RNP Chapter 42, the grand finale.
Chapter 42, the grand finale.
She went to the arena early that evening.
Many areas in the backstage area were not yet fully warmed up. The supply transport corridor, which was usually the noisiest, only had a few machines passing by sporadically. The air was filled with the cold smell of metal surfaces that had just been cleaned.
The words "home team finale" made the backstage lighting seem even harsher than usual.
The vector didn't head towards the audience seats; instead, it bypassed the back-end permissions and followed the usual route taken by Zhen Tianzun into a high-level observation area near the arena.
This location is high enough and close enough to give you a clear view of the entire stadium, as well as the backstage entrances, the medical standby area, and some of the VIP box side corridors.
After she stopped, she first looked around.
There are more guards than usual.
Not only were there more people, but their positions were also more carefully considered. Several passageways that usually looked loose were now guarded, and even the positions next to the medical standby station were given extra space, as if they were afraid that someone would block the way when carrying the machine down later.
The vector stared at that area for two seconds, and the flame in his chest silently sank a little.
As she was thinking, a lazy voice came from not far behind her.
"You arrived earlier than I expected."
The vector returns.
He was covered in clothes that had clearly been polished; even the edges of his arm guards shone as if they'd just been repainted. As he walked towards her, he glanced at her, a smirk playing on his lips.
"What, are you afraid that if you arrive any later, Zhen Tianzun will already have been carried away?"
Vector had no interest in arguing with him and simply replied, "Say something like a living machine would say."
"I am the living machine, and one of the most valuable emergency medical officers here." Knockout walked over to her, glanced in the direction she had been looking, and said slowly, "Of course, the look on your face doesn't look like you're here to watch a match. It looks more like you're here to wait for a result you don't really want to hear."
Yin Xiang pursed his lips, not denying it.
She knew all too well that something was wrong; she hadn't been able to relax since she came in.
He glanced at her for two seconds after knocking her down, and surprisingly didn't continue to insult her. However, he didn't leave either. He leaned against the metal fence next to her, crossed his arms, and looked into the arena.
The meaning is quite obvious.
He's standing here watching today too.
The vector tilted its head and glanced at him, but didn't say anything.
-
The arena was quickly cleared.
The energy residue, armor fragments, and several cracked edges left on the ground after the previous match were quickly dragged away by the cleaning machine. The arena lit up again, and the ring of lights pushed out layer by layer along the metal walls, while the sound from the audience grew louder and louder.
Today, I was completely unable to concentrate on the commentary or what the audience was shouting; not a single word registered in my mind.
She kept her eyes fixed on the center of the venue until the passage on the other side of the backstage finally opened.
The sound waves came out first.
The noise in the venue seemed to pause slightly for a moment, and the audience subconsciously held their breath.
When the sound waves emerged, it was still as quiet as ever.
The dark-colored aircraft appeared even colder under the main stage lights, with clean lines on its shoulders and back, and a steady gait. But it was precisely this unassuming entrance that made the already tense atmosphere around it even lower.
For the first time, at this distance and angle, the vector could see him walk into the home stadium in his entirety.
A very specific danger, like a quiet, simple yet deadly line.
If anyone dares to touch it, it will bounce off immediately.
Knocked down, standing to the side, a low voice drifted over: "He wasn't planning on holding back today either."
Yin Xiang moved his throat: "I can tell."
On the other side, Zhen Tianzun also appeared.
It is completely different from sound waves.
As soon as Zhen Tianzun appeared, the entire arena was suddenly lifted upwards. The audience erupted in cheers, more ferocious than in any previous match, with names being shouted up in waves, making the ground seem to tremble.
The silver-gray outer armor exuded an extremely strong sense of oppression under the cold lights of the arena. The shield held in the left hand had a cold, hard reflective edge, while the fusion cannon in the right arm was tucked into the side of the arm. The outline alone was enough to make the machine gunner tense up.
He didn't look at the audience for long when he walked in; he just glanced at the opposite side.
