“I’m the Bone Flute? You want me to cooperate with you to rescue the President?”
In the manor, a man wearing an Imperial military uniform and smoking a cigar sat in a wide chair. He squinted at the group of Federation soldiers who had suddenly barged in.
Yue: “Yes, our double agent, Bone Flute, it’s time to activate you.”
“Oh? How do you know it’s me?”
“We have our own channels.”
The man chuckled softly. His blue eyes shimmered like the vast ocean under the light. “How many people did the Federation send to rescue the President?”
Yue hesitated for a moment, then decided to tell the truth to avoid any misunderstandings due to mismatched information. “Over a thousand.”
The man gave a quick glance. “Less than a thousand.”
Yue’s eyes flickered. “There are always casualties on the way.”
“Very well.” The man waved his hand grandly, and a brief click echoed through the entire manor.
The manor transformed into a giant cage. Inside it, all electromagnetic weapons lost their signal, becoming nothing more than scrap metal.
Immediately after, a group of Federation soldiers rushed in and subdued Yue and his team in just ten minutes.
The man curled his lips into a mocking sneer. “Looks like there are still little rats from the Federation inside the Empire. Find him!”
“Yes, sir!”
This unexpected turn shocked everyone who was watching.
The baby-faced person’s mouth hung wide open. “Damn, it’s a trap! Gabriel, we were almost completely wiped out.”
Gabriel called the baby-faced person back. “Alright, hurry back. We need to find a place to hide. Yue has alerted the enemy; they’ll definitely conduct a large-scale search.”
The examinees quickly put away the Flamebird mecha and melted into the shadows of the capital city like a wisp of shadow.
Outside the exam hall, people had a feeling that this was both unexpected yet somewhat logical.
Cassian: “Nuwa, these are just kids. Are you setting traps for them too?”
Everything was simulated so realistically, almost exactly like the Battle of Serfa Star, but at the critical point where a breakthrough seemed possible, there was a major reversal.
Wasn’t this deliberately setting them up to fail?
Edwin complained: “So unfair. Lin Xiaohe doesn’t know anything about the Battle of Serfa Star, so she won’t fall for this trap.”
Melina disagreed: “Lin Xiaohe was also dropped onto the battlefield outside the city. Is that fair? Besides, if she rescues Halder and his group, Halder will definitely tell her about the Bone Flute. If you think about it, the one really getting the unfair deal is Lin Xiaohe!”
A vice minister from the Third Star Ring Education Department stepped in to mediate: “We need to trust Nuwa’s fairness and impartiality. Alright, let’s see what the remaining examinees are up to.”
Gabriel led the Second Star Ring examinees, having them disperse and hide in various places.
As for Lin Xiaohe, she was…
Dismantling a mecha?!
What on earth was she trying to do?
Lin Xiaohe turned on her lighting gear, grabbed the tool kit that came with the mecha, and started tearing it apart like crazy!
“The greatest truths are the simplest, but people’s minds make things complicated.” Lin Xiaohe decisively dismantled all the features she didn’t need.
The Flamebird was 10.2 meters tall. It had four back thrusters and shockwave pedals installed on its lower legs, which could accelerate by triggering shockwaves. However, the acceleration couldn’t exceed 15 minutes, otherwise, the hydraulic tubes in the legs risked melting.
Lin Xiaohe thought this feature was pretty useless, so she removed the shockwave pedals.
Besides that, she also removed the plasma cutting blade on the right arm, the magnetic rail sniper rifle on the left arm, the twin missile slots on the shoulders, and the electrode combat claws on the wrists.
She even removed the Flamebird‘s most prized defensive equipment—the shoulder decoy launchers and the forearm high-frequency vibration armor.
Lying on the dusty ground were also the head radar and the back-mounted upgrade set, the thermal bomb projector.
The Flamebird had a unit cost of 240 million, and the equipment she removed was worth 200 million.
The audience was already numb. They had no idea what Lin Xiaohe was doing with these bizarre moves.
If they thought she had given up, she was still frantically dismantling.
If they thought she was trying to complete the mission, even Melina, who had an 800-meter-thick filter for Lin Xiaohe, couldn’t lie to herself and believe in her after seeing all those weapons thrown on the ground.
It wasn’t until she had stripped the Flamebird down to just an empty shell that Lin Xiaohe finally stopped, admiring her handiwork with satisfaction.
Cassius remained expressionless. He now firmly believed that Marshal Chu must have lost his mind to even consider taking Lin Xiaohe as a student.
“Out of the whole Flamebird, Lin Xiaohe only kept the thrusters and the neural synchronization system. Ha. What she needs isn’t a mecha, but an armored vehicle.”
That was a huge insult.
Those who drove armored vehicles were cannon fodder soldiers with a mental power rating of B or below, their lives worth only 200,000 to 500,000 star dollars.
The audience stayed silent.
In their minds, watching Lin Xiaohe lose her mind was a waste of time. It was better to focus on the promising talents from the Second Star Ring.
Take Gabriel, for instance. His alertness successfully helped his team avoid the trap.
Lin Xiaohe had no idea she was being underestimated again.
Breathing heavily from exhaustion, she realized that even though her physical strength had greatly improved, dismantling a mecha was truly a labor-intensive task.
Just as she was resting, Nuwa’s announcement rang out again.
[Urgent Notice. ① The Imperial Commander has learned of the Federation’s rescue operation and has decided to transfer President Johnson to an Imperial spaceship in three days.]
[② A Federal insider has just sent word: 783 rescue soldiers have unfortunately been captured. Side mission activated: Rescue Your Comrades]
Lin Xiaohe’s face was full of question marks. What the hell?
Hadn’t it only been a short while? Nearly 800 examinees had been captured? What did they even do? Did they get dropped directly into the Imperial army’s camp?
This was just ridiculously absurd.
She had been counting on them to help divert some attention and firepower. Well, that was a complete waste.
“Useless!” Lin Xiaohe grumbled as she climbed into the cockpit.
“Xinbao, hack into the Imperial defense network and access the Imperial satellite view.”
Xinbao: [Received!]
The mecha’s display screen crackled a few times, then showed a real-time dynamic map of the entire planet’s Imperial troop positions.
Lin Xiaohe zoomed in on the area near the capital city. She found that she was quite safe, with no Imperial patrols within ten miles.
It was possible they thought they had already cleared this area.
“Doudou! Spend 10 skill points to upgrade [Watch Me Pew Pew] to Level 2.”
A flash of green light passed by. Doudou’s vines split into two, growing along the left and right arms respectively, finally forming two green clumps at the original weapon openings.
[Watch Me Pew Pew (Level 2)]: Unlimited ammunition, two cannons.
When she activated this skill, these two little green clumps would turn into an endless barrage of firepower!
Lin Xiaohe only had 55 skill points left. She didn’t upgrade any other skills. Instead, she had Fanfan attach to the launcher position on the back, while she kept Tiantian with her.
Noticing it was farthest from Lin Xiaohe, Fanfan grumbled and, taking advantage of a moment she wasn’t looking, stuffed a tiny tomato, the size of a pinky finger, into the mecha’s coolant fluid.
The Flamebird mecha had completely transformed, but the whole process only took two seconds.
When the clouds parted and the Flamebird reappeared before everyone, its back was painted red, its arms had turned green, and the cockpit was a pale yellow.
The crowd was speechless. Lin Xiaohe’s aesthetic was very specific: either pink or a garish mix of colors.
But seriously, you stripped off all those weapons just to give it a paint job? Are you out of your mind?!
