Wei Ping's face turned crimson. Lowering her head, she stammered, "S-so sorry, I-I..."
Before she could finish, she turned and fled.
After Xuan Lang kissed her, the excitement and thrill lasted only a few seconds before shame overwhelmed her mind.
For a long time, she had considered herself a good girl. While she understood matters between men and women and had fantasized about meeting her prince charming one day, this sudden kiss had completely disrupted her thoughts. She didn't know how to process it.
Xuan Lang watched Wei Ping escape, a smile appearing on his lips. "Heh, dealing with a girl as inexperienced as this, a direct approach is the easiest way to win her heart. The bullet has been fired; let's wait. Why rush?" Xuan Lang was confident he had the ability and conditions to win her over, being merely a lower-city resident.
On the battlefield, Gu Ya had already defeated nine classmates, with his mecha sustaining only a few malfunctions. To gain the ability to instantly identify opponents, Gu Ya needed to find different sparring partners, accumulate experience through numerous battles, apply logical analysis, and combine it with practice. It was difficult to achieve greatness overnight. Gu Ya understood this; even with his cheat system, tempering was essential to becoming truly strong. At this stage, Gu Ya's true opponent was himself.
The tenth opponent was Fan Mengtian, who, apart from Gu Ya, possessed the strongest skills among all the students.
"Taste this!" Fan Mengtian shouted. His mecha suddenly extended its limbs, firmly pinning Gu Ya. Then, he drew his beam sword and stabbed at the waist and back thrusters of Gu Ya's mecha. This was his original move: trapping the enemy with his own body to attack. It was a move that harmed himself as much as the opponent. As the beam sword pierced Gu Ya's thrusters, Gu Ya's mecha instantly stalled, losing its flight capability. However, the other functions of the mecha were still operational. Gu Ya also drew his beam sword and stabbed fiercely at Fan Mengtian. They stabbed at each other in the air for a while before both mechas stalled and plummeted to the ground.
As soon as they landed, they grappled again.
"Fan Mengtian is indeed skilled, but that move also greatly damages himself!" Chen Xingke remarked.
Mei Shanli retorted stubbornly, "As long as Gu Ya can be defeated, any move is acceptable!"
While Gu Ya and Fan Mengtian were locked in a fierce battle, the defeated Jiang Tingyue and Wei Yongji returned to the hangar. Wei Yongji saw Xuan Lang sitting in the distance and turned to leave. He was self-aware enough to know that his status did not allow him to compete with Xuan Lang, nor even to be close to Jiang Tingyue. Upper-city residents had their own unique circles, and a vast chasm separated them from lower-city residents, making it difficult for ordinary people to cross. Especially since their relationship seemed unusual.
Xuan Lang stood up and said with a smile, "Yongji, I've been busy with family matters these past two days. Regarding training, Tingyue's skills are not as good as yours, so please help her more. We are classmates and were once teammates; it's only natural to help each other, right?"
Wei Yongji looked at Xuan Lang, flattered. During his days as Xuan Lang's teammate, he could clearly sense that Xuan Lang was inwardly very cunning, like an impenetrable wall. Xuan Lang's smile, in particular, always sent a chill down his spine. Everything Xuan Lang did seemed to have a strong purpose, yet also appeared genuine. Wei Yongji's mind could not fathom his true intentions.
Wei Yongji glanced awkwardly at Jiang Tingyue and nodded, "Okay, I will."
Xuan Lang gave Wei Yongji a brilliant smile and said to Jiang Tingyue, "Yongji is a good person; he'll surely be attentive to you."
Wei Yongji's heart skipped a beat. Xuan Lang was speaking up for him! And Xuan Lang was from the Xuan family! Even a single good word from him was a tremendous help to Wei Yongji.
Jiang Tingyue lowered her head and nodded, saying, "Brother Yongji, I'll be counting on you from now on."
Wei Yongji's mind went completely blank. Xuan Lang had entrusted Jiang Tingyue to him, and Jiang Tingyue had readily agreed. Even if it were just as friends, that would be enough to excite Wei Yongji for days.
"Okay, uh, okay, don't worry!" Wei Yongji didn't know how to express his agitated heart, alternating between smiling and freezing in disbelief.
Xuan Lang smiled inwardly. It was simple: identify a person's weakness, magnify it, and then give them an unexpected sweet reward to firmly capture their heart.
Haha, two chess pieces were now in place. Now, only one most crucial chess piece remained to achieve success. Gu Ya, you love to show off so much. I will do it so subtly that you will be convinced of your defeat without even realizing it.
