A Girl and a Mech

The Eagle Nebula, Planet Tellas.

Year 14 of the Apocalypse, Gan Kingdom, Zhenhai City.

Third Defense Line, main position: Xuanse Cangqiong.

"Will it work, won't it work, will it work, won't it work..."

A white-haired, red-eyed girl sat on the edge of her bed, wearing a silver utility jacket as she tossed darts one by one at a scoreboard.

"It'll work!"

When the thirteenth dart hit the bullseye, the girl cheered out of nowhere, swinging her long legs back and forth.

Knock, knock, knock!

Someone rapped on the door.

"Bai Ying, General Chen wants you in the control room."

"Coming, coming!"

Bai Ying sprang lightly off the bed, grabbed a handful of candy and stuffed it in her pocket, then eagerly dashed out the door.

Two minutes later, Bai Ying was losing her temper in the control room again.

"Didn't you say I passed the test? Why still won't you let me pilot a mech!" Bai Ying grabbed the general by the collar, glaring fiercely at him. "If you won't send me to the battlefield, then don't keep me trapped in this iron cage!"

No one dared step in to stop Bai Ying's rude behavior. She was beautiful, but hot-tempered and strong; everyone usually steered clear of her.

Besides, General Chen had recruited Bai Ying personally. Her status in Xuanse Cangqiong was self-evident.

A few bold young men had tried to get close to her, only to be beaten black and blue in the ring.

"You passed the combat test, but your synchronization rate with Xingtian is too low. You can't even fully control the mech. Taking it into battle would be suicide."

General Chen showed no reaction to Bai Ying's rudeness. He simply and casually lifted her hand from his collar.

"Bullshit! If I can't control the mech, why did I get an A on my evaluation? And the antique you gave me is a first-generation mech. If the sync rate is low, don't blame me—blame the mech!"

Bai Ying pointed at Xingtian, scarred from head to toe behind the glass. Her eyes were full of disgust and resentment.

Neither of them knew that the seemingly powered-down Xingtian mech was actually in low-power hibernation.

"Keep arguing! Argue as much as you like! Just don't let that girl pilot the mech!"

Yu Xiao's audio system picked up every word of their conversation.

That's right, he had transmigrated into a world where technology had soared, but humanity faced imminent annihilation.

And he had become every man's dream: a fifty-meter-tall giant mech weighing eight thousand tons, equipped with wrist-mounted blades, twin heavy cannons on its back, and rocket thrusters.

He'd read stories about people transmigrating into snakes, dragons, and sword spirits in his previous life. He'd heard plenty about piloting mechs, too. But becoming a mech for someone else to pilot still felt a little too futuristic to Yu Xiao.

He could hardly bear to imagine two sweaty men fighting monsters inside him. It made him feel a little "mechanically" uncomfortable.

The good news was that the Xingtian mech he'd transmigrated into was a retired legend with a distinguished record, and its cockpit had just one control seat. Yu Xiao didn't have to worry about being taken to the battlefield and torn apart by monsters.

The bad news was that the war had been going poorly lately. Humanity was steadily losing ground, and Xingtian had been hauled out to serve as a training mech. Its pilot was a neurotic girl with an extremely aggressive fighting style.

In dozens of simulated training sessions, Bai Ying never once considered Xingtian's performance limits or endurance.

When firing, she made a point of overheating the gun barrel. She used the rocket thrusters for every movement, and relied on brute force to push through damage in close combat.

Mechs weren't supposed to feel pain, but the first-generation synchronization system was terribly outdated. To strengthen the link between pilot and mech, they had to synchronize their nervous systems. That made Yu Xiao experience what was known as "phantom pain" in battle.

Even stranger, whenever Bai Ying synchronized with him, he could sense a faint hatred she felt toward Xingtian!

But how could anyone hold such a grudge against a mech?

Even if Xingtian had done something to offend her, she should be blaming its pilot!

Maybe the mech was simply too old and its sensors too unreliable. Unable to make sense of it, Yu Xiao set the question aside for now.

After all, there was something more urgent to worry about.

After every training session, Xingtian had to undergo lengthy repairs. Yu Xiao was convinced that if things kept going this way, he'd end up scrapped at the base sooner or later!

But what could he do?

Xingtian wasn't equipped with an AI, so he had no way to communicate with Bai Ying. Whenever his body got damaged, he wished he could pop up fifty warning windows to alert her, but Bai Ying never paid them any attention.

"Sigh, that girl really doesn't take care of it at all. Xingtian has historical significance, for crying out loud. How can she treat it so roughly?"

"She is General Chen's... uh, personally tested recruit, after all! Whether we like her or not, she's the only one at this base who can pilot Xingtian."

"She's a genius, but why is her personality so awful? She's the complete opposite of the general..."

"The energy conversion rate of Xingtian's reactor keeps dropping. It'll probably go into permanent hibernation after the next training session, then get sent to the Silent Graveyard to be dismantled and recycled."

"Can't be helped. Instead of spending money patching up an old mech, we might as well use it to build a new one. Manufacturing technology is pretty mature now, so the costs won't be all that different."

Two maintenance workers stood on Xingtian's shoulder armor, their voices full of regret.

What?

Dismantled and recycled!?

I've served my country! I've shed blood for humanity... well, coolant! You can't dismantle me! I want to go to a museum! I want to go on a world tour!

Yu Xiao wasn't sure whether he'd still be conscious after being dismantled, but he absolutely couldn't take that risk!

