Chapter 150  : Courtesy Demands Reciprocity

The new mobile suit launch ceremony of Iron Blood.

Many media personnel were gathered at this celebration. The officials were determined to completely reset the production of “Iron Blood.”

?

The main reason was that the Level S Dream Seed that carried “Iron Blood” was the only Level S hard sci-fi Dream Seed the government had.

Hard sci-fi Dream Dungeons had natural advantages in cultivating group operations.

So, after almost six months since the major dream consciousnesses of Iron Blood hid from the official Dream Maker, the officials finally couldn’t bear it anymore. They decided to add in new dream consciousnesses as replacements, fully resetting the production of “Iron Blood.”

Not only the media but even famous Dream Makers and scholars around the world also came to this celebration.

Du Ming was one of the mobile suit designers of Iron Blood this time.

He was sitting in the front of the audience stand of the celebration, watching the mobile suits of the reset version of “Iron Blood” fly above the military training ground and conduct all kinds of combat demonstrations.

During this period of time, he even met an old friend, who sat directly next to him.

“Qi Qian… why did you sneak in here? Mr. Shuijing is finally willing to let you go?”

Du Ming put down the telescope in his hands and looked at the woman, who could be described as beautiful and gorgeous, sitting next to him.

“He let me out. I won’t be able to come up with any good ideas if I continue to stay there with my current condition… I’m also very frustrated. So, he let me out to gain some inspiration.”

Qi Qian greeted this friend wearing a white coat in front of her before supporting her chin gently with her hand as she looked at the mobile suits that were demonstrating target shooting on the military training ground far away.

“Inspiration. The adaption of the Three Kingdoms… seems to be even more difficult than the reconstruction of Iron Blood. As a result, Mr. Shuijing is recruiting talents from around the world.”

Du Ming let out an exclamation.

He was in awe of the major event that the whole country was promoting and paying attention to recently: the adaptation of the Level SS treasure of the country, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

In this world, the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” wasn’t corrupted like the Dynasties. There had been almost two thousand episodes written in the century of the world of Dynasties, but there were basically no changes at all. They still forced people to continue watching, even though it was as long and unpleasant as the foot bindings of an old lady.

The dream consciousness in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Mr. Shuijing, Sima Hui, was much more liberal. He recruited young people of noble aspirations around the world every twenty years to reconstruct the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” into a style that was suitable for that era.

It was that time again this year. Mr. Shuijing gathered many outstanding young Dream Makers from around the world and wanted to reconstruct the Dream Dungeon of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

However, Mr. Shuijing’s request this year restricted the performance of these… imaginative young Dream Makers.

One of them was Mr. Shuijing’s apprentice, Qi Qian.

“I finally get to come out, and you’re showing these scrap metals?”

Qi Qian supported her chin and looked at the mobile suits being displayed far away. These mobile suits were probably regular soldier mobile suits used for warming up the event.

She didn’t need to mock him, though. The booing from the audience stands everywhere was enough to prove how boring the show’s first half was.

“There must be a little bit of a build-up before the protagonist appears.”

Du Ming seemed to be very confident with the main mobile suit of the reset version of “Iron Blood” this time…

“A build-up…”

While Qi Qian was still pondering, the booing audience suddenly started cheering.

The cheers certainly weren’t for the appearance of the main mobile suit of the reset version of “Iron Blood,” but for a mobile suit that shouldn’t show up in this production.

The floor of the military training ground suddenly cracked, and a mobile suit slowly rose up.

“This is the Shadow Beast Hunting Robot from the Dream Dungeon, the ‘Army,’ of the United States? It’s even their main mobile suit, the ‘Warscar Hunter’…”

As a fan of mobile suits, Qi Qian recognized the model appeared on the training ground at first glance. It was definitely not a mobile suit from any force of “Iron Blood.”

Instead, it was the main mobile suit that came from another production, the most popular one among the robot war productions nowadays, the Army.

“We invited the Army over for a joint event. This is kind of a tactic for attracting publicity,” Du Ming said.

“So, have you made a mobile suit that can defeat him? If not, the rest version will become a joke again before it’s even released.”

