Chapter 283: Challenge
Chen Rui only mentioned 3 “innovations” to change Master Toto’s att.i.tude toward him.
“Firstly, this Gundam… urm, puppet, can we consider designing and testing separately according to function? For example, defense, attack and speed types. Also, can it be transformed into a demonic beast to ease combat or marching?”
“Second, that missile… No, can a tracking function be added to the launch of magic cannon to lock on target?”
“Thirdly, although the magic cannon has poor maneuverability, a defensive object that can move as freely as a horse carriage can be designed and equipped with the magic cannon to become a mobile attack fortress? By the way, let’s call it a tank…”
Master Toto was a purely technical guy, so he was not ashamed to ask questions. He quickly grabbed a pen and asked while writing them down like a little reporter who was interviewing. Although Chen Rui was purely layman in the machinery, his “creatives” were so frightening that Master Toto was shocked – lack of skills could be trained, but things like creativity were natural inspirations. It couldn’t be plagiarized (someone was guilty).
After some discussion, under the “contribution” of Chen Rui’s creativity and a few physics knowledge, Master Toto with his eyes lit no longer questioned his t.i.tle as a genius. He was a true all-round genius. He was still a genius in any field.
Originally, Sabrina wanted to use the relations.h.i.+p between the crystal dragon and Chen Rui to win the challenge. Unexpectedly, Chen Rui could actually rely on his own ability to win the approval of the most prestigious master craftsman in the Mystic Valley. Perhaps he could truly win by then. She gave Chen Rui a thumbs-up secretly. Seeing the two of them talking speculatively, she walked away to avoid disturbing them.
After learning that Chen Rui was also born fameless instead of a disciple of some “famous master”, Master Toto, who also came from a “cult”, had a better impression of Chen Rui. Yet, a good impression was one thing, but the challenge was another matter.
Chen Rui’s opponent this time was Norris, the commander of the Mystic Valley, who killed Spanda, the former commander. The challenge in the Mystic Valley wasn’t about combat power, but the content of certain research.
The “profession” of the former commander, Spanda was a secret technique in beast taming and mind control, so he was a talent in “biotechnology”. Norris defeated Spanda in his strongest field. In the end, Spanda was dead and Norris climbed to the throne of commander without dispute.
“Master Toto, can you tell me exactly what the challenge is?”
Toto’s answer surprised Chen Rui. The scope could be “machinery” or “biology” research. There was no limit to the content. Based on the previous challenge, it should be decided by the challenger. The time when Norris won the position of commander was a challenge where both of them were confined in a sealed magic circle with a mad beast. They had to use mind control, spirit, various magic or secret techniques to control the mad beast to attack each other.
The rules were one cannot kill the mad beast nor directly attack the opponent. Whoever dies first will lose. Therefore, this challenge was also called the deathmatch.
Mad beast was the highest research achievement of Mystic Valley. It was a terrifying modified half beast hald demon creature. It was bloodthirsty and aggressive with considerably high combat power. Currently, it was only a semi-finished product, so it was extremely difficult to control. Even if with the highest level beast taming skill or mind control skill, it was still difficult to control it.
In that duel, Norris and Spanda used all their powers in the duel which was very exciting. In the end, under the control of Norris, the mad beast tore Spanda into pieces, and Norris won the final victory.
Chen Rui was secretly shocked: This challenge isn’t a physical battle between two people, but the cruelty is even higher. It’s the same in every field, the winner stays and the loser dies.
“Norris is proficient in dark magic, curse and mind control secret techniques. The previous content will probably be used in this challenge. You have great potential to become a grandmaster, but every field has its specialization. You’re definitely not his opponent in this. I suggest you not partic.i.p.ate in this challenge. You can come directly to the Mystic Valley, and I’ll appoint you as the deputy master craftsman!”
Master Toto had some good intentions. It was mainly because he couldn’t bear a talent who might become a grandmaster and had potential in “scientific research” to die. The position as the deputy master craftsman was also wanted by many. Even the dual-specialized mechanic master, Horford, brought by Izola was only a “project leader” at an ordinary level. For Chen Rui who just arrived to be below one person and above many people was unprecedented.
Chen Rui couldn’t really stay here as a mad scientist, so he obviously wouldn’t accept that kindness. Instead, he asked indifferently, “Master, if these experiments are successful, the whole Demon Realm will be turned upside down. By the time, war will break out…”
“Yeah!” Master Toto’s eyes lit up, “That’s right! By then, these new weapons will come in handy! It’ll definitely cause unexpected lethality! Even Demon Overlords might be exhausted! This is definitely a significant, great success! My name, Toto will be recorded in the history of demons! Haha…”
Chen Rui probed a few more questions, but it made Master Toto even more excited. He was completely immersed in the huge desire to be wors.h.i.+pped by later generations. Chen Rui finally understood that Master Toto was a fanatic. It was harder to persuade him to change his idea of being famous in the “history of science” than to persuade a demonic tiger to become a vegetarian. As long as I’m famous, I don’t care if it’s for good or bad things. As for maintaining the peace of the universe, f.u.c.k that.
That “reminder” made Master Toto like the future deputy master craftsman even more. He took him to tour for a while more. Finally, Sabrina took Chen Rui out of the Mystic Valley with satisfaction.
