Chapter 180: Undercurrent III

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Everything looked normal from the outside, as if nothing had happened the night before, even though the men of the Shang family appeared to be vigorously engaged as they went in and out of the house. That was because of Mr. Robert’s fresh arrival with his crew the day before. Considering how tiresome the travel Mr. Robert had, these men at home had their tasks reallocated, rescheduled to accommodate Mr. Robert’s visit. No other task was arranged on the list for the day.

Early in the morning, Bai Linan was summoned by his boss, Mr. Robert.

Ye Chong on the other hand, as informed by Ah Duan that he was free to go anywhere, he alone left the hectic house. What he needed to do was to collect his identity card. Although Mu hacked into the system and had fabricated an entry of Wang Xing in the resident list, he did not have a physical card to prove and reassure his identity. So he left, hurriedly, and certainly he was followed. Luckily it was nothing new to our sky-walking Ye Chong, he was well-aware of the routes, the turnings to take to get rid of the followers. There were few tiny flocks of them but all of them were magically slung away.

There was not much of a hassle when Ye Chong got his card and got back to the Shang family. He hid himself in his room right after that, which left the watchdogs of the Shang family in blank dismay, looking at each other as they lost Ye Chong in the dark.

Ye Chong logged into the virtual world after getting into his room. Certainly he was not caught red-handed. The mavericks employed by the Shang family to watch the action of this man were utterly cloaked by Mu’s hacking to the gate. They were completely unaware of Ye Chong’s activity online.

Logging in…

Success.

Ye Chong came straight to the NR training center. The sight before him was bewildering.

The lobby was full of people, where every pillar was surrounded by them.

"Mu, do you know what had happened?" inquired Ye Chong.

"I need 20 seconds." He seriously had no idea what in the virtual world Mu had been busy with these days, obviously his attention was never on Ye Chong.

It was not hard to tell from the crowd that their behavior consisted of a strong objectivity, as Ye Chong observed curiously. Their expression explained it all, even though Ye Chong could not pinpoint what their objective was.

20 seconds lapsed quickly. "Ye." Mu’s emergence equals to an answer, "They are waiting for you."

"Waiting for me?" Ye Chong went speechless, as he simply did not expect the crowd having anything to do with he himself, especially when he recognized none of them…

"Yes. Precisely… they are waiting for YC," stated Mu.

"YC? Isn’t YC me?" Ye Chong sounded confused, showing difficulty in comprehending Mu’s words.

"Thus, they are looking for you," explained Mu.

Mu’s explanation did not seem helpful to Ye Chong in any way. The mechanical partner eventually had to explain everything from the very beginning. He got it. But then again, he did not. He got the working behind this but he did not get what the people were thinking. To him, these behaviors looked inconceivable. The more unexplainable thing was, never once he imagined that people, of such amount, would succumb to such method of zero efficiency and measly probability.

Leaving this training center immediately became the wisest choice to Ye Chong at that mpment.

He moved onto the other training bases after that but… there were all as crowded… which made him wondered if there was actually anybody still doing their training there.

Thanks to Mu’s hacking, Ye Chong was led to the training center with the least amount of people.

As guaranteed by Mu, the place was absolutely deserted. The lobby was empty. It was the first time Ye Chong saw such isolated training center online.

"Eh, Mu, what’s with this place? It’s all empty and such?" asked Ye Chong. He had been through training bases of a variety of places, but he had never come across one that was so empty.

"This place was formerly known as planet Haberda. As the environment of the planet worsened over the years, a massive evacuation of residents was performed 15 years ago. This should be one transmitting station that got abandoned abruptly, as the processor was still running and the local NR training center has yet to be demolished. The actual reason behind this : unknown," stated Mu. This place happened to be the NR training center for pilots with the least amount of population.

"Oh I see." Ye Chong did not inquire further. Regarding why the residents were evacuated and where the heck they had migrated to, Ye Chong’s curiosity was not that great to ask those yet.

Ye Chong first walked to one of the pillars and tapped gently with his finger. A partially transparent interface emerged before him. Ye Chong took a brief browse on the population. There was no one else but him at the center.

Mu went silent after the last explanation he made. Ye Chong could tell Mu was no longer right by his side. Whenever Mu laid his hands on the virtual world, somehow he just vanished, vaporized into the thin air. No one knew what he was doing the whole time. Ye Chong even inquired Shang regarding this, though Shang could not give him a satisfying response.

