The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 128

“What do you mean?” Jiang Momo looked up.

The interstellar pirate who had been grinning a moment ago instantly wiped the smile off his face. His body stiffened, a chill ran down his spine, and the instinct honed by years of licking blood off blades snapped him awake. “Just joking, it’s just a joke. Leader, don’t be angry.”

In just a short moment, his way of addressing Jiang Momo had already gone through an upgrade.

“Leader, I’m Scarface, he’s Black Tiger. If you trust us, we’ll help you manage the others. You can count on us,” Scarface promised. “The fact that we survived means we’ve got no blood on our hands. We’re obedient.”

“What are the others’ names?” Jiang Momo turned to glance at the other researchers who had already started working in an orderly manner.

The two interstellar pirates exchanged a look and were momentarily speechless.

“You don’t even know their names and you want to manage them?” Jiang Momo crossed her arms.

She’d heard from E Mingjun that interstellar pirates revered strength above all. Regardless of gender, age, or status, they submitted to whoever was strongest. So when she pulled those two aside, she had planned to beat down any signs of rebellion, but surprisingly, they caved first.

Scarface took a deep breath. “Leader, you don’t know how messed up that research institute is. When we first got in, everyone went by numbers. Only when you get promoted to a certain level can you use your real name. I tried asking several times in secret but they just wouldn’t tell me what their names were.”

“Fine.” Jiang Momo turned and walked toward the center of the lab.

The two interstellar pirates exchanged a smug glance.

Jiang Momo turned her head. “Forget about managing others. It’s not happening.”

“Then are you planning to pick someone else from among them? Those guys are all brain-fried and totally clueless.” Scarface quickly followed behind her, trying to persuade her, “You can’t possibly stay here 24/7, can you?”

Jiang Momo stopped in her tracks.

Scarface had a point. She still had classes to teach and couldn’t keep watch all day. What if the two pirates started bullying the other researchers the moment she left?

She looked at the two behind her, thoughtful. “Under your supervision, can they complete the experiments independently?”

“Of course.”

“No way!”
Scarface and Black Tiger spoke at the same time.

Jiang Momo looked with surprise at Black Tiger, who had been quiet this whole time. “Why not?”

“This technology is extremely precise and we weren’t key members before. We’d have to learn the operations ourselves first. Some of the terminology is new to them and hard to explain. Most importantly, differences in how we describe things can lead to serious errors,” Black Tiger explained clearly and logically.

Jiang Momo glanced at Scarface, who looked like he’d just realized the same thing. She silently dropped the idea of locking the two in the materials storage to give remote instructions.

“Even though we were interstellar pirates, after being in prison for so long, our muscles have atrophied. We might not even be able to take on these people anymore, so don’t worry about us bullying anyone,” Black Tiger added with a guileless smile, hitting the mark. As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeve and showed Jiang Momo his thin arm.

Jiang Momo gave it a quick glance, didn’t comment, and asked casually, “What’s your current work schedule like?”

“We work from six in the morning until ten at night. One person on duty during break time,” Black Tiger replied.

“We’ll stick to that for now. After a few rounds of tests and the official launch, we’ll switch to four shifts, five people per shift,” Jiang Momo said.

As soon as she finished speaking, all the researchers, except the two interstellar pirates, turned their heads and stared at her.

Of course, Jiang Momo noticed the looks. But it was the first time they had made any voluntary movement since she met them, so she didn’t turn to look back. She just continued talking to the two interstellar pirates. “What about lodging conditions?”

“Single rooms. The rooms are locked during rest time,” Scarface quickly answered. “Leader, that Lu guy put our rooms at opposite ends of the dorm. Black Tiger doesn’t even have any researchers nearby. No one talks to him. Can you maybe…”

“That was a brilliant decision,” Jiang Momo said, very satisfied with Lu Feng’s arrangement.

Great minds think alike. Lu Feng must have also thought Black Tiger was the more unstable one of the two.

Jiang Momo stayed in the research lab for three hours. The second round of tests wasn’t even a quarter finished by then. She checked the time, placed the nail-sized energy core in her hand on a table nearby, said a few words to the researchers, and left.

***

Central Mecha Academy’s teacher dormitory.

Jiang Momo sat cross-legged on her bed, staring at her palm, mumbling to herself, “Weird. Even if the energy core is full of impurities, the performance drop shouldn’t be this drastic, right? I’ve been squeezing it all afternoon and didn’t feel anything.”

The refreshing effect she got before had completely vanished and holding the core felt no different than holding an ordinary rock.

“But based on what Scarface said, this thing can knock people out fast?”

She pondered for a while, getting nowhere. The more she thought, the messier her mind got. In the end, she pulled the blanket over her head to sleep.

“Forget it, I’ll stop thinking about it for now. I’ve got some free time anyway. Tomorrow, I’ll drop by the Jiang family and stir things up a bit before they notice anything strange.”

Just as she closed her eyes, her light brain buzzed twice.

There was a new message.

Jiang Momo opened her light brain to see a message from Li Yu.

[Military Research Institute Maintenance Department, Level 6 Technician Li Yu]: Have you heard that the First Military District got a batch of expelled researchers recently?

[Jiang Momo]: Yeah, I heard. What about it?

[Military Research Institute Maintenance Department, Level 6 Technician Li Yu]: Well, my cousin joined the research institute a couple of years ago. He failed several assessments and got booted. I’ve been covering for him so he wouldn’t get sent to the frontier as a laborer. But this time, Lieutenant General Lu personally came to gather them and took them all. I thought, since you’re working as a repair tech in the First Military District, maybe you could check how he’s doing.

[Jiang Momo]: I saw them today. They are fine.

[Military Research Institute Maintenance Department, Level 6 Technician Li Yu]: So he really did get dragged to the training grounds as cannon fodder!

[Jiang Momo]: No, not the training grounds. They are in the research lab.

[Military Research Institute Maintenance Department, Level 6 Technician Li Yu]: The military… they’re not doing human experiments, are they?

Jiang Momo couldn’t help but laugh.

[Jiang Momo]: Why do you always assume the worst? Was the employment contract you signed a slave contract or something? Could they just kill people at will?

[Military Research Institute Maintenance Department, Level 6 Technician Li Yu]: Might as well be. The compensation for ‘death in the line of duty’ is pretty high.

[Jiang Momo]: If you care about him so much, why didn’t you stop him from joining in the first place?

[Military Research Institute Maintenance Department, Level 6 Technician Li Yu]: He wanted to study S-grade mecha and snuck in on his own. If he hadn’t, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad even with my help.

[Jiang Momo]: What’s his name?

[Military Research Institute Maintenance Department, Level 6 Technician Li Yu]: Tang You.