Jonathan blinked. The text in his vision remained.

[Divine Mech Piloting System is online! Would you like to open your welcome gift?]

"Yes?" he said, his voice uncertain.

The moment of confusion passed, soon followed by a steadily rising buzz of anticipation. Jonathan had long devoted himself to his dream of mech piloting, but he'd never been able to completely shake the fear that he wouldn't be cut out for it.

After all, at first blush, his new life was nothing special. When he'd learned he'd been raised in an orphanage, and that his parents were perfectly ordinary citizens before their death, he'd had his doubts. When his talent for cultivation had proven stubbornly average, his faith had wavered. When he'd reached sixteen, the age of majority in the Orion Star Kingdom, and never received any sort of important inheritance, he'd worried.

Now, though, all of those concerns had been blown away. He hadn't been reborn in vain!

"Did you have a question, cadet?"

The voice of the man at the table cut through Jonathan's excitement and reminded him that he had an audience. The activation of the system had been lightning quick, almost instantaneous with his synchronization. Jonathan wanted to explore what the system had to offer, but he couldn't afford to talk to himself like a crazy person while he was under close observation.

"No, no sir," Jonathan said. "I was just excited."

[Welcome to the Divine Mech Piloting System! Installing basic pilot proficiency package...]

Jonathan did his best to keep his eyes focused on the examiner as the text scrolled across his vision. The video call would show his own facial expressions, even if they wouldn't be reflected by the mech. He'd hurt himself enough with his initial outburst, he didn't want to lose any more points by showing any signs of distraction.

"Look at his sync rate!"

The voice came from one of the admissions officers viewing the test remotely. Jonathan followed his lead, looking down at the digital readout that put his sync rate on display. It was at fifty-seven percent, more than enough for Jonathan to be admitted to the local school of his choice. As he watched, it ticked up to fifty-eight, then fifty-nine.

The number kept moving up. At first Jonathan heard murmurs of excitement from the admissions officers, but they faded into stunned silence as his sync rate reached the seventies and kept rising. It wasn't until it ticked up to eighty-one that the installation message in his vision vanished and the number stopped rising.

[Welcome package received! Earn more System Points in the future to purchase rewards from the System Store!]

"Synchronization level: eighty-one percent," the examiner announced. He sounded more composed than Jonathan felt, only a hint of excitement coloring his voice. If Jonathan didn't know any better he would have thought he had just found a forgotten five credit note in his pocket. Still, the fact that he'd lost his composure at all showed just how shocking Jonathan's result was.

Jonathan still had a hard time believing his eyes.

An initial result in the high fifties would have been on the high end of what he'd hoped for, but it would have been plausible. Personal cultivation and mech synchronization weren't exactly the same thing, but they were related. For somebody like Jonathan, stuck in a bottleneck at the peak of the first stage of cultivation, scoring in the forties or fifties was pretty normal.

An increase in sync rate of over twenty percent all in one go was astounding. It showed that the power of this Divine Mech Piloting System was well in advance of any technology that the Orion Star Kingdom had developed. Even with the best available supplements, an increase in sync rate of over five percent in a month was a blistering rate of improvement.

His results must have looked even more shocking to the admissions officers. From their perspective, the final number of eighty-one percent was Jonathan's initial sync rate. Without knowing about the system, he must have looked like an astounding natural talent.

Especially considering his background. Jonathan had been raised in an orphanage. He'd received a free public education and had been able to afford cultivation training by saving up his pocket money and taking advantage of generous government subsidies. He'd done what he could to build up his foundation, but it was in the end just a child's efforts.

The kind of people who cracked seventy percent on their first synchronization were the favored sons and daughters of heaven, children of influential families who received focused training from the moment they could walk. The kind of people who would never be content with a career as a mere mech soldier, but who would expect to raise themselves to the status of a mech knight and even beyond.

For somebody like Jonathan to come out of nowhere and better their results would be a slap in the face to some people. On the one hand, with the Divine Piloting System to back him up, he didn't need to worry too much about petty jealousy. On the other hand, with the system in his corner making sure he'd never stagnate, it might be safer to keep a low profile while he was still getting his mechanical feet under him.

While Jonathan was lost in thought, a green box surrounded the number on the board. The equipment had performed a self-diagnostic and confirmed that his astounding result was legitimate.

Jonathan didn't really have a plan for what would happen next. All of his preparations had focused around getting his ducks in a row to attend the local academy on Matoug. His high score had opened up new horizons, but he really didn't have any idea of what he should do.

