Chapter 221: Chaos Has Arrived

Energy ores, the mineralites imbued with a kind of energy, either by nature or by artificial means and here they were, lying within the hands of Ye Chong, exerting an amazing glow. They were formerly uncommon ores of metals which never contained any energy activity. It was then the exposure to the Teardrops they transmutated, as they gained the energy and began giving off that beautiful glow.

It was as if a metamorphosis for the ores, a transformation that lifeforms would have undergone, a mutation in their state, thus the name, Transmutated Energy Ore.

It was Mu’s speculation that these energy ores were transmutated due to the influence of the Teardrops, which sounded really stunning to Ye Chong for it was his first time of hearing such strange theory, where the ores were glowing merely over the effects of those specks of Teardrops.

And Ye Chong’s curiosity was one again rose by these seven little stones of tears.

He felt the Teardrops within his palm carefully. They were warm, giving off faint glow in pale green. They were not really sizable, with the largest being slightly bigger than his thumb. And the one which Ye Chong snatched from Tai Zuo was the smallest among them, while having the closest shape to a teardrop.

He rolled the seven stones between his palms. He took a glance, he took a second glance… Nothing was coming out in his head. Eventually he surrendered to the mystery and gave up observing, declaring the stones were useable but, “Not yet… not yet…” Bitterly he smiled.

The lower-graded transmutated energy ores were of much better use to Ye Chong currently. And he had a fruitful excavation of them, where ores of the entire cave were picked up by Multipede. If what Mu had stated was true, those ores were rare mineralites before. That was truly unbelievable for a small cave underground containing that many variety.

Ye Chong poured the piles of ores over the floor.

Within twinkling of eyes, colorful glows illuminated the room, dazzling as before to Ye Chong’s eyes. There was one untold fact from Mu, the energy ores, despite being a slightly lower grade than the Teardrops, they were also extremely precious kind of gems, while Ye Chong were fortunate enough to have a mini mountain of them. Imagine if Ye Chong were to auction these ores, he would be richer than the billionaires in the 5 major galaxies.

Well, Mu knew his information choice well. Even if he told Ye Chong so, Ye Chong would not be reacting much as he lacked the interest towards wealth acquisition, till maybe at some point where he needed that money to make the necessary purchases then perhaps he would realize.

Contrary to the tinkling coins, the strategic resources, the necessity of life were something he would go strongly possessive of. Trash Planet was known as a planet which severely lacked useable resources, where one could take months or even years to ever dig out anything useable. No one else in the galaxy recognized the importance of consumables than he himself. As he was raised in a place where the strong lingered, the weak be eradicated, every second could lead to a different outcome standing in between the dead or alive.

Ye Chong took a look at the pile of ores and he began sorting them. One could say it would be an entertainment to view the glow of the pile of ores, but one could also say sorting that pile of ores could be potentially a maltreatment.

No doubt, the sorting process was carried out under the guidance of Mu, since technically Ye Chong was “ore-blind”. But it was not as smooth-sailing as one would imagine even under Mu’s valuable tips and assistance, Ye Chong – for he lacked the basic understanding of these ores – was having a headache 10 minutes after the commencement, since technically Mu had never stopped his explanation for one second. Ye Chong could have a superior memory, but anyone could have gone mad under this constantly goose-feeding like lecture.

Ye Chong truly felt that it would be a much more brilliant idea to have Mu sorting the ores himself. Nevertheless, he knew the artificial intelligence’s purpose of doing this. It was, like always, for his own good, as through this he would not only gain experience but also knowledge. Well, it would be a different story if Shang was standing there. “That Shang would do it out of plain laziness.” Ye Chong swore, the corners of his lips were slightly raised. Shang should be coming in a few days.

“Ye, focus. Focus,” reminded Mu the very second he noticed the boy before him was thinking of something nonsensical. Ye Chong hurriedly carried on sorting, as he was all ears of the lecture on the composition, as well as the reactivity of the ores.

The colorful ores were sorted into different piles. The smallest pile before Ye Chong was the one that would come in handy immediately. There were actually varieties in these ores, and they were sorted quite equally in amount. But the number was discouraging, it would not be sufficient for basic mass-production.

The uncommon ore of the highest amount in Ye Chong’s inventory was surprisingly the black gold.

And according to the information obtained from Mu’s databank, these ores apparently were obliged to fuse with other uncommon metals to maximize their capabilities. And judging by the number of other uncommon minerals Ye Chong had, the tiny pile of transmutated energy ores would do him the greatest favor in long run. Well, he could have also used the other piles of energy ores but he would have to discard the few types of energy ores in that tiny pile before him to fit into the formula instead.

Ye Chong’s current supply of resources could be said as vast, although the utilization was a joke. That tiny pile before him for example, to even begin using them Ye Chong would need to first arrive at Tappero galaxy to make purchases of the minerals not inside his inventory.

Regarding the happening at the cave underground that day, despite long exchanges between Mu and Ye Chong, there was yet a definite conclusion, even though Ye Chong had made sense of parts of the phenomena. The disc for example, was a result of intensive spatial distortion, which then formed some kind of a portal.

The study of space science had matured and was well facilitated by today’s standard, the dimensional keystone for mech-deployment for example was the masterpiece of space science application. Then there was also space-warp which could also be considered as an impeccable technique developed by space scientists. And within the 5 major galaxies, space physics were the compulsory introductory course among the trainees. Well the study was not all that fancy like its name, for it had already become the part and parcel of our daily lives.

Except for Ye Chong probably… who had never participated in the education system once before. The dimensional keystone for mechs was one of the few parts he could not craft from scratch, reason being, no one had ever mentioned the working of it before, not even the Aurora or Mu. Among the few expertise in the hands of Ye Chong, alchemy and combats were currently at their greatest, while mech-production and piloting were at a very strange stage. Regarding mech-production and piloting, Ye Chong probably knew what an advanced senior pilot would know, but he would know nothing of a pilot on his first week would have been taught.

For space physics, he practically believed that he already had the best teacher in the entire galaxy, Mu. But Mu still was unable to calculate the exact figures of the spatial distortion that day. Man… what lies beyond that dark disc of distortion? What kind of lifeforms lingered within the world beyond, being all mighty and horrifying? Who or what had created such distortion? Was it a part of natural phenomena? Or the lifeforms were the culprit of this mischief? Or… Ummm…

There were so many mysteries unsolved to quench Ye Chong’s thirst for the truth. There were hardly anything intriguing to Ye Chong currently and he bit the bait on this case was due to his experience and recognition of the strength of this mysterious living thing.

This was probably the strongest organism he had ever seen.

The strength was not considered negligible for Mu, which probably triggered Mu’s motivation to fix himself. Ye Chong could feel that but he was also helpless, as it was truthfully impossible to fix Mu. There were too many obstacles to overcome. Yes, Mu’s databank did consist of detailed information on formation of his components, there were even the methodology to extract certain ores. The catch was, it would include about 52 types of metals of various colors and 17 non-metals in a formula, which none of those were found in Ye Chong’s inventory. Furthermore, among those materials, 11 of them turned out to be materials as rare as the Do-Kun stone. One could state that Mu was a conglomeration of uncommon materials. And that. That was only the first obstacle standing in their way. The second… well… Mu’s damaged components included the engines, the cabin and the left arm. Cabin was not much of an issue, unlike engines… Ye Chong remained puzzled looking at the blueprint of the engine. Arm? With his skill, it would be a miracle if he could finish building an arm before the next nova happened.

The journey to fully repair Mu was far and nearly unreachable. But building weapons for him was quite a practical goal at the moment. Mu lost most of his firepower for being unarmed the whole time but it was no longer the same because they had collected quite an amount of energy ores, whereby it would not be far-fetched to at least build a weapon for the artificial intelligence.

But this rose Ye Chong’s curiosity again. What kind of weapon would Mu use? The anticipation…

Other than that, they had also obtained the fluid of Twin Sisters, which was safely kept inside the alchemy lab. And he had a collection of the best bones he could think of. The only pity in his inventory could probably be that dagger, it was a gift from Gu Shaoze and he had spent all these years having it as his life savior, his loyal partner. But then… mhm… maybe it was time to build a new dagger. Thought Ye Chong as his eyes rolled over the ores.

Ye Chong spent the whole day in his room and never entertained the 5 guests on his ship. Well, not like they could do anything to the ship. They seemed to have transformed into the scaredy cats since the moment war was mentioned. It had been rooted in their conversations whenever they grouped together at one table, where Meng Fei’er would lose control of her tears without fail.

It was soon when the Coxcomb hit the edge of Tappero galaxy. The folks were feeling great, they seemed to have the look of lost souls finding the way back home, except for Ye Chong, as usual.

Getting back into the 5 major galaxies signified that they could obtain signal, they were connected to the world once again. Under the demand of the 5 frightened cats and Ye Chong’s curiosity over the status, Mu turned on the signal transmitter.

“This is Tappero daily. We are sorry to inform you that…”

Ye Chong was right.

The war had already happened.

It was chaotic inside the 5 major galaxies. The one who initiated the war… contrary to Ye Chong’s prediction, was none of the 3 forces, rather it was the Freedom alliance, a group he had never heard before. It was probably the organization those 5 mechs and that ancient-looking warship were from. It had to be them. They should be avenging the insults they had been getting all these years while being in the dark.

They were the first alliance to declare ownership of the Fal. Then Black Coves declared their ownership over Tappero. Almost immediately after, MPA also declared their influence over Tappero. Of course the Sanctuary would not sit back and watch their territories disappearing, they stood up and also declared their ownership over Cyana. Csebesini, strangely, retained its unowned status, even though being surrounded by the 4 major galaxies.

And the galaxies were at a fiasco.

Very soon after their declaration, the 4 forces began cleansing their territories to strengthen their rulership. The trainees, the members of the foreign forces in the territory shall be wiped away from history. It began with the Freedom alliance, where they brutally murdered the other forces in their territory, like eliminating the cockroaches in the kitchen. It happened too abruptly that none of them could make it out. And the Freedom alliance took a smart turn for they had already withdrawn all members lurking at the other galaxies to minimize their loss.

The residents were stupefied by the chaos. It was a mutation in their residence. Within a night, the peace, the harmony were no longer a fact, but a history.

The war was gruesome.

The Freedom alliance gained the most from the plot twist this time, while the other 3 forces, as much as the foreign forces had implanted their influences within the territory, it was challenging for them to eliminate the “others” in their place. The cleansing was hindered. One could already imagine the situation seeing how a handful of mechs could already cause such devastation back on Windstar. And the 3 forces were obviously holding a vaster amount than that.

The galaxies which their ownership were declared had been turned into ruins of flames and screams. Csebesini was surprisingly looking like a heaven among the hells, where flocks and flocks of residents hurried their way moving there.

As the war went on, major inflation happened in the market. Shortage was everywhere when the residents thought it happened once and only once hundred years ago. Resources like the metals were a goner in the market. The safety control was horrible, where pirates rampaged throughout the area. They filled the place as they plundered. Pilots were at high demands, for they wielded the strength to protect people. Everyone would need a pilot at their home and companies began employing the pilots batches after batches.

