Chapter 34: We Have A Mission
Mo Heng had tweaked the research institute’s access system on that same day. Cillin was the only person who could enter the research institute while wielding a Crimson card; a place where not even many specially recruited students had the authority to enter. Luckily, most of the institute’s members were cooped up inside the research division, or the news of Cillin given special favor by the assistant headmaster would be known by many people.
Many of the first year courses Cillin had chosen were given approval by Mo Heng to skip entirely. Since the vice headmaster himself had given his word, none of the chief mentors dared to say anything either. Mo Heng had even specially granted Cillin a personal workshop, so Ciilin’s commute now basically consisted between the research division’s workshop, the training division and the accommodation only.
Since he didn’t need to attend many of the courses and rarely showed up, for most of the Seven Lights students, Cillin had basically no presence whatsoever.
For the past few days, Mo Heng had told Cillin a lot of mechanical knowledge and benefiting him greatly. His overall accuracy had risen to 99.96%.
Please do not look down on this 0.01% increase, for the number of people who achieved 99.97% like Mo Heng, in the entire galaxy could be counted on two hands and they were all famous authority figures like Mo Heng in GAL. Meanwhile there were hundreds of known people who could achieve 99.96%, and up to thousands to tens of thousands people who could achieve 99.95% overall accuracy. The higher the number, the harder it was to improve. Beyond 99.95%, not many people could improve by another 0.01% even after an entire lifetime of effort.
Only those who achieved 99.90% overall accuracy could be considered high-end talents. Those who were unable to reach this standard basically had no say in this circle whatsoever. The mechanical mentors in Seven Lights were all 99.90% and above, and the chief mentors could achieve 99.96%.
Therefore, Mo Heng was no less proud at Cillin’s improvement. He was proud at his own wise decision to save Cillin’s time from those ‘garbage’ mentors, and even prouder that he finally had an excellent disciple.
If those mentors knew that they were ‘garbage’ in the vice headmaster Mo Heng’s mind, they might spew blood from sheer anger.
There was a time when Cillin went to look for Mo Heng, and the latter was talking with an unknown person on the communicator. That cockiness of his was just missing a wagging tail. Since Mo Heng was very proud of his disciple, he therefore expressed it directly by pinching Cillin’s cheeks more and more frequently. Cillin felt keenly that his cheeks was beginning to ‘put on some weight’.
Today, Cillin was assembling some parts Mo Heng had given him in the workshop. Mo Heng had gone out on an errand, and an errand meant that he had left Planet Seven Lights itself, although his destination was a question mark. But before Mo Heng had left, he wore a radiant look as if he was expecting something while he was assigning Cillin a task. His gaze on Cillin also grew more and more kindly, causing Cillin to feel a chill up his spine. After knowing Mo Heng for some time, Cillin also knew that whenever his Chief revealed such a smile, he must have a rotten idea in mind!
in actuality, Mo Heng was going to visit an old friend and show off while he was there.
Cillin’s hand speed was incredibly quick. There was a computer at the side capturing the entire process while calculating his overall accuracy at the same time. Every time he finished assembling a machine, Cillin was required to write an assembly report about his findings and thoughts. This was something Mo Heng had especially emphasized and also something everyone in the research division must perform. A member of the research division must be flexible and have their own opinions and beliefs. These were Mo Heng’s words as the Chief of the Research Division.
Cillin believed that he could still increase his speed further while preserving his accuracy. Time is life. These were simple words that even a child was overly familiar with. But the Hunters who walked among the galaxies were very conscious of this fact. Be it accidental or intentional, if he was ten thousandth of a second too slow to repair certain malfunctioning parts of a warship, then the chance that everyone dies from that implicit threat would grow continuously.
It’s not to say that Cillin was oh-so-noble or anything, but only a capable person would be accepted quickly by a Hunter regiment and walk further into the universe. For the Vanguard and for himself, only by having this mindset would he be able to carve a better living.
After finishing the assembly of the machine, Cillin took a look at the data on the logger, picked up a report and began summarizing his thoughts and findings on it. It was at this moment that the doorbell rang, and judging from its rhythm Cillin could already guess who it was.
A head poked inside after the door was opened. Seeing that Cillin was writing a report and not assembling, her intelligent eyes immediately curved into crescent slits.
“Luckily, you’re not assembling a machine. I was worried that I would disturb your work.”
A young girl wearing an innocent and charming smile walked in. It was the girl who commented on Cillin and the others with Fu Luo back at the teaching building.
“You came at the right time. I just finished assembling.” Cillin said.
The young girl was also one of the research division’s specially recruited student belonging to the design institute. Her name was Ling Long, 16 years old and also a first grade student. She seemed to have some background as well, although not many people knew what kind of background she had. They only knew that many of the chief mentors in the research division had treated her quite well.
Cillin had ran into Ling Long by coincidence when he came over to the research division, and she had pulled him asking about the details of the battle between Knight and him. Since then, Ling Long would visit Cillin whenever she was free, saying that the rest of the people in the research division were boring, and that she found Cillin rather agreeable.
