Chapter 76: The Alchemist (2/2)

Ye Chong was overjoyed. He was glad that Mu was doing the calculation for him while he was stuck thinking of a way to use this firearm. Mu… thanks… He was a little touched by his gesture.

The north of the Jesha zone was a barren - utterly barren land. It was harsh. It was deserted after the illegal logging activities by the pioneers at the Blue Ocean planet back then. Since lumbers from an actual natural forest were overpriced in the market, they were willing to destroy the entire habitat to get an exorbitant profit. Eventually this land was murdered like the other lands. But this was one of the worst devastations among them.

The place was absolutely deserted within tens of thousands kilometer of range. It spent half of the days in heavy sandstorm where one could see nothing as if in total darkness. One’s life could be endangered even when one travelled here in a sturdy mech as location services would be unusable almost all the time. If the location services were unavailable to begin with, one could lose the way out and would struggle being blinded by the sandstorm, draining the battery bit by bit as they ran around like mice in a maze. Eventually, they would die due to hunger, fatigue, thirst, whatever cause of death you could name in a desert.

Such a place obviously forbade any form of access, especially explorers on mechs.

And in that sandstorm, oh my gosh, there was actually silhouette of a mech!

Ye Chong piloted the Harmony of Winter Aria with caution. Its fairness was tainted by the veils of dust as it inched towards the storm clumsily. The sandstorm would unquestionably hinder the overall performance of a pilot, thus most pilots would keep themselves away from here. However, if one were to travel through this sandstorm, the Harmony would be the model with the best accuracy. That was Shang’s suggestion after evaluating various aspects on Harmony of Winter Aria. ”It should be good enoug,.” he commented as he dragged Ye Chong all the way here for vigorous training.

It might sounded a bit absurd but Ye Chong eventually agreed to Shang’s theory.

There was something unique about it.

Harmony accelerated and made a sharp turn. It drew her laser sword and charged up dramatically. The glaring light wielded like a pale yellow halo in the storm. Slash! The sandstorm was cut through. The plasma shield on its left arm shifted stance as it toddled quickly with her body tilting left and right. The laser sword struck swiftly like a serpent when Harmony strangely slid to the side. Its giant body stood in the flow of the storm. A pair of homing blades crossed out the golden cloak of dirt like lightning. An amazing sight it was! They flew back to Harmony’s hands like swallows to the nest afterwards.

The input was executed in perfection. It was seamless and unaffected by the weather.

Ye Chong was satisfied as he saw the happening from the cabin. He would not need that antique firearm even if he were to face an expert like Johansson. The blades would be more than enough.

Kekeke. Shang was proud too when he saw his theory working out after all.

It was a step towards the victory. Nevertheless when Ye Chong exited the area, the Harmony of Winter Aria had lost its former gorgeousness as it was wrecked by the storm. Piled in dust, it just looked like a splat of mud from afar. That was uncalled for. Ye Chong’s eyes went wide like a saucer after climbing out of the cabin. He laughed bitterly. Looks like we have more work to do!

Well at least the goal of the training had been flawlessly accomplished! Ye Chong had mastered the control of the Harmony, which was a big relief to him.

…

”So regarding chemist, I think I could brief you a little,” said Shang kindly on the way home.

Yeah. ”Brief.” That’s what he thought. Not me!

Biology? Developmental Biology? Chemistry? Microbiology? Why is physics involved? Hey, hey, hey! Shang what’s with the huge board? What are you writing? Hold up… Hey!

Ye Chong was having a headache with Shang’s so-called briefing. The holograms of information literally drowned Ye Chong with Shang's voice. He tried to stand still, but the lecture was harsher than the storm. His head rumbled and he fell.

Ugggggghhh...

Oh no! Ye Chong could not hold it any longer! He was moaning in pain!

”So when you try to combine this formula with that, yes, applying this onto the given diagram, assuming we are doing under this condition, substituting the equation with the other theoretical calculations, you'll get… Ye? Ye? Hello?”

The symbols… the alien languages, the scribbles… the graph, the pie chart, the diagram, what? There are also formulae?

It was super effective! Ye Chong fainted!

”Ye… Ye my boy, someone’s looking for you!” Grandpa Qian’s voice rang like a revelation.

Ye Chong sprung out of Shang’s cabin and rushed to the front desk. He would not want to spend any extra second with those horrible things in the cabin. It was too much!

Yang An and Ding Yining were the ones who saved Ye Chong’s life. Yang An skipped the formalities as he sat down, stating the motive of his visit this time. Apparently the academy’s own pilot tournament would start in a few days. So they hoped Ye Chong would be well-prepared and it would be best if Ye Chong could be more cooperative with Yining’s operations in the next few days. Regarding the pay… well it was never a matter to start with.

What a good opportunity! What a good escape plan! While Ye Chong was figuring out a proper excuse to stay away from Shang’s ultimate chemist training program, these two had came! ”Yes! Yes! No problem! Certainly!” He nodded his head forcefully and followed Yining home right after. He ran into the storage and asked to begin right away. Ye Chong peeked through the curtains and looked around. Phew! He was safe. And with pleasure, they launched their operations. Ye Chong was very cooperative, as what he had promised Yang An. Yang An was of course impressed by Ye Chong’s initiatives, though Ye Chong did not seem to care about this guy at the slightest bit.

Yining was the kind of maniac who would go wild once his hands reached the cogs. It was no doubt that he made the impeccable combination with Ye Chong who had strong interests in mechs too. Ye Chong never had the chance to realize his hobby till he met Yining and his friends. Now he had tons of toys to mess with. He felt like the happiest man on Blue Ocean planet, especially knowing that he could avoid Shang’s chemist courses completely.

One of them recommended the theory to support the design while the other put the theory into hands. During the process, Ye Chong also sought Yining’s teaching on using these fancy gadgets in his storage and Yining was not shy to bring up all sorts of questions that had been bothering him for long to Ye Chong. They grew on each other. The night was bland. It was only about two men, one interest and a bunch of tools and gears in the house.

Three more days till the tournament…