Chapter 492: Scientific Research

Li Cheng currently has several high-speed movement methods: one is the light-speed elbow strike from the levitation engine, with a single linear movement distance of 1500 kilometers, but it consumes heavily, easily causes collateral damage, and cannot turn.

The second is demon swap positioning, with the advantage of a short cooldown of only 30 seconds, allowing turns and wall-penetration, but the disadvantage is relatively short range.

The third is using the Two-Yin Knife to activate the Insect Form, expelling flame from vector nozzles via an internal biochemical energy engine for long-distance high-speed flight; the drawback is that it puts the Two-Yin Knife into cooldown.

In summary, Li Cheng needs a vehicle that consumes little spiritual energy, turns flexibly, and can perform both short-distance sprints and long-distance high-speed travel.

After hearing the requirements, the factory's intelligent core searched through the remaining conceptual inventory in its storage room and actually found a suitable combination.

A-class vehicle: derived from the steam locomotive invented by the 1814 Britishman Stephenson;

A-class aircraft: derived from the H1-type new aircraft designed and manufactured by the legendary billionaire Howard Hughes;

B-class virtual racing car: derived from the sealed original disc of the single-player game "Violent Moto";

B-class ultra-long endurance: derived from the Sega cartridge of the most boring game in history, "Desert Bus," released in 1995;

A-class cyberpunk: derived from the original manuscript of William Gibson's 1984 sci-fi novel "Neuromancer";

Although there was no S-class, by combining several A-class concepts, they ultimately produced a vehicle with a futuristic, avant-garde design.

【Item Name: Edge Racer】

【Type: Vehicle】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Effect 1: Tron Legacy. Switches between vehicle forms—car, motorcycle, submarine, aircraft, glider—based on surrounding environment and user commands, with technological advancement not exceeding the user's era.】

【Effect 2: Neuromancer. Transforms the vehicle and its occupants into an intangible data state, briefly increasing speed while consuming large amounts of electricity.】

【Consumption: After exhausting electricity, it consumes the user's spiritual energy, depending on the vehicle form and speed.】

【Cooldown: None】

【Usage Condition: Win three underground races without using supernatural powers.】

【Note: Fast through curves is truly fast—who doesn't know how to step on the gas in a straight line?】

【Note: Big head, thick neck—not a millionaire, then an F1 driver.】

As noted, F1 cars experience lateral accelerations of up to 5G during turns and require heavy helmets, so F1 drivers generally have necks with over 40 kilograms of strength—each one thicker than the last.

As the note mentions, the Edge Racer's design resembles the motorcycle vehicle from the cyberpunk film "Tron: Legacy."

Streamlined body, hollow wheel hubs, glowing light strips embedded at various positions.

In motorcycle and car forms, the Edge Racer reaches speeds of approximately 450 km/h; in submarine form, it cruises at 44 knots; in aircraft form, its cruising speed is 2.5 Mach.

Additionally, it features an ultra-high-capacity battery, allowing cruising time close to three hours, with subsequent spiritual energy consumption rates within acceptable limits.

At critical moments, it can activate data transformation to boost speed further.

Li Cheng was highly satisfied with this new vehicle and immediately returned to Shallow Street to sign up for underground racing—

Players generally suffer from psychological stress and often participate in forbidden-superpower events like full-armor melee combat and unrestricted fighting to relax; racing is one such activity.

Li Cheng rented a modified Koenigsegg and signed up for the amateur race, expecting to easily win using his accumulated racing experience from the Multi-Brain Domain Method, but he discovered two top-tier professional drivers among the competitors.

This was problematic—about to lose, Li Cheng decisively activated his player ID inside the car, rolled down the window, and smiled warmly at the two competitors.

The name "Pi Fu" had become infamous after the London Incident; every major guild had marked him in their internal databases as "a psychotic wielding weapons of mass destruction, extremely uncontrollable."