When the conversation had happened, they were at the research division’s dining hall, not to mention that she did not lower her voice as well. So the people around them heard her and showered Cillin with odd and ambiguous looks. She was the research division’s famous little elfin beauty, and he was Chief Mo Heng’s favorite pupil. They were the literal image of an ideal couple.
Cillin simply smiled at their ambiguous gazes. He knew that Ling Long was a person of hidden depth despite her innocent appearance. She was most definitely not as innocent as she looked. Moreover, on the first day Cillin and Ling Long had eaten their meal together at the dining hall, Mo Heng had told him to keep some distance between him and Ling Lung if possible. Cillin could also see that Mo Heng’s attitude towards Ling Long was friendly but distant. As for the reason, Mo Heng wasn’t willing to tell him, so Cillin wouldn’t ask either.
Ling Long touched the machine Cillin just finished assembling, and while looking over it, curiously said, “Cillin, someone is gonna treat us at our institute today. A BIG treat. His son was born recently and he was going to celebrate it with a feast. Everyone in the institute is allowed to bring their own friends. So, are you going or not?”
“Are you asking me to sponge off him?” Cillin answered with a smile while still jotting on his report.
Ling Lung stared at Cillin and blinked, “It’s not like it’s our first time; last time the communications institute had a treat, we sponged off them as well, didn’t we? C’mon, let’s go.” While saying she even bumped Cillin a little with her elbow.
Just as Cillin was about to answer, his communicator suddenly rang.
“Sorry, excuse me for a moment.”
Cillin walked into a rest bay next to the workshop. No one would be able to hear him from the outside.
The one who called him was Knight. Usually, Knight would not call Cillin on his work time, but after seeing the ITE (T/N: 伊特图形暗号. Don’t ask me what this means; I can’t find it anywhere as well so I’m assuming that it’s a name of sorts) pictographic signal on the display, Cillin immediately shied away from Ling Long and connected at the rest bay. The signal meant ‘Urgent’.
“What is it?” Cillin asked.
“Cillin, we’ve got a job to do!!” Knight appeared very excited on the display. After holding back for such a long time, he could finally unleash himself.
“Tell me.” Cillin knew that the mission must not be simple for Knight to react so intensely.
Knight straightened his face and asked, “Do you know about Seven Lights’ asteroid experimental stations?”
“I do.”
There were a few asteroids not far away from Planet Seven Lights, and Seven Lights’ experimental stations were built on top of them. There was a station on each asteroid, so one might see exactly how grand Seven Lights was.
The reason for their locations was because certain experiments were too dangerous to conduct on Seven Lights, such as wide range communication interference, high risk bio-virus experiments, wide range radioactive weapons research and so on. That was why the extraterrestrial experimental stations were built. Ci JIncheng was performing research on one such communications station on an asteroid right now.
“Something happened at the bio-virus station. Uncle Huo did not explain the exact details; these are Seven Lights’ confidential secrets. This time, those people from the army allocated at the police and security division have joined the operation team as well. At first, Uncle Huo wasn’t ready to allow a student to participate, but there were some students who applied multiple times to join in the operation, so now it was changed to allow only the top performing students to join. Everyone else is out of the question.”
There were only four grades in the military, and there was no fifth, sixth or seventh grade. If a student performed excellently within these four years, then they would be recommended into the military. Normally speaking, such people were few and far between.
“In total, there were two second grade students, and three each for third and fourth grade. Originally none of us first grades were allowed to join – I couldn’t change Uncle Huo’s mind even though I blocked his room entrance for a whole day – but after I contacted my grandpa, he finally added my name into the operation team. But that Pride brat, hehe, he’s not allowed to join in; his family wouldn’t allow him to. Still, I figured that he definitely won’t give up this easily. He should be persuading his second oldest brother Ji Feihang or thinking of a way to contact his grandpa right now. They are the only ones who might agree to this.” Knight said gloatingly.
As the Chief of Training Division, Huo Neil knew both Knight and Pride’s identities very well. If the mission wasn’t dangerous to a certain level, he would not have acted so firmly.
“So, what do you think Cillin? Are you interested to join in?” Knight asked.
“Yeah, sure, I look forward to it.” Cillin smiled and answered. His hands were getting a little itchy from underuse.
“Alright, I’ll talk to Uncle Huo directly. Come over now, we have to prep before the operation starts.”
After he hung up, Cillin came out and smiled apologetically at Ling Long, “Something came up. I can’t go sponge off the table with you.”
Ling Long’s delicate nose twitched while she drew lines across the floor, “Fine, I’ll go eat two portions on my own! Buh-bye!”
After Ling Long left, Cillin swiftly finished his almost completed report and began tidying up the mess inside the workshop. Five minutes later, he picked up his backpack and left on his hoverboard.
in a room inside the research division, Ling Long watched Cillin’s back hurriedly leaving on a hoverboard in a monitor and frowned. She flipped open the communicator in her hands and called a number. The person on the other side had connected swiftly.
Ling Long’s eyebrows tightened deeper and deeper as she listened to the report from the other side.
