Hiranuma Yusho broke through Huang Yan's illusions countless times, finally starting to grow a bit impatient.
It was true that back at the military academy, it was hard to find an opponent who could match him like this, but this guy Huang Yan was simply endless—once he latched onto a technique, he would drill it to death?
He certainly had higher-level attack methods, but he didn't want to show them off right now, afraid that Huang Yan would learn them and turn around to use them against him.
Releasing his mecha from his spatial button, he said,
"There's no point in continuing this clash. Let's have a real fight, Huang Yan."
Three seconds passed after he spoke, yet the people around him remained completely motionless.
Hiranuma Yusho's pupils slowly dilated. The Huang Yan in front of him lowered his head and chuckled,
"Sure."
Wait, was he still in an illusion?
Hiranuma Yusho once again used his mental energy to probe for the boundary wall of Huang Yan's mental energy. It wasn't there!?
Then why were Wu Fangyu, Taylor, and Barry still frozen in their previous postures beside him?
Even though he had already challenged him to a fight, there was no reaction at all?
Hiranuma Yusho tentatively expanded his mental energy further...
"Ah... so this really is the limit."
Huang Yan's voice echoed from all directions.
Hiranuma Yusho finally touched and pierced through the new boundary wall, and the scene before his eyes was completely different from what he had just seen!
He was being carried on Wu Fangyu's shoulder, having retreated over a dozen meters, while the four individual soldiers on both sides had already donned their mechas and started fighting.
Wang Tianwei sat in front of a simple control console, her lips slightly parted as she looked over, seemingly marveling at Wu Fangyu's reaction speed.
Huang Yan, who had just been inches away, was now standing in the middle of the cave, holding a bonus point button in each hand. Seeing Hiranuma Yusho looking over, he twitched the corner of his mouth into a smirk, and then stored both bonus point buttons into his spatial button...
"Good heavens, Little Wu, your speed is something else! You can run that fast!?"
Wang Tianwei scrambled up from the ground, arrived in front of Huang Yan, and released her mecha.
It seemed Hiranuma Yusho had been fooled by Sir Huang. But hadn't he been using his mental energy a bit too frequently lately? He would definitely need an inhibitor injection once they got back!
The first thing Huang Yan did after putting away the bonus point buttons was to pull out a pack of nutrient fluid and open it... He was incredibly dizzy.
If the bonus point buttons hadn't been made large and brightly colored enough, he almost wouldn't have been able to see where they were.
Hiranuma Yusho's illusions were practically flawless, whereas he himself was self-taught halfway through, only able to learn by observing.
However, he had his own little tricks. He would deliberately leave some anchor points in the illusions every time, and even the initial scope of the boundary wall had been compressed by him.
If he hadn't been unable to hold on any longer, he wouldn't have wanted to expose himself this quickly.
He was just about to catch his breath before negotiating terms with Hiranuma Yusho, but unexpectedly, before the nutrient fluid even reached his mouth, he was hoisted up by Wang Tianwei's mechanical arm...
"I'll take you and charge out right now, Sir Huang!"
Seeing Huang Yan's pale face, Wang Tianwei thought he was already unable to pilot his mecha.
Embracing the spirit of grab and run, she didn't even glance at the third button, which was only worth three hundred points, and planned to just take him and leave.
Taking them all would definitely earn them an earful from the organizing committee teachers. The most urgent priority was not to let Valk recover!
Hiranuma Yusho, hanging upside down on Wu Fangyu's back, saw Huang Yan sitting on Wang Tianwei's mechanical hand holding the nutrient fluid with a bewildered expression. His mood oddly balanced out a lot. He grabbed the nearby little bee drone camera,
"Film him. Everyone, please remember to take screenshots and upload them to the forum."
...Damn, it was rare to see someone even more devious than him!
Looking at the little bee in the other's hand, Huang Yan felt a long-lost sense of panic.
Netizens had already begun a carnival of screen recording and screenshotting!
Just as Hiranuma Yusho patted Wu Fangyu's back to let him down, Zhang Lyra grabbed Barry's mecha arm with lightning speed and slammed him into the wall!
Unexpectedly, Barry recovered quite quickly. He merely shook his head, immediately stood up, and launched a renewed attack.
"Didn't see that coming, did you? To defend against you, I had Wu Fangyu add multiple layers of shock absorption to the mecha!"
Because they were near a cave, everyone tacitly avoided using thermal weapons; otherwise, they would definitely collapse the place...
Wu Fangyu quickly pulled out his mecha, preparing to enter the cockpit for a head-to-head showdown with Sister Ma, but his arm was held back by his captain, Hiranuma Yusho.
"Captain?"
"No rush."
Hiranuma Yusho had already recognized reality; this was the second time he had been outsmarted by Qilin...
Huang Yan had just been using him for practice. The guy had self-taught double illusions and even knew how to use countless slightly flawed images to attack his state of mind.
Accomplishing what he wanted to do in advance while leaving a so-called veteran like him completely unaware—as a competitor, he was a truly terrifying existence.
But none of this mattered, because he had also discovered Huang Yan's secret.
"Huang Yan, I'm serious, want to consider joining Valk? Your mental energy..."
Huang Yan had just convinced Wang Tianwei to let him down. As he jumped down from the pitch-black mechanical hand holding his nutrient fluid, he still tried to maintain a dignified posture.
Hearing Hiranuma Yusho's words, he merely slouched, casually biting onto the nutrient fluid pouch to take a fierce suck, and stuffed his other hand back into his pocket.
"Let's not talk about that right now. Someone has landed."
Hiranuma Yusho's subsequent words were blocked. Frowning, he did his best to broaden his mental energy detection range, only realizing Huang Yan wasn't lying to him when he probed all the way to the beach where they had landed.
"Two teams. The last two teams."
Huang Yan drank the nutrient fluid clean in one breath.
"Everyone is here to fight for the bonus point buttons. If we keep fighting like this, we might end up being the mantis stalked by the oriole. What do you say?"
Hiranuma Yusho immediately wove an illusion of nothing happening for Elizabeth, who had sensed something wrong the moment she disembarked, and only then did he quietly withdraw his mental energy.
Such a far distance... Had Huang Yan been keeping an eye on it even while battling him with mental energy just now?
"Taylor, Barry, stop."
Hiranuma Yusho only considered it for a moment before speaking up to stop his teammates' actions.
Santorini and the First Military Academy were both extremely strong. Without perfect preparation, he didn't plan to act rashly.
After Valk ceased their attacks, Qilin's two individual soldiers also regrouped beside Huang Yan.
Wu Fangyu looked at the opposing mechas with an indescribable expression. The mechas made by his Sister Ma were good, but the aesthetics were just too inconsistent!
It had both porcupine quills and scales, yet it still maintained a completely blocky head!?
Pieced together, up close it really looked...
"Let's negotiate terms?"
Huang Yan took a step forward.
"Before they arrive, let's discuss the terms for the four hundred academy bonus point button.
As long as you guys don't get eliminated later, taking second place shouldn't be a problem."
Barry had just been thrown out twice by Zhang Lyra, and was still a bit defiant,
"We want the five hundred one!"
Huang Yan smiled faintly,
"I believe the two teams that just landed would also love to talk with me, and you guys can't instantly kill us right now either.
If I use this to entice the First Military Academy or Santorini, Valk will be eliminated one hundred percent."
"...What do you want?"
