Disregarding Qiao Lin"s feelings, the administrators of Leiting had a long discussion before deciding to let one of their strongest special-cla.s.s mecha operators be responsible for stalling Ling Lan.

Leiting"s leaders all felt that since Lingtian was just a mecha clan that had been founded a little over a year ago, even if they managed to get 12 special-cla.s.s operators, most of them would be greenhorns. This would give them a chance. As long as they stopped the strongest special-cla.s.s operator in Lingtian, the rest of their 11 special-cla.s.s operators would destroy the rest of Lingtian"s members. After that, they would gather together and defeat Ling Lan by surrounding her. That way, they would be able to regain the t.i.tle of number one faction.

Lingtian and Leiting"s upcoming second battle caused an uproar in the entire school; it drew the attention of everyone. The Leiting mecha clan was the strongest opponent capable of preventing Lingtian from taking over the military academy. Regardless of how small a mecha clan was, they were not willing to merge with another mecha clan.

The instructors and administrators of the military academy also paid plenty of attention to this battle. Of course, after their G.o.d-creation plan failed, they didn"t dare to take any small actions anymore. In addition, they had hard feelings towards Ling Lan, the person who had prevented their plan from happening. Although Ling Lan"s actions aligned with their thoughts, they didn"t want a newbie like her to complete this plan; it would make them feel like they had lost to her again. They had wanted to make her a stepping stone the last time.

Ling Lan didn"t give Leiting much time to prepare. Her decision was the same as the one made by Qiao Ting, which was to finish the battle in the fastest possible time. Hence, their special-cla.s.s operator battle would be held three days later.

The night before the battle, Ling Lan finished her training mission as per normal and then logged in to Mecha World. She made last-minute changes to the mecha that she was going to operate tomorrow.

Ling Lan"s mecha was a modified ace mecha that Chang Xinyuan had created for her. After a year"s worth of meticulous effort, the mecha looked exactly the same as a normal special-cla.s.s mecha. It was different from one year ago where it looked more like an ace mecha except for its color. However, modified mecha were normally special so no one had held any suspicions back then.

Now, though, no one would be able to tell that this was a modified mecha from its external appearance. It looked the same as the mecha of all her other team members and thus it would be difficult to spot a difference among the rest.

Ling Lan checked all the energy levels on her mecha, as well as its weapons and equipment. She only felt at ease after confirming that everything was normal, after which she prepared to log off and call it a day. Before she could leave, however, a request for long-range conversation popped up on the mecha screen. The person sending the request was [Self-Defined Destiny].

The corners of Ling Lan"s mouth went up slightly. Ever since Li Lanfeng and his friends came out of their army division"s recruit training camp, he would log in to Mecha World every week and report to her their performance for the week. For the entire year, no matter what happened, he never missed his report. This gave Ling Lan the illusion that those three had never left her at all. They had merely gone to another training ground to train.

Today was the day Li Lanfeng was supposed to give her his report. Ling Lan pressed the connect b.u.t.ton and a handsome young man wearing half a mask and a Federation mecha operator uniform appeared on the screen.

"Leopard, didn"t you say that you needed to carry out a mission this week?" Ling Lan asked curiously. This was why she had been planning to log out without waiting for Li Lanfeng. In their conversation last week, Li Lanfeng had told Ling Lan that the three of them had received an escort mission.

"That escort mission was very easy and the journey was really smooth too. No one wanted to stay outside so we all hurried our way back to the base," Li Lanfeng answered casually.

Ling Lan nodded her head and said, "It"s good that you all are fine." Although Li Lanfeng made it sound simple, Ling Lan knew that for a mission to require an ace operator, an ace disguiser, and a special-cla.s.s operator c.u.m ace military doctor to directly partic.i.p.ate, it could not be anything easy. It was definitely not as simple as how Li Lanfeng put it, but since he didn"t say anything, he had to have been warned by the military to not disclose anything. Ling Lan would not make a mistake like causing difficulty for Li Lanfeng.

Seeing how Ling Lan didn"t pursue the topic any further, Li Lanfeng heaved a sigh of relief. There was nothing holding him back now. He remembered something Li Shiyu told him and asked with concern, "I heard Shiyu saying that one of his juniors in the military medical field told him today that you"re having a mecha battle with Leiting tomorrow. Rabbit, are you confident?"

Li Lanfeng was very clear on what Ling Lan"s motive was; she had long wanted to unite the military academy since a year ago and had always been preparing for this day.

"If everything goes as I expect, there shouldn"t be a problem," Ling Lan replied calmly. Even if she didn"t have total confidence, it was too late already—Ling Lan had to act as though she had everything in control.If she didn"t even believe in herself, how could she let the members of Lingtian believe in her?

