LCD Crossing to the Future, it's Not Easy to Be a Man

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she’ll send him a direct comm line saying “daddy, you’re late”, and then Ling Xiao will be thrilled and wipe out the imperial mecha with a silly grin on his face

 

lol. He wishes

 

Spoiler: 388

I wonder if the non-imperial operators and/or the enemy spaceships will manage to get away while he's distracted by rescuing his daughter.

 

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hopefully not since that would be a huge screw up on his part

 

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Nah, protecting the two ace students is more important than revenge, especially if it puts an end to two imperial class operators at the same time. Honestly, losing those two probably hurt more than losing the entire fleet.

That said, I'll be surprised if they get away.

 

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oh sorry, I mis read that as the imperial operator and fleet getting away somehow rather than non-imperial mecha. Yeah, those escaping would be somewhat annoying since it would allow the intel of Ling Xiao showing up be returned to the Caesar faction and they can try throwing mud of “broke treaty” on Ling Xiao, while neglecting to mention their imperial mecha appearing first and then being the invaders. Overall not as important as making sure LL is safe though...and Qiao Ting I guess since he can be a decoy to attract attention away from LL

 

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Honestly, with all the spy problems they have, there's basically no chance at all of his appearance not leaking out. The fact that they broke the treaty first should be all the justification he needs though.

Considering that they just lost two imperials, starting a war with the Federation should feel like a losing proposition to them. After all, even if they somehow won in their weakened state, they'd only weaken themselves further and open themselves up to being destroyed by their other enemies and "allies". I expect they'll disown the entire fleet, claiming them to be unaffiliated or rebels or some other such nonsense, but ultimately seek their revenge covertly.

 

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covert revenge after their overt revenge for their initial covert attack failed? What could possibly go wrong?

 

Spoiler: 388

It really sounds like its long passed time for Number Four to be allowed to start training her.

That aside, I wonder if any named characters died.

Did the chapter numbering change or something? I could swear I'd already read 388.

 

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at first I thought you said time for little 4 to teach LL stuff and was like....??? Teach her what, how to be a hacker/specter? That would be a cool development if L4 ever gets that special hacker+specter soul mutation he took from the one Caesar faction guy working and understands it, would be another tool in LL's toolbox if she can do hacking/specter stuff herself instead of having to rely on L4 for it in case he gets incapacitated or is busy doing things elsewhere, and it would be something she could use in the learning space trials since L4 can't help her there

But right, Instructor 4-the charm, social and seduction teacher. It would be nice for her to start teaching LL stuff, it will be absolutely bloody hilarious when LL turns on the seduction and gives Li Lanfeng a scorching "come hither" look and makes Li Lanfeng question his sanity and sexuality.

As for casualties-probably no one important/named will have died, just nameless faculty/students. Maybe at worst we'll have someone like Li Yingjie as being heavily injured, but deaths are unlikely for named characters yet

 

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Actually, I meant more so that she could have semi-normal interactions with her father.

Yeah, I'm not really expecting named character deaths. Just kinda hoping for it. It'd give the series a sense of stakes. At the moment, its basically guaranteed that nothing truly bad will ever happen to the MC or anyone she cares about, or even people she doesn't care about if there have been enough lines written about them and they're not cartoonishly villainous. It makes it hard to care about any of action scenes. Add on to that the fact that the actions scenes aren't even very good, the storylines aren't really compelling, the villains are all extremely lame, and the story is positively riddled with plot holes, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to enjoy the series.

 

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I'd figured the interactions with her father was your main point, but I could see there being a few gags of LL accidentally seducing people when she's learning the stuff, similar to LL losing control of her killing intent and power at times back when #5 was trying to get her on the killing dao, though less severe in consequence.

I'm not taking the series too seriously which does help reduce frustration with the parts that make no sense, and it's more lighthearted than some other series I was reading that devolved into tormenting the MC every single chapter and having everything go wrong for them and most of their work undone again and again.

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I did run into a spoiler...I think earlier in this thread, that there is at least one character that has something happen to them in the future, though I didn't see what happened to them (I did see the who), so there should eventually be some stakes raised eventually, though I don't know what time-frame it happens in

 

Yeah, I'm not really looking for a series that loves to torture its MC either. I tend to drop those even faster than the ones where the MC can do no wrong (no matter how evil s/he is) and nothing bad ever happens without being both temporary, and a prelude to unspeakably good fortune.

 

Spoiler: 389-91

C389: I wonder what will happen with the prisoners. I doubt their governments will be willing to acknowledge that they belong to them, so arranging a prisoner exchange seems unlikely. They can't really convert them to their own side since they'd definitely die in their sleep or have an "accident" or whatever the moment anyone found out who they were. And executing them all would take up a huge amount of resources, especially political capital as it would make them look like monsters or something with very little effort on the part of the Dosa Empire to spin the story.

Also curious if they'll windup moving the school. They really should if they don't want a repeat of this incident, but I'm not sure they'll be able to find another planet as good as Newline for their purposes.

