321-326

Chapter 321: Comradery?

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

Looking at the standard military-use advanced mecha they had obtained, the vague idea swirling in Ling Lan's mind abruptly came into focus. She quickly contacted Leopard and communicated her idea to him.

The moment Li Lanfeng heard her idea, his gaze lit up. He felt that it was an excellent plan. Even as he signalled his agreement, he could not help but be secretly proud. See, this was his friend. What a bright and intelligent rabbit!

The two of them instantly changed their mecha into the standard advanced mecha they had obtained from the ship. Only then did they operate their mecha to move to the airlock's doors and make preparations to sneak inside the mainship proper ...

Just as Ling Lan was about to instruct Little Four to observe the surroundings near the doors of the airlock, to see whether there was anyone out and about, they suddenly sensed the travel speed of the military vessel slowing down. They could also hear the faint sounds of alarms blaring from the mainship proper.

"What's going on, Little Four?" Ling Lan quickly turned to ask Little Four in the mindspace. Right now, Ling Lan was like a blind person — she was solely reliant on Little Four to obtain information on the outside world.

Little Four answered immediately, "Boss, the radar has picked up the appearance of an unidentified flying object about 10 kilometres ahead of the command mainship. The entire ship is now in emergency mode. It isn't suitable for us to act at this time."

Having heard what Little Four had to say, Ling Lan settled down to wait for a while. Meanwhile, Li Lanfeng too had figured out that something seemed to be happening inside the ship, so when Ling Lan suggested they wait, he was in full agreement, curious to see what exactly was happening ...

********

At the distant base of the Swift Dragons, right after the eruption of the magnetic tsunami, an urgent notification came, requesting the Swift Dragon fleet to send a search and rescue team immediately to the surrounding districts of planet X192 to help the surviving soldiers and adventurers.

In one of the rooms in the command centre at the Swift Dragon base, a man shrouded in shadows sat on a sofa. In a hoarse voice which sounded grating to the ears, he said to another man equally obscured by shadows, "D9, do you think this notification is fishy?"

"D1, on the surface, this notification is exceedingly normal. Whenever an incident with great casualties occur, the mecha mainframe will definitely inform the closest fleet to send assistance. As far as I know, the magnetic tsunami of X191 is a natural phenomenon ..." Any natural disasters that happened in Mecha World was actually a realistic copy of natural disasters in the real world. In reality, on the fringes of the Chinese Federation in the real world, there had indeed been an eruption of a magnetic tsunami on one of the planets. It was just that it had not been as violent and destructive as the one in Mecha World.

At this point of the conversation, D9 paused, then continued in a dark tone, "That reclamation fleet should also be carrying out their mission right about now ..."

"What you're saying is, it won't be a big problem?" Within the shadows where expressions could not be seen clearly, D1 asked in return with his usual emotionless voice.

"Not quite. It's precisely because there's no problem at all that it is problematic ..." A mocking smirk appeared on D9's lips. "We're infiltrators. We cannot let down our guard. No one can tell whether the mecha mainframe has discovered something."

"Then, pretend we did not receive the notification?" D1 followed up with this question.

"Of course that won't work. At the very least we must act normal and send a search and rescue team over, otherwise the mecha mainframe will definitely become suspicious. We still need a little time before Project T can be completed," refuted D9 directly, "The magnetic tsunami was so strong ... according to the information we received, that reclamation fleet basically had no way of surviving ... Even if there are any lucky survivors, having them be under our guard will be more reassuring for us."

That said, D9 added proudly, "The Swift Dragon base is already fully under our control. No one can carry off any petty tricks under our watch. If the mecha mainframe really tries anything and sends some people over, we will definitely discover them at soonest notice."

"In that case, let's send a search and rescue team! I too do not want there to be any disruptions before Project T is completed." In response to D9's words, D1 gave this order.

On that very day, a patrol ship departed from the Swift Dragon base towards planet X192. Half a day and one night later, when there was still two-fifths of the journey left to planetary sector X192, the ship encountered the sole remaining command ship from the reclamation fleet.

The command mainship no longer had any strength to fight, so they instantly sent out a questioning signal through the public comms. The other side did not delay in responding with their identity. When the mainship found that the other ship was a rescue team from the Swift Dragon base, all of the surviving mecha operators and staff members could not stop from tearing up. Over this past half a day and one night, their minds had constantly tormented by worry — they did not know just how much longer the battered mainship they were on could hold out for, and none of them wished to end up as debris in outer space like the other ships had.

The commander of the mainship and his adjutant looked at one another, their gazes a complicated mix of excitement and nervousness, and also a sort of stoicism. Still, very quickly, both their expressions turned as joyful as the other NPC soldiers below them.

However, the adjutant was still young after all. His hand could not help but clench in nervousness — entering the Swift Dragon base meant their mission was about to officially begin.

As the mainship really had no way of guaranteeing anyone's safety, after making contact with the base, the Swift Dragon fleet's rescue team began moving the people on the mainship to their military vessel.

Meanwhile, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng took the chance while everyone's attention was drawn to the moving process to let Little Four silently open the airlock doors and snuck into the mainship. Using the route indicators Little Four gave, they very quickly arrived at the central mecha hall.

Right then, the attention of everyone in the hall was gathered on the two launch ports in the hall. The surviving 50 to 60 mecha operators were currently lining up to exit from those two ports and move to the rescue ship. Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng quietly sauntered up to join one of the lines.

The mecha operator who was originally the last in that line was startled by the sudden appearance of two new mecha and turned to give them a curious look. He was not suspicious, however — after all, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng were currently operating the standard advanced mecha exclusive to this mainship (the identifying logo of the ship the mecha belonged to was displayed on the mecha's chests). At most, he was only wondering why these two had been so slow. Still, this was their own personal business, so the mecha operator did not pay much mind to it.

Seeing that this mecha operator was only looking at them but not asking any questions, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng breathed out a great silent sigh of relief. They knew their plan to infiltrate had succeeded. Very soon, they had been ejected from the mainship and were flying towards one of the launch ports of the Swift Dragon's patrol ship. Once they had safely landed in the other ship's mecha hall, under the instructions of the staff member there, they operated their mecha adeptly to enter the secured seat arranged for them. After that, they chose to remain in their mecha, silent, making no move to leave their mecha.

The mecha operators of the Swift Dragon ship did not think much about the sight, because many of the mecha operators who had been transferred over were doing the exact same thing. The experience of escaping with their lives had tired out these mecha operators, and now they were safe, their high-strung emotions eased. Thus, after entering their secured seats, many of the mecha operators had instantly fallen asleep. Only a few mecha operators with bolder nerves had the mood to climb out of their mecha to interact with the staff members or mecha operators of the Swift Dragon ship.

Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng both just seemed like another member of the sleeping group, so the staff of the Swift Dragon ship considerately left them alone. In truth, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng were actually having an intense conversation within their mecha.

Initially, with Ling Lan's and Li Lanfeng's change in mecha, their original team comms had become unusable. But who was Little Four? He had instantly helped Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng to secretly establish a private comms channel for just the two of them.

"Who knows if Combat and the others have also gotten aboard this ship? Would they also be here in this mecha hall?" Li Lanfeng swept one look around at the mecha which all looked the same and could not help but shake his head. He really had no way of finding the other members of their team from all these similar-looking mecha.

"As long as they still live, we'll find them. There is no need to worry." On the other hand, Ling Lan was extremely composed. She had great trust in Qi Long and the others. Having participated in an expedition team before, this kind of trivial matter would not trouble them too much. Besides, this was also a test for them — without her full protection, could they survive based on their own capabilities?

********

Right then, in another mecha hall of the Swift Dragon ship, Xie Yi had already struck up a good relationship with the staff members. All smiles, he rejoined his teammates and shared what news he had learned with them.

