33: Chapter 33 Level 2 Access

Mi Fan smiled through her tears and stopped bothering Cao Xiao while he drove. A sweet smile played on the corners of her mouth as she lost herself in thought.

Cao Xiao found a parking lot and parked the car. He and Mi Fan got out together. Since Mi Fan hadn't rested all night, Cao Xiao was worried she might have trouble, so he accompanied her to look after her.

The registration location for this International Fashion Design Competition in Huanghe City was a building in the business center. There was no dedicated office; instead, a domestic clothing company's branch in Huanghe City had been commissioned to organize the registration. The procedure wasn't complicated: fill out a personal information form and submit the entry.

When Mi Fan finished the form and submitted her entry, she ran into trouble. The design documents were fine—the organizers naturally wanted as many entries as possible—but there had never been a submission that included an animation video. Furthermore, Mi Fan's video was over 2GB. The staff at this company had never encountered such a situation. Mi Fan anxiously negotiated with them for a long time but was still rejected, making her so upset she was on the verge of tears again. The core of her work was in that 3D animation video; the design documents weren't detailed enough. If the video couldn't be submitted, it would be very disadvantageous for her. Cao Xiao also helped negotiate and even played the animation for them. Although the staff were impressed, they couldn't make the call. Seeing the delicate girl about to cry, they consulted their superiors, but the result was the same: there was no precedent, and they couldn't violate the rules to help her submit the video. Seeing this, Mi Fan burst into tears. It was truly hard for her; this strong and stubborn girl hadn't cried even during much harder times, yet she had cried several times over this in the past two days.

Cao Xiao comforted her while trying to find a solution. He wanted to advise Mi Fan to give up on submitting the video, but the words stuck in his throat. This video carried Mi Fan's dreams; without it, her work wouldn't be perfect, and winning an award would be much harder. He could advise her to give up money or fame, but he couldn't advise someone to give up their dream.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he realized he had fallen into a mental trap. Since they couldn't submit the video, but Mi Fan's work was excellent enough, it would naturally catch the judges' attention. If they couldn't send it to them, couldn't they make the judges look for it themselves? With the internet so developed now, they just needed to upload the video online and add a small note and a URL to Mi Fan's documents. As long as the judges wanted to see it, they could go online and see it anywhere. Wouldn't that solve the problem?

"Mi Fan, don't cry. I've thought of a solution. It'll be settled in a moment," Cao Xiao said happily to Mi Fan.

"Really? What's the solution?" Mi Fan stopped crying and asked in surprise.

Cao Xiao explained his idea to Mi Fan. Overjoyed, Mi Fan suddenly kissed him on the cheek. Cao Xiao was stunned by the sudden attack and stood there grinning foolishly, thinking to himself that this girl was quite bold. Mi Fan borrowed a computer from the staff to modify her documents. Once finished, she resubmitted them. The staff didn't make things difficult anymore, and the matter was perfectly resolved.

As they walked out, Mi Fan happily clung to Cao Xiao's arm, drawing sideways glances from passersby. Cao Xiao wanted to pull away, but Mi Fan insisted on holding on, so he had no choice but to let her. Regardless, Cao Xiao didn't care about others' opinions; he was being held by his sister, and with a clear conscience, he had nothing to fear.

"Let's go grab something to eat, and then I'll take you back to rest!" Cao Xiao said to Mi Fan after they got in the car.

"Okay. You're so good, Brother. Since I was a child, I've always wanted an older brother or sister who could protect me from being wronged. I didn't expect to actually have a brother after I grew up," Mi Fan said, beaming with happiness.

"Since you call me 'Brother' but don't want to be my sister, how should I address you in the future? I really don't know what you're thinking," Cao Xiao asked, puzzled.

"Just call me Xiao Fan. I'm only calling you 'Brother' for now; it depends on your performance. If you perform well, I might consider giving you an upgrade," Mi Fan said proudly.

"Upgrade? What kind of upgrade? Then tell me, how should I perform to satisfy you?" Cao Xiao said, looking at the laughing Mi Fan with interest.

"Don't worry about that. Your only job is to spoil me!" Mi Fan paused and said with a hint of impatience.

"Alright, alright, alright. I'll spoil you to the heavens from now on," Cao Xiao said with a half-serious smile.

