Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1161: Chapter 8: Surrounded

Automatic repair arm!

The Chuckna Warriors’ gazes, without any prior agreement, all fell on a short-statured soldier.

The soldier was wearing a tattered uniform, with dirty bandages wrapped around his thigh. He was carrying an M23 automatic rifle. Under the tactical helmet was a serious yet bewildered face.

This Corporal named Shen Ming was the Mechanical Armor Team’s Mechanic Soldier. After all the Mecha in the Mechanical Armor Team had been destroyed, he and three other Mechanic Soldiers had all picked up rifles and gone up to the front edge of the position. But now, the only one left was him.

He heard what Fatty said and felt all the eyes around him, but Shen Ming didn’t move.

The automatic repair arm wasn’t some terrifying weapon, but to the stubborn, somewhat withdrawn and introverted Shen Ming, it was more precious than his life! He had no intention of handing his treasure over to some Fatty of unknown origin.

You have to understand, the reason Mechanics in all countries were ranked as a higher class of troops than combat units was precisely because, due to their work, Mechanics held a lot of military secrets. And those strictly classified items were all in the repair arm’s computer!

In Shen Ming’s automatic repair arm computer, not only were the Taixing Mecha schematics stored, it also held schematics for twelve models of Mecha from the Chuckna Military. Those circuits, data, and repair manuals were all B‑level classified.

Shen Ming was very serious, very self-disciplined, and very principled. He had always strictly followed the confidentiality regulations, never violating them.

From the moment he became a full-fledged Mechanic Soldier, for four whole years, he had never let his repair arm be more than one meter away from him. Not even his parents or his girlfriend had ever heard him mention anything about Mecha.

Even though his rank wasn’t high, even though the Republic’s Ninth Generation Mecha were already being deployed on a large scale, and Tenth Generation Mecha were already equipping quite a few elite units, while the schematics stored in his repair arm were all for Eighth Generation and below. Still, for him, before he received a clear order for declassification, the Mecha schematics in his repair arm were secrets! Secrets that had to be protected with his life!

Forget some Major General from who-knows-where—he wouldn’t hand over the repair arm even if a Vice Admiral or Admiral of the Feiyang Republic asked for it!

”I’m sorry.” Shen Ming looked earnestly at the Fatty in front of him and said firmly, ”According to the confidentiality regulations, I cannot hand my repair arm over to you.”

Fatty’s gaze fell on the inside of Shen Ming’s right elbow. There was a silver-white Chuckna Lu Ban III-type repair arm.

Fatty had seen this type of repair arm before in Zhang Pengcheng’s Twelfth Group Fleet, and had used it himself. Although this repair arm looked thin and light, its functions were very powerful. Its whole body was made of Super-light Alloy, and it looked like an ancient armored conical vambrace. On its upper half were four concealed telescopic mechanical arms; on its lower half, another four mechanical legs.

As soon as the control switch was turned on, this vambrace would transform into a clawing, snarling contraption. Its mechanical legs could form a powerful support on the ground and could also move in alternation. Its four rod-thin mechanical arms could easily pick up components weighing as much as five tons. And the mechanical hands at the ends of the arms could not only perform welding, tightening and loosening of nuts and bolts, but could also carry out nano-level fine operations on the most precise circuit boards.

”Give me your mechanical arm!” Fatty had no time for more nonsense. He simply stretched out his hand. ”You can delete everything in the computer except the basic programs!”

With a buzzing sound, a stir rippled across the position. Fatty’s words left everyone present a little dumbfounded.

This was an era of Mecha; even the most ignorant person knew some basic facts about Mecha. Those circuits dense as spiderwebs, those complex and precise mechanical components—all relied on the repair arm’s computer to carry out exact calculations and operations based on the schematics. Without Mecha schematics, the mechanical arm would have no idea what to do. Was this Fatty planning to rely on his bare hands to complete a Mecha repair?

”Give it to him.” Nash gave Fatty a complicated look, then nodded at Shen Ming.

This time, Shen Ming didn’t hesitate. He let out a cold laugh, directly removed the storage unit that held the Mecha schematics, took off the mechanical arm, and handed it to Fatty.

Fatty also gave a cold snort as he took it.

In a bit I’ll show you what Lord Ma’s third eye looks like!

Seeing Fatty take Shen Ming’s repair arm, the Chuckna Warriors present were all somewhat unimpressed.

Shen Ming was an excellent Mechanic Soldier. If even he couldn’t fix this Mecha, how could this Fatty possibly repair it with a repair arm that didn’t even have Mecha schematics? Besides, this Taixing was just too wrecked. Never mind this Fatty, who looked like he was all talk—even if a master-class Mechanic came, he’d probably just spit on the ground and doodle circles, staring helplessly with no way to start.

”All turned to idiots, have you?” A Lieutenant curled his lip, then glared back at them. ”You planning to cluster here and wait for an artillery shell to wipe you all in one go? Spread out, back to your posts!”

”What’s that Fatty trying to do?” A Chuckna Warrior muttered as he turned away, nudging the warrior beside him with his elbow. ”The Energy Cannon’s already destroyed. Even if he fixes it enough to move, what use is that?”

”Who knows?” The other warrior shrugged and grinned wickedly. ”There are always idiots in this world. You think everyone’s as smart as us?”

”Idiot?!” A machine gunner tossed aside the oily rag he’d been using to wipe his gun and sneered. As he pulled Standard Energy Blocks from the energy box and fed them into the magazine, he jerked his chin toward the bandit army soldiers in front and said coldly, ”He’s smart as hell, that’s what. With twenty or thirty minutes left, he finds himself a job fixing Mecha and burrows into a five-meter-deep Mecha trench, while we’re out here busting our asses on the line. If that’s what you call ’idiot,’ then go ahead and find me a few more idiots like him.”