Chapter 124

Chapter 124

The Silver Cocoon drew closer to the ground, Meng Shijiu's gaze scanning the tree line.

He had a faint sense that someone must be nearby, just hidden from view.

But before Meng Shijiu could pinpoint their position, a sudden intense light blazed behind him, instantly lengthening the Silver Cocoon's shadow on the ground.

Meng Shijiu: ?

The silver-haired Alpha instantly turned his head.

High above, a pure white mecha was already swooping down, appearing like an eerie spectral figure through the curtain of rain.

The newcomer was Xie Zehuan.

A particle cannon shot from a distance slammed into the shrubs. Although it went wide, it flushed out a flat, black mecha that instantly shot up from the shadows.

—And also exposed the Silver Cocoon's position to the black mecha's line of sight.

Nox: "Whoa—three mechas hiding in such a small area."

As soon as Nox finished speaking, two other mechas of the same type suddenly erupted from the forest, joining the black mecha as they all hovered to a stop in mid-air.

The audience then realized that the "three people" Nox mentioned referred to the three members of Tian Shu Military Academy who had been lying in wait for someone to approach.

The Tian Shu trio were clearly caught off guard, not expecting another mecha, the Silver Cocoon, to have been hiding nearby. They momentarily faltered in surprise, but their offensive momentum didn't falter in the slightest.

Three beams of blue light instantly lanced toward the Silver Cocoon.

The Silver Cocoon abruptly went into a rapid spin, narrowly dodging the successive blue beams. Its russet-red wings unfurled smoothly during the rotation.

Fast, graceful, and lethal—it underwent a complete metamorphosis in mid-air in an instant.

Simultaneously, the mecha used the momentum to flip through the air, pulling off a remarkably agile somersault. While tilting its body to evade the attacks, the butterfly tail's flames flashed—

A row of bright red particle cannons had already been unleashed.

Nox's commentary came rapid-fire: "Wow—the Silver Cocoon is known for its speed, but witnessing this kind of visual feast is truly—wow—dodged, the three Tian Shu contestants are in remarkable sync—wow—the Silver Cocoon is too fast—"

"Frog King is online"

"Fight! Fight!!"

"Butterfly metamorphosis!"

"19, you're awesome!"

On the other side, Xie Zehuan swiftly avoided the Silver Cocoon's attack and broke in on the channel: "Shi Jiu?"

Nox: "Clearly Contestant Shi Jiu is fuming, tossing Xie Zehuan a couple of extra particle bullets."

Meng Shijiu: Stop acting so familiar. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been exposed : )

For a moment, the five fighters descended into chaotic combat.

"..."

Ten minutes later, the chaotic battle gradually devolved into a scene of Meng Shijiu chasing after Xie Zehuan.

Nox: "OK, it's clear to see. Due to their absolute zero coordination, after the two accidentally let the three Tian Shu members get away, Contestant Shi Jiu has chosen to attack his temporary teammate."

Nox: "As a side note, I really think everyone should study Tian Shu's escape artistry. Even the Silver Cocoon, for all its speed, couldn't catch them... That's what you call professionalism."

However, the Silver Cocoon didn't attack for too long. Xie Zehuan stopped while evading.

Meng Shijiu hovered in the clearing, observing the surroundings. The Tian Shu trio were evidently very experienced in ambushes, choosing well-hidden positions that were also relatively close.

Their efficiency was also high; a pile of Moon-patterned Beasts littered the ground.

But for them to just run away like that, wouldn't that make all their effort a waste?

Meng Shijiu looked at Xie Zehuan: "Why are you here?"

Xie Zehuan: "The scent of blood is thick here. I came to investigate."

"Summarized simply: same idea as you"

"Came following the scent of blood just like you : )"

"Another opportunist looking to reap the benefits without effort"

"It's just that 19 hid as soon as he arrived, while Xie Zehuan started blasting the moment he showed up haha"

Meng Shijiu ordered flatly: "You leave."

"Starting to divide the spoils"

Hearing his words, the pure white mecha paused for a moment, then calmly landed on the ground beside the Silver Cocoon.

Xie Zehuan drawled: "I'm not leaving."

"Divergence of opinion"

"Too familiar with this routine, you two are total bandits"

Meng Shijiu reasoned: "First come, first served."

The air fell silent for two seconds.

Xie Zehuan lowered his voice, his tone somewhat ambiguous:

"Go tell *him* about 'first come, first served' then."

