The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 189

“Then there’s only one thing left for us to worry about now.” Jiang Momo pinched her chin.

Yan Chang asked, “What is it?”

“At the very least, we need half of the people on this list to enlist.” Jiang Momo pointed to the list in her hand.

Back when she submitted the names to the military, she had been afraid of leaks and hadn’t kept a copy for herself. The list she had just shown during the livestream was borrowed from Qin Chu. She studied the names for a while, murmuring, “Honestly, half is a bit too few. If two-thirds could join, our chances would be much greater.”

“Don’t worry, they’ll all come.” Yan Chang pressed a hand on Jiang Momo’s shoulder and said firmly, “You don’t need to feel so burdened. War isn’t the responsibility of just a few individuals.”

As he spoke, his gaze shifted and he immediately reopened a light brain interface to share with her.

On the screen, an old man was leaning on his cane, scolding his grandson. The angle was quite peculiar. Although it was obvious the old man was scolding his grandson, the perspective made the viewers feel as if they themselves were being scolded like unruly children.

“All you do every day is play around. The Federation is in peril. When one prospers, all prosper; when one suffers, all suffer. Stop fussing over trivial things. Today, you must go enlist!”

After saying this, the old man raised his cane to strike.

“Eh, don’t hit me, don’t hit me! Grandpa, I’ll go, okay? Let me just start a livestream and tell my fans first. Eh??? When did this stream start?! Holy—when did so many people show up in my room?! Fine, fine, dear fans, let me make this official announcement: I’m enlisting in the army right away. I’ll miss you all.”

After signing off, he rubbed his arm and muttered under his breath, “What age are we living in, still hobbling around with canes? Get a mechanical leg, it’s a matter of minutes. Damn old man’s still got strength, though.”

Jiang Momo turned to Yan Chang, waiting for an explanation.

“Old Master Jiang is a retired general and his family holds considerable influence. His grandson usually streams his upper-class lifestyle and already has a decent fanbase. He’s a good entry point,” Yan Chang explained from the side. “I’ve already convinced everyone on my end. If their name is on the list, they have to enlist.”

“How did you convince them?” Jiang Momo asked curiously. The moment the question left her lips, she felt it was a bit inappropriate and corrected herself, “Forget it. If it’s inconvenient, you don’t need to tell me.”

Yan Chang didn’t think there was anything he couldn’t tell her. He chuckled. “Well, we’ve got the latest production line, don’t we? Didn’t we say that after drinking the energy solution, once they fight a round on the battlefield, their mental power will just keep climbing?”

Jiang Momo frowned. “Did we really say that?” She remembered it more as there’s a chance they might feel increasingly energized and euphoric the longer they fight.

“Eh, more or less the same.” Yan Chang rubbed his nose, looking slightly guilty. His eyes flicked and he immediately pointed at the light brain screen in front of them, changing the subject. “Look, another spoiled second-generation who usually hangs around on the fringes is now speaking up about enlisting.”

“Did he always have that many followers?” Jiang Momo glanced at the profile page and asked.

Yan Chang nodded with confidence. “No idea.”

Jiang Momo: “?”

“Anyway, just leave this to me and stop worrying.” Yan Chang slipped an arm around her shoulder and patted it reassuringly. “You’ll see, nothing’s going to go wrong.”

And he wasn’t wrong. In the next day or two, one young master or lady after another with existing fanbases went live to announce their enlistment. Even those without fans held press conferences. The momentum quickly snowballed into something massive.

At that time, Jiang Momo was having lunch with Yan Chang in the Border Star System’s garrison cafeteria. When she saw the news, she went quiet for a long while before asking, “All of these are your people?”

“Not all.” Yan Chang peeled an orange and placed it in front of her. “But people care about appearances. Even those outside our circle see how much attention these statements bring and won’t want to be left behind. They’ll act too.”

According to Yan Chang’s plan, if everything developed smoothly, they could rally nearly eighty percent of the names on the list within a week.

However, plans never kept up with reality. After the initial two days of momentum, things began to take a strange turn as the upper-class figures were all stepping forward to enlist, while ordinary people remained hesitant, just watching.

A wave of doubt started spreading wildly across the StarNet, to the point that even the Research Institute couldn’t trace its source.

They said, [From the military’s livestreams, it looks like the Border Star System battlefield can’t even fit more people. Why are they still recruiting? These nobles are obviously staging a performance among themselves. Are we supposed to throw our lives away like fools? Who can say they’ll actually fight on the front lines? Who can guarantee this isn’t just another population purging plan?!]

To respond, the military quickly held several more livestreams, explaining to the public that it was because of the existence of spatial-type alien beasts. While most were currently concentrated on the Border Star System battlefield, there was still a strong chance they could appear directly on the heavily populated Central Star System. The Border Star System was simply where the bulk of the invaders were, but that didn’t mean other places were free of them. That was why they still needed massive numbers of people.

The public wasn’t buying it.

The military high command held several joint meetings with the Research Institute, but they couldn’t come up with a better solution. At the same time, they finally realized that the reports they had been sending to the President had never received a single reply.

