Hope

"I hope you're not lying to me..."

Rosen warned in a low voice as he opened the door, while Mike stood behind him with a smile that said, "You'd be right to believe me."

To maintain secrecy, Rosen had brought Mike to his laboratory.

This was absolutely unprecedented – besides Dr. Newton and Dr. Hermann, no one had ever entered Rosen's laboratory before.

Mike had visited the lab a few times in previous years. In his memory, laboratories were exclusive domains for science fanatics, filled with chalk dust, lab coats, and conical flasks. Rosen, who seemed like an eccentric character, surely had a laboratory that surpassed any he had seen before.

However, when Rosen opened the door and Mike peeked inside, he was stunned—

Rosen's laboratory was indeed filled with things, but they weren't monster samples or research equipment—they were all books!

Piles and piles of thick books.

In the center of the laboratory was a desk and two chairs. On the desk were a computer and a lamp. Besides that, there were bookshelves surrounding the desk, neatly housing thousands of books!

There were books of all kinds, from history to natural sciences, from physics to genetics. They were all meticulously organized in their proper places.

Rosen naturally led the way through this ocean of books, while Mike instinctively tread carefully, afraid of disturbing anything.

"Sit."

Arriving at the central desk, Rosen pulled out a chair and gestured.

There was only one chair. Mike intended to decline, but seeing Rosen's solemn expression, he felt a little guilty and finally sat down obediently.

"Wait a moment, I'll get another stool."

Rosen turned and left. Mike remained alone in this sea of knowledge, feeling quite out of place.

He was a terrible student; he preferred basketball and video games. Clearly, Mike's attention immediately shifted to the computer.

The computer was still on. Mike couldn't help but move the mouse, and the screen lit up.

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

The screen displayed the official forum for the Hong Kong Shatterdome. It was mainly used to post information about Kaiju, and some pilots also engaged in constructive discussions there. Mike knew this because two years ago, a few skilled individuals had frequented the forum. They enjoyed instructing other pilots on Jaeger knowledge. Although these experts were arrogant and even used profanity, there was no denying that many people benefited greatly.

However, not long after, those experts disappeared, and Mike stopped paying attention to the forum. To this day, Mike didn't know if those figures who dominated the forum were still at this base, or who they even were.

"Rosen follows this too?"

Driven by curiosity, Mike casually clicked on the forum. However, the posts were still uninteresting, filled with outdated information and topics, which made Mike feel a bit bored.

So, Mike decided to click on Rosen's personal space. He wanted to see what Rosen usually paid attention to, but he was surprised to find that Rosen's latest post was from a year ago.

And Rosen's ID... Mike felt it looked more and more familiar.

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

"And Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing," Rosen's voice suddenly appeared beside Mike's ear, startling him.

"Right, right!" But with Rosen's reminder, Mike suddenly remembered, "I remember now, it was these two guys!"

After saying that, Mike felt it was inappropriate. He thought for a moment and winked at Rosen: "One of them, could it be you?"

"Cough cough... To be precise..." Rosen coughed, his old face blushing, "It was both of me."

"WTF?"

Rosen recalled the foolish things he had done two years ago. At that time, he was still an incorrigible arrogant person. Relying on his background and talent, he looked down on almost all pilots except his mentors.

As for the discussions on the forum, he had initiated them all. He had even registered two accounts specifically for this purpose and engaged in such trivial activities...

It was utterly stupid.

Perhaps, the experiences of the past year were retribution for his past actions?

This was how Rosen could only describe it now.

"I didn't invite you here to talk about this." Rosen's heart quickly calmed down. He asked with a cold expression, "Tell me about Sync Rate. What do you know?"

Seeing that Rosen didn't want to dwell on the past, Mike wisely changed the subject.

"Hey, that's right, Sync Rate. Do you know about 'Noisy Max' from the Los Angeles base in the US?"

"Noisy Max?" Rosen thought for a moment, and the answer immediately popped into his mind, "That American 6th Generation Jaeger? I heard it once withstood the combined attack of two Kaiju and saved over a million lives in Los Angeles?"

"Yes, yes! That was me!" Mike's face broke into a wide smile. "You know what? That was me!"

"You? A Test Pilot?"

"Nonsense!" Seeing Rosen's doubt, Mike's face immediately turned grim, showing signs of an impending storm. "When I was fighting Kaiju on the West Coast of America, you were still learning addition and subtraction behind Beckett!"

Rosen hadn't expected Mike to be so agitated and began to size him up.

"Uh... I'm sorry, I misspoke. I just had some doubts." Rosen paused, slightly calming Mike's emotions before continuing, "Test Pilots usually don't have high Sync Rates, right?"

"That's right." Mike was still somewhat indignant. He glared at Rosen and spat out a few words, "I only have 70% now."

"70%? As far as I know, this value is only enough for test flights, far from enough for combat, let alone activating Noisy Max to resist two Kaiju."

"Of course, because my previous level was 89%, and it dropped to 70% the first time I piloted Max," Mike tapped the table, reminding him unhappily.

"So, your situation is the same as mine?"

"That's right."

Rosen was a little stunned upon hearing Mike's reply.

He knew that the Sync Rate of pilots could fluctuate, but at most, it would only vary within a 10% range.

His Sync Rate plummeted after piloting a Jaeger? This was the first time he'd heard of something like this happening to anyone other than himself.

"But!" Mike added, "Although my Sync Rate decreased statistically, I didn't feel any difference in my thoughts when piloting Noisy Max. That's why I was able to pilot Max at a 70% Sync Rate for a whole year. I only ended up here after Max was destroyed."

This statement instantly enlightened Rosen.

Right, the Sync Rate is just a number, at best, Rosen thought.

The reason for fluctuations in data, besides variables... there were also parameters.

What if the reason for the Sync Rate drop wasn't because of him, but because of Kunlun?

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

"When I first piloted Max, I experienced a bit of an anomaly too. The Synaptic Link server short-circuited due to overload, and it almost electrocuted me," Mike said, curling his lips.

"Electrocuted???" Rosen suddenly remembered the scene when he first piloted Kunlun. "So... that's why I fainted? Such a simple reason, and I..."

Rosen's eyes widened, and he slumped back into his seat.

However, Rosen had gotten what he wanted from this conversation.

"Then, I need to pilot Kunlun again to confirm," Rosen said, regaining his composure.

"Yes," Mike replied.

"So you sought me out because you knew I needed your help."

"That's right."

It's so easy dealing with smart people, Mike thought.

Of course, Rosen on the other side thought the same thing.

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

"I know you were originally a genius, and you build Jaegers. Once you recover your peak, it shouldn't be difficult to recommend a pilot or two, right? I don't want to be a Test Pilot anymore, it's that simple."

Upon hearing Mike's condition, Rosen said without even thinking, "Deal."

Both of them stood up from their chairs, looked at each other, and shook hands warmly.

Even though Mike's hand hadn't been washed after he'd picked his nose, Rosen no longer cared, because a sliver of hope had ignited in his heart.

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