Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Ling Lan ordered the ten leaders. “Report your results!”
The first person who reported to Ling Lan was the big brother figure of the ten teams, Yang Mingzhi. He took a step forward and shouted, “Team 01, 24 members. Successfully subdued 52 recruits.”
The other teams reported their results too.
Ling Lan nodded. The performance of the ten teams was not bad. There were still some flaws but Ling Lan decided to let them off this time.
The mecha operators saw their regiment commander nodding and were elated. They passed the mission. A moment ago, they were afraid that Ling Lan would not be satisfied with their performance and start a new round of hellish training. They had been repeating this process for a few months. Now, when they receive a new mission, they would feel dying again.
This time, their regiment commander was satisfied with them but they needed to know what made their regiment commander so satisfied. The mecha operators were observant people. They tried to find why their regiment commander let them off this time.
Overall capability? Bullshit. Their current capabilities were still similar to their last mission.
The performance during the mission? The mecha operators felt that there weren’t many improvements compared to their last mission too.
They couldn’t find a reason. The mecha operators watched as their regiment commander walked towards the badly beaten up recruits.
They suddenly had an enlightenment. Their regiment commander was a vicious person. He killed two mecha operators at the start of their training. (Since the mecha operators of 250 Mecha Clan didn’t interact with each other much, they were not sure how many mecha operators there were in the mecha clan. Hence, until now, they were still fooled by Ling Lan.) They must be too gentle and kind. This must be why their regiment commander kept torturing them. This time, however, they vented their frustration at the recruits and were a little harsh on them… was this why their regiment commander was so satisfied?
With this idea in mind, the mecha operators got more vicious and bloodthirsty in their future battles. They hoped that their regiment commander would be satisfied with them. Ling Lan, on the other hand, thought that they were under too much pressure so she treated them better.
This caused the mecha operators to harden that idea in mind. They thought that their guess was correct. Hence, they turned even crueler. Ling Lan got more worried about them and tried to lessen the intensity of their training… this cycle continued. Due to a strange combination of circumstances, the 250 Mecha Clan became devils on the battlefield. Of course, all these happened in the future. We could ignore it for now.
The new recruits didn’t expect their regiment commander to come. When they saw Ling Lan looking at them with her cold eyes, they trembled in fear. She didn’t say a single word but her cold aura and force of presence told everyone, she was a frightening and heartless person.
There was only one thought in their head. Would they be sent back by this scary regiment commander?
The recruits were distributed by the mainframe but they could still be sent back to the recruit training camp if their regiment commander in the mecha clan was not satisfied with them. These recruits had to go through the recruit training camp again. After that, they would be sent back to another mecha clan. If their new regiment commander was not satisfied with them again, they would be sent out of the military. These people would be deemed unfit for the military. They would have a hard time finding jobs or partners in the future.
Since they chose to enter the military, besides those young men that got thrown in by their parents, most of them wanted to continue staying here. If they got sent back this time, they believed their next regiment commander would still be dissatisfied with them. They would then be sent out of the military. This was not what they wanted.
After knowing their possible future, a few young men who had a more fragile heart started sobbing. They just reached 20 years old. They couldn’t handle such a hard blow.
“Weak.” Ling Lan said with a hint of anger when she saw some recruits crying and frowned.
The moment she said this, those recruits that were trying their best to control their emotions broke down. Almost everyone started crying.
Ling Lan felt speechless. She thought that the mecha operators in 250 Mecha Clan were bad enough. However, these recruits were worse. Additionally, why were they staring at her like she was a devil? F**k, her looks were definitely not bad. No, she was definitely a good-looking person… erm, this was not the main point. The point was, why were they looking at her like that? Was there something wrong with their eyes?
Ling Lan felt depressed. She wondered why no one liked her. Ling Lan was unaware, those people weaker than her would be severely impacted by her cold aura. Only those that were stronger could withstand her force of presence. Hence, these recruits could only see her cold aura and her indifferent eyes.
As Ling Lan’s gaze got colder, the recruits felt that they would definitely be sent back. Crying is contagious. Soon, all the recruits started tearing up.
F**k, why are they crying? Why are men so weak? Ling Lan snorted. All the recruits got a shock. They didn’t dare to make any sound. They cried silently. The tears on their young faces made them looked pitiful.
Forget it, I don’t want to look at them anymore! Ling Lan shouted helplessly, “Lin Zhong-qing!”
“Yes!” A voice rang through the field. A figure suddenly appeared behind Ling Lan. It was from Lin Zhong-qing.
“I’ll hand these recruits to you. You have three months to make them into real men. If they still cry like this, I will not show them any mercy.” Ling Lan was afraid that she would be unable to control herself and hit these people. After so many years of hardships, she couldn’t stand someone crying.
“Yes, regiment commander!” Lin Zhong-qing received the order.
After handing these recruits to Lin Zhong-qing, Ling Lan walked towards Chen Yifan. He was the only one who wasn’t scared of her.
Chen Yifan felt his heart beating quickly when he saw Ling Lan walking towards him. He only looked calm but in actual fact, he was frightened too.
“Chen Yifan?”
