Counterfeit Hero

The sudden change caused an uproar in the stands.

The audience was in an uproar, while the Feiyang Mecha Soldiers raised their energy cannons, ready for battle.

Carolina, who had just stepped out of Box No. 1 on the stands with a few officers who knew Margaret’s identity, was dumbfounded and hurriedly ran to the bottom of the stage. On the stands, the Chuckna people laughed uncontrollably—this damned Leray fatty was a complete scoundrel!

Under the barrels of dozens of military mechas’ energy cannons, the chubby [Ranger] pressed his hands together and shook Margaret back and forth. Fatty stared at Margaret with a focused gaze, like a child catching a cricket.

Damn, I’m curious, what’s this young lady thinking?!

Margaret, shaken senseless by Fatty’s wild shaking, bit her lips hard to keep herself from crying out. Held in the palm of the mecha’s hand, she felt like she was trapped in a cage, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of astonished eyes. Under these gazes, she felt like a rare ornamental animal!

Margaret, called a witch by the younger generation in the upper circles of Feiyang society, regarded as heaven’s favored daughter by the older generation, and seen as the second Hastings by the military bigwigs, had never suffered such a loss.

Speaking of military strategy wisdom, her extraordinary talent aside, just the years of immersion beside Hastings allowed her to scoff at how many great generals on the rankings.

This isn’t arrogance, it’s a fact.

In July 2058, Feiyang intervened in the regional conflict between the Cosnania Federation and four neighboring countries in the Kensers Star Domain, north on the human interstellar map. During the sixteen-day war from the outbreak until the five warring nations accepted the ceasefire resolution made by the Human Supreme Council, the Four-Nation Alliance was beaten by the Fei-Cosnania Alliance Army without any power to fight back.

Throughout the war, under the sneak attack of the Fei-Cosnania Alliance Fleet, not a single enemy battleship in the conflict zone achieved liftoff. Ninety-nine percent of the airstrips usable for combat were destroyed or occupied. On the Kensers Main Star where the conflict broke out, the twelve armored divisions and thirty-seven fully mechanized infantry divisions forcefully deployed by the four nations were beaten to the ground, and when the so-called historically strongest elite alliance was annihilated on the Abraham Plain, they did not even know where the main force of the Fei-Cosnania Alliance Army was!

In that battle, military observers were in awe of the Fei-Cosnania Alliance Commander’s sharp command style, cunning and flexible tactics, application of intelligence deception, accurate judgment of political situations, and mastery of both general and local timing.

From the outbreak of the conflict, confrontation, gathering, to the start of the war… in the sixteen days, the Fei-Cosnania Alliance Army fought a textbook campaign! The outcome of the battle was almost predetermined the moment that A-grade fleet and three armored divisions from Feiyang arrived in the Kensers Star Domain!

In that battle, everyone thought it was commanded by Hastings! But only a few core bigwigs in the Feiyang military knew that the mastermind of that battle was a girl named Margaret who had just turned eighteen!

From that day on, these generals who dared to slam the table with Hastings privately warned their descendants harshly that whoever dared to provoke Margaret would have their legs broken!

They knew their own children. With Margaret around, vying for control of the Feiyang military for the next fifty years was too dangerous! Hastings was already dangerous enough, and his granddaughter increased that danger index tenfold! Because she was only eighteen!

They and Hastings shared a life-risking friendship; some were even Hastings’ former superiors.

Those who could speak in the military naturally stood on the same boat with this Military God. They had common interests, which was enough for them to stand tall in the face of Hastings.

But Margaret made them have to be cautious.

With Hastings’ character, it was impossible for him to take lethal action against the families of these military bigwigs over petty squabbles between their offspring. But Margaret, perhaps, was different!

Despite holding this little girl in some regard for so many years, many bigwigs couldn’t see through this witch who played by her own rules. Now that Hastings was around, and they were still around, everyone was at peace. But if someone with poor judgment provoked Margaret, when they were in the ground, their families’ future days would be ruined!

The high officials and wealthy offspring of Feiyang, no matter how talented, ruthless, and insidious, couldn’t match Margaret.

Facts also proved their wisdom. Besides the battle in Kensers, Margaret’s methods of dealing with political enemies outside the Hastings system were enough to make these people break a sweat. In that circle, this charming and enchanting girl carried an invincible aura.

But ultimately, Margaret was just a 23-year-old girl. Her military talent and political scheming, though jaw-dropping, couldn’t replace the accumulation of time and experience.

