Chapter 65: I Know This Thing Like the Back of My Hand

"It's happened, it's happened, it's happened! This time, I really made it!"

With a dazzling finale that stunned the crowd, Alpha Princess returned to the imaginary space, dancing with joy, unable to contain her excitement.

"Let me stand here with my hands on my hips and show off for a bit..."

After a while, even that couldn't express the thrill in her heart. She slipped out of the imaginary space again, appearing beside Ye Chao.

It was really a windfall!

With thirteen helmets, she had exchanged for enough materials to make forty helmets!

Admittedly, her own stockpile was insufficient, and a portion—well, more than half—of the materials had been temporarily borrowed (stolen) from the neighbors' appliances, but those would soon be returned.

In any case, the profit margin had surpassed the level of "daring to trample all human laws" and was approaching "willing to commit any crime, even risking the gallows"...

And that's not considering the other benefits these materials could provide besides helmet production—

For instance, she planned to use them to assemble Tesla's battery cells, totaling over two hundred units! After all, dismantling a single robot vacuum yielded more than a dozen, and an electric balance scooter could give thirty or forty...

The total output power now reached about 1.8kW, nearly 2.5 horsepower. Not enough for a Tesla, but more than enough for two small electric vehicles.

Additionally, the hard drive capacity had surpassed 600 terabytes! So two buildings could definitely host six battlefields!

The CPU, though not doubled, had increased performance by nearly fifty percent! This allowed Alpha Princess to build worlds inside the space and materialize devices outside with even greater speed.

There were also various artistic steel plates, totaling over thirty kilograms, though their structural properties differed and would need to be chosen according to requirements.

And this was only the first round of trading!

Next, forty helmets could theoretically be exchanged for materials for one hundred twenty helmets, then three hundred sixty, one thousand eighty, three thousand two hundred...

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!

The only regret was that Ye Chao’s coveted military-grade tablet had not appeared.

Ye Chao had even risked sending Alpha Princess along the network cables to steal it, but to no avail.

Still, it wasn't a complete loss. At least they learned that the military tablet, as part of the college entrance exam papers, had already been sealed away and, along with a batch of balloon airships launched days ago, flown to Wudu.

During the exam season, certain papers from Yunzhou examinees would be gathered there for unified grading, just as before the catastrophe.

No wonder, as her abilities grew, the imaginary space sensed nothing—it was completely out of range.

Ye Chao could only resign himself for now.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!..."

Resign himself? Not likely.

At this moment, Ye Chao’s heart was racing faster than ever, rivaling the aftermath of a high-temperature ten-kilometer run in training.

He turned his head away, trying not to look at the half-exposed assets of Alpha Princess. "Um, well, um..."

What was he about to say? There seemed to be something important, but his mind was blank...

Really, dazzling white, as white as two giant rabbits.

Alpha Princess was so happy that, upon leaving the imaginary space, she couldn't help but hug Ye Chao.

The trouble was, she actually held him and made contact.

Even more troublesome, she had forgotten to revert her body size after her showy performance on stage, so her assets were pressed and deformed against Ye Chao's shoulder.

Ye Chao blushed, his heart pounding.

A true iron-hearted man—he understood nothing of romance or flirtation, preferring everything straightforward...

"Right, I brought you a little gift. See what you think?" Alpha Princess, oblivious, snapped her fingers, and a projection appeared in Ye Chao's hand.

It had to be this way: any physical item entering or leaving required Ye Chao’s agreement.

Suddenly, in Ye Chao's hand appeared... a shield?

It seemed to be one of the items traded on the high platform. It looked familiar, as if he'd seen it somewhere.

The shield was similar in shape, size, and volume to Captain America's vibranium shield. The difference was this one was concave, with a ring-shaped metal handle at the bottom rather than the back, protruding forward...

Ye Chao slipped it onto his arm, weighed it—it was light and handy.

Its paintwork was different from the vibranium shield, too. The front bore a ring cut by radio waves, and beneath it, three large letters: DTH.

He had little strength or skill, so having something like this to ward off attacks in direct combat was quite handy!

"Thank you," Ye Chao said sincerely to Alpha Princess.

"Pff, hahaha!" Alpha Princess finally couldn't hold it in anymore, instantly shrinking from life-sized to three inches tall, rolling through the air, laughing uncontrollably.

[Ye Chao’s favorability +66]

He actually believed it! He actually believed it! Muahahaha...

As expected, her unparalleled beauty, with just a hint of charm, had reduced this iron man’s IQ to the negatives.

Just as she was basking in triumph, Ye Chao lazily remarked, "It can defend and enhance my signal reception—if it weren't from you, I wouldn't have thought of such a perfect piece of gear..."

Alpha Princess's laughter stopped abruptly.

It seemed... she hadn't fooled him after all.

[Ye Chao’s favorability -66]

But Ye Chao wasn't finished.

"This DTH is used to collect and boost signals, with some intricate circuitry and signal conversion chips, but judging by its overall structure, classifying it as digital... is really a stretch, isn’t it?"

He scrutinized her, swinging the Home Satellite shield, his gaze still dazed, his face still flushed, his speech slow—but his mind was crackling with sparks.

"If just a hint of digital lets you classify something as digital, then refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines with 'smart' prefixes would count, too!"

"If not, how do you explain the satellite dish?"

"So, this so-called digital category, how is it defined? Is it an absolute rule? Or... your personal preference?"

Even with his IQ in the negatives, facing such a puzzle, Ye Chao was like a cat drawn to catnip—nothing could stop him.

Alpha Princess was stunned for a moment by Ye Chao's questions, her expression shifting dramatically.

On closer thought, her collection rules had always matched Ye Chao’s—if she was familiar enough with an item, it wasn't limited to digital products.

The military tablet was where she resided, F91 was a lab project... both extremely familiar.

The various electronics, she could recognize their appearance, know their specs, even enter them personally—naturally familiar.

But air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, she only ever blew on the main fan or liquid cooling, so unfamiliar with air conditioners; refrigerators were her nemesis, best not mentioned; and she didn’t need to wash clothes...

As for her familiarity with Home Satellite?

Because, at the time, it was her main channel to the outside world.

Think about it: a national top-secret project, with internal networks physically isolated. Mining with Russian supercomputers was a joke.

She watched so many anime, novels, comics—either the programmers smuggled hard drives through security, or... she received satellite signals via Home Satellite.

How could she not be familiar? It was practically half her life.

"Looks like we need to redeem more machine hours..."

"But, I feel like I've forgotten something?"

==========

Jiangcheng, Central District.

Second Gate, Seventh Ring, Eighth Ring, Alley at Nine O’clock and a Quarter.

That night, the residents of this area suddenly became especially irritable—beating children, scolding pets, couples quarreling, chickens and dogs in chaos...

==========

Still that night.

Jiangcheng No. 3 Middle School.

At the center of the training ground, the platform doubled as stage and arena.

With the transaction complete, both sides retreated, returning home, and the high platform quieted again.

No one knew how much time passed before a patrolling security guard, on routine inspection, fixed his enhanced gaze on something.

"What’s this?" Curious, the guard picked up a button-sized object in the corner, turning it over in his hands...

Suddenly, the tiny thing melted away like snow in his palm, vanishing...

Above, a roguish, light laugh lingered: "Sorry, I forgot something."

"!!!"

"G-gh-gh-ghost!"