Chapter 51 Preliminary Round 3 (Part 4)
"boom--!"
The sapphire blue light rolled up huge waves in the black starry sky, turning from a line in the distance into an overwhelming wave, like the violent white waves rushing onto the land during a tsunami, drowning Mingyu's entire vision.
No time to dodge.
The bright blue belonging to Mingyu sucked in the terrifying energy cannon, but was unable to complete it, and the tips of his mental power were shattered and melted instead.
The mental power carried by this artillery fire was so powerful and compelling that Mingyu even suspected that the characteristic of the opponent's mental power was to strengthen concentration.
Mu Baixing built a golden mental light cannon at the same time, and instantly enveloped Mingyu's mental power in it.
He isolated Mingyu from the enemy's artillery fire, moved forward with the light, and bombarded his opponent directly in the black star map.
The two artillery fires were about to collide, but there was a huge gap between them.
The enemy starship is too large.
Facing the astonishing width of the energy cannons of the medium-to-large starships ahead, the golden ray belonging to Mu Baixing was just like a faint candle flame.
It's like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
It collided silently with artillery fire that was dozens of times wider than it.
In the first second of the energy interaction, Mu Boxing's fingers subconsciously tightened slightly because of the pain.
The golden mental power that seemed to be about to be annihilated by the enemy's broad energy upon contact did not dissipate.
It is narrow, yet sharp.
It was not a candle flame that would go out with a blow, but a dagger with a cold golden light.
It merged into the sapphire blue artillery fire, moving in the opposite direction, roaring silently and moving forward at high speed amidst the large sparks flashed by the friction of energy.
Mingyu's mental energy was tightly wrapped around and entangled by Mu Boxing's psychic energy. The young man panted nervously, his attention completely drawn out of the cockpit and into the universe.
He could see Mu Boxing splitting the tide, but he was also inevitably being dissolved layer by layer in the massive torrent of the tide...
The golden artillery fire rapidly diminished in width as it approached the enemy starship. Mingyu knew that the enemy's mental power level and strength must be far higher than Mu Boxing's, at least 2 seconds higher... perhaps even higher than Feren's!
Mingyu tilted his head.
Inside the cab, Mu Boxing's profile was clearly illuminated by the dazzling energy cannon fire ahead. He frowned slightly, his right hand resting on the control panel, his expression extremely cold. His fingertips pressed down slightly, as if about to fire another shot.
But I also know it's too late.
In less than a second, the enemy's artillery fire would overwhelm their silver starship, and they would be unable to resist.
In a flash, Mingyu suddenly had a bold idea.
"Brother Mu!" he cried, "I want to try..."
If the opponent's energy intensity is too high, making it impossible for him to absorb the energy cannon...what if it is just a temporary absorption... stacking, compression, and then releasing it outwards?
It's like making a bomb!
In less than half a second, Mu Baixing couldn't guess what was going on in the young man's mind. However, the golden mental power made way for Mingyu to look out.
Just at the moment when the enemy's artillery fire touched the hull of their starship.
The colorful spiritual power artillery fire also fell into the firing chamber of the opponent's gun barrel at high speed.
Mingyu didn't have time to think! He subconsciously followed the sudden thought and used his mental power to absorb and accumulate the energy...
"puff."
The sapphire blue light cannon submerged the silver starship.
At the same time, a tiny explosion occurred in the opponent's mental cannon barrel, which was not noticed by anyone except Ming Yu and Mu Baixing.
The energy flow was disrupted, but quickly returned to normal. The golden mental force continued forward, fiercely nailing the accumulator inside the barrel.
"Beep—the barrel is damaged one hundred percent—"
A prompt sounded in the cockpit of the other starship.
All Mingyu heard was a long, piercing sound from the alarm system in the starship he was on.
"drop--"
All the lights in the starship went out in an instant, the ship trembled violently, and a prompt message appeared on the star navigation competition screen, indicating that the system had determined that their starship had crashed.
A starship deemed damaged landed in a starport, and the durability of all its systems decreased according to the rules of the Starship Competition. The orange-green turntable began to spin again.
Mingyu couldn't help but hammer the armrest of the seat in frustration.
"It didn't work!" he cried frustratedly. "I was hoping for a draw with both starships crashing—"
Mu Baixing raised his driver's helmet to look at him and curled the corners of his lips.
Mu Baixing: "Don't worry."
