Chapter 32
Ever since Zhuang Zhou could remember, he has always been a
back-up God.
The only thing he needed to do was learn how to become a God.
He was a very quick learner and stood out amongst the crowd of
back-up Gods. Thus, he obtained the opportunity to intern as a
God of Wealth.
The only thing that occupied his heart has always been how to
become a real, official God of Wealth. He's never thought about
romance before and never even considered this kind of thing
within his plans.
When he thought Cheng JinXue wanted to get married, Zhuang
Zhou did his best to fulfill his follower's wish and bless him with
good fortune so he could get married soon. There was no
Matchmaker here after all.
If this were on Earth, he would have already asked about Cheng
JinXue’s fated person so that he could shorten the red string that
tied these two together.
He really has never imagined that he’d face this thing as well.
Wen XiaoYun has always treated him very well. Wen XiaoYun
clearly knew he held many abnormal aspects, but the other never
mentioned anything and would even help Zhuang Zhou cover up.
In other words...… Wen XiaoYun likes him?
Is it the kind of like, where you want to get married?
Or, was it the same kind of like, similar to how he liked Cheng
JinXue?
Zhuang Zhou buried his head further into the blankets. Very
quickly, he popped his head out again, feeling very conflicted
inside.
"The High God also never told me...… if Gods could marry...…."
Forget it, forget it. Just stop thinking.
He pulled out videos of the mecha tournament and started
watching.
The finals of the Grand Mecha Designing Tournament were in two
days. There’s a dark horse in the contest this time-- the person
called Hong ShiJun.
Hong ShiJun, was the oldest son of the Hong family. Duchess
BoDun was born of the Hong Family. Thus, as the birth family of
the Duchess BoDun, the Hong family was naturally also a family
of powerful and influential aristocrats.
Everyone says that children of aristocrats loved to idle about and
indulge in a life of pleasure. As the oldest son of the Hong family,
this Hong ShiJun really displayed this indulgence to the pinnacle.
But who would have imagined, it was this kind of playboy, who
indulged in a life of debauchery, that would shine extraordinarily
in this year’s Mecha Designing Tournament, and become the dark
horse that everyone focused their attentions upon!
“You really can’t tell that Hong ShiJun has this kind of talent!”
“Don’t even talk about us. Can’t you see, even the Hong family
themselves didn’t expect this!”
“Hahaha Hong ShiJun’s father had mouthed off in all sorts of
manners in the past, declaring that he didn’t have this son. Now
look at him. He practically wants the entire world to know that
Hong ShiJun was his son.”
“Speaking honestly, if my son could create a mecha that is 100%
shielded from energy radiation, I would brag about him everyday
as well!”
“100% radiation shielding is real? Did the officials assess it?”
“It’s already assessed! A few master mecha designers tested it on
the spot. The radiation was 100% shielded. Several large mecha
manufacturing companies have offered Hong ShiJun collaboration
contracts already!”
“It’s only an energy source installation system! What if once it’s
placed into a mecha, it is unable to reach 100% shielding?”
“Oh fck, how much money would this cost? You really couldn’t tell
at all that Hong ShiJun was this impressive!”
The net users discussed heatedly. The truth was also as they said.
Several big mecha manufacturing companies all visited the Hong
family one after another, wanting to see Hong ShiJun, and
wanting to obtain the design for creating this energy source
installation system that was capable of shielding radiation by
100%.
Even other nations learned of this news and were all concocting
plans to make contact with the Hong family.
Because everyone knew, energy radiation was the biggest
headache and nightmare for people within the universe. How
many talented individuals have been ruined by the radiation
previously.
For example, the Empire’s youngest battle god, Wen XiaoYun.
Wasn’t he also a severe victim? Hasn’t his psychic level already
started to decline?
At this moment, the gates of the Hong family were practically
opened continuously all day as people streamed in and out
endlessly.
The head of the Hong family beamed with delight on his face.
Previously, he had disliked his eldest son for all sorts of reasons.
Now, the more he looked at his eldest, the more pleasing the
other looked in his eyes.
“Master, another mecha manufacturing company came to talk
with da-shaoye, wanting to collaborate with him. They mentioned
submitting a patent to obtain usage rights, wanting to gain the
authority to manufacture the energy source installation system
that da-shaoye created. They said that they’re willing to discuss
the price freely.”