Warships were no longer a rare and frightening sight to behold as the 4 forces started sending out their armies in ships. Residents were horrified at first, then they grew numb of them.

Listening to the transmission… the folks were on the ground, except for Ye Chong. The hologram of the planets was then projected, where craters and flare could be clearly seen.

“No…No…” The tears of Meng Fei’er fell off her cheeks.

And that… was when chaos has arrived.

Chapter 222: Mu’s Weapon

“Everyone, I think it’s time for you all to leave.” Ye Chong declared plainly.

With the exception of Meng Fei’er, wearing a complicated expression, the rest of them all felt relieved. All this while, they were afraid that this cold young man would kill them all in the end, since he never did seem particularly merciful. Tying up loose ends like that was a sure way to keep things a secret, and Ye Chong certainly knew that. However, even though Ye Chong was not one to squirm when it came to killing, this did not mean that he enjoyed doing it. He still remembered how much he yearned to meet another human being back on the trash planet.

Besides, he was slowly realizing that there were many other methods that were as effective as killing.

As an example, Shang had demonstrated this method called “threatening” on planet Blue Ocean. Ye Chong thought it was a very creative way of doing things. Little did he know that Shang was only imitating what he saw in the movies.

Ye Chong stuck to this method. A good method did not depend on how often he used it, but on whether the all the conditions required were met.

Ye Chong asked Mu to search the virtual world for any information related to these five people. The report was filled with so many details that perhaps even they themselves were not aware of it all. Hence, when Ye Chong went through them in his steady and cold demeanor, the five of them all paled until their faces were all drained of blood.

Ye Chong never imagined that his expression and intonation, together with what he was doing right then, would make such a perfect match. The five of them stared at Ye Chong with fearful eyes, as though they were facing the Devil that came straight from the Underworld.

The five of them had already decided that this young man came from some aristocratic family. To them, only an aristocrat could gather so much intel. The power of aristocratic families was not one they could stand against. Before Ye Chong had finished, the five of them had decided to forever keep secret everything that had happened. The consequences of doing otherwise were devastating. They shuddered at the thought of their loved ones suffering due to their indiscretion.

When Coxcomb landed on an inhabited planet at the far edges of Tappero Galaxy, Ye Chong had decided to let them leave.

This was, after all, right at the edges of the Tappero Galaxy. The war had not reached here, the locals still living a normal life. Only the occasional expression of fear on their faces betrayed any traces of the war.

As the hatch opened, all of them could not wait to leave. However, in order not to offend the young man, they still walked slowly to the hatch. Meng Fei’er looked back at Ye Chong, her eyes filled with emotions as she bit her tender lips. Her eyes were unreadable to Ye Chong.

“Fei’er!” This came from Vicente, who loved her as much as his own daughter. He shook his head and sighed softly.

Vicente shook Meng Fei’er out of her reverie. She gathered herself and returned to her team. Pa Er also looked back occasionally, but his eyes were directed at Ye Chong’s metal laboratory, obviously reluctant to leave that world class laboratory.

After the five of them left, Ye Chong could finally do as he wished in the starship. In truth, Coxcomb had too many things unsuited for public knowledge. However, after the five of them left, Ye Chong’s work could finally begin.

Ye Chong had too many things to do. Mu was able to procure a good amount of rare metals through some his crafty ways. Today, these metals were all strictly controlled materials. Ye Chong could only marvel at Mu’s resourcefulness.

At the same time, Ye Chong also received some of the Five Galaxies’ most advanced laboratory equipment. These equipment were all very costly, and were only built upon request. They had only completed them days ago, and delivered them to Ye Chong after contacting Mu. More than a hundred mech pilots had escorted the goods to them. When Ye Chong saw their grand entourage, he thought he was seeing space pirates!

With these equipment, Ye Chong could do even more.

Mu finally took out his weapon schematics. His excitement from receiving those new equipment was quickly replaced by deep vexation. Ye Chong had never seen Mu produce any simple schematics – all of them were unthinkably dense. This time was no exception.

Ye Chong could only determine from its profile that it was probably an energy gun. However, the insides were filled with photon circuits so complicated that Ye Chong could only wonder – was it really just an energy gun?

Fortunately, Ye Chong did not lack the eagerness to study. Besides, mechs were always something he was interested in, and mech weapons were important components to a mech. Whatever schematic Mu produced would definitely be nothing ordinary, and if Mu would use the weapon himself, then it must be something extraordinary.

Ye Chong could not remember how many days had passed since he began to study the schematics. He did not mind it at all. Ye Chong was obsessed with his studies now, the way the Aurora’s elders could be. Once he understood it, Ye Chong began to build the weapon.

Ye Chong’s recent mastery of minute motor control now came in handy. The energy gun’s inner photon circuits were intricate and complicated, and Ye Chong felt like he was treading on ice as he put the circuit together, slowly and carefully. Any mistakes, and he would have to start all over again. Fortunately, the process went quite smoothly, thanks to Ye Chong’s inhumanly steady hands.

Nonetheless, the immense pressure was suffocating. When Ye Chong was finished with the main parts of the photon circuits, he felt much relieved. However, he made some errors in smelting the energy ores, since it was his first time handling them.

From trans-mutated energy ores, one could synthesize high quality metals. Some had surfaces like ocean waves, gleaming in a metallic blue luster. This was an energized blue zinc. The emery gold looked just as impressive. The metallic ingot was interspersed with gold glitter, and shone with a surprisingly sharp dazzle. All the metals purified from these trans-mutated energy ores were beautiful. Ye Chong kept them everywhere in the laboratory, and the laboratory now looked like a jewelry shop, and was probably the most dazzling laboratory in the world.

According to Mu, after these metals undergone an energy transmutation, their properties could become the very difference. Of course, Ye Chong was not aware of the rarity of energy ores. In truth, energy ores were rarer than he thought. The conditions for ores to undergo an energy transmutation process were highly coincidental. Ye Chong was simply very lucky this time.

No matter how attractive something was, it was simply human nature to gradually get used to it. Ye Chong did not pay further attention to those aesthetically impressive metal ingots, and continued with his work.

When Ye Chong was finally done, he took much pride in his work.

Recursion was a sniper rifle measuring six meters in length, its slender body looking quite fragile, lacking the menacing quality of a weapon. The gun was in alternating blues and whites, matching Mu’s body, but the inside of the gun’s barrel was lined with a thin layer of emery gold. The blue surface was covered in a natural wave texture, like the masterpiece of an art maestro. At the tip of the rifle was a large blue optical targeting scope, looking a little odd and out of place.

In general, however, the rifle had a simple appearance. Ye Chong included none of the ornamental designs in the schematics, since he could not be bothered with those useless features.

As the one who built the weapon, Ye Chong was confident of the power of this sniper rifle with the name Recursion. Its high accuracy was not due to the blue optical targeting scope on the rifle body. Recursion’s targeting system and Mu’s holographic scanning system were linked, enabling long distance shooting accuracy.

The optical targeting scope was an addition of Ye Chong’s. From his experience on the primary planet, Ye Chong found the geomagnetic interference negatively affecting Mu’s holographic scanning system, reducing its effective range greatly. It would be better to use the traditional way of optical targeting in similar situations. Ye Chong installed the scope for this purpose, and Mu agreed with his decision.

In truth, Ye Chong had another idea. He found that field interferences could be fatal in battles involving mechs or warships. The way most mech pilots were unfamiliar with optical systems was astonishing to Ye Chong. He thought back then that such interferences were advantageous for him, and creating this interference in an artificial way would be beneficial for him. Of course, realizing this idea was still quite difficult.

Recursion did not fire heat rays or laser beams, but a beam composed of recursive particle waves. Of course, Ye Chong had never heard of it. The most powerful wave he knew of was the nanowaves. In truth, if the rifle shot out nanowaves, Ye Chong was prepared to believe that the weapon was designed by the MPA. The style was too similar to theirs. Even now, Ye Chong suspected that this weapon was actually an advanced mech weapon of the MPA. However, when it came to the complicated relationship between Mu and the MPA, if Ye Chong asked Mu about it, the mech would probably reply with, “Based on available information, the origin is unknown!”

Recursion could also fire recursive particle cannon shots. Should he call it a cannon instead? Ye Chong imagined Mu with Recursion in hand, a massive beam exiting the rifle’s barrel towards a vulnerable part of the enemy’s warship with incredible accuracy, destroying the warship with one hit. Ye Chong mourned for whatever enemy that would cross Mu’s path in the future.

In addition to Recursion, Ye Chong also made a close range rapid fire device for Mu. Ye Chong knew from watching Mu’s fight with the iron lizard that he could definitely use a close range weapon like a lance, but Mu seemed to prefer shooting more, and so Ye Chong’s suggestion was rejected.

According to Mu’s suggestion, Ye Chong also chose red titanium, an especially strong material to make a dagger. This dagger looked exactly like the one Gu Shaoze gifted to Ye Chong, but with much better properties. Red titanium was red in color; after energy transmutation, it turned into a darker shade of red, like blood. Ye Chong’s dagger looked marvelous – from its red luster and blood-red handle, one could tell that it was no ordinary weapon. However, Ye Chong was vexed by it. While the energy transmutation greatly enhanced the metal’s properties, the polished luster was too eye-catching.

With all of his work completed, Ye Chong finally relaxed.

Mu was happy with Recursion, seeing that he quickly slung it onto his back. After Mu was completely charged, he would be covered with a layer of mysterious luster. With the blue-white Recursion on his back, Ye Chong believed that Mu would make a formidable entrance.

While Ye Chong encountered a few space pirates along the way, none of them dared to challenge the massive Coxcomb. The journey went smoothly. The MPA was apparently still occupied with controlling Tappero. Ye Chong had came by a few of the MPA’s warships, but they had all flew past Coxcomb hastily without paying him attention.

Since Mu had spent a lot of time instructing Ye Chong to build Recursion, using up even Shang’s time, Shang would spend more time outside in his next turn. This was the result of a discussion between Mu and Shang. Shang was positively intoxicated when he described his victory.

According to their plan, they were now heading towards Fal Galaxy to investigate matters concerning his Papa, which had troubled Ye Chong ever since he found out. Ye Chong was determined to get to the bottom of it. Shang, on the other hand, waved Recursion wildly and clamored about bulldozing over anyone who stood in their way. Ye Chong could only smile helplessly at him.

Mu had already set the flight course for Ye Chong. While Ye Chong was busy with building Recursion, Coxcomb was following its planned trajectory. Now, they had reached the midpoint between Tappero and Fal.

Tappero and Fal were not joined. Between them was a wide gap of no man’s territory, a vast, empty space without even a single planet in it. They could only reach Fal with a warp jump, and Mu had already calculated where they should do this.

Fal Galaxy was the one galaxy Ye Chong was most familiar with. They were close now. Ye Chong looked out towards the stars through the window, falling into a reverie.

“Here we go!” Shang yelled enthusiastically as he initiated the warp jump.

Chapter 223: An Unexpected Battlefield

Ye Chong did not expect to be hit even before Coxcomb could stabilize itself after the warp jump. He shook his head to clear his mind, and looked outside.

Here, in outer space, were numerous starships. Mechs were flying everywhere. Laser beams were shot, creating silent but bright and violent explosions in the skies.