Ye Chong randomly entered one of the photosphere avoidability training room. The training before was pretty entertaining to him, although he only lasted for 5 minutes at most.

The room was completely dark, the photospheres utterly innumerable, they danced in an increasing speed, like a moth towards the flame, heading towards Ye Chong rapidly.

…

Dammit! Dammit!!!

Wei Yuan cursed numerous times at his instructor in his mind. That old crap! That old tard from nowhere! That erotic eyes of his should have rotten in hell! I could see his pig eyes glowing in dark the moment a female trainee passed by. What a shame among the instructors! A total rubbish of humanity!

Wei Yuan’s instructor was an odd-tempered elderly with a lonesome personality… only to the male trainees of course. Towards the female trainees, he would regain his function in society, he would suddenly become the best teacher in the entire galaxy, which turned every other male trainees into a green-eyed monster, wondering why they were not an XY species when they were born. The pilot profession had a trend of growing population of females, even though males stood an absolute advantage in population. Sadly, the class where Wei Yuan was in had literally a majority of female pilots-to-be. Sim that old bum was well-accorded by the ladies, like every single batch of female seniors would compliment his passion and kindness, which eventually caused this class conducted by the old man himself to be overpopulated by the females from pilot profession.

Wei Yuan was agonized the moment he stepped into the class. He had always been remorseful over his silly choice of registering this class. Wei Yuan’s uncle was also a teacher in this academy, he was from the same profession too. But he insisted recommending Sim that old bum to Wei Yuan’s parents, claiming that Mr. Sim was the expert of the experts in the academy, an experienced teacher.

Expert of the experts? Puh-lease! Wei Yuan had criticized that blurb of that old bum for countless times. I could only see inexpert of the inexperts, someone just missed out the "in-" prefixes when they spoke! He had spent quite some time attending his classes, yet never once he saw his instructor actually in action. Most of his classes were on theory; when it came to practical there had to be one pilot he got from nowhere to do the demonstration for him. The only satisfaction was, these pilots he got turned out to be some real deals, where quite a few of them were actually an ace pilot.

Wait! Stop! I’m not going to think about that old bum anymore! What for I’m thinking those nonsense? Only to spoil my mood! And Wei Yuan tossed Sim old crap directly out of his brain.

Coming home, I’m coming home~ His home was rather distant from the academy, yet he was able to make it home within a very short amount of time, all thanks to his exceptional piloting skills. He might be a mere trainee studying the pilot profession but he was still superior in his piloting. Piloting was generally about the flight ability of one pilot on a mech, which was vital to every pilot out there.

Wei Yuan was somehow born with a unique understanding towards piloting. Whenever he saw the objects flying by hurriedly on the screen as he travelled in an overwhelming speed, he felt an unexplainable excitement growing in him, that it bit onto his nerves! Those namely No.1 speed-pilots in his academy were a total joke in his eyes.

Unfortunately, his talent was limited to solely piloting. None of the other aspects was an eye-opener, with shooting being chiefly a major headache to him. He somehow was cursed into a slowpoke in this. No matter how hard he worked, he only could pass at most. He never aced the subject, which was depressing!

Not to mention how that old bum never gave him meaningful instructions, he would, at most, say things like "Take it slow. Take it easy." Not helpful at all! Wei Yuan even felt like giving that old bum a punch right on his donkey face!

…

"I’m home," Wei Yuan greeted at the doorstep slothfully.

"Oh," a man’s voice rang from the house. Wei Yuan had been living with his father since his mother passed away not too long after his birth. He had been relying on his father deeply. His father was an engineer, also a work maniac. Once he turned on his engine, one did not expect him turning it off so soon. He would ignore the time, the days and nights, the rise of the sun, the fall of the moon. So there were times where Wei Yuan felt miraculous of himself, for he was never starved to death.

He got back to his room, collapsed on his fluffy bed. He looked at the ceiling, reflecting that face of his advanced in years ahead of his age.

His mind wandered off…

If mommy was still alive… Only if she was still alive, it would be good… isn’t it? He had viewed the visuals of his mother many times. And he got to admit that no one else was as beautiful as his mother. The fair white ceiling somehow formulated the visual of his mother again… Zzz… His sight grew blurry, sleepy he had gotten.

