Following Logan Carter's advice, Brian Clark hadn't logged onto the virtual net these past few days, but instead stayed at home training his body, especially his hands.

On a half-meter square flat board, Brian Clark focused intently on controlling six steel balls, his hands deftly flicking back and forth, his ten fingers forming a net that enveloped all six balls. The steel balls moved at high speed within the range of his hands, colliding with each other, their trajectories unpredictable.

The steel balls moved faster and faster, sweat began to appear on Brian Clark's forehead, and his hands sped up as well. Gradually, sweat beaded more densely on Brian Clark's brow, his hands moved even faster, and that faint, mist-like afterimage began to appear from nothing!

Finally, crack, crack, crack—a series of sharp, rapid sounds rang out as Brian Clark could no longer control the steel balls, and everything fell apart!

Panting heavily, Brian Clark couldn't even be bothered to pick up the steel balls that had bounced and scattered everywhere—this thing was just too exhausting!

Logan Carter, standing to the side, commented, "Although it's not perfect, for you, it's a pretty good result!"

No longer having to do that tedious and annoying steel ball training, Brian Clark suspected that thing was probably something Logan specifically used to torment people. But deep down, Brian Clark still admired Logan Carter greatly—at the very least, now his hands felt like they were truly his own again, and much more nimble than before.

Sitting once more in the cockpit of Winnie, Brian Clark was visibly excited. Having not used his mecha for a while, even the battered old Winnie felt a bit endearing to Brian Clark.

These days, while Brian Clark was buried in steel ball training, all the usual hunting tasks had been handled by Logan Carter. The prey Logan Carter caught always had a single puncture wound at the neck and no other marks. This left Brian Clark utterly amazed—Logan really was strong!

Brian Clark piloted Winnie at high speed, skimming over one garbage mountain after another, while Logan Carter followed behind at a steady, unhurried pace.

Brian Clark truly felt his hands were faster and more agile than before. Overjoyed, he suddenly remembered the unordered waveform jump Logan had taught him last time, and a playful urge arose in his heart.

Brian Clark suddenly pushed Winnie's speed to the maximum, his hands immediately performing a dazzling series of maneuvers, putting on an impromptu unordered waveform jump show!

Under Brian Clark's control, the aging Winnie lurched and stumbled, tracing arcs of various sizes and shapes, some large, some small, some curved, some straight.

Caught up in the excitement, Brian Clark even attempted a series of short-range, dense waveform jumps.

Within a very short distance, Winnie began to move forward at full speed in a series of tiny waveforms. If the previous arcs had varied in size, now every arc was uniformly small, and Brian Clark seemed intent on making them even smaller.

Pleased with himself, Brian Clark was about to keep pushing to shrink the waveforms further. Suddenly, with a loud crack, Winnie finally couldn't withstand the overload and snapped cleanly in half at the waist!

Brian Clark was shocked, and before he could even call out to Logan Carter for help, Winnie's upper half shot out like a meteor, crashing at high speed deep into a nearby garbage mountain. Before the dazed and dizzy Brian Clark could recover, a mountain of trash came crashing down, burying him deep beneath.

Everything went black before Brian Clark's eyes.

When Brian Clark—or more precisely, Winnie's upper half—was finally dragged out from dozens of meters deep in the trash by Logan Carter and saw daylight again, Brian Clark noticed that the usually expressionless Logan's face actually showed a hint of mockery, which made Brian Clark extremely annoyed! And when Brian Clark, sitting in Winnie's cockpit, was carried home by Logan, that annoyance reached its peak!

Still, annoyance aside, without Winnie, Brian Clark had no mecha. Logan never allowed Brian Clark to pilot him, and even if he did, Brian Clark always felt it would be like showing off in front of a master—there was just too much of a gap in skill!

Not having a mecha was simply unacceptable to Brian Clark. No matter how old and worn out Winnie was, without a replacement, it was the most important and indispensable part of Brian Clark's life.

With no other choice, Brian Clark could only beg Logan to help him retrieve Winnie's lower half.

Looking at the bitter fruit of his own impulsiveness, Brian Clark felt a chill in his heart. Winnie was already an old, outdated mecha, serving far beyond its intended lifespan. The fact that it had lasted this long was nothing short of a miracle, and now, having suffered damage that would be fatal even to a regular mecha, the hope of repair was almost nonexistent—especially in a place where there was nothing but trash.

Logan Carter didn't forget to pour cold water on him from the side: "Yezi, I have to tell you a harsh truth—Winnie's chance of being repaired is less than 1%. So putting in effort for such a slim chance just doesn't make sense from a value perspective!"

Brian Clark was on the verge of tears, but there was nothing he could do. In a fit of frustration, he climbed into Logan Carter's cockpit and dove into the virtual net.

Logan Carter showed no concern for Brian Clark's mood, haunting him relentlessly: "According to statistics, there are still eighty-six basic training subjects you haven't completed in the pilot curriculum. Here's the list!"

A long list of subjects immediately popped up in front of Brian Clark. He ignored it and walked straight ahead.

Logan Carter was silent. After a while, Logan Carter said, "Yezi, if one day your skills surpass mine, I'll let you pilot me!"

Brian Clark paused for a moment, then silently walked away.

Section Nine