Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

The racetrack used to be filled with the smell of gasoline, but now it is filled with the smell of alcohol.

The tanker truck responsible for refueling the entire venue was heading out. Painted a striking emerald green, the tanker featured the seal script characters for "Yu Heng," representing the ancient and sacred duty of "Yu Heng" to maintain humanity's controlled use of nature and promote the sustainable development of civilization.

Shangluo thought this was actually a good idea. At least they provided a theoretically more powerful fuel, which could help everyone improve their performance. At least they didn't just fill the car with 56° Baijiu.

Judging from this, they definitely didn't make this decision on a whim to cause trouble for the students; this thing was likely intended to be promoted later. They were simply using the name of the competition to build awareness, and labeling it as competition-grade fuel would also facilitate promotion.

"Reminds me of what it's like to be queuing up for vaccinations. Everyone has to apply alcohol, and it smells like sub-alcohol."

he muttered.

"Indeed, it smells like alcohol." A fellow wearing a Yuheng Department badge was writing something down. He wasn't wearing official uniform, but the Imperial College uniform.

"Learn about the carbon neutrality policy, learn about the carbon neutrality policy." He handed out flyers to passersby while writing something non-stop. Suddenly, he saw Shangluo, "Eh? You? Have we met before?"

"?" He glanced at Shangluo. "Ah, I saw him in Xiyuan, indeed. At that time, I was working in the Ministry of Public Administration, and I went to take memorials to the printing house."

"Are you working?"

"It's true that I call it part-time work, because students at the Imperial College have to do hard labor running around in various departments. Ah, although I get a small allowance, but there's no peace all day long, and I can't even rest on weekends. Sometimes I wonder if the court wouldn't have anyone to work without us interns. This is how it's been in my second year, and I can't imagine how busy it will be later."

"So this should be called Senior?"

"Yeah. Junior, what do you want to talk to me about?"

"Actually, I'd like to ask about the direction of the application. Does the senior have any suggestions?"

He put down his clipboard. "I seriously advise you not to apply to the Imperial College. Run."

"I see."

Shangluo got into the car, installed the steering wheel, closed the hatch, and tapped the dashboard first:

"Glasses boy, come out."

Just like yesterday, the boy wearing round glasses timidly showed half of his head.

"The performance may not be right this time, but don't adjust the injection rate, air intake volume, or other parameters yourself yet. Just run it for a test run first. We need to collect accurate data, and you can make fine adjustments after we have made the adjustments."

While he could let Glasses drive, he couldn't rely on him too much. While he could manage Glasses's condition, Wen Yuan couldn't. Furthermore, Glasses himself might not be in control of the overall situation.

According to the previous practice, Reiki is used to perform miracles.Reiki can fill the gap between reality and perfection, making the rugged reality achieve continuous "perfection", shaping continuous miracles.

The gap between them can certainly be filled, but it is best not to leave everything to spiritual energy. The White Star is an extreme product of this theory. It uses the Torch Engine almost entirely and cannot operate without the power of miracles.

While Glasses could assist with some minor adjustments, Shangluo wasn't prepared to leave everything to him. At the very least, they had to try to fill in the gaps so that they wouldn't be completely paralyzed without Glasses. They'd need to do what needed to be done first, and leave the rest to Reiki.

So during the test run, he had to test to what extent the car needed to be adjusted in order to operate normally without the participation of spiritual energy.

After doing some startup checks, he put his hands on the steering wheel and waited - not far away, the tanker was still making a "beeping" sound while backing out of the track.

1 o'clock, wait a moment

Chapter 327 The Psychology of the Questioner

The track was clear, and Qi Yuan began to load the starting gun. Besides Team Rocket, several other cars also caught up.

All vehicles, including the Tiandao Shadow Puppet, have one thing in common:

Puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff

"What the hell is that noise?" Shangluo, who was sitting in the car, heard the engine behind him making a "puff puff" noise. There wasn't much vibration, but the "puff puff" sound was irregular. He even had to try to start the engine three times before it started.

"Hey, are you okay?" Qi Yuan knocked on the hatch door. "I saw water spraying out of the exhaust pipe."

"Huh? How much?"

"It's probably like a sneeze. It's a puff, a little water comes out, just like a sneeze."

