT BAS-" Julie in the light mecha started to shout.

    But Bruce Pang cut her off with yet another wave of his arm as a mini, single mecha sized Chrono Vortex appeared around her and froze her once more.

    "This is the National Mecha Pilot Academy." Bruce Pang said in a t voice to the tin man leader. "And this is the amount of jurisdiction you have. Go, and get the ck General himself toe apologize to me for what you did. And to pick up this little girl. If not, then you will just have to make do without her."

    Any reasonable person would have retreated and reported the incident to the ck General.

    But when had the Military High Command been reasonable?

    "Hahahahahahahahahaha!! Good! Very good!! The Principal of the National Mecha Pilot Academy, Bruce Pang is intending to rebel against the Federation!! Very well! The Military will mobilize to restore order!" The tin man leaderughed out loud as a beam of orange energy exploded out of his mecha''s flight module and shot upwards into the sky.

    Booom!!!

    The orange energy exploded and painted nearly the entire mountain range with some sort of orange energy!

    "F***!! You men are all f***ing idiots!." The Demoness Wang cursed loudly before turning around to fly back to her office as fast as possible.

    "Orange energy? What''s that?" I turned to ask the other five kids.

    But all of them shook their heads and indicated that they too had no idea.

    I turned around and continued to observe the drama that was still unfolding before us, hoping that I would quickly get a clue as to what was going on.

    "Very good. The Military High Command is rotten to its core. This is a good opportunity to cleanse it. I shall start with you." Bruce Pang waved his hand once more and unleashed his Chrono Vortex upon the other two mechas once more!

    But at that moment, thepletely limbless leader and the medium mecha suddenly shimmered and disappeared from the positions, causing my big bro''s Chrono Vortex to catch nothing within it.

 Chapter 265 Stronger!

    You think the Military High Command is full of fools who would get caught in your weak ass attack twice in a row?" The tinman sneered as his limbless mecha appeared a couple hundred meters away.

    Two hundred meters in a mere blink of an eye. His movement speed and eleration were both godly!

    Voooom!

    The sonic boom only appeared a split secondter.

    "Astral Imprisonment! Kneel down in abject worship of me now!" The tinman shouted as his mecha eyes glowed a fearsome yellow.

    Shreeeeeekkkkkkkkkk!!!!

    The panels on his body and on the limbs which I had cut off earlier suddenly detached themselves and shot out towards my big bro!

    Prak! Prak! Prak!

    Although the move had a very high sounding name called "Astral Imprisonment", it was actually merely the coordinated movement of high density armor panels that could serve as a prison of sorts. It had nothing to do with stars, nor the power it affords us.

    Still, as crude as it was, it certainly looked solid and effective.

    For most white mechas, they would probably be held in ce for many long moments, far, far too long in a high speed and high powered mecha battle.

    It may not be a lethal move, but it certainly opened the door for every single lethal move avable to be used upon its victim.

    All things considered, it was a good move!

    "Impressive. The Military High Command had developed its famed Autonomous Armor System to such a degree. Your research team is truly a source of pride for the Federation. But too bad for you, it is still nothingpared to the technology which my Academy has developed. Let me show you the REAL Astral Imprisonment!" My big bro said very calmly as Chronos shimmered for a brief moment before disappearing from sight.

    "Hmph. You think you have monopoly in movement speed and eleration! Chase!" The tinman snapped at my big bro and immediately sent his flying prison panels to chase down my big bro!

    Like my big bro earlier, those panels shimmered and disappeared from my sight as well.

    What followed was a high speed battle that was so fast it might as well be invisible.

    None of us could follow the movements of the panels and of Chronos!

    I was probably the only one able to somewhat follow the progress of the battle through the feedback of my highly advanced resonance with Chronos and those flying prison panels.

    What I was able to sensepletely astounded me.

    I knew that the Academy had its own research and development team. I mean, how else did Jete Wen''s fantastic Void Walker get its incredible skill that allowed it to send groups of mechas temporarily into a different space time continuum?

    Or how did Chronos and its supreme time dtion skill get not only invented but also developed so amazingly into battle grade applications?

    I knew that their research and development team must be insanely good.

    But I had never figured out just how insane their insanely good was.

    Until that moment.

    Bear in mind that we have ONLY just finished our exploration and adventure from the ocean.

    Literally JUST FINISHED.

    And there Chronos was, already sporting not just one new killer move in the form of the Chrono Vortex, but two.

    Yes.

    Chronos had another secret move up its sleeve.

    Nano Prison.

    The Nano Prison was exactly as its name suggests.

    It was a prison made up of nano particles. And what my big bro did in that particr battle against the flying prison panels was to simply unleash his nano particles to surround each and every panel.

    And within a single minute, every single armor panel was captured by Chronos!

    His nano particles permeated into every single nook and cranny of those flying prison panels and gave their control directly to my big bro.

    And in a movepletely filled with delicious irony, the flying prison particles turned around smartly and surrounded the limbless tinman in an instant.

    "Weak." My big bro simply said with a well earned sneer.

    "You!! You had breakthroughs in the applications of your nano particle technology? And you did not report them to the Military High Command? Traitor!!" The tinman shouted in shock as his rather slow brain finally realized that his ultimate move had been overpowered sopletely and so miserably perfectly that his opponent even gained full control of it!

    "Shut up and sit nicely down there in the practice field. I have the rest of your pathetic "Quick Respond Warriors" to capture." My big bro waved his hand and dumped the captured limbless tinman unceremoniously down to the ground.

    Of course, as someone who hated inefficiencies and seeing good things to go waste, I did not hesitate in sending my red energy to rob the limbless tinman of everything its peak white mecha had of value.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Within a few short moments, I was savoring the delightful knowledge of ridiculously powerful flight systems which hadmon sense physical parameters sted to smithereens.

    The specs of the performance which its design afforded me was unlike anything I had witnessed before, and Ipletely suspected that Chronos'' ultimate skill of time space dtion was based at least on several aspects on the tinman''s technology.

    "Impressive." I couldn''t help but mumble.

    However, I did not ce much of my attention on my discoveries. The highly entertaining scene that was developing right in front of us students were still just at the beginnings of its white hot climax, and the fun had only just begun.

    The medium mecha was no pushover, and its pilot had decided that the honor of the Military High Command needed to be defended, andpletely without a word, he attacked.

    And once more, the ancients got it right.

    Still waters run deep.

    The medium mecha''spleteck of words was an extremely sharp contrast to his fighting skill''spleteck of weaknesses!

    Whoosh!

    He disappeared from sight.

    But instead of attacking as I thought he would, he actually kept his distance and brought out its rifle!

    Pew! Pew! Pew!!

    "Ah damn it. An efficient enemy." My big bro cursed a mere split second before he too disappeared from sight.

    Bang! Bang! Bang!

    From every single direction, rifle shot after rifle shot rang out andnded on every single weak spot in Chronos!

    My big bro instantly sent Chronos on evasive maneuvers and tried his best to close the distance between him and the medium mecha.

    But s! Even though Chronos had the higher speed, the medium mecha moved in such a deceitfully erratic but strange movement pattern that Chronos found himself often overshooting from his intended target and allowed the medium mecha more time to remain alive!

    "Too much speed." My big bro''s voice rang out from my personalms. "Reduce my eleration by seventeen point three five percent exactly and my top speed by twelve point three percent exactly. I need my perfect handling back!"

    As instructed, I lowered his power a little bit.

    "Should I take care or weaken your enemy a little bit?" I asked him graciously.

    "No." My big bro replied firmly. "These three punks are an eyesore to the Federation. I need to make sure I defeat thempletely from my overflow of strength rather than rely on cheats. Afterall, after defeating them, I would still need to be able to recruit them into my faction. Or at least, do not hinder my faction from getting things done.

    To do that, I need to defeat them fair and square."

    Vroo! Vroo! Vroo!!

    Unlike his extremely short fight with the tinman, his fight with the medium mecha took much, much longer.

    And unlike his fight with the tinman, I could also sense some sort of respect and restraint in my big bro''s actions.

    Just who in the world was the pilot in the medium mecha?

    ng! ng! ng!! Vrooo!!

    After receiving an instant tuning to his mecha''s power, my big bro was finally able to close the distance and engage the medium mecha in closebat.

    To my surprise, the medium mecha was actually able to match my big bro in terms of fighting skills!

    He wielded his shield beautifully, blocking every single attack my big bro sent his way.

    And his skill with the sword¡­ Sublime.

    "This is the power of a real professional soldier of the Chinese Federation?" My jaw dropped.

    It was insane!

    "Hey, that medium mecha is so skillful. He can actually fight Principal Bruce on even grounds? Impressive!" Eliana Wang shouted loudly.

    "No. Justin withdrew his power boost on us to give it to the principal. That medium mecha is actually fighting with a disadvantage. And he is able to ovee it! He is¡­ more skillful than the Principal! He is stronger than the Mecha God!" Margaret said softly in awe.

    "Impossible! The Mecha God is the best fighter we have in the country! There is no way that there is a better fighter in the Military High Command. I refuse to believe it!" James said firmly.

    But refuse as he might, the evidence was right in front of our eyes.

    The fight was dead even!

 Chapter 266 General From The Long Family

    It was glorious.

    Nobody expected that they would be treated to such an insanely high level fight that day.

    The kids were there for their daily lessons, and the scouts from the various military departments were there to look at kid-level battles.

    Never in their wildest dreams could they imagine that they would be watching an exhrating battle between two peak white mechas!

    And especially not after the disastrous start to their meeting.

    However, after several rounds of high speed exchanges, these two peak white mechas seemed to be particrly full of respect and restraint for each other, even to the point of allowing their speed to drop so much that we were able to watch them fight.

    The peak medium mecha wielded his massive greatsword as though it was merely a light scimitar and unleashed several mindblowing attack sequences from behind his shield.

    If you have not seen a greatsword being wielded like a light scimitar, then you probably would not be able to imagine the sheer power and fearsomeness that the medium mecha was exhibiting at that moment.

    There was no ungainly massive swings with difficult to recover follow throughs.

    It was just a mountain severing type of greatsword shing down one way in one moment, and then reversing itself with extreme power at the next moment.

    Against any other mecha but Chronos, that medium mecha would have definitely made a mincemeat out of his opponent.

    But Chronos was the King of Speed.

    He was able to easily match the medium mecha''s incredible attack speed. And not just that, with my shameless infusion of power, he was also able to match the medium mecha''s power!

    ng! ng! ng!

    My big bro wielded his twin swords with simr agility and easily parried the medium mecha''s greatsword attacks.

    However, one telling and slightly worrying fact was that my big bro needed to use BOTH lightweight twin swords to be able to parry the medium mecha''s very heavyweight greatsword!

    "This is ridiculous. Who the hell is piloting that medium mecha? There was no way that the military have such a skilled pilot that isn''t ranked! And we KNOW every single pilot who ranks above THE Bruce Pang of the National Mecha Pilot Academy!" James shouted with great emotion and curiosity.

    "How many pilots rank above Bruce Pang?" I asked him curiously.

    "A better question would be, how many LIVING pilots rank above Bruce Pang? And the answer is three. And two of those three are old military generals who had served for probably ten thousand years and racked up a stupid amount of contribution points." James replied.

    "Wow, so Bruce is the fourth ranked living mecha pilot in the Federation? That is insane!" I couldn''t help but shout in surprise. "And who is that final person who ranks above him and isn''t an old undead?"

    At my words, a strange silence suddenly appeared for brief moment.

    "Phil Whitefrost. Emma''s dad." Margaret finally said.

    My mind instantly raced at the Margaret''s words.

    "Holy smokes, could that be¡­" Eliana Wang sputtered in shock.

    "First, Emma''s mom appeared, and now someone who is more skilled than Bruce appeared. This couldn''t be a coincidence! It must be uncle Phil!!" James cried out excitedly, just as the medium mecha''s massive greatsword somehow slid past my big bro''s incredible defenses and dealt a powerful blow on him!

    BANG!!!

    The power behind that massive sword attack was so ridiculous that Chronos went flying off at high speed!

    And at that moment, my resonance suddenly tingled.

    At least a thousand hyper powerful blue mechas bordering on white mechas had appeared a couple of kilometers away from our position!

    ? And not only that, they were approaching us at extremely high speed!

    "Big bro! A thousand blue mechas on steroids iing!!" I shouted into my personalm with him.

    "A thousand blue mechas only? Ha! Just sit back rx and enjoy the show." My big bro replied back almost instantly even though he was still flying away.

    Strangely, there was no anger in his voice. In fact, there was even a strange tone of satisfaction in it!

    "Something deeply interesting is happening right in front of me, and I have absolutely no idea what." I thought as I rxedpletely and prepared to enjoy a massive sh of real soldiers.

    "Will the instructors take the field and fight those thousand blue mechas on steroids? All of our instructors are highly ranked warriors. In fact, Grand Elder She is almost at rank ten thousand. In terms of active ranking, she should be around three thousand! I don''t think that the top three thousand warriors of the Federation would be in that thousand. It would be in- WHAT THE HELL?" A shocking development broke my line of thoughts.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Mechas from the National Mecha Pilot Academy shot out of secret hangars nearby and faced the thousand mechas.

    But instead of sending out hundreds, only two came out to y.

    And judging from the resonance I detected, they were both Mecha Disciples of the Blood Moon.

    Normally, a single white mecha would be enough to ughter thousands of blue mechas.

    But these were not your regr blue mechas.

    Each of them were so powerful that they were truly putting the definition of blue mechas to the test.

    I mentioned that they were blue mechas on steroids earlier.

    Well, that was just a simple and understated way of describing those thousand freaks.

    Ten of them would probably be enough to deal with a regr white mecha.

    Maybe to be generous, thirty would be required to deal with the souped up white mechas that were the Mecha Disciples of the blood moon.

    With two Mecha Disciples out, they could probably tie up sixty of the thousand. Maybe even a hundred.

    But that left nine hundred more blue mechas that would bepletely free to roam the academy and do their nefarious objectivespletely unchecked!

    WEEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOO!!

    WEEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOO!!!

    Sirens all over the academy red as defensive turrets appeared everywhere and locked on to each and every one of the thousand mechas.

    And in a startling move that probably left every single power spying upon the exciting drama unfolding within the academy, thousands upon of thousands of drones started to appear as well.

    Each one was in the shape of a rare weapon - The Gunde.

    The Gundes quickly took to the skies and locked on unto the thousand mechas as well!

    "Stop or we will fire." An utterly t and emotionless female voice sounded from one of the Mecha Disciples. "You have three seconds toply. Three. Two. One. Fire on the mechas that are still moving."

    However, thankfully, the thousand mechas froze as soon as they heard her voice.

    "Ha! Those cowards heard Big Sister Hiry''s voice and immediately obeyed like a bunch of scared cats!" James sneered loudly.

    "Big Sister Hiry? Who that?" I asked him.

    "Hiry Whitefrost. A famous Military Tactics Instructor of our academy. She is famous for being cold blooded and ruthless." Elise Wang said.

    "Why would one thousand mechas of the Military High Command know of her and be afraid of her?" I asked in slight confusion. It didn''t make any sense to me.

    "Of course they know her. Big sister Hiry was an instructor in the Military High Command Cadet Corps before she mysteriously decided to teach in the academy. The day she joined the academy, I heard that the Military High Command Cadet Corps had a week long party to celebrate." Margaret exined.

    "So these thousand mechas are all her ex students? Hahahahaha! What an interesting development!" I hooted loudly.

    "Most probably. And a couple of their leaders were also probably her colleagues. And if how she treats her colleagues here in the academy is of any indication on how she treated her colleagues there previously, then those leaders must be very, very, very scared of her. In fact, they are probably more afraid of her than the students are!" Eliana Wang said rather excitedly.

    "Why? What did she do? Quit talking in half stories and tell me the juicy parts!" I pressed them for details.

    "Well for starters, she doesn''t talk much." Eliana Wang said. "She is a cold, cold person. No hi. No bye. Just concise words to get what she want. But that''s not the reason why everyone is afraid of her.

    The main reason why her colleagues would be extra afraid of her is because¡­"

    "Are you sure you want to do that? You may not be her colleague, but you are technically her student." Elise Wang warned her twin sister.

    "Uh. Ehm. Yes. Let me tell you privately." Eliana switched to privatems.

    "The reason is because¡­ she would beat up EVERY single person who said ANYTHING bad about her or the Whitefrost n, specifically Russel Whitefrost." Eliana Wang whispered. "And rumor has it that she even beat up a General of the Army once for saying bad things about the n in front of her! And to make matters worse, that General is from the Long Family!"

 Chapter 267 Teacher

    "ACHOOO!!" General Peter Long sneezed loudly. "Some bastard is talking shit about me."

    "Ha! If talking shit about you can make you sneeze, then you would probably have died long ago you old coot. Just admit you''re sick and eat some flu medicine! Don''t just sit there and spread your damn virus to us!" Admiral Terry Weiughed at him loudly.

    "Yeah. Get the hell out of here, you sick man. I want to enjoy this fight between the Military High Command and the National Mecha Pilot Academy! That t and emotionless voice sounded very familiar. I wonder if I know her from somewhere?" General Anthony Chang pondered aloud.

    "I never fall sick. I never sneeze. I only sneeze when people talk about me." General Peter Long insisted and caused the other two generals tough at him.

    But as it turned out, General Peter Long was right.

    We WERE talking about him.

    "HOLY MOLY. She is a spicy one! She actually beat up a General from the Long Family? That''s insane!" I shouted loudly in our public chat instead of personal chat with Eliana.

    "Huh? From the Long Family? Oh my god. So she beat up General Peter Long?? No wonder she transferred out of the Military High Command!" James shouted in response to my words.

    "You bozo. Now you''ve done it. Why the hell did you reply in public chat? She will find out that we were talking about her and beat us up for sure now!" Eliana Wang was so pissed at me that she actually swung her mecha arm and gave me a punch.

    Bang.

    And did absolutely nothing, of course.

    "Don''t worry. I don''t think anyone would bother to listen to our conversation." I said confidently to reassure her. "Who would be so uselessly bored and jobless to do such a thing among the group of people who have ess to our records?"

    I waspletely wrong, of course. There was a HUGE bunch of such uselessly bored people, but that''s a story for another day.

    "So, it really was General Peter Long, huh? The Military High Command is a ce for special individuals protected from mostmon gradews. But punching THE General of the Army is definitely not one of thews they are protected from. What the hell, I am surprised that they did not jail her! General Peter Long is NOTORIOUS for being cold blooded and ruthless too!" James continued on excitedly.

    "You might as well spill all the details. We''ve reached this point, if she actually found out and decided to beat you up, she''ll beat you up with or without the additional details." Margaret advised her disciple.

    "Yes Shi Fu!" Eliana Wang shouted excitedly, pleased at finally getting an order from her new teacher.

    Margaret only sighed and kept quiet.

    She was probably thinking, " If being her teacher was what it would take to pry that near highly ssified information out of that Wang girl, then so be it."

    "I don''t know for sure if it was General Peter Long, because there''s another Long Family General -"

    "What? There''s another Long Family General? Who? Which division?" The usuallyid back and calm Margaret actually turned around and said to Eliana loudly.

    "Well done ana, now you''ve leaked not only one ssified information about the Whitefrost n, but also another one about the Long Family. Good. Now if they actually go through our conversations, they would probablyunch an investigation on how we got these ssified info." Elise Wang sighed.

    "Don''t worry, nobody is that bored and useless." I assured her again loudly. "Please go on Eliana."

    "Uh. Right. Hahaha! I forgot you guys didn''t know about the OTHER Long Family General. I mean, I have ess to SO many ssified info-"

    "ANA!" Elise Wang was so frustrated that she actually screamed out loud!

    "Hmmmmm." Margaret only hmmmed thoughtfully. She was probably thinking how far she could use that "Shi Fu" card to pry all the ssified information out of Eliana.

    "RIGHT! RIGHT!! BACK TO TOPIC!!" Eliana Wang was flustered at her triple mistake and shouted loudly. "She beat up the Long Family General and then was scouted by Jete Wen, the Vice Principal of our National Mecha Pilot Academy! And I don''t know what happened, but the Long Family General dropped all charges after that!"

    It took me but a single second to realize what happened. She got recruited into the Blood Moon and gainedplete immunity from petty charges like beating up a General.

    "Holy smokes, so I can beat up Generals freely now?" I remember thinking with not a small amount of glee and creative thoughts flooding my brain.

    But we did not go very far into that conversation before this Hiry Whitefrost did something totally crazy.

    Upon seeing that all of the thousand something Military High Command Blue Mechas on Steroids freezing with a simple threat from her, she sighed deeply in regret.

    "You guys still have not changed. Your cowardice will put me into a hell lot of trouble. All units, fire on their limbs and exact the price for trespassing into the Academy." Hiry Whitefrost said in her emotionless voice.

    And with that¡­<novelnext></novelnext>

    PRATATATATATATA!!

    PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!

    BRAABABABABABABABA!!!

    All sorts of powerful firing mechanisms switched on and unleashed a hellstorm of bullets and other destructive projectiles and energy beams upon the thousand mechas!

    Arms and legs were blown to smithereens as the thousand blue mechas immediately became useless and beat a hasty retreat.

    "ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION! ABORT OPERATION ORANGE AT ONCE!" Their leader screamed.

    VROO! VROO! VROO!

    I would never forget that very peculiar sight of a thousand mechas flying away without their limbs. As my big bro had said, it truly was a show to be enjoyed.

    A brief show, by all measures, but an enjoyable one nheless.

    With the main threat dealt with, all that remained of our entertainment was the fight between Chronos and that medium mecha.

    As one, all six of us swiveled our heads around to the fight.

    Chronos had returned to the battle and had decided to go all out in offense. His twin swords were sheathed and he wielded his massive greatsword with both hands.

    Both of the mechas wielded greatswords, but the difference was that the medium mecha wielded it with just one hand and my big bro had to wield it with both hands.

    And judging by the massive shockwaves that their sword shes were emitting, my big bro''s dual handed wield could merely match the medium mecha''s single handed wield!

    "What the hell. Is that really Uncle Phil? If he was, what the hell is he doing with the Military High Command?" James muttered.

    "The Military High Command IS the ce to be for all talented individuals. It would not be a big surprise if Phil Whitefrost decided to join it after surviving his tragedy." Elise Wangmented.

    My ears perked up at her words though.

    "Tragedy? What tragedy?" I asked.

    Amid the loud nging from fearsome fight that was still going on, Eliana Wang gave me a brief exnation of yet another highly ssified information.

    "Phil Whitefrost had been sent to join a "Multi Power Special Operation" which was abined force of highly talented individuals from the top five powers of the world. Their mission objective was super highly ssified and I was not able to crack the program that contained its information." Eliana Wang whispered. "He was reported missing three days into the mission, and the Multi Power Special Operation was disbanded. It was aplete failure, and since then, each country had been frantically building up their military."

    "Hmmmm. Something that could unite the top powers, even for a brief mission¡­" I remarked thoughtfully.

    "Yes. It must be an extraterrestrial threat!" Eliana Wang said with an excited, conspiratorial whisper.

    "Or maybe they discovered the threat from the ocean. But if they did discover that threat, why were Bruce and the Old Man so surprised at what we found in our ocean adventure? And so was the Demoness? Unless they did not manage to gain any confirmation before the mission was somehow derailed. And if that''s the case, then my ocean adventure did exactly what they set out to do¡­ And then some more! I even came back with huge bounty!" I thought excitedly.

    "Aliens! Oh my god. Are they real?" James asked excitedly.

    I was very tempted to reply "YES THEY ARE!". But I managed to hold those words in.

    At that moment, however, the fight finally ended.

    "Enough." My big bro finally said as his massive swing got blocked easily and the medium mecha found himself in perfect position to unleash a shield bash.

    Strangely, the medium mecha did as my big bro said and stopped fighting.

    "You have improved once more. Well done." Bruce Pang said with a slight tinge of ruefulness.

    "Teacher, you let me win. You would have made a mincemeat out of me if you had used your new skill." The medium mecha''s pilot finally said her first words.

 Chapter 268 Deathscythe

    "I am not your teacher." My big bro replied with augh. "And at this rate, I do not have any qualifications to be your teacher. I have nothing to teach you!"

    "Nheless, I would not be here if not for your kindness and your teachings. A teacher for a day, a father for a lifetime. Now that I am back, please ept my respects!" The medium mecha which handily defeated my big bro fell to her knees and banged her head to the ground three times.

    "It''s good that you''re back. And it''s good that you still remember your debts. Now that you''re in the Military High Command, do your best to serve the country humbly and loyally from there." My big bro said with satisfaction and with a notable emphasis on "humbly".

    "Your student will never forget your teachings and your instructions!" She replied from her kneeling position and stood up.

    However, after saying those things, she did not leave.

    "The academy will never give up her students. You, of all people, should know that very clearly." My big bro said evenly.

    "Yes, teacher. But even so, I must insist. This is for the sake of the Federation. We must have the best pilots, give them the best mechas and let them undergo the best training so-"

    "The best mechas?" My big bro said with augh that was not augh. "The best training? Quesera, have you been away from us for so long that you have forgotten what you went through with us?"

    "I have not forgotten a single moment of the time I spent in this academy, not a single lesson, nor a single word which you have spoken, teacher." Quesera said softly. "And those memories, above all my mission directives, are the reasons why I must have those four kids."

    "You are so convinced of the superiority of the Military High Command Cadet Corpspared to the National Mecha Pilot Academy?" My big bro asked with a slight tinge of sadness in his voice.

    "Yes, teacher. We are in a much better position to provide the top students of the Federation with the right tools and experiences to seed in the uing crisis." Quesera replied.

    "Very well. You may have them." My big bro conceded.

    Quesera, and all those who knew my big bro well, remained silent.

    We all knew the sky would fall first before he would give up so easily.

    As we expected, he was not done yet.

    "IF¡­ You can defeat them. If you can''t even defeat my first student, which I consider the dumbest, then your Cadet Corps have no business taking away my students." My big bro said calmly.

    "I ept those terms." Quesera said calmly and with supreme confidence.

    "Good. I suggest you don''t hold back. This student of mine will ughter you otherwise." My big bro said with purposeful provocation.

    Quesera only replied by reseting her shield and greatsword to enter battle stance.

    "Justin Whitefrost. Step forward." My big bro called out loudly.

    "Howe I am not surprised?" I said to him drily in our personalms.

    "Hoho. You will be. Get your ass out here quickly!" My big bro said to me privately.

    I stomped my way forward to where he was standing just as he raised his hand up.

    VROOOOOOO!!!!!!!

    A powerful resonance suddenly exploded in my heart as my jaw dropped.

    I looked up and beheld the arrival of the mecha which I would use for a very, very long time.

    Not then, of course. My big bro was only lending it to me in public. But sometime in the future.

    It was Deathscythe.

    A loud roar of envy rippled out of the crowd and out of every spectator.

    "WHATTTT!!!!? THAT-THAT-THAT WHITEFROST PUNKKKK!!!!!! LUCKYY!!!"

    "Oh my Lord. What on earth is that mecha?! It''s so fierce and so bloody cool!!"

    "Is that the Mecha Disciple, Deathscythe? Oh my God. That scythe looks extremely¡­ deathly!"

    "What the hell. He is too lucky! First his secret tech, then the Barbarian ss Mecha, and not a Mecha Disciple? Is the Principal nuts?"

    "I do not think that the Principal is actually giving him the Mecha Disciple. NO F***ING WAY. He is just loaning it to him. Definitely!"

    The crowd''s roar of indignance, envy and disbelief were to be expected, of course. But I never realized that the Military was also extremely envious of the academy''s Blood Moon.

    "Bastard. He''s unting that Mecha Disciple. AIDE! WHERE ARE YOU AIDE!" General Peter Long roared angrily. "SEND THE FORMAL COMPLAINT TO THE PRESIDENT AGAIN! I WANT THE BLUEPRINTS TO THAT MECHA!!"

    "Beautiful. Very, very beautiful. I would trade my ex wife, my current wife, and five of my future wives for that mecha." General Anthony Chang said the words that would make him an eternal bachelor many yearster.

    "You''re crazy. But I can understand why you''re so crazy. That Deathscythe truly is something. Damn it. I can take it if Bruce Pang the Mecha God gets to pilot Chronos. But a dumbass first grader now gets to pilot Deathscythe?? Gah. This National Mecha Pilot Academy is pissing me off." Admiral Terry Wei said with deep jealousy.

    The Twelve Mecha Guardians and Twenty Four Mecha Disciples were a tier by themselves, even whenpared to the entire Military.

    Only mechas owned by the ridiculously funded Military High Command which operates above and over the entire Military could rival them.

    And when I took that first step into the cockpit of Deathscythe, I instantly knew why.

    The cockpit was a very simple design, just afortable pod where I could lie down and bepletely submerged by breathable nanotech that would connect me to Deathscythe with seamless perfection.<novelnext></novelnext>

    I slid into it with great anticipation.

    Hummmmm.

    The mecha powered up and then¡­

    WHOOSH!!!!

    My senses were suddenly expanded!!

    I opened my eyes and..

    "WHAT THE HELL?" I shouted loudly and was instantly silenced when I heard my voice echo loudly down the entire valley.

    "Hey! Language!" My big bro said sternly.

    But I was too shocked to care.

    Because well¡­

    The mecha had connected directly to my brain and hadpletely superimposed itself over my senses!

    In other words, I was looking out through the mecha''s eyes, and speaking out of the mecha''s mouth!

    It was an insane concept, and it was definitely only something the National Mecha Pilot Academy researchers coulde up with.

    I looked down at my massive mecha body and felt the cool of my supremely cool Scythe''s metal grip.

    And then I grinned.

    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

    I swung my Scythe lightly and then leapt up before smashing it down on the ground!

    Schlebb. BOOM!!

    The Scythe''s de pierced the ground very easily before its massive rod smashed it to pieces.

    I was satisfied.

    Very satisfied.

    I was able to control Deathscythe perfectly like controlling my own body. The technology that was used in the construction of Deathscythe was truly decades ahead of its time!

    In addition, the material of the Scythe itself felt truly superior to anything I had ever seen or resonated with.

    I developed a huge itch to absorb it and recreate it right there and then so that it would be part of me.

    But of course I did no such thing.

    Too many eyes were on me.

    "Good movement. Listen up. You are no match for her skills right now. Well, you might never be a match for her, ever, for that matter. So don''t bother trying to y fair. I need you to overpower her like a dragon stomping down on a little puppy. Do you understand?" My big bro said to me privately.

    Iughed out loud at his words.

    "You''re asking me to shamelessly unleash all of the power from my red mecha core, get up to gold mecha standard, and rip her limbs out the way you did her leader?" I asked my big bro privately to confirm my mission directive.

    "Yes. Do that. As shamelessly as you can. As decisively as you can. As ruthlessly as you can. And most importantly¡­ As quickly as you can. I want them to feel like that puppy I mentioned earlier!" My big bro said clearly without mincing any words.

    "Stomping on a cute little puppy. Got it. I will do that." I replied with a smile.

    "Good. Go now and end it quickly." My big bro said while pointing at the medium mecha.

    And with that, the stage was set.

    Boom.

    I leapt up once more and positioned myself a couple hundred meters away from her.

    In the world of mechas, a couple hundred meters was like four meters away in real life.

    She raised her sword up in salute and introduced herself politely.

    "My name is Quesera Giannis, from the 101st Special Forces Battalion of the Chinese Federation. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

    Any other polite son of a gun would have raised his own weapon in salute and introduced himself to her.

    But I was a junkyard scrapper through and through.

    I did my introductions with my Scythe.

 Chapter 269 No

    KABOOM!!

    My super enhanced movement system that almost reached the boundaries of gold mecha standard exploded to life and flung me forward with extreme speed.

    In less than a blink of an eye, I covered a hundred meters.

    Swoosh BOOMMM!!

    I swung my Scythe forward in a high speed, sweeping sideways attack that broke the sound barrier in an instant.

    However, my attack hit nothing but air as Quesera Giannis easily avoided my attack with a perfectly timed back step powered by her own ferociously powerful movement system.

    "You must be that trash from the junkyard." Quesera Giannis said calmly.

    The fact that she said it in an as a matter of fact voice made her words cut deeper and triggered my fury like nothing before.

    BA-DUMP

    BA-DUMP

    BA-DAAAMMMM!!!

    By that time, my red mecha core was very familiar with my trigger points, and just like clockwork, as soon as my anger spiked, it went into overdrive and unleashed a full fifty percent of its power, instantly propelling me into a gold mecha grade fighter.

    A golden mecha is a truly fearsome creation. At its peak, it contained the nuclear explosive strength that was capable of bringing an entire continent to ruins.

    With just fifty percent of my upgraded red mecha core, I was already able to reach such great heights!

    And against a mere peak white mecha, I was truly like a dragon going up against a cute puppy.

    The only thing was, it wasn''t just your normal cute puppy. It was a puppy with a powerful rocket strapped to it.

    It was zing fast!

    And despite my much greater power, I did not yet have the system that would allow me to properly harness that power and wield it properly.

    In car terms, I was probably a 900 horse power race car that only had a tachometer that went up to five thousand revolutions.

    In a battle of strength, I was able to explode out and ruin every single white mecha into ashes easily.

    But in a battle of finesse, I waspletely outssed.

    "Damn it! I need to absorb a golden mecha''s software and systems as soon as possible!" I cursed loudly. "This mecha is far too powerful for my set of controls. Let me trim it down to triple a peak white mecha''s output. That way, I will be still strong enough and agile enough to fight this Quesera Bitch!"

    I immediately put my words to action, and my power dropped by many, many times.

    And as I expected, as soon as my power dropped, mybat efficiency actually rose.

    I was no longer a dragon in front of a cute little puppy, but an oversized wolf!

    And against a hyper fast little puppy with a rocket strapped to its back, an oversized wolf was perfect.

    Wham! Wham! Boom!!!

    We exchanged a quick series of probing attacks to roughly gain a rough gauge of how strong each other was, and we both came out in awe of each other after that.

    Not that we revealed it directly.

    "The Mecha Disciple truly lives up to its name, and even more! You must be really special to be entrusted with Deathscythe. But remember, the higher you go, the harder you fall. Today, I will make you savor the taste of falling from your great height!" Quesera said cooly in an indirect praise for me.

    "You''re good. But you talk far too damn much. Your head will be my most prestigious trophy in my personal hangar." I sneered at her and praised her slightly more directly.

    After I said those words, just for an instant, I wondered if this Quesera girl was someone who was somewhere around my age.

    But I quickly dispelled such insane thoughts.

    "How could she be? She did call big bro her teacher, but she''s probably a twenty year old or something." I thought right before Iunched another flurry of attacks at her.

    Bang! Bang! Bang!

    Every attack I sent out was so overpoweringly forceful that it actually pushed her at least a couple of steps back.

    "I may not be the most skilled fighter out there, but I should be enough to hold my own." I continued to think rather smugly after we rapidly exchanged a couple hundred hits and sent her retreating for several kilometers back.

    But s, I was sorely mistaken.

    As soon as most of the kids were out of sight, she suddenly shifted gears.

    "I am giving my teacher face by not humiliating you publicly in front of him and his students. But now that we are far from most of the eyes upon us... this farce ends here." Quesera said quietly.

    And then, like a full blown tornado developing right before my eyes, I could only stare in horror as she sped up again and again and again and again until she became aplete blur!

    It would be good to note right here that I was capable of reaching her speed right there as well. But as I said before, I was not able to harness such power!<novelnext></novelnext>

    There was no point going so fast if I were to miss every single attack I make by a mile!

    But there she was, straddling the beast that was speed, and very efficiently manipting it with even worse systems than I had, and making her hitsnd at me urately over and over again!

    Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

    Her attacksnded on me like so many massive sledgehammers falling upon me from the sky.

    If I was not the freak that I was, I doubt I would have survived three of her attacks.

    "No wonder big bro said that I might never reach her level of skill. She truly is a monster!" I thought with a frown. "I am already a mega freak who had absorbed not only mechas, but also Horse Gavarels! And then, I was even purified by Princess Augustine! My physical reflexes and response time are second to none! But why the hell is she able to do what I can''t?"

    I strained my senses to see just how she was doing it, to see if I could discover some sort of secret.

    But there was none.

    She was simply physically maneuvering her sword arm in perfect sync with her body each split second she passed me by, and allowed the sword to brush past my mecha.

    She was also able to urately bnce out the recoil from her attack and factor that into her stability while flying round me!

    She was a monster!!

    But s for her, monster or not, there I was, standing solidly like a rock after tens, then hundreds of attack.

    And to make things much worse for her, I waspletely undamaged!

    Just who was the monster?

    Vreeeeee!!

    After a couple hundred attacks, she finally stopped.

    Not that she had given up, but because her greatsword and her massive shield had beenpletely destroyed.

    Shended on the ground heavily and flung her sword and shield away.

    "Are you trulypletely undamaged?" She asked with a slight pant. That two hundred strike high speed attack sequence had drained a lot from her, and she was probably fatigued.

    "Hahaha! Is that all you''ve got, weakling from the Military High Command? If so, then it''s my turn! Take this!!" I shouted as I burst ahead and struck at her with my Scythe.

    As before, she avoided my attack easily.

    But after studying her attack style and stood at the receiving end for two hundred full attacks, I would be the world''s greatest dumbass if I did not learn a single thing.

    And I was no fool.

    In fact, I thought I did pretty well.

    Although I did not fully replicate her attack style, I got quite close to it.

    And with a Scythe, no less!

    Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!

    It took me less than fifty strikes to bring her down.

    Actually, two hits would have done the job.

    But that Quesera Giannis was a real demoness. She was really good at dodging!

    I missed a full forty eight attacks and was about to despair beforending a beyond lucky hit on her which threw her bnce off for a split second and allowed me tond a second hit to finish her off.

    Bam!!

    Her broken mechanded heavily on the ground.

    Vroo! Vroo!

    Instantly, two mechas hiding in stealth which even I failed to detect revealed themselves in the sky andnded gently next to her.

    One of them bent down to pick her up, and the other turned to face me.

    No, not me, my big bro.

    He had instantly made his way to stand in front of me the second the two mechas went out of stealth.

    "Bruce Pang, esteemed Principal of the National Mecha Pilot Academy. Your research and development team has done it again." The second mecha congratted him sincerely.

    "No." My big bro replied without even bothering to listen to his question.

 Chapter 270 Phase Two

    "

    Let''s trade." The second mecha pilot said directly to the point.

    "No." My big bro replied stubbornly. "Get Quesera and get the hell out of my academy."

    "Exactly my point. I am willing to trade Quesera for the schematics of the Deathscythe." The second mecha pilot said.

    I expected my big bro to curse him and continue to shoo him off the premises of the academy, but to my surprise, he remained silent.

    "She will resume her studies at the National Mecha Pilot Academy and she will have no ties to the Military High Command Cadet Corps. You will gain a highly skilled student, and for absolutely no loss on your side. In fact, the Federation will benefit from a strengthened Military High Command!" The second mecha pilot continued.

    "I have made my report to the president. You have absolutely no way of recreating any of the Mecha Disciples, and thus it ispletely useless for you to gain the schematics. To minimize the risk of the schematics being leaked to other powers, I was instructed not to share those schematics with anyone. That is a direct presidential order. You should know that." My big bro said tersely and fairly.

    "I am not aiming to recreate the Mecha Disciples. I just want the blueprint for study and research. There is great value for my researchers in studying a masterpiece!" The second mecha pilot said stubbornly as well.

    "I will not vite the presidential order." My big bro replied calmly.

    "Hehehehe. Bruce Pang! I have been waiting for you to say that. Here! Take a good look at this!" The second mecha pilot cackled loudly and beamed a projection of what seemed to be a recently signed presidential order.

    In short, the order instructs all organizations toply with the requests of the Military High Command.

    It was a sweeping instruction that could have allowed the second mecha pilot to brute force his way to get his blueprint without even needing to propose a trade.

    But he was extremely politically savvy, and he knew that if he brute forced his way using that particr presidential order, he would piss off Bruce Pang and cause him to seek revenge. And that would be disastrous for him.

    In fact, it might even result in the president revoking that order entirely.

    So he sweetened the deal with my big bro''s weak point - his care for his students.

    Offering to return Quesera Giannis was an extremely shrewd move.

    It worked like a charm.

    But of course my big bro was no pushover, and he was a master of negotiation.

    And aw of negotiation simply states that - Never ept the first offer.

    "No." My big bro said after a while. He purposely paused to indicate that he was interested, but rejected him outright to tell him that his price was far too low.

    "Quesera is by far the biggest genius of her generation!" The second mecha pilot pressed. "Having her in your academy would increase your chances of winning the Tri Annual Mecha Competition!"

    "That championship trophy is ours with or without Quesera." My big bro said casually. "I don''t need her to win it."

    "Fine. Quesera AND Keenan Williams! The two girls are the best of their respective generations! That''s my final price! No more!" The second mecha pilot shouted loudly.

    He may be a godlike fighter, but he truly sucked at negotiations.

    Guess what Bruce Pang did in the face of the second mecha pilot''s over excited negotiation style?

    "No. If that''s all you''re prepared to trade, you''re wasting my time. Get the hell out of my academy before I mobilize the Blood Moon!" My big bro took out the big guns and pushed him a little bit.

    "Wait! Wait! Fine! Both girls AND Park Ha Jin! That''s my- WAIT!! And the blueprints to my flight module! That''s fair, right? You get blueprints to improve your mechas!" The second mecha pilot shouted desperately.

    Behind him, I could see the first mecha shake his head lightly. He knew that his leader just got ripped off.

    "Quesera, Keenan, Ha Jin, and a measly flight module blueprint? For a full Mecha Disciple blueprint? Are you sure that''s fair? Would YOU take that trade if you were me?" My big bro chuckled lightly

    "I would!" The second mecha pilot dered confidently. "In a heartbeat!"

    "Of course you would. You have no idea just how valuable the Mecha Disciple blueprint is. If you know, you would reject it outright like I am doing now. Enough of this farce. Go away if you''re not serious." My big bro turned around and started to lead me away.

    That''s the perfect definition of walk away power. In any negotiation, you must always, always maintain walk away power.

    Walk away power is the full knowledge that you can walk away from the deal if it isn''t beneficial for you.

    Not having walkaway power would simply put you in a position where you would ept even a very crappy deal.<novelnext></novelnext>

    And that was exactly what was happening to the second mecha pilot.

    Seeing my big bro start to walk away was probably like seeing the sky start to fall!

    He quickly did what most desperate negotiators would do in such situations.

    He went all in.

    "FINE!! TAKE YOUR PICK OF FIVE STUDENTS FROM MY CADET CORPS! AND FULL BLUEPRINTS FOR THREE MECHAS!" He shouted loudly. "AND. THAT. IS. MY. FINAL. OFFER!"

    My big bro turned around to face him once more, and simply said one word. "Deal."

    Bang.

    The first mecha was so frustrated that he actually ced his hand on his head!

    "Huh? De-deal?" The second mecha pilot said in confusion. His emotional state was in aplete mess as he wanted to rejoice over his sess in getting what he wanted, and as he wanted to cry due to the massive price he had to pay for it!

