Chapter 10

Qin Huang was somewhat surprised. He had heard his teacher mention this kind of precious mineral resource before. Even within the entire human civilization, it was considered an extremely important strategic material. Besides high-level mechs, it was also used in many large industrial equipment, starships, or certain strategic weapons!

"Could there really be a vein of this mineral on Dinas Star? If so, that would be great!" he said.

"Exactly!" Sha Zhenghai nodded in agreement.

"The school is currently sending people to investigate and confirm. If the situation is true, not only will we receive a substantial reward and more funding and resource support, but this not-so-important colony planet will also enter the vision of the federal upper echelons. Its future economic development will naturally be rapid!"

This was a fact. Any planet with important resources, no matter how remote, would always receive immediate attention from the government's upper echelons and receive development resources and financial support! Humans are profit-driven beings, and nothing can motivate them more than the opportunity to get rich.

The two chatted for a while. Sha Zhenghai said, "Alright! Since you're here, help me tidy up this big guy first. After we finish, let's see if we can get that component out, and then I'll teach you some mech maintenance techniques."

Naturally, Qin Huang did not refuse. He quickly changed into a work uniform in the changing room and went over to help.

This nearly brand new mech was the "Void Hunter" Type 3, a Bronze One Star, one of the few non-standard mechs the school had, which had only been issued a few months ago!

For such high-level equipment, the maintenance and care procedures could not be as casual as those for standard mass-produced models. It required specialized mechanics, a large amount of professional maintenance equipment, and strict operating procedures in a quiet, dust-free environment.

Of course, this was only in normal circumstances. Once on the battlefield, even the most precious equipment might not have such good maintenance conditions!

With the help of intelligent mechanical arms, Qin Huang carefully removed the optical detection module from the mech's back. He first performed demagnetization and noise reduction, then sealed it in an ultrasonic cleaner, pressed the switch, and performed a deep clean for two minutes before turning it off and removing it.

He wiped the component with a specially made dust-proof cloth, then connected it to a dedicated testing device to test the module's operating status. After confirming there were no issues, he reinstalled it and moved on to the next component.

This was not his first time doing this. He was thoroughly familiar with every component of this mech and the entire disassembly and maintenance process. His operations were smooth and orderly, and his skills were not much worse than those of a professional repairman.

It seemed that even if this guy couldn't become a high-level mobile warrior in the future, he could still find a decent job with this skill!

Working together, the group closely cooperated. After more than half an hour, all the components of the mech had been maintained and reassembled. Finally, Sha Zhenghai personally got into the mech to perform a test start, and the results showed everything was normal!

"Very good! It seems your skills have improved!" Sha Zhenghai said satisfactorily. After getting out of the cockpit and dismissing the assistants, he called Qin Huang to a nearby enclosed workshop and began to get to the point.

...

A sky-blue alloy component was suspended above the workbench by a repulsive magnetic field, slowly rotating. It looked like an irregular hollow sphere. Countless fine, pale blue light beams penetrated from the outside, delving into the interior of the sphere, occasionally emitting rhythmic flashes.

If a student with good eyesight were to look closely, they would see extremely intricate patterns on the surface of the sphere, layer upon layer, possibly dozens of layers deep, appearing magnificent and beautiful under the light. These were the already etched source energy matrix patterns!

Sha Zhenghai wore a large, green-gold mental energy sensing headband. More than ten mental energy enhancement auxiliary spheres slowly danced and rotated around him, emitting mental waves to send commands, controlling the precision instruments on the workbench to operate stably, and carefully processing the component in front of him.

Qin Huang stood beside him, using a high-magnification mental energy sensing microscope, and could see that the light beams were etching extremely fine source energy matrix patterns on the inner wall of the sphere, following a specific energy flow sequence, with precision reaching the nanometer level!

This was an important component of a Bronze mech, part of the defense module, which could significantly enhance the stability of the mech's energy shield and reduce energy consumption to some extent. In terms of design, it had already reached the Bronze Two Star level—if it could be successfully completed.

This was one of the main tasks of a creator, to etch specific source energy matrix patterns on specially made high-grade alloy components to enhance their performance and endow them with more powerful functions!

More powerful creators would independently draw and etch more complex and powerful source energy matrix patterns, smelt and process rare special metals, or even fuse and alter the specific arrangement and combination structure of metal molecules to obtain the high-performance equipment components they needed.

As creators became more powerful, they could independently design and manufacture powerful weapons and equipment, especially the important professional branch of mech creators. The powerful non-standard mechs were mostly created by them!

With the help of high-level creators, the mechs they meticulously crafted could possess far greater power than ordinary standard mechs, becoming formidable weapons on the battlefield that could even turn the tide of battle at critical moments!

Of course, there was no doubt that such a process was time-consuming and labor-intensive, with a difficulty level beyond imagination. Even experienced creators could not avoid multiple failures, causing the processing cost of each high-level mech module to skyrocket to an unimaginable level!

Due to the extremely fine and complex processing procedures of high-level mechs, they could not be mass-produced industrially and could only be handcrafted by creators! However, not just anyone could become a creator. It was a special high-end profession rarer than high-level source energy practitioners!

Without even mentioning other aspects, the extremely strict requirements for mental energy strength and stability alone were enough to exclude more than 99% of candidates! The remaining few, after extensive training and learning, and consuming an unimaginable amount of valuable resources, might have a chance to achieve some success in this profession!

The extremely high entry threshold led to a severe shortage of officially qualified creators, especially those skilled in high-end mech design and manufacturing, who were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns!

Qin Huang was not clear about other countries and organizations, but in the Yan Yun Federation, there were only two officially qualified Silver creators capable of manufacturing mechs, and they could only produce Silver series mechs. Higher levels required luck and an unimaginable amount of rare resources.

Qin Huang could see that with Teacher Sha Zhenghai's abilities, completing the processing of this high-level component was still somewhat challenging. According to his knowledge, there had already been four failures! This was the fifth attempt, and the progress was already 75.3% complete, but whether it could successfully reach the final step still depended on luck!

A few moments later, sweat began to bead on Sha Zhenghai's forehead, and his breathing became increasingly irregular. The stability of the mental energy output on the instrument showed a slight fluctuation, and Qin Huang's heart also became tense.

Sure enough, as he had expected, after barely holding on for a few dozen seconds, a few fine sparks suddenly appeared inside the sphere, and the already faintly formed matrix patterns dimmed, indicating that this attempt had failed again!

"Ah! I knew it..." The half-baked creator sighed helplessly, stopped his actions, and angrily removed the mental energy control headband, tossing the scrapped component aside.

A high-grade component worth tens of thousands of star coins was thus wasted! Fortunately, the metal material could still be recycled, which could somewhat offset the loss. If it were non-recyclable rare materials, a failure would mean a significant loss!

But this was reality. The powerful capabilities of high-level mechs were well-known, and they could not be obtained as easily as cabbages! Even legendary god-level creators could not avoid making mistakes and had to go through countless failures, relying on substantial financial and material resources, to produce a limited number of finished products!

A creator capable of independently designing and manufacturing non-standard mechs, even at the lowest Bronze level, was a highly valued strategic talent, who would receive exceptional treatment and various favorable conditions in any major country or organization!

In other words, without a solid economic foundation, it was impossible to cultivate a true creator! Sha Zhenghai himself was not particularly wealthy, but he had the confidence to continuously invest in this field, suggesting there were some unknown reasons behind it.

"I won't believe I can't get this done!" After taking an organic biological recovery agent and resting for a moment, Sha Zhenghai took a new component from the safe and gritted his teeth, determined to start again.

"Teacher, why don't I handle the initial steps of the process?" Qin Huang quickly offered.

"Right, otherwise, what's the point of taking you as a student?" Sha Zhenghai grunted, tossing the component to him.

This was not the first time. To save mental energy and also to train his student, certain low-risk, relatively easy-to-complete procedures were always handled by Qin Huang.

In other words, he was now a creator apprentice, though his teacher's level was not very high!

The young man put on the mental energy enhancement equipment, started the workbench according to the operating procedures, and began to work carefully and meticulously.