In some pale yellow plains on the outskirts of Nocto
Three black mechs landed slowly on the wild plains, covered with wilted wild grass.
“According to our sources, the signal first showed up around here,” the first black mech with bull horns on its head spoke first.
“With the intel department’s outdated techniques? I bet they were played with again,” another mech, this one holding a huge scythe, said grumpily. “Do you have any real info or not, Matthew? Running around like this all day is tiring too.”
“That depends on Allie.” Matthew sat in his mech, looking as gentlemanly as ever. ” Boris, how did you feel about that mech you finished off last time?”
“How did I feel?” The mech with the giant scythe paused. “Should be Level Five Willpower, I might not be able to finish ’em off myself. But with Allie’s interference, and your long-range shooting, it was still very easy. One hit K.O.! Hehe!”
“According to the latest intel, that guy was just someone who had fell behind the pack, you better pray that we don’t meet the main team before that big sister arrives here,” Matthew said helplessly. “Level Five, huh… I wonder how long it’ll take for me to get in there.”
“We’re still young, what are you so worried about?” Boris tsked. “As long as we get into Level Five, we get to become Black-Clothed Generals, and then we can enjoy a life of luxury, hehe…”
“Someone’s coming! Watch out!” Allie, who had been the only one keeping silent, spoke suddenly.
“Which direction?”
“North-east, the actual location is unknown, it’s coming fast, very fast!” Allie said hurriedly, and then she suddenly jumped back, retreating. “Standard dodge!”
The three mechs were like birds caught by surprise, they instantly bounced more than ten meters away.
Boom!!!
A white meteor crashed in the distance. The meteor showed itself, and it was actually a huge white-and-red mech, crouching in the middle of the deep crater in the ground, sharp thorns forming a shell like that of a tortoise on its back.
“Go! Kill him!” Matthew yelled abruptly, turning around and running.
Boris and Allie split up suddenly, the two of them dashing at the white-and-red fiercely.
“Dammit! I fricking found the big fishes as soon as I landed!” the white-and-red mech cursed, splaying open both of his palms and revealing the pitch-black cannon barrels on them.
Hah!
Intense electricity spewed out of the cannons.
Without them noticing, a large group of countless white mechs had rapidly appeared in the distant sky, all of them marked with the logo of the Blackboard Region, and then they began to fly towards the area of the conflict.
*********************
“Oh… oh… Just like that! Just like that!! Oh~~~~!! It’s coming out!!”
Clint Beza looked on speechlessly as a large piece of metal shrapnel flew out of the river in front of him, landing slowly beside the riverbank. All he could hear was Red Moon’s disgusting shouting.
“It’s so wonderful, how many years has it been? How many years have I not felt what it’s like to have a body… Tsk-tsk,” Red Moon’s voice was full of joy. “This alloy sure is good, I never thought we could find such wonder alloy material in this trash region, looks like it’s not good for nothing after all.”
“Are you happy, Master?” Clint watched as the metal corpses piled up behind him.
“Sure I am, after fishing for more than ten days, I only managed to gather these few things, guess I gotta be happy for now,” Red Moon replied quickly. “Hurry up, hurry up, don’t dally around, you gotta get ready to combine this!”
“Put it together? You want me to put it together?!” Clint’s mouth fell open. “How am I going to combine it? I have no idea!”
“What are you afraid of, I’m right here!” Red Moon said with disdain. “Combine them and then we can go look for more resources!”
“But how do I do that!” Clint was finally at the end of his rope, grabbing his hair hard.
“You still don’t feel it?” Red Moon’s voice took a rare, serious turn.
“What?”
“Your body, your body’s hidden Willpower, it’s finally been activated.”
“Hah?” Clint did not understand, “Willpower? Since when did I have Willpower?”
“You idiot! If you didn’t have Willpower, how would you be able to carry out so many things?!” Red Moon howled, as though wishing he would grow up. “Your Willpower’s attribute is moving material things! Idiot!”
“Hah?”
“Hah, your ass!! Now get moving!” Red Moon was utterly incensed.
“But this is so big… Could I go back and get someone to help…” Clint scratched his hair in frustration, saying in a small voice.
“Go and move it! The heck ’bout getting anyone else!” Red Moon was even more pissed now, “You got me, the universe’s number one Forbidden Mech core, helping you, so what the hell are scared of! Get moving!”
Clint was completely helpless, if he did not go help, he would surely be electrocuted again. He was sick and tired of that seizure-like feeling, so he had to go up obediently, and look for the lightest piece to carry.
Aiming for the black shard the size of a face basin, he rubbed his hands and went up to grab the edges, pulling it up fiercely.
Whoosh!
The shard was surprisingly light.
“Eh?” Clint was stunned, weighing the metal shard in his hand. “It’s so light…”
“Light, my ass! It’s because you got stronger!” Red Moon continued to scold him. “Do you fricking think that I’ve been electrocuting you and wasting my energy all this time? Grow some wits, won’t you!” Now that they were closer, this guy’s real personality was completely revealed. At first he still pretended slightly, but now that he was sure of Clint’s weak personality, he could not even be bothered to pretend anymore.
“But why would Willpower be like this?” Clint may be dumb, but that did not mean he had no general knowledge at all. Willpower would not be this strong as soon as it was activated. “Shouldn’t Willpower be very weak in the beginning, and it can’t be used on material things and people, right?”