    "I will visit your HQ tomorrow to settle our deal. You can leave Quesera here with me. Now go! I still have a lot to do before the day ends!" My big bro said as he quickly leapt forward to take Quesera out of her downed mecha.

    Her mecha cockpit opened, and out came a little girl, looking like she was just fourteen or fifteen years old.

    "Oh my god. She is so young!!" I eximed loudly. "What the hell? Why are there so many crazy geniuses out there?"

    "Hohoho Margaret. You have a rival now. Do you think you can win a fight against her?" James asked teasingly.

    However, Margaret replied very seriously.

    "I will be able to defeat her in three months." She said.

    "Three? Why three? Why not two or four?" James asked curiously.

    "Three months is all I need to get used to high grade mechas and push their limits. Once I do that, I will defeat her without a doubt." Margaret said.

    "Really? So you''re saying that the you right now is better than Bruce Pang? Because that girl can win against him in a straight up fight!" James said.

    "I don''t need to be better than Bruce Pang to defeat her." Margaret said with a smile. "Justin did that, didn''t he?"

    "Justin is a cheater." James promptly replied.

    "And I am not?" Margaret asked very simply.

    "Hahahaha! Long live Shi Fu! That''s the spirit!!" Eliana Wang shouted gleefully.

    "All is fair in love and war. Why use conventional and righteous methods if we can cheat our way to victory? Hehehehe." Elise Wangughed as well.

    "It seems that you will probably get to put your im to the test. Look. She''s entering Chronos, and the Military High Command dudes are retreating!" James said excitedly.

    "Finally! Is our day finally over?" Olivia eximed. "I am beyond exhausted!"

    "It is over. Look, Bruce is rising up to the sky and the instructors are joining him! All hail grade one! All hail grade one victors!!" Elise Wang yelled out loud and caused the rest of the first graders to explode out with cheers once more!

    But the National Mecha Pilot Academy would not be as notorious as it was if things happened the way we expected them to simply because we thought that the day had ended with theing of night and dinner time.

    "First phase of today''s mission had beenpleted perfectly. The first graders have won it. Well done, and now we will enter phase two of today''s mission.

    The second phase of today''s mission is very, very simple.

    Fifty of your instructors will enter the battle ground in intervals of one minute for a total of fifty minutes. Their primary purpose is to take the gs from you, and their secondary purpose is to destroy all of you.

    The second phase will end in your victory if you are able to secure at least 2 gs by the time the timer for 1 hour hits zero.

    Ready? Set? Go!" My big bro shouted loudly and caused the entire crown of surviving first graders to be stunned!

 Chapter 271 Go There And Spank Him

    With that, the first instructor in a standard grade light blue mecha dived down from the sky where all fifty of them who would be participating were gathered.

    "What the hell?? I am starting to get extremely pissed!"

    "Yes! This isn''t fair! We are being bullied! My mommy will hear of this!"

    "Damn right! Just so you know, my aunty works for the Ministry of Defense!"

    "This is bad! Even the instructors are joi-"

    "Shut up and get to defensive formation!" Sherry Lin shouted loudly.

    "Justin and Sherry, kill that mecha within one minute. The rest of you, fifty men circle formation. Rifles inside, melee outside!" Sheera Lin ordered calmly. "Aim for the instructors, fire only when you are confident, fire at will."

    "Back up hit squad, Victor Long and Hailey Long. Wang twins. Tes and Olivia. On me, and get ready to move on mymand. Two gs on me, the other four to be held by Rnd, Barrick, John and Gerald." Sheera Lin continued giving orders even as Sherry and I started to attack the heavy mecha.

    My big bro was not pulling his punches in today''s lesson at all. I mean, yes he did stagger the participation of the instructors into fifty one minute intervals.

    But that''s hardly being generous.

    Those instructors were in standard battle grade blue mechas!

    And if he wasn''t pulling his punches, then neither would I.

    With a ferocious roar, I charged in and swung my massive scythe towards the light mecha!

    But the instructors weren''t dumb.

    They knew that the we are all depending on me and Sherry to quickly defeat them, so that first light mecha waspletely geared to waste my time!

    Vroo!!!

    Its heavy thrusters exploded to life and flung the light mecha away at high speed!

    But by that time, I had finally devoured all of Deathscythe and replicated it without anybody noticing.

    I hade into contact with the strange Dark Energy based material that ran through its mecha core, and had mastered the unique skill it provided.

    "Hmph. I bet you didn''t think I would be able to master Deathscythe''s signature skills so quickly. Well my high profile big bro, I will show you just what I am truly capable of. Dark Requiem - Zombie Hands!"

    Within a kilometer radius around me, the ground turned slightly darker in color and then near invisible dark energy shot out from the ground where the light mecha was and grabbed hold of it!

    Crash!!

    The light mecha hit the ground heavily and immediately sustained heavy damage.

    Not one to dally, Sheera Lin ordered the nearest mechas in their circle formation to open fire.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    And just like that, the first instructor fell.

    "ALL HAIL JUSTIN! ALL HAIL SHERRY! BANE OF INSTRUCTORS! HORAAAAHHH!!" A high pitched hyper excited voice which I was almost a hundred percent sure was Rnd Hu rang out from the distance and triggered a massive cheer to rise from the first graders.

    "HOORAAAAAHHH!!! THE INSTRUCTORS AINT SHIT! THE INSTRUCTORS AINT SHIT!!! WE RULE! WE RULE!!" A particrly excited boy got carried away and shouted extremely loudly.

    I could already imagine the faces of some of the instructors at that moment.

    The instructors of the National Mecha Pilot Academy were all ferocious fighters and prestigious researchers who were leaders in their fields.

    Being insulted by first graders who still wet their beds sometimes at night probably made even the most stoic hearted of them all burn slightly with zeal.

    Zeal topletely destroy us, that is.

    Zeal to teach us a good, good lesson that would put the fear of God in our hearts.

    But to do that, they needed to take me down first, the shameless, cheating first grade version of their own leader Bruce Pang.

    And as if choreographed, all remaining forty nine pairs of eyes swiveled towards me in unison, and stared daggers at me.

    "Oh great. Just great." I muttered as I readied myself to greet the second instructor. "As if they weren''t strong enough already. Now they will just be royally pissed off and bloodthirsty instead of just being their usual fatallypetent selves."

    Very soon, the second instructor dived down from the airborne group.

    It was a medium mecha wielding a massive overlord spear that I found extremely familiar.

    "I know that spear. I''ve seen an instructor wie- oh shit. That''s ck Kong!" I gasped in slight horror.

    Very slight, of course. I was in Deathscythe which was already a peak white mecha prior to my power enhancement.

    "What do I have to fear from a mere blue mecha?" I grinned to myself and prepared to attack using my scythe.

    However, a split second before ck Kong reached my position, I realized that the resonance which his mecha was giving off was definitely not a blue mecha''s!

    ck Kong was in a white mecha!

    And not just any white mecha, it was a peak white mecha!!

    "What the hell????" I shouted in real horror as ck Kong''s ridiculously massive overlord spear smashed down towards me in even more ridiculous speed.

    BANG!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    I did not manage to position my scythe in a proper parrying position. But it was fine, because I was an overpowered shameless bastard.

    The overlord spear recoiled from my poorly positioned scythe like a bouncing ball.

    "Ha! You think you''re shameless? I am the king of shameless bas-"

    Bang!!!

    Before I could finish my taunt, ck Kong had utilized the momentum generated from his massive recoil to swing his spear and smash it urately on my left knee!!

    It was a ferocious strike that pushed me to utilize the full power of my triple peak white mecha grade Deathscythe just to remain on my feet!

    Bang!!!

    While I was busy focusing on maintaining my bnce, ck Kong smashed his armored head onto my chest, causing me to finally lose my bnce and start to fall backwards!

    Bang!!

    ck Kong whirled his overlord spear and smashed in on my chest powerfully, to elerate my fall to the ground!

    BAM!!!

    I fell bodily to the ground in a situation that reminded me a lot of my recent experience fighting with Sherry Lin in the Grand Melee.

    However, very much unlike the situation in the Grand Melee, I was under nopulsion to limit my power. Plus, I also had Deathscythe''s ultra powerful Dark Requiem - Zombie Hands.

    So I did exactly that and allowed my power to spike all the way up to a golden mecha''s! And at the same time, I unleashed Dark Requiem - Zombie Hands on ck Kong to stop his ferocious attacks on me.

    However, to my surprise...

    Crackkk!!!

    The Zombie Hands I unleashed on ck Kong actually cracked and broke into pieces!

    "This ck Kong''s mecha is no ordinary mecha! Is he part of the Blood Moon? But I do not remember seeing this particr mecha in the Blood Moon hangar." I thought to myself.

    ck Kong was barely slowed for a split second by the Zombie Hands!

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    His flurry of attacks continued to rain down on me.

    But I waspletely unflustered.

    At my level, I was able to ignore such low power attacks.

    I brushed his spear strikes aside and slowly stood up. Like a God of Death, I gripped my Scythe lightly in my right hand and then casually swung it towards ck Kong.

    Whoosh.

    ck Kong leapt back an avoided my sledgehammer of an attack easily.

    I was slightly overly cautious with my attack. Being a golden mecha, killing ck Kong was as easy as killing an ant. And unlike Quesera who had a supremely powerful flight system which allowed her to fully avoid every single one of my attack while uratelyunching hundreds of her own, ck Kong''s peak medium mecha was a normal peak white mecha.

    I was both faster and stronger than ck Kong.

    But who was ck Kong? He was one of the strongest fighters in the Federation! It was not his style to receive pity nor special consideration fron first graders, no matter how ster they were!

    "You are too soft hearted, kid." ck Kong''s voice came from his mecha. "If you have an advantage, use it to the full. Stop being a wuss and attack me properly!"

    I was not a wuss, of course. And after receiving such a warm invitation, I went from a casual ten percent exertion to a hundred percent in an instant.

    Slice! Slice! Slice!

    I whirled my scythe and aimed to slice off ck Kong''s limbs!

    But he was still slightly too fast and too cunning for me.

    The easiest attack to dodge and counter was the one you knewing.

    He dodged my attack by the barest of margins and unleashed a ferocious counter attack on me!

    Wham!!

    His overlord spear smashed onto my head with all of his tremedous power!

    But s, his strongest attack barely made a scratch on my head! I was much, much too strong for him!

    Bam!!!

    I continued to act on his advice and smashed my left fist into his belly where it promtply disintegrated under my savage attack.

    His peak white mecha crumpled down to the ground just as myms burst into life.

    "GOD DAMN IT JUSTIN! DO YOU THINK WE HAVE INFINITE RESOURCES? BE GENTLE WITH THOSE PEAK WHITE MECHAS!! YOU BASTARD!! BRUCE FREAKING PANG! ABORT THIS FARCE AT ONCE!! EITHER SEND THE WHOLE BLOOD MOON AGAINST HIM OR ABORT! DAMN IT! WE HAVE A WAR TO PREPARE!!" Came the Old Ancestor''s furious voice.

    A secondter, Bruce Pang''s voice came through thems as well.

    "Blood Moon. You heard the old man. Get your asses down there and give that little boy a spanking."

 Chapter 272 Scary Ass Beak

    It was only at that moment that I finally came to a deep, profound realization.

    The first graders, and I, were not the one being put through the grinder of experiential learning.

    It was everybody else!

    I don''t know who or when they made that decision, but sometime in the course of that supremely long day, the leaders of the Academy decided that if we were so damn bloody strong, and if I was so damn bloody invincible, why not use us as a sharpening stone?

    And so all the kids were sent to destroy us, the Military High Command, the instructors, and at that moment, even the Blood Moon!

    It was the only usible reason as to why they would continue sending all those poormbs to the ughter even after knowing that I could wreck ck Kong''s peak white mecha with a single punch.

    Bruce wanted everybody to have a taste of fighting with surprising enemies that were above their power level.

    And that enemy was me.

    However, before the Blood Moon could mobilize, the shrill wail of the Federal Air Raid siren suddenly sounded!

    Judging by the sudden burst explosive actions from the top leaders, they too were caught by surprise.

    "CLASS DISMISSED! ALL STUDENTS GO BACK TO YOUR DORMS!" Vice Principal Jete Wen shouted loudly as she took to the skies.

    "First Line Instructors! Battle Formations! Second Line Instructors, secure the students! ck Kong, get yourself a mecha and get your ass to the front!" Bruce Pang ordered.

    The massive hum of hundreds of mechas moving in a calm and organized manner gave the urgent situation a controlled atmosphere.

    But there was no denying the sudden electric charge of tension that surged through the entire student poption.

    Their practice mechas immediately powered up as emergency protocols activated and brought all of them towards their respective practice fields by their dorms.

    "Justin. Come along with me and let''s see what we can devour this time." Jete Wen''s voice came through myms.

    "dly." I replied and immediately took to the skies after her.

    Crackle!

    Myms crackled to life as it was included into the high level discussions of the military higher ups.

    As the Federation''s ace in the hole, it was just good sense to have me included in the real time discussion based on real time intel, age be damned.

    "Initial reports indicate that a massive army of airborne lifeforms have broken through the Federation''s hundred mile barrier from the south." Came Secretary Wang''s sombre voice.

    "The Navy is on it. Our Quick Response Teams have set up our initial line of defense fifty miles out. We would have contact in thirty minutes." Admiral Terry Wei said.

    "Our airforce is scrambling. I have all the southern units on alert five, and they are ready tounch at a moment''s notice." General Anthony Chang added.

    "The Ghost Squadron is on the move." Came a soft but extremely creepy voice which waspletely impossible to determine whether it was male or female.

    "Good. Have the Special Forces from each Academy on alert five as well. We don''t know what their intentions and targets are. The kids must not be in danger at any cost." Secretary Wang said.

    "Acknowledged."

    "As youmand."

    "Of course."

    ...

    The responses from the various Academy Heads came swiftly.

    "General Peter Long. Do you have an update for us?"

    "The Army is being mobilized all over the Federation, and I am having them stand their ground for the moment. We do not know if this is merely a feint or a real push. However, the southern units are on alert five as well. All transports and mechas are manned and ready to move at a moment''s notice." General Peter Long said gruffly.

    "Feint or real, the fact remains that this massive army is a real threat. We need to secure the southern border." General Anthony Chang said in slight disagreement.

    "Use the tactical nukes on them." General Peter Long said stubbornly. "I will not leave the interior of the Federation unprotected."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "General Peter Long has a point." Russel Whitefrost''s heavy voice sounded. "Let the army remain in position. Allow me to lead the coalition Civillian Army to the south and secure the border in the event of and based push urs."

    "I agree with General Peter Long. I say we nuke them. No mercy for our enemies." Said a male voice I did not recognize.

    "No. As always, nukes will be our final resort." A deep and authoritative voice rang out. "For now, the Navy and the Airforce will hold the line fifty miles out. Bruce will lead a Special Forces team to execute Operation Roast Pork. Based on his results, we will or will not send the Army south. Russel Whitefrost will assumemand of the Southern Civilian Army and reposition to South Point 12. All units standby for further orders."

    "Yes Mr President." Came everybody''s instant reply before a ringing silence settled on thems to indicate the adjourning of that particrms channel.

    Crackle.

    "Where are you? Fly faster kiddo." Came Bruce Pang''s voice through myms.

    "Operation Roast Pork huh? I hope this operation will be as epic as it sounds." I replied as I increased my speed.

    My Deathscythe sped through the air and zoomed after Bruce Pang and Jeae Wen who were flying rtively slowly to allow me to catch up.

    "It will be. I immediately proposed this operation because of your performance earlier." My big bro said with a slight chuckle.

    "Really? Is that army made up of biomechs or something?" I asked eagerly.

    "Spot on." Bruce Pang replied. "If everything goes well, you will be a very fat and very full little boy in fifteen minutes time, and the iing army will be shells of their former selves and will fall at the first salvo of the Navy''s wall of bullets."

    "Hoooo. You want me to keep them mobile while absorbing everything else that does not contribute to their ability to fly forward?" I asked with my eyes gleaming in anticipation.

    Fifty percent of my red mecha core was already active by that point, and my capacity to devour other mechanical units had more than quintupledpared to before.

    Furthermore, my ability to send out my red energy to take over other machines had increased very significantly.

    In fact, I was rather itching to do that.

    "What if I could gain control of a general or two from within their army, and get them to fight each other? Wouldn''t that be better? We don''t have to fire a single shot, and I can freely absorb whole biomechs in the chaos." I suggested.

    "It would be a deviation from our mission objectives, but I daresay that the President would have no issues with that." Vice Principal Jete Wenughed out loud. "Go ahead and try to do that while I update him."

    "Alright. Let''s do this. Follow me you two!" I shouted as I increased my speed once more and shot past the two of them.

    Voooom!!!

    Chronos exploded with great speed and easily kept pace with me, while Void Walker took a slightly longer time to catch up.

    Not much longer, though, for she too was an exceptional peak white mecha.

    Within minutes, we reached the beach, and another short minute saw us shooting past the Navy''s fifty mile defensive line. And very soon, the "massive army" which Secretary Wang had mentioned earlier came into view.

    As I had expected, they were an ocean based race which were fully decked out in airborne gear. Initial observation ced them at approximately a million in strength.

    Like the Horse Gavarels, they were freaks of nature which I had never seen before.

    They were bird-like creatures with three pairs of scaly wings stacked on top of each other, and a strange long tail that forked at the end like a snake''s tongue.

    Their bodies were covered with ck scales which made them look more like snakes than birds if not for their three pairs of wings.

    Their beaks were thick and sharp, and looked like they could easily rip a man''s tummy apart and feast on his innards with but a single dip of its head.

    On its own, it was an absolute horror to face.

    In a massive host of a million, the word terrifying barely scratched the surface of what I felt.

    "What the hell? Are they really from the ocean and not from some hell underground mountain in some secret location in the bowels of the earth?" I shouted loudly when I got my first clean look at them.

    "They are from around the South East Asian countries, right above the Indian Ocean. We have caught a couple of them before, but without the three pairs of wings and that scary ass beak." Jete Wen said.

    "Those are their breathing and flying apparatus. Actually if you want to destroy this entire army, you can just devour those two things. But I like your n better. Lets just get them to fight each other." Bruce Pang said.

 Chapter 273 I Am Not Dumb

    "Abit inefficient and slow, but more satisfying, and much safer. I guess until we find our real enemy, we need toy low and avoid exposing our real capabilities. We would be better served if we depend on sabotage and use their own swords to kill them." Vice Principal Jete Wen remarked.

    "I need to first identify their leaders to do that. Help me look fo-"

    "There. Go crazy."

    I had not even managed to finish my sentence before my big bro lit up their leaders with an invisible marker that bathed them in ring red lights visible only to his allies.

    It was the perfect technology for the perfect situation.

    "Perfect. Here we go! Get your popcorns ready!" I dered happily and sent red energy spears shooting at the ten presumably fieldmanders of ten massive hundred thousand strong armies.

    They were all advancing in ten distinct columns, and their respectivemanders were in flying in front of each column.

    In a blink of an eye, I gained control of those ten peak blue mecha grade biomechs, and it took me a mere three seconds to understand the dynamics of the army and another half a second to figure out what I needed to do.

    "SAVAGE BLUE FINS! THEY WERE THE ONES WHO KILLED BIG BUTT MOMMA!!" I made one of the fieldmanders shout out very very suddenly to rip out a bandaid that was stered over a centuries old blood feud between two major tribes.

    "What? So it was them all along? THE CEASE FIRE ALLIANCE IS A FARCE! THEY ARE BACKSTABBING US!! AMBUSH! AMBUSH!! BIG BUTT TRIBE, COUNTER ATTACK NOW!!" Screamed the fieldmander''s very talkative and highly paranoid second inmand.

    "Uhh. Okay that works really well." I couldn''t help but mutter as the second inmand continued to scream and galvanize the central hundred thousand strong army to turn to their right and charge straight into their neighboring army!

    "ATTACK!! ATTACK!! THE BIG BUTTS ARE BREAKING THE ALLIANCE AND SNEAK ATTACKING US! BLUE FINS! KILL THOSE BIG BUTTS!!"

    "Horaaaahhh!!!!! Attackk!!! Attackk!!!"

    "Blue fin bastards! You killed our Big Butt Momma who had the biggest butt in the history of our tribe! She would have given birth to a Mega Butt Warrior if she was allowed to live longer! You killed our future! Die!! Diee!!"

    "Big Butt Bastards! We didn''t kill your Dumbass Big Butt Momma! Who the hell can stand such an obscenely big butt? We would not even want to think about her, much less n an attack on her! But since you''re so intent on dying, then die here!"

    I couldn''t help butugh at their very long battlecries that exined in detail their thoughts in explicit terms.

    Who the hell fights that way?

    But that''s how they roll, and we were content to merely sit back andugh and enjoy the show.

    Plus I wasn''t done as well.

    "AH! NOW I REMEMBER! THE BIG BUTT MOMMA IS THE ONE WHO STOLE OUR CHUBBY CHEST PAPA''S VIRGINITY!! THAT SLUT! CHUBBY CHEST TRIBE! ATTACK THE BIG BUTTS!!" Screamed one leader hysterically.

    "WHAT? Why would our Beautiful Big Butt Momma want to steal your fugly Chubby Chest Papa''s virginity? Pui! Pui pui pui!" Came the instant response from the Big Butt Tribe members and Big Butt Momma diehard fans.

    "Our Chubby Chest Papa would never want your Blubbery Big Butt Momma! But she seduced him, that slut! I saw her winking and shaking her butt at him at ourst mass mating gathering!" I made the fieldmander scream once more.

    "WHAT? SHE SHOOK HER BUTT AT OUR CHUBBY CHEST PAPA? CHUBBY CHEST TRIBE!! NO MERCY!! ATTACKK!!" Came the outraged roar of shock from the vicemander of the Chubby Chest Tribe!

    "SHE DID NOT!! SHE DID NOT!! WHY WOULD SHE GIVE AWAY HER FIRST BUTT SHAKE TO SUCH A FUGLY FISH!? SLANDER!!! KILL THOSE FUGLY CHUBBY CHEST TRIBE MEMBERS!!"

    I had barely made half my nned moves before all chaos descended on the massive million strong army and Jete Wen very nearly dropped out of the sky due to excessiveughing.

    "Ahahahaha¨C haaaaa¨C haaaaaaa!! Haaaa¨C I hahahaha can''t breath! Hahahahaha!!" Sheughed and choked and gasped and struggled to remain breathing and alive.

    "I thought the South Koreans were the most dramatic life forms in the universe with their endless global hit drama series. But these damned ocean based arseholes are actually worse." My big bro muttered.

    "You are already impressed by only this much drama? Wait till I pull out the big guns. Here, watch this." I chuckled at him before getting the fieldmander of a tribe of particrly buffed and huge birdies to turn to his tribe members.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "JELLY BELLIES!" Roared the fieldmander at the top of his lungs. "I JUST GOT A SECRET MEMO FROM THE JELLY BELLY KING THAT HE JUST GOT SEXUALLY MOLESTED BY BIG BUTT GRANDMA!! KILL THE BIG BUTTS!!"

    "NO!! JELLY BELLY KING!! HOW DARE YOU BIG BUTTS!! ATTACKKK!!!"

    "OH NO! IT WAS NOT JUST BIG BUTT GRANDMA! CHUBBY CHEST PAPA SEXUALLY MOLESTED HIM TOO!!"

    "KILL THE CHUBBY CHEST BASTARDS TOO!!!"

    Bruce Pang: ¡­ ¡­ ¡­

    Jete Wen: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!

    Like the Horse Gavarels, those strange ocean based birdies were a primitive life form which had been forcefully advanced in terms of technology. Their mental maturity level was around the level of seven to eight year olds, and to make it worse for them, they also had egos the size of mountains.

    With all their petty grievances and childish attitudes, getting them to field a million strong army and proceeding together peacefully up to that point was probably already a miracle above all miracles on the part of the mastermind.

    But such a fragile peace was beyond easy for me to rip apart, and the million strong biomech army which could probably have steamrolled over the southern part of the Federation easily ended up at each other''s throats within seconds of my intervention.

    And within minutes, a huge number of them also ended up as nutrients in my red mecha core, which was no longer just a bright red colour. By that time, it was slightly darker in shade, somewhere near maroon, but not quite there yet.

    Poof! Poof! Poof!

    I aimed for most of the vicemanders and the obvious leaders of the massive army to plunge them into deeper chaos while I continued to force the fieldmanders to scream and point wordlessly to force their soldiers onward to kill their brethren.

    But I needn''t have bothered.

    Nothing on the face of this earth could have sorted out their differences that fateful evening, and the ocean birdies were tearing into each other wildly and savagely.

    I had a great time that evening.

    I reckon that by that time, I was capable of physically fielding my own army of one million mechas already. I mean, I have the raw materials to do it. But I did not have the mental capacity to actually get it done, much less control them after I am done.

    "I need to somehow upgrade myself, or create a system that could help me automate my one million mechas." I thought to myself. "It won''t be easy, but if I can do that, then I would be a walking million mecha army. Nothing can stand in my way! Still, at the very least, I should be able to manifest a massive fortress around myself if I ever need to. I am probably invincible right now! MWA HA HA!"

    "This is good." Jete Wen said with satisfaction. "This will make the perfect headlines for tomorrow''s global news update. "Million Strong Ocean Lifeform Army Attacked The Chinese Federation But Got Destroyed In One Night. No Nukes Used. What Secret Weapons Do They Have?" The Secretary would be pissed."

    "Hahaha. She''s too political for her own good. She''s trying too hard to make us look docile and harmless. Sometimes, it''s good to put a question mark in the minds of our potential enemies. Make them wary a little." Bruce Pang couldn''t help butugh at his wife''s obvious pleasure at the trouble she just caused the Demoness.

    But at that moment, a familiar voice suddenly sounded.

    "Hey you Chinese weaklings. You guys sure are lucky. These Ocean Eagles actually quarreled and got into a civil war right in front of your doorstep! Damn it. Here I am, thinking I can force you to pay me good money to lend a hand in defense. Bah! Bah!!!"

    It was the European girl in her golden mecha!

    "Don''t forget. We do not know her." Bruce Pang''s voice instantly sounded through myms.

    "I know, I know. I am not dumb." I grumbled.

    "HEY! That''s a pretty scythe you got there. Give it to me!" The European girl shouted at me.

    "Give you? COME AND GET IT YOU EUROPEAN BITCH!" I shouted angrily.

    "And he said he wasn''t dumb." Bruce Pang sighed to Jete Wen.

 Chapter 274 In My Belly

    The appearance of the European golden mecha put to rest any hopes that Jete Wen had on making the world wary of the Federation''s power.

    The question mark that she wanted to appear in their minds vaporized.

    Well, actually it probably wasn''t even there to begin with.

    There was no way that such a massive energy signature would go unnoticed by the powerful satalite cameras.

    The two superpowers probably already had 8K Ultra High Definition video on every single angle possible of the entire army.

    But we never did know just how powerful were their spy cameras. Were they powerful enough to pierce through the Federation''s scrambling signals as though it doesn''t exist? Or were they affected to some degree?

    So there was that bit of hope still, which was effectively dashed by that European bitch.

    "European bitch? Ha! I haven''t exercised my right to kill for a couple of weeks now. I guess I''ll exercise it on you and take that scythe off your pathetic-"

    BAM!!!

    I casually and sneakily fired a powerful energy beam from an energy cannon I just created on her face to shut her up.

    "Right to kill? How about I give you the right to SHUT THE HELL UP?" I shouted at her before charging towards her to attack her!

    "Justin! What is wrong with you?" My sister inw shouted in exasperation.

    "Leave him be." My big bro said calmly. "That little girl really needed to be taught a lesson. She truly is too much. If Justin could stomach her actions without reacting, then he would be too weak."

    "Weak? How is having self control for the sake of avoiding a war with the Europeans considered weak?" Jete Wen shouted at her husband.

    "War with the Europeans? Hardly." My big bro chuckled. "I reckon the two superpowers are probably discussing the pros and cons of granting us semi-superpower status and an alliance this very moment. They cannot afford a war with us right now in the middle of the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced. Justin can beat up this little bitch ck and blue, and we''ll bepletely fine."

    "You are so sure that the damn Europeans won''t take this chance to attack us while we are facing the brunt of the Oceanic Tribes invasion?" Jete Wen asked doubtfully.

    "When the lips are gone, the teeth would be cold. It would be in their best interest to have a healthy and powerful Chinese Federation to be the buffer against the Pacific Ocean Tribes. They still have the Antic and Arctic Ocean to worry about." My big bro said sagely.

    "Fine then. In that case, BEAT UP THAT BITCH, JUSTIN!" My sister inw shouted loudly to encourage me.

    But I needed no encouragement.

    I was quite pissed off at that stupid European bitch, and was unleashingplete hell on her.

    We were both golden mechas, but she had golden mecha grade systems which allowed her to unleash the full power of her mecha, while I didn''t.

    But I did have my red mecha energy, and Ipletely abused it by devouring several keyponents of her software and causing it to glitch.

    Of course I also did not forget to devour several keyponents of her hardware too.

    Within seconds, I had transformed a mighty and awe inspiring golden mecha into a mere punching bag.

    BAM!!

    BAM!!

    BAM!!! BAMMMM!!!!

    I unleashed a torrent of high speed punches on her while easily dodging her weak ass, super slow motion attacks.

    "Take this! I was not able to teach you a lesson for all the trouble you gave mest time, but now that Devour is half awake, it is enough to bash the hell out of you!" I thought with deep satisfaction.

    "What ze hell?! Baztard! Wait! What eez wrong with my mecha??!! Piece of sheeet!!" The European bitch was panicking so hard that she reverted to her cute French ent even as she cursed at me and at her mecha vehemently.

    WHAM! WHAM! BAMM! BAM!!!

    I continued to unleash hell on her with a gleeful heart, relishing the joy of thrashing a much more powerful mecha until I remembered a simr but particrly bad experience several months ago with Amelia Dragonos.

    In an instant, I leapt back and switched from punching her to bashing her with my scythe.

    "At least I would have the time and space to react if she ns on throwing mecha virus like that Amelia Dragonos bitch." I thought to myself.

    But to that European girl, it seemed as though I was about to get serious and begin dicing her up.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "WAIT!! WAIT!!!! I AM PRINCESS LOUISA FROM THE EUROPEAN EMPIRE! I CAN GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU ASK FOR! DON''T KILL ME!!! HELLPP!! HELLPPPP!!!" Princess Louisa screamed out hysterically.

    "She has lost it. This is our chance! Justin, get the damned birdies toe andpletely overwhelm us, thenpletely devour that European golden mecha. Quickly!" My big bromanded me.

    Without hesitation, I unleashed as much red energy as I could and started to control as many biomechs as my brain could take.

    Hundreds, then thousands, then almost ten thousand biomechs from every single tribe fell under my control. And then on at a time, I made their leaders turn towards us, point at us and start screaming unintelligible words.

    And then as one, I made them all surge towards our position.

    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

    Seeing almost ten thousand of their number suddenly rushing towards where their leaders were pointing and screaming at, the rest of the surviving army quickly followed.

    When they all hadpletely overwhelmed us, Ipletely devoured the golden mecha!

    Poof!

    It''s supremely powerful golden mecha core was the first to go. Followed by its supremelyplex and powerful systems.

    I absorbed half of its body and turned the remaining into one smaller mecha that looked like the twin of Deathscythe. I dumped Princess Louisa into it and locked it down.

    "Dive into the ocean. Jete, shield us and let''s make our way home on the ocean floor." My big bro ordered.

    "Wait, give me a minute." I said as I took a deep breath before crushing the original ten thousand biomechs into particles and quickly sending them deep into the ocean before reforming them into smaller, peak blue mecha versions of deathscythe!

    I repeated the cycle for four more times before finally nodding at my big bro to indicate that I am ready to go.

    "Let''s go." My big bro said. "Can you shield fifty thousand mechas?"

    "Of course. Not for long, but enough to enter our secret underground entrance." Jete Wen replied.

    Jete Wen covered us in some sort of void energy and we all dived into the ocean.

    Very quickly, we made our way further out towards the south.

    I scrunched up my face in extreme concentration as I tried my best to move all fifty thousand blue mechas after us.

    But it was extremely hard!

    "Damn it, these blue mechas are really hard to control! There are too many of them!" I shouted at the two of them.

    "Tell me why the hell are we lugging home so many blue mechas again?" Jete Wen demanded crossly. She had to expend a lot of energy to shield them from detection using her void energy, and she was exhausted too.

    "To increase our strength, of course!" I snapped back at her.

    "Why the hell don''t you transport them in particle form then? You can reform them when we reach our damn base!" Jete Wen shouted at me.

    I blinked once before crushing all fifty thousand mechas into particles once more and sending them zooming ahead at top speed.

    "My god. You truly did pick the most suitable brother. He is as dumb as you sometimes. And right this moment, he''s doing the incredible job of being dumber than you. " Jete Wenined to her husband as she sped up, free from the burden of having to uselessly shield fifty thousand blue mechas.

    "Hehehehe." My big bro could only chuckle.

    However, at that moment, our sensors lit up as a powerful nuclear explosion erupted with tremendous force upon the bunch of Ocean Eagles!

    Huge amounts of the ocean right where the nuclear explosion erupted vaporized and caused the surrounding water to surge away from the explosion in an overwhelming tidal wave.

    It was good that the fifty thousand peak blue mechas were in particle form at that moment, because there was no way we would be able to keep them hidden from the powerful golden mechas that were diving into the ocean then.

    It was already taxing to the utmost for Jete Wen to maintain her void shield upon us through the turmoil of the ocean to keep us from being detected by the powerful golden mechas!

    "PRINCESS LOUISA! WHERE ARE YOU?" Came the powerful shout from the lead golden mecha.

    The Europeans were not holding anything back in their search for Princess Louisa and her golden mecha.

    I had no idea which one they were more concerned about, the girl or the mecha? Because if it was the mecha, then the situation would be pretty critical. Half of it was, afterall, already in my belly.

 Chapter 275 Lets Fight!

    Six European golden mechas were deployed that fateful day to search for Princess Loisa and her golden mecha.

    It was a tant show of supreme force meant to send a clear message to the world, and to the Chinese Federation in particr.

    "Don''t try to do anything funny. We have the power to level your entire country, and we aren''t afraid to use that power."

    To the potential enemy who might have kidnapped their precious little princess, the message was even simpler.

    "We will find you, and we will kill you."

    Unfortunately for them, as the Princess Louisa''s kidnapper, Ipletely misread their message.

    Instead of a threat to my life, all they managed to elicit out of me was¡­

    "Six golden mechas!" I shouted rather breathlessly while imagining the sheer incredible-ness if I were to sessfully devour them.

    "Don''t be greedy. Quickly get the hell out of this area! Stay close to your sister inw, and let''s enter the passageway back to the maind from all the way from the North Korean entrance." My big bro popped the greedy bubble that was starting to form around me with a simple instruction.

    "Ah shucks. It would be epic if I could devour all six¡­ I would instantly be the strongest individual in the entire world¡­" I said dreamily.

    Of course I was probably already the strongest human being in the world. But apparently, in our home which was starting to feel less and less homey and more and more fearsome, human beings are not sitting so prettily at the top of the food chain.

    If there were blue dragons in this world, then there could be anything.

    Like literally.

    Secret entrances to secret realms could very well be hidden somewhere deep in the mountains or in the desert or in the ocean.

    Even now, I am very certain that we have notpletely discovered, much less solved, all the mysteries that this world has to offer.

    And as such, my personal strength, which was at the earliest stage of a golden mecha, could hardly be categorized as OP in the grand scheme of things.

    But life is never about one on one fights. A fair fight is one for entertainment. Tournaments, races and the like. Things people p for. Things far removed from the real world.

    Life on the other hand, especially wars, are determined by faction strength.

    My personal strength is only as useful as my faction''s overall strength. Of course, it would be apletely different story if my personal strength was enough to rival entire factions. But it was not the case then.

    And at that moment, against six golden mechas who are probably peak ones at that, my faction''s strength could only be described as pitiful.

    "Those golden mechas sure got here really quickly. Were they hiding in the vicinity? Or do they have some sort of movement skill?" I muttered.

    "The Chinese Federation is not a superpower, and we already have powerful movement based technology which allows us to move near instantaneously. The Europeans, as true superpowers, definitely have something simr." My big bro said.

    "But I thought the Chinese Federation got the movement system part of the alien tech? Movement based tech should be our forte!" I argued.

    "Yes, movement speed and controls are our forte. This could be seen in Chronos and Void Walker. The Americans and Europeans can''t beat us in terms of movement based tech applications in mechas. But in long range transportation, they are probably no less advanced than us." My big bro exined.

    ? "Why? If they could design long range movement tech, they could use that tech on a smaller scale with mechas." I pressed on.

    "Long range transportation is mostly ridiculous speeds on a straight line. They don''t need sophisticated andplex tech to achieve mach 50 on a mega high speed transport. Just strap a stupidlyrge engine and cover that transport with lightweight, heat resistant armor, and you''re probably done.

    However, if they want their mechas to move extremely fast and be agile at the same time, that would require tech which they currently have no ess to. Plus they are approaching the problem all wrong. You can''t achieve high speed and high agility in mechas by physical means. The explosive power required to physically bring the mecha to those thresholds are as harmful to the mecha as full powered attacks by an enemy.

    The way to extreme speed is through time dtion tech, and that particr tech is somethingpletely unique to the Chinese Federation." My big bro said rather proudly.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Unique to Chronos, specifically." My sis inw said with a half sour half amused tone. "The Chinese Federation would be a superpower if that tech is readily avable for all of our mechas."

    "I see. Why don''t you let me take a look at Chronos'' blueprint? It''ll be good to have two of us who are capable of time dtion instead of just one. Who knows we might need me to move really quickly." I suggested very casually and innocently.

    "Ha! You would like that, wouldn''t you?" My big bro smirked at my greed. But I could tell he was thinking about it. He did not say no, afterall. Plus, my argument made sense. Letting me absorb the blueprint was somethingpletely free.

    It would be a great boost for the Chinese Federation as long as I remained on the Chinese Federation''s side.

    Of course in terms of loyalty, I was not a hundred percent safe bet. But I doubt that they were worried about that. They were probably worried that I might fall into the enemy''s hands, and then somehow forced to serve them.

    That, I suspect, was the main reason why my big bro hesitated.

    I was, after all was said and done about my ridiculous personal strength, a ten year old boy.

    There was silence for a moment as my big bro mulled over the question.

    Well, silence as in, we did not say anything.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    The explosions continued to ring out unabated from above us as the Europeans cleaned up the biomechs violently while they searched for Princess Louisa.

    I casted out my resonance briefly then to see just how much firepower the Europeans had mobilized, and couldn''t help but gulp in awe.

    "They have at least a thousand white mechasbing the area." I said with surprise lining my voice.

    "This Princess Louisa seems pretty important. I think we just caught ourselves a big fish." Jete Wen said with augh.

    "It would be really bad if the Europeans caught us. We are the prime suspects because I actually traded blows with her mere minutes before she disappeared. Sister inw, how good is your void shield?" I asked her curiously.

    "It''s very good." Jete Wen said enthusiastically. "How it works is that my mecha core would manipte a unique sort of energy called space energy. And by covering our mechas with this space energy, we would bepletely undetectable. Anything that moves and touches us from the right, for example, will just continue through the space energy and exit on our left as though we don''t exist."

    "What the hell? That''s ridiculously powerful!" I couldn''t help but remark in shock.

    "Yes it is. Right now it''s strong enough to do that to sensors and little objects. But as the tech progresses, I should be able to do that for bigger things as well until one day, I would bepletely impervious to damage! Wahaha!" My sister inw gave an uncharacteristic evilughter at that moment.

    "So the water ispletely flowing through the space energy right now? We''re just a bubble traveling through the ocean?" I asked and marveled at the impressive tech. At the same time, I couldn''t help but think that the skill felt strangely like the abilities of an experimental mecha core of sorts.

    "Indeed. Not all, of course. Those things that are too big to pass through my space energy lining would just be bumped away. And so unless the Europeans are looking very carefully at every little thing that''s moving in this turbulent ocean, they would never be able to detect us." Jete Wen said very confidently.

    "I see. Well, I hope you''re right. Because I think three of their golden mechas are moving towards us. At very high speed." I said with a gulp.

    "Uh. Bruce?" My sister inw said slightly worriedly to my big bro.

    "They are only sending three. They do not know for sure that the Princess is here. But that''s still half their force, so they have a strong suspicion that she''s here. They are picking up clues somehow." My big bro said slowly.

    "Let me create something to distract them." I suggested.

    "It''s toote, they have probably locked in on this area. Anything new that suddenly appears would only raise their suspicion. Let me think." My big bro said.

    "There''s no need to think. Let''s fight and devour those three golden mechas!" I said enthusiastically.

 Chapter 276 Battle Between Goldens

    "You punk. You devoured an alien energy core and your powers went offline for so long. Now that you''ve just devoured a golden mecha core, can you even devour anymore? Don''t be greedy." My big bro admonished me.

    I quickly scanned the capacity of my red mecha core, and true enough, it was extremely full once more, and it was showing signs of lethargy.

    After devouring the golden mecha core, whatever free space that my red mecha core had created in its eleration of its devouring of Control had beenpletely allocated to deal with the golden mecha core.

    I would not be able to fight for much longer, much less devour a single golden mecha core! Much, much less devour THREE full golden mechas!

    "Damn it. I''m reaching full capacity. I''m going to be weak again." I cursed loudly and scrunched my face in irritation.

    "Are you still able to control the mecha particles well?" My sister inw asked.

    "Yes. As of right now, controlling them is still very doable. But I don''t think I would be able to do it for too long." I replied.

    "Focus on controlling those mecha particles. Spread them apart and reduce their density as much as possible. It might be too dense right now, and thus show up in their sensors. As golden mechas, their sensors are probably much stronger than ours." My sister inw said quickly.

    I widened my eyes in surprise as I realized that she was right.

    Without hesitation, I spread the mecha particles in all directions and as far apart as I could physically manage.

    And instantly, the three golden mechas slowed down dramatically, beforeing to aplete stop mere kilometers away from us.

    "So that''s the clue they are investigating." My big bro said in slight relief.

    "Let''s keep going. I want as much distance as possible between us and those goldens." My sister inw said quickly.

    However, strangely, the three mechas slowly drifted their way forward in our direction, easily keeping pace with our near frantic pace.

    I frowned lightly and changed the trajectory of the particles slightly, sending them deviating from our path by several degrees.

    Within seconds, the three golden mechas started to deviate away as well.

    "They are locked on into the particles somehow. I can send the particles away from us but there is a limit how far they could get before I lose control." I said as I reported the development to the other two.

    "Bring the three mechas along with us all the way to Japan then. And send the particles into a secret Japanese Military Base. The Europeans would probably attack, and being stalwart allies, the Americans would probably defend the Japanese. It would be beautiful." My sister inw chuckled.

    "Let''s speed up then. The sooner we get to safety the better." My big bro ordered.

    We increased our cruising speed while I maintained the golden mechas around five kilometers away from us.

