IMAO Chapter 21

The four eliminated players were stunned for a moment. They had initially intended to deal with the lone Black Earl, but somehow they had all been eliminated instead. The boys quickly opened the kill playback, and the perspective switched to Sequence 1’s mecha.

The footage began to play in slow motion.

Just as the four mechas were about to deliver the final blow to the Black Earl, an initial mecha that had been flying low to the ground suddenly charged up from below, unnoticed by the players as their attention had been focused on the Black Earl.

This mecha, under the control of its pilot, was practically soundless, transforming from an ordinary mecha into an assassin-type mecha.

Seeing the manner of this mecha’s entrance alone was enough to make the four players gasp. After all, the Sequence 1 battle mecha was not an assassin-type, and it was quite noisy – to pull off such a stealthy infiltration, it would have had to move at an astonishing speed!

And the pilot’s acceleration was so rapid that it was suffocating. To avoid detection, the pilot had flown the mecha practically hugging the ground.

If this were any other location, it might have been manageable, but they were in the Mala Desert! The Mala Desert floor was covered in Mala desert worms. This mecha had to navigate while avoiding the Mala desert worms as it flew close to the ground.

The players sucked in a sharp breath – just what kind of control was this?

The Sequence 1 mecha successfully infiltrated, and with its armor-piercing weapon, it immediately fired at the mecha closest to it.

A piercing shot struck the moving battle mecha.

Then another shot!

This bullet’s trajectory was not straight, but curved, swiftly circling around the left front mecha to directly hit the black mecha that had been about to deliver the final blow to the Black Earl.

Immediately after, the Sequence 1 mecha’s movements were fluid and seamless as it charged and collided with one of the mechas.

That mecha instantly lost its balance, and the Sequence 1 mecha took the opportunity to fire two more shots, one of which directly pierced the rammed mecha, while the other flew straight toward the red Flying Fortress mecha!

Seeing his comrade under attack, the pilot of the Flying Fortress reacted quickly, immediately activating the defense shield to block the Sequence 1 mecha’s attack. The first attack was blocked by the shield, and as the pilot Yang Kai breathed a sigh of relief, the second, third, and fourth armor-piercing rounds came in succession.

It was not until the fifth armor-piercing round directly broke through the defense shield that…

“What? A system bug? I had the defense shield activated, yet five armor-piercing rounds broke through it? Impossible!” Yang Kai exclaimed through the comms, watching the replay of his death.

“No… Look closer, Yang Kai,” the other boy said, swallowing nervously, his expression uncertain.

Yang Kai paused, then rewatched the replay carefully. Suddenly, his expression changed.

Was this even humanly possible?

The five bullets had all struck the exact same point on the defense shield. Even the thickest shield would not have withstood such concentrated fire.

Just what kind of predictive ability was this? The mecha he was piloting was not a stationary target, but a rapidly moving one in the air!

Unbelievable!

Five bullets, five direct hits!

It seemed the opponent was worried the target still wouldn’t die, so they fired an extra shot. And the armor-piercing rounds that followed the initial five were even more shameless – they pierced straight through the hole in the defense shield and into the chest of the Flying Fortress!

In a flash, he was gone.

My god!

What level of skill was this?

Was it supernatural?

They had to remember this was all executed under the combined second mode and game cabin conditions!

Watching the replay, Yang Kai instinctively looked at the ID of the Sequence 1 mecha that had defeated them – [7592101].

No explanation needed, he knew exactly what this ID meant – 7592 represented their graduating class, 1 was for Class 1, and 01 was for the top student in Class 1!

How arrogant, to use this as their game ID? Were they trying to say they would always be number one? Weren’t they afraid of getting slapped in the face?

No…

Yang Kai rubbed his forehead. Judging by this person’s skill level, the name might actually be fitting…

But still, so arrogant!

“Hey, what’s going on? Yang Kai, why did you all get wiped out so suddenly?” a childish voice broke the silence in the comm channel.

Yang Kai replied impatiently, “What do you think? We ran into a pro and got reversed!”

