The Most Powerful Brain in the Interstellar Space

Chapter 364 A Failed Attempt

"Clang, clang, clang—" The central joint bearing failed to hold it up, and the core collapsed. Before she could react, all the parts scattered and crashed to the ground.

Jiang Hui remained in the position of having her hands empty, staring blankly at the parts scattered on the ground, her eyes seemingly vacant.

...The joints she painstakingly assembled all morning, which looked perfectly fine just now, suddenly shattered into pieces. And there wasn't a single connecting part; they were completely disintegrated, even though she had followed the steps and structure precisely.

Where did things go wrong? Jiang Hui was slightly anxious.

It took her almost two days to work on such a small joint. To avoid being distracted, Jiang Hui didn't even go downstairs today and ate her meal in her room.

Fortunately, Zhou Xiuwen and Huan Xian seemed to be very busy these past few days. The two of them were like dragons, disappearing without a trace, and you couldn't run into them all day.

Hillman seemed a bit frightened. He felt unwell the day before, and then fell ill after taking a nap the next afternoon. Fortunately, it was just a minor illness similar to a seasonal flu, which he said was a chronic condition he'd had since childhood. He figured the fright had probably caused it to flare up prematurely.

He didn't want his parents to worry, so he had been following the doctor's advice and staying in his room to rest and recuperate for the past few days, trying his best to recover before returning to school. Otherwise, it wouldn't be good if his parents, who had come to visit him, saw him in such a haggard state.

So Jiang Hui simply stayed in her room to rest.

After the StarNet network returned to normal the day after the incident, they were able to contact the outside world again. Of course, this was followed by an explosive outpouring of news after a day of confinement.

Perhaps it will be the same in any era; even as humanity enters the interstellar age, eye-catching news will always be the focus of human attention.

In order to achieve the goal of differentiated management during the mission, the military imposed a high degree of information control on satellite 732, controlling and intercepting most network routes from the day before the incident until the moment the network restrictions were lifted.

Apart from the military, the rebels, and the civilians who survived the chaos, no one knows what really happened on the stadium, which is now almost flattened.

But it must be a big deal. At some point that day, the people of Planet 732 were all simultaneously restricted, and soldiers in military uniforms politely but firmly demanded that they remain where they were.

Those inside remained in place to guard the area, while those outside were gathered together and relocated to a designated location to await the outcome. Regardless of their location, a certain number of soldiers were stationed outside, and even the most foolish person would know that their surroundings were undergoing some kind of major upheaval.

First, survivors of the disaster shared their experiences, and since nothing stays completely secret forever, word spread quickly… and the reports naturally became increasingly exaggerated. Some clever individuals even unearthed numerous similar details, and now various groups on the internet are having a great time, mixing truth and falsehood, with everyone transforming into modern-day Sherlock Holmes to reconstruct many details, making it quite plausible.

For example, there are reports of the military secretly investigating a spy family, with each side providing evidence to lessen their own guilt, and even pets being implicated – it's like a farce. There are also reports of people confidently claiming to have witnessed large numbers of warships and troops during the chaotic competition. Regardless of how much online demonization or how outrageous the rumors, official news channels remain relatively formal and singular, using formulaic descriptions such as "On such and such a day, in such and such a place, rebels appeared in the competition area, and several armies from nearby locations mobilized," or "Rebel strategists plotted to destroy network communication base stations, intending to cut off communication between Star 732 and the outside world, ultimately causing a complete network outage," or "The richest family in the second ring area of ​​Star 732 was originally a rebel stronghold; the patriarch and a group of family members were arrested," and so on.

Jiang Hui initially clicked on it, hoping to get some useful information.

However, the nearly two-day internet outage caused the computer to accumulate a lot of backlogged information, including automatic push notifications and some backlogged text messages. She swiped them all online and kept pushing them... She didn't know how long she had been clicking, her hand was almost numb, so she just let it skip over automatically.

Damn it, she's not reading this message. Who knows how long she'd have to read it, and in the end she might know less than she already does...

Although she said that, two weeks later, Jiang Hui couldn't resist checking it out. She painstakingly searched through the 9999+ messages for some relatively authoritative media information and glanced at them. Sure enough, it was all the same as she expected, even less than what she'd heard from Zhou Xiuwen.

Thinking this, Jiang Hui instantly lost interest in continuing to watch.

She then checked the communication history below and found that Stark had made countless calls via his personal terminal. However, the messages might have been intercepted at the time, so they hadn't been received. Next were calls from Hillman, all sent while she and Clarence were running around the arena. There was still no word from Clarence; her inquiries about his condition went unanswered, and he was probably still unconscious.

Jiang Hui sighed and immediately sent a text message to Stark to let him know she was safe. However, she figured he was probably busy and didn't reply. She didn't mind and stayed at Zhou Xiuwen's house to rest and wait for news.

After spending the whole day reading peacefully, Jiang Hui suddenly remembered the pile of materials she had bought from the secondhand market the day before yesterday.

The night before the competition, she spent ages preparing, eager to get back to school and start working on the materials. Who would have thought such a thing would happen halfway through, forcing all her plans to be put on hold?

In such an unstable environment, he should have waited patiently for the school's notification before proceeding; researching mecha wasn't urgent. But she couldn't contain herself. It was like buying a bunch of your favorite foods but not being able to eat them—it was tantalizing, constantly on her mind, and keeping her up at night.

After much "struggle," Jiang Hui couldn't resist pulling out a basket of parts to assemble his first mecha.

This time, she used genuine mecha materials. Although they were old and mostly salvaged from abandoned mechas, they were still different from the exquisitely standardized model blocks of the past that lacked any sense of quality.

When Jiang Hui actually touched the first mecha part, she had this feeling: it was so cold, chilly, yet it still brought her a certain indescribable thrill.

(End of this chapter)