Pleasing Start-Over Chapter 28

Arc 2.15

The talks would formally begin when all the teams, who were sent for negotiations, arrived. The third and fifth fleets’ special ops team members were beginning to escort the negotiation team off the s.h.i.+p and head to the designated location. When the s.h.i.+p’s alarm suddenly rang. Everyone stopped. Cade immediately contacted the observation room with his communicator, “What’s going on?”

“Vice captain, a planet with several volcanoes are emitting smoke. It looks like they’re about to erupt. Our intelligence team and important equipments are still on that planet.” The observation team quickly and urgently spoke.

Auray’s communicator received the rescue order from the captain. He immediately led the team to s.h.i.+p’s deck to quickly follow the new mission orders. The fifth fleet crew was also given rescue orders shortly after the third fleet received theirs. Jared also led his team away and set off quickly. Some of the members of the negotiation team were slow to react. They looked at each other confused while the people who knew the situation’s severity looked anxious.

“I must apologize to both Duke Lucaron and Duke Sovdeli. I’m afraid it’s no longer possible to attend today’s negotiations. Allow me to send you back to your rooms to rest.” Cade pressed down the anxiety building in his heat. He wanted to quickly return the two dukes to their rooms, so he could see the situation in the command room.

“How can we rest at ease at a time like this? Take us to the command room to see what’s going on.” Duke Lucaron frowned and said. He continued to say that the negotiations hadn’t even begun, yet such a matter had occurred. It wouldn’t be worth it if they had to incur such a huge amount of casualties and damage.

“Yes. Please follow me.” Cade obliged and took them to the command room.

The third and fifth fleet’s captains were in the command room watching the rescue mission take place. Cade led the negotiation team immediately from outside into the lounge beside the command cabin. It was separated by a gla.s.s wall and the entirety of the command room clearly visible and the sound from the command room could also be heard. This allowed them to view but did not allow them to interfere with the command room personnel’s work.

After arranging the negotiation team’s needs, Cade and Canette entered the command room from a different door to observe the situation from beside their captains. Previously, Green had been discussing something with his captain when the alarm sounded off, so he followed his captain into the command room as well.

All of the rescue team mechs were obstructed by thick, black smoke. They were unable to determine the location of the intelligence team on the planet. They also didn’t dare to land haphazardly, so the atmosphere was very tense. Only Henry, who was piloting the Z-801, could barely see through the smog. However, his vision didn’t allow him to see too far into the distance. He would be able to find members of the intelligence team and quickly rescue them, but this only applied to his one mech. With the speed of a single mech, he could attempt to rescue everyone, but no one knew when the volcano was going to erupt or even what would be come out from it either.

At the moment, the staff in the command room was tense as the busily worked.

“The visibility has been set to the highest level, but I still can’t see clearly!”

“We can’t determine the exact location of the intelligence team. Their signal’s lost.”

“It’s too cloudy to recommend flight alt.i.tude. Please fly carefully to avoid hitting the rocky mountains!”

“Where’s Qiaoyi?” Cade asked the captain’s a.s.sistant beside him. With the current situation, rescue was simply impossible. He couldn’t continue without some other means.

“He’s already been notified and is on his way.” The a.s.sistant replied.

The negotiation team watched the situation as it unfolded in the command room. They also tensed up and were very anxious. They saw a door open up and Qiao Chen quickly stepping inside. There was no time for greetings or extra words. Qiao Chen immediately walked to the control panel. The controller immediately gave way and let Qiao Chen sit in his seat.

Qiao Chen inserted a magnetic crystal card into a slot and quickly started up the conversion program and turned on the “Excelerator Mode” on the control panel. Subsequently, all the system programs were readjusted.

(T/N: 超能量 isn’t a direct translation. And excelerator isn’t even a real word, but it fit the scene~)

The new magnetic crystal cards Qiao Chen developed were able to quickly upgrade all the programs and boosted energy efficiency. Even though the crystal card had been thoroughly tested, it hadn’t been installed into the command room’s control panel because he spent most of his time building his new mech.

“R1 Vision Program upgrade complete.”

“C3 Inquiry Program upgrade complete.”

“R2 Response Sensor Program upgrade complete.”

“B1 Complete Lens Supplement Program upgrade complete.”

“A3 Ability Inspection Program upgrade complete.”

