Chapter 546: Let's Get It Big!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It certainly felt great for Ye Chong to finally reach an agreement with the ruler of the city, especially when it was a win-win situation. Both of them got exactly what they wanted.
Apprenticeship? No problem. It was the bread and butter in Ye Chong's story.
It was not the first and surely not the last.
The processor had helped him undergo the first selection process to kick out impotent students but still there were about 1800 pupils to be further selected. Ye Chong did not seem pleased with the number of people.
And so, one week right before the ceremony, a news had blown up the entire city - the master craftsman of Eastern Cloud, a legend who defeated 12 Level 6 shooters with his own fists, had announced the official opening of recruitment for apprentices. It was not a rumor nor it was an urban legend cooked up during somebody's teatime. It was a fact, a pronounced order from the lord of the city himself, the royalty.
The brewing rumor before had been verified, and obviously the residents were immediately convinced. The rumor landed in the city like a bomb as the citizens heard the story of Master Ye defeating those advanced shooters while being unconvinced. It was too horrifying that it felt fictional until the royalty confirmed everything and Master Ye became a celeb soon after and there was a huge crowd at Master Ye's place, a very large crowd in fact.
The announcement detailed Master Ye's intention of picking up new apprentices, with a "requirement" which felt more like a "giveaway" to most of the citizens upon hearing it. Technically, one just had to be below 16 years old while having a healthy, functional body to join the audition. Once being admitted and passed the selection process, one would be given not only wages from the royalty monthly, but also an opportunity to work for the government right away given that one passed the final trial.
Those in poverty had seen a silver lining in the sky. The youngsters were lured by the stable income as well as free accommodation and food, unlike those born with a silver spoon who were not particularly attracted enough to hit the street and force themselves through the crowd to read the announcement on the wall. However, upon hearing the news through their own network they remained interested as it was the sole pathway towards a bright future for those untalented in their family.
Crowds were flooding towards Ye Chong's manor, almost smashing the gate. Sha Ya with her ray gun was standing next to Ye Chong with a tensed expression, feeling lightheaded as she imagined if an actual uprising could happen, which a Level 8 shooter like her could never handle single-handedly.
There were at least a thousand of them.
"Hey kiddo! You started yet? Ain't nobody have the whole day for this! Make your move already!"
"You heard him!"
The crowd had grown restless as seeing the master standing still for the entire time.
That was when a flock of something came with an aerial wail.
It was a flock consisted of 40 transport units as well as 120 combat units, with a crest of royalty glossing under the sunlight.
"Wow! It's the royal military! Man that's wicked cool!"
"Wow!" Exclamations were heard as the people lifted their head upon the sunny sky. Those were the royal guards, although they did not form a huge organization, they were the best shadow fighters under his majesty, mysterious and hardly seen by the people.
As mentioned, they were supposed to be the last line of defense for his majesty, and they should not be here unless declared state of emergency. The royal guards' sudden debut was surprising to the nobles, as they had yet witnessed such a huge operation in the past. 40 transport units, 120 combat units, clearly one would not have witnessed that unless an invasion occurred.
Before the people could react, the combat units dispersed themselves. Like ants crowding a sugar cube, they circled around those transport units while they gradually landed forcing the people away on the ground.
People were curious as they were marveled at the shining crest. The royal guards were truly mysterious, even to those members of noble family. The transport units were visibly pricey for their design and the maximum weight they could withstand, and to be honest, even the first military force of the country only owned 80 of these, while on this probably insignificant occasion the royal guards had sent off 40, which displeased Du Feng and his mates a bit.
"Formation!" The guards shouted on top of their lungs as people saw the armed men marching off the transport units with no mercy in their eyes. The royal guards were astonishingly efficient as 4000 of them got into their formation in 3 minutes.
"Dang..." Du Feng muttered as he watched from the hill faraway.
"As expected from the ultimate defense line of his majesty," said Li Gui grimly, "You could feel the violence from a single stare. I feel the weakest of the force would have shooters of at least Level 6."
