Mecha Chapter 142: Preparation

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Lhachril

 

The person in charge was dumbfounded, then mumbled, “But-  but – he’s His Highness, Prince Consort, ah. And His Highness, Prince Consort just went on vacation with the Prince. I’ll find it hard to call him over…” Under the Lieutenant General’s increasingly fierce gaze, the person in charge’s voice became quieter and quieter, but he still explained the identity of the boy and His Highness, the Prince clearly.

“Prince Consort? We actually have such a noble and privileged figure here… Wait, you mean he was right under our noses and you were still looking around like idiots?!” Halfway through the lieutenant general’s sarcasm, he suddenly realized what the person in charge meant and immediately changed his tone and roared. His eyes glazed over, and even his white beard raised.

The person in charge wiped his sweat and replied with difficulty, “I’m afraid so.” 

Although it was truly humiliating, it was true. The person in charge spat in his heart, If that soldier hadn’t gone in to help clean up the studio, I’m afraid they would still be wandering around like headless flies, on top of Mr. Lieutenant General’s free daily roar and black pot bellied face.

The old Lieutenant General squinted at the person in charge for a few seconds and suddenly said, “You go figure out what to do. I want to see him right now.”

The Head’s mouth fell open and he said with a sad face, “Lieutenant General Hatton, I really can’t do anything about it, His Highness Prince Consort’s leave note says that he is not on Planet Anse until next Monday, and we won’t be able to reach him until next week.” Although he understood that the Lieutenant General was drunk with mecha research, he shouldn’t give him a hard time like that, the head thought depressingly.

He was just a junior colonel in the B-Class planet military’s mecha research and development department, and couldn’t care less about the prince’s schedule any longer.

In the end, when the person in charge almost wanted to kneel down to his top boss, Lieutenant General Hutton, the head of the mecha R&D department, finally gave up on the idea of seeing Luo XiaoLou right away, but informed the person in charge to keep a close eye on His Highness Prince Consort’s itinerary and make sure to bring him over as soon as he returned.

Afterwards, Lieutenant General Hutton sent his men to test the performance of the mecha parts Luo XiaoLou had made, and the data they came up with was quite surprising, all of them were Grade 4 parts with an effective utilization rate of over 90%.

Even the best mecha masters couldn’t guarantee that all the mecha parts they handled were of the same grade as their own, not to mention a utilization rate of over 90%.

The man in charge, Colonel Vincent, had gone to the materials department to request the material request form submitted by Luo XiaoLou, and in examining the material numbers and mecha parts together, he had discovered another shocking fact.

The mecha parts Luo XiaoLou had on the table required exactly half the materials he had received – a fifty percent success rate! At an age and rank like Luo XiaoLou’s, material wastage was usually quite huge, and most people, even with ten parts of materials, only had maybe two or three finished pieces.

While Luo XiaoLou had a full half of them on the tabletop, usually in personal labs, anyone other than assistants were not allowed to touch anything, and mecha makers would pack up what they had made when they left, leaving the rest of the work to others to take care of. Apparently, these on the tabletop were left by Luo XiaoLou specifically for the military. Perhaps he hadn’t realized that a young man like him didn’t have to hand over the finished product at all.

Colonel Vincent looked at the list in his hand and sighed in his heart, this was talent. Those geniuses who came in before were simply jokes when compared to Luo XiaoLou. Perhaps, the future successor of the military department had already appeared.

Although Colonel Vincent sighed in all sorts of ways, he never imagined that those on the desktop weren’t all of Luo XiaoLou’s works, and that there were still several finished products lying quietly inside the storage box in Luo XiaoLou’s personal laboratory.

 

In an office of the military’s mecha R&D department.

The young and handsome Colonel Feng Yang looked at the person on the sofa with a few difficulties, “It seems that your plan will be difficult to implement, now that the higher-ups have taken notice of Luo XiaoLou.”

The person on the couch was dressed in a command uniform, also with the rank of Colonel, and he was Luo ShaoJun. Luo ShaoJun calmly stirred his coffee and said, “Forget it. The Mecha Manufacturing Department belongs to the Research and Development Department, apart from the results, the higher-ups don’t pay much attention to it. And Father has been very busy lately, so he may not notice.”

