aircannonsinc Chapter 72 Consecutive Matches!
Chapter 72 Consecutive Matches!
Nighttime, the boys' dormitory of Rongcheng No. 2 High School.
Wang Xing took a cold shower, completely forgetting the hustle and bustle and honors of the day, and opened the Beidou Yuan Universe APP on his terminal.
His consciousness instantly sank into that vast and boundless virtual starry sky.
Since breaking through to the "subtle" level with the [Myriad Manifestations Prajna Divine Power] during the Hundred Schools Competition, Wang Xing felt that his control over the mecha had undergone a qualitative transformation.
Previously, his exertion was a linear process, but now it's like a net, with every bearing and hydraulic rod of the mecha seemingly becoming a nerve ending extending from his body.
To solidify this level of skill, he immediately started a Gold-ranked match tonight.
Match successful. Map: Abandoned Airport.
Opponent ID: Viagra
[Health and mana level 7.7, Mech level 8.2.]
In the first match, the opponent was a medium-sized heavy firepower mech, carrying two ion shoulder cannons on its back, with extremely fierce firepower.
However, with his masterful application of power, Wang Xing's basic Tiger-style mech was like a ghost dancing amidst a hail of bullets.
Instead of directly confronting it, he used extremely subtle high-frequency lateral sliding and direction changes to cut into the opponent's inner circle along the edge of the beam, defying conventional physical inertia.
There were no unnecessary movements.
The long sword swung upwards, a precise slash down to the millimeter, directly severing the main energy transmission channel in the opponent's mech's chest.
"System notification: Target core destroyed, you have won."
Fifteen minutes later, the second match begins.
Match successful. Map: Rainforest Ruins.
Opponent ID: Chen Lang
[Health and mana level 7.8, Mech level 8.1.]
This time, they were facing a "Phantom Mantis" bionic mech that focused on high agility. The opponent was clearly a veteran assassin, and he took advantage of the rainforest cover to hide his figure at the start of the game.
The moment the two high-frequency vibrating blades swept towards Wang Xing's cockpit from a blind spot, Wang Xing not only did not dodge, but instead controlled the mecha to suddenly meet them with a powerful lunge.
The multiple hidden forces of the Myriad Manifestations Prajna Divine Power are layered through the transmission shaft and explode with a roar at the moment of impact.
"Snap!"
The mantis mech's arms were instantly snapped in the opposite direction by the shock, and Wang Xing followed up with a backhand "Wild Goose Descending on the Sand" move, smashing the cockpit canopy of the opponent with the back of his blade.
Another clean and swift kill.
The points gained from the winning streak did not satisfy Wang Xing. He was in excellent condition, and his fighting spirit was fully ignited.
"Continue matching."
This time, the loading screen took a full minute to load before finally appearing on the screen.
The third match took nearly thirty seconds.
The Beidou Yuan Universe's matchmaking system searches for opponents in the Gold rank matchmaking pool, and thirty seconds is not a long time.
Match successful. Map: Barren Gobi Desert.
Opponent ID: Anonymous (Gold 3-Star)
Wang Xing's pupils contracted slightly.
Gold 3 stars, two minor ranks higher than him.
In the ranking system of the Beidou Yuan Universe, the gap between Gold One Star and Gold Three Star is even greater than the gap between Silver and Gold.
"As expected, there is a matchmaking system in the Beidou Universe... The two opponents I was matched with before were both Gold-ranked One-Stars. After winning two consecutive matches, the system will match me with a stronger opponent."
The arena scene has finished loading; it's a desolate Gobi Desert, almost identical to the scene Wang Xing encountered in the final of the Hundred Schools Competition.
The ground was cracked and grayish-yellow, sandstorms raged, and visibility was very low.
Wang Xing stood at one end of the arena and summoned the Tiger-type mech. The dark golden Tiger-patterned steel gleamed coldly in the sandstorm.
The opponent stood at the other end of the arena, and a jet-black mech slowly emerged from the sandstorm.
Upon seeing the mecha before him, Wang Xing's breath caught in his throat.
It was some kind of indescribable hybrid, somewhere between animal armor and engineering armor.
The mech's silhouette resembles a leopard, with long limbs and streamlined wing-like structures on its back. However, the wings are not formed from condensed energy but are solid, pieced together from some kind of black metal sheet. The mech's head lacks a visor, instead featuring a compound eye structure similar to an insect, with dozens of tiny red dots flashing within, somewhat like a spider stalking its prey in the dark.
The most eye-catching feature is the mecha's limbs.
The outer sides of the shoulder armor and elbows were inlaid with rows of stark white bone spikes, like the fangs of a split-boned dog, protruding from the gaps in the armor. Each forearm had an arc-shaped blade on its outer side, a grayish-white bone, with fine serrations on the edge.