Ye Chong was startled. Was he really at Fal Galaxy?

“Shang, what’s happening?” Ye Chong asked Shang for guidance.

“It looks like a fleet of ships were attacked by space pirates.” Shang was also uncertain. It was chaos out there. They could see damaged starships and mechs engaged in battle everywhere.

Ye Chong studied the scene, and agreed with Shang’s deductions. None of the starships here appeared to be warships, and that was a relief to Ye Chong. As long as they did not meet the Freedom Alliance, Ye Chong was not too worried.

What was odd, however, was how this starship fleet was composed of starships of all kinds of models. Usually, a starship fleet would be made up of ships of the same model for convenient resupply. The fleet he was seeing now was of the extreme opposite. Besides, there was only one large ship, a Zika class starship. It was designed very differently from Coxcomb, its angular body made it look more agile than Coxcomb.

Fid looked calm on the surface, but was growing anxious inside. The battle was stretching on, and the pirates more than he expected.

The entire fleet was mostly made up of civilians, hoping to escape the war by moving to the Csebesini Galaxy. Due to the high risk of encountering space pirates in their route, they had hired three mech squads for security.

In truth, they were already targeted by the space pirates right from the beginning. This mostly civilian starship fleet was a ripe target for the space pirates. Hence, the surrounding space pirates had came together to plan this assault.

The situation would not have been so damning, had not one of hired mech squads actually ran off out of fear of the large crew of space pirates. Now, it was only Fid’s Oak Leaves and another mech squad called Red Lion fighting against the attack. Many of the civilians had also took to their mechs and joined the fray, battling against the space pirates to save their loved ones. It was because of them that the battle had not ended swiftly against their favor.

The battle was more vicious than the space pirates expected. They did not expect the mellow civilians to actually fight with their lives. These civilians had fought without regard of their own safety, coming in droves like moths into the fire, hoping to end spread of danger in exchange for their lives.

They all knew that their loved ones were right behind them. From here on out, they could only move forwards! Everyone was emboldened by desperation. Strong men led the battle, followed by the young, then the women. It all happened silently, without any screaming or moaning. No one hoped to survive the fight, only wishing that their lives were enough to save the elderly and the children in the starships. For this meager possibility, they entered the battlefield.

The battlefield was silent, even as mechs clashed in sparks, metal against metal, ending in fire, light, blood and flesh splattering into outer space. In their suicidal attack, they only hoped to die with the enemy. As the explosion engulfed them, they looked back at their starships with a soft gaze while the fire consumed their bodies and reduced them into ashes.

The space pirates paid their price heavily for every starship they won.

Fid understood the severity of the situation, but there was nothing he could do. Just then, his second suddenly pointed towards the holographic screen and said, “Squad Captain, look!”

Fid raised his eyes to the screen, and saw a massive starship slowly heading towards them.

The sudden appearance of such a massive starship had gained the attention of the commanding station from both sides. However, the head of the space pirates found that it was only one starship, and felt relieved. Under the circumstances, no one would possibly volunteer to get involved in the mess. Since the other party was only a single ship, they would simply finish it off as well if it decided to interfere. The head of the space pirate crew watched the bulky starship with a cold smile. So what if it was a Zika class starship? His men were now all hungry for a fight, and he still had control over his crew, so he was not afraid of any surprises coming from them.

Ye Chong studied the battlefield on his holographic screen with a cool look. Those people charged towards their enemies without hesitation, even knowing that their lives were forsaken. Behind them was an alloy door. Without any sound, the holographic screen illuminated Ye Chong’s face, hiding his expression.

When Ye Chong saw the children through the window behind the alloy door, he finally understood. One of the space pirates had finally cleared the last line of hurdle. The fight he went through with the suicidal opponents had also left him with a deep thirst for blood. The floor was littered with broken mech fragments. The children behind the alloy door were all crying in fear as he smiled menacingly with greed. In a moment, once he destroyed the alloy door, all the treasures within would be his! If all those civilians were stopping him so earnestly, there must be something very precious within!

“Disparity in strength could not be overcome by courage alone,” thought Ye Chong. This strengthened his resolution to become stronger. Only then could be truly be in control of his own destiny.

Suddenly, one of the heavily damaged mechs on the floor rose and pulled the space pirate into an embrace. The mech activated its engines and went straight against the ship’s wall. They broke through the already damaged hull of the starship, flying into outer space.

This sudden turn of events caught the space pirate off guard.

Ye Chong could see that the damaged mech had a broken pilot cabin. As they flew into outer space, the mech pilot’s face immediately ashen, the result of cyanosis. His face, however, was traced with a smile, and the result was eerie. In the next moment, both mechs exploded into flames, engulfing both the owner of the eerie smile and the space pirate.

Ye Chong looked at the smiling face in a trance. He felt like he was hit at a vulnerable spot deep within him.

Under the glowing fire of the explosion, Ye Chong’s expression was unreadable.

Ye Chong looked on desolately. Those civilians had fought so desperately, probably to protect the ones they love. He, on the other hand, did not even know who his parents were. His Papa was dead, and he was left all alone. No, there was still Mu and Shang, but did they need his protection? Ye Chong felt a certain bitterness rise within him.

The holographic screen flickered in a multitude of colours, reflecting off Ye Chong’s face. The changing colors, however, only made him look even more desolate. In the next moment, however, Ye Chong quickly returned to his usual indifferent manner.

Shang kept his silence throughout.

“Shang, let’s go.” Ye Chong spoke up plainly. The battle was too complicated, like a full scale war. Unless he revealed the full extent of Coxcomb’s firepower, he could not tip the scales of the battle by himself. Besides, Ye Chong could find no reason to interfere. On the trash planet, once a hunter overcome its prey, it would never leave the prey’s offspring alone too. Such was the law of nature.

While Ye Chong was not afraid of these space pirates, it would still be a terrible annoyance if they took him on. At the very minimum, his travel would be delayed, and there were too many things that he needed to do right now. He must hurry to planet Rainbow, which had a mystery related to his Papa. What Ye Chong needed to do right now was to solve this mystery.

Nevertheless, just because Ye Chong ignored them did not mean that the space pirates would return the favor. A few space pirate mechs flew towards him, blasting their laser guns against Coxcomb. In truth, the leader of the space pirates did not want to be involved with this massive starship. However, his underlings were now all excited from their raid, and were no longer under his control.

After a few rounds of laser beams, the Coxcomb was left with only a few tiny dents. Their level of attack was only barely worth mentioning against Coxcomb’s thick hull armor. However, Ye Chong raised his brows at their attack. He was not in a good mood since he came here, and now that the other party came to provoke, Ye Chong could not help the anger slowly rising within him.

It was not in his nature to not retaliate. In truth, if not for the entirely different level of power of the Three Forces, Ye Chong had never stopped himself from retaliating against any attack. Besides, these mechs here were just like clowns to him. With mechs and mech pilots of this level, they were a piece of cake to him.

Ye Chong deployed Puppet and slipped into the pilot cabin of the clown mech.

“Ye, leave some for me!” Shang shouted as he waved Recursion at him.

When Coxcomb’s hatch opened, the few space pirate mechs retreated a little. To them, a massive starship like this often came with more than a hundred mechs for security. At the moment, these space pirates could still think rationally. If the mech that came out were too many to handle, they would simply retreat. After all, they still had plenty of backup behind them.

After a long while, a single mech flew out, and a thin, ugly one at that. The pirates gave a good look at the mech, and could not help but laugh out loud, momentarily forgetting about the battlefield.

Ye Chong was used to the opponent’s reaction when they saw Puppet. In any case, that was his intention. Even if his enemy was weaker, why not make it easier by lowering their guard?

Ye Chong looked at the enemy. The scene was only too familiar, almost an exact copy of what happened when he rescued the team of five earlier. Just when Ye Chong was about to move, a thin blue beam shot across the sky, and Ye Chong watched as one of the mechs before him exploded into a fireball.

Ye Chong started. Before he could recover, another two blue beams shot past him, and the remaining two mechs went into flames as well.

The three mechs exploded into fragments, raining onto Puppet.

“Hehe.” Shang’s laughter came from Puppet’s photon processor. Ye Chong looked back helplessly towards the ship, and saw Shang behind the hatch, waving Recursion frantically as though he knew Ye Chong would be watching. Those three blue beams must be his work. Shang must have aimed for the enemy’s energy cells to make them explode. Given that he hit on target for all three beams, Shang must be as good a shot as Mu. Ye Chong was impressed. If Ye Chong found that Mu’s three shots had hit at the exact same location, perhaps he would be even more impressed.

The leader of the space pirates saw everything, and his face twisted. “Mtherfcker, who asked them to go near that ship? You, you and you, pass it down, no one is cleared to go near that ship, or I’ll make them regret it.” The pirate leader jabbed his finger at his underlings in panic. He was deeply terrified on the inside. “Fck, so there’s a super sniper mech pilot with the ship, no wonder they sent out only one mech. That super sniper pilot was terrifying, to hit the energy cells with all three shots! And it’s weird, that sniper rifle, it fires blue beams, and the sniper didn’t even pause between shots. Fck, is that really a sniper rifle?”

He knew exactly how terrifying a sniper mech pilot equipped with such a dangerous sniper rifle could be!

Sniping was a relatively unpopular specialty for mech pilots, but also a powerful skill. Sniper mech pilots were the top of the cream in shooting skills, and unlike other mech pilots, they focused their training only in shooting, and were less competent in close combat. They usually used sniper rifles as their main weapons, and aimed for single killshots. These mech pilots were particular in choosing their weapons. In general, they were all very powerful characters, and with their almost flawless shooting skills, even a normal heat ray gun would be formidable in their hands. Any enemy caught in their sights could perish at any time.

However, even though sniper mech pilots were powerful, it was difficult to earn the title due to the high level of skills that came with it. Sniper mech pilots were coveted by all forces and organizations.

To think that there would be one here! The pirate leader cursed again at the idiocy of those three fools, not acknowledging how he had implicitly allowed them to go near the massive starship earlier.

Like the pirate leader, Fid was shocked, but was immediately overjoyed. If the crew of this starship could help him, then they might stand a chance. If the ship had a capable sniper mech pilot, even if the other mechs had only average battle capacity, they would still amount to a formidable force. He did not know that the entire Zika class starship had only one passenger.

A sniper mech pilot could change the course of the battle!

“Quick, send a distress signal to the ship. Let them know we have only civilians here, and hope that they would assist us!” Fid commanded in haste. Given the situation, every minute was precious.

Chapter 224: Kings of Close and Long Range Combat I

Ye Chong was returning to his ship. Shang’s three shots were clean and fruitful, leaving him no chance to do anything at all. Just then, Ye Chong heard Shang through the comms channel, “Ye, they just sent a distress signal over, what do you think?” Shang sounded eager, obviously still excited from his shots earlier.

Ye Chong replied flatly, “Leave them, we have things to do.”

“Awh …” Shang groaned like a child denied of his favourite toy. “Ah!” Shang suddenly gasped.

“What? Shang.” Ye Chong was surprised.

Shang spoke quickly, “Ye, look at this.”

