Chapter 46: Got Crushed
Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Got Crushed
Yang Bo placed the painting in the bathtub and poured in a whole bucket of heavy-duty cleaner, which instantly bubbled up into a thick lather. In this high-end community, cleaning supplies could be used freely since the wastewater went straight to a dedicated treatment plant. Back when Yang Bo lived in government housing, he could only use eco-friendly cleaners and had to strictly sort his trash. High-end communities didn’t bother with that. Residents paid a premium for wastewater treatment and waste disposal, meaning they could toss things out however they pleased.
"What material is this canvas made of? Is it Metal?" Yang Bo stared at the remaining canvas. Even scissors had been completely useless against it.
He filled the tub with water again. Grabbing the canvas with both hands, he let his Electric Energy surge. Soon, the canvas turned red, softened, and melted back into the tub, solidifying into tiny granules. When he drained the water, they washed right away. Protected by Light Energy, Yang Bo’s hands were completely unharmed.
The painting’s two Scrolls seemed to be made of jade and were incredibly hard. Yang Bo heated them in the oven, then rapidly cooled them with water until they shattered. After repeating the process several times, they broke down completely into fine particles.
Yang Bo finally breathed a sigh of relief. The only reason he had taken the painting from someone else’s room was the fear that it might be traced back to the Red Earl. If the security department made the connection, they might subject the entire room, building, or even the whole community to a rigorous investigation. He couldn’t be entirely sure if his Invisibility left any traces. As long as it wasn’t tied to the Red Earl, nobody would bother investigating such a minor issue in the midst of all this chaos. The community’s property management might even sweep it under the rug themselves. After all, a missing person would ruin the community’s reputation. As for the missing occupant? Who could say? Amidst such a massive uproar, the resident might be dead, or perhaps they had simply packed up and moved elsewhere. Less trouble was always better than more.
What Yang Bo didn’t know was that no one actually knew what the leading Commander looked like. During the live broadcast, he had worn a silver Helmet before getting headshot by a Laser Gun. The high-energy Laser had obliterated him so thoroughly that not even his bones could be pieced back together; he was reduced to dust, making facial reconstruction impossible. As for his Low Level subordinates, they carried corpse-dissolving liquids on them. When the Mechas rammed into them, their bodies were completely liquefied. Very, very few identifiable individuals were left behind.
Yang Bo also returned the luxury Space Button he had bought for 800,000 credits. The Energy Stone inside it was simply too inferior. The seller initially tried to refuse the refund, but the moment Yang Bo mentioned he was an official resident, they processed it instantly.
"Housing prices are plummeting. That’s great," Yang Bo remarked after finishing his cleanup and finally checking real estate listings online. He needed to continue his Mecha training and verify a lot of other things. Housing prices were in a free fall. Since the Red Earl had suffered such a huge loss here, who knew if those lunatics would return? However, because the government hadn’t resumed full operations yet, property transactions were temporarily frozen. This caused prices to drop even further as the number of listings spiked.
"I’ll do some online training first." Yang Bo launched the Mecha game. Instead of entering the main game, he clicked into the Mecha training mode. His current training scores in the game were only barely passing. That was why he had been assigned the worst Blade Mecha when he entered the game; the assigned Mecha was directly tied to one’s simulation test results. This time, he planned to do Mecha combat training. Both he and his opponent would be using Blade Mechas.
As Yang Bo piloted the in-game Blade Mecha, he felt its reaction time was slower than a real Mecha. The controls involved a left-hand joystick that managed basic movements like walking, running, and jumping. The joystick also featured several buttons to operate the radar, the Flying Backpack, and other functions. His right hand rested on a touch keyboard linked to the Light Brain. The command sets could either be customized or set to the official defaults.
Mechas were actually just cannon fodder in the hierarchy of war. At least from what Yang Bo currently understood, they were akin to modern infantry, primarily used for ground disputes. During Mecha battles, electronic interference and suppression would cause the Intelligent System to misjudge situations or react sluggishly. Even the onboard radar could be rendered useless, leaving pilots to rely solely on their own eyes to assess the battlefield. Whenever various factions fought over resources or other interests, they all silently agreed on one outcome: whoever won the Mecha combat claimed the resources. If one side broke this rule, then everyone would ignore it. At that point, they might as well just use Warships to blow everything to pieces from the start—why even bother investing resources into a ground contest?
BOOM!
In the simulation training, the opponent’s strength increased every minute. Five minutes in, Yang Bo was sent flying by a dropkick from the enemy Mecha. He crashed to the ground, and his screen went black.
"Again!" Yang Bo felt that the simulated Mecha opponent moved with silky elegance and clean efficiency, as if performing a choreographed routine. He could hold his own for the first two minutes, but after that, he was completely overwhelmed. Through repeated training sessions, he learned a lot. The opponent could execute rapid turns while traveling at Mach 5. Just how many damn commands did that require?
Fortunately, the Blade Mecha’s functional limit was only so high. Yang Bo kept logging on to train whenever he had free time. Eventually, he started treating Mecha combat like a fistfight between two people and custom-designed quite a few command sets. Mecha combat came down to being fast, ruthless, and precise; there were no shortcuts. This relied on two aspects: first, raw hand speed, and second, custom-designed commands that allowed complex movements to be mapped to just one or two keystrokes.
However, configuring a command set was complex work. Changing one command often required altering many others, unless you were willing to discard commands you deemed unimportant. The default Mecha commands were balanced. Since every Mecha Master excelled in different areas, they would naturally design configurations that favored their own strengths.
"Ten minutes!" Yang Bo breathed a sigh of relief. He had finally managed to last ten minutes in training. In the game, holding out for ten minutes unlocked the option to choose a higher-tier Mecha for future simulations. Seeing that there was a long-range combat training option, his interest was piqued. He decided to give it a try.
"Damn it." The opponent was a ranged version of the Blade Mecha. Yang Bo’s screen went black less than thirty seconds after loading in.
The enemy’s Laser Gun fired at precise spots that crippled the Mecha’s most basic controls. Moreover, its predictive capabilities were so strong that dodging was virtually impossible. Ranged Mecha Masters required evolutionary enhancements oriented toward intellect. They could predict your movements, making it feel as though you were actively throwing yourself into their line of fire. It was like playing a game against a hacker—no matter what you did, you were dead.
"Again." Yang Bo restarted the simulation. This time, he charged straight ahead, hiding behind his Energy Shield. The enemy’s Laser Gun battered the Energy Shield, triggering frantic alarm blares in Yang Bo’s cockpit. Then, in less than thirty seconds, the screen went black again. Struck repeatedly in critical areas, his Mecha had lost partial mobility and been destroyed.
"Forget it. I’ll stick to melee." Yang Bo felt utterly frustrated for the rest of the day. The opponent’s predictive ability was just too oppressive; the longest he managed to survive was a single minute. "No wonder dedicated ranged support Mechas have so few models and are outrageously expensive. It makes sense," he said, shaking his head. He figured he’d be better off as a standard Mecha Master—a melee specialist.
"Red Earl announces retaliatory strikes against the Eden Alliance." Yang Bo logged out of the game and opened the news. Seeing the terrifying headline, he quickly clicked to read more.
In an attached video, a person clad in golden Armor stood flanked by eleven individuals in silver Armor. They all had golden or red hair, and their faces were obscured by Helmets. From the background, they appeared to be inside an ancient castle. The figure in golden Armor announced a campaign of retaliatory attacks against the Eden Alliance and warned other nations not to interfere in the matter.
"Should I make a run for it? How does a resident even flee?" Seeing this news left Yang Bo feeling deeply unsettled.