Gundam: From Piece to Player

Chapter 328 Dolls

Karma switched the weapon system to the Psychic Shocker that was previously mounted on the MS—a weapon developed by the Federation's hawkish Murasame Research Institute.

Driven by him, Cupid also quickly approached Z-PLUS, intending to exert mental pressure while weakening and interfering with the combat bonuses brought by Anna's Newtype brainwaves.

It's supposed to be an upgraded version of EXAM—but I don't know how effective it is; it looks more like a decoration.

"Honey, are you playing music for me?"

"I'll play some noise to distract you and make it hard for you to concentrate."

"Haha, you're such a joker," Anna said, making the villainous remark.

Cupid's back wings of light attempted to launch a slash, but Z-PLUS transformed to dodge.

Karma switched to a beam rifle with faster speed and firing rate, and the beam bullets from the Z-PLUS were neutralized by the I-field shield.

Anna retaliated by launching a small missile.

Cupid attempted close combat, drawing his beam saber and unleashing a left-right slashing attack, which Z-PLUS blocked entirely with a beam saber.

Over the next few minutes, Karma tried everything she could, but failed to even scratch Anna's body.

"Am I really that bad?" Karma couldn't help but mutter to herself.

Cupid's performance is superior to Z-PLUS.

Since the machine itself is not the problem, the issue must lie with the pilot.

Even with the nanomachines within her body, Karma still couldn't defeat the strongest player of this era.

Why not try a different combat environment? Karma looked around and found a place nearby where she could give it a shot.

The wreckage of a Zeon warship.

This warship was destroyed by the explosion induced by the rice furnace. The hull was torn apart by the immense force, with fragments scattered everywhere like a whale fall. It seems it could serve as a natural cover for mobile suit combat.

Cupid flew ahead, while Z-PLUS fired from behind, its condensed high-energy mega particle cannon sweeping across the wreckage, the powerful beam attack piercing through the ship's hull.

As the wreckage was pushed aside by the explosion.

Just as Karma was about to leave, a floating cannon launched a suicide attack on him from the side, like a snake's forked tongue.

Cupid managed to block the explosion with the small shield in his hand.

Z-plus seized the opportunity to fly out and fired its high-energy mega particle cannon at close range, which Karma managed to dodge.

But Cupid's left leg was still hit—too close, the I-field couldn't even take effect.

Karma tried to retaliate with her beam rifle, but the beam blade of the Z-plus's long cannon had already launched a thrust, blasting Cupid's beam rifle to pieces.

He took a deep breath, using the wreckage as cover from the explosion's smoke and dust, and Anna's voice echoed in his mind once more.

"Honey, use any hidden functions the machine has while you can. If you don't use them now, you won't have another chance to use them once the damage gets worse."

It was practically a mockery.

Faced with Anna's threat, Carl began to access Cupid's computer to see if there was any function that could reverse the situation.

There really is one—

It lies quietly within the machine, occupying an inconspicuous load, waiting for the moment to play its role.

The wreckage behind them was suddenly cleaved in two by a beam spear.

Faced with Z-PLUS's close-range pressure, Cupid could only dodge and weave. In the close combat just now, another piece of shoulder armor was shaved off. Karma escaped using an electronic virus bomb—this kind of bomb can interfere with the machine's visual imaging system.

Anna mistakenly believed it was a bomb and took a defensive stance, but this could only buy her a little time.

Karma took the opportunity to create distance and hide among the ruins.

"Senior, if I defeat you, I'll capture you too," Anna continued her verbal sparring.

Have you arranged housing for me?

"Don't worry, I've arranged everything."

While chatting with Anna to buy time, Karma typed in commands and deployed some kind of weapon amidst the ruins of the warship. It was an old artifact, and it was indeed difficult to use. Its only advantage was that it did not generate brainwaves.

Just as Karma was about to set a trap, Ana's artillery fire once again pierced through the ruins where Cupid was—it was lost to time.

Cupid offered no resistance, letting the blast lift him up.

