Chapter 18: The Three Brothers of French Fries

Zhuang Zhou's video was immediately featured on the official recommendations, and before long, it appeared on the Mars side as well.

The Martians were completely silenced, while the Earthlings had already occupied Mars Daddy's livestream room.

"Stop watching, you Mars babies can't learn this!"

"Did you see that? This is the real Tyrant Spear, who else but me!"

"Puppet God is invincible under the heavens..."

"Just won once and already don't know who they are."

"Where did this guy pop out from? Never heard of a spear expert like this before."

"Bullshit, the Armor Tiger is already an obsolete model. This person is truly fierce; when did the USE produce such an expert?"

………………

A significant number of players flooded into Mars Daddy's channel; the suppression felt ever since the Solar System Tournament finally found an outlet.

Winning against the "strong" with the "weak," and doing it so refreshingly—the overall atmosphere in the USE has indeed been stifling lately. Losing to the NUP in the Mecha Tournament wasn't actually a surprise, but losing to the ROM was a genuine upset. This was a problem the entire USE had never even considered. Likewise, one can imagine the state of the victorious Martians, especially given their naturally extroverted personality—to put it nicely, it's passion; to put it bluntly, it's arrogance and bullying.

Li Hao stopped to rest for a while; recently, he had been randomly assigned several old-fashioned USE mecha.

Ding-dong...

Li Hao's lazy expression vanished, and a curve appeared at the corner of his mouth: a Bleem email.

Bleem Mission 128: Must use USE Armor Series Mobile Suit.

Li Hao was stunned. With a slightly dazed look in his eyes, he opened his mecha hangar and let out a sigh of relief. There were only a few meager options inside, but they did indeed include the Armor Series Three Brothers: Armor Dragon, Armor Tiger, and Armor Leopard.

It wasn't that the system kept giving him random Armor Series; it was that his hangar had very few mecha to begin with. Mecha in the EMP weren't free. As an Earth War Zone competitor, the Armor Series Three Brothers were a gift, permanently free, along with a few other mecha gifted from various events.

Buying them? That didn't exist.

The reason he could try all sorts of mecha before was entirely thanks to the hangar's weekly free rotation—he would play whatever was free. But in Zhenshi Qu ranking matches, there was no such thing as a weekly free rotation.

What kind of trick was Bleem trying to pull now?

He could understand being asked to reach 3000 points in the EMP; nine times out of ten, it was preparation for later missions. But why only use these three models?

Could it be because he was poor?

Having done so many things over the years, seemingly chaotic and disorganized, Li Hao vaguely felt there was a thread running through it all, pointing toward a certain goal. Yet, he could never quite figure it out. What troubled his thinking was what exactly Bleem was—did it belong to humans, or was it non-human?

Assuming it belonged to humans, the technology Bleem displayed was simply not something currently attainable. And if humans possessed it, why would they do something so boring?

If it didn't belong to humans, then this civilization was treating him like a test subject. But the various exploration, assassination, and contact missions done this year were highly purposeful, and the language style of the emails was extremely humanized.

Playing or experimenting—this wasn't that kind of mode.

Thinking and thinking, Li Hao lost interest in continuing to play. To stop his brain from running wild, he needed a bit of excessive exercise.

When Puppet's avatar went dark, the over two hundred thousand watching fans couldn't hide the disappointment in their hearts. At a time like this, how great it would have been to strike while the iron was hot and deal with the Martians, to let these Martian bumpkins understand the foundation of Earth.

Of course, the Martian competitors were even more furious. Ever since the Mars Federation was established, the Martians' goal had been to lead the entire Solar System Alliance. Never mind Earthlings, they didn't even put Moon People in their eyes. They firmly believed that Mars reaching the top was only a matter of time. They were always the ones to pick fights; that someone actually dared to provoke them—could this be tolerated?

Who would have thought this Earthling was so shameless, hitting and running.

Stein was also furious to the point of death. He had sent consecutive duel invitations; he still wasn't convinced. It must have been a fluke just now; he wanted to fight again.

But the opponent had already logged off and didn't pay him any mind at all, and then Stein's Sky Net rang.

A message.

"Stein, the Flame Wolf Team does not need the weak. You are fired."

Stein's pupils dilated... hysterical roaring coming from the training room...

Feynman and Alzi had also become addicted to studying Puppet recently. This was also a characteristic of Moon People; it must be said that the human personalities of the Four Great Alliances differ greatly at their core.

Moon People are proud and introverted, meticulous in their actions, taking one step while seeing three ahead, and fond of exploring the unknown.

Earthlings are proud and conservative, fond of overestimating themselves, and unwilling to change.

Martians are indulgent and extroverted, fond of adventure, and possess a heart that wants to be the boss.

Titans worship the strong; they used to follow the USE, but now they are ironclad allies of the NUP.

Although Feynman had suffered a setback, after a few days of depression, he was now even more excited to have discovered his own weaknesses.

"Do you think he judged it perfectly, or was it just a desperate gamble that got lucky?" Feynman couldn't help but ask.

