Chapter 154
Translator’s Notes: In a hurry so a quick copypasta meme and BAI
Chapter 154: The Young Man Who Chases The Wind [Part 1]
Cillin looked at him. The young man before him was obviously only seventeen to eighteen years old, but he exuded a maturity that exceeded his age. It was slightly similar to the feeling of change of this city, but the good thing was that he did not sense any ill will from him.
"Yes, we are looking for a place to stay in. Do you have any recommendations?"
The young man looked at them and raised a gloved hand, sticking out one finger, "One hundred a day, GAL credits. If you agree, then I will take you to check out the room.
"Sure." Cillin nodded. This price was still reasonable compared to the private housings at the city center.
The young man pointed at the faded, old cloth spread out as a seat – there was only the driver’s seat at the front – and said, "Come on up."
This flying car looked worn-out, and when it flew it was&h.e.l.lip; very thrilling as well. The shaking made them wish that they could shake out what little was left inside their stomach, and it felt as if the flying car would fall apart with the wind at any moment.
When they reached their destination, Tang Qiuqiu was carried out by Cillin. She was shaken by the car so badly that she became absent-minded, and for a short time she couldn’t even find her balance. Cillin’s condition wasn’t that serious though. On his shoulder, the disdain in the gray cat’s eyes as it watched the shabby car worsened. The ride had proven his point – this car was a pile of junk.
The place the young man mentioned was his own house. It was a small two story house built with rocks at the edge of Wind City Vento. Looking at the stones, it was probably built not too long ago within the past five years. There was a small courtyard. There were some old flying car parts piled up at the corner of the small courtyard and covered up with a cover, so as to prevent the wind from blowing them away.
After the car was parked at the courtyard, the young man walked over and pointed at the second floor of the house, "You guys can go in and take a look first. If there are no problems, then you may pay the rent and sign an agreement right away."
Cillin nodded and walked to the second floor while carrying Tang Qiuqiu. There was only one flight of steps in the courtyard leading up the second floor. The gray cat had already jumped on the stairs and scuttled into the house.
The s.p.a.ce inside the house wasn’t huge, but it had a distinct lay out of one room, one living hall and even one simplistic toilet. The bed inside the bedroom could be split into two smaller beds.
First, Cillin put Tang Qiuqiu on the bed so she could rest. The gray cat had already patrolled around its domain once and even took a dump in the simplistic toilet along the way. It crouched on top of the window sill and looked towards sandstorm at the distance, wearing the expression of the profound thinker.
Inside the courtyard, a woman with her head wrapped in a kerchief stood beside the young man. She was probably the young man’s mother. She was wiping the young man’s face with a moistened towel.
Seeing Cillin descending down the stairs, the young man asked, "How is it?"
"It’s pa.s.sable."
Hearing Cillin’s answer, joy leaked out of the woman’s eyes.
The young man pa.s.sed the contract that had been drafted a long time ago to Cillin. After Cillin had given it a look and found no problems with it, both sides then signed the agreement.
Cillin paid five days of rent in advance right away. He would pay more if they needed to stay longer at this place. Besides that, the water bill was also billed separately by the volume used.
Night had already arrived. After Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu lay down and rested after they had eaten a simple meal. Tang Qiuqiu quickly fell asleep. Cillin finally got to experience the devil’s sound of Wind City people were talking about as he listened to the high and low pitched whistling sound of the wind.
Suddenly, the gray cat’s ears shook once, and it jumped up like a spring while its eyes shone with hidden gleam, "Cillin, something came out from inside the desert. I’m going out to hunt for a bit!"
"Go. Don’t cause too much commotion."
"I know!" the gray cat impatiently jumped up to press the door lock before rus.h.i.+ng outside.
When the door had closed automatically, Cillin opened his eyes and sighed once. This place was even worse than the polarisation on Planet Brown Earth. The difference between the luxury of the city center and the old fas.h.i.+on of the ghetto was literally day and night.
Although the sandstorm outside was pretty big, Cillin’s quality of sleep was pretty good tonight. However, Cillin had picked up a beating noise at midnight. It wasn’t too obvious when mixed within the chaotic sounds of the wind though.
The gray cat came back when it was almost daybreak. It looked satisfied, and it even brought back a snake about two meters long to enrich Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu’s diet.
