Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 59

Chapter 59 – The Art of Deception

The current state of the space station could be described in one simple phrase: All hell broke loose.

Lu Bixing’s ‘ready in 20 minutes’ was clearly too generous.

The streets of the residential area were filled with crowds of people screaming and crying like toads after a rainstorm. Rumors of the pirates had spread like wildfire, igniting the fear and panic in everyone’s hearts, from the young to the elderly. Some were yelling, some were crying, and even children were hiding behind the cold doorways of mech dock, watching adults run around like headless chickens in a pit of fire. Even the group of elderly that were planning on celebrating a peaceful night for the new year were scrunched up together as they looked up at the night sky in despair.

And as expected, the armed forces of the space station dropped the ball at the last minute.

In the midst of chaos, the Golden Warriors and Iron Knights ran into each other and picked up another heated fight amongst themselves. Creative phrases like ‘dirty substances of the digestion tank’ and ‘butt mosquitos’ made their rounds between the two teams. Some of the older members of the armed forces were stuck behind the civilian crowd and panicked; another group of people took the opportunity to jump onto the launching platform and flew off with their mechs.

Fifteen pirate mechs physically turned the entire space station into a real-life horror movie in less than one night; if this was on the Silver Fortress, Commander Lin would shoot them all dead this instant.

White was still desperately trying to reclaim order in the crowd when someone pulled his shirt collar from the back and picked him up. The pubescent boy yelped in pain as he got dragged out of the crowd with his feet off the ground; before he could react, he found himself dragged to the Model 3 where his peers were already waiting.

“Get in.” Lin Jingheng dropped White on the ground and pointed towards the Model 3’s passenger entrance, “Where’s your teacher? He was gone before I could grab him; call him up and tell him to come over.”

Mint quickly sent a communication request to Lu Bixing’s personal device, but was rejected by the receiving end. The next moment, the multimedia screen in the main plaza lit up as Lu Bixing’s voice rang from the announcements.

Perhaps due to the state of emergency, Lu Bixing didn’t attempt to sell some pep talk this time and went straight to the point.

“If I were you guys,” Lu Bixing turned on the scouting lights to the maximum and directed them towards the few mechs in the sky heading out, “I’d shoot these guys down right now before they can go any further.”

Foucault and Weasel both stopped and looked up from their arguments, and the dock became completely silent. There will always be people who have their own hidden agenda at any given time, whether it’s to fight for authority, to prove one’s worth, or to simply protect their family…and then there will be the few who will run away first when things get natsy.

The escapees were made of people from both teams, there was no point in mocking the other at this point.

Weasel’s face turned green and he shot a glance at Foucault, who also returned a look in mutual understanding. Within the next few seconds, they both took their own men out to the launching station to bring back the escapees. The mental networks of the mech still docked began expanding as pilots got on and pierced right through the slower mechs that were still within reach from ground.

As for the ones that already left the range of the networks, Foucault personally chased them down with a group of soldiers by launching her mech out at maximum speed. Foucault mercilessly launched a missile even before completely flying out of the artificial atmosphere; as one of the most experienced members of the armed forces, her missile went straight for the bull’s eye. The escapees up front were too busy trying to get away that they forgot to turn on their shields, instantly turning into fireworks the moment Foucault’s missile hit.

Ten sailing days away, the invaders were closing in menacingly; yet the first shot of rebellion from the space station was pointed towards their own people.

Dead silence wiped through the entire station as they witnessed the shot, then a small voice broke out: “…Did…did they die?”

The word “die” began spreading among the crowd again, but Lu Bixing cut in before chaos ensues: “If you guys don’t know who to listen to right now, then listen to me…any armed forces that aren’t already on a mech yet, follow me and get into position on the launching deck. Also, please check here for frontline news.”

Saturday’s photo of the enemies appeared on the multimedia screen as Lu Bixing spoke. From the satellite photos, there were only about 8-9 ships that could be clearly seen while the rest were only blurred silhouettes from behind.

“I’m only going to say it once here. As of now, Prince Cayley has not sent out a heavy combat fleet, this is only a small scouting team of 15 mechs. This is half the size of our patrolling team. The station is currently being protected by the anti-detection system, so it’s not easy for them to

locate us.”

Lu Bixing walked up the launch station as he finished. The mech dock was much quieter than the residential area; Lu Bixing stood atop the dock, his figure almost intimidating under the harsh lighting.

