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Character ListQiao Zhiya: Half-elf, half-dwarf MC.
Chu Rong: Marshal ML.
Ren Mo: aka Master Ren. A mecha master making full manually-piloted mecha.
Chu Yan: ML’s younger brother. Is the same age as MC, currently attending intermediate college.
Chu Huai: ML’s older brother, he’s in politics.
A1: A household robot in ML’s house
Xiang Kun: Chu Yan’s mortal enemy. Xiang Hui’s younger brother. Mecha manufacturing student.
Xiang Hui: A colonel. The Xiang family’s current heir. Xiang Kun’s older brother.
Yuan Xiu: Chu Yan’s bestfriend.
Yuan Lie: Yuan Xiu’s father.
Liu Hongzi: One of Chu Yan’s enemy. Xiang Kun is currently affiliated to him.
Liu Hongzi looked incredulously at the inactive operation panel in front of him. His hand trembled as he took off the protective helmet, stretched out his hand to press it a few times, and tried to connect the spiritual power again. His attempt all failed, which led him into quickly opening the cockpit and immediately looked at the state of his mecha’s chest.
He saw a thin and deep crack extending along the right arm – which was holding the weapon – all along to the chest area. The deep crack stopped at the energy core part under the cockpit, directly destroying the power system of the mecha. The lifeless mecha could only kneel on the ground like a pile of scrap metal.
“This is impossible…” His eyes were full of shock and disbelief. He reached out to touch the crack to confirm its existence. But his feet slipped, along with his body, almost falling from the cockpit.
A big gray mecha’s hand moved over to prevent Liu Hongzi from falling. Then, Chu Yan’s mocking voice came from above, “Sorry, sorry! My weapon just got repaired two days ago, and this is the first time I’m using it, that’s why I can’t really control my strength.”
After speaking, Chu Yan pushed Liu Hongzi back into the cockpit without tenderness. Then, he withdrew his mecha’s hand and waved to the applauding Yuan Lie as a thank you gesture. Then, it provocatively turned a little to face Xiang Kun, who was going crazy.
With a spring on his steps and a smile on his face, he happily trotted away to the waiting area, waiting for the next game.
A familiar scene, a familiar rhetoric. Liu Hongzi, who was unwillingly pushed into the cockpit, couldn’t help growling. He raised his hand and punched the cockpit floor hard. His expression was twisted from sheer anger.
‘That damned Chu Yan! So fucking arrogant!!’
“Ge, did you see Chu Yan’s expression just now? He was laughing at me. I’m going to beat him up!” Xiang Kun’s temper was boiling without a method to vent.
Xiang Hui hurriedly grabbed his younger brother’s arm and pulled him back. With a deep frown, he whispered, “Sit down! Think about it clearly for a second! You can remake a weapon again. But the key point is Chu Yan’s energy blade. It is very suspicious.”
Xiang Kun refused to accept this reasoning. He retorted, “But that mace is the first weapon I made, I—”
“If you don’t understand the weirdness of that energy blade, then the second, third, and countless weapons you make in the future will be broken by Chu Yan’s hands! By those Chu family’s hands! Do you understand?!” Xiang Hui could feel Xiang Kun’s grip tightened. He sighed, then with a gloomy voice, he continued, “Now sit down and calm down. Show your noble bearing befitting a Xiang family member. Remember, that mace is just some you made casually. It’s nothing in the grand scheme of things.”
Xiang Hui’s tone was too gloomy, and his eyes looked crazy; it looked completely different from his usual gentleness and tolerance. Xiang Kun, who rarely met him because he lived in school, directly trembled from instinctive fear when he saw his brother. His voice was wavering, and his pupils were shaking. He didn’t know what to do to respond to his brother’s weird state.
Because Xiang Kun was silent, it made Xiang Hui believe that his brother finally saw reason. He eased his expression and helped him straighten his messy hair, while saying, “The mechas and weapons used by the students in this competition must pass the school’s inspection in advance. Go find the data. It is very important for us to get them. Be clever when inquiring about it, got it?”