"What a mess! Is this thing really usable?"

"I just asked the senior from the Imperial College who's interning with the Yuheng Department. He said this thing will probably increase fuel consumption by about 30%, which is similar to our calculations. It seems that even if we don't do the calculations ourselves, we can still get some answers. But this thing costs only half the price of gasoline."

"That's fine."

After all, this thing is just a little bit of gasoline mixed with alcohol, so half the price is reasonable. If it were sold at the same price as gasoline, he would wonder if the court was going to levy the three taxes again.

"How is it, can you run?"

"Okay, you give the order."

She then checked in with several other teams that were practicing behind the starting line.

"Prepare--"

boom!

Almost at the same time as the starting gun sounded, Shangluo stepped on the accelerator with supernatural reaction speed and sped off 0.1 seconds faster than the others.

[Wow~ It's so fast~]

"."

The car was out, but not completely. After Apollonia yelled "Go!", the rear wheels barely crossed the starting line.

The speed slowly and slowly increased, exceeding the walking speed, but the "puff puff puff" sound became louder and louder, and even the steering wheel vibrated.

“Why do I feel like I’m driving a tractor?”

As he was muttering, the boy with glasses suddenly raised his head and looked at him uneasily.

"what happened?"

【He asked. It really doesn't matter, right?Need him to take over? 】

"At least let me finish this lap."

On the side of the car, the Rockets were gradually overtaking with the sound of "puff puff puff".

He glanced at the speedometer: 13 kilometers per hour.

"Wow, it's lightning fast!"

He couldn't hold it in any longer, but since he had already started, he had no choice but to continue.

"Huh?" He glanced at the starting line inadvertently: two of the six cars practicing together were parked there without moving, and one broke down as soon as it left the starting line.

"It's over. I think they're all doomed this time. I'm afraid they'll be defeated without a fight."

"Well, I think they'll try their best. This is the last qualifying round. While not everyone will win the grand prize, at least finishing the race will earn them a point. So they'll probably try their best to finish. Oh, they've towed the car back, so I guess they'll start making modifications soon."

"It seems our car is indeed OK. It's good enough that it can run. Hmm?"

As he spoke, Team Rocket next to him suddenly began to accelerate—the puffing sound suddenly disappeared, and the familiar roar of the engine began to roar. Compared to before, after loading the fuel ethanol, the engine sound became clearer, like the difference between thermal power and hydropower.

The clear sound did not mask the roar of the aircraft engine at all, and they began to accelerate.

[Oh!! Looks like they activated Tianyi Guiren to control the oil line!]

"Let's go too! Glasses boy, come out quickly!"

No one answered.

"Hmm? Boy with glasses, come out. Come out???"

[I'm coming. God fights and drives away the gods—Land, land, come out quickly!]

The boy's head slowly rose from beneath the screen, still wearing those large, round glasses. However, instead of intelligent pupils, the center of his glasses was filled with two hazy vortices. These two ""-shaped vortices spun clockwise, round and round, and several bubbles appeared in the upper right corner of the boy's head.

"He is"

[It's over! He's drunk!]

"Hey, wake up! Hey!" Shangluo knocked twice on the screen.

The boy with glasses kept turning his eyes around, sometimes turning into a circle, sometimes into an X, and he couldn't stop turning.

He seems to have lost his mind due to being drunk. This kid can't hold his liquor very well.

“What about their cars?”

Before he could finish his words, there was a "bang" on the track ahead. The Rockets' car hit the tire edge of the curve and drove onto the gravel buffer lane beside the track. The whole car had broken down, and the exhaust pipe was vomiting, spraying out puddles of water.

"Le Le! Le Le! Are you okay? Wake up!" Shang Luo heard the voice of the Rockets driver as they drove by. Their Tian Yi noble person seemed to be called Le Le.

Finding he couldn't wake her up, he picked up the intercom and said, "Captain! Lele fainted! Lele vomited! Vomited all over the floor! Call a tow truck!"

The Tiandao Shadow Puppet slowly drove past. Shangluo was no longer brave enough to step on the accelerator. "Wine Gate" would be a more appropriate term now. He was afraid of giving the glasses guy alcohol poisoning.

