Chapter 178: Undercurrent I

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

When Ye Chong got back to his room he could already feel his bones crumbling, as he had been applying full force over his body muscles to perform that freaking Doronath Step instructed by Shang the love tutor. The main issue of the performance was to inhibit the force of his hand. Shang demanded gentleness and elegance in every movement he made, which put him under obligation to remind himself to not exert his inhuman strength from time to time. And that was literally new to him. To top all that, Shang just had to repetitively nag in his head to retain the flexibility of his body in the postures. It took countless of times with the artificial indulgence’s harassment before Ye Chong acquired the sense of flexibility in his body, which was exactly the split second of relaxation of his muscle right before he sprang into action every time. Well that was undeniably a torment to Ye Chong, as maintaining the posture of anticipation was bringing an overwhelming amount of burden to his body and mind, which unavoidably boiled down as the main cause to his fatigue at the moment.

Regarding to that final blow he delivered… Ye Chong had yet gotten any idea what the heck happened in his head that time. He did not foresee what the lick of his would have caused which led to an uncontrollable development of his story.

The two major spectators of the entire show in the dark, in their finest suit and dress, had their faces dramatically bloomed into something unrecognizable. Too bad Ye Chong missed their epic reaction, as he only heard the sound of glasses shattering upon falling onto the ground, which shocked Ye Chong awake from the strange condition of his after that lick. He was surprised of seeing himself acting so, as he quickly retreated his hands upon seeing the reddish face of the lady in his embrace. Shang Lan had lost control of her body by then. However, as she could not stand properly with the sloppy feet of hers, she fell into the embrace of Ye Chong again. The man in confusion could only helplessly reach his hands out to hold the poor lady once more.

Right when Ye Chong was figuring an appropriate solution for this mishap of his day, Shang Xin and Shang Ling were already racing towards him. Shang Xin lifted the melted sister of hers and fired a glare at Ye Chong, while Shang Ling… he was giving a very strange gaze at Ye Chong for some reason. As usual, Ye Chong wasn’t concern about the thoughts of others, as he expressed ignorance. The arrival of the two spectators resolved his issue of carrying this melted girl perfectly. The girl as lifted by her sister, gave a quick glance at Ye Chong before she left. Her watery eyes flowed a sign which Ye Chong could not comprehend. It was the first time he saw it, was it anger? Or was it something else?

Well. No use crying over spilled milk. What happens, happens. Ye Chong was too lazy to give more thoughts to the accident. But it was weird, somehow, that white garb flashed in his head during the dance… Ye Chong laughed bitterly.

The artificial indulgence had gone full rampage with his laughter ever since that historical lick Ye Chong made on the girl.

"Shang, why could I not resist doing that back then?" Ye Chong could not understand the working of this back when he was shocked awake.

"Mhm, biologically speaking, it is a kind of intuition. A kind of built-in ability." Shang sounded serious when he spoke… for the first 2 seconds, "Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!" And he burst out laughing once more, "Ye, you are too strong! You are a potent beast! Yes you are! The intuition of the beast! The definition of nature! Hahahahahahahahahaha!" Shang’s mechanical laughter roared in his head.

Towards this artificial indulgence, despite the annoyance, Ye Chong could do nothing about him. The saving grace to his misfortune was that Shang’s personal 3 hours ended pretty soon after. Mu’s silence of rationality sent Ye Chong to a peaceful sleep quickly afterwards.

Oh hell he knows… that the outside had gone hectic, chaotic.

"Have you found anything on Wang Xing?" Shang Zhangming’s face was of a fearsome black hole, as his voice rumbled profoundly, since he was also one of the witnesses to one of the best moments in the history of humankind. He could reminisce how his head had blanked out completely, his thoughts jammed into BSOD. He was sentimental thinking of how his younger daughter was behaving lonesome during the days before. It was heart-wrenching to see the blossom all alone at the corner. Still! The moment he recalled the night that jerk Wang Xing who actually was daring enough to do such a preposterous action over his precious Lan in public. Oh the temper erupted in his mind. "What the hell all of you are waiting for? Get to work!" Under his rage, the homicide could be smelled even under each word of his lines. His subordinates were threatened, trembling and acted cautiously with their work, as they feared of becoming one of the scapegoats to the incident.

