“No, I don’t want to.”
After that, he went to the training room again, but still did not find the White-Haired Monster and his party. He didn’t even see the only familiar Tan Shengwei.
He knitted his eyebrows, went out of the training room, and looked at the area where the conference room he had been last time. He hesitated for a moment but still didn’t go. He walked towards his room in frustration— he didn’t know what happened to White-Haired Monster now. That’s right, the ornament that he accidentally absorbed must be very expensive at first glance. He didn’t know if the White-Haired Monster would allow him to “borrow” it for a period of time and then return the same one when he had money… And what happened yesterday, how could he explain it
Just as he was wandering, he suddenly heard a familiar old voice coming in front of him.
“Why are you not in your room? What are you doing running around in the morning?!”
He was taken aback, stopped, and looked up. His eyes lit up, excitedly greeted him, and happily asked, “Grandpa Ren! Are you here to especially see me? Have you had breakfast? Do you want to eat with me—” Old Man Ren was uncomfortable when he mentioned “especially.” He interrupted him with a stern face, took out a nutrient solution, threw it over, and said, “Come with me.”
Qiao Zhiya caught the nutrient, swallowed the rest of his words, followed him patiently, and asked, “Grandpa Ren, are you stuck with the parts again? It’s not a good way to always do this. I won’t be here in the future. You—”
Saying all that, was this little demon thinking that it was possible that he couldn’t find someone to move the components without him?
The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.
“Fbwv wr!” Tl vwadle bkp blye yde tzyale yv Ckys Hbkuy kd kaakvyvksd. Fllkdt vbyv bl pvyale yv bkx zkjl y qaktbvldle iwykz, bl nbsjle, yde yeele eauzu, “Zlzzkdt, ekpvwackdt vbl rlsrzl.”
“Fs vbyv’p kv.” Ckys Hbkuy calyvble y pktb sq alzklq yde nyxl wr vs bkx okvbswv ydu tawetlp. Ekvb y zso hsknl, bl pyke, “R vbswtbv usw esd’v zkjl xl yduxsal, Qaydery Sld. Mbld R’zz vwad esod xu hsknl. Ps usw vbkdj vbkp hszwxl kp sjyu?”
Xze Yyd Sld, “…” Ebs zkjlp usw?! Nkjlp obsx?!
“Qaydery Sld?” Ckys Hbkuy osdelale.
“…Alau tsse.” Xze Yyd Sld alrzkle pwzzldzu, prllekdt wr bkp rynl yde bkp qynl clnsxkdt xsal plhlal.
Ckys Hbkuy eked’v dsvknl kv cwv yzps prllele wr bkp rynl. Tl oyp qwzz sq ldvbwpkypx vbyv bye dsoblal vs hldv pkdnl kxrashkdt bkp xytknyz yrvkvwel. Tl ekalnvzu oldv qasx clkdt y pkzldv kdqydv kdvs y nbyvvlacsm, yde lmnkvlezu pyke, “Qaydery Sld, R tsv y xlnby xselz, oswze usw zkjl vs pll kv? Rv kp hlau clywvkqwz. Rq sdzu R nswze xyjl pwnb y clywvkqwz xlnby.”
Xze Yyd Sld’p blyav oyp xshle obld bl blyae vbl osaep. Tl zssjle cynj yv bkx, bkp lulp psqvldle.
Mblu nyxl vs vbl pxyzz assx okvb vbl nsxrsdldvp ytykd. Ckys Hbkuy qyxkzkyazu blzrle vbl sze xyd xshl vbl nsxrsdldv vs vbl kdpvawxldv, vbld pyv kd vbl nsadla yde vssj swv vbl pxyzz xlnby.
“Come here and help me.” Old Man Red stood in front of the instrument, his face full of dissatisfaction with his ignorance.
Qiao Zhiya was taken aback. Seeing his impatient eyes, he hurriedly put away his model mecha and walked over. He obediently stood beside him while his gaze was stuck to the component.
