Chapter 41

Not even the Ten Squadrons dared to defy Admiral Lin's orders. He didn't expect a mech core with a depleted battery to talk back. Jingheng Lin was a little shocked. He said after a pause, "Did you download some weird dataset and got yourself a vir-"

Before he could finish the word "virus", the powerful relaxant rushed through his body.

The name "relaxant" sounded fresh and cosy, but it had nothing to do with anti-acne relaxing masks. It penetrated the body incredibly quickly. Once the relaxant entered the body, it would spread through the entire system within minutes. It felt as if every nerve in your body went through an electric shock. Lin's words died in his throat. His breath was interrupted. There was so much tension in his neck that he felt as if it was going to snap. His fingers tightened, the veins on his bare arms became protruding, nearly bursting through his skin.

However, at the same time, his compatibility level with the mech rose to its maximum from the previous 80%, which dropped due to fatigue.

The strong stimulation caused by the relaxant lasted for about a minute, before a severe muscular spasm occurred.

Jingheng Lin skillfully stretched out his twisted limbs when his breath was in between shallow pants. The dark underground route then laid bare before him. The objects occasionally floating by looked like they'd slow down. A light tremble went down the crawling mech. It subtly corrected its angle, and accelerated on the route almost perfectly using one side of the propulsion system.

Zhanlu waited by his side, motionless, "Sir, according to the Laws of Artificial Intelligence, an AI can defy its orders to a certain extent once it decides its owner's life is being threatened after assessment. I am defying the order "shut up" now, because I must remind you that you have severe relaxant abuse issues even back in the Silver Fortress. In the past five years, I have been considering that your symptoms have eased a little, but just now-"

Jingheng Lin rubbed his cramping lower legs, rolled his ankles, arranged his collar and stood up. He got himself a cup of salt water before interrupting Zhanlu, "I wasn't aware that relaxants have been classified as drugs now."

"Relaxants are for raising compatibility level under extreme circumstances," the mechanical hand closed its four fingers together, making a gesture for taking an oath, as if to emphasize his seriousness. "No one uses it when the compatibility level is at 80%."

Lin sneered, "Yes, but some useless bums will never reach 80% in their entire life."

Zhanlu kept his gesture, "We're talking about your problem. Why do you have to commit racism speech on irrelevant people?"

"The number deviated from my average score by more than 10%. Does that not count as an extreme circumstance? What's the issue?"

"It could only show that you were extremely tired. You had exhausted your mental power." Zhanlu said so solemnly. "Once the route is stabilized, the mech would be on automatic driving mode just so the pilot can break off the mental network and take a rest. However, you never break off from the net when you're in a mech even if more than one person can take turns. You're breaking the mech operation laws here...Sir, wait! That's also against the rules! "

Jingheng Lin put on his headphones to shut out Zhanlu' s nagging. He played a sexy country tune, disentangled Zhanlu' s mental network from Beijing's, blocking Zhanlu both physically and mentally. Hastening their way back, he went back to surveying and mapping in peace and quiet.

They had less than 24 hours before the high energy particle flow reaches the base. 284 so-called "mech pilots" had assembled at the station, every single one of them was carrying a sticker which had a number identical to their mech on it, scratching their heads in different expressions. It looked like a set of documentary about wild animals.

The four students were handing out the take-off instructions according to the mech numbers - the instruction was in the form of recording. Holiday explained the ignition and take-off sequence, parking position, timing for the shield-opening, shield docking...and how to correctly use adult diapers in that deep and sonorous voice of his.

Saturday and his squad of tag-alongs worked through the night to record these after they'd listened to Bixing Lu's explanations alongside the four students. By the end of around two hundred recordings, broadcaster Holiday had already lost his voice.

Bixing Lu still had a drop of hope for mankind's intelligence. He even projected construction principles of the mech shield on the 3D screen, trying to explain to the pilot what they were about to do. He would have worn out his tongue and he would have gotten nothing but confused looks.

He gulped down half a bottle of mineral water, brushing them aside, "Never mind, just go - Dad, the rest of the pilotless mechs, should we split them in half? 8 mechs per mental network, would that be a bit too much?"

Monoeye Hawk got irritated at the sight of him. He let out a huff and turned to walk away.

"Eight pilotless mechs?" Saturday whispered. "How could one do that? Didn't you say you were a lecturer? You're not some sort of Green Beret, are you?"

"Of course not. It's just experience. Even the piano will need ten fingers." Bixing Lu said. "Do you even know what the special forces are like?"

Saturday gave him a sincere shake of his head.

Bixing Lu chuckled, didn't say anymore - a soldier from the special forces could break into 36 parked mechs and blow up the shield of an entire base from the faraway admin building with nothing more than a single mech core. And that soldier was just in the administration building.

Just now, Monoeye Hawk had already mounted the tracks with his mech. A gasp rose from the crowd - there were eight equidistant, pilotless mechs following him obediently. When the mechs flitted past the accelerating tracks, he was like an arrogant corpse leading his legion of zombies. With a thundering noise, the thermoelectric system outside the cooling tower let out a brilliant light, and all the nine mechs rose at the same time, with such cut-glass precision it was as though they were a same body.

