Chapter 348: Sure This Is A Mecha? What Must Come Will Come!
Everyone stared in disbelief at what was happening inside the machine fighting cage.
The Chen Family Head had bought a model from that model company, and modifying it so the model could move freely by itself was still within their understanding.
But what had they just seen now?
That mecha had actually leapt high into the air and, as it landed, used the long sword in its hand with perfect precision to pierce straight through the university team’s robot and nail it to the ground.
Yes, in that moment just now, that mecha seemed like a martial arts master, its movements fierce and flawlessly accurate.
Was this really something a modern mecha could do?
Looking at the two robots on stage, it was as if future technology was confronting primitive technology.
The university team members were completely dumbfounded. The operators numbly manipulated their remote controls, then watched as their robot spewed sparks madly, a burst of flame shot out, and it completely shut down.
They felt a bit broken.
Was this what the league meant by “act it out more realistically, don’t let people see too obvious a match-fixing job”?
Come on, league officials, take a look. Does this guy need to play a fixed match?
In the league organizer’s office, Tong Fei was, of course, following this match. Under his direction, the online popularity around the Robot Mecha League had already reached a peak.
He had been planning to use the Chen Family Head’s mecha for another wave of promotion.
Just that moment of the mecha bending down, lifting its leg, and walking into the fighting cage by itself, once released, was enough to shock people.
But looking at the unbelievable scene before him, he could not even hold his cup steady; it slipped from his hand, fell to the ground, and shattered.
“This… this is not our league,” Tong Fei murmured to himself. At the instant the mecha leapt and drove its sword down, he felt as if he had experienced time travel.
But immediately after, his face filled with excitement. Using a scene like this for promotion, how much more shocking could it be?
At that moment, he also saw the mecha lift its long sword. The mecha it had skewered was still hanging on its greatsword, becoming the perfect backdrop.
In that instant, countless spectators frantically raised their mobile phones to record.
The scene felt incredibly powerful.
The host was stunned for a long time before reacting, and even then his words were a bit chaotic; he simply did not know how to comment.
It mainly exceeded his current understanding. Fortunately, the host was quite experienced and still managed to muddle through this segment.
There were other matches coming up.
However, hardly anyone paid attention to the subsequent matches. For the whole morning, no matter how exciting the later robots’ performances were, they drew almost no response.
This kind of “exciting” was simply not on the same level as that mecha’s single sword strike.
Spectators either left early or were already on their phones surfing online.
The video of the Chen Family Head’s mecha’s one-sword power had long since been uploaded, causing a sensation across the entire internet.
Many people who had not seen any related videos before now saw this scene and suddenly felt a sense of unreality, as if the era had just taken a great leap forward.
The key was that the mecha’s appearance matched the concept designs published under the Southern Heavenly Gate Plan.
This subconsciously led many people to go out and buy a copy of the Southern Heavenly Gate Plan concept book.
Zhao Lichong was one of them.
He himself was a mecha enthusiast, so even though the Robot Mecha League got mocked, it was still the only domestic mecha project, so he had been following it.
When he saw the official footage of that mecha’s one sword piercing through Stars and Stripes State University’s robot, he jumped to his feet in excitement.
It was simply unbelievable.
He had not come across the Chen Clan videos in the last couple of days, but he had previously read some information related to the Southern Heavenly Gate Plan, so he hurriedly ran to the nearby bookstore.
He remembered having seen related books there before. At the time, he had scoffed, because what was the current state of domestic robots?
This so-called Southern Heavenly Gate Plan was nothing more than a marketing gimmick and a joke.
Who knew how long it would take for something like that to be built?
But that one sword from the mecha in the Robot Mecha League completely shattered that way of thinking.
It seemed the Southern Heavenly Gate Plan was already being realized.
Wasn’t that mecha the J-16 mecha from the plan?
When he entered the bookstore, he noticed a few people gathered around the Southern Heavenly Gate Plan books chatting.
“These mechas are really cool!”
“Feels a bit like scenes from some anime.”
“They are all fictional sci-fi gimmicks. There is absolutely no way anything like this can appear, at least not for ten or twenty years.”
Zhao Lichong did not know these people, but he was interested in the topic.
So he walked over, picked up a book, and said, “That’s not necessarily true. Domestically we’ve already made a mecha from the Southern Heavenly Gate Plan.”
This surprised the few of them.
They clearly had not seen the Chen Clan videos, or their personal preferences meant they did not like such content and so it would not be recommended to them.