Sabrina saw that Chen Rui was silenced along the way, and she thought he was fearful after learning the cause of Spanda’s death. She comforted, “Master, don’t worry. Today, we are mainly trying to give you a rough idea. It was just right that I saw you discussing the giant puppet. As long as you ask Sir Jacob for help to set the challenge related to this, you can win safely.”
“Madam, the content can remain unchanged…” Chen Rui shook his head. Regarding those puppets and other things, he could still boast his way through, but when it came to actual contesting, he definitely couldn’t make it. Even though he had used [Deep a.n.a.lysis] to record many relevant data, neither biology nor machinery were something that he was good at. Even with [Deep a.n.a.lysis], he couldn’t understand them at once, so he clearly couldn’t compete in it.
On the contrary, the most likely challenge was a bit hopeful. He didn’t know whether he could communicate with the mad beast via [a.n.a.lytical Eyes]. Yet, based on the situation described by Master Toto, the mad beast should be a fighting machine with only killing instincts, so the possibility for communication was extremely small. G.o.d-Eating Mask should be able to make the mad beast a puppet, but the number of puppets had reached the upper limit of two. Fatilu definitely couldn’t be discarded, so he could only discard Snowden who was far away in the Red Spirit Estate. It was just that he must wear the mask on his face to cast puppetry. In that way, G.o.d-Eating Mask would be exposed. Now, there was only one reliable method. That was to realize the power of black territory from Shura, which contained the characteristic of manipulation, such as control and confusion.
“Content unchanged?” Sabrina was taken aback. Chen Rui was from the Nightmare Valley, and he was greatly valued by Uncle Manu. If he died in the Mystic Valley because of her, Manu would never let her go.
“These few days, I need to calm down and think hard about how to help you win this challenge.”
Sabrina noticed that he wasn’t talking simply. After all, it was a matter of life and death. It couldn’t be taken as a child’s play. She thought in secret: Could it be that Master Arthur still possesses a powerful mind-controlling technique?
Sabrina thought for a while and said, “Okay. I won’t intervene too much. I’ll leave everything to you, master. Tell me if you need anything.”
“I just want to trouble madam to gather some materials. The more the better, the sooner the better. I need to make an item to face the challenge in six days.”
The materials listed by Chen Rui were mostly rare materials for making Thunderous Sound. It was even enough to make multiple copies. Some of them were materials for [Aura Conversion]. Anyway, at such a critical moment, he might as well take more advantages.
Sabrina frowned slightly when she heard the names of these materials, but she didn’t doubt it because the challenge was related to Chen Rui’s life. She thought about it and pointed out that there were one or two pieces that she couldn’t gather. It was still better than Chen Rui’s expectation. He believed that Sabrina wouldn’t take him lightly at this time.
In that way, Chen Rui returned to the Nightmare Valley. The effect of the grandmaster level healing potion was indeed extraordinary. Freya’s hand had basically recovered, but when she saw him, she was still very cautious. Chen Rui comforted a few words and began training in his lab.
Seven days pa.s.sed by quickly. It was finally the challenge day at the Mystic Valley.
As expected by Chen Rui, Norris, the commander, chose the content of the previous challenge which was a deathmatch of controlling mad beast.
In the Mystic Valley, the crystal dragon, Jacob came personally as the judge. Both sides were Sabrina and Izola respectively. The people from the Mystic Valley were usually immersed in work, most of them, except for those who couldn’t walk away, came to watch this exciting challenge that rarely happened.
Norris was Izola’s aide, a dark elf with mutated bloodline, and his strength reached the level of early stage Great Demon King. From the a.n.a.lysis of his comprehensive strength, he was a mage. This made Chen Rui think of another Great Demon King in the Dark Moon, Skye.
If it was a direct one-on-one battle, with Chen Rui’s combat power and his characteristics like [Anti-Magic], Norris could be easily killed (surely, under the premise of not exposing his strength). However, the challenge today wasn’t to fight directly. Instead, they had to control the mad beast to attack each other. If one of them lost, the loser would be in a life danger.
Based on strength, “Arthur” was only an early stage Demon King whereas Norris was an early stage Great Demon King. Besides, Norris was proficient in mind control, and he had the record of defeating the former commander, Spanda. Therefore, his chances in winning were higher. Almost everyone was optimistic about Norris.
Norris glanced at Chen Rui with a cruel smile, “Demon Realm’s top genius mechanic master? The person who’s most likely to become a grandmaster? It’s you who’s suiciding. After being torn into pieces by the mad beast, let’s see how you become a grandmaster!”
Before Chen Rui refuted, a stern voice sounded, “Master Arthur, try your best. You’ll be fine with me being here no matter whether you win or lose.”
Norris’ smile froze on his face. The one who spoke was today’s judge, the strongest Demon Overlord in the Crystal Valley – the crystal dragon, Jacob.
Is that still a judge?! He is already cheating before it starts!
Jacob couldn’t bother about those things. Master Arthur was the key to improving his recovery magic circle. Besides, he was also an important servant in the future so nothing should ever happen to him. As for the fight between the two women, it had nothing to do with him.
This deathmatch was so one-sided. Chen Rui literally loses nothing if he loses the deathmatch.