A Chemist's Interstellar Saga
Chapter 75: The Mecha Department

Chapter 75: The Mecha Department

Vita and Cupid had indeed been working hard these past few days. Although eating Insectoid Cores wasn’t a tough task, it became challenging when the quantity was high. Their bellies were always full, especially Cupid’s, which made Arix feel a bit sorry for him.

"Cupid, why don’t you take a break?" Arix walked over and gently patted Cupid’s head, worried about the little one who was noticeably rounder than Vita and Sophia.

"Hum?" Cupid was lying on the table, leisurely gnawing on an Insectoid Core with his little paws. Hearing Arix’s words, he tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Arix, are we running out of cores? I can eat less if needed."

"We have plenty of cores, but doesn’t it make you uncomfortable eating so much? Your belly looks really full," Arix said with concern.

"I don’t feel uncomfortable. The cores are delicious; I can keep eating. But, Arix, do you not like me getting fat?" Cupid held his core, looking a bit melancholic.

Seeing the conversation going nowhere, Vita chimed in, exasperated. "Arix, Insectoid Cores don’t harm us. Cupid mainly consumes the aggressive psychic power within them. Even if he eats a lot, it’s fine. The excess energy turns into things like fat, making him temporarily chubby. Once it’s digested, he’ll slim down again," Vita explained expertly.

Arix finally felt reassured and showered Cupid with praise. "Even if you get chubby, you’ll always be my little cutie, my precious."

"Okay, then I’ll eat more and get chubby as you like," Cupid said, smiling happily.

Knowing that getting chubby wouldn’t make Arix dislike him, Cupid felt relieved and started eating the cores even faster. He had been holding back before, worried Arix wouldn’t like him if he got too fat. Now, he could eat freely.

After a while, Cupid felt it was enough and went to the special box for storing Arix Crystals. He squatted like a cat and produced thousands of Arix Crystals. Then, he kicked the lid closed and went back to munching on Insectoid Cores.

Now that Arix was reassured, she left Cupid and the others alone and opened her opticomputer to review her freshman mecha textbooks. The new school term was starting soon, so it was a good time to get familiar with the material.

Time passed peacefully until a sudden knock on the door startled Arix. In an instant, the person and the two Psychic Incarnations in the room moved as if they had rehearsed it many times.

Cupid and Vita returned to Arix’s psychic world. Arix quickly went over to the cores and pretended to be refining Arix Crystals with psychic power. After making sure there were no flaws around her, Arix called out to the door, "Come in!"

The door to the lab finally opened, and a researcher responsible for collecting Arix Crystals walked in.

"Miss Kering, I’m here to collect the Arix Crystals," the researcher said politely.

"Alright, they are over there. There are about 300,000 today," Arix pointed to the corner of the room where a box full of Arix Crystals was kept.

"Thank you for your hard work, Miss Kering," the researcher said, looking at the box piled high in the corner. He bowed respectfully, feeling moved by Arix’s dedication.

The researcher imagined the immense effort it must take to refine so many crystals. He thought it would require endless hours of painstaking work.

The more he thought about it, the more emotional he became, even tearing up a little. Wiping away his tears, the researcher took a deep breath and mentally cheered himself on.

’If someone as noble as Miss Kering works so hard, I should feel ashamed to slack off.’ He resolved that they, too, would stay up all night to work on psychic power healing potions.

As the researcher was leaving, he turned back and said to Arix, almost like he was making a vow, "Miss Kering, your efforts will not be forgotten!!"

Today, he would go back and tell his colleagues about Miss Kering. He couldn’t just be the only one who noticed Miss Kering’s silent dedication. He wanted everyone to know how hardworking and kind Miss Kering was.

Arix looked completely puzzled at the researcher, who seemed like he had just been injected with a shot of adrenaline. She felt like he had cast some strange persona onto her.

But she didn’t think too much about it. After closing the door, she released Vita and Cupid from her psychic world.

Cupid and Vita immediately got excited and started gnawing on the cores. Arix, too, continued to eagerly read the mecha textbooks for her freshman year.

Two days passed like this, and Arix Crystal’s stockpile was temporarily sufficient.

Arix left the pharmacy room. She had initially wanted to help make some healing potions, but the researchers, one after another, insisted that she should rest, acting like she had been working hard for many days.

Their looks of admiration made Arix feel like she really had been working hard for many days.

