It was not just her. Constantine, Phantom, and even the unsmiling Pang Xing were engrossed by the story. They also asked why the gentleman left. Humans had a natural tendency toward a good ending. It was more difficult to accept a sorrowful ending for a story.
Xia Fei smiled. “The gentleman left a letter. The lady quickly ran downstairs to read the letter. It stated, ‘My beloved lady, I’ve used my actions to express my affection for you, but now, I shall leave some dignity for myself.’”
The others were left speechless. Avril pouted and said, “The lady is so stupid. If she loves the man, why must she let him wait for a hundred days? Great, the gentleman left, meaning that she’s lost her lover, too.”
Constantine shuddered as if a surge of lightning was flowing through him. He lifted his gaze and adjusted his glasses. “I understand now. You’re telling me that I should leave myself with some dignity no matter how much I love a woman.”
Xia Fei nodded with a smile. “If a man doesn’t respect himself, why will a woman respect him?”
Constantine fell silent before he suddenly burst out laughing and said, “That’s a very interesting story. I shall remember it, but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to go easy on you this afternoon.”
Xia Fei nodded indifferently. Constantine turned and left as if he had learned a great lesson. Avril tightly hugged Xia Fei’s arm and said, “The gentleman might’ve left, but you shouldn’t leave me.”
Xia Fei smiled. “You didn’t make me wait for a hundred days, either.”
…
The event in the afternoon was Xia Fei’s forte, drone-repairing. Xia Fei entered the spacious venue by walking through the electronic gate. The venue was long split into rooms separated by transparent glass. The hidden cameras would record every action of the participants. If a participant did something that was against the rules, the room would be flagged with a red light.
Above the venue was an electronic timer and a large screen. The seats for the spectators were scattered around the place, each had its screen to spectate the participants as the guests desired.
Xia Fei found the workshop he was assigned to and entered it. A Mittal Samurai-class light combat drone, a box of spare parts, and a toolbox were placed on the table. The participants were only allowed to repair the drones with the parts and tools provided. The participant who repaired the drone the quickest would win the event. That being said, those who managed to repair their drone perfectly or improve the drone would receive bonus points.
The red line on the ground was the alert line. To ensure fairness for the event, the participants were not permitted to cross the red line and inspect the damaged drone before they were given the green light.
There was still some time before the event started. Xia Fei sat in the chair provided by the organizer and made himself a cup of green tea. He enjoyed the tea while inspecting the drone a few meters away with his ocular cognition technique.
Xia Fei’s eyes were unusually sharp. He already noticed at least four broken parts of the Samurai-class combat drone. The control box at the top was missing the transmission unit. The combat drone had to connect to a warship to receive orders from it. Without the transmission unit, it was akin to a soldier who could only fight aimlessly on their own after losing contact with the main force. Not only would the combat drone be extremely vulnerable, it would no longer be of any assistance in battle either.
The mechanical parts of the two blasters were damaged, too. They could no longer rotate 360 degrees, meaning that the combat drone could only attack the enemy from one angle, which made it very inflexible. Meanwhile, the connector of the energy output and the bearing of the kinetic injector system were no longer functioning, too.
Xia Fei was quite surprised. The drone had so many faults when he was merely inspecting it from the outside. How many damaged parts was he going to find once he opened its casing? He seemed to have underestimated the difficulty of the event in the afternoon.
He did a rough calculation in his heart. Since he was a speed ability user, he would be able to repair the drone a lot quicker than the others. Even so, it would take at least seventeen minutes just to repair the four external breakdowns he had picked up. He was afraid that it would take more than an hour or two just to fix the internal parts.
Xia Fei frowned slightly. He was struggling to understand why the drone-repairing event had to be so complicated. He glanced at the drones on other participants’ tables. They too were severely damaged just like his. Those who were skillful and had an outstanding vision were already sighing. It seemed that they too were surprised by the difficulty of the event.
