Genius Mechanic: Chapter 149

Keze Floating Island Contaminated Zone(Galactic Knockout Competition)

149. Exceptional Good Advantage

Proofread by Cloud Chip Cake

The audience in the live broadcast froze due to this scene —

【Sh*t! What the hell is this ah?!】

【Lucy’s Enhancement Cannon, damn it, this weapon is a bug ah!】

【Enhancement weapons basically have a doubling effect. QOQ’s death wasn’t a fluke, especially at such close range!】

【Are Trace and Lucy insane? Their teammates are also within range ah!】

When Trace’s Sniper Cannon shot collided with QOQ’s Sniper Cannon shot, under the pseudo-blessing of KID’s Control mecha Lu Xi’s Enhancement Cannon, the full force of the two 100% Sniper Cannon impacts was maximized. They triggered a sweeping explosion at the core of the entire forest, instantly igniting the trees.

Lin Yao, near the core, was engulfed by the flames while holding up his shield. He was thrown into the air, tumbling several times and knocking down several large trees in the process, causing a considerable amount of damage. He finally came to a stop.

The other Tank from Team A promptly opened its shield to protect its melee teammates amidst the chaos. However, the Artillery and Control mechas at the core didn’t fare as well. With Team A’s Artillery, QOQ, firing a 100% charged Sniper Cannon that exploded in front, their damage soared from 50% to 80% in an instant, directly sending themselves away with a single shot. The Control mecha was thrown to the ground, with the cockpit lit up by loud alarms, beeping reminders of the 65% damage to the mecha.

At the moment of the explosion in the forest, Team E, originally intending to support Team B, noticed the distant flames of war before they could take a few steps. Ocean’s commander exclaimed in astonishment, “Team A, what’s going on over there!?”

“We’ve been ambushed!” exclaimed Team A’s Guardian mecha hastily. “KID’s Control and Artillery are over here.”

Ocean’s commander was stunned. “How is that possible? Weren’t KID’s two cannon wielders at Team B’s location?”

No way, KID only has six mechas in total, and only Trace and Sink carry attack cannons.

How could they appear near both Team B and Team A at the same time!

You Su scanned Lin Yao’s damage level and saw it rise to 40%. While charging, he reminded him, “Lin Yao, step back a bit.”

Ji Qingfeng, who had stayed far away to avoid the impact, saw his damage rise by 3% and remarked, “If you ran any slower, you’d lose a layer of skin.”

With 40% damage, Lin Yao remained completely composed. He flipped over from the ground and, with the afterglow of the explosion still present, propelled himself into the fire. He switched his Resilience shield to the Long Blade and locked onto Team A’s Control mecha. With a swift motion, he hooked the opponent up with a single strike.

The Long Blade danced in his hands with extreme fluidity, landing precise hits that the damaged Team B’s Control mecha couldn’t resist.

The 65% damage dealt in these consecutive strikes was the final straw. Before others could react to offer support, Lin Yao decisively eliminated the opponent with a dozen swift strikes.

[KID-Yao eliminates JGG-Nun]

【He can still charge into the sea of fire to kill?】

【KID’s Guardian is really brave! His own damage level must be high!】

Within a few minutes, Team A lost two mechas instantly.

The remaining Tank and Guardian from Team A fell into the encirclement of KID’s four mechas in an instant.

After eliminating the Control mecha, Lin Yao promptly retreated. Lu Xi anticipated the direction of the remaining two mechas from Team A in advance and quickly blocked their path before they could escape. While her Water Flow Cannon failed to control the shielded Tank mecha, Ji Qingfeng arrived from behind and immediately locked onto the Guardian mecha that was outside the shield’s protection.

KID’s pace was just too fast. It had only been a few minutes since the explosion, but their four mechas had already sealed off the remaining two.

With a 4 vs. 2 situation and the gap in strength, Team A’s two mechas had no chance of fighting back.

【How did it suddenly change like this?】

【There’s absolutely no support from JGG’s side!】

Seeing the crisis JGG’s Team A faced, Team E, under the Ocean team’s command, was too far away to provide support in time.

The worst thing on the battlefield is misinformation. Ocean’s commander saw the situation and completely halted. The mecha situation he tallied was completely different from what his teammates reported, “What’s going on with Team B over there!? Do you have the Medical and Artillery mechas with you?”

“We don’t know either. We’re currently chasing KID’s Medical mecha!” yelled the mecha operator from Team B. “We’re also under attack from long-range Artillery.”

