by <unknown>
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You have learned an advanced skill:
Sniping (Lv. 1)
+4% Fatal Shot
+5% Shooting Range
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Han Xiao nodded in satisfaction. Done!
Next, Han Xiao crafted the Swallow Gliders, earning 1,500 experience in the process. He also modified them to give them the ‘retractability’ of the Retractable Knife. Indeed, the good thing about being able to actually learn knowledge in this life was that Han Xiao could implement concepts and technology from his blueprints into other inventions.
With the added retractability, they could now be worn on the back like a parachute before deployment. Once activated, the two 1.2m long ‘wings’ would extend out to allow the user to freely glide in the air.
After the gliders, Han Xiao proceeded to work on his close combat gear. The Mecha Arm actually formed a set with the Mecha Leg, and their blueprints were obtainable through the same combination of talents. They were also necessary parts for creating an Exoframe. However, that would require advanced knowledge, and Han Xiao did not even have the necessary skills to craft a proper Mecha Leg yet. At best, he would be able to craft one that could travel long distances, but it would lack the mechanisms that allowed for nimble movements.
Han Xiao planned to upgrade the Mecha Arm by making it lighter and smaller. While making it smaller would cause it to lose some power, Han Xiao had something in mind to compensate for it.
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Do you wish to proceed with talent fusion?
(Lv. 3 Basic Weaponry + Lv. 2 Basic Assembly + Lv. 2 Basic Mechanics)
This fusion will cost you 15,000 experience.
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Fusion Success!
Congratulations, you have discovered [Air Motor]!
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“Wow, first try!”
Han Xiao rejoiced. This particular combination of talent could yield quite a number of different blueprints, and he had not expected to obtain it using so little experience.
The Air Motor converted compressed air into vibrational kinetic energy that, when harnessed as a weapon, could essentially bypass the armor of normal armor to cause direct damage.
Han Xiao spent a good half a day working on the Mecha Arm. He refitted it to slim it down but also lengthened it to cover the entire arm. He also reinforced its casing with platinum to cover up its internal mechanics, giving it a huge durability boost.
When he was done, the Mecha Arm looked vastly different from its crude form from before – it was now a shiny, silver metallic arm.
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Lightweight Mecha Arm (Left) – Motor-enhanced
Grade: Average (White)
Base Stats:
– Damage: 30-48
– Defense: 10-13
– Power Level: 33
– Durability: 470/470
Prerequisite(s): 24 STR
Bonus Stats: -2 Attack Speed
Length: 0.87m
Weight: 5.2kg
Additional Bonus: +7 STR
Additional Effect: Vibration – Every 15 seconds, your attacks inflict an additional 23-45 direct damage onto the target. (Ignores Defense)
Additional Effect: Increased Durability
Tooltip: Realistic looking.
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Although it was only an average ranked piece of equipment, Han Xiao’s modifications had given it three useful additional effects.
So far, all the upgrades that Han Xiao had given his gear were nothing too fancy, but now, he was about to craft something special, something specialized for a Technician!
Han Xiao took a deep breath.
“Amitabha… God, please let me get that blueprint in one try. This fusion is just too expensive…”
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Do you wish to proceed with talent fusion?
(Lv. 2 Advanced Material Composition + Lv. 2 Basic Magnetism + Lv. 2 Basic Assembly)
This fusion will cost you 70,000 experience.
Chapter 67. Upgrades (part 2) |
The amount of experience required for fusing higher-leveled talents did not simply increase linearly.
An advanced talent or knowledge cost 50,000 more experience to fuse than a basic one. Moreover, fusing a basic talent with an advanced talent also caused the base cost of the basic talent itself to increase, rising from 5,000 to 10,000. If even higher leveled talents were to be used, the fusion costs would skyrocket further.
“Confirm!”
Han Xiao stared at the fusion window with bated breath.
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Fusion success!
Congratulations, you have discovered [Magnetism Armor]!
