MRG Chapter 58: A Deadlock

Translator: Kii

Editor: EllieKit

From time to time, a series of “ding-cling-clang” sounds could be heard in the spacious warehouse. At the end of the shelf was a two or three-story-high mecha, a black curtain was thrown aside, and various wrenches and tool barrels were scattered on the floor. A tall young man sat cross-legged on the shoulder of the mecha. He wore a pair of work pants that didn’t look too dirty, and a tight white T-shirt on top.

The youthful and fair face, along with his clothes, were stained with engine oil. Fortunately, he had his hair tied up, as it would have been worse otherwise. He wiped his face with the back of his hand. He was a spitting image of a tabby cat, continuing to tinker with the thing in his hand without noticing anything.

The change in Mu Chen’s appearance compared to when he first arrived was a bit big.

He was originally a pampered little prince raised in the palace, but now he can just cover his face with a hat and play the role of a street kid.

Mu Chen put on a welding mask over his head, and intense sparks came bursting out.

He surmised that the damage this mecha received at the time should have been mended by someone. The reason why it couldn’t be started right now was because it had been left for too long, so there were issues with the circuits.

Thus, during this period of time, he had been checking each and every one of “Old Booker’s” circuits…

Beep, beep, beep!

At this moment, a message notification came from the terminal beside him.

Mu Chen paused his movements, took off the welding mask, and used a cloth to wipe his hands, grabbing the terminal.

When he saw the word “Xavier,” Mu Chen’s eyes, which originally contained some expectation, suddenly dimmed.

He clicked on the chat interface and found that it was Xavier complaining to him again about how disgusting the work he did today was, attaching a bunch of “appetizing” photos of Zerg corpses.

The chat pinned at the top, on the other hand, was completely silent.

His last exchange with Light was half a month ago. During this period of time, Light didn’t even take the initiative to send him a message.

When he thought of this, Mu Chen pursed his lips in discontent. After hiding so many important matters from him and changing his application without his permission, Light still didn’t realize his mistake, and now he doesn’t even send him any messages?

What was this?

Premarital silent treatment?

Mu Chen was holding back his anger…

Since he didn’t send him any, he won’t either. If he had the guts to, then never contact him again. He wanted to see who would give in first.

Moreover, this wasn’t a fair game. At the time, of the two people who escorted him, one stayed with him. It was clear that this person was here to report to Light on his everyday movements.

In other words, Light knew his every move like the back of his hand.

While Mu Chen was completely in the dark on what Light was doing over there.

When he thought of this, Mu Chen became even angrier. In order to obtain news from the front line, he approached Xavier, but he didn’t get much useful first-hand intelligence. Instead, the other party would complain about a lot of things every day.

He scanned Xavier’s message, then reached out to take the mask.

After the last exoskeleton steel plate was welded, a crisp sound of metal hitting the ground was heard outside the warehouse.

Cliff held a lunch box as he entered. He looked at the person who was completely absorbed in his work on the top of the mecha. “Eat first before you continue repairing, Your Highness.”

“Look at this…” Mu Chen’s thoughts weren’t on the food at all. He waved his hand at Cliff before going into “Old Booker’s” cockpit.

With a loud “boom,” the pair of searchlights atop the cockpit turned on. Every particle of dust suspended in the air became starkly visible under the bright light. The dormant steel giant once again opened its eyes.

Mu Chen stuck his head out of the cockpit. “How’s it?”

Cliff gave him a thumbs up, praising him, “It’s hard to imagine that you actually didn’t major in mechanical engineering.”

“This isn’t considered much…”

Mu Chen curled the corner of his lips. As he said that, he sat back inside the cockpit and closed the hatch. “I’m gonna have it move.”

Bzztttttt!

After he started up the mecha, the floor shook intensely. The dust all around flew up, and the warehouse was filled with the smell of low-quality gasoline.

Cliff wasn’t wrong; this mecha was really like an old car.

And right now, it was like an old car infected with a virus, incessantly moving its stiff limbs. It was a bit out of control. Along with a shrill alarm, a blinding red light burst out in the cockpit.