Saturday held his hand above his eyes and stared unblinkingly at where the mechs had disappeared, disregarding the dazzling light. Just as Bixing Lu thought he was about to sigh in admiration alongside the others, Saturday abruptly turned his head. His soft baby face set in conviction, he said word by word, "If what you said was true, then one day, I can be like that, too."

At that, he gave a curt wave, "Self Defense Force! All official members, follow me!"

The official members of Self Defense Force were more like soldiers. At least they dared to sail out for more than two sailing days and launch the missile from there. Once they got the order, they went on the track one by one in good order.

After twenty minutes, all the decent pilots were on course, but there were only fifty-four mechs outside of the atmosphere, which was only one sixth of them. All the rest were the shabby mechs. Now those were the tricky ones.

Bixing Lu swept his eyes over the crowd, slowed down his explanation, "Once on the mech, you may turn on your portable audio. Those who can still listen to others speak while they're connecting to the mental network stand on my left side, those who can't, stand on my right side. Alright, comrades on the left side, please raise your numbers and guiding audio, and depart in order... What?"

"Mr. Lu, may I ask how could we avoid bumping into the mechs right next to us? If the mech in front is too slow and I crash into it, how could I pull the brake on the accelerating track?"

Bixing Lu squeezed out a smile on the safety-conscious question.

Five minutes later, White got an aluminum pan from Big Sister. He connected the microphone, held the pan upside down, and hit the pan heavily. The microphone sent the sound through all the speakers in the base. The resounding clang shocked everyone into peeking out.

"Prepare once the last person has departed. Start the mech once you hear the sound of the gongs," Bixing Lu replied patiently. "It's as easy as jumping through the flaming hoops. Now go."

Soon, the self-taught pilots were in position. Eighty other holdouts were left on the ground.

Bixing Lu clapped his hands at the students taking turns to hit the gong...the pan, "Jingshu, follow me. The others, get ready on the mechs. I'll give you half an hour to get used to the mental networks, then depart. Remember how you felt on Zhanlu? White, you've gained some real muscles recently. You're in good shape. Don't stress out. Vitas, don't panic on the mech, try to trust your instincts once in a while. Mint..."

"I know, there are a lot of people outside. I can see that when I'm connected to the mental network." Mint tied her hair into a ponytail. She lowered her cap, "Don't worry, Mr.Lu."

"Good. One has to learn how to walk by oneself after all. In position. " Bixing Lu nodded, waved at them, and licked his lips which were cracked from too much talking. His eyes swept over the weak and elderly in front of him, "Since the rest of you couldn't be able to listen to the audio on the mental network, I'll have to be harsher with you. Also half an hour, use it to memorise the operating procedure. Then line up and recite it in front of me one by one. You may go once you pass."

The elderly and the disabled exchanged a look.

Bixing Lu lifted the pan, and knocked on it with the back of his hand. The clang sounded like some sort of strange school bell. Everyone took out their instruction manual, and started memorizing it.

Jingshu Huang had a blank expression on her face. She kicked the stones on the ground, and said over a background of monkly chanting, "Boss, you planned to take one more pilotless mech, didn't you? Let me pretend to pilot it up there, so I can save my face in front of my classmates."

"I don't care about your problem. Eight pilotless mechs are plenty for me to handle." Bixing Lu said, "I told you to stay behind so I can say this. I've been reading the IU's reports on vacucerebral syndrome. I want to talk to you about this."

Jingshu Huang gave him a curt laugh, "Rude. What's your damage?"

Bixing Lu ignored her, "The symptoms of vacucerebral syndrome include human-mech incompatibility. Its causes and its mechanisms are unclear at this stage. Some experts believe that vacucerebral syndrome isn't actually a disease. It's just people mixing up all the different cases of human-mech incompatibility."

Jingshu Huang gave him a lacklustre "Oh."

Bixing Lu, "By a broad definition, I can also be said to have vacucerebral syndrome."

Jingshu Huang was speechless for a bit, "...Sir. You really went all out for this chicken soup bullshit."

"What's wrong with chicken soup? Just you wait. When there's a shortage at the base, you'll be happy just to dream of chicken soup. See who's gonna cook it for you then." Bixing Lu said. "Of course. I wasn't born with it. Once I got severely ill when I was little. I very nearly died. My father used a certain unusual treatment on me. One of the side effects was that I couldn't control my body for quite a while - you can comprehend it as a sort of poor nerve contact. The brain's signals couldn't reach the appropriate organs."

Jingshu Huang couldn't quite imagine that with her limited common senses, so she could only ask, "Like a paralysis?"

"Close enough," Bixing Lu gave an indecipherable nod, "It only got better when I was a teenager. So you can imagine, even my own body were in poor connection, not to mention the connection between the human body and the mech. All the mechs in the Eighth Galaxy had been through my old guy. Normally those mechs just perched outside our house like a security guard. Old Lu always couldn't be arsed to call a taxi when he went to indulge in his vices and he'd normally run off in a mech. Back then I felt as if I was the only abnormal one in the whole wide world, that I was the only one rejected by the mental network."

