novelraw Chapter 21 : Awakening
Chapter 21 : Awakening
In the holographic training room, there was only one holographic pod. After lying down, it felt like jumping into an alternate dimension.
In front of a giant circular guidance platform, crowds of people gathered in layers.
Chen Sui found the military training interface on her light brain, completed the military training project, and then exited to the main page.
In the holographic section, besides 'Public Area' and 'Academy-Military Training (To Be Completed)', there were also 'Energy Field (Accessible in Awakening Mode)' and 'Competitions (Testing)'.
Chen Sui clicked on Competitions, and first saw a huge task hall panel. Above was a lengthy introduction to the competitions, and below was the option to select the number of combat participants.
She first chose single player mode.
After a dazzling flash of white light.
Chen Sui was thrown into a simulated jungle environment.
Looking up, she saw black trees planted without any pattern, and the ground was rolling black soil, bubbling like it was boiling.
A line of guiding white text appeared in front of her.
"Single Player Mode: Time Trial Clearance Test"
"You have been randomly assigned to: S-class Energy Field Snake Swamp"
"Please identify the main S-class energy body among the snake swarm and clear with the shortest time. The creator of the clearance record will receive: Customized Personalized Mecha."
Chen Sui's eyes flickered.
What was this?
A customized personalized mecha?
She took a deep breath, clenching her palm.
The holographic system was being so generous?
This was hard not to be tempted by.
The next step allowed her to select a mecha and weapons. Chen Sui got her most handy long spear.
For a customized personalized mecha, let's go!
"Timing begins"
The holographic system announced, the engine liquid heating up, and a blue metallic monster walking through the black mist.
Rustling crawling sounds came from the black forest. As she entered the jungle, pairs of glowing vertical pupils emerged from the black rotting leaves covering the interior.
Snakes as thick as wrists crawled extremely fast toward Chen Sui's position, suddenly extending their forked tongues.
"Hiss!"
A cloud of black mist spewed from between their fangs.
The black mist stuck to the mecha, burning the mecha's shell. Chen Sui felt pain from her right upper arm, giving her a rough understanding of the poison mist's lethality.
The S-class energy field had captured part of an actual scene, and the main S-class energy body was the energy source supporting this part of the energy field.
Once the main energy body was killed, the energy field would dissipate.
Analysts could usually determine the position of the main energy body through the energy fluctuations of the energy body itself.
Chen Sui wasn't an analyst, but she could still solve this.
—She couldn't find it, but she could try killing them all.
The snake swarm around her emerged one after another, spraying jets of poison mist toward her position.
Chen Sui's mecha pushed off the ground, her entire body becoming airborne, the mecha propelling to avoid the poison mist range.
The flash bomb cannon in her hand fired a series of sparks, blasting in a full 360 degrees without any blind spots.
The first row of snake corpses fell, enveloped by the bubbles rising from the swamp, turning into smoke in an instant.
After one layer, another circle of even larger snake swarms continued to close in on Chen Sui.
Her mecha was above the center, when a black golden ring snake as thick as a tree trunk emerged from the swamp, bursting out abruptly.
The entire snake body half-stood, opened its fangs, its tongue thrashing about wildly, and the black mist along with it lunged toward the airborne mecha.
"Slash------"
The silver-white long spear thrust down into its open giant mouth, the mecha quickly piercing through the snake's body.
With a swing of her hand, she swept away all the snake swarms in a certain direction of the jungle.
Chen Sui activated the mecha, firing flash bombs to one side while rushing into the other.
Her feet didn't land on the swamp, but instead stepped and leveraged between the black trees.
The seemingly lush black trees were like paper tigers with a fierce appearance but no substance. With just a light step, they crumbled and fell into the swamp.
Chen Sui didn't look back, sweeping the long spear horizontally across the ground, picking up a row of long snakes, rushing to the side, and fiercely stabbing down with the sharp spear tip.
Like a barbecue skewer, it pierced through flesh and blood.
With a swing backward, the long snakes were thrown off and swallowed by the swamp.
Chen Sui held a flash bomb in one hand to defend against the other side, while the long spear in her other hand swept away rows of long snakes like a cleaning tool.
When all the eyes in the black mist had darkened, a sense of crisis rose from the bottom of her heart, almost instinctively.
She stepped on the nearest intact black tree, the mecha propelling forward, and the mecha became airborne.
In her haste, she glanced down.
The bubbles in the black swamp gathered together, forming a huge transparent ball at the place where she had been standing, filled with black mist.
