Chapter 12: The Thirty-first Pirate Gang, Section 6

The deafening gunshots were like thunderclaps. The ground in front of the giant mech was instantly swept up by the airflow from the gun barrels, sending countless fragments flying everywhere. The massive recoil pushed the mech back more than five meters.

At that moment, even the most impulsive pirates ceased their noise. They held their breath, awaiting that thrilling moment.

It was because Link’s heavy sniper rifle inspired immense confidence. Even among the pirates, who had spent years fighting on the edge of life and death, no one had ever seen such a terrifying weapon. Just the recoil was enough to make such a huge mech keep retreating. What would happen if it fired? Such a large-caliber gunpowder weapon, only possible on ancient mechanical mechs, might even be too powerful for warships to withstand.

In fact, only Blackhair seemed to understand this. The original intended target for this weapon was indeed warships—not the small, compact magic warships commonly used today, but massive, heavily armored battleships with long-range cruising capabilities.

Unfortunately, despite everyone’s expectations, even such a weapon ended up being a disappointment.

At the same time as the gunshot, the rapidly advancing Nightmare Mech moved as if it had practiced beforehand. The auxiliary engine on its left side emitted a dazzling stream of energy. The powerful thrust immediately caused the mech to deviate from its original path, allowing it to avoid Link’s attack. Then, the mech began spinning wildly. The gears in its impact modules mercilessly tore through the ground, lifting chunks of stone into the air. Thick smoke and dust instantly spread everywhere.

In an instant, the Nightmare Mech was enveloped in dense smoke and dust. Its huge shadow became blurred before eventually disappearing without a trace.

“Ah… truly astonishing. Is this your combat intuition?” Inside the cockpit of the giant mech, Link stared at the vision crystal in front of him, showing surprise for the first time.

Combat intuition—a term known to few. But just because few knew about it didn’t mean it wasn’t important. In fact, among true warriors, this was one of the most frequently mentioned and highly valued aspects.

Simply put, combat intuition is a standard that measures a technician’s ability to sense unknown dangers in highly tense battles and respond swiftly. It requires not only excellent intuition but also high levels of responsiveness to danger, combat skills, and mental discipline. A truly formidable warrior should possess the strength to turn the tide in any unfavorable situation—this ability stems from combat intuition.

Link was rated as high silver or low gold in the Hunter’s Guild’s internal assessment. In fact, that was simply because he rarely engaged in battles. No one knew that his true strength had already reached high gold level, just short of reaching the dreamlike diamond rank. So when it came to combat intuition, probably no one present was more skilled than him.

Yet he never expected that Blackhair, his enemy, was equally skilled—no, even slightly better.

To sense when an enemy fired during a high-speed charge and dodge accordingly, Link believed he could do it too. But he could never avoid being hurt entirely. Just this alone showed that Blackhair’s combat intuition was definitely superior to his own.

This was a challenge—passion instantly filled Link’s gaunt face.

“Very well, let’s see whose combat intuition is stronger…” murmuring, Link suddenly closed his eyes. The vision crystal in front of him shut down instantly, plunging the entire cockpit into darkness. Countless glowing threads shot out from the shadows and connected to his head. The eerie blue flashes in the darkness resembled something demonic.

The entire mental domain.

A technology that could only exist on the most advanced magic mechs now appeared on this giant mech. If the researchers at the Magic Research Institute saw this, they would surely exclaim in shock. After all, this technology was one of humanity’s most cutting-edge advancements, heavily protected. Once used, a technician’s mental capacity could be amplified exponentially, increasing both sensitivity and the precision of mech control, leading to a qualitative leap in the mech’s overall strength.

Of course, since it brings so many benefits, there must be a corresponding cost. If not for special circumstances, Link wouldn’t want to use this device either. Because once connected to these threads glowing with a faint blue light, he would be truly linked to the entire mech. Any damage to the mech would be reflected on him, and even if the connection was severed in time, it couldn’t stop the damage from spreading.
Full Mental Domain technology was like a double-edged sword—it enhanced the technician’s combat abilities while also posing direct dangers to them.
Victory or death? It was that simple.
“Crack!!” As soon as it connected to the Full Mental Network, the giant mech’s eyes instantly changed from red to blue. Immediately afterward, Link inside the cockpit felt a jolt, and his vision became brilliantly bright.
From now on, he was the mech, and the mech was him. There was no longer any distinction between them, no way back.
“Huh…” Just as Link finished transforming, a dark figure suddenly rushed out from the smoke filling the area. Its rapidly spinning body kicked up countless pieces of debris. In just an instant, it reached the giant mech. Its spider-like six-legged limbs dragged long trails of sparks across the ground. A steel-like giant hand seemed to emerge from hell, reaching for the mech’s head.
“Hmph! How could I let you get your way?” Link, who had his eyes closed in the cockpit, suddenly let out a cold snort. The giant mech reacted immediately. Before it could even raise its heavy sniper rifle, it fired a shot at the ground. With a loud boom, the terrifying recoil pushed the mech back more than five meters, just in time to avoid Nightmare’s deadly hand. At the same time, countless shotgun pellets erupted from that hand, flying past the mech’s face with a terrifying explosive sound.
What a Link. Even Nightmare, with his black hair, couldn’t help but admire him.
Such a nearly fatal attack had been deflected by the other party using incredible tactics. Black Hair couldn’t believe Link’s reaction speed could be so excellent. But the next moment, his expression turned serious.
Because the giant mech wasn’t just about dodging. As it was pushed backward, the two massive shoulders he had been watching suddenly cracked open. Then, two oval-shaped shells unfolded simultaneously, as if two small wings had suddenly appeared. Below those “wings,” where the shoulders used to be, two small bright spots appeared.

