Chapter 36: Second Preliminary Round (I)
When the mining area was disconnected from other modules of the star network, the Cui Xiaoduo he saw was Cui Xiaoduo's original appearance. After the connection was restored, Cui Xiaoduo turned back into a little squirrel.
The squirrel is Cui Xiaoduo's virtual image.
As for Mu Baixing…there hadn't been any changes. So much so that Mingyu hadn't even noticed at first that the disconnection would cause his chosen avatar to revert to its original appearance.
Mingyu: “…”
……Really? ?
Even though Mingyu had already found the truth through rational reasoning and Cui Xiaoduo's physical changes, he still found it hard to believe and stared with his eyes wide open.
...Mu Baixing didn't pay to have his appearance altered?? He just naturally looks like that...an infuriating person??
Mingyu stood there in a daze, his thoughts in confusion and his heart in shock. A chaotic mess of thoughts burst out from the bottom of his heart, which he couldn't even make out. After colliding randomly, they gathered together and finally combined into a question.
...How could someone not only have the personality type I like best, but also have the appearance that... just hits my aesthetic standards?
"Want to have dinner together tonight?" Cui Xiaoduo, unaware of the turmoil in his heart, had already moved on to the next topic. He sincerely invited Mingyu, "I'll treat you! First, I'll treat you to a few good meals, and then I'll treat you and Brother Mu to a few good meals together. Are you in school now? If you don't want to attract attention, I can come to your dorm to find you."
"And, Brother Yu."
"Your spiritual power has reached A-level. Even if you don't tell the Ming family, you can still apply privately to other institutions. For example, the military, the Star Navigation Department, the Research Department, they all have lists of awakened human talent reserves. With your A-level spiritual power, there will definitely be many people contacting you to inquire about your future interests and vying for you. Your future career after graduation can be decided very early!"
Mingyu came back to his senses.
Each awakened human's psychic power level is tied to their identity and archived within their personal profile, across the entire human star field. This serves as a tool for various departments to screen and recruit talent, and also allows for the extraction of psychic power traces left behind when solving crimes committed by awakened humans.
After choosing to keep his mental power level confidential, relevant agencies will only have the right to access Mingyu's mental power information during special circumstances, such as when he becomes a suspect in a case. However, as Cui Xiaoduo mentioned, he can also directly transmit it to the department he wishes to contact.
"Brother Yu will definitely not go to the Third Legion!"
Third Legion.
This legion was originally commanded by Ming's father's elder brother, General Ming Zhuofeng. After his death in the Battle of Dawn, command of the legion passed to Ming's father. The Third Legion is the most powerful force within the Ming family. It is the legion that eldest brother Ming Yan will join upon graduation from the military academy, and it also marks the starting point for younger brother Ming Zhuo's future career.
Mingyu: “No.”
"Then why don't you consider joining the Star Navigation Department?" Cui Xiaoduo excitedly introduced Mingyu, "Each action team in the Star Navigation Department is formally ranked according to ability, with strict management, minimal nepotism, and independence. It's completely different from the military and other official systems!"
"They have their own design team over there, and they're always looking for designers! Brother Lian and I agreed to try out the Star Navigation Department together after graduation. Do you want to come with us? There, you don't have to worry about being treated differently just because you're a member of the Ming family!"
Mingyu was immediately tempted, but then he shook his head and said honestly, "I need to think about it."
He had never considered these things before, because they were all like childhood dreams... too far away from him. Although the Star Navigation Department was independent, like the military, the majority of its members were awakened humans. The proportion of non-awakened humans was too small, and Mingyu had never considered it before.
His original idea was to find a job as a resident designer for a private exploration team after graduation.
...But now that he has awakened his A-level mental power, he can not only be a starship designer!
Just like sailing in the virtual star map with Mu Boxing in the previous game... he can act as an observer, truly follow the starship, and explore the universe!
Mingyu suppressed the corners of his mouth, not letting his joy show on his face.
