Section 20 - Breaking Out of the Shell

The Giant Dragon named "Bit", belonging to the Metallic type, had crashed near the Aircrew Base. As the higher authority owning all property rights, Apocalypse Defense Group, firmly holding the home field advantage, was bound to take the lion's share. They would gain a net profit of at least several billion Star Yuan, far exceeding the defense contracting fees.

In contrast, for individuals, the big shots could casually let slip a little, which would be enough to make someone like Pu Aihua, considered insignificant, quite wealthy.

The Aircrew Base was keeping a tight watch on the area where the Metallic Giant Dragon had fallen, not even a fly could get in. Pu Aihua saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Although he had the inclination, he lacked the boldness, and instead pinned his hopes on Chen Fei who had once had close contact with the Metallic Giant Dragons. Yet unexpectedly, this newcomer showed no interest in such a rare chance to strike it rich, which was deeply disappointing.

Chen Fei, who had just been discharged from the hospital, was completely occupied and paid no attention to Pu Aihua's grand schemes. His focus was on the technical manuals that the head mechanic, Xiao Ming, had given him. The latter had specially picked up Set A, carefully rebound it, and expected nothing less than Chen's full dedication.

Thoroughly understanding these technical manuals was a necessary phase before officially starting work in the mechanic team. Failing to do so and being shamefully kicked out was not an option.

In order not to be looked down upon, Chen Fei even brought back the intense spirit of his college entrance examination, embracing the manuals ceaselessly whether at meals or in the restroom. When the day shift of the mechanic team went to work, he would sit in the work area all day with the manuals in his lap.

When night fell and the mechanic team changed shifts, he would then return to his dormitory with the technical manuals, reading until he fell asleep.

Set A was the general outline, which Chen Fei scrutinized with extra diligence, naturally slowing down his reading pace.

After finishing work, he quickly took a hot shower, changed into clean clothes, sat on his bed with the manual, and continued reading attentively. Sometimes he silently read aloud, sometimes cross-referencing with data downloaded onto his tablet.

What he saw was not just the standard content, but also the solutions applied by mechanics, from which he learned numerous useful operational experiences.

The desk lamp by the bed used a 70-watt halogen bulb, which cast a warm yellow light tinged with a bit of heat onto a so-called "Magical Beast Egg" and a Little Bird's nest, both gifts from Pu Aihua.

Pu Aihua clearly did not care much for the egg, lacking both a specialized incubator and any thought of trying to hatch it, let alone knowing the appropriate temperature and humidity for incubation. Perhaps he had never even considered letting the creature inside the egg hatch.

With no better options, Chen Fei could only hope that the light from the halogen bulb might have some meager effect.

Bathed in the halogen light resembling sunlight, the small egg seemed gradually awakened, as an imperceptible, faint heartbeat arose at some point. A tiny embryo was forming in the egg fluid, enveloping the yolk.

Immersed in his book, Chen Fei was completely unaware of this. He did not even know if the egg was that of a bird, snake, lizard, or some other creature, or even if it was just a fake egg meant to deceive him.

That scammer was best at using his glib tongue to paint dog excrement as gold; such actions from him wouldn't be surprising at all.

Nonsense! Thinking unlimited 2.0!

As the night deepened, Chen Fei could not help but start yawning.

There were still over forty pages left in the technical manual (Set A), but he had no intention of stopping there. Instead, he planned to soldier on and finish it all in one go.

"Tap tap... tap... chirp... tap thud tap... thud thud thud... thud thud..."

As he was turning the pages, his hand suddenly stopped. Chen Fei puzzled over who might be knocking in Morse code but, following the sound, he discovered that the strange noise was actually coming from his own bedside table.

"... thud thud... thud thud..."

It sounded quite rhythmic. Bathed in the light of the halogen, the egg was gently rocking, its shell surface unknowingly punctured by a small hole.

Huh!?

Was it about to hatch?

