“Could it be that everyone from the First Men’s Military Academy knows this move? Or maybe this move was created by Qiao Ting to begin with? And that person just used it first?” In the audience, some people had begun their wild speculations, contemplating this possibility. They felt that their guess was very likely to be true — after all, Qiao Ting was the number one of the military academies, and he was also the supreme prodigy known as the second Ling Xiao. It was much more convincing for him to be the creator of this new technique rather than that unknown youth earlier.
Of course, they also did not dare to claim their conclusions were true just like that — their speculations had to be established upon the premise of Qiao Ting’s success in executing this move.
When the distance between the two combatants was once again stretched far enough for fixed-point shooting, Qiao Ting operated his mecha to turn around swiftly. This series of operations were almost identical to Ling Lan’s in the previous match …
The seamless operations left the audience gasping in awe and also made the top-class mecha masters nod silently in approval.
Even one of the two imperial operators monitoring the match from up above could not help but praise, “This kid’s pretty good. Almost copying the previous one’s movements exactly without making any mistakes.”
“Not bad. The title of second Ling Xiao, he’s still worthy of it.” The other person seemed to be a little pickier with regards to Qiao Ting; his tone was extremely indifferent.
His companion’s words surprised the first imperial operator who had spoken. “Ah, so he’s the one!” General Ling Xiao was renowned throughout the entire Federation. Ever since that imperial operator had returned to the Federation and found out that it had such an amazingly talented god-class operator, he had been filled with admiration. “Speaking of General Ling Xiao, I heard that there is no technique he doesn’t know. They say he’s a complete comprehensive talent.”
His companion was stunned by his words. “You … do you not know that General Ling Xiao’s innate talent is Duplication?” In the Federation, this was practically an open secret.
In response, that imperial operator said somewhat embarrassedly, “You’ve forgotten where I’m from.”
His companion was suddenly enlightened, recalling the other’s background. He said apologetically, “Sorry, I had forgotten you are from the Lawless Lands.”
The Lawless Lands was one of the three ungoverned zones at the fringes of human-populated star systems. It was hundreds of thousands of light-years away from the Federation. The resources there were extremely scarce and the climate was frightful, even worse than that of fourth-rate planets which had been labelled by the Federation as possessing the worst living conditions for human beings. Without a certain level of strength, it was impossible for someone to live there.
The Lawless Lands was a place of sin. Aside from the rare aborigines, all who stayed there were criminals and fugitives from the various nations.
At the Lawless Lands, war and strife reigned all year round — different factions warred with each other, vying for their own territory. There, ace operators were as common as dogs. Anyone who was not an ace just could not survive, and only imperial operators could live like actual people, obtaining a secure place for themselves.
Of course, once someone in the Lawless Lands succeeded in ascending to imperial operator level, they would have the chance to start anew and choose their future path again. They could choose to return to the world of human order (war criminals and refugees mostly chose this option), and their past crimes would be wiped clean. Of course, they could also choose to continue remaining in the Lawless Lands (the aborigines mostly chose this option) and become a duke in their own right.
That imperial operator was originally a deserter from the Federation. When he had advanced to imperial level, he had chosen to return to the Federation and become a member of the foreign deterrent forces of the military. However, when he had run away to the Lawless Lands back then, Ling Xiao had not been born yet, and there had always been an embargo on news and material goods enforced by the various human nations against the Lawless Lands. Thus, it was impossible to hear news of Ling Xiao there. The imperial operator had only heard bits and pieces of General Ling Xiao’s exploits after returning to the Federation, and so he really did not know some of these open secrets.
His companion’s apology swept away the imperial operator’s awkwardness. He continued to say, “Duplication for an innate talent … that’s insane! So this innate talent can fully duplicate an opponent’s techniques after seeing it just once 1 ?”
“Yes, you can say that. That’s why everyone says that he knows every technique. Even for those he doesn’t know, he just needs to see others perform it once and he’ll know them,” said his companion in an envious tone.
It should be known that the average mecha master needed multiple rounds of tough training to fully comprehend and master an advanced technique and make it their own. In contrast, this innate talent of Ling Xiao was like a cheating device, greatly shortening the time needed to acclimatize. As long as Ling Xiao wanted a skill, just observing it once would do. What’s even more frightening was the fact that video recordings of many of the existing present-day mecha techniques could be found in the virtual world. Therefore, as long as Ling Xiao wanted, there really was no technique he could not obtain.
Of course, this did not rule out the fact that some secluded elite families would have their own secret techniques. These definitely could not be found in the virtual world, but they had to be very careful and remember to never display these skills before General Ling Xiao, otherwise these top-secret techniques which symbolised the sect and family clan would become General Ling Xiao’s too.
“Perhaps, this is also why General Ling Xiao was able to ascend to god-class,” said the imperial operator from the Lawless Lands enviously. At their level, they could already tell what their limits were. They had already exhausted their potential to become imperial operators, and so they were destined to be imperial operators for life now. Not fated to become god-class operators … it had to be said that this was their regret.
The two of them only chatted casually a bit more before their attention was drawn to Qiao Ting’s strange condition.
