Chapter 142: A Sudden Thought
Ye Chong walked home by himself, his mind still preoccupied with the intel he obtained from the young lady earlier. He had imagined the Sanctuary to be powerful, but did not expect it to as powerful as he now knew. No wonder it could hold itself against Black Cove and the MPA! The Sanctuary’s power came from its mentalists and mentalist pilots, and this made Black Cove and the MPA wary of it.
Black Cove, MPA and Sanctuary - Ye Chong considered the Three Forces, interrelated to but independent from one another. The Three Forces had many similarities, such as mech technologies that far exceeded that of the Five Galaxies, and their total mystery, as if they came from a different, powerful and mysterious world.
As for that young woman called Zhu Ling, Ye Chong let her go in the end! While killing her was easy, Ye Chong did not really feel like killing her. He did not enjoy killing, and he had only killed others for survival. If it was not necessary, why should he kill another person? Beside, he was quite impressed by the young woman - calm, rational, and persevering, Ye Chong saw traces of himself in her!
The young woman left with a calm expression, as though she had expected to be released. After some rest, the young woman showed remarkable physical capabilities, her movements athletic, as she gradually vanished out of Ye Chong’s sight. Looking out to the empty shore of pebbles, Ye Chong could not help but sigh a little. To survive was rarely a simple task! That precious Red Liquor sat quietly in Ye Chong’s bag.
Back at Lunatic Guan’s place, Ye Chong realized that he had returned empty handed from his trip outdoors today, and smiled wryly.
Inside the house, Lunatic Guan was in a rare state of sobriety, packing her things energetically. Lunatic Guan saw Ye Chong and called to him, "Little Ye, did you see my light yellow jacket?"
"Light yellow?" Ye Chong cocked his head to its side and thought for a moment. "It's been probably thrown out!" He was cleaning up that day, and had gotten rid of a mountain of things. Ye Chong could not recall if a light yellow jacket was one of them. However, since it could not be found, the probability of it being thrown away was high!
"What? Thrown out?" Lunatic Guan’s expression froze, and immediately turned into great anger, "How dare you throw it out! Didn’t you know I’m still going to wear it? Didn’t you know …"
"I didn’t!" Ye Chong replied calmly but clearly.
Lunatic Guan was instantly silenced, and remembered then that she had asked him to clean up the house without giving any specifications. Lunatic Guan calmed down a little and humphed coldly, "I’ll let you off this time, next time ask me before you throw anything out, don’t just throw anything away!"
"Okay!" Ye Chong replied plainly.
"I’m going out these two days, so you stay in the house. Hmm, I’ve prepared some course material for you in Room Seven’s photon processor, with detailed requirements. You’ll do a test when I’m back, and if you fail, hehe …" Lunatic Guan was obviously still holding grudge towards Ye Chong’s role in her lost jacket, and her tone was unpleasant.
Ye Chong was like a rock, unmoved by Lunatic Guan’s tone, and replied flatly, "Okay!"
"Hmph!" Lunatic Guan gave another cold humph and continued packing.
Ye Chong gathered from experience that Lunatic Guan would periodically make a long trip outdoors. During his time at Nan Nan’s house, whenever this happened, Ye Chong would have to visit earlier to retrieve the strengthening chemicals. Thus, while Ye Chong did not know where she was going, he was still not surprised at the trip.
Lunatic Guan hastily left, and Ye Chong was left alone in the house. Ye Chong enjoyed the peace. There were not too much of Lunatic Guan’s prepared materials to study, and Ye Chong mastered them all in only a few days, and spent another two days collecting plant specimens. Ye Chong now had his time to himself with his tasks completed.
Ye Chong thought of the day he worried about not having a mech for transport, and had a sudden thought - perhaps he can try making a full-skeleton mech. Once the thought occurred to him, Ye Chong could not stop thinking about it.
The thought was too enticing!
For one, he had no suitable mech to use in the open that would not expose his identity. If his life was threatened, he would be defenseless! Hence, he desperately needed a mech, but the average mechs vendored in shops could no longer satisfy him.
On the other hand, this would also be a comprehensive test of all his knowledge and skills!
Ye Chong was decisive, and after affirming his choice, immediately went to the old man’s place. After all, the materials would have to come from him.