The young man is undoubtedly further exploring the nature of his own spiritual power, and his thoughts are active and flexible. As long as he practices repeatedly, he will succeed.
Mu Baixing confirmed with Mingyu: "Are you not injured? Do you need to rest?"
Mingyu shook his head, his tone a little obedient, and said matter-of-factly, "No. I don't feel tired in the spiritual realm."
Mu Boxing then put on his driver's helmet again.
"The Colorful didn't choose to repair their starship's durability after the crash! It seems they're planning to fight one more round first! They're very confident in their own strength." In the live broadcast room, the plush rabbit said in surprise, "They're really unlucky! They ran into the number one ranked Southeast Star Region Killer Team! The Killer is really a god who kills gods and Buddhas who stand in his way...——"
"The colorful starships have respawned at the starport! And the Slayer... eh?" He paused, scratching his head. "Why would the Slayer choose to undergo maintenance now?"
Inside the maintenance station, Captain Bai Xiang folded his arms as he watched several maintenance technicians urgently repair the gun barrel. The accumulator behind the removed barrel had been split in two, completely ceasing operation.
"Who was that team just now?" Observer Momonga stood nearby, looking confused. "It's only because they were using a small starship, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to gain such a significant advantage with that attack just now. What do you think the enemy's mental strength is like?"
"At most, A." White Elephant said, folding his arms. "To be able to destroy the gun barrel accumulator depends on the other party's pilot's extremely high compression control of mental power. With that amount of gunfire width, the compressed mental energy threshold is not low."
He paused for a moment, then continued, "Luckily it's A."
The oppressive feeling coming from that golden mental power can only be felt so thoroughly by oneself when facing the other party directly.
The spectators outside the venue really didn't feel anything about it.
"See? This is absolute strength!" A troublemaker colleague in the Star Navigation Department snorted and said to Sun Nian with a smug look on his face, "Just wait, Wucailan died like this when he met the Killer, and he died like this when he met Lieyang! There's no future for carpet bombing..."
Sun Nian was replaying the recent close combat exchange. He frowned, feeling a certain shift in Luce's mental power at the final moment, but he couldn't discern what it was. He didn't bother to refute his irritating colleague, saying, "The Slayer uses large warships, which dominate the cosmic map. The Lieyang uses small and medium-sized warships like the colorful ones. We'll see if we actually meet!"
Inside the colorful cockpit, the orange-green turntable stopped, the surrounding lights lit up, and the turntable once again spit out the next opponent. This time, it was Star Map No. 2.
This was a cosmic star map identical to the one in Star Map No. 1. The starships plunged into the swirling vortex energy field. Both starships spawned at the outer edges of the energy field, drawn toward the center by the powerful gravitational force, like a small ball spiraling down the inner wall of a giant funnel.
When they finally fall into the center of the funnel, they will be sucked into and torn apart by the high-intensity energy core.
"To escape the rotating energy field requires a special, high-intensity engine." Ming Yu probed with his mental power. "Our engines aren't powerful enough... Most warships, even the large ones, don't have enough power. This is a special map for the Star Navigation Competition."
To win, they must destroy the opponent's starship before being sucked into the core in the middle of the energy field.
Otherwise, both starships will fall into the core at the same time, resulting in a draw.
This seems to be a map provided by the Star Navigation Competition, which can be used to "slack off" and achieve an unspoken draw.
Mingyu quickly calculated that from the moment a starship spawned on the map to the moment it finally landed in the core, assuming no resistance, it would take approximately fifteen minutes. If both teams reached a consensus, they could rest peacefully during this fifteen-minute period. Both teams would have zero points when they exited the star map, and a draw would not reduce the starship's durability.
But it is also a map where you can set up peace and then launch a surprise attack to gain victory.
Just like their opponents in this round.
He intended to create a false image of peace and then launch a surprise attack, but Mingyu discovered it in advance.
Mu Baixing got the hint and simply accelerated along the gravitational line of the energy field towards the enemy starship, ending the battle with a single shot.
In the first two hours of the competition, all 2,000 teams remained on the big roulette wheel, and most of the teams Mingyu and his team encountered were not difficult.
By the end of the second hour, the Colorful Team had swiftly concluded their battles, save for the Slayer team led by White Elephant, which was instantly wiped out of the star map. Mingyu entered rest mode, removing his observer helmet and letting the Colorful Hairy brothers take over.
