Now that he had decided to go to the Iron-Blooded P.D. Universe, a Mobile Suit specializing in close combat was naturally indispensable.
Actually, the Mystic Lightning met the requirements, but Xia Yulan had already taken that Mobile Suit to the Star Palace Colony Satellite for a routine patrol. It didn't make much sense for Reid to build another one, so he might as well get a new Mobile Suit.
Therefore, Reid grabbed his little poison-tongued cutie, Miss Nein, and drafted her for labor.
Since the New Misurugi Kingdom's wired network had been restored, and the few doctors in the country were in the phase of researching GN Particles, they didn't need her help to collate technology and test its use.
So, Nein, Nami, Hoshino Ruri, Vivian, and Mayu formed a small team and played five-stack games online every day.
This Mayu was, of course, Shinn's real younger sister. Shinn's trajectory was quite similar to the original story; his academic abilities were average, and he could only get into a military academy in the end.
But after Mayu recovered from her injuries, she displayed an intelligence far superior to her brother's. Apart from her physical strength, which was standard, she could be considered outstanding in all other aspects.
It was as if when Shinn and Mayu, these two Second Generation Coordinators, inherited their parents' genes, there was only one perfect set of genes, which the two of them inherited separately.
(It's not possible to verify if Shinn is a First Generation Coordinator, but judging by their age, it's highly likely they are Second Generation Coordinators. Because when Kira, a First Generation Coordinator, was born, the general environment for Coordinators was already very poor. Two years later, news of attacks against Coordinators was everywhere on Earth. It's unlikely their parents would insist on having two First Generation Coordinator children at that time.)
In terms of physical fitness, her older brother Shinn was undoubtedly the strongest in the military academy, and he learned to operate Mobile Suits extremely quickly. When Reid was bored, he paid some attention to his learning progress. Shinn's theory classes were average, only at the level of an ordinary person, but in practical MS operation, he could already defeat his instructors. Noin had already taken notice of him and was preparing to cultivate him as a priority.
His younger sister Mayu was the exact opposite. Her learning ability was maxed out. She easily got into the best academy in the New Misurugi Kingdom, even receiving a full scholarship, and became Vivian's classmate.
Because Vivian had been arranged by Reid to study at the school and her foundation was very poor, the top student Mayu was naturally assigned the task of helping the one who was behind.
Fortunately, although the academic gap between the two was large, they got along very happily. And it was impossible for Shinn's actual little sister not to have a rebellious streak.
So, in their spare time, they both became obsessed with video games. Vivian also introduced Mayu to her other good friends, forming the five-stack team.
When these five played, even without cheating, they basically crushed their opponents in competitive games.
If they ran into cheaters, one could only say that cheating in front of Hoshino Ruri and Nein was asking for death. Their accounts would be banned before the game even ended.
As for those who liked to spew foul language, Nein alone could curse the other side into tears.
Especially after Nein returned from her advanced studies on Celestial Being's internet in the AD Universe, no one in the New Misurugi Kingdom could out-talk her.
However, Nein's happy five-stack and online poison-tongue time was interrupted by Reid.
Just like all children caught by their parents for being addicted to games.
After knocking and getting no response, Reid decisively barged into the young girl's boudoir. In any case, when Nein was first sent over, he had already seen everything there was to see. After all, you couldn't expect pajamas made for Ange's figure to cover up small buns.
Upon entering the room, Reid felt as if he was looking at his past self. With her headphones on, Nein seemed to have been cut off from the physical world. She was oblivious to all outside sounds, completely engrossed in her game.
So, with the mindset of "I've been rained on, so I'll tear down others' umbrellas," Reid walked right up to Nein, took off her headphones, and said, "Internet-addicted girl, time to work! Stop playing games!"
Disturbed like this, Nein's character, who was in the middle of a team fight, was instantly killed. Her anger immediately maxed out as she roared, "What are you doing! That was a team fight for a penta-kill!!!"
But Reid was being exceptionally unreasonable at this moment. He directly lifted Nein up with one hand, placed her aside, and then sat down in her original spot, saying, "It's fine, I'll keep playing the game for you. I definitely won't lose you any points. You go to the research lab and design a new Mobile Suit."
Nein was momentarily full of question marks, wondering if Reid was even human. He was making her go to work while he played her game for her?
After being stunned for a moment, Nein came to her senses. This was her room, her computer. How could Reid just barge in and act so self-righteously? She decisively began to protest physically, ensuring Reid couldn't play the game either.
In the end, they definitely lost that game. After all, at the rank Nein was playing at, it was impossible to win a four-on-five without cheating.
Therefore, Nein was still pouting when Reid took her to the research institute.
Fortunately, Reid had sought out Nein to build her new clothes (a Mobile Suit), so Nein's anger dissipated quickly.