"Hmph," Du Feng snorted, "I can't nitpick anything. I mean, look at their equipment. Tsk, tsk, they just came in 40 giant crafts while we were looking like hobos standing here with our plastic toys."
"I must agree," nodded Li Gui, "We aren't at the same level as those royal guards. I do envy those fancy stuffs they have but it's pointless to drool at them. I'm more curious of the purpose of their visit here, to be frank, especially when the royal guards only move upon his majesty's order. Why would his majesty send so many guards here? Did he intend to annihilate Master Ye?"
"Nah... Too much of a hassle to just 'annihilate' that Ye guy. A flock of combat units could have bombarded him into ashes, they don't even need to get into their formation," Du Feng rebutted.
The transport units blasted off into the air again, as the combat units tailed them zooming into the distance faraway.
At the front of the formation, there stood a buffed man with a scar which reached to his left eyes from the corner of his lips, looking like a giant centipede resting on his face. It was stunning and menacing... especially with his warrior physique standing there at a height of 185 centimeters.
His cold eyes glance around, his right hand was lifted, with his index finger pointing at the sun.
An order had been given.
The two frontmost rows of the guards disassembled themselves from the formation and had withdrawn their guns.
"Siege!"
"Siege!!!!!" The leaders of the both rows screamed as the guards began running, spreading as they hit the path ahead. The ray guns were aimed at the people, as they surrounded the entire crowd. People could not help but to back off a bit with a wryly smile seeing the cruelty in the guards' stare. There were several waves of parapsychic attack and people were overwhelmed, not even the talented Shu sisters could stand against the waves, let alone those untalented folks who were shaking on their feet.
The scarred commander expressionlessly trooped towards Ye Chong through the opening at the crowd. He gave a formal greeting, bowing, "Instructor Liao Sang reporting for duty upon his majesty."
Ye Chong responded with a nod, "From now on, you and your subordinates would be under my command until you receive a return order from his majesty." The scarred man reminded Ye Chong of that super sniper back in the free space zone, the bodyguard of the little boy, who also had a scar across his face, just not as bulky as Liao Sang.
"Yes sir!"
Th arrival of royal guards was a salvation to Ye Chong's plight, as it made every folk behave themselves. The commotion subsided as everyone knew what would be the consequence if any of them threw an egg at Master Ye.
Ye Chong waited, sitting still till 4 o' clock in the afternoon, while staring at the crowd of 20 thousand outside. The young men were restless at first, but they learned to be patient as they knew there would be an audition, and they would have a better performance if they preserve their stamina by resting on the ground. There were people who once disbelieved the announcement of royalty which seemed too good to be true, but the dramatic debut of the royal guards convinced them in every bit.
Did the royal guards solely serving the king actually came all the way here, with theatrical entrance, only to assist Master Ye in the audition? Where else could one find such grandness of a school open day?
Nevertheless, that was when the people felt a little uneasy. The fact that the king was so convinced of Master Ye's capability and sent his best men for assistance, then there is no doubt Master Ye would have very high standards in recruitment. Their fate would be at his great mercy and the likelihood of getting through the first stage had dampened.
And then... in the midst of intensity, Ye Chong stood up.
Attention stormed upon him as people hurled their gazes at him with a rapid turn at their head, including the scarred man, who had been fairly curious of this Master Ye ever since he got the order from the royalty. He had never gotten such unusual order from the royalty before in his entire life serving the king. What kind of mission was this anyway? It's not that he had better missions to do, in fact they had hardly receive any interesting order as they spent most of the time training in the field, which eventually made them the stronger military forces compared to the standard guards.
So finally they got something to work on and it turned out to be a mere leisure for Instructor Liao.
It was certainly strange to Instructor Liao for Master Ye was able to earn this much of trust from his majesty when his majesty was a person of discipline and paranoia. He had barely trusted anybody, well, not to an extent that he would give his guards away on a whim for a recruitment drive.
Instructor Liao was intrigued, but not from a political aspect. He just wanted to see who Master Ye was, the one who finished 12 Level 6 shooters single-handedly that managed to convince his majesty.
