Faction Confirmed

Mwu sighed, then said to Xiao Ran, "Mr. Xiao Ran, your wisdom has already proven your value. And for Lieutenant Kira, your presence is indispensable as well. It is hard to believe that Kira, who had only just gone into formal combat for the second time, could hold his own against four Gundams with only the Archangel and Captain Mu providing support. He even unleashed astonishing combat ability and drove back the Duel Gundam—all because Mr. Xiao Ran had fallen unconscious from severe injuries."

Xiao Ran asked in surprise, "Hm? His second sortie? You mean the encounter battle on the way from Heliopolis to Artemis? Kira drove back the Duel Gundam? What about the Aegis Gundam?"

"That's right." Mwu nodded firmly. "Although the Aegis Gundam's actions were somewhat strange, there is no denying your influence on Lieutenant Kira, Mr. Xiao Ran."

"Unbelievable." Xiao Ran shook his head in shock, thinking, The effect of triggering SEED early was really this great? In the original plot, the Archangel had escaped only because of Mu's sneak attack and the energy shortages of the Aegis Gundam and the others. Athrun had even helped Kira at a crucial moment. But now Kira could actually unleash this kind of combat power? His rate of growth is far too terrifying.

Xiao Ran took a deep breath and calmed himself slightly. "Miss Lamias, you have told me so much. It would be too much if I still refused your request. However, I hope you can agree to one small condition of mine as well."

Mwu nodded. "Please, go ahead."

Xiao Ran spoke slowly. "Joining the Archangel is no problem, but I will only acknowledge myself as a member of the Archangel. I will not acknowledge myself as a member of the Earth Alliance. I have no favorable impression of the Earth Alliance—if anything, I dislike them even more than ZAFT. To be honest, the Archangel and its crew are the only things in the entire Earth Force that I hold any goodwill toward."

Mwu paused, then nodded. "That will not be a problem. The Archangel was originally organized as an independent unit, and under the current circumstances, we cannot contact the main forces anyway. Your status will be arranged the same as Lieutenant Kira and the others—as a specially enlisted soldier under the Archangel's regulations."

"Then thank you very much." Xiao Ran smiled. The Archangel had not yet defected from the Earth Force, so he did not know whether it would count as an independent faction. The reason he had said those words was to test whether simply becoming an official member of the Archangel would count as completing the mission.

"Mm." Mwu smiled at Xiao Ran. "Since you have joined the Archangel, continuing to call you Mr. Xiao Ran would be somewhat inappropriate. Given your abilities, the most I can assign you for now is the rank of sergeant. You will temporarily be responsible for bridge fire control and serve as a staff officer. Is that acceptable?"

"No problem, Captain." Xiao Ran smiled faintly.

"Ding. Main Mission Two: Within ten days, choose to join a faction in this world. Within one month, learn mecha operation technology and reach D-Class."

"The faction you have chosen: Earth Alliance Archangel member. Rank: Sergeant. Mecha operation technology: D-Class. Mission can be completed. Complete mission? Yes/No."

The sudden prompt made Xiao Ran smile inwardly, but he could not carefully inspect the text on his wristwatch in front of Mwu, so he put it aside for the moment. Still, he firmly committed the words "Earth Alliance Archangel" from the prompt to memory.

After Mwu informed Xiao Ran of the Archangel's recent arrangements, she told him to rest well and recover before leaving. Yet before she left, she gave Xiao Ran a deep look, her eyes seeming to carry a different sort of meaning. However, Xiao Ran's attention was entirely elsewhere, and he did not notice Mwu's expression at all. After seeing her out with a smile, he leaned back against the bed.

He opened the mission prompt in his wristwatch and read the words over and over again.

"Earth Alliance Archangel member, rank sergeant, mission completion can be freely chosen." Xiao Ran read it several times, and an unconscious smile appeared on his lips. "Though the words 'Earth Alliance' before Archangel make me a little unhappy, I had already expected that the current Archangel could not be considered an independent faction. As long as I can become a member of the Archangel, then becoming an Orb Archangel member or an independent Archangel member later is not impossible."

"Rank sergeant, the level of mecha piloting technology, and the freedom to choose whether to complete the mission... It seems Main Mission Two also has hidden rating rewards." Xiao Ran rubbed his chin, thinking, I just wonder what rating I'll receive if I complete the mission now with D-Class Piloting Skill and the rank of sergeant. Ten days to join a faction and one month to reach D-Class Piloting Skill, forty days in total. Subtracting the two days I spent unconscious, I have thirty-eight days. It seems I need to find a way to improve myself, whether it is my Piloting Skill or my current rank.

Having decided to improve himself before the mission deadline, Xiao Ran quickly thought of an excellent shortcut—announcing that he could pilot an MS and even fight with one.

Kira had not become a lieutenant merely because he was currently the Archangel's only person capable of piloting a Gundam. Among the entire Earth Alliance, MS pilots were as precious as pandas at this point. As specialized talents, they all received high benefits and high ranks. Take Kira Yamato, for example—he became an Earth Force lieutenant during his second battle.

As for Xiao Ran, who now possessed Universal Mecha Piloting Technology, although it was only the lowest D-Class, as long as he could operate an MS in battle, he would be a lieutenant. Of course, after the Earth Alliance began mass-producing MS, such treatment would only be available to Enhanced Humans of the Earth Force and genuinely outstanding individuals.

