Chapter 76: Rumor Has It, Professor Idis Was Dumped…

Seles abruptly stood up and shouted toward the back, “Jianxun!”

But his handsome new friend could no longer hear his calls. His figure resolutely wove through the gaps in the audience seats and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Seles was utterly despondent. He lowered his head to look at his Light Brain, but his fingers fumbled, unable to type a single word.

He was on the verge of collapse.

Was there anyone who could check on him? Did he still have any hope left?

Xie Jianxun had no idea where he was heading. Relying solely on a fleeting glimpse of the venue map from when they entered, he stumbled his way to the venue entrance.

To the left was the audience express passage, leading to zones A and S.

To the right was the exclusive passage for players and staff, leading to the backstage area of the arena, where there were player lounges and prop warehouses.

Without hesitation, he chose to go right, proceeding along the corridor. Sure enough, at the end of the corner, he spotted the security guard at the entrance.

Xie Jianxun tentatively walked forward. The security guard saw him and immediately shooed him away. “Who are you? Show me your credentials!”

He had no credentials at all; he was just trying his luck. Unfortunately, heaven wasn’t on his side this time.

With no other choice, Xie Jianxun backed off first, pretending he wanted to use the restroom and had taken a wrong turn. He asked where the restroom was.

The security guard pointed out the restroom’s location, then sat back down, steadfastly guarding the entrance and staring down Xie Jianxun.

He threatened, “Still not leaving? If you don’t go, I’ll call the Security Mecha!”

Xie Jianxun sighed. He had originally planned to sneak backstage quietly, hoping he might bump into Idis.

Then he could ask what was up with that face so eerily similar to One’s.

No, he couldn’t even casually call it “similar”—Xie Jianxun had recognized it at a glance. If Idis cut his long hair and got a perm, he would look exactly like One!

What was the relationship between One and Idis?

One was a Mechanical Puppet produced twenty years ago for the Insect Clan invasion war, while Idis appeared to be only in his early twenties this year, still very young.

Could One have been modeled after Idis’s adult appearance?

But even the most accurate prediction software couldn’t achieve such precision!

They looked like they were poured from the same mold!

The same mold… Suddenly, a guess popped into his mind:

Was Idis also a Mechanical Puppet?

Or perhaps a Bionic Person made with more modern technology using the same mold…

He was lost in thought, slowly backing away, just about to turn and leave, when he collided head-on with a group of players rushing from around the corner.

“Someone’s there, wait!”

“Stop!”

“Captain, are you okay!”

Clatter clatter—parts and tools scattered across the floor. The newcomer’s upper body swayed, but he quickly steadied himself and agilely grabbed Xie Jianxun’s arm.

Thank goodness his reflexes were fast enough; otherwise, Xie Jianxun would have face-planted in the next second—though his current state wasn’t much better, having landed butt-first.

The young man urgently asked, “Are you alright?”

One hand braced against the ground, the other shoulder propping up Xie Jianxun.

Xie Jianxun felt dizzy and disoriented, a dull pain throbbing in his side.

It must have been the sharp edge of something in the young man’s arms that had jabbed him; now it ached dully.

He sucked in a breath, pressing his fist against his waist.

“I-I’m fine.” He forced a strained smile.

It was a young man in uniform, evidently a contestant about to enter the repair area. The mess on the floor was all the tools and materials he planned to bring in.

Now his teammates had no choice but to crouch down and pick up the scattered items, urging him, “Captain, we’ve got this. You head in and prepare!”

“Rest time is almost over. The repair area judges are strict on scoring. Hurry, Captain—your ‘Golden Dagger’ is our main fighter!”

The young man observed Xie Jianxun’s complexion, then glanced at his tightly clenched fist, realizing something.

He pulled a damaged part from his pocket and apologized in a low voice, “Sorry, it must be a part from my Mecha… Here, let me take you to the lounge to sit for a bit. After the match, I’ll take you straight to the hospital.”

With that, perhaps because time waited for no one—or maybe the young man didn’t wait for Xie Jianxun’s response at all—he sprang into action on his own.

He directly slung Xie Jianxun’s arm over his shoulder and hoisted him up.

Xie Jianxun hadn’t even uttered a word before he was stunned speechless.

The young man called back to his teammates, “Let’s head to the lounge!”

Whoosh—a group of players surged into the lounge. The security guard glanced over but didn’t react, allowing Xie Jianxun to slip in amid the crowd.

He sat on a small cushioned stool in the lounge, watching the young man calmly and steadily direct everyone.

“Put the Toolbox here—don’t mix them up.”

“Where’s the solid Mineral Paste?”

“Are all seven types of Modified Screwdrivers accounted for? Once we’re on stage, we can’t come back down.”

