Chapter 81: Realm of Masters!
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fei stood up; his finger very deftly turned to the port he needed on his universal modification pliers.
Exhaling, he began to dismantle the many parts already fitted onto the red racing hovercar.
Xia Fei was a Speed Ability user, so he was of course quick with his great dexterity and quality technique once he got to work.
Every unnecessary part dropped like rain from the hovercar, their crisp metallic clanging as they landed on the ground ringing clear.
There was an empty carton next to the race car. Xia Fei shook his wrist lightly, and a drive shaft flew in a beautiful arc right to that carton. These were the parts that he would need, so Xia Fei individually put them aside.
Moon Song, Chen Dong, Beihai, and Manjun were flabbergasted as they watched Xia Fei at work. Be it the dexterity of his hands or the proficiency and orderliness he was demonstrating, it was clear to them all that Xia Fei was far better at assembling than their amateur selves were.
They had spent several days assembling the race car, yet it took Xia Fei less than an hour to dismantle it cleanly, leaving just the empty chassis sitting all alone on the ground.
Xia Fei wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. He lit a cigarette and found some different-size sanders in the toolbox and lined them up together.
These sanders looked like a toothbrush with a sharp drill attached to the handle. The extreme racing hovercar did not allow the usage of non-regulation parts, but it was still possible to modify the parts themselves.
Xia Fei picked up a drive roller and used a small sander to shape it into what he had in mind, carefully altering that drive roller.
He was very serious the entire time, like an artist carving a sculpture.
A short and portly cadet unintentionally spotted Xia Fei and came over, curious about what he was doing. While stroking his chin, he watched Xia Fei work on the drive roller.
Someone from the same team as this cadet walked over. “What’s he doing?”
The portly cadet shook his head. “No idea. Seems like he’s altering the drive roller.”
“Why would he alter it?”
“I don’t know.”
Xia Fei used three fingers to clamp down the sander. Exerting a steady force on his wrist, he did not shudder in the least bit while he was very carefully moving the drill over the roller’s exterior for two full rounds. He then proceeded to lift the roller and examine it against the garage lighting.
After ensuring that it was flawless, the corner of Xia Fei’s mouth curved into a slight smile and he installed the roller to where he thought it should belong.
The crowd began to shift and gather around Xia Fei as strange expressions appeared on their faces.
“Why is he installing the energy converter near the driver’s seat? He’s even making adjustments to the converter’s pressure tube?” A blonde man muttered to himself.
The people around him all shook their heads, sharing looks of bafflement.
“Heavens! He’s actually changing the speed adjustment lever from six gears to three? Does he not know about the law of energy combustion? Too few gears will increase the burden on the engine,” exclaimed a dark-skinned man in shock.
The crowd shook their heads in unison once more. “Strange. This is too strange. I’ve never seen anyone do something like this when assembling an extreme racing hovercar.”
An honest-looking cadet spoke after deeply contemplating the matter. “I’ve been doing extreme racing since I was seven, with two decades of experience under my belt. How is it that I’m clueless about what he’s doing?”
The onlookers were all drawing blanks. Actually, nobody in the crowd could make sense of what Xia Fei was doing, but everyone wanted to save their faces, so none of them admitted it aloud.
With that honest cadet opening the floodgates, these self-proclaimed extreme racing experts all felt ashamed; all they had said thus far was how they had not seen anyone do what Xia Fei was doing.
Xia Fei’s method of assembling was very queer. Many of the key parts that these experts felt should never be tampered with, like the energy transfer unit or the stabilizer system, had all been altered by him without fail.
Considering how the extreme racing hovercars were able to achieve a top speed of several thousand meters every second, the energy of the combustion was powerful beyond compare; the core system would need to be extremely precise, and even the slightest careless deviation to it might result in dire consequences like death.
Given the amount of energy that could explode forth, even a racing hovercar driver with the protection of high-grade protective gear would have trouble withstanding the blast.
This was why few would risk modifying the energy unit, for that was truly too dangerous. A racing hovercar design must go through countless repeated calculations by many mechanical engineers and plenty of road tests before they could ultimately be deemed as safe, yet Xia Fei was solely basing everything off his understanding and intuition right now as he boldly altered the energy unit. Such a move was simply extremely crazy.
“Crazy, truly crazy!” A buff cadet folded his arms in shock. “How could he install a double magnification system on the energy unit? This is a racing hovercar, not a rocket.”
“Heh… He IS crazy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you heard the name Xia Fei?”
That buffed cadet nodded. “Oh, that madman who fought with Chen Dong for twenty-one days. I heard that he’s already here in the training camp.”
“Indeed, this person you’re looking at right now is Crazy Xia.”
“HIM?!” He shook his head. “He doesn’t look like him at all. The Xia Fei on TV was rather good-looking… Isn’t he just too plain-looking?”
“That broadcast went through twelve stages of processing, so it’s only natural for the real person to look different.”
That buff cadet nodded. “So he’s Crazy Xia. Only a madman like him could come up with such insanity.”
Bai Ye’s area was originally filled with cadets onlooking and praising his assembling skills, but at this point, nearly all those people had gone over to Xia Fei’s side, resulting in Bai Ye’s area to turn quiet at once.
