Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1324: Chapter 67: Lofty Mountains and Rugged Ridges (End)

Faced with such a desperate situation and the news of the prince’s capture, the Second Armored Division had no other choice. Fatty had enough reason to pretend he let go of those besieged Red Mechas and then....

”You’ll let us leave?” Vego looked at Fatty.

”How is that possible?!” Fatty acted as if he was shocked.

”Then if you break your word like this, your reputation....” Vego said angrily.

”What my reputation?” Fatty said strangely, ”It’s your reputation. I’m sincerely letting you go, but you’re so moved by my sincerity that you insist on staying to surrender. What does that have to do with me?!”

Vego’s face grew paler. Three days of regret, the frustration of seeing victory in hand only to realize he fell into someone else’s trap, all these emotions hit his chest, finally making him cough up a mouthful of blood.

In a daze, the main screen of the Mecha lit up—the communication from the Fei Alliance Command Center had been connected.

A young boy’s voice came through his ears, ”Fatty, it’s time to take him out.”

Vego smiled bitterly, slumping to the ground. He could not understand why the little boy hated him so much. From the beginning of the conversation, he had been staring at him, his expression shifting, as if making some decision.

”Why take him out?” Fatty asked in surprise.

”That’s how it plays out in the movies,” the little boy said seriously. ”He knows too much!”

This lunatic! Vego laughed miserably and raised his hand.

After three days of emotional highs and lows, he was already exhausted. As time went on, and as the Second Armored Division trudged further down this dead-end road, he had long lost the courage for mutual destruction. At this moment, at the end of his rope, he had no other choice.

”I surrender.”

***************************************************************************

On the screen, wisps of white clouds drifted by in the strong wind, and beneath them, a valley lay in dead silence.

Centered around the Command Mecha, Jiepeng’s Second Armored Division was arranged in a circular defensive formation, while around them, the Chuckna Armored Division, totaling fifty battalions of Mechas, had filled the mountain base, slopes, and even the peaks.

This place seemed like a giant powder keg, needing only one spark to blow everything to pieces.

Everyone’s eyes were focused on the silent Command Mecha in the center.

The Jiepeng soldiers were waiting, and the Chuckna soldiers were waiting too. More worried than anyone were the billions of Chuckna viewers in front of their TVs. No one knew what kind of terms that captured Fatty and that young Jiepeng Division Commander would reach with the Allied Command Center.

However, what everyone was certain of was that the Allies had utterly lost this battle. This televised broadcast was like the Allies dropping a stone on their own foot. While no one wanted to see their warriors die in battle, what the public hated even more was to see the sight of that Fatty’s lowly, groveling surrender.

When he led the team to divert this Jiepeng Armored Division, when he led the Red Mecha along the escape route and charged into the Jiepeng Armored Group, cracking open Anubis’s cockpit with a single strike, he was still a hero people wished to follow through this soul-stirring battle, standing right behind him.

But when faced with the threat of death, when he tearfully and fawningly surrendered for the sake of his son, he had fallen from the altar.

Many people were looking up this Fatty’s information.

The power of the people was strong, and Fatty’s information was quickly unearthed.

Tian Xingjian, Federation Hero of Leray, a student of Russell, a two-time recipient of the Leray Purple Emblem Medal. He had once taken out a Gazalin Armored Division headquarters alone, rescued over two hundred and seventy Federation POWs over thousands of miles from enemy-occupied territory, captured Emperor James of Gazalin behind enemy lines, killed Third Prince Stephen of Gazalin, and trampled Duke Victor to death.

And not long ago, it was he who, with a single Destroyer, took over the entire Mars Free World, leading his army, who called themselves the bandit army...

People were dumbfounded as they heard news from various channels. They could not believe how such a legendary hero could be the same as the Fatty on screen.

But when his life story, including over twenty escape attempts, his cowardly and fearsome nature, and others’ evaluations of him were unearthed, people swiftly believed another explanation—that this was a fabricated hero, a product of the Leray National Defense War.

To inspire the public, the high command of Leray had blown up a huge bubble, and today, under everyone’s watchful eyes, this bubble had been burst by the shameful act of Fatty’s surrender.

This explanation caused turmoil in many places.

There were quite a few Leray people who had fled to Chuckna, and none of them could tolerate their country’s darling being smeared as a fake hero. Many ended up fighting right on the spot.

Some debated over the hero’s authenticity, but most remained silent.

Fatty led this unit to carry out an arduous mission, that’s a fact. He led the team to charge at the enemy, that’s a fact. And in the end, at the life-and-death moment, he kneeled and surrendered, that’s also a fact. However, that was a controversy he sparked alone. It had nothing to do with the other warriors.

These warriors were truly fighting; they didn’t surrender. When Fatty asked them to surrender, they answered with their raised gun barrels.