Gundam: From Piece to Player

“I’m just watching from up here.” Karma’s thoughts echoed in the air as Sherington looked around incredulously.

I was overwhelmed with mixed feelings when I saw the direction from which the brainwaves were coming from.

It wasn't a machine or any kind of cybernetic being; above Mercury's thin clouds, a mecha floated higher up.

V-shaped antenna + monocular monitor, up to 40 meters high.

Although Garma wanted to call it Gundam, he chose to call the completed machine the final work of the Real Series – Gunbuster.

The Zaku King is stronger than all the Gundams.

"Senior, aren't you breaking the rules of combat?"

Sherington looked at the aircraft flying in the air and gave a wry smile.

"What rules? I'm the only one playing. Is there a rule against remotely controlling the MS?"

Karma does enjoy gambling, but he prefers to cheat in gambling... to make his winning percentage approach infinity.

Fairness can't put food on the table.

The brainwave intensity emanating from that machine far surpassed that of the previous ZUDA, which allowed Sherington to feel that familiar sensation.

I didn't even realize it myself.

The next moment, the Zaku King in the sky threw out a ball.

"Anna, unlike the grand magic tricks that alter the properties of objects with nanoweapons, you should experience high-energy physics firsthand."

The reverse X was pulled towards it by a suction force.

Gravitational wave weapon?

Sherington could only use her mental power to mobilize her limited number of nanomachines and then attack the sphere, attempting to use nanoweapons to erode it.

Just before the nanomachines could erode its outer shell, as if detecting an enemy, its core detonated first.

The nanomachines were shattered by opposing forces, and Inverse X was also severely damaged.

Why did Karma know that Reverse X was severely damaged?

Because the Death Vanguard has begun its operations near Mercury's orbit, engaging in battle with its own children—only one side is determined to intervene and rescue others if it finds itself at a disadvantage.

They were comparable to a stretcher-bearer unit.

This time, Karma won't let Anna escape again.

After Gunbuster dodged into Reverse X, he began slashing with his antimatter saber.

In order not to be cut in half.

Reverse X instinctively began to disintegrate, but Karma was faster, grabbing Reverse X's separated head with one hand and immediately activating the surrounding protective force field.

It immediately began sub-light speed flight.

The speed was so fast that the other parts of Reverse X's body couldn't keep up, and he didn't forget to throw out a sentence while flying.

"Kids, don't stop me, I've already taken care of it."

Within his mind, the children's cheers rose and fell; nothing could be more exhilarating than this victory.

Gunbuster is not only fast but also highly stealthy, easily leaving all the Death Vanguard behind.

After the spaceship had been flying for about 15 minutes and was about to reach the edge of the solar system, Kalmar heard a brainwave voice.

"Alright, senior, you don't need to fly anymore. No one can track you anymore. You win."

Hmm, you seem quite arrogant, Your Majesty? You are now my trophy.

Steel Buster grabbed the inverted X's head in his right hand and shook it, as if he were controlling a giant basketball.

"I surrender, I surrender, please stop... Senior is the best."

The cockpit of the Inverse X slowly opened.

Steel Buster also opened the cockpit on its chest.

Then Karma saw Sherington float over without wearing a pilot's suit, and she cosplayed as a Hatsune Miku.

What's gotten into Anna again?

He activated the radiation protection and temperature control system around the body, and then pulled the other person into his arms.

Only when I got closer could I see that Anna's life support equipment didn't need a glass cover... It must be some kind of special combat suit. It seems I was worrying too much.

Only upon closer inspection can one see that Anna is now a stunning beauty.

(Graphics generated by AI)

Compared to her original body, she's a whole size smaller, looking petite and delicate, perfect for being held... and her long, light golden curly hair makes her look like a porcelain doll.

Wait, what are you doing?

Karma watched as Anna closed her eyes and prepared to kiss her.

Karma didn't kiss her. He observed Anna, wondering if she was wearing a gem on her forehead.

Could it be a magical girl's jewel?

"Don't you want to kiss me, senior?"

“There will be plenty of opportunities in the future.” Karma reached out and pinched her cheek.

"Ugh." Anna's eyes were a little dazed... She looked cute with her blank expression, probably because she wouldn't resist anything.

"You need to explain to me the reason for all this trouble. Why did you push the moon away?"

"Before that, I'd like to know how you learned about that machine, senior?"

Sherington pointed with her finger at the Reverse X head in Steel Buster's hand.

"What I know in another world is a Gundam anime called 'Reverse A'. This is your villainous mobile suit, called Reverse X, while Reverse A is even said to be a weapon that will destroy Earth's civilization."

"The Reverse X is a machine I found in the Kuiper Belt; it's a product of an extraterrestrial civilization," Sherington said.

"alien?"

"Senior, what do you think is the probability that aliens look exactly like humans? I can show you the cockpit of the Inverse X. It's a machine designed entirely for human pilots."

Based on past experience watching movies and animations, extraterrestrial life forms look almost identical to humans.

But upon closer examination, this doesn't quite make sense. It's extremely difficult for another planet to give rise to life, let alone human-like intelligent life forms.

If we rule out the possibility that humans are actually pets raised by some kind of divine civilization on different planets, then the only explanation is that they are "of the same origin as enemies".

They all actually came from Earth.

"Are the manufacturers of Reverse X and Reverse A hostile forces?"

"Yes, but one occupies the Earth, while the other has left the solar system. By the way, Reverse X is actually a 'mass production machine' of an extraterrestrial civilization, while Reverse A is actually a product of Earth's civilization imitating Reverse X."

So, is Reverse A a weapon created by human civilization to fight against another human civilization?

Karma couldn't help but smile wryly.

Getting humans to stop killing each other is more difficult than developing a warp drive.

Chapter 396 The Curse of the Ancient Civilization

"So you're not from our world after all."

Anna sighed.

"This world is called the Universal Century, a story written by a bald old man named Yuuki Tomino. But there are many creators. For example, my adopted son Banagher is a character created by Haruaki Fukui. We fans call him Shin-Taka-fu.

Karma wasn't afraid of breaking the fourth wall anymore; the information about the transmigrators wasn't really a secret to Anna.

"what about me?"

Karma shook her head. "I haven't read any pirate comics, but I'm guessing you're a character from Hasegawa's works?"

"However, we don't need to worry about the original development. Our timeline has already changed many times. For example, our current technology has surpassed the Universal Century."

He looked at Anna: "And you, Anna, are you a time traveler?"

Anna shook her head.

"That's one way to put it, but from a scientific point of view, I'm just a girl who has the memories and technology of the future Sherington. Calling it time travel is too idealistic. If I could really travel freely through time and space, I wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of avoiding paradoxes and fearing the butterfly effect that would cause me to disappear... Fortunately, I still managed to arrive in the future smoothly."

Sure enough, it was time travel.

"What exactly happened in UC180?" Karma still preferred to think of the other person as a time traveler, because it made things easier to understand.

"Could it be that Reverse A activated the Moonlight Butterfly and destroyed the Earth Sphere?"

“No, the restart isn’t a specific time point, but rather a condition that activates it.” Anna sighed. “We did several experiments before we figured it out… Whenever a spaceship crosses the Kuiper Belt, the ‘boundary marker’ set up by that ancient civilization is activated.”

"why?"

"Senior, do you remember what the reverse A design was originally intended for?"

"Defense against extraterrestrial civilizations?"

"Yes, to be precise, it's about defending against the human civilization from outer space that's invading from the outer solar system. Reverse X's activation of the Moonlight Butterfly isn't a random reboot, but rather like an automatically triggered immune system."

"Is there no identification system for friend or foe?"

"The original target of Reverse A was hostile human civilization. You would expect it to be able to identify something. The guys who created Reverse A may have developed an enemy-or-foe identification system, but they were not kind enough to leave the identification code behind."

"At the time, I was leading several thousand new humans out of the solar system in a spaceship... I accidentally triggered this program, and by the time I realized it, the nanomachines had already washed the Earth's sphere."

"Seven sides...2100 colonies. All human creations were considered objects to be decomposed, and the humans there could not survive. Tens of billions of humans died that day."

"Although there were survivors on Earth, all industries were destroyed in a short period of time, and humanity was almost instantly returned to the primitive era. Without any preparation, human civilization returned to the Stone Age."

"So you planned the time travel because you felt guilty?"

“Yes, I also found Tobia to help me… His wife and children happened to be visiting the Earth Sphere, so…” Anna said, “I wanted to go back in time to correct this mistake; Tobia wanted to save his wife and daughter again, and also to break this curse set by the ancient civilization.”

"Have you never thought about defeating Reverse A and destroying this insane system?"

"So, senior, you've given me a lot of possibilities."

Anna's praise pleased Kalma, and she continued: