The commander suppressed the roiling blood and qi in his chest and took in a deep breath before commanding once more, "Shift to low gear immediately." He still remembered that the ship was running low on power — it wouldn't do to exhaust all their power. Although they had already come out to the starry skies, temporarily escaping the Swift Dragon base, the commander knew that in outer space, the Swift Dragon fleet still had several ships on duty patrolling the area. If they happened to bump into those ships by chance, as a ship without power, they would definitely be at the other's mercy. Having gone through so much trouble to escape from the Swift Dragon base, he did not want to die here now and be stranded back at the Swift Dragon base again.
The team member responsible for shifting gears immediately pulled the speed control back to low gear. The starship's power had already fallen to 70% at present — if they had been a minute slower in charging through the atmospheric layer, they would most likely have been dragged by gravity back to the Swift Dragon base due to running out of power. Just entertaining the possibility sent chills down everyone's spines.
Shifting to low gear, the starship began to slowly cruise through the starry skies, accumulating power as it went along. They needed to store up 100% power as soon as they could, and then leave this place at high speed. As the commander waited for the power to accumulate, he could not help but pray that their luck would hold out so they would not bump into any of the patrol ships of the Swift Dragon base. Of course, he also hoped that the ships on the ground would not ascend so quickly; otherwise, up against the dozens of warships of the Swift Dragon fleet, they would have no chance at all of escaping.
It should be said that the luck of the commander's group was decent. Before they were at full power again, they were not discovered by any of the Swift Dragon patrol ships. About 10 minutes later, the starship was back at 100%, and then it flew rapidly towards the central district.
Twenty minutes later, the Swift Dragon fleet successfully rose into the air. Thirty military vessels of various sizes made up the Swift Dragon fleet. The fleet began to search for clues to the whereabouts of the hijacked starship. Unfortunately, they found nothing useful. This frustrated the fleet's captain — as long as a ship had been through the area, it would definitely leave some trace of energy behind, but there was nothing of the sort in this planetary sector. It was as if the starship that had lifted into the air thirty minutes ago had never existed.With no clues, the Swift Dragon fleet could only resort to the crude method of searching in the general direction of the central district. This slowed them down significantly, allowing the starship moving in high gear to pull further away from them.
The primary hero who had obscured their tracks from the Swift Dragon fleet was Little Four. Without requiring any instruction from Ling Lan, Little Four had scrambled the locations the starship had passed through. In other words, it would be impossible for the devices on the warships to track their flight path.
This was part of Little Four's abilities. He could render advanced high-tech equipment useless or mess up their readings. Of course, he could only affect the Swift Dragon fleet's devices so thoroughly because Ling Lan's group was currently in the virtual world. If this were in the real world, Little Four might not be able to achieve such a godly effect.
With Little Four helping from the shadows, the starship would detect the enemy's presence before it could encounter any patrol ships of the Swift Dragon fleet. Thus, the commander had enough time to employ evasion measures to avoid the enemy's detection. The commander was rather baffled — why would the radar scanner on this ship be better than those of the other ships in the same fleet? — but unable to find an answer, he could only ascribe it to their luck being better in the end. Their radar had just functioned at its maximum capacity right whenever they needed it to.
In this manner, the entire journey was fraught with tension but there was no actual danger. The starship finally left the Nebula district and entered the next planetary sector. Although they had yet to arrive at the central district, this still proved that they had successfully escaped the pursuit of the Swift Dragon fleet. The Swift Dragon fleet did not have the authorisation to enter another planetary sector.
However, it was similarly very dangerous for them. After all, the warship they had appropriated to bring them here was also a ship belonging to the Swift Dragon base. Still, those Federation soldiers in the main control room specially sent here by the mainframe had a special way of contacting the mainframe. The moment they were out of the Nebula Boundary, which was no longer under the mainframe's control, they were able to make contact with the mainframe.
After receiving news, the mainframe arranged for them to enter the central district via a special flight route, green-lighted the whole way through to bring them straight into the district. If not for this approved special flight route, as they continued flying forwards, they would have been mercilessly shot down if they were detected by any patrolling fleet. The Federation soldiers naturally would not do such a stupid thing.Finally, the starship safely arrived at the central district, landing in one of the planet's cities at the outermost region of the central district. As long as they touched down here, they would be able to log out of the virtual world and report directly to military headquarters about the situation at the Swift Dragon base. Perhaps out of their urgency to report, the soldiers disembarked and left in a hurry without carefully inspecting the insides of the ship.
Ling Lan's group took the chance to slip out from the starship. They were dressed in the standard combat uniform of the Federation, disguised as NPCs. Under Little Four's guidance, they evaded all the surveillance systems of the spaceport, silently left to the military spaceport, and returned to the city.
The moment they entered the city, it was back to a world of mecha. This made Ling Lan feel that they had truly returned to Mecha World ... Ling Lan's team of nine swiftly changed into their individual mecha and joined the bustling crowd of mecha. Ling Lan and the others pretended to sightsee in the city, and then they drifted naturally over to a transportation array. Selecting the city they wanted, they left the area. They did not leave any trace to show they had ever been to this city, because all of their figures along the way had been wiped off the surveillance systems by Little Four.
They finally arrived at Grandsweep City and Ling Lan retrieved the document from [No Mecha Unrepaired]. Although she had her own copy, things that should be covered up should still be properly covered up. Getting to the city lord's manor of Grandsweep City took a little time, and upon arriving there, they once again sought out the city lord.
The city lord of Grandsweep City thought that Ling Lan was here to plead with him to revoke the SSS-rank mission. Besides that, he already had a bad impression of Ling Lan from the start, so his attitude was extremely cold and unfriendly.
