Crossing to the Future, it's Not Easy to Be a Man Chapter 233

Another resounding "Bam!"

The giant python was pouncing forward again. Ling Lan controlled her mecha to leap up into the air, kicking forwards forcefully with its hind legs. The python was sent flying back by the powerful kick — the python and the mecha were only in contact for a brief moment before they were moving off in different directions again to land in two separate locations, once more facing each other in a standoff.

"Warning! Over-capacity usage of mecha's hind legs. Damage at 7%. Please use with caution; cherish your mecha!" Within the c.o.c.kpit, the mecha's mainframe immediately issued a warning, protesting the brute actions of its operator.

That last kick may have pushed the python back, but because the giant python was really just too big and too heavy, the mecha had had to bear a force which exceeded its anti-shock capacity, causing the mecha to incur a certain degree of damage.

"Tch, even this is no good?" Ling Lan had thought to use the mecha's own body to attack to compensate for the lack of weapons, but now it looked like things would not be so simple. She smacked the control stick moodily and said, "This trainee mecha is just too G.o.dd*mn fragile."

Little Four could not help but dab at his sweat inside the minds.p.a.ce. Since the start of her studies, Ling Lan's mecha combat style was already showing signs of being of the wild and barbaric type. He still remembered how she had caused her mecha to be all scratched up, bearing wounds from being pushed beyond its limits. In the end, they had had no choice but to spend so much credits to repair the mecha, only thus preventing the mecha from completely breaking down. Therefore, regardless of how strong or solid the mecha was, it would not fare much better than this rabbit mecha in Ling Lan's hands. This was because Ling Lan would forever bring out the greatest combat power a mecha was capable of, even pus.h.i.+ng for more — it would be stranger if the mecha did not break down!

[No Mecha Unrepaired] rubbed away the trickle of blood at the corner of his lips, forcefully suppressing the nausea he still felt from the b.l.o.o.d.y stench as he operated his mecha to get up from the ground. Meanwhile, the inside of his c.o.c.kpit had long become flooded with alerts from the mainframe, which was warning non-stop that the mecha had been attacked, and displaying the resulting damage levels. He unstintingly used a low-level repair kit, letting the mecha be completely repaired in a very short period of time.

Of course, while he did all this, his gaze had not once left the battle scene 30 metres away. When he saw that the rabbit mecha was left with only one short sword weapon, he could not help but become anxious; he understood that if the rabbit mecha could not finish off this frighteningly ginormous python, the both of them would definitely lose their lives here.

"No, it was so difficult to find such a strong mecha operator to bring me to Suncreed City, I definitely cannot die here, wasting all that effort!" [No Mecha Unrepaired] was naturally unwilling to just admit defeat. He opened up his bag, desperately searching through it to see if there were any cold weapons the rabbit mecha could use within it. Right then, he was somewhat thankful that he was in the wilds, and not in a combat arena. In a combat arena, it was not permitted to change one's equipped weapons halfway.

When he came to a pitch-black weapon, he could not help but stare at it blankly. "Should we use this one?"

[No Mecha Unrepaired] looked at this cold weapon he had developed in Three-Seas Town. It was shaped like a tangdao 1 of olden times, but its blade was not like the clean diagonal-cut edge of a traditional tangdao, instead sporting an extremely conspicuous concavity. This concavity was deep near the edge, becoming gradually shallower as it travelled along the body of the blade to spread along its entire surface.

The entire sword was a sheet of black, not as eye-catching as other brighter and flas.h.i.+er weapons. However, it silently emitted a type of killing intent, letting people know that this was no ordinary sword. Of course, that was all they would know — only its creator and the one who used it would be able to truly comprehend the fearsome nature of this sword.

This was a lethal weapon [No Mecha Unrepaired] had forged using the best materials he could gather in Three-Seas Town. Back when he had succeeded, it had let him advance two stages, from trainee mecha mechanic to advanced mecha mechanic, in an instant. Back then, he had been young and c.o.c.ky — in his pride and joy, he had forgotten that he should hide his light under a bushel 2 until he was sufficiently strong enough to protect himself. He had proclaimed his name in a high-handed fas.h.i.+on, allowing the Thunder King to figure out his ident.i.ty. In the end, whether it was here in the mecha world, or in reality, the Thunder King had been pressuring him with the power of his faction to join his organisation.

As a result of his unwillingness to submit, he had been restricted by the other to Three-Seas Town, unable to move. If he was not able to pa.s.s the a.s.sessment this year because of this, then he would be mercilessly cast out from the First Men's Military Academy. The Thunder King was precisely such a ruthless character. Anyone who did not submit to him would definitely have their future crushed by him.

[No Mecha Unrepaired] had never ever considered selling off this cold weapon. Even though a few strong fighters had tried offering extremely high prices before out of curiosity at this weapon's stats, and he too had known that he might be able to leave Three-Seas Town if he just sold this sword ... he had still decided to keep this weapon with him until he was pushed to the absolute brink. Not just because this was his pride and honour, but also as a reminder to himself of his ignorance, his hubris, his weakness, his shame, as well as his reason for resisting.

"I named it ' Regretless 3 ', to remind myself that I have chosen not to regret. At the same time, I also hope that this weapon will be able to display its glory in the hands of a mecha operator who would allow it to attack with no regrets ... perhaps, its master has appeared!" [No Mecha Unrepaired] looked at the nimble figure of the rabbit before his eyes, and with a grit of his teeth, he resolutely pulled out the sword Regretless which meant so much to him.

As Regretless fully appeared in the dense forest, the temperature of the initially already extremely cold and sinister forest suddenly dipped further, causing [No Mecha Unrepaired] to tremble involuntarily.

