The supreme commander of the base saw all the soldiers below beginning to move and only then did he turn to leave the command centre. Coming to his personal office, he acted according to his original setting and sent a situation report to the Mecha World mainframe, detailing all the orders he had given in response as well. However, the transmission channel had already been altered by the Caesarian hackers so that his report would be sent directly to the mainframe of the s.p.a.ceship hidden on the base. Meanwhile, the Federation mainframe remained oblivious to everything that was happening here.

********

The starship had successfully shifted to high speed and was temporarily out of danger, but this risky order of the commander left Ling Lan in a sticky situation. When the commander had commanded for the ship to shift into high gear, Little Four, who had immediately grasped the information, had quickly pa.s.sed on the bad news to Ling Lan.

If Ling Lan had not been too far away from the starship, the amount of time left would have been enough for Ling Lan to board the ship again. However, it just so happened that back when Ling Lan had been fighting the Caesarian ace operator, in order to finish the other quicker, she had purposefully pretended to lose control to trick the opponent. At present, she had already fallen to about an alt.i.tude of 800 metres, almost a whole 1000 metres away from the starship"s alt.i.tude of 1700 metres.

This distance cut Ling Lan"s time extremely short. She operated her imperial mecha to fly at high speed towards the starship, trying to land within the ship while it still had not officially entered high gear. But just as Ling Lan was about to successfully enter a launch port of the starship, the ship managed to activate high gear and shoot forwards like an arrow, leaving Ling Lan to pounce onto empty air. The ship instantly pulled a considerable distance away from Ling Lan.

Seeing this, Ling Lan clenched her teeth and decisively pushed the imperial mecha to its maximum speed, which was the mecha"s overdrive. Overdrive mode was typically in a sealed state and would not be readily activated, because running in overdrive was a great burden on a mecha"s engines. The energy consumed per second was no less than when firing a heavy energy projectile cannon. Not only that, overdrive would also take a high toll on the operator"s body.

The reason Ling Lan had not activated overdrive mode from the start was because she was afraid her body would not be able to bear it. At the same time, she was placing her hopes on the long shot that she would be able to successfully board the starship by only using high speed. Unexpectedly, all of her cautions was for naught in the end. However, presented with the dire situation of having to stay behind at the Swift Dragon base if she did not use overdrive, Ling Lan naturally would not hesitate any longer!

She needed to board the ship successfully before the starship broke through the atmospheric layer. Otherwise, based on the mecha"s power and mobility alone, she would not be able to escape the gravity of the planet to fly into outer s.p.a.ce. Even though Ling Lan was currently piloting an imperial mecha, it was still out of the question unless Ling Lan was controlling a G.o.d-cla.s.s mecha. Frankly, even if an imperial mecha could fly into outer s.p.a.ce, Ling Lan"s current level of strength and physical const.i.tution would not allow her to sustain long periods of cross-level operation anyway ...

This time, Ling Lan"s caution taught her a b.l.o.o.d.y lesson. She understood now that she needed to apply her full strength in all things from now on and not put her hopes on luck and chance, otherwise she might have to pay an even greater price.

Time was running out bit by bit. Ling Lan"s mecha came closer and closer to the starship. 100 metres, 50 metres, 30 metres, 20 metres, 10 metres ... she saw the number countdown of the 5-minute limit she set for herself to operate in overdrive dwindling smaller and smaller, and cold sweat poured uncontrollably from her forehead. For the first time, she felt how truly helpless she was.

She clearly only needed to speed up a little more to wrap her hand around that handle at the outermost edge of the final launch port of the starship, but no matter how hard she tried, she just could not close that final bit of distance. Meanwhile, the x192 high-glazed nuclear power source had also begun to emit the red lights warning that its power was about to run out ... could it be that she was still going to fail in the end and be unable to leave the Swift Dragon base? A bad feeling coursed through Ling Lan"s heart.

What made Ling Lan even more nervous was the fact that she had begun to feel pain in her body. It started with minor cramps, which slowly turned into an acute ripping sort of pain. It looked like the feedback force of cross-level operation had already seriously impacted her body, and with the pa.s.sage of time, her condition was only getting worse.

Just as Ling Lan was beginning to despair, a voice suddenly rang out in her mecha"s comms, "Rabbit, come on!"

Ling Lan"s spirits rallied. She raised her head and saw the figure of a familiar mecha appear at the tail end of the launch port. It was the leopard — with one hand on the handle, he reached his other hand out towards Ling Lan, attempting to grab hold of her mecha.

Seeing the leopard, Ling Lan"s heart fluttered and she stretched out her right arm with determination. Her companions had not abandoned her, so why was she giving up hope? Without fearing the acute pain coming from all over her body, Ling Lan pushed her mecha"s engines till they were working on overload. Ling Lan"s mecha"s speed boosted even further and her hand came closer and closer to the leopard"s outstretched hand. Five metres, three metres, one metre ...

"Argh ..." Ling Lan let out an unwilling scream. The x192 high-glazed nuclear power source finally fizzled out — Ling Lan pushed forwards at that final moment, reaching out with a desperate hand, and the two mecha"s fingers were linked for a moment before slipping apart. Ling Lan"s mecha lost all mobility and fell out of her control ...

"Rabbit ..." Ling Lan could almost hear the leopard"s mournful wail. She had failed, hadn"t she? However, as long as the leopard pa.s.sed the doc.u.ment to the city lord of Grandsweep City, their mission would be complete. Even if she remained at the Swift Dragon base, it would not affect the formation of the clan.

