The stuff finally arrived!

Even though by now Cheng Ye had already built up quite a bit of internal-breath training, he still couldn’t help raising his brows, a hint of barely concealed excitement flashing in his eyes.

Affected by the material allocation for the Satellite City construction, this batch of car frames was supposed to have rolled off the line and been delivered two days ago, but it kept getting delayed, day after day.

It was already the sixth day since the first batch of Inspectors went out to take on full-responsibility zones.

If it were delayed a few more days, once the second batch of Satellite City full-responsibility slots opened up, the logistics lines for supplies would only get more crowded, and the delay might drag on even longer.

"Sang Tao, the frames I ordered have arrived. I need to go to the inspection station to pick up the goods. Could you run over with me?"

Cheng Ye turned his head to look at the still-dazed Sang Tao and asked with a smile.

Sang Tao stared blankly for a moment, then subconsciously nodded in agreement, clearly still not recovered from the practiced ease Cheng Ye had just shown while stripping down the car.

These past few days, this strange Inspector Cheng showed up at the Mechanical Bureau at exactly nine every morning, like he was clocking in for duty, and only left with the apprentices at seven-thirty in the evening, never once breaking the pattern.

In the mornings he would "flip through" the Mechanical Bureau’s books, going through every basic volume hidden away in the Public Works Bureau.

In the afternoons he buried himself in the warehouse to practice hands-on work, going from not even being able to hold a wrench steady at the beginning, to now being able to strip down an entire car with ease.

How many days did this Inspector Cheng take?

Counting that half day he came on the first day, it had only been five and a half days, at most!

And how long would it normally take an apprentice to reach his level of proficiency?

Starting point... half a year.

"Inspector Cheng, Sang Tao is still young—he might miss something. Better I go with you."

Sang Hezheng walked over from the back of the crowd, his expression looking calm, though the complexity in his eyes couldn’t be hidden.

"That’d be great! With Master Sang coming along, I’ll definitely feel at ease. I just don’t want to delay your work."

Cheng Ye nodded immediately, casually taking off his oil-stained coveralls and walking over to the faucet at the door to wash his hands, unconcerned.

He faintly sensed that Sang Hezheng had something he wanted to say to him.

Sure enough, once Sang Hezheng drove the Mechanical Bureau’s Big Golden Cup out the gate and the van had just turned the corner, he couldn’t hold back anymore:

"Inspector Cheng, did you... study this kind of thing in the Inner City before?"

The question sounded simple, but it was the result of him deliberating for a long time.

What he actually wanted to ask more was whether those books had just been flipped through once, or if they’d really all been read carefully, cover to cover.

He couldn’t be blamed for wondering—anyone who saw the way Cheng Ye read would be baffled.

Was that reading?

That was basically just flipping through pages; at that speed, an ordinary person wouldn’t even be able to complete a proper read-through.

Understanding what was in there?

Forget it. Even if you brought back one of those high-tier talents from the old era, who started receiving twelve years of education from the age of six, none of them could possibly learn at such an outrageous pace.

But after thinking it over, asking directly would be too offensive, and yet his curiosity was about to explode.

Because the first day Cheng Ye got hands on, he really had been a complete newbie.

You could barely tell he had a strong knack for imitation, but it definitely had nothing to do with the smooth proficiency he showed now.

More importantly, in these five and a half days, Cheng Ye had never asked anyone for hands-on teaching.

He just stood there watching together with the apprentices—and from watching alone, he picked up every detail within.

"Yeah, back in the Inner City I was already pretty interested in this stuff. I picked up bits and pieces here and there, so now it comes back a little faster."

Cheng Ye leaned back in the passenger seat, speaking in an offhand tone, as if he were talking about something utterly ordinary.

A dimension other people couldn’t perceive.

In his field of vision, a translucent panel had quietly floated up, automatically switching to his personal page:

[Collector: Cheng Ye]

[Current Rank: lv.2 Newcomer (27.7/100)]

[Life Tier: 1]

[Skills: Heart-Protecting Fire, Wild Grass Physique, Intermediate Mechanical Repair (79.1%), Intermediate Mechanical Assembly (87.5%)]

[...]

Five days had passed; Basic Level Mechanical Principles and Intermediate Mechanical Recognition had long since been pushed to 100%.

Those once-awkward schematic symbols and mechanical theories had already become a foundation etched into his mind.

Stripping a car now was like washing vegetables, chopping them, cooking and stir-frying.

He was no longer bound by fixed procedures or methods at all—no matter how he stripped it, no matter where he started, his speed and final result were on par with a veteran master.

The two newly acquired skills he’d just found were also close to being maxed out; at this pace, he would completely master them by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.

Of course, being this efficient was thanks to the Mechanical Bureau, this treasure trove of a place.

Because of the feverish construction of the first batch of 12 Satellite Cities, all the charging piles of the bureau-managed units were running at full load around the clock, and the power grid was being extended from the Buffer Zone all the way out beyond the city.

To prioritize power for construction, most residential areas in the Buffer Zone had their electricity cut during the day.

Power wouldn’t be restored until eight at night.

But the Mechanical Bureau was clearly not subject to this. While the charging piles here were also heavily occupied, it had independent industrial circuits and industrial outlets.

It seemed like each warehouse had several 32A/250V circuits dedicated to welding machines.

The charging efficiency could reach about 8 kW; just charging in the warehouse each day could replenish over 20% of his charging value, and adding the charging he did at home in the evenings, he could just about accumulate 25% charging value per day.

The only small hiccup was that he’d failed once while searching for an Lv2 skill the second time, leaving him with only 31% charging value now.

But Cheng Ye didn’t care. Once this batch of frames and parts was assembled into cars, he could openly drive them to the fast-charging piles at the inspection station or the Public Works Bureau to top up.

Having charging piles to replenish power was an absolute qualitative leap!

All those skills he couldn’t fuse yet, and traits he couldn’t afford to redeem, would soon be within reach.