"I"ll be waiting for your good news then." Li Lanfeng stared intently at Ling Lan"s cold face. He had only left Ling Lan for less than a year, yet he could clearly feel how important she was in his heart. Many times, when he felt like he couldn"t persevere anymore, Ling Lan"s cold and clear eyes would motivate him and make his heart stronger.

According to the words of their temporary team leader, Li Lanfeng was the hardest person to predict among the three of them; whenever he felt that the latter had shown all his potential already, he would display even more possibilities. Their temporary team leader initially didn"t have a good opinion of Li Lanfeng because of his weak body, but as time went by, he started to admire Li Lanfeng more and more. He really wanted to take in Li Lanfeng as an official team member. Even after coming to know that he already had a battle clan, he still constantly urged him to jump ships. Li Lanfeng always had a headache because of him.

Ling Lan nodded her head and chatted with Li Lanfeng for a while longer before saying goodbye. They left Mecha World.

Ling Lan opened the login pod to the virtual world and then frowned. She remembered that moments before, Li Lanfeng"s right hand hadn"t moved at all beside his body; he had only performed some simple actions with his left hand. "Leopard"s right hand seemed injured. I wonder if it"s serious. Since Li Shiyu could enter Mecha World, he should be fine. The only one that didn"t appear is Zhao Jun… looks like Zhao Jun is hurt."

Ling Lan made a prompt decision and made a call. She entered a series of numbers that she remembered clearly but never dialed easily.

Ring, ring. Before the communicator could ring for the fourth time, someone picked it up. "Hold on a moment." A gentle voice came from the communicator, following which she heard the voice saying, "Pause the meeting!" The sound of chairs starting to be dragged around could be heard, as well as of other people replying to the voice in an organized and loud voice. "Yes, General!"

Ling Xiao quickly came out of the meeting he was in and entered the resting room at the side. He confirmed that there was no one around him before smiling happily and asking, "Lan"er, how come you are free to contact me today?"

"Father, I have a certain matter to bother you with this time," Ling Lan replied.

"Oh? What matter?" Ling Xiao was extremely elated. At the same time, he was curious about the difficulty his daughter met. His dear daughter had a truly independent personality due to his failure of being a good father. He really wanted to be a good father now, but hardly any opportunities were given to him.

"I want to know about the current situation of my team members; Li Lanfeng, Zhao Jun, and Li Shiyu. They underwent the evaluation a year ago and entered the 23rd Division." Ling Lan told him of her request.

Ling Xiao immediately retracted his smile. "Why? Did the men of the 23rd Division bully them?" He began to suddenly emanate an invisible, baleful aura. Although Ling Xiao always appeared gentle and amiable in front of all others, he was nevertheless an individual who had returned from the battlefield; how could he be as harmless as he looked?

"If they were bullied by those old folks, they would be useless. I wouldn"t have looked for you because of that," Ling Lan stated coldly. "They said that they were given an escort mission this week and returned three days later. However, I realized that in this mission, two of them were injured while one was heavily injured. Their group consists of an ace operator, a spurious ace and a special-cla.s.s operator c.u.m ace military doctor…"

As Ling Lan described the situation, Ling Xiao"s expression became serious. Once these talented cadets from the military academy came over, they would be placed under the nurturing program of the military. The military would not give them any missions in their first year and would let them undergo cruel recruit training so that they could get used to life in the military. From their second year onwards, they would be given some patrol and guard missions which involved no risk. Only on their third year would they be given hunt and escort missions to get them used to see blood. Once they managed to pa.s.s their first three years, they would be asked to partic.i.p.ate in large-scale operations to chase down and suppress bandits—that was when they would get first-hand experience of the cruel ma.s.sacres between humans. On their fifth year, the division would send them out onto the real battlefield, and that was when life-or-death battles would take place.

Based on what Ling Lan said, her team members were at most in their second year. Even if there was an escort mission, it was not their turn to take it. Also, for such a powerful mecha operator to be hurt so badly, it would not have been a simple escort mission; it was impossible for there to be nothing going on.

"I know. I will investigate this matter. Don"t worry." Ling Xiao"s eyes were cold. Although he didn"t know who was behind this, he was clear that there was someone envious of these talented cadets, which was why this had happened…

"I"ll leave it to you," Ling Lan said.

Ling Xiao hung up the call with Ling Lan and walked back into the meeting room with murder in his eyes. It was time to teach those people from the 23rd Division a lesson. Otherwise, they would think that he, Ling Xiao, was a very nice person to bully.