Chapter 82: Fervently Looking Forward to It

Translator:

Exodus Tales

Editor:

Exodus Tales

The battalion commander of Heaven Execution Training Camp, Ye Jingshan, was sitting in his office, his face as cold as an iceberg. Seated across from him was the supervisor of the mechatronics division, Rocky.

The situation was becoming stranger and stranger as time passed. First was that conflict cropping up between the leaders, with Qiu Xiangji leading the charge, of the three major divisions. Next was that fight between Xia Fei and Chen Dong causing the vanguard division’s supervisor Li Mo to rush over and demand that the young man be given to him, claiming that he had his eye on Xia Fei’s fighting spirit.

Now, Rocky of the mechatronic division had come knocking at his door, saying that Xia Fei’s retrofitting skills with machinery had reached the master realm, so he wanted the young man to be enrolled in his division.

What set Rocky apart from the other four supervisors was that he knew his mechatronic division’s weak foundation, so it was truly rare for him to recruit cadets with special abilities related to combat. This was also why he had sought Ye Jingshan’s help in coordinating with the other divisions to have Xia Fei be assigned to his mechatronics division.

“Are you telling me that Xia Fei’s understanding of machinery retrofitting has reached the master realm?” Ye Jingshan furrowed his brows in question.

“Commander Ye, Xia Fei’s technical skills haven’t reached the standards of a master yet, but his understanding of machinery and the race is already fairly high. Calling him a master realm retrofitter isn’t an exaggeration,” replied Rocky with a straight face.

“Right now, plenty of mechatronic functions have been developed to the extreme, and the biggest temptation all mechanical engineers face is discarding. Installing an additional part will give an additional function, but very few can take the time to think: ‘Do I really need this function or not?’

“That cadet, Xia Fei, is very decisive when facing the issue of what parts to discard; he’s very clear on his goal and on how to achieve it, as well as on what kind of risk he’s willing to bear to achieve his aim.

“I haven’t seen a cadet with such calmness and temerity to take on challenges in years, Commander Ye. The mechatronics division really needs talents like him, so please talk to the other supervisors; let that cadet join my mechatronics division.” Rocky was getting more and more animated as he spoke; his face had even flushed a deep shade of red.

Ye Jingshan drummed his finger on his desk and, after being silent for some time, said, “You’re not the first who have come here for him; in fact, you’re the fifth.”

Rocky was stunned, and not a word came out of his agape mouth.

The mechatronics division in Heaven Execution Training Camp was currently in decline. If the other divisions were also desiring for Xia Fei, then Rocky knew very well that the mechatronics division would not even stand a snowball’s chance in hell.

“Let’s not mention Xia Fei’s situation anymore. Let him decide which division to join himself; I forbid anyone from contacting him directly,” ordered mechanically Ye Jingshan. “You may leave now.”

Rocky sighed. He got up and said his goodbyes, his expression rather miserable.

After Rocky left his office, Ye Jingshan called Hou Baishan, and after several minutes had passed, he arrived in Ye Jingshan’s office.

“I heard that you’ve been covertly investigating Xia Fei?” Ye Jinshan went straight to the point.

Hou Baishan nodded, speaking frankly on the matter, “Yes, I’ve found a bit of information about him, but I haven’t sent men to shadow him just yet.”

“Then, have you made any unusual discovery?”

Hou Baishan took a moment to collect his thoughts before answering, “Right now, I’ve only managed to get hold of Xia Fei’s movement these past few months. After the assessment ended, he went straight to the warship graveyard and took part in the assembling of a naval-issued frigate. The person who helped him accomplish this was a man called Porter, the boss of a spaceship-assembling factory.

“Something strange, though, is regarding that Porter fellow. My investigations uncovered his identity were falsified,” said Hou Baishan in a low voice.

“Oh?” Ye Jingshan also dropped his tone to match Hou Baishan’s. “Hand over your investigation findings to me.”

Hou Baishan took out a microcomputer and sent the information to Ye Jingshan’s inbox.

Ye Jingshan went through the material page by page when, suddenly, his eyes stopped on the photo of Old Porter; they then flickered quite a few times.

After a good moment of silence, Ye Jingshan ordered, “From here on, stop any and all investigations on Xia Fei.”

Hou Baishan nodded. Though he was very puzzled about why Ye Jingshan would give him this order, he did not question it. As the chief investigator, Hou Baishan very clearly understood what questions he could ask and when he should ask them.

After Hou Baishan departed, Ye Jingshan placed a hand under his chin and stared at the picture of the one-eyed Old Porter for the longest time.

Leaning back in his chair, Ye Jingshan let out a heavy sigh and mumbled, “To be capable of executing implausible dodges and assassination techniques and to get the Machine God Porter’s direct help in fix a spacecraft for you. Xia Fei, oh Xia Fei, just how many secrets are you hiding?”

…

Night had unknowingly descended, and the garage for the extreme racing still had plenty of people, most of them vehicle enthusiasts, gathered inside, quietly discussing with one another.

A prototype build of an extreme racing hovercar had appeared here, but none of them could make any sense of it.

There was no denying Xia Fei’s expertise; it was impossible to consider him as an outsider regarding this stuff, yet despite looking like an old hand, he had done work the experts on this field would never do.

The three-layered, anti-destabilization system had been modified so that there was only a single layer.

The passive defense system was completely exempted from the build.

The air regulator had been altered so that only a mere two-thirds of its original size remained.

Installing two fuel injection systems, he even added manual control to them, expanding the main injection nozzle by 0.4 millimeters…

Every time Xia Fei did an insane alteration, the onlookers would all explode into a bout of exclamations and skepticism.

“Bro, you can’t modify the cooling system anymore! This is a ‘racing’ hovercar, not a ‘death’ hovercar. Do you actually have a death wish?” A man with a thick beard could no longer resist it and loudly reminded Xia Fei this. In his opinion, Xia Fei’s modifications were already too much and it might very well cause the hovercar to fall apart

Xia Fei was unmoved. He could not care less about the opinions that these so-called experts had been offering him. With him so deeply engrossed in the work at hand, he could not even hear what these people around him were saying.

The man shook his head and told a curly-haired man beside him, “Old Pang, d’you think this hovercar could still start?”

This curly-haired man shrugged. “No idea, but there’s no way I’d drive such a dangerous hovercar on the race track.”

Only a minority of cadets bothered to warn Xia Fei out of kindness, while the rest felt only schadenfreude, happily hoping that Xia Fei would make his racing hovercar more and more dangerous to ride.

Actually, Xia Fei knew all the risks he was taking far better than anyone else. According to his calculation, what he was risking thus far had yet to cross the threshold of what he had in mind.

Nothing in the world would ever be one hundred percent safe, for safety was just relative, which was why it was important to find a balance between safety and the best performance.

A certain amount of risk would always exist when aiming to maximize performance—this was Xia Fei’s retrofitting philosophy.

Moon Song was beside herself with joy, pouring a glass of water for Xia Fei one moment and helping him wipe the sweat off his forehead the next.

Unfortunately, Xia Fei was like a madman when he worked, so he did not respond appropriately. Often, Moon Song would end up being pushed far away to prevent her from disturbing him.

Women were a strange bunch. The more Xia Fei ignored Moon Song, the more she wanted to stay close to him; even his impolite