“Xiao Bai, don’t come this way,” Yang Kai said, thinking it over.

Xiao Bai, Bai Ming, didn’t hesitate to agree, immediately turning his mecha away from the site where Yang Kai’s team had been eliminated. At the same time, a few male voices came through the comm.

“A pro?”

“Haha, how much of a pro could they be? You guys are just too weak!”

Yang Kai couldn’t be bothered to argue with the unpleasant-sounding guy. He just shared the death replay of his elimination, and the students who had been mocking him suddenly shut up.

Watching the replay, Bai Ming’s mouth hung open, and he ran his hand over the empty space on the back of his mecha – wasn’t that the same person who had just stolen his weapon?

Bai Ming patted his chest, relieved that the opponent had been too fast for him to catch up. Otherwise, he would have been the first to go down!

Class 1 actually had such a godlike player?

As the four mechas fell, Arlo, who had been flying in the air, finally spotted the white Sequence 1 mecha amid the swirling dust.

“Jiang Yuan?” Arlo exclaimed Jiang Yuan’s name in astonishment.

Jiang Yuan’s Sequence 1 mecha stood tall in the air.

Arlo asked, “What’s going on? Didn’t you say you left?”

Through the comm, Jiang Yuan said, “I ran into a straggler on the way and took his armor-piercing weapon from him. With the armor-piercing weapon, I came to find you.”

“You came specifically to rescue me?” Arlo asked strangely in the comm, his usually calm heart suddenly racing.

Before Jiang Yuan could answer, a half-mocking voice said, “Of course, if you were the first to die, our class couldn’t afford to lose you. Jiang Yuan would go save anyone from our class.”

“Isn’t that right, Jiang Yuan?” Ji Rong asked in a semi-joking tone, simultaneously accelerating his mecha.

Jiang Yuan hummed in agreement, directly affirming Ji Rong’s words.

Seeing Jiang Yuan’s response, Arlo suddenly felt annoyed with himself for overthinking.

At the same time, someone on the comm asked what had happened. Arlo instinctively checked the video feed on his mecha, but due to everything happening so quickly and his position being less than ideal, he couldn’t see the specifics of what had occurred.

However, the answer soon became clear.

Class 2 had directly shared Yang Kai’s death replay with them.

The others couldn’t suppress their shock, so the comm was filled with exclamations like “Damn!” “Oh my god!” “Whoa!”

“Hey, hey, Class 1! Who the hell is the one piloting that Sequence 1 mecha?”

“Who else could it be? It’s Jiang Yuan!”

A Class 2 student: “Figured. After seeing his reaction speed test, I suspected the Class 1 rank 1 student was him! But is he really a beta?”

“Screw that, he’s more alpha than any alpha!”

“He’s not a beta, he’s a monster!”

Finally, someone softly muttered, and it resonated with everyone – Jiang Yuan the “beta” was anything but scientific!

Jiang Yuan heard his classmates’ discussion on the comm and smiled slightly, saying to the nearby Arlo, “Let’s go to the meeting point.”

“Okay.” Arlo took advantage of his free time to repair his mecha while watching the replay over and over again. He and Jiang Yuan encountered several attacks along the way.

Jiang Yuan didn’t want to waste too much time on the road, so whenever he encountered enemies, he would immediately accelerate his mecha and launch a devastating attack. Under the mecha’s bursts of high-speed power, Jiang Yuan would swiftly eliminate the opponents with his expert maneuvers, leaving their mechas crumbling.

As Arlo waited for his mecha’s repair, he watched the mechas Jiang Yuan had defeated, silently grateful that Jiang Yuan was his ally and not his enemy because he was truly too powerful!

Each of Jiang Yuan’s operations was a godlike display!

Arlo had a bit of a reputation himself, and his skills were naturally not bad, but compared to Jiang Yuan, he felt utterly defeated, completely and thoroughly crushed.

Why did it feel like he, an alpha, was like an omega next to Jiang Yuan?

This was just too difficult!

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