"So, if the hidden rating for Main Mission Two is related to Piloting Skill and rank, then it should be an implicit benefit granted to participants who join the Earth Force. But if the timing of mission completion is wrong, then that implicit benefit might as well not exist."

Naturally, Xiao Ran had inferred all this from the rating that appeared after completing Main Mission One, the sergeant rank shown in the mission prompt, the ability to complete the mission voluntarily, and the plot itself. Based on the plot, Xiao Ran had reason to believe that if joining the Earth Alliance could grant hidden evaluation benefits, then the difficulty of Main Mission Three would naturally rise dramatically in the end.

It was highly likely to be a situation where they would have to rely on meager military strength—only a few, or perhaps a dozen or so MS—or where over half the participants had chosen the Earth Force, resulting in a corresponding increase in MS numbers as they fought against the other faction camps. After considering this, Xiao Ran could almost determine the location of Main Mission Three.

Xiao Ran pondered, "If nothing unexpected happens, Main Mission Three should take place when ZAFT attacks Alaska. In the entire main storyline of Gundam SEED, before the Earth Force mass-produced MS and narrowed the gap with ZAFT, only that battle involved all sides and increased the difficulty for Earth Force participants who had received hidden benefits. Only then would it make sense for Earth Force participants to obtain those hidden benefits."

Once he understood all this, Xiao Ran felt as though he had cast off a heavy burden. Although he could not be completely certain that Main Mission Three would unfold as he imagined, it could not be too far off.

Free of worries, Xiao Ran recuperated in peace for several days. Each day, he chatted with Kira and the others, or went to the bridge to learn about fire control and so on. The injuries on his body gradually healed almost completely. At least from the outside, no one could tell that Xiao Ran had suffered severe injuries not long ago.

As time passed, the day they would reach Junius 7 drew closer and closer. Xiao Ran's heart was filled with anticipation—he looked forward to Kira and Lacus's first meeting, and he also looked forward to meeting Lacus himself. He was quite interested in that songstress, who inspired both praise and criticism.

Other than those things, Xiao Ran spent most of his time in the maintenance crew's hangar. Inside the hangar were training devices that had originally belonged to the Gundams' former pilots, used to train Gundam operation. But after those people had died and the Gundams were stolen, the equipment had been left unattended. Only after Xiao Ran appeared did it see the light of day again from within its sealed crates.

At first, Xiao Ran was the only one in a corner, familiarizing himself with his D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill. After more than a dozen virtual battles, Xiao Ran gained a basic understanding of his current level. It was roughly equivalent to an ordinary ZAFT green uniform in the Virtual Machine, and in Xiao Ran's view, that was nothing more than grunt-level ability.

After serving as squad leader multiple times, Xiao Ran suddenly discovered that new information had appeared beneath each of his two skills.

D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill: Can normally operate D-Class mecha. Proficiency 7/100. (Upgradeable)

Space Combat Proficiency: LV1, D-Class skill. Allows slightly proficient combat in space and grants an initial sense of spatial awareness in space. Proficiency 4/100. (Upgradeable)

The appearance of the two proficiency values gave Xiao Ran quite a pleasant surprise. Anyone who had played games knew that increasing proficiency either enhanced a skill's power or allowed it to level up once it was full. In short, it meant becoming stronger. In Xiao Ran's eyes, a mere hundred points of proficiency was no problem at all. In just three to five days, his proficiency had increased by seven points and four points, and that was only while operating a virtual training machine. What if he trained with a real machine instead?

"Then proficiency would probably rise even faster. During combat, it might even increase explosively, right?" Such a thought popped into Xiao Ran's mind, and afterward, he spent even more time on the virtual training machine.

During the simulations, Xiao Ran had tried terrain such as land, air, space, and more. After several days, he indeed discovered that the level he could display in space combat was nearly one-third higher than in other terrain. These figures were all automatically calculated by the computer after every battle.

For example, Accuracy Rate, evasion rate, effective operations, and other data. Xiao Ran had also tried deploying in the Strike Gundam within the virtual training machine, but what left him helpless was that he could only bring out eighty percent of the Strike Gundam's Theoretical Performance in space terrain. In other terrain, he could only bring out sixty-five percent.

The primary reason was naturally that Xiao Ran's physical attributes were still clearly too low. The second was that D-Class Piloting Skill could no longer fully control the Strike Gundam, which clearly belonged to the C-class mecha category.

As for Kira, Xiao Ran learned from data collected from the maintenance crew that he could bring out one hundred percent of the Strike Gundam's Theoretical Performance regardless of equipment. At his peak, he could even reach one hundred and twenty percent—almost the Strike Gundam's full actual performance.

The maintenance crew was therefore quite helpless about the matter. After the first few battles, they would conduct comprehensive inspections and maintenance on the Strike Gundam. They even made rough enhancement modifications to certain parts of it. Sergeant Maddox had already complained to Mwu about this many times, though in the end, he could only complain.

One day, Xiao Ran was operating a Ginn in the virtual training machine. After using weapon fire to suppress his enemy, he executed a high-speed turn, closed in, and swung his weapon. As flames burst across the monitor, a round of applause sounded behind him.

A somewhat frivolous voice reached his ears just as Xiao Ran turned his head. "I never expected that you, a teacher, could pilot an MS too."