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墨書 Inktalez
"This is the Security Command Center of District 98, F District. All residents please pay attention. Fifteen minutes ago, an extremely severe attack occurred in this area, resulting in the deaths of four thousand three hundred ninety-eight residents and injuries to sixty-seven thousand others. The identity of the attacker is unknown. The Internal Security Department of Mechanical City has already intervened in the investigation. The entire district will be temporarily closed for twenty-four hours. All residents must cooperate. If there is any concrete information about the attacker, please report it immediately. A reward of ten million Mechanical Coins will be given for any leads. At the same time, a three-star Mercenary Mission has been issued, and all Mercenaries can accept this mission at any time. There is no deadline for the mission, and there are no penalties for failure!"
The serious and rigid voice echoed in every corner of District 98, creating a sense of city-wide alertness.
Upon hearing the announcement, Old Jack merely snorted and continued to swing his giant hammer, striking a piece of red-hot metal with a rhythmic clang. He was accustomed to such occurrences; in the chaotic District 98, death happened every moment, and fierce battles unfolded continuously. There was nothing to be overly alarmed about. Instead of worrying, he preferred to spend his time earning more Mechanical Coins.
Today, he had to complete three orders. Yes, that didn’t sound strange at all. Although he was known as stubborn, old-fashioned, and inflexible, his business was doing quite well.
Old Jack ran a modest mechanical modification and weapon crafting shop. However, he did not favor high-tech methods for simple crafting; his favorite approach was the most primitive forging technique. He took pride in creating precise Mechanical Parts through traditional methods. His great-great-grandfather had been a craftsman on Earth who crafted a machine used for observing time. Without a doubt, Old Jack believed he inherited his ancestor's excellent legacy—nothing could be more prideful than that.
Moreover, every time he swung his five-hundred-kilogram hammer, Old Jack felt an exhilarating sense of being possessed by a war god; it was simply marvelous.
That piece of Alloy Steel, with an enhancement level of zero, could be shaped within seconds under the impact of his hammer.
"Excuse me for interrupting."
At the moment Old Jack paused his hammering, a calm voice broke through the noise as if it had been waiting for this moment.
Turning his head to glance over, Old Jack noticed a somewhat disheveled Robot standing at the entrance of his shop. However, he was not surprised; sometimes downtrodden Mechanical Warriors would come to his shop to forge Mechanical Parts and equipment. Even though they often looked down on Old Jack's craftsmanship, it didn’t matter—there were buyers and sellers; as long as they paid with Mechanical Coins, everything was negotiable.
"Hello! Welcome! I am Old Jack. How may I assist you?"
"Thank you! Mr. Jack, I saw that you are recruiting an Apprentice Mechanic. Is that correct?" The visitor politely inquired. It was none other than Lin Yuan, who had been fleeing but decided to stop here on a whim. The reason was simple: he had just witnessed Old Jack swinging his hammer and forging that piece of Alloy Steel. Although this forging method seemed primitive, one aspect intrigued Lin Yuan: the rhythm of Old Jack's strikes. His seemingly simple hammering technique managed to enhance the toughness of the steel.
Though the improvement was minimal, unique ideas and inspirations sparked in Lin Yuan's mind. Thus, without hesitation, he decided to stay for a while to see if he could gain some special insights.
As for evading the pursuit of the rebels—that was not an issue at all.
“Apprentice Mechanic? You? Ha! Respectable Mechanic, I think you’ve got it wrong. What I need is not an Apprentice Mechanic, but a blacksmith apprentice, understand? Well, although a blacksmith apprentice also possesses repair skills, I can sincerely tell you that if you want to improve your so-called Ten Subjects, it’s best to go to Wally-11’s shop. He is a level 11 Mechanical Assembler. Trust me, what he can offer is far richer than ten of me!” At this moment, Old Jack was taken aback for a moment before politely stating that he intended to recruit a blacksmith apprentice, but only from the Earthling Descendant children. However, those kids considered his primitive forging methods shameful and outdated. Therefore, ever since he put up the sign for recruiting apprentices, the first person to inquire was a Robot.
“Thank you for your advice, but I believe I will learn more from you. Please give me this opportunity. I can significantly reduce my monthly salary, or even work for free.”