Such enormous energy could be identified as an S-class energy body at a glance.
"Hiding quite deep."
Chen Sui observed the undulating rolling ground. Indeed, beneath the swamp, it looked very much like a snake's body. A flash of light crossed her eyes.
The flow of black mist around became extraordinarily clear to her.
Green light floated up from the mecha, so small it could almost be ignored.
Chen Sui raised the flash bomb cannon and bombarded several fixed points in the swamp.
Seeing the black soil rolling more violently, she made a decision in her heart.
The main S-class energy body among the snake swarm.
Might not necessarily be a snake.
From within the swamp, many glowing lights reappeared, and the sound of snake tongues flicking in and out resumed.
Chen Sui darted between the remaining black trees, her figure speeding along. The snake swarm lunged at the mecha but could only catch the exhaust of the propulsion liquid.
The flash bomb followed the rolling marks of the swamp, blasting into the black soil one after another, being swallowed by the black soil, then exploding. The foul-smelling soil, like exploding feces, filled the space with a noxious smell.
Chen Sui was nauseated by the stench. Several consecutive flash bombs determined the approximate depth. When four or five hit simultaneously creating a deep pit, no more black soil splattered, only thick black gas emerged.
She seized this opportunity and quickly aimed her long spear at the rapidly healing deep pit in the soil, stabbing straight down.
The long spear was thrown out, with the mecha following closely behind. The giant foot stepped on one end of the long spear, violently penetrating through the deep pit.
The snake swarm lunged fiercely at the mecha's position.
Chen Sui dodged with a flash of movement, gripped the long spear, tilted the angle, and slashed the swamp at an angle, cutting two meters long. She then lifted the spear head, thrusting with tremendous force.
The long spear penetrated the black swamp, piercing out from several meters ahead.
The boiling sound of the swamp stopped. The bubbles blown on the surface burst, lunging at the mecha. The black golden ring snake wrapped around Chen Sui's mecha arm evaporated like smoke.
The black trees were melted and swallowed by the swamp.
At the tip of the sharp silver-white spear head that had penetrated a section of the swamp.
A black crystal was embedded.
White text appeared along with the disappearing holographic image.
"Congratulations on completion"
"Time: 13 minutes 24.17 seconds, Rank: 1"
"Your reward has been issued, please claim at your personal center"
The single-player arena disappeared, and Chen Sui separated from the mecha, returning to the task hall.
After briefly learning about the competition situation in the holographic pod, she discovered that only single-player mode was currently open, while two-player mode and five-person team practice were not yet activated.
Chen Sui raised an eyebrow, opened her personal center, and took a look.
She was quite interested in this so-called personalized mecha, but Chen Sui wondered, was it really that easy to obtain?
What about the promised ranking? Was it this simple?
This suspicion continued until she saw the virtual mecha shell lying in the rewards list.
Suddenly she understood.
So it wasn't real!
Using a virtual mecha to trick people into breaking records.
Holographic battlefield, you're really something, Chen Sui laughed with annoyance.
Looking at the customizable mecha, Chen Sui sighed.
Virtual would do too, just take it as a simulation to design her own mecha first.
She sat down intently in front of the custom mecha materials, starting to build the mecha skeleton.
Building a mecha in the holographic battlefield was much simpler than in reality. Find the appropriate materials, click to assemble, and the mecha could be synthesized.
Before long, scattered mecha materials were synthesized into a green mecha with a thorny pattern under its feet. The mecha carried a gun cannon on its left shoulder, held a black iron long spear in its right hand, with a hollow center at the spear head where a rotating, telescopic willow blade spun rapidly.
Mecha construction information saved.
Chen Sui clapped her hands with satisfaction, looked up at the tall metallic weapon replica of her former battle machine, and showed a hint of nostalgia in her eyes, but even more anticipation.
Good, a new goal had emerged. Her balance couldn't remain stagnant.
After getting the repair technician certificate, first make money, then build the mecha.
After establishing this ambitious goal, seeing it was getting late, Chen Sui ended her training and returned to the dorm.
Gu Qinxue hadn't returned yet. Chen Sui glanced at the windowsill and noticed the radish seedlings had slightly yellowing edges.
She reached out, lightly touching the leaves of the radish seedlings.
A green light point, barely noticeable even in the dark night, glowed and fell on the leaves, merging with the yellowing edges, which then showed a faint green hue.
