Chapter 37: The Freebie Grabber
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Even though Master Tang was focused on Yun Yingzhi, the live-stream cameras couldn’t show him exclusively. The cameras switched around, but Master Tang’s eyes never left Yun Yingzhi. Countless times, he marveled at how skilled the participant was at handling the materials.
As time passed, a question mark slowly formed in Master Tang’s mind. Then another row of question marks. He was puzzled. He was astonished. He was shocked. He didn’t realize that his constantly changing expressions had caused the live stream chat to explode with “hahahahaha” comments.
Earlier, Master Tang thought Yun Yingzhi was carrying quite a lot of materials. Now, it looked even more. Based on the materials he had processed, Master Tang estimated that they could easily produce at least ten five- or six-level source weapons. His eyelid twitched. Ten hours of competition… was this participant really planning to make that many source weapons?
Normally, participants only made one. Suddenly, Master Tang remembered Yun Yingzhi’s question before the preliminaries started. He wanted to grab all the freebies? That couldn’t be possible…
Even with predesigned blueprints, producing that many weapons at once required careful planning. Yet, the moment the competition began, Yun Yingzhi hadn’t thought—he’d sprinted straight toward the material vending machines like a man possessed.
In Master Tang’s astonishment, he watched Yun Yingzhi process pile after pile of materials. Master Tang thought: Good grief, good grief… this guy really wants to scalp all the materials.
He glanced at the other participants. Some were very interested in Yun Yingzhi, still staring. Others had moved on to focus on making their own source weapons. After scanning the arena, it was clear that Yun Yingzhi was the only one attempting to grab all the freebies.
Master Tang stepped forward, observing participants from a farther distance. He paused at ones that caught his interest and nodded in mild approval. Step by step, stopping and walking, scanning the arena. From afar, he spotted someone familiar. The black-and-red peony padded suit—the participant trying to scalp materials—was at it again.
Wait, hadn’t he already nearly emptied a vending machine? Weren’t those materials enough? Driven by curiosity, Master Tang’s expression was stunned as he walked toward Yun Yingzhi. Seeing the materials up close, Master Tang twitched at the corners of his mouth. He realized he had underestimated Yun Yingzhi.
While Master Tang had been checking other participants, Yun Yingzhi had quietly grabbed another batch, leaving a massive pile before him. Master Tang thought: this participant must have handled materials like this since he was very young, otherwise he wouldn’t be this skilled.
He figured that the materials already processed could probably make twenty five- or six-level source weapons. Wait—could he actually make that many?
Suddenly, a broadcast chime sounded: All participants must stop work and proceed to lunch break.
With the signal, everyone stopped, following the instructions to leave the workspace. Lunch break lasted one hour. Participants could eat the free lunch in the arena cafeteria or provide their own. Yun Yingzhi stretched and glanced at his processed materials. There was a lot. He thought to himself that it could probably make eight or nine source weapons.
He was amazed. People really needed to be motivated. He knew his processing speed was fast, but today, driven by the lure of cheap materials, he discovered his true speed limit.
At Alvin’s Studio, processing this much would take two or three times longer. But today, under the temptation of discounted materials, he had practically gone superhuman. The power of money was amazing.
Yun Yingzhi set down his materials, rubbed his stomach, and realized he was starving. He quickened his pace toward the cafeteria, planning to eat and then take a short nap to maintain high energy for the afternoon. Suddenly, his personal terminal pinged. It was a message from Yun Yinghui, asking for his participant number.
Yun Yingzhi’s eyelid twitched. At first, he felt embarrassed—he didn’t want Yun Yinghui to see him in the bright black-and-red peony suit. But then he reasoned that Yun Yinghui was too busy to watch the competition live, and with all the participants, Yun Yingzhi wouldn’t get much screen time anyway. With zero concern for his outfit standing out, he sent his participant number to Yun Yinghui.
Thinking of the discounted materials, he happily continued messaging, determined to give his brother a surprise. He then dashed to the cafeteria. Using his excellent hearing, he overheard some whispers:
“Yeah, that’s the one. All about scamming the materials.”
“My master is a senior source weapon craftsman. Today, during the live broadcast, he was watching him closely. If he wants, he can intern at my master’s studio.”
Yun Yingzhi paused mid-step. The words “watching closely” echoed in his mind. Would his brother see him? Once again, he regretted wearing the padded suit. Whatever, he thought, no one else could care less. He still messaged Yun Yinghui, politely asking him not to watch the broadcast, and got an ellipsis in reply. Yun Yingzhi’s eyelid twitched.