    The minutes ticked by. Then hours.

    After around three hours, we entered Japan''s waters.

    "F*ck! I knew it was the Americans! There was no f*cking way they weren''t involved in this!" Came a violent curse from one of the goldens.

    I immediately looped the other two into the conversation signal I managed to decode. Having absorbed a golden mecha from their ranks helped me in decoding their encryption, of course, even though it was mostly my genius.

    "This strange cloud doesn''t mean anything. It still could be a natural urrence." Said a calmer voice.

    "Bullshit. A natural urrence that brings us all the way to Japanese waters, against several critical oceanic currents? Only a freaking retard would say that!" Came the first angry voice.

    "Okay okay. It''s not a natural urrence. But we still do not know what this underwater cloud is. Technically, we aren''t supposed to be able to detect it. So we can''t use them of anything. Plus, there is no direct link between this cloud and Princess Louisa''s disappearance." The second voice came on again.

    "Direct link? Are you a f*cking kindergarten girl? This cloud is almost DIRECTLY beneath the entire civil war taking ce in the sky! That''s where Princess Louisa disappeared! IT DOES NOT GET ANY MORE DIRECT THAN THAT!!" Roared the first angry dude.

    "Alright fine. It''s directly involved. This cloud kidnapped Princess Louisa. Go ahead and catch it and rescue the Princess." The second voice said in exasperation.

    "Why would I do that? I can''t capture a f*cking cloud of strange particles. I will capture the entire Japanese government and interrogate them one by one until they tell me where the Princess is." The first angry voice growled.

    "Hohoho. This is going to be pretty." My sister inw giggled as soon as she heard what the first angry voice said.

    "Send the particles into these coordinates to seal the deal." My big bro said.

    I did as he said and within moments, the particles were in the Japanese secret base.

    "The cloud entered that dumbass secret military facility. Enough evidence that the Americans are involved now, little girl?" Came the first voice''s scathing remark.

    "Do as you will. I will wait here with Boris." Came her instant reply.

    "I will do as I will. And I don''t need you. Or the mute." The first voice growled.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Within moments, the first golden mecha exploded out of the ocean and into the sky.

    Like a fearsome ck beast with torrents of water rolling off his body and falling into the ocean once more, he rose through the skies and up above the little round ind that was the entrance to the Japanese Secret Military Base.

    "YOU JAPANESE BASTARDS! YOU HAD FUN PLAYING US EUROPEANS AS FOOLS, HUH? LET ME SHOW YOU HOW WE DEAL WITH PEOPLE WHO TRY TO MAKE FOOLS OUT OF US! DIE!!" Howled that first madman.

    He aimed his rifle down towards the entrance of that secret base, and charged it.

    Hum!!!!

    "Crazy bastard. But he would make the perfect cover for us to slowly disappear." My sister inw muttered.

    "Be careful. Those two golden mechas are probably vignt. We need to get those two involved first before we make our escape." My big bro said slowly.

    KABOOOOMMMM!!!!

    The charged golden mecha rifle unleashed a mega powerful energy beam which contained the power of a full powered nuclear explosion and vaporized the ind!!

    WHOOOSHHH!!!!!

    A powerful shockwave rippled out of that rifle st point of impact.

    WEEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

    WEEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

    WEEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

    Instantly, extremely loud air raid sirens exploded to life from almost every single direction.

    "That bastard actually unleashed a nuclear grade rifle st on the Japanese! There is no way the Americans will not respond to this!" My sister inw eximed.

    "They are already enroute. And by the looks of it, the Americans aren''t pulling their punches either. Five golden mechas are enroute." My big bro said with a tinge of satisfaction in his voice.

    "The tracking works perfectly, I presume?" My sister inw asked.

    "Perfectly. The two goldens stationed by the South Korean - North Korean border are being sent this way. The two in Japan are already here. And apparently one the secret golden mechas stationed near Russia are on its way as well." My big bro said.

    "Wow, you guys managed to crack the code in the golden mecha we caught?" I asked in amazement.

    Being a country without golden mechas, being able to crack the code that went into one and then using it to track the secret signals of other golden mechas was truly an impressive feat.

    "It probably wouldn''t be long until the Federation''s insane research team manages to design their own golden mecha." I thought to myself. "But it would be some time until they could make the mecha though. Theyck the core materials fo- wait a minute. What the hell am I thinking? The damned ancestor just got a whole god damn Blue Dragon ve with all of its god damn dragon-level greedy treasure hoard! The Federation can make its own god damn golden mecha anytime!"

    My eyes widened slightly.

    "In fact, that greedy old bastard is probably getting that blue dragon to transport all of its treasures into his secret mecha production facility right now, while he whips his design team to work overtime to continue to unlock the secrets of the American golden mecha!

    And not just that, if hebines the information from the American golden mecha with the European mecha I devoured, then wouldn''t the Federation gain the ultimate technologies of both superpowers?

    The Americans'' highly defensive tech that would allow us to be as immovable as mountains, as well as the Europeans'' highly offensive tech that would make our weapons unstoppable...

    We would be able to burst out with overwhelming strength and gain the position of the top global superpower in one fell swoop!"

    It was an exciting thought.

    But at that moment, as exciting as my thoughts were, they were not as exciting as the events unfolding before us.

    Five American golden mechas were about to face off with three of their European counterparts!

    And just like a couple of market peddlers showcasing the abilities of their products, both ultimate technologies which would soon be in our hands would be going up against each other in apletely unavoidable and ferocious sh.

    Their prides were on the line, and the good name of their nations were at stake.

    It would be a mecha battle unlike ANYTHING the world had ever seen before.

    A battle between golden mechas!!

 Chapter 277 Ten Dragons

    Yes.

    I kid you not.

    It certainly was an extremely action packed month for me.

    As they say, when it rains, it pours.

    I guess that same concept applies to exciting life changing torrents of good luck as well.

    In just two short months, I had lived through enough excitement to fill probably three hundred thousand words worth of those online novels which youngsters nowadays like to read so much.

    (A/N: No kidding. I am at 305k words lol)

    For a normal person, even just a single day, any day, of the past thirty days of my life, would be enough excitement tost them for years.

    s for me, it was barely the beginning of my incredible odyssey. If my life is a novel, the things that I had lived through in the past fifteen years could probably make up a three million word novel!

    (A/N: Too long? :D)

    Thousands upon thousands of exciting eventsid in wait for me within the next eleven months of my life, and one such event was unfolding right before my eyes at that moment.

    Well, not eyes per se because I wasn''t experiencing it through them, but my senses. Specifically, my resonance.

    And in the grand scheme of thingspared to the many exciting events of my life, I dare say that the particr fight between the golden mechas ranked pretty high up.

    Of course it did.

    It wasn''t everyday that a battle at such magnitude with such far reaching impacts happened. As you probably know, and in many ways that you probably have no idea about, that fateful battle changed the trajectory of the progression of the world''s events in a major way.

    I will detail them as best I can here.

    "Yes we cracked the code. We are now able to track every single golden mecha owned by the Americans, and thus by proxy, also the approximate positions and strengths of the European golden mechas." My big bro said calmly.

    "Impressive. With the European golden mecha I absorbed..." I allowed my words to trail.

    "We will have a good chatter. For now, the Americans are here!" My big bro said with a slight tinge of excitement in his voice.

    And so they were.

    We had front line seats to an epic show, and all the actors had finally taken the stage.

    "This is Captain Karlson Jareth of the USAA Special Forces. Lay down your arms and surrender yourself. I repeat,y down your arms and su-"

    "SURRENDER YOUR F***ING HEAD YOU UNCLE F***ER!" Roared the angry European. "THIS IS RETALIATION FOR DARING TO KIDNAP PRINCESS LOUISA! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE! DIE!!"

    The European golden mecha fired off two quick shots at Captain Karlson Jareth''s golden mecha!

    KA-KABOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!

    A massive explosion erupted with startling power from the location of the Captain''s golden mecha.

    However, my resonance was telling me that his golden mecha was perfectly fine.

    The Captain had managed to protect himself and his team perfectly.

    "Your unwarranted aggression towards Japan is inplete breach of our countries'' agreement. We will now retaliate with deadly force. Prepare to greet your ancestors in hell, you European bozo." Captain Karlson Jareth shouted loudly in a mixture of formalnguage and personal insult even as a fearsome hum of power sounded from his side.

    "Hey Drags, the Captain is pissed isn''t he? I haven''t heard him curse in ages." Came aughing female voice from one of the Americans.

    "He is certainly pissed, Phoenix. But not as pissed as the day you stole his cat. He tore down the barracks looking for it, remember?" Said a sombre male voice which was probably the dude with the call sign "Drags".

    "Remember? Of course I remember. I was IN that barracks!" Phoenix shouted loudly. "AND I did NOT steal his cat! I found it! And I took care of it! Fed it! An-"

    "You two shut the hell up and take up nking positions." Snapped a fourth voice, a stern and rather pissed off female voice. "They have tworades lurking underwater nearby. Watch them properly. And prepare to capture that noisy bastard."

    "Yes madam Waterfall! As you order, madam Waterfall!" Drags replied immediately.

    "Ha! Simp!" Came the fifth and final voice.

    "Shut up Brac. At least I dare to express my feelings!" Drags shouted back at the unlucky dude whose call sign was a ridiculous "Brac".

    "DON''T CALL ME THAT!" Brac roared.

    s for him, the rest ignored him with practiced aloofness.

    But he wasn''t the only one being ignored.

    "You Americans talk too much. I, Zorro, will kill you all and show you theplete might of the European Empire!" Zorro the angry European shouted. He was probably filled a little bit miffed that the Americans could be chit chatting so casually even though he just unleashed a full nuclear explosion in the vicinity!<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Zorro the German Bozo? Is that really you?" Drags said in mock amazement.

    "Not German you bozo. He is Spanish!" Brac shouted at his team mate.

    "He''s not Spanish you bra-zo. He is Portugese!!" Waterfall shouted at her team mate as well.

    "I AM FRENCH! DIE YOU IZIOTS!!" Zorro the French Bozo shouted and corrected his enemies without denying the bozo part.

    "HA! HE ADMITS HE IS A BOZO! WHAT A BOZO!" Drags shouted gleefully.

    But his shout of glee turned into shouts of horror as an incorrigiblyrge fireball stretching at least a mind blowing hundred meters in diameter suddenly flew towards them!

    Zorro the French Bozo had gonepletely bonkers and he was unleashing his most powerful attacks upon the fiveedia- I mean, Americans.

    Captain Karlson.

    Phoenix. Drags. Waterfall. Brac.

    These were the five representatives of the USAA that day. And despite their ferocious talent with their mechas, they wouldn''t look out of ce in America Got Talent or some other talent show, participating as a five manedian group.

    "Nuclear fire? You are a mad dogpletely out of control. I will be doing the European Empire a service by putting you down." Captain Karlson said coldly as he too unleashed his own powerful skill.

    "Absolute Silence."

    Whoosh!!

    An invisible barrier shot out from the outlines of his Spartan roundshield and very urately wrapped itself around therge fireball like an imprable clingwrap.

    Boom.

    A muted explosion rang out from within the invisible barrier and within a split second, the nuclear fire winked out of existence.

    "Holy smokes. Insane offense and insane defense!" I could feel my jaw dropping at the simple but mind blowing exchange.

    The fact that the power of a nuclear explosion could be tamed and ced within a rifle bullet to be unleashed at will is already a ridiculous idea that, beyond all expectations, could somehow be made into reality.

    However at the same time, there was actually a technology that could so effectively AND sopletely negate that ferocious power!

    We are truly in an age of miraculous technological advancement, and that particr exchange was the perfect example.

    "You think you can stop me with your puny tricks? Eat this you Americano Sausages!" Screamed thepletely bonkers Zorro the French Bozo.

    Vooosh! Voooossh!!! Voossshh!!! Vooooooshhh!!!!

    His rifle belched out tens of massive fireballs in quick session andpletely lit up the dark night and changed the Southern Japanese coast into afternoon!

    Ridiculous.

    "He is out of his mind. We must take him downpletely and at once. Four Star Prison on mymand." Captain Karlson said grimly as his shield glowed a brilliant white in colour and unleashed severalrge invisible barriers that surged towards the tens of fireballs.

    Like before, the invisible barriers quickly wrapped themselves around the massive fireballs.

    However, Zorro the French Bozo was not a dumbass who would keep attacking in the same obviously easy to counter manner.

    In a shocking development, Zorro the French Bozo suddenly burst outughing!

    "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

    At the same time, each of the tens of massive fireballs suddenly burst into hundreds of smaller fireballs and then shot out in every direction before turning around and speeding towards the Japanese Maind.

    "BASTARD!!" Captain Karlson shouted in horror.

    If allowed to go on, those smaller fireballs would make a barbeque out of the whole country of Japan!

    Without being told, all four of his team turned around and sped after the fireballs. They whipped out their own rifles and every single automated aiming and firing weapon system they had upon them, and started to shoot down the thousands of mini fireballs.

    Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

    The already bright night sky lit up once more as tens, then hundreds of mini nuclear explosions started to pepper the sky and made it look like it was raining mushroom clouds!

    "I will kill you today, Zorro." Captain Karlson said with deathly coldness in his voice as his wondrous golden mecha suddenly started to transform rapidly.

    Within moments, the humanoid golden mecha was gone, and was reced by ten smaller mechas.

    And they weren''t just ten normal mechas.

    They were ten dragons!

 Chapter 278 Hes F***Ed

    Chinese dragons, of course.

    Long, snake-like creatures with two pairs of fearsome ws that''s somehow capable of flight.

    Captain Karlson''s ten dragons were each approximately a hundred meters long, and the untrained minds watching the battle would probably be in shock.

    "Just how could ten such massive dragons be formed from a mere mecha?" They would think. "True it''s a golden mecha at that, but still, thews of physics cannot be bent just because it is a golden mecha! The golden mecha is notrge enough to provide mass for ten massive dragons!"

    But the trained mind would beg to differ.

    Thews of physics hadn''t been bent at all. They werepletely¡­ Well yes. Broken to pieces.

    The technological advances rting to the maniption of energy by that time were such that thews of physics didn''t apply anymore.

    E = MC2?

    Energy can''t be created or destroyed?

    Mass must remain constant?

    Really?

    It might be so before the aliens identally dropped a million years worth of technological advances on our heads. But thosews were no longer true.

    I shall not bore you with the forms, but long story short, in specific cases, thew of physics could be¡­ avoided. Or broken, if you insist on using sensational words.

    The ten dragons uncoiled themselves in the air and radiated a frightful aura of sheer savagery and ruthlessness before rapidly spreading out around the European golden mecha.

    "I see. You Americanos have made progress with your space energy maniption. You''re not just a single golden mecha? What are you? Power rangers? Hahahahaha! Makes no difference! Defense does not win wars. I will gut all ten dragons and prove it to you!" Zorro shouted at Captain Karlson in his cheesy French ent.

    Captain Karlson did not bother replying. You don''t waste your saliva talking to mad dogs after your initial promation to kill them after all.

    His ten dragons opened their giant maws wide which started to glow for a brief moment before ten invisible energy beams shot out from them towards Zorro the French Bozo and his powerful golden mecha.

    Voosh!!

    Unlike normal dragon breaths, the invisible energies spiraled in a strange manner before colliding with each other and creating attice of oppressive space energy which inhibits movement of energy within it!

    "Dragon Hold." Captain Karlson said grimly. "You allowed my dragons to get into position and even allowed them the time they needed to charge their dragon breaths and fire it towards you. Your overconfidence is the cause for your fall."

    True enough, Zorro waspletely motionless within thettice of space energy.

    Voooshhh!!

    Thettice rapidly shrunk in size and surged towards Zorro.

    Crack.

    There was a slight movement from Zorro''s right arm apanied by a small cracking sound.

    Zorro was struggling to break free!

    The shrinking of thettice sped up.

    "By the looks of it, thettice would reach Zorro within two seconds!" My eyes widened as I focused on sensing the development of the fight. "Would the European fall just like this? In the battle between the immovable mountain and the unstoppable force, the mountain is stronger?"

    However, it wouldn''t be a good fight if it ended that way.

    Right before thettice hit Zorro''s body which would havepletely sealed his movement, a fearsome surge of energy ripped out of Zorro''s mecha and instantly shattered the space energyttice to pieces!!

    "Damn it!" Captain Karlson cursed in shock. His strongest skill had beenpletely overpowered by Zorro!

    His dragons burst into action and started to move towards each other to reform into the golden mecha.

    But Zorro was a mad dog who just got pissed off beyond words. He howled angrily and exploded towards one of the dragons.

    He caught it with his two hands, and with an aggressive move, pulled it apart into two!!

    CRACKK!!!!

    Kabooom!!

    The dragon exploded into pieces, its frame unable to contain the sheer power that coursed through its body.

    "Oh crap. That Captain Karlson is screwed now!" I couldn''t help but remark.

    The remaining nine dragons quickly reformed into a golden mecha. Strangely, the golden mecha was fully formed and did not look like it lost any of its parts.

    However, my resonance told me that it was exactly ten percent weaker than before.

    Captain Karlson did not say a word, but I could sense that he had diverted almost every shred of his power to defense, and he was probably bracing himself for hell to be unleashed upon him.

    Zorro the French Bozo did not disappoint.

    After managing to rip apart that first dragon, it was as though his bloodlust got ignited, and he immediately charged towards Captain Karlson!

    He had put away his rifle, and in its ce was a pair of ridiculously fearsome war hammers with spikes on one side and a solid looking sphere on the other.

    "Die Americano!!" Zorro the French Bozo screamed wildly as his war hammers mmed down on Captain Karlson''s Spartan roundshield with devastating force.

    KABLAAAAMMMMM!!!!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    The exchange was so incredible but also so quick that the only indicator that provided anybody looking in on the fight was the massive shockwave that radiated from the exchange.

    But even the shockwave barely got anywhere before the next attacksnded on Captain Karlson!

    KABLAMMM!!

    BLAMBLAMBLAMMM!!!!

    Zorro held nothing back and cranked up his golden mecha offensive strength output to the maximum!

    Each attack brought Zorro''s attack momentum higher and higher, and pushed Captain Karlson''s mecha backwards at ever increasing distances until finally¡­

    KABLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!!

    Captain Karlson''s shield was finally smashed askew!

    "F***!!" Captain Karlson shouted in horror.

    "He''s f***ed." My big bro muttered.

    "He''s f***ed." My sister inw muttered.

    "He''s f***ed." I muttered.

    "YOU ARE F***KED!!!!" Zorro screamed triumphantly.

    And yes.

    He was f***ed.

    BL-BLAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!

    A mere split secondter, Zorro''s twin hammers smashed into Captain Karlson''s unprotected body!

    And as soon as the first attacknded, there was no more recovering from it for him.

    BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMMM!!!

    Zorro''s rapid fire hammer swings pummeled Captain Karlson like a lightweight boxer unleashing a series of high speed jabs too fast for the eyes to see!

    Even without his shield, Captain Karlson''s mecha was extremely well armored, and was built precisely to take a relentless torrent of attacks.

    But the core of his defense centered around his shield, and without it, it didn''t take even a single minute for his mecha body to crumble under the endless onught by Zorro and his horribly frightful war hammers!

    CRACKKK!!!!

    His arms were the first to go.

    "Haiya. The Europeans are simply too domineering. I had expected that such a powerful defensive golden mecha couldst longer. But this looks like the end of the road for him." My sister inw sighed with slight regret.

    "No, it is not the end of the road for him. No golden mecha is so easy to take down, and especially not such a defense oriented superpower like America. He is waiting for something before exploding out with the power that he has been hoarding for the past few minutes." My big bro calmly analyzed.

    I frowned lightly and focused my resonance on Captain Karlson''s mecha.

    My eyes widened slightly as I quickly realized that my big bro was actually right!

    Even without resonance, his instincts and battle experience allowed him to read the situation far more clearly than I could.

    "You''re right, big bro. I can sense a gathering power about the American golden mecha. He would be attacking soon." I announced to them.

    BANG BANG BANG!!!

    BAM BAM BAM!!!

    Within a few short seconds, the two arms of Captain Karlson''s golden mecha were crushed in their ce!

    "HAHAHAHAHA!! AND SO DIES THE WEAKLING AMERICANO GOLDEN MECHA!!!" Zorro screamed savagely like a real mad dog.

    He raised both his hammers up high to unleash one final massive attack on Captain Karlson''s head so that he would bepletely disabled without ess to the sensors that most mechas usually have ced there.

    "Here we go." My big bro said calmly. "Always remember not to go for a dumbass fancy killing move like that. Do it fast, do it clean, do it well."

    True enough, a pair of powerful dragon tails suddenly appeared from Captain Karlson''s crushed arms, thest ce Zorro expected a counter attack toe, and whipped forward to pierce through Zorro''s head and cockpit in one smooth and deadly attack!!

    SCHLEBB!!!

    Both dragon tails pierced through Zorro''s head and cockpit at the same time!!

    However, Zorro''s war hammers werepletely unaffected, and they still exploded downwards with great power and smashed Captain Karlson''s head to pieces!

    Crashhhh!!!!

    Bits and pieces of golden mecha head flew in all directions as Captain Karlson''s mecha grew limp.

    "HAHAHAHA! YOU THINK MY HEAD AND MY COCKPIT AREA IS CRITICAL? THEY ARE NOT REAL! HAHAHAHAHA!! DIE!!!" Zorro screamed madly and unleashed another series of attacks on Captain Karlson''s cockpit!

    And unlike the crafty Europeans, the Americans did not create fake sensor systems and cockpits.

    If Zorro''s attacks were tond, Captain Karlson would be killed instantly, without a single shred of doubt!

 Chapter 279 You Chinese Bastard!

    "We need the two superpowers to keep each other in check. If the Americans lose this fight, the Europeans would take the number one position in this world, and they will dare to be much, much more aggressive than they are now. Save the American now!" My big bro said to me urgently.

    Without hesitation, I sent the final bit of my lethargic red energy into Zorro the French Bozo''s mecha and viciously crushed his sensors as well as several critical hardwareponents that powered his arms.

    CRACKKK!!! HUMMMMmmmmmmm.

    "What iz thiz? What eez happening to me?" Zorro the French Bozo shouted in a panicked French ent as his arms malfunctioned and cracked, his vision ckened, and his sense of hearing died.

    Not one to allow such a golden opportunity to slip him by, Captain Karlson instantly reacted by sending out three more dragon tails out of his body and pierced various parts of the European golden mecha''s body!

    "You cocky asshole. Let me find out just where the hell you are hiding your cockpit! Die!" Captain Karlson howled in anger and desperation. He waspletely cornered, and he unleashed all that he had in one desperate attempt to kill his enemy before he did him in!

    "You... You Americanos have sessfully developed a mecha virus too?" Zorro the French Bozo shouted in shock as hepletely assumed that his mecha''s malfunction was due to the first two tail strikes which pierced him earlier.

    Booom.

    With that sentence, every single intelligence officer spying on the battle instantly gained confirmation of one critical fact!

    The Europeans were the developers of the mecha virus!

    "Bastards. With the mecha virus as well as their offensive based technology, the bnce of power is skewed towards the Europeans. We must take their mechas down right here and right now!" My big bro showed a rare expression of disgust and cursed at the Europeans vehemently.

    "So you guys are the developers of the mecha virus? Die! The world will never let you get away with this!!" Captain Karlson shouted as he sent his dragon tails stabbing into the European golden mecha frantically.

    "Take him down now." My sister inw said tersely.

    As always when asked to devour something yummy, I did not hesitate.

    "My red mecha core would probably hibernate once more after this though. You guys will need to bring us back home safely without my power." I told them as I shamelessly crushed Zorro the French Bozo''s golden mecha core and pulled its particles towards me.

    "Don''t devour it. Keep it with the particles you absorbed earlier." My big bro suggested.

    "Hmmm. Excellent idea. That would allow me to at least have the ability to manipte my red energy a little bit which would be useful in crushing our enemies." I agreed immediately and did as he said.

    With a simple mentalmand, I gathered the particles of the Ocean Eagles which I had sent into the Secret Military Base of the Japanese and reformed them into extremely dense bs of metal within the mecha where Princess Louisa was being held captive.

    I was slightly regretful about not absorbing the golden mecha core. I mean, who wouldn''t be after giving up the chance to empower oneself with such a world shaking strength?

    But it was the wise decision to make. Devouring it would extend my red mecha''s hibernation duration for far too long. Plus, with a full golden mecha core avable for use, I would be able to create a fully powered golden mecha which I can give to someone.

    Emma came to mind, but I withheld myself from making a decision right there and then.

    With his golden mecha core devoured, Zorro the French Bozopletely powered down. At the same time, the suspicion fellpletely on Captain Karlson and the Americans. The world would simply think, if the Europeans could develop a mecha virus, then the Americans should be able to do so as well. And apparently, they already did so, as evidenced by how Zorro died so miserably.

    Being so desperate after getting into such a close shave with death, Captain Karlson did not hesitate to plunge his powerful dragon tails into all the critical areas of Zorro''s mecha. But as lethal as his attacks were, itcked the explosive power which we needed topletely obliterate Zorro and the evidence of his missing mecha core.

    So I gave him a hand and ignited whatever golden mecha core parts which I had left behind.

    KAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    In a gloriously shocking turn of events, Zorro the French Bozo was the one to die in that particr battle between the golden mechas!!

    VROOOOOOOO!!!!

    Boris and the other European golden mecha suddenly burst out of the ocean.

    "Zorro!!" The girl shouted in horror as the massive mushroom shaped cloud lit up the night sky once more.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "You Europeans are so fucked now! How dare you create a mecha virus that could threaten the existence of the entire world''s military? We won''t let you go! You better give up your mecha virus to us and allow us to create an anti virus!" Captain Karlson shouted.

    "You think we are idiots? You Americans have developed a mecha virus as well! The power of the explosion from Zorro''s mecha is at maximum only ONE percent of his original strength. Where has the other ny nine percent gone to huh, if not destroyed by YOUR mecha virus?" The girl shouted scathingly.

    "WHAT? We do not have any mecha virus! What the hell are you talking about?" Captain Karlson said rather anxiously as he finally realized that the nuclear explosion set off by Zorro''s mecha was indeed far too small and far too weak for a golden mecha.

    Hell, it was barely even at the white mecha level!

    "You act like you are so righteous and so full of morals! BULLSHIT! You Americans are the worst of the lot! You are fake ass hypocrites pretending to be the world''s police, but who are in fact the viins! YOUR mecha virus is obviously far more advanced and far more powerful than ours! You think the world would let YOU get away with your hypocrisy?" The girl sneered as she took out her rifle and aimed at the half dead Captain Karlson and his golden mecha.

    She was not the movie type viin who would talk and talk and talk and allow her target to somehow find a way to avoid being killed.

    So she immediately opened fire as soon as her rifle gained the required charge to obliterate a highly defensive golden mecha.

    However, enough time had passed since the crushing of Captain Karlson''s arms to that moment, and he had somehow jury rigged his arms and was able to put his shield in ce in front of him.

    "Absolute Silence!"

    He unleashed his basic defensive skill and managed to catch the vicious rifle fire using the defensive invisible energy!

    Still, his attempts were merely a dying man''sst effort.

    He managed to nullify one rifle shot.

    But golden mechas do not carry rifles which only have one bullet in it.

    BOM BOM BOM BOM BOM BOM BOM BOM!!

    The girl''s rifle spat out its terrible load at incredible speed at the dying Captain Karlson.

    "Chrono Vortex." Came Bruce Pang''s cold voice.

    Instantly, a blue sphere appeared around the two European golden mechas and froze thempletely.

    At the same time, he broke out of his void shield and shot out towards Captain Karlson in his extreme time dted speed!

    BANG!!

    Hepletely outsped the rifle bullets and smashed into Captain Karlson! With that decisive but reckless act, my big bro managed to push him off course from the rifle fire''s trajectory and thus saved his life!

    "I can only hold them in ce for a few short seconds. Make good your escape, and remember that you owe the Chinese Federation your life." My big bro said to Captain Karlson cooly.

    Chronos hovered in front of the downed American golden mecha like an angel of god looking down upon a little human he had just saved from the attack of a feral monster.

    "We Americans will never leave a debt unpaid. You have my thanks." Captain Karlson replied curtly before firing his massive thrusters to fly away as quickly as he could. In the distance, his four buddies had managed to destroy Zorro''s crazy attack as best they could, and were already making their way back towards their leader.

    With four entire defensive golden mechas, there waspletely nothing that the Europeans could do. Captain Karlson was out of danger.

    The fight between the Europeans and Americans was over.

    But while the Americans were able to escape with their overpowered golden grade flight system, we weren''t able to do so without exposing our secret strength.

    And so, as Bruce Pang''s Chrono Vortex cracked and dissolved into pieces around the Europeans, I realized that we were in deep, deep shit.

    "YOU CHINESE BASTARD!" The European girl howled in anger.

 Chapter 280 High Risk, High Return

    I could tell that the Europeans were pissed.

    Well, at that point even a baby could probably tell, with all the screaming of the once calm girl.

    But I could tell that they were REALLY pissed in ways that most couldn''t.

    My resonance was telling me that both European golden mechas were charging up their core''s power output to absolutely horrifying levels!

    "If we allow them to unleash their charged power without any restraint, this entire region would be vaporized!" I couldn''t help but shout in horror.

    "We must stop them!" My sister inw said urgently.

    "Hmmm." My big bro could only gave a nonverbal response as he tried to figure out a way to defuse the situation without exposing my power.

    Thankfully, the answer came to us almost instantly.

    "You Chinese have the virus too? It was you guys that somehow got to that mad dog''s mecha right?" Came Captain Karlson''s voice through ourms as he fired off a specific locational public chat.

    "Yes. In limited numbers and extremely specific applications." My big bro immediately replied.

    "Good. I don''t need to know the details. Just apply the virus to my team''s weapons, and we will deal with those two psychos." Captain Karlson said.

    "Understood. Fly by within 100 meters of my position and then go take down those bastards." My big bro gave them a fake requirement to make it as though we have really short range with whatever secret virus we have.

    Kabooooommm!!!

    All four American golden mechas exploded towards Chronos before swerving towards the two European mechas.

    "Take them both down. Don''t hold back." My big bro ordered me.

    "With perfect pleasure." I replied gleefully.

    BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

    The two Europeans did not sit back to wait for the four Americans to reach them. They immediately opened fire with their high powered rifles and belched out massive nuclear based fireballs at high speed like some mutated nuclear dragons!

    However, the defensive oriented Americans took the fiery barrage in stride and calmly unleashed their own rifle barrage. But instead of fireballs, their rifles shot out strange white bombs that exploded upon contact with the fireballs and instantly neutralized them!

    It may sound like a simple exchange.

    But remember that the Americans actually managed to urately shoot at the high velocity bullets in the form of fireballs!

    Who the hell actually does that?

    Shooting down rifle fire with their own rifle fire?

    It was only doable because of the high level aiming systems which the golden mechas were equipped with!

    With the fearsome fireballs neutralized, the American golden mechas shot ahead once more towards the two Europeans.

    "Our offensive tech breakthroughs are not merely in long distance attacks. Let me show you the real strength of European Might!" The girls shouted as she led her buddy Boris to meet the four Americans in closebat.

    "Here we go!" I thought as I sent my red energy hurtling towards the two Europeans.

    However, before my red energy could impact them, a strange green energy of sorts shot out from Boris'' shoulder mounted cannons and smashed into the first American mecha!

    Instantly, the first American mecha froze and started to fall down from the sky.

    Wham!!!

    My red energy smashed into them a split secondter, and to my horror, Boris was filled to the brim with fearsome green energy that corroded my red energy like super concentrated acid upon paper!

    Whooshhhh.

    The red energy I sent into Boris evaporated like a drop of water before an open st furnace.

    Thankfully, there was no trace of the green energy virus in the girl''s mecha, and I was able to crush her core and various critical parts of her golden mecha topletely freeze her as well, and cause her golden mecha to fall down from the sky as well!

    "Pull back!! The final European is impervious to our virus!" I shouted into the open locationalmunication channel even as I tried my best to send my red energy into the beleaguered American golden mecha to somehow save it.

    But it was no use, the green mecha virus was ravaging it, and the little bit of red energy I sent into it disappeared as soon as it entered the American golden mecha.

    I quickly withdrew every single ounce of my remaining red energy and directed them to gather my spoils from European girl''s golden mecha and stored into Princess Louisa''s mecha once more.

    Ipressed a huge amount of those particles into extremely dense bs of metal and lined the mecha with them, which instantly became much heavier than ten golden mechasbined!<novelnext></novelnext>

    But it was the safest ce to store such a massive amount of materials, and I dumped them all into the mecha.

    Back in the battle, the two versus four battle had instantly degenerated into a one versus three!

    However, the Americans were no cowards. They absolutely had no intention of backing off in a three versus one battle against the European! Their pride were at stake!

    The remaining three mechas unleashed high grade balls of suppressive space energy and threw them towards the final European golden mecha.

    Crack!!

    The energy balls bloomed like so many lotuses andthered the European golden mecha with powerful energy structures which sought to imprison it like Captain Karlson''s Dragon Hold earlier.

    The European golden mecha fired every single weapon it had on it and a cloud of corrosive green energy covered it to counteract the suppressive space energy which was shrinking rapidly.

    KABLAMMM KABLAMMM!!!!

    CRACKK!!!

    The European golden mecha was truly an incredible offensive juggernaut. The sheer power erupting from it was able to resist the full powered attacks of three American golden mechas!

    And adding the mecha virus which it was able to freely control, the suppressive space energy soon dissipated.

    "Die." Boris said coldly, his first word of the day a deeply sinister word that struck fear in my heart even though I was not participating in the battle directly.

    Boris Sinblood was truly the devil incarnate. Just a single word from him was able to bait out feelings of fear from my heart!

    Beast. He truly is a beast.

    Devil beast, in fact!

    After dismantling the space energy attack, he was immediately faced with a fearsome barrage of other attacks.

    Laser cannons, energy beams, high explosive projectiles and even high velocity high density balls were all thrown at him.

    But that devil beast fought fire with fire, and he had a massive fireball already exploding out of his rifle which cleanly obliterated ALL of the three mechas'' attacks!

    A humongous shockwave of all sorts of energy reactions ripped out of his position in a tidal wave of energy.

    But barely a split secondter, three green energy spears shot out of the expanding wall of explosion and urate struck the three Americans!

    Crack! Crack! Crack!

    In a shocking turn of events, the three American golden mechas froze for an instant, and fell down from the sky as well!

    "Holy shit. That Boris dude is full of the mecha virus! My red energy cannot deal with it at all. We should get the hell out of here!" I shouted at my big bro.

    With the fall of the four American golden mechas, Boris Sinblood was the only big dog remaining in the battlefield, and he was free to do anything he wanted, and none of us would probably be able to do anything to stop him!

    "Let''s go." My sister inw decisively covered us in her void shield once more and my big bro led us away.

    Captain Karlson had also fired his thrusters and had disappeared in a blink of an eye.

    Although undying resolution and determination are impressive traits in warriors, the wisdom of knowing when to fight and when to retreat is much more important than them.

    And that particr moment, any decision other than "RUN AND GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE" was a stupid one.

    And by god was I stupid.

    "Wait, wait. I think we need to grab one of the American golden mechas so we can study the virus!" I said loudly.

    "You have a point. Let me grab one before we go." My big bro, in a very rare moment, agreed with my dumbass suggestion.

    "I don''t think we should do it. It''s far too risky. I think we should escape!" My sister inw disagreed.

    "High risk, high return." My big bro simply said.

    Under the cover of sister inw''s void shield, Chronos dived into the sea once more and made its way towards the nearest American golden mecha.

    In the dark of the night, and with Chronos barely making an audible ssh amid the chaos of the sea, it was nearly impossible to detect his movement even though it was a massive peak white mecha.

    But at that moment, Boris turned around and suddenly exploded towards Chronos at high speed!

    "GET OUT OF THERE! HE CAN SEE YOU!" I shouted at my big bro in horror.

 Chapter 281 Escaping

    But my big bro did not be the Mecha God of the Chinese Federation by being a coward and by being a dumbass with no backup n.

    In fact, in terms of skill and experience, my big bro probably still had an edge over Boris Sinblood that day.

    One of the top mecha pilots of the Federation was no slouch, afterall.

    My big bro coolly shifted his position and got out of Boris Sinblood''s trajectory,pletely confident in his wife''s ability to keep him hidden from any and all forms of detection, even from one such as the golden mecha.

    As he expected, Boris Sinblood did not adjust his wild charge and he smashed across the position which my big bro was in mere milliseconds ago.

    He failed to detect my big bro''s movement!

    Calmly but quickly, my big bro made his way towards one of the downed American golden mecha.

    "I need some sort of diversion." He said to us.

    "Leave it to me." I said and sent out a small stream of particles away to about three kilometers away.

    Deftly, I changed it into a full sized blue mecha carrying the signature of Princess Diana''s golden mecha before sending it zooming away at top speed towards the open ocean.

    Instantly, Boris Sinblood shot out towards the blue mecha and quickly got within a couple hundred meters of it within a few short seconds.

    Poof!

    I crushed the blue mecha into particles once more and collected them, just as my big bro''s voice came through thems.

    "Let''s go." He said.

    "Where to? I don''t think we should enter the secret passage from anywhere near that damned European mecha." I replied.

    "North to the Arctic. The further away we get from the Federation at this point, the better." My big bro answered.

    "No. I say we go towards the USAA. Cut all trails leading back towards the Federation. We will never know if there are other methods that the Europeans have in tracking us. Once we get to the USAA, we can figure out of a way to send Justin back to the Federation while we smuggle the Princess away." My sister inw said wisely.

    "Uh. I don''t mind." I said excitedly. Of course I didn''t mind. We were going to the United States of All Americas! It would be epic!

    We started to swiftly make our way back towards the East, deep into the Pacific Ocean once more.

    Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be back there in such a damn short amount of time!!

    I did not quite say "I am NEVER going back to the Pacific Ocean" after my exhrating adventures there.

    But damn.

    One freaking day?

    What the hell was going on?

    We moved swiftly and quietly as we drew a straight line on the world map all the way towards the west coast of America many thousands of kilometers away.

    As we did so, my big bro dropped several secret substances that would dissolve itself into absolutely nothing as soon as it detected a mecha within a kilometer radius.

    It was a one-use sensor that was ridiculously perfect for us.

    One such sensor dissolving could be attributed to a random mecha passing by.

    But if ten such sensors separated by hundreds of meters along our path travel started to dissolve one by one, it was a sure sign of one thing and one thing only.

    We were being followed.

    And as my sister inw had predicted, it was exactly what happened within an hour of our departure.

    "We are being followed. At exactly two hundred kilometers behind us." My big bro announced grimly. "It is a good thing we are traveling away from the Federation and towards USAA."

    "They do not have the technology to break through my void shield. The way the European mecha failed to detect Bruce is solid proof of that. So they must be detecting us another way." My sister inw said with a frown.

    "Bio signals? Like the signals that we are using to detect those sensors I dropped?" My big bro asked.

    "That''s possible. They might have a biolock on the Princess. That might give them a very general location of wherever she is." My sister inw agreed. "But they are following our path almost perfectly. I do not think bio signals are that urate, especially from behind my void shield."

    "Yes, I think it''s a biolock." I suddenly spoke up. "But it''s not of the Princess. It''s¡­ of the Mecha Virus!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Oh my god. I think you''re right. The golden mecha we have with us is chock full of the Mecha Virus. It makes perfect sense that they have a high level of detection capabilities of their weapon!" My sister inw gasped in surprise at my idea.

    "Uh damn. We shouldn''t have taken it then. My bad." I said ruefully.

    "No, this isn''t a problem. We need to dissect the mecha virus and determine an antivirus for it as soon as possible. And if the price of that determination is that we will have the Europeans chasing after us all the time, then it ispletely worth it." My big bro said firmly. "Especially now that we are going to USAA. They can''t touch us as soon as we get there¡­"

    My bro''s words trailed very ominously as we all caught his unspoken words.

    We would be safe from the Europeans as soon as we get to the USAA.

    BUT before we get there, we would NOT be safe from them!

    And knowing that the Europeans knew that too, what they nned to do before we got to the Americans was a no brainer. Of course.

    Mobilize everything and recapture the mecha virus. And if possible, all the thieves as well!

    "They would be going all out to try and capture us very, very soon." I realized with a deep chill in my heart.

    I had barely thought of those words before my big bro signaled for us to stop.

    "Enemies ahead." He said grimly.

    "Their signal lock on the virus is that strong?" My sister inw gasped. "The golden mecha ispletely covered by my void shield! That should have dulled their sensors by a huge percentage. Eighty to ny percent at the very least!"

    "They are probably just predicting where we would be. We are not exactly traveling on an unpredictable path after all." My big bro said. "Let''s change directions and keep changing."

    Instantly, we changed our direction by fifteen degrees southwards.

    But after awhile, my big bro steered us downwards once more by another twenty degrees.

    "It seems that they have us surrounded. The enemies are all around us and closing in." My big bro said tersely.

    "This is a big ocean. They can''t possibly have us surrounded from everywhere. They don''t have enough manpower for that!" I frowned and cast out my resonance to "see" for myself.

    "They are drones, not manned mechas. They must have deployed a million of them to surround us this way." My big bro said softly.

    He was right. There were truly a huge number of them. In fact, a million was a conservative number. There could easily be a couple million of them!

    "A million drones? Impressive, but not impressive enough. I can easily break their strategy if its just an issue of unmanner numbers." I scoffed.

    With a single thought, I quickly created a thousand blue mechas and sent them shooting in every direction!

    "Each blue mecha should be able to crash and disable a hundred of those drones, all shooting in a different direction. This is our chance! Come. Let''s follow this one while the rest wreaks havoc everywhere." I said and followed a random east-bound unmanned blue mecha.

    Vroo! Vroo! Vroo!

    My thousand mechas created a huge ruckus as they exploded every where at high speed and quickly crashed into the drones!

    With so many collisions every where, we had effectively escaped from the Europeans'' attempt to surround and lock on to our position!

    "Let''s go. Maximum speed!" I shouted.

    For once, my big bro and my sister inw remained silent and did as I said.

    I withdrew my blue mechas and started to elerate rapidly.

    We quickly increased our speed to just under mach 1 and quickly distanced ourselves from our pursuers.

    And we learnt from our lesson, and we took a far more roundabout route towards America.

    However, despite our best efforts, my big bro''s sensors did not stop dissolving.

    The Europeans were still on our tail!

    I think we need to split up. Justin. Go and make your way south towards Brazil while we go north towards ska. Drop these sensor balls every kilometer or so. If the Europeans split up and follow you as well, we''ll regroup in a hundred kilometers. If not, make a u-turn and go home." My big bro instructed.

    "No." I rejected him without a thought.

    Go home and miss out on this adventure? Hell no!

 Chapter 282 Kidnapped

    Our main goal was actually very simple.

    Get to America to fully ce all suspicions and me on them, thus allowing the Chinese Federation to lurk in the shadows while hiding their full strength for a while longer as they wait for the perfect opportunity for a grand reveal.

