The weapon refiner is not doing her job properly

Chapter 91 Can't even beat a dog

“I never expected… you would also launch a personal attack against me.” Lian Xinyi was heartbroken and slumped lazily on the sofa chair. “Let me rest for a while. I have to get up at five in the morning to train every day, and sometimes people even attack me in the middle of the night. My mental health has been severely damaged.”

"Who was so eager to come back to the academy back then?" Shen Zhaoming adjusted his glasses; the lenses reflected light, making it impossible to see his eyes.

But even Xin Yi knew Shen Zhaoming well enough to know that he was looking at trash.

“It’s me, it’s me, I admit it.” Lian Xinyi surrendered, “But I’m really tired.”

Shen Zhaoming: "The lazier you are, the more useless you become. When you go back tomorrow, you'll probably be even less willing to move."

"Alright, alright." Lian Xinyi sat up with a jolt, casually scooping up the passing Qirui. "This cat feels so good, so smooth and fat."

Qi Rui immediately glared at him, saying that a dog's mouth can't grow ivory, and kicked with his hind legs.

Lian Xinyi suddenly felt her palm go empty as Qi Rui darted out, leaving only a blur in its wake.

Clutching his aching chest, he applied slight pressure with his fingertips, and the familiar pain of a broken rib returned.

"Qirui, don't hurt anyone." Xingyuan immediately summoned Qirui over, as the combat power of the lead dog was not something an ordinary person's body could withstand.

"It's too late." Lian Xinyi's face turned pale. Xingyuan put down the grilled meat and stepped forward. "Should we see a doctor?"

"No need, no need, it's just everyday food." Lian Xinyi used her special ability to repair the wound.

"Getting injured shouldn't become a habit." Xingyuan went to find medicine; all the commonly used medicines were available there.

"Brother Xing, really, you don't need to. I can heal myself. Medicine won't help." Lian Xinyi's ashen face gradually returned to normal.

"Are you frequently injured? Bone fractures aren't commonplace minor injuries," Shen Zhaoming pointed out. "Have you been bullied?"

Lian Xinyi smiled nonchalantly and changed the subject, "What kind of cat is this?"

"A navigation dog, perhaps." Shen Zhaoming was very knowledgeable, no less so than the school's teachers.

With just that one glance, all the data about Qirui was presented to him, and through data analysis, he could roughly guess the breed of Qirui.

Having access to data is truly a wonderful thing.

"A navigator?" Even Xin Yi was so surprised that her voice trailed off, and her gaze at Qi Rui became even more intense.

Ke Qirui is petty. He raised his tail and rubbed against Suninglong's feet. Their lead dogs are the most hypocritical. They only allow their own owners to tease them about being fat, but not others.

"Meow meow meow." Come and support me!

Shen Zhaoming glanced at Lian Xinyi's idiotic expression, then turned around to greet Xingyuan first, handing him a large box of seafood he had bought at the market he had passed by.

Near the oven were various meats and vegetables, plus a whole sheep; they were planning to stuff themselves.
Xingyuan took it: "Put it here. You can grill something to eat first."

"Okay, thank you for your time." Shen Zhaoming smiled, polite but with a hint of distance.

Xingyuan chuckled: "I should thank you. Don't mention it. People here don't have many rules."

Shen Zhaoming touched his nose sheepishly. He was used to being wary, and when integrating into a new social circle, he would subconsciously keep his distance. In fact, this made it even harder to integrate, but habits are hard to break.

Su Ninglong, who was unable to work because of the furry young man's rubbing against her, turned around and saw Shen Zhaoming coming. She immediately washed her hands with soap.

I moved closer to him and launched into a barrage of questions, "Teach me how to input the commands to make the robot turn more flexibly."

"it is good!"

Shen Zhaoming and Su Ninglong sat under the pavilion, quietly discussing matters related to machine language.

Before the conversation, Shen Zhaoming knew that Su Ninglong was very smart, but her learning speed, which allowed her to apply what she learned to new situations, still surprised him.

“The people who study with you must be under a lot of psychological pressure,” Shen Zhaoming suddenly said.

“Sally and Charlie are in my class, so they don’t have this kind of pressure,” Su Ninglong said, turning to Charlie and Sally. “Right?”

Charlie looked up, a piece of bread from the sedan chair dangling from his mouth, crumbs clinging to the corner of his lips. "Hmm? What?"

Sally simply shrugged: "I'm too busy to worry about this."

"Hahahaha..." Lian Xinyi burst into laughter, laughing at his good brother for having too many ideas. "I have the same idea as them, so I won't feel pressured if your grades are better than mine."

Shen Zhaoming abruptly asked, "How are your grades in the inner courtyard? What's your ranking?"

The laughter stopped abruptly, and Lian Xinyi pointed at him, saying, "Academic bullying is forbidden among friends."

