Genius Mechanic: Chapter 197

Slared Contaminated Zone(Star Alliance Mission)

197. A New Strategy

Proofread by Cloud Chip Cake and An Zheee 

The absence of displayed points made Ying Chenlin feel very strange, so he shifted his focus from the mission’s points to the mission’s details.

[Slared Snowy Mountains] [Mission Details: Slared Contaminated Zone’s Snowy Mountains region is covered in perpetual snow. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in pollutants, with large fluctuations in pollution levels for unknown reasons.] [Reward Points: ?] [Mission Difficulty: ?]

The Star Alliance’s mission system usually lists everything clearly, such as the detailed location for the rat infestation mission mentioned above. However, this mission, which doesn’t have its points displayed, only provides a detailed description of Slared’s Snowy Mountains—a special mission that isn’t fully explained.

“There’s a very strange mission.” Ying Chenlin shared the mission in the channel.

Zhao Lejie questioned, “This mission isn’t even explained clearly, and it doesn’t list any points. Could this be some kind of hidden mission?”

You Su’s voice was calm: “The mission list is public, so if we can see this mission, others can see it too.”

“I’ve seen this kind of situation in games before; missions described like this are usually exploration missions,” Chi Lizi commented after seeing the mission Ying Chenlin shared. “Exploration missions are tough because the clues are unclear, making it hard to find a breakthrough.”

Especially with this mission—no time, no clear location—it’s a confusing mission at first glance.

Right now, the most important thing for Dawn was to acquire points, so this sort of exploratory mission was a low priority at the moment. Ying Chenlin marked the mission and also shared it with the other two teams out on missions as a precaution.

Qi Sicheng and Wen Yi quickly responded, both advising against prioritizing the unknown mission.

Switching to the Snowy Mountains’s rat infestation mission, the mission’s corresponding coordinates appeared on the squad’s shared radar, and the four mechas wasted no time in heading toward the rat infestation’s mission site. The mission, worth 10 points, was considered low-scoring, and as they moved toward the target location, they didn’t see any other teams advancing.

During their movement, Ying Chenlin continued observing the conditions of Slared’s Snowy Mountains.

He looked up and saw the gray, hazy sky. From the moment they entered Slared Contaminated Zone, he had been paying close attention to the differences between this zone and others, noticing that the usual facilities were present but that only a few of the Contaminated Zone’s devices were still functioning properly.

The communication and radar scanning systems relied solely on a mecha’s built-in systems, and the pollutant positioning system was malfunctioning. However, the pollution detection system still worked. So how was the Star Alliance detecting and assessing these pollutants to provide mission guidance to participating teams?

This was an abandoned Contaminated Zone, with the Management Bureau’s influence almost nonexistent, leaving behind only some dilapidated foundational facilities. These barely functioning bases were likely supporting the entire operation of the Star Alliance’s system. Ying Chenlin browsed through a large number of missions and noticed that most were clearance or handling missions, suggesting that the Star Alliance was probably evaluating mission completion based on limited information.

So many clean-up missions…

Ying Chenlin’s squad quickly arrived at the coordinates provided for the rat infestation mission. As soon as they reached the location, the radar displayed a large number of pollutants lurking in the area. These pollutants primarily stemmed from a special kind of Snow Rat pollutant native to Slared, which had a high resistance to extremely cold environments and was causing a massive outbreak.

The root cause of the rat infestation was the abundance of energy-rich Snow Grass growing on Slared’s Snowy Mountains. This type of grass could thrive in the extreme cold and played a crucial role in maintaining Slared’s Snowy Mountains’s landscape, but also served as the main food source for Snow Rats.

Upon their arrival, the radar showed numerous Snow Rat signals.

The mechas were rich in energy, so as soon as Ying Chenlin’s group arrived, a large number of Snow Rats started swarming them. Although these Snow Rats were only B-Level pollutants, their overwhelming numbers meant that they had to lure them in batches before taking them down.

You Su quickly switched to an Energy Cannon suitable for attacking, then turned around to find Ying Chenlin still standing in place without moving.

After ten minutes of fighting, they had cleared out more than twenty Snow Rats, but the radar still indicated at least three times that number remaining nearby.

