Chapter 101.2 Pulling strings
“Little junior brother.” Yan Hao, stepping inside, was greeted by five pairs of warm eyes. After a day of rest, all five had finally returned to their normal selves.
Yan Hao smiled, then walked over to Old Zhong, saying respectfully, “Master, you wanted to see me?”
When Old Zhong had asked him to come over, he had only mentioned that there was something to discuss, but hadn’t mentioned what exactly.
“I heard you were involved in modifying the third generation system?” Old Zhong asked.
Yan Hao turned his head subconsciously to look at his senior brothers standing next to him. They had told Master about this?
Seeing his confusion, their third senior brother nodded reassuringly at him with a smile.
“I just provided them with an idea.” Yan Hao replied after seeing this.
“That was more than just an idea. The formula little junior brother provided not only fixed the arm system’s problem, it also boosted the entire system’s performance. The third generation system’s efficiency is now at least 20 percent better than our initial estimates.” Their third senior brother continued, “So Master, please add little junior brother’s name to the list.”
Add a name, what name?
“They want to add you to the Research Institute’s R&D team list for the third generation system. What do you think?” Old Zhong asked Yan Hao.
Yan Hao was shocked, “No, you can’t. I just helped with a calculation. How can I be considered a researcher?”
The third generation system was a project Master and his senior brothers had spent years developing, and he had only spent half a day calculating a formula. How could he be credited the same as his senior brothers who had worked hard for years?
“But without you, we couldn’t have finished the third generation system’s development so quickly.” His third senior brother stated.
“That was just a matter of time. Even without me, you would have figured it out after a bit more time.” Yan Hao said in response.
“Your formula alone boosted and improved the third generation system’s efficiency by 20%. You basically upgraded the system single handedly, something we couldn’t have done in such a short time.” His fifth senior brother pointed out.
“And it wasn’t just this formula. The math problem you solved for me half a year ago was actually the bottleneck phase of the third generation system, so if we look at it that way, you’ve actually been involved in the system’s development since half a year ago.” Baby Bug added.
“Right.”
“Absolutely.” The others echoed in agreement.
Yan Hao, not being particularly good at saying no and now ‘under siege’ by his senior brothers, could only look helplessly at Old Zhong in a last ditch effort, “Master….”
“Since the others don’t object, let’s add your name to the list.”
“But…” Yan Hao still felt that it wasn’t right.
“Even though you only solved two formulas in less than a day, you completed what they couldn’t in half a year.” Old Zhong said as he looked at the five people standing in a row with disgust.
“…..” The crowd of senior brothers.
We are really just too useless!
“But, as you weren’t involved officially in the research, it’s not quite appropriate to count you as a full R&D staff member, so we will add you as an R&D assistant, listed at the end.”
With Old Zhong saying this, Yan Hao found that he couldn’t refuse. Those who assisted in R&D could indeed be considered R&D assistants, and since Yan Hao had indeed helped solve two major problems encountered during the development of the third generation system, he could technically be considered an R&D assistant.
Although the crowd of senior brothers felt that Yan Hao’s contributions to the third generation system far exceeded that brought by a typical R&D assistant, and that it was somewhat unfair to only credit him as such, since Old Zhong had settled the matter this way, they found it hard to argue further. Thus, it was decided and when the third generation system was announced to the public, Yan Hao’s name appeared on the list as an R&D assistant.
After the news of the completion of the third generation system was released, the task of upgrading mech systems was put on the agenda.
During their free time, his senior brothers talked a lot about the system upgrades.
“Will our little junior be going with us for this system upgrade?” Ruan Bowen asked.
“Definitely. We’re all leaving the Research Institute and so is Master. We can’t just leave him behind.” Baby Bug answered.
“You guys are leaving the Research Institute?” Yan Hao asked.
“Yes. After the completion of the third generation system, we need to complete the upgrade of the military’s mech systems and help them get used to the new system’s operations as soon as possible.” Baby Bug explained.
Yan Hao nodded.
“Do you guys think the three great families will try their best to get Master to go to them again?”
“Definitely. Isn’t it like that every year? But the three great families would never guess that Master always picks his destination by drawing lots.”
“Where did Master go for the last system upgrade?”
“I think he drew the lot for General Admiral Feng’s base.”
“Then, this time he’ll probably pick between the Sima and the Sheng families.”
Yan Hao became more and more confused as he listened to his senior brothers’ analysis. “The systems are all the same, and a full upgrade is inevitable, so why would they fight over it?”
“It’s not just about the system. Don’t you know who our Master is? He’s a level ten Master Mech Builder.” His third senior brother educated Yan Hao, “Although Master has a bad temper, he has the utmost respect for the soldiers on the front lines. He’s usually busy with research at the Institute, however whenever he visits the army, if any mech builders have questions, Master would help answer them. As Master’s students, we might not think much of it, but for other mech builders, getting guidance from a Grandmaster Mech Builder is a very very rare opportunity.”
“Each of the three great families has its own factions as well as its own group of mech builders. For this system upgrade, Master will divide us into three groups, one of which he will lead personally. Think about it, whichever base Master goes to, the group of mech builders there will get this opportunity.”
Yan Hao nodded in awe. It turns out it was like this. It was just a simple system upgrade, yet it unexpectedly had so many twists and turns.
“Little junior brother, since you’ll definitely be in Master’s group, where would you prefer to go?” His sixth senior brother, Ruan Bowen asked curiously.
“General Admiral Sheng’s base.”
Ruan Bowen had just been asking casually and so was surprised when he heard Yan Hao answer so definitively. He couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Why?”
Yan Hao’s face turning red, he poked at his rice with his chopsticks, “My….. my boyfriend is there.”
That’s right, Sheng Heng had gone to the Sheng family’s base to deliver the phantom elixir to his big brother.
“!!!” The crowd of senior brothers.
After a short moment of silence.
“How about, we pull some strings?” Baby Bug suggested.
And under Yan Hao’s puzzled gaze, his senior brothers looked at each other, then nodded unanimously.
So the next day, when Old Zhong asked his disciples to make the paper balls for drawing lots, General Admiral Sheng’s base was chosen conveniently.
“Let’s go to the Sheng family’s base then. Old third, you and Old fifth will go to the Feng family. Old fourth, Old seventh, you two go to the Sima family. Old Sixth, you and Yan Hao will go with me.” Old Zhong allocated the tasks.
“Yes.”
Yan Hao looked at Baby Bug in confusion, only to see him wink at him mischievously.
Yan Hao suddenly understood: It turns out, this was what they meant by pulling some strings.
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Thanks for the update
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Thanks for the chapter! He’ll finally get to meet some people from his BF’s family since he’s visiting their base!
I bet every single ball had the same name just to facil8tate that 🤣