The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 74

Jiang Momo wasn’t listening to Lu Feng and the old soldier at all. The moment she started disassembling the mecha, she shut off her hearing.

Peace and quiet.

Little Eight’s modification skills were excellent and there really wasn’t a single sound slipped.

Without hearing, focus improved significantly. It was especially useful in situations where she needed to memorize a large amount of information in a short time.

Jiang Momo sighed again. Life on the Capital Star was truly peaceful. The last time she had shut off her hearing like so was during her recruitment exam. It was nothing like on the desolate planet where the constant noise of alien beasts forced her to block her hearing every day.

Feeling the stares of the two behind her, Jiang Momo rubbed her slightly numb brow and quickly placed the mecha’s outer shell, which she had just laid out, back in its original position.

The shell locked onto the arranged metal neural fibers and from the outside, it looked like a complete mecha again. But all three of them knew that the repair hadn’t truly started yet.

“Why’s she putting it back together again?” Lu Feng muttered. “It’s not even late yet. She totally has time to fix at least two parts.”

The old soldier was shocked. “Isn’t the whole point to assemble it completely and fix it one step at a time?”

Lu Feng clicked his tongue. “If you put everything back together, you won’t know where to focus your mental power. Blindly exploring will just cause more wear. The maintenance team does it one part at a time.”

Jiang Momo couldn’t hear their conversation. She took a deep breath and, for the first time in a while, released her mental power to the maximum. It instantly filled the entire mecha.

In her mind was the full internal energy pathway diagram she had memorized. She focused her mental power on both ends of the internal pathway and then adjusted a few slightly misaligned areas by sensing the actual components.

After that, a dense grinding sound of metal echoed from within the mecha. Lu Feng, who had sharp hearing, felt his gums and bones ache instantly. He gritted his teeth but the discomfort didn’t lessen, so he quickly stepped back.

The old soldier immediately pulled out two soundproof earplugs, handed the pair to Lu Feng, and then took out another pair for himself.

“Should we give a pair to Jiang Momo too?” the old soldier mouthed to Lu Feng.

Lu Feng shook his head. “Don’t touch her. She’s using her mental power.”

But something was off. The last time he visited the maintenance team, the noise during their repairs wasn’t so harsh. Did she mess it up? If it broke completely, he’d have to come up with a good reason to submit a replacement request. He couldn’t really let Jiang Momo take the fall. Lu Feng frowned inwardly.

After a long while, Jiang Momo withdrew her mental power and glanced at the time. It was already past 4 AM.

She had arrived around 6:30 in the evening. Disassembly and reassembly took nearly six hours, and the rest had all gone to repairs.

At first, she’d gone down the wrong path, not realizing she had to apply even force across the entire mecha. That mistake wasted a lot of time. She should be able to do it faster next time. Jiang Momo reviewed the process in her head.

After finishing her mental review, she stood and re-enabled her hearing. The room was quiet, with only two breathing sounds behind her.

She shook her head and rubbed her slightly warm brow. It was probably a sign of mental power overdrawn as there was a stabbing pain in her forehead like being pricked with needles.

Lu Feng’s voice came from behind her. “It’s okay. No one expects anyone to repair an S-grade mecha in one day. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Let’s continue tomorrow.”

Jiang Momo glanced at Lu Feng’s tense expression, then at the old soldier behind him struggling to remove something from his ears. She shook her head. “No need to wait until tomorrow.”

That sounded like it was completely wrecked.

Lu Feng’s heart sank, though his expression didn’t change. He tried to reassure her, “Don’t give up. You don’t have to actually pay for the damage.”

The old soldier had just pulled the tightly stuffed earplugs from his ears when he heard that. His vision went dark and he hurried to speak up. “Right, right! Major General Lu was just joking earlier when he said you’d have to pay. Don’t take it seriously!”

Jiang Momo’s head was full of question marks. She immediately realized she wasn’t on the same conversation channel as the other two. Taking a half-step back, she pointed at the mecha. “There was no need to pay in the first place. Do you want to test-pilot it? I’m a little mentally drained. I probably can’t start it up myself.”

Lu Feng and the old soldier slowly turned their heads, exchanged glances, and in perfect sync dug at their ears again.

“What’s wrong with you two?” Jiang Momo looked at their expressions and then suddenly understood. “You don’t trust me?!”

Piloting a damaged mecha could harm the pilot. The stronger the mental power, the lesser the backlash. If she weren’t worried her current condition might hide potential issues, she’d have been the first one in that cockpit.

“Then I’ll go up myself!”

Jiang Momo turned to open the mecha’s cockpit, which was still lying on the ground. Just as she was about to climb in, Lu Feng grabbed her wrist and pulled her away.

Holding her wrist, he turned to the old soldier. “Old Chen, get in and try it.”

The old soldier: “…”

Lu Feng had such a dramatic pose that he thought the major general was going to get in himself! But of course, it was still the old soldier going up.

With a look of resentment, the old soldier climbed into the mecha.

Moments later, the mecha stood up.

“It’s really fixed?!” Lu Feng couldn’t believe it.

Then what were those Maintenance Department’s people doing all those times?!