Chen Sui looked at this scene with her deep green pupils somewhat obscured, the changing fruits in the peach grove, the sudden appearance of plant fragrance, the unusual perception on the holographic training field...
She couldn't help but suspect that mental awakening was in progress.
Thinking about this, Chen Sui became somewhat excited.
She skipped past the life steward's greeting words and quickly tidied up, then began searching on her light brain for the most authoritative hospital for mental awakening examination.
Today's income had made Chen Sui's funds quite comfortable, but after the examination, there would be almost nothing left.
But compared to the possibility of awakening, Chen Sui felt it was very necessary.
To be on the safe side, she also accepted an assignment from a forum and group.
Analyst assignments had better value than substitute class assignments and no risk of being exposed. Moreover, because her assignments were completed so well, she strangely had quite a few followers in this substitute teaching group.
Still had to fight to get assignments when they first appeared.
Chen Sui picked several high-priced assignments and added them to her schedule.
Then she made an appointment for the medical institute's examination.
The mental awakening examination appointments were full, and the latest available date was close to the repair technician certificate test, which worked out well to do them together.
Chen Sui thought, after getting the repair technician certificate, she could sell weapon blueprints to repair shops, or even take on weapon production, mecha repair, and assembly business, all of which had good rates.
The scheduled examination time was in the afternoon of mid-March.
Chen Sui took the repair technician test in the morning and planned to buy a batch of mecha materials at the Yuguang Star material market at noon.
The repair technician test consisted of theoretical and practical parts. Chen Sui had completed the theoretical courses while studying analyst courses during this period, and the practical part was even less of a concern.
The certificate issued by the Repair Technician Association was approved, recorded, and issued on the spot.
After getting the repair technician certificate, Chen Sui first uploaded her information to complete her StarNet profile.
Then she prepared to go to the material market.
Just as she boarded the intercity bus, Chen Sui saw a group of people gathered together. A red-haired person inside saw her and quickly waved.
"Chen Sui!"
"Where are you going? The material market, right?"
Chen Sui was greeted with enthusiasm as soon as she got on the bus.
Cheng Wei smiled and pulled her to sit down: "I just asked your roommate if you were coming, she said you had gone out. How about it, are you also going to the material market?"
This morning when Chen Sui left, Gu Qinxue happened to ask Chen Sui.
"I'm going to take an exam."
Chen Sui turned to answer her, looking at the school team with Cheng Wei and Tong Wei, "What are you all going to do at the material market?"
"Well, a few days ago these two were fighting, they fought too fiercely, and broke their weapons," Tong Wei pointed at Cheng Wei and Puluo, then pointed at Gu Qinxue and Zhou Chen, "These two fought and broke their mechas and weapons."
Chen Sui nodded, showing understanding.
As two infantry who would participate in the star league competition, it was common for Cheng Wei and Puluo to spar.
As for Gu Qinxue and Zhou Chen, from Chen Sui's observation, one was willing to hit and the other was willing to be hit. Gu Qinxue hit him, and Zhou Chen was thrilled.
Now his mecha and weapons were broken, yet he was grinning widely, extremely happy.
"How was the exam?"
Gu Qinxue came forward, sitting next to Chen Sui.
Chen Sui pulled out a small cyan booklet from the pocket inside her school uniform.
"Got it."
She shook it with a smile on her face.
"Congratulations on successfully getting your certificate today," Tong Wei clapped her hands, her cute petite face snuggling toward Chen Sui, "Suisui, will you join us later? We're going to buy materials, then buy spiritual body nourishing agents."
Spiritual body nourishing agents were specially developed nutrient solutions for spiritual bodies. In environments requiring long-term release of spiritual bodies in energy fields, the spiritual domain's energy was insufficient to support them, requiring external energy to help maintain the stability of the spiritual body's form.
"Sure, but I have something at three o'clock in the afternoon, so I'll leave first then."
Chen Sui mentioned that she would go for a mental awakening test.
The material market, along with spiritual body nourishing agent selling points, biological markets, and other retail outlets, were in the city center of the White Night District on Yuguang Star.
The funds in Chen Sui's hands were divided into three parts. First were some basic materials to make into mecha parts that could be sold on StarNet shops.
Another part was for living expenses, and the third part was used to purchase some original embryos needed for the mecha skeleton.
Original embryos were unmilled, unpolished minerals, cheaper than materials, but requiring much effort to polish. If the processing skill wasn't good, it was easy to ruin the quality of the original embryos.
Chen Sui wasn't worried about this. She selected several needed original embryos and looked at the mecha's price list.