“Yes!” Chen Yifan instinctively stood up straight.
“I know you are an ace mecha master… if you pass the team challenge, I’ll make you a member of a team.” Ling Lan would not let Chen Yifan wastes his talent. Thus, she gave him a chance to be a member of a team.
Chen Yifan was hesitant. He looked at his younger brother. Chen Yi’an was the reason why he entered the military.
Ling Lan smiled mockingly. She knew what Chen Yifan was thinking. She said nonchalantly, “A logistician services a mecha operator. Whether you are the one doing the service or the one getting serviced depends on your capabilities. Additionally, you need to have the ability if you want to protect someone.”
Ling Lan’s words allowed Chen Yifan to understand how he could protect his younger brother. At the same time, Ling Lan warned him to not think too highly of himself. If he didn’t meet her requirements, she was willing to send him away. She didn’t mind letting him be a logistician. She could afford to waste his talent.
Chen Yifan was shocked. He was a smart person so he understood what Ling Lan was trying to tell him. He could be a mecha operator and let his younger brother be a member of his logistician team.
“Yes, I understand!” Chen Yifan’s eyes lit up for the first time. He seemed to have found a new goal.
Ling Lan smiled. When will Chen Yifan stop lying to himself?
Ling Lan looked away from Chen Yifan. She didn’t care much about him. Although she wanted to let him joined the battle team, she would not spend as much effort on him unlike with the comrades she grew up with. If Chen Yifan managed to prove himself. she would give him the chance to become a part of Lingtian Battle Team.
Ling Lan walked past Chen Yifan and walked to the front of the crowd. She shouted, “Disperse!”
After that, she disappeared. It was as though she was never there. All the mecha operators took a moment to register that they managed to escape their regiment commander’s punishment. Everyone cheered happily. They were a stark contrast to the recruits who were crying their hearts out.
Chen Yifan narrowed his eyes when Ling Lan disappeared. If he wasn’t able to see how Ling Lan disappeared, Ling Lan must have reached another realm in terms of physical skills. He knew that Ling Lan probably hid her true capabilities. As there were no changes to the youngest person who entered the domain realm in the Federation’s records.
As expected, 250 Mecha Clan was not a forsaken mecha clan. It might even be the mecha clan that had the most potential in the 23rd division. Chen Yifan looked at the confused Chen Yi’an and the stunned Zhou Yu. He sighed. The three of them must be extremely lucky to have met such a powerful regiment commander. They would have a good future ahead of them.
The other recruits calmed down when they were told that they would not be sent back. They were elated. However, they soon started crying again because of the harsh training. They realized that despair was scarier than being sent back…
Time passed quickly. Two months had passed. Within these two months, the people in 250 Mecha Clan continued their training. No one in the Federation knew that a vicious beast was growing in the 23rd division.
Ling Lan sat in her office and was looking through documents. Without Little Four’s help, she could only rely on herself. She asked Little Blossom regarding Little Four’s progress but he just replied with Little Four’s evolving was going smoothly. He didn’t know when Little Four would finish his evolution. Little Four and Little Blossom were two different kinds of intelligent entities. Hence, they were unable to understand each other.
“Beep, beep!” The optical supercomputer belonging to 250 Mecha Clan reminded Ling Lan that she had a new message.
Ling Lan opened the message. She frowned. It was a land clearing mission.
When the Federation finds a new planet that was five-star and above and had signs of life on it, they would inform all the divisions and request them to send some mecha clans to explore and open up the virgin soil.
For the first five years, the first mecha clan that discovered the natural resources on the new planet would get a portion of it. After that, the Federation would start taking more of it. 10 years later, all the natural resources on the planet would be excavated.
The reason why the Federation gave such benefit to the battle teams was because land clearing mission was dangerous. Many mecha clans were annihilated on unknown planets. If there were not enough rewards to entice them, no one would be willing to send people over. Hence, because of these privileges, divisions always sent their best ace mecha clans to go for these land clearing missions.
The fund given by the Federation was not enough to let the division grow stronger. The divisions needed the natural resources gained by their battle teams to increase their military strength. You could say that this land clearing mission was to instill divisions with a competitive spirit and let them provide for themselves. Although this might make it harder for the Federation to control the divisions, it was the only way to not burden the civilians with the expenditure of the military.
There were pros and cons with this decision but for now, there were more pros.
The mecha clans that would receive the land clearing mission were normally the most powerful ace mecha clans in a division. This was a dangerous mission but it could allow them to gain many raw materials. Based on the rule, if the natural resource they found on the planet was a one-time thing, the mecha clan only had to hand over 80% of it. If it was a sustainable natural resource, the mecha clan would get 10% of it.
It didn’t seem like a lot but if they really managed to find a sustainable natural resource, it would bring them over a billion credits. This was a huge sum of credits to a mecha clan.
If a mecha clan wanted to become stronger, they needed to have advanced technology and equipment. All these cost credits. If they waited for the Federation’s fund… god knows when they would get it. The Federation had to consider the entire strength of the military and not just a single mecha clan. Hence, they would not pay attention to individual mecha clans.