    And of course, to get there in one piece. We need to avoid the many traps and capture attempts set by the Europeans who were hot on our heels anding for us from every single direction.

    It was an borate story being told to the Europeans by our furtive actions and seemingly desperate attempt to get back "home".

    To do that, Chronos was leading us at extremely high speeds underwater using his time dtion skill while Void Walker shielded us with her void shield.

    We were outrunning our pursuers and we were doing itpletely incognito. The only thing that was sticking out like a sore thumb in our situation was the massive golden mecha filled to the brim with mecha virus that was constantly revealing our position to the Europeans.

    But all was well. For the moment.

    "This feels like we''re taking a ferocious doggy on a walk." I said with a chuckle as we changed directions once more for the upteenth time.

    Our constant direction changes was to simply make sure that the Europeans do not set a trap for us to walk into, and to keep them behind us.

    "A ferocious mad dog. One with rabies and all sorts of deadly diseases." My sister inw added with a chuckle of her own.

    "I suggest we stop worrying about the Europeans now." My big bro suddenly said gravely. "We''re about to enter the central area of the Western Pacific Region. And if our estimates are not wrong, then we should already be in an Oceanic Tribe''s territory."

    "Oh. Like the Horse Gavarele and Ocean Eagles." I said with a start. "Damn. Don''t tell me that we''re about to fight with another million monsters? I am so bloody sick and tired of being outnumbered!"

    "Quality over quantity, Justin. We may be outnumbered, but with your power and our unique skills, we''ll be fine." My big bro said mildly to remind me.

    But I wasn''t having it.

    "Screw quality over quantity! Screw power and skills! Just once! Just one bloody time in my life, please God! Please let me outnumber my enemies! Let me feel the joy of being in a numerical advantage! Give ME a million soldiers to trample over the enemy''s one hundred! Hell, I''ll even take a hundred thousand! Just let me freaking outnumber them!!" I raged against my constantly woeful numerical situation for a moment, much to my big bro and sister inw''s amusement.

    It was true though. Throughout my whole life up to that point, I was constantly outnumbered. It sucked big time.

    And so I started to look for steps I could take to slowly make sure that I stop being in such pathetic situations in the future.

    The most crucial thing I needed was more resources, of course. And I actually had one in hand already. The only thing was, it was contaminated to the point where I was unable to use it.

    I nced at the golden mecha and wondered how I could break past the virus and get to the juicy parts.

    But even as I thought of that, I realized also that my red mecha core was also starting to revert back into full hibernation mode.

    I could distinctly sense that it wanted to finish devouring Control as quickly as possible.

    I still had another experimental mecha core to devour, and a golden mecha core from Princess Louisa as well.

    "What I have on hand is already far too much for me to quickly devour, wanting to devour more is simply greed." I thought to myself. "What I need now is a way to speed up the devouring of everything I already have. If I can do that, then creating an army of a million drones to fight for me would not be a far fetched idea anymore."

    But I also knew that creating a million drones was one thing. Controlling them was an entirely different thing altogether. Controlling them WELL was an even more difficult thing to do.

    I could feel a headacheing.

    What I wanted to do was still blocked by a couple of massive obstacles, and I had no way to clear them just yet.

    "I guess I can only wait for Devour to finish." I thought mournfully.

    But of course, there was no such thing as "wait" in the dictionary of whichever god was in charge of my life in that period of time.

    I was either shooting all the way up into great heights of power, or tumbling all the way down into hellish crisises.

    "Wait in peace? Ha! That''s for boring old grandfathers!" That god was probably thinking as he sent yet another curveball my way.

    Bang! That curveball hit me squarely on my face.

    Like, literally.

    BAM!!

    My head snapped backwards as a strange item impacted it at high speed!

    "WHAT THE HELL?" I shouted in anger.

    However, those three words were the only words I would be uttering in the presence of my big bro and sister inw for a very long time.

    Crackle crackle!!

    I was barely able to right my head when a strange power rippled around me and got hold of me.

    Whoosh!

    In a blink of an eye, along with the mecha where I had stored Princess Louisa, I winked out of existence from the Pacific Ocean, and found myself in a strange, green sky grasnd.<novelnext></novelnext>

    My jaw dropped and my mind waspletely stunned senseless at the development.

    Poof!

    Devour suddenly went into emergency hibernation mode and withdrew all of its powerpletely.

    I could sense that its urgency to finish devouring Control had spiked, and without any form of urging from me, it was throwing every single thing it had to quickly finish devouring it.

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!!

    BA DUMP!!!

    Its devouring speed rose a couple more notches, and I knew that for certain, it would finish devouring Control in exactly ten days.

    After ten days, I would be a supreme powerhouse that could wield the power of two experimental cores and probably a full golden mecha''s worth.

    But for ten full days, I would be as powerless as a duck.

    Well, and iron duck, because my body was probably imprable by then. And maybe a genius duck as well because of my enhanced brain power.

    But after all said and done, still a duck, nheless.

    And at that moment, that genius iron duck was falling down from fifty meters high to the ground.

    "AIYEEEEEEEE!!!!" I screamed in shock.

    BAM!!!

    Inded on the green grass heavily.

    Boom.

    Next to me around twenty or so meters away, Princess Louisanded cleanly on her feet.

    Without hesitation, she exploded into motion and sprinted towards me!

    Wham!!!

    She reached my position in probably record breaking time and unleashed a quick jab to my neck which would have definitely killed me if I was a normal dude.

    "What a vicious girl!" I thought even as I caught sight of her mind blowingly beautiful face for the first time.

    Crack!

    Her attack was so swift and so viciously powerful that she instantly broke her knuckle bones upon impact to my neck.

    "Ehmphhhh!!" Princess Louisa grimaced in pain.

    To her credit, she did not cry or wail in pain like a spoilt girl.

    She took the pain in stride and even held back her cry.

    It was the sign of a well trained soldier.

    But breaking her bones did make her stop attacking me, and it was exactly what I intended to achieve when I allowed her jab to hit home.

    I stood up and studied her pitiful form as she stood in defensive posture and bravely raised her fists to protect herself, even the one with broken bones.

    "I should just kill her and be done with this problem." I muttered aloud and narrowed both my eyes at her.

    Her lips twitched lightly at my words, but she held her ground and a deep aura of ferocity suddenly brewed around her.

    "She is activating some sort of physical boost!" I instantly realized.

    But before I could make a move, space around a hundred meters north to our position suddenly shimmered and a portal appeared.

    Whoosh.

    The portal solidified and opened up.

    And to my horror, countless alien beasts started to pour out of that portal like a tidal wave of freakish monsters!

    They were furry, four legged creatures like wolves, three headed like cerberus, and each head was horned like unicorns. Muscles bulged out of their bodies as though they went to the gym daily, and they were all releasing horrifying howls of anger as they charged towards us.

    And to make it worse, there must be hundreds of them that leapt out of that portal even in that first instant!

 Chapter 283 Reward

    "First trial. Beast tide. Objective: Survive." Came a strange disembodied voice out of nowhere.

    What else could I do?

    I screamed.

    "F*****************************CK!!!!!!" I screamed in horror at the sight of so many monsters charging out at me.

    Half of my heart was coolly studying the way the monsters charged out of the portal and how they impacted the ground with their powerful wed paws.

    That particr half scoffed at the mere flesh and bone monsters, and was confident that they would pose no danger whatsoever to me and my mecha-grade physical enhancements.

    However, the other hysterical half took in the frightful, frightful sight of thousands of long horned, three headed monsters charging out of nowhere towards me and beingpletely intent on killing me, and it wentpletely ballistic.

    BA DUMP!!

    BA DUMMPPP!!!!

    BA DUMMPPPPPPP!!!!!

    My heart started to pound frantically and sheer unadulterated energy coursed through my veins to provide my body with the strength it needed to unleash carnage upon thends.

    It would be good to note that the energy coursing through my veins at that moment was not red energy.

    It was physical energy, in and simple.

    In frantic moments such as that particr moment I was experiencing, many people would react in many strange ways depending on their inherent mentality.

    Some would cling to the miserable strand of hopeless hope of being able to run away from the monsters and start running, while others would despair and just copse on the ground to await death''s sharp teeth.

    Still others, like me, would stake it all in a wild, crazy response.

    My mind froze for a very short moment as the two halves collided before snapping and galvanizing my body to charge ahead to meet the damn monsters in battle!

    "DAAAMNNN YOUUUUUU BASTAAAAARRDDDSSSS!!!!" I howled as I lowered my head slightly and sprinted forward!!

    I slid my body in between the three horns of the first monster I reached and bodily shouldered it.

    KABAMMMMM!!!!

    The damned beast got its bones crushed and was flung away like a ragdoll!

    "Nice! That''s the fate of all you m**********rs!!!" I shouted and started to savagely attack all the monsters even as they lowered their heads and tried to pierce me with their horns.

    I winced lightly as those fearsome horns poked at me. But I soon got over it when they failed to do absolutely anything to me.

    I unleashed a series of karate chops and quickly broke several of the horns poking at me.

    Crack! Crackkkkk!!!

    And then without hesitation whatsoever, I plunged those horns into the eyes of the nearby beasts!

    Stab! Stabb!!

    Graaaaoooooooohhhhhh!!!

    The beasts howled in pain. But their howls did nothing to dissuade the other beasts from charging forward.

    Bam! Bam! Bam!!

    I started releasing punches and kicks left and right to try and kill as many monsters as I could, and each time I attacked, the result would be a shower of flesh and blood as their bodies burst under my savage attacks.

    As I waded through the massive monster tide, I began to subconsciously execute my fighting skills and allowed it to mergepletely with my incredibly enhanced senses and reaction speed.

    Bam! Bam! Bam!!

    I was like a slow but efficient shredder relentlessly destroying everything that was thrown my way with ruthless efficiency and bloody effects.

    And all the while, my fighting techniques started to improve once more!

    True, it was only against mindless savage beasts and not equally skilled human beings, but for a previously inexperienced fighter like me, the real life experience of fighting with a bunch of howling fearsome monsters was definitely a very valuable one.

    After around fifteen minutes and thousands of dead monsters, I was feeling really good about myself.

    "Wahahahaha! Such an easy challenge! Whoever is in charge of this cursed game must be extremely impressed by my performance!" I shouted gleefully as I smashed yet another monster to a literal cloud of blood.

    But amid the thinning ranks of monsters, I realized something strange.

    There were absolutely no monsters attacking me from my right.

    "What the hell? Where ar... WHAT THE HELL?" I shouted in shock as I finally realized the carnage that graced the entirety of my right side.

    It was Princess Louisa.

    Like me, she had charged ahead into the pack of monsters. But unlike me, she was not without armor and weapons.

    A white sphere glistening with red monster blood shone strongly around her even as a very long lightsaber-ish kind of spear protruded out from it.<novelnext></novelnext>

    She merely charged ahead while brandishing the spear in a fearsome attack sequence, and she was able to kill many, many more monsters than me!

    Every single monster her lightsaber-y spear shed at was sliced and diced instantly, while those that managed to evade her spear and throw themselves at her was burned badly by the power of her spherical shield.

    I managed to kill around three to four thousand in those short fifteen minutes.

    Princess Louisa probably tripled my score with her set up.

    "Holy mackaroni! You have such a powerful set of armor and weapon with you?" I shouted at her incredulously.

    But she did not bother replying me.

    As I paid slightly more attention on her, I realized that she was extremely pale, and her movements were starting to visibly slow down.

    Bam! I continued to burst through all the mindless monsters charging at me and slowly made my way towards her.

    Right as I got within five meters of her, the spherical glow around her started to flicker lightly.

    I frowned. Whatever energy source was powering her shield and spear was probably about to run out, and when that happened, she would definitely die.

    "Should I help her? Or should I let her die and im her marvelous set of armor and spear for myself?" I thought to myself. "She''s aplete bitch afterall, and did not hold back in trying to kill me."

    But at that moment, she turned her deathly pale face to look at me and opened her mouth very slightly to say a single word.

    "Help."

    And after saying that, she copsed and her spherical glow around her winked out of existence.

    Without thinking, I exploded towards her at full power and full speed, and barreled into the monster that was about to pierce her with his horns!

    Kabammm!!!!

    The monster flew away.

    I quickly noticed a strange device on her neck, and realized that it was the device that produced the strange but very powerful shield earlier.

    "She was powering the device with her blood??" I thought in horror as my resonance sank into the device and quickly figured out how it worked.

    Graaaahhhh!!!!!

    Another monster reached us.

    I grabbed him by his horn and then started to spin him around like a helicopter de!

    Bam! Bam! Bam!

    His body smashed into the crowd of monsters that was charging in to reach us and flung them all away!

    While I was doing that, I used my other hand to activate the device.

    It was difficult getting it to pierce through my imprable body, but thank goodness the Europeans did not scrimp on the build quality of that royal device.

    I was able to sessfully pierce my skin slightly and get a single drop of blood to drip on the device.

    And when that happened, a powerful spherical glow, probably close to a thousand times more powerful than the one which powered Princess Louisa earlier, appeared around me and exploded outwards towards the monsters!!

    FLASHHH!!!!!

    In an instant, the thousands of monsters surrounding us burst into strange white mes and were all quickly charred into nothing but bones!

    Every single monster within a hundred meter radius of where I was standing, died within seconds!

    "Whoa!!" I shouted in shock. "My blood is so powerful?"

    It was truly an unexpected development.

    Well, the entire situation was an unexpected development.

    I had been kidnapped by aliens and somehow throw into a strange game-like situation where I had to survive a beast tide.

    To the me who was happily escaping towards USAA, it was extremely unexpected of course.

    But the fact that a single drop of my blood was able to power the device into such an extent was strange too.

    Plus the fact that follow up questions started to appear in my head after that.

    "Can I use my blood for other purposes? Are there other devices that can use my blood?" And a particrly irritating question which I had to deal with appeared in my mind as well.

    "Should I use my blood to try and rescue this Princess Louisa bitch?"

    But the answer to that question was quickly made obvious by the system.

    "Trial passed. Two participants detected, score recalcted based on number of participants. Calcting. Male participant score: 85% Female participant score: 75%. Rewards are being sent your way. Please unlock reward chest using voicemand." Came the disembodied voice.

    I needed her alive to unlock the reward chest! AND not just that particr chest, but also all the chests from the other trial stages!

 Chapter 284 Bloodlines

    It truly was a strange experience for me.

    I ended up finishing the entire stage with a single unexpected move, and I was actually even about to receive rewards from whoever was in charge of the damned trials.

    To make it even moreplicated, the Princess Louisa had actually passed out due to ack of blood!

    "By the looks of it, she''s actually on the brink of death. I think I would need to give her my super rare super powerful super valuable blood to save her life." I thought to myself as I nced at her for a short moment.

    "Fine. I will save her for the sake of her continued participation and for the rewards." I finally sighed and started to try to revive her.

    I was able to break through my own skin and draw a small drop of blood which I dripped into her mouth.

    For a moment, nothing happened.

    But then, the drop of blood on her lips suddenly disappeared, as though sucked in by her body.

    And in that instant, I discovered an earthshaking development.

    I could sense a connection slowly came to be between Princess Louisa and me!!

    "What the hell?" I couldn''t help but mutter aloud in amazement. "My blood has such great power??"

    But that initial shock over the creation of that strange connection was soonpletely buried under an avnche of even greater shock as the nature of that connection revealed itself to me.

    "What is this feeling? Do-dominance? Authority? No¡­ CONTROL!!"

    My jaw dropped.

    "My blood has the ability to take over human beings and CONTROL them? What the freaking hell??"

    However, my shock was rather short lived.

    As my blood''s regenerative powers kicked in and somehow triggered a recovery effect in Princess Louisa''s mind and body, I felt my control over her slowly fade away under the oppression of her mental strength.

    "I see. My strength in control is still rather weak. Over an unconscious person, I am able to exert control. But over a conscious person, specially one whose mind is as well trained as this particr battle hungry princess, my power over her getspletely submerged under her conscious mental strength." I thought to myself as I analyzed the situation.

    In front of me, Princess Louisa''s pale face slowly regained colour and turned a healthy pink once more before her eyeslids fluttered lightly.

    I looked at her pretty face which was such a deceiving facade for a cruel and ruthless heart, and suddenly felt a very strong urge to give her a p.

    "This is a girl who would very willingly kill me just to get something on me that she fancies. What an evil person. pping her is but a tiny return for her wicked ways!" I reasoned to myself as I grappled with my sudden urge.

    My hand twitched lightly.

    "She deserves this p!" I thought.

    And so I did exactly that.

    PIAAKKKK!!!!

    "How''s that for a wake up call, O beautiful and mighty princess of the wicked European Empire?" I smirked at her.

    My super powerful p caused her head to swivel strongly to the left and elerated her waking up process by a very, very huge margin.

    If the process of waking up is like a slow walk through the tunnel between the yer''s waiting room to the main field of a massive stadium, then what Princess Louisa experienced was probably being dragged out of that tunnel by a high powered race bike.

    Whoosh!!!

    She woke up instantly.

    She turned her head around to look at me with her beautiful round eyes.

    Strangely, there was no trace of anger in her eyes. Instead, there was a whole lot of confusion, and a mild streak of joyful surprise that shed for a very brief moment.

    "Wha¡­ What''s going on here? Where are the monsters? Did you kill them all?" She asked hesitantly. It was probably just the very tip of the barrage of questions that was flooding her heart.

    But she held back all the questions and merely focused on the obvious ones.

    Theck of anger in her voice as she asked those questions despite my seriously powerful p took me slightly by surprise.

    "Could this be an effect of my blood and the power of control over her?" My mind raced as I stared at her intently.

    And as I did so, the unthinkable actually happened.

    She¡­ Blushed!!

    And she turned her head away shyly!!

    "What the¡­" I was taken by surprise.

    I did not expect that the evil princess of the European Empire could actually blush just because I was staring at her intently.

    I mean, I knew for certain that it was an effect caused by the power of my blood which was infused with the power of Control.

    It somehow made her heart gain positive feelings for me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    But nevertheless, it was the first time a girl blushed that way in front of me, and whether I wanted to or not, I kind of liked it.

    I didn''t like HER.

    I just liked that she was blushing because of me.

    Still, a part of me found it rather jarring. Afterall, I did just give her a pretty violent p on her face.

    It was a strange development indeed.

    I stared at her and wondered just what the hell I was supposed to do with a European Princess who started liking me in the middle of my abduction by aliens intent on putting me through stupidly insane and dangerous trials.

    At that moment, a soft whirring sound rang out from above us, and arge drone of sorts appeared from the greenlit sky and floated gently down.

    "Rewards!" My eyes immediately left Princess Louisa''s beautiful face and focused on the far more beautiful sight of arge reward-bearing drone slowly making its way down to me.

    Bommm.

    Itnded rather heavily and cause my already wide eyes to widen even more in greed.

    "Such a heavynding! It must contain something heavy and epic!" I thought excitedly.

    "Reward granted. You may unlock them now if you wish to by saying, "Reward me, reward me now. Ha. Ha. Ha."" The disembodied voice said tly even though the words it said were better suited to be shouted in enthusiasm.

    I winced slightly at the extremely corny voicemand trigger, but I did what he said and shouted the verbal password out with enthusiasm.

    A reward was waiting for me, and I was extremely curious to find out what it was exactly.

    Whoosh.

    A small door opened, and revealed its contents towards me.

    To my dismay, there weren''t any visible giant sized stuff that would have been an extremely clear give away that it was the reason the dronended so heavily.

    The impressive sounding hardware was not for me!

    "Damn it all. I did score higher than her, why would she get all the good stuff?" I grumbled. "I need to get my hands on the heavy reward!"

    But from within the mini opening in the drone which just opened, I spied 2 white vials.

    "To the leading survivor of the first trial, to live as one of the inhabitants of a Mini Terrestrial Bond, you will need strong bloodlines that can nurture a powerful body as well as a grow formidable soul. Your rewards are these two powerful bloodlines. Drink them as you will." Came the voice once more.

    "Bloodlines?! That sounds like a really imbnced reward!" I reached my hands into the drone''s opening and took out the two small vials.

    I conveniently shelved the topic of "Mini Terrestrial Bond" to the back of my head to be analyzed at ater date.

    My focus fell upon the two vials where I could sense a pair of powerfultent energy lurking within them. Interestingly, they were both also very synergistic, as though they were drawn from two lifeforms who lived their lives depending on each other.

    I spent exactly one second thinking whether I should drink it, and then the next four seconds uncorking the vial and gulping down its contents.

    Gulp gulp gulp.

    Pshhhhhhhh!!!

    Smoke began to appear from all over my skin, and a searing pain ripped through my body in that instant.

    My eyes bulged out and my mouth widened in shock.

    "F********ckk!!! What a potent drug!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!" I shouted loudly.

    Princess Louisa sprang forward to my position and quickly poured a small vial of her own into my body.

    Pssshhhhhhh!!!!!!

    My eyes bulged out even more at Princess Louisa''s surprising move.

    "Is this her sneak attack? She intends to kill me??" My thoughts ran wild and for a moment, it seemed as though I was right as yet another wave of frightfully painful sensations swept over all of me!

    But after a little while, I realized that my body was rapidly strengthening once more.

    And after another couple of seconds, the pain disappeared, and my brain finally regained control of itself.

    I blinked.

    My body felt strangely liberated and powerful.

    I turned to look at Princess Louisa.

    "What did you give me just now?" I asked.

    "My blood." Princess Louisa replied.

 Chapter 285 Poof!

    All things considered, it was a bloody mess.

    Like, literally bloody.

    Princess Louisa had my blood flowing in her veins, and with that, giving me a strange connection with her that was probably influencing her feelings for me.

    And minutes after that happened, I ended up with 2 strange bloodlines from as yet unknown beasts rampaging in my body AND Princess Louisa''s blood as well doing some strange but probably beneficial stuff to me.

    I have no bloody idea what was happening to me then. I could only stand there and slowly take stock over the changes that my body was going through while grappling with some very critical questions that just popped up in my mind.

    "Why?" I asked her with narrowed eyes.

    Why indeed. The fact that she had a vial of her own blood at hand was extremely strange, and the fact that she used it on me was even stranger. It was as though she knew that her blood had a powerful effect and wanted that effect to take hold on me.

    And if that was the case, then it went without saying that the Europeans had a serious bio tech advantage over the rest of the world.

    I only knew about the power of my blood mere minutes ago, when I used a tiny drop to power Princess Louisa''s device. And I was pretty sure that although the Chinese Federation were dabbling in improving gics and stuff, they weren''t doing much in terms of bloodline.

    If they were, they would definitely have harvested my blood and done all sorts of experiments on me.

    "Unless¡­ They already have enough of my blood from when I first entered the Whitefrost n unconscious? But I only went through physical enhancements big time after my sessful devour of the two Horse Gavarels, Princess Augustine''s Royal Blessing which cleaned up my blood and the current devouring of Control. So even if the Whitefrost n harvested my blood then, it would make sense if they were not interested because it was just too useless at that point in time.

    So maybe the Chinese Federation is proficient in bloodlines as well¡­ Or maybe not. They would have asked me for my blood after that Horse Gavarel mission if they were. Hmmmm." My mind raced as my thoughts flicked through the possibilities at high speed while waiting for the Princess to answer and while my sensespiled all the information about the changes my body was going through.

    "You looked like you needed help." Princess Louisa said softly.

    "And your blood can help me?" I asked her again.

    "Yes." Princess Louisa said very simply.

    I was starting to get slightly irritated with her short and uninformative answers. It must have shown in my facial expression because Princess Louisa hurriedly borated her answer.

    "My blood is of the Royal Family of Europe. It has extremely potent life force and can be used to heal." Princess Louisa said quickly.

    I looked at her intently once more and was about to continue asking questions when I suddenly realized that the connection I felt with her just strengthened a couple of notches.

    To a certain extent, I could faintly sense her emotional state and a vague picture of what she was thinking!

    "Whoa." I couldn''t help but be even more surprised than I already was.

    "Interesting. To think that ingesting her blood could have such benefits for me. Let''s see¡­ Worry. Nervousness. Confusion. Excitement. There is no trace of anger. She is eitherpletely brainwashed by my blood, or she is reverting to her original self. It''s probably the former. Thetter is kind of hard to imagine¡­"

    "It''s true. Starting from around a decade ago, the European Empire made powerful breakthroughs in blood technology. The entire European Royal Family are now individually powerful human beings. Our bloodline has sublimed and we have unlocked thetent powers hidden deep within the blood of human beings!" Princess Louisa borated with a trace of excitement showing in her voice.

    I nodded at her words which confirmed my suspicions. But my mind was elsewhere.

    "Giving her my blood allowed me to control her. Receiving her blood allows me insight into her feelings and her thoughts. Interesting!" I thought to myself. "This must be so because my blood is superiorpared to hers. If my blood isn''t so strong, then giving her my blood would allow HER to have insight to my feelings and thoughts. Wait a minute, I just ingested two vials of strange blood¡­ F*CK!!"

    I quickly focused my mind on my body and started to see if I was in any way controlled or if I have ess to two different life form''s feelings and thoughts.

    Thank goodness, very, very, very faintly, I was quickly able to sense two tiny seeds of emotions and thoughts.

    "YES!!" I exulted with relief. "My bloodline is still stronger than the two I ingested. That''s good. If not, I''m probably screwed. But DAMN! This game is dangerous and so full of hidden traps. I must be more careful!"

    Princess Louisa took my silence as an indication to continue borating, and so she did that.

    "My blood happens to have the power of life imbued in it. I am full of vitality, and that is why my Royal Artifact is this- huh? Where did it go?" Princess Louisa touched her neck where the bloodsucking device which powered her spherical armor was earlier.

    "It''s with me." I said and took out that device. However, I did not give it back to her.

    And as expected, she did not ask for it to be returned to her.

    How could she?

    By then, my blood had probably finished itsplete assimtion into her body, and was unleashing its full impact upon her.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Though not quite giving meplete control of her, it was more than enough to ce me upon a pedestal in her heart.

    I was sensing a lot of positive feelings as we talked, and it was not difficult to figure out that those feelings were all for me.

    What is love?

    What is in a feeling?

    Is fabricated love still love?

    Her feelings for me was a direct result of the influence of my blood within her, impacting her physically which led to the creation of feelings for me.

    Are those feelings real?

    Some would say that those feelings aren''t real, that they are nothing more than products of artificial maniption.

    Well, in a way, they might just be right.

    But the most important person in this matter, Princess Louisa herself, would say otherwise.

    For her, it was as real as the juicy apples she likes to eat, as the sun which rises each morning from the east, as the wild hammering of her heart every time I look at her.

    "That is a very powerful artifact. It is powered by your lifeblood and will serve you well as your final line of defense in an emergency, like it did me. But beware, it is a horrendous drain on your life force. Even I am not able to use it for prolonged battles." Princess Louisa said softly.

    "Hmmm." I merely replied with a nod.

    After dealing with her when she was aplete bitch, I was not veryfortable with her gentleness towards me.

    "I guess I would probably have to get used to it. Afterall, there is no way I can revert her back to her original self." I thought to myself.

    But getting used to her would take time, and time was definitely something that was short in supply at that moment.

    "Please unlock the second reward. The second stage of the trial will begin in exactly one minute." Came the disembodied voice.

    "Damn it. I haven''t even figured out what the two bloodlines I ingested can do yet." I cursed at the voice. "I guess I just have to find out while I fightter."

    "Unlock the reward." Princess Louisa triggered the voicemand and unlocked the drone.

    Whoosh.

    The door on the main body of the door opened and revealed a rtively small but shiny mecha suit!

    Without hesitation, I sank my resonance on it and for the upteenth time that day, my jaw dropped once more.

    It was a blue mecha grade mecha, true.

    But it was aplete technological marvel.

    Without a shred of doubt, even though it could only output power at the blue mecha level, it was capable of fighting against white mechas of the world!

    How could it not? It''s armor was above white mecha grade in strength! It was able to easily resist a white mecha''s attack.

    And even if its power is nowhere near a white mecha''s, it was only in terms of sheer energy output.

    My resonance was telling me that the way the mecha''s tech manipted energy was milleniums ahead of human tech.

    It was so powerful that I was even skeptical at that point that Chronos could beat it!

    What could I do in front of such a juicy target?

    My lips curled into the widest grin ever, and¡­

    Poof!

 Chapter 286 Genius!

    It may be an alien product made up of alien materials and alien technology, but it was nothingpared to devour.

    If devour was active and well, it would have no problems whatsoever absorbing the alien blue mecha.

    But s for me, devour was in full hibernation mode!

    No matter how hard I tried, I was unable to draw out even a tiny ounce of its red energy. My attempts to devour itpletely failed to even take its first baby step.

    Princess Louisa had no idea that I was attempting to rob her of her reward, and quickly stepped forward to activate the blue mecha.

    The blue mecha was in the form of the monsters we just defeated, a four legged, three headed and horned beast.

    It looked absolutely epic, and I couldn''t help but sigh that I was unable to devour it.

    As soon as she stepped close to it, a round opening appeared on its chest and revealed a small spherical chamber where a human being can stand with space to spare.

    She turned to look at me questioningly, as if asking if it was okay for her to get into the mecha.

    We both knew that I didn''t need it, and that it was she that desperately needed the protection of a mecha suit. But she still wanted to make sure that I was okay with it.

    I gave her a small nod, and she immediately entered it.

    The opening closed up as soon as she was in.

    My resonance told me that the cockpit was immediately filled with some sort of nanofluid which allowed her topletely control the mecha as though she was controlling her body.

    "Impressive technology. Theypletely bypassed the need for resonance." I thought as I studied the impressive beast mecha.

    But my surprise quickly became outright awe when the mecha suddenly trembled lightly and changed its shape to be that of a human being!

    And not just any human being.

    It was in the shape of Princess Louisa. A twenty five meter tall Princess Louisa.

    "Holy mackarel! I need that technology!!" I shouted excitedly in my heart. "Well, not NEED, since I can do that already. But damn that''s cool! Very cool!"

    "This mecha is extremely impressive. The golden mechas of earth, though able to wield much greater power, are like ungainly, lumbering elephantspared to a graceful leopard." Princess Louisa enthused with great awe as she started to test out the mecha''s movements.

    My heart started to pound heavily as I watched Princess Louisa move.

    It was incredible.

    And she was absolutely right.

    The aliens used nanotech to copy Princess Louisa''s form, and connect the ENTIRE mecha to her brain.

    And her mecha movements were the perfect mirror to her body''s movements. Every tiny detail, every little twitch, every small nuance in her movements, the mecha was able to perfectly copy and instantly manifest in action.

    It was vastly different to the mechas of humanity.

    Even though we were already able to control the mecha with our minds, it was a crude form of control, just like pressing the joystick of an arcade versus game to control a character.

    We had to give mental orders to the mecha in the form of images that we wanted the mecha to do before it would move.

    Of course I didn''t have to do that, but that was due to the awesomeness of the red mecha core and the benefits that the red energy provided for me.

    For the rest of the world, their control of their mechas were still rtively crudepared to how the aliens did it!

    "I am able to exert a hundred percent of my human fighting skills in this mecha." Princess Louisa suddenly announced.

    She leaped up with great agility and proceeded to do a series ofplicated somersaults and high speed highplexity movements!

    Whoos! Vash! Vosh!

    Her hands cut through the air at extremely high speed and with abundant grace.

    Just one look, and I knew for a fact that she was at least a million times more skilled than me in fighting.

    Which was perfect, because the second stage was about to begin.

    "Second stage. Objective, survive and defeat all of the elite beasts." Came the disembodied voice just as more portals opened.

    Boom. Boom. Boom.

    Hundreds of giant fifty meter tall humanoid beasts with disproportionatelyrge heads and two pairs of arms wielding clubs thundered their way out of the portal.

    As soon as their feetnded upon the green grass, they all nced upwards to look at the green sky and started to howl loudly in a high pitched wail that sounded more creepy than fearsome.

    Awooooo!! Awoooooowowoooo!!! Awawawoooo!!

    And straight after they did that, they mmed their oversized clubs down to the ground a couple of times each and then exploded towards us in a shaking charge!

    "Ok this is absolutely bonkers. You expect me, a small, unarmed ten year old boy to deal with hundreds of fifty meter tall, four limbed, club wielding giants?? Which dumbass lunatic is in charge of these games?" I shouted loudly as I winced at the frightful sight unfolding before me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Of course, the dumbass lunatic did not deign to answer me.

    But just as I was taking in a deep breath to steel my nerves and prepare for a wild and savage fight, a golden coloured mecha leapt ahead of me.

    "Let me handle this stage. Just stay back and watch." Princess Louisa said without turning back.

    And then in a fluid motion too quick for a normal eye to see, she stretched out both hands and pointed at the far corners of the stampeding horde of megaminds.

    PRA TA TA TA TA TA!!!

    High velocity projectiles shot out of her fingers and raked at every single monster on the frontlines.

    As expected, she caught the attention of every single monster who instantly changed their direction to make their way to her.

    That done, she charged ahead once more and quickly mmed into the first monster in a resounding collision.

    BAAAMMMM!!! SPLATTER!!

    A fifty meter tall beastly megamind literally exploded into pieces upon contact with Princess Louisa!

    "WHAT THE HELL?" My jaw dropped.

    It was no simple collision.

    A simple collision would have simply flung the bigger fifty meter tall beast away.

    But instead of that, the beast exploded instead??

    I narrowed my eyes and focused all of my attention on Princess Louisa''s mecha.

    BAMMMM! SPLATTER!

    Within a split second, the same thing happened once more to another beast.

    And another.

    And another.

    And after the fifth one, I was ready to puke.

    It was utterly disgusting andpletely inhumane to watch.

    She was bursting into those beastly megaminds as though she was a spiky metal ball colliding with a sea of rubber balloons filled with bits and pieces of flesh and blood.

    "That alien mecha is disgusting." I concluded with great distaste.

    I had no qualms whatsoever in killing ugly giant headed monsters. In fact, I wouldn''t mind tearing into them and killing them all in a disy of savagery and ruthlessness.

    But what the beautiful Princess Louisa was doing was just pure... Carnage.

    I mean, killing a beast by stabbing your sword into its heart, or even severing its limbs or head was one thing.

    Causing them to burst apart and have all their body parts, organs and bones flying around EVERYWHERE again and again and again and again was apletely different thing altogether!

    The first one makes you a butcher.

    The second one makes you a  demonic psychopath.

    And I was no psychopath, much less a demonic one.

    But strangely, despite my growing urge to puke, I was also mesmerized by Princess Louisa''s graceful efficiency in her movements.

    Every single punch she threw, every single kick, and every single body m were chained perfectly to achieve maximum impact over the shortest distance and quickest time.

    There was not a single wasted movement in her massacre of the beastly megaminds.

    It was as though the beastly megaminds were standing still with their hands raised up high in surrender!

    "How the hell is she able to avoid so many clubs swinging about like damned flies? And even do it so gracefully?" I frowned slightly jealously.

    I focused my attention on her arms first, before moving down to her legs.

    And it was there that I finally realized the key to all sessful movement techniques.

    "Circles. Flow." My eyes widened in enlightenment. "Every movement must be part of arger flow, and must have an avenue to continue! It is true with arm movements, and it is especially true with feet! We cannot ce ourselves in a position where we have no way of continuing an act."

    And as soon as I understood that simple concept, I began to look at Princess Louisa''s movement techniques in a different light.

    "I see! So that''s why we spin! That''s why our feet are always ced facing the direction we want to go next! Efficiency! Flow! Excellent! Excellent! This Princess Louisa is actually a genius!" I cried out in my heart excitedly.

 Chapter 287 Electrical Energy

    I was enraptured by the grace of Princess Louisa''s movements so much that I barely paid any attention to the battle.

    It was only when I suddenly noticed a threatening movement towards me from the corner of my eye that I snapped out of my intense study of Princess Louisa to see what exactly wasing my way.

    And what I saw were the most revolting scene I had ever seen, even to this day.

    Rotten Flesh Worms.

    Yes. Rotten Brain Worms.

    They were exactly that.

    Worms made up of rotten brain matter.

    I finally realized why those beasts had such big heads.

    They were filled to the brim with worms!

    And those beasts that were attacking us were actually all dead, controlled by the mass of worms in their heads.

    Revolting to the maximum.

    And to make things worse, I was unarmed.

    True, I was probably the only person that could im that I waspletely safe in the face of such horrors even in my unarmed state.

    But I would be damned if I had to wade into those disgusting pieces of rotten brain worm to kill them all.

    "Ah! That''s right! I still have that Royal Artifact!" My mood brightened immediately and I immediately grabbed that device with my hand and squeezed it hard so that my super thick skin could be pierced by it and draw some blood.

    As soon as it did so, I felt a distinct connection with the Royal Artifact and felt like I had the option of not only erecting a defensive sphere, but also manifest a light spear.

    "Awesome!" I cried out happily. "This level of control I have over this Royal Artifact is probably a side effect of having Princess Louisa''s blood! I am able to manifest a spear as well as stabilize the spherical outburst so that it remains a defensiveyer around me instead of exploding outwards."

    With that sphere of light and that spear of light, I had no more issues with dirtying myself with the Rotten Brain Worms.

    Much like how Princess Louisa was destroying the megamind beasts left and right with her blue mecha, I too obliterated the worms with great ease.

    "This second stage is nothing much." Iughed out loud after cleaning up the whole bunch of worms simply by bodily mming into them and causing them to be vaporized by my searing hot light barrier.

    I didn''t even have to swing my spear much!

    But apparently, the dumbass lunatic in charge of the trial was also a petty one.

    Mere seconds after my cockyugh, the disembodied voice rang out once more.

    "Second stage extension initiated. Elite Beasts upgraded to Grand Elite Beasts."

    "Bas-" I did not manage to finish my curse before the petty dumbass lunatic continued.

    "Second stage extension initiated. Grand Elite Beasts upgraded to Epic Beasts. Level 1 Novice Trial Difficulty Level exceeded. Trial is ressed to Level 2 Novice Trial. Point system initiated.

    Wee to the Level 2 Novice Trial. Each kill will reward you with a point. Collect as many points as you can to exchange them with fabulous rewards.

    Ungraded life forms detected.

    Point reward is quintupled. Each kill will reward you with five points. Good luck and stay alive."

    My jaw dropped again.

    I felt like a hamster within a cage filled with obstacles. Hell, I wouldn''t be surprised if there were even betting spectators watching me!

    "Bastards. So I am a hamster eh? Let me tear down this freaking cage and show you that I am not just a hamster. I am a monster hamster!!" I raged in my heart and decided to stop fooling around.

    BA DUMP!!

    BA DUMPPP!!!

    My rage was like a high octane fuel which drove the red mecha core within me to greater and greater digesting speed.

    Once more, I felt it speed up in response to my emotions.

    By then, the red mecha core had fed on mostly on my anger, and it was ripping into the particles of Control like a maddened, hungry bear devouring its prey in big gulps.

    "Soon." I vowed to myself. "As soon as Devour is done, I will destroy this damn cage and get to that petty dumbass lunatic pulling the strings behind this damned trial!"

    But before that, I had a bunch of Epic Beasts to obliterate.

    Right before my eyes, huge hundred meter tall portals began to appear everywhere.

    Hummmmm¡­

    The portals opened up into massive, vertical oval entryways and very quickly stabilized.

    And as soon as they did, arcs of fearsome electricity started to crackle all around the portals!<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Holy macaroni! Lightning arcs? Just what the hell are these Epic Beasts!?" I groaned inwardly at what seemed like a very troublesome and "shocking" fight which I was about to get myself into.

    A giant, ck armored arm suddenly appeared out of the nearest portal. It looked like a normal human arm that ended in a hand with five fingers. Thankfully, it wasn''t wielding anything.

    But not thankfully, a massive armored body soon followed the armored arm, and very soon, a hundred meter tall humanoid knight made its way out of the nearest portal.

    And simr ck knights started to make their way out of all the other twenty or so portals around me.

    My heart hammered within my chest, half out of anger, half out of worry.

    The chief questions were very simply, "How strong were they? Can my body resist their attacks?"

    As those questions swirled in my mind, I suddenly felt the whole of my right arm grow hot. But it wasn''t the painful sort of hot.

    It was just¡­ painless hot.

    "Hmmm? Could it be like an ancientic I once read that had aic character who was able to release fire from his right hand and ice from his left hand? That would be epic!" My mind raced.

    But that thought was immediately dispelled when my left arm started to grow hot as well.

    "Fine. Not ice and fire, but being able to shoot fire out of my hands sounds good as well." I thought.

    But s, that was the end of it.

    My arms simply grew hot, and nothing else happened.

    "This might get a little bit dangerous for us." Princess Louisa said in a troubled voice.

    She had very obediently positioned herself one step behind me like a faithful butler, and was actually awaiting my instructions on what we should do.

    "They are big and armored like mechas. It shouldn''t be too difficult defeating and then stealing one of them for us to use." I shrugged and put up a nonchnt facade even though I wholeheartedly agreed with her.

    "They look quite difficult to take down, and it would be doubly so if they control the power of lightning." Princess Louisa said seriously.

    "We''ll find out soon enough." I narrowed my eyes as the first one put his right foot in front of him with a resounding BOOM.

    And so it began.

    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

    Twenty five, hundred meter tall Epic Beasts charged down towards me, a 1.6 meter tall ten year old boy and a twenty five meter tall alien blue mecha.

    "Stay on the defensive." I warned Princess Louisa. "Avoid exchanging blows with them."

    "Roger that." She said just as the first ck knight reached us.

    And as he raised his foot to stomp down on me, our worst fears were suddenly realized.

    Crackle!!

    A surge of electrical arcs covered his foot!

    "Damn it!" I shouted as I dodged his ferocious stomp by bursting out my position at high speed.

    BOOM!!

    His giant foot mmed down to the ground meters away from me.

    The good thing about being a high powered tiny person fighting against hundred meter tall beasts was that it was quite difficult for them to hit you.

    They were much too big to put their inglorious strength to good use, and I was able to use my explosive speed to easily get out of their area of attacks.

    But evadings attacks doesn''t win fights.

    I knew that I had to counter attack.

    And like all small animals attacking a bunch of giants in the history of all life, I leapt on one of the beasts pivot leg when he stomped down on me, and proceeded to make my way up to its neck!

    I could already see myself punching holes on its neck armor and getting to the fleshy part within, if any.

    Hup!

    I pulled myself up and reached the top of his foot. But just as I was about to leap to his calf and make my way up from there, I realized that I had made a huge mistake.

    "Oh shit. I forgot that this dude is ele-"

    BZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!

    That''s right.

    After dodging their massive stomps this way and that way, I ended up delivering myself to their vastly more powerful electrical attack!

    God knows how many volts shot into my body and submerged every single cell in dense electrical energy.

 Chapter 288 Bloodlines Activated

    If you have never been electrocuted before, then you will never be able to understand what I went through at that moment.

    And even if you HAVE been electrocuted before, it would be as though you were dipping your feet by the side of a small swimming poolpared to me who just got tossed in the middle of the ocean during a wild thunderstorm.

    The electrical energy was not fatal to me, thankfully. By that time, I was so freakishly strong and durable that I had no idea what sort of energy was strong enough to kill me.

