◎Apply for the "Mechanic Apprentice Badge Assessment"?◎
"Woof—Aroo—"
An emerald tree boa was climbing up a tree trunk. It was just looking up to observe its surroundings when a grayish-white animal suddenly fell from the sky.
The tree boa thought it was food falling from the heavens, but the creature stepped viciously on its head, adjusted its balance mid-air, bit onto a hanging vine, and swung over to a nearby lake with a swoosh.
Calling it a lake was an overstatement; it was actually just a small mud puddle. The falling Pomeranian dog smacked right onto the back of an earth-brown crocodile. The crocodile opened its mouth blankly, but the System, having landed safely, ignored it completely.
The System was pondering a cosmic-level mystery.
For example, what kind of war its host had experienced before.
As an "Instructor," it could remotely view combat logs. Thus, it saw rows and rows of zeros scrolling past.
There were six participants in the battle, distributed fairly between both sides, fighting a 3v3 match.
Lin Fuque didn't eliminate anyone, but she didn't take any damage either.
To avoid having its permissions downgraded any further, it had to arrange for Lin Fuque to spectate another 3v3 battle. Furthermore, while ensuring their side's victory, it had to achieve the same "zero casualties" outcome that Lin Fuque had accomplished.
If it had bonded with Lin Fuque normally, it could have simply replicated her combat experience, letting her load the save file over and over until she achieved a perfect clear, thereby receiving training in the process.
But—
"Why hasn't she unlocked the Mecha Warrior or Army Commander training space yet?"
Without the assistance of a training space, and stripped of all permissions, it was completely impossible to create a simulated war within the space.
The crocodile closed its mouth and began to sink to the bottom of the mud puddle.
The muddy water wetted the Pomeranian's paws. Its ears twitched slightly; it heard it:
"Awooo—"
Unlike a dog's bark, the wind carried a wolf's howl from afar. The Pomeranian suddenly leaped up. Its tiny body seemed to erupt with tremendous power, defying all logic as it bounded onto the shore in a single jump.
It had thought of a solution.
Sniffing the scent, the Pomeranian started running in the direction of the wolf pack.
-
Lin Fuque was walking toward Building 3.
Her home was in Building 5, but everyone had separated so quickly just now that not only did they forget to add each other as friends, she even forgot to return the borrowed water gun.
Fortunately, thanks to the butterfly surveillance monitor, Lin Fuque knew where Wuhua's owner lived. Slung with the camouflage water gun, she entered the elevator and casually took out the [Ice Bullet Converter] to take a look.
[Ice Bullet Converter]
[A simple ice bullet converter. When equipped at the nozzle of a water gun, it converts water bullets into ice bullets before firing, increasing range and lethality to a certain extent, but lowering the rate of fire. A qualified soldier can turn everything in their surroundings into a weapon in any environment.]
["A somewhat useless gun accessory... Who even plays with water guns?"]
The converter was only a finger's length. After equipping it and before shooting, the converter needed to be turned on. Moreover, it was rechargeable.
If Lin Fuque had her own water gun, she definitely would have tried it out right now.
But this water gun belonged to someone else, and she was worried about breaking it.
The elevator doors opened with a ding. Two large gray garbage bags were placed at the door of Apartment 401. A children's bicycle was locked at the corner, with a small shovel and a roll of garbage bags in its basket.
Lin Fuque rang the doorbell. After a while, footsteps approached the front door. Following a few seconds of silence, the door opened to reveal a gap the width of a palm.
"Who are you?"
Behind the door was a boy about her height. Faintly, something was moving around beside him. When a familiar bark rang out, Lin Fuque realized that what was moving was the name floating above Wuhua's head.
As Wuhua squeezed over, the gap in the door widened. The boy, with the ID Shi Feiming above his head, patted the dog's head. Lin Fuque handed the water gun to him. "I'm here to return this. Thank you for lending me the water gun."
"Oh," Shi Feiming was wearing an apron and thick gloves. He hadn't come down to play earlier, likely because he had to clean the house. "You're the one who just moved in..."
He looked at his hands, which weren't very convenient at the moment, and signaled for Lin Fuque to put it by his feet. "You're welcome. I don't usually play with this anyway."
"If you want to borrow it again next time... just ask Lu Xiyu to come get it."
Lin Fuque let out a "Wow" and asked, "Then can you lend it to me now?"
Shi Feiming: "?"
"Thank you," she said. She wanted to test the effects of the [Ice Bullet Converter], but there was no need to buy a new water gun just for that. "Two or three days should be enough, right? When I'm done, I'll give you an auxiliary device that you can attach to the water gun!"
She only had one [Ice Bullet Converter] and no blueprints, but she wanted to dismantle it in the training space and make another one herself.
Lin Fuque was a bit curious. What mechanism did it use to convert water bullets into ice?
Shi Feiming seemed a bit speechless but didn't refuse.