It wasn’t just Ying Chenlin’s group facing challenges; the other two teams were also encountering difficulties. Low-point pollutants weren’t necessarily easy to eliminate.

Zhao Lejie frowned, “Isn’t the Star Alliance’s mission system being a bit stingy? In other missions, killing a single pollutant gives you 1 point, but for this mission, with so many pollutants, we only get 10 points in total.”

“Our mission here even requires us to clear out plant-based pollutants,” Ji Qingfeng added, “The roots are so deep that they’re difficult to pull out.”

During their conversation, the rankings on the Star Alliance’s mission system underwent a new update.

Out of the 70 teams on the leaderboard, 12 teams had posted scores, refreshing the rankings.

“Shit, are these guys really that fast?” Ji Qingfeng’s voice came through the team channel, crackling with static. “We’ve only just reached our first mission location!”

The refreshed rankings immediately put pressure on everyone in Dawn.

Although there was a high rate of mission coverage, it wasn’t easy to complete each mission, and the points were low.

Qi Sicheng and Wen Yi had prioritized the missions they passed along the way, but their completion rate was still far behind that of the stronger teams.

Zhao Lejie finally finished clearing the Snow Rats in the area, and only then did the system show that the KID team had increased their points. However, their ranking was still outside the top 50.

“It looks like this isn’t working,” Ke Lin commented as he swiped through the mission details and noticed that the teams rapidly climbing the rankings were completing high-point missions worth 50 points or more. “The strong teams are claiming territories to rack up high points early on, creating a lead that’s hard to catch up with. Changing locations later gives them an even greater advantage.”

No wonder no other teams had come to compete with them for these low-point missions. The strong teams had already figured out that these missions weren’t worth the effort and had all flocked to the high-point missions. While splitting into three teams increased efficiency, it also meant a decrease in combat strength, making each mission take longer.

Qi Sicheng was also pondering the situation. Logic dictated that they didn’t have an advantage in competing with the strong teams for high-point missions right now, but they had no other choice. “We’re still in the Snowy Mountains region, where there’s high mission coverage. We could abandon the low-point missions and try the ones worth 20-30 points.”

“We’re not sure about the situation with the high-point missions,” Wen Yi said coldly. “The cost of trial and error is too high. One wrong move, and the gap will widen infinitely.”

Huo Yan: “The Snowy Mountains’s environment is complex. Even with Captain Qi’s spatial acceleration device, we still have to consider the cost of travel time, the cost of killing, and efficiency issues.”

After hearing this, everyone fell into deep thought, realizing the difficulties of being behind in information.

Initially, they planned to accumulate points by focusing on low-point missions, thinking they would be easier to handle. However, these missions turned out to be time-consuming due to the cumbersome procedures involved.

Now, they were considering shifting to higher-point missions, but they weren’t sure if they could complete them successfully or if the time efficiency would meet their ideal standards.

As everyone continued with their missions, the commanders on the channel began further analysis.

They were looking for a way to gain an advantage while minimizing trial and error costs.

Chi Lizi glanced over at Ying Chenlin, who was dealing with Snow Rat carcasses in the distance. He noticed that Ying Chenlin had been relatively quiet on the channel since the beginning. Having previously worked with Ying Chenlin in the virtual battlefield, Chi Lizi knew that he wasn’t lacking in combat skills and had strong improvisational abilities. During their earlier encounter in Kemu Cave, Chi Lizi had thought they were merely probing each other, but Ying Chenlin had already calculated his next move, using the knowledge he gained to navigate half of the maze.

As Chi Lizi continued to observe, he saw that Ying Chenlin had finished cleaning up the Snow Rat corpses.

Ying Chenlin said, “Then let’s improve our efficiency.”

“I initially made a mistake by assuming all the mission details were different,” Ying Chenlin continued, “I just reviewed all the low-point missions in the Snowy Mountains region and found that there are many missions similar to the rat infestation one, involving clearing low-level pollutant groups.”

Ying Chenlin looked towards where Qi Sicheng was stationed. “I have an old method. Do you want to try it?”

“How do we try it?” Qi Sicheng asked.

“We’ll subdivide the squads further. Qi Sicheng, you and Wen Yi should split your squads once more.”

Ying Chenlin suggested, “We’ll split into five sub-teams.”

The proposal to create five sub-teams left everyone momentarily stunned.