[No Mecha Unrepaired] stroked the blade of Regretless affectionately. When he lifted his head once more, his gaze was filled with conviction. He knew very well that if [Lingtian First-String] truly kept his promise and brought him to Suncreed City, he would definitely offend the Thunder King. Even though [Lingtian First-String] had yet to complete the mission, [No Mecha Unrepaired] found himself somehow trusting the other without reason. They had only spent a short while together, but he had come to learn that though the other was cold and domineering, he was definitely a responsible man.

Thus, he believed that Regretless would not fade into obscurity if he gave it to him. Under [Lingtian First-String]'s skilful control, Regretless would definitely s.h.i.+ne its brightest. He hoped that one day, if [Lingtian First-String] really ended up clas.h.i.+ng head-on with the Thunder King, the weapon he used in that encounter would be Regretless ...

Intense light flashed through [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s eyes. He shouted abruptly, "[Lingtian First-String], catch!"

[No Mecha Unrepaired] controlled his mecha to throw Regretless; Ling Lan could only see a blur of dark light flying towards her. She calmly operated her rabbit mecha's right hand to reach out in a grab, and abruptly felt a heavy weight in her hands. Unprepared, she almost lost her footing. However, Ling Lan's adaptive ability was extremely powerful. She instantly activated the engine on her right side, using the great thrust generated by it to stabilise the mecha's slightly tilting body.

"What weapon is this, actually so heavy?" Ling Lan peered curiously at the weapon in the rabbit's hands. It was a cold weapon like a dao 4 but not a dao, like a sword but not a sword. Still, based on its weight that almost unbalanced her mecha alone, she could tell that this weapon was definitely special.

However, reality did not allow Ling Lan to think too much about it; the giant python was attacking again. The rabbit mecha's forelegs were not very strong — Ling Lan was afraid that she would not be able to wield this clearly very heavy weapon single-handedly. So, she decisively gripped the sword with both hands and swung it out fiercely towards the python's attack trajectory.

A loud "boom" rang out! The body of the sword and the snapping sharp fangs of the giant python collided violently!

Screech ~! The st.u.r.dy fang and the sword sc.r.a.ped against each other forcefully, emitting an ear-splitting high-pitched noise!

Crack! A crisp sound, and a fang suddenly popped out, whizzing away to bury itself in a large tree not too far away from the fight.

This sword may seem extremely thin, but its hardness had exceeded that of the mutated python's fang. At the same time, this result also proved that the sharpness of the sword was at a fearsome level.

"Scram!" Ling Lan barked, revving her mecha's engines and its supplementary thrusters to the max. With a powerful spring of her strong hind legs, the force was transmitted to the sword in her hands, actually sending the entire giant python flying back.

A loud thump! The python once again crashed into the ground. But this time, things were different. It was actually writhing in agony, bellowing loudly to the skies.

It turned out that that previous strike had not only broken off one of the python's fangs, it had also left a wound on the python's face, which was currently bleeding profusely.

"Oh my G.o.d, this sword is so sharp!" Little Four was exclaiming in Ling Lan's minds.p.a.ce. Mecha cold weapons in general sacrificed sharpness to maintain its st.u.r.diness and strength. Many cold weapons were all made in the form of spiked club-like weapons, or perhaps extremely thick swords. Their characteristics were all focused on solidness and heft rather than sharpness.

"It's not just sharp ... its tensile strength is also amazingly good. Such a narrow blade actually having the same tensile strength as broader and thicker swords — no, perhaps even better by a bit." Compared to sharpness, Ling Lan was more concerned about its tensile strength, for this would decide the lifespan of a weapon. No matter how sharp a sword was, if it did not have enough tensile strength, breaking apart after just a few uses, then it would still be utterly useless.

"This mecha world is pretty interesting, actually having this sort of weapon ..." Little Four sensed that this mecha world was not completely the same as the real world. This piqued his interest to find out all the secrets of this mecha world.

"Having this complementary weapon in hand, I don't need to waste any more time." Ling Lan felt that she could finally let loose and attack now. She twirled her new sword once, then leapt unhesitatingly towards the giant python.

"F*ck! Why didn't he first take some time to get used to the weapon? Attacking directly? Does he not want to live?" [No Mecha Unrepaired] was beyond anxious — mecha operators needed to familiarise themselves with their mecha's weapons before they would be able to generate the greatest combat power with them. Using an unfamiliar weapon may backfire due to the resultant control errors, causing a person's combat power to decrease instead. This was also why [No Mecha Unrepaired] was worried for Ling Lan.

The giant python saw its initially defensive opponent suddenly initiating an attack. Feeling as if it had been impugned, it was instantly in a towering rage. It ignored the pain of the wound on its face to leap forwards once more, ready to teach this detestable fellow before it a profound lesson. It would let him know that a king's dignity would not be trod upon.

Both sides clashed once more, and this time, Ling Lan no longer had any reservations. She used the rabbit mecha's full power from the start, causing Little Four's heart to ache, as well as causing the c.o.c.kpit to be filled with the ringing warnings of the mecha's mainframe, "Warning! Engine power exceeded 120%. Mecha operating over-capacity. Mecha is sustaining damage, 5%, 7%, 10% ..."

i.e. a straight, single-edged sword that was said to have been invented and used during the Tang dynasty. i.e. lay low and conceal his talent. T/C: This reminds me so much of the naming of the pairs in 'Loveless' somehow. The 'dao' here is in reference to the Chinese weapon, like in the term 'tangdao' previously. Differentiated from the great evolution pathway 'Dao', which I will be capitalizing all the way.