by <unknown>
As the compressed structure was very tight, there could not be any extra parts in them. Therefore, compressing a compressed orb into another one would not work, or it would have been able to be expanded infinitely. Only a complete machine or an individual part could form a compressed orb.
Han Xiao compressed the mechanical suit, so in normal daily life, he used a black tactical belt to store the compressed orbs. This had originally been designed to store magazines. It had a metal button in the middle, and the belt was split into two and formed an ‘X’ shape. It was slotted on his waist to increase the number of items that he could bring. Inside this belt were weapons that were relatively less important. For core machinery such as the mechanical suit, it was made into jewelry.
Han Xiao wore a necklace made from three compressed orbs, bracelets on both his wrists, and two small orbs as his earrings on both his ears. His hair now was rather long, so it could be tied and let down behind him. At the end of it were some compressed orbs as well.
Han Xiao walked over to the mirror and looked at himself. He was entertained by his new look.
“Tsk, what a unique style I have.”
Chapter 414. New Combat Style (2) |
Han Xiao appeared satisfied with it. When practicality was concerned, he did not care much about the look. Although being handsome was an eternal thing for him, he chose to be strong.
Other than the belts and the jewelry, there were also some compressed orbs in his clothes.
Usually, this was what he looked like. Once he entered a battle, he would then activate the mechanical combat suit. He had added slots in the mechanical suit to store and release compressed orbs. Once he equipped the mechanical suit, the magnetic connection would suck the compressed orbs on him into these slots, like reloading bullets. These compressed orbs could be shot out any time, making it more convenient to expand his machinery.
There were hundreds of compressed orbs, and part of them were backup equipment.
After arranging the results of his hard work, Han Xiao pushed the door open and walked out of the machinery modification room. Herlous was waiting at the door. When he saw Han Xiao come out and approach him, he said, “Captain, Lerden and the others arrived at Juberly Hub two days ago. They’re waiting to meet you.”
“Lead the way.”
Han Xiao adjusted his clothes.
The two of them left the stronghold, boarded the Hub Center’s hovering carriers, and mixed among the others. After a while, they landed on the middle level of a building at the end of the Hub Center. All the rooms on this level were resting rooms, and one of them was the temporary mini stronghold that the Sunil mercenaries had rented. It was at the corner and had a very narrow space, the cheapest room. They were money-saving as always.
Ding dong.
The bell was pressed, and the silver alloy door slid open. The two of them walked in. Inside the tight and narrow room, more than fifty people had somehow squeezed in. The people there made up half the number; the other half were in the room next door. They heard the news and came over as well. Han Xiao saw that it was too cramped, so he asked everyone to talk outside on the public rooftop. The rooftop also acted as a parking area for flying carriers, like a mini dock. At the back of it was the city-like Hub Center, filled with tall buildings. Flying carriers were everywhere in the sky, landing and taking off from buildings from time to time. A warm wind blew across the rooftop … a product of the air coming from the carriers.
“Black Star.”
“Captain.”
The Sunil mercenaries greeted Han Xiao. Lerden was sent out as the representative to express their appreciation.
Han Xiao sized these people up. Many Sunil mercenaries were disabled and had mechanic prosthetics. He had read the resumes of these mercenaries earlier; more than half of them were grade C Supers, and a small portion were grade D. It was not suitable for grade D Supers to become mercenaries—it was simply too dangerous. However, the Sunils were facing very tough times, and they needed every bit of help they could get. So, they had no choice but to let stronger mercenaries help the weaker ones.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. I will choose missions that are suitable for you, then you can decide whether or not to accept them. Since you have joined me, you have to listen to orders. Let’s be clear about one thing first. You can have objections to my orders, and we can make negotiations. However, if you disobey my orders behind my back, I will stop working with you immediately. Of course, I don’t wish for that to happen. You’re facing a tough time, and I understand it. After all, I was there for the recent Sunil Catastrophe. You don’t have to worry about me giving you missions that are impossible for you to complete…”
Since he was the leader of the faction, he had to ensure his absolute control. Although the Sunil mercenaries were valuable to him, Han Xiao was not going to completely compromise for them.
The Sunil mercenaries nodded and agreed without any objection. In their eyes, Han Xiao being willing to share his influence with them was already a huge help.
Han Xiao opened the mercenary panel and picked out a few missions to let them choose. These hiring missions were not open hires given by the alliance that were available to everyone; these were private request from other partners that had very rich rewards. The difference was that when normal mercenaries requested missions, they were the one making the request, and they were the ones being picked. However, the private hires that he got were requests from others, inviting him to work together. This was the benefit that the Black Star Mercenary Group received after making a name. The partners were all large mercenary groups, so they might not really need help, but they were willing to share the profits, which was actually to build a better relationship, mainly because of his identity as part of Floating Dragon.
