CH 18

Cartridge Case (1)

Jiang Jianming changed his mecha before he actually entered into the deep area.

This M-IP 18 was a mecha distributed by the military, and even if not considering the possibility, it should be nonetheless installed with a location device. 

The officers are probably monitoring from the rear now. 

Jiang Jianming let the intelligence Seth Henry stay in the IP, and let it walk around the periphery slowly.

He was too physically exhausted in the battle just now, and even if the monitoring showed that he was passively avoiding the fight, the officers would not be surprised, they would only think that he was powerless.

Soon, the A-level folding mecha S-Snow Dove unfolded and drove Jiang Jianming into the depths of the forest.

The shape of Snow Dove was like that of a two-legged single cannon, and the only muzzle was installed on the front chest of the mecha, while the left and right wings, compared to that of ordinary mechas with loading mechanical arms and muzzles, were instead equipped with two snow-white shields, which look a bit like that of bird wings.

This was a very unusual design in military mechas, obviously, this was not made to kill the enemy to win, but to save lives.

This was also the original intention of Ryann for giving him this mecha.

But it does not apply to the current Jiang Jianming.

Therefore, Jiang Jianming did not hesitate to modify this mecha on his way to the Far Star.

Woosh……..

The snow-white mecha ran against the wind in the dense forest, until the surrounding vegetation became dense and tall, and only a bit of sunlight could come through. The icy rocks were crawling with bizarre, flashing moss, and shadows flashed over it as the mecha ran by.

There was a creature peeping in the dark, and its many eyes that belonged to an insect stared at this beautiful body closely.

Until a certain moment, the creature in the dark suddenly fluttered its wings and rushed towards the oblique rear of the mecha.

However, Snow Dove seemed to have been prepared for a long time, and turned around neatly. The part where the particle shield was originally loaded was split into two halves, and a pitch-black mecha cannon protruded from it, flashing a cold and gloomy light.

Bang! Bang!

The insect-like alien creature flew out backwards, hit the tree trunk, and spattered disgusting green viscous juices. Its wings were shaking, its limbs were squirming, and it made a strange sound of something like fuming.

“The power of the new cannon is still a little short… I can’t force it.”

Jiang Jianming thoughtfully manipulated Snow to approach, opened the original main cannon located on the front of the body, and aimed at the alien creature struggling to take off.

—Boom!!

A few seconds later, a purple solidification ray swept past, and real crystal ore condensed on the broken corpse. Snow picked up the crystal and threw it into the storage bin, letting it lie down with the other four real crystal ore.

Jiang Jianming took a deep breath.

Before this, he had already tested several rounds.

For the ordinary D-level alien creatures, the newly installed mecha cannons could completely deal with them. As for the insect-like creature just now, it was estimated that its level was between D and C. The main cannon of Snow Dove could easily break the defenses of these alien creatures and could also be used to cause an effective damage on C-level creatures…..it’s just that the energy consumption was a bit too much, which was a problem.

As for alien creatures with a higher level–Jiang Jianming took out the silver-gray pistol attached to the holster around his waist and replaced its pair of magazines–

The Wings of Venus that Ryann left him belonged to the new crystal weapon, which could fire high-killing bullets made from real crystal ore and theoretically had the same power as a B-level crystal bone of a new human.

The only problem was that it costs money. The new crystal bullets cost thousands of coins when fired. It’s really not worth using on D-level C-level alien creatures.

Jiang Jianming held the pistol in his palm, feeling hesitant. He hasn’t used this new crystal weapon for several years. 

Should I try it here first?

After thinking about it, he still didn’t dare to be careless. 

I have to try at least one or two shots. 

Jiang Jianming loosened his seat belt and wanted to open the cockpit.

Unexpectedly, the moment he stood up, his vision darkened. He was immediately stunned and didn’t catch his breath, almost fainted, and directly fell back all of a sudden.

“Cough.” 