Ji Qingfeng quickly did some math—splitting Qi Sicheng and Wen Yi’s squads again?

“Wait, splitting the four of them into another team? Chenlin, are you suggesting two-person teams?”

Two-person teams?

Zhao Lejie: “With fewer people, efficiency drops. We only have three Artillery units; who’s going to handle the output for five teams?”

Ying Chenlin turned to Zhao Lejie in response.

Zhao Lejie noticed the silence on the channel and asked, “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

A moment later, Ying Chenlin spoke up, “We’ll rely on you.”

Zhao Lejie was flattered: “Huh…? Even if I’m capable, I can’t carry a whole team on my own, right?”

Ying Chenlin replied, “No, this is something only you can do.”

—

The Star Alliance’s system could track internal radar movements, and it wasn’t just Dawn Galaxy monitoring this information; the other strong teams’ logistics groups in the field were also keeping an eye on them. They weren’t new to these missions, and while radar data couldn’t be directly relayed to those on the ground, once a strong team reached an abandoned base station, the starships hovering outside the Slared Contaminated Zone could transmit radar intelligence into the zone via these abandoned stations.

The strong teams within the Snowy Mountains region were also analyzing the distribution coordinates. Most of the strong teams were operating in sub-teams, and with their robust weapon reserves, splitting into two squads maximized their operational efficiency.

Of the four areas, the majority of the teams were spread across the other three, with the Snowy Mountains region having the fewest teams.

However, this didn’t mean that the Snowy Mountains region was empty. On the contrary, about two-thirds of the teams gathered in the Snowy Mountains were among the top-ranking powerful teams, led by SLY, the team ranked fourth in the Star Alliance.

“Most of the stronger teams have split into two squads, and their advancement speeds are very fast.”

“There’s even a team in the Snowy Mountains that has split into three squads.”

Many strong teams briefly focused on the KID team’s coordinates before quickly moving on; their ranking wasn’t high, and they were spread so thinly.

That’s how it was with the smaller galaxies—they think they can catch up by doing low-point missions, but if the Star Alliance’s low-point missions were that easy, why would so many teams be squeezing in to do the high-point ones?

“Coach, Captain Wu asked us to keep an eye on KID, but from the looks of it, their performance seems pretty average.”

Inside Aegis’ spaceship, while monitoring their own team, they were also keeping an eye on KID’s performance. Ever since the Dawn Galaxy’s competition ended, Wu Qingshuang’s attention on Dawn had been high. Before entering the mission this time, Wu Qingshuang specifically instructed them to keep an eye on KID.

Aegis’ coach said, “Just leave it for now. We’ll talk if anything comes up.”

Meanwhile, outside the Slared Defense Line, the logistics team, constantly monitoring the paths of Dawn’s team, noticed movement from their team on the radar coordinates. The radar information, unseen by the mecha pilots inside the arena, was perfectly clear to them on the outside, though it was limited to just radar data.

With fewer teams and more strong teams present, it meant that if Dawn wanted to compete for high-point missions, the difficulty of snatching them would be higher.

That could be managed, but the key issue was that the radar showed Dawn had split into three teams. Already weaker in combat strength compared to other teams, being divided further essentially cut off their chances of competing for high-point missions.

“Splitting into three teams should be to improve efficiency,” Jiang Simiao commented, looking at the radar’s distribution. “I just compared and analyzed the map positions; they’ve been focusing on low-point missions, probably considering that purpose.”

“From the radar map, not many teams are doing low-point missions, but their mission efficiency hasn’t improved.”

“Can we see our current ranking?” Zhang Ge had just finished speaking when the staff next to him quickly pulled up the rankings. Out of 70 teams, KID was currently ranked 59th, which was close to the bottom.

“What about the other teams from the First Star Domain?”

“Aegis is the highest, currently in 18th place!”

“Our ranking is the lowest in the First Star Domain.”

They glanced at the team at the top of the rankings—E.M. Within the past hour, they had completed a 150-point elimination mission, instantly pulling them ahead of other teams by a clear margin. Looking further down, it was filled with teams from the Star Alliance’s top ten.

Black Crow’s leader said, “This isn’t looking good… If we keep going like this, we’ll be completely left behind.”