【F*ck, f*ck, look at Sink over there!】

【1 against 4??? Is he not looking ahead at all? How can someone shoot while running?!】

Ying Chenlin had already decisively changed positions during the commotion between You Su and the others. The advantage of long-range mechas was that they could kite opponents while maintaining distance. He freely navigated through the forest, as his propulsion system’s flames flickered. The Energy Cannon in his hand bombarded the several mechas from Team B that had spread out.

The radar in the cockpit showed blue dots representing teammates, and he constantly monitored the distance between him and You Su, never deviating or straying too far.

Moreover, the radar displayed different colored lines, and under such intense pursuit, his actions showed no panic whatsoever. Instead, he constantly adjusted his forward route based on the directions the four mechas from Team B chased him in.

Team B had a total of four mechas, none of which were long-range control mechas. Upon seeing Sink pulling away, they could only activate their propulsion systems to keep up.

Team B’s mechas had to be cautious. After learning about the trouble on Team A’s side, they became more sensitive to the sounds around them. Because there were too many sounds of surrounding gunfire, besides Sink’s scattered Energy Cannon, there were also distant and near sounds of gunfire, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. While chasing Sink, they felt surrounded by gunfire and bullets.

The commander of the Ocean team realized that something was wrong, “Team A can’t hold on. Don’t mind Trace’s artillery; he’s deceiving you! Can you keep Sink, or at least eliminate Sink?”

Team B: “…We want to keep him, but he’s too agile.”

KID’s Medical mecha had an extremely swift charging speed. For Artillery mechas that needed to pause and charge, their Energy Cannon strikes could almost catch up to a Control mechas’ control cannons. Sink didn’t even need to aim. As long as he used the Energy Cannon’s scatter to create smoke and explosions, he could easily escape from within the encirclement of their four mechas.

How could a mecha operator evade attacks while firing?!

Was this person a robot? Could his actions simultaneously handle so many situations?

Although the several mechas from Team B had surrounded many mecha operators, they had never seen such an agile mecha before. Although he had the Medical mecha’s excellent endurance, currently he was almost charging forward through the chaotic forest full of trees.

He was unafraid of collisions and unafraid of being bombarded, freely and keenly moving like an animal leaping through the forest.

Upon seeing KID’s somewhat chaotic deployment, the audience watching the match in the live broadcast immediately pulled up a map using the radar system on the live broadcast platform.

In the depths of the forest, it seemed like a significant change was quietly taking place. When KID’s four mechas surrounded JGG’s remaining two mechas, the netizens in the live broadcast room only noticed the positions of each of KID’s mechas amidst these subtle changes.

Tank Huo Yan’s position was the most dangerous. He was pulling nearly nine mechas out, and the farther they went, the greater the flight distance, directly bringing the two teams of mechas into the mountainous area. The Tank mecha’s movement speed wasn’t fast, but he skillfully utilized various obstacles and the effectiveness of the Anti-Damage Shield, pulling multiple squads out and delaying those mechas.

Apart from Huo Yan, the other KID mechas weren’t far apart.

Lin Yao and Ji Qingfeng, both close combat mechas, were near the Joint Team’s Team A, that is the remaining two mechas of the JGG team, and Lu Xi’s position was near the front.

Most important was Trace’s position, the Artillery mecha. He was situated in a relatively open sniper position in the forest, precisely between Teams A and B. This position was close to Lin Yao and the others but could constantly provide support to Sink, who was always at the farthest distance with his precise single-player maneuvers.

Outside the arena, on the virtual screen in Gale’s base, there was a map of the route taken by KID. Each route was more than a half shorter than the routes of the several Joint Teams.

Gale’s head coach, seeing the situation inside the arena, frowned, thinking of what Qi Sicheng had instructed him on not long ago, “KID is setting the pace; they’re using rapid maneuvering to control the tempo.”

On the virtual screen, all the routes that KID quickly cut through were displayed. Compared to the routes of the Joint Team advancing in five squads, Trace and Lucy’s routes could be considered indirect flanking maneuvers. They even traversed the more complex terrain of the mountainous areas in between. If the mechas of the Joint Team followed the safest route forward, KID was taking the middle route with the most obstacles in the form of trees and mountains.

The Second Island itself had complex terrain. Mechas had to proceed cautiously through the dense forest to avoid unnecessary damage caused by collisions with high-intensity minerals or trees. However, KID was completely unconcerned about this. Their traversal in the mountains and forests was smoother than anyone else’s.

