Chapter 113: Accumulation and Crafting
That night, Zhou Ning slept soundly. In his dream, he seemed to traverse countless worlds, leaving different traces of himself in each one.
Suddenly, Zhou Ning jolted awake, immediately realizing he had been dreaming.
He got to his feet and scanned his surroundings, discovering he was in a pitch-black room.
It was so dark that he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. The only light came from a single beam shining down from the ceiling, illuminating a desk below.
Zhou Ning walked over quietly and saw a book lying on the desk. The title read: A Four-Act Opera by Leoncavallo.
Just then, a creaking sound echoed from the chair across the table. Zhou Ning looked up and saw a young man sitting there, though he hadn't noticed when he'd arrived. The man had his head lowered, writing something on the pages with a quill pen.
As Zhou Ning approached, he got a clearer look at the man's appearance: he was dressed in a black tailcoat, a classic gentleman's outfit, and looked to be under thirty.
Just as Zhou Ning reached him, the man suddenly stopped writing and lifted his head. His face was young and handsome, but his eyes held a trace of coldness and madness.
Startled, Zhou Ning woke up with a jolt and found that it was already broad daylight.
Zhou Ning: "…"
He sat there dazed for quite a while before finally getting out of bed. Damn, that felt like a horror movie. Who wouldn't be freaked out?
He checked the control panel and found no indications of any influence from an evil god. On the contrary, his previously depleted willpower was nearly fully restored.
Could it have just been a regular nightmare?
He told Molly about the dream. After pondering for a moment, she said, "Maybe you were influenced by some kind of supernatural item."
"A book-type supernatural item?"
Zhou Ning immediately thought of that book from the show—the one that had his name written in it—but he couldn't remember more details. He picked up his pocket watch and opened it for a glance.
It was still early, but he no longer felt sleepy, so he got out of bed, washed up quickly, and sat down at his desk to examine last night's gains.
First was the Epic Vampire Zhou Ning possession card. It was identical to the previous one—it granted him all the power of Epic Vampire Zhou Ning for fifteen minutes.
What he was more interested in was the second reward: a dungeon pass for Mist-Lost London.
He opened his inventory and clicked to view it. A prompt immediately popped up:
[Mist-Lost London Dungeon Pass: You may pay to enter a randomized dungeon themed on Mist-Lost London. You'll enter in person, and death means the end.]
There was a detailed explanation below. Zhou Ning read it carefully and finally understood—it was another money-making trick from the simulator. This feature was somewhat like a rewind, but you entered in first-person and had to complete the story to pass.
If he had to describe it, it was a bit like the settings in infinite-loop novels: the time, setting, opponents, and plot were all randomized. The world might be the original comic's, or one already altered by your previous crossing.
Take Mist-Lost London, for instance. You might be sent to the 1890s to kill Dio Brando, who becomes the boss in Part 1, or you might be sent to 1970 to kill your past self who has just turned into a vampire.
The good part was that it allowed precise control over your actions in the instance—maybe even letting you grab everything you wanted in one go and fulfill all your goals at once.
The downside? You could only use it once, and the cost of entry was brutal—100 traversal coins. Absolutely extortionate.
Zhou Ning decided to save it for later, once he was stronger. It wasn't something to waste.
…
Lately, he hadn't been attending classes much, and the promised academic exchange still hadn't materialized. So, the upcoming period would likely be both relaxing and hectic.
The next day, throughout Thursday, aside from borrowing more books from the university library, Zhou Ning busied himself in his alchemy lab, working on various crafts.
The mechanical arm required a large amount of silver moonstone, silver ingots, and steel ingots. The total cost was nearly 300 Vectas. It took him about twelve hours to successfully create one, and the result was better than he'd expected.
Thanks to the alchemy circle engravings, it could not only assist with his work but even independently produce simple low-level potions. Since the mechanical puppets was his own construct, whenever it successfully crafted a potion, he also earned experience from it.
Right now, it could provide about 7,000 experience points per day and churn out large quantities of basic healing potions. Zhou Ning couldn't help but marvel at how unscientific this world's alchemy was.
In the evening, Zhou Ning made another trip to the Silas Apothecary run by the West family. He spent another 1,000 Vectas to buy all the herbs he'd need for the next few days in one go.
The 3,000 Vectas he'd painstakingly saved up had suddenly dwindled to under 700. But Zhou Ning wasn't about to stop spending.
"Can you help me find an alchemy shop for rent? Preferably near Vick University."
He made the request to Ian while they were handing over the Devil Fruits.
The Sunwatchers valued him highly, so after paying an annual rent of 500 Vectas, Zhou Ning was granted use of a fully equipped alchemy shop located near his current lab. It even included a private warehouse.
Zhou Ning was very satisfied with it. The only downside was that he had to hire the shop's staff himself.
As batches of alchemy materials were delivered to the warehouse, Zhou Ning began mass production in earnest, aiming to stockpile enough goods to rake in profits once the players arrived.
He started with Devil Fruits. While most players probably wouldn't be able to afford them in the short term, it didn't hurt to have a few ready just in case.
Current production capacity was about four fruits per day, and they yielded a considerable amount of experience.
Besides Devil Fruits, Zhou Ning also made large quantities of [Flight Potion] and [Luck Potion]. These, along with the [Basic Healing Potion] produced by the mechanical arm, were intended for sale. As for the [Transformation Potion], he only made a few for personal use. Players were way too shameless—back in his previous life, people had used those to stir up all sorts of trouble.
During this period, Zhou Ning occasionally asked Sherlock about Harrison Rivers. The response was always the same: no concrete evidence yet—still waiting.
The newspapers, however, reported that both houses had passed the amendment to the "Poor Relief Act" and established a Poor Relief Promotion Committee, with Harrison Rivers appointed as the chairman.
Time passed day by day. Everything remained calm. Zhou Ning didn't have that strange dream again and spent the entire week buried in work. The warehouse gradually filled with finished potions.
Progress on the Giant Quest was also moving along. Even though Zhou Ning had done basically nothing, the quest was already 23% complete. He could only guess Sherlock and the others were working themselves to death.
…
By Thursday night, Zhou Ning stretched with a great yawn, having finally completed all his preparations. The week's work had not only given him a massive stockpile of herbs but also pushed his experience total past 300,000 for the first time—a staggering amount.
Just then, a system prompt popped up:
[Important Notice: The first public beta test of Apocalypse will officially begin at noon tomorrow. Please check the game forum announcements.]
[Important Notice: Episode 5 of the Apocalypse series has been simultaneously released on the forum and all major platforms. The series is automatically generated by the quantum brain. Players interested in the game's background are encouraged to watch.]
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