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Genius Mechanic: Chapter 36
Tianyu Star Contaminated Zone
36. Echo
Proofread by An Zheee and Cloud Chip Cake
The sky was ablaze with fire, painting a red hue in the air. Facing the dawn light of Tianyu Star, it reflected a few bright shades. The hive-like space of the S-Level Sand Lizard gradually shattered, eventually turning into colorless smoke that dissipated into the air alongside the fierce blaze.
The explosion’s shockwave swept across the entire Tianyu Star. Nearby pollutants were nearly incinerated by the explosion, and the entire ground turned into ashes.
The aftermath of the energy explosion lingered, and the communication channels affected by the blast fell silent. A buzzing rumble echoed in everyone’s ears.
Amid the hazy smoke, Ying Chenlin stood still. You Su’s attention briefly focused on him. In the next second, he heard movement from his side. His gaze swiftly shifted, only to see the vague figure of the Sand Lizard crawling forward on scorched earth.
The S-Level Sand Lizard had a Light Blade lodged in its back, struggling to tear apart half of its flesh. Its crimson eyes stared menacingly at the mecha in the sky. It used its limbs to forcefully dig through the scorched earth, about to burrow underground.
Not good, the Sand Lizard was about to escape!
At this critical moment, from within the shattered mecha’s protective shield, a Water Flow Cannon shot from the Control mecha fired out rapidly. It struck the crawling Sand Lizard, swiftly followed by a Binding Chain, which rapidly ensnared it, firmly restraining it from burrowing underground.
The voice of the female mecha pilot, Lu Xi, broke the silence on the channel, “It’s trying to flee!”
Ji Qingfeng’s voice strained, “Lin Yao, don’t just stand there! I can’t hold it!”
Lin Yao swiftly unsheathed his Long Blade. Just as he was about to act, an Energy Cannon shot past him, brushing his shoulder, and slammed into the Sand Lizard’s head. You Su’s eyes were cold as he charged up one shot and then another.
The S-Level Sand Lizard’s body was burnt black by the energy explosion. It crawled forward with all its might. The already precarious Binding Chain, held by Ji Qingfeng, snapped decisively at this moment. Escaping the constraint, it resumed crawling forward. At this critical juncture, the fully charged Energy Cannon fired once more, this time striking the lizard’s limbs, directly blasting one of its digging claws without mercy.
Finally, after consecutive close-range barrages, it ceased moving altogether. It lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
The S-Level Sand Lizard was inherently weak in terms of defense, deriving its strength from manipulating and enhancing space. It controlled other pollutants for prey, and its protection came from space manipulation and other pollutants. However, when this space was thoroughly shattered by a powerful attack, it directly faced the frontal impact of the explosion, separated only by an air wall.
Defiantly, it lifted its eyes, gazing at a certain mecha in the air, the scent it coveted fading away. The most potent energy scent, so close… Reluctantly, it closed its eyes, its last strength to escape disappearing.
The voice in his mind seemed to gradually fade away. Ying Chenlin grasped the mecha’s controls, searching for that faint resonance within his mind. Years had passed since had fallen ill and retired in his last life. He hadn’t heard the voice of ‘Yuan’ since then.
“Are you still there?” Ying Chenlin asked within his mind.
“I’ve been here all along…” The voice was extremely faint, accompanied by the snap of an invisible string breaking, leaving no other echoes.
Ying Chenlin was taken aback. When he lowered his gaze, he saw the brilliance emanating from the mecha key disappear, leaving only the storage unit with its cracked shell. The cracks had worsened, as if it were on the verge of shattering. Inside was the S-Grade dual-attribute anomalous crystal he had acquired in the Banute Contaminated Zone.
“Yuan.” Ying Chenlin seemed to still feel his brief resonance with Yuan. That kind of resonance, originating from his sea of mental power, seemed to exist in every fiber of his being. In just a moment, he could recall memories from many years ago, memories that had long been dormant.
“Huh…?” Inside the cockpit of the Artillery mecha, Theo sounded puzzled.
You Su asked, “What’s wrong?”
“It seems like my radar detected the presence of another mecha.” Theo’s gaze rested on the internal program console before him. The functions of the Artillery mecha had sustained damage in the recent explosion, and both the positioning and radar systems were malfunctioning. There were also irreversible internal damages, and there was no signal from another mecha at all.
He corrected himself, “It’s probably due to the impact of the explosion.”
When the smoke cleared, You Su’s peripheral vision shifted towards Ying Chenlin. The latter’s mecha hadn’t moved; it was still hovering within Huo Yan’s protective shield.
