“Interview Test”

The repair room lights snapped on, illuminating the space with interweaving blue and green screens positioned around the room, instantly brightening the entire area.

Near the entrance, several mechs showed varying degrees of damage. The most severe one had its external armor dented. The mech Merlin was working on had its right arm significantly damaged, now crudely reattached at the break, exposing a dense network of metallic nerves within the joint.

"Put it up on the programming station," Merlin instructed.

Edward found the button on the programming station, pressing it to magnify and project the fault page into the air.

Merlin glanced up at the floating error messages, quickly scanning them before decisively removing the damaged internal metallic nerves with a pair of mechanical pliers.

Nicholas's heart skipped a beat. Didn't Merlin say he wouldn't dismantle it?

He looked up to see the young man atop the mech fitting a fist-sized component into the arm's socket with a swift maneuver, followed by a clicking sound as the piece locked into place.

Merlin didn't use anything but the tools and parts he found on the repair bench.

Watching this, Nicholas was filled with doubt. Typically, repairing a mech is more complex than assembling one because it involves diagnosing and fixing faults, requiring a repairman's mental power to inspect the damage closely.

Mech pilots specialize in operating mechs, whereas repairmans focus on repairs, often using their mental power directly to diagnose the mech, allowing for quick and accurate problem identification.

Yet, Merlin hadn't done any of that. He simply entered the cockpit, grabbed some parts, and started working. From the moment Merlin began repairs, Nicholas hadn't sensed lots mental power by repairman, only a faint trace.

Edward joined Nicholas, commenting, "Did you notice? His mental power seems weak."

"Yes," Nicholas frowned slightly, "How can it be so weak? Shouldn't he be an A-level in terms of mental power?"

Their initial speculation on Merlin just a junior repairman, so his mental power was merely contained.

It's commonplace for individuals to either display or conceal their mental power, with those at advanced levels demonstrating greater control over it.

Merlin was an A-level mental power wielder, which had been their sole reassurance... But so far, the power they felt from Merlin was weak, weaker than a C-level, and they couldn't sense any significant mental power during the repair process.

"I'll check it out," Nicholas said, stepping forward, when suddenly, two error pop-ups on the floating fault display vanished. Dozens of error messages had been present, but after Merlin's intervention, the top two disappeared instantly.

Edward was taken aback.

Nicholas blinked, "Repairing without using mental power...? Is this guy relying entirely on troubleshooting the error display?"

Merlin continued his work, glancing at the remaining error messages while his mechanical pliers swiftly cut through the metallic nerves.

The display ceased to populate with new errors, with each existing error being methodically addressed. As Merlin advanced with the repairs, the external error codes vanished one by one.

Half an hour later, the once dense array of errors dwindled to the last two.

Nicholas's initial excitement had settled, and seeing Merlin move, he quickly offered, "Bro, need any more tools?"

"No more needed." Merlin descended from the right arm of the mech, sliding down to the cockpit.

The cockpit was cramped, its synchronous mental tendrils dim and lifeless. Merlin lingered at the connection of the right arm's metallic nerves for a moment, cutting the last piece of damaged nerve, prompting a new prompt on the programming station.

[All diagnostic errors of the mech have been cleared. Continue self-diagnosis? Yes/No]

"It's done."

Merlin exited the cockpit and stepped down from the mech, "Pause the self-diagnosis program. Remember to remove the mech's self-diagnostic setting afterward."

Edward hastily selected 'No', and the long-sounding alarm finally ceased.

As the two inspected the mech, Merlin stepped aside, casually observing the makeshift repair room.

With the lights fully on, the disarray of the repair room was evident, with two mechs at the forefront and spare mechs behind. Though more spacious than other areas, it paled in comparison to the team bases Merlin had seen. His gaze drifted to the back, where he faintly spotted two transport devices, clearly indicating the space was originally a mech parking/transport area, repurposed into a repair room.

Merlin withdrew his gaze, relaxing his right hand with a twinge of soreness between his fingers.

He stood silently, his emotions unreadable.

When Nicholas finished inspecting the mech and looked up, he saw Merlin standing by the high programming station, a slim figure standing upright with a suitcase by his side. At the moment, Merlin was lowering his eyes, seemingly easing the discomfort in his hand.

"Bro," Nicholas said, catching Merlin's attention as he turned to see Nicholas and Edward behind him.

Nicholas's gaze inadvertently fell on his hand, "Really, thank you for this. We wouldn't have known how to fix the alarm issue without you."

"It was no big deal, just clearing some errors."

Merlin replied softly, "Any other repairman could have done the same."

"Still, thank you!" Noticing Merlin's glance, Nicholas refrained from looking at his hand anymore. "You must be tired after all that work. Let's head to the conference room for a chat. Edward, could you make some coffee?"

"Got it!" Edward quickly left the repair room.

Merlin nodded in agreement.

With the chaos in the repair room settled, Nicholas led Merlin to the conference room.

The conference room was actually combined with a training area, and near the conference table lay two takeaway boxes.

This was the K&D base, which significantly differed from the K&D that Merlin remembered from the future.

In the future, K&D's base was much larger, with the conference room alone being three times the size of this space. The early days of K&D were fraught with challenges, and issues with the management and mechanics repair were just the beginning. Later, they would hit rock bottom in the new season of the Mech League.

Merlin's gaze fell on two pilots in the distance. He was unfamiliar with Edward and Nicholas, having only read about them in K&D's archives a few years later, including some encrypted files that mentioned their names.

In the next season, K&D made it to the top eight of the Dawnlight League, only to encounter an accident during the quarterfinals.

An outbreak in the Contaminated Zone caused massive disruptions in the spatial magnetic field, leading to the entire K&D team going missing during that match. It was an unforeseeable disaster. The team's crisis almost led to K&D's dissolution, but later, Pearl took on tremendous pressure and managed to persevere.

Edward had just entered the conference room when he stepped out again, apparently receiving a communication call.

"Our boss had to rush to the Contaminated Zone this morning, so it's just the two of us here," Nicholas explained while rummaging behind the conference room table, quickly producing a smart tablet. "But she left instructions to have anyone who comes by take a test."

Merlin, snapping out of his reflections, looked at the test Nicholas handed over. "A test prepared by your boss?"

"How did you know?" Nicholas was surprised.

Merlin took the test, pausing briefly. "I've read about it online."

Nicholas clapped him on the shoulder. "Then you've really done your homework."

Preparing so thoroughly for an interview with their kind of team, he even researched them online.