He waved towards the outer circle of the dock and commanded: “Unrelated personnel, please move out the way.”

The people on the station wereused to listening to his orders from fixing the multimedia screens and energy system and all instinctively stepped aside.

Lu Bixing made his way towards a mech and continued speaking through the announcements: “Today was supposed to be the last day I delivered supplies to Saturday because he planned on disbanding the Self-Defense Squad once he returned. In other words, even though the pirates are just a small team of scouts right now, the only people on the frontline are a small group of people that are about to be disbanded. So what are you all waiting for? For the pirates to locate the space station or until you all die?”

Lu Bixing’s mech entered the runway as he continued his speech. Then, as if the lost lambs of the space station found a light of direction, other mechs began to follow him one by one.

On the other side of the dock, Lin Jingheng led the students onto the Model 3 and entered the runway.

“Zhanlu, mark Lu Bixing’s mech and keep an eye on him.” Lin Jingheng commanded.

“Understood.” Zhanlu said, “I’m sure Mr. Monoeyed Hawk is thinking the same. He is currently 16 standard mech distances away from you.”

With Lu Bixing’s words, Foucault and Weasel’s forces that were at odds with each other were now forced to work together.

Not too far behind, Lin Jingheng carefully expanded his senses within the mental network and watched the mess of a fleet in front of him. He ignored the confused students beside him and quietly counted his heartbeat inside the network to relax.

After a few minutes, he silently let out a sigh of relief as he felt himself slowly calming down from the roller coaster of emotions earlier in his room. He was also relieved that the pirates came in at the perfect time.

The three month promise was coming to an end, and Lin Jingheng needed to pour some cold water to cool down Lu Bixing’s head as he became increasingly more attached to the station. However, to Commander Lin’s surprise, Mr. Lu had started with

a spoonful of cake and a completely off-topic conversation. Thankfully there was a crazy man outside starting fire everywhere, otherwise Lin Jingheng wouldn’t know how to continue the conversation.

And the sentence Lu Bixing wasn’t able to finish…Of course, Lin Jingheng knew what it was and wished he could pretend he didn’t know anything.

Within a matter of minutes, the long-distance signal Lin sent out had already passed through a number of transfer portals and extended beyond the Eighth Galaxy. Lin Jingheng recollected his thoughts and asked Zhanlu: “How’s the signal?”

Zhanlu: “Signal is good.”

“Good, connect me to the captain of that Self-Defense Squad.” Lin Jingheng said.

“Obtained access to Captain Saturday’s communication terminal, currently requesting response…”

Saturday had floated in space like a corpse for the past few days and felt as if his whole body had been emptied out. Now, the sudden invasion broke his peace and an adrenaline rush engulfed him like a water fountain. He could feel his whole body tense up as he stared hard into the screen towards the pirate fleet. He wiped off his cold sweat and mumbled in fear: “C-Check again and see if your replica cannons are turned off. Everyone do a double check and see if you all have your armory opened.”

Holiday started fidgeting his necklace nervously and said: “Boss, you already asked three times.”

“Saturday, I’m scared.”

“I’m also…fuck, who’s interrupting?” Suddenly, a connection request popped up and surprised Saturday. He picked it up instinctively until he realized something was off…they’re not within signal range of the space station, so theoretically the only people that could communicate with him were his own teammates and others around him.

But all his teammates were already in the current communication channel, so who could it be?

Saturday jolted and raised his hand to cut off the communication before he could think.

Just then, Commander Lin’s expressionless face appeared on the screen: “I’m Lin Jingheng.”

Saturday almost broke down in relief when he saw the screen and thought backup was here: “Commander Lin, you’re finally here….”

“I’m still at the station.” Lin Jingheng interrupted. “It will take another three hours before I make it over to your place.”

Saturday’s heart sank.

Lin Jingheng continued: “So these 15 pirate mechs are yours.”

“I…I…” Saturday’s head was completely blank, “We can’t…also, they might have backup too, there’s no way I can do it, you know our strength…”

Lin Jingheng smiled a little.

“I don’t know, but you can gamble on it.” He said cooly. “If I can find your corpse after three hours, I might consider giving you a space funeral.”

