Chapter 52: No Shield!
Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations

A cross-zone team was formed! After receiving the private red envelope from ‘Young Beauty Little Nuonuo,’ Mu Fan felt slightly embarrassed. He felt like earning money from a little girl like this wasn’t moral, so he decided that he would offer to play an extra round with her later.

“Why are you still using this mech! Can’t you switch it to a mech that matches up with mine?” Wang Nuonuo was piloting her orange Begonia, so she felt slightly frustrated when she saw that familiar blue and white striped mech with a red shield in its arm. Her Begonia had slim body lines and the perfect paint job, and it had a limited-edition laser gun that was B+ level in long-range attacks. It also had two shoulder flap thrusters, two chilly light staggers around the waist, and a revised fifth generation Aurora engine. This was one of her favorite mechs out of the seven.

“I only have one; do you still want to play?” Mu Fan didn’t even blink when he answered, and he wouldn’t have agreed to switch even if he had other choices; he was using this RX-16 in preparation for the upcoming battles where he was going to steal and pilot an RX-16 of the military.

“I’ll play! Hmph.” He could imagine the look on the short chubby girl’s face based on her tone of voice.

The map of the battle was going to be alleyways in the Central District.

The battle began as Mu Fan’s team had a mech for long-range battles and one for short-range battles, while the opponents’ both mechs were fit for long-range attacks. The opposing team had taken the high ground as soon as the countdown ended, yet Mu Fan still stood where he was.

“Hey, Big Egg. Why aren’t you cooperating with me? Help me contain them! What are you doing standing there? They’re all coming for me!” Wang Nuonuo was yelling in her orange mech through the voice channel at Mu Fan who was standing still. She wanted to take the high ground but was interrupted by the crossing firepower from the two opponents. Besides, one of them was even using a magnetic piercing gun, which was a special weapon designed to decrease the opponents’ energy shields! It was annoying!

They were at a disadvantage as soon the battle began, and Wang Nuonuo was going nuts in her cockpit while this Lord Egg was still standing there like a stick. She couldn’t even get to the rooftop with all the opponents firing at her; how was she going to play once those two opponents actually reached the high ground?!

“Big Egg, I’m going to get angry if you don’t make a move soon! And I can be very scary when I’m mad!” Ms. Wang was shouting from the bottom of her heart, but it was hard to echo the passion in her voice.

Mu Fan regained his senses after hearing Wang Nuonuo’s shouts, and he noticed that the map was quite similar to the districts on Planet Loga; it was a perfect chance for him to simulate a real-life battle, so he answered without a doubt in the voice channel. “Okay!”

“Don’t just ‘Okay’ me! Do something!” Wang Nuonuo wanted to raise her laser gun at Mu Fan at this moment, but then her mouth opened wide into the O-Shape at what Mu Fan did in the next second.

“I’m going! Catch this.” The channel went quiet after Mu Fan said that.

“Catch what? What am I catching?” Wang Nuonuo was stunned, and she couldn’t keep up with Mu Fan’s train of thought this time. Then, through the screens in her cockpit, she saw Mu Fan’s clumsy mech making a motion of throwing something backwards, and the next thing she saw was a huge red shield spinning her way…

“Ahhhhh!” She shouted in fury like a lioness. You expect me to catch this? You expect me to catch the shield you threw backwards without even looking! Are you playing catch with me like I’m your pet?! Wang Nuonuo was mad, but she still prepared to catch the shield through hand motion synchronization with her mech. Damn you! I’m going to throw this back to you!

Bam! The single-hand shield for the RX-16 became a huge double-hand shield for the Begonia. She was even forced to slide backwards from the impact.

“I, Lord Nuonuo, am going to…huh?” Wang Nuonuo forced herself to stop the impulse of throwing the shield back, and she rubbed her eyes to confirm what she was seeing…

That clumsy-looking mech held the heavy metal sword with both of its hands and charged straight into the alleyway.

Wang Nuonuo felt like crying as she stared at the shield in her hands and thought, How weak am I in your eyes…

Bam! Wang Nuonuo suddenly felt the vibration in her arms coming from the shield as the System notified her of a 10% decrease in her energy shield.

