Late afternoon in Mecha World, Grandsweep City. This city was a large city filled with missions. Right now, quite a few mecha were sprawled about relaxing at a wide plaza not too far from the city gates. There were also some who were standing around idly, resting with their eyes closed.
These mecha were mostly advanced mecha, though there was also a small number of lower mecha and intermediate mecha among them. Some of them had perhaps taken some time from their afternoon to come here and rest, but many more were here to look for comrades with aligned goals, or perhaps to wait to join any team preparing to complete missions but lacked members. This could be their chance to join a battle clan ...
That's right. This was the assembly ground of unaffiliated mecha operators. Without a battle clan, whenever they had free time, they would come here to try their luck, to see if they had any chance to join some battle clan. Even a temporary one would be better than not being part of any battle clan. To become stronger, joining a battle clan was a necessary choice. Upon successfully obtaining an advanced mecha, to become stronger, one would need venture into even tougher areas to complete the missions there, and all of this came with the prerequisite of having a battle clan — otherwise, you could not even accept these missions to begin with, and so would have no way of entering those treacherous areas.
As mentioned previously, not everyone would be able to join a battle clan, as establishing a battle clan was the special right belonging only to military academy cadets or army men. Thus, the number of unaffiliated mecha operators in Mecha World was immense.
In one corner of the plaza, a line of standard advanced mecha were seated in a row on the ground. They were all seated in the same position, their chins propped on their hands. Five mecha in the exact same stance stood out quite a bit — they were obviously part of the same mecha clan. This caused the other surrounding mecha to stare from the corner of their eyes, filled with envy; quite a number of mecha even semi-casually strolled by before them, hoping to attract the five mecha's attention.This was because three mecha were all that was needed to form a mecha squad, while six mecha could form a miniature battle clan. The unaffiliated mecha were all guessing whether the five mecha were looking for a final member before going for the mission to establish their battle clan. Regardless of whether they were or they weren't, as long as the possibility existed, all the unaffiliated mecha hoped that the final lucky one would be themselves.
Meanwhile, at this time, the private comms channel of the five mecha was extraordinarily lively.
"Ah ah ah, why isn't Boss here yet?" [Lingtian Combat]'s voice, that is, the hearty volume of Qi Long's throat, instantly drowned out the softer tones of the others' chatter.
"Boss said 1300 hours 1 . Right now, it's only 1247. There's still 13 minutes left. What are you impatient about?" As his sworn brother, Han Jijyun, who was called [Lingtian Abacus] in Mecha World, rebuked without mercy. When would this fellow be just a little more calm and composed like Boss? Only knowing how to fool outsiders with that earnest and sincere face of his.
"Can't you see I'm just excited?! We're about to make a battle clan now! I'm really looking forward to it, and we're going to have a few new people too!" At this point, Qi Long suddenly began to snicker.
This caused the faces of the others to spasm involuntarily. In particular, Li Shiyu's darkened expression emerged at the forefront of Luo Lang's mind. Once again, he could not help but lament silently for Li Shiyu. Who asked him to catch the eye of their boss ... this was his fate!
Luo Lang's mind began to replay that scene which had happened back at the Military Medical Research Centre ...********
Entirely shrouded in cold air, Ling Lan heaved Qi Long, who was typically loud and brash but was currently curled up into a miserable ball of pain, over a shoulder and charged aggressively towards the Military Medical Research Centre with Luo Lang and the others trailing behind her.
Luo Lang and the others actually did not know why Qi Long had suddenly fallen ill, but Boss Lan had said that it was time to seek out Li Shiyu. On the way, they learned of Boss Lan's objective for this excursion. He was planning to break the unspoken rule upheld all this time within the military academy — the rule which stated that the students of the Military Medical Research specialization were not to participate in any faction so they could maintain their neutrality.
Yes, Boss Lan, who was about to establish a battle clan ahead of time in Mecha World, was planning to bring the dux of the Military Medical Research specialization Li Shiyu into his clan. This seemingly impossible goal of Ling Lan's astounded Han Jijyun, Luo Lang, and the others. Yet, after their shock had faded, they were consumed with excitement. If Boss Lan actually succeeded, this would definitely be a grand feat! Only Boss Lan would dare to even think of something like this and actually do it ... In their minds, as long as Boss Lan wanted to do it, nothing was impossible.
It had to be said that Ling Lan's many grand achievements had filled Han Jijyun, Luo Lang, and the others' confidence in her to the brim. They believed that it was impossible for their Boss Lan to fail.
Ling Lan strode right up to the doors of the Military Medical Research Centre, and without any pause to think, she sent the door flying open with a forceful kick.
A loud crash rang out. This abrupt scene along with the sudden loud crash caused all the staff and students of the military medicine specialization to instantly cower down in fear. They had mistakenly assumed that the school was being attacked by an unidentified enemy.
Luo Lang and the others following behind Ling Lan looked at the rampaging Ling Lan before them, who looked like he had crawled out from the depths of hell, and their bodies trembled uncontrollably. Despite knowing that the wrath of their boss was faked, right then, they too were affected by the heavy aggression seeping out from their boss's body, cold sweat breaking out along their back.
In the Military Medical Research Centre, the only one still standing upright with a calm and fearless expression was their dux Li Shiyu. Expression stony, he stared at Ling Lan who had vandalised the doors of the centre and said through gritted teeth, "Ling Lan, are you insane? What do you take this place for?"
