Adjutant Qiao's departure made a subtle sneer tug at the corners of the senior colonel's lips, a trace of mockery flashing through his eyes. The general had already declared that this was an order, yet this Adjutant Qiao was being so obtuse — it looked like once they returned, Adjutant Qiao would probably be dismissed from service. The senior colonel walked over to the JMC's position and watched as the JMC carried out his guide duties and swiftly launched with the general inside. drew a trail of stars across the starry skies as it flew off in the direction of planet Newline. In just a few seconds, they could no longer see any sign of its figure ...
On the screen, all that remained was the dejected Adjutant Qiao.
"Sir, what do we do now?" As the person holding the highest rank after the general, he was originally supposed to be the true leader of the assessment team, so the other officers naturally turned to him for direction.
"What to do? Of course we will follow the general to planet Newline. Also, send a report to the Federation mainframe about planet Newline being in danger," ordered the senior colonel. They could not let the general fight solo; they needed the mainframe to deploy a strong fleet over to assist as soon as possible. Although the senior colonel had faith in the general, it was always good to play it a little safe.
The senior colonel's words were greeted with enthusiastic agreement by the other officers. Thus, the military ship swiftly sent a report off to the Federation mainframe, changing directions at the same time to follow after Ling Xiao's mecha, flying rapidly towards planet Newline ...********
After rapid marching for more than 10 minutes, Ling Lan and her group of about 100 New Cadet Regiment members finally arrived at the exclusive mecha storehouse of the First Men's Military Academy. The storehouse stored various mecha of different grades, to be used during the practical training of control skills of the cadets. Usually, these mecha would be sealed away in the storehouse and could not be easily accessed by the students.
"Boss, the storehouse doors have been broken open already. Someone has entered before us." Moving ahead of the others, Qi Long had led several others from Ling Lan's team to scout ahead. They were the first to make contact with the main doors of the mecha storehouse and had immediately noticed that the doors which should have been shut tight were actually unlatched and remained half-opened. Seeing this, Qi Long quickly ran back to where Ling Lan was to report this situation to her.
Ling Lan was taken aback by the news. Frowning, she thought, 'Could it be that someone had decided to do the same thing I was planning to do?'
This speculation of Ling Lan's was based on the fact that the mecha within the mecha storehouse were all trainee mecha for students and not proper battle mecha. The weapons equipped on these mecha were only the most basic types, which had a much lower damage output than true battle mecha. Generally, soldiers would not choose to use mecha from the academy storehouse to fight. Furthermore, all the academy instructors had their own personal mecha and so would not come to retrieve any mecha from here either. The only possible candidates remaining were the academy cadets.
Ling Lan could not help but become curious over the student who had come to the same conclusion she had. Who were they? If she could befriend them, Ling Lan would not mind getting to know the student whose mind had walked the same path as hers.
As she was unsure about the situation inside the storehouse and was afraid that their entry would cause the party before them to misunderstand, Ling Lan asked the team leaders to pass on the word — when they entered the storehouse, the team members were to maintain silence and make as little noise as possible.The storehouse doors were shoved wider by a few of them, and then the New Cadet Regiment began to slip inside in an orderly manner. The moment they entered the storehouse, they saw countless tall and formidable steel mecha standing before them. Everyone felt their heart rate pick up — they would soon be able to touch and use these great combat weapons.
Ling Lan glanced at the mecha right at the frontmost end of the storehouse and saw that they were all trainee mecha from the major three categories 1 . Besides the requisite cold weapon, trainee mecha were not equipped with any long-range firearm. Ling Lan decisively turned away from these mecha — trainee mecha were just going to be sitting ducks; using them on the battlefield was just asking to die. She motioned for the New Cadet Regiment members to follow her onwards.
Because she had investigated beforehand, Ling Lan was well aware what level the members of the New Cadet Regiment who followed her were at in terms of control skills in the virtual world. Those trainee mecha operators and lower mecha operators had already been removed by her; all who remained were intermediate mecha operators and above.
It wasn't that Ling Lan looked down on those lower level students, but the combat power of a lower mecha operator was just too weak in a real battle. The death rate for low-level mecha operators was as high as 80%. Even though the 20% who managed to survive were likely to become strong fighters in their own right, the key point was that they needed to survive first.
Ling Lan felt that unnecessary death should be avoided. It would be best to wait for these students' skills to advance further before letting them go out and fight. That way, more would survive and the future would be just as lovely.
Therefore, in order to ensure their safety, Ling Lan decisively removed those lower level mecha operators from her group, only keeping those members who were at the level of intermediate mecha operator and above. This was another reason why this New Cadet Regiment group had suddenly shrunk by over 200 people. Those mecha operators who were able to become intermediate mecha operators in such a short amount of time were all certain to be outstanding in terms of talent and heart. As long as these people were baptised by war, they were sure to grow even faster!
The mecha storehouse was pitch dark and silent. They could not see the figures of those who had entered before them. When the first person of their group stepped into the mecha storehouse, the sensor light turned on automatically. The initially dark mecha storehouse was instantly bathed in bright light.