Ling Lan was not someone who liked to make nice with people. In the learning space, everything the instructors taught was all based on true strength. Therefore, she too did not waste time with any nonsense, directly shoving the document in her hands to the city lord. Er ... that attitude really could not be called respectful ...
This behaviour of Ling Lan's was obviously rather impolite in the city lord's eyes. His brow furrowed, but before he could speak, he felt an alert being transmitted from his hand — he was holding a key item which marked the completion of the SSS-rank mission. The city lord's expression shifted and he read intently through the document in his hands. Only when he was done did he lift his head to look at Ling Lan again. There was shock in his gaze, as well as some unconcealable excitement.
This expression of the city lord's finally vented the frustration Ling Lan had carried all this time. It looked like what her instructors had said was right. As long as you had enough strength, even those people who looked down on you at first would still change their opinion of you in the end. And when your strength was far greater than the other's, you would not need to go curry favour, for others would come running to curry favour with you.
The city lord of Grandsweep City pushed down the complex jumble of emotions in his heart and quickly submitted this document up to the Mecha World mainframe. After receiving confirmation that there was no mistake, the initially austere expression of the city lord's instantly cleared up to become cheerful and affable, and he said, "[Lingtian First-String], you are truly a hero among youths. You've performed well. You are the first in Mecha World history to complete an SSS-rank mission. I am proud of you ..."
As expected, the city lord's originally disdainful expression had changed; his entire persona was much more enthusiastic and friendly now. Seeing this, Ling Lan's lips tilted up at the corners. Even though her expression was as stoic as ever, she still patiently listened and waited for the city lord to finish his spiel.
The reason why Ling Lan applied patience to finish listening to the city lord was out of consideration for what had happened before. When she had come to accept the mission previously, she had only received the ultra-rare SSS-rank mission that only appeared once every hundred years because she had not gotten along well with the city lord of Grandsweep City. Ling Lan suspected that the difficulty of the mission and the mission rewards were very likely to be somewhat related to the impression the issuer of the mission had of her. Of course, Ling Lan believed that under the mainframe's monitoring, the main rewards would not be skimped. Still, there was sure to be some additional optional rewards that might be held back if the other was in a bad mood. If that happened, Ling Lan would be really depressed. Mind you, this SSS-rank mission had really been treacherous, almost costing them their lives to complete. Any bit of extra reward would be great.
Finally, the city lord of Grandsweep City finished his lengthy speech of encouragement, and only then did Ling Lan calmly reply, "Many thanks, City Lord. May I trouble you to bestow our final rewards?"
Seeing Ling Lan's calm composure in the face of praise, the city lord was filled with even more joy and fondness for Ling Lan. His impression of Ling Lan had truly taken a 180-degree turn — he completely forgot how he had made things difficult for Ling Lan back then, beginning to think of himself as Ling Lan's sponsor. He had already discerned how extraordinary the other was from the start, which was why he had given him this SSS-rank mission. This outcome proved that he had judged astutely to identify this hero among the masses! The city lord was internally smug ...
Since this was a talent he had discovered and cultivated, how could he let the other suffer any indignity? The city lord of Grandsweep City had taken Ling Lan in as one of his own, so he decided he would give the other a great advantage. After contemplating for a moment, he announced the final reward.
Reward 1: One clan-formation certificate. Bring this certificate to the city hall to register and your battle clan will be successfully formed. Due to perfect completion of the SSS-rank mission, the battle clan shall be instantly upgraded to five stars from the initial zero stars. Starless battle clan: 6-12 clan members; 1-star battle clan, 6-18 members; 2-star: 6-24 members; 3-star: 6-30 members; 4-star: 6-38 members; 5-star: 6-50 members.
Reward 2: Due to perfect completion of the SSS-rank mission, 1 Hero's Heart Emblem (level 1) is awarded. This emblem needs to be activated by the clan leader. Once activated, the combat power of the entire clan will be increased by 10% for a duration of 10 minutes. Cooldown period: 7 days!
Reward 3: Every member of the clan can redeem a mecha above special-class and below ace-class for free. Condition: The clan member must meet the requirements to pilot the mecha to be redeemed. Time limit: Unlimited!
Reward 4: Ability to accept any mission in Mecha World (all level restrictions voided); penalty for failure cut by half!
Reward 5: Select any 10 mecha accessories or weapons from the warehouse of the city lord of Grandsweep City, as well as 10 super energy blocks, 10 mecha modification materials, and 10 other associated materials ...
Reward 6: Freely choose any of the unclaimed lands within Grandsweep City to become the battle clan's main camp, which will be instantly upgraded to a 1-star camp. Twenty NPC guards gifted as a bonus, along with 4 defensive laser cannons.
Reward 7: One challenge exemption token. Allows user's clan to be exempted from being challenged by other battle clans for one year in Mecha World ...
At one glance, Ling Lan could tell that the first four rewards must have been awarded by the mainframe. They were truly generous. Meanwhile, the final three rewards should be personal rewards given by the city lord of Grandsweep City. It looked like her patience earlier had paid off.
Ling Lan was not moved much right now by some of the other things the city lord had gifted them; she was all but drooling over those 10 super energy blocks. Don't blame Ling Lan for being shallow — it was just that the mission this time had completely wiped out all of the energy blocks the team had accumulated. Without these energy blocks, it could be foreseen that all the members of the team would be kept wildly busy trying to earn more energy blocks in the upcoming days. If not, they would not even be able to start their mecha.
Just one mission was enough to render Ling Lan's team this poor! At this thought, Ling Lan's heart wept!