You Su’s gaze lowered slightly, and he saw the Sand Lizard lying on the ground. Its flesh was mangled, with a Light Blade from the Guardian mecha still impaled in its back.
In that complex environment earlier, the dynamics that could be captured within his field of vision were extremely limited. Yet, that precision strike with the Light Blade was both accurate and forceful. It meant that before impaling the Sand Lizard, Ying Chenlin had made at least two calculated moves. The first step was determining the lizard’s escape direction, and the second was precisely predicting its location. This process couldn’t have taken more than 2 seconds.
This was almost an instinctual experience of a mecha pilot, a combat experience that had been forged over countless battles.
Seeing the Sand Lizard immobilized, KID’s team gradually snapped out of their instinctual battle mode. Ji Qingfeng ran over, his voice trembling, and retrieved his beloved wife’s Binding Chain. Lin Yao absentmindedly rubbed the back of his head, “Huh? Is the Sand Lizard dead just like that?”
Huo Yan’s shield had several significant cracks, and his mecha’s alarms indicated a damage level of 60%. He chuckled, “What else could happen? My shield is already broken.”
It wasn’t just Huo Yan; KID’s mechas in the center of the explosion’s radius all faced damage levels of up to 40%, especially Huo Yan. As a Tank mecha, he had borne the brunt of the explosion’s impact.
Lu Xi looked at the Sand Lizard below, “It seems quite weak by itself…”
In the distance, within the shattered space, the mecha pilots trapped by the Sand Lizard were freed. Each of them fixed their gazes in the distance.
“This explosion… Are KID’s people still alive?”
“Can fire be used like this?!”
“This is terrifying, the fire has spread so far!”
“Quick, save them!”
A sea of flames almost covered an area of three kilometers in diameter. Fortunately, it wasn’t within the epicenter of the explosion, so the nearby mechas weren’t severely affected.
“My mother…” Zhao Lejie, who was the closest, looked at the ashen ground. “Damn, all the pollutants got incinerated. How powerful is that Energy Cannon?!”
Ke Lin passed through the shattered air barrier and arrived nearby, seeing the ruptured mecha shield in the distance. The mecha’s internal systems were still alerting about excessive energy levels in the air. “This is an energy explosion.”
“How can the power of an Energy Cannon be like this?! A 100% charged scatter burst from a cannon-type weapon, combined with an energy explosion,” Hu Luobu analyzed the data within the mech’s systems. As an Artillery mecha pilot, he naturally understood the extent of the situation. “KID’s Artillery is truly insane. To dare to play with something like this, if it goes awry, the entire mecha would turn into ashes!”
An energy explosion could put the life of a mecha pilot at stake.
Especially since it was at the center of the explosion, this kind of strategy required precise dispersion of a large amount of energy and accurate aiming by the Artillery mecha at a crucial moment. Any miscalculation in the amount of energy or a misfire by the Artillery would lead to irreversible consequences.
Hu Luobu personally believed he wouldn’t dare to play like this. Sacrificing one’s own life for the sake of an S-Level pollutant was not appropriate.
However, KID did it, and they did it crazily and spectacularly!
Qi Sicheng’s gaze turned heavy as he surveyed the ashes spread over a hundred li (approximately 50 kilometers). “I guess they scattered the energy all over the Venomous Spider’s silk. That’s why they took that approach.”
The silk of the Venomous Spider was flammable, but igniting it required a more intense fire.
This step taken by KID involved utilizing the scatter effect of the Artillery’s 100% charged energy blast, causing explosive combustion of all energy in the air and on the silk. This strategy had been part of their plan since they started weaving the web using the Venomous Spider’s movement.
“They’re still alive! They’re all here!” Zhao Lejie rushed over for rescue. He saw KID’s mechas and Huo Yan’s mecha with his shield completely shattered. Every mecha had some cracks on their exteriors. Among them, two A-Class mechas were severely damaged. “Damn it, can’t you guys fight or flee properly? Playing with explosions, you almost got yourselves blown up! “
KID’s group was unharmed, but the S-Level Sand Lizard was left almost completely charred on the outside, its back pierced by the Light Blade of the Guardian mech.
Looking at the punctured spot on the Sand Lizard, Zhao Lejie couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine.
Too ruthless, the energy explosion and simultaneously pinpointing this monster with such precision. These people were lunatics.
Zhao Lejie: “Is it really worth it for the sake of an anomalous crystal? Are you so poor that you’re willing to sacrifice your lives?”
“Oh well, aren’t we all still fine?” Lin Yao remarked. “Only the mechas are damaged, and they’ll probably need repairs when we get back.”
