Chapter 270: Black Worm
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Yuan Qi waved his arms and jumped about like a monkey whose bottom was being burned. Pointing at his flushed nose, he shouted, "I am too weak?"
"You are."
There was no expression on Li Yao's face. He explained, "Considering that you are just an amateur, you are reasonably skilled. Your linear acceleration and spinning at turns are pretty impressive. But an amateur is just an amateur. You lack a lot of basic training. When everything is fine, you're fine; but when there are emergencies such as the three super shuttles hitting the guardrail previously, you are seriously affected.
"Also, you were not calm enough when you fall behind. You were even provoked by your opponent and made a terrible last turn, which caused you to fall from second place to fourth place in the end. Is there a problem calling you too weak?"
Yuan Qi's swinging arms suddenly lost momentum.
He was a famous amateur racing driver in the Serpent City. The Aurora Autos, in order to attract him to spend more money, often flattered him as best as it could. He had never heard such sharp observations before.
The grey-haired old man of the Aurora Autos was also fascinated. He examined Li Yao carefully.
Yuan Qi was puzzled for a while. Then he shouted again, "You just said that the more I upgrade my super shuttle, the slower it will become. Why is that?"
Li Yao said, "You made a mistake that is common among amateurs. The faster, the better; the lighter, the better. This is a well-accepted misconception, because you never thought about whether or not you are capable of harnessing it.
"Your lack of training results in your unstable racing style. The faster and lighter your super shuttle gets, the more difficult it will be for you to drive.
"If you drove it alone, or you were always in the lead without interference, that would be fine.
"But when you are rivaling with somebody and get distracted, or when your shuttle was scraped against, you will be all hurry-scurry not knowing what to do.
"According to what I saw in your last lap, you were already hardly able to control that speed. It was lucky for you not to hit anything on the spot.
"But the upgrade plan you just chose imitates the bones of eagle-type dragon beasts, which will decrease the weight of your super shuttle by 2% and increase the speed by 3%. It's definitely not something that you can handle.
"If you pick this plan, your shuttle will shake like a candle being blown in wind within two laps."
The confusion on Yuan Qi's face turned into frustration. He murmured,
"Do you mean I'm going to lose anyway?"
"Not exactly."
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, "You're equally skilled as the driver of the black shuttle. He is only slightly better than you.
"He made the same mistake that you did. He also paid too much attention to weight and speed and overlooked stability. He could barely control his vehicle at that speed.
"In my opinion, you should switch to a less powerful rune array system and cut down the power output by 5% to 6%.
"As for the shell, you don't need biomimetic materials for it. Any ordinary alloy material will be good. It will be better if your shuttle is 7% to 9% heavier than it currently is.
"Right, you have a habit of leaning leftward during your acceleration. You might want to take that into consideration when you're configuring the balance system of the vehicle. Make a minor adjustment to the stabilizer fins and you will be good to go.
"After such modification, you should be able to find the balance between speed and usability.
"Moreover, I think your opponent is not best at the vertical parts of the race tracks, especially the vertical drops. His movement was rigid during those parts. I assume he might be a victim of acrophobia.
"You can try to attack him on the vertical drop racing tracks and break his rhythm. It will be even better if you can trouble his mind.
"As to precisely what upgrade plan to choose, you might want to listen to the opinions of this gentleman here."
Scratching his face, Yuan Qi nodded in agreement. He turned to the grey-haired old man.
Cold sweat was appearing on the man's forehead as he knew he had met a true expert today.
Li Yao's upgrade plan was all based on ordinary materials. There wouldn't be much profit in it.
However, he did not dare to assert his upgrade plan. Suppose the upgrade plan he recommended was too much for Yuan Qi and the modified shuttle hit the wall in the end, the credit of the Aurora Autos would be undermined, because Li Yao had forewarned them and yet they insisted on it.
Since Yuan Qi was an old customer, Aurora Autos wouldn't kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. Pondering for a moment, the old smiled and said sincerely, "This gentleman does have a point. It's my fault that I failed to look at it in the big picture. I can draw a new upgrade plan according to his ideas. This way, please, Mr. Yuan."
Yuan Qi was too hasty to stay any longer. He gestured for Li Yao to wait a moment and followed the grey-haired old man away.
However, Li Yao didn't feel too confident about his remarks.
Victory or failure of the super shuttle racing could be determined within a single second. There were too many factors that could affect the outcome during the second. A better super shuttle couldn't guarantee a victory in the end. It was the on-the-spot performance that mattered most.
If Yuan Qi was not in his best state and lost the game, he'd definitely blame Li Yao for his failure. It would be bad.
But one couldn't unsay what one had already said. Li Yao could only sit down and watch other racing games while waiting patiently.
The drivers in the races were all amateurs. Li Yao lost interest in them after watching several laps.
Bored, he shut his eyes and displayed the structure design of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit in his brain. Burying himself inside the suit, Li Yao started studying.
It was not until two hours later when he was contemplating an amazing idea that he was interrupted by a wild, joyful scream.
