Legend of the Maestro Chapter 2

-Do you confirm? - spoke the doubtful voice

-Don't waste your words. Come out!

Ye Zhong's patience had started to chip away. However, his eyes and body language were completely the opposite. He curved his back slightly, like a bow that was ready to shoot out an arrow. He could have given his opponent a fatal kick at any moment.

-Ok, I'll come out then - said the expressionless voice, with no resistance.

As soon as the sentence was finished, the room darkened swiftly. Before Ye Zhong could react, a "Boommm!" sound exploded, a fierce tidal wave of rubbish swallowed him up. The dump planet was then back to its original quiet state.

After a while, a blackened arm stretched out from the rubbish heap next to the transferring station, then a person covered in dirt could be seen crawling out from there.

*cough* *cough* – Misfortune sure does not come singly! *cough*

Ye Zhong went on swearing while shaking off all of the dirt off of his clothes. Up to this moment, Ye Zhong did not have the slightest ideas of what had just happened.

Was it the legendary kamikaze attack?

Staring at the disaster in front of his eyes, everything was buried in trash, even his entrance had disappeared. He couldn't help but feel disheartened "How long will it take to clear up the entrance?"

He muttered to himself with deep resentment: "You bastard, you are dead meat to me." He was boiling with rage.

Glaring at the perpetrator, his words just left him.

The fact that Ye Zhong had to spend at least 3 days worth of effort to clean up his entrance made his blood boiled to the peak. But as soon as he faced the one responsible for it, he couldn't remain angry any more.

A glamorous metal outer shell, a plated laser layer, looking brand new, shined a hue of green and white, made the surface of the mecha not even have a speck of dust, even though rubbish had surrounded it in every direction. When Ye Zhong realised, it was already standing firmly, as a mountain, as if nothing in this world could have moved it.

From the first glance, Ye Zhong already knew he had bagged himself a highly valuable item.

If the first glance delighted him, the second look gave him a mixture of pain and joy.

A big wound stretched from its left shoulder to its waist, revealing its internal engine. Its entire left arm was gone. Like an impeccable marvellous painting that got ripped.

This mecha was human-shaped, about 12 metres high; the body armour had a blend of white and green colour. Its body gleamed with a strange metallic shine. Every part of its breastplate was like solid and gorgeous muscle, not flabby at all. The cold face with its contour as if it had been carved by knife, the electronic green eyes sparkled rhythmically creating a rather eerie impression.

Ye Zhong was completely perplexed, eyeballing the broken mecha that had destroyed his entrance. At that very moment, this broken, yet enthralling mecha was all that Ye Zhong could think about, as if there was some kind of supernatural force in use, it completely captured Ye Zhong's attention.

-Auto check-up completed: motor quality: 80%, left arm quality: 0%, cockpit quality: 97%, other components quality: perfect.

A genderless voice interrupted Ye Zhong's train of thought. He blurted out "Woah, this is tip-top, a mecha that can do auto check-ups." If one had looked closely, they would see that its mouth had opened so wide that even a whole rat's leg could have fit in it. And it was trickling some kind of twinkling liquid.

The broken mecha suddenly spoke "Hello!"

The mecha could greet! Ye Zhong replied without thinking "Hello!"

The broken mecha continued "I am Mu Shang. You can call me Mu"

Ye Zhong was still astounded "Yeah, I am Ye Zhong, you can call me Ye Zi"

Then, it suddenly clicked, as if there was fire burning under his bum, he jumped up and down, pointed at the broken mecha, stuttering "You …. You … You …. You can talk?"

The broken mecha, aka Mu Shang, gracefully nodded "To a certain extent."

Ye Zhong couldn't believe his ears, and asked again "Mechas can talk?"

-Yes

With Mu Shang joining in, Ye Zhong's house was three times as big as before. According to Mu Shang, the jewellery that Ye Zhong had collected was Mu Shang's space switch. Mu Shang had preferred to be on the outside instead of being inside of the subspace. Ye Zhong also liked this new friend. To be fair, from the point of view of a mere 16 years old: loneliness was the most unbearable feeling.

Ye Zhong dropped himself down to the ground. Finally done, but utterly exhausted. Mu Shang followed suit, "swift!" he had already sat next to Ye Zhong, blowing up the dirt. Without a chance to prepare, Ye Zhong was blown by this wind to the corner of the house. He angrily looked up, and saw the big hole in the ground that Mu Shang had just created, but Mu Shang was sitting in it looking at Ye Zhong with its puppy eyes.

