Mecha Chapter 94: Preparation

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo

 

Luo XiaoLou blinked and replayed what Shay had said to him. Best newcomers? He’s not really one of Kane’s guys, he’s just a part-timer. What’s the point of running to the PDG family for fun? Yang Ke was Ling Xu’s henchman, it was actually good that he was going.

Shay stared at the calm Luo XiaoLou in surprise and resignation. Was this his only reaction? It was too little.

Luo XiaoLou looked at Shay one more time and said, “If it’s okay, I’ll leave first. I have work to do.”

Shay stared blankly at Luo XiaoLou as he walked away, momentarily wanting to drag Luo XiaoLou back and ask him why he wasn’t going to his superiors for an explanation, and momentarily wanting to scold him for being a wimp.

Luo XiaoLou entered the studio as he buttoned up, saw the Tier 3 mecha in the corner, and immediately left what he had just done behind. Today’s experiment was crucial for him. He had already practiced strengthening with scattered parts, but this was the first time he had ever used a whole mecha.

While Luo XiaoLou was getting ready, the door opened and Shen Yuan walked in.

Shen Yuan carefully observed Luo XiaoLou’s face. He noticed that Luo XiaoLou had turned his back to him and bent over to handle the reagents, and that the tip of his nose was slightly sweating.  

“There’s actually a hidden agenda going on with this decision.”

Luo XiaoLou carefully put down the strengthening agent in his hand. He didn’t have the heart to use a bottle, and even if he did an experiment, he couldn’t experiment with something that cost him ten million. The property of being a wealthy man that he only formed when he came to the future society was really reflected everywhere.

“Brother Shen?” Luo XiaoLou wondered. What did he mean by there being another hidden agenda? It’s just that Ling Xu had asked Yang Ke to replace him, but it was not really a big deal.

Shen Yuan looked a little unnatural, coughed, and said, “Actually, my master meant for us two to go. When this was reported to Master, he said to ask Yuan Xi what he meant.”

Yuan Xi? How did this still involve him? Luo XiaoLou could not help but perk up his ears to listen.

Shen Yuan saw that Luo XiaoLou’s face did not look aggrieved or unhappy, so he slowly continued to say, “This is not a small matter, and has a great impact on the direction of your future development. Since Yuan Xi is your mecha warrior, it isn’t inappropriate to ask him what he means by this. I went to ask him myself, and Yuan Xi was reluctant.”

Luo XiaoLou perked up and asked, “What did Yuan Xi say?”

“He said the duration was too long and asked us to change people. The PDG Family’s annual party is at least a week long,” Shen Yuan replied.

Luo XiaoLou couldn’t help but laugh. When he saw Shen Yuan looking at him, he quickly cut off his laugh and said, “Mn, that, I also think that the duration is a bit long.” 

A week? I’m afraid that now, if I leave for a day, Yuan Xi wouldn’t even know what to do with his days. Luo XiaoLou’s eyes curled up as he thought of that powerful and arrogant guy who couldn’t leave him. He hadn’t even thought that the hidden agenda was Yuan Xi.

Shen Yuan looked at Luo XiaoLou, who didn’t mind at all, and realized that they had all thought too much. Luo XiaoLou didn’t care whether he was the best newcomer or not. Shen Yuan looked at Luo XiaoLou, who was smiling, unable to regain his senses until he suddenly remembered the words of his master: in front of absolute strength, anything false was meaningless! 

It seemed he had been in a hurry for nothing. Shen Yuan couldn’t help but recall what he couldn’t help but say for Luo XiaoLou after hearing Yuan Xi’s flat refusal, “You know, he’s your mecha maker and an independent individual, he should have his own freedom and hobbies.”

At that time, Yuan Xi’s dark eyes looked at him coldly, and it took a while before he suppressively said, “I told him he could work at Kane.” 

In fact, what Yuan Xi didn’t even want to think about was the fact that he had agreed to basically everything Luo XiaoLou had offered, which was really disgraceful to his pride as a man…

“I’ll give him whatever he wants, but what others give may not be what Luo XiaoLou wants.” 

Luo XiaoLou didn’t have to reach out to the upper echelons of the PDG Family; Yuan Xi would pave the way for him in the future. He could protect his people, he knew what Luo XiaoLou wanted most, and he would give him the best.

That was the last thing Yuan Xi said before he cut off the communicator.

Shen Yuan looked at Luo XiaoLou, who was unaffected by the situation, and thought that maybe it was not as — unfair — between Yuan Xi and Luo XiaoLou as others saw it, and that maybe, they were pretty close.