Through Puppet’s photon processor, Ye Chong saw a holographic image of one of the starships side, and through the windows, he could see the horrified expressions of the people inside. Ye Chong suddenly widened his eyes!

He stared for a full three seconds. Even though the image only caught the side profile of that person, Ye Chong was sure he recognized him.

It was Grandpa Qian! Leaning against the window was the face of an old man, one that Ye Chong was very familiar with. Ye Chong had spent a long time with Grandpa Qian, and was certain that he did not see it wrong.

Ye Chong quickly recovered himself and asked hurriedly, “Shang, which starship is this?” Without further hesitation, he maneuvered his mech and Puppet turned back towards the battlefield, flying towards the chaos. No matter what, since Grandpa Qian was here, he would not just watch from the side. His time on Blue Ocean with Grandpa Qian was the happiest he had ever since Ye Chong left the trash planet. Besides, Grandpa Qian had loved him. Ye Chong could not just stand by and watch Grandpa Qian die in the battlefield.

As Puppet accelerated to its maximum speed, Ye Chong could only regret not using Han Jia in the first place. Puppet glided through the darkness of empty space like a king.

Another thin but straight blue beam shot past Ye Chong from behind, flashing into oblivion. Ye Chong caught where the beam was aiming for. Beyond him was a starship with a few mechs surrounding its hatch, and the blue beam had hit one of the pirate’s mechs nearest to the hatch. If he looked closely, the mech’s smooth pilot cabin was now punctured with a hole that could fit a finger. The mech immediately lost control.

Ye Chong understood that Shang was showing him the way. He adjusted his course and headed towards the starship.

Just then, a few more of the blue beams shot past him, barely touching Puppet. The rest of the mechs lost control just as suddenly. Ye Chong realized that Shang had killed the pilots in those mechs. He had no time to dwell further on the fact that the beams from Recursive could be so powerful. He could only wish that Puppet could move faster.

More blue beams came – the pirate mechs surrounding the starship had all become Shang’s targets. The mechs were hit at almost the same location and lost control in a similar way, though none of them exploded. To prevent explosions, Shang had chosen to shoot at the pirate mech’s pilot cabin. In truth, the finger-thick blue beam was too small compared to a ten-meter tall mech, much less to outer space. Many of the mech pilots fighting against the pirates realized in surprise that their enemies had suddenly lost control for no apparent reason.

Nonetheless, the pirate leader was watching the mysterious sniper mech pilot, and by now, he was frozen in shock! Heavens, why did such a terrifying sniper appear out of nowhere? Will the f*cker kill them all?

Ye Chong approached the starship without incident, since all the enemies nearby were destroyed by Shang. He was worried about Grandpa Qian, and headed straight towards the hatch. Even in this situation, Ye Chong kept his cool.

Puppet’s small and lithe figure now came into play. The mech entered the starship as silent and deft as a cat. Ye Chong silently flew and came to a junction in the corridors. He now realized what was happening. At the end of the corridor was a mech desperately defending its position. The mech was a classic battle mech, but truly deplorable in terms of the pilot’s skills. Given the circumstances, however, the desperation forced him to fight like never before, and the space pirate mechs around him could only huddle around in the corridor, unable to fire their laser guns for fear of exploding the starship, killing everyone in it, including themselves.

The narrow corridor could only fit one mech, and so the three pirate mechs found themselves trapped, unable to move forwards or backwards. Only the first mech could fight directly with the combat mech. All three mechs had their backs facing Ye Chong. They must have never imagined that their comrades outside would all be finished off.

Puppet still moved silently. Even in the narrow corridor, Puppet still moved easily.

Ye Chong felt as calm as an iron lizard hunting its prey.

In a single step, Puppet closed in on the last mech closest to him. The mech seemed to feel something and made to turn to inspect, but Puppet moved!

Puppet’s left hand clasped tightly on the mech’s neck as the parrying spear sprang out from the right arm like a poisonous serpent, snaking itself into the mech. Ye Chong also chose to attack the pilot’s cabin. With black gold mixed into its material, the spear performed excellently, puncturing right through the mech. Ye Chong could even hear the sound of bone breaking as the spear went through, and the horrifying shriek from the pitiful mech pilot.

At the same time, Puppet kicked the mech’s knees hard with its right leg, and the other mech gave. Puppet’s left hand pushed at the same time, and the mech bent down further.

The attack had shocked the other two mechs in front. The one confronting the battle mech panicked, while the defending battle mech was greatly encouraged by this unexpected backup.

The second mech turned around to stop the ambusher.

Ye Chong did not give the mech a chance. The battleground was advantageous for Ye Chong’s battle mech. Puppet’s left hand pushed downwards and pressed forward with its legs, pulling out the parrying spear in the same move as it jumped across the mech it had dealt with. Now, Ye Chong was twenty meters away from the second mech.

Puppet’s agile response made the second mech even more alarmed.

Before Puppet landed from his jump to clear the first mech, it kicked against the walls of the corridor and directed itself straight towards the second mech like a cannonball.

Puppet came fiercely fast. The narrow corridor and its fast approach was daunting. As Puppet flew past the second mech, its right hand aimed the parrying spear straight at the enemy’s throat and drew blood. However, the attack left Puppet flying off course. Just when it was about to hit the corridor’s wall, Puppet braced itself with another kick against the wall, and did not look back at the helpless second mech.

The first mech Ye Chong attacked was now only crashing to the ground with a crackle.

The throat was a mech’s most vulnerable part, where its photon circuits were all centered about. Once the throat was damaged, the mech was also useless.

The last remaining mech found itself surrounded back and front, and was terrified. Ye Chong acted without mercy, burying the parrying spear deep into the mech’s body. However, Ye Chong still attacked carefully, avoiding an explosion.

Puppet’s entire attack was executed smoothly, and its swift footwork made its movements unpredictable. Besides, it was able to use some strange moves, even in the narrow corridor. These unusual moves could only be done by a very competent mech pilot.

The battle mech before Ye Chong may not exactly be a battle expert, but Ye Chong saw that he could avoid attacks quite deftly, which was why the mech survived the pirate mechs for so long, stalling them here.

Swish! The alloy door behind the battle mech opened, and the battle mech signalled for Ye Chong to enter. That was his intention anyway, and so Ye Chong entered together with the other mech. Once inside, the alloy door sealed shut. The airlock was then pressurized, and the room was quickly filled with air. As the air pressure stabilized, another alloy door opened up, where a large group of people rushed out and surrounded the battle mech, cheering with joy.

Ye Chong quickly found Grandpa Qian amidst the crowd. He looked just as before, only wearier and older. The two people beside him, however, surprised Ye Chong. Supporting Grandpa Qian was Rui Su, while the person on the other side of Grandpa Qian was Rui Bing in her white training garb, looking steadfast. Beside Rui Bing was a beautiful middle aged woman, who looked a lot like Rui Bing and Rui Su. Ye Chong guessed that she must be their mother.

As for why they were with Grandpa Qian, that was his main question.

The pilot cabin of the battle mech opened and out came a young man, to which everyone cheered even louder. It was this young man’s incredible feat that kept them safe until backup arrived, or they would all had been captured by the space pirates.

The young man was none other than Wei Yuan, whom Ye Chong was acquainted with. Wei Yuan was excited from his success, and ran to Rui Bing as he yelled, “Sister Bing, Sister Bing, I did it, hah!” Rui Bing’s icy face thawed slightly with joy.

Rui Su continued from the side, “Little Yuan, you don’t know how sorry you looked like just now, tsk tsk, jumping up and down like that, it’s horrendous.” Wei Yuan’s expression soured as he said, “Sister Su, don’t mock me like that.” His face made everyone laugh out loud. Grandpa Qian laughed heartily, and even Rui Bing gave a little smile.

Ye Chong felt at a loss. Why were they all people he knew?

Rui Bing looked towards the clown-like mech. Its performance was seen by everyone here through the holographic camera in the corridor. Out of all of them, perhaps only Wei Yuan and herself realize the power of this clown mech’s three attacks.

Rui Bing was certain that the clown mech’s pilot must be an expert in combat, and excellent in mech piloting. This advanced level of piloting was nothing like what Wei Yuan boasted himself to have.

Ye Chong watched Grandpa Qian laughing, and was reminded of his earlier days with Grandpa Qian. He felt a little dazed.

“Hey, Master, why don’t you come out?” Wei Yuan cupped his hands like an amplifier and shouted. Wei Yuan was absolutely impressed with this master. The pilot must be an expert in mech combat. Wei Yuan believed that, in terms of close range combat, there were probably not many who could defeat this person outside of his idol and Sister Bing’s future husband, YC. In his mind, Ye Chong was already destined to marry Sister Bing.

Everyone looked expectantly at the pilot cabin of the clown mech, hoping to see the hero that had saved them all.

Wei Yuan’s voice broke Ye Chong reverie. He looked downwards at Grandpa Qian and Rui Bing, and for some reason decided then not to go out.

“Shang, think you can find out why this fleet is here?” Ye Chong communicated to Shang.

“On it!” Shang began working as he replied.

Fid could only stare in stupefaction at the massive starship, and the half-concealed mech from its one opened hatch. He was feeling a little out of depth, and was shocked beyond words. In fact, it was not just him – everyone in the starship’s bridge was gaping widely, staring blankly at the holographic screen with the semi-concealed mech.

Was this even humanly possible?

That was the million zuan question in everyone’s hearts.

Right from the beginning, the impossibly powerful sniper mech pilot had never stopped. He shot like a tireless machine. The fatal blue beams were not entirely noticeable, but everyone on the bridge had already decided that those were beams of death. Every beam signaled the loss of a life, and every mech was destroyed in the exact same manner – exploding into a ball of flames.

This accuracy did not seem to decrease. From the beginning, the mech pilot had never missed a shot.

A clear electronic beep startled them all out of their trance. Fid’s second rushed to the command console and issues some controls. Suddenly, he gasped, “Squad Captain, look at this, they’re asking where we’re heading, and the nature of this starship fleet.”

Fid gestured with a wave and said, “Tell them! Our only hope is their assistance!” Fid could only bet everything on this starship.

“Ye, they’re a fleet heading towards Csebesini Galaxy, the fleet is mostly made up of civilians,” Shang quickly relayed the information to Ye Chong.

“Csebesini Galaxy …” Ye Chong finally understood that they were escaping from the war. The only thing he could not understand now was how Grandpa Qian would be with Rui Bing and company.

The Rui family had only begun connecting with Grandpa Qian not long after Ye Chong left Blue Ocean. Rui Bing was always trying to find out where Ye Chong went, and Rui Su was also regretful of what she had done, as she tried her best to help her sister. Ye Chong had stayed with Grandpa Qian when was with Blue Ocean Academy, and most everyone knew that he was very close with Grandpa Qian.

Perhaps it was a matter of loving anything to do with Ye Chong, or perhaps it was for some other reason, but Rui Bing began to visit Grandpa Qian frequently. Grandpa Qian also grew fond of the young lady with a cold exterior but a warm heart. Rui Bing would sometimes help Grandpa Qian to make noodles, while asking him about matters related to Ye Chong. Of course Grandpa Qian understood her feelings, and would answer all her questions happily. Rui Su would sometimes go with her sister, and her smart way around things was something Grandpa Qian especially appreciated. Rui Su, on the other hand, came to act like an obedient daughter whenever she was with Grandpa Qian, something Rui Bing could not understand. As time passed, the two girls grew closer with Grandpa Qian.

