Making Money by Repairing Titans
Why on Earth did this happen to me?
Just a few weeks ago, a memory had slammed into my head like a freight train. At first I thought I’d finally cracked under the stress. Two completely conflicting memories were crashing together in a chaotic mess inside my skull…
Me. On the planet Earth. Even breathing in this world would make me feel like I was dying.
Which one was the real me?
Both…
I stood in front of the mirror again. Or rather, I tried to. The mirror had somehow climbed way up high.
“Haa…!”
Why is it so high?
I gripped my trembling calves as hard as I could, stood on my tiptoes, and finally managed to see over the edge. My skin was deathly pale from never seeing sunlight, and my body was so frail it looked like it would snap at any second. Over it all flowed silver hair like a waterfall. My eyes were mysterious beyond description. One good low kick and this body would die for real.
The problem was that this girl… was me.
“Ugh…”
I’d been standing on tiptoe long enough. My breath came in short gasps and I gave up, leaning against the wall to rest.
I caught my breath and replayed the memories.
I struggled to adapt.
Right after transmigration I was a total mess mentally. Climbing stairs or going to the bathroom was a side issue. Since both sets of memories blended together without any gaps, I was still fully myself in both worlds. The worst part was the way I kept getting teary-eyed like a child without realizing it. I hadn’t adapted to that at all.
Can I go back to how things were?
Back to Earth?
Back to being a guy?
If I looked at a game ending, wouldn’t everything reset?
Well, somehow it’ll all work out.
I figured that out soon enough. I realized I needed money for anything I wanted to do from now on.
Academy Withdrawal Notice (modified 183 days ago)
The original Rosetta was a full scholarship student at the academy. I was living the dream, getting paid just to exist. But when I checked the storage of my new phone again, I found the withdrawal documents I’d already submitted before transmigration.
It wasn’t exactly my fault. The world had just changed around me.
“Revolution or rebellion?! The new generation Titan ‘Synchro’ model has been mass-produced!”
“Second-generation Titans that control every nerve fiber as mana circuits have appeared!”
The era where mana alone was enough had ended the moment I stepped through the academy gates. Moving my body in perfect sync with a Titan? That was impossible for someone like me. Of course my grades tanked. I entered as a scholarship student and got bullied by the lower ranks. Rosetta couldn’t handle the humiliation.
It was my story too.
At least I’m not a total bum right now.
Fortunately, the original Rosetta had already figured out how to make ends meet. Titan repair knight. That was her new job after dropping out.
Time for another ad.
I picked up a holographic mana pad from the bed and the familiar UI floated into view.
Titan Knight Bulletin
[Combat Strike Squad: Bought a 2nd-gen model but the mana circuits keep glitching. T_T]
[Dummy: Went to a tuning shop and the quote is 3,000 lip. Is this what passes for a price?]
[Titan Scientist: How do you hit over 80% sync rate? Please revive the newbies!]
Hmm.
Naturally I started stirring up concept posts and flooding the comments like always.
└ This place nails the mana circuits. Sync delay under 0.1 seconds. (Link: Flood-Free Accident-Free Titan Repair Shop)
└ Flood-Free Accident-Free Titan Repair Shop: What kind of dummy would pay 3,000 lip? Go to this place lol lol lol (Link: Flood-Free Accident-Free Titan Repair Shop)
└ Flood-Free Accident-Free Titan Repair Shop: Dopamine the core with germanium and train hard and sync rate climbs nicely. I’ve tried it multiple times and this one’s the best so far? (Link: Flood-Free Accident-Free Titan Repair Shop)
Of course I hadn’t done any training, but that didn’t matter.
After a bit of comment-spamming I started hearing notification chimes.
└ What the heck is that top commenter lol lol lol Dropping germanium in the core? Is that gonna blow up the Titan lol lol lol
└ Watch out. If this guy’s repairing Titans he’s probably stealing high-end parts left and right.
└ Haa… do they really steal parts…? I sent a note asking for a cheap quote and they…;;
Are these madmen serious?
I exploded in frustration. Sure, I sometimes lift parts, but do I improve them or just rip them out?
Just as I was about to reply with more angry comments…
“Ah?”
└ TING-!
[Delivery has arrived!]
I snapped out of it the moment the panel alarm went off.
Right on time. A customer had shown up.
CLANK.
I stepped outside and climbed into the parked steel giant. A 5-meter-tall, 4.5-ton machine with a dragon tail. My personal Titan.
“Haa…!”
I took a deep breath, gripped the railing with both hands, and hauled myself up. Just climbing into a Titan cockpit and my low stamina was already soaked. But I had to do this to eat and survive.
Let’s see, three reservations for today.
To fix a Titan you have to ride one. You need its power and mana to lift and assemble high-density metal chunks. Even a garbage truck right before being scrapped was a proper active duty machine here.
