Chapter 113: Rabbit Mecha?
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Perhaps the learning space had tweaked Ling Lan to become more boyish in personality, for her interest towards mecha was at an unprecedented high. She not only looked over the controls of all three basic mecha, but also eyed all the basic mecha models greedily. She found that she really liked every single type of mecha she saw, so much so that she really wished that she could own all of them.
Sensing Ling Lan's greed, the soldier told Ling Lan steadily that all recruits were only allowed to choose one mecha to start. If she wanted to own more, she would have to rely on her own efforts to earn more points to redeem new mecha ...
The soldier's words caused Ling Lan to calm down instantly. She began to consider which type of mecha she should choose as her initiate mecha. Ling Lan was a little uneasy, afraid that she would choose wrongly.
Still, Ling Lan was a good child — she just loved to ask questions, a habit trained up in the learning space. So, she asked the soldier — as a beginner, which mecha was best suited for her?
In fact, the first person Ling Lan asked was Little Four, but unfortunately, Little Four also didn't know which of the three mecha before them was best or most appropriate for her. His familiarity with this world's mecha was not much better than Ling Lan's.
Ling Lan had no choice but to go to her second option and ask the soldier. Unexpectedly, Ling Lan really struck the nail on the head — the game's system had indeed arranged it so that the soldier would be able to answer this type of question. When the soldier heard Ling Lan's question, he gave a straight answer. "The mecha with the easiest controls, which are the easiest for beginners to learn, is the bestial mecha. I recommend you begin training from bestial mecha."
Since the soldier who was familiar with mecha had already said so, it shouldn't be wrong. Ling Lan immediately selected the bestial mecha without any hesitation. She had barely spoken when with a wave of the soldier's hand, a large spin wheel appeared abruptly before Ling Lan.
On the spin wheel, Ling Lan could see countless images of bestial mecha. There was a ferocious cheetah and lion, and an ugly spider and giant ant, and of course, right in the middle of the wheel was a large compass needle pointing at those images of bestial mecha.
"What is this?" Ling Lan stared at it all blankly. Then, shocked realisation stole over her face. "Could it be that obtaining a mecha also depends on luck?"
"A beginner's mecha is gifted by the system. So, a beginner has no right to choose the mecha. Which mecha model they get will be determined randomly by this spin wheel," explained the soldier. "Luck, is also a form of strength. You should anticipate your luck and hope it brings you a strong and powerful mecha!"
In Ling Lan's eyes, the soldier's current smile was filled with schadenfreude. Ling Lan didn't know what the other beginners felt during their first time here, but Ling Lan's teeth were currently aching from holding back her irritation. She really wished she could just send a punch flying, and blow that despicable smile off the other's face ...
Of course, Ling Lan could only think about it and not actually do it. After all, she still had to rely on the other to get her mecha. Ling Lan spun the spin wheel forcefully. The spin wheel spun frenetically, and then gradually slowed down as time went by. Finally, it got slower and slower, and just as it was about to stop on a panther-type mecha, the needle jumped unexpectedly.
Ling Lan hadn't even managed to take a good look at which mecha model the needle was pointing at when with a 'pop', confetti swirled through the air. Then, an extremely cute giant rabbit abruptly appeared before her.
Ling Lan was gobsmacked ... a rabbit? Why a rabbit?! Even an ugly spider or ant would be more fearsome than a rabbit!
With some difficulty, Ling Lan calmed herself down. Then, she saw the weapon in the rabbit's hands, and Ling Lan found herself utterly lost for words ... Dammit, this nonsense system! You're really shameless! Actually equipping a rabbit mecha with a carrot — do you really think this rabbit here is a real rabbit?!
Within the mind-space, however, Little Four had stars in his eyes. With his hands framing his face, he wriggled his butt and shouted, "Boss, this mecha is so pretty and cute! I like it!"
When the soldier saw the rabbit mecha appear, the smile on his face grew even wider. "Congratulations, recruit, on obtaining our Federation's newest rabbit mecha model." That said, he reached out a hand to pass a white item that resembled a remote control to Ling Lan.
Ling Lan took the item; it was obvious that this was the activation key of the rabbit mecha. She said sullenly, "If you don't congratulate me, I think I might be happier."
The soldier seemed oblivious to Ling Lan's sour mood. His expression suddenly turned grim, and he issued a command, "In that case, recruit, get into your mecha immediately. We'll begin training in the basic controls now."
"Yes!" Ling Lan stood at attention to receive the order, and then pressed a button on the remote key. The door to the cockpit on the belly of the rabbit mecha swung open. Ling Lan leapt up in one big stride, and then with several consecutive hops, she smoothly made her way into the cockpit. Lying down, she pressed the button once again and the cockpit door closed, turning the rabbit into a whole rabbit once again.
Ling Lan had just finished doing this when the soldier waved his hand, and the rabbit mecha with Ling Lan inside it disappeared from this login point. They reappeared in a room specially for training the basic movements, such as jumping and running.
At this moment, Ling Lan chose to activate the mecha. Of course, she chose regular activation — after approximately 3 minutes, the rabbit mecha completed its activation.
