Chapter 25

Chapter 25

"Is she alright?" the vice dean asked with concern.

After all, the entire Mecha Department now regarded Jiang Se as a treasure. Naturally, encountering such a perilous situation was deeply worrying.

"She's fine." At this, a slight smile appeared on the vice dean's face. "She's actually quite spirited. According to the Capital Defense Army's communication, she even asked if this act of bravery would earn her extra credits."

"Of course it will, definitely." The vice dean stated decisively, "Add them according to the school's highest standard."

"I'll go communicate with the academic affairs office later. By the way, keep this act of bravery confidential. The Defense Army mentioned that those extremely vicious terrorists haven't been caught yet. This chip matter has widespread implications. Since those terrorists dared to act so boldly, there must be someone behind them. Having their plans messed up by these young students, they certainly won't let this slide and might seek revenge."

"But classes are starting soon. No matter how capable they are, they probably wouldn't dare to act on the Alliance University campus."

After saying this, the vice dean sighed and added, "I'll go speak with the university president later and ask him to tighten security for the next semester."

"This chip incident, from the leak to its discovery, has been strange from start to finish. We can't be too careful!"

*

Jiang Se was completely unaware of the underlying turmoil.

She was in an exceptionally cheerful mood for one simple reason—

She had money.

Previously, the school had given her a bonus for the simulated combat, and this time, both the Capital Defense Army and the school provided another award for her act of bravery.

Adding up all the various bonuses, Jiang Se calculated that it totaled more than a hundred thousand star credits.

Recalling her previous days of having no money at all, Jiang Se breathed a long sigh of relief and thought: Indeed, science and technology are the primary productive forces.

There was still some time before the Alliance University semester began. Jiang Se checked out of her previous small hotel and rented an apartment near Alliance University.

Alliance University was located on a subsidiary planet near the capital star. Compared to the exorbitantly priced capital star, local housing prices and rents were not too expensive.

Jiang Se had rented a two-bedroom apartment with a living room, and the living room had a floor-to-ceiling window offering an excellent view. Sunlight streamed through the glass, making her feel warm all over.

Jiang Se had previously checked on the Star Network: Alliance University dormitories were single rooms, with four sharing a common living area.

To make getting to class easier, she of course planned to live on campus.

But as everyone knows, no Mecha Pilot can resist taking on side jobs.

Taking side jobs is also a part of how a Mecha Pilot grows.

After all, practice makes perfect!

Taking side jobs naturally requires a separate space to store materials, tools, and other miscellaneous items. The dorm room wasn't big enough to hold so many things, and the living area was a common space. Jiang Se, considering herself somewhat conscientious, couldn't place her things in the living area and get in her roommates' way.

So she simply rented an apartment to use as her secret base.

These past few days, Jiang Se had been holed up at home scrolling through the Star Network, buying all sorts of materials and assembling them at home, forgetting to eat or sleep. She even turned down invitations from Chu Yun and others to go out and have fun.

Her reason was quite justified: "Last time I went out, I encountered a bomb, which left a deep psychological shadow. I've decided to just stay home quietly and wait for the semester to start."

Chu Yun and Zhu Jin, truly her good friends, knew her very well. In a certain small group chat:

Chu Yun: "Peacefully staying at home? More like secretly assembling a mecha at home, right?"

Jiang Se tried to play dumb: "I am not."

Zhu Jin smiled slightly and sent in the group: "If not, dare to video call?"

Jiang Se glanced at the mountain of materials piled in the living room and the half-finished mecha arm in front of her, feeling sheepish: "...A Mecha Pilot's affairs, can they be called sneaking?"

After replying, Jiang Se switched back to her screen and looked at the forum in front of her.

She had discovered this forum today in the comments section of the Star Network. It was currently the largest Mecha Pilot forum in the entire Federation.

Jiang Se: See, I told you browsing the web can lead to good finds!

