EROS [Zerg]

"What did you say?" You Bai still had a smile on his face, but the smile was already visibly stiff.

"Don't you know that it's in your best interest to stand on our side?"

The four female insects behind You Bai said in disbelief.

"What you're doing is disrupting my exam schedule. My exam topic is repairing the power engine, which is the energy center of the entire mech."

"My power engine cannot be installed, the energy supply is unstable, and you may not be able to pass the final exam smoothly."

Eros stood still, unmoved by any persuasion.

"Ha, don't we have backup energy? How could the exam results of all of us insects be subject to your control?" You Bai didn't believe it.

"How long do you think this backup power will last?" Eros held a power meter in his hand, showing them the precarious numbers on it: "There are less than two stars left until the end of the exam. This amount of power probably won't last until the examiners come to check our exam results."

Eros smiled without saying a word. Ever since he discovered that his parts had mysteriously disappeared, he had realized that there were some tacitly accepted injustices in this exam.

So when he started dismantling the power engine, he cut off the power supply to the power engine and turned on the backup power supply and all the power-consuming switches. Nearly six stars have passed since then.

This mech could shut down at any time due to the depletion of its backup power.

Although Eros didn't want to harm the other examinees, he still had to protect himself first.

"Heh, this is getting more and more interesting." One of the examiners, watching the conflict unfold among the candidates, smiled with satisfaction.

"How many do you think will be eliminated in today's exam?"

The other examiners around him exchanged knowing smiles.

Every year there are examples of candidates being disqualified from taking the exam due to conflicts.

"You!" You Bai never expected that Eros had a trick up his sleeve. He never expected that this seemingly docile and harmless female insect would be so ruthless.

Eros's behavior was exactly the standard procedure described in textbooks, and he had a perfectly reasonable explanation for this exam, so it did not constitute disrupting the exam.

Hearing what Eros said, both candidates began to get anxious.

Even without Eros's prompting, the other examinees urged him to quickly install the power engine on the mecha.

Eros then successfully used a crane to install the power engine into the mech.

Eros was skilled and finished installing the parts in less than half a star. After adjusting the various parameters, he added fuel and turned on the energy circuit.

He climbed into the cockpit and used the probe to check whether all the pathways were intact. After confirming that everything was correct, Eros looked at the energy display bar in the control room, which was gradually filling up, and a confident smile appeared on his face.

The power drive unit continuously feeds the converted energy into the mecha's body, and Eros's test operation is complete.

He landed quickly back on the ground, not wasting the other candidates' time.

With less than a week and a half left, the other candidates began their final checks in a tense atmosphere, while Eros waited on the sidelines for the exam to end.

With a stable energy supply, the conflict between the two groups of test-takers, which had just been suppressed, resurfaced, but this time Eros didn't want to get involved.

"Time is running out, and I haven't finished my operation yet. If the mech is knocked down again, I won't be able to finish on time!" One of the candidates looked indignantly at the candidate named You Bai in front of him.

"You still can't finish your own work? What are you taking the test for? You're just delaying our maintenance." You Bai said with disdain.

"How dare you speak like that? If you hadn't been causing trouble here, would our operations have been disrupted until now?"

……

……

Time ticked by, and Eros, watching the group of examinees still arguing, couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.

You Bai's exam preparation was actually completed long ago; his actions were simply to disrupt the rhythm of the other candidates.

Eros despised Yuuhaku's behavior, wondering how insecure he was about his own abilities to try to eliminate his opponent in this way.

The ten candidates in this exam are the top ten scorers in the written test and are the most likely to become the final winners.

You Bai actually wanted to eliminate Eros first. He originally thought that a score of 93 would make him the first, but Eros's perfect score made him the second in the written test.

It's not just the rankings that have changed, but also the mindset.

However, Eros's contingency plan was beyond his expectations, and it made him realize that the female insect in front of him was not a soft persimmon that could be easily manipulated.

"Have you forgotten that every part of the mecha is closely related to the mecha itself? Aren't you worried that disturbing their exam might cause problems with the wiring in the parts they are responsible for, affecting yourselves?"

"The chances are small, but they're not impossible, are they?"

Eros, unable to bear it any longer, said to the female insects in front of him, "Let them finish their tasks. If there's any time left, you can quickly test whether there are any faults in your operations and make repairs as soon as possible."

One candidate retorted, "You make it sound so easy, but you've already completed the operation..."

“My operation is complete, but have you finished? You’re still wasting time here.” Eros finished speaking and looked up at the time again: “There’s only one star left.”

"You've already wasted half a week's time arguing."

Upon hearing the time, the arguing among the female insects subsided.

Several candidates were no longer willing to argue and continued to complete their exams with their tools.

Because he had just wasted too much energy, Eros's arms trembled uncontrollably. He leaned against the wall, his face pale, and endured until the exam ended.

A bottle of iced drink touched Eros's face: "Looks like I'll have to deduct points from your physical fitness."

Whether it was the cold or the threat of point deduction that jolted Eros awake, he opened his eyes to see Brandt standing beside him, along with other examiners who were all smiling at him.

Eros took the cold drink, took a sip and found it was an energy drink. He came to his senses: "My body is fine, there's nothing to deduct points for, examiner."

The examiners surrounding him smiled again:

"Now we're going to check your answer sheet. Hopefully, it's as healthy as your body."

Seeing that the examiners had already come forward with instruments to check his operation, Eros took a sip of his cold drink and finally calmed down: "Actually, I wish it could be better."

After the examiners checked each of the candidates' answer sheets from the first exam, they signed their names on the final score sheet once more, then turned to the candidates and said:

"Go home and patiently wait for your results, little females."