The players looked to their captain, their responses echoing uniformly and clearly in the lounge: “Yes, Captain!”

It was a youthful team with high morale, united and loving, who had fought their way to the finals and were now preparing for the players’ greatest individual challenge.

The young man nodded and turned to a brown curly-haired youth in the corner. “He, your ‘Mint’ has the highest damage at eighty-eight percent. You’ve got the heaviest task ahead.”

A team was a whole; there couldn’t be any weak links dragging down the overall progress.

The curly-haired youth nodded gravely, instinctively opening his neatly organized Toolbox to rub the tools and get a feel.

As he lowered his head, his face stiffened, and he cried out in dismay, “Captain! My No. 5 Modified Screwdriver tip is missing!”

The young man’s head began to throb. “…” The familiar carelessness.

He knew it—no matter how many times he instructed them, his carefree teammates always had moments of worry.

He turned to his rustling teammates. “Does anyone have a spare?”

“This thing lasts at least ten years without wearing out! Who carries extras?”

“He, don’t you have a spare?”

The curly-haired youth panicked and whined, “This was the spare—the last one got lost yesterday…”

His teammates sucked in a collective breath.

The young man checked his Light Brain and said steadily, “Three minutes left. No time to go buy one. In that case, I’ll borrow one from Second United…”

“I have one.”

Xie Jianxun, sitting on the corner stool, pulled one out and handed it to He. “Borrow it.”

The curly-haired youth lit up with joy, nearly kowtowing in gratitude. “Thank you, thank you! You’re a lifesaver!”

Xie Jianxun: …No need to go that far.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, teasing the curly-haired youth with playful shoves while thanking Xie Jianxun. “Thanks a lot!”

“When we win the championship, the celebration banquet’s on us!”

“Which school are you from? Add me on comms!”

With only two minutes until they took the stage, the young man pulled a spray for bruises and contusions from a cabinet and handed it to Xie Jianxun apologetically. “See if this eases it. If not, wait till my match is done, and I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Xie Jianxun waved his hands repeatedly. “No need, no need. You guys go ahead—I’ll just sit here a bit; I’m already feeling better.”

The young man: “Here’s my comms code. Call if anything comes up.”

After settling everything, the team left the lounge in the final minute, brimming with enthusiasm and drive as they headed onstage.

Their Mecha were already on the stage, and they took all the Toolboxes with them, leaving the lounge empty. It was perfectly safe to leave Xie Jianxun alone there.

His Light Brain flashed with a new instant message.

Xie Jianxun felt like he’d forgotten something. Seeing the Light Brain jogged his memory.

Seles: qaq

Xie Jianxun nearly fumbled and closed the popup in shock.

He really couldn’t imagine that expression on the young man’s face.

Seles: Jianxun, are you in the bathroom? Or did you fall in? The repair area’s starting—the players’ high-speed instant mods are super interesting; you can see all sorts of approaches…

Seles: Hey? Jianxun! You there?!

He’d completely forgotten about leaving Mr. Seles out there!

Xie Jianxun glanced at the lounge door, feeling a pang of reluctance. Seles had come with him to watch the Mecha League, yet he’d left the guy all alone in the audience seats. He felt terribly guilty.

But he’d finally made it backstage and wanted to wait for a chance to run into Idis.

If he left now, he probably couldn’t get back in.

After struggling for a moment, he honestly explained the situation: he’d spotted a familiar acquaintance and wanted to meet up first, so Seles should enjoy the match on his own.

Seles: qaq

Just those three simple letters made Xie Jianxun fidget restlessly.

He glanced at the live feed screen on the lounge wall, then at the door, torn.

Seles set down his Light Brain, his expression somewhat gloomy.

He silently removed the electric horn headband and crushed it with a squeeze.

In a sea of people with various cheering props, this little dark corner stood out starkly.

The young man tugged his tie loose in mild irritation. It was so tight he could barely breathe.

If emotional appeals didn’t work, maybe he could switch tactics—lay it all out plainly and bombard with material incentives…

Just as his mental script reached “a hundred thousand a month, enough?”, there was a sudden movement in the seat beside him.

He whipped his head around to see Xie Jianxun settling back into his seat, giving him an apologetic smile. “I’m back! Where are we at now?”

A pair of blue little horns glowed faintly in the air, sparking with playful electric zaps.

Xie Jianxun stared in surprise at the headband pinched in Seles’s hand—no longer glowing, somewhat deformed—and asked puzzledly, “Did your headband break?”

Seles froze, his mind going blank, all scripts evaporating.

He looked down at the crushed cheering headband and stammered, “Oh, I don’t know… The quality’s poor; it broke right away…”

What a lame excuse.

