The First Analyst of the Interstellar Era

Chapter 20 : Academy Seven

The several hills behind Academy Seven.

Hills Three and Five were the biology department's animal and plant experimental gardens.

Hill One was the school team's training ground, equipped with simulated energy field devices, which often got blown up due to the intense training energy.

Hill Two belonged to the analysis department, used for testing edited energy crystals and energy equipment, becoming an alternative option when the analyst training room was fully occupied.

Hills Four and Six were used by the summoning department for internal spirit body and summoned body PK, and were also frequently blown up.

Hill Seven was for soldier system training, an alternative when combat arenas were insufficient. Various combat training arenas of different sizes were built on the mountain, and due to the excessive mecha firepower during competitions, it too was often blown up.

When Chen Sui first crossed over to the interstellar era, she knew that people of this era had a natural reverence for biology.

Many years ago, the mother planet's approach to death had made humans deeply aware of the importance of species, so while developing technology, they had made every effort to preserve the genetic information of many organisms.

The biology department's biological cultivation was based on this precious genetic information.

Cheng Wei's friend was called Helan Xi. Although in the biology department, he was Cheng Wei's output teammate.

On the way to Hill Five with Cheng Wei, Chen Sui found his over-familiarity somewhat frightening.

The two had only met once at the commercial street, but in the short distance from Mingli Building to the back mountain, Cheng Wei had talked about everything from his childhood playmates to which friends he would go with to participate in the star ring selection to qualify for the Star League competition.

The biology department began at the foot of the mountain, with seedlings planted all along the way, each bearing a special identity tag.

There were experimental fields enclosed by metal fences, marked with slogans saying 'Non-experimental personnel, do not enter.'

When they met Helan Xi, he was in a garden of lush branches and abundant fruits.

Chen Sui knew this was a type of tree. She had seen an alien species form of this tree, where a head with a long tongue had sprouted from a beautiful peach blossom.

Since then, she had applied a layer of detestable filter to this type of tree.

Helan Xi jumped down from a tree, holding a plump fruit in his hand. Seeing a red-haired figure swaying into view from a corner of the mountain, he stopped and waited.

Chen Sui saw a crew-cut young man in a black tank top, with strong muscles exposed on his arms. He placed the picked fruit in a transparent box, then waved in their direction.

"Can you hurry up, brother?"

Helan Xi urged from a distance.

"Are you calling for my soul?"

Saying this, Cheng Wei pulled Chen Sui, turning his head to leave, "Forget it, don't give him any discount, 20% or 10%, just break his bones for real."

"Hey, hey, hey, since you're here, take something with you."

Helan Xi casually plucked a half-ripe, greenish-red fruit from the tree and threw it toward Cheng Wei's position.

Before it reached Cheng Wei, who was still pretending to threaten with his back turned, Chen Sui, standing to the side, reached out and lightly caught it.

She had originally just wanted to lower her gaze to examine it, but when she looked down, what she saw made her pupils suddenly contract.

The green side of the greenish-red fruit was visibly turning pink, and the originally hard texture suddenly became soft, as if in the few seconds it had been in her hand, it had suddenly ripened.

Chen Sui's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively wanted to throw it away, but as she released it, Cheng Wei, hearing the sound, turned and caught it.

Seeing the ripe fruit in his hand, his face lit up with joy, "You..."

He nodded at Helan Xi, "You do have some conscience after all."

"Let's go," Cheng Wei raised his chin at Chen Sui.

"I've brought her to you, you two discuss what you need."

As he spoke, he scooped some clear water from the canal dug by the biology department, wiped the surface of the fruit, sat down on the ground, and began eating right there.

Helan Xi was about to say it wasn't ripe, but upon closer look, he saw it was a ruddy fruit, causing only a second of confusion.

Somehow he had thrown a nice-looking one.

"What do you need?"

Chen Sui got straight to the point, asking directly.

Helan Xi was quite generous, immediately pulling out a list, "Everything on this, as much as you have."

Chen Sui looked at the meter-long list, paused for a second, then took it to have a look.

The first item that caught her eye: Sui Han Bone.

Chen Sui's eyes immediately lost focus.

Ha, really rich, Sui Han Bone at several tens of thousands per gram, wanting ten grams.

She looked down further and found that there were many expensive materials, as well as many basic materials, making it look like...

"Are you making a mecha?"

Except for the mecha skeleton and engine fluids and other hardware, almost all replaceable materials were listed.

