At the Factory Module of the Star Palace Colony Satellite, Reid had been sitting alone in a corner, staring blankly into space ever since his return. First, he would chuckle to himself from time to time, then look delighted, then ecstatic—only to suddenly switch to a frustrated expression before breaking into laughter again.
Ange and the others knew Reid was settling accounts with an unseen presence regarding his gains, so they didn't interrupt him. If this had happened outside, people would have thought Reid had escaped from a mental health facility.
In truth, Reid's laughter wasn't without reason. After feeding the server data and the five Gundams into the Factory Module as usual, Reid glanced at the summary of rewards from this battle.
What he saw next was a number he hadn't expected:
Merit Points: 400
G-Coins: 500,000+
Skill Plunder Module Gains:
-
Meteor Operation
(In 1v1 combat, enemy vulnerability +10%, ally vulnerability -10%) ×1
-
Fortitude
(Defense +60, significantly enhances the user's physical impact resistance) ×1
-
Tranquility
(Doubles emotional stability value) ×1
-
Vengeful Heart
(When counterattacking after being hit, damage dealt to the attacking unit increases) ×1
-
Reaper
(Attacks are more likely to trigger weapon or reactor detonations) ×1
The skills were dropped by the five Meteor Operation elites. While Tranquility and Vengeful Heart were relatively niche, the other three were quite useful.
Meteor Operation increased vulnerability during duels. According to the system's explanation, vulnerability raised the probability of malfunctions in a mobile suit after being hit. For example, if a GINN slashed a Strike with Phase Shift Armor using a physical blade, the Strike itself wouldn't take damage, but the impact might shake loose a screw, leading to malfunctions later.
The secondary effect of Fortitude was particularly overpowered—clearly something Heero had dropped. Reid had to learn this skill. With it, he could last much longer against Ange in close combat.
As for Reaper, the description was straightforward: it triggered detonations. Definitely a practical skill.
Of course, what thrilled Reid the most was the staggering 500,000+ G-Coins.
Honestly, this windfall was largely thanks to the [Barge] Fortress Assault, a side mission outside the system's main campaign.
Thanks to this assault, Reid's team's battle records showed that Lein and Duras had destroyed over a hundred units each, along with numerous motherships. Most importantly, the [Barge] Fortress itself was worth G-Coins—doubling its value netted Reid over 300,000 G-Coins alone.
Reid couldn't help but marvel: This is why infinite-loop systems across worlds should always prioritize hidden side quests! Compared to the meager G-Coins from main missions—where even capturing a protagonist's Gundam meant swiping their G-Coins—this was a game-changer.
Now, after Une's reminder, Reid had actively pursued a hidden quest and reaped rewards that made him feel like he could stand toe-to-toe with the four major Earth nations with newfound confidence.
Before this battle, Reid hadn't been short on G-Coins, but that was mainly because his primary use for them was buying food and supplies. Then came parts the satellite factory couldn't produce or couldn't risk exposing—like the Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor and Lambda Driver System. Only then did he consider outsourcing production costs.
After all, apart from these components, Reid basically had the satellite factory produce other parts or collected raw materials to have the Factory Module handle the processing. This kept the G-Coin costs to a minimum.
Then, although Reid had developed quite a few Gundams, the actual number of Mobile Suits he had manufactured was only a little over twenty (excluding the extremely low-cost Iron Balls and core thrusters). That's why his G-Coins were relatively abundant, allowing him to balance income and expenses through mercenary missions and battles.
But to be honest, these were all G-Coins saved through frugality. If he were truly wealthy, Reid wouldn't have been so stingy, saving up G-Coins just in case of emergencies.
Even so, Reid always kept his G-Coin reserves above 30,000 to prepare for scenarios requiring large-scale expenditures.
Now, with over 500,000 G-Coins suddenly added to his account, Reid instantly felt rich. From now on, he wouldn't have to be so hesitant—his mass-production plan could finally take off. Relying solely on his satellite factory to produce enough units to counter the Earth Alliance or ZAFT would take forever, after all.
Of course, regarding which Mobile Suit to use as the mass-production model for the Star Palace Colony Satellite, Reid still needed to wait for the Factory Module to extract all the data from the [Barge] fortress. After all, the Mobile Doll System might not be compatible with overly complex units, and the computational requirements for arming Mobile Dolls also had to be considered.