Constantine in a room some distance away nodded at Xia Fei. He reached his fist out to indicate that he would win the event. Xia Fei, too, responded the same way as he was not to be outdone.
Avril was screaming Xia Fei’s name while blushing from the spectators’ seats. She completely disregarded the attention she was getting. With her appearance and temperament, it was expected for her to attract a lot of attention.
Xia Fei waved at Avril before lowering his head to think of a solution. The noises around him slowly faded away. Xia Fei fell deep into his thoughts even though there were over a hundred thousand people watching him.
“I like Xia Fei when he’s in serious mode the most. Don’t you think he’s handsome when he’s serious?” Avril asked Pang Xing excitedly.
Pang Xing helplessly nodded. His eyes were constantly scanning the surroundings, vigilant at all times.
As the countdown on the timer ended, the red line in the rooms disappeared, too. Xia Fei took two steps forward and stood in front of the Samurai-class combat drone. The drone was around five cubic meters big, it was one of the smallest models of combat drones.
The drone might be small, but its firepower was not weak. It had the advantage of speed and agility over the bigger drones. A dinosaur could devour an elephant, but enough ants could also achieve the same feat. The components of the Samurai-class drone were densely packed, so its internal structure was much more complicated. Xia Fei quickly used the tools to disassemble the drone.
More defects were exposed to Xia Fei as he disassembled the components. The damage dealt to the drone was more serious than he imagined. It was almost beyond redemption, as none of the circuits, mechanical system, energy system, and navigation system remained undamaged.
Xia Fei finished disassembling the drone. Its parts scattered across the huge table made of titanium. He was in no rush to repair it right away. He lit a cigarette and fell into deep thoughts, instead.
It was not like he could not repair the heavily damaged drone, but there was a tricky problem; the spare parts provided by the organizer were nowhere enough to fully repair the drone.
The rest of the participants were dripping with sweat as they used every second to repair the drone. There were only two exceptions: Constantine and Xia Fei. Xia Fei was smoking while Constantine had his arms folded across his chest as he constantly adjusted his glasses. Xia Fei’s rival, Li Mo, was working too, but he seemed a bit hesitant while he was repairing the drone.
Avril began to panic. Some of the participants had already assembled half of their drones, yet Xia Fei was still deep in his thoughts.
“Why hasn’t Xia Fei started to repair the drone? Did he encounter some kind of trouble?” Avril clenched her fists and rose to her feet. She was so nervous that her forehead was covered in sweat. The servant beside her immediately took out a handkerchief to wipe her sweat, but Avril simply shoved it aside and questioned Pang Xing, “What’s going on? What is Xia Fei waiting?”
Pang Xing thought for a moment and said, “Miss, you must believe in him. From what I heard, Xia Fei is extremely talented in machinery. He must’ve discovered some problem that he couldn’t resolve right away, so he still hasn’t done anything so far. A brilliant machinist doesn’t act hastily. They will first plan every step in their mind and picture the outcome. Perhaps Xia Fei is still figuring out the steps.”
Not only was Avril confused, the spectators were puzzled, too. Both Xia Fei and Li Mo had the best results in the first few rounds, but Xia Fei was not making his move, and Li Mo seemed very hesitant. They were not as confident and adept as they were in the previous rounds. Meanwhile, Constantine, who also entered the limelight in the last round, was in deep thought. No one knew what was wrong with these three. After all, the spectators were not participants. They had no idea what the participants were going through.
Xia Fei was very calm. He did not think that the organizer would not notice that the spare parts provided were nowhere enough to repair the drones fully. It must be a part of the test. Was the event only testing the participants’ repairing speed? Did they not care about the outcome? Did they only need to repair the drones as much as possible in the shortest time possible?
Xia Fei shook his head. Every qualified machinist must know what they were doing. If a drone was unable to be repaired, an experienced machinist would not even bother repairing it.