Sighhh… Right before he fell asleep, he gave off a long sigh. He then lost consciousness as fallen to slumber.

When Wei Yuan woke up, it was already midnight. He scurried to the kitchen and grabbed a quick bite. He peeked at his father's room. The light was still on. Wei Yuan with a slice of vanilla cake in his mouth, dragging his steps in slippers, headed back to his room.

He prompted the program and logged into the virtual world after that.

What he intended to go was a long-abandoned training center for pilots. It was an accident when he discovered such a place. He found it peculiar as there was nobody back then. Skeptically he tested out the facilities inside and to his surprise, they all worked! The place had become his private training ground ever since. He spent his days doing tough trainings there. None of his mates would know the fact that bottomline shooting grade of his was a result of his tremendous handwork at this private training ground.

To his mates, he was just another lazy, laid-back person in the class, especially with his extreme low-profiled behavior in the academy. Nobody seemed to know his skillfulness of piloting. His appearance was average. An ordinary head, an ordinary shape of face, an ordinary physique, you wanted to know his charm? Hah! What a joke, his charm was ordinary too. No matter what angle you took to see him, he was easily overlooked as he truly was. Never once he had gotten a proposal or love letter from the girls, despite his age.

Living in his own world, he pursued his own dream.

And that isolated training center, was his very own world, his own kingdom!

He got to the lobby. It was empty as usual. Well, my own kingdom is claimed as my own for a reason. Forever alone, sigh! He shook his head, wondering what had gotten to his sentiments. Chuckled, he settled his thoughts and was going to start his training course.

He remembered that he saw some amazing visuals by YC lately. It was yesterday when he watched YC’s spectacular performance at the photosphere room. He never imagined one to be this potent.

Wei Yuan recognized his own strength in mech-combats that he barely practiced before. He never had the idea of trying it once. Being a trainee to the pilot academy, he was well aware the difference between reality and virtual world. Yes, close-ranged attackers were mushrooming on the virtual world, they were expanding their forces. Still, in reality, ranged attackers were at an absolute upper hand in a fight, since you only have one life there… No one would really gamble that one life using those suicidal techniques in the virtual world. You guard your own life, if you don’t, you die! Moreover, ranged attacking had undergone years of development and had matured during the process; unlike close-combats, the efficiency, the outcome of it still remained questionable to the public.

Nonetheless, Wei Yuan wanted to try the photosphere room once. Yes, those glowing spheres some people called it, would be something great to try out. Of course, he would not be doing the stance training like YC, he was going to train his avoidability.

The glowing sphere room was never a thing to him before. At the training center, he frequented the basic training room the most. The piloting of his was the outcome of the training. He believed, as long as he redid his basics again and again, they would never fail him in the future.

It was his first time using the glowing sphere room… Wei Yuan actually had no idea of its location. In the end he returned to the lobby and picked one of the interfaces at the pillars. Launching the terminal, activating the self-inquiry system to resolve his issues.

He booted the guide program, as names of several training rooms were listed. W-wait, what? Wei Yuan went astounded.

Occupied? There’s someone here? How?

He could not believe his eyes. Did I see it right? He rubbed his eyes and went to check it out again. Yes, there was someone! And that someone was occupying the glowing sphere room!

What’s the ID? How comes, I don’t even-

YC?

YC? … YC? Where have I heard this before? Wei Yuan had a gut feeling that he must have heard of this name before but he could not recall… wait… glowing sphere room? YC?

Ah! YC? Isn’t that YC the YC I saw?

He remembered!

Didn’t I just watch his visual last night? What a pig I am! He scolded for his silliness.

For one who logged on to the virtual world daily like him, no way he could not recognize YC. He might not be a mech combating maniac, he had at least witnessed some of the well-known battles YC did online.

The training center here, despite being completely abandoned, remained connected to the MPA. So if one would like to use the facilities inside, one got to perform registration. So Wei Yuan was not skeptical over the validity of this "YC" popped on the screen.

He was only intrigued that… how YC found this place? Was it also a coincidence like how I did?

More likely excitement brewed inside him though. It’s YC! YC you know! He’s the big shot of the virtual world! And is an assured ace of the mech combats! While the outside went bananas in search of YC the mystery, he was just right here, right in front of me!

Hahahaha! Today is my lucky day!

Without further ado, without hesitating, he clicked ENTER and prompted himself access to the glowing sphere room.