That was normal. There was that internet celebrity with more than thirty million followers who had hit number one on the hot search list. When many people first came across him, they felt baffled.
Some would even ask in the comment section, “Who is this?”
At that point, those people would get flamed by the fans, told their home internet had been cut off for ages or they had just gotten online, how could they not know such a big internet celebrity?
But in fact, that was completely normal. Not to mention how many of those thirty million followers were real fans; many people just do not like that type of content, do not follow it, and Douyin would not push it.
With the data of 4 billion people, fans of that internet celebrity flaming others like that was a bit delusional and arrogant.
Hearing Zhao Lichong’s words, the few people all looked puzzled.
“Brother, are you kidding?”
“Yeah, I may not be a scientist, but I do understand basic common sense.”
“Wasn’t there a robot that performed martial arts before? Everyone praised how flexible it was, but in reality it was scrap after the performance, with serious wear and tear.”
“With current technology, a Southern Heavenly Gate style mecha is absolutely impossible.”
Looking at how confident they were, just like he himself the day before, Zhao Lichong did not say much more. He directly pulled up the video released by the Robot Mecha League and handed it over. “Take a look at this.”
They crowded around in confusion, and as soon as they saw the content, they were all drawn in. That one sword from the mecha was too shocking.
“It has to be fake, right?” one of them exclaimed.
“No way. Absolutely impossible,” another said, feeling shaken. They were living in modern society, and suddenly someone was showing them footage from the future?
After finishing the video, one of them started operating his phone, pulled up several more clips, and said in shock, “It is actually real. This scene happened at the Robot Mecha Tournament, lots of people recorded it.”
“And the Robot Mecha League has just issued an announcement. There will be another match with that mecha this afternoon, and it will be live-streamed.”
Hearing this, Zhao Lichong did not hesitate. He grabbed a Southern Heavenly Gate Plan book, checked out, went home, then ordered sunflower seeds, cola, and other snacks, and waited for the live stream.
Online, the announcement from the Robot Mecha League also caused an uproar.
Just from the video alone, the mecha’s one sword was extremely cool, but without seeing it with their own eyes, people still felt uncertain, thinking it might be a composite video or an AI-generated clip.
Now that they saw there would be a live broadcast in the afternoon, it was different.
They would be able to see it themselves.
You could say that Tong Fei really had a good eye and knew how to capitalize on the popularity.
For a while, countless people were waiting for the Robot Mecha League live stream.
Zhao Lichong was one of them. He was so focused on the stream that he forgot his girlfriend’s invitation to go shopping that afternoon. After much anticipation, the Robot Mecha League live stream finally began.
As soon as the stream started, the host came out to warm up the crowd, but he talked too much nonsense. The live audience was not having it, booing and telling him to announce the start of the match quickly.
Since the Chen Family Head’s mecha was in the first match of the afternoon, the audience was clearly impatient.
Zhao Lichong already understood the situation. He grabbed some sunflower seeds and started watching the show.
The host looked a bit embarrassed.
But as soon as he finished his intro and read out the contestant names, the live camera pointed directly at one of the entrances.
Zhao Lichong’s face also filled with anticipation.
Just then, he heard an angry shout: “Zhao Lichong, you bastard, I told you we were going shopping this afternoon. What are you doing here?”
Seeing his furious girlfriend rush in, Zhao Lichong could only say, “Honey, look at the live stream. You absolutely won’t believe it. Our country has already made something like this.”
His girlfriend was very puzzled but subconsciously looked toward the screen, and then she saw, in disbelief, a domineering mecha walking in from that entrance.
It was walking on its own, and when it reached the fighting cage, it even bent down and lifted its leg to step inside.
That scene was overwhelming.
Even though she was a woman and did not know much about this sort of thing, she could not look away.
No wonder her boyfriend was so shocked.
Seeing this mecha really gave people a feeling of being out of their time, as if this was something that should not exist in this era.
The live audience was completely boiling over.
The shock from the morning match still lingered in their minds.
As for Chen Han’s opponent today, it was the University of Han’s technology team, and they were feeling real pressure.
They had seen the miserable state of the Stars and Stripes State robot.
Because of it, they really wanted to curse out the league organizers. How were they supposed to act, how were they supposed to fake a match? Please, beg that Chen Family Head to throw the match a bit, do not be so ruthless.
They had already decided on their strategy for today: avoid that mecha’s attacks, hold on for a few rounds, then surrender.
They could not surrender outright; that would be too humiliating.