"I won the game!"
Li Yao opened his eyes. Yuan Qi was laughing with his mouth spreading wide open in front him. He shouted, "Hey, over the two years I've been competing with Gao Rong, I've never experienced a game as exhilarating as today. I pushed him into a corner and his shuttle got overturned. My friend, you truly know what you're talking about!"
While he was talking, Yuan Qi stretched out his hand and said, "You said you have an encryption that you want me to crack? Let me take a look at it."
Li Yao smiled and handed over the mini crystal processor before activating the double-encryption.
"Without your enlightenment, I would've gone further down the path of over-modification, never to come back. There wouldn't be a chance for me to defeat Gao Rong anymore. Lucky for me! Lucky for me!"
Yuan Qi browsed the encryption casually while he was talking nonstop, stilling dwelling in the world of super shuttles and his victory.
A moment later, he gasped and seemed to become a different person. The easiness on his face was replaced by solemnness. There were two deep lakes in his eyes. He murmured, "Beautiful! So beautiful! The double-encryption is dazzlingly beautiful!"
Yuan Qi gazed at the light beam of the crystal processor as he walked forward, forgetting the existence of Li Yao. It was not until he was at the exit of the super shuttle racing arena that he remembered that the owner of the double-encryption was beside him. He exclaimed, "Come on! Let's go to my place."
…
Yuan Qi lived on the minus 45th floor of Serpent City, which was full of shuttle workshops and second-hand crystal processor dealers.
"Super shuttle is my love, crystal processor is my life. I can get them both here."
Bypassing a mountain of crystal processor waste, Yuan Qi led Li Yao to the door of a shabby warehouse.
Li Yao scanned the environment with his spiritual threads and was shocked.
Outside of the seemingly ramshackle building, there were some twenty complicated barriers that guarded its door like invisible devils.
If a burglar unaware of their existence broke into it, he would definitely be trapped or even killed by them!
Yuan Qi waved his hands. All the barriers vanished instantly, and the door of the warehouse opened slowly.
"You're back, master!"
Two virtual figures greeted them the moment they entered the warehouse.
One of them was a beautiful, mature woman in her thirties, while the other was an alluring girl who barely reached adulthood. They were so vivid that one can see their breasts bouncing as they bowed to their master.
Coughing, Li Yao was embarrassed.
With a cunning smile, Yuan Qi boasted, "Little Left and Little Right are two telepathic thoughts written by me. Their computational ability is so strong that they might as well be called artificial souls. They're much more useful than real-life girls, not to mention that they talk much less. I can write one for you, too, if you want. You can store it in your mini crystal processor and carry it with you wherever you go. This way, you can summon it whenever you want and do whatever you want on it. It is so much fun that I guarantee you will lose interest in ordinary girls."
Li Yao showed no expression. He said, "Thank you, Master Yuan. I'm more interested in the double encryption at present."
Yuan Qi's lips curled. Pitying Li Yao's lack of sense of romance, he tossed the mini crystal processor up above.
More than ten crystal wires dashed out of darkness and shrouded the mini crystal processor.
Some forty stereoscopic light beams fell down from the roof and formed a golden, glittering throne in which Yuan Qi sat down.
"Shua!"
A colorful, virtual keyboard full of mysterious runes that was five times larger than common keyboards was deployed in front of Yuan Qi.
Right now, Yuan Qi was like an emperor who had reassumed his crown, or a general who was going to inspect a parade of thousands of soldiers!
The weasel was gone. Standing before Li Yao right now was a strong man with an intensive scent of spiritual fluctuation around him. Countless crystal wires were dancing behind him as if they were his hair.
"Is this the true strength of the 'invisible bug', the super encryption hacker?"
Li Yao complimented him in his mind. The invisible bug was indeed much more impressive than Master Qin of the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion.
"Awesome, Master!"
"You are cracking yet another encryption, Master! You are so handsome when you're cracking an encryption, Master!"
The two artificial souls were singing and dancing around Yuan Qi. Now and then they would lean down to Yuan Qi's ear and moan in a way that was very sexually unsettling.
"…Okay, I thought too highly to him."
Li Yao was stunned and didn't dare to look at them.
A moment later, the crystal wires behind Yuan Qi were all stretched straight. With the flooding of spiritual energy, they seemed to have expanded in size multiple times.
In the meantime, countless figures and data streams appeared on the stereoscopic light beams which were then transformed into a weird pattern by Yuan Qi's slow yet firm operations.
Thousands of small bubbles in red and white appeared on the light beams. Some black worms were wandering and looking for gaps in the bubbles.
Once the worms found a gap, they would penetrate into the bubble through the gap and contaminate it. The bubble then turned black and withered quickly.
"This is an encryption cracking technique of my own invention."
There was pride in Yuan Qi's voice. "The red-and-white bubbles you see are the encryption that has been double-parsed and double-simulated. The worms are a corrosive, contagious telepathic thought that I wrote the other day based on 37 different algorithms.
"And I have named the telepathic thought—'Black Worm'!"