Chapter 58: Urban Fiasco
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ye Chong finally summoned Mu back from the alternate dimension. It had been quite some time ever since Mu went out of order. Though Grandpa Qian owned a rather spacious accommodation, it still seemed crammed with Mu’s gigantic mechanical body inside. Ye Chong had to readjust Mu’s posture in order to fit him in. He folded his legs and placed the body in … quite an eyesore pose on the ground. Mu was partially lying on the floor, with his legs lifted and… "What do you think you’re doing?!", with his mouth rumbling.
Grandpa Qian sighed in sympathy as he laid his sight upon the torn body of Mu. Such a fine mech Ye had but became all broken by then. "What a pity!"
Well there wasn’t any other Helmet to connect to the virtual world, other than the one in Mu’s system. Ye Chong hopped into the cabin and put on the Helmet, logging in and there he went!
The virtual world stayed the same. The same old street, the same old crowd and the same old fields… A visit to his recent past. He knew where he would head to next. He glanced at the path and proceeded to Aurora to have a nice reunion. The elderlies at the Aurora pined for Ye Chong’s revisit. Some of them were in bitter worries while waiting as they wondered if something had happened to their precious boy. It was their lucky day they thought as they were surprised by Ye Chong’s return. A session of warm greetings happened between them and Ye Chong’s smile broadened like a shrinking violet.
He bode farewell to the benevolent elderlies and shifted to the NRS training field. Of course, Mu had long vanished from his thoughts by then. Wonder where Mu had gone to this time?
The field was still vibrant as ever. The combat field was as entertaining as it used to be. Ye Chong was stirred up by the fighting sequences occurring in the field. He missed the hand-on experience. One round… One round would do. Ye Chong got up, "Ye, I had just completed the creation of your identification documents." Mu was good with timing, like too good, "You have to get it now. It’s much safer with it, gravely dangerous without it."
"Identification card? It’s done?" It would be indeed better with formal identification, considering how Bai Linan seemed to be wetting himself upon hearing how Ye Chong did not even own one back at Reno. Speaking of Bai Linan, what had happened to that guy?
Ye Chong strolled the street alone. Several aircrafts and mechs zoomed by. They passed through the floating buildings in the anti-gravitational force field while flaunting some fancy tricks in their piloting.
He was stimulated by the action. His desire to pilot was struck in a whim. As his fingers slid to the keystone in his pocket and called up a F-58 in front. Ye Chong hopped in and impatiently launched the machinery.
The F-58 blasted off into the air and glided mischievously. Ye Chong played off some tricks in between. The mech sometimes would slide right across the windows of the floating window, which put the owner in cold sweat. "Eh, Ye!" Mu started his commentary, "This is bad. Tsk, tsk, tsk, what happened to your performance? It's as if our training had gone to waste. That flip you made just now was not smooth enough. And also your timing for acceleration has an inaccuracy of 5.78%! Are you an amateur or you’re from the dump? Oh wait you are from a-"
A blue humanoid mech bolted by. And it just contemplated Ye Chong, waving its hand far ahead.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Ye, look at you, look at how fallen you had become." Mu carried on adding fuel to the fire, "Even a noob would come and pick on you in your face. Ye, please don’t tell anybody that I was the one who planned the training course for you. I am embarrassed enough."
"Hmph." Ye Chong snorted and sped up as he chased after that easy-peasy in front.
That blue mech was obviously modified for speed enhancement. The appearance justified everything - foldable wings, about 4 of them, would allow stability while traveling in the atmosphere; a sylphlike body and 6 additional wings smaller in size at the sides of the end. The modified mech looked like a giant bird spreading wings in the sky as it travelled, with its tiny body in the embrace of its large elaborated wings. A featherweight craft.
Every addition on this mech was about speed. Thus, it was unquestionable that this mech was superior in its speed.
But then, as Ye Chong looked through, this mech might as well be a piece of junk like those he saw back at his planet. It is a total failure. The mech did possess greater speed but that’s all it had. Everything else than its speed was disturbingly terrible. Featherweight? More like paperweight. It had such a thin body that Ye Chong wondered if it could even take the slightest touch and if the pilot would break before the mech. The elaborated wings were unnecessary in his opinion and they were utterly useless once it set off into space. In an atmospheric zone, he would only need two wings at the side, with half the size of what this exaggerated hunk of metal had and maintained 80% of the current performance. Smaller wings would also reduce the likelihood of being struck by enemies effectively.
That was not it! The worst part of this crap is that this noob seemed to care about speed so much he forgot about the capacity. It was so limited that it could not even be loaded with anything else than the pilot himself. And what? It didn’t even have its own weaponry? A mech without weaponry is only an escape pod with fancy wings. Ye Chong thought. But well, Mu was an exception to his rules.
Even though the mech did have some odd style of modification, it still cruised like a breeze.
F-58 is a mech for space-travels. So it does not have any wings at the sides, thus the underwhelming performance during travel in the atmosphere. Fortunately in exchange, it contains an advanced engine and with Ye Chong’s first-class obstacle piloting skills, the F-58 did not lose out badly, in fact, it had always been right behind that blue mech.
