After the collective assembly, there was still a month left before the freshman assessment. This month felt like a buffer period for all the new students. In previous years, teachers from various majors would usually take their students back for specialized intensive training.
However, for this year, the training location was set directly at the newly built training ground.
On the stage, Yan Wenzhi was still explaining the precautions for the freshman assessment and the training plan for the Individual Soldier Department for the coming month. Below the stage, Yan Changfeng received a notification that a friend request had been accepted.
[“Fuck Your Dam” has accepted your friend request.]
Several message windows popped up in succession. Yan Changfeng, unable to see the specific content, felt an itch of curiosity. she glanced up at Yan Wenzhi, whose attention was focused on the back rows of the freshmen, then quickly opened her Optical Computer. Her eyes swept over the messages in an instant before she immediately shut the device, pretending to look up at the sky as if nothing had happened.
Yan Wenzhi, speaking on stage: “?”
The instructors watching all the recruits: “?”
The freshmen nearby taking the chance to slack off: “Badass!”
Everyone here was a mental power user; what was the difference between these little movements and streaking naked down the street?
Yan Wenzhi nearly crushed the microphone in her hand. She kept repeating to herself that it was rare to encounter such a motivated group of students and that she absolutely could not ruin this announcement. Only then did she suppress the urge to string Yan Changfeng up and beat her. However, her words clearly carried a hint of gritted teeth, and her gaze shifted from scanning the entire freshman body to staring solely at Yan Changfeng.
Yan Changfeng felt a bit guilty, but the Optical Computer lit up with more messages. Braving Yan Wenzhi’s murderous glare, she opened the messages once more.
Fuck Your Dam: [What books do you want?]
Yan Changfeng’s fingers flew as she replied, not forgetting to add an emoticon at the end.
Trash Picking Emperor 097: [Advanced Materials Science, Material Forging, The Past and Present of Materials… Crying Cat Head.jpg]
Trash Picking Emperor 097: [Send me the bill once you find them.]
Fuck Your Dam: [No rush… I’m not hurting for your few Star Coins.]
Inside the school library, Pei Shaoyang was leaning back in a sofa chair in a lordly posture, his eyelids half-drooping and dark circles under his eyes. He had just come out of the simulation training room and planned to borrow a book to use as a pillow. As soon as he opened his Optical Computer, he saw the message from Trash Picking Emperor 097.
Seeing as they were from the same academy, he had accepted the friend request without much thought.
“Advanced Materials Science?” Pei Shaoyang rubbed his chin. “Isn’t that a book for the Mech Manufacturing side? Is this junior a freshman in the Mech Manufacturing Department?”
On the training field, just as Yan Changfeng finished replying, she looked up to find that the speeches had stopped. Yan Wenzhi was staring at her with a livid face, while the nearby freshmen were frantically winking at her.
Another teacher on stage coughed awkwardly and repeated, “As the freshman representative of the Individual Soldier Department, does Student Yan Changfeng have anything she would like to say regarding the freshman assessment?”
Freshman representative of the Individual Soldier Department?
Yan Changfeng accepted this extra title quite well, her face perfectly calm as if she wasn’t the one who had just been caught red-handed.
She cleared her throat. “Just beat them up and be done with it.”
Yan Wenzhi fell silent for a moment. In the end, she didn’t mention that the speeches from the freshman representatives of each major were to be edited into a promotional video and broadcasted school-wide. After all, Yan Changfeng’s provocative words were already out; there was no way to stuff them back in.
And so, amidst the speeches of other freshman representatives who were exchanging “chicken soup” for the soul, Yan Changfeng stood out uniquely.
That day, no matter where Yan Changfeng went, she received extremely intense attention.
It wasn’t until she returned to her dormitory that she received a message from Ji Nian.
Ji Nian: [Beat them up?]
Yan Changfeng: [?]
