It's Not Easy to Be a Man After Travelling to the Future - Chapter 344

Chapter 344: Rest In Peace!

The commanding officer knew very well that in Mecha World, there was no login point at the Swift Dragon base. In other words, as long as they were still in the Swift Dragon base, they would have no way at all of leaving the virtual world, let alone report to military headquarters. It looked the other’s true intention was indeed not to stop them from reporting but to kill off all of them.

“You all are going too far,” said the commanding officer through gritted teeth. He knew that the odds were truly stacked against their side this time — their only hope was that the enemy only had one spectre …

Reiter did not get angry in response; they had planned to turn the Huaxia Federation upside down to begin with. Right then, he was still preoccupied with thoughts of the secret base. After all, it was already time for the T-virus to break out yet there was still no unusual signs. This made him rather anxious. Thus, he did not want to speak any further with this commanding officer of the Federation. Circulating his spectre power, he poured it out in a torrent at the other …

Seeing that things were going south, the commanding officer quickly shared a look with an extremely plain-looking warrior, and then the two of them leapt up. One of them spun into a whirlwind sidekick, while the other let go a flurry of kicks in the air, and they actually managed to send the people surrounding them flying. The next second, they came to the side of an army clerk who had been taking notes all the way and did not seem like he had a lot of combat power and took up protective stances on both sides of him.

In a world invisible to normal humans, two powerful forces collided forcefully. The bodies of Reiter and that clerk shuddered in unison.

Reiter’s expression changed. “Spectre.” Who would have expected that there would still be another spectre in hiding within the Huaxia Federation team? If he had not arrived in time, the people ambushing on their own side might have been in danger.

The clerk said nothing, only staring coldly back at Reiter. From their one clash, he had understood that the other’s spectre power was probably stronger than his by a hair. A trace of regret flashed across his eyes. If he had known the other side had spectres, he would have long killed off all these enemies when they had surrounded his team. In order to figure out the backgrounds of the enemy, they had chosen to tolerate and hold back temporarily. But from the looks of it now, that had been a huge miscalculation.

For the mission this time, in order to guarantee success, military headquarters had sent two spectres on the mission, one overtly, the other covertly. The exposed spectre was Hollow Ground, while the hidden spectre was him, impersonating an army clerk among the investigation team. With the exception of the commanding officer and his adjutant, no one else, not even Hollow Ground, knew of his true identity.

The reason he had been tasked as the hidden spectre was that his spectre powers were rather unique and special. As long as he did not use his spectre power, his entire aura would be just like a regular person’s — no one would sense anything strange about him. It should be known that all spectres carried a trace of danger on their aura to some extent. Spectres were extremely sensitive to this trace on the auras of other spectres, so the moment another spectre came within the range of their senses, they would very quickly detect the presence of kin. This special trait of his allowed him to play the role of hidden spectre on many a mission, and this time was no exception.

Thus, when they discovered the enemy was a spectre, the commanding officer and his adjutant had quickly rushed to the hidden spectre’s side. Indeed, his spectre power was still pretty decent, but his physical attack capabilities were just like other spectres — terrible.

“I just want to know … what has happened to our people at the gates?” asked the clerk hoarsely, a hand pressed to his chest, trying to calm the roiling blood and qi within it. Seeing the other rush in from the outside, he already had an inkling that something had gone wrong. Hollow Ground was most likely in trouble, but he still hoped that Hollow Ground was safe and had not died in battle.

Reiter chuckled in response and said, “Since I’m here, what do you think happened to those comrades of yours?”

The clerk’s expression turned grim. “Hollow Ground, he is very strong.” The connotation being — trying to trick me? No way.

“Oh? So he was called Hollow Ground?” A mocking smirk appeared on Reiter’s lips. “He refused to reveal his code name to the very end, saying that he could not disgrace his country …”

“Bullshit, Hollow Ground can’t be dead,” retorted the clerk. Hollow Ground was one of the top ten spectres of the Federation — how could he fall so easily here?

Seeing this, Ling Lan had an idea. She asked, “Little Four, can you imitate the energy signature of other spectres?” Every spectre had a unique aura due to the signature of their spectre power — those familiar to it would very easily recognise a spectre by it, so there would be no incidents of accidental injury.

“Of course I can.” Little Four pursed his lips, thinking that Boss was truly underestimating him too much by asking this question.

“That’s great then. Wait for a moment. When you hear my command, immediately imitate Hollow Ground’s energy signature and take the opportunity to kill the Caesar hacker.” Ling Lan’s eyes lit up, her plan taking form. “Of course, make it look like a mutual destruction scenario.”

Little Four’s eyes lit up at these words. This was a game he had never played before. He quickly nodded, indicating that he would do everything his boss said.

Meanwhile, Reiter could see that his opponent was shaken. His gaze flashed and he decided to continue agitating the other, because a spectre who had lost his composure would very easily reveal some weaknesses …

“All alone, he is very strong, but our side has more than one spectre.” Reiter smiled placidly. At these words, the clerk’s face paled. This was the potential scenario he had been most afraid of. One spectre alone would definitely not have been able to defeat Hollow Ground.

Taking advantage of this window of time while the opponent was still riled up, Reiter once again slyly sent a quick bolt of spectre power at the opponent in a sneak attack. However, Reiter was disappointed — though the clerk looked like he was not using his spectre powers, he had actually been on guard all this time. Sensing the opponent’s spectre power attacking, his own power rose up to meet it instinctively.

Yet, the clerk knew that dragging things out like this with pure force would not end well for them. Even as he blocked the other spectre’s attack, he threw a pointed glance at the commander, signalling for the other to find a chance and escape immediately …

These two attacks had given Reiter a pretty good idea of the opponent’s strength, which was a hair weaker than his. Still, to finish off the opponent, he would first need to exhaust the other’s spectre power — this would be a drawn-out battle of attrition. At this thought, Reiter began to regret sending Witt back to the secret base so soon …

There was still no news from the secret base thus far (Reiter did not know that the mediating contact, D1 and his team, had already been wiped out by Little Four). Reiter began to feel anxious. He knew very well what they had come here to do. If something happened at the secret base, the loss would not be mitigated even if he killed off everyone here.

Reiter’s thoughts settled — he would not waste any more time. Mature and experienced spectres all had their own trump cards. For example, the trump card of his last opponent, Hollow Ground, had been that final deathblow. Similarly, as the team leader of the spectres in this operation, he too had his own trump card.

And so, Reiter’s spectre power, which had already been stronger than his opponent by a little, suddenly became several times stronger. This took the clerk by surprise — with an involuntary grunt, he spewed out a mouthful of blood and his face turned as white as paper. This caused the expression of the commanding officer standing by his side to shift. The commander threw a look at his adjutant and the adjutant immediately grabbed hold of the clerk and began running towards the outside of the enemy’s enclosure with the commander right behind them.

At the same time, some of their other team members suddenly broke free of their restraints and began attacking wildly. These actions flustered the people surrounding them, afraid that if they accidentally killed the opponents, they would die and resurrect elsewhere on the Swift Dragon base and cause further trouble for them.

Seeing this, Reiter shouted, “Impudence!” An overwhelming wave of spectre power rolled out to smash these Federation soldiers trying to make their last stand.

The clerk gritted his teeth and used the final bit of his spectre power to spread out a defensive shield to protect these brave comrades of his.

The power of the two spectres clashed violently once more and the clerk could not stop himself from throwing out mouthful after mouthful of blood. He could already feel his defensive shield about to be crushed by the opponent. At that time, it would be time for all of them to die. He was still too weak …

A deep surge of regret and unwillingness rose within the clerk’s heart. If only he were as strong as Hollow Ground, perhaps then he would have been able to protect all these people and let them live. He could almost hear the sounds of shattering coming from his defensive shield. Just as he was about to give up hope and just wait for death to descend …

“Little Four, do it now!” Seeing this, Ling Lan ordered decisively.

A powerful surge of spectre power appeared suddenly to intercept the other spectre’s power. The clerk’s gaze brightened — it was Hollow Ground!

Hollow Ground successfully blocked the opponent’s attack; when Reiter sensed this familiar power signature, his expression changed drastically and he was screaming in his heart that this was impossible.

Yes, he had clearly seen the other become white spots to vanish in the virtual world. He had confirmed that the other’s consciousness had been erased under his and Witt’s combined power … so why then would the spectre power belonging to Hollow Ground appear here at this time? He could not understand it. He was afraid. But he would no longer have any chance to ask any questions, because even as that wave of power blocked his attack, it leapt at him in a counterattack.

The strength behind the counterattack did not feel that strong, but Reiter found that his own spectre power was rapidly fading away. He was pushed back again and again, till he was actually being overpowered by the other’s power …

This made no sense[1]! This was Reiter’s final thought, because this change had occurred within the blink of an eye. Before Reiter could react, he had been erased by this seemingly unimpressive spectre power …

Everyone present saw the initially forceful and imperious Reiter suddenly explode into white spots that rapidly disappeared. The faces of the Caesarians changed; Reiter’s sudden death let them know that things were not good. In contrast, this scene was like a shot of heart tonic to the soldiers of the Huaxia Federation, and they found their battle prowess magnified by several multiples …

Only the clerk had a sorrowful expression on his face. He could sense that as the enemy spectre’s power had dissipated, Hollow Ground’s spectre power had also begun to dissipate.

From the spectre power of Hollow Ground that had yet to dissipate from the air, the clerk could almost feel the other’s dense reluctance to die, as well as his relief that his companions were safe and unharmed. The clerk was well aware that Hollow Ground had only died because that last attack was Hollow Ground’s final trump card. The trump cards of Federation spectres were basically all methods of mutual destruction. This was related to the unyielding character of the Huaxian people … Hollow Ground must have already been on his last legs[2] after going through consecutive battles, yet he had still rushed over to save them. In the end, he had even sacrificed his life to save them.

Hollow Ground, rest in peace! The clerk closed his damp eyes, pushing down the grief in his mind.

[1] 这不科学: I actually really love the original Chinese phrase, but this is one of those phrases that sound better in Chinese. It might still make sense in English, but it’s definitely on the odd spectrum to use it literally. A direct translation would be ‘this is not scientific’. The phrase refers to how something is completely illogical and does not follow common sense or established scientific knowledge.

[2] 灯枯油尽: Literally ‘lamp about to be snuffed out as the oil runs dry’.