The moment the gaze and the sound waves collided, even the gravitational vector subconsciously felt worried and tense.
There were no unnecessary movements, nor any tense gestures, yet neither of them relaxed.
He knocked someone down to the side and suddenly scoffed, "He really knows how to pick his timing."
Without looking at him, the vector expert asked, "You mean management?"
"I'm talking about those guys who dumped today's slag." Knockout crossed his arms, his tone lazy but his glasses revealing little of a smile. "They all love to pretend to be orderly and rule-abiding, but when it comes to actually using it, they know better than anyone how to plate it."
The vector stared into the field, its fingertips tightening little by little at the edge of the fence.
That's true. Lay out the most valuable parts of both machines and see which one breaks first and which one lasts the longest.
Anger spread through her heart, and the sparks within her swelled.
-
When the opening signal came down, the audience was already so excited that the roof was about to be lifted.
Neither of the two machines in the field moved immediately. At first, the vector sensor thought it was an illusion, until it realized that neither of them was willing to waste the first step.
The ring of lights in the center of the arena glowed quietly beneath the two machines. The sonic wave machine, positioned slightly off-center, maintained perfect balance, its gaze as cold as a knife. The Zhen Tianzun machine, on the other hand, was even more direct; its entire form loomed over the arena, radiating a threat that seemed ready to crush them at any moment.
The narrator's voice, amplified through the loudspeaker system, repeatedly built up the atmosphere.
The next second, the sound waves moved first.
He sliced through the axis that was originally facing him in one swift motion, so fast that it was almost impossible to detect. Only a cold, afterimage flashed across the field of vision before a series of short, sharp, high-frequency noises pierced the sound system.
Even from this distance, the vector felt a tingling sensation at the edge of the audio receiver.
The actions of Zhen Tianzun only paused for a brief moment.
Almost at the same moment the frequency interference grazed past, he raised his left arm to raise the shield, and the entire machine surged forward after that brief pause. The shield swept across the ground, creating a string of blinding sparks, and the next second it slammed into the original location of the sound wave with its momentum.
But the sound waves are no longer there.
As if he knew exactly how the attack would land a fraction of a second in advance, he twisted his body at an extremely small angle, skimming past the edge of the shield bash, and then delivered a close-range slash with his right arm at a cunning and ruthless angle.
The vector's eyes narrowed.
That was too close.
Zhen Tianzun reacted even faster. After his shield bash missed, he didn't hesitate at all. He forcefully pulled his entire center of gravity back, pulled his left arm back, and slammed the edge of his shield into the side of Sheng Bo's arm at an absurdly close distance.
The sound of metal clashing suddenly exploded.
Only then did the audience belatedly erupt in their first real cheers.
"This isn't an exhibition match anymore," he muttered, knocked down beside him.
The vector did not return.
The initial sonic attack wasn't a probe; it was a direct attempt to disrupt the opening rhythm of the Heavenly Venerable. The Heavenly Venerable wasn't playing the usual style of building momentum by manipulating the audience; he immediately used his shield as a heavy weapon, slamming it down without even bothering to deflect the force or force the opponent to reposition.
From the very first move, both sides treated the match as a serious battle of analysis and suppression.
The distance between them widened once again on the field.
After the sound wave stopped, it didn't immediately pursue, but instead raised its head slightly.
Immediately afterwards, the structure on the chest that had always looked like part of a normal sternum suddenly moved.
The entire front structure, like some kind of independent unit that had been waiting in advance, separated and unfolded directly, completing the form change in a very short time.
A sharp, metallic screech pierced the air.
Laserbird.
The entire machine was stunned for a moment: "...That area wasn't a regular chest armor?"
Knockdown looked at the arena, a slight smirk playing on his lips, but not the frivolous smile he usually wore.
"What do you think?" he said. "Things on a sound wave that look like ordinary structures are best not to be taken for ordinary structures."
In the arena, the laser bird had already taken off, almost seamlessly merging with the sound waves.
With one high and one low attack logic, two attack logics were simultaneously connected to the same central processing unit in an instant.
