Abused

Abused

The painting was placed in the bathtub, and a bucket of Strong Cleaner was poured in. Bubbles immediately foamed up everywhere.

Cleaning agents in high-end residential communities could be used freely because the wastewater would go through treatment plants. Back when Yang Bo lived in government housing, he had used environmentally friendly cleaners and sorted his trash.

High-end communities did not bother with that. Wastewater treatment and garbage disposal both cost money, so people could throw things away however they liked.

"What material is this canvas made of? It looks like metal." Yang Bo looked at the remaining canvas. Even scissors could not cut it.

Yang Bo filled the tub with water again, then gripped the canvas with both hands as electricity surged through him.

The canvas quickly turned red, softened, melted, and fell into the bathtub as tiny particles. He only needed to drain the water and flush it away.

Yang Bo's hands were protected by light energy, leaving him completely unharmed.

The two painting scrolls seemed to be made of jade, and they were extremely hard. Yang Bo heated them in the oven, then shocked them with water until they shattered. After repeating the process several times, they were all broken into fine particles.

Yang Bo finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had taken the paintings from someone else's room because he feared someone would discover their connection to Red Earl. If that happened, the Security Department might conduct a harsh search of the entire room, the building, or even the community.

Yang Bo could not be sure whether his Stealth had left any traces. As long as it was unrelated to Red Earl, no one would investigate something so minor in the current chaos. Property Management might even handle it themselves. After all, if someone vanished from the community, the community's reputation would suffer. As for the residents?

Who would know? With such a huge mess going on, perhaps they had died, perhaps they had left, or perhaps they had gone somewhere else. Better not to stir up trouble.

What Yang Bo did not know was that no one knew what the leading commander looked like. He had worn a Silver Helmet during the livestream, and after being shot in the head by a Laser Gun, the high-energy laser had reduced even his bones to powder. His original appearance could not be restored. As for the lower-ranking members, they carried corpse-dissolving fluid on them. After being hit by the mechas, they dissolved themselves.

Very, very few identifiable bodies were left...

Yang Bo returned the luxury Space Button he had bought for eight hundred thousand. The Energy Stone was far too poor in quality. The seller initially did not want to accept the return, but the moment Yang Bo said he was a resident, they refunded him immediately...

"Housing prices are plummeting. Great." Only after cleaning everything up did Yang Bo start browsing houses online. He needed to continue his mecha training, and there were still many things he needed to test.

Housing prices kept falling because Red Earl had suffered such a massive setback here. Who knew whether those lunatics would come back?

However, the government had not resumed operations yet, so houses could not be traded for the time being. That made them even cheaper, while the number of listings rose sharply.

"Let's start with online training." Yang Bo opened Mecha Game. Rather than entering the game, he selected mecha training.

His training results in the game had only just reached the passing mark, which was why he had been assigned the worst Blade Mecha upon entering the game. The type of mecha assigned depended on one's simulated training assessment score.

This time, Yang Bo chose mecha combat training. He was using a Blade Mecha, and so was his opponent.

As Yang Bo controlled the Blade Mecha in the game, he felt it did not respond as quickly as a real mecha. To control a mecha, the left hand operated a joystick for basic movements like walking, running, and jumping. Several buttons on the joystick controlled the radar, Flight Backpack, and so on.

The right hand used a touch keyboard connected to the optical computer. The command set could be customized or use the official settings.

Mechas were actually Cannon Fodder in the order of battle, at least according to Yang Bo's current understanding. They were like infantry in modern warfare, mainly used for ground combat and territorial struggles.

During mecha battles, electronic interference and electronic suppression could cause the Intelligent System to make incorrect judgments and respond sluggishly. Even onboard radar might become unusable, leaving pilots to rely solely on what they could see with their own eyes.

When different factions fought over resources or other things, they all tacitly accepted one outcome: whichever side won the mecha battle got the resources.

Because if no one followed the rule, then nobody would. They might as well start by using warships to blast everything apart. Why bother investing resources in a fight over it?

Boom! In the simulated training, the opponent's strength increased once every minute. Five minutes later, Yang Bo was sent flying by a flying kick from the opposing mecha, crashed to the ground, and the screen went black.

"Again!" Yang Bo felt that the simulated mecha opponent moved smoothly and gracefully, every action crisp and decisive, as though it were performing. He could still hold on during the first two minutes, but afterward he was simply flailing miserably.

Training again and again, Yang Bo gained quite a few insights. His opponent could make sharp turns at five times the speed of sound. How many commands did that take? Fortunately, the Blade Mecha's performance limit was only so high. Whenever Yang Bo had free time, he came up to train. Eventually, he began treating mecha combat like a fight between two people and designed many commands of his own.

Mecha combat was all about speed, ruthlessness, and precision. There were two aspects to that: first, hand speed; second, designing commands that could condense an action into one or two button presses.

But command sets were complicated. If one command was changed, many others had to be adjusted as well, unless one abandoned commands considered unimportant.

A mecha's original command set was balanced. Since every Mecha Pilot excelled at different things, they would design their own command sets to favor their strengths.

"Ten minutes!" Yang Bo let out a breath. He had finally lasted ten minutes in training. Once he could last ten minutes, he could choose a mecha one tier higher for further simulated training in the game.

Yang Bo saw remote combat training, and his heart stirred. He decided to give it a try.

"Damn." His opponent was a long-range version of the Blade Mecha. Yang Bo had not even lasted thirty seconds before the screen went black.

The opponent's Laser Gun hit locations that disrupted the mecha's most basic controls, and their predictive ability was terrifying. There was simply no way to dodge.

Long-range Mecha Pilots needed intelligence-oriented evolution abilities. They could predict your movements, making it feel as though you were running into their line of fire every time. It was like playing against someone using hacks in a game—no matter which way you moved, you died.

"Again." Yang Bo tried once more. This time, he charged straight ahead under the cover of his Energy Shield. The opponent's Laser Gun made Yang Bo hear frantic warning alarms.

Then, before thirty seconds had passed, the screen went black. Several repeated hits to critical areas caused the mecha to lose part of its mobility.

"Forget it. I'm sticking with close combat." Yang Bo felt thoroughly frustrated after an entire day. His opponent's predictions were too powerful, and the longest he lasted was one minute.

"No wonder there are so few mecha models specialized for long-range support, and they're all so expensive. There's a reason for it." Yang Bo shook his head. He would just be an ordinary Mecha Pilot—a close-combat Mecha Pilot.

"Red Earl announces retaliatory attacks against the Edin Alliance." Yang Bo exited the game and opened the news. Upon seeing the alarming headline, he hurriedly opened it.

In the video, one person wore Golden Armor, with eleven others in Silver Armor beside them. They had golden and red hair, but their faces could not be seen beneath their helmets. They appeared to be inside an ancient castle.

The person in Golden Armor announced retaliatory attacks against the Edin Alliance and warned other countries not to interfere.

"Should I run away? How are residents supposed to run?" Yang Bo felt deeply uneasy upon seeing the news.