Mi Fan didn't say anything else. She was already very sleepy and kept yawning. Having known Mi Fan for a while, although they didn't have much contact normally, Cao Xiao knew she was an introverted girl who didn't speak much, was very quiet, and rarely smiled. But now she had become very clingy. It was likely because her emotions had fluctuated wildly over the last two days, and she had suddenly found someone to rely on, allowing her long-suppressed emotions to be released.

"There's a beef restaurant up ahead that tastes pretty good. Don't fall asleep yet; eat before you sleep." Seeing that Mi Fan's eyes were already getting hazy, Cao Xiao quickly woke her up.

They parked and went into the beef restaurant. They ordered a few dishes and asked the waiter to serve them as quickly as possible. Cao Xiao kept chatting with Mi Fan to keep her spirits up. The food arrived in about ten minutes, and the two of them finished quickly. Mi Fan fell asleep as soon as she got in the car. After arriving at the villa, Cao Xiao didn't wake her; he carried her out of the car in a princess carry. As soon as he entered the living room, several pairs of eyes stared at him.

"Brother, what's wrong with Mi Fan? Did something happen?" The girls thought something had happened to Mi Fan and immediately gathered around.

"Nothing happened. She's just too tired and fell asleep in the car," Cao Xiao quickly explained, seeing they thought something was wrong.

"Too tired? Fell asleep? Why are you guys coming back from outside at this time? Mi Fan didn't come back all night... You two couldn't have..." Hearing Cao Xiao's explanation, Liu Chang breathed a sigh of relief but began questioning him as if she had discovered something scandalous.

Cao Xiao felt a bit of anger after hearing Liu Chang's words. He suddenly felt that indulging her for so long might not be a good thing. It wasn't that he didn't love his little cousin anymore, but he was afraid Liu Chang would lose herself in a comfortable life. This was very likely; Liu Chang's flaws were significant—eating alone could make her unable to pull herself out. He hoped Liu Chang could possess a resilient character like Mi Fan's and overcome her own weaknesses. Thus, Cao Xiao decided to change his strategy with her. He said with a look of disappointment, "What is that little brain of yours thinking? You have the nerve to ask that? What time did you guys get back last night? Staying out all night—you've gotten bold, haven't you? Mi Fan stayed up all night in the study working on her entry for the international competition. I originally asked you to take her to register this morning, but you slept like a pig! Didn't I tell you to learn how to be a chef? Why hasn't there been any progress after so long? Instead, you're eating even more than before. I've decided: no allowance for you this month. If you want to eat, be self-reliant; otherwise, just wait to go hungry!"

"Brother, how can you do this? I'll come back earlier next time, I promise. I'll definitely go learn culinary arts, okay?" Hearing that Cao Xiao was going to cut off her food supply, Liu Chang immediately got anxious and pleaded with him.

"The matter is settled; there's no room for negotiation. I'll take Mi Fan back to her room first. I have to go home in a bit and don't have time to deal with you. We'll talk once you've learned. If you have any complaints, please take them up with my parents. I'm not afraid of you snitching anymore," Cao Xiao said resolutely.

"You big liar, you big meanie! I don't believe no one can handle you. Just you wait to get scolded!" Seeing that Cao Xiao was serious, Liu Chang shouted angrily.

Cao Xiao ignored her completely. He knew that once Liu Chang used her trump card, he definitely wouldn't be able to withstand it. After settling Mi Fan in her bedroom, he headed straight out the door.

Three hours later, Cao Xiao appeared at the Dachu River pier. He went to the warehouse management office to retrieve the keys he had left there. Opening the door to Warehouse No. 1, he saw it was already filled with sacks of corn, totaling five thousand tons. It was the same in Warehouse No. 2. The corn in the two warehouses added up to over ten thousand tons; the extra fifty tons was a bonus.

The industrial mother machine's space couldn't hold so much at once, and it also took a lot of time for the energy space to convert organic matter into energy. Cao Xiao began collecting it and gave the industrial mother machine the command to store energy quickly. Cao Xiao tested it: it took half an hour for the energy space to convert a thousand tons of corn into energy. A thousand tons of corn could provide a 200% energy reserve, so it would only take two and a half hours to meet the upgrade requirements. Once it upgraded, the internal space would also upgrade. Even if the space only doubled, it could hold the remaining five thousand tons of corn at once.

Cao Xiao just focused on collecting; he only needed to check the conversion status of the energy space every once in a while. Bored while waiting, he played on his phone in the car. Time passed minute by minute, and finally, once the energy space had completely consumed five thousand tons of corn, the upgrade prompt for the industrial mother machine finally sounded.