The skeleton still lacked one most important material.
She thought of using Taisui Sand.
This material could minimize the feeling of heaviness from the mecha's weight, maximizing the driver's own speed enhancement.
Its price wasn't the most expensive, but it was rare. According to Chen Sui's understanding, in the entire Fourth Star Ring, only Karma Star on the outskirts had records of Taisui Sand sales.
After shopping, Chen Sui found several scattered people in the crowd at the material market. Seeing Cheng Wei's red hair was most conspicuous, she went to meet him first.
Cheng Wei and that tall, muscular infantry from the school team stood in the crowd, looking at the current metal rotating stage, where a man wearing an elaborate suit with a black round hat was earnestly introducing the original embryo in his hand.
Chen Sui heard a bit, and he was actually boasting that it was as hard as diamond and could even pierce through a stone-milk heavenly bull's shell.
The stone-milk heavenly bull was an energy body from the 3S-class energy field [Static River Reverse Flow]. Its shell was extremely hard, difficult to break with a light sword, and even the most powerful charging cannon could only leave scratches on it.
Since the stone-milk heavenly bull hadn't completely evolved and fully energy-transformed, its shell could be preserved after the bull's death.
But this material was also extremely expensive, available but priceless.
Now he was claiming that a mere synthetic material could shatter the shell of a stone-milk heavenly bull.
"Do you believe it?"
Chen Sui looked around, seeing Cheng Wei and Puluo watching with interest, and sincerely asked from behind them.
Cheng Wei was startled by this voice, shuddering, "Of course not, just listening to this nonsense."
"Suisui, it's good you're here, look at that," Cheng Wei was pointing at the weapons in the display case behind this exhibition stand, "Look at that lotus leaf armor, how is it? The sternoclavicular joint area of my mecha keeps breaking, it must be a defensive weakness here. I want to buy this lotus leaf armor to put on, it should be more resistant to hits."
The lotus leaf armor looked like a very thin sheet, reportedly flexible and foldable, but extremely durable.
But with just one look, Chen Sui patted Cheng Wei's shoulder, "I don't think it's very good."
"First, this lotus leaf armor, whoever buys it will know," Chen Sui looked at the boss still boasting about how sharp his synthetic material was, thinking to herself, even this over-hyped material could shatter the so-called lotus leaf armor in one hit, "Second, your mecha already has high defensive performance, stacking more will only make it seem cumbersome, dragging down agility."
"Why not try modifying the gun cannon installation?"
Chen Sui opened her light brain, quickly brought up a mecha model, and simulated it for him.
She moved the gun cannon installation base forward, remodeled the base to be propulsive, pulled the gun cannon upward, with shoulders absorbing the recoil force. The forward base portion engaged with the sternoclavicular joint, becoming part of the armor while reducing joint friction.
"Then you can replace your weapon on the other side. If you go for high defense, switch to an energy shield; if for attack, switch to something with higher mobility, like dual gun cannons, hammer chains, etc."
For each type Chen Sui mentioned, she drew out a plan on her hands. Originally, Puluo was at the viewing platform, but now he and the crowd around them were all attracted by the image on her light brain.
The repair technician's analysis was half-understood by outsiders, but anyone with eyes, looking at the several weapon configurations she provided, couldn't help thinking:
Damn, it could be this awesome?!
Cheng Wei was excited just looking at it, wanting to configure his mecha.
"Getting the certificate really makes a difference, by the way, do you take weapon production commissions? Of those you mentioned, I quite like the attack flow, why don't you make a set for me?"
Chen Sui looked at him with surprise, but before she could speak, someone else in the crowd also asked: "Do you take weapon production orders? I also have this type of heavy mecha like the infantry!"
The commotion below the stage made the suit-wearing man's voice falter, his face darkening as he stared at the frail girl surrounded by the crowd.
"Shit, came to disrupt my business?"
The suit man saw Chen Sui looking quite young, possibly not even of adult age, and immediately asked: "Fellow colleague, you're also from the Repair Technician Association, so you should know very well, the weight of these weapons, these are all works of the senior repair technician Mr. Kain from the Repair Technician Association."
Chen Sui never joined this association. After her test, some people indeed stopped her, asking if she wanted to join, requiring only three hundred star coins.
Hearing it required money, Chen Sui immediately declined and quickly left.
She didn't know any Master Kain at all.