Saturday looked at him in despair, then realized something different about the commander. While at the station, Lin Jingheng’s impression always felt kind of casual and unrestrained; Saturday would often see the commander walk off to the mech dock in slippers and undried hair during morning training. Yet despite the way he dressed and how cold he tended to be around others, there was always an air of discipline that surrounded Lin Jingheng. While that made him seem intimidating, it never crossed the line to become fearsome.

However, everything changed tonight.

Lin Jingheng’s shirt was neatly buttoned up from his waist up to the collar with no wrinkles. His short boots held firmly onto his legs; his hands were covered by white gloves, showing no skin aside from his face. Yet what shocked Saturday the most were the pair of grey eyes from the screen; he could feel a hint of frightening madness from those pupils, like a monster that had just woken from a deep slumber slowly cleaning its claws.

“Stand straight,” Lin Jingheng said. “What does the Self-Defense Squad see themselves as?”

Saturday hurriedly pulled himself up and answered with a red face: “A-A sharp blade.”

Lin Jingheng nooded and said: “Not bad, you’re not afraid to think. But I’ll have to make a correction; at your current level, even if you all were employed as private security at a distant planet, you are all only capable of doing back-end maintenance jobs.”

Saturday looked at the screen stupidly as he just got degraded from a blade down to a screwdriver.

“But screwdrivers can still kill.” Lin Jingheng paused for a second. “Remember my words, I’ll only say this once: don’t pick fights head-on with the fleet. I’ve already demonstrated your limitations multiple times during the drills but you never took it to heart. The average sync rate of your squad is currently at 59%. On the battlefield, if you don’t have an average of at least 80% you’re basically free loot, so there’s no way you can be the main offensive team. Scouting squads may have a lower sync rate, but it will not be lower than 75%. Thankfully, both sides are only made of smaller mechs, so just keep in mind the range and don’t let your networks overlap.”

Saturday pinched himself and forcefully calmed his internal panic.

Lin Jingheng continued: “The anti-detection system is your final trump card. Long-distance guerilla style battle is your only chance to survive. Do you know how the ancients captured large wild animals?”

Saturday gulped: “Baits and traps.”

A flash of a smile appeared on Lin Jingheng’s face: “Not bad. But remember, your prey right now isn’t a lion or tiger, it’s hyenas and snakes. You need to be patient and find a convincing bait, one good enough to even deceive your own teammates, or you will fall into your enemy’s trap…I’ve already sent out the first bait for you.”

Saturday: “Wh–”

“Boss, they’re moving!”

“I’m speaking to you through long-distance connection; these types of communications will create a large energy wave that can even pass through protected portals. The enemy probably detected this energy wave already, so cut off the connection now.” Lin Jingheng then sent a protected code to Saturday. “When necessary, you can use this code to enter emergency communication. If you have any last words for anyone, I can pass it on for you. See you in three hours.”

The pirates seemed to have already located a portal hidden within the camouflage of the anti-detection system and were moving towards it. Saturday’s mind blanked out for two seconds before he yelled into the team channel: “Don’t just fucking stand there you fools, retreat at least 10 kilometers away from Portal 006 and prepare your missiles!”

Mint spoke up after listening into the whole conversation with Saturday: “Commander Lin, I saw the simulation you made of this battle in the control room before.”

Lin Jingheng turned around and glanced at her in slight surprise, but Mint almost swallowed her next words at the gaze: “Oh? You can actually read it now?”

“Not at the time. I looked up a lot of information and asked Professor Lu too.” Mint answered anxiously. “Scouting teams for pirates are like disposable tools for the main fleet that can be sacrificed. All of them have fully-equipped recording systems that can record and analyze everything once they enter battle while sending all information directly back to the main fleet. The main fleet can then analyze the enemy in real-time; and if the first scouting fleet gets demolished, they will send out a second ‘sacrifice’ fleet based off of the firepower data they’ve gathered off their enemies. These are the people at the bottom most rank in the pirate fleets, and even if they fail their missions they will usually deal enough damage to the enemy fleets until the main pirate fleet comes in to take them on while their enemy is still recovering.”

Lin Jingheng’s eyes locked on the large communication map laid on the floor of the Model 3. Somewhere outside the shape that was the station a bright dot blinked rhythmically.

He praised her insincerely: “You sure study hard.”

