The Silly Prince Successfully Cancels the Engagement, But the Fiancée is His Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Underground Arena

The Underground Arena is an exceptionally luxurious subterranean complex. Many brilliant mecha pilots in the current military who have achieved great service honors were first nurtured and screened in this arena. Therefore, although the Underground Arena engages in illegal gambling and unauthorized competitions, and even many poor, undifferentiated children from the slums come here to earn money by risking a match for luck—which clearly violates Imperial law—it also, paradoxically, bypasses the rules. The Arena truly screens out many experienced, sharp-eyed, and highly skilled mecha pilots.

As long as matters of life and death are not brought to the surface, the authorities turn a blind eye to the Underground Arena.

Bai Qing particularly liked the Underground Arena.

Every person here had a single goal: to survive the fight, win the match, and take the high prize money.

One could learn many life-or-death piloting techniques here.

Whether it was protecting one’s own life or taking another’s in an instant.

Bai Qing fought under the alias “Bai Yu” (White Feather) at the Underground Arena. He wore a lifelike mask with mediocre features, added a black wig, and used the mecha helmet to cover the upper half of the mask. Tossed into a crowd, he was a silent, scrawny slum teenager.

He wore a faded plaid shirt, an outfit that naturally carried a sense of narrative—be it fighting to repay his gambling-addict father’s debts or raising money for his seriously ill mother’s medicine.

It was all perfectly plausible.

The Underground Arena was not short on such people.

And he was inconspicuous.

Ye Sheng watched Bai Qing put on his battle uniform and said with a touch of emotion: “Is your opponent still that Flaming War God from last time? That name is so tacky.”

Bai Qing’s hand paused: “His combat awareness is very forward-thinking, and his techniques clearly show he’s been through actual battlefields. I can learn a lot fighting him.”

Ye Sheng scrolled through the Flaming War God’s profile: “But he only has two battle records here in the Underground Arena. Is he a retired mecha pilot?”

Bai Qing zipped up his battle uniform, looking at the completely unfamiliar reflection in the mirror, and said: “It’s possible he just changed his code name. If that’s the case, then I need to learn from him even more.”

Bai Qing checked one last time to ensure he had injected the pheromone inhibitor before confidently heading to the mecha cockpit.

Although Omegas only need inhibitors during their heat period, they can also inject them in special circumstances, such as strenuous exercise or important events where unconscious pheromone leakage needs to be avoided.

In these matches, the mechas in the Underground Arena were randomly assigned. Bai Qing’s luck was poor this time; he was assigned a heavy Defense-Type Mecha.

His opponent, the Flaming War God, was assigned the most common Combat-Type Mecha.

The Defense-Type Mecha prides itself on defense. The opponent could shoot ten bullets and might not penetrate its metal shell. Relatively speaking, Defense Mechas are often bulky, slow-moving, require a great deal of physical and mental energy to pilot, and don’t yield high damage. On the battlefield, they are usually used in the rear to buy output time and position for Combat-Type Mechas.

This was practically an innate counter to Bai Qing’s weaknesses.

Ye Sheng hesitated, but ultimately didn’t say what he wanted to.

He wasn’t too worried. Bai Qing had been crawling into mechas since he learned to walk; for him, this wasn’t a huge problem.

He was worried about a different issue.

How fragile is that Flaming War God’s ego? I hope he’s not too sensitive.

If Bai Qing managed to win even while piloting a Defense Mecha, would the Flaming War God start questioning his own competence?

…

Bai Qing familiarized himself with the control panel of the Defense Mecha and gradually felt confident.

Although this mecha was extremely bulky, its firepower was unusually fierce. Bai Qing rapidly tapped in three sets of action codes, and the mecha flexibly mirrored the actions, clenching its fist and shaking its hand.

There was a half-minute warm-up period before the official match began.

During this time, Bai Qing saw the opponent enthusiastically waving at him.

Bai Qing pretended not to notice, adjusting various parameters and getting familiar with the various codes and operations.

Seeing that Bai Qing didn’t respond, the Flaming War God persisted in waving. The mecha’s hand was almost sparking from friction with the air, nearly jumping in excitement.

Bai Qing responded with a slight, exasperated wave.

It might have been an illusion, but Bai Qing thought the opponent mecha’s eyes instantly brightened, looking particularly thrilled.

The half-minute warm-up time was up. The bell rang, and electronic lights flashed in the eyes of both mechas simultaneously.

Although the Flaming War God seemed very enthusiastic, his attack was anything but. His moves were fierce, giving Bai Qing almost no chance to breathe.

Bai Qing defended calmly. He knew that the most important thing now was to conserve his physical strength to avoid being completely defenseless during the late-stage decisive battle.

In this kind of mecha combat, the victory conditions are determined by Power Source Destruction and Scoring System.

Matches mostly adopt the Power Source Destruction method: once the power source is damaged and the mecha loses its ability to fight back, the opponent is declared the winner.

The Scoring System is mostly used in military simulation training. It calculates, once one side loses mobility, how many basic structures the two mechas damaged during the fight. The more damage, the more points deducted. A comprehensive score is then calculated based on the mecha’s condition, and the higher score wins.

This is because the military must consider post-war reconstruction in addition to simple victory or loss.

As for ordinary mecha combat, there’s no need to consider that issue. Therefore, ordinary mecha combat mostly uses the destruction status of the power source to determine the winner.

Under the opponent’s high-pressure attack, Bai Qing defended with composure, leaving no openings while searching for the opponent’s power source.

The opponent was also looking for Bai Qing’s power source amidst the fierce attack.

This Defense-Type Mecha had one advantage besides being physically taxing and bulky: even if the opponent found its weakness, they couldn’t penetrate the mecha’s extremely high defense in a short time.

Unless the opponent aimed for the mecha’s eyes.

This was the mecha’s most vulnerable point.

Bai Qing’s eyes narrowed. His hands rapidly tapped the codes. The powerful mental energy linked with the mecha. The steel arms quickly crossed in front of the steel head. The timing was perfect, completely blocking two incoming missiles.

Bai Qing couldn’t help but look at the opponent again.

The opponent was definitely no simple figure.

Sustaining such high-intensity firepower output for so long, the opponent showed no sign of fatigue, and there were zero mistakes from start to finish.

The opponent’s mental strength was definitely not low either.

However, this battle must end now.

Dragging it out further would be disadvantageous for him.

But the opponent seemed to realize his intention and chose to continue the close-quarters fight while aiming all firepower at his power source.

This Defense-Type Mecha’s power source was in the center of the chest, a very unfavorable position. This is because mecha pilots instinctively protect the power source during combat. To avoid the opponent’s attack, one would inevitably shift the timing and angle away from facing the opponent directly, thus severely limiting the field of vision.

But this mecha was different.

The time had come. The power source’s outer shell had been blasted to the brink of collapse, and the bright red power source was about to be completely exposed under the barrage—

Bai Qing feigned a weakness to the Flaming War God, turning his back to the battlefield. The opponent was indeed seasoned and didn’t fall for it initially. Only when Bai Qing made repeated mistakes, leading the opponent to believe there was an opportunity, did he pursue.

But the opponent quickly realized this was a weakness Bai Qing was selling. However, it was too late.

The name of this Defense-Type Mecha was “Fortress-6”, the sixth generation of the Fortress-type Defense Mecha personally designed by Bai Changsong for the military. Even by today’s standards, Fortress-6 was still highly competitive, but it was gradually phased out because it was too bulky and consumed excessive mental and physical energy.

But Fortress-6 had a function that no other mecha could achieve.

—360-degree head rotation.

This was something Bai Changsong had told him quietly with a kind expression when teaching him how to pilot a mecha.

Most people wouldn’t think of trying to spin a mecha’s head 360 degrees for fun.

Suddenly, Bai Qing’s hands rapidly hammered the control panel. With his operation and mental resonance, Fortress-6’s head flexibly turned 180 degrees. At the same time, taking advantage of the Flaming War God’s moment of surprise, his eyes fired high-intensity beams, completely catching the opponent off guard.

This brief few seconds of opponent confusion completely gave Bai Qing the advantage.

A flurry of operations utterly destroyed the opponent’s power source.

Bai Qing claimed a complete victory.

However, his physical strength was completely exhausted. His bangs were soaked with sweat, and he sat in the cockpit panting heavily, not wanting to move a finger. Fortunately, he had injected the inhibitor beforehand; otherwise, his pheromones would probably be floating everywhere.

The cheers below were like a raging tide. Bai Qing looked sideways at the arena below and let out a long sigh of relief.

He won.

…

Jing Yu sat in the audience, completely unfazed by Xiang Zhuo losing the match.

He was currently annoyed that Bai Qing wasn’t replying to his message, but in that moment of looking up, he thought he saw Ye Sheng walk by.

He looked again but couldn’t find the person’s figure anywhere.

He didn’t take the matter to heart, assuming it was just someone with a similar build. After all, everyone who came to the Underground Arena had their own difficulties; a person with Ye Sheng’s prominent family background probably didn’t even know what the Underground Arena was.

Just then, the match on the stage ended. Jing Yu put away his communication terminal and walked towards Xiang Zhuo’s lounge.

This time, Xiang Zhuo had faced Bai Yu; surely he must have wised up and asked for the person’s contact information, right?

Jing Yu unlocked the lounge door. His peripheral vision subconsciously swept to the side, and he once again caught sight of the person who looked exactly like Ye Sheng walking into Bai Yu’s lounge.

“Since you’re here, close the door.”

Xiang Zhuo issued an annoyed urge. Jing Yu finally snapped back to attention. He frowned: “I think I just saw someone who looks exactly like Ye Sheng enter your soulmate’s lounge.”

Xiang Zhuo paused: “You must have seen wrong.”

Bai Yu was a Beta from the slums; there was no way he could be connected to Ye Sheng.

Jing Yu nodded in agreement: “Yeah, it was probably just a look-alike.”

Xiang Zhuo was currently tidying his appearance in front of the mirror. He had changed into his private clothes, unbuttoning two buttons of his shirt to subtly reveal his collarbone, and rolling up his sleeves perfectly to his elbow, exposing a segment of his strong forearm.

Xiang Zhuo looked at himself in the mirror. Every muscle was tight and full, brimming with power. The reflection was of an extremely healthy and handsome Alpha, and he felt very satisfied. His physique would make even a person of the same gender feel flushed and shy away from looking.

Jing Yu raised an eyebrow: “Where are you going?”

Xiang Zhuo tilted his chin: “To see my soulmate.”