"Darling, have you given up resisting?"

Z-PLUS, brandishing a beam saber, appeared out of nowhere from directly below Cupid, the beam blade of his rifle already aimed at Cupid's main monitor.

At that moment, Karma, who was already prepared, pulled the trigger.

The fiber optic floating cannons, connected by a dense "spider web" that appeared around Cupid, shot out from all sides of Z-PLUS—the blast from earlier had scattered the cannons... They were incredibly lucky, landing right around the location where Z-PLUS had appeared.

"what?"

It completely blocked all of Anna's escape routes. Even though Anna's dodges resulted in the beam not hitting a fatal spot, it still struck Z-PLUS.

The only chance for victory has arrived.

Karma floored the accelerator and rammed into it, while Cupid pushed the damaged Z-PLUS into the ruins of the warship one by one.

—In pursuit of ultimate maneuverability, the Z-PLUS is clearly not very durable; it lost its ability to resist after only a few collisions.

"I was careless. Wow, that's amazing. They actually relied on that kind of thing."

"Anna, you've lost. Get out of the cockpit right now."

"What can you do if I don't give up?"

"Then I'm going to shock you."

"Don't shock me, I surrender, I surrender."

Anna opened the cockpit, raised her hands, and floated out. Karma instinctively tried to open her cockpit to catch her as well.

At that moment, he somehow thought of a scene from V Gundam.

Let's play it safe for now.

"Anna, grab my hand."

"What, you want something more exciting? To turn me into mincemeat? This is an R-18G."

"Shut up, don't think like that."

Anna's words stirred a wicked thought in Karma, which he quickly suppressed.

Anna jumped onto the arm and saw that the other person was still carrying her towards the cockpit.

Cupid's cockpit opened, and Karma was already wearing her exoskeleton armor.

"Ha, you really don't trust me."

"I will never let you leave me again."

"Your outfit is a bit too much."

"Just bear with it, it'll only be a little while."

Cupid's cockpit uses a brainwave-proof design. It was only closed during the battle with Anna. Once it's open, it will isolate Anna from the New Federation.

Karma hugged Anna tightly, one hand gripping the control stick.

With Anna captured, won't the fighting spirit of the New Federation crumble?

Karma wanted to fire a shot at the Z-plus, but Ana stopped her—saying she wanted to leave it for her companion.

Fine.

The strong one is Anna, not this Zeta. Taking it back might even allow it to be located by the coordinates on the other side.

Let's go back to the warship first and lock Anna up.

Karma drove for about ten minutes, and when she was almost back on the warship, she suddenly noticed that the person sitting on her lap was acting strangely.

It's too quiet.

He quickly removed the other person's helmet.

Anna's long hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and her eyes seemed to be fixed on him, yet she remained motionless like a delicate doll, her eerie appearance sending chills down one's spine.

"Anna?"

Karma leaned closer to Anna's face and discovered that Anna wasn't breathing anymore.

Chapter 329 Sacrifice-Based Strategy

The heart stopped beating, and breathing stopped.

Karma tensed up. Could it be that the battle had damaged her internal organs?

He quickly placed Anna on the floor of the linear cockpit and began first aid on the spot.

Artificial respiration, intraventilator defibrillators—we used every available means and every method we could think of.

No response.

Anna looked like Sleeping Beauty... her skin began to turn pale, and her body became stiff.

The blood in the body has stopped circulating... If we wait any longer, it may be too late to save it.

No, going down now will only make things worse, Karma's mind raced.

Oh right, hibernation equipment... I still have hibernation equipment; that can stop the situation from worsening.

"Alice! Prepare the hibernation equipment for me immediately."

"Big brother?"

Anna was seriously injured.

The site of the recent warship wreckage.

The cockpit of the Z-PLUS was empty, but the head monitor lit up, as if it had transformed from a piloted mobile suit into a conscious robot.

The beam saber pierced the cockpit—and the black box inside was destroyed.

It then drove away from the battlefield like a ghost.