Ling Lan replied calmly, "Isn't this very simple?"
Ji Sheng turned around and teared up silently. Was his talent in mecha piloting so bad? He wasn't even as good as the quiet Lan Si.
Lan Si had been a quiet student in school and his results were always behind Ji Sheng, which was why the latter thought that his mecha piloting skill was slightly better than Lan Si. However, this was apparently just his imagination.
After a short period of preparation, Ling Lan's team went onto the battlefield. Their opponents were not very strong either, so the Mandora army let lower-leveled mecha operators like them fight, too.
Ling Lan had found out from Ji Sheng that intelligence entity mechas also needed time to become more powerful; even they could not advance straight into the level of ace mecha master after having just gained sentience. They needed to start from a lower mecha as well.Their practices came from the battlefield, too. Experiences on the battlefield would stimulate the intelligence entity to evolve and advance to an intermediate mecha operator. Afterward, the intelligence entity would go forth to become an advanced mecha warrior, a special-class operator, an ace mecha master, an intermediate mecha warrior… and ultimately, a god-class mecha master.
Of course, this was not how the Mandora star system's mecha operators named their ranks, but Ling Lan used the Federation's ranking system so that she could understand better.
The intermediate mechas controlled by intelligence entities were naturally stronger than the intermediate mecha warriors of the Mandora citizens. Hence, Mandora citizens had a higher casualty rate as compared to the intelligence entities. Ling Lan's team lost more than half their members during this mission. Only Ling Lan and Ji Sheng were left. If Ling Lan hadn't protected Ji Sheng secretly, he might also have been sacrificed.
After some reorganization, new members were added into Ling Lan's team and she became the team leader.
Months and years passed. Ling Lan continued her busy life, which consisted of fighting battles and changing team members. At the start, she had still wondered as to what her Instructor Number Three wanted to teach her through this illusion, but as the days went by, Ling Lan didn't have the time to think on it anymore—she needed to fight for many hours every day. In one of the missions, the battle had lasted for a few days. If Ling Lan hadn't had the habit of filling up her energy storage units, she would have died along with the other mecha operators.
A few years passed. Ling Lan almost felt that this was her real life and the life in the Federation was just her dream. Luckily, Ling Lan had been through much training in the learning space, so she kept her mind focused. This was just training.
The battle continued and the Mandora citizens started to gain the upper hand. Ji Sheng turned ever quieter as their team members continued to change and die, while the doubt in his eyes grew.When their team members died again, Ji Sheng couldn't control himself anymore and asked Ling Lan, "Why do we need to have this war? Why can't we just sit down and have a discussion? Our ancestors could embrace other races and create the harmonious and powerful Mandora country. Why can't we do it? Are we wrong, or did the intelligence entities change?"
Ling Lan didn't know how to reply to Ji Sheng. Wars occurred due to the thirst for power. The higher authorities in Mandora felt that their power was taken away by the intelligence entity, which was why they wanted to get it back. The intelligence entities didn't want to become slaves. They wanted freedom and equality; hence, they would never give up their power either. Since both parties couldn't reach a consensus, a war started. No one cared about what the Mandora citizens thought.
Ling Lan knew that she was biased towards the intelligence entities because of her relationship with Little Four and her instructors in the learning space. She didn't believe that the intelligence entities wanted to control the Mandora citizens and make them their slaves.
They reached their fifth year on the battlefield. After all the experiences they gained, they had advanced to become ace mecha masters.
However, their opponents grew stronger too; the intelligence entity army was also made up of ace mechas. The battles became fiercer and more dangerous. One time, due to a wrong prediction by the commanding officers of the army, the mecha division that Ling Lan was under ended up surrounded by three division of the opposing army.
Everyone felt despair, as their opponents outnumbered them three times. They fought for three whole days but no reinforcements came. In the end, almost everyone was sacrificed. Ling Lan was held back by three ace mechas and so she couldn't help Ji Sheng at all—he died before her eyes.
Ling Lan managed to escape from the three ace mechas, but upon her return to the Mandora base camp, she realized that her entire division was nearly annihilated; only less than 5,000 mecha operators came back when there had been close to a million elite mecha operators at the start. However, their sacrifice was not in vain, as they managed to destroy two of their opponents' divisions, while the last one had only two-thirds of their ace mechas left.
This battle had a huge impact on Ling Lan. In the past, she hadn't cared for the death of her team members. She would feel pity for them, but she was not sad. It was like playing a game, where the NPCs in the team died.
However, Ji Sheng was different. He had been with her ever since she entered this world. Ling Lan had started to treat Ji Sheng as her companion. Ling Lan had thought that she would be able to protect Ji Sheng before she found what she wanted and left this world. The reality, however, taught her a lesson—there were things that she too wasn't capable of doing.
"I'm not strong enough yet. If I were an imperial operator, I wouldn't have been held up by the three ace mechas and Ji Sheng wouldn't have died…" Ling Lan's heart ached as she clenched her fist and looked up at the vast sky. "Instructor Number Three, what do you want me to understand? If you want me to understand how small and weak I am, I've already understood it. Why am I still here?"
Ling Lan didn't like this war that was fought without knowing its purpose. She felt that she was merely a tool being used to kill people. It made her feel unimportant and she hated this feeling.
Unfortunately, Ling Lan didn't get the correct answer. She continued to stay in this world and fight as an ace mecha master.
