IMAO Chapter 101

…

Without a tracker, finding Selena wouldn’t be easy.

Since the distance wasn’t far and Alice’s team was using a small, fast battleship, it only took them a few minutes to successfully enter the search zone from the civilian area.

Because their battleship wasn’t painted black with the Blood Moon flag, and the mercenaries hired by North Rio’s wealthy coalition used all sorts of mecha battleships themselves, the two of them weren’t attacked when they entered this area. They were mistaken for fellow mercenaries.

Alice and her companion piloted the damaged small battleship near the explosion site to search for Selena.

During their search, both of them simultaneously noticed a black Blood Moon mecha that had been destroyed in the explosion.

This mecha was kneeling on one knee, its other leg severed deep through. One arm was completely missing, while the remaining broken arm propped against the ground to maintain the mecha’s balance. Its head was slightly tilted, looking in the direction of the slums.

Alice’s eyes reddened. She knew the soldier inside the mecha was dead. Since the cockpit wasn’t opened, it was obvious that the pilot didn’t make it out alive.

Her husband was one of these soldiers. She didn’t know if he was still alive, but there was no time to worry about that now. The most important thing was ensuring Lady Selena’s safety.

BOOM!

An explosion thundered.

Along with the blast came rolling smoke that hit their faces, the temperature shockingly hot.

The area was now filled with terrified screams, while mechas in the sky continued searching for survivors.

BOOM!

A shell exploded, turning long-dead corpses into scattered flesh flying through the air. Selena wiped her cheek, her thumb smearing a trail of blood across it.

Selena rushed onto the street. She was about to quickly hide in a dark alley when suddenly she heard a deafening roar overhead. She looked up to see a patrol mecha. With the help of thermal imaging, they had clearly spotted her and were pursuing from a distance. Her pupils contracted instantly.

“Well well, looks like I got lucky. Found a rat here,” the mercenary piloting the mecha bragged smugly over the comm to his companions.

Just as he was taking aim to shoot, another mecha appeared in his view, already raising its gun to kill his prey. The mercenary cursed in frustration, “Damn it, I spotted them first!”

“Whoever makes the kill gets the credit. Wasn’t that what you said before?” A voice chimed in over the comm while the other was raging, their tone carrying a hint of mockery.

“BANG!” A laser shot out.

Selena immediately dove to the ground, trying to dodge the attack from the mecha on the left, but it was too late…

BOOM!

An explosion rang out as two laser beams collided in the air, canceling each other out and creating a massive spark with billowing smoke rolling upward.

Selena froze.

“Shut up, you sissy!” The mercenary who spotted Selena had veins popping on his forehead. His mecha raised its arm, pointing at the distant mecha. The energy core in his laser gun gradually stopped running. It was obvious that he was the one who fired that shot. He narrowed his eyes, coldly staring at the distant mecha, “Who dares touch my prey?”

“Whoever gets it, keeps it.” The pilot of the opposing mecha wasn’t afraid of him, speaking in a cold tone. He should be one of the mercenaries who’d had their prey stolen before.

“BOOM-“

The two mechas suddenly clashed in mid-air. A missile shot from the white mecha struck the nearby building. With a violent explosion, the entire structure was severed in half, falling sideways and crushing other buildings beneath it.

CRASH!

The massive steel structure crashed down, its exposed reinforcement bars piercing into the ground.

“Fuck you, are you trying to kill me?!”

Seeing the two mechas collide, although she didn’t know what happened between them, Selena immediately took cover. But seeing the collapsed building, her face turned grim.

Just the aftershocks from the mecha battle could kill her. She wanted to contact her subordinates quickly, but the communication system had been damaged when the mecha crashed.

The two mechas collided several times in the air. Both sides were clearly enraged and about to fight, when a furious shout came through the comm, “Fuck, both of you stop!”

The battle waves from the two mechas sent dust flying everywhere. If they really started fighting, it would be difficult to search for the attackers in the area. One of the troublemakers from before frowned, glanced around, and warned quietly over the comm: “Stop fighting, the woman’s gone.”

…

Selena quickly fled. She soon found a deep black mecha that had crashed to the ground. The mecha’s shell bore a red moon. She rushed over at top speed and opened the cockpit. The soldier inside wore a Blood Moon armband and was already dead.

After closing the soldier’s open eyes, Selena immediately tried to contact her people through the comm.

“Hello, hello…”

“Fuck, is anyone there?”

Selena cursed as the communication just connected. Not far away, the two mechas that were about to fight stopped their battle and split up to search for survivors in the area.