“KID has directly mapped out the roads of the Second Island,” said the head coach. “Their route is completely different from that of the Joint Team. They’re using the time and distance differences for counter-flanking!”

The assistant coach, “But the situation inside the Contaminated Zone changes every year. How dare KID act recklessly in such terrain?”

In the rules of the competition in the Keze Floating Island Contaminated Zone elimination competition, there are three stages: Island Splitting, Island Merging, and Island Closing.

These three stages were all random. The teams were randomly deployed at the beginning, and islands merged in groups of three or two until finally, every once in a while, a random island was closed until all mecha pilots were forced onto the last island. Before reaching the final stage, mecha pilots participating in the elimination competition are unaware of which island will be left in the end.

“Have you forgotten?” The head coach looked at the distribution of KID’s mechas in the forest. “The competition has been going on for 22 days, almost 23 days now. During the previous island merging phase, KID didn’t participate in large-scale battles. While scavenging pollutants in the marginal areas, they actually traversed most of Keze Floating Island.”

KID didn’t slack off at all. This team made all the arrangements while honing their skills.

“I’m afraid their command has already investigated the situation on each island while KID was scavenging for pollutants. In the end, whichever island remains won’t matter to them.” The head coach carefully observed the map, focusing on the Medical mecha. “Sacrificing one Huo Yan is still a gain. Understanding the terrain, sufficient energy, ample rest… Under such conditions, they’ve already established their advantage.”

In the Fiarge and Qiu Jin arenas, KID had never employed such tactics before.

The core of this tactic lay in the need for multiple core positions that could stand alone, and Sink’s addition had made KID’s coordination more flexible.

In the live broadcast room:

【Have you noticed… those teams that were flanking KID seem to be getting farther away??】

【The distance between Teams A and B seems to be getting closer and closer.】

During a mecha’s pursuit, the rapid changes in distance won’t make much of a difference to the pilots’ perception, especially when there are explosions and gunfire around, causing a cognitive bias in the pilots’ perception of the environment.

The netizens in the live broadcast room suddenly realized that Sink had silently led the four mechas of Team B away from their original position according to plan.

【Isn’t this leading them into KID’s encirclement?!】

Team E, where Ocean’s team was located, who were originally intending to help the mecha pilots of Team B, became increasingly alert as they noticed Team B moving farther away. “Team B, retreat! You’re off course!”

At this moment:

[KID-QingF has eliminated JGG-NN1] [KID-Lucy has eliminated JGG-YT1]

KID’s four mechas had swiftly wiped out the Joint Team’s Team A.

At the same time, members of Team B suddenly noticed that the gunshots, which had been intermittently distant, seemed to have drawn nearer within a short span of time.

Trace rushed to support Sink!

【Am I imagining things? Everyone in KID is so fast!】

【The support from Ocean’s team hasn’t arrived yet, and KID has already widened the distance.】

【It’s impossible to be that fast, right!? It’s like they hit the accelerator!】

【Lucy and Yao took a detour! They’ve circled around and blocked them from behind!】

Team B realized the danger and abandoned their pursuit of Sink, but the initiative had already slipped from their grasp. As they veered away from Sink and fled in the opposite direction, the other members of KID had already taken another route, encircling them in a ring formation and cutting off their retreat.

“How is this possible? How did they get here!?”

Team B stared at the signals on the radar, always keeping an eye on the dynamics in the airspace. The terrain on the map was complex, so how did KID manage to maneuver here!? There was no sign of their approach!

Despite the Joint Team having the numerical advantage, after Team A was wiped out by KID, that advantage seemed to vanish in an instant.

In less than 15 minutes after the annihilation of Team A, KID’s members had turned around to encircle Team B, led by Sink all the way there. With KID’s inherent strength and their tactic of outnumbering their opponents, not only did they dictate the pace, but they also executed rapid support effectively.

From JGG  in Team A’s 4v2 against Ji Qingfeng and Lin Yao to KID’s 5v4 against Team B.

KID’s advantage in battle instantly became magnified.

By the time Ocean’s team arrived, KID had already collaborated to eliminate one mecha from Team B and severely damaged two others.

The commander of Ocean’s team watched the situation with a slight change in expression. Team A was annihilated, three members were left from Team B, and six from Team E.

Their advantage had silently evaporated, shifting from a 23v6 to a 9v5…

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