New Roommate

Rosen looked back and saw a white man standing silently behind him.

"You're looking at her, aren't you?"

The man took a step forward, standing beside Rosen. He was slightly taller than Rosen, with blond hair and blue eyes, a standard European appearance.

Although his tone was loud and his voice sounded young, his face was a bit aged, especially with several deep wrinkles etched into his forehead.

This convinced Rosen he was German.

There were many foreigners at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, even more than locals, so Rosen didn't pay him much mind.

"Her?" Rosen turned back, responding somewhat coldly.

"That's right, Kunlun, the one you've been staring at."

"Do you Westerners always see Jaegers as female?"

"It's just because most pilots are men," the white man teased with a smile.

Rosen, however, was in no mood to laugh heartily. He merely pulled at the corners of his mouth in a fake smile and turned to leave.

Before Rosen had walked a few steps, the white man's voice reached him again, as expected.

"Aren't you going to take one last look at her?"

Rosen froze at the words, then stopped. The voice continued.

"My name is Mike Kane, a Jaeger test pilot at the Hong Kong base. You're Rosen, right? In three days, I'll be conducting the final test on Kunlun. If her Synaptic Link system truly has problems, she'll be transferred to the Anchorage base in the US for processing."

Rosen didn't turn around. He merely tilted his head up slightly and asked, "Why should a Chinese Jaeger be handled by America?"

"You know, we already have too many Jaegers here, almost to the point of being overcrowded. This base only has six hangar bays," Mike replied. "Besides, almost all the technicians in the entire base are busy with the R&D and modification of the 8th Generation Jaegers. Who else would care about a 7th Generation Jaeger? An old relic like that?"

When Mike said "old relic," Rosen's hands visibly trembled. However, the movement was so quick that Mike thought he'd imagined it.

"I heard you failed to activate her, but you were her pilot once, weren't you? I don't mean anything by it, I just hope you can come and watch the test in three days. I suspect she'll be dismantled and rebuilt once she's sent to America. By the time you see her again, she might not be called Kunlun anymore... maybe she'll be called the Philadelphia 76ers, or the Spurs... haha, you know, being a test pilot is a dangerous job, putting your life on the line. Compared to testing faulty Jaegers, I prefer basketball. Do you know the charm of basketball..."

Rosen's response seemed to have unlocked Mike's floodgates. Just as he was about to launch into a lively lecture on basketball, the other party appeared utterly uninterested.

"I don't like basketball," Rosen said, dousing Mike's enthusiasm with a splash of cold water.

"And... I'll never pilot a Jaeger again."

Rosen didn't even turn his head. He just kept walking, leaving everything behind.

"Hey! Old man, you can't just shake me off!"

Mike shouted stubbornly, but Rosen could no longer hear him...

Rosen's mood was utterly terrible.

It was a day of continuous misfortune. Not to mention the encroaching beast tide, Kunlun's fate also weighed heavily on Rosen's mind. He didn't even know what this feeling was.

Was it the joy of a burden lifted, or the shame of lifelong regret?

"What a joke... is this the result of my years of effort?"

He didn't stop to admire any scenery, instead heading straight into the reserve cadet living quarters.

The reserve cadet living quarters weren't much different from the official cadet quarters. They were generally square-shaped, with corridors crisscrossing throughout. The only difference was in one aspect—

The official cadet quarters had single rooms, while the reserve cadet quarters had double rooms.

"Room 2213..."

Rosen held his ID card, searching room by room. Before long, he found the right place.

Rosen wished more than anything that his assigned dorm room was still empty. That way, he could indulge in fiddling with his research materials without having to accommodate anyone else.

However... Rosen's hope was ultimately dashed.

This dorm room already had an owner. And there, his name was written on the mailbox slot to the right of the door.

Rosen glanced briefly, then immediately froze.

"...Mike..."

"Kane?"

Rosen blinked.

"Shit."

Today was an unlucky day, and countless more like it lay ahead.

"Hey, old man, are you really not going to say anything?"

This was Mike Kane's thirteenth question.

Over the past three hours, he had simply sat on the upper bunk of the bunk bed opposite Rosen, swinging his legs and chewing on the bread in his mouth.

This guy seemed excessively lazy. Apart from Rosen's bunk, the entire dorm room was cluttered with Mike's belongings, from cigarettes to magazines, from short-sleeved shirts to cotton-padded clothes. If there were some monster organs thrown in, Rosen would have thought he was back in Dr. Newton's laboratory.

"Don't be like that, I don't eat people."

Mike was still trying to strike up a conversation, but Rosen was just continuously tapping away at the keyboard in front of him with both hands, his eyes glued to the laptop screen, showing no interest in chatting at all.

"What a weird guy..."

Mike muttered to himself, but he didn't expect Rosen to suddenly close his laptop and look at him with a stern expression.

"What do you want to say?" Rosen spread his hands, adding, "I can have some necessary communication with you, but first, your feet-scratching hands can't touch any of my things, understand?"

"Oh... oh!" Mike hid his hands behind his back and nodded.

"So, your question." Rosen pinched the bridge of his nose, looking somewhat haggard, and asked.

"What exactly are you busy with?"

You wouldn't understand even if I told you, Rosen thought to himself, but seeing Mike's determined look, as if he wouldn't stop asking until he got an answer, Rosen just blurted out, "Jaegers."

"So the rumors are true? You're not just a Jaeger pilot, but also a Jaeger builder?"

Technically, I'm a researcher, not a builder, but Rosen had no intention of refuting it and nodded again.

However, Rosen didn't plan to remain passive. He took the initiative and asked back, "From what you're saying, you knew from the beginning that we'd be sharing a room?"

"N-no way."

"Hmph, is that so?"

Just as Rosen was about to press further, the outside suddenly became noisy. Among the shouts, the word "Kaiju" accurately reached Rosen's ears.

Rosen instinctively stood up and walked towards the door, while Mike quickly jumped off his bed and followed him.