Yuan Xi had disagreed with them and said they must change the selected persons for the party, and that they could ask Luo XiaoLou’s opinion. But Master Yan said that Luo XiaoLou was his apprentice, and it didn’t matter if he was to attend such a party or not, and only then did he really change his mind.

“Shen Yuan, as long as you’re on the list, I don’t think it even matters.” Luo XiaoLou could see Shen Yuan’s comforting intentions and hurriedly explained. Actually he was slightly relieved because he was now too busy to spare a week’s time.

At the same time, Ling Xu looked at the list in his hand and his face sank. When he had read the preliminary selection list, it was Shen Yuan and Luo XiaoLou, and he didn’t say anything. As long as there was true talent, he didn’t think to oppose it. He wasn’t the kind of person who couldn’t distinguish between public and private.

Now what was this called, replacing Luo XiaoLou with Yang Ke because they thought he couldn’t tolerate others? Even if he really wanted Yang Ke to meet the upper echelons of the PDG Family, he could have always added an extra slot for Kane.

Luo XiaoLou used a third of the bottle of Spiritual Power Enhancer, then added the slightly augmented reagent he had formulated so that even if it was diluted, it wouldn’t lose much of its effectiveness.

After finishing up with the reagent, Luo XiaoLou took a look at Shen Yuan who was carefully assembling the mecha across the room, and then went inside with the Tier 3 mecha. Usually Luo XiaoLou would rarely use the workroom inside, but this time he was going to apply the Source of Consciousness power, and he did not dare take any risks in front of Shen Yuan, whose Spiritual Power was also significantly increasing lately.

After closing the door, Luo XiaoLou took a deep breath, went through the steps in his mind, closed his eyes, and laid out the Source of Consciousness power until the entire mecha was wrapped in it.

Then, Luo XiaoLou paused for a few seconds before controlling the bottle and pouring the strengthening agent onto the mecha, but the strengthening agent did not penetrate.

Usually mecha makers would reinforce their mecha by applying the strengthening agent directly to the mecha and then combing it over and over again with Spiritual Power over a long period of time to get the most out of the strengthening agent.

However, when Luo XiaoLou poured out the strengthening agent, the mecha was coated with Source of Consciousness, so the strengthening agent did not react with the mecha in any way.

Then, Luo XiaoLou separated part of the Source of Consciousness and guided the flow of the strengthening agent, trying to make it cover the mecha’s entire body.

An hour later, and by the time Luo XiaoLou finally spread the enhancer evenly over mecha, his forehead was covered in sweat. Because it was a liquid, even with Luo XiaoLou’s Source of Consciousness, it was not easy to control it, not to mention that he had to be focused on two things now, so if he relaxed, he would make a mistake.

Now that half of his Spiritual Power had been consumed, Luo XiaoLou didn’t wipe the beads of sweat that dripped from his forehead, but used the last part of his Source of Consciousness to start combing the strengthening agent that fused with the surface of the mecha. Each part of the enhancer reacted with the mecha in the most effective way.

……

When Luo XiaoLou finally came out of the workroom, Shen Yuan had already assembled his side of the mecha and was reading the information while waiting for Luo XiaoLou.

Seeing Luo XiaoLou come out, Shen Yuan smiled and got up, only to be taken aback when he saw his appearance. He hurriedly stepped forward to help Luo XiaoLou, “You — what’s going on?”

Luo XiaoLou’s face was pale. His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his hands and feet seemed to be trembling a bit, as if he had run out of strength. But in his eyes, there was an obvious hint of excitement, or happiness.

Shen Yuan didn’t say anything else, he understood this feeling. He just went forward to help Luo XiaoLou, then brought Luo XiaoLou to his own resting place, and found him a set of clean clothes.

This time Luo XiaoLou was really embarrassed. Going to the mecha club, he would bring replacement clothes as that had become a habit, but he wasn’t in the habit of bringing extra clothes to Kane. Luo XiaoLou had no choice but to thank Shen Yuan for the change of clothes. 

He could see that the underwear was new, but Luo XiaoLou was still a bit uncomfortable, so 125 took a look at him and threw him a piece of underwear. Luo XiaoLou looked at it while dripping with sweat. It was also brand new, but it was obviously the same as Yuan Xi’s.

Luo XiaoLou ended up wearing Yuan Xi’s and returning Shen Yuan’s. The two of them had lunch and then went upstairs to meet Master Yan.

