area51novel Chapter 202 Invitation to the Top Auction
Chapter 202 Invitation to the Top Auction
Long You's annoyed voice came from the fifteen-meter-tall soul-guided power mecha. The difficulty of controlling this behemoth was beyond his imagination, and his cooperation with He Caitou was not as good as he had expected.
Fortunately, the situation wasn't as bad as it seemed; Long You and He Caitou still maintained a basic level of understanding. Although controlling Chernobog's operations seemed impossible at the moment, simply keeping it stationary was still manageable.
The Chernobog quickly came to a stop. The speakers were also turned off, and only the conversation between Long You and He Caitou could be heard in the cockpit.
"Xiao You, this giant mech is so difficult to pilot! Can the two of us use it in the competition?"
A bitter expression crossed He Caitou's dark face. Having piloted a five-meter-tall soul-guided powered mecha, He Caitou was already mentally prepared for the difficulty of operating large mechas. However, the difficulty of operating the Cherno Alpha, a super-large soul-guided powered mecha that reached a height of fifteen meters, was far beyond his expectations.
"Don't worry too much. I anticipated this situation and have auxiliary methods. The reason I didn't give it to you directly is to let you experience the specific difficulty of operation."
As you know, the more upgraded the soul-guided powered mechs become, the larger they grow. To pilot higher-level mechs, besides meeting the required soul power level, our mental strength also needs to be up to standard. The reason why the two of us can only operate a five-meter-tall soul-guided powered mech right now is simply because one person's mental strength is simply insufficient to drive a larger mech.
This is why only by using the Soul Guidance Powered Mecha Fusion Technology, with the help of two people, can we control this more powerful mecha.
Of course, using power ahead of time always comes at a price. For mech pilots, this price is the synchronization rate between the two pilots. Even with the help of combat AI, the mental strength of both pilots is still needed to support the timely operation of the entire mech, so the two of us must be in perfect harmony. We must choose the same action at the same time, and the time difference between our actions cannot exceed 0.1 seconds.
"That's impossible. Our fighting styles are different. To make the same fighting choices when facing the same situation, we need a lot of practice."
After listening to Long You's analysis, He Caitou felt somewhat disheartened.
"Please, have some faith in me. I already said I have a solution. Now, let's disconnect the mecha motion capture control system and leave the smart home assistant to handle dynamic balancing and management."
Then, put on this metal headband. You'll understand why I said you don't need to worry about this.
The fusion technology of this soul-guided powered mecha was originally a soul tool technology developed by Long You using the power of his martial soul. How could Long You not understand the difficulties involved? After deciding to use the soul-guided powered mecha fusion technique in this competition, Long You began to create a replica of this neural-connected soul tool.
This kind of soul tool was named the Consciousness Sharing Soul Tool by Long You. Because Long You's power was limited, the Consciousness Sharing Soul Tool that was produced so far was only at the level of a level 5 soul tool.
This level of consciousness-sharing soul tool is the lowest-level version of this type of soul tool, and it is quite crude. A consciousness-sharing soul tool can only pair with one other consciousness-sharing soul tool at most. If you want to pair with another consciousness-sharing soul tool, you must contact an existing pairing.
Of course, despite its rudimentary nature, it still possesses the necessary functions. Once the soul tools are paired, the person wearing the pair of consciousness-sharing soul tools can easily sense the thoughts and feelings of the other person. However, this also brings about other problems.
Those capable of using soul tools of this level must be soul masters, but the spiritual power among soul masters is not always balanced. Take Long You and He Caitou as an example. Due to various reasons, Long You's spiritual power quality and quantity are almost twice that of He Caitou. In this situation, when the two wear paired consciousness-sharing soul tools and perceive each other's thoughts, He Caitou is naturally at a disadvantage.
In other words, if He Caitou releases his protective consciousness in front of Long You (passively released under the influence of the soul tool), then Long You will become the primary consciousness driving He Caitou's actions. Imagine your actions being dominated by another person's consciousness—how dangerous is that!
This is one of the reasons why Long You did not take out the soul tool at first. Perhaps because of his advantage in mental strength, Long You was not worried about He Caitou having any bad intentions, but what about He Caitou?
Even if Long You had no ill intentions, the fact that he could directly allow other people's consciousness to enter his own brain was still something to be wary of.
In order to avoid causing any resistance from He Caitou, Long You took the initiative to cut off the consciousness sharing between the two after the consciousness sharing soul tool had been running for about three minutes, and stopped the Cherno Alpha again.
Sure enough, after Long You severed the connection of consciousness, He Caitou immediately removed the metal headband-like consciousness-sharing soul tool from his head. Looking down at the consciousness-sharing soul tool in his hand, a rare complex expression appeared on He Caitou's usually honest face.
"No wonder you weren't worried about controlling the Cherno Alpha at all, Xiao You! As long as you have this, I'll basically be a mobile milk bottle, providing you with soul power and mental power, thanks to the difference in mental strength."
"Don't say that. Isn't it because time is too tight? If the two of us had more than a month to practice, this thing wouldn't be necessary. And the reason we're in this situation is actually because the consciousness-sharing soul tool we're using is too low-level and has limited functionality."
According to the design drawings, a level six consciousness-sharing soul tool can effectively avoid the impact of this difference in mental strength.
These things are all very useful in my plan. According to my idea, once I break through to level 60, I will integrate a whole bunch of soul tools, such as the Soul Guidance Tactical Helmet, the Virtual World Login Helmet, and the Consciousness Sharing Soul Tool, into one, ideally placing them all in the Smart Butler.
"I understand, don't worry. I'm not going to use any resistance on our own people. I just didn't expect that even though we're all around the same age, our mental strength could differ so much. I was a little surprised and didn't quite catch my breath."
