Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr Time passed quickly, and a year passed just like that.
In this past year, the First Men's Military Academy appeared to be very peaceful. This was because the air invasion incident a year ago had caused the initially intense competitive atmosphere of the entire military academy to vanish in an instant. The 8000 cadets who had been sacrificed included almost all the factions in the military academy. Some factions had even been unable to recover due to the heavy losses.
Under this sort of decadent environment, all the factions no longer had the heart to compete for anything. They all began to recuperate, waiting for recovery. The New Cadet Regiment should have suffered the least losses in the air invasion incident. Ling Lan's decisive arrangements meant that other than a few people who had died in battle with the enemy, the others had all survived that crisis unscathed.
However, it could not be denied that the mecha piloting abilities of those New Cadet Regiment members who had survived the battlefield had improved exponentially in this past year. Many intermediate mecha warriors had successfully advanced to advanced mecha warriors, but they had not yet started their mecha internship classes, so the instructors were not aware of this yet. It could be imagined that when the New Cadet Regiment truly started their mecha internship classes, they would definitely shock the entire military academy.
Successfully entering their second year meant that the New Cadet Regiment's rookie life had come to an end. They would officially enter the official curriculum of their specialization, which also meant that they had the right to establish a mecha clan recognised by the academy.
Wu Jiong, Li Yingjie, and the various team leaders of the New Cadet Regiment all believed that establishing a mecha clan should be done sooner rather than later. While the old factions had yet to fully recover, the New Cadet Regiment should take firm root within the military academy.
Ling Lan also agreed with this view. Thus, not long after the start of the second year, she submitted an application to establish the Lingtian Mecha Clan to the military academy. This application shocked all the factions in the military academy. Many people even believed that the New Cadet Regiment's blind actions would definitely be thwarted. This was because establishing a mecha clan required passing an assessment by the academy mainframe.
Just think about it — even if the new cadets entered Mecha World from their first year to practice mecha piloting, they would only be able to reach intermediate mecha warrior in one year's time at most, and this was only achievable by students with exceptional talent in piloting. Meanwhile, the battle teams set up by the mainframe would at least have advanced mecha warriors, and almost all of them would be special-class operators. Although the outcome of the assessment was not decided by victory or defeat, how many seconds could a team of intermediate mecha warriors last against the mainframe's special-class battle team?
However, the final result shocked everyone. The Lingtian Mecha Clan had passed the academy mainframe's assessment in one go. Everyone wanted to know the contents of this assessment, but the Lingtian Mecha Clan had viciously set it up as a top secret file. Even the principal of the military academy had no right to access the details of this assessment. Only the higher-ups of the military, above the rank of general, had the right to access the details of this assessment … but would the generals and the others pay attention to a small mecha clan establishment assessment in the military academy?
Thus, this test became a secret that was covered in dust for many years. It was only in the future, when Ling Lan had already become the king of a region, that this attracted the interest of the Federation military higher-ups, and they looked up the assessment. Only now did she realize that Lord Ling was already unbelievably powerful when he was still in the military academy …
After the Lingtian Mecha Clan was officially established, the various teams of the Lingtian Mecha Clan had all rushed to the academy mainframe to propose the formation of their own battle clans. Establishing a battle team also required going through the mainframe's assessment. Every battle team's mission was different. Ling Lan had originally set up the Lingtian Battle Clan in Mecha World. When she had submitted her application, the academy mainframe had approved it without going through any assessment.
This made Ling Lan suspect that the Mecha World that everyone could enter to train in was actually controlled by the military. And that mainframe in Mecha World was very likely the military mainframe. In truth, the military academy's mainframe was a clone of the military mainframe — this was an open secret in the military academy.
Of course, Ling Lan had another reason for guessing this way. The approved battle clan level was exactly the same as the battle clan level in Mecha World, directly jumping up to a five-star level.
This coincidence made Ling Lan unable to help but suspect this. Otherwise, how could this five-star level have come about? Could it be that the academy mainframe just happened to have a stroke and specially gave her such a big present? It was impossible just thinking about it.
After the battle clan was established, the original members of the Lingtian Battle Clan were the first to join. However, there was an unexpected guest. It turned out that when Li Lanfeng had joined, he had dragged his good friend Zhao Jun along as well.
In truth, Zhao Jun had actually not wanted to officially join the Lingtian Battle Clan, only wanting to sign a one-year temporary contract. However, what kind of person was Li Lanfeng? He had always wanted to help his rabbit improve the strength of his battle clan, so he naturally would not let go of a great general like Zhao Jun.
Thus, under Li Lanfeng's deliberate verbal provocation, Zhao Jun could not take it anymore and directly challenged the team leader Ling Lan, placing a bet. If Ling Lan could defeat him, he would wholeheartedly join the Lingtian Battle Clan and become a member of Lingtian.
Zhao Jun was conceited. Among the military academy cadets, there were only about 50 people who had successfully advanced to special-class operator status, and Zhao Jun's combat strength had always ranked in the top three of these 50 or so special-class operators. Adding in the Thunder King Qiao Ting, the only one among the cadets who had advanced to ace operator status, Zhao Jun's overall ranking on the academy's combat strength rankings had never been lower than the top five. This was also why, although he was not a member of the Wuji Mecha Clan, the Wuji Mecha Clan had no choice but to put down their pride and seek cooperation.
