The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 19

Jiang Momo stared at the bite mark, full of question marks in her head.

What did this mean?

Was this the legendary Mr. Dongguo and the wolf? The farmer and the snake? Jiang Momo and Peng Ji? |1|

As Jiang Momo was deep in thought, the sound of a stopwatch ticking echoed in her ears. She looked up and a countdown appeared before her eyes.

[35:59:30]

“What should I do? I’ve never assembled this kind of small mecha before. Its structure should be about the same as a B-grade, right?” Jiang Momo squatted on the ground, fretting over the parts that had just been dumped out of a sack.

When Little Eight started teaching her, it began with the kind of standard mechas that were over ten meters tall. According to it, mechas in the past were mostly similar in size, only differing in model numbers.

Jiang Momo had no idea how much her casual comment shocked the invigilators standing nearby.

They had initially thought Ge Qing’s test this time was too simple to really screen candidates and were quietly discussing it among themselves when they heard Jiang Momo’s complaint.

“Well, the first person to get stuck has appeared.”

“Maybe the only one.”

“Are all geniuses like this? Start learning directly from B-grade mechas?”

The invigilators chatted one after another, then suddenly realized Ge Qing hadn’t said a single word since the test began. They all turned their eyes to him simultaneously.

Ge Qing was currently watching Jiang Momo intently as she fiddled with the parts like a child playing with building blocks. The focused look in his eyes was unprecedented.

The teachers exchanged glances.

“Dean Ge?” the teacher closest to him nudged him.

Ge Qing seemed to snap out of a trance. “What is it?”

“Do you think Jiang Momo can get first place in this test?”

“Not important.” Ge Qing saw them all staring intently at him and said something that stunned everyone, “I’ve also never learned how to make anything below B-grade.”

“Then why set a test like this?” the teachers asked. “Wouldn’t this just block real geniuses at the gate?”

“The reason a genius is a genius is that no threshold can block them.” Ge Qing glanced at the calluses on his hand, his expression unreadable.

Back when he stood beside Jiang Momo during that farce in the Mecha Maintenance Center and heard her explanation, he vaguely sensed that her repair philosophy differed from the official teachings. The previous round of tests confirmed his suspicion. That’s why he withstood all the criticism and set up such an exam.

According to the Federation’s current mainstream teaching philosophy, mecha manufacturing must be learned from lower to higher tiers. And when it comes to energy pathways, only the optimal solution is ever taught.

This method is undoubtedly the most suitable for the majority since most mecha manufacturers are ordinary people. However, it also clearly restricts those with exceptional talent, causing their early progress to be slow.

But the Federation dared not gamble. Geniuses were too rare. Offering only one path was the most responsible method for the masses.

Back then, Ge Qing had shocked the world as an A-grade mecha manufacturer not just because he skipped several levels and created an A-grade mecha from scratch but also because he had no official record of learning mecha manufacturing. He had merely sat in on two public classes at the Central Mecha Academy.

His entire family worked in ancient literature research, completely unrelated to mecha manufacturing. That meant there was no family legacy either. Countless media outlets had interviewed him back then but even now, no one knew how he learned.

Ge Qing looked down, silently watching Jiang Momo’s actions.

He had told the media back then that he had combined ancient texts on mecha manufacturing before the Alien Beast War with modern manufacturing theories to extract a method.

But no one believed him. The media only focused on building the image of a once-in-a-century genius and deleted all of his explanations.

He was 40 years old at the time and had never held a job before that.

The headline of a long-time good-for-nothing suddenly becoming an A-grade mecha manufacturing master was enough to grab attention.

Later, he declined the research institute’s offer and came to teach at Central Mecha Academy, trying to use his ideas to educate students. But the Federation shut it down.

They believed his actions challenged the long-established authority of mecha manufacturing and might negatively influence other students. Unless he could train another person like himself, they would not allow him to promote unverified methods.

They also required that if he did want to teach, it could only be to adults who had already expressed a desire not to follow the official curriculum. He was not allowed to influence others’ thinking in any way.

All those years, he had never found such a person.

But now, he had!

Ge Qing let out a soft laugh and turned to leave.

“Dean Ge, you’re not watching anymore?” the invigilators called after him.

Ge Qing didn’t look back and waved a hand. “I already know the result I wanted.”

When he discovered this method of manufacturing, it was already past his prime. He didn’t want to see someone with the potential to change the Federation’s mecha manufacturing path be blocked by his own hand.

“Did he leave out of frustration?”

“Seems like it. I think he even laughed in anger just now.”

