Chapter 272: Black Bat

The time for the Golden Finger Cup arrived in the blink of an eye, causing the number of people on this tiny planet to see a significant increase, fast. There were people everywhere even though it was only the preliminaries. Millions of people were bound to join the crowd once the actual competition began.

The first knockout round was held at different venues. The round’s focus was to test the machinists’ theoretical knowledge. The smart computers would come up with respective scenarios for the fields that the participants had applied for. They would mostly give a participant a piece of broken machinery and ask them to fix or modify it using limited parts.

The venue that Xia Fei was allocated to could hold twenty thousand participants. Xia Fei was assigned a modification task: optimize a Tristan-class warship’s power system. The warp engine usually released a huge amount of heat when it was activated, and the fierce sparks it produced would usually distort the surroundings, so if the enemy had an advanced detection system, they could easily detect traces left behind by the warp engine. Xia Fei had to minimize the traces left by the warp engine with his score solely depending on how strong the signal left behind was.

Xia Fei thought for a moment and began tapping on the screen. The warp engine’s signal mainly consisted of two parts: the heat and the distortion of space. Most people would try to minimize the signal by lowering the engine’s output, but Xia Fei did not use that approach. He first separated the parts of the engine and scattered them in the air.

It was akin to the relationship between a point and a surface. When a one-hundred-kilogram iron ball was placed on a certain point of a table, that table would be under great pressure, but if one-hundred-kilogram of cotton was spread across the table, the table would be able to withstand the weight since the force was distributed equally, producing the misconception that cotton was lighter than the iron ball. Applying this concept to the challenge at hand—reducing the signal without compromising on the engine’s efficiency—would produce the same result.

Xia Fei tapped lightly on the screen to conclude his attempt. He lifted his gaze and saw a man in a white outfit leaving the venue and he recognized the latter right away to be Li Mo, Bai Ye’s cousin.

The crowd began cheering. It had only been five minutes since the test began, meaning that Li Mo had done the test in just five minutes. He had used less time than Xia Fei, indicating how solid his foundation was.

Xia Fei twisted his lips. He checked his answer again and left after making sure that he did not make any mistake.

Li Mo happened to be walking past the detector at the entrance. The participants must go through a few electronic gates upon entering or leaving the venue to check if they had brought any restricted objects and verify their ID.

When passing through this arch, a screen beside the entrance would conveniently reveal the score of the participant.

The detector swiftly operated, checking Li Mo thoroughly while verifying his identity.

Ding!

A clear beep sounded, then a line of words appeared on the screen.

“Li Mo, participant no. 3566912. Question assigned: optimizing a firing system. Score: 20 points, with a difficulty rating 6.375, for a total score of 127.5 points.”

The maximum score of a question was 20 points, which would be multiplied with the difficulty rating to derive a participant’s total score. Since it was an Alliance-level tournament, the lowest difficulty of a question had a rating of 5, with the highest being around 7.

The crowd burst into cheer again. It was ridiculous that the man had scored 127.5 points when he only spent five minutes on the question.

Li Mo wore a proud smile. He was about to leave when he suddenly changed his mind upon seeing Xia Fei behind him. He waited on the side to see Xia Fei’s score.

Ding!

The detector revealed Xia Fei’s score after verifying his identity. “Xia Fei, participant no. 10225. The question assigned: optimizing the signal of a warp engine. Score: 20 points, with a difficulty rating of 6.375. Extra score is given for deriving the perfect solution, for a total score of 137.5 points.”

A few participants who were still attempting their questions could not help but exclaim out the score of 137.5. After all, this score was even more shocking than Li Mo’s 127.5 points. Unfortunately, these participants had broken the rule for making a sound during the test, so they were automatically disqualified from the tournament. In some way, Xia Fei had accidentally disqualified a few participants with a weaker mentality.

They were not shocked because Xia Fei had scored ten points more than Li Mo; it was the fact that he had derived a perfect solution.

