Matthew's situation at the moment was quite dire. As he stepped out of the cockpit, he was soaking wet, as if he had just been pulled out of the water. However, what was even worse was the excruciating pain in his hands, a deep-seated agony that was unbearable. Matthew had considerable endurance, but he had to gasp for breath occasionally, his face turning pale.
Strangely, his hands appeared to be intact, with no visible abnormalities. After being examined by Dawnbreaker, he was informed that this was a sequela of excessive use of consciousness. The part of his nervous system that controlled his hands had exceeded the critical point of consciousness and hands, resulting in this unbearable pain. However, this agony would not cause any substantial harm to his body and could be alleviated with proper rest.
Upon hearing Dawnbreaker's explanation, Matthew bitterly laughed and sarcastically said, "Rest? How can I rest with this pain? I'm afraid I'll wake up in pain even in my dreams!" Dawnbreaker calmly told him there was a way to relieve the pain immediately. Matthew's eyes flashed with hope at this news, and he eagerly urged Dawnbreaker to begin the treatment.
However, Dawnbreaker's treatment method was unexpected. A gust of wind hit Matthew hard on the side of his neck, and his vision went black as he lost consciousness. Before he passed out, his only thought was, "It doesn't hurt anymore!"
When Matthew awoke, he distinctly felt a change in his body. His hands felt particularly awkward as if they were disconnected from his thoughts. Dawnbreaker explained that this was due to his improved consciousness, but his body had not caught up with the speed of his mind, resulting in this feeling of disharmony. To alleviate this situation, Dawnbreaker advised Matthew to exercise at home, focusing on improving the flexibility of his hands.
So, for the next few days, Matthew refrained from logging into the virtual network and instead focused on exercising at home. He stood on a half-meter square platform, concentrating intently as he controlled six steel balls. His hands moved skillfully, weaving a web-like pattern around the balls. The balls moved at high speed under the control of his hands, colliding with each other in unpredictable patterns.
As the speed of the balls increased, beads of sweat began to appear on Matthew's forehead. His hands moved even faster, and gradually, a mist-like afterimage emerged around them. However, when the speed of the balls reached a specific limit, there was a series of loud cracks as they flew out of control in all directions.
Matthew panted heavily, exhausted. He couldn't even be bothered to pick up the scattered steel balls. This darn thing was too tiring! However, Dawnbreaker commented from the side, "Although the result is not ideal, it's already good progress for you!"
Finally ending the tedious steel ball training, Matthew felt a sense of relief. He suspected that Dawnbreaker might have specifically designed this training program to torment him. However, deep down, he was still full of admiration for Dawnbreaker. After all, his hands seemed to have regained their former selves, even more nimble.
Sitting inside the Wendy mech, Matthew was filled with excitement. He hadn't piloted this mech for some time. Looking at the slightly worn Wendy, he felt a surge of nostalgia. He had been immersed in steel ball training these days while Dawnbreaker had taken over all his usual hunting tasks. The prey captured by Dawnbreaker always had a clean, neat wound piercing through the neck, which amazed Matthew.
Matthew piloted Wendy through the mountain of trash at high speed while Dawnbreaker leisurely followed behind. Feeling his hands' unprecedented flexibility and speed, Matthew suddenly recalled the Chaos Waveform Jumping technique taughthim by Dawnbreaker. A playful mood arose, and he decided to push this technique to its limits.
So, he abruptly increased Wendy's speed to the limit, and his hands began to move dizzily. Under his control, Wendy began to perform improvised Chaos Waveform Jumping, drawing arcs of varying sizes and shapes.
However, just as Matthew was in the heat of the moment, he attempted a short-distance dense waveform jump. In an extremely short distance, Wendy began to move continuously at full speed in tiny waveforms. Matthew seemed to want to make the waveforms even smaller, but at that moment, a loud bang was heard, and Wendy finally couldn't bear the overload and broke into two halves at the waist!
Matthew was shocked and hadn't even had time to call for help from Dawnbreaker when Wendy's upper body, like a meteor, whistled and crashed deep into the nearby trash mountain at super high speed. Before he could recover, a mountain of trash buried him deep.
When Matthew was pulled out of the tens of meters deep trash pile by Dawnbreaker and saw the daylight again, he noticed a hint of sarcasm on Dawnbreaker's usually expressionless face. This made Matthew feel extremely unhappy. And this unhappiness peaked when he was sitting in Wendy's cockpit, carried back home by Dawnbreaker.
Nevertheless, Matthew had to accept the reality: he had no mech without Wendy. Dawnbreaker had never allowed him to pilot himself, and driving Dawnbreaker always made Matthew feel like he was showing off his skills in front of an expert - the difference in ability was too vast.
Life without a mech was unacceptable to Matthew. Although Wendy was old and worn out, she was still the most essential and indispensable part of his life, mainly since he hadn't found a replacement. He had no other choice but to beg Dawnbreaker to help retrieve Wendy's lower half.
Matthew felt a chill looking at the bitter fruit of his momentary whim. Wendy had always been an old mech, and it was already a miracle she had served beyond her years. Now, with such a severe injury, the hope of repairing her was almost non-existent, especially since they were in a place where there was nothing but trash.
Dawnbreaker seemed oblivious to Matthew's emotions and continued to pour cold water on him: "Matthew, I have to tell you a cruel fact: the probability of Wendy being repaired is less than 2%. So, striving for such a small chance is not worth the effort. It doesn't align with the value theory."
Matthew felt helpless and wanted to cry but couldn't. Frustrated, he jumped into Dawnbreaker's cockpit and dove into the virtual network. Dawnbreaker didn't let him off quickly and followed him like a shadow: "According to statistics, there are still seventy-eight basic subjects you haven't trained in. Here's the list!" Saying that, a long list had popped up in front of Matthew.
However, Matthew ignored it and continued walking straight ahead. Dawnbreaker fell silent momentarily, then said, "Matthew, if your skills exceed mine one day, I'll let you pilot me!" Matthew's steps faltered slightly but ultimately continued silently.