Laserbird pressed down from above at an angle, while Soundwave maintained a frighteningly calm pace on the ground, the two advancing in perfect sync.
Zhen Tianzun was clearly dragged into a dual-track approach for the first time.
As the laser bird swooped down from above, the sound waves themselves created another round of frequency interference. This wasn't a wide-area coverage, but rather a precise, rhythmic attack, forcing the Thunder God to neither completely ignore what was above nor focus all his attention on the sound waves themselves.
The fusion cannon lit up the next instant, accompanied by a clear roar.
Instinctively, Yin Vector gripped the fence tightly, his chest pounding.
The ball of light in front of the right arm cannon barrel compressed to its limit, and the surrounding air seemed to twist and contort for a moment as if baked by that energy. Immediately afterwards, Zhen Tianzun didn't even chase after the sound wave itself, but directly raised the cannon and blasted at the laser bird in mid-air.
The sound from the audience was momentarily drowned out by that shot, and the entire stadium seemed to be violently shaken by something.
Laserbird didn't take the hit head-on. It flapped its wings extremely fast, making an extreme angle, but it was still grazed by the edge of the cannon line. The entire machine tilted in mid-air, but instead of falling, it rose higher and circled back again.
He muttered something under his breath after being knocked down, as if even he hadn't expected Zhen Tianzun to be so unrestrained with his attack.
Meanwhile, the sound waves were already close to the center of the field.
He couldn't possibly let the moment when Zhen Tianzun had just fired that shot slip by.
When the distance was suddenly reduced to close range, the vector truly saw just how exaggerated the difference in style between the two sides really was.
The sonic wave's movements were not wasteful at all; every cut was made after calculating the shield's recovery speed, the fusion cannon's energy storage window, and the timing of the shockwave's reverberation.
He relied on a series of judgments so fast there were no gaps.
But Zhen Tianzun was even more unreasonable.
He knew perfectly well that his opponent was trying to disrupt his rhythm, but he still chose to confront them head-on. He raised his shield, forcing the sonic wave to retreat slightly. Immediately afterward, his right arm armor shifted sharply, and the retractable blade that had been hidden between the cannon and his arm popped out with a "clang," the blade aimed directly at the front of the sonic wave's chest and abdomen at close range.
The vector optical mirror is tightened instantly.
This was the first time she had seen Zhen Tianzun use it in this way.
That was a real killer move.
The sound wave clearly knew about the blade all along. The entire machine bent backward at a somewhat counterintuitive angle, the blade grazing the edge of his side armor, sending up a string of tiny sparks. The next second, one of his hands was already slamming into the left arm of the Heavenly Venerable holding the shield.
The ignition point was drawn and ignited.
"Damn it." Knocked down beside him, he squinted through his optics. "That wasn't aimed at the outer armor."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Sheng Bo's other hand closed in, precisely cutting between several key connecting lines on Zhen Tianzun's left arm, finding the right spot for a fatal move.
Zhen Tianzun's entire left arm visibly paused for a beat.
In that half-beat, Laserbird once again cut down from above, forming an almost seamless intersection with Soundwave itself.
Despite the obvious discomfort in his left arm, Zhen Tianzun slammed the entire machine forward, crashing it into Sheng Bo's chest with his shoulder, back, and shield.
That attack was entirely due to his superior strength.
Even with the fastest possible prediction, sound waves couldn't possibly completely dissipate such a heavy head-on impact at close range. The sound of the two machines colliding violently made even the back teeth of the deflector go numb.
Zhen Tianzun slammed his left arm shield edge backhand down, sweeping it across the junction of Sheng Bo's neck and shoulder.
The sound wave caused the entire machine to deflect by an inch.
The short blade on Zhen Tianzun's right arm had already caught up, its edge gleaming coldly.
The sound wave receded sharply, but the outer armor was still cut open with a not-so-shallow gash. Energy liquid splashed out and landed on the ground, causing the entire audience to go completely crazy.