Wang MingRen landed on his back again in physical training class. His sister, who now wanted him to call her ‘Fairy Lin’ grinned down at him. He knew she wasn’t mocking him, but it felt like she should be.

“You’ve improved!”

Had he? It didn’t seem like it.

Frankly, the more he saw of this Lin, the more he realized that she was telling the truth about not being the original Victoria. Even her personality and habits had changed.

The original Victoria was always arrogant, walking around with an expression that made someone want to take her down a peg.

This Lin had absolute confidence in herself. And she always had a smile on her face as if the world was her toy.

At least that was the impression MingRen had of her.

She had also somehow developed a weird habit of staring off into space sometimes. It was times like that when he worried that she’d vanish and somehow return to the old Victoria.

He jumped to his feet and bowed. “Thank you for an insightful spar.”

Next, it was time for breakfast. He followed her to the school’s cafeteria. She practically kicked someone out of her favorite spot by just sitting down at their table without a polite word. He winced at the poor fellow who had to get out of her way. The guy’s face had gone completely pale.

MingRen collected perfectly proportioned meals for them both and brought them to the table.

Lin sighed at the food and poke at it with a disgusted expression. It reminded him that, for the first week they’d been on this more challenging schedule, she’d stopped eating.

When he’d finally realized it and confronted her, she’d explained to him that, as a cultivator, she survived by taking in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and used that to power her body instead of using calories from food. He still couldn’t get over how wrong that was! People needed food. Especially those with SS rank physiques like theirs!

She might seem fine for the first few weeks, but he figured not eating might damage her body in the long run. Of course, that logic didn’t work on her. He only got her to eat again by explaining that people would find it strange if she didn’t eat and that if she wanted to keep hiding her identity as the world’s first cultivator that she should keep consuming meals.

They ate in silence.

MingRen had so many questions, but there was never a good time to ask them. There also never seemed to be a good place to ask, either.

Over StarNet? Not private enough. Messaging her light brain? Also not private enough. Somewhere on campus? Even less private.

He sighed before taking his last bite.

Then he grabbed both his own tray and Lin’s. The last time he only took his own tray, she bullied some poor A rank mech warrior into carrying it for her. Well, that might be unfair to say.

It was more like she noticed that the kid was taking his own tray to the place and asked him where she should put hers. Then the poor, intimidated student automatically offered to take it for her with cold sweat beading on his forehead.

Ever since she built her core, as she called it, MingRen noticed that those around her felt a constant undefinable pressure.

It wasn’t like the pressure of an SS rank threatening an S rank. It was more like the pressure of gravity. Of being near someone solid.

Most others seemed to feel unconsciously irritated with this experience, but he thought it was comfortable. Like a hot cup of tea in the rain. Or lying down on the solid earth while knowing that it would never crumble.

That said, this Lin was certainly a change for the better in his opinion.

Their next class together would be SS Rank Mech Controlling. A class that had them train their response times and finger speeds.

While he hadn’t had this in-person, he had still seen the original recorded challenge times Victoria had. They hadn’t been great. Hell, he was better, and he’d only started going to this school at the beginning of the year.

After she’d shown such an amazing improvement with her physical body, he’d assumed that Lin would have started out just as impressive as she’d been in battle.

However, Lin had started out even below Victoria’s originally low (for an SS Rank) time!

Of course, that made him realize that she must have used some kind of ancient magic to control her mech in the previous fight. A method that ruined the expensive mech and shouldn’t be repeated.

Frankly, he had been worried that he’d gotten Lin in over her head by having her volunteer for the infiltration mission with him. He’d been half wondering if he could have her quit and then find a way to smuggle her into his mech.

Fortunately, it proved unnecessary. As the weeks flew by, Lin had improved at an alarming rate. She was now even better than him!

As she sped her new mech through the randomized virtual course, MingRen couldn’t help but feel like he was being left behind.

The silver and blue mech flew through the obstacles and cut down illusions of enemies faster than he thought was possible at the SS level. He bit his lip and focused on her movements hoping he could replicate them.

What shocked him more than her impressive speed was her variety of attacks. It was like she had an endless knowledge of physical attacks and weapons, and she gave fuck all about using one type at a time.

That day, a teacher had shown up to watch her that had snidely commented to Professor White claiming that what Lin did was impossible.

Lin didn’t seem to care at all. She used her mech to kick the illusion of a Star Bug and sliced its head off with a massive metal sword she had made and brought in. Then Lin suddenly grabbed a dagger and threw it at an illusion of a Mantis Star Bug, hitting it right in its neck. She ran up to it, grabbed the knife and stabbed it a few more times in quick succession, turning its weak covered spots into massive holes before leaving it twitching on the floor.