The old man listened to Ye Chong’s plain statement of his decision through slit eyes, and spoke after a moments’ thought, "Come with me!"
The old man brought Ye Chong to a room in the underground workshop where he usually rested. This was the first time Ye Chong entered the old man’s resting area. The room was not spacious, with only a bed and a table. There were some daily appliances in the corner of the room, and in another corner were some tools.
The old man walked to that corner to activate some concealed mechanism, and the wall behind Ye Chong slid quietly to the side. Ye Chong was a little surprised to find a secret room in here, but his expression was as inert as a stubborn rock.
Seeing Ye Chong’s calm expression, the old man’s eyes gleamed softly with pride.
The two entered the secret room. Skeletons - the entire secret room was full of skeletons! However, compared to the mountain pile of skeletons outside, these skeleton materials in the secret room were few, numbering only a few dozen. Nonetheless, Ye Chong knew immediately that these skeletons were of higher quality than the ones outside, and some were even extremely rare materials. These skeletons were undoubtedly like treasure to a skeleton carver!
No skeleton carver would be unmoved by the variety and quality of skeleton materials kept in here. At least Ye Chong was so, his expression changing for the first time as he looked at these skeletons!
"Heavens! These skeletons are amazing!" Ye Chong thought as his eyes glowed, scanning through the materials!
The old man was pleased with Ye Chong’s expression, and explained with some delight, "Every year, the Sanctuary would send some rare skeletons to me as a gift. I’ve kept them all this while, all for the sake of making a full-skeleton mech one day. Sigh, I’m old now, nothing like you young people! I have been stuck for a while now with my skills, there’s no hope left for me in this lifetime. It’s up to you now!" The old man spoke with some helplessness, his age more obvious than ever.
Ye Chong could not help but sober up from his enthusiasm.
The old man then spoke seriously, "I was going to pass on these materials to you when your skills were fully matured, but this thought of yours came earlier than I expected. As your master, I have nothing else to teach you, your accomplishments are by your own efforts, and even I have learnt much from you. Take these materials with you. You’re careful in nature, these materials will not be wasted in your hands!"
The old man’s words were sincere, and Ye Chong was touched. He gathered himself with some difficulty and managed to reply with a calm tone, "Thank you, Master!"
With the old man’s help, Ye Chong did not have to worry about materials. Initially, Ye Chong was only thinking of just making a mech of passable quality, but he did not expect the old man to provide his treasured skeletons accumulated over the years. Faced with these quality chosen skeletons materials, his initial thoughts were now abandoned, and his only intention now was not only to make a full-skeleton mech, but a top class one at that. Ye Chong even had a name ready for it - Han Jia. Of course, the name did not have any special meaning, since it was derived by Mu through a random selection algorithm. Ye Chong did not care to waste effort in this aspect. Thus, the name was decided.
The first challenge was the mech’s main body design. The mech was designed for Ye Chong’s personal use, hence it was inevitably a close range mech. Speaking of close range mechs, among all the ones that Ye Chong had encountered, the strongest would be Black Cove’s mechs. Black Cove’s mechs were the undisputed king of close range mechs.
However, it was not practical to model completely after Black Cove. While Ye Chong had spent some time at Black Cove, he had only ever played around with the F-58’s structure, and not any other Black Cove mechs. The F-58 was only used for training in Black Cove, and far inferior to the Black Cove war mechs. Besides, here on the Orbits, the Sanctuary’s men were everywhere, and they were familiar with the style of Black Cove’s mechs. He would only be targeted by the Sanctuary if he flew a mech like that outside.
Seemed that he would have to come up with something himself!
As for the engine, Ye Chong planned to remove Yu Di’s engine. While Yu Di’s engine was far inferior to Mu’s, it still managed to hold its ground when going against the MPA’s mechs. This was good enough for Ye Chong! Due to the engine’s capabilities, it could not be made entirely of skeletons. Only certain key parts of it, such as the padding, could be made of skeletons to enhance its capabilities. Besides, designing the engine was more complicated and detailed than designing the mech itself, and Ye Chong was not certain if his own engine design would be better than the work of Fred the Great.
"Best to use what I have, and add some skeleton components to modify it a bit," Ye Chong deliberated.
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