Chen Fei's eyes widened.

He had not noticed that a metal-glossed granule about the size of a soybean, hidden in the page he had just flipped, was the culprit. As he turned to look at the egg making the strange noise, his fingertip came ever closer to the granule...

"Hiss!~"

A strange pain shot through the tip of his middle finger. Startled, Chen Fei lifted his hand to find his fingertip punctured by something, as blood started to ooze out. Looking back at the technical manual, the pages revealed a shallow indent, empty of anything.

"... thud thud... chirp..."

In the Little Bird's nest under the desk lamp, the egg's shaking intensified, the pinhole expanded, and the cracks became more visible.

The little creature inside could not wait to come out.

With a puzzled look, Chen Fei flipped through the technical manual, searched the bed, but never found what had punctured his finger, nor could he determine its shape. Finally, he gave up, quickly grabbed a Band-Aid, wrapped his finger, and returned to observe the increasingly active egg.

With a soft "plop," one end of the eggshell completely burst open, and a tiny bird, eyes closed and completely bare, rolled out covered in mucus. It kicked its little legs incessantly in the nest, chirping non-stop.

Emmmm... Such a small thing, held in the palm, could be squashed into a bloody mess, couldn't it?

Ah! Chen Fei suddenly shuddered and woke up, what was he thinking with such a horrific thought, has he gone mad?!

Buddha bless, ultimate deity guide, may God protect me, listen to Dang's command, I am not one of those brutally evil folks, how could I bear to harm such a young creature, it is a life after all.

Right, this is just a bird egg, absolutely confirmed.

The mouth of Pu Aihua, that lying ghost, still calling it a Magical Beast Egg, who are you kidding!

Chen Fei really wanted to drag Pu Aihua over and make him open his Husky dog eyes to see, what the heck kind of Magical Beast is this?

But then the real problem arises, what does this little bird eat?

This is indeed a big problem.

Chen Fei had never even fed a chicken, who knows what such a small bird eats to grow up, maybe mix some milk powder?

Forget it, forget it, let the bell ringer solve it.

Carefully taking the nest out of the wooden box and wrapping it in a T-shirt, Chen Fei then held the T-shirt and left the dormitory.

When he found Pu Aihua, the guy was energetically mopping the floor in the cafeteria. Upon seeing Chen Fei, he was initially stunned, then as if he remembered something, excitedly called out, "Little Chen, did you really find it?"

Chen Fei was also stunned, but quickly realized what the other party was referring to and immediately said in annoyance, "Find a ghost, see for yourself!"

"Let me see!"

Pu Aihua sneakily glanced around, then set aside his mop and tiptoed over, looking expectantly at what was in Chen Fei's hands.

Uh...

Hoping for a miracle, Pu Aihua saw a bare, ugly chick that looked like it had just hatched not long ago.

The smile on his face instantly froze, simida.gif!

Ah, can I curse?

No!

Then never mind!

"What, what is going on?"

Pu Aihua looked embarrassed, almost dropping his pants, just to show me your bird?

What does this mean?

"Old Piao, where is the magical beast you promised?"

Chen Fei snorted, you ask me what's going on, I should be asking you!

"Ah!~~~ This, this is that egg?"

Pu Aihua expressed his surprise, recognizing the nest holding the chick.

He casually picked up the nest and egg in the wild, just to fool a newcomer. He originally thought that without a parent to incubate it, it would turn into a dead egg, and if kept long, it would even start to smell. But he didn't expect that after he gave it to Chen Fei, it actually hatched.

"Can I find a chicken egg for you to hatch too?"

Chen Fei was not so easily fooled.

"This, this!" Pu Aihua's eyes were spinning wildly, seemingly making up some excuse on the spot.

Yeah, keep making it up!

Pu Aihua then clapped his hands forcefully and said indignantly, "Ah, even I got deceived!"

The merchant instantly turned into a drama king, acting skills off the charts, breaking through the sky.