The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 58

When Major General Lu arrived at the training ground with senior officers from the Third Military District, what they saw was this: an S-grade mecha performing the most basic warm-up exercises, one move at a time, in the middle of the field.

“As expected from the First Military District, solid fundamentals,” Major General Pang from the Third Military District said, sitting in the front row and tilting his head slightly to look at his deputy beside him. “Right?”

The deputy nodded. “Yes.”

Major General Pang turned to Lu Feng. “But honestly, this doesn’t feel like your style. Those moves look soft and limp.”

Lu Feng: “She’s mine. I personally trained her in piloting.”

“Then your standards must’ve dropped.” Major General Pang chuckled. Seeing Lu Feng ignore him, he changed the topic. “So how are you planning to do this round?”

“Group battle. One versus nine,” Lu Feng replied.

“Is the ‘one’ that one over there?” Major General Pang gestured toward Jiang Momo.

Lu Feng nodded.

“That’s boring. My people came all this way hoping for some real sparring. How about we switch and have our person be the ‘one’?”

Lu Feng turned his head. “You can swap out the ‘nine.’”

Hearing this, Major General Pang sat up straighter and asked quietly, “Is he that good?” |5|

Lu Feng wasn’t one for fluff. His skills were renowned in the military and he’d never misjudged a subordinate. If he said someone was good, then they really were.

“She’s alright.” Lu Feng nodded.

Major General Pang tilted his head and looked at his deputy. “Pick nine of our best.”

The deputy bowed and left to relay the order.

Major General Pang rested his head on one hand and watched the mecha’s movements below, still puzzled. “I just don’t get it. His moves look so soft. How long has he been in the military? Has he ever joined a beast eradication campaign?”

“Never,” Lu Feng said.

At that moment, the nine people from the Third Military District had already been selected. They marched neatly in front of the two major generals, looking fully trained and disciplined.

Major General Pang looked at the lineup in front of him and said to Lu Feng with slight embarrassment, “I forgot there are no alien beasts on the Capital Star. The ones I brought are all elite soldiers who’ve participated in multiple eradication battles… Should I switch them out for others?”

He hadn’t brought his people there to cause trouble. He and Lu Feng used to be comrades, and they had a decent relationship.

“No need,” Lu Feng said.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

With a single command from Major General Pang, nine mechas instantly appeared at the edge of the field. The soldiers jumped on in perfect sync.

Soon, the nine mechas entered the field.

Jiang Momo stopped her warm-up when she saw the sudden arrival of the mechas.

She looked down at her own jet-black mecha and then looked at the other nine in light gray.

So much for using color contrast to interfere with their line of sight.

As she was thinking, the old soldier’s voice rang out of nowhere. “This match will be a one-against-nine siege battle, with a maximum duration of thirty minutes. The match ends when one side is completely defeated. Both sides, take your positions. The battle begins now!”

The moment the old soldier finished speaking, the mechas that had already formed a ring around Jiang Momo sprang into action, charging toward her.

Jiang Momo’s eyes quickly scanned the area.

The soldiers were evenly matched. There’s no obvious weak point and therefore, no obvious breakthrough.

“Why is he just standing there?” Major General Pang leaned in to whisper to Lu Feng. “Just to clarify, I really didn’t come here to stir up trouble.”

“It’s fine. Just keep watching,” Lu Feng said.

To the naked eye, except for Jiang Momo standing perfectly composed in the middle, all the others had at least some minor flaws.

Soon, the nine mechas reached Jiang Momo.

Due to space constraints, they had to stagger their formation as they approached.

There’s the opening.

Jiang Momo sprang into motion. Instead of dodging the frontal attack, she stepped back and twisted, narrowly avoiding the incoming punch behind her. In the same motion, she struck the cockpit of the mecha directly behind her.

The hit mecha immediately froze in place.

Meanwhile, the mecha that had attacked from the front only barely grazed her back, leaving no mark at all.

Then, Jiang Momo pulled the frozen mecha toward her. The mechas on either side, already mid-attack, couldn’t stop in time and smashed into it.

One mecha down. Eliminated.

“He’s fast,” Major General Pang commented.

Lu Feng said nothing.

So far, the jet-black mecha hadn’t moved more than five meters. There were no large movements and its stability was visibly excellent.

“Hm?!” Major General Pang suddenly sat upright, watching yet another of his mechas go down, his face full of disbelief. “Did I just see wrong? Are his movements… deformed somehow?”

“That’s her signature,” Lu Feng replied. “Once her movements start to deform, that’s when the match is about to end.”

And Lu Feng was right. In less than ten minutes, the fight ended with the light gray mechas scattered all over the field.

Jiang Momo looked at the aftermath, wiped imaginary sweat from her brow, and smiled with satisfaction.

Even if those mechas weren’t as fierce as alien beasts, they still gave her that adrenaline rush. It was thrilling.

Plus, she now knew where the tactics in her lesson recordings came from. Of course it was the military!

As she was fighting, she suddenly realized the habits of those mechas were very familiar. After a bit of observing, it clicked. Even though their tactical skill was far better than what was in her lessons, their subconscious flaws were exactly the same.

Jiang Momo raised her hand and flashed two fingers toward the stands at Lu Feng.

Major General Pang had already lost face as his elite soldiers were carried off one by one. Seeing Jiang Momo’s gesture, he got even more irritated. “Is he showing off?”