Cliff was worried that something had happened to Mu Chen. He shouted toward the cockpit’s door, “Your Highness, how about you disconnect the mental link?”

Half a beat later—

“Cough, cough, cough.”

Mu Chen jumped out from the cockpit. His mental link had almost finished connecting when the alert message “Inefficient Energy” popped up on the control panel.

He clearly installed two energy boxes inside—this machine drained too much energy.

Cliff opened the lunch box on the table and beckoned Mu Chen over. “You can mess around with it in the warehouse, but don’t pilot it out. We don’t have a mecha pilot’s license here.”

Mu Chen went over to the sink to wash his face and wipe it dry. “I’ve been curious about something…”

“Why don’t they arrange a team of armed forces or mecha troops around the Sweiman Warehouse? Otherwise, if something happened at this huge military armory warehouse, there won’t be even a chance to fight back?”

Cliff smiled. “We don’t need them, this place is absolutely safe. There’s no way Doyle Star would have the chance to enter the warehouse.”

He reached out a finger on the table, making the table a blank map. “Here, there are four wormholes discovered so far. This is also the Konaren base. From here to here is the “Goliath” military defense line that they can’t break through. Behind the “Goliath” wall are the strongest mecha corps and elite army troops in the entire Oz Empire. Also, about 100 kilometres away from the warehouse, there’s a 100,000-strong army troop stationed in the city of Sweiman. It’s absolutely impossible for them to breach these two defense lines, unless…”

Mu Chen pointed at a gap. “A wormhole appears here.”

“Your Highness, this isn’t something that can be said without thinking.” Cliff knocked on the table—this action was meant to ‘knock away bad luck.’ “Over the years, no abnormal signals have been detected within the Konaren borders. The military unanimously believed that it was a special magnetic field at the border that gave birth to this twisted space tunnel.”

Mu Chen didn’t continue arguing with him, after all, he didn’t really understand physics.

The atmosphere turned quiet. Just when they both were in the middle of eating…

Suddenly, a black shadow passed overhead, and a group of crows flew out from a birch forest, as if they were frightened by something. The light outside the window gradually dimmed, and compared to yesterday, it was getting darker earlier than usual.

Cliff looked out the window in a daze. He touched his beard and muttered to himself:

“It’s been a little unusual recently…”

……

The atmosphere in the conference room at the base on Konaren was somewhat tense.

So far, all of the Doyle Zergs have been intercepted and eliminated outside the “Goliath” Wall, but waves of Zerg swarms are becoming more and more frequent. According to the latest intelligence, they seem to be preparing to establish a nest near the mining area outside the defense line as their base on the Blue Planet.

The Zergs were creatures that had an amazing reproductive ability. Once they have a breeding ground on the Blue Planet, the consequences would be disastrous.

The base had been formulating a detailed clearing plan for the nest over the past few days. The plan was supposed to be implemented within the next two days, but something unexpected had happened at the last minute.

The person who had originally been chosen for the mission—the SS-class pilot of the mecha Red Devil—had died.

At this moment, several high-ranking commanders were arguing over choosing a suitable candidate.

“What about the new batch of pilots?’

“This is an S-class mission, do you want them to die in vain?”

“This mission is of great importance; only a pilot of S-class or higher can execute this. Our options are limited…”

“…‘Blue Whale’ is currently fighting in Area C of Goliath’s outer wall. That area is heavily occupied, and he couldn’t step away. ‘Yellow Hornet’ is injured, so he obviously isn’t suitable for this mission. Right now, I can’t think of another suitable candidate.”

“Is it possible to get in contact with “Black Mist’s” pilot?”

“He has already retired for ten years; let alone piloting a mecha, even climbing ten steps is hard enough.”

The situation had turned into a deadlock. Someone had no choice but to speak up—

“Does this plan have to be postponed?”

“There’s still an empty mecha.”

A sharp male voice came from the end of the table. A man in a solemn military uniform tapped the table with the tip of his pen.

The atmosphere instantly turned silent. Everyone turned to look at their supreme commander.