Ling Lan closed her eyes, resigned, and just as she was about to give up, she suddenly felt her mecha being grabbed hold of by some external force, stopping it from falling. Stunned, she opened her eyes and found that the leopard had already grasped her mecha"s right hand with both of his hands ...

"Rabbit, I will never let go again," said Li Lanfeng with a smile. His words had a double meaning — even as he said this to Ling Lan, he was also saying this to himself. He would never again let go of this friendship like he had seven years ago due to miscellaneous reasons.

Li Lanfeng"s words puzzled Ling Lan. She saw Li Lanfeng"s hands wrapped around her own right hand and could not help but feel her heart skip a beat. Could it be that the leopard had jumped off the starship? Deciding not to leave for her sake?

Ling Lan"s emotions were instantly in turmoil. For the first time, someone was willing to brave danger for her ... but Ling Lan"s sentimentality only lasted for a moment. Cool logic once again rea.s.serted itself, and she instantly realised that the two of them were not falling rapidly but had been tethered by some force and was flying swiftly upwards with the starship.

Ling Lan turned to look unerringly behind the leopard and saw that the two legs of his mecha were currently caught securely in the hands of Qi Long"s mecha ...

"Yo, Boss, it"s rare to see you in such a predicament." Qi Long"s laughter rang out in Ling Lan"s comms, and Ling Lan"s heart relaxed as joy stole over her. Even though she was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with emotions, accustomed to being as cold as ice, she could only respond dispa.s.sionately, "Yes, are you very satisfied by this?"

Ling Lan"s cool demeanour strangled Qi Long"s laughter, and he felt a chill invade his heart. He could not help but shudder — if his hands had not remained steady, this shudder may have spelled great trouble.

Qi Long was silently regretful — how could he forget that his boss was a cold and ruthless person who would take revenge for the slightest grievance? Qi Long could already foresee that when they got back, he would be captured by his boss for some brutal torment in the private training rooms ... Boo hoo hoo, his little life was surely forfeit.

"Boss, even in such a predicament you are still the most handsomest boss!" Qi Long tried to salvage the situation and alter his impending tragic fate. He feebly tried to suck up to his boss, but in his panic, his skill at flattery fell short of its usual standard, actually missing its mark completely 1 .

"Ho ho, so I am the most handsome when I"m in a sorry state like this, eh?" The corners of Ling Lan"s lips tilted up subtly as she responded levelly, though she was actually in a very happy mood. These were her companions — at crucial moments, they would run over to protect her ... Alright, at this moment, the leopard"s figure had once again been relegated to the recesses of Ling Lan"s mind.

Ling Lan"s words made Qi Long almost want to slap himself. Why was he so stupid? Actually reminding Boss about what he said wrong to begin with ...

In the end, it was still Han Jijyun who took pity on his sworn brother and tugged Qi Long away, helping him out by saying, "Quickly, everyone help out and pull Boss back in."

It turned out that all the other members were here as well. Luo Lang and Han Jijyun were right behind Qi Long, each with one hand holding onto Qi Long firmly. Meanwhile, Xie Yi and Lin Zhong-qing were standing behind Luo Lang and Han Jijyun and holding onto them in turn.

Why had they appeared here at this opportune moment? The facts of the matter were ...

Before the starship had shifted into high speed, while Ling Lan was working hard to approach and board the starship, Little Four had been secretly controlling the starship and had surrept.i.tiously opened the launch port at the tail end. The Federation soldiers in the ship"s control room were completely ignorant of this series of actions, but Qi Long and the others who had been waiting all this while in the hold at the tail end immediately noticed. They saw the launch port which had been shut all this time finally open up, and it went without saying that it was definitely their boss returning.

But before they could rejoice, the subsequent events not only caused Ling Lan to miss the chance to board the ship, they also left Qi Long and the others dumbfounded. The starship had suddenly shifted into high gear and sent the unprepared group tumbling. Fortunately, they had all still been in their mecha, so even though they had been thrown about terribly and things had been a little awkward, they had not incurred any great injury. Any minor injuries they had suffered had been quickly handled by Li Shiyu.

By the time they had stabilised their own mecha, they discovered that they could see no sign of Boss. Qi Long and the others knew then that their boss must not have caught up to the ship in time. They were instantly filled with worry and anxiety, but they also did not know what to do at that moment in time.

And then, Li Lanfeng, who had been silent all this while, suddenly retrieved the doc.u.ment from his bag and handed it to Qi Long, saying, "Qi Long, I want to go check things out at the launch port. It may be dangerous over there ... I"ll leave this doc.u.ment in your care."

Qi Long immediately refused and said, "This is a task Boss entrusted to you. I cannot go against Boss"s orders. Besides, I should be the one to go through the tail-end"s pa.s.sage."

Qi Long"s direct refusal made Li Lanfeng fall silent. He merely shoved the doc.u.ment at Qi Long outright and before Qi Long could react, Li Lanfeng had already turned away and left.

By the time Qi Long realised what had happened, Li Lanfeng had already disappeared through the first set of doors leading to the tunnel. Speechless, he held onto the doc.u.ment and glanced over at his surrounding companions, and then he decisively shoved the doc.u.ment at the still stunned Chang Xinyuan.

This move of Qi Long"s startled Chang Xinyuan, who instantly asked in a panic, "Why ... give it to me?"