Chapter 659: Chapter 678: They Will Also Say: She Is Jiang Qiuqiu, the Natural Person Mecha Pilot
Huo Jia watched the combat video for a while. After his gaze locked onto the Light Armor for a moment, he shot up into a sitting position.
His sleepiness vanished instantly.
His exhaustion disappeared in a flash.
His boredom was immediately annihilated.
It was as if he was suddenly filled with energy.
Huo Deng made a few curious sounds. "What’s wrong? Why such a big reaction after watching a video?"
"You know the person piloting that Light Armor?" Huo Deng gossiped. "No wonder everyone’s guessing it’s you. Among the Level One Trainees, you’re probably the only one in your class at this level, right?"
"No." Huo Jia pulled on his jacket. "There’s someone else. The person in the video isn’t me."
"Cousin, I’m heading out. You can go to sleep first."
With that, Huo Jia hurriedly left the dormitory building, ran to a nearby Hovercar, and headed for the Virtual Machine Room.
On the way, he was still reading the messages in the active thread. Many people were praising him.
’Being praised is an honor, but that honor belongs to someone else.’
’And... why come back to practice without asking me to join?’
-
The battle in the first-level arena had reached a fever pitch.
The onlookers all knew that, for the time being, there were no First-level students left who could compete with this ’Huo Jia’.
But he still hadn’t left the stage. Everyone was betting on how long ’Huo Jia’ could last.
He hadn’t stepped down to rest, remaining on the stage to face a gauntlet of opponents.
"I feel like he can last against another 10 people."
"No one else is his match."
"I agree. That endurance is really impressive."
Jiang Qiuqiu was oblivious to the storm brewing outside.
She had more or less vented all her frustrations, but after resting for a moment from exhaustion, a mysterious feeling supported her, helping her recover her strength before she returned to the stage.
She fought one opponent after another. Exhaustion washed over her in waves, and her Spirit Sea began to tremble violently, as if every move and every technique was pushing her to the absolute limit.
Jiang Qiuqiu could feel the sweat.
...
Just as the people outside were placing their bets, Huo Jia arrived. He walked directly into the circle of spectators.
He was tall and handsome, and a well-known figure, so many people here recognized him.
So it wasn’t long before a new student exclaimed, "Huo Jia!"
The third-year senior who had started the thread, still in the crowd, heard the name "Huo Jia" and glanced up. The man’s ridiculously handsome face filled her vision. She clicked her tongue in appreciation. ’As expected of Huo Jia, just that handsome.’
But a handsome face wasn’t as interesting as a Mecha battle. She turned her attention back to Huo Jia’s Mecha match—
Wait!
The third-year senior froze for a second and looked up again. After confirming that the person standing at the back of the crowd was indeed Huo Jia, she whipped her head toward the screen. If Huo Jia was out here, then who was the person fighting in the first-level arena?
’Which first-level student is this badass?’
Just as she was still feeling dumbfounded, the Light Armor in the center of the screen finally exhausted its strength. After taking down its last opponent, it fell heavily to the ground.
Unable to get back up, it meant the pilot had lost the match and would be ejected from the virtual world.
As the pilot was ejected, a line of small text appeared above the Mecha, revealing their identity.
01A1 Jiang Qiuqiu.
Jiang Qiuqiu?
...
The senior saw Huo Jia walk to a virtual pod in the corner. Soon, he was walking back with an extremely pretty girl whose eyes were clear and whose forehead was beaded with sweat.
The third-year senior recognized this face, as she often trained with Huo Jia.
As her thoughts churned, she suddenly heard Huo Jia call out to the girl, "Jiang Qiuqiu, why did you come here to train without asking me to join?"
"The timing wasn’t right. I was afraid I’d disturb you."
’Jiang Qiuqiu... so she’s Jiang Qiuqiu?’
By the time the truth came to light, the thread she had posted in her circle had already blown up. A few meddlesome upperclassmen were even saying they wanted to find time to duel this "King of the Freshmen."
The third- and fourth-year upperclassmen, in particular, had a rather provocative tone.
The third-year senior looked at the flood of comments below, and her head started to ache.
And so, in the upperclassmen dorms, discussions were still raging. "This so-and-so is getting way too much hype. Just got to the academy and already trying to claim the top spot in the Mecha Single Soldier System?"
"He’s strong, sure, but he’s not the only S-level in our department."
