EROS [Zerg]

"Is this the design blueprint for the modified 'Corona'?"

No female insect could resist the allure of mechs, especially when she saw the modified design blueprints for the "Corona," hailed as the pinnacle of the insectoid empire's technological prowess. Although Eros couldn't decipher the data, his awe kept him at a distance from the computer.

“This is only the third draft, not the final one.” Brandt pulled up a chair for Eros to sit beside him, then took out a thick textbook and placed it in front of Eros, his voice carrying a sternness and a rare coldness in his demeanor.

"I won't give you much time to learn theoretical knowledge, so you'll have to find time to memorize all the theoretical knowledge yourself."

"If you want to pass the military mechanic professional qualification exam within a year, you must memorize this book thoroughly."

"I'll give you at most half a month to familiarize yourself with the theoretical knowledge. If you want to repair mechs, you have to know how to operate them. During these half a month, you'll stay here with me to familiarize yourself with the various performance characteristics of mechs, understand the differences between different models, and know their advantages."

Brandt placed a key on the table and pointed to an egg-shaped pod in the corner of the office: "This is the key to the virtual training pod. You can go in and practice whenever you have time."

Eros took the key, walked to the virtual training pod, opened the hatch, and sat inside.

As soon as the insect sat down, a full-view display mask covered his face, and a probe from the nerve conduction device on the back of the seat extended an extremely fine needle that pierced into the female insect's body.

"Hiss..." Eros felt a slight pain, but soon the hatch of the training pod closed, and the entire training pod began to rotate horizontally.

The monitoring data outside the training pod showed that Eros's heart rate was 300 beats per minute. Although he knew it was just a warm-up exercise, a wave of dizziness made his heart rate rise sharply.

At first, when the seat started rotating, he felt nauseous and wanted to vomit. But as his body gradually adjusted, the rotating seat suddenly stopped, and he was thrown backward.

Several strange letters appeared on the black mask in front of Eros.

Then the screen lit up, and as the device started up, Eros felt as if he were in a cramped mechanical control cabin.

The once empty egg-shaped chamber in front of them has been transformed into a control panel equipped with countless controllers.

The trainee's identity is displayed on the control panel screen:

[Evanson Eastland]

[Dear Evanson, it has been twenty-seven years since you last logged in. I am your companion system, EROS. Welcome back.]

Eros looked at the name on the screen and his heart skipped a beat. Could it be that even the machine was mistaking him?

EROS: [Now, please begin your battle once more. Please select the server and difficulty level you wish to enter.]

Eros saw two choices on the screen in front of him.

[Normal Mode]

[Peak Mode]

Although Eros was puzzled as to why the machines would get his identity wrong, he felt that as an ambitious female insect, she should have an attitude of not being bothered by trivial matters and a sense of self-awareness.

He decisively clicked on "Normal Mode".

After the EROS system slowly loaded for a few seconds, the surrounding environment changed drastically, and rugged sand dunes appeared on the environment display screen in front of us.

Several moving red dots appeared in the upper right corner of the screen. Eros didn't know what they meant and didn't pay attention to them for the time being.

He tried moving the joystick to get his virtual mech moving.

"There's no tutorial?" Eros thought this mech was difficult to pilot, quite different from the [Abit] he used to pilot the Cardian.

Fortunately, the operation of mechs is similar in many ways. After fiddling with it for about five minutes, Eros was finally able to move the mech.

He practiced some maneuvers on the spot, jumping and leaping, occasionally performing a running start and a sliding tackle. Eros was so engrossed in his training that he was completely unaware of what was happening within the entire virtual training system.

The network connected to the virtual training ground is a local network independent of the StarNet, which has existed for thousands of years.

Because of the birth of the StarNet, information exchange between various races has become more frequent, accompanied by a massive explosion of scientific and technological advancements.

More advanced StarNet eSports Centers, accessible via terminals, are gradually replacing the monotonous egg-shaped virtual training pods.

However, because all combat data appearing in the StarNet Arena is open to all races that can connect to the StarNet, in order to ensure the security of military information, all important combat training and simulations in the military and academies will still choose to use the virtual training pods that are beginning to become outdated.

At this moment, the account of [Evanson Eastland], which had remained unchanged for many years in first place on the leaderboard in the virtual training arena, logged in again.

For a time, both large-scale mech competitions and small-scale arena battles came to a halt because the number one account on the leaderboard logged in again.

That account, which would never be logged into again, suddenly lit up on the leaderboard.

[Evanson Eastland]

A strange silence fell over the virtual training field for a few seconds.

"Who's behind this?"

In an instant, the forum on the virtual training field exploded with activity.

It's important to know that all accounts on the virtual training ground are publicly registered under real names, and only those whose genetic tests match can log in.

So Evanson Eastland's account, which he died more than a year ago, is now logged in.

The female insects on the training field erupted in an uproar.

[Is this... a zombie coming back to life?]

[Some bug must be behind this!! Which bug stole the lieutenant general's genes and logged into his account?!]

[This is outrageous! This is a direct challenge to the dignity of our Sixth Star System Legion! Find out who he is and bring him to court-martial!]

Is it possible that Lieutenant General Evanson isn't dead? After all, his death was quite mysterious, without any warning whatsoever. I heard that Evanson offended many powerful figures back then; could it be that he was imprisoned by some kind of insect and has now escaped?

[You're really daring to spread rumors, aren't you?]

I'm more inclined to believe the explanation about stealing the lieutenant general's genes than the one upstairs.

[We've located him, find him!]

Yes, find it! Let's see which bastard is behind this!

At this point, this "paranormal event" had not only caused a stir on the forums of the virtual training grounds, but had also begun to spread on the forums of the Zerg Star Network.

But Eros, who was practicing how to move his mech, was completely unaware of all this. He only noticed that there were more and more red dots in the upper right corner, and they were all moving in one direction. He didn't understand what that meant.

If he knew where the message board was, he would have found that his message request page had been overwhelmed with traffic and crashed.