"Damn, did you hear? The Five Colors Squad is freaking legendary! It's all over TV—just a few days ago, they stormed Antarctica and wiped out the Kaiju horde that was tearing up Hong Kong! And get this—the craziest part? There were actually two Level 4 Kaiju in Antarctica—and they won!"
"Oh, I saw it on TV too! The aerial shots showed the battlefield and the remains—those Level 4 Kaiju corpses are way bigger than Level 3, like more than twice the size. And apparently, each one had special powers! One had ice armor, one could spit webs—so you've got a tank, a controller, and a damage dealer. Anyone else would've lost for sure! But this time, under The Queen's command, they actually killed the monsters, and all the pilots survived. That's the kind of victory that makes history!"
The day after the Antarctic battle ended, the whole world went nuts—everyone was talking about the explosive news from Antarctica. Not long ago, we’d just seen Level 3 Kaiju show up, but nobody expected Level 4 to appear so soon. Now everyone’s freaking out about the Kaiju leveling up, but the best news is—this fight was a win!
Sure, the final result was the mecha and the Kaiju both getting wiped out, so technically it’s a pyrrhic victory, but that’s not really the whole story. Fifth-gen Mecha Hunters are supposed to be a match for Level 3 Kaiju, so taking down Level 4s is basically the underdog beating the champ. And hey, you can always build more mecha, but talented pilots are priceless. If you look at the numbers: all the Kaiju got wiped out, all the pilots survived—so it’s basically a flawless victory.
"Eek!" A girl screamed as she ran over: "Look, I scored posters of The Queen and The Teacher!" She held up a poster showing Jill Young and Jack Young standing on the back of a giant turtle corpse. The truth is, they’d just finished making meat pills, but the fearless reporters showed up so fast they caught the perfect shot of the two side by side. "The Queen and The Teacher look so cool—I’m obsessed!"
"Wait, didn’t you always look down on The Teacher?" a guy asked, confused. "Why the sudden change of heart?"
"See, you’re just a fake Queen’s Faction fan. Real fans know The Teacher is actually a total badass. He soloed his way across thousands of miles in the Berserker to back up The Queen—he’s a beast! Now all the Queen’s Faction folks online are posting apologies. Plus, according to Hunter Organization insiders, he ignores everyone except The Queen. That kind of cold, mysterious loyalty is just—so cool!"
Watching the girl swooning and mumbling, "Ugh, I wish I had someone that cool by my side," the others just shrugged—life really is full of ups and downs. The Teacher, who nobody used to respect, became an overnight idol, famous all over the country.
But everyone else was pretty hyped too, because there was more good news. According to insiders, at the last board meeting of the Global Unified Front, some idiot suggested scrapping the Mecha Hunter Program for the Ring Sea Great Wall Project. As soon as that plan leaked, it got roasted online—everyone was cursing out the guy who proposed it, wishing him a lifetime of... well, zero happy endings.
But fresh news came in fast: the Ring Sea Great Wall Project would probably get shot down by the board. Never mind who the mysterious 'insider' was that leaked all this drama—inside the Queen’s Faction, another wild rumor started spreading, and nobody could believe it...
Seven days after the Antarctic battle, inside that mysterious conference room at the Hunter Academy, Cost stood in front of a giant curved screen. Standing here again, he felt a bit nervous—these big shots were about to decide the fate of the Hunter Program. Every board member was present except for the Vice Chairman’s screen, which was blacked out, represented by that skinny old guy.
"Cost," the chairman in the center spoke up, "The board has finalized its decision. The military, government, and financial reps from each country have weighed in, and we’ve reached a conclusion. The Ring Sea Great Wall Project—canceled."
Whew, Cost let out a sigh of relief. That Ring Sea Great Wall Project was pure nonsense—it was basically sending all humanity to the guillotine. He’d heard rumors for days, but hearing the official decision really took a load off his mind.
"About the Mecha Hunter Program..."
Cost tensed up again.
"The next step will be a major change. After board deliberation, we’re going to massively increase investment in the Mecha Hunter Program and send a senior board member for direct supervision."
"Wait..." Cost frowned—direct supervision by a board member? So they were sticking a new boss above him, the commander-in-chief? Power struggles aside, did any of these board members know a thing about warfare? Bringing in an outsider to boss everyone around was like swapping out the guillotine for a butter knife—still hurts, just takes longer!