He had a good two hours' rest.
The intensity of the first two hours of combat wasn't too high, but Mingyu's mental strength was nearly depleted. He needed to recover to peak condition within the next two hours before engaging in even more intense combat.
Mingyu leaned back in his seat. Although no longer participating in the battle, he remained in the cab. He watched Mu Baixing's fingers move across the console. The man's palms had beautiful bones, and his skin was very white, revealing the blue veins beneath.
Mu Baixing pushed the gear on the console to fourth gear, the assault mode.
"Buzz—"
The wheels within the starship whirred, the guns and engines roaring in unison. The steely, mechanical beast roared, spewing golden fire. Amidst the cries of red, orange, green, and blue, its hair mingled with colors, it burst through the Star Shattering Belt and blasted its opponent to smithereens.
Mingyu got a glimpse of Mu Baixing's usual state when he sailed out to the outer port.
Just as the man promised when they first met, his reaction speed made up for the disadvantage of the observer's slightly longer reaction time.
Without Mingyu's spiritual power to support him, Mu Baixing's offensive power was frighteningly strong. After locking onto the enemy target, his golden spiritual power was almost unextinguished.
Even with Mingyu's spiritual power guiding them in the Starshatter Belt, scratches inevitably appeared on the starship's hull. Now, with the multicolored hairs, the scratches had transformed into dents and even more severe cracks left by the impact.
The temperature of the barrel continued to rise.
However, thanks to Mingyu's design, the starship's gun barrels could withstand an astonishingly high number of bursts. Mu Baixing therefore ignored this and used overwhelming offensive artillery fire to completely bring the enemy starship into his own rhythm.
The opponent was busy parrying and gradually gave up his original attack method. He could only look for ways to find a gap in Mu Boxing's attack to counterattack.
Their starship looked impressive, but Mingyu knew that this was a strategy Mu Baixing had to adopt.
Only in this way could he ensure to the greatest extent possible that the other starship had no intention of playing tricks. Because his observers at this time relied on detection equipment with a sensitivity lower than that of mental power, if they allowed the other starship to display its full capabilities, they might suffer.
"It seems the Colorful has changed their observer?" The Rabbit host inadvertently glanced at their status screen and said with some surprise, "This observer doesn't seem to be releasing his mental power, just like in the first qualifying match... Their pilot, Mu Boxing, has become very aggressive now!"
"When working with the Devourer observer, this ship's style, while also quite aggressive, is like a big cat hunting, with a powerful bite and graceful movements."
"But now... well... under Mu Boxing's control, this starship is more like a large ancient predator... the brutal lizard king! It displays its terrifying power to you without any concealment, its sharp teeth and claws, and every step it takes makes the earth tremble... thus bringing a sense of pure violence without any strategy!"
The host, Rabbit, watched as Colorful won another round and said with a sigh, "As such an apex predator, Colorful's victory was a no-brainer. I doubt the opposing team will want to face them again throughout the entire tournament."
"But I personally think that Mu Boxing's cooperation with the Devouring Observer is much closer and more effortless. Relying on such 'brute force' to win is not a long-term solution..."
"Ding—the fourth hour of the competition ends—the Colorful Team is confirmed to remain. The next round of competition will be drawn from the turntable—"
"Are you tired, Brother Mu?" Mingyu's break was over, and he put on his observation helmet again. He looked at Mu Baixing, asking a question but not needing an answer.
How can I not be tired?
After four hours of continuous competition, Mu Baixing's breathing had become a little rapid. He took advantage of the brief interval when the roulette wheel drew the opponent to take a deep breath and adjust his state.
He leaned back in his seat, half-closing his eyes, and heard Mingyu say, "Next is Star Map No. 2! Rotating Energy Field."
"Our current points should be pretty good. Even if we lose a few games, we can still advance within two hours. Brother Mu, don't feel stressed. Take this opportunity to rest..."
The designer's clear voice suddenly paused.
Mu Baixing opened his eyes.
Rotating Energy Field No. 2. On the black star map, Mu Boxing captured the position of the enemy starship.
It was a long, narrow black starship, a standard warship in appearance, bathed in a brilliant red glow, as if ablaze with fire.
Amidst the raging fire, the large gun muzzle at the bottom of the starship dropped and protruded, gathering a terrifying black color.
Mingyu pursed his lips lightly and whispered, "It's Lieyang."
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