Meng Shijiu froze, looking at Xie Zehuan through the rain curtain.

"? What does that mean"

"Who is 'him'?"

"There's a story here"

But Meng Shijiu knew that the "him" Xie Zehuan referred to was the primary personality.

This guy... isn't pretending anymore?

Xie Zehuan wasn't stupid.

Last time, Meng Shijiu was right there when the primary personality had forced its way out to seize control of the body. Such an abnormality wasn't something he could just overlook.

As expected, shortly after he returned, he discovered something was wrong.

Meng Shijiu and the original personality actually knew each other, and it even seemed... far more familiar than he was.

"...Well then," Meng Shijiu averted his eyes and scratched his nose, "can you let him out? I'll discuss it with him."

The air suddenly went still.

Xie Zehuan knew the original personality was listening too.

Because almost the moment Meng Shijiu's words fell, a wave of delight instantly filled his entire chest.

That was the original personality's emotion.

Xie Zehuan tightened his fingers expressionlessly.

This feeling disgusted him, like a clean canvas he liked being forcibly stained with paint that didn't belong to him.

A long-coveted treasure was being eyed by a predatory wolf right beside him, without him even noticing.

A heavy, pent-up emotion silently spread. Xie Zehuan forcefully crushed and suppressed that joyful feeling bit by bit.

Suddenly, the pure white mecha soared into the air.

Xie Zehuan's calm voice came clearly through the channel: "First come, first served, as you said."

I was the first to know you.

Xie Zehuan disappeared into the curtain of rain.

*

After Xie Zehuan left, no one else approached this place.

The sky darkened, and the rain let up.

But besides the rain, Meng Shijiu gradually couldn't hear any beast sounds either.

The moon slowly rose. From the forest ahead of Meng Shijiu, a mecha gradually emerged.

A dark gray, nearly black color, its silhouette was blunt and heavy, its lines rugged and wild. Resembling a rhinoceros, each step it took sent a palpable, silent tremor through the ground.

"Wait, is this Tide?"

"It looks a bit different from what I remember."

"Seems larger..."

"...I have a bad feeling about this."

Nox's voice piped up appropriately: "This is Tide, serial number X10006, the Tide King."

"?? Tide King?"

"No wonder the scent of blood here is so strong, yet no other Tides have come. So the Tide King is here."

"Then where did all the other Tides go?"

"Wait, wait, is that the main point?!"

"!!! This is the Tide King!"

"A Tide King that's stronger than a hundred regular ones. Calling it a mecha is already misleading. In the previous round-robin mecha tests, the Tide King was far ahead in first place."

"19, run, now!"

"Lucky you :)"

"They must have nerfed the Tide King in the map data; it can't possibly have its real stats."

"How come I've never heard of this Tide King?"

"...Because it hasn't appeared for a long time. Ten years, I think."

However, Meng Shijiu didn't know any of this.

He glanced at the screen, confirmed the opponent was indeed Tide, and was about to look away when he suddenly raised an eyebrow—

"Current Qualification Status: 2/6"

...2/6.

And the competition had only just started half an hour ago.

"Huh? Which two people advanced?"

"Why wasn't there an announcement?"

"Only half an hour, how is that possible? Even regular Tides aren't that easy to defeat."

But Meng Shijiu had already shifted his gaze, looking at the giant mecha before him.

The Tide King and he stared at each other unhindered.

Its eyes flashed with a momentary dark light, just like moonlight, silently and overwhelmingly sweeping over him.

Silver Cocoon reminded him: "Shijiu, you can't win against this one."

"Honest egg."

"Hahahaha."

Meng Shijiu: "..."

Meng Shijiu: "Then let's run."

"Hahahaha."

"So trusting."

"But... can you really run away?"

"This is the Tide King..."

"What about Nox? Why isn't he saying anything?"

*

Nox took off his headphones and walked into the backstage area.

Before he even reached the door, he saw it was open.

Lucas's voice, not loud, came clearly from inside the room: "Stop."

A researcher's voice came through, stammering, "...But... once the data starts running, it can't be altered. Cutting it off forcibly would cause brain damage to the trainees. The consequences..."

Lucas didn't continue listening, stroding out the door.

Shen Huaixu was waiting right by the door, blocking Lucas's path.

His heterochromatic eyes held a cold glint, but his voice remained calm. "Where can you go? Access to the map has already been revoked."