The current migration to Csebesini was not something Grandpa Qian wanted. To him, he was an old man, and would not mind dying at his home. Travelling at his age to such a faraway place, where the road was rumored to be quite dangerous, and was too much of a hassle. In the end, however, he gave in to the insistence of Rui Bing and her mother, together with Rui Su and Wei Yuan.

Ye Chong knew nothing of this, and did not intend to pry. To him, it was fine as long as Grandpa Qian was happy.

Ye Chong could not help but took a glance at the woman in white training garb too, her intimidating charisma standing out amidst the crowd.

“Ah! Isn’t that our Bing Bing? Heavens! Ye, it’s the season of peach blossoms for you [1]! To meet our beloved Bing Bing here … What? Peach blossom? You don’t know what’s peach blossom? That’s probably because you’re not reading that chip Lunatic Guan gave you right, isn’t there an illustration for plants or something in there …” Shang observed as he shot effortlessly on.

“Master, come out! Everyone’s waiting for you!” Wei Yuan was still shouting from below. Everyone was curious – why was the hero still not coming out?

Just when everyone was confused, the clown mech pointed outside. The crowd realized then that the battle outside was not yet finished while they were celebrating inside. The euphoria from surviving vanished in an instant. If they lost the battle outside, their fates would remain unchanged.

Wei Yuan no longer smiled, but looked focused. He quickly went to his mech. In fact, Ye Chong believed that Wei Yuan’s help would not tip the balance of the battle. If the young man died, however, Grandpa Qian and the lady in white training garb would probably grieve.

With that thought in mind, Ye Chong rummaged in his bag and produced a dimension keystone. He opened the pilot cabin slightly and threw it towards Wei Yuan.

Rui Bing was watching him closely, and was therefore quick to move a good three meters across to Wei Yuan, catching the keystone with only two fingers. It was a ring-shaped dimension keystone. Wei Yuan recovered himself and took the dimension keystone from Rui Bing as he shouted happily towards the clown mech, “Master, is this for me?”

The clown mech nodded and turned to leave.

“Shang, we might have to fight.” Ye Chong said plainly. Puppet was still not out of the starship yet.

“Hahaha, Ye, I knew it, hehe, must be because you saw our beloved Bing Bing’er. Tsk tsk, heroes never could stand against beautiful women, even a wild animal like you, Ye could not avoid this fate …” Shang blabbered on.

Ye Chong could only cringe inside. He could remain calm in battle, but never could stand against Shang’s words.

When Ye Chong flew out of the starship, he immediately saw the word “Coxcomb” that plastered on the front of his starship. Ye Chong nearly lost control of Puppet. Shang had actually took the starship to him.

Both the pirate leader and Squad Captain Fid were confounded by the name of the ship. How could such a massive starship be named so crudely as Coxcomb? Everyone was feeling a little sorry for the Zika class starship.

Shang had, until then, destroyed dozens of mechs. Since the blue beam from Recursion was very tiny and almost unnoticeable in space, it went mostly undetected, and many space pirates found their comrades suddenly exploding into flames.

The empty space of darkness was lit up like a dazzling banquet.

Squad Captain Fid’s side could finally breathe under the enemy’s pressure. The surviving mech pilots were enough to at least evenly match the space pirates.

The pirate leader, on the other hand, was furious. Victory was almost certain for him, until this horrendously capable sniper mech pilot came into the scene. He knew that if he did not do anything, the situation would turn against him soon. The sniper mech pilot was good, never resting between shots, as if he did not need time to aim. In the short time span since the beginning, he had lost dozens of mechs on his side. If things continued like this, he would never be able to recover.

“Blade, take Black team with you and finish off that b*stard,” the pirate leader could no longer do nothing about it.

Chapter 225: Kings of Close and Long Range Combat II

Blade was the crew’s most menacing fellow. He was bold and fearless in the face of death. The pirate crew had always relied on him when the situation turned sour. He was the leader’s right hand man.

Blade never liked talking. He nodded grimly at the leader’s command and turned to leave. Black team was the pirate leader’s security retinue, and the strongest force in the entire crew. These men were all expert mech pilots, and were numbered to be 300. They were all well trained and skilled in combat. The pirate leader decided to use his trump card, signalling the climax of this battle.

A large swarm of mechs headed towards the massive starship. Shang noticed them as soon as they were deployed. He realized their plans immediately.

“Hehe, Ye, I’ll leave this place to you,” Shang said and went back into Coxcomb.

“Alright,” Ye Chong replied plainly.

The pirate leader saw the sniper mech pilot returning into the starship, and felt much relieved. As expected, the enemy had squirmed. However, before he could fully appreciate the moment, he saw the sniper came back out from his holographic screen.

Was the enemy really so confident? The pirate leader did not what else they had in their sleeves.

Shang gave an evil laugh, but the electronic sound was a little creepy to hear. Not that there was anyone around to hear it. Shang’s battle lust was now fully unleashed. If the pirate leader saw what Shang had by his side now, he would probably faint.

Right next to Shang was a stack of energy cells that went up to half the mech’s height. This was what he went to retrieve. While Recursion was a powerful weapon, it consumed energy very quickly. It was a pity that the teardrop mineralite could not be used yet, else Recursion could continue shooting for a very long time.

Even so, these energy cells here should be enough.

Ye Chong wandered around the starship fleet. The starship which held Grandpa Qian was Shang’s main objective, and the pirates around the ship were all dealt with. Ye Chong had to sweep out further to find the other pirates.

Ye Chong moved across the battlefield carefully. He dared to be hasty. Puppet had exchanged its defense for better agility, so its armor was not as reliable. If an enemy hit him with a laser beam, he would not fare very well. Death by carelessness was not part of his plan.

This was a huge and chaotic hunting range, and Ye Chong was like a cunning and graceful hunter.

Ye Chong saw two mechs ahead of him, shooting at each other as they took evasive measures. It was easy to differentiate between the mechs of the pirates and the hired mech squads. The pirates’ mechs were colourful and came in all kinds of models, some even made up of parts that did not work well together. The mech squad’s mechs look more uniform, and were models that could be found in the market.

Ye Chong could tell at once the next step those two mechs would take. His rich experience in battle allowed him to do so.

Puppet moved like an assassin, quietly hiding behind the starship. It kept its body close to the hull, less than five meters away from the tip of the starship.

Puppet waited intently, like a lizard waiting to make its killer strike.

Ye Chong counted the seconds as the pirate’s mech slowly emerged above the ship. Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong moved abruptly, his hands flying across the controls in a blur of a shadow. It was a pity that no one was watching him.

Puppet was like a lizard clinging closely to the starship’s armor, but now it sprang up, drawing an arch in space. In the next moment, Puppet crashed into the pirate’s mech. At this close distance, Ye Chong could see all the details of the other party’s mech.

Puppet was lying in ambush behind the starship, and its silent attack came as a surprise, coming from below. As Puppet’s clown-like face appeared to the pirate in the mech, the mech pilot was momentarily stunned.

The parrying spear from Puppet’s right arm launched, driving straight through the other mech’s pilot cabin. Out of all of Puppet’s installed parts, the spear was the most valuable. The spear, mixed in with black gold, was perfectly suited for penetrating its victims.

Puppet pushed against the now useless mech in its hands and swept back into darkness.

The Oak Leaves mech pilot who was just now engaged with the pirate mech only saw a slim figure bouncing off his opponent and disappearing into thin air. After long moments of waiting in anticipation, he finally noticed that the pirate’s mech was already damaged, the pilot dead inside. He thought back to the figure that appeared and disappeared so quickly into the darkness.

Ye Chong felt like he was back on the trash planet, and the starships around were the mountains of trash. Ye Chong maneuvered Puppet around the starships, hiding in their shadows, the way he flew Winnie between the trash mountains.

Ye Chong’s attacks were all meant to kill. He did not squander any movements, and would only choose the most opportune moment to deliver the fatal blow from the darkness to his unaware enemy. His pair of parrying spears had pierced through the armor of numerous mechs, and Ye Chong did not give mercy to any of the pirates inside them. This was war, and mercy was a luxury. Ye Chong had no habit of practicing mercy.

In truth, if not for Grandpa Qian, Ye Chong would never have gotten involved. Since he had decided to step in now, though, he would do his best and leave no loose ends, giving no chance to his enemy.

Burning in Ye Chong’s cold eyes was the flame of battle.

Puppet jumped from starship to starship without slowing down. Ye Chong was already immersed in the mood for battle, a state of mind meshed from calmness and excitement. Ye Chong’s hands no longer moved quickly for his own sake, but moved more easily, slowing down or speeding up according to need. He would stay motionless for one moment, but move so quickly it was hard to see his hands in the next. This transition between moving very quickly and not moving at all was strange, but Ye Chong did not notice it. In fact, he felt it come naturally. The mech was like an extension of his body, and his every thought was translated into the mech’s movements.

Under Ye Chong’s maneuvering, Puppet moved erratically in sudden jerks of speed, or rising and falling abruptly. It flew unpredictably like a ghost, or as deftly as a monkey.

The skill of battle could only be honed on the battleground.

Shang was also in the state of mind for combat. In truth, Mu had always taken charge in battles, but even Mu had never did it more than a few times. According to Mu, only when Ye had truly matured that he would be allowed to maneuver them. Hence, unless the situation was desperate, Mu would not reveal himself directly. Shang was born even earlier than Mu, and no one would believe that he was not actually experienced in battle.

What a joke! Was a mech made of so much rare metal used just for decoration? Besides, the injury on Mu and Shang’s left arm was the perfect evidence of their history. If Shang was a conscious being, then he must have some inborn fighting instinct. However, the topic of consciousness in PSI’s was a little weird.

Now, Shang looked cold and emotionless, Recursion held steadily in his right hand. If he was performing at the mech pilot’s NR Training Center, he would earn full marks for this.

Despite his usual blabbering, Shang was now the perfect killing machine.

To Blade and his three-hundred strong advanced mech squad, it was a disaster of devastating proportions. The blue beam came as a harbinger of death, each shot answered by a loss of one of their mechs.

What terrifying accuracy! The sniper had never missed. Even someone as capable as Blade could not help but feel hopeless. Could there really be such a crazy sniper mech pilot? With his long experience walking the edges between life and death, Blade knew that no matter how strong a person was, anyone, even himself, would commit a mistake at some point. His experience had validated this belief of his time and again, but this half-concealed sniper mech pilot had yet committed any fault.

The constant explosions of mechs illuminated the swarm of mechs. An observer could easily mistook that the mechs were facing the full force of another mech squad. In truth, their enemy was only a single person.

Long distance sniping, the most difficult part of shooting training, was now performed flawlessly by this unknown mech pilot. It was a divine performance. The further the target, the harder it was to shoot accurately. At their current distance, any slight error in shooting angle would be greatly amplified. No sniper mech pilot could maintain a perfect shooting record at long distances.

