A six-year-old girl named Ok, remembered a shocking incident in the spaceship band complex pipeline. Despite her young age, she fearlessly ventured into darkness, clutching a doll as she jumped. Xu Le, reflecting on his own experiences at the age of six, recalled how he used to lead Li Wei in jumping onto a dark ore spider web, finding it exciting and even capturing stray cats to play with. He felt a sense of relaxation in those moments.
Over the next few days, Xu Le and small watermelon would finish their meals and then secretly sneak into the air conditioning ducts of the 32 clean areas. Covered in dust, they would make their way to the abandoned goods storage cabin. Xu Le was fully absorbed in studying the instruction booklet, preparing materials, and learning how to restore some of the broken machine armor. Meanwhile, small watermelon, holding her doll, squatted beside him with great interest, observing Xu Le's every move attentively.
Fortunately, the crude lounge where Xu Le stayed had bathing and laundry facilities. Otherwise, both children would have ended up dirty and disheveled. Despite their nightly efforts to wash up, the white pajamas worn by small watermelon gradually became stained.
Xu Le was extremely interested in the worn-out machine armor. He could spend hours working on it. And each day, small watermelon would follow him, showing a keen interest in Xu Le's dedicated expression. Surprisingly, whenever Xu Le faced difficulties or encountered problems with his plans and blueprints, small watermelon would offer seemingly childish yet remarkably insightful opinions.
One of the main challenges Xu Le faced in restoring the machine armor was his unfamiliarity with its structure. While he could understand the principles and objectives behind the chips and loose parts' connections through the instruction booklet, he found it difficult to visualize the overall design, especially with this old and bulky machine armor that he had never seen before. However, small watermelon, despite lacking knowledge of electronics repair, seemed to have an intuitive understanding from having seen numerous machine armors in her short six years of life. She would innocently express her opinions, providing insights into how certain parts should look or function.
Xu Le was thrilled when he discovered a general exoskeleton that could assist in internal repairs. However, this raised questions about small watermelon's family. In the present federal society, energy resources were still relatively abundant, and interplanetary navigation required precious crystal ore. While machine armors used static agricultural high-energy batteries, making their construction costs expensive and energy-consuming, the entire federal military possessed no more than 400 machine armors. So why did small watermelon's family have so many? How could a six-year-old girl witness such a sight?
These questions crossed Xu Le's mind, but he didn't dwell on them too deeply. His complete focus was on the worn-out machine armor in front of him. He poured his heart and soul into restoring it, occasionally neglecting his own needs but never neglecting to eat and sleep. Nevertheless, he remained entirely engrossed in his work.
After a long period of neglect, the M02 old machine armor, forgotten in the scrap cabin of the spaceship, was given new life. It became the toy of Xu Le and small watermelon, though admittedly, this toy was quite large.
...
...
Three types of metal fingers were now connected by an alloy wire that Xu Le had salvaged from an automatic walk scavenging machine. The armor of the machine had a large hole, and Xu Le used a thick wire mesh to block it. Repairing the external appearance of the machine armor was not difficult since Xu Le had no intention of making it resistant to powerful weapons. The challenge lay in restoring the chip sets, operational mechanisms, and information transmission induction devices, which proved to be especially difficult.
Fortunately, the abandoned goods storage cabin wasn't the only one on the ancient Bell Number spaceship. Xu Le was pleasantly surprised to find countless discarded materials in three nearby storage cabins, all of which could be repurposed as treasures for the metal components he needed. He isolated the chip sets using alloy wires, as he lacked precision instruments. His main goal was to prevent mutual interference among the chip sets. As for the damaged chips, they were beyond repair. However, Xu Le had hope for the operational mechanisms. He found two different types in the B cabin storage of the mining vehicles, and while they weren't identical, he could interchange some components.
The most troublesome part was the information transmission induction device of the machine armor. Xu Le tirelessly scavenged from numerous broken household appliances, spending a considerable amount of time to assemble the required components. Finally, he managed to combine them into a functioning unit.
Covered in dust and engine oil, Xu Le looked at the large machine armor and found it hard to believe his own eyes. He couldn't even recall how long he had been working on it, but he never imagined that he would be able to assemble these mismatched components in such a crude setting.