Heavy breaths could be heard in the midst of sudden silence, as people anticipated the great master to announce his requirements.
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"So..." Ye Chong begun.
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"All of you have been admitted. We'll meet here at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Latecomers would not be entertained. Dismiss."
"What?"
"What did the master say?"
People were dumbfounded as rustles were perceived at the crowd. "Am I drunk? Or is the master drunk? Or is everybody drunk?"
"The master orders dismissal! So move now!" Instructor Liao raised his voice impatiently upon seeing rustling crowd. "You have 10 minutes! Anyone who stays after that would be immediately executed!"
And there was nobody at the last syllable uttered, well, except the Shu sisters.
"Knock them out," said Ye Chong as he pointed at them.
"Yes sir!" Instructor Liao sauntered to the sisters to deliver a surprising blow at their necks. They blacked out before they realized. "Gui Gui!" Instructor Liao did not even bother to take a look at those beauties as he shouted his soldier. Gui Gui had a pale face of a ghost, as if albino that even her fingers were pale as snow. It was quite a contrast to those well-tanned men in the armor. Her eyes were cold as ice, her actions were smooth as the glaze, which appeared rather threatening to the soldiers.
"Get these girls to your camp. Anyone who dares to taste them would be sliced!" Instructor Liao shouted.
Gui Gui responded with a formal bow, "Yes sir." She sauntered to the fainted sisters and lifted them to her shoulders and retreated to her former position in the formation after all.
Gui Gui's existence was an eye-opener to Ye Chong. He had raised his own army before so he knew how an army worked. It was rare to see a female blending so well in the army especially when it consisted a majority of males. The discipline was there and there was unity among them. One could clearly see the standard of this army.
So the next problem would be a proper training ground that could accommodate a crowd of 20,000. However, it was not that difficult to solve.
That aside, there had not been much progress in his research. Though he did achieve something, including the instance where he finally crafted a few processors from scratches, despite being pretty substandard for its low level of processing ability according to the record in the microchips. Rather useless if one would say. It was not difficult to craft yet it was made out of Ye Chong's blood and sweat and that was under the assistance of those fancy stuffs like the organic cellular unit of these processing units he scavenged from Spectre. It might take him centuries before he made one out if without these stuffs.
The processors he made might not be powerful but he found somewhere to use them.
Ye Chong utilized the materials available and crafted simple mechs based on the design of a few engineering units. He attached the processors to them and made them into servant units. They served different functions so they had different designs. They lacked intelligence so they served one single function each but these were more than enough! They would help the mundane work!
The layout of his manor had already been plotted under the assistance of his detection system. Chen the processor had provided him the optimal proposal for the construction, all he had to do was to insert these partitioned tasks to each servant units, then magic would happen.
That sounded like a breakthrough by Master Ye but he never had the chance to test these units and he was given this major project to handle. So he only could use these units right away, to build a giant training dojo that could accommodate the large crowd. Well it was not an exquisitely designed dojo to begin with. So it was not entirely unmanageable. If he had those standard engineering units he could have finished the construction in 30 minutes.
But he only had these simple bots.
Instructor Liao was setting up the base camp. He and his army did not need help from Master Ye. Setting up camp was the bread and butter for military.
The night came slowly as the soldiers chatted happily round the campfire. It was a joyful trip with such a simple mission, especially when their routine consisted of march-till-fall activities back in the training camp.
Gui Gui sat at one spot silently. Her pale face convinced people they were as if sitting by her ghastly flame. Nobody had the courage to sit next to her. She was the only female in the army and people feared her, not even Instructor Liao would get closer to her. The sisters remained unconscious as placed at the wilted patch of grass nearby.
Instructor Liao gave a fierce bite at his drumstick and he closed his eyes. A strong wave of psychokinetic spread to the surrounding, reaching everybody who zipped their mouth all of sudden and began meditating nearby.
