Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 12 - 12 New Mecha

Milan, Meiduo, and Nia were chatting outside the frontline command building when Milan, with her sharp eyes, suddenly saw Tian Xingjian walking out of the building, looking dejected. She ran over to Fatty, snatched the Medal of Honor from his hand, and started reading it.

Her initially playful expression grew increasingly angry as she read, until she couldn’t help but shout, ”What the hell is this? Fatty, you still have a year and a half left on your sentence! No way, I’m telling the professor!”

Fatty’s eyes lit up. Right, wasn’t he supposed to stay in the lab for two years? The two with different aims bolted off immediately, one to continue his reign, the other just to survive. Meiduo and Nia were left looking at each other in confusion.

Boswell was furious! The frontline command often dragged its feet on repairs, wasting precious time. Now they wanted to snatch away the Fatty he had painstakingly trained with just a transfer order? No way!

To the old man, Fatty was at least half a direct disciple. Though Fatty couldn’t yet handle cutting-edge research due to his academic limitations, his learning ability, comprehension, and creativity were top-notch among the students the old man had seen. His excellent hands-on skills were also a major assurance that the old man could immerse himself in research without worry. Boswell believed that within a few years, Fatty could definitely become a top-notch expert in mechas and weapons.

Besides, this lovable Fatty was so obedient. As soon as the old man’s usual threat, ”I’ll shoot you,” was uttered, Fatty would fall silent immediately, and the old man’s orders would be carried out unconditionally.

”Where can I find such a good Fatty in the future?”

The old man’s protective nature exploded!

Furious, Boswell stormed into Bernadotte’s office, and the whole building soon heard the old man’s roar! This roar lasted for a full hour, and finally, Bernadotte, unable to bear it anymore, had the guards carry the raving old man out of the office.

Boswell was enraged to the extreme!

”Fatty, come with me!” The old man had lost his mind!

Back in the underground laboratory, the old man brought up Fatty’s profile from the central computer. While modifying the profile with his authority, he gritted his teeth and said, ”What Federation secrets? Fatty! I’m now enrolling you in the Gallipalan Military Academy as a special postgraduate student under my guidance, promoting you to the second-in-command of this laboratory! Any mecha or weapon you want from the lab, you can take it. The confidentiality clauses don’t apply to you!”

”Your first task is to protect this equipment! The Federation’s technology confidentiality regulations allow you to retreat at your discretion on the battlefield!”

After modifying Fatty’s profile, the old man continued, ”Now I’ll get you a list of the lab’s equipment. You choose what you want! With our academy’s postgraduate status, after serving for one year, you can choose to return to the academy for further studies, and I’ll get you back then!”

Leaving behind a room full of stunned people, the old man walked straight into his research room.

Fatty was overjoyed with this lovable old man. This was great; he could choose any equipment from the lab!!!

Milan dragged Fatty to her lab, pointing at a mecha made of biological dual-state metal. ”Fatty, I’ll give you this.” Milan’s eyes sparkled, showing a hint of chaos.

Fatty surprisingly shook his head! Milan felt like she was going crazy. How could there be such an ungrateful Fatty in this world?!

Seeing Milan’s upset expression, Fatty hurriedly explained, ”I definitely want this mecha, but this one is too flashy. On the battlefield, it would be a sitting duck.”

Milan tilted her head, thought for a moment, and agreed with Fatty’s assessment.

”You’re right. This Prototype No.1 was built as an advanced private mecha, very different from standard mechas. Which mecha do you plan to choose then? The others are much worse.”

Fatty, already confident with his plan, grinned, ”Isn’t there material prepared for Prototype No.2 in the material room? I still have a month before reporting to the troops. I plan to use this time to build my own mecha. Hehe.”

In the following month, Fatty mobilized everyone in the lab to work on the new mecha. Each part was made according to the drawings Fatty had prepared, with Fatty completing the main body and final assembly himself.

Tian Xingjian locked himself in Milan’s exclusive lab, and no one knew what the final mecha would look like. They often heard Fatty and Milan arguing, with Milan usually storming out, exclaiming, ”This idiot is wasting materials!!!”

The mecha’s construction became a guessing game involving the entire lab, with everyone eagerly anticipating the final product. Given Prototype No.1’s mature components and metrics, the new mecha looked promising on paper, but its initial form remained a mystery.

Finally, Fatty announced the successful completion of the mecha, and the moment of revelation arrived.

Seeing Fatty’s glowing eyes, everyone was excited, but the excitement quickly turned to disappointed sighs as the cover fell away from the mecha.

The Leray Federation’s Second-generation standard mecha, the Magic Beast Type III, standing six meters tall, a single-soldier human-shaped mecha, manufactured in New Era 2030, with a service life of 20 years. These mechas were gradually phased out after being equipped by the military for 10 years. Now, the remaining Magic Beast mechas in the army were mainly tasked with heavy lifting. Thirty years had passed since then, and standard mechas had developed to the Seventh-generation, making the difference comparable to that between an old car and a flying car, utterly incomparable.

This mecha’s initial form was shockingly constructed as a Magic Beast Type III, looking even more dilapidated than those Magic Beast mechas that had been used for over thirty years to load and unload various ores.

Looking at this wobbling guy who seemed like he would fall over at any moment, everyone thought: ”Is this fat guy out of his mind? With so many advanced technological achievements, he put together something like this?”

All eyes were on Tian Xingjian, as if they were waiting for him to give a reasonable explanation.

Seeing the malicious looks from the crowd and Milan’s almost bursting emotions, Fatty knew that if he couldn’t explain himself, he wouldn’t even make it to the front lines before being beaten to death by everyone.

Fatty smiled ingratiatingly to calm everyone’s emotions and explained, ”I know using ’avoiding becoming a noticeable target on the battlefield’ as a reason is definitely not sufficient. After all, the most ordinary should be the current sixth and seventh generation standard mechas. However, as a second-generation mecha, it can still be effective today. The Magic Beast Ⅲ hides a secret. It is the most structurally reasonable human-shaped mecha in mecha design history!”

Fatty’s words caused an uproar. No matter how excellent the second-generation mecha was, it was still a second-generation mecha. With continuous technological progress, how could a second-generation mecha’s structure be better than a seventh-generation mecha’s?

Fatty provided the answer to this question: ”Because of the advancements in mecha materials and the clear classification of specialized mechas, multi-purpose and transforming mechas have completely fallen by the wayside. Whether it requires speed, defense, or attack power, each type of mecha develops in its own field; the fastest race car is not the most heavily loaded vehicle. The principle is actually very simple.”

”Well said.” Boswell didn’t know when he had also entered Milan’s lab. He affirmed Tian Xingjian’s statement and continued, ”The Magic Beast Type III Mecha was designed under the leadership of my teacher, Dr. Hill. The concepts back then were completely different from now, but in terms of the structure of human-shaped mechas, the Magic Beast can indeed be said to be the top. As Dr. Hill’s assistant, I am very familiar with the data on Magic Beast. Such a structure, combining defense, speed, and power, is indeed the best choice for making human-shaped mechas with biological dual-state metal.”

The old man patted Tian Xingjian’s shoulder and smiled, ”Very impressive work.”

Seeing Fatty’s smug look, Milan, standing next to him, gave him a hard kick.

For the minor actions between his two disciples, Boswell turned a blind eye and said to Fatty, hopping on one foot, ”Follow me to the lab, I’ve prepared what you need.”

Boswell had been in this lab for decades and naturally knew what good stuff was there. The things he prepared for Fatty were selected by Fatty from a thick catalog.

There were military boots that could increase running speed, protective clothing that could simulate the surrounding environment and counter biological radar, a more sensitive listener, a light saber for mecha use, a silent sniper rifle styled after the vintage M1 Garand rifle, a multi-functional mechanical repair arm, and a knife named ”Blood Red”.

These were for Fatty’s equipment, while other lab research results were almost all on his new mecha, including the latest radar, the newest composite armor, the latest control system, the best super energy engine, fire control system, improved top-tier energy cannon, and some strange devices that were Fatty’s own wacky inventions.

”Do your best, remember, you are my student. If anyone dares to bully you, you fight back!” Boswell, looking at the almost fully armed Fatty, still felt a bit uneasy, took out a new type of energy compressor and handed it to him, saying, ”Install this on your mecha as well.”

”Remember! Don’t embarrass the lab!” the old man admonished.

However, this requirement was quite difficult for the cowardly, lecherous, and shameless Fatty. This scoundrel thought to himself: ”What counts as embarrassing?”

As Fatty was about to step out of Boswell’s exclusive lab, the old man gave his last piece of advice.

”In war, no matter how perfect the equipment, one cannot become a universal god.”

*******************

There were only two days left in the month. Fatty had to report to the troops’ location by the specified date. When boarding the transport ship, Milan gave Fatty her Mauser pistol. She was the only one seeing him off. Meiduo and Nia had already gone to the 101st Flying Squadron of the Land-based Air Force in New Rome City, where they were originally stationed. After passing the review, they were ordered to return to their unit.

The transport ship took off. Sitting among a pile of supplies, Fatty felt a complex mix of emotions about his future. Always longing for a peaceful life, he was once again thrown into the smoke and fire of war. He didn’t know if he could survive until the end of the war. After over twenty escapes, he was no longer the rookie who wet his pants at the start. Apart from some inherent resistance to the coming battles, he even felt a bit of anticipation and excitement. These completely contradictory feelings left him at a loss.

On Miloke Planet, the warring sides had already formed an east-west standoff. To seize air supremacy, both sides’ space fleets were fighting fiercely in the vast universe. Battles between land-based air forces within the atmosphere were also in full swing. And the skirmishes of the era’s war backdrops—the armies—sparkled even more brilliantly than the deadly duels in the sky!

In modern warfare, where resources, consumption, and national strength are contested, if the warring sides are evenly matched, apart from peace, war will inevitably evolve into another extreme – endless slaughter. Such wars will undoubtedly produce so-called meat grinder battlefields.

Now, all intelligence reports indicated that the most likely location for this outcome was Kato City on the Northern Tropic.

And all of this was unknown to Fatty, who had been away from the war for half a year.

As the transport ship slowly landed, he was ready to face the future.

”If you’re dead, so be it; if you’re not, then live forever!”

With an air of bravado, Fatty cheerfully radiated confidence.