"Insane? You should rejoice that I'm not insane, just a little bit angry ... or else, I won't be able to guarantee what I'll do. Li Shiyu, I trusted you, but how have you repaid this trust of mine? Once, twice, my brothers have been presented with problems because of your treatment. Shouldn't you be giving me an explanation? Hm?" said Ling Lan coldly. Her icy gaze and these words instantly doused the rage in Li Shiyu's heart.
"What are you trying to say? What's happened this time?" said Li Shiyu with a slight frown, resigned. Right now, he rather regretted agreeing to rescue Ling Lan's brothers back then out of a moment of soft-hearted weakness. Now it seemed as if this punk had latched onto him — whenever anything happened to Ling Lan's brothers, the other just loved to come and trouble him. In spite of Ling Lan's extremely discourteous attitude, Li Shiyu did not lose his composure, still calmly asking Ling Lan about the situation.
A trace of approval flashed across Ling Lan's cool gaze. As a military doctor, one needed to be level-headed in extreme situations. Even when facing a teammate's doubts and critique, they must be able to calmly explain their thought process and the sequence of events. Only then would they be able to obtain their teammates' trust. Undoubtedly, Li Shiyu was doing this extremely well — as expected of a prodigy of military medicine. For him, expending all this time and effort was worth it.
Ling Lan tamped down on the approval in her heart, and continued to say with a frigid expression, "Setting aside Luo Lang's relapse, I would never have expected the same thing to happen to Qi Long after his recovery. Dux Li, you owe me an explanation." Her words had barely faded when Ling Lan came to stand before Li Shiyu, where she then set down the suffering Qi Long and indicated for Li Shiyu to take a look.
Ling Lan's words made Li Shiyu's fair face flush bright red instantly. This horrible junior actually doubted his treatment abilities again and again ... this was definitely an insult to his professionalism. No matter how calm and composed Li Shiyu was, he could not help but feel rage surging into his chest.
Even so, Li Shiyu was unable to refuse Qi Long treatment. As long as a patient was before him, as a military doctor, he needed to cast aside all personal enmity and save the patient to the best of his ability. He quickly stepped forward and gripped Qi Long's hand, feeling at his pulse point. And then, Li Shiyu's countenance shifted slightly once more — he had actually sensed the customary reaction from using the gene agent S-modification they had developed from the reading of Qi Long's pulse. Cold sweat instantly broke out all over Li Shiyu's body — could it be that the gene agent S-modification still retained some problematic side issues? But their previous trials had not revealed any sign of this sort of situation?
Li Shiyu was rather uncertain now. He immediately asked the staff to lay Qi Long into a healing pod and treated Qi Long with special restorative agents. Initially shivering uncontrollably from the pain, Qi Long's tortured expression began to ease slowly after 10 or so seconds of this treatment. It looked like the restorative agent was effective.
"I want to know. What medical agent did you give my brothers exactly? Why would such a situation occur?" Ling Lan saw Qi Long's condition turn for the better and the ice on her face thawed considerably. Her tone and demeanour when asking Li Shiyu this was clearly a little warmer.
Li Shiyu was silent for a moment before he answered, "Once his condition is better, I will conduct a comprehensive examination on him. Only at that time will I know what the true reason for this is."
That said, Li Shiyu no longer paid any attention to Ling Lan. He immediately contacted the few specialization instructors he worked with. When his instructors heard of Qi Long's reaction, they were instantly anxious, agreeing to come over immediately so they could study this unique case together.
Ling Lan heard Li Shiyu calling for his instructors to come study together, and despite being as calm as ever on the surface, her heart could not help but pound and feel ill at ease.
Little Four sensed Ling Lan's concern and immediately piped up to reassure her, "Boss, please don't worry. I have found all their data on the gene agent S-modification. After purifying and improving the gene agents daddy secretly brought us this time, the medical properties of the agents are definitely the same as their gene agent S-modification. They will never discover or suspect anything." While saying this, Little Four's tone was extremely proud. With regards to the purification of gene agents, there was absolutely no one who could beat him, Little Four.
Ling Lan relaxed with Little Four's assured guarantee. Frankly, even if she was still worried, it was too late to do anything about it now. The arrow had already been notched and the bow pulled taut, they could only fire the arrow. At this point, even if their scheme was seen through by the opponent, they could only grit their teeth and lie all the way.
Therefore, Ling Lan continued to stand there with a cold expression. Meanwhile, Luo Lang and the others were really unsure what was happening with Qi Long, so there was no expression other than worry on their faces. Li Shiyu, who had been silently observing them, felt fear creeping over him. Could it be that Qi Long's condition was real? Was it really the fault of their research centre?
Very soon, the instructors had all arrived. In the meantime, Qi Long's condition had improved considerably; he was no longer in the agonizing pain he had been in at the start. Subsequently, the instructors began to do all sorts of tests on Qi Long — those who drew blood, drew blood, while those who ran numbers, ran numbers. The reports were out very quickly. They discovered that all the reactions Qi Long were displaying were definitely in line with the customary reaction from injecting the gene agent S-modification.
This diagnosis caused their complexions to pale drastically. Could it be that this gene agent S-modification actually had a latency period and would trigger and break out every so often? This was undoubtedly a very serious latent issue, proving that their gene agent S-modification was greatly flawed.