"Listen up punks! If any of you ever fall asleep meditating tonight, I'll give him a taste of my personal training the morning after!"said Instructor Liao fiercely. "Close your eyes! In silence! Meditate. Nobody open their eyes till informed!"
"F*cking hell, you incapable kiddos and your lack of training just pisses me off every time." Instructor Liao threw his anger as he brandished the bitten drumstick which was then tossed into his huge mouth to be chomped, along with the bone, into a million pieces while he strolled out of the camp.
Gui Gui, who seemed to sense something, got up and tailed after.
Instructor Liao gave her a nod upon seeing her. They headed to the southwest corner of the manor agilely like beasts on a runaway. Such speed from capable shooters.
At one bush on the slope, they peeked something shocking.
There were a handful of strange things gathering up into a team.
The leader seemed to be a spider-like creature, with 8 long feet and a flat broad cavity. It was a machine, with a pronounced height about 5 meters, a breadth about 10 meters. It looked terrifying.
"What the hell are those things?" Instructor Liao could not help but to inhale as he trembled a bit.
Gui Gui's eyes enlarged for a brief moment and she responded softly, "Looks like a new kind of machine to me."
And out of the blue, the spider reached its blade-like cavity to the ground. Before Instructor Liao and Gui Gui said something, glaring lights came from the blade and peeled the ground off!
Both of them were shocked to complete silence and their eyes enlarged like saucers.
The beeping continued as the spider creature reached its beam of light across.
A floating truck equipped with shovel were following after, moving those rocks sliced off the ground, further polishing the rocks underground. In the end a rocky training dojo could be identified. The process went on as the beam shifted to the edges and shaped the dojo into square.
Then there was a 4-legged machine about half a meter tall coming into the scene with its square box on its back, with a broad beam discharging from below which left a row of perfectly circular dent on the ground. It looked like a ... mini pile driver?
The two soldiers continued observing, only to see more and more strange machines joining the construction. They were small and had bizarre designs yet somehow the two soldiers could perceive the functions at one glance.
But well, what the heck? Was this construction going a bit too fast?
Instructor Liao glanced at his clock. What? It had only been an hour and there was a dojo coming out of nowhere? That looked more like a paranormal activity to both of them by then.
"Holy crap. Those are pretty good stuffs!" said Instructor Liao, rubbing his palm eagerly with his eyes peering at that spider machine. Who cares if it sliced the ground well? It would be the best machine for slicing people! Instructor Liao might be from the highly regarded royal guards but he had never laid his hands on such an interesting machine before.
So many stuffs to get! Especially that strange liquid! Instructor Liao could sense the surface of the rocks growing stronger by times! The liquid could be the key to an unbeatable stronghold! Simply spray them at the walls then their stronghold would not even bulge under the deadliest shot! Talk about a great defense!
"Who was that?" asked Ye Chong as he heard something. He did not notice them before because of the distance and he was concentrating on his work, but it was that loud voice of Instructor Liao that alerted him.
"Hah! It's us, Master Ye." Instructor Liao was not feeling shy at all, as he greeted Ye Chong normally. Gui Gui pondered awhile before she followed the instructor.
Ye Chong took a look at both of them who nodded at him and he got back to his work. The dojo had just been coated with a layer of strengthening reagent. It was not completed yet. It still needed another reagent or the pillars would break because of the temperature change.
The miniature mobile sprinkler was looking like a floating cocoon in the air as Ye Chong caught it and began pouring in a pale greenish liquid.
"Master Ye, what is this? What does it do?" asked Instructor Liao interestingly, approaching Ye Chong.
"These are strengthening reagents," replied Ye Chong as he poured the fluid. "It further strengthens the structure of a material specifically, unlike the normal reagents."
"Oh..." Instructor Liao nodded although he wasn't sure if he understood. "That sounds great! Can it strengthen the structure of a human body too?"
Ye Chong sealed the lid tight and sent the sprinkler off to the training ground.
"Back off," instructed Ye Chong.
"Why?"
"It's highly toxic."
Instructor Liao was smiling as the corners of his lips shook, while Gui Gui was already nowhere to be seen nearby...