On the battlefield, Gu Ya was growing frustrated. To grasp even a sliver of a clue, Gu Ya had been holding back during the battles. Yet, he still couldn't grasp the knack for quickly understanding his opponents' characteristics. "I must not be trying hard enough, lacking experience," Gu Ya thought. It wasn't without gains, though; through these battles, he had come to understand most of his classmates' personality traits and combat styles. Some were simply reckless, some were technically skilled, some were cunning and liked to use tricks, and some were easily provoked and angered. But these were all learned through combat, not characteristics immediately apparent upon first contact.
"Gu Ya! Please take this seriously," Fan Mengtian shouted. "We've been fighting for so long, and you've never shown your killing moves."
Killing moves? Gu Ya thought. Alright, I've finished analyzing your characteristics; it's time to end this battle. Gu Ya suddenly pushed the auxiliary thrusters and subtly manipulated the control stick to balance his body. The limb thrusters propelled his body forward in a charge, heading straight for Fan Mengtian.
"Huh? Auxiliary thrusters can also propel the body for flight?" Fan Mengtian was greatly surprised. He had never imagined such a move. Flight using limb thrusters was a relatively advanced mecha maneuver, requiring consideration of many factors. The coordination of just the limb thrusters alone was extremely complicated, as was calculating the body's balance coefficient, and even considering weather conditions and real-time wind speed. Even more critically, a small crack in the armor could affect flight! Yet, Gu Ya could do it instantly. How much strength had he been hiding?
As Fan Mengtian stood stunned, Gu Ya had already reached him, lightly striking his neck with a hand knife, and quietly saying, "Go back and practice more."
The outside world claimed he was the most promising student to become the next Wang Shangmeng, but compared to Gu Ya, he was a joke. Gu Ya had been holding back all along.
Gu Ya activated the public announcer and shouted, "Who else wants to spar? I'll be your practice dummy."
It remained to be seen who would be the dummy. The remaining few students, seeing that Gu Ya had easily defeated Fan Mengtian, lost their will to fight and left the battlefield one by one.
"Tch, boring," Gu Ya said with disappointment. "Hmm, if the first-years aren't enough, I can find people from the second-year," Gu Ya realized. In the admission guidelines, official mecha pilots who advanced to the second year would, according to their wishes, apply for various specific occupational qualifications. Based on different professions, they would be assigned to complete certain practical tasks. This served for training and also allowed the academy and students to earn income. A win-win-win situation. The occupational qualification for a mecha pilot would very likely become your lifelong career. In reality, finding second-year students in the academy was quite difficult. Gu Ya had been enrolled for over a week and had only seen them twice, both times in the cafeteria, and in small numbers. Second-year students could be distinguished by the badges on their chests. They were mostly silent, with serious and somber expressions. Gu Ya speculated it might be related to their missions.
In this world, mecha pilots also had many professions. All first-year students, after passing their semester-end exams, still needed to participate in an in-school assessment. Only after passing the assessment could they continue to apply for occupational qualifications. It was a bit tedious. Moreover, most mecha pilots would choose safe and relatively well-paying professions, such as transportation, medical, or engineering. Only a small fraction, with the resolve to sacrifice, would choose dangerous professions, such as battlefield mecha mechanics. Battlefield mecha mechanics were, as far as Gu Ya knew, the most difficult mecha professions to qualify for and the ones that produced the most talent. Likewise, they were a group with the strongest faith, serving as the reserve force for the Wu He City Mecha Guard.
Initially, when Gu Ya saw the name of this profession, he secretly rejoiced. Wasn't this tailor-made for him? His system perfectly matched this mecha pilot profession. It was from then on that Gu Ya began to feel that, in the grand scheme of things, heaven chose him to transmigrate to this world and bestow him with this ability, possibly with some purpose. However, divine thoughts were mysterious and lacked scientific basis. Gu Ya could only speculate. Undoubtedly, the moment Gu Ya saw this profession, he had made up his mind. He wanted, and would definitely choose, this profession. It was the desire of his heart and his goal, perfectly aligning with his wishes. Gu Ya wanted to protect the people he loved, to protect Youyou, the people of the Alliance community, and those who loved him too. Now, Gu Ya had someone else in his heart to care about.
Gu Ya lay in the mecha cockpit, looking up, lost in thought for a long time. Just then, Shi Heping sent a voice message to all students: [Students whose names I call now, please gather at the hangar. There are important matters to announce.] [Fan Mengtian, Chen Xingke, Wang Can, Xuan Lang, Wei Yongji...] [And, Gu Ya]