“Could it be?” Xia Fei murmured. He picked up the spare parts on the table and played around with them. He seemed absentminded, but his mind was spinning rapidly.
A few minutes ago, Old Porter on Earth turned on his smart computer and tuned in to the live stream of the Golden Finger Cup. As a three-time champion of the Golden Finger Cup, Porter was very familiar with the structure of the tournament. For many years, he would spare some of his time to watch the tournament no matter how busy he was. He was even more interested in it this year since Xia Fei was a participant.
Boateng was waiting beside him excitedly, too. The two had been inseparable ever since Boateng found his master. He would always stick to Porter unless the company had assigned him a mission. He even spent more time with Porter than his own wife.
“Huh? Why isn’t Xia Fei moving? The others are already busy working, but it feels as if something’s bothering him,” Boateng expressed curiously.
Old Porter was confused, too. He adjusted the angle of the camera and directed it to the damaged drone and the spare parts on the table. The live stream of the tournament was in a three-dimensional view, allowing the spectators to adjust the cameras as they pleased. It went without saying that people had to pay to unlock the three-dimensional view, but Quantum Holdings had benefited from their relationship with Avril; everything was free for the accounts that were connected to the interplanetary internet from the company.
Old Porter stared at the screen for some time. He suddenly chuckled. “It seems that those old fogeys have come up with some tricky questions again. It depends on if Xia Fei can think outside the box. His thoughts have always been sharp. He should be able to see what the test is really asking from him if he doesn’t overthink it.”
Boateng was puzzled. He asked with a confused look, “Who are the old fogeys you mentioned? Isn’t the event supposed to be a time trial?”
Old Porter said, “The Association of Machinists have a bunch of old people who are the top machinists in the Alliance. Each of them is a true expert in their field. Those old guys like to come up with tricky questions to deliberately make things difficult for the participants. You will soon see what the true goal of the event is.”
Old Porter pointed at the screen and said, “Xia Fei already noticed that something is strange about the event, which is why he isn’t in a rush to repair the drone. Those who are busy repairing the drone have already lost at the starting line. They will never score high in this event. They have already lost the basic judgement skill of a machinist.”
Boateng blushed. He, too, did not realize anything strange about the event. Porter had basically included him in the group of hot-headed machinists.
“Master, the participant named Constantine isn’t doing anything, either. That guy named Li Mo is hesitant when he’s repairing the drone. It feels as if he’s struggling to make up his mind. Does it mean they are experts, too?” Boateng asked.
Porter nodded and said, “If I’m guessing it right, they might be Xia Fei’s strongest opponents in the tournament. We can’t rule out the possibility that there are other dark horses in the tournament, too, but from the looks of it, those three have the highest chances of winning the tournament.”
Time gradually passed, yet Xia Fei still did not make his move. He was only smoking his cigarettes. Constantine had a go at it. He assembled a few of the parts but disassembled them again. He placed his hands on his waist and fell into deep thought. Li Mo, who was further away, had already finished assembling a part of the drone, yet he did not continue any further. He decided to stop repairing the drone for some reason.
Phantom began to panic a little. He told Xia Fei, “Hurry up; the others are almost done.”
Xia Fei reached his hand to interrupt Phantom. He did not want Phantom to disturb his thoughts.
Phantom helplessly twisted his lips while looking elsewhere. He was even more nervous when he saw other participants increasing their pace.
Xia Fei suddenly pumped his fists and murmured, “I don’t care anymore; let’s go with this.”
His hands moved at lightning speed.
Xia Fei did not hesitate even the slightest after making up his mind. He rapidly assembled the parts on the table.
A minute after Xia Fei started moving, Constantine began to assemble the parts, too. His hands were not as quick as Xia Fei’s, yet he was able to compensate for his lack of speed with skill, so his efficiency was still on par with Xia Fei’s.
