Counterfeit Hero

”Don’t think I’m bragging.” Fatty gently cracked his knuckles, producing a crisp snap: ”Consider yourself lucky to have met me. You should know, in front of a universe’s top master like me, all other experts are just paper tigers. Once you get on a plane, do you still think the mountains are high?”

”Bragging!” Margaret curled her lip: ”You just keep bragging. In a while... let’s see what you have to say.”

”Well, you just wait and see...” Fatty looked at Margaret with a cheeky grin: ”Are you squeezing into the same simulation cabin with me, or using your own?”

”Who wants to squeeze in with you.” Margaret snorted, climbed into the simulation cabin, and closed the hatch. Her account was already logged into the battle hall, and the whole process was plainly visible.

”Fatty!” A syrupy voice of a little kid came through the encrypted channel.

Sky-Filling Fire, a game Fatty was personally involved in developing, he couldn’t be more familiar with its settings.

Generally speaking, in-game dialogues are recorded, and encrypted channels aren’t allowed for players engaged in combat. This is to prevent cheating. However, given his understanding of the game and Little Pi’s deftness with programming, having unrecorded encrypted communication was no difficult task. They just needed to ensure that no sensitive information, detectable by various national civilian networks’ military surveillance systems, was exchanged without notice from other players outside.

”Hey, stop with that gross voice, or I’ll twist off your little pecker.” Fatty couldn’t help but grin.

”Twist it off to replace it with a bigger one?” The little kid asked joyfully.

”Yeah, something like the size of a basketball. And then attach a spiked club to it.” Fatty replied affirmatively.

”Better not.” Inside the game cabin, the little kid loosened his waistband, took a peek inside, compared the size with a basketball, and shook his head mournfully. Outside the simulation cabin, Russell and several Leray staff waiting anxiously were rendered speechless by the banter between these two jokers.

”Fatty, let me send you a file.” Prompted by Russell, the little kid finally remembered the task at hand and transmitted a string of numbers to Fatty.

”112, 114, 115, 1121, 1145, 1269, 1271...”

”What’s this?” Fatty asked indifferently.

”The legendary secret martial arts manual!”

”Oh!”

In no time, the two had tacitly completed their intelligence exchange.

Fatty understood that the data Little Pi sent was worthless in itself; it was merely the corresponding password from his so-called ’secret martial arts manual.’ The first number, 112, represented the second word of the first line in the first chapter, while 1269 naturally represented the sixty-ninth word of the same. If any chapter or line were two or three digits, they would be separated by a decimal point.

This might be the original form of encryption, but it was also the safest code that wouldn’t catch the military surveillance system’s attention.

Other than Little Pi, only Fatty had that ’secret martial arts manual.’ Even if it drew attention, no one would understand what it was talking about. Even as a password, without the ’secret martial arts manual’, decoding was out of the question.

The Magic Beast and War Fire styled new mecha, after entering the battle room, slowly walked toward each other’s teleportation points.

”What’s going on?”

”Get a move on, what’s up with SM01314?”

”Why are they walking?”

This unusual behavior from both mechas caused the entire battle hall to buzz with confusion.

The players found it odd since usual battles would have both sides rushing to occupy the advantageous terrain upon entering the map, leveraging long-range attacks against each other. If it came to close-quarters, they’d accelerate towards each other. But these two mechas, after entering the map, strolled slowly toward one another.

Even as they spotted each other, they ignored the advantageous and defensive terrain around them.

After some commotion, the battle hall gradually fell silent.

The first to fall silent were the high-level players, people of renown on the leaderboards. Sunfish, Youjian Inn, Egg, Saiya, Moon-kicking, Honest and Loyal, Ancient Western Wind, Qingqing, Duofela, Tropic of Cancer... Although these experts had been bested by SM01314, no one could deny their mecha fighting prowess.

Now, their looks of confusion turned into seriousness. Ordinary players seemed to sense something extraordinary too.

”I’ll narrate this battle!”

A voice broke through the quiet hall.

Hearing this voice, all the players began to stir excitedly.

”Elder Mu, Elder Mu is here!”

”He’s narrating it himself! Wow!”

This Elder Mu, mentioned by the players, wasn’t a mecha master, but he was a renowned mecha commentator from the Chuckna Republic. He migrated to Chuckna at eighteen and now, at sixty-three, has narrated children’s mecha competitions and the most prestigious golden mecha tournaments, even black-market mecha death matches. His commentary skills have reached an impeccable level.

He’s benefited from being born into a family with a rich mecha fighting legacy on Earth.

”Everyone, take a look at Master Fatty and SM01314’s strides...” With control over the commentary channel, Elder Mu wasted no words: ”Many players might not understand, so let me tell you what that is — that’s rhythm! With every step forward, they’re gathering strength. We can almost feel the rising waves, ready to break upon the rocks with unstoppable force! So......”