That teacher resembled a fish on land.

Before she even got to the next bug, she threw the knife again. This time, she used her free hand and lifted the plasma pistol holstered at her side and blasted a hole in its neck.

It was impossible to guess what she’d do next… but somehow, whatever she did, always ended up being just as fast as someone who only held one weapon.

After watching her for a few more minutes, that snot-nosed observing teacher turned red, then pale before huffing and marching out of the room.

Professor While just grinned.

Once that class was over, the MingRen had lunch with her just before going their separate ways. Lin to her Mech Engineering classes and him to even more training courses.

He refused to be left behind.

***

The Mech Engineering intro classes were a goddamn waste of time. I could seriously learn all this information by spending a few weeks working by my cheap father’s side. Ugh. The only good thing about them was that they took place during the original training time Victoria had, so I didn’t have to run into Prince Chad.

During my time listening to the teacher drone on and on about the various mech parts, I’d already forged using my own techniques, I took out the book and decided not to waste my time and study.

The only reason I stayed was because I knew that Liu YaoYao was in the second year. If I skipped all these first-year courses, I’d probably end up in one of her classes. And that just screamed like it was trouble I didn’t need.

Once the class ended, I skipped dinner and headed straight for the next class. Well, it was more of a required extra curricular course for those taking part in the infiltration mission at the end of the year.

So far, we’d just gone over what combat in the tunnel system of a Star Bug Mothership is like, and trained how to move through them. They’d also gone over things to watch out for and warned us to stay away from the Motherbrain.

A warning I quickly dismissed.

In fact, I purposefully searched out information on that location and read the declassified reports on the various other successful infiltration missions that ended when someone got a lucky shot on the brain.

Of course, I also read some of the more unsuccessful reports. Those mostly failed due to the mechs encountering a humanoid crab, the most dangerous crab people of all. Only those at the peak of SS Rank could attempt to fight one, and then they had to fight in groups of 2-3. Only an SSS Rank Warrior like Chad could take them on by himself.

I actually wondered about my cheap brother. He was the protagonist’s biological brother in this life. And she would eventually discover, after finally eating enough and training enough, that she had a triple S rank physique. All SSS Ranks were required to become Mech Warriors in this empire because of how few of them there were. Of course, that wouldn’t be discovered until the end of her second year.

Wait. Didn’t it happen because Victoria hired thugs to attack her and she used her superior reflexes to win against them? From there, she realized something was different about her body and she had herself tested.

That would not happen in this life. I snickered. Some of my fellow students sent me a look.

Professor Glass, who was assigned to teach us how to infiltrate a Mothership, glared at me. I waved, then sat straight to show that I was ready to listen to his lecture.

I mean, if he wanted me to not think about other things while he was talking then he should speed things up. He was slower than some of the ancient cultivators in the sect that had been even older than I was. Those assholes like to speak obscurely in order to let their students find the answer themselves.

Professor Glass, however, wasn't in a good mood. He threw his hand out and pointed to the image of a tricky corridor inside of a Mothership. “Lady Victoria! If you would please tell us all what’s so funny about this particular incident.”

I recalled the lecture I’d been listening to. My lips quirked upward. Did this young brat of a teacher think he could one up me?

I stood up from my seat and walked over to where he stood. He’d been describing a situation in which a heavyweight tank-like mech and its two companions (a swordsman mech and a plasma machine gun mech) could get through a Y corridor that was defended by ten thin crabs and two praying mantis type crabs.

I grinned. “While I wasn’t laughing at this situation, I’d like to point out that there are a few ways to do this, depending on your goal here. First, if your goal was speed, then the best thing to do would be to choose this passage.” I pointed to the one with the least amount of enemies. I then continued to lay out my plan in great detail before finally ending with, “Of course, that’s just one option. Like I said. It all depends on your purpose.”

The professor cleared his throat. “Very good Lady Lin. I think that is all we have time for because, today, we’ll be doing something very special.” He grinned evilly. The light coming from the light screen projection wasn’t helping.

I walked back to my seat next to MingRen and sat down.

“Today, you’ll be choosing your teams!”

The door to the classroom opened suddenly. Of all the fucking people who could possibly come in, it just had to be motherfucking Prince Chad.

“Ah! Prince Chad. I heard you might finally join us.”

The taciturn fucker merely nodded and cooly leaned against the wall as if a chair wasn’t good enough for him.

Professor Glass cleared his throat and called up the ten people who would lead the infiltration teams.

I happened to be one of them. He announced me right after Prince Chad. Which was fine except that disgust from being near me rolled off the fucker in waves.

