This Galaxy Gained Some Unidentified People

Today's training officially began.

The instructor first gave a detailed rundown of the key points and precautions, then paired everyone up for duels to reinforce what they'd learned.

The pairs were chosen randomly by the system.

This batch of trainees had an odd number of people, so when paired up, one person was left over. That leftover would have to spar with the instructor.

Lucky for her, Tu Ran was that one person.

Standing face-to-face with the instructor, Tu Ran planted her blade on the ground and bowed her head politely. "Instructor, please enlighten me."

The instructor had chosen the same weapon as hers—a large cleaver.

Once selected, a dark-red blade materialized out of thin air, settling steadily into his grip.

"I reviewed your training records this morning. Your progress is remarkable."

The instructor looked at Tu Ran, his voice as cold as ever. "Chief Ye told me about the agreement between you and her. Once you're acclimated to the mecha, you'll be heading to the front lines. She hopes I can teach you more during this period." He paused. "Though if you ask me, you don't need me to teach you anything."

Tu Ran replied graciously, "Without you, Instructor, I wouldn't have learned this fast. You deserve credit too."

The instructor paid her flattery no mind. He knew full well he and Tu Ran weren't on the same level; her path ahead was far broader than anything he could reach as an instructor. "Consider me your sparring partner, then. Fighting an evenly matched opponent is the fastest way to gain experience."

He raised his blade, settling into a defensive stance. "Begin."

Tu Ran nodded gravely, lifted her weapon, and lunged at him like lightning.

The two blades clashed with a violent ring, a numbing tremor racing up from the point of impact, making the mecha's arm tremble.

Tu Ran ignored it, pushing her mecha forward to drive the instructor's crimson blade into a corner.

The shrill screech of grinding metal radiated outward, and nearby trainees scrambled to cover their ears inside their cockpits.

Neither side gave ground.

Tu Ran abruptly withdrew her blade and retreated, then changed angles and lunged again, pouring even more strength into the strike.

This time, the instructor didn't meet it head-on. He sidestepped out of the way.

The blade cleaved through empty air.

Tu Ran used the momentum to pivot and slash horizontally. The instructor raised his blade in a vertical block, and the two weapons collided once more.

Golden sparks flew from where the red blades met.

Tu Ran withdrew her sword again, changed direction, and swung at the instructor's red mecha.

Her force was immense, and she seemed tireless, attacking from every possible angle, one strike after another. The crisp clang of colliding blades rang across the entire plain.

The instructor was a true instructor after all; the mecha had become second nature to him. His movements synced perfectly with the machine, not a single frame of delay, and he caught every one of Tu Ran's moves before she even finished throwing them.

And that was exactly what Tu Ran needed to work on.

She could pilot a mecha through high-difficulty maneuvers, even fight with one, and do it well. But her natural speed advantage was constrained by the machine itself. To surpass that and reach the instructor's level was when she'd officially graduate.

Tu Ran's fingers flew across the control panel at a breakneck pace. She'd already memorized every function on the panel—no need to look down to know where her fingers needed to go. She pushed to shave off every millisecond of operation time, both hands working at once in a dizzying flurry.

If anyone could see her piloting from inside the cockpit at that moment, they'd never believe this level of mastery came from someone who'd only touched a mecha for a single day.

"Good. Faster again. Keep accelerating." Even while defending against her attacks, the instructor never stopped coaching. "Focus. Let your Mental Energy seep into every part of the mecha."

Tu Ran released her Mental Energy once more, linking her perception with the machine, and charged upward with her blade.

The mecha's speed had now drawn almost infinitely close to her own. The instructor began to show signs of losing ground, forced back step by step.

More than once, Tu Ran's blade struck his mecha, leaving crossed gashes across the red machine.

The more she fought, the fiercer she grew. Her hands moved faster and faster, until finally one strike slipped into the cockpit, twisted a few times, and the red mecha's energy light flickered twice before going dark.

She'd won.

Since this was a virtual setting, the mecha's light quickly came back on, and the scratches on its frame rapidly repaired themselves.

