Having obtained the coordinates from Little Four, the Lingtian members changed their initial cautiousness and all began to move. This made those cadets who had chosen Defender view and God view to cry out in surprise.
"Unexpectedly, the Lingtian Mecha Clan has actually started to move." The first-years who had just entered the school and the second-years were all exhilarated at this development. Compared to the Leiting Mecha Clan, the first and second years liked the New Cadet Regiment turned Lingtian Mecha Clan better. The deeds of the New Cadet Regiment motivated these juniors to a large degree. So juniors too could fight back when they were oppressed and even obtain success.
In contrast to those joyful first and second years who were unable to control their emotions, the third-, fourth-, and fifth-year senior cadets were silently shaking their heads. They all felt that the members of Lingtian were still a little too inexperienced, actually acting blindly before figuring out the true situation.
Those cadets who had chosen God view were well aware that there were one or two Leiting members around the locations of the Lingtian members. If the Lingtian members accidentally entered the range of Leiting, they might really be taken by surprise and be attacked by the opponent. This scenario was extremely disadvantageous to the Lingtian people.
However, the performance of the Lingtian members after that left the senior cadets flabbergasted, because they found that the two or three mecha closest to one another were actually sprinting in unplanned unison towards the same spot. Of course, those who could notice this were all those who had chosen God view. Using their bird's eye view to analyse the situation, they knew that as long as these Lingtian members did not change course, they were sure to bump into each other eventually ...Of course, as there were Leiting mecha around their meeting point as well, Lingtian might already encounter these opponent mecha even before they met up with their teammates. After all, no one could be certain whether the Leiting people would unintentionally move to the spot they were converging towards.
"D*mn, is Lingtian cheating?" Those who witnessed this scene all exclaimed. They could not comprehend the situation — if they weren't cheating, how could the Lingtian Mecha Clan head in the same direction so accurately, two to three of them simultaneously at that?
Those cadets quickly submitted their suspicions to the mainframe, and the mainframe rapidly returned with a response. It turned out that the Lingtian battle team possessed a powerful piece of equipment which could pinpoint the coordinates of their own members and display it to all the members. This was why the Lingtian mecha battle team could respond so swiftly and move unerringly in the same direction.
Of course, this was the answer Little Four had supplied to the mainframe. After all, this was an open fight — some things needed to be given a proper explanation. Fortunately, Chang Xinyuan had already modified Ling Lan's mecha in advance, so Little Four used his own simulation methods to add this legendary heaven-defying equipment of Mecha World to this modified mecha. It was a member-locator that only powerful clans of star-rank 1 and above could equip.
"F*ck, the Lingtian Mecha Clan has prepared really well for this showdown!" Many old players of Mecha World had heard rumours of this equipment before, a legendary clan equipment that only super strong clans of star-rank and above had the right to equip. Rumour had it that it was extremely difficult to get one — not only were the tasks that needed to be done extremely complicated, it was impossible to complete this mission without a certain level of strength.
Who would have expected the newly established Lingtian Mecha Clan to be so lucky? Actually possessing such a nature-defying treasure. The senior cadets did not believe that Lingtian was capable of earning this equipment from a direct mission. It was far more likely for them to have obtained it by sheer overwhelming luck during a reward lottery draw for some random mission.
After completing a Mecha World mission, the methods of choosing a reward were all kinds of strange — it was not unheard of for some super lucky people to receive legendary equipment or weapons. Thus, the cadets did not suspect anything, only envious of Lingtian's tremendously great luck.It looked like this match would not be the one-sided fight they imagined! Right then, all the spectators changed their original opinion in silent unison. This shift in attitude stirred up the excitement of the senior cadets who had initially been forced into coming to spectate despite their lack of interest. They liked watching suspenseful fights, and not those kinds of boring fights where the outcome was already known before the fight even began.