Helan Xi answered lightly: "Oh no, I got into a fight a few days ago, wrecked my mecha, just replacing some parts."

Chen Sui couldn't help but smile.

"These," she marked several items on the list with her finger, "I have all these."

"Oh, then I'll take them all. Don't bother with the 20% discount, just charge market price, otherwise you'll lose out. You could sell these elsewhere and still have a market. I won't take advantage of you, I have money."

Helan Xi's last words sounded somewhat arrogant.

Cheng Wei nodded: "Yes, he has money, charge him 110%."

Chen Sui looked at the materials list, mentally constructing several solutions, but felt that some of the expensive materials seemed somewhat redundant.

Out of professional ethics, she asked an additional question, "For your mecha, if you buy fire silver, you don't need to buy flame nitrate as well. The two have similar effects, but flame nitrate is ten times more expensive. And this..."

She pointed out several issues in succession. Helan Xi's arrogant eyebrows furrowed as he leaned in to look at the list, listening to her explanation of the materials.

His head suddenly felt bigger.

"Oh, oh, okay."

He could only nod.

After Chen Sui finished, he said: "This is a plan I got from a high-level repair technician I found on the StarNet, in the Repair Technician Association. He was going to sell me the materials in the end, but Cheng Wei said you had them and could offer a better deal, so I didn't buy from him."

Hearing this, Chen Sui immediately understood the tactic.

She simply crossed out several redundant materials.

"There, that's better. Can I see your mecha? There are a few materials that depend on the mecha's condition."

Helan Xi had initially just regarded her as someone selling materials, but hearing this, he felt she seemed knowledgeable.

He hurriedly glanced at Cheng Wei, whose chewing motion paused as he stared at Chen Sui in surprise: "You, you understand this too?"

Aren't you an interstellar nomad, sis?

No, Cheng Wei's mind suddenly cleared. It was normal for interstellar nomads to have some minerals, but being able to carry weighing and dispensing equipment meant she really understood mechas, or at least mecha materials.

"I've learned a bit, but I haven't obtained my repair technician certificate yet. If you mind, forget it."

Seeing her calm demeanor, not adding anything but rather crossing out many items, Helan Xi figured she didn't want to extort money. Besides, just looking wouldn't hurt.

So he took out his mecha ring and scanned it on his light brain.

The mecha's battle damage status displayed on the light brain's surface.

Chen Sui looked at the holographic situation and crossed out a few more materials.

Finally satisfied, she picked up the list and looked: "Good, now I have all these materials."

Then she looked at the Sui Han Bone at the top.

"Oh, except for that one."

As she spoke, she discovered that the Sui Han Bone was used to repair the mecha's weapon. Looking at that thin but extremely heavy blade, she immediately felt the weight of money.

"Alright, I'll get the materials."

She separated a portion from her spatial button, having Helan Xi cross off one item for each.

After transferring the materials, her account received thirty thousand.

Chen Sui couldn't help but sigh: "Playing with mechas really makes money."

Helan Xi, seeing that she had even thrown in a few usable replacement joints, admiringly asked: "Indeed, you repair technicians, making a high-grade personalized mecha, costs almost the same as energy crystal editing for summoning bodies."

"But, don't you worry about your personalized mecha not fitting properly? You can just modify whatever doesn't fit, which should be very convenient, right?"

Chen Sui was stumped by the question.

She looked up, thinking for a second, remembering that she was still dirt poor, unable to afford not just a personalized mecha, but even suitable weapons.

"I don't know about others, but that's not the case for me."

She was very poor.

Helan Xi was at a loss for words. After putting away the materials, he was about to invite Chen Sui: "This entire circle consists of crops we've cultivated to maturity. Feel free to pick them, as long as it's not noticeably less."

"Oh, by the way," he had noticed earlier, "where did you buy that plant perfume? It's quite fresh and interesting. I'm working on such a project recently, I'd like to get a bottle to study."

Chen Sui and Cheng Wei's faces simultaneously filled with confusion: "What perfume?"

Helan Xi swept his eyebrow, lightly sniffing: "You can't smell it?"

Cheng Wei was somewhat far from Chen Sui, immediately stood up, walked a few steps closer, and let out a huge "What the hell?":

"I couldn't smell it just now."

Chen Sui suspiciously sniffed around herself but didn't notice anything unusual.

Seeing her expression unchanged, even slightly doubting their reactions, the two rushed forward.

"What are you two doing? Bullying a female classmate?"