Shen Yuan brought up the mecha he had assembled as usual, and now he had a lot of Tier 4 mecha parts with him. In a short while, he would probably be able to assemble a Tier 4 mecha.

Master Yan nodded slightly, showing a satisfied look, and said a few things that needed attention, which Shen Yuan recorded down one by one. Master Yan then looked at his young apprentice. Luo XiaoLou hesitated, but still took out the space knob and said, “Master, I didn’t assemble it this morning, but I tried to strengthen it once.”

Master Yan raised his eyebrows, didn’t talk nonsense with him, and directly took Luo XiaoLou’s space knob. In the blink of an eye, a silver grey mecha stood in front of the three of them.

Master Yan’s eyes narrowed, while Shen Yuan, who had almost lost his voice, said, “Tier 4!”

Standing in front of them was a Tier 4 mecha, the parts of which Luo XiaoLou was not yet able to make.

Shen Yuan knew the mecha, of course, since almost every part of it had gone through his hands before being assembled by Luo XiaoLou into a Tier 3 mecha. Now, it had become a Tier 4 mecha, and even more dramatically, it had been transformed from head to toe.

Master Yan looked at Shen Yuan and said, “Shen Yuan, you go do a data test.”

Shen Yuan nodded and walked quickly towards the Tier 4 mecha, then linked the A.I. data cable inside the mecha to the integrated detector.

“Why did you want to enhance it? How does it work?” Master Yan asked with a blank expression.

Luo XiaoLou was a little embarrassed and whispered, “I wanted to help Yuan Xi make a mecha, but my level isn’t enough right now, so I could only play with the idea of strengthening it. I tried it today, and I — Mn, just followed the method you taught me to strengthen the mecha.”

Luo XiaoLou had asked about the detailed steps of mecha strengthening a month before, and even though Master Yan hadn’t planned to expose him to strengthening so soon, he tossed him a file that contained his own summary of strengthening methods.

“Which one?” Master Yan suddenly asked.

Luo XiaoLou was stunned and blurted out, “The last one.”

Master Yan glanced at Luo XiaoLou again. Good boy, the hardest.

At this moment, Shen Yuan brought the test results over, and he looked Luo XiaoLou up and down twice, before finally managing to say, “XiaoLou, even if you have that much strengthening agent, it’s such a waste.” Then he said to Master Yan, “Master, Xiaolou probably painted mecha from head to toe, with the parts all over its body. The degree of reinforcement is almost 100% the same.”

Luo XiaoLou scratched his hair and laughed twice, “I wouldn’t have been able to help him much with mecha, so I had to think of stupid ways.”

Shen Yuan’s eyes twinkled for a moment and finally said, “We would have been happy if you’d used that stupid solution on us…”

Master Yan handed the space button to Luo XiaoLou and said, “Good.”

Luo XiaoLou blushed. Master Yan had praised him for being good no more than three times, most of which had been to train him.

“However, the main thing is to build a good foundation first.” Master Yan said.

“I understand.” Luo XiaoLou immediately assured.

After Luo XiaoLou left, Master Yan proudly said, “Tier 3 medium mecha strengthened to Tier 4 medium, not bad, right?”

The other side was silent for a while before saying in a strange voice, “My apprentice is already assembling a Tier 4 mecha, so there’s no need to waste a reinforcement agent. What are you so proud of?! If it wasn’t for the other little brat running away temporarily, I’d have two geniuses here by now.”

Master Yan snorted, “One good disciple is enough, what do you need so many for?”

That side endured and finally said, “By the way, your disciple’s Spiritual Power is progressing at a good rate.”

Master Yan nodded and said in a deep voice, “Although he can focus on development, I’ll hone him more elsewhere.”

That side finally brought forth a hint of jealousy and angrily said, “Why is your disciple so obedient, mine is simply a piece of wood…”

 

Luo XiaoLou walked out of the mecha club feeling relaxed again, having trained long enough to feel like his body was in the best shape of its life right now. And as his strength had been steadily growing, Luo XiaoLou’s confidence in the upcoming mecha tournament was starting to grow. His goal had now changed from not getting brushed off on the first day to staying there for a few more days.

Luo XiaoLou was pleasantly surprised when his communicator flickered and he read the message, [Manager Gao: I have three more bottles of strengthening agent.]

But his account balance had turned into a negative again, and he still owed Manager Gao five million.

Luo XiaoLou didn’t want to sell the Tier 4 mecha he had since he wanted to use it to convince Yuan Xi. This Tier 4 mecha was the highest level mecha he could make, and he wanted to give it to Yuan Xi as a temporary backup mecha.

