MRG Chapter 15: He Liked This Feeling

Translator: Kii

Editor: EllieKit

The surrounding people watched them.

Faced with Mu Chen’s contemptuous attitude, Xavier felt his cheeks burn up, and the blood in his body rushed to his head. He yelled at the other party—

“What’s with that attitude?! You don’t believe me?”

Mu Chen raised his eyes and glanced at him. He didn’t say anything, but that gaze seemed to be saying something.

—Does it look like I believe you?

Boys at this age were competitive and always put their reputation above everything, especially someone like Xavier who needed to set an example for his “brothers,” so how could he let this go so easily?

In his desperation, Xavier resorted to a bold move. “Since you doubt my ability, then…compete with me one on one if you have the guts!”

Mu Chen looked at Xavier in puzzlement, as if the other party had said something incomprehensible.

Seeing that the little merman remained silent, Xavier snorted and tried to regain some ground for himself. “What, are you scared?”

Mu Chen sat up from his seat. “How would you like to compete?”

Xavier suddenly felt a shadow loom down before him. He watched as the other party walked step by step toward him, and he unconsciously furrowed his brows.

Who would have thought that this merman with a fair complexion, who smiled sweeter than a girl, would be a few centimeters taller than him when standing up.

Xavier remained calm as he said, “Aren’t you questioning my ability to drive a mecha, so let’s drive the virtual cockpit and see who’s actually the incompetent one.”

Shea’s, who was standing at the side, complexion changed upon hearing this.

The virtual mecha cockpit was only opened to senior students. It required a certain level of mental control from the driver, and it was easy to get injured if not operated properly.

Shea stood up in front of Mu Chen. “Xavier, you’re just bullying a new classmate. The teacher clearly said that the first year students can’t enter this machine, yet you…”

Xavier interrupted her unhappily, “It doesn’t matter, people set the rules. They just see you guys are too weak to drive them.”

“Exactly.” His attendant also followed suit. “Xavier has driven it several times already. Why can he do it and you guys can’t?”

Shea was angered by this group of unreasonable and self-righteous stupid boys. “If you keep this up, I’m going to tell Ms. Pettey.”

Xavier, “Telling the teacher? Is that all you can think of…”

“You!”

As the atmosphere became increasingly tense—

“Okay.”

A clear voice suddenly came from the crowd.

“Then we’ll drive the virtual cockpit…” The little merman tilted his head and gave a harmless smile. His two dimples were so eye-catching that the others couldn’t take their eyes off of him. “Sounds like fun.”

Shea was afraid he would be at a disadvantage. “Mu Chen, don’t listen to their nonsense.”

“It’s fine.” Mu Chen smiled at her. “I’m just curious and want to have a look.”

As he said this, he walked up to Xavier who was still staring at his face in a daze. “…Aren’t you going to take me there?”

……

A row of bright lights lit up one after another, revealing the entire silent and deep warehouse as the white light spread.

In front of the two boys were several completely black oval cockpits with a metallic sheen.

Xavier raised his head and pursed his lips toward Mu Chen. “Here, these are the simulator cockpits. Let me say this in advance, don’t be a sore loser. If you lose, don’t go running out crying to complain to your gege…heh.”

After saying that, he skillfully opened the hatch, climbed into the cockpit along the metal support below.

Xavier adjusted his sitting posture, and when he was about to close the hatch, he saw through the glass screen in front of him that Mu Chen was stuck in mid-air and reaching out to tug his own hair, looking like he was unable to get on.

The other person’s waist-length silver hair was caught in the cockpit door.

Xavier was amused by this… Seriously, can you really drive a virtual mecha looking this stupid?

He whistled at Mu Chen with a gloating look, his mockery evident in his words, “You can still back out now, want to reconsider? How about going back to playing with your dolls?”

Mu Chen didn’t listen to him; he tugged his hair out bit by bit from the gap of the door.

On the other side, Xavier had already begun the mental connection.