In the cafeteria, now wearing a vest over his suit, Yun Yingzhi ate freely, without restraint. He was a father of two little ones—eating a lot was normal. He overheard someone whisper, “Wow, A13167 really can eat!”
Yun Yingzhi was slightly annoyed. Maybe the two little ones he carried had inherited bad tempers from Prince Elvis, because he noticed his own patience waning recently. No one could touch his vest, so he glared and said, “So what if I eat? Did I take your rice?” His face burned red, but it didn’t stop him from arguing back. The whispering participant was left speechless.
Yun Yingzhi: “I can eat more!” He raised his chin slightly and continued shoveling in the free food. Here, no one knew his true identity, so he had no need to maintain an image. After lunch, Yun Yingzhi went to the rest area, lay down, and fell asleep instantly. Other participants looked on, thinking: Eat, sleep, and still compete—must be from a top academy.
A bell rang. Yun Yingzhi, half-asleep, wondered what afternoon class he had. He didn’t want to go—he wanted to keep sleeping. Wait! He wasn’t in class. He was scamming the Yaoming Group! With that thought, Yun Yingzhi forced himself upright. Less than five minutes remained before the afternoon session. He overheard whispers again:
“That one has incredible composure. During the preliminaries, I couldn’t eat properly, let alone sleep. That king of freebies eats like a tub, then lies down and sleeps instantly. Incredible!”
“Eats and sleeps like a pro!”
Yun Yingzhi’s cheeks burned red. He pressed his lips together and ignored their remarks, dashing toward the arena. Every minute in the competition was money. Better to save time and materials than care about others. As a military academy student, his speed exceeded most source weapon makers. To them, he was like a gust of wind, rushing in before anyone could react. Participants watched in awe.
One whispered, “So fast, so agile… his second form can’t possibly be what you think.”
Yun Yingzhi wanted to shout: My second form is a rabbit! A rabbit!
Yun Yinghui: “…”
However, there wasn’t much to be proud of with his rabbit second form, so he stayed silent and said nothing.
Soon, all participants had arrived. A signal sounded, and the afternoon competition resumed. The live-streaming drone circled the arena, letting viewers see portions of the participants crafting their source weapons.
Yun Yingzhi had spent the entire morning processing materials. In the afternoon, he planned to tackle the most difficult step: inscribing the marks. Later, during the evening, he would handle finishing touches. He gathered the processed materials and arranged them step by step for inscribing.
The first mark: the space-limiting engraving. The preliminaries weren’t difficult. Many participants had already produced source weapons and were now wandering the arena, observing others.
A group of eyes quickly shifted to Yun Yingzhi. Because he had processed so many materials that morning, they had assumed Yun Yingzhi was just here to practice material handling. But to their surprise, he was already inscribing marks.
Even more astonishing was the speed at which he worked. Typically, source weapon makers inscribed marks slowly. One misstep, and the weapon could be ruined. But Yun Yingzhi’s hands moved extremely fast. The tolerance for error was low. The difficulty was high. One mistake, and everything could unravel.
More participants gathered, trying to observe him closely. Source weapon makers usually fell into two types: those who innovated and experimented independently, and those who used pre-designed marks. In theory classes, students were often required to memorize a variety of marks.
Watching Yun Yingzhi inscribe, it looked complicated, even unfamiliar. Some couldn’t tell what type of mark he was using. People whispered guesses to each other. Soon, they witnessed something even more unbelievable: after processing similar materials in a production-line fashion in the morning, he now placed down a half-finished weapon and immediately picked up the next, repeating the exact same mark.
One student from Eiffel Academy remarked, “His engraving method is really casual.”
“Independent marking, probably a rare type. There’s nothing on StarNet about it.”
Yun Yingzhi was completely focused. No matter what they speculated, he didn’t even glance at them, working with lightning speed. Suddenly, someone said, “I think he just spoke.”
“What did he say?”
“Couldn’t catch it, but judging by his lips… looks like… ‘hee hee hee’?”
The crowd went, “….”
Meanwhile, Yun Yingzhi had already inscribed the fourth half-finished source weapon with the space-limiting mark, nearly moving fast enough to leave a blur.
“So fast.”
“Production-line material handling, production-line engraving… how many weapons is he planning to make?”
Eyes fixed on the first half-finished weapon, whose appearance hadn’t been finalized yet. Engraving had created complex circular patterns inside. The more marks, the higher the chance of error. They wondered: were Yun Yingzhi’s half-finished weapons really perfect?
