The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 191

“I need to get some data from the military,” Jiang Momo said to E Mingjun. “Come back to the front line with me. I have something important to discuss with you.”

E Mingjun nodded. “All right.”

***

“Director, these are the records of alien beast appearances across the Federation over the past fifty years.”

Vice Director Liu handed over a thick stack of printed documents, studying Jiang Momo with what she believed was a perfectly neutral expression.

According to her contacts in the military, Jiang Momo had just come from a tense meeting there. She’d taken something with her and left with a terrible expression on her face. Yet, watching her now, Vice Director Liu thought she didn’t seem nearly as intimidating as the stories claimed.

Jiang Momo flipped through the papers. The data matched what Little Eight had once told her. In recent years, alien beast activity has become increasingly frequent. Still, within the Central Star System, the number of alien beasts appearing each year was under ten and the landing sites were entirely random with no discernible pattern at all.

“The timing of the change is strange,” Jiang Momo murmured. Instinctively, she waited for Little Eight’s response and then suddenly remembered that the AI was in forced dormancy. She looked up, meeting Vice Director Liu’s curious gaze.

“What’s strange about the timing?” Vice Director Liu asked. “Was there some major event during that period?”

“No.” Jiang Momo shook her head.

Although in truth, there was.

That exact point in time coincided with when she and Little Eight had left the Desolate Planet.

***

An hour later, in a private room on the top floor of the military district canteen.

“I know what you’re thinking,” E Mingjun said after reviewing the data. He reached over and gave Jiang Momo’s back a light pat. “But don’t blame yourself for everything. You’ve been under too much pressure lately. This isn’t yours to carry alone.”

“Yan Chang said the same thing,” Jiang Momo replied without thinking.

“What did she say?” E Mingjun asked.

“I said war isn’t the burden of just a few people and told her not to try to shoulder it all.” The door burst open and Yan Chang entered, dusty and travel-worn. He circled the screen and dropped into the seat beside E Mingjun.

“You’re both early! I rushed here half an hour ahead of time thinking I’d be first,” she complained, grabbing the teapot and pouring herself a full cup before taking a long gulp. Then she switched on the soundproof field and said, “By the way, Master, didn’t the Jiang family’s factory already transfer to your name? Why are you digging into its export records from fifteen years ago? Is something wrong with the plant?”

“Nothing wrong,” Jiang Momo replied. “I just have a hypothesis to verify about the distribution of alien beasts.” She handed over the documents she’d obtained from Vice Director Liu and the military’s upper ranks.

Yan Chang took both sets, glanced between them, and, just like the others, opened the military file first.

Jiang Momo sipped her tea. Their priorities were perfectly aligned.

“The number of alien beasts appearing seems positively correlated with the number of legendary-grade mechas deployed?” Yan Chang’s brow furrowed as he read and then he suddenly looked up. “Wait, don’t tell me the mechas are what attract the alien beasts? Could they be giving the spatial-type ones a coordinate signal? No wonder you think this is your fault…”

However, when he saw how calm Jiang Momo and E Mingjun looked, he clicked his tongue, realizing his theory might be off. Then he opened the other report, the one from the research institute, and studied it for a while before muttering, “No… even before the legendary mechas were developed, the number of alien beasts dropping into the Central Star System had already started rising exponentially…”

“And starting five years ago, their landing sites have become more and more precise,” Jiang Momo added, pointing to the page in Yan Chang’s hand.

“Five years ago,” Yan Chang repeated, frowning slightly.

E Mingjun supplied quietly, “That was when the Jiang family rose to prominence.”

Yan Chang blinked and then gave a wry smile. “You’ve got a good memory.”

E Mingjun fell silent. Of course he remembered. That was the year disaster struck his family. A year he could never forget.

Yan Chang clapped his hands together. “So the Jiang family is the traitor! They’ve been feeding intel to the alien beasts!”

Jiang Momo: “…”

E Mingjun: “…”

“I’m kidding,” Yan Chang said quickly, grinning before turning serious again. “So, you’re looking for the export data from the Jiang family’s industries? I already have people investigating. We should have results within a week.”

Jiang Momo nodded. “Got it.”

“Then shall we order food now?” Yan Chang asked.

“No rush.” Jiang Momo leaned back, lifting her cup for another sip of tea.

Yan Chang elbowed E Mingjun playfully. “Someone else joining us? Who’s late this time?”

E Mingjun glanced at the time. “You’re just early.”