His life was on the line. He had to figure something out before Bai Ying wrecked him!

"Wait, did you hear something?"

A tremor came from beneath the two maintenance workers' feet.

"The reactor! The reactor's shaking! Get back to the maintenance platform!"

In the control room, the people still arguing or watching the scene realized something was wrong. They all turned toward the hangar.

Bzzzt!

A red beam suddenly shone against the control room's glass. It was the light from the giant eye on Xingtian's head!

"What's going on? Why did Xingtian suddenly power up? Did the maintenance crew do this?" The commander immediately grabbed his radio to ask.

"Xingtian powered up on its own. We don't know if there's a problem with the hibernation system!" The voice on the other end sounded nervous, too.

At that moment, only Yu Xiao knew the truth: he'd "overloaded his mech-brain." Whenever he thought about something too complicated, Xingtian's power consumption rose.

He'd always hidden it by waiting until the mech was powered up for maintenance or training before thinking about such things. But when he'd just heard that he was about to be dismantled, he admitted he'd panicked.

So, should he shut down and pretend he'd just short-circuited?

Just as Yu Xiao was wondering whether he should put on an act, his radar detection system suddenly sounded an alert. Several red dots were approaching Xuanse Cangqiong at high speed.

Wait, did I really short-circuit?

The next second, a deafening alarm blared throughout the entire base!

"Warning! Incoming energy attack detected! Evacuate personnel immediately and proceed to the nearest shelter!"

At the same time, Yu Xiao's radar screen filled with red dots. There were so many, it looked like someone had spilled a sack of rice!

Suddenly, several blue fireballs smashed through the hangar ceiling and shot straight toward the people in the control room!

At the critical moment, Xingtian suddenly thrust out an arm and slammed the fireballs against the wall!

Blue slime seeped through the gaps between the fingers of its alloy hand, sending up clouds of white steam.

"How did Xingtian move on its own..."

Before anyone could ask, hurried footsteps sounded outside the command room.

"Report, General! The front line on Sun-Moon Island just sent word that the giant beast Leviathan fired a barrage of unknown energy attacks toward the stratosphere. Based on their trajectory, they're heading for Zhenhai City!" A communications officer rushed into the control room, gasping as he relayed the latest information to General Chen.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

More than a hundred cannons around the base opened fire at the sky. Their deafening roar briefly drowned out the alarm.

"Everyone, go to Level One battle stations immediately! All noncombat personnel, take the stairs to the underground bomb shelter!" The attack had come without warning, but General Chen swiftly issued his orders. "Notify Zhenhai City to cut off all nonessential power and turn the energy towers up to maximum output. Direct it all to the shield!"

"General!" Just after the orders were given, a soldier stumbled into the room, his face filled with terror. "Those... those energy beings! They're all monsters! Type-Two monsters and Aggregate Beasts!"

"Deploy the ground troops and pull the formation back inside the wall. Have them work in squads with the armored units to clear out the Type-Two monsters!" General Chen's expression darkened. He turned to the communications officer. "How's the battle at the front? Do we have any spare mechs we can bring back? We need mechs to deal with the Aggregate Beasts."

"Report, General! The Crimson Hurricane and the Raider are already on their way back! They'll need half an hour!"

"Then hold out at all costs!"

Rumble!

Countless fireballs streaked through the sky, trailing blue flames as they surged toward Xuanse Cangqiong like a meteor shower.

The dense anti-aircraft barrage kept blowing them apart into chunks of flesh, but plenty still made it to the ground. Monsters burst out of their shells, roaring as they hunted every living thing!

Type-Two monsters were about five meters tall. Compared with the giant beasts that could reach dozens of meters, they could be killed by ground troops and heavy weapons without deploying mechs.

Aggregate Beasts were different. They were formed when a group of special Type-Two monsters fused together, and could evolve into thirty-meter sub-giant beasts in just seconds. The most troublesome part was that they didn't appear in their combined form from the start.

Time passed second by second. The cannons outside the hangar never stopped firing, while people in the command room kept relaying information and issuing the general's latest orders.

Bai Ying was kept behind. She'd changed into a black, form-fitting combat suit and taken her place at Xingtian's controls.

Outside the mech, dozens of thick cables and a swarm of maintenance drones were doing everything they could to bring it into peak condition.

Bai Ying was the only person at the base who could pilot a mech, and Xingtian was the only mech left at the base.

It had been ten years since Xingtian last saw combat.

The girl and the mech were an unstable last line of defense, but General Chen had to gather every bit of fighting strength he could muster!

"Roar!"

A roar unlike any human's echoed outside the hangar. It was far too loud to have come from a Type-Two monster.

"Get down!"

As soon as General Chen spoke, the massive steel blast door was torn open. Red claws hooked into the metal wall, sending sparks flying.

An Aggregate Beast!

"How's the mech's maintenance coming?" Bai Ying stared at the crack in the door.

"The reactor's running at only sixty percent of peak output. The heavy cannons are loaded, the mobility joints are fine, and the rocket thrusters are fully fueled!" Even lying on the ground, the maintenance worker dutifully reported the current status. "The mech still needs ten minutes of auxiliary charging!"

Outside the hangar door, the Aggregate Beast frantically clawed at the opening, trying to squeeze inside.

Bai Ying suddenly smiled. Ignoring the maintenance worker's warning, she activated the neural synchronization link.

A few seconds later, Xingtian suddenly ripped through every cable attached to its body!

"Come on, old-timer. Show me how you became a legend back in the day!"