I just smirked at him. “How’s your relationship with Miss Liu?”

His face became even more gloomy. I guessed that, without the villainess pushing them together, it would be harder for the two to really connect on a suspension bridge effect level.

Nothing against Prince Chad, but I think Liu YaoYao could find someone nicer, like Victoria’s father.

But I’d been told before that I lacked a romance brain, so what would I know?

Prince Chad, of course, chose first, collecting a team of five, all with the top student volunteers in the class.

I was next. The first person I asked to join my team was MingRen. Sure, he was top of the freshman class, but he was still a freshman, which made the other students glare at me. Well, whatever.

My cheap brother stood behind me with his arms crossed.

Next, I chose the best gunner left... who immediately declined my invitation. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go through the line of them as the third best gunner in the class joined my team. He was a young man in his second year named Derrick Johnson. He looked like a completely normal average interstellar person with black hair and blue eyes.

He casually walked behind MingRen with his hands in his uniform pockets.

After that, I did something a bit differently. There was a young freshman girl there who looked 13 even though she was 18, named Jennifer Fang. She had strawberry blonde hair and a look on her face like she wanted to fight the world.

When I asked her to join my team, her eyes grew wide. Like a little rabbit, she jumped up and darted behind my line of new team members.

I asked a few other people if they’d like to join, but none of them wanted to. I had a feeling the original Victoria’s shit reputation was pulling me down here, but whatever. Four members were enough of a team.

Besides, with my team limited to four people, I could ensure that we all had the best training within our limited time.

Once everyone had chosen their teams and no one was left without one, the professor called an end to the day and recommended that we all eat meals together to form some smidgen of camaraderie.

Since eating together was a good way for mortals to form connections and ease speaking to each other, I treated everyone to a small meal after class.

Unfortunately, Prince Chad had the same fucking idea I had and even sat at the table beside us. This fucker.

Awkwardly, I addressed little Jennifer, who was just about to take a big bite out of her... green mush bullshit? Honestly, I couldn’t understand the food here. The future was a strange place.

“So, what made you want to pilot a heavy mech?”

“Because everyone told me that someone my size couldn’t and I had to prove them all wrong,” she said just before snapping her little jaw closed around her green mush.

“That’s a noble goal,” I said, awkwardly.

MingRen said, “Judging from how you made it into this school and that you were allowed to volunteer for this class, you must do pretty well.”

She raised a brow at him. “I’m alright. Could be better. I’m surprised you decided to volunteer.”

“Well, someone has to have my sister’s back.”

She glanced at me, nodded sagely, then said, “Ah.”

What did that mean? Whatever. I turned to Derrick. He was at least normal, right? Normal name, decent level for his class, average looks for these interstellar people. Completely normal. And a bit boring. Still, it didn’t hurt to get to know him a little.

“What about you, Mr. Johnson? What is your reason for volunteering for this mission?”

He gave a gentle smile. “I just want to use my plasma rifle for its intended purpose.”

Wow! What a reasonable response. “So you like the plasma rifle?”

He nodded shyly.

Would... would this guy be okay in battle? He seemed a little...

“Like is too soft of a word.” He pulled out several weapons schematics of different mech sized plasma rifles. His breathing increased.

Then he went into a detailed explanation of each one and its intended uses... and what that meant it could do.

Eventually, when I saw Jessica and MingRen’s faces, I put a stop to his very detailed report. I mean, I appreciated it, but it was going over the heads of these two and we didn’t have that much time.

“Our goal for this year is to get to the Motherbrain before everyone else.”

They blinked.

“Um, Fairy Lin. It’s not called ‘mother brain,’” MingRen said.

“Well, that’s what our group is calling it. Do you have a problem with my naming sense?”

Derrick shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Team Leader, if we don’t use the same name as everyone else—”

“Then they’ll deduct a couple of points from our grades.” Whoop de fucking doo.

“We’re using my name for it. And we’re going to reach it before everyone else.”

“Wanna bet?” A familiar voice from behind me said.

I turned to see Chad walking up to us, his team behind him as if backing him up. This motherfucker was way too young to bet with this near immortal. Even if he was the male lead.

“What are the terms?”

For a second, he looked flabbergasted. Had he actually thought I’d bet with him just to bet?

He cleared his throat. “If I win, I want you to stay away from Miss Liu and leave the school for good.”

That was a pretty big term for an asshole who, according to the book, is supposed to get his ass kicked by a Humanoid Crab person during this year’s final. Well, technically, he’d still win against it and just need the healing remedies that Miss Liu could provide. That would make her finally realize her feelings for him. But whatever.

