27 Hunter
The next few days, life is peaceful. Xiao maintains a working pattern - to make guns in Chloe junk station in the morning. He gets paid daily. In addition, he could always find some useful machine parts, which he needs to make Ranger robots. Xiao hides all the completed parts in his room and plans to assemble them when he has all the parts ready. The rest of his time is working in the shop. Thirteen hasn't given up. There are different agents coming to the shop every few days. Qian thinks that Xiao brings the luck to the shop and feeds him with great meals every day. Sometimes when Xiao walks by Qian, he hears that Qian is muttering 'expand', 'chain' and other similar words. Xiao is pity on her illusion of this temporary prosperous.
Geezer Lu never gives up on figuring out Xiao's identity. He wants to see his background from how he works. But this is useless as all Xiao's skills are all from 'self-learning'. Geezer Gao comes to the shop often to play chess with Lu. He chats with Xiao every time. Xiao is happy to build a good relationship with Gao.
The experience of fabrication is highest in machinists' daily work, which follows by modification, fixing etc. Because there is no chance to access advanced knowledge now, Xiao uses the obtained experience to level up three talents to their max level for more free talent points, |Elementary machine affinity| lv.3; |Basic fighting| lv.8; |Basic shooting| lv.6. Machine affinity is a core talent for machinist which is required by many blueprints and talents.
…
Chloe junk station, Xiao is using lathe and a Bee. 73 pistol is completed. Civet gives a wad of notes to Xiao. Xiao puts it in the pocket without counting, "That's all for today."
"Thanks to you. I don't need more guns in the near future. But our deal remains solid. You can take machine junk here back home." Civet smiles and what he means is to pause the business with Xiao. The number of weapons in his hand is enough. But he doesn't want to kill Xiao. He wants his technics. Image if he has this technics, how rich would he be. Civet is careful. He didn't force Xiao for Xiao's swift hand showed on their first acquaintance and Xiao was able to get rid of stalkers every time. But he is interesting in Xiao's appearance under the mask.
"As you wish." Xiao knows there will be an end. Xiao leaves the station and walks around several streets and gets rid of stalkers. He arrives in a big machine market. Most metals and machine parts are sold here. Many students from the mechanical department of west capital college are shopping and selling here. Xiao made $70,000 with Civet. He bought the metals for Ranger and light powered arm. There are only pennies left. That's life. Now, with all materials in hand, Xiao plans to complete the Ranger robot.
…
Several days later. Xiao assembles Ranger when all parts are ready. The robot is 5 feet tall with a thin armour to protect the gears, electronics and energy core inside. The upper part is human-like, a round head connects the body without neck. A pair of eyes are equipped with camera. The information from the camera would gather and calculated in the chips which is bought from the market, a common kind, not fast, not slow. Two mechanical arms hanging besides the robot body. The fingers are modified to barrels. The arms can twist and spin which cover 170° of the front area. The down part is crawler-like.
The system reminds Xiao to name his product. Xiao names it as "First ed. Ranger" which was from his habit in the game.
[First edition Ranger (crawler)]
[Type: Robot]
[Quality: Grey]
[Basic attributes: Armour 800, defence 18, energy power 58, max speed 23 km/h, stamina 120/120]
[Height: 1.18 m]
[Weight: 143 pound]
[Control: Monitor, radio]
[Effective control area: 50 m]
[Energy source: Battery sets]
[Core power: 36/80 Ohna]
[Left/Right arm module: Small machine gun, attack 35-40, attack speed 4/s, maximum attack speed 7/s (10 s overlord), Magazine capacity: 90, attack power 40, cost 18]
[Ability: self-destruction— destroy itself and cause 280-430 flame damage in 30 m area]
[Ability: metal— grant 8% damage reduction to any damage without piece effect]
'Ranger' is a type name. The power, weapon and control systems can be modified by the machinist. Most Jaeger and robots are named this way. The quality of the metals and materials will affect the attributes of the product. First ed. Ranger is mainly made with steel and AS plastics which are common. If Xiao uses better alloy, the amour and defence of it would be higher.
The technology included in the machine is related. Different parts may require different technology. If one machinist can't make some parts, he/she can buy the common parts instead. As the accumulation of knowledge, more freedom would be there for machinist. Even a screw can be made oneself.
Any robots, vehicles and jaegers have power limitation. More modules means higher power load, which means the number of modules can be added depends on the development of energy technology. The first ed. Ranger uses normal battery sets which are a low efficiency power source. Only after learning the knowledge from energy branch can Xiao makes the energy core himself.
After making first ed. Ranger, Xiao obtains 24k experience. The experience of fabrication is alway generous and depends on the production time, the quality of the products and the technologies included. Xiao takes another day to make a light power arm.
[You made light powered arm (left), 2.5k experience obtained]
The materials Xiao used for this powered arm is worse than the one he made in the Sprout base. The quality is worse as a results.
[Light powered arm (grey)]
[Quality: Grey]
[Attributes: Attack 28-45, defence 8-12, power level 26, durance 205/205]
[Requirement: strength 23]
[Attribute bonus: attack speed -4]
[Length: 0.51 m]
[Weight: 13.5 pound]
[Extra effect: +6 strength when activated]
His best power at the moment is melee fighting. Light powered arm is the perfect equipment. Machinist who learn martial art is named as mechanical martial art. Xiao doesn't want to keep this style as the advantage of machinist is range attack. But mechanical martial art has higher fighting power in low class machinist, which can be a good transition.
Xiao hides the powered arm in the room and back to the basement. There, Qian is talking with a client who glimpses at Xiao all the time. This is an agent too. These days, those agents who got in touch with Xiao all back with failure. Thus, they switch their target to Qian and ask Qian about Xiao.
After the client leaves, Qian feels confused, "Why so many people ask me about you?"
"I am popular."
"All of them are man."
"That's not what I mean…"
"Relax, I support LGBT with my full heart." Qian laughs. Xiao feels it is creepy. That's a misunderstanding!
Suddenly, there is a new notification in the panel.
[You trigger a class E mission, |Hunter|, Accept/Decline]
Xiao is confused. How is this mission triggered?
Accept, of course.
[Background: Some people have an eye on you for the high reward. They are plotting out of your sight. On the other hand, some institute is awaiting for your performance. What will you do?]
[Requirement: Survive the hunter]
[Reward: 10 k experience]
[Special reward: a talent level-up card (basic)]
Obviously, some people wants his reward. The institute must be 'Thirteen'. Linked both points together, Xiao has a guess that Thirteen leaks his information to a group of 'hunter' to sound out his power. If this is the case, those hunter would not be destructive and be easy to control. Thirteen would not tolerate a big loss in the west capital.
The reward of Class E mission is so so but the special reward is useful for him. Special reward corresponds to the hidden requirement in the mission. Xiao thinks the hidden requirement is to kill all the hunter. "Enemies would come at any time. The shop is not a good place." Xiao thinks. As the hunter is not strong, he doesn't want the help from Lu which would risks his special reward.
There is a spark in Xiao's head. A perfect place to fight - Chloe junk station!