Cao Xiao issued the upgrade command. He had originally thought the upgrade would take a long time and had even prepared to spend the night in Jinghu City. To his surprise, the upgrade was completed in less than two seconds. He suddenly slapped his own forehead, thinking he was such an idiot. He had been influenced by those novels; what the industrial mother machine upgraded was the authorization level, not itself. Those more powerful functions were already present in the industrial mother machine; it was just opening the access rights to him now.

He couldn't wait to summon the industrial mother machine's main body; it was still that silver-white cube, unchanged. He opened the virtual window and accessed the personal options.

Administrator: Cao Xiao (Carbon-based intelligent lifeform, Human)

Current Authorization: Level 2 (Total of 9 levels, upgradable)

Personal Combat Power: 8 (A composite of Stamina 7, Strength 8, Agility 6, plus Combat Skill 1. A healthy adult without combat skills is typically 10.)

personal space: 10*10*10 = 1,000 cubic meters (Cannot place living organisms, upgradable)

Technological Knowledge: Primary Middle-Stage Technological Civilization

Operating System: 49th Generation Intelligence (No personality, no emotions, possesses basic technological wisdom)

The personal options hadn't changed much. The authorization had increased to Level 2, and the personal space had expanded to a thousand cubic meters. It hadn't expanded based on overall volume; the side length had changed from the original two meters to ten meters. Thus, the rule for personal space upgrades was that the side length increased to five times the original. So, would it become 50*50*50 = 125,000 cubic meters when upgrading to Level 3? Cao Xiao couldn't reach a conclusion for now, but in any case, the expansion of the personal space was a good thing.

Technological Knowledge had already reached the standard for upgrading to Level 3 authorization, but there was no prompt for upgrade information. It seemed that besides meeting the energy requirements, other conditions were needed to upgrade to Level 3. This was the situation Cao Xiao feared most: no clear prompts for upgrade conditions, meaning he had to figure it out himself to trigger the upgrade. Energy was easy to deal with; even if the energy required for Level 3 was a hundred or a thousand times that of Level 2, he could reach the requirement by taking his time to collect organic matter. But as for figuring it out through trial and error, there was no telling how much time it would take. If he was unlucky, he might not find a clue even after eight or ten years.

His plan for a quick upgrade fell through, but Cao Xiao wasn't discouraged. To have obtained the industrial mother machine was already a stroke of immense luck; what more could he ask for? Even if a crisis truly occurred for Earth's civilization in the future, the tall ones would be there to hold it up. With his abilities, even if he couldn't eliminate the crisis, he could protect himself and his family. His plan to build an underground base on the ten thousand mu of forest land he bought at Baiyun Mountain was intended to turn it into a shelter. If he really encountered an imaginary planet-destroying cannon, he would simply accept his fate.

He pushed these messy thoughts out of his mind and continued to check what other options had changed. First was the Detection Function; the detection range had increased directly to one hundred meters. Cao Xiao tested it; aside from the range becoming larger, he couldn't see any other changes. Cao Xiao was somewhat puzzled: why would the industrial mother machine separate the Detection Function? Wouldn't it be better to integrate it with the collection space? Could this Detection Function have some use he hadn't discovered yet?

Now wasn't the time to dwell on these things; he could slowly experiment when he had time later. It was almost dark outside; if he finished quickly, he could still go home, otherwise he would have to spend the night in Jinghu City.

The change in the collection space exceeded Cao Xiao's expectations. According to his guess, the volume would increase by more than two times after the upgrade, or the side length would become five times the original according to the personal space's upgrade rule. He didn't expect the side length to become a full one hundred meters, with a collection range of one hundred meters as well. The volume had become one million cubic meters, a thousand times what it was before. Now he didn't have to worry about running out of space; let alone a few thousand tons of supplies, it could even hold a million tons of water—and the denser the material, the more it could hold. He wondered if the other spaces had enlarged like this. If they all became this large, it would be no problem for Cao Xiao to carry three million tons of cargo at once. He could even fit several ten-thousand-ton ships if they were on the shorter side. Even if he did nothing else in the future but help others transport goods, he could still make a lot of money. This transport capacity of his was much more formidable than those hundred-thousand or million-ton giants, and his transport efficiency was something others couldn't even hope to match. While others were still loading their ships, he would have already transported the goods to the destination and put them in place.