"Oh right Cillin, I saw that guy at the sandstone area." the gray cat lay sideways on the bed while licking its paws, saying, "It is still that same junk car he’s driving shaking all the way as it flies. He even purposely picked the places where there were plenty of rock ledges. He sure isn’t afraid of death alright."
"He’s practicing his driving. He’s a flying car racer."
Earlier, Cillin had already noticed that the young man’s arms and wrists were very strong. His const.i.tution was very good as well. At the same time, the young man wasn’t as impatient as his peers. When he encountered Cillin he had examined him calmly, probably a.n.a.lysing if a person like Cillin would make a good renter.
Did you know? It was incredibly taxing to control the steering while driving at high speed under the effects of air pressure. This was especially true when turning a corner, since powerful arms were even more necessary when a racer attempted to maintain their flying car on course. Therefore, a pair of strong arms and wrists were necessary in a long distance race.
During a flying car race, the formidable lateral centrifugal force would cause the blood in a racer’s body to flow towards one side. However, a racer needed to have a calm mind to be able to face the next corner and potential dangers ahead during this moment. Furthermore, the difference of heart rate during the start of a race and in the middle of a race was pretty huge. Thus, a racer’s heart and lungs must be stronger than the average person.
That wasn’t all. Physical endurance was also important to a racer. In a race, even the shortest course of a race ran more than ten hours. However, the amount of body fat and water exhausted in a race that lasted over ten hours was more than ten kilograms. The racers must replenish their body water and attend to the surrounding dangers at the same time. Severe dehydration would cause the body to go into shock, and the moment a racer became absent-minded and made a mistake, it might just be a devastating outcome for the driver.
Besides that, although the c.o.c.kpit had a temperature control instrument, it was inevitable that it would suffer from damage during the course of a race. If a temperature control instrument failed, the temperature inside the c.o.c.kpit would rise up to twenty degrees higher than the body temperature. Therefore, an accident might happen if a racer did not have good tolerance and endurance. Therefore, a tough const.i.tution was an insurance for a racer.
The gray cat had only paid attention to the worn out car and not the young man. It said disdainfully, "A flying car racer in that piece of junk?"
Cillin patted the gray cat’s head, "Go to sleep already. It’s almost daylight!"
For the first two days they arrived at Wind City, Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu did not venture too
During the two days he stayed here, Cillin had gained a little bit of understanding about his landlord.
The young man was called Udoze Vento. Vento was his surname. Normally speaking, in GAL the big families who had compound surnames loved to put their surnames at the front as a show of respect to their families*. Therefore, on the flip side, there were plenty of people who would automatically categorise someone like Udoze into the ranks of common poeple just based on his name alone.
*Apparently I screwed up when I introduced Pride, Knight and Lung; it should be Andrea Lung, Feigler Knight and so on. For now we keep the arrangement as it is. The arrangement of Udoze Vento was correct, however.
In the Sector language of Sector F, ‘Udoze’ meant ‘chase’. It would appear that Udoze loved his own name a lot. He heard that Mrs. Vento once thought of getting him a new name, but was turned down by Udoze.
Mr. Vento had pa.s.sed away when Udoze was still very young. It was a physical problem. Mr. Vento was p.r.o.ne to sickness since he was born, and so when he was sixteen years old, his parents had married him to Mrs. Vento, who was ten years older than him so that he could leave behind an offspring. Mrs. Vento was the woman he once met inside the courtyard.
However, after Mr. Vento had pa.s.sed away, his brother chased out Mrs. Vento and Udoze, who was only two years old at the time. Thus, the orphan and his widowed mother lived at the edge of the city.
Oh right, one thing. The Vento Family had a larger flying car model shop at the center of Wind City Vento. Later on, the shop was purchased by outsiders and had its name changed. However, it was growing better and better right now, so the other members of the Vento Family all enjoyed a significant income. In comparison, Udoze and Mrs. Vento’s lives were much bleaker.
Udoze worked in the racing team of Wind City Vento. His income wasn’t much, but it was enough to maintain the mother and son’s life. Besides that, there was rent money as well. In the past, the house didn’t look like this and was basically made of sandy soil completely. It was after Udoze had earned some money in the car team that he rebuilt it as a stone house after flattening the former sandy soil house.
Since Udoze spent the majority of his time constantly on the move, he worried about leaving his mother alone in the house if he rented out the house. After all, not all renters who came here were easy to get along with. Therefore, Udoze would seek out his renters personally every time. He would seek out those who were reputable and looked like they could get along well. If he couldn’t find a suitable renter, then he would rather not rent out at all.