Bai Ye coldly harrumphed, his eyes gazing at Xia Fei with hostility, thinking that the latter had stolen his thunder.
1
Actually, Xia Fei was innocent here; once he seriously became a hundred percent engrossed in his work, he would disregard everything else around him, so no number of onlookers around could disturb his focus at all.
Right now, he was completely preoccupied with how to reassemble this racing hovercar and improve its performance. The machinery and parts were the only things in his eyes, and even if a drop-dead gorgeous beauty were to saunter over to him now, he would not even care to spare a glance her way.
Moon Song became very excited when she saw that Xia Fei was fully committing to the race thusly. It was as if she could see the glimmer of hope for them to eke out a win through him. A bead of sweat was hanging on his forehead, and Moon Song hastily pulled out her handkerchief and helped wipe it off for him, while a barely perceptible blush could barely be seen appearing on her cheeks.
Xia Fei did not appreciate this gesture and shoved her to the side, not at all showing any concern or care for the fairer sex.
He was now in a state of extreme excitement, and he was rejecting anything distracting him, unconcerned if it was out of care and concern.
It just so happened that he shoved Moon Song’s very ample chest. Xia Fei felt something strange with his hand but did not pay attention to it at all as he retracted his hand and resumed his work.
Moon Song was all flustered as she used her hand to cover her chest, embarrassment and indignation intermingling on her face.
However, when she realized in the next instant that Xia Fei’s action had been unintentional, her eyes flashed. She did not blame him but was, instead, more impressed with his stern attitude.
Bai Ye, who had seen this scene play out just a short distance away, ground his teeth menacingly, his face contorting into a nasty expression.
Right then, a fierce-looking man in his fifties had walked into the garage with his hands behind his back. He was the supervisor for the mechatronics division, Rocky.
The mechatronics division had sent over forty teams to participate in the race this time. That was pretty much all the cadets in their division, so Rocky would make a trip to the assembly garage every day, giving them guidance on the spot.
The mechatronics division was the smallest out of all the divisions, mainly focusing on nurturing mechanics and engineers. The cadets would mostly be Mathematics, Geometry, or Physics Special Ability users.
Aside from the annual extreme racing, where they would have time to shine, the mechatronic division could only play second fiddle to all the other divisions the rest of the time, which was why Rocky would be the busiest and most excited during this period.
“Hmm? What are they all gathered around that area?” Rocky very curiously muttered to himself when he saw that the garage was strange today.
He very quickly made his way over to the area where Xia Fei was busying about and observed him.
Rocky, like the cadets, became more and more stunned as he watched the young man, his heart palpitating vigorously.
A racing hovercar’s performance was like a long diagonal line; it would take some time for it to accelerate to its top speed from startup, yet Xia Fei was presently working hard on steepening this diagonal, hoping to improve the performance of the racing hovercar by shortening the acceleration time, thereby becoming faster at reaching its top speed.
In order to increase its performance, Xia Fei had more or less optimized all the parts, and the most logical adjustments were made on where they were installed.
By then, Xia Fei had discarded a lot of parts.
Discarding parts sounded like a simple concept, but it was actually the highest expression of retrofitting skills.
Retrofitting was not simply putting in as many components and parts as possible. The control of a racing hovercar would become more complex the more parts it had, and it would also add to the weight of the hovercar, ultimately affecting its acceleration and its achievable top speed.
Rocky suddenly recalled a story he had heard a long time ago; it was about a wise man and a farmer who encountered a field of brambles at the same time. The wise man crouched to find the best path through the bramble, in hopes of avoiding any injuries from the sharp thorns.
The farmer merely looked down and did not hesitate to wade through the brambles. Though his legs were bleeding by the end, he had already gotten past the brambles, while that wise man was still stuck where they started, thinking hard on how to get through the obstacles.
The wise man thought himself smart yet did not realize that the farmer was already far ahead of him.
Evidently, Xia Fei was that fearless farmer. He did not plan on playing it safe just to ensure that he could secure a winning spot in the race.
In other words, he had already made preparation on the corresponding price he was willing to pay to win the overall race.
There was no such thing as free lunch; in order to gain something, he must be willing to risk everything by staking his all. Xia Fei was very clear on this, which was why he had done his absurd alterations, improving the racing hovercar’s performance so crazily and discarding whatever part he could discard, even at the cost of some safety features people deemed indispensable.
Xia Fei’s assembling technique could not be considered top-notch, and his ability to modify the various parts was not the best, either.
But Xia Fei’s modification skills were already at a realm beyond all the other participants.
Daring to take the risk, to discard parts, that was truly a realm of a bona fide master.
The realm of masters was a state which everyone could not reach.
If someone was unable to reach the realm of masters, that only meant that person was not stubborn enough, not crazy enough, and not paranoid enough.
In this society wherein only the crazy and paranoid could survive longer, Xia Fei happened to be the craziest, the most stubborn, and the most paranoid of all.
Rocky furrowed his brows and contemplated for a long time before turning away and briskly marching out, looking all ecstatic.
“Master realm—he’s definitely a master level retrofitter!”
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