“Why should I have told you? Would his being a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator

affect your life in any way?” Lan Luofeng cast a confused glance at Ling

Lan. “Not to mention he has already left us, and even if he were by our

side, whether or not he is a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator, what does that have to

do with us?”

Ling Lan thought about it and felt that what Lan Luofeng said was

correct. Knowing if Ling Xiao was a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator or not really

didn’t have much impact on her life at all.

Lan Luofeng picked up a mouthful of Ling Lan’s favourite side-dish

with her chopsticks and placed it in Ling Lan’s bowl, and continued to

say, “Also, Ling Xiao is just Ling Xiao. He’s a normal person, and also

my husband, your daddy. Whether he’s a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator or not, he’s

still my husband and your daddy. These two ident.i.ties will never

change.”

Lan Luofeng’s words caused Ling Lan’s body to jerk in realisation,

and the restlessness she had felt after finding out that Ling Xiao was a

G.o.d-cla.s.s operator abruptly disappeared.

“Also, Baby Lan, don’t let your daddy’s status influence your choices

in the future. You must remember — you are you. You just coincidentally

have a father named Ling Xiao, that’s all.” Lan Luofeng was somewhat

worried, afraid that her daughter would choose to do things she didn’t

like just because of Ling Xiao, like try to become a mecha operator or

something. “I hope that you’ll choose what you like to do in the future,

and not choose out of some obligation or whatever other reason …”

Lan Luofeng’s words caused Ling Lan to look at her mum with new eyes;

she felt as if she was getting to know a new side of Lan Luofeng.

Ling Lan reckoned that among all the females that her dad had

encountered, her mum was the only one who didn’t treat her dad as

someone overwhelmingly strong or an idol or perhaps even as a long-term

food provider. She had very simply and purely seen him as a regular

person to live an average life with. And so, her dad had chosen her mum …

yup, decisively making a move even before her mum had become an adult.

“Thanks, Mum!” said Ling Lan sincerely. She finished off all of the

side-dishes that Lan Luofeng had given her and then lifted her head from

her bowl to ask, “Mum, say, do you think Dad could still be alive?”

Lan Luofeng’s lips bloomed with a radiant smile, and she nodded

decisively and said, “Yes, I think your daddy wouldn’t die so easily.

He’s a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator!” Her tone concealed none of her admiration

and pride for Ling Xiao.

Ling Lan smiled too then. Since her own mum wished for this, then she

would also hold onto this hope as well. Besides, it was just like her

mum said — a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator wouldn’t just die that easily …

Ling Lan finished eating and then went with her mum to the field

outside to walk off the meal. After that, she returned to a training

room to practise several sets of physical skills. In particular, Ling

Lan ran through the scout academy’s foundational physical skills set at

least 10 times, because Ling Xiao had mentioned that this set of

physical skills was not as simple as it seemed. It may even be a great

help when operating mecha and advancing in the future.

At the end, she took a shower and lay down to sleep. Entering the

learning s.p.a.ce as usual, she saw Little Four sitting on the ground.

There were countless papers piled high beside him, and he was flipping

through several more sheets of paper in his hands.

Ling Lan asked curiously, “Little Four, what are you doing?”

Perhaps Little Four had been too engrossed in what he was doing; he

was so frightened by Ling Lan’s voice that he flung his arms out — the

papers in his hands were thrown into the air, and one of them landed on

his head.

Little Four quickly pulled down that piece of paper. Seeing Ling Lan

grinning at him, as if amused by his panicked performance, Little Four

said grumpily, “Boss, why did you have to sneak up on me? You almost

scared me to death!”

“Scared you to death? Why? Were you doing something bad?” teased Ling Lan.

Unexpectedly, Little Four’s face paled. He quickly reached out and

gathered the papers in front of him, pulling them close. Ling Lan looked

at him suspiciously and said, “Don’t tell me you really were doing

something bad?”

Little Four choked out a nervous laugh. “No way! I was just gathering

some information, things about Dad and also stuff about mecha.”

When Little Four mentioned mecha, he was mumbling somewhat

unintelligibly, but Ling Lan’s attention had been fully captured by

‘things about Dad’. She cautioned Little Four, “Gathering the

information may be important, but make sure you stay concealed. Don’t

let anyone discover you.”

Little Four smiled and said, “Relax, Boss!”

“Still …” Ling Lan pointed at the pile of paper in front of Little

Four, “Is this necessary?” Frankly, Little Four could just absorb the

information directly into his system procedures — he really didn’t have

to materialize the information onto these sheets and sheets of white

paper.

“Boss, don’t you feel that words on paper is cla.s.sy?” asked Little

Four, expression dreamy. “Reading from paper, doesn’t it make me seem

very intelligent?”

This troublemaking brat — so he’s just trying to show off! Ling Lan

said huffily, “In that case, you can continue being intelligent. I’m

going into the learning s.p.a.ce to learn now.”

Ling Lan’s unimpressed att.i.tude made Little Four feel that there was

now a generation gap between him and Boss. Thus, he sulkily waved Ling

Lan away, indicating for her to not disturb his work.

Ling Lan could only shake her head silently at Little Four’s

heartlessness. She sighed to herself, mourning the fact that little

brats nowadays were just too spoilt and pampered. She was just about to

push open the doors to the physical skills learning area when from the

corner of her eye, she noticed a large door to the side. A word had

finally appeared on it: Mecha!

Could it be that because she had encountered mecha, the learning s.p.a.ce had also activated a mecha course?

