Chapter Summaries

Xu Fan agreed to cooperate with the Zhonghai Military Research Base on mecha development, offering to build an integrated production line and provide technical drawings in exchange for three percent of the profits from each mecha. Elder Wang, Elder Hua, and Tong Yao mistook his business terms and offers of support for selfless devotion to Xia Nation.

• Elder Wang agreed to buy all the alloys, and Xu Fan offered samples, documentation, and after-sales support.
• Elder Wang proposed that Xu Fan work with the Zhonghai Military Research Base on mecha development and receive a national-level research academician title.
• Xu Fan agreed to cooperate, asking the base to cover facilities, labor, and materials while he built a mecha production line and provided technical drawings for three percent of each mecha's profits.
• Elder Wang and Elder Hua realized Xu Fan was offering to help establish large-scale mecha production and provide the technology, and they were deeply moved.
• Xu Fan promised to provide after-sales repairs and upgrades for the production line, further impressing the elders while Wang Yixue remained confused.

After approving the mecha project, Elder Wang used his one-time Nation-Protecting Medal authority to grant Xu Fan sweeping research access and top-secret protection. On the drive back, Elder Wang and Elder Hua discussed assigning Xu Fan female secretaries, prompting objections from Wang Yixue and Tong Yao.

• Elder Wang and Elder Hua learned that Xu Fan had been designing a deep-sea submersible in his spare time.
• Elder Wang invoked his Nation-Protecting Medal authority to raise Xu Fan’s research clearance to level ten, grant him access to Zhonghai’s resources, and place his information under red top-secret protection.
• Elder Wang and Elder Hua prioritized building the mecha production lines and agreed that Xu Fan should receive medals, honors, and recognition for his contributions.
• During the drive, Elder Hua suggested assigning Xu Fan one or two secretaries to help with his daily needs and family.
• Elder Wang said the arrangement could be made if Xu Fan agreed, while Wang Yixue and Tong Yao objected.

Wang Yixue visited Xu Fan at home, where Li Lanhua welcomed her warmly, then drove him to the Zhonghai Third Ordnance Factory to see his new mecha construction base. Xu Fan grew excited when he learned his multifunction workbench would arrive soon.

• Elder Wang persuaded Wang Yixue and Tong Yao to help look after Xu Fan's family and assist with his work when they were free.
• Xu Fan studied his father's deep-sea submersible designs and sketched a preliminary concept for a thirty-meter-tall deep-sea titan.
• Wang Yixue arrived at Xu Fan's home, and Li Lanhua enthusiastically questioned her about marriage before the two became close over breakfast.
• Wang Yixue drove Xu Fan to the Zhonghai Third Ordnance Factory, which had been prepared as his mecha construction base.
• Wang Yixue learned that Xu Fan's multifunction workbench would arrive in twenty minutes, and Xu Fan looked forward to starting work.

Xu Fan and Wang Yixue shared barbecue and drinks, then got stranded when they could not find a taxi. Tong Yao collected them in the Crimson Sky No. 2 mecha, and Xu Fan returned alone to the arms factory to work through the night.

• Xu Fan finished installing the machinery's embedded fixtures before dark, then went out for street food and barbecue with Wang Yixue.
• Xu Fan and Wang Yixue each drank a bottle of Brave the World, then discovered there were no taxis nearby and the barbecue owner misunderstood their questions about lodging.
• Tong Yao practiced piloting Crimson Sky No. 2 at the Zhonghai Research Base in preparation for the military exercise commendation ceremony.
• Wang Yixue called Tong Yao, who flew the mecha to their location and picked up Xu Fan and Wang Yixue.
• Xu Fan returned alone to the arms factory and started working at the multifunction workbench.

Xu Fan completed a batch of mech components, and Li Guozhong’s division assembled them after its exercise victory. Division Commander Kong confronted Li Guozhong at the commendation ceremony and tried to secure mechs for his own division, leaving negotiations over future production unresolved.

• Xu Fan’s workbench finished fabricating mech components, which researchers and operators assembled at Li Guozhong’s division headquarters.
• Division Commander Kong arrived at the commendation ceremony and angrily accused Li Guozhong of bringing mechs to the exercise.
• Kong demanded that Li give him at least two mechs, but Li refused, saying his two mechs were needed for his own division.
• Li accidentally revealed that a mech production line could begin mass production in a week, and Kong immediately asked for fifty mechs.
• Li said the line would produce only twenty mechs a year, so Kong proposed receiving five that year and three each year afterward, threatening that other forces would come asking if Li refused.

