The Undying Mecha Emperor

"Hahhhhh." Elder Harris groaned in pain.

The suddenly crash had completely taken him by surprise.

He was sitting there very innocently (for once) enjoying his morning double half boiled eggs and toast with jam when his table suddenly heaved upwards with great force and slammed into him!

He had fallen down, and was immediately piled on by his table, his coffee, his double half boiled eggs and his toast.

"Ah Elder Harris, you've got a concussion. But apart from that, you're fine. You might want to change your outfit though." The beautiful teacher said with an incredible smile.

"Justin. I am in love." Barrick Rui said numbly.

"You're ten bloody years old. You are incapable of romantic love." I replied dismissively and rather hypocritically, if I might add.

"You are the one incapable of romantic love. Your family is incapable of romantic love!" Barrick Rui snapped at me.

"Alright, you're in love. Congratulations. You have officially had your first meeting with the woman you love… In your cute little tiger cub pyjamas! Hahaha!" I laughed at him mercilessly.

Barrick Rui looked down at his PJs in complete horror and immediately dashed away to change.

I snickered lightly at Barrick's retreating figure and glanced at the beautiful teacher who was helping Elder Harris to sit up.

"Oh! So it is Elder Harris! Elder, are you alright? Why did you sit so close to the corridor? It's so dangerous! Don't you know that hungry kids will always run to the cafeteria? Haiya Elder Harris. You need to be more careful, especially at such an OLD AGE! Get well soon, Elder Harris!" I shouted with glee and immediately went off to have my breakfast without even bothering to listen to his response.

In the whole school, I was probably the only one brave enough to do what I did.

I had nothing to lose, and I absolutely didn't care about doing well in the academy.

Heck, I didn't even want to be there in the first place!

So I did what I wanted to do there without a single care in the world.

It was a fun period for me.

But that second day of school was truly… interesting.

Seeing Elder Harris that way cheered my irritated mind slightly.

Seeing the amount of heavenly bacon and roast pork available for breakfast cheered my irritated my significantly.

In fact, they did wonders to invigorate my mental fatigue.

For the entire breakfast session, I was in bliss.

But all too soon, breakfast was over.

And the first class of the day began.

Day two, morning class - Introduction to Combat.

Yes, that's right.

Introduction to Combat.

It wasn't orientation, it wasn't combat theory, it wasn't even mecha theory.

The first day of school was a Grand Melee.

And the second day of school was Introduction to Combat.

Only the National Mecha Pilot Academy does crazy shit like this.

They were extremely focused on "Experiential Learning" and wanted all their students to learn by experiencing things.

I later learned that it was an initiative by Bruce Pang to reform education in the academy in such an extreme way.

I could already imagine Bruce Pang's conversation with his predecessor.

"Classroom lessons on COMBAT? Bullshit. Which idiot wrote the curriculum? Ah, you did, sir? I didn't mean idiot in the literal sense of course. You definitely are not an idiot. I meant it in the philosophical sense. God damn it, you're an accomplished mecha pilot! When have you learned the most about combat? When you're fighting of course! When have you learned the most as pilot? In the cockpit of course! And why the hell do you have so many classroom lessons? I'm changing everything! EVERYTHING!"

Right, maybe not so much of conversation, and more of a dramatic monologue.

But whatever happened then resulted in a complete overhaul in the academy's curriculum, and a massive spike in quality of education in an already high quality education.

The National Mecha Pilot Academy's hold on the top pilot academy in the Federation was completely unshakeable under Bruce Pang.

Well, there was that one special year, of course. But that's a story for later.

Anyway, my first class was Introduction to Combat Theory, and it was held in a massive open field.

The 5000 of us were broken down to smaller classes of 50 students each, and we were clustered together with a white attired teacher standing in front of each class.

Strangely, every single teacher was holding a massive sandwich.

"Is it a reward for today's class? Awesome! I will make sure I do my best and win that sandwich!" I remember thinking very naively.

The teacher in front of my class was a slim and bespectacled young man with a bored look on his face. He was around 1.8 meters tall, and looked really nerdy.

But he did give out a very dangerous aura, so I did not underestimate him. Not at all.

I quickly glanced at my classmates, and realized that they were mostly boys. However, I was quite happy to find Tes and Olivia in my class. My bunkmates were there too.

I think it was Jeanette pulling the strings a little to fill my life with friendly faces.

She was certainly the best.

But the academy was full of awesome teachers and staff, because the combat instructor for us first years that year was also extremely epic too.

Instructor Black Kong.

Damn it. Even his name is so bloody cool.

"Good morning kids. My name is Black Kong. You can call me Instructor Black Kong. I will be teaching you how to fight.

You are all in classes of 50. Standing before your classes are Class Instructors. They are all holding big sandwiches.

You have the time it takes for them to finish their sandwiches to land three hits on them.

If you can do that, you can skip running for fifty laps around this giant field.

Good luck. Class Instructors, you may begin eating your sandwiches."