Most of the Sunil mercenaries operated individually. They had to go through life and death situations only to get very small rewards. They had never seen missions that were safe yet had such rich rewards. Naturally, they were overjoyed. Although there were only a few missions to choose from, they still took their time choosing. After quite a long discussion, they finally chose to accept the cooperation request sent by Sky Ring Army, to escort a resource scouting team to an unpopulated planet in the north of the Garton Galaxy.
When they were picking, Han Xiao did not speak. He leaned against the glass panel on the rooftop and played with a compressed orb in his hands. After they made their choice, he then said, “Although this is quite an easy mission, I need to test your combat abilities just in case. Let’s go to the Battle Simulation Room.”
The Sunil mercenaries thought that this was unnecessary, but they could only obey the captain. They left the rooftop and came to the Battle Simulation Room.
Han Xiao rented a large room, walked in, and stood opposite everyone.
The Sunil mercenaries exchanged looks. Lerden coughed, took a step forward, and said, “I shall be the first one to test then.”
“No need, all of you together. Saves time,” Han Xiao said.
The people were stunned. We have a hundred people here, and you want us to attack together? Isn’t that too arrogant even for a grade B Super?
A sense of anger surfaced in their hearts; they felt they were being underestimated. Although we are here to work for you, you’ll regret taking us lightly!
With anger on their faces, the Sunil mercenaries spread out and drew their weapons, preparing for battle.
The team of a hundred men slanted forward slightly, ready to charge forward. Their united presence was like a lion that was about to attack its prey.
Opposing them, Han Xiao looked so solitary.
Only if they were taken seriously would they get better treatment. They decided to go all out and showcase their full power. Since you want to be beaten up, we will give you a good beating!
Herlous turned on the Stimulation Room. The white room turned into a flat, stone plane, very wide and spacious. He looked at the warriors of his race and shook his head.
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Over the past few days, Han Xiao would call him to test the power of his weapons from time to time. He knew full well how powerful Han Xiao was. He was just hoping that his friends would not get beaten too tragically.
Han Xiao moved his shoulder and felt the compressed orbs on his belt. At this moment, he suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu, like he had gone back to the first time that he used the Mechanic class to shine in the arena and demolished kids from everywhere. From that time, his path as a booster had started, and he had never looked back.
This was not just to test the Sunil mercenaries—he was also testing his actual strength and earn their respect.
The Sunil mercenaries had joined him purely for his influence; they actually did not look up to him for his strength. Most of the mercenaries now looked at the Black Star Mercenary Group this way. Many people were jealous—they felt like Black Star had become related to Dragon Emperor out of pure luck, otherwise they would just be a third-tier group. They would be able to do it too if they were that lucky.
This was a disadvantage of becoming popular too quickly; people doubted his strength. Han Xiao had expected this from the start, but when comparing the pros and cons, what he was doing now was definitely more beneficial. It was normal to have some side effects. Mercenaries always respected the strong, and he did this to beat them face to face so that they would respect him.
The corners of his mouth rose, and the desire of battle appeared on his face.
“Come.”
Boom boom boom!
The Sunil mercenaries took a step forward and started charging forward right away. The ranged warriors fired cannons and lasers that approached very quickly.
Han Xiao stood on the spot without moving. A flash of lightning appeared on his body. The two earring orbs flew up into the air and quickly turned into two Hovering Shield Shuttles, forming two purple-blue shields, blocking above his head and before him. All the ranged attacks exploded on the thin and mirror-like energy shields, causing ripples.
Buzz!
The sound was continuous. Compressed orbs flew out of his belt one after another and floated around him.
Magnetic energy activated immediately, and these compressed orbs were spread out by the energy and hit the ground as fast as bullets with a clank, expanding instantly!
The setup was complete in an instant!
The next second, twenty-two ground artilleries and fourteen hovering artilleries appeared, firing at the hundred opponents simultaneously.
Tu tu tu tu tu!
The flashes from the muzzle were one meter long. Some of them were high caliber gunpowder artillery that used special magazines, and some were electromagnetic artillery. The firepower coverage of thirty-six artilleries did not have a blind spot. The formation of the Sunil mercenaries was broken immediately. Their speed decreased, and they had difficulty dodging the hail of bullets.
The artilleries were located beside or behind Han Xiao. The area within about a hundred meters outside was covered in mechanical traps and obstacles, limiting his movements and preventing enemies from getting too close. Every trap was one to two meters tall, and their triggering range was much larger than their size. Electric sparks were flashing on these traps, dissuading people from daring to even step on them.
In the blink of an eye, a formation expanded right beside him!
The Sunil mercenaries had trouble taking a single step, and they were immediately disadvantaged and struggling.
On the other hand, Han Xiao was standing still with hands in his pockets and a calm face, like the extremely violent explosions happening at that moment had nothing to do with him.
Chapter 415. New Combat Style (3) |
After gaining the compression technology, both the depth and breadth of a Mechanic’s combat abilities would drastically increase. They would gain the ability to take control of the situation or even turn the tables immediately. The focus was to deploy the machinery as fast as possible and the right combination of machinery at the right place. The speed of deploying that machinery would have a very large impact on the outcome of the battle.
