Hong Kong, Outlying Islands—the Mecha Hunter base is built right here on one of the islands. It used to be a beautiful spot, with retro architecture, golden beaches, and luxury resorts. Now, the resort area has been totally transformed into a fortress of steel and concrete. Fun fact: the resort’s big boss had serious connections and fought tooth and nail against the base proposal. Didn’t take long for a kaiju to show up and help out—stomped the whole place flat, saved everyone the demolition costs.
That incident taught everyone a valuable lesson: don’t mess with kaiju, and definitely don’t mess with Mecha Hunters.
To deal with monster attacks and destruction, the base is built half underground—like a multi-layer cake smashed into the earth. It’s right next to the airport, making resupply and support easy. Honestly, it’s the best spot you could ask for in Hong Kong.
The hangar here is huge—big enough for eight mechs at once, though usually only two are stationed. But today, there’s just one left: the second-generation mech, The Roar. This model’s nearly seven or eight years old, second only to the very first prototype. And honestly, that prototype never even fought a kaiju, so The Roar is the real OG—the first to see real battle, a true antique.
No one ever thought this old relic would see action again. Sure, its specs are outdated, but the real problem is—The Roar can only be piloted by one person.
Even among active, frontline pilots, almost nobody can handle that.
Yet just last night, that ancient relic charged into the streets of Hong Kong and completely flattened the Level 3 kaiju, Iron Claw.
Near the hangar stands a middle-aged man. He’s not tall—barely over 1.7 meters. His limbs are strong but not overly muscular. His face isn’t remarkable either; honestly, you’d lose him in a crowd.
But right now, every staff member passing by looks at him with respect and awe—a gut-level reaction. It’s not just because he’s the base’s top boss. It’s because this guy is Mark Long. Mark Long, a name that held up an entire era—a pillar in chaotic times.
Mark Long stands by the hangar, watching giant mechanical arms repair The Roar. Sparks fly down like waterfalls, and Mark’s eyes are quietly serious. Level 3 kaiju—unprecedented, ferocious, and devastating. That’s all fine. If you’re fighting out in the open, life or death, you can face it with a clear heart. What’s really scary is the knife from behind.
The pilot of the Sydney Endeavour died under mysterious circumstances. The mech was so badly damaged that even the black box was destroyed, so nobody knows exactly what happened. And with no body left behind, an autopsy was out of the question. But based on the battle footage sent from HQ, right after the cockpit was breached and just before the kaiju pounced, something definitely attacked the pilot. Mark Long was absolutely sure of his judgment on this.
Who did it, and why? Was it some new kaiju trick, or was it a human with a grudge pulling a fast one?
Nothing like that happened in the Tokyo or Hong Kong battles, but Mark Long could feel the storm brewing. Speaking of Hong Kong—what a shame about Liu Susu and Wang Xi. Two good girls, and now...
Mark Long sighed. No matter what, you can always build a new mech—maybe even a stronger one—but you can't just whip up a new pilot. Things were getting more intense by the day, which meant they needed more, better, stronger pilots!
"Reporting, sir!" A liaison officer came up behind him. "The first round of recruitment is done. We've got twelve preliminary candidates. They're on their way from the various recruitment points to the base now."
"Oh? Twelve?" Mark Long raised an eyebrow. "That's a lot more than usual, huh?" In the last four open recruitments—even worldwide—it was a miracle to scrape together thirty qualified candidates. This time, just in Hong Kong, just on day one, they'd already found twelve. Maybe as the kaiju got stronger, humanity was churning out more talent too. Maybe things weren't as hopeless as they seemed.
"Let me see the files." Mark Long reached out and grabbed a tablet, scrolling through the candidates' info. Photo after photo flashed by, and suddenly, Mark Long paused. "Who's this?" he asked.
The liaison officer glanced over. On the screen was a platinum-blonde woman, caught mid-photo flashing a finger sign at the camera. "Uh, sir, she's from mainland China. That's all we know. Registered under the name 'The Queen.' She wouldn't give any other info. No clue why the registrar let her use a name like that, but that's what ended up in the system."
"The Queen, huh?" Mark Long snorted. "Interesting." He flipped to the next profile—a young man with a dreamy, unfocused gaze, like he was staring into another dimension. Mark Long gave a knowing "hmm" but didn't say anything.
