Mystical Journey

There was a dull thud.

The white Mech crashed into the crater and rolled a few times. By the time he stood up again, he was already a complete mess, covered with red dirt from the ground.

Garen stood beside the crater and looked down, the white Mech looking at him from below at the bottom of the crater.

"F*ck you!! If you got the balls, then f*cking kill me why don't you!" The white Mech suddenly went ballistic, spreading open his legs and pointing at his dick. "Come! Hit me here! Hit me!"

"Hit me, why don't you! What, you scared?! Didn't you enjoy tricking me just now!?" The white Mech spread his legs open and thrust at Garen. "You dare trick me! Impressive! Are you scared now? I'll f*cking tell you, this won't end…" Hah!!

Two lasers hit his dick precisely, and wisps of green smoke rose from it slowly. That place was weaker than others, as expected. The protective armor was nowhere near as thick as other areas.

The surroundings instantly fell quiet. The white Mech looked down at his crotch disbelievingly, and then raised his head again to look at Garen.

Bzz-bzz!

There were two more crisp sounds, and the smoke grew thicker…

"Aaaahhhh!!!!!" The white Mech exploded.

He pointed at Garen with one finger.

"Don't let me f*cking find out who you are! Otherwise you're dead! Dead!! You dare trick me! And you dare hit my crotch!! You…"

Bam!!

Two more lasers hit the same place, and the white Mech did not even finish what he was saying before he exploded with a bang, turning into a ball of yellow flame.

"So the weak point is at the crotch, huh…"

Garen looked at the flames beneath him calmly, not feeling much of anything at all. This practice match was not an internal thing in the school anyway, it was connected to the entire Federation's main internet. Who knows what you are, but let's see you try to reach the Federation Government's military division. This simulated game was organized on a website by the military's higher-ups, in order to make sure it was completely fair, and in order to choose talents from among the people, they were very strict about personal information privacy here. If they could not manage that much, those kids with powerful parents could easily find out their opponent's information in revenge after getting their asses whooped, and then no one would dare to go for any practice matches anymore.

After winning, a Rubik's cube abruptly appeared in front of Garen, and spun once.

'Congratulations on defeating YourDaddy. You have obtained 100 Universal Units, please keep up the good work.'

'YourDaddy has requested a rematch, do you accept?'

Garen's expression instantly turned black...

With a smack, he immediately reached out and pressed 'Reject'.

"What a sucker."

Leaving the battlefield, Garen glanced around the room again. There were many, many rows of Battle Rooms.

Even that white Mech just now, he was not someone that the previous Nonosiva could have beaten in a million years.

Putting aside that the Mech's weak point was at the crotch instead of the regular head and cockpit, the opponent's Mech power was definitely not as low as Level 1 or Level 2, it would have been Level 3 at the very least. Otherwise, it could never reach such a high speed.

For a Level 1 Mech to reach the speed of a Level 3 Mech, that would require components worth at least ten thousand Universal Units, and more than one such component too. This was basically made of money. Normally, they would reach Level 2, tops.

There was also the opponent's defense Mech system, a Level 1 Laser Cannon was nothing to it. This was an overwhelming difference in level, so it had to at least be Level 3 again. Its destructive power was slightly weaker, but that had to be at least Level 2 as well, just look at those twin swords that slashed off half of Garen's waist with just a graze.

This fellow was obviously what they called a p2player.

From his memories, Garen could tell that Nonosiva had also encountered such rich players a few times before, and the result was completely predictable. Unsurprisingly, he was demolished, such an overwhelming pwning definitely did critical damage to his pride.

Garen went through Nonosiva's previous memories, there was some information of how he used to fight left in the fragments. In this planet area of the Mother Planet Federation, Nonosiva's original ranking was number 215433, at that was including his Moonfang. He was basically a nobody.

Garen casually chose another Level 1 practice match.

It was still the Crater Field, this map was very popular. This time his opponent did not try anything funny, they were also a standard Level 1 normal Mech, just like Garen. The opponent's technique was not even as good as Nono's had been, so Garen, with his powerful combat instincts, simply shot off a few rounds at one spot, and killed him in an instant.

After playing a few more rounds, Garen more or less got used to controlling the Mech. By the time Garen left the simulation system, it was nearly 11pm. Looking around him, he noticed that most of the people had left, but one quarter of the machines were still on. Evidently, some people were planning on staying here for the night.

Standing up from the simulator machine, Garen stretched his body. He didn't feel too bad, there was nothing strange, except for the fact that he had used up too much of his spirit, and felt exhausted.

Leaving the Simulation Machine and returning to his hostel, he cleaned up half-heartedly and lay down to rest.

*************

Ding dong…. Ding dong…

There was the sound of the doorbell coming from the door.

Garen slowly woke up. This body did not have a very high quality of sleep, which meant he did not get a lot of rest.

"Nono, get up! It's time to go for the official simulation test!" Aier yelled from outside the door.

Garen threw aside the covers and sat up in bed, rubbing his face.

"Got it! Be there in a moment." Once he was slightly more awake, he quickly got out of bed and drew the curtains with a whoosh. The sun was already out outside, and he could vaguely see the entire Blackboard Academy -- several buildings shaped like black boards -- through the many trees.

