Chapter 564: Mech Pilot Training Program
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ye Chong got busy with his work again, but it was not as though he had ever been idle.
First signs of success in the students' training were now apparent. Three months was a long time. With the hellish training designed for them and special medication that Ye Chong prepared with alchemy, the students improved at an astonishing rate. Now, they no longer looked as fragile as they were a few months ago. No one dared to slack when the vicious Liao San was in charge. Everyone was pushed to their very limits. For those who could not keep up, horrible consequences awaited them. Instructor Liao was notorious on his one-on-one extra classes.
Even Duan Qian, who was used to the realities of training, could not help but felt stricken whenever Liao San whipped his students. In these three months, Duan Qian improved the most. As a mostly self-taught person who had struggled to understand things by himself, he now had professional guidance. It was only natural for him to improve so quickly.
Besides Duan Qian, there was also another group of students who were improving quickly. These students had excellent physical qualities. Their talent in combat was revealed through the training program. The surprising thing was, almost a third of these students were from noble families. They lived in good conditions, much better than their poorer counterparts. However, they did not devote themselves to training before this, living a life of pleasure and idleness. Nevertheless, with Instructor Liao, all students were equal. They could only train hard like everyone else. Their physical advantages made a difference in the outcome.
Soon, Ye Chong picked out these students to undergo a whole new set of training. The other students watched jealously at the selected students, while the ones who were chosen puffed up their chests with pride.
To Ye Chong's surprise, Shu Mo'er and her sister were also amongst these fast improving students. They had improved so quickly that even their instructor in charge, Gui Gui, would occasionally compliment them. Ye Chong had no bias against the sisters. Here, the only that mattered was one's true abilities.
The students that he selected came up to five thousand, which was the number that Ye Chong had agreed upon with Sun Sieha. Ye Chong cleared up a space for their training ground in his manor. Duan Qian would be in charge of general training, while Liao San as assistant. All the students groaned when they saw Liao San there. They had thought that they could escape Liao San's grasp, but Ye Chong had assigned the instructor to them again.
The training routine for the students changed drastically. Physical training was still an important part of the routine, but Ye Chong had also introduce the steel beads training that he had the most trouble with to them. Ye Chong did not have steel beads, so he had to make metal beads with the rare metals found in Darkniss.
If anyone from He Yue Galaxy or the Five Galaxies saw this, they would be shocked! What a waste of heavenly resources! On the wide training ground, five thousand students sat and pushed around colorful metal beads on a wooden board in front of them. These metal beads were all made from rare metals!
After setting aside a very small amount of these metals for analysis, Ye Chong used up all the metals he brought back to make the metal beads. It was just enough for the five thousand students. After all, the Spider's storage room was nearly full with the mineral ores.
The students were clumsy at first, but Ye Chong did not worry about that. He had also taken a long time to get used to the training.
The training program started in full force. Sun Sieha never came to bother him again. It was a wonderful life!
Ye Chong dived straight into his research. There were so many things he needed to study, but even so, he would take time to train with Celest every single day.
His underground base was mostly completed, and his five laboratories were done. Additionally, Ye Chong had built a mech training ground for his own use.
He had begun growing snowshade leopard tissue, but in order to use them to upgrade Celest, he would have to be familiar with the bio-mech's structure. Celest was the product of the Research Consortium's most advanced technologies, and probably had the most complicated structure. Even with the chips Kui gave him, it would not be easy to understand Celest's structure.
Ye Chong devoted all his attention to research.
In this world, nothing beats dedication. Ye Chong was a man of dedication.
Nevertheless, the scale of his work was far larger than he expected. He did not expect it to take him six months to replace Celest's tissue with that of the snowshade leopard. Of these six months, five of them were spent on studying and research. The actual upgrade happened in the last month.
Armed with snowshade leopard tissue, Celest was now more powerful than Ye Chong could ever imagine. He was already impressed with the explosive strength of the bio-mech's original form. After the upgrade, Celest's strength almost doubled. How much power was that exactly? Ye Chong was not sure. He only knew that piloting the upgraded Celest would be a strain on even his own strong body. Celest also had its engine tweaked. Wood from this world had great compatibility with pure energy and low density, making it suitable for building an engine. Ye Chong picked the best wood he could find, even though the price was shockingly high. The wood itself had cost 50 million ao.
It looked like he would have to train himself further! He must be able to unleash the full potential of Celest.
Ye Chong gained something else from his intense research work. Each day, he immersed himself in the most advanced biological theories and experiments. This improved his understanding in the field greatly. He was now able to build his own photon processor. Of course, the photon processor he made was not comparable to Celest's, but it was at least an average level photon processor, which was good enough for him.
After hiding in his underground base for six months, Ye Chong emerged to find Xi Yan waiting for him.
Xi Yan quickly approached him. "Teacher, Sir Xuan Ning had dropped by three times when you were gone."
"Did he say anything?" Ye Chong asked. He recalled abruptly that he had promised the man a Spider.
Xi Yan shook his head. "He only asked when you'd be coming out, then he would leave."
Ye Chong nodded. "Alright. Xi Yan, get Kristen and make two sets of mechanical parts for the Spider." One for Xuan Ning and another for Mei Wu – he might as well build them at the same time.