“And the mech connector program?” Qiao Chen asked aloud as he worked on the control panel.

“The connection failed. Unable to connect!”

Qiao Chen stood up and quickly walked to the wired operation control panel. After connecting to the mech, Qiao Chen returned back to the main control panel.

“The command module’s program has been updated. I’ve already connected to the mechs and updated them all.” Qiao Chen quickly said.

“Number 1, Auray has been updated. Visual range is 3500 meters.”

“Number 7, Henry has been updated. Visual range is 6 kilometers.”

“Number 2, Kurit has been updated. Visual range is 2200 meters.”

“Number 4, Sodini has been updated. Visual range is 2 kilometers.”

Auray and the other members all reported the updates on their mechs. Since each mech had different specifications, the improved capabilities varied among them.

Qiao Chen looked at the console screen and saw the position of all the team members and said, “No. 1, turn 35 degrees to the left and fly for 5000 meters. No. 2, turn 15 degrees to the left and fly for 3000 meters. No. 3, turn 50 degrees to the right and fly for 1500 meters…………”

As Qiao Chen adjusted each member’s positions, he did his best to arrange them so their visual range wouldn’t coincide with each other. This would expedite their search for them to successfully rescue everyone.

The black smoke continued to billow out. Fortunately, after Qiao Chen’s upgrades, the rescue continued quite smoothly. After all their experts were rescued, they began retrieving the equipment. The equipment was very important, so they had to retrieve everything that could be saved. The third fleet members kept busy as the fifth fleet’s mechs hovered in the air. They couldn’t see clearly through the black smog, so they could only watch as the third fleet’s mechs zipped back and forth between the planet and the s.h.i.+p.

The gap between the two fleets was so glaringly obvious that everyone on the negotiation team saw it. The fifth fleet’s captain and Canette’s faces darkened. Everyone on the intelligence team that was returned to the s.h.i.+p gathered in the lounge beside the command room to watch the equipment being saved.

“Are you OK, Caesar?” Fionn was finally relieved when he saw Caesar and the rest of the intelligence team back on the s.h.i.+p.

Caesar shook his head. His face was still pale. The fear still lingered as he replied, “I was scared half to death. Out of nowhere, smoke was everywhere. It was harder and harder for us to breath. We couldn’t even open our eyes. We thought that this was it; that we were done for.”

Fionn hugged Caesar, patted him on the back, and said,“It’s all right. You’re safe now.”

“The smoke wasn’t normal. It should have impacted the mechs. I didn’t expect that they would have actually found us.” Caesar said emotionally.

“The mech’s visuals were affected, but Qiaoyi updated the programs’ efficiency.” Fionn pointed to Qiao Chen- who was still busy as he directed the mechs.

Caesar followed Fionn’s line of sight. Qiao Chen had been carefully watching the changes in the smoke. They hadn’t retrieved much of the equipment yet, but he felt that all the volcanoes were about to erupt. He didn’t want his teammates to continue risking their lives for the remaining equipment, so he had them all withdraw from the thick smoke. There were loud explosions and the sound of metal knocking around on the planet. The volcanoes erupted but no one knew what was coming out of them.

Over two hours had pa.s.sed when the smoke finally dispersed. The earth and rocks on the planet were chaotically scattered around. Both fleets’ crews flew their mechs around the planet. They inspected the planet’s current situation. Among the scattered earth and stones, there were a lot of silvery white metals. Even the intelligence team members couldn’t recognize what kind of metal it was at the moment.

Greene was wide eyed when he excitedly told his captain, “Captain, that metal can make truly invisible mechs. You have to let our team bring back that metal.”

“Are you sure?” Canette asked uneasily.

“I’m positive. I swear that I’m not wrong. Please trust me. ” Greene a.s.suredly said. In order to create cloaking mechs, he had been researching countless data on the topic. He looked at the pictures and the data about this metal every day, so he was sure he couldn’t be mistaken.

“Captain?” Canette asked their captain.

Vegas, the fifth fleet captain, nodded. Canette immediately ordered the team to return with the metal as soon as possible.

The fifth fleet crew followed their orders and quickly flew to the metal. The third fleet team also heard Greene’s conversation from the command room, but they did not receive orders and hesitated on whether they should retrieve the metal.

“Captain, are we also…” Cade also asked Rouble.

“En.” Rouble nodded with some hesitation.