    But just because it wasn''t fatal didn''t mean that it had no effect on me.

    I still screamed like a stuck pig when the electrical energy drenched mepletely from the tips of my hair to my toenails.

    For many long seconds, I glowed white and bathed in pure electricity.

    But as suddenly as it began, the electrical surge suddenly stopped.

    And I was ecstatic!

    "WHOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!! DO THAT AGAIN!!!!" I screamed out loud in pleasure!

    By god it truly felt good to be electrocuted by that giant ck knight!!

    For some strange reason, my blood began to boil after that and a deep, primal sort of hunger awakened within me.

    Very specifically, within my blood.

    I wanted, no, I NEEDED more electricity!!

    But s for me, after electrocuting me with all of his heart, the ck knight died.

    Yes, that ck knight which just electrocuted me stopped movingpletely.

    I stomped my feet like a spoilt kid on its giant feet, hoping that it would electrocute me again in response, but it waspletely still like a statue.

    "It''s dead? Too bad for it. But lucky me, there are more than twenty more of them! Hahahaha! Hey! Come give me your lightning energy!!" I cried out enthusiastically at the next ck knight.

    Thankfully for me, the ck knights were either really brave or they were incapable of thought. None of them showed any indication of wanting to run away even after seeing one of their buddies suddenly freeze to be an inanimate object.

    I leapt down from the dead ck knight eagerly and charged at the nearest one next to him.

    "Huaaa!!" I jumped up really high and reached the top of his foot in one fluid motion.

    And as expected¡­

    "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! MORE!! MORREEEEE!!" I screamed in exultation as I was once again flooded in lightning energy!!

    I could feel my arms getting hotter and hotter by the second, and I could almost hear the screams of pure pleasure from my blood.

    My whole body was tingling in what seemed like a full body orgasm that was not sexual in nature.

    Yes, I know that there is no such thing as a non sexual orgasm.

    But it sure felt like that for me.

    s for me, that orgasm was suddenly cut short as the second ck knight died as well!

    The electrical surge disappeared, and I was left gasping for more.

    "Damn! You there! Get your ass over here and give me your lightning energy!" I roared in anger,pletely pissed off at having my non sexual orgasm cut off.

    With a powerful leap, I shot out from my position andnded on the third ck knight''s knee.

    And once more, the orchestra began to y and I was once again immersed in pure pleasure.

    "Ahhh!!! This is it. This is it!!" I shouted as my blood continued to boil and the two bloodlines I had absorbed started to stir and activate.

    One at a time, again and again, I went through the cycle of absorbing the lightning energy of all the ck knights in that greenlit aliennd.

    All the while, I could sense the two bloodlines within me slowly bloom in their awakening.

    Right when the final ck knight dimmed in death, I finally sensed that something was about to happen to the bloodlines within me.

    Slowly but surely, they were activating.

    The first to fully activate was, of course, the Lightning Demon Assassin bloodline.

    I clenched my hand and felt the pulsing of my lightning energy just crackling around my fist.

    "Holy smokes. The power of lightning in my hands. What did I just be? Chinese Adam?" I muttered in awe of myself and my newfound power.

    But unlike the simple power of the famed antihero where he merely unleashes lightning arcs out of his hands, my power was slightly moreplex than that.

    The Lightning Demon Assassin bloodline was exactly as its name suggested.

    It was a silent, nearly undetectable but highly lethal lightning based bloodline that specializes in massive bursts of power for short periods of time.

    In a sense, my power was more like Sa**ke''s Chidori than Bl**k Adam''s lightning.

    Highly intense lightning energy that can pierce through almost anything.

    Enough to kill even gods that are vulnerable to lightning.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "I hope they have a third stage in this stupid trial." I murmured to myself. "I need to try out this new skill of mine."

    "Hey. Is that the power of your new bloodline?" Princess Louisa asked as shended lightly next to me.

    "Uh huh." I replied distractedly. A strange bubbling from my blood was taking ce at that moment, and I had no attention to spare for her.

    My second bloodline was awakening!

    Crackle. Crackle.

    I could feel iting.

    A surge of heat from deep within my bones.

    "Fire?" My eyes widened in anticipation.

    But just as it was about to fully bloom and awaken, a hollow feeling rose up from my body, and the heat from within my blood started to dissipate.

    "That lightning energy was insufficient??" I couldn''t help but cry out in surprise.

    Without hesitation, Princess Louisa leapt out of her mecha and passed a couple more vials filled with her blood.

    "Take it. My blood is the support type. They will power your bloodline and help it activate." She said.

    I needed no second urging.

    I unstoppered the vials and gulped their contents clean.

    Just as she had said, her blood quickly disappeared into my body and the surging heat from my second bloodline''s awakening returned at full force.

    At the same time, I could sense that my ability to read into Princess Louisa''s heart and mind spiking.

    I blinked in slight surprise at the unexpected side effect, but continued to focus on the second bloodline awakening.

    The heat filled my whole body rapidly and within seconds, the heat overflowed and burst out of the pores of my skin!

    However, instead of fire as I was fully expecting, a strange ck energy flowed out and covered my whole body with it.

    "ck¡­ energy? Just what does it do?" I wondered with a frown. But instinctively, I realized that I knew what that ck energy does.

    I pointed at the nearest dead three headed wolf corpse and my ck energy shot into it with great gusto.

    Whoosh.

    A spirit form of the three headed wolf rose from its dead body and immediately made its way towards me.

    "Whaaaat¡­. I am a necromancer??" My jaw dropped once more in shock.

    But my shock did not end there.

    As though it was showing off to his noobie new master, the spirit form of the three headed beast suddenly opened his three maws and created three small spheres of white lightningced with golden light which it released almost immediately.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    All three lightning spheres shot out of his maw and mmed into the nearby giant ck knight.

    Surprisingly, the three small spheres managed to m into the dead ck knight with such great force that it actually was flung slightly backwards and fell down with a loud BANG!!

    "I see, as a product of mybined bloodline, this spirit beast of mine has the power of lightning too! But if that''s the case, then doesn''t my lightning¡­"

    I powered up my Chido- I mean my lightning energy on my right hand, and focused onbining it with the ck energy.

    Lo and behold.

    My originally white lightning energy immediately turned ck!

    Undead lightning energy!

    Instead of merely electrocuting my targets to death, my undead lightning energy can corrode their life force as well!!

    "Impressive! With these powers, even without my red energy, I would still be a formidable force!" I cried out happily.

    But just as those words left my mouth, a thought struck me.

    "Wait a minute. What would happen if I canbine these two powers with my red mecha core? Would I be able to raise up fallen mechas??" My heart started to beat faster.

    If I could do that, then I would raise up an entire global army of frankenstein mechas that would number as the sands on the sea shores.

    I would be singrly the most powerful force in the whole wide world.

    I would be a true overlord!

    "Hahaha. What''s with that dumb expression on your face?" Princess Louisa giggled lightly.

    I turned around to frown at her.

    But as I did so, my eyes widened at the sight of a massive ck knight which had somehow avoided our detection, and was quietly floating towards us with a massive war hammer raised up ready to smash into us!

 Chapter 289 One Condition

    Sneaky bastard!" I shouted loudly.

    "Huh? What? Why? I am not-" Princess Louisa was shocked at my sudden shout.

    But she soon realized that I wasn''t looking at her, but at something behind her.

    I raised my hand and was about to unleash the biggest and strongest lightning strike on that sneaky ck knight when I suddenly felt a certain connection with all of the lightning energy within it.

    And instinctively, I knew what I needed to do.

    "Lightning Devour!" I shouted a randomly made up cool sounding name to my new skill.

    And just like a monster sucking the life force out of its victim, I sucked out all of the ck knight''s lightning energy!

    Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!

    Having fully activated my Lightning Demon Assassin bloodline, I no longer felt the non sexual orgasmic feeling in my body upon devouring the lightning energy.

    Instead, it felt like I was drinking the most delicious, awesome cold drink ever while being under the hot sun.

    It felt really, really satisfying.

    "Hehehe." I chuckled like an evil blood sucking vampire after drinking his fill.

    The lightning energy within me grew to about ten percent full.

    "Hey you dumbass lunatic game master. I need ten more giant ck knights. Or one big fat ck knight boss. Send them over quick!" I shouted half jokingly.

    Of course I did not expect my demands to be fulfilled. But sometimes you do not have because you did not ask. There''s no harm in asking, right?

    Having lost its power, the ck knight copsed to the ground behind us with a loud BANG.

    "Level 2 Novice Trial sessfullypleted. One hundred twenty five points collected. Perfect score. Three times multiplier awarded. Three hundred seventy five points collected.

    Congrattions.

    Please choose one of three rewards.

    First Option - Experimental Starfall Speedster.

    Second Option - Red Wyvern Blood Essence.

    Third Option - Gold Gra¡­ Zzt. Zzt. Be the Outer Disciple of ck Assassin n."

    I frowned lightly at the obvious interference that very suddenly changed the reward for the third option.

    "ck Assassin n huh? So they''re interfering with the ones who kidnapped me and brought me here? I will remember them, and look for them when I have the chance." I thought to myself. "Maybe I can work with them to bring trouble to my kidnappers. But for now¡­"

    "I choose the first option." I said loudly. "Give me that Experimental Starfall Speedster!"

    I only had one simple reason behind my selection of the Experimental Starfall Speedster.

    Yes, that''s right.

    I want to devour it.

    And whatever experimental technology that speedster had, I would get my hands on them and replicate them on all of my mechas. They thought that they were only giving me one experimental tech. Little did they know that they were actually handing me the blueprints to all of their technology!

    However, the ck Assassin n''s interference was much more powerful than I expected.

    After loudly announcing my choice, the disembodied voice simply repeated the reward options back at me.

    "I SAID. I WANT THE FIRST OPTION. EXPERIMENTAL STARFALL SPEEDSTER!" I repeated myself loudly as well.

    But like a stubborn little child, the disembodied voice repeated the reward options back to me once more!

    And for at least TEN times, all we did was to repeat ourselves until finally.

    "Fine! Keep your stupid rewards! Let the trial continue or send us back!" I shouted in exasperation.

    "Excellent choice. Third option selected. You are now officially the Outer Disciple of-"

    "WHAT THE BLEEDING HELL!? I DID NOT CHOOSE THE THIRD OPTION!" I roared at the disembodied voice angrily.

    "- You will be transported back to your original position. However, please do note that time flows differently here than in your original position. When the timees, the ck Assassin n will send someone to pick you up. All the best and goodbye."

    "DAMN IT! DAMN IT! I WANT MY EXPE-"

    Whoosh.<novelnext></novelnext>

    Like aplete dumbass, the game master sent us back to our original position.

    Which was, if you can remember, in the middle of the damned pacific ocean.

    One moment I was standing on the grasnds under the greenlit skies of an alien world, and the next moment I was hundreds of meters underwater.

    Without a mecha suit on me.

    "HMMMPH!!" I shouted with my eyes bulging wide.

    Thankfully Princess Louisa was there with her alien mecha.

    She took me into her mecha and saved me from a whole lot of trouble of having to stay alive underwater in a dangerous pacific ocean.

    "Ah damn those aliens!" I cursed them heartily.

    "You''re wee, by the way." Princess Louisa said mildly.

    "Yes, yes. Thanks for saving me. No thanks for trying to kill me so many times."I grumbled to her.

    "That alien voice said time flows differently in that ce. I need to connect to the world''s inte and find out exactly how much time has passed." Princess Louisa said and ignored my grumbles.

    "What''s the hurry? We JUST got back." I said with a sigh as Iid down on the very cramped cockpit.

    "We were T-minus one hundred and five days fromunching an all out attack on the USAA back when we were captured." Princess Louisa said calmly.

    "WHAT THE HELL?" I shot back up and hollered at the damned European Princess. "I KNEW YOU DAMNED EUROPEANS WERE UP TO NO GOOD! WITH ALL YOUR DAMNED MECHA VIRUSES AND SHIT!"

    Princess Louisa ignored my words and proceeded to check on the day and date.

    "Only twelve days have passed. We''re still good." Princess Louisa said with slight relief in her voice.

    "Twelve days? My big bro and sis inw are probably back at the Federation by now." I thought to myself.

    "Come back to Europe with me." Princess Louisa looked at me with her beautiful round eyes and stretched out her hand to touch mine. .

    After returning back to earth, she had regained a little bit of her back bone and was able to somewhat talk to me semi equally.

    "With you by my side, I will gain the throne of the Empire in a short time, and then together, we can unify the world. All of the world, under our rule. We can strengthen our defenses, develop our armies and be rid of all the threats of the aliens once and for all." Princess Louisa said.

    "No." I shook my head and frowned at her.

    But Princess Louisa did not give up.

    "What''s holding you back? You don''t look like the Chinese ruling coalition at all. You''re either from a small outer n, or an orphan taken in by one of their main ns. Either way, you shouldn''t have much holding you back. Not when I have the world to offer you. The world and¡­" At that, Princess Louisa blushed lightly.

    "The answer is still no. Bring us to shore, and we''ll go our separate ways. I will not kill you today. But if you Europeans proceed with your n for global unification, then the day wille when I have to kill you. Do not resent me for that when that happens." I told her gravely.

    "At least follow me back to the Empire." Princess Louisa said with a slightly begging tone to her voice. "Go there and experience life as one of us first. Maybe you''ll take a liking to it!"

    I was about to shake my head in exasperation once more when a thought suddenly struck me.

    "Hey, if I go to Europe, I would be able to influence them from within. Worst case scenario, I would be able to steal all of their tech and power myself up tremendously! They do have the best offensive tech in the world after all¡­"

    "Hmmmm." I said thoughtfully.

    "You can do whatever you want there." Princess Louisa added, eager to sweeten the deal and make me follow her back. "You can go to school, go on road trips, explore everything the Empire has to offer!"

    "I am not interested in sightseeing." I rolled my eyes at her.

    "What are you interested in then? Just name it. I will make it happen." Princess Louisa dered confidently.

    "I want ess to all of your technology." I said shamelessly. "Golden mechas, mecha virus, experimentals. Everything."

    I raised one eyebrow questioningly at her as I very quickly ced her earlier deration to the test.

    She remained silent for a moment as a literal war raged in her heart.

    "Which one is stronger? Her feelings for me? Or for her Empire?" I mused as I enjoyed myself watching the intery of emotions on her face.

    Finally, after mulling over it for a minute or two, Princess Louisa''s face suddenly cleared.

    "I can do that for you. But I have one condition." She said with a mysterious smile on her face.

    "Hooo. Interesting. Let me see what your price for treason is. Tell me your condition!" I said with a conspiratorial smile.

    "It is very simple. I will grant you full ess to anything and everything you ask for if you¡­ marry me." Princess Louisa said with a deep red blush on her face.

 Chapter 290 Prophecies

    Marry you? Hey hey. We''re still kids. Why the hell are you talking about marriage?" I eximed in surprise. "And the answer is still no! I am not making promises I can''t keep. And you¡­ You are a Princess of a superpower Empire. I don''t think you get to choose who to marry."

    "It is exactly because the Empire is a superpower that I have perfect freedom in choosing who to marry. My family holds absolute power. We do not have merchant princes or generals to "maintain". They either serve us wholeheartedly, or they die." After saying that, though, Princess Louisa frowned.

    "What''s wrong with marrying me? I am beautiful. My mom and my grandma both haverge breasts. I will eventually haverge breasts too. And I will fulfill you physically to the maximum. Plus I am also smart, and I will be caring to you. I am your best choice."

    I gulped at her liberal mention ofrge breasts and satisfying me physically. I may be a junkyard scrapper, but I have a rough idea what that means.

    Very rough idea.

    "Ah hahaha. I see I see. Big breasts are good. Big breasts are really good. Lots of milk." I babbled as I lost myposure a little bit.

    "Of course they are good." Princess Louisa puffed up her chest a little bit. They were still small at that point, but the mounds were already forming. "We are still a bit too young to do the naughty stuff, but if you like, I can give you a prev-"

    "Nonono. I am good, thanks." I said hastily. "Let''s not get too serious. I am not going to marry you, and that''s that. I will not betray my friends."

    Deep in my heart, I could feel my heart break slightly over the lost chance to explore a girl''s body. I may be ten, but my physical growth was closer to an eighteen year old''s.

    But thank goodness my sense of right and wrong had also developed quite well, and I refused to take advantage of her, much to the disappointment of several parts of my soul.

    Princess Louisa narrowed her eyes slightly at my words.

    "Then¡­ Am I not your friend?" She asked softly.

    "Am I?" I asked her back while rolling my eyes slightly.

    "I see. Fine. I will let you check out one golden mecha and one experimental tech. In exchange, you have to study at my school for two months and be my friend. A true friend. Do we have a deal?" Princess Louisa said with a soft voice.

    She was truly determined to get her hands on me!

    I pondered on her words carefully.

    The deal was for a golden mecha and an experimental tech. But there was no prohibition on me doing my very best to steal other tech I can get my hands on.

    And apparently, Princess Louisa was no dumb girl.

    "If you can get your hands on other tech, its your gain. I won''t begrudge anything you gain from your own efforts." She said with a smile. "You will be treated as a VIP with¡­ ess to my private chambers."

    "I see." I grinned at her openness and merely shook my head helplessly. "Let''s go then. Two months would see us nearly to the start of your invasion of USAA, IF the Oceanic Tribes have not attacked us yet. We don''t have much time to lose."

    Princess Louisa''s face broke into the most mesmerizing and beautiful smile I had ever seen, one that was so sincerely happy and blissful that it made me almost feel guilty over my earlier decision to p her face.

    Almost.

    Not quite.

    She was still a vicious killer in my mind, one who was only so kind to me due to my physical influence over her very fiber of being.

    As I had mentioned before, though artificial and unnatural, that influence was real, especially for her.

    It was her reality, and thus by right, should be responded in kind.

    "Maybe she will shed her vicious killer persona once we get to the Empire." I thought casually as I made my way to her.

    Her eyes widened in surprise as I stood before her.

    "Excuse me. I want to download the data on this mecha. Set a course to the empire and let me sit here please." I said politely.

    A brief expression of disappointment shed on her face before she cleared her throat slightly and quickly entered the coordinates of the Empire on the autopilot.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Here you go." She said as she slid her lithe body away to let me sit on the main control seat.

    I connected my personalms with the alien tech to manually download as much data as I could.

    However, as I was fiddling with the connection, myms suddenly came to life.

    "JUSTIN!!" Came the Ancestor''s voice.

    "Huh? Oh hey old man! I am back! Did you miss me?" I instantly replied cheerfully.

    "You punk! Why the hell did you not contact us when you returned? What the hell happened to you? Where did you go?" The Ancestor roared angrily.

    "Hey, what''s with the unwarranted hostility. I only JUST returned! I was about to contact you when you contacted me first!" I lied smoothly.

    "Lying is a sin you little bastard. But it''s good that you''re fine. Your big bro and his naggy wife were both worried sick. But you''ll have to wait before you get to talk to them. They are on a top secret, highly critical mission right now." The Ancestor said in his usual grumpy voice.

    "Ahh okay. So they got out of that situation with the Europeans just fine. Good. Good! I am on a top secret, highly critical mission myself." I said rather proudly, much to the chagrin of the Ancestor.

    "WHAT TOP SECRET HIGHLY CRITICAL MISSION?! I am the issuer of missions, especially the top secret kind! You don''t bloody issue top secret missions to yourself! Get your ass back here at once! We need to debrief you!" The Ancestor exploded.

    "Hey, you''re really emotional today. What''s going on? And I can''t get back. I am on my way to the European Empire for a spying mission. I will periodically contact you and send you my findings." I said to him openly and caused Princess Louisa''s eyes to widen slightly before giggling at my tant confession of my spying ns.

    "Who''s that?" The Ancestor said sharply.

    "Princess Louisa. The cause behind all of the fiasco caused by the Europeans back then. Don''t worry though, we have a deal in ce. We-" I tried to reassure the Ancestor.

    "Princess Louisa? Hmmmm. Interesting. Interesting! Fine. Do your worst and make sure youe back safely. Just don''te back a married man! Hahahahahaha!!! I will wait for your nextmunication!" The Ancestorughed loudly before clicking off abruptly.

    "Strange." I muttered.

    I was quite surprised that the Ancestor did not require more exnation and assurance of my loyalty.

    "He sure is confident that you''ll go back to the Chinese Federation." Princess Louisa remarked.

    "Yeah. I thought I had to do more convincing for him to understand the value of my mission. But I guess he is very much assured of my loyalty due to the prophecy that he has of me." I replied thoughtfully.

    "Prophecy? You guys believe in prophecies too?" Princess Louisa said with augh. "I thought the European old women were the worst of the superstitious lot. But apparently Chinese old men are pretty bad too."

    "Superstition, maybe. Maybe not. But even if its true, being a ck dragon who holds the fate of the Federation in my hands isn''t pretty bad." I said casually withugh of my own.

    "Bl-ck dragon!?" Princess Louisa suddenly said loudly in a surprised voice.

    "Uh huh. Wait. Don''t tell me that you Europeans have a prophecy of me too? What? A dark harbinger of doom shall arrive upon the shores of the Empire with the Princess in tow? He shall smite the enemies of the Empire with one hand and devour its loyalists with the other?" I said half sarcastically half curiously.

    I did not expect to see Princess Louisa''s face suddenly paling in fright.

    "Huh? What the hell, is that the prophecy??" I said in disbelief.

    "N-no. Not quite. But¡­" Princess Louisa hesitated for a moment.

    "Not quite? So it''s close?" I pressed.

    "A ck dragon shallnd upon the shores of the Empire. He will devour its soul, steal its heart and trample upon its children. Beware the ck dragon. Beware the ck dragon. Beware the ck dragon." Princess Louisa whispered softly as her beautiful round eyes which were filled with confusion and disbelief locked on mine.

    "Hohoho. That sounds about right. ording to the prophets in the Chinese Federation, I am the prophesied ck Dragon. And yes, I don''t really mind wrecking the entire European Empire. What was it again? Devour its soul, steal its heart and trample its kids?" I smiled sinisterly at Princess Louisa.

    But Princess Louisa wasn''t done.

 Chapter 291 Marriage

    Receive him as your Lord, acknowledge his rule and reign, and you shall dominate the world. Stand against him in war, and you shall be ruined. Beware the ck dragon. Beware the ck dragon. Beware the ck dragon." Princess Louisa finished softly.

    "Hahaha! See! You need to convince your whole Empire to serve me and serve me well!" I roared withughter as I basked in the awesomeness of their prophecy about me.

    "To think that both the Chinese Federation and the European Empire both have prophecies about me. I feel kind of humbled. Many people have been waiting for my arrival huh? Hehehe." I continued to chuckle. "Quick tell your daddy to name me the Crown Prince and prepare to merge the Empire with the Federation!"

    "I am afraid we can''t do that. The Crown Prince has already been named, and he will be taking the throne very soon. The day of his Ascension as King is going to be the day of our invasion." Princess Louisa said softly.

    "Huh? Why would you guys go to war without the ck dragon? If he''s not on your side then you guys will lose!" I said in confusion for a brief moment before I finally realized what was happening. "Unless¡­"

    "The Crown Prince''s name is Richard Draco. His nickname is the ck Dragon. He wields the Royal Sword Excalibur, hemands the Empire''s most elite ck Dragon Army, and he¡­" Princess Louisa''s face fell at that moment.

    I instinctively knew what wasing even before she said the words aloud.

    "He is the man your father wants you to marry?" I asked softly.

    Princess Louisa nodded miserably.

    "Why are you so miserable? He is probably a dashing young man, full of yummy pectoral muscles with biceps the size of ostrich eggs. And like you so proudly proimed just now with regard to your potentiallyrge breasts, what''s there not to like about such a hot and sexy young man?" I asked with augh.

    But Princess Louisa only sighed deeply as though she was shouldering the heaviest burden in the world.

    With slow and sluggish movements, she typed something into the mecha''s control panel and made a hologram of a person appear.

    I winced in physical pain as soon as my eyes fell upon him. "Damn it! What the hell? I need to unsee this! Gahhh!!"

    That man was singrly the most repulsive looking son of a monster I have ever seen. Even to this day.

    Thin, stringy grey hair very, very reluctantly covered a portion of his pockmarked head which was freakishly lumpy and looked like as though horrifying bugs were squirming within his scalp.

    His squirrelly ck eyes were abysmally irritating to look at, andyers of oily fat barely covered by skin covered his cheeks all the way down to his stringy mustache and beard.

    He did not have a neck.

    His head just continued down to his squishy shoulders which lookedpletely unable to support the weight of his borate dragon head shoulder pads.

    And those were the good parts.

    Below his shoulders¡­

    "What the hell? Which undersea monster and demon spawn mated to create this ugly bastard?!" I shouted in horror. "Is that even a human being''s body? Why is it so bloody round? There''s no way a human being can be so perfectly round like that! It''s¡­ it''s just not possible! Not even a mother with 9 kids in her womb can be so round!"

    Princess Louisa merely sighed very deeply once more.

    "How is this a ck Dragon?! This is obviously just a ck Ball!" I continued my horrified shouting. "Shrink this dude to 1 meter tall, and all the gyms in the world will pay to have him as a gym ball!"

    Princess Louisa sighed once more and tapped on the control to make the hologram life sized.

    "This is his real height." She said, fully depressed.

    The already freakishly ugly hologram at 1.7 meters tall shot up to around 2.2 meters tall, and multiplied the horror of looking at him by at least a factor of ten. Or a hundred.

    "F*ck!" I cursed as I fought back a huge urge to punch his ugly face and erase it from the face of this earth.

    A deluge of at jokes flooded my mind at that moment, and I simply couldn''t help but say a few of them aloud.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "This bastard is SO FAT, when he jumps¡­ wait. He can''t jump!" I shouted.

    I admit, it wasn''t very funny. But of all the jokes I could say, I said the very thing that made Princess Louisa more depressed.

    She tapped on the console again and switched to video mode.

    The hologram changed to show that ck Ball riding on what looked like a massive mechanical dragon.

    It was floating alone before a veritable sea of what seemed to be blue mechas led by a couple of white mechas.

    He was in his usual round armor, but he was single handedly wielding a massive greatsword that was obviously a peerless treasure. It was giving out serious tingles in my sixth sense even though it was just in hologram mode.

    "Is that greatsword Exca- holy smokes! Is he wearing leg thrusters?" I shouted. "What the hell? He isn''t!!"

    The ck Ball had just leapt off his mechanical dragon with Excalibur raised high. And instead of falling off the dragon like all extra fat dudes, he actually shot off the dragon like a young man leaping off a trampoline!

    WHAMMM!! CRAAAAAAAACKKKKKK!!!!

    His Excalibur smashed upon one of the white mechas on its head, and proceeded to sh it in half as he made his way down to the ground.

    And after he destroyed that first white mecha, he went on to destroy the other white mecha within one short minute.

    And in the next five minutes, I watched the ck Ball and his mechanical dragon massacre the army of blue mechas.

    He was ruthless, bloodthirsty, and freakishly skilled in the art of war. All that, above and beyond his ugly but frightfully strong physique which I dare say was one of the strongest in the world.

    At that moment, I had no idea who would win if I had to take him on in a one on one fistfight.

    But the main takeaway for me in that five minutes of senseless massacre was not the ck Ball.

    Hell no. He can go to hell and explode into a billion pieces for all I care.

    I had my eyes on two more interesting things all the time. And much better looking, of course. I would not be able to sit through the entire five minutes quietly if I was paying attention to him.

    "I want the blueprint of that mechanical dragon." I announced after the hologram disy of the massacre ended. "And Excalibur. Damn that sword is epic."

    "Feel free to take them." Princess Louisa said with obvious eagerness in her voice. "Take them from his broken, lifeless fingers after you slice him up like tripleyered roast pork! Ever since he was named the ck Dragon of the Prophecy and Crown Prince, he has been aplete terror upon the Empire."

    "That''s another question I have for you. Why are you guys so sure that he''s the ck Dragon? I mean, he is good at fighting. But what makes him the fulfillment of the prophecy?" I asked curiously.

    "The very nature of prophecies is that, it is hard to bepletely sure if its real or not until its fulfilled. We are not fully certain that he is the ck Dragon. But my father¡­ He is somehow convinced for some reason. And after this monster wiped out every single rebel organization within six short months without losing a single battle, my father''s conviction rose to¡­ sigh." Princess Louisa sighed deeply and was unable to go on.

    "Her father must have given her to that ck Ball as a future wife." I thought to myself. "In a way, she has quite the tragic story. No wonder she is so fully pissed off all the time."

    "So your earlier boast that you can marry anybody you want¡­ And your n in bringing me back to the Empire¡­" I let my words trail and raised my eyebrow questioningly at her.

    "I AM free to marry whomever I choose!" Princess Louisa said fiercely. "I would rather die than marry that¡­ that¡­ ck Hairy Ball! And no one can convince me otherwise!"

    "I see. This truly is a resounding mess. But lucky you, I am the true ck Dragon. And as your prophecy has stated so clearly, they who stand against me in battle will definitely die. So I guess that ck Ball would be dying pretty soon. Don''t you worry." I smiled at her reassuringly.

    "Yes! That''s right! And then we WILL be married! Just as the secondary prophecy proims!" Princess Louisa said happily.

    "Wait, what? There''s a secondary prophecy?? And we''ll be married?!" I asked her in shock.

 Chapter 292 European Empire

    Ah! Uhmmm. Yes. But as I said, prophecies aren''t definite. So you don''t have to worry so much. Juste along with me and do your thing. Don''t worry!" Princess Louisa said quickly.

    I frowned at her and narrowed my eyes.

    "What are the words to that prophecy?" I asked her.

    "I¡­ I don''t remember." Princess Louisa lied and caused her cheeks to turn red.

    I sighed.

    Things were getting tooplicated for me.

    I just wanted to steal their most sophisticated design. It was supposed to be a simple and straightforward issue.

    They hide and protect their stuff, while I sneak about and try to steal them. Just a regr, run of the mill, high stakes heist.

    But the prophecies and marriages and crazy ugly bastards and pitiful princesses had to make it soplicated.

    And the fact that the damned ancestor was so willing to send me to the Empire was also a cause of concern for me.

    "Did he get another prophecy? Damn that old man. He would never send me on a mission for my own good. There must be something important about my going to the Empire that''s beneficial to him and the Federation." I grumbled in my heart.

    But after a while, I decided to just screw it all.

    "Fine. To hell with the prophecies. I will go to the Empire, steal all your powerful offensive tech, gather intel, and kill your best warriors if I can. I won''t be holding back." I warned Princess Louisa.

    She gulped loudly and nodded without saying anything.

    She knew earlier that she was letting a wolf into herir.

    She probably originally thought that herir was that of a dragon which had nothing to fear from a mere wolf.

    But at that moment, she was starting to feel less confident about their status as dragons.

    And even if they were, I was starting to look less and less like a wolf, and more and more like a dragon as well.

    But the die was cast.

    "Let''s go then. To the Empire." I said with a sigh. "Where exactly are we going?"

    "We''re going to the Royal Pce in the capital city, of course." Princess Louisa said with a pretty smile.

    "Hmmm. You seem happy to be going back." I remarked upon seeing her smile.

    "Yes. Home for me is a good ce." She replied serenely. "Even if it''s descending into chaos right now with the so called "ck Dragon" having his way with almost anything. After all is said and done, he is still a mere Crown Prince. My dominion is still my safe haven, and even his famed and feared ck Dragon Army is but one army among hundreds. My own Silver Legion can easily stand up against him."

    "I see. I will need to learn about the politics of your Empireter. So I will be your VIP guest? How does that work?" I asked curiously.

    "What do you mean how does that work?" Princess Louisa asked in confusion. "You''ll be staying in my pce as my special guest. You will be granted ess to every ce I have ess to, you will go to school with me, have meals with me, do all sorts of stuff with me. You are free to do your own stuff if you want, of course. But you will do so with armed escorts and a guide."

    "Oh¡­ Right." I nodded as though I expected all that.

    I hadn''t, of course.

    I was a junkyard scrapper turned superstar in the Chinese Federation. Money I had aplenty, and special treatment as well.

    But I waspletely blind to the lifestyle of Royalty.

    Princess Louisa was rather perceptive, and she started to exin in detail about what I should expect.

    "My father is the Emperor. His name is Emperor Ajax the First.

    And as an Emperor, he has many wives and concubines and more children than you can count. All of them carry the title Prince and Princess. But of course, there are different levels of Princes and Princesses.

    Those whose mothers are Queens are given the prefix High. So its High Prince this and High Princess that.

    Those whose mothers are concubines are given the colour prefixes ording to their strata. Blue. White. Gold. Red. In ascending order. Like White Prince Doran or Gold Princess He.

    The use of these prefixes are very strictly enforced, and are more important than their names.

    And finally, those of us whose mother is the Empress, we do not have prefixes.

    I am Princess Louisa. Pleased to meet you." She grinned slightly as she stretched out a slender and soft hand to me.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Pleased to meet you, Princess Louisa. I am future Emperor Justin." I shook her hand solemnly.

    "Haha! Good one!" Princess Louisaughed at my "joke" for a moment before realizing that I was serious. "Oh. You''re being serious."

    "Why not? With my power, it''s just a matter of time until I gain control over a country as its overlord. And from there¡­ the world." I said pleasantly.

    "Or we can get married and you can start your project of world domination with the Empire." Princess Louisa said casually and rather pleasantly herself.

    I merely chuckled at her constant enthusiastic offers of bing my wife.

    "Go on. So you have Rainbow Princes, High Princes and Princes. How many full blooded siblings do you have?" I continued.

    "I have three other siblings. Two elder brothers and one elder sister. Prince Wilford is the eldest. Prince Harris is the second. Princess Diane is the third. I am the fourth." Princess Louisa exined.

    "And what about the Crown Prince? What type of Prince is he?" I asked.

    "He was a Blue Prince. But now as a Crown Prince, he sits above every other Royalty, beneath only the Emperor and the Empress." Princess Louisa''s face turned glum at the mention of the ugly bastard.

    "Ew. So you''re being forced to marry your half brother. That''s sick." I scrunched up my face in disgust.

    "Well, technically, he''s not my half brother. He''s the son from the concubine''s first marriage. But it doesn''t make any difference. He''s¡­ filth." Princess Louisa scrunched up her face in disgust as well.

    "I see. Well, I will help you kill him if I get the chance." I said to herfortingly.

    It truly felt strange to be talking about murder as a form offort. But I guess that''s just life.

    Princess Louisa smiled her beautiful, perfect smile at me appreciatively.

    For the next hour or so, she told me almost everything I needed to know about the inner gossip of the Empire.

    Who''s with who, who hates what and who wants what. She even showed me holograms of the characters so I can put faces to the names.

    Basically long story short, the Empire was divided cleanly into two over the ck Dragon.

    The Emperor and most of those who were sucking up to him firmly supported Richard Draco as the ck Dragon and Crown Prince. They were even looking forward to the invasion of USAA. And as the current ruling power, things were unfolding ording to their will.

    Well, the Emperor''s will. But he was very old, and he would be stepping down soon. He thought that he was handing the Empire into good hands.

    In his defense, old age probably made him senile and led him to believe that Richard Draco was the ck Dragon.

    But I guess it makes for a very poor defense as to why he had to go all in and go to war with USAA during a time of global crisis.

    Choosing a fake ass dragon as a sessor was dumb. But going to war with the only other superpower in the world when the Oceanic Tribes were about to attack¡­

    It takes a special kind of senility to do that.

    The retarded, idiotic kind.

    Or the brainwashed kind.

    Anyway, there were a group of sane people within the Empire, and they were firmly opposed to the entire idea of Richard Draco being the ck Dragon, his Ascension to the throne, and the nned war with USAA.

    But because they were not the Emperor, they could only scheme in the dark and try to set up ns to thwart the above mentioned disasters from happening.

    With spies, traitors and conspirators everywhere though, it was difficult to get much progress. Everybody was extra cautious, and everybody worked through proxies.

    Identities were kept secret from each other as factions tried to execute their own objectives and block the other party''s.

    Assassination attempts were on the rise, and to the dismay of both sides, sessful assassinations were also starting to be a daily urance.

    No big shots had died just yet, but the way things were going, it was only a matter of time till the first one fell.

    And as soon as one fell...

    The situation was simmering. It was a massive powder keg about to explode.

    It was the perfect situation for me to make my entrance into the Empire''s intrigues and conspiracies.

    And boy, what an entrance I made.

 Chapter 293 Platinum Designer

    Hmmmm. I don''t think I should go as a VIP. It just doesn''t sound good enough." I thought aloud. "What''s a VIP among big headed princess and conceited princesses? I need to visit the Empire as someone important¡­ someone that will give me clout."

    "Being the VIP guest of THE Princess Louisa is someone with clout." She said with a slight pout.

    "But if I do that, I will automatically take on all of your social and political trappings. I am not free to make my own friends and bash up my own enemies. I don''t want that." I said firmly. "What does the Empire value? What position will make me a valued asset?"

    "Hmmmmm. You¡­ You have a small point." Princess Louisa agreed very reluctantly and sulked lightly at that point.

    "Well? What sort of person would be highly regarded in the Empire?" I pressed.

    "You''re a ten year old boy! How valuable can you be?" Princess Louisa''s pout was getting more pronounced and her sulk was gearing up in strength.

    "It doesn''t matter. A bomb triggered by ten year old fingers explodes just as well as one triggered by fifty year old fingers. Come on. Give me something. An exotic general? A rich scion of a global corporation? A mad scientist? A prodigy designer" I spouted a random list of possible characters.

    Princess Louisa remained silent for a moment.

    "Actually¡­ A prodigy designer would be a pretty valuable asset." Princess Louisa said thoughtfully as my list of intriguing characters finally triggered her brain to start working. "The Empire had spent years and trillions into research and development, and building up an incredible education system that can produce millions of high quality designers each year. Designers are highly regarded in the Empire¡­ But at the same time, thepetition is cutthroat. Sometimes literally."

    "Pretty valuable huh? That''s a good start. Let''s go from there." I said warmly as I began to sculpt a character which would strike awe and reverence into the hearts of those damned Europeans.

    "Yeah that would be a good ce to start¡­ IF you''re actually a prodigy designer!" Princess Louisa rolled her eyes at me.

    "Hehehe." I grinned widely at her.

    "What? Don''t tell me that you ARE a prodigy designer?" Princess Louisa asked doubtfully. "Your physical body isn''t the only thing that''s unnaturally, freakishly, horrifyingly, disturbingly¡­"

    "Hahaha. Now you know how awesome I am." I interrupted her proudly.

    "How prodigy are you? As in, it''s good if you can actually produce a full Silver Grade design at your age, but we probably have a million designers capable of doing that." Princess Louisa said.

    "Silver Grade? Little toys that can destroy a blue mecha instantly? I can design them in my sleep." I said dismissively.

    "You''re capable of designing Gold Grade Weapons? That''s really good! Only about a thousand designers are capable of doing that! Out of those thousand, only about seven hundred are certified Gold Designers. And absolutely none of them are below twenty years old. Your skills will be in high demand, and your potential will instantly catapult you to the top of the Designer Ecosystem. You will definitely be treated as a future tinum Designer." Princess Louisa said in delight.

    "Hohoho¡­ A future tinum Designer sounds really good. But you know what would sound better? A current tinum Designer." I gave Princess Louisa a slight wink and a massive grin.

    Princess Louisa''s eyes widened at my words.

    "No way. You can create tinum Designs? Weapons that can destroy white mechas with a single hit?" She asked in disbelief.

    "Why not?" I asked as though it was the most appropriate response to her disbelief.

    "Wh-why not? Of course its a "not"! tinum Grade designs are near physical impossibilities to design! Only a small handful of people in the entire WORLD can design them, and from what I know, NONE are below seventy years old! A ten year old tinum Designer is a physical impossibility." Princess Louisa said firmly.

    "Hoooo. So if I enter the Empire as a ten year old tinum Designer, I will be an instant sensation?" I asked with a very intrigued smile.

    "You will be instantly drowned with questions, and chief among those would be, who the hell is your teacher?" Princess Louisa said in a troubled voice. "I don''t like the idea. It''s too¡­ wild. Aggressive. High profile. Attention grabbing. You''ll be a damned bulls eye for the two factions. They will try to win you over, and when they fail, they will try to assassinate you so you don''t fall into the other faction''s control."

    "That sounds perfect. And you''re right. They will definitely ask who''s my teacher. What''s above tinum Grade? I can create a fake teacher and use that influence to do all sorts of things and ess all sorts of things within the Empire." I said with the smile still stered on my face.

    "There is nobody on the face of this earth who is above the tinum Grade." Princess Louisa said tly and red at me. "Not in the past. Not now, and probably not ever."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "That you know of." I added the rification for her. "But there is one. My fake teacher." I said with an equally t voice and an equally unyielding re.

    We held that re on each other for a couple of seconds before Princess Louisa yielded with a sigh.

    There was just no way she could resist me over such an issue.

    "Fine. Above tinum Grade is Emerald. And Emerald Grade weapons are able to destroy multiple white mechas with a single attack." Princess Louisa exined. "Mind you, nobody would believe that such a person exists. You would be creating problems for yourself."

    "Why wouldn''t they? I can just show them an Emerald Grade Design and say that its created by my teacher." I said casually, much to Princess Louisa''s shock.

    "You¡­ You have an Emerald Grade Design in your possession?" She gulped.

    "Uh huh." I nodded and tapped the side of the cockpit casually.

    "You want to say that this alien mecha is created by your fake teacher?" Princess Louisa sputtered.

    "Yep. Nobody will believe you if you told them what we went through anyway. They''ll probably have your brain checked for damage and put you in a crazy ward or something. Might as well use this mecha to solve the issue of my identity and my teacher''s identity." I smiled in satisfaction at the neat kill two birds with one stone idea I just had.

    "Welllllll¡­ I guess that might work¡­ We still need to discuss the details to make sure our story stands under scrutiny. But yes. I guess¡­ On principle¡­ It''s fine." Princess Louisa finally agreed.

    "So I guess that''s settled then. I will enter the Empire as a tinum Designer whom you met while escaping from the strange battle with the Oceanic Eagles. Let''s see¡­ I am from a small country called¡­" I quickly checked the world map and searched for a small South East Asian country.

    "Sing¡­apore? It''s pretty small." I said.

    "That might work. Your teacher is a genius prisoner of war of the Chinese Federation who escaped and managed to disappear in Singapore. I got washed by the waves there and you saved me. We fell in love and now I am bringing you back to the Empire." Princess Louisa said dreamily.

    "Yes for the first part. No for the love part. We became friends and I am curious about how the outside world is like, so my teacher sends me on an extended field trip." I said firmly.

    "Fine. If that''s what you want." Princess Louisa stuck her tongue out at me.

    I stuck my tongue out back at her and caused her to giggle.

    "Is there a formal exam I can take to get my tinum Designer certifiation to make it more formal?" I asked her.

    "Yes, of course. But its not for many more months¡­ Oh wait, I know! You can just participate in the Imperial Talent Championships! You can debut there, and gain instant fame!" Princess Louisa eximed excitedly.