The Star Alliance Special Mission had only just started, yet other strong teams were already completing missions at such a high efficiency. Meanwhile, Dawn had split into three teams, all executing missions simultaneously. Despite having competent commanders, they were still only ranked 59th… Was this the gap between the Dawn Galaxy and the strong teams? The difference was too obvious.

The atmosphere inside the spaceship was a bit heavy. Dawn had given their all for this, but they hadn’t expected to be met with such a harsh reality from so many strong teams right at the beginning.

Whether it was the Slared Defense Line or the competition for high-point missions, the gap between Dawn and the other galaxies was too significant.

Zhang Ge turned and saw Shen Xingtang still going through the information they had gathered. Sometimes, he truly thought that KID’s mindset was remarkably positive, which made him relax as well. “It’s not time to get discouraged yet. Don’t worry about how the other strong teams are ranked; our focus should be on the other teams in the First Star Domain.”

“We can’t take too big of a step all at once; we definitely can’t compare with E.M., but we can still compete with the other teams from the First Star Domain.”

The others thought that was the best they could do for now. Just then, one of Gale’s staff suddenly spoke up, “Wait, Zhang Ge! The coordinates have changed.”

At that moment, the radar coordinates on the system changed, and the flashing blue dots snapped everyone back to attention.

The coordinates where Ying Chenlin had been now overlapped with Wen Yi’s, merging the three squads into two. The regrouping of these teams surprised Jiang Simiao and the others, who had been observing their actions.

“This change? Did they use Sink’s weapon?”

“…Yes, but weren’t they supposed to split up to improve efficiency? Why did they suddenly regroup?”

Shen Xingtang, who had been going through some information, looked over and quickly walked to the radar system with a serious expression. “Their formation has changed.”

“What’s the duration of Sink’s displacement weapon?”

“The target lock on a teammate lasts for five minutes,” Shen Xingtang replied.

Before she even finished speaking, the radar showed that the speed of the twelve mechas from Dawn had suddenly increased. Every mecha seemed to be thrown into chaos. Qi Sicheng and Huo Yan had joined as a team, and Lu Xi and Hu Luobu formed another, heading in two different directions.

Meanwhile, after Ying Chenlin and Wen Yi’s squads merged, Ji Qingfeng paired up with Ke Lin, and Lin Yao with Chi Lizi. They had split from three squads into five, with four of those teams consisting of only two people each.

The four two-man teams moved in completely different directions, with their target destinations clearly set on low-point missions listed in the mission system.

This unexpected change left everyone on the ship stunned. If the previous four-man teams were about improving efficiency, the current two-man teams were no longer about efficiency at all. Splitting up like this would greatly increase the difficulty of regrouping.

No one on the ship was certain what strategy Ying Chenlin was employing, but five minutes passed in the blink of an eye. By the time they realized it, the coordinates on the field had shifted once again.

Ying Chenlin’s solo coordinate had changed; he had reached Huo Yan’s position.

The changes in the radar coordinates were too rapid. The Dawn members, unaware of the situation on the ground, could only analyze their mecha pilots’ status through these coordinates. Each time Ying Chenlin’s displacement weapon activated every five minutes, the coordinates of everyone on the field were completely scrambled.

Zhang Ge was stunned. “What’s going on!?”

More and more people gathered in front of the radar system, all staring at the strange coordinate changes.

Every five minutes, the coordinates shifted again and again, constantly switching targets. By the time Ying Chenlin’s position had stabilized, the Dawn team realized the coordinates on the field had become extremely bizarre. Ying Chenlin had used the displacement weapon to completely reshuffle the coordinates of all the mecha pilots.

The squads changed once again. Now, only Qi Sicheng, Huo Yan, and Ji Qingfeng were outside, while all the other mechas had converged at a single coordinate point.

The Slared Snowy Mountainss covered a vast area, and the KID team had initially reached a location with high mission coverage. The main KID team was still at the center of the high-coverage mission area, but the squad led by Qi Sicheng was moving around outside it.

Apart from Qi Sicheng, Huo Yan, and Ji Qingfeng being together, all the other mechas had regrouped.

“From three squads to five squads, and now back to two??” Zhang Ge couldn’t keep up with the changing coordinates, though he knew how impressive Sink’s displacement weapon was. “What are they trying to do?”