Just as the third fleet members rushed to the land their mechs, Qiao Chen shouted, “Wait- don’t touch the metal.”

The third fleet team immediately stopped, but the fifth fleet wouldn’t listen to Qiao Chen. Immediately after they landed, they picked out the largest piece to return to the s.h.i.+p.

The metal, very clearly, looked like a solid. However, as soon as the fifth fleet mechs touched the metal, it melted. Then the mechs that touched the metal visibly lost their l.u.s.ter. The areas where the l.u.s.ter was lost quickly rusted over. It looked like worn out copper and worn out metal as it eroded into brittle pieces that would fall apart once touched.

Everyone except Qiao Chen was stunned. How could this be?

Qiao Chen actually recognized the metals before Greene. He knew that these were the metal that could make invisible mechs. He had also done a lot of research on the metal in his previous life, however, he felt a nagging feeling that the metal looked strange so he didn’t immediately announce it.

But Greene had also recognized the metal, and immediately announced his discovery while Qiao Chen was still recalling the information from his previous life. Once he remembered, he knew what the metals looked so strange, and he knew why he had that bad feeling. He looked up the metals on his system and searched for any problems concerning it.

His search paid off and allowed Qiao Chen to know that the composition of the metals had completely changed and subsequently caused the volcanoes to erupt. The volcanoes weren’t even supposed to exist, so the appearance of them indicated that the metals from within had some sort of a problem. Therefore, it was better not to touch them. If these metals didn’t have anything wrong with them, then it was good to mine for them. These were metals that could create cloaking mechs were really rare and difficult to find. However, the metals’ composition changed and gave forth to a corrosive component that was able to rapidly oxidize any metals.

Three of the dozen or so of the fifth fleet’s mechs completely oxidized and rusted over into sc.r.a.p metal.

“What’s going on here?” Canette was shocked and angrily questioned Greene.

“I- I also don’t know how this could have happened.” Greene was also in shock and panicking too. There had been no information about how corrosive the metals could be.

“You don’t know? You don’t know, but you were so ‘positive’ when you told us to bring the metals back?” If it wasn’t for the Captain standing in the middle of them, Canette would have already slapped Greene in the face.

“I-I ……” Greene trailed off. He didn’t know how to defend himself.

Compared to the fifth fleet’s side, Cade and Rouble couldn’t help it, but they felt happy. It was a good thing that Qiaoyi stopped them in time. If the Z-801 touched that metal, then they would have suffered an immense loss.

“Everyone return.” Rouble gave the order for everyone to withdraw.

Qiao Chen’s job was done too. He stood up and walked to the exit. As he pa.s.sed Greene, he said, “The metal that appears after an abnormal phenomenon will inevitably have an abnormality itself. You have the gall to give your opinion and provide suggestions when you as a mech engineer don’t even have the basics or foundations about metals? I suggest you find a school and study hard instead of constantly thinking up of shady, back-alley ways to do the work for you.”

It wasn’t just Greene who was embarra.s.sed by Qiao Chen’s words. The fifth fleet felt it too.

Arc 2.16

“Qiaoyi, this time, your ole’ teacher really needs to thank you. If it wasn’t for you, then I wouldn’t have been able to come back.” Caesar sighed as he collapsed back on Qiao Chen’s living room sofa.

“You were terrified, weren’t you, professor?” Qiao Chen cooked a pot of chicken soup. He also put some soothing medicine to relieve his teacher and papa’s anxiety.

“Of course.” Caesar sighed, “That planet had such strong energy signals. I thought it would’ve produced excellent, rare metals and minerals… I didn’t expect that the metal ores were indeed excellent, but the composition mutated so severely that you couldn’t even touch them. We almost lost our lives on top of it all.”

“Fortunately, you were all successfully rescued. Even most of the equipment was saved too. Other countries didn’t have such good luck. I just heard that their losses were disastrous.” Fionn sighed. The volcanic planet was also occupied by other countries, but not a single human life or equipment was saved among them.

“But the negotiations are still going on. If they don’t speed up the talks, then who knows what other strange things will happen next?” Caesar said.

After Qiao Chen finished cooking the chicken soup, he gave it to Fionn and Caesar. They drank the soup and headed back to their rooms to rest.