"Enough, Cost, the decision’s made. The direct supervisor for the Mecha Hunter Program will be the Vice Chairman. It’s unanimous."
"Vice Chairman?!" Cost’s brow furrowed—wasn’t that the old guy who always shot down his ideas? Damn, this wasn’t just slicing up humanity, it was packing us in a French fry bag for Kaiju to pick their teeth with! "Board members, I beg you to reconsider..."
"Oh, and you probably haven’t heard yet, but there’s been some personnel changes on the board." The chairman chuckled, "Let me introduce you to the new Vice Chairman."
"New?" Cost was baffled, glancing around—the board members on screen all had weird looks. Did this new Vice Chairman have some special background?
Whirr—the last screen flickered on, and a familiar voice piped up: "Huh? We’re starting? Already?" The person on screen pointed at the camera and asked someone offscreen, then turned to Cost with a big grin: "Yo, Cost, it’s only been a few days and you’ve shrunk so much!"
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Cost’s eyes bulged—his eyeballs were about to pop out. The unflappable commander’s jaw nearly dislocated, and he trembled like a goat in a thunderstorm. Cost stammered, "You?! Vice Chairman?!"
"Yep, starting today, I’m the Vice Chairman." The platinum-blonde beauty on screen flashed a smug smile and settled into her fancy chair like she’d just claimed the throne. Pointing at Cost, she laughed in full Beijing opera villain style: "Hoo-hoo-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! From now on, I get to decide how the Mecha Hunter budget is spent, and you have to do what I say!"
Cost stood there like a lost soul, dazed and stunned. After a while, he finally shouted in disbelief, "Huh?!"
All the board members, chairman included, burst out laughing—they’d been waiting for this moment. Yep, the new Vice Chairman everyone trusted was Jill Young!
"You—you’re the Vice Chairman?"
"Don’t worry about it. Bottom line, you have to listen to me now!" As for how Jill Young became Vice Chairman, well, that’s a long story. If we really dig in, it’d take a ton of chapters, but to sum it up: The Queen decided that, even though she was out in the world, she needed total control. She had to get the capital to do whatever she wanted.
In this broken world, official ranks don’t mean squat—money is king. So the Eternal Night Queen went back to her old tricks, bringing all her ruthless Steelbull City methods to the table and ran circles around that skinny old guy. Then she crushed every rebel faction and chopped off every greedy hand that tried to grab a piece. With her devilish skills, power, and iron will, Jill Young climbed straight to the top and became the new Vice Chairman.
The Magician was right: in a place with no Chosen Ones to keep things in check, a Chosen One with both brute force and a knack for gaming the system is basically a cheat code IRL.
Compared to that scheming, money-grubbing old guy, Jill Young—who didn’t even care about cash—was way scarier to the rest of the board. If she didn’t care about money, she probably didn’t care about anything else either. Whatever plotting was going on behind the scenes, Jill Young wasn’t interested and didn’t have time for it. As the real deal Vice Chairman, she only cared about one thing.
"Cost, I’m tripling the investment in Mecha Hunters. Get started on the sixth-gen mecha—I want you to build me a brand new one!" The Berserker had already gone the way of certain famous helicopters and fighter jets; as Jill’s first ride, it didn’t escape getting trashed, so now she needed a new toy.
"A mecha?" Cost, finally coming back to his senses, asked, "Are you still planning to go into battle yourself?"
"Of course!" Jill Young said, full of righteous confidence. "I told you ages ago—I didn’t come here to please you, and I’m not here to get rich either. I’ve only got one goal: to fight Kaiju!"
Cost froze, staring at Jill Young’s blazing, righteous eyes on the screen. Then he burst out laughing: "Yes, ma’am!"
Yep, the Queen’s Faction rumor mill was right: The Queen was about to become Vice Chairman of the Unified Front. It sounded so far-fetched, even the most hardcore fans didn’t buy it, since the Vice Chairman’s rank was on par with a world leader. But the day after the board’s decision, Jill Young held a high-profile press conference, announcing her full support for the Hunter Organization.
"Kaiju keep invading Earth, and we’re always on the back foot—why should we have to take it lying down?" On camera, Jill Young was full of swagger and confidence: "I’ve decided, while we’re developing new mecha, we’re going to focus our tech on finding a way into the wormholes. We’ll take the fight to them and pay back every bit of humiliation we’ve suffered! Counterattack plan, starting now!"
The whole world erupted in excitement.