Xi Yan nodded. "Okay." Recently, Xi Yan felt like as though he had been reborn. His teacher had taught him not only about weapons, but also machinery in general, and it opened his eyes on things. Once upon a time, he only knew how to build weapons, but not the logic behind the building process. With his teacher's guidance, he could now see things clearer than ever.
He was thoroughly impressed with Ye Chong.
…
Ye Chong went to the training ground, and found the atmosphere there thick with concentration.
Ping ping ping! Metal beads hit against each other, sounding like a thunderstorm. Every student focused on the wooden board before them as they flick about the metal beads on the board, quickly and deftly. Not one of them noticed that Ye Chong had arrived. Liao San was circling around the students, keeping a tight watch over them.
For normal students, the metal beads training did not only improve their hand speed, but also their reflex. Many of them could barely stand six months of this dry form of training. However, Liao San said that the king had ordered for anyone who failed to go through the training to be sent to labor camp. Once the announcement was made, no one thought of giving up again.
The fact was, human had infinite potential. Even students with only average talent were forced to their current level of expertise due to the intense training they underwent.
…
Sun Sieha wondered how the students would turn out at the end of Ye Chong's training. That was why he gave that harsh order, to prevent the slippery ones to escape training. His Majesty's words were final, this was common knowledge. No one doubted if the order would actually be carried out. Hence, they pushed themselves to keep up with their training. There were many rumours of people never returning from labour camps.
Sun Sieha was also very busy lately. His men had finally digested and understood the technology in the cannon arrays that Ye Chong built for him. The problem now was how to mass produce the weapon. Even though Master Karu finally knew how to build the weapon from scratch, Sun Sieha knew that Ye Chong had already taken so much money from him by now.
He did not feel good about that at all!
Nevertheless, he had no time to think about Ye Chong. Right now, he must focus on the cannon arrays. The military had concluded that if they could be armed with the cannon arrays on a large scale, their overall battle capacity would be at least doubled. Their battle strategies would also be modified to incorporate the cannon arrays.
Almost all the military factories were ordered to produce the cannon arrays. Sun Sieha waited patiently for the relatively low cost but very powerful cannon arrays to be fully incorporated into the military. There was also the technology they had bought from Kristen to inject into Eastern Cloud's military.
Once these changes were incorporated into Eastern Cloud, their military would become the strongest in recorded history. What more could demand Sun Sieha's attention so much? His ambition was fuelled by the endless possibilities! Ye Chong's role in this important matter also drew the attention of spies from other countries. They began to show up more frequently around his isolated manor.
It was not a problem for Ye Chong to worry, however. Sun Sieha waved his hand, and the land around the manor was declared as military property. Unrelated personnel were not allowed to trespass. Every morning, royal guards who worked directly for the King would bury a few bodies on the land. This was a routine mission for them.
Ye Chong ignored all of these. It was not related to him anyway. He did not care if Eastern Cloud had the strength to wipe out other countries. He did not need so many people on his side for now. Besides, soldiers who did not pass the basic requirements were only a drag on the army's overall strength. The five thousand soldiers he had under him right now were far from passing the basic requirements.
Ye Chong estimated another three months was needed for the hand speed training for the students to satisfy his minimum requirement. Their physical stamina was good enough now, after their vigorous training. However, Ye Chong still made physical training a part of their schedule every day. In fact, physical training was the goal of all their training sections. Physical fitness was a necessity for mech pilots.
Ye Chong did not expect much from his students in terms of hand speed – he would happy as long as they could reach Mach 5. When Ye Chong demonstrated his maximum hand speed, all the students were stunned.
They could not see the metal beads at all. They were only shadows, like Ye Chong's hands. The sound of metal beads colliding against each other sounded like a stampede. Even Liao San swallowed with difficulty as he watched Ye Chong's demonstration. It was when Ye Chong declared the minimum requirement for them that the students heaved a sigh of relief.
Those who passed the hand speed requirement would begin another training set. However, only three students passed so far. They were Duan Qian and the Shu sisters.
The three of them were each given a strange keyboard, with keys arranged neatly on it. If any mech pilots were around, they would recognize it as the control console in a mech. The keys were arranged exactly as it would be in a normal mech. They were also given a list of complicated key sequences. Ye Chong's task for them was to memorize all the sequences and type all of them as fast as possible. To pass, they must type at least 90 key sequences of Level 3 difficulty in one minute; typing 120 key sequences would be considered outstanding.
The keyboard's design was simple. Ye Chong placed an order of five thousand identical keyboards from a random manufacturer.
If he wanted to cultivate five thousand mech pilots, he would need five thousand mechs.
Five thousand mechs were a lot, no matter how one looked at it. The raw materials required were staggering, and the actual manufacturing part was time and energy consuming. There was the photon processor, holographic scanning system, engine … Too much technology were involved!
The typing training for these three students would be all for nothing if they did not have mechs.
It was a serious issue, but Ye Chong did not lose his cool because of it.
If he had enough metal, the problem would not be so dire. Ye Chong had the best equipment with him. Automating some of the manufacturing process should not be difficult. However, in order to obtain metal, he would have to enter Darkniss.