In reality, it was just as Caesar said. The negotiations were still in progress, but they weren’t going well. The cl.u.s.ter of planets was first discovered but them, and they were the closest to the planet, so it was decided that they would obtain the largest number of planets when owners.h.i.+p would be distributed. However, the other countries that experienced heavy losses were reluctant to sign the contract that they previously agreed on. They felt that their losses were greater, so they should be given more planets to make up for it. As a result, the negotiations were at a standstill.

However, more and more planets in the cl.u.s.ter began to exhibit strange occurrences and phenomena. They knew they couldn’t drag the talks any longer and they couldn’t use force to contend over the planets either.

———-

“Qiaoyi.” The fifth fleet’s captain, Vegas, greeted with Canette following behind. He pa.s.sed through the hallway and happened upon Qiao Chen.

“Captain Vegas.” Since they happened to meet, Qiao Chen had no choice but to greet him as well.

“I’ve always had a question I wanted to ask you. I hope you can help me answer it. Why didn’t you perform so well while you were in the fifth fleet?” Vegas asked earnestly. He truly regretted the decision to allow Qiao Chen resigned from the fifth fleet. He had repeatedly reprimanded Canette for agreeing to his decision as well. However, Canette said that Qiaoyi probably had a hidden agenda and deliberately under performed while in the fifth fleet.

“All I can say is that I put forth my best effort during my time at the fifth fleet. It’s just that someone was always prevented me from doing so, so I had to leave.” Qiao Chen said straightforwardly.

“What if I invited you back to the fifth fleet now? Our side can also give you the best treatment. And if you feel there is someone who’s trying to hold you back, then just say the words. I can help resolve the issue.” Vegas promised Qiao Chen.

“I’m sorry Captain Vegas. I’ll have to refuse your invitation.” Qiao Chen took a quick glance at Canette and said, “I have never offended Vice Captain Canette before, yet he still viewed me poorly. If I return to the fifth fleet now, then I’m not sure how difficult he’d make it for me.”

“You……” Canette was angry and wanted to say something to Qiao Chen. However, he resisted the urge because Vegas was there.

“My apologies, but I need to go to work now.” Qiao Chen checked the time and quickly turned away. There was always a possibility of a fight around every corner. He needed to complete his new mech as soon as possible, so it could be put to good use. He didn’t have time to chat here and there with them.

After the eruption, the metal on the planet, even though it could be used to make stealth mech, wasn’t too useful. However, both fleets still send their men in to do an overhead search to find any other minerals or ores. Unfortunately, many of the planets’ magnetic fields began to change. The mechs’ programming was affected by the magnetic fields, so some of the searches weren’t proceeding smoothly. Henceforth, Qiao Chen’s workload increased.

In order to mine the metal and prepare for future war, everyone on the s.h.i.+p was busily working. Both dukes took advantage of the staff’s break time to bring the negotiation team in to comfort the crew. For the average staff member, these people were important people with high status. They felt honored that these people would personally come over and express concern for them.

Fionn looked around the s.h.i.+p’s lounge but didn’t see Qiao Chen. He heard from Henry that Qiaoyi would be in the mech’s hangar bay all day long to inspect the mech programs. Fionn walked into the area where the mechs were parked. He saw Qiao Chen holding a device while he discussing something with the other engineers. Fionn didn’t walk over and disturb them. He patiently waited until the group finished talking and walked their separate ways before he made his way over. Qiao Chen turned around to see Fionn making his way over, so he walked towards him as well.

At the same time, the fifth fleet mechs had just returned to the s.h.i.+p. They entered through the loading channel and coasted into the hangar’s holding area. When the mechs stopped, they shook on the impact of landing and powering down. This normally didn’t affect the activity below.

However, one of the mechs shook and dropped a large drop of silvery substance. As soon as Qiao Chen looked up, he clearly saw what the object was. Without thinking, he quickly shoved Fionn down and s.h.i.+elded him. The silvery drop landed right on his back,

“Ahh!” Qiao Chen yelled out because of the painful burning sensation that ran through his back. He immediately rotated his body and let the silver substance roll off his body.

“Qiaoyi!” Fionn yelled out. He wasn’t too clear about what just happened. He only knew something fell on to Qiao Chen, and then his face contorted in pain.

The people who heard the commotion immediately came over to check on the situation.