Lucas strode back, his gaze sharp as a chisel, drilling straight into the Alpha who had been sitting beside him. "Was it you? Very few people have the authority to use the Tide King's data."

The semi-finals hadn't imported the Tide King's data at all; all six mechs were standard Tides.

Hearing this, the man chuckled. "Very few people have the authority—well, doesn't that mean a few people still do?"

"Don't make accusations without evidence," he said with a laugh, spreading his hands.

Apparently seeing something on the monitor, he added mockingly,

"Look, your little friend is just fine, isn't he?"

*

The moon revealed its pallid face.

A flock of crows swept across the sky, the thin moon like punctured paper, leaving only their fleeting, dark silhouettes.

After the rain stopped, the ground remained a muddy mess. Once the moon showed its face, the Tides moved even faster, their figures nearly impossible to track.

Blurred shadows, almost blending into the night, occasionally reflected a damp, cold light.

The black mech shot forward like a silent bolt of lightning, abruptly cutting into the Tide's movement path.

The scent of blood spurred the crows into raucous, grating shrieks high above.

A Tide slammed in from the side. The black mech spun upon contact to dissipate the force, using the momentum to flip into the air above it.

A particle blade shot out from the mech's arm, plunging down with brutal force!

The Tide instantly emitted a low, resonant hum.

Its tail cannon port immediately swiveled, a searing beam of light grazing the black mech's back and blasting a charred trench through the woodland.

The two mechs tumbled and grappled amidst the mud and shattered trees.

Inside the cockpit was the slightly aloof face of a red-eyed Alpha.

It was Pei Ruji.

"Sudden camera switch?!"

"Whoa."

"What's going on? Didn't Pei Ruji already advance?"

"Replying to the above: Pei took out both Tides needed for advancement."

"!? What does that mean? Can you actually erase someone else's advancement slot in this match?"

"Nooo, I wanted to see a 2v2v2, Pei Ruji you're ruining everything."

"But how did he find the Tides so fast?"

"Just be crazy enough. Look at his mech's damage rate; he's close to being forcibly ejected."

"Watched the replay. When he took down the first Tide, Pei was still normal. He started going crazy after realizing he didn't have to leave the match."

"Isn't anyone finding him?"

"Not for now, really. With the Tide King out, the Tides are scattering faster than anything. This area is the farthest from the Tide King, so they're all heading here."

"See that? There are two more Tides nearby, temporarily held in check."

"Such good luck..."

"So, did everyone else waste their time killing the minor ones?"

"Wait... Why does it feel like Pei Ruji is struggling more and more?"

"That's normal, right?... This is the third one."

"No, that's not it. It's the Tides. Something's wrong."

"I get it. The map gave the Tides a buff."

The clouds parted, and moonlight gradually poured down, no longer feeble but growing increasingly intense.

Pei Ruji also noticed the change in the Tides, but he didn't relent.

The Alpha's eyelashes didn't flutter, but beads of cold sweat slowly formed at his temples, trickling into his blood-red eyes.

The crows' shrieks grew even more clamorous.

The battle swiftly escalated into an even more perilous rhythm.

Yet the black mech remained like a persistent, clinging disease—silent, cold, each strike precisely tearing through the Tide's defenses.

"The rain stopped, the moon's getting brighter, and the Tides are getting harder to fight."

"An expert already analyzed it. According to the map's buff, if the moon were at its peak, the Tides' performance would increase by 1.5 times."

"Just stop already..."

Meng Shijiu watched the figure of the black mech battling a Tide not far away.

He propped his chin on his hand, observing for a moment, before finally asking,

"Why does he want to win so badly?"

Silver Cocoon sat atop the Tide King's back, quietly hiding in the shadows.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the forest leaves. The legendary bloodthirsty Tide King was as docile as a silent mountain.

Silver Cocoon had already reverted from his butterfly state. From a distance, he looked like a giant egg perched on a rhinoceros.

The Tide restrained by Pei Ruji, sensing the Tide King's presence, struggled even more violently, desperate to escape.

"? Can someone tell me what's happening?"

"Just came back from Shijiu's channel, witnessed the Tide King flipping Silver Cocoon up like a fried egg."

"I still think Silver Cocoon looked better sitting on the Tide King's back when he had wings earlier."

"That's pretty cute too."

"I really thought they were gonna fight."

"I almost thought the Tide King mistook Silver Cocoon for its long-lost egg :)"

"Ending it just like that, so you, 19."

"Still all quiet on the western front."

