...
"As you can see, our brand-new coach."
Derek Su presented the newly arrived Tanner Chen to the inspector.
Tanner Chen's face was pale. Even against his deeply tanned skin, his bloodless lips stood out clearly. Fighting desperately against the urge to vomit, he shakily produced his coaching certificate.
The inspector glanced at the certificate.
Then he looked at the vertical-takeoff medium fighter jet parked outside the Stella Club, his expression turning somewhat helpless.
Seriously?
Was this guy really that well-connected?
They had flown the coach here in a fighter jet?!
"Thirty-seven minutes. Well within the one-hour limit." Derek Su checked his watch and smiled. "Can you approve us now?"
The inspector's mouth twitched.
You should have mentioned the fighter jet earlier.
Giving them an entire hour had been far too generous.
But he could not take back what he had already said. With a dark expression, he reluctantly approved Derek Su and the Stella Club.
For the Panlong Mountain Circuit, the first-stage pairing would be Derek Su and Stella, while the second-stage pairing would be Derek Su and Purple Lightning. They would also bring one squadron of logistics Mecha Girls and one squadron of medical personnel.
That was the maximum permitted under the competition rules.
It was not Absolute Shadow's limit.
Given the choice, Absolute Shadow would have arranged for several fighter jets to patrol the area and escort Derek Su, Stella, and Purple Lightning throughout the race.
The inspector left with resentment written all over his face.
He then reported the outcome to Caleb Li and Quentin Lin.
Caleb Li took it relatively well. He had merely been following orders and had no personal grudge against Derek Su or the Stella Club. Besides, he was getting older and disliked open confrontation. Even if he wanted to target the Stella Club, he preferred to work from the shadows.
Quentin Lin, however, was so furious that his eyes nearly rolled back.
He also became convinced that Absolute Shadow and Derek Su were definitely connected to the Crimson incident.
Absolute Shadow now wielded enough authority to deploy a vertical-takeoff fighter jet from the Armed Forces Department.
How was anyone supposed to tolerate that?
If her authority grew any further, would the Stella Club start walking all over the Crown Club?
And after that, would they do the same to Ansei Insurance?
Quentin Lin had originally planned to tamper with the insurance policies covering Derek Su and the Stella Club's Mecha Girls. Then he discovered that they were not insured by Ansei Insurance at all. They were covered by Longteng Insurance.
His vision nearly went black with rage.
If he remembered correctly, Longteng Insurance had only been established within the past two weeks.
And the only people it insured were members of the Stella Club.
How could he possibly tolerate this?!
Had he not been certain that the CEO of Longteng Group had only one daughter, he might even have suspected that Derek Su was Beto Ming's illegitimate son.
"Derek Su. Stella Club... I, Quentin Lin, will remember this!"
Quentin Lin sat behind his desk, grinding his teeth.
These rounds of covert maneuvering might have seemed uneventful from the outside, but many committee members within the Techmasters' Alliance knew exactly what had happened.
Now they were all laughing at him.
He had thoroughly humiliated himself, and the Speaker might even begin questioning his competence.
The Techmasters' Alliance was not in a favorable position at the moment.
For now, Quentin Lin could only endure the humiliation and wait for an opportunity to strike.
...
Meanwhile, at Panlong Mountain, only twenty-one hours remained before the race.
Along the winding track, groups of logistics Mecha Girls and Armed Team Mecha Girls could be seen every few hundred meters. Carrying toolboxes, they were installing devices with a distinctly advanced appearance.
These were the track's AI speed detectors and AI cameras.
The Human Federation and the Techmasters' Alliance had originally been responsible for this work.
However, after the major reshuffling of the Armed Teams, the task had been handed over to the Mecha Girls to ensure complete fairness.
In truth, the Techmasters' Alliance had never planned to tamper with the equipment.
For one thing, doing so was inconvenient and hardly worth the effort. Targeting the competitors directly would be far more effective.
There was also little reason to interfere. Any Techmaster produced by the competition would eventually join the Techmasters' Alliance anyway.
This year, however, circumstances were different.
Eden was concerned that the Techmasters' Alliance might resort to desperate measures. Combined with Tania's warning, that was enough for her to insist that every piece of track equipment be installed under her supervision.
