Chapter 5: First Meeting (Part 2)
Mingyu understood in an instant why Mu Baixing had just suggested that he not participate in the starship design and directly submit the design draft provided by the other party.
Because no serious starship designer knows how to design a starship that uses ordinary people as observers.
The five-colored-headed brothers all looked up at Mingyu.
"...Yes." Red Hair spoke first, whispering, "We are all ordinary people who haven't awakened our spiritual powers..."
There was a hint of resentment in his tone. Mingyu realized that his tone had caused misunderstandings and quickly explained, "No, I don't mean anything else. I am also considered a non-awakened human..."
The little mental power he has is no different from having none at all.
Mingyu: "But I mean, the observer... No, I'm not saying that ordinary people can't do it. It's just..."
Mingyu actually agreed with what his parents had told him since he was little. It made perfect sense that non-awakened humans shouldn't serve as starship observers.
During starship navigation, the navigator's mental tentacles are connected to the starship's mechanical nerve center through artificial neurons, and are also connected to the driver's mental power.
Awakened humans who serve as starship pilots, also known as ships, have awakened their psychic powers to high intensity and aggressiveness. While their psychic powers can "see," their sensitivity and reach are very low, requiring them to rely on observers to assist in navigation.
The observer acts as the "eyes" of the starship, and the pilot is the "brain" of the starship, connected as one through a mental power pipeline.
If the starship observer is an ordinary person, he can only observe the values through the detector: although they also wear an observer helmet, they need to communicate with the driver through the voice channel, which prolongs the communication time.
What's more, the effect of the energy detector is far inferior to the navigator's mental power.
If the observer delays one second in informing the pilot of the situation in the universe, the pilot will have one less second to react and adjust the starship's actions.
"I want to congratulate you for helping me realize my dream..." Mingyu's thoughts were in a mess, and his words were almost incoherent, "But..."
Mu Baixing: "It's still in time."
His tone was calm, as if he didn't think there was anything wrong with this arrangement: "Cooperating with me in the Star Navigation Competition is enough."
Mingyu: “…”
Mingyu opened his mouth.
This sentence undoubtedly sounds like the pretense of a middle school boy.
"We... well... Orange and I, along with Little Blue and Little Purple, have all sailed with the Boss," Redhead whispered. "Although we were forced to do so by life, we all made it back safely."
Mingyu: “Oh oh…”
He was still a little dazed. He looked at the colorful-haired guys and then at Mu Baixing.
If you don't go to dangerous areas, don't leave the edge of the safe star field and get close to the star line, don't have special missions, and only take civilian routes, it is indeed possible to rely on non-awakened human observers to return safely.
But this is the Star Games.
It is a competition venue with the purpose of selecting outstanding star navigators, where difficulties are artificially set up even if there are none. It is a gathering place for countless outstanding navigators and ships.
Mingyu had many thoughts running through his mind, but he swallowed them one by one as he looked at the colorful haired creatures.
"The Star Navigation Competition registration fee is 300 star coins, and downloading and installing the competition plugin is 500 star coins. That's a month's worth of food for me," he finally said. "Let's...try not to be eliminated in the first round, right? I don't want to lose everything..."
"'We'?" Mu Baixing said indifferently, chewing on the words and repeating, "You're not leaving the team?"
Mingyu: “…”
It’s not that I don’t want to at all.
Mingyu felt the probability of losing a month's worth of food was too high. He hadn't been so concerned before, but now that he was planning how to earn enough money to leave the Ming family... he felt a bit stingy.
But if you quit now, the Colorful Team will be disbanded and you will be directly disqualified from the competition.
Mingyu's colorful hair reminded him of his past self.
Mu Baixing curled the corners of his lips, stood up straight, and took the initiative to extend his hand to Mingyu again.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I lost my temper."
His smile faded quickly. After he finished speaking, only a faint trace of the smile remained in his eyes: "Happy cooperation?"
Mingyu: “…”
Mingyu looked at the handsome man in front of him, and then looked again at the several people with colorful hair who were feeling sympathetic.
The red, orange, green, blue and purple people all had a hint of cautious anticipation in their eyes.
It was as if when he was a child, he was unable to awaken his spiritual power, so he was laughed at and bullied. He felt that he had made a mistake and looked at his parents cautiously.
Mingyu: “…”
Mingyu quickly calculated how to save the seven hundred yuan by living frugally, and finally gritted his teeth and shook hands with Mu Baixing.
"That's fine." Mingyu said, "Happy cooperation!"
His expression was filled with the determination of a warrior clenching his fists in regret. He accepted the starship design drawings that Mu Boxing sent from the Star Navigation Competition team channel, intending to go back and make some modifications.
Mu Baixing glanced at him, a little amused, and said calmly: "Don't worry. I won't let you be eliminated in the first round."
Mingyu: “…”
"Don't show off." Mingyu whispered, "If you show off, you'll be struck by lightning."
The man had already turned around and was about to leave the lounge, but when he heard Mingyu mumbling, he stopped and turned his head.
He raised his eyebrows and signaled Mingyu to explain with his eyes, and the sharp and indifferent aura in his body was revealed again.
But this power was far less frightening than the previous confrontation.
