Come Home More Often

While the Sky Network was busy popularizing mech knowledge, the mech engineering students were in the thick of their own assessments.

This time, the instructor had given them a three-hour limit for a single component. Natata was working on a small part of an A-rank mech's leg, and she was at the critical moment—the final step required shaping it with Muhu fluid. Sweat beaded nervously on her forehead, but her hand remained steady as she poured the Muhu fluid in.

About five minutes after pouring, a wisp of smoke rose, and Natata waved it away.

Final step, success.

A beautiful, complete mech component lay before her eyes, and Natata pushed open the door of her booth to signal she was done.

She had half an hour to spare. The results had to be inspected by the instructor one by one, but Natata was allowed to leave her booth early.

She scanned the room, spotted where Xu Lingqu was, and walked straight over with a smile.

"The result was pretty good."

Judging by her expression, their team's bonus points were as good as secured. Jin scooted over to make room for Natata, the hero of the hour, to sit down.

"What are you guys talking about?" Natata asked curiously. With the assessment over, a heavy weight had lifted from her shoulders. She'd heard that after this assessment, they'd return to the big training base to train with Xu Lingqu and the others, so getting familiar with them now seemed like a smart move.

Xu Xiqin enthusiastically chimed in: "Mechs—the ones the Sky Network replicated. You're the real professional here, so we were just talking about the three S-rank mechs."

Natata's smile faded a little. "I see. I'm still just a student, not a true professional yet."

The path of a mech engineer was long and arduous; today's assessment was just a small hurdle. She reminded herself to stay vigilant.

The group chatted a bit more about the characteristics of various mechs—like how Master Green Crystal's mechs focused on speed, Ron specialized in heavy armor, and Master Qin's mechs were flashy and could swap multiple weapons.

When the assessment ended, the mech engineer instructor read out the results, and Natata placed second.

"Well done," the instructor said.

Those three points were solidly added to Xu Lingqu's team. The rare half-day break flew by, and soon Kai Ang waved his hand and led the students back to base.

He couldn't have been more pleased with this assessment's results. Good news made a man cheerful, and he was grinning ear to ear as he led the students on a cross-country march back to the base.

This made the students suspicious—was he planning some ambush on the way back to take them out? They couldn't relax the whole trek back.

"Wipe that grin off your face," Instructor Chen said, deciding to speak up for the poor students.

Kai Ang looked wronged. "What? I learned it from you. You're always smiling at them like that, and the students all feel close to you and like you for it."

Instructor Chen shot him a look. "It's not the smile. It's the person."

Instructor Kai Ang was deeply wounded, but unfortunately, no students noticed.

They made it back in the afternoon. Instructor Chen added a bit more training, and once that was done, they were dismissed.

After training, the students, still wary of some hidden scheme, refused to leave and stood around like a grove of wooden stakes. Chen had to reassure them repeatedly: "You can really get a good night's sleep tonight. No more surprises."

"Who knows if there's some trick up his sleeve!" Xu Xiqin really couldn't trust it this time.

Xu Lingqu, on the other hand, left right after hearing the guarantee.

Jin was skeptical, but chased after her. "Commander, what's your take?"

"The instructors are pretty satisfied with how this assessment went. There's nothing left to stir up," Xu Lingqu said without turning around, heading straight for the medical bay.

She pushed the door open, and Doctor Li—who had gotten so used to Xu Lingqu's daily visits that she usually didn't even look up—raised her head in surprise this time.

"You didn't get carried in unconscious or look half-dead this time. That special constitution of yours really is something. You've made amazing progress," Doctor Li said. She had no idea what they'd been up to, only that those two mischievous instructor colleagues had dragged the whole group of students out somewhere again.

She'd asked many times if they really didn't need her to come along, and every time she got a no.

Doctor Li had been dreading the thought of those two hauling in a few student corpses, but thankfully, that hadn't happened.

Xu Lingqu's issue wasn't serious—still just the fatigue and soreness from overtraining. This time, it was actually pretty mild, and by all rights she shouldn't have come. But for her, walking into the medical bay had practically become muscle memory by now.

Her feet naturally carried her here.

As she sat down, an old Earth song that fit the occasion popped unbidden into her mind: "A Quiet Homecoming."

This was one of the few moments across her two lives where she thought she was being pretty funny.

Too bad the people of the interstellar age wouldn't get the joke.

Back in the dorm, Lin Xiao and Liu Zheng introduced Natata to the room—which was hardly worth introducing. One of them had a habitual smile, the other a habitual poker face. It looked awkward, but the contrast was kind of charming.

Natata gave them a genuine smile, just as Xu Lingqu pushed the door open and walked in.

"Xu Lingqu." She suddenly stood up and called Xu Lingqu's name, making her freeze in place mid-step.

"...Did you need something?" Xu Lingqu asked.

Natata realized how abrupt her actions were and quickly waved her hands. "No, no, it's nothing. I just... got excited for a second."

She'd heard Lin Xiao tell her all about Xu Lingqu's exploits over the past half month, and her admiration and fondness for Xu Lingqu had soared even higher.

In those stories, Natata felt Xu Lingqu seemed like a bamboo stalk—unyielding as it grows, and when forged into a weapon, sharp yet carrying a faint fragrance.

"Mm." Seeing that nothing was wrong, Xu Lingqu went back to her usual routine: washing up and going to bed on time. As she took off her combat jacket, something occurred to her, and she turned to look at Natata. "Are you all going to train with us from now on?"

Natata shook her head. "Our instructor said we focus on classes, with physical assessments as a supplement. We live with you all, but our training isn't together."

"That's nice," Lin Xiao said with heartfelt envy. She thought back to her earlier feelings about the mech engineer students—first envy, then relief that she hadn't been sent to the mines, and now it had come full circle. Turns out envy was still the right call.

They were the only non-combat students who escaped Kai Ang's clutches.

Watching Xu Lingqu wash up, the other three followed suit and got ready for bed. This trial period had cured Lin Xiao of her old habit of staying up late.

She now had a severe fear of sleep deprivation and treasured every second in her blankets.

When lights-out came, Liu Zheng got out of bed to flick the switch, but before doing so, she walked over to Xu Lingqu's bed.

"The day for precision shooting training is coming soon," Liu Zheng said, still holding onto the memory of Xu Lingqu's claim that she'd crush her in her strongest discipline.

Xu Lingqu was thinking that she'd been dwelling on Earth memories a lot today, and she yawned as she replied, "Always ready."