MG - Chapter 361: [Panlong Mountain, Part 2] The Cliff (Patreon)

At the summit of Panlong Mountain, everything had descended into chaos after the signal was cut off.

There was no footage of the racers on the giant screen, and violent explosions kept echoing from the surrounding mountains. A growing sense of unease spread through the crowd.

"Hey! What the hell are you organizers doing?!"

"Exactly! This is a provincial competition, and this is how you run it? Get the signal back already!"

Kool Kenny stared at the furious spectators and contestants in front of him, practically on the verge of tears.

He was just the host, not a technician, much less one of the organizers. He had no idea what was happening and certainly had no solution. All he could do was patiently reassure everyone.

"Please remain calm. Our technicians are already investigating the problem. We will definitely give everyone a satisfactory explanation afterward."

As he spoke, another explosion thundered through the mountains, accompanied by a violent tremor.

While everyone was still reeling in confusion, a logistics Mecha Girl from the organizing committee came stumbling up. She snatched the megaphone from Kool Kenny's hand and shouted at the crowd.

"Everyone, spread out immediately! Get off the summit! Move, now!!"

No one knew exactly what had happened, but the logistics Mecha Girl's tone was grave and urgent.

Everyone immediately sensed that something was wrong. The uneasy atmosphere grew even heavier. Some Mecha Girls quickly grabbed their pilots and began evacuating the preparation area and heading down from the summit.

Stella was deeply worried about Derek Su and the other members of the club, but she obediently followed the others as they retreated.

Just then, a series of piercing whistles came from high above.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!"

The sound was like demons shrieking through the sky.

Everyone looked up.

More than a dozen faintly visible silver missiles were streaking out of the clouds.

They did not even leave trails of smoke behind them, making them exceptionally difficult to spot.

If Mecha Girls and pilots hadn't possessed eyesight far superior to ordinary humans, they might not have noticed the missiles until they were almost on top of them.

"Holy shit! Have the Panlong Mountain organizers lost their minds?!"

"Missiles! Run!"

"Master, come with me..."

No one believed for a second that the missiles were some kind of stunt arranged by the Panlong Mountain organizers.

The Mecha Girls could clearly sense the lethal intent emanating from them. This was absolutely not some surprise feature of today's race. Combined with the sudden loss of communications, the calmer pilots and Mecha Girls had already reached the same conclusion.

They were under attack.

"Everyone, evacuate immediately!"

The logistics Mecha Girl stood on higher ground and shouted at the top of her lungs.

Several Mecha Girls from the Armed Forces Department opened fire on the sky, but the missiles were too fast and kept fading in and out of view. Hitting them was nearly impossible.

One of the missiles suddenly broke away from the group and plunged toward them.

"Run!"

That was all the logistics Mecha Girl had time to shout.

BOOM—!

The missile detonated before it even struck the ground.

An orange fireball surged upward along with a violent spatial storm.

The spot where the functional Mecha Girls had been standing was suddenly empty.

All that remained was a charred crater carved into the ground like a festering wound.

The explosion of that spatial collapse bomb shattered whatever composure the evacuating crowd had left.

One fact was now painfully clear.

These missiles were not some joke by the Panlong Mountain organizers.

Anyone hit by one would die.

No one had the luxury of wondering who was behind the attack.

The missiles overhead had already split into two groups.

One group, consisting of ten missiles, headed toward the pulse device behind the summit. The other continued toward the evacuating crowd.

Rather than concentrating their fire on one location, they spread out to cover as much ground as possible.

One of them was heading straight for Stella.

There were several missiles targeting the crowd, but Stella's instincts told her that this particular one was locked onto her.

There were too many people around for Stella to enter deployed mode safely.

None of the other Mecha Girls made such a reckless choice either. Once deployed, their vehicle bodies would take up far more space. If they started crashing into one another in the middle of the crowd, the consequences would be disastrous.

To keep anyone else from being caught in the blast, Stella had no choice but to sprint away from the crowd first.

She planned to deploy once she was clear.

Stella was fast.

As she moved, the missile in the distance immediately adjusted its course to follow her.

She quickly broke away from the crowd. Without wasting a second, she entered deployed mode and sped aimlessly down the mountain.