“Well, duh?! It’s already 2 AM!” Jiang Momo also couldn’t believe it.

If it still wasn’t fixed, what the hell had she just been doing? Playing around?!

Lu Feng went silent and scratched his head in confusion.

No, if she could fix it that fast, why did she look so unconfident earlier in the day? He’d even made arrangements with the Maintenance Department to have her observe them if she failed.

“It’s just that the money’s already been spent,” Lu Feng muttered under his breath.

He was not sure if it was refundable.

“What money?” Jiang Momo asked after overhearing.

Lu Feng’s expression instantly returned to normal. “Your repair fee.”

“Huh?” Jiang Momo’s eyes lit up. “Really, Major General Lu? I get a repair fee?”

If he nodded even a little, she’d change her whole opinion of him on the spot!

Lu Feng raised an eyebrow. “Not for this mecha.”

Jiang Momo retracted her expression.

“We want to hire you to repair our mechas. From now on, our military district’s mechas will be given to you for priority repairs. The payment will be double the regular maintenance fee,” Lu Feng said.

Jiang Momo asked, “Double the fee? Around how much is that?”

Lu Feng replied, “Starting at one million. For repairs like this mecha’s condition, about six million.”

Jiang Momo’s eyes lit up instantly. “Really?!”

“Of course. This offer has already been automatically extracted into the military system. As long as you agree, our verbal contract will be effective,” Lu Feng said. “If there’s a breach, you can take it to court.”

Jiang Momo hesitated.

“This price is already quite generous.” The old soldier jumped down from the cockpit. “Even including the repair slot, we don’t pay this much.”

‘It isn’t quite the price initially discussed. Maybe Major General Lu is paying for Jiang Momo’s speed,’ the old soldier thought to himself.

“I’m not hesitating because of the price. I’m just worried I won’t have enough time and might delay your work,” Jiang Momo said after roughly organizing the tasks in her head.

Like next week, she’d be gone for four days on a study tour. She could barely make time for the alien beast eradication campaign once a month but repairing mechas on-call wasn’t something she could promise. At best, she could guarantee it’d be done within a week.

“It’s fine. We have backup mechas. As long as it’s done in a month, it’s good,” Lu Feng said directly.

It’s similar if sent to the Maintenance Department, as just waiting in line takes about a week, then sourcing parts takes another week, and repairing the metal neural fibers takes roughly ten days. By the time it’s back in hand, a month would’ve passed.

“A month?” Jiang Momo was stunned for a moment and then suddenly remembered someone had once told her the Maintenance Department had queues. She immediately grabbed Lu Feng’s gloved right hand and gave it a shake. “Then it’s settled!”

Such a high salary and such relaxed timing, what better job could exist in the world?! Jackpot!

Lu Feng was caught off guard by Jiang Momo’s sparkling gaze and couldn’t help but smile. “It’s settled.”

Such excellent skill and enthusiasm. It’d be hard to find someone more suitable in a short time!

The negotiation ended and both sides quickly said their goodbyes.

Just as Jiang Momo was about to reach the training base’s entrance, the old soldier caught up to her.

“Wait! I have something to ask you.” The old soldier stopped in front of Jiang Momo.

“What is it?” Jiang Momo looked slightly wary.

Don’t tell me they think the offer was too high and want to go back on it?

“What’s the background of that mecha pilot who came with you at noon today? We could only verify his activity after arriving at the Capital Star. We couldn’t find any records of him ever learning to pilot a mecha before that, which suggests it might be fake,” the old soldier asked.

Jiang Momo shook her head. “I don’t know either.”

The old soldier looked troubled and hesitated before continuing, “So we sent someone to investigate in the Chaos Star System this afternoon. We just got a reply and it says he’s likely heavily involved with interstellar pirates. Were you aware of this?”

“No.” Jiang Momo shook her head again.

The old soldier looked even more conflicted but finally, he just patted her on the shoulder. “I won’t tell you to stay away from him or anything. Next time, bring him along if you can. We’ll observe him more.”

***

On Monday, Jiang Momo didn’t go to the First Military District’s training base. After her morning theory class, she was pulled away by Ge Qing to help prepare for the next day’s study tour.

It was a massive project. Jiang Momo had never thought a simple outing could be so complicated. Not only did it involve planning transportation, accommodation, study sites, safety oversight, and responsibility distribution, but they also had to scout locations ahead of time to set up teaching tools.

By the end of the day, Jiang Momo’s brain was stuffed with thoughts like where to dramatically explain which knowledge point.

“Can’t someone else do this?” Jiang Momo asked, her eyes blank.

I can’t remember any of this. It’s too dull. The sentences have no logic between them. I forget everything right after I memorize it.

Ge Qing shook his head. “Students are willing to listen to what you teach. They understand you.”

Jiang Momo buried her face in her hands, radiating despair.

The problem is I don’t understand it myself! Why is the content so complicated?

In her mind, a study tour should just be a fun study tour!

Worst case, they’re all mecha manufacturing students anyway. Just toss them some mecha fragments and let them build stuff for fun. Or she could lead a build session herself! She’d definitely slap together something impressive in no time!