Willing to discuss the price freely, wasn’t this equivalent to letting
you set the price to whatever you wanted?
The head of the Hong family had a rosy complexion: “ShiJun has
really become more and more grown up. What did I say, how can
my son be talentless?”
The manager hastily praised: “I know right? 2-shaoye is still
young, but he has already been tested to have S level physical
strength and psychic powers. His future prospects are limitless.
At first, you were still worried about Da-shaoye, but now look,
Da-shaoye also has his own gift as well.”
“Exactly as you say haha. Before, I didn’t treat ShiJun very well.
In the future, I will definitely make it up to him!” In a pretty good
mood, the head of the Hong family indeed felt a bit of regret.
In the past, he really did favor his younger son more. But who let
his younger son be more outstanding? Testing for such high
abilities at only 10 years old. He definitely needed to be groomed
well. Unlike his eldest son who spent the entire day drinking and
playing.
Good thing, this brat of his still had a bit of his own talent.
“Oh right, where’s ShiJun right now?”
“Master, Da-shaoye went out.”
“This child.” The head of the Hong family furrowed his brows
again: “The finals are in two days. Why’s he still running amok?”
Despite saying this, the head of the Hong Family didn’t want to
make Hong ShiJun unhappy, because he has already become the
face of the Hong family’s reputation right now. After complaining
slightly, the head didn’t say anymore.
Meanwhile, at this time.
In a research facility far away from the Hong family, Hong ShiJun
was currently throwing a temper.
“How can it not work? I followed this design completely! It’s
exactly the same!”
A mecha designer said in a small tiny voice: “Hong-shaoye, I told
you from the start. This energy source installation system didn’t
have anything special to it. On the contrary, it’s very simple and
crude. Anyone can create it. In my opinion, from what I can see
of its structure, it was created completely using useless, tossed
away garbage components. Nothing here is capable of shielding
energy radiation.”
Hong ShiJun grabbed him by the shirt collar and said furiously:
“Then how can that decrepit robot do it?! The same assembly
method, why can he create a robot that can shield energy
radiation by 100%?!
Afraid that Hong ShiJun would really hurt him or something, the
mecha designer hastily explained: “According to my hypothesis,
perhaps the step involving connecting the wires to the energy
source differs. The person who created this robot…… may have
a…… very high psychic level……”
In the process of building a mecha, connecting the wires to the
energy source was one of the most important steps. The theory
here was guiding the energy from the energy stone into the
connecting wires. If this step was done well, it can reduce the
energy radiation by a lot.
The reason why people within the universe placed a lot of value in
psychic level was mostly because of this. With a high psychic
level, no matter what profession, the individual would be the
cream of the crop.
In the profession of mecha manufacturing, it was the same. With
a higher psychic level, the largest possible amount of energy can
be guided into the wires, which results in a decreased level of
radiation.
Yet Hong ShiJun’s psychic level was only B+, not even reaching A.
His physical strength just barely reached A.
However, after so many years of debauchery and drinking, he has
long since destroyed his body. Right now, his physical strength
probably didn’t even reach A.
Hearing this, Hong ShiJun’s complexion became even more
unsightly. In anger, he smashed everything in front of him onto
the floor!
“Useless trash!” He cursed quietly.
Hong ShiJun opened his personal comm and looked at the
information sent by Manager Huan from the online market
company. It was the identification card that Zhuang Zhou
submitted. Hong ShiJun’s eyes were filled with a dark haze.
He was indeed the person who had bought the robot. It was
almost his little brother’s birthday. However, he detested his step
mother and his little brother. Even more so, he detested his
father’s fickleness and favoritism. Naturally, he wasn’t planning to
prepare a thoughtful birthday present.
Not only this, he even wanted to disgust his step mother and little
brother just a bit. Thus, he started randomly searching around
online to see if there was anything shoddy that was most suited
for nauseating an aristocrat.
Then he ended up finding Xiao PoLan#1. PoLan#1 really looked
very decrepit.
However, after he bought it, he discovered that there was
something strange about this robot. Its energy radiation was 0.
In other words, the energy source installation system in this
robot was shielding the radiation completely.
Hong ShiJun wasn’t dumb. Naturally he knew what kind of
treasure this was. Immediately, he contacted the shop owner,
wanting to buy more. However, he never received any replies
from the other side. Even the location where the delivery came
from was the name of a random remote planet.
