"It's finally done."
Zhou Ning put down his tools, let out a sigh of relief, and in front of him were two hundred neatly arranged special bullets.
Tomorrow was Vik University's Freshmen Welcome Day. As the person in charge of the Alchemy Department, no matter how much he slacked off, he had to go there this afternoon. He still had to set up the venue, arrange manpower, and a whole bunch of things to do.
Fortunately, he was already skilled in making special bullets. After tidying up the Alchemy materials in the Alchemy Building, he left work early and managed to complete all the orders for special bullets by noon.
"Sure enough, the deadline is the primary productivity," Zhou Ning muttered to himself.
He found a bullet pouch, packed all the bullets into it, and prepared to take them with him. Next up was the routine lottery draw.
He opened the simulator. Including the 2 low-income Crossing Coin (crossing coins) from 2 days, he had a total of 8 remaining. Zhou Ning didn't hesitate to click recharge, spending 100 vikta to add 10 more. Then he opened the prize pool for lost in the mist and clicked on ten consecutive draws.
[You obtained a rare item: Browning M1906 Pocket Pistol, with some.25 ACP caliber bullets.]
[You obtained a rare item: m1 garand rifle, with some 7.62 mm caliber bullets.]
[You obtained a rare item...]
...The first ten consecutive draws were unremarkable, with no surprises or accidents. He obtained a total of 3 rifles, 5 handguns, and 2 useless miscellaneous items.
Zhou Ning immediately clicked for the second ten consecutive draws.
[You obtained a rare item: m1 garand rifle, with some 7.62 mm caliber bullets.]
[You obtained a rare item: Lee-Enfield Rifle, with some.303 British caliber bullets.]
...[You obtained an epic item: Flawed Aja Stone.]
[Since you have obtained more than three epic items, the Hall of Curiosities has been opened.]
"Hall, what hall was it again?"
The second ten consecutive draws were also unremarkable, with 4 rifles and 3 handguns. Just as he was about to check his gains, Zhou Ning was startled by the new prompt.
He opened the simulator and clicked the small right arrow. Sure enough, a new section appeared to the right of the taskbar: Hall of Curiosities, with a small red dot on it.
Clicking into it, the interface showed an empty room with three storage shelves, displaying the three maps that had already been opened. The first shelf stored items from "mist lost," with the stone mask in the first slot and the Aja Stone in the second. Next to both slots was a small icon labeled "Claim."
The first shelf still had three remaining slots, marked as not yet activated.
Zhou Ning couldn't help but feel speechless: "This is indeed the standard routine for a pay-to-win mobile game, isn't it?"
First, they stir up the players' desire to collect, then they ruthlessly harvest their wallets. A standard trick to trick people into spending money. A genius like me has long seen through everything.
Clicking "Claim," the panel prompted Crossing Coin + 4 and Crossing Coin + 5 respectively.
The second shelf was clearly for storing items from "Infinite War." It was very tall, with about ten slots. The first slot contained the Super Soldier Serum that Zhou Ning had already used. The second slot, of course, was his Phoenix Knight battle suit. There were still small icons labeled "Claim" next to them.
Clicking "Claim," the total Crossing Coin + 10.
The third shelf was for "across the four seas," and it was currently empty.
Then Zhou Ning also saw that two item bonds had been activated in the back: Ultimate Lifeform and Phoenix Knight.
[Ultimate Lifeform: stone mask + Aja Stone, a rare item combination from the lost in the mist map. After activating the bond, all attributes + 1.]
[Phoenix Knight: Super Soldier Serum + Phoenix Knight battle suit, Tony Stark's combination set from Earth-8371. After activating the bond, Strength + 2, Agility + 2.]
Zhou Ning: "...You're really something. Now I suddenly want to spend a few more ten consecutive draws!"
He closed the Hall of Curiosities, then opened the item bar and clicked on the newly drawn Aja Stone to view it.
A prompt popped up on the panel:
[Flawed Aja Stone: A rare and beautiful stone in nature. Through it, the release of energy can greatly increase the power of Hamon. Three flawed Aja Stones can be combined to form a perfect Aja Stone. When embedded in a stone mask, it can evolve a person with Pillar Men bloodline into an Ultimate Lifeform. Its effect on humans is unknown.]
