14: Chapter 14 Skill Fusion

Zhen Lu did not log out.

He stood on the plaza, glancing at the time on his panel.

Time for one more.

"Xiaoguang, keep filtering. Temporary Summoning, with skills."

Xiaoguang flickered.

"There are a few new ones."

[Temporary Summoning] World: Iron Plain District · Requirements: None · Participants: 18 · Reward: 380 Credits / 6 hours · Attached Skill: Basic Throwing

[Temporary Summoning] World: Fog City Dock · Requirements: None · Participants: 11 / 30 · Reward: 420 Credits / 5 hours · Attached Skill: Basic Balance

[Temporary Summoning] World: Shattered Dome · Requirements: None · Participants: 5 · Reward: 350 Credits / 8 hours · Attached Skill: Basic Climbing

[Temporary Summoning] World: Flying Car Workshop · Requirements: None · Participants: 1 / 2 · Reward: 400 Credits / 6 hours · Attached Skill: Basic Flying Car Maintenance

Zhen Lu's gaze stopped on the last one.

Flying Car Workshop. Basic Flying Car Maintenance.

He opened the task details.

[World Name: Flying Car Workshop]

[World Type: Tech City]

[Summoning Mode: Temporary Summoning]

[Task Content: Flying car breakdown maintenance, specific arrangements by the Summoning Master]

[Attached Skill: Basic Flying Car Maintenance (Automatically adjusted based on personal skill situation after entering)]

[Remaining Slots: 1 / 2]

[Note: This task is a Temporary Summoning, no loot drops upon death]

400 Credits, six hours.

Zhen Lu glanced at his skill bar. Master Automotive Maintenance.

The attached skill is Basic Flying Car Maintenance, which he hadn't learned.

Both are vehicles, but they aren't the same thing. He didn't know what kind of effect it would have.

"Accept."

[You have accepted the Temporary Summoning task]

[Confirm entry?]

"Confirm."

A white light flashed.

Zhen Lu opened his eyes.

He was standing inside a workshop.

It was different from the garage at the Ring Road Circuit. This workshop was much larger, with a ceiling height of at least five or six meters, and rows of fluorescent lights overhead that illuminated the entire space. The floor was light gray epoxy resin, clean enough to reflect light.

Several vehicles were parked all around.

They weren't old-fashioned automobiles. They were the flying cars often seen in the real world.

The car bodies were more streamlined than automobiles, the chassis were thick, and the position of the wheel hubs was different. Under the fenders, there weren't tires, but some kind of silver-gray metal device—flat, looking something like a jet nozzle.

Zhen Lu looked down at himself. He was wearing a set of gray-blue overalls with a logo printed on the chest that looked like a wing. He wore cotton gloves on his hands, with grease on his fingertips, looking like he had just been working.

[You have entered Summoning Mode]

[World: Flying Car Workshop (Tech City)]

[Identity: Temporary Mechanic]

[Personal Skill: Master Automotive Maintenance]

[Temporary Attached Skill: Basic Flying Car Maintenance]

[Skill fusion in progress...]

[Master Automotive Maintenance + Basic Flying Car Maintenance = Proficiency in vehicle repair (Temporary)]

[Current Skill: Proficiency in vehicle repair (Temporary)]

[Remaining Time: 5:59:58]

[Hint: No losses upon death in this mode; will automatically return to the Main Planet after time ends]

Zhen Lu stared at the panel for a few seconds.

It fused.

It wasn't just stacking; it was fusion. Master Automotive Maintenance and Basic Flying Car Maintenance combined to become Proficiency in vehicle repair.

He clenched his fists. The extra knowledge in his mind wasn't an upgraded version of automotive maintenance; it was something broader. Automobiles, flying cars—as long as it was a vehicle, it seemed he could repair it.

Someone walked over from behind.

A man in his forties, wearing overalls similar to Zhen Lu's with the same wing logo on the chest. His hair was graying, his face had wrinkles, and he was holding a tablet.

"You're here? Come help quickly. The schedule is tight; otherwise, I wouldn't have used a treasure to recruit two helpers. The other one is already working."

Zhen Lu nodded.

"Follow me." The man turned and walked away.

Zhen Lu followed. The two crossed the workshop and walked to a flying car at the very back.

The car body was deep blue. The jet device under the left fender was half dismantled, with pipes and wire harnesses exposed, all in a mess.

"The lifter is broken," the man said. "The left one. I replaced it with a new one, but it didn't react after installation. You check it."

Zhen Lu crouched down.

He reached out and touched those pipes and wire harnesses. The moment his hand touched them, information automatically appeared in his mind: this is the power line, this is the signal harness, this is the cooling circuit.

Master Automotive Maintenance gave him the basic logic. Basic Flying Car Maintenance gave him the specific knowledge of flying cars. With the two combined, he understood how this thing worked.

He traced along the pipes. The power lines were fine, and the cooling circuits were fine. When he touched the signal harness, his fingers felt a subtle bump.