    "Aha! That sounds awesome!" I agreed wholeheartedly. "If all goes well, I will be joining a big fancypetition in a few months back in the Federation too. This will be a good warm up for me."

    "The Imperial Talent Championships? As a warm up? Ha! You have no idea what you''re talking about, do you?" Princess Louisa smirked at me.

    "Of course I don''t. Enlighten me. Wait, start with the rewards." I said with a growing sense of excitement.

    "There are many rewards, because there are manypetitions. There''s the Design Competitions which are broken to three categories namely Mothership Design, Battlecruiser Design and Mecha Design.

    Then of course there''s the much more prestigious Battle Competitions involving Singles, Battalions, Regiments and Divisions." Princess Louisa exined.

    "Divisions? You mean, entire armed divisions fight against each other?" I asked in shock.

    "Yes. There are exactly sixteen divisions. Perfect for a tournament." Princess Louisa said with a tinge of pride in her voice

 Chapter 294 Arabella

    "I want in on the battlepetitions. All four of them!" I announced my new n to Princess Louisa.

    "That''s not a problem. You can join my Silver Legion and represent it in the Singles, Battalions and Regiment battles. The division battles are slightly tricky, as the Royal Legions are technically part of the Central Division. But if the Royal Legions participate in it, then the tournament bes a farce. We would win for sure." Princess Louisa said thoughtfully.

    "Loan me to the weakest division. I will lead them to victory." I said confidently.

    "I guess that might work. Don''t worry about it. I will handle the technical issues. If you''re participating in the Royal Talent Championships, then I suggest you prepare yourself right now. The event starts in two days. It will begin with the highly contested mecha design.

    However, don''t let the name of thepetition fool you though. It will include not only the creative and powerful design of mechas, but also groundbreaking and marvelous designs of weapons, armor and other technology.

    It''s the full package." Princess Louisa warned me.

    "Two days? Perfect. Just enough time to kick back and enjoy myself as a Royal VIP guest first. Don''t forget to give me aplete rulebook before the event. I don''t want to be disqualified due to some obscure sneaky rule." I said to her. "Plus I want to see what the rewards are! I want details, details!"

    I did not tell her that I would be invincible in two days. After I had activated both my new bloodlines, my red mecha core had increased its devour speed once more. And the ten days which it needed to cleanly digest Control had reduced once more to two days.

    Perfect timing for the Championship.

    "Rulebook?" Princess Louisa chuckled. "You guys still use books back in China?"

    But before I could reply, a sudden re of warning sounded throughout the cockpit.

    "We''re under attack?!" Princess Louisa shouted in disbelief and shock.

    She mmed on the loudspeakers and unleashed a torrent of words which basically meant:

    "THIS IS PRINCESS LOUISA! STAND DOWN OR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY WILL BE MASSACRED UPON MY RETURN!"

    With a whole lot of other bloody and violent adjectives, of course. But it didn''t seem to work. The re of warnings kept ringing.

    "Bastards. They must be from the other faction! They are taking advantage of the fact that we are in a suspicious unknown mecha to try and destroy us even when I have clearly identified myself." Princess Louisa cursed loudly.

    "Well. It''s not like you''re a weak, featherless sitting duck. You have weapons. Shoot back." I said with a yawn.

    But Princess Louisa was typing some stuff into the control panel and getting the mecha sensors to show her some sort of energy signature data even as she deftly controlled the mecha into a series of evasive maneuvers.

    "She''s probably trying to find out who we''re up against." I thought to myself as I checked out the progress of my red mecha core.

    I prodded it slightly.

    "Give me something. I might need it." I muttered.

    However, to my extreme, extreme shock, the red mecha core¡­ actually responded!

    "You little human bastard. Disturb me one more time and I will go on strike! I just need thirty more hours of uninterrupted silence. Thirty! Is it that too much to ask for?" A grumpy middle aged woman''s voice rang out in my mind.

    My jaw dropped.

    The middle aged woman / mecha core seemed to sense my shock.

    "What are you so shocked about? Obviously I am a life form. How the hell do you think a dead energy core can have such powerful effects as dissolve and devour? What a dumbass." She said, still in her grumbly voice.

    I gulped heavily as I struggled toe to terms with the fact that a living thing of sorts had just spent the past few weeks within my body.

    "You''re waking me up just to deal with these tiny flies? Damn it. What sort of weakling are you? Deal with them the conventional way! I will bepletely out of reach for the next thirty hours! No! Make it sixty. I need some down time after working so hard, damn you. Bye!"

    Whoosh.

    A wall of sorts appeared between my mind and the red mecha core.

    It felt like I just got my own bedroom door mmed shut in front of my face.

    My mouth twitched.

    I''ll be damned if I took that rude outburst like a good little boy and waited patiently for sixty god damned hours.

    With a single thought, I sent a powerful and distinctly un-gentle mental prod upon that strange wall to test its strength.

    Crack!!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    It broke without much of a resistance, and the red mecha core''s presence flooded my mind once more.

    "Hey! You human punk! What did I-"

    Like the stately but inexorable march of an Emperor led army of millions, I let my mental presence take form and imposed my will upon her.

    However, I held myself back from fully encroaching the entirety of my mindspace with my presence, and allowed her to retain control of a sizeable chunk of space for her own private use.

    My wordless message was clear.

    I am in charge. You obey me. And as long as that basis of our rtionship is respected, you will have the dignity of your privacy, and along with it, my respect and my consideration of your needs.

    You might think that its rather inconceivable that such a lengthy message could be derived from my simple and wordless act, but you would be amazed just what two people sharing a mindspace very closely could understand based on simple and wordless actions.

    "Ah f*ck. I thought I got myself an immature weakling." The middle aged woman / red mecha core sighed mournfully. "Fine. I will do as you say. But-"

    "No buts. You either carry yourself as a partner worthy of my respect and gain my trust, or you can act like a miserly,zy worker and be treated as one." I said quietly but firmly.

    "Ahh. Double f***. You''re good. You''re very good. Fine. FINE! We''ll do it your way." She sighed deeply once more, but with less faux mourning and more resigned eptance.

    "Good. My name is Justin Whitefrost. What''s yours?" I said with a satisfied smile.

    "My name is¡­ Arabe Scarlett." She said softly.

    "Arabe. It''s a beautiful name." I said sincerely.

    She remained silent at my words, but I could sense the beginnings of warmth start to emanate from her.

    Whoosh.

    At that moment, Arabe''s human form appeared in my mind. She was exactly as she sounded, a beautiful, red haired middle aged woman with a pair of perfectly formed size D breasts barely cupped in a red formal dress.

    "You¡­ You''re a human being?" I gasped as my mind reeled at the presence of such a hot middle ageddy.

    I was ten years old. Ten! But her appearance then probably elerated my mental and physical maturity by a full five years.

    "I was." Arabe said quietly.

    But we weren''t in a coffee shop where we were able to talk and get to know each other freely. Before we could go on to smoothen our rtionship''s rocky start, Princess Louisa''s analysis was finallyplete.

    "Our attackers are equipped with border mechas modified with the ck Dragon Army''s unique power source which provides an unnaturally huge amount of power for a short period of time. That bastard must have issued standing orders to destroy me as soon as I appear." Princess Louisa hissed in anger.

    "Where is your Silver Legion? If the ck Dragon Army was standing by to kill you, couldn''t your Silver Legion stand by to rescue you as well?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow. "Plus, how many mechas are attacking us and how strong are they? If there are no golden mechas, then let''s just kill them all ourselves."

    "I don''t know where the Silver Legion is. But as you say, they''re definitely standing by. They should be here soon. In the meantime, there are only a hundred blues, two whites, and no golden mechas. But the ck Dragon Army are all elites. The whites are definitely much more skilled than me." Princess Louisa said.

    "Hmmm. Let me think." I replied and immediately continued tomunicate with Arabe.

    "Arabe." I began.

    "I know, I know. Don''t worry, against such weaklings, I don''t even need three seconds. I can just dissolve the-"

    "No, we are not dissolving them. That would reveal your existence. I want to keep you as my secret for as long as possible. Let''s just enhance this mecha and increase its power so that destroying those flies would be like a cat killing a bunch of rats. Not too easy, but also a foregone conclusion." I said.

    "Well, okay. If you say so. Do you want to do it yourself or do you want me to do it for you?" Arabe asked.

    "We need to discuss and explore the dynamics of our rtionshipter." I frowned as I realized that having another thinking living being in my mind was ratherplicated. Especially one such as Arabe. "But for now, go on ahead and do it for me."

    I stretched my hand out and pretended to work on the control panel.

    "Yes boss. Here we go, what was it they call it? White mecha grade? Pfft. A weak ass mechaing right up." Arabe scoffed lightly and unleashed a wave of red energy which immediately brought the alien mecha''s power level up to hit that of a peak white mecha''s.

    "I''ve unlocked this mecha''s full potential. Go crazy." I told Princess Louisa.

    But she was staring at me with a shocked look on her face.

    "What''s wrong?" I asked her. "We have a lot of mechas to kill, hello?"

 Chapter 295 You Are Not Worthy

    BOOOM!!! B-B-BOOOOM!!!

    A barrage of what seemed like rockets and missiles hit us and caused the mecha to be flung this way and that way as Princess Louisa stared at me with a strange dumbfounded look which looked like a mix between disbelief, excitement and¡­ more disbelief.

    "Hello? I know I look good, but we''re in a battle right here? Focus, girl!" I shouted at her.

    "It''s been a long time since I was a human, but even with my blurry memory, I know that you DON''T look good." Arabe chuckled.

    "You have a lot of things to exin to meter. But now is not the time for that. What is wrong with this girl?" I frowned and stretched out my hand to shake her.

    "Hey, Princess! Wak-"

    Bzzzt.

    A current of strange electricity ran through my body as the tip of my fingers touched her bare skin.

    "The ck Dragon will reign as Lord of Lightning, High Necromancer of the Undead and Emperor of Mechas. All three will bow before his will. Beware the ck Dragon. Beware the ck Dragon. Beware the ck Dragon."

    BOOOM!!!!

    Another massive explosion rocked us.

    "Right! Good prophecy! Now wake up and kill those bastards before I do it myself!" I yelled at her crossly.

    But Princess Louisa seemed to be in some sort of a trance, and refused to wake up.

    "She''s prophesying." Arabe suddenly said.

    "She''s WHAT?" I shouted at her in my mind.

    "I will shift the control of this mecha to you. You kill those flies and don''t disturb her." Arabe said and caused the controls to disappear from in front of Princess Louisa and appear all around me.

    "Prophecies are extremely rare and extremely valuable. Real prophesies, that is. And judging by the strange power surrounding her, this one might be real. Go kill those bugs! From a distance, and don''t shake the mecha too much."

    "Fine." I sighed and took over the mecha.

    I cast out my resonance and realized that having Arabe awake and conscious makes things really convenient for me.

    I was able to very rapidly master the intricacies of the alien mecha and within a split second, I was like an old hand with it.

    Without hesitation, I drew the mecha''s strange rifle and pumped in a huge amount of power into it.

    KABOOOOOM!!!!!!!

    A massive beam of high density destructive energies exploded out of the rifle and instantly cut through the skies like the breath of a mega dragon.

    Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

    All along its path, explosions sounded as one mecha after another were vaporized.

    "Fake ass ck dragon cronies. You dare to attack me with your puny little weapons? Let me teach you how a real ck Dragon''s attack should be like!" I shouted through the mic and allowed my modified voice to thunder out like the roar of a pissed off monster.

    KABOOOOOM!!! KABOOOOOOMM!!! KABOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!

    I was not stingy with my teachings and strove to educate them to the best of my abilities.

    One destructive energy beam after the other streaked across the skies and turned blue mecha after blue mecha into nothing more than dust particles.

    "Hey Arabe. Didn''t I say not to make the mecha too powerful?" Iined lightly. "This is too easy!"

    "Stop ying with those toys and start looking for the two whites. THEY aren''t going to be easy at all. In fact, if you can locate and defeat them in five minutes, I will give you a reward." Arabe said with a light scoff.

    "HA! You got yourself a deal. I like rewards, you better don''t be stingy and prepare a good one for me!" I grinned and immediately cast out my resonance outwards to look for the two whites.

    I found the first one easily enough.

    It was a fully armored heavy white mecha that was so sturdy that it lookedpletely capable of surviving a full blown nuclear st.

    He was standing at the rear of all the blues, slowly but steadily charging up his massive spear.

    I took one look at his weapon, and immediately burst outughing.

    "Wonderful. This is going to be a freebie." I chuckled.

    Of all the weapon types and energy types he could be using, he had to use the lightning spear!

    Massive arcs of fearsome white lightning were crackling all around the tip of his spear and its power level rose at an rming rate.

    If left to finish charging, he would be wielding a tinum Grade Lightning Spear! It was a faux tinum Grade Weapon, of course.<novelnext></novelnext>

    The time it took to fully charge was in the minutes, and in battles, he might as well be a sitting duck.

    And judging by the fact that he was only charging it after I started massacring his soldiers simply meant that he was not able to hold the spear at tinum Grade for an extended period of time.

    He must have thought that he was being sneaky, charging his weapon up while I cleaned up his men.

    But he wasn''t the sneakiest in that battlefield.

    "I will let him finish charging up, before I absorb all of his lightning energy in one clean swoop." I thought with a self satisfied grin. "Now, let''s see where the other one is."

    However, the other one turned out to be the real sneaky bastard of the battlefield.

    My resonance couldn''t locate him at all!

    "If my resonance can''t locate him, then he must be hiding behind some sort of shield. And the best way to flush out an enemy hiding behind his shield is¡­ by destroying his shield!" I thought to myself.

    I switched the rifle to maized rapid fire mode and began firing it in every single direction at high speed.

    PRA TA TA TA TA TA TA!!!!

    Each projectile shot through the skies like a cannon ball and swerved to the nearest maic object in its vicinity

    Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!

    The first wave of my barrage destroyed the remaining blue mechas and caused the white mecha still charging up his lightning spear to engage in evasive maneuvers.

    PRA TA TA TA TA TA TA TA!!!!!

    My second barrage shot out like a peacock''s tail and covered most of the major directions.

    Strangely, they all shot out in straight lines. That meant that there were nothing near their paths that were in the least maic.

    I did not give up and quicklyunched my third, fourth and fifth barrages in slightly different directions.

    However, all of the projectiles ran straight and true.

    "Anti maic barrier huh? If I can''t flush you out that way, then I have no choice but to make this entire ce burn. The only spot not burning up is your hiding ce." I thought to myself grimly.

    I stored my rifle and spread both my arms horizontally to my sides.

    A blinding yellow sphere appeared on each of my hands for a brief second before they exploded in a fiery cataclysm that bathed the entire area surrounding me in fire!

    "Gotcha." I whispered as I noticed a particr spot that resisted the fire perfectly. I cast out my resonance in that particr spot, and just as I expected, there was a tiny feedback that allowed me to finallytch on to its position.

    I grinned in satisfaction.

    "Good job. Your skill in wielding resonance is rather pathetic. But you are quite creative, so I guess you still have potential." Arabe remarked lightly.

    "I shall be benevolent and consider that as apliment." I beamed at her mentally as I drew out my rifle once more.

    KABLAM! KABLAM! KABLAM!!

    A series of high powered sts on its location was enough to shatter whatever shield it was hiding under, and cause it to appear.

    It was a sleek white mecha with a pair of des as hands, and it looked as dangerous as hell.

    "High level stealth and ded hands? You must be an assassin type bastard." I called out with a chuckle.

    "You think you did well in ignoring my partner and focused on locating me instead?" The assassin replied in an amused tone. "You are powerful, but also very dumb. You''re definitely not the Princess."

    "Hooo. So you guys ARE hunting her down. Bastards. I will represent the Emperor and pass judgment on your actions. And let me see what you guys deserve¡­ Ah right. Air burial sounds good. Die!" I shouted and started shooting at the sleek white mecha.

    However, he merelyughed at me and started to fade away from view once more even as he evaded all of my rifle fire.

    "Judgement¡­ is reserved for the strong. And you¡­ You''re not worthy!" He said ominously.

    I merely chuckled and tracked him with my resonance.

    There was no way I could lose "sight" of him now that my resonance had locked on to him.

    He slowly and counter intuitively moved straight at me instead of circling around to my rear as most newbie assassins were prone to doing.

    "Hohoho. He is good." I chuckled to Arabe.

    "Yeah. He is. His partner is done charging his lightning spear and he is within striking distance of wherever you intend to dodge. Let''s see how you n to get out of this one." Arabe chuckled back at me.

 Chapter 296 Lightning Needle

    Why do I even need a n for this?" Iughed confidently. "An elephant does not need to make any ns to deal with a couple of cute little kittens. The elephant simply needs to¡­ charge!!"

    Without any warning, I drew my twin sabers charged forward with explosive strength!

    STABBY STAB!!

    Both sabers plunged into his sleek but considerably well armored chest and made two deep gashes in his white mecha core.

    "Wha-" He cried out in shock and disbelief.

    I did not wait for him to finish his sentence and went on to twist both my sabers and inject it with highly explosive fire energy.

    It didn''t take much to ignite the unstable white mecha core and cause it to erupt in a massive nuclear explosion.

    KABOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

    Strange blue and purple fire exploded in all directions and caused the very air around it to catch fire and burn with fierce strength.

    "Whoa. This is a very intense and unique nuclear explosion. As Princess Louisa said, the fake ass ck Dragon certainly modified the mecha cores of his underlings." I muttered and burst out of the strange fire with several parts of my mecha in mes.

    But it was harmless and did absolutely nothing to me.

    "Pui. This is very crude and very dirty power enhancement. Thank goodness I only absorbed a tiny bit out of curiosity." Arabe snorted in annoyance. "I wouldn''t eat this crap even if I am in desperate need of strength."

    I was slightly surprised at the fact that Arabe was actually able to absorb a tiny bit of the white mecha core without me noticing.

    But it was a short lived surprise, and I epted it as part and parcel of having another life form living within me.

    Mostly though, the surprise was short lived due to the insane amount of lightning energy which had erupted from the second white mecha and which had struck me with all of its horrifying power!!

    "UWAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!" I shouted with incredible ecstacy!! I directed every single ounce of lightning energy mming onto the mecha straight into my body where it very rapidly started to fill up my lightning energy.

    "Greedy bastard. Now that you''ve got another mouth to feed, you''re forgetting all about me?" Arabe grumbled and crossed her arms under her massively sexy pair of mountains.

    I gulped at the strangely intoxicating mental picture, but continued to absorb the lightning energy into my body and its hungry cells.

    Sometimes, I wonder if I was truly ten years old at that moment. I''ve never managed to find the records of my birth, and ten years old was just a rtively good guess based on my physical and mental state prior to my assimtion of devour.

    But after experiencing so many things and getting not one, not two, but three bloodlines to boot, (Princess Louisa''s blood included), my mental and physical state was hardly that of a ten year old''s.

    I was probably closer to being a sixteen year old. Maybe eighteen. Hell, maybe even an eighteen hundred year old.

    I mean, what is in an age?

    It''s just a rough indicator of maturity, be it physical or mental. And if age is just an indicator of maturity, then it would be urate to say that I was an eighteen year old.

    Even though I entered the world only around ten years prior. Does it matter when I was born though?

    Still, eighteen or ten years old, the fact remained that I was aplete newbie with regard to all things sexual. I had never seen pair of boobs in all of its glory before, much less touched one, much, much less interact with a female in a sexual manner.

    So maybe in that sense I was still a ten year old. A very, very curious ten year old with a body of an eighteen year old,pletely and fully ready for sex.

    And for my first, long overdue interaction with boobs. Real boobs, of course, like Arabe''s. Little mounds like Princess Louisa''s weren''t very exciting at all.

    "Ho? I almost forgot that my little master is a little virgin boy. Does these two naughty girls excite you?" Arabe noticed my distracted look and immediately realized the truth of the situation. She jiggled her two wonderful mountains and almost caused me to misdirect my absorption of the lightning energy into my organs.

    "Hahahahahaha! I see! Well, too bad I am just a shred of consciousness, and not fully human. If not, I will be more than happy to guide such a good looking little boy like you down the paths of carnal pleasures. Sigh. s, all I have now is just this. Do you want to see them?" Arabe moved her hand towards the shoulder sp of her dress and pretended to undo it.

    I took a deep shuddering breath and immediately moved to banish her from my mind.

    Whoosh!

    Her sexy image disappeared instantly.

    "Hahahahahahaha! Well well. I think we will be having a lot of fun in the near future, at least until you lose your virginity. And even then, I will be able to teach you all sorts of secrets to make a woman scream with pleasure! Hahahahaha!" Came her gleefulughter from somewhere in my mind.

    "Shut up and stay away from me." I muttered in my mind and forced myself to absorb the lightning energy properly.

    Free from the distraction, I was free to focus on the battle once more, and on the very pleasant sensations assaulting my cells.

    "Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!" I continued my howl.

    "Bastard. Die!!" The second white mecha snarled vehemently.

    He probably thought I was screaming my heart out in pain. But my next response probably horrified him to his core.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "THISS FEELS SOOOO GOOOOODD!!!" I howled. "MORE!!! GIVE IT TO ME!!! MORE!! MOREEE!!!"

    Yes, yes I know what that sounded like. But I was ten years old, and I screamed out whatever words came to mind at that moment.

    Anyway, my earlier guess turned out to be right. He was not able to maintain such an incredible level of lightning energy output for prolonged periods of time.

    And very soon, the glorious lightning energy mming into me disappeared without a trace.

    "Hmmmm? That couldn''t be it. His energy output so far is still way below his maximum capacity. He''s definitely not out of energy yet, watch out!" Came Arabe''s warning a split second before the mecha red out warnings.

    "Danger! Danger!"

    Instinctively, I dodged to the right to avoid whatever wasing my way.

    But I detected nothing.

    "Danger!! Danger!!"

    The mecha continued to re out its warning, and it even intensified its voice!

    "Engaging firstyer of emergency shield. Emergency shield engaged. Impact! Emergency shield at eighty percent! Impact! Emergency shield at sixty percent!"

    My jaw dropped as I quickly exploded into motion and began a high speed evasive maneuver.

    "What the hell was that?" I shouted at Arabe.

    "You have three minutes left. I will tell you what was attacking you after your three minutes are up¡­ IF your mecha is still in one piece! Ha!" Arabeughed at me sinisterly.

    "You damned old woman." I cursed her heartily and started to cast out my resonance as well as engage every single scan and radar avable to me.

    "Old, SEXY woman, you mean? Who was it that was so very interested in my bountiful pair of-"

    Bzt.

    I put up a wall and silenced her.

    There was no way I would let her distract me with lewd talk at such a critical time.

    "I have three minutes and THEN I can squeeze her dry. Of information, of course." I thought to myself.

    I scanned this way and that way, trying to determine exactly how that damned mecha was dealing damage to me.

    After a few seconds, I finally caught sight of it.

    A very tiny sh right before it impacted my mecha.

    "Impact. Emergency shield at forty percent!"

    "I see. Tiny, super condensed lightning energy!" My eyes widened in excitement. "Excellent idea! Let me try it out!"

    Crackle!

    I fed my lightning energy directly into the mecha and straight out into its fingers.

    Bezzzzt! Bezzzt! Bezt! Bzt. Bzt. Bzt.

    My initial attacks were toorge and did not carry enough density. Although they shot out at high speed and easily smashed into the white mecha who was probably freaking out of his mind at the sight of such simr attacks raining down on him, they were not able to prate through his thick armor.

    And as such, the white mecha remained alive. It tried its best to dodge my attacks, of course, but it was far from being fast enough to do that.

    At least one out of five of my lightning needles hit him.

    Bz bz bz bz!

    Very soon, my attacks grew tinier and tinier, denser and denser until finally¡­

    Bz!

    The white mecha suddenly stopped moving.

    "Did I kill the pilot?" I wondered.

    "Four minutes and fifty seconds." Came Arabe''s sulky voice. "Damn it, you''re too lucky for words. That was totally blind luck that your attack managed to pierce through its cockpit!"

 Chapter 297 Horny Middle Aged Woman

    The assassination attempt ended without much fanfare, with the final white mecha falling gently through the sky and impacting the ground beneath it with a loud BOOM.

    By all measures, it was an extremely mild ending, considering the ruckus we caused in the course of the batt- I mean, massacre

    The air was thick with smoke and sparse lightning energy, and destroyed mecha parts littered the ground.

    My alien mecha hovered in the sky and studied my surroundings with cold satisfaction.

    I had won a great battle, and had clearly identified my ultimate enemy for my trip this time.

    "Richard Draco huh. You''re not only irreparably ugly, but also treasonous, traitorous and ungrateful like a damned snake. The world will be a better ce without you. You are so dead." I muttered with a determined heart before I turned to check on Princess Louisa.

    She was seatedfortably like a schoolgirl on a chair and desk which Arabe had summoned for her. Her head waszily reclined upon her folded arms, and she was staring at me like some foolish schoolgirl in love with her teacher.

    Our eyes met and caused her eyes to widen in shock and embarrassment. She shot up on her seat and blinked away awkwardly to look at¡­ well. There was nothing worth looking at in that sparse cockpit.

    "How are you? What prophecy did you make? I didn''t know you''re a prophet!" I said to her.

    "Ah. Hehe. Yeah. Uhm. Ehmmm. My family came from a long line of Prophet Kings. We always had the power of prophecy. That''s one of the main reasons why my father believed in the prophecy so much." Princess Louisa said quickly.

    I nodded and continued to ask her questions to ease her out of her awkwardness.

    "What''s the other reason?"

    "Uh. Well the other reason was because the one who made that particr prophecy about the ck Dragon is¡­ my great grandmother." Princess Louisa said.

    "I see. No wonder. Your dad probably had fond memories of his grandmothe-" I started to remark.

    "He had her killed after she finished making the prophecy under torture." Princess Louisa interrupted me before I could get to finish my sentence.

    "Ah." Was the only word I managed to say in response to that.

    I knew Emperors and great leaders had to be cold blooded in order to seed. But torturing his own grand mother to squeeze out a prophecy he wanted from her and then killing her off after that was beyond brutal.

    It was evil.

    "My great grandmother was the greatest prophet the Empire ever had the honor and privilege of having." Princess Louisa said softly with a slightly mournful and angry edge in her voice.

    Apparently the one who had happy memories with that old woman wasn''t her father.

    "She was the one who taught me how to control my prophetic powers. She¡­" Princess Louisa trailed off without continuing at that point.

    "Well done. Excellent way to freeze a conversation and drive girls away." Arabe smirked in my mind. "The next time I need to drive people away, I shall ask you for advice!"

    I was about to say that she would never get the chance to do that because she was probably already dead and that mere wisps of consciousnesses do not have friends.

    But I held myself back, because if I said it, then I would merely be proving her right.

    I sighed.

    "I see. Well, back to your prophecy. What did you get?" I asked curiously.

    Princess Louisa seemed to snap back to reality at my question, and she frowned lightly at me.

    "That¡­ thing you did with this mecha when you unlocked its potential¡­" She said hesitantly.

    "Uhh. Ehm yes. What about it?" I asked ufortably. It was a topic I didn''t want to talk much about just in case I let something slip.

    As pretty as she was and as in love with me as she was, she was ultimately still an enemy. There was no bloody way I would reveal my secret to her.

    "Can you¡­ perhaps¡­ do the same to other mechas?" She asked with her eyes opened wide, oozing suppressed excitement and anticipation from every pore.

    Even though I knew that it wasn''t meant as a trick question, it was a question that would tell her a lot about my true abilities if I answered it truthfully.

    Being able to unlock a mecha''s potential with just a simple act could easily point to the existence of a power that could be linked to devour.<novelnext></novelnext>

    So I acted stupid and gave her a vague answer.

    "Alien mechas are really unique. This particr one has technology which somehow resonated very powerfully with me. I felt¡­ a very strange sort of¡­ hmmm. Kinship? With it. Maybe the ones who built this mecha are rted to the two bloodlines I absorbed earlier." I babbled a random answer without actually answering her question.

    But as I said before, she was no dumbass, and my attempts to avoid the question ended up giving her an answer anyway.

    "I see. So you can do it, but you don''t want to tell me about it. But you also didn''t want to lie to me about it. Strangely¡­ It makes me happy and sad at the same time¡­" Princess Louisa said with a smile and a sigh at the same time.

    My jaws dropped at her words.

    "Damn it. I should have lied to her outright." I cursed at myself internally.

    "At times like this, you truly seem like a little ten year old boy." Arabe sighed. "So naive, and so pure. Ah damn. Now all of my protective motherly feelings are gushing out."

    "You girls are way tooplicated." I said to them both while shaking my head helplessly.

    "Don''t worry. I won''t tell anybody about your abilities. It''s just that¡­ the prophecy which came to me had something to do with it¡­" Princess Louisa said softly.

    "What is it? Tell me the words." Imanded her.

    "The dead shall arise at his call and the smoldering fires of earth will awaken to greet him. Every mecha will bow and Emperors will dere that he is Lord. Beware the ck Dragon. Exalt the ck Dragon. Receive Him with all haste." Princess Louisa said in a clear and zealous voice.

    The way she stared at me gave me no doubts at all that she viewed mepletely as the ck Dragon of her prophecy, and that she would "receive" me with all that she had.

    She had seen me summon the spirit of the three headed monster in the alien world. And although I did not cause the "smoldering fires of earth" to awaken, I had just revealed that I was able to unlock the potential of mechas almost at will.

    To her, it was confirmation.

    What was once mere belief that I was the ck Dragon had instantly transformed into unwavering faith.

    "Hmmmm. Are you sure its a prophecy? And not your random thoughts being driven by your feelings?" I asked her doubtfully.

    "It is undoubtedly a prophecy, no question about it." Princess Louisa answered without hesitation.

    "And you''re so sure because¡­"

    "Because of this." Princess Louisa stretched out her right arm and pulled back her long voluminous sleeves to reveal a slender, silky smooth arm, with three, horrifying red scars each the size of a thumb on it.

    "Everytime the Prophets of the Empire makes a valid prophecy which engages the power of our blood, it will trigger these runes to appear on our arm. These three scars on my right arm simply meant that I have made three valid prophecies." Princess Louisa exined.

    "Hmmmm. Interesting." I said and frowned.

    I had just received two bloodlines with two supernatural powers. I was someone who was fully convinced that bloodlines have power.

    "If her bloodline has the additional power of making prophecies, wouldn''t that mean I would end up marrying her?" I thought glumly.

    I mean, she was really beautiful. And a Princess, at that. Marrying her is probably the dream of countless young men.

    But I did not like the idea of having my future being determined by powers other than my own. Plus, I already had someone in mind for the exalted position of being my wife.

    I looked at her and saw that she was blushing quite deeply.

    "She''s definitely thinking about our future marriage as well!" I thought even more glumly.

    "No girl will blush that deeply if it''s just about the obscure notion of "Marriage". She''s definitely thinking about something much more physical, and much more pleasurable¡­ Hahahahahaha!!" Arabeughed uproariously in my heart.

    "Go on! Lean in and kiss her! She will definitely like it! In fact, she seems like she''s ready to allow you to do much, much more than just kiss. If you y your cards right, you can even get her to-"

    Bzt.

    I threw up the mental wall between us once more.

    "Damn that horny middle aged woman! Why the hell does she keep talking about sex?" I raged in my heart.

 Chapter 298 Surprises

    Well anyway. It is good that you''ve triggered your bloodline to make this prophecy. So it seems that I am the ck Dragon? Ha ha ha. Good. Good! You better treat me well, and make sure you help me to win the Imperial Talent Show or something." I said loudly to her to ease the awkwardness.

    "I will do all I can to help you." Princess Louisa said softly and seriously.

    I sighed deeply in my heart.

    "Where is the awkwardness?" I thought to myself. "I think I rather prefer that awkwardnesspared to this¡­ this¡­ Blind worship."

    "Blind worship is good! She will do everything you say. Trust me, you will be very happy that you are bed partners with a hot girl with a trait like that." Arabe poked her head through the wall which I had set up as though it was a piece of paper and smiled at me happily even as she teased me endlessly.

    I was about to snap at her for being such an annoying old woman, when my mind finally sort of clicked.

    "She is lonely." I realized with a start. "And she is probably very starved for human interaction after being inactive for god knows how many years."

    I stared at Arabe the lonely middle aged woman in my mind, and at Princess Louisa my brand new and first zealous fan, and I could only roll my eyes at fate.

    "Fine. Throw these girls at me all you want, but I am not babysitting them. My first loyalty is to myself. They can adjust themselves to cater to me and my own selfish way of living." I told whichever god was controlling my life.

    "If I am just a character in a story, then the author better watch out if he doesn''t want to be left with a bunch of sad, angry, brokenhearted female characters." I warned the author seriously.

    Just in case.

    People say that life is just a dream. If it could be a dream, then why not a novel? With all the insane things that had been happening to me in such a ridiculously short amount of time, my life could very well be just a product of some author''s overactive imagination instead of just a dream.

    "Right. Let''s go to the Capital and cause some more ruckus. How far away are we?" I said to Princess Louisa.

    Mentally, I knocked down the apparently useless wall and let Arabe out of her ''prison''.

    "Hohoho. You''re finally awake to how valuable my insights are as a mature woman? Good on you. Don''t worry. With me by your side, I will make sure you do very well as a lover of women." Arabe patted herself on her very lushious chest and sat down next to my mental image, where she promptly stretched her burning hot body and leaned back to rest on the couch that had appeared.

    I could only sigh at her and tried my best to ignore her.

    "We are very close to the Special Capital District. At our current speed, we should enter its airspace within a couple of minutes. From there on, we must slow down to one hundred kilometers per hour, and travel for ny minutes to the Royal Pce." Princess Louisa said.

    I frowned, and was about to ask why the hell must we slow down to such an extent when she answered my question preemptively.

    "Any unsanctioned flying object traveling at speeds above one hundred kph will automatically trigger the District''s Anti Air Defense System. It is very, very powerful. Even the defense specialist golden mechas of the USAA would not be able to survive its powerful attacks. And I really do not think we can survive that."

    My personal ego was immediately stoked, and I immediately decided that I would give that Anti Air Defense System a go before my time in the Empire was up.

    "But I do not think it wille to that. Look. My Silver Legion approaches." Princess Louisa said softly as she stared out into the distance.

    My eyes followed hers and looked out towards the quickly approaching Special Capital District.

    It was the first time I saw the SCD of the European Empire, and to say that I was stunned silly would be an understatement.

    Colourful spires and skyscrapers of every single colour, design and height filled my sight for as far as I could see.

    To the front, and to my left and right stretching almost endlessly.

    For someone living outside of the SCD of the European Empire, it might still be possible for him or for her to be amazed by the awesomeness of blockbuster movies depictingputer generated grand cities filled with amazing buildings and high walls.

    But for the citizen living in the SCD, they would definitely be much, much more difficult to impress.

    I mean, fifty meter high walls stretching for a few thousand kilometers could already be a world wonder.

    And if that''s the case, then how much more wonderful is a "district" tens of thousands of square kilometers in size, and FILLED with near kilometer tall towers?

    It was a show of power and wealth that defied my poor junkyard raised mind.<novelnext></novelnext>

    There was a massive wall built at a distance of five full kilometers before the first building of the SCD, creating a ring of empty space between them that worked as a perfect killing ground for the city defenders after the wall was breached.

    And the wall¡­

    Could it even be described as a wall?

    It was a ''soft'' wall at a full fifty meters thick and one hundred meters high.

    Soft as in, it is not made up of brick or rock, but ofpressed sand.

    One might think that it would be a weaker wallpared to fifty meters of pure brick.

    But brick and rock could crack and copse upon impact, whilepressed sand would absorb the power of any impact cleanly into its body.

    It was a monster of a wall, and it worked like a charm to resist most blue mecha based invasions. Still, as impressive as it was, it was nothingpared to the row upon row upon row of weaponry arrayed on top of it.

    A brief study over a kilometer long section of the wall yielded a stunning five thousand turrets. Five bloody thousand.

    Visible ones.

    There was no bloody way they didn''t have hidden weapons.

    "What the hell is wrong with you Europeans? What''s with the hyper exaggerated defenses on the hyper exaggerated wall?" I frowned and asked Princess Louisa.

    "Hyper exaggerated? These simple constructs?" Princess Louisa frowned back as she looked away from the approaching legion of mechas to look at the wall.

    "These walls and its defenses were the product of high school students in a particr designpetition. These aren''t the SCD''s first line of defense. I mean, technically they are at the very front, but they aren''t part of the formal defensive design." Princess Louisa exined.

    "I see." I nodded and coolly gazed at the massive walls that would stymie every single army in the world apart from the USAA and possibly the very elite of the Chinese Federation, and tried to reconcile all of that with the fact that they were merely design products of the Empire''s high schoolers.

    Mentally, I could only gape at the wonder of it all.

    "Pretty solid. These Europeans are actually pretty good in their offensive capabilities. Throw your resonance over there, right smack in the middle of the killing ground. What can you sense?" Arabe said quietly to me.

    I did as she said and threw my resonance there curiously.

    "What the heck?? What is that??" I shouted in my mind.

    "These Europeans took the idea "offense is the best defense" too literally and too damn far. Don''t think of that as a defensive mechanism. Think offense, and you''ll quickly figure out its function." Arabe replied.

    As my resonance traveled down the massive machine hidden underneath the killing ground, an inkling of understanding began to appear in my mind.

    But before I could truly grasp the immensity of the machine, the Silver Legion finally got close enough for us to be able to look at each other properly.

    "It''s not just warriors of the Silver Legion! There are warriors from the Legion of Light and the Legion of Fire too!" Princess Louisa cried out excitedly. "Oh! Golden Light and Golden Fire as well! My brothers are here!"

    But it was not destined to be a warm reunion and homing for Princess Louisa.

    Right at that moment after her excited exmations, a massive shadow fell upon us as a humongous mothership broke through the clouds and descended towards us.

    Princess Louisa''s face instantly ckened in a fearsome scowl.

    "The balls on that damned Richard Draco. He actually dares toe after what he tried to do earlier?!"

    I could only look up, cast my resonance on that massive mothership, and be stunned silly once more.

    My trip to the Empire was starting out full of surprises.

 Chapter 299 Mothership

    There were no motherships in the Chinese Federation.

    Well, to be more specific, at least there were none employed in publicly visible active service. If they had a few secretly under construction, I wouldn''t have the slightest idea then.

    But the main reason as to why there weren''t any visible ones in the Chinese Federation  was very simple.

    They could not afford it.

    They could not afford to design it, they could not afford to build the industry that would be needed just to build it, they could not afford to build the maintenance yards and train the manpower needed to maintain the maintenance yards, and they could not afford to do all of the above for the golden mechas they would need to fill the mothership with.

    A mothership was that expensive to build.

    And within the context of the Federation''s situation, it was also extremely useless.

    Its money would be better spent chasing after the development of golden mechas and strengthening the spine of its armies.

    Why build a cannon if you can''t even build the cannonballs? And why build a cannon if you don''t have the power to protect it from raids during war?

    Without golden mechas, a Mothership was excess, pure and simple.

    My shock at the appearance of the European Mothership was simply due to the fact that I had no idea such gargantuan machines existed.

    And not just exist normally, it existed as the biggest, baddest, meanest bad boy in the whole wide world.

    A European Mothership was literally a mechanical monster of the most epic proportions.

    It was shaped like a supermassive donut with a diameter of one full kilometer.

    Yes. You did not hear wrongly, and neither did I make a rough estimate.

    It was a full kilometer in diameter!

    It contained a full squad of fifteen golden mechas, one hundred sixty white mechas, and fifty blue mechas.

    And oh, lest I forget. More drones than you can count.

    And double oh, lest I forget also. A supermassive main gun that could vaporize mountains. It was a Peak tinum Grade Weapon!

    The particr mothership that was descending slowly towards us was ck in color with golden trim in the shape of dragons running all over it.

    "The chief designer of this Empire''s weapon systems has a size issue. I am sure of it." Arabe said firmly. "I have seen more than my rightful share of men who love massive things. Without exceptions, they all have small dicks. Their love forrge things is a natural form ofpensation for their tiny manhood size."

    Trust Arabe to look at something so magnificent as a Mothership, and link it back to sexual stuff.

    I rolled my eyes at her for a moment before continuing to focus on studying the ugly mothership with my resonance.

    Although it was an impressive creation, at that moment it was only filled with three golden mechas, ten white mechas and around two thousand blue mechas.

    It was hardly the maximum firepower a mothership could rightly im. In fact, it was waaay more than fifty percent understrength.

    But for the me at that moment who had never seen one before, it was still as impressive as hell.

    "What the hell is this mothership doing here with so many soldiers? And what the hell is with its stealth? I didn''t detect anything until it appeared!" I said to Princess Louisa.

    "The ck Dragon Warriors we took out earlier must be from this mothership. And yes, a mothership is fully equipped with thetest stealth technology. It is virtually undetectable in the skies." Princess Louisa said softly.

    "Louisa, is that you?" A particrly huge golden mecha shouted from afar. He was leading the rapid charge the Silver Legion, Light Legion and Fire Legion were making.

    At the rate that they were traveling, they would probably reach us within less than a minute.

    The fact that the lead golden mecha couldn''t even wait that long to verify Princess Louisa''s identity showed just how frantically worried he was.

    "Big brother, it is me!" Princess Louisa replied back excitedly with a loud shout of her own. "Didn''t you recognize my digital verification details?"

    "Good! Thank goodness that you''re safe!" A second golden mecha next to the first one said loudly as well.<novelnext></novelnext>

    However, they were still quite a distance away, and the massive mothership would reach us first.

    One of the hatches slid open and a simple, basic looking golden mecha with ck armor made its way out of it.

    "ck Drake. So it''s not Richard Draco afterall." Princess Louisa muttered upon recognizing the golden mecha.

    "Prince Wilford. Prince Harris. Please hold." The ck Drake shouted loudly as he quickly positioned himself in between the Legions and us.

    "ck Drake. You are not wee here. Bring your damn mothership back to your master''sir and get the hell out of here." The second golden mecha, Prince Harris, shouted in a condescending voice.

    "This strange mecha attacked AND destroyed a full battalion from my Draco Mothership which was on long distance patrol. It might not be the Princess Louisa. For your own safety, I humble request that you two Princes keep your distance! The Empire would grieve if two of its mightiest warriors were to fall to a sneak attack by a spy pretending to be the missing Princess Louisa!" ck Drake shouted back.

    "ck Drake, I am warning you, ge-" Prince Harris began to shout impatiently at him.

    But at a signal from ck Drake, the supermassive main gun of the Draco Mothership swiveled and locked on to us.

    "Princes, please stop right where you are while I conduct an investigation. I would be forced open fire at this unidentified threat if you two were to continue forward and ce yourself in danger." ck Drake threatened the two princes calmly with an obvious sneer.

    "Stop." Prince Wilford raised one arm, and the threebined Legions stopped instantly.

    They were only less than half a kilometer away from our position at that point.

    "You bastard. You dare to threaten me with my sister''s life? Just wait till we get back. I will make sure I torture you and your family properly." Prince Harris hissed at the ck Drake with pure fury emanating from his voice.

