Reid had no idea what Lacus was thinking. After leaving her room, he quite heartlessly took a shower and went straight to sleep.
Early the next morning, Reid simply greeted everyone and immediately piloted the Gundam Eclipse back to the New Misurugi Kingdom.
The return journey went smoothly. The destruction of the Archangel was a major blow to the Atlantic Federation in South America, as they had lost several more of their already scarce elite forces.
Upon returning to the New Misurugi Kingdom, Reid promptly received news that the Atlantic Federation had begun withdrawing their frontline forces in South America and was actively advancing related negotiations.
However, the negotiations between the Atlantic Federation and the South American independence organizations were none of Reid's concern. After checking on Athrun to confirm he was fine and could move around with Ashley Oliveira's assistance, Reid informed him that Lacus and the others in South America were safe and left him to his own devices.
As for when Lacus and the others would return, Reid wasn't sure. After all, if Lacus wanted to cause trouble for the South American representative of the Junk Guild Association, Reid wouldn't stop her.
That said, if they ran into trouble again, Reid wouldn't make another trip to bail them out—he wasn't their babysitter.
Moreover, Reid had pressing matters to attend to upon his return. After deliberating for several days, Nein had selected the three blueprints Reid had initially reviewed and asked him to choose one.
This was within Reid's expectations. Nein had placed these three design proposals at the top from the start, indicating that, subconsciously, she was most satisfied with these designs.
This time, Reid wouldn't reject Nein's designs. After much consideration, he chose the design that resembled the AGE Gundam.
The reasoning was simple: While the Lipps-Dra design appeared to have powerful armaments, its weapons were better suited for assaulting fortified positions. Without functional hands, if the Mobile Suit was engaged in close combat by a melee-specialized unit, it would have almost no effective means of counterattack.
For someone as cautious as Reid, such an obvious weakness was unacceptable.
As for the Gemini-O, Reid felt that, having piloted numerous high-speed, high-mobility Mobile Suits, he would struggle to adapt to a stationary, artillery-focused role.
However, this design could be kept as a backup. Once GN Drive technology was acquired and the Starlight Transmitter from the CE Universe became available, the Mobile Suit's lack of speed would no longer be an issue. At most, its large size would make it less suitable for combat in confined spaces.
Of course, although Reid chose the third design, it didn't mean the Mobile Suit would be built exactly according to Nein's plans. Reid believed modifications were necessary.
For instance, the I-shaped Magnetic Funnel Shield System on both shoulders could be replaced with the Field Shield from the Brave Gundam. While it might not withstand a Destroyer Beam Cannon, it offered decent close-combat defense and was less likely to be penetrated by high-energy lasers.
Most importantly, the Field Shield could provide protection to allies and be used to capture enemy Mobile Suits, making it far more versatile than the Magnetic Funnel Shield System.
After all, the Mobile Suit designed by Nein had decent mobility and transformation capabilities, so it didn't need to stand still and endure enemy attacks.
Nein didn't dwell on this reasonable modification proposal and even proactively added adjustments. After converting to a defensive shield, the two I-shaped structures no longer needed magnetic components. The freed space allowed the funnel structures to be transformed into physical funnel blades, further enhancing area attack capabilities.
However, with this configuration, at maximum capacity, this mobile suit could deploy twenty small funnels, two heavy ion funnels, and four physical funnel blades—a total of twenty-six remote weapon units.
Consequently, this mobile suit must be equipped with the Dragoon System to allow computer-assisted control of the funnels. Otherwise, Reid admitted that even if he stood still to control them, he wouldn't be able to manage so many funnels simultaneously.
Of course, situations requiring full funnel deployment were rare. Normal funnel usage inherently required rotational deployment to allow for recharging time.
With the design finalized, Reid immediately manufactured the mobile suit through the Factory Module.
He then secretly transported it to space for testing—there was no other way. In atmospheric conditions, he could only emulate Haman by using the Lambda Driver to control a limited number of small funnels at close range, making it impossible to test the mobile suit's true capabilities.
Fortunately, in the vacuum of space, this mobile suit proved exceptionally powerful. After Nein integrated her 99 System into the mobile suit, Reid found the difficulty of piloting it significantly reduced.
Moreover, most crucially, with Nein's assistance, high-mobility combat in complex environments became feasible.
