Chapter 4: Assembling a Robot – If nothing else, it’s quite fun.
After Yun Shaocheng and Ye Zhichen left, Yu Xia suddenly found himself idle.
As a patient who still needed to be hospitalized for observation, it seemed there really wasn’t much for him to do.
Xiao Jin circled the room once before returning to Yu Xia’s side: “If Yu Xia wants to find something to do, I recommend the hospital’s fitness center! Dr. Yu’s medical orders say Yu Xia needs to exercise his body well!”
Hearing this, Yu Xia stood up from the bed: “What’s in the fitness center?”
Although lying in bed was relatively more comfortable, he didn’t want to stay lying down forever. Most importantly, if he became accustomed to the comfort of immobility like the original owner, he might truly be unable to endure the dull pain of running later. But he needed to exercise. According to the current situation, if he didn’t train his body, he might turn into a vegetable at any moment.
Since Xiao Jin had suggested it, Yu Xia thought he might as well go for a run.
It might hurt, but he would eventually get used to it. After all, he would be spending a long time in this state of dull pain. It was better to start getting used to it now, while he was still feeling slightly better after eating the apple from the Director.
Seeing that Yu Xia seemed to take its suggestion, Xiao Jin immediately opened the ward door and led the way. As it walked, it introduced the facilities: “Our hospital’s equipment is very complete. We have everything you need: dumbbells, treadmills, and so on. But based on Dr. Yu’s suggestion, Yu Xia should start with running. You need to begin with basic exercises.”
Yu Xia followed slowly behind Xiao Jin. He was still not used to this “Little Mermaid” body: “I think running right away is a bit difficult. You have to let me get used to walking first.”
Xiao Jin seemed a bit worried. It stayed by Yu Xia’s side as they walked slowly together: “Does it really hurt that much, Yu Xia? Dr. Yu said your mental power has risen again, so it will hurt much more than before.”
In the beginning, Yu Xia really wasn’t used to the way walking hurt with every step. But as the saying goes, no matter how unaccustomed you are to something, you’ll get used to it over time.
By the time Yu Xia dragged himself to the fitness center, he could basically walk like a normal person, just much slower.
Although Yu Xia now had a basic understanding of his body, the exercise had to start somewhere. He began to observe the various facilities in the fitness center.
Just as Xiao Jin said, there were all kinds of equipment. Common ones like dumbbells and treadmills were familiar from before he transmigrated. Seeing them in the interstellar era felt unexpectedly nostalgic. Then there were others he had never seen before—specifically, helmets connected to unknown equipment against the wall. He couldn’t guess their purpose at all.
Surely they weren’t helmets for full-dive virtual reality games.
Xiao Jin followed Yu Xia’s gaze and gave an explanation: “Those helmets are for training mental power. Some children who have just differentiated have trouble controlling their mental power; those are for them. According to Xiao Jin’s observation, although Yu Xia’s mental power is unstable, his control is actually quite good!”
Yu Xia made an “I don’t believe you” expression.
If his mental power was unstable, wasn’t that because he couldn’t control it? At most, it was just that people with high mental power found it harder to manage, and everyone else just thought it was normal to lack control.
Xiao Jin gave Yu Xia a nudge. Because of its height, it could only push against Yu Xia’s lower back: “Yu Xia, go try the treadmill. Start with the lowest setting. That setting is much slower than even Xiao Jin’s walking speed. You won’t fail to keep up. You’ll get used to it slowly. Xiao Jin believes Yu Xia will be able to run soon—definitely faster than a patient who just stood up from a wheelchair.”
Yu Xia: “…”
He didn’t find that very comforting.
However, Yu Xia obediently stepped onto the treadmill and, as Xiao Jin said, set the speed to the lowest setting.
After walking for a while, Yu Xia thought he could go slightly faster. Just as he was about to ask Xiao Jin to adjust it, he saw a middle-aged man squatting beside Xiao Jin.
Yu Xia blinked: “Sir…”
Realizing Yu Xia had noticed him, the man openly greeted him: “You must be the young man Old Xie mentioned—the one who refused to exercise despite having extremely high mental power. I was just asking your little robot for some info. Sorry, sorry, I was just quite curious about the person Old Xie talked about.”
It seemed this was an acquaintance of the Director.
Yu Xia stepped off the treadmill: “You know the Director?”
