Applying What You've Learned

Zhou Yi already had the simplest Mech Master materials memorized, but for the more difficult books, unless he could actually try it himself, he wouldn't be able to truly understand them.

Zhou Yi roughly inventoried the mechs in the warehouse. Most of them were damaged parts, and it was impossible to tell which belonged to the same body.

There were five mechs that were mostly intact and could stand on their own. Among these five, one was extremely complete, its surface even looking brand new, making it impossible to tell what damage had caused it to be scrapped.

These standing mechs were all about three meters tall, almost four meters. Zhou Yi's thin, one-meter-seventy frame seemed incredibly frail in comparison.

Fortunately, after cultivating the Star Gathering Art for so long, coupled with the energy absorbed from the energy pod during his last Star Weave awakening, Zhou Yi's body had been significantly strengthened. His strength was several times that of boys his age.

She selected a slightly damaged mech from the standing ones, the one that appeared to be the smallest, and then hugged it with both arms, trying to lift it.

"One, two, three!"

Zhou Yi gritted his teeth and cheered himself on.

But clearly, it was her first time interacting with a mech, and she had misjudged its weight.

After trying to lift it for a long time, the mech didn't budge.

Fine, she'd give up.

Since lifting it didn't work, she decided to drag it instead. Zhou Yi immediately changed her strategy, hugging the mech and changing the direction of her force, dragging it towards the open space in the center.

With all her might, the mech finally moved about a meter thanks to Zhou Yi's efforts.

This was even after the heaviest parts, the energy unit and all weapon components, had been removed. If the mech had been fully armed, even two Zhou Yis wouldn't have been able to move it.

Zhou Yi frowned as she looked at her arms, veins bulging from the excessive exertion. She immediately decided that she needed to eat more and exercise more from now on.

She had fully realized that being a Mech Master wasn't just a job that required brains; it was also a physically demanding one.

After all, without some strength, she couldn't even move a mech's parts.

And so, moving a meter, resting for a bit, moving another meter, resting again, Zhou Yi finally managed to move the mech to the central open space.

She backed up about seven or eight meters, then charged forward and delivered a flying kick to the mech, putting all her strength into a single point on its waist.

With a boom, the three-meter-tall behemoth fell to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust that made Zhou Yi cough.

She had read in books that the mech's waist was a relatively weak point. During combat, as long as this point was used as the fulcrum, it would be difficult for the mech to remain standing.

With Zhou Yi's strength, although she couldn't move the giant, finding the right spot made it quite easy to kick a mech that had lost its energy unit, was unmanned, and had aging parts.

After finally getting the mech positioned facing the way she wanted, she could finally begin her research.

There was a reason she hadn't chosen the most complete mech. Zhou Yi felt that she was still a complete novice when it came to mechs, so practicing with a more ordinary one wouldn't be as heartbreaking.

Zhou Yi knelt in front of the behemoth, completely disregarding the thick layer of dust that had accumulated on the warehouse floor, which hadn't seen a person in a long time.

Her hands traced inch by inch from the top of the mech, her eyes gleaming with a fanatical light.

She had to admit, she looked quite... unseemly like this, almost like a hooligan.

Not all mechs were humanoid. The ultimate goal of any mech was to maximize combat effectiveness.

But even though their forms varied, their structures were generally similar.

They needed feet for walking and running, and two arms equipped with weapons.

The two arms would typically be equipped with two types of weapons: one for close combat, such as blades, drills, or spikes for physical attacks, and another for ranged attacks, usually lasers, like laser cannons.

A left laser cannon and a right sharp weapon was a fairly conventional configuration.

But the mech in front of Zhou Yi now had empty sockets on both sides.

It was likely that the weapon mounts were undamaged and still had some value, so they had been dismantled and repurposed.

The mech's chest was covered by a layer of iron plating. Zhou Yi tapped it with her knuckles; it sounded hollow.

Her fingers nimbly explored the surrounding area and found a small buckle in a hidden location.

"So this is the buckle they talked about in the books."

Zhou Yi explored, cross-referencing the knowledge in the book.

With a physical object in front of her, the previously difficult concepts suddenly became much simpler.

Applying force in the opposite direction with her fingertips, using a bit of leverage, the buckle was opened.

Finding five more such hidden buckles and opening them all, Zhou Yi lifted the entire iron plate on the mech's chest, revealing a square-shaped opening.

The opening wasn't large; Zhou Yi knew it was where the energy unit was housed.

Although it was called an energy unit, the mech didn't rely entirely on it for power. Instead, it was primarily driven by the user's Star Power.

For a humanoid mech like this, the pilot would enter from the back, their limbs extending normally into the mech's corresponding limbs, maintaining a standing posture.

When the person moved, the mech moved, and Star Power was unleashed with the person's actions.

Mechs that were not humanoid were called alien-form mechs. Generally, the pilot would sit inside, not needing to move, and the mech would be operated entirely by Star Power.

Generally, apart from some alien-form mechs with very unique designs and extremely high combat power, most mechs were humanoid, possessing heads and limbs.

"If only I had an energy crystal to study right now," Zhou Yi said, looking at the empty compartment with a hint of dissatisfaction.

But that was naturally impossible. Energy crystals were extremely precious, and they were consumable energy sources.

To put it simply, energy crystals are crystals that have reached 100% purity. The entire Alliance hasn't found many mines capable of yielding 100% pure crystals.

Most crystal mines are like the one on the D72 Star Block, with extremely high impurity levels, only suitable for building materials.

A small portion of slightly purer crystals are made into crystal coins and used as currency.

An even smaller fraction of higher purity crystals are used as materials for energy pods.

Meanwhile, 100% pure energy crystals are almost entirely monopolized by the Alliance, and ordinary people can hardly ever see them.

A single energy crystal is even more precious than an entire mech.

If a mech is scrapped, the energy crystal would naturally be removed and recycled.

Zhou Yi was completely immersed in everything before him, flipping through the book as he began to dismantle the mech in his hands.

Compared to the exterior, the internal mechanisms of a mech are the truly important part for a Mech Master.

The external structure's hardness largely depends on the materials used, while the internal structure determines flexibility, where a Mech Master's abilities become crucial.

I'll be a little late tonight, but I'll try my best to update on time at 8 PM from now on~