25: Chapter 24: Battle!
Thrilling!
Don’t care how.
25: Chapter 24: Battle!
Thrilling!
Don’t care how.
The hum of the Quantum Manifold hadn’t faded yet, and Nana had already led Mei back to the Memory Battlefield console.
The screen still showed the previously selected “Herrscher of the Void.” This time, she didn’t want to challenge Sirin, but…
Her fingers were already sliding quickly across the panel, her gaze sweeping over the dense list of enemies, finally stopping on a familiar figure.
[Bronya Zaychik (project bunny 19c)] Nana didn’t know what she was thinking, but she pressed directly on the “Highest Difficulty” option.
“This is the one!” Nana slapped the console, the excitement in her eyes almost overflowing.
“Let me see what Bronya and Project Bunny are made of, heehee…
Just in time to see if the dodges and combos I recently learned can keep up!” Mei was about to remind her that “Highest Difficulty” meant the simulation intensity was close to a real battlefield.
But the white light had already flared up, and the environment of the Memory Battlefield instantly switched to an abandoned plaza.
The surrounding damaged buildings revealed rusted steel structures.
Intersecting in the dim light, distant pipes dripped with condensation, and in the center of the field, Bronya’s phantom was slowly emerging.
Silver-gray short hair with distinctive double-drills hanging down, mechanical prosthetics gleaming coldly, project bunny 19c behind her deployed its cannon port, the barrel slowly charging, faint purple energy patterns spreading along the metal casing, an overwhelming pressure rushing forth.
“Be careful, Bronya’s long-range suppression is very troublesome!” Mei leaned against the console, her gaze falling on the center of the battlefield.
“And Project Bunny’s locking system almost never misses, don’t take the shells head-on!” “Got it, Mei!” Nana waved her hand as if it were no big deal, spun the dual pistols that condensed out of thin air in her palms, kicked off the ground, and rushed out.
Her figure moved and wove quickly across the plaza, trying to circle to Bronya’s side and rear, but after just two steps, Project Bunny’s cannon port had already turned and aimed at her position.
With a “vroom,” several homing missiles shot out, trailing exhaust flames!
“Tsk!” Nana suddenly side-stepped, sliding behind a scattered fragment of a building on the afterimage of her dodge.
The missiles hit the steel beams and exploded, fragments and fire instantly swallowing her previous position.
She just poked her head out when she saw Bronya controlling Project Bunny to raise its mechanical arm, dense bullets sweeping like raindrops, hitting the fragments until sparks flew and they cracked apart, even grazing her with shrapnel and fragments, causing a bleeding effect.
“Bronya’s firepower is too dense!” Nana gritted her teeth, taking advantage of the gap in the bullet fire, suddenly leaped out of cover, pulling the triggers of her dual pistols continuously, bullets shooting toward Bronya with faint blue energy trails.
But Project Bunny’s shield instantly deployed, the energy barrier blocking all the bullets.
Bronya’s voice came from the center of the battlefield, cold as ice.
“Threat detected, initiating Annihilation Mode.” Before her voice fell, more cannon barrels suddenly deployed from behind Project Bunny’s shoulders, and the laser beam from its right palm instantly tore through the air, slashing straight at Nana’s position!
She rolled to the side almost instinctively, the laser grazing her back and carving a charred trench in the ground, the scalding air current making her skin sting.
“Damn…” “Dodged quickly.” Bronya’s phantom tilted her head slightly, and Project Bunny’s mechanical hand suddenly extended, slamming down at the spot where Nana landed.
Nana leaped backward with the momentum, her toes tapping the edge of the mechanical hand, using the force to jump again, firing her dual pistols continuously at Project Bunny’s cannon port.
She roughly calculated the gap in the barrel’s charging, the bullets accurately hitting the junction of the energy patterns.
Project Bunny’s cannon port jerked, the charging light dimming for a moment.
“It’s working!” Nana’s eyes lit up, and just as she was about to press the advantage, Bronya suddenly controlled Project Bunny to teleport backward, while simultaneously activating the Floating Cannons.
Dozens of small Floating Cannons flew out of Project Bunny’s chassis, forming a firepower net in the air, suppressing Nana from all directions.
She was forced to keep dodging, her figure appearing and disappearing in the gunfire, but she was hit by shells several times, barely holding on through extreme positioning to weave through the gaps.
But her speed was getting slower and slower, and the pain from being blasted was all too real.
Mei watched the movement in the battlefield, her fingertips unconsciously tightening.
Nana’s advantage lay in flexibility and close-range bursts, but Bronya’s long-range suppression countered exactly that, let alone the Highest Difficulty simulation where Project Bunny’s reaction speed under the system simulation was no different from a real person.
Could it be said that Nana was completely fighting one against two?
She saw Nana being forced into a corner by the Floating Cannons, with quite a few injuries on her body.
Project Bunny’s main cannon had already begun charging, the faint purple light growing brighter, clearly preparing to release an ultimate skill.
“Don’t take it head-on!” Mei couldn’t help but call out a reminder.
When Nana heard the voice, the energy wave from the main cannon was already rushing towards her.
She made an extreme dodge to the side, almost gambling her life.
The energy wave grazed her waist, the searing energy making her break into a cold sweat instantly, and using the force of the impact, she actually managed to circle behind Bronya!
“Now’s the time!” Nana gave a low shout, stowed her dual pistols, and instead pulled out the short blades from her back, her figure closing in like a ghost.