Ji Nian directly sent a link. It was the freshman assessment promotional video released by the Blue Star Academy official website half a star hour ago. Because someone’s words were far too arrogant, teachers from other majors had specifically posted the video into their respective professional group chats.
By now, every freshman in Blue Star Academy knew that the representative of the Individual Soldier Department was going to lead the entire department to crush every other major.
Yan Changfeng was silent for a while before opening the Individual Soldier Department new student group she had muted. Sure enough, the pinned message was the promotional video forwarded by Yan Wenzhi. On the cover, she had her head lowered, looking extremely composed, but a line of subtitles was paired beneath her.
“Just beat them up and be done with it.”
People in the freshman group had already started tagging her.
“Representative Yan is badass, beat them up!”
“@Yan Changfeng, following the representative’s footsteps, let’s crush the other four majors.”
Yan Changfeng: The atmosphere had just been built up to that point; she was just blowing smoke.
Thinking this, Yan Changfeng typed out a line.
[Freshman assessment—crush them all.]
After chatting with Ji Nian for a few more minutes, Yan Changfeng received a message from the Shop Owner. She could go pick up her dagger now.
…
By the time Yan Changfeng arrived at the shop, the Shop Owner was forging a sword, already in the final casting stage. She tried to walk past him toward the inner room but was pulled into the forging room instead.
The Shop Owner shoved a hammer into Yan Changfeng’s hand. “You do it. Don’t smash it.”
Given the chance to use a long sword to practice her skills, Yan Changfeng naturally wouldn’t refuse. She stood before the forging bench and gripped the hammer. Before the hammer fell, she turned her head to look at the Shop Owner. “Old Zhang, how are we splitting the pay?”
Shop Owner: “Four-six split.”
Yan Changfeng raised an eyebrow. “That’s not very good, is it?”
“Stop dreaming. You get forty, I get sixty.”
Yan Changfeng sighed and returned her attention to the sword’s forging. Her hammering speed was extremely fast. Compared to the rhythmic tapping of other forgers, she looked more like she was playing house, striking here and there with no apparent methodical structure.
It took nearly three star hours for the long sword to be finished.
The Shop Owner leaned over to look. After checking the sword front and back, he turned and tossed it into the condensing furnace. The rising steam made a “hissing” sound, and the specially made glass cover blocked the mist. Within a few minutes, the patterns on the long sword became clearly visible.
“You changed the shape of the hilt?”
Yan Changfeng: “With a blade of this length, using the previous hilt was no longer appropriate.” If the Shop Owner hadn’t emphasized several times that she wasn’t allowed to mess with the blade itself, she would have even had the urge to adjust the blade.
The Shop Owner didn’t say anything to that, instead asking, “Who taught you your forging hammer technique?”
Yan Changfeng: “I told you, I’m self-taught.”
“Forget it if you don’t want to say.” The Shop Owner took out his Optical Computer. “The total reward is four million Star Coins. I’ll transfer it to you.”
Yan Changfeng had just taken out her Optical Computer when she was dazed by the figure of four million. “Four million? The reward for you forging once is ten million Star Coins? You forgers make that much money?”
The Shop Owner sneered, seemingly mocking Yan Changfeng for being a country bumpkin. “What did you think? I told you, my forging fees are very expensive. Ordinary people have to line up if they want me to forge for them.”
Yan Changfeng silently lamented.
*Hire me, I’m cheaper.*
She didn’t accept the four million Star Coins from the Shop Owner. Instead, she transferred the two million Star Coins already in her account over as well. “That’s six million Star Coins total. Help me find some better forging materials. I want a larger quantity this time; I want to forge a long sword.”
“Six million Star Coins is only enough for barely usable materials. Are you sure?”
In the eyes of a forging master, six million worth of materials was only good for making a prototype; they were works that couldn’t be shown in public. As for the materials worth a few hundred thousand that Yan Changfeng had asked for before, the Shop Owner usually treated them as trash. He hadn’t expected her to actually forge a decent-looking dagger out of them.
Yan Changfeng nodded. “I’m sure.”
