Chapter 454: Punishment and Equal Placement (prelude)!

Translator: ryuxenji  Editor: H2dH2mr

Just as Zhao Jun felt that he was unable to hold on any longer, he suddenly felt Jiang Shaoyu’s attacks slowing down. Zhao Jun instantly felt the pressure ease, and he managed to catch a break.

He then reacted quickly, knowing that this had to be the chance Boss Lan had mentioned. Without stopping to think about it, he leapt, raising Firmament in his hands to slash forcefully at the opponent.

Jiang Shaoyu saw Zhao Jun charging over without fear of death again and he sniffed coldly. The difference in their levels made it extremely easy for him to handle the attacks of a special-class operator. Seeing Firmament coming at him, he casually operated his mecha to lift his own cold weapon to meet the other’s attack.

“Clang!” Jiang Shaoyu’s giant sword collided with Firmament, but the results were not as Jiang Shaoyu expected. The swords did not repel each other, but instead became locked tight, unable to part.

At this sight, Jiang Shaoyu stared blankly and then tugged hard to try and bring his sword back. However, he found that when his giant sword returned, that long and narrow sword of the opponent’s followed it too. Jiang Shaoyu suddenly sensed danger and without conscious thought, he kicked out a leg at Zhao Jun’s mecha that had come even closer following behind Firmament.

“Bang!” “Snap!” Two sounds rang out almost simultaneously.

When Jiang Shaoyu’s kick landed on Zhao Jun’s mecha, the head of Zhao Jun’s mecha suddenly split open to reveal to openings, revealing the two interference missiles contained inside.

Due to the force of this kick, Firmament finally detached from Jiang Shaoyu’s giant sword, and Zhao Jun’s mecha was sent flying back.

Excitement was writ across Zhao Jun’s brow. He stared at the screen — when the value for the best shooting range Boss Lan had told him arrived, he would be ready to press the launch button.

“Pow” — two interference missiles shot out from the head area of the mecha, flying straight for Jiang Shaoyu.

Interference missiles were a type of missile meant to draw away and confuse tracking missiles. They were useful when fighting against starships, but in a battle between mecha, these missiles were almost never used by mecha operators. This was because interference missiles did not have much lethal power. Even if a mecha did not evade them and allowed them to hit it as they liked, the mecha would be left completely unharmed by just relying on the defensive power of its beam shield.

Thus, when Jiang Shaoyu saw that Zhao Jun was actually shooting interference missiles at him from close range, his first thought was: Is the opponent stupid?His second thought was: The opponent really is stupid. His third thought was:The opponent is an absolute f*cking idiot.

Faced with these two interference missiles, Jiang Shaoyu’s expression was disdainful and he made no move to dodge them. He wasn’t an idiot himself — why should he be scared by these harmless interference missiles? Instead, he raised the giant sword in his hands and flew forwards, thinking to take advantage of this moment to strike the opponent.

Right when the interference missiles were about to hit Jiang Shaoyu, however, an unprecedented sense of danger welled up in his heart. At this moment, Jiang Shaoyu did not have time to think — he trusted in his intuition. Without any hesitation, he abruptly swung the giant sword in his hands at those two interference missiles he had been ignoring.

If there was danger about, Jiang Shaoyu’s intuition believed that it must be coming from these two interference missiles he had been ignoring!

Two loud rumbling explosions rang out.

The giant sword struck one of the interference missiles and the missile exploded upon contact. However, the other missile avoided the sword’s interception to fly straight at Jiang Shaoyu’s chest.

Under this great looming sense of danger, Jiang Shaoyu’s finger speed reached his limits. At the last minute, he managed to tilt his mecha to the side, avoiding a strike to the chest, but the missile still struck his mecha’s left shoulder. Right after that, the second interference missile exploded.

The explosive power of the interference missiles was beyond his expectations — Jiang Shaoyu’s mecha was instantly sent flying back several hundred metres from the blast. The massive blow caused the blood to roil in his chest, leaving his chest feeling heavy and making him nauseous. If not for the protective mechanisms inside the cockpit, as well as his own tough constitution, the force of this blast would likely have been enough to injure him badly.

However, the mecha Jiang Shaoyu operated was not so lucky. The left arm had been completely blown off by the interference missile — even the defensive power of an ace mecha was unable to withstand against this explosive force.

The horrifying destructive power of the interference missiles which went against all common knowledge caused a rare lull to roll over the audience. It took several seconds for a loud roar to rise up as the venue was filled with the raucous expressions of disbelief. The interference missiles which had been fired from the head of Zhao Jun’s mecha had blown apart all everyone’s expectations — there were even a few missile experts in the crowd who leapt to their feet in excitement.

With regards to the weapons stored in the head of mecha, these experts naturally wanted to add some power to the missiles there while retaining the interference function the missiles were meant to serve. However, due to the low weight bearing capacity of the head area and the very limited amount of physical space, both the factors of mass and weight had put an end to all possibility of enhancing the offensive power of the missiles. They had not expected a new possibility to rise in this area where they had already given up. This excited them greatly, and they could not wait for the match to just end so they could grab hold of that special-class operator and properly take apart his mecha to properly see what in the world those interference missiles were.

When Chang Xinyuan heard the spectators around him all discussing what those interference missiles could be, he smiled so smugly that his eyes were slits. He had originally thought that he had created some useless things, but surprisingly, under Boss Lan’s arrangement, those trash had actually become treasures, managing to achieve an unexpectedly great lethal effect in mecha combat.

At this thought, Chang Xinyuan felt somewhat regretful. Such an unexpected sneak attack had still been dodged by Jiang Shaoyu. If the opponent had been struck dead-on in the chest, the entire power system of his mecha would have been destroyed, making it a true killing move!