I could use the plot to my advantage.

I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand. Has my mere existence these last several weeks been hurting her in any way?”

Wang MingRen stood up from our table and walked up to Prince Chad. “Lin hasn’t even been in contact with my sister. She’s a changed person.”

Well said! I was literally a different person.

“Even you believe her?”

“I do.”

He huffed. “But I don’t. She changed her major to the same one as Miss Liu.”

“Technically, I am a dual major because I’m just that good. Also, you’re not exactly making a good case for your bet here. You see, if you want someone to agree to a bet, you need to have something they want. Currently, you don’t have anything I want.”

“You want me to propose to you if you win? Not happening.”

“A bit full of yourself there, Prince Chad. How about this, I know that as a prince of the empire you have some say in the military. If I win — and in this instance, winning means killing the mother ship’s controlling brain first — I want you to pull some strings and allow everyone in my team to choose the locations they serve during their 20 years.”

There was silence in the whole room.

“Even if I could, why should I? Aren’t you going to just use that as an opportunity to join my company?”

“Oh! Then how about this. We have our choice of locations to serve, except we’ll never serve under your command?”

Frankly, that was even better! I loved that idea. Once he finally realized how skilled I was, he’d be unable to put me under his command. Muahahaha!

“And if I win, you won’t go anywhere near Miss Liu?”

“I can’t promise you that. She’s my nominal brother’s biological sister. There is a chance my parents will adopt her. Instead, I’ll do everything in my power to not harm her. And if I can, I’ll help her.”

“To make sure you follow your end of the agreement, I want a binding contract.”

Oooo. That would be perfect. “Send it over so I can have my lawyers look at it before I sign.” I flipped my red hair over my shoulder and grinned widely.

He glowered at me with his cold face.

Seriously, why was this type of male lead popular? Maybe I really didn’t have a romance-brain.

“Now, if you excuse us. Our team needs to go sleep so we can start hell training tomorrow.”

I walked away, laughing.

***

The first person whose schedule I disrupted was Jessica’s. Because heavy mechs required a certain amount of strength to excel at, I taught the short girl a simple strengthening technique that could be done even with the bleh spiritual energy these interstellar people had.

When she realized what I taught her, her eyes glimmered with fervor. I almost wanted to take it back, but her position in our team was important. One of the reasons why I brought her in was because I could tell that she had a real talent for heavy mechs and a willingness to go all out when practicing with them. But she was lacking.

Fortunately for her, I could help her compensate for her lack with my ancient techniques.

Then, when I saw that she was able to use that technique effectively without draining her energy significantly, I doubled her practice time both in the weight rooms and in the mech simulator.

Of course, after seeing Jessica’s improvements with her heavy mech, Derrick came to me and asked if there was anything I could teach him to improve his control since his accuracy was only the third in our class.

Well, I did have something. It was my bastardized version of Any Armor is my Body but didn’t think he’d be able to do it at all. Still, since his position as our main gunner was an important one, I attempted to teach him anyway.

After a week of practice outside of his Mech Warrior training, he managed to at least control his arms a little. It wasn’t much, but it could help him adjust his weapon just that little bit better.

While I wasn’t impressed with it, everyone else seemed to think he’d improved significantly.

Well, whatever.

***

During our group training sessions I’d had a programmer set up a series of passages that are normally found inside Star Bug Motherships. We were practicing a particularly hard maneuver where we had to fight while heading to the corridor that connected above us... while being attacked from all angles from a variety of different bugs.

Frankly, this was a nightmare situation, one that I would avoid if possible. However, if we did run into it and we hadn’t trained for it, then we’d be dead.

According to the teachers, they were sending cameras in there with us to give advice, but we would likely be on our own. They could only afford to send a few teachers in with us, and those teachers would be going with the groups that actually needed their help. Ours was not one of them.

However, that didn’t mean that we were perfect.

Jessica fumbled her gun due to a lucky strike from Mantis type crab. She now had to rely on just her shield and suppressing fire from the three of us. Unfortunately, there were 5 directions where possible attacks could come from.

Honestly, if I were there in person there were things I could do to deal with this situation, but I wasn’t. I also didn’t want to take away from the training these brats needed to survive. The Star Net limited my capabilities to that of a normal citizen instead of a cultivator.

It was frustrating. Like giving myself a handicap so a videogame would be more interesting.

Of course, the problem with handicaps was that you couldn’t always remove them when things got serious. Which was how we found ourselves in this fucking shitstorm of a situation.

Once Jessica lost her gun and pulled out her plasma blade, we were going to lose again. Because she wasn’t as good at using her plasma blade as she was at her rifle.

