Pilot 1st Class: "Major General Zhou, Sir! The General requests your presence in his office immediately, Sir!"

Alexander Zhou did not react to the words of the young Pilot 1st Class in front of him. His movements were languid and smooth as he logged out of his computer and stood up. His body was clad in fabrics of the highest quality, tailored in the required military design and color to fit his body flatteringly.

Pushing his arms into the military jacket and buttoning it up, he grabbed the cap hanging on the hanger as he headed to the door. The complete look of the military attire with all the insignias combined with the Major General's domineering aura overwhelmed the young Pilot 1st Class still standing at attention. A cold sweat dripping down his nose.

Passing by the young Pilot, Alexander coldly said, "Dismissed."

The young man quickly saluted, "Yes, Sir!"and hurriedly exited the room after the MG (Major General).

Pilot 1st Class: Major General Zhou is too scary! Luckily he didn't do anything wrong or he would be tasked with some arbitrary punishments.

Alexander: "Wait. Go back and add in 2 hours of simulation #224 by 1600. Your salute stance is off."

Pilot 1st Class: "Sir, yes Sir!"

Sam Fu, the Pilot 1st Class, quickened his steps and changed into a jog after he rounded the corner out of the MG's sight. His eyes reddened in helplessness as he cried without tears inside his heart. He was unlucky today. While walking past the General's office 5 minutes earlier, the General called him inside.

Everyone knew that General Zhou was the best General in the Mech Force. He was the most outstanding, courageous, knowledgeable, intelligent, and fairest leader within Country C's Military. He was greatly admired by all his peers and subordinates, a legend within the military.

Alexander Zhou is his son. He proudly followed in his father's footsteps to become just as outstanding, courageous, knowledgeable, and intelligent of a leader. But he does not have the heartwarming and jovial attitude of his father. He does not have much patience for anyone, only for his immediate family and very close friends. So although his cold attitude is off putting, many people couldn't help but admire his on point ability to pick out the best potential talents and train them to be the best pilots in Country C.

Alexander cut a striking figure as he walked out of his building towards his father's office, attracting many hot admiring gazes from both males and females. The females taking glances at his handsome masculine figure proudly moving down the walkway. After he passes by is when they would dare to turn back to watch his back walking away from them.

His frame was bigger than the average man, obviously getting that gene from his dashing and charming father. His mother was the heiress of a well known luxury fashion brand and is herself a beautiful woman. The combination of the two created gorgeous offsprings. They had a total of 4 kids: Alexander (29, military), Christopher (28, family fashion business), Alice (25, artist), and Catherine (18, military).

Alexander was 6'3" with thick pitch black hair that is slightly wavy, giving his hair a charming look. His eyebrows were thick and straight with deep set piercing dark eyes framed by long thick lashes a female would kill for. His nose was straight and his lips were soft and kissable- but are usually straight and unsmiling.

Talking about when he does smile, there are two shallow dimples that show up on his cheeks, creating a devastating effect to those that are lucky enough to see it. Alexander rarely smiles.

As soon as Alexander walked into the building, the office personnel had already informed the General so by the time he walked in front of the office door, it was opened for him by the assistant. Saluting his father, he stood at attention until he was given the order to be otherwise.

General Zhou: "At ease, MC. Take a seat."

Alexander relaxed and sat down on the chair in front of his father's desk smoothly. General Thomas Zhou looked at his son fondly. He loved all his children but he has a special place in his heart for his son Alex. His eldest son has always excelled in whatever he does which makes him and his wife very proud, but he is too cold and apathetic to others around him. If he wasn't passionate and had the obvious leadership skills to communicate with those under his command perfectly, and the yearly psychological evaluation, Thomas would have thought something was wrong with him.

General Zhou: "It has come to my attention that you have not been doing your yearly public training service for the last 6 years."

That statement was met by silence from the young man across from him, his eyes hooded as he relaxed in the chair with his right index slowly tapped the armrest.

General Zhou: "Starting today, I want you to post an advertisement to the public mech training board for an hour long lesson every day for the year. If you've done your hours correctly, it would have only been a 4 months stint every year. But you're behind 6 years worth of training. This time I want you to find someone to train for a whole year which should cover 3 years you're missing. Then we can renegotiate the remaining 3 years of service owed next year."

