Energy Detector

Soon Mu Yang realized his worry was unnecessary—in fact, what he truly should have been worried about was something else entirely.

As he held the lens-like object in his hand and examined it, suddenly, a "beep" sounded. The moment the lens-like item touched his skin, it seemed to automatically complete its charging, and on the pale green lens, a string of symbols of unknown meaning appeared.

Mu Yang was startled. Watching the activated detector, his heart skipped a beat.

He knew that many alien detectors came with communication functions. Now that this lens-shaped detector had powered on, would it expose Earth's location?

Although Earth's position in the universe was no secret, and many interstellar forces looked down on low-level planets like Earth, sending out a signal recklessly was never a good thing. If it actually attracted aliens, that would be disastrous. With Earth's current battle power, it likely couldn't withstand an alien invasion.

Then again, not all detectors had communication capabilities. And, as expected of alien high-tech, it had survived so many years without breaking down.

Mu Yang sighed inwardly. He took another look at the lens and noticed that the reading on it hadn't changed since it powered on.

He studied the characters carefully and found only a short line. The symbols were few—just four digits. Besides the lens and the mounting bracket, the entire detector was very compact. After fiddling with it for a while, he couldn't find any button or antenna for switching to voice communication.

After some thought, Mu Yang decided not to worry about whether he could understand the symbols on the lens. He put the lens back into the metal box, then continued searching the spaceship for a while. Confirming there was nothing else useful, he picked up the box and left the crescent-shaped canyon.

He hurried along, dodging the predatory gazes of countless wild beasts, and rushed back like a fleeting shadow.

The moon hung like a silver disk, and countless stars twinkled in the sky.

Mu Yang returned to his dwelling.

Under the dim candlelight, he opened the metal box again and picked up one of the lenses.

"Beep!" "Beep!" "Beep!" Sensing the heat from his skin, the lens automatically activated again, quickly displaying a string of data.

The reading was the same as before—very little data, just a single string of characters.

Not understanding it didn't matter, because Mu Yang had roughly deduced that this was something like an energy detector. Data display followed a pattern, whether decimal or binary—that was a basic rule.

Carefully observing the data on the lens, he aimed it at himself and gradually raised the energy within his body. Sure enough, the symbol at the end changed. And as the data jumped, it showed a certain alternating pattern.

Mu Yang transcribed each symbol onto paper and studied them seriously. Soon he discovered that the characters were actually divided into four sections, each representing a digit.

So far, the first two digits had never changed.

Fortunately, Mu Yang had once been an electrician and had studied the principles of digital circuits. At least that gave him a thread to unravel the puzzle.

"Regardless of the base system, I can deduce it from the data fluctuations."

After repeated experiments, Mu Yang confirmed that the last digit of the lens had sixteen possible variations. In other words, the data displayed on the lens was likely hexadecimal.

Comparing the symbols on the lens to the hexadecimal he knew, Mu Yang aimed it at himself and measured a maximum energy value.

"Beep!"

A string of data appeared on the lens. Replacing those characters with Earth's hexadecimal gave "002F."

Converting to decimal—"47."

That meant Mu Yang's current energy number, or "Battle Power," was 47 points.

"This data isn't bad—at least it's not low among Earthlings."

Mu Yang smacked his lips as he looked at the data. He remembered that a year ago, when he had first transmigrated, his Battle Power was probably less than 15. In one year, it had nearly tripled—that was no small feat.

"Now I have a concrete data reference. Training will be much clearer. I just wonder if this matches the universal Battle Power calculation method. It should be close."

Compared to the energy detectors of Frieza's forces in the original story, Mu Yang's detector lacked a geographic positioning function. And from the monotonous character display, it probably didn't have communication capabilities either. Clearly, this was just a simple energy detector. But correspondingly, its detection range seemed broader—if all four hexadecimal digits were maxed out, the upper limit could detect about 65,000 Battle Power.

To be honest, Mu Yang could only make the last two digits of the detector fluctuate slightly.

Then Mu Yang smiled faintly, his heart surging with enthusiasm.

This was a quantified comparison. Before, he knew he was growing every day, but how much he had grown was vague. With this energy detector, it was like playing a game—watching his level rise steadily. This intuitive feedback made Mu Yang feel even more motivated.

In the martial arts building, Aisafu sat facing Mu Yang.

After the weekly instruction session ended, Aisafu kept Mu Yang behind alone.

"Teacher." Mu Yang nodded slightly at Aisafu.

Earlier, he had used the detector to test Aisafu and the other elders. In their daily state, their data ranged between sixty and seventy, with Teacher Aisafu's being the highest at 74. But knowing the characteristics of Earth's martial artists, Mu Yang didn't think this was their maximum Battle Power.

If they truly went all out, Aisafu's Battle Power might exceed 80.

"Have you encountered any difficulties in your training lately?" Aisafu asked with a smile.

"Your disciple feels fine so far. I haven't hit any bottlenecks," Mu Yang replied.

"Hmm." Aisafu nodded, then his expression turned serious. "Mu Yang, in about three years, a grand martial arts tournament will be held on Maple Leaf Island in the southern region. Martial arts masters from all over the world will gather there."

"This is a rare training opportunity. Your teacher means for you to represent the Tianxin Style and participate."

"A martial arts tournament gathering masters from all over the world?" Mu Yang's heart stirred violently. That was none other than the World's Number One Martial Arts Tournament.

"Teacher, please tell me the details of the tournament," Mu Yang said quickly.

Aisafu chuckled lightly. "Even if you didn't ask, I would have explained it to you in detail." He smiled calmly at Mu Yang and cleared his throat.

"Speaking of that tournament, its full name is the 'World's Number One Martial Arts Tournament.' It has actually been held for many editions. At first, it was just a private exchange between top schools. But as the scope of exchange expanded over the years, the tournament has become more and more grand. Now it is mainly hosted by renowned schools, but the participants have expanded to the entire martial arts world."

"The tournament in three years will be the 11th World's Number One Martial Arts Tournament."

"In previous editions, our Tianxin Style lacked the strength to send disciples to participate. You are the most outstanding of the new generation, so your teacher hopes you can represent the Tianxin Style. It doesn't matter if you achieve good results—consider it a training opportunity."

Aisafu explained patiently. In his estimation, if Mu Yang trained diligently over the next three years, achieving good results in the World's Number One Martial Arts Tournament shouldn't be difficult. But winning the championship would be too hard.

Aisafu's expectations weren't high—just making it to the Top Eight would be excellent. However, Aisafu didn't know that his assessment of Mu Yang was actually an underestimation.