Qi Qian had a bit of a headache out of frustration as she looked at the “Warscar Hunter” far away that had a totally different style.

Once the Warscar Hunter showed up, it displayed its suppressing power that far surpassed the original soldier mobile suits. It directly destroyed all the mobile suits on the training ground, turning them into scrap metals.

The cheers from the audience stands became even louder at this moment. The appearance of a mobile suit from another production made the audience feel like it was here to make trouble.

Perhaps for all the audiences here, nothing was more delightful than destroying “Iron Blood.”

Even though they used to be loyal fans of Iron Blood, and they were still loyal fans of Iron Blood right now, their love for Iron Blood had been distorted. It became a kind of supreme pleasure to watch Iron Blood suffer an all-rounded setback.

So, this reset press conference would probably turn into a laughingstock if the officials didn’t send out the mobile suit that could suppress the Warscar Hunter.

The most important thing was… Did the officials have one?

The Army was the greatest hit among robot war productions nowadays, and the Warscar Hunter was one of the most popular mobile suits.

Since it was the most popular, it meant that the Dream Maker of the mobile suit had a large number of resources to enhance its performance.

On the other hand, the dream consciousnesses of Iron Blood were hiding from their Dream Makers. So, where would the Dream Maker be able to get so many resources to build a mobile suit comparable to the Warscar Hunter?

“Just keep watching, and you’ll know. Our protagonist is about to show up.” Du Ming looked very confident.

At this moment, Qi Qian felt an extremely ominous aura appearing on the other side of the training ground.

The cheers of the audience also stopped. They all felt this aura that made them anxious.

A black and red mobile suit suddenly appeared at the end of the military training ground.

“Are you sure… that’s the main mobile suit?”

Qi Qian used the telescope to look at the mobile suit that was exuding an ominous aura. It didn’t seem like it was controlled by the protagonist who represented justice.

“Why not? The prototype with the code ‘Night Star’ has the strongest performance of all the mobile suits developed so far. Once overloaded, it has the possibility of losing control, but its combat power will increase by a few times. If I didn’t build this for the protagonist, who did I build it for? The villain?”

Du Ming complained about some laws of the designated mobile suit used by the protagonists in the robot war productions. Mobile suit works were rare among modern dream productions. Hence, the protagonist must start with extreme combat power.

The setting of the mobile suit made for the protagonist was either the only prototype built with the power of the whole country in the world, or it was dug out by archaeologists and couldn’t be recreated by technology at this stage. It must be unique and strong anyway.

Du Ming gave Qi Qian a record about “Night Star.”

Qi Qian got all the data about Night Star. A series of indicators that measured the combat power of the mobile suit, including the power output of the mobile suit, the protection capability of the armor, and the strongest damage radius, had all reached the top level of the world.

Iron Blood wasn’t the only “World No.1” production here.

Countries around the real world also had their own robot war productions, so a set of universal standards for measuring the strength of the mobile suits was established under the impetus from the fans of this genre.

The strength of a mobile suit didn’t depend on how powerful the Dream Maker set it but on the popularity of the mobile suit and the production.

The more fans liked a mobile suit and the production itself, the more resources the Dream Maker could mobilize to strengthen the mobile suit.

However, with the criticism of the discredited production Iron Blood, how could Du Ming mobilize so much energy to build this… mobile suit that had the strongest performance in the world theoretically?

“Ridicule, slander, hatred, curse, didn’t Iron Blood receive many of these comments recently?”

Du Ming listed these four review attitudes that no writer, screenwriter, cartoonist, or those who worked in industries related to Dream Makers, such as movies, drama series, and animations, wanted to hear from the audiences.

And these were the materials used for building “Night Star.”

“Night Star has turned these into its own energy. It’s time to show the world its combat strength!”

Du Ming was getting passionate with every passing second. He had a bit of the feeling of a mad scientist.

Night Star didn’t let him down either. Following a terrifying shout, it directly jumped up and dashed to the Warscar Hunter far away.

“Hey… Is this the main mobile suit of the reset version? Are you sure it’s not a Shadow Beast?”

The pilot of the Warscar Hunter was also startled, but his reaction was swift. Night Star’s way of fighting was full of fury and madness, living up to its black and red paint.

