novelraw Chapter 8 : The Assessment
Chapter 8 : The Assessment
From the outside of the commercial street, the shops here all looked similar, even appearing somewhat messy due to the colorful light signs and various marketing tactics.
Inside the store, the monochromatic décor and neatly arranged display cases were equipped with operating screens. Whatever parts you wanted, a quick search would provide all the information, with details clearly displayed, even down to the texture around the screw threads.
Chen Sui selected a mecha part she frequently used and followed the instructions of the guide robot that had approached her as soon as she entered, examining it on the panel.
The quality was indeed good. Chen Sui looked at the display case but didn't see any price tags, so she asked the robot assistant: "How much is one of these primal crystal joints?"
The robot assistant displayed a sweet digital expression, responding in a gentle voice: "Dear, they're all at market price."
Chen Sui replied half-skeptically: "Really?"
She didn't believe it.
She didn't take out the part. At the checkout counter, she saw a young woman sitting at the scanner, using a rhinestone-studded file to polish the manicure on her mechanical prosthetic fingers.
The red-haired young man was holding several primal crystal joints, preparing to go pay.
Chen Sui stood with folded arms, watching curiously.
Sure enough, after the woman scanned the special barcode on the parts, she quoted a price: "That's 50,000 total, scan your light brain here."
The redhead paused. Chen Sui saw him step back in surprise and exclaim in a voice that echoed throughout the store: "How much? 50,000? You're charging 50,000 for two primal crystal joints?"
Chen Sui displayed a knowing expression.
Good grief. The market price for primal crystal joints was only 5,000, even cheaper on Talo Star because mining stars were abundant in remote star rings, making them almost wholesale price.
Chen Sui still had several polished primal crystal joints in her spatial button.
Even for finely polished, customized primal crystal joints, they shouldn't cost 25,000 each.
The young woman was startled by his loud voice. She quickly stood up, glanced at the other customers in the store, then urged in a deep voice: "We source only the best materials. Look, these materials are all master-crafted, with engravings here."
"I don't want them anymore."
The red-haired youth twisted his mouth, "Trying to scam me, huh? You think I don't know the market price? Even if the king himself polished these, they wouldn't cost this much."
"You don't want them?" the young woman's voice turned shrill, "Our shopping code can only be scanned once. After scanning, you must pay. Are you trying to get something for nothing?"
"Who's trying to get something for nothing?" the red-haired youth leaned back in anger, "I'm telling you, this is consumer fraud."
As he spoke, he pulled up his light brain and began scanning the numbers on the checkout panel. Seeing the situation turning unfavorable, the young woman hurriedly covered the panel, "What are you doing? What are you recording?"
The red-haired youth made a communication call, his eyes fixed on the panicking store owner, "Hello, is this the Yuguang Star Consumer Association? There's fraudulent consumer behavior here. Please handle it as soon as possible. Yes, the address is..."
"You're talking nonsense!"
The store owner was furious, shouting the name of the Tyno Mecha Retail Store's owner.
The man walked out from the back of the store, heard the red-haired youth's call, and his expression changed. He hurriedly pushed him: "Not buying but causing trouble, huh?"
"Get out, get out, don't waste my business time."
The red-haired young man pushed back: "What are you doing? Want to get physical?"
"Hey, hey, hey, you..."
While defending himself, the red-haired youth was pushed out of the store. The owner smiled apologetically to the watching customers: "Sorry, really sorry. Our store uses only the finest materials and polishing processes, hiring renowned repair technicians, all with engravings. The price is a bit high, and some kids don't understand the market, so they get a bit excited. Sorry for the disturbance, everyone."
Chen Sui snorted with laughter. If she hadn't worked at a repair shop before, she might have believed him.
Having witnessed this farce, she had no interest in being a sucker.
Leaving the Tyno Mecha Retail Store, Chen Sui scouted other shops and also checked out temporary accommodations, planning to stay there after reporting to Academy Seven while waiting for results.
Continuing forward, there were also shops selling energy crystals and diagrams for Awakened, daily necessities, and even some clothing and accessory stores, which were surprisingly busy. However, from Chen Sui's observation, the food shops were the busiest.