“Do I look normal to you? Let me tell you, I’m so great that even my piss smells good, what’s more the secret techniques I taught you!” Red Moon was slightly full of himself now.
“If it was just normal middle- or low-level Willpower activation, it might end up like what you said, but if I’m the one doing things, do you really think it would be that sort of garbage?” he chuckled. “The Nine Mega Cannon training method trains up Willpower to match my electric healing, so the effect is really impressive! Tripling your strength is a small matter!”
“If your talent wasn’t so trashy, if you could learn my Milky Way Extinction, I guarantee you could become Superman in a second!” Sensing the shock on Clint’s expression, Red Moon got even cockier.
“So cool….!”
“Of course, who do you think I am? Back then, all on my own I swept through… Uh, let’s forget about that, hurry up and combine them! This is the combination blueprint! Remember it closely!” Red Moon changed the topic, and sent him a blueprint straight through his brain.
“In accordance with your wishes, you can choose your support members, so the first one you decided on is Darby, and the last one is Baylon?”
“Yeah,” Clint nodded solemnly. “I’ll ask him last.”
“Why the heck woulda ask!”
But this time, Clint actually decided to ignore Red Moon for once. Seeing how quickly and resolutely he turned on his Watch Terminal, Red Moon also did not scold him for once.
Soon enough, the call to Baylon went through, and on the opposite side, Baylon’s handsome smiling face appeared on the screen.
“Where’d you go, Clint? It’s really busy in the shop, how could you not come help?”
“Lon. There’s something I want to ask you.” The more time Clint spent with Red Moon, the more mysterious and complicated he felt to Clint. He did not know if it was right for him to bring Lon into this either, but he had a feeling that once he went down this road, perhaps he really might not be able to turn back later.”
“What’s the matter? Tell me.” Seeing Clint look so serious, the smile on Baylon’s face froze slightly as well.
“If you have a chance so that you could become a true pilot, and drive your ideal mech into battle, but in return you need to face many dangerous and troublesome things, would you choose to take that chance?” asked Clint carefully, choosing his words with caution.
“I would!” Lon paused for a moment, and then replied with determination. He lowered his head, but from behind his hair, his eyes shone with the light of desire for his dreams. “I want to catch up to my brother… I… Becoming a pilot… has always been my biggest dream. Isn’t it natural to face danger in battle?” His voice weakened, but his eyes grew brighter. “But this is all just a hypothesis, alright, forget it and come back to help. Owner’s getting angry,” he laughed again.
“I understand.” Clint severed the connection suddenly. “I’ve decided, the last person is Lon.”
“You sure?”
“Positive!”
“Although that guy’s no good, he’s much more talented than you, hmm… The confirmation imprint I gave him includes the Bright King Jisaiya’s training method. Since you’re positive, I’ll activate it now, got it!?” Red Moon asked again.
“What do you mean by activating the imprint?”
“That means I’ll send the training method into his mind, and at the same time I need to activate his body’s potential using the electricity I gave him last time, so his Willpower will reach Level One. That’s the thing you guys call Level One Willpower,” Red Moon explained.
“We can reach Level One that easily?” Clint was completely dazed. “Then what about me?”
“You’re already Level One.” Red Moon was at a loss for words. “Of course, without my activation, if you had gotten a normal training method, you could be training for several dozens of years before you could enter Level One.”
“But I’ll warn you in advance, that kid Baylon? Something’s odd about his body, so there might be some strange changes after his imprint is activated, you better be mentally prepared for that.”
“What changes?”
“I don’t know for sure either. After this, you had still better continue practicing the training method properly every day, just like I taught you before. Find some heavy things and carry them around, that training method is the one with the lowest requirements for talent, all you need to do is work hard. If all goes well, you can definitely reach seven or eight levels.”
“Got it… It’s just… isn’t this unfair to those people who had to train so many years just to reach Level One Willpower…” Clint said as scratched his head.
“Unfair?” Of course they’re different from you,” Red Moon explained, his tone turning gentler. Your Willpower was upgraded and activated with the help of my imprint, unlike them, your Willpower has one large flaw.”
“Flaw? What flaw?” Clint was starting to get worried.
“Half of your Willpower comes from you guys, and the other half belongs to me, so when you use it, if I don’t agree, you won’t be able to control your mech as freely as they can. Also, after leaving the mech, your Willpower will be halved. In other words, no matter what you do, you must make sure your opponents don’t find out who you are. If they catch you when you don’t have your mech, your Willpower will only be half of what it usually is, and the result, hehe, you know what will happen.”
“Is that it? I can deal with that, is there any way to savage it?”
“No, you should be glad you have Willpower at all, now go do your work.”
“Okay…”
Seeing Clint start to carry and transport the shards obediently, Red Moon pressed the activation switch for an imprint in his own core. That was the switch to the imprint hidden in Lon’s body beforehand.
In an instant, a few invisible signals crossed a large distance and landed in Lon’s body, just as he was busying about in the bakery so far away.
Lon placed the plate on the table, turned around and walked towards the counter. Suddenly, his whole body stiffened abruptly, and in an instant, he froze on the spot, not moving at all, as a mysterious numbing feeling spread from somewhere inside his body. He vaguely felt as though there was something new in his brain, something that looked very complicated and very high-class.