Chapter 154: The Young Man Who Chases The Wind [Part 2]
Mrs. Ventz did not have other jobs. All she did was take care of her renters, wash clothes etc, and make some handicraft to sell for some small change. After all, in a world ruled by high technology, handicrafts were just too cheap.
The product of a machine was more precise, more beautiful, less time consuming, low cost and highly efficient. However, the advantage of handicrafts lay on their creativity. As long as the creator had good notions and ideas, then there would be people who would purchase them. Although it could not be sold at an ideal price point, it could at least fill up some living necessities.
It wasn’t Udoze or Mrs. Vento, but the surrounding residents who told them this on their own accord. The people around them basically relied on rent payments for their livelihood, and when there were no flying car racing compet.i.tions they would spend the majority of their time chatting. Therefore, Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu who just came to reside in Udoze’s home became their best tell tale partner.
It was night time.
Tang Qiuqiu was laying on the bed and looked at the racing team’s description, "Brother Cillin, which racing team does Udoze belong to?"
"The uncle around the street corner last time said that he’s in ‘Storm’."
"Storm, huh&h.e.l.lip;" Tang Qiuqiu flipped through the materials, "Oh, they’re pretty good. They’re number four in the entire planet!"
"Alright, read less at night and sleep earlier." Cillin knocked on Tang Qiuqiu’s head.
"Fine, I got it, just five more minutes, no, fifteen more minutes and I’ll sleep."
Cillin shook his head while smiling. He looked towards the pitch back window outside. No one knew what he was thinking.
The gray cat had gone out to hunt for food again. For the past two days, this fellow had been living quite comfortably. Other than the fact that this was a place abundant with food resources, the main reason for its high spirits was because it had encountered a few high level pets that were trained well enough to talk in the city area. Although they had seen some talking high level pets that were raised by rich people at Ouroke, it did not think that it would run into high level pets here too. From this fact, one could see that this was a place where rich people came to amuse themselves.
Ever since it saw the few talking high level pets, the gray cat grew a lot more relaxed. From time to time it would speak on the road and enjoy the shower of attention of pa.s.serbys. At the same time, it was very pleased with itself because the GAL language spoken by those few talking high level pets had thick accent in them. Again, the gray cat was undergoing self enlightenment in this regard.
After Tang Qiuqiu had fallen asleep, Cillin turned off the rechargeable lamp. He closed his eyes and laid on the bed, but he had not fallen asleep.
It was midnight. The beating sounds at the courtyard started once more.
Udoze was sitting inside the driver’s c.o.c.kpit and getting ready to leave. However, he heard a knocking sound turned his head. Then, he was so surprised that he nearly jumped on his feet. Cillin had stood beside the shabby old flying cat before he knew it, and was knocking on the car lid.
Cillin made a hand gesture and motioned for Udoze to open the car lid.
Although he was unwilling, Cillin was his renter after all. He was the supplier of his rent money, and judging from the past two days Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu were pretty good people. Therefore, Udoze ultimately opened the car lid and allowed Cillin to sit at the back seat.
"I can’t sleep and felt like going out for a spin. I know you’re practicing your driving skills, but you don’t mind me hitching a ride, do you?" Cillin did not look embarra.s.sed in the least at all.
You’re in the car already, would you move even if I do mind?
"Sure. As long as you can take it!" Udoze gritted his teeth and said.
It was pitch black at night, and Udoze did not even turn on his car lights. However, he flew the shabby old car out of the courtyard with great familiarity and left Wind City Vento, entering the uninhabited area outside.
The shabby old car was as shaky as ever, not to mention that Udoze had purposely made the car shake so much that it could toss a person out of his car. However, Udoze noticed that the person behind his back continued to sit steadily on his seat despite not wearing a seat belt. His eyes were closed as if he had fallen asleep.
Udoze was surprised. Just what kind of weirdo was this guy?
Shaking his head, Udoze removed his attention from Cillin and officially entered his own practice time.
Sand dunes, rock ledges, narrow pa.s.sages&h.e.l.lip; the shabby old car was always able to smoothly pa.s.s through these places while shaking. Its speed wasn’t slow either. Of course, there was no way it could reach the flurry speed of a racing flying car. After all, this shabby all car was using a rechargeable battery.
