Chapter 536: Everyone Has Their Own Problems

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Kristen was not unfamiliar with trading, but the largest amount that she had ever dealt with was two million ao, and that was when she asked to be Ye Chong's student. She did not know how to handle this huge sum. Naturally, her thoughts went to her teacher, Ye Chong.

Ye Chong was experienced in dealing with huge sums, but usually the numbers mean nothing much to him. He was not experienced, nor was he expert in it. However, there was one thing that he was better at than Kristen – no matter the situation, he could still remain calm.

When Ye Chong saw Kristen looking to him for help, he considered the offer by Master Karu for a moment and said, "The price is acceptable, but with some alterations. She will get 10 percent from every three million Lux graded energy activation chip made. For similar models at other energy grades, she will get five percent for each of them."

Ye Chong knew what Kristen's energy activation chip meant to Eastern Cloud. Once they fully integrated this technology, their weapons will immediately reach a new level of power, and the first people to own these weapons were surely the military soldiers! In summary, Eastern Cloud's military was about to get a massive upgrade.

As a man who had led a whole fleet before, Ye Chong knew that replenishing an army's resources would cost a lot. If it were the army of an entire country, the amount would be staggering. The process of upgrading would be gradual, but the total expenditure remained the same.

As long as they continued to offer better and better technology, improving the energy activation chip to other energy grades and for more kinds of weapons, they would be able to benefit a whole lot more! How much more could they make? Ye Chong could not offer an estimate.

In the short term, their income might not seem significant, but two or three decades later they will reach an impressive sum. Ye Chong would leave this place sooner or later, but Kristen would still be here, and Ye Chong knew how to alter the terms to her advantage.

Ye Chong spoke calmly, but his words did not invite arguments.

Master Karu's face twitched. The man was a thief! It may not seem obvious, but Master Karu understood the plan behind Ye Chong's suggestion. Compared to his original proposal, they would now earn eight times more. In particular, "similar models at other energy grades" meant that as long as they were manufacturing energy activation chips with similar structure, at any energy grade and for weapons, Kristen would be able to benefit from them all.

Karu knew the value of this small energy activation chip, or he would not have felt the urgency of acquiring rights for the technology. He believed that by acquiring the rights for this chip, they would be able to use it for all their weapons, regardless of energy grade. "What a sly b*stard!" Master Karu thought to himself, wincing at the huge cost it would take. He could be grateful that the country was paying for it, instead of him.

Besides, Karu could not do anything against the young man's calm and confident expression. If it was anyone else selling the energy activation chip technology, they would surely be enticed by the 30 million ao offer. However, this young man's student here … Did she lack money? Her teacher would get 50 million ao every month for the cannon arrays – it was robbery!

These two were not in desperate need for cash. However, His Majesty would probably not agree to coerce them through other methods.

Karu hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing, "Very well!" Did he have a choice? He saw the glazed look in Kristen's eyes and could not help but sighed to himself – when this young girl looked back at this agreement many years from now, she would appreciate how her teacher had helped her earn so much more.

What a fortunate lady!

The formalities of the deal were left to Karu and Kristen. Since it was possible to negotiate, Karu would not consider using other less courteous means. Since he knew the magnitude of financial impact this agreement would have, he drafted out the contract meticulously to avoid future disputes.

Kristen signed the contract without fully understanding the details. She was completely overwhelmed by the 30 million ao offer in the agreement. She still remembered clearly how giddy she felt when her teacher had sold off a cannon array at 20 million ao. Nevertheless, the money was not hers. This time, she was unprepared for the 30 million ao offered to her. It had momentarily left her stunned.

"Would Master Ye be available in the near future?" Master Karu asked respectfully.

Ye Chong nearly said no, but then he hesitated, and asked, "What is it?"

"There will be a weapons design contest soon, perhaps Master Ye would be able to volunteer some time to serve in the contest's judge panel," Master Karu asked expectantly. If he could get this heavyweight to become a judge, the contest would surely be something to look forward to!

"A weapons design contest?" Ye Chong inquired.