Because Zhao Jun came from a third-rate planet, his faction was weak and he did not have much ambition to be a king. However, he was also someone with aspirations — he did not want to casually join a weak battle clan. He also wanted to become a member of a legendary battle clan. Thus, to make him submit, one must have strength on par with the Thunder King Qiao Ting. Of course, because of Li Lanfeng, Zhao Jun also hated Qiao Ting very much. This was also one of the reasons why Zhao Jun had not joined the Leiting Mecha Clan.
Faced with Zhao Jun's challenge, Ling Lan was naturally unfazed. In this past year, unlike Zilong and the others, who still had to attend physical training classes during the day, Ling Lan had always been focused on practicing her mecha control in Mecha World. The points she had accumulated over the past year had allowed her to no longer be an intermediate mecha warrior, but an ace mecha master who truly matched her actual strength.
Thus, when Ling Lan had logged into Mecha World and piloted an ace mecha onto their arena, Zhao Jun had known that he had lost. Reality proved that Ling Lan's ace operator status was not just for show — her control skills were frighteningly strong. Zhao Jun had only managed to last 20 moves against Ling Lan before he was KO-ed by Ling Lan with a single stab of her sword into his cockpit.
This kind of strength convinced Zhao Jun wholeheartedly. After leaving the virtual world, he tugged at Li Lanfeng and asked him excitedly how he had managed to find such an aberrant team leader. Think about it — the Thunder King Qiao Ting had only managed to break through to ace operator status in his fourth year, but Ling Lan was only in her second year now, more than two years earlier than Qiao Ting. These two years should not be underestimated — the younger one was, the greater the difference in talent between the two could be seen even with a difference of one month. Zhao Jun knew very well that Ling Lan's future would definitely be better than Qiao Ting's. If Qiao Ting was Ling Xiao's second, then Ling Lan could very well be Ling Lan's first.
Li Lanfeng looked at the visibly agitated Zhao Jun and felt rather helpless. In truth, he could tell at a glance that Ling Lan had gone easy on Zhao Jun in consideration of his pride. Otherwise, with Ling Lan's methods, she would never have let Zhao Jun last more than 10 moves against her. Li Lanfeng did not know how to tell Zhao Jun this. If he told the truth, would Zhao Jun be so affected that he would never be able to recover from this setback?
Furthermore, his rabbit had already become an ace operator in his first year. If he told Zhao Jun this, would this good friend of his be unable to bear this pleasant surprise and be scared witless?
Li Lanfeng considered this carefully. In order to ensure that his good friend would not be affected by this setback and not turn into a fool because of this pleasant surprise, he decided to be kind and hide this truth from him. Li Lanfeng felt that he was really a good person...
Just like that, Zhao Jun joined the Lingtian Battle Clan wholeheartedly. And so, when the Lingtian Battle Clan was first established, there were already 10 members. Of course, there were still many reserve members who had yet to join. When Han Jijun and Luo Lang returned home after their first years, they brought with them several strong requests.
It turned out that Luo Chao, Han Xuya, and the original members of Team 072 had all sent word to them that they would officially join the Lingtian Battle Clan after they entered the division. Han Xuya, in particular, had violently threatened Ling Lan that she was not allowed to say no!
Of course, Ling Lan's preparation to go to the 23rd Division was also told by Luo Lang and the others to the other members of Team 072. Other than a few people with excellent grades who decided to apply to the 23rd Division with Ling Lan and the others in their fifth years, the others could only wait until they truly graduated before they could apply to join the 23rd Division.
Ling Lan naturally would not refuse her scattered companions who wanted to return. The battle clan would take in some unfamiliar outsiders; these companions who had grown up together with her were more trustworthy to Ling Lan. At this time, Ling Lan was also secretly rejoicing. Thankfully, she had completed that SSS-rank mission back then, which had allowed the rank of the team to jump to five stars in one go. Now, they could take in many more people. Otherwise, these past few years, she would have had to start worrying about how to raise the level of the battle clan as quickly as possible to accommodate these companions.
After settling the external matters, Ling Lan began to worry about the current internal members. Zilong and the others from the original team did not need Ling Lan to worry about them. Many years of grooming had already allowed Zilong and the other four to have excellent teamwork in terms of combat ability and teamwork.
However, the newly joined Chang Xinyuan was a huge problem. Although he was extremely hardworking, his mecha piloting talent was really not that great. In this past year, although Zilong and the others were still advanced mecha warriors, they had already touched the threshold of special-class operator status. They were just waiting for an opportunity to break through, just like how Li Lanfeng had broken through during the air invasion and successfully entered the ranks of special-class operators.
Advancing from an intermediate mecha warrior to an advanced mecha warrior did not require much comprehension. As long as one had enough experience and trained their hand speed to a certain level, they would be able to advance smoothly. Basically, advancing from an intermediate mecha to an advanced mecha was not particularly difficult.
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