Chapter 87: Trial and Tribulation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ye Chong discovered that his seemingly infinite stamina was not truly infinite after all. His endurance might not be boundless but at least it should not decrease this fast! Ye Chong was thoroughly exhausted for the first time in his adventure. That weird technique used by the enemy depleted every ounce of his vitality. He was drained not only on the outside, but also the inside. His brain felt emptied, as if he was about to get brainwashed or something. Twinge reverberated waves by waves inside his head.
Oww… Is that what Mu defined as a psychic attack?
All words from Mu were precious lectures. They were not as trivial as Shang’s. They were very much applicable in his combats. So he would remember them to heart every time. He was not seeing a psychic attack from a girl. It altered Ye Chong’s concept of combats downright.
"Oh Ye. Tsk, tsk, tsk." Rui Bing was thrown away like a bag of trash. Shang showed up in his mind upon discerning the turnabout in the situation, "You never learn how to take lasses the gentle way. Mhm, so how did they feel in your hands? Man, Ye, you are despicable. But, being handsy is the right way to start off dealing with lasses. Kekeke!" Shang let off a round of distorted giggle.
Ye Chong’s eyes were locating where Rui Bing fell. He did not listen to Shang at all. He was trying to catch a breather while recovering his health as much as possible. Ye Chong was beyond under the weather at this point - it was under the drain! Tides of fatigue and soreness gushing at him one after another. Ye Chong’s fortress of inner peace was crumpling! Ye Chong held still.
One more… Just one more blow… One last blow, then I could… I could finish her.
Ye Chong was mumbling as he tried hypnotizing himself. His vision began turning indistinct. The sleeves of Rui Bing’s training robe were fluttering white like the clouds in the sky, which he could not reach as they flew farther.
He forced his eyes open, yet the lids were so heavy that he could not hold. His consciousness felt as if it was ripped away from his body. His remaining senses could not control his body effectively. His stance shook and he almost fell. Ye Chong had never felt this weak before! His body was inhumanly overpowered yet it could not sustain a little longer when he gravely needed it. The emptied brain of Ye Chong felt like shutting down on its own. He could sleep the moment he closed his eyes.
I… I must not.
Ye Chong’s conviction was howling at him not to sleep, as the enemy was still right there, right in front of him. He would be dead, if he slept; or he would sleep only if he was dead!
"Ye! Please!" Shang sensed the casualty in Ye Chong as he shouted in his mind fretfully, "Lie down already! The lasses won’t kill you! Stop holding it! You have overused your mentality! Your brainwaves are fluctuating! Just have a nap! Come on! Quick! Stop manning up! It will hurt you!"
Rui Su at one corner tipped her toes on a mech passing by. She soared to Rui Su like an eagle. Grounded clumsily, she regained her balance. She lifted Rui Su and scurried out of the workshop after that.
Ye Chong’s blurry vision could slightly spot a cloud hovering out of his workshop.
Ugh…
Thup! Being unable to stand the tiredness anymore, he fell onto the ground and went into deep slumber after.
After exiting the workshop with her sister by her side, Rui Bing’s frail body collapsed. Fortunately, Rui Su reacted in time to grab her sister’s body. By then her younger sister no longer appeared to be that tough Wonder Woman she used to see in her daily life. She was merely a poor little girl in injury. It was heart-wrenching for her to see her sister in such a devastated state.
On the way to the hospital, she looked at her sister in dismay. Her fingers helplessly caressed that pretty face of hers in faint warmth. Impatiently she rooted on one of the seats in the ambulance, tearing up remorsefully. It was all her fault. All because she was just a bit pissed. All because she wanted to give someone a little lesson. And it turned out like this! It was the first painful realization in her entire life that she regretted of what she had done.
The students at the academy witnessed how Rui Su was carrying someone in her embrace, crying as she dashed out of Mr. Ye Chong’s workshop. "What happened in there?" speculations started brewing among the students and teachers.
Rui Bing was at a much worse state than Ye Chong. He only suffered a moment of mentality drain and minor scratches on his body. On the other hand, Rui Bing not only was drained from that massive skill she had used accidentally, but also was damaged by Ye Chong as he forced himself out of her reach. Her body might be built over the years of training but it was still nothing compared to Ye Chong’s inhumane, beast-like physique. That two blows Ye Chong delivered to her by the fists were absolutely critical.
To top them all, Ye Chong’s final grip at her breasts was the most fatal of them all!
It was amazing that she did not pass out on spot. That was because she was thinking what could happen to her sister if she just passed out so easily. If it was not her sister, she would have passed out or died on the spot.
That grip on her breasts was more than just mind-shocking.
To a decent and traditional female in vows of chastity, what else could be more nerve-wrecking than this?
It could have been a major scoop of seeing the devil of the studio, Witch Su running out of Mr.Ye Chong’s workshop crying. Despite that arousing curiosity in every student, no one was brave enough to step close to the workshop within the range of 10 meters! Even the staff from Workshop No.1 was running for his life.
Horrifying stories about Mr. Ye Chong’s cold pair of eyes and his heart of ice started to reach everybody in the academy! It was not as horrifying as the urban tales actually. But at least, people had been warned and no one was foolishly bold enough to provoke this beast in the campus.
So the workshop was unvisited. No one could even muster the courage to knock at Mr. Ye Chong’s door. And Ye Chong remained on the floor undisturbed for the whole day. The next day arrived with Ye Chong moaning in ache, his head felt like exploding and his body was weak.
"So you finally woke up?" the voice rang flatly in his mind.