There was no weapon at the end of the waist armor, but a dark red crystal core was embedded at the junction of the back armor and shoulder armor.
"These are the claws and fangs of the Bone-Splitting Hound and the crystal core of the Blood-Eyed Spider... I've seen these modified parts on Sun Donglai's Xuan Turtle Mech."
Wang Xing's eyes lit up.
This is not similarity, but rather a common origin.
Same material, same process.
Immediately afterwards, the opponent's information panel rose up on the ring.
[ID: Anonymous]
[Rank: Gold 3-star]
[Health and Vitality Level: 12.1]
[Mech Level: 12.4]
Wang Xing stared at the line of data and remained silent for a full three seconds.
12.1 level health, 12.4 level mech.
He was level 12, almost five levels higher than him.
This isn't high school; this is the level of a second or even third-year university student.
"That's interesting."
The opponent's voice came from the mech, hoarse and deep, clearly a processed electronic synthesized voice.
You can't tell their age, their gender, or even whether they're human from their teeth.
"Distortion modification?" Wang Xing asked.
But the opponent did not respond.
The black mech moved instantly. Its feet did not emit flames from the thrusters, but the entire mech glided silently across the Gobi Desert, like a snake slithering across the sand.
The speed was astonishing, so fast that Wang Xing's pupils didn't even have time to contract.
"The tiger traverses nine mountains...retreat!"
His body suddenly slid backward several meters, the thrusters of the Tiger-type mech firing at full power, exploding into a cloud of dust on the ground.
But his opponent was much faster than him.
The black mecha emerged from the sandstorm, its left arm's bone blade slashing horizontally, heading straight for Wang Xing's waist.
Wang Xing drew his sword, interrupting the flow of the flow, and swept the blade horizontally to block the bone blade.
"clang--!"
A metallic clang rang out, and Wang Xing's body tilted half a step to the left.
The opponent's force was too great. He had to block the blow, which made Wang Xing's tiger's mouth go numb, and the hydraulic transmission pipe in his right arm made a slight humming sound.
The opponent's mech was nearly five levels higher than his; the difference in strength was a hard fact that couldn't be completely compensated for by skill.
"The Three Forms of Breaking the Army - Splitting the Mountain!"
Wang Xing did not back down.
The blade slashed diagonally from the upper left to the lower right, heading straight for the opponent's shoulder armor.
If this strike lands, it will cut through at least two bone spikes.
But his opponent did not parry. The moment the blade fell, his figure seemed to teleport, quickly disappearing from Wang Xing's sight.
Wang Xing later watched the replay and realized that it wasn't teleportation; it was just that the other person was too fast, so fast that Wang Xing's eyes couldn't keep up.
The blade struck the air.
Wang Xing felt a sharp pain in the back of his right shoulder.
The pain-sensing neural synchronization system of the Beidou Yuan Universe transmitted the damage of the mecha to his body at 30% intensity.
The opponent's bone blade sliced into the shoulder armor seam of the Tiger-type mech, severing three energy conduits. The Tiger-type mech's right arm power output plummeted by at least 30%.
"Your knife is good, but it's too slow."
Wang Xing gritted his teeth and unleashed the full power of the Tiger's Journey Through Nine Mountains technique, the Tiger-style mecha drawing zigzag lines on the ground.
But the opponent was too fast; the black mech's propulsion system was not the conventional hydraulic transmission.
He had seen this speed before on Lü Mufei's Chiying GT, but that was in vehicle mode, where the speed was achieved by sacrificing attack and defense... This black mecha, however, is just as fast as the Chiying GT, but its attack and defense are not reduced but increased!
At that moment, Wang Xing knew he couldn't win.
This is a difference in absolute hard power.
A level 12 mech should not appear in the matchmaking pool of a Gold 1 Star player.
But he did not admit defeat.
The Tiger-type mech's core lit up, and the Blood Abyss Core Chest Cannon began to charge up, with crimson energy condensing in the center of the chest armor.
A crimson energy beam tore through the air, heading straight for the opponent's chest armor.
"Whoosh—!!"
The opponent dodged to the left with ease.
But Wang Xing's hidden blade had already been unleashed, a Moon Slash, from top to bottom, the dark golden blade light drawing an arc in the sandstorm.
This is his tactic.
The chest cannon is the bait, the moon cleaver is the killing move.
The blade slashed at the opponent's waist armor.
"clang--!"
Wang Xing's hand was numb from the impact. He had struck, but the blade hadn't cut through.
The opponent's waist armor had a thin, semi-transparent energy shield that flashed briefly at the moment the blades made contact, then dissipated most of the force of the Moon Slash.