John Natt quickly understood Light’s intention. “But ‘Eagle’ has not found a new pilot yet, General.”

Over the past few months, they had almost all the active mecha pilots try to fly the Eagle, but no one could successfully pilot ‘Eagle’ out of the military base. Eventually, they were afraid that if these pilots forced themselves too much, they would suffer from mental disabilities and affect more missions, so they had to terminate the plan.

“Does it have a pilo…”

Light, without missing a beat, “I’ll do it.”

After speaking, everyone in the conference room erupted into discussions.

“General…” Levi didn’t really approve. “You’re the supreme commander of the base, isn’t it too dangerous?”

Light pulled up a document from the projection and said in a deep voice, “Our top priority now is to stop the nest.”

“The mission is not that dangerous. I have confidence.”

Deputy Levi stayed silent. If Light doesn’t take on this mission, then nobody else on Blue Planet could do it.

“If there’s no objection,” Light looked around and said, “we will proceed as planned in an hour and a half.”

The room turned quiet. Nobody raised their objections.

After dealing with the issue, the meeting began to discuss routine issues as usual, with each person in charge of reporting to Light on the situation in their respective jurisdictions.

“General, I have an urgent matter to report.” A base researcher in a white coat was the first to stand up from their seat. They projected a fluorescent blue holographic model onto the conference table out of thin air.

“Just yesterday, our detector caught an anomaly signal. The interference frequency is the same as the last four wormholes…”

Once the words were spoken, the room fell into an uproar.

There were currently four channels for the Zerg invasion throughout Konaren; if a fifth one appeared, the situation would become trickier.

John Natt furrowed his brows. “Where is it?”

“This is exactly the issue I wanted to address, Marshal Natt.” The researcher said as he pointed at the hologram, “Unlike the previous few times, the signal we received this time is really weak. It’s likely that the wormhole hasn’t fully formed yet; like a baby still in a cradle. It could also be that some kind of interference is affecting it. So, right now we can’t pinpoint its exact location; only a rough range—it should be beyond the Konaren line of defense.”

Light issued an order, “Closely monitor that area of magnetic field signal.”

“Yes, General.”

……

An hour later, Light changed into a pure black combat suit and took the elevator leading to the underground warehouse.

During the elevator ride, he adjusted the sensors and physiological monitors on his clothes. For some reason, he felt a slight tightness around his waist and abdomen.

Light furrowed his brows and pulled at the piece of cloth that was feeling tight around his abdomen. This training suit was tailored according to his body shape. It was fine when he wore it a few months ago in the capital, so it doesn’t make sense that it doesn’t fit anymore now that he was back at the border.

With a “ding” sound, the elevator arrived underground. Levi was waiting at the door for him, while “Eagle” stood toward the front.

Light had no time to worry about his clothes. He took out his terminal and contacted the lieutenant who was arranged to be at the Sweiman Warehouse.

Even though he knew that Sweiman was the safest place, he still wanted to confirm that Mu Chen was doing fine there.

The lieutenant answered quickly, saying that everything was going well. He then reported Mu Chen’s daily activities. For example, he seemed to be getting along with the warehouse manager, and he was living a fulfilling life every day. He was basically repairing various things and would sometimes get his face covered with dust.

Just by reading these few lines of concise description, Light’s mind pictured Mu Chen looking like a “tabby cat.” He unconsciously raised the corner of his lips, and his expression also eased up.

Levi was stunned by what he saw—this was the first time Light had revealed such a relaxed expression since he arrived at Konaren a few days ago.

After listening to the report, Light somehow switched to the chat interface with Mu Chen. It had been a long time since they last talked.

It would’ve been a lie if he said he didn’t miss him.

Before, whenever he went out for a mission, he was always thinking about the little merman who stayed in the palace.

It was the same now.

Light rolled his Adam’s apple. He really wanted to hear his voice, and really wanted to hug him.

His finger hovered over the call button, yet he couldn’t press it…

Recalling the heated argument they had not long ago, Light put away the terminal.

Forget it.

It was better to call him after he finished the mission.