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Han Xiao jumped up with joy.
This was the blueprint that he had been aiming to get, and it was actually something that a player at Han Xiao’s current level should not be able to possess. Indeed, it was a high-level piece of armor! This would help to guarantee his safety!
Of the $300,000 that Han Xiao had spent on upgrade materials, $250,000 alone went into the making this armor.
As it was an advanced blueprint, it was much more complex to craft than a basic one, so even Han Xiao, who possessed the required knowledge to craft it, needed to spend an entire hour just to fully understand the blueprint’s contents. After learning it, Han Xiao lifted his head to reveal a bitter smile; by his estimations, it would take at least three days of non-stop work to craft it.
He quickly got started.
…
Three days later, the doors to Han Xiao’s workroom opened. Out came a tired Han Xiao with listless eyes and dark bags under his eyes. He looked as though he were in a daze, as if he didn’t even know who, or even where, he was. In fact, looking at him, one might wonder if he had just woken up from a beating.
Han Xiao received a call as soon as he turned on his phone. It was Li Ya Lin, and she did not sound pleased at all.
“Han Xiao, why were you unreachable for the past few days? You have dozens of overdue orders! You’d better not take the cash and run away when I’m putting my own reputation on the line for your business! Also, don’t forget that you promised to make a set of specially tailored equipment! Oh, right, we’ve been given a mission! We have to leave for Hesla in ten days. Leader is furious that you didn’t show up for the meeting yesterday, so you’d better keep that in mind…”
Han Xiao could barely open his eyes. Ignoring her as she rambled on, he climbed into his bed and curled up under his blanket to fall asleep instantly.
“Hey, hey, hey— why are you not saying anything? Urgh, don’t think I’ve forgotten how you took advantage of me the other day…”
…
‘What’s the first thing you do when you get out of bed?
‘Open your eyes?’
When Han Xiao finally woke up, the first thing he did was to make his way to the toilet in his dreamlike stupor. After washing his hands, he stretched, yawned, and proceeded to brush his teeth.
Afterwards, with eyes still half-closed, Han Xiao went over to the kitchen in the main workshop where he pushed Lu Qian off her seat at the dining table with his butt and helped himself to the remainder of her breakfast, all the while ignoring her feeble protests.
When he was done, he simply cast her an unapologetic glance before strolling out as though nothing had happened.
“Ah, such carefreeness reminds me of when I was young,” reminisced Old Lu aloud as he stroked his head.
“Ahhhhh! I want to change the keys…”
“Perhaps this is love,” remarked Old Lu with a profound look on his face.
“It is not!” Lu Qian yelled out in exasperation.
…
Back in his workroom, Han Xiao opened up a small box. Inside were the fruits of his labor, what appeared to be numerous thin scales of metal. They looked black, but on closer observation, they were actually an extremely deep shade of blue. Although they resembled nothing like ‘armor’, these tiny pieces of metal were, without a doubt, the Magnetic Armor—well, unassembled, and still quite incomplete, to be exact.
Han Xiao took a deep breath before placing his hand an inch above the case. He then began to summon the energy of magnetism within his body toward his arm.
What happened next was quite a sight to behold.
The metal scales began vibrating in response to Han Xiao’s magnetism, and in the next second, they actually started flying toward his palm as though they were being sucked in! Upon coming into contact with Han Xiao’s skin, they seemed to come alive and began dancing up and around his arm energetically, as though they were live fish.
“Form,” commanded Han Xiao, and the metallic scales instantly spread along his arm to form a thin, scale-patterned sleeve of armor. It was perfectly smooth and uniform.
The armor appeared to be skin-tight, but as it was controlled by magnetism, there was actually a gap of a few millimeters, allowing its user complete freedom of movement.
Han Xiao drew his Platinum Retractable Knife out and viciously slashed upon the sleeve. It produced a crisp ring, but there were no sparks, and the armor was completely undamaged.
