Chapter 531: NO．114：He

NO．114：He's always been able to hold a grudge.

"That, little snake?"

"If you're planning to apologize, you should say it after turning back."

"Oh…"

The demon who had just sat down in the cockpit, his ten fingers flying across the controls without lifting his head, made Te, who had instinctively jumped up from her seat and was standing to the side, feel a little embarrassed.

Since Aomo had told her the temporary machine's engine was near failure, she refused to go to the opposite cockpit, and also refused to rashly appear on the battlefield as a pilot like Aomo while the enemy hadn't yet withdrawn.

But precisely for that reason, she needed to ask:

"What are you doing now? That guy might still come back!?"

"Doing what must be done!" he said, hitting a key, then immediately lowering his head slightly and turning it.

After confirming the deployment of the transformation behind the seat, he fixed the metal nanopore constructed by nanomachines into the demon's spine-mounted storehouse consciousness device.

It was only a slight sting, and that was perfectly natural.

Although gbn has pursued stronger immersion through countless updates, after all a game is just a game; if it makes players feel like they're in prison, or even being tortured, there's no way to survive in this cutthroat industry.

Sensory stimulation can be adjusted, pain perception even has refined options, and there's even a youth mode tailored to the East Flame Area's characteristics.

Even your blood is changed to green; at first glance you might think you'd killed a Mezi alien.

Getting back to the point, just as one adjusts the seat and various parameters of a car before a race, only a reckless newcomer like Xintiao Xi would jump straight into an unfamiliar mech.

She hadn't even managed to truly activate the storehouse consciousness system.

This organic conduction system that gives pilots a simulated spatial awareness and links machinery with humanity, in the original work, was implanted into the spinal cord via surgery, then connected to the interface on the mech's control seat, and through nanomachine conduction achieved a direct link between pilot and machine.

But in the game, it's not necessary to go through all that trouble.

Although this system isn't selectable in the character creation screen like the Adjusters or Reformers, it can be used as an in-game reward item, or as a limited microelectronic component purchased in reality to be installed.

After all, it's merely simulating enhanced spatial awareness and achieving operation via direct neural connection to machinery; it's easy to simulate this feeling in-game, without needing to actually give you a 1:1 replica of the storehouse consciousness system that would force you to get used to having extra stuff behind you all the time.

But even so, Tei indeed didn't activate it.

This heavily modified mech hasn't even unleashed one percent of its performance, but that doesn't mean that unleashing it would guarantee invincibility.

Because this modified Barbatos Sirius Emperor was also completed as a kit long ago.

For a game that's been running too long, whether you abandon it and come back later, you must face an unavoidable cruel problem.

Version updates.

So Aomo didn't expect any plot about a Dragon King's crooked mouth; he just hoped his mouth wouldn't get punched crooked… Now it doesn't matter, for when he ruthlessly stepped on the opponent's great sword he already saw the opponent's appearance, amazed at the originality of the opponent's mech, and even more amazed at the opponent's mech's appearance.

Like, it's too similar.

It's exactly like the brewer of that coffee that landed me in the hospital!!

That damned thing insulting coffee!!!

It's attacking again right now.

"Fuhahaha!!! Are you ready, demon!"

The original mech evol, attacking again at the same time, made Te beside him frantically grab and shake the bone spur on his shoulder:

"Little snake, little snake! He's here, he's here!!"

"I saw it."

For now, suppressing the flames surging inside, the demon calmly spoke.

"Master…" the one beside him also spoke from the left screen; its pilot's Assault Freedom had already flown near the modified Barbatos, but the latter raised its claw to its chest, signaling to stop.

"Fall back, I'll take care of him; you lot handle the original boss."

The 'Demon Above' stage, its demon originally referred to apsarasii/Apsaras.

It is now located deep in a canyon that nobody even notices.

Everyone present, and even those watching the plaza broadcast, were focused solely on the two demons standing before the passage.