Qi Long and the other six had not remained in their mecha, because they were currently dressed in the exact same piloting suit as the Federation NPC soldiers and not their own individualistic clothes.

Fortunately enough, when the magnetic tsunami had caught up to the tail of the mainship and the explosion had broken out, with great teamwork and rapport, Qi Long and Luo Lang had grabbed hold of the special-class mecha who had abruptly rushed in and put him right in front of their team to be their shield. The other had taken the majority of the force from the magnetic tsunami, allowing them to safely tide over this crisis. (Of course, Qi Long and the others did not know that the reason they managed to survive was also because Ling Lan had blocked off a large portion of the magnetic tsunami on the outside, otherwise just one special-class mecha alone would not have been able to keep all of them alive ...)

Of course, the end of the special-class mecha was most tragic. He had been instantly destroyed by the force of the magnetic tsunami. This was still the result of the other not reacting in time, activating his defensive measures half a second late. It was this half-second delay that had caused the mecha operator inside the special-class mecha to be unable to endure the force of the magnetic tsunami, hence dying instantly.

The ruthlessness of Qi Long and Luo Lang's decisive action caused the two new members, [No Mecha Unrepaired] and Li Shiyu, to quiver involuntarily in their hearts. In particular, Li Shiyu finally realised that this team he had joined not only had a shameless and black-bellied team leader, even the team members were not very nice people ... if he had been in their shoes, he would never have been able to use an innocent person as a shield ...

Still, Li Shiyu's rational mind acknowledged the fact that Qi Long and Luo Lang's decision had been correct, because their choice had allowed everyone in their team to survive. Li Shiyu did not forget that even as they had grabbed hold of the special-class mecha, Qi Long had pushed him and [No Mecha Unrepaired] to the back of the pack, while the other three members had worked seamlessly with Qi Long and Luo Lang to shield the two of them. In other words, only after the five of them were dead would he and [No Mecha Unrepaired] have met any danger.

After the fact, Li Shiyu's emotions were extremely complicated. He was stunned and confused but also ashamed and guilty for the special-class mecha, yet overall, he was mostly moved. At that moment, he really just could not berate Qi Long and Luo Lang for their ruthless decision ... perhaps this was what comradery meant! Li Shiyu's heart throbbed powerfully, and he found that he rather liked the feeling.

Chapter 322: Anxiety!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

For these reasons, Qi Long and the other six managed to survive. Even if they had been afraid, they had been thrown by the explosion right into the middle-back part of the mainship. Of course, they had been severely injured in the process. Here, the benefits of having Li Shiyu had to be mentioned — he had instantly brought out the special medical agents he had developed. Their wounds which would normally have needed one or two days to recover were all mostly healed after several minutes.

Initially, Qi Long and the others had considered going to the tail-most end to look for Boss Ling Lan and [Self-Defined Destiny], but the remnant force of the magnetic storm and the low power of their mecha made it impossible for them to get close to the tail. Just as they were feeling helpless, [No Mecha Unrepaired] discovered a secret. The pilotless mecha around them could be claimed by players as long as the damage levels of the mecha did not exceed 40%.

After discovering this secret, Qi Long's group of seven was both surprised and pleased. This discovery meant that they would be able to find a way to go to the tail end of the mainship to find Boss Lan. They looked around and found that there were ten or so mecha they could collect. Those mecha had not been damaged too badly by the magnetic turbulence. The seven of them picked the best seven mecha and changed into them. Then just as they were about to go to the tail, they heard a mecha operator who had come to check on the situation appear in the middle-back area of the starship.

The magnetic tsunami had caused significant damage to the entire mainship. Not only were all of the staff members in the tail end dead, even some of the defenceless staff members and mecha operators outside of their mecha in the central areas of the ship had been killed by the explosive force of the large explosion. It could be said that the casualties were high.

Although the control centre of the mainship believed that there were basically no survivors in the tail end, they still sent a small mecha squad to go investigate. When Qi Long's group had first sensed the appearance of the mecha squad, their first reflex was to hide. However, Han Jijyun had an idea — he instructed the team to go up and greet the mecha squad.

Sure enough, when the mecha squad saw them, the other side was not at all suspicious. Instead, they almost cried out in relief and excitement. They had initially thought that the all their comrades in the tail end had died. They really did not expect to find any survivors ... this made them so ecstatic that they had no mind at all to bother asking for the survivors' team numbers or any other personal information.

Just like that, Qi Long and the others were taken into the safe area of the mainship. When the staff there discovered that they were heavily bruised and injured, they were settled into healing pods for the night.

Frankly, there was a fatal flaw in Qi Long's team's cover story. Their mecha control suits were not the formal military-use control suits. Instead, they were using civilian control suits that Mecha World had produced in the fashion of those military suits, so their suits were still somewhat different from the official mecha suits used by soldiers. However, they were very clever — they tore up the most questionable spots on their control suits. Qi Long in particular had almost overdone it to the extent that he was almost naked. At the same time, they were also ruthless enough to hurt themselves on purpose, staining whatever remained of their own control suits red. Their bleeding wounds caused the rescuers to pay no attention to their control suits, placing all their attention on the group's injuries. This allowed the group to safely overcome this most difficult hurdle.

After a night of rest, they put on the military uniforms that had been specially brought over for them. As the living quarters of the soldiers had been at the tail end and so had also been blown up, all of their clothes and daily necessities were sure to be gone as well. The support staff of the mainship naturally had to think for their sakes. Not only did the staff provide them with military uniforms, they were also each given a standard official military-use mecha control suit. This made Qi Long and the others laugh silently to themselves, glad that they were finally safe.

Of course, there was one other reason why the mainship rescue logistics team was so quick to believe that they were mecha operators of the ship itself. The ship's JMC and the other staff members of the ship who were familiar with the operations of the tail end had all been killed in the explosion, every single one of them. This had contributed to the ease with which Qi Long's group of seven had infiltrated the mainship. The staff members instinctively believed that any mecha operators who were piloting mecha of their mainship must of course be one of their own.

They truly did not believe that someone could sneak in without a trace. Therefore, no one doubted the origins of Qi Long's group. They were all just sincerely glad that their comrades in the tail end had not been completely wiped out. The fact that there were survivors was a comfort to them as well.

There was one more reason they had processed Qi Long and the others so hastily. The staff did not dare to meet the pleading and questioning eyes of Qi Long's team. After the rescue team had found Qi Long's group of seven, they had discovered that the air of the mainship was surging out at a dangerous rate. The mainship did not have enough power left to maintain the atmospheric balance of the air within the ship. In order to ensure the safety of the people in the middle and front sections of the ship, the commander had no choice but to stop the search and rescue efforts and close the airlock gate in the back half of the ship to prevent the air from continuing to leak out.

Although Qi Long's group of seven had pleaded repeatedly for the search and rescue efforts to continue, insisting that there must still be other mecha operators alive in the tail end, the staff still did not manage to enter the tail end again in the end. Time waits for no man — they needed to do their duty by the remaining people. Thus, the airlock gates had to be sealed once more and the search and rescue efforts concluded prematurely.

The hopeful expressions on the faces of Qi Long's team had made the search and rescue soldiers feel extremely guilty; they felt as if they had done wrong by their comrades in the tail end. So after putting them into recovery pods, the staff subconsciously began avoiding them. No one was willing to go verify their identity, because they were afraid that the other party would ask about the final outcome of the search and rescue effort ... just like that, Qi Long's group once again evaded another possibility of being exposed.

It had to be said that Qi Long and the others were very lucky. All of the surviving soldiers on the ship were grieving over the loss of about half of their comrades. Thus, they were exceedingly kind to the survivors, skipping over some of the typically necessary confirmation procedures. Meanwhile, when the commander received the report regarding the surviving mecha operators of the tail end, he too did not think much about it. He only gave word for the staff to take extra care of them and that was it. This was because at that time, the commander had been consumed with anxiety. How could he bring this battered mainship on its last legs to the Swift Dragon base? Who knew how much longer this ship would hold out for?

