Although the part-time job as a mecha engineer fell through, Yun Xingze didn’t feel regretful. After all, he didn’t want a single penny from that jerk Chi Yu.
If he couldn’t find a suitable employer, he would simply put the matter aside for now.
His main goal at the moment was to win the campus mecha tournament and claim the ten-win streak prize.
After the competition, he could still earn a decent amount by taking on miscellaneous jobs—it didn’t matter if he wasn’t a mecha engineer.
An Omega’s heat cycle typically lasted about seven or eight days, which would undoubtedly affect his upcoming matches.
Yun Xingze rummaged through his cabinet for suppressants and inhibitor pills enough to last through this month’s heat.
Suppressants worked quickly but required injections, which were troublesome. Inhibitor pills were more convenient but took over half an hour to take effect.
That’s why most Omegas took inhibitor pills the night before their heat cycle began.
An Omega’s heat cycle was usually fixed and rarely came early, so Yun Xingze hadn’t expected his to arrive three days ahead of schedule, leading to the earlier mishap.
After that incident, he decided to carry both suppressants and inhibitor pills with him before and during his heat.
However, after taking the inhibitor pill and heading to the training room for exercise, Yun Xingze suddenly felt something was off.
His muscle strength and running speed had weakened.
He quickly realized it was a side effect of the inhibitor.
When he asked Lu Ranxu about it, his friend confirmed his suspicion.
“Suppressants or inhibitor pills can both cause a drop in physical performance,” Lu Ranxu explained. “And the heat cycle itself affects the body to some degree. Of course, there are suppressants that have minimal impact.”
“Where can I get those?” Yun Xingze asked.
“They’re still in development. Heard they’re reserved for royalty and nobility,” Lu Ranxu mused. “Ordinary people probably can’t get them, and even if they could, they’d cost tens of thousands per dose.”
Yun Xingze slumped in disappointment. “So, there’s no other way?”
“There is,” Lu Ranxu said without hesitation.
Hope flickered in Yun Xingze’s chest as he looked at him. “What is it?”
“Find an Alpha boyfriend,” Lu Ranxu replied, “and have him mark you.”
Yun Xingze’s heart plummeted back into despair. He had no interest in dating right now, let alone something as serious as being “marked.”
Once an Omega was marked, the effects of their heat would lessen significantly but at the same time, their body and mind would completely belong to the Alpha who marked them.
“I’m exhausted,” Yun Xingze groaned, collapsing onto the couch. “I’ll just leave it to fate.”
Due to his heat and the inhibitor’s side effects, Yun Xingze’s physical abilities had likely regressed to C-rank, though his mental strength remained unaffected.
This meant that if he faced another A+-rank opponent like Kalibo in the next match, he’d be in serious trouble.
That evening, the results of the second round were posted on the school’s official website, along with the third-round matchups.
After checking the list, Yun Xingze sighed in relief, his opponent was a B+-rank Alpha. While he was still at a disadvantage in theory, it would definitely be easier than fighting Kalibo.
The video of Yun Xingze’s match against Kalibo exploded in popularity on the school’s official website, with views and comments skyrocketing, quickly becoming the most watched video in the second round.
This was partly due to Kalibo, whose frenzied combat style always drew large audiences to his matches.
But it was clear that the real star of this match wasn’t Kalibo—it was Yun Xingze.
Viewers were first shocked by Yun Xingze’s ugly cat. The barrage was initially filled with “?” symbols mocking how the cat was even uglier than its owner.
However, they were soon stunned by the feline’s agility. Just like the live audience, the barrage continued with “?” symbols, but now expressing awe and disbelief.
Thanks to the video’s popularity, Yun Xingze’s account on the Mech Assistance Network gained even more followers. More people sought his modification services, with some even trying to buy his ugly cat.
Yun Xingze didn’t dwell on this attention. To prevent any mishaps in upcoming matches, he spent his limited remaining time training in the Psychic Refinement Chamber.
Since his physical abilities were inevitably affected by his heat cycles which occurred periodically, he focused on improving his psychic power and control instead.
His psychic abilities had grown through combat experience. Currently at B-rank, he still needed to fill 60% of the progress bar to reach A-rank.
Yun Xingze activated the Twin-Star Mech Simulation Pulse Device. When the psychic link connected, the screen displayed nearly identical psychic values for both the main mech and scout mech.
Closing his eyes, Yun Xingze attempted to transfer all psychic energy from the main mech to the scout mech—an incredibly difficult feat.
The natural psychic potential difference between brain and pulse device made this challenging. Once psychic energy entered the link, extracting it required either severing the connection entirely or an enormous time investment.
Yun Xingze aimed not just for energy recall, but redirection to another link an even greater challenge.
His first attempt failed, transferring only partial energy. Undeterred, he tried again and again…
Around the eighth attempt, he successfully transferred all main mech energy to the scout mech in just ten seconds.
After this breakthrough, Yun Xingze began more complex adjustments—like transferring 30% of scout mech energy back to the main mech.
Throughout the refinement process, he maintained dynamic psychic control, demonstrating remarkable precision.
Any observer would have been both amazed and bewildered by these unprecedented maneuvers.
Truthfully, ever since successfully modifying the Twin-Star Mech, Yun Xingze had sought to unlock its full potential.
Now he was pioneering an entirely new, untested piloting method.