However, after hearing Reid's requirements, she found them a bit strange and asked, "Reid, why are you making a pure melee Mobile Suit like this? Although such a Mobile Suit has excellent close-combat performance, it's not very practical. Space battles are basically beam exchanges. Are you planning to practice slicing through beams with a sword? Besides, if a Mobile Suit like this is built and runs into an opponent with Phase Shift Armor, wouldn't its combat power be instantly halved?"
Reid didn't hide the reason for building this Mobile Suit and said directly, "Reality isn't a novel. Slicing through beams is like dancing on the Reaper's blade. I'm not that stupid. There's only one reason for building this Mobile Suit: I'm about to go to a world where beam attacks are basically ineffective, and long-range physical attacks are also not very effective against powerful opponents. So, I can only specialize in a melee Mobile Suit with physical armaments."
With this explanation, Nein understood. She began to integrate existing technologies and design the Mobile Suit.
Since they already had an original GN Drive, Nein declared without hesitation that this Mobile Suit would use a GN Drive, just as new clothes needed new accessories.
Reid had no objection to this request. Although GN Drives were expensive, he could still afford seven or eight of them. Moreover, the Mobile Suit he needed this time would inevitably have a large number of physical blades, and things like Funnel Blades were a must.
This way, only by using a GN Drive could they ensure that the Funnel Blades could still be used in Earth's environment in the future. After all, it was impossible to build a new Mobile Suit for just one-time use.
Thus, after integrating a large number of requirements, Reid and Nein discussed for a full day before Nein synthesized the corresponding Mobile Suit blueprints.
Blade Angel Gundam. Its frame used the same design as the Epyon Gundam, which was fully specialized for close combat.
Its most distinctive weapon was the large solid-blade flight backpack on its back.
This arsenal backpack was shaped like the character "30". The storage containers on both sides of the backpack were composed of eight GN Funnel Blades and housed two GN Plasma High-Vibration Solid Long Blades.
These two long blades were a product of combining plasma blade and high-vibration blade technologies. When activated, the blades would be covered in high-density plasma, allowing them to have a very good armor-piercing effect even against Phase Shift Armor, so they wouldn't just create sparks upon impact.
High-vibration blades were also perfectly suited for dealing with Mobile Suits from the Iron-Blooded series, so there was no fear of being unable to deal damage.
At the same time, this backpack was independently equipped with an AC Universe miniature nuclear fusion reactor. It could be used as an ultra-powerful propulsion backpack to compensate for the GN Drive's lack of short-range burst speed.
Of course, this backpack also had the same ability as the Justice Gundam's auxiliary flight system, the Fatum-00, and could detach from the Mobile Suit as an independent armed unit to perform ramming attacks.
The Ramming Horn on the head of the flight backpack was specially reinforced. Even if all the Funnel Blades had been deployed, the wings still had decent cutting ability.
Unless the opponent had armor like Phase Shift Armor, which was physically immune as long as the voltage was sufficient, the Gundarium Alloy Ramming Horn from the AC Universe could easily smash through even warship-grade Laminated Armor.
As for the Mobile Suit's left and right arm guards, the right arm had a built-in Electric Entanglement Whip, which could give the opponent a stimulating round of electrotherapy; the left arm had a built-in High-Heat Whip, the same model as the Epyon Gundam's, which could make the opponent feel a heat as if they were ascending to heaven.
At the waist, Reid's favorite Beam Boomerangs were retained. Although they would definitely be useless in the Iron-Blooded universe, they could be used in other universes.
Reid also kept the interfaces for the Beam Rifle and Beam Saber. If this Mobile Suit were to face opponents that were all equipped with Phase Shift Armor, it could at least equip a Beam Rifle and Beam Saber, so it wouldn't be left without any means of long-range armor penetration.
In terms of internal systems, the Psycho-Frame, Psycommu Cockpit, and Lambda Driver were three things that would not be omitted.
As a melee Mobile Suit, Reid also installed the Electronic Camouflage System, which could assist the Mobile Suit in approaching its target.
Coupled with the Epyon Gundam's frame design, its limb flexibility was the greatest among all current Gundams.
However, there were trade-offs. This Mobile Suit couldn't use the CE Version Magun; the arm frame wouldn't be able to withstand the recoil and would shatter directly.
The Red Comet's three times speed also had to be used sparingly. After all, the frames of all current Mobile Suits couldn't quite withstand it. He would have to see if it could hold up after obtaining the frame technology from the Iron-Blooded universe. If it still couldn't, he would have to wait for a breakthrough in Psycho-Frame technology to the level of a full Psycho-Frame.
But these were all matters for the future. This Mobile Suit would definitely have no problem equipping ordinary Beam Rifles and Electromagnetic Rifles.