Meanwhile, ten spatial collapse bombs detonated around the psychic energy pulse device.

The device was instantly torn to pieces.

Inside the prismatic warship, the vicious grins on the faces of several Void Race members lasted less than three seconds before disappearing.

The psychic energy pulse device had been destroyed.

But at that exact moment, an energy shield formed over the summit, enveloping all the humans and Mecha Girls around the preparation area.

"A trigger-activated psychic energy shield?"

"So the psychic energy pulse device was bait!"

"No wonder they built it right out in the open on the summit..."

"It's not a major problem. One target happened to run outside the shield's range. Besides, we still have the Hunters. These losses and unexpected developments are still within acceptable limits."

Once the Void Race member seated in the center spoke, the others fell silent.

They stared at the monitors for a while. Most of the humans and Mecha Girls had settled down under the protection of the shield.

Then one Void Race member suddenly spoke.

"There should be other psychic energy pulse devices, right?"

"Exactly. If that one was bait, then..."

"Notify the Hunter squads to proceed with caution. Eliminate any targets that survived the collapse bombs as quickly as possible. We don't have time to search for the other psychic energy pulse devices."

...

Stella raced through the mountains.

Her original plan had been to lure the missile into a densely wooded area and use the obstacles to destroy it.

Instead, she discovered that the missile was extraordinarily agile, weaving around every obstacle as though someone were controlling it remotely.

Now she had gotten herself into trouble.

Driving through mountainous terrain was miserable for a speed-type Mecha Girl.

With her vision further obstructed by the rain and terrain, Stella no longer even knew where she was.

Eventually, she found herself racing straight toward a cliff.

A seemingly bottomless abyss stretched ahead.

There was nowhere left to go.

"I'm screwed."

The cliff drew closer and closer, and Stella's heart sank.

She could hear a helicopter somewhere nearby, but there was no longer enough time to call for help.

She had already seen what a spatial collapse bomb could do.

Taking one head-on meant certain death.

"If Master were here, what would he do?"

The image of that confident, composed man surfaced in her mind.

Stella's gaze gradually hardened with determination.

"Come on, Stella. You're the Pineapple King.

"Think of something. Nothing should be able to stop you.

"This isn't the time to give up."

Right...

Pineapple.

The word flashed through her mind.

VROOOOM—!

Stella floored the accelerator and charged toward the cliff at full speed.

Just before she shot over the edge, she suddenly disengaged deployed mode and hurled a pineapple backward at the missile.

Her body traced an arc through the air.

Then she began falling into the seemingly bottomless abyss below.

BOOM—!

The spatial collapse bomb was struck by the high-speed pineapple and exploded above the cliff.

Inside the prismatic warship, the Void Race members stared blankly at the screen as it went dark.

Silence filled the room for a long moment.

Eventually, one of them spoke.

"Commander, what was that yellow sphere covered in spikes?"

"Possibly some kind of secret weapon."

The Void Race member in the center looked grave.

"I never expected the Mecha Girls to acquire so many bizarre abilities after coming to this world. They can transform into high-speed mechanical constructs, and now they can even launch yellow secret weapons like that..."

He immediately issued an order.

"Warn our Hunter squads to exercise extreme caution. In particular, watch out for the enemy throwing those yellow spherical secret weapons!"

"Yes!"

...

The Stella Club logistics helicopter was probably the only helicopter that had not been forced to land by the electromagnetic interference.

It wasn't man-made.

It was a product of Mecha Island technology that Absolute Shadow had requisitioned from the Armed Forces Department. The emblem of the Xinyan Research Institute was still visible on its exterior, and it possessed exceptional resistance to electromagnetic interference.

Earlier, after surviving the spatial collapse bombs on the summit under the protection of the shield, Imperial Scale had spotted Stella breaking away from the crowd.

Ignoring the risk of the helicopter being attacked again, she immediately flew out of the psychic energy shield and pursued Stella.

Then she saw Stella go over the cliff.

Imperial Scale's eyes narrowed.

She snatched up a rocket booster.

Under the horrified gazes of the functional Mecha Girls around her, she kicked the cabin door open with a bang.

Then she leaped out from an altitude of more than five thousand meters.