“Pappa! Brother! What happened?” Henry had just entered the bay and witnessed the scene. He rushed to the two’s sides. When he saw the silver drop roll off Qiao Chen, his back was dyed red with blood. He nervously yelled, “Brother’s gotten hurt! How could this have happened? Hurry and call the doctor over.”

“Qiaoyi, how are you feeling? Does it hurt?” Fionn fussed. He sat up and saw Qiao Chen’s injured back. He saw sweat drip off of Qiao Chen’s face as it writhed in agony and felt a deep, heavy pain in his heart.

“Fionn, are you alright?” Min Xiu, Fionn’s husband sprinted over. Once he reached Fionn, he crouched down and check Fionn for any injuries.

“Where’s the doctor? Quickly call the doctor!” Fionn loudly said as he grabbed his husband’s hand.

“Already notified. He’ll be here soon.” Min Xiu rea.s.sured Fionn and held his hand.

Everyone had gathered around, but couldn’t do a thing. They could only wait for the doctor to arrive.

Qiao Chen clenched his jaw as he endured the pain. He pointed with his trembling hand at the large drop of still corroding liquid and said, “Put that thing in gla.s.s- put it in or else it’ll corrode through the floor… Hurry!”

Everyone had been focused on Qiao Chen’s wellbeing, so n.o.body noticed that the drop was still burning through the floor. Immediately, a staff member grabbed a gla.s.s jar and transferred the liquid in. There would have been a ma.s.sive problem if he didn’t quickly take action. The liquid would have penetrated the flooring and into to the mechanical parts and wiring below.

“Qiaoyi!” Auray arrived at the same time as the doctor. He immediately and carefully lifted Qiao Chen onto the stretcher that the doctor brought. He followed the doctor’s lead as he quickly pushed Qiao Chen into the sick bay. Everyone else followed behind as well. The doctor couldn’t allow everyone into the sick bay. Only Auray, who had been pus.h.i.+ng the cart, was allowed in. Everyone else was shut out.

Fionn’s hands pressed against the gla.s.s wall as he tried to see what was happening with Qiao Chen, but the doctor pulled the curtain and blocked his view.

Min Xiu stroked Fionn’s back as he rea.s.sured, “Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.”

“It was all because of me…” Fionn lamented. He was filled with guilt and heartache. He knew that if Qiaoyi didn’t take the hit, then he would have been the one suffering.

“Don’t think like that. It’s not your fault. Qiaoyi wouldn’t want you to blame yourself either.” Min Xiu hugged Fionn and let him lean into himself.

“Pappa, don’t worry. Brother will definitely be fine. He just didn’t want you to get hurt, so he blocked it for you. It’s not good to blame yourself like that.” Henry was also very worried and anxious, but he still consoled Fionn.

First, the doctor sprayed some pain reliever to alleviate Qiao Chen’s pain. Then, he used tweezers to pick out the pieces of the blood soaked clothes from Qiao Chen’s mangled back. Auray stayed off to the side and held Qiao Chen’s hand. He did his best so he wouldn’t interfere or block the doctor’s treatment.

Auray still didn’t understand how Qiao Chen would suffer such a serious injury while on the s.h.i.+p. He watched Qiao Chen’s pallid, sweaty complexion and wished he could take Qiao Chen’s place.

The doctor continued to meticulously treat Qiao Chen’s wound. He applied medicine and then hooked Qiao Chen up to an IV drip. The medical equipment in the s.h.i.+p’s sick bay was expansive, so they weren’t lacking anything. After the doctor’s work and treatment and medicine, Qiao Chen felt much better. He barely felt the pain anymore.

“I’m much better now. You don’t need to worry anymore.” Qiao Chen rea.s.sured as he held Auray’s hand. He knew Auray was extremely worried for him.

“Don’t speak, just rest well. Just go to sleep so you don’t have to endure the pain. I’ll be here with you.” Auray said. Then he bowed his head down and kissed Qiao Chen on the forehead.

“Alright.” Qiao Chen said and then closed his eyes. He really did feel somewhat tired. He had been very busy lately, so it was better to take advantage of the time to rest.

Several of the doctors had been working for the third fleet for many years now. They naturally knew Auray and Qiao Chen’s ident.i.ties. They were a bit surprised to see the two so close, but they were also not very surprised. The two people, regardless of their family background or ability or appearance, suited each other. Auray stayed by Qiao Chen’s side until he slept his fill and woke up. Fionn and company came to see Qiao Chen and then Auray left.

