The Tried-and-True Plot-No One Can Pilot It

The mecha, which appeared even larger than the George's Shield, landed on the ground, kicking up dust and Sand and Stone. However, just when the audience thought that the new mecha was about to show its power, the screen froze.

No, it wasn't a lag, but a silence. Both of the enemy's two mechs and the new one were locked in an eerie silence. Only the gradually dissipating smoke and the billowing smoke rising in the distance proved that the scene was still in motion.

The silence didn't last long. Although the two pilots from Purple Light Company preferred to wait for reinforcements to arrive when faced with this unfamiliar machine, they decided to launch a probing attack first, considering that the enemy might be unconscious due to the previous crash.

With a fairly ample ammunition capacity, the Phantom Pain opened the magazine, but instead of firing all at once, it adjusted the firing sequence and then pressed the trigger.

Rockets were launched in succession, but they exploded on their own just before making contact with the aircraft. Amidst the smoke and fire, a distorted visual effect made everyone realize what had happened.

"It's a deflection shield. This mech seems to be equipped with a high-power deflection shield, or in battlefield mech terms, a D-shield. But just like in the game, this thing consumes a lot of energy, so even though it can be kept on all the time, people usually only manually activate it when facing targeted attacks. But with Mr. George's piloting skills, there shouldn't be any need to activate the shield to tank this kind of attack, right? Could it be that he can't control this mech?"

At this point, Victor seemed to realize that some people wouldn't understand, and immediately explained:

"As we all know, master-slave mechs are not made too big due to the accuracy of bilateral feedback and the burden on the pilot. Although they are much larger than the normal four or five-meter full-coverage exoskeleton, they are at most no more than ten meters. At this moment, the mech that has fallen from the sky is estimated to be more than twelve meters tall."

"Don't underestimate the height of this extra floor. Anyone with even a slight understanding of mechs should understand the difficulty of operating them. However, considering Mr. George's exaggerated fighting style before, I don't doubt whether he can control such a behemoth. On the other hand, I'm more worried about whether Mr. George suffered any injuries during the previous crash... Oh, wait a minute..."

Victor was taking advantage of the brief silence while the mech was catching up, was explaining the basics of the mech to the audience when suddenly he paused. At the same time, a split screen appeared on the screen in front of him, which was the same size as the main screen. The main character on the screen was none other than George Augustus!

At this moment, there was a streak of bright red blood on the man's face, and a patch of styptic gel on his short brown hair had not yet completely dried. If one were to survey the cockpit, it would not be difficult to find a small dent with a few bloodstains on the roof, which could explain a lot of things.

However, Augustus had already secured himself to the driver's seat, seemed unaffected by his injuries. His hands moved with a flurry of afterimages, and as he typed, lines of code appeared on the screen.

"This is the live broadcast perspective provided by Konstantin Company. According to the information they provided, this machine is a semi-finished product of Seventh Generation Unit under development. In terms of hardware, it has reached the level of Seventh Generation Unit, but there are still many problems to be solved in terms of software... However, Mr. George seems to be very confident, which is why he replaced the special George's Shield that was originally to be delivered with this Prototype Unit."

Victor looked at the information that Konstantin Company had just sent him and casually pasted a copy onto the split screen. For such a high-profile live broadcast, Constantine, a veteran arms dealer, would naturally not miss the opportunity to advertise.

Watching George frantically typing out strings of code with his hands moving like afterimages on the screen, Victor immediately explained to the puzzled viewers in the chat:

"The concept of Seventh Generation Unit is actually somewhat counterintuitive. Its creation even predates that of a sixth-generation fighter jet. As Konstantin Company's data states, this aircraft's performance has reached the level of Seventh Generation Unit. In other words, most high-end manufacturers already have their own Seventh Generation Unit designs."

"This design standard can even be traced back to the era when fifth-generation fighters were just becoming popular. Sixth-generation fighters are just an intermediate concept. The reason why major Mecha Factory are now launching sixth-generation fighters is because the performance of Seventh Generation Unit is too high, causing pilots to be unable to fully utilize the performance of the mecha. However, the performance of the cybernetic modifications that limit the performance to a normal level can be utilized to 70% of the level, which is the current sixth-generation fighter."

"However, even if Augustus's physical abilities are sufficient to control this ferocious beast, he cannot activate it immediately. As mentioned before, since no pilot has ever driven it before, there is no way to collect piloting data. Using an unsuitable sixth-generation machine OS might not be as effective as a fifth-generation machine. Therefore, Mr. Augustus is probably currently writing a temporary OS."

What Victor revealed wasn't exactly a secret, but for viewers who only watched the Mecha Combat for entertainment or as a game, it was quite novel and little-known trivia.

At the same time, they also realized that the machine George was piloting was a monster that even soldiers equipped with oversized military cybernetic bodies could not pilot.

Can he really drive it?

Or, to put it another way, is it really possible to complete an operating system that requires extensive data sampling and test drives in a short period of time?

But just then, a line of colored, designated comments suddenly popped up, and the VIP account from Constantine's Design Department directly refuted Victor's words—

[This isn't a temporary OS; it's a test OS, a configuration for the machine to collect and use data. Generally, the machine has a template; it's simply inputting its own system data.]

"He's going to use this thing to fly Seventh Generation Unit? Doesn't that mean giving up fire control, shock absorption, propulsion assistance, balance calibration... and a whole host of other functions? What's left then?"

Seemingly feeling his presence was somewhat understated, Yelo looked at the professional's assessment and let out an incredulous exclamation, while his partner, Mr. Victor, responded accordingly—

"Full-body combat function... Have you ever seen a cybernetic boxing match?"

"Damn, isn't that a full-body exoskeleton...?"

A more genuine expression of shock appeared on Yelo's face, while Victor nodded expressionlessly.

"Yes, to be precise, it's a full-body exoskeleton that uses Seventh Generation Unit armor and weighs nearly twenty tons, or you can call it by another name."

At this point, Victor looked at George Augustus, and silently uttered a single word—

"Wrestling Simulator (another name for the First Generation Mecha)."

There should be another chapter after midnight. By the way, it seems like it's turning into a mecha anime/manga series as I'm writing. Hmm, I'll reflect on that. I unconsciously crammed in some mecha/manga outlines I wrote before. It's a bit of a waste not to use the mecha designs I've already written. But the mecha/manga/manga plot is pretty much done...