The adjutant was busy striking down those missiles when his mecha suddenly emitted an emergency alarm. He found that the magnetic energy beam cannon was preparing to shoot once again and unleash its second powerful energy beam.

"For the honour of the Huaxia Federation!" mouthed the adjutant silently. This was the only phrase the Huaxians knew to say on the battlefield — this was a display of their strong attachment to their country, as well as a heartfelt explanation of their final decisions.

A savage light appeared in the eyes of the adjutant. He operated his mecha and pushed it to its maximum power, bringing out the ace mecha"s most powerful beam shield as he resolutely went up to meet this overbearing beam cannon.

Five seconds ... ten seconds ... the adjutant let out a great roar in his c.o.c.kpit. He tolerated the intense agony the strong magnetic energy wrought upon his body, watching calmly as the power of his mecha dropped rapidly until it was finally empty ... only 23 seconds had pa.s.sed.

What a pity! Before his mecha was completely consumed by the magnetic energy, the adjutant only hoped regretfully in his heart that the starship would be able to hold out on its own for the final 7 seconds it needed to gather power.

The adjutant had no way of seeing the final outcome. His mecha, with him inside, was completely devoured by the magnetic energy beam, instantly turning into a cloud of gas to disappear into the air. Right then, Ling Lan, who had been hiding to one side but was long prepared, controlled her imperial mecha to instantly leap forwards and take the adjutant"s place, blocking the remaining magnetic energy beam directed at the starship.

This time, Little Four expended his greatest disguising ability to make Ling Lan"s imperial mecha look like the adjutant"s ace mecha. Whether it was in the starship"s control room or at the command centre of the ground base, all they could see was an ace mecha holding off the magnetic energy beam cannon"s attack. When the beam energy ran out, what was revealed in the aftermath was still that extremely battered yet surviving ace mecha!

"He did it!" the commander could not help but shout in exhilaration at the sight of the resilient ace mecha. No one wished for the comrades by their side to die, even if they were in the virtual world.

********

On a hill at the edge of the Swift Dragon base, an ace mecha was standing there looking out into distant s.p.a.ce at the ace mecha that had held off the attack of the magnetic energy beam cannon. He said in a cold tone, "That starship is most probably carrying the enemy that gave D1 no choice but to activate the ultimate weapon system."

"Senior Colonel, you"re right. I"ve observed the other people staying at the Swift Dragon base. They are all NPCs. The investigative soldiers the Huaxia Federation sent are definitely on that ship." The person on the other end of the comms channel confirmed the thoughts of the ace operator.

"Planning to leave the Swift Dragon base just like that? In your dreams." Killing intent flashed through the ace operator"s eyes as he sneered and said, "Send me into the sky. I want to greet that ace mecha, and finish off that starship along the way."

"Yes, Senior Colonel!" With that shout, a hole suddenly opened under the spot where the ace mecha was standing. The mecha dropped instantly as if swallowed by the earth.

But very soon, a tube coloured like the hill rose diagonally from the ground, and several seconds later, a m.u.f.fled sound rang out. That ace mecha was instantly sent shooting into the sky like a cannonball.

When the senior officers in the command centre of the base saw this, some of the officers were baffled. Where had this unexpected ace mecha come from? At that moment, the supreme commander of the Swift Dragon base could be heard to explain, "This is our ace mecha."

The supreme commander"s words calmed everyone down and they waited patiently for the final outcome. The power of the magnetic energy beam cannon was indeed very strong, but its energy consumption was also very horrific. If there were other ways to finish off these invading enemies, they would happily save energy resources and not shoot a third round of the magnetic energy beam cannon.

********

"Boss, an ace mecha is coming." That mecha had just been launched when he had been noticed by Little Four who was monitoring the whole scene, and Little Four quickly informed Ling Lan.

"G.o.dd*mmit, how could there be an ace mecha in the Swift Dragon base?" This kind of small base generally had an advanced mecha at the most. This inexplicable appearance of a mysterious ace mecha made Ling Lan feel that trouble was coming.

"It"s not an NPC." Little Four only had time to say this before that ace mecha was already by Ling Lan"s side and was fiercely leaping at her.

Little Four"s warning made Ling Lan"s heart clench — if the other wasn"t an NPC, then he must be a real person. Moreover, soldiers of the Huaxia Federation would never attack a teammate without reason, so this ace operator was very likely from Caesar.

With a "bang", Ling Lan swiftly drew the beam saber on her back and parried the opponent"s fierce attack in time.

"Boss, do you want me to kill him?" asked Little Four in a cold voice, killing intent flashing through his eyes.

Ling Lan controlled her mecha to kick out savagely. Seeing this fierce kick coming at him, the opponent became wary and quickly dodged. The two mecha once again pulled apart from one another, but both sides knew very well that this distance was nothing for ace mecha — they would be able to reach their opponent within the blink of an eye.

Ling Lan was guarding carefully against the other but had begun plotting in her mind. If Little Four could act, they could indeed finish off the opponent easily. But the problem was that there was still a spectre on the ship. The moment Little Four used his spectre-like powers, the other would notice it. This would be a large flaw because ace operators just could not be spectres; therefore, it would be very easy to guess that there was the presence of a third faction at the Swift Dragon base. This way, her ideal plan would be broken — it would become completely pointless to try and use the Federation soldiers as her team"s shield.

