Forty minutes later, Pei Yan, drenched in sweat, collapsed on the ground without a care for his image. One staff member wiped the sweat off his face, while another thoughtfully fanned him with clothes.
With Engineer Li’s suggestion and several attempts, Pei Yan finally managed to create the electromagnetic rifle. And just like the previous process, after making the corresponding bullets, Pei Yan carried out a shooting test that lasted for a full half hour.
It wasn’t until a wave of fatigue and emptiness hit his mind that he became too weak to support himself, stumbled, and fell to one knee, then slowly lay on the ground holding his slightly swollen forehead.
"How’s it going? How could this happen? Is it due to excessive internal energy consumption?" Engineer Li, Hu Wenjun, and Elder Lin came up concerned and asked.
"No, I seem to, seem to...," Pei Yan thought for a moment, bit his lip, and said, "seem to have run out of power!"
"Run out of power?" Xiaosun next to him asked in puzzlement.
"Oh, right, I remember that he once absorbed power from the distribution box near the community. Maybe that was one of his energy reserves. It seems that over time and with today’s experiment, his internal power storage has been excessively consumed," Hu Wenjun suddenly remembered during the interrogation and said, enlightened.
Upon hearing this, Engineer Li hesitated and said, "Then what should we do, should we recharge him? That’s a power supply, if anything goes wrong, who’s responsible?"
"I’ll take responsibility. I’ll stand by him to ensure his safety! But let’s leave it for today; Xiaopei’s body is already too tired. Let him go back to rest and let’s deal with it tomorrow," Elder Lin said, bending down and placing a hand on Pei Yan’s forehead. A mass of milky white energy emerged from his hand and seeped into Pei Yan’s body.
Pei Yan felt his forehead slightly burning, and a warm flow rushed in from his crown, slowly spreading throughout his body, making him feel incredibly relaxed. The mechanical body on him gradually faded away with the warm flow and returned to flesh. Hu Wenjun, already prepared, covered Pei Yan with a long robe.
"Carry him away, let him rest well overnight, and find a masseur for him to have a nice hot bath and massage in the morning, to loosen up his muscles; his mind and body have been too tense recently, and the past two days of rest haven’t made him fully recover," Elder Lin said softly to Hu Wenjun as Pei Yan’s snoring gradually rose after closing his eyes.
"Ah, okay, hey, you come here. Help me out, gently, gently! Don’t wake him up, take it slow!"
The next day, under the bureau’s arrangement, Pei Yan finished his hot bath and lay on a bed enjoying a full-body massage from a masseur specially invited for him.
Pei Yan had never thought that massage would be such an enjoyable thing, the pressure and the feeling of relaxation in the muscles made him feel like he was in heaven!
"Alright, sir, your massage is finished, if you’re satisfied please don’t forget to give me a good review!" The masseur’s voice behind him woke Pei Yan, who was in a semi-sleep state.
Pei Yan rubbed his eyes, looked at the clock, and sighed, "It’s over already, how did it go by so fast!"
"Yes, I’ve already extended your one-hour massage by fifteen minutes."
"I’ll pay extra, I’ll pay extra, is that possible! Give me another hour!" Pei Yan sat up and grabbed the male masseur’s hand, pleading pitifully.
"Alright, look at you, no backbone at all. Everything needs balance, moderate massage can relieve muscle fatigue, excessive massage won’t have such effects. I promise I’ll invite him back for you next month for another massage," Hu Wenjun said as he got up, unable to bear watching, and smacked Pei Yan’s back of the head with a book.
After sending off the masseur, Pei Yan dressed up and returned with Hu Wenjun to the training ground. This time, he didn’t enter Jiezhi Space but was brought to the building’s power box. Elder Lin, Engineer Li, and others had been waiting for a long time.
"We’ve already informed the electric bureau to increase the power supply here. We also modified the circuit overnight. So what do we do now, Pei Yan, do you directly touch the switch, or transform mechanically before handling it," Xiaosun, who had been busy all night, leaned against the wall jokingly as Pei Yan walked out of the elevator.
"I’m not sure; last time when I absorbed the power source, it was passive and absorbed inexplicably. But if you ask me to actually touch it with my hands now, I refuse!"
"Then it’s up to you; decide for yourself. First, try converting two mechanical arms to see how they respond to the power source. If there’s no reaction, we’ll talk further." Elder Lin made the decision.
"Okay!" Pei Yan stopped talking upon hearing this, as the suggestion aligned with his thoughts. If he only had to convert two arms, he wouldn’t have to bother undressing.
With the conversion done, Pei Yan came to the power box and felt dizzy from the dense lines, unsure of where to start. Xiaosun pointed to three rows of outlets below and said, "See, those are specially installed for you. You can change form, right? Transform your hand into a plug shape and you’ll be able to charge." Then he pulled out some plugs from his toolkit and made a comparison, "Look, !"
Pei Yan took the plug and absorbed it into his body, then converted his finger into the shape of a plug, slowly inserted it into the power line. While hesitating, his finger wandered around the outlet.
His body seemed to respond to the call of electricity, automatically extended the plug and inserted it into the outlet. As Pei Yan absorbed the first surge of electricity, he felt his whole body cells became alive. The two mechanical arms eagerly converted into multiple plugs and successively inserted into the outlets. That’s not all; after filling all three rows of outlets, the mechanical arms, unable to find space, stretched out countless metal pipes and drilled into the power box from all directions, encasing it and greedily sucking the electricity within.
Elder Lin looked at the overhead lamp flickering and rubbed his Qingming Acupoint, "Looks like we underestimated his own craving for electricity. Notify the bureau to halt unnecessary electrical facilities and make way for Xiaopei today; we’ll find a solution later."
Half an hour later, Hu Wenjun brought a chair for Pei Yan, who was standing and absorbing power. Two hours later, Wang Wenze returned to the dormitory and brought him some water.
Eight hours later, they sent him a floor mat from upstairs. While Wang Wenze made the bed, he asked Pei Yan, who couldn’t free his hands, "How’s it going, aren’t you done yet? You’ve been without food all day, is that okay?"
"No food, just no food. I don’t want to be served going to the toilet! This body is simply like a bottomless pit. It’s been half a day, and it doesn’t seem to send out any satisfaction signals," Pei Yan stretched out his mechanical arms, headfirst into the mattress, shouting desperately.
"This shows that you absorbed too little before. After you compensate it, just recharge on time every day. I’ll get you a tablet to watch videos to pass the time since you can control appliances with your mind," Wang Wenze crouched down and looked at Pei Yan with sympathy, thinking if he were in Pei Yan’s place staying in that same position for so long, he’d surely go crazy.
"Yeah! Thanks, Brother Wang!" Pei Yan murmured weakly.
After twenty-eight hours...
"Finally! T M D! Fully Charged!!!!!!!