Chapter 481: Signal Flare Gather Up

After Ling Lan ejected, Qi Long and Luo Lang followed suit and catapulted out of the cargo hold.

Three mechas plummeted rapidly and were instantly swallowed by the darkness from below. None of them had realized that the starship had already entered this planet’s atmosphere.

“Holy sh*t, what is this gravity?” The speed of the drop was so much faster than what it would be in normal planets. Qi Long and Luo Lang became shocked upon seeing the increasing velocity of the drop the computer screen was displaying.

Right then, their mechas received a bunch of this planet’s data from Ling Lan. They didn’t even give it any thought and began moving their fingers and change the mecha’s data in order to adapt to this unknown planet.

Qiao Ting’s expression changed instantly after seeing that Ling Lan was the first to leave the cargo hold. He hadn’t been as decisive as Ling Lan in that moment—he had hesitated… This gave him the feeling that he had lost Ling Lan in some way.

“Let’s go!” Qiao Ting clenched his fists and ordered his team members. He had lost to Ling Lan once, but he couldn’t lose a second time, a third, or even more.

Qiao Ting quickly commandeered his 24-member battalion and catapulted out of the cargo hold in a matter of seconds. If Ling Lan’s actions were surprising, then Qiao Ting’s actions had shocked everyone.

Right then, the JMC announced again, “Those who do not jump within the three minute limit will be eliminated from the battle royale. As a reminder, the cargo door will close in two minutes and 40 seconds.”

The other three military academies heard this and became hurried, knowing that they didn’t have any time to waste. Their commanders announced at that moment to make all the supplies up for grabs so that the team members could what they needed before jumping down. How much they would be able to take before the cargo door closed would depend on how fast they are.

Compared to the complete disarray of the other three military academies, because they had already taken the supplies they needed, the First Men’s Military Academy began to jump down one by one systematically. In one minute, many had already jumped. Lin Zhong-qing, who was originally conversing with the clan, gave a sign to the other team members who hadn’t jumped yet that only they understood. He then led the transport mecha logistics team and began their descent…

“Beep beep beep! Beginning countdown to closing the cargo door. 100, 99…” Right then, the JMC made another announcement and began to remind them that the cargo doors would be closing soon.

“Those members who have their supplies need to jump. Let the the other team members in the back get their supplies…” The respective commanders began giving orders. Although they tried to do their job as well as they could, the whole situation was still in utter chaos.

Some people wanted to squeeze in to get their stuff, while others were trying to squeeze out. In that moment, they somehow managed to block each other’s paths.

“73, 72, 71…” The countdown continued to decrease. The commanders were burning with anxiety, but didn’t know how to resolve the issue.

“Captain, we can only let them eject out first. For the weapons and supplies, we can only let the transport mecha logistics team bring as much as they can,” said the strategist hurriedly, after seeing how the situation was out of control.

Those who could become commanders were all outstanding individuals, and this captain saw it as well. It would have been a good thing if the members of the teams had enough time and could take supplies with them; however, completing the distribution process in a time crunch was definitely impossible. He thus decisively gave an order and said, “All members, stop getting supplies and eject now!”

This command instantly gave everyone a direction to follow. Those who were on the outside were no longer trying squeeze into the back. They turned around and ran towards the cargo door, quickly ejecting.

“17, 16, 15…” The countdown was getting closer and close to the end. At that moment, all of the military academies had ejected 70 to 80 percent of their forces, only leaving behind some logistics transport mechas. The transport mecha didn’t even stop to think and randomly grabbed a few unopened large boxes and threw them onto their backs, quickly ejecting…

“7, 6, 5, 4…” When the last logistics transport mecha had ejected, the operator of the mecha thought he saw something on the corner of the screen in his mecha. It felt like something was moving… But in the next second, the downward acceleration made him toss that thought into the back of his head. He nervously began collecting data and adjusting the mecha’s data to adapt to the planet’s conditions.

“3, 2, 1…” When the countdown reached one, the arms of four mecha had grabbed on to the target they had already set their eyes on and successfully ejected it out of the cargo door.

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“0!” The countdown ended, and the cargo door closed tightly with a loud bang. The now empty cargo hold was a mess with more than half the untaken supplies lying on the ground. This showed that these military academies would have a hard time in the next 78 hours (Battle Royale: 72 hours + Finding their headquarters: 6 hours).

Qiu Yue, who was paying close attention to the seventh ship’s third cargo, saw the movements of the four mechas at the end. His eyes lit up as he ordered, “Rewind it 5 seconds!”

The A.I. rewinded the scene and showed the video of what happened in the last 5 seconds of the countdown. When the last mecha had ejected, four mechas that were hiding the corner quickly sprung out and ran towards where the other the three military academies had put their supplies. Their purpose was very clear—the arms of their mecha moving forward, each of them grabbing 4 large boxes and then ejecting from the cargo door.