    "Threaten? How would one as lowly as me dare to threaten you, O great Prince? Hahaha! I am merely concerned for your safety. Concerned! I will not let this evil spy endanger your life!" ck Drake said with a scornfulugh.

    "Offensive formation three." Prince Harris said in a low voice and caused all three legions to immediately shift their positions into three loose wedges, aimed at the ck Drake.

    "Herto Jebil. I am ordering you to stand down." Prince Wilford said calmly, but in a voice that reeked of brutal death.

    "I-I am afraid I cannot obey yourmands, Prince Wilford. You are not my direct superior afterall." Herto Jebil the ck Drake said in a voice that was clearly shaking slightly.

    "I understand. You will regret your decision." Prince Wilford said quietly.

    "E-Enough! Your empty threats do not scare me!" Shouted Herto Jebil in a squeaky voice. "I am the ck Dragon''s right hand man! You cannot touch me!"

    However, both Princes merely hovered there quietly.

    And their silence was louder than any threat they could scream out.

    It was like a promise that as soon as the standoff was over, whatever the result was, Herto Jebil and all living members of his kin were as good as dead.

    "I¡­ I am¡­" Herto Jebil stuttered slightly for a moment before finally recovering his courage. "Hmph! I am acting under the direct orders of the Crown Prince! If you have a problem with me, go on ahead and take it up to him!"

    He turned around and pointed at us angrily.

    "You bastards pretending to be the Princess Louisa, how dare you resist capture and kill the brave soldiers of the Empire! You think the Empire is so easily bullied? Show yourself right now!" He roared angrily.

    "Can we take on the Mothership?" I asked Arabe quietly.

    "Without using my main power? No. If I could use them? Yes." Arabe replied very simply.

    "I usually dissolve their small but critical parts so that their effectivity is affected. We can do that again here." I said as I prepared myself for a huge fight.

    "Half measures like that won''t work here." Arabe said dismissively. "Doing it in small amounts to the point where they won''t notice us is not enough to turn the battle around. Doing it inrge enough amounts to impact the battle will definitely cause them to notice us. Might as well go all out and devour the entire Mothership."

    "Hmmmm." I said quietly as I pondered upon the merits of revealing myself as the owner of devour publicly.

    It would create the explosive entry I wanted, of course. But it would also put me in danger.

    "I need something that can assure my safety if I do that." I thought to myself.

    But while I was lost in thought, Princess Louisa calmly stood up and opened the cockpit door.

 Chapter 300 White Lotus

    "I am Princess Louisa." She said out aloud calmly as her tiny frame faced the massive golden mecha as well as the even more utterly humongous mothership above it bravely without a single trace of fear.

    "Stand down right now, and your insolent audacity in threatening to kill me just now will be forgiven, by merit of your ignorance of my true identity."

    "You look like the Princess Louisa." Herto Jebil the ck Drake rumbled loudly from hismanding position a couple hundred meters away. "But who can tell for sure? In such an advanced era of high grade biotech, you could very well be a spy sent by our enemies."

    "Cut the bullshit. Your sensors have probably determined beyond doubt that I am Princess Louisa. Press this issue, and I promise you that you will die before the day is over." Princess Louisa said coldly.

    "Hahahaha! You do speak like her indeed! But s, the Princess is so loud and so notorious that anybody can probably mimick her attitude by just being arrogant! I can''t tell whether you are truly the Princess Louisa or not!" Herto Jebil cackled gleefully.

    I frowned deeply at how the situation was developing.

    "This Herto Jebil is extremely insiduous. He must have a hidden agenda." I muttered loudly.

    "Who are you, boy? What are you doing with the Prin- ah, I mean, the fake Princess?" Herto Jebil''s golden mecha''s eyes zoomed in on me. He was probably instantly scanning through the Empire''s massive database to check on my identity.

    But too bad for him, I was a brand new phenomena that had yet to enter most Chinese Federation databases, much less the Empire''s.

    His search came up nk.

    "I am her VIP guest." I drawledzily. "You have no idea who you''re dealing with. I suggest you back off like a cute little puppy right now before I kick you in your balls and force you to back off like a cute little puppy with crushed testicles. Then your master would be forced to cut off one of his balls to give you, since you seem to be so damn important to him. Oh wait! He can''t do that because he has NO balls!"

    There was silence for a very brief moment before Prince Harris burst outughing very, very uncontrobly.

    "Bahahahahahahahahaha! Who is this punk?? I like him already! Hahahahaha!!" He roared withughter.

    "You dare insult the ck Dragon, Crown Prince of the European Empire? Courting death!" Herto Jebil hissed with unbridled fury. "ck Drake Battalion, assemble!"

    Instantly, hatches opened from the Draco Mothership and every single mecha within it surged out and moved to surround us.

    "Quit ying around. Just look at your sensors and confirm that its me. My father the Emperor had been notified of my return, and he awaits my arrival." Princess Louisa said with obvious irritation in her voice.

    "Sensors? You think the exalted position of a Princess is so easily confirmed by mere sensors? As I had mentioned before, in this era of advanced biotech, sensors cannot be trusted! Especially not in such suspicious circumstances! If you''re truly the Princess Louisa, then where is your famed Silver Death? You must be a fake! I must protect the Empire from spies and kill you immediately!" Herto Jebil roared out irritably, and pointer his golden mecha rifle squarely at Princess Louisa.

    However, instead of shouts of fear by the Princess herself and the two Princes, he was greeted only by silence.

    All three of them merely stared at him coldly.

    The blood of ancient prophet kings ran true in their veins, and they do not scare easily.

    Especially not at threats issued by dead men walking.

    "Hmph. But I shall do my due diligence before executing you. There is only one method to determine your identity. And that is your blood. Surrender one hundred milliliters of your blood immediately for verification purposes. If you fail to do so, then I shall execute you!" Herto Jebil shouted loudly.

    All three royalties did not deign to reply, and Princess Louisa even gave him a condescending smirk.

    "All guns aim at the fake princess!" Herto Jebil shouted angrily. "Fire on mymand!"

    Over two thousand blue and white mechas leveled their rifles at us.

    "Ehm. As powerful as I am, dissolving the attacks of two thousand mechas is quite difficult. I would need to manifest armor to protect you guys. I would rather we attack first and prevent that from happening." Arabe suggested calmly.

    "Not yet. This bastard seems rather easy to manipte. Let me try to piss him off abit more." I replied with slight amusement.

    "You want the blood of the Princess? You? Who the f**k are you to even dare to lust after her precious blood? You''re just a f***ing maggot within a rotting piece of sh*t that''s called Richard F***ing Draco. Go home, drink a pint of your momma''s milk and write your will. You''ll die within the week, don''t say I didn''t warn you." I said and very effectively verbalized the thoughts that all three royalties were probably entertaining.

    "You cocky bastard. You are just a puny guest of a puny princess who''s about to be my master''s sex ve. You overstep you-"

    "Your master''s sex ve?" Prince Wilford very softly repeated Herto Jebil''s words very very softly.

    But the ferocious aura that was emanating from him suddenly turned absolutely frigid.

    In an instant, an ethereal white lotus the size of a sports stadium appeared and bloomed from beneath him.<novelnext></novelnext>

    CRACK!!

    Everything within a kilometer radius froze to absolute zero.

    "White Lotus Domain? Interesting. These Europeans are so full of secrets and mysteries!!" Arabe said in awesome wonder.

    "What the hell is a White Lotus Domain?" I asked in surprise.

    "It is the power of a rare bloodline called White Lotus. At full exertion, the bloodline could control the power of ice energy and create a domain where everything within it freezes to absolute zero. Of course, to cause the temperature of an area to go down to absolute zero, the heat contained within that area had to go somewhere. And that somewhere is usually the bloodline owner''s body. But for a domain thisrge¡­ Yes just as I suspected. It went to his golden mecha. Impressive! Impressive!"

    Strangely, the mecha we were in were excluded from his frozen domain.

    There must be something within Princess Louisa''s blood that made herpletely invulnerable to the White Lotus Domain. And having taken her blood, I too, received the same invulnerability.

    But the same could not be said of the rest of the life forms around us.

    Nothing lived, and even the two thousand something ck Dragon mechas were very quickly being surrounded by rock solid ice. Their power sources were barely able to produce enough heat to counter the encroaching cold!

    "Big bro¡­" Prince Harris said warningly even as he activated his own bloodline and unleashed a massive burst of fire to protect the three legions who did not have the luxury of a royal bloodline.

    "Big bro, calm down. There is no way I am marrying that grotesque swine." Princess Louisa immediately called out to her bro.

    "There are many things I can tolerate. Even this farce verification of yours. But to say such a thing about my sister¡­ You have just lost your right to be alive." Prince Wilford said quietly and cranked up the power of his bloodline once more.

    CRACCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!

    The blue mechas were the first to go.

    As one, all two thousand blue mechas copsed upon themselves and started to fall to the frozen ground as frozen pieces of junk.

    Bang. Bang. Bang.

    They crashed and crumbled like so many pieces of frosty candy.

    The white mechas were able to resist the cold much better.

    Of course they could.

    If they couldn''t, then the power of Prince Wilford''s bloodline would be at beyond tinum grade, and that was just an impossibility at that point.

    But their fighting power had just been shed very dramatically.

    It would not take Prince Harris much effort to finish them all within a quick second.

    And while he was doing that, Prince Wilford could probably kill Herto Jebil the damned ck Drake within seconds as well.

    And apparently, he realized his predicament very acutely and started screaming out psychotically.

    "HAHAHA! HAHAHAHA!! WELL DONE PRINCES OF THE EUROPEAN EMPIRE! YOU BOTH ARE FEARSOME INDEED! FEARSOME!! BUT YOU KNOW WHAT¡­

    GUESS WHO IS IN CONTROL OF A GOD DAMN MOTHERSHIP RIGHT NOW? WHO? WHO? AND IF I HAVE TO DIE, THEN LET ME BRING BOTH OF YOU ALONG WITH ME NOW!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

    Crack! Crack! Crack!

    The massive donut shaped mothership began to spin slowly and broke all the ice covering it easily.

    Slick. Slick. Slick. Slick. Slick.

    Numerous hatches opened up and massive turrets also started appearing from everywhere.

    At the same time, a loud humm could be heard as it started to gather power for a massive attack.

 Chapter 301 Trouble

    Prince Wilford''s bloodline power was indisputably within the Gold Grade as it was able to finish off multiple blue mechas at one go.

    But it still struggled to even critically damage white mechas, so it was a distance away from tinum Grade.

    It was also quite a distance away in terms of sheer powerpared to my ownbo of three bloodlines which allowed me to kill single white mechas rather easily.

    But in terms of coolness and area of effect, it was definitely on par with mine.

    "White Lotus Domain!" My eyes shined as I beheld the world of white frost he had created within a short instant.

    "Now is definitely not the time to enjoy the beauty of artificial winter. What are you, ten?" Arabe said with a scoff. "That mothership is about to get into firing position and gather enough energy to st everything here to smithereens! Heck with that power, he could even very definitely cause the tectonic te to crack!"

    "If you devour it, will you hibernate?" I asked Arabe.

    "No. I will no longer fall into involuntary hibernation. But it would definitely lock up most of my power once more. I would need to focus them on digesting everything properly." Arabe replied.

    "How much power would you be able to exert?" I asked.

    "At least ten percent. Maximum fifty percent but for a short period of time." Arabe said.

    "Good enough. Okay screw this shit. Devour everything! Including this mecha!" I finally decided and opted for the most drastic action.

    "Hehehehe. That''s more like it. Emperors cannot be wishy washy like some vige mommy washing her family''s clothes by the riverbank. If you want to one day rule the world, you must be decisive! Let''s go!!" Arabe said excitedly and cast out every single ounce of red energy out to surround the massive donut mothership. She did not forget the mechas, of course. But they would have to wait.

    Even with all of her strength focused on the mothership, it was an ambitious attempt on the part of Arabe''s.

    And all things considered, she did a rtively good job.

    She didn''tplete it in one go, and instead did it in three devastating waves.

    But that was exactly what made it so much more frightfully horrifying. It was as though an invisible monster''s supergiant maw was crunching on the donut, and slowly swallowed bits and pieces of it.

    CRACKKK!!!!

    The first wave of Arabe''s power caused huge swaths of the mothership''s armor to disappear.

    "Whaaa-?" Princess Louisa could only gape at the heavily damaged mothership in shock.

    The men were not as reserved in expressing their emotions.

    "WHAT THE F***!!! WHAT MONSTROUS SECRET TECH DO YOU TWO DAMNED PRINCES HAVE?? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY MOTHERSHIPPPP?!"

    "BOLLOCKS!" Princes Harris shouted. But he did not fail to capitalize on the shock that stunned his enemies slightly senseless. With an incredibly deadly burst of speed, he charged forward and easily destroyed all the remaining white mechas on the ck Drake''s side.

    "Save the Princess." Prince Wilford ordered calmly even as he undid his White Lotus Domain and dove towards Herto Jebil at an even more fearsome speed than Prince Harris.

    SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

    He unleashed three very quick shes on the stunned ck Drake and very efficiently isted his golden mecha core from the rest of the mecha.

    The ck Drake''s golden mecha instantly powered down.

    Crack.

    His right hand caught its cockpit gently lest he identally crushed it.

    Not because he wanted to avoid injuring Herto Jebil.

    But because he wanted Herto Jebil to live and experience hell on earth before he departed to the actual hell.

    But that was as far as anybody got to do before the second wave struck the mothership.

    CRACKKKK!!!!

    The most of the donut''s body disappeared during that second wave and caused countless men and women to go tumbling down from the floorless mothership.

    As a very critical pawn, motherships were always, always manned by loyal and trusted soldiers.

    And as such, except for a couple of spies, every single person falling to their deaths were fully on the ck Dragon''s side.

    Prince Wilford''s and Princes Harris'' lieutenants easily identified those few people from afar using their own incredible sensors and they moved to rescue them.

    Just them, of course.

    The remaining fell slowly down to their gruesome deaths.

    Most of the Silver Legion, Light Legion and Fire Legion surrounded us and physically made a powerful barrier with their bodies.

    The ''strange'' creature was still atrge, and these loyal warriors would be damned if any of them still had an ounce of strength and a drop of blood left in their bodies before harm fell upon their Princess.

    And right when they finished getting into position, the third and final wave struck.

    Poof!<novelnext></novelnext>

    And just like that, one of the critical pirs that supported the near supremacy of the Empire''s army in the world disappeared into nothing.

    "Retreat." Prince Wilford ordered the Legions calmly and unleashed all the heat he had collected earlier through the use of his White Lotus Domain in a vast fireball upon the area where the mothership was.

    Voooshh!!!

    The fireball shot upwards and continued to shoot higher and higher into the sky without hitting anything.

    Voosh! Voosh! Voosh! Voosh!!

    Prince Harris unleashed at least twenty smaller fireballs of his own in all directions near the mothership in an attempt to locate and hopefully destroy the ''strange creature''.

    But s for the two Princes, their attempts failed spectacrly.

    And not just failed, they could definitely and distinctly feel a strange power wrap around them like an evil giant python, slowly but surely crushing their mechas.

    It was Arabe giving them a heads up.

    "Land. Now!" There was no hesitation in Prince Harris as he got everyone to dive down towardsnd at high speed.

    To make it more believable, Arabe shrewdly destroyed every single blue mecha first into a puff of particles, and made their pilots scream in terror.

    The white mechas easily and rapidly rescued these victims with their rapidly failing mechas.

    At that moment,nd was still a distance away.

    Poof!

    All the white mechas disappeared.

    "AIYEEEEEEEEE!!!"

    "DAMN YOU GOD OF DEATH!!!"

    "NOOOOOOO!!!"

    "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU**!!!!!!!"

    The loyal and valiant soldiers of the Princes and Princess screamed like kids undergoing puberty in a terrifying haunted house.

    "Uh. Arabe. Are you trying to kill them all?" I asked her curiously.

    "Maybe. I am not trying really hard though, so those two Princes should still be able to rescue them. Especially the ice one." Arabe replied carelessly.

    1101

    "Hmmmm. I don''t want to kill them all. But maybe killing a couple would be necessary to keep us out of the spotlight. It''ll be more believable that way." I said thoughtfully.

    "Don''t worry about anything. My attempts to kill us all would already do that for us. Don''t forget that you''re falling along with them." Arabe chuckled.

    "That''s true." I said.

    "Look up. The Ice God is here." Arabe said quickly.

    "Ice God?" I winced at such a cool nickname going to someone that''s not named Justin Whitefrost.

    But as she said, Golden Light had reached us and its cockpit was open, revealing a tall and supremely handsome looking golden haired young man.

    "Come." He said very calmly as though he wasn''t asking us to make a highly dangerous transfer from one mecha to another during a mad dive down to the ground.

    "Come along. We''ll be safer with my brother!" Princess Louisa said as she grabbed my hand.

    "No. My teacher''s mecha will withstand all forms of attack better than that weak ass golden mecha." I said as I resisted Princess Louisa''s pull and dived deep into my made up character. "You shoulde in here. With your other brother."

    Prince Wilford simply took one look at my resolute and fearless face, and then at Princess Louisa''s hand upon mind, and he probably instantly figured out the general story.

    The tiniest bit of a smile brushed the edges of his lips for the briefest of moments before he returned to his mecha and reinitialized his White Lotus Domain.

    But instead of freezing everything, he simply made huge slides to appear from underneath every single mecha around him, including us.

    Right on cue, Arabe dissolved all the white mechas, and caused Golden Light and Golden Fire to release fearsome sounding cracks.

    Secondster, everyone of us were screaming with exhration down massive ice slides which led us all the way down to the frozen ground.

    All except the two Princes, who were frowning deeply at the strange developments.

    Prince Wilford was probably frowning and pondering upon what the hell was so powerful that it was able to remain fully hidden as it devoured a mothership, multiple golden mechas and a bunch of whites and blues.

    Prince Harris, on the other hand, was frowning deeply as his sharp eyes zeroed in on Princess Louisa who was hugging me tightly as we slid down.

    "Hohoho. That second brother looks like trouble." Arabe couldn''t help but chuckle at me.

 Chapter 302 Dumbass Brother

    Have you slid down a near vertical ice slide from a few thousand feet high?

    If you have, then you''ll probably know exactly what the biggest issue with that activity is.

    Yes.

    Your cold, cold butt. And without any way to get the hell out of the slide.

    The exhrating sensation of rushing down towards the ground was fearsome as well, of course, but I didn''t have any issues with that.

    However, for me personally, my biggest issue was probably the death stare I was getting from Prince Harris.

    He was so obviously displeased and his eyes were so huge and so round and so focused on me that I didn''t have a choice but to look back at him with my arrogant student of an Emerald Grade Designer character fully activated.

    "Okay let''s see. An arrogant student of a mega powerful being would probably¡­ sneer at him? Let''s give it a try." I thought loudly to Arabe.

    "Hahahahaha! Yes yes. Please do give it a try." Arabeughed gleefully. She was definitely enjoying herself and anticipating a colourful and highly entertaining drama to unfold.

    "Hmph." I gave Prince Harris my coldest and most condescending sneer beforezily looking away to my right.

    "That was probably pretty cool and solid." I thought to myself even as Arabe squealed withughter.

    However, I did not take into ount that Princess Louisa would look up at that exact moment from her death grip on my body.

    And just as I turned my head to my right, her face lifted up towards mine and our lips¡­

    Yes.

    That was my first kiss with a girl.

    It was a pretty monumental thing of course.

    But as monumental as it was, it paled under the message I had just identally given Prince Harris.

    "Screw you dude. Your sister is mine. Here, let me show you." *kiss*

    That''s basically what my actions said to him, to put it mildly.

    But apparently, Prince Harris had an overactive imagination, and given the fact that I even dared to kiss his little sister on the mouth in the middle of a frantic situation, he probably assumed that I had done the worst thing possible to her.

    KABOOOM!!

    A fiery explosion ripped out of Prince Harris and disintegrated the ice slide around him.

    Three powerful looking dragons made of pure fire med into being and started to coil around him.

    KRAAAAAAAA!!!! KR-KRAAAAAAAA!!!!!

    The three dragons roared out ferociously as they reflected the red hot fury that burned in their master, Prince Harris'' heart.

    "You little bastard!" Prince Harris howled in a draconic, otherworldly voice a split second before he pointed at me and sent his three fire dragons charging at me with incredible speed.

    BOOOM!! BOOM!!! BOOOM!!!!

    The three dragons crashed into Princess Louisa and me and smashed the ice slide we were in into pieces.

    The impact was so powerful that Princess Louisa was flung out of her tight embrace on my body and we started to tumble uncontrobly down.

    But strangely¡­

    "Hmmm? I don''t feel anything." I muttered as the three dragons started to coil around me and burned my clothes to ash.

    "Second brother!!" Princess Louisa screamed out in panic. "What are you doing?!"

    Whoosh.

    One of the dragons left me and started to coil around her as well, providing her with a fiery robe that protected her from lecherous eyes.

    Additionally, the dragon also righted her position and helped her to float gently down to the ground.

    "Harris. What are you doing?" Came Prince Wilford''s calm voice as he hovered in the air next to Prince Harris by the power of his ice energy.

    "That little bastard kissed Louisa right after sneering at me. He needs to die." Prince Harris hissed with extreme anger.

    Prince Wilford turned to look at me and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

    The two fire dragons were still roaring loudly around me. But they were no longer roaring in anger.

    They were roaring in pain.

    Huge amounts of pure lightning energy crackled and arched all over my body.

    CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    The two fire dragons'' red eyes started to glow an ominous white as my lightning energy started to saturate their very being.

    At a nce, I was able to mimick the two Princes'' energy maniption technique that allowed them to fly and I slowly rose to match their position in the sky.

    Fire. Ice. Lightning.

    ? It was a fearsome, strange, unintended but absolutely cool meeting that we held in the sky that day.

    "You. Fire dude. What is the meaning of your unprovoked attack on me?" I said as I finally sent the two fire dragons into overload and caused them to explode and dissipate into nothing.

    Kaboom!

    "You bastard. What have you done to Louisa? Why the f**k are you immune to my fire dragons?" Prince Harris responded with a series of questions of his own.

    "Hmmmm." Prince Wilford added thoughtfully.

    "What have I done? Ha! What I had done to her is definitely something that you two dumbass useless brothers could not do!" I shouted back at him with half glee and half mockery.

    "WHAT DID YOU SAY?? YOU BASTARD! I WILL KILL YOU!!" Prince Harris'' fiery temper exploded once more and he drew a thin, two finger thick, gorgeous red sword and charged at me.

    "Hmph. You may have to resort to weapons to attack me because of my immunity to your fire. But I don''t have to do that! Eat this brand new lightning attack called¡­ Barbequed Prince!" I pointed at Prince Harris and let out a massive bolt of white lightning at him.

    Booom.

    My lightning bolt and Prince Harris'' massive attack both smashed into an imprable block of ice which suddenly appeared between us and nullified both our attacks.

    "Calm yourselves." Prince Wilford said quietly. "Our mutual enemy is still around. Save your energy and your wrath on whatever consumed our mechas."

    "Brother! This bastard, he had probably done despica-" Prince Harris started to yell.

    But Prince Wilford simply raised his right hand to indicate that Prince Harris quiet down.

    "Your mistake is in observing him too much. If you had spent time observing your sister instead, you would have realized that everything is fine." Prince Wilford said sagely.

    Prince Harris stared at his brother for a few moments before finally calming down.

    He lowered his sword and retracted his massive killing intent and overwhelming fire energy.

    "Now, prepare yourselves for battle. We might still have a fight in our hands." Prince Wilford told him.

    He nced at me for a quick moment, but did not bother to say anything.

    But to prove that I was on their side and to show a little bit of solidarity, I stayed with them and helped them to "search" for the monstrous mothership eating mecha devouring beast.

    I closed my eyes and allowed my lightning energy to extend in all directions in short, random bursts.

    Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

    Countless tiny lightning bolts shot out straight and true, and covered much more space than both their search methodsbined.

    Seeing that my tiny lightning bolts met with no resistance, both Princes started to frown deeply once more.

    "Its gone." I said to them tersely.

    "Its physical body is gone. We must consider the possibility of metaphysical beings." Prince Harris said darkly.

    "We are not equipped to deal with metaphysical beings strong enough to devour motherships." Prince Wilford said quietly. "Seal this area, and let''s go back to the pce. We have a Crown Prince to bring to ounting."

    "Indeed." Prince Harris'' attitude was still gloomy, but a spark of sinister eagerness shed in his eyes for a moment.

    "Come along with us. I have questions for you." Prince Wilford said his first words to me.

    "Sure. I am on my way to the Royal Pce to hang out there for a couple of months as Louisa''s VIP guest anyway." I said with a careless shrug.

    Prince Harris'' mouth twitched at my casual use of his sister''s name, but he remained silent.

    "Good." Prince Wilford said and immediately made his way down to the ground.

    Prince Harris and I quickly followed.

    "Second bro! What did you do to Justin! What the hell? Who on earth attacks their VIP guests like that? You dumbass! I will tell our Empress Mother what a failure you are as the Second Prince of the Empire and rmend that she punish you by sending you to meditate on your sins for three months in the Cave of Horrors! You dumbass! You''re the dumbest ass in the whole Empire! No! The whole world!" Princess Louisa yelled at Prince Harris angrily.

    She was stillpletely surrounded by the Second Prince''s fire dragon and somehow, she looked absolutely resplendent.

    "Huh? You¡­" Prince Harris waspletely speechless.

    But it was good that he was speechless, because Princess Louisa''s attention shifted immediately to me.

    "Justin! Are you okay? Did my dumbass brother hurt you anywhere?" She shouted loudly. "If he did, I will make sure hepensate you with lots of treasures!"

 Chapter 303 Robbing The Second Prince

    At such a generous promation from the Princess, of course I capitalized on it shamelessly.

    "Yes, I mean, No! I am NOT okay! He attacked me with his fire dragons and even tried to attack me with his fiery red sword!" I shouted back to Princess Louisa indignantly.

    "Oh no! Where are you injured?" Princess Louisa asked, half concerned, half amused. Of course she knew of my unnaturally insane physique which was enhanced by her blood which made mepletely invulnerable to her second brother''s attacks.

    But she was probably pissed off by the actions of her brother, and wanted to give "something" back to him.

    "I am injured. Very injured!" I shouted without specifying where in mypletely healthy and unblemished body which was at that moment surrounded with a shroud of lightning energy, produced by yours truly to cover my nakedness.

    A feat that signified my rapidly rising level of control over my bloodline energy.

    More on thatter.

    "What? Injured? Your injury is the Empire''s injury!" Princess Louisa shouted as she warmed up to the topic.

    "Indeed! I am very, very injured. I might die tonight due to my overwhelming injuries! What do you have to say to that you dumbass second brother? Do you want the Empire to die along with me tonight?" I shouted nastily to Prince Harris.

    "Injured your dumbass head! You''re obviously fine! Stop being a pretentious bastard and wear some clothes for God''s sake!" He snapped at me angrily!

    "Ah!!! My clothes! Your dumbass second brother burned my super expensive clothes off! They were gifts from my master to apany me on my first trip by myself!" I shouted in horror. "How can the Empire possibly rece these highly sentimental treasures? What sort of treasures must the Empire part with topensate my loss, and heal my shattered heart??"

    "Oh no! Poor Justin, you must be traumatized by your loss!" Princess Louisa continued on our ridiculous farce and followed my lead obediently.

    "I am very traumatized. Very much so. I am so traumatized that my eyesight is affected! I can''t even see my hands now!" I said as I raised my hands which obviously couldn''t be seen because my lightning energy was covering itpletely. "I demandpensation! I want it right now!"

    "Second brother! Pay up!" Princess Louisa folded her arms under her breasts and pouted at Prince Harris.

    "Pay this snivelling bastard? Not in a million years!" Prince Harris roared angrily.

    But at that moment, it was as though something snapped in Princess Louisa''s mind.

    "What did you call Justin just now?" She asked with a silky soft voice.

    Both Princes turned their heads to look at Princess Louisa in surprise.

    The farce that we were acting out suddenly evaporated and real, bellyful anger seeped out of Princess Louisa''s entire being.

    Her body started to glow with bright energy and quickly formed a robe made out of pure life energy. The fire dragon around her winked out of existence as her power took hold of her.

    I nced at her in surprise. Not because she was angry though, but because of her unique method of turning energy into clothes.

    I quickly did as she did, and made for myself a cool white robe made out of my lightning energy.

    "Apologize to Justin right now." Princess Louisa narrowed her eyes to re at Prince Harris.

    "You''re being unreasonable. He was the one who provoked me first." Prince Harris replied with a deep frown of his own.

    "Provoked you? I did not hear him call you bastard or anything of the sort. YOU attacked him first without warning! YOU were being inhospitable to the VIP guest who saved my life! Do you know how hard it is to convince him toe visit us?" Princess Louisa started to raise her voice slightly.

    "He¡­ He saved you?" Prince Harris asked in shock.

    "Yep. The thing which you couldn''t do which I mentioned earlier." I smirked at the dumbass.

    Prince Harris gaped at me in shock, and Prince Wilford nodded appreciatively.

    "You better do something impressively friendly and heartwarming right here and right now." Princess Louisa said with a big frown still stered on her face.

    "Yep. I am warning you, I am not easy to please. Because you were so unfriendly, I will not go easy on you. You need to reward me with something as valuable as Louisa is to you." I smiled at him slyly and stretched out my hand towards him.

    "Thi-this¡­ Nothing is as valuable as Princess Louisa. Your request is impossible. Hmph! Let us go home now!" Prince Harris scowled at me before turning around to make his way towards the SCD.

    "You¡­ you¡­ don''t even value me as much as your stupid trinkets?" Princess Louisa asked Prince Harris with a quivering voice.

    "What! Of course not! I value you more than even all of my Royal Treasuresbined!!" Prince Harris shouted as he turned around anxiously.

    "Talk is cheap. Anybody can say such things. But nobody can rescue your sister like I did. Actions are worth more than words." I helpfully reminded him.

    "You¡­" Prince Harris gave me a death re before turning to Princess Louisa and said helplessly to her. "What do you want me to do?"

    "Give him one of your Royal Treasures. If you can''t even do that much, it just means that you don''t love me at all!" Princess Louisa continued to pout at him.

    "I want that red sword you were using just now." I quickly said before he could toss me any old treasure which he didn''t like.

    "You want my Red Dragon Sword?" Prince Harris asked me with an incredulous look on his face.

    "Red Dragon Sword is its name? Nice name! Very cool! Yes I want that Red Dragon Sword please. Thank you for your generosity. Your love for your sister is inspiring. If I have a sister, I will be sure to love her like you love Louisa." I shook my outstretched hand impatiently.

    "Impossible. The Red Dragon Sword was designed to be my personal treasure, a heirloom to be passed down to my desc-"

    "What is made can be remade, even the most valuable of treasures. But a heart once broken, will never be the same even if mended with all care." I said ominously as I nced at Princess Louisa.

    Herrge, luminous eyes teared up on cue and forced Prince Harris to make a painful decision.

    An easy one, of course. But its ease did not make it any less painful. Especially if the fact that he was giving it to someone whom he had hated at first sight was added as the icing on the cake.

    He took a deep breath, let it out, and drew the Red Dragon Sword in one fluid motion.

    He tossed it to me, turned around, and walked away without saying anything.

    I caught the treasure sword gleefully and took a brief moment to admire it.

    "Hmmm." Prince Wilford looked like he wanted to say something, but he chose to remain quiet instead.

    At that moment, as if remembering something important, Prince Harris turned around and quickly made his way back to his original spot.

    His face was strangely emotionless, except for a very tiny hint of a sinisterness in his eyes.

    "Hmmm?" I looked at the two Princes suspiciously and then at the Red Dragon Sword.

    "Oh no! I forgot that Roya-"

    KABOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!

    GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

    A fiery explosion ripped out of the Red Dragon Sword and a supremely powerful fire dragon appeared from within it.

    By reflex, I unleashed my lightning energy to protect myself and to attack the fire dragon with all of my strength!

    Crackle! Crackle!

    GROOAAHHHHHH!!

    The magnificent fire dragon spat out a thick and heavy beam of pure fire energy at me at near point nk range!!

    Sticky, roiling fire energy mmed onto my body and shed against my robe of lightning energy.

    Although it failed to prate it, there are many parts of my body which weren''t covered by the robe which were exposed to the fire.

    And very strangely, I actually felt the insane heat that it was giving out?

    "Huh? Damn it, aren''t I supposed to be invulnerable to this fire attack? Lightning Shield!!" I panicked slightly and was about to cast a dark lightning shield when I caught myself and casted a normal lightning shield instead.

    I didn''t want to reveal my second bloodline at that moment so that I would still have an ace in the hole.

    But I did unleash a massive amount of Princess Louisa''s bloodline energy at that moment - life energy!

    The white life energy surged out to repair my skin which had taken slight damage from the massive fire dragon.

    "Hmmmm." Prince Wilford frowned deeply when he saw the abundant life energy I was freely manipting.

    He turned to face Princess Louisa and gave her a level gaze.

    He didn''t need to say anything.

    His demand at that moment was very clear

    Exin.

 Chapter 304 Reverse Stanza

    The Red Dragon Sword was insane.

    I could feel its immense fire energy just bursting out of its body and into the fire dragon in a roiling flood of intense anger.

    Itpletely disregarded its energy consumption and dumped everything at me in a wild attack.

    My entire body was shrouded in temperatures probably upwards of several thousand degrees!

    Thankfully my lightning shield was no pushover, and it resisted the burning heat with its own crackling energy.

    Jejebebeww!

    Fire and Lightning shed together in a horrifying mesh!

    "Louisa." Came Prince Wilford''s stern voice.

    Princess Louisa was probably trying to check on my progress when Prince Wilford forced her to answer his nonverbal but still extremely clear question.

    But I couldn''t continue to pay attention to them from that moment on because to my horror, the Red Dragon Sword trembled lightly and suddenly shot out to pierce my heart!

    The surprise attack pierced through my lightning shield which was being focused to resist the fire energy.

    The tip Red Dragon Sword crashed onto my skin and then started to exert a tremendous pressure that was startlingly painful to me!

    "Ouch! Hey that hurts you stupid sword!" I shouted with all of my strength.

    Prince Harris'' mouth twitched slightly.

    True, I was in pain, which was something new for me after so long and the first time that day.

    But that was hardly what he wanted to see which the massive explosion from his Red Dragon Sword!

    My hand shot to the sword de and gripped it tightly to pull it out.

    s, instead of pulling it out, I only managed to get my hand injured as well.

    Vroooo!!!

    In a final great burst of power, the de finally broke flesh over the skin of my chest and poured a tremendous amount of fire energy into my body!!

    "Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!" At longst, I did what Prince Harris wanted me to do and gave out a massive scream of the purest of pain!

    "Justin!!!" Princess Louisa screamed hysterically.

    Instantly, my three bloodline energies activated from deep within me to meet the invading fire energy in battle.

    Dark, Light and Lightning energies surged forward like an inexorable tide of power and shed with the savage fire energy which was destroying everything it touched.

    A massive energy battle took ce mere inches above my beating heart!

    The frontlines swirled in a fearsome disy of lights which nobody could see, but which took my very life and ced it under contest.

    "F**k!" I couldn''t help but curse vehemently. "This Red Dragon Sword is so powerful?? Is it at the tinum Grade??"

    My body had absorbed so many white mechs and even golden mechas that its physical strength at exertion was hovering around the golden mecha level.

    If allowed to digest thetest spoils including the mothership, I could probably walk into a full blown golden mecha nuclear explosion and be unharmed.

    But at that moment with most of Arabe''s strength focused on digesting, I was depending mostly on my body''s inherent strength, and it''s defensive capacity turned out to beckingpared to the Red Dragon Sword''s offensive power!

    BA DUMP!

    BA DUMP!!

    At that moment, Arabe sluggishly directed a sliver of her red energy to join in the swirling energy battle.

    "Devour." Arabe said softly.

    "Huh? You can devour fire energy?" I asked her in surprise.

    But she was not able to answer me at all.

    Her red energy had taken the form of a magnificent, glorious monster I had never seen before my entire life.

    It was roughly humanoid in shape, but that was where the simrity with human beings ended.

    There were three pairs of resplendent wings on her back, and her face was definitely alien but mesmerizingly beautiful.

    Her arms were folded back as though she was in diving position.

    Buaaahhhhh!!!!

    The three pairs of wings behind her suddenly grew very wide and in one fluid motion, covered all four energies still embroiled in battle.

    Schleb!!!!!

    In one fell swoop, all four energies disappeared!!

    "What??" I shouted in shock. "Arabe? What on earth are you doing??"

    But Arabe had fallen into deep and forced hibernation as she gotpletely overloaded with things to digest.

    Thankfully, her intervention quickly ended the energy in an anti climactic fashion.

    Having dumped all of its power in that final attack to kill me, the Red Dragon Sword was finally drained of energy!

    Whoosh!!

    My lightning energy surged once more and gained control of my body and the sword.

    "HUAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" I shouted triumphantly.

    "WHAAAATTTT?" Prince Harris shouted in shock.

    That was exactly what I was waiting to hear.

    But the next sound that entered my ears were definitely not.

    "KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!" A panicked scream from Princess Louisa rang out near endlessly!

    "Huh?" I nced at the handsome Prince Harris with an extremely foul expression on his face and the screaming Princess Louisa who was covering her eyes and facing the other way.

    "Wear this." Prince Wilford tossed a set of Royal robes at me.

    "Why? I alrea- OH SHIT!" I shouted as I realized that I waspletely buck naked!

    I was so focused on the energy battle within me that I did not realize when Arabe devoured all the energies at war, she also devoured my lightning energy robes!

    "Damn youuuu Arabeaa!!" I cursed in my mind as I scrambled to quickly put the robe on.

    Prince Wilford''s Royal robe was, as expected, a wardrobe masterpiece.

    As soon as I touched it and put it on, I knew one thing was for sure.

    "There''s no way in hell I am giving this back to him." I thought as the robe shrank to fit my body perfectly.

    It was a simple ck robe, but I could sense that there were several nanotech embedded in it which served in a defensive capacity.

    And of course, being a Prince of the Empire, there was no spying tech on it. My repeated checks with my resonance made very sure of that.

    "Ehm! Thank you for the robe, Prince Wilford. You are a very generous person. Very generous! In fact, your family is full of generous people! Why, your brother just gave me a very, very USEABLE treasure sword! See?" I swung thepletely silent and obedient Red Dragon Sword around to show him that I had, very safely and totally, gained dominance over it.

    Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.

    The Red Dragon Sword was an excellently made weapon.

    It was extremely sharp, perfectly bnced, and despite its unusually thin de, was also perfectly weighted.

    The only issue I had with it in the beginning was of course its insane resident spirit.

    That fire dragon waspletely nuts.

    But anyway, its energy waspletely spent, and it did not resist when I injected my powerful lightning energy into it to im it as my own.

    The foul expression on Prince Harris'' face turned impossibly fouler, and he immediately turned around and stomped away.

    And that time, he did not turn back.

    Prince Wilford nced at the rapidly receding figure of his younger brother and merely shook his head very slightly.

    It was definitely not the first time he had seen his brother so pissed off. But it was the first time that his angry outburst had failed to achieve its objective.

    Probably the first time that the angry outburst of a royalty had failed to achieve anything and even backfirepletely on him.

    There is a first time for everything of course.

    And poor Prince Harris just had to be born at the same time period as me, a once in a millenium, no, once in a million milleniums freak of nature.

    Prince Wilford turned and tapped the still screaming Princess Louisa on her shoulders.

    "He''s dressed. Let''s go." He said in his calming voice.

    Princess Louisa''s screaming stopped abruptly and she turned around slowly with her hands still covering her face.

    And then she spread her fingers slightly to allow her eyes to peek through it, and was about to quickly close them again when she froze.

    She dropped her hands suddenly and stared nkly at me.

    "All hail the ck Dragon. All hail the ck Dragon. All hail the ck Dragon. The tribes shalle with their tributes. They shally priceless treasures at his feet. And together they shall cry out¡­ All hail the ck Dragon!"

    "Reverse stanza prophecy??" Prince Wilford''s jaw literally dropped at that moment in an extremely rare show of emotion.

    He grabbed Louisa''s hand and checked it for runes.

    "Three runes ready? And a fourth one forming!!" He could not believe his eyes.

    And his ears of course.

    A real prophecy had just been created right in front of his eyes, by his own sister, no less.

    "What''s a reverse stanza prophecy?" I couldn''t help myself but ask.

    Prince Wilford turned around to look at me with a sharp re.

    I instantly regretted asking him that question at such a sensitive time.

    But to my surprise, he very strangely and unexpectedly gave me a short and simple answer.

    "It is the final prophecy of a given topic." He said softly. "Everything that the Royal Family needs to know about the ck Dragon¡­ is nowplete."

 Chapter 305 Wilford Estate

    Uhhhh. Giving tribute and treasures to the ck Dragon? That''s the final thing you need to know about the ck Dragon?" I asked slightly incredulously.

    I nced at the Red Dragon Sword before realizing that it was not the only Royal Treasure I had.

    "I have Princess Louisa''s Royal Artifact too! The defensive shield!" I realized with a start, and instantly regretted not using it while I was being attacked by the Red Dragon Sword just now.

    "But if I had used it, then Arabe would not have gotten to absorb the fire energy, so¡­ Maybe it''s a good thing after all." Iforted myself.

    Prince Wilford nced at the Red Dragon Sword in my hands and then at Princess Louisa''s neck which was very obviously missing a Royal Artifact.

    Prince Wilford had never been and will probably never be anybody''s fool.

    Without a single shred of doubt, I knew for certain then he knew who the subject of his sister''s prophecy was. Or at least highly suspected it.

    In many ways, he was quite unlike the bombastic, explosive brother of his who probably exploded in anger many, many more times than bursting out into a smile.

    But both of them were simr in one manner.

    They exhibited the element they embodied to the maximum degree.

    And I guess it was the case with Princess Louisa too. She was vibrant, vivacious, lively, and more difficult to kill than a cockroach, just like her element.

    Anyway, I digress.

    "Ah!" Princess Louisa cried out in pain as the fourth rune started to manifest powerfully.

    Being a reverse stanza prophecy, the rune was particrly strong and it even managed to hurt Princess Louisa through her abundant life energy which afforded her an extremely high pain threshold.

    The rune shape that appeared on her arm was also many times moreplex than the previous simplistic three, and there was a sense of joyfulness in that final rune which I simply couldn''t put a finger to.

    And finally, as that fourth rune was taking shape, I could also sense that Princess Louisa''s power was actually rising.

    Her previously life energy which she subconsciously emanated from her body was thick and strong.

    But at that moment, the thickness and strength of that life energy seeping out was simply ridiculous.

    It was so thick that I felt like I could almost touch it. And it was so strong that Princess Louisa herself even realized that energy was seeping out of her, and attempted to lock down her power.

    To no effect, of course. She was not in the best state of mind, and had much to reconcile in her heart and mind before her control of fine energy sublimes enough to control it.