A crisp female voice quickly approached. Dazzling pink twin tails swinging, she sheltered Chen Sui behind her, then raised her hands, a fist for each of them, "What are you trying to do?"

A series of light footsteps sounded from behind.

Leading was the black wolf-tailed curly-haired school team leader, Xie Chunshi, whom Chen Sui had seen before.

Beside him, Gu Qinxue tilted her head, her white long hair swaying in the air: "Chen Sui?"

Behind her, a blue-haired young man who had been looking down at her raised his eyes, examining Chen Sui.

"What are you doing, seeing our female classmate is small and thin, trying to force her to work for you?"

Tong Wei narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the two.

Helan Xi and Cheng Wei looked at each other, both raising their hands high.

"I'm innocent, I've finished all my work today, there's no need. I was just buying some mecha materials from her, and asking where she bought this plant perfume. Haven't I been researching this without success recently?"

Tong Wei sniffed, turned to glance at Chen Sui, quietly moving closer to her side, continuing to sniff, getting closer to Chen Sui's neck.

Feeling the pink head approaching her neck, Chen Sui stood still like dead water, "You can smell it too?"

"It seems like there's something."

Tong Wei nodded in agreement, looking at her.

She hadn't noticed before, but upon reflection, realized this classmate looked somewhat familiar.

Green eyes, mechanical-like, seemingly calm, yet always giving an impression of mockery.

She thought of something and stepped back slightly, "Hello, I'm Tong Wei, second-year analyst. I've heard about you!"

Chen Sui nodded: "Hello."

She moved past the perfume topic: "I might have accidentally picked up the scent somewhere on the way. I've never bought perfume, sorry."

Helan Xi, not giving up, wanted to ask more.

The wolf-tailed curly-haired young man, followed by a tall muscular man, came forward.

"Commander Xie," Cheng Wei and Helan Xi glanced at Xie Chunshi, with some apprehension in their eyes, becoming more well-behaved in their actions.

Xie Chunshi nodded, noticing from the corner of his eye a few drops of blue energy dissipating around Chen Sui. He discreetly lowered his gaze, instantly resuming a gentle expression:

"Puluo has some free time these days and wants to arrange a training match with you. Interested in trying?"

The tall muscular man behind him was stunned for a second, then nodded along, "Yes."

But Chen Sui saw that his eyes seemed to be fixed on her.

However, the one responding was Cheng Wei.

Of course, he agreed. Being able to compete with the school team was more beneficial for him.

"By the way, Commander Xie, the holographic competition project in the virtual battlefield is about to start, and well," Helan Xi poked his head out from behind Cheng Wei, asking softly: "Can our analyst come back now?"

Tong Wei quietly inched toward them.

Seeing this, Chen Sui finally understood.

The school team had a vacancy for an analyst, so they had borrowed Cheng Wei's team's analyst.

Tong Wei was probably that second-year analyst with a mental threshold value surpassing Liao Ruyi, but slightly inferior theoretical achievements.

"Yes."

From the school team crowd, Gu Qinxue stepped forward, helping Chen Sui organize the uncollected materials, while asking:

"You also have mecha materials?"

A tall, thin blue-haired youth followed behind Gu Qinxue. Seeing her initiate conversation, his eyes showed some resentment.

Wow, so she's just ignoring him, huh?

"Hey, aren't you an interstellar nomad? Do you all learn mecha repair?"

Zhou Chen, seeing Chen Sui unable to lift her hands, swallowed the more damaging words, but his question still carried some prejudice against interstellar nomads.

Chen Sui arranged her things without answering him.

Instead, Gu Qinxue coldly responded: "Stop being disgusting here."

Zhou Chen snorted angrily: "Fine, the first thing you say to me in three days is this? Just because I accidentally burned some of your spirit body's fur during the fight? Is it necessary to hold such a grudge?"

"Speak? You speak!"

Gu Qinxue pulled Chen Sui away from him, making Zhou Chen even angrier.

"Are you going to the holographic training room to do the military training project later?"

Chen Sui nodded: "Just a few more days and it'll be over."

Gu Qinxue's wrist rested on her arm, her cold expression carrying a faint smile:

"Let's go together. The holographic competition project testing channel has just opened. By the way, do you want to try it? Passing the test has quite a few mecha-related rewards."

She saw that Chen Sui seemed quite interested in mechas. There were actually spirit body-related rewards as well, but mindful of Chen Sui's non-Awakened status, Gu Qinxue didn't mention it.