Tempering

Sixty days of vacation quickly passed, and Reno had to return to the academy.

As he left, Reno felt very reluctant to part with old Bell.

During his time at Belgrade, he learned a lot from old Bell. These things were of great benefit to him, and some even benefited him for life.

Old Bell smiled and said, "Hey, silly kid, don't think leaving means farewell forever. This time ends, but you'll have another vacation, and another one after that. You'll spend six years at Alpha Academy, so you'll have six vacations... Well, the last one might not count. But we'll have five years together. Even if we don't consider vacations, you can still come see me on weekends. It doesn't take too long to travel from Phoenix City to Shigwani."

A happy smile spread across Reno's face. "Yes, sir, you're right. As long as I have time, I'll come to see you."

With those words, Reno left.

"Wait a moment, kid," Old Bell suddenly handed Reno a box.

"What's this..." Reno was puzzled.

"It's the training system for Shen Yao," Gadd spoke up. "The old man has been working on it for you during this time."

Reno looked at Bell in surprise.

The old man shrugged. "Don't get too excited too soon, kid. This is a very demanding system. Maybe giving it to you won't help you, but harm you instead... It might distract most of your energy and ultimately lead to nothing. I hesitated for three whole days, but in the end, I felt that the decision should be yours. If you like it, you can use it for training. But if you're not confident, you might as well give up early."

"What if I succeed in training?" Reno asked.

The old man looked at Reno for a moment and then said, "Then the Angel is yours."

Reno smiled.

The Silver Wing Angel was like an untamed stallion, powerful, fierce, and wild. It was difficult to control, yet it sparked infinite imagination.

Reno hoped that one day he could truly master it, just like taming a king.

He bowed deeply to old Bell and left.

Watching Reno's departing figure, old Bell suddenly shook his head. "Maybe I shouldn't have given him that system."

Gadd chuckled, "You've already made your choice, Bell. From the beginning, you saw the potential in this kid. Although you keep refusing, believe me, one day, he'll appear in the mech combat arena."

"No!" Old Bell growled angrily, "I won't let him go there."

"That's not for you to decide, only fate can decide," Gadd replied casually. "Believe me, one day, he will control the Silver Wing Angel, defeat opponent after opponent, and become the king of underground combat."

...

Returning to Alpha Academy, life returned to the usual monotonous routine of studying.

Because they were all students of the Fleet Command Department, Reno and Claire were equally busy, which led to less communication between them, but it seemed natural.

Sometimes Reno wanted to get closer to Claire, but whenever he got close, he didn't know what to say. They still communicated, but it was like ordinary classmates, without any deeper connection.

The events of the past seemed to create an invisible barrier, keeping the two from getting closer. Their busy academic lives further widened the gap between them.

This troubled Reno, but he couldn't find a solution.

Three months after school started, the mech course for the Command Department officially began.

Due to having some practice foundation, Reno's performance in the mech course remained outstanding, far surpassing others, which left many envious but helpless, only able to say in private that Reno was a genius.

But no one knew the sweat this so-called genius shed in private.

Upon returning to the academy, Reno installed the training system that old Bell gave him in the simulator chamber of the King's Apartment. Every evening, Reno would spend four hours in the simulator chamber.

Starting with the reduction of one neural unit, then continuously reducing the number of neurons and increasing the complexity of the control array system.

The replacement of the first neuron was the simplest.

In just one week, Reno successfully completed the replacement of the first neuron, but it was meaningless.

The difference of one neuron didn't show any effect in practical combat; on the contrary, occasional mistakes during system operation could lead to unpredictable consequences. It was like the probability of a person stumbling while walking was much lower than accidentally pressing the wrong key while typing. Although Reno reduced his error rate to less than one in ten thousand, the stability was still far from the neural system.

This meant that for every ten thousand actions, he would make a small mistake. This mistake might not have a big impact, or it might become fatal.

In other words, although Reno completed the replacement of one neuron, its practical application effect was not as good as not replacing it.

Perhaps this was why old Bell insisted on reducing the neurons to fifty-six, and only by reaching this level of reduction could the difference in the functions of the two systems be truly reflected. However, the huge operating requirements resulting from this were outrageous.

One month later, Reno completed the replacement of the third neuron.

Three months later, it was the fifth, and six months later, the seventh. In a year, Reno completed the replacement of ten neurons. This was also the fastest progress year, but at the same time, his error rate increased to four in ten thousand.

At the end of the second vacation, Reno once again became the first in the semester, receiving a full scholarship. During the vacation, he returned to the Belgrade Machine Repair Factory and spent a busy and enjoyable vacation there.

When the third year of Alpha Academy arrived, Reno clearly felt the increasing difficulty of neural reduction.

That year, he only completed the replacement of seven neurons, and the error rate rose to one in a thousand.

Entering the fourth year at Alpha, Reno successfully replaced four neurons, and the error rate increased to three in a thousand.

The reduction of twenty-one neurons finally made Reno's mech control show some differences from other mechs. Under Reno's control, the mech could perform many movements that ordinary mechs couldn't, thus having more tactical variations. In this respect, it was much stronger than other mechs. However, the relatively slow response and inevitable error rate also became its flaws.

If the combat power of mechs was divided into a numerical value, others' value would be 10, while Reno's value would be between 5 and 15.

In other words, after three years of arduous training, Reno didn't gain any significant advantage in mech control. Considering the effort he put into these three years, he was at a loss, and a big one at that—because of the significant amount of energy he spent on this, Reno's performance in other courses had declined to varying degrees.

He was no longer the first.

From this perspective, it's understandable why the control array system would eventually be replaced by the neural system.

The high entry barrier destined it to be unable to become mainstream in mechs.

This situation made Marshall very happy.

He kept saying that Reno was just a conceited guy who stopped progressing, nothing worth caring about. As for Reno's stable performance in all subjects, staying in the top five of the total score, and continuing to receive scholarships, Marshall turned

 a blind eye to it.

Nevertheless, Reno still persisted in training.

There was no reason, at that time, Reno didn't think about what this training would bring him; he just felt that since he had started, there was no reason to give up easily. And after three years of training, Reno gradually began to feel the power of this system—it had an infinite and beautiful future. Theoretically, once reaching a certain level, it could even be used to control space mechs within the gravity field.

He began to love this combination of manual and mental control, and loved the challenge it posed to his limits.

But deep down, there was another reason that made him persist so strongly.

That reason was Claire.

Four years had passed, and his relationship with Claire remained ambiguous, neither distant nor close. They were like two ordinary acquaintances, friends, all their interactions based on their status as classmates.

They wouldn't progress any further, couldn't progress any further!

Sometimes Claire would joke with other male students, and until Reno felt an indescribable pain.

He wanted to stop her, but couldn't find any reason.

He could only watch silently.

Compared to Claire, Reno had even less contact with Nora.

She always hid herself in the thick mech, training hard in the deep underground, lurking in the darkness, aiming her sniper rifle at anyone who might threaten her sister.

But she never aimed at Reno, never said anything threatening.

The inexplicable heartache could only be forgotten by focusing on something else.

In such a situation, Reno could only choose training, a training with no end in sight.

Perhaps this was the real reason he chose this path in the first place.

At that time, Reno even felt desperate, thinking that he and Claire were no longer possible.

But just as the fourth year vacation approached, something happened at the academy.

Dean Marshall was retiring.