The next morning, inside the bookstore.
Old Homa stroked his beard as he studied the design draft in his hands.
It was the very concept sketch Jiang Qi had drawn yesterday.
Originally, Homa had planned to help him with it.
But in the end, he never truly stepped in.
Partly because Jiang Qi's thinking had been very clear. As a concept design, the finished draft was already more than adequate, and Homa felt there was no need for him to interfere.
But also because Jiang Qi's ideas were, frankly, rather unusual.
Most beginners' first stacked gun-platform mech designs all looked more or less the same.
A thickly armored body, a main gun that could rotate and adjust its firing angle to a certain degree, then add tracks or wheels and call it done.
Jiang Qi's design followed that basic pattern too.
Only...
He had hidden the main gun.
Not only had he hidden it—he had also designed four dummy cannons.
The main body of the turret was shaped like a column, narrow at the top and broad at the base, which was also the most commonly used form.
After all, it was meant to be sold to the gang later as a vehicle-mounted turret. It couldn't really be designed as a tiny tank squatting flat on the ground. That would place the main gun too low, making it awkward to use once mounted on a vehicle.
But while other people always placed the main gun outside the body, Jiang Qi had done the opposite. He would rather shorten the barrel and enlarge the overall chassis just to hide the main gun inside the mech, exposing only the muzzle.
And even that muzzle had been disguised to look like a cooling vent. There was one on each of the four sides—but only one was the real gun barrel.
The most outrageous part, though, was the four fake cannons mounted on top of the turret.
They were designed convincingly enough, complete with fake aiming motion. He had even put light bulbs inside the barrels so they would flash when the unit fired.
The whole design was devious to the extreme.
Anyone seeing a mech with four cannons mounted on top would definitely be startled.
If the opponent didn't know its trick, then the moment the match began, they'd almost certainly treat those exposed fake guns as the primary targets. That meant they would lose the initiative for sure, and in the first exchange, Jiang Qi would most likely get a free shot in.
Against an opponent of equal skill, that alone would already be a massive disadvantage.
And if the opponent failed to destroy all four fake guns in one attack—and still didn't notice the trick—they might even waste a second round of attacks as well.
"This kid really is interesting," Old Homa said, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.
It was only his first mech, with this little budget, and the brat had still managed to pull something fancy out of it.
Just as Old Homa was thinking through how to draw up the more detailed blueprints for each section of the mech, Jiang Qi walked into the bookstore with a backpack slung over his shoulders.
After checking to make sure there were no customers inside, Jiang Qi came up to Homa with a smile.
"Teacher, I brought over the charged energy cores I was supposed to hand in from yesterday and the day before."
As he spoke, Jiang Qi counted out twelve energy cores from his bag and placed them on the table.
"Mm, not bad." Old Homa picked one up and inspected it closely, his eyes full of satisfaction. "With how clean these are, someone who didn't know better might think they'd just come fresh from the factory. By the way, when you took them to be charged, the people over there didn't give you any trouble, did they?"
"Nope." Jiang Qi grinned. "They all know I'm your new apprentice now. Why would they make things difficult for me?"
That, however, was a lie.
In truth, Jiang Qi had absolutely been given a hard time.
The gang punks guarding the power station were probably the idlest bunch in the entire town. Even when Homa himself went there, they'd still tease him a little for amusement—let alone Jiang Qi, a new face surrounded by gossip.
When Jiang Qi had gone to charge the cores, they had practically surrounded him the whole time, peppering him with questions and circling around to hint for favors.
They went on about how he'd stumbled into such a huge stroke of luck and ought to let the brothers share a little of the blessing—speaking as though they and Jiang Qi were old, intimate friends.
That was the most troublesome part.
First, you couldn't afford to give them nothing.
As the saying went, the King of Hell might be easy enough to meet, but the little devils were the real headache. Those little devils guarding the power station were far harder to deal with than White-Claw Crow himself. If you didn't give them face, they'd make things difficult for you every single time you came to charge cores in the future.
