Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 321
Sync rate was a very important measurement when it came to Cultivators and crystal suits in the Flying Star Sector.
Since the crystal suits of this Sector all boasted very high independent combat ability, the most determinative factor about the professionalism of an Exo was usually the coordination and cooperation between them and their crystal suits.
A high sync rate suggested that the body of the Exo had melded with the crystal suit and their head had integrated into the crystal processor. Naturally, they could bring out the full potential of the crystal suit.
Li Yao's beliefs were the complete opposite to those of the Flying Star Sector's Cultivators. He was like an unreasonable tyrant who insisted on controlling every detail of the crystal suit. The crystal processor was having conflicts with him all the time. It would be a miracle if his sync rate was high!
A sync rate of 37% could not even be counted as third-rate in the Flying Star Sector. Most of the experts of the Sector had sync rates higher than 60%. Those of the top experts were sometimes even higher than 90%!
Lei Dalu smiled. "Fortunately, your dream is to become a master of refining. Maintenance suits are different from battle suits and do not have a high demand on the sync rate. Do not let it bother you too much."
Li Yao was, of course, not in the least bothered by it. He had his own beliefs and wouldn't care even if his sync rate was 0.1%. He smiled and said earnestly, "Thank you very much, captain!"
Lei Dalu took out a smaller metal box, which had been carved with sophisticated spiritual stripes on its four facets. Then he continued, "Uncle Xiong told me that it was not the modification and maintenance of large-scale magical equipment that you are best at, but personal magical equipment? You've even repaired a lot of the young ones' magical equipment of the Tiger Killer Camp.
"That brat Zhao Guo even went to challenge Liao Meng of the assault team the other day. When their sabers collided, Liao Meng's weapon was dented by the heavy blow while Zhao Meng's was fine!
"Liao Meng's battle saber was made of Heavenly Stream Steel and Black Gold Rock and had just been polished by a refiner. It was the sharpest of all and he cherished it more than his life. No one had anticipated such an outcome. The fury on his face!
"Even Uncle Xiong was quite surprised when he came and checked it. It seems that everybody still underestimated you when they thought they overestimated you!
"Uncle Xiong said that he was best at the maintenance and modification of starships and that he had little to teach you about personal magical equipment, especially crystal suits. There was not much he could do except to offer you this. Try to put this to good use."
"This is—"
Four giant, blood-freezing words engraved on the metal box made Li Yao's pupils shrink suddenly. "World of Crystal Suits!"
Chapter 472: World of Crystal Suits |
The human civilization of the Flying Star Sector was based in space. It was troublesome for people to communicate with each other. Therefore, Cultivators of this Sector had focused much attention on the development of the Great Illusionary Land and the Spiritual Nexus.
Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector had refined countless Spiritual Towers that could absorb the spiritual energy in the universe automatically and launched them into the sea of stars over the past thousands of years.
With the Spiritual Towers in space as nodes, the Spiritual Nexus gradually expanded and covered most of the Flying Star Sector. All the people were finally linked.
For the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector, they had developed countless Great Illusionary Lands on the Spiritual Nexus as platforms where they could talk with each other about training.
Sword Cultivators had their own platforms, and so did Spiritual Tattooists, Grand Illusionists, and any other professions.
The World of Crystal Suits was the largest, most professional Great Illusionary Land of all. It was a platform about crystal suits for high-end users.
From the refinement, maintenance, and modification of crystal suits to the utilization, combat skills, and cooperation tactics, and from civil suits to battle suits, from farming suits to maintenance suits, every topic could be studied and discussed on the platform.
A refiner could chat with fellow refiners in the World of Crystal Suits about technical problems that were baffling them.
An Exo could play simulation games and exchange their experiences with fellow Cultivators dozens of space zones away on the matching platform secondary to the World of Crystal Suits.
The World of Crystal Suits was divided into two zones. The regular zone targeted ordinary fighters and the juveniles. The simulation rate was not very high. It was almost considered a super large video game. The sole purpose of this zone was to promote the products and to arouse the interest of the adolescents.
In the meantime, the professional zone was a perfect simulation of the real world. The virtualized crystal suit in the Great Illusionary Land there had identical components with identical details to those on the real crystal suits.
To achieve such an effect, not only was a powerful, stable interspace Spiritual Nexus required, a special crystal processor was mandatory, too. Otherwise, when the scenes inside the World of Crystal Suits became too hectic, the surging information would definitely collapse the crystal processor that was handling it.
The World of Crystal Suits was the training center of the Flying Star Sector, created by Great Illusionary Groups, a joint company of the six major sects of Heavenly Saints City.
The metal box that Lei Dalu had given Li Yao just now contained a streamlined, bright gold helmet with 'Great Illusionary' carved into the back in a vintage style.
It was the latest version of the special crystal processor for the World of Crystal Suits that Great Illusionary Groups had released. More than three thousand techniques had been embedded into the helmet, which was equivalent to a large simulation cabin despite its small size!