If he wants to be an observer, he needs to make more preparations now.
"We won't have dinner together tonight. Let's wait until Brother Mu gets better." Mingyu was happy about his mental power, thinking about how to further train his mental power, thinking about revising his starship design draft, and he was also worried about Mu Baixing.
He calculated the time and suddenly remembered something. He picked up the little squirrel and asked seriously, "By the way, Senior. You are a senior designer, right? Can you authorize me to go to the high-level library of Xinghang Design Headquarters to read the materials?"
Access to different floors of the Xinghang headquarters library varied. Mingyu, as a junior designer, could only access the lower ten floors, while senior designers could enter the middle fifteenth floor and the upper twenty-first floor. The library area on the fifth floor above was only accessible to special designers and those with special approval.
Ming Yuyue felt that he, Mu Baixing, and the colorful hairy brothers should be able to go further in the Star Navigation Competition!
That requires preparation in advance and understanding more advanced material configurations and more starship structures that he has never seen before.
Also, re-optimize the starship's gun barrel to find an attack method that is more suitable for Mu Boxing.
Cui Xiaoduo turned over and sat up.
"Of course you can!" Cui Xiaoduo quickly completed the authorization on the communication bracelet and sent it to Mingyu. "This is a special authorization for one month. You can freely enter the library area, concept model design room and material laboratory on each floor. I will renew the authorization after it expires. Wow! Brother Yu, you just passed the junior designer certificate? It's over, you are so amazing with just such a small amount of knowledge..."
"Those people who approached you would be horrified if they knew! They might even give you a special designer certificate."
"It's not that exaggerated," Mingyu said. "Things like the Lambda cannon and engine modifications are things I've thought about over and over again in my free time over the past few years. I still have a lot to learn."
Cui Xiaoduo gave him a thumbs up.
"You are talented, hardworking, and humble. If you don't want to keep it a secret anymore, tell me. I will immediately introduce you to the specially hired designer of the design institute. Those old guys like young designers like you, Brother Yu, the most!"
Mingyu: “…”
Ming Yu didn't really want to come into the design institute's sight with the Ming family's brand.
He was very busy in the week before the second round of games.
Mingyu repeatedly revised his starship design, adding additional mental power lines to his observer's seat. Besides revising the design, he spent the rest of his time hanging out in the library at the designer's headquarters and training at the fighting club.
He submitted part of his mental awakening report to his coach, and bought an additional basic course on mental power application to study in conjunction with Mu Boxing's in-depth and easy-to-understand book on mental power training experience.
He made rapid progress, and after a few sessions, his control over his mental power improved significantly. After a week of classes, his teacher sincerely recommended more advanced individual lessons to him.
"I'm not doing this for the extra money, L." The teacher patted his shoulder and thrust a screen into his hand, revealing a long sheet of information. The teacher spoke earnestly, "The club's individual spiritual power classes are taught by higher-level awakened individuals. I wouldn't earn the commission if I didn't take the one-on-one classes, but I really don't want your talent to be wasted."
The colorful information sheet listed each teacher's specialties, mental strength level, teaching ability, a list of outstanding students, and the tuition fee at the back. Ming Yu carefully read each teacher's introduction, not even turning the page to see the corresponding tuition fee, and simply shook his head.
Mingyu said politely: "Thank you, teacher. I'll think about it!"
He felt that the teachers' expertise did not quite match his needs.
Everyone's mental power has its own characteristics. Many things cannot be measured by standardized instruments of measuring institutions, and require the awakened person to slowly explore them themselves.
Mingyu is not familiar enough with his own mental power, but from the perspective of the highest plasticity S level, he believes that being able to control the changes in the form of his mental power should be the first breakthrough.
But most of the time his mental threads are still in the form of ordinary mental threads. Only when he concentrates on thinking, the original mental threads will turn into clouds.
Mingyu has seen the changes in Mu Baixing's mental power.
The ship's spiritual power can easily change its form, which can be concentrated artillery fire or an extremely strong shield.
