Shi Lang was dressed in a tight-fitting white suit with maroon streaks on the edges. On the left chest side, the school insignia was printed in black color. He closed the zipper to close his jacket and carrying a helmet in his hand walked out of the dressing room. The helmet was designed with matching colors and had a school insignia on the backside.

The boy walked out and saw all his classmates waiting for him. He smile at them and said, “What is with the look?”

They were all looking at him with a confused reaction. His voice woke them up from their stupor and Lucas coughed as he said, “Never expected a wimp like you to look so heroic.”

Shi Lang squinted his eyes and said, “Someone sure is jealous.”

The rest of the people could not help but stifle a chuckle when they saw Lucas’s flushed face. This new Shi Lang was too funny at times. The boy heard a crisp sound of heels knocking on the ground, he did not need to turn his head to know that it was their headteacher walking over. Rosa Blues had a frown on her face. She said, “The battle class is all doing too good. Jenkins has broken his record.”

Shi Lang shook his head and said, “You all overestimate the enemy while looking down on your own. The reason they are doing too good is because of the provocation and rage in their minds. Do you not calculate the toll of mech driving on their stamina. They will not be at their peak when they come down in the group battle.”

He spoke and woke up the people. They were indeed overestimating the battle class. To drive a mech, one needed to connect their neural link with the mech and use the controls at the same time. The neural link was to provide them with subtle sensations that the machine will receive when driven on the ground.

There were monitor systems in the mech to watch over the damage taken and the performance status, however, the neural connection was to provide the pilot with better response time. They will be able to sense all sorts of changes in the body of a mech. It was also to provide the pilot a sense of unity with the machine for a better connection.

However, despite everything being good, it came at a cost. To make the performance optimal, the pilot was needed to achieve a better sync rate with the machine. The higher the sync rate, the higher the performance, and the higher the exhaustion. Yes, the neural link will put a double pressure on the brain of the pilot making his performance drop over time.

Shi Lang did not wish to say anything more as his meaning was evident. He said, “How long before we can take the exam? Also, can we watch them perform?”

Rosa shook her head and said, “You can get inside the mech and practice, but you cannot watch them perform. The reason, you all know.”

The school did not allow the slightest chance of ‘learning from the other’s mistake’, this was their motto to weed out the weak ones. The principal was a man, who believed, “Those who cannot make an effort and learn from their own mistakes, they will never be able to learn from other’s mistakes, and they were not worthy. Thus no watch other people perform.”

Shi Lang had no problem with this and with a nod, he walked to the mech. Beside the mech, there was a big metal ladder, which was used to get inside the mech. Just like fighter planes back in the times.

He climbed up half the ladder and placed his hand on the left thigh of the mech. There was a small palm scanner embedded in that area, which was used to access the cockpit. This access point was Jane’s idea, because, the cockpit door was a bit too special. The whole front spherical shield of the mech suddenly emitted a click.

The front spherical screen which made up the whole torso was lifted open. The whole class wanted to have an analog way of accessing the cockpit but Jane said, “Analog will look ugly, and it will also add weight to the mech. Also, the enemy can directly hit that analog switch and open the cockpit in the middle of the fight. There goes your victory and life.”

Her logic had some credibility and thus this scanner was installed under the armor plating. The cockpit lifted and a console appeared in Shi Lang’s sight. He would have to jump over the console to get to the pilot chair. Well, this thing was completed in seven days, they did not have the time to consider and troubleshoot so much.

Shi Lang got inside the cockpit with a skip and sat down in the chair. He said, “Put on your headsets.”

As he pressed a button on the console and closed the cockpit. He put on the helmet and leaned back on the seat. He pressed another button on the console and a small module emerged from the headrest. The module stuck on to the helmet and it began to glow with a dim light. Shi Lang heard a mechanical voice in his ear, “Neural Link, initiated. Welcome, Pilot Lang.”

Shi Lang had his credentials loaded in the system. The system was an interactive user support system. The boy replied, “Initiate fuel cell.”

“Command confirmed, Fuel cell up and running.” replied the mechanical voice.

Shi Lang said, “Set UAS interaction to mute. Only priority system details are to be reported.”

“Confirmed.” and with that, the User Aid System was put to mute. Shi Lang held on to two joysticks on the two sides. These joysticks were used to control the arm movements of the mech. He placed his foot on the two pedals on the floor of the cockpit. These were standard accelerators and brakes. The direction of movement was controlled by the neural link.

Jane’s voice sounded, “Lang, the basic check is complete, you are good to go.”

The classmates were his communication center. They all were allowed to watch his performance as the whole class registered for the mech test. Usually, the technological class will never take part in this exam, because they were not given much time with the mech’s in the bay so they did not have even the standard knowledge to pilot a mech.

The boy replied, “Alright.”

The neural link worked with his mind, as he thought the pictures from outside began to project in his mind. He could see everything outside as if he was standing outside only. This was the magic of the neural link that made the pilot one with the mech. He exerted slight pressure on the right pedal and the mech lifted up its foot slowly to walk forward.

The technology class all became excited. This was the first time, their mech will be going in a real test. Rosa smiled and said, “Have him move to the trial area.”

Jane relayed the message and the mech walked around the campus to the mech test area. This place was slightly away from the teaching campus and on the way, a lot of the people caught sight of this weird yet stylish mech. A few technology class faculty members were happy to see this and they all came forward to check out what was going on.

After ten minutes, Shi Lang was in front of a big ground. He was walking very slowly because the campus was prone to casualties. In front of Shi Lang stood a red humanoid mech. This mech was piloted by the invigilator of this test. Commander Aries Arkham, the mech titan.

The red mech emitted a voice, “You have worked hard on your mech. I wish you good luck. However, the test will be performed using live ordnance, I hope you know when to pull back.”

All the mech systems were tuned to communicate at a standard frequency. Shi Lang replied, “Thank you, Sir. I will keep it in mind.”

Commander Aries Arkham, a name that scared a lot of enemies, was actually a nice guy. However, Shi Lang was aware that the test was anything but nice. In front of his vision lay a big battlefield, and a few corpses were visible to him. With sparkling eyes and an overflowing battle spirit, Shi Lang moved the mech to enter the test battlefield.