Chapter 18: Not Doing One's Proper Work
PS: Awkward—the scheduled release time was set incorrectly. Apologies!
What left Yang Bo speechless was that the fishpond contained something unexpected—a swarm of multicolored shrimp, which appeared to be protected species. The client had even bumped up the budget by an extra 500 credit points.
"Working on a Saturday really is a blast," Yang Bo thought as he returned home from work. After carefully tallying his earnings, he realized he had raked in 4,200 credit points today.
Then a thought struck him: "Let's experiment and see if, after depleting light energy, charging can replenish it. With Light Energy Control and Electric Energy Control, what exactly is it that's being consumed? Could it be one's own internal 'force'?"
In the bathroom, as Yang Bo immersed his palms in the bathtub, a constant sizzling sound filled the air—as if frying fish in his hands was no longer just a wild daydream. After half an hour of this, he felt his body growing weak. He rose, put on a bathrobe (the telltale sign of overexertion), and then directly pressed his hand against the positive terminal of a battery.
A tingling, warm sensation surged from his hand along his arm and spread throughout his body. He chose not to conduct this experiment in the bathtub to avoid any risk of electrical leakage that might trip the circuit breakers.
After twenty minutes, re-energized and looking at his reflection in the mirror, Yang Bo mused, "Does this mean that in the future I'll have to lug around a huge battery wherever I go?"
Revived, he logged into his mech game. Mech piloting is all about reaction speed—elite pilots can even fight at speeds up to 15 times the speed of sound, making them nearly invincible in combat. In his training, however, Yang Bo only needed to reach supersonic speeds. Naturally, the "Blade" mech he was piloting couldn't hit that 15× threshold.
Blade is a third-generation humanoid mech: 8.2 meters tall, weighing 115 tons, equipped with a rocket backpack. It has a maximum speed of 5 times the speed of sound, a full-power runtime of 20 minutes, and comes armed with a plasma cutter and an energy shield. Most mechs are built for close-quarters combat; long-range capabilities are rare. After all, if you really needed long-range, you might as well summon a space battleship with laser cannons—the challenge of targeting and hitting objects moving several times the speed of sound from thousands of meters away is immense. Only genetic evolvers with specialized abilities can handle such distances in real-time.
While piloting his mech, Yang Bo executed a series of rapid moves with his left hand—a swift sequence followed by a crouch and roll to evade an incoming attack. "Accelerate!" he commanded. With a powerful kick from the mech's left leg and the rocket backpack erupting with a thunderous boom, his mech surged forward at twice the speed of sound. Simultaneously, the plasma cutter in his hand flashed brilliantly, oscillating at up to 180,000 cycles per second.
A pleasant voice chimed in, "Congratulations, Chatty Boss Eight, you have completed the beginner combat training and may now enter the game." Yang Bo watched as his opponent's mech was reduced to wreckage.
Once in the game, the background story detailed a virus outbreak from a notorious anti-human laboratory—turning some people into mutants with incredible powers and even mutating wild animals. Yang Bo skimmed the lore; he was only there to get a taste of the experience since these legendary tales were far beyond his immediate concerns.
"Damn, it's really dark—charging an hourly information service fee of 300 credit points," he grumbled while admiring the stunning scenery. A colossal steel fortress stood atop a mountain, with an endless plain on one side and towering, rugged peaks on the other. The game's setting originated from a base called "Base 16." The information service fee was essentially like buying game time cards.
"Never mind, I'll play for just an hour and then quit. This game is probably making serious money," Yang Bo reasoned, noting that his field of vision already revealed hundreds of other players. Checking the mini-map, he saw that the officials had divided the area into safe and dangerous zones based on player proficiency, advising against venturing into the marked hazardous regions.
Following the road signs, Yang Bo left the steel fortress. The massive laser cannon mounted atop it looked incredibly realistic, and the sky above was a gloomy, gray expanse. Outside the base, the road split into two: one leading toward dangerous, rugged mountains and the other toward the plains. Taking counsel from others, Yang Bo opted for the plain route.
Maneuvering his mech, Yang Bo performed a series of flashy actions—wielding the plasma cutter like a child with a toy, accelerating intermittently to savor the thrill of speed. His body might have felt nothing, but his eyes were alive with the sensation. Ahead, a large tree appeared. Yang Bo grinned mischievously, charged forward, and activated his rocket backpack. In a split second, his mech leapt at supersonic speed; the plasma cutter in his grasp sliced through the tree in an instant.
"Flight +1!"
"Flight +1!"
"Flight +1!"
For a moment, Yang Bo was taken aback—what was happening? He stopped his mech, examined the severed half of the tree's canopy, and then turned back to inspect it further. Quickly, he discovered a bird's nest with three birds strewn on the ground.
"What on earth is going on?" he wondered.
"Could it be that this planet really exists?"
"Are the so-called mutants and anti-human organizations real too?"
"No wonder I can't see the stars!"
Countless thoughts whirled in Yang Bo's mind—perhaps his enhanced abilities were making his thought processes extraordinarily agile. He silently invoked his skills and confirmed that his Flight ability was at Beginner level (3/10).
"Damn, could this skill eventually allow me to physically fly?" Yang Bo mused excitedly as he activated his mech's radar to scan for the bird. Almost immediately, the radar picked up numerous bird signatures. This futuristic technology differentiated every plant and animal by their unique structures and genetic markers—the waves it emitted, and the different refracted returns, could identify various species. With such a system, even locating mushrooms would be trivial—scan the mountain, check the database, and the radar would pinpoint their locations.
Soon, many players witnessed a bizarre scene: a beginner's mech, wildly swinging its plasma cutter while leaping about, and occasionally launching itself. Then, with a five-meter-long plasma blade, it cleaved a flying bird—one weighing less than two kilograms—cleanly in half. Players watching couldn't help but comment:
"This guy must be crazy."
"Probably just a newbie."
"He's killing small animals—report him!"
"What the heck? With an hourly service fee of 300 credits, he's out here slaughtering little creatures?"
"Every year, there's always someone bizarre like this. Wait until he goes back for mech maintenance—you'll see his true caliber."
"Maybe he's just honing his skills?"
"What the heck—training by targeting small animals? He should be out hunting mutant creatures in the plains!"
"Maybe he's a real-life coward who gets bullied, using the game as an outlet to vent."
Yang Bo couldn't care less about the chatter. He now regretted, "Had I known it would come to this, I should have chosen a mech with laser weapons instead."
(End of Chapter)