Chapter 12: It's Not Good to Smash the Flowers and Plants

During the lunch break, Ade lay on the big sofa in the office with his eyes closed.

Too many things had happened last week, making him a little mentally exhausted. Probably because of his own somewhat anticlimactic behavior, C.C. was particularly silent over the weekend, but it was just as well to give himself a good rest.

The military agreed to allow Shinn to be his MS tester, for which he did a special favor for the military. But overall it was worth it. Not to mention the future value of Shinn, but also it makes him think things clearly. The problem of Shinn's ID card is also solved. With the help of "the big man above", civil servants only spent less than an hour to turn the Asuka siblings' identities into the moon people.

Now he can finally return to his original rhythm and focus on his work.

The testing department worked overtime last week to finish the frame of Zeta Gundam and is conducting functional tests. If there are no major problems, they can start the performance evaluation next week. Although Zeta Gundam was designed by him, to be honest, Ade didn't like it very much. For no other reason than it was too complicated to maintain. The bureaucrats and generals who mentioned the demand certainly do not understand the technology. They just brainstormed on the sandbox: Damn, a Gundam that can transform into a plane? That will be invincible! I don't care! I want it to turn into a plane!

Of course, Ade has no problem with their needs, after all, his job is to solve the problem, not to mention the successful design of this set of deformable skeletons brought him a lot of sense of accomplishment. As for the after-sales service is also clearly marked. As long as the customer is willing to pay, everything is good.

In terms of Ade's aesthetics, an expandable universal interface and a variety of external plug-ins with different functions are the ideal structure in his mind, which is the reason he chose Inle. That said, now that Inle has little room for improvement for the time being. Oh, should I consider doing something new? A new Gundam, no need to be as large as Inle, but it has to have strong mobility. Well …

Time always flies in thinking. And by the afternoon, Ade suddenly remembered that today, Shinn would come for an interview. Although it's already booked, the process must still go. Not to mention that he also wanted to see Shinn's real driving level. After inquiring where Shinn was, he went straight to the interview site. The big screen in the room showed a special RGM-79GM who was doing all kinds of difficult tactical moves in the universe.

"Hello, Director!" The colleague in charge of the interview was a man in his early thirties, and when he saw Ade, he hurried out to greet him.

"Hmm." But awkwardly, Ade did not remember his name, and could only pretend to nod calmly in response, "I heard that a new applicant comes today, how is the situation?"

"The written test results are very good, and the driving test is underway." The person in charge reported while flipping through the electronic screen in his hand, "All twenty gravity maneuvers are completed, and the other twenty gravity-free maneuvers are already at halfway. It looks like he's possible to complete them all."

"After the maneuvers are done, it's time for the final simulation, right?" Ade looked sideways at the list on the electronic screen, "I'll be his opponent in the combat practice."

"Director, you want to test him personally?" The man had an incredulous look on his face.

"It's been quite a while since the last time I did combat practice." Ade smiled at the starry sky on the screen, "I'm a little itchy."

…

In the vacuum, the two special RGM-79GMs painted red and blue respectively were floating quietly at a safe distance, and the long-lost gravity-free environment made Ade feel excited in the cockpit. After overcoming the human instinctive slight panic emotion about weightlessness, the sense of freedom and relief brought by this zero gravity would give people the illusion that they could do whatever they want.

"Too bad Alice isn't here, or she could play some background music." Ade browsed the local hard drive of RGM-79GM, "This RGM-79GM really doesn't have a music player, I shouldn't have expected that."

"Mr. Shinn Asuka, the last test is a real machine combat practice, the test time is two minutes. Your opponent is the red RGM-79GM," a young female voice rang out in the public channel, "The weapons used are limited to one beam rifle and one beam saber, both for low power training and cannot break through the body armor. The system will stop the corresponding function when it detects theoretical damage. Weapon batteries are not replaceable, please both pilots check the weapon power and battery condition. The test will start in three minutes."

Ade used the last time to carefully do the body self-test. After all, the old driver also has a rollover time, it's no harm to be careful. Usually, such things are done by Alice, now without Alice, everything can only be done by himself.

The time is only two minutes. Although the MS is equipped with a shield, the pilot can not hold up the shield all the time to avoid fighting. This is also a test of the pilot's subjective initiative.

"Countdown starts. Five, four, three, two, one, go."

The blue RGM-79GM on the other side was the first to fire a test shot, and Ade evaded while firing back cautiously. The blue RGM-79GM skillfully took advantage of Ade's evasion to gradually close in on this side, and the distance between the two sides narrowed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Ade also wanted to test his opponent's strength and did not pull away.

The distance between the two sides gradually closed to less than three hundred meters. The blue RGM-79GM decisively dropped the beam rifle and replaced it with a saber, raising the shield and charging fiercely towards the red RGM-79GM.