"Ye..ah…" He rubbed his head, breathing cold as he spoke on in a coarse voice, "But my head hurts." His head was cracking, unfortunately there was no way of stopping it.
"According to my report, this is one of the aftereffects when you over-consumed your mentality. There are several methods to relief such pain. One of them being the brainwave treatment, or simply, an adequate rest."
"Brainwave treatment? Sounds like something done in the hospital, not here!" He continued rubbing his head and said, "Hey! Wait a minute!" He realized something as he asked, "You are Mu?"
"Certainly," Mu replied.
"What happened to Shang?"
"According to deed between us, he has to stay muted for the next 11 days."
"Oh…"
…
"Mu!" He remembered that technique struck on him. In full of excitement he started asking Mu, as if the pain in him was no longer there, "Was the technique used by that female the psychic attack you told me before? Didn’t you mention something like how your attack lacked the psychic aspect or the mentality somehow?"
Mu was silent for a while.
"Insufficient data. Unable to deduce."
"Unable to deduce?" Ye Chong was disappointed, "Mhm. But I think that’s what it is. It was an awful experience. It somehow would give you an impression that it is useless for you to put up resistance. But if we were to pilot a mech, wouldn’t that be a little hard to include a psychic attack?" Ye Chong was too busy figuring out this problem that he forgot about the pain in his head. The rubbing hand on his head shifted to his chin as he pondered.
"Ye."
"Yes?" Ye Chong’s focus went back to Mu.
"Isn’t your head still in pain?" a trickery from the devil as he wagged his tail.
Ye Chong realized his head still hurt. The pain surged throughout his spines, flooding his senses again. "Ahhh!!" His hand shifted back to his head, "I almost forgot about it!" He hissed and puffed as he replied angrily, "Damn you Mu! I never knew you could be this shameless!"
"Shameless is indeed my middle name. Thank you for your kindest compliments!" he showed his appreciation in grace. "So, based on the information I had gotten, apparently that adjective you had mentioned about me contains highly discriminative and emotional connotation. Thus I suggest it should not be included in any form of judgment you made towards a particular item. Ye, enjoy this pain."
"Is there no way to reduce the pain?" Ye Chong was putting up his white flag.
"Mhm. There is," he answered calmly.
A gleam of hope shone upon Ye Chong, "What? How?"
"Such method does not require medication or any form of injection. It is safe and effective. You can feel it on spot…"
That line was familiar. The "yes" was going to slur out of Ye Chong’s lips but he recalled what happened after the "yes".
He breathed in fright, "Is that your signature pain-relieving methodology of manually putting people in a fainted state?" It was back on Trash Planet-12 when Ye Chong overused his senses during one of the NRS Trainings which led a severe pain to his hands as he exceeded the threshold of his nervous system. And Mu used this so-called treatment to relieve his pain. It felt like yesterday when Ye Chong thought back of his experience with this treatment.
"You are correct!" Mu replied. One could hear the cheery bell ringing in a quiz game behind him.
Ye Chong wanted to tell Mu to forget it but the aches came crashing his head waves by waves. His brain was howling at his ears, rampaging in the sea of torment. His senses stood lonely at the corals surfacing on the sea, within the storm as he was engulfed by agony, spat out and then playfully swallowed in again. The coral he stood upon was shaking by the waves of pain. It seemed endless.
Such a torment! Ye Chong believed he would be going mad anytime soon. It would be better to at least minimize the pain! Ye Chong manned up and spoke to Mu, "Then… Mu… Well, do it! But make sure the hit counts!"
"The method was not recommended," Mu replied in his serene grace.
"Why?" Ye Chong was bewildered.
"The current phenomena in your head is considered as an extremely advantageous training towards your mentality. Of course, only if you were there the whole time to feel it."
Ye Chong shrieked, "Then why the heck did you mention it in the first place? Are you saying it for the sake of saying it?"
Mu was showing immense approval towards his statement, "Correct. I’m saying it for the sake of saying it."
Ye Chong could no longer stay polite, "You little piece of metallic junk!" He scolded, "You… You… How could you…" Ye Chong felt like passing out.
"To strengthen the effectiveness of your training, it is undeniably essential to give you an increased amount of stimulation," stated Mu.
Ye Chong spoke on lethargically, "Hiss… Mu… You are… You are cunning!"
"I do not understand what you meant by ‘cunning’. According to the information I had received, I have been telling what is considered to be the truth the whole time," Mu replied.
Ye Chong was too tried to rebut Mu. Chances were he might not even stand the chance to win against him. Obviously he learned that Mu and Shang were both nasty characters to fiddle with.
"So how long… How long had I slept?" he tried holding his senses in the utter pain as he asked.
"28 hours and 36 minutes," Mu answered in accuracy.
"28 hours?" he muttered.
…
He jumped up high as he recalled something, "Ah! Does that mean I have missed my classes?" Ye Chong did not feel anything particularly exciting about classes, still he was the one in the deal, he had to accomplish the tasks he promised at his best!
"Not true. I have done it for you," replied Mu in suave.
"You have done it for me?"
"Uh huh."
"That works too. In the Virtual World both you and Shang are the sky-walking hackers. So I think that verification system in the academy is nothing compared to your skills. So, how do you feel about the first day in class?"
"My information shows that the word ‘feel’ is inappropriate in the application on non-living objects, for instance, me."
"You are still not sentimental. Or maybe… not sensible."
"Maybe. Oh yeah, we forgot something," Mu responded.
"What?"
"The pain in your head."
"Darn it I forgo- Ahh!! How to end this! Hiss… Ugh… Mu... You know…
You are good!"