Chapter 482: Situation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Ye, we have a situation," Shang said with concern. In front of Ye Chong was a holographic screen showing the star chart of Gray Valley. There were many areas highlighted in red. Gray Valley looked like a sick patient covered with angry rashes, in a critical situation. The red zones were areas where red-tailed beasts were sighted.

Shang and Mu had worked together and decrypted Gray Valley's virtual world computation system. After overcoming this difficult obstacle, Shang slipped quietly into the virtual world to gather useful information.

There was a spike in news related to red-tailed beast recently. Cities began to feel the pressure, and the number of casualties were hiking up crazily. Even the atmosphere within the training camp had grown tense. People were no longer smiling so easily. Everyone was training hard.

All this while, everyone in Gray Valley had been confident of winning the war. However, the situation had descended quickly into chaos.

Ye Chong studied at the bruised star chart quietly. He considered for a moment and asked, "How is security like right now at the Gateway towards He Yue Galaxy?"

"Hmm, from what I gather, security has laxed recently, but no enough for you to pass through," Shang replied.

Shang was better than Mu in analyzing intel. This surprised Ye Chong, and it was only after Shang explained that he understood why. Shang was a pro in psychology, and could often deduce useful information from seemingly irrelevant information. This was a quality that Mu lacked.

Financially speaking, they could afford to leave where they were, but they had decided to stay instead. If they left, they might encounter the red-tailed beasts in outer space, and that was dangerous. Leaving Planet Henna right now would be a risky move. Even with Ye Chong's extraordinary abilities, it was still necessary to act cautiously in the current state of unrest.

In a society of unrest, the power of just one person was like a drop in the ocean. Hence, after discussion with Shang, Ye Chong had decided to stay and observe the situation.

Every day he trained himself by training his students, and his students' attacks became more and more violent. Even Xi Qing could not keep his cool. Ye Chong understood them, and did not hold back himself. In the end, he organized them into groups of five, and he would fight each group in turn. This allowed the students to practice coordination, while giving him some kind of challenge.

However, to Ye Chong's surprise, his students were not capable of any kind of strategizing. He had to teach them how to coordinate amongst themselves, how to choose their positions.

If only one of the Sang Tribe members were here. In terms of strategizing, the Sang Tribe would take first place, and the Xi Feng Tribe placed second.

Shang took unexpected interest in his task. He gathered large volumes of recordings about strategizing and tactics from the virtual world, analyzed them, then came up with an original Shang's Theory of War. To Ye Chong's astonishment, Shang's theories were very effective.

Shang was positively euphoric with Ye Chong's acknowledgement, and remained in that state of excitement for the next few days.

Ye Chong used Shang's theories to teach his students. Unlike Mu's precision and accuracy, Shang operated in a whole other realm. His methods were simple and flexible. For example, Shang had designed a formula of coordination for five-person squads. It did not demand fixed roles for each member, but instead acted as a guide for the members to respond to each other's movements. However, the squad members were restricted in the ways they could respond according to Shang's theories.

Ye Chong did not study his theories deeply before he began to teach them to his students. Af first, they improved very slowly. However, these theories and Ye Chong's rich combat experience helped the students improve in their coordination skills tremendously and in a very short time.

Now, Ye Chong's battle with the five-member squads were no longer so easy. The students, in turn, became even more respectful of their instructor. They knew exactly how powerful they were once they acted as a squad, but even so, their instructor had won against them decisively, every single time.

Just how strong was their instructor? No one had the answer to that question, but Ye Chong was slowly becoming something of an enigma to them.

Ye Chong oddly noticed that the working staff in the training camp did not seem to pay much notice to them. The staff who came daily in the beginning no longer visited. Such a large scale training camp was now apparently left to their own devices. Had something happened?

Ye Chong did not care, and continued to focus on his training every day. His students benefited from training with him, and vice versa. He never had the chance to train against multiple opponents before this. Additionally, the students may not be particularly capable, but they were now fighting with Ye Chong's typical style - simple but effective. These little Ye Chong's offered Ye Chong himself a decent challenge.

