Chapter 12

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

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[Crude Handmade Exosuit]

Rank (LV1): 161/1000

Description: It resembles the work of an average man. Simple and crude. However, it has the potential to level up slightly in order to gain some grip strength and slight lift.

Evaluation: Maybe you can use that thing to help your mother in carrying her grocery basket?

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Similar to before, a serene blue glow of light grazed past the pair of Hextech Gauntlets, and the entire gauntlet began to mutate drastically in an instant.

It began with a full-body mutation of the gauntlets’ material as they morphed into a full metal build. After that, the gauntlets, which originally extended up to his forearm, now completely covered the full length of his entire arm, including his shoulders. On the inner joints of where the forearm and the shoulders met, a thin metal cable was added to connect both plates together.

“It’s powered by an electric motor?”

After putting on the right gauntlet, which had undergone a drastic change in its appearance, Lin Yu’s heart skipped a beat the moment he heard some subtle sounds coming from the gauntlets when he decided to flex his fingers.

The sound was familiar to him. However, since he was unfamiliar with electronics, the only thing that he could say to describe the sound was an electric motor.

The way these gauntlets worked was similar to the Hextech Gauntlets he made before this. There were five metal rings that were all connected to a cable, and these cables were used to pull the fingers back. The only difference was that the entire gauntlet was now metal; even the cables had transformed into metal cables. In addition to those changes, a tiny motor was added at the back of the gauntlets for the metal cables to contract more efficiently.

The instant he picked up the huge rock that he was sitting on, he immediately understood what ‘lift’ meant from the Attributes Menu.

He was completely speechless.

With a thin metal cable that connected his forearm to his shoulder, flexing the finger joints that were controlled by thin metal cables and metal rings was enough to complete the action of lifting ‘heavy’ weights off the ground.

“What the hell? What is this actually good for? Helping random people carry water buckets around? Geez, everyone has access to running water now.”

Lin Yun held back his intense urge to curse and rant.

A pair of low-tier gauntlets being painfully weak was within his realm of expectations. Thus, he was somewhat mentally prepared. In comparison to the changes of his Steel Charge Blade, the upgrade he got for the gauntlets was actually not bad.

No matter what, at the very least he had a functional Exo suit now and this could be used to greatly boost the views for his uploads.

He rummaged through his backpack for his tripod and proceeded to set up his phone. After that, he took out the wrench he was carrying with him earlier in order to get ready to take the entire gauntlet apart.

There were plenty of bear cubs[1] that enjoyed nothing more than taking things apart; or in other words, within every man lived a child that never grew up.

Hence, he made a simple conclusion: Men = the insatiable need for tearing things apart.

4The only difference was that some people would be able to put things back to the way they were before, and some would lose some screws or parts after disassembling anything.

Lin Yu was still confident in his skills and besides that, he had a video recording he could use as a last resort. Hence, he was completely fine with disassembling the whole thing without hesitation.

The wrench was bought on Taobao with a full set of other tools and came with every size. It took him almost no time to take the crude gauntlet apart.

The motor’s model…was pretty much alien to him. However, based on the Chinese label on the motor’s body, it seemed this motor existed in real life as well.

However, he was still able to somewhat…understand some of the parts and inner workings of certain tiny electronics but would still require looking at the picture as a reference.

There was a cake-sized battery connected to a charging cable that was mounted on the shoulder plates of the gauntlet… He still could not understand what these electronics were for. However, it seemed that the battery was most probably a really high-tech battery or technology that was illegal in comparison to the extremely horrible battery with even worse output capacity that was commonly used.

To summarize the entire ordeal, the upgrade he got this time was actually not bad because of the intricately made outer shell and some ‘high’ tech components; selling this thing for tens of thousands of Yuan to a gullible wealthy person would not be a problem.

Thus, he began recording the video after tearing everything apart.

However, it seemed he had run into quite a number of issues this time. The crude assembly was still fine when he had a recording of the entire tear down as reference as they were all ‘hand made parts’. However, while trying to piece everything back together, he ran into plenty of things beyond his field of knowledge, which resulted in the stuttery descriptive commentary while recording.

The stuttering continued for more than three hours since he had to re-record his takes several times while trying to look for more information on his phone. Due to this, he had only barely made a passable video since the entire process had lasted until noon.

“It seems that leveling up isn’t solely dependent on superhuman abilities since situations like these would only be more common in the future. Should I start studying this field?”

It seemed that Lin Yu, who was a super failure, was actually motivated to buckle down and study on his own as his interest in superhuman abilities grew. Such a thought was indeed rare.