The queue had already wrapped around to the corner of another street, even though the shop displayed only a few dishes.
Next to the food shop, a familiar redhead walked out of a large plant seed store. Not far away, Chen Sui heard him counting on his fingers: "Katogin, got it, seeds, got it, primal crystal joints, got it. I knew that store was fraudulent. How come this place only charges 7,000? Let me see..."
"Hmm..." he took a breath, placing the seeds in a metal box into his pocket. Living items like these couldn't be stored in spatial buttons, which explained why he had equipped a large diagonal pocket, "Still need nitramethyl."
He looked up, gazing around blankly, his footsteps slowly carrying him forward. As he passed by Chen Sui, she heard him calculating: "Materials cost 50,000, seeds 30,000, nitramethyl costs 1,000 per gram, and I need about 15 grams to repair the mecha, hmm..."
"Seems not enough."
Chen Sui saw him open his light brain to check his account. The light brain's privacy protection prevented her from seeing the specific content, but she noticed a tassel pendant hanging from his light brain with the Zhu Jing Fu pattern.
A student from Academy Seven?
Chen Sui guessed. She scanned her spatial button, seeing a small box with a label beneath a pile of materials in the corner. After calculating how much she'd have left for lodging tonight after school fees and other expenses, she quickly made a decision.
She stepped forward to catch up with the redhead, tapping him from behind: "Classmate."
The redhead turned, looked left and right, then lowered his head to see a black-haired swirl, immediately noticing the person's green eye and mechanical prosthetic eye, slightly surprised, "Hello, can I help you?"
Cheng Wei sized up Chen Sui, and determining she wasn't looking for trouble due to her excessively thin frame, he let down his guard.
"I just heard you want to buy nitramethyl. I have some I can sell you at 80% of the market price, interested?"
"Eh? 80%? Really?" Cheng Wei had just been worrying about insufficient funds, and the next second a good person appeared. He smiled generously, "You're really selling at 80% of the market price?"
"Yes," Chen Sui had plenty of basic materials in her spatial button, after all, the remote star rings had nothing if not abundant minerals.
She had kept materials that she had reprocessed and reused from her daily work, accumulating quite a stock. Not to mention the mineral raw materials that old Mr. Peter had given her. Chen Sui wasn't short on these now but feared she might need them in the future and didn't want to sell them to cheap repair shops. If it weren't for this guy having a sort of classmate connection, she wouldn't have wanted to sell at all.
"Nitramethyl market price is 1,000 per gram, I'll sell you for 800. How much do you want?"
Cheng Wei, who had just been lamenting human deceit after being swindled today, now realized his luck had turned—there were still good people in the world.
He thought gratefully.
"Twenty grams, is that okay?" He made a '2' with his fingers, showing a row of big white teeth, laughing heartily.
Chen Sui found a relatively empty alley entrance and took out a weighing scale and dispensing bottles from her spatial button.
Her professional operation set left Cheng Wei wide-eyed: "Wow, you're so professional! Are you from the repair technician department?"
Chen Sui paused for a second, slowly shaking her head: "No, I haven't enrolled yet."
"Hmm?" Cheng Wei looked at her with surprise, "Oh, which local foundation academy are you from? I'll find you next time I need materials."
Chen Sui finished weighing: "Twenty grams, check it out, you can try weighing it yourself."
Cheng Wei took out the materials he had just bought and tested them, confirming the scale was accurate. As he was about to pay, he heard Chen Sui say: "I'm not from a foundation academy. If you want to find me later, it might be at Academy Seven, if I pass the enrollment assessment."
Suddenly hearing his alma mater mentioned, Cheng Wei was stunned, "You're from Academy Seven?"
"Wait, the recruitment ended at the beginning of this month!" Cheng Wei widened his eyes, "You didn't get the recruitment date wrong, did you? Our military academies all recruit at the beginning of January!"
Cheng Wei felt somewhat sorry for her, seeing Chen Sui's calm expression, he couldn't help but feel anxious on her behalf.
