"Mu Fan, Mu Fan, are you there?" With so many oddballs in a level-one room, Brother Fatty decided to ignore those two idiots and started calling for Mu Fan over the team comms channel.
"I'm here!" Mu Fan said it aloud, but only inside the cockpit. No one could hear him over the team channel, because he genuinely had no idea how to transmit his voice.
"Mu Fan, where are you? Where are you?" Brother Fatty asked several times in a row, but received no answer.
"Quit howling and get to B." The two oddballs started cursing again.
Brother Fatty had already muted them on the voice channel. After glancing at the map, the tactical instincts of a professional Silver 1 Star expert led him to decide on Point B.
Forget about Mu Fan for now. If he kept asking, the enemy would really slaughter their way over here.
From an aerial view, in this irregular field of jagged rocks, Point A lay at the eight o'clock direction, Point B at four o'clock, while Mu Fan's mecha stood deep in the six o'clock direction.
This map was tiny, but because it was a Generation 1 Mecha battle room, the mechas everyone piloted had poor mobility. As a result, battles erupting in this relatively cramped space were instead exceptionally thrilling.
This was a map simulating an encounter at the edge of a city. Brother Fatty was currently piloting the Raider I-Gen · Modified, a first-generation Real-Type Mecha sold directly for Star Coins. That one added word, "Modified," represented a five-percent increase in both mobility and defense.
Raider I-Gen · Modified Real-Type Mecha, a first-generation ground-use mecha from before humanity broke through the atmosphere. A standard military mecha with an expanded chest cockpit and high-strength alloy protection around vital areas. Its weight was well-balanced, with mobility and defense as its core design priorities. Its weapons were standard first-generation military issue. Due to its durable and sturdy construction, it was still active on certain Federation planets and used by civilian armed forces. Height: 5.14m Weight: 8.15t Category: Military Generation 1 Mecha Maximum running speed: 55km/h Weapons: Twin-shot 128mm Grenade Launcher, 60mm Gatling machine gun, high-strength dagger, military alloy machete. Engine: First-generation nuclear Power Cabin. Auxiliary equipment: Emergency Power Cabin, first-generation engine overloader (10% fluctuation). System rating: F-Grade ranged, FAA-Grade defense (Modified), E-Grade melee (Modified), F-Grade mobility.
Brother Fatty had bought numerous popular mechas from Generations 1 through 6 that could only be purchased with Star Coins, then spent a fortune upgrading every one of them into their corresponding "Modified" models. What was called being prepared for anything? What was called having money to burn? What was called professionalism?
This was Young Master Harry of the Luoqie Star Fuwen Conglomerate!
At this moment, little fatty Harry piloted the Raider I-Gen · Modified in a flying leap, jumping from part of a wrecked spaceship behind a massive boulder, then smoothly linking into a perfect move—going prone. He lay flat and did not move!
Brother Fatty lay on the ground. Yes, then he shouted over the voice channel, "Enemy spotted at Point B!! I've engaged! Point A, suppress them with fire, now!"
Then Brother Fatty watched the two oddball teammates at Point A charge out on the map.
Brother Fatty muttered to himself, "One, two, three, four... about right," then quietly unmuted those two oddballs.
The cockpit receiver picked up the sounds of gunfire erupting three kilometers away. The voice channel became a mess of noise before violent cursing broke out. Brother Fatty's mecha lay on the ground amid uneven terrain and scattered rocks, so he could only imagine the battle through its sounds.
Green Team "McConaughey Artillery King" had been killed.
Red Team "mathiled" had been killed.
"That Lemon Balloon, I'm gonna blow you to pieces." The two mechas had rushed out after hearing Brother Fatty, but in reality, the green dot at Point B representing Brother Fatty had not moved after that single leap.
They ran into enemy mechas camping their own stronghold. After forcibly taking one enemy down, only one half-dead mecha remained, retreating behind broken rocks. Damn it, they had been ambushed by that guy at Point A.
"You piece of trash!" The first teammate to die could no longer use team voice chat. The remaining guy, whose mecha had been half-destroyed, had already exposed his position. Getting focused down by the enemy was only a matter of minutes, and he was now doing nothing but cursing nonstop in the team channel.
So what was Brother Fatty doing at this point?
Listening to his teammates' frantic voices, he chuckled. "That's for insulting me." He flipped switches four and six, activating the active Targeting Radar. Target acquired!
