What is he trying to do?
If the Char AI piloting the Perfect Zeong before him had not merely simulated piloting techniques but also reproduced his personality, it surely would have raised such a question.
After all, abandoning the cautious strategy of guarding its surroundings and suddenly adopting this almost reckless, headlong charge.
Anyone who saw it would find it abnormal.
But Yu Xiao’s mind was, at this moment, perfectly clear.
In fact, he felt that in this battle, there had never been a moment when his thinking was clearer.
Relying on the Tallgeese’s high speed and heavy armor, though battered all over, it had barely managed to hold on.
And before being shot down by the Perfect Zeong, the Tallgeese had already reached its side.
Then, both arms spread open, with a strained embrace, it locked onto the Perfect Zeong’s chest!
This move could be called an unexpected ambush.
And the AI’s computing power seemed to have frozen at this moment.
After all, even if it had simulated Char’s piloting techniques, what it could handle was only normal MS combat.
For this incomprehensible style of fighting, it surely had no preparation.
But… what was the point of doing this?
Although it seemed the objective had been achieved, MS combat was not something that could be easily won with such a grappling technique.
It could even be said that such an action would only backfire.
Take the current situation, for example.
The Perfect Zeong, manipulating its wire-controlled floating hands, adjusted the firing angle to one that would exactly hit the Tallgeese without damaging itself.
It looked as though, as soon as it fired, his Tallgeese would be completely pierced through and shot down by a beam.
In this situation, however, Yu Xiao completely released the controller.
And placed his hands on the keyboard, which was originally not meant for operating the mech.
Pressing the keypad, he entered the four number keys “2887” in sequence.
This was a hidden command in “SRW VS” that Yu Xiao had inadvertently discovered earlier.
Its effect was this: every part of the Tallgeese’s body emitted an uncontrollable, dazzling flash.
And accompanied by a piercing sound effect, a bright red countdown was projected into the lower-right corner of the screen.
That’s right.
This scene fully displayed the effect of this command.
The “2887” command corresponded to—self-destruct!
This was probably just something like an easter egg.
And in the game, even if ordinary mechs self-destructed, they couldn’t achieve very strong effects.
…But the Tallgeese Yu Xiao was using this time happened to be an MS from “New Mobile Report Gundam Wing.”
This made the meaning of this command different.
After all, in Gundam Wing, there was a well-known plot joke.
That is, almost all the mechs of the main characters that appeared in it were equipped with extremely powerful self-destruct devices.
And as the personal machine of the protagonist Heero Yuy’s nemesis, the “Lightning Count” Zechs Merquise, this Tallgeese was naturally no exception.
In fact, in the original work, the power generated by its self-destruction alone was enough to annihilate an entire squad composed of Tauruses! This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
If the Tallgeese were detonated in front of the Perfect Zeong like this, at least a mutual-destruction draw could be guaranteed.
This was the tactic Yu Xiao had envisioned.
And now it seemed it could be called quite successful.
As for whether such resolve was needed in a human-vs-AI battle game…
…Honestly, Yu Xiao himself wasn’t too sure.
He was simply, as a player, purely “not wanting to lose.”
And “not wanting to lose” could become the universal justification for all actions in a competitive game.
Boom!
A somewhat exaggerated sound effect burst forth.
The Tallgeese’s self-destruction occurred at this moment.
And gazing at the brilliant explosion effects before him, Yu Xiao let himself relax and lean back against the chair.
If nothing unexpected happened, the objective should be achieved.
…Unfortunately, whenever someone thought this, it meant something unexpected would definitely happen.
This was already a kind of convention.
And so, something unimagined happened again at this moment.
“…What?”
And because he was so shocked, even Yu Xiao in front of the screen couldn’t help but blurt it out.
He saw it quite clearly.
On the screen, from the smoke that kept spreading and dispersing after the explosion, flew out… a head.
Moreover, this steel head’s shape was undoubtedly quite familiar to him.
…After all, it was the object he had been fighting for quite a while.
That’s right.
That was precisely the head of the Perfect Zeong.
In the original work, the Zeong’s head, serving as the cockpit, was designed to separate from the main body and be used as an escape pod…
Then, could this be… an escape?
Yu Xiao was somewhat dumbfounded.
But thinking about it, it was quite reasonable.
Char in the original work was very good at using the ejection device to narrowly escape death just before the mech exploded.
And because of this, he was affectionately given the nickname “Escape-type Newtype” by fans.
…No matter how much he calculated, he hadn’t calculated that he would stumble on this point.
Yu Xiao couldn’t help but sigh.
But sighing was useless; the outcome of this battle had already settled.
[Mission Complete]
Now, presented on the screen through the system’s prompt, it actually had a certain flavor to it.
[Battle Result: Defeat]
Next, seeing this line of text he had anticipated, Yu Xiao didn’t overreact.
After all, a loss is a loss.
Though he certainly didn’t want to lose during the battle, the result had appeared, so he could only accept it gladly.
At worst, he could just win it back next time.
After all, it was a game.
It could still be repeated over and over.
Yu Xiao thought.
And if, up to this point, everything was still within his expectations, then the following text would indeed catch him somewhat off guard.
[Extra Reward! Completed Newbie Mission: Conduct one simulation drill (1/1)]
[Obtained Real Battlefield Mode exclusive item: Char Aznable’s Data (C-rank)]
Huh?
What’s this…?
Seeing an item he had never seen before, Yu Xiao’s interest naturally surged.
And after reading the item’s attached description, he then understood what this thing did.
Combat data.
If this was used in Battlefield Mode, one could enter a state like auto-pilot in card games.
Allowing this character’s AI to take over the operation of one’s own mech, completely autonomously conducting combat and killing enemies.
…Perhaps it would be useful later when grinding in Battlefield Mode?
Yu Xiao couldn’t help but guess.
Though he didn’t know why items from Real Battlefield Mode would be obtained in a simulation drill, nor did he know what the so-called “Newbie Mission” specifically was.
But having some new gains was always good.
Only, besides this, there was still something Yu Xiao cared about… that was the “C-rank” in the item’s name.
With such a classification, theoretically, there should also be B-rank and A-rank data.
What kind of effects would they have, and how would they be obtained…?
Regardless.
Before actually obtaining them, he could only guess…
Yu Xiao thought.
And then, piercing sunlight poured down through the curtains.
Yu Xiao narrowed his eyes, slightly turning his head to look out the window, only to see a brilliant scene of the sun high in the sky.
His stomach, which had gone without food for a long time, also began to rumble.
…And so, he thought.
Perhaps today’s gaming should end here?