"A transfer student suddenly joined the inner courtyard. You must be having a tough time. Tell us, and we'll give you some advice." After being friends for so long, how could I not see the weariness hidden in his smile?

Su Ninglong said, "Yes, tell me. If someone bullies you, I can help you."

"How can you help me? You're not even inside." Lian Xinyi visibly became dejected: "I can't talk about most things in the inner courtyard, but I can mention some of my own situation. No one is bullying me, it's just that I don't get along well with my classmates. They all think I got in through connections."

Her voice trailed off as she poured out all the grievances she had been holding back.

“They all look down on me, and no one wants to talk to me.” Lian Xinyi’s classmates treated him coldly, believing that he was not qualified to stand with them.

The privileged few may not have been deliberately ignoring him; it's just that Xin Yi was completely out of place, which destined him to be isolated.

“Our inner courtyard will enter the simulator from time to time. We are not allowed to form teams ourselves; we have to form teams randomly.” Lian Xinyi started to lack confidence when she talked about this. “I know I’m not smart enough to shine in the simulator… but my real completion rate has already increased to 70%.”

After gaining special abilities, Lian Xinyi's success rate in clearing levels increased significantly, something he wouldn't have dared to dream of before.

"And then you beat the game, but they didn't?"

"How do you know you have time to watch my live stream?" Lian Xinyi said, "These days, only people within the Star Alliance can watch the recorded broadcasts of the inner academy students."

"Huh?" Su Ninglong was stunned for a few seconds. "The rules have been updated again?"

"Yes, we've all been saying that if we don't let outsiders watch the recordings, we'll receive fewer tips."

Su Ninglong didn't bother to find out. Every week, she would team up with Lei Qingya to enter the Secret Spirit Extermination area and then come out in a hurry. As long as there were rewards, she didn't care whether anyone was watching the recorded broadcast.

Shen Zhaoming could already imagine the scene where Lian Xinyi was shouting for help while barely making it through the game. From the perspective of other online hunters, it would seem like he was doing it on purpose.

But after spending more time with him, you realize he's a genius at conceptualizing things; if his teammates are strong, he'll be strong too, but if his teammates are weak, he'll never perform well.

"I admit I'm weak, but I didn't hold anyone back, really."

Shen Zhaoming: "No one thinks you're lying; it's precisely because it's true that they're so furious."

"Admit my ass." Old Ancestor Su was exasperated. He stood up, tapped his forehead, and said, "You are the net hunter I trained. To question you is to question me."

Although Lian Xinyi is not her disciple, she is still considered a half-outer disciple. As a cultivator who follows the sect's rules, she cannot back down.

Lian Xinyi, who was brave in the fold, asked, "When can you enter the inner courtyard? I'm waiting for you to protect me."

"No ambition at all." Su Ninglong chuckled, instantly abandoning her sympathy.

Anyway, the people in the inner courtyard only isolated him and didn't use force against him; he has to rely on his own efforts.

"It's hard to have ambition if you go it alone. Mingming, do you have any good ideas? Didn't you get into the research institute? Can I use my connections to bully others?"

As they talked, even Xin Yi started to act inappropriately.

Just then, the aroma of garlic wafted towards their noses, a savory fragrance that indicated the seafood was cooked. Shen Zhaoming shared the same thought as Su Ninglong.

"If you encounter anything unpleasant, feel free to share it and let us laugh at you."

Even the most resilient person like Lian Xinyi needs repeated tempering to harden their skin, making them impervious to blades and spears.

"Utterly heartless!" Lian Xinyi sobbed as she told Xingyuan about her grievances, "Your child is bullying people too much."

Xingyuan apologized and handed him a freshly grilled lobster. Lian Xinyi successfully got the first bite before Su Ninglong and proudly showed it off in front of Su Ninglong.

“This self-regulation ability doesn’t need any help at all.” Sally concluded while turning the mutton. At first, she thought Lian Xinyi was a new friend of Su Ninglong, but after learning that he was Lian Xinyi, she knew that sympathizing with Lian Xinyi would only make her suffer.

Charlie nodded in agreement. Sally was right.

"Why are you nodding? Can you even understand?" Lian Xinyi snatched Charlie's lamb skewers. You brat, you bootlicker.

Charlie politely gave up the lamb skewers and asked the foreign teacher for two more.

"The children here are frighteningly emotionally stable." Lian Xinyi shook her head. She had just taken a bite of a lamb skewer when she felt an eager gaze on her back.

A huge dog head came up from behind him, drool dripping onto the lobster in his hand.

Lian Xinyi was so frightened that she dropped the lobster and quickly jumped away, exclaiming, "Oh my god, a monster!"

Su Ninglong shook her head.

The foreign teacher chuckled, "You're already in the inner courtyard, how can you still be so timid? Shouldn't your first reaction be to fight the monsters?"