That said, just thinking about the Mobile Doll System made Reid pity his hair—adapting this system for CE-era Mobile Suits was another massive project. Who knew how long the research would take?
With that in mind, Reid naturally turned his attention to character recruitment. 400 Merit Points—enough for four full 10-pulls—was already sufficient to trigger the pity system. Surely, he couldn't be unlucky enough to hit 99 pulls without getting the guaranteed character, right? (The missing pull was the first one, the pull that had given him Ange.)
So, Reid decided to use all four 10-pulls on research personnel. After all, researchers specialized in different fields, and pulling too few might result in mismatched expertise—for example, a geneticist could still help with programming, but efficiency would inevitably drop without proper specialization.
Without delay, Reid entered the system's gacha module, selected the character pool, set the target to researchers, and started pulling.
The first 10-pull was the usual sea of blue and white—Reid was used to it by now. The system often didn't even give him a green glow.
But the person summoned this time was no ordinary figure—or rather, his son, Amuro Ray, was the extraordinary one. The man pulled was none other than Tem Ray (UC0079), the developer of the RX-78 series.
Frankly, seeing Tem Ray only warrant a blue glow made Reid wonder if the system's standards for researchers were too strict. This was the man who created the original Gundam!
Though the RX-78's performance was limited by the technology of its era, making it unremarkable in the grand scheme of the Gundam universe, its fame was undoubtedly top-tier. Even people who had only heard of Gundam in passing could recognize the RX-78-2 at a glance as the Gundam.
But Reid clearly couldn't interfere with the system's judgment of a person, so he continued with the 10-pulls. After all, while this man understood MS programming, he didn't solve Reid's current problem.
Then came the second ten-pull. When golden light descended from the sky, Reid had to admit he was excited.
But Reid didn't dare celebrate prematurely, because a blue light followed right after. What if the golden one turned out to be another skill?
So with trembling hands, Reid tapped the blue meteor first, bracing himself for bad news—only to find it was actually good. The blue meteor revealed the skill [Tactical Forecaster] (Command +60).
Seeing that the blue meteor was a skill, Reid immediately tapped the golden one to see who had eaten his pity pull.
Upon opening it, Reid froze for a moment. The person inside seemed unfamiliar—just a very common name: Nami (Full Metal Panic).
It wasn't until he checked her original world that he remembered who she was. In the original story, she was a Whispered that Sagara Sousuke met in Vietnam, but her abilities had only just begun to manifest before she was killed by the antagonists, so Reid didn't have much of an impression of her.
But… a Whispered? Would that kind of ability even work in the Cosmic Era universe?
So Reid directly asked the system in his mind:
"System, will the people you summon bring over any special existences from their original worlds?"
The system mechanically replied:
"No, unless the special existence is inseparable from the summoned individual. Only then will it be treated as a single entity and brought over."
Hearing this, Reid naturally pressed further:
"Then wouldn't the Whispered ability be useless in the Cosmic Era universe? And yet you still gave her an A-rank evaluation?"
To this, the system flatly responded:
"Evaluation system functioning normally. No issues detected with this character's rating."
Such an official and meaningless reply obviously didn't satisfy Reid, but no matter how much he pressed, the system just turned into a broken record, repeating that the evaluation system was fine.
Seeing that the system was once again being stubborn, Reid had no choice but to give up. He'd just have to wait until he met her to see what was up with her Whispered ability. After all, there was no point arguing with an unfeeling machine.
So Reid continued rolling for scientific personnel. Though he vaguely remembered that this Nami might actually be the talent he needed, with the uncertainty around her Whispered ability, it was better to keep pulling for researchers. It wasn't like he could ever have too many of them.
And then—Reid saw a red light descend, one that nearly stopped his heart.
Yes, after Ange, the second S-rank character had appeared right after he'd just hit pity. Though this time it had also consumed the blue character pity, Reid didn't care. This was an S-rank scientist—someone who could pioneer an entirely new era. He could finally pop the champagne.
So Reid immediately tapped the red light, eager to see who had arrived—only to quickly straighten the champagne bottle he'd just opened.
Elvira Hill (Buddy Complex), a scientist from a relatively obscure mecha anime. Though she wasn't the first to propose the underlying theories, she was the one who completed the development of the series' most crucial Coupling System Cockpit (equivalent to being the first modern scientist to achieve a functional nuclear fusion reactor). She definitely lived up to the title of a pioneer in her field.