At the commendation ceremony, Wang Yixue and Tong Yao received honors for their mech victory in the military exercise. Wang Yixue refused to accept the awards, declaring that Xu Fan deserved them for his inventions and tireless work for the nation.

• Li Guozhong and Division Commander Kong agreed that Kong's division would receive mechs in exchange for funding their materials.
• Luo Bing and Zhu Guodong attended the ceremony as Wang Yixue and Tong Yao were introduced as the mech pilots who destroyed the enemy headquarters and captured Kong.
• Li Guozhong presented Wang Yixue and Tong Yao with five medals each, including the Special-Class Combat Hero Medal.
• Wang Yixue remained onstage and told the audience she felt unworthy of the honors.
• Wang Yixue praised Xu Fan's mech development, donated inventions, and work for the nation, then declared that he deserved the honors instead.

At Xu Fan’s suggestion, Wang Yixue and Tong Yao began a mech simulation drill that stunned Luo Bing and Zhu Guodong with its speed. The chapter ended as a mech turned around and revealed Earth, leaving the chiefs frozen in disbelief.

• At the commendation ceremony, Luo Bing praised Wang Yixue’s speech and promised that Xu Fan would receive generous terms and major honors.
• Li Guozhong told Wang Yixue and Tong Yao that Xu Fan might receive an order of merit, making Wang Yixue uneasy about how exceptional he was becoming.
• Luo Bing and Zhu Guodong joined Li Guozhong in the combat command room to watch Wang Yixue and Tong Yao pilot Crimson Sky No. 1 and No. 2.
• Wang Yixue and Tong Yao launched with a burnout, then climbed at supersonic speed, startling the two chiefs.
• When Li Guozhong told the pilots to go faster, their panels reached Mach 24, and Luo Bing fell silent as the mech turned and showed Earth in the distance.

Wang Yixue and Tong Yao demonstrated their mechas’ extreme speed and maneuverability, leaving Luo Bing and Zhu Guodong stunned. When they doubted the railgun’s reported power, Li Guozhong ordered Wang Yixue to fire at a Starlink satellite, and she lined up the shot.

• Wang Yixue and Tong Yao reached low Earth orbit, then accelerated their mechas into a rapid dive and climbed back up with a vertical reversal.
• Luo Bing and Zhu Guodong struggled to handle the excitement, and Li Guozhong had nasal cannulas brought for them.
• Luo Bing asked whether the mechas’ reported weapons tests were real, so Li Guozhong ordered Wang Yixue and Tong Yao to begin testing their weapons.
• Wang Yixue said her railgun could reach a Starlink satellite less than ten thousand kilometers away, and Li Guozhong told her to fire discreetly.
• Wang Yixue’s Crimson Sky No. 1 hovered among the clouds as its shoulder-mounted railgun charged and its targeting crosshair locked on.

Luo Bing and Zhu Guodong watched Wang Yixue destroy a Starlink satellite with Crimson Sky No. 1, then ordered the pilots back to Xia Nation. The chiefs were introduced to the mechas’ firepower, and Luo Bing asked to see more weapons.

• Li Guozhong fired Crimson Sky No. 1’s railgun, and Wang Yixue reported a perfect hit on a Starlink satellite.
• Luo Bing and Zhu Guodong celebrated the hit, then ordered Wang Yixue and Tong Yao to return within Xia Nation’s borders.
• Migen and Anzhui saw the satellite explode, mistook the railgun shot for an alien attack, and called for an immediate return to Earth.
• Paul heard that another Starlink satellite had crashed and called the Hexagon, fearing an alien insect invasion.
• Li Guozhong welcomed the mechas back safely, and Luo Bing requested a demonstration of their miniature missiles.

Tong Yao’s miniature missile struck a tank target and triggered an apparent nuclear explosion near Li Guozhong’s division headquarters. Elder Wang and Elder Hua rushed to the site, where their radiation scan found no radiation.

• Li Guozhong ordered Tong Yao to demonstrate her satellite missile on tank target 355, and she launched it before heading back with Wang Yixue.
• The missile hit the target and produced a huge fireball and mushroom cloud, engulfing both mechs and shaking the command room.
• Zhu Guodong identified the blast as a possible nuclear detonation, and alarms ordered the division’s personnel to evacuate.
• Elder Wang and Elder Hua saw the mushroom cloud, feared something had happened to Li Guozhong’s division, and rushed there with radiation detectors.
• Tong Yao told Elder Hua that she and Wang Yixue were safe, and Elder Wang and Elder Hua’s scan at the headquarters detected no radiation.