It's Not Easy to Be a Man After Travelling to the Future (WN)

Looking at the confident and composed Qin Yi, it was as if he were not at all concerned about the fight with Leiting in three days' time ... this person talking to Qin Yi was not a member of the Lingtian Mecha Clan, and he suddenly had the urge to join. Although everyone believed that the Lingtian Mecha Clan was sure to lose and that they would soon become a joke of a mecha clan — being the clan with the shortest lifespan in the whole of academy history — when this youth saw the calm and unruffled demeanour of the Lingtian Mecha Clan members, he felt that the outcome might not be as horrible for Lingtian as everyone was imagining.

However, this was just a momentary impulse — very quickly, he had calmed down again. He smiled at Qin Yi, then moved back to his own seat. Still, he had mentally made a decision — if the Lingtian Mecha Clan really managed to overcome this crisis brought on by Leiting, he would join the Lingtian Mecha Clan without any hesitation. No matter how badly he would be oppressed by Leiting in future because of this, he would still persist in following the Lingtian Mecha Clan.

********

After leaving the classroom with Chang Xinyuan, Ling Lan did not know about these things that happened behind them, not to mention that there would be people who would choose to join the Lingtian Mecha Clan over this.

Right then, Ling Lan's group was rushing to the large canteen for lunch. Along the way, she was finding out what Chang Xinyuan had sought her out for.

The canteen had a mass eating area, and it also provided several private rooms for capable students who wanted a quiet area to isolate themselves and rest. For ease of communication, Ling Lan naturally chose a private room. Everyone in their group had just sat down when the other members of the team arrived one after another. It turned out that, along the way, Luo Lang had already informed the other team members to hurry over for a group meal.

Of course, Luo Lang had taken the effort to do so because he needed to inform Lin Zhong-qing about the gathering. As the head of support for the Lingtian Battle Clan, he managed all of the credits the team owned. If they wanted to enjoy a good meal, how could they exclude Lin Zhong-qing?

In less than five minutes, everyone had arrived. Li Lanfeng, Li Shiyu, and Zhao Jun were the quickest to arrive — as fifth-years, they did not have many classes to begin with, and they had only been preparing some documents for their applications for enlistment in their respective dorms.

Seeing that everyone was here, after asking what everyone wanted to eat, Lin Zhong-qing dragged Xie Yi and Luo Lang along with him to place the group's orders. The private rooms of the military academy did not have any service staff — the students needed to go out and order whatever they wanted to eat and carry it in themselves.

Fortunately, tea and water were provided in the room. Li Lanfeng did not dare to put on any airs of being a fifth-year senior — he diligently stood up and poured tea for everyone. For the sake of the rabbit, he would make nice and curry favour with the rabbit's team members ...

Chang Xinyuan picked up his teacup and took a sip, settling his mind before saying to Ling Lan, "Boss Lan, do you still remember that ace mecha you passed to me six months ago?"

Ling Lan, who had just raised her own teacup, paused abruptly and then nodded in sudden realisation.

On a particular day six months ago, Ling Lan had just advanced to ace operator status when Chang Xinyuan had suddenly contacted Ling Lan to tell her that he was studying the composition of ace mecha. Although he had already grasped everything in theory, without a physical mecha for him to take apart and analyse, there were some things he just could not figure out. Hearing that, Ling Lan instantly lent the ace mecha she had just received from the mainframe for her successful advancement to Chang Xinyuan for his research.

Ling Lan knew very well that only by combining theory and practice could one truly master the knowledge one learns. Chang Xinyuan, who had been stuck at the peak stage of intermediate mecha for all this time, would never have had the chance to obtain an ace mecha with his own power.

The conditions for redeeming an ace mecha were extremely strict — only those who had achieved an equivalent rank or above could redeem one. Oftentimes, a mecha mechanic would have extremely weak mecha piloting abilities, and thus would not be able to obtain the mecha they needed to tinker with on their own. This was also why a mecha mechanic would join a powerful battle clan — if they wanted to progress further, without a battle clan to help them obtain higher-level mecha, their modification skill development could only stagnate.

Of course, Ling Lan was so generous in lending Chang Xinyuan her mecha because she had enough confidence in herself. Taking part in cross-level challenges all the way, she had managed to earn a very large amount of points, enough to let her redeem yet another ace mecha. So, even if Chang Xinyuan was unable to put the mecha he borrowed back together after taking it apart, it would not influence Ling Lan's subsequent plans.

Just like that, that ace mecha was loaned out for over half a year. It had been so long that Ling Lan had already forgotten about it. Now, when Chang Xinyuan brought it up again, she was finally reminded of the matter. Ling Lan quickly asked, "You've already gotten a thorough comprehension of the internal structures of ace mecha?"

Chang Xinyuan nodded emphatically and said excitedly, "Yes, that mecha was right by my side every day. If I were not able to master its composition like this, that would truly be a shame." Saying this, Chang Xinyuan once again marvelled at his great luck in meeting such a good leader as Ling Lan. Just think, which battle clan leader would be so generous as to outright give a support mechanic an ace mecha just for research purposes? It was already not bad if a leader would even give you the time of day!

"Honestly, I was already pretty much done studying it about three months ago. For these last three months, I've been researching how I could make necessary modifications to an ace mecha ..." Chang Xinyuan pushed aside his feelings to say.

