Hope

"I hope you haven't been lying to me..."

Rosen lowered his head as he opened the door, his voice low with warning. Mike stood behind him, wearing a grin that said, "Just trust me."

For the sake of secrecy, Rosen had deliberately brought Mike to his own laboratory.

This was absolutely unprecedented—apart from Dr. Newton and Dr. Hermann, no one had ever entered Rosen's laboratory.

Mike had visited laboratories a few times in his earlier years. In his mind, they were the exclusive territory of science fanatics, places where chalk dust, lab coats, and strange things like conical flasks were everywhere. Rosen also looked like the sort of person with a peculiar temperament, so his laboratory was surely even more extreme than the ones Mike had seen before.

But when Rosen opened the door and Mike poked his head inside, he was instantly dumbfounded—

Rosen's laboratory was indeed piled high with things, but they were neither kaiju samples nor scientific equipment—they were all books!

Stacks upon stacks of thick books.

At the center of the laboratory stood a desk and chair. On the desk were a computer and a lamp. Apart from that, there were bookcases surrounding the desk, neatly packed with thousands of books!

There were books of every kind, from history to natural science, from physics to genetic biology, all methodically placed where they belonged.

Rosen naturally led the way through this ocean of books, while Mike instinctively stepped carefully around everything, afraid of disturbing a single thing.

"Sit."

When they reached the desk in the center, Rosen pulled out the chair and gestured.

There was only one chair. Mike had wanted to decline, but seeing Rosen's solemn expression, he felt a little uneasy and ultimately sat down obediently.

"Wait here. I'll get another stool."

Rosen turned and left, while Mike remained alone in this sea of knowledge, looking thoroughly uncomfortable.

He was terrible at studying. Compared to books, he preferred basketball and games. Naturally, Mike's attention quickly shifted to the computer.

The computer had not been turned off. Mike could not help moving the mouse, and the screen immediately lit up.

"This is... the Hong Kong Base Official Forum?"

The screen showed the official forum for the Hong Kong Shatterdome Base. It mainly posted information about kaiju, and some pilots also had friendly exchanges there. Mike knew about it because two years ago, several experts had appeared on the forum. They loved giving other pilots pointers on Jaegers. Though those experts were incredibly arrogant and even cursed nonstop, there was no denying that many people had benefited greatly from them.

But not long after, those experts vanished without a trace. Mike stopped paying attention to the forum as well. Even now, he had no idea whether those figures who had once dominated the forum were at this base, or who they really were.

"Rosen follows this too?"

Driven by curiosity, Mike casually browsed the forum. But the posts were still nothing interesting, filled with outdated information and stale topics that quickly bored him.

So Mike decided to open Rosen's account page. He wanted to see what Rosen usually followed, but he was surprised to find that Rosen's most recent post had been from a year ago.

And Rosen's username... the more Mike looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.

"Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han... and..."

"And Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing." Rosen's voice suddenly sounded beside Mike's ear, startling him into a shudder.

"Right, right, right!" With Rosen's reminder, Mike instantly remembered. "I remember now. It was those two guys!"

Only after saying it did Mike realize something was off. He thought for a moment, then blinked at Rosen. "One of them... wouldn't happen to be you, would it?"

"Cough, cough... To be precise..." Rosen coughed, his old face reddening. "Both of them were me."

"WTF?"

Rosen remembered the stupid things he had done two years ago. Back then, he had been an incurable egomaniac. Relying on his background and talent, he had looked down on nearly every pilot except his mentor.

As for all the turmoil on the forum, he had started it himself. He had even deliberately registered two accounts just to do such pointless things...

How utterly stupid.

Perhaps everything he had gone through this past year was retribution for what he had done before?

That was all Rosen could say now.

"I didn't invite you here to talk about that." Rosen quickly regained his composure and asked coldly, "Tell me what you know about Sync Rate."

Seeing that Rosen did not wish to discuss the past, Mike tactfully changed the subject.

"Yeah, that's right, Sync Rate. Have you heard of Noisy Max from the Los Angeles Base in America?"

"Noisy Max?" Rosen thought for a moment, and the answer immediately surfaced in his mind. "That American 6th Generation Jaeger? I heard it once held off the combined attack of two kaiju and saved millions of lives in Los Angeles?"

"That's right, that's him!" Mike's face instantly bloomed into a smile. "You know what? That was me!"

"You? A test pilot?"

"Bullshit!" Rosen's doubt made Mike's expression turn stormy at once, as if a violent tempest were about to descend. "When I was killing kaiju on the American West Coast, you were still behind Beckett learning addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division!"

Rosen had not expected Mike to become so agitated, and he began to reassess him.

"Uh... sorry, I misspoke. I was only a little doubtful." Rosen paused, calming Mike slightly before continuing. "Test pilots usually don't have high Sync Rates, do they?"

"That's right." Mike was still somewhat furious. He glared at Rosen and spat out a few words. "Mine is only 70% now."

"70%? As far as I know, that figure is only enough for test runs. It is nowhere near sufficient for combat, let alone activating Noisy Max to hold off two kaiju."

"Of course, because I used to be at 89%. And when I piloted Max for the first time, it dropped to 70%." Mike tapped the table, reminding him unhappily.

"So your situation is the same as mine?"

"That's right."

Hearing Mike's answer, Rosen was somewhat stunned.

He knew a pilot's Sync Rate could fluctuate, but it generally only varied repeatedly within a range of about 10%.

Sync Rate plummeting after piloting a Jaeger? Other than himself, this was the first time he had heard of such a thing.

"But!" Mike added, "Although my Sync Rate dropped on paper, when I piloted Noisy Max, I never felt that my thinking was any different from before. That was why I could pilot Max at 70% for an entire year. Only after Max was destroyed did I end up here."

That one sentence instantly enlightened Rosen.

That's right. Sync Rate was only a number at most, Rosen thought.

Besides variables... there were also parameters behind fluctuations in data.

What if the reason for the drop in Sync Rate did not come from me, but from Kunlun?

Just as Rosen was organizing his thoughts, Mike's next words further confirmed his idea.

"When I piloted Max for the first time, something strange happened too. The drift server short-circuited from overload and nearly electrocuted me unconscious." Mike curled his lip.

"Electrocuted unconscious???" Rosen suddenly recalled his first time piloting Kunlun. "So... that was why I passed out? Such a simple reason, and I actually..."

Rosen stared wide-eyed and slumped back into his seat.

Still, through this conversation, Rosen had obtained what he wanted.

"Then I need to board Kunlun once more and confirm it." Rosen came back to his senses and stated.

"Yes," Mike answered.

"So you came to me because you knew I needed your help."

"That's right."

Dealing with smart people really was easy, Mike thought.

Of course, Rosen was thinking the same thing on the other side.

"What do you want? Or rather, what can you get from me?"

"I know you used to be a genius, and you build Jaegers too. As long as you can return to your peak, recommending one or two pilots shouldn't be difficult, right? I don't want to be a test pilot anymore. It's that simple."

Hearing Mike's condition, Rosen agreed almost without thinking. "Deal."

The two rose from their chairs, smiled at each other, and shook hands warmly.

Although Mike still had not washed his hands after picking at his feet, Rosen no longer cared, because something called hope had ignited within his heart.

At this point, who would care how terrible their partner was?