There was once a famous sniper mech pilot who said, “In long distance sniping, you need luck more than half the time.” This was the perfect testimony on how difficult long distance sniping could be.

What vexed Blade now was how very lucky his enemy was at the moment.

On normal days, the time it would take for him to reach the Zika class starship would be but the blink of an eye; now, however, it felt like forever. His comrades were thinning out. Blade knew that retreat was not possible at this point. Even if they turned back, they would still be within range of the enemy, and it would only make it easier for the enemy to finish them off.

Blade was not the only who understood their situation. Black team’s members were all veterans of battle, who came to the same conclusion. They braced themselves and charged forward. Once the sniper was within their attack range, they would be able to fire back.

Without the need for orders, they flew in a scattered formation, and deployed evasive measures. While these evasive measures could not prevent the death of the sniper’s targets, it was obvious that the frequency at which the blue beam appeared had decreased.

Shang continued to shoot steadily, unperturbed.

Ye Chong could not remember how many times he had attacked, but the number of mech pilots he had rescued from battle was increasing. For the first time, the mech pilots in the two mech squads outnumbered the pirates, if but slightly.

In the control room of Red Lion’s mech squad captain, everyone gaped at the holographic screen. After a long moment, the beautiful redhead sitting on the captain’s seat muttered, “Heavens, is that guy human?” This beautiful redhead was Red Lion’s squad captain, Claudia. With her fiery red hair, she was one of the very few female mech pilots who attained the title of advanced mech pilot.

At twenty five, Claudia was at the prime of her beauty. Her mature and hot personality was attractive, and made her the center of attention anywhere she went. Her snow white skin, aquiline nose and sapphire eyes were assets that she took pride in.

She was also a good leader. Red Lion mech squad was only a group of twenty when she took over, and now it had expanded into a massive five-hundred strong mech squad.

Now, Claudia was wearing a dazed expression, tinged with awe born out of ignorance. However, this beautiful sight was lost to the people around her, for everyone was as shocked as she was now. The skinny mech figure on the holographic screen did not seem remotely strong or valiant, but perhaps a little comedic, its colorful exterior making it look much like a clown. However, this clown-like mech had evoked a chilling sense of foreboding in their hearts.

This was a master of ambush, and an expert in mech combat and mech maneuvering!

The clown mech’s colorful face was silly looking, but no one in the control room was laughing. To them, the silly face was a cover for whatever chilling fear it could evoke. They can all imagine the mech pilot sitting in the pilot cabin watching those pirate mechs with arrogant eyes!

Claudia was also thoroughly convinced of the clown mech’s pilot’s strength. The pilot was a master in all respects, be it in strategizing, timing, combat skills and mech maneuvering. What surprised Claudia the most was the pilot’s calm steadiness – the clown mech had dealt with dozens of pirate mechs, but he still continued to fight as systematically as when he had first started.

Such an inhuman calmness! Claudia could almost believe that this mech pilot was a top class assassin from a professional killer’s guild.

He did not like flying, but preferred to leap, or move on all fours. He kept to the darkness, and stuck to ambushing, using the rarely preferred parrying spear. All these signs showed that the mech pilot was someone rather peculiar.

She could not help but steal another glance at the starship named Coxcomb. She could not understand how an ill-named starship could have such an expert.

Was this an unconventional master of battle?

Coxcomb also had another equally intimidating sniper mech pilot, and he was now single-handedly and successfully dealing with over 300 mechs! Claudia looked at the other holographic screen. The swarm of mechs was now left with only a few dozen of them, engaged in shooting with the sniper. She felt reluctant to continue watching. These were all advanced mech pilot veterans, and a formidable power when they were deployed. Nonetheless, they were now undeniably being broken apart by a single mech with a weird energy gun.

What was Coxcomb’s story? What was its owner like? What did its two masters of combat look like? How were they related to the owner of Coxcomb?

This was all very curious!

If Shang were to find out that a beautiful woman was calling him a master of combat, perhaps he might lose a bit of his current fighting composure. Of course, that was another story.

Fortunately, Claudia understood her situation. These two masters of combat could never be hers to command. She would not try to pull them in to her mech squad.

The battle was nearing its end, as the pirates mech numbers dwindled. Ye Chong had scoured the entire fleet of starships, and killed all of the pirate mechs who wished to board the starships.

“Shang, how’s your side?” Ye Chong asked.

“Hehe, Ye, this is too much fun! Sigh, too bad there’s not enough of them going, if they only have a hundred more mechs.” Shang’s excited reply made Ye Chong relax. “Shang must be in a really good mood,” thought Ye Chong. In fact, Shang was not only that, but nearly mad from exhilaration. If not for the diminishing number of energy cells by his side, Shang would even try shooting with the recursive particle cannon shots.

A huge rock of ore was flying slowly past Ye Chong. Ye Chong looked towards the pirate ships far away, tightly protected, and was struck with a crazy idea. Immediately, Puppet leapt to the ore and grabbed onto it like an insect, securing itself on one side of the ore. Then, the mech fired its engines at full blast, and the ore drew an arch in space with Puppet and Ye Chong on it, headed towards the pirate ships.

Claudia took everything in and could not help but gasped, “What is he thinking?”

Chapter 226: Kings of Close and Long Range Combat III

In truth, almost everyone was watching Coxcomb’s terrifying sniper mech pilot. This battle between one and 300 would be a story as important to other sniper mech pilots as their course material. Besides, if all 300 of those mechs were advanced level mechs, then no one would object calling the sniper mech pilot as one of the best in the field.

Such a rare battle of historical significance was underway, and no one would want to miss it! Everyone was glued to the holographic screen, counting down the number of mechs left on the pirates side. Besides, the result of this battle would determine their own fates, thus raising the stakes even more. Everyone was astonished to find the pirates wielding such a strong force, but also thankful that they had met this impossibly strong sniper mech pilot.

Be it the pirates of the civilians, this fight would determine whether they live or die.

Ye Chong’s movements were only noticed by a single starship, and that was Claudia’s Lunar Rose. They had been watching the clown mech from the start, and were awed by its performance. They believed that the clown mech’s unexpected movement must be some unrevealed plan.

Puppet clung onto the ore, still. This ore was bringing Ye Chong quickly towards the pirate ships observing from afar.

Roar! The crowd in Lunar Rose’s control room erupted into an outburst. They now understood the clown mech’s intention. Was he suicidal? This was the question that arose in everyone’s mind; only Claudia was watching the mech with esteem.

Ye Chong sat in Puppet’s pilot cabin calmly, without a ripple in his emotions.

“Ye, be careful.” Shang spoke out of concern. He approved Ye Chong’s plan, and had even cooperated by slowing down his shooting, not killing off the pirate mechs as quick as he could to produce the illusion of an equal chance of winning in his fight. This was to draw attention from the enemy and to stall for time.

Ye Chong felt warm inside, but kept his face neutral as he replied plainly, “I know.”

Ye Chong had used this strategy before. When he met with the Red Beard’s Owl pirate crew, he had relied on this strategy to kill the pirate’s leader. That was also when he met Bai Linan. This ambush strategy required three conditions to be satisfied. Firstly, the ambusher must be extremely capable of fighting by himself. Secondly, the enemy should have a weak defensive line. Lastly, the ambusher must be able to reach the starship of the enemy’s leader unnoticed.

In truth, if Ye Chong was flying Han Jia, he would be more confident of his chances. However, given the chaotic situation, he knew that there would be people hidden amongst the crowd, looking for him. Han Jia would be difficult to explain away, and Ye Chong did not want to attract attention.

Even with Puppet, he was confident enough to complete the task, or retreat successfully should he fail. He could do it with Sand Scorpio before, and Puppet was even better than Sand Scorpio, so his chances would be higher now. Besides, Ye Chong believed that the seemingly tight security was just an empty show. If they had another mech squad, Ye Chong believed that they would have been sent in when the battle first begun, securing an early victory.

Now, they could only watch their mechs killed off, one by one without being able to do anything. This meant that they had no more remaining force.

As for the starships surrounding the battlefield, Ye Chong chose to ignore them. If these were warships, they might pose as a threat, but they were clearly unarmed. Without any mechs to protect them, they were helpless.

Ye Chong’s action may seem hasty, but it was born out of detailed considerations.

In outer space, asteroids of all sorts could be found almost anywhere. This particular one slowly making its way towards their ships was anything but noteworthy. Just as the asteroid was about to hit the starship, it eerily traced an arc across the space. If anyone on the pirate ships saw this, they would immediately be alarmed. However, it went by unnoticed, since everyone was absorbed in battle. The mighty sniper mech pilot’s shooting frequency had dropped for some reason, and this gave them hope. They were watching their holographic screen with unblinking eyes.

With his previous experience, Ye Chong was able to quickly identify which of the ships belonged to the pirate leader.

Ye Chong left the ore and landed softly onto a shaded corner of the starship. Puppet was already wielding its two parrying spears in its hand. With one leg as the pivot, Ye Chong drew a circle in the air with its parrying spears. Metal scraps flew outwards. Puppet’s parrying spears were tough, and was the only way Ye Chong could think of that could breach the starship’s hull armor. However, this starship’s armor was thicker than that of ordinary starships, and Ye Chong could not breach the ship even after a few rounds of attacks.

One of the pirates inside inclined his head to listen, and asked one of his comrades beside him, ‘”Huh, I think I heard something just now, didja hear it?”

The other pirate laughed derisively at him and said, “Hah, gotcha heart in your mouth, ain’t ya? Hehe, sonny, let me tell you, I’ve seen situations like this dozens of times in my life, and it always turned out alright in the end! Keep your heart where it should be, now.”

Ye Chong suddenly felt a round plate of armor loosening. Just then, the round plate was flung out due to air pressure. Puppet was now moving as deftly as a human being. It pushed its right hand off the round plate and jumped to the side. Just as the round place left the starship, Puppet inclined itself and evaded the round plate as it swished past the mech and flew straight out into space.

Ye Chong ignored the air gushing outwards from the hole and crawled inside.

If none of the space pirates noticed this, they would be unworthy of their titles. The alarm blared in the starship, and it was chaos inside.

Ye Chong ran towards the control room without hesitation. In truth, he did not know exactly where it was, but he had seen more than a few starships, and could make a rough guess. After deciding on the location, Ye Chong chose the most direct route. He broke through walls and doors, even tore through photon circuits when he met them. Ye Chong destroyed everything in his path, and advanced astonishingly quickly. He encountered some mechs along the way, but they were efficiently dealt with. As for the pirates without their mechs running away from him, Ye Chong chose to ignore them.

The starship was actually quite useless by now. The ship was depressurizing quickly, and the air was so thin now that breathing was almost impossible. Most of the main photon circuits were destroyed by Ye Chong, and the entire starship could no longer function. All the lights were out, and the starship looked like a dead vessel. Only the control room was still illuminated, since it had its own independent support systems.

However, this made it a clear destination for Ye Chong. Ye Chong adjusted his course and ran towards the control room. Ye Chong took full advantage of the darkness and the complicated narrow environment. The mechs which stood in his way were all disabled with Ye Chong’s ingenious plots.