    "Hey you okay?" I asked her casually.

    "Ah!" Princess Louisa''s round eyes widened at my question and her face burned a bright chilli red.

    "I, I am okay!" She said hurriedly in reply and then quickly stood behind Prince Wilford while grabbing hold of his arm.

    I could sense that she was experiencing a mess of emotions.

    Slight embarrassment over her earlier sight of my manhood in all of its glory.

    Relief that I was okay.

    Excited that I seeded in taming the sword.

    And joy that I was actually concerned for her wellbeing.

    And¡­ well probably surprise at the size of my little Justin.

    After all, I had gone through a massive physical enhancement, and my little Justin was not very little anymore.

    "Good. That fourth scar looks really painful." I remarked.

    "She''s fine. Let''s go. The Emperor awaits." Prince Wilford said and gestured for us to start walking before turning to speak to Princess Louisa. "Father is worried about you."

    "Bullshit." Princess Louisa pouted as she started to walk in the direction Prince Wilford gestured.

    Prince Wilford fell in ce next to her and their respective legions followed them from behind.

    I hastily took my ce on the other side of Princess Louisa and together, we started the long trek towards the determined pick up point.

    "He is probably more concerned on fulfilling the prophecy than on my well being." Princess Louisa sneered at Prince Wilford. "There won''t be a ck Dragon in the Empire if I am dead now, will there? And that is all that he cares about. The damn ck Dragon and the damn Empire."

    "The heart of THE Emperor of the only empire on this does not belong to him, nor to his family." Prince Wilford said softly. "But even if he cares more about the Empire, a father''s love for her daughter will never fade."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Sigh. I would say that you''re talkingplete bullshit again if not for the fact that you have a daughter yourself. You probably know what you''re talking about. Speaking of which, how is little Stephanie? Does she miss me, her super duper awesome aunt?" Princess Louisa asked him eagerly.

    "She does." A rare warm smile appeared on Prince Wilford''s face. "She has been asking where her pretty ehm aunty is."

    "Pretty ehm aunty? HAHA! You mean her pretty crazy aunty?" Princess Louisaughed uproariously.

    "She''s not allowed to use that word." Prince Wilford said with his smile still stered on his face.

    "She''s already seven, cut her some ck." Princess Louisa rolled her eyes at him.

    "Guys, I don''t want to be insensitive and break up your happy catching up. But I really need to pee. Can we get a transport jet or something to pick us up please?" I raised my hand and interrupted them.

    Princess Louisa giggled and gestured at one of her aides following close to her.

    "Our escort has been instructed to await our arrival at sector 6829. We should be there in half an hour." She said.

    "Half an hour? My dder would have exploded three times by then!" I shouted at the poor aide loudly.

    "Move it forward. Pick us up now." Princess Louisa said authoritatively.

    "As you wish, Princess." The aide replied and quickly said some stuff to herms.

    "Thanks Louisa." I said warmly to her.

    "Don''t worry about it. Oh look, its here. That''s fast." Princess Louisa said as she looked at a distant speck speeding towards us.

    "You Europeans are so considerate. It looks like it''s in a really big hurry." I said gratefully.

    "Hmmm? That''s¡­" Prince Wilford frowned deeply as he recognized the jet. He nced at hisms, and then back at the jet once more as soon as he realized that hisms had no new notifications.

    "PRINCE WILFORD!! THE WILFORD ESTATE IS UNDER SIEGE!! JAMMERS ARE IN EFFECT!! WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS IMMEDIATELY!!" Came a very loud shout of desperation from the jet.

    I had a very good impression of Prince Wilford thus far, and I wanted to get into his good books.

    So without hesitation, I grabbed both Louisa and him, and unleashed a massive burst of lightning energy to propel us at massive speed towards the jet which was still a distance away!

    We covered the distance which was around five kilometers away in a matter of seconds, and we entered it immediately.

    Prince Wilford could probably do as I did, but he definitely couldn''t do it as quickly as I did.

    All three of us raced to the control panel of the jet.

    "Let me do it. You prepare for battle!" I shouted as I forced my way into the cockpit and immediately unleashed all of my resonance into the jet.

    I turned it around, quickly identified the overload section and dumped a colossal amount of my lightning energy into it.

    KAAABOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!

    The jet was flung ahead at phenomenally insane speeds and we sped towards the Wilford Estate grimly.

    "Who is attacking us?" Prince Wilford said coldly to his aide.

    "They are as yetpletely unknown, Sire. But initial readings are reporting that the attackers are mostly, if not all, biomechs." The aide replied.

    "Biomechs? The Russians?" Prince Wilford frowned. "Who else is under attack? Where is the National Guard? How are we holding?"

    "Our second line of defenses were copsing when I escaped fifteen minutes ago. The National Guard did not appear. All attempts to contact them had failed. And as far as we could scan on our way here, there were no other fights breaking out. They are definitely not the Russians, Sire. They look like oceanic monsters!" The aide replied hurriedly.

    I instantly frowned at the aide''s words.

    "An oceanic tribe has surfaced, and is involved in the Empire''s politics? Insanity! How the hell did that happen?" I thought to myself in consternation.

    "The third line and final line of defense will hold for a most another five minutes if the first two lines copsed so quickly. Justin, get us there in three minutes." Prince Wilford said as he tossed a frozen blue spear at me. "This spear is yours. Go!"

    "Your Royal Weapon!?" Princess Louisa gasped. "The prophecy¡­"

    "Screw the prophecy! For this spear, and to save your family, I will get you home in one minute! Here we goooo!!!" I shouted excitedly and poured all three of my energies into the jet!!

    KKAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!

    The jet leapt forward and increased its already insane speed once more!

 Chapter 306 Defending The Estate

    The ancients once said, when there is a will, there is a way.

    In many ways and many cases, that saying could very well be true.

    But it was definitely not applicable in time sensitive cases like the one we were in.

    A more appropriate saying would be, when there is a will AND lots of powerful energies at your disposal WITH the means to use them, there is a way.

    I know, I know.

    I am stretching the wise and ancient saying abit to fit into my story.

    But it was the only way for that saying to reflect my reality.

    Because without my trio of energies that day, we sure as hell would not make it to the Wilford Estate in time to even see the remains of his family, much less rescue them!

    A deep conspiracy was at work that day, and as soon as I unleashed my full power, a ridiculously powerful explosion ripped out of the spot where we were a mere split second ago.

    If we weren''t moving at my triple energy powered hyperspeed, the jet we were in would definitely have sumbed to the explosion.

    BABOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!

    Even as the explosion was expanding in its deadly bloom, the jet was already outpacing it by hundreds of meters per second.

    We hurtled through the sky high above the clouds at ridiculous speeds which would probably cause the jet which was not built to sustain such high speed travel to disintegrate within minutes.

    But we would not have any need of the jet in less than a minute, so it was okay.

    For the moment, we were safe from whoever was ambushing us.

    However, there was a very critical question that needed immediate answers.

    Just how did they find out where we were? And not just find out, but track us so urately even after I had injected my lightning energy into the ship earlier?

    They had either nted a tracker on the ship, or¡­

    "White Lotus." Prince Wilford said quietly and sent out his ice energy to lock down every single life form in the jet inplete frozen stasis.

    I nced at him and nodded in agreement.

    "Good move. One of them is probably a snitch. Or maybe all of them." I grunted as I narrowed my eyes and maintained the massive deluge of energies into the ship''s overload chamber.

    Prince Wilford looked at me and at the strange manner in which I was able to immediately figure out how to do what I was doing when I was still such a little boy, and I could almost see the cogs of his mental faculties moving.

    "No need for additional thanks. The spear is enough for me. I am not a greedy bastard you know." I said with obvious exertion.

    A grim smile formed on his lips at my words before disappearing once more as he stared out into the distance where his beloved wife and children were about to be killed by monsters.

    Several seconds had passed by then and we had exploded past several high rise towers that broke above the clouds.

    I probably caused many of their windows to crack and break with my ultra high speed flyby, and I wouldn''t want to delve too deep what sort of nightmare I caused to those who were in those towers and got sucked out of the building.

    I never asked if there were casualties rted to our mad dash back to the Wilford Estate, and Prince Wilford never mentioned it as well.

    There were more than enough deaths that day to make simple idents due to broken windows seem like beautiful good news.

    After a tense 50 seconds passed, we began to meet with the rear guard of the massive monster horde which was attacking the Wilford Estate.

    More than twenty huge circr spaceships around three hundred meters in diameter each were hovering in a circr formation around what was most definitely the center of the Wilford Estate, and countless smaller fighters were continuously leaving the circr ships.

    Strange biomech monsters shaped like scaled flying squirrels with bull horns and the size of Harley Davidsons were also streaming out of those ships in their thousands. Their bright red and yellow scales filled the sky and gave it a fearsome tinge of alien horror.

    It was like a scene straight out of a science fiction movie, and it was definitely out of ce in the middle of the capital of the Empire.

    And several things were horribly missing in that scene.

    "The Anti Air System is not active." Princess Louisa said softly. "And the National Guard¡­ They should have been here by now."<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Indeed." A cold sneer had appeared on Prince Wilford''s face as he walked towards the escape hatch of the jet.

    "If we did not make it back on time, the deactivation of the Anti Air System would be a master stroke. But now that we are here¡­ It would simply serve as the perfect counter punch." Princess Louisa said with a cold smile of her own as she pressed several buttons on thems on her arm.

    "Take over the jet." I told Princess Louisa. "I want in on the fun"

    I stood up and made my way to the hatch just as Prince Wilford opened it and dropped out of it.

    I hurriedly followed after him and¡­

    WHAAAMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

    Smashed headfirst into a massive explosion of ice energy!

    "Damn it Wilford!" I shouted at him.

    But he was no longer paying attention to me.

    He was an enraged husband, father, Lord of the Estate that hade to wreakplete destruction against the enemies that dared to touch his home.

    GRAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

    A ferocious ice dragon had formed around Prince Wilford and it was diving straight into the massive horde of fighters and biomech undersea monstersying siege to what looked like a massive castle.

    It had three huge towers in the middle which were clearly defensive in nature, each armed with three massive omnidirectional turrets, which were at that moment firing out three massive beams of pure ice energy on the attackers.

    But even though each attack was an insane burst of damage which killed thousands, it required time to charge, and its rate of kill was not that much higherpared to the rest of the turrets and mechas.

    Against a single massive enemy, the three towers would work wonders. But against a never ending horde of enemies, they weren''t all that spectacr.

    A dome of transparent energy was still covering the castle, and huge amounts ofser fire and projectiles were shooting out of the defensive turrets and blue, white and golden mechas on the castle''s battlements.

    As a defensive dome, it was an impressive tech. Single-directional, it allowed the defenders to fire out while preventing the attackers from firing in.

    They were killing huge amounts of monsters with the castle''s defenses, but very clearly, they weren''t doing it fast enough.

    The enemy fighters and biomechs were unleashing a hellish amount of fire upon the dome, and judging by how it was flickering lightly, the defenders had at the very most, three to four minutes left before they would engage the attackers in closebat.

    And when that happened, they would be wiped out to a man.

    And then after that, Prince Wilford''s family would be massacred.

    But that would not happen anymore.

    The massive Ice Dragon waspletely out of control, and it was firing a single, continuous hundred meter wide Ice Beam which was very efficiently reaping the lives of thousands, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands of alien fighters and biomechs.

    And from all over the surroundings of the Estate, literally millions of drones had appeared and they were smashing themselves headfirst into every single alien within their range before exploding with startlingly intense power.

    Turrets had also appeared everywhere for miles and miles around the Estate, and they began unleashing the payloads that they should have unleashed many long minutes ago.

    As I hovered there above the scene of the terrifying battle, I could clearly sense that something was definitely not right.

    The Anti Air System and Prince Wilford''s Ice Dragon were very easily turning the tide of the battle and the invaders were clearly being beaten back.

    "But surely the enemy knew that this would happen?" I thought to myself. "I mean, yes they did try to stop Prince Wilford froming. But why do I feel like something is wrong here¡­ Something is still watching from the sidelines. Something powerful¡­ Something¡­ Deadly."

    I closed my eyes and cast my resonance outwards in all directions.

    I was instantly flooded with information about the biomechs, fighters and alien spaceships, as well as the defending mechas and the turrets.

    "Pretty interesting. But irrelevant now. Where are you¡­" I continued to cast my resonance deeper into the battlefield, further out to the fringes and even higher beyond the circr ships.

    After several seconds, my heart turned very, very cold.

    "A "ck Dragon" Mothership." I whispered softly to myself. "In stealth."

 Chapter 307 Cornered

    After devouring that first mothership earlier, it was as though a brand new world had opened up for me.

    What was once impossible to detect even at close range becamepletely "visible" to me.

    As soon as the first bits of my resonance brushed against it, I was able to detect the mothership in all of its entirety.

    And it was not just any mothership.

    It was abundantly clear from the monstrous amount of feedback I received as soon as I sent my full resonance smashing into it that it was countless times stronger than the previous mothership Arabe devoured.

    For one thing, there were absolutely no blue mechas in that particr mothership.

    Only whites and golds.

    One hundred whites. Peak whites, by the way. In all sorts of strange shapes. Humanoids. Eagles. Bears. Elephants. And even a¡­ Chicken.

    Well, maybe the designers intended it to be something else more awe inspiring than a chicken. But it ended up being a chicken with fat legs and a slightly longer neck than usual.

    Still, despite its utter failure in aesthetics, that long necked chicken was bristling with attack power. I doubt it would be able to defeat Chronos with my big bro piloting it, but it sure would push it to the extreme.

    Those hundred peak whites were truly a force to be reckoned with, and if Arabe was awake, a whole lot of juicy, yummy food to be devoured.

    There were also twenty four golds. The golds were more conservative in their design, and were all in humanoid form.

    However, the aura they were giving out told me that they were wild beasts in human form. A deep sense of savagery which I had not felt in anything before emanated from them, and told me in no uncertain terms that they were killers, and killers right down to their very core.

    But if the whites were ugly and the golds were savage, then their leader was definitely the source of inspiration for both traits. Right in the middle of thergestpartment of the mothership was one monstrously ugly dragon wanabe extrarge gold mecha which could only be the fake ass ck Dragon''s personal mecha.

    I had no idea how Imperial Designers managed to make the design of a supremely cool creature such as a dragon to be so downright fugly, but they truly outdid themselves for that gold mecha.

    It was still humanoid, but with a dragon''s thick long neck and supposed-to-be-cool-but-ended-up-fugly dragon head.

    Its body was muscr, but in all the wrong ces, making it look like a grotesque monstrosity suffering from fourth stage cancer.

    It was a pain to "look" at, and I was fervently wishing with all of my heart that Arabe was awake to devour it and then delete its design from her memory so that it would not ever see the light of day and curse us with its fugliness.

    All in all, that mothership was only one thing to us.

    Bad news.

    "Hmmm?" I focused my resonance on the mothership''s main gun and realized with yet another startling horror that it was making minute movements as though it was tracking something.

    I instantly knew the final y that the damn fake ass ck Dragon was going for.

    Royal Assassination!

    It wanted to kill all of its potential challengers to the throne!

    And all of the attempts to stop Prince Wilford from going back to the Estate were probably staged.

    Even if he failed to reach home as fast as he did, I had a feeling that the "attack on the Wilford Estate" would still be going on.

    It was an intricate, insidious and utterly ingenious n that was rather unfortunate in its timing.

    Of all the times he had to pick to carry out his assassination, he had to do it right when I was about to make my super grand entrance.

    I would be damned if I allowed such a wonderful opportunity to get the coldest (literally) and most powerful Prince to owe me yet even more life debts pass me by!

    "Arabe. Yoohoo. Wake up. Give me something." I said as I prodded my red mecha core with my bloodline energy.

    She did not respond.

    "Hey! I have the main gun of a supercharged turbocharged everythingcharged mothership to withstand! I need your help!" I shouted at her as I prodded her more powerfully.

    She still did not respond.

    "Arabe!!! Wake the hell up just slightly and give me a big fat shield or something! Or a- DAMN IT ARABELLA! THE MAIN GUN IS CHARGING UP! IT''S ABOUT TO FIRE!! WAKEEE UPPPPPP!!!" I screamed at thezy bum of a mecha core.

    At the same time, I charged towards Prince Wilford as quickly as I could while screaming at the top of my lungs.

    "AMBUSH!!" I howled while unleashing my life imbued lightning energy in a wide ranging attack in his general direction. "DODGE!!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    He nced at the no longer stealthed mothership and instantly understood that the trap to kill him had been sprung.

    But Prince Wilford did not dodge.

    Instead, he unleashed even more of his ice energy and condensed every ounce of it into an extremely thick dome shaped shield as he stood above a particr spot of the pce.

    Only then did I realize the predicament he was in.

    There was no way he could dodge the ambush.

    If he moved away from the main gun''s trajectory, the attack would hit the castle and kill his whole family.

    "What aplete bastard!" I shouted loudly as I realized that the ck Dragon had Prince Wilfordpletely cornered.

    And the worst thing was, even if the ck Dragon did that, he could simply im that he was attacking the enemy and was simply trying to "rescue" Prince Wilford''s family from the attack of the sea tribes!

    It was a terrible situation for Prince Wilford where the potential murderer of his family might even get awarded medals for being a hero!

    I was no hero, there was no bloody way I would sacrifice my life for anyone, much less some random Prince from an Empire that''s about to invade the rest of the world.

    But I was no heartless bystander as well. There was also no bloody way I would let a fugly bastard such as the fake ass ck Dragon kill the probable leader of the faction that was actively blocking him and his wild ambitions.

    So I did the only thing I could do at that moment.

    I attacked the damn mothership.

    CRACKLE!!

    Pure whitelightning arcs burst into life all over my body and quickly increased in their intensity as I shot towards the mothership at high speed.

    "Eat this!" I shouted and stretched my hand out grandly towards the big fat main turret of the big fat mothership.

    The lightning attack I unleashed at that moment was truly the most powerful one that I was able to conjure up.

    Dark, Life and Lightning energy all swirled into one corrosive, explosive and shocking st which I dare say had surpassed Gold Grade and which was encroaching towards tinum.

    WHEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

    My powerful lightning st smashed against an invisible barrier around the main turret for a brief second before the corrosive power of the Dark energy powered by the explosive nature of life energy ripped through it and proceeded straight into the nuzzle of the main turret!

    Schleb. Schleb. Schleb. Schleb. Schleb.

    Hatches opened and five monstrous golden mechas exited the mothership to deal with me.

    At the same time, every single turret avable to the mothership swiveled and opened fire at me!

    Pratatattatatatatatta!!

    Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!

    "F*** this shit! How many times have I been shot at by god damn giants in this past month?!" I shouted feelingpletely pissed and indignant over my fate.

    The idea to save Prince Wilford which seemed pretty spectacr a mere second ago started to turn really sour as the deluge of powerful and deadly attacks poured at me.

    The five golden mechas were also spreading out to surround mepletely.

    "EAT THISSSSSSSSS!!!" I screamed with all of my strength and squeezed every single iota of energy out of my body and into the main turret of the mothership.

    I guess I was hoping that by doing that, I would somehow ignite its ammunitions or its energy core amd cause it to blow up magnificently.

    That was why I poured everything I had there.

    Never in my wildest dream did I expect the entire main turret to simple detach itself from the mothership¡­ and allow a new and even more cruel looking turret to slowlye out of the mothership!

    "WHAT THE BLEEDING F***?!?!?!" I shouted in horror as I turned off the energy tap for a moment before directing my lightning st towards the new one.

    But by then, the attacks from the many turrets of the mothership was beginning to hit home, and I was beginning to take damage.

    Serious damage.

 Chapter 308 One Just Like This

    And to make things worse, the five golden mechas were already in position and opening fire.

    "Time to bail!" I thought.

    Whatever happened, I had collected more than enough goodwill from Prince Wilford tost me for a couple big favors, and I was more than happy to leave it at that.

    So without further ado, I discharged my lightning energy out from my feet and shot all the way upwards into the sky at high speed.

    Truth be told, I was fully expecting the mechas and the mothership to resume their attacks on the Wilford Estate and continue to press home the attack.

    Afterall, their mission had not aplished a single thing apart from wrecking the beautiful Wilford Estate and pissing off Prince Wilford in an insanely spectacr manner.

    Never in a million years did I expect that instead of doing that like any sane treasonous traitor would do, they actually turned their focus on me!

    The five golden mechas immediately turned to chase after me.

    Well, I''ll give them that.

    They had more golden mechas in the mothership, and dedicating five of them to chase and destroy a pesky fly like me, though exaggerated, was still a pretty understandable decision to make.

    But getting the entire mothership and unleashing every single mecha to chase after me in what seemed like a psychotic revenge reaction was not understandable at all.

    Very, very not understandable.

    "What the hell? Why are you throwing everything at me?? Rx a little bit won''t you? Eat a chill pill! You fugly fake ass ck Dragon!!" I yelled loudly as I tried to escape from them as quickly as I could.

    But it was no use.

    My lightning energy based flying technique was a new technique for me and was still highly energy inefficient.

    There was no way I could outfly golden mechas.

    "Capture this punk alive. The ck Dragon wants to torture him." The lead golden mecha said aloud.

    Immediately a wave of paralyzing attacks were unleashed by the five golden dragons towards me.

    "You dare attack a member of the Royal Family? You fake ass ck dragon mongrels are getting out of control!" I shouted as I dodged this way and that way, hoping that I could lie my way out of the situation.

    But they weren''t dumb.

    There had been no Royal family of the European Empire that controlled lightning energy.

    "Royal family? More like Royal family wanabe! Royal tramp!" Came the loud condescending reply from the lead golden dragon.

    I immediately brightened up slightly when I realized that I was facing with a verbally argumentative enemy.

    "Hohoho. I may be young and not very good at fighting. But I am sure I can piss your pants off with my mommy based insults, and my all new daddy based insults." I thought eagerly.

    For some reason, I was strangely unafraid of dying that day, and not a single thought about that fight being myst moments on earth crossed my mind even though the odds werepletely stacked against me.

    Maybe I was young. Or maybe I simply had confidence in my aces in the holes.

    Whatever it was, I started insulting the golden mecha leader and his family and extended family with great relish.

    And his fugly boss, of course.

    "Royal family wanabe? HAHAHAHA! LOOK AT THE MIRROR YOU DUMBASS! That sounds exactly like the fake ass ck dragon retard who is so FUGLY that he has tits growing out of his cheeks! HAIRY tits!" I began.

    "WHA-WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?? WHAT TITS? WHAT HAIRY TITS?? HE DOESN''T HAVE HAIRY TITS ON HIS FACE!!" The golden mecha leader roared as the five of them fired off highly coordinated rifle beams at me.

    "His cheeks are very chubby are they not? Both his cheeks have a round, ck thing protruding out from right smack in the middle haven''t they?" I hooted with pleasure.

    "THEY ARE NOT CHUBBY! THEY ARE¡­ THEY ARE BLESSED CHEEKS!" The lead golden mecha dered loudly for one and all to hear.

    "Let me ask you a question! What do you call a mound of flesh with a hairy ck nipple on top? TITTIES! Fugly, hairy titties!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!" I roared with all of my heart and soul.

    My voice resounded all over the SCD as I somehow stumbled upon the technique of infusing my energy into my vocal chords and causing it to act like a supercharged megaphone.<novelnext></novelnext>

    "IN-INSOLENCE! THE BLACK DRAGON DOES NOT HAVE TITTIES FOR CHEEKS! TITTIES ARE NOT AS BEAUTIFUL AS THE BLACK DRAGON''S CHEEKS!!" The lead golden mecha was truly in rage and he began to scream back at me at the top of his golden mecha''s powerful speakers.

    Pew! Pew! Pew!

    His attacks started to be slightly erratic as he allowed his argumentative side to influence his battle coolness.

    "WHAT? TITTIES ARE NOT AS BEAUTIFUL AS THE BLACK DRAGON''S CHEEKS?" I shouted in pleasant surprise as I found yet another juicy topic to insult him.

    "YES! THE BLACK DRAGON''S CHEEKS ARE PERFECT! NO MERE TITTY CAN COMPARE TO IT!" He dered loudly once more.

    "WHAT THE F***!!! YOU DISGUSTING BASTARD! I CAN''T BELIEVE YOU FIND THE BLACK DRAGON''S HAIRY CHEEKTITS SEXIER THAN YOUR WIVE''S TITTIES! I CAN''T BELIEVE IT!!

    YOU ACTUALLY GET TURNED ON BY LOOKING AT THE BLACK DRAGON''S HAIRY CHEEKTIT! THE ENTIRE BLACK DRAGON ARMY ARE ALL PERVERTS! PERVERTS!

    THEY GET SEXUALLY TURNED ON BY THE BLACK DRAGON''S CHEEKTITS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!" I roared out once more gleefully and allowed my voice to spread far and wide with thunderous rity.

    "Enough!" Came a loud, raspy, squeaky voice from the mothership. "Stand down."

    "YES YOUR MAJESTY THE BLACK DRAGON!" The lead golden mecha shouted.

    Instantly, all five golden mechas stopped attacking me and merely hovered midair at the ready around me.

    "What the hell? That squeaky, mousy voice is the fake ass fugly ck Dragon''s voice? You are no ck Dragon! You are a chubby titted ck mouse! No! You''re probably pink in colour! You''re a pink mouse with extra hairy extra chubby titties growing out of his face!" I shouted at the mothership.

    I was eager to keep up the torrent of very publicly delivered insults on the ck Dragon so as to hopefully cause him enough angst and make him engage in a verbal fight with me.

    And if he did so, I would be achieving a variety of things.

    Number one.

    I would not be getting attacked. Well I might, but if my insults were creative and vulgar enough, he would probably want to settle in and fight me verbally fair and square so that his ego and public image was defended.

    Just straight up beating me to pulp without addressing those issues could be considered a form of silent agreement to my words.

    Number two.

    It would buy us time. Time for the Royal Legions to arrive with their thousands, time for the two Royal siblings to pull their strings and send in the National Guard or even the main army, and hopefully time for Prince Wilford to do whatever he needed to do to prepare for the uing fight.

    My entire n rested upon two very hairy cheektits, and the sensitivity of the fugly dude who owned those cheektits.

    And to my very pleasant surprise, the fake ass fugly ck Dragon bit my bait hook line and sinker.

    "You must be someone''s secret experimental project." He squeaked through the mothership''s speakers.

    "HOKEY POKEY!" I shouted immediately. "The more I listen to you speak, the more nauseus I get! How the hell did you manage to turn on your followers with that squeaky mousy voice of yours? Did someone cut off your balls or something? I am not detecting any manliness from you at all! OH CRAP! Are you¡­ a transgender?? Have I been using the wrong pronoun??"

    I did not give him any chance toy down his case and flip the table on my insults! But at the same time, I was also holding back my most vicious insults.

    It would be bad if I went too strongly and caused him to explode in anger.

    "Look here." The fugly fake ck Dragon squeaked with irritation in his voice.

    "Look where? I can''t see you?" I taunted him. "How the hell am I supposed to "look there" if you''re hiding in your ship like a damned pink mouse scared shitless?"

    His response was instantaneous. I guess he was quite excited to show off his new golden mecha as well.

    Schleb.

    A massive hatch opened in the middle of the mothership and the monstrously ugly golden mecha began to appear in all of inglorius blinding¡­ fugliness.

    After a couple of painful seconds, it was out.

    Just like the brown stuff thates out of your body when you go to the toilet.

    "Hahahahaha! Behold my brand new ck Dragon Devourer!" Roared the fake ass ck Dragon in a surprisingly deep voice. "How about it? You''ve never seen anything like in from your bosses right? Why don''t you serve me instead and I will make you one just like this!"

 Chapter 309 Black Dragon Firefall

    "You want to make me one JUST like it?" I asked in horror with my eyes bulging out slightly.

    That dumbass actually believed that his golden mecha looked good, and was something that I would be attracted to.

    Un-f***ing-believable.

    "YES! I am a man of my word! Come be my trusted warrior, and once you''ve risen up in the ranks, you will receive this fabulous looking mecha! Amazing, right? And if you truly distinguished yourself in service to me, you might even receive a mothership!" Fake ass ck Dragon said grandly. "An entire mothership full of mechas, under yourmand!"

    "A-a mothership?" I asked loudly.

    "HAHAHAHA! Yes! A mothership just for you! How about it? Awed by my wealth, power and generosity yet?" Fugly ck Dragon boomed out in his fake ass deep voice.

    "Just like the one which got destroyed by that strange monster?" I asked to rify and to pour salt at his recent wounds.

    "Just- YES! Just like the one that managed to grievously wound that strange beast before it went down fighting!" Fugly ck Dragon boomed.

    "Went down fighting with all hands on deck?" I continued.

    "All.. Yes. Unfortunately. BUT! That was probably more the fault of themander than the ship! If YOU were to be themander, with your powerful lightning energy techniques, you would have no problems discovering and destroying the beast!" Fugly ck Dragon shouted with a tinge of greed and excitement in his voice.

    "There it is." I thought to myself triumphantly. "The reason why we are even having this farce of a conversation. He wants my bloodline power. My lightning energy! Well. If he is so hungry for it, I might as well make use of it."

    "I see. My BLOODLINE power is indeed mighty." I said loudly.

    "It is! It is very mighty!" Fugly ck Dragon said greedily.

    "My teacher specifically sought out a slumbering ancient beast he discovered during his youth and fought a great battle with it before finally, with great difficulty and many near fatal wounds if I may add, seeding in drawing out a liter of its blood. He transnted every single drop of that blood into me, and I gained the beast''s bloodline power. Lighting." I lied and fabricated a grand story for him and all of Europe to hear.

    At the same time, I unleashed more of my lightning energy and allowed them to arc wildly and strike random targets in all directions in a shy and awe inspiring disy of power.

    I dare say I looked impossibly cool that moment. Probably even as cool as Zeus, the God of Lightning.

    "Amazing! Amazing!!" The Fugly ck Dragon shouted and even pping sounds could be heard from his fugly golden mecha''s speakers. "With such power, you will have no problems bing my trusted lieutenant, no, my right hand man! Second inmand over all that I have!"

    "I believe in a rtionship of mutual benefit. If someone is to give me precious gifts, I think it is only fair for me to give that someone precious gifts in return. What do you think, Fug- ehm, Farsighted Lord of the¡­ Empire?" I patted myself mentally for my quick recovery.

    It would be bad for my n to drag out the conversation for as long as possible if I identally called him Fugly ck Dragon out loud.

    "Hahahahahaha! Indeed! Indeed! Ipletely agree with you! A rtion of mutual benefit! That is perfect! Perfect indeed!" He hooted with glee. "You truly are a young man of high moral value and character! You will definitely go far in life!"

    "That''s what my teacher always told me." I sighed. "I truly am a wonderful person. It''s in my blood, you know? I just can''t stand receiving gifts without giving the giver an even bigger gift in return."

    If my group of buddies back home could hear me at that moment, every single eyeball in that group would be rolling.

    "Ahahaha! Perfect! So we have an ord then? You will join me and I will give you a powerful golden mecha, and you will share with me your blood so I too can gain the power of lightning?" The Fugly ck Dragon was ecstatic.

    I quickly cast out my resonance at that moment to see if reinforcements were enroute, but to my dismay, there was absolutely nothinging our way within many kilometers around us.

    "Stall for five more minutes." Came Princess Louisa''s soft whisper in my ear. "In five minutes, everything will be over."

    "Hmmmm." I nodded thoughtfully to indicate that I understood her.

    Keeping the attention of such a desperately greedy bastard was beyond simple. Just keep dangling whatever he wanted the most in front of him in clearer and greater demonstrations.

    "I will need to see if you''re worthy of my service first. My teacher always told me to pick the strongest person I know and learn from him. Maybe even HER. If you want me to pledge my service to you¡­ Then make sure you survive my attacks!" I shouted and then shot towards him in a sudden attack!

    "HAHAHA! You''ve got balls! I need warriors like you! COME! Show me what you''ve got!" The Fugly ck Dragon shouted gleefully.

    "Don''t cheat!" I warned him as I blitzed my way towards him while firing off a massive bolt of lightning energy at his mecha''s super fugly head. "This is a one on one, your men can continue to kill off those weird ass alien invaders!"<novelnext></novelnext>

    "Of course. I am a Chivalrous Warrior myself. A one on one is a one on one!" He shouted loudly,pletely ignoring the fact that he was in a god damn golden mecha and I was just in my in old little ten year old body.

    Chivalrous my ass.

    He did not even bother to dodge my attack, and allowed it to crash into his head in a powerful lightning st!

    CRACKLE!!

    Nothing happened!

    "His golden mecha is lightning resistant?" I eximed in shock in my heart. "No wonder he is so interested in my bloodline power. He must have something to do with lightning as well!"

    "The rest of you, keep killing the aliens! I want this area cleared out when I am done with my glorious fight with the new hero of the Empire!" He roared.

    Unexpectedly though, he did give themand to kill the aliens as I had said earlier.

    With just a simplement, I had defused the emergency situation and allowed Prince Wilford to smoothly rescue his family! Talk about art of war.

    "Good. Eat this attack!" I shouted as Iunched another attack at the ugly golden mecha. But instead of a pure lightning attack, I infused a slight amount of life energy into it.

    "Hahaha! Come at me with all you got little punk! Satisfy your heart, clear your doubts and know that I AM WORTHY OF-"

    CRASH!!!

    My lightning st crashed into his ugly head once more, and smashed it backwards.

    "HA! It turns out that you don''t have resistance against thebination of lightning AND life energy!" I shouted gleefully.

    "WHAT? You also have life energy flowing within your blood?" The Fugly ck Dragon shouted in incredible shock and overflowing greed.

    "HAHAHA! EAT THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS!" I shouted and continued to unleash sts of lightning energy at him.

    CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

    With the addition of life energy, my attack power reached ridiculous levels and was able to powerfully impact the golden mecha.

    It was repeatedly beaten back by my attacks.

    But each attack thatnded on the Fugly ck Dragon''s golden mecha seemed to make him happier and happier.

    "HAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! You truly are a Godsend! A Godsend!! With your blood, I will definitely be the strongest warrior in the Empire! There will be no more obstacles to my absolute authority!" He hooted gleefully.

    "Hmph. You''ve done nothing but eat my attacks for the past minute. You expect to be my master by being such a weakling?" I shouted at him derisively.

    "Hohohoho. Don''t you worry about that. I was just testing YOU. But it turns out that you passed my test WONDERFULLY! Now, let me show you the real power of the ck Dragon of the European Empire!" He said grandly.

    After saying that, he burst forward towards me and easily dodged my waves of lightning sts.

    "I will be gentle, don''t worry. But you do look like the type that would not bend your knee if not faced with overwhelming power! So I won''t be too gentle! WAHAHAHAHA! Take this! ck Dragon Firefall!" He shouted.

    His humongous and ugly head with its long neck suddenly glowed ck! And in a blink of an eye, hundreds then thousands of ck fireballs shot out from them and surged towards me!

    "ck Dragon Firefall? Ha! Cheap tricks! It''s hardly anything my White Lightning sts cannot deal with!" I shouted and urately shot out arcs of lightning to hit those thousands of ck fireballs.

    However to my surprise, the ck fireballs were strangely unaffected!

 Chapter 310 Giving Birth??

    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

    I dodged the iing ck fireballs to the best of my ability and they zoomed past me with barely any space between us.

    Even though there were only the barest of margins, I knew for certain each and every dodge I made would be enough.

    My eyes traced the fireballs and my mind easily formted a pathway through them all as my body moved with calm precision.

    It was as though I was in a perfectly choreographed movie set!

    However, even with all of my dodging awesomeness, I was still in a bad situation.

    The damned ck dragon was still producing those ck fireballs, and they were getting bigger and faster by the second!

    "This won''t do. At this rate, I would get hit by them and I would instantly lose the fight! How many minutes had passed? One? Two? I can''t lose yet!!"" I thought urgently to myself.

    My mind raced as I searched for a solution to my predicament.

    And at that moment, like the main character of a novel, Arabe gantly came to the rescue.

    Well, not came.

    More like burped.

    Or farted.

    In anycase, a small wisp of red energy suddenly came out of the still dormant red mecha core.

    It was a thick and dense wisp of energy, brimming with strange power.

    There was no hesitation on my part.

    I took that enhanced red energy,bined them with my lightning energy, and sent them out once more to smash into the bigger and faster ck fireballs.

    Crackle! Crackle!

    Like an avatar of the Lightning God, white lightning tinged with slight red color erupted out of me in all directions!

    "Wahahaha! An undying and never give up attitude! Excellent!" The Fugly ck Dragon roared out excitedly. "Keep fighting! I still have more where those came from!"

    But s for the Fugtard ck Dragon, those were his final cocky words for the day!

    Imbued with Arabe''s red energy who had the power of devour, control and very recently fire, my lightning energy could hardly be called lightning energy anymore.

    Monstrous Lightning st would be a much more appropriate name!

    And it was monstrous because¡­

    As the lightning arcs shot through the ck fireballs, the devour effect within them activated and absorbed the ck fireballs cleanly into them!

    When that happened, there was not a single soul who saw it who were not shocked out of their minds.

    Me included.

    "What the hell? My lightning can devour ck fire??" I shouted in pleasant surprise.

    "WHAAATTT?? Your lightning energy has the Legendary Attribute of the Gods??" Fugtard ck Dragon shouted in overwhelming greed.

    "Huh? Justin your bloodline power has the Devour attribute??" Came Princess Louisa''s surprised voice in myms.

    A general roar of surprise sounded as every single life form for miles around witnessed my shocking power.

    However, it was not good news at all.

    The carrot I was dangling before the donkey was too juicy, too delicious, and it caused the donkey to go absolutely bonkers mad.

    "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Fugtard ck Dragon roared in ecstacy. "THANK GOODNESS I HAD KEPT THIS ENTIRE AREA UNDER COMPLETE LOCKDOWN!! THAT BLOODLINE IS MINE!!! BLACK DRAGON WARRIORS! PURGE THIS ENTIRE SECTOR!!! LEAVE NOTHING ALIVE!! KILL THEM ALL!!!!! KILL KILL KILL!!!"

    "He has gone mad! Whatever ns you have to defend against him and his cronies, put them in action now!" I shouted at Princess Louisa.

    There was no need to reply.

    Both she and Prince Wilford knew that the final deciding battle was upon them.

    Instantly, the area erupted into absolute chaos as the remnants of the alien army, the drones, the mechas from both the Fugtard and the final defensive line of Wilford Estate devolved into a chaotic, free for all battle!

    Prince Wilford and his powerful Ice Dragon were strangely absent from the carnage.

    "My brother is going to activate the Ancestral Mecha stationed here. He needs two more minutes!" Princess Louisa shouted.

    "I see. I will buy that two minutes for him." I said to Princess Louisa.

    Inwardly, I was like a little boy being told that someone was trying to ess the biggest, most chocty, most awesome, most wonderful ice cream in the world.

    "Ancestral Mecha?? THAT SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY EPIC!!" I thought with great excitement even as I eyed the mad fugtard unleashing a series of ck fireballs which were all much bigger, much stronger and much more fearsome than before.

    At the same time, a bunch of golden mechas had also positioned themselves around me and were holding some sort of strange device which I immediately assumed were capture tools to be used on me.

    "HEY! What happened to one on one and Chivalrous Warrior?" I yelled out loud. "You''re as evil as you''re fugly aren''t you, ck Lord of Hairy Cheektitties!"

    "Say whatever you want of me. I don''t care. Today, I will cut you open and drink every single drop of your blood! Screw the Process of Voluntary Enhancement! I don''t believe that I won''t be able to get your power by ripping it off of you!" The ck Lord of Hairy Cheektitties shouted as he drew a fugly spear out of nowhere and charged at me.

    In that instant, his massive ck fireballs exploded into motion and shot out towards me as well!

    Additionally, all ten golden mechas around him also fired off their capture tools at me.

    "If you''re half awake or semi awake, and have power to spare, now is the time to give them to me." I said to Arabe quickly. "If not, we might just die together within the hour."

    Those words did the trick.

    "GAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Arabe woke up with a fearsome scream of absolute reluctance!!<novelnext></novelnext>

    But when she woke, damn she WOKE up.

    WHOOOSSSHHHHH!!!!!

    Her powerful red energy exploded out of my body so quickly that one split second, the sky was blue, and the next split second, it was a deep, angry red.

    Crack!! Crackk!!! Crackkk!!!!

    ck fire.

    Golden mechas.

    ? Fugly golden mecha.

    Big fat donut mothership.

    Alien biomechs.

    Alien fighters.

    All sorts of auxiliary enemy units, too unimportant to mention but still there in their thousands.

    The defensive drones.

    The defensive turrets, Anti Air System.

    The defensive barriers.

    Everything worthy of participating in the massive battle earlier just¡­ went poof.

    One moment they were chaotically fighting with each other, and the next moment¡­

    Nothing.

    They disappeared into particles.

    And then the hellish screams of panic began as pilots fell from their mechas.

    Mostly the enemy, though, since they were the ones attacking from the air. The defensive pilots were all hunkered down in the castle behind their domed barriers.

    "Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! The beast is upon us!! The beast is upon usssssss!!" Shrieked one of them loudly.

    "What''s going on hereeee!!! Heeeelllpppppppppppp!!"

    "KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

    Whatever they screamed out, it was theirst words.

    St. St. Boom. Boom. Boom.

    Sounds of their bodies impacting the ground rang out a few secondster.

    And then¡­

    Silence.

    There were no cheers of victory.

    There were no cries of triumph.

    Only a deep, ringing silence filled the air.

    For many of them fighting for their lives and their survival, it was blessed, blessed silence.

    But for the rest of us with higher stakes involved in the entire grand scheme of things, it was a stunned silence.

    "Arabe?? What the hell??" I shouted at her. "I mean, damn man that was good¡­ but what the hell? When did you be so powerful??"

    However, Arabe did not reply.

    After exerting all of her might to force herself awake to unleash pure devastation without even bothering to differentiate between friend or foe, she had fallen once more into a dormant state.

    She did not even bother to absorb any of the particles of the machines that she had so indiscriminately dissolved!

    And this time, I had the very distinct feeling that she wouldn''t be waking up anytime soon even if I were to fall into another life threatening emergency.

    But at that moment, I noticed something within me that made mepletely forget about Arabe''s fall into a dormant state.

    I even tuned out the chaos that was returning to thends as hordes of mechas and other vehicles from outside the range of Arabe''s outburst began to stream into the area.

    Right next to where the red mecha core was peacefully slumbering in deep sleep, there was another much smaller, but undeniably and undoubtedly¡­ mecha core.

    Or as Princess Augustine called it¡­ Energy core.

    It was also red in color, but one which was much lighter and brighter in shade, and it pulsed very lightly as though it was a tiny fingernail sized heart beating.

    "Another energy core?" I looked at it in absolute ecstacy and shock.

    Gently, I nudged it with my body''s bloodline energy.

    Schooop.

    It devoured the bloodline energy greedily.

    My jaw dropped even further than it already had.

    "It has¡­ devour too? What the hell? What the hell???? Did Arabe give birth to a baby energy core??" I shouted in my mind.

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