But at the same time, you couldn't give carelessly either.
If you gave too much, or gave the wrong way, and they got the impression you were easy to bully, then from then on, you'd probably have to bring enough offerings every single time you came.
Fortunately, Jiang Qi had long since seen enough of these people's behavior back when he was still a scavenger, so he'd already prepared a plan before going there.
He had deliberately gone out and bought two bottles of liquor for them, then told them Homa had asked him to bring it over—just a little gesture to say hello.
Liquor was expensive in the Wasteland.
After all, the grain supply was barely enough to keep people fed; there were no spare resources to waste on brewing alcohol.
Most of the gang's liquor was bought from Bafeng City. Half of it would be stored away as a strategic reserve, while most of the remaining half would be diluted and sold by the glass at the restaurant. Only a small portion was sold separately at a high price.
So the gift Jiang Qi had brought them was by no means light.
And precisely because it was such a substantial gift, he absolutely couldn't present it under his own name. If he did, he'd be instantly marked as a soft touch and a walking mark.
So he'd borrowed Homa's name.
And instead of calling it a gift, he'd said it was just "a little greeting."
That both gave them face and served as a warning—reminding them that he had someone backing him.
The result had been excellent.
They directly told him that Homa was being too polite, and that next time he could just come straight over without bothering with all this extra fuss.
The moment Jiang Qi heard that, he knew he'd handled it successfully.
From now on, he'd be going to the power station every day. If he hadn't gotten that kind of response, he'd have to brace himself for trouble every single time he went.
But with those words in hand, as long as he brought a little something on holidays or other occasions to smooth things over, they probably wouldn't make things difficult for him again.
Looking at Jiang Qi's smiling face, Homa was momentarily taken aback.
Of course he knew what the people at the power station were like.
That question had been deliberately asked despite knowing the answer—he'd wanted to gauge how those people had treated Jiang Qi so he could decide what to do afterward.
Instead, he received an answer he hadn't expected.
He naturally didn't believe the power-station crowd would simply show him that much respect.
From the look of it...
"Well now. Looks like you handled it yourself?" Homa said with a smile, rubbing his chin.
"Yeah. More or less," Jiang Qi replied with a grin.
"Good. You're sharp. If you want to survive in a place like this, you really do have to learn how to deal with that sort of crowd." Homa nodded. "And you've done excellent work these past two days too. I'm really liking you more and more, kid."
"Haha..." Jiang Qi scratched his head. Such direct praise, right to his face, was something he'd barely even received in his previous life. For a moment, he genuinely didn't know how to respond.
After collecting today's batch of damaged cores, Jiang Qi left the bookstore.
Over the next few days, his life settled into an unusually regular rhythm.
Every day, he got up before dawn and headed straight for the garbage mountain to try his luck. In the morning, he came back, changed clothes, wiped himself down, then went for breakfast before heading to Homa to collect the damaged energy cores for the day. After repairing them, he returned home and continued working on Glaxia's energy bay.
The afternoons were spent under Old Homa's guidance, further refining the design sketch and manufacturing some of the relatively simpler mechanical components.
Several days flew by.
Jiang Qi's body clock gradually stabilized as well.
Today, once again, he opened his eyes right on time at one in the morning, awakened by the alarm.
Yawning, he climbed out of bed, switched on the desk lamp, washed up a little, and sat down at the workbench.
Today, he had no intention of going to the garbage mountain.
Because the prerequisites for awakening Glaxia... were finally in place.
The twenty-five fully charged low-grade energy cores had been ready for days now.
And the main energy bay in Glaxia's chest had, at long last, been fully repaired.
Jiang Qi connected the tablet to Glaxia once more, opened the driver software, and set it aside.
Then he picked up the low-grade energy cores on the table—
and activated Synthesis.
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 130)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 105)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 105)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter99)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter91)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter65)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter80)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 58
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 62
From Junkman to Wasteland 45
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 32
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 35
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 31
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