Taking out a small mirror, Arix looked at her own face, which was glowing with health. Then she looked at the researchers, who had heavy dark circles under their eyes.

Clearly, these researchers were the real hardworking ones.

Arix scratched her head, feeling a bit confused.

She then went straight to find Sims and expressed her intention to return to the training base.

"That’s good. If you don’t go back to training soon, the training will be over. But go back tomorrow. Tonight, you can use the opticomputer to check out the interstellarnet for some fun," Sims supported Arix’s plan to return to the training base. Remembering something, he asked her to stay one more night.

"Is there something happening on the interstellarnet tonight?" Arix asked curiously.

"It’s a big deal. The Alliance officials are planning to announce the psychic power healing potion at 19:00 tonight. It would be a shame to miss it," Sims explained straightforwardly.

"It sounds like it’ll be exciting. I’ll go back tomorrow then. Grandpa, I’m going to have some fun now," Arix said goodbye to Sims, planning to visit the Mecha Department before heading back.

"Go ahead," Sims said, affectionately ruffling Arix’s hair and smiling.

Luckily, he didn’t know where Arix was going, or else her head would probably get ruffled even more.

After leaving the research institute, Arix headed straight to the Mecha Department.

As soon as she arrived at the entrance of the Mecha Department, two soldiers stopped her.

Arix showed the one-time pass Kellan had given her on her opticomputer, and then she was allowed into the Mecha Department.

Before coming, Arix had always thought the Mecha Department would be especially chaotic, and that the air would be filled with the smell of industrial heavy metals.

But once inside, she found the Mecha Department surprisingly clean and tidy. Everything was orderly and well-organized.

At the entrance hall of the Mecha Department building, there were many display cabinets. Each shelf had a transparent energy shield, and inside most of them, there was a Space Button.

Arix guessed that each Space Button must contain a mecha because each slot had a label in front of it. The labels listed the mecha’s name and its owner’s name, along with their rank and unit.

There were also helpful signs on the cabinets indicating whether the mecha was "repaired" or "unrepaired."

At that moment, many Alliance soldiers were in the hall, happily following the numbers on their opticomputers to find their mecha in the cabinets marked as "repaired."

Once they found their mecha, they just needed to press a button in front of the transparent energy shield. After the system verified their identity, they could retrieve their Space Button.

As soon as the soldiers got their Space Buttons, they left the hall immediately, heading outside the Mecha Department.

Unfortunately, since the mecha were inside their Space Buttons, Arix couldn’t see them, no matter how much she wanted to.

With a sigh of regret, Arix decided to head to the repair department, hoping to get a glimpse of some mecha being repaired.

She wandered to the entrance of a repair room and stopped. She peeked inside quietly.

In the spacious and tall repair room, there was a damaged mecha in the middle. A mecha repair technician and two assistants were working on it.

After watching for a while, Arix finally understood why everything stayed so clean.

The mecha repair technicians kept their tools and parts in Space Buttons, taking them out only when needed.

Arix watched intently for a while, her eyes sparkling with excitement, when suddenly a voice behind her made her jump.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" a stern voice demanded.

Arix turned around to see an old man holding a vacuum, glaring at her suspiciously!

His fierce eyes seemed to say that if she didn’t give a good reason, he would call security.

Arix quickly made a "shh" gesture, walked up to him, and showed him the pass Kellan had given her.

She explained, "Sir, hello. I’m a student from the training base. I came to visit the Mecha Department for a day."

The man, Magen, carefully verified the pass. His expression relaxed, but he still looked at Arix with slight disdain.

"If you’re here to visit, just visit. Why are you sneaking around like a thief? If it were someone else, I’d have called security right away."

"Mm-hmm, thank you, sir. I didn’t want to disturb the masters, so I thought I’d just take a quick look," Arix said, scratching her head, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Perhaps the love for mechas in Arix’s eyes touched Magen. His stern expression gradually softened as he said, "You’re a silly kid. Come on, I’ll take you to a repair room to have a look."

"Really?! Thank you, sir! But... will it bother anyone?" Arix asked, her excitement giving way to a bit of hesitation.

"No worries, that repair room is empty, and there’s a Comet-Class mecha in there waiting to be fixed. You can take a close look at it," Magen said generously.

"Wow!! That’s awesome! Thank you, sir!" Arix exclaimed in delight.

"Alright, follow me," Magen said, smiling warmly at Arix’s politeness. He nodded and led the way.

Arix, brimming with excitement, happily followed behind him.