The Real Mech 1

"I'm ready! I'm ready! When, when, when, when are you taking me? Is it tomorrow? The day after? Or the day after that?" Luminous had been cooped up in the dormitory for days like a dog, and it was absolutely dying to go to the competition with Xu Lingqu.

Seeing how hyper it was, Xu Lingqu doused it with a bucket of cold water: "The mech arena is the final segment of the entire league. Twenty days from now."

Luminous wilted.

Xu Lingqu reached out and poked this pile of lifeless cotton-candy puppy, then smiled. She went to wash up and get ready. The final match of the qualifiers had taken a whole day, and the entire process had taken thirty hours. She needed to rest.

The students of Du'e did not leave the venue.

For them, they had only been eliminated from the team competition. Next up were the all-schools confrontation between the Empire and the Federation, and the mech arena. Jinfang Taibai and several A+ third-years were on that list.

After the match ended yesterday, Jinfang Taibai had secretly cried, but he thought he had hidden it well. This morning, he showed up with panda eyes, pretending to be all deep and brooding. The Du'e people, as always, indulged him, protecting his little self-esteem by not calling it out.

All students on the hundred-person list had received notifications. Early this morning, the Military Department would send someone to take them to Yuheng Military Base for a preliminary look at real mechs, and later they would also undergo concentrated training in piloting replica mechs.

Although the Sky Network's replica mechs were claimed to be a one-to-one restoration of real mechs, seeing replicas in the Sky Network was still very different from the real thing. And entering a cocoon pod to pilot a replica mech was also quite different from piloting a real one.

If the exterior replication was only about seventy percent, the real piloting feel was only about fifty percent. That was how they could achieve downward compatibility, allowing B-level psychics to pilot A- replicas in the Sky Network, A-level psychics to pilot A+ replicas, and the S+ Chen Dao and Chi Ren to be piloted by S-levels.

Of course, these were just piloting thresholds. It was still publicly acknowledged that the higher one's psychic power, the better the compatibility. The Federation and the Empire's previous stance was that all S-levels should be grabbed for this segment, and for other students, they should use A+ if possible, even though A and A+ could pilot the same range.

This was also why the Sky Network audience had reacted so strongly to Xu Lingqu appearing on this list.

However, the participating Empire military academy students didn't really react much to this matter. This arena was essentially a showdown between the Empire and the Federation's S-level psychic students. Chi Ren and Chen Dao, even as replicas, were a crushing blow compared to other mechs.

Everyone knew well that the Empire and the Federation had maintained a standoff because each had an S+ mech stationed in the rear. That was why the frontline had always been just minor skirmishes.

Back then, the Galaxy Admiral and Caesar Yu Fei had toppled half the Federation and established the Empire precisely because they had two S+ mechs. If not for the Meilin Admiral being able to barely hold them off alone, and the Galaxy Admiral taking Luminous and disappearing early on, the current Federation would probably have ceased to exist long ago.

Each year, the highlight of the mech arena was Empire and Federation S-level students using replica Chen Dao and replica Chi Ren to beat each other up, while other students changed it up and used other mechs as background. Anyway, they were all background. What was wrong with Xu Lingqu being one? Everyone would actually be happier to see her as background.

The Military Department sent Yun Zhongxiao, a female officer with short black hair, to take the participating students to Yuheng Military Base. At this moment, she was at the student residence checking attendance.

From Moye Military Academy, only Xu Lingqu, Xu Xiqin, Jin, Liu Zheng, and Shen Shouli were selected. In this hundred-person list, Dolanston and Longyuan still took up the majority, as many of their students had previous combat experience from the last session. The Military Department's selection criteria prioritized psychic power first, and mech combat experience second. Moye sending five all freshmen was quite noticeable.

Among them, the most notable was Shen Shouli.

He was the only S+ psychic present, the only one who could pilot a real S+ mech. Currently, the Federation and the Empire only had five S+ levels: the Empire had Emperor Andrew, the Crown Prince Xi'en, and Shen Shouli; the Federation had Linsuo Meilin and Linduo Meilin.

Among them, Shen Shouli was the youngest, only eighteen. Linsuo Meilin became a Federation admiral at twenty-eight. So the earlier claim that Shen Shouli was the Military Department's future light was not an exaggeration. His performance in the team competition had been unremarkable, but in the mech field, all eyes were on him.

Except for Xu Lingqu.

Right now, in her ears was all Luminous's defamation of Chi Ren and Chen Dao.

"Chi Ren looks all dark and dirty, like a lump of coal! Could it be good-looking? The way it shuttles through space is like a giant black loach, a catfish! Chen Dao is even worse, dark red, looks scary. When it sits there motionless, I thought it was a tomato!"

This fellow was currently wearing on her finger as a ring, heating up constantly, making Xu Lingqu think it had something important to say. She pretended to fix her hair and brought her hand to her ear, only to hear this.

Xu Lingqu turned the ring, threatening that if it spouted more nonsense, she would throw it back to the dormitory. Luminous finally quieted down.

If Chen Dao and Chi Ren had personalities like Luminous... who on earth would envy being their master?

After the headcount was complete, Yun Zhongxiao led the students to Yuheng Military Base. Yuheng Star was neither a border planet nor a developed planet. Originally, the mech reserves there were only two units.

