Quickly coming to a decision as I nervously glanced at the clock again. I decided that I could and should fix it. However, if it failed… Well at least then I would have a mostly complete design that I could work on later, after all, winning face or something wasn't high on my priority list, getting home to my clan and planet was. I turned my attention to the hull, pushing more material into it to make it thicker, before I noticed how they interacted with each other. From there, my eyes shifted to how they were attached to the ship. I slowly started beefing up the support for each section of this, while trying to reduce the weight of the material I was using without sacrificing any of its strength. While I was doing this, I was also muttering to myself about how this was probably still an issue that scientists back on earth were still trying to solve.

I manage to finish it and strengthen the hull to withstand the strain, the gravity plates of high speeds would apply to it, but I wasn't entirely sure I had succeeded. The test I was about to run it through would indicate if I had done it successfully or blown my chance at being part of this race… not that I cared about that.

A small smile played across my face as I mentally clicked to run the test and watched the counter pause as the little guy appeared on the hangar deck and began his walk to the ship.

"moment of truth." I muttered as I watched.

I saw the problem before it happened, right before the rear thruster tore free from the ship. I saw the weak point in the hull, the bit I had missed because it was attached to the frame, and I knew instantly that I could fix it. I quickly cancelled the test and dived into the issue, ripping bits off and replacing them before slamming it all back together and submitting it for a test again. I glanced up at the clock to see it had paused at one second.

"Fudge cakes…" I groaned, before adding, "I hope I can still save and submit this." I turned my attention back to watching the test.

I watched him board and run through the manoeuvres successfully before turning the ship towards the planet and I found myself holding my breath hoping it would succeed, and then I would have something to rub into that smug, arrogant kid's face.

"not that I actually care" I mumbled as I watched the ship starting its run in and out of the atmosphere.

The speed was quickly picking up, and it was soon back up to 15 Gs. The pilot wasn't showing any signs of stopping as the ship ticked up to 16 Gs, 17 Gs the ship shifted and zipped into the atmosphere, finally heading towards the ground at 20 Gs. The ship held together. I let out a huge breath of air as I felt the tension drain from my body.

"Success!" I squealed in delight as I watched him running the bucket of water. I frowned slightly moments after seeing him with the bucket as 'why buckets of water' ran through my mind. Shrugging it off, I watched silently as he continued to complete the testing, even doing those barrel rolls again as he left the atmosphere. He flew over and landed in the hangar on the space station, ending the tests. The blueprint table changed, bringing my design up again, and a message was floating over the table in front of me.

TEST COMPLETE.

Ship design has been given an atmospheric entry rating.

Ship Design is approved for construction or licensing.

Ship Design has been graded as an Upper Core Sect Design.

Would you like to save this design to your personal Licences and submit it as an option for the race pilots to use in the upcoming annual sect race?

"Yes, I would like to save this design and submit it as an option for the race." I said to the blueprint table before watching the design get saved and then be sent off. A second later, the table suddenly shut down, and a new message appeared over the dark table.

Authorised Blueprint table use time has expired.

I rolled my shoulders and turned away from the table as a small smile played over my face. "One problem down, ass ton of cultivation to go" I muttered as I left the room. I almost happily skipped across the room and out of the engineering department as I headed for my cultivation chamber.

Once I reached it and began the slow slog of cultivation again, everything kind of fell back into routine for a few days. I cultivated most of the day, ate some food, slept and returned to cultivation. I had even managed to break through to the second realm of Qi gathering the fifth night. However, my routine was shattered the next day when I opened my bedroom door heading to cultivate only to find Liu Runchu about to knock on the door with a surprised look on his face.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"hello…" I said slowly as confusion crossed my face and I couldn't help wondering what he was doing here at my door.

"Hello, I am sorry for ambushing you like this but… The computer code… I need to know how, any hint you could give me would help immensely." He said reluctantly, I could hear the shame in his voice and see it on his face, but there was also a hint of determination.

"your own elder said I wasn't to tell anyone how I did it." I replied as I slowly stepped out of my room and closed the door, turning towards my cultivation room. I found him quickly moving to walk beside me as he nodded his head and frowned.