"The other party is indeed a rescue ship from the Swift Dragon base. We should be able to successfully enter the Swift Dragon base now ... I just don't know how Boss and [Self-Defined Destiny] are doing right now. I wonder if they're safe ..." Xie Yi whispered, finding it difficult to keep his worry from showing on his brow. Who knew if Boss Lan had managed to survive that magnetic tsunami?

"Don't worry. Who do you take Boss for? Since we all managed to survive, Boss most definitely survived as well," Luo Lang whispered back, his gaze filled with steel-like conviction. Luo Lang was the one with the greatest faith in Ling Lan. In Luo Lang's eyes, his boss would never be defeated, not even by such a horrific thing like the magnetic tsunami.

Han Jijyun nodded and said, "Luo Lang is right. Boss will definitely be fine. Worrying about Boss's condition is not what we should be doing now. Rather, we need to figure out how to infiltrate the Swift Dragon base seamlessly before Boss finds us." Han Jijyun believed that the true challenge lay ahead of them. They needed to begin preparations early. "Once we settle down at the Swift Dragon base, I'm sure that there will inevitably be a registration of the survivors of the mainship. Since we do not know the information of any members of the mainship we can use, at that time, we will definitely be exposed."

"If only Boss were here. He is a hacker, so he would definitely be able to obtain the information of those mecha operators in the tail end and give us some suitable identities." A trace of regret flashed through Lin Zhong-qing's eyes. He too had thought of this problem. As the mainship had been greatly damaged, most of the common soldiers had passed away in this magnetic tsunami. The staff on the ship had been so busy cleaning things up and keeping things together that they had not had the spare energy to properly vet the survivors. However, once everything had settled, both the commander of the mainship and the leader of the Swift Dragon base would be sure to insist for proper checks to be carried out. As Han Jijyun said, their exposure was imminent.

At this point, Lin Zhong-qing could not help but smile bitterly. Once again, he found that Boss Lan was truly an omnipotent existence for them. As long as he was around, any problem would no longer be a problem, able to be solved easily.

"Speaking of hackers, I seem to have heard [Self-Defined Destiny] say before that he too is a hacker. If he were around, perhaps we could also have obtained that information ..." Xie Yi recalled what [Self-Defined Destiny] had said on the transport ship and remarked with some regret.

"That's true! How unlucky. If he were here, we would be much safer ..." said Qi Long in frustration at those words, "If I had known earlier, I would have let [Self-Defined Destiny] enter the mainship first back then."

"It's too late to say all this now. We might as well brainstorm and think about how we should deal with the situation." Li Shiyu interrupted Qi Long's tangent and reminded everyone to stop thinking about useless things.

Han Jijyun nodded and said, "Dux Li is right. The two hackers of our team are not here, so it's pointless to think about ways to get the information via hacker abilities. Let's think of some other way."

The group began to think hard, but unfortunately they could not come up with a good method. Then, Xie Yi saw [No Mecha Unrepaired] staring blankly at a corner. The other was still a second year student in the military academy now due to being held back two years. He was Chang Xinyuan who had been forced into dire straits because he had caught the eye of the Thunder King.

Xie Yi followed his line of sight but saw nothing there except a spider spinning a web ... he stared dubiously at [No Mecha Unrepaired] a.k.a. Chang Xinyuan and wondered — had the other thought of something?

Chang Xinyuan seemed to feel the heat of Xie Yi's gaze, and he slowly came back to himself. He smiled embarrassedly and asked, "Xie Yi, you ... what's up?"

"You were staring off into space. Have you thought of something?" asked Xie Yi curiously.

Chang Xinyuan rubbed his head in embarrassment. "I just never expected that [Lingtian First-String] was actually that Boss Lan who defeated the Leiting Mecha Clan. And it's even more unexpected that I would join your battle clan ... this makes me feel as if I am dreaming ..."

Xie Yi was speechless. When they had first gotten out of their mecha, Chang Xinyuan's expression had been calm and composed. Xie Yi had thought the other had not recognised them and so they had not paid any mind to it. Unexpectedly, Chang Xinyuan knew all about their backgrounds but was only showing signs of it now. Had he just pretended too well ... or was his reflex arc just abnormally slow for him to only react now?

Chang Xinyuan's words made the other people look at each other speechlessly as well. It had already been a full night since then! Friend, for you to exclaim about it now — isn't it a little too late?

The penetrating gazes of the other six made [No Mecha Unrepaired] rather flustered. He once again rubbed his head and said, "Actually, I was just thinking about those words Boss Lan had said to us when we had departed." Unconsciously, Chang Xinyuan had adopted the address of Boss Lan from Qi Long and the others.

Chapter 323: Clearing a Hurdle!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

"What are you saying?" Qi Long rubbed his face roughly, suddenly finding that for someone with an impetuous nature like him, dealing with someone with such a slow reflex arc like [No Mecha Unrepaired] was really a kind of torture.

"Boss Lan said that, if by any chance we got split up, we should use pre-arranged aliases to find one another ..." replied Chang Xinyuan.

"So you're saying that Boss Lan will use an alias? Impossible. If Boss Lan really managed to infiltrate the Swift Dragon base, he would definitely use an identity of one of the fallen soldiers, otherwise the other side will see through him." Qi Long was the first to express disbelief. An alias would be easily exposed once the other side checked their databases.

"But you all said that Boss Lan is a powerful hacker. Couldn't he have changed the database?" Chang Xinyuan did not know much about hackers, so he just shared what he believed.

"How could a database be so easily changed?" Qi Long could not help but burst out into snickers. Even the strongest hacker would never dare to do any hanky-panky in the mainframe.

"No, perhaps [No Mecha Unrepaired] is right ..." said Han Jijyun, interrupting Qi Long.

Han Jijyun's words instantly shut Qi Long up. When it came to his sworn brother's judgment, Qi Long had full faith. Therefore, he could only rub his nose helplessly and say nothing more.

"Boss Lan's hacking skills are very formidable. I believe that anyone who knows about Boss Lan's ability knows this." Han Jijyun's words received emphatic nods from Qi Long and the other three of Ling Lan's original team. In contrast to Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan who only knew Ling Lan for a short time, the four of them who had grown up beside Ling Lan were well aware of Ling Lan's exploits in terms of hacking.

"Thus, who can say that Boss Lan really can't change the database of the command mainship?" At this point, Han Jijyun's eyes were shining, "I believe that Boss Lan would have already predicted our current circumstances. He will definitely add the aliases we agreed to in advance into the database, along with all the other relevant info."

"Once we're at the Swift Dragon base, if someone actually comes to check our identity, we just need to report the fake identity that has been arranged for us," Han Jijyun stated his decision.

"What if team leader Ling did not manage to change it in time ..." Li Shiyu, who was not very clear on Ling Lan's abilities, was still rather worried. He felt it was somewhat inappropriate to use this kind of gambling-like method.

"Since there is the possibility of exposure no matter what we do, we might as well take the gamble. I believe in Boss Lan," replied Han Jijyun with determination.

His words drew the agreement of Qi Long and the other three original members. Seeing the determination in their eyes, Li Shiyu could only tuck away his doubts, sigh, and consent. Chang Xinyuan had no objections. As a mechanic who was focused on researching and modifying mecha, as long as the team has made a final decision, he would not have any opposing opinions.

Just like that, another day and half a night later, at 3 o' clock in the morning, the patrol ship safely arrived at the Swift Dragon base.

The Swift Dragon base, which had long been informed, systematically placed all the personnel from the mainship in a large battalion. Qi Long and the others entered the base calmly under the direction of the military personnel of the Swift Dragon Base.