To ender Darkniss, one must be strong enough. To be strong enough, these students must become mech pilots. To become mech pilots, these students must have mechs.
It was a chicken-and-egg problem.
What if he used wood to build the mechs? The wooden material he found here had excellent physical properties, but they were not suitable for building complex structures, like mech parts.
It seemed that he would have to come up with an alternative for his students as a temporary solution. Ye Chong quickly found a compromise. Designing machines for combat was not a challenge for him.
Ye Chong dismissed the option of fighter aircrafts. Aircrafts could not change direction as easily as he liked, and they were impractical in outer space. The most important things for his students to learn were how to manage the force that came from high speed turns, how to lock onto their enemies, how to shoot, and how to coordinate as a team.
In short, his new machine must be able to move with great flexibility and fitted with a photon processor, a holographic scanning system, long range shooting weapons, and a safety system.
Not long after he breached in fresh air again, Ye Chong returned to his underground base. Three days later, he returned outside with a detailed schematic.
This time, his assistant was Xi Yan. When Xi Yan saw the schematic, he was dumbfounded.
"Teacher, what is this?"
It was a spherical machine, about six metres in diameter. Two straight belts crossed over each other on the surface of the machine. The belts were just shy of a metre in width, and had 16 holes evenly perforated in each of them.
"It's a training vehicle. Your task is to simply its structure. This is to improve its stability. Understand?" Ye Chong asked Xi Yan. He had picked Xi Yan because he was more experienced than Kristen.
"I understand." Xi Yan nodded absently as he stared at the schematic.
Ye Chong gestured with a wave. "Alright, off you go." He then left the dumbfounded Xi Yan to tend to other matters.
A day later, Xi Yan visited Ye Chong.
Ye Chong studied his schematic and nodded, satisfied. He made some minor tweaks as he said, "Good work. Hmm, the structure is simplified by a lot. How much will it cost to build this thing?"
XI Yan did not understand the logic behind this training vehicle. The structure was not suitable for flight. It was not aerodynamic, unlike an aircraft. Besides, it had a higher drag than aircrafts, and would fly much slower. The only good thing about the vehicle was its great flexibility in changing directions. The two belts that on the sphere had 16 engine exhaust expellers that could make the machine travel unpredictable trajectories.
What was the cost of this machine? Xi Yan had to pause and consider the question. "What material are you using?"
"Hanatsubaki wood." Ye Chong's reply came instantly.
Xi Yan paused again. Hanatsubaki wood was the cheapest wooden material round. He replied frankly, "If it's Hanatsubaki wood, we can build one for about three thousand ao."
"I see. Find a manufacturer to build five thousand of these. That will be 15 million ao."
"What about the engine?" Xi Yan asked.
"Use the LLK-1 model. I remember that each costs about a thousand ao," Ye Chong said.
Xi Yan knew the numbers. "We get discounts for bulk buying. Five thousand of them will cost around four million ao." He could understand his teacher's reasoning. The LLK-1 was a very old model. There was no reason for anyone to buy the engine, except that it was cheap.
However, training five thousand people was not easy. Just the training vehicle would cost him close to 20 million ao. If he wanted to build aircrafts for his students, he would only be able to pay for less than a thousand of them.
There were also the photon processor and holographic scanning system to consider. He should not forget the safety system too. Ye Chong would not want the students he had trained with so much effort to lose their lives because of inadequate fittings in theirs training vehicles.
It was all too much!
All three components required Ye Chong's personal attention and effort. It was so much work that Ye Chong felt like he was pushing his limits.
…
Down in the underground base, in his alchemy lab, were many culture containers. Ye Chong needed five thousand bio-mechs for his five thousand students. Fortunately, a bio-photon processor was not too different from its mechanical counterpart, or Ye Chong would have to work himself to death trying to figure it out. Even so, growing the cultures was a challenge. It was a magnificent view, to see five thousand culture containers all placed in the same lab.
Building the holographic scanning systems was even more exhausting. Without familiar metals to work with, he had to use native raw materials. Fortunately, Ye Chong had already run an analysis on all common materials for their properties, or the job would have been impossible. To save time, he had created a simplified version of the holographic scanning system. Even so, he could only make a hundred of them every day. It will take two months for him to build enough for his entire army. This was the simplest holographic scanning system found in Kui's chips.
With some calculations, Ye Chong knew that he could not finish the safety systems himself. Hence, he went to Sun Sieha. Naturally, His Majesty was more than willing to help him. He immediately called for Master Karu.
Master Karu studied the schematics with barely suppressed excitement, and asked to buy the rights for it without hesitation. Of course, Ye Chong would still earn royalties, and Sun Sieha would have to build five thousand sets of them for Ye Chong, free of charge, as part of the contract. Both Sun Sieha and Master Karu were prepared for Ye Chong's nasty contracts, but they knew how important the technology was, and so had agreed to the terms without argument.
With the five thousand sets of safety systems handled, and a long term source of income in his pocket, Ye Chong felt satisfied with his decision.
Now, it was his turn to do the hard work. Five thousand holographic scanning systems to go!