There was no time to think about how their teammate would be treated left alone in the enemy camp.
For the first time, Barry and Taylor clearly experienced what it meant to hang by a thread between life and death...
"Is there no... autopilot!?"
Taylor pressed tightly against his seat, adjusting his breathing, and asked with difficulty as he faced the bugs on the protective shield.
Wang Tianwei gave him a strange look through the rearview mirror.
"Since when have you ever seen a mecha with autopilot?"
Hiranuma Yusho's face was pale. He could clearly feel his legs trembling... This shorty was driving the speeding car like a maniac!
No wonder Huang Yan said the star beasts definitely wouldn't be able to catch up with them.
The problem was that this vehicle was purely manually driven; he couldn't even use his mental energy to help calibrate it if he wanted to!
All he could do was add another layer of mental energy shield outside the two protective shields. Please don't flip over!
But in all fairness, the efficiency was indeed much faster than if they had piloted their mechas to search the mine shafts one by one.
"Phew... second intersection ahead, turn left."
"Copy that!"
The speeding car drifted through a narrow corner. Barry simply closed his eyes and tightly gripped the underside of his seat with one hand!
In that moment, he felt like he was seeing his ancestors...
The group clearly hadn't eaten for nearly eight hours, yet their stomachs were churning uncomfortably.
It was actually good that they were fast, so they could shake off all the star beasts. Anyway, he had absolutely no strength left to fight now... Those guys from Qilin were true warriors!
After checking five mine shafts, Hiranuma Yusho still hadn't found any trace of the Valke Academy's bonus point button.
Wang Tianwei felt a bizarre sense of balance in her heart.
See! Their squad wasn't the only unlucky one!
Outside, Wu Fangyu was sandwiched between the three Qilin members, his mind undergoing torture.
If it had been any other team, they definitely would have tried every possible way to pry into Valke's background and mecha details from him.
This was also why the captain had left him behind to hold the fort; compared to Barry and Taylor, he was very tight-lipped!
But the Qilin people didn't play by the rules at all. They asked him everything from which star beast on Planet Kashgar tasted best to whether Hiranuma Yusho actually knew how to smile.
To be honest, other than sneering, he really hadn't seen the commander smile much...
But that wasn't the point!
The point was that he had actually started seriously considering the questions Qilin raised!
Is the texture of a scorpion really worse than a star wolf...? No, if this kept up, he was going to lose control of himself!
"Ahem, isn't Wang Tianwei an A-rank? When did she become able to make super-grade mechas?"
Jian Jingyu glanced at him.
"By practicing! In the words of our Sister Ma, isn't practicing something you can do as long as you have hands?
By the way, how have you guys been going to the bathroom these past two days?"
"..."
Relying on sheer willpower, he held on for half an hour. Before dawn, the captain and the others finally returned!
The black speeding car executed a beautiful tail flick and stopped in front of the four of them.
"Sister Ma, you're back!"
Wu Fangyu felt a bit sour. With such an unstable way of parking, if starships entered starports like this, wouldn't it be a disaster!? He shook his head to throw the dangerous imagery out of his mind.
Ahem, but if it were him driving, he could probably be this cool too, right?
"Aha!! That was awesome!!"
Wang Tianwei pulled open the car door.
Huang Yan hadn't even gotten close before he heard the sound of someone dry heaving. Wang Tianwei's footsteps as she got out of the car immediately paused, and she turned her head to warn them.
"You are not allowed to puke on my mecha!!"
Barry covered his mouth and nodded, pushed open the car door, and fell to his knees as his legs gave out.
"Blergh!!"
Taylor, on the other hand, was tightly hugging his rifle on the other side, leaning back against the seat, his eyes already dim and lifeless.
He looked like he was still there, but his soul had actually left his body a while ago...
Hiranuma Yusho was doing comparatively better; his face was just still ghastly pale...
Wu Fangyu was incredibly worried.
"Captain! Are you guys okay?"
"..."
"Blergh!"
Seeing this scene, the three from Qilin felt much better. There were actually people worse off than them? Valke was just average!
"Sister Ma, how is the situation in the mine shafts over there?"
"Pretty much the same. There aren't as many bugs as on our side, but there was a Tunnel Throat. It took a bit of time to lure it out of the passage."
Wang Tianwei said, glancing at the few people behind her, and added in a low voice.
"I think it's mainly because they don't have that much energy to use as bait for the bugs!"
"I see!"
Huang Yan looked amusedly at the three who still couldn't stand up, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Did you drive even faster than before this time?"
Wang Tianwei chuckled.
"Who told them to threaten us? I got a bit hot-headed and couldn't hold back.
The mine shafts on their side were blown full of holes. The fact that they didn't collapse at all simply defies logic..."
"Did you find the button?"
Speaking of this, Wang Tianwei got angry.
"We found it! When we found it, all three of them had jelly legs. I said I would go get it, but they absolutely refused, guarding against me like I was a thief!
In the end, Hiranuma Yusho went to get it himself, his legs shaking like noodles..."
Huang Yan twitched his lips.
They really couldn't let her do it; after all, that was the only bargaining chip the other side had.
"Good work."
Wang Tianwei had let loose and sped for two trips; she was in a great mood!
"It was no trouble! That Barry has a pretty high pitch; it was quite thrilling to listen to, hehehe."
The audience in the livestream chat watched the whole process.
"Tsk tsk, these guys from Valke still lack training."
"Wait, haven't they ever trained in zero gravity?"
"The physical sensation of this ultra-high speed is different from zero gravity. I didn't expect Wang Tianwei to be a speed demon..."
"Was that called drifting!? Oh my god, I can't even, I'm going to faint from how cool this girl is!"
"Hahaha, I was wondering why Huang Yan would compromise! So this was his backup plan all along!"
"Hiranuma Yusho suffers the Waterloo of his life..."
"Actually, I also want to know if Valke has a class on acting tough? Barry is about to puke to death, and Hiranuma Yusho is still holding his posture!"
"Is there a possibility... that the poor kid was just scared silly!?"
"...Hahahahaha!"
It took another half an hour for the people from Valke to recover.
By this time, the four from Qilin had already finished their morning tubes of nutrient fluid.
"Are you ready? Hurry up, it's time to exchange the buttons!"
Wu Fangyu had only spoken two sentences to his own squad members before being dragged back by Zhang Lyra, who was following closely behind him...
Now he looked pitifully at his three teammates, whose faces were even more haggard than his. What a sin!
Hiranuma Yusho took a sip of water and nodded at Wu Fangyu. Only then did Wu Fangyu take out Qilin's bonus point button and hand it to Huang Yan.
"Here, your bonus point button."
Huang Yan took it without hesitation, and both teams pressed their buttons at the same time.
"Qilin Military Academy Fourth Squad, plus 300 points."
"Valke Military Academy First Squad, plus 300 points."
After hearing the announcement, Hiranuma Yusho looked up and met Huang Yan's eyes. The atmosphere instantly became a bit tense.
Wang Tianwei opportunely manipulated her mecha to transform.
Goldfish and Little Bear were already standing to the left and right behind Huang Yan, shaking the spatial buttons in their hands.
Hiranuma Yusho stared for a long time.
"Pleasant working with you."
"Pleasant working with you."