True to its name as a Mecha Pilot forum, it matched the Mecha Pilots' usual serious and rigorous demands. The moment Jiang Se clicked into the page, before she could see anything, a line of text appeared: To log in to this forum, please answer the questions first.

Below this line was a densely packed test paper. Jiang Se glanced at it; most were multiple-choice questions, and the allotted time was extremely short, probably to prevent people from opening another browser to look things up online while taking the test.

Jiang Se looked over the questions and answered them one after another.

After answering the last question, Jiang Se clicked submit. Perhaps because she had quite a bit of time left, a line of text slowly appeared on the screen: Excessive time remaining. Please confirm if you wish to submit.

Jiang Se thought about it and figured they were worried she might just guess randomly without even looking.

Without hesitation, she clicked submit.

The page paused for a moment, refreshed, and then she entered the Mecha Pilot forum.

The forum prompted Jiang Se to choose a name. After a brief thought, she picked one: VeryCoolNotTalkative.

Jiang Se took a quick look. The forum was divided into three sections: one was a knowledge zone, where many kind-hearted Mecha Pilots shared various materials; another was a Q&A zone, where newcomers could ask questions they encountered, and others would answer below.

As soon as Jiang Se clicked into the Q&A zone, she saw a line of bold, red text: Please do not post questions from classes or midterm/final exams on the forum seeking answers. Do your own work! If discovered, your account will be banned directly!!!

Three red exclamation marks, revealing the poster's rather exasperated feelings.

The third section was the discussion zone. As soon as Jiang Se entered, she found people arguing, fiercely debating over a certain model of mecha.

"People who don't like the XX mecha have no taste. The XX mecha is the best!"

"What best mecha? Only its appearance is decent. I don't even want to talk about its combat ability. Its selection rate in full simulation is at the bottom every year."

"That's a people problem, not a XX mecha problem. LOL, two of the top ten on the mecha rankings use the XX mecha as their primary combat mecha. The XX mecha is great, no need for words. Can't explain it to you tasteless people."

Then Jiang Se watched as the original criticism turned into a full-blown argument. Since everyone was a Mecha Pilot, their arguments were quite scientific, immediately listing data when opinions differed.

Since the data for the XX mecha was publicly available, it could naturally be used freely.

"The mechanical arm used by the XX is an outdated model from ages ago. They haven't updated it for years."

"What do you know? Classics never go out of style. The classic is the best. If they change this mechanical arm, I won't want to pilot it anymore. The feel of this mechanical arm paired with close-combat weapons is simply unmatched!"

...

After browsing through the posts, Jiang Se roughly understood the nature of this discussion zone: the world is one huge comparison market.

Everyone has their favorite mecha, and usually, one's favorite mecha can't convince others. A momentary temper flare-up can lead to a major argument.

After looking through the three sections, Jiang Se focused on the knowledge zone and began reading.

There was a vast amount of knowledge inside. Jiang Se had recently been researching things related to mechanical arms, and some of the materials here were very helpful to her.

Just as Jiang Se was engrossed in reading an analysis titled "Analysis of Mecha Arm Operation Under Sustained High Temperatures," the page froze, and a line of small text appeared: Your current knowledge points are insufficient. Unable to continue viewing.

Jiang Se: ???

She was totally engrossed, and now it's telling her to stop? No way.

Jiang Se immediately opened the forum's handbook to figure out how to earn knowledge points: "To earn knowledge points, please go to the Q&A section and provide answers. If your answer is accepted, you'll receive knowledge points."

Jiang Se: Great!

Jiang Se rushed over to the Q&A section, where rows upon rows of neatly organized questions were marked with different colored symbols indicating their difficulty levels.

Without even glancing at the colors, Jiang Se started answering from the very first question.

Her answering style perfectly matched her ID: VeryCoolNotTalkative.

She answered clearly and concisely, with zero fluff.

Because of this, she answered quickly. Since she was new to the forum, Jiang Se wasn't picky; she answered every single question in the order they were posted.