Ling Lan absolutely would not allow her team members to be exposed. Thus, she decisively rejected Little Four"s offer and prepared to resist on her own.

In truth, Ling Lan was extremely confident in herself. With the imperial mecha she was controlling now and her control skills that were no lower than an ace operator"s, she was still pretty confident she could win this match. Her only concern was that she could not fight in an imperial mecha for over 5 minutes. Otherwise, her body would not be able to withstand the feedback force from the cross-level operation.

Furthermore, because she had blocked the magnetic energy beam cannon, she had already wasted about a minute of that time. Thus, she needed to finish this fight and destroy the other mecha within 4 minutes. Ling Lan"s eyes glinted with a cold light, planning inside her heart on how she could end the fight quickly.

Ling Lan saw Regretless lying silently in her bag and an idea flashed through her mind. She immediately instructed Little Four on what he needed to do next ...

Very soon, the two mecha once again collided forcefully together. This time, Ling Lan was the one to initiate the attack — she did not have much time left and could not afford to wait. It should be said the skills of the two operators were about equal — the collision of their beam sabers created countless sparks. Whether it was the mainship or the base command centre, everyone was closely watching the fight of the two ace mecha.

The intense battle lasted for less than a minute. Perhaps due to exhausting too much energy from blocking the magnetic energy beam cannon"s attack previously, the thruster on one side of Ling Lan"s mecha suddenly exploded. From the dazzling sparks and the accompanying thick black smoke, one could tell that the mecha had received pretty significant damage. As expected, without an engine on one side to provide counterbalance, Ling Lan"s mecha instantly lost its centre of balance and actually began to tumble over.

But Ling Lan did not give up — she activated her mecha"s secondary thruster and tried to regain the balance of her mecha. However, how could the opponent pa.s.s this chance by? That ace mecha suddenly flipped to face downwards and then revved its engines to actually begin speeding towards Ling Lan.

Seeing this, while maintaining the balance of her mecha, Ling Lan gritted her teeth and pulled out her beam saber to meet the fierce thrust of the other"s beam saber.

With a "boom", the two beam sabers collided fiercely. One was buffed by the gravitational force of moving downwards, while the other was held up by an awkward, forced lift of the arm. The gap between the strength behind the two swords was completely displayed by the beam sabers.

Due to the opponent"s great strength, Ling Lan could no longer hold on to her beam saber. It was sent flying by the opponent, and the beam saber fell from the skies to stab heavily into the ground.

Witnessing this scene, those Federation soldiers watching closely from the military vessel"s control room turned pale. Some of them could not help but exclaim in shock and leap to their feet.

Having sent the opponent"s weapon flying with one move, the ace operator was exhilarated. Without hesitation, he grabbed onto the Huaxian ace mecha, who was currently preparing to shoot its beam gun to try and stop him from approaching, enduring two shots from the opponent. The beam saber in his right hand stabbing forwards viciously towards other"s c.o.c.kpit ...

"Success!" The ace operator saw his beam saber piercing through the other"s c.o.c.kpit like slicing through bamboo and was overjoyed. He knew he had won, but before he could laugh out in celebration, he suddenly felt a chill run through his body. And then, intense pain shot straight into his heart, causing him to yell out involuntarily.

"What"s happening?" The ace mecha looked blankly at the black cold weapon that had appeared without warning in his c.o.c.kpit. That weapon had sliced his body into two, and his entire c.o.c.kpit was splattered in blood.

For some reason, the ace operator really wanted to deride the virtual world of the Huaxia Federation for being too realistic and b.l.o.o.d.y. This bit was really not good — they should learn from Caesar and make things more mild and pleasant. Even he, a battle-hardened warrior, felt somewhat queasy at the sight. He could almost really feel his waist being chopped in half — if this had happened to a newbie, that person would most likely be useless after this ...

A life countdown began in the virtual world. The ace operator smiled wryly to himself and pressed a b.u.t.ton to replay the last few moments. Only then did he discover that when he had pierced the other"s c.o.c.kpit, this black cold weapon had suddenly appeared in the opponent"s initially empty right hand. Because the other"s hand was positioned perfectly at a blind spot of all his cameras, he had not noticed. This was why he had found the attack baffling.

"I forgot that the Huaxians favour mutual destruction the most," said the ace operator in frustration. With its control systems destroyed, his mecha could no longer remain airborne and it plummeted without warning.

On his display screen, the ace mecha operator saw his opponent"s mecha falling faster than his own, and a satisfied smile appeared at the corner of his lips. At least he would die later than the other. By the time they revived, he would definitely find the other for a rematch ...

Ten seconds or so later, that Huaxian ace mecha slammed into the ground first. Right afterwards, he too slammed into the ground, and subsequently, a ma.s.sive explosion rocked the ground. The fallen mecha were instantly blasted into dust — it was no longer possible to distinguish who was who — and at the same time, the Caesarian ace mecha operator"s final bit of awareness was consumed.