Kurit waited outside at the door. As soon as Auray exited, he told Auray the results of the captain’s investigation. The silver liquid that fell dropped from Jared’s mech. It was Greene who wanted to study whether or not the metals that had already mutated were still useful in making stealth mechs. He requested Jared to secretly bring some back to the s.h.i.+p. It had been brought back in a gla.s.s bottle and was stashed in the mech’s palm. When the mech landed and shut off, the mech shook and accidentally broke the bottle which caused it to spill.

Greene also admitted it.

The captain was furious. He wanted to immediately hold the two men accountable, but they were not under his jurisdiction. So he immediately reported everything to the military headquarters. Min Xiu was the Military and Administration Headquarters’ Vice Chief. He asked the Military and Administration HQ’s staff to rush Rouble’s accountability report. Soon, the punishment was dealt out.

Greene’s rank as a Senior Mech Engineer was revoked and he was barred from working with any mech related jobs. Finally, after the mission was complete, he would be immediately sent back to his original planet and banned from returning to the Empire’s capital planet for the rest of his life.

Jerry was stripped of his post as captain and demoted by three ranks. Because of the upcoming battle, he was temporarily allowed to continue his partic.i.p.ation; however, after the mission ended, he would face a five month suspension.

Even though they were dealt a punishment with a heavy hand… every single time Auray thought about Qiao Chen’s mangled and bloodied back with his face contorted in pain, he simply couldn’t be relieved. He wanted them to pay back the debt a thousand times over.

Arc 2.17

Qiao Chen lay on the sick bay’s bed. Fionn lightly lifted the thing sheets to see the wounds on Qiao Chen’s back. Unfortunately, a large piece of gauze was attached to his back, so the wound couldn’t be seen.

“Does it still hurt?” Fionn asked as he carefully put the sheet back down.

“It’s not bad. With the medicine’s help it’s not that painful.” This universe’s pharmaceuticals were very good. If it was the original universe he was on, then these kinds of injuries would have probably made him suffer in pain for a long time.

“You absolutely could have dodged it yourself. Why did you block it for me?” Fionn asked. His guilt and self blame couldn’t be appeased. No one would have wanted their children to bear the pain for them.

“Well, why else? It was a reflexive reaction. If papa knew that I was in danger, then you would have also instinctively protected me, right? ”

Fionn brushed his fingers against Qiao Chen’s hair. He felt many strong emotions well up in his heart. When he was young, he thought that his fate was filled with pain and suffering. He was forced to marry a man who didn’t love him- nor did he love that man either. To make matters worse, he had a person whom he loved dearly, but couldn’t be him. The only emotions he felt were wrought with pain and sorrow. When he was finally able to escape that cage that trapped him in pain, he immediately left. He never thought that he would have ever been able to be with the love of his life, but things had finally turned around.

When the initial joy and excitement of getting rid of his shackles of fate faded, he realized his haste for freedom caused him to hurt the one he shouldn’t have hurt at all. By the time he realized this and tried to atone for the mistake, it was too late. Qiaoyi had become like a wounded hedgehog and refused his approaches. Thankfully, Qiaoyi did forgive him. If not, then he wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself either.

Many people visited Qiao Chen during his recovery period. However, he had been lying on the bed all this time, so he was bored out of his mind. When he was able to finally sit up, Qiao Chen returned to his room and continued his work on the final stages of perfecting his new mech.

It was just that Auray set a rule that he had to lay, stomach down, to rest. He was required to rest three hours for every hour he sat for work. If he didn’t follow this rule, then Auray would confiscate all his equipment and microchips.

After the negotiations fell apart, each country forcibly occupied a planet and began their processes for mining. The entire cl.u.s.ter of planets was in a chaotic state. Battles and gunfire could be seen at any time or place. Furthermore, if other countries were even a little careless, than the other countries would find the opportunity to occupy their planet.

However, even at this critical moment, the fifth fleet had another problem arise. Their special operations team’s mech all had a severe programming error that caused the entire system to malfunction. Furthermore, they had no idea as to what was going on. The mech engineers wanted to reinstall the system, but they couldn’t completely uninstall any of the programs kept cras.h.i.+ng.

Since the mech’s programming was previously headed by Greene, the fifth fleet’s captain allowed the already discharged Greene to return and fix the problems. However, Green couldn’t clear out the malfunctioning programs he had secretly written with his system’s help.

