"Bauer's Iron Box runs on a low-grade energy core array," Homa said. "The configuration is an eight-by-eight large array—sixty-four cores total. Pretty much the top-end setup. Most of the mech-fighting units in town, and even some of the armored vehicles, use the same basic scheme. They just don't necessarily have that many cores."
"So after almost every mech fight, those competing machines inevitably need repairs on their energy arrays."
"Bauer just fought an opening match last night. You saw the result yourself. He won, and the machine itself didn't take much damage, but more than a dozen low-grade energy cores in the array got scrapped in one go..."
"I see." Jiang Qi nodded, secretly swallowing before asking as casually as he could, "By the way... what do you usually do with those scrapped energy cores?"
"What else would we do? Repair them, of course." Homa sighed. "Cannibalize the good parts from one to patch another. You can always salvage a few that way. Anything that's beyond repair just gets dismantled into raw materials."
The moment he heard that, Jiang Qi's heart leapt.
Just as he thought.
Without a sufficient industrial base, when wastelanders wanted to repair something from Tiangong, most of the time all they could do was gather more of the same type and patch one with parts from another.
"Well... actually, I'm pretty good at repairing low-grade energy cores," Jiang Qi said tentatively.
"Hm? You know how?" Homa turned to look at him, mildly surprised. "Self-taught?"
Jiang Qi nodded. "Yeah. Besides scavenging, I usually do small repair jobs for other scavengers on the side to earn extra money. Damaged energy cores are what I've worked on the most."
"So what you're saying is..." Homa looked Jiang Qi up and down. "You're actually hoping to pick up some part-time work here?"
"If that's possible." Jiang Qi flashed what he believed was a very sunny smile. "After all, nobody wants to spend every day soaking in a garbage dump that reeks to high heaven, right?"
"Heh. Honest words, at least." Homa smiled. "You don't look bad to me, kid, so I'll give you a chance. Come with me."
With that, Homa walked toward the back of the workshop.
This was the working area, filled with tools and equipment of all sizes. Several huge shelves stood nearby, piled high with mechanical components and spare parts.
Homa casually took the wooden crate Jiang Qi was carrying and set it on the workbench.
"All right, then." He turned to Jiang Qi and gestured toward the heap of broken energy cores inside the box. "Let me see your workmanship. Hopefully you weren't talking yourself up."
Just then, Jiang Qi realized something.
Judging from how Homa described it, piecing together intact energy cores from scrap wasn't an easy task at all.
From the sound of it, even if they dismantled the whole heap, being able to salvage a few complete ones would already count as a good result. Most of the rest would still end up reduced to raw materials.
But for Jiang Qi, things were obviously different.
With his Synthesis ability, as long as an energy core wasn't damaged too severely, he could repair it through two-into-one synthesis.
There was clearly room to work with there.
If Jiang Qi could secure the job of repairing energy cores, then by leveraging his extremely high repair success rate, he could very likely "pocket the difference" and accumulate energy cores for himself at high speed.
Of course, first he had to pass the hiring test.
Homa's meaning was obvious—he wanted to personally watch Jiang Qi repair one energy core first.
And for Jiang Qi...
That really wasn't difficult at all.
He naturally couldn't reveal his Synthesis ability, but his Appraisal ability was still enormously useful. Combined with the DIY skills he already had, as long as the tools were there, this really wasn't much different from assembling a model kit.
He casually picked up a damaged energy core and fixed his gaze on it. His Appraisal ability activated at once, making the damaged sections instantly clear.
Jiang Qi picked up a disassembly tool. His fingertips were perfectly steady, without the slightest tremor. He immediately began dismantling from the damaged sections highlighted by Appraisal. Before long, the entire energy core had been taken apart into a neat spread of components laid out orderly on the table.
At a glance, it was obvious which parts were broken and which were still intact.
After memorizing the components that needed replacing, Jiang Qi used Appraisal again to search through the other energy cores for matching parts that remained in good condition. After dismantling only two more cores, he had already gathered everything he needed.
Then, using the tools already at hand, he deftly disassembled and reassembled the pieces. It didn't take much effort before a fully functional low-grade energy core appeared in Jiang Qi's hand.
"There," Jiang Qi said with a grin toward Homa. "Done."
But Homa was staring at the energy core in Jiang Qi's hand with a grave expression.
"Uh... is something wrong?" Seeing Homa's strange look, Jiang Qi started feeling uneasy too.
"No... you did very well." Homa took the energy core from his hand. "I'm going to test it. Sit here and rest a bit. Wait for me to come back."
With that, Homa hurried off.
He went straight to the charging station and, under the odd looks of a group of gang members there, shoved the energy core Jiang Qi had repaired into a charging slot.
"Old man Homa, what's got you in such a rush?" asked the overseer at the charging station, strolling over and leaning against the wall. "And why'd you only bring one low-grade core?"
Homa glanced at him. He knew he'd probably been acting a little out of character, so he answered offhandedly, "Tablet ran out of power halfway through a movie. Problem?"
"Ha!" The mid-level gang leader laughed immediately, gave Homa's shoulder a pat, and walked off shaking his head without saying anything else.
Not long after, a burst of laughter rose from nearby.
Homa didn't get annoyed.
He knew he was talking nonsense, and he knew these people knew he was talking nonsense, but that didn't stop them from amusing themselves with it anyway. That was just how boring these people were.
As for the real reason Homa had rushed over, maybe a few would be curious.
But no one would actually care that much.
And conversely, Homa had no interest in those boring fools either. His full attention was fixed on the low-grade energy core currently charging.
Watching it accept the charge normally without showing the slightest sign of instability, the tension in Homa's chest gradually eased. Then delight welled up inside him, lifting the corners of his mouth.
He realized he might just have picked up a treasure.
Repairing low-grade energy cores wasn't actually all that difficult.
Plenty of people knew how.
Because demand was so high, it had practically become the first basic lesson every wasteland mechanic had to learn.
But being able to do it did not mean being able to do it well.
For most people, the disassembly and inspection phase alone took a very long time when repairing a low-grade energy core.
After all, whether many parts were damaged or not couldn't be judged just by looking. Tools were needed to test them.
And that wasn't all. Disassembling an energy core wasn't simple either.
When the people of Tiangong designed these things, they clearly treated them as consumables from the very beginning. They had never considered the problem of disassembly and repair at all.
Because of that, non-destructive disassembly was nearly impossible. That made the disassembly approach especially important. If the plan was wrong, it was entirely possible to damage intact components while preserving the already broken parts instead.
So when ordinary people repaired low-grade energy cores, they usually had to run extensive tests first, then determine a disassembly strategy based on the results. Even so, losses during disassembly were still significant.
But Jiang Qi was different.
He seemed able to determine which parts of an energy core were damaged just by looking at it.
From the very moment he chose his disassembly approach, he attacked from the damaged sections as his breakthrough point. Where others needed five or six broken cores to piece together one good one, he got the job done with only three.
And he was fast.
Exceptionally fast.
He'd finished the repair in less than a third of the time it would take most people.
That was absolutely not the level a normal beginner should have.
To be able to do something like that, the kid must have spent a huge amount of time studying energy cores in private.
And at the same time...
He also had to be a genius.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 120)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 100)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 100)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter89)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter86)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter63)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter75)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 53
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 57
From Junkman to Wasteland 35
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 26
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 27
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 26
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 26
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