Pillar of Yita

But the former raised a finger to their lips, making a silencing gesture.

He put away his smile, glanced at the others, and said, ”Let’s not worry about that for now, we need to request support from headquarters immediately.”

”Request support?” The crowd looked at each other in confusion.

”The Silver Forest Spear might have determined the whereabouts of Target A. We need to send someone to closely monitor their movements right away.”

Upon hearing ’Target A’, everyone quieted down.

The members of the Stargate Port Special Team were, of course, only too aware of what Target A was. The sudden situation in Charter City was indeed urgent, but it was on the same level as this matter.

To be honest, most of them were still a bit curious about what merits and abilities this so-called ’Target A’ possessed to warrant such high regard from the higher-ups.

Someone couldn’t resist asking, ”What, do those guys even dare to snatch people?”

Instructor Su glanced at him. ”Why wouldn’t they dare? Don’t forget, they are part of the Super Competitive League. Our cooperation is only due to domestic situations. Even so, every year the Alliance complains to the top that we overstep our bounds and interfere with commercial activities.”

The person was left speechless, as this was indeed the truth.

”So we have to rely on ourselves, these Guilds are not to be trusted.” Instructor Su casually replied.

”Then why are we still recruiting newcomers from among them?”

”Enough with the pointless talk, it’s none of your business. Mind your own affairs.” He looked behind him and asked, ”So where is our nearest spaceship fleet now?”

...

Fang Hong didn’t know when he had fallen heavily into sleep.

Just as he didn’t know at what point he had groggily awoken. It was only when he opened his eyes that he saw the sky outside the tent was still as black as midnight, with no trace of light. The wind was fierce, and the Maple Forest rustled loudly.

It was raining cats and dogs, and the sound outside the tent was like frying beans, a continuous noise. Suddenly, the tent canvas lifted, and Miss Hilveld, wearing a cloak, shone a miner’s lamp onto his face, and teased, ”Wake up, our dear Lord Captain.”

Fang Hong then became somewhat alert, shielding his eyes and said, ”Miss Hilveld, I can’t see anything when you do that.”

Only then did Hilveld move the miner’s lamp away. Below the water-dripping hood, her face, which could be teasing or displeased, smiled and said, ”Everyone’s ready, I came to wake you.”

Fang Hong rubbed his head, finally realizing he had overslept. This was normal; after all, he wasn’t clear on what time he had gone to sleep that morning.

He vaguely remembered the events from the night before and immediately felt for his Control Gloves. The metal shell’s cold touch responded.

Then Fang Hong subconsciously opened his Summoners System, and there, below the community section, alongside the existing training program named ’Multi-Polarity Sphere’, the new training program he had received last night was lying there quietly.

This program had a brand new name:

Differentiation Skills Ver0.1.10beta

To be honest, Fang Hong didn’t know why this training program was named Differentiation Skills.

In the community, the Invokers of the Combat Artisan board usually referred to the Construct Lord’s Node Skills as ’Mirroring Techniques’, a tradition long established by convention.

But this training program had nothing to do with Mirroring Skills. Instead, it resembled the training foundation for another Technique—

The program had five levels in total, and at first glance, the first level seemed much simpler than the Multi-Polarity Sphere. When Fang Hong entered it, he even felt a bit disappointed.

It simply required the Combat Artisan to control a Clockwork Fairy to fly through a field full of obstacles in a virtual environment.

Of course, these obstacles weren’t fixed, the airflow in the area varied greatly, and hostile Clockwork Fairies would even interfere.

However, for most professional Combat Artisans, this was just a basic operation.

It didn’t even require Multi-Control. Compared to the amateur competition (qualifier) Fang Hong had participated in at the Traveler’s Rest, that was much more professional than this training.

At least in the almost identical scenario of the second round, the Tournament Organizers required competitors to demonstrate Multi-Control Skills.

This is too simple, Fang Hong thought.

However, as soon as he started, he immediately encountered a challenge. He discovered that this training had a hidden condition—it demanded that the Combat Artisan limit every control command for the Clockwork Fairy to no longer than one second.

Almost immediately, Fang Hong thought of a Second World technique called ’Margin.’

This Technique wasn’t complicated.

It essentially means that the Combat Artisan’s Flexible Construct, after becoming uncontrollable (meaning the Flexible Construct has completely lost control), can still achieve some form of additional control using gravity, inertia, and other factors.

This is a very basic Technique, but it does demand a certain level of Calculative Power and judgment. When he controlled two Clockwork Fairies with a single set of rails at Traveler’s Rest, he was actually using this Technique.

Of course, that was only a simplistic and superficial application of this Technique. In the hands of an expert, this technique can transform the decayed into the miraculous.

But this training program was even more complex.

It required participants to utilize the ’Margin’ Technique and mindset to clear the levels throughout the entire process, and every instance of ’Margin’ was to last almost over three seconds.

What does that imply?

If Fang Hong had played like that during his competition at Traveler’s Rest, the second Clockwork Fairy would have crashed to the ground long ago. Even if he entered the virtual environment from a great height, with only one second to control and three seconds out of control each time, the Clockwork Fairy would inevitably lose speed and plummet to the ground no matter what.