Sure enough, both of them showed up. Mark Long remembered these two pretty well—very well, in fact. Just yesterday, during the fight with Iron Claw, while the civilians were all running for their lives, these two were standing calmly on a nearby rooftop. Mark Long had glanced up mid-battle, and that one look left a pretty clear impression.
Because neither of these two showed a hint of panic or fear. When it comes to fighting kaiju, guts are everything—if you haven’t got the nerve, no matter how stable your neural link is, you’re basically useless. These two? Worth watching.
"Where are they now?"
"They’ve already landed at the helipad. In ten minutes, we’ll start the next round of testing."
"Alright, let’s go check them out."
At the helipad, with the roar of helicopter blades overhead, a chopper slowly touched down. Before it even settled, someone yanked open the cabin door and leapt out—none other than Yang Qi. "Ha! Not bad, not bad!" Yang Qi glanced around, clearly loving the tough, heavy architecture.
"Careful!" A staff member rushed over only after the helicopter had come to a full stop, nagging, "With wind like this, you still dare jump? If you get hurt, that’s on you." The poor guy looked helpless—dealing with Yang Qi was way above his pay grade. He’d known since registration this morning, anyone who signed up as 'The Queen' had already crushed the competition.
Sure enough, after the simple initial test and the whole journey here, he felt about beaten down himself. Still, running into two qualified candidates at once? That’s just dumb luck. But these two are weird—the white-haired woman is way too lively, and the one inside...
"Let’s go!" Yang Qi waved, and Yang Qicai hopped out of the cabin after her.
—Yep, the other one’s basically a wooden dummy. Unless 'The Queen' says something, everything else just goes in one ear and out the other, like he doesn’t even exist.
Sigh, these two are probably the weirdest candidates this year. Who knows what’ll happen in the deep test. The staff shook his head, hurried a few steps, and chased after them.
Yang Qi strutted through the place with her head held high. First time at a mysterious organization, a military base, but not even a bit nervous. Honestly, she looked less like a test candidate and more like a new boss here for her first day—everyone she passed instinctively stepped aside. She took the elevator straight down to the fifth floor, deep into the base.
The base had zero fancy decorations, just raw concrete and steel everywhere—even the doors were solid iron. Yang Qi pushed open a big door and found herself in a square hall, about the size of a college lecture room. Ten people were scattered across the seats; Xiao Jingzhe was among them, waving as soon as he saw her.
The rest glanced over with all kinds of looks, but Yang Qi couldn’t be bothered to respond. She swaggered over and plopped down near Xiao Jingzhe. "You’re here too?" Then she eyed the young guy next to him, probably about twenty. "Oh, aren’t you the kid who got pinned to the ground? You passed the test too? Looks like the Chosen Ones have a pretty good shot at that neural link test."
"H-hello, senior!" The kid looked a bit nervous but also excited, blurting out in a broad Cantonese accent, "My name’s Li Yuncong, I’m from Guangzhou. Been a fan for months now, can’t believe I actually ran into—"
Xiao Jingzhe elbowed him in the gut, cutting off his sentence. He shook his head and sighed, "This kid almost got buried the other day—I had to drag him out. Didn’t expect him to pass the test, so we came together. By the way…" Xiao Jingzhe glanced at the wooden dummy next to Yang Qi, eyes flickering, "Who’s this guy?"
"My brother," Yang Qi replied offhandedly. She scanned the room with her secret skills and noticed that besides the four of them, three others had boundary marks. One was a buzz-cut guy, one a pretty short-haired girl, and the last a hulking giant—all Asian. That two-meter-tall bruiser looked familiar—he’d been with the 'Captain' at the shelter.
The three sat apart, with no matching clothes or eye contact, but Yang Qi could tell they were definitely a team—and up to something. That level of disguise? In Steelbull City, it’s kid stuff. No way they’d fool Yang Qi’s sharp eyes.
"Brother?" Xiao Jingzhe nodded, about to say more when someone walked in at the front of the hall. A white guy in his forties, total academic type. "Let’s do introductions. I’m Jacob, or Dr. Jacob if you like." Despite being foreign, his Chinese was pretty good: "You’ve all passed the first round of screening and can handle neural linking. But to become a Mecha Hunter backup pilot, you’ll need a deeper assessment. I’ll be handling that. When I call your name, come with me. First up: The... Queen?"