“You mean Old Xie? Yeah, I know him. We used to be in the same squad; he was our squad leader. Old Xie was a beast when he was young. I don’t know what he was thinking, retiring so suddenly. They said it was a medical retirement due to an injury, but honestly, that injury wasn’t that serious. It was just an excuse. He became your director right after retiring. I have no idea what he was thinking—maybe he just likes kids?” The man scratched his head.
Yu Xia gave a light smile.
After all, Xie Qing was the biggest antagonist of the whole book—and one who never got punished. Naturally, he wasn’t someone a minor cannon fodder who turned into a vegetable could compare to.
Seeing that Yu Xia was quite easy to talk to, the middle-aged man took a couple more steps toward him, though he didn’t seem to dare get too close: “Do you really have Mental Power Disorder?”
Before Yu Xia could speak, Xiao Jin got protective: “Yes! Yu Xia just woke up not long ago and is very fragile. He can’t handle a bump from a big guy like you. You must stay away from Yu Xia!”
The man: “…”
He pointed at Xiao Jin and complained to Yu Xia: “What’s with this little robot of yours? It’s been telling me to stay away from you since earlier!”
Yu Xia shrugged: “Xiao Jin isn’t my robot. It’s a hospital robot that Dr. Yu left with me temporarily.”
Hearing this, the man had a look of realization: “A hospital robot. No wonder. Hospital-produced robots all have a persecution complex; they think everyone is out to harm their patients.”
Xiao Jin seemed unhappy about being criticized, but its programming didn’t have a counter-argument. The light screen on its head started flashing.
Dazzled by Xiao Jin’s screen, Yu Xia shifted the topic: “Are you also here to work out?”
The man nodded: “Yeah. I got a bit injured fighting some Imperial traitors a while back and have been stuck in the hospital for over half a month. My bones are practically turning to mush. The doctor refuses to let me leave, so I can only come here to burn off some energy.”
“By the way, your mental power is very high, right? I have a little robot here. See if you can help me put it back together? Wait here, I’ll go to my room and get it.”
The man was as fast as the wind. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from Yu Xia’s sight.
Yu Xia was extremely envious: “When will I be able to run as fast as him?”
Xiao Jin patted Yu Xia’s shoulder in a very human-like way to comfort him: “Don’t compare yourself to him. He’s professionally trained; normal people aren’t that fast. We should just compare ourselves to normal people.”
Fine then.
The man had run off quickly and returned just as fast, bringing a pile of parts with him: “Here they are. I took a hospital robot apart and couldn’t get it back together.”
Xiao Jin huffed from the side: “Taking a hospital robot apart without permission results in a fine. He just wants to avoid the fine.”
Yu Xia, however, was quite interested in the parts the man had brought.
As someone from the twenty-first century, how could he not be interested in robots? Especially an interstellar robot that was confirmed to move and talk on its own. If he could actually assemble these parts into a complete robot, the sense of achievement would be immense.
Yu Xia was eager to try: “Was this robot originally the same model as Xiao Jin?”
The man nodded: “Exactly. All the hospital robots look the same. If you don’t know how to assemble it, I can take the robot next to you apart again. Although I can’t assemble them, I’m a professional at taking any kind of machinery apart.”
Yu Xia looked at the man and blinked: “Are you from a demolition squad?”
Xiao Jin rolled its base and hid behind Yu Xia: “Yu Xia isn’t allowed to take Xiao Jin apart. There’s a fine for taking Xiao Jin apart.”
Yu Xia patted the little robot to comfort it: “I won’t take you apart. But Xiao Jin, do you have a tutorial for robot assembly?”
Xiao Jin’s screen flashed: “I do! There are even videos! Do you want to refer to them, Yu Xia?”
Yu Xia nodded with great interest: “Can I see them? If you can, please pull them up for me. What if I actually manage to put it together?”
The video showed the assembly process for Xiao Jin’s specific model. Yu Xia sat on the floor, curiously examining the man’s parts one by one and following the steps in the video.
Although he wasn’t very skilled at first—since he hadn’t handled such robots before and the original owner had only seen some principles in books—this was his first time actually assembling one. But once he got started, he became more and more proficient.
If nothing else, it was quite fun.
Watching from the side, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but hiss in surprise: “As expected of the high-mental-power youth Old Xie mentioned. This medical robot model is supposed to be… S-rank difficulty, isn’t it?”
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