Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations
“Do you want to attempt body motion synchronized control?” Mu Fan was about to give up when he suddenly heard a cyber voice from the cockpit.
“Eh?”
“Do you want to attempt body motion synchronized control?” the voice asked again, and Mu Fan was sure that he didn’t mishear this time. However, the voice sounded familiar, just like… when he first entered the game.
Black!!!
“Black Egg! Is that you?” Mu Fan’s eyes widened as he was sure that it was Black. No wonder everything seemed strange from the moment that he entered the game.
“Please address me as Lord Black; you are Lord Egg.” The white sphere that was named Black appeared beside Mu Fan, and its two eyes displayed on the sphere were smiling. It was the same ball shape, but Mu Fan could feel that Black’s emotion simulation was almost the same as a real person, and he could hear the mischieviousness in Black’s tone.
“Quit the talk; I’ll question you later. But what should we do now? I don’t want to die standing still in my first battle.” Mu Fan had many questions such as why his rookie training camp didn’t teach him how to operate mechs. However, this wasn’t a time to clear these confusions as the two enemy mechs were approaching him quickly. They were probably getting closer to get a better look since Mu Fan’s mech didn’t carry any long-range weapons, and they were going to kill him soon after.
Black’s eyes smiled again, and another line appeared on the white sphere as its mouth; it was smiling as well.
“Mech revision initiated,” Black spoke quietly.
All the sudden, the cockpit shrunk in size, and Mu Fan had to stand up as his chair retracted to the back. Many black metal tubes that were as thick as fingers appeared all around Mu Fan and moved, and they all had thumb-length needles at the ends.
“It’s going to hurt a little,” Black flew around Mu Fan and said in a mischievous voice.
“Hurry up; I don’t want to die standing still!” Mu Fan’s eyes reddened as he started to breathe heavily.
Black’s two eyes turned into the O-shape, “Initiating synchronization! From now on, you are the mech!”
Mu Fan’s eyes showed an unprecedented viciousness, and all of the black tubes suddenly stopped moving with their needles aimed at Mu Fan’s head, spine, waist, arms, thighs, calves, and many more spots. Then, at the same time, they pierced into his body.
“Ah!” Mu Fan’s eyes closed, and he felt as if he was crushed by thousands of kilograms of weight. His consciousness wasn’t restrained in the cockpit anymore; it was rather diffused throughout the mech, and it felt like he was in the rocky landscape himself. He couldn’t see what was inside the mech right now; he was floating in mid-air inside the cockpit with the black tubes inside his body.
“Mo…. No, the Gladiator inside the training camp had his own ideas about teaching you, so you didn’t get your mech operation training. You can make it up here. You’re now experiencing the body motion synchronization with the mech, so arouse your fighting instincts, Mu Fan!” Black was floating beside Mu Fan, and its two eyes turning into dots as it stared at him.
“Don’t disappoint me, Mu Fan. I’ll accompany you as you fight your way out of Planet Loga, and I’ll fight alongside you in the vast universe. We will both be engraved into the history of human achievements!”
Mu Fan didn’t know what Black had done during the time that it disappeared, but the state of development in Black’s emotion had advanced beyond his imagination. Mu Fan’s right fist clenched tightly as if he heard Black’s quiet words.
At the 85% simulation level, Mu Fan was no longer Mu Fan; he was EH01. The +1% in simulation level meant 100% pain simulation. Therefore, under body motion synchronization, all the damage that the mech would sustain was going to be synchronized with Mu Fan’s body. The damage would be converted into pain that Mu Fan could sense.
“This guy’s a newbie?”
“Probably.”
The two yellowish-brown mechs approached Mu Fan carefully as they communicated to each other in their team channel. They had come back from the level-5 rooms to train their basic skills in level-1 rooms, and although they had seen many mechs during the two years they had been fighting, this was their first time seeing a mech like this. It would make sense if this mech only existed in Fantasy Mode, but it was clear that Mu Fan’s mech was a Reality Mode mech.
Who is joking? Making it look like an early antique model from the textbooks?
These two had picked Raiders as their mechs, which belonged to the same generation as Strikers. However, compared to Strikers, they lacked armor on their backs and legs, and their revised mechs improved long-range attacks and mobility.
“Whatever, let’s kill it.” The mech on the left had become bored by Mu Fan’s mech. It is clear that a newbie is pretending to be a pro. Who can you scare off by standing like this?
“Eh, seems so weird,” the mech on the right replied as it took out its light metal sword and struck toward the white metal skeleton’s waist horizontally.
Suddenly, they saw the mech in front of them make a move.
The three-fingered mechanical hand was raised, and it clenched together.
Too late! The player in the mech on the right laughed cruelly as he was going to cut this skeleton in half in a second.
However, something that neither of them expected happened. This generation-zero human-form mech fell straight backwards and then suddenly used its right arm to support the fall.
The enemy who was attacking didn’t expect that this mech would make such a move when facing this simple horizontal sword strike.
This player is powerful but was playing dumb!
Hmph, kill!
The enemy’s right hand sped across the control panel and pressed on buttons as his left hand instantly moved several levers.
The Raider’s internal hydraulic bearing instantly took on force, making the arm of the mech move in a different direction. Instead of the horizontal strike, it turned into a diagonal slash.
Meanwhile, as soon as the human-form mech’s right hand smashed into the ground, one of it alloy legs swung up from below and kicked onto the Raider’s right arm that was holding the sword.
“Beep. Right arm damaged by 15%. Decreased motility; unable to use weapons.”
The player controlling this Raider inhaled deeply and thought, I ran into a pro.
This series of movements happened within the blink of an eye, and the Raider on the left didn’t even get a chance to react until now.
…
The moment that Mu Fan’s consciousness became stable within the mech, he sensed danger approaching him. He saw a metal sword striking towards him, and he moved to dodge the sword while he thought to kick the enemy’s chest subconsciously.
However, when he was trying to use force, he realized that his body couldn’t follow up with his mind. Then, he realized that he should be representing this mech right now.
Is this how body motion synchronized control of a mech feels like? This feels great! I don’t need to bother with that insane control panel anymore. However, I feel like my body is being weighed down by thousands of kilograms. A simple dodge is so slow and heavy.
Mu Fan didn’t know that a red light flashed in Black’s eyes as it stared at his floating body.
Is this how people fight mechs? The feeling of dancing on the border between life and death. It feels… great!
Within a matter of seconds, Mu Fan adjusted his actions based on the reaction time from before, and his left leg kicked out with momentum, hoping that it would reach its target. But even if it didn’t strike his enemy, he could use the momentum to roll aside.
His bet was on target! Or rather, his fighting instincts choose the best decision in the scenario.
His left foot kicked away the metal sword that his enemy was swinging toward him with their right hand.
Then, the “white skeleton” twisted its body by 180 degrees with slight clumsiness but the right amount of force, kneeling on its left knee with its right leg behind. Its left hand that had three fingers pulled out the katana from its back, and it raised its head to look straight ahead.
The tables had turned! This funny-looking generation-zero mech was now like a predator that was hunting down its prey. Its body arched as it was ready to attack!
The two Raiders got alerted as if they were facing a great enemy.