A section in the middle of the harness had been crushed by something, and the wires inside were broken. The insulation on the outside wasn't broken, so it wasn't visible. But the signal couldn't pass through.

"The harness is broken," Zhen Lu said.

The man leaned over to take a look. "Which section?"

Zhen Lu pointed to that location. The man pinched it with his hand, and his expression changed.

"It really is."

Zhen Lu found a spare harness in the toolbox. He removed the old one, installed the new one, snapped the clips tight, and reset the pipes.

"Try it," he said.

The man walked to the console on one side of the workshop and pressed a few buttons.

The deep blue flying car emitted a low humming sound. The jet device under the left fender lit up with a ring of blue light, lasted for a few seconds, and then went out.

"It's fixed," the man said.

Zhen Lu nodded.

He crouched there, not in a hurry to leave. He was thinking about what just happened.

The skills had fused.

It wasn't that automotive maintenance had become stronger, but that automotive maintenance and flying car maintenance had combined to become Proficiency in vehicle repair. He could repair automobiles, and he could repair flying cars. If he encountered other vehicles in the future—tanks, hovercars, whatever—as long as it was a vehicle, could he repair it?

He didn't know. But he felt this direction was correct.

Skills could not only be upgraded but also fused. Fused skills were more comprehensive, had wider coverage, and could encompass more things.

"Is there any other work?" Zhen Lu asked.

The man glanced at him and handed over the tablet. "Car No. 3, the lifter calibration has a deviation. You go take a look."

Zhen Lu took the tablet and glanced at the data. The deviation wasn't large, but it was definitely there.

He walked to Car No. 3 and crouched down.

He had already figured out the structure of the lifter just now. Calibration wasn't about tightening bolts; it was about adjusting the parameters of the control unit. There was a debugging interface on the tablet; he clicked into it and found the calibration page.

The data showed that the left lifter was 3% lower than the right lifter.

He adjusted the parameters, adding 3%.

The data leveled out.

He checked the data before and after again, and they were all normal.

"It's done."

The man walked over, looked at the data on the tablet, and then looked at Zhen Lu.

"You're much stronger than that other brother. Isn't this basic-level maintenance?"

"I'm at the master level," Zhen Lu said.

"Then your level is pretty good," the man said. "Great cost-performance ratio."

Zhen Lu didn't speak.

For the next few hours, he kept repairing cars.

Replacing lifters, adjusting parameters, checking power lines, troubleshooting cooling system failures.

He had never done any of these things before, but his hands knew how to do every single one.

The Proficiency in vehicle repair skill had kneaded everything together. His mind no longer contained just one type of vehicle, but a larger framework.

When repairing the fourth car, he encountered a problem. The lifter was replaced with a new one, and the parameters were adjusted, but it just wouldn't work stably; it was intermittent.

He crouched next to the car, thinking for a long time.

Then he thought of a possibility. It wasn't a problem with the lifter; it was a power supply issue. The voltage was unstable, so the lifter was unstable as a result.

He used a multimeter to test it. The voltage indeed fluctuated.

He traced back along the power supply line and found the power distribution unit. Upon opening it, he saw a connector inside was loose, causing poor contact.

He plugged it back in tightly and secured it.

The lifter stabilized.

The man watched from the side, didn't say anything, but nodded.

Time passed quickly. Zhen Lu kept working, his hands never stopping.

With every car he repaired, his understanding of this fused skill, "Proficiency in vehicle repair," deepened a layer.

Basic to Master is moving upwards. Fusion is expanding outwards.

Moving upwards is more precise and deeper. Expanding outwards is broader and wider.

[Remaining Time: 0:00:00]

A white light flashed.

Zhen Lu returned to the Main Star Plaza.

Xiaoguang floated out from behind his shoulder.

"Welcome back. The summoning task is complete, and the reward has been issued: 1200 Credits have been deposited into your account. Current balance: 45123 Credits."

Zhen Lu opened his personal panel.

[Player: Zhen Lu]

[Strength: 6]

[Agility: 6]

[Constitution: 5]

[Spirit: 5]

[Rank: F]

[Assets: 45123 Credits]

[Skills: Basic Spear Technique, Basic Combat, Basic Formation, Proficiency in vehicle repair 23/1000, Pain Suppression]

He stared at the skill bar.

Master Automotive Maintenance was gone. In its place was Proficiency in vehicle repair.

Moreover, his Agility attribute had increased by one point; it must be that because the skill was higher level, the attribute bonus was greater.

He clenched his fists. That framework in his mind was still there. Not just automobiles, not just flying cars, but the broad category of "vehicles."

Chassis, power, transmission, control, cooling—he knew the logic of all these things. If replaced with any kind of vehicle with wheels or one that could fly, he could get to work immediately.

He stood on the plaza, thinking for a while.

Skill upgrading is moving upwards. Skill fusion is expanding outwards.

Moving upwards grants attribute points. Expanding outwards allows repairing more things and also grants more attribute points.