From BOSS to Canon Fodder: She is Currently Out of Service!-Chapter 48 - 29: Don’t Fall for Me—I’m Just a Legend (Part 3)
"The loser must die!" Zhang Yiqi pointed at a phrase on the virtual screen and said calmly, "This person’s tone is indeed grandiose, but what they said is true. I like it very much. If she can beat me, it only proves that my strength is insufficient, nothing more."
Qin Chou was speechless. His friend’s state of mind was really quite good, "But then you’ll have your strength questioned..."
He was the youngest in history to receive the Expedition Army’s Honor Medal. If he were to easily lose to an unknown, there would be all sorts of derogatory remarks. He doubted his friend, who had grown up surrounded by praise, could adapt.
Zhang Yiqi crossed his arms under his chin, sneering, "If they question my strength, let them challenge the person who defeated me. If they win, then they can doubt me all they want. If they can’t win... then I’d kindly ask them to shut up."
Standing up, he took the beige coat from beside him, put it on, and adjusted his tie, "I almost forgot to remind you, didn’t you have an elective class in the afternoon with that abnormal teacher? It’s about time; if you don’t go, are you planning to fail?"
Qin Chou glanced at the time on his smart terminal, and his expression changed. Hastily saying a few words to Zhang Yiqi, he flipped out of the dormitory window and left on his flying device. Zhang Yiqi rolled his eyes, throwing Qin’s class schedule onto the table and said with a hint of glee, "Still not finished talking, class has changed... why the rush..."
After several hours of flight, the rescue warship finally entered the cosmic spaceship stationed in outer space.
Listening to the robot’s command, Su Jiameng stood at the designated position, waiting for the rescue warship to open. The rescue warship was already sizable, but compared to this small cosmic spaceship, it was still dwarfed. The crowd followed the command and disembarked from the rescue warship, only to find iron-grey metal all around, with arched domes whose height could not be measured. A casual glance seemed to reveal nothing but iron-grey metal. Just as Su Jiameng was puzzled, the familiar sound of engines came by her ear...
"There’s a mecha approaching, and the number exceeds one hundred, not more than one hundred and one..." Su Jiameng murmured, as Li You, who appeared by her side at some point, pulled a forced smile.
"Miss Su is quite knowledgeable about this." Li You twitched his mouth, not knowing how Su Jiameng made the judgment. The sound? The mecha squadron was still quite some distance away, let alone being able to determine the number with such precision, "To know even this..."
"The architecture here is quite special, with a completely sealed environment. The engine’s sound can cause very slight resonance on the ground... Were it in an open field, it wouldn’t be this simple." Much of her ability was taught by mercenaries she mingled with, or conclusions drawn from life-and-death battles. If she didn’t have this level of judgment, she would have died long ago in her past life.
"Is that so?" Li You spoke softly to her, but given their proximity, it drew quite a few officers’ glances. After waiting four or five minutes, the mecha squad arrived. From the leading mecha came out a man dressed in combat attire, with a crew cut, shining tiger eyes, a steady face, well-built limbs, and a silent walk... impressive quality.
Su Jiameng made a fair assessment, lowering her eyes to wait for Li You and the leader to finish the handover work. She gazed at her nose, her nose gazed at her heart, until Li You said that their mission was successfully completed, and they could officially set sail, did she realize the main event was about to begin.
Sure enough, the crew-cut man approached Su Jiameng, the height difference immense. The man had it easier, simply lowering his head slightly to see her, while Su Jiameng had to tilt her head back to see him... her neck was about to strain, this height gap was truly troublesome.
"Miss Su, my apologies." No sooner had he spoken than he extended his hand toward Su Jiameng. But her reflexes were quick, and although her body couldn’t match the speed of her nerves, it was still relatively quick. She avoided him, and using his force, caused him to take a small step back.
"Miss Su, what are you doing?" Li You was about to retrieve his mecha from the Mecha Space Hub and just saw Su Jiameng’s action, "If you can’t provide an explanation, it will be considered a malicious attack."
Su Jiameng, seeing those officers enter the cockpits of the mecha squadron, instantly realized what the crew-cut man meant by extending his hand toward her, and awkwardly said, "Sorry, I overthought... but I think I can enter the cockpit without his help..." This body may lack the accumulated sharp reflexes of her past life, but when someone suddenly reached out to her, her brain reacted faster than her body... resulting in this blunder.