Yan Chang turned away with a pout, muttering, “You came even earlier! And you’re calling me out? Teacher E, I didn’t think you, with those righteous brows and all, were a green tea too.”

E Mingjun raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue. He had come together with Jiang Momo.

For a few minutes, the room was quiet. Then, a knock was heard at the door.

“Come in!” Yan Chang called.

The knocking continued.

Yan Chang stood up. “Oh. Right. I locked it when I came in.”

With clear irritation, he yanked the door open and, seeing Ling Yelin standing there, hand still raised mid-knock, his expression grew darker. Without a word, he slammed the door shut again and went back to his seat.

Wu Yue pushed the door open. “Didn’t this door open just now? Why is it shut again?”

Ling Yelin followed at an unhurried pace, arms crossed, and let the door swing closed behind him.

“Momo!!! Long time no see!!” Wu Yue rushed over to sit beside Jiang Momo, shoving a thick file into her hands. “Here’s what you wanted.”

She waved her hand in front of Jiang Momo’s face, clearly itching to make some sort of gesture, but Ling Yelin caught her hand midair, tugged her toward the seat farthest from Yan Chang, and made her sit down.

Yan Chang craned his neck for a peek. It was the data Jiang Momo had asked someone to find. “Pretty quick work,” he said in a deliberately mocking tone.

Ling Yelin crossed his arms. “I am the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. I tend to hear things faster than you political types.”

Wu Yue whipped her head around. “?!”

Yan Chang smirked. “Your girlfriend doesn’t look too convinced.”

Ling Yelin pressed down on Wu Yue’s shoulder, turning away and giving her a pointed look. Jiang Momo didn’t catch it and only saw Wu Yue mouthing the words ‘add payment’ before Ling Yelin gave a tiny nod.

“No, no disagreement here.” Wu Yue instantly looped her arm through Ling Yelin’s and said sweetly, “Everything’s fine.”

Ling Yelin froze and then carefully pulled his arm back, muttering through clenched teeth, “That’s not what I meant.” The point wasn’t the word girlfriend!

Wu Yue: …

She cleared her throat. “Anyway, this data really was found by Boss Ling himself.”

“Oh,” Yan Chang drawled, drawing the word out.

While they bickered, Jiang Momo flipped rapidly through the information Ling Yelin had brought. “…It matches,” she said at last. “Exactly what I suspected.”

“What did you suspect?” Yan Chang asked.

“Look here.” Jiang Momo placed the documents from the Chamber of Commerce alongside the data from the research institute and pushed them toward Ling Yelin and Yan Chang.

Yan Chang stretched his neck to read and after a moment, his eyes widened. “The locations and approximate times line up!”

Jiang Momo nodded. “In the regions where they sold large quantities of nutrient solution produced by the same line that once powered the cores of the legendary mechas, that’s where the alien beasts appeared.”

“But why is it,” Yan Chang frowned, “that the Border Star System only sees alien beasts when they sell huge amounts of the stuff, while the Central Star System gets alien beasts with much less of it?”

“Because,” Jiang Momo said after a few seconds of thought, “the nutrient solution sent to the Border Star System is heavily diluted.”

When she’d seen the research institute’s report earlier, she’d already begun forming the theory that spatial-type alien beasts needed a precise anchor to send their legions through. That explained why, for so long, alien beast appearances had been random and most of them materialized in open space instead of on planets. But in the past five or six years, their landing precision had improved dramatically, especially after she and Little Eight left the Desolate Planet.

Combining the sudden surge of alien beasts on the Capital Star and the rise of the energy-absorbing alien beasts that could serve as legendary mecha core materials, she’d tried to connect the two.

If the spatial-type alien beasts used energy-absorbing alien beasts, their blood, or blood-derived products as anchors to fix their coordinates, then everything fit. It might even be that the very existence of energy-absorbing alien beasts strengthened the spatial-type alien beasts’ ability to sense others of their kind or anything made from them within that range.

That would also explain why, after she and Little Eight left the Desolate Planet, the number of alien beasts in the Federation skyrocketed. There must have been something aboard Little Eight’s ship that suppressed the link between spatial-type and energy-absorbing alien beasts.

She dared to make that hypothesis because of one thing she’d never told anyone.

For the past five years, every place where alien beasts appeared matched the regions where the Jiang family’s nutrient solution was sold. And the timing of those appearances coincided perfectly with the times she’d been flying her ship away from the Desolate Planet to scavenge debris.

According to every traceable record, during that entire period, there had been only one energy-absorbing alien beast in the whole Federation.

The one on her desolate planet.