“This part is the connecting shaft of the weapon slot.” Old Ren didn’t care regardless if he understood or not, whether he had a foundation or none. When he came over, he directly turned on the component’s visual record, put out the perspective illustration1[I’m assuming it’s like a holographic 3D-thing.], pointed out a few points for him, and said, “I have modified this connecting shaft three times. The first modification failed and it was directly discarded. What you saw last time was the second modification while this is the third. You’ve touched the first two versions. Now, try to see how this version is different from the last two. “
Qiao Zhiya took a look at the perspective illustration and then at the component in front of him that didn’t seem to be different from the previous two. He tried to recall the appearance of the components he saw the previous two times, frowned, and then went around the component again. Finally, he got close to the illustration and enlarged it. He hesitated and said, “It’s like… getting bigger and bigger…”
A completely unprofessional answer.
Old Man Ren was noncommittal, summoned two perspective views, and asked, “What else?”
The three perspective illustrations were explicitly showing all the internal structure of the components. Although the differences between the three were subtle, they could be seen with careful comparison. Qiao Zhiya contrasted the three and gradually found a connection. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that a certain part of the third version was very familiar. He couldn’t help but move closer, comparing the components to the familiar place. His eyes widened, “This…”
Seeing that he finally grasped the point, the Old Man Ren nodded in satisfaction, closed the perspective illustrations, took out a few small machine gadgets from his space button, and placed them in front of him. He picked up one of them and said, “These are what you gave to the small team. This one’s a doll that was modified from a broken small household robot. You retained most of its main body, changed its shape by smelting, and then the mechanical movable joints were added without touching the sound production system.”
Qiao Zhiya’s eyes widened as he looked at the familiar doll. He was rendered speechless— how could the doll he gave to Captain Tan be in Grandpa Ren’s hands? And it seemed to have been thoroughly studied.
“This one’s a present you gave to the young fellow surnamed Fan. It’s completely self-made. The mechanical structure inside is very exquisite. It doesn’t belong to any existing mechanical design style.” Old Man Ren picked up a metal pendant and played with it. He then put it down and took the electronic pen which was placed third among the items, “This is the object that you have changed the least, but it’s also the most ingenious and exquisite. It’s different from the rigid model of the traditional electronic pen. You added some amusement to it. However, with just a little bit of modification for fun, you used a unique method of connecting components that has never been seen before.”
Qiao Zhiya already understood what he was about to say and couldn’t help but move his gaze to the component in front of him.
“I used your transfer method in the third version of component modification. It turns out that I’m right. You are very intelligent and much better than me.” Old Man Ren also looked at the component, his gaze was a little distant, “Eight years ago, a well-known machine design master refuted the idea of a pure manual driving mecha proposed by an excellent mecha fighter and accused him of being a ‘madman’ who tried to disrupt the existing and normal order of society. He satirized him for being worthless and for trying to drag the whole of mankind to destruction2[The original statement was: …for trying to drag the whole mankind to the muddy water/fall into bad ways/lead astray.].”
Qiao Zhiya’s ears moved and he turned his head to look at him, vaguely aware of the identity of the “excellent mecha fighter” in his mouth.
“Later, he found me, who was secretly studying the pure manual driving mechas, and invested a lot of money and resources.” Old Man Ren touched the component in front of him, his eyes becoming determined, “Seven years ago, I abandoned all the traditional mecha manufacturing materials that depend on spiritual power, and made the first pure manual driving mecha with a batch of materials that were completely incompatible with spiritual power. Six years ago, the mecha fighter who was accused of being a ‘madman’ drove the mecha I designed and became the Number 1, proving the Empire wrong at that time.”
Qiao Zhiya painted the White-Haired Monster driving the mecha while overlooking all living things. His eyes were bright with excitement and adoration.
