Angie's words had an effect on Aina. After only a brief hesitation, she obediently climbed into the hand of the Union Flag piloted by Angie.
Reid observed this scene and spoke over the team comms:
"Angie, Noin, you two fly away from the combat zone first. Just drop Aina Sahalin off at any nearby town. I'll stay here to draw the Earth Federation's attention and prevent them from pursuing you. Return here once you're done—try to be quick."
Angie and Noin naturally had no objections and imdiately took off in their Union Flags.
Reid waited until Angie and the others were far away before having the system retrieve the Apsalus III, ensuring Aina wouldn't witness this supernatural phenonon and raise endless questions later.
With that done, Reid went to stir up trouble with the Earth Federation. Not to farm more G-Coins, but to see things through—forcing the Earth Federation to retreat from the area and buying Aina more ti to escape.
Reid's plan went smoothly. The Earth Federation forces here had lost their commander and were already spooked by the Apsalus III, making them as jumpy as startled birds. After Reid casually fired a few shots and destroyed two Ground GMs, they fled faster than rabbits, abandoning even their temporary base.
In the process, Reid stumbled upon a Jet Core Booster still undergoing resupply at the Earth Federation's forward base.
The fighter's pilot was nowhere to be found, so Reid took the Jet Core Booster and filled his third capture slot with it.
About two hours later, Angie and Noin returned without incident. Reid declared the operation a complete success—ti to go ho!
The next mont, Reid and the two won were back in the Star Palace's Factory Module. As usual, Reid fed the three captured units to the Factory Module in order: the ground combat type Gundam, the Jet Core Booster, and the Apsalus III.
The ground combat type Gundam was prioritized because Reid needed to deliver its schematics to the East Asian Republic tomorrow—he intended to bring it along.
The Jet Core Booster ca second because Reid wanted to equip the Star Palace's external resident forces with temporary armants. Since most of them were Naturals still undergoing training under Noin, he didn't dare trust them with Mobile Suits yet. The Jet Core Booster would serve as a perfect transitional weapon.
As for the Apsalus III, Reid currently had no plans to build a Large Mobile Armor. Until Beam Reflection Shield miniaturization technology matured, Mobile Armors were essentially free kills for Gundams. Besides, he guessed its analysis ti would be the longest, so he left it for last.
While Reid arranged the Factory Module's analysis queue, Angie and Noin had already disembarked from their units. Seeing Reid taking so long, Angie shouted up at him impatiently:
"Reid, hurry up and get down here! Let's go grab a big al—I'm starving after that intense battle!"
Reid had no objections. He didn't even bother checking the system's mission summary screen before quickly descending.
"Coming, coming. How about that new East Asian hot pot place? Angie, Noin, can you handle spicy food?"
Angie wasn't picky about food and had never tried hot pot before. Out of curiosity, she readily agreed.
"Hot pot? Sure, I've never had East Asian-style before. Let's do it!"
While Angie was preoccupied with thoughts of food, Noin couldn't help but marvel at the clock on the wall.
"To leave at a certain ti and return at exactly the sa ti... This truly is a divine power. Now I sowhat understand your reaction when you returned last ti, Reid."
Reid still felt sowhat disdainful toward the concept of gods. Whoever created this system of his—perhaps it was a god. After all, he had already experienced transmigration and rebirth, so the existence of gods wasn't entirely unacceptable. But he certainly wouldn't be falling over himself with gratitude toward any so-called deity.
Seeing Reid suddenly fall silent, Noin thought her earlier musings might have touched on a sensitive topic and quickly swallowed the rest of her words.
Noticing the awkward atmosphere, Angie hurriedly changed the subject.
"By the way, Reid. Do you know what will happen to that Aina Sahalin afterward? Will we have a chance to see her again?"
Reid had actually considered this question before. The system had told him that the worlds where battles took place were parallel universes that didn't affect the main tiline. He replied:
"I don't know what will happen to her, but we'll probably have opportunities to see her in the future. However, the Aina Sahalin we et won't be the sa one we know now. Do you understand the theory of parallel worlds? Even if so god sends another Aina Sahalin to us, it likely wouldn't be the sa Aina Sahalin we encountered today."
"You should prepare yourselves—in so future battle, our opponents might be forr comrades, or even versions of ourselves. I believe this will happen sooner or later."
At Reid's words, Angie and Noin's expressions imdiately darkened. Fighting against themselves? Surely that god wouldn't have such twisted tastes.
Seeing their reactions, Reid realized he might have made the atmosphere even more tense. The topic of parallel versions of themselves was still sowhat sensitive for them, so he added in a half-joking tone:
"But don't worry—when that ti cos, I won't let you fight against yourselves. I'll play the villain instead. And don't overthink it—the two of you here and now are unique. I'm not saying your parallel versions aren't you, but only you two were sent to my side by that god. I don't recognize any other Angies or Noins—I'd consider them strangers who just happen to share your nas and faces."
Reid's description of "strangers who just happen to share your nas and faces" successfully lightened the mood. Angie and Noin had genuinely feared that, in Reid's eyes, they might be replaceable—that if they failed, he could just ask the god for parallel versions to take their places.
But now, whether sincere or not, Reid's words served as reassurance. And based on their ti with him, Angie and Noin felt his words rang true.
So the two won pushed aside their lingering doubts and dark thoughts, happily joining Reid for hotpot once more, avoiding any further ntion of gods or related topics.
After eating and drinking their fill, it was ti for the usual routine.
Reid opened the system panel to check the battle summary. The battle na and factions need not be repeated—what mattered were the rewards.
This battle yielded a total of 16,480 G-Coins. (For details, see the author's note—listing them here would just pad the word count. Only key takedowns will be ntioned going forward.)
To be honest, the rewards were much less than Reid had anticipated—even fewer than what he'd earned from his last solo mission. The main issue was that the Big Tray-class Artillery Battleship wasn't worth much, only 4,000 G-Coins. Unlike the Gray Phantom, which provided 9,000 G-Coins per ship, doubling that to a neat 18,000 G-Coins.
Of course, this was partly because Reid hadn't insisted on wiping out both sides completely. He had also allowed the 08th MS Team and the Zeon forces in the town to fight it out among themselves. Plus, the B3 Type Gouf had self-destructed—it wasn't his kill—so this outco was to be expected.
Still, the most crucial thing was that he hadn't lost any rit points. The doubled 100 rit points for downing the Apsalus III had still been credited.
This ti, Reid didn't ask Angie and Noin what type of reward they wanted to choose. The previous conversation about parallel-world versions of themselves had been heavy, and he didn't want to upset them again so soon.
Moreover, Reid estimated that by late January next year, even if he squeezed every last G-Coin from escort missions, he'd barely scrape together enough for one more ten-pull. And if anything else ca up in the anti, even that might not be guaranteed. So before starting the main mission, this ten-pull could very well be his last chance.
That's why Reid decided to gamble on the equipnt pool. If he got lucky and pulled a blue glow, he'd have a B-rank mobile suit, which would drastically reduce the difficulty of the main mission.
So, on impulse, he went for the all-terrain equipnt ten-pull—only to watch two green teors streak down from the sky. He imdiately cursed his own impulsiveness. The universal truth held: the weapon (equipnt) pool was a life-ruiner!
Kills:
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1 Big Tray-class Artillery Battleship (4,000 G-Coins)
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1 Ez8 Gundam (500 G-Coins)
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1 ground combat type Gundam (400 G-Coins)
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6 Ground Combat GMs (1,200 G-Coins total)
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3 Ground Combat Type Zaku IIs (900 G-Coins)
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1 Sniper GM (200 G-Coins)
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3 Guntanks (300 G-Coins total)
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4 Jet Core Boosters (200 G-Coins total)
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27 Ting-Cod Fighters (540 G-Coins total)
Since there was no faction invasion, all rewards were doubled.
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