A fluorescent blue light network flooded his line of sight, reality gradually merged with virtuality, and the last image he saw was that of Mu Chen sitting in the cockpit and tidying his hair.

Xavier curled the corner of his lips in disdain.

Is this kid being serious?

After an unknown amount of time, Xavier felt his mind was floating on a sea of nothingness, and his vision cleared up again.

A line of text appeared above the control panel—

“Entering [Battle Mode]. It has been detected that you don’t have advanced permission, starting [Adolescent Protection Mode]…”

“Player [2/2] is entering…”

Xavier subconsciously frowned, his gaze fixed on that “2/2.”

How come he was the second one to enter?

Could it be that he had already entered?

Xavier listened to the cold mechanical system voice, yet his thoughts were somewhat all over the place.

As someone who had always been tested as a A+, and even S-level genetic talent since he was little, he had used the virtual cockpit a few times before, so his mental adaptability was very high and his connection speed was much faster than that of ordinary people.

However, that merman clearly never used this thing before, so how could he have already finished connecting?

[100% progress, loading completed…]

After the system finished speaking, Xavier entered a place similar to an indoor training ground, and another mecha was parked not far from him.

The person inside should be Mu Chen.

But the other party’s control was very amateur at the moment; he raised the mechanical arm, and with a bang, it crashed on the mecha’s own head. It was as clumsy as a turtle flipped on its back.

It was as if the pressure he felt earlier was an illusion.

Having no intention to watch Mu Chen’s crappy controls, Xavier used the terminal to send a message to the other party, “Hey! I’ll give you some time to familiarize yourself with the controls, so don’t accuse me of bullying you later.”

After half an hour, the two mechas followed the system’s instruction and retreated behind the red line.

Since they don’t have advanced access, they used a small mecha about one or two stories high for this simulation. After protection mode was turned on, some heavy anti-personnel weapons couldn’t be used. The first person to obtain 100 points would be deemed the winner.

Naturally, Xavier wasn’t planning on fighting with Mu Chen for real. He just wanted the other party to remember this little lesson. After all, Mu Chen was Prince Light’s merman; if he beat him to tears, he would have a difficult time explaining this to the royal family.

—Ding!

The system sounded and the red line dissipated.

Xavier skillfully mobilized the high-pressure air guns on both wings of the mecha and aimed at the blue mecha in front of him.

Accompanied by a buzzing roaring sound, a cloud-like airflow moved at a high speed, hit the left shoulder of Mu Chen’s mecha, and caused it to stagger back a step.

A score was announced.

[Red 10 pts]

In an instant, an intense pain surged along his nerve network. The backlash of the air gun made Mu Chen’s left shoulder numb, and his entire arm was almost unable to move. A few strands of silver hair were scattered messily on his forehead.

Was this the feeling of being hit?

He hadn’t been in this much pain in such a long time, but…

A small red mecha was reflected in Mu Chen’s pupils, and as if someone had lit a fire, sparks were jumping in the blue ocean. His lips unconsciously curved up.

He liked this feeling.

Xavier took advantage of the other party’s stiffness after being shot and fired consecutive shots. During this period, Mu Chen hardly dodged or fought back.

The announcement of the red player scoring resounded throughout the field.

[Red 20 pts]

[Red 30 pts]

……

[Red 40 pts]

Xavier looked at the blue mecha that was flung to the ground, raised the laser gun in his grip and aimed it at the opponent’s chest drive unit.

He was already fed up with this one-sided trouncing and just wanted to end this competition early.

A shadow loomed over, blocking half of Mu Chen’s line of sight. He watched as the massive body of the mechanical giant was about to head toward him, and his blood began to boil. His eardrums trembled with a dull ache, his fair cheek flushed, and his pupils shook with excitement.

Rings of fluorescent blue light encircled the laser gun’s metallic-luster gun barrel, indicating that it was in the final buildup of charging.

