The middle-aged woman didn't really like talking about this person, perhaps due to some strange maternal possessiveness; her daughter worshipped another woman wholeheartedly, which made her inexplicably sulky.
She changed the topic, smiled, and said, "You're a young girl too. What major did you enroll in?"
"Agricultural Science." Su Xiaocai's eyes sparkled.
Liu Xun thought Su Xiaocai would be in the Command Department or some kind of navigation plotting. "Military Training School has Agricultural Science? Isn't it all related to military engineering?"
"Soldiers need to eat too." Su Xiaocai was keen on this. "I'm just a farm girl who loves planting veggies."
The middle-aged woman felt that Su Xiaocai was quite good like this, down-to-earth, with her own ideals, not following the crowd to become a Mecha Master.
Being a Mecha Master also requires talent; it's not guaranteed you can join battles just by sitting in the cockpit. Many people still do ordinary jobs after graduating from the academy.
However, having a diploma from Military Training University makes it much easier to find a job later on.
"I used to study Mecha maintenance, yet now I'm doing warehouse management," the middle-aged woman sighed, "the uncertainty of life."
Su Xiaocai suddenly felt a chill on her back and sneezed lightly.
The uncertainty of life, could she have caught a cold?
Twenty-four hours later, the shuttle arrived, and Su Xiaocai exchanged contact information with the middle-aged woman, also followed each other on social media.
Su Xiaocai generously gave her a bag of fruit, improved peaches she developed.
"It's sweet and crispy. If you need more, you can place an order on my social platform. I pick them fresh after an order, guaranteed freshness."
The middle-aged woman glanced at the fruit in the bag, secretly thinking Su Xiaocai was generous. Crystal peaches sell for over thirty yuan per pound in the market.
She wondered how much they sell for on her platform.
Of course, Su Xiaocai knew the market price, so she didn't disrupt the pricing, selling them for thirty yuan per pound, with free shipping for orders over three pounds.
Her account had been managed for quite a while, with almost ten thousand followers, ranking at the bottom among many sellers.
She hadn't done much to attract traffic, making it hard to stand out. But with more people, managing them became challenging.
Liu Xun also received fruit as a meeting gift. "How can I accept this? I have no gift to give you in return."
"Between friends, no need to fuss over these things. Just tell me whether you like them or not. If you don't, I won't give them to you."
"I like them, thank you." Liu Xun quickly accepted them, planning to help her with luggage. "Where's your luggage?"
"Here." Su Xiaocai took out one of the Space Buttons hanging from her necklace.
Liu Xun became excited, "Which model is your Mecha?"
Su Xiaocai: "There's no model."
"What do you mean?"
"I use it to store luggage."
Liu Xun was incredulous, "That's lavish."
"If I could afford a Mecha, do you think I'd use it for luggage? You also know I have a fruit and vegetable business, so many local specialties at home—without this, I can't carry them."
Makes sense, suddenly it felt like the million-yuan Space Button wasn't expensive anymore. Bull, it's still very pricey.
Liu Xun would never know, the Space Button was made by Su Xiaocai buying materials, and the equipment was her creation—the cost didn't exceed a hundred thousand, with the equipment, making another Space Button only costs around ten thousand.
A million to buy one Space Button? She'd be crazy to buy from outside.
Arriving at school, they both completed check-in formalities. The dormitory had both two-person and four-person rooms. Two-person rooms were smaller, just a standard single room with a bathroom.
Four-person dormitories were like large suites, with a living room, kitchen, and four bedrooms, equivalent to one room per person, allowing classmates to bond but also not interfere with each other.
Su Xiaocai naturally chose the four-person room; her precious Xiao Wanzi was a versatile housekeeper, unable to function without a kitchen.
Saying goodbye to Liu Xun, Su Xiaocai headed to the dormitory allocated by the dorm supervisor.
Freshmen had already entered school, and in the four-person room, the other three were also present.
However, they came from different departments: Command Department, Mecha Design Department, and Mecha Department.
The three had distinct personalities, but all left a good impression on the first encounter.
The Command Department's Xing Miao was a sexy beauty, tall with long legs, with naturally curly hair adding mature charm. She was the eldest at eighteen, and everyone voted her as dorm leader.
The dorm leader position thus fell on her.
Feng Wansha, a sixteen-year-old genius girl, who had previously won a Mecha design contest in a Star Zone, was specially recruited into Military Training.
Wu Qingqing from the Mecha Department was carefree, with neat short hair, indicating a good family background, wearing comfortable low-key branded clothes, and with a Space Button, her luggage was worth several thousand yuan.
After getting to know each other, Su Xiaocai pointed at herself and said, "Do I look like the odd one out in a game of Spot the Difference."
"Hahaha, now that you mention it, you kind of do." Wu Qingqing hooked her arm around her neck, "Su Xiaocai, are you really fifteen? Isn't that kinda short?"
In a room full of sisters over 1.7 meters tall, she was just 1.6 meters, Su Xiaocai said sadly, "I'm just a late bloomer. I'll be sixteen in about a month, so I'm only fifteen by technicality."
Between her father, she acted grown-up, but with her roommates, she played the child, cleverly switching personas.
"Yes, yes, you're still young, you can grow taller," Xing Miao comforted her.
Wu Qingqing said, "It's still early. Should we go try the school's Mecha simulation pod? I heard the Mecha simulation pods are open for freshmen to play for free. Once school officially starts and it's crowded, we won't be able to try them."
Xing Miao and Feng Wansha were both very interested, while Su Xiaocai, wanting to fit in more, casually agreed.