“If a student I admired couldn’t even build a D-grade mecha, I’d be disappointed too.”

“Alas, she can’t even build a D-grade mecha… What’s going to happen in the next exam? Let’s go check out the others.”

“Maybe she should apply to the maintenance track. That might suit her better.”

The invigilators all left Jiang Momo’s testing room.

Completely absorbed in figuring out how to assemble a D-grade mecha, Jiang Momo didn’t notice a thing. She just felt like the air had gotten a bit fresher.

“It’s just smaller, right? Why does the structure seem different? Can’t I get just one schematic to study what a D-grade mecha is supposed to look like?” Jiang Momo sat on the ground, frowning so hard it felt like she’d get a blister from stress.

The parts all looked like they belonged to a B-grade mecha. How could they possibly be used to build something smaller?

If she absolutely had to shrink the size, she’d have to cut out some internal components, which would make the mecha less flexible. It might not even be able to bend at the waist or elbows.

Time ticked by, minute after minute.

In the end, Jiang Momo decided to just go with it.

So what if it couldn’t bend? As long as it resembled a mecha, it should be fine!

Without hesitation, she organized the materials she had grabbed, sorting them by function into separate groups. Then she dove into assembly.

“I remember Little Eight saying that a D-grade mecha is about half as tall as a B-grade,” she muttered while working.

35 hours and 40 minutes later.

[Beep beep. Reminder: a mecha has been submitted.]

The mechanical voice rang out. Jiang Momo froze, then installed the last outer shell piece and stared at her ‘creation,’ clicking her tongue. “I was too optimistic earlier. The waist and legs don’t bend. Whatever, this will have to do. At least the time and completion should pass. Performance… eh, good enough.”

Her design philosophy was simple. A D-grade mecha was shorter, right? Just compress the height. That meant the legs became solid pieces, the arms were longer than the legs but at least it should start up.

After circling the mecha once more to confirm everything was in place, she submitted it.

When her mecha was delivered to the evaluation chamber, the judges stared at it in stunned silence for ten seconds.

Because… it looked too weird.

Though the height matched a D-grade mecha, the width matched a B-grade. So overall it looked short and fat. The cockpit was massive, the legs were short and the arms were long, looking like a gorilla.

“Too bad we didn’t go watch Jiang Momo. What kind of building process results in this?”

“Still, she made a mecha. Let’s see if it starts,” one of the invigilators who had a soft spot for Jiang Momo spoke up to defend her.

Under everyone’s watchful gaze, a test pilot from the Mecha Piloting Department slowly arrived and climbed into the cockpit.

Soon, the mecha started moving in a very strange way.

It lifted one stiff leg to the side, twisted its body forward, and took a step. Maybe realizing that wouldn’t work, it paused for a few seconds, then put its hands on the ground and began hopping forward.

The invigilators all fell silent.

Now that it’s hopping, it really does look like a gorilla.

“Guess this counts as a failure? Let’s give it a score,” said the tall skinny teacher, reaching for the scoring board.

The next second, flames erupted from the mecha’s feet on stage as it flew into the air, spun 360 degrees, and landed steadily. Then it raised its arm straight and fired a blast at the wall in front of it.

A deafening sound rang out, leaving the invigilators dumbfounded.

“I’ve never seen a D-grade mecha that can fly and shoot. Isn’t this thing supposed to be a giant puzzle toy?”

On the nearby display screen, the mechanical diagnostics data appeared.

[Scan results: Mecha exterior integrity 60%, defense coefficient 100%, attack coefficient 100%, overall completion rate 73%. Abnormal data detected. System self-check found no errors. Please inspect manually.]

“What do we do now? How many points should we give this? The academy keeps throwing us curveballs. According to the previous rules, it would’ve been better to let the system auto-score it.”

“Let the system score this thing? Are you serious? It almost fried the core before it could even finish scanning.”

“I think it deserves a spot in the top 20. It’s really creative.”

“So you’re saying this thing qualifies as a D-grade mecha?”

A few of the invigilators were discussing when suddenly two of them started arguing loudly, overpowering everyone else.

“I think it deserves a high score. Its performance is impressive, it starts up fast, and responds to commands quickly.”

“But its completion rate is only 73%.”

“But it has so many functions! Like particle cannons, shields, and flight thrusters, those were supposed to be decoys and it adapted to them perfectly!”

“But its completion rate is only 73%.”

“But she finished it in under 36 hours.”

“But its completion rate is only 73%.”

“Can you say something else for once?”

“Its waist and legs can’t bend.”

“……”