Soon, the silence of the venue was broken by some of the spectating students. They actually could not help but cry out — it turned out that, on the way to its destination, the number seven mecha of the Lingtian battle team had very unfortunately stumbled upon the number nine Leiting mecha. However, as the distance between the two mecha was more than 3 kilometres (the maximum range of an advanced mecha's radar was 3 kilometres), they were both oblivious to the presence of the other.
Still, the spectators quickly found out under the mainframe's hinting that it would only take a few seconds for the two to get within 3 kilometres of each other. At that time, they would inevitably discover each other's presence.
'It looks like the exciting first match is about to come.' Those who had selected God view clenched their fists in excitement, thinking to themselves.
Sure enough, several seconds later, almost simultaneously, both mecha received warning alerts from their respective mecha's radars that an unidentified mecha had appeared around 3 kilometres from where they were.
Both operators chose to zoom in on the captured image of the other mecha, and when they saw that the other mecha was emitting the light sheen marking a different faction, they knew for certain that the other mecha was an enemy.
Lingtian No.7 did not decrease his speed — still travelling at high speed, he controlled the hands of his mecha to pull a quick draw from behind the mecha's shoulders. Then, with a beam gun in his left hand and a beam saber in his right, he was prepared for battle. Likewise, on the other end, Leiting mecha No.9 had also discovered the enemy and was making battle preparations of his own. Other than one standing still in place while the other was moving at high speed, both mecha's battle prep actions did not differ by much.
"Who'd have expected that the Lingtian Mecha Clan members could also react so quickly ..." From the time they each registered the presence of an unidentified mecha, to the time they confirmed whether the other was friend or foe, both combatants' reaction time was almost the same. This drew shocked exclamations from the spectating cadets once more — it was very unexpected that these relatively green Lingtian members were performing much better than they had imagined.
********
In one of the VIP rooms of the military academy, Tang Yu saw this scene and the light in his eyes brightened. He could not stop himself from turning on the communicator on his wrist to begin searching for the information on this Lingtian Mecha Clan number seven member.
The students might mistakenly believe that the reaction times of the two were roughly the same, but as an instructor, Tang Yu could see things much clearer. The Lingtian member was able to execute the same battle prep as the Leiting member who had been standing still while moving at high speed, and his actions were clean and efficient, with no sign at all of any delay and stiffness. Undoubtedly, the control skills of the Lingtian No.7 was definitely a bracket higher than that mecha operator of Leiting's. For a junior student to carry off this series of movements much more perfectly and swiftly than a senior, the mecha operation talent of this Lingtian No.7 was most certain to be at the level of a prodigy. Tang Yu could not help but be interested at the prospect of a promising student.
"Lingtian No.7; Name: Lin Zhong-qing. Status: Free Commoner. Age: 17. Physical skills: Advanced level Refinement stage 2 . Mecha Piloting Level: Advanced; Intermediate to Advanced advancement results, excellent!" Frankly, there was not a lot of info that could be obtained using this type of simple search — for truly detailed information, one would need to receive clearance to browse the restricted files of the military academy.
However, this simple information was already enough for Tang Yu. He could barely restrain his excitement as he commented, "It is really unexpected that, other than those five in the Lingtian Mecha Clan, there is still such an excellent member." Able to level up to advanced-class operator at age 17 and have his advancement results judged as 'excellent' by the Mecha World mainframe, this meant that the other's basic controls must be extremely solid. This would definitely be a great advantage to his future development. What surprised him the most was the other's status as free commoner. The average commoner's mecha piloting talent would not be that good — it looked like this was probably some form of genetic mutation.
This reminded Tang Yu of himself. Even though he was not a commoner but a citizen, which was a rank higher than commoner 3 , his success at becoming an elite ace could also be ascribed to genetic mutation. He had the sudden impulse to take Lin Zhong-qing as a student as well — he wanted to see if Lin Zhong-qing could become an ace operator like he had, perhaps even surpass him.
