novelraw Chapter 45 : League Preparation
Chapter 45 : League Preparation
Looking at the tall, green-blue mecha before her, Zhou Chen couldn't help but reach out and touch the mecha's knee, feeling the cold sensation against his palm. Looking up, he saw a towering steel giant.
Green vines, the painted emblem of Zhu Jing Fu, and red fire patterns spreading across the mecha's arms and hands.
The design was aesthetically pleasing. Chen Sui sat firmly in the cockpit, feeling the touch on her knee. She bent down, extended her hand with a swipe, pretending not to see Zhou Chen's yearning gaze.
"Personal mecha. Don't touch it randomly."
She said with a smile.
Zhou Chen reluctantly withdrew his hand, muttering somewhat enviously, then changed his attitude as he watched Chen Sui finish testing the mecha's compatibility and combat data. She exited from the cockpit that had ejected from the chest area, and nimbly jumped down using anchor points at her waist and knees.
He smiled at Chen Sui in a friendly manner and asked tentatively, "Suisui, after my mecha is modified, how much can the agility attribute be optimized?"
Chen Sui stepped back a few paces. Accustomed to Zhou Chen's sarcastic manner, she suddenly found his unusual kindness gave her goosebumps.
"Speak normally."
She declined politely.
"It can be improved by about 10%, and depending on your mental power during the modifications, it might be optimized by another 2%."
Hearing this, Zhou Chen excitedly rubbed his hands together. "Roughly when will it be ready?"
Chen Sui calculated her schedule.
"I'll do Ah Xue's first, then Puluo's. Next week, probably. Your materials aren't enough; we'll need to buy more."
Zhou Chen thought this was too slow, but knew he couldn't rush Chen Sui. Still, the lack of materials worried him. "What materials do we need? I'll get them."
Chen Sui shook her head. She had already thought it through. "White Wood Gallbladder with insulating properties. Don't worry, I saw on StarNet news that the holographic battlefield's two-person tournament team competition has it as a final round reward. If we can get it, that's great. Otherwise, we'll have to bid for it at the Star Ring Banquet."
White Wood Gallbladder was a high-grade wood attribute material with strong insulation, sealing, and immunity properties that could resist lightning, wind, ice, and other energy factors.
When Zhou Chen heard about the two-person team competition, he quickly checked the time: "Two-person finals? Tonight?"
Chen Sui had just nodded when she saw him about to speak. Knowing what he would say, she quickly explained: "The final round can only be randomly matched; we can't team up."
This was bad news.
To obtain the White Wood Gallbladder, the school team gathered in the holographic training room that night.
The five members entered different training rooms.
When Chen Sui logged into the virtual battlefield, the homepage was floating with reminders about the two-person team finals.
Through a quick jump, she soon entered the two-person team interface.
The final round would test performance in the same energy field, with a two-hour speed competition requiring teams to score points by killing energy bodies. The matching system would prioritize having one analyst on each team.
The competition would start at 7 PM, and a virtual countdown was displayed on the main task platform of the two-person team interface.
As the countdown approached 8 PM, beams of light rose from beneath the holographic figures on the two-person team interface.
The light beams flickered, like spatial teleportation, transporting people into a flash of white light.
[Holographic Battlefield - Two-Person Mode - Speed Competition, about to begin]
[Your matched arena is—SSS [Static River Reversal]]
[Note: Where there is water, rivers can gather. Where rivers flow, energy converges]
[Where the Static River flows, energy bodies are born]
Chen Sui received energy field information from the system.
An introduction to some SSS-level energy field environments.
The main energy body of [Static River Reversal] was water-attribute. Within the entire energy field, the flow of the Static River carried enormous energy storms that could instantly condense various levels of energy bodies.
Static River water had two generation directions: upwelling from the ground and downpour from the sky.
Under these two modes, the energy distribution level of the Static River would be completely reversed.
The speed competition did not test energy levels; everything was based on killing energy bodies as the primary standard.
[Your teammate—has been teleported]
[Competition countdown 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—Start]
As the system's voice fell, the white light before her instantly dissipated.
A wide riverbed appeared before her, surrounded by flowing water channels. Plants grew abundantly along the main river's banks, and the ground had been carved into trenches by flowing water.
A navy blue mecha appeared in response.
Upon seeing Chen Sui's mecha, a voice with a slightly surprised tone said: "It's you?"
Chen Sui's mind was filled with mecha models, leaving no room for his impression. She instinctively asked: "Who are you?"
Xiao Er pressed his lips together, momentarily silenced by Chen Sui's response. He initially wanted to keep quiet, but seeing her release energy perception around them, he couldn't suppress his surprise.
"So you're an analyst."
Chen Sui: "Huh?"
She still couldn't remember where she had seen him before and was about to ask if they knew each other.
But in the next second, raging, roaring water burst from the far end of the riverbed.
A rushing tidal wave, like a blue beast with a gaping bloody mouth, rushed downstream.
Azure blue water filled the riverbed, surging toward the distance.
The blue river's massive waves crashed against both banks, but the water droplets didn't fall to the shore.
Each droplet converged into transparent blue water clusters, heading toward energy release targets as waves of energy gusted toward them.
"The Static River is boiling."
