The Legendary SSS-Class Mech

After reaching an agreement with Madam Gina, Xu Lingqu felt much more at ease.

The Military Department and Xu Youwen still needed a report to close the case, so Madam Gina fabricated a Psychic Power Level of B on the spot and hacked into the Military Department's system to upload it once again.

Watching her move through the Military Department's system with such ease, Xu Lingqu had the illusion that the system was practically Madam Gina's home.

A B-level psychic power was just enough to meet the B-level requirement for the command department of the military academy, allowing her to enter smoothly without arousing Catherine's or Xu Youwen's suspicion or wariness.

With the forged report successfully in place, Madam Gina had to return the testing equipment to Xu Youwen, so she left first.

Only then did Xu Lingqu finally let her guard down. The exhaustion from activating her psychic power spread through her entire body. She sat on the edge of the bed, silently watching the twilight cast through the window.

It was already evening.

Suddenly, the apocalyptic scene from the test flashed through her mind. The sensation of being pierced and scorched was so real; the little girl's screams and the roars of the mutant beasts still echoed in her ears.

She shook her head, trying to pull herself out of the vision that had inexplicably descended upon her again, only to find that the burning sensation was real—it was on her finger. The serpent-patterned ring was burning her like a red-hot brand.

Before she could take it off, a flash of light appeared. The ring didn't disappear; it remained on her hand, but a lump of something like a cotton ball materialized on the floor.

The cotton ball sprouted two ears and a pair of grape-like eyes. A Samoyed puppy revealed its true form and spoke to Xu Lingqu: "You're the second master Galaxy found for me."

Xu Lingqu wasn't sure which was more absurd—a ring turning into a dog, or a dog talking—but she was encountering both at the same time.

This was beyond the realm of interstellar science; this was pure fantasy.

Xu Lingqu crouched down, grabbed the dog by the scruff of its neck, and lifted it up. As she walked, she said, "I'm not a person who abuses animals, but since you're a talking dog, you'd better explain your origins clearly."

As she spoke, she coldly extended the dog out the window, scaring it so much it curled back into a cotton ball. "Damn it, Galaxy handed me over to a woman just as vicious as he was! Let me go!"

Its wails were of no use; Xu Lingqu remained unmoved.

Seeing this, the Samoyed had no choice but to introduce itself properly: "My name is Liu Ming, the most handsome and beautiful mech in the entire galaxy. My previous master was Yin He—he did pretty well for himself, at least he was an admiral. Now, can you let me go?"

Xu Lingqu's heart was harder than stone. "Then why do you look like a dog now?"

"It's this life form that Yin He, that bastard, gave me! My original body... I don't know where my original body went! I was always the ring on your hand—today, when your psychic power finally awakened, I managed to summon this life form!"

Xu Lingqu pulled her hand back, mostly because her arm was getting sore. Watching the self-proclaimed Liu Ming let out a sigh of relief, she continued her interrogation: "Then how do you prove what you're saying?"

Liu Ming's entire dog face froze. After thinking for a long while, he tilted his head: "Maybe you'd like to hear some embarrassing stories about that guy Yin He?"

The Galaxy Admiral was the idol Xu Xiqin had mentioned that day, and Xu Lingqu remembered she had even nodded along.

She opened her smart device and searched for the Admiral's biography: one of the founding marshals of the Empire, comrade and close friend of the founding emperor Caesar Ulysses, founder of Moye Military Academy, and pilot of one of the three S+-class mechs of that era—Liu Ming.

Xu Lingqu glanced at the Samoyed puppy, then at the smart device's simulated reconstruction of Liu Ming's mech form: a pure white mech that perfectly embodied mech aesthetics.

The Samoyed Liu Ming lay by her feet, grumbling indignantly: "Honestly, this simulation doesn't have a fraction of my original body's coolness!"

Such a legendary figure's last recorded trace was his mysterious disappearance at the age of thirty-five while piloting Liu Ming.

"So tell me, where did Yin He take you in the end?" Xu Lingqu asked.

The Samoyed Liu Ming wore a sorrowful expression. "He said he was going to kill himself."

Xu Lingqu was taken aback.

"That day, he seemed to be trying something at first. He shut me down, and most of the time he was operating manually. The last time I saw him, I didn't know where we were. He said to me that he had failed, and he was going to kill himself, and he wanted to see me one last time." The Samoyed face looked like it was about to cry. "No matter how I tried to persuade him, he wouldn't listen. He forcibly shut me down. When I woke up again, it was because you awakened me. I have no idea where he hid my original body, and I can't even react."

If she had to describe Liu Ming's current pitiful state, it was absolutely like a little abandoned dog. If everything he said was true, then the life form Yin He had created for him was perfectly suited to him.

"Alright." Xu Lingqu rubbed her tired brow, looking at the sobbing puppy Liu Ming. "So now you're..."

"You're my new master, so you have to take care of me," Liu Ming interrupted her, emphasizing, "Since Yin He left me to you, you have to treat me well. I'm an SSS-class mech, the strongest in the galaxy. Chen Dao and Chi Ren are no match for me."

Xu Lingqu thought about the serpent-patterned ring. It had indeed seemed out of place on the original Xu Lingqu; it didn't look like the kind of accessory she would buy. It was likely an heirloom left by her family. If that was the case, then following the timeline, it could indeed be connected to the founding Galaxy Admiral.

Its authenticity remained to be verified, but keeping a dog around wasn't too difficult.

After some deliberation, Xu Lingqu spoke: "I can keep you."

Liu Ming was eager to fling his entire body onto Xu Lingqu's lap, but the only thing holding back his impulse was the pride of an SSS-class mech.

"But the smart device says your level is S+, not?" She could try to use this dog as a temporary knowledge base.

Liu Ming sneered with one side of his dog mouth. "That's just the minimum level required to pilot us, what we advertise externally. Like your psychic power—from what I can sense, you're at the SS stage."

Recalling the giant white mech that had appeared in her mind earlier, Liu Ming's words seemed even more credible.

He really knew something. There would be plenty to pry out of him in the days to come.

Xu Lingqu patted his head with satisfaction. "Not bad. Do you need to eat anything? Or some other way to gain energy?" After all this commotion, she was hungry and needed to eat something.

"Roast chicken!" Liu Ming, watching Xu Lingqu walk away, shyly lowered his ears, thinking about the feeling of having his head patted just now.

This new master that Yin He had found for him wasn't so bad after all!