The Undying Mecha Emperor

"Stay the hell out of my way, idiots! If you don't want to die crushed by falling mecha parts, then f*** off!" I shouted and climbed up the practice mecha with great agility.

I unleashed my insane RPL to the full and my mind raced with great speed to figure out an action plan to dismantle the mecha as fast as I could.

Within seconds…

BAM!

The mecha's head slammed down onto the soft grass right next to the bunch of kids!

"Eeek!!" A girl in the group screamed in shock at the sudden appearance of the mecha head near her.

The rest of the group's face turned extremely ugly at my actions, but I couldn't care less at that point.

Screw teamwork.

Screw communication.

I'm ploughing ahead by myself!

"Wow wow wow! Look at that team! They already have the head of the mecha perfectly dismantled! I wouldn't have thrown the head down like that if I were you guys. If it is damaged, I will make sure to deduct its repair cost from your academy credits! Be gen-"

Bam!

The mecha's right arm slammed down onto the ground loudly.

"Hohoho! What an impatient young man! Ah! What joy it is to be young! Carry on! Carry on!" Instructor Blackwood cheered "us" on and then went on to do the same to the other groups, urging them to be faster, to be more careful, and to be more efficient.

There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would be the first.

My actions were steady and extremely efficient. Within fifteen minutes, the mecha had all five limbs separated from its body.

I sneered at the nine irritating kiddos as I walked past them and continued to attack the mecha with great fervor.

Ten minutes later, just as I finished dismantling the final arm…

"Wow wow wow!! We have a double winner!!" Instructor Blackwood suddenly shouted excitedly.

At his words, a loud groan of disappointment rose up from the rest of the kids, including several loud curses from the teams that were almost done with their mechas.

"Little girl, what's your name? Sheera Lin! Well done! I had my eye on you the whole time. You're an excellent coordinator! You did very very well!!" Instructor Blackwood continued to shout excitedly. "And we have here a solo effort!

A solo effort by a single student while his team mates merely looked on from the side! Not very good at team work, are we? Young man, you may be skilled, but without team work… wait a minute. That… Sheera Lin! Your mecha isn't fully dismantled! Look! That leg isn't properly dismantled!

Oh my Lord! The winner… The winner is the solo effort from this group! What a plot twist! Incredible!"

It may have a slightly dramatic ending, but the main point of that story was, I won. And the distance between me and the rest of the cohort widened.

They were already biased against me to begin with. What I did merely antagonized them even more.

Not that I cared.

"Hahaha! Yes!" I laughed loudly. "A thousand credits and a mysterious reward! All for twenty five minutes work." I grinned widely.

I had failed the lesson within the lesson for me that day, but it also made me realize that I would never have a proper place with the normal kids.

It solidified my resolve to reach the peak by my own strength.

Teamwork is good.

But having the power to do alone what teams can only do together is even better!

Screw teamwork!

Screw communication!

Give me power!!

I quickly made my way to Instructor Blackwood to receive my one thousand credits and my "epic" reward.

"Your epic reward is a few selected blueprints from my own personal collection of mechas." Instructor Blackwood said with a wide smile.

My eyes widened in excitement.

I already had a white mecha blueprint, and logically I didn't need any low level mecha blueprint, especially ones that a mere instructor in the National Mecha Pilot Academy could so easily give away to his students.

But I needed the variety.

Every single mecha design, even though their end product will end up doing work within the same measure of scale, are all unique in their own ways.

Some had unique applications of mechatronics which were in theory, groundbreaking, but were difficult to be scaled up, thus limiting their applications to low quality low grade mechas.

Some had unique approaches to defensive, offensive, targeting, flight or even movement systems that, if combined with other specific systems, would give birth to a true monster on the battlefield.

I was like the ultimate mecha factory that could produce any mecha I wanted.

All I needed was enough blueprints to make them!

"Wow! What a generous gift! Thank you very much, Instructor Blackwood!" I shouted so excitedly that for a moment, I gave off the exact same excitable vibe as him.

"Hahahaha! You are a very rare young man who appreciates the value of blueprints! Awesome! Awesome!" Instructor Blackwood clapped me happily on my back as the details of his selected mecha blueprints entered my EduLink.

"Of course I appreciate them, Instructor! In fact, I appreciate them so much that I hunger and even thirst to see ALL of your mecha blueprints! Can I take a look at them?" I shouted very passionately with excitement pouring out of my every pore.

"Kissass." A little boy from my group snorted loudly as he walked back after receiving his credits and blueprints.

I ignored him and continued to implore Instructor Blackwood with what I hoped was irresistible puppy eyes.

Apparently they were rather awesome puppy eyes because Instructor Blackwood passed me his TeachLink and opened up to the folder with all of his blueprints in it.

"I can't give you any more blueprints, of course. If I do then I will run out of rewards to give out! But I will let you see my collection to whet your appetite. Here, you have until the rest of your classmates finish to look at my collection!" Instructor Blackwood said with a wide smile.

He couldn't, for all the world, imagine that by doing that, he was essentially giving me all of his blueprints!

I grabbed his TeachLink eagerly and sat down near him to "browse" through his collection of mecha blueprints.

It was awesome.