While Lakely was still fretting over Ye Muo.
Zenir and Ye Muo were becoming fast friends.
Zenir spread his blanket out on the ground and invited Ye Muo over to sit together. He gladly lent Ye Muo the blanket he had scavenged from an overturned cabinet in the aquarium.
The topic of conversation had transitioned from who was older to the best flavour of nutrient solution.
“This strawberry flavour is nice and sweet. Captain has a lot of them in his mech button. He’s the best! His mech button is filled with supplies aside from the mech itself. We even have medical supplies.”
Teams could bring in a certain amount of supplies, provided they were declared in advance. The storage capacity of mech buttons also had to be considered. On Team Kernan, only Ressa’s mech button had enough space to store miscellaneous items without affecting the operation of the mech.
Ye Muo laid out his collection of nutrient solution as well. He was disappointed to find that he didn’t have any strawberry flavoured ones. “I only have one flavour.”
“Cucumber? That’s a weird one. I can swap a couple with you.”
Zenir looked a little embarrassed. He lowered his voice, “I can’t just give them to you as each team has a limited supply. We’re about to run out soon ourselves. Then Captain will have to go out and look for more. He works really hard.”
Ye Muo shook his head. “It’s fine. I still have plenty.”
He paused before pointing in a certain direction. “There’s a relatively obscure vending machine over there. I took some, but there’s still a lot of left. I can take you guys there.”
Zenir perked up. “Really?”
His blond teammate reminded him, “You have to run this by the captain first.”
Zenir’s head drooped. “There’s no way he would agree.”
He seemed somewhat dissatisfied.
“Why not though? Even someone as young as Ye Muo can go.”
The blond shot him a silent look.
Ressa did not allow them to go out and search for supplies. The only thing Zenir has found so far was that blanket. It wasn’t that useful at the moment, but that would change when they ran out of sleeping bag capsules, the naive young man thought.
He quickly regained his spirits. “Tell me where it is. I’ll mention it to the captain later.”
He whispere to Ye Muo after memorizing the coordinates, “Our captain’s too on edge all the time. He’s afraid of us running into enemies if we head out by ourselves. I’m not scared though. I just want to help.”
Ye Muo whispered back, “Aren’t you afraid of being caught by people stronger than you?”
Even Ye Muo was a bit nervous. He was afraid of losing face for Norton. Bert would surely laugh at him too.
“A bit, yeah. My grade in the military academy were okay but nothing exceptional. I can’t even last a minute in a spar against our captain. Still, he’s working himself to the bone. At the very worst, I’ll admit defeat if I end up in a fight and forfeit the competition. Surely they can’t just keep beating on me, right?”
Forfeiting was allowed in the resource tournament. However, as a precaution against bad actors, competitors were only allowed to forfeit when bested by a stronger opponent in a fight. There were associated devices on their person and in their mecha. Should these devices fail, they could verbally admit defeat. They would be allowed to forfeit as long as they fully expressed their intent to do so. The other party would not be allowed to give chase either.
Zenir laughed at this point, revealing a cute little dimple. Ye Muo kind of wanted to poke it.
He actually asked too, “Zenir, may I poke your dimple?”
Zenir puffed out his cheeks at once, causing the dimple to disappear. “No way. I’m older than you, which makes me your senior. You can poke my cheeks just this once.”
The sky was still dark when Ye Muo woke up the next morning.
Zenir was curled up in his sleeping bag nearby. His teammates were scattered around the other corners of the building. Zenir had insisted on placing his sleeping bag beside Ye Muo last night, whispering to him until the moment he fell asleep.
Ye Muo set Zenir’s blanket along with several bottles of nutrient solution beside him.
When he got up, he met the gaze of Ressa, who had been keeping an eye on their surroundings all night.
Ressa was still his usual gentle self. He nodded to Ye Muo before tossing him something from across the room.
Ye Muo caught it on instinct. He realized it was a portable sleeping bag capsule that was half the length of his pinky. He had seen Zenir use one last night. There was a gel inside that would swiftly expand into a sleeping bag upon use. Such a thing didn’t exist back in Grantz.
By the time he turned back to Ressa, the man was already staring out into the distance.
Ye Muo left.
Lakely finally breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a bit. He had been monitoring Xiboen’s movements the whole time.
Their arrival was imminent.
Those infamous jackals were about to descend upon their prey.
Xiboen’s conduct has always been controversial. They were unscrupulous and ruthless, taking delight in humiliating their enemies. Despite this, their visually impressive fighting style and strength garnered them a lot of fans. They had always been a hot topic during the tournament. Many professional commentators followed them and even the official livestream often cut to their perspective.
The audience watched Xiboen close in while keeping an eye on Kernan’s movements.
[They’re nearby! You’re almost there! Crush them!]
[This is what I’m talking about, repaying wrongs a hundred, a thousandfold! Who dares to offend Xiboen now?]