Beside him, small watermelon held her doll, sitting on Xu Le's thigh with narrowed eyes, observing intently. After a while, she spoke in a childlike voice, "It's quite ugly."
Indeed, it was truly ugly. Even after the initial restoration by Xu Le, the machine armor appeared even uglier. The paint on its surface had been severely damaged, and the original exoskeleton had been removed one by one. Since the replacement components were not specifically designed for the machine armor system, their sizes didn't match, requiring Xu Le to make modifications. At this moment, the M02 armor was covered in traces of engine oil and scattered pieces of electrical circuit boards, presenting a pitiful sight. No longer a pristine antique, it resembled a dirty beggar wearing tattered clothes.
"Ah, it is indeed ugly," Xu Le said with a touch of embarrassment, unknowingly touching his head and looking at the machine armor in front of him. "I wonder if it can even move."
Xu Le lacked confidence in his ability to restore the machine armor. This was his first encounter with such a device, and he was merely applying the methods Boss Feng Yu taught him to repair electrical appliances. It seemed absurd and unimaginable that he could use the same techniques to fix this machine armor. Thus, he dared not hope that this battered machine armor would truly come to life.
"Even if only those three alloy fingers can move, I'll be satisfied," Xu Le said, gazing at the machine armor with delight. In his heart, his expectations were both low and yet surprisingly high. If he could restore this machine armor to a functional state, it would truly be an unexpected turn of events.
"Let's give it a try," said small watermelon, her hair falling over her face as she earnestly considered the matter. She pointed to the broken panel under the head armor of the machine and said, "It might be there."
Xu Le had complete faith in small watermelon's guidance. He successfully opened the nonfunctional access panel and pressed the necessary buttons to initiate the engine armor startup procedure. Then, an intense and anxious silence enveloped the room as he stared at the illuminated shield display instrument on the machine armor's waist. Gradually, the shield turned red, and when it reached one-third of its height, Xu Le stopped supplying energy to ensure their safety. After all, the machine armor had been abandoned for so many years and had endured his extensive repairs. He didn't know what might happen if he activated it fully. While an explosion was unlikely, he worried about potential damage. With a precious girl like small watermelon by his side today, he naturally had to be more cautious.
"Where is the access panel switch?" Xu Le asked, despite the fact that the M02 machine armor's access panel had been damaged. According to the instructions, the panel had to be opened first before he could press the necessary buttons to start the armor's engines.
Small watermelon blinked, seemingly recalling something. She scratched her head in a worried manner and pointed to the broken area beneath the armor's head, saying, "I think it's probably there."
With small watermelon's guidance, Xu Le opened the access panel successfully. Although it was nonfunctional, he managed to press the necessary buttons to initiate the startup sequence. Then, they waited in anxious anticipation for the results.
After an unknown amount of time, the operation cabin of the dilapidated machine armor suddenly lit up, emitting a long beep sound. The self-check signal indicated a successful pass, and gentle light enveloped the entire body of the armor.
Dumbfounded, Xu Le stood on the chest plate of the machine armor, unable to believe what he was witnessing. Could it be true? Was the control system still operational? He hadn't harbored any hope that he could fully repair this machine armor, yet he had managed to bring it back to life. Though it was only a basic restoration of its parts and functions, and far from a complete repair, he couldn't contain his excitement and happiness.
"Elder Brother, you're amazing!" small watermelon exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly.
"Naturally, I'm amazing," Xu Le said, still in disbelief. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and muttered to himself. Suddenly, it felt as if he had been struck by a heavy object, a weight descending upon him. Li Wei had always praised him as a talented individual, and Boss Feng Yu had also recognized his potential. The boss... Xu Le lowered his head, looking at the jumble of tattered components beneath his feet. They seemed strangely familiar. These power-related issues he had encountered during the restoration process... He realized that his electrical appliance repair training under Uncle Feng had been more than just fixing common household appliances. It had equipped him with a refined skill set and a broader mindset, which could even be applied to repairing machine armor. Standing in the gentle glow of the machine armor, Xu Le felt dazed. He had always considered himself a talented individual, but now he realized he was merely a fool.