The Esports Little Demon King Is a Sweet and Fierce Omega - Chapter 8

Mecha Zero was rarely activated even once a year, and now that it was being powered up for Tian Jiu, the onlookers felt it was both a case of overkill and a reason to worry for the boy. After all, even an Alpha like Luo Yuan could not last half an hour against Zero, and usually ended up returning home exhausted and covered in injuries.

Li Zhen did not actually intend for the mecha to bully Tian Jiu; he simply wanted to scare him. Therefore, he set Zero to its lowest attack intensity. However, even at this level, it was enough to give Tian Jiu a run for his money.

Zero was long-limbed and built almost exactly like a human, though it was excessively tall and powerful in comparison. It tilted its head down, its blue electronic eyes scanning the small human before it, and immediately received the command to lock onto the target.

Without warning, a heavy mechanical arm swung toward Tian Jiu. It was so fast that it left an afterimage, and before anyone could blink, the fist slammed into the ground with a resounding boom.

The crowd gasped, everyone craning their necks to see the spot, but Tian Jiu was nowhere to be found.

“Where is he?”

“Was he crushed under that fist?”

“That was such a heavy blow; please don’t let that little Omega be broken!”

Li Zhen was startled as well. He glanced at the control screen to confirm it was indeed the lowest intensity, but that punch was still enough to cause serious harm. Surely no one actually died? Li Zhen’s face went pale. However, when Zero lifted its mechanical arm, the ground beneath was empty. There was none of the gore he had imagined.

Li Zhen breathed a massive sigh of relief. He figured the scare was enough and considered ending it there before something truly went wrong.

“What the hell? Where did he go?”

The spectators leaned forward, pressing themselves against the electromagnetic wall to peer inside, but they still could not see a trace of Tian Jiu. Zero’s electronic eyes scanned the ground as well, searching for its target. It even lifted its foot to check, perhaps thinking it had accidentally stepped on the little thing.

Yet, there wasn’t even a shadow, making the hulking machine look somewhat clumsy and confused.

“Holy crap! He’s up there!” someone suddenly shouted.

Everyone looked up, following the direction of the finger to the top of Zero’s head.

“!!!” The crowd stood frozen in collective shock.

Tian Jiu was sitting steadily on top of Zero’s head, swinging his legs back and forth, looking perfectly at ease. The air up there was quite fresh, though Zero’s head was a bit too hard and uncomfortable for his backside.

“When did he get up there?” someone asked, voicing everyone’s confusion.

Li Zhen was equally stunned. He hadn’t seen when the boy had moved either. Just a moment before the fist landed, Tian Jiu had been standing there. How did he suddenly end up on top? The bad premonition in Li Zhen’s heart began to grow.

Zero sensed the uninvited guest on its head and reached up to swat him away. Tian Jiu pouted; he hadn’t sat there long enough yet.

To avoid getting hurt, he repeated his previous trick. As Zero’s hand approached, he grabbed onto one of its knuckles and used his own arm strength and momentum to swing himself onto the back of the machine’s hand. Immediately after, he slid down the arm like it was a playground slide and landed steadily on Zero’s shoulder.

The entire process was fluid, effortless, and simple—just like playing on a slide. However, to the onlookers, seeing someone leap around in the air at a height of three meters and treat Mecha Zero like a slide was terrifying. They were so tense they didn’t dare to breathe.

Li Zhen stared unblinkingly at Tian Jiu. Compared to Zero, that small figure was fragile and tiny, yet at this moment, he felt Tian Jiu was excessively powerful. At the very least, Li Zhen would never dare to perform such a sequence of moves, nor would he dare to play hide-and-seek on Zero’s body so nonchalantly.

Zero became impatient with the “little bug” playing games on its body. It moved even faster, slapping at its own shoulder, but Tian Jiu seemed to have grown wings. He easily jumped from the shoulder and, in the blink of an eye, had climbed onto Zero’s lower back.

Zero looked like a gorilla that couldn’t reach an itch, slapping and grabbing at various parts of itself. Yet, ten minutes passed, and it hadn’t managed to touch a single hair on Tian Jiu’s head.

If this were a human, they probably would have died of frustration. But Zero was a machine; it had no emotions and simply followed its programming to catch the target. However, Zero was no ordinary mecha. When its lowest attack mode failed to damage the enemy, it automatically unlocked a higher level of combat.

Its mechanical arms bent at greater angles, and its attack speed increased. Other parts of its body also underwent changes. A screw protrusion Tian Jiu was holding onto suddenly retracted, causing him to lose his grip and forcing him to jump off. Zero’s electronic eyes instantly captured his silhouette, and a fist lunged toward him with lightning speed.

Tian Jiu’s hair was blown back by the force of the punch. He performed a side flip, narrowly dodging the attack.