There were many answers to every question so there were naturally different means to obtain the same outcome, but there was always a quickest and simplest way to it, which Xia Fei had managed to find. He had lowered the signal strength without compromising on the engine’s efficiency. It was a textbook solution.

Xia Fei no longer had to obey the rules of the venue after passing through the electronic gate. He calmly lit a cigarette and took a puff from it. He was simply using his knowledge to solve the problem; he could not care less if it was the perfect solution.

“Not bad. I just want to be done with the boring preliminaries as soon as possible. I don’t really care if my solution is perfect,” Li Mo told Xia Fei with a smile.

Ding!

Something unexpected took place again: The score on the screen had changed once more.

A score of 147.5 points.

Ten points more than the previous score.

Another line of words was added below the initial line. “Bonus score from the tournament’s committee.”

The bonus score indicated that Xia Fei’s solution had been approved by the tournament committee, and it was likely that they would be promoting Xia Fei’s solution in the future.

As a matter of fact, the Golden Finger Cup’s purpose was not only to select the best machinist but to advance the level of technology, too. In the past, some talented participants had made a name for themselves by deriving an extraordinary solution for the problems they were given. These people were usually hired by the top companies in the Alliance or would sell their inventions to earn enough money so that they could live a comfortable life.

To everyone’s surprise, someone had derived a perfect solution and obtained a bonus score from the tournament committee in just the first round of the preliminaries. The tournament’s committee consisted of the best machinists in the entire Alliance, so their skills were unmatchable. It was very difficult to win their approval.

Li Mo’s jaws dropped. He was having trouble believing the extra line of words on the screen. The fact that the tournament committee had given a bonus score so quickly only meant one thing: They were already observing Xia Fei when he was still deriving the solution, so they immediately approved his solution soon after the score was given out.

Li Mo realized that he had forgotten his manners and quickly smiled again. “Not bad, congratulations.”

“Thanks, but what’s with the bonus score from the tournament committee?” Xia Fei asked curiously.

“You didn’t know about the tournament committee?”

“Not at all,” Xia Fei spread his arms and said.

…

Li Mo briefly introduced the tournament committee to Xia Fei. The best machinists in the Alliance possessed remarkable cultivation in their respective fields. Some were good with circuitry, whereas some were experts in energy systems. Every time the Association of Machinists held the Golden Finger Cup, they would gather as the committee for the tournament.

Li Mo was not pleased with the outcome. It was obviously Xia Fei’s first time taking part in the Golden Finger Cup, and it sounded as if he did not even try learning more about the tournament before coming here. Li Mo felt humiliated losing to someone who was not even taking the tournament seriously.

The truth was that Xia Fei was not completely clueless about the tournament. He was only using the chance to observe Li Mo’s character. He was not too sure about what role the other would play in the relationship between him and Avril, but he was unwilling to miss any detail when it came to a rival.

Both men departed the venue shortly. Li Mo walked down a deserted path and waved his hand. A man in a similar white outfit suddenly showed up beside him.

“Go investigate the background of Xia Fei. Although Bai Ye already told me some stuff about him, I’m still feeling a little uneasy.”

The man stroked his mustache and said, “Young master, don’t you worry; I promise to dig out even the information of his ancestors for you.”

Li Mo nodded. The man disappeared into the trees and shrubs.

…

Xia Fei dialed a call to Earth and contacted Old Porter, who was currently busy working.

Old Porter was occupied with work in the factory when he appeared on the screen. He was carrying tools on his waist like he normally did.

The two exchanged greetings briefly. Old Porter even asked Xia Fei how the preliminaries went. He was not too surprised when he heard that Xia Fei had obtained a bonus score from the tournament committee in the first round and said, “You should know that the perfect solution and bonus score from the tournament committee can go up to fifty, but you only got ten from each of them. It means that the solution you derived might be able to resolve the problem perfectly, but it lacks practicality or it’s difficult to implement the solution in reality. If your solution is cost-effective and is able to resolve the problem, you’d be rewarded with more bonus points.

