Chapter 17: That YC Guy

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Mu Shang sneered, “You’ll know by then.”

This fight was no other than a walk in the park; like a stone skimming across the water, one ripple after another with no huge impact. On a more important note, Ye Chong had fallen in love with the life he had gotten which was filled with entertainment and adventure. He had never felt so accomplished before! It was like he was born ready to battle with various classes of people with different mechs. The contentment of his life made him giddy with excitement.

Ye Chong would head to the streets of Gudista for a stroll and talk to the elders there to pass his free time. Besides that, he would also carry on with his ever-changing courses of training after he has finished his virtual world punching session on a daily basis. Compared to the days occupied by scavenging for food and defeating mutants on Trash Planet-12, the current way of life is more fitting for an active and healthy teenager like Ye Chong.

As for the trainings on the list Mu gave, he had already crossed out more than half of them by now!

Ye Chong never knew how prominent his image was throughout the galaxy for a hermit he once was. YC the fighter, who never rest on his laurels, had defeated one opponent after another. It had become the talk of the town among the NR trainees at the FMPA ever since his glorious battle with the Shield of Thorns.

Shield of Thorns was known as the one whom piloted mech “Lorcupine” which was ranked at 82 in the FMPA offensive forces; notorious for possessing both skills and strength, and had gained tons of fans with his distinctive style of fighting. The battle ring was always flooded with spectators if he was in the battlefield.

A man so great was in the end defeated by Ye Chong with a final blow to the head.

Despite the impressive triumph, everyone thought there was nothing extraordinary about the battle. Any individual would have to face defeat one day with no exceptions to the top fighter in EMPA, the Son of Light, who averagely gets knocked out around 10 times a year. Therefore, the Shield of Thorns must have some breaks in his consecutive victories.

What was astounding was the fact that Ye Chong’s mech was only a Lacherl.

Lacherl, namely the soldier major is a humanoid mech with low specification and built with a sturdy shell; providing an astronomical defense compared to other mechs of the same level. Additionally, it also has a mediocre or even unbearable speed and mobility, inferring it to be more of a threatening defensive niche in the field. It was especially threatening when the high speed ranged shooting technique became a trend among the fighters; which just happened to be the biggest counter towards its guard, thus killing the population of Lacherl users close to extinction.

Spectators booed at Ye Chong continuously upon seeing him maneuvering a Lacherl into the battlefield. Lordcupine, categorized under OU (Overused) for its premium quality and high ranking in offensive forces would have crashed this wall easily in one blow.

Ye Chong found such expertise absolutely unnecessary and tediously lengthy in mastering the skills. It was too complex for a mere child who had never been through much like him to understand. But frankly speaking, he likes the Lacherl because not only was she the first humanoid model he piloted in the training field, she also looked quite similar to Winnie; in spite of her weight, she moves considerably faster than good old Winnie.

A premium model dueling with a novice model can be compared to an armored warrior fighting a naked farmer.

Nothing much can be expected from the result seeing that there would be no dramatic twist or the what-ifs. The spectators watched in agreement that the Shield of Thorns’ effortless victory would be justifiable from the model of Ye Chong’s mech. It was a wrong model to begin with but the unforeseen circumstances before the audiences had them gawping in awe and surprise.

Lacherl swoops down and struck its opponent. It took the Shield of Thorns by surprise as he sneers in discontentment. How badly does she want to taste death? Spectators booed in disbelief at YC, a hero of the zeroes. Suddenly, the room was filled with silence as everyone stared at next spectacle with wide eyes.

Judging from their reactions, everyone had the same thought; how does a heavy machine like Lacherl move this fast?

Jaws dropped as they continued to observe the battle. Lacherl circled Lorcupine swiftly and every swing of the sword confused the Shield of Thorns. At times when he thought to have gotten the sequence of the attack, Lacher1 managed to pull a different trick. In the end, he failed to even land an attack on the highness, Lacherl.

Lorcupine was dazed in confusion; he was the one who owned a premium mech but was struck down by a novice mech. It dawned on him that the Lacher1 looks different as if it was upgraded into a brand new model.

Could it be that the Lacherl have been modified? Did he replace the engine? How could Lorcupine not land a single strike even if Lacher1 was modified with marvelous craftsman skills? Are you freaking kidding me?!

Thoughts raced through his mind in frustration.

Still, that was the reality even if it was unbelievable. The Lacherl piloted by Ye Chong had the upper-hand throughout the fight. However, Shield of Thorns was not a weak one either; he is well-rounded in offensiveness and defensiveness. He is like a sword as good as it’s a shield, the traditional combination worked wonders in his hands, with various kinds of defense techniques – blocking, cancelling, grinding and breaking. Holding up against Lacherl impeccably with the occasional glow of his sword coming from his sequence of defense, a prime manifestation of Lord Porcupine himself; in the shield of the thorns, one prick and you’ll pay for it.

Ye Chong was ignorant as he did not produce the opportunity for a strike back and he calmly carried on his inputs.

Such a rare scene indeed! The fight was so overwhelming it had everyone on the edge of their seats amazed by the tension of the battle. They immediately whipped out their hologram recorders to capture this precious fight. Right after the fight ended, the scenes were posted into a discussion forum which attracted enough attention to be crowned as the top news on the site.

Fans had gone through the visuals and were astounded by the skillfulness of YC as they all agreed from their discovery that the Lacherl was an original, unmodified model and that her speed was already at its maximum. The difference was however, YC piloted her in a fair set of movement with sharp turning points rapidly done between each step and by the time Mr. Shield of Thorns could land an attack, YC would have placed her at a safer point; an illusion created that the Lacherl outsped the Lorcupine.

In addition, the heftiness of Lacherl was an advantage YC utilized. According to the analysis based on the visuals, the direction of the sword was aligned with the direction of impulse from Lacherl herself in every strike. To put it simply, every attack made had an enormous amount of kinetic energy under the highest speed of the mech, making Lacherl into a killer machine; brandishing to land a strike. Without a doubt, Lacher1 was an intimidating opponent.

Regardless of the mech’s model, be it a fighting type or the shooting type, the core would always be the speed of control. When the speed of mech is high, maintaining the accuracy of inputs would have been highly difficult even with the aid of a powerful processor. Technically, when the mech reaches a velocity that passes the highest capacity by more than 70%, the struggle to maintain an accurate input would steeply increase. While YC broke the speed cap and was still able to glide like a bird, the other pilots who were watching couldn’t help but to salute him out of deep respect.

To think that those outcomes of the investigation were already astonishing, there’s more. One attentive pilot calculated YC’s movements; in 3 seconds, within a distance of mere 100 meters, YC had already executed sharp low-angled turnings eight times! When the results were posted on the site, the pressure was exerted and the anxiety brewed!

Such technique was called the Low Angled Turning, the most practical and yet the most challenging technique to perform by the speedy models. Well, almost all pilots knew the trick but it was still the hardest one to play out. The sharp turnings while traveling at maximum speed would constantly bring discomfort to the pilot’s body which would heighten as the speed increases.

Eight continuous Low Angled Turnings in three seconds was a baffling accomplishment. It was almost as if YC was a mutated ape from another galaxy.

The community thought that is was preposterous and started doubting if the calculation was done correctly or not. The network was a virtual reality. If he couldn’t do it outside the virtual world, he could never do it here. The system would have prompted him about ‘system failure’ right away!

Questions filled the air about a man achieving the unachievable. Could a mortal’s body be this durable?

Anyone that knew about the mysterious YC started to monitor him as fans awaited more mind-boggling matches to test the limits of their hearts.