If someone had power and prestige, and were capable of creating
a robot like this, no matter what, it was unlikely for them to open
a shop online like this. And to even sell it for only a few thousand
coins.
This must have been a commoner.
Since the shop owner had refused to collaborate, Hong ShiJun
had another plan. He can use this energy installation system to
enter the Grand Mecha Designing Tournament and ride to victory.
Then he could enjoy glory and adulation like he has never
experienced before.
But he would have never imagined, this seemingly easy to
replicate energy source installation system wasn’t as simple as he
had thought.
The mecha designer quietly asked: “Young master, what do we do
now? The big mecha manufacturing companies are all waiting to
sign contracts with us. The finals are in two days as well. We……”
Hong ShiJun sent him the info that Manager Huang provided
coldly and said in a heavy voice: “You can sign the contracts. Let
them pay for 2/3 of the expense first. I will continue to
participate in the tournament as well and send people to kidnap
this person back.”
Hearing this, the mecha designer didn’t dare to respond. He
understood what Hong ShiJun meant very well.
After kidnapping this person back, they would be locked up in a
closed off research facility, only permitted to connect these
energy wires, day in and out. And those things would be sold out
under Hong ShiJun’s name.
-
Zhuang Zhou didn’t even know he was being hunted.
He was busy studying the schedule of the mecha tournament.
The mecha tournament was separated into three phases. The first
phase involves the energy source installation system. This is the
core of every mecha. Without an energy source system, nothing
else works.
The second phase involves the polish and design of the mecha’s
individual components. The third phase involves assembling the
mecha together.
The finals consisted of these three phases. After the mecha is
assembled, the stats of the mecha are judged to determine the
winner.
After the winning creator is selected, there will also be an
entertainment segment-- a casual, fun match.
Anyone in the crowd will be able to issue a duel to the winning
mecha in a fun match. This kind of duel ends upon touch, but it
allows everyone to see the specific capabilities and strengths of
the winning mecha.
Zhuang Zhou carefully examined this segment, eyes bright.
Then, he called Wen XiaoYun.
In the military.
Recently, everyone within the 3rd Legion was in a pretty bad
mood.
The reason was because of Wen XiaoYun’s psychic level.
Although the other Legions didn’t say it outright, secretly they
had been ridiculing the 3rd Legion, saying that their 3rd legion’s
commander was about to switch to another person; that Wen
XiaoYun can no longer be the commander.
This impacted the mood of everyone within the 3rd legion. They
didn’t actually want someone else to come and replace Wen
XiaoYun, because almost everyone here were soldiers trained by
the Wen family.
If not the previous battle god, Wen Tian; then the current Wen
XiaoYun.
Because of this impact, in the last few days, everyone has been
listless. During training, their scores were so bad, it was an utter
disaster.
After seeing these scores, Wen XiaoYun held a meeting.
In the meeting, he didn’t actually scold people directly. He only
projected the videos of their training onto the screen.
“Lieutenant Su. This is your summary score from today’s
training.” Wen XiaoYun’s voice was as tranquil as before. His
handsome, ironclad face was in its usual calm. However, this
intangible sense of pressure made everyone inside the conference
room feel like a mountain was pressing down on their chest.
Wen XiaoYun said coolly: “It’s 4 points lower than your usual
score. It’s 1 point lower than your own subordinate.”
“Wang Cheng, your mecha operation score is the lowest since you
joined. You’re making me doubt my original decision of
transferring you over from the academy.”
“Zhang KaiWen, is there something wrong with your eyes?
Shooting 10 targets, missing 3.”
Wen XiaoYun spoke calmly, but every person who got called out
all lowered their heads in shame, face color turning red and then
white.
“Admiral, it’s because we……”
Wen XiaoYun nodded his head faintly, interrupting them: “I don’t
want to hear any excuses.”
“You guys enlisted not for me. It was for yourself. For the Empire.
No matter what your reason is, it’s not an excuse for your
setbacks.”
Those people who got called out all panicked. They knew very
well that Wen XiaoYun definitely wouldn’t tolerate this kind of
situation. Deeply afraid that they might be dismissed before Wen
XiaoYun even left himself, they hastily said: “Admiral, give us
another chance!”
Wen XiaoYun didn’t say anything.