Li Mo began to panic when he saw Xia Fei and Constantine starting to repair the drone. He, too, was troubled by the shortage of the spare parts, but he could not figure out a way to solve it.
The crowd gradually became noisier when they noticed Xia Fei and Constantine not following the original blueprint to repair the drone. The drone had shrunk significantly based on their current appearance.
“What are they doing? Are they really repairing the drone?”
“I don’t think so. That thing looks like a little sports car. It doesn’t even look like a Samurai-class combat drone.”
“My gosh. Xia Fei is tossing one of the blasters away. Is he planning to install only a single blaster on it?”
“That’s nothing; Constantine even threw away the kinetic injector. I’m afraid the ultra high speed is going to turn into an old-school vehicle.”
“How disappointing. I didn’t expect these so-called best performers of the tournament to do such a thing. They’re randomly altering the drones. They are going to score zero in this round.”
A series of piercing metallic noises sounded at the center of the venue. Xia Fei was holding a laser cutter to slice through the drone’s armor. He quickly punctured a line of rows on it, too.
Xia Fei lifted the steel plate and checked the holes by pointing them at the lights. He tossed it aside before a series of screeches sounded again. He began to modify the spare parts, too. He was not repairing the drone; he was destroying it.
On the other hand, Constantine lifted a titanium hammer and smashed a few high-durability pressure pumps. The venue was soon filled with strange noises. It was as if Xia Fei and Constantine were trying to outdo each other. One was cutting the parts, while the other was smashing them. The rest of the participants were having trouble focusing because of the noise. They kept turning to look at the two lunatics to see what they were up to.
Avril’s forehead was covered in black lines. A lady like her was clueless about machinery. She did not feel great hearing the comments from the crowd upon seeing Xia Fei’s surprising behavior, yet she still stood up and cheered for Xia Fei out of her trust in him.
Li Mo’s expression shifted, too. He was stabbed in the heart when he saw Avril taking Xia Fei’s side. Most importantly, his thoughts were still in a whirl because he could not figure out the key to solving the problem.
…
In the lounge specifically for the honorable members of the Association of Machinists, a few old men were seated in a row on an extra long couch. Everyone was holding a personal smart computer as they watched the tournament while enjoying tea.
A plump, old man with a white beard came out of the restroom while holding his stomach. He murmured, “I shouldn’t have eaten so much seafood for lunch. My appetite is getting worse now that I’m getting on in years. To think that I would have diarrhea after eating a few lobsters. I didn’t have trouble eating ten of them during my prime.”
He raised his head and saw the other old men staring at the screen instead of paying attention to him. He asked with a displeased tone, “What are you looking at? What is there to look at? Did someone figure out the solution?”
A black-haired old man, who was seated in the middle of the couch, smiled. “Old Vessel, you’ve guessed it wrong this time. Two participants have already figured it out and are working on it.”
The plump, old man was startled. He picked up the computer on the table and asked, “They will have to complete the task for it to count. It will need some experience, but to be honest, isn’t the question a little too difficult for the participants?”
The plump, old man suddenly farted. The rest of the old men immediately cast him a displeased look. The plump, old man waved his hand and smiled. “I didn’t expect those two kids to be so skillful, so I failed to hold it in. My bad.”
He went back to his seat and grabbed a pack of chips from the table. He started munching on the chips as he spoke. “Old Years, how are we going to evaluate their performance now that they’ve figured it out?
The black-haired old man in the middle answered after a brief pause, “If anyone can solve it, we’ll give them a full score. The bonus points will have to depend on the circumstances. The others are all going to get a zero.”
It was not the participants’ fault for scoring zero after failing to meet the requirements. After all, the question that these old men designed was simply too difficult. It would be too cruel to give them a zero.
However, the rest of the old men agreed simultaneously. “That’s right; those who fail are going to get a zero. It’s their fault for being so stupid.”
The plump, old man ate a mouthful of chips and murmured, “Being smart is too important. They deserve to score zero for this round.”