Mingyu felt that he should ask Mu Baixing first.
Compared to the club teacher, he felt that Mu Boxing, who had established a base in the outer harbor as a pilot, should be able to teach him more as a star navigator.
But Mu Baixing was injured, and Mingyu didn't want to disturb him, so he logged off and went to the cafeteria to have lunch.
He had been living a tiring and fulfilling life every day these days. Both his body and mind felt tired. He had skipped many classes at school, and when he ran to the cafeteria and met classmates from the same major, he would always get some gossip.
But Mingyu calculated his GPA and knew that although he would definitely not get an A due to missing a few assignments, his grades were not so bad that he would have to be interviewed and his parents would be asked to withdraw his child from school, so he didn't care.
He came back from the cafeteria with his packed vegetable and meat buns and saw a yellow indicator light on the courier delivery port in the dormitory, indicating that a courier had been delivered to his dormitory address.
Mingyu: “?”
A few days ago, he reluctantly spent several thousand yuan to order spiritual domain nutritional supplements on Star Online, but the logistics showed that it would not arrive until tomorrow. He looked puzzled and pressed the receive button.
The off-white alloy door of the express delivery and receiving area was retracted upwards, and a large black leather suitcase was pushed out from the wall by a robotic arm. The side facing Mingyu was printed with the three big words "APA" in silver cursive letters.
APA is indeed a company that produces spiritual supplements, but it pursues the high-quality and high-price route. Mingyu originally ordered a low-priced product produced by another company.
Mingyu: “…”
The box was very heavy. Mingyu dragged it over with one hand and turned it over. He carefully checked its bottom and saw the model number of this auxiliary agent.
This is the highest purity auxiliary agent produced by APA Company, a new product that was just launched in January. It is ten times more expensive than the reviewed product he bought. Those who use this are either S-level psychics or wealthy families with plenty of money.
The single package of auxiliary agent is very small and light. This heavy box contains half a year's supply, which costs at least 20,000 yuan.
Mingyu took another look at the shipping label.
This box of auxiliary agent was shipped directly from APA's branch in the central star field, and the order date was the day Mingyu measured his mental power level two days ago.
Mingyu opened the address book.
He and Cui Xiaoduo exchanged dormitory addresses, but he had already said that he would buy it, and Cui Xiaoduo certainly would not buy such a big box and send it to him.
Then it can only be Brother Mu.
Mingyu was so happy when he remembered that he sent all his mental power test reports to Mu Baixing, realizing that the other party must have seen the special prompts of severe lack of nutrition in the mental domain.
So this is what asking for the address means.
Mingyu: “…”
He was a little touched, but also felt that it was too expensive and should not be accepted.
After all, Mu Bohang's financial situation is also stretched.
Mingyu wanted to contact the other party to ask him to return the goods, but he was afraid of waking up Mu Baixing from his rest like last time. After struggling for a long time, he decided to hold it in, and he held it in until the second qualifying match.
*
"Welcome back to the Star Navigation Competition live broadcast—"
The rabbit commentator changed into a black dress with a white lace collar around her neck. She stood on tiptoe on the podium made into the shape of a wooden stake.
"This is the second qualifying match - Escape from the Death Star Sea -"
"The once prosperous resource star sea suddenly experienced energy turbulence, prompting an urgent evacuation of the resource mining team. A professional investigation team set out from the outer space station, risking their lives to travel deep into the star sea to collect energy information for the research institute. Unexpectedly, the situation took a sudden turn for the worse, with signs of energy field collapse appearing around the central star..."
"Any team that manages to escape before the central star energy field collapses will advance! So now! There are only three hours left before the map unfolds. What are the teams busy doing after receiving the updated competition details?"
"The busiest people are definitely the starship designers," the rabbit host shook his head, his ears twitching. "This year's competition organizing committee was quite unsportsmanlike. At the last minute, they suddenly provided a more detailed background briefing, specifically mentioning that the contestants' voyages were to collect interstellar energy data. After the first round of resource collection rankings, I think every team should understand the importance of data collection!"