However, Chang Xinyuan’s regrets very quickly disappeared. On the field, having lost his left arm, Jiang Shaoyu had insult added to injury — his giant sword suddenly broke with a loud ‘snap’, right in the middle. The top half of the blade fell heavily to the ground below, sending up a spray of dust.

Jiang Shaoyu’s complexion paled greatly at the sight and he stared in shock at the remains of his giant sword in his mecha’s right hand, unusually confused. Even now, he still could not understand how the rather harmless interference missiles could suddenly become so powerful. It was beyond his imagination. Two interference missiles — one destroyed his left arm, while the other destroyed his sword … could it be that the Federation had developed some new range of interference missiles? And the opponent had just been lucky enough to get his hands on some?

Jiang Shaoyu naturally could not obtain an answer, because these interference missiles had been created by Chang Xinyuan of Ling Lan’s battle clan. Chang Xinyuan had always considered these missiles his failed products, and so he had never spoken of them to outsiders. If Ling Lan had not seen the value these modified missiles had, they would probably still be buried somewhere in Chang Xinyuan’s workshop.

Seeing the outcome, Zhao Jun was also sighing in regret in his heart. Two ultra-NG missiles 1 , and in the end, he had only managed to destroy one of the opponent’s arms. By Boss Lan’s estimates, the best outcome was destroying half of the opponent’s mecha.

Jiang Shaoyu could not comprehend why things had turned out this way, but he was aware enough to know that he had lost face big time now. A grand ace operator actually being pushed to such a sorry state by a special-class operator. Even though he had previously managed to deal considerable damage to the opponent’s mecha with his powerful torrent of blows, leaving the opponent’s mecha covered in scars, the opponent had still retained the overall integrity of his mecha on the surface. In this aspect, he had lost to the opponent.

The cheers of the crowd were clearly for the opponent, Jiang Shaoyu knew. He felt a strong sense of shame … with a ‘snap’, in his brain, a cord called ‘rationality’ broke. With reddened eyes, Jiang Shaoyu stared at the mecha before his eyes, and his mind had only one thought in it — kill him … he must kill the opponent! Only then could he wash away his disgrace!

Jiang Shaoyu violently threw aside that broken half sword left in his hands, and then his mecha’s right arm reached behind his back to pull out the handle of a beam saber. As soon as he flicked the switch, the beam several metres long instantly extended from the handle. At the same time, his mecha’s engines began to rumble loudly and in the next second, his mecha streaked forwards like a beam of light, barrelling straight towards Zhao Jun who was several hundred metres away …

“So quick!” Everyone exclaimed. This was the true power of an ace. Before this, due to being absent-minded, Jiang Shaoyu had not really displayed the strength an ace operator should have. This was also why Zhao Jun had been able to withstand the opponent’s wild blows earlier.

“If Jiang Shaoyu had used the strength he is now displaying from the start, Zhao Jun would most likely have already lost by now,” said Li Lanfeng with a sigh, seated beside Ling Lan. Though he said this, he was honestly happy for his good friend over his good luck.

Ling Lan nodded in agreement. Frankly, the plan she had designed for Zhao Jun actually had a flaw.

Enraging the opponent could indeed make the opponent lose his cool and cause his strength to decrease, but there were actually two other possible outcomes. One was that despite the anger, the opponent would still be able to control his emotions and retain his original combat power, while the other was the one Ling Lan most did not wish to see. Out of anger, the opponent may instead dig deep and unleash his latent abilities, making his combat power burst past his limits.

Fortunately, Jiang Shaoyu had not turned out to be that type of oddball, allowing Zhao Jun to accomplish his goal despite the most dangerous of margins, claiming one of the opponent’s arms. However, at this moment, Jiang Shaoyu’s strength had been restored to its original standards. Zhao Jun’s luck had come to an end — the match would be over soon. Ling Lan came to a conclusion.

From the audience’s perspective, Jiang Shaoyu’s mecha hurtled like lightning towards Zhao Jun. And from Zhao Jun’s own perspective, he only saw a flash and the opponent was already right before him, the other’s beam saber mercilessly piercing straight for his cockpit …

This scene made Zhao Jun’s face change drastically. He quickly operated his mecha to turn to one side, and the opponent’s beam saber scraped across his mecha’s outer armour. The power of the beam saber exceeded the maximum tolerance of Zhao Jun’s mecha’s beam shield, hence leaving a noticeable scratch on the mecha’s armour.

Everyone gasped in shock. Seated in the viewing area, Ling Lan’s frigid and stony expression also shifted beyond her control. Her eyes narrowed as rage flashed through them.

“Zhao Jun, it’s time to admit defeat,” muttered Ling Lan silently, rather anxious inside. It could not be avoided — she had an extra burden of worry this time; she did not wish for any of her members to meet with any accidents in this tournament.

Having avoided that killing blow, Zhao Jun heard the feedback given by the mecha’s A.I. and his initially enthusiastic expression froze. A surge of rage spread uncontrollably within him. That last blow was certainly no mistake or a simple slip of the hand — it was intentional; the opponent wanted to kill him …

Zhao Jun might appear to be a savage brute, the perfect picture of a thug — while he had been with the Wuji Mecha Clan, he had also been mistaken for a simple-minded battle freak — but in reality, he had a set code of conduct. He would repay the tiniest drop of kindness with a fountain, and collect a skull for the grievance of a broken tooth 2 . If Jiang Shaoyu intended to be underhanded, Zhao Jun naturally would not just take this in silence.

Seeing Jiang Shaoyu charging to attack him once more, a cold gleam flashed through Zhao Jun’s eyes. His fingers began to dance fervently and his mecha moved. Firmament was gripped firmly in his right hand as his arms spread out slightly, and the tip of the blade dipped down to a 45-degree angle.

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