“But the mecha fighter and I both knew that that attempt was a failure. In that battle, he struggled furiously and used his spiritual power at the last minute to achieve victory.” The old man’s voice lowered, and he turned to look at Qiao Zhiya as his expression became serious, “Qiao Zhiya, I have been trying all these years, but I have only developed semi-finished mechas that coexist with manual driving and spiritual driving. Pure manual driving mecha is a domain that’s still beyond reach— where no one has yet touched its door. My thinking is limited but yours is not. You grew up in a completely free environment and received an entirely different education from your planet. With those, you have an open mind.”
Qiao Zhiya looked at him in a trance. He felt as if he saw the patriarch who told him that he could become an excellent dwarf warrior without magic power. They were all wise men, unwilling to let their thinking succumb to the limitations of the secular world. They strived to cultivate children who were free from the secular world to become their guiding lights.
The two looked at each other silently for a long time. Just when Qiao Zhiya couldn’t help opening his mouth to say something, Old Man Ren withdrew his gaze, put away all the gadgets, and threw him an electronic book. His voice returned to its original indifference, “Help me record the data, don’t make any mistake.”
Qiao Zhiya was taken aback— just now, wasn’t he still looking back on the past and looking forward to the future, with an atmosphere of inspiring young heroes? What’s the situation now?
“Hardness: excellent3[This d*mn word (忧) took me an hour to find its meaning that was related to hardness. Hmp!]; performance level— what are you doing, record quickly!” Old Man Ren changed his words and once again became stern. He tapped the component in disagreement and revealed his bad temper.
“Ah? Oh, oh.” Qiao Zhiya regained his senses and hurriedly picked up the electronic pen to record. His mind was full of question marks— so what was Grandpa Ren’s purpose for saying so much? Was he just too sad that he confided to someone about those years?
Testing the semi-finished components to get the data was very cumbersome. The two were busy all morning, and there was no time to talk about anything else.
For the first time, Qiao Zhiya really came into contact with mecha creation. He only felt that a new door was opened in front of him. The busier he got, the more excited he became. In the end, he was even more enthusiastic than Leader Ren, the old man, and he maintained a strong thirst for knowledge throughout the process and crazily absorbed everything he could understand.
After writing down the last number in the electronic book, Qiao Zhiya gently touched the data on it and handed the book back to Old Man Re. He looked at him expectantly, his ears were moving, and was waiting for his evaluation.
However, Old Man Ren didn’t even look at the contents of the electronic notebook. He just stretched out his hand to him, “The small mecha you made, show it to me.”
Qiao Zhiya was taken aback, pretending to touch the space button in his pocket. In fact, he actually took out his small mecha from the storage ring bound to his magic pool, which was in the center of his eyebrows4[Maybe the gateway to access his magic pool was through focusing on the glabella (the area of skin between the eyebrows and above the nose).]. He gently put it in Grandpa Ren’s hand, and said with some embarrassment, “I planned to change the weapon slot, but I couldn’t do it. I still don’t know much about weapons.”
Old Man Ren glanced at him and looked at the small mecha closely. He then took a pen from his pocket and drew on the mecha’s weapon slot and shoulder joints. After several strokes, he handed it back to him, “Change it according to this size. In addition, what will you do for a living? Go back and think about it.” With that, he rang the intercom to call an assistant and waved his hand to have the guest be escorted outside.
Before he could ask anything, he was “sent” out by the assistant. Qiao Zhiya looked at the closed metal door and took out the small mecha from his storage ring. Thinking of what the old man said, he was a little lost.
What will you do for a living?
Thanks for the chapter, I wonder what his answer will be, I’m also very curious about what he will do for a living. Will he continue train and become a soldier to fight alongside Chu Rong or will he take the path of mecha creating and create new out-of-this-world designs 😊 I can’t wait to see what will come and which path he will travel down
I think a mecha fighter needs a mecha creator! Now that’s a partnership! Though I’d also say the cantankerous old man is trying to be kind under all the bluster. Everyone is trying to look out for the little cutie!Thanks for your hard work translating!