Alex: "Yes sir!"

General Zhou: "I want to see the link to the ad posting by the hour. Dismissed."

Alex: "Yes sir!"

Alex walked out of the office, his brows furrowed and his face dark in annoyance. He knew he had been avoiding doing his yearly training service- honestly he was surprised he was able to get away without doing it this long. Training civilians to operate a mech is annoying and a waste of time. They'll never join the military so it's not like they can help do anything in case of a war. Useless.

But he still has to do what his General ordered.

Back in his office he called his secretary, Jack, inside as he dictates the ad posting.

Alex: "Mech Master looking for a Country C civilian who is passionate about learning how to operate a mech. Prerequisites: Age between 18-21. Not affiliated with any branch of the military. Must have their own mech training simulation machine, body training and weapons training machine, and message training machine. Duration will be for 1 hour a day at 2300, 5 days a week for 1 year."

Alex: "Post it and send the link to the General. Let me know if there are any qualified applicants."

Jack: "Yes sir!"

---

Art: Sister Aria! I found a good teacher for you. The training is at 11pm every night, 5 days a week for a whole year. It says that they're a Mech Master so this should be better than the private pilots postings I saw. What do you think?

Aria: Go for it. (5 days a week only? This master might be a bit lazy.)

Art: I've applied.

---

Jack: "MG Zhou, a qualified civilian just applied. It's confirmed that they have a mech training simulation machine, a body and weapons training machine, and a training massage machine."

The prerequisite machines that the MG listed totaled to a few millions of dollars. Although not impossible, it is rare to find anyone who would have all of those machines who is interested in learning how to operate a mech and saw this posting and applied as soon as it was posted. That is some nice computer algorithm the civilian has there.

Alex glanced down at the information on the ClearScreen in his hand that his secretary sent over from his ClearScreen. The applicant does own three of those machines- and looking at the total hours logged, over 3 hours were spent on simulation #1. Accessing the VR view of the applicant for those 3 hours, Alex was surprised at the amount of times that the applicant fell down... which was all of them.

But the applicant kept on restarting over and over. He brought up the muscles analysis which highlights which muscles were being activated, and he can see that they tried many ways to complete the task in the simulation but repeatedly failed. Already pinpointing what the issue was right away, the corner of Alex's mouth pulled up suddenly in a smile at the silly applicant's last effort. The smile disappeared as soon as it appeared so no one else noticed it.

The applicant did not restart but laid on the 'ground' for a few minutes before bringing up the mech's hand to show a certain finger at the "Restart / Quit" prompt before logging off. Then the massage machine was immediately used.

Alex can only imagine how sore the applicant's right foot was after 3 hours of macro muscle exercise. Chuckling under his breath, Alex approved the application and set up a training calendar invite starting tomorrow.

He has trained dozens of pilots in the past and they turned out exceptionally well, over half of them serving directly under him, the other dozens under his father, and the rest sprinkled throughout Country C. He has a 6 sense when it comes to figuring out who would become superstars as mech pilots from the way they move, and so far he has a 100% success rate. So although he can't see this applicant's movements, he can sense a large hunger and unfathomable determination to learn how to operate the mech at all costs.

This person has the potential to become a beast of a mech pilot if they are trained correctly.

And that's where he comes in.

-- Small Theater --

Alex: "Woman, you have succeeded in attracting my attention!"

Aria: "No thanks. I just need you to teach me how to walk. It's hella hard." T_T

Kal: "Hold on there, buddy. She successfully attracted my attention first! Aria, I'll hire the best teachers to teach you how to walk- wait, what's wrong with your legs? Bring the ring to me and I'll hire the best physical therapist for your recovery."

Alex: "Aria, stop talking to irrelevant people. Come on, you need more time on the massager..."

Alex picks up Aria and moves her towards the massage machine,

Alex: "Do you need help taking off your clothes?" He innocently asked her while he blushed slightly, coughing into his fist, blocking her body from Kal's sight.

Aria: "Shameless! Go away! I can do it myself."