Chapter Seventy-Nine: Negotiation

Li Daoran rose from the mud, the exoskeleton armor beneath him belonging to Ichiki Okamoto had been severely deformed, yet it was slowly returning to its original shape. This was the nature of the skin in Daoran's world—no matter which country it hailed from, though the exterior differed, all possessed the basic traits of hybrid metal organisms. While they had the properties of metal, their essence was biological, granting them a certain ability to recover. Yet, as with all living things, death was also possible.

Li Daoran cursed under his breath; the man still wasn't dead—truly tough. Despite Okamoto's disheveled appearance, the protection of the exoskeleton armor meant he hadn't suffered any serious injuries.

After all, in space, a fighter's instantaneous acceleration could reach thousands of meters per second. Exoskeleton armor alone could withstand such forces; if Li Daoran could break it with a few punches, that would be naive to imagine.

Picking up the energy gun that had fallen into the mud, Li Daoran thought it was no wonder close-quarters combat wasn't valued—after half a day of fighting, he couldn't even break through the defense; what was the point?

Yet Li Daoran felt no fatigue. After five or six minutes of relentless punching, his whole body felt invigorated. With the exoskeleton armor, he felt like a grandmaster from a martial arts novel—his stamina limitless, every punch a critical blow, leaping across rooftops was child’s play, and each move carried several tons of force. It was hard to imagine how exaggerated a true land combat mech would be.

But facing an opponent who simply refused to die was vexing. He fiddled with the energy gun in his hand; in Li Daoran’s grasp, it was nothing more than scrap metal, since it belonged to Okamoto. Every energy gun was equipped with a recognition device—only its owner could use it. Even if a comrade’s energy gun was acquired, it would require re-verification. If the verification failed, it would lock itself, and due to the stability of the energy cell, explosions were exceedingly rare.

It wasn’t particularly dangerous; besides, explosions were too easily exploited. If the energy gun could explode, Li Daoran would have detonated it and thrown it at Okamoto without hesitation.

Had he studied weapon assembly and disassembly on Silver Serpent Star, perhaps he could have swapped out the chip for his own. Li Daoran felt a pang of regret—it was all due to insufficient study time.

He then kicked the energy gun away into the unknown.

Turning to look at Okamoto, still soaking in the puddle, he asked, “Hey, are you dead yet?”

At that moment, Okamoto was inside his exoskeleton armor, water seeping into the suit through its gaps, submerged at the bottom, his consciousness already blurring. This was also why Li Daoran had stood up—he himself was half-submerged in water, and if he didn’t get up quickly, Okamoto might drown.

Okamoto was, of course, unable to respond. Li Daoran leapt back down, grabbed Okamoto by one leg and hauled him out, then seized both legs, holding him upside down, shaking vigorously to let the water drain out through the gaps—ensuring Okamoto drank a few extra mouthfuls in the process.