Chapter 25

Zhang Yuan opened his seafood mixed noodles, intending to fill his stomach first before doing anything else.

Unexpectedly, the man sitting opposite him caught the scent of the food, and his Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.

"Do you want some? I can share half with you."

"Ah, thank you! I've been struggling to decide which treasures to bring on the journey, and I completely forgot to eat."

Having shared a meal, the two of them quickly became acquainted.

This guy's name was Ye Kaifu, and his educational background was the same as his—just an undergraduate degree.

But the most crucial thing was that he was an "Eighth-Level Machinist," proficient in the manufacturing of all kinds of manual crafts.

Zhang Yuan was curious now: "Is that the kind of... profession where you can file an iron ball out of a block?"

An eighth-level machinist—he wondered how much that paid?

Needless to say, it was definitely higher than his own salary!

"It's not just filing a ball, but using basic tools like files, cutters, and polishers to grind a cubic block of iron into a sphere. The margin of error can only be a hair's breadth—that is, the precision of a single strand of human hair. If you manage that, you pass and are considered an eighth-level."

"The precision of a hair? That sounds quite difficult; you can only rely on the perception of your own hands to measure it."

"It's manageable if you're skilled enough, but if you need even higher precision, you have to rely on advanced machinery."

"Impressive!"

"Not at all, there are plenty of people better than me... there are even ninth-level and tenth-level machinists."

Zhang Yuan sighed inwardly; everyone on the Earth Era had a specialized skill, and he might just be the most mediocre of them all...

Of course, that was the old him.

These types of high-level machinists were cultivated specifically to quickly restart civilization. The spacecraft had limited cargo capacity, so it was impossible to bring every type of industrial machine tool on board. Certain parts could only be crafted by hand.

One should never underestimate the power of humanity itself.

Swallowing the mixed noodles in a few bites, Zhang Yuan stared at the group of metal creations to study them.

He was also a mechanical enthusiast and had participated in robot competitions during his university days.

His programming skills were decent, but because his hands-on ability was so poor, he had crashed and burned in a rather unglamorous fashion.

Ye Kaifu was beaming, his eyes shining with excitement.

Once he started talking about his treasures, it was as if someone had scratched his itch: "This was my entry for the ESL Robot Competition, this one was for the national competition, and this... this... #...%;"

"Did you file all of these yourself?"

"How could I? The sensors and other parts were purchased, but most of the components were indeed made by hand."

"What about the robot programming?"

"Uh, I did most of that myself too..." Ye Kaifu's expression became slightly unnatural as he said this.

Because...

When he was in college, he had accidentally become a "simp."

Whenever he participated in competitions, he always brought his "girlfriend" and her "male best friend," which was essentially one pro carrying two dead weights.

But no matter how talented one person is, there is still a limit to what they can do.

Therefore, he had never won a first-place prize.

In the end, the simp was left with nothing.

In a fit of pique, he simply left that heartbreaking world behind.

Zhang Yuan smiled and said: "Don't regret it, first place is so hard to get... I participated too, and I didn't get a damn thing!"

As they chatted, Zhang Yuan picked up something that looked like a mechanical arm and examined it curiously.

Its appearance was quite good, possessing a texture full of metallic strength; it would be more than enough to use as a movie prop.

He weighed it carefully—good heavens, it was nearly twenty kilograms!

Designing this mechanical arm must have taken a lot, a lot of time. And making it actually move was no small feat.

This guy was a real academic powerhouse!

Ye Kaifu wore a look of pride on his face: "...This is a power armor I spent four months making. It won second place in the Galaxy Awards, and it was even borrowed for the movie Terminator 100!"

"Power armor?"

"Actually, I only made one arm. You perform an action, and it will mimic the same movement. Want to play with it?"

"Let's try!"

Zhang Yuan put on a very tight leather glove with interest, which covered his hand all the way to his wrist.

There was an electric wire on the leather glove connected to the iron arm.

After flipping the switch, a sound of mechanical rotation rang out, just like a motor starting up.

Ye Kaifu adjusted it: "It's ready, you can move now."

Zhang Yuan tried to clench his five fingers into a fist.

A series of mechanical whirring sounds followed, and the iron arm mimicked the motion, clenching its five fingers into a fist as well.

He relaxed his fingers, and the iron arm did the same.

He asked curiously, "This leather glove is a pressure sensor, right? Is it that famous MIA Pressure Sensing System?"

"Exactly!" Faced with someone who knew their stuff, Ye Kaifu became even more enthusiastic, rattling off various technical parameters.

"Try crushing this." He picked up a soda can and held it out in front of the mechanical arm.

Zhang Yuan carefully moved his arm, and the iron arm followed suit, extending and shifting to gently grasp the can before applying force with its five fingers.

Crackle—

The soda can let out a gut-wrenching screech as it was crushed into a metal disc.

"The maximum grip strength can reach 320 kilograms, while an average person's grip strength is only about 50 to 60 kilograms."

Ye Kaifu wiped the sweat from his face and asked, "How does it feel after trying it out?"

"Don't tell me the advantages, only the flaws; otherwise, I won't be able to make up my mind to scrap it. I can't possibly take this thing into space."

"You really want the flaws?" Zhang Yuan scratched his head. "I'm not sure how to put it..."

"Go ahead, go ahead, don't be polite!"

"Uh, operating it feels a bit like driving an excavator..."

"First, there's no feedback to the human body. If I don't look with my eyes, I have no idea if this iron hand has grabbed anything, nor do I know how much force I'm using. Compared to the human body, it lacks tactile sensation, which is very inconvenient."

Ye Kaifu nodded. "Indeed, there is no human-machine interaction; you have to rely on your eyes to estimate how to grab things."

Zhang Yuan continued, "Second, I don't seem to have a way to control the grip strength. I crushed the can instantly... when I actually just wanted to pick it up gently."

"That is true."

"Third, this thing seems to have a slight delay, and it doesn't move very smoothly. The distance the mechanical hand moves seems a bit different from the distance I move... how should I put it, it's not very precise."

Although Ye Kaifu felt annoyed, he had to admit that what Zhang Yuan said made sense.

Besides, he was the one who asked for the criticism, so he couldn't blame anyone else.

He hung his head. "Sigh, you're right, that's why it only won second prize. Let's just abandon it."

"Goodbye, baby, see you in the next life..."

He picked up the mechanical arm and placed it into a box.

Zhang Yuan felt a bit embarrassed; had he been too honest? He had made the thing sound worthless.

He quickly added, "The model you built is actually quite good. The gears have backlash when moving, and the friction varies at different angles; the design difficulty is very high. Being able to achieve this much is already quite impressive."

"A good model, so what? It actually doesn't have much technical substance, it's just time-consuming." Ye Kaifu shook his head and sighed, sinking into the sorrow of losing his 'harem' and unable to pull himself out...

Seeing this, Zhang Yuan said no more and put the matter to the back of his mind.

Since he had nothing to do anyway, he might as well study. Studying always brought a sense of happiness.

"What should I study..."

The knowledge he had learned in the past flashed through his mind.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he remembered an interesting idea from his father's tablet.

<Research on Motion Mapping of Full-Body Action Robots>!