Proto Gundam RX78

Long Fei led Li Xiucheng to the hangar of the manufacturing plant, Li Xiucheng's face stern as he followed behind Long Fei.

Inside the hangar, besides Factory Director Simmons and relevant staff, there were several mercenaries in uniform black-and-white attire. Among them was an older middle-aged man in a beret and sunglasses—Mercenary Corps Leader Li Jiaming.

"Boss, good to see you." Everyone greeted Long Fei.

Long Fei nodded, looking at the completed RX78 Gundam. Its weapon loadout included a beam rifle, a rocket launcher, a shield, and two beam sabers mounted on the backpack.

"Director, get everything ready. I want to test this MS myself."

Long Fei changed into a space flight suit, climbed into the cockpit, manually tapped the keyboard, ran software checks, and began piloting the RX78 Gundam.

The RX78 Gundam swapped to a solid-ammunition rifle, stepped onto the launch catapult, which accelerated rapidly, and the Gundam flew out of the factory.

Long Fei piloted the RX78 Gundam toward the target zone.

The target zone had numerous special moving targets—some were mobile shooting targets, others were drones armed with solid-ammunition long rifles.

Long Fei gripped the controls, pressed buttons, and worked the pedals to attack. He fired while flying, hitting the targets. Wherever the bullseye was struck, cyan liquid splashed and adhered to the center. Every shot hit its mark—either dead center or close to it—and the struck mobile targets returned to base.

The drones also opened fire. Long Fei dodged by working the pedals and countered by pressing the fire button.

The drones that were hit had cyan liquid on their frames and automatically returned to the factory.

After a round of shooting and evasive testing, the result was that Long Fei's RX78 Gundam hadn't been hit once.

Next came evasive maneuvers. He charged into a dense asteroid field, focusing intently as he piloted the Gundam at full speed. Under his control, the Gundam flowed like water, effortlessly dodging the asteroids in its path.

In a workshop inside the factory, numerous staff sat at their stations, monitoring the data from Long Fei's Gundam piloting.

Each employee reported their data results.

On-site, Li Jiaming, Li Xiucheng, and the other mercenaries listened to the reports, stunned.

"No way—the boss can not only develop incredible things, but he's also this skilled at piloting an MS. That level of control is already ace pilot material. If word got out about his talent, how many people would die of jealousy?" one mercenary remarked with emotion.

Li Xiucheng couldn't believe his close friend had developed such an advanced MS. If this MS could be mass-produced, it would absolutely upend the main military equipment of every country in the world.

"Uncle, if my friend's MS here were released, would it cause a huge uproar?"

"Yes."

"Can this MS be mass-produced?"

"Probably not easily. I've already looked at the specs and hardware for this MS. Manufacturing it won't be simple, and maintenance would be very labor-intensive."

"Do you all know how much the boss spent just to build this single MS?" Simmons suddenly interjected.

Everyone answered that they didn't know.

"Building this MS cost five billion yuan, and that's not even counting the development expenses."

Everyone's mouths dropped open wide enough to hold an egg.

After a moment, they all came to terms with it. With performance that could surpass any currently known MS, the money invested had to be enormous. And even if it could be mass-produced, probably not many countries would be willing to buy it in large quantities.

Li Jiaming watched the Gundam's movements on the video feed with a serious expression.

After round after round of testing, Long Fei finally piloted the RX78 Gundam back to the factory.

Just then, two frigates arrived at the factory. Their flag emblem was a pair of black wings and a sword.

Naturally, that was the trademark of the Skywing Mercenary Corps. The trademark of Skywing Arms Manufacturing Company was a pair of white wings and a sword.

The two frigates had returned, having just completed a commission and come back to the company for resupply and rest.

The mercenaries who disembarked from the frigates saw the boss piloting the newly developed MS and curiously gathered around to watch.

"Wow, that's a cool-looking MS."

"The design looks a lot like the GM MS the boss developed over a year ago."

"Ever since the boss developed the GM MS, he decided to stop using fighters as our standard equipment and switched us all to MS combat."

"At first, I thought the boss was trying to get us killed, but after piloting the GM MS, I found its combat capability was excellent. There's no need for fighters at all. Sure, it's slower than a fighter, but in terms of maneuvering and evasion, it's way better. Especially in shooting—the accuracy is just superior."

"If you ask me, it's the OS system the boss developed that's outstanding. In fixed-point defense, it accurately shoots down incoming missiles, which has greatly improved our survival rate in combat."

The MS pilot mercenaries turned to look at the GM MS they usually piloted—a red-and-white MS, holding a rifle in its right hand, a shield in its left, a beam saber mounted above the backpack thrusters, and a cyan visor over its head's eye section, like wearing cyan sunglasses.

......

"Boss, what should we call this MS?" Simmons asked Long Fei.

"Gundam. Also called Gundam. Designation RX78. Call it the Origin."

Li Xiucheng asked, "Boss, you call this MS Gundam and name it the Origin—does that mean you'll develop subsequent models too?"

Long Fei nodded, answering Li Xiucheng's question.

Just then, a blonde professional beauty in a black business suit, with a curvaceous figure, arrived on the scene. She was the head of Skywing Arms Manufacturing Company—the company president, Sakaki.

Sakaki bowed to Long Fei and said, "Boss, I have something to report to you."

"Come to my office and report."

"Boss, I also have something to report to you." Li Jiaming quickly followed behind Long Fei.

When they reached Long Fei's office, the scanner at the door scanned them and automatically opened.

After entering the office, Long Fei sat down in his executive chair, while Sakchi and Li Jiaming stood side by side in front of the large desk.

A machine carried two chairs over and placed them behind the pair.

"Sit."

They both sat down.

"I'll have a lemon tea. What about you two?"

"Coffee."

"Black tea."

The machine complied at once, and soon a lemon tea was set before Long Fei, coffee in front of Li Jiaming, and black tea in front of Sakchi.

"Which of you will report to me first?"

The two exchanged a glance. Li Jiaming stepped forward to report first, handing a tablet to Long Fei.

Long Fei looked over the report on the tablet.

"Expanding to three times our current scale?"

"Yes, boss. We need to reach that scale to take on commission orders from various nations."

Although Long Fei's company was located within the sphere of influence of the Mika'ang Nation, it was actually situated at the very edge. The location bordered several nations—or rather, it overlapped with them, and could even be called a disputed zone.

Among these nations was the Hanxia Empire, the motherland where Long Fei was born, whose influence extended here. The most notable example was that several of the colonies in the area belonged to the Hanxia Empire.

That was why Li Xiucheng and his troops had once infiltrated this place to wipe out the pirate group active at the time.

Moreover, the Hanxia Empire didn't have just a few space colonies—it had at least twenty scattered across the cosmos.

It just so happened that a few of those colonies were located in this region, so their territory extended here as well.

Although the Mika'ang Nation was an independent country, it only possessed two colonies—a small and weak nation by any measure.