Feng Yang patted Luo ShaoJun’s shoulder, “You shouldn’t think too much. At least there is our Feng family that will help you.” The Feng family was exactly Madame Luo’s mother’s clan, and was not much less powerful than the Luo family in the military department.

Luo ShaoJun moved his lips, wanting to speak again.

Feng Yang smiled, “I’ll send someone to keep an eye on it at all times. Don’t worry.”

 

Luo XiaoLou and Yuan Xi returned on Sunday afternoon, Luo XiaoLou went to catch up on his own sleep after washing up, instructing the other two not to disturb him. Yuan Xi went upstairs to the physical training room to do his daily training, while 125 went to the living room to watch TV.

At this point, Colonel Vincent at the military headquarters was again in a difficult position, as Lieutenant General Hatton couldn’t sit still any longer after learning that Luo XiaoLou was arriving at Planet Anse today.

“But it’s the weekend, it’s a public rest day and you can’t deprive someone of their rest time, especially if he’s in a pretty special position.” Colonel Vincent tactfully hinted to Mr. Lieutenant General. He didn’t have the decency to mention that the military department hadn’t paid Luo XiaoLou any salary so far. It was inhumane to have someone work overtime when there was no salary.

What was even more tragic was that this task would definitely fall on him, but he didn’t want to offend the two most powerful people in the Federation’s future. As he watched his superiors walk around the office, Colonel Vincent felt his heart was breaking.

For the first time, Lieutenant General Hatton was being objected to by his right-hand man, but that didn’t dampen his enthusiasm in the slightest, and after another round, Lieutenant General Hatton stopped in front of Colonel Vincent and said hesitantly, “You’re right, that would seem disingenuous of me. I’m going to go over there myself, now.”

“……”

When Lieutenant General Hatton and Colonel Vincent knocked on Luo XiaoLou’s front door, Yuan Xi impatiently appeared at the door, but before opening it, he instructed 125 to close the master bedroom door tightly so as not to disturb Luo XiaoLou.

Lieutenant General Hatton greeted the prince stiffly and then remained silent, peering around to see what was going on. Colonel Vincent tried to ignore his superior’s humiliating behavior and greeted Yuan Xi respectfully, explaining the situation.

Yuan Xi gave Lieutenant General Hutton a blank look and then said, “You mean, you want Luo XiaoLou to enter Lieutenant General Hatton’s top R&D lab?”

Lieutenant General Hatton immediately turned his head and replied seriously, “Yes, I sincerely ask him to join, and I believe His Highness Prince Consort has the talent.”

“To conduct difficult research on a daily basis?” Yuan Xi calmly continued to ask.

“Of course, coming here every day would be perfect. We’ll provide the best conditions for him, and I’ll give guidance from the side.” Lieutenant General Hutton affirmed.

“It will be busy?”

“Of course. We’re not one of those idle, paycheck-to-paycheck departments in the Mecha R&D Department. Every year we take out a dozen or so patents for the military department, as well as various Mecha Department statutes that are constantly being updated.” Lieutenant General Hutton said proudly.

Colonel Vincent realized that something was wrong, but it was too late to warn the old Lieutenant General.

“That won’t do.” Yuan Xi said with a snapping voice.

Looking at the Prince who was leaning on the couch, Lieutenant General Hutton choked a bit, but he had some sense and held his fire to ask, “Why?”

“Let’s just say that I actually prefer Luo XiaoLou to be a regular mecha maker. If he’s willing to work hard on his own, I won’t force him too much. However, Luo XiaoLou is already busy enough right now, and I don’t want him to add any more burdens,” Yuan Xi said.

“I’d rather have him have a studio of his own like the other young men entering the military, practicing without any pressure or doing a little research, and taking everything slowly. Mn, I’m happy with that, just like he did when he first entered.” The Prince said slightly sarcastically, obviously knowing Luo XiaoLou like the back of his hand when he entered the military.

Colonel Vincent felt that they were simply throwing stones at themselves when they had left him out to dry before discovering Luo XiaoLou’s talent; after discovering it, when they wanted to repurpose him, they suggested that they would prefer to be treated like before. What is this, what is this all about?