They only took a few casual glances at the situation around them and then they stopped looking around. But those few glances were enough to shock them, because there was an on-duty soldier every one hundred steps within the Swift Dragon base. It looked like the Swift Dragon base was extremely strict in terms of manning the defences.

This was extremely rare among the Federation forces that were highly reliant on technology. It should be known that military bases generally relied on hidden monitors with three hundred and sixty degrees of coverage as the main means of monitoring, and rarely employed so much manpower for defence.

Qi Long and the others appeared unchanged on the surface, but they already had their guards up mentally. It would definitely not be easy to find their boss and complete the final mission under such strict defence. They were well aware that under the close supervision of these people, there were still countless invisible electronic monitoring devices watching them. If they showed any little flaw, they would be uncovered by the surveillance personnel of the Swift Dragon base, and the consequences would be unthinkable.

Due to the impromptu arrangement, the base was unable to provide excellent accommodation for the survivors of the mainship. Regardless of military rank, all of the survivors were assigned ten to a room. Of course, for those top-ranking officers like the commander of the mainship, the conditions were not as bad.

Qi Long's group of seven was assigned along with three other strangers to a room to rest. They had only rested for a few hours, not fully recovered yet, when they were woken up by a knock on the door. It turned out that the Swift Dragon base's support staff were already here to register their information.

Qi Long and the others shared a look. Han Jijyun signalled for them to continue faking sleep. One of the other three in the room opened the door, muttering angrily, and Han Jijyun perked his ears to listen carefully to their conversation.

Hearing that it was someone here to register their information, the attitude of the person who opened the door was tempered. He stated his information — the logistics head of the Leiguang mecha squad of the Jinglong mainship from the Dragon River transport fleet, Yang Yilong!

After the support staff of the Swift Dragon base keyed in his information, he smiled and said with a salute, "Hello, Second Lieutenant Yang, I'm really sorry for disturbing your rest."

Only then did Han Jijyun open his eyes to peek at the other's epaulette. It turned out the other was just a corporal — no wonder his attitude became so respectful. The status of a support soldier on a base was obviously incomparable to the status of a support staff on a military ship. This was also why all soldiers yearned to serve on a ship, because the starting point of those who obtained a position on a ship was much better than those serving on the ground.

At this time, the other people in the room had all been awakened as well. They rubbed at their eyes, yawning. Seeing this, the support staff walked over the closest bed from the door. Chang Xinyuan was the one lying there and he was currently rubbing his eyes. Seeing the staff approach him, Chang Xinyuan's palms could not help but sweat, and the hand rubbing at his eyes faltered for a moment.

Noticing this, Han Jijyun, who was lying one bed behind Chang Xinyuan, quickly yawned and said, "Why don't you register me first? The quicker I'm done, the quicker I can rest."

The support staff of the Swift Dragon base quickly stepped forward in response to approach Han Jijyun.

"I'm Ji Yinglong, mecha member #5 of the Cheetah mecha squad of the Jinglong mainship from the Dragon River transport fleet," Han Jijyun calmly stated the alias they had set up. The reason he had pretended to be asleep at first was so that one of the other three strangers would register first. That way, he would be able to know the name of that mainship. Though this was not any great secret among the official soldiers of the mainship, as outsiders, they really did not know that information. Besides, he also wanted to know what the standard format of responding was.

With Yang Yilong's answer as a template, Han Jijyun knew how he was supposed to answer.

Han Jijyun's reply caused Yang Yilong from the same ship to do a double take. He stared in surprise at Han Jijyun, but out of propriety, he did not speak up to question the other. He too could not be certain whether his own mainship had such a mecha battle clan with such an unfamiliar sounding name.

After obtaining Han Jijyun's response, the support staff of the Swift Dragon base entered the information into the query system of the base. Then, he saluted and said, "First Lieutenant Ji, hello."

Han Jijyun merely saluted back calmly, but he was mentally shouting 'YES' in his heart. As expected, Boss Lan had modified the database. Otherwise, the other would not have responded this way. With that, he was even more certain that Boss Lan had survived the magnetic tsunami and had safely made his way to the Swift Dragon base.

Seeing Han Jijyun pass through successfully, the others' hearts settled. Moreover, Han Jijyun's answer also showed them what they should say.

Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan saw that Han Jijyun really managed to pass through the registration check and could not help but be greatly astonished. They now had a brand new understanding of Ling Lan's hacker abilities.

Chang Xinyuan had originally already been extremely admiring of Ling Lan's mecha control skills. Now, he was even more awed by Ling Lan's hacker abilities. He, who had originally held out very little hope for the outcome of this mission, now began to have some confidence. Perhaps they would really be able to complete this SSS-level mission no one else had ever accomplished before throughout history ... At this thought, Chang Xinyuan's heart pounded, but he very soon pushed down this notion.

Chang Xinyuan smiled wryly to himself. Hanging out with Qi Long and these other youths who were like young calves unafraid of tigers, he had unconsciously begun to lose his rationality, actually beginning to also have such unrealistic thoughts ... but, what if, really, by any chance, they really ... Chang Xinyuan took in a deep breath and firmly pushed all these distracting thoughts to the back of his mind. He knew very well that their mission had just begun — the hardest parts were still yet to come.

Meanwhile, this was the first time Li Shiyu was seeing Ling Lan in a positive light. That initially thick-skinned and shameless Ling Lan in his mind, who loved to manipulate others with petty tricks, began to have a positive image. Sure enough, to become an acknowledged boss, he must have his unique charm and capabilities ...

After checking the information of everyone in the room and determining that there was no problem, the Swift Dragon support staff left the room. At this time, Yang Yilong loudly asked Qi Long, "Captain Luo (Qi Long's alias was Luo Ying), who'd expect that you're actually member #2 of the Cheetah mecha team. That's the position of the team ace, you know!"

Typically, #1 was the team leader, #2 was the main ace of the team, #3 was the secondary ace, #4 was a primary fighter, while #5 and beyond were indefinite. Those numbers could be support and logistics members, or they could also be primary fighters. Although Yang Yilong felt that the name of the Cheetah mecha team sounded very unfamiliar, he still expressed his admiration for Qi Long's position.

Qi Long scratched his head in embarrassment and said with a smile, "I'm no ace, our team leader is ..."

His earnest face and this smile made him appear somewhat dopey, but gave others a feeling of extreme sincerity and trustworthiness. Yang Yilong could not help but find himself liking Qi Long.

Yang Yilong exchanged a few more words with Qi Long. When he heard that they still did not know whether their team leader and their #7 member was dead or alive, he was instantly filled with pity. Seeing this, Qi Long angrily said that he believed that his team leader still lived. This heartfelt display of Qi Long's absolute trust made Yang Yilong admire Qi Long even more. That little bit of doubt initially still present in his heart vanished without a trace at this performance of Qi Long's.

When Han Jijyun saw this, he let out a quiet sigh of relief. When he had responded earlier, he had already been worried that the unfamiliar name of the mecha team would arouse suspicion in the minds of the mainship's members. Luckily, Qi Long's appearance was very handy for deceiving others. At the very least, judging from Yang Yilong's present expression, he had not become suspicious of them.

Chapter 324: The Truth!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

At this time, in another room, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng who had already finished registering were currently laid out on their beds, resting.

Not too long after, Ling Lan received a text message. She flicked open her communicator to look and was instantly immensely excited. In the very next second, she had extremely impolitely kicked at Li Lanfeng on the upper bunk.

Feeling the force coming from his mattress, Li Lanfeng sat up in puzzlement. Before he could ask Ling Lan on the bunk below what had happened, Ling Lan said, "There's news of #2 and the others. Clean up quickly and let's go look for them."

Li Lanfeng's eyes lit up. He put on a jacket and then leapt off the bed to follow Ling Lan heading towards where Qi Long was staying.