This was because if his current state continued, he would have a very difficult time making these ‘handmade craft’ videos. When that happened to be the case, there would be a huge gap in his total EXP.

Even without thinking about any of those outcomes, he should really be focused on making himself better in order to truly fully utilize his level up abilities.

As a similar example, his Charge Blade had to level up twice in order to change its initial wooden material to one that was gold-plated. However, what if he had started with a Steel Charge Blade? Would that have only required a single level to materialize into a gold-plated one? By doing so, he would have saved the time needed to level up his wooden Charge Blade into a steel one instead, right?

50 EXP for a steel one was not a huge amount, but if the total EXP points required were higher or if he could assemble an item that could be achieved after two to three upgrade levels, this accumulation would not be a small amount.

Or what if there was a limit to the number of times one could level up an item? Does that mean that it indirectly boosted the upgrade potential of the Charge Blade?

After thinking about the many different thoughts and possibilities for a long moment, Lin Yu shook his head to leave all these thoughts of his alone for now. After doing so, he swiftly shoved both gauntlets into his backpack again.

1Luckily for him, he had decided to buy an extremely huge backpack as he had to bring along his clothes and blankets before entering college; or else, he would never have been able to fit both gauntlets in his backpack.

After he was done packing, he proceeded to have lunch by his college’s back door before returning to his dorm to edit his video and have it uploaded onto B site.

He zoned out for a really long time while sitting on his bed after the video had been uploaded. However, he decided to bite the bullet and not allow himself even the slightest opportunity of regret in the future as he carried his black backpack and left the dorm.

After walking around the courtyard seven to eight times, he finally arrived in front of a building located in a quiet and secluded area.

It was the Changhai Vocational College’s library.

He had actually visited it once when he first came to this college, so he had some memories of the place. However, this place was the least popular spot in the entirety of Changhai Vocational College. Despite that, it was still somewhat lively, although not many people would come over on a normal day.

As he expected, the inside of the building was completely empty when he entered. It was like one of those unfinished urban buildings, or a completely spacious yet empty office building. A wave of loneliness washed over him as the chilly surrounding atmosphere of the area made it feel hauntingly terrifying.

Fortunately, as he got up to the second floor, he was greeted with an actual library with actual rows of bookshelves. Hiding behind these shelves were a group of people… They were a mix of librarians and a few students.

Judging from the looks of these students, they seem to be freshmen of this year. The looks of a second-year student to a freshman would be impossible to hide. The innocence on their faces was too obvious.

“No loud talking, you may read on the side and if you would like to borrow any books, you can come to me with your student ID.”

The librarian was a shriveled-up elderly man with a pair of thick reading glasses. He was flipping through the pages of a book when Lin Yu walked by the counter. The man spoke to him without lifting his head up to look at him.

“Hello teacher, pardon my interruption. May I know what kind of books I should be reading if I am interested in learning robotics design? Can you recommend some reading materials to me, please? ”

Under the deafening silence of the library, Lin Yu unconsciously spoke in a very soft tone the moment he stopped by the counter.

As for the way he addressed the librarian, everyone was addressed as a teacher as this was a college and it never mattered to anyone, regardless of whether they were dorm wardens or librarians.

“You are studying auto service, right? Just reading your textbooks would be good enough.”

The elderly man placed the opened book face down on the counter and spoke in a soft and calming tone after adjusting his reading glasses.

There was no robotics design program in Changhai Vocational College, and the main core program the college focused on was Hotel Management and Economics. The only reason why Lin Yu even knew about that was from his stepmother telling him. The only program this college offered that had any connection to robotics was automotive repair. They had paired automotive repair with robotics into a single course, calling it auto service.

1“I’m studying programming, teacher. I was merely interested in the field so I figured I should take a look.”

Lin Yu chuckled.

“Robotics design. The principles of robotics and robotics mechanics are all on the second shelf on the sixth row.”

The librarian pointed at the row of shelves behind him. After thanking him, Lin Yu walked over to look for it. After randomly picking a robotics design book, he began to read.

After five whole minutes…he was completely bored and drained, and could no longer continue reading it.

Thus, he proceeded to take his phone out to look at the time.

He noticed that there was a message in the group chat from someone and decided to take a look.

After reading the message and feeling no actual need to reply to the text, he was tempted to open up the B Site app. However, after realizing he was in a library, he proceeded instead to open up a web novel app.

Translator’s Note

[1] Bear cubs from the author’s point of view refer to actual boys. So my dear readers, do *bear* with me a little as I conclude this chapter with a haiku about bears.

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Bear cubs love machines,

Machines to disassemble,

Too bad they have claws.

Let me know in the comments if you would like haikus in future chapters.

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