“Good defense!” exclaimed a jubilant Han Xiao.
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Magnetism Armor (Incomplete)
Type: Armor (Bulletproof)
Grade: Uncommon (Green)
Base Stats:
– Defense: 75
– Durability: 1600/1600
Requirement(s): Magnetism-affinity Energy, Intermediate Machinery Affinity
Ability: Can be controlled by magnetism to move across the user’s body and transform into armor. Costs 10 energy/min to maintain shape.
Additional Effect: High Resistance – This armor is capable of withstanding high temperatures and is not easily penetrated or damaged.
Additional Effect: Magnetic Repulsion – Damage inflicted on the user is partially negated (reduces damage by 20-30 points).
Additional Effect: Unique Magnetic Field – When worn, envelopes the user in a magnetic field that attracts electricity.
Tooltip: A friendly reminder – don’t use this on a rainy day.
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In Galaxy, equipment that required energy to use was known as Superhuman Equipment.
The material used to make the metallic scales of the Magnetism Armor was an exceedingly rare, naturally-occurring metal. Not even Division 13 possessed much of it in their inventory, and $250,000 was only enough for Han Xiao to make a partial version that could at best cover his entire back.
Nevertheless, although the theory behind the Magnetic Armor was simple, crafting it was an entirely different matter. Even if Han Xiao did possess enough resources, he would still not be able to craft the complete version, not with his current level of expertise in both knowledge and skill.
In spite of that, crafting the incomplete version earned Han Xiao 40,000 experience, even more than when he had crafted Rover 1.
Han Xiao proceeded to test his control over the armor.
While such high-level Superhuman Equipment would usually take a low-level player quite some time to get used to, Han Xiao, with his years of experience, was able to quickly get the hang of it.
With this armor, Han Xiao now felt much safer than before.
It was both inconspicuous and highly portable, and Han Xiao thought of it as a trump card. He planned to keep the armor a secret from everyone, including his allies. After all, who could say for sure that today’s friend wouldn’t become tomorrow’s enemy?
Now that he had addressed the issues of mobility, defense, as well as both melee and ranged combat, all that was left for Han Xiao to do was to prepare some art.
As Han Xiao was already quite satisfied with the bombs provided by Division 13, he only planned to make some simple modifications, nothing too fancy.
Chapter 68. Upgrades (part 3) |
Sixty black, glossy, round-shaped objects lay neatly within the two cases before Han Xiao. These were the ‘Highly Explosive Delay-action Shrapnel Bombs’, known as time bombs for short, that he had purchased from Division 13, and their unnecessarily long name, if anything, was telling of their destructive capabilities.
“Each bomb costs $800, so sixty of them amount to $48,000. Hmm, yep… this calculation should be right.”
Although the bombs were ready-to-use, Han Xiao decided to perform some modifications on them. With [Basic Mechanical Engineering], he made them flight-capable by installing mini-propellers on them, along with power supplies. This greatly improved their range of attack.
The only downside to this modification was that it made them look… rather comical. They now almost seemed like the kind of gadget that a certain likable, blue, robotic cat (A Doraemon reference) would pull out from his pouch.
With the additions of the enhanced Facial Simulator, Desert Eagle, Lightweight Mechanical Arm, Foldable Machete, Sky Swallow Gliders, Magnetically-controlled Armor, and last but not least, these flight-capable bombs to his arsenal, Han Xiao had finally finished with all his upgrades. Although Division 13 would definitely still provide them with more equipment, at Han Xiao’s current level, his gear could be said to be semi-godly already. He was currently—without a doubt—the strongest person in his level range.
“This equipment will suffice.”
Han Xiao crossed out ‘Personal Upgrades’ on his to-do list. The next line read ‘Transport Vehicles’.
Creating an entire vehicle from scratch would take too much time, so it was better for Han Xiao to directly purchase one from Division 13 and then perform modifications on it.