The reason Ling Lan received this news so quickly was not because of Little Four's abilities. Of course, if Qi Long and the others' information were to be registered, Little Four, who was already lurking in the network of the Swift Dragon base, would definitely be able to obtain the news at soonest notice. However, in order to let everything seem natural and above-board, when she had registered herself, Ling Lan had generously bribed the support staff of the Swift Dragon base. Of course, she had also let Li Lanfeng utilise that natural ability of his to gain favour with others and intensify the other side's good impression of them, thus successfully securing the other's agreement to help them.

In reality, right when Qi Long and the others' information had been registered, Ling Lan had already been notified by Little Four. However, Ling Lan had kept calm and continued to lay on her bed as if she knew nothing. Only when she received the notification from that support staff did she pretend to be excited and take action.

Of course, the other was not breaking any rules of the base by helping them. After all, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng were just trying to find their comrades who had gotten split up from them — it's not like they were trying to inquire about the secrets of the base. Moreover, right now within the Swift Dragon base, Ling Lan was not the only person who was doing this. Many other soldiers who had been separated from their original teammates for various reasons had similarly put forward such requests. Ling Lan had only included an additional minor reward when she had made her request.

This reward was very simple — it was just a bottle of high proof liquor Ling Lan had on her for first-aid purposes. Under Little Four's assistance, Ling Lan had found out that this person's hobby was to drink.

As for why Ling Lan would have such high proof liquor on her ... ahem, ahem, this was actually a remnant habit Ling Lan had brought over from her last life lying on her sickbed. Having gotten used to the idea that alcohol should be used on wounds to sterilize them, she really could not adapt to this world where no prep work was done, with healing agents being directly sprayed or applied onto open wounds and leaving it at that.

Mentally, Ling Lan had always had some fear with regards to this sort of treatment method. What if, by any chance, there was tetanus or something similar about? Wasn't this just asking for trouble? Therefore, she habitually carried several bottles of high-proof liquor with her in her backpack. If she was injured accidentally, she would open one of the bottles to use the alcohol in it to disinfect the wound before spraying healing agents on it ...

With regards to this habit of Ling Lan's, although Qi Long and the others were puzzled by it, they would never question her. They only speculated secretly whether this was because their boss liked alcohol but was forbidden by his parents to drink ... could this be why he had sought out such an unreasonable reason?

It could only be said that some things were already ingrained habits of Ling Lan's. It was impossible for her to change them in a short period of time. Thus, without her knowledge, Ling Lan had become someone who liked to drink in her team members' eyes 1 .

Back when Ling Lan had brought out the liquor and handed it over as an incentive for the support staff, even Li Lanfeng could not help but sweatdrop silently and wonder if Ling Lan was an alcohol-loving rabbit — why else would he think of using alcohol as a bribe?

Still, for whatever reason, overall, Ling Lan's reward had pleased that support staff greatly. Consequently, the other was extremely cooperative, almost notifying them at first notice. This led Li Lanfeng to once again be in awe — the seemingly random and reckless actions of the rabbit always seemed to end up being extremely effective.

The two of them very quickly found the resting spot of Qi Long and the others and knocked on the door.

The one who opened the door was again Yang Yilong — who asked him to be the one sleeping on the bed closest to the door? Opening the door, he saw two strangers, so he asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"Is Luo Ying and company here?" asked Ling Lan coldly. That icy gaze of hers made Yang Yilong feel a chill invade his heart — he quickly ducked back into the room and shouted, "Captain Luo, someone's looking for you."

Hearing this, Qi Long's eyes lit up and he leapt off his top bunk to rush over with wide steps to the door. Seeing his boss's familiar face, he was instantly overwhelmed with emotion, "Leader, you've finally come!"

Qi Long's cry of leader made the other members inside the room leap up in excitement, all of them running over as well.

Yang Yilong was astonished at the sight, but thinking of the impression that person at the doorway had given him, he understood why these mecha team members would be so worked up. Only someone like that could gain the allegiance of proud mecha warriors. With just one glance, Yang Yilong could tell that that team leader was most definitely a formidable warrior. This was because he had felt a similar pressure from the team leader of the Leiguang Battle Clan.

Seeing his other two companions peeking out from their beds, nonverbally asking who the visitor was, Yang Yilong silently indicated for them to remain silent and continue to sleep and not disturb the group.

A mecha team leader was an existence high, high above them mecha support staff — he did not want to incur the displeasure of that team leader.

Qi Long and the others hugged Ling Lan excitedly in succession, and only then did they see the familiar smiling face standing by Ling Lan's side. Other than [No Mecha Unrepaired], all the others could not help but be taken aback, especially Li Shiyu, whose face actually stiffened noticeably for a brief moment.

Seeing this, Li Lanfeng smiled wryly and said, "#8, for previously planning to try and snatch your position in the team from you out of envy, I'm sorry. The crisis this time has let me understand that status, levels, and whatever are all not important. What's most important is my companions. I hope you can forgive me."

Li Shiyu only huffed at those words and turned his head aside without speaking. He knew his own expression had been slightly off — if some surveillance device had just happened to record it, a flaw might have already been discovered. Li Lanfeng was undoubtedly trying to help him hide his slip in composure, but he was just unused to acting and really did not know how to handle the situation.

Seeing this, Xie Yi tugged on Li Shiyu's arm and said, "All of us being able to survive is already a blessing. Why bother with things of the past? Don't you agree, #8?"

Li Shiyu saw everyone looking at him with smiles on their faces and could only reply grudgingly, "Forget it. Let's not talk about past matters anymore."

Only then did Li Lanfeng sigh in relief. He stepped forward to pull Li Shiyu into a strong hug and said, "Thank you, brother, for your tolerance and understanding ..." Only Li Lanfeng knew that he was not just putting on an act when he said this ... he truly hoped that, one day in the future, Li Shiyu could say these same words back to him. However, Li Lanfeng also knew that this was probably an impossible dream.

Seeing this, Ling Lan clapped her hands together forcefully and said, "It's great that you two have buried the hatchet. In future, we must be united. We shouldn't fight amongst ourselves anymore." Ling Lan's words marked the end of the matter, and the group happily welcomed Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng into their room.

Meanwhile, Li Lanfeng latched onto Li Shiyu and the two of them moved to sit on Li Shiyu's bed, where they began whispering to one another. It looked like they had truly buried the hatchet.

Only Li Lanfeng himself knew that despite his seeming composure, he was actually greatly shocked. When he had first seen Li Shiyu, as good as he was at deception, he had almost slipped up and reacted. That bloody Ling Lan had not given him a heads up that his family's Li Shiyu had also joined the battle clan.

Seeing Li Shiyu's face filled with innocence, Li Lanfeng could not help but sigh internally. What in the world did their Li family owe Ling Lan? Not only had he joined, even Li Shiyu who should not have been able to join had joined ... still, he could not help but become smug deep inside. As expected of his rabbit — able to do what others could not.

If he had the rabbit's help in the future, would he too be able to escape his so-called fate ...? Li Lanfeng's gaze flickered but very quickly settled as he tossed aside this idiotic notion of his. He absolutely could not harm the rabbit. To go against the heavens and change his fate, a terrible price would have to be paid. Grandfather Zhuge had already stated this very clearly from the start. And this price, could very well be his life.

Although Li Lanfeng was physically speaking with Li Shiyu, his mind was distracted in recalling when he and Ling Lan had first seen each other's true faces in this virtual world not too long ago.

When they had arrived at the Swift Dragon base, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng naturally had to leave their mecha. Of course, they had it much easier than Qi Long and the others because in the virtual world, both Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng were miraculous beings. Because she had Little Four, Ling Lan could easily change her original civilian mecha suit into an official military mecha suit. Meanwhile, Li Lanfeng was a spectre, and though he could not directly change the fixed settings of the virtual world, he could apply a disguise to himself. Thus, when the two had come out from their mecha, their appearance was flawless, no different at all from the other mecha operators.