"You are willing to give up one of the other five?" asked the principal.
At his words, Tang Yu smiled wryly and sighed. Although he really wanted to, he could not give up any of those five he had chosen from the start. Those five children who were about to become his students were all very gifted in mecha piloting, not at all weaker than this Lin Zhong-qing and perhaps even better. "There are just too many prodigies with mecha piloting talent in this year. I wonder which mecha mentor he will choose?"
Tang Yu felt that such an excellent prodigy must be from the Mecha Piloting specialization. Furthermore, only those from the Mecha Piloting specialization could choose a mecha mentor at the start of their second year. The other specializations had to wait till the second semester of the academic year to begin their mecha study, and then, it would only be an elective for them. Thus, mecha mentors did not pay much attention to these students.
Curious, Tang Yu typed in the query to search for Lin Zhong-qing's mecha mentor on his communicator, but he received an unexpected response — unable to find any relevant answers. This shocked him, because he knew that all of the mentors for the students of the Mecha Piloting specialization had already been confirmed. He had originally wanted to find out who was the mentor of Lin Zhong-qing so he could advise that instructor to properly cultivate Lin Zhong-qing. After all, even he was tempted to teach this kind of prodigy; he would not want to see such a gifted child be ruined from a mentor's neglect.
"How can this be?" Tang Yu could not help doubting this answer. The principal suddenly thought of something and prompted Tang Yu, "Try checking what specialization the other is in."
The principal's suggestion made Tang Yu pause in mute shock for a moment, but he soon began to search for Lin Zhong-qing's specialization. The answer was revealed very quickly, and this answer left Tang Yu instantly dumbfounded as he stared blankly in disbelief at the words —— Mecha Logistics! This specialization which everyone thought only rubbish students would take up was an absolutely rubbish specialization on the outermost fringes of the First Men's Military Academy 4 .
The principal saw Tang Yu's stunned reaction and was instantly curious as well. He took a peek and was instantly dumbfounded as well. Such a talented genius in mecha piloting was actually a student specializing in Mecha Logistics ... this could not be true, right?! This made even the generally composed principal feel unsettled.
"I think, our First Men's Military Academy's method of assigning specializations is very flawed. Principal, you should really think of a good way to solve this issue," said Tang Yu, looking up with a grim expression.
Mind you, the application requirements for the Mecha Logistics specialization in terms of results and physical fitness had always been very low. Perhaps, this Lin Zhong-qing had been assigned to Mecha Logistics by the mainframe due to a problem with his results (because Mecha Logistics was really too horrible an option, almost no one would select it by choice, so the academy mainframe had no choice but to forcefully assign it to students based on results).
Furthermore, the Mecha Logistics specialization had very low requirements on mecha control skills as well; students need only pass. All of the mecha instructors were completely perfunctory in their teaching when it came to the Mecha Logistics students. It could be predicted that, if Lin Zhong-qing continued to remain in Mecha Logistics, his mecha piloting talent would definitely go to waste, and this was something he could not allow.
The principal nodded in agreement. He too was deeply grieved that such a prodigy of mecha piloting had been shunted into Mecha Logistics by mistake. "When this match ends, let's look for him and ask him about this. If he agrees, we can make an exception for him to transfer into the Mecha Piloting specialization ..." Since the administrators had collectively pleaded with him to make an exception previously to use his authority as principal to set this mecha fight as an open fight, then those people should have no reason to object if he used his power now to let one student transfer to a specialization better suited for him.
"If possible, I would like you, sir, to allow another exception. I want an additional student slot." Tang Yu was very satisfied with the principal's decision, and at this time, he also put forward this request earnestly.
The principal smiled wryly. "Even you cannot bear to see such talent go to waste and are willing to break convention, how can I refuse your request?"
With the principal's promise, Tang Yu could finally put aside his worries to focus his full attention on the incipient battle between Lingtian No.7 and Leiting No.9.
