Gliding Joy

The moment had arrived! A newborn mech was to be sent into the sky soaring like a bird, freely and… When everyone saw the post-modification, their eyes were filled with confusion, looking at Ye Chong. Yining who had been working hard for the past hours went dumbfounded upon seeing the mech he modified with his own hands looking like this.

Is this crap still a mech?

This was probably what everyone else had in mind.

The mech was in a shape of an arrow, with a tampering body from cabin to the end. The body was much narrower than before, but taller, like a flattened swordfish; while the main engine was shifted to the very end. It was all according to Ye Chong’s calculation, where the placement of center of gravity would be ideal. The front was the "arrowhead" with the side wings forming a V shape towards the fore, unlike before when it used to be a flimsy metallic strip and multiple additional engines were installed to promote a larger scope of redirection. The design was an innovation but also a challenge to the pilot as the cabin had been moved to the body of the mech, the "shaft" where it only offered limited space for body movement, just enough to fit Ke Han sitting in. No wonder Ye Chong asked him about the height and the weight. Also as the entire cabin had became cramped, the processor was replaced with a much smaller one which served less functions. Technically if it was a mech made for Ye Chong, he would hardly need a processor and could just play manually. But Yining was the one strongly against this because a mech was believed to be worthless without a processor inside.

The mech was mainly built using light titanium alloy, which durability might appeared substandard, but it served better for its featherweight. The engine used was Firebird-III and it was not because of its dynamic, rather, again, it was because of its weight being merely half of the other engines of similar grades and most importantly it offered the largest scope of redirection in the group. Most of the main engines only served the purpose of providing momentum to the mech and it wholly depended on the additional engines to make direction changes. However, there happened to be some rare kinds that could do both, though they offer a smaller scope of redirection. Firebird-III from this category was the most outstanding in direction control being a main engine, thus it became Ye Chong’s choice. Of course, such an overpowered-sounding engine was not a common selection by the public for it consumed high amount of energy. It might had half of the weight of engines of similar grade, but in return it had twice the amount of energy depletion as the other engines in its line, which drastically restrained its application. For instance, the mech Ye Chong designed could sustain a nonstop flight for a limited duration of 8 hours when fully charged at most. Such a flaw Ye Chong thought it was that he asked Ke Han for opinion but he did not show much disagreement considering how he was only required a 2 hour flight in the tournament. That was more than enough.

Yining proceeded to paint the whole mech in blue - a blue like a pool of clear lake. The strange design did actually made the mech look much more striking, forceful with its hollowed body. The team was looking forward to its performance.

They looked at each other and nodded. Somehow they read each other pretty well. They agreed the fact that it was their first time seeing such an odd mech. It would be more appropriate to call it an aircraft instead. Ke Han was thrilled to try on his new toy that he felt like hopping into the cabin right away.

Up, up, and away! Ke Han set off into the sky!

For moments on ground, they had been anticipating Ke Han’s return to hear his words about the new craft.

Ke Han finally made it back - literally made it back. It was not as heartwarming as coming home because Ke Han crawled out of his cabin with his face drained, his legs shaking. "H…hi…f…folks."

They quickly went to Ke Han. "Han!" Yang An asked hurriedly, "What’s wrong?"

"To…tt…Ttt…Too fast! Th…Th…This is… inten…ss…intense!" He caught his breath, settled his mind, "There were a few times I nearly crashed into people! It’s too hard to control!" But he seemed all pumped and enthusiastic, "Still, it’s fast, too fast! I guess I could already be a professional racer at this rate. It’s too fun!"

Xuelin who was standing at the side seemed quite eager to try while Shew acted a scaredy cat holding Xuelin back at her sleeve.

Yining gazed endearingly at the mech he made out with his own hands. "Hmmm..." he mumbled. "What name shall we bestow this baby?"

"Glidy!" Ke Han waddled to Yining, "How about Glidy?"

"Glidy just sounds stupid." Xuelin shook her head in strong disapproval, "A single-word name never worked. Hmm, how about Gliding Joy?" It was a suggestion coming from a beauty, and without a doubt, Ke Han approved and Yining seemed pleased with the name too. "How about Ye Ch-" Ye Chong, the designer, the contractor of the construction carried on watching the folks uninterestedly, guessing the man did not bother what the mech would be named after.

And so be it!

The name of this modified mech had been decided among the folks without much discussion.

"Well." Ye Chong looked at the time - it was time to scram for him. He stood up and spoke to Yang An, "4 hours in total. Every hour costed you 1225 Zuan. That’d be 5000 Zuan in total. Payment at your convenience!" His tone was monotonous. He did not sound mortified as he asked for his pay.

Tch! Xuelin spat her tongue in disdain and dragged Shew aside.

On the other hand, Yang An acted truly easygoing in this. He paid Ye Chong the price as he acknowledged his capability, knowing if he joined the alliance, the team would have greater odds to win.

Yining carried on gazing at Ye Chong’s blueprint in endearment, while Ke Han’s eyes still glued at Gliding Joy. His hands could not stop fondling his baby from the tip to the end, the shaft and then the wings.

Xuelin was having another private conversation with Shew at the corner. Their whispers rumbled.

Ye Chong seemed to have heard his name being mentioned in their discussion, but well… Do I really care? These two are just a bunch of weird people. I don’t have time for them.

He confirmed the transaction on his identity card. 5000 Zuans in. Done. He briefly bade farewell to them and walked away after that.

Back to the streets seeing the crowd, Ye Chong then realized it was actually the peak hour of his noodle shop! That was more frightening than anything else! He got to get back to Grandpa Qian or the loss would be beyond estimation! He ran, dashed, hurtled and sprinted through the streets, like a fired bullet through the air. The pedestrians saw a shadow flying by and they panicked just to see nothing. Most of them thought they were just feeling a little under the weather.

Ye Chong hurried back to the shop and indeed it was swarmed with customers. Grandpa Qian was running back and forth, looking really fatigued. Ye Chong, with a slight guilt, greeted Grandpa Qian and rushed into the kitchen to begin his work.

Grandpa Qian returned to the front desk and let go a sigh of relief.

When the last batch of customers left at about 8 at night, they had dinner and hit the bed after a short good-night to each other. Then nothing else happened.

Except for Ye Chong.

He locked his room and carefully took out the chip he pilfered from the dead man’s building back then. The chip had only recorded worthless information about Grandpa Xu’s whereabouts. Well the only surprising discovery was from the identity cards he obtained from the men he killed, as Mu’s immense processing ability located the background of these people.

"So they are from the Ji Family?" Ye Chong asked.

"Probably about 95% the likelihood according to the data acquired." Mu answered.

"That’s just another way to say yes. Well then, why are the Jis on Grandpa Xu?" he asked on.

Mu then gave a brief introduction on Ji Family’s background. Ye Chong understood the entire scenario after that. It had to be because of the new theory from Grandpa Xu that they desired. That was why they tried all sorts of ways to get Grandpa Xu into their group. And obviously Grandpa Xu would not buy any of their dirty tricks. Practically, those tricks were not that dirty to Ye Chong, considering how he would have used a much dirtier trick if he were the Jis.

Yet! It does not mean I am fine with what they have done to Grandpa Xu! Understanding does not translate approval, especially when he was involved.

Well then, by now the Ji Family should have heard of the news.

Keeping that thought, he logged into the virtual world and left a note at the Aurora, informing Grandpa Xu that he would be busy working on something and he might not be visiting anytime soon.

The Ji Family huh?

Ye Chong snickered.