Lieutenant General Hatton finally realized that he’d made a mistake, and after giving Vincent a look that indicated to him that he must get Luo XiaoLou into his lab anyway, he stayed quiet and waited for his assistant to convince the Prince.

The persuasion was difficult and the results were not what Admiral Hatton had hoped for – access to the top lab was fine, but the working hours were the same, the same two and a half days, and nothing too tiring. Hatton took a long breath, but finally stopped talking. There was nothing more they could do in case Yuan Xi turned them down again.

The next day, the reshuffle of the military department’s personnel was heavily publicized by the media who had been secretly following the prince consort.

“His Highness Prince Consort has joined the military’s top lab with a pay package comparable to that of the R&D top brass, and the military claims that His Highness fully deserves it.”

“Lieutenant General Hutton noted that this was the most agile young man he had ever met.”

All sorts of praise followed, as if they weren’t the ones who had been scrambling to report on Luo XiaoLou’s subterfuge.

And Imperial Capital’s discordant voices that didn’t think Luo XiaoLou and Yuan Xi were a good match had also disappeared, to which the royal family said nothing, as if they had never raised objections.

Yuan Lie watched the news and glanced at Feng JiaLing, and thought to himself, Well, Luo XiaoLou is indeed okay, but compared to my wife, he’s completely incomparable, and Yuan Xi’s taste is really much worse than mine.

At the same time, while watching the news and eating fish, Yuan Xi thought to himself, Well, life is too good to be compared to my poor father who never enjoys anything.

Luo XiaoLou himself was extremely satisfied with the deal that Yuan Xi had negotiated for him, at least now he would get his salary. Of course, he didn’t know that Yuan Xi had negotiated with the military because he didn’t want him to get too tired.

Lieutenant General Hutton also showed a lot of attention to Luo XiaoLou on his first day on the job, taking him to a lab after he entered the top lab, and pointing out that the ministry was keen to introduce Luo XiaoLou’s technology to increase the effective application rate.

Luo XiaoLou didn’t say anything, just made a mecha part in person, and Lt. General Hatton soon discovered that Luo XiaoLou’s parts had a frighteningly high efficiency and success rate, some of which was due to some clever modifications to the process, but most of which was due to Luo XiaoLou himself.

The parts made by other people using those modified methods increased their utilization rate, but not by as much as 90%, which puzzled the Lieutenant General.

Unless his Spiritual Power was very powerful, no one else could reach that level.

Without thinking deeper, Lieutenant General Hatton decided to buy Luo XiaoLou’s finished product at a high price and promised that it would be no less than Heavenly Winter, and that the military department would at least not be short of money. Luo XiaoLou was somewhat depressed at the revelation of Heavenly Winter’s identity, but Lieutenant General Hutton assured him that he would keep it a secret.

Moreover, the lack of new technology introduced did not affect Hutton’s regard for Luo XiaoLou, and he placed Luo XiaoLou at his side, bringing Luo XiaoLou along on some major projects and asking Luo XiaoLou’s opinion from time to time. He found that although Luo XiaoLou did not understand a lot of things, he sometimes hit the nail on the head with what he had to say, which helped him find solutions to problems from another perspective.

After Luo XiaoLou returned from the Grey Galaxy, Mu Chen disguised himself as Bless and asked Luo XiaoLou to help him build a mecha several times. After Luo XiaoLou’s help last time, Bless felt that Luo XiaoLou’s skills were very strong, so he asked Luo XiaoLou to help him. The two of them rented a studio outside in order not to be disturbed.

Master Hebrew, like Master Yan, was super protective even if his junior apprentice was cold, and provided enough materials for his apprentice. After the two of them made the parts together, Bless proceeded to assemble it, while Luo XiaoLou was in charge of strengthening it. Bless bought the reinforcing agent, so the Tier 4 mecha reinforcement itself didn’t need much reinforcing agent.

Luo XiaoLou said in passing that he wanted to make two more mecha, and Bless nodded, “That’s easy. With the two of us it will be much faster.”

Luo XiaoLou’s most trusted mecha builder, besides Shen Yuan, was Bless, and the fact that he could do as good a job as he did when his Spiritual Power wasn’t as good as his own only showed that Mu Chen was quite talented at it as well.