As he lifted his leg to block Wuhua, who was trying to run outside, he gave a perfunctory nod. "Just return it to me when you're done."
He wasn't very expectant of that "auxiliary device." He guessed that Lin Fuque wanted to play but didn't have the money to buy one herself. He might as well let her have it; he didn't play with it anyway.
However, the two of them still took out their phones and added each other as friends, quietly remaining on each other's contact lists.
Closing the door, Shi Feiming took off his gloves and walked to the window.
From his vantage point, he could just see Lin Fuque walking back with the gun slung over her back. The sun gilded her hair with a layer of golden light. Suddenly, a white cat jumped down from a nearby tree. Lin Fuque subconsciously took a small hop backward, seemingly startled. She let the kitty cross the road first before continuing forward.
He took his lunchbox out of the microwave and started eating his lunch.
-
Lin Fuque watched the white cat leave. After it was out of sight, she opened the map to check its location.
Because this Lv. 5 kitty had a rare special status under its ID, in addition to its name.
[Rose]
[Lv. 5 (Pregnant, level data inaccurate)]
It was a pregnant cat...
Lin Fuque had been a bit worried that the white cat might suddenly attack, but it seemed to just be passing by.
She felt a little strange. Even though her "camp" consisted only of her own home, because she was monitoring a one-kilometer radius, she couldn't help but observe the population changes of various creatures within this area.
Once the white cat gave birth, there would be a few more little lives in this area.
But the mother cat was clearly a stray, so the future fate of the kittens was also a mystery.
The white cat didn't seem to have a strong aggressive drive—and it didn't have a red name. When it passed by just now, Lin Fuque should have tried to pet it.
She jogged home and changed her clothes. After eating lunch, she laid out all the tools on her workbench and started making a new butterfly surveillance monitor.
[You have obtained [Butterfly-shaped Camp Autonomous Recharging Miniature Surveillance Monitor] x1]
[You have gained Mechanic EXP x10]
The finished products from her second batch yielded significantly fewer experience points than the first. After Lin Fuque crafted five of them in one go, the experience points stopped increasing altogether. This time, she decided to make them look more realistic. Referencing butterfly images online, she carefully painted their bodies one by one before releasing them into the air.
On the panel map, as the butterflies flew farther away, the three-dimensional imagery grew clearer, showing a bustling mix of traffic and pedestrians. With her home as the center, Lin Fuque had essentially illuminated a complete circle on the surrounding map.
However, in the outermost areas, the colors were noticeably dimmer.
She had currently fulfilled 7 out of 12 of the surveillance requirements for Mission 2, but her remaining materials seemed only enough to craft two more.
Only two...
A knock came from her bedroom door. "Student Queque, come out and have some ice cream!"
"Ah!" Lin Fuque stretched lazily. "Give me a second."
She picked out a few handy tools and scooped up her selected materials. Ms. Lin Shiyao had been quite busy lately, leaving her with much less time for yoga. Right now, her yoga mat was rolled up and tossed to the side, while she focused on dunking a butter cookie into her cup of rapidly melting ice cream.
"Mom!" Lin Fuque leaned in, motioning for her to look at the object in her hands. "Look, look!"
"Wow!" Lin Shiyao said with an exaggerated expression. "This is so pretty! Did you make it? Have you picked up crafting recently?"
It was a "mechanical butterfly," but it didn't actually contain any internal gears or parts. It was simply a butterfly shell twisted out of metal wire, and it hadn't been painted yet.
So, it looked more like an exquisite little ornament.
Lin Fuque hummed proudly and explained, "I learned how to make them in a game. I've made a bunch. Once I finish the final touches, I can paint it, turn it into a hair clip, and give it to you! What color do you want?"
A butterfly monitor might be far more impressive than a handmade metal butterfly hair clip, but it was still a "monitor." Lin Fuque had no desire to spy on her mother, and since she didn't know how to disconnect it from the system panel, she simply tackled the hardware and removed all the complex internal components.
Thus, it was a butterfly that could not fly.
"I already love it just the way it is," Lin Shiyao said, looking genuinely enamored with it. "Can you keep this metallic texture after painting it? If so, I'd love it in forest green."
Lin Fuque let out a long, drawn-out "Mhm," deliberately strutting slowly around the living room to show off.
Playing along, her mother came over with exaggerated attentiveness, scooping up some ice cream with a spoon to feed her. "Oh my, our Queque has such steady hands! You're amazing... When Mom was your age, I was nowhere near as talented as you..."
"Hehe..."
They spent a long time picking out patterns and looking up reference photos. In the end, they decided to paint it in layered shades of green, reminiscent of a traditional landscape painting. Finally, her mother suggested, "You could even carve the character 'Que' in the corner as your own signature mark."
Lin Shiyao even picked out a long green dress paired with a small white shawl. She planned to put her hair up in a bun and wear the metal butterfly hair clip her daughter made as her outfit for work the next day.