For such a mess to arise when they were in midst of great chaos made even their own faction’s Duke Sovdeli angry. He pointed his finger at the fifth fleet captain and furiously scolded him for his incompetence in guarding or managing his own people and subordinates.

Captain Vegas had quite a few years of seniority on him. Therefore, even though Duke Sovedelo was older than him, it was still extremely embarra.s.sing to be scolded. Thus, he simply hated Greene and didn’t look favorably towards Canette either.

Eventually, the fifth fleet captain had no other choice but to have a slice of humble pie* and ask the third fleet’s Captain Rouble to come and have the still injured Qiao Chen help them repair their mechs’ systems.

(T/N: 放下身段 = get off your high horse, but (in my opinion) humble pie fits better)

Despite Rouble’s unwillingness, he couldn’t refuse Vegas’s request this time. If he did, then their overall offensive situation would be very bad.

Qiao Chen knew what was wrong before he even checked their mechs. Greene’s system had been hacked by the virus Qiao Chen set up when he used his system in his attempt to hack into Qiao Chen’s locator device. Then, he used his compromised system to set up the programs for the mech, so of course there were problems and malfunctioning errors.

Qiao Chen’s back injury wasn’t fully healed, so he couldn’t wear his lab coat for the time being. When he went to repair the fifth fleet mechs, he was only wearing a loose cotton s.h.i.+rt and a thin jacket. With his slightly pale face, he exuded a sense of morbid beauty. Jared saw Qiao Chen with this appearance and he didn’t know how to feel. He stepped forward and wanted to talk to Qiao Chen, but was blocked by Henry.

Several soldiers from the third fleet had escorted Qiao Chen over and no one from the fifth fleet was allowed to approach him. So even though these were the fifth fleet’s mechs and Qiao Chen was here to help them repair their operating system, they couldn’t speak to Qiao Chen. They could only stand aside and wait.

Of course, Qiao Chen wouldn’t help them fix all their mechs’ systems. After he troubleshot one mech, he identified the programming’s’ issue and told the fifth fleet’s mech engineers how to clear out the crashed programs. They could write and install new programs by themselves.

While Qiao Chen was leaving, Jared followed behind, and called out to him in the hallway, “Qiaoyi.”

“What are you doing?” Henry walked over and stopped him again. He looked at Jared unhappily.

“Qiaoyi, I wanted to talk to you alone.” Jared looked at Qiao Chen, who was being protected in the middle of the group.

“Go to the front and wait for me.” Qiao Chen requested. He wanted to hear what Jared was going to say.

The rest of the team moved twenty or thirty meters ahead of the corridor and waited, but Henry refused to leave. He stood behind Qiao Chen and guarded against Jared.

“If there’s anything you want to say- then please get straight to the point. I don’t have time to chit chat with you.” Qiao Chen said.

“It’s about Greene. He’s going to be sent back to his home planet after the mission is over. I hope that you can help him by pleading for leniency, so he could at least stay on the capital planet.” Jared didn’t beat around the bush and requested straightforwardly. Greene was in a very bad mood and he just had to do something to help Greene.

“What’s that have to do with me? Why should I help him?” Qiao asked. He was baffled by Jared’s request.

“If- if you’re willing to help Greene, than I can promise you anything. I can get engaged to you again and swear that I won’t be in a relations.h.i.+p with Greene anymore.” Jared felt that Qiaoyi had loved him so dearly and deeply, that Qiaoyi should still have feelings for him. After all- the deeper the love, the deeper the hate.

“I don’t know if you’re too stupid or just that self centered. Maybe it’s a combination of both.” Qiao Chen said sarcastically, “You think that I’m still vying for your attention? That’s ridiculous. This is the most disgusting you’ve ever been- you know what? If you agree to my request that you’ll never appear in front of me ever again, and then I might just consider helping Green stay on the capital planet so your ‘better half’ can complete you.”

Jared was so embarra.s.sed by Qiao Chen’s mocking sarcasm that he just stood there and blankly watched them leave.

Qiao Chen was extremely disgusted with them. It was those two men who had injured him and delayed his progress with his new mech. If at that time it was his papa who had gotten hurt then he would have wanted them to die ugly deaths. Anyways, they were the ones who had dared to injury him so badly, so he wouldn’t let them go just like that.