[Funny how Xiboen only bothers settling debts with Kernan. With Boston? They’re falling over themselves to be polite.]
[Don’t sweat the details. They’re just doing what’s popular. Few of the countries ranking above Xiboen can attract the same amount of attention they do.]
……
Meanwhile, Ressa told his team they had to leave as soon as they were all awake. Zenir packed up his things, including that blanket.
“Can we head over to take a look, Captain? Ye Muo said it’s not far from here.”
Ressa picked up a hint of movement and strode outside.
He suddenly came to a stop. Zenir braked sharply in his tracks and called out in confusion, “Captain?”
He peered around Ressa at the duo approaching from a distance, staring right at them. Their uniforms indicated they were members of Team Xiboen.
Zenir could only stare until Ressa forcefully shoved him back.
“Run.”
Ressa summoned his mech without hesitation as soon as those words fell. Armour covered his entire body as he launched into a fierce offensive.
The duo from Team Xiboen also immediately equipped their mecha. They dodged Ressa’s attack before firing into the air to signal the rest of their team to hurry over. Then they focused on defending against Ressa’s attacks. “You’re a hard man to find, Ressa.”
One of them tried to bypass Ressa to go after the others, but Ressa backed up enough to block their path.
“Stubborn as ever, I see. Just admit defeat already if you know what’s good for you.”
Ressa’s relentless assault was his only response. The duo were unable to cope under the offensive pressure and were gradually forced back.
[As expected of the newcomer with the most potential that year. Two against one is nothing for him. If only he had debuted with a strong country like Xiboen who could afford to invest in him. He would have surely become a household name already.]
[A true Xiboen fan would never say something like that. Did you defect? Boring.]
[No, no, no. They know full well that Ressa would never concede. Kernan would really be done for if he does. The rest of his team would be lambs to the slaughter. Ressa is the kind of person who refuses to leave Kernan even in their current state. How could he forfeit here?]
[This is bad… I like it!]
[The rest of Team Xiboen is here. There’s Aize. He’ll be able to take on Ressa.]
A dull thump came from behind.
Ressa froze before whirling around.
He saw a mech curled up on the ground beside a pile of construction materials in disarray.
Zenir then quickly came over in his mech to support the fallen mech.
Then came the blond young man’s mech. He herded the rest of the team over.
Ressa retreated to where Zenir and the others were, shielding them from sight with his larger mech.
Zenir was a tiny bit less terrified now that Ressa was here. “We weren’t able to get away, Captain.”
Severa mecha emblazoned with the Xiboen insignia landed in their vicinity.
The duo Ressa had been fighting also relaxed. They ignored him and greeted the newcomers.
“You sure got here quick, Aize.”
Someone one else responded, “Aize has bigger fish to fry. He’s mad that a couple of them managed to run off. We’ll have to look for them later.”
[RIP to the people unlucky enough to run right into Aize.]
[They’ve been surrounded? It’s all over. Ressa’s the only one who can put up a fight, but his mech is holding him back.]
One of the members of Team Xiboen spoke.
“What a shame. How about we make a deal? For every one of us your captain is able to best, I’ll let one of you go. Rest assured that I’m a man of my word.”
Ressa rose. “You’d best be.”
Zenir became wary. “They’re definitely up to something, Captain. Why don’t we just forfeit?”
[Things are heating up!]
……
Ye Muo stopped in his tracks. He found a relatively tall building and scanned the area he had come from for the source of that loud, heavy thump.
He’s heard similar sounds many times over the past few days. It was the sound of mecha crashing into each other. Someone, no, some group was fighting out there.
Yet things were a little different this time. The place Zenir’s team had set up camp was in that direction.
Ye Muo waited several seconds. He hesitated after confirming the sounds before turning back. He hadn’t gotten that far anyway, so there was no harm in going back to take a look.
Zenir wouldn’t be beaten to tears, right? He should go back and check on them.
Lakely watched Ye Muo blankly for a moment. When he realized what Ye Muo intended to do, his anxiety skyrocketed, “He’s going to run right into Xiboen if he goes back now! They’re known for being relentless…”
[Ahhh! Don’t go, Xavier! Think of your flag! That’s the only flag for your entire team!]
[Crap, he’s heading back. Why do all of the contestants I have my eyes on always end up on Xiboen’s bad side? I hate you, Xiboen!]
[Who knows? Maybe Xiboen won’t notice him.]
[He would be better off offending Sonan and Allurya. Xavier has the worst luck, doesn’t he?]
[Encountering enemies every six hours… Unable to even get a restful sleep…]
Bert put a hand over his eyes as he observed from a distance. “As expected of a young Grantz.”
“Still, isn’t the difficulty spike a little too steep this time?”
He tried to think back on Ye Muo’s level of combat ability, only to realize he could recall the string of failing grades Ye Muo had gotten once.
Bert shook his head. “Let’s head over just to be sure.”