It sounded cool. Still, it was just right-behind. Close, yet not close enough. It was tricky to overtake that blue mech.
Meanwhile, Mu was being extremely helpful at that moment, "Aw man. Ye, did you know you could have made this turn 0.035 second faster? Hm… Hey Ye! Oh my… Ugh… What had you even learned back at the NRS training? Oh wait, what do you even remember from the training? Did you forget everything else other than the fact that you lived? Did you know you are deplorably 4.5% below than the standard of performance I had set for you?"
The two mechs were flying in the city center. The floating houses were denser than the outskirts. There were more traveling crafts in the air too. It seemed that the blue mech right in front did not intend to be above the neighborhood, instead, he weaved in and out around the buildings.
Two of them raced on the road, one behind another, showing zero concern for traffic or any passerby. The center was chaotic. The pedestrians had their eyes hooked on the outrageous racers threading paths and they tripped themselves while dodging the fast and furious. The traffic on its peak-hour had been turned into a bummer, a splat of honking and craft-collisions.
In the meantime, Ye Chong never thought of the issue going off before him. Traffic chaos? You got to be kidding me! The sky is bloody boundless and bloody bright and you tell me you can’t fly anywhere you want? Technically, the concept of order in traffic had yet instilled in his mind during that time.
He was all-eyes-focused on the blue mech in the front of him. Intense! Exciting! It’s been a while I got this driven! Ye Chong’s blood was boiling with adrenaline stimulating every inch of his nerves. His body and his mind were all onto the inputs. The sluggish sequence at first started to get more and more seamless over the course. Slowly he picked up the sense of traveling at full speed. He began performing overwhelming dodges as he travelled like a swordfish winding in the corals, freely and happily.
Gradually the gap between Ye Chong and the opponent shortened.
The opponent seemed to have felt the stress exerted by Ye Chong as his action became a bit disorderly. The outsiders might not discern the difference but Ye Chong certainly did, every frame of it. He took the chance and shortened the distance even further. After the mistake the blue mech pilot made, he calmed himself down immediately. He would not be giving more opportunities to the F-58 behind! No more letups! As obvious the F-58 was inferior to his craft in terms of speed, Ye Chong managed to put up such a situation merely because of his ultimate piloting skills.
"Yawn…" Mu was bored by Ye Chong in all-focus, "What’s the point of this race with zero expertise? If I want to watch something blindly speeding, I could watch mech commercials and not this."
"Mu, stop blabbering and help me take a look at the rear. There were some mechs behind." Ye Chong noticed something when he was occupied. He asked Mu to do the look-out for him.
Mu did notice the mechs tailing from afar. There were 3 mechs in pure black, white and blue respectively… and a white mech leading with a speed almost as fast as the F-58.
"Oh… It seems like they are from the police force." Mu observed carefully, "Well I have no idea what that white one does though. Ah, its specification wasn’t as bad as your F-58… What?" Mu was shocked out of sudden, "Ye, careful…" He turned serious, "That white mech right behind you, it is fully armed."
Ye Chong pondered a little. He had enough fun at the moment. Moreover, the white mech behind was sending chills down his spine.
Time to end the race! A sharp turn by Ye Chong, right into the other street. It was unexpected for the blue mech pilot till he was dazed for a second and nearly hit the building in front. The body of his mech brushed through the metal edges of the building and its integrity was breached, as what Ye Chong had pointed out. This mech did have an issue. He barely made it out alive. He rolled out of the cabin and was found surrounded by a horde of police mechs. He was caught red-handed.
Ye Chong’s sudden change in route also stupefied the white mech behind. But he turned along without hesitation.
Ye Chong’s heart skipped a beat upon seeing the white mech appearing behind again. This guy! He was really after me!
"Oh Ye, how lovely." Mu added, "This guy seems to have a thing for you, eh? Oh~ be careful, his weaponry seems to be activating." Yeah, Mu totally was joking. Not!
Traveling at maximum speed, Ye Chong took a lightning glance at the white mech projected in his interface. It seemed that the white mech had opened up its hidden artillery from within! The hostility was blatant!
With another sharp turn, he made right into extended street at the side. The white mech was unprepared for this and was left dazed again, but he made it up fairly quickly and chased on. The other crafts in the street were astounded by Ye Chong’s intrusion as they ran for their lives steering clear of him. The place was in disarray. The panicked mech flocks blocked the white mech’s way. He glared at Ye Chong getting out of sight in a few blinks.
Finally! Ye Chong let of a sigh of relief. He slowed down. Took a breath and moved on in relaxation.
Well, the race before had consumed massive amounts of energy. He had to slow down or he would be walking a gazillion miles home.
"Ye!" Mu’s voice rang again, "Look at the sky!"
Ye Chong lifted the camera upon the sky. In horror he looked at the projection. The white mech was lurking in the sky, aiming the muzzle of his laser rifle at Ye Chong!