Chen Sui received the transfer and put away her light brain: "I didn't get it wrong. You're a student at Academy Seven, right? Could you help me with directions? I don't know where your school's academic affairs office is, it's not on the map."
As she spoke, she explained why she was a month late, "I'm coming through the interstellar nomad program recruitment channel, I can still enroll now."
Cheng Wei was just about to nod in agreement when he heard her next words. As he was preparing to put the nitramethyl box into his spatial button, his hand trembled, and the box fell, making a crisp sound as it rolled toward Chen Sui.
Chen Sui picked it up for him, seeing he couldn't even hold the box steady, she couldn't help but advise: "Hold it carefully, don't drop it."
"Oh, okay," Cheng Wei nodded woodenly, "Got it."
After speaking, he carefully observed Chen Sui's expression, seeing no unusual reaction, he walked out of the alley with her and quietly asked: "So, you're an interstellar nomad?"
Chen Sui nodded.
Cheng Wei cried internally, feeling he would never again encounter such an affordable materials retailer.
Although all major military academies had interstellar nomad recruitment, the recruitment assessment was about as difficult as other normal recruitment assessments.
Interstellar nomads wandered through interstellar space for years, and even if they could obtain Star Alliance identity certification, they weren't as skilled as those trained in the Star Alliance from childhood, being too unfamiliar with mecha piloting and physical combat.
Military academies didn't object to opening interstellar nomad programs because they knew the candidates couldn't pass the assessment.
Leaving the commercial street and crossing the bridge spanning the Songluo River, on the other side was Star Academy Seven.
Behind it were layered mountains; ahead was the Zhu Jing Fu building shrouded in a dark barrier.
Blue stone and red wood, with deep black flying eaves at the top hanging red fireflow stones, forming a string of red beads in the dark night. Below were imitation gold beams, giving off a cold, eerie glow in the night.
"Ah, we're here," Cheng Wei stopped at Academy Seven's west gate, seeing Chen Sui's half-raised gaze, he immediately understood and proactively explained: "Our Academy Seven's most famous landmark, Zhu Jing Fu. The style is quite different, haha, but it was built by Master Jin back then. Although it's modeled after ancient star buildings, it's made of the best materials. Later, when the documents of past sessions were placed inside, it was protected."
"When you take your exam in the future, you can go pay your respects. They say Master Jin was a genius academic-level player back then. Absorbing the scholarly aura might make your exams go more smoothly."
Cheng Wei chatted enthusiastically, even telling Chen Sui about Academy Seven's special activities, but at this point, he suddenly realized that Chen Sui still needed to pass the enrollment assessment, and his expression stiffened, awkwardly stopping.
"But, but, but let's talk about passing the assessment first," he skipped over this topic, "Scan your ID card here."
Cheng Wei pointed to two half-person-high light pillars outside the west gate. The west gate opened outward, but the entrance was floating with a layer of blue honeycomb-like light screen. Chen Sui followed Cheng Wei's actions, scanning her ID card. Meanwhile, Cheng Wei glanced sideways, seeing the panel display "interstellar nomad," he clicked his tongue inwardly.
After entering the school, he pointed out the specific location of the academic affairs office to Chen Sui, "You can go there yourself, I need to return to the dormitory. We have night training tonight."
Chen Sui bid him farewell: "Thank you, I'll still give you 80% off next time you buy materials."
Cheng Wei laughed dryly: "Haha, that's great, and I wish you success in passing."
But in his heart, he felt anxious for Chen Sui.
The interstellar nomad channel had been open for over ten years, yet no high-level military academy had ever admitted a student through it.
Students who failed the assessment could only spend money to enter secondary high schools to complete their education.
Ah, Cheng Wei watched Chen Sui's figure disappear around the corner of the building. Her silhouette was very thin, her complexion somewhat pale, her lips faint. She looked like she couldn't even bear the pain when connecting to a combat mecha's mental tendrils, let alone piloting a mecha in battle as a mecha soldier.
Well, he wished her good luck anyway.
Cheng Wei thought, feeling regretful about missing out on an 80%-off materials retailer.