The intangible sense of pressure slowly enveloped the entire
meeting. The heaviness in the air instantly made people feel
breathless.
Under this kind of intolerable atmosphere, Wen XiaoYun’s comm
suddenly started ringing.
The crowd felt even more panicked inside. They can all tell that
Wen XiaoYun was in a terrible mood. Jumping in at a time like
this, was this person rushing to get yelled at? What if they made
the admiral’s mood worse, then what!
Unexpectedly, Wen XiaoYun’s ironclad face instantly softened with
only a glance of the comm number. The depths of his eyes gained
some warmth as well.
Sweeping his gaze around the conference room, Wen XiaoYun got
up and said coolly: “Whatever your reason is, I don’t want to see
it happening again.”
“Yes, admiral!”
After throwing down these words, Wen XiaoYun started to walk
out in large strides. At the same time, he answered the call.
The sharp-eared people immediately heard a happy, pleasant
sounding voice travel into the conference room.
“Wen XiaoYun! Are you busy?”
Wen XiaoYun quietly replied: “Not busy, what’s the matter?”
“You seem to have a lot of people next to you. Do they need you
for something?”
Wen XiaoYun said: “No, they’re all fake people. Statues.”
The crowd immediately stopped, completely motionless, all
pretending to be fake people: “......”
Wen XiaoYun walked out of the big doors of the conference room.
Zhuang Zhou could no longer see the people behind Wen
XiaoYun. Therefore, he no longer questioned if those were fake
people or not. Instead, he said: “Do you have time in two days?
Let’s go see the finals of the Mecha Tournament in person?”
Wen XiaoYun acknowledged with an ‘en’: “What do you want to
do?”
Zhuang Zhou hummed twice. He didn’t explain, but said: “You’ll
know when the time comes!”
After two days.
The finals of the Mecha Tournament officially began.
The Mecha Designing Tournament can be counted as one of those
events that all citizens of the Empire paid close attention to. On
the day of the finals, the site of the tournament was packed with
an ocean of people. Those unable to make it in person still waited
online in front of the screen of the live broadcast.
Early morning on this day, Zhuang Zhou and Wen XiaoYun left
together to pick up Xiao PoLan, planning to take Xiao PoLan to
see the mecha tournament as well.
After coming back these last few days, Xiao PoLan has been
supervised by Cheng JinXue to participate in great master Ge
LuEn’s examinations and tests. It’s been two days since Zhuang
Zhou saw Xiao PoLan. He rather missed it.
Arriving at the research facility, Zhuang Zhou immediately saw
Xiao PoLan waiting at the entrance.
Seeing Zhuang Zhou, Xiao PoLan also acted like seeing a lover
and affectionately hugged Zhuang Zhou’s thighs. Its mechanical
head rubbed back and forth on Zhou Zhou’s legs as it let out
mechanical “sob sob sob” sounds.
Looking like it really suffered quite the injustice.
Zhuang Zhou picked up Xiao PoLan with a heartache: “Be good,
don’t cry. I’m picking you up right now. Sorry, you were forced to
work hard the last few days.”
Cheng JinXue and Ge LuEn: “......”
No. It didn’t work hard at all. Clearly, it was us who worked hard!
Only heaven knew how hard it was to deal with this PoLan-daye!
No matter what experiment they wanted to do, without 10
sentences of praise, it would refuse to cooperate!
Good thing Cheng JinXue had a sweet mouth and knew how to
give all sorts of flattery. He managed to coax PoLan-daye into a
pretty good mood to cooperate with their examinations.
Zhuang Zhou was unaware of the twists and turns in here. He
only saw Xiao PoLan sulking and felt his heart about to melt: “Ok
ok ok. In the future, I’ll keep you by myself always…… En En?
Was it very tiring? Doing so many inspections everyday?”
Zhuang Zhou gave the great master Ge LuEn a disapproving look.
Ge LuEn: “.......”
Three! They only did three inspections per day!
Everytime they finished an inspection, Xiao PoLan needed to
watch four hours of cartoons!
Zhuang Zhou rubbed Xiao PoLan’s head: “Oh right, Xiao PoLan.
Let me introduce to you briefly.”
Zhuang Zhou pulled out another little robot from his GanKun
pouch and happily introduced it to Xiao PoLan: “Xiao PoLan, look.
This is Xiao PoLan#4!”