The instructor dismissed his virtual blade and looked at Tu Ran. "Log out of the virtual room. I'll take you to try a real mecha."

Tu Ran's heart leapt. A real mecha this soon?

She quickly pressed the exit button, the scene before her shifted, and she was back in the recliner.

As soon as the connection device rose, she hopped off the chair and left the simulation room.

The instructor happened to be emerging from the room next to hers as well.

He glanced at her, then turned and walked in a certain direction. Tu Ran hurried to follow.

They arrived at a massive door. The moment the two of them drew close, it slid inward automatically.

As the door slowly opened, the scene within unfolded before Tu Ran's eyes.

Giant mechas—gray, an entire row of them—stood in perfect formation, facing the door.

These mechas were nothing like the projections she'd seen before; they were about a third of the size, but standing before them, a person still couldn't help but feel how massive they were.

Next, under the instructor's guidance, Tu Ran climbed into a mecha and began actual operation.

Operating a real mecha drained Mental Energy for real.

She only had ten thousand points of Mental Energy—she had no idea if that would be enough.

Following what she'd learned in the virtual world, Tu Ran channeled her Mental Energy into the mecha and powered it up, moving it out of the hangar.

The feel was nearly identical to the virtual experience. She couldn't detect any difference.

The instructor piloted another mecha out as well, and the two of them walked to the open training ground to spar.

This time, it was a bare-handed match—no weapons.

Mechas were precious; they couldn't afford to damage them.

Tu Ran threw herself into the fight, practically bulldozing the instructor.

Once she'd conquered the speed barrier, she was untouchable. Even if Tang Ying showed up, she was confident she could put her on the ground again.

Behind the floor-to-ceiling window of the building, Ye Hongci stood with her hands clasped behind her back, watching the scene with a pleased expression.

Tang Ying stood just behind her, also gazing down at the two entwined figures in the empty training field, her eyes dim.

"At her current level, even a battle-hardened soldier might not measure up. In less than two days, she went from never having seen a mecha to overpowering her instructor. Ordinary people can't do that."

Ye Hongci's gaze remained fixed on the training ground below.

The room held only the two of them.

"I had someone pull up the surveillance footage of her first appearance in Sector 999. She didn't arrive via teleporter. Before she appeared, there was a transparent substance rippling at that spot, and the space itself warped. I studied footage from six different angles; four of them caught the spatial anomaly."

Tang Ying looked at Ye Hongci's back in disbelief. "You suspected her all along?"

Ye Hongci didn't answer. Her back to Tang Ying, her silhouette lonely, she was silent for a long time—long enough that Tang Ying thought she wouldn't speak again.

"Recently, the Haendeng Galaxy has gained some unidentified people, appearing suddenly in various places."

"Escaped from the Wasteland Star?"

Ye Hongci shook her head. "Another world. A world we've never heard of."

"That world has aberrant beasts too, but it's not the beasts trying to take over the human world—it's humans coveting the beasts' world. The beasts there aren't as strong as ours. You don't even need a mecha; a simple laser gun can eliminate most of them."

There was a trace of longing in Ye Hongci's voice. How she wished the aberrant beasts of the Haendeng Galaxy could be a little weaker.

"Tu Ran comes from that world?" Tang Ying ventured.

Ye Hongci nodded, turned from the window, and sat back at her desk. Something seemed to occur to her, and she suddenly chuckled softly.

Tang Ying looked at her, puzzled and stunned. The chief always wore a smile, but she rarely laughed out loud.

"Someone in there knows her," Ye Hongci said, shaking her head with a smile. "Or rather, everyone knows her."

Tang Ying was even more confused, unsure what she meant.

"Take a guess." Ye Hongci was in a rare good mood, smiling at Tang Ying.

"Is she a high-ranking military officer?" Tang Ying thought, drawing on the fact that Tu Ran knew martial arts.

Ye Hongci shook her head.

"A researcher with major inventions, then?" Tang Ying offered.

In her understanding—or at least in the Haendeng Galaxy—only those two types of people could be known by everyone.