He was almost done collecting items, so Luo XiaoLou held back from mentioning this until after the exam. One week before he left for the mecha competition, Luo XiaoLou mentioned to Yuan Xi that he wanted to reinforce his mecha.

Yuan Xi looked at Luo XiaoLou in surprise and said, “Cloudy Sky is a Tier 8 mecha.” 

Luo XiaoLou’s heart trembled. Even though he knew that Cloudy Sky was definitely not an ordinary product, he still felt shocked. In the Federation, a Tier 8 mecha was almost considered top-tier.

Luo XiaoLou’s palms were sweaty, and after hesitating, he still said, “I want to try it.” He had experimented, and even if he hadn’t succeeded, there hadn’t been an instance where he had destroyed a mecha.

Seeing that Yuan Xi didn’t say anything for half a day, Luo XiaoLou took out the silver-gray space button from his bosom and said, “You can take a look at it first. This is the latest one I successfully strengthened.”

When Yuan Xi saw the Tier 4 mecha, his eyes brightened, and immediately said, “Give it to me.” 

Of course he didn’t lack a mecha, and this mecha wasn’t particularly high level. But a Tier 4 mecha was already very difficult to make, and besides, the key point was that it was made by Luo XiaoLou himself. When he saw this mecha, Yuan Xi only felt as if his heart had melted.

“Mn, it was originally a spare mecha that was given to you. I’ll replace it later when I can make more advanced mecha.” Luo XiaoLou said.

Yuan Xi looked up at Luo XiaoLou and said with dissatisfaction, “Why should I change? They’re all mine. You can send me one from Tier 1 mecha all the way up to Tier 10, and it’ll be a testament to your growth history.”

“Then I’ll help you strengthen Cloudy —”

“No.” Yuan Xi interrupted Luo XiaoLou again. Seeing Luo XiaoLou standing over there at a loss for words, Yuan Xi sighed and came over to hug him, while saying in a muffled voice, “I say no because, I’ve already had Cloudy Sky enhanced, and it’s impossible to enhance it again. Had I known that you would strengthen it for me, I would have prevented those old men from doing it…”

Luo XiaoLou’s body stiffened and 125 moved uneasily between them. 125 alone knew how long Luo XiaoLou had been preparing to help strengthen Yuan Xi’s mecha.

Whether it was the eleven bottles of expensive strengthening agent, the hard work on Spiritual Power, or his own repeated strengthening experiments with mecha parts.

In the end, Luo XiaoLou just said, “I know.”

Yuan Xi probably also felt unusually regretful. Looking up at Luo XiaoLou, their eyes were opposite each other, and for a moment both of them seemed to know what the other was thinking. Luo XiaoLou laughed out and kissed Yuan Xi.

Yuan Xi felt better too, and hugged Luo XiaoLou, like a tabby cat whose temper had suddenly calmed down — only to turn against him and drag Luo XiaoLou to the bed.

 

The next day, 125 asked, “What are you going to do about the strengthening?”

“Is there a way to strengthen it all over again?” Luo XiaoLou suddenly asked.

“Hehe, smart. I can’t say there’s no way to do it, but it’s even more difficult than the initial strengthening, because you would have to destroy part of the mecha.The reinforcement is faulty, and ordinary people can’t do it.” 125 said.

Luo XiaoLou rubbed his eyebrows and said, “Yuan Xi won’t agree, and I’m not sure about this strengthening method, so forget about it — there’s always a chance in the future.”

Luo XiaoLou didn’t mention to Yuan Xi that he had bought the strengthening agent, nor did he mention those preparations, only occasionally circling Cloudy Sky twice. Maybe he should take out the broken mecha parts to continue strengthening those.

The final exam results came out and Luo XiaoLou had placed first in Class Ten. His results this time, when looked at from the overall results of everyone in his year, Luo XiaoLou was in the top thirty. However, the students of the Mecha Manufacturing Department were not surprised, as Luo XiaoLou was Master Yan’s disciple.

After that, on the first day of summer vacation, Luo XiaoLou and Yuan Xi left for the mecha competition on the A-class planet Kami.

Since many Mecha Department students from Saint Miro Academy had signed up for the mecha competition, they were accompanied by many acquaintances. What made Luo XiaoLou most happy was that both Yates and Tian Li were also on the same ship. Yates had already signed up, and Tian Li, as Mu Chen’s mecha maker, was dead set on coming along.

 

The author has something to say: 

Crossing my fingers that the next chapter will be the official contest.