Li Yao had been meaning to experience the World of Crystal Suits since the moment he'd discovered such a thing existed. However, the computational ability of his crystal processor was not high enough to meet the entry standard. Besides, he had been busy performing the maintenance tasks and barely had any time to study anything. Therefore, he'd been postponing it for a long time.
He didn't expect that Lei Dalu would be giving him so many precious gifts in succession today. He was so thrilled that he could barely talk.
"This is Uncle Xiong's gift for you. You should thank him! But in my opinion, the best way to express your gratitude is to train yourself well and to make a big name for yourself among the refiners of the Flying Star Sector! Enjoy yourself. I'm leaving!"
Lei Dalu waved his hand and left the No. 1 training room, grinning.
Li Yao took off 'Eight Arm' and calmed himself down. He read the documents from the jade chip near the helmet and filled in enough crystals according to the instructions before he put on the helmet softly.
With a telepathic thought, coolness crowded into his temples, and silver brightness shined in front of his eyes.
Streams of bright gold liquid flowed out from the bottom of the helmet and covered the skin all over Li Yao's body without leaving the tiniest gap.
From the outside, it looked like that he had been enveloped in a neat, gold cocoon!
His nerves seemed to have been stimulated by something. They extended and integrated with the gold brightness through his pores.
Shua!
A boundless Great Illusionary Land was unfolding in front of Li Yao's eyes. It was the deep sea of stars where countless starships were engaged in a fierce battle. In the distance was a glamorously exploding star fortress.
With them as the background, countless Cultivators were raging and fighting against each other furiously in their crystal suits. The dazzling sparks resulting from the collisions of magical equipment even eclipsed the shining stars.
A crystal suit wreathed in burning flames rushed close like a shooting star covering thousands of kilometers within a breath. It stopped above Li Yao and gazed at him without any movement, with two curved snake-shaped swords in its hands.
Although he was aware that it was a Great Illusionary Land and that the crystal suit was nothing but a virtualized telepathic thought of the crystal processor, Li Yao still felt tremendous oppression.
Streams of information gushed into Li Yao's brain.
The crystal suit opened its mouth and said, "I am Jing, your guide. I will answer all your questions about the World of Crystal Suits."
Li Yao said, "Give me a brief introduction to the World of Crystal Suits."
Behind the crystal suit, dozens of different celestial bodies immediately popped up, including planets, satellites, asteroids, nebulas, world fragments, and stone belts.
Every celestial body was an entrance to a different zone.
According to the introduction of the guide, the World of Crystal Suits was mainly divided into two zones.
One was the refining zone prepared for refiners in which all the questions about the refinement of crystal suits could be discussed.
The other part was naturally the Exo zone. Exos could talk to each other about tactics of crystal suits or fight against each other in virtual arenas.
In either of the zones, there were subdivisions for socializing and for actual operations.
Every Cultivator logging into the World of Crystal Suits would be granted with independent space and was free to turn it into a refining workshop or a training room at their will.
Li Yao thought to himself, It appears that the World of Crystal Suits is similar to the Cultivators' Nexus of the Heaven's Origin Sector. They are both platforms where newcomers can pick up knowledge quickly and the experts can exchange their newest ideas. But this platform looks much more advanced than the Cultivators' Nexus!
The guide also told him that the World of Crystal Suits was constructed by the six major sects to defend the human civilization of the Flying Star Sector in return for the support of the general public. Most of the fees of the operation had been covered by the six major sects. Therefore, except for the expense of the special crystal processors to enter the World of Crystal Suits, most of the fundamental subjects inside were free of charge.
However, if one had certain special demands, such as expanding their independent space or utilizing and studying the latest model of a certain crystal suit, they would have to pay for a designated amount of 'crystal coins'.
Crystal coins were easy to get by contributing one's knowledge and skills.
The World of Crystal Suits was such a place where Cultivators could find a bigger world and exchange others' knowledge, skills, and techniques with their own. Eventually, the civilization as a whole would make progress, and the Flying Star Sector would be a more developed and prosperous place!
"You've logged in for the first time. You can enter the World of Crystal Suits as a visitor, but the clearance for visitors is limited. You will not be able to enter the advanced forums or watch the combat videos of the top experts."
The guide continued, "You may also register your account now with a username. With the most advanced 'Chaos Algorithm' that the Great Illusionary Groups holds, your identity would be kept confidential. Nobody will be able to trace your account back to you through the Spiritual Nexus!"
According to explanations of the guide, many big shots in the real world, such as the elders of the major sects in Heavenly Saints City, the renowned university professors, and the project managers of the crystal suit centers, were all fond of chatting and communicating in the World of Crystal Suits.
Some of them often came up with groundbreaking theories, and some others would argue with them in disagreement. Sometimes, things turned pretty ugly when they were lambasting each other about a theory.