"It's not bad," Zhou Ning pouted. The only way he could think of using the Aja Stone was to make it into bullets. But he knew without thinking that this thing would be incredibly hard, and whether he could cut it with his current methods was still a question. He would research it later.
He organized the firearms he had drawn, which totaled 7 rifles and 8 handguns. Including the 200 special bullets, he could exchange them for over 400 vikta.
Zhou Ning stacked the guns into a suitcase and walked out of the laboratory, carrying the suitcase.
The laboratory was located near Vik University. A few days ago, the nearby houses were all vacant, but today, as Zhou Ning walked out of the laboratory, he discovered he had a new neighbor. An old lady with graying hair was moving things into a room. A wheelchair was parked outside, and a spirited old man was sitting on it, with thick, stiff white hair standing stubbornly upright—a standard protagonist's hairstyle.
Zhou Ning blinked, somewhat surprised.
"Isn't that Mr. Turing and Mrs. Turing?"
"Hello, both of you. Do you need any help?" Zhou Ning walked over quickly, friendly tipping his hat as he greeted them.
Mrs. Turing turned around in surprise, saw Zhou Ning, and chuckled, "Hello, little Wayne, if you're willing."
Zhou Ning smiled, put his suitcase aside, and helped move things.
There weren't many things, and they were moved in less than 10 minutes. Old Turin, who had been sitting in the wheelchair without speaking, suddenly asked softly, "Did you just make flame oil?"
Zhou Ning nodded, a little puzzled: "How did you know?"
"The smell," Old Turin pointed to his nose and smiled mischievously, "The prerequisite for a good Alchemist is to have a good nose and a good tongue."
"According to him, John's dog named Polly should be very qualified to be an Alchemist. Not only does he have a sensitive nose, but he's also a licking dog (simp), he can lick anything with his tongue..." Zhou Ning complained helplessly in his heart.
"Don't always be doing Alchemy all day long; one day you'll end up living with Alchemy," Mrs. Turing, who had come out of the room, playfully patted Old Turin and handed Zhou Ning a glass of clear liquid: "My special iced mint tea, never sold to outsiders. Want to try it?"
After thanking her, Zhou Ning took a sip and felt that the taste was somewhat similar to Sprite on Earth, but even sweeter and more refreshing, instantly dispelling the fatigue from his recent busy work.
"It's excellent!" Zhou Ning praised sincerely.
"Then I'm relieved," Mrs. Turing also smiled, looking kindly at Zhou Ning as he finished the iced mint tea. "If you like it, I'll send you some every evening."
After chatting with Mrs. Turing for a while and declining the invitation to stay for dinner, Zhou Ning picked up his suitcase and went to the intersection. He then chose to take a public carriage to the west of the city.
Zhou Ning followed the house number to Xilin Grocery Store at 355 Will Street, placed his suitcase on the ground, and knocked on the door with his left hand in his pocket.
After a while, the door opened. Looking at the familiar black hair and familiar face, Zhou Ning was surprised: "Why is it you again?"
Sherlock looked at Zhou Ning with his dead fish eyes and said speechlessly, "Why can't it be me? I have something to discuss with you later."
Zhou Ning nodded, brought the suitcase in, and opened it on the table: "7 rifles, 8 handguns, a total of 246, plus 200 for the bullets, so I'll give you a discount and make it 440 vikta."
"Why so many all of a sudden?" Sherlock was a little surprised.
"Can't you handle it?"
"No, the more the better." Sherlock took out a stack of banknotes from his in my arms (pocket) and pushed them across the table to Zhou Ning, "Here are 500 vikta, the remaining 60 is a deposit."
Zhou Ning spread them out and mentally calculated once, then asked: "You just said you had something to discuss with me? What is it?"
When it came to business, Sherlock's expression also became serious: "I heard you are one of the people in charge of the Freshmen Welcome? This operation might need your help."
Zhou Ning was about to answer when a prompt suddenly appeared in his ear.
[You have triggered a B-rank mission [Conspiracy]. Accept/Reject?]
Accept.
Zhou Ning accepted the mission without hesitation.