Simply put, Reid's piloting skills, previously rated as Ace-level, might now approach Master-tier with Nein's support.
Additionally, while piloting the mobile suit, Nein could utilize the Lambda Driver. Although her Lambda Driver output wasn't particularly strong, it was sufficient to allow Reid limited atmospheric deployment of the heavy ion funnels and physical funnel blades—weapons that normally couldn't operate outside the mobile suit in such conditions.
However, after testing the mobile suit, Reid once again lamented that this wasn't its complete form. It required the anti-gravity properties of GN Particles to achieve its full potential.
After all, no matter how miniaturized the Minovsky Flight System became, it couldn't be installed on the funnels.
Furthermore, if they replaced it with a GN Drive, the Minovsky Flight System could be entirely removed, freeing up space for other systems or additional armaments.
As for naming the mobile suit, Reid certainly wouldn't use a designation like "Gundam AGE-2 Magnum SV Custom."
Considering this mobile suit served as one of Nein's "bodies," Reid directly named it the Gundam Artemis, creating a mythological counterpart to the Hermes Zero among their mobile suits.
With a new mobile suit acquired, naturally it was time for combat deployment (showing off). The CE Universe was out of the question—he currently had no reason to fight anyone there.
As for the PD Universe (Mobile Suits from Iron-Blooded Orphans) and UC 0088 during the AEUG and Neo Zeon Earth atmospheric entry operations:
The former wasn't suitable for the Gundam Artemis's armament configuration. He'd definitely need to build a specialized mobile suit focused primarily on ballistic weapons and close combat for that world.
The latter involved fleet battles where Ange would inevitably participate. Then she and Haman would definitely clash like Mars colliding with Earth, likely reducing him to ashes if caught between them.
Therefore, the only available world was the AD Universe. Coincidentally, the upcoming battle would occur near geostationary orbit, where the Gundam Artemis could operate at full capacity.
Thus Reid once again began assembling the fleet, bringing along two Neutron Jammers to show the AD Universe what large-scale electromagnetic interference truly meant.
However, when the assessment mission was selected and the teleportation ended, Reid had only one thought: "Is the system bugged? Where on earth did it send me?"
According to the mission prompt, the next event node was Celestial Being's [Top-Tier Armed Forces] Gundam capture operation, which would inevitably take place in space.
Yet the system had directly teleported the Gran Chaos into a mountainous area, and it was nighttime at that.
Hoshino Ruri immediately hacked into the local network and reported, "This is the Hamersley Range."
Reid was momentarily stunned. The Hamersley Range in Australia? Was there supposed to be a battle here in the original storyline? And it wasn't far from Star Palace City in the CE Universe. Did the system just perform a "one-centimeter" teleportation on him?
Regardless, Reid decided to check the system first to figure out what was going on. He had brought along the large rockets needed for the Gran Chaos to ascend into space, but he trusted that the system wouldn't act without reason.
Sure enough, as soon as he accessed the system, a red warning popped up:
"Additional distortion node detected in the mission world. Please resolve this distortion node and wait until the mission start time."
Reid was baffled by this message. What did "additional distortion node" mean? Were these interdimensional invasions now launching surprise attacks?
Since the system had issued a warning, Reid had no choice but to investigate the so-called distortion node. He also instructed Hoshino Ruri to check for any notable news on the network.
Hoshino Ruri worked quickly and replied within minutes:
"Report: The headlines across the network are mostly about us.
As planned, the space-time distortion model of the Bose particle space jump has been theoretically confirmed by numerous scientists. Laboratories worldwide are conducting research on it.
However, the energy required is too immense to supply, and material strength limitations prevent even the most basic experiments from being conducted.
Of course, I couldn't find any data on the Innovators. They might have already begun related experiments. According to calculations, if there were tens of thousands of GN-T Drives releasing GN Particles at high intensity for an hour, it might generate enough energy for a single experiment."
Reid remarked that Hoshino Ruri was still not very good at telling jokes.
Yes, that entire explanation was Hoshino Ruri's idea of a joke. While tens of thousands of GN-T Drives might theoretically exist, compressing their particle density to match that of a true GN Drive would be astronomically expensive.
Moreover, even if tens of thousands of GN-T Drives were operating at full capacity, the energy lines and batteries in the AD Universe likely couldn't sustain such output for an hour.
