Jaeger

The Pilot Affairs Office was where the PPDC managed Jaeger pilot records. It was located on the second level. Shatterdome had not had such a department before, but as more and more teenagers volunteered to become Jaeger pilots, the PPDC had no choice but to establish a major new department to manage these troublesome brats.

Rosen was practically a regular there. This year alone, he had already visited three times.

As for why... every time he was demoted, he had to come here to update his records. Today was no exception.

Rosen simply walked on in silence, neither sorrowful nor pleased. Before long, the doors of the Pilot Affairs Office appeared before him.

The room was not large. The moment the people inside saw Rosen, they burst into laughter.

"See? What did I tell you? Our distinguished guest is back." The speaker was Zhang Delin, director of the Pilot Affairs Office, and he spoke with a standard Sichuan accent.

With one leg crossed over the other, he pointed at Rosen with a strange grin. Yet there was more helplessness than amusement in his laughter. "Why not just come work in the Pilot Affairs Office? Then you won't have to keep running back and forth."

Rosen was amused by him as well and managed to force out a faint smile.

But laughter aside, the paperwork still had to be done. Rosen received his new ID card, bearing several brand-new words—

Reserve Cadet ID Card, Holder: Rosen.

"I was thinking..." As he handed the card to Rosen, Zhang Delin spoke somewhat hesitantly. "In a little over half a month, it'll be time for the new cadet selection."

"I know." Rosen nodded with a grim expression. "By then, the reserve cadets from the previous batch who failed to qualify will be sent home."

"Aren't you nervous? Or do you not feel any sense of crisis? Though I suppose even if you don't become a pilot, you can still stay here as a researcher, right?" Zhang Delin pressed.

Rosen merely smiled noncommittally before asking in return, "It's not that I don't feel any sense of crisis. But Sync Rate isn't something that can be improved through effort alone, is it?"

The question left Zhang Delin speechless. Though he was not a pilot, he knew a little about such matters.

In his view, Sync Rate was a rather mysterious thing. It reflected the degree to which two minds were synchronized at a particular moment or under a particular state. Take the Rollie Couple back then—their Synaptic Link Sync Rate had once reached 100% at its peak, yet as time passed, they could no longer return to that level.

Moreover, with the birth of the 6th Generation Jaeger, universal Synaptic Links had become a relic of history. In the history of Human-Kaiju Synaptic Links, Rosen's 92% was already an exceptionally terrifying figure. After all, a Human-Kaiju Synaptic Link was essentially a Self-Synaptic Link, and under normal circumstances, the person humans understood least was themselves.

To claw his way back to the top, Rosen had naturally made tremendous efforts. Hypnosis, meditation, relaxing trips, memory reviews, even praying to gods and seeking divinations—anything related to the mind, whether he should have tried it or not, Rosen had tried it all.

Yet in the end, he discovered that his mental state was perfectly normal, without any sign of psychological deficiency. Still, his Sync Rate fell instead of rising. The repeated failures in simulation made Rosen believe that God was playing a cruel joke on him.

"Well... then there's nothing to be done. I can only wish you luck."

After thinking for a while, Zhang Delin could only salute Rosen.

Rosen returned the salute, then turned and left the office without hesitation.

After Rosen's back disappeared from sight, Zhang Delin sighed regretfully. "He really is one unlucky fellow. In just one year, he's been demoted four times already, hasn't he?"

Zhang Delin could not help recalling what had happened before...

The first time Rosen came, his face had looked like a frostbitten eggplant, while he himself had become a walking bomb. Whoever dared speak to him was bound to be cursed out for half the night.

The second time Rosen came, he had been smiling. His face was plastered with the kind of foolish grin that made people's hearts ache, and his "heh heh heh" had lasted for an entire week.

The third time was much like now. He had been almost expressionless, as if his heart were still water, leaving no one able to guess what he was thinking.

"...Hm?"

Lost in thought, Zhang Delin suddenly froze.

Then the corners of his mouth lifted, and he smiled with some relief.

"But that kid seems to have matured because of it. Rosen two years ago was an insufferable, arrogant brat... Maybe this past year hasn't been entirely bad for him... Hopefully."

After leaving the Pilot Affairs Office, Rosen headed straight for the dormitories. Today, he was supposed to move from the formal cadet residential area to the reserve cadet residential area. Although the two districts did not seem far apart on the map, in Shatterdome—where the first level was a hundred meters high and every level after that nearly thirty meters high—even a tiny corner on the map was enormous in reality.

Fortunately, Rosen did not have much to move. Aside from a diary, several research documents still in progress, and some spare clothes, he had little else to take.

In the end, he left alone, as though he had never been there at all.

The two residential areas were separated by an aerial corridor. Beyond the transparent glass on either side lay the Jaeger maintenance zone connecting Levels 1, 2, and 3. Those steel giants, each standing as high as 140 meters, stood rigidly beyond the glass like rows of soldiers undergoing inspection. Countless maintenance workers hung from cables against the Jaegers, conducting routine inspections on the colossal machines. The scene was bustling.

As Rosen passed through the corridor and instinctively turned to look, he recognized at a glance the seventh-generation Jaeger in the first position on his left. It was the heavy Jaeger—Huangshan. At that moment, more than twenty workers were gathered on the platform by Huangshan's left arm, cleaning its Particle Cannon. The sight was like a group of oversized ants clustered around a human hand.

Huangshan and Kunlun were of the same class and entered service in the same batch. Its name came from the Chinese Jaeger Naming Convention, under the provision: "7th Generation Heavy Jaegers shall uniformly be named after mountain ranges."

As for 7th Generation Light Jaegers, they used the names of medium and large cities—for example, Anshan, Luoyang, Changchun, and so on.

Not many 6th Generation Jaegers remained in active service, with only Poyang and Dongting left.

China's three 8th Generation Jaegers, meanwhile, all used provincial names—Shandong, Shanghai, and BJ.

Huangshan and Kunlun looked very similar. They possessed the same power core, and their weapons systems were largely identical. However, Kunlun had Achilles shock absorbers installed around its ankles, greatly improving its mobility, while Huangshan had powerful ground-gripping spikes installed around its ankles to strengthen its defense in frontal combat. Each had its own strengths.

"Standing beside Huangshan is the seventh-generation heavy Jaeger—Taihang. Next is the seventh-generation heavy Jaeger—Changbai."

Rosen could not help stopping. Standing before the glass partition, he stretched out a hand and pointed out the massive machines one by one...

But before Rosen had pointed out more than a few, his hand froze in midair.

"How could this be..."

Following his finger, the figure that had haunted his thoughts for nearly a year appeared at the end of his gaze.

"No... impossible. Wasn't it sealed away?"

The brand-new giant Jaeger stood there silently. Although its head was covered in canvas, the silver paint beneath it and the bright red letters on its chest displayed its identity to the world at every moment.

J35IX—

"Kunlun?"

Though he had yet to make out the red letters clearly, Rosen blurted it out instinctively.

Rosen narrowed his eyes. He leaned forward slightly and tried hard to identify it—yes, it was Kunlun.

Just as Rosen's mind fell into rare confusion, an abrupt voice suddenly rang out behind him.

"What? Do you like her?"

The voice awakened his temporarily muddled thoughts, and Rosen immediately returned to reality.