Interstellar Competition

"Zhou Zhou, want to come to Hu Manduo's dorm tonight? We can watch the Interstellar Competition livestream together!"

Your friend Lu Xiaoxiao extended an enthusiastic invitation.

"I prepared lots of delicious food."

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

Ever since he had seen Zhou Zhou and Xiao Xiao eating at his place last time, Hu Manduo had been deeply shocked.

Following the principle that he could not eat meat while making his friends drink soup, he had asked his dad to send back plenty of food during a video call.

Hu Manduo's mother had already been unwilling to let her son attend school on a D-Class Star Block. When she heard about it, she gave her husband a thorough beating and directly arranged for someone to deliver a storage canister. It contained dozens of square meters' worth of food.

"Interstellar Competition? A livestream?"

Zhou Yi had never heard of such a competition before.

"Yeah, the teacher told us about it last week. All students currently enrolled in mech schools can sign up, and the competition is held on New Star Continent! The teacher said it gets incredibly intense every year. The top ten not only get recruited by many military forces, but also receive extremely generous rewards!"

Only star blocks ranked A-Class and below were named with letters and numbers. S-class Star Blocks were comparatively rare and valuable, and each had its own name.

For example, the Interstellar Competition was held every year on the S-class Star Block known as New Star Continent.

Lu Xiaoxiao had plenty to say about the Interstellar Competition. Ever since learning about the livestream, she had been eagerly awaiting today.

"What kind of rewards?"

Zhou Yi was not particularly interested in joining the military yet, but she was very interested in rewards.

Although she had a mech now, she still needed a great many materials if she wanted to continue modifying it.

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

"Usually, they're rare materials or high-grade star treasures. Sometimes there might even be an S-Class Mech. One year, the reward was even a chance to have a Star Weaver bestow star patterns upon a mech!"

Hu Manduo clearly knew quite a bit about the competition. The moment rewards were mentioned, he became much more talkative. Especially when he mentioned giving a mech star patterns, his tiny eyes practically lit up.

"A Star Weaver actually took part in the rewards!"

Lu Xiaoxiao said in surprise.

For a student competition like this, a Star Weaver would actually participate in giving out rewards.

"The student who receives a reward from a Star Weaver would be so honored! It's something worth bragging about for a lifetime!"

The number of shining eyes went from two to four.

"Is awakening star patterns for a mech really an even better reward than an S-Class Mech?"

Zhou Yi asked. She had always known that Star Weavers seemed to be an especially revered profession in the interstellar world, but she had never fully understood why people admired them so much.

"Of course! You have to know that people form attachments to their mechs. Even if they initially buy a low-level basic mech, they will later upgrade it themselves by replacing materials or energy devices. After a long period of modification, the mech becomes highly compatible with its user. Since the process consumes too many precious materials, very few people are willing to replace their mech.

When it came to mechs, Hu Manduo became talkative again.

"As long as the materials and energy devices are in place, a mech can always be upgraded. S-Class Mechs aren't rare, but improving one beyond S-Class is far too difficult. But if you give a mech star patterns, it can improve without limits. As long as the Star Weaver is skilled enough, the mech can become even stronger!"

"Star Weavers not only possess growth-type star patterns themselves and are geniuses, but they can also bring a mech from nothing into existence. They can create star patterns more precious than precious materials themselves. They're magicians! Creators! The most valuable treasure in the entire universe!"

Zhou Yi understood. Hu Manduo was simply a rabid Star Weaver fan. Since meeting him, Zhou Yi had never seen him so excited.

Still, after hearing Hu Manduo explain it that way, she seemed to understand why everyone admired Star Weavers so much.

Precious materials were hard to come by, but Star Weavers could create mech star patterns that replaced those materials and raised a mech's level. It was nothing short of a miracle.

In a Star Weaver's hands, even a mech close to being scrapped could become the strongest fighting machine, as long as it still had an energy device and could still move.

Put that way, they really were impressive.

Infected by the emotions of the two people before her, Zhou Yi suddenly became a little excited too.

"Does anyone from our school compete?"

The generous rewards had made Zhou Yi interested in the competition.

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

The excited Xiao Xiao immediately grew dejected again at the mention of their school.

The gap between schools really was enormous. Students at other schools owned A-Class Mechs themselves, while at Huadun, the entire school could not even produce a single A-Class Mech.

"Having an A-Class Mech is useless anyway. The ones who make it to the finals all have S-Class Mechs."

Hu Manduo added. He did not look dejected at all, still immersed in his deep admiration for Star Weavers.

"I see."

Hearing that they were all A-Class and S-Class Mechs made Zhou Yi even more interested.

"Let's watch it together tonight."

Zhou Yi had originally planned to go to the library's secret base that night and properly spend some time bonding with the mech of her dreams.

But the sudden Interstellar Competition had thrown her plans into disarray.

There would always be time to bond, but there was only one livestream a week.

At seven that evening, Zhou Yi, Lu Xiaoxiao, and Hu Manduo sat together on the sofa in Hu Manduo's dorm. The table was covered with all kinds of food, while the Star Brain projected the livestream into the air as a massive screen. The three watched without blinking.

"So many people!"

The livestream was split between many different camera feeds. Hu Manduo randomly selected one, and all they could see was an endless sea of people.

"This is the first elimination round. There will be fewer people during next month's group stage."

There were four elimination rounds in total, one each week, conducted in the form of arena matches.

The reigning contestant defended the arena and accepted challenges.

A loss meant immediate elimination. Win three matches to advance. If no one challenged you, you advanced directly as well.

"That's unfair! The reigning contestant's mech is already on the arena, so won't the people below just pick whoever looks weakest?"

Lu Xiaoxiao protested against the unfairness.

Although mechs could be modified into all sorts of bizarre forms, most could still be judged by their appearance as to whether they were powerful or not.

"Or if someone has a powerful, famous mech, wouldn't no one dare challenge them, letting them advance directly?"

Lu Xiaoxiao, angel of justice, escalated her protest.

"Exactly. This competition was based on survival of the fittest anyway. The weak get eliminated first. Nothing wrong with that."

Looking at the vast crowd and thinking about how many high-grade mechs she would get to see, Zhou Yi became more and more excited.