"Yes, I know, but your design has been classified already by the sect since it was submitted for the race. No one can access anything on it until after the race to keep everything fair. I am not asking so I can get ahead in my own designs for the race. I just… I need to know so I can design a ship that will bring more money to the sect, then I could help the sect, I would be able to afford better equipment and the departments can have more funding." He said as he looked at me with pleading eyes.

"Ah, I see, it is for noble reasons that you want to use my designs and not for selfish reasons. Like having the prestige of funding your choice departments." I replied as I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

"Yes, of course, for noble reasons like helping the sect become better and stronger." He quickly said, looking at me with hopeful eyes.

I slowly shrugged my shoulders as I reached the airlock into my cultivation chamber and turned to face him. For a few moments, I stood there studying his hopeful gaze and cute smile before letting out a sigh.

"Look, even if I did want to tell you what the code is, I can't. The code is long and slightly complicated. I would have to show it to you, and that elder of yours doesn't want me to do that. He even gave me that mental lock thing so only I could see the code." I told him as I waved my hand to open the airlock doors.

I watched his face scrunch up in anger or perhaps annoyance as he glared at the floor in front of him. I could see his mind was working through the problem before he finally came to a decision and looked at me.

"That mental lock was written by my Master, do you really think he can't get around it or doesn't already have a way through it? The code will come out, the sects classified rating won't protect it forever. That code of yours will become the property of this sect, and the author will be an elder or one of the real core disciples of the engineering department. You are delusional and fooling yourself if you think you can keep it. You should save yourself the trouble and avoid angering the elders. Just simply hand it over now." He growled as he glared at me.

I hid a smug smile with my back as I took the step through the door into the airlock chamber, and when I turned to face him, I had a look of concern on my face.

"Oh, that's not good, is it… are you certain he has a way to break the lock and steal my code?" I asked him.

"Of course I am, he has taken dozens of my own codes" he snapped back at me.

"Well, that's not ideal, I had best alert my mentor to the problem then." I said as I turned to close the door.

"What? Are you insane? A bridge crew elder can't save your code from being taken, and when the elder says it's his code, not yours, do you really think anyone will believe you?" He hissed at me.

I paused as I turned to look back at him for a few moments, studying his face, seeing the conviction and belief in it. Then I suddenly smiled and waved my hand to close the door as I told him.

"I don't need her to save my code, I need her to save me from the fallout, when someone does try to force their way into accessing it."

I watched the look of shock cross his face as the door closed between us. I turned to look at the cultivation suit and started contemplating if I should put it on or go warn my mentor now. After a few moments of consideration, I rolled my shoulders and moved to put on the suit.

"Ah, screw it, not like anyone can access the design before that big fancy race of theirs."

I did the suit up and moved to open the next door, but before my hand could reach the door to open it the one behind me opened and a voice I had not been expecting spoke.

"I hear you have been plotting against the sect, care to explain?"

I turned around to see Mentor Zhang standing at the door, Liu Runchu standing nearby with a scowling look on his face. 'That's it I'm rescinding your cuteness designation' I declared internally before I let out a sigh, feeling like I wasn't going to get to cultivate today, a moment later a thought occurred to me and I waved her inside as I turned to face her. After a couple seconds of hesitation, she stepped in and closed the door behind her.

"I am going to assume you don't want young Liu Runchu to hear your explanation, and you are not about to attempt something foolish like forcing me to activate my emergency void suit." She said as she watched me.

"Then you are assuming correctly" I replied as I let out a sigh before continuing, "I am going to make an assumption and assume this has something to do with a code I wrote for my ship's design in that annual sect race of yours."

She nodded her head slightly but didn't make any move to explain further, leaving me to continue the conversation. I nodded my head back and then shrugged.

"Well, basically, I wrote a code, and Liu Runchu saw it in action when he visited and had my ship run through a test flight. The pilot died, and the ship continued on, even landing safely on the planet without the pilot. Apparently this was more significant than I had originally thought and led to Liu Runchu mumbling about taking a look at the code when his Master let himself in and yelled at him about this being a righteous sect. We don't steal from each other. After that, he gave me a mental lock code to use on the computer code. However, something didn't feel right about it, so I went over the code and found a back door that would let someone bypass the lock and access the code."

"So you decided to take revenge against the sect and write in a code that would make the ship's engine loop back on itself until it exploded, taking the entire dry dock with it. Didn't you? You traitorous dog!" She snapped at me suddenly.

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