Mint took a deep breath: “If you actually wanted to save them, you would’ve had Professor Lu find a way to block the pirates’ signals, and then warped over to Saturday’s location to defeat the enemies as soon as possible. The people on the station can’t do this, but you can, Commander Lin. But instead you chose to let everyone take their time…so…the bait you said that could even deceive their own people, was actually Saturday and his crew, right?”

Lin Jingheng’s cold gaze rested solidly on the little girl before him. The other three students took a step forward around Mint like a bunch of baby chicks huddling up together.

The students were always intimidated by him even when their teacher was around, but had never felt like the man before them would actually hurt them. It was as if they were just looking at a sleepy lion through the glass.

Yet at this moment, Headmaster Lu’s mech was two fleets away from them; by the time the students realized, the glass window that separated them and the lion disappeared, and the freshly woken lion was only standing a few steps away from them.

Lin Jingheng wasn’t mad; in fact, he even found it a little amusing.

A little more than 6 months ago these kids were only baby animals running around with their minds filled with unrealistic ideas, with a slim chance of growing into a self-sufficient predator in the foreseeable future. And now, these little feral creatures actually learned how to walk and use their measly brains to question others.

Just from this, Lu Bixing and his teachings from the ghetto school of the Eighth Galaxy already proved to have more significant educational value than the Black Orchid Academy’s system.

“So?” Lin Jingheng asked, teasing slightly. “Did your teacher not tell you that they were only able to live an extra three months because they still had value as a bait?”

“But…” Mint opened her mouth to respond only to see White tug on her shirt from the back, making faces and gestures at her to back off. Mint bit her lips and pushed him aside as she took a step forward. “Nobody has the right to determine another person’s value…Hey don’t tug on me, let me talk!”

“Don’t hold her down,” Lin Jingheng said with his arms crossed. “Growing a backbone is necessary.”

“Ever since the genetic revolution of the Old Sidereal Calendar, the Interstellar Union banned all non-medical genetic and human body modifications universally. Thus, the human genes have not changed for thousands of years since, so in the eyes of creation all humans are equal.” Mint choppily recited a segment that sounded like something taken directly from a textbook. “Nobody can decide anyone’s fate.”

Lin Jingheng nodded slightly after her speech and answered: “Yes, a civilian’s life and freedom is an inalienable and inviolable right granted to everyone. This is politically correct, your consciousness and understanding is almost on par with Zhanlu.”

Zhanlu’s voice rang across the Model 3: “Thank you for your praise.”

Lin Jingheng’s gaze lowered as he relaxed his arms and continued: “But listen here, little girl, while rights are inalienable, missiles can attack. Particle cannons can deal damage. Pocket-sized laser guns, button-sized biochips, a few milligrams of terminal virus exist for the purpose of being used by people…is this not true?”

Mint: “…”

“‘Should’ and ‘can’ are two separate concepts. If everyone looks from the perspective of “should I”, Ares Von should’ve already been punished for his sins, I wouldn’t even have to lift a finger.” Lin Jingheng gestured towards Zhanlu, and a cooler filled with non-alcoholic ciders appeared by the walls of the Model 3. “Take whatever you like, now go off and play.”

Unable to convince the commander nor have the ability to send out messages behind his back, the students stepped back down quietly. In order to reach Saturday from there, they could only rely on long-distance connection, which Zhanlu was in charge of. Even putting aside that there was no way for them to obtain access to send out the communication request, Saturday was currently playing a life-or-death game of hide-and-seek with the pirates — who would risk the threat of exposing their coordinates to the pirates by sending out a signal to Saturday?

Saturday felt like his temples were being stung with many needles.

The Self-Defense Squad had already made their first mistake. They intended to hide out by the transport portal and ambush the pirates by sending them a wave of long-distance missiles the minute they entered the portal; yet, despite knowing theoretically how it works, being able to act upon it was a different story.

The fluctuation of energy waves around transfer portals was immense, therefore any sort of high-energy particles that passed through, regardless of how powerful it was, would always face a certain level of deflection. The amount of deflection was dependant on the scale and type of transfer portal and the weight of the mech passing through the portal; there was no quick and accurate way to calculate exactly how much deviation there would be, and soldiers often made up for it with experiences and precise handling built upon battle after battle…The Self-Defense Squad may have had some experience and a good sense of handling their weapons, but shooting out a missile through a transfer portal was still much beyond their skill level.

