The Real Mech 2
When autumn arrives on the ninth day of the eighth month, after my flowers bloom, a hundred flowers shall meet their bane.
Xu Lingqu's heart stirred. She couldn't help but wonder—could this Master Qin also be from Earth? But after living in this interstellar world for so long, she'd noticed that many remnants of Earth's civilization had surfaced here, and they probably hadn't all been brought over by Yin He.
Take the desert arena, for instance. The designs of the desert mythological figures were clearly products of Earth's culture, but the structure was chaotic. Under the designer's hand, the two gods beneath the Pharaoh had been reduced to gatekeepers, and even the Feathered Serpent from the Mayan mythos had been thrown into the mix.
And then there was what Yun Yao had said last time: "Three heroes versus Chen Bu."
She had since traced it through her smart brain. The conclusion: the phrase "Three heroes versus Chen Bu" had been around for two hundred years. The pyramid and god designs in the desert were original creations by a designer from three hundred years ago. He was a Federation citizen, but the Empire had no detailed records on him—the trail went cold there.
In short, these two traces had nothing to do with Yin He. The timelines didn't match. Yin He was thirty-five and had gone missing in the Empire five years ago; it was now year ninety-five of the Empire.
Xu Lingqu had a feeling that if she wanted to get to the bottom of this, she'd eventually have to go to the Federation.
"Did Master Qin choose the name Hundred Flowers' Bane himself?" She wanted to confirm first whether this Master Qin was a fellow Earthling.
Yun Zhongxiao shook her head. "He couldn't settle on a name for the mech at the time, so he asked Master Duanmeng to help. And speaking of which, the mech master competition is happening right now. They're both on a planet in the Federation's C star sector."
Xu Lingqu understood—that was the competition Natata had mentioned.
Master Duanmeng. An interstellar human who had lived a hundred and fifty years. He'd once started the interstellar mech revolution with a single set of Shadows, and later built the three S+ mechs all on his own—Chi Ren, Chen Dao, and Liu Ming. It was fair to say he'd written the epic of interstellar mechs single-handedly; everyone else was just punctuation.
Was he a man from Earth?
Xu Lingqu stayed silent. Yun Zhongxiao assumed she was hung up on the name because she didn't get it, so she kindly explained, "According to Master Qin's design, Hundred Flowers' Bane's weapon is a sword. Once you're in the cockpit and the mech activates, the petals on its body converge to form the sword. But in the Empire's current practical training, very few can pull it off. Even those who manage it can only summon it—no one has yet tested the power of its main weapon."
"Why not? Isn't it an A-rank mech?" Xu Lingqu asked.
"It is an A-rank. A-ranks can pilot it normally and pull off one or two moves after activation. But as for summoning Hundred Flowers' Bane's main weapon, no one knows if Master Qin made a design error." Yun Zhongxiao sighed. "The pressure builds over time. It's not just mental pressure—the physical strain on the body keeps climbing. So whether you can successfully summon the main weapon tests not only psychic power but also physical endurance and willpower."
The S-ranks came, and their psychic power could handle it easily, but their bodies and willpower gave out. Only a few A-rank mech soldiers could hold on long enough to summon the blade.
"When Hundred Flowers' Bane first came out, some suspected it might be an S+ mech because of this main weapon. But after continuous testing, we reached the conclusion I mentioned. Now many believe it's an anti-psychic-level mech—the higher your psychic rank, the easier to pilot. That's not the case." Yun Zhongxiao turned to look at Xu Lingqu. In truth, her real reason for bringing Xu Lingqu to see Hundred Flowers' Bane first, alone, was that she hoped this unconventional mech might give a B-rank like Xu Lingqu some tangible encouragement.
She didn't believe that a commander who would step up again and again in the arena to back up the students of Moye would become background scenery in the mech arena.
Yun Zhongxiao was looking forward to a thrilling showdown—a remade Hundred Flowers' Bane in Xu Lingqu's hands, summoning its main weapon against the Federation students' remade Chi Ren and Chen Dao.
Xu Lingqu wanted to thank Yun Zhongxiao for her kind intentions, but her real psychic power level wasn't B-rank. Yun Zhongxiao's encouragement had no effect on her.
Instead, she thought of the original number-one player in the virtual mech arena, Ming. He probably needed a dose of Yun Zhongxiao's mental fortitude. And Natata—since this world already had an anti-psychic-level mech, the dream she'd been chasing her whole life, a mech with no psychic restrictions, really didn't seem so far off.
Yun Zhongxiao then took her to see the other A-rank mechs, starting with Master Duanmeng's trio of Shadows. After seeing them, Xu Lingqu was even more convinced of Master Duanmeng's Earth origin, because these three mechs had an aesthetic reminiscent of Chinese landscape painting. Compared to the vivid colors of other mech masters, Duanmeng's palette was stark black and white, evoking the mood of ink wash.
The concepts behind Shadow Wind, Shadow Snow, and Shadow Dream were perfectly in line with the beauty those names carried on Earth—particularly in a Chinese context. Even the weapon designs were highly impressionistic. For instance, Shadow Dream's weapon, in Xu Lingqu's eyes, was essentially a giant calligraphy brush—except the bristles had become hard steel spikes, with particle cannon muzzles hidden inside. A perfect fusion of cold weapon and hot weapon.
After appreciating Master Duanmeng's Earth-inspired mech aesthetics, they moved on to the creations of interstellar native masters.
Master Green Crystal's Type 4 mech. The biggest difference from the previous ones was that its humanoid concept wasn't obvious. Its head looked like an iron bucket, with none of the fine detail that Duanmeng and Qin had done. The torso design carried a strange feel. The left arm was a section longer than the right, with a chainsaw-like weapon mounted directly on it, while the right palm opened to reveal a dark cannon muzzle. The thighs were clearly built with heavy hard material, standing rock steady. If it could deliver a flying kick to another mech, it could snap an arm right off.
Ron's Silencer 2. The mech lived up to its name—gray from head to toe. Its material use was even more lavish than Master Green Crystal's, treating the Silencer 2 as a solid iron beast. Several protrusions adorned its body. The silhouette was sleeker and more refined than Green Crystal's, but not as detailed as Duanmeng's or Qin's. All in all, it looked like a giant bullet, radiating a cold metallic gleam. True to its name, it was silent, yet brimming with power.
These were all the A-rank mechs.
"The Military Department prefers the designs of Ron and Duanmeng, because when the blueprints arrive, they're easiest to mass-produce." Yun Zhongxiao operated the separated corridor bridge, returning it to its original position. "For example, we currently have a stockpile of a hundred Silencer 2s. If a full-scale war broke out between the Federation and the Empire, while Chi Ren and Chen Dao duel each other, the stockpiles of other mechs on both sides would be just as crucial."
In this interstellar world's star wars, Chi Ren and Chen Dao were like nuclear bombs in the Earth era. Varied starships served as battle cruisers and fighter jets, other mechs were like various missiles, and planet-side combat had become largely irrelevant—just as light infantry had gradually faced elimination or informatization restructuring in the Earth era.
That was also why both the Federation and the Empire could allow their top military academy students to compete in the league without hesitation—the league's content was highly performative and didn't touch true military strength.
"You can head back to your dorm now. You should have a Sky Network cocoon chamber, right? You can go try out the remade mechs in there," Yun Zhongxiao said, shifting to training matters. "Or you can stay and experience the pressure of entering a mech cockpit in our simulation room. Set the simulation level to 60 or 70 percent, and you can handle an A-rank mech."
"I'll stay and try the simulation room." Xu Lingqu nodded at Yun Zhongxiao. "I'll turn up the intensity for myself."