"Deal with me, I'm quite confident~" the screen showed that more familiar, confident Kamen Rider helmet greeting thus, making Aomo wonder if the snakeskin monster was perhaps not even accepting his own aesthetic in its full monstrous form.

And Aomo merely gripped the joystick in silence, watching the mech draw ever closer on the screen ahead——Barbatos raised its fierce, brutal claw, not to grab the hammer-spear on the ground, nor to draw the long sword at its waist, but instead directly seized the nearby ultra‑frequency‑damaged temporary machine.

The iron claw seized the leg armor, while the mech's eye sockets overflowed with red current, and the seed in the pilot's heart also drifted and spread.

"Ha!"

In the astonished gazes, the Steel Demon King cared nothing for the Steel Knight's humble posture, yanking up the knight and, with a flexibility unimaginable for a Gundam, whipped the knight's body as a weapon, directly swinging it at the alien knight mech that threw a punch.

Bang!

The Steel Knight's body shattered in that blow; Barbatos, having obtained this output data, felt no pity for the machine it had assembled, and whipped it again like a lash, slamming the opponent hard.

But that mech had its engine shattered by a close‑range shot, and the next second, as explosion and dust rose, a faint metallic clink was heard.

Wide open, wide close!

The saw‑tooth‑laden hammer‑spear thrust out from the smoke, swept sideways, stabbed straight, and a dark‑golden sharp tail from the other side lunged at the alien knight mech that had picked up its greatsword in the same smoke.

Indeed, midway it extended and transformed into a sharper serpent‑fang shape, emitting a dull thud.

"Did you get it?!"

"Can you stop helping me get a 'g'?" he silently glanced at the excited JK beside him, the demon calmly watching his great sword crash back to the ground, "And you shouldn't just be watching how I operate and learn, should you?"

With the storehouse consciousness system as assistance, a Barbatos‑series Gundam is already considered the lowest‑threshold pilot type; the direct‑neural storehouse consciousness serves as a significant intention correction, normalizing your possibly distorted inputs.

Of course, this is for newcomers.

For veteran players, the storehouse consciousness system is an aid that lets your operations lean more toward the super‑robot style.

As long as your kit is assembled, the joints are flexible, and the mobility is high, you can thereby challenge operations that deviate from the 'robot' impression.

Just now, that sudden kicking sweep that flicked away the air repelled the lunging punch; the returning high leap dodged the opponent's rear blade‑like iron wings, and the rotating hammer‑spear thrust downward, only to be avoided by the opponent's swift crimson posture.

The two iron war gods, seemingly unaffected by smoke and dust, clashed; though the fully armed demon king should have had the edge, the alien mech's reactivated Trans‑Am was also swift enough.

Just as he dodged the attack and retreated into the smoke, a hammer‑spear came loose and was flung away like a throwing weapon.

Bang!

The dull sound indeed was as predicted hitting the mark, but the sharp claw of the demon king that burst out from the overflowing red electric current struck empty air.

"Here~"

Still in a rather playful tone, the extraterrestrial life that destroyed Mars and the vessel harboring the King of Mars collided, but it didn't succeed; instead, it struck the metal snake teeth rising behind the opponent.

At the moment of impact, it had already bent and coiled, like a true creature's tail, seizing the opponent's position for its master.

"Got you, where do you want to go? evolto."

"Oh? You know me? Are you another transmigrator player?"

"No, I'm just……"

Probing claw, I grasped the 'Hu Che' long sword that shot out from within Mars, while the other iron claw lifted, its hook claw shooting out and embedding into the opponent's somewhat distorted, cracked black-hole-type chest armor.

Fixed, taut, pull!

Not pulling the opponent closer, but to boost my own momentum, the Steel Magic God's superimposed compound eyes glowed blood-red, the dark blue crimson flame at my waist aided by the most violent thrust, at the instant the Hu Che gear was firmly gripped——

——The claw grinding against the blade, the fang's posture already condensed.

Cold and fierce, the Wolf King's Fang sped forth, its target naturally the cockpit ahead on the chest!

"I can't forget that terrible coffee!"

(End of chapter)