And that was just for one experiment. Even if all the solar power generation capacity on Earth were combined, it would probably take three to five years to store that much energy.
So Reid skipped over this topic and continued asking, "Aside from these research-related experiments, is there any other news?"
Hoshino Ruri delved back into the network for a search and then said, "Yes. Random terrorist attacks have occurred worldwide, demanding that we come forward and explain the situation regarding the otherworld.
Additionally, religious organizations across the globe have gathered their followers to protest in the streets, accusing us of insulting their deities."
Upon hearing this, Reid roughly understood the current timeline—this should be the period when terrorists in the original storyline used random attacks to force the Innovators into the open.
The only difference was that this time, the terrorists had set their sights on him.
However, Reid didn't think this alone would draw the system's attention. No matter who the terrorists threatened, the Innovators would intervene with force under the pretext of halting conflict. Structurally, this was no different from the original plot.
This was also why Reid's manipulation of the World Change Fluctuation Value had barely increased.
Thus, Reid could only conclude that another world had temporarily intersected with this timeline, causing him to be sent here ahead of schedule.
He then turned to Hoshino Ruri and asked:
"Ruri, check if there are any terrorist bases nearby or if any terrorist activities are underway."
Reid had Ruri investigate mainly to see if the terrorists were connected to any networks. If there were unauthorized network signals in these mountains, it would indicate either a hidden base or a nearby camp.
But Ruri responded instantly:
"Unable to query. Severe network interference was detected six seconds ago. The Gran Chaos's cameras have identified the source—it's the Gundam Virtue."
As soon as Ruri finished speaking, the image of the Gundam Virtue slowly rising from the mountains was displayed on the bridge's screen. It had clearly been lying in wait for some time.
Seeing this, Reid immediately commanded:
"All hands, assume second combat readiness. Ignore the Gundam Virtue's movements for now. Once the dimensional distortion appears, Mobile Suits will launch immediately."
With that, Reid headed to the Gundam Artemis to standby.
Of course, even while on standby, Reid continued monitoring the Gundam Virtue's actions closely.
At this moment, intelligence agencies worldwide were assisting the Innovators, as the terrorist group known as Eden Lai was carrying out indiscriminate, untargeted attacks.
Forcing the hidden organization out of the shadows seemed unlikely—they had openly stated that the outside world held no relevance to them. They were not the Innovators, and given the current situation, the only thing that might prompt their intervention was another occurrence of Otherworld Entanglement.
Moreover, despite having Tim Ray's appearance, global intelligence networks had found no trace of him. This led governments to believe that this mysterious organization might indeed have existed behind the scenes for a long time and deeply distrusted governmental forces.
Once activated, the Gundam Virtue took off directly toward the northwest.
Seeing this, Reid immediately ordered:
"Ruri, follow it and predict the Gundam Virtue's target."
Hearing this, Ruri promptly set the Gran Chaos on a distant pursuit course.
After about fifteen minutes of flight, Ruri reported:
"The Gundam Virtue has entered the Pacific. Predicted target: the Marshall Islands."
Hearing this, Reid remarked with a hint of envy:
"Seriously, the anti-gravity properties of GN Particles are just too convenient. Even a sluggish unit like the Gundam Virtue can reach the Pacific from the Hamersley Range in just 15 minutes through sustained acceleration."
Elvira Hill, who had accompanied them once again, chimed in:
"GN Particles have more than just anti-gravity advantages. While they may fall short of Minovsky Particles in terms of particle lethality and acceleration, their relative stability makes them applicable in far more scenarios than Minovsky Particles."
Reid listened to Elvira Hill's words without offering any comment.
As for whether GN Particles or Minovsky Particles were superior - back in his original world, this debate would have required UC fans and 00 fans to physically fight it out online to reach a conclusion.
Frankly speaking, in terms of versatility, GN Particles were clearly superior with their ability to quantize Mobile Suits and even enable spatial teleportation.
But Elvira Hill was correct - in terms of destructive power per unit, GN Particles definitely couldn't compare to Minovsky Particles.
Moreover, Minovsky Particles also had that completely unscientific crystalline state that could trigger miracles and even affect time.
When comparing them this way, both sides had valid arguments about which particle was stronger.
Just as Reid was about to change the subject and discuss something else, the system suddenly issued a warning:
"Warning: World Change Fluctuation Value has increased, now at 43.012%!!"
(End of Chapter)