"Y-yes, we got it sir. Wang Xing, 21, a native from planet Fedar. Parents were both deceased. No relative was found. Other information, unknown; examination, qualification of any level, any kind, negative!" The man reported in carefully.

"You took this long and this was all you could get?" Knotting his brows, looking slightly unsatisfied.

"As apparently this man is not in list of Mr. Robert’s men and this information was obtained from the investigation under the demand of Ms. Shang Xin. We have just started it. Also, we were informed that only the butler of Mr. Robert, Bai Linan was aware of Wang Xing's background. Even Mr. Robert himself was unaware of the identity. Wang Xing got Ms. Shang Xin’s attention on his prompt rescue during the raid at Mr. Robert. In addition, it seemed like he wields great skills," the man sounded fearful, but his words remained concise and clear.

"Mhm." Shang Zhangming’s tone sounded less threatening, as he understood how difficult the investigation was for his men, "Alright. All of you can excuse yourself. You have done well. But I would like all of you to keep an eye on this Wang Xing."

"Yes sir!" The man nodded his head immediately. He was supposed to leave yet his steps moved with hesitation. "What else?" Shang Zhangming understood the gesture, it was a sign that his men had something else to report, frowning, he asked.

"Reporting in. It is a piece of information we obtained from the virtual world," courteously the man started reporting. "The man whose I.D. was known as ‘YC’ had suddenly reappeared in the virtual world. And he was actually at the NR Training base on planet Rique. And according to the confirmation of our mavericks, this YC should be residing right on our planet. Well, sir, since you had ordered us to watch on this person, so…" The voice of the man sounded shaky.

And that was when Shang Zhangming remembered the fact that he did ask his men to follow up on this YC guy… that was something centuries ago however. "I see. I remembered it. Just keep watching." He tried to not sound irritated, since those were his trustworthy men, though he was literally suffocated by his daughter’s misfortune, wondering how in the Rique he would have the mood to take care of this random player online.

The reemergence of YC the legend had once again brought up a storm in the virtual world.

Ye Chong was too focused on his training, that he again did not realize how the base on Rique also contained an automatic full-recording system, which he did not opt-out before logging in. Hence, every frame of his performance was recorded wholly. Even though Mu had already launched the anti-detection program on the merchants around, he did not take any further action, since the merchants did not impose actual threat on Ye Chong.

There would be tons of void hologram visuals from the NR training base daily. Void as in, uninteresting, random and trivial. There would be workers specially selecting the masterpieces hidden within the trash, considering the chances of discovering visuals of some real deals in training. The visuals and the analyzed information on it would be most valuable to everybody else.

At the first second when the worker spotted the I.D. on the screen being YC, he knew he had hit the jackpot of the day.

As expected from YC, even his training course was a total shocker, for he actually thought of using the avoidable training room to master his stance and offenses. The worker was stupefied seeing the scene produced on the last training session of YC of the day.

He uploaded the visual to the public right away and had landed a bomb to the netizens in the virtual world.

Ye Chong might not be considered as the founder of mech close-combats, but he was certainly related to the rise of close-combats in the virtual world. Watching YC’s visuals was known as a must-do to every mech combat enthusiast, especially when the techniques used inside could be deemed as the textbook for mech combats. One could almost be certain to state that, the reputation possessed by this YC guy was much greater than those ridiculous top ranked fighters in the virtual world. The sudden disappearance of YC two years before had always been a major mystery in the heart of the people.

The last match he had was against Invincible Firepower. Even though he lost the last match, people benefited from his experience as they absorbed the various techniques he used against ranged attackers.

Quitting because of losing? That came first as a speculation in the mind of most people, though it was debunked by some fans, taking into account that it was not the YC’s first losing match. He did not simply look like a coward who would retire because of losing.

There were a variety of versions for the ending of this legend, regarding on the hows and whys of his abrupt retirement. None of them was convincing to the people though, which eventually gave him a stronger vibe of mystery. And because of such vibe of mystery, YC became more charming to the people as he ascended to become the idol of many youngsters out there.