The first to die after she started hacking away at the oncoming bugs was Derrick.

While he did an excellent job firing at everyone that was near him, there were just too many.

The next was Jessica herself as a Tank Crab hit the same spot on her shield over and over again and cracked it, and neither MingRen nor myself could kill it fast enough. Her heavy mech was too unwieldy to dodge the Tank Crab’s claws.

Once it was just myself and my cheap brother, we lasted by using the body of the tank mech as a shield until several of the mantis crabs ganged up on us in all 6 directions.

I gotta say, space battle wasn’t something I was used to, no matter how much time I’d spent fighting my opponents in mid air.

When the game ended, we returned to the digital conference room. I slammed my hand on the table.

“The fuck was that?”

Jessica bit her lip, possibly to hide the fact that it was trembling. She obviously knew she was the weak link in this scenario.

“I want all of you to increase your practice for the next week by a full hour.”

MingRen stood up and glared at me. “Don’t be angry at Miss Jessica. We’re all exhausted here from how much we’re already training. We need a break.”

Did this kid just? Again he was taking someone else’s side. Was he about to start a relationship with this girl?

I closed my eyes and counted to ten. When I opened them, I glared at MingRen. “You think I’m being unreasonable?”

Everyone nodded.

“Then think about this. If we ever get into that situation in reality, do you honestly think you can overcome it as you are now? Because even while in the safety of this virtual space, you’re failing.”

After staring everyone down, I sat. “I’m not being an asshole right now just to be an asshole. I’m not even doing it to win a bet. I’m doing it because everytime you die in this virtual world is a possible death in reality. Remember that next time you think I’m pushing you too far.”

Jessica paled.

“And Jessica. I know you’re the youngest here, but you can’t keep being shit at using a sword. You’re training one-on-one with me until you’re good enough with a sword to chop a tank crab’s claw in half.”

Jessica smiled awkwardly, her eyes moist. “Um... Team leader... What’s a tank crab?”

I coughed. “We’ll go over that later. Remember to bring your mechs to me Monday for adjustment.” While I didn’t have time to upgrade everyone’s mech, I could at least add a few advanced forging techniques to some of the parts that needed it the most. “Everyone is dismissed for the day. Get some goddamn sleep!”

Everyone but MingRen left. I raised a brow at him.

“I’m sorry... I thought...”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

“Then let me consider for a moment your point of view... You thought I was doing this to you all because I’m insane?”

He blushed. “That’s not it.”

“Oh. But it would make perfect sense. Don’t you believe I’m crazy after everything I told you?”

“If I thought you were crazy then why would I—” He sighed and pulled up an image of a spiritual flower and a spiritual plant that I’d asked him to collect. These two were on the weirder side when it came to looks as they both glowed in places and seemed to pulse with energy.

“Once I saw the Enchanting Golden Orchid and the Vibrant Purple Stem in person, I stopped believing that you were completely crazy.”

So only a little crazy then. Well, whatever. I didn’t really give a shit what others thought of me as long as it didn’t affect me.

“You’ve taught everyone something to improve their skills except me.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you think that I did that because I thought you were doing fine on your own?”

“I did at first, but now I think it’s because I didn’t ask for your help. Please teach me something that can help us survive longer.”

I sighed. “Fine. Show up tomorrow ready to learn the sword alongside Jessica.”

“I’ll be there!”

“Also, you never clarified what you thought.”

He coughed. “I thought that you were upset with her for... gettingmekilled. Okay Bye!”

Then he exited the room.

The what? He thought I was upset with her because she kept getting him killed? This brat. The fuck made him think that?

Is that why he stepped forward? Because he felt responsible for my anger?

And here I thought the teen was starting to have a thing for Jessica.

It was good that he wasn’t thinking with his lower half — like that bastard of a harem protagonist, Bloodsword — but the kid still had some strange ideas. Well, it was normal for siblings to get angry over people virtually getting each other killed… I guessed?

Like that feeling of ‘I can bully but no one else can bully.’

Frankly, I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t really had a sibling aside from that cock mosquito in my past life. And virtual reality wasn’t a thing either. Whatever.

First, I’d have to make sure MingRen’s training was extra hard, so he could have a greater chance at survival… and so he would stop thinking about nonsense.

Ah, I also needed to start making my own mech.

I pulled up the schematics. It was something only I could make, partially using prefab parts due to lack of time and partially using my master work parts to make it strong. Regardless of the mishmash design it was beautiful… because I made it. Muahahaha!

I double tapped to zoom in on the cold sword that was the main weapon of this mech. That would be what I made next.