A low voice came from the navy blue mecha.
Then Chen Sui heard him whisper: "Snow Elf."
The suddenly dropping temperature awakened Chen Sui's memory.
"So it's you."
She drew her spear, blocking water droplets shooting through the air.
She leaped up alongside Xiao Er, charging toward the water-formed monster.
"You—"
Realizing she was an analyst, Xiao Er looked at her charging posture with amazement. Chen Sui quickly pulled him into the team channel, directly using full-view projection mode to display the map.
Green energy spread out in a long line through the air as she darted forward, rippling outward.
As energy perception passed through the water monster's body, Chen Sui marked the positions of nearby energy crystals while rushing toward the high-level water monster.
Seeing her enter combat mode, Xiao Er didn't dwell on whether she was an analyst or if she should be on the defensive. He immediately followed Chen Sui's rhythm.
"Low-level energy bodies are worthless. Don't mark them."
"Got it," Chen Sui responded as her spear rose and fell.
Her spear entered the water monster's body, causing it to transform into a pool of liquid rolling toward the ground. As the spear touched the energy crystal, Chen Sui swung it away, looking somewhat displeased at the energy body that had escaped nimbly.
"You've got this trick up your sleeve?"
She raised an eyebrow.
A green light flashed from her body.
Green grass covered the shore. Just as the water monster flowed away, it was pierced by rapidly growing grass from the ground.
The green energy consumed it like a voracious storm, the leaves swelling as if filled with water, engulfing the water monster's body.
The silver spear pierced through the center of the leaves.
A blue crystal was ejected by the spear.
Xiao Er noticed her situation, his eyes flashing with surprise. His fan blade swirled through the air, not to be outdone, taking down the high-level energy body before him.
Countless water monsters crawled out from the Static River. Water flowed through the forest, and energy bodies emerged from the forest and underwater.
Xiao Er's palm spread open, and ice screens shot out from in front of them like a storm, freezing the surrounding water monsters in a layer of solid ice.
Immediately after, a long spear darted out, deeply piercing the ice layer. A green energy spread through the transparent ice, followed by the sound of cracking.
Xiao Er blocked an alligator energy body that surged from the water with his fan blade, holding back its widely opened teeth with the upright blade. Without looking back, Chen Sui reported the position of an energy crystal in the energy body.
Green shadows penetrated the ice layer, vines wrapping around several energy crystals and pulling them out.
Xiao Er's fan blade stabbed into the location Chen Sui had indicated. Looking back to see the solid ice shatter, there was something unusual in his gaze.
He hadn't expected that in such a short time of joint combat, they could mesh so well.
As they dispatched energy bodies in crisscrossing motions, almost no communication was needed. He would make a move, and she seemed to understand what to do next.
It was as if...
A thought crossed Xiao Er's mind.
As if all his movements were within her expectations.
This was truly an astonishing level of battlefield control.
When the Static River reversed, the sky water poured down. Above the riverbed was a cliff with no visible top, and they were in the middle of the cliff.
In the clear sky, the speed competition countdown continued.
43:52
Chen Sui looked at the countdown numbers, and when the cliff erupted with violent impact, she exchanged a glance with Xiao Er.
The surrounding trees rapidly grew branches, with trees on both banks connecting and intertwining, weaving a huge net in midair.
The two mechas leaped upward. At the instant water rushed down from the cliff, a tremendous impact force and thunderous rumbling sound instantly poured down.
The sounds of heavy impacts were incessant.
The violent reversed heavenly river water poured into the Static River from the other end, with the tawny river and the clear azure blue domain flowing together, running parallel in two colors.
As huge waves rolled, countless energy bodies crawled out from the riverbed. Before the water splashed into the air could fall, the speed of the droplets stalled when the two currents of the Static River collided, and a gust of energy spread out.
"Block!"
Chen Sui pulled Xiao Er forward. He had already developed muscle memory for her commands. When Chen Sui said "block," a frost flower formed in front of him, and in the blink of an eye, ice walls surrounded the mecha, encasing them in layers.
At the same time, the water droplets instantly froze. A metallic white light spread from the outer layer, and countless water droplets floated in midair, shooting toward the mecha, visibly cutting through invisible wind.
"Clang! Ding! Boom!"
The sounds of collision were constant.
Chen Sui poked her head out from behind the ice wall, looking at the cleared area on the ground that instantly filled again with dense energy bodies. She drew out her energy cannon.
"Too many. Blast them directly. Keep distance from them. Watch out for the water droplets."
She looked up and said to Xiao Er.
He nodded, and his fan blade opened with one movement.
Seeing that all the water droplets had embedded in the ice wall and been neutralized by Xiao Er's energy, he waved his hand, and blue energy dispersed, instantly melting the ice wall.
He looked back at Chen Sui. "You brought..."
"Thunder Fire Cannon," Chen Sui quickly answered.
Xiao Er smiled: "What a coincidence, I brought an Energy Storage Cannon."
The Thunder Fire Cannon was a high-attack class gun weapon. The Energy Storage Cannon was also a high-attack class weapon, but when the Thunder Fire Cannon and Energy Storage Cannon were stacked, they could unleash extreme power, enough to blast mountains and fill seas.