With an apologetic smile to the crew-cut man, Su Jiameng, carrying her baggage and a precious egg, leveraged herself into the cockpit, knocking on the mecha’s shell. Without the owner’s presence, she couldn’t have the mecha open the cockpit of its own accord, let alone sit in the co-pilot seat.
The crew-cut man showed no expression. If not confirmed to be alive, just by appearance, one might think he was a cold android. Su Jiameng sat obediently in the co-pilot seat, feeling a wave of nostalgia looking at the familiar instruments and equipment inside. No matter how real the virtual felt, it had a sense of falsity, whereas these were tangibly real.
"In a moment, we will pass through the Vacuum Road. If you feel uncomfortable, just let me know." The crew-cut man, prepared and practiced, activated various instruments inside the cockpit, his eyes focused and serious. Su Jiameng was taken aback, instinctively clutching the two eggs tightly in her arms.
The Vacuum Road, she was no stranger to it. In her past life, during an assassination mission, she was cornered in the Vacuum Road, nearly losing her life. It’s an area much like outer space, separating the main cabin of the cosmic spaceship from the auxiliary cabin holding the rescue warships. The universe teems with creatures, some seemingly weak yet capable of causing catastrophic damage.
And the function of the Vacuum Road, to put it simply, is sterilization and disinfection. Passing through the Vacuum Road is not a pleasing affair. Even with the protection of a mecha cockpit, the body will experience **reaction in a short time, feeling uncomfortable or nauseous (╯﹏╰) is the least of it.
"Alright, thank you, I’ll be mindful of that." Su Jiameng had some fear of the Vacuum Road, considering she had almost been trapped and killed there in her past life. Yet, she knew that unless she took the opportunity to overcome these fears, they would remain a nightmare, an insurmountable barrier. The length of the Vacuum Road was extensive, and as they entered, even with the protection of the mecha cockpit, her chest felt stifled and nauseous. Biting her lip to endure, she didn’t need a mirror to know how bad her complexion was.
The Vacuum Road is built from many special greenish metals, generally loathed by parasitic bacteria worms. Along the two roadsides, there are many concealed hotline sensors, all exclusively military-grade with top-notch quality.
These custom hotline sensors were difficult to deal with. Even in the harshest environments, unless they suffered devastating damage or ran out of energy, they could maintain normal operation. During her past escape, Su Jiameng dealt with them frequently, also knowing how to dismantle them in the shortest time, but achieving that required strong physical conditioning.
She tilted her head, closed her eyes, and silently adjusted her breathing rate to minimize the nauseous sensation. After about ten minutes, the soothing voice of the crew-cut man reached her ears, "Miss Su, we’ve arrived..."
Opening her eyes, she saw a large, sturdy hand extended before her, looking curiously at him. He kept a blank face, his gaze on her tightly clenched hands, "If you’re feeling unwell, don’t force yourself..."
Su Jiameng attempted to stand but felt embarrassedly weak in the legs, her muscles slightly aching from prolonged tension. Looking up at him, she said, "Then sorry for the trouble..." Having embarrassed him earlier, now she needed his assistance.
With a swift motion, he lifted Su Jiameng directly from the co-pilot seat, leaped swiftly out of the cockpit, landing gracefully without any leveraging, and gently set her down.
At this time, Li You approached, scrutinized Su Jiameng, and said, "It seems Miss Su is indeed extraordinary, as the Vacuum Road is quite loathed even by experienced Mecha Masters. Upon first contact with the Vacuum Road, most react with vomiting, but it seems Miss Su experienced no **reaction."
Su Jiameng turned her gaze slightly, realizing who "they" referred to in Li You’s words, all those rookie officers.
She darkened her face, recalling her first time through the Vacuum Road, vomiting to the point of exhaustion and without any image, at least these officers maintained basic decorum, "No... my performance wasn’t that much better than theirs..."
The crew-cut man saluted, taking his mecha team to the training grounds. To him, Su Jiameng was just an ordinary yet well-performing woman. However, Li You couldn’t overlook her previous remarks.
Su Jiameng claimed she had performed worse than those officers, but he wasn’t blind. She only seemed slightly dizzy, much better than the newcomers who kept vomiting.
If Su Jiameng wasn’t making a modest statement, could he then believe she had traversed the Vacuum Road once before, or perhaps even more than once? Even stranger, he had watched videos of Su Jiameng both on the virtual network and during rescue warship training, and it was as if they were two completely different people!
Generally, real-world and virtual network abilities are about the same, but with Su Jiameng... the difference was more than noticeable... it made him wonder if he had picked up the wrong person.