Saturday just yelled to get his team ready, and the Self-Defense Squad members that were already too swallowed up in fear completely misheard the orders. In panic, a few of the members pressed the button and sent out at least five missiles towards the transfer portal; the missiles deviated from the portal and bounced off to the side like shooting stars.

They’d officially screwed up. They didn’t just beat the bushes to provoke their enemy, they’d also exposed their coordinates.

The pirate squad, while small, had incredible reflexes and mobility. Once they captured the energy waves, they immediately spread out and reorganized into a ferocious hunting team. Pirates, unlike the wastes of the space station, were used to sailing outside the realms of the eight galaxies and were more than capable of cutting off the entire Self-Defense Squad the moment their mental networks touched.

Saturday cried into the main channel: “Run!”

When Lin Jingheng took them out in his Model 3, it was usually as easily done as sweeping up fallen leaves on the ground to the commander. The Self-Defense Squad also became conditioned to run like wild animals the moment they heard Saturday yell ‘Run’ into the channel.

Lin Jingheng wouldn’t randomly drag them out and kill them, but the pirates were not the commander they knew.

At the same time, the scouting squad on the pirate’s side were also shocked. Normally in a situation where both sides seemed to have the same level of firepower, even if one side ran out of fuel or energy they would still choose to continue firing at the enemy as they retreated. Sometimes if the enemy had a harder shell like a proper military fleet, they would even attempt to fend off their pursuers by taking over their mental networks.

The fearsome and experienced fighters of the space pirates stood dumbfounded as they watched their enemy fleet run like cowards. They were currently stuck in an energy field maze with a…very usual enemy.

The scouting squad were stumped for a few moments and missed a golden opportunity to chase after them, allowing the Self-Defense Squad to successfully make their escape through the transfer portal. Lu Bixing’s anti-detection system quickly and efficiently covered Saturday’s traces behind a web of intricate maps, creating a second stalemate between the two sides.

In the beginning, both sides were just playing blind hide-and-seek with each other behind the anti-detection system; however, the pirate scouting squad’s decoding technology quickly found a small loophole in the system and cracked the outer layer to find the hidden terminals within an hour.

Saturday took his entire team and performed an award-winning act of deception without even realizing they were only the opening act.

The pirates were cautious at first, but after seeing the pitiful fleet run around like scared animals a few times, the small pirate squad learned their enemy’s true strength. They began chasing the Self-Defense Squad more aggressively and quickly switched the table from the defense to offense, striking like a wild beast ready to catch a helpless prey.

On the other hand, the Self-Defense Squad could only run from their pursuers. While attempting to cover a teammate that almost got disconnected, Saturday took a direct hit from the pirate squad, breaking over 90% of his mech’s shield. He took out a bottle of cold water from the cooler inside the box of supplies, took a sip and dumped the rest of it over his head to cool down his tense nerves. Saturday shook his head violently and spoke into the channel: “We can’t just keep running here, we’ll need to fight back.”

“But how?”

“Do what Commander Lin told us, set up a trap and ambush them.” Saturday paused for a moment to think before continuing, “Listen up guys. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t know that the access to the anti-detection system is code-protected. They’ve pursued us for so long already, it’s about time they got tired of it and are looking to steal a mech from our side so that they can have access to the system. My shield’s already halfway broken, so I can be the bait…”

The channel exploded into a sea of complaints before he could finish: “No way, what are you gonna do if they get you?”

“Who’s gonna give us orders if you pass out?”

“You might actually die if they hack into your mental network!”

Saturday yelled for them to stop at least three times as they all spoke, but nobody wanted to back down. For the first time in his life, he finally understood why the cold Commander Lin Jingheng was always so unreasonably arrogant: when there are too many cooks in the kitchen, no food gets served on the table. If a commander is too compromising, a fleet would never be able to get anything done.

Saturday took a deep breath and yelled once more into the channel: “Can you all shut the fuck up and listen to me already!?”

A short silence finally graced the communication channel.

“Those are scouting squads, they’re professionals at this hacking thing, got it?” Saturday said coldly. “It’s only a matter of time before they decode the system; we can hide while we can due to our territorial advantage right now, but later? Are we just gonna run for our lives? I don’t care if you all just decide to run, but my question is where do you run to? I doubt any of us can survive a month outside of the space station, are you guys okay with this? Are you!?”

