In the days that followed, Jill Young kept to herself, darting around busily and leaving everyone puzzled. In reality, Jill was pouring all her energy into training. With the Meat Pill and that blockhead’s Advanced Internal Martial Arts, she was confident she could level up in a short time.
Besides steadily leveling up her Titan Spirit Method, there was something even more important—figuring out External Martial Arts.
See yourself, see the world, see all living things. No one knows if Old Tang came up with these three lines out of inspiration or just said them randomly. It’s totally possible that this shady, heartless oil dealer was just making stuff up, but Jill decided to trust him anyway.
She decided to visit places she liked.
Compared to the closed-off underground base, Jill preferred the outdoors. Since she’d finished all her training tasks, she was totally free. She shook off everyone’s attention, even ditched that blockhead, and often went out alone. After a brief chat, the blockhead would flatly say he could guarantee his own safety. His deadpan voice sounded unreliable, but so far, every word he’s said has turned out true.
So Jill felt perfectly at ease going off on her own.
She strolled through the jungle on a deserted island, where there were lots of brown bears. Jill would bare her teeth, and the bears would shake their big butts and run away. If Jill burst out laughing, they’d weirdly drop their guard and just sit around watching her, dumb and curious.
She also swam freely in the ocean, slicing through the waves with her own strength. In places no ordinary person could reach, Jill dove deep into the sea, experiencing both its calm and its wild surges beneath the pitch-black surface.
She’d practice boxing at sunrise and nap lazily at sunset. Sometimes she’d wrestle with fish underwater—and as a result, her friends’ menus got a lot more seafood.
If you asked her if there was some secret to all this, she’d just shake her head. If you could master External Martial Arts just by looking at the ocean, then it’d be way too cheap. For her, it was all just play. She started out wanting to understand External Martial Arts, but the more she played, the more it became pure fun with no purpose at all. She loved the vast world and the feeling of total freedom—it made her happy.
And this pure, purposeless joy brought her the truest, most genuine insights, letting inspiration gather bit by bit and helping her grow. Someday, it would all settle into something brilliant.
But peaceful days never last forever. Just like the saying, 'the tree wants to be still, but the wind won’t stop.' Four days later, Dr. Jacob came running up to Jill. Bathed in the golden glow of sunset, Jill sat quietly on the grassland, her eyes fixed on the setting sun, almost shining themselves—so beautiful it didn’t feel real.
Normally, Jill was loud and fiery, rarely this calm. Now that she was still, there was a strange new vibe about her. Dr. Jacob, who’d looked worried, was stunned for a second—Jill really did seem a little different.
'What’s up?'
'Ah—oh, something happened.' Dr. Jacob snapped back, his face serious. 'Thirty minutes ago, New York was attacked by a Level 3 Kaiju. The stationed mechs can’t hold out. They’re using delay tactics and need immediate backup. We’re the only ones who can reinforce quickly. Cost has ordered you to deploy.'
'A Kaiju, huh.' Jill kept staring west, voice calm. Then she suddenly slapped her thigh, sprang up, grabbed Dr. Jacob, and dashed off. 'Why didn’t you say so sooner!'
Dr. Jacob nearly fainted. 'You’re the one who never carries a phone! I almost broke my legs looking for you!' He looked exasperated, but secretly let out a sigh of relief. This fiery, energetic Jill was the Queen he knew. With that fighting spirit, Dr. Jacob was sure no Kaiju could stand in her way.
8 PM, U.S. West Coast, Manhattan, New York.
A deafening roar shook the city—clear even in the underground shelters. The blaring alarms never stopped, keeping everyone obediently in the safe zones. People glanced at each other, faces white as sheets. The Kaiju was back—again!
Two hours earlier, the Kaiju had suddenly surfaced from the sea, smashing three skyscrapers like sandcastles and killing countless people. The two stationed mechs rushed to attack, but things went south fast. Even though it was two against one, both mechs were nearly obsolete third-generation models. They were supposed to be replaced by Fifth Generation Mecha, but of course, that’s when the Kaiju showed up!
