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Eight months passed in the blink of an eye.
While the Wall Faction's Life Coastline Project hadn't been fully completed in some areas, it was already entering its final stages. During this time, even though the Mech Hunters' victories against the newly emerged Kaiju had improved, it was clear that the Wall Faction, now in power, would not allow the Hunter Project any chance to recover.
Even though Shaw Industries provided many exciting technologies, due to the tacit agreement of the wall-guard faction, not many of them appeared in the newspapers and became known to the public.
Eight months later, financial assistance was completely stopped and all major member states abandoned PPDC.
Fortunately, Stick Pantecost and the others never pinned their hopes on them. Over the past eight months, Stick Pantecost had transformed himself into a master of scrap scavenging, visiting the Hunter Cemetery alone more than three times. Each time, he would take away a discarded, scrapped Mech Hunter.
With the single-person synaesthesia system provided by Luke Field, a well-trained and resolute individual, with the new technology's intelligent system sharing the load, is now capable of independently operating a mecha Hunter. For experienced Hunters, with the intelligent system's shared workload and information processing, they can even perform more easily than in previous two-person synaesthesia battles.
No matter how well the two of them had previously understood each other, how close they seemed to be as one thanks to the synaesthesia system, it was only an illusion. The single-player synaesthesia system allowed for faster reactions and more efficient attacks when piloting a Mech Hunter.
According to veteran hunters, while a pilot with a two-person synaesthesia system can pilot a Mech Hunter into battle, they initially can't fully unleash the full potential of the mech itself. The deeper the Hunter's synaesthesia bridge, the more tacit their coordination and focus, the more effective the Mech Hunter's combat capabilities will be.
The single-player synaesthesia system lowers these barriers. With the help of a single operator and the intelligent assistance system, veteran hunters, when piloting a Mech Hunter alone, have rarely demonstrated combat effectiveness exceeding that of a two-man operation. In their words, they've even reached a state of human-machine fusion, where the Mech Hunter is them, and they are the Mech Hunter.
Deus ex machina?
No, the old hunter said, I was like a god of war at that time!
This is a good thing.
This is what Stack Pantecost thinks about it.
The only bad thing is that the old hunter pilot who was previously short of money is now well off!
In order to increase the success rate of the ultimate plan in his mind and to maximize the role of those old hunters, the first thing Stick Panticost had to consider was to have new mecha hunters.
However, this was impossible. Although the Walled Faction sent regular monthly payments to PPDC as usual, the amount was barely enough to keep the base running and maintain the existing Mech Hunters. Applications to build new Mech Hunters were undoubtedly rejected. Most supporting factories had closed, and the major bases had either closed or been transferred. The once-thriving Mech Hunter industry was now only maintained by Shaw Industries. To build new Mech Hunters, one had to either reopen supporting factories or place an order with Shaw Industries.
Either way, it would be a huge financial expenditure.
Unable to build new Mech Hunters, Stek, quick-witted, set his sights on old, retired, damaged, and abandoned ones. For the past few months, he'd practically become a rag-picker. If he saw any Mech Hunter worth repairing, he'd mobilize a large force to transport it back to the PPDC headquarters. Even though he knew his actions had earned him the reputation of a rag-picker, he didn't stop.
For him, the plan in his heart was the final battlefield where he would fight a desperate battle. For this, he could risk everything and risk everything he had.
Shaw Industries, or rather, Luke Field, had become an excellent partner in Styke's eyes. No matter how damaged the Mech Hunter he found was, they could rebuild it and upgrade it. Even though PPDC's already limited funds were drained significantly during the repair process, Styke no longer cared.
In the original time and space, there were only four mecha hunters left in the PPDC during this period. They were the fifth-generation Eureka Raider, the fourth-generation Storm Crimson, the veteran Cherno Alpha that was being patched up and upgraded, and the Dangerous Wanderer that was picked up, repaired, and upgraded to a fourth-generation machine by Mori Mazi and Cai Tiantong.
Even Storm Red, the most powerful fighter, was slain before the final battle. Old hunters were killed or wounded, ultimately forcing Stek to personally fight at the cost of his own life.
Now, with Luke's intervention and technical assistance, Stek had a much richer hand. At least the Shaolin Ranger was intact. Combined with the upgrades and maintenance of the remaining intact mechs over the past three months, as well as the repairs of three damaged Mech Hunters, the PPDC's headquarters, which could accommodate thirty Mech Hunters, had already housed seven in the past eight months.
The earliest Cherno-Alpha, despite its original appearance, underwent a complete overhaul of its power system, shield system, intelligence system, and weapon system. If the Cherno-Alpha's combat power was comparable to that of a fourth-generation fighter before, the current Cherno-Alpha's combat power could fully qualify as a fifth-generation fighter.
At least the two Russian pilots, a married couple, absolutely loved the new Cherno-Alpha after Luke's upgrade. They felt that Luke's style was exactly what they liked, and it had truly touched their hearts. Ever since the latest Cherno-Alpha upgrade was completed, after getting familiar with the new machine, the two couldn't wait to see a Kaiju beast in action.
Of course, since the two had fought together for ten years, they were already familiar with two-player synesthesia combat and did not want to separate, so Luke Field did not make major changes to the cockpit. He just set it up so that when one person went offline, the single-player synesthesia system would automatically start.
The remaining Storm Red, Shaolin Ranger, and Danger Wanderer pilots at the PPDC headquarters also received new modules and modifications, boosting their combat capabilities by a generation. At least three of the Storm Red pilots stated that if they were the current Storm Red, they could easily have defeated the Kaiju Kaida that had previously landed them and the Shaolin Ranger in trouble.
…
"A new Kaiju has appeared, landing outside of Sydney's Wall of Life."
The base's alarm suddenly sounded, and Cai Tiantong quickly reported the information.
"Ask the Sydney officials if they need to send mecha hunters?" said Stack Panticost.
Cai Tiantong sent the message as Stek said, and soon he received a reply.
"They said that with the Wall of Life here, we don't need our mecha hunters." Cai Tiantong widened his eyes.