He remembered the three months of nightmarish training when he would get up before the sky was bright and drag his team out to train. They all thought they had done everything they could and could protect their homes, only to be crushed by the harsh reality that they were nothing but ants to the vast outer space. At this realization, they were all forced to overcome their grief.

Saturday’s voice grew louder as he spoke, and by the end of it he could almost hear his own voice crack.

Perhaps some people are like this; the quieter and softer they talk, their spirits also mellow out. If anything were to instigate a louder and more aggressive response, even if it’s just a fight, the same people’s spirits can be reignited by their environment.

“The anti-detection system is a maze,” Saturday finally calmed his voice as he pulled up the route map from the system. “Look, the transfer portal closest to the enemy right now is portal 0014, and right beside it is a refraction point. We have the anti-detection system behind us, we can round behind them before they notice. I’ll go out and bait them, and I’m sure they will try and take over my mental network in order to hack into the anti-detection system’s database. At this point, they will lower their defenses, so you guys that are ambushing them from behind can focus all your firepower at them…there’s only one chance, you all have to hit the target! Hit however many you can, if you can’t kill off everyone, don’t hesitate and run, are we clear?”

A member asked: “What about you? Your shield’s already broken.”

“As long as I log off the moment before the enemy attempts to hack in my mental network, I won’t get hurt…I’ve succeeded many times during the simulation battles, otherwise I would’ve already been braindead from the number of times Commander Lin kicked me off.” Saturday said. “Commander said, scouting squads usually have an average sync rate of 75%, and I believe him. My highest sync rate also hits above 75%, so in case any of you guys fuck up, I still have a chance to reconnect to my mental network and run off…is anyone else here able to do that? Holiday, what’s your mental network sync rate?”

Holiday sulked back: “R-right now? 60%.”

“And your highest?”

Holiday then proudly announced: “…61%”

These low-level players usually have a very common virtue: they don’t even have a chance to outshine their own average performances.

Saturday shot back: “And you’re still trying to spew out bullshit, remember who’s the boss here!”

When the Self-Defense Squad was just a newly formed unit and Saturday was just a fresh new player in the game, he had a lot of grand ideas and plans for his team. He once tried to ask Lu Bixing how to get more people to follow and acknowledge him as a leader.

Lu Bixing thought about it for a second, and then answered: “Nobility, prestige, threat and manipulation, choose one out of the four and there will be someone that will follow you. If you don’t have any strengths and experience, or if you don’t have the heart of steel and no money, you’re only left with words of persuasion to lure people in. But remember, people are going to be here because you’ve convinced them to. They’re not here to roleplay emperor and his lackeys with you, don’t hide behind others like your old boss, and always lead them when you need to.”

You were right, Professor Lu.

Saturday laid his hands on the communication equipment, let out a deep breath from his lungs and said: “Let’s go.”

“Target located.” The pirate scouts were quickly exchanging information.

“Chase after them.”

Another game of chase began.

This time, it looked like the Self-Defense Squad weren’t able to find the transfer portal in time and scattered out in the midst of space. With only 15 mechs in the squad, going separate ways was not an option for the pirate scouts, so naturally they singled in on Saturday: “That mech’s shield is already damaged, and judging from the way it’s moving, it’s suspected that the internal engine may also be damaged.”

Saturday purposely turned off a few of the mech’s propellers and only kept one side, running around with his ‘broken leg’ away from the pirates.

Within less than five minutes, the single-side propeller already overheated from the high acceleration of the mech. The internal alarms rang louder and louder as repair notifications kept popping up. Saturday ignored the signals and shifted his gaze towards the anti-detection system, surprised to see that his hopeless teammates were all heading towards the ambush spot. Their brains were still intact, and were actually heading in the right direction.

As the pirates began closing in towards Saturday, the small squad split into two while a missile locked on Saturday’s mech.

Anyone that’s been through a real battlefield in space knows that every missile on a mech is valuable, so most missile shots are fatal on the battlefield.

Saturday howled as he saw the missile aimed towards his mech and desperately changed his course midway. The shock from the mental network vibrated into his ears as the missile barely scratched the edge of his mech. With his lack of experience, Saturday’s turn became too wide and he found himself almost making a full circle around the same spot. This slight delay gave the pirates the opportunity to close in on both sides.