Not sticking to any pattern of attack – that was Ye Chong’s way of fighting. In fact, Ye Chong was mostly using the basic moves that Mu made him train the hardest. He moved simply and quickly, making use of the environment. That was where Puppet’s eerie, unpredictable moves derived their power from.

Walls, ceilings, alloy doors all served as launching spots for Puppet. The mech also used many unusual moves, reproductions of combat skills that Ye Chong could conjure in his mind. These were all moves that were impossible without Ye Chong’s excellent mech maneuvering skills.

Puppet advanced so fast that many of the space pirates had no time to deploy their own mechs. As Ye Chong breached the walls of the starship, they all died from suffocation as air escaped into outer space.

The surrounding defense starships seemed to received their distress signal at the same time, and quickly approached the starship. Even in this dangerous situation, the defense starships could only deploy about 40 odd mechs to assist. This confirmed Ye Chong’s theory that the pirates did not have additional battle forces.

Ye Chong’s mind was now as clear as ice. He did not hesitate as he broke through the wall of the control room with his parrying spears. Air gushed out from within, and Puppet braced through the airflow and entered the control room, agile as a monkey.

Inside, five mechs surrounded a red colored mech in the center. They all waited in trepidation, not knowing how the enemy had entered their starship, or how many of them were here. For now, they could only wait to defend themselves and wait for backup. They believed that as long they could delay the other party for a moment, about three minutes, or maybe two, then their backup would arrive.

Seeing the five mechs before him, Ye Chong did not dare to be careless. The five mechs were all advanced mechs, top class mechs that could be bought from the market. These five mechs seemed to be highly skilled, judging from their positions and posture. If it were one against one or two, Ye Chong would not be concerned. Now, however, it was a matter of one against five. Besides, the enemy seemed ready to put their lives on the line. This was a difficult situation for him.

If Shang were here, he could just finish off everyone one of them with one cannon blast. However, the thought was not helpful to Ye Chong.

He had not much time left. Ye Chong dared not hesitate further. Puppet launched forwards, making a bend, and reached one of the mechs. Speed was the mech’s strength, and its movement gave everyone a shock. The control room might look spacious, but it was definitely too small for a mech.

In this small space, no one would dare to speed up their mechs so fast, for fear of hitting the walls. Besides, that abrupt change in direction seemed impossible for any observer. At this speed, with such an abrupt change in direction, one would think that the mech pilot would be left with broken limbs.

However, this was exactly what was happening before their eyes.

The five of them were horrified. Two of the five were skilled in close combat, but this degree of mech maneuvering left all five of them with ashened faces. Given the circumstances, long range mechs could not unleash their full potential. Weak energy guns could do nothing to the opponent’s mech, but more powerful energy guns might explode the entire starship. Moreover, the other party moved too quickly and unpredictably, and it was impossible to lock on target.

Just when everyone was still caught up in surprise, the clown mech suddenly made a right-angled lateral change in direction. With this, all the mech pilots were once again astonished, even though they were all highly skilled themselves. That move was practically against the laws of inertia!

Ye Chong was now facing a close range mech, with its typical weapon combination of a shield and a laser sword. The clown mech made a go at him. While the mech pilot inside was afraid, he still maintained his calm and charged forward instead of retreating, making a small left step forward while raising his shield, and striking down vertically with his right hand’s laser sword. This series of movements was executed smoothly. The defense offered was strong, and Ye Chong could not find a way to break through. Ye Chong was secretly impressed that the pirate crew could have someone so strong with them.

Even so, the attack was not a threat to Ye Chong. Puppet inclined its body and avoided the sword smoothly. Its right hand pushed against the shield as it leaped across to deliver a right kick towards the other mech’s face. If it hit, the other party’s mech would probably be decapitated, and the mech would become useless.

The clown mech’s unusual reaction was also a surprise to the other party. Fortunately, he was experienced enough to respond accordingly, stepping wide and lowering himself while angling his upper body backwards, thus avoiding the clown mech’s attack.

Ye Chong still wore a calm expression, but his eyes flashed. Ye Chong knew that the moment had come!

On the controls, Ye Chong’s hands were practically a blur. Only his wrists could be barely made out as a blurry shadow.

The other four mechs could only watch in anticipation. They were too close together, and had no space to attack. Besides, of these four mechs, three of them were not specialized in close range combat.

The clown mech then did something that none of them would ever forget for the rest of their lives.

The clown mech suddenly reached out with its left hand, holding on to the lower part of the shield so strongly that the pirate mech was about to topple over, though the pilot quickly steadied himself. With his upper body still, he watched as the clown mech’s left leg swept past his head.

Suddenly, the burden on the shield was gone, and the clown mech disappeared! This sudden turn of events had all the pirates looking around in a daze.

Just then, the pirate heard from his comms a surprised gasp, then a horrifying shriek! The shriek sounded very familiar, it was … it was from his leader! In that moment, his mind blanked.

Behind him, the clown mech leaped high into the air at high speed, bouncing off the ceiling at an angle. When the pirates recovered from their surprise, the clown mech had already disappeared from the hole in the wall where it came from. At the same time, he heard a bang from behind, the sound of a mech falling to the ground.

He turned back and could not believe the sight of his leader’s mech lying on the ground, with a huge hole in the pilot cabin. Inside was a bloody mess. While he could not see his leader, it was clear that no one could survive those injuries.

He still could not understand what had happened.

Later, he learned from his four comrades of what exactly happened, and it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The clown mech held onto the lower part of his shield and pushed, using the momentum to sweep its left leg across his head, the whole mech doing a complete rotation in the air like a windmill. Just when its legs hit the ground, the clown mech suddenly rolled into itself and slipped under his shield before anyone could react. The clown mech was slender to begin with, and executed a series of moves to make him widen his stance, thus allowing the clown mech to slip past between his legs. After that, the clown mech was directly in front of their leader. It shot upwards like a poisonous snake and finally took out its parrying spear, accurately plunging it through their leader.

When all four of them recovered their composure, the clown mech had already withdrew its spear and leapt off their leader’s mech towards the ceiling, then bounced off again towards the exit!

Inside the icy cold mech, through the hole from the attack, the body of the pirate’s leader was slowly losing its warmth. With that, the leader of this large pirate crew was killed by the clown mech despite their defensive measures.

From that moment on, word of the dark clown spread like wildfire throughout the pirates, and every pirate now knew of the existence of this clown-like mech that walked in darkness.

His mission accomplished, Ye Chong’s next task was to quickly return to Coxcomb.

The clown mech’s speed was now fully unleashed. Ye Chong flew directly towards Coxcomb quickly and without reserve. Behind him were 40 odd mechs in pursuit. Shang increased his firing frequency, and in just moments, the few mechs that managed to get close to Coxcomb were all destroyed. Just like that, with the spectators gasping in shock, 300 over mechs were annihilated!

The sudden appearance of the clown mech on the holographic screen caught everyone’s attention.

Ye Chong proceeded to perform the art of evasive measures. As the 40 over mechs attacked with an array of shots, none of them hit Ye Chong. The eerie change in directions, confusing feints, and movements at all kinds of angles held the spectators in wonder. In the eyes of professionals, this clown mech had instantly become the most dangerous character around.

As Coxcomb drew near, the 40 odd mechs grew fearful of the sniper and began to retreat. Even so, Shang managed to take out three of them.

The survivors cheered jubilantly as the space pirates retreated, and joy from surviving permeated the entire fleet!

Chapter 227: Fleet

Currently there was one problem standing in Ye Chong’s way. Based on the course planned by Fid the leader, both Ye Chong and Shang could confidently confirm that, there should be no less than 5 groups of pirates lurking on the way. A fleet filled with folks would be a feast for the pirates. The Oak Leaves and Red Lion could have been completely annihilated if Ye Chong and Shang had never joined the party.

Without the escort of the Coxcomb, the success rate of the fleet arriving at Csebesini would be no more than 10% in the end.

To be honest, Ye Chong did not really care about the survival of those mere strangers. According to Shang’s comment, there seemed to be a kind of occupation called the “rangers” or the wandering “vigilantes” who turned out to be the very busybody taking care of life, maintaining justice for everyone in the world. “What’s justice?” The elaboration was worthy of a classic eye-roll from Ye Chong, as Shang stated that there was also a rather lackluster and conspicuous concept called “Justice”, which the artificial indulgence seemed to be very passionate about. “Okay, got it.” And Ye Chong quickly retrieved the microphone from him.

Ye Chong – for some reason – did not wish to let Grandpa Qian to know who led the Coxcomb. Maybe because… well, I was more of a lone wolf eventually. Thought Ye Chong, a little dejected.

Ye Chong was a decisive person. He was not the kind to hesitate and there he was, making up his mind. A living person would always be far more important than a dead person. His papa would support his decision if he was still alive.

Alright then! Ye Chong and Shang began launching the project vigorously. First, Shang replanned a course to travel, where the distance was much longer but at least they would be able to avoid the areas frequented by the pirates. “This is preposterous! I can’t believe one could make such an unintelligent course!” Shang could not control but to reprimand this physically non-existent planner of the former course. Ye Chong on the other hand was running to and fro in the ship and withdrew every battery he could find in their storage. The gate where Shang made his sniping before was filled with a massive amount of batteries. Similarly, there were also placed numerous batteries at every corner where the cannons were. Given that a war were to happen, the Coxcomb would not be able to sustain itself for the energy consumption in long-term. So the tedious task of replacing batteries would be performed by Ye Chong the captain slave.

Both the leaders of the Oak Leaves and Red Lions, Fid and Claudia were on an exchange.

“So…” Initiated Claudia, “We are in a sticky situation now. If we do not call for more backups, we would be in deeper trouble as we travel on,” she frowned as the remaining forces of both the squads were discouraged and worried after the fight.

Of course, she was not the only depressed one. Fid’s face was tight the moment he realized the unexpected difficulty he and his squad had to overcome this time.

Apparently most of the people were unprepared for the war which came falling like a bomb.

Well, they were glad to be still able to sit together and have this exchange, after all that chaotic experience. Fid was silent, as he admitted his helplessness towards the situation. “Calling for more backups” were said easier than done. From where would they get the backup? What kind of backup? In the matter of days they would never form a proper crew and it would be more chaotic if the pirates took the chance to sneak in as one of those backups.

In the midst of hopelessness, his assistant ran into the room, all excited, “L…Leader, my lord, captain, I can’t believe this. The Coxcomb had just sent us a plan, a new plan for the course!”

“Huh?” Both the leaders looked at each other, confused. “Take a look.” The assistant then projected the new course on the hologram. A course – which they had never thought of – was drawn in clear lines over the galactic layout. And the destination of the course turned out to be Western Track, a residential planet in Csebesini galaxy.

The heck? Fid and Claudia looked at each other again, wondering in what Csebesini the owner of the Coxcomb was playing with his cards.

“Grrr… Ye, look, it’s ourrrr Bing Bing! Tsk, tsk. Look at her legs, demm, long and gorgeous yet capable of delivering strong blows anytime. She could give me a blow anytime! Jajajaja… Ye, too bad you missed it. That split she made with her beautiful legs on the floor, it was beyond beauty! Man, my heart would sail off to the other dimension if I keep watching this…” Shang was growling in excitement, while on his duty to watch the entire fleet, where supposedly, his focus should mainly be on the spaceship with Grandpa Qian and the other mates. And there Shang was, blatantly abusing his rights being the watcher, as his mechanical eyes were bleeping over one angle of Rui Bing to another.