The military training campus was huge, it took them twenty minutes by car to get to the Mecha simulation pod venue. The four exchanged conversations on the ride, talking about their experiences and past friendships.
"What about you? Why aren't you saying anything." Xing Miao attended to the youngest in the dormitory, Su Xiaocai.
Su Xiaocai said, "I've never been to school, never left my hometown, mostly self-taught online. I love hearing you all chat, please do share more."
Xing Miao was momentarily at a loss for words.
She affectionately patted Su Xiaocai on the head, "In the future, when us big sisters go out to play, we'll bring you along so you can join in the conversation."
Su Xiaocai's eyebrows curved happily, "Alright, thank you, sister."
Pretending to be young was an easy skill for Su Xiaocai; her chubby cheeks exuded an innocent authenticity without any acting required.
While the two big sisters reveled in the idea of bringing their 'little sister' to see the world, Feng Wansha adjusted her glasses calmly and said, "She got into Military Training as a self-taught student, which means her intelligence might be higher than ours. Maybe you should worry about your own brains more."
Roommates: "..."
Su Xiaocai did not acknowledge, "Ahem, does Qingqing often operate mechas at home? Later, I want to sit in your co-pilot seat and watch how you do it."
The topic was easily shifted—what students cared most about was mechas, after all, being a Mecha Master was genuinely cool.
It's like how even people who don't understand racing think race car drivers are amazing.
Especially in an era where everyone loved playing with mechas, many online games were related to mechas, and teenagers practically had zero resistance to them.
The school year hadn't started yet, so of course, it was time to get familiar with the campus environment and have fun to the fullest.
At the site of the mecha simulation pods, there were already many freshmen playing.
Su Xiaocai silently admired Military Training for being truly well-funded, as it even provided substantial scholarships to the Agricultural Research Institute, which was one of the major reasons Su Xiaocai enrolled at Military Training.
The facility had plenty of pods, and there were still available spots.
They each found a pod, registered an account, and logged in.
Su Xiaocai didn't open her own pod but sat in the co-pilot seat next to Wu Qingqing.
Wu Qingqing couldn't wait to close the pod door, and the simulation began.
Wu Qingqing chose a target practice map, and both Xing Miao and Feng Wansha joined her team to enter the game.
"I've recently learned the aerial circular point shooting from Senior Xue Huiyi. My shooting accuracy isn't as high as hers, but I've mastered the movement," she said.
Su Xiaocai: "..."
On the ground, Xing Miao and Feng Wansha were still struggling to learn, while Wu Qingqing soared gracefully into the sky. Although there was some stuttering in her movements, she successfully completed a set of actions.
They looked up with envy at Wu Qingqing's cool maneuvers in the sky, and Xing Miao said, "If I had known, I would have connected to Wu Qingqing's co-pilot seat."
Only Su Xiaocai focused on Wu Qingqing's operation, noticing a lot of unnecessary small movements that caused the stutters and disrupted the flow.
"Qingqing, try not to step on the energy pedal too hard; instead, adjust the mecha's counterforce…" she suggested.
Wu Qingqing didn't quite understand but attempted Su Xiaocai's suggestion, "Huh? It's indeed much smoother."
"Caicai, do you know how to operate a mecha?" Wu Qingqing asked with a meaningful smile.
Su Xiaocai nodded; some things, the more you hide, the easier they lead to misunderstandings, "Yes, I drive the mechas my dad makes at home to harvest fruits."
Oh wow, so it turns out her roommate's family has a master in the house.
If the dad can build mechas, it's almost inevitable that the daughter will know how to drive them.
"Next, you operate. Hit the moving targets; I want to watch your operation. Don't worry, even if you miss, I won't laugh at you," said Wu Qingqing, her heart open and generous, appreciating Su Xiaocai's frankness.
Su Xiaocai: "Sure, if you want to learn, I can teach you."
Wu Qingqing was puzzled.
Su Xiaocai switched to the driver's seat, quickly fastening the safety devices.
Five moving targets started to rise into the air.
The mecha held guns in both hands, and before the targets went out of the shooting range, all were taken down instantaneously, five shots for five hits, nearly all at the same time.
Five moving targets were just the beginning of the highest difficulty targets.
Wu Qingqing's eyes sparkled. With such small targets, Su Xiaocai didn't even make a aiming motion. How did she do it?
After hitting five targets, the interface prompted whether to proceed to the next stage.
Of course, Wu Qingqing selected yes.
The "yes" button disappeared, and "real" enemies began to appear around them.
Aliens—they also existed in this world, with the invasion becoming increasingly severe, although not as bad as in the previous quarter-century.
They had black shells, walked upright, but looked like insects, capable of flying and evading. Newbies facing them had no chance of survival.
The moment the aliens appeared, Su Xiaocai turned serious, her jawline sharp and tense.
The mecha glided smoothly through the forest, drawing the nuclear-magnetic knife from its back, striking at close range to kill.
The interface displayed "1 kill."
One down.
The simulation pod then produced two more aliens, approaching from the sides, one climbing a tree, the other from behind.
Su Xiaocai wielded a nuclear-magnetic knife in one hand, a gun in the other, actively launching her counterattack.
She advanced briskly through the air, taking less than five seconds.
The interface announced "2 kills."
The difficulty increased, with four aliens materializing.
Su Xiaocai leaped to dodge, maintained her speed, and swiftly achieved a 4-kill streak.
Throughout the battle, she remained eerily calm, reaching the pinnacle of composure, until the alien count reached 60, marking the mecha's limit, too.