The more significant reason for the Feiyang bigwigs’ fear of her was that under Hastings’ protection, she had enough time to grow and gain experience. Since they could see Margaret’s potential, they certainly didn’t want to plant any seeds of trouble at this moment.

And right now, here, this was Mars!

This was a place of exile that had followed the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, for over a thousand years. Here lived the domineering and arrogant mercenaries, vicious pirates, unscrupulous syndicates, shameless frauds, and thieves. Among them, how many were good people?!

Even the ordinary Mars populace who relied on working in commerce groups to sustain themselves were not naive and simple folks who knew nothing. They, too, had their own set of survival rules; in terms of schemes and machinations, just a flick of their eyebrows would come up with a hundred and eighty!

Only under absolute power would they submit. This world has always respected the strong. Precisely because their thoughts are deep and flexible, seeing and knowing much, they understand what is the best choice.

Margaret made a mistake.

She was too eager to get her hands on the mecha that held significant importance not only for Feiyang but for the entire Fei Alliance and the whole war.

She forgot that, after all, this was not Feiyang. No matter how dazzling the aura of Hastings was, here it was just a distant speck of starlight in the night sky. To the Mars people, it was far less shocking than the guns held by a few Feiyang soldiers around her.

She also forgot the methods one must have to single-handedly overturn the entire Mars, earning this place and those people’s submission, like that Fatty did in this law-of-the-jungle place.

More importantly, inadvertently, she had placed herself on the opposite side of Fatty!

No matter how gifted she was, and how many undercurrents she had witnessed at Hastings’ side, she was ultimately just a safe observer. Some things can’t be learned just by watching. Apart from personal experience, sometimes it even requires a price paid in blood.

In this regard, she was no match for Fatty.

Therefore, she did not understand that this simple-looking Fatty before her, capable of braving life and death on the battlefield, crushing the Mythical Army in Gazalin, capturing Emperor James alive, defeating the Northern Alliance on Mars, and sweeping this planet and the entire star route clean, would hardly suffer any oppression!

If she was an enchantress bred by elite education, then Fatty was a Demon King rolled out of the dirt.

Why could Mars’ sect mech knights, these mercenary armies, these pirate groups rally under Fatty’s bandit army?!

Was it really because of justice, because of those unreachable ideals?!

None of that! Beyond bringing them enough benefits, it was more crucial that Fatty was more ruthless, more unreasonable, and more out of norm than anyone else!

He knew what he wanted!

As long as you stood against him, he would never show any mercy or hesitation; he would use the most straightforward methods and the most vile and sinister means to trample you underfoot!

You couldn’t find anyone more ruthless than this Fatty on the whole Mars!

The most frustrating thing is, he believed that all of this was as it should be, just as normal as eating and sleeping. Just like now, he innocently shook Margaret back and forth, not feeling that such behavior was a bit excessive for a girl.

You call him a name, he’d beat you up, and at the end, even step on you and spit on you.

That’s just how ”simple and straightforward” he is!

”Is grabbing me of any use?!” Margaret stared at Fatty, trying hard to regain her disadvantage: ”Unless you kill me, otherwise.....”

Margaret, though feeling humiliated, did not abandon her thoughts. This Fatty knew her identity, and in this public eye, he absolutely wouldn’t dare harm her. As long as he had a moment of hesitation, whether through intimidation or persuasion, she would eventually make him compromise.

But before she finished speaking, the Fatty with sparkling big eyes curiously sealed her mouth with a mechanical hand. Her following words turned into a series of muffled sounds.

Fatty found it odd. How did this woman’s brain kick in such insane thoughts, thinking he would let her speak?! Thinking this, he turned and yelled at the dumbfounded commandant: ”Move away! Or I’m gonna squash her into meat paste!”

”Release her!” Carolina, who had already rushed to Fatty, shouted sternly: ”General Tian, if you harm Colonel Margaret, it’ll be declaring war against the Feiyang Republic! You must acknowledge her identity, she is.......”

”Why should I care who she is!” Fatty righteously declared: ”I’m reporting today’s matter directly to the Alliance forces’ Supreme Command!”

”Report.......” Carolina was momentarily speechless.

”If it weren’t for us, the high officials of the Mars Front Army would have been wiped out already by now!” Fatty looked disdainfully at the surrounding Feiyang Mecha: ”And now it’s your turn to show off?!”

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. Originally, I intended to write more. However, the plot suddenly got stuck. The great battle is about to commence, and transitional explanations stop here. For this chapter, make do with it. Margaret’s part also needs complete narration, if this were the past, I wouldn’t have published yet. But now, I have to release it first. Sometimes, choices are really tough.

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