Small Talk

After rushing into the research institute, Antonia rolled forward and swiftly turned around, aiming her gun at the door.

As Reno entered, the gunfire outside suddenly stopped.

After a moment, Antonia holstered her weapon. "You were right. They won't come in."

Reno sighed in relief. Though he was confident they wouldn't enter, he still felt a bit nervous at that moment.

"So, can we relax and leave now?" he asked.

"Quite the opposite," Antonia said suddenly, activating her energy cannon with a flash of light. At the same time, she aimed her dual pistols at Reno.

"What's the meaning of this?" Reno exclaimed.

"Nothing much, just wanted to clarify what's going on here," Antonia said.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Antonia made an exaggerated expression. "Ha! Are you taking me for a fool? Those people wouldn't just refrain from attacking for no reason. There must be a cause!"

"And even if there is?" Reno countered. "Does that give you reason to tear up our agreement and attack me?"

Antonia was taken aback.

It was only now that she remembered their agreement: to be allies, not enemies, in this competition.

Reno grabbed Antonia's gun and pushed it aside. "If you're not going to shoot, don't aim at your ally with it."

With that, he brushed past Antonia and walked towards the interior of the research institute.

Watching his back, Antonia hesitated for a moment before following him towards the research institute.

The institute was underground, so the stairs spiraled downwards.

It was pitch black inside, but Reno turned on the lights, illuminating the floor. "At least they didn't disable the lighting function. How much ammo do you have left?"

"Three boxes of 20mm armor-piercing explosive rounds, fourteen missiles, and three percent energy," Antonia replied irritably.

Her ammo was still sufficient, but her energy was almost depleted.

Reno said, "I have one box of 9mm bullets, two missiles, twelve shells, and twenty-one percent energy."

Unlike Antonia, Reno's ammo was heavily depleted, but his energy situation was better. Moreover, he had activated a five-layer energy generator, which meant his energy would recover faster than Antonia's.

At this moment, he directly extracted five percent of the mech's energy and put it into the energy box, handing it to Antonia.

Surprised, Antonia took it. "Why give this to me? We don't need to fight here."

Reno looked up at the ceiling and said in a somewhat soliloquizing manner, "The rooms here are very tall, and the stairs are very large. They have been enlarged to accommodate the mechs."

Antonia shrugged. "It's a mech competition, so of course it has to be suitable for mechs."

Ignoring her, Reno continued, "The buildings here are also very sturdy, all made of superalloys. Even when four mechs fired at the research institute, they couldn't bring it down."

Antonia's expression finally changed.

She knew very well how much it would cost to build such an institute. If it were just made larger, that would be fine, but using superalloys... It meant it was definitely not just for show.

"You mean..." she began.

The light from the Silver Wing Angel shone on a large alloy door deep inside.

The door was tightly shut.

"I think before we push open that door, we'd better take a rest here, replenish our energy and ammo," Reno said.

"I have no objections," Antonia said, surprisingly not arguing for once. She finally realized that while she might be stronger than Reno in terms of technology, she might be far behind him in tactical analysis.

The two sat down on the spot, and the mech's production system continued to produce ammunition and energy without stopping.

After sitting with her knees hugged for a while, Antonia suddenly said, "How did you do it?"

"What?" Reno didn't catch it at first.

"How did you pull off that move to take down that mech, the Trof Spin?"

Reno nodded. "The control system of the Silver Wing Angel is a bit different from the general systems. It's enhanced in some aspects and weakened in others."

"Customized?" Antonia asked.

"Yes, just like yours."

Antonia's mech was also specially customized, highly agile and accurate in shooting. It was the most flexible mech Reno had ever seen, and he had no confidence in winning against Antonia in a normal battle. However, in such a narrow terrain, the advantages of the Crimson Widow were not very easy to exploit.

"What aspects have been weakened?" Antonia asked.

To be honest, this question was a bit taboo. It was like revealing one's weaknesses in front of hundreds of millions of people. But Reno thought for a moment and decided to answer, "Control stability. If we compare the performance of a general mech to a range like 3-5, 8-10, then the Silver Wing Angel is between 1-7.6-12."

At this moment, everyone suddenly realized.

"So that's why you stumbled during your first appearance?" Antonia asked.

Reno chuckled. "I was a bit nervous then. What that Lilyss host said wasn't wrong. I really am a rookie... It was my first time officially fighting with a mech."

"But that doesn't mean you liked that assessment. You dislike her, so you refused her like that?" Antonia prodded.

"Um." Reno hummed for a moment, then shook his head. "No, it's not about revenge. It's just that I already liked another girl."

"Oh!" There was a burst of jeers and laughter from the audience outside.

In the midst of the fierce battles, it was rare to have such a quiet moment to hear some competitors talk about matters of the heart, which served as a nice diversion.

Antonia also laughed. She was like a competent paparazzi, asking, "Can you tell me who it is? Your classmate?"

Antonia's question contained a trap. If Reno admitted it, it would mean admitting he was a student. Considering his previous performance, almost everyone would guess he was a student of the Alpha Military Academy.

So Reno shook his head. "You're not from a media conglomerate, are you?"

Antonia laughed. "Of course not, but my family does own some media conglomerates."

Some media conglomerates...

Reno was speechless at this response.

Not just Reno, everyone fell silent.

Sis, are you not here to flaunt your wealth?

With so much money, why are you here participating in a mech competition?

Especially in such a dangerous competition.

Seemingly sensing Reno's confusion, Antonia laughed and said, "I'm dying soon."

"Huh?" Reno was stunned.

"It's Down syndrome," Antonia said.

Hearing this term, Reno's heart trembled.

It was a special disease caused by a virus. Those affected would not show any symptoms in the early stages, but would instead be energetic with highly developed mental faculties. However, in the middle stage, muscle weakness would appear, often accompanied by dizziness. By the later stages, patients would often experience difficulty breathing, ringing in the ears, and ultimately die from heart failure. Since the disease was first discovered by the Tang family in the Tianhua Star Region, it was named Down syndrome.

Down syndrome was incurable.

It was ironic.

Technology was advancing, viruses were evolving, no matter how much human technology progressed, even to the point where they could freely soar through the galaxy, there were still some things they couldn't conquer.

There would always be some terminal illnesses in human society that humanity couldn't overcome, or new ones would emerge after overcoming them.

Down syndrome was one such illness. Perhaps it would be overcome by humans in two hundred years, but obviously not now.

Reno asked, "Early stage? Middle stage?"

"Late stage," Antonia replied softly.

Reno was shocked again. This meant that Antonia's time was running out.

Antonia said leisurely, "I don't want to die like this, so I came to participate in the competition, to prove myself with my gun, to prove that I've been in this world, to prove that I've lived... to prove that I've been strong."

Reno looked at Antonia and said seriously, "Of course, you will become the woman standing at the pinnacle of this mech competition. You will make everyone remember you!"

Seeing Reno's serious expression through the cockpit window, Antonia suddenly burst into laughter. "I tricked you. You believed whatever story I made up?"

Antonia laughed heartily, seemingly happy to have successfully fooled Reno.

Reno's expression darkened.

Seeing his expression, Antonia said loudly, "Hey, hey, don't be like that. It's just a joke. There's no need for any extra reasons to participate in the mech competition, just liking the feeling of battle is enough, right?"

Antonia winked at Reno, then stood up and said, "Rest time's up. We can go in now."