“Damn! How could it be something like this!!” A sense of extreme danger instantly seized Black Hair’s heart. In his haste, he didn’t even have time to think before slamming his fist onto a red button next to the control panel. The eMP backpack behind the Nightmare mech immediately spun in reverse. An invisible circular barrier appeared around the Nightmare mech right away.
“Whoosh!!” It sounded like air being ignited by something. To the astonishment of all the onlookers, tiny bright spots on the shoulders of the giant mech exploded instantly, turning into countless shooting spindle-shaped beams that instantly enveloped an area of a hundred meters around the Nightmare mech. These spindle beams were even more terrifying than the sharpest knives. A shrill frictional sound filled the air immediately. The ground was torn apart, and soil and rocks were lifted into the sky by an invisible force. Even the massive walls, ten zhang high and located hundreds of meters away, were affected. Layer after layer of hard rocks were crushed by these spindle beams, turning into powder too fine to see.
The terrifying power far exceeded what any pirate could imagine. Everyone was shocked by these dazzling spindle beams, and fear quickly took hold of the onlookers.
God, what exactly are these spindle beams? How can they possess such terrifying power? Watching a five-meter-thick reinforced wall being torn apart to create a huge hole, the entire arena fell dead silent.
“High-frequency particle pulses! How could such a thing appear here?” Even Black Hair was surprised enough to speak from the cockpit of the Nightmare.
Others might not recognize these terrifying spindle beams, but as a thug from Earth’s past, how could he not? High-frequency particle pulses were still in the research stage during his time. He had only seen them in a secret base in another country. Back then, just the equipment needed to generate these pulses filled a room over thirty square meters, and the energy consumption was equivalent to that of half a medium-sized city. But compared to their power, all that was child’s play.
In the original experiments, these terrifying pulses had instantly penetrated and shattered alloy armor plates dozens of meters thick, even destroying the walls behind them. So in Black Hair’s mind, if such a thing were used as a weapon, it could only be a powerful armament used on warships.

But he never expected that in this strange world spanning thousands of years, he would encounter such terrifying bolts of energy once again. Yet compared to what he had seen before, both their power and range had diminished drastically. Aside from having particle pulse characteristics, everything else about them was utterly pathetic. Still, the power of those high-frequency particle pulses was still nothing short of terrifying. In just an instant, the Nightmare Mech’s energy reserves dropped to a minimum. Hei Ba could even feel the negative effects of the overheating engines. Although the overloaded EMP system provided him with a temporary shield of defense, it couldn’t sustain this for long. Hei Ba knew that in just three more seconds, the Nightmare Mech would turn into an unrecognizable stream of metal amidst the torrential bolts of energy. Fortunately, his fears didn’t come true. Clearly, even the opponent couldn’t afford to keep using that weapon. After only about two seconds, the bolts of energy disappeared without a trace. The shoulder plating of the giant mech closed again, restoring its bulky, hill-like appearance. But now no one dared to underestimate those two “hills.” The brilliance of that brief moment was enough to make everyone realize the terrifying power of the giant mech. Unseen, a rare stir arose among the spectators. Many pirates retreated to the back, their faces pale. With wide eyes, Hei Ba’s hands moved across the keyboard in a blur of motion. The rapid tapping sounds merged into one continuous noise, indistinguishable from a long hum. Massive amounts of data streamed across the screen, flooding Hei Ba’s vision with information. There was no time left—the Nightmare Mech was consuming too much energy. If he couldn’t adjust the power output frequency of the entire mech while the smoke cleared, even Hei Ba might not be able to avoid defeat. In such a short time, the Nightmare Mech was like a puppet deprived of all power, unable to withstand even the bullets from an ordinary mech. “Engine power dropped by 46%, the outer armor layer slightly melted. Right leg impact module damaged by 23%, right arm joint severed!!!” Hei Ba’s voice grew louder, clearly shocked by the damage inflicted on the Nightmare Mech. Could even the EMP shielding layer not withstand such high-frequency particle pulses in such a short time?

“Beep! Backup power source connected successfully. The mech has entered boost combustion mode!!” As the black-haired man’s fingers moved, an electronic synthesized voice finally rang out in the cockpit, and some buttons that had gone dark due to lack of power lit up again. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his eyes suddenly widened…
For in that instant, he saw that the giant mech across from him had raised its terrifying heavy sniper rifle once more! The dark barrel was aimed straight at him, emitting a faint blue glow.
“Damn!” Gritting his teeth, the black-haired man pressed the control lever hard downward. The six-legged joints of the Nightmare Mech immediately emitted a sound of metal grinding under excessive strain. Its massive body tilted sharply to the left, lost balance instantly, and crashed to the ground. Its powerful engine continued to drive it forward for another ten meters before it finally stopped.
At the same time, a large bullet packed with terrifying kinetic energy flew past where it had been standing. The screeching sound as it tore through the air was terrifying. It struck the heavy wall behind the Nightmare Mech, and its immense force lifted half of the wall into the air. Several pirate spectators behind the wall couldn’t dodge in time; they didn’t even utter a scream before being reduced to pieces in the deafening explosion…
Amidst the smoke and dust, the figure of the giant mech stood motionless, its heavy sniper rifle still firmly locked on the Nightmare Mech!!