The next moment, the opponent cut in from behind him at a speed too fast for the naked eye to catch, the bone blade piercing through the back armor of the Tiger-type mech and penetrating the core power compartment.
[The mech's core is damaged, and its power output has dropped to 30%.]
The next moment, a burst of sparks exploded on the back of the Tiger-type mech.
Wang Xing's right arm had completely lost power, and his battle sword hung limply at his side, unable to be lifted.
"Your swordsmanship is excellent. But excellent swordsmanship requires a strong body to support it." The opponent's voice was still hoarse. "Your body isn't strong enough..."
……
……
Two minutes later.
A flash of light appeared before his eyes, and Wang Xing's gaze returned to the settlement space.
A screen pops up showing the end of the battle.
[Failure, points -16.]
Lost.
The loss was a foregone conclusion.
In the two-minute mental battle just now, Wang Xing was completely at a disadvantage.
Wang Xing took a deep breath to calm his heart, which was pounding violently due to the holographic simulation. A fine layer of sweat had already seeped out of his forehead.
But he was not discouraged, after all, there was a level difference of more than 4 levels.
"If I had injected myself with [Titan Bone Marrow Gel] in real life, combined with [Taibai]'s overclocked oscillation crystal fusion, that one hard-hitting strike I just delivered would have absolutely shattered that mutated bone claw along with the opponent's mecha engine."
"call……"
Wang Xing slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, rubbed his slightly swollen temples, and opened the system settlement panel.
What really mattered to him wasn't the outcome of a ranked match, but rather the monstrous features on the opponent's mech.
He pulled up the other party's ID information. Below that string of garbled characters, there was a line of small text... "School's Real-Name Authentication Information."
Although the Beidou Yuan Universe's matchmaking system allows users to hide their IDs, there is real-name authentication binding information in the background, which will be automatically displayed after the match ends.
Wang Xing stared at the line of text, his pupils slightly contracting.
"Rongcheng Electromechanical Vocational Technical School... I was wrong. This person isn't from a university; he's from a vocational technical school that mainly trains intermediate mecha repair technicians and engineering mecha operators!"
"Why would a school like this have a student from the Class of '22' who shares the same origin as Sun Donglai? Why would it have a student who uses the same distortion modification parts as Sun Donglai?"
"And the Mechanical and Electrical Vocational Technical School... why does that name sound familiar? Oh right, isn't that the neighboring school not far from ours?"
The most powerful star sensed something incredibly strange.
This Rongcheng Electromechanical Vocational Technical School is only two streets away from their No. 2 High School; you could even say they're neighbors.
"Aberration modification, a forbidden technology that skirts the edge of federal law and can even be called heresy, is not something that any roadside repair shop can do. It requires extremely advanced biological rejection treatment technology and dark web resources."
"In just a few days, first there was Sun Donglai from No. 2 High School, and now a mysterious master with two levels 12 has emerged."
"The two of them have almost identical mecha modification styles, exuding that unsettling evil aura, and they even both used the body tissue of the [Bone-Splitter Hound], a beast from the Abyss."
"All indications suggest that this could absolutely not be a coincidence!"
Wang Xing stroked his chin, pondering to himself:
"The person who performed the mutated modifications on the two of them must be the same person... or rather, the same black market workshop hidden underground in Chengdu."
The trail went cold because Sun Donglai withdrew from the school competition.
The other party is deliberately hiding, and it's really hard to find out what's going on behind his back in a short time.
But now, this guy from the electromechanical vocational school has deliberately walked into the line of fire.
If we can find out the background of the students at this vocational school, and follow the clues, we might be able to uncover the mastermind behind the distorted modifications made to the students!
"Although Donglai has cut ties with me, we have been friends for many years, and I am also a little curious about what happened behind Donglai."
Wang Xing pondered to himself.
and.
And most importantly, Wang Xing's inherent competitive spirit as a martial artist has been completely stimulated.
He wasn't about to let that frustrating battle of superior level just end.
Once the resources in reality are used up and the mecha modification and upgrade are completed, he will definitely break off the claws of this mutated monster with his own hands.
"Mechanical and Electrical Vocational School... data from the Double Twelve level... specializing in close-quarters beast-like combat... and their strength must have recently experienced a rapid and dramatic increase."
A smile of interest curved Wang Xing's lips.
Students with these characteristics would never be unknown in any high school; they would be exceptionally talented individuals at the forefront of the academic world.
"Looks like I'll have to make a trip to the school next door tomorrow and give this neighbor a proper 'visit'."
After making up his mind, Wang Xing withdrew from the Beidou Yuan Universe.