Chapter 9: Mecha Master part 1
According to the time agreed upon with Han Naijin the night before, Bai Mu woke up early and headed down to the first-floor hall. However, he didn’t find Han Naijin there. Instead, Situ informed him that the Consul had to attend an emergency government meeting and wouldn’t be able to visit the mecha base until the afternoon.
Thus, Bai Mu returned to his room and waited until afternoon, when Situ came for him again. Bai Mu followed him into a black maglev vehicle. Situ drove the car to the front of the government building to wait for Han Naijin.
Before long, Han Naijin walked down the steps with a light gait. Although he was wearing a formal military uniform today, he still lacked any sense of decorum, his jacket merely draped over his shoulders again.
Is it really that hard to wear a uniform properly?
Han Naijin headed straight for their car, pulled open the back door, and tossed his jacket insideādirectly onto Bai Mu.
Bai Mu was speechless. He looked up at Han Naijin, who froze for a second as if he hadn’t expected Bai Mu to be in the car already. He then reacted, saying a quick “You’re here,” before pulling open the passenger door and sitting in the front. Situ drove the car through the military-exclusive maglev lane, and they soon arrived at the military mecha base.
During the drive, Bai Mu learned the cause of the mecha damage from the two menās conversation.
It turned out that during the civil unrest in the Kingdom of Anga, their domestic magnetic field shielding equipment was destroyed. Asteroid M2642, where the kingdom was located, was subsequently invaded by stellar magnetic fields, causing a magnetic storm. This not only forced the interruption of the nationās entire communication system but also indirectly interfered with the Laea City mecha squadron during a routine exercise between stars 2642 and 2643. This caused the entire squadron’s coordinate positioning system to fail, leading them into a meteor dust belt. They were attacked by micro-meteorites, resulting in severe external damage to the mechas, and the internal coordinate positioning software had yet to be repaired.
The maglev car stopped in front of the mecha base. After a routine inspection, the vehicle was cleared to enter.
When Bai Mu saw the base, he couldn’t help but be momentarily surprised. He had initially thought that for a small city-state like Laea City, the mecha base would be very backward, with cramped training grounds and obsolete mecha models.
But he had forgotten that while Laea City was small, it was extremely wealthy. Although the area of this base couldn’t compare to the Empireāwhich used an entire satellite as a mecha baseāLaea Cityās equipment and facilities were very advanced. The functional division of the entire base was also very complete, with maintenance zones, training zones, and weapon equipment zones all set up similarly to those of the Empire.
Bai Mu followed Han Naijin to Parking Apron No. 1 in the maintenance zone.
This was a sunken apron. Their current location was at ground level, and they had to take an elevator down to reach the maintenance site.
By the time they reached the elevator entrance, Situ, who had been with them just a moment ago, had vanished. Only he and Han Naijin remained.
The elevator slowly ascended. Han Naijin stepped on first, and Bai Mu followed. As the elevator descended, both were silent, making the already cramped space feel even more suffocating.
Bai Mu took another step into the corner. He instinctively glanced at Han Naijin in the elevatorās mirror, and their gazes met through the glass.
Han Naijin seemed unbothered by accidentally catching his gaze, giving him a casual, raised eyebrow. Bai Mu quickly looked away, his facial expression somewhat tense.
In that instant, the atmosphere in the elevator shifted subtly again, but fortunately, the doors soon opened.
Bai Mu let out a long breath and followed Han Naijin out.
A giant crimson mecha stood silently like a mountain range, surrounded by countless mechanical arms. A person stood on a platform at the tip of each mechanical armāthese were the mecha masters performing repairs. This fierce beast was currently injured and sleeping peacefully, yet one knew that once awakened, it would stir up thousands of waves and destroy heaven and earth.
The mecha masters were busy. In the center of the site, a giant holographic screen was projected, filled with dense data and information. The mecha masters huddled beneath the screen, constantly writing, sketching, or discussing among themselves, looking quite frazzled.
At this point, Situ caught up. He didn’t say where he had gone, but Bai Mu saw him give Han Naijin a slight shake of his head.
An elder, who was giving instructions to others, turned around and saw the three of them. He hurried forward.
The others also noticed the Consul. The sounds of discussion lowered as everyone looked toward them.
The elder spoke cordially with Han Naijin. Situ whispered to Bai Mu that this was the base’s Chief Mecha Master, Tang Li, the main person in charge of these repairs.
Han Naijin asked warmly, “Chief Master Tang, is there any progress with the repairs?”
Tang Li let out a sigh, looking quite helpless as he said, “We’ve tried many methods, but once we touch the core program of the coordinate system, we can’t proceed further. The coordinate system software for this series is quite different from previous ones; we haven’t found the root of the problem yet.”
Bai Mu listened to Tang Li’s words, but his eyes remained fixed on the giant screen running the code.
Han Naijin remained noncommittal to Tang Li’s words and shifted his gaze to Bai Mu.
Only then did Bai Mu retract his gaze from the screen. He looked at Han Naijin and said, “I need to take a look inside the cockpit.”
The chatter that had just subsided suddenly rose again. Since Bai Mu had entered the maintenance site, many people had been glancing at him intentionally or otherwise. No one knew why the Consul had brought a beautiful Omega here. Perhaps the Omega had acted spoiled and begged the Consul to bring him along for fun when they woke up that morning. The crowd, who had imagined countless possibilities, never expected that this Omegaās first words would be a request to go into the cockpit.
These mecha masters and researchers had been working without sleep for several days to repair these mechas. Seeing that an Omega actually treated the military base like a sightseeing spot, they all showed expressions of disdain. Furthermore, hearing this Omega recklessly say he wanted to see the mecha’s interior made their expressions even worse.
After hearing Bai Muās words, Tang Li gave a light laugh, trying his best to maintain the composure of an elder. He said, “Young man, this must be your first time at a mecha base. If you’re interested, you can wander around, but the cockpit is the heart of the mechaāitās not a place just anyone can enter.”
Bai Mu finally understood that from start to finish, these people never considered him a mecha master. Looking at the way their gazes constantly shifted between him and Han Naijin, he realized exactly what role they had assigned him.
The people by the screen were all watching him with schadenfreude, waiting to see him slink away in embarrassment.
When he first entered the Imperial Mecha Institute, he had faced such skepticism countless times. The reason was simple: he was an Omega.
Tang Li was clearly dismissing him. Regardless of whether he was brought by the Consul or not, in the face of true high-level experts, even the Consul had no right to interfere with professional decisions.
Bai Mu took a step forward, no longer standing behind Han Naijin but shoulder-to-shoulder with him. His expression was calm as he said with certainty: “I know where the problem is!”
The moment those words were spoken, Tang Li’s expression turned awkward. Every mecha master present widened their eyes as if they had heard a hilarious joke. The disbelief on their faces clearly said, “Are you kidding me?”
In the eyes of the crowd, Bai Muās words were arrogant and rude. The whispering and questioning intensified.
Indeed, his words showed no respect for the mecha masters present, but no amount of etiquette could prove his ability. The only way to convince people was to achieve what everyone else had failed to do.
Bai Mu was confident. He had seen from the giant screen earlier that this batch of mechas was precisely the series he had led the design of two years ago when he first became Chief Mecha Master. This series had improved overall performance compared to previous mechas, naturally including the coordinate positioning system. The coordinate system utilized a more complex and rigorous encoding mode, completely abandoning the software of previous series.
No wonder these mecha masters were at a loss.
But for him, it was like a knot he had tied himselfāundoing it was just that simple.
Bai Mu looked at Han Naijin again. The one with the most authority here was still the Consul. Han Naijin seemed completely unbothered by the tense atmosphere. He laughed softly and said, “In that case… shall we go take a look together?”
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