Saturday glanced towards his sync rate: 75%… he was currently at his best.

The moment the pirates closed in, the enemy’s mental network expanded rapidly and hacked into Saturday’s network.

Saturday thought he was used to being wiped off the network, but only now realized that a simulation could not compare against a real battle. During simulations, his vision would blacken and he found himself knocked out of his own network before he even realized he’d entered the Model 3’s range, as if someone just hit him with a pole while walking alone at night.

Yet now, the mental capacity of the pirates was about the same level as him. When they hacked in, they would do it in organized groups, one wave after another until their enemy was completely overwhelmed.

Saturday held onto his network desperately wave after wave, feeling like numerous people ganged up to take turns beating his head with a hammer. Slowly but surely, Saturday’s sync rate dropped from 75% to 55%.

Saturday watched his teammates close in to the amush spot on the anti-detection system as he held in the blood inside his mouth.

His sync rate was dropping steadily. 54%…53%…

While the waves of invasion continued, Saturday still needed to keep the balance of his mech and avoid physical attacks from the other side of his mech. At 51%, he was no longer able to maintain complete control of his mech.

In that instant, Saturday yelled into his mech and logged right off his mental network, allowing the pirates to take over. At the same time, 29 little mechs appeared behind the pirate squad.

Before the pirates could respond, a wave of missiles fired towards them like a bunch of motorboats cutting through a body of water. Saturday took the opportunity to reconnect onto his mental network, then opened his armory and fired a missile towards the pirates. His missile pierced right into the body of a mech, forcing it out of its line like a kite blown by a violent wind before it exploded into another mini fireworks.

“I got one!” Saturday exclaimed, feeling his adrenaline rushing. “I got one!”

Yet the inexperienced Self-Defense Squad didn’t manage to eliminate all the pirates in this attack, as half of the missiles missed their targets. To their surprise, the remaining five pirate mechs still had power to fight back and didn’t run like they expected.

The communication channel was now filled with sounds of explosions, and everyone’s voices began to cut off. The remote assault team of the Self-Defense Squad ran a bit too far ahead and caught a few surviving pirates, starting another storm of cannons and missiles criss-crossing. At the end, no more strategy or plans existed on the chaotic battlefield as it turned into another round of physical combat.

And the members of the Self-Defense Squad that had never pulled a trigger before were all forced to familiarize themselves with their armory at the kill-or-be-killed situation of this merciless battle.

A missile shot towards Saturday; unable to dodge in time, Saturday instinctively turned on his shield…to find that his damaged shield was no longer responding.

“Oh shit.” Saturday thought as he saw the shape of the missile through his mental network.

The feeling of being crushed inside a mech was way beyond Saturday’s imagination as his head slowly blanked out.

Just then, a small mech in front of Saturday and took the missile head-on. Saturday’s eyes widened; the mech’s shield shone intensely as the rest of the mech slowly melted from the high energy of the missile. The armory at the tail of the mech compressed into the body, and a dot of light peeked from the center of the armory like the sun rising from the horizon, then expanded into the overarching sky…the little mech that shielded itself between Saturday and the missile self-destructed.

Everything vanished in the radiating light.

The mechs around it trembled in the explosion. Saturday didn’t even have a chance to see who it was; the fire in his eyes grew rabid as he charged towards the pirates and fired three missiles in a row: “I’m going to kill all of you!”

Humans gamble their lives in the vast galaxy; deep love and hatred swallow up their bodies and souls…yet in the eyes of the universe, they are merely little glares of light in the darkness.

The Prince of Cayley, Ares Von, watched the battle coldly as if he was viewing a movie.

His half-covered face could not express any complicated emotions, always making him seem a little more serious than he really was. He asked slowly with a rusty voice: “Why is there energy turbulence in this area, has it been analysed yet??”

“Your highness, we’re suspecting that this is an area that was laid with an ambush. It’s equipped with an extremely powerful anti-detection system.”

“Extremely powerful?” Ares Von’s metal fingers folded together eerily with his human hands. “An extremely powerful anti-detection system with no barriers? Why are we able to still watch this battle live?”

The subordinate beside him remained in his bowing position wordlessly in fear.

“Such familiar style, such familiar traps.” Ares Von slowly stood up and pulled his subordinate up carefully. “I think we found Primal Alien’s murderer.”