These words shocked the other team members who were drinking tea. Qi Long, in particular, could not stop himself from spewing out the tea in his mouth he had yet to swallow ...

Han Jijyun levelled a vicious glare at Qi Long — seated right across from Qi Long, he was unfortunately sprayed with a faceful of tea ...

Qi Long quickly put down his teacup and pulled some tissue paper from the table top, offering it with an apologetic smile to Han Jijyun, mouth spouting a continuous stream of apologies. It couldn't be helped. At this time, he could only humble himself and beg for his sworn brother's forgiveness.

In the midst of pouring tea, when Li Lanfeng heard Chang Xinyuan's words, he quickly set down the teapot, plopped himself down beside Chang Xinyuan, and asked with surprise, "For real? I've never heard that an ace mecha could be modified. Aren't mecha mechanics only able to modify mecha of special-class and below?"

Chang Xinyuan was originally a mild-mannered and reserved person, but when a professional problem was posed, he was extremely solemn. Li Lanfeng's words were obviously tinged with doubt — this offended him, and his expression darkened as he retorted, "According to whom? In theory, as long as a mechanic's modification skills continue to develop, even a god-class mecha is not beyond the scope of modification."

"But there has never been any cases of a modified ace mecha before in the Federation." In the face of Chang Xinyuan's anger, Li Lanfeng acted guilelessly — he was merely stating the truth. It was still possible to see some partial modifications on special-class mecha, but ace mecha had always been limited to the five great unified models of the Federation. At most, individual ace mecha only differed in colour, and there might be some changes to the weapons equipped on them ...

"Truth is, when it comes to mecha at ace level, it is indeed already very difficult to make any modifications. Having been thoroughly researched and experimented on by countless generations of Federation people, these mecha are already pretty much perfect. Any unwise alterations would instead decrease the functional capacity of the mecha, and so it's not really worth the trouble." Li Lanfeng's innocent-looking face and his very realistic words swiftly calmed Chang Xinyuan down.

"But in Mecha World, the possibilities are endless. There are some materials and weapons we would never dream of which can be found in Mecha World, and these can allow mechanics to break free from reality to conduct modifications on even higher level mecha." Chang Xinyuan finally revealed the reason why he was able to modify ace mecha.

It should be said that Chang Xinyuan was truly very, very lucky. After completing a triple-S modification assignment, he had received a very generous reward from the mainframe. The reward included materials which only existed in legend in the real world and were extremely precious. It was all due to these materials that he was able to satisfy all the requirements needed to modify ace mecha.

Chang Xinyuan's words made everyone fall into silent contemplation. Indeed, Mecha World was a virtual world. For example, even when it came to mecha operation, many ultra-difficult flying manoeuvres that were likely to result in a crash in the real world enjoyed a certain success rate inside Mecha World. Because there was no need to fear death, every mecha operator dared to attempt it. Even if they failed, they would at most lose a significant number of points — they just needed to start over again. It was also the existence of Mecha World which allowed mecha controls in the real world to diversify. Many moves which had been tried and tested in Mecha World by operators until their success rate achieved a certain guarantee would slowly surface in reality ...

Thus, if the possibility for breakthroughs existed for mecha controls, then it of course made sense that other specializations also shared this feature. Seated at one side, Li Shiyu began pondering deeply. Perhaps he should shift his medical research into Mecha World too; there were all sorts of miraculous agents in Mecha World which might help him find a cure for his eldest cousin brother's constitution problem faster ...

Right then, Han Jijyun finally finished wiping away all traces of the tea Qi Long had spit all over his face. Only then did he have the heart to ask a question that had been bothering him. "But why have we never seen modifications of ace mecha in Mecha World before this?"

Everyone else agreed with his point, because regardless of whether it was in reality or the virtual world, they had really never seen any modified ace mecha before.

Chang Xinyuan was stunned at his words. Thinking about it now, he too had never seen a modified ace mecha before in the virtual world ... did that mean that none of the other mechanics had ever discovered that ace mecha could actually be modified?

"Could it be because of fixed thinking? No, no ..." Chang Xinyuan shook his head sharply. As a brilliant mechanic, one would never set restrictions on one's imagination. A mechanic's thoughts must be free to wander — this was the firm tenet of mechanics. Then, how could so many mechanics and those grand masters involved in more advanced research have overlooked this point? At this time, Chang Xinyuan suddenly thought of the outer appearance of the ace mecha he had modified, and in a flash of insight, he figured it out ...

"Is it because when we see modified mecha in Mecha World, we subconsciously believe that those cannot be ace mecha, and so take them to be mecha of other levels?" asked Chang Xinyuan, beside himself at the epiphany.

Chang Xinyuan's words were like a bolt of lightning, blowing apart the constrained mindset of all the others there. Yes, ace mecha which had been modified were sure to look different from the initial ace mecha. At one glance, there would be no way at all for them to know if they were ace mecha, so they might have directly assumed those mecha were special-class mecha or even mecha below that ...

Everyone was stunned by the possibility. Ling Lan had noticed the shift in Chang Xinyuan's expression throughout, and a thought tumbled through her mind. She asked, "Chang Xinyuan, have you succeeded in your ace mecha modification?"

Ling Lan's self-assured and composed demeanour astounded Chang Xinyuan. In shock, he said, "Boss Lan, how did you know?"