IMAO Chapter 63.2

In the team chat—

[Team Voice] Mu An: “It’s nothing… Although he’s despicable, we’re both Omegas, and I wanted to warn him. After all, Omegas and Alphas are different.”

After being killed for the Nth time, Wuji’s death cooldown ended again, but he did not dare to get up.

[Private] Wuji: Um, Little Shepherd, you there?
[Private] Little Shepherd: Yes.
[Private] Wuji: Let bygones be bygones[mfn]大人不记小人过 (dà rén bù jì xiǎo rén guò) – a person of great moral stature does not remember the offenses committed by one of low moral stature[/mfn]? I was wrong. How about letting us go? I’ll help you kill the homewrecker!
[Private] Wuji: The numbers boss won’t even acknowledge me QAQ
[Private] Little Shepherd: …Fine, you don’t seem that bad. I’ll talk to him about it.

[Team Voice] Mu An: “Jiang Yuan, let them go.”
7592101: OK.

Jiang Yuan had been planning to leave anyway. He and Ji Rong came online for training, and there was no point in wasting more time. When Mu An said to let them go, he naturally did.

7592101: Since we’re done here, Ji Rong and I will go train.

Mu An’s voice was gentle. “Mm, thank you both for today! I’ll treat you to dinner when you get back! And the match was amazing!”

7592101: Mm.

Wu Ji, who was still lying on the ground, noticed the mecha beside him twitch slightly. After about two seconds, it vanished. The system promptly notified that the opponent had left the map and entered [Twisted Stars].

Entering map.

Only then did Jiang Yuan turn on his voice. “Shall we begin?”

Ji Rong: “Yes.”

The moment the battle began, two mechas on the map instantly accelerated to full speed, shooting forward like bullets. Only faint thundering could be heard in the air.

“Oh? A recommended match?” A newly logged-in young man paused. As a Federation citizen, he had always loved Thunder Fighters. As the main battle mecha from the war twenty years ago, Thunder Fighters held an inexplicable allure for most people, including this young man.

Even though Thunder Fighters had been gradually retired from the main battle lineup by the nation, it couldn’t diminish people’s love for these mechas.

The young man clicked into the recommended stream and entered the spectator seats. There were three viewing modes available: spectator view and first-person views from either pilot. Since this was a 1v1 match, there were three perspectives in total.

He didn’t immediately switch to either the red or blue team’s perspective. He chose instead to watch quietly from the spectator view and planned to leave after a few minutes.

Two mechas appeared on the vast desert plain. Above them, planets aligned in a string, their surface patterns clearly visible. The stars seemed close enough to touch, as if one could simply reach out and grasp them.

In fact, they could be touched.

Twisted Stars’ night sky displayed thirteen planets simultaneously, all extremely close to Aris. The gravitational interactions between these celestial bodies created strange gravitational patterns on Aris, and when these data points were plotted, they resembled twisted waves.

Hence Aris also has the name Twisted Stars.

In the starry sky, the two mechas began their assault on each other. Their repeated collisions were like perfect art in motion. The young man watched, growing tense.

“Blue team is going to lose!”

He thought silently. Red team’s marksmanship was simply too good. Blue team had already exhausted themselves just trying to close in, and when they finally thought they could attack Red team up close, Red team pulled out another gun and opened fire…

There was no escape.

The young man held his breath for Blue team.

Then Blue team threw their weapon, using it to block the meteor-like scatter shots, and closed in on Red team once again. The two mechas were now just a hair’s breadth apart!

Fight, fight!

Oh my god, that slide step…

A single-rail slide! The hand speed was incredible, and that reaction time was terrifying. Even facing Blue team’s horrifyingly violent attacks, they could still dodge!

Blue team was impressive though. Now that they’d gotten in close, Red team should be finished, right?

But he found himself wrong again.

Sparks suddenly flew.

Ji Rong’s mecha was pierced by bullets.

Damn!

The bullets just curved! They actually fucking curved!

…

Even after the match ended, the young man remained dazed. He hadn’t even noticed who won, too overwhelmed by what he’d witnessed. These two players the game recommended were absolute treasures!

Many others shared his thoughts.

The system recommends other players’ battles to help people learn and observe master-level operations. Neither Jiang Yuan nor Ji Rong had participated in any ranked matches, had no rank, and appeared to be just two unremarkable alternate accounts.

However, due to their recent practice sessions, their data was captured by the system. The Federation staff member at Star Wars Company, being Arlo’s fan, had been following Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong. Despite their lack of rank, they were given a recommendation.

After their first match, just as Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong were about to start another, a team invitation from Armand popped up.

Jiang Yuan accepted and entered the team, only to find over twenty people in it…

Besides Armand and Mu An, the entire assassin team from earlier was there, all showing as dead with minimal health.

7592101: ?

Wu Ji: “Waah, Boss, you finally came out of the game, please save us! We got attacked!”

Jiang Yuan ignored the assassin and turned on his voice. “What happened?”