Magnetic piercing gun! It must be this cunning weapon, or else the vibration wouldn’t be this weak nor would her energy shield be compromised by this much after the physical offset from the alloy metal shield.

On the two opponents’ monitor screens, the slim figured orange Begonia mech had the laser gun on its back as it held the shield in its hands and started to run backwards.

Where’s your honor and diginity? How shameless could she be running away with that heavy shield in her arms? Not to mention that expensive looking long-range weapon… Give us that limited-edition weapon if you aren’t going to use it!

The two mechs were stunned by her move.

“So cunning! I’m not going to be defeated by you bad eggs!” Wang Nuonuo had completely projected her anger onto the two opponent mechs, and it would be dumb not to use the shield since it was already in her hands. Wait, walking backwards is too slow with the shield.

The opponent players’ jaws dropped as they saw the orange Begonia mech turn around and clip the shield into the tactical slot on its back before running away. They quickly started to fire at her, but the metal shield was relatively big for the slim mech designed for female players. The magnetic piercing gun was still recharging for the second attack, but the vulcan cannon and pulse rifles were ineffective against the shield at a long distance since they shot metal bullets.

How shameless!

I have no shame, so what? You guys don’t know me in real life anyways. Wang Nuonuo didn’t care anymore as her priority was to ultimately defend herself. Oh, is that dumb mech going to use the sword against the opponents? They have crossing firepower. Big bear, I’m going to surrender immediately if you die.

Meanwhile, Mu Fan’s RX-16 had entered an alleyway which was a blind spot for snipers. He had memorized the map of this place and the locations of the buildings earlier when he looked at the monitor screen, and he purposely picked this route to advance forward. Mu Fan only practiced his footsteps in his last battle, and he decided to practice coordinating the hands and feet of his mech this time. He was going to use his weapons in accordance with the movement technique of his mech. He was like a seedling, craving for growth and eagerly learning from every chance he encountered.

He entered the state of Dark Respiration once again, and he was able to enter it faster compared to last time. As if this breathing technique was customized for Mu Fan, it made him feel like everything was natural and familiar.

Mu Fan was calm as his hands crossed over, managing the control panel and the levers. His hands swept across the control panel in small peculiar angles and pushed the levers on both sides with precision lightly; six blues and six reds!

Black once told him that in order for mechs to make minor calibrations that humans couldn’t, humans needed to constantly issue orders to make forceful executions by using the power of mechanics to control parts that human bodies couldn’t.

His fingers danced around the control panel like a butterfly, pressing eight buttons at the same time! Hedging commands were completed within 0.7 seconds once again. Just when a metal bullet pierced through the walls while probing, Mu Fan’s RX-16 suddenly knelt onto the ground, and its back arched backwards, making its body slide forward. The bullet narrowly missed its head and shot into the wall on the other side.

It was as if he had foreseen the future.

“Take advantage of psychological inertia to calibrate your footsteps is just the elementary level. To calibrate your own footsteps based on your opponents’ moves is the medium stage. As for the advanced stage… We’ll keep that aside for now. Why? We could talk about it once you have a better mech.” Mu Fan remembered Black’s words in his mind.

This is just the elementary level. Mu Fan sighed in his mind, but his hands still moved around without making any mistakes.

The opponents didn’t get any results from three rounds of probing firing, and that slim female mech had hidden away. It took some courage for that sword and shield mech to charge at them without the shield.

Hmph!

The player who had successfully shot Wang Nuonuo previously snorted at Mu Fan’s mech. His mech’s simulation level was set to 60%, which was enough for him, a Silver 5-star player, to release the ultimate technique in Fantasy-Mode that could slaughter all newbies.

At the same time, Wang Nuonuo, who was carrying the shield on the back of her mech, shouted in the voice channel.

“Hurry up and dodge, you clumsy bear! He is going to use an ultimate technique! He’s going to use the technique called Quad-Directional Shooting!”

However, she saw through her monitor screen that the RX-16 had forcefully changed its route by using a sidestep and stomping the wall at a corner. Its left arm that wasn’t holding the shield anymore was reaching out forward in mid-air.

But what was that hand for?