Chapter 572: Nascent I

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

On the training ground, five thousand students fell in formation. They were as quiet as mice. All of them looked eager and excited. Their attention was fixated on the 100 mechs arranged in front of them.

Mechs – these were actual mechs!

Each mech was a standard 12-metre tall, in dark blue and ivory white. Black armour protected its legs. A plasma shield activator was installed on the left arm. Once activated, the mech would be shielded by a layer of plasma. On the mech's back were four foldable wings, which enabled the mech to fly smoothly within the atmosphere.

The huge figure of the mech did not look sluggish at all. Its lanky structure and compact design made it look powerful. The blue and white coloured laser gun in its hand was sparsely decorated with details. This was Ye Chong's preferred style.

If Mu/Shang was here, he would definitely recognize what inspired this mech.

Harmony of the Winter Aria – it was a mech that Ye Chong once used before in the Five Galaxies. Of course, only the mech's exterior mimicked the original. Ye Chong always found the Harmony a very excellent mech. It had many commendable features. There were the foldable bilayer wings, and the Hummingbirds, and the auto lock-on shurikens. Ye Chong had based many of his later designs on these features. As a close range mech, Harmony of the Winter Aria lacked some bite in its main body, but as a long range mech, it was perfect. Ye Chong kept the name of the mech for these simpler incarnations.

The most time consuming, difficult and expensive part of the mech was its laser gun. Called the G-ZS, it was an improved version of the G-Z, much powerful than its predecessor. The laser gun was not made of alloy metal, but of one of the best wooden material found in this world – the Oceanic Cyathea wood. The body of the laser gun was in blue and white stripes, characteristic of the Oceanic Cyathea, giving a mysterious and expensive feel to it.

Another part of the mech that utilized high quality wood was the engine. Ye Chong spared no expenses in building these mechs. He used the best wooden materials he could find when wood was more suitable than metal. Hence, the mechs ended up with excellent specs.

Ye Chong did fit this mech model with anything weapons other than the laser gun and plasma shield, not because he was unwilling to, but because the students lacked the skills to fully utilize them. The more weapons there were to choose from, the more skilled the mech pilot should be. It was better to specialize than to learn bits and pieces of everything. Thus, Ye Chong gave each student a laser gun, albeit a very powerful one.

Ye Chong's expectation of his students was simple enough – they must learn all kinds of shooting techniques, such as sniping, continuous firing and suppressive firing. Ye Chong's own standards were much higher than in the Five Galaxies. His students would have to learn advanced military tactics, coordination strategies and so on …

Hundreds of Harmony of the Winter Arias were arranged neatly before the students, like soldiers ready for inspection. In the bright lit training ground, the beauty of these mechs was fully displayed to the students.

They stared with their eyes wide open, breathing heavily. Even the more cool-headed Duan Qian and Shu Mo'er could not hide their yearning for these mechs.

Ye Chong watched his students, who reminded him of himself piloting Winnie a long time ago. Once, he had also longed to own a more capable mech, just like them now.

Today, Ye Chong could not find that kind of longing in him anymore. As his continued to see more and more of the world, piloting all kinds of mechs and fighting more and more wars, he could no longer be truly surprised by anything.

Ye Chong thought of his days of wandering and fighting all these years, leading him further and further away from his ideal way of living, and felt a little bitter.

However, he quickly gathered himself. Looking at the eyes that burn with eagerness and longing, Ye Chong smiled inside.

"Your results are out. As explained earlier, students ranked in the first 100 will get their mechs ahead of the rest. The following are the names of these students."

The training ground was silent. All the students held their breath and listened.

First in the class was Appilok. This talented man had surpassed Duan Qian and Shu Mo'er later in their training, and became the first student to own a mech. Duan Qian and the Shu sisters were next in the list.

The students who were not in the name list could only watch the first 100 students jealously.