Under his amiable gaze, both competitors felt their scalps tingle, simultaneously slowed their speed, turned their wheels, and crashed into the wall—Li Cheng thus won three consecutive racing championships.

To be fair, this single-player creation mode is incredibly satisfying—it feels just like winning first place in an elementary school essay contest titled "My Mayor Dad."

————"Today, with excitement, I stand on this stage, reflecting on my academic journey, overwhelmed with emotion. First, I sincerely thank my parents, the XCGB1001 Nanobot Production Line. Love and support are my eternal spiritual harbor. Second, I sincerely thank my mentors: Gemini, GPT4.5, Grok, Xiao Yuan Search, Homework Help, Xue Xiao Yi Search."

On a temporary stage built inside the 3D warehouse, Hui Yu, dressed in a graduation gown and cap, holding an elementary school graduation certificate, eyes brimming with tears, delivered her graduation speech.

Li Cheng, crouching behind the camera photographing her, rolled his eyes—yes, after undergoing 【Assemble Doll · Modified】 with installed memory chips and hardware upgrades, 【Silver Wing Path】 algorithm optimization, and prolonged, diligent study—

Hui Yu finally passed her elementary school graduation exam and received her certificate—congratulations.

"On my future path, I will forever hold reverence and passion, never betraying what I've learned or squandering my youth. I will contribute brick by brick to my nation's scientific research development."

After this passionate speech, Hui Yu strode off the stage, about to uninstall her learning apps, when Li Cheng stopped her: "Wait, what are you doing?"

"Uninstalling the apps," Hui Yu said, utterly reasonable. "I've graduated—why keep studying?"

"You've only graduated elementary school—there's middle school next."

Li Cheng pulled out textbooks for Chinese, math, English, biology, chemistry, moral law, history, and geography, along with corresponding exercise books.

"Huh?"

Hui Yu's face instantly fell. She grumbled: "I'm a super-robot built with future tech—do I really need to learn such simple knowledge? Just download it into my hard drive."

Li Cheng didn't look up. "Hardware capability doesn't equal final performance. Downloading into your hard drive doesn't mean you've truly learned."

Seeing Hui Yu still pouting, Li Cheng put down the textbooks and asked: "No internet, no dataset checks—tell me Newton's Three Laws."

"Uh, first law: any object maintains uniform linear motion or rest until an external force compels it to change.

Second law: force causes acceleration, proportional to net force and inversely proportional to mass, with acceleration direction matching net force direction.

Third law"

Hui Yu's eyelids trembled, and she recited: "When temperature approaches absolute zero, a system's entropy tends toward a constant."

Li Cheng's eye twitched. "That's the Third Law of Thermodynamics, summarized by Walther Nernst."

Hui Yu slapped her chest. "All planets orbiting the sun in elliptical paths have a constant ratio between the cube of their semi-major axis and the square of their orbital period."

Li Cheng sighed. "That's Kepler's Third Law."

Hui Yu suddenly understood. "A robot must, as far as possible, preserve its own existence without violating the First and Second Laws."

"??? That's Asimov's Third Law of Robotics. You're a robot yourself—how can you misremember even that?"

Li Cheng gave Hui Yu a sharp tap on the head, shoved the textbooks into her arms, and she took them with a grimace, reluctantly returning to her desk to begin studying: "abandon, to give up."

Another quiet evening—Li Cheng was about to pick up pliers and crawl under the tank chassis to tighten bolts—

Ding dang.

The bell rang—Zhu Xing Zhen Tai had a visitor.

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow and crawled out from under the tank.

The bell here is remotely controlled by the store's AI vending machine; ordinary customers wouldn't trigger it to contact him.

Li Cheng glanced at the LCD screen, where clearly stood Yuan Zhixia, Su Jie, and a broad-featured, burly man in a suit outside the Zhu Xing Zhen Tai entrance.

According to the Special Affairs Bureau's records, this man was none other than Director Xing Hechou, director of the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau.