Seeing their tormentor get an even higher RPL than even their treasured Victor Long would definitely put the Longs in their place!
As they say, the fall that comes after a high is always the most crushing and painful. At that time, I truly wanted the Long family to be crushed painfully.
However, my grand entrance was not as dramatic and impactful as I had hoped. That damned Sherry Lin, always spoiling my fun.
"WHAT? This year's intake is incredible! INCREDIBLE!" Elder Liam's shocked voice could be heard shouting.
I turned to look at the Hologram screen once more and got a huge shock.
Sherry Lin - 91
Sheera Lin - 83
Immediately the crowd roared in shock!
"WHAT? 91! What grade is that?!"
"It's Divine Grade fool! My dad said that the last Divine Grade pilot to appear was thirty years ago! And guess who that pilot is?"
"Who?"
"Phil Whitefrost!"
"Whoaa. That Sherry Lin is destined for greatness! I should befriend her!"
"Of course you should befriend her! But the problem is, she shouldn't befriend YOU! HAHA!"
Everybody seemed to be talking and shouting at the same time, so rare and so wondrous the Divine Grade is.
"Hmmmm. Phil Whitefrost. It's the second time I heard of the name. The first time was when Sherry asked if I was "Uncle Phil's" bastard son. I wonder who he is and how come I've never heard of him? Could he be Emma's dad?" I wondered to myself.
"HAHAHA! Now the Lin's family's rise is well assured! Glorious! Glorious!!" Even a Lin Family affiliated Elder couldn't help but exclaim proudly at Sherry's results.
"Well done, Sherry Lin." Grand Elder Shella nodded and smiled widely in approval. As an all-out patriot of the Chinese Federation, Grand Elder Shella couldn't care less about family politics. All she cared about was that the Federation had given birth to another monster Mecha Pilot.
As expected of the future Eternal Warrior, one of the strongest and definitely the craziest Mecha Pilots to ever grace the Federation Military.
The uproar over Sherry's Divine Grade score was so high that everybody forgot to be surprised at Sheera's still mind-blowing result of 83. She totally slipped under the radar that day.
If RPLs aren't fixed and unchangeable for everyone (except for me, of course), I would have definitely suspected that she purposely lowered her score.
It was so typical of her. Her signature move had always been hiding power in plain sight by overshadowing it with a much greater power. She had achieved so many miracles simply using that strategy.
Sheera Lin is definitely the greatest military mind the Chinese Federation, no, I daresay, the world, has ever seen.
Without any disrespect to Sherry and her accomplishments, which are beyond impressive, Sheera Lin is ten times more deadly than ALL of the military's most powerful mecha pilots combined.
I would rather fight with ten Sherries in heavy mechas than with a single Sheera accompanied by 9 mediocre pilots in light mechas.
Truthfully.
That woman Sheera, is a demon incarnate.
Even Russel Whitefrost that damned old man, although every bit as cunning and smart as she was and could ever be, was never as merciless and never as vicious as her.
Her mind works in marvelous, marvelous ways, always taking the oblique approach, always tackling the problems at an angle, and always very willing to pay ANY price to achieve her objectives.
Yes. Even sentencing her own cousin to near-certain doom.
Which event am I talking about? The Sack of Berlin, of course. She was supposed to die there. The only reason Sherry is still alive now is because of her insane skills as a pilot and her incredibly powerful heavy mecha - The Eternal Mecha.
Sometimes I wonder if the victories our Federation achieved under her leadership was worth the price our enemies, and by default, the collective strength of the earth, had to pay. But what's done is done.
I am grateful for the fact that the armies of humanity are commanded by one who, if she does not match the saints in holiness, matches the devil himself in guile.
And what a devil we are facing right now.
Anyway, I digress once more.
After Sherry Lin's incredible results, the rest of the RPL testing went on smoothly without any further shocks. A few Royal Grades appeared after that, but nobody really got surprised after Sherry.
Even Elise Wang and Eliana Wang's highly impressive score only garnered a few sporadic exclamations of surprise.
Elise Wang - 86
Eliana Wang - 86
It was all quiet with only the occasional sob of a few kids who had fallen off the top six thousand in rank.
Until it was my turn.
Tes had gone first and had gotten a respectable 80 points, barely making into the Royal Grade. By that time, nobody even raised an eyebrow even though 80 points would make her the highest in a few of the previous intakes.
And then it was my turn.
Elder White smiled at me and said, "I am looking forward to your results."
I smiled back at her and placed my left hand into the gooey substance in front of me. For a few moments, I felt the nanoparticles pricking at my skin and failing spectacularly to penetrate it.
"Uhhh… I don't think the testing, errr… Goo is able to penetrate my skin… Hehehe." I laughed sheepishly at Elder White.
"Tes-testing Goo. Ha ha ha." Elder White could only laugh helplessly when I called a spectacular piece of technological breakthrough, "goo".
I cupped a little bit of the goo in my left hand (My right hand was a prosthetic hand) and showed it to her.
"Hmmm. Very unusual. Your thick and impermeable skin is indeed unique. I really need to talk to Russel about your condition." Elder White murmured as she took my hand out of the goo and inspected it. "No choice then."
She took out a sharp, pointed blade from somewhere and placed its sharp edge on my palm. "Ready?"
I took a deep breath and nodded.