Chapter 285: Chapter 281: Rune Mechanical Armour
“Is… Is this still the Arctic Ice Wolf’s Ice Blast?”
Zhuge Chen looked somewhat surprised at the target in front of Garulu, which had turned into countless ice shards. He struggled to equate this with the Arctic Ice Wolf’s signature skill, Ice Blast.
How did he remember it? Wasn’t Ice Blast supposed to freeze the target for a while and then cause a bit of frost damage?
“Of course not. It’s just that the external armor absorbed the energy of the Arctic Ice Wolf and produced this effect after amplifying it with ice clan runes. Hm, I call it Extreme Frost Gas!”
Bai Qi smiled. Recently, he had been working on the technology of mechanical flesh fusion. Although he hadn’t made much progress, he had inadvertently created this piece of external armor. From the looks of it, the result seemed quite good.
Hm, it seemed to have consumed quite a bit of energy, though.
Bai Qi glanced at Garulu, who looked noticeably tired after having his energy absorbed by the armor, and quietly recorded it in his personal AL
Another controlling device should be added to the energy absorption system. It would be best to add an independent power source inside the armor.
Too bad he hadn’t yet found a way to fuse machinery and flesh. Otherwise, energy utilization could surely be taken to a new level, eliminating this hassle.
“Extreme Frost Gas?”
Zhuge Chen looked at the armor Garulu was wearing, still shining with blue runes, and it took him quite a while to respond, “So, did you specifically design this armor to strengthen spirit controllers’ companion creatures, Bai Qi?” “Strengthen a spirit controller’s companion creature? Not really. This should be considered an accidental outcome.”
Bai Qi shook his head in confusion. His only aim was to research the technology of mechanical flesh fusion and then trade it for Seven Stage technology from Professor Chu. He didn’t think too much about the other implications.
After all, the companion creatures of spirit controllers could also evolve. With the right materials, they could certainly be improved. At most, the upgraded creature might look down on its spirit controller and escape.
But Zhuge Chen’s words did give him some inspiration.
An external armor for enhancing companion creatures seemed pretty promising.
“Beast Master, as a fellow mechanical beast master, I should remind you that you have too many projects to research recently. Please don’t keep distracting yourself,” Schuck, who had also come to observe the data, couldn’t help but chime in, sensing Bai Qi’s thoughts.
“Do I have many projects?”
Bai Qi scratched his head in confusion. He had Alpha for runes, Schuck for mechanics, and Delta for biology. Why did he feel so idle?
“Forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything.”
Seeing Bai Qi’s response, Schuck sighed helplessly.
It was up to fate whether he was lucky or unlucky to have ended up with such a Beast Master who only knew how to start things but never finish them.
Even though there were so many worthwhile projects to dive into, none were being seriously pursued because of his good talent. Did he think it was okay to be so capricious?
Bai Qi, seeing that Schuck was not going to push further, didn’t bother to deal with these thoughts anymore. Instead, he continued to think about the feasibility of the external armor.
If he temporarily abandoned the technology of flesh-machine fusion, to make this kind of external armor more combat-effective, he would have to improve the energy absorption and control system. It might be time-consuming, but probably not a big issue. He could even install an energy storage device to absorb normally wasted energy for future use.
The combat structure might be more troublesome. Although the Beast Master Association currently only offered three types of beasts to choose from, the variety of beasts would surely increase once Spirit-Control orbs became popular. Then, different attributes, races, and body types would demand various designs of external armor.
It seemed that one person might not be able to handle it all.
“Bai Qi? Bai Qi?”
Seeing Bai Qi mumbling to himself as if in a daze, Zhuge Chen couldn’t help but gently tap Bai Qi’s shoulder to wake him up.
“Are you okay?”
Bai Qi shook his head and smiled, “I’m fine. And I have to thank you for your advice.”
“Advice? What did I say?”
Zhuge Chen seemed confused, then noticed Bai Qi had started to disassemble the armor on Garulu. He quickly questioned, “You said it was a gift for Garulu. Why are you taking it back?”
“The technology is a bit crude now. I’ve just had an idea. I’ll give it back to you after I modify it.”
While skillfully disassembling the external armor, Bai Qi asked Zhuge Chen, “By the way, I remember the Wuhou Corporation has a Mechanical Engineering subsidiary, doesn’t it?”
Zhuge Chen nodded, “It does, but it hasn’t made much progress because there aren’t any good mechanical engineers or beast masters there.”
“As long as it’s there, you should ask Uncle Zhuge if he minds adding a distinctive creation.”
“Distinctive creation?”
Zhuge Chen was stunned, but quickly realized what Bai Qi meant by looking at the external armor in Bai Qi’s hand. “You mean this external armor?”
Bai Qi smiled, “Of course. I think selling this battle-strength-enhancing armor inside the pet store would be quite popular, right?”
“More than popular. If we time it right, it will definitely be a hit!”
An entrepreneurial fire had awakened inside of Zhuge Chen as he twirled his eyes through business plans. “During the early stages of the Spirit-Control orb distribution, people will probably not pay much attention to battle power. But the Elf House can join with the Beast Master Association to host a competition among spirit controllers. Then when the external armor enters and wins dominantly, everyone’s attention will be piqued. After that, the Elf House can gradually rollout…”
A complete business plan sprang from Zhuge Chen’s mouth, causing Bai Qi to listen with astonishment.
