“I see.” I nodded in admiration. “This is excellent training for the stronger mecha pilots! I admire their dedication to improvement.”

“Dedication to improvement? HA! More like they are unwilling to drop in ranking!” Emma snorted.

“Ranking? What ranking?” I asked.

“Well… Let me start from the beginning. The Whitefrost Clan is a powerful Clan in the Chinese Federation. We are one of the few powers that are allowed to field our own armies. We’re a level two Clan, which means we can field up to two thousand mechas. Grandfather had opted to divide the two thousand mechas into two units.

His personal guard corps, called the Red Dragon Battalion, is made up of a thousand heavy lancers. You saw them in action earlier today.” Emma pointed out.

“Yes. They are really impressive!” I remarked.

“They better be. They are extremely expensive to maintain.” Emma grumbled.

“Penny pincher.” I teased her.

She ignored me, of course.

“The other battalion is called the Monkey King Battalion, and is a mixed battalion with all sorts of mechas. This battalion is extremely versatile and can do all sorts of missions. It complements the Red Dragon Battalion perfectly.

The Red Dragon Battalion is basically just a thousand heavy lancers dedicated to death and destruction. No finesse, no subtleties, just BOOM! Just the way my grandfather likes it.” Emma laughed lightly.

“Just the way most boys like it.” I corrected her. “I love it too!”

Emma rolled her eyes lightly at me.

“Anyway, each year we have pilots retiring or dying or for some reason or another, are unable to continue in their capacity as soldiers of the Whitefrost Battalions. So we will pick their replacements from a pool of reservists. At any time, there would be at least one thousand reservists who are battle ready, and another thousand reservists in training. These numbers fluctuate, and I was told that the numbers would even double or triple during wars.

The thousand reservists in training are grouped into fifty and are ranked each week based on the number of points they acquired during the week. The top ranked group would receive the most amount of resources for the next week, and the top ranked group upon graduation would receive a fully customized mecha for each member of the group.”

“That sounds really generous.” I commented.

“‘Generous' is too mild a word to describe what we’re doing!” Emma snapped in slight annoyance. Apparently she didn’t really agree with the amount of money being spent for custom mechas.

“A single standard “off-the-rack” mecha costs anywhere between a hundred million to ten billion dollars, depending on the grade and design. A fully customized mecha usually costs a full fifty percent more expensive than the standard version! If all fifty of them choose the highest quality heavy mecha to customize, that’s seven hundred fifty billion dollars!” Emma grumbled.

I merely blinked. At that point, the number ten billion dollars already meant nothing to me due to a complete lack of reference. Heck, I didn’t even know what a million dollars was good for, much less seven hundred fifty billion dollars.

But I did realize one thing. The Whitefrost Clan was extremely, extremely rich.

“The only reason why I didn’t raise this issue and complain to the old man is because at least our reservists consistently rank first place in most categories of the National Mecha Games. If they performed any worse, I would definitely make sure their budget for customizing is cut.” Emma went on, oblivious that she had completely lost me in her financial elaboration.

“Anyway, back to the mecha battle. The blue team is the current second ranked team this week and the third ranked overall. If they manage to win this battle, they would rise to the top ranked this week and second overall. If they lose, they will drop to third rank this week and fifth overall. Much is at stake for the blue team this time.” Emma explained.

“I see. Medium mechas going up against heavy mechas. This feels like the European Embassy battle all over again.” I rubbed my hands in glee.

“Oh no, if my estimations are correct, this would be NOTHING like the European Embassy battle.” Emma disagreed. “For starters, it is not medium mechas against heavy mechas. It is LIGHT mechas against heavy mechas!”

“What?!” I shouted. “Is the blue team crazy?!”

“They definitely are not.” Emma smiled at me. “The blue team is called the Black Salamander Company and they are all Elites.”

I gave her a blank look. “Elites?”

“I really have to explain every little thing to you, haven’t I?” Emma sighed.

“Yes please.” I tried to blink my eyes cutely at her.

Only for her to stare at me as though I was crazy.

“Alright let me explain everything.” Emma took a deep breath and began.

“Mechas are powered by Mecha Cores, right?”

“Right.”

“Mecha Cores are basically controlled nuclear fission. The control over such a powerful process is actually granted to us by a unique compound element which humanity called the Mecha Element.”

“Creative.” I commented.

“Very. Anyway, that was discovered and implemented the Mecha Element into Mecha Cores sometime in the early 22nd century.

Sometime in the late 22nd century, humanity discovered that a rapidly growing number of people had started to develop a unique ability - resonance with metals.”

“What?” I shouted in surprise. “Resonance with metals?!”

“Yes.” Emma replied in surprise as well. “What’s wrong?”

“Uhh… Nothing. Nevermind. Please continue.” I quickly said.

Emma pursed her lips slightly in annoyance and suspicion. But she continued her lecture.

“These people who gained resonance are all mecha pilots or people who spent a huge amount of their time daily dealing with mechas.

When scientists finally did their research, they discovered that the cause of the resonance in all those people is the existence of the Mecha Element within their bodies!

We don’t know for sure how it happens, but when human beings are exposed to the Mecha Element for a long enough period of time, their bodies will start producing it.”