Game: Civilization Paradise

"We’ll start by installing the weapons now. Mechanical Gods have many types of weapons, usually customized to your needs, and they can be changed at any time. Of course, the prerequisite is having enough money... Last are the mechanical jet wings."

Windsor continued to explain the overall structure of the Mechanical God to Long Ming.

KLANG!

With the mechanical wings now installed.

A virtual operating interface appeared in Long Ming’s vision.

"Power core initiated!"

"Circuit self-diagnostic in progress!"

"Self-diagnostic complete. No anomalies."

"Establishing neural connection!"

...

Long Ming immediately felt a subtle current sweep through his body. In an instant, he had established a neural connection with the Gale.

’What a strange sensation,’ he thought.

The Gale’s neural connection method was completely different from the Red Demon mech-armor’s.

It used numerous fitted neurons, whereas the Red Demon mech-armor’s nerves were crudely docked together.

"How does it feel?"

Windsor asked.

"Pretty good."

Long Ming replied in a deep voice.

"Do you feel a heavy load?"

"No."

"Then try to activate the jet wings on the back. The power output must be low—just a tiny bit!"

Windsor instructed with great patience.

Long Ming then piloted the Gale, carefully activating the jet wings to emit a small flicker of flame.

"Good, hold it steady. I’m turning off the anti-gravity device!"

"Okay."

"3, 2, 1!"

Windsor then shut off the anti-gravity device.

Long Ming continued to pilot the Gale, keeping it floating in mid-air.

"Try flying forward a little."

Windsor said to Long Ming.

Long Ming piloted the Gale, slowly flying out, then quickly circling back and landing on the ground.

"Is this really your first time piloting?"

Windsor was a little stunned watching Long Ming’s performance. She had never seen a beginner with such fine control.

"You could say that."

Long Ming replied with a smile.

"Alright, I’ll quickly run you through the basic operations, then teach you the advanced content."

Seeing this, Windsor cut to the chase.

"Okay!"

Long Ming nodded.

Just then, Qian Lan noticed Joey standing beside her, staring intently at Long Ming, and said with a chuckle.

"Joey, why aren’t you watching your boyfriend’s Mechanical God? What are you doing here gawking at Long Ming? Aren’t you afraid your boyfriend will get angry?"

"What’s there to be afraid of?"

Joey replied, displeased, then turned and walked away.

She walked over to Vid Fen’s side and complained, clearly annoyed.

"Look at the custom mech he’s piloting. He’s completely stolen the show."

"Oh, come on, he’s just rich! But don’t be mad. What’s so great about a custom mech? My skills are better than his. Just you watch!"

Vid Fen piloted his Graylight off the platform, flying low into the center of the training field.

KLANG!

The ground split open to reveal a weapon rack holding a simulated laser target rifle.

Vid Fen picked up the laser target rifle and requested moving target practice from the training field system.

When the crowd saw Vid Fen pilot the Graylight into the center of the training field for target practice, they all turned their heads to watch him.

Although Long Ming was piloting a custom third-generation model, he was only practicing the most basic maneuvers, which wasn’t very interesting to watch.

WHOOSH~

At that moment, silver, shuttle-shaped objects shot out as fast as lightning, moving too quickly for the eye to follow.

Vid Fen immediately began firing rapidly, hitting almost every single shot.

He quickly finished the moving target course, and the electronic display showed a score of 70.

"Wow, that’s amazing!"

"The highest I ever got was thirty."

...

The crowd applauded what they saw.

Hearing the crowd’s praise, Vid Fen wore a very smug expression.

"See? Impressive, right?"

Joey walked back to Qian Lan’s side and said with great pride.

"Hmph."

Qian Lan just snorted coldly and said nothing.

At that moment, Long Ming turned his head to look at Qian Lan and Joey. Seeing that Qian Lan didn’t look happy, he asked Windsor.

"Windsor, can I try the target practice?"

"Are you sure? You just learned how to pilot it. You aren’t familiar with anything yet!"

"It’s fine."

"Alright then."

Seeing that Long Ming wanted to try, Windsor nodded in agreement.

Long Ming piloted the Gale over, also picking up a target rifle and entering the firing range.

When Vid Fen saw Long Ming coming for target practice as well, a mocking expression appeared on his face. ’He’s really overestimating his own abilities!’

Just then, the flash darters shot out again.

Long Ming immediately pulled the trigger and fired.

WHOOSH!

The first shot went wide, grazing the darter’s tail.

"Haha!"

The crowd couldn’t help but laugh when they saw this.

Qian Lan, however, furrowed her brows. ’I knew it. He’s pushing himself too hard.’

After all, the speed of the flash darters was just too fast.

But in the next second, the crowd’s laughter died.

Starting from the second shot, Long Ming was hitting his targets.

However, for shots 6 through 8, three targets appeared at once, and he only hit two, bringing his score to 60.

Vid Fen was stunned to see Long Ming actually score 60 points.

But he wasn’t panicking. The final two shots were the most difficult, meaning that if Long Ming missed even one, the best he could do was tie with him.

At this moment, Long Ming took a deep breath and calmed his mind.

However, no darters appeared in front of him.

The next second, with a SWISH...

the sound of two objects breaking the air came from behind him.

The crowd was in an uproar. It was a rear-ambush!

Seeing this, the corners of Vid Fen’s mouth couldn’t help but curl up.

’Even I can’t react to the rear-ambush in time, let alone a rookie.’

Long Ming didn’t seem to react either, remaining motionless.

But in the next second, Long Ming raised his rifle behind him and fired two consecutive blind shots.

The spectators were stunned for a moment, then burst out in gasps of astonishment.

Soon, Long Ming had shot all the targets. The electronic screen displayed a score of 80.

Long Ming looked at the score and shook his head slightly, not very satisfied.

"Hiss... so strong!"

"Is this guy really a rookie?"

"Could he be a wolf in sheep’s clothing?"

...

The many trainees watching were all dumbfounded.

Qian Lan turned to Joey, a huge smile on her face.

"Your boyfriend’s score is a little low, isn’t it? Long Ming is just a rookie. How could he not even beat a rookie?"

"You..."

Joey was so angry her face turned red.

Just then, Qian Lan and the others’ instructor walked over.

"Fall in!"

"Coming!"

Qian Lan walked over cheerfully.

Joey stomped her foot in frustration and followed.

...

「Late at night.」

Long Ming piloted the Gale onto the metal platform, where mechanical arms began to dismantle it.

Windsor walked up and asked with a smile.

"Mr. Long Ming, how did it feel?"

"The controls didn’t feel completely responsive. It felt like there was a slight delay."

"A delay? That shouldn’t be possible. I’m looking at your data, and everything’s fine. Could it be that your reaction speed is just too fast?"

Windsor replied in surprise, glancing at the data displayed on her wristband.

"I don’t know. Maybe I just haven’t gotten used to it yet."

"Hmm, this is the limit of a V3 neural connection. And yours is a custom model; if there really is a delay, it would only be more obvious on a standard-issue one."

"Is there no way to improve it?"

"There’s no need to. If you get a chance to upgrade to a V4 in the future, none of this will be an issue."

"Understood. Thank you."

Long Ming nodded.

"If there’s nothing else, that’s all for today’s lesson."

Windsor said to Long Ming.

"Okay."

Long Ming nodded.

...