"The more complete the Star Ocean energy data, the more available starship manufacturing resources will be in the next match. The reason this background information is released at this time is to test the adaptability of each team's starship designers and keep them busy!"
"Nothing to add."
In the team lounge, Ming Yu sprawled on the sofa and said, "We originally added as many energy detectors as possible to the starship, and they were all the most accurate models we could achieve..."
Although he changed the wiring of his observer seat so that his mental power was connected to Mu Boxing and the starship, the red, orange, blue, and green-haired observer seats were still retained, and of course all the corresponding energy detectors were installed.
After all, the colorful hairy men have sailed with Mu Baixing many times and have rich experience.
"The other changes have already been made. I even replaced the main gun barrel with a new one! It's much more powerful than the Lambda cannon!"
Mingyu had a very fulfilling week. Now he was taking advantage of the last three hours to rest on the sofa in the lounge, and he was almost sleepy while chatting.
The colorful brothers have arrived, but Mu Baixing is not online yet.
"Don't worry, the boss has recovered. It's just that the base expansion has been busy lately." Red Hair was leaning back on another sofa playing games. He saw Mingyu closing his eyes and feeling sleepy, so he closed his mouth and turned on mute.
The countdown on the screen in the center of the lounge slowly ticked down, making Mingyu a little nervous. But he was so sleepy that he soon fell asleep with a pillow in his arms.
Rabbit Streamer: "Let's see what the top three teams from the last game did!"
"Wow, whether it's the Slayer in the Southeast Star Region or the Lieyang and Deep Sea in the Central Star Region, they are all urgently installing energy detectors."
"We know that teams with excellent observers usually don't equip themselves with too many energy detection instruments. Look at these starship designers. They were really caught off guard by the competition organizing committee."
"Well... of course, this hectic scene is almost identical in every team. Adding a detector to an already fully designed starship will undoubtedly affect the original weight, weapon array design, and so on."
"With three hours, I'm sure half the teams wouldn't be able to complete the retrofit design! They'd have to wait until they found a supply station after entering the map to actually start the modification, wasting precious 'escape time.'"
"Of course! Excellent designers like Cui Xiaoduo have already started working in the modeling room to create preliminary models! ...Huh?"
The rabbit anchor's gaze stayed on a piece of light screen that he had casually cut, and he magnified it in confusion.
"'Colorful'." He read the name of the team on the screen, "The Colorful Team that once gave us such a pleasant surprise! The scene in their lounge is truly harmonious..."
"One person is playing games, four are playing traditional mahjong, and one is sleeping..." The host tried his best to make a confused expression with his furry bunny face. "Oh my god, I can't tell who is who! Everyone on the 'Colorful' team has chosen to keep their identities secret, so everyone we see has the same face! They even have one member who's not online yet..."
"Who the hell is 'colorful' designer LUCE? Why is he so calm?! Have they finished modifying the starship?!"
"...Ah, we see their last member finally online!"
As soon as the words fell, a tall and upright figure flashed on the screen.
The seventh member of the Colorful Team finally arrived. He pushed open the lounge door and his gaze fell on the young man slumped on the sofa in front of him.
The man stood in front of the sofa for a moment, then pulled the quilt down for the young man who was sleeping on the sofa, picked up the thick bottle-bottom glasses that he had dropped on the ground, and gently placed them on the coffee table beside him.
He then leaned back on the small single sofa closest to the young man. Because of his height and long legs, he seemed a little cramped. However, he did not move to the sofa farther away. He simply leaned back, supported his head with one hand, and began to close his eyes to rest.
Rabbit host: “…”
He looked at the other teams that were busy, then looked at the colorful team that was living a peaceful life, and was speechless for a few seconds.
"Ahem." The host Rabbit could only switch off the screen. "I wonder if the 'Colorful' team gave up these points or if they've already made preparations..."
"Anyway—our second match will officially begin in three hours!"
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