Here in this area, solar energy and wind energy were the two main sources of energy. These two energies were converted into stored energy and kept inside the rechargeable battery, so that it could provide for electrical appliances such as rechargeable lamps, some household electric appliances, flying cars and so on.
A rechargeable battery was obviously incomparable to an energy block at all. However, energy blocks were considered a luxury goods in this place. Only the racing cars of racing teams would use energy blocks, and people of Udoze’s circ.u.mstances could not afford energy blocks at all. Therefore, he could only rely on rechargeable batteries to power his flying car.
Although it used rechargeable battery, the speed of Udoze’s worn out car was much faster than other flying cars that were powered by rechargeable battery. This was because he utilised the wind to his full advantage. He was calm and composed despite driving at an extremely challenging and dangerous place like this.
Udoze entire being seemed to have merged into one with the flying car. He did not need to rely too heavily on the airflow balancing meter, and he was able to deduce the next move just by relying on the miniscule effects of the airflow on the car’s body.
This person felt like he should be living in the wind since the moment he was born, free to fly anywhere.
Here in the uninhabited zone, the people carried a sense of foreboding towards the wind and kept away as far away as possible, but Udoze felt unusually close and dear to the wind instead. He could feel the power the wind brought him.
The wind seemed to be telling him: You can be faster, better; go faster, faster&h.e.l.lip;
At this moment, Udoze forgot about Cillin at his back seat and became completely absorbed in himself, his flying car, and the world of the wind.
Whlie he was turning a corner, Udoze controlled the car’s body proficiently, utilising the airflow around the corner and the whistling wind to enable him to complete this turn with better perfection. However&h.e.l.lip; he had not considered Cillin at the back seat.
An extra person meant an extra weight. It was an extra factor that was out of his control. Therefore, when he manipulated the car just like he used to hundreds and thousands of times before, he abruptly discovered his carelessness as a protruding rock on the mountain wall grew closer and closer.
However, Udoze’s reaction was very swift. With even greater hand speed he adjusted the control wheel, turned the steering, and slanted his body at a certain angle to match the car’s movements. The series of movements were completely in an extremely short amount of time, and the car practically went around the turn while touching the edge of the rock.
After going around the turn, Udoze did not continue to drive along the narrow tube. Instead, he drove the flying car out of the tube and landed behind a large rock mountain, popping out clasp nails to cling tightly onto the large rock mountain and prevented the flying car from being blown away by the wind.
After the flying car had come to a stop, Udoze lay on top of the steering and panted.
"Yo, you made a mistake." Cillin opened his eyes and said.
"You shut up, if it wasn’t for you how would I have run into that kind of situation?!" Udoze roared out. His forehead was all sweat, and his back was seeping with cold sweat too. That turn just now was way too thrilling and had exceeded his expectations. Thankfully, it was still within his control, or the two of them would have died here today.
"You cannot put the blame of your own carelessness on another person. After all, you already knew that I was in the car beforehand, but you forgot about it at the time and fell into the habit of familiar controls and familiar mindset. This is undeniably your own fault."
Udoze no longer said anything. He himself knew where his mistake lay. This was a lesson to be learned. He was too confident, so confident that he had overlooked a critical factor.
"Your control just now was pretty good though. At the very least, you did not panic. If your reaction time was 0.1 second slower, then we would have no choice but to enjoy an explosive contact with the rocks."
Udoze suddenly noticed something. The man sitting at the back seat was too calm; so calm that he was like an observer.
"Are you a flying car racer as well?" Udoze said heavily.
In Wind City, there were a lot of taboos between racers. Competing athletes did not like to expose their control habits to another person. It would be very detrimental to him.
"No. I piloted more fighters than I drove flying cars." Cillin said. In the Sixth Squad, fighter piloting was a mandatory course among combat personnel. What fight could they put up if they couldn’t even pilot a fighter?
Udoze’s eyes lit up when he heard about fighters. But it dimmed in the next instant.
"Do you want to pilot a fighter?" Cillin asked.
"I’ll be lying if I say I don’t want to. But that thought is too ephemeral." Udoze buried his head between his arms and said unhappily, "Do you know what my job is?"
"I only know that you work in a racing team."
"Hehe, work&h.e.l.lip;" Udoze smiled self-deprecatingly, "Do you know? There is a kind of person called body double in a racing team."