He quickly added, “Didn’t you say you saw someone familiar? How’d you get back so fast?”

Xie Jianxun scratched his chin candidly. “He looked super busy, so I figured I’d catch him after the match.”

In other words, he still had no chance.

The young man deflated like a punctured balloon, so obviously that even Xie Jianxun noticed.

He said nervously, “Besides, how could I leave you here alone? After all, Mr. Seles came with me to watch the match.”

Seles thought about it—yeah, that made sense.

He immediately comforted himself.

At least for now, it was still him and Xie Jianxun together, not some random nobody.

His mood instantly lightened, and he smiled again.

But Xie Jianxun pointed at the electric horn headband in his hand. Seles looked down; the crushed headband was still clutched there.

Seles: …

He wanted to crush the version of himself from five minutes ago too.

The repair area had begun, so the audience fell almost silent, quietly watching the players feverishly perform repairs and modifications.

Xie Jianxun’s peripheral vision caught the mysterious guest still seated behind the judges’ area, his face shrouded in the shadows of the night.

He stared a bit too long, and Seles’s brows furrowed. He leaned in and muttered something, finally drawing his attention back.

“…Once the champion is decided, the winning team will receive a hefty prize and a preliminary pass for Advanced Mech Engineer. As long as they graduate successfully, they can become Advanced Mech Engineers directly without taking the Mechanics Association exam…”

The crowd below cheered. The Commentator spoke unhurriedly.

“Our ‘Golden Dagger’ completed repairs first, restoring integrity to one hundred percent! He even modified the weapon, adjusting the range…”

“As expected of Silver University’s captain—skilled hands, intimately familiar with his own Mecha… Excellent, the judges gave a high score!”

The audience stood and cheered briefly.

One by one, players finished repairs. At the end of the forty-minute repair phase, everyone set down their tools—whether mid-repair or mid-mod—immediately halting.

The second half of the match began!

The Mecha clashes in the second half were even more intense; both sides fought with bloodshot eyes. The arena filled with artificial synthesized voices from the Mecha AI, while players stood at the control stations, fine-tuning movements until they nearly merged as one with their Mecha!

Finally, a platinum Mecha fought alone, felling all enemy Mecha and standing as the sole survivor on the field!

The judges tallied the damage. Silver First Comprehensive University emerged as the final victors!

“Oh!!!”

“Let’s congratulate these young mechanics on becoming the champions of this academy league!”

Fireworks soared into the sky, salutes boomed, and the audience boiled over like hot oil, golden light spots sprinkling into everyone’s eyes.

The host invited the winning players onto the stage to interview them about their victory speeches.

When it came to that young captain, the host asked with a beaming smile, “I heard you’re graduating in a year. Have you thought about your future direction?”

“The future… I’ll probably develop toward exoskeletons.”

The young man pondered for a moment and said this into the microphone.

The host laughed. “And our award presenter today is none other than Mr. Idis, who has impressive achievements in exoskeletons! Please welcome him!”

The mysterious big shot came forward, just as the audience rose to applaud in welcome.

The players immediately stood in a neat row, stiffly waiting for Mr. Idis to pin the medals on them.

The big screen dutifully broadcast this scene. Xie Jianxun’s eyes widened as he carefully observed this top-tier mechanic who shared the same face as One.

Even without mentioning the face, just from his back view, there was no hint of any connection to a mechanical puppet—this gentleman had black hair reaching his waist, casually tied back and draping smoothly over his back.

His shoulders were broad, his legs long; he had the complete form of a mature man. His immobile legs looked quite normal, clad in gray slacks and black leather shoes, with a wristwatch-style light brain on his wrist in matching tones.

He was like an exquisitely crafted figure gently placed in a wheelchair, but unfortunately, he couldn’t walk.

As if struck by a thought, Xie Jianxun slowly said, “Idis…”

Seles immediately turned his head and looked at him nervously.

Xie Jianxun asked, “Is he a bionic person?”

So that’s what he was asking. Seles breathed a sigh of relief.

He shook his head. “No news on that, but he probably isn’t. Why would a bionic person fear paralysis in the lower limbs? Just send them to a repair shop, and any flaw gets fixed right up.”

Xie Jianxun said, “But prosthetic technology is so advanced now; they can make limbs identical to the original body. Hasn’t Professor Idis considered prosthetics?”

“Who knows…”

“I’ll tell you why—he’s trapped by love!”

An audience member from the front row hurriedly turned back and whispered this bit of gossip to them.

“Rumor has it that the accident Professor Idis was in caused him severe psychological trauma, so he’s strongly against prosthetics… Something about being abandoned, or so they say. I just heard it, that’s all.”