Majestic! A majestic performance it was absolutely! The majestic yet mysterious YC came in a flash, with visuals of his training open to the public and immediately was chased upon in madness. The streaming signal within Rique was about to be permanently interrupted by this immense amount of population surging the transmitter. Phew, what a horror to the department of signal transmitting maintenance.

Amazement! The lingering sensation of every viewer of the visual! The scenic sequence coming up like a dream had transformed into an unforgettable memory inside almost all witnesses.

The white veil shrouded like the silhouette of a phantom, with the photospheres conglomerating from all angles slowly to quickly, forming few times of slashes of white beams imprinting the corneas of the audience, as they were smashed upon the veil, shattering into countless specks of beam scattered all over the place.

People were astounded. YC had once again given every believer a taste of miracle after being cloistered away for 2 years.

Quite a number of pilots who held great confidence in their skills rushed upon the NR training base, as they inputted the exact room number, with the exact setting. They were confident, but none of them lasted more than 3 minutes inside. The strength of YC had been justified to the people, including the skeptical witnesses. And there was one, wow, YC lasted 5 minutes in this room of terror? What a quick response he gave. Spectacular! Anyone who had tried the training room with their own bodies could understand by heart. When the timer hit the 3rd minute, the velocity of the photosphere and the number of them would be increased tremendously. So far only YC was able to surpass the cursed 3rd minute mark as proven by his visual.

YC and his new unique trading course had become the hottest topic on the network for some time.

Ugh! Looked at the paused timer at 3:59, the man sighed. He had tried his very best. It was depressing as he was also using a Polysky, but he just could not make it past the 4th minute mark. He seriously could not imagine how there would be one man who could last 5 minute in this room. If it was not the visual he would never buy that statement. Pathetically he had witnessed the miracle and his experience had verified the validity of the visual.

The name of YC, he had perceived it before. The visuals of YC, he had watched some of them before. Yes, a few moments of YC was an eye-opener, but YC was still weaker, considerably. He was positive to state that YC in the past might be identified as an expert in combat between mechs by the public, but never YC was once in his eyes. Nonetheless, the current standard of YC’s skills were shocking to him. With his sight, naturally he would never be mesmerized by the majestic performance of YC like the others, what mattered to him was the extraordinary reaction speed, that exceptionally firm fundamentality as well as the skillfulness in combats of his expressed in this show.

He could say that, compared to YC two years before, it was of a total different tangent.

Never expected this YC guy could accelerate to such standard after hiding for 2 years.

Interesting. He smiled. Even though he failed to hit the 5th minute mark in the room, he was not disappointed at all. Everyone has their own perks. He understood such principle of life way back. Reaction speed was never his perk, although the principle did not reduce his amazement over YC, since even No. A-6 whose reaction speed was known to be the highest was having issues to remain in the room past the 5th minute.

Nevertheless, Black Coves shall always be the strongest in combats. That was the very essence of mech combating. And he was the arsenal of the Black Coves, he would fear no one! This was his faith, his most potent faith. Being a man in pride absolutely had something in hand to be in pride of.

If I was ever able to fight with this YC guy, it has got to be an interesting chore to do. His interest towards YC grew.

The spread of news went outrageously rapid around the people. Soon, everybody else from outer space knew it, that there was this recording from Rique of YC’s performance at the training base. No actual geographical boundary existed in the vast virtual world, even though signal would inevitably suffer from loss over long distance transmission disregarding the type or the power of it. So a highly demanded virtual facility like the NR training base would be set up on every planet. Thus, the netizens’ habit of lingering at their own training base, instead of checking out on others, since obviously the delay would be much lesser.

Despite all that, innumerable amount of people flooded the NR training base, with the hope of encountering the legendary YC in person. The NR training base for the pilots was crowded for the following days, as people including his worshippers, the challengers and spectators, grabbed that one in a million chance of seeing YC. One could easily find a thread talking about this mysterious YC on the network daily. The different analysis based on his latest visual were especially massive of them.

…

Zzzz

And that was when Ye Chong, who had already submerged into his slumber out of the fatigue from grooves, was literally unaware of anything that happened outside.