Repaying Kindness

Far away, over a hundred meters out, Ye Lan also noticed something strange.

He had thought that once he and Su Lixiao escaped the battle zone of the two mechas, the blue mecha—with its high mobility—should have quickly broken free.

But he never saw it take flight.

That could only mean one thing: the blue mecha was trapped.

Student-use mechas were strictly limited by weapon regulations.

They could only be equipped with one primary weapon and one secondary weapon—such as the blue mecha’s laser sword and floating cannons, and the black mecha’s power axe and rocket pod.

Assault-type mechas naturally lacked control methods, and the black mecha’s loadout leaned even more heavily toward raw firepower.

So other than suppressing the blue mecha with its own mass, Ye Lan couldn’t think of any other method it might use to restrain it.

Scout-type mechas were meant for mobility and harassment.

They should never engage other mechas head-on, as that was their greatest taboo.

But Ye Lan had no right to blame it—after all, the blue mecha had chosen to fight head-on only to protect them.

Ye Lan and Su Lixiao exchanged a glance.

They both saw the same thought in each other’s eyes: they wanted to help the blue mecha.

After all, it had fallen into danger to save them.

“What’s the plan?” Su Lixiao asked.

She believed Ye Lan would surely come up with a better idea than she could.

“First, we need high ground.”

Ye Lan scanned the surroundings and spotted a hundred-meter-tall tower not far away.

It was one of the rare structures in the area that hadn’t been destroyed.

It must have once been a bell tower, though now it lay abandoned.

As for how to reach the top?

Running up staircases wasn’t realistic.

Even if the stairs weren’t collapsed, by the time they climbed up and found a sniping position, it would already be too late.

But Ye Lan wasn’t without a solution.

After all, he had a powerhouse right by his side.

He asked Su Lixiao: “Lixiao, can you get me to the top of that tower?”

Su Lixiao glanced at the tower.

“Yes, as long as you don’t mind a bumpy ride.”

Near the tower’s base, Su Lixiao took a deep breath, then carried Ye Lan as she charged forward.

When she reached the foot of the tower, she bent her knees and leapt straight up.

Her first jump landed them on the edge of the third floor.

Without pausing, she jumped again, each bound clearing at least two floors’ height.

Like a nimble squirrel, Su Lixiao swiftly reached the top level of the bell tower.

She leapt through the massive hole where the clock face should have been, and gently set Ye Lan down.

“Whew—”

The entire climb had taken less than two minutes.

Yet Su Lixiao’s face wasn’t flushed, nor was her heartbeat elevated—only a slight shortness of breath.

Her stamina was astonishing.

For a moment, Ye Lan felt maybe it wasn’t so bad to slack off.

But he quickly cast away that lazy thought.

Whether in his past life or this one, sloth had always been one of his greatest enemies.

And right now, he had a mission to complete.

Ye Lan set up his sniper rifle, powered it on, and unlocked the safety.

He didn’t rush to fire at the black mecha.

That would only expose his position without achieving anything meaningful.

The black mecha pressing the blue mecha into the ground looked bad.

But under the continuous fire of the floating cannons, the black mecha’s shield was quickly draining.

If this deadlock lasted a few more minutes, the scales of victory would tip toward the blue mecha.

But the black mecha’s real killing move wasn’t its own body.

Ye Lan knew it was still hiding a trump card.

So he waited.

Waited for that hidden card to reveal itself.

Only then could he strike and truly help the blue mecha escape.

Soon, four small glowing dots appeared on the horizon.

They were rapidly approaching the battlefield.

Ye Lan recognized them immediately—four cruise missiles, aimed straight at the blue mecha.

The black mecha’s primary weapon was the power axe, and its secondary weapon was the missile pod.

So it wasn’t surprising that it carried cruise missiles—it must have launched them earlier.

Cruise missiles were incredibly fast.

By the time they entered Ye Lan’s vision, only a few seconds remained.

He had barely ten seconds to act.

Intercepting Mach-5 cruise missiles with a sniper rifle sounded impossible.

But Ye Lan’s [E-Series | Universal Anti-Materiel Energy Sniper Rifle] fired laser beams.

Against missiles, it was perfectly suited.

It all came down to whether he could predict the point of interception in time.

…

At Mach 5, thousands of meters vanished in a blink.

In an instant, the black mecha’s cruise missiles reached the battlefield.

The black mecha had been waiting for this moment.

It leapt away from the blue mecha, leaving it unable to dodge.

“Boom!” “Boom!”

The missiles struck precisely, their explosions leveling nearby ruins and filling the air with choking dust.

But dust meant nothing to a mecha that could switch to infrared vision.

Yet when the black mecha did so, it was stunned.

Through the smoke, the blue mecha was still standing.

It had survived the missile barrage.

Not unscathed—the wreckage of four destroyed floating cannons proved there had been some cost.

But still, it was far from destroyed.

“This is impossible!”

The black pilot couldn’t believe his eyes.

He had staked everything on that strike, even sacrificing his shield.

Yet the blue mecha, nearly unharmed, could now turn its remaining floating cannons and unleash devastating firepower.

“…Perhaps you hate the weak because, among the strong, you are the weakest… You are not worthy of calling yourself strong…”

The blue pilot’s earlier words echoed in his mind.

“No! I am strong! I’m not weak! I’m strong!” the black pilot shouted desperately.

The blue mecha said nothing.

But from its cold, expressionless electronic eyes, the black mecha saw something terrifying—pity.

The four remaining floating cannons swiveled toward the black mecha.

At a single command, they could unleash a barrage that would cripple it.

The black mecha had no choice but to face that firepower head-on.

“Ahhh!!!”

It let out a beast-like roar.

The cry startled the blue mecha, delaying its firing command by a heartbeat.

But the black mecha didn’t charge.

Instead, it hurled itself toward a nearby building, using its collapse and falling debris to cover its retreat.

It knew full well it could not match a blue mecha that had regained mobility.

Seeing the black mecha abandon its will to fight, the blue mecha, bound by its knightly spirit, chose not to pursue.

Instead, it looked toward the distant tower.

There, it saw the boy it had just saved, standing with a sniper rifle.

The boy saluted in thanks, then vanished into the tower’s shadows.

A complex feeling stirred in the blue pilot’s heart.

He had saved the two freshmen only because he couldn’t stand by idly.

But in the end, they had saved him.

When the four missiles appeared on his radar, his heart had sunk.

He finally understood why the black mecha had risked so much to pin him down.

Though he reacted quickly, ordering his floating cannons to intercept, the math was cruel.

Two cannons for each missile—at that rate, all his cannons would be lost, leaving him immobile and vulnerable.

And the black mecha, having only lost its shield, would have struck him down with a single axe.

Yet, just as the missiles closed in, two of them were suddenly destroyed midair—by heat signatures from that tower.

That single act halved his losses.

With only half the sacrifice, he had survived what should have been certain defeat.

Even now, he felt the chill of near death.

“Blue Prism, what’s your status?” came a voice over comms.

“We need your immediate support.”

“‘Shantong’ has been repelled. Blue Prism is returning,” he replied.

With his teammates under heavy fire, the blue pilot had no choice but to abandon the thought of personally thanking the two freshmen.

Instead, he turned back toward the battlefield to rejoin his squad.

…