Just as Ling Lan was about to turn on all the screens, she noticed that a line of text had appeared on the main screen before her eyes. "Basic control instructions for the rabbit mecha ... "
Following these instructions, Ling Lan finally understood the functions of the buttons before her. She had initially thought there was no control stick, but in fact, there was. It's just that the control stick was located among a sea of buttons. Back when Ling Lan had been watching the demo operations, because she had been dazzled by the hand speed, she hadn't noticed it. As those fingers had flown over the control panel, the control stick was actually the item that was used most frequently.
"Who knew mecha controls are actually this complicated? In the past, when I watched the mecha fights, I thought it would be as simple as physical combat ... looks like I've underestimated mecha operators after all." Just trying to understand and remember the array of buttons before her, Ling Lan felt the onset of a minor headache.
"Relax, Boss. As long as the mecha's A.I. is evolved, it won't be as complicated to operate anymore." Little Four had been looking over the mecha's A.I. closely, considering how he could improve it to help his boss save some energy.
But Ling Lan stopped Little Four, saying, "Little Four, don't improve the mecha's A.I.."
Little Four was puzzled, "Why not?"
"I came here to learn, so I should do it like the other children and start from the basics. The instructors in the learning space and my dad all repeatedly stress the importance of the basics — I cannot just avoid them because I'm afraid of trouble," explained Ling Lan. "Besides, this is the virtual world. Not only is there systemic monitoring, there are also those dangerous figures with mutated spiritual selves. No one knows whether this area is being monitored; I don't wish for you to be in any danger."
Ling Lan's concerned words made Little Four unable to protest, so he could only nod obediently and promise not to do anything to help Ling Lan with this. However, as a result, Little Four wasn't in a very good mood, because he found that the areas where he could help his boss were really just too few.
Seeing this, Ling Lan quickly changed the topic. "Little Four, what do you think was the mecha type our dad used when he first started learning? If it was a bestial type, was the mecha he received also very silly?" The more Ling Lan talked about it, the more curious she was.
As expected, Little Four's attention was pulled away by Ling Lan, and he found he had something new to do. Excitedly, he told Ling Lan to wait for a moment, and he then scampered off to collect all the information he could find on Ling Xiao.
Although Ling Xiao's data was labelled as S-class, who was Little Four? He was a virtual god! There wasn't anything that couldn't be done as long as he wanted to do it — previously, it was just that he hadn't thought to collect Ling Xiao's data, which was why he didn't have any on him right now. But now that Boss had indicated interest, as his boss's follower, he would definitely satisfy his boss's curiosity.
Very quickly, Little Four returned. Face filled with excitement, he said, "Boss, Boss, do you know who our daddy is? Oh wow, he's just too incredible!"
Ling Lan's curiosity was instantly ignited by Little Four. After some thought, she said, "Dad's military rank is major general ... could it be that he's a special-class mecha operator?" Ling Lan vaguely remembered that Little Four had mentioned special-class mecha before; the associated operator rank should be special-class mecha operator, right?
Little Four shook a finger as he said proudly, "Nope! Mecha operators are not categorised that way." Following that, Little Four gave a breakdown on the levels of mecha operators in this world.
"Mecha operators are also called mecha warrior-masters. From the name alone, you can tell that there are two titles included. One is mecha warrior, while the other is mecha master. Operators of advanced mecha and below (inclusive of advanced mecha themselves), are collectively called mecha warriors, while those who operate special-class mecha and above are called mecha masters.
"Mecha warriors, are then further divided into trainee mecha warriors, junior mecha warriors, intermediate mecha warriors, and advanced mecha warriors. The corresponding mecha they pilot are trainee mecha, junior mecha, intermediate mecha, and advanced mecha.
"Meanwhile, mecha masters are divided into special-class mecha masters, ace mecha masters, imperial mecha masters, and god-class mecha masters. Special-class mecha masters and ace mecha masters both pilot special-class mecha, though an ace mecha master would have a higher level of control over their mecha. Imperial mecha masters pilot imperial mecha, while god-class mecha masters naturally operate the Federation's ultimate weapons, god-class mecha 1 .
"But this is just the military's internal categorization. For the public, the distinctions are not that discrete. All the mecha warriors and mecha masters are just called mecha operators.
"Generally speaking, imperial operators and above will not be deployed in cases of war. This is because these type of mecha operators are beings that can decide the outcome of a war. As such, each country has agreements binding them, which will not be broken unless under special circumstances.
"God-class operators are an even more fearsome and threatening existence. The Federation can possess such a vast expanse of land and distant boundaries all because the Federation has the highest number of god-class operators among the neighbouring countries ...
"Boss, now take a guess. Which level of operator does our dad belong to?" Little Four's brows and eyes were all scrunched up in a line from his exuberant smile; it was clear that he was in an excellent mood.
"Seeing you so happy, our dad must be pretty well ranked. Could it be that he had already become an ace operator?" Ling Lan thought back to her dad in the legacy mission — he was so unbelievably young; if he had really managed to achieve ace operator status, he would definitely already be among the best and brightest.
"No, no, no, that's wrong, that's wrong." Little Four glared at Ling Lan with contempt, somewhat miffed at Ling Lan for underestimating their dad ...