"God knows. This kind of Borrowing Force to Strike has a higher success rate in a virtual environment, but in Real Mode, it's really not high. It's playing with your life on the edge of a blade." Alzi curled his lips; in any case, he didn't believe it.

"Alzi, you're wrong. From the moment he intentionally let the Sky Wolf hit him, everything up to the final strike was calculated." A cold voice rang out; Dita had arrived. "This person is very dangerous, and his guts are also extremely large."

In the Tianjing Mecha dormitory, Zhuang Zhou looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction. His followers had grown from over 500 to more than ten thousand. As a freshman in the Journalism Department, this was a quite impressive achievement.

His new work was already finished. Zhuang Zhou was also a Golden Gene possessor, but unfortunately, his manifestation wasn't in the direction of combat. In fact, he also had a dream of being an ace pilot in his heart. Generally, manifestations are easy to measure, but his was quite strange: it was premonition. He seemed to possess some kind of Prediction Ability, but it wasn't the type that predicted lottery numbers; rather, a bizarre fantasy or speculation would suddenly pop up, and nine times out of ten, it would be correct.

He didn't know if it was his good luck or something else. The moment he saw Puppet, he had this feeling, and he had become accustomed to following this feeling to continue exploring. This feeling always managed to bring him surprises.

It was like that before, and it was even more so with Puppet.

Sky Net wallpaper set successfully: It was the smoke-filled Mars Battlefield, the tall and fierce Armor Tiger Generation I holding the Tyrant Spear, slightly tilting its head to look at the wreckage of the Sky Wolf not far away. Even though it was a cold mecha, it made everyone feel it—the contempt of a king.

This was what Earthlings needed, what they wanted, because they were all Earthlings; no matter how much they had fallen, it was a pride that could not be erased.

Suddenly, another bold thought popped into his mind: Is Puppet an Earthling?

Who is he?

An expert from the mobile forces?

A military academy student?

A purely civilian expert?

Zhuang Zhou's heart began to thump. Ever since Puppet appeared, most of his battles appeared densely between 7:00 PM and 12:00 AM, which was exactly the opening time for the Earth Military Academy's EMP.

Just then, the dormitory door slammed open. "Holy shit, Zhuang Zhou, what did you post? Is this brother your friend? He's fucking awesome, he's taken off!"

"Yeah, why didn't you introduce such an awesome god to us sooner? From now on, he's my idol. Damn, this picture is explosive, I want to use it as my Sky Net wallpaper too!"

The posture and the gaze of the Armor Tiger mecha at that moment were simply too cool.

Zhuang Zhou also felt it was cool, but he didn't expect that this picture would actually make it onto the EMP trending list...

This was unthinkable and impossible in the past; one can only say that the failure in the Mecha Tournament has made Earthlings too desperate for a victory, even if it is just an insignificant amateur match.

Li Hao had a proper workout, though his volume was somewhat inhuman; after finishing, he was hungry again and could only eat a late-night snack, feeling that what would ultimately finish him off would be his own wallet.

Returning to the dormitory, Ma Long was standing on a chair giving a lecture.

"It's not that I'm lecturing you, but you two are both wasting your lives. Girls are the most wonderful existence in this world. Today, Brother will teach you the secret: the four-character mantra for chasing girls is 'Hard, Soft, Shameless, and Feigned.' Don't read them together. Hard... Wuzang, put away your muscles, damn it, that stuff of yours can only attract the attention of men. The true essence of 'Hard' lies in attitude. Zuo Xiaotang, you need to pay special attention: don't be a sycophant; a sycophant ends up with nothing. When getting along with girls, you must have your own opinions. For example, when going out to eat, don't ask what the other person likes; just pick a specialty directly and reinforce it. Girls are naturally indecisive; you must show a strong side. This is what's called 'Hard'!"

Wuzang and Zuo Xiaotang listened as seriously as elementary school students. Both were normal people, and if they said they had no interest in girls, that would be bullshit; it was just that getting along with girls was truly too difficult. Although they didn't say it out loud, they still admired how Ma Long could chat and laugh in front of girls, as comfortable as a fish in water.

This was a talent, so much so that Wuzang often suspected whether Ma Long's dominant gene was attracting the opposite sex.

"The second point is 'Soft.' Zuo Xiaotang, put away your lewd smile. This 'Soft' is not that 'soft.' Do you understand the balance of hardness and softness? Boys need to know how to act spoiled; that is the real technique!"

Wuzang smiled and made an orchid finger gesture, "Is it like this?"

Then he and Zuo Xiaotang burst into laughter together. Ma Long's eyebrows twitched; these two idiots.

"What you're doing is perverted. Showing a girl your childish, dependent side at the right opportunity will trigger a girl's maternal instinct and tolerance..."

Li Hao walked in, "Preaching again? Number Two, this stuff depends on talent."

"Haha, Hao Ge, your talent is very good. Now there are rumors about you and Ye Tong everywhere. Share it with your brothers," Ma Long said flirtatiously.