So, for his entry into the Iron-Blooded universe this time, Reid planned to bring the Hermes Zero's Electromagnetic Rifle.
Finally, the external armor. Was there even a need to think about it when going to the Iron-Blooded universe? Phase Shift Armor could call itself invincible armor in this world. The protagonist and antagonist were all equipped with physical armaments. As long as he didn't go looking for trouble with the Hashmal, this Mobile Suit would be invincible.
After the Mobile Suit's design was completed, Reid named it Blade Angel. This Mobile Suit had significant problems with its versatility, so Reid did not classify it as Mythical Class.
As long as the Factory Module had the blueprints, it quickly built the Mobile Suit.
Reid and Nein were both quite satisfied with its appearance. As per the old rules, they went underground to test the Mobile Suit.
Nein's technology integration ability was trustworthy. All the armaments could be used normally, and their power reached the expected parameters.
And he had to admit, GN Particles were indeed uniquely gifted in terms of anti-gravity. The handling feel of the Mobile Suit was not much different from being in space.
The psionic conduction was also very smooth. Combined with the CE Universe's Dragoon System, even aboriginals without an Awakening Value could pilot the Mobile Suit and operate the Funnels.
However, the problem of the Funnels being inflexible for people without an Awakening Value still hadn't been improved. They could only use their minds to control the general direction. As long as one familiarized themselves with the attack patterns, they were easy to dodge.
For Reid, if Nein was inside the Mobile Suit, the Funnel Blades could be completely handed over to her to control.
But now there was another problem. In PD Year 323, the Tekkadan Mars Breakout Campaign had a "single person, single unit" entry restriction.
Whether Nein could go in with Reid was a big question.
One had to know that Nein was drawn from the character pool, which proved that the system judged Nein to be a person.
But in reality, Nein was also the Mobile Suit's auxiliary system and could also be considered a super-intelligent AI.
Whether they could exploit this bug could only be determined by trying it out.
Reid had Nein transfer her main program to the Blade Angel, then sat in the cockpit with Reid, one in front of the other. He then selected PD Year 323, Tekkadan Mars Breakout Campaign, to travel.
This time, the system didn't report an error but started the travel sequence normally.
The next second, Reid saw a brownish-red planet appear in front of the Mobile Suit.
Actually, brownish-red wasn't quite appropriate. The Mars of the PD Universe had already completed its atmospheric modification, and humans could live directly exposed to the atmosphere without any support systems.
So, the Mars here had atmospheric cloud layers that the CE Universe's Mars lacked. And looking from space, it wasn't purely brownish-red; there were also specks of green dotting it.
Since the system didn't report an error, Reid thought that bringing Nein along had successfully exploited a bug. After activating the Electronic Camouflage System, he casually turned his head to look behind him and asked, "Nein, how do you feel?"
However, there was no one behind Reid at this moment.
Reid was stunned for a moment when he turned back, then could only smile wryly, thinking that the system's bugs were indeed not easy to exploit. It seemed Nein had been left behind in the CE Universe.
But this way, he didn't have to worry. From the CE Universe's perspective, his round trip would only take an instant. It was possible that Nein wouldn't even realize he had started the travel before he returned.
However, surprises always come with accidents.
Nein's voice suddenly came from the Mobile Suit's system speakers. "Losing my physical body feels very bad... This feeling of being restrained is so uncomfortable."
Hearing this, Reid was a little dumbfounded.
But the next second, Reid also realized what had happened and asked a little anxiously, "Nein? Have you turned back into the 99 System?"
Hearing this, even though she now had no body and he couldn't see her expression, Reid could feel the eye-roll in her words. "Reid, have you already reached the age of senile dementia? I was originally the 99 System. The body outside can't be considered my main body, okay? At most, it's an external terminal."
Hearing this, Reid thought, "What the hell is an external terminal?" What kind of external terminal eats, drinks, shits, and sleeps, and doesn't require the system to be mounted on a specific machine?
But Reid didn't want to argue with Nein about this. This child's existence couldn't be explained by science in the first place. No matter what he said, he would lose. (After Nein's advanced studies on Celestial Being's network, Reid couldn't win an argument against her anymore.)
So Reid went straight into work mode and said seriously, "Nein, check the surrounding space environment. This is my first time in the Martian Sphere, and the Mobile Suit doesn't have a star chart of this space zone recorded. Let's circle the planet for a bit, look for artificial satellites, and see if we can hack in to get some basic data."
After Reid finished speaking, Nein's virtual projection appeared behind him, and then she said, "Mobile Suit sensors are operating normally. Mars's magnetic field is weaker than Earth's. But the Mars here has been artificially modified, and the magnetic field is no longer localized and residual. However, the overall assessment shows no special impact on this unit."
(End of Chapter)