All the things Chu Yan used were custom-made by the Chu family. That energy blade could easily cut off Xiang Kun’s mace made from various precious ores , and even scratched the protective shell of the mecha and destroyed the power system inside. It must have used some secret thing that has not yet been released to the market! And judging from the recent news, the material used was most likely that mysterious secondary mutated red tin ore.
The seniors in the family have been researching the mutated red tin mine for more than a year, but there has been no progress. Now Chu Yan has shown off a strange energy blade produced by the Chu family to the world. This was a golden opportunity. It’s foolish not to figure it out.
After his expression eased, the sense of strangeness quickly faded away. Xiang Kun gradually calmed down. Seeing that his older brother was so eager, the family affection took the upper hand. He suppressed the uncomfortable feeling of losing his first craft, and nodded obediently. “Okay, I’ll get the data.”
“Good boy.” Xiang Hui withdrew his thoughts, raised his hand and touched his younger brother’s head with a smile. He continued to comfort him, “Don’t be sad, I’ll transfer another batch of materials for you. Don’t talk about only making weapons this time, even if you want to directly build a mecha, I will support you.”
Seeing Xiang Hui’s usual gentle smile directed to him, Xiang Kun completely relaxed his emotions. Thinking about what his older brother proposed, Xiang Kun did find it reasonable. As long as he had materials, what kind of weapon he couldn’t make? This time, he really cheered up and showed Xiang Hui a confident smile. As he patted his chest, he said, “Ge, don’t worry. I promise to help you get the data of that energy blade!”
After speaking, he let his annoyance to his eternal nemesis take over, and shouted “Chu Yan cheated!” as he rushed off the viewing platform1clarification: he acted bratty to mask off his actual purpose: some good ol’ corporate spying..
The arena became lively again because of Xiang Kun’s sudden charge. The teacher was tormented by his persistent yelling. After asking Chu Yan for his opinion, the teacher announced the test data of the energy blade and explained, “Student Xiang, the competition has always been carried out under the supervision of the teaching body. Therefore, it is impossible for Chu Yan to cheat. Although the data of this energy blade is much higher than other energy blades, there is no violation of the rules. However, Liu Hongzi’s mace did exceed the safety value during the test. But after discussing it with other teachers, we considered that dampening the  student’s enthusiasm for new weapons and the creativity of actively exploring different weapons and tactics  would be detrimental. So, Liu Hongzi’s weapon was approved. Then, we saw what happened to a female classmate yesterday, it turned out that the weapon was indeed, far too dangerous for this competition.”
As the teacher talked, he not-so-discreetly glanced at the black ash that hadn’t been completely cleaned up on the ground.
Things like corrosive chains were still too dangerous, and he personally felt that those teachers who agreed on this usage must’ve had their brains kicked by a donkey.
Xiang Kun, who had walked a little bit behind the door on the matter of reviewing the mace, choked when he heard the teacher’s words. He saw that Chu Yan looked over with a half-smile. This infuriated him even further until his face slowly flushed. He couldn’t help glare at him viciously. But, he couldn’t continue to stand here and became a shameful sight, so he immediately turned around and left.
In the spectator area, Xiang Hui frowned as he looked at the released energy blade data.
The composition of the energy blade was actually only Gray Snake Ore, without adding other minerals. This was not normal, the data of Gray Snake Ore couldn’t be this high.
Something is wrong. There must be something else hidden.
Lieutenant General Wei, who had been watching quietly all this time, finally couldn’t help to ask, “Has the Chu family come up with something new?”
“It should be.” Xiang Hui came back to his senses. He clenched his hands slowly, and said in a low voice, “Ren Moze can no longer help the Chu family continue to innovate, so they must get new talents.”
The Xiang family relied on mecha manufacturing to gain a foothold in the Federation. If they were caught up by the Chu family, wouldn’t the Xiang family become a joke?