Night Star and the Warscar Hunter were engaged in a hand-to-hand on the military training ground, putting on a battle scene where steel clashed against steel and created sparks everywhere, for almost five minutes.

Night Star finally won this hardcore duel of iron and iron with its fury…

Night Star pressed the Warscar Hunter down on the ground with its sharp claws in front of the audience, then tore its opponent’s arm off. It announced its victory with a raging roar.

Seeing how violent Night Star was, the audience went silent…

“You really did it.” Qi Qian whispered to Du Ming, “Aren’t you worried that the Order of Karma would take revenge on you?”

“Revenge? What revenge? The Order of Karma belongs to the past!”

A voice suddenly came from the mobile suit of Night Star. It seemed to be the pilot and also the protagonist of the reset version. “They can only hide in the corner of the universe like rats. From now on, I, Lord Cod, will be the only protagonist of the world!”

“An enthusiastic male protagonist?” Qi Qian said to Du Ming, who was smiling wryly next to her. It seemed that he didn’t know what to do with this new male protagonist either.

However, the spectators in the stands cheered because of this declaration.

“Looks like the people quite like this enthusiastic, arrogant personality.” As soon as Qi Qian finished talking, the alarm of the military training ground suddenly started blaring.

“An unknown mobile suit is approaching? The live broadcast is being hijacked… The first episode of the reset version of ‘Iron Blood’ has already begun? What’s going on?”

Du Ming received news from the monitoring team at once. At the same time, he also took out his tablet and started checking out “Iron Blood: Reset Version” on the live broadcast website.

Originally, the title of “Mobile Suit Launch Press Conference” was used as the headline, but it instantly changed to the first episode of “Iron Blood: Reset Version.”

This made the millions of fans watching the live broadcast a bit confused. According to the trailer on the official website, the first episode wasn’t coming out until a week later.

While Du Ming was still wondering, the shot of the live broadcast was suddenly switched to the cockpit of a mobile suit. Although the face of the pilot couldn’t be seen, all the audience could hear what he said, “240082, EXIA found the target location. The spread of GN particles will be completed when we reach the target. Confirm target. The first stage of the plan begins.”

The name of the mobile suit was EXIA? Confirm target? Was Night Star… Was Night Star being preyed on by this unknown mobile suit?

“An attack from an unknown mobile suit? Is this a scene you arranged?” Qi Qian’s first reaction was to think that this was a show put up by the officials.

“It’s the mobile suits exhibition today! How would the reset plot start at this time?” Du Ming said.

“Is it the Order of Karma?” Qi Qian knew the Order of Karma would never sit there and wait to be reset.

“Do you think that mobile suit looks like one from the Order of Karma?”

Du Ming threw a telescope to Qi Qian. Meanwhile, that blue and white mobile suit in the sky had already landed in front of Night Star.

“A mobile suit without a source of power? Anti-gravity… and those light particles.”

Qi Qian picked up the telescope Du Ming gave her and started looking at the details of that mobile suit. Finally, she found the code name of the mobile suit…

“Gun… dam?”

“Gundam? Which production is this mobile suit from?”

“I don’t know either, but this mobile suit gives me a very strange feeling. Ask the pilot of Night Star to retreat!” Qi Qian quickly made a judgment on the current situation.

“It’s already too late for that, but the viewers seem to like this development very much.”

Du Ming looked at the large number of real-time comments in the live broadcast. There were constant comments like, “The development of the first episode is unimaginable and surprising?”

As the first male protagonist of “Iron Blood: Reset Version,” Cod certainly couldn’t bear to see this scene.

“Even though I don’t know which production you came from, you must learn to obey me when you step foot in my territory!”

Night Star immediately moved following his shout, but the live broadcast was showing the shot of the Gundam Meister of EXIA.

Facing the shout from the other party, the Gundam Meister said indifferently, “EXIA… Get rid of the target.”

Night Star also let out a terrifying roar and pounced on the blue and white mobile suit, EXIA.

EXIA’s compound gun sword was switched to sword mode. It directly cut the arm of Night Star off with a slash at a speed that was so fast that it didn’t seem to be in the same dimension as Night Star.