Master Karu smiled and explained, "The King organizes the contest every four years as a way to encourage weapons development in Eastern Cloud. There will be many impressive weaponsmiths who will partake in this contest. There are many parts to the contest, such as live demonstration of the weapons and comparisons between theories. In the past, each contest has served as a platform for many new ideas to be introduced to the public. These young contestants may not be excellent weaponsmiths, but they can offer some bold ideas. These ideas are very valuable to us. Besides, this weapon design contest coincides with the largest and most well attended weapons trading market in Eastern Cloud. A good weapon is often expensive, so many shooters from other countries will visit the market to explore their options," Master Karu tried his best to persuade Ye Chong.

Ye Chong considered the offer for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright." Ye Chong had initially thought to decline, but then felt that it would be a good opportunity to understand the general state of technology in this world. Understanding the level of technology of Eastern Cloud, and perhaps even of the entire planet, would definitely provide him with great insight.

Karu was overjoyed. "Excellent! With Master Ye as part of our judge panel, the coming contest will surely leave its mark in history!"

Ye Chong waved off the compliment flatly, "You're too kind, Master Karu."

Karu left Ye Chong's manor with a sense of accomplishment. There were still many questions that he wanted to ask about, but today's outcome had far exceeded his expectations. That tiny energy activation chip can surely bring about a revolution in Eastern Cloud's military weapons! He looked forward to it.

On the other hand, today's trade agreement had also allowed him to get to know the cold, young man personally. Knowing an expert weaponsmith like him might just pay off in future.

Karu respected the young man, but also felt that he could not hope to reach the same level as him. Even his student could improve an energy activation chip to this extent. Surely her teacher could do far more! The man was a mystery, but Karu was certain that the young man was far more capable than he was, and probably the most skilled weaponsmith in the world. Once upon a time, Karu had thought he had reached the pinnacle of weapons making, but now he found himself still at the bottom of the hill, looking up hopefully.

Nevertheless, the young man's cold and emotionless face dampened Karu's excitement.

What a difficult person to read! Karu dared not play any tricks with the young man. He could finally understand why the King felt so dissatisfied but helpless against him. In comparison, his beautiful student was more naive. Perhaps she would offer a point of vulnerability.

Of all the intel His Majesty had informed him of the young man, most of them were about his student, but there was almost nothing on the young man himself. They only knew that he came from Dual Forest. Both Karu and Sun Sieha were relieved that Ye Chong's student, Kristen, was a bona fide Eastern Cloud citizen.

…

Kristen watched as Master Karu left their place. She was still feeling high from the exchange. Ye Chong had returned to his own building. That was a restricted area for Ye Chong only. Even Kristen was not allowed inside.

"Time for practice," Ye Chong thought to himself as he took in a deep breath. He picked up his gun smoothly, his eyes sharp as knifes. The gun fired again and again, always hitting the moving targets that flew around in the building.

After this long period of training, Ye Chong had improved a lot compared to before. He had once studied the long distance combat training manual. Unlike before, he could now complete the trainings much more easily. His muscles moved according to his will. His eyes were sharper than ever. Moreover, his calculation skills aided him in shooting moving targets.

Still, he was only taking beginner steps towards becoming a long range mech pilot. There was still a long way ahead of him. Nevertheless, it was already a huge improvement for Ye Chong. At least the laser gun no longer served a decorative purpose in Ye Chong's hands. Ye Chong did not hope to become a shooter like the ones in this world. It was simply impractical for him to aim for that.

Besides, Ye Chong felt that shooters were only powerful midrange combatants. Only a mech fitted with a holographic scanning system could be considered a true long range attacker. On this planet, 30-kilometer midrange shooters were the main highlights, but Ye Chong thought the distance still too restrictive. Besides, an average shooter's parapsychic sense could only expand out to six or seven kilometres away.

Parapsychic abilities strengthened a shooter's combat abilities, but it also restricted a shooter's potential.

Ye Chong believed that the advantage of long range attacks was not fully realized in shooters.

Celest was not significantly faster than its opponents, but it could veer and turn much easily than others. Ye Chong learned from his previous battle experience that he could use this advantage to shake off a shooter's parapsychic sense. However, once he became a true long range attacker, the hunter would become the hunted.

The problem of fighting using Celest was thus solved, but Ye Chong was not easily satisfied.

The test results for all the items he had bought in Su City were ready. All this information was entered into Celest's database. Since he could not build photon processors yet, the combat mech Celest was used a temporary storage drive.