“Aren’t you anxious, Dean Jiang?” One of the high-ranking officers looked at Jiang Momo, who sat there sipping tea with an air of complete calm, and couldn’t hold back anymore. “We need everyone on that list to enlist within half a month!”

“Being anxious won’t help.” Jiang Momo sipped her hot tea. “I’ll need to be away for two days. According to the statistics from the front lines, the number of alien beasts has already slowed in growth. For now, our manpower is sufficient.”

Over the past couple of days, through endless coaxing and persistence, she had finally gotten Yan Chang to admit something: the Yan family’s ancestor had been the very first president of the Federation. And more importantly, that ancestor had left behind a sealed set of letters in his tomb, forbidden for anyone to read. Jiang Momo suspected those letters might hold the key to how the Federation had once triumphed in the past alien beast War.

***

That very night, after Jiang Momo returned to the Yan family’s ancestral tomb on the Capital Star and began sifting through the mountain of letters, the alien beasts attacked the planet.

Recently, aside from the endless assaults on the Border Star System battlefield, the Central Star System had also occasionally suffered alien beast incursions. Because of this, most planets in the Central Star System had granted the Federation military permission to pre-deploy defenses and evacuations as soon as danger was detected. Yet this time, the military received no warning at all before the alien beasts struck the Capital Star.

When the alarms wailed in the middle of the night, Jiang Momo had barely finished a tenth of the letters. She had shut off her hearing to focus on reading, so she didn’t notice the sudden sirens. Thus, when Yan Chang came rushing in around three or four in the morning, she looked up in mild surprise at the time. Only then did she reopen her ear canal and finally hear the piercing alarm.

She opened her mouth, ready to ask, but Yan Chang’s voice cut her off.

“What the hell happened?! How could alien beasts suddenly appear on the Capital Star? Isn’t there supposed to be an advanced detection system?” His voice was sharp with urgency.

Yan Chang never doubted Jiang Momo, but the coincidence was unnerving. They had just discussed at noon how to get everyone on the list to enlist and that very night, the alien beasts invaded the Central Plaza where the refugees were gathered on the Capital Star. The military had been completely caught off guard. If not for the garrison forces stationed on the Capital Star, the losses would have been catastrophic.

Jiang Momo was still dazed. She set down the letter in her hand, not even managing to pull up her light brain to check the situation, and replied instinctively, “According to the Research Institute, the detection time is affected by the alien beasts’ distance from the equipment. The closer they appear, the later the equipment can detect them. We’ve discussed before that it’s entirely possible for alien beasts to show up on the Capital Star without being detected right away.”

Yan Chang frowned, but his breathing eased. He let out a long sigh. “So that’s what it is.”

Watching his expression, Jiang Momo couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something deeper hidden beneath his words. She asked, “So, this attack actually benefits us?”

“You could say that. Do you remember when those streamers visited the military to try the legendary mechas? Back then, the livestreams didn’t really convey the mechas’ power or the sheer pressure of the alien beasts. But this time, because the garrison forces were too few, those streamers were drafted in. Their livestream systems are immersive. So this time, the entire Federation truly experienced both the might of legendary mechas and the terror of the alien beasts firsthand.”

The military even concluded afterwards that perhaps they had evacuated civilians too quickly in previous battles. Only when the alien beasts were breathing down their necks did people finally grasp the urgency of the situation.

“So?” Jiang Momo ventured a guess.

“As soon as people saw the mechas’ real power and felt the alien beasts’ terror up close, public opinion flipped,” Yan Chang explained. “The alien beasts didn’t just hit the Capital Star this time. They attacked many planets across the Central Star System, especially the refugee center. The military immediately issued a statement that civilians on the list who choose to enlist would be stationed close to protect their own planets. And since no planets remained untouched, there would be no more evacuations in future invasions. That alone sent enlistment rates soaring. I thought this was your plan.”

Jiang Momo’s head was spinning from the letters; she hadn’t had time to ponder the implications of Yan Chang’s words. She shook her head quickly. “No, it has nothing to do with me.”

It was only when she saw the phrase ‘another population purging plan’ in online remarks that she belatedly understood the source of the public’s mistrust.

“So how high is enlistment now?” she asked.

“One hundred percent.” Yan Chang’s expression was strange.

Jiang Momo jumped. She had never once expected enlistment rates to reach that high. “Were the losses from this alien beast attack that severe?”

“The other planets in the Central Star System had early warnings from the Research Institute, so the military arrived in time. No casualties there. Only the Capital Star’s Central Plaza suffered. Because the refugees were concentrated there, the dense crowd panicked during the attack, triggering a stampede. Fifteen dead and one hundred seventy-six injured.” Yan Chang frowned, his gaze heavy. “Maybe a lot of people were truly frightened and, with the military’s statement on top of that, the enlistment applications were submitted planet by planet, all at once.”

Jiang Momo caught on immediately. “You’re worried that many of those enlistees weren’t truly volunteering and will be a burden?”

“I just think the timing is too coincidental. It feels man-made.” Yan Chang gave a bitter little laugh. “Maybe I’ve used too many tricks myself, so I’ve stopped believing in coincidences.”