Ling Lan’s heart heated up and she decisively turned away from the

physical skills doorway. Tentatively, she prodded the door labelled

‘mecha’ and felt it move slightly. It wasn’t like before when the door

was fused to the wall, completely immovable.

Ling Lan gave the door a hard shove and the door swung open with a

bang. She walked inside and saw an endless s.p.a.ce. In the near distance, a

rugged soldier with a full beard was guffawing boisterously as he

watched her approach.

“Haha, Ling Lan, you’re finally here!” The soldier’s energetic

greeting made Ling Lan glance at him cautiously. Could he be a new

instructor?

The personalities of the instructors Ling Lan had met so far were all

different … Number One was cold and cool to the extreme, and meant

every word he said. Number Five liked to laugh, but was sly and

manipulative to the extreme, and was unbelievably perverse, capable of

chilling others to the bone. Number Nine was very strict and looked very

cold and aloof, but was actually a woman with a soft heart — Ling Lan

had received much care from her since the very beginning.

As such, Ling Lan wasn’t afraid of stern-faced teachers, but was

fearful of those with smiling faces and pa.s.sionate appearances; she had

been traumatized by Number Five’s torments … So, seeing the other’s

enthusiasm and wide smile, she was instantly on her guard. If by any

chance this was another instructor like Number Five, she would

definitely be toyed with most terribly.

“Don’t think so much. I’m not Number Five. I have no interest in

torturing people. Right, I’m your mecha instructor, Number Three. In

fact, when you turned 6 years old, I had already wanted to activate the

mecha course. But, due to your real-life situation back then, Big

Brother Number One refused my request. I had thought that I’d have to

wait for another 5 to 6 years before it came up again. Unexpectedly, you

activated it yourself after just one year, hahahahahaha … that’s

great!” Number Three laughed up at the sky, as if immensely pleased with

Ling Lan’s choice. Looks like he had really become impatient with

waiting.

The laughter finally stopped, but before Ling Lan could ask any

questions, Number Three snapped his fingers. A rabbit mecha dropped from

the sky, landing directly in front of Ling Lan. Ling Lan could only

stare blankly at its familiar appearance. “Why is it this mecha?”

Number Three replied helplessly, “Can’t help it, our mecha’s controls

are somewhat different from those in your world, so we had to let the

s.p.a.ce a.s.sistant gather all the mecha models and controls of this world.

So far, the s.p.a.ce a.s.sistant has only sent in the data for this one

mecha. Of course, this is also because you selected this mecha …”

Ling Lan finally understood why Little Four had had that dodgy look

in the hall of the learning s.p.a.ce. It turned out that he had secretly

sent the stats of the rabbit mecha into the learning s.p.a.ce, making it

the initiate mecha for her mecha training. Dammit. He knew that she

didn’t really like the rabbit mecha — couldn’t he have changed things a

little and brought in some other models?

Of course, Ling Lan was most upset at her own luck. If she had

managed to draw a more formidable mecha to begin with, then she wouldn’t

have to take Number Three’s mocking gaze.

Regardless of how gloomy Ling Lan felt, she still had to listen to

Instructor Number Three’s commands. She got into the c.o.c.kpit of the

rabbit mecha. As expected, the control b.u.t.tons were the same, no changes

whatsoever.

Ling Lan activated the mecha, and the mecha quickly booted up

successfully. She then opened the mecha’s screen to display the

situation outside, but found that the initially vacant and open s.p.a.ce

had now become an extremely narrow tunnel. By Ling Lan’s estimation, the

tunnel was just 1.5 times the width of the mecha itself. To

successfully make her way through the tunnel, it would require very fine

control of the mecha’s movement. Additionally, there were also some

irregular obstacles within the tunnel — on the floor, and on the walls

on both sides — which were probably designed to test a mecha operator’s

ability to handle the controls to adjust to circ.u.mstances.

“Firstly, you’ll need to go through obstacle course training. Can you

see the numbers on the bottom of the screen?” Number Three’s voice rang

out beside Ling Lan’s ear.

Ling Lan looked at the screen as Instructor Number Three said, and

sure enough, on the lower part of the screen, the numbers 03.00.00 were

flas.h.i.+ng at her, reminding Ling Lan of their existence.

“This is a countdown timer for 3 minutes. You’ll need to complete

this obstacle course within 3 minutes to pa.s.s. And your deadline to

complete this mission is just one week.” Number Three’s tone was tinged

with obvious schadenfreude.

F*ck! Teaching her nothing and giving her a mission right off the

bat? Instructor Number Three, you’re a mecha instructor, not a mission

distributor — isn’t what you’re doing too shameless? Before Ling Lan

could give voice to her complaints, the flas.h.i.+ng numbers on the lower

half of the screen began to count down rapidly.

Ling Lan’s eyelid twitched. Abruptly, she found that with the speed of her mecha’s jumps, 3 minutes weren’t long at all.

At this moment, Number Three’s gleeful voice rang out once more, “Oh

right, every time you fail an attempt, the system will dole out

punishment. You hang in there now!”

Hearing this, Ling Lan frantically operated her mecha. Her fingers

flew, actually blowing past the speed limits she had managed to achieve

before this … the system’s punishment was not pleasant at all — she

really didn’t want to experience it ever again.

However, dreams are beautiful but reality is cruel. Ling Lan slammed

into a wall for the nth time, and after repeatedly embodying the rabbit

in the tale ‘

waiting for a rabbit by a tree stump

‘

1

, the timer finally hit zero. Overall, she had only

managed to jump forward a few metres. Oh, tragic rabbit … Ling Lan had

yet to finish bemoaning the poor rabbit when a wave of numbing pain

swept over her body …