On the lifted platform, Chu Rong looked at the announced test data at a glance. With a suspicious look, he glanced at Qiao Zhiya, who was obediently hanging his head and his ears. He asked in a cold voice, “Just now, Xiao Yan only used 60% of his strength for that blow. The data of that energy blade is definitely beyond the level announced. Tell me, what’s actually going on?”
Qiao Zhiya gave him a guilty look, grabbed the Marshal’s clothes in a pleading manner, and replied honestly, “I, I drew a magic circle on the energy blade. But, I also hid the magical signature in advance, plus drew a temporary suppressing magic circle as a cover-up…”
Compared to what happened last time with the giant blade, it could be regarded as impeccable in doing things.
Really promising, this Bald Chicken actually knows how to deceive the eyes.
“Does Xiao Yan know what you’re doing?” Chu Rong continued to ask, full of incoming storms.
Qiao Zhiya’s body became stiffer, his ears stretched taut and down. He stopped pulling at his clothes, and instead leaned over to rub his head against the Marshal’s chest with extra pleading eyes.
Chu Rong immediately knew what Qiao Zhiya actually meant!
No wonder Xiao Yan agreed to the teacher’s request to release the data of the energy blade so easily. It turned out that Chu Rong had been kept from knowing in the first place!
Chu Rong couldn’t help tightening the hand holding Qiao Zhiya’s back collar. His chest was burning with anger.
Secretly repairing weapons, secretly drawing magic circles on weapons, secretly using cover-ups to avoid detection, and even trying to cover up the magic circle patterns on weapons! Compared with the almost “fair and just” selling of the giant sword last time, this time the Bald Chicken’s trick was very advanced; so advanced that it actually fooled everyone!
If he let this damned, bold, and clever Bald Chicken continue like this, sooner or later, he would be able to toss himself to the sky2out of Chu Rong’s reach.!
Chu Rong only felt that there was a gloomy energy rising from the soles of his feet, straight to the air. The spiritual power locked in the sea of spiritual power could not help but move, escaping towards the outside world. In the next second, a force with a healing power rushed towards him without fear of death, and Chu Rong couldn’t even feel where the other party was!
“Boom–!”
Just like fuel poured into a small fire, Chu Rong’s “single fire” directly started a forest fire.
“Qiao Zhiya.” He raised his hand to hold the small head on his chest, and said grimly, “I think we need to talk.”
After realizing the familiarity of the spiritual power, Qiao Zhiya couldn’t help but continue rubbing his head against Chu Rong’s chest, while his heart froze. Immediately, he looked up at the Marshal. His mouth slightly opened, his ears trembling, and his body stiffened like a piece of dead pork about to be put on the chopping board.
‘Ah, ah, ah! An apology is not enough to douse the fire!’
Not long after the first round of competition ended, Chu Rong left the field, followed by  Xiang Hui and Lieutenant General Wei. The rest of the big shrimps looked at the big whales leaving one after the other. Only Yuan Lie, his supporter and the real parents of the students were left.
The little shrimps couldn’t help whispering.
“Why did everyone leave?”
“It’s because Marshal Chu left first.”
“Marshal Chu doesn’t want to continue watching the game?”
“Well, Chu Yan already defeated the second most powerful student just now. Maybe he thought that Chu Yan would win easily, and there’s no suspense over the result. So he just left early. I think it’s normal.”
“Then, can we cheer for our children?”
“But Lieutenant General Yuan is still there.”
“…”
The little shrimps continued to be silent spectators, wanting to cry but had no tears. Living like this, pushed by the big dogs, truly was miserable!
Chu Yan noticed his erge’s departure, and also noticed Qiao Zhiya who was being carried by him. He glanced at the published energy blade data, and lit a candle for his future ersao3second sister-in-law. in his heart.
He was the user, so of course he knew whether the data and real power were truthful or not. Chu Rong and Qiao Zhiya weren’t “enlightened” yet, so it was his solemn duty to create conflicts and opportunities for the sake of their relationships’ progress. And he was successful so far!
1clarification: he acted bratty to mask off his actual purpose: some good ol’ corporate spying.2out of Chu Rong’s reach.3second sister-in-law.