Oops. He forgot that he unloaded his intelligence. There was no Seth’s voice reminding him to pay attention to his physical condition, he was careless…..

Jiang Jianming was paralyzed in the driver’s seat, breathing hard, and he couldn’t help but laugh bitterly as he also realized that his hands and feet were weak. After all the calculations, the most troublesome thing was that his physical strength couldn’t keep up…

There was no other way, he could only control Snow Dove to exit this dense forest, and found a relatively open rocky area to rest for a while.

Along the way, he glanced at the preset timing, and noticed that there was only more than an hour left until the end of the time trial.

After considering things a little bit, he thought that he would first rest for half an hour, then turned around for the remaining half an hour, and concentrated on hunting low-level red caterpillars.

Relying on the performance advantage of the Class A Snow Dove mecha, it should be no problem winning either the first or second place in the time trial.

Just as Jiang Jianming was eating compressed food unhurriedly while reviewing the data of the previous battles, the screen of the mecha in front of him suddenly flashed.

Its radar showed a flying mecha approaching.

Jiang Jianming was slightly startled, sat up straight and held the lever. He frowned and thought: Where did this mecha come from? 

The mecha flew very fast, coming straight to his side, and entered Snow’s field of vision within ten seconds.

It was actually an M-IP 18.

Jiang Jianming was even more confused, thinking that in this time trial, in addition to him cheating by relying on using the “relics of his deceased husband”, would there be another powerful person who would dare rush into the depths of the ice forest like him?

He watched helplessly as the IP approached. Then it suddenly stretched out its mecha cannon at him,  the muzzle gradually condensing light…

Jiang Jianming: “?”

The next moment, the cannons roared, and its sound reverberated all around!

At that critical moment, Snow Dove madly accelerated and retreated. Its two wings were wrapped in thick smoke as it rushed out of the rocky ground and a black hole had been blown out on the spot where he was just now.

Only then did Jiang Jianming notice the cold sweat slipping down from his temples.

He stared at the IP with fury and thought: What the hell is this!?

It wasn’t over yet, the IP was unforgiving. It kept flying towards him and blasting at him straight on. Because the baffle plate in front of the cockpit was down, therefore it was impossible to know who was inside.

Jiang Jianming was even more confused, because anyone with a normal mind would not drive a C-level mecha to hit an A-level mecha.

He couldn’t figure out the situation, thus he could only tilt the lever diagonally towards the back. Snow Dove scraped the edge of the blue-black IP wing and barely avoided it.

However, the next moment, the IP suddenly twisted itself, and made a movement that was almost spinning in its spot. Instead of being thrown away, it bit into the back of the Snow!

Jiang Jianming’s spirit became tense. The instant U-turn under high-speed flight had extremely high requirements for the pilot’s manipulation skills. 

The swift maneuver just now was simply amazing. Jiang Jianming thought that even if was allowed to manipulate and did that move, it might not be that perfect. In the Kaios Military Academy, there were no more than three persons that could complete this manipulation.

But before he could finish his admiration, he saw the IP unfold its mechanical arm, and smashed the Snow Dove down on the head–it was using the mecha’s melee fighting skill.

Jiang Jianming hurriedly manipulated Snow Dove and parried its several violent moves. Immediately a body collided with a body as loud noises continued, and the powerful impact even made the air tremble.

Gradually, Jiang Jianming’s expression became more and more solemn. Its moves were aggressive, but it had no killing intent….Is the person inside this IP simply testing him?

Boom!! 

—he was distracted. The Snow Dove instantly flew out and hit the trunk of a huge tree.

The IP followed closely. He only heard the four sounds of “bang bang bang bang”, as it deeply embedded its four metal feet in the tree trunk, and the belly of the mecha was pressed against Snow Dove’s mecha chest, making a screeching metal friction sound.

Jiang Jianming raised his head and saw a blue-black robotic arm in front of him!