“As for the bonus score from the tournament committee, it’s nothing worth mentioning. The bonus ten points only means that they are pleased with your thought process. It’s to encourage you to come up with more impressive designs in the future. You’ll know once the first round is over. It’s quite common for many participants to be rewarded with bonus points from deriving the perfect solution for the tournament committee. Therefore, you shouldn’t feel too proud of yourself.

“Besides, the score you obtained from both rounds in the preliminaries isn’t included in the final score in the tournament. Those who are capable won’t want to attract too much attention early in the tournament. After all, the more attention one gets, the easier it is for the others to treat them as their enemy.”

Xia Fei nodded. “I understand, Porter. I will preserve my strength in the second round of the preliminaries. To be honest, I didn’t really go all out today. There’s still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the design.”

Old Porter burst out laughing. “Very well, the preliminaries are just warmups. You shouldn’t overdo it. The score you earned in the first round is already a lot. I suggest that you give up on the second round. You can still advance to the finals without taking part in the second round.”

Xia Fei agreed with Old Porter. He just needed to make sure that he passed the preliminaries. He would reserve his strength for the finals.

“Old man, how long will it take for you to complete the blueprint I gave?” Xia Fei asked.

He was referring to his design of the radar system. It took him and Harris three days and nights to finalize the design, but it was still not perfect. It had a lot of manufacturing problems. It would take the smart machine tool three days to produce the radar system. The process was too inefficient.

Old Porter frowned. He pointed to the machine beside him and said, “Your design is too complicated. This machine has been operating since yesterday, yet it’s already the fourth time I’ve performed maintenance on it. You will need a simpler design to mass-produce the system. I will keep an eye on it. Give me one more day, and I’ll provide you with a viable solution. It may not be able to increase production efficiency, but it will be able to produce the system.”

Xia Fei said sincerely, “I’ll leave it to you, uncle Porter. We must figure out a way to modify the machines. Even though I’m not planning to shock the world with the Directional Meson Radar System, we must be prepared just in case.”

Porter drained the glass of water his assistant brought him. He was overwhelmed by fatigue too after working for long periods of time.

“The Directional Meson Radar System. It’s not a bad name, but it’s a bit of a mouthful. It may even contain some negative connotations if it’s in the Charlotte language or the Sinq Laison language; I think you should rename the system.”

The new radar system was using the directional mesons as its main energy carriers. It also consisted of the energy magnifying capability of the Titan superwarship’s radar system and the directional transmission capability of the nether bell, and that was why Xia Fei had named it the Directional Meson Radar System.

The name was based on the traits of the radar system. It was fine the way it was, but the experienced Old Porter immediately noticed a few shortcomings of the name. The radar system was more or less a product, so its name might influence the decision of potential buyers.

Xia Fei said after some time, “Porter, why don’t you name the radar system?”

Old Porter nodded and said, “Every radar system in the world originates from the echolocation of bats. Even though the radar system has changed a lot after many years of improvement since its principles and structure have long deviated from the use of sonar waves, the origin of it will never change. Why don’t we call it a bat-model radar, the Black Bat? The name doesn’t have any negative connotations, and it sounds a bit mysterious, too.”

“The Black Bat Radar System. Not a bad name! it’s decided,” Xia Fei exclaimed excitedly.

Old Porter waved to Xia Fei. “Go tend to your business; I need to focus on my work, too. Remember to find more smart machine tools of the same model. The production of the Black Bat has high technical requirements; even the smallest discrepancy is going to ruin the whole thing. It’s my first time working on something so complicated.”

Xia Fei immediately searched for warehouses and smart machine tools of the same model nearby on the interplanetary internet. The journey from Earth to the capital ring would take a month or so. It was going to take quite some time for the factory to manufacture the radar system and deliver it to him. It might not make it in time before the hunt in the last round of the tournament, so Old Porter would adjust the machine tool to ensure that it could produce the radar system, and Xia Fei would only need to find the same machine tool to produce the radar system himself.