Five D-6's whooshed across the training ground in a seemingly random manner, but in fact they had already surrounded Ye Chong. Each mech was covered by two mechs on its sides. If Muscle Man attempted to target any one of them, the other two mechs would step in to interfere.

Inside his pilot cabin, Ye Chong's dull eyes began to show a tiny ripple of emotion.

His students were getting better and better at coordination. Their deceivingly simple positions had actually set up three traps for him. Each student alone was still very much inferior against a veteran mech pilot. However, they were still new to mechs, and there were no habits that they cannot change yet to suit their teamwork. Besides, they were now at an age where they could absorb knowledge like a sponge. They were also all hardworking and persistent. That was how they managed to form such a real life combat worthy squad in such a short time.

Making things challenging for Ye Chong meant that they were now quite strong. Ye Chong might not mind his salary too much, but he believed that if his students took the exams now, they would definitely pass with flying colors.

Now, however …

Ye Chong took a sweeping glance at the five D-6's, having no intention of making it easy for them. He fought each training battle with all he got. That was his secret to improving himself. It was also why his students could improve so quickly.

Ye Chong understood their coordination methods more than they did themselves. Aside from that, the students were still far from invincible even though they had already improved a lot.

Ye Chong made a bluff to attack the frontmost mech, then quickly turned back, creating an opening in the squad using this sudden motion. He then forced himself into this opening, creating a moment of confusion in the squad.

The confusion lasted for only two seconds, but it was enough for Ye Chong.

He made sudden veers, quick bursts of attacks, bluffs behind bluffs…

The five D-6's were quickly unraveled, losing their formation. Two of them lunged at Muscle Man, trying to buy time for their comrades to get back into formation. Ye Chong pbviously did not allow it to happen.

He made another convincing bluff, changing directions three times in a row, and escaped the two D-6's. H then pushed himself backwards in a few powerful steps, putting himself between the two D-6's.

Muscle Man used a commonly seen move in hand-to-hand combat - pushing his elbows back to strike - and began his attacks.

Muscle Man was like a wild beast, unleashing all the energy that threatened to burst through its body. The mech's attacks were like waves in a tsunami. The earth groaned every time it stomped its heavy legs onto the ground. Bang bang bang bang! The steps sounded like a war drum, and it made the students who were watching tremble in excitement. Dust was sent flying all over the training ground as the D-6's were thrown out of the field, one by one.

The observing students discussed about the details of the fight, and even the students in the D-6's climbed out of their pilot cabins to join the discussion. Instead of dejection, their faces showed eagerness.

Ye Chong did not use Muscle Man's assault weapons. This was done not out of concern for his students or making things more difficult for himself. He knew that if he used those weapons, the D-6's would be damaged, and they would lose a lot of time while the mechs were sent to be fixed.

Even so, he was slowly feeling the pressure. His students were improving very quickly, a truly surprising turn of events. They threw themselves completely into the battle, and were not distracted by anything that was happening outside of it. Perhaps the worsening situation in Gray Valley was a driving factor.

"Ye, something's wrong!" Shang interrupted Ye Chong's training, sounding panicked.

A news header appeared on Muscle Man's holographic screen.

"Alliance Frontline Thoroughly Defeated!" The red letters looked menacing.

Ye Chong read on, and his expression turned grim.

A few days ago, Shang found out that there was to be a large scale military operation at the frontline. Ye Chong found himself thinking about that piece of intel as he read the news. It seemed to have come from an interview with a few mech pilots who survived. The United Army had gathered all available forces in a bid to kill all the red-tailed beasts in the purple gas cloud and end the war, but had instead lost the battle. It was said that less than 10 percent of the soldiers returned alive. More importantly, a large group of red-tailed beasts were heading their way! The creatures were pursuing the retreating soldiers, and may force their way into the heart of Gray Valley.

Ye Chong spoke in a low voice, "Shang, show Gray Valley's star chart."

A star chart showing Gray Valley in the center leapt up into Muscle Man's holographic screen. Ye Chong studied the chart, and his heart sank even further.

Eastlight was the closest planet to the front line, and right behind it was Henna.