Wu Ji: “Ah, Number Boss, your voice is so nice! I’m pregnant! You must take responsibility!”

Jiang Yuan: “Shut up!”

Wu Ji: “But I- I really am pregnant, waaah.”

Wu Ji: “Eh? Wait… Master 02, why are you adding me to your kill list?”

Ji Rong: “Because I want to kill you.”

Wu Ji: “Don’t be like that! Killing a pregnant person! How cruel!”

Jiang Yuan, slightly annoyed, said coolly, “Can you shut up? Tell us the situation first.”

Meanwhile, Wu Ji spoke contemptuously in the voice channel: “That scumbag came online! We just made up with Little Sheep[mfn]Mu An’s ID is Xiao Mu Yang, which is Little Shepherd. Here’ Wuji is calling him Xiao Yangyang, which is Little Sheep.[/mfn] and were corpse-camping the homewrecker, but then that scumbag came online and helped the homewrecker kill us all.”

“Damn it, that scumbag even has a huge team of five hundred people. Hundreds of them descended from the sky, and we were finished. Boss, come save us quick!”

Jiang Yuan: “Wait, I’m coming.”

Mu An, who had been quiet until now, suddenly spoke in the team chat: “Don’t. They have too many people, and you’re too few. I was actually planning to log off…”

In the voice channel, Wu Ji cursed: “Log off? Why should we log off? Are they even talking sense?”

“What kind of trash friends do you have in this game? Helping a scumbag. I’ve been making enemies for years, but I’ve never seen anything like this!”

Mu An was speechless, feeling stifled. After Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong left, he and Armand thought guarding corpses was pointless, and since this assassin Wu Ji seemed interesting, he chatted with them a bit and let them get up. But not long after, Li Wenfeng came online.

Li Wenfeng was skilled. Although he was not from the First Military Academy, he was a student at the Second Military Academy, so naturally his abilities were decent. Plus, Li Wenfeng had his own team of about five hundred people. They quickly buried him and Armand again, but this time there were twenty more people, these assassins.

He didn’t expect the team to not help him and instead kill him.

Most people in the team had joined because of Li Wenfeng, but before breaking up with Li Wenfeng, he had been the one taking care of everyone. He had managed the entire team, and they used to have good relationships…

“Xiao Mu, let it go. Breakups are always like this, don’t keep dwelling on it. Even if you kill the team leader’s wife, he won’t change his mind. Why bother? Games are meant to be fun!”

“Mu An, aren’t you being too petty? Don’t you know Xiao Li has a heart condition? Can’t you just let it go?”

“Yeah, yeah, An-An, don’t be so petty! Breakups are normal, there’s no need to make things so tense. Besides, you and the team leader were high school classmates, is this really necessary?”

…

Hearing the accusations from former teammates he’d been close to, Mu An felt a chill in his heart. When these people had asked for help before, he’d usually assisted them for Li Wenfeng’s sake. He thought they had a good relationship, but never imagined that in such a short time, they’d stop condemning the mistress and instead help her, speaking with such condescending tones.

Mu An remembered when he left, these companions had shown concern, messaging him privately to ask what happened. How had everything changed in just two short months?

Ding—

[Private Chat][Flirting With Intent]: Holy shit, you got buried?
[Private Chat][Little Shepherd]: Yeah… Did you leave the team?

Flirting With Intent was formerly an elite member of Li Wenfeng’s team and had been quite close to him.

[Private Chat][Flirting With Intent]: Left already. After you left, the team was planning to deal with that mistress, but then… emmm
[Private Chat][Little Shepherd]: ?
[Private Chat][Flirting With Intent]: The moment that mistress joined, she gave everyone a top-tier skin, and they all changed sides. Spring Warmth and I refused and said some harsh words, then she suddenly couldn’t breathe and was “dying.”
[Private Chat][Flirting With Intent]: If you have heart problems, why play Star Wars? What a joke.
[Private Chat][Flirting With Intent]: By the way, it wasn’t the mistress who buried you, was it?
[Private Chat][Little Shepherd]: Sort of… not really…
[Private Chat][Flirting With Intent]: Don’t tell me… it was your ex?
[Private Chat][Little Shepherd]: Mm.
[Private Chat][Flirting With Intent]: Damn, that’s wild. The king of scumbags!

Wu Ji swiftly relayed everything that had just happened to Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong. “Look at these people, I’ve never seen anyone help the homewrecker instead of the original partner. I’m so confused!”

“That Little Shepherd, what kind of trash do you know? Is there something wrong with their eyes?”

Hearing Wu Ji’s angry voice, as if he was the one who’d been cheated on, Mu An said softly, “There’s nothing wrong with their eyes… they’re just blinded by money.”

Jiang Yuan typed out a ‘?’.

Mu An repeated what Flirting With Intent had just told him.

Assassin Team Members: So rich! I’m so jealous. Leader, since our assassin guild is disbanding anyway, it wouldn’t be too much to give each of us a top-tier skin, right?

Wu Ji: “Get lost, no money.”

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