However, when Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng had met face-to-face for the first time after getting out from their mecha, Li Lanfeng had almost stumbled and revealed his true feelings. If not for the fact that his spectre abilities also hid his expression, his flabbergasted expression would certainly have aroused suspicion in those around him.

In contrast, Ling Lan's ice mask had long been formed, so it did not collapse even when she had seen Li Lanfeng.

"Boss ...!" Li Lanfeng bit back on the 'Lan' that had been about to come out, stopping his outburst at only 'boss', making it seem like he was just greeting his own team leader.

"#9, keep up." Ling Lan's glacial gaze had contained a hidden warning. Although others may not be able to see Li Lanfeng's true expression, perhaps because she was way too familiar with the leopard, Ling Lan had still sensed Li Lanfeng's loss of composure.

This gaze made Li Lanfeng's initially shocked and restless heart cool down instantly. He bowed his head and cuffed his own forehead lightly, chiding himself for his slip. They had both not known about the other, but Ling Lan had still been able to keep calm. In terms of mentality, he had completely lost to the rabbit who was younger than him by three years. This made him feel somewhat embarrassed.

Right then, Li Lanfeng was not at all surprised at why Ling Lan could have logged onto Mecha World at just 10 years old back then. As someone who was able to create a similar disguise as him now, Ling Lan was undoubtedly a spectre just like him. And for spectres in the virtual world, all those so-called restrictions and limits were all inapplicable. None of it could prevent them from moving about as they wished. Thus, for Ling Lan to be able to enter Mecha World at just 10 years old was completely believable.

That said, Li Lanfeng could not help but sigh to himself. At 10 years old, Ling Lan's spectre abilities had actually been strong enough that he had not noticed a thing. No wonder they had had such affinity back then — even if he had entered the mecha training hall first, the rabbit had still always been able to come unerringly to the training hall he had chosen. Now, thinking back, Ling Lan must have used his own spectre abilities to find where he was.

Was this proof that the rabbit had held him with just as much esteem as he had back then? Which was why the other had used spectre abilities to look for his position and stage a coincidental meeting?

Li Lanfeng felt a surge of warmth in his heart. It looked like his friendship had not been one-sided back then. If he had only told Ling Lan bravely about his real identity back then, perhaps they would be bosom friends now and he would not be ranked behind the other companions of the rabbit.

Right then, a trace of regret rose up uncontrollably in Li Lanfeng's heart. However, it was quickly throttled by him, because he did not think it was too late to change things.

In this manner, although Li Lanfeng's heart had struggled a little, he still accepted Ling Lan. After all, Ling Lan was younger than him by 3 years, while the rabbit had always been a formidable existence in his heart, a strong person he admired. As such, it was exceedingly normal for him to flounder a little to reconcile the difference between the two impressions. Still, these were all minor blips. Li Lanfeng would never bear to give up the rabbit he had missed for so long and had spent 7 years to find.

Meanwhile, when Ling Lan found out the true identity of the leopard, her first thought was — sure enough, the leopard was very dangerous. Her second thought was — the leopard was truly not a good person!

Still, Ling Lan did not mind. As long as the leopard treated her with sincerity and did not harm her companions, she would not care what terrible things the leopard would do in the future. She would still be willing to save a spot for the leopard in her battle clan.

Of course, at present, this was all the weight Li Lanfeng had in Ling Lan's heart. In contrast, if Qi Long and the others planned to do something bad, Ling Lan would definitely roll up her sleeves and pitch in to come up with strategies to help them.

Fine, our queen Ling Lan indeed did not have any so-called true sense of justice in her. She only wanted to take good care of these little followers who trusted her and were willing to follow her, as well as cultivate them to become strong people capable of holding their own in their respective fields.

Chapter 325: The Mantis Stalking the Cicada!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

The survivors of the mainship obtained the chance to rest at the Swift Dragon base. Given that the Jinglong mainship had no way to travel long distances, they could only wait for the Federation army to send a new military vessel to pick them up.

After resting peacefully for three days and two nights, when the new mainship members heard that a new military vessel was about to arrive for them in two days, they were ecstatic. Even though they had been treated pretty well overall in the Swift Dragon base, they had still felt significantly restrained. The mainship members had been restricted to a small living area; for many other places on the base, they simply could not even get close. This made the fleet soldiers who were accustomed to being able to freely move around to feel extremely inconvenienced.

On this night, in a highly-defended area within the Swift Dragon base, several figures appeared silently not too far from the entrance. They lurked at the blind spot in the distance ...

"You're sure this is the spot?" Someone who appeared to be the commanding officer gestured as he asked the person beside him.

This group of people were wearing advanced induction combat clothing of the Federation military, which could buffer the human body from the outside air and perfectly camouflage the soldiers according to their surrounding environment. Once the soldiers laid down and stopped moving, it would be nigh impossible for even the most advanced radar detectors, thermal monitors, and the human eye to discover them.

The only reason we say 'nigh' is because there is nothing which can be guaranteed to be foolproof — there would always be the possibility of what if.

"Only this spot is most closely defended." The person beside the apparent commander returned a confident hand gesture.

"Have all the surveillance devices been blocked?" The commander turned to look towards another side, his gaze indicating that he wanted to confirm whether his men had completed the most critical step.

There were actually three people on his other side. One of them, who seemed to be their head, saw the question in the commander's eyes and nodded, signalling that it had been done.

It could be seen from their faces that it had not been easy to complete this step. Other than the one who had nodded, whose condition still seemed fine, the other two people had faint tracks of sweat on their foreheads and their faces were extremely grim. It looked like the two of them had already put forth all their energy to completely block off all the surveillance equipment and create false images.

"How long can it last?" After seeing the other's response, the commander then asked in a low voice.

"At most for only one hour and a quarter more. If possible, please try to come out within an hour," said the head grimly. He had not expected the defences of the Swift Dragon base to be so tight — in particular, there was an abnormal number of all kinds of advanced surveillance equipment. This had exceeded their estimation. If they had known earlier, they would have brought along the other two members of their team as well.

"One hour, is it? There should be enough time." The commander mused a little and felt that it was not a huge problem. Honestly, even if the problem was huge, he still had to go inside and investigate. Hadn't they already spent so much effort all for the sake of finding out what the hell was happening in the Swift Dragon base?

"Hollow Ground, I'll leave this to you," said the commander decisively to one of the others. His attitude was obviously much gentler than before with the others. In the virtual world, he truly did not dare to offend this Hollow Ground.

This man was outwardly different from others. His entire figure was enveloped in shadow, while his face was a complete fog of grey, his facial features forever indistinct. This was the appearance spectres held in the virtual world. They would never reveal their true face because as spectres, everyone who was an enemy would be out to kill them. This was because almost two-thirds of one's life was spent in the virtual world in this present world, and spectres were the terrifying group of people who were the only ones to hold the ability to decide true life and death in the virtual world.

Mind you, even the mainframes of the various great empires that maintained the entire virtual world were incapable of doing this.

Therefore, all the nations both loved and hated spectres — they wished to control the spectres in their borders, while they were extremely worried and jealous about the spectres of other nations. Besides spectres, equally feared by the enemy nations were those prodigiously gifted aberrant geniuses. These people, as long as their real identity was found out, if they were opponents, they would be prioritised for assassination, just like how Ling Lan had been attacked back when she had been younger ...

"Don't worry, no one can hurt them while I'm around." Hollow Ground's reply was brimming with confidence in himself. As one of the top elites in the central military spectre department, he had this confidence as well as his personal pride.

The commander frowned at those words. He knew spectres were, as a group, all strange and abnormal people. Known as death gods in the virtual world, they always had a sense of superiority as they looked down with contempt on the masses. However, since they were all Federation soldiers here, the commander did not take it to heart. He waved a hand at the men behind him, and two figures dashed out, using various areas of cover to hide themselves as they silently snuck over to an area not too far from the entrance.