"Don't throw your weapons around, it's troublesome when the staff picks them back." The moment the other side raised the shield, Ade had understood his intention. He steadily raised the rifle in place, pulled out the beam saber, and began to accelerate.

His acceleration prevented the opponent from gaining the expected speed advantage. The impact between the beam saber and the hull came as expected, and the reaction force was honestly reacted to Ade through the shock absorption module of the hull. The blue RGM-79GM quickly adjusted its stance and controlled the angle of the jets to launch a continuous attack.

Shinn is confident in hand-to-hand combat, and Ade did not find a breakthrough in the battle. Shinn is as well aware as Ade of the flaw of the 1.5 second turn time of the special RGM-79GM, and every time he strikes and retreats, he fine-tunes the position of the hull along the arc trajectory. The training shields were soon broken and tossed aside by both sides.

Ade glanced at the countdown and there was less than a minute remaining. There was no significant difference between their close combat skills, or more accurately, the performance of the machine bodies limited the gap between the two sides. This competition will probably end in a draw. Ade thought, controlled the nozzle of the machine body, and used the change in position of the two sides to guide the other side to shift the battlefield.

He patiently fine-tuned the positions of the two sides to hide his intentions. As time passed by, with twelve seconds remaining, the same thing behind the blue RGM-79GM came into view. Ade violently increased the thrusters' output, sprinting in the air, and the other side panned out of the way as expected. In the moment of intersecting with the blue RGM-79GM's body position, Ade began to slow down and turn around. 1.5 seconds later, Ade steadily picked up the beam rifle floating in front of him and aimed at the blue RGM-79GM's cockpit, which was turning less than a hundred meters in front of him.

It was now. Biu---

"Test is over." A voice rang out again on the public channel, "Blue RGM-79GM's cockpit has taken a direct hit and lost combat capability. Please both pilots return."

Ade moodily parked the RGM-79GM back to the hangar and left the cockpit to drift in the direction of the gravity zone, with Shinn following behind slowly with a listless look. In the locker room, Ade takes off his helmet -

"Hum?" Shinn rubbed his eyes, "Adrien-san?"

"Well done." Ade patted his shoulder, "You did well."

"Ah, thank you, Mr. Adrien." Shinn looked a little embarrassing, "I didn't know Adrien-san was such a great pilot."

"There are many things you don't know, so take your time to learn." Ade showed a smile, "According to your performance today, there may be a very interesting machine for you to drive."

…

At the same moment, the hangar of Inle.

C.C. was fumbling around outside the cockpit, trying to find a way to open it manually. Although this was Ade's hangar, C.C. had apparently been granted all the permissions as well. Before today, she had never been interested in Ade's big toys and hardly ever came around.

But not anymore.

"It's hidden really well." C.C. finally found the manual switch for the cockpit, and the hatch slowly opened. Stepping inside the cockpit, the electronic light screens around it lit up in an instant, each displaying a large red cross, clearly and unambiguously telling the visitor that the system was locked.

"Facial recognition mismatch, please state the boot password." An icy electronic synthesized voice sounded.

Automatic recognition plus the boot password was indeed Ade's style. But I don't know the password. Well, let me guess it first, "C.C."

"Wrong password."

"Tsk." C.C. made a very obvious smacking sound, and the atmosphere became awkward. She then guessed a password she didn't want to be the correct answer, "Lacus Clyne."

"Wrong password. Password has been entered incorrectly in succession, entering password recovery procedure. Please answer the recovery question." C.C. was relieved to know the password was wrong, "Security question: what is Peppa Pig's brother's name?"

C.C. didn't know the answer, and didn't even have the desire to take out her phone and search the Internet, because she knew it must be "knowledge that only he knows". Judging from the question style, it is full of bad taste for those who can understand it, and how pitiful the person is who prepares such things in a place where they will almost never be found?

And C.C. is almost certain that he prepared not just a question but a bank of questions, "I don't know, requesting a question replacement."

"Question replacement. Who is the best friend of Tinky, Dipsy, and Laa-Laa?"

She knew there was a Lalah during the One Year War, but it certainly wasn't this one in the question, "I don't know, requesting a different question."

"Question replacement. What is the thing that can answer all of SpongeBob's and Patrick Star's questions?"

"No--" Wait! I think I've heard these two names before. The answer is, "The magic conch?"

"Answered correctly, congratulations on gaining the right to operate the music player." With a beep, among countless panels, only one panel unlocked. C.C. looked at it. It was really the music player. I was tricked! Password retrieval is completely meaningless. This person is simply…! But so the system's start-up is not controlled by the password at all, then her guess is most likely correct.

"A.I. Alice, you're here, right?!" C.C. shouted into the air, "We need to talk."

"…"

"I am C.C., Adrien Lingus' cohabitant. We need to talk about his mental condition."

"… Hello, Miss C.C."