"Besides, it was only in the first-level arena. Why are so many people saying he’s amazing? Damn it, I even saw a comment from that girl in my class. She’s never said *I’m* amazing."
"I really want to fight this kid and see who’s actually better."
As soon as he said that, someone else chimed in, "How old are you? If you challenge a freshman, people will say you’re bullying a junior."
"Then I’ll fight him with one hand tied behind my back."
"Alright, enough of that. He really is skilled. He’s only been here a short time, but his Mecha control is already so fluid. We weren’t at that level back in our day."
Some grumbled, while others felt it was unfair.
As they repeatedly checked the thread over the next few days, suddenly—
"What the hell? Why was the post edited?"
"?"
"What do you mean, ’Filming error, didn’t get a clear ID at first, but later discovered the pilot of this Light Armor is likely A-Class freshman Jiang Qiuqiu’?"
"It’s Juju?!"
"So we were just commenting on Juju?"
"Ah, what was the person filming even doing?" Rice was furious. "Why couldn’t they be clearer? I knew such silky-smooth maneuvering couldn’t have been done by that Huo Jia. If it was Juju, then it makes perfect sense!"
"Whatever you guys just commented, hurry back and check it. Don’t run your mouths. A lot has happened to Juju recently. No one in the Mecha Single Soldier System should be bad-mouthing her!"
"Yes, boss!"
"Check the group chat for the dorm next door, too. Damn it, is that Da Wang? How could he say something so stupid? ’Duel me if you have the guts’? He’s a fourth-level student, isn’t he embarrassed to challenge a First-level student?!"
’But didn’t Senior Rice say the same things—’
He was about to argue back but scrolled down to find that those comments were already gone.
[Rice: *****]
He had deleted them all himself.
So fast.
Not only that, he even added a few new comments below: "Such awesome piloting. An honors student, as expected. Smarter than us and works harder than us."
[Rice: When she becomes a fourth- or fifth-level student, she’ll definitely be at the very top!]
This rapid change of heart left the surrounding crowd utterly amazed.
While inwardly scorning him, they also quickly changed their own tones and left new comments.
After posting her explanation, the third-year senior had planned to close the thread because the atmosphere was getting pretty hostile. But when she walked back and saw the notification for hundreds, even thousands of new comments, her mind was filled with: ???
The words "friendly" and "amiable" practically jumped off the screen.
Things like "Juju is the best, as expected!"
"The strongest First-level student!"
It was just like a fandom meet-up.
Jiang Qiuqiu had also returned to her dorm by this time. The moment she walked in, Liu Tingting smiled and told her to check the thread. Still having some energy left, she took a shower and then read the thread for a while, a warm feeling spreading through her heart.
’Everyone is always so thoughtful.’
"I left a comment in there too!"
"Qiuqiu, you’re amazing!"
Besides the fans bumping the thread, students from other departments saw the huge commotion and curiously asked just who this Jiang Qiuqiu was, and whether it was really that difficult for a First-level student to do what was shown in the video.
Soon, helpful students began answering the questions.
Jiang Qiuqiu is a new student in class A1.
What she did is extremely, extremely difficult for a First-level student.
People gave simple examples that students from any department could understand. Then, after the thread gained more traction, an informed classmate revealed that Jiang Qiuqiu was actually a Mecha Soldier who wasn’t a Genetic Hybrid, which made what she did in the video even more difficult for her personally.
Outsiders couldn’t quite grasp the difficulty just from the descriptions.
But anyone from the Mecha Single Soldier System who heard these conditions—
To be less than three months into the school year, have A-level spiritual power, and be a Mecha Soldier who wasn’t a Genetic Hybrid—and on top of all that, to pilot a Mecha with such silky smoothness and possess a Spirit Sea vast enough to endure a gauntlet of battles—was truly something no ordinary person could achieve.
Jiang Qiuqiu was a hidden powerhouse in her own right.
-
In the following days of studying and training, Jiang Qiuqiu would occasionally find herself the center of attention in the cafeteria or on the training grounds. When she heard people discussing her, she assumed they were talking about, ’Ah, the streamer Jiang Qiuqiu is at our school.’ But when she got closer, she realized the prefix they used had changed.
’Is that *the* Jiang Qiuqiu?’
’Yeah, that’s her. The pure human soldier from Mecha Class A1!’
Perhaps this was her greatest success during her time in the Mecha Single Soldier System.
Everyone called her the pure human soldier, the natural person soldier.
She had succeeded in becoming a qualified Mecha Soldier.