Brother Fatty's Raider sprang up from the ground in a single stride and activated a ten-percent engine overload, instantly accelerating from stillness to motion. After a short run-up, it leaped onto a lower rock. Come on, Brother Fatty's ambushing skills deserved at least another two stars!
Two enemy mechas had already appeared on the combat screen, one yellow and one black, stealthily approaching Point A.
Brother Fatty leaned against a towering boulder beside him and pulled out the twin-shot Grenade Launcher from his back.
The system Targeting Radar calibrated and locked on!
"Not good!" Piercing alarms instantly sounded in the cockpits of those two mechas. That meant their mechas had been locked onto by weapons. Evade immediately!
Unfortunately, from detection to reaction to evasion, it was already too late for people in a level-one room. Their mechas could not respond with the speed of their own limbs. With two loud bangs, white smoke billowed out as the heavy shells, carrying enormous kinetic force, viciously tore through the yellow mecha's back armor. It exploded! The second cannonball even penetrated through its back, blasting it several meters away.
Red Team "Koliselik" had been killed. "Lemon Balloon" had earned the One-Shot Kill Medal.
"Damn it!" The half-dead allied mecha and the enemy black mecha said the same thing simultaneously in their cockpits.
Hide, quickly! Brother Fatty knew this was not the time to show off. With an awkward roll, his mecha tumbled down from the shattered rocks like a ball.
"You bunch of trash!" Brother Fatty's voice sounded again in the cockpit. This time, he was using the all-chat channel.
The enemy and his teammates started cursing at the same time. There was definitely something behind those words.
Still, piloting this first-generation mecha really felt uncomfortable. Every response was far too delayed. Brother Fatty had spent Star Coins modifying the cockpit with a hand synchronization controller, changing the fully mechanical controls into semi-intelligent hand synchronization. But that was as far as it could go. Any further and it would count as cheating.
"Not good, someone's sneaking up on us!" Two red dots instantly appeared on the combat map. They circled past Brother Fatty without even alerting him, then killed the two teammates one kilometer behind and to his right.
"Fire support! Fire support! Bombard my position, coordinates 33, 47! Hurry!" The team channel instantly descended into chaos. The morale boost from Brother Fatty's earlier kill had not lasted long before vanishing completely.
Where the hell was that Lemon Balloon? Hurry up, damn it! We can't hold them here!
Brother Fatty's brows knotted together. Why was winning so damn hard? What a bunch of pig teammates.
Suddenly, another startled cry came from the team channel. "Holy shit, what the hell is that? A museum specimen? How can something like that appear on our team? Can that thing even fight? If the system wants to screw us over, just say so."
The EH01 Type stood quietly there. From afar... from afar, it looked like a mecha that had starved to death after taking off its clothes, leaving behind only a skeletal frame. Its entire body gave off a matte white sheen, utterly motionless.
One member of the team, piloting a Wolf Walker beast-shaped mecha, retreated toward the six o'clock direction of the map while dodging enemy fire. When he looked up, he saw Mu Fan's mecha standing there.
"System identification: First Generation Humanoid General-Purpose Heavy Machine, EH01 Type." That guy shared his identification data in the combat channel.
In an instant, it felt as though a chill wind had swept through every cockpit. Wasn't that some antique that only existed in textbooks? Wasn't the lowest tier on the PO Battle Network Generation 1 Mecha? What was this First Generation Unit doing here?
"..."
The entire team actually fell silent for three seconds.
"Hey, can you tell us where you got that mecha?"
No one answered.
"Hey, quit playing dead. If you won't talk, then move and fight already."
That huge white skeleton continued standing there, carrying the air of a grandmaster.
At that moment, Brother Fatty saw the ID "Egg Lord" above it, and ten thousand Highland Yaks trampled through his heart.
Young Master Harry had no idea what was happening inside that skeleton's cockpit. Mu Fan was currently staring helplessly at the pile of buttons in front of him, completely at a loss. Hearing the commotion in the cockpit, he could only wear a helpless expression. Even if he wanted to explain, he had no idea which button would connect him to voice chat.
This was truly embarrassing beyond belief. Was his mecha's first battle going to end with it standing there...
The combat screen showed the beast-shaped mecha ahead being blown up by two crossing streams of fire from behind.
Then two earth-yellow enemy mechas emerged from behind it, walking toward him uncertainly. They had probably been intimidated by this bizarre mecha as well.
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PS: Thanks to reader Remnant★Snow Without Trace for the 588AA100 reward!
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