The roar never stopped, and a faint tremor would ripple through the crowd from time to time, sending waves of panic. An hour and a half ago, with the combined efforts of fighter jets and Mecha Hunters, a Level 3 Kaiju had been lured far away—a standard tactic for dealing with monsters. TV station helicopters circled dangerously close, broadcasting the battle live, and these scenes played out in real time on the shelter’s TVs, letting everyone see the fight unfold.
Normally, this kind of live broadcast is meant to calm people down. But today, everyone’s nerves just kept getting tighter. After more than an hour of fighting, the invading Kaiju had taken a beating, but not without some payback. This one, called The Ripper, tore a Mecha apart like it was a toy and left another one with just a single arm. At 8 p.m., The Ripper showed up near Manhattan again, shrugged off a barrage of missiles, and started striding straight into the city.
Its mission? To stomp this eyesore of human civilization flat—like it was born for it.
Steel and concrete couldn’t stop it. The one-armed Mecha Hunter tried desperately to block its path, but it was hopeless. The Ripper crouched down and casually dug through thick concrete, like a coyote breaking into a gopher hole. Terrified people huddled together, looking up at it like a nest of baby mice staring at a wildcat. The food chain is brutal like that—after two hours of fighting, the Kaiju was hungry.
The Ripper opened its mouth, showing off rows of razor-sharp teeth. The crowd screamed and panicked, but there was nothing they could do but watch the horror unfold.
Right then, the ocean suddenly surged. Waves crashed in, rolling like a living wall. With a string of heavy thuds, a massive Mecha burst out of the surf, hurdled over the coastal highway, and charged straight into the city at full speed.
The Ripper didn’t even have time to turn around before the black Mecha was on it, splaying its fingers wide and grabbing the Kaiju’s skull in a death grip. Then—bam!—a knee strike smashed right into the monster’s face.
Crunch! The sound of bones breaking echoed. Giant fangs snapped and flew, blue blood spraying everywhere. The broken teeth hit the ground so hard they left craters. Everyone was frozen, watching as the black Mecha unleashed a brutal beatdown on The Ripper. Normally, battles like this happen away from the city to avoid catastrophic damage, but today, New Yorkers witnessed a flawless, zero-casualty takedown.
Right there between the skyscrapers, on streets that weren’t even that wide, the black Mecha pounded The Ripper senseless. It was like watching a kung fu movie star in action—the Kaiju didn’t even get a chance to fight back. It struggled and roared, but all it did was spill more blue blood.
Even the one-armed Mecha that was supposed to help just stared in shock. Its pilot couldn’t believe it—after all this time, the Kaiju was pinned, not even touching the buildings on either side. Forget escaping, it couldn’t even scratch the walls!
Ten minutes later, The Ripper let out a final, pitiful screech and collapsed. The black Mecha grabbed the monster, slung it over its shoulder like a hunter with fresh prey, and strode off into the night under the glare of searchlights. The New Yorkers just stared, speechless. After a long pause, someone finally muttered, “Hey, that Mecha looks familiar... Oh! It’s Berserker! That’s the fifth-generation Mecha—Berserker!”
The cheers exploded, joy spreading like wildfire. Without even stopping for applause, Berserker disappeared into the dark, leaving only a legend behind.
"How’s it feel, Queen?" Jacob’s voice crackled over the comms. "Looked like you were having a blast out there."
"Nope. The exact opposite, actually."
"What’s up?"
"This Mecha’s a pain. Can’t even do a proper roundhouse kick—super inconvenient. And the Kaiju was way too weak. By the time I got there, it was already half dead." The black Mecha’s right hand flexed, turning its wrist before clenching into a fist. Jill’s voice rang out: "I want a real challenge. Bring me a tougher opponent."
"Uh... you’ll get your wish," Jacob said, sounding like he knew something.
Sure enough, over the next few days, Level 3 Kaiju kept popping up all over the world. Jill’s black Berserker was running around everywhere, putting out fires left and right.
Rome. Blue blood soaked the sands of the Colosseum as a Kaiju’s neck was twisted until it died, refusing to go down easy.