Honestly, she felt she could even add some metallic accents to the dress, creating a look that was a perfect blend of traditional Chinese elegance and punk rock.
But Lin Fuque's work wasn't finished yet. She had made a new friend today. Lu Xiyu had bailed her out, rescuing a chocolate-armed Lin Fuque from the clutches of a terrifying Level 6 evil cat. Because of this, she wanted to make one for Lu Xiyu as well.
However, as she took out her last set of materials and prepared to get to work, Lin Fuque suddenly paused.
"It seems like Lu Xiyu doesn't really wear hair clips, does she?"
Lin Fuque's own short hair barely reached her neck, styled like a little mushroom. Lu Xiyu, on the other hand, wore her hair in a neat, sporty ponytail tied with a plain black hairband. She didn't seem like the type to wear hair accessories.
For someone like Lu Xiyu... wouldn't she prefer a butterfly that could actually fly over one that just sat there?
Should she give her a [Butterfly Monitor] then?
But even though Lin Fuque only had an elementary school education and couldn't fully comprehend the operating principles of the butterfly monitors, she had assembled and used enough of them to grasp a vague idea: the butterfly's "surveillance" and "flight" functions were inseparable. It was exactly because it possessed the ability to monitor and map its surroundings that it could avoid obstacles mid-flight.
If she severed its surveillance connection to her system panel, it wouldn't be able to read the map data or avoid obstacles. Even if it could still fly, the mechanical butterfly would constantly crash into things, drastically reducing its lifespan.
But maintaining that connection would mean invading someone else's privacy! That was just wrong!
The seven she had already released... well, the eight, including the large butterfly, were only monitoring public areas. They wouldn't pry into the private spaces inside buildings.
If she wanted to gift Lu Xiyu a flying butterfly, Lin Fuque would have to completely overhaul the current mechanical butterfly design!
She cupped her face in her hands and thought about it for a while, quickly realizing that she couldn't figure it out on her own.
So, the little girl closed her eyes, flopped backward onto her bed, and instantly entered the professional training space.
"King! King!"
Lin Fuque quickly pulled the Pomeranian out from under the workbench. "I need your help!"
King was no ordinary puppy; he was a dog who could read blueprints. If he could speak human language, he could absolutely teach Lin Fuque a class or two.
Right now, she was facing a dilemma. While she could follow a blueprint to create a finished product, the moment she tried to modify the design, she ended up just like she did with the large mechanical butterfly—completely clueless as to why it could fly in the first place, and equally clueless as to why it couldn't fly well.
But King seemed rather exhausted. After listening to Lin Fuque's plea, the Pomeranian opened his mouth, only to close his eyes again.
Putting aside the fact that he was busy with the task he'd been assigned, he had no way of teaching Lin Fuque anyway... Why couldn't the universal language on this planet just be "Woof"?
Normally, Lin Fuque wasn't the type of kid who enjoyed taking classes, but when it came to learning for the sake of her own hobbies, she was incredibly proactive.
System: "..."
Never mind. Letting her learn a bit more about Mechanic-related knowledge wasn't a bad idea. At least this way, she wouldn't go off casually participating in "zero-casualty wars." Besides, a host was allowed to voluntarily forfeit the system panel... That was it!
The little dog shook his fur and let out a serious bark, as if nodding in agreement.
The very next second, a pop-up window appeared in front of Lin Fuque.
[Would you like to apply for the "Mechanic Apprentice Badge Assessment"? (Recommended Class Level: Lv.5)]
[Assessment Details: A Mechanic Apprentice must proficiently master the crafting techniques and principles of at least 2 blueprints. The exam content will be randomly selected from the blueprints the apprentice has currently mastered!]
[Mechanic Apprentice Badge: When equipped, your chance of triggering a "Flash of Inspiration" during crafting and learning processes increases by 5%.]
[Failure Penalty: 30 minutes of mandatory studying!]
Huh?
She triggered a game event!
Naturally, Lin Fuque didn't think this was a real exam. It was obviously just a game mechanic, but it seemed it could only be triggered through the Pomeranian!
Coincidentally, she happened to possess two blueprints, but she was completely clueless about the mechanics of how to craft them.
She immediately chose to accept!
The next second, Lin Fuque's figure slowly faded away. The System breathed a sigh of relief and resumed control of its physical avatar in the real world.
"Awoo, awoo~"
Two young wolf pups, still retaining their baby clumsiness, were nudging it while letting out pitchy, wavering howls.
The System gave two sharp barks. The little wolves pressing against it raised their heads. Once they stood up straight, they were actually quite a bit taller than the white Pomeranian.
In the distance, three wild hares were intently focused on nibbling the grass.
The Pomeranian nudged the wolf pups twice with its head, signaling to them: You two are in charge of flanking, and I will be the one to finish the hunt!
As it slowly led its little team forward, it casually lifted a hind leg and kicked over a camera disguised as a rock in its path.
The camera had been tailing them for half the day.
What a nuisance.