Project Bunny’s shield instantly turned, her short blades already blocked by the mechanical arm, sparks flying everywhere.
She jumped using the force, her short blades slashing continuously, every strike accurately landing on Project Bunny’s weak points.
But the Highest Difficulty was no joke.
Bronya immediately controlled Project Bunny to spin, directly throwing Nana out.
But Nana was defiant; she rushed back and gripped the gaps in the mechanical arm tightly, discarded a short blade, and thrust it in forcefully, jamming Project Bunny’s rotation axis.
With a crisp “click,” Project Bunny’s movement paused for a moment before ejecting the jammed short blade.
Nana took the opportunity to flip and land, her dual pistols aimed at Bronya’s position to fire again.
This time, the bullets still failed to penetrate the rapidly forming and recovering shield, grazing Bronya’s shoulder.
The simulated Bronya also taunted at the right time.
“Is that all?” Then she activated even stronger defense and attack.
“Hmph.” Bronya’s voice remained calm as Project Bunny suddenly deployed a full-screen shield, while all cannon barrels aimed at Nana, energy converging at the muzzles, clearly about to perform a carpet bombing.
“Oh no!” Nana thought to herself, wanting to retreat but it was too late, she could only curl her body.
Just as the gunfire was about to fall, she suddenly remembered the technique Mei had taught her, using environmental obstacles to offset damage.
She lunged toward a thick metal pipe nearby.
The gunfire crashed down, and the moment the pipe was destroyed, she used the shockwave to teleport again, barely avoiding fatal damage, but her back was still slashed by fragments.
Her virtual health bar, which wasn’t much to begin with, dropped by more than half again.
“It’s not over yet!” Nana gritted her teeth, ignoring the pain, and rushed toward Bronya again.
This time she was no longer in a hurry to attack, but used the steel structures in the arena to constantly maneuver, occasionally firing a few shots to interfere with Project Bunny’s aiming, while looking for an opportunity to strike.
She noticed that Bronya would have a brief calculation lag when controlling the main cannon, so she deliberately lured Project Bunny into activating it.
In the last second of charging, she suddenly accelerated, her short blade slashing with full force at the main cannon’s muzzle!
“Vroom—” The energy of the main cannon instantly went out of control, Project Bunny emitted a piercing alarm, a ball of fire exploded at the muzzle, and Nana was also affected.
Bronya’s phantom staggered.
Although the shield’s energy instantly dropped to the minimum, it was also recovering rapidly.
Nana, injured again with only a sliver of health left, seized this opportunity, firing her dual pistols in rapid succession, bullets pouring like a rainstorm onto Project Bunny and Bronya’s phantom.
But the shield recovered and blocked them all.
She herself was exhausted…
Following Bronya’s words, “Goodbye.
Idiot.” She fell under Project Bunny’s dense gunfire.
It wasn’t until the system prompt “This battle has ended” sounded that she lay paralyzed on the ground, gasping for breath, the virtual wounds on her body slowly dissipating.
“Huff…
huff…” Nana wiped the sweat from her face and laughed out loud, “Thrilling!
So thrilling!
Much better than those fake targets~” Mei walked to her side, handed her a bottle of water, with a smile in her eyes: “When you were almost blown into a sieve by the main cannon just now, why didn’t I see you calling it thrilling?” “Hehe…
that’s different~” Nana took the water and gulped down more than half the bottle, propped herself up from the ground, her eyes still bright as she looked at the console.
“Even though I got beaten pretty badly, every time I dodged, every time I found a flaw, I felt my blood boiling!
One more time?
I think I can do better!” “Take a break.” Mei pressed down her hand reaching for the console.
“Your combos just now were much smoother than before, but you were still too rushed when dodging the carpet bombing, making it easy to reveal flaws.” She pointed to the replay on the screen.
“Look here, when Bronya activates the Floating Cannons, there’s a one-second gap at the bottom of Project Bunny.
Charging in then is more effective than just dodging.” Nana leaned in to stare at the replay, suddenly realizing.
“So that’s how it is!
I was so busy dodging, I didn’t notice this detail at all!” She patted the console.
“Then wait until I’ve rested, I’m going again!
This time I’ll definitely win!” Mei looked at her excited appearance, shook her head helplessly, but couldn’t help curling her lips.
The lights of the Memory Battlefield reflected on Nana’s face, the light in her eyes even more dazzling than the gunfire, while the distant Quantum Manifold area was still humming low, as if waiting for the next hearty battle.
To Nana, this “masochistic” battle was not an ordeal, but the most exhilarating carnival—!
After all, being able to break through oneself in one collision after another is the most satisfying thing in itself.
Not even five minutes had passed, Nana was already standing in front of the console again, the option for “Bronya Zaychik” on the screen lighting up once more.
She turned back and winked at Mei.
“Watch closely, Mei!
This time I’ll definitely make it!” The sound of gunfire rang out again, and amidst the alternating light and shadow, Nana’s figure wove even faster, every dodge and every attack more precise than the last round.
But under Bronya’s defense, it was only a bit better than the previous match; defeat was still inevitable.
With a max-level account, one couldn’t possibly lose to a newbie, right?
Mei leaned to the side, listening to the cheers and the roar of gunfire coming from the battlefield, the smile on her lips deepening.
This “Training Base” hidden underground is indeed interesting.
Even the phantoms can think and speak.
“It seems Senior even added some unexpected ingredients to the Memory Battlefield?” ————————
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”