Chapter 684: Chapter 685: Not Favored
Mecha competition venue, the gathering place for designers.
“Is it you?”
“Why are you looking at me? It’s not me.”
“It really isn’t me.”
“Could it be the Ji Family’s?”
“No, Ji Tiantian’s mecha is blue.”
Whose is it then?
This question filled everyone’s minds; nearly everyone had claimed a mecha, but there was still this one, performing complex maneuvers.
“Is it possible that the designer himself went up to control the mecha?”
A question from one person met with disdain from everyone else.
How could that be?
But was it truly impossible?
Everyone wasn’t actually sure, but now all eyes were fixated on this human-like mecha, executing maneuvers that no other mecha could, and not only that, each maneuver was made even more difficult by itself.
People watching felt irritated inside, thinking, what is there to show off?
Now it may have the upper hand, but wait until the next round, they could surely knock this little thing down with one punch, so why the pride?
Many even thought the mecha designer was foolish, as in this round, achieving a certain score was enough to advance, there was no need to push the mecha’s resilience so far.
It’s well known that each mecha specializes in a certain type of combat: some in long-range attacks, some in aggressive assault, some in grappling, while others are highly agile.
But by enhancing their specialties, other capabilities are inevitably weakened, although they’ll still be taken into consideration, just not as prominent.
But the small black mecha in front of them seemed to focus all its attributes on agility. Just from the mecha’s size, everyone thought it wasn’t cut out for combat.
That was everyone’s thought and speculation, including Ji Tiantian’s. What use was momentary glory? The fundamental use of mecha was combat, everything else was supplementary.
She disdained this vain, attention-seeking black mecha. In her view, this mecha might just make it into the top hundred, but after that, it stood no chance.
At this time, the competition for the top 200 had ended, and the central field’s black mecha started displaying names and scores.
Undoubtedly, the black mecha achieved first place, with a perfect score of one hundred.
Second place was Ji Tiantian’s mecha, scoring eighty-one.
Eighty-one was certainly a high score, as typically mechas noted for their agility could score upwards of eighty.
But Ji Tiantian’s mecha achieved this effortlessly, and no one considered her mecha to be known for its agility.
This only meant their mecha was well-rounded in every skill.
“The Ji Family is truly formidable, just look, merely a well-rounded skill set of theirs and it surpasses ours by so much.”
“Absolutely, being a Mechanical Family isn’t for nothing.”
“It’s true, they almost monopolize the championships every year, could they be anything but formidable?”
“Hey, hey, look, the first-name person is also a Ji.”
“What? Could that also be someone from the Ji Family?”
Right then, the people at the competition saw the three characters behind first place, Ji Sisi.
And underneath second place, the designer’s name was written as Ji Tiantian. It was hard to believe these two were unrelated.
“Look, the Mechanical Control Master is also Ji Sisi!”
“Oh my! It’s actually the same person.”
“That explains why the designer wasn’t found earlier, it turns out they went down personally.”
“What is the Ji Family up to, could this be their secret weapon?”
“No way, even without this Ji Sisi, first place would still belong to the Ji Family.”
The discussions continued. Right then, Ji Tiantian stared hard at that name—it was her, it really was her.
“Tiantian, it’s Sisi.”
A girl next to her, somewhat excitedly holding onto Ji Tiantian’s arm, said with a touch of schadenfreude, “You two get along the best.”
By this time, Ji Tiantian had already composed herself, even sentimentally shedding a couple of tears.
“It’s good, as long as she’s okay.”
The narrator sided with the girl helping Ji Tiantian, the corner of her mouth twitching involuntarily, thinking she really took acting to the core.
“Alright, stop fussing, let’s continue the competition.”
Then, the leader of the Ji Family team, upon seeing the name surface, speculated something and said, “Ji Sisi is not part of our Ji Family. Please don’t overthink; it’s just a coincidence of the same surname.”
The words of the Ji Family’s leader, not at a lower volume, were clearly heard by everyone around. Not a Ji Family member?
But since they said she wasn’t, then she wasn’t.
Moreover, everyone agreed on one thing: this first-place, black mecha had reached the end of its competition journey. There truly was no chance left.
That was why the Ji Family’s team leader spoke up; in his view, Ji Sisi was a waste.
A waste on the mecha field, wrongly taking a mecha’s agility to the extreme while completely neglecting other aspects. Such design was simply a disgrace to the Ji Family.
Besides, when Ji Sisi left the Ji Family, she was also expunged from their roster.
“The competition from 200 down to 100 has ended, rest for thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, the round from 100 to 50 will commence, please be prepared.”
The host’s voice broke the discussions brought by Ji Sisi, as everyone hurried to check and prepare their own mechas for the upcoming battles.
Ji Sisi, driving her mecha, headed straight towards Nian Shutong and a few others from the middle of the arena.
Ji Tiantian’s eyes followed Ji Tiantian, but the crowd was too large and, combined with the strict orders from the team leader forbidding them from approaching Ji Sisi to talk, she put on a very reluctant, saddened expression.
At that moment, Ji Sisi was completely unaware that she had sparked a lively discussion; she just excitedly stood before Nian Shutong, her helmet suddenly opening up and down to reveal her excited eyes and brows.
“Mr. Nian, I came in first.”
“I heard that if someone keeps coming in first, their prize money doubles.”
“Really?” Nian Shutong cooperated fully and said to Ji Sisi, “Then you’ve got to keep at it; I’m rooting for you.”
“Yes! Don’t worry, Mr. Nian.”
Ji Sisi didn’t need to check anything; she just sat there chatting with them.
Nian Shutong had already heard the surrounding discussion and was briefed by Lian Qing on mecha-related knowledge, understanding why others didn’t believe Ji Sisi could advance to the next round.
But she wasn’t worried at all—firstly because she trusted Rubble, secondly because she trusted Ji Sisi, and thirdly because she understood Ji Sisi.
Being a perfect Balancer who frets over a single tear mole on her face, she wouldn’t allow her mecha to have such an imbalance.
Thus, there was only one possibility: that each attribute was as strong as its agility.
She very much looked forward to seeing the surprised expressions on everyone’s faces.