Chapter 422: Jizhi Beast

Unlike the mid- and high-tier mechs around it, Wang Yu's "Tulong Type I," as a basic model, was shorter than its neighbors, with a round, bulbous head and square body, appearing exceptionally crude.

Fortunately, the silver giant rifle in its hand and the golden serrated blade on its back still exuded a hint of majesty; otherwise, nestled among the towering mechs, it would have looked like a toy.

Players in nearby mechs occasionally peered through their cockpit windows at this basic model, their faces wearing strange or amused expressions.

"Star River" had been live for over a year; players still using the basic mech model were exceedingly rare.

Moreover, bounty missions were the most demanding in terms of combat prowess; success and merit points depended almost entirely on the player's mech skills and mech performance.

At this moment, Wang Yu, inside the Tulong mech, had already entered the neural-link state; though the mech itself had no wings, its legs spewed flames as it charged straight toward the approaching starcloud beasts.

Unlike the NPC mechs ahead, which fought in groups of four or five.

Player mechs formed squads of ten or more, standing their ground in formation against the starcloud beasts; others teamed up in groups of seven or eight; yet some lone mechs ignored all coordination, charging headlong into the beast horde like Wang Yu.

"These useless fools don't even coordinate—they just came to die?" Those organized players immediately vented in the mission's temporary comms channel.

"Lone wolves always act like this—they don't care if the mission succeeds; they just want to kill more starcloud beasts for the high bounties," someone else replied calmly in the channel.

As voices surged back and forth in the comms channel, the front-line mechs had already clashed with the starcloud beasts.

Admittedly, though player mechs numbered only four or five hundred, their individual performance was clearly superior to the earlier NPC mechs.

The first few hundred mechs surged forward and immediately collided with individual starcloud beasts.

Before them, the roar of mechs and the shriek of cleaving blades rose in a continuous din.

Meanwhile, other mechs behind launched ranged attacks—dense beams and missiles rained down like a storm upon the beast horde.

Within moments, the valley floor was littered with vast piles of starcloud beast corpses.

But as more starcloud beasts surged forward, some suddenly leapt into the air, flapped their wings, and glided over the front-line mechs to directly attack those behind, frantically firing.

The massive airship above emitted a series of mechanical clicks, then extended dozens of slender cannon muzzles from its belly, firing hundreds of thin beams that pierced the rear of the beast horde, instantly annihilating dozens of starcloud beasts.

More starcloud beasts took to the skies, targeting the airship; occasionally, a slender cannon muzzle was crushed under a beast's claw.

Several hatches on top of the airship simultaneously popped open, releasing swarms of tiny drones that surged toward nearby starcloud beasts like a swarm of bees.

In an instant, the entire battlefield—sky and ground alike—descended into chaos, with mechs, starcloud beasts, and drones entangled in violent disorder.

Wang Yu, seated in his mech, felt a slight tremor; the silver rifle in its hand fired a white beam that pierced the skull of a starcloud beast lunging at him.

But instantly, a whistling sound came from beside him—a long, electrically flickering feather, sharp as a blade, swept horizontally across his waist.

Without hesitation, Wang Yu manipulated the mech to leap skyward, tossed the silver rifle aside, and drew the golden serrated blade from his back.

A gust of wind swept down as the black mech landed like a ghost beside another starcloud beast, slicing its body cleanly in two.

The golden blade in the black mech's hand was merely held horizontally before it; streams of green beast blood slid down its edge.

"Jizhi Beast"

Wang Yu glanced at the massive, ostrich-like corpse on the ground and murmured softly.

Since he had chosen this bounty mission, he had researched the starcloud beasts appearing in it on the forums beforehand.

This starcloud beast, no more than a zhang long, was far smaller than a mech, yet it was famed among starcloud beasts for its agility and ferocity; moreover, within any group of jizhi beasts, there was always a leader—so long as the leader lived, the ordinary jizhi beasts would never flee or retreat.

The jizhi beast leader was exceptionally powerful, ranking among the strongest of all known starcloud beasts, having once single-handedly destroyed over a dozen elite mech pilots.

Thus, though the "Lunar Ambush" mission wasn't overly difficult—simply holding out for half an hour to protect the airship overhead from being shot down would trigger massive NPC reinforcements and count as a success—actual kills of the jizhi beast leader within the mission had occurred only rarely.

Because the jizhi beast leader typically fled as soon as reinforcements arrived, killing it required accomplishing the feat within the first half-hour.

But during that first half-hour, player mechs were vastly outnumbered by the beast horde; killing such a powerful jizhi beast leader under those conditions was unimaginably difficult.

The few successful attempts had mostly involved inviting multiple top-tier mech pilots from the top hundred of the rankings, plus several large teams working together, barely managing to pull it off a handful of times.

The mission with the fewest mechs to achieve a kill was led by Prince Isa, piloting the Star-class "Archangel" mech, accompanied by his own team and two other top-ten ranked mech pilots.

As the highest-bounty starcloud beast in the mission, Wang Yu was naturally intrigued by the jizhi beast leader in the horde; but limited by the performance of his current mech, he only entertained the thought in his mind, planning to observe the beast's strength firsthand first.

At this moment, Wang Yu subtly shifted his feet in the cockpit; the black mech leapt again, a flash of golden blade-light severed a jizhi beast that had just glided overhead, then its leg thrusters flared, propelling it into the midst of several nearby jizhi beasts.

A golden crescent of cold light erupted—several jizhi beasts shattered simultaneously.

Wang Yu inside the black mech frowned slightly.

The "Tulong Type I" was vastly inferior to the "Tianyi Standard" mech he had piloted during his evaluation.

Whether in agility or raw output efficiency, it was clearly far behind.

Fortunately, though his star-nature power received little amplification from the mech, his terrifying mental force alone was sufficient to instantly obliterate the surrounding jizhi beasts.

But he did not yet wish to appear overly conspicuous, so he had refrained from activating his mental force to directly attack the starcloud beasts.

Even so, under the influence of his terrifying mental perception, no jizhi beast that approached could survive a single slash; soon, the ground around him was piled high with beast corpses.

The performance of the "Tulong Type I" caused several nearby mech pilots, who had happened to notice this, to nearly drop their eyes in disbelief, frantically shouting in the comms channel: "High-level player spotted!" "God-tier!"