Gundam 00: Rise of China

Regardless of what kind of person Ali al-Sachs is, he is absolutely right about one thing.

In Moralia, money is the only god.

The original agreement was for delivery in two days, but less than twelve hours after Wang Ye paid the 30% deposit, Saxes and his men dragged three brand-new Thugs into the hangar.

After Wang Ye paid another 30% of the payment, with money paving the way, all the modifications were completed in just half a day and one night.

From placing the order to having three fully prepared and ready-to-go MS units parked in front of me, it only took a day and a half in total...

Fueled by money, Moralia's civilian military industry has achieved a terrifying speed that even the military factories of the three major powers cannot match.

The teacher, Piris, who had little experience, was amazed.

"Lord Char!"

Rubbing his hands together, Saxe approached Wang Ye, who was climbing into the cockpit, with a broad smile.

The latter was wearing a portable terminal, preparing to scan the thug-like underlying code line by line to check for any backdoors that had been secretly implanted.

Wang Ye didn't even look up when he heard the voice.

He assumed Saches was pressing for the final payment, since mercenaries like him valued cash above all else.

After a moment's hesitation, Wang Ye took out his encrypted phone and, with a few taps of his finger, transferred the remaining funds from the four thugs' phones without missing a single penny.

"Buzz—"

Immediately, the phone in Sacher's arms began to vibrate silently.

He took it out and saw the string of numbers on the phone screen, which made his eyes light up instantly, and his smile became even brighter and more dazzling.

Such a generous customer, who doesn't even haggle over the price and proactively settles the full amount in advance, is hard to find even in the entire Gravity Sphere, let alone in Moralia.

"Oh, Lord Char, that's not what I meant!"

Saches, who was secretly delighted but had to maintain a composed demeanor, quickly put his phone back in his pocket.

He spoke in a polite, Eastern style, but as he leaned closer to Wang Ye, his tone carried a hint of unrealistic worry.

"The modification plan you provided is still within the reasonable range for the other two team members' machines."

"But yours..."

Smacked his lips and shook his head.

"In order to maximize power output, push speed to the limit, and increase the time spent in the air for combat."

"The subtraction you've done is far too extreme."

"Let me put it this way, the armor on this machine is just for show."

"Let alone the attack from Celestial Gundam, even a stray bullet from a regular MS linear rifle can graze through the outer shell and damage the internal circuitry."

"It can fight at most three battles, and after that it will be scrapped without even being worth repairing."

Having spent so many years on the battlefield, Sacher has seen countless ruthless individuals who risked their lives to modify their mobile suits in order to survive.

Some people pile up armor to create mobile fortresses, while others add weapons to make themselves look like cannons.

But this was the first time he had ever seen an extremist like Wang Ye who would cut the aircraft's protection and lifespan to almost zero in order to increase speed, power output, and loiter time.

"Could a normal mob-style attack defeat an AEU's standardized attack?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Ye finally poked his head out of the cockpit and asked calmly.

Saches paused, then shook his head.

"Can they defeat the Union's newly redesigned flag-style uniforms?"

Saches shook his head again.

"Can that rival Celestial Being's Gundam?"

After asking those three questions, Saches laughed.

Let's be realistic, and not talk about thugs.

Even standard and flag-style designs are no match for Gundam.

That settles it.

Wang Ye patted the cold, thug-like armor, which was specially painted red, and climbed out of the cockpit.

"Since it looks like it'll explode in one hit anyway, we might as well use all the unnecessary stuff to exchange for immediate combat power."

"At least if we run fast, we might still have a chance to slash the other person."

Sachs nodded, stroking his chin.

After receiving Wang Ye's modification plan, he pondered it for a whole night and finally modified his own Thug-style motorcycle according to the exact same parameters.

The reason is simple: this is the era of Gundam.

Conventional protection is completely ineffective.

Only immediate combat capability is the only chance of survival.

Moreover, after this incident, the last bit of doubt in Saxe's mind disappeared.

This reflects a style of treating weapons as disposable resources and prioritizing offensive capabilities at the cost of everything.

It has the inherent iron-willed spirit of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang.

The Xia in front of me is one hundred percent a person sent by the People's Revolutionary Alliance.

But none of that matters.

As long as the money is right, not only people from the People's Revolutionary Alliance, but even members of the Celestial Organization will come to him to discuss business.

Accept it as is!

I only care about money, not people!

Thinking of this, Saxe moved closer to Wang Ye, lowered his voice, and spoke in a tone that only the two of them could hear.

"Lord Xia, I have something to tell you."

"I asked around and found out that the AEU's arsenal has some newly produced defective products."

He deliberately emphasized the words "defective products".

Suddenly, Wang Ye's pupils, hidden behind his sunglasses, trembled violently.

Standardized format?

AEU's newest and most elite MS?

How could defective products leak out of non-sale items that weren't even planned for export?

It's truly... one can only say that this is a fine tradition of the West.

For money, they'd even manufacture the noose around their own necks.

So, Wang Ye, who was full of interest, was about to ask in detail what the defective products were and how much they cost.

Suddenly, the small door on the side of the hangar where they were located was kicked open with a loud bang.

"Hey! You, Char Aznable!"

A guy named Patrick stormed in angrily, his striking red hair standing on end.

Ever since he heard Manekin say, "Oh, I kind of like you," he had been thinking about it over and over again for days.

He grew angrier the more he thought about it, and the more he felt that Wang Ye was his number one rival in love.

When Patrick finally couldn't hold back any longer, he came over to cause trouble for love.

Earlier at the door, he heard Wang Ye's three questions, but he didn't hear Saxes mention anything about the fixed formula.

Based on confidence in his own strategy and his own abilities...

At this moment, he put his hands on his hips, pointed at the red Thug, and shouted with a look of disdain:

"A thug's style is a thug's style! No matter how you modify it, it's still garbage! Even if you paint it red, it still can't beat my standard style!"

"Besides, I'm the one who's officially assigned the driving role!"

"Petrik Krasawa, the AEU ace with a perfect record in 2,000 simulated battles!"

Upon hearing this, Anura, who had initially thought it was someone else, rolled her eyes. Piris remained expressionless, but silently stepped back as if he didn't want to get involved with bad things.

"Boss, are you going to pay me? If you pay me, I'll take care of it."

"Trust me, I can handle it!"

Upon seeing the visitor, Sacheris felt he had another business opportunity.

However, Wang Ye was also interested in Patrick, especially in the performance of the opponent's custom-designed system.

Turning around, Wang Ye looked at the red-haired ace who was red-faced and furious, and stated a fact in a calm tone.

"Oh? An ace who won all two thousand simulation battles?"

"Is that the ace who, at the AEU new machine launch event, was defeated by Celestial Being's Exia Gundam in just a few moves in actual combat, in front of billions of people worldwide?"