Since the Tide King’s display of goodwill was so natural, Shijiu took on a new mount without a fuss.

After the Tide King nudged him, scooped him up, and dumped him on its back, a sunflower crystal that had appeared in the air now spun a few times in his hand, accidentally bringing up a display window.

"Advancement successful. Exit match?"

"Yes" "No"

The match only had six advancement slots.

Right—the rules never said you couldn't take someone else's slot.

Even after advancing, they deliberately showed this reminder.

The silver-haired Alpha yawned softly, his eyelashes drooping, thin eyelids tinted a snowy color.

Lazy, weary, yet as beautiful as a beast that had just feasted and was now dozing deep in its den.

"I knew what 19 was thinking as soon as I saw him."

"Me too..."

"Let me be blunt: Shijiu wants to play like Pei too :)"

"Okay, I'm suddenly okay with it :)"

Silver Cocoon raised its right arm without a sound.

Shijiu propped his chin on his hand: "I think it’s better to say hello before stealing a kill. What do you think, Eggy?"

Silver Cocoon replied gently: "Okay ^_^"

Shijiu nodded, then asked the other: "What do you think, Xixi?"

The Tide King’s low voice rumbled calmly: "Do whatever you want."

Shijiu opened the comms, his lazy voice simultaneously reaching the black mech: "Hello, classmate Pei."

The next second, Silver Cocoon’s particle cannon blasted toward the black mech.

The black mech stopped dead the moment it saw Silver Cocoon, just like last time, not moving an inch.

Inside the cockpit.

The particle cannon’s light instantly lit up Pei Ruji's face in a stark white.

His blood-red pupils reflected the approaching beam, calm as a deep well, without even a flinch.

The particle cannon had no turning back, hitting the black mech dead center.

—Pei Ruji didn’t dodge.

The already busted mech shut down instantly.

The silver-haired Alpha blinked in confusion, unable to understand why Pei Ruji didn’t dodge—he wasn't even attacking for real.

Shijiu asked puzzledly: "Didn’t you want to win?"

—Why didn’t you dodge?

He sounded innocent, genuinely asking, like a child snatching a playmate’s toy, holding it high before smashing it down, then asking innocently: Why didn’t you fight for it?

"Pei probably wasn't in it to win. However strong he is, he can't solo all six. Attacking other Tides would just give an advantage to his finals opponents—more trouble than it’s worth."

"He hesitated as soon as he saw he advanced. Who knows what he thought of, but he suddenly went berserk."

"You think you’re Yue Xuanli? You didn’t dodge?"

Shijiu lowered his gaze: Boring.

"Shijiu looks unhappy."

"19 didn't get much of a fight today, did he? Everyone he encountered was hardly a challenge—Song Qingxiao, Pei Ruji, Yue Xuanli, Xie Zehuan, those three from Tian Shu, even the Tide King didn’t get to fight."

"Shijiu actually had such a day too, actively looking for a fight."

"The moon is getting brighter, the Tides are getting stronger, only three slots left—gonna be tough to snag."

Two at full health and one nearly dead were about to escape into the forest.

*

Tough fight.

Shijiu only realized once he tried.

The Tides were growing stronger; to stop them from running, he had to attack and whittle down their health at the same time.

Nox: "A beautiful side spin—ah, missed. Silver Cocoon can’t catch the Tide, and the Tide can’t catch Silver Cocoon. Seems this pair isn’t meant to be. Let’s watch the next pair."

Nox: "This pair is interesting—Silver Cocoon is quite violent—ouch—a very graceful recovery."

"Oh, you’re back online? Where’d you go earlier?"

"LOL"

"What’s this, a matchmaking session?"

...

The chat kept scrolling. As other contestants began arriving, Silver Cocoon suddenly broke away from the fray, flying up into the air.

The moon hung behind Silver Cocoon, moonlight spilling down like flowing water.

The mech, half silver-white and half bright red, hung in the air, backlit.

Shijiu closed his eyes inside Silver Cocoon.

Everything around him came into focus.

The silver-haired Alpha gradually recalled what Wen Hui had taught him.

"......"

Psychic energy spilled out from the Silver Cocoon like a tide.

…

"Holy shit???"

"!!!"

"19, you're the real maniac here"

......

Countless crows swarmed in from every direction, from all corners of the map, gathering together.

A dark, seething mass loomed behind the Silver Cocoon, blotting out the moonlight.

-----------------------

Author's note: ❤️