Is the Leg Useful?

Unlike standard sorties, although Xu De had experienced electromagnetic catapults on aircraft carriers in his past life, being launched in a humanoid Mobile Suit was a first; he felt more excitement than nerves.

While he had always loved fighter jets, what boy hadn't dreamed of piloting a giant robot?

Even though this wasn't a Zaku but a Ginn, and this wasn't a real battlefield but a simulator, it still made Xu De's heart leap with joy.

Right now, he felt like a bird that had just broken out of its shell, ready to soar freely in the sky for the first time.

The experience was novel.

However, amidst the excitement, Xu De did not forget his objective.

At this moment, Hal was piloting his Ginn, charging toward Xu De without a moment's pause after only a brief familiarization.

Of course, his posture looked wrong; the thrusters on the arms and legs weren't even ignited.

He was simply using the main thruster, head-butting his way forward as if he were trying to ram him.

Clearly, Hal possessed some intelligence.

Even though it was his first time piloting, wasn't treating a Ginn like a fighter jet the best way to avoid worrying about anything else?

As long as he didn't move the limbs, he could keep the Mobile Suit in a relatively easy-to-control state.

After all, in this state, there was no need to consider factors like the inertia caused by limb movement leading to a loss of control.

He was arrogant, but not brainless.

Of course, this approach had its pros and cons; while the computational load was reduced, according to Xu De's analysis, this was trading a 15% increase in operability for a nearly 60% decrease in tactical flexibility.

There were too many thrusters on the legs—three on each calf and two on each sole, and that was just for one leg.

In other words, by completely abandoning the use of his legs, he was rendering ten attitude-control thrusters unusable.

The Zeong had internal thrusters in its skirt armor for auxiliary power, but this machine had none.

Therefore, the legs were still useful.

At the very least, for a Ginn, they were immensely useful.

Moreover, although this was a mock battle, the primary test was a Natural's ability to control the machine.

If Hal was going to cripple his own legs, he might as well have been piloting a Moebius for a duel.

Xu De, with the experience of his past life, was very good at guessing the selection criteria of his superiors and what kind of performance would get him chosen.

Astronaut, fighter pilot—that was the path he had taken, and the competition there had been far fiercer than it was here.

His previous opponents had all been true elites.

Those elites, driven by pure competition, were all workaholics, and workaholics with powerful convictions at that.

Most of the people here, while baptized by war, were still too green, with the exception of Moody.

Of course, to the other spectators, Hal's maneuvers drew gasps of amazement.

"I didn't know you could do that; Hal is still impressive."

"Exactly, even though his combat power dropped significantly without the legs, his control improved. Sometimes, a master's skill lies in these few inches."

Listening to their discussion, Draco, who had initially urged Hal to deal with Xu De, curled his lip in disdain.

He had overestimated Hal; he had actually chosen such an unglamorous and utterly useless tactic.

However, using it without a second thought was very much in line with the other man's arrogance.

As he thought this, Xu De, currently on the battlefield, did not pick up his weapon. Instead, he quickly ducked into the debris and wreckage behind him, vanishing from Hal's radar.

Of course, his speed wasn't as fast as when he piloted a Moebius.

Furthermore, in space, the sheer calculation required for inertia alone made Xu De's head throb with a dull pain.

Although keeping the legs made one more flexible, those Coordinators didn't bother to simplify the operating system.

A human joint had eight degrees of freedom in just one leg.

Two legs meant sixteen; the subtle changes in each degree of freedom, combined with the force generated by the leg thrusters, could easily cause the machine to lose control.

Right now, just controlling the auxiliary thrusters on his legs to move forward felt like wading through mud.

In short, he would put tactics aside for now; he would hide to familiarize himself with the machine and, in the process, exhaust his opponent's patience to force a mistake.

Thinking this, Xu De controlled the machine to land, albeit clumsily, onto a larger piece of wreckage.

He barely managed to stay upright, though he still stumbled and nearly twisted an ankle.

"Bastard! If you've got guts, come out and fight me one-on-one!"

On the other side, having lost track of Xu De, Hal began to clamor, his machine gun firing continuously in his flight state.

The barrage sent the surrounding debris spinning.

Of course, none of this threatened Xu De. His range of motion was greater than his opponent's self-crippled state; although movement was difficult, the opponent's attack angle was limited to the area directly in front, just like a fighter jet.

And because it wasn't designed as a fighter jet, turning was difficult.

Of course, aiming at Hal was also extremely difficult for him.

There was too much debris, and the leg stability was far from ideal.

Thinking this, Xu De scraped across the wreckage a few more times, his head-mounted sensors slowly scanning the surroundings until he quickly discovered what he was looking for.

An abandoned warship, an Agamemnon-class.

"Familiarization complete."

He muttered to himself, and having made his decision, Xu De did not hesitate any longer.

Locking onto his position, he began firing at Hal, who had just finished a half-circle arc and was flying back.

The tongues of flame erupting from the 76mm machine gun only managed to land sporadic hits on the external armor of Hal's Ginn due to his high-speed movement; a few sparks splattered across the surface of the Ginn's armor, but they failed to inflict any effective damage.

"Annoying rat, go to hell!!!"

Having finally pinpointed Xu De's direction, Hal roared and charged forward.

Watching this scene unfold, the others all held their breath.

"Xu De is getting desperate; it would have been better to let Hal lose his composure and wait for an opening."

"Exactly. Even though he can barely pilot the Ginn, it's obvious he's still not agile enough."

"Is he rushing to his death?"

The group gathered together to discuss, their words still tinged with a degree of disdain for Xu De.

Moody, of course, did not join them; he simply watched the battlefield above with a faint curl at the corner of his mouth.

He then walked silently toward the grim-faced Draco.

"Draco, what do you think?"

"What do you mean, what do I think?"

Draco asked coldly.

"Xu De is going to win."

Moody didn't care about the other's attitude and continued to smile with his usual honest air.

"Let's cooperate. There are five spots here; if the three of us work together, it's a sure thing."

Moody was certain that the other party must have investigated the intelligence as well.

In this way, aside from Xu De, the biggest threat here was Draco, so as long as the three of them cooperated, their success was indeed guaranteed.

All three were cautious individuals who had thoroughly investigated the others.

For those idiots still mindlessly waving flags and cheering for Hal, this would be a dimensional strike.

In any case, there were five spots, not just one, so there was no need for them to fight to the death.