Selena had no time to contact her people and could only quickly send out her coordinates. She didn’t know if they’d discovered her yet, but for safety, she had to hide immediately after sending the coordinates.

Because of thermal imaging, any living being could be quickly discovered. Selena hadn’t been hidden long before she was found again.

CLANG CLANG CLANG.

The footsteps of the mecha landing grew closer. Hidden in the ruins, Selena gripped her gun tightly, knowing she probably couldn’t escape.

However…

Selena lifted her head, peering through gaps in the ruins at the gradually settling battle in the distant sky. She curved her lips slightly. Even if she died, the outcome of this battle was already decided. After all, they weren’t the only ones who had joined this fight!

Just as she thought this, a mechanical arm grabbed the broken slab shielding her, crushing it to powder with minimal effort.

A mecha stood outside, looking down at her like she was an insignificant ant.

Seeing herself seemingly trapped on all sides, Selena had no hope left in her heart. She tilted her head up, coldly staring at the mecha.

“Look what I found.”

The soldier’s voice rang out over the comm. After speaking, he raised his weapon, taking aim-

“BOOM-“

A violent explosion rang out, the intense vibration making the ground shake.

Thick smoke burst from behind the mecha blocking the ruins. The soldier piloting the mecha froze, looking back to see a small jump ship appearing behind him. He’d noticed this jump ship earlier, but just as he wondered why they were attacking him, the small jump ship suddenly appeared right in front of him.

“Lady Selena, quickly get on!”

Selena looked at the man and woman before her in surprise. Without a word, she jumped onto the jump ship!

“We’ve found Lady Selena, mechas are pursuing us.”

As soon as he reported this, someone responded immediately.

But they were too far away, they wouldn’t make it in time…

Aka glanced at the mechas following behind them, “We’ve sent our coordinates, but they probably won’t make it in time. There are too many mechas here…”

Because of the attack just now, all the searching mercenaries had noticed the disturbance. Some also keenly realized Selena’s special identity. Otherwise, this jump ship wouldn’t have risked everything for her.

“Catch her!” The mercenaries instantly reached a consensus.

After boarding the small jump ship, Selena checked its remaining energy. Forget about evading the pursuing mechas, they probably couldn’t even make it to the northern district.

“BOOM!”

“Run, hurry! They’re catching up!”

Aka swallowed hard. Hearing Alice’s scream, he was about to accelerate when she shouted again, “Left side! There are people on the left! Quick!”

Aka looked left to see three mechas firing up their engines, clearly moving to cut them off!

“BOOM-“

An explosion rang out. Aka could only see Alice’s mouth moving, saying something, but he couldn’t hear.

“Aka, are you alright?” Alice looked at Aka who’d been hit by bomb fragments. Aka shook his head, enduring the pain to keep piloting, but Alice grew more terrified because they were now surrounded.

“We’re done for…”

Hearing Alice’s words, Selena didn’t argue. Although they escaped the encirclement with one small jump, there were more and more mechas nearby. They had no way to escape.

They didn’t have enough energy to reach North Rio’s northern district, there was no chance…

Alice urgently said, “Aka, head straight for the civilian area! Once we’re in, we’ll abandon ship. Maybe, maybe we can-“

Her words were cut off by Selena. The woman who had orchestrated this war commanded coldly, “North.”

“My lady!” Before Alice could finish, Selena wouldn’t look at her.

“My lady, it won’t work. We don’t have enough energy to reach the northern district. If we enter the slums, we might have a chance to survive.”

Selena gave a bitter laugh. Of course, she knew they might survive if they entered the slums, but once they did, these pursuing mechas would follow them in and bomb the area!

They had already changed course, heading straight for North Rio. As Aka piloted the jump ship forward, he suddenly made a sharp turn!

“What are you doing?!” Selena’s expression changed as she demanded.

“Going that way means certain death. This way… we might survive!” Aka gritted his teeth and took a deep breath, defying Selena’s orders to head straight for the slums!

…

Jiang Yuan’s group wasn’t the only one to notice the slums hadn’t been bombed. Over the night, the number of people fleeing into North Rio had increased dramatically.

“Ready?” A young man holding a gun asked his companion beside him. His forehead was covered in fine sweat, and his white shirt was stained with large patches of blood. However, the blood probably wasn’t his, since he still appeared to be in decent shape.

Seeing his companion nod, the young man took a deep breath and charged out along their pre-planned route.

The young man led the charge, shooting the door lock before kicking the door open. Inside, a thin couple trembled, raising their hands and pleading softly, “Please… please don’t kill us…”

The young man glanced at them, pointing his gun at the unappetizing food on the table. “Give me the food!”