“Free?” A glimmer of light seemed to flash in Old Jack’s eyes at that moment. This sounded like a really good option. Although his shop was outdated, he still had many fixed orders every day; after all, his craftsmanship was quite good. So having a free apprentice to help—
“Very well, welcome, sir! If you don’t mind, shall we sign an employment contract?”
“Mr. Jack, I think we can skip the employment contract. Do you think such a free contract would be recognized by the Mechanical City’s Public Works Department? So rest assured. Oh, by the way, my code is n-19, and I’m currently just a miner.”
“Ha! Mr. n-19, I completely agree! So can we start right away?” Old Jack laughed heartily; this was truly a stroke of luck.
“Of course! I don’t like wasting time either!” Lin Yuan chuckled.
“Here’s the deal: my shop is located thirty-nine levels below ground; it’s not in a remote area and business is decent. If you become my apprentice, then for every twenty hours of work each month, you will get one day off. Also, you’ll need to live here. Although you’re asking for free wages, I won’t be too harsh on you. If you want to repair your own Mechanical Parts, you can definitely craft them yourself using some scrap materials here—no problem at all,” Old Jack generously stated. In truth, he thought that looking at Lin Yuan’s disheveled appearance, he probably didn’t possess high repair skills and likely had poor judgment as well. Even if given enough materials, whether he could successfully craft suitable Mechanical Parts for himself remained uncertain.
“And now, what you need to do is take care of the Energy Aggregation Reaction Furnace and throw that huge pile of scrap and junk into it to obtain blocks of Alloy Steel with a standard enhancement level of 0. This is the most basic task.”
After giving his instructions with a smile, Old Jack went off to busy himself while Lin Yuan looked humorously at the large pile of so-called scrap in the distance. This job was no easy task; Old Jack was treating him like a laborer! No wonder he couldn’t recruit any apprentices.
Fortunately for Lin Yuan, this wasn’t much of an issue.
Old Jack’s shop was quite large, occupying an entire floor; thus it was evident that his business was quite profitable.
In this shop, two-thirds of the area was used to store scrap materials—probably acquired from various sources—ranging from old aircraft to discarded energy guns; it was all mixed together in disarray. The total weight probably reached several thousand tons; it was hard to imagine where Old Jack collected all this.
Next to the pile of scrap stood an old Energy Aggregation Reaction Furnace. This device was akin to a blast furnace from Earth’s era; it could re-melt large amounts of scrap steel into liquid form and ultimately produce standard steel blocks. It served as the first and essential step in the process.
Even now, with his level 14 Mechanical Assembly, Lin Yuan could not avoid this procedure. As an assembler, it was impossible to pursue the assembly of different Parts. Sometimes, when suitable assembly Parts could not be found, he had to resort to cutting them himself or simply use the Energy Engine to refine them directly!
This method was far more efficient than Old Jack's old Energy Aggregation Reaction Furnace. For example, if Lin Yuan used his Energy Engine to refine a pile of tens of millions of tons of waste, it would require at most twenty thousand units of energy and could be completely refined within an hour.
In contrast, Old Jack's Energy Aggregation Reaction Furnace, based on its power calculations and excluding downtime for repairs, would need at least one hundred fifty thousand units of Standard Energy, and the refining process would take at least six months.
This highlighted the significant gap in efficiency between the two methods.
However, this did not mean that Lin Yuan could become complacent. Although Old Jack's equipment and forging methods were quite antiquated, there were still aspects worth learning from.
Moreover, it was crucial to note that if Lin Yuan were to create precise Mechanical Parts, he would undoubtedly outperform Old Jack; that was his strong suit.
But when it came to crafting weapons, such as an Assault Longsword, if both used the same materials for comparison, Old Jack would certainly surpass Lin Yuan.
This was where Lin Yuan recognized the need for improvement. He had long noticed that while Mechanical Assembly maintenance and Weapon Forging shared some similarities, they were still vastly different disciplines; otherwise, Weapon Forging would not have been singled out as one of the Ten Subjects in Mechanical City.
At this moment, Lin Yuan quietly observed Old Jack's forging techniques while steadily feeding pieces of waste into the Energy Aggregation Reaction Furnace. Occasionally, he would take advantage of moving the waste as cover to modify specific features of his Mechanical Body, making himself less conspicuous.
After all, he was in no rush. The ones who truly needed to worry were those rebels; their mood must be quite delightful at this moment! (To be continued.)
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