"I remember Instructor Hamm mentioned that the simulation test today officially checks how we practically control the Mech's regenerative abilities. If all goes well, I should be able to participate in the class ranking competition." Garen recalled the information he got from before.

The bell rang again, and he walked over to open the door. Aier dashed in like a bullet.

"Hurry up! If we don't go early, there will be a line until lunch. More than half the school is taking the simulation test at the seventh arena today." Aier's hair was plaited, his originally brown hair almost exceeding his chin, just like a girl. It was slightly better and neater than when he would randomly put some braids in his hair, Garen still did not know how he did that.

"What's up with your hair?" Garen glanced at him. He walked to the washroom and began to wash up.

"My older sister did it for me, don't blame me…" Aier said in frustration, yanking at his plait, his expression helpless. "Hurry up, why don't you, I bet the instructors are already at the arena. Students from other schools and going through the test over at our school, they've taken up most of the arena, so it's seriously nervous in there."

"Got it." Garen smiled, and hurried up.

After cleaning up quickly, the two of them took their stationary and rushed towards the seventh arena.

There were in fact a lot more students between the buildings suddenly. Other than their own white uniforms with blue stripes, there were also pure red uniforms and black-and-white ones. Evidently, the students from the other schools had arrived.

They reached the arena quickly, but there were already many people lined up around the door. Aier dragged Garen in through the side door, where Instructor Hamm and the others were already waiting.

Mina was there too, as well as a few other students who were also taking the test. One of the boys had white hair and a cold expression, giving off a very distant vibe.

"Just in time." Hamm smiled as he walked towards them. "How is it? How are you healing?"

"Very well," Garen nodded and replied politely, smiling. This Instructor Hamm had taken money out of his own wallet to pay the surgery fees, he truly was a good guy.

Hamm nodded. "There are five people taking the test today, the first in ranking is Fervale, no one's arguing that, and the second place has been decided as well. Third place is between you and Cole. So on one hand we're testing how well you're recovering today, but we're also deciding who's coming in third."

"My injuries might not be fully recovered yet…" Garen looked somewhat troubled, he did not really want to join any class ranking competition, he'd rather use this time to study how he should be training himself.

"You'd be representing the class in a competition for all the students in the entire year, everyone in the top ten will be awarded at least ten thousand Universal Units," Aier reminded him quietly.

"Although I'm not fully recovered yet, but for the sake of the class's honor, I will do my best!" Garen said loudly, thumping his chest.

Beside him, Aier held his face and turned away.

I really need money right now, I'm totally broke.

Garen was completely honest with himself, and did not blush or intend to change his mind at all. Instead, he stood next to Instructor Hamm with a calm expression, shoulder-to-shoulder with the white-haired young man, Fervale.

Thankfully only he could hear Aier's voice, so the students did not look at him strangely.

Instructor Hamm patted Garen's shoulder hard, looking comforted.

"I wasn't wrong about you! Good luck!"

"Mm!"

To Garen, this was merely a trifling matter. Back when he was in the Secret Technique World, he already had no qualms in the bullying the weak from a position of strength, remember how Duskdune Shura was chased away by him?

They waited with Instructor Hamm beside the arena for a while, and soon enough a protective barrier rose around the arena soundlessly.

"Fervale, you go first." Hamm looked at the white-haired boy.

"No problem." Fervale had no expression at all, he looked very reliable. He walked towards the arena entrance on the right, there was a grey warehouse attached to the back of a black board building.

Not long after he went in, there was the buzz of an engine from the arena.

A pure white humanoid Mech walked out of the warehouse entrance. It was six feet tall, and had sharp scythes on its arms like a mantis. It looked slightly similar to the dual-blade Mech Garen had fought, but it did not have the blue flame propeller on its back.

'Let the first round of the simulation tests, begin,' a sweet robotic female voice spoke.

After two crisp whooshing sounds, the white Mech's two scythes abruptly sliced towards both sides, and the entire machine began to dash forward. The blades swept back and forth, waving left and right, slicing through the air crisply.

It looked more like a living person than a Mech, when it raised its dual blades and used those blade techniques, it looked unnaturally alive.

"Fervale's Mech is overall rated at Upper Level 1, he's achieved the Level 1 standard in most of his subjects, and has a very balanced skillset." Instructor Hamm nodded, satisfied. "Add that to his own close combat training, which makes him more mobile and slightly faster than others, and that means trouble for his opponent once he gets close.

The students around him could not help but nod upon hearing that.

The blonde girl in second place, Sara, spoke as well.

"None of us have any objections to Fervale being first place considering his techniques, this test is just a formality. If nothing unexpected happens to Nonosiva, the three of us will be representing our class."

The others had no objections either. There were more than fifty people in the class, and the first three had been tried and tested against them all, most of the classmates had fought the top three before.

Compared to the top three, it would be considered impressive for the others to have one or two subjects at Level 1, after all they had only been studying for one year. All subjects at the Level 1 standard was already the minimum requirement for graduation, it was about the same as a practical entry-level Mech pilot, the only difference being actual experience.

To normal students, this was the difference between heaven and earth.