Interstellar Competition

"Zhou Zhou, want to come over to Hu Manduo's dorm tonight and watch the Interstellar Competition live stream with us?"

Your friend Lu Xiaoxiao enthusiastically invited.

"I've prepared a lot of delicious food."

Hu Manduo looked at Zhou Yi with sincere eyes, really hoping his friend would come over to his dorm.

Ever since he saw Zhou Zhou and Xiaoxiao eating at his place last time, Hu Manduo had been greatly impressed.

Adhering to the principle of not letting friends just drink soup while he ate meat, he had his dad mail a lot of food over when they had their video call.

Hu Ma, who already didn't want her son to attend school on a D-class Star Block, overheard this. She gave her husband a good beating and directly hired someone to send over a storage container. Inside, spanning dozens of square meters, it was filled entirely with food.

"Interstellar Competition? Live stream?"

Zhou Yi had never heard of such a competition before.

"Yeah, the teacher told us about it last week. Said all students currently attending mech schools can sign up, and the competition is on New Star Continent! The teacher said the competition is incredibly fierce every year. The top ten not only get approached by many military factions directly, but they also receive very generous rewards!"

Only Star Blocks ranked A and below are named with numbers. S-class Star Blocks are relatively rare and precious, with each having its own name.

For example, the S-class Star Block New Star Continent is where the Interstellar Competition is held every year.

Lu Xiaoxiao had a lot to say about the Interstellar Competition. She had been looking forward to today ever since she found out about the live stream.

"What kind of rewards?"

Zhou Yi wasn't particularly interested in joining the military at the moment, but she was very interested in the rewards.

Although she had a Mech now, she still needed a lot of materials to continue modifying it.

The better the materials, the stronger the Mech's combat power.

"Generally, it's some rare materials, high-level Star Treasures, and sometimes even S-class Mechs. One year, the reward was even a chance to imbue a Mech with Star Weave!"

Clearly, Hu Manduo had some understanding of this competition. When mentioning the rewards, Hu Manduo immediately became more talkative, especially when he heard about the chance to imbue a Mech with Star Weave, his small eyes were practically shining.

"A Star Weaver Master is actually involved in the rewards!"

Lu Xiaoxiao exclaimed in surprise.

For a student competition like this, a Star Weaver would actually participate in rewarding students.

"How glorious would it be for the student who receives a reward from a Star Weaver Master? It's something worth bragging about for a lifetime!"

The shining eyes went from two to four.

"Is imbuing a Mech with Star Weave an even better reward than an S-class Mech?"

Zhou Yi asked. She had always known that Star Weavers seemed to be a particularly revered profession in the interstellar world, but she hadn't fully understood why people admired them so much.

"Of course! You have to understand that people develop feelings for their Mechs. Even if they initially bought a low-level basic Mech, they'll later upgrade it themselves by replacing materials or energy units. After a long process of modification, the Mech and its user have very high compatibility. Because this process consumes so many precious materials, very few people are willing to change Mechs."

When talking about Mechs, Hu Manduo's chatter started up again.

"As long as you have the materials and energy units, a Mech can always be upgraded. S-class Mechs aren't uncommon, but it's incredibly difficult to improve upon an S-class one. However, if you imbue a Mech with Star Weave, it can be upgraded without limits. As long as the Star Weaver is skilled enough, the Mech can become even more powerful!"

"Star Weavers not only possess growth-type Star Weaves themselves, making them geniuses, but they can also bring Mechs from zero to one. They are the ones who can create Star Weaves more precious than rare materials. They are magicians! Creators! The most valuable asset in the entire universe!"

Zhou Yi understood. It turned out Hu Manduo was a complete fanboy of Star Weavers. In all the time Zhou Yi had known him, she had never seen him get so excited.

However, listening to Hu Manduo say this, she felt she could finally understand why everyone revered Star Weavers so much.

Precious materials were hard to come by, but Star Weavers could inherently create Star Weaves that replaced precious materials to upgrade Mechs. This was nothing short of a miracle.

In the hands of a Star Weaver, a Mech that was close to being scrapped, as long as it still had its energy unit and could move, could be transformed into the most powerful combat machine.

Thinking about it that way, it was indeed very impressive.

Infected by the emotions of the two people in front of her, Zhou Yi suddenly felt a bit excited too.

"Does our school have anyone participating?"

The generosity of the rewards made Zhou Yi interested in this competition.

"Who at our school is qualified to sign up? The most basic requirement is that participants must have an A-class Mech."

Xiaoxiao, who had been excited, became dejected again when she mentioned her school.

The gap between schools was truly immense. Students at other schools owned A-class Mechs themselves, but at Huadun, the entire school couldn't find a single A-class Mech.

"Having an A-class Mech is useless; in the end, only S-class Mechs make it to the finals."

Hu Manduo added. He didn't seem dejected at all, still immersed in his profound admiration for the Star Weaver Masters.

"I see."

Hearing that it was all A-class and S-class Mechs, Zhou Yi became even more interested.

"Let's watch together tonight."

Zhou Yi's original plan for the evening was to go to the library's secret base and spend some quality time cultivating her relationship with her dream Mech.

But the sudden appearance of the Interstellar Competition completely disrupted Zhou Yi's plans.

She could cultivate her relationship with her Mech anytime, but the live stream only happened once a week.

At 7 PM, Zhou Yi, Lu Xiaoxiao, and Hu Manduo were all sitting on the sofa in Hu Manduo's dorm. The table was filled with all sorts of food. The Star Brain projected the live stream onto the air, forming a large screen, and the three of them watched intently.

"So many people!"

The livestream was split into many camera feeds. Hu Manduo casually picked one, and all he saw were crowds and crowds of people.

"This is the first elimination match. There will be fewer people in the group stage next month."

There were a total of four elimination matches, one per week, conducted in a King of the Hill format.

The reigning champion defended their spot against challengers.

Losing meant immediate elimination, while winning three matches meant advancement. If no one challenged them, they also advanced directly.

"This isn't fair! The champion's Mech is already on the stage, so the people below can just pick out whoever has the weaker Mech!"

Lu Xiaoxiao protested the unfairness.

While Mechs could be modified in countless ways, most of them could still be judged by their appearance to determine their strength.

"Or, those with stronger, more famous Mechs won't be challenged and will advance directly!"

Lu Xiaoxiao, the angel of justice, escalated her protest.

"Yeah, this game is inherently about survival of the fittest. The weak get picked off first, no problem there."

Looking at the sea of people and thinking about seeing so many high-level Mechs, Zhou Yi grew more and more excited.