——

Qiao Chen insisted on continuing his work on the new mech despite his injuries. Even though Auray gave him time to rest, the battles were getting fiercer and fiercer. Auray was busy fighting everyday and had no time to watch over Qiao Chen. Others advised him not to listen either.

The altercations were getting worse. All the countries had invested too much manpower in the battle for the cl.u.s.ter of planets, so they had to compete for more planets in order to offset the cost invested. This resulted in a cycle that created fierce disputes. Some people had even resorted to seizing the minerals that other countries had mined.

Qiao Chen’s new mech was finally completed. He named it Radiance RS (T/N: Let me know if you have a better name. I suck with names 光影RS).  Since he had no time to run it through simulations, Qiao Chen had to test it directly in combat.

In order to have a quicker and better understanding of problems that may spring up during combat, and to make timely modifications to places it was lacking, Qiao Chen watched the fight directly in the mech’s c.o.c.kpit while Auray was in battle.

The new mech’s combat capabilities shocked their own people, let alone those from other countries. If they compared other mechs to the Radiance RS, than the other mechs were like slow children trying to fight against a strong, agile adult. Even the Z-801 couldn’t hold a candle to the Radiance RS.

While Auray piloted the mech, he also felt that the mech’s capabilities far surpa.s.sed that of other mechs. This was the mech that Qiao Chen poured his time and energy into making.

Some countries had already run out of funds and began to retreat. In this universe, the country with the strongest mech had absolute dominance. The Radiance RS’ combat effectiveness, along with the Z-801, had the other countries retreat one by one. They came to the realization that they couldn’t win. If they continued to fight, then they would only continue to incur severe losses.

———–

All the mechs were quietly parked in the dark hangar. However, it was at this time that someone quietly entered the hangar and then boarded one of the mechs.

Suddenly, the hangar lights were turned on. The dark hangar bay was as bright as day. Qiao Chen and Auray appeared in the outer hallway on the second floor with several of the Special Ops’ soldiers standing behind them. Rouble and Cade also walked to the first floor of the hangar bay with the rest of the third fleet.  They stood in front of Radiance RS.

Cade looked up and shouted angrily, “You’re still not quickly coming down? Are you waiting for us to come up there and invite you down ourselves?”

Two people stepped out of Radiance RS’s c.o.c.kpit. They were Jared and Greene.

Because the second floor was higher than the mech’s c.o.c.kpit, that meant that it was closer to the c.o.c.kpit than the first floor. Qiao Chen looked down at Greene and mocked, “Were you going to tamper with my mech? Did you want it to be just like before? You’d have my programs go haywire so that you can come swooping in like some sort of savior and ‘help’ me solve the problem?”

Greene knew that Qiaoyi knew that he tampered with most of his programs. But he also figured that Qiaoyi had no real evidence to support it. If he did, then he would have exposed him long ago. Furthermore, he used the system to sabotage Qiaoyi’s programs, so there certainly wasn’t any evidence to be found.

“Everyone was talking about how great the mech you made was. I was just curious, so I asked Jerry to sneak me in to take a look. I wasn’t going to do anything.” Greene denied. He didn’t want to admit that he really want to work on Qiao Chen’s mech as his last ditch effort to turn the tide in his favor. So even though the system had been a little weird for some time now, he still had to give it a go.

“Really? You were just curious, right?” Qiao Chen sneered. Then he jumped down from the second floor elevator and landed on the mech. Auray followed behind him and escorted him into the mech’s c.o.c.kpit.

Greene and Jared had just come back down to the ground floor when the fifth fleet, who had just received the news, rushed in.

“What are you doing Jared? He’s already completely ruined himself. Are you going to follow him and destroy your own future too?” Vegas furiously reprimanded Jared. They’ve taken enough responsibility for the mistake on this mission and the two still wanted to go looking for more trouble.

“I…….”Jared didn’t know how he could justify it. He knew he couldn’t do anymore at this time, but Greene begged him to take him to Radiance RS’s hangar. He kept saying that it was his last chance stay at the capital, so he had to enter the mech. Therefore, even though Jared didn’t know why they had to go to the mech so Greene could stay, he eventually agreed after Greene repeatedly begged him to. After all, it was Greene- the one who not only save his life, but also his dearest and most beloved.

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