The second slash cut off both legs of Night Star.

The sudden change shocked the audience to silence.

“How is that… possible?” Du Ming looked at the agile movements of EXIA and how it defeated Night Star in a blink in shock.

“Your surprised look has already been included in the first episode.” Qi Qian reminded Du Ming that thousands of robot war fans in front of their televisions had seen him forgetting himself.

“Huh?” Du Ming froze for a second and immediately looked at the tablet in his hands.

EXIA, which defeated Night Star in a heartbeat, didn’t continue to fight anymore. It flew into the air after dealing with Night Star.

“The audiences quite like this development. Hey, apart from Night Star, you should also have built a second mobile suit, right? Can it break through the atmosphere?” Qi Qian looked at EXIA, which was already fighting with the garrison here, in the sky and said.

“Yes, but you aren’t thinking about fighting with that Gundam, are you?”

“I’m not that stupid! I just want to see who the Dream Maker behind that Gundam is,” Qi Qian said.

Du Ming and his friend gazed at each other and looked at the series of explosions in the sky again, making a decision very quickly.

“Follow me.”

Although the second mobile suit Du Ming gave Qi Qian had a weaker mechanism than Night Star, it could still break through the atmosphere by itself…

When Du Ming led Qi Qian onto the second mobile suit, an announcement, almost like a criminal declaration, came on the screen of the live broadcast.

“We’re here to tell everyone that we’re the Celestial Being, a private armed organization that holds the mobile suit, Gundam. Our purpose… is to eradicate the wars in this world. From now on, we’ll intervene in all forms of wars in countries by force until there’s no war.”

Although Qi Qian didn’t look at the screen of the live broadcast, she could already feel the enthusiasm in the declaration by just listening to it.

“Eradicating disputes with disputes. I want to meet the Dream Maker of this development even more! It’s contradictory yet extremely reasonable. It’s enough to satisfy the enthusiastic part in the heart of every robot war fan! I can already come up with countless amazing scenes with this story core.”

“Qi Qian, are you sure you want to go to space?” Du Ming was also pulled into the cockpit by his old friend. Qi Qian had already turned on this second mobile suit.

“The Order of Karma is hiding in space. That Dream Maker must be with the Order of Karma! Or the now Celestial Being! Even if your mobile suit can’t break through the atmosphere, I can make it possible!”

Qi Qian pressed the start button, and power that went beyond the initial design burst out as her Creation Points were infused into the mobile suit.

“Fly! Venus!” After Qi Qian powered it up, this mobile suit immediately rushed out of the cabin and flew towards space.

…

“The first stage of the plan is completed. How are you feeling?”

Qiu Ren looked at Earth far away through the glass. This was his first time watching Earth from space. Even though he was in a Dream Dungeon, it was still astonishing.

“Very good. This is the first episode that made the audiences thrilled… in so many years. Dream Maker, I’m very excited…”

Before the Head of the Order of Karma, Garo, finished talking, the alarm on the entire battleship suddenly rang.

“Chief! An unknown mobile suit is approaching!”

“Where? Ask the others to prepare to fight.”

“It’s already too late! The speed of the enemy… is too fast!”

The entire battleship shook violently at this moment, as if it was hit by a meteorite.

After shaking, a tearing sound came from the gate of the warehouse where Qiu Ren was standing. Something was tearing the metal around the battleship apart.

“Careful!”

Garo’s first reaction was to send someone to protect Qiu Ren. Asakawa Hana also stood in front of him subconsciously.

When the gate of the warehouse was completely torn, nothing inside was sucked into space. Someone had changed the rules of the Dream Dungeon.

The one that tore the gate of the warehouse apart was the second mobile suit, which “Iron Blood: Reset Version” was promoting.

The enemy found the headquarters so quickly?

Qiu Ren froze for a while as he watched the door of the cockpit of the second mobile suit open. A male in a researcher outfit with his face covered and a woman glancing around in excitement jumped off the cockpit.

In the end, that woman’s gaze landed on Qiu Ren behind Asakawa Hana.

“Are you the Dream Maker who created EXIA and the Celestial Being?” She looked at Qiu Ren.