Quality-wise, Division 13 would definitely not disappoint. After spending some time looking at the available options, Han Xiao decided that a detachable cargo truck would best suit their needs. It would act as a mobile warehouse and a workshop—a logistics vehicle for the team.
Han Xiao could buy the truck with either money or exchange reputation points for it, which was essentially requesting that Division 13 give him the truck.
Currently, he had a whopping $2.8m to spare. Already, the money-spending ability of the Mechanic class was starting to shine through. Of course, none of this would have been possible without Han Xiao’s prior experience that helped him in accumulating money.
Without happily spending all their money and getting used to living paycheck to paycheck, one could never become an excellent Mechanic.
Nonetheless, he decided to pay with reputation points; that’s what they were meant for, after all. In comparison, paying with money would set him back an unnecessary $800,000. Han Xiao rang Feng Jun up.
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“Give me the vehicle. How long will it take for you to deliver it to my place?”
“I will need to pick it up from the military factory. About two hours.”
Feng Jun’s punctuality was proven time and again; exactly two hours later, Feng Jun arrived at Han Xiao’s doorstep in the very truck.
A problem immediately presented itself: the truck was too big to enter the garage.
Han Xiao and Feng Jun stared at each other, dumbfounded. They had carefully accounted for every single detail except for this issue.
“What now?”
“How about you guys expand the garage for me?”
“Come on, do you think that Engineering Department staff have that much free time to spare?”
As Han Xiao rubbed his chin, his eyes suddenly lit up.
“Didn’t you bring in an undercover squad to watch over this district? Where are they now?”
“Be more rational jackass! Don’t you think we are grabbing too much attention!”
Han Xiao looked away from Feng Jun and began to size up the military truck. It was 4 meters tall, 3.5 meters wide, and attached with an 11 meters long container that extended beyond the width of the front of the truck itself.
“What attention-grabbing? I don’t think so.” Han Xiao was not at all flustered when bullshitting.
“Only the blind would not see such a huge truck!” Feng Jun basically spouted saliva all over Han Xiao’s face.
“What is with the saliva-spitting when you speak?” Han Xiao grabbed Feng Jun’s sleeve, wiped his face, and said with a look of disdain, “Not that I am criticizing you, but the volume of saliva that came out of your mouth is huge.”
Old Man Lu walked out at this moment and exclaimed, “What a huge truck.”
“Why don’t we just demolish the whole garage?” Han Xiao’s eyes glittered.
“Get lost,” Old Man Lu scolded sulkily. He then rubbed the bald area on his head and pondered for a moment before he dug out a key from his pocket and threw it to Han Xiao.
“I have a garage a few blocks away. I will lend it to you.”
Han Xiao was utterly shocked. “So generous! Old Man Lu, are you on wrong medicine today?”
“Get lost!” Old Man Lu was swearing again. He then pushed them away as they were blocking his way, and he walked out for a leisurely stroll.
…
Han Xiao drove the truck and arrived at the garage ten minutes later.
“Bleurgh—”
“Hello. Do you really have to do that?’
Feng Jun’s face was as pale as a sheet as he leaned out the car window. He waved his hands hysterically while he continued vomiting.
Han Xiao could not understand what Feng Jun was trying to convey. Does he mean that he will not sit in my car every again, or is he saying that I don’t have to care how he feels?
Han Xiao shook his head and threw the unimportant question to the back of his head. After he sent the nauseated Feng Jun away, he began modifying the heavy military truck.
He checked every inch of the truck and found no hidden cameras or bugs.
Products made by the military factory were of excellent quality. The truck was equipped with numerous parts, including ten cylinders and turbochargers, which enhanced its horsepower. It could move at a top-speed of 135km/hr. The truck had five heavy-duty, slip-free tires on each side. The cargo compartment was large, and it could contain quite a few pieces of equipment. Han Xiao wanted to modify it into a small workshop, so he needed to move the workshop equipment up.