"Ha! It's just that the focus of the martial soul is different! But it's not entirely without a way to make up for it. I already have the blueprints for a soul tool that can train mental strength. I should be able to make it by the end of the competition, and then everyone's mental strength will be improved."
"Ha! You really are a master strategist! Alright, hurry up and practice. Although I can't control Cherno Alpha's actual actions, I can sense Cherno Alpha's actions, so it's like a dream come true."
For the next period of time, Long You practiced controlling the Cherno Alpha almost at the limit of mental energy consumption. In reality, there wasn't much to practice. With the assistance of the intelligent assistant, every step Long You took was displayed on the screen in front of him, requiring little mental effort from him. What he really needed to train was adapting to this fifteen-meter-tall soul-guided mechanical body.
It took Long You a full eight hours to go from stumbling and struggling to operating the equipment with ease. Even with the divine soul skill of Life-Giving Water, which replenishes life force and reduces fatigue, he and He Caitou were still dizzy and lightheaded by the end of the day, symptoms of excessive mental energy depletion.
"It's too difficult. Piloting a mecha is really too difficult. When I used exoskeleton armor and power armor before, there was no problem with consuming mental energy. I could just use combat assistance AI or an AI assistant to control it. Now, I have to test my mental energy. I have a feeling that the future belongs to battle armor."
Sitting on the ground in a disheveled state, exhausted from a long day, He Caitou stopped talking about how mecha was his dream car and instead began to be pessimistic about the future prospects of mecha.
Although he knew in his heart that what He Caitou said wasn't entirely correct, and that the soul-guided mecha had its own advantageous areas, Long You wasn't going to argue with He Caitou about it now. As the main pilot of the mecha, Long You had definitely consumed far more mental energy than He Caitou, and now he felt like he couldn't even keep his eyes open anymore.
"I can't take it anymore, I need to sleep for an hour. You and your senior brother should go back first, and then tell Teacher Wang Yan and the others that I won't be going back for dinner."
Forcing himself to give a brief explanation, Long You immediately crawled into the luxury sphere and fell into a deep sleep. All the sweat from a day of activity, hunger, and thirst couldn't withstand the overwhelming drowsiness. Outside the luxury sphere, watching it fall limply from the sky, He Caitou, who was also quite listless, couldn't help but laugh.
His junior brother is so cute, he's already crawled into the luxury ball. Since he and Cai Tou can walk back to the hotel by themselves, can't they take the luxury ball with them?
It was already 5 p.m. when they finally returned to the Star Emperor Hotel. The other Shrek Academy students in the hotel were having a tactical seminar. Their first opponent in the third stage of the elimination rounds had appeared: the long-established and powerful Douling Royal Academy on the continent.
This academy was one of the top four in the previous competition. Under normal circumstances, such a well-established and strong school should have advanced as the top team in their group, thus avoiding a clash with Shrek Academy, which was also the top team in their group, in the round of 16.
However, it's unclear what the Royal Academy of Fighting Spirits was planning this year, as they actually handed over their first-place position in the group to a dark horse school in the same group.
Wang Yan and Zhang Lexuan had recorded several matches of the Douling Royal Academy, but from these recordings, the Shrek Academy students could not analyze what methods the Douling Royal Academy had hidden that made them unafraid to directly clash with Shrek Academy or Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy in the round of 16.
Because of the significant depletion of his mental energy, He Caitou was quite exhausted, so he had only planned to go to the conference room to say hello before returning to his room to rest. However, before He Caitou could even finish saying hello and stand up, there was a sudden knock on the conference room door from the outside.
"Who is it? Didn't I tell the hotel staff not to bother us during this time?"
The king's tone was anything but friendly in response, while the others silently prepared for battle. The Star Emperor Hotel was currently under official blockade by the Star Luo Empire, and for someone to break through this blockade and appear directly outside the Shrek Academy's suite on the top floor at this time indicated considerable power.
As soon as Wang Yan finished speaking, a pleasant voice rang out from outside the conference room door: "Excuse me for disturbing you, I am not a service staff member, I am from Starlight Auction House."
The voice outside the door sounded somewhat familiar, and the name Starlight Auction House was also quite memorable. Beibei, who was closest to the door, had already stood up. After receiving Wang Yan's confirmation, Beibei deactivated a small portion of the soul-guiding barrier and then opened the conference room door.
A woman in a long black dress stood outside the door. She looked to be in her late twenties, a time when a woman possesses both mature charm and youthful vitality.
The newcomer wasn't exactly a familiar face, but everyone recognized him—it was the elegant auctioneer they'd met at the low-level auction at the Starlight Auction House. The auctioneer's gaze swept across the conference room before quickly settling on Wang Yan.
She smiled slightly, bowed to Wang Yan, and said, "Hello, Teacher Wang. I'm so sorry to bother you."
Faced with this gentle and beautiful woman, Wang Yan's serious expression relaxed slightly, but his voice remained unchanged, still deep and resonant: "What do you want? And how did you find this place?"
Qingya said apologetically, "When we purchased the auction items last time, Teacher Wang used Shrek Academy's account to pay, so our auction house naturally guessed who you all were. After making some inquiries, we've come to bother you today."
Here's the thing: our Starlight Auction House will be holding a top-tier auction tonight. Auctions of this caliber usually only happen once or twice a year, and only the most distinguished guests are invited.
Last time you all participated in a low-level auction at my Starlight Auction House, we were somewhat neglected. Therefore, our owner specifically asked me to deliver invitations to everyone from Shrek Academy. If you are free tonight, you are welcome to attend this auction. I believe there will be items of interest to you at tonight's auction.”
As she spoke, the elegant auctioneer took out a stack of invitations and placed them on the table. Then, she continued to bow with a smile and said, "I won't disturb you any longer. I apologize again."