As they pondered, a staff member approached, “Hello, participant A13167.”
Yun Yingzhi finished the last space-limiting mark on his fifth half-finished weapon. He looked up, locking eyes with the staff, then noticed the crowd around him in his peripheral vision. Yun Yingzhi scanned the area, tipped his hat, and glared at them one by one, signaling with his eyes to mind their own business. Some shy spectators quietly moved away; others pretended not to notice and continued watching.
The staff member said, “Participant A13167, we see you’ve completed several source weapons. Would you like to submit them?”
Yun Yingzhi immediately shook his head. Not yet. This is freebie time. Submission? Impossible. “No, I’m not satisfied. I want to keep optimizing.”
The staff nodded. “Very well. We hope you can create weapons to your satisfaction.”
“I want the competition staff to leave me alone until it ends!” he added firmly, determined to maximize his freebies.
“Understood,” the staff replied.
Yun Yingzhi returned all attention to crafting source weapons. What he didn’t know: the live chat was exploding with laughter. Of all participants in the first arena, Yun Yingzhi used the most materials—ten times more than anyone else, and they were all high-grade, level five and six.
Viewers realized how many freebies he’d grabbed. By now, Yun Yingzhi had created eight half-finished source weapons. Then, everyone witnessed something shocking: he picked up the first weapon again. Using prepared materials, he began adding a second mark.
The live chat paused for a few seconds, then exploded with exclamation marks and comments like “good grief!” Unfortunately for viewers, the live drone moved, and they lost direct sight of him.
Yun Yingzhi added passive skills to the second batch of weapons, then continued adding a second passive mark in batches. Eight space-limiting marks, eight defensive marks protecting teammates, and eight escape marks. Over twenty marks in one go. Even Yun Yingzhi felt slightly tired, but the saved money revitalized him.
Next: adding different attribute skills to ten weapons.
From 12:30 to 5:00 PM, Yun Yingzhi successfully completed eight source weapons: five at level six, three at level five. The morning’s processed materials were used perfectly. If these materials had been used for ordinary weapons, they could have made over twenty. But Yun Yingzhi’s weapons were complex, each averaging eight marks. This limited him to eight finished weapons. All from freebies. Yun Yingzhi cursed his two hands for being unable to grab more.
After the 5:00–6:00 PM break, only three hours of freebie time remained. Too short for the production-line method. He regretted being conservative with materials in the morning. Feeling slightly frustrated, he hurried to eat, then crashed into the rest area, sleeping instantly, breathing steady. Everyone watched Yun Yingzhi in awe.
When the alarm rang, he didn’t want to wake. But after overhearing someone whisper, “He’s definitely here to grab freebies,” he shot upright, instantly alert, and dashed toward the arena.
In the last three hours of the night, Yun Yingzhi decided to attempt making a level-six source weapon first. Making two would be too rushed; one should leave some time, but… Maybe… maybe if he finished the level-six weapon and still had some time left, he could even make a level-five. And with the source materials so cheap, he could use the remaining minutes to make a level-four source weapon too.
Thinking this, Yun Yingzhi dashed toward the source material vending machine, using the last stretch of time. One hour and forty minutes later, he successfully crafted a level-six, space-limited source weapon. He still had an hour and twenty minutes left.
Yun Yingzhi knew well that with such little time, making a level-five weapon would be impossible. But was he going to waste the final hour? Not a chance.
At that moment, the live-stream drone flapped its tiny wings and zoomed in on him with a huge shot.
The live chat exploded:
“I’m really curious who A13167 is! To grab freebies, he’s activating the full potential of a combat academy student—so fast!”
“I’m a combat student at Ten Great Military Academies. From his top speed and obstacle evasion, he just overtook my fastest speed. Amazing.”
“Whoa, did anyone notice? For the last freebies, he’s taking level-four materials!”
“I see it, I see it!”
Meanwhile, on the front lines, Yun Yinghui received a flood of messages from friends:
“How are you related to this family member? So unique.”
“Wow, your peony-patterned family member is so fast at making source weapons! Running to the vending machine at top speed for the last freebies, I think he’d fit just as well in the combat academy as in source weapon crafting.”
“Yun Yinghui, your family member is killing me, hahahaha!”
Yun Yinghui… twitched. He had asked his friends to help his family member, but never mentioned that this family member was Yun Yingzhi. Now he realized… he had no idea how to explain to them that the family member needing help… was the same gentle little Yun Yingzhi they had all adored.