“She says she wants to fight twenty next round,” Lu Feng said.

“You heard that?” Major General Pang turned to his aide.

The aide nodded and went off to find more people.

Soon, twenty more mechas lined up at the edge of the field.

Jiang Momo looked at them and assumed a combat stance.

The old soldier had already told her that most of the trainees there had enlisted less than three years ago. Their skills were average and didn’t represent the military’s real strength. The batch of soldiers seemed a bit stronger that day but still not by much, maybe at a four- or five-year level. Their strength was just a little below real alien beasts.

If Major General Pang knew what Jiang Momo was thinking, he’d probably be so mad his nose would go crooked. But he didn’t know. Right then, he was ordering his aide to dig even deeper into the elite troops to try to save face.

Before he could handpick another set of twenty, the battle on the field was already over.

Major General Pang turned in disbelief and glared at Lu Feng. “Where did you find this monster?”

“I picked her up.”

Lu Feng rubbed his nose, inwardly thankful Major General Pang had insisted on putting his own people in the match.

He really hadn’t expected that the old soldier’s report wasn’t even slightly exaggerated. In fact, it had been too humble. If even one of their First Military District people had fought that day, Major General Pang could’ve mocked them for years.

“Are we continuing?” Lu Feng asked.

“Of course!” Major General Pang clenched his fist, still full of fighting spirit.

“I meant, should we add more people?”

“Of course.” Major General Pang instantly deflated, waving his hand to the back. “Send in thirty.”

They were already up to thirty?

Jiang Momo eyed the incoming mechas and rolled her wrists. “Not enough. Add more.”

The last time she fought, she felt like she still hadn’t fully unleashed her strength, so she had to create a crisis scenario to push herself and see if there was still room for improvement.

“Surely he won’t take down my thirty people all in one go, right?” Major General Pang sat in his seat with a cheerful look.

Five minutes later, he shot to his feet.

“What is it?” Lu Feng called out to him.

Major General Pang gritted his teeth. “Go get the next batch!”

He stormed off, while Lu Feng leaned on one hand, watching the battle with a faint frown. “What’s she rushing for?”

In Lu Feng’s eyes, Jiang Momo’s movements were obviously becoming more hurried, even aggressive. At first, she had controlled herself well and only changed form during final attacks but now even her dodges and movement were starting to shift.

After what felt like countless close calls and successful counters that disabled her attackers, the third match ended.

“Unfair, way too unfair.” Major General Pang clicked his tongue in amazement. “His tactics make it seem like he’s the one with the flaw while tricking his opponents into thinking they’ve found an opening, only to realize too late it was a bait to lure them into a perfect strike zone. One hit, done. If this tactic were used against alien beasts, wouldn’t it be insanely effective? You guys had this trick and still kept it hidden?! That’s too much!”

“This tactic isn’t really replicable,” Lu Feng replied. “Most people don’t have reflexes that fast.”

Besides, he didn’t believe those flaws were intentional bait. Jiang Momo’s current state was clearly problematic.

Major General Pang knew he was right, clicked his tongue again, and sat back down. “Next time I’m sending fifty people. No objections, right?”

Lu Feng: “Whatever.”

When fifty mechas stood together, they gave off a heavy sense of pressure.

Jiang Momo stood face-to-face with them and felt an odd tightness in her chest. She thought for a moment and then retreated, backing into a blind spot.

It was the farthest corner under the grandstand and from the audience’s point of view, the black mecha looked obviously flustered, pushed into the corner between the stand and the wall.

Jiang Momo wedged herself into the right angle formed by two walls, stared at the hulking mechas in front of her, and started to monitor her hormone levels.

Fifty, huh? That might just be enough to push her to her goal.

Jiang Momo took a deep breath and suddenly charged the nearest mecha. This time, she held back her strength, made clean strikes without any deformation, and relied solely on agility to carry the fight.

A full ten minutes passed without a single mecha being eliminated.

Standard mecha punches weren’t strong enough to shatter a core in one blow. Even after several attacks to weak points, she hadn’t taken out a single opponent. Her mood inevitably dipped a bit but she showed no sign of increasing her force.

In her plan, the match was to test her normal combat strength. Starting from the next round, she’d push her limits and measure max output.

Only by comparison could she get accurate results.

As thirty minutes passed without a victor, Major General Pang stood up happily. “It knew it! A bigger crowd makes all the difference!”

Major General Lu raised his head but said nothing.

Did the generals who rose through connections really not see the issue with the combat?

Major General Pang said to his adjutant, “None of them got eliminated this round. Let them go again next match.”

The adjutant hesitated for a moment, then nodded, and walked to the edge of the field.

At that point, the match had ended due to time. All the mechas returned to the sidelines to wait.

The adjutant picked up a walkie-talkie. “You all are in again for the next round. Any objections?”

Just as he finished, an excited voice came through. “No problem! We’ll definitely win next time! I was so nervous watching from the stands earlier but now that we’re actually up against him, his skills aren’t that great! We’ve already found his weakness. Next round, we’ll finish the fight in fifteen minutes!”

The words traveled from the walkie-talkie on the adjutant’s belt straight into Jiang Momo’s cockpit.

Jiang Momo froze mid-wipe of her forehead, her gaze sweeping across the fifty mechas in front of her.

Fifteen minutes, huh? That’s cutting it close. She’ll do her best.