The surrounding crowd broke into a cold sweat for him. Even Li Zhen clenched his fists, watching the battle with bated breath. They had forgotten their initial desire to see Tian Jiu get scared; now, they were actually starting to hope he could last the full thirty minutes. One must realize that since Zero’s creation, no one had ever managed to stay uninjured for ten minutes, but Tian Jiu had done it!

Zero, with its upgraded attack capabilities, was clearly not as easy to deal with as before. Tian Jiu could no longer get close to it. However, this level of attack speed was perfect for training his own reaction time.

He had observed earlier that many students fighting mechas were not actually practicing their physical strength or attack patterns, but rather their reaction speed and evasion techniques. Now, Tian Jiu was doing the same. He wanted to make himself more agile.

Once he got into the game, he would be better at dodging hidden weapons and stray bullets. Furthermore, when he watched Feng Wu’s match, he noticed the man had an incredible ability to predict danger. Such an ability, aside from talent, was the result of day-after-day training.

After fighting Zero for just this short while, Tian Jiu could basically predict the mecha’s attack logic. This allowed him to move to a different spot before the fist even landed. No one could tell what he was thinking, mainly because no one dared to believe that an Omega with no formal combat training could predict Zero’s movements and treat it like a sparring partner.

“Master, there are only thirty seconds left until the training session ends,” Erguotou announced.

That was fast.

Tian Jiu hadn’t had enough yet, but his current body was not the type used to frequent exercise and was clearly feeling fatigued. It seemed he really needed to train hard. A surrendered game took at least twenty-five minutes, and a full match lasted around fifty. The trials were an even greater test of stamina; he remembered the shortest trial was nearly two hours long.

To successfully finish a match, he had to ensure his stamina was up to par first. Another decision that costs money, Tian Jiu thought. He felt once again that finding a team to reimburse his expenses was an urgent priority.

“Watch out!” The people outside suddenly became agitated.

Tian Jiu had just landed on the ground when he felt a strong wind from a punch coming from behind. He whipped around and simultaneously raised his hand, using his palm to meet Zero’s fist.

“!!!”

Li Zhen’s heart stopped for a second. He fumbled to stop Zero’s program, but his hands shook so much that he accidentally locked the screen instead. Before he could unlock it, he heard everyone around him gasp as if they were being strangled.

Li Zhen’s heart sank. He stiffly looked toward the arena, bracing himself for a bloody scene.

In the clean training area, the beautiful little Omega had raised his hand, his palm pressed against the massive mechanical fist. Two large question marks appeared in Zero’s blue electronic eyes; it seemed quite confused.

Tian Jiu sighed and explained earnestly to Zero, “I’m sorry, but your master was bullying me, so I can only take you apart to vent my frustration.”

Li Zhen: “?” What nonsense is this Omega talking? And did he just catch Zero’s punch? Li Zhen suspected he was having hallucinations from the stress of a potential lawsuit!

Tian Jiu expressed his apologies to Zero and then grabbed its fist. With a sudden, violent yank, Zero lost its balance and stumbled toward him. The massive mecha looked as if it were about to crush Tian Jiu, but in the next second, its entire body was lifted into the air and slammed heavily onto the ground.

Tian Jiu gripped one of its fingers with one hand, and then his hands began to move in a blur.

Bang, bang, bang!

Amidst the “earth-shaking” vibrations, miscellaneous parts scattered across the floor with a metallic clatter. Dizziness icons appeared in Zero’s electronic eyes; it was completely powerless to fight back.

With a crash, the electromagnetic wall vanished. The half-hour practice session ended, and Zero lay on the ground in a thousand pieces.

Silence fell over the room.

Tian Jiu picked up his water bottle and walked lightly over to Li Zhen, saying with a smile, “300,000. Remember to send the money.”

…

Tian Jiu left, and the hall doors opened and closed. The broadcast rang out: “The morning training session has ended. Hall Five will now be closed for cleaning. Students, please take your personal belongings and leave in an orderly fashion.”

The crowd finally came to their senses. They looked at each other in bewilderment and then left the hall in a daze, the entire group remaining as quiet as mice. Li Zhen stood frozen for a long time. Only after the closing music finished did he walk over to the pile of Zero’s parts.

He knew Zero’s construction inside and out; reassembling it was only a matter of time. But he had never imagined a day would come when he would be repairing Zero because of a “disabled” Omega. This was something even Luo Yuan could not do…

“Is that Ji Yin?” a pleasant voice sounded, followed by someone sitting down next to Li Zhen.

Li Zhen snapped out of it and looked over. After a moment, he said in surprise, “You’re that person from the Equipment Design department…”

“Shh,” the newcomer interrupted with a smile. “Give me a copy of all the video recordings of that training session, but don’t leak them to anyone else. I’ll cover the repair costs for Zero.”

“Why?” Li Zhen frowned.

The person didn’t answer directly, but said instead, “I’ll give you five times the repair cost.”

Li Zhen squinted at him for a moment and then said calmly, “I’m keeping a copy of the recordings for myself as well.”

“Deal.”

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