Whether it was a weird question from someone stuck on their homework or a problem with the concept behind a mecha design drawing, Jiang Se took on every single one without hesitation.

*

Yuan Yuan was a novice mecha designer, only a sophomore. Her first choice hadn’t been the Mecha Department, but by some quirk of fate, she’d been reassigned to it.

In their remote star system, the most in-demand and popular department was the Individual Combat Department.

With little prior foundation, Yuan Yuan had been finding her studies a struggle and was often told by her teachers that she lacked talent.

This semester’s final assignment was to create a design drawing for a mecha leg. Yuan Yuan had spent months buried in the library, researching and finally producing what she thought was a decent design drawing.

Still, she was quite pleased with it herself.

But when she submitted it, her teacher rejected it with a simple "unqualified" and forced her to revise it. She pulled three all-nighters revising it, but it still didn’t pass. With the deadline looming, Yuan Yuan was getting desperate.

After all, most teachers in their remote star system’s Mecha Department were more focused on taking side jobs than teaching. Aside from class, they were practically unreachable.

Yuan Yuan had mustered the courage to message her teacher asking for feedback, but her messages disappeared without a reply.

She had registered on this Mecha Pilot Forum earlier. There were several questions she didn’t know how to answer, but she’d luckily guessed correctly and managed to register.

With no other options, she posted her design drawing in the Q&A section, hoping some kind soul would help her revise it and identify the issues.

As everyone knew, helping others revise design drawings was time-consuming, labor-intensive, and troublesome. On the forum, it could cost hundreds or even thousands of knowledge points.

Yuan Yuan’s forum account only had a few knowledge points from signing in and a couple of simple questions she’d luckily answered—less than twenty in total.

With so few points, finding someone to help revise her drawing was nearly impossible. Unsurprisingly, days after posting, her thread had no replies and barely any views.

At the sight of those pitifully low knowledge points, no one even bothered to click.

Yuan Yuan sighed and was about to close the forum and figure things out on her own when a notification icon appeared in the top left corner.

She clicked it and found that her drawing had already been revised. The person who’d edited it used the forum’s default black-line pen.

With just a few simple strokes, the entire drawing was revitalized and transformed.

What was most remarkable was that the editor hadn’t made major changes but had preserved the strengths of the original design.

Holding her breath, Yuan Yuan scrolled down and saw that the editor had even provided a detailed revision rationale.

The listed revision points were extremely clear and concise, pinpointing her issues with precision. At the end, the editor even praised the strengths of her design.

Yuan Yuan: Wow, this is a living saint!

She could’ve just revised the drawing and left, but she took the time to explain her reasoning. She’s amazing—I could cry!

And maybe it was just her imagination, but Yuan Yuan felt those explanations were even more detailed and helpful than what her teacher had ever provided.

Wiping tears from the corners of her eyes, Yuan Yuan thought: No wonder the seniors were so envious when they found out I’d registered successfully. This forum really helps you learn!

At that moment, the user with the default pitch-black avatar, "VeryCoolNotTalkative," had become nothing short of a savior in Yuan Yuan’s eyes.

Hesitantly, Yuan Yuan sent a private message: "Thank you so much."

The reply came quickly, still in that concise tone: "You’re welcome." Then, a few additional revision suggestions followed.

Yuan Yuan: This expert is not only incredibly skilled but also so approachable. I’m so touched.

And tonight, Jiang Se was destined to stir up quite a storm on the Mecha Pilot Forum.

On the homepage, mecha pilots who routinely answered questions to earn knowledge points and browse materials found that the questions they’d clicked on to answer were refreshed moments later with a notification: "This question has already been answered. Please find a new unanswered question."

Mecha pilots: ???

Wait, is the forum glitching?

Of course, it wasn’t unheard of for someone to answer a question you were preparing to tackle—after all, this was a large mecha forum, and such things happened fairly often.

But there was no way every single question you were about to answer could be snatched away by someone else, right?