Chapter 9: The Twenty Years Late Golden Finger

"Eddie, Eddie, are you okay... cough cough..."

Curly Hair was stunned, rushing over to lift Eddie up and let his upper body rest on his legs, quickly patting Eddie's charred face.

It took a while for Eddie to open his eyes and immediately spewed a mouthful of black smoke, spraying Curly Hair's face.

"I'm okay, just a bit dizzy..." Eddie sat up and shook his head vigorously.

The junkyard was full of various mechanical wrecks, including some old energy batteries. Eddie had found a 'treasure' but had been careless, resulting in an unfortunate electrocution.

Fortunately, his physical condition was good; otherwise, he might have ended up in the hospital.

"Is this your mechanic?"

Carl and David approached, their faces wearing malicious grins.

"...What's wrong, isn't he okay?" Curly Hair's tone lacked confidence.

Facing the two, he felt both embarrassed and irritated.

"Sure, he's okay. Not to mention anything else, but surviving an electric shock like that shows strong physical resilience. Take good care of him. We'll be leaving now, haha..." Carl mocked before turning to join David, laughing boisterously as they walked away.

Actually, it's quite normal for a mechanic to get electrocuted.

Which electrician hasn't been shocked at some point?

The problem was that Curly Hair had just confidently boasted about Eddie, and the next moment, Eddie was electrocuted and tumbled down the trash mountain in such a disgraceful manner, making Eddie seem very amateurish.

"Yesterday, I saw you checking the programming. You should be a high-level mechanic, so how could you make such a rookie mistake?" Curly Hair looked at Eddie somewhat reproachfully.

Eddie's fall indeed made him lose face.

"Because rookie mistakes are most common..." Eddie touched his somewhat charred face and said:

"You're wrong. I didn't get electrocuted by mistake; it was intentional!"

"Intentional?"

"Yes, intentional."

"Why would you intentionally electrocute yourself?"

"I thought your hairstyle was cool, and I wanted to get the same one."

"..."

This reason... Curly Hair was speechless, not knowing how to respond, and could only give Eddie a thumbs-up in silence.

"Okay, take this."

Eddie didn't want to dwell on the issue and handed Curly Hair a black disc-like object.

"An AI core? You got electrocuted because of this?"

Curly Hair's eyes lit up, instantly forgetting his complaints.

Mechs are classified not only by tonnage, power output, and armament but also by whether they're equipped with an AI core.

An AI core not only performs the functions of a main control chip but also has built-in auxiliary intelligence. It can monitor the status of both the Iron Rider and the mech in real-time, record combat data, develop autonomous combat modes based on collected data, and even fight and make decisions when the Iron Rider is absent, providing auxiliary combat capabilities in certain situations.

However, AI cores are extremely expensive and typically not equipped on lower-level mechs.

Usually, mechs with AI cores are at least at the Pioneer level, which Eddie had found in a scrapped Pioneer-level mech.

The unexpected discovery was why Eddie got accidentally electrocuted.

"Not electrocuted, just getting a perm," Eddie corrected.

"Alright, alright, a perm. You just got a perm, so you must be feeling unwell. Rest here for a bit, and I'll look for the other parts," Curly Hair said, nodding and becoming much more agile after stowing away the AI core, filled with renewed vigor.

Solving the main control chip problem meant that the Mammoth was ready for combat; everything else was a minor issue. Eddie was now a hero and didn't need to keep rummaging through the junk.

But what Curly Hair didn't notice was that Eddie's expression quickly became calm and deep as he looked around and saw that others weren't paying much attention to him. He leaned back against a piece of mechanical wreckage, closed his eyes as if resting, but his consciousness immediately delved into his own body.

Even Eddie himself hadn't expected that this electric shock would turn into a blessing in disguise, awakening the Rubik's Cube that had been inactive for twenty-three years.

"So, what's going on..."

In the space of consciousness, Eddie looked at the quietly floating Rubik's Cube, his eyebrows slightly raised.

For so many years, the cube had just been floating there, unresponsive to all his attempts. But now, things were different.

Above the cube, a pale blue '1' appeared out of nowhere, and Eddie felt a strange connection with the cube.

It seemed... he could now twist it.

After pondering for a moment, Eddie decided to try twisting the cube.

It had been in his body for over twenty years, and now that it finally showed some activity, it would be a shame not to explore it. If this slight connection disappeared, who knows when it would be active again.

Click!

Making up his mind, Eddie commanded the cube, and for the first time, it obeyed, turning as he had envisioned.

The patterns that hadn't changed for twenty-three years finally altered.

Hum—

The next second, the cube trembled slightly, and the light blue glyphs on the side facing Eddie lit up. After a brief flicker, they slowly floated up, converging above the cube into a holographic-like structure with detailed breakdowns.

It looked like a giant energy gun.

Simultaneously, a stream of information appeared in Eddie's mind:

[Star Beast · Crimson Python]

[Type: Heavy Energy Gun]

[Level: E+]

[Combat Modes: 3]

[Power Output: 800~1700]

[Minimum Equipment Requirement: Infantry-level Battlefield Mech]

"Huh?"

Reading the introduction in his mind and looking at the three-dimensional structure above the cube, Eddie slowly opened his eyes, a question mark forming on his forehead.

Twenty-three years!

He had lived in this world for twenty-three years, checking the cube almost every day, trying to communicate with it, hoping for some reaction, some usefulness.

After so much effort, it finally responded, only to provide a weapon blueprint.

And it was the lowest level E-grade blueprint.

Are you kidding me?

Eddie was full of disbelief.

He was at least a high-level talent.

Did he really need such a low-level blueprint?