Shen Xingtang asked, “Is there anything unusual around them?”

The Black Crow representative responded, “No, there are no strong teams near them. There’s no need for such a large-scale displacement reshuffling.”

Just then, KID’s team score suddenly jumped to 57th place.

Not even two minutes later, it rose again to 55th place.

Zhang Ge asked, “What just happened!?”

“In the last four minutes…” A staff member pulled up the information, “Our team just completed three 10-point missions in a row.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the shared team page showed that Team 125, KID, had completed another 10-point mission.

This efficiency in completing missions was completely different from before. How could they possibly complete so many missions in just a few minutes? Everyone on the ship was stunned, and before they could figure out what was happening, they saw Ying Chenlin once again displacing to rendezvous with Qi Sicheng.

“Wait, Zhang Ge! Captain Qi is about to meet up with Gaia’s team.”

The staff paused after saying this: “…Not just meet up; they’ve split into two groups. Captain Huo is leading Ying Chenlin towards Gaia’s team.”

The Snowy Mountainss were filled with many strong teams, especially in high-coverage areas, where strong teams were already scattered.

While doing low-point missions, KID wouldn’t encounter them, but once they aimed for high-point missions, it was easy for them to clash with teams stronger than themselves.

The Snowy Mountains was a vast expanse of white, and Mission No. 235 was a 35-point mission, involving the elimination of a pack of A-Level mutated Snow Wolves.

They had carefully selected this location to avoid confronting stronger teams while also maximizing their point accumulation.

Gaia’s mecha pilots quickly reached the corresponding coordinates of the Snow Wolves and used pre-prepared pollutant pheromones to attract a large number of the Snow Wolves, gathering them all within their expected range.

“Snow Wolves have strong melee and ambush abilities. Keep your distance and let the Artillery attack.”

Just as they quickly gathered the Snow Wolves and were about to let their Artillery take them down, they suddenly noticed two mecha signals appearing on the edge of the radar. The limited visibility on the Snowy Mountains made the approaching red and white mechas particularly conspicuous.

“Why are there mechas coming over?” Gaia’s captain said in surprise. “What mechas are they?”

A mecha pilot replied, “A Tank and a Medical. Currently, only two mecha signals are detected.”

Two mechas dared to approach—could they just be scouting?

Gaia’s captain intended to have his Artillery mecha target the mechas higher up, ready to fire at them as soon as they got closer as a warning. However, before he could issue the command, the two isolated mechas without any visible support suddenly charged directly towards them.

The charge was swift; the leading red-and-white Tank immediately raised its shield to block, deflecting the shells fired by Gaia’s Artillery. Gaia’s captain instantly realized something was off with the Tank’s weaponry, frowning. “That Tank isn’t using an ordinary shield. Artillery rounds are ineffective against it. Let them come closer.”

Seeing this, Gaia’s mecha pilots allowed the two mechas to approach, planning to lure them in for a close-range ambush.

Suddenly, the red-and-white Tank mecha made a sudden dash, changing direction and leaping into the snow beside them, startling the surrounding Snow Wolves. There were so many other places to go, and yet these two mechas actively entered their attack range. Now, they even jumped directly into the pheromone bait they had set up to ambush the Snow Wolves?

Gaia’s mecha pilots frowned, baffled by such reckless probing tactics.

Entering the wolf pack? That area was full of pheromones—what were these two non-offensive mechas thinking?

What seemed like a provocation turned out to be utterly foolish?

“Panicking?” the Gaia captain frowned slightly. “How did they break through the defensive line at this level? Which galaxy is this team from? Find out and then take them—”

Before he could finish, Gaia’s captain suddenly noticed the Medical mecha, which was hiding behind the Tank, pulling out a weapon. He instinctively grabbed a Control Cannon to lock onto the Medical mecha, his gaze falling on its weapon. “Wait, lock onto that Medical first!”

But the Medical mecha switched weapons faster. Just as he locked onto the Medical mecha, its weapon was already set on the ground, and a red circle rapidly expanded.

In the next second, the red circle encircled the Snow Wolf pack that had been drawn together by the pheromones. The two mechas, along with all the Snow Wolves they had attracted, vanished before Gaia’s mecha pilots’ eyes, leaving only the empty snow-covered landscape.

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