Chapter 588: Chapter 178: Jealousy in the Shadows (Part 3)

There was a personal discount involved; normally, this Mecha wouldn’t cause a splash without spending a hundred billion, but the money Su Xiaocai collected was like the price of cabbages.

Admiral Bai isn’t a fool.

Because of this, everyone paid great attention to Su Xiaocai’s samples, hoping to earn some favor and request a custom Mecha.

Through the live broadcast, someone noticed the actions of the soldiers and couldn’t help but ask, why can some people remain unhurried in the middle of a war with the Insect Men?

"Anyone asking this thinks all soldiers are Mecha Masters? Not all units are suited to charge up front; there are forwards and defenders, different roles, that’s normal."

"The Insect Men evolve so quickly; only by studying and utilizing them can we defeat them. It may look like they’re taking it slow, but they’re just being steady, not swift. Do you know how dangerous a sample leak is? If you’re not a professional, don’t comment recklessly."

"Look quickly, the sense of oppression is so strong."

On the signal tower’s deck, the Insect Men were almost cleared out, and the mutant Acid-spitting Worm was fully exposed. From afar, it looked huge, and up close, even larger.

A powerful weapon from a support ship locked onto the Acid-spitting Worm.

Competitors dispersed separately.

Shortly after dispersing, a beam of magical blue light shot into the "slug," piercing its skin, and then it created a secondary shockwave.

Silently, half its body exploded, sending out countless chunks of flesh.

The continuous aftershocks caused it to contract its body to conserve energy and recover.

Originally, there were not many Insect Men around the mutant Acid-spitting Worm; after this, many space-roaming Insect Men slowly gathered, targeting its scattered flesh, and fiercely gnawing at it.

"Quick, stop them."

Mindlessly eating one’s own kind comes at a price.

After swallowing these chunks of flesh, a tumor strangely grew in the insects’ mouths.

The tumor greedily absorbed the nutrients from the Insects, turning them into puppets.

"Hiss, hissing, it can even keep the flesh chunks parasitically active."

Someone gasped; with Insect Men, anything could happen.

Not all flesh chunks from the mutant Acid-spitting Worm can parasitize, just those larger in size. Wu Qingqing stepped forward and thrust a sharp knife into an Insect Man’s mouth, twisting it around and pulling out the flesh mass, while the acid splashed everywhere, melting the defenses of weaker Insect Men on contact.

Wu Qingqing’s eyes lit up; the acid didn’t affect the Mecha but was harmful to other Insect Men. A good thing.

She turned and tore apart the parasitic body of an attacking Acid-spitting Worm, then used her shield to fling the acid away.

Sending the acid to more distant Insect Men.

Delivering a fatal blow to the cowardly Insect Soldiers.

Other players watched wide-eyed.

Commentator Mr. Niu praised: "The Vegetable Farmers and others may not be the strongest players on the field, but they are certainly the ones who can survive the longest on the battlefield or in a crisis. They are extremely sensitive to environmental changes, and while others avoid the acid, Qingqing can immediately create conditions to turn it into a weapon for large-scale damage against the Insect Men."

Professional commentators have sharp eyes, not biased, not envious. As long as Wu Qingqing is cautious enough, racking up points will be no problem.

Several players felt like sucking lemons in their hearts, "So sour, I’m so envious, Black Wing’s performance is really excellent."

Some Mechas have exteriors more inclined towards defense, especially important when operating in space.

They can defend against this but not that; the acid from the Acid-spitting Worms can’t be touched lightly, leaving many Mecha Masters feeling helpless against magical attacks.

Using the acid web defense from the Insect Men, Wu Qingqing slew them en masse.

Su Xiaocai was quite pleased with Wu Qingqing’s hit-and-run, cautious yet not overly aggressive style, Xing Miao commented, "She shouldn’t have brought Suo Meiya at the start. It restricted her actions too much."

Su Xiaocai didn’t blame Wu Qingqing’s initial move.

Learning from experience, at only twenty years old, youthful, with some recklessness and kindness, it’s normal.

Humans are not plants; from the first meeting, Su Xiaocai knew Wu Qingqing could easily be warm towards people.

This is her strength, but also her weakness.