At the entrance were two sentry soldiers facing outwards. Their eyes were alertly scanning everything before them — the two men who had snuck over just happened to position themselves in those sentries' blind spots, thus avoiding detection.

When they were only about ten meters away from the sentries, the two lurking men pulled out their weapons, which appeared similar to pistols, and aimed them at the two men on guard. Aware versus unaware — two muffled shots rang out as a cold light flashed at the muzzle of each pistol, and the two men on duty were hit accurately.

The two sentries had no chance to react at all, instantly falling over. It turned out that the men who had snuck over were using the highest level Federation silent tranquillizer gun. Even a relatively stronger C-class demonbeast in this universe would topple over from the anaesthetic in three seconds after being shot by this gun, not to mention these on-duty soldiers who were completely incomparable to a C-class demonbeast. As long as their skin had been scratched, they would be instantly down for the count.

Seeing that they had succeeded, the two men silently dashed over to the opponents' sides and held them up, and then swiftly gripped their heads and twisted forcefully. There was a crack, and the necks of those sentries were broken with no fuss at all. The two men then carefully laid their two victims down on the ground, and without making any noise, they turned their head to signal behind them with a wave.

The commander nodded at Hollow Ground and the other two men with him, then led the others to move stealthily over. Meanwhile, the one who had answered the commander earlier, the head of the three men, followed the commander as well.

To enter, they had to go through an electronic door. This had to be cracked by a hacker, which was why the head had followed. That person's skill level was very high; he only took a few seconds to crack the electronic door. The door opened silently — the inside was extremely dark, but these people all had night vision goggles so their eyesight was not affected much by it.

A warehouse came into sight. Inside it were stacks of military supplies. It looked like the other countless warehouses on the base, extremely normal. However, these people would not be discouraged just because of this surface appearance. They had specifically chosen this place because neither hackers nor spectres could see this area clearly, unlike other places where things could be taken in with one glance.

The commander made a hand gesture beckoning his men in and they all entered in succession. Everyone began to search the warehouse, hoping to find anything suspicious.

About five minutes later, one of their members suddenly waved to the others. It looked like he had found something. The commander immediately led the hacker with them over to the man and began to carefully examine what the other had discovered.

The hacker touched the spot, closed his eyes, and began to examine it with his senses. Very soon, he opened his eyes and nodded to the commander, confirming that this was the right spot.

The commander waved his hand and everyone took cover, hiding in a circle around the hacker. Seeing that everyone had taken cover, the hacker took three brisk steps back, took in a deep breath, and closed his eyes as his hands made various different gestures. He murmured, and then a soft click could be heard — the ground silently opened up, exposing a dark hole only capable of letting one person through at a time.

The commander looked at the hacker, and the hacker shook his head firmly, indicating that there was no perceptible movement below. Only then did the commander signal for his subordinates to scout the way.

After the first man went down the hole, the hacker's face became serious. Three minutes later, he nodded to the commander. This was to tell him that there was no problem below.

The commander motioned for everyone to go down. Once the last person went down, the ground once again returned to normal. It was as if the black hole did not exist, while the electronic door they had initially entered through closed again.

In the meantime, of the three men left at the doorway, two of them had simulated the uniforms of those officers on duty and taken up the sentries' spots at the door. It was just as if nothing major had happened here. And as the one protecting this area, Hollow Ground suddenly merged with the darkness, as if he had never been there at all.

********

Right then, in a secret room in the control centre of the Swift Dragon base, eight black-robed people had their eyes closed. D1 and D9 who had appeared at the start were among them, while the remaining six people appeared almost no different from them.

"These tiny ants finally could not resist taking action." D9 suddenly opened his eyes and smiled sinisterly. He cracked his fingers, rather eager to indulge in a grand fight. After waiting for two days, this group of investigators sent by the Federation mainframe had finally shown themselves.

In fact, the moment the command mainship had arrived at the Swift Dragon base, they had already been monitoring everyone from that ship and set aside a few key suspects. For this purpose, they had not hesitated to transfer several top-class spectres over from their own country. They had to be sure they could keep these people here.

They definitely could not allow the Federation to reclaim this sole foothold in the Federation which had taken them so much trouble to obtain. Moreover, their Project T was at its most critical period now — they could not afford the slightest bit of carelessness.

As long as Project T succeeded, the Chinese Federation would descend into chaos, and they would then be able to take advantage to take over the most central and resource-rich supreme nation in their galaxy. In order to achieve this objective, their empire had spent countless generations worth of sweat and blood to only complete the early stage preparations of Project T ...

"Who'd have expected the other side to send so many people too. Tsk tsk tsk, three top hackers plus a top-class spectre ... we've managed to bait some big fish here." D1 was looking at those people sneaking up to that basement room where they had set up a trap. Right then, those people were slowly approaching — although they were extremely cautious, they had no idea that their every move was already being captured by comprehensive surveillance.

"Keep a close eye on those other suspects." Seeing everyone becoming excited, D1 could not help but warn coldly. He did not wish for them to succeed here only to result in their most essential secret base being discovered, thus causing them to fall short of success at this final stage.

Chapter 326: The Oriole Comes From Behind!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

"Rest assured. D1, D2, and D3 are stationed there. If anything happens, they will inform us," a black-robed person by D1's side calmly replied, "Moreover, two of our empire's top spectres are there looking out. Even if someone really reaches that area, the spectres can also eliminate them directly."

"We've already fished out the biggest fish, and I'm sure the others don't have the ability to get there," another black-robed man added.

"Yes, D1, don't worry too much. You had better think about how we can handle these big fish instead. Say, it's been a long time since we hunted and killed any spectres of the Chinese Federation," said another black-robed man with a dark smile.

"D10 speaks truly. D1, let's show them some of our methods. Together, we can definitely toy with those few hackers until their heads spin." A black-robed man began to cackle coldly in a corner. He was very interested in the prospect of messing with those top-class hackers of the Chinese Federation.

********

Meanwhile on the other side, Qi Long and the others, who had already fallen asleep, suddenly felt their communicators begin to vibrate. They leapt up and quickly put on their pre-prepared night combat clothing. Not long after, they could see the doors of their living quarters swing open automatically. Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng were standing outside the door, fully armed.

"Boss, we are ready," said Qi Long in a low voice.

"They wouldn't wake up suddenly, right?" [No Mecha Unrepaired], a.k.a. Chang Xinyuan, pointed at the three NPC soldiers sleeping soundly inside the room and asked worriedly.

"No, I've already arranged it so that no one in this room will wake up until dawn. Even if they wake up, they will still think you all are sleeping in the room." Seeing Chang Xinyuan's concern, Ling Lan patiently explained. With the heaven-defying god of the virtual world Little Four around, Ling Lan truly wasn't at all worried that these NPCs would discover any flaws.

Ling Lan carefully scanned her team members and then said softly, "The operation this time is very dangerous and there may even be a risk to your life. It's not too late to back out now." Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan were members who had joined the clan partway through after all — Ling Lan did not want to force them to brave danger against their will with the rest of her team.

When she mentioned the risk to their lives, everyone was startled, but Qi Long and the others of the original team quickly regained their composure. They had been braving life and death with Ling Lan since they were small, so they were not at all afraid of this. In contrast, a trace of confusion crossed Li Shiyu's and Chang Xinyuan's eyes. They did not know what Ling Lan meant when she spoke of this risk to their lives, because in the virtual world, even if they died, they would not really die. At most, their current avatar would just have to start anew and some of their time would be wasted.

Only Li Lanfeng's countenance shifted subtly at these words. He had thought of something, and the gaze he directed at Ling Lan grew even more shadowed and firm.