For a time, the icy wind blew through the barren forest and there was silence all around for a moment.

This IP, actually relying on the advantage that the M-type mecha is larger than an S-type mecha, used its own fuselage to press Snow Dove to the tree.

In the cockpit, Jiang Jianming had already put his hand on a certain button.

His first reaction was to fire the main cannon.

As everyone knew, melee combat between mechas was like courting death. At such a close distance, as long as he made one shot, it would be a sure thing that a certain IP would be blown up away.

However his second reaction was– don’t fire. The distance was really too close, but if he was to be too scared to shoot–the driver inside wouldn’t likely die or be disabled, however, the possibility of him dying would even be greater.

Third reaction: So who the hell is its driver? Why did it come here? Is it really worth dying for?

Before Jiang Jianming could finish pondering about it, he heard a click in his ear.

The IP that was close at hand raised its baffle plate in front of its cockpit.

….Sunlight instantly shone on its glass, making the long curly hair of the driver on the other side almost bright white.

In the IP cockpit, the prince sat obliquely with his legs crossed, which was a very leisurely posture.

Jiang Jianming’s pupils constricted, and his mind immediately went blank! Almost…..If his concentration was a little bit worse, he would have blurted out “Ryann”.

Garcia raised his eyelids. Those emerald green pupils were very clear and slightly cool, like those fairies in a myth.

“You can shoot the cannon.” The prince’s thin lips opened and closed, “Why won’t you shoot?”

“……”

Jiang Jianming took a deep breath. He put his hands down and smiled slightly. “Your Royal Highness, we met again.”

….Very well, he now understood why this IP could fight so fearlessly against Snow Dove, which was two levels higher than itself.

First off, at least in the area of ​​Silver Big Dipper, no one would dare shoot at an Imperial Prince after seeing his noble face.

Secondly, even if someone really dared to fire a cannon, with the defensive power of a Super S-rank crystal bone, even if the IP was blown to ashes, His Royal Highness would still be unscathed.

In the end, compared with His Royal Highness sitting in the mecha, it was obvious that His Royal Highness after the mecha was blown to dust was more threatening. After all, just a few days ago, Jiang Jianming had seen with his own eyes the feat of His Highness destroying more than a dozen mechas in an instant.

But this does not explain the core question.

That is, what was the reason…..that made an Imperial Prince of the Empire fly to the wilderness to catch a new officer like him for a fight??

If he could grasp it accurately, 80% must be that after checking his IP location, he found out, but why in the end…Does this person really not remember him or is he just pretending?

Garcia opened the cockpit and stood up.

His eyes were very sharp. He quickly swept a glance at the cockpit of Snow Dove and his eyes seemed to flicker. “Your mecha manipulation skills are very good…Why don’t you use the crystal bone to control it? Not mentioning the little thieves of the Lava before, am I also not worthy for you to release your crystal bone?”

“…..” 

Jiang Jianming felt a cough coming, however, he only raised his eyebrows and forced a smile, and said seriously. “Your Royal Highness, actually, I am just a disabled human being.”

Garcia became silent for a moment.

After a few seconds, the prince said coldly, “…If you really don’t want to say it, you can choose not to say it.”

Jiang Jianming knew that he really didn’t believe him when he said it, and he was also too lazy to explain anything, therefore he just nodded slightly. “Then thank you for your understanding.”

He let go of the lever. “Excuse me, is Your Highness not going?”

Garcia took a few steps forward, as the edges of the two mechas were close to each other. With his long legs, he stepped directly on the fuselage of Snow. Then…the prince moved very naturally and sat down in front of the cockpit.

Jiang Jianming: “?”

Garcia suddenly got closer and looked at Jiang Jianming. The two were immediately at a very close distance with each other.

If one ignored the glass in front of the cockpit, their faces would be only half an arm’s distance apart.

Then, the prince bent his index finger and tapped on the alloy glass, only to hear him say with a serious face, “Open the cockpit.”