The Undying Mecha Emperor

I continued to shake him hard.

"Vi-Victim! Brother Justin is the victim here! Guys, do you agree?!" Andrew turned and roared at his teammates.

"YES! BROTHER JUSTIN IS A VICTIM!" They shouted in chorus.

"Wang family!" I cried dramatically at the two girls and the group of kids who were standing nervously behind them. "You saw what happened right? They attacked me first! And without any provocation whatsoever from me!!"

"Ah yes. I saw everything." A red-haired twin confirmed with a giggle.

"I will make sure I make a full and clear report to my parents after the entrance test is over." The other one said and smiled at me beautifully.

"Excellent! Thank you very much! Please make sure that justice is served!" I told the twins and turned to look at the Long family contingent who had ugly expressions on their faces.

If we were allowed to bring our own personal things to the test, I would have extorted each and every Long family representative there out of all their valuables. Too bad we weren't allowed to bring anything.

I sighed deeply in regret.

There was nothing else I could do.

My task was complete and I had to let them go.

But of course, I wouldn't let them go without a final "kiss goodbye".

"THE LONG FAMILY HAD SHAMELESSLY ATTACKED AND BULLIED ME, A POOR, POWERLESS, HELPLESS NOBODY!" I shouted shamelessly.

"THEY ABUSED THEIR GREATER NUMBER TO SURROUND ME AND BEAT ME UP! LOOK AT MY WOUNDS!" I showed the watching crowd my flawlessly smooth arm. "OH MY HORRIBLE, HORRIFIC WOUNDS!"

"I AM SO DISTRESSED! I AM SO TRAUMATIZED! I CAN BARELY STAND DUE TO MY PHYSICAL WOUNDS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA!" I shouted energetically, my voice reverberating clearly all throughout the valley.

By then, all eyes were on me.

"LONG FAMILY BULLIES! STOP BULLYING ME! STOP IT! STOP IT! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!" I shouted as I took a threatening step towards them.

As one, they got up, grabbed the Long family heirs, and escaped before they ended up vomiting blood out of sheer anger!

Who was bullying who, brother???

And as they clambered off, a ragged cheer went up from the crowd who were watching us!

"Well done! Good riddance!"

"Wahahaha! It's actually my first time seeing the Longs running away! Awesome! Awesome!!"

"Good morning children." A gentle woman's voice boomed from the sky immediately after that. It was as though the voice was waiting for the debacle I had instigated to be over first before speaking.

Knowing her, it was probably exactly what she did.

As one, over a hundred thousand heads swivelled up to look at the source of the voice.

It was from an exquisite white mecha!

A collective gasp sounded from all the kids. It was impossible not to have a reaction to such a powerful and glorious looking mecha.

The mecha was a light white mecha, as evidenced by its lack of heavy armor and relatively small stature at around sixty meters. Most white mechas were around a hundred meters tall.

However, its angular and sharp design gave it a fearsome and dangerous feel that far outstripped the feeling of danger exuded by the white mecha I had absorbed from Amelia Dragonos.

Coated white with sky blue trim, it was singularly the best looking mecha I had ever laid my eyes upon.

It slowly descended into the valley and landed at an empty area near the entrance.

"Welcome to the entrance test for the National Mecha Pilot Academy. I am Veronica Wu, your examiner for today. I am one of the Academy's three hundred Senior Teachers and my National Pilot Rank is 11,290."

Another gasp sounded from the kids. But this time, it was much louder than before. I had no idea then why it was so. How could I? Nobody told me about the National Pilot Ranking System and what a ranking of 11,290 meant.

"There are one hundred ten thousand four hundred fourteen of you here this morning, hailing from all over the Federation.

Only five thousand of you will be accepted by the end of today. So prepare your hearts. There is more than a 95% chance that you won't be selected today.

Alright enough dilly dallying. Let's start the first test of the day. Physical fitness."

Physical fitness??

My mouth had already curled into a smile even before she pointed at the nearest mountain.

"Get to the peak of that mountain before I finish my lunch later. If you arrive after I am done eating, you would be disqualified. Ready? Go."

With that, she took to the skies once more and remained there to oversee our progress.

The moment she did that, mayhem erupted.

Whoever said that ten year olds are cute and adorable had obviously never seen a National Mecha Pilot Academy entrance test before.

None of the ten year olds taking part in that test was cute or adorable.

None.

Zero.

Zilch.

Yes, not even me.

The valley we were in was quite large. However, the entrance of the valley leading up to the mountain which Veronica Wu had pointed at earlier was rather narrow.

It would be difficult for so many kids to leave quickly. Still, we could have easily left the valley in a matter of minutes if we all did it in a neat and orderly fashion.

But of course leaving the valley in a neat and orderly fashion was the last thing in our minds.

Once Veronica Wu said "Go", ten year old kids transformed into ten year old demons.

I later found out that fifty seven kids had died in our attempt to leave the valley alone. The rush to leave the valley was a deadly one.

Unfortunately for me, I was situated deep within the valley and was rather far away from the exit.

"Stick close to me." I told the group and began to use my insane strength to part the crowd, pushing them away strongly and allowing the group of five to follow after me before the crowd closed behind them once more.

By the time I bullied my way out of the valley, more than half of the kids were already rushing up the mountain.

"Brother Justin, thank goodness we have you in our team!" Fey said as she kept close to me.

"Yes, without you, we would never make it out of the valley as quickly." Sera agreed.

"No problem!" I told them.

The mountain was not a punishing one to climb. In fact, the slope we found ourselves in was rather gentle. Trees were even able to grow, providing a firm ground for us to run on. Even six year olds won't have trouble climbing it, much less ten year olds like us.

The only problem was, a gentle slope means a much longer distance to cover before we can reach the peak. A steeper slope, though much harder to climb and much more dangerous, would also be much faster to traverse.

Should I take the steep slope?