In mid-flight, Qiao Ting had adjusted his shooting direction several times, and just when everyone thought he was about to shoot, he did not move, holding back. From the time he had turned to fly in the opposite direction till now, three minutes had passed. In contrast, from turning around till shooting, Ling Lan had only used one minute. There was no doubt that the time Qiao Ting was using had already exceeded Ling Lan’s by double the amount …
Qiao Ting’s gaze was tightly locked onto the opponent within the sight of his gun; he could almost see the chance to shoot again … his finger could not help but twitch, but in the end, he still eased the pressure off his finger and endured, once again choosing to give up.
He clearly felt that there was a chance, but he did not have the courage to take the shot because he was not 100% certain, no, he was not even 50% certain he would succeed. Otherwise, with more than half the chances, he would have been willing to take the gamble. Only at this time did he know that he had still underestimated this seemingly simple mobile fixed-point shooting …
“Should I give up now?” Sweat started to flow down from Qiao Ting’s forehead, sliding over the curves of his eyebrows to drip down along the bridge of his nose … he, who had always been confident, began to doubt himself for the first time. Could he really recreate that move of Ling Lan’s? Perhaps he should have used a more stable shooting art to complete this sure-kill.
“No, I cannot give up! Once I give up, that would mean I have admitted defeat to Ling Lan!” Another stubborn voice in Qiao Ting’s mind leapt out to stop him.
“If you cannot complete that move, you would still have lost to Ling Lan!”Rationality once again calmly asserted the facts. “In that case, you might as well do what you should.”
“Should I really just end things like this?” Qiao Ting was very reluctant.
” Even a decade is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge 2 , and besides, your true battle with Ling Lan is a year later. Why are you in such a hurry to suppress the other now? Envy will not let you improve …” Rationality once again won the upper hand. Qiao Ting’s gaze settled and he made his decision.
“The time is fast approaching 4 minutes. Compared to that teammate of his, he has already used almost three minutes more. It looks like that mobile fixed-point shooting has stumped him,” the imperial operator from the Lawless Lands could not help but grin and say. Qiao Ting’s abnormal state naturally could not fool the eyes of the two imperial operators up above.
“He is still a little too young and wilful, thinking that his control skills cannot be weaker than the other, conceitedly thinking to replicate the other’s special technique. Unfortunately … this special skill is not something one can learn with just one look. Even if he knew all the numerical data and operation methods, to perfectly execute it would still require countless practice runs,” his companion sighed and said, shaking his head. Qiao Ting’s mecha operation innate talent was indeed very outstanding, but that alone was not enough. The only question now was whether this Qiao Ting would realize this in time — the imperial operator hoped that Qiao Ting would not disgrace the title of ‘second Ling Xiao’.
“There is only one General Ling Xiao!” said the Lawless Lands imperial operator. Similarly, he too was not optimistic about Qiao Ting’s decision to replicate the move.
Qiao Ting’s hesitation was very quickly discovered by the audience members. They all began discussing among themselves — some who had initially thought that the mobile fixed-point shooting was created by Qiao Ting had also decisively discarded this notion at this time. Right then, they were no longer concerned with the final outcome. Instead, what they wanted to know was whether Qiao Ting would take that shot at the end and whether that shot would succeed.
Qiao Ting had been a decisive person from the start — he only hesitated out of self-doubt for an instant. Once his mind was firm once more, he no longer hesitated. He quickly changed his shooting stance. This shift threw the audience into an uproar — they had not expected Qiao Ting to choose to give up after hesitating for up to 4 minutes.
“Good. Daring to ignore any taunting and giving up decisively to choose the most accurate method of attack … this Qiao Ting’s future is immeasurable.”
Unlike the audience, the eyes of the top-class mecha masters in attendance as well as the representatives from the various army divisions lit up. The current Qiao Ting, compared to before, had grown again in terms of mentality. Moreover, within this extremely short time frame, he had been able to decisively make the most accurate judgment. Even if he was put into a battlefield, he should be able to live a little longer than others.
The Federation truly valued ace operators, but they valued this kind of ace operator who could live longer even more. This was because only ace operators who survived could climb even higher and higher peaks to become the Federation’s ultimate weapon and become a deterrent against other countries.
Without question, this performance of Qiao Ting’s had proven that he was likely to be this type of person. Several army division representatives even decided that they would return to report to their commanders to fight for Qiao Ting to join their divisions.
Qiao Ting very quickly corrected his stance and once again reverted to his most proficient attack method. That feeling of having everything within his control returned, and he quickly took aim at the opponent, locked on instantly, and pulled the trigger.
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!” Almost without any pause, four shots were fired simultaneously. In the end, Qiao Ting had still chosen his best advanced shooting art —— the N-point Blockade.
The N-point Blockade could fire up to nine bullets simultaneously, sealing off all possible landing points of the opponent at the same time. To begin with, this shooting art combined with the extraordinarily powerful ballistic sniper rifle was a match made in heaven, capable of instantly strangulating the opponent in its web. Now, executed with a long-range long-barrelled beam gun, although its power had been reduced by n-levels, it was still exceedingly easy to land hits on the opponent and deal damage with this technique.