“I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I didn't mean not to clean up, it's just that last night, I really ate too much! I just, just forgot!”
Lightning's face was in stark contrast to her fair body.
“It's okay, it was just over ten buckets of instant noodles! If you like them, I'll order ten more cases today. Don't worry! I, I can still afford to support you!”
Su Li tried his best to look more amiable, then reached out and shook the oil drum in the corner. The oil drum, which he usually couldn't budge even with all his strength, actually started to tilt with just a slight effort from him.
He quickly opened the lid, measured it with the oil dipstick, and immediately gasped. It seemed she hadn't just eaten too much, but also drank too much!
Just like that, half a barrel was gone in one night! A barrel costs eighty thousand, and the money he had was only enough for her to drink for four days!!!
Perhaps, could he take back what he just said? He truly couldn't afford to support her!
But looking at her little face, blushing almost the same color as her hair, he couldn't bring himself to say anything harsh. Does the lubricant number eighty-two have alcohol in its ingredients?
“Well then... Lightning...! How about we go to a competition!”
Although Lightning might have some trauma regarding the arena, he believed she could overcome it when faced with the issue of food and warmth.
“Trust me, it'll be fine. Finish all the maintenance today, and get the modules debugged. Later on, we can go to the training ground to try it out. If you're bored, you can keep an eye out for recent competition information in Nan City.”
Lightning looked at Su Li and nodded quickly. As long as she didn't have to face the evidence of her 'crime', let alone searching for competition information, she would be happy to go straight into a match without even debugging.
Su Li watched her sit in the corner with the terminal, and, still unconvinced, shook the oil drum again.
The half-barrel of oil sloshed around inside, once again giving his fragile wallet a hard squeeze.
Right! This half-barrel of oil can be accounted for by Shield and her group of sisters! A few liters each, no big deal.
He thought of a solution and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He motioned for Lightning to unfold again and began debugging her other parts.
“Master, I've checked, there are twelve larger-scale competitions in the coming week. Six of them are in the Nan City Municipal Arena. The other six are located in...”
“Pick the ones with high prize money!”
“???” Lightning was startled, suddenly feeling that her Master was quite pragmatic. This was excellent! She glanced guiltily at the oil drum in the corner and continued browsing the competition information.
“The competitions at the Municipal Arena are jointly organized by several larger clubs in Nan City. The prize money for first place is one hundred thousand yuan... but we might not be quite...”
“How much?” Su Li looked up from the workbench, his eyes wide.
“One hundred thousand!”
“Hiss!”
He gasped. Debugging Mecha painstakingly only earned him a little over a thousand yuan. Yet, someone could get one hundred thousand from a single competition!
That's one hundred thousand! If converted to lubricant, it would be enough for his Machine Girls to drink for three days... Okay, looking at it that way, it's actually not that much.
“Are there many such competitions? I mean around one hundred thousand.”
“Quite a few, but many competitions have entry restrictions. Some require invitation letters, while others require corresponding competition qualifications.”
Upon hearing this, Su Li's face immediately fell: “Then what the hell are you talking about?!”
Lightning rolled her eyes: I wanted to say something, but with your mouth going on and on, did you give me a chance to speak?
“Look for some, even if they're not very formal. The main thing is to make money quickly! We're not aiming for fame or anything, just quietly getting rich so I can buy you food and supplies.”
Upon hearing this, Lightning's eyes lit up.
Her browsing speed immediately increased significantly.
Once Su Li got busy, it was another day of forgetting to eat and sleep. It wasn't until the sun set that he finally completed his debugging work and returned all the Mecha parts to their original positions.
After rinsing her exterior, the two of them ate something simple and hurried towards the academy's training ground.
The campus training ground wasn't large, only about a third the size of the Municipal Arena. There were no obstacles on the flat ground. Unlike the arena, which usually set up some simulated terrain.
The training ground on campus was all about simplicity.
In his spare time, he would always come to the training ground to watch others train with Mecha. Since he didn't have a Mecha himself, he could only take Mecha repair as an elective, which allowed him to take on odd jobs and save up a little money.
However, now that he had Lightning, he could apply to change majors. There were too many people like him in the entire academy; most of them only started changing their major after getting their own Mecha.
Just like Shield's Master, that scrawny monkey-like...
“You're here? But this time you're not just watching, right! I heard from Shield that you finally have your own Machine Girl. Want to try a round later?”
Speak of the devil, the scrawny monkey came up to Su Li's side and put his hand on his shoulder. His gaze swept over Lightning, and he let out a soft 'oh' before straightening up.
As usual, Lightning wore a bright red, tight-fitting leather suit, with graceful curves that made it hard to look away. However, her expression carried a cold aloofness that kept people from daring to approach and talk to her.
“This beauty looks a bit familiar! Is it... is it...”
Zhang Changping scratched his head with one hand, then slapped his forehead: “I remember now! lightning r5! Mechanical Island's fifth-generation Machine Girl! I remember when she first came out of the factory, her attributes breaking a hundred were stunning. It's just...”
“It's just that her strengths are extremely outstanding, right!” Su Li glanced at Zhang Changping, and the hand hidden in his blind spot quietly pinched a bit of skin and flesh on his thigh. His face showed an expression that suggested he should think before speaking.
Zhang Changping swallowed, gave Lightning a thumbs-up, and smiled kindly.
He turned to look at Su Li, his eyes filled with pity. He lowered his voice and whispered, “Are you crazy? Her acceleration breaking a hundred is indeed impressive, but she has almost no braking! Do you understand what having no braking means?”
“Are you implying my professional skills aren't up to par? Don't forget who debugged your Machine Girl.”
Suddenly, a crisp voice, sounding a bit eager for a fight and carrying a hint of hostility, rang out next to Su Li's ear: “Do you not want your hand anymore?”
Shield's appearance made Su Li release the hand that was pinching Zhang Changping's thigh. The latter sighed in relief and grabbed Shield's small hand.
“It's nothing, Su Li was just messing around with me! By the way, you have your Machine Girl now, do you need me to practice with you? Although you can change majors, there's still a driving assessment! If your score isn't good enough, you still can't transfer. And you better hurry, there are only two chances to change majors a year, and there's only one left this year.”
“Him? Forget it! It's fine for him to honestly be in logistics. With his skills, finding any club in the future and getting by for two or three years won't be a problem.”
Shield glanced sideways at Su Li, sized him up, then turned her eyes away disdainfully.
“What do you mean? What's wrong with my skills? What do you mean getting by for two or three years won't be a problem?”
“Nonsense! Two or three years is overestimating you! Maybe you'll get arrested for molesting a Machine Girl in just one year! How perverted you are, don't you have any idea in your heart?”
“You... you, you!”
Zhang Changping saw the two about to start arguing, quickly intervened between them, and spread his arms to separate them.
“Stop it! We're all friends. Look, give me some face, stop arguing. There's no one below, how about it, Su Li, want to go down and try?”
Before Su Li could react, Shield let out a cold snort of unknown meaning: “Hmph! Where would he get that nerve! I don't know how he managed to trick a Machine Girl with sweet talk. If he goes down there and someone sees his real skills, what if she turns around and leaves?”
Lightning stood behind Su Li with a cool expression, casually glanced at Shield, and said softly, “Master and I signed a core contract, there's absolutely no possibility of abandoning my Master.”
“Core contract?!”
Zhang Changping and Shield looked at Su Li in disbelief, their faces filled with shock.