Ye Chong studied the numbers and picked a few interesting materials.

Candygrass secreted a very sticky slime. The slime was chemically stable, suitable to be used as a binding agent. Weapons here commonly used a kind of binding agent derived from the Japonicum plant, but the slime from candygrass was 15 times stronger than the former. Ye Chong called it candyglue. He also found that this candyglue could be used for binding metals together, with far better results than traditional soldering. However, the only drawback was the slime secretion from each candygrass plant was very little. This was why the ingredient never became mainstream.

It was not a problem for Ye Chong. As an excellent alchemist, this was an interesting problem to look into. He just needed some time.

The Grimacing Creeper was also a cheap and neglected species. Its surface layer had a special component that allowed it to absorb parapsychic waves. This was one of Ye Chong's most important findings so far. He was overjoyed to find the natural anti parapsychic property. Ye Chong had always been vexed with the shooter's parapsychic waves. If he could extract the component to make anti parapsychic products, Ye Chong was confident that no aircraft would ever be a threat to Celest again.

So much to look forward to!

There was work to be done, though. Ye Chong was mentally prepared for them. No matter how hard this was going to be, he must produce this anti parapsychic material.

At the same time, things were not going well for Du Feng. He was plagued with nightmares of that horrible night where his comrades died right in front of his eyes, and the shadow that lurked in the dark. Often times he would be woken up from his dreams, finding himself covered with sweat. However, there was nothing he could do. Sir Huang was always either going about his business secretively or staying in his room. Du Feng could not glean his intention.

On the other hand, Du Feng was facing problems at work. Many of the new recruits could not keep up with the physical training. His camp had never suffered so much outside of actual combat. He was also helpless against this issue.

"Gui, what do you think we should do now? We can't go on like this. I've been to the patient ward yesterday. Those little brats have all collapsed, injuring their muscles. They won't be getting up jumping for at least a couple of weeks," Du Feng sighed worriedly as he watched the few remaining new recruits on the training ground, pushing themselves beyond their weak bodies.

Li Gui looked concerned as well. "You're right, Old Du, it's bad. I went to the medical officer yesterday to get to know more. The officer said that these guys are all too weak, plus our training is too intense for them to keep up."

"I guess we're out of luck for the friendly match between the new recruits," Du Feng said, dejected.

Li Gui shook his head, "That's not quite the case. I've heard that almost all the military camps have the same problem with their new recruits. Some of the camps even lost two thirds of their recruits. I think that His Majesty will have to be informed of this problem soon."

Du Feng looked up at that, "That may be a good thing. His Majesty is wise, he will not let this problem remain."

…

As Li Gui expected, the issue was brought to Sun Sieha just two days ago.

Sun Sieha looked deeply concerned. He was upset with having this issue so soon after he took the throne. As someone who had trained with the military since he was young, Sun Sieha thought highly of the military, more so than his father. He knew that if the issue was not resolved soon, the young shooters will suffer many casualties once they were in the field. As a King who intended to expand his kingdom to the entire world, this was a problem that must be solved.

The military department held a meeting to discuss the issue, while Sun Sieha listened patiently to the suggestions from his military officers. All of them agreed that that the military's unreasonable prerequisites for new recruits had caused the problem they faced today. Besides, it had become a norm to expect shooters to prioritize parapsychic training over physical training. All the military officers expressed their concern over the matter.

Sun Sieha understood that this was a problem that needed solving, but altering a worldview that had long gone unchallenged was not an easy task. He could have used the law to change the prerequisites for new recruits to encourage physical fitness, but Sun Sieha was not naïve to believe that it would work straight away.

As a worldly ruler, Sun Sieha knew exactly how hard it was to change a person's beliefs.

They could only be persuaded, not forced. Sun Sieha labored over the problem, trying to think of a solution.

The sky darkened. Time flowed pass unnoticed while Sun Sieha was deep in thought. Suddenly, Sun Sieha thought of Ye Chong, the best expert in close range combat.

Sun Sieha's eyes lit up in the darkness. If anyone were to see him now, they would surely be reminded of the fact that their King was a level 8 shooter as well.

In just three days, Sun Sieha made his second visit to Ye Chong's manor.