The suit man waited for her to calmly say she didn't know, then smiled somewhat sinisterly:
"How could that be, Master Kain is the Vice-Chairman of our Yuguang Star Repair Technician Association. You're not an uncertified repair technician, are you?"
The suit man looked suspiciously at Chen Sui, immediately characterizing her: "Children just like to make trouble. Without a repair technician certificate, you can't do related business."
The suit man dragged out his tone in a sarcastic manner.
Chen Sui pinched out her certificate from her pocket with two fingers.
"I'm sorry, but I do have one."
She nodded modestly, with slight apology to the suit man: "By the way, you just said this is a senior repair technician's work, so according to market price, it should be priced around 50,000-100,000, but I see you've priced it at 120,000, which seems unreasonable. I've already forwarded this information to the business office, no need to thank me."
Chen Sui tilted her head.
The suit man's face suddenly turned pale, glaring at her, then turning away in fright, picking up several items and putting them away, seemingly of questionable origin.
Seeing this, Chen Sui left the scene with Cheng Wei and Puluo.
On the way to meet with others, Cheng Wei brought up the weapon production matter again.
Chen Sui nodded, "I can do it, but let's be clear first, market price, and you provide your own material costs."
She explained her previous weapon production process to Cheng Wei.
After the other party had no objections, the transaction was officially established.
After meeting with the school team, the next stop was the spiritual body nourishing agent station. This type of spiritual body-specific nutrient solution was as important in the interstellar world as biological seeds, so the two were built together in a seemingly open-air ring-shaped building.
The building was divided in half, with spiritual body nourishing agents on one side and the seed market on the other.
Cheng Wei was helping Helan Xi bring back seeds, while Chen Sui, having no spiritual body, didn't need to buy nourishing agents. She was curious about the seeds though, wanting to pick one to take back and see if the carrot seedling effect could be reproduced.
Inside the ring-shaped building, the fragrance of air freshener mixed with a grassy scent. Although the artificial fragrance was somewhat strong, it was still very popular among interstellar people.
Walking into the seed market, a dazzling array of potted plants were covered with glass domes.
Behind them were seeds that had been divided and packaged, with special material nutrient bases ensuring their vitality.
Cheng Wei took the biology department's application form, a request to purchase a large batch of seeds, and handed it to the person in charge of the seed market.
The person was a mentally crisp female, with a long ponytail coiled at the back of her head, wearing a greenish work uniform and isolation gloves.
She stamped Cheng Wei's application form with the seed market's serial number steel seal and had staff members take him to the wholesale point.
Chen Sui wanted to retail a single seed and was directed to another side.
She passed through layers of plant shelves. A branch of a potted plant extended outside the glass dome, and as she passed by, it caught her hair.
The black short hair was forked open by the branch, revealing green-glowing roots.
Chen Sui didn't notice at all. The smell of air freshener had numbed her sense of smell, and the dazzling lights made the flickering green light points almost transparent.
As she walked by, a layer of invisible energy spread out.
And on the other side, in the peacefully tranquil spiritual body nourishing agent shop.
In the miniature energy field provided by the ring-shaped building, all spiritual bodies had condensed into their true forms, becoming the size of pets, closely following their masters.
When the strange energy dispersed.
All spiritual bodies, without exception, stopped their feeding actions.
Xie Chunshi was one of the few people who hadn't displayed his true body.
He was settling the bill for the most ordinary flavored nourishing agent when he sensed the energy light points scattered in the space, instinctively thinking an energy field was descending.
His movement paused, his spirit tense, and blue light appeared at his fingertips.
But in the next second, an exclamation sounded.
"Hey, where are you going?"
The spiritual body broke free from its master's restraint, shattered the nourishing agent, and ran toward the shop's exit.
Swift birds, agile beasts, spiritual bodies crashed against the isolated door of the shop.
Though blocked, they still persistently and frantically crashed against the door, as if possessed.
"What's happening? What is my spiritual body trying to do?"
"I don't know, it suddenly just ran out."
The shop staff hurried over, first sealing the door well, then soothing the spiritual bodies, opening scanning equipment to check the energy fluctuations.
Just as the equipment was turned on, a piercing alarm and the ring-shaped building's central broadcast voice sounded simultaneously.
"Alert, alert, abnormal energy fluctuation!"
"Full lockdown!"
In the nourishing agent shop, layers of energy-isolating metal rose up, and the shop owner came out to take charge.
"What's going on, has an energy body descended?"
"No, I can't resonate with my spiritual body anymore!"
These two pieces of news exploded like thunder among the crowd in an instant.