And in terms of dodging, as long as they did not get careless like Stars and Stripes State University and did proper preparation, it should be fine.
So, with their minds made up, the University of Han operators controlled their robot to keep its distance from the Chen Family Head’s over-two-meter-tall mecha and started circling around the four corners of the arena.
When they saw the mecha walking toward their robot, they moved along the edge to keep away, and then watched as the opponent drew the long sword from its back.
The operator tensed to the extreme. If the opponent jumped, they had to dodge that instant.
But while he was thinking that, he saw the mecha’s long sword suddenly thrown out. The move was completely different from what he had expected.
Bang! ~
Clang! ~
After a crisp metallic impact, he instinctively turned his head, his face instantly darkening as he saw their robot nailed in place by a sword, spewing sparks.
“This…” The operator opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.
The team members beside him were stunned. They had told him to maneuver and hold out for a few rounds, and he ended it in one move?
The mecha walked over, pulled out the long sword, sheathed it on its back again, and the battle was cleanly over. The University of Han’s robot lay there, sparking.
Boom! ~
The live audience erupted once more, cheering like crazy.
Seeing the mecha attack again was still just as shocking.
Was this really something a mecha had done? And not a sword master?
Watching the stream, Zhao Lichong and his girlfriend were wide-eyed in shock. Seeing it live was far more impactful than watching a clip.
And it was not just Zhao Lichong and online viewers who were stunned; some foreign robot forums were also in shock.
The Robot Mecha League had been introduced from overseas. The league was even more popular abroad, and the domestic champion would go on to compete in their champions’ tournament.
So there was an official Robot Mecha League forum site overseas, based in the Star-Spangled Nation.
Many overseas Chinese mecha enthusiasts who followed the league would post videos from the domestic league there.
Likewise, many domestic robot mecha enthusiasts with the means to bypass the firewall would upload exciting domestic league clips to the foreign forums.
So it did not take long for many people on foreign forums to see the video of the mecha ending a league robot with one sword.
But the video was so astonishing that no one believed it.
“Fake. Eastern Greatness people really have too much vanity. Their robots cannot rank in the league, so they pull this stunt.”
“Haha, something this impossible? They cannot even make such a video convincing.”
“So ridiculous. Instead of making jokes like this, people in Eastern Greatness should spend more effort researching real technology.”
“……”
The person who had crossed the firewall to post the video was stunned by these reactions.
Damn it, it was real, how could they not believe it?
“Spend more effort on research”?
With that pathetic level of your robots, what “technology” are you talking about?
Looking at the growing wave of mockery, he was speechless at how ignorant they were.
If only the Chen Family Head’s mecha could be turned into a war machine someday, then they would see what “impossible” meant.
Everyone understood that with the Chen Family Head building such a mecha, the higher-ups could not possibly ignore it.
At that moment, back at the league venue, Chen Han was also stunned, because in the fighting cage, above the robot that had been finished with one blow by the Beginner Puppet, there were two clusters of white light floating.
It had dropped items?
And it had dropped two at once.
When Chen Han reacted, he walked into the fighting cage, putting on an act.
Normally, no one but internal staff were allowed into the cage, but the Chen Family Head was different; no one stopped him.
Many people were very curious what he went in there to do.
He was probably checking the mecha’s condition, right?
No one expected the Chen Family Head to actually walk up to the University of Han’s robot, apparently inspecting its damage.
Was he summarizing experience?
Only Chen Han himself knew that he had, as if nothing had happened, already stored the dropped white light into the game warehouse.
【Special Formation Puppet Stone x2: this is a special type of puppet stone that can be used to renovate a complete puppet. Through a secret technique it can merge the puppet with a formation, turning it into a Formation Guardian Puppet that can, according to your commands, control the formation and increase its power.】
Chen Han immediately thought of the Chen Clan illusion array. If he created a Formation Guardian Puppet, and let it go on a rampage inside, that would truly be terrifying.
The key was that with this Formation Guardian Puppet, it seemed the Chen Clan illusion array could have more ways to be played.
And speaking of formations, what about Feng Shui arrays? Those were also formations, right?
The Conceal Wind Gather Qi Feng Shui formation shrouded the entire Chen Clan. Could he create two Formation Guardian Puppets and have them patrol within the Chen Clan’s bounds?
How shocking would that be?
As he was thinking this, he suddenly froze. The Evolution Bagua Plate Fragment on Blogger started vibrating again, and then a wave of chill surged into his mind.
It had triggered the passive deduction again.
Interesting. What was meant to come had come.
……