Xiao PoLan instantly became stunned.
Xiao PoLan: “????”
This was the reason why you threw me to the care of someone
else?
I already have a version #4???
Zhuang Zhou looked at the dumbfounded Xiao PoLan and
explained happily: “I just finished making it yesterday!”
Xiao PoLan#4 was taller than it, newer than it, and also cooler
than it.
Xiao PoLan: “......”
Xiao PoLan stopped replying.
It slowly rolled its wheels, and rolled back to Cheng JinXue’s side.
Sure enough. Affairs only occurred 0 times or countless times.
Ever since Master made #1, it’s been nonstop. Right now, there
was even a version #4.
Xiao PoLan raised its head and looked at Cheng JinXue briefly.
Forget it, forget it. A demon can’t have such high demands.
Having a human slave was enough.
The next second, Zhuang Zhou gave Xiao PoLan#4 to Cheng
JinXue.
“Cheng JinXue! I’m giving #4 to you!”
Xiao PoLan: “???”
Cheng JinXue instantly became delighted: “Zhou Zhou, is this
Xiao PoLan#4 the same as Zhou HongYi and Zhang Feng’s…… Can
it be linked through psychic powers?”
“That’s right!” Zhuang Zhou proudly puffed up his chest: “I also
modified it. Once it recognizes you as its master, you’ll know what
#4 can do.”
In order to make this robot, Zhuang Zhou wasn’t able to expand
his customers for two nights!
Thus, on the road to the mecha tournament, inside the hover car,
the stupidly happy Cheng JinXue endlessly exclaimed how
awesome and amazing Xiao PoLan#4 was.
In the corner, Xiao PoLan watched their gaiety and scoffed coldly.
Their gaiety has nothing to do with me. I only think it’s noisy.
-
Arriving at the location of the Mecha Tournament, Zhuang Zhou
exclaimed once again, there were so many people!
Then he became even happier. Tonight he was going to work
overtime again!
Wen XiaoYun had special privileges. He also made early
arrangements for the seating. He directly brought Zhuang Zhou
to a relatively quiet place.
At this time, the tournament already proceeded halfway. Amongst
the 10 people participating, 6 people have already finished
assembling their mechas.
However, most of the crowd’s attention was focused on Hong
ShiJun.
Everyone wanted to know just how powerful was this mecha
made by the competition’s dark horse, Hong ShiJun.
The various big mecha manufacturing companies stared even
more closely, wanting urgently to see the birth of a mecha
capable of shielding energy radiation 100%!
Zhuang Zhou was also watching Hong ShiJun. Hong ShiJun
looked pretty much the same as what Zhuang zhou saw online.
He carried an unpleasant odor around him.
Zhuang Zhou furrowed his brows and said quietly: “The smell on
him is really unpleasant. He must have done plenty of bad
things.”
Hearing this, Wen XiaoYun didn’t even get a chance to speak yet
when Ge LuEn said exasperatedly: “Little friend, don’t joke. We’re
in the observer’s booth. Hong ShiJun is on the competition field.
With such a distance, even just seeing him clearly requires
magnification by the big screen. How can you smell his odor?”
Zhuang Zhou said: “You don’t understand.”
Ge LuEn: “Okay okay okay. I don’t understand. Is it that God of
yours again who said this? Ai, you group of kids are really…… so
superstitious every day.”
He didn’t even want to advise them anymore about how God
absolutely did not exist in this world.
Last time, the little friend got angry at him because of this. It
wasn’t good to bring it up again.
The only thing that made Ge LuEn rejoice was that this so-called
‘God of Wealth’ wasn’t like the pagan god of an evil cult; he didn’t
brainwash people into insanity.
Wen XiaoYun reached out a hand and covered Zhuang Zhou’s
nose, saying softly: “Then don’t smell it.”
His hand was very big. Covering Zhuang Zhou’s face, it made the
youth’s face seem even smaller.
Zhuang Zhou raised his eyes and met Wen XiaoYun’s eyes. Then
he swiftly looked away. Ears turning faintly red, he finally said ‘en’
after a long while later.
But he also didn’t tell Wen XiaoYun to move his hand away.
Instead, he allowed the other to cover his nose and face.
Very quickly, Hong ShiJun also finished assembling his mecha.
He was the second to last to finish the assembly. Not long after
him, the last person also finished.