Even the original Rosetta, who hated people, found it a decent job because you couldn’t see inside the cockpit from outside.
“Repair knight, please?”
“Ye… yes…?”
A metallic voice suddenly came from the Titan. I turned and saw another one waiting nearby. The part of Rosetta’s mind that was still extremely shy still hadn’t fully gone away, so I jumped every time someone called me.
“Here are the parts for the scheduled repair.”
Actually, it was the same guy I saw every day.
I was the repair knight. He was the delivery driver. Using a Titan’s power to move heavy parts made sense.
“You can… just set them down anywhere near here, right?”
“Yes, understood.”
The delivery driver set the parts near the scrap pile. Normally he’d have left immediately, but today he was staring at this side instead.
“But… are you a female knight?”
“Y-yes…?”
“Now that I think about it, this is the first time I’ve heard the knight’s voice.”
“Ah… I… I see…”
Because of mana inside the Titan, voices came out metallic. Low and deep for men, a little higher for women. But the voice coming from my own cockpit right now was clearly higher than that.
“S-sorry… I’m sorry…”
“No no no, I’m impressed. I’ve never seen a repair knight who’s a girl.”
“……”
Have I never spoken before?
When I dug through Rosetta’s memories, it turned out that was actually true.
“If you need help with anything, I can assist you.”
“No… I like doing it alone…”
“Haha, of course. Then I’ll leave you to it!”
I shut him up with a single word. Being around people was uncomfortable enough, and they’d just steal parts if they saw anything!
Finally gone.
I confirmed the driver had left and got to work.
Moving huge metal piles was a pain. The original Rosetta would take half a day for this, but after the memories merged it had become much easier.
Let’s finish quick.
Tap, tap, tap.
My small fingers danced across the control panel like playing a piano. Blue mana threads bloomed like spiderwebs inside the cockpit.
At the same time, something shocking happened.
CLANG!
Next to the scrap pile, the spherical Titan I thought was scrapped stood up, raising its heavy upper body. The cockpit was empty.
Simultaneously entering.
The two metal weapons picked up the massive parts lying on the ground and lifted them with a flash.
Controlling two Titans at once.
Any other Titan pilots would have leaped in shock.
Complete inversion at once.
KUUUWOONG!
Of course this wasn’t normal control. You had to manage the mana too while holding two car steering wheels at the same time.
Just like when I was gaming.
But using my gamer instincts I could freely control up to five Titans remotely. Thanks to this body’s overflowing mana (SSS) there was no physical burden except my fingers.
For the past few weeks I’d been researching even weird tricks like “unit designation” and “reservation commands” by linking mana.
Five is already enough. I bet I could handle ten if I had the materials.
Unfortunately I couldn’t experiment because materials were lacking. The five I was running now had their parts slowly replaced with scrap to make them look like patched-up junk.
Alright, start.
Ta-da-da-
My fingers began drawing trails.
Unit 1 grabbed the armor plate. Unit 2 tore it off. Units 3 and 4 simultaneously sprayed welding flames from both sides.
Looking for good parts.
Last unit 5.
I picked the parts I actually needed and swapped them in with lower-spec versions. Of course the overall performance didn’t change. I optimized every single part and balanced everything again.
Repair complete.
I lifted the corners of my mouth and looked at my palms.
My senses combined with Rosetta’s mana.
My fingers are still perfectly fine.
Right now I could fight.
If I’d been transmigrated into the original Rosetta before she dropped out, she’d probably still be at the academy as a scholarship student, right?
“Haa…?”
Klang. The vibration that came from somewhere was the exact moment I finished repairing.
The girl staring blankly into space suddenly stood up from the cockpit.
Shit, that startled me…
I looked around and tilted my head.
Did a golem appear?
This area near the junkyard was the favorite spawning spot for metal golems. Without the money I’d saved after dropping out I had no choice but to open a repair shop in this cheap place. If I left them alone they’d multiply and destroy the shop, so I had to exterminate them regularly.
Let’s catch them first.
Metal sorcery reproduced on my fingers again. Two small metal chunks that had been lying in the corner of the scrap pile came to life.
“Come on, you two Ddaengdaengs.”
Daengdaeng-1 and Daengdaeng-2. They were smaller armored units than Titans, built from low-output parts I was too lazy to throw away.
Like marionettes, I wove mana threads and they became ground-based drones that could be remotely controlled up to 300 meters.
One on the left, one on the right.
Pop, pop. The two of them dashed toward the bushes at terrifying speed controlled only by my fingers. Their vision was shared as holograms through the cockpit screen.
Grab them quick.
KUWOONG! KUWOONG! KUWOONG!
The five Titans waiting behind me all flashed blue light at the same time.
Under the control of ten fingers, the heavy metal weapons marched forward in perfect sync with zero error.
A legion of mechanical chimeras with different colored armor plates, different limb thicknesses, and weapons in every shape.