The old men observing the application process weren't weighed down by any doubts. For a moment the torrent of voices poured out from the holographic screen as meaningless babble. Then one man's picture enlarged itself until it occupied half of the view screen. He waved an arm and the room fell silent.

Jonathan was pretty sure that the old man had muted everybody else's microphones. Judging from the gobsmacked expressions on the faces of the other observers visible on the viewscreen, though, it was perfectly possible that he had simply cowed them with his force of personality. Where the old man running the examination had a sort of steady solidity to him that commanded respect, the man on the holo-screen wore an aura of authority like a cloak. Even with a head of white hair, Jonathan had the feeling that if he saw this man on the street he'd get out of the way not out of courtesy but out of self-preservation.

Even though Jonathan was piloting a two-story tall metal war machine, the force of presence he could feel through the holo-link was enough to make him feel the pressure. He was so struck by the situation that it took a moment to recognize the uniform the old man was wearing.

"I think we all agree that such a good seedling must be nurtured in the best possible environment."

The Royal Academy. The representative of the Royal Academy was not just extending Jonathan an invitation, he was trying to convince the other academies to give way in order to secure Jonathan's attendance.

Trying, and succeeding. Jonathan could see traces of reluctance on the faces of the other admissions officers, but not one of them dared to speak up to contest what the old man had said.

It was hard to argue with the truth. The Royal Academy was the best place in the Orion Star Kingdom when it came to nurturing prodigies. The instructors, training facilities, and provided resources were all absolutely top notch. Almost all of their students became fully qualified mech soldiers before graduation.

It was also a hotbed of cutthroat competition. Jonathan didn't know exactly what went on in the upper echelons of society, but even the glimpses into the lifestyle that the government allowed to leak into popular culture was enough to make him wary. As an orphan with no backing other than this one test result, he'd be a minnow tossed into a pool of sharks. Even with the system to back him up, Jonathan would have a hard time carving a path for himself based on talent alone.

"The applicant must choose which school to attend," the proctor said, as steady as ever. Jonathan was glad for the lifeline. The Royal Academy's offer might be as dangerous as it was appealing, but after all, he did get to choose from among the offers he received.

Only.... after the old man's initial declaration, it looked like the other schools weren't exactly rushing to make any offers of their own. The value of one talented student apparently wasn't enough to outweigh the consequences of offending the Royal Academy.

The old man on the holovid just nodded, not put out at all by the interruption. He turned to face Jonathan directly. "Well, what do you think?"

It was barely a question. Jonathan knew that there was only one right answer, but a stubborn part of him didn't want to just go along with the flow. This decision determined where he would spend the next three years of his life. It would shape the entire course of his career for decades to come. He wanted to make the decision for himself. Sometimes it made sense to back down and go with the flow, but sometimes you had to stand up for yourself.

It was true, most of what Jonathan knew about the Royal Academy was second hand hearsay, distorted by popular culture. Even so, he had concerns.

"I've never left Matoug before, sir," he said.

The old man waved a hand dismissively. "Isn't it just a ride in a starship? We're not asking you to pilot your own way here."

Jonathan bit back the first response that came to mind. On second thought, if the old man was going to ignore his oblique response, then he just needed to be more direct. "To be honest, I'm not sure that somebody with my background would fit in at the Royal Academy."

"Do you understand what an initial synchronization rate of eighty-one percent means?" the old man asked.

Jonathan shook his head.

"It means that you have the chance to become a legend," the old man continued. "And the Royal Academy is where legends are made. To go anywhere else would be a waste."

Jonathan smiled. It felt a little forced. He'd never claimed to be a genius, but he could see which way the wind was blowing. If he was going to end up at the Royal Academy one way or the other, then he might as well accept his fate with dignity.

"Thank you, sir."

After that, it was time for Jonathan to desynchronize from the mech so that he could fill out the official paperwork. It felt strange, holding an ordinary pen in his hands so soon after he'd been joined up with a mech whose fingers were the size of his whole body.

He hesitated when it came time to sign on the dotted line. He wasn't technically committed until his signature was on the contract.

He looked up to see the expectant gaze of the Royal Academy recruiter and chided himself. Who was he kidding? He'd been committed since that number came up on the monitoring equipment.

He clenched his free hand into a fist, fighting back the sudden bout of nerves. What was left behind after that had passed was a burning resolve that surprised Jonathan. The recruiter might just be blowing smoke when he talked about Jonathan's potential, but with the system on his side he really did have a chance to become a legend. He'd been given a second chance at life. Now he was getting a chance to see how high he could fly.

Jonathan felt an honest grin tugging at the corner of his lips as he signed the contract with a flourish. He was ready to spread his wings.