It's Not Easy To Be a Man 210+

464

464 Give Up!

"Could it be that everyone from the First Men's Military Academy knows this move? Or maybe this move was created by Qiao Ting to begin with? And that person just used it first?" In the audience, some people had begun their wild speculations, contemplating this possibility. They felt that their guess was very likely to be true — after all, Qiao Ting was the number one of the military academies, and he was also the supreme prodigy known as the second Ling Xiao. It was much more convincing for him to be the creator of this new technique rather than that unknown youth earlier.

Of course, they also did not dare to claim their conclusions were true just like that — their speculations had to be established upon the premise of Qiao Ting's success in executing this move.

When the distance between the two combatants was once again stretched far enough for fixed-point shooting, Qiao Ting operated his mecha to turn around swiftly. This series of operations were almost identical to Ling Lan's in the previous match ...

The seamless operations left the audience gasping in awe and also made the top-class mecha masters nod silently in approval.

Even one of the two imperial operators monitoring the match from up above could not help but praise, "This kid's pretty good. Almost copying the previous one's movements exactly without making any mistakes."

"Not bad. The title of second Ling Xiao, he's still worthy of it." The other person seemed to be a little pickier with regards to Qiao Ting; his tone was extremely indifferent.

His companion's words surprised the first imperial operator who had spoken. "Ah, so he's the one!" General Ling Xiao was renowned throughout the entire Federation. Ever since that imperial operator had returned to the Federation and found out that it had such an amazingly talented god-class operator, he had been filled with admiration. "Speaking of General Ling Xiao, I heard that there is no technique he doesn't know. They say he's a complete comprehensive talent."

His companion was stunned by his words. "You ... do you not know that General Ling Xiao's innate talent is Duplication?" In the Federation, this was practically an open secret.

In response, that imperial operator said somewhat embarrassedly, "You've forgotten where I'm from."

His companion was suddenly enlightened, recalling the other's background. He said apologetically, "Sorry, I had forgotten you are from the Lawless Lands."

The Lawless Lands was one of the three ungoverned zones at the fringes of human-populated star systems. It was hundreds of thousands of light-years away from the Federation. The resources there were extremely scarce and the climate was frightful, even worse than that of fourth-rate planets which had been labelled by the Federation as possessing the worst living conditions for human beings. Without a certain level of strength, it was impossible for someone to live there.

The Lawless Lands was a place of sin. Aside from the rare aborigines, all who stayed there were criminals and fugitives from the various nations.

At the Lawless Lands, war and strife reigned all year round — different factions warred with each other, vying for their own territory. There, ace operators were as common as dogs. Anyone who was not an ace just could not survive, and only imperial operators could live like actual people, obtaining a secure place for themselves.

Of course, once someone in the Lawless Lands succeeded in ascending to imperial operator level, they would have the chance to start anew and choose their future path again. They could choose to return to the world of human order (war criminals and refugees mostly chose this option), and their past crimes would be wiped clean. Of course, they could also choose to continue remaining in the Lawless Lands (the aborigines mostly chose this option) and become a duke in their own right.