"Who on earth came up with this trick?" Shang Luo slammed his palm on the steering wheel. "Get all the machine spirits drunk with alcohol, huh? Which living devil came up with this trick?"

This is brilliant! It brings everyone to the same starting line. This question fully understands the competition ecosystem, addresses the test takers' pain points, opens up a competitive path, and also increases differentiation. This question is quite high-level. I wonder who created it.

"Brilliant... truly brilliant. As expected of our dynasty, founded on the imperial examination system... I finally understand what an imperial examination republic is. Only by winning the game are you qualified to rule the world alongside the previous winners."

He eased off the accelerator and slowly made his way back to the maintenance station.

"First place." Qi Yuan opened the hatch. "Except for you, no one else finished the race. We all failed. Ah, we are really amazing. 12 minutes and 50 seconds also broke the lap record."

"That's awesome. Where's Team Rocket's car?"

"He's been taken away for IV drips. They're trying to refill the tank with high-grade gasoline, but he's vomiting while doing so, so it won't go in. They're planning to dismantle the engine and get Lele to the hospital first."

"Good guy"

"Are we okay here?"

"Wait a minute, let me see, the boy with glasses!" Shangluo knocked on the screen. Half of the boy's head was exposed, bubbles were still gurgling out, and his eyes were still dizzy.

"Okay, go back—he's not well."

"That's amazing." Qi Yuan didn't know what to say. "The organizers seemed to know that we were all piling up spiritual energy equipment this year, so they specially pulled a grand slam. A truckload of wine knocked out all the spirits. Now, what should we do? We can't start training the glasses kid's alcohol tolerance now, right? How about starting with 56% alcohol? Sauce-flavored or light-flavored?"

"I think I have an idea." He took off his helmet, "Wen Yuan, come here!"

When he came over, Shangluo asked in a low voice, "He has a plan, but we have a way out. How much of the torch element I gave you for the test last time is left?"

"There's quite a bit left. Need some? Wait a minute, I'll be right back. You still have homework, right? Wait, I'll bring it all over. Just wait! Give me an hour, I'll be right back."

Chapter 328 Topic

Watching Wen Yuan leave, the place suddenly became quiet.

"Well, what should we do now?" Han Xingzhi asked, "Should we prepare for the worst and go into battle without Ah Man? Or should we wait?"

"Wait, who is A Man?" Qi Yuan asked.

"He's the Ghost of the Heavenly Dao Shadow Puppet. I treat him as my half-brother."

"You have terrible taste in names."

"Let's not worry about that for now, what should we do now?"

"Ah, I don't know either." Qi Yuan rubbed his head. "My mind is a mess right now, and I don't know what to do. Mr. Director, what do you think?"

She handed the decision-making power to Shangluo. The Longjiang team's structure differed from the Yanshan team's; the Longjiang team lacked a captain. Specifically, however, matters outside of competition were handled by the team manager, while those within competition were handled by the technical director.

"Are you hungry?"

"You know what, I'm a little hungry." Qi Yuan replied, "I came too early this morning and ate something in a hurry before coming here. I really haven't eaten."

"Has everyone eaten yet? Let's go eat first. This meal is on me. Pack some for Wen Yuan. If you don't count him, there are 18 of us in total."

He opened his phone and looked in the dinner group to see if there was anything to eat nearby.

"Excuse me." A voice suddenly called him from the door. He looked up and saw it was the guy from the Rockets team next door, wearing an orange uniform.

"Is there anything wrong?" Shangluo asked.

"You are Shangluo, right? Can you help us check on Lele? He doesn't seem normal."

"No problem, where is it?"

"Hmm." The small cockpit was placed on the table in the Longjiang team's lounge, with dozens of people from both teams gathered around it.

The cockpit was enclosed in a small glass enclosure, housing a small sofa. In front of the sofa was a red button that looked enormous compared to the size of a broad bean. A refrigerator, oven, and other supplies were also nearby, indicating the permanent presence of the Tianyi noble. Since his job was to decide when and how much fuel to spray, a single button was all he needed.

The small cockpit was now open, and a broad bean lay quietly on the sofa, motionless. A closer sniff revealed the aroma of broad bean paste, as if it was about to ferment.

"What's his name?" Shangluo suddenly forgot his name.