“This…” The slum couple hesitated for a long while. Just as he was about to lose patience, the woman gathered her courage and handed over their meager ‘food’ to the young man.

Such scenes played out repeatedly in the area.

This group of armed young men successfully stole food. They occupied a house after driving out its original owners, sitting on the floor eating their stolen goods.

They ate with relish. They had no time to eat since yesterday while fleeing for their lives. They were lucky enough to make it safely into the slums, where they were temporarily safe.

“Cough… cough cough…” One of the guys in the group, who was wearing a t-shirt, was eating when he suddenly frowned. The next second he spat out all the food in his mouth, cursing, “Damn, why does this meat stink? What the fuck…”

The man couldn’t help retching, then rushed out to grab and question the two slum dwellers they’d driven from the house.

The food was a mixture of oil, rice, and some minced meat. It was impossible to tell what kind of meat it originally was. The middle-aged man, with a gun to his head, tremblingly answered, “It’s… it’s Gila… everyone here eats this.”

“Gila?” The man cursed, then asked, “Where’s this meat from?”

The middle-aged man thought for a moment, pointing behind himself, “Over there.”

The man frowned. They had just fled from that direction, and there weren’t any shops there. Not only were there no shops, there was only a huge garbage processing plant that North Rio had built in the area. He gave a cold laugh and – SLAP – struck the middle-aged man across the face.

“There’s nothing but shit over there, just a garbage dump! You lying bastard.”

The young man who had come with him couldn’t stand watching anymore and interrupted his ranting companion. “Enough, let them go. It’s annoying having them here.”

“Get lost!” The man kicked the middle-aged man in the backside and said impatiently.

The beaten middle-aged man’s head was ringing and did not argue back. Just as the man was about to kick him again, a huge roar suddenly filled the air. He looked at the distant sky, trembling, “Me-mechas…”

Without time to think, the man turned and ran!

The mercenaries chasing Selena paid no attention to the dense buildings of the slums, unleashing everything – lasers, bombs-

BOOM.

BOOM.

Explosions continued endlessly, accompanied by waves of screams, just like the sounds they’d heard before!

Jiang Yuan’s group guarded the children inside the factory. Because of the earlier explosion, many were anxious, constantly watching the situation outside.

“Those mechas are flying over here! They’re coming towards us!”

“We’re done for…”

The people who had just escaped danger instantly despaired at the sudden arrival of the mechas. This place wasn’t safe anymore. Nowhere in North Rio was safe!

Now they could only pray the mechas wouldn’t turn in their direction, but clearly, their hopes were dashed as nine pursuing mechas flew straight toward their factory.

It seemed like a long time had passed, but in reality, it was only a few minutes.

Selena demanded of Aka, “Are you crazy? Do you know what you’re doing!”

Aka’s eyes were red as he said, almost breaking down, “I know! I know everything! But this is the only way… the only way to survive. My lady, you can’t die!”

He kept going forward, not daring to look back, not daring to see how many people died from stray explosions. But he knew Selena’s importance. If she died here, even if they won this war, North Rio wouldn’t calm down. The war might escalate further!

“Even if we get in here, what then? After the ship runs out of energy, our chance of survival is less than one percent. Why make them die with me?”

“No, if we can reach the factory, there’s a chance!”

“Yes… there is a chance.” Alice suddenly thought of something. She understood now why Aka was heading this way! If what Envy and Nina told her was true, it was possible!

Selena looked at the two strangely, not knowing where their confidence came from. She said nothing more.

She looked behind them, her brows furrowing deeply. Because of the repeated explosions, thick smoke billowed from an area behind them. Even flying in the air, she could hear the terrified screams below.

Selena looked up to see a black metal chunk about to fall. She instinctively wanted to close her eyes, but just then a laser beam flew past the jump ship’s window, meeting the bomb in mid-air and exploding into a huge spark.

She turned immediately to see two mechas, unfamiliar yet not completely strange, like saviors, firing up their engines and flying into the sky.

One mecha held thermal weapons in the back, while the other mecha, wielding a mechanical blade, swept past their ship and charged straight ahead to meet the enemy!

First strike!

Second strike!

Third strike!

…

Eighth strike!

BOOM!

The attacked mecha exploded on impact!

None of the surrounding bombs or lasers could reach the ground or hit that mecha! Because the supporting mecha in the distance used its laser gun for precision shots one after another, making the bombs explode in mid-air before they could land!

Selena’s mouth fell open. Although she had guessed these two mechas were piloted by the same two people they’d let into the slums yesterday, and knew their combat abilities were extraordinary, even the mighty Aurelius was no match for them, seeing such combat firsthand still made her gasp in amazement.

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