Everyone was silent. Although Li Shiyu was obsessed with military medical research, as intelligent as he was, he knew that these words of Ling Lan had actually been directed at him and Chang Xinyuan. Thus, he replied firmly, "Since I have decided to join the Lingtian Battle Clan, that means I am willing to brave life and death together with the Lingtian Battle Clan, both now and in the future."

This response of Li Shiyu's had a double meaning — Ling Lan raised a brow in astonishment, pleasant surprise flashing through her eyes. The other implication of Li Shiyu's words was that, even in the real world, he would still make the same choice.

Chang Xinyuan nodded fiercely at Li Shiyu's response, indicating that he too felt the same way. Those who liked to tinker with mechanical research did not have such convoluted ways of thinking — he was not aware of the double meaning of Li Shiyu's words. He only felt that, since he had already come to do this mission, of course he would follow it through till the end. Besides, he also was not someone who would run away when the going got tough, otherwise he would not have stubbornly resisted against the Thunder King for as long as three years.

"In that case, let's move." Seeing this, Ling Lan turned decisively and was the first to step into the heavy darkness of the night.

Seeing this, the team members all silently followed suit and stepped out with determination. At this moment, they did not know that this step would bring them into a reign of carnage and bloodshed 1 as they followed their team leader through life and death situations, all the way till the very day their lives ended.

As soon as they left the room, the door closed quietly behind them. Meanwhile, the three NPCs remained fast asleep ...

Ling Lan was making her way towards the west corner of the base. In the daytime, this was where the large canteen the soldiers ate at was located. Whenever it was time for a meal, that area would become filled with human cacophony, but when night came, other than the warehouse area, it was the quietest spot in the base. No one would go there typically. No one knew that beneath the large canteen, there was actually a small secret base.

No one was on duty to patrol the canteen, but Ling Lan had been alerted by Little Four that there were at least three top-class hackers controlling countless surveillance devices, both openly and covertly, to blanket-scan 2 the surrounding area. In other words, even if an ant were to crawl by, those hackers would be able to spot it clearly.

This way of doing things meant that almost no one would be able to slip by under their watch. Only if a top-class hacker came and ripped the control of the surveillance devices here from their hands would anyone be able to enter the area successfully. But that way, they would definitely be discovered instantly. This was one of the reasons why D1 believed that their control of the area was foolproof.

However, they could never imagine that there would be such a magical existence as Little Four in the world. He somehow managed to successfully manipulate things right under the noses of these three top-class hackers, making it so that false images were sent to these hackers, tricking them into believing that everything in the area was normal.

Ling Lan came to the large canteen and patiently waited for Little Four to respond. One minute later, Little Four raised a 'V' hand gesture high up into the air, butt wriggling wildly in exhilaration, and Ling Lan knew that Little Four had succeeded.

In her mindspace, Ling Lan instantly sent the smug Little Four flying with a flick of her finger. In order to prevent Little Four from making unnecessary mistakes out of pride, Ling Lan ruthlessly decided to crack down on such behaviour so that Little Four would never learn to be complacent.

Ling Lan signalled for her team members behind her to keep up as she strode up the doors of the large canteen without any sort of concealment. The rest could not help but take fright — was it really okay to just strut up like that directly?

Li Lanfeng looked at the unusually slender figure before him who walked with such sure steps and felt a complex mix of emotions stir in his heart. Compared to the others who knew very little about hacker abilities, Li Lanfeng was well aware that Ling Lan could be so bold because she had already taken control of all the surveillance devices here. Able to accomplish this in such a short amount of time, Ling Lan's hacker abilities were definitely no lower than imperial level.

He thought of the rumoured imperial level hacker involved in that Tianji Mecha Clan Headquarters explosion incident ... that had most likely been Ling Lan himself. The stronger the rabbit was, the happier he should be, but there was a sense of danger in his heart that was growing thicker and thicker. It was as if the person he was chasing so desperately was getting further and further away from him.

He definitely could not let the rabbit leave him behind! Li Lanfeng secretly gritted his teeth. In the past, he had been concerned over his body's condition, so he had always restrained himself somewhat while training his mecha control skills. Despite being pressured greatly by the Thunder King, he still had not changed his ways to recklessly increase his practice load.

Li Lanfeng had always known what he should do; he would not easily change his plan. But now, he had the urgent desire to become stronger. He felt that if he continued to dither around like this, there would eventually be a day when he would not be able to keep up with the rabbit's pace. The rabbit was very likely to get further and further away from him, and in the end, he would only be able to regretfully become a passing guest in the rabbit's life.

He, Li Lanfeng, absolutely would not accept becoming such a passing guest. No matter how important a passing guest he would be, he was disdainful of the very idea. This was because he wanted to have a long-lasting friendship with the rabbit, until both their heads were grey with old age. He hoped that at that time, they would still be able to drink wine together and reminisce, laughing together at the ups and downs they had shared up till then.

This was a deep desire that had been born from the regrets of Li Lanfeng's heartache when he had lost touch with the rabbit back when he had been 13 years old. Now, seven years later, God had given him the opportunity to re-establish this friendship, and he did not want to lose it again.

The door was soon opened, and Ling Lan led her team members straight into the canteen. The entrance to the secret base was in the canteen's kitchenette. The kitchenette only served the highest commander of the base; even the chef was a close confidante of the commander. In order to ensure the safety of the commander's food and drink, unauthorised people were not allowed to enter the kitchenette. This also worked well to protect the secrecy and security of the secret base.

Ling Lan moved towards the kitchenette like she was extremely familiar with the area. With regards to this, Qi Long and the others were already as used to it as they could be — they believed that all of this was merely due to Ling Lan's hacker abilities. Only Li Lanfeng lifted a curious brow. This was because he knew that hackers did not have the ability to locate an entrance instantaneously, nor did they have the ability to sense secrets remotely. Spectres too had some limits to their abilities — they could only use them at close range.

Li Lanfeng did not know about the existence of Little Four. As an intelligence entity, Little Four was not bound by these restrictions of hackers and spectres, which led to Little Four's status as a one of a kind existence within the virtual world. Just imagine if all the hackers and spectres had the abilities Little Four did. If that was the case, this virtual world would truly be an utter mess.

They had just entered the kitchenette when the position of the head chef's station opened up to reveal an opening. Ling Lan jumped in without delay, for Little Four had already displayed the situation below into Ling Lan's mind in 3D.

The opening and the ground below was about 20 metres apart. Ling Lan had no problems jumping this small bit of distance. With their boss as an exemplar, Qi Long and the others leapt in without any hesitation. Li Shiyu thought about it then jumped in resolutely, while Chang Xinyuan hesitated briefly before jumping in. Meanwhile, Li Lanfeng was last in line because as a spectre, he needed to constantly monitor the situation behind the group to ensure the safety of their rear end and see to it that they were not being followed.

Although this action of Li Lanfeng was rather superfluous as Little Four already had everything in the several kilometres around them under his control. If anything stirred, Little Four would know immediately. Still, Ling Lan would not reveal this truth. For one, she needed to give Li Lanfeng a chance to perform so that he could integrate himself quicker into the team. On the other hand, there were some things that still needed to be covered up. After all, the existence of Little Four was just too bizarre — even if she were to admit it honestly, she still would not be able to properly explain the existence of Little Four. Therefore, she might as well tacitly accept this behaviour of Li Lanfeng, as well as let Qi Long and others be glad for the addition of Li Lanfeng to their team. With an additional hacker in the team, their safety would be much better guaranteed.

Without knowing it, Li Lanfeng was slowly being integrated into Ling Lan's team. Qi Long and the others were more or less beginning to realise the importance of having Li Lanfeng in the team. They no longer solely took Li Lanfeng as a temporary fighter (a temporary fighter's position was the lowest in a clan, because they were replaceable at any time) but considered him as a true member of the clan now.