Even Xin Yi, that kid, was taught by a foreign teacher, though it was several years ago. I still have a pretty deep impression of him, since it was the first class.

Although he was at the bottom of the class, he had incredible luck, which is hard to describe. You could say he got lucky, but he also had some ability. You could say he had ability, but he wasn't good enough yet, hovering on the precarious edge of being just passable.

"Olive, don't scare me."

The dog was innocent; it grabbed the lobster that had fallen to the ground and swallowed it in a few bites.

After finishing its meal, it slowly sidled up to Xingyuan and guarded the best spot to feed him.

Lian Xinyi said shyly, "It's been so long, I didn't even recognize you."

Ollie exhaled a breath of hot air from his nose, letting out a human-like cold snort, which made Lian Xinyi even more embarrassed.

The principal's pet was treated like a monster, and given Ollie's intelligence, not swatting it was already the greatest forgiveness.

"You ate all my lobsters and you're blaming me?" Lian Xinyi shouted that Ollie was a stingy person. Ollie curled up the corners of his mouth and gave a silent smile of victory.

Hilarious! They're such grown-up, yet they can't beat small animals.

Xingyuan satisfied the mischievous pets first, and only then did he feed the people. After Ollie and Qirui had eaten their fill, they played with Baicai in the pavilion.

Ollie jumped onto the sofa with Qirui and found a doll that looked exactly like him. He leaned closer to smell it and found it very familiar.

Its clever mind immediately remembered that this didn't belong to anyone else; it belonged to it.

Ollie barked, picked up the toy, and came to Lian Xinyi, questioning him about why he had taken the toy.

Lian Xinyi had no idea what was going on; he had only hugged him for a short while. "What are you doing?"

"Waaaah..." Ollie's eyes turned fierce. You still want to argue?

"Is the toy dirty?"

"woo woo woo woo……"

"You can't speak properly, and I don't know what you're trying to say." Lian Xinyi looked completely bewildered, which, in Ollie's eyes, was just pretense.

So Ollie pounced on Lian Xinyi, grabbed him by the collar, and rubbed him against the ground.

"Ahhh, help me..."

Su Ninglong and Xingyuan exchanged glances. Assistant Sun was being incompetent; he actually stole the dog's gift as a souvenir.

Lian Xinyi became a bitter vengeful person. When she left, she was in a sorry state, her clothes were torn by bites, but she was physically unharmed. However, her spirit was severely wounded once again.

He said reluctantly, "Sister Su, you must get into the inner courtyard as soon as possible. I'll be waiting for you."

Su Ninglong: "No way, you can't even beat a dog. I'm afraid I'll be ashamed to be associated with you."

Ollie barked.

"Stop talking, I'm leaving." Lian Xinyi clenched her fist angrily, refusing to be "humiliated" by a dog any longer.

Everyone laughed; even Xin Yi had a knack for comedy.

Before leaving, Shen Zhaoming learned that Su Ninglong's inability to repair the robot was not a problem of thinking, but a fundamental reason. "I'll bring you some books tomorrow to help you study artificial intelligence in depth."

Shen Zhaoming's appropriate gesture of goodwill was accepted by Su Ninglong.

At first, Shen Zhaoming did have doubts about her abilities; it's human nature, who could trust a stranger?

Lei Qingya's swift expression of loyalty must have been hinted at by Shen Zhaoming.

Su Ninglong smiled and waved goodbye. Everyone needs a network of connections, and she was no exception.

……

The Star Alliance Inner Courtyard dormitory is located in the forest by the lake, where Shen Zhaoming also lives. His luggage has already arrived.

The dormitory layout is not much different from the Hunter's House, but four people live in a suite, and each person has a separate bedroom.

Just as Shen Zhaoming arrived, three researchers dragged their tired bodies back.

A small, slender figure trailed far behind them—it was Lingfei. Only Lingfei possessed a flying vehicle at the research institute, making progress effortless.

"Huh? A newcomer?" Upon seeing Shen Zhaoming, the three researchers immediately stepped forward. "Hello, hello, are you a newly hired researcher?"

"Yes, hello seniors, please guide me in the future."

Which group will you be assigned to?

"First, go to the observation group to get a general understanding of the research institute's work."

The three researchers immediately became excited. They went to the observation group first, which meant they wouldn't be in the observation group after their promotion. "What are your strengths?"

"Data analysis—I just awakened a special ability." Shen Zhaoming didn't want to be too low-key; in a place full of geniuses, appropriately showcasing his strength would help him integrate.

"You're the new recruit the team leader was hoping for?"

The three researchers were moved to tears. Finally, a new person had arrived. The team leader said that this new person had a real chance to replace them in being trained by Lingfei.

They must put in a lot of effort to give him grand promises and help him build psychological resilience.

Shen Zhaoming couldn't figure out why they were so enthusiastic, so he could only put on a simple smile to show that he was gentle and harmless.