Qiu Yue paused the video right at where they were picking up the boxes, zoomed and enhanced the image. Although the image wasn’t very clear at such fast speeds, the emblems on their chests were still somewhat visible. Having graduated from the First Men’s Military Academy, Qiu Yue was very familiar with his school’s emblem. In that moment, he determined that the mechas were from the First Men’s Military Academy.

“Holy sh*t, a bunch of crazy people!” They had even waited until the end just for some supplies. He really didn’t know whether to praise them or criticize them. If they were unlucky, they would have lose their chance to participate in the battle royale.

Although Qiu Yue was screamingly internally, he still smiled. He appeared very impressed with the courage of those four people.

“Since your commander is Ling Xiao’s son, he could probably help you guys get over all difficult situations.” Qiu Yue thought to himself. It was true—the location where he had arranged for the seventh starship’s cadets to eject out was the most troublesome place on this planet. If they were unlucky, there would be no way to reach the required location in six hours…

“Don’t let me down boys! Although it will be difficult, as long as you guys figure out the mysteries of the planet, then maybe you will be able to get there in one hour. Don’t let your eyes deceive you.” Qiu Yue thought, full of expectation. He sincerely wished Ling Xiao’s son could inherit Ling Xiao’s wisdom and resourcefulness—Ling Xiao wasn’t only just a god-class operator.

“Wind Speed: level 12. With this level of wind, even if we controlled our mechas to the best that we could, we still wouldn’t be able to guarantee where we would land.” Ling Lan did not frown upon seeing the wind speed and level report from Little Four, but she was a bit worried. In a battle royale, the worst thing to happen was team members separating from each other. And along with the opponents who ejected at the same time, if a team member was alone and they encountered an opponent’s main forces, they would have a big problem.

Right then, Little Four suddenly reported, “All data becoming stable, wind speed has decreased, gravity is increasing… Boss, we are probably going to land on the ground of the planet soon.”

Ling Lan saw that it was still total darkness all around her, without a speck of visible light. This made her unable to speculate what the situation at the ground was like. She instantly made a decision, quickly ordering Little Four, “Shoot out hover flares!” At the same time, Ling Lan’s fingers moved furiously. Using the different types of data that Little Four had analyzed, she adjusted the settings of the mecha once again, making the mecha’s drop speed gradually slow. In the end, she successfully changed the situation from dropping down to hovering in mid-air.

“Boom, boom, boom” Following three exploding sounds, three purple colored flares shot up into the sky in an instant, hovering over Ling Lan’s mecha. In this thick and rich darkness, these three flares seemed so bright and eye-catching, making them unable to be ignored.

Qi Long and Luo Lang had ejected from the ship just a second after Ling Lan. They suddenly saw what looked like three points of purple lights in mid-air, far from where they were. They instantly felt a bit delight.

When they were dropping down, their mechas was within the strong winds. They had been worried of being blown away from the original location by the whirling winds and being unable to see the flares and find the base location if they got blown too far from their Boss. It turns out they were only blown a bit off-course, not too far from their boss’s location. The two of them happily controlled their mechas and flew towards the light.

It should be said that it was Han Jijyun and Li Lanfeng, along with three other strategy high-ranking specialists, who arranged this idea. The final document had covered pretty much everything, listing every possible situation, including how the team would assemble in total darkness.

Thus, when Ling Lan shot out the three flares, the team members who saw the flares knew what it signified—bright purple color meant that they needed to immediately hover in the air because there could be danger on the planet’s surface. Three flares meant the person who shot it was the highest ranking officer, the commander. At the same time, the three flares also told them Ling Lan’s location which was in the middle of the three flares. And the most important meaning of the these flares was to assemble!

Qiao Ting, who was a bit late compared to Qi Long and Luo Lang, also saw the three bright purple flares. He didn’t hesitate and headed straight towards that direction and shot out a bright purple and a green flare. Similarly, what he did was to respond to Ling Lan’s flares. Shooting up the similar purple color flare was to tell Ling Lan that he had received the message. The green flare was reserved for Qiao Ting. At the same time he was also gathering his team members while notifying Ling Lan of his identity.

After the other captains saw these flares, they began to do the same. Instantly, a few more purple colored flares shot up into the sky once again. However, along with these purple colored flares, there were flares of other different colors. Instantly, the brightened black sky in the night became oddly beautiful.

The team members who were not blown too far away and could see the flares instantly became full of energy and operated their mechas towards the flares that belonged to their respective teams.

“Are those guys the First Men’s Military Academy? How are they this prepared?” The members of the other academies, who were in between all this, saw the scene and began to turn green with envy. Compared to the First Men’s Military Academy’s systematic approach and readiness, they were chasing their own tails and did not know what they should be doing next.

However, mecha operators who had a brain would operate their mechas away from the areas illuminated by flares—they knew very well that once they entered those areas, they would be alone and become trophies for the other team. They would definitely not make such a newbie mistake.