A Chemist's Interstellar Saga

Chapter 175: Kill Stealing
Chapter 175: Kill Stealing

When Drexel walked into the living room, he immediately noticed PO and couldn’t hide his envy. ”Wow, HMA is really spoiling you! It’s one thing for you to have a house, but now you even have a personal butler? This is just going to make me upset,” Drexel exclaimed.

”You can buy a butler yourself. The school doesn’t forbid it,” Arix said, looking at Drexel with some disdain.

”But buying a butler robot costs a lot, especially one that can cook. It costs millions of astrocredits,” Drexel said as he sat at the table. Acting like a big shot, he then told PO, ”Butler, serve me a bowl of rice!”

PO ignored him and looked at Arix instead.

Seeing this, Drexel laughed angrily and said in a teasing tone, ”A robot with such a stubborn attitude, aren’t you afraid someone might take him apart one day?”

”Drexel Kering, threatening the campus butler; video evidence confirmed; one point deducted from your credits,” PO’s voice suddenly turned serious and cold.

”Hahaha, Arix, look, even robots joke these days,” Drexel laughed, not believing it.

”Ding! Drexel, you have lost one credit,” the opticomputer announced.

The smile on Drexel’s face froze. He looked at the opticomputer screen in disbelief and then stiffly turned to look at PO. It took him a while to accept the reality.

Arix didn’t expect PO to have this function and burst out laughing.

”I’ve heard campus butlers rank just below teachers. Seems it’s true,” Drexel said, feeling a bit heartbroken over his lost credit.

”PO, please serve my brother a bowl of rice too,” Arix said, feeling sorry for him.

”Yes, master,” PO’s voice returned to its sweet tone, and he quickly served Drexel a bowl of rice.

The familiar double standard almost broke Drexel’s spirit again. His family always treated him and his sister differently, and now even the robot was doing the same.

Their first dinner at the military academy passed in Drexel’s gloom.

After dinner, the two headed to the training center to start their mecha training for the night.

”Are we going to train on the Interstellarnet or in the Dimensional Battlefield tonight?” Arix asked Drexel.

”Of course, the Interstellarnet. Let’s go, I’ll show you something exciting,” Drexel said with a mischievous smile, eagerly taking out a holo-connective pod. He quickly opened the pod, lay inside smoothly, and logged into the Interstellarnet world.

Arix bit her lip, feeling a bit uneasy. But then she thought, ’the Interstellarnet world can’t kill me, so there’s nothing to be afraid of!’

After reassuring herself, Arix also took out her connective pod and lay inside.

”Welcome to the Interstellarnet.”

As the gentle female voice sounded, Arix opened her eyes and found herself with Drexel at the edge of a forest.

”What are we doing here?” Arix asked. She thought they would be at a mecha battle arena, but instead, they were in a forest.

”Hehe, it’s a secret. Follow me, and you’ll find out,” Drexel said with a mysterious smile and a sly grin.

He then pulled a Supergiant-Class mecha, entered the cockpit, and started a self-check to ensure there were no problems.

Not understanding what Drexel was planning, Arix could only sigh and start preparing her own mecha.

After browsing the Interstellarnet marketplace for a while, she chose a Supergiant-Class star-class mecha with similar stats to her previous Star Dust.

Reluctantly, she spent quite a fortune to buy the virtual mecha.

Taking out the virtual mecha, Arix swiftly entered the cockpit and began her own checks.

After a few minutes, the siblings confirmed their mechas were fine and headed into the forest, one after the other.

...

In the heart of the tropical forest, two mechas, one red and one blue, lurked in the shadows. They silently observed as the teams ahead battled a massive beast boss.

The pilot of the red mecha was Arix. She had been lying low with Drexel for quite some time.

Unable to hold back any longer, she asked, ”Aren’t we going to join the fight?”

Arix had expected Drexel to lead her into the fray against the beast. But instead, they had been crouching here for over half an hour, merely watching others engage the beast.

”Almost there. Just a bit longer,” Drexel replied, his eyes locked on the nearly defeated beast in the distance, trying to soothe Arix.

Arix rolled her eyes but continued watching the battle unfold.

Ten mecha teams were fighting the beast, each team composed of about five or six members.

Like Drexel and Arix, many others hid in the shadows. Including those in stealth mode, there were easily over a hundred people.

After counting the participants, Arix focused on the beast. In this holographic instance on the interstellarnet, defeating beasts and insectoids yielded rewards, which dropped automatically upon the prey’s demise.

These rewards ranged from interstellarnet coins and mecha materials to potion ingredients. The higher the level of the prey, the better the materials and the more plentiful the rewards.

The beast they observed was a small but high-value target, attracting everyone’s attention.

Currently, this Star-Class beast had only 8% of its health left. Victory was near, but in its weakened state, the beast had entered a berserk mode, boosting its power to Subgiant-Class.

The promise of imminent victory drove the mecha pilots into a frenzy. Even some of those hiding couldn’t resist joining the attack.

The original attackers scorned these opportunists, but most of them were too exhausted to do much about it. A few strong teams tried to fend them off while attacking the beast, but most of the firepower remained focused on the beast.

After watching for a long time, Arix suddenly realized Drexel’s plan. Nervously, she swallowed and asked, ”Are you planning to steal their killing at the last moment?”

Kill Stealing in games always sparks anger, and it’s no different in this virtual training ground.

Just imagining being hunted by everyone made Arix shiver.

Drexel’s mecha turned to Arix, giving her a thumbs up. ”Smart girl! You guessed it right! Now rise up a bit, because you’re going to run for your life.”

Suddenly, Drexel’s mecha stood up. He gripped a laser gun with both hands and fired at the beast. With just a sliver of health left, the beast was instantly killed.

The air went silent. Every mecha pilot on the battlefield stared in Drexel’s direction.

Drexel, meanwhile, was happily inspecting the new items in his backpack. He even pulled out the most valuable mecha material, showing it off. ”Wow, the beast dropped some good stuff. Too bad it’s ours now. You all can just watch and be jealous. Here, Arix, this precious item is for you.”

Drexel tossed the alloy orb to the dumbfounded Arix.

As countless hostile eyes focused on her, Arix finally grasped the situation.

She looked at Drexel, speechless, and said, ”Gosh, why do you have to do that? Even if it’s training, this is way too intense.”

”Arix, you’ve got me wrong. This is for our own good. Also, we have to leave now. Run!” Drexel said, bolting into the forest as if his butt were on fire.

Just as Drexel fled, a terrifying laser blast hit the spot where he had just been, creating a meter-deep crater.

Arix glanced nervously toward the battlefield. She saw countless mecha pilots, cursing and charging at her with deadly intent.

”Die, thief!”

”Take this!”

”Don’t you dare run!”

Not running would mean getting beaten up.

Arix screamed, quickly storing the alloy in her backpack. Then she piloted her mecha, desperately running in the direction her brother had gone.

Behind her, countless bullets and blasts rained down like there was no tomorrow.

The attacks were so dense that Arix had to jump, twist, and roll dramatically to dodge them. With these relentless chasers, her escape skills improved greatly. Though flustered at first, once she got the hang of it, very few could keep up with her.

No one knew how long Arix had been running, but eventually, only a few people were still chasing her. Most, realizing they couldn’t catch up, had given up.

When there was only one soldier left on her tail, Arix decided to stop. She halted and gasped for breath, looking back at her pursuer. ”Really? You chased me this far for an alloy orb?”

”Do you think I wanted to chase you? I just need this one material to repair my mecha!” the persistent pilot replied, also gasping for air.

From his hoarse voice, it was clear he was on the verge of collapse too.