Fortunately, her values and decisively upright personality neutralized this weakness.

For those who don’t align with her principles, Wu Qingqing can promptly withdraw.

"It’s okay, Wu Qingqing is a good student, as long as her mindset isn’t affected."

Xing Miao: "Just pamper her,"

"Suo Meiya is your roommate, right? What do you think of her?" Su Xiaocai once asked Li Leilei and Feng Wansha the same question.

Asking Xing Miao again, she got a similar answer, but Xing Miao specifically looked into things concerning the Soma God followers.

"We don’t spend much time with them, they’re the quiet type, but you can notice a strong religious characteristic about them. Their clothes, the beads on their hands, all about their deity. They believe the deity created everything in the universe and that you can’t disrespect the deity. The deity is the supreme existence. Aside from the deity, the highest status is the Priest, whom you must kneel to when meeting."

Xing Miao continued: "I don’t understand, haven’t they been educated? Why are they still so devout?"

"Habit, I suppose. You can believe in science and also believe that the end of science is theology. Deep-rooted thoughts since childhood, verbally acknowledging science, yet still respecting their deity through actions."

"Many who believe in deities pray for fairness." Hence Suo Meiya’s absurd remarks.

But the deity is already transcending, fairness or not, why would it matter to them? It’s people who want fairness.

Suo Meiya returned to the battlefield and specifically checked Wu Qingqing’s score, already surpassing 800 points. What did she do to kill so much in just over an hour?

However, Wu Qingqing wasn’t the fiercest Insect Slayer; the most vicious was the madman from Jun Yue’s second team, the one who claimed his underwear was red.

He wanted to regain his reputation and went on a killing spree in a fit of anger.

Suo Meiya couldn’t see the dozen people ahead of Wu Qingqing, so she focused on Wu Qingqing’s score.

If it weren’t for the continuous live broadcast, she’d suspect Wu Qingqing of cheating; why kill more after cooperation, why not during? Wu Qingqing must have done this on purpose.

Jealousy clouded Suo Meiya’s mind as she searched for Wu Qingqing, eyes red, watching the leaderboard constantly refresh, with four Vegetable Farmers in the top ten.

Ji Er, Da Chun, Ah Ping, and Shasha, they are like Insect Man mincers.

Though Feng Wansha’s piloting skills might be a notch below those ahead, she’s clever, using Mechanical Planet’s doors in her favor, she tweaked them to kill over a hundred Insect Men chasing her, and in one swing those tens of thousands of doors crushed Insect Men into mush.

If it weren’t for the corrosive Insect Men inside, Feng Wansha could’ve continued her spree.

Suo Meiya wasn’t aware of this at all; she just grew more convinced that the Mecha was the reason for the gap between her and Wu Qingqing.

Unknowingly, she edged closer to Wu Qingqing, her sneaky movements eerily similar to those looking to take advantage. She believed it was unfair, so she aimed to snatch Wu Qingqing’s Insect Men to balance things out.

Wu Qingqing had anticipated this early on; not knowing Suo Meiya was among these people, she simply chose the fastest scoring route, leaving scraps for other players to clean up.

Her current focus was on finding an opportunity to take down the mutant Acid-spitting Worm.

The mutant Acid-spitting Worm was marked as a special Greed, killing it would earn a thousand points.

But Wu Qingqing wasn’t just after a thousand points; it was a task requirement. She remembered Su Xiaocai’s instructions well, in the military, obedience is critical, and tasks come first.

Everyone had their tasks; their players’ task was to clear the Insect Men from this signal tower, allowing logistics to dismantle the connecting pipes and separate the entire signal tower from Mechanical Planet.

The signal tower’s material is very special; if not completely damaged, recycling and reusable can save a large sum of material costs.

Insect Men that have been successfully parasitized had their bodies pierced by parasitic tentacles, tightened, and were controlled to walk towards the mutant Acid-spitting Worm.

Everyone could already imagine why the mutant Acid-spitting Worm grew so huge.

The support ship’s commander requested all competitors do their best to intercept, kill, and stop these Acid-spitting Worms.

While the logistics Mecha soldiers went to collect those Acid-spitting Worm flesh chunks, preventing them from having the chance to absorb Insect Men nutrients and complete their parasitism.