The two sat under the light, one giant, one tiny.

Ye Zhong curiously asked, "Mu, why are you in such a state?"

Mu Shang replied "Data was corrupted, so no way to know"

Ye Zhong swallowed, laughed "It's definitely your incapability, so you got beaten up badly."

Mu Shang responded "Data was corrupted, so no conclusion drawn"

Ye Zhong dropped his laugh, and grimaced, "Can you please be a bit more interesting? Don't just say data, data all the time"

Mu Shang tilted its head, and replied with difficulty, "Interesting? What is interesting?"

Ye Zhong scratched his head, he didn't know how to answer that, "Uhm… this, it's quite complicated, well… let's change topic. Mu, are you a guy or gal?"

………………………………………………………….

Ye Zhong sat in Mu Shang's cockpit in a daze. He couldn't believe his eyes. He touched this part, and then another part. He couldn't keep his hands to himself, and said with admiration "Mu, you've gotta be the most accomplished mecha, haven't you?"

Mu replied calmly "Based on the database, the answer is no. According to the calculation, the probability to be in the top 500 is 26%, rank 500-600 is 63%, below 600 is 11%"

That startled Ye Zhong "Top 500? There are that many superb mechas out there? But, to be fair, making it to the top 500 isn't bad at all. That's much better than Wen Ni already."

Of course Ye Zhong wasn't aware of the fact that Mu Shang had still made it to top 500 with those major wounds. What on earth was that? Ye Zhong had always dreamt of the day when he could have had a more advanced mecha than Wen Ni. So he could have picked a fight with the most ferocious beasts on this planet. He wondered how the Iron Lizard would taste like. Ye Zhong couldn't help himself but lick his lips, "Well, I could crown myself king on this dump planet then"

Mu Shang disrupted Ye Zhong's thoughts unknowingly "Wen Ni's capability cannot be evaluated."

Ye Zhong grimaced "Of course I know that." He asked full of hope "Mu, can you control this mecha"

-Maybe

Uwahwah, seems like I still have to pilot Wen Ni

Ye Zhong felt dejected, questioned with bafflement, "Then what's the point of you having a cockpit?"

Mu Shang went quiet for a few seconds then responded, "Data was corrupted, cannot search for answer"

-Do you remember your creator then? - Ye Zhong asked curiously

-Data was corrupted, cannot search for answer.

It had been a while since Ye Zhong had anyone to talk to, so he was in the mood for a chat. As he was about to drop another question, a low warning sounded. Mu Shang elaborated "Not enough energy." On the screen of the energy board in the cockpit, it was almost at the lowest point.

Due to the suitable distance from the dump planet to a star, the solar power almost never depleted. Thus energy would have been Ye Zhong's least worry. When he had brought out all of the reserved batteries, he found out that it didn't even help reach a mere 10% of Mu Shang's energy indicator. He was dumbfounded.

When Mu Shang attached the solar panel directly on its body, Ye Zhong was speechless. He could only pray that the battery powering his house could have lasted till the day that Mu Shang could have recharged all its power.

Mu Shang silently recharged its energy, Ye Zhong felt bored, so he slowly fell asleep.

When he woke up the next day, he immediately realised that there was something different about Mu Shang. The mecha's surface seemed to gleam brightly, making Mu Shang rather mystical.

Ye Zhong was in awe "Mu, you suddenly look so dazzling"

It was clear that Mu Shang could understand the word "dazzling" Ye Zhong had just said it, before it instantly clarified "This is photon activation effect, it's due to the full level of energy that creates light activation on metal. It bases on the basic principle that …"

Ye Zhong closed his eyes, yawned every now and then.

Mu Shang seemed to enjoy being a teacher, lecturing non-stop "The related knowledge is rather simple, it can be summarised into the following points …"

Ye Zhong lowered his head, looking like monk that was about to enter his meditation state. If looked closely, a 'trickle' dropped on his leg, wetting a big part of his pants there.

Mu Shang still hadn't stopped yet, "Therefore, in conclusion, it is the real power of the mecha…"

A noise interrupted Mu Shang. Mu Shang turned its head to the source of the noise angrily, just to realise that that was Ye Zhong's rhythmic snoring. The sound came in waves, with both of his shoulders moving up and down along with the snoring.

Mu Shang was utterly stunned.

Chapter end