Okafor waited for everyone to take their seats and to settle. She stood at the front of the classroom, eyeing us all down as we took our seats. I felt her eyes pass over me and had to suppress a shudder.“Hands up,” she said. “How many of you know why the Federation uses mechs?”Most of the room raised their hands. Okafor nodded.“Good. Now, keep your hands up if the answer you’re about to give me is ‘because they’re cool.’”Only one hand remained up; it was Sato’s.“Put your hand down, Sato.” She turned to the whiteboard and drew two columns. One was labelled 'DIRECT', the other was labelled 'INDIRECT'. “The Federation has orbital bombardment platforms that can glass a continent from low orbit. Drone swarms that can saturate a battlefield with more firepower than a full mech battalion of D-Grades. Guided munitions that can hit a target from astronomical units away without a single human being present in the engagement zone.”She paused, watching the class all suck in a collective breath.“So why do we strap sixteen-year-olds into war machines and drop them into direct combat when we could solve most engagements from orbit?”“Because only direct combat generates XP,” Park said.Okafor pointed at him.“Correct.” She tapped the INDIRECT column. “Any engagement conducted through indirect means, whether it’s ships, drone deployment, guided munitions, or weapon emplacements, generates zero experience points. Zero system recognition means zero levelling progress.”She tapped the DIRECT column.“Direct engagement through system-recognised interfaces — personal combat, mech combat, any form of violence conducted through the pilot’s own body or through a system-integrated machine generates experience. The system rewards direct participation. It does NOT acknowledge indirect action.”“You’re telling us we fight in mechs because the system won’t give us XP for using better weapons?” Someone (...)