Super Mothership
After being hit by setback after setback, Nie Yun finally realized that no matter where you are, money is never easy to make, so he proposed a slightly more serious idea.
Since he couldn’t get rich overnight, then he could only become a deadbeat… ah no, just borrow money.
“A loan? That’s doable. Given how in-demand Shattered Star City shares are, even the lowest-ranked shares could be mortgaged for at least 30 million Shattered Star Points. However… the interest rate would be quite high,” Goldtooth said after some consideration.
High interest? Isn’t that just loan-sharking?!
Well, that made sense. Since pirates were running the lending institutions, it would be strange if it weren’t loan-sharking. Still, as long as it wasn’t some kind of nude loan, Nie Yun could basically accept it.
“Deal! Now, take me to the arena!” Nie Yun made the final call.
…
Shattered Star City — God of War Arena!
“Roar! Muscle Ripper, kill him! Tear him apart!”
“Titan, smash him flat!”
“…”
When Nie Yun and Goldtooth entered the God of War Arena, what they heard was a wave of deafening roars filled with savagery and violence.
This was a massive double-ring complex, with a large ring surrounding a smaller one. Two circular high walls divided the arena into inner and outer sections.
The outer ring was partitioned into many small arenas. Some hosted pure hand-to-hand combat with cold weapons, while others featured weaponized battles with roaring artillery fire. The fighting styles were extremely diverse.
The entire inner ring, however, was devoted exclusively to mech combat. Even from far away, the thunderous clashes of steel could be heard.
“Wow! This is really lively,” Nie Yun said with interest as he looked around.
“It can’t be helped. Pirates are unruly. If they have an argument, they often come here to settle it with a fight. When two groups clash, as long as it’s not a life-and-death feud, most disputes are resolved this way,” Goldtooth explained.
“Mm!” Nie Yun nodded in understanding.
The Wolf Empire valued martial strength. The Codex of the God of War was not only used as a governing principle among its vassal civilizations, but also flourished within the empire itself. It was a distinct civilizational imprint. Among pirates, this jungle law of survival of the fittest was even more evident.
In a sense, the pirates of the Shattered Star Region were all veteran warriors tempered by blood and fire — truly a nation of soldiers. If this force could be unified, it might become a highly intimidating presence in the surrounding regions.
Of course, at that point, the attitude of the Wolf Empire’s authorities would need to be considered. No one would allow such an uncontrollable threat to grow unchecked.
“Captain, the God of War Arena has a wide variety of events: ancient-style cold-weapon duels, modern gun-and-cannon combat, but the most popular by far is mech combat.
“Aside from warships, mech battles best reflect military strength. Their rankings heavily influence a pirate crew’s Shattered Star leaderboard position. Therefore, if we want to break into the top hundred, your solo mech ranking must reach at least the top ten — and the higher, the better.”
“Good! Let’s head to the mech combat zone!”
Soon, the two passed through the crowd and entered the inner ring. As soon as they stepped inside, they were hit by even more frenzied roars and cheers.
The inner-ring stands resembled a Roman coliseum, capable of holding hundreds of thousands of spectators. In the center was a massive combat zone spanning nearly ten football fields.
At this moment, two mechs were locked in fierce combat.
One resembled a mechanical wolverine, wielding energy claw blades. It was clearly a high-agility mech, moving with extreme flexibility under its pilot’s control. The other was a heavily armored humanoid mech focused on defense, wielding a heavily modified energy warhammer. Every strike cratered the ground with a thunderous boom.
“Boom!” “Bang!” “Zzzzt—” Sparks flew as metal collided, and steel fragments scattered in all directions.
Long-range combat, close combat, aerial combat, ground combat — the two mechs demonstrated excellent combat skill. Many of their weapons and combat techniques were completely different from those of the Gemini Civilization. Nie Yun watched with great interest, while also assessing the mid-to-high-tier mech combat strength of the Shattered Star Region.
The battle gradually became clearer. The heavily armored mech had strong offense but poor mobility. Before long, it was covered in damage, and its left leg joint had taken heavy hits, further reducing its movement capability.
Still, the pilot remained calm, switching from offense to defense and retreating step by step until reaching a circular marked zone.
At that moment, a deep horn-like sound echoed — “Wooo~”. Both mechs immediately ceased fighting. The one with the upper hand looked unwilling, but still retreated to a safe distance.
In the next instant, a large group of what were clearly support engineers rushed in, using various tools and equipment to begin repairing the damaged humanoid mech.
“Uh… why is there even a halftime break?” Nie Yun said in astonishment.
The fight had just reached a crucial moment — victory was about to be decided. Did the referee just blow a crooked whistle?
“Uh… you don’t know the arena rules?” Goldtooth replied with an even more shocked expression.
“What rules?” Nie Yun asked blankly.
Wasn’t mech combat just bang-bang-smash until the opponent was completely disabled?
Seeing that Nie Yun wasn’t joking, Goldtooth almost burst into tears.
He had assumed that since this guy was so confident, he might be some kind of combat expert. Who would have thought that he didn’t even know the competition rules…
A total rookie who had entered the arena for the very first time, yet he wanted to challenge the top ten?
“Sigh… In mech combat, both sides have three chances to call a timeout.
“As long as a mech retreats into its own ‘safe zone,’ it gains the right to initiate a timeout. Once the timeout is used, the referee immediately pauses the match and grants the side that called it five minutes for mech repairs and resupply…”
Even though he felt hopeless inside, Goldtooth still sighed and explained the rules to Nie Yun.
It took Nie Yun quite a while to understand. Turns out, in the interstellar era, mech combat rules were far more complex than Earthlings imagined.
As long as a mech could return to the designated “safe zone,” it was like returning to its own warship’s fire-support area — the enemy couldn’t pursue, and the mech would receive a certain amount of maintenance, or in other words, “HP recovery time.”
This wasn’t just a competition rule; it also closely mirrored real combat, increasing tactical variety and the uncertainty brought about by unexpected factors.
Mech combat was much like Formula 1 racing back on Earth. It wasn’t just about driving — there were also pit stops.
Although the focus was on the driver’s skill and the car’s performance, it also tested the strength of the logistics and maintenance crew behind the scenes. For a top-tier support team, shaving off even a few seconds during a pit stop could become the final straw that decided victory or defeat.
“Interesting. So mech combat doesn’t just rely on the pilot and the mech — it also tests the team’s overall strength?”
“Exactly. Right now, almost all of the top ten in the arena rankings are officers or generals from the Seven Great Pirate Crews. Every one of them is a veteran gold-tier warrior, and they all pilot top-class mechs whose performance is no worse than your ‘Ghost.’ Besides that, their powerful logistics teams play an extremely important role as well.”
After saying this, Goldtooth let out another heavy sigh in his heart.
Sigh… Our Goldtooth Pirate Crew’s logistics team is already a mixed bag and barely usable. Now our pilot is also a complete competition rookie… To think I even dared to hope — I must’ve had lard clogging my brain and water flooding my head…
Uh! Wait, come to think of it, didn’t I personally kill my chief mechanic not long ago, thinking he was a traitor?
At that thought, Goldtooth felt even more despair…
“Got it. Immediately register a challenge in the name of the Ghost Pirate Crew. Transport my Ghost in.” Even after understanding that this wasn’t a one-man game, Nie Yun still looked full of confidence.
Rules? Those were things only the weak needed to study. The strong had always been beings who ignored the rules!
Come to think of it, I also really want to see what I’m like when I go all out…
“Next, don’t tell me how to fight — tell me who I should fight!”
“Uh…”
TL Note- Arena...
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