Chapter 231: Provocation

San Antonio Base, pilot selection for the Actaeon Project was completed, and the five improved X-series machines were successively transported onto Phantom Pain's aircraft carrier.

Wang Liumei returned to Washington after that and began to further reorganize the Lopez Conglomerate, while also preparing to start looking for closer collaborators within LOGOS according to Li Boyong's instructions.

The reason for this was because Li Boyong wanted to try to bring this elite unit, Phantom Pain, under his own control.

If he wanted to achieve this, command authority alone wouldn't be enough; work needed to be done in other aspects as well.

After receiving the Actaeon machines, Li Boyong moved on to execute the next mission: transporting the Alliance military's negotiation team to the waters near Orb.

As far as Li Boyong knew, the mission of this negotiation team was to exert pressure on the Orb government regarding PLANT's massive employment of talent lost by Orb during the last great war.

Come to think of it, it was really funny. They had invaded someone else's country, causing their land to be riddled with holes and their people to be scattered, and now they could still use this reason as an excuse to exert pressure on the other party.

"But then again, it's really convenient for powerful countries to do things!"

Looking at the approaching Orb sea from the bridge, Li Boyong couldn't help but complain.

Specifically using an aircraft carrier to transport the negotiation personnel was probably to express an extremely tough attitude.

However, if he remembered correctly, it seemed that it was precisely this pressure that led to Cagalli secretly going to PLANT to have a secret talk with Durandal.

It seemed the start of the plot was very close...

The captain standing next to Li Boyong pretended he hadn't heard anything. This Colonel of theirs seemed to have a bad habit of liking to complain about the Earth Alliance and the Atlantic Federation government.

But who let him have a good personal relationship with the big shots of the Lopez Conglomerate?

Originally, this Phantom Pain unit was like the private army of those big shots. Now that Colonel Neo was clearly favored, it was normal for him to act unscrupulously.

Complaining a sentence or two, he just pretended not to hear it. It was more rational to maintain a good relationship with the other party.

Just when the captain intended to take the opportunity to chat with Li Boyong to pull closer their relationship, he suddenly received an emergency communication from the hangar. "What happened?"

"Captain." The hangar maintenance chief reported, "The pilots don't know what's going on, but they've started a riot. Please send someone to stop them quickly. We really can't suppress them."

Li Boyong was somewhat surprised to hear this. Sven and that group of guys were usually quite docile; how could they cause trouble?

"I'll go take a look." Li Boyong said.

"Then I'll leave it to the Colonel. Only you can suppress them." The captain quickly took the opportunity to flatter him.

Li Boyong glanced at him upon hearing this. This little guy was quite good at talking. Even though his talent as a captain was extremely excellent, he was still so good at dealing with people. It was still this type of person who would live more comfortably in this world.

"Then I'll leave the bridge to you."

Li Boyong headed straight for the hangar. Only after arriving inside did he discover that the commotion was actually caused by several pilots besieging the Xia sisters.

Of course, by the time Li Boyong arrived at the hangar, those few pilots were already lying on the ground unable to move, while Yufang and Yulan were unscathed.

"What happened?" Li Boyong pointed to the recognized leader in the pilots' small circle and asked, "Sven, explain it to me!"

"Yes. As far as I know, Dana Snipe was dissatisfied with being left out in the pilot selection, so he colluded with several pilots who were also dissatisfied to provoke Xia Yufang and Xia Yulan. The two sides escalated from verbal abuse to a brawl, and then it became like this."

Sven stated the matter exactly as it was with an expressionless face.

So that's how it was...

Li Boyong realized upon hearing this. It was indeed his back-door operation in this matter; it was inevitable that someone with a sharp eye would see it.

"Yes, I am dissatisfied!"

At this time, that Dana Snipe in Sven's words seemed to have regained the ability to move his body and stood up again.

He said to Li Boyong with dissatisfaction, "Colonel, you are biased. You are biased toward those two girls, which is why you let them become pilots!"

After a pause, he said with a hint of sarcasm, "After all, they have always been your little pets."

This made Li Boyong a bit uncomfortable. After all, in his view, the level the Xia sisters had shown so far was only because they hadn't adapted to MS operation yet. In terms of ability, among those present, only Sven might be slightly better; the others were really not as good as the Xia sisters.

"I cannot accept such a statement." Li Boyong retorted, "The reason for choosing them is naturally because I judged that they are more suitable to be pilots for those two machines. Although it can't be seen now, their potential is clearly more excellent than yours."

"Them?" Dana was extremely dissatisfied, "Where are those rookies better than me!"

Tch, things are quite troublesome.

Li Boyong looked at the gazes of the surrounding pilots and found that if this matter were just suppressed by relying on the superior-subordinate relationship, it seemed unfavorable to his own prestige. After all, pilots were sometimes quite "strength-first."

But now, if he let the Xia sisters compare with the other party using training machines, Li Boyong really didn't have much confidence...

Then...

【Mission】

Your prestige as the unit's commanding officer has been provoked; please make a counterattack quickly.

Defeat the provocateur using simulated machine combat. (Success reward: 1 plot point; failure penalty: deduct 1 plot point)

Suddenly a broken mission popped up. He didn't expect the first mission triggered after returning to the CE century to be so low-level, and the reward was also very pitiful.

However, the method was the same as what he had thought of.

"It seems you won't listen to anything I say now." Li Boyong shook his head pretentiously, "However, as fellow pilots, I can understand your thoughts."

After a pause, Li Boyong snapped his fingers, "In that case, why don't we speak with strength. If you can defeat me in a simulated battle, I might consider the pilot selection again. But if you lose, just obey orders obediently from now on."

"Just what I wanted. Let me see the Colonel's skills!" Dana Snipe quickly agreed.

The surrounding pilots also revealed interested gazes. Li Boyong's way of handling things between pilots made them feel quite intimate.

And there were indeed many people who really wanted to see the Colonel's skills.

"Very well, then it's settled. Considering you were just injured, you can pick two people from those who caused trouble with you to come up together." Li Boyong deliberately increased the difficulty to better increase his prestige.

It wasn't arrogance, but because he could watch his subordinates' data, he was confident in the outcome.

"Hehe, Colonel, don't regret it. I have never minded the means for victory."

Just like that, a sudden simulated battle began.

Li Boyong and the three opponents entered the simulation pods at the same time, and the battle began. ===== CHAPTER 232 =====

Li Boyong and his three opponents entered the simulation pods simultaneously, and the battle began.