[MMWF] – Chapter 5: Ice and Fire Competition (IV)

The commentator gulped.

"... Blizzards are Ice Butterfly's favorite weather for activities. Our holographic interactive projection perfectly simulates this." He took a few seconds to steady his voice, then turned to the camera and said dryly into the microphone, “The Ice Butterflies on the barren planet are out hunting. They are converging from all directions ...... converging in one direction.”

"We can see...hundreds...thousands of ice butterflies heading towards the Icefield Mountains where contestant Rong Mi is!"

Audience: "..."

"...Did I hear that right? Thousands of them?!... Isn't this a huge number?"

“What's up with the holographic projection algorithm? Why are they all going to Rong Mi?”

"Is it because Rong Mi was exposed to some special pheromones in the Ice Butterfly Cocoon?... The algorithm should be written according to the habits of the Ice Butterfly."

"Report! I just came from another live broadcast room. Other competition teams also encountered Ice Butterflies!! I see those mecha masters are frantically calling for rescue! One mecha master's mecha has been destroyed... …The holographic interactive projection is so powerful!”

"...That...that...this holographic projection is scary. Isn't this what the Ice Butterfly Zerg Planet looks like?!"[1]

"I would like to ask the commentator if the holographic projection will only have low-level ice butterflies. Or will there be higher-level Ice Butterflies or even Yadie?"[2] Someone in the comment area had a deeper understanding of Ice Butterflies and was very curious about the background setting of the competition. “If the latter two types appear, will they also be so realistically recreated?!”

Humanity has a set of ranks for Ice Butterflies.

The most common low-level ice butterfly has an IQ approximately equivalent to that of a four or five-year-old child and does not have much thinking ability.

There are five levels of advanced Ice Butterflies, from one to five. Further up are Yadie, which were capable of transforming into humanoid forms.

Ice butterflies accumulate and transform by absorbing special energy. When it reaches the Yadie level, its vitality and lethality are astonishing. It can even consume a large amount of energy to open a space wormhole to travel through the universe and attack other planets in the universe from a long distance.

One of Rong Mi's responsibilities in the mecha division of the main ship "Goddess" is to leave the ship and explore whether Yadie or advanced Ice Butterflies are living on the deserted star when the nomad passes through each deserted starfield.

If there are, immediately call the main ship's auxiliary to strangle them. In case they gather a large number of low-level Ice Butterflies and launch a surprise attack on the fleet.

Every time they encountered an attack from Yadie or the high-level Ice Butterfly who was about to be promoted, their fleet suffered heavy casualties.

Rong Mi is not very worried about Yadie appearing on this deserted star.

The maturing conditions of Yadie are very harsh. On average, only one Yadie could be promoted out of hundreds of millions of Ice Butterflies, and the promotion time would take hundreds of years. If he were to encounter one as soon as he was reborn, he would be lucky enough to go out and buy a lottery ticket.

However, Rong Mi didn't know whether there were high-level Ice Butterflies in the underground Zerg nest on this desolate star.

What he needs to consider most now is how to break through the encirclement of a large number of low-level Ice Butterflies.

By the time the previous Ice Butterfly was hit and fell, Rong Mi's gun had already moved to the next target and fired another shot.

The interval between each shot was extremely short, like a burst of fire.

Rong Mi fired one shot after another, and the heat from the laser gun barrel turned the ice and snow falling on the iron shell into crystal water droplets.

Hundreds of Ice Butterflies were sniped by Rong Mi, but more joined the team from behind.

Rong Mi looked calm, but looking at the number of Ice Butterflies in the distance, he already knew that he would not be able to kill all of them before the laser gun was scrapped due to overheating.

What's even more troublesome is that he doesn't know how many ice butterflies there are underground.

Rong Mi: This planet shouldn’t hold any competitive survival competition. It should send a military fleet to directly clean it up!

He thought to himself, not only did the movement of his hand not slow down, it was even faster than before. However, the speed at which he killed the Zergs was slightly slower than the high-speed movement of the butterfly swarm.

It was only because the front row had been killed so much that the butterfly swarm's movement looked to have slowed down quite a bit.

Slowly, but still getting steadily closer.

They finally entered Gu Ming's mental vision.

When he saw the butterfly group clearly, Gu Ming, who was hiding behind the mecha, couldn't help but open his eyes wide.

A few minutes later, the live camera captured the corresponding footage.

Gu Ming: "..."

Audience in the live broadcast room: "..."

"Help...help!" someone murmured, "I have trypophobia!"

Gu Ming was more shocked than the audience behind the screen.

"...md!" Gu Ming couldn't help but curse.

Because of family reasons, he knew more about Ice Butterflies than others.

Some players may think this is just a holographic projection interaction, but he immediately realized something was wrong.

What came surging down in front of him was real, Ice Butterfly waves of energy. He is a mecha club member in the safe zone. Although he went to resource stars to mine... he has never faced a real Ice Butterfly!

In front of those overwhelming bright red butterfly wings, Gu Ming's hands and feet went numb, and he seemed to have lost control of his body.

He was imprisoned by fear, unable to move, and almost fainted from fear.

But then, he saw the mecha in front of him.

The mecha fired one shot after another.

Every time he hit the target, he killed an ice butterfly with one blow.

It was as if one person formed a line of defense that the Zergs could not break through.

It was even more outrageous than the Ice Butterflies that came in hordes.

Gu Ming gradually suppressed his fear of such a bizarre sight.

But he didn't feel too relaxed.

Because the Ice Butterflies that came... were too many.

It goes on and on, seemingly endlessly.

And human mental power and mecha energy... are both limited.

*

The weather above the desolate Star was very bad, and the blizzard that had been blowing for half a day showed no signs of weakening.

The ground of the snowy field was cracking open.

A large amount of Ice Butterflies converge into processions, ready to sacrifice their life, when one falls, the next follows.

The procession was heading towards Rong Mi.

On the outskirts of the snow-covered mountains, the barrel of the laser gun in Rong Mi's hand has overheated, and the originally black metal oozes a dark red glow like molten iron from the inside out.

With a soft thud, Rong Mi dropped the empty energy tank.

Immediately afterward, there was a sound of a heavy object hitting the ground, and Rong Mi simply threw the laser gun away.

This gun is no longer usable.

From the mountains where he was hiding, the snowy fields, as far as the eye could see, were covered with the corpses of Ice Butterflies. The number of Ice Butterflies suspended in mid-air didn't seem to be much less than before.

Rong Mi clicked his tongue and couldn't help complaining: "This competition is a bit too exciting."

Without the laser gun, it wasn't as if he couldn't fight with his mental powers.

The spiritual power grooves around the mecha shone brightly, and the dark purple spiritual power burst out, forming sparks one after another, wrapping the Ice Butterfly.

At the same time, Rong Mi's game points also increased.

The constant stream of Ice Butterflies was like a point-sending brigade that was attracted to feed Rong Mi, posing a huge threat while also steadily increasing his point ranking.

But Rong Mi felt that the Zerg's actions were very unreasonable.

Ice butterflies love to hunt in snowstorms.

But unless there is a special reason, they will not stare at prey and pounce on it one after another, regardless of their lives.

There must be something on his body that attracts Ice Butterflies.

It's just that Rong Mi has just arrived in this body, and he doesn't have enough information about everything here, and he can't find out what is attracting the Zergs to keep coming towards him.

He frowned slightly, thinking about ways to solve the current situation.

The increase in mental power of this mecha is too low, resulting in the area covered by its mental power being too small. It can only deal with Ice Butterflies in the vicinity and is powerless against enemies in the distance.

But if he couldn't eliminate the Ice Butterflies in the distance, he wouldn't be able to get out of the stalemate where he couldn't stop now and could only quickly kill the incoming Zergs.

And if this deadlock drags on to the end, if Ice Butterflies keep appearing like this... then there is a high chance that he will become their ration.

Rong Mi: The rebirth will not be in vain![3]

The laser blade in the mecha's hand rotated. When he thought this, his expression was very calm, and he quickly found a solution in his mind.

Just take the risk and get it done once and for all.

Rong Mi's mental strength is very high. When output is at maximum intensity, mental power will ignite into a large fire and spread out quickly in all directions.

If you can take advantage of the fact that your mental power is still sufficient, actively exceeding the maximum safety threshold and outputting mental power powerfully, you can activate a short-term mental overload.

The intensity of his mental power during overload is greatly increased, and his mental power can cover an entire snowfield at once.

Let the flames spread across the snow, seep into the ground, and burn the whole world into a deep purple.

The price is that if you are unable to control yourself after being overloaded, it will lead to mental disorders and mental violence.

This is a very dangerous thing.

Humans, star beasts...are all afraid of any diseases related to the spiritual realm.

Because the consequences are too terrible.

When the mental realm is disordered, consequences range from coma to severe mental collapse and death.

And for people with high levels of mental power, not only their brains may explode in the collapse of the energy explosion.

Including the body, and a large area nearby, may be directly blown into flying ash.

Rong Mi had just been reborn not long ago, and he didn't really want to blow himself up into fireworks so quickly.

But he is an adventurous person.

And he has enough confidence in himself.

What's more, if he doesn't take the initiative to overload the mental domain now, and fight a protracted battle until the mental domain is exhausted, he won't even have a chance to fight overloaded.

"I'll probably be in a brief coma and have a headache for a few more days." Rong Mi muttered in a low voice and made the decision effortlessly.

Rong Mi breathed a sigh of relief.

The wind around the black mecha suddenly stopped.

The strong wind in the distance was still blowing, but the world near Rong Mi suddenly became calm and solid.

Each snowflake stayed in mid-air as if being held up by some tiny particle.

There was a faint lavender glow in the air.

The viewers in the live broadcast room could not see this subtle change through the camera, but Gu Ming, who was hiding behind the mecha wreckage, slowly opened his eyes.

He felt that a powerful wave of mental power was bursting out from his body, and it was about to set off a prairie fire.

But at the moment when Rong Mi's mental power was about to explode, a sudden change occurred.

All the scenery, near and far, visible to the naked eye and perceptible with mental power, was briefly distorted for a moment.

Suddenly, a powerful energy wave that was different from Rong Mi’s and Ice Butterflies' mental power suddenly came from the distance. It was as cold as the wind in the ancient wasteland.

It blew over everything and shrouded the snowy plain.


[1] “冰蝶虫星也就长这样了吧?” Not quite sure, if the tl is right, so here the raw ^^

[2] 冰蝶 - bīngdié: Ice Butterfly. will be used in text as is; 亚蝶 - Yàdié: Sub Butterfly, will be tled like a “named” Zerg, so it will be called Yadie instead of sub butterfly

[3] 容靡:那不是白重生一趟! - not quite sure if I understood it correctly

Disclaimer

This is a non-commercial fan translation for personal reading only.
All rights belong to the original author and publisher.
Please support the author via the official raws and any licensed releases.

Comments