The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 182

When Jiang Momo and E Mingjun had arrived, they were using the spaceship equipped with Little Eight’s system and they used the same one to return. The ship didn’t have a spatial jump system, so the journey was painfully slow and dull. Still, at that critical moment, she didn’t dare to leave the spaceship exposed in the Central Star System. There were too many unpredictable risks.

And yes, part of it was selfishness. There was still time. If Little Eight truly was the Federation’s only hope, she wanted to delay making that decision just a little longer.

But at their sluggish pace, the wait was tormenting for Jiang Momo who was desperate for answers.

E Mingjun, wearing a little floral apron, cleared away her empty plate and placed it in the spaceship’s built-in recycler. He pretended not to notice her restlessly flipping back and forth while checking the mechanical wall clock.

It’s fine. If Jiang Momo wanted to tell him, she would eventually.

E Mingjun comforted himself silently and then lowered the spaceship’s interior temperature by two degrees.

A soft wave of cold air gently descended from above. Jiang Momo shivered, her mind briefly clearing. “Any news on the StarNet lately?”

“StarNet is currently under maintenance and upgrade. The trending topic page is temporarily offline.” E Mingjun sat down across from her again and handed over a cup of hot tea.

‘That’s bad.’ Two big words floated in Jiang Momo’s mind.

Seeing her expression shift drastically, E Mingjun quickly added, “But based on what I’ve seen from public sentiment, people seem pretty calm and not nearly as panicked as before.”

Jiang Momo opened her eyes. Despite her tiredness, a glimmer lit them. “What did the new president do?”

Could it be that there was a breakthrough in the war? Maybe the research institute’s latest data differed from what Little Eight had calculated?

“Nothing.” E Mingjun shook his head.

“Nothing at all?” Jiang Momo rested her chin on her hand. “Any good news then?”

E Mingjun double-checked. “No. Everything looks… normal.”

“That’s not normal. Something big must have happened.” Jiang Momo instantly fell into deep thought.

E Mingjun knew what she meant. “Like that time the President’s scandal was quietly buried?”

“Exactly.” Jiang Momo nodded. “It’s fine. We’ll find out once we return to the Capital Star.”

StarNet was fully managed by the research institute. No matter what those people were scheming, as the director, she had the right to know.

***

The spaceship continued its steady flight, bringing the two closer to the truth.

By standard procedure, Jiang Momo and E Mingjun, both holders of Capital Star Residency, could pass through port security via fast track without disembarking. But this time, their spaceship was stopped by a patrol mecha.

“Due to special circumstances, all individuals must undergo manual security inspection,” a guard transmitted his voice directly into the spaceship through a directional sound wave.

Jiang Momo exchanged a glance with E Mingjun and guided the spaceship to land.

“Hello, please present your ID,” said the guard at the checkpoint, raising his head, and froze the moment he saw her face. He subtly stepped sideways, shielding her from view. In a low, hurried whisper, he said, “You don’t need to be scanned. Just go.”

“Hey, what’s taking so long over there?” another guard came over, grabbed Jiang Momo’s shoulder, and turned her around, then froze. “Jiang Momo?!”

That one shout stirred the surrounding crowd in the port into an uproar.

“Jiang Momo!”

“That’s Jiang Momo!”

Jiang Momo sensed immediately that their tone wasn’t friendly. She glanced toward the crowd and in the instant their hostility engulfed her, it felt like she was back on the danger-filled desolate planet. The queued-up crowd looked like alien beasts, hostile, baring their fangs, as if ready to pounce.

Without hesitation, Jiang Momo grabbed E Mingjun around the waist, hoisted him onto her shoulder, and sprinted back into the spaceship.

“What’s going on?” E Mingjun had already sensed something wrong earlier. He was about to grab Jiang Momo and run when he was suddenly lifted and thrown into a seat, his head still spinning.

“It has something to do with us,” Jiang Momo blurted. The shift in public sentiment had been too fast. Something wasn’t right.

“Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding,” E Mingjun said firmly.

Jiang Momo returned quickly to the research institute. As soon as she entered, she saw a figure seated in front of the detection instrument.

Vice Director Liu turned her head at the sound, dark circles hanging so low under her eyes they looked ready to fall off her jaw. The moment she saw Jiang Momo, her expression seamlessly shifted into one of utter despair.

“Director~ you’re finally back. I’m about to collapse~” Like a fledgling bird returning to its nest, she flung herself toward Jiang Momo.

Jiang Momo immediately sidestepped to avoid her. “Don’t you have a whole team under you? Why are you the only one working?”

“It was supposed to be rotating shifts for data monitoring,” Vice Director Liu grumbled, chugging down two bottles of energy-recovery solutions like her life depended on it. “But the military pulled some kind of stunt recently and now they can’t control the StarNet public opinion storm. So guess who gets to clean up their mess? Us, the research institute.”

“What stunt?” Jiang Momo asked.

“Right after you went on leave, the military publicly launched a forced conscription campaign. And get this, they based their selection criteria on the combat simulation game system you and Qin Chu designed.”

Vice Director Liu ground her teeth. “I heard the former president had already pushed for recruiting potential legendary mecha pilots from that list, but the military brass refused and said it was a waste of budget. So they missed their best window and now the whole mess is back to bite them in the ass. And they’re dragging us down with them.

“You have no idea. Things got ugly, and people were furious. Folks from neighboring second-tier planets bought standing-room-only tickets just to storm the Presidential Palace. It was nearly flooded with protesters. We only avoided disaster because our institute is a classified facility with a hidden location.

“You don’t even know how shameless they were. They tried to conscript nearly a third of anyone who’d ever logged into the combat simulation game. I checked the data and some of those people couldn’t even stay in a simulation pod for more than five minutes. They’re basically sending civilians to get chewed up by the alien beasts.”

“And the President?” Jiang Momo asked.

“No idea. He’s probably losing sleep over it.” Vice Director Liu plopped into a chair with a sigh. “The military thinks fresh blood will arrive soon, so the veterans are slacking off in battle. The Federation’s recruitment campaign is a total disaster. New conscripts are resisting with everything they’ve got, constantly clashing with enlistment officers. Even the officers themselves have family members who were forcibly drafted, so they’re half-hearted about their work. The situation’s way worse than we expected.”

Jiang Momo scratched her head in confusion, clicked her tongue, and sat down beside Vice Director Liu on a small stool.

E/N: Is there no one at the top that can do things right?? No one at all?! Is Lu Feng the only good guy in the military???!