Zhao Lejie was utterly speechless. “This is called *burning both jade and common stones!”
*to destroy indiscriminately
When Qi Sicheng approached, he saw the two heavily damaged mechas standing beside the Sand Lizard. The Artillery mecha had pried open the lizard’s body with its cannon and skillfully extracted the anomalous crystal from it. The crystal was orange-white in color.
His gaze lingered on the Artillery mecha and the airborne Guardian mecha, mixed with a trace of wariness.
At this moment, YDS’s captain Ke Lin sent a private message request.
After Qi Sicheng accepted the call, he heard Ke Lin’s question: “Who are the pilots inside those two new mechas from KID?”
“I don’t know,” Qi Sicheng replied. If he knew, he wouldn’t have spent so much time observing. “But they’re very powerful.”
Ke Lin chuckled, “An S-Level Sand Lizard, we couldn’t even get close.”
Qi Sicheng’s tone remained steady, “However, neither you nor I, in KID’s position at that time, would have chosen such an extreme approach.”
If it were him, he would have adopted a method that encircled and then hunted the Sand Lizard after all the mecha pilots had gathered. This Sand Lizard, given its confinement in the altered space, wouldn’t have been able to move. By calculating the attack direction correctly, they could have trapped it completely before it escaped from the space.
KID’s approach surprised him. In a situation where all the mecha pilots were trapped, he had initially believed that KID would find it difficult to retain the S-Level Sand Lizard. When he noticed the Artillery mecha scattering energy fuel, he had guessed this risky move. He just hadn’t expected them to come up with such a radical combat strategy.
Bold and daring, this plan had no room for error.
Six mechas, even if one of them was a step behind…
On the public channel, the voices of other mecha pilots consecutively rang out, all inquiring about KID’s situation.
It was KID’s explosion that had rescued them from the Sand Lizard’s space. Otherwise, given their circumstances, they wouldn’t have known how much longer they would have been trapped.
Ji Qingfeng sniffed, “That was too thrilling. I almost thought I was done for, I even started thinking about my will.”
Lin Yao chimed in, “Don’t you trust Huo Ge’s shield? With a 100% full output, it should at least keep us alive.”
Hu Luobu looked at the nearly shattered shield of Huo Yan, contemplating the power of the explosion at the center. Cold sweat formed on his back at the thought.
KID, this group of lunatics, they shouldn’t play like this, even if they’re being reckless! Isn’t that playing with their lives?
Ji Qingfeng hurriedly flipped over the body of the Venomous Spider on the ground, “Fortunately, this thing is fire-resistant.”
Lin Yao said, “Grab more.”
Lu Xi remarked, “But the venom sac of the Venomous Spider is gone.”
Ji Qingfeng looked pained, “How could it not hold up?”
Zhao Lejie sneered, “If it could withstand an explosion like this, it wouldn’t be a spider, but a turtle.”
Hu Luobu: “…”
Even ordinary turtle-like pollutants wouldn’t withstand this explosion!
Other mecha pilots arrived one after another, thinking they needed to assist KID in evacuating. However, when they arrived, the KID group was still rummaging through the ashes, flipping out intact crystals one by one.
Lin Yao looked at the people around him, “Huh? Aren’t you picking them up? You can’t buy these things outside.”
The other mecha pilots: “…We’re picking them up?”
Weren’t they all burned to ashes by KID?
Huo Yan laughed, “Why not pick them up? These are all things we fought so hard to kill. Leaving them here would just let other pollutants in the Contaminated Zone benefit, right?”
The other mecha pilots: “?”
That actually makes sense.
Zhao Lejie: “…”
Damn, the more you listen, the more you feel like you’re losing out.
Inside the Tianyu Star Management Bureau, the person in charge exclaimed anxiously, “What’s the situation!? Why was there such a massive explosion?”
A staff member analyzed the ground impact, “This explosion was caused by an Energy Cannon triggering an energy burst. The coverage area…”
TN:
Have I said how much I love Zhao Lejie and Hu Luobu losing the marbles over KID’s over the top mentality and even more over the top actions?? Haha
The 2 captains are experiencing a sense of crisis over our two new recruits! They can sense a difficult future for themselves.
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I'm too lazy to point out any discrepancies as I just want to binge read, but in previous chapters, the Centennial Orchid was transliterated as Bai Lanhua, or something like that. Another chapter, the name of a character was Hubert, I think it was supposed to be Hu Luobu. 🫣
Fixed! Thank you.
There's a few places in this chapter where KID is lowercase and not all uppercase