Moreover, this system called Coupling (Psychic Link System) had an insanely powerful effect. It could instantly turn a complete rookie into an elite pilot while also boosting the mobile suit's mobility and the pilot's reaction speed by several levels. At maximum output, it could even influence space-time.
However, this was the result of the protagonist's cheat ability, as the system required anchoring to a specific brainwave pattern. Two individuals would then have their lives and behaviors artificially adjusted to approximate this waveform as closely as possible. The experimentation process was exceptionally cruel, with an extremely high rate of test subjects going insane. The protagonist, however, naturally possessed brainwaves identical to this target pattern.
Thus, the system was completely useless for Reid. The mental strength of a Newtype far surpassed that of ordinary humans. Even if Reid allowed the Star Palace to conduct such inhumane experiments using his brainwaves as the standard, it wouldn't work—hardly anyone's brainwaves could reach Newtype levels.
Additionally, once the psychic link was established, both parties could access each other's memories. Reid had far too many secrets in his mind, many meant to be taken to the grave. There was no way he'd allow anyone to read them—not even Ange.
As for letting subordinates use this system, Reid couldn't trust non-Summoned individuals with such overwhelming power. And the Summoned? He would never assign them to Elvira Hill as lab rats.
Therefore, before even meeting her, Reid decided to redirect Elvira Hill's research toward Super-Soldier Technology. If that didn't work, studying his Newtype brainwaves to find a way to accelerate Newtype awakening would still be more reliable than her psychic link system. The Coupling system was simply unworkable for him. Since Super-Soldiers also enhanced mental capabilities, it at least fell within the same general field.
In short, Elvira Hill gave Reid a massive headache. She made him hesitant to summon more researchers—the three he'd gotten so far were relatively easy to work with. But in the Gundam universe, the number of mad and obsessive scientists far outweighed the sane ones. If he ended up with another villainous researcher, Reid felt his head might explode.
So, for his remaining 10-pull, Reid threw it into the equipment pool. The character pool had already given him an S-rank; there was no way anything good remained. Better to try the equipment pool and see if he could get something useful.
The results showed that Reid's luck was genuinely strong today—another gold, this time with a blue.
Following his experience with the character pool, Reid opened the blue first to avoid setting his expectations too high. Though secretly, he hoped to replicate his earlier success.
But clearly, Reid was being too greedy. The blue item was a mobile suit: the RGM-79Q Riot Type GM. A standard, no-frills unit—a complete downgrade from the NT-1 Gundam—but its performance was acceptable for a mass-produced MS.
Since the blue was a mobile suit, the gold was likely technology. When Reid opened it, he instantly felt this 10-pull might not be a loss after all. The technology was [Nanomembrane Armor], a self-repairing nano-tech armor.
This was the same armor used on the Turn A Gundam—pure, unadulterated black technology. And pulling it came with a full set of nano-tech research data. How was this only rated A-rank?
But even if he felt the rating was unfair, Reid knew better than to complain to the system.
Humans are such hypocrites—they protest when they feel shortchanged, but when they think they've gained, they pretend nothing happened. The system's evaluation really wasn't wrong.
However, after the tense and thrilling gacha session ended, Reid naturally had to return to reality.
The moment he looked up, though, he found five pairs of eyes staring at him.
Aside from the four who had joined him on the mission, Noin had also rushed over after receiving Ange's message.
Seeing Reid raise his head, Ange knew his communication with that mysterious entity had concluded. She grinned and teased,
"Reid, I never knew your expressions could be so animated. Honestly, if I hadn't stopped them, Yulan and Yufang would've been so worried they'd have dragged you to the hospital."
Reid gave Ange a helpless look, thinking that while others might see him as crazy, Yulan and Yufang definitely wouldn't. A few facial expressions? Even at his wildest, he couldn't outdo Kowloon.
Besides, given their loyalty, even if he were truly insane and gave a mad order, they'd carry it out. Unless he was visibly injured or explicitly commanded them to take him to the hospital, they'd never act on their own.
But Reid couldn't be bothered to argue with Ange's joke. Instead, he said,
"I got a lot of good stuff, and our new companion this time is something else. Let's head out—I'll explain there."
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