Yes. Back when they were students, Yun Yinghui often brought little Yun Yingzhi to meet these friends. They had gotten along quite well. Even later, when Yun Yinghui had to travel for work, these friends still occasionally came to visit little Yun Yingzhi, bringing him small gifts and snacks.
In their minds, Yun Yingzhi had always been a beautiful, delicate, fragile little angel. Yun Yinghui thought… if he told them that participant A13167 was Yun Yingzhi, that delicate image… would probably be gone. Well… they’d figure it out eventually, but not yet.
Still, Yun Yinghui grew curious—what exactly had Yun Yingzhi done during the competition to provoke such messages from his friends? Unfortunately, he had been too busy to watch the full live broadcast, but that was okay—he could always catch the replay later.
At the Starshine Competition preliminary arena, under the astonished eyes of many, Yun Yingzhi successfully completed a level-four source weapon at 8:50 PM. Looking at the remaining ten minutes, he felt a pang of regret. He glanced around: students in uniforms everywhere, many from Ten Great Military Academies. His eyelid twitched nervously. He worried they might recognize him.
Luckily, as the competition neared its end, everyone returned to their own positions. Yun Yingzhi scanned the arena. Other participants had typically made only one weapon. His own? Six level-six, three level-five, and one level-four—exactly ten.
At 9:00 PM sharp, the signal sounded.
“Competition over. All participants, please stop crafting source weapons. Staff will now collect the weapons.”
Uniformed staff moved in to collect them. Some participants who were still attempting to craft weapons were disqualified. During collection, staff also checked the materials’ loss rate. If it exceeded a certain threshold, participants would be charged accordingly. Yun Yingzhi had known this rule from the start.
Determined to maximize his freebies, he had worked flawlessly from start to finish. All materials were used, with zero errors. For the first time, Yun Yingzhi realized just how capable he was. As staff collected the weapons, some participants whose materials had been wasted had to pay extra—Yun Yingzhi felt sorry for them.
Finally, a staff member approached him. Most participants had only watched Yun Yingzhi frantically moving materials, curious about the loss rate of his ten weapons. Were they all completed? How much material had been wasted?
Everyone eavesdropped. The staff began inspecting Yun Yingzhi’s ten source weapons.
“All ten weapons are complete,” the staff said. Yun Yingzhi nodded.
“And zero loss,” the staff added. Gasps and whispers spread through the crowd.
“So according to the rules, I don’t need to pay extra, right?” Yun Yingzhi said, feeling little bubbles of happiness pop around him.
The staff nodded, then continued: “You crafted ten weapons. You need to submit one for official inspection.”
At that moment, the little devil live-stream drone flapped over, zooming in on Yun Yingzhi’s section of the arena. He looked down at the ten weapons he’d made. Nine of them had space-limited esper capabilities. He didn’t want to submit those. Yun Yinghui would come in mid-December to handle the inspection. Yun Yingzhi wanted to hand those nine directly to him.
That left only the level-four source weapon. To save time, it was fairly basic: no defense, no amplification, all offensive skills. Even though it was just a level-four and made without any blueprint, it was solid—practically a fighter-class source weapon. He felt confident it would carry him through the preliminaries.
So, among all his creations, thrifty Yun Yingzhi submitted the single lowest-level, level-four source weapon to the staff.
The staff paused. “Level four?”
Yun Yingzhi nodded. “Yes, this one. I can’t part with the others…” Realizing he’d misspoken, his face flushed red. Even after taking so many freebies, he hadn’t wanted to submit the best nine. Feeling guilty, he hurriedly corrected himself: “I… I think this one is the best-made.”
The staff… “…”
Everyone else… “….”
The crowd looked at Yun Yingzhi with a strange mixture of awe, amusement, and disbelief. How could a level-four source weapon even be compared to the level-five or six weapons? Yun Yingzhi was just unwilling to part with it—he was worried the organizers might not return the weapons on time. He pushed the level-four source weapon slightly toward the staff.
The staff’s lips twitched as they took the weapon and began the routine questioning, following the rules. “Some source weapons from the preliminaries require field testing,” the staff said. “Do you have an esper soldier bound to you?”
Yun Yingzhi parted his lips slightly, about to say “no,” but suddenly thought of Yun Yinghui’s very capable friends. After a pause, he said, “Yes, I do.”
“Alright,” the staff replied. “We’ll contact you when the time comes.”
Yun Yingzhi nodded.
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