Chapter 77: We Are Not the Same

"Miss Hai, how did you know?" Ye Chao didn’t take off his helmet.

Yet even through the visor, the way he fixed his gaze on Hai Lili was more than enough to express his astonishment.

"For us liberal arts students, who hasn’t dreamt of a mechanical exoskeleton?" Hai Lili sighed, her expression turbulent.

People are always instinctively drawn to what they cannot do, to dreams they cannot realize.

Though those who study the humanities often lack the talent, or their talents simply do not lie in combat, it never stops them from longing for moments where they could stride across the battlefield, invincible and unchallenged.

That’s why, in the previous era, games swept across the land; why novels, animation, movies, and television—these fictional arts—filled people’s leisure time.

It’s all yearning, all envy, even if fate is sealed, people cannot help but leap up once or twice, just to defy it.

Hai Lili’s alma mater was Yunzhou University of Science and Technology.

Five or even ten years before the cataclysm, it was indisputably the top academy of the Yunzhou Federation.

However... and this is crucial—it was a liberal arts school.

As the era of chaos drew near and the importance of martial strength grew, the Science and Technology University faded into obscurity, a perfect example of the times abandoning you without even a farewell.

Even now, though it remains the leading liberal arts institution in Yunzhou, its influence barely surpasses second-rate schools like Hongdu Business College or Dongshan Island Agricultural Institute—it cannot compare at all to the Four Great Martial Academies.

Ah, the Four Great Martial Academies of the Yunzhou Federation are the Huanggang Institute of Superhuman Research, Wudu University, Shashi Third Military Academy, and Xixian Battle Academy, their rankings more or less on par.

This is an age of warriors. Those who achieve high scores in the college entrance exams will always prioritize the Four Great Martial Academies, much as students before the cataclysm would choose the top universities, and later, the ‘Double First-Class’ institutions...

In short, that’s the kind of school it was.

And at Yunzhou University of Science and Technology, the most popular club was the Mechanical Exoskeleton Club. The most sought-after majors were those related to mechanical engineering.

After all, this was almost the only chance ordinary people had to set foot on the battlefield.

There was still the option of biochemical modification, but the risks—not to mention the potential consequences for one's appearance—often made people hesitate.

As a campus beauty in the programming department, it was nearly impossible for her not to get involved with that club. In fact, she was not just a member but part of the leadership.

So, just by glancing at the materials Ye Chao was reading, she knew exactly what he was planning.

"However, up until my graduation, due to issues with energy sources, power, load, battery life, control systems, manufacturing... and so on, there was never a decent prototype. I did hear that Huanggang Institute had a few experimental armors based on superhuman abilities, but..."

But for those with powers, armor was never a necessity. If anything, it could sometimes hinder their movements, so the obsession with exoskeletons was never as strong there as it was at Yunzhou University of Science and Technology.

“Energy, power, load, battery life, control systems, manufacturing…” As Ye Chao listened to Hai Lili, he began to calculate.

Energy, battery life, and even load—none of these were issues for him.

As long as he kept a battery in the Imaginary Space and ran two wires out, he could have an endless supply of energy, infinite battery life, and almost no load at all.

Almost, because he still needed two wires.

He had to connect two leads to his left and right temples to draw power from the Imaginary Space, much like an Android device…

But still, this kind of convenience was beyond a poor man’s wildest dreams.

As for manufacturing, the Imaginary Space might not be the most sophisticated workshop in the world, but it was certainly among the top. As long as Ye Chao—or rather, Alpha Ji—understood the engravings, he could assemble and reassemble at will, so… there was basically nothing to worry about.

That left only design and control systems.

“So, Miss Hai, where should I begin?”

Hai Lili fell silent for several seconds.

If any other student had asked, she would have sneered, “You haven’t even graduated high school and you want to tackle something even college students can’t figure out? Who do you think you are—a genius?”

But with Ye Chao, she simply couldn’t say that…

Though she’d only been his teacher for a few months since moving to Jiangcheng, Ye Chao’s intellect and scholarship often made her, an outstanding university student, question whether her own college years had been for nothing.

More terrifying still was his relentless drive for knowledge.

How does the saying go? The scariest thing in the world is when someone smarter than you also works harder than you do! That was Ye Chao.

“I still have some materials from the Mechanical Exoskeleton Club. If you’re interested, you can take a look.” Amid her emotional turmoil, Hai Lili fished out a USB drive, warm from her touch, and handed it to Ye Chao with a complicated look.

“Thank you!” Ye Chao accepted the USB drive calmly, plugged it into the computer, and began to browse.

After a quick skim, he felt as though he’d found a treasure trove!

The blueprints and materials weren’t all that esoteric or difficult to understand at first glance.

For instance, there were metallic spring shoes that looked almost like a joke, air-cushioned shock-absorbing shoes, space-age rebound shoes;

Shoes that didn’t seem so comical: pedal roller skates, kangaroo-inspired jumping shoes, ostrich-exoskeleton booster shoes…

As well as electric scooters, unicycles, and balance scooters, all of which had been developed or even mass-produced before the cataclysm.

Although none of them were truly useful—

The mass-produced ones often demanded too much from the terrain; those that could handle rough ground relied too much on human power and didn’t require much technical expertise.

But these represented humanity’s earnest exploration into mechanical augmentation.

It’s like schooling: you must go through elementary, then junior high, then high school, step by step.

There are prodigies who skip grades, but while they skip the grades, they cannot skip the accumulation of knowledge. No one becomes a scholar by skipping the learning process—it’s like trying to fill up on pancakes by eating only the fourth when you need four; you cannot simply discard the first three…

The materials collected by the university’s Mechanical Exoskeleton Club, and their various product explorations, were just the three pancakes Ye Chao needed—no more, no less!

Ye Chao quickly immersed himself in the materials.

Hai Lili watched from the side, sometimes propping her chin, sometimes with hands on hips, sometimes leaning against the desk; she cycled through several poses, but in the end, left with nothing to hold her interest…

==========

Alpha Ji slept until the afternoon.

For an artificial intelligence, that was quite a long nap. She didn’t need to sleep at all.

Even if her system required her to sleep daily to mimic the way humans process short- and long-term memory, to sort and organize her emotional simulation systems, it usually amounted to a brief doze before she was off gallivanting through the Imaginary Space.

This level of rest was unprecedented.

Of course, “unprecedented” here meant just three to five days.

Then Alpha Ji realized something was off in the Imaginary Space.

First of all, everyone was playing the same map—essentially half a King’s Glory map—a new mode that looked dull and repetitive, but they were all having the time of their lives…

After watching intently for a while, Alpha Ji was stunned.

What the—this was tower defense! What’s going on? How did this come about? Damn, how could I have forgotten such a simple, fun, and approachable mode?

Then, she noticed Ye Chao was wearing a pair of bizarre shoes—like a kangaroo—bouncing around the Imaginary Space, back and forth…

How long on earth have I been asleep? I wake up and even my crow’s feet feel different.

Alpha Ji scanned the scene like a hawk, then stood there, dumbfounded, as if she were a clueless spore.