This was only about the external armor. Would this guy go mad if he told him about the special orb?
Sure enough, what’s hidden in one’s bloodline couldn’t be concealed.
Awo?
(Human, do you think you’re any different from him?)
Beta silently glanced at Bai Qi, who sighed deeply. Speaking of bloodline inheritance, their Beast Master was the best inheritor, after all. He would never forget those two lunatics who were keen to slice him up the moment they met.
Inherited from the family, ah, inherited from the family-
Star Mechanics Academy.
The Rune Evolution Special Team.
Due to the advent of the second stage evolution, the workload of the special team had surged. Apart from testing the compatibility between the first and the second stage evolution of different pets, their main focus was gradually shifting towards third stage evolution.
Compared to the traceable second stage evolution, the difficulty of third stage evolution was simply infuriating. In other words, they were absolutely lost and could only speculate based on Bai Qi’s insights into the second stage evolution. “Professor Dong, these are some of my guesses about third stage evolution for the past couple of days. Would you like to take a look?”
A middle-aged man with a steady demeanor walked up to Professor Dong with a document and said, “I have strengthened the structure of the Soul Strengthening for pets. Maybe it could stimulate a qualitative change in their spirits, thereby allowing the third stage of evolution.”
Professor Dong took over the document, carefully read it, and then shook his head, saying, “At best, this can only be considered as an enhancement of the second stage evolution. Moreover, the excessive focus on the spiritual aspect could likely harm pets.”
Upon hearing this, the man froze. After rechecking the document again, he found the problem.
“It seems that the third stage evolution is indeed more difficult than the second.”
The man sighed, then asked, “By the way, where’s Bai Qi… I mean, Leader Bai? I heard he has returned to Gusu City. Why hasn’t he come to visit the Rune Evolution Special Team?”
Snickering, Professor Dong replied, “I’m not surprised at all. Bai Qi’s main focus isn’t on rune evolution. Also, we can’t always pin our hopes on a young man, can we? If this gets out, we’ll lose face.”
Hearing this, the man felt somewhat ashamed. Indeed, after Bai Qi had effortlessly solved the longstanding problem of second stage evolution, they started to think of him unconsciously whenever they encountered a problem. Now even thinking about it made them feel quite embarrassed.
“Huh? Professor Dong, are you busy? I’ll come back later.”
Just as the two were contemplating, Bai Qi suddenly appeared at Professor Dong’s office door. Seeing Professor Dong and the other man deep in thought, he planned to leave right away.
As the leader of the Rune Evolution Special Team, this was the first time Bai Qi had come here. He was already a bit guilty, only growing more so when he saw the busy members.
“Come in. I’m not busy. Plus, as the leader, even if we are busy, we ought to stop.”
Hearing the slight reprimand from Professor Dong, Bai Qi turned red with embarrassment. Coughing awkwardly, he looked at the middle-aged man next to Professor Dong and asked, “Who might this be?”
“Mo Lin, a researcher of the Rune Evolution Special Team. Leader Bai, I look forward to future collaborations.”
“Oh, not at all.”
Bai Qi scratched his head and didn’t reply to him.
If not for an issue, he reckoned he probably wouldn’t come to the special team. Perhaps Mo Lin wouldn’t even see him tomorrow.
“By the way, Bai Qi, do you have anything for the special team? Or do you have some insight into three-stage evolution?”
Professor Dong looked at Bai Qi in confusion, while Mo Lin suddenly became spirited.
Could it be that on Bai Qi’s first visit to the special team, he was going to help them overcome a difficult problem again?
“Third stage evolution? Of course not.”
Bai Qi waved his hand. He had accidentally researched the second stage evolution from the General Terracotta. As for the third stage evolution? He had no ideas at all.
Even if he did, he wouldn’t have time to research it now, otherwise, he was afraid that Schuck and the others would quit working immediately.
“Then what is it?”
Although slightly disappointed, Professor Dong didn’t find it strange and continued asking, “You don’t seem like the sort who would wander around aimlessly-”
Bai Qi grinned sheepishly and said, “I worked on something new recently, but I might be too busy to handle it alone, so I thought I’d ask the special team for help.”
“Oh?”
At this, Professor Dong’s interest was piqued. Mo Lin perked up his ears, looking forward eagerly.
Bai Four Core, this was how Bai Qi was referred to on the internet. Although it carried a sense of mockery and jealousy, Mo Lin thought it suited him quite well.
As such, he was eager to see what extraordinary research Bai Qi was working on that he would seek their help.
Thud!
Under the astonished gaze of Professor Dong and the others, a metallic armor radiating a silver glow was brought out by Bai Qi.
“Is this… is this a mechanical artifact? Leader Bai, you might have come to the wrong place. You should ask for help in the MechWar Department.”
Seeing this, Mo Lin couldn’t help but chuckle. However, the moment he saw the runes lighting up on it, he closed his mouth.
Patting the external armor in front of him, Bai Qi said, “This Rune Mechanical Armor requires knowledge of both mechanics and runes. So, I thought I’d come and ask if anyone was willing to help.”