All the users were well-respected celebrities in reality. The opinions they expressed carried a lot of weight. Naturally, they wanted to leave what happened inside the World of Crystal Suits within the World of Crystal Suits.
The 'Chaos Algorithm' developed by the Great Illusionary Groups could fully encrypt every user's address on the Spiritual Nexus via a virtual 'chaotizing pool'. Nobody would be able to find out who the users really were. Therefore, everybody was free to say and do whatever they wanted to in the Great Illusionary Land.
Of course, as the influence of the World of Crystal Suits grew bigger and bigger, many celebrities of the real world decided to appear with their true identities in order to better promote themselves.
Whether or not to expose who they were would be entirely determined by the users.
Li Yao was craving to learn the advanced techniques of the Flying Star Sector's crystal suits. Naturally, he wouldn't select the visitor mode. He registered a new account.
"My username is… Fiend Star."
All the optional fields were left blank. As to what aspects he was best at, Li Yao pondered for a moment and typed in three items:
"Maintenance and modification of battlesuits.
"Refinement of melee magical equipment, especially saber-type equipment.
"Classical refining theories."
The guide continued, "Fiend Star has been successfully registered. Now, a test will be held to determine your level."
All the users in the World of Crystal Suits were divided into six levels. Some advanced forums were only open to users above a certain level. It would be quite a bummer if several outsiders continued jumping in when two university professors were discussing esoteric problems about rune arrays, would it not?
The bottom level was 'Unclassified', which referred to ordinary people and the outsiders of the trade.
The second level was 'Apprentice'. It referred to the students of a certain field.
The third level was 'Elite'. This title meant that the user had profound knowledge about a certain field and was adept at some problems. They were qualified to enlighten the newcomers and the apprentices.
The fourth level was 'Specialist'. It was already a very high standard.
The fifth level was 'Master', and the highest level was 'Grand Master'. As their names suggested, only the most renowned and the unquestionable leaders of a trade could be granted such titles!
Gold streams of information rushed down like a meteor shower.
"Name at least twelve uses of Bitter Heart Grasses according to the classical refining theories."
"What is the relationship between the radian of the blade and its damage? In this illustration, rune arrays of the thunder class have been carved on both sides of the saber. How should the rune arrays be altered if the radian of the blade is one degree more obtuse?"
"Summarize the anti-corrosion procedure for the chest plate of a crystal suit and make a preliminary anti-corrosion coating in the most precise ratio with the seven materials provided here."
"Has aerodynamics been mentioned in the classical refining theories? What are the similarities and differences between ancient flying swords and modern ones in regard of swooping? Propose three reasons why ancient flying swords are better than modern ones."
Chapter 473: Glimmers |
The guide raised hundreds of questions within a breath. Most of them were comprehensive conundrums focusing on the maintenance and modification of crystal suits, the refinement of saber-type magical equipment, and classical refining theories. They were extremely difficult.
Despite the immensity of Li Yao's soul, he still felt exhausted after answering all of them.
The guide was silent for a long time. The gaps in its crystal suit were glittering, suggesting that it was analyzing Li Yao's answers with a lot of computational ability.
In the end, the guide replied in a commending tone, "Your answers are complete and precise, not to mention that your speed was amazingly high, too. It is evident that you have a deep understanding about the three categories in question. You are now classified into the 'Specialist' level.
"Especially regarding classical refining theories, your answers are indeed impressive!
"However, the Great Illusionary Groups do not have deeper studies about classical refining theories, and we can't run an inclusive assessment on your capability in classical ways of refining.
"All in all, you are now classified as 'Specialist'. It is the third level only secondary to Master and Grand Master. Of all the users of the World of Crystal Suits, Specialists are ranked in the top 10%. You are now free to join the forums for professionals where you can communicate with other experts.
"If you want to advance into the Master level, you can try to earn more crystal coins by answering questions, holding open lectures, and publishing videos on the latest theories of refining. Then, you can trade the crystal coins for new skills and theories which you can study to improve your capability. When you think that your capability has surpassed the threshold of 'Master', you can demand a new assessment at any time.
"The system has marked the three fields that you are best at below your username. When other users come up with questions in these categories, reminders will be sent to your virtual independent space. You can reply to them if you think you know the correct answer.
"Enjoy the World of Crystal Suits, Specialist Fiend Star!"
The guide bowed and cleared the path leading to different zones.
Li Yao smiled. The Specialist level was not half bad. It should be enough for him to make use of most of the zones inside the World of Crystal Suits.
However, Li Yao was confident that, when it came to classical refining, he was far beyond the Specialist level.
It was just that there seemed to be barely any real experts adept at classical refining theories in the World of Crystal Suits, or rather, the entire Flying Star Sector.
In other words, the refiners in this place were not qualified to evaluate him at all.
He was the real Master when it came to classical refining!
Li Yao's consciousness turned into a streak of brightness and darted toward a dazzling nebula.
The World of Crystal Suits was divided into different zones including forums, Q&A, lectures, and debates among a few others.