C390: Why is the author saying that Decadent Voice is weak? The ability to sway public opinion is extremely strong.

C391: It would have been nice if she'd just been cute or pretty or something. I'm quite tired of peerless beauties.

Is it really normal for boys to hold hands in China? I know it's not in my own country. At least, I never did, nor did I ever see anyone else do so. Heck, even among the few gay men I've known, I've never seen them hold hands.

This is an excessive overreaction. Who the f' cares if they look similar. They're family. Family members look similar all the f'ing time. Get over yourselves.

 

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389-either "interrogate" for information or just execute for intimidation. And the other countries all already hate each other and are at covert war, so bad rep won't really matter to them, especially since they can demonstrate it was a self-defense measure against an incursion by an enemy nation (though they won't be able to prove which nation). Probably won't bother moving the school, but may have more military posted nearby to prevent further invasions.

390-their culture is obsessed with the military-if it isn't explicitly a power to make someone better with mecha or in the virtual world (hacker/specter), the government would classify it as "weak". Decadent Voice seems to be limited in effect-it's good at rallying and propaganda stuff, but can't actually brainwash people or directly control them against their will to do things that are negative to themselves (i.e.-"You will commit suicide" as a command to an enemy and forcing them to obey). They did note the government still utilizes/takes advantage of the idols with talents like Decadent voice, they just don't spotlight them or forcefully control/regulate them (like they do specters)

391-I think they're saying they look basically identical rather than just related. And to them it seems a severe disgrace to have someone that looks exactly the same as the future clan head (...not thinking of using them as a body double? Missed chance. Woman or not, Li Yinfei would still be a body double for Li Mulan, just wear bulky clothing or whatnot). There have been a few "just cute" girls so far, though we haven't seen them for a long time-I think Luo Lang's sister, and Qi Long's cousin (?) were ones that were mentioned as cute but not "peerless beauty", even after they reached adolescence. No idea about handholding in China, though it's possibly the focus on brotherly camaraderie means it is permissible for them to do so.
I do agree about it being an overreaction for Li Shiyu at least. Li Mulan I can understand since he's in a pretty fragile spot mentally with his obsessing over his "destiny" of being a phoenix thrall and thinking it means he'll be disgraced, so seeing a woman with his face reminds him very vividly of that destiny and unbalances him. Going by Li Shiyu's reaction about how Li Yinfei appearing means the elders of their family have still abandoned Li Mulan since it's apparently a really bad thing for there to be a body double walking around, the continuing abandonment of Li Mulan could be what's really setting Li Shiyu off since he worships his cousin

 

Spoiler: 391

I think the reason for Li Shiyu reaction when he saw Li Yinfei is because he realized that by allowing Li Yinfei who looks like Li Mulan out in the public, it means Li Mulan is no longer recognized as the future clan head because of the family rule 'someone that looks exactly the same as the future clan head cannot be shown to the public'. After all, he became a doctor for Li Mulan's sake so of course he will be devastated. But i'm most irked by the fact that Ling Lan's tofu has just got stolen and she wasn't even aware of it. Anyway, I can't wait to see Li Yinfei falling head over heels for Ling Lan in the future chapters. That would be the most amazing part!

 

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Rallying people is quite strong all on its own though, especially on the battlefield. Wars are frequently won or lost based on troop morale.

I can understand Li Lanfeng's reaction. He's not altogether sane at the moment after all. I can even understand Li Shiyu to a limited extent as he is a product of his family. The problem is the family itself. They have a standard policy of suppressing, disfiguring and/or killing their own family members simply because they look too much alike. That's not really a clan that needs to continue existing.

 

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I agree, the morale boost could be pivotal in many situations. I am at least happy that them being viewed as "non-critical" means the Huaxia government doesn't forcibly control them like the do specters for "public safety" or whatever excuse they give, so that's a positive side to them being semi-ignored by the government.

Yep, the Li clan is definitely dysfunctional. Since Li Mulan is the ML and many of the Li younger generation have already fallen under LL's spell or been blackmailed into her criminal empire (ahem....I mean joined her side), I think LL would try helping LM reform the Li clan to be less oppressive and loony.

They remind me of a certain faction from another story-it's a mainly female sect and they have heavy restrictions on what their members can do, and future inheritors/holy maidens are especially repressed. If they fall in love they get kicked out, if not killed to keep sect secrets from being revealed, and most of them seem to end up being used as political pawns in marriage alliances. There were some lines that seem to indicate that the reason the sect is still around and independent and not having been forced under the control of another sect since they are a relatively weaker sect, is that they continue using political marriages with the other sects to get favors and deals. *Such* a "nice" place to be

 

Everytime I read Dosa Empire, I auto translate it into Sin Empire / Empire of Sinners. Idk. It sounds better that way than 'Dosa Empire'. Sounds weird calling it that.

 

Sin empire is a cooler name than Dosa. Does doesn’t really convey the meaning in the name of the faction, at least, it doesn’t for me