These 100 mechs were important in encouraging the students to study. They had studied knowing how cool it would be to be the first ones to own a mech. Young people were often naïve and impulsive. If Ye Chong had declared earlier that everyone would have their own mech, the students would not have worked so hard. After so long in the outside world, Ye Chong had learned to play tricks of the mind, something he would never have considered earlier in life.

With these mechs, the students improved quickly. However, this was also a vulnerable and risky period for Ye Chong. If they were to be under attack by a large herd of wild creatures at this stage, they had only the stronghold's defense system to keep them safe. If the defense system was breached, the students could not be expected to fight the wild creatures.

Ye Chong had thought of coming to Darkniss by himself, but he rejected the idea in the end. It was simply too risky. He was especially wary of the red-tailed beasts. He had never seen those creatures singly, as they were always in packs. If that was the case, he did not stand a chance against them. Circumstances forced him to settle with training these five thousand young men to advance him plans. It would take longer, but his chances of success would be much higher. Ye Chong did not want to die before he saw Mu/Shang again.

Mechs were still continuously churned out by the production line, but for now, Ye Chong had to focus on grooming the students to become combat ready.

The students were quick to improve in their basic shooting training, especially for the Shu sisters, who were already shooters before they joined the program. The rest of them were not as advanced as the sisters, but they were also not unfamiliar with shooting. With their own mechs, their skills improved even more quickly. Besides, it helped that the training was so specialized and intensive.

Ye Chong then decided to divide the 100 students into 10 groups, and let them battle against each other. Of course, these mock battles were carried out with practice laser guns.

The gamified training routine was well received by the students. They enjoyed the battles very much.

Ye Chong thought of many ways to keep them motivated. He came up with a strict point system to rank the students according to their individual performance, and then designed a reward system based on these points.

As the whole reward system came into shape, things proceeded more smoothly in the stronghold.

Mechs were released in batches and given to students according to their scores. A month later, all students had earned their very own mechs. Currently, Appilok had the most points. His team had a winning streak of 121 rounds and counting, way ahead of the other teams. As leader of his team, Appilok earned more points than other students. Shu Mo'er and Duan Qian had more points from shooting practice, but their total number of points was behind Appilok's by a wide margin.

Appilok was an excellent leader.

There were quite a few students like Appilok. They were not good physical fighters, but they could keep a level head during combat and had a good grasp of the battle's flow. Often, their superior battles strategies led their teams to victory.

Ye Chong knew that this training could never replace actual combat experience.

So far, Ye Chong's commando troop consisted of 314 students. They performed well in all aspects of training, and were also outstanding in group battles.

Ye Chong decided to bring them out to experience real combat.

The only way to train real soldiers was through actual combat experience.

The commando troop moved out fully armed. While Ye Chong was gone, the stronghold was left to Sha Ya and Xi Yan. Ye Chong briefed them before he left.

Ye Chong flew in Celest. Behind him, 341 Harmony of the Winter Arias followed the bio-mech into the air, forming a fleet of combat mechs.

Down on the ground, the sputtering Lava River was only a thin red line. The students played around with their holographic scanning systems to look around them. They were frightfully curious, since Ye Chong usually did not allow them out of the stronghold.

Behold, Darkniss! Why was it different from expected? Wasn't it rumoured that Darkniss was a very dangerous place? In the darkness, Darkniss was as quiet as a sleeping infant.

They did not notice a small opening in their formation due to their distraction. Ye Chong, who was feeling tense throughout the flight, saw it immediately.

"Concentrate. It's dangerous here."

Ye Chong and his commando troop were flying towards where Albinia and Lotesh came from. Those two shooters were currently drained from their physical training. They were shooters, and now they had to undergo a complete physical training program. Wasn't that simply exhausting?

Ye Chong did not bring them with him. It would be best if they could find the entrance to Western Frost in this run, but he would not mind if they did not.

It was half an hour into the practice flight, and they had no accidents yet.

However, Ye Chong was feeling more nervous. They were now entering uncharted territory. He had never gone so far this way before.

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