Xia Fei had never once thought that it would be so difficult to find the same smart machine tool in the developed capital planet, considering that it was the most advanced place in the Alliance. Quantum Holdings did not import the latest model of the smart machine tool to save some cost, but the capital planet had long replaced the model of the machine tool they were using.

The search lasted for another half an hour before it found a factory close to bankruptcy around 1,700 lightyears away from the capital planet. The owner of the factory agreed to rent the machine tool to Xia Fei at a price of ten thousand star coins every week. Xia Fei was allowed to modify the machine tool as he pleased. After all, these outdated machines would soon be sold as junks. It did not matter if Xia Fei tweaked them a little.

When Avril learned that Xia Fei had to leave for a few days, she convinced her father and grandfather to let her go with him. Xia Fei had failed to keep his words to go shopping with her since he was too busy working. Feeling slightly guilty about it, he did not stop her from tagging along. Since he was only going somewhere close to the capital planet, there should not be any danger.

They rode Xia Fei’s Vampire to the destination. He knew the Starlink Corporation had sent a few men to follow them, but they did not show themselves, for they were worried that Avril might feel unhappy about it.

The abandoned factory was a lot bigger than Xia Fei imagined, occupying a piece of land that was a few tens of thousand kilo hectares. There were more than a few thousand smart machine tools of the same model, and most of them looked pretty new.

Xia Fei found out the truth after asking around. It turned out that the factory was not going bankrupt because it was unprofitable but that the owner of the factory had a second wife who was fifty years younger than him. The first wife had decided to divorce her husband after learning about the affair. The owner agreed to pay a large sum to his first wife as settlement, but not long after, his second wife somehow hooked up with his secretary. The two went missing after taking the factory’s funds.

The owner had literally suffered a double loss because of it; talk about femme fatales.

Xia Fei immediately had an idea. The factory might seem run-down, but the machines were still in good condition. He might be able to save Quantum Holdings a huge sum if he could secure it for the company.

Xia Fei found the owner of the factory and explained his intention. The man almost had the urge to jump off a building for he was unable to pay off his debts to the bank. Since the machine tools were not of the latest model, he could only sell them as junks to be recycled. The two immediately came to an agreement. Xia Fei would pay an extra ten percent for the machine tools on top of the agreed-upon price if they were to be sold as junks. It was only ten percent of the sum required to buy the same number of the latest model. Even if he included the cost of logistics to deliver the machine tools to Earth, he would still save up to eighty percent of the total sum. On top of that, the owner also agreed to give Xia Fei all the remaining spare parts being used for maintenance.

Xia Fei immediately contacted Sarah and asked her to arrange the logistics required to transport the machine tools to Earth by batch. It would take around four months to move all the machine tools to Earth without meddling with the usual operation of the company.

After all, the new factories of Quantum Holdings were being set up. It was only a matter of time before the smart machine tools would come in handy.

Xia Fei realized that the capital planet was full of business opportunities following this sudden discovery. After discussing it with Charlie, they agreed to send Sonny over to look for several machinery at discounted prices which might be useful to the company.

Xia Fei was fully sweating in the garage. The video communication remained connected just so he could talk to Old Porter on Earth all the time.

Avril was running back and forth excitedly to bring Xia Fei refreshments and help him look for tools. Since when did the young mistress ever do such a tough job in her life? However, Avril did not really care as long as she could be by Xia Fei’s side.

As a result, a strange sight took place in the garage. A bunch of bodyguards was busy looking after Avril, while Avril was focused on taking care of Xia Fei. It was quite amusing.

Xia Fei felt blessed having Avril with him. He did not feel tired despite the heavy workload, but little did he know that his information was continuously being delivered to Li Mo’s office.

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