The Central Military Department on the Capital Star had temporarily transferred every type of mech the Empire currently possessed, expanding Yuheng Military Base to its maximum capacity of forty units, just to pump up the students. Of course, except for Chi Ren. Once Chi Ren moved, Chen Dao would sense it. With the current tension between the Federation and the Empire, one misstep could trigger a full-scale war.

Even the war hawks didn't want to see a full-scale war, because then blood would flow, the fighting would be catastrophic, and the Federation and Empire had only ended large-scale combat a century ago. Most people still remembered the brutality...

Everyone took the underground elevator together to the mech-specific area of Yuheng Military Base. Yun Zhongxiao greeted the officer in charge there and had him take the students to see the A-level and A+ mechs. She then gestured for Xu Lingqu to stay behind alone.

The other students noticed and stopped to see what was going on. Mainly, the Moye group stopped first. Seeing this, Jinfang Taibai, Yun Yao, and Guan Chuanjun also stopped. Jia Xiangying and Gu Tingzhi at the front turned back and stopped as well. The Longyuan and Dolanston students followed suit, and eventually, everyone had stopped.

Yun Zhongxiao was a bit surprised by Xu Lingqu's influence over this group of students. She smiled and said to everyone, "She's the only B-level psychic here. I'm taking her separately to see the A- mechs first. Don't be nervous, relax."

Only after she said this did the others start moving. But the four from Moye still didn't budge. Shen Shouli spoke up, "Zhongxiao, I'd also like to see the A- mech first."

Yun Zhongxiao spread her hands helplessly and sighed, "What? Do you think I'm going to harm her? You guys should go familiarize yourselves with the A+ and A mechs first. Liu Zheng and Shen Shouli, after you two have seen them, you can start hands-on training with A-level mechs right away. There's no need to come see the A-."

Today, they weren't just there to look at these real mechs; they planned to start training directly. Except for Xu Lingqu, all of them were mech pilots who had been reported by the six major academies. After the tour, if they could do hands-on training, they would; if not, they could use the cocoon pods here to practice replicas in the Sky Network. There was also a psychic-pressure simulation room for mech cockpits. In short, since the quarterfinals draw for brackets wasn't until tomorrow, they wanted to squeeze in as much practice as they could.

Yun Zhongxiao had also considered that only Xu Lingqu couldn't start hands-on training. To avoid embarrassment, she chose to take her alone to see the A- mech, but she hadn't expected the scene to turn out like this.

"You go ahead with them," Xu Lingqu said, glancing at Yun Zhongxiao. "I'll go with the Zhongxiao to see the A- mech first."

Since Chi Ren wasn't there anyway, it didn't matter much to her what she saw.

Since Xu Lingqu had said so, Liu Zheng, Jin, Xu Xiqin, and Shen Shouli didn't say anything more and followed the main group.

Yun Zhongxiao stood beside her with her hands on her hips, "You've really done well, Commander Xu." She had heard about Xu Lingqu's performance in the league team competition. She had personally watched the final match and thought then that even with B-level psychic power, Xu Lingqu would definitely be a standout when she came to the Military Department in the future.

But she hadn't expected Xu Lingqu to hold such a high position among these students, especially the Moye ones. Even Shen Shouli, the grandson of Admiral Shen, seemed to follow her lead.

"They just don't want me to be alone," Xu Lingqu said. During a weighted cross-country run in the Moye Military Academy trial period, Instructor Chen had singled her out and put her in the fifth echelon. Back then, her physical condition wasn't great, but she barely held on and ran the whole day.

Later, Xu Xiqin had mentioned many times that she would never let Xu Lingqu run alone again, and that she would stay by her side no matter what.

Xu Lingqu followed behind Yun Zhongxiao, walking in the opposite direction from the main group. The two climbed the steps and reached a fully transparent bridge corridor about ten meters above the ground.

After walking some distance, Yun Zhongxiao brought her to stand on a metallic floor panel. Then she pressed a button on the railing, and the panel and railing separated from the rest of the bridge. A huge mechanical arm supported them and carried them forward, all the way to the real, colossal mech.

This mech was about twenty meters tall, with red and white as its main colors. A real mech was a true steel giant. Seeing it, Xu Lingqu realized how sloppy and half-hearted the virtual mechs in the Sky Network were.

Every external part of it showed the mech master's fine craftsmanship. The eye area was treated with large pieces of silver-white metallic material, shimmering with a deep pink glow. The mech's design was quite unique, with petal-like small steel pieces attached to the arms and body, but the mech master must have specially treated them so that the colorful petals didn't steal the show. The red-and-white main body was still striking.

The spot where they stood was right at the center of the mech, allowing them to face its enormity and the precise design at its chest. The cockpit was located at the mech's "heart," as Yun Zhongxiao explained. All mech cockpits were fixed there because it was closest to the core energy source. Activating and connecting to the mech there allowed the pilot to maximize the mech's power.

"This is the most special one in Master Qin's latest Flower series. When the concept art came out, I always thought its rank would be A+." This was Yun Zhongxiao's third time meeting this mech, and she still couldn't help being stunned for a full ten seconds.

Xu Lingqu tilted her head slightly to look at the design on the mech's shoulder that resembled a king's cape.

"What's its name?"

"Hundred Flowers' Bane."