Although this situation startled the mentally unprepared students, they remembered Boss Lan's instructions and did not utter any sounds of shock. After that, seeing how steady their schoolmates were, they very quickly regained their composure. In the vast mecha storehouse, only the orderly sound of the New Cadet Regiment's footsteps could be heard.
Ling Lan led the way at a clipped pace for about 3 minutes, skipping past all the lower mecha sections along the way, and soon, they had arrived at the intermediate mecha section. Finally seeing some mecha which had several more types of long-range and close-range weapons, Ling Lan halted in satisfaction.
"Schoolmates, those who have already achieved intermediate mecha warrior status in Mecha World, please choose a mecha you are familiar with." Glancing at the time on her communicator, she instructed, "Remember, you all only have ten minutes to get used to your mecha. Once time is up, you all will be led out by your respective team leaders. Overall, we return to that same idea — keep your calm when you sight an enemy. Be mindful of teamwork; don't rush into the fray on your own. Also, work hard to return and see me again alive!"
"Yes, Regiment Commander!" Ling Lan's words reverberated in the silence of the storehouse, stoking the excitement of the near 80 students, causing them to shout loudly in response 2 .
With a wave of Ling Lan's right hand, these people swiftly boarded the mecha they aimed for respectively. Those mecha were the ones they were endlessly familiar with inside Mecha World. Of course, the mecha in Mecha World and the actual machines were sure to have some differences, but it was overall largely the same. Familiarising themselves with these mecha was not a very difficult thing — this was also why Ling Lan had only allocated them 10 minutes to adjust.
Of course, no one was dumb enough to go and select an unfamiliar mecha. Everyone understood that even if there were mecha much better than the one they piloted, they still could not choose it now. They would only be able to bring out the full capabilities of a mecha they were familiar with, and whether they could do so would be the key determining whether they lived or died on the battlefield.
Students who could make it into the Central Scout Academy were originally already an outstanding bunch, and among them, those who could even consider going into the First Men's Military Academy were the most exceptional of the group. They did not lack rationality or composure, so they knew what they should do.
Watching as these people began busying themselves adjusting to the real world mecha, Ling Lan nodded silently. She turned her head to look at the remaining students by her side. There were only 35 left. Other than her team's own 7 members, there were 28 other members. Twenty-one of these were the team leaders of the various teams in the New Cadet Regiment.
As expected of those capable of being team leaders, they were all the most exceptional of the lot. Of the 27 teams within the New Cadet Regiment, only 6 team leaders were not yet at this level. Meanwhile, of the remaining 7 advanced mecha operators, 4 were members of Wu Jiong's team, which included Ye Xu, while the other 3 were from Li Yingjie's team. Without question, Wu Jiong's and Li Yingjie's team members were obviously stronger than those of the other teams.
Ling Lan mentally acknowledged the strength of Wu Jiong's and Li Yingjie's teams, but unbeknownst to her, in the eyes of the members of those two teams, Ling Lan's team was strong beyond understanding.
When they saw the seven people following closely behind Ling Lan as they walked over together to the advanced mecha section, their expressions could not help but shift, a trace of shock and awe appearing in their eyes. They were naturally astounded by the fact that all of the members of Ling Lan's team had actually managed to achieve advanced mecha warrior status. (At present, they still did not know about the three new members of Ling Lan's team, and so thought that Ling Lan's team still only consisted of the original six 3 .) At the same time, they were utterly convinced — sure enough, Boss Ling Lan was Boss Ling Lan. Even the members under him were strong beyond reason. It made sense if you think about it. Boss Ling Lan was already so strong — if a team member was too weak, what right did he have to follow Ling Lan?
Just like that, Ling Lan led the 35 students into the advanced mecha section. Two more minutes passed and Ling Lan quickly urged the remaining members to board their selected mecha. The time this group had to adjust to the real mecha was only 8 minutes. As they wanted to meet up again with the members at the intermediate mecha section, they could only take 2 minutes out of their allocated adjustment time. That said, those who had advanced to advanced mecha operator at this age were all the extremely talented prodigies of mecha control. Eight minutes for them to familiarise themselves with real mecha was definitely no problem at all.
After settling all of this, Ling Lan ordered Little Four to contact Wu Jiong and Li Yingjie to tell them which section to come to. He sent the exact coordinates of their location in the storehouse to the two, preventing them from wasting time. After all, they too needed some time to adjust to the mecha — each extra second of adjustment time meant an increase in the chances of survival.
Fortunately, the direction of the anti-air shelter was roughly the same as the mecha storehouse, just at a slightly different angle. As Wu Jiong and Li Yingjie had left ahead of this party, they were not slowed down by much. Based off their reply, they had just arrived at the storehouse. At their speed, they should catch up within three minutes.
Ling Lan calculated for a moment — with Wu Jiong's and Li Yingjie's skills, the remaining 5 minutes' time was sufficient for them to adjust to real advanced mecha. At this thought, she relaxed and gave her team a heads up. She was planning to go to a secret room Little Four had discovered. That room was deeper into the storehouse, in the innermost area of the advanced mecha section. From the outside, it looked like they were already at the end of the section, but in truth, there was a whole new world behind that wall.