She didn’t need extremely rare materials right now, as long as they felt right in her hand.
The Shop Owner understood her thoughts and shook his head. “According to your requirements, it’s not enough.”
Yan Changfeng sighed. “Forget it then. Just keep the money for now.”
Before leaving, Yan Changfeng asked one more thing. “Old Zhang, how many Star Coins does it cost to design and manufacture a mech?”
The Shop Owner glanced up and sized her up. “One hundred million.”
“…I want the cheapest one.”
“That *is* the cheapest one.” The Shop Owner had long known what kind of person Yan Changfeng was and didn’t think for a second she could produce that many Star Coins.
Yan Changfeng wasn’t satisfied. “Then how many Star Coins does the most expensive one cost?”
Shop Owner: “I’m afraid the answer would scare you to death.”
“Then forget it, don’t tell me.” Yan Changfeng counted the Star Coins in her account and immediately turned her attention back to the Shop Owner. “Boss, are you hiring?”
…
Yan Changfeng returned to the academy with her dagger. Her Optical Computer now had access to a forum called “Ghost Market Family.” On this forum, people would occasionally post various mission threads, ranging from finding people and seeking revenge to forming teams for underground matches.
She had only scrolled through a few pages before finding over a dozen posts offering heavy rewards for forging cold weapons. There weren’t many posts of this type, but since there were even fewer forgers capable of taking the missions, they had piled up. The earliest post was even from a year ago.
Yan Changfeng took a rough look. Most of them weren’t very difficult; she could handle them perfectly. The forging rewards were around five million Star Coins.
There were others where the forging fees were easily over ten million, but Yan Changfeng hadn’t heard of the required materials. She checked the Star Net and found that just one of the materials cost thirty million Star Coins. The rarer the material, the higher the requirements for the forger’s mental power and physique. Right now, she could at most act as an assistant. Yan Changfeng thought about it and forwarded these threads to the Shop Owner.
Little Sly and Slippery: [Do you want me to help you take these orders? I can assist you.]
Shop Owner: [?]
After sending a question mark, the Shop Owner didn’t reply for a long time. Yan Changfeng estimated that she could leave the campus three more times before the freshman assessment, so she accepted three simpler orders in the group.
By the time Yan Changfeng returned from her shower, over a dozen messages had popped up on her Optical Computer, all from the Shop Owner.
[Who told you to take those trash orders using my shop’s name?]
[Cancel those three orders and take three more expensive ones. I’ll pay the cancellation fee.]
[Never mind, I’ve already canceled those three orders you took and paid the cancellation fees for you. No need to thank me.]
[I’ve accepted those three orders you forwarded. We’ll still do a four-six split.]
[Where are you?]
…
Messages were still popping out. From the content, it was clear the Shop Owner’s mood was becoming increasingly irritable. Yan Changfeng didn’t even have time to dry her hair before she immediately replied.
Little Sly and Slippery: [I was away just now. I saw the messages. I’m free to come over next weekend.]
She shut off the Optical Computer and took out a Physique Enhancer, a Mental Power Enhancer, and several Nutrient Solutions from her space pocket. There was a watershed between D-class and E-class for physique and mental power. Since she had improved to dual D-class, the most obvious change was that she needed more energy.
The Nutrient Solutions that had overflowed from her card draws were half-gone after only a few days. And the enhancers that had once shown obvious effects were now merely flavored drinks that could restore her stamina and mental power.
Yan Changfeng opened the Star Net and searched for some discounted high-grade Nutrient Solutions. One bag cost 1,000 Star Coins. The effect was much worse than the system’s, but it was barely enough. She gritted her teeth and ordered 50 bags; the Star Coins in her account instantly dropped to single digits.
Just as Yan Changfeng was worrying about making money, a sound suddenly came from outside the window. She looked up only to see a black silhouette climbing in from outside.
Yan Changfeng: “?”
If she remembered correctly, this was the seventh floor!