This approach might help defeat S-rank opponents or it might fail spectacularly. The outcome remained uncertain, but Yun Xingze was willing to try, as it could also advance his neural interface modification techniques.
On the day of the third-round matches, Yun Xingze was scheduled for Arena D on the first afternoon.
After two rounds of matches, those who had lost twice already stood little chance of making the school team. However, school regulations prohibited withdrawals, so some contestants began forfeiting one after another.
While Yun Xingze waited for his turn, several opponents ahead of him had already forfeited.
When it was finally his turn, his opponent’s mech was a B-grade light-sword model. Since Yun Xingze had already studied many mechs of the same type and grade, he wasn’t particularly interested in analyzing this one.
He had reviewed his opponent’s match data both previous rounds had ended in losses. However, this contestant clearly had a never-say-die attitude and immediately taunted, “I’m definitely winning this one.”
Before the match began, the cheers from the audience were unusually fervent.
Yun Xingze noticed that the crowd today seemed much larger than usual almost comparable to the turnout when Luo Wenchuan had competed.
What he didn’t know was that many had come specifically to see the infamous ugly mech and its hideous cat.
“Wow, it really is hideous! You weren’t kidding—it’s definitely the ugliest mech in the whole school.”
“Thanks, I feel visually assaulted.”
“That cat looks like it could collapse any second. How did it even beat Kalibo?”
Once the match started, Yun Xingze engaged in a brief, courteous exchange with his opponent.
This time, his mechanical beast was set to full-auto mode.
The opponent, feeling the cat’s half-hearted swipes were nothing more than an insult, grew indignant and sped up his sword strikes.
Since the mechanical beast was automated, operating on minimal mental energy, it could only dodge attacks and provide minor interference hardly a threat. The opponent paid it little mind, focusing entirely on the main mech.
Though Yun Xingze’s stamina had dipped, his mental energy remained abundant, allowing him to move with exceptional agility.
In the blink of an eye, he leaped away from a downward slash, putting enough distance between them to stay just out of reach.
Just as the opponent prepared to take flight and pursue, the seemingly useless ugly cat suddenly lashed out with two chain swords, firmly gripping both of his arms.
At the same time, the cat performed an incredibly difficult maneuver—it flipped midair, using the elasticity of the chain swords to turn itself into a slingshot projectile. In the next instant, it retracted the chains, curled into a ball, and slammed straight into the back of the opponent’s head.
BAM!
The opponent saw stars, and the audience gasped in shock.
“What was that? Turning itself into a slingshot?”
“Why does Yun Xingze always come up with the weirdest tactics?”
“That had to hurt, right?”
The next second, the mechanical beast resumed its lazy, indifferent behavior as if nothing had happened.
The opponent froze in disbelief, if Yun Xingze’s scout mech was fully automated, meaning he had allocated only a sliver of mental energy to it, how had it executed such a complex move?
Could Yun Xingze have instantly redirected his mental energy from the main mech’s neural links to the scout mech?
But that was impossible!
A B-grade mech had 300 neural links, and a dual-core mech had nearly 600—all allocated upon activation. Randomly shifting mental energy risked causing chaos. How could anyone possibly withdraw mental energy from hundreds of links and precisely redirect it to the scout mech’s connections in an instant?
In other words, if Yun Xingze had such precise control over his mental energy, how could he possibly still be rated only B-grade?!
At that moment, Yun Xingze delivered a fatal strike to his opponent, slashing at their shoulder and knocking them to the ground, rendering them unable to continue fighting.
The entire match lasted only eight minutes.
Everyone marveled at how Yun Xingze’s skills seemed to have improved again, but only his defeated opponent was left utterly bewildered.
Staring at that cat, he couldn’t shake the feeling.
That he had been tricked by this ugly feline.
After the match, Yun Xingze stepped out of the arena only to find a massive crowd gathered outside; all of them seeking his help with repairing or modifying their mechas.
Yun Xingze froze at the sight of the overwhelming crowd. He had assumed only Luo Wenchuan would receive such treatment.
“Classmate Yun, could you take a look at my Twin-Star mecha?”
“My mecha’s control module seems to have an issue—could you help fix it?”
“I was here first! Stop pushing!”
“Move aside! I already had Yun repair my mecha before I should go first!”
“Would you be my mecha engineer? I want a cat too…”
In another arena, Luo Wenchuan and Ke Lei walked out together and immediately noticed the commotion at the neighboring arena’s entrance.
Ke Lei watched as Yun Xingze was swarmed by the crowd and sighed. “I really have an eye for talent. Yun Xingze’s value has skyrocketed there’s already a queue of people online trying to hire him. He’ll probably become the most sought-after mecha engineer in the whole school soon.”
Then, he turned to Luo Wenchuan. “But since you don’t want to work with him, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”
He shook his head with a regretful expression, hands clasped behind his back. “What a shame.”
Luo Wenchuan pressed his lips together, his face unreadable as he gazed at the young man in the crowd.
Suddenly, a realization struck him.
If Yun Xingze was still accepting invitations, that meant he hadn’t accepted the 100,000-star-coin offer?
Ke Lei had intended to drag Luo Wenchuan over to join the excitement, but before he could, Luo Wenchuan abruptly strode toward the crowd.
Yun Xingze, meanwhile, was trying to extricate himself from the overly enthusiastic students, repeating, “Please make an appointment online!”
Just then, a figure pushed through the crowd and grabbed Yun Xingze’s arm.