Mingyu had quickly adapted to Mu Boxing's aura. This time, his face remained calm and his heart rate remained steady. He waved to him in a friendly manner, pretending not to notice. He also calmly greeted the colorful hairy brothers following behind Mu Boxing, called up the Star Network panel, exited the Star Navigation Competition module, and logged off.
It was already morning on the capital planet.
The sun had just risen outside the window, and the Ming family estate was still quiet. Mingyu felt dizzy from staying up too late, his brain barely functioning. He washed his face with cold water and left the estate before his parents got up. He sent a message to the housekeeper, who had diligently started working early in the morning, telling Ming's parents that he was leaving first, rushing back to school for a class activity, and would return later.
Mingyu would usually postpone this time until the next routine physical examination which he could not avoid.
He slept aboard the aircraft and arrived at school just in time for morning classes. A large number of students rushed out of the dormitories and headed for the cafeteria and teaching buildings. Mingyu ignored the strange looks he received as the crowds passed by, making his way back to the dormitories. He slept all day and didn't wake up until dusk.
Mingyu stretched out on the bed.
He was actually still sleepy, but because he was preoccupied and in a very excited mood, he couldn't fall asleep.
Mingyu's dormitory is on the top floor of the building, so it is very quiet. The accommodation fee, like tuition, is paid by his parents.
Mingyu planned to slowly pay back the money his parents had spent on him after he left home, keeping track of every penny. He first opened the control panel by the door to check the monthly electricity bill and put it on the account. Then he grabbed a bag of nutrient solution from the refrigerator and drank it. As he drank, he turned on the screen and pulled up the starship blueprints Mu Baixing had given him.
The M10 Exploration Starship is a classic basic civilian starship, certified by the Ministry of Space Navigation, with a relatively simple structure and stable performance.
Mingyu looked at the blueprint carefully. He could tell that Mu Boxing understood starship design, but he had probably never studied it systematically from the basics, and therefore lacked some of the most basic knowledge.
With his design ideas, it is normal that he cannot pass the starship designer qualification exam, and passing it would be a fantasy.
"Who's going to ride this starship..." Mingyu couldn't help but mutter, "There's absolutely no safety guarantee!"
He took out his electronic pen and began modifying the starship's external equipment. Because the observer was an ordinary person, Mu Boxing installed an integrated energy detector on the starship's exterior. Then, perhaps because he needed to compete with other teams for resources during the competition, he added a set of cannon barrels underneath.
Mu Boxing had a full understanding of the basic parameters of the external equipment, and there were no obvious problems such as exceeding the load that the power could bear after adding external loads, but... there was no "redundancy" in his design.
All lines were connected in the shortest, most energy-efficient manner. There was no redundant detection equipment, no consideration of the impact on the starship's hull of damaged or even detached components due to unusual circumstances. There was no margin for error, no backup plan. Those aboard this starship were like jugglers walking on a tightrope.
Any failure in the starship's wiring, processor, or loading parts will cause a starship accident.
This is a big taboo in starship design.
Space travel carries an extremely high risk. Most starship accidents result in fatalities. Therefore, redundancy in starship design is essential and a first lesson for all designers.
Sometimes, the more streamlined and efficient it is, the better.
Mingyu looked over the design drawing as a whole again, and then began to make modifications.
He wrote quickly, adding spare modules, changing circuits, adjusting the positions of detectors so they could form a compensation network... He sat by the window, the golden-red sunset tinting the sky, casting a bright glow in his eyes.
Mingyu's expression was focused.
He had finished his nutrient solution long ago, but the young man didn't notice this. He held the empty bag in his mouth and wrote and drew quickly on the screen with the electronic pen.
If an experienced starship designer stood next to him, he would be surprised at how quickly Mingyu modified the design drawings and shocked at the feasibility of the circuit design he drew.
Typically, a starship design requires repeated revisions through numerous computer modeling tests, including safety and feasibility testing. The final design can differ significantly from the initial draft. Experienced senior designers may only need four or five iterations, but most junior starship designers spend days, weeks, or even months getting the computer modeled starship to match their envisioned functionality.
They will make some mistakes in their designs that they are not aware of. Experienced starship designers can see them at a glance, but young designers have to conduct repeated experiments to find out where the problem lies.
However, Mingyu's design drawings have almost no such problems.
His line layout looks more sophisticated than that of a designer who has been in the design industry for decades.
He occasionally made corrections, but most of the time he completed the work in one go, as if his brain was a supercomputer that had already simulated the starship's performance in his mind.
Mingyu had a vague feeling that after his spiritual power awakened, his speed and reliability in drawing designs had increased significantly. However, he wasn't sure if this feeling was just an illusion, so he never delved into it.
The same is true this time.
He immersed himself in the starship drawing, moving and enlarging the design bit by bit. After changing the external lines, his eyes fell on the central core area.
This is another key point that Mu Boxing changed on the original model.
Mingyu's electronic pen hovered above the light screen, unfolding the starship's central nervous system.
A silver-gray, irregularly shaped crystal nearly as tall as a person is entangled with complex wires.
Pipes of varying thicknesses interspersed, intertwined, ran parallel, and then dispersed again across the elliptical crystal. Large lines converged from various parts of the starship, entering the crystal from above and then spreading out from below, connecting to various parts of the starship.
It is an important hub connecting all functions of the starship, an enhancer that can multiply the energy of human spirit, and a super "computer" capable of performing fast and complex calculations.
It is the biomechanical heart of the starship.
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