Ye Chong did not intend to feed the hungry indulgence as he was very much engaged in an important experiment. The fluid he collected from Twin Sisters was more corrosive than he thought. No wonder Lunatic Guan stated it being one of the 12 most corrosive plants on her microchip. A drop of the fluid could fall through a spaceship armor about 10 centimeters thick in the matter of a minute. It would spread vigorously too.

What Ye Chong must do for now, would be to culture a new sprout of Twin Sisters using the fluid, which was not a challenging task to do. Practically, a task like this was generally not challenging to even a second-year alchemy student.

The cultivation was a success. One might think it would be a little too much to cultivate a small sprout using such a luxurious lab, but the facilities were able to speed up the growth period of Twin Sisters. Ye Chong eventually was able to harvest a few tens of Twin Sisters. Ye Chong spent the following days to study their behavior. Observation was one key task for any professional alchemist. Ye Chong even took into account of their frequency of secretion.

He looked at his inventory, as naturally he was figuring out a way to transform them into a kind of firepower. Being once a resident on the Trash Planet, fully utilizing resources was his very good habit. The fluid of Twin Sisters possessed a great potential with their corrosiveness. If one could utilize the fluid appropriately, it could be destructive.

It was the first time Ye Chong took an approach of an alchemist in his thinking while what he did was simply amplifying the corrosive effect of Twin Sisters. Being an alchemist, a novice alchemist he was, he could still figure out a few tricks to make it work.

He could, for example, continuously change the surrounding of Twin Sisters to encourage mutation. Then he would select few of the Twin Sisters closest to the standard. Alternatively, he could also use the fluid as a base to create a stronger corrosive reagent.

He proceeded with the second method, since the first method was too time-consuming for Ye Chong. Lunatic Guan fortunately also was an expert in formulating reagents. Those bone strengthening formula were also the outcome of her research.

Ye Chong did once think of using the Guan’s automatic analysis mechanism… he could have found the perfect formula for the reagent by simply searching. But he never wanted to do so, plus Lunatic Guan had reminded him to not rely on the mechanism too much, that principle of his which encouraged him to rely himself rather than the others, was echoing in his head.

To reach the higher height, one must figure and explore. Ye Chong could have skipped this phase using the mechanism but he would lose more than gain in long run.

He tried recalling the knowledge he had learned before, attempting to connect them to reach a certain set of formula.

“Jajajaja…” And Shang spent the next few days watching Rui Bing, jumping from one camera to another. The hobby of a voyeur was more than entertaining. The biggest regret of his was probably the lack of camera in the bathroom.

Ye Chong was investing all his time on research. He trusted Shang, that he would inform him at the very first moment if anything were to occur. Then Ye Chong could save his time from watching over Grandpa Qian the whole time. The plan however had received criticism from Shang, claiming that it was unsentimental.

The crews of the other ships outside were wondering the whole time, of why the Coxcomb did not seem to be leaving them despite not having an obligation to lead them. Was the owner of the Coxcomb really intended to escort the entire fleet? Everyone was appreciative over the mysterious Coxcomb for the contribution. They would probably be long slaughtered by the pirates if the Coxcomb was never there.

Fid and Claudia had comprehended the underlying motive of the new course, so they immediately responded by requesting their squads to change the course accordingly, while announcing them to the entire fleet.

The puzzlement for them was the lack of response from the Coxcomb every time they requested communication. No sound was coming from the communicator. After the course plan was sent, the Coxcomb had never proactively engaged in the transmission. He just sailed on quietly at the center of the fleet.

It would certainly be a pleasure for Shang to get the phone, since Claudia was also a beauty, even though she was far from Bing Bing the gorgeous. Claudia was, still, the uncommon polished jewel in the cave, Shang would no doubt have the intention to spend the next potentially happiest 5 minutes in his life talking to her. “No. Watch and no more than that,” Ye Chong strongly disagreed to his action. Shang in the end succumbed to the days of being a Peeping Tom.

Ye Chong’s eyes set upon the bottle of reagent in its purplish glow. There was excitement in his expressionless eyes since that bottle of reagent was the very first craft he actually made with his alchemy expertise, namely “The Liquid of Shang”. Its corrosiveness was deadlier than the Twin Sisters, where all the alloys in Ye Chong’s possession were unable to withstand its melting effect, including the black gold.

“So Ye, may I ask why is there my name on this… thing?” Shang seemed curious.

“Oh. That has to do with its full name,” his reply was calm.

“It has a full name? What is it? Could you tell me?” Shang was really interested.

“The Secretive Liquid of Shang,” the answer was concise.

“Ye!! You are good!” Shang was grinding his mechanical gears, rolling back and fro, “I’ll remember this!” His mechanical eyes rampaged in glaring blue.

Ye Chong was not free to entertain the thrashing indulgence and he felt that the name was very befitting to the reagent’s function, although he found Shang’s actual secretive liquid to be potentially far deadlier than the reagent.

Ye Chong seemed to be inborn with extreme sensitivity towards war and weaponry. The reagent did not come without a boom. The melting effect of “Liquid of Shang” was beyond his expectation, which gave Ye Chong a new weapon of fatality. So Ye Chong made use of his bone supplies to create a kind of shell to contain gases to envelope Liquid of Shang while installing an aiming program which mimicked the double-edged shuriken, allowing it to accurately lock upon the foes. He also added miniature engines on the bomb to permit automatic redirection when necessary.

No doubt, a killing weapon had been born. A shell made out of bones would go undetected by the foes’ system. Then there was the locking-on system, assisted by redirecting engines, making it the signature weapon for the assassins.

Shang complimented the creation while also seizing the naming opportunity, “The Beauty’s Secretion” he called it, in a poetic manner.

And Ye Chong began the mass-production of the Beauty’s Secretion the following days. In Shang’s terms it would sound like this, “You have such a big ship yet you only have a handful of the Beauty’s Secretion? What a joke it would be!” Ye Chong must agree that the Beauty’s Secretion could very well be an effective threatening tool. If that was the case, indeed the supply was too low at the moment.

The heart-wrenching fact for Ye Chong was the painful realization that the qualities of the bones used for production had negligible effects on the overall capacity of the product. And he only had the best, few rare bones in his inventory. Such a waste to make them into shells, yet he lacked options. At most he could pick the few less-rare bones for production.

Shang even designed a launcher for the Beauty’s Secretion. And Ye Chong, being half-dead from the production, got to crawl up from the ground to further modify the Coxcomb to accommodate the new launching channel. At least the modification was quite simple so it did not take much time.

Hundred Twenty… Hundred Twenty One…

Ye Chong was surprised when he counted the outcome of his production, for he actually had produced 260 Beauty’s Secretions without noticing.

And they were very much close to Csebesini. Fid and Claudia were not expecting a smooth sail… They could not believe in three days they would be arriving at Csebesini. Throughout the journey, not even once they had encountered the pirates. “Very strange…” said Claudia, when she was body and soul ready for any wild encounter with the pirates the whole time.

Assuredly they would not know how news spread faster than a meteorite among the pirates. On the second day of that war, almost all men with their bandanas on were made aware of the existence of the Coxcomb, which did not only have a super sniper capable of mass-murder, but also a killer clown sneaking in the darkness. And the pirate leader, even under the dense protection, still was brutally murdered by the foe’s parrying spear.

The disbanding of a crew was nothing new among the pirates but the story had taken a change when the crew involved was one of the few strongest one. The sailing pirates could not believe their ears when they heard of how the strong crew was eradicated by merely two men, including the leader who was killed right in front of everyone. It would be considered as the greatest insult for one crew’s leader to be slaughtered by the others and surely the survivors would seek to avenge their leader someday. Nonetheless, none of the survivors even dared to think of avenging. Their eyes were colorless, their bodies were shaking the moment they told the very tale, of their close-shaves dealing with that clown killing horror and the deadly blue glow.

There was not a need to mess with such a figure! Every leader of the crews thought so, which was why no pirate ever showed up in the following days of the fleet’s course. The little factions of pirates, too, were well-aware of their sizes and limits and would not even approach that fleet.

The escort was a success. Both Fid and Claudia were overjoyed despite not knowing the working behind this. And the names of their squads would be known by the people, they would ascend as the few greatest squads out there. People would give their hymns over them while they would be handsomely rewarded. The expansion of the squads would be close.

And they were heading to the last space-jumping point on their course. They would arrive at Csebesini after performing space-warp there. When wars were haunting the other galaxies, Csebesini had transformed into a Neverland for the others. The government still owned the wholly right of the galaxy and was enforcing their security. People remained at peace and was never disturbed by the shrapnels.

The residents from the the galaxies had been moving into Csebesini one batch after another, which pressured the local government in return. The government demonstrated efforts in arranging residences for the immigrants however, which the immigrants greatly complimented. Csebesini, as the surge in the number of residents, commenced rapid developments.

Once we hit the point, we would make it! Fid’s excitement glowed in the eyes of Claudia. Claudia’s joy was lighting up the pupils of Fid.

“Report!”

Right when everyone was hopeful and excited, at the void nearby, there was one fleet of darkness.

“We had discovered a large fleet of privateers.”

“Mhm, looks like we have a group of uninvited guests. Pass down the order, the sixth and seventh ships would eliminate all privateers. No survivor. Repeat, no survivor. The remaining warships shall maintain their course. We must arrive by the next warp point within 5 hours.” An emotionless voice rang. A pause was made, “Send Thorn along.”

“Yes sir!”

The last two warships of the dark fleet were redirected towards the large ship at the opposite.

Shang discovered the fleet almost immediately after. Standing before the hologram, even a calm man like Ye Chong felt a sudden cramp over his head the moment he saw the fleet. It was a group of 7 warships. The black glowing body obviously told Ye Chong that those were the ships from the Black Coves.

A fleet! Gosh! Ye Chong saw the strongest force incoming! To Ye Chong’s senses, a warship would indicate a large warring unit. And all the units he had encountered thus far, be it from the MPA or the Sanctuary, had always been one unit at one time, never once he saw … a fleet of them, of seven units…

The other ships in his fleet were not reacting towards the shocking discovery however. And Ye Chong then realized that their detection system could not detect the Black Coves’ specialized war crafts.

Shang was a quicker planner than Ye Chong, as he passed the news to Fid. And every spaceship in the group was commanded to travel at full speed to hit the warp point as soon as possible.

The Coxcomb sluggishly flew away from the fleet and went to confront the two warships. The Coxcomb was slow to make a runaway. It would be more practical to confront the foes instead. At least that would give better chances of Grandpa Qian’s survival.

Ye Chong was not being really sentimental over this, rather it was the outcome of his calculation, the optimum route to pick.

Ye Chong inhaled deeply to gain his inner peace. He was sure that he would not be able to make it out within the grasp of 7 warships, but at least he could make sure that there would be one or two warships joining his grave.

And this, shall be the first war of the Coxcomb!