Now that the 10 contestants finished building their mecha, it’s
time to wait for the judging.
The 10 people have already passed through several rounds of
eliminations to enter the finals. Naturally, each of their mecha
designs were strong.
When Hong ShiJun’s mecha was judged, the official host gave an
extremely high evaluation result--
“Offensive stats AA, defensive stats A+, resistance stats A+,
energy radiation level 0!”
As soon as these words appeared, the entire crowd threw an
uproar!
Radiation level 0!
It really can shield radiation 100%!
To be able to enter the finals, the contestants were all basically
very outstanding mecha designers. The mechas they created
basically all had A+ stats.
But no matter how they tried to suppress the radiation level, it
would always hang around 10-20%.
Today, beside Hong ShiJun, the lowest radiation level was still
11%.
With merely a ‘radiation level 0,’ Hong ShiJun had enough to
suppress everyone’s scores!
As expected, completely lacking any surprise, Hong ShiJun won
the tournament under the eyes of the crowd!
The various big mecha manufacturing companies scrambled over
each other to give Hong ShiJun their business cards, wanting to
discuss a collaboration with him.
Hong ShiJun accepted each card with a smile and expressed:
“We’ll talk about collaboration later. I still have to go accept my
prize.”
Hugging the trophy cup of the #1 Mecha Designer of the
tournament in his arms, Hong ShiJun stood on the high pedestal,
looking out at the hundred of thousands of speculators, as well as
all of the people in the universe watching on the live broadcast, a
sense of haughtiness and arrogance rising inside his heart.
This was the glory that he wanted. He wanted everyone’s gazes
to be looking him. Wanted everyone to respect him, to kneel
down and lick his feet!
“Next is the most exciting moment! Everyone, do you want to see
the strength of Mr.Hong’s mecha, ‘Cold Frost?’ in action?”
“Yes!!”
The host said with a smile: “Then is there anyone who wants to
come up and challenge ‘Cold Frost’?”
As soon as he said this, plenty of people within the crowd yelled
frantically and loudly that they wanted to head up.
At this time, a person used their special privilege to step directly
onto stage: “Allow me.”
Seeing this person, the crowd’s sharp screams pierced through
the heavens even more.
“Ahhhhhhh it’s Vice-Admiral Cheng!”
“It’s Vice-Admiral Cheng JinXue!!!”
The host didn’t even expect that this very well-known Cheng
JinXue from the military would come on stage. After freezing for
quite a while, he finally said excitedly: “Vice-Admiral Cheng! I
didn’t expect it to be you!”
Cheng JinXue smiled faintly: “A mecha without radiation is a big
concern for everyone within the Empire. Naturally, the military is
also very interested. If the mecha created by this Mr.Hong is also
very outstanding in other aspects, the military would gladly
collaborate together with Mr.Hong.”
Hearing these words, the entire audience went through another
uproar. The gazes they used to look at Hong ShiJun became even
more reverent and envious!
Hong ShiJun didn’t expect this to happen either. Internally, he felt
somewhat excited as well.
If Duke Bo Dun knew that he was very close to the military, it
would make doing whatever he wanted in the future even easier!
His father would also never belittle him ever again!
Thinking this, Hong ShiJun did his best to remain calm. With a
faint smile, he said: “Many thanks for Vice-Admiral Cheng’s
appreciation.”
Cheng JinXue waved his hand: “Let’s not waste any time. Come,
let’s test the strength of your mecha, ‘Cold Frost’.”
Hong ShiJun immediately called over a fighter that specializes in
operating mechas and gave them the authorization to enter the
mecha.
The match started. However, Cheng JinXue didn’t actually take
out his mecha. The crowd couldn’t help but feel somewhat
skeptical.
Cheng JinXue’s face split into a smile and summoned Xiao
PoLan#4, who had already received a drop of his blood and
recognized him as master. He said slowly: “Come.”
The entire audience was stunned.
What did Vice-Admiral Cheng mean by this? Did he want to use
this seemingly tattered and broken down little robot to face off
against a mecha that was practically colossal in comparison?!
Was he playing a joke here!
Only Hong ShiJun.
When seeing Xiao PoLan#4, his heart skipped a beat. His
expression instantly changed.
Cheng JinXue smiled faintly: “Looking familiar, my friend? This is
the 4.0 version~”