Jingshu Huang looked at him, then looked at the eight pilotless mechs, "Mr. Lu, do I look so gullible?"

Bixing Lu pondered, "During the first contact with the mental network, a normal person would feel overwhelmed by the vast amount of information, then nausea. But someone with poor connection would feel much less nauseous. They feel more of a ringing in their ear, and blurry vision. Because you have trouble receiving information, so you'd only feel as though something poked through your eardrums and knocked your chest, but you can't see what it is."

Jingshu Huang lifted her eyes abruptly.

Bixing Lu showed her his upturned palms, "I thought, that's unfair. I have to build a mech I can drive. So I took apart countless mechs in my dad's stock. The loss he suffered were probably the equivalent of the value of ten Starry Sea Academy... Of course, I don't encourage you to do the same, because I'm broke as broke can be. I don't have the cash for you to burn."

"Did you succeed? Did...did you build a mech even an empty brain can pilot?"

Bixing Lu turned his head a little to give her a side eye. The maiden involuntarily hold her breath.

"Of course not." Bixing Lu said. "If it were that easy, the IU would have built it ages ago. They were even able to build a mech like Zhanlu, would they wait for me to build it? Use your brain sometimes."

Jingshu Huang: "..."

"But when I was your age, I thought I found the right direction. I even founded my own system of theories. Of course, looking back on it, it was all bullshit. I gave it to my dad, and told him to help me realize it. I also told him, once he makes that mech, he'd be the next wealthiest man in the Eighth Galaxy. My dad didn't say anything when he saw it. After a while, he showed me a mech just as I expected and told me it succeeded. Even today I remember the excitement. It was as if..."

Bixing Lu paused. He was looking for a metaphor, but somehow he thought Jingheng Lin. When he knew for certain that he had feelings for him, and the "Copy that" sent from Mech Beijing to the Comms Station.

Bixing Lu coughed to clear his mind, "...Anyway, I was really excited. I went in to see. Expectedly, the noise in the mental network was a lot lower. I thought, now here's my mech. So I got to know it and control it. Three days later, I succeeded in circling Cayley Planet outside its atmosphere. I thought right then that I was free, that I overcame a human biological flaw. I would become the greatest mech designer in history when I grew up...until I finished teaching myself advanced mech design theories with this inflated passion."

Jingshu Huang widened her eyes.

"I found that my "original" theory had already been proven false two hundred years ago. But at that time I could already drive the mech around for errands. I took apart that "special" mech and found that the thing was just a random mech from my old man's stock. All he did was to get someone and install a noise filter on its mental network. The old Lu later admitted that he was humoring me. He didn't expect me to believe it, nor did he think that I could actually be able to drive it." Bixing Lu said, pulling out a small chip from his pocket and handed it to Jingshu. "Here. Noise filter. I made it for fun a couple of days ago. Install it in your human-mech connecting equipment. You should know how to do that by now, right? Go try it on."

After saying that, he took a look at the time, lifted the spatula and hit it against the pan, "Time's up!"

Time for the oral part of Starry Kindergarten's middle school entrance exam.

Everyone lined up, reciting in front of Mr. Lu with their hands behind their back. Every once in a while, you'd get someone reporting on others cheating. It got a little chaotic at times. On the tracks, White was the first to accelerate his mech. The little silver mech drew a shining white streak in the sky and flew off steadily towards the designated coordinates.

Followed by Mint, Rickhead... One by one, the mechs hazardously launched into space. They clumsily opened their shields, docking with the other mechs in a series of alarming operations, parking outside the atmosphere to form a part of the artificial protective layer. The light from the energy tower swept by it every occasionally. The energy within the surface of the shield got activated and emitted a glistening visible light, enwrapping the small base like a piece of silvery satin.

Jingshu Huang boarded her mech. She took a deep breath and installed the noise filter. Although the noise became a lot weaker, the net was still rejecting her a lot. No one knows if it was the objective truth, or if it was just her mind playing tricks on her. The girl closed her eyes, and all the sweats and tears spent on learning mechatronics and mech-operating theory flashed through her mind.

"It's just a tool," She thought, "I can control it. I've managed to hack into other people's mental network when I was on Zhanlu."

In the mech station, Bixing Lu nodded towards the last 'reciting pilot', suggesting he could now go on a mech, and went begging for water for his parched mouth.

The reciting pilot was still reciting the destination coordinates on his way to the mech. The mech doors closed automatically, and the mental network crawled onto his consciousness like vines. This pilot was actually an official member of the Self Defense Unit. He knew how to pilot a mech, but he got traumatized from being dragged off the mental network forcefully by Jingheng Lin. He thought he'd already overcome his fear, but reconnecting to the mental network brought all of the painful memories back and he was immediately crushed by it.

The mech suddenly gave off a boom and lost control on the track. Before it docked properly on the track, it flew off with a hum. It looked as if it would be flung off the track any moment now and crash straight into the thermoelectric power station of the cooling tower!