Xavier watched the mecha being pressed down under him and unable to move, ready to bid him farewell, but he then saw the other party silently mouthing something at him.

Before Xavier had time to react, in the next second, the arm that was holding the weapon felt a strong tug. The other party gripped his gun barrel, and the inaccurate gunshot left a round scorch mark on the ground beside Mu Chen.

It was as if the mecha under him possessed astonishing strength, Xavier was unable to struggle free from his opponent’s grasp for a moment. An inconceivable expression flashed through his eyes; he no longer cared about his clamped weapon and swung a punch at Mu Chen.

But the blue mecha seemed to have anticipated his move—the originally clumsy mecha flew up high and avoided the fatal blow, while Xavier himself was thrown off balance and fell.

The two people’s position was completely flipped around.

The corner of Xavier’s lips stiffened as a sharp pain shot through his back.

[Blue 5 pts]

Mu Chen began to score points.

The gap between the two on the field remained wide.

Not to be outdone, Xavier used the barrel as a pivot point to rebalance his fuselage, throwing a punch in an attempt to retaliate.

But the moment he swung his fist, his wrist was held by the other party.

The blue mecha seemed to possess the ability to read his mind, seeing through his every move.

It was like…like Mu Chen had thoroughly studied his attack pattern.

[Blue 10 pts]

[Blue 15 pts]

……

[Blue 50 pts]

Accompanied by the repeated beeping reminder, the score was reversed.

What was going on?

The continuous onslaught caused Xavier’s thoughts to somewhat slow down, and in his confused state, his mind began to flash back to the earlier fight.

He suddenly caught on to the scene he had forgotten just now—

Below the transparent cockpit, there were a pair of blue eyes so calm they bordered inorganic. They were like an unfeeling scanner, observing everything it received without discrimination.

So it wasn’t that he couldn’t dodge, but he was analyzing his own movements?

Xavier’s eyes trembled; this realization made his blood flow backward and cold sweat to break out on his back.

He pulled out of his thoughts, his eyes refocused on that blue figure, and the sound of the blue player’s score rang in his ears again.

It was even a five pointer.

From earlier until now, Mu Chen didn’t use any weapons. Every point he scored were from using his fists, so his score added up relatively slowly, otherwise the competition would’ve ended by now.

Does he not know how to use weapons?

Through the transparent cockpit, Xavier could see the blue eyes lit up by sparks. Another thought popped into his mind almost as soon as doubt arose.

It wasn’t that Mu Chen didn’t know how to use weapons, rather he didn’t want to use them.

He simply enjoyed the feeling of using his hands to punch his opponent until they couldn’t fight back.

……

Ten minutes later.

[Blue 100 pts]

The red warning light lit up and the competition was over.

Xavier came out of the virtual cockpit, his black hair on his forehead soaked in sweat. The haughtiness he had earlier had long been destroyed completely. He was immersed in the humiliating defeat just now, saying to the other party somewhat in a daze, “You won…”

Mu Chen lowered his head and tidied his clothes, giving a perfunctory acknowledgement.

When he raised his head again, he returned to the little merman with a sweet smile, giving the impression of being obedient and harmless.

It was like his earlier madness was just Xavier’s illusion.

Xavier suddenly felt an unprecedented frustration, his eyes slightly downcast as he clenched his fists.

He had anticipated the other party’s reaction after winning; he would probably be arrogant, want to show off, or even look down on him.

But why was it this casual indifference?

“You…”

Seeing that the other party really turned around and prepared to leave, Xavier yelled out to Mu Chen, “Are you going to go tell everyone that I lost?”

Since he lost, Mu Chen could do whatever he wanted with this result, but he just doesn’t believe that this competition’s outcome didn’t matter to the other party.

Mu Chen, “Why would I tell everyone?”

“Driving a virtual cockpit is against the school rules…”

In Xavier’s stunned expression, Mu Chen raised the corner of his lips and spoke in a unperturbed tone—

“And is it even that impressive?”