Four hundred years after natural disasters ravaged the world.

The once seemingly eternal and great Empire had collapsed into oblivion, leaving only a scattered linage of city-states amidst the fog, reflecting the splendor of bygone days.

Some said that everything would be rebuilt after the Destruction.

Others said this was merely the last shimmer before Destruction.

In the sweltering June sun of the Northern Federation, Hai Province, Cliff City.

The blazing heavens too dazzling under the exposure, scattered with white clouds. As the sea breeze swept through, the reflections cast upon the sea's surface began to blur amidst the waves, losing clarity. When the faint cries of the seabirds rose, everything seemed to be veiled in the call of the tides.

For the people of Hai Province, this was a common sight, hardly worth noting.

On a suffocatingly hot afternoon with only the droning of cicadas, the streets saw sparser traffic, and the atmosphere inside a repair shop became increasingly tense...

"Master Ji, do you think there's something wrong with these two headlights?"

A slender and delicate arm lazily drapes over the body of the young mechanic from within the reflection of the sports car's paint.

The youth lowered his head upon hearing this to take a closer look at the large headlights, inspecting them carefully.

Bright and large, the headlights seemed to gaze back at him, enticingly seductive.

"There does seem to be a slight issue."

Ji Jue tactically leaned back, coming to a conclusion, "It looks like minor scratches, just a maintenance will do. Perfect timing, our shop has just launched a 998 maintenance package, which includes full car waxing and four deep cleans—quite the deal, don't you think, Lu Feng?"

"Ah, right, right, right!" The brawny mechanic nearby, covered in grease, vigorously nodded his head.

"Stop it~"

The female car owner coquettishly tapped Ji Jue's shoulder, leaning closer.

"How about this exhaust pipe, then?"

She whispered pleadingly into the boy's ear, "My husband says that every time he starts the car, it makes a really loud noise, scaring the daylights out of me; can you help me blow something through it?"

Ji Jue glanced at the exhaust pipe.

The weathered exhaust pipe seemed to look back at him with a dark, profound gaze.

"Just replace it."

Ji Jue concluded, "Our shop has just received two of them, both are Mustang parts with certification, all genuine products from Huan Yu Heavy Industry... Only 12888, take a Mustang exhaust home! Lu Feng, you better come take a look!"

As he spoke, he struggled to pull away, but couldn't escape the persistent entanglement, and instead writhed helplessly like a small hamster ensnared by a python.

"No, I still think there's something wrong with this car..." The woman with wavy long hair bit her lip, her gaze lingering, "Lately, the oil output of the engine has been really high, and now it seems to be leaking oil—please check it out for me."

"That serious?!"

Ji Jue exclaimed in shock, sharing a long glance with the innocent engine beneath the hood, drawing yet another conclusion, "It might be lacking in maintenance. I recommend you go for our 24999 full car maintenance package. If you purchase it now, we also offer exquisite floor mats and fragrance cards for free. After the service, you'll feel like you're driving a car fresh out of the factory!

Right, Lu Feng?"

"Ah, right, right, right!!!" The man beside him, holding a wrench, nodded, "And if you recharge your membership card now, you get an additional 20% off! Don't just think about it, act on it!"

Unfortunately, despite the hard sell, the car owner didn't even spare him a glance.

Instead, she was about to plaster herself onto Ji Jue.

As if she had no bones at all.

"But every time my husband only drives for two minutes, he can't go on. He says the back-push is too strong, he can't take it." The female owner bit her lip, batting her eyelashes, "Master Ji, is what he says true?"

I don't know!

Ji Jue really wanted to tell her asking Master Ji was no use, he's only nineteen, and he had only repaired cars for three and a half years without much experience. For this kind of issue, you should consult Master Ji!

Oh, it looked like she was targeting him as the Master Ji...

But this woman seemed like nothing but trouble. What if Master Ji came out and she knocked him senseless?

He was so scared!

From a young age, he'd been the object of too much coveting.

In school, it was just older classmates and female hooligans who kept an eye on him, but since starting work, such bad women from society appeared ceaselessly, lusting over his looks, groping him. And now... they wanted a freebie without even giving gifts? Utter moral decay!

Oh, the shame, women these days!

Ji Jue kept signaling to his fellow mechanic Lu Feng with his eyes, but Lu Feng just shut up and leaned against the wall to watch the fun, taking pleasure in his misfortune.

Until salvation descended from above...

Bang!

With a thunderous noise, a burly figure appeared at the door, like a mountain of flesh, tossing two brand-new tires onto the floor, breaking the silence.

"What's going on here?"

The boss, a crew-cut woman with arms as sturdy as an ox and capable of racing horses, lifted her hand to wipe the grease from her apron and looked over with her puffy, fish-like eyes, "Changing the engine, right? I'll take care of it... Are you two just standing around? If you've got nothing to do, go unload the tires by the door into the storage room."

"Sure, sure, sure, tires, tires, I love tires!"

Seeing the boss rescue Master Ji from trouble, Ji Jue was overjoyed. The expression on the female car owner's face twitched a few times, evidently discontented that someone had spoiled her plans, but the boss merely needed to show a hint of her 'fist dominates mountains and rivers' terrifying presence, along with a dead-fish-like gaze, and the woman's lips moved, but she didn't dare to speak.

In the awkward atmosphere, she pinched the face of a child doing homework behind the counter and complimented how cute the kid was before getting into her car and leaving.

Meanwhile, Lu Feng, who had been enjoying the spectacle from the sidelines, watched the large headlights disappear into the distance and clicked his tongue in disappointment. Then, he received a big earful from Lu Ma, almost rolling on the ground like a tumbled gourd.

He got up laughing, "Ow, Ma, if you had been a bit later, she might have signed up for the 9999-gold card!"

"Your mother didn't open a shop to pimp ducks! You little scamp, don't ask for a beating!"

Lu Ma scolded furiously, calling him by his pet name, clearly quite angry, "Like watching a spectacle, do you? After you've had enough, move those tires; then get out and clean the latrine in the backyard!"

Now, it was Ji Jue's turn to enjoy the show from the doorway.

Fascinating.

Truly fascinating!

The load of tires didn't take much effort to move; the shop had an old forklift, and Lu Feng, retired and back home, had the strength in his arms, so naturally there was no need for a working college student like Ji Jue to toil.

In the afternoon, business was slow.

After moving the tires and washing a couple of cars, everyone lay down in a cool spot, idle.

Lu Ma watched over several kids doing their summer homework, while Lu Feng lay on a mat, giggling at short videos. Ji Jue, on the other hand, borrowed the shop's old computer, which might have been as old as he was, to continue writing his thesis.

In the afternoon sun, light fell on the handsome side of the young man's face, causing passing girls and matrons to stop and watch.

The only pity was the scar from a burn, crawling up from the neckline to the neck and then spreading to the cheek. So fierce it marred the skin, a lamentable imperfection. Otherwise, wouldn't he be perfect for debuting as a pop idol?

Or at least, there would be rich ladies waving cash to invite him into their grand villas for singing and dancing, isn't that better than fixing cars in a place like this?

But Ji Jue didn't really feel any regret, nor had he ever thought that working in a repair shop was unseemly.

In these times, with disasters rampant and life difficult, for an orphan like him, unlucky and with his parents gone too soon, just surviving was hard enough. To have kind people take him in, not deducting his wages and trying to help him in their way, was already a great fortune.

Moreover, he had been accepted into university. Although his clothing and food were modest, they were nothing to worry about. Compared to his past desolation and loneliness, his life had already visibly begun to improve.

Given the opportunity by fate to turn his life around, he ought to make something of himself through his own efforts.

He had neither the right nor the reason not to try hard.

"A kind of... highly precise... harmonic reducer's joint... design and analysis?" Lu Feng leaned in to take a look, feeling dizzy just from reading the title:

"What the hell is this?"

"It's basically a mechanical joint design coupled with a small reducer," Ji Jue explained. "This principle is used in mechanical equipment to reduce speed and increase output."

"Oh, a flexible joint, right? I've seen it on the exoskeleton armor in the army."

Lu Feng caught on quickly, patting Ji Jue's shoulder twice, even happier than if he'd made money himself, "Not bad, little Ji, badass."

Ji Jue shook his head with a smile, "That's all thanks to the teacher's patronage."

The new planetary carrier, which served as the foundation for the thesis and design, was originally Professor Ye's research achievement. Having the opportunity to sip from this soup was like a pie falling from the sky for Ji Jue.

Moreover, aside from the opening report, there wasn't much left but a framework, which left Ji Jue trembling with apprehension.

Given Professor Ye's usually stringent standards, if he messed it up, he could be dismissed as incompetent and kicked out of the team. He was counting on a recommendation letter from her to apply for a Secondary Engineer position, so he couldn't afford not to be diligent.

Unfortunately, his busy time wasn't long. The old computer's case hummed and vibrated, the fan whined, clearly unable to support the daunting task of opening a document while also launching two web pages at the same time. Ji Jue had to take a break.

He looked down at his watch, it was just past four o'clock.

He pulled out a tissue, wiping the grease off the watch strap carefully and meticulously.

These days, aside from a few people, wearing a watch had basically shifted from a functional necessity to a show-off move, otherwise, why not just take out a cell phone and glance at it?

Was it because he forgot to charge it last night?

Times change.

Back in the day, when Ji Jue's maternal grandfather was still alive, their Constant Time watches were a big name in all of Hai Province. In those years, if any kid got accepted to a maritime academy, they would surely buy a seagull-style pocket watch from the shop. After putting on the uniform, with half a chain sticking out of the pocket, it would attract countless young ladies' eyes.

Sadly, Ji Jue's parents died early, and times changed too quickly. The minor glory of the past had long been buried in the dust. What was left to Ji Jue, in addition to a shop that was half-likely to never open again, was only the modest craftsmanship and, the heirloom watch his parents had left him.

To tell the truth, after so many years, Ji Jue still hadn't figured out what brand the watch was. He could only guess through the complex machinery-like symbol on the dial that it was probably used for timing in precision work.

The style was rare, and the design differed greatly from most on the market. It looked like an early style favored by seamen, but seamen's watches usually featured perpetual calendars or moon phase displays. However, aside from the hands, this watch only had a window whose purpose was unknown.

Two rows of tiny numbers appeared to be slowly changing with time, gradually increasing, but the trend was too slow. When Ji Jue first wore it as a child, the number was only 06, and now it had reached 92.

Even stranger was that it had no crown for setting the time, no place for winding the watch, and not even any visible seam.

Ji Jue even borrowed a high-precision microscope in the school lab and didn't find any seam or solder point on the watch case. It was all of one piece, even the watch glass was enclosed without any gaps.

Ji Jue had once left it on a table for several months, observing it daily, and it kept time as usual, proving it wasn't winding itself using the movement of the arm... So where was the power coming from?

Could it really be a perpetual motion machine?