Brian Clark certainly didn’t understand what it meant for Logan Carter to still be ranked in the top five hundred despite being so badly injured. Brian Clark had always dreamed of one day owning a mech more advanced than Wendy; then he could challenge the fiercest mutant creatures on the junk planet. He wondered what iron python lizard meat tasted like, and Brian Clark couldn’t help but subconsciously lick his lips. Ha, by then I’ll be the undisputed king of the junk planet!

Logan Carter mercilessly interrupted Brian Clark’s daydream: “Wendy’s capabilities cannot be calculated!”

Brian Clark immediately pulled a long face. “I know that!” Then, looking hopeful, he asked, “Mu, can you pilot this mech?”

“I can!”

Wuwu, looks like I’ll still be piloting Wendy! Brian Clark was deeply dismayed, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit curious: “Then why do you still need a cockpit on your body?”

Logan Carter was silent for a few seconds before speaking: “Data is damaged, unable to retrieve!”

“Do you remember who made you?” Brian Clark asked curiously.

“Data is damaged, unable to retrieve!”

Having not had anyone to talk to for a long time, Brian Clark was in high spirits and about to ask more questions when suddenly, a faint alarm sounded. Logan Carter said, “Insufficient energy!” Looking again at the energy indicator inside the cockpit, it was just a sliver away from the very bottom.

Because the junk planet was at just the right distance from a star, it had an almost inexhaustible supply of solar energy—at least, Brian Clark had never worried about energy before. But when he took out all his backup energy combs and still hadn’t even reached a tenth of Logan Carter’s energy indicator, Brian Clark was dumbfounded!

And when Logan Carter directly connected the solar panel to himself, Brian Clark was completely speechless, left only to pray that the energy comb being used at home could last until the day Logan Carter finished recharging.

Logan Carter silently replenished his energy, and Brian Clark, finding it boring, soon drifted off to sleep alone.

When Brian Clark woke up the next day, rubbing his bleary eyes, he suddenly noticed that Logan Carter seemed a bit different again. The mechanical surface seemed to have a sheen to it, making Logan Carter appear even more mysterious.

Brian Clark exclaimed in surprise, “Mu, you suddenly look prettier!”

Logan Carter clearly understood what Brian Clark meant by “prettier” and explained, “This is the photon activation effect, which means that when energy is sufficient, the metal surface develops a luster. The basic principle is…”

Brian Clark drooped his eyelids, yawning from time to time.

Logan Carter seemed to really enjoy teaching, and continued enthusiastically, “The other knowledge involved is actually very simple and can be summarized in the following aspects…”

Brian Clark hung his head, meditating like an old monk. If you looked closely, you’d see a “water line” had already dripped onto his leg, soaking a large patch of his pants.

Logan Carter, still unsatisfied, said, “So, from this we can conclude that the strength of a mech…”

A not-too-loud, not-too-soft sound interrupted Logan Carter. Logan Carter looked angrily toward the source of the noise, only to see Brian Clark’s nose emitting rhythmic snores, rising and falling, wave after wave, while his shoulders heaved up and down in time with the snoring.

Logan Carter was instantly petrified!

Section Three

A corner of the junkyard. Two mechs lay quietly in ambush behind a pile of trash, and just a hundred meters away, five hundred-bite rats were rummaging through the garbage for food, alertly keeping an eye on their surroundings. Brian Clark carefully surveyed the terrain and discussed a plan with Logan Carter.

Brian Clark cautiously piloted Wendy, slowly approaching the five hundred-bite rats, constantly using various obstacles along the way to conceal himself. When he was twenty meters away from the rats, Brian Clark let out a sigh of relief—so far, no mistakes. Just as Brian Clark was about to make his move, a sudden gust of wind swept from behind him toward the rats. Brian Clark immediately thought, Oh no! and abruptly pushed his speed to the maximum, charging at the rats.

Wendy shot toward the hundred-bite rats like a cannonball out of the barrel.

Unfortunately, it was too late. As soon as the wind picked up, the keen-nosed hundred-bite rats sensed danger and scattered like birds.

Unfazed, Brian Clark maneuvered Wendy to lock onto one of them. If they burrowed into the trash, the chances of catching them would become vanishingly small. Ignoring the other four, Brian Clark focused solely on the one he’d locked onto.

The wind howled past his ears, and Brian Clark’s blood seemed to boil, as if it were burning. The world in his eyes gradually slowed down, his brain was in a frenzy, and his breathing grew rapid—each breath seemed to take all the strength in his body, his chest expanding and contracting violently with the rhythm. Every exhale brought a burning sensation to his nasal passages, as if he were breathing fire instead of air.

Watching the distance between himself and the hundred-bite rat shrink, Brian Clark’s hands remained steady as ever, but he had already begun to adjust his breathing rhythm.

Suddenly, Wendy hurled a dagger with force. With a clang, it embedded itself deep in the ground less than three meters ahead of the rat. The hundred-bite rat, fleeing at full speed, was about to crash right into the dagger—a bloody scene was almost certain to follow.