At the summit of Panlong Mountain, Eden and several logistics Mecha Girls stood before a spherical device.
One of the Mecha Girls operated a laptop beside it.
The sphere began to hum softly, emitting a faint white glow.
"Governor, the final Psychic Energy Pulse Device has been configured."
The Mecha Girl closed the laptop and stood to report.
"Good." Eden nodded. "Before we leave Panlong Mountain, inspect the other four devices again."
"Yes!"
"Governor, are we really going to leave this one exposed?" a logistics Mecha Girl asked worriedly as she stared at the Psychic Energy Pulse Device, which resembled a glowing white egg. "These devices aren't very durable. A single bullet could destroy it."
"There's no need to conceal it. Leave it here."
Eden glanced back and confirmed her decision once more.
A Psychic Energy Pulse Device could disrupt the Void's camouflage, but it had one major weakness. It had to be activated manually and could not trigger automatically.
They also could not station guards nearby, since doing so might reveal its position in advance. That meant they needed a decoy to draw the enemy's attention.
Of course, all of this was merely a precaution. The chances of the Void breaking through were extremely low. The enemy would first have to breach the Serpens defense line.
Although this device was exposed, it stood far from the Mecha Girls' rest area.
Five Psychic Energy Pulse Devices had been deployed in total. The other four were completely hidden beneath camouflage and protected by advanced alloy armor.
Only this one had been left in plain sight.
The surrounding Mecha Girls did not understand Eden's intentions, and she had no interest in explaining them.
She was meticulous by nature and always prepared for the worst.
Eden slowly walked to the cliff's edge and looked down from the summit toward the foot of the mountain.
She could almost see the new king standing proudly at the starting line beside his Mecha Girl.
When he reached the summit, sunlight would emerge from the clouds and touch his face, draping him in golden armor.
His coronation...
She murmured softly.
"Don't disappoint me... new king."
...
In space, near Serpens.
The surface of Ring-3 was covered in craters and fissures, like festering wounds. The once-brilliant stars had grown dim, obscured by smoke and cosmic dust. Only faint traces of starlight pierced the atmosphere and fell upon the ruined land below.
A war had been fought here.
Mechanical wreckage covered the surrounding area.
Some machines had been blasted apart by artillery fire. Others lay buried beneath the dust, with only twisted metal frames and shattered armor plates exposed. Their weapon systems had ceased functioning, though sparks still flickered from the wreckage. Cold mechanical arms and cannon barrels pointed toward the darkened sky.
Dark gray pieces of flesh were scattered among the debris.
Some mechanical structures had even been fused together by masses of flesh.
An arm emerged from a grotesque cockpit made of machinery and organic tissue. Its skin was pale gray, and its fingertips trembled.
Before its owner could raise his head, a projectile tore through the air.
Whoosh—!
A violent explosion shook the ground as a massive orange fireball rose into the sky.
All that remained was a scorched crater. Everything nearby had been blown to pieces.
"Tsk. One of them was still alive!"
Two enormous Psychic Energy Mechas walked past the crater and continued clearing the battlefield.
They communicated through electromagnetic signals that only they could hear.
"Looks like there was about a squad of them. These bastards are ridiculously hard to kill. No wonder extracts from their hearts can extend a person's life."
"Once we finish clearing the battlefield, we'll see how many Void Hearts are still intact," replied the Techmaster inside the other Psychic Energy Mecha. "They've gotten smarter. They know we'll take their hearts, so some of them even destroy their own hearts before dying. What a bunch of fucking lunatics! Why did they suddenly attack this outpost anyway? Weren't they just throwing their lives away?"
"You already called them lunatics. Isn't it perfectly normal for lunatics to launch a suicide attack?" the Techmaster in front replied with a laugh. "Come on, let's finish this and head back. My Mecha Girl's Endurance is almost depleted, and I can barely keep my eyes open."
...
Not long after the two Psychic Energy Mechas departed, no one noticed the nearby asteroid belt.
A small, prism-shaped warship, nearly transparent, clung to the dark side of an asteroid and crawled forward like a gecko.
Every movement was made with extreme caution.
Even so, it was gradually slipping through the Serpens defense line.
...
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