[Initial mission complete.
Distributing rewards…] Just as Adam had expected, not long after The Imperium was founded, the system notification arrived on schedule.
As expected…
establishing a civilization required a sense of ceremony.
[Drawing technology tree…] A rapid-fire sequence of images flashed before his eyes.
Adam hoped for a technology tree with a high ceiling…
science or magic, either would do.
Anything from a truly backward world would be nearly useless.
Beep…
[Congratulations, Host.
Technology tree obtained: Mobile Suit Gundam.] [Please raise your research level as much as possible and lead your civilization into the interstellar age as soon as possible.] “What?!” “Gundam?!” He had expected something like Stellaris, Honkai, or Nasuverse tech…
something that would let them leap into the space age quickly.
This reward was a surprise.
“Which series?
The one with Orga Itsuka?
Iron-Blooded Orphans?” Adam’s mouth twitched.
Mention Gundam these days and the first things that came to mind weren’t the cool mechs, but weird lines like “The streets are quiet today,” “As long as we don’t stop, the road will keep going,” and “Don’t stop moving!” Plus black luxury sedans and the Flower of Hope BGM.
His DNA had clearly been contaminated.
[This technology tree contains the complete contents of every Mobile Suit Gundam series.
Research them step by step to master all technologies and foundational scientific knowledge of the Gundam worlds.] the system replied.
Thud…
A mountain of blueprints and design documents dropped into his storage space.
Adam casually pulled out one volume…
an encyclopedia nearly half as tall as a person.
He flipped it open.
The first page showed a somewhat rugged mobile suit: [Mass-Production Unit: MS-05 Zaku I] Prerequisite technology: None A combat mobile suit constructed from steel alloy.
As a mass-production model its combat performance is unremarkable, but production cost is low.
Armament: 105 mm machine gun ×2, 280 mm rocket launcher ×1, heat hawk ×1 Weight: 72.5 t Thrust: 47,000 kg … This was a mass-production grunt unit from the Gundam series…
fodder, basically.
Besides the specs and brief description, the volume included detailed blueprints, construction steps, and the relevant basic theory.
Adam was no physicist, but he could tell the material was extremely thorough…
practically hand-holding instruction.
Follow the manual step by step and a prototype could be built quickly.
He pulled out another: [Mass-Production Unit: Zaku II] Prerequisite technology: MS-05 Zaku I An improved version of the Zaku I.
Main armament upgraded to a larger-caliber machine gun, with increased firepower and mobility.
Armament: 120 mm machine gun ×2, 280 mm rocket launcher ×1, heat hawk ×1 Higher-tier mobile suits required the ordinary models as prerequisites, just like a game tech tree.
Without the foundational knowledge you simply wouldn’t understand the principles.
… Besides the mass-production Zakus there were all kinds of legendary hero units: [ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos] [RX-0 Unicorn Gundam] [ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam] [∀ Gundam – Moonlight Butterfly] … Every one of them a famous model from its series.
This mission reward was essentially the system handing him the complete technology of the entire Gundam multiverse.
“Hss…” Adam looked the tech tree up and down, eyes never leaving it.
After fusing with a Wisdom Cube he had gained physical capabilities comparable to a shipgirl’s, but without shipgirl rigging he still felt incomplete.
Against an actual enemy he would have to fight hand-to-hand, and the port’s equipment wasn’t suited to him.
That problem was now solved.
A real man should pilot a Gundam and tear aliens apart with his bare hands.
No one could resist the allure of a Gundam.
“Commander?” Richelieu noticed him staring blankly and walked over, curious.
“What are you looking at?” “Call Akashi over.” Adam spoke deliberately.
“I.
Want.
To.
Pilot.
A.
Gundam.” … Ten minutes later, Akashi…
who had been slacking off…
was dragged into the office.
“Commander, are you giving the Cube back, nya?” “When are we going to other worlds to sell crates, nya?!” The cat-eared repair ship stared blankly at Adam and Richelieu.
“Forget the crate-painting for now.
I have a question.” Adam pulled her closer and took out a design manual.
“Can you read this Zaku blueprint?” “Eh?” Akashi scratched her head and tilted it.
“This is… uh… a giant robot?” “There’s a pilot’s seat inside?
A combat machine operated by a human?” As a repair ship she had a foundation in engineering.
Even though this was completely foreign technology, she at least grasped what a Gundam fundamentally was.
“The weapon systems are pretty simple.
The 105 mm machine guns and rocket launchers can be made in the naval base’s armory.
Steel alloy isn’t complicated either…
just throw more ore at the smelters… “The thrusters look trickier.
Aircraft engines won’t have enough power.
We might need carrier or battleship propulsion systems…” After studying it for a while she nodded.
“Should be doable.” “What about the higher models?” Adam brought out the advanced Gundam designs.
He had little interest in mass-production Zakus.
Whether they could even beat a destroyer shipgirl was questionable; if they ever raised a ground force those could go to the infantry.
The real value in the Gundam tech tree lay in those unique hero units.
“Uh…” Akashi leaned over the blueprints that were taller than she was, flipping page after page, brows knitted tight.
“This is pretty hard, nya…” “Beam Magnum, psycho-frame, funnels, force-field generators… I’ve never even heard of these, nya…” She was looking at the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam.
A roughly twenty-meter machine that carried a large beam rifle in one hand and a shield in the other, from the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn timeline.
Extremely high atmospheric and space mobility, and it could activate Destroy Mode.
“What’s the problem?” Adam asked.
“Just the blueprints are several thousand pages, nya.
It’ll take me ages to understand them.
Plus it needs a ton of refined ores…
our stockpile might not be enough…” Akashi neither confirmed nor denied it.
She simply felt the thing was complicated.
It was technology from another world, after all.
The shipgirls had never even heard the word “Gundam” before.
Fortunately the documentation was extremely detailed; with enough effort they could more or less make sense of it.
“So that means it’s possible.” “Good.” Adam patted Akashi’s head.
Soft and springy.
“Starting today you are The Imperium’s head of research and engineering.
You’ll be responsible for studying the technologies I bring back from other worlds.
“Let’s set a small goal first: build me a Unicorn or a Strike Freedom.” “Eh?” A row of question marks instantly appeared over Akashi’s head.
“Nya nya nya nya nya?!?!”