125 showed unprecedented generosity to Luo XiaoLou’s actions in asking for snake vines from time to time, and Luo XiaoLou couldn’t help but wonder if 125’s warehouse was already full of snake vines.

Bless didn’t pay much attention to the snake vine, and was surprised to find out that Luo XiaoLou had added trace amounts of snake vine to all the parts. But when the results came out, he was pleasantly surprised. He was also a mecha maker, so naturally he quickly discovered the importance of this material. It was stronger, more resilient, and the mecha’s offensive and defensive properties were all perfected.

Bless looked up at Luo XiaoLou and smiled slightly, “Looks like I got a lot out of asking for your help.”

Luo XiaoLou looked at the almost perfect parts and smiled as well, “Mutual.”

He wondered if his collaboration with Bless counted as a collaboration between Master Yan and Master Hebrew? However, the two didn’t dare to go back and tell their masters, or the next mecha manufacturing world war would probably have broken out early.

Finally, in the early stages of the final exams, the two of them finally completed five mecha, Bless, three and Luo XiaoLou, two, all of which were made with Grade Four materials, and they didn’t know if it was because of the addition of the snake vine, but after strengthening them, they all reached Grade Five top quality.

Even if it was compared to the Tier 6 mecha, it definitely wouldn’t be far behind.

Luo XiaoLou swapped the two Tier 5 mecha engines for bio-mecha engines after he went back. He didn’t dare let Mu Chen see the bio-mecha parts, unlike Yuan Xi, Mu Chen could see a lot of things. He couldn’t let anyone know he had mastered the bio-mecha technology until he had a good reason to.

One of the two switched-engine mechas was given to Yuan Xi, and one to Yates, which came with twenty Energy Boxes along with it.

Yates stared blankly at the Tier 5 mecha in front of him, which was many times better than his old parts put together.

“I say, man, don’t stare. I used all the money you gave me to buy materials. It should work well this time, try it.” Luo XiaoLou patted Yates’ shoulder.

Yates hugged Luo XiaoLou hard in excitement, nothing was said, there were some words that did not need to be said. He found himself a training room and ran off to familiarize himself with the new mecha.

Tian Li looked at Yates who ran away and said with wide eyes, “Damn, that’s too cool, Tier 5 mecha! I want one, I say XiaoLou, we’re brothers too…”

Luo XiaoLou turned around and headed out.

Although Yuan Xi had a Tier 9 mecha, the serious expression on his face as he tried out the Tier 5 mecha was as if there was no difference between what he was driving and the Tier 9 mecha. Luo XiaoLou’s heart began to beat faster as he sat in the passenger seat and watched Yuan Xi’s attentiveness, suddenly feeling that it was worth it for this man and his friend.

The final exam started shortly after Luo XiaoLou finished his mecha, and Luo XiaoLou was pleased with his results, having caught up in his basic subjects.

And that led to the frustration of the Class 1 class teacher. The first in the grade was a Class 10 student!

This time for the final exam, Class 10 continued to improve its overall performance, staying close to the tail of Class 9, as Class 9 had also improved its overall performance. And the shocking thing was that this time, the penultimate topper was no longer Class 10, but Class 8.

The Class 8 teacher was stunned, and at that moment, he seemed to understand the roar of the Class 9 teacher from last semester.

On the day of the school’s official holiday, a small military battleship quietly arrived at Planet Anse’s largest port.

It didn’t take long for the battleship to leave the port.

Luo XiaoLou leaned back in his comfortable seat and surveyed the people aboard the ship; Yuan Nuo, Yue Shang, Shao Rong, Baby-faced Hull, Luo ShaoTian, Ling Xu, Mu Chen, and a young man, the other mecha maker on the team, Abel.

Their trial mission had finally begun.

 

The author has something to say:

Thank you to all the girls and gay people who left comments and support.

Finally, I’m done editing. I saw a comment about the recent procrastination, and for the girls who left, I apologize first. It’s been really slow lately, part of it is probably because every time I get to 600,000 words, I want to end it, but with the current plot, it’s not at the end, so it’s harder to write, but I’ve been regulating it. Another reason, probably this is all going to be used later and I’m more cute about the main character’s plans for future wealth.

 

I’ll try to speed up the plot as much as I can, thanks to all the girls who are still hanging in there.