After the version of Mechanics rising, the method that other Supers used was mostly striking and charging before the Mechanic could deploy their machinery fully. If a Mechanic was allowed to deploy their weapons freely, the situation would be irreversible, and the enemy would slide down the abyss of failure. Of course, this was in the case of normal situations, not considering some special abilities or items.
In the case of battle tempo, Mechanics always had the upper hand. The enemies were forced to follow it and stop Mechanics from deploying their machinery. This was a very big advantage. Furthermore, even if the Mechanic’s tempo was broken temporarily and they did not have the time to deploy the machinery fully, the enemies could not let their guard down. If the Mechanic caught their breath and deployed the machinery afterward, the tables would turn in an instant, and the enemies’ effort before would all go to waste.
Han Xiao’s Mechanic class was now beginning to take shape and possessed this tough ability. He was also very experienced, so it was impossible for his speed of deploying the machinery to be slow. This time, cannons and fire covered the entire place, so the Sunil mercenaries inevitably fell one after another. This was just a spar, so the Sunil mercenaries who fell onto the ground were dragged off the battlefield by Herlous, who stood on the side. Ever since the battle started, he had been kept busy by doing this continuously. He had never been given a chance to even rest.
A Pugilist mercenary flexed his legs, then jumped up into the air, drawing a parabola in the air, wanting to jump over the floor filled with traps and reach Han Xiao.
At this time, a metal trap that he jumped over was suddenly triggered. A grenade shot up into the air and exploded with a bang. A blue, net-shaped current extended out from the center of the explosion. This was a capturing trap formed by long, thin metal cables with a high voltage running through it. It shrouded the Pugilist mercenary who was still in midair.
Buzz!
This guy screamed in agony as his skin was burnt black by the current, then he fell down to another repulsion trap. An invisible force pushed this guy up into the air again, and a few artilleries turned toward him and focus fired. The bullets pushed him out of the area.
He fell to the ground, unconscious.
This stopped the other mercenaries from wanting to jump up.
“It’s not so easy to jump across all that.” Han Xiao smiled. There were landmines in the traps, and there were also traps that could sense objects above them and attack accordingly to prevent enemies from getting close in midair.
Within the range of his Mechanical Force, any machinery received bonuses from him. Some artillery was placed beside him, and its power was enhanced multiple times. Whoever was at the front would face the most violent and heaviest attacks. Because of this, the mercenaries spread out and charged from all directions, diverting the firepower from the artillery.
Lerden was covered in a green shield that was flickering under the rain of bullets as he charged forward. In other directions, there was quite a number of mercenaries who were equipped with shield generators. The colorful shields charged through the cannons and traps, approaching quickly.
Han Xiao formed a hook with his fingers. Another batch of compressed orbs flew out and dropped beside him, expanding into twenty or so beast shaped robots. Their size was about the same as medium-sized dog breeds, but they were covered in black armor and had a streamlined body like cheetahs, like armored panthers. There was an opening on both of their shoulders, exposing the triple mounted gun barrels from the machine guns inside. Their tails were very swift and looked like a scorpion tail, at the end of which was a sharp alloy blade.
Han Xiao had prepared three combos. One was the Multi-Turret Firepower Coverage Style, which did not require any technicality. Another was the Trap Style, which required a little bit of control, mainly regarding where to place which traps and whether these traps could pro
tect him and limit the enemies’ movement. The last was the Hound Style.
The Hound Style was controlling a group of small mechanic beasts, entangling, harassing, and culling the enemies like hounds. As the basic machinery that formed this style was called Mechanical Hounds, hence the name. This blueprint was rather easy to obtain. Han Xiao was using an enhanced version of mechanical beasts.
[‘Black Panther’ Combat Mechanic Beast] was a new blueprint that he had created after combining numerous low-level mechanical beast blueprints. One ‘Black Panther” had 2,700 points of armor, and the basic mechanical hound only had 1,500. Its attack was also increased by around seventy percent. It had more functions and better performance. Of course, it possessed the essential self-destruction ability.
“Go,” Han Xiao said. The twenty or so mechanical Black Panthers dashed out extremely quickly as the barrels on their shoulders opened fire. They swiftly moved across the battlefield between the gaps of the traps, attacking from the rear and the sides of the enemies. These were the weak points of their defense, and their speed was immediately slowed down.
As soon as any mercenary got close to the mechanical Black Panther, it would jump away, always keeping its distance and only going closer to the enemy when attacking.
Sometimes, three or four mechanic Black Panthers would cooperate with each other, diverting the enemies’ attention from different directions while one of them attacked from the back, slashing with its tail and dealing quite an amount of damage.
Mechanical Black Panthers were equipped with smart chips, and four of them formed a group. They could only carry out some simple tactical strategies in fours. Han Xiao’s ability to build chips was still at the basic level, so the mechanic Black Panthers’ combat ability was not independent enough. The number of orders that they could recognize and carry out was limited, so they could only be used to harass.
