Dawn mist still clung to the Old District as Lin Ye gripped his faded admission letter, the Double Watch searing beneath his sleeve. The floating platform of the Federal Mecha Academy gleamed like cold-forged steel. When he stepped onto the station, a split-open silver suitcase was jammed in the escalator gears, scattering bronze cogs and copper wires across the pavement.
"Help—give me a hand!"
A girl with a high ponytail was half-submerged under the escalator, sleeves smeared with engine grease. Lin Ye crouched, grabbing the cracked suitcase. As they hauled it free, aged blueprints unfurled—Su Qing·Source Energy Drive v3.7 signed beside neural-web-like energy circuits.
"Thanks!" She wiped sweat, oil smudging her nose. "I'm Su Qing—nearly died on this damn escalator on enrollment day!" She snatched a bronze gear rolling toward Lin Ye's feet, her pupils contracting—its teeth were warped by impact, matching a critical converter component on her schematics.
Shadow swallowed the solar array sketch on her blueprint.
"Isn't this Su the Prodigy's scrap metal?"
Chen Yang's gold-plated boot crushed the blueprint corner. A flamethrower slid from his wrist guard. "The patent for Star Shield belongs to the Chens. Why bother with this trash?"
As flames licked the paper edge, Lin Ye's oil-stained hand clamped Chen Yang's wrist guard! Starlight patterns glowed beneath Lin Ye's sleeve—Chen Yang recoiled with a cry as overload current stabbed his bones!
"Looking to die?" Chen Yang's ion dagger hissed to life.
"Student Handbook Article 17." A voice like tempered steel cut through the crowd. A boy in a worn tactical vest gripped Chen Yang's elbow joint with hydraulic-precision. "Campus brawling equals expulsion." Chen Yang paled: "Lu Chen? But you declined the special admission..."
"Leave now," Lu Chen pointed at the floating security drone's red alert button, "or let the mechs drag you to confinement."
Chen Yang spat blood-flecked phlegm, his gaze raking over Lin Ye's hand beneath the escalator: "At the melee today... I'll crush your bones myself."
Room 302, Building B smelled of turpentine and metal polish. Lu Chen tweaked a model mech's knee spring with tweezers, a faint pink scar twitching on his left cheek. "The Falcon-III's transfer unit needs iridium-tungsten alloy. Chen Yang swapped it for bronze—he wanted your prototype to explode."
Lin Ye pulled a medical pod stabilizer from his luggage, replacing a charred part on Su Qing's blueprint: "Are you from a tactical family?"
"Lu's runs a mech repair shop." Lu Chen tossed the bronze gear. "At three, my dad built me a mini-mech from scrap." Suddenly he pointed outside—Chen Yang's hovercar blocked the girls' dorm, henchmen seizing Su Qing's belongings.
The door burst open! Su Qing dragged her torn suitcase in, tool kit clattering. "